Attacking the Heart

Moriyue and Kazeki couldn't help but marvel at Moriyue's incredible luck. The questions he'd guessed had actually been correct?

What a guy. Moriyue must be a reincarnated Emperor of Luck. With him here for the Chunin Exams, won't their Hidden Cloud Village's pass rate double? They've really struck gold.

So, as planned, the two of them began working on the 50-point major question. Many ninjas around them hadn't yet contacted their teammates. The sound of their pens hitting paper at this moment seemed particularly jarring in the already noisy classroom.

"They've already chosen their questions? Don't tell me they just gave up and wrote anything..."

The others in the room voiced their doubts. When the examinees noticed it was Kazeki and the others starting to answer, they all let out a scoff in unison.

As everyone knew, ninjas from the Hidden Cloud Village were generally skilled in Nintaijutsu and swordsmanship. While this gave them formidable combat power, it also meant their other abilities were weaker.

In the Hidden Cloud Village, even medical ninjas had to diligently study Nintaijutsu and swordsmanship. The duty of a Hidden Cloud medical ninja wasn't to save people; on the battlefield, Hidden Cloud medical ninjas were like ordinary ninjas, expected to fight. This completely disregarded Tsunade's principle that "medical ninjas cannot go to the battlefield."

Only after sustaining injuries and being unable to continue fighting would they retreat to the rear to treat other wounded. Therefore, it wasn't surprising that other examinees looked down on Kazeki and the others. After all, for the Hidden Cloud ninjas, who lacked sensory Ninjutsu, to quickly choose a strategy and answer the questions was, more often than not, a guess.

Kazeki and the other ignored the external distractions and focused intently on answering the questions. Moriyue, on the other hand, was a bit idle. The examinees were still in a state of fighting individually, and he didn't need to intervene for the time being.

Out of boredom, he glanced at the question described as "a question that anyone can answer correctly, as long as it's not that guy Naruto."

"m1 and m2 are explosive tags with masses of 50g and 100g, respectively, fitted onto a smooth horizontal rod. The two spheres are 21cm apart and connected by a thin string. To make the explosive tag spheres rotate in a horizontal plane at 600 r/min without sliding, how far are the spheres from the center of rotation? What is the tension in the string?"

"..."

Moriyue placed the test paper upside down on the desk. Dead memories began to attack him. Only during his high school years did he have the confidence to solve such problems; now, seeing this made his head hurt.

So ninjas have to learn this stuff too? Swinging explosive tags? What kind of lunatic came up with this question?

Moriyue slumped onto the desk, the rustling sound of pens on paper gradually reaching his ears. The surrounding examinees also began to answer.

Even though he couldn't solve these problems, it didn't mean he couldn't put pressure on others. He'd encountered this situation many times during exams in high school.

It was that feeling when you thought a question was a bit difficult and were about to concentrate to answer it, only to find that someone had already finished and handed in their paper. Some people were even humming a tune leisurely. That kind of invisible pressure could make you get questions wrong that you should have gotten right.

Moriyue intended to put pressure on the other examinees now. He propped his chin with one hand and idly twirled a pen with the other, his knuckles and the pen tip occasionally hitting the desk, creating a rhythmic tapping sound. The tapping was highly rhythmic, its hypnotic sound drilling into the examinees' ears and making the hypnotic rhythm loop endlessly in their minds.

"Don't you ever have moments where a song is constantly looping in your head during an exam? No? Well, now you do."

Moriyue's hypnotic tapping didn't last long. When he stopped, the examinees' minds were still involuntarily looping that sound.

"Kiki kiki KIKI, kiki kiki KIKI, kiki kiki KIKI..."

Ajisai's mind was filled with this hypnotic sound. He glanced at the perpetrator slumped on the desk, feeling an inexplicable surge of anger.

It's the guy I met that day. I thought I could get some intel... Ajisai frowned, his fair, smooth fingers slightly parting. Although Moriyue's interference was a bit annoying, he had still managed to finish his test paper.

The examinees who hadn't successfully contacted their teammates weren't so lucky. They had initially picked a question at random, hoping for a fluke. What if they got it right?

But Moriyue's interference had truly broken them. All they could think about was "Kiki kiki KIKI," and how could they possibly answer anything?

"You brat..." Someone couldn't stand it any longer and stood up, intending to teach Moriyue a lesson. But how could Moriyue let him? He shut him up with a single sentence.

"Chief Proctor, is violence permitted in the exam hall? If it is, then let's all fight."

The small, darkened television screen lit up again, and Shikamaru reluctantly said.

"Fighting is prohibited in this exam. Violators will have their qualifications revoked..."

But these words clearly had no nightmare-inducing effect. Shikamaru only said that fighting was not allowed, not that anything else was. So, they decided to proceed openly.

"You over there! You take the third question, I'll take the second!"

"Can you hear me! If you can hear, answer a few times!"

"Choose the first question, I've done the third!"

The examinees rushed to the wall together. They were ninjas without communication skills, so they could only use the simplest method to notify their teammates.

Instantly, the entire classroom was filled with shouts. Due to the classroom's excellent soundproofing, only faint, noisy sounds could be heard from the adjacent rooms.

However, on Moriyue's side, the noise continued to loop within the room, as if trying to fill the entire space. Even the well-perceived Ninjutsu was interrupted. If this situation wasn't resolved, they wouldn't be able to answer their questions.

At this point, Neji could no longer sit still. He tried to organize the exam hall's discipline, but no one listened to his voice. The noise was too loud; only a louder sound could suppress the other noises.

With that thought, he leaned close to Hinata and whispered something in her ear. Hinata nodded obediently and stood facing him. They both activated their Byakugan simultaneously, channeling Chakra into their palms. The Gentle Fist technique condensed in their palms. They raised their elbows and pushed forward, sending two invisible Chakra waves tearing through the air towards each other.

"Crack!" The sound, like a massive explosion, directly drowned out the others' clamor. Everyone was startled by the sudden noise and stopped shouting, looking towards Neji and Hinata.

Moriyue had already covered his ears long ago. The show was about to begin.

"Everyone, I have something to say that will allow all of you to pass the exam."

Neji flicked his sleeve and confidently walked to the front of everyone. He knocked on the thick wall, delivering four consecutive blows to it.

"Dong~ Dong~ Dong~ Dong~"

After the sound, Neji spoke, explaining to everyone:

"If we knock like this, anyone who isn't an idiot should be able to guess that we're going for the 40-point question. Our teammates on the other side only need to get 30 points."