Strength to Breeze Through

"Oh, what's this? There are so many people."

The moment Naruto entered Room 301, the sheer number of examinees startled him. Everywhere he looked were students wearing different forehead protectors, and there were no fewer than 150 of them.

"Sasuke!!!"

A girl suddenly attacked Sasuke from behind, throwing herself onto his back and rubbing against him affectionately.

"Ah! Pig Ino, let go of Sasuke."

The moment Sakura saw her longtime rival, Ino Yamanaka, hugging Sasuke, she immediately cried out in dissatisfaction.

"Pfft, pfft, no way, Ugly Sakura."

Ino made a face and continued clinging to Sasuke.

"Heh heh, pigs really are stupid. Let go of the chair in your hands first."

"What?! Sasuke, when did you run away?"

Ino looked unwillingly at the chair in her arms. Sasuke had somehow escaped using the Substitution Technique.

"Boring."

Sasuke turned his head away coldly. It would have looked better if he had not been hiding behind Naruto.

"Those two used to be good friends, right? How nice. You're so popular."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and mocked him. The childhood friends who had once gotten along so well had started confronting each other after meeting Sasuke. No matter how he thought about it, it was Sasuke's fault.

"My fault?"

Sasuke knocked Naruto on the head. He had no interest in romance whatsoever and could not deal with it, which was why he hid behind Naruto.

"Naruto, you're here."

Hinata ran over to Naruto, took his hand, and stood obediently beside him. She had long been unable to endure the tense atmosphere in the room, and only relaxed after seeing Naruto.

"Yeah, I'll definitely pass this exam and become a Chunin!"

"So you all came to take this troublesome exam too."

Shikamaru approached Naruto with a sleepy-looking face. Choji, Kiba, and Shino had come as well. All nine rookies who had become Genin that year were gathered in one place.

"Shikamaru, you're here too."

"If I could help it, I wouldn't have come. How much longer are you going to argue with her?"

Shikamaru walked over to Ino, pulled her away from Sakura, and placed her behind himself. If they were not teammates, he would not have wanted to come to this hot spot. Why was it a hot spot? Because the series of actions Naruto and the others had displayed since entering had already displeased many examinees, and all eyes were focused on the entrance.

"Hm?"

Many of these Genin examinees had carried out missions where life and death were on the line. Naruto, who was especially sensitive to Killing Intent, noticed it immediately—particularly from one person wrapped entirely in bandages, with only one eye exposed.

"I don't know which country or village you're from, but since we're taking the same exam, I absolutely won't lose to any of you. Prepare yourselves to be defeated by me!"

Braving their Killing Intent, Naruto stepped forward and raised his fist at the remaining 144 examinees apart from the nine of them, speaking with confidence. Naturally, the Killing Intent that drifted toward him afterward became even more intense.

"This idiot..."

Shikamaru covered his face in despair. He did not want to make enemies, but they were all standing behind Naruto now. It practically looked as though the nine rookies from that year had declared war together. If possible, he wanted to go home.

"Alright, you trash, quiet down. The exam begins now."

Just as certain people were about to make a move against Naruto and teach that reckless brat a lesson, a group of people dressed as examiners appeared before the classroom podium in a cloud of smoke. A scarred man shouted at the examinees.

"I'm your chief examiner, Ibiki Morino. I'll now explain the rules of the Written Exam..."

Ibiki Morino handed everyone an exam paper, then wrote the rules for this exam on the blackboard. Naruto could no longer take in the details. His mind had gone completely blank.

"Oh no, it starts with the thing that idiot is worst at. Even if he answers just one question... Hinata is beside him, so it should be a little better, right?"

Sakura sat behind Naruto and could not help him even if she wanted to.

"What could that idiot who was just boasting so loudly possibly be thinking now?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, feeling rather amused by his misfortune. He had said such arrogant things, yet he could not even pass the first stage.

"Naruto... wait for me."

Hinata was glad she had been assigned near Naruto. Faced with Naruto, whose eyes had already rolled back, she could only work hard on the questions first and help him cheat after she was done.

What is this?! Why is the first round a Written Exam?! I don't understand a single question!

Naruto clutched his head in despair, wailing inwardly. He would rather fight that chief examiner who looked like a murderer for dozens of rounds than stare at this damned test paper!

"This is the only way."

Bang!

A loud noise rang through the classroom. Ibiki Morino opened his eyes and looked down at the examinees in confusion.

"This guy knocked himself unconscious."

An invigilator came over to Naruto's side, looked at the huge bump on his head, and reported with an expression caught between laughter and tears.

"Has he given up on himself? Leave him be."

Sealing Space

"Dad! Help!"

"...Naruto, you have to rely on yourself for something like an exam."

Minato was surprised to see Naruto here. Naruto had said yesterday that the Chunin Exams were today, and only after asking further did Minato learn that Naruto had been stumped by the Written Exam.

"If I rely on myself, I'm really done for. You know I don't understand any of this at all."

"But cheating..."

Minato didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The Hokage helping someone cheat was something he never would have done while he was alive, but seeing his son's miserable little face, he couldn't bear to refuse.

"If I don't pass this exam, I'll have to be a genin for the rest of my life. I won't be able to marry Hinata either. My whole life will be darkness..."

Naruto squatted on the ground in dejection, his eyes utterly lifeless as he lamented his colorless future.

"Fine, just this once. Nine-Tails, show me the questions."

"Tch, bothering me again."

The Nine-Tails, who had been sleeping, lifted an eyelid and used Chakra to duplicate the exam paper for Minato.

"These questions are way too hard."

"You can't do them either, Dad?"

"The code-breaking in the first question is manageable, but the rest..."

Minato looked over the bizarre questions again, rubbing his chin in thought. Even he didn't know the answers to some of them. There had to be very few people capable of answering them. Why would the examiner use such difficult questions in the Chunin Exams?

"Naruto, when it comes to intelligence gathering... never mind."

After giving it some thought, Minato understood the examiner's purpose. But Naruto was a student with an extreme imbalance in his abilities, packed full of techniques for giving it his all. It was absolutely impossible for him to cheat in this situation without getting caught. He could only buckle down and answer the questions properly.

"Then let's have all three of us think. Nine-Tails, you help too."

"Why should I help you do your questions, huh?!"

"Your head is so big, you must be smart. Look at this one first."

"I don't know this triangle relationship!"

The Nine-Tails glanced at that stupid question, then with a smack, slammed the Chakra-formed exam paper into Naruto's face.

"Naruto... Naruto."

"Wha!"

Naruto woke under Hinata's gentle nudging. Being suddenly pulled out of the Sealing Space left him a little disoriented, and when he saw the clock on the wall, he jumped in fright. Time was almost up.

"You're awake. The exam time is almost over."

"Okay, I'll answer the questions!"

Naruto's hand trembled as he gripped his pen. Inside the Sealing Space, two people and one fox had spent a long time working on the problems, yet still hadn't finished all the answers. Minato might have been Hokage, but he hadn't had much contact with schoolwork. When he was a student, relations between the nations had been tense, and war could break out at any moment. There had been no time to study theory. The teachers had only been busy teaching combat knowledge.

"Naruto, you don't need to write anymore. I finished everything. Just write your name on this exam paper."

Hinata quietly placed her exam paper on Naruto's desk and whispered into his ear.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so useless. Just solving the questions took me so much time. And for the tenth question, I'll do my best to help you complete it."

"Wait, if you give me your paper, what about you?"

"I-I'll write another one..."

"Don't joke around! There are only five minutes left, and we still have to answer the tenth question. Where are you going to find the time to write another one?"

"It doesn't matter what happens to me. Naruto, you have to pass this exam!"

"...No."

"Be good..."

Hinata coaxed him like she was soothing a child. Seeing Naruto raise his pen to write his name in the name field, she finally relaxed. This was enough. As long as Naruto could pass, she would be satisfied.

"Huh? That's not my name, Naruto!"

Hinata took a look and cried out in surprise. Naruto had neatly written "Hinata Hyuga" in the name field.

"Hehe, I won't agree to that. What kind of man would I be if I sacrificed Hinata to achieve my dream? My Ninja Way is to keep moving forward. If one day I looked back and saw that I became Hokage by sacrificing Hinata, then what kind of Hokage would I be?"

Naruto handed the exam paper back to Hinata with a silly grin.

"It's not like I'd die! Honestly, you...! I don't care anymore!"

Hinata puffed out her cheeks, getting angry because of Naruto's kindness. He could have just obediently taken it, so why did he have to act so cool? But it was precisely because he did foolish things like this that he was the Naruto she loved.

"Isn't there still the tenth question? I'll bet everything I have on it!"

"Alright, you trash. Time's up. I'll now announce the tenth question, but before that, let me explain something: this question is optional."

With five minutes left in the exam, Ibiki Morino tapped on the desk and announced this in a commanding voice.

"If you answer correctly, you'll advance regardless of whether the previous nine questions were correct."

"If you answer incorrectly, it'll be the same—regardless of whether the nine questions were correct, you'll be considered to have failed."

"And once you get this question wrong, you will never again be eligible to take the Chunin Exams. You'll remain genin for the rest of your lives. Choose now—gamble your lives on it."

"...What do I do, what do I do? I'm dead, I'm dead!"

Naruto's entire body seemed to darken. The pressure he was under was a little greater than everyone else's. If he failed this answer, he really would never be able to marry Hinata for the rest of his life! But he couldn't bring himself to give up now. As long as there was even the slightest chance, he didn't want to surrender.

"Oh, that brat's expression is quite a sight."

Ibiki Morino greatly enjoyed the pained look on Naruto's face. Using interrogation techniques to watch despair emerge in these examinees was one of his greatest pleasures. But Naruto's painful expression vanished before long. Just as Ibiki Morino thought he was about to forfeit, Naruto shouted.

"Aaaah! I won't give up! At worst, I'll be a genin for the rest of my life! Hinata, if it really comes to that, I'll snatch you away from the Hyuga Clan! This is my Ninja Way—I'll never regret it!"

Naruto went all out, making a declaration that sounded domineering but was actually criminal.

"Huh? I passed? Really?"

Even after leaving the Ninja Academy, Naruto still felt as if he were walking on air. He had only written one name on his test paper and still passed, making him feel as though he were dreaming.

"I never expected that to be the examiner's goal! All those questions I did earlier were for nothing!"

Sakura cried out furiously. She had pulled out several strands of hair just trying to answer the questions, yet that terrifying-looking examiner had simply said, "Only those who dare accept an unknown mission are good ninja," and passed Naruto! It wasn't fair!

"Fools really do have fool's luck."

Sasuke, who had cheated with his Sharingan, said helplessly. One look at Naruto told him he had handed in a blank paper. Even heaven was helping him.

"Hehe, that's what you call ability. Ability, yeah!"

Naruto laughed smugly, sounding no different from a petty villain reveling in success.

"Criminal. You were just saying you'd snatch Hinata away. Shameless."

The unfairness in Sakura's heart grew even stronger as she protested indignantly.

"Eh, you heard that?"

"Ugh! Idiot Naruto!"

Blushing furiously, Hinata hid behind Naruto and thumped his back with her tiny fists as she complained.

"Hinata, let's work hard together in the second round too. It'll only be fun if we both become chunin."

"Mm!"

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PS: Thanks to reader Migabu for the 100 reward.