Chapter 51: The Written Exam
After Morino Ibiki appeared, he scanned the room with calm eyes. Seeing so many genin gathered, he nodded slightly.
Everyone present quieted down, knowing that this was the examiner for their first test. They waited silently for Morino Ibiki to speak.
Then Morino Ibiki coughed and said indifferently:
"Very good. It's been a long time since I've seen so many candidates taking the Chunin Exam."
With that said, Ibiki paused for a moment, then quickly continued:
"However, I will be eliminating more than half of you shortly. But the fact that you've come to take the Chunin Exam means you have perseverance and courage."
His words didn't hide the fact that he was dismissing some of the genin outright.
Hearing Morino Ibiki's words, the genin below suddenly became noisy.
"What do you mean by that? You're looking down on us, right?"
"You think we're fools? You want to eliminate half of us? Dream on!"
Hearing these voices, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head.
The ones shouting those complaints were clearly the ones who were insecure. They thought Ibiki was talking about them, but Ibiki had only said he would eliminate half. These people clearly had no confidence in themselves and wanted to use words to show off.
But as soon as their words sounded, Morino Ibiki shot them a fierce glare, snorted coldly, and said:
"Hmph. Be quiet."
After speaking, a powerful wave of chakra erupted from Ibiki, suppressing the entire room.
Feeling Ibiki's powerful presence and pressure, the group of complainers immediately shut their mouths.
After seeing everyone quiet down, Morino Ibiki glanced at them indifferently and shouted:
"Here, no one is allowed to interrupt except when I'm speaking. If you disagree with me, you can prove it with your actions—prove that you can pass my assessment."
Those words immediately ignited the fighting spirit of most of the people there.
Especially the group who had been shouting loudly just moments ago. They were now impatient to pass the exam and slap Ibiki in the face.
After Ibiki finished speaking, he ignored the genin, turned around, and said:
"Alright. Follow me. We're going to the exam room to take the first part of the Chunin Exam."
After saying that, Ibiki walked off with the Chunin examiners.
The genin began moving one after another. After handing in their registration forms, they followed Ibiki and the others to the assessment classroom.
The exam room was very spacious, with dozens of desks. Each desk could seat two people, enough to accommodate all the genin.
After the genin found seats and sat down, Ibiki came in and sent the Chunin to distribute the test papers to the genin one by one.
After all the test papers were handed out, Ibiki announced that the first test was about to begin.
As Naruto had thought, the first exam was a written test. The first half was to complete the nine questions on the paper. Of course, it was okay not to finish them, because the most critical part was the final tenth question.
Naruto briefly glanced at the content of the test paper.
Sure enough, none of the nine test questions could be answered by a normal genin. The content of all the questions was far beyond the knowledge a genin would have.
And this was the real purpose of this exam—cheating.
Get the answers by cheating. Complete the exam through deception.
This was also a way to test the genin's intelligence and observation skills.
Even if none of the genin here could answer these questions, that didn't mean there was no way to complete the exam. Because the examiners had the answers. How to get the answers from the examiners depended on their own abilities.
Of course, there were also some theoretical geniuses who could barely answer these questions—like Hinata and little Sakura.
But Naruto didn't need to go through all that trouble, because he could answer all the questions himself.
He was now essentially a super ninja, and Kakashi had once taught him some advanced knowledge. So these problems were nothing to him.
Still, Naruto wasn't in a hurry to write down the answers. Instead, he watched the other genin doing their best.
Sitting next to Naruto was Hinata.
Hinata was lowering her head, seriously writing the answers to the test paper. As expected of the young lady of the Hyuga clan, none of the questions seemed to be a problem for her. She wrote so smoothly that after reading her answers, Naruto nodded in admiration.
After Hinata finished writing her answers, she noticed that Naruto hadn't started writing yet. Instead, he was looking at her. She froze for a moment.
Soon, Hinata snapped out of it. She lowered her head, quietly moved her test paper toward Naruto, and whispered:
"Naru… Naruto-kun, do you want to copy mine?"
Hearing Hinata's words, Naruto was taken aback. He was a little dumbfounded.
So Hinata thought he couldn't answer the questions and wanted to help him cheat.
"No, Hinata. I know how to do it. Don't worry about me." Naruto said softly.
Hinata paused for a moment, then quickly nodded her head, blushing.
After an hour and a half, the assessment time ended.
During that period, many genin who tried to cheat were caught and kicked out one after another. Some found the test too difficult and voluntarily withdrew.
In the end, Ibiki even presented the tenth question. Those who couldn't answer it would be disqualified from ever taking the Chunin Exam again. They could choose to answer or give up and just quit.
Immediately, those genin who lacked resolve walked out of the classroom one by one.
And those who left would also cause their teammates to be disqualified from the exam.
Naruto wasn't worried about little Sakura or Sasuke at all. They were both determined—one ambitious, the other wanting to prove himself.
Soon, less than a third of the originally packed classroom remained. Just as Ibiki had said, he would eliminate more than half in the first test.
Naruto also noticed that almost none of those who had insulted Ibiki earlier and tried to grab the spotlight with words were still there.
Whether it was because they couldn't do it themselves or because Ibiki had given them smaller shoes, there was no way to know.
Naruto didn't bother worrying about that either.
After the genin were mostly gone and no one voluntarily gave up after a while, Ibiki officially announced that the remaining people had passed the first assessment.
Some were stunned. Some had already guessed Ibiki's intentions.
The answer to the last question was actually very simple—courage and determination.
Ibiki said that only those who possessed both were qualified to become Chunin.
Everyone suddenly understood. But before Ibiki could say anything else—
The classroom window suddenly shattered, and a purple-haired woman carrying a banner burst in.
The purple-haired woman laughed a few times and unfurled the banner. Written on it were words congratulating the genin for passing the first exam.
With the appearance of the purple-haired woman, the second part of the Chunin Exam had officially begun.