A month and a half passed. Kurenai stopped taking the Genin on daily missions, leaving them with more time to train. Naruto found him occasionally, yet Sakura still did not visit. Saul figured the land of waves mission had gone much better for Naruto than in the original. He wasn't sure of the specifics.
Official missions of Konoha were classified - they could not be talked about to others within the village if they were above "D" rank. Naruto would probably tell him if he asked, but... That idiot wouldn't keep anything a secret.
"101... 102... 103... Ugh. Alright, get off."
The tower of Saul's sitting a full 11 high, smirked at him and dispersed. Saul scowled and sat down, using the Mystical Palm on his chest. The medical chakra circulated throughout his body. It coursed through his veins, repairing muscle tears all throughout his body. Each and every muscle within his body was being remade, forged from chakra and growing stronger and stronger with every cycle of death and rebirth. The physical fatigue went away as well.
Once he discovered Medical Ninjutsu after training actually resulted in increasing his body strength, Saul exploited this 'bug' as much as he reasonably could. Expending most of his chakra and allocating his funds towards eating more and more food. His chakra reserves grew massively as well.
Saul wasn't sure whether it was the fact that his body was stronger, the fact that his cells were literally being remade from chakra, or both, but even in this short period his reserves had grown many times over. Maybe this was Sakura's secret - growing from a weak woman with almost no chakra to one with monstrous strength and huge chakra reserves comparable to entire teams of medical-nin.
He had tried using medical ninjutsu on Hinata after her training as well, but it did not produce a similar effect. Saul didn't share his conjectures with her. The girl was already strong enough - even now he was still playing catch up. Training constantly.
Body weight exercises were no longer enough for him. He had resorted to using clones to help him train his body, but the solution was horribly inefficient. Weights, like the ones shown in the anime, were more likely to cripple his sense of balance than help with his training. He could not help but think there was some other piece to the puzzle that he was missing.
During the Chunin exams, he needed to somehow befriend Rock Lee. Might guy had the answers.
Saul put a woodstock pipe in his mouth. Modeled after the Third Hokage's, it was a common sight around Konoha.
"Hinata, Yakumo, are you two ready?"
"Yes!"
"Then let's go."
Chunin Exams, First Examination Room
The three Genin watched Naruto's team making fools of themselves when he arrived. A tall, bulky, scar-faced man who stood at the front of the room, wearing a black bandana.
"Good Evening. I'm Morino Ibiki, proctor for the first test of the Chunin Exams."
The first test would be simple. The wording could be summarized like this. Each Genin had 10 points to start with. By answering a question correctly within the test, one would gain one point for each question. By answering wrongly, one would lose point. If anyone was caught cheating... Well. Each time they were caught cheating, they would lose two points. The test would have 10 points total.
If a team didn't reach the required number of points, they would be failed from the first exam. Or, if a member ran out of points before their test was submitted, they'd also fail. He did not mention what that required number was.
Despite being an idiot, Naruto's answer of not answering anything on the test was actually one of the smartest solutions for someone with no good method of getting the correct answers. At least that way he'd be guaranteed half marks. Sakura and Sasuke would be able to carry him. Only stupidly trying to cheat and failing 5 times would result in a team disqualification. It was funny how he arrived at the second best answer despite both misunderstanding the rules and not having the guts to try cheating.
In the original, Hinata wanted to show him her paper. Even if he blatantly looked over and copied all the answers, they'd both only get 2 points deducted. A net profit of 8 points for a total of 18.
Seats were randomly shuffled. Naruto was not put next to Hinata again, nor did he find himself in the company of anyone he recognized.
Saul didn't remember even a little from what his previous body was taught at the academy. However, he had been an accomplished ninja who studied for quite some time now. Surely he would know at least some of the answers.
"You all may begin."
Saul turned over his paper. Then his eyebrows furrowed. What was this? Decode this cipher, explain the personality of a ninja based on the trajectory of his shiruken, etc. It was all either highly specialized knowledge, subjective, or just basic knowledge. None of it was really relevant to what a Ninja actually did.
He answered the few questions he knew the answer to, then leaned back. If cheating was only penalized if one was discovered per instance, then he'd wait until most were done.
Saul took a puff of smoke, relaxing. He looked at the other examinees amusedly.
Hinata had her Byakugan active. She was writing down all the answers easily. As for Yakumo, she was...
Suddenly Saul was dragged into a world of Genjutsu. Hinata was there as well. Yakumo smiled, speaking up.
"I found a planted ninja, and put him under Genjutsu. He was given a list of all the correct answers and was tasked to write all of them on his sheet. I'll show them to you now, Saul."
Wow! He didn't even have to do anything! There he was, getting carried. "Well done, Yakumo."
"M-may I see too? I could see everyone's answers... but I don't know which ones are right."
The noble woman smiled, "Of course."
After they had memorized the answers, Yakumo released them both from the Genjutsu. A flower that had grown from the cracks in the floor around his ankle quickly withered away. Saul wrote down the rest of the answers.
Instead of turning over his paper however, he left it open for anyone who cared to look. As far as he was concerned, the more people that passed this round, the better. The next round of the Chunin Exams would be much easier if some of the riff raff got through.
Then, the tenth question. He didn't remember much from the original, but he remembered this. The question itself was a trick. Ibiki claimed to have the authority to prevent one from taking any more Chunin exams for life if they got this one wrong, increasing the stakes. Even anyone with half a brain could see that he was bluffing though.
The Chunin exams were not always held in Konoha. They cycled between the major villages as to who would hold the exams. Where did a random Jonin from Konoha get the authority to make claims about whether or not other villages could promote their own ninja? It was baseless. This was ignoring the genin themselves, many of which also had Jonin sensei supporting them.
"...However, I will still be fair to you all. Before I ask the tenth question, anyone who leaves now will be disqualified from today's Chunin exams, but they may have the chance to take them again! If you wish to leave, raise your hand."
Regardless of what Saul did with Naruto, the butterfly effect he had did not change the man's intelligence or his personality. Just as a lot of people were about to quit, Naruto gave his passionate speech. This rekindled their spirits and prevented them from failing the Chunin exams early. Perfect for the next exams.
"Oiiiiii!!!"
The window to their left shattered, two kunai flew out and stuck into the walls. A gigantic banner fell down in front of Ibiki. It read "Welcome to the second stage of the Chunin exams!"
A purple haired Jonin stood up out of a roll. It was Anko Mitarashi, the Jonin Kurenai had been talking to on the day of their first missions.
"81? Ibiki, you really let a bunch of teams slide by."
"...There are a lot of excellent Genin in this batch."
Anko scoffed. "No matter. After I'm through with them, less than half will be left!"
Author's Note: Alright plot summary over! This ch was there just in case people weren't really familiar with the Chunin exams - I'd like someone to be able to read my Fan Fiction and not be at a loss for what the hell is going on lol.
The exciting part is coming up soon. Be warned shit is about to hit the fan XD