I swear you're gonna give us a heart attack!
I swear you're gonna give us a heart attack!
"It is Sakura who must apologize this time" - denied Kurama as he looked at the girl. She was a young woman of about his age with brown hair combed like two small buns, her build was slender and athletic. The girl had a relaxed and friendly aura but for some reason, she felt like she was tired all the time.
"Why me?!" - exclaimed the pink-haired girl.
"If you didn't notice, Pinky... you were the one who left Lee like that" - answered Kurama as he rolled his eyes - "You could have told him in another way that you didn't want to go out with him"
"Ok, my fault" - said Sakura with a tone of defeat.
"Calm down, he will recover in a few seconds" - said Lee's companion while the group saw how the boy got up as if nothing happened - "This will only make me try even harder!"
"Okay, if I thought it was fucking weird before, now I consider it a unique species in the universe" - sighed Sakura as she shook her head.
"It's not unique... our sensei is the same species" - sighed the girl as she felt her body lose strength - "By the way, my name is Tenten"
The conscious members of teams 7 and 8 introduced themselves with a smile on their faces.
"What happened to him?" - asked Tenten as she pointed to the unconscious Inuzuka.
"Let's just say he's resting" - answered Kurama with an innocent look.
"Something tells me I don't have to know more about it" - denied Tenten as she called Lee to continue on her way to the examination room.
* * * * *
The group arrived a few seconds later at their destination, only to see how a large number of people were looking at them coldly.
"What a welcome... you can see the camaraderie and healthy competition" - snorted Kurama as he looked around. He quickly released some of his killer instinct as a wild smile graced his face. Those present, quickly retreated as they made mental notes not to approach that group during the examination.
"Hmph! Trash" - murmured the redheaded man as he olympically ignored the other groups.
"This will be difficult..." - muttered one boy with his face almost completely bandaged.
"He's not our target so there's no problem" - said another boy who had a rooster's-crest haircut.
"Not bad... he's cute and his killer instinct is superior to Orochimaru's bitches" - thought the only girl in the trio - "Too bad he has to die..."
". . ." - Both Kankuro and Temari were surprised to feel Kurama's bloodlust because it was similar to his younger brother's. Kankuro could not contain the sweat that ran down his cheek, so he gave his sister a look - "Are you sure you want to go after him?"
". . ." - Temari was only silent as she calmed down but still a slight terror was born in her heart.
"Interesting..." - Gaara murmured as he looked at Konoha's redhead - "Kaasan will be more than happy when I give her your corpse. . ."
"Hi, guys!" - said Choji as he arrived with his team.
"How are you?" - asked Hinata with a smile.
"Bad... this is troublesome..." - Shikamaru muttered with regret as he shook his head. The boys started talking but were interrupted by Kurama's voice - "You'd better not try anything funny..."
". . ." - The boys turned to look, only to notice how Kurama was looking disgustedly at a boy with grey hair. He was wearing glasses and a Konoha band, which caused surprise to the 9 newcomers because they had never seen that boy.
"Okay..." - said the young man with glasses as he smiled at the rookies.
"Was that necessary?" - Ino asked seriously.
"His smell is disgusting..." - replied Kurama with a frown - "His body is completely covered by the essence of a snake..."
"All right, no more games!" - said Ibiki when he entered the test room - "Everyone to their seats, anyone not at their designated location, will be expelled from the room and will not be able to take the test for the next 10 years!"
"!" - the kids quickly ran to their seats because none of them wanted to stay like Genin for so long.
" Okay..." - nodded the head of the Research and Torture department - "My name is Ibiki and I'll be the examiner for the first test and as a bonus, I like to get straight to the point so I'll give the rules right away. First, this will be a written exam of 10 questions, 9 will be given from the beginning while the last one will be revealed in 50 minutes. Second, this test is not like the ones you have taken before, everyone will start with 10 points and one point will be deducted for each wrong answer. Third, you can use any method to get the answers, be it self-knowledge or spying on other candidates but keep this in mind... you only get three chances... if you are caught cheating three times, then you fail. Fourth, this is a team test, so if one of you fails, you all fail... keep this in mind, if you fail, you can't take the test for at least six years"
"You can't do that to us!" - exclaimed a shinobi of Kusa.
"I can do it because as an examiner, I make the rules" - said Ibiki as he smiled grimly - "You just have to follow them and if you don't want to, you just have to walk out that door. The exam doesn't start yet so there is no penalty but the moment the time starts running, there is no turning back"
When he said these words, a large number of Genin left the room, reducing the number of applicants by at least 20%.
"Hmph! Those idiots will never be Chunin!" - snorted Ibiki as he looked around - "Well maggots, the test is about to start, this is your last chance to get out because from now on only success or failure awaits you"
". . ." - the applicants were only silent while looking at each other coldly.
"Not bad... first it creates a tense situation so that the aspirants don't know exactly what to do and then it throws them the bait that is cheating... those who are weak-minded will make mistakes and be expelled while those who can keep their cool will be rewarded" - thought Kurama while looking around - "But the test would be meaningless if we don't know the answers, so it is obvious that among all these aspirants there must be some Jonin to get the answers.... in other words, this test is not only to measure our resistance to tense situations but also to test our abilities to gather information undetected ..."
"By the way... SOMEONE WAKE UP THAT IDIOT!" - exclaimed Ibiki as his eyebrow slightly contracted as he saw how Kiba was still snoring.
"What a humiliation..." - Sakura muttered as she punched her partner.
* * * * *
Time continued to advance and 50 minutes had passed. Kurama had answered all the questions and given the answers to his teammates. The questions were complicated, to the point that they were only things that a Jonin could know, so it was obvious that they expected them to cheat and during all this time, at least half the teams were expelled when they were discovered.
"Time! I am about to give the last question but first I will reveal the rule that comes with it!" - smiled Ibiki as he looked around. Those present only trembled with fear because it was obvious that that smile didn't foreshadow anything good - "The rule is simple... if you answer this question wrong... then you can never promote Chunin again in your lives..."
"Impossible! Even if you're an examiner you don't have the right to prevent our promotion!" - shouted a shinobi from Taki.
"I am sorry to give you the news that my rule was approved" - said Ibiki with disdain - "We, the examiners, must hand over our rules and objectives. These have to be approved unanimously by the general council so you can only play by my rules"
". . ." - the applicants only looked at each other while some sighed with regret.
"But I won't be so wicked... I'll give you 5 minutes to think if you want to hear the answer" - continued Ibiki - "During this time, you can withdraw without penalty, so think about it calmly"
". . ." - Kurama looked at Ibiki with a half-smile because he had understood what he was trying to do. He took one look at Shikamaru and noticed that for the first time in the entire first test he had a serious look on his face as he looked around.
"I swear you're going to give us a heart attack!" - Sakura shouted as she slapped Kiba with fury.
"Hey, Teme... this is a trap" - Sasuke was surprised when he heard Kurama's voice in his head - "How can you do that?"
"It's not very difficult, I just need to synchronize my chakra with my target's to create a connection" - answered the young Uzumaki - "Let's say that to create this synchronization, I need to know my target well"
"We're friends and all, but we haven't talked much because of our training... how can you know me well enough to make a connection?" - Sasuke asked with a frown.
". . ." - Kurama just fell silent. Sasuke was like the younger, male version of Mikoto, so creating a connection with him was quite simple for the redhead but I couldn't tell him that - "I'll explain later, what matters now is that this question is a trap, so for Kami's sake don't let Sakura give up"
"I wasn't planning to do that" - snorted Sasuke as he gave him a condescending glance.