27 Chapter 27: The Second Test! The Forest of Death!

As time slowly ticked by, more and more people were growing restless. But at the same time, the people remaining were all the ones that had been able to successfully get through the test one way or another. Soon, the clock finally hit the forty-five minute mark and the room stared anxiously at Ibiki to give the final question.

"Now then, I shall explain something very important to you all. The tenth question is a bit special.." Ibiki stated.

Special? Sakura thought to herself, what could it be? She wondered. Sasuke also had the same question, as did everyone else. Naruto however, knew what the question was, and silently thought to himself, how long should I wait before making my declaration? Last time, he was so caught up within the moment, that he had no idea how long he had agonized over the question before coming to his conclusion. Well, no use thinking about it, I guess I'll just wait for a bit before making my declaration, he thought as he leaned back and waited patiently.

"You see, in regards towars the tenth question, you all will be given a choice on whether you answer it or not!" Ibiki explained.

"Hold on! What do you mean by a choice?!" Someone interrupted.

"Heh, exactly as it sounds, you can decide right here and now whether you will answer the final question..... However, if you choose not to answer it, you're entire team will be disqualified immediately."

"What the hell? Then of course we'd decide to answer the question!!" Temari shouted.

Ibiki grinned as he continued speaking. "Heh, sure if you decide to answer the question, you're team won't be disqualified immediately.... however, should any member answer the question incorrectly, then all members of that team will be banned from taking the chunin exams ever again!!"

The entire room got quiet as they took in Ibiki's words.

"If you decide to not answer the question, your team will be disqualified, but, you may try again next time as well. So, which will you decide?" Ibiki declared as he grinned toward the room.

All of the test takers had a conflicted expression as they tried to decide on whether they'd answer the question.

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Kakashi was sitting in a room with Asuma and Kurenai, the three of them were quiet for a moment before Kakashi suddenly spoke up.

"So who's the proctor for the first test?" Kakashi asked.

Asuma took a drag of his cigarette before exhaling the smoke and speaking.

"Morino Ibiki." Asuma answered.

"Morino Ibiki?" Kakashi asked.

"I feel bad for all the genin taking this test, and there's a reason for that." Asuma commented.

"Why is that?" Kakashi asked.

"It's because Morino Ibiki is the head of the Torture and Interrogation Force. He knows how to torture the mind without even laying a hand on the person."

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"What the hell!? What about all the people who have taken the exams multiple times before?" Kiba shouted.

"Heheh, Hahahah. You just got unlucky, I make the rules this time!" Ibiki laughed.

Everyone in the room were silent as they struggled to make a decision. Obviously, none of them wanted to quit and have to try again later. But the risk of failing to answer the question and never being able to take the chunin exams was too great. None of them were able to make a confident decision on this matter. Suddenly, someone raised their hand up and decided to not answer the question, him along with his two teammates were then escorted out of the room. The room watched as the one who had raised his hand continuously apologized to his teammates.

The situation they found themselves in was beginning to finally feel real as slowly, several more people decided to give up. Sakura was feeling extremely conflicted, she already found that the difficulty of each question was on the level of jonin, so she knew that most people wouldn't be able to answer the questions without cheating. Combined with her uncertainty about Naruto's ability to answer the questions only further increased her doubt as she debated with herself on whether or not they should take the question. She stared at the back of Naruto's head and thought back to all the time they spent together as team 7. She remembered Naruto's dream of one day becoming Hokage, and all the effort he'd put in to accomplish that dream. The more she thought about it, the more she was unwilling to let Naruto's efforts be wasted. Please, she thought, just raise your hand and quit Naruto. She stared at him, begging with her mind for him to quit, but then she remembered how Naruto would never give up in the end.

So she made a decision as she bit her lip, I'm sorry Naruto, she thought, but I don't want to risk your dream over something stupid like this. Sakura slowly started to raise her hand.

Naruto was thinking about how he would proceed during the remaining time of the chunin exams. He leaned back and stared up at the ceiling in thought, he glanced behind him and saw Sasuke and Sakura. Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock as he saw Sakura's hand rising up into the air. Shit! He thought, and he panicked for a split second within his mind as he was wondering why Sakura was raising her hand. Did she do this last time as well? He wondered briefly before he slammed his hand loudly onto the table, dragging everyone's attention toward him. His sudden movement had also caused Sakura to freeze her hand in place as she stared at him from behind.

"Don't you dare screw with me! You think I'd be scared off just from a little threat like that? It'll take a lot more than words to make me quit!!" Naruto declared.

Everyone in the room stared at Naruto as he spoke with conviction.

"It doesn't matter how it turns out in the end, even if I do become stuck as a genin, I'll still make my dream of becoming Hokage come true! I'll never turn my back or run from a challenge just because it's difficult!!"

Naruto stood up from his seat as he stared straight at Ibiki. "You can't scare me!"

Then he sat back down into his chair and crossed his arms, then he glanced back behind him at Sakura.

Sakura lowered her hand and felt silly, thinking about trying to protect Naruto's dream for him. She smiled as she remembered clearly how Naruto was. Seeing Sakura not showing any intention of raising her hand again, Naruto breathed out a sigh of relief, he managed to dodge a bullet just then. He really couldn't let his guard down just because he knows how things would play out. Sasuke also smirked to himself after listening to Naruto's words and relaxed his shoulder.

Hinata looked over at Naruto and smiled, she was glad that Naruto wasn't intimidated by the tenth question.

Ibiki stared straight at Naruto before opening his mouth again. "I'll say it once more, this question will alter your life, now is your only chance to quit!"

Naruto stared back at Ibiki as he replied. "I don't take back my words, that's my ninja way!"

Ibiki stared at Naruto, then he glanced at everyone else in the room. Heh, this kid's pretty interesting, he was able to relight the fire within all of them with his words. It's pretty pointless for me to drag this out any longer, they've all resolved themselves to answer the final question without any hesitation. Ibiki smiled to himself after he finished observing the expressions of everyone present in the room. Looks like there are seventy-eight left, a lot more than I was expecting, but it doesn't matter. Ibiki glanced at the other proctors, and they nodded toward him, he nodded back in response as he finally made his decision.

"I'll praise you for your determination! For those still remaining.... You all pass!" Ibiki announced.

The room got quiet as they stared at Ibiki, Naruto just smiled as he knew this was going to happen.

"Wait.. W-What do you mean?" Sakura asked as she stood up.

"How could we have passed? What happened to the tenth question?"

Ibiki suddenly grinned and laughed before speaking. "There wasn't a tenth question at all, well, I guess you could consider the choice itself as the tenth question."

"Huh?" Sakura exclaimed in confusion.

"Then what was the purpose of the other nine questions? Was is just a waste of time?!" Temari shouted.

Ibiki grinned in response. "The nine questions were not a waste of time, however, the objective of them had already been accomplished. Which is information gathering!"

"Information gathering?" Sakura repeated.

"You see, in the world of shinobi, there will be times when your mission is to gather intelligence, and there are times when that intelligence is more important than your lives!" Ibiki said as he began to remove his black bandanna that was wrapped around his head.

Once he finished removing it, everyone in the room was able to see all the scars and burn marks indicating signs of torture on his head.

"The ability to gather information is one thing, but being able to gather it without being caught is another. This is why we deducted points every time we caught you cheating. The test's difficulty was designed to force you to cheat, however, we wanted to see if you could cheat without being caught!" Ibiki explained.

"So that's it!" Sakura said after understanding the reason.

"But what about the tenth question? What was the point of that?" Temari asked.

"The tenth question was testing something else, which was the whole point of this exam!" Ibiki declared.

"Something else?" Someone asked.

"The choices you were given were whether or not you would answer the question. If you chose not to, then you and your team would be disqualified, If you did chose to answer, and you got it incorrectly, then you would be disqualified and banned from taking the chunin exams."

"Now imagine that instead of choosing to answer a question, it was choosing whether you would accept a mission."

"You can't always escape from taking dangerous missions, therefore, we were testing on your ability to accept a difficult task even if it meant the possible loss of your teammates lives. As a chunin team leader, you are responsible for your team, so you must be able to make difficult decisions." Ibiki explained.

"I wish you all well in the coming trials, congratulations on finishing the first test of the chunin exams!" Ibiki smiled.

Everyone in the room nodded their heads as they understood the point. Then after realizing everything and that they all passed, their expressions lightened up. Suddenly, the window shattered and a ball came crashing in before extending out into a large banner that was pinned to the ceiling by kunais on each corner. A figure then appeared in front of the banner.

"It's too soon for celebrations! I'm the proctor for the second test of the chunin exams! Mitarashi Anko!" She declared.

"Let's head to the next stage! Everyone, follow me!" She exclaimed.

The room stared at Anko with wide eyes as Ibiki stepped out from behind the banner.

"Read the room!" He said as Anko shook in embarrassment.

Anko shook her head and did a quick head count of how many people were left, after she finished counting, she stared at Ibiki in shock.

"Seventy-eight people left? You let twenty-six teams get past you Ibiki?!" She asked in surprise.

"I guess this means your test was just too easy."

"This time, there's a lot of excellent candidates around, I wouldn't underestimate them if I were you, Anko!" Ibiki retorted.

"Hoh? Well no matter, I'll drop more than half of em in the next test!" Anko replied with a chilling grin.

Sakura flinched as soon as she heard Anko's words. More than half? She thought, what kind of test could it be?

"Man, I'm getting pretty excited just thinking about it." Anko said, then she looked serious as she addressed the room.

"I'll explain the details tomorrow, the location will change, so get the information from your jonin about the time and place! Alright? Dismissed!"

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The room was empty as Ibiki was busy collecting the written test papers. He glanced over at Naruto's answers as soon as he picked it up. Looks like he knew what he was doing, Ibiki thought, I'm looking forward to seeing how he performs later on. Then he smiled to himself and continued picking up the rest of the sheets.

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All the examinees were gathered around in front of a tall fence that separated them from a large forest. A sign was posted on the fence that read do not enter, and the entire atmosphere of the forest felt ominous. Naruto stared at the large trees with a serious expression as he thought about what would happen once they were inside. Looks like I'll have to be extra careful, I know Orochimaru will launch an ambush on us in order to place the curse mark on Sasuke. But I really don't want to let that happen this time, which means in all likely hood, I'll experience another World's Rejection. But, if I play this right, I might be able to use it toward my advantage against Orochimaru. Naruto turned his attention toward Anko as she made her way in front of the group.

"This is the place for the second test, the forty-forth training field... Also known as... The Forest of Death!" She grinned.

The group stared at her as the wind picked up and blew past them, causing the leaves to fly around, adding to the ominous feeling they got from the woods. Several of the examinees unconsciously took a step back and gulped in fear. Naruto steeled himself as he prepared his mind for the upcoming tasks, he couldn't drop his guard for a second as soon as they entered. This was going to be his next major change on history.