The Important Ninth Question

"This guy, could he be a genius? The names of the Konoha Sannin. They're written as Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hashirama Senju, and Hatake Sanyu?"

"If it were anyone else, fine, but Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, completed an A-rank mission with us!" Shiyu was internally collapsing. Before, Hatake Nao had said his written exam was poor, and Shiyu thought he was being modest. Now, it seemed that wasn't modesty at all.

"I don't know, just guessing is one thing, but guessing his own father's name? Isn't that a bit too much!?" After collapsing, Shiyu felt helpless. Despite his own superb skills, he couldn't help Nao.

The exam continued tensely. Some examinees saw the questions were so simple they wrote furiously, while others cautiously answered, contemplating whether or not to answer the ninth question.

"Swish!" Suddenly, a kunai flew towards the center of an examinee's desk, hitting the test paper precisely.

"W-what's wrong?" the Genin asked nervously, as if he had something to hide.

A Chunin said with a dark expression, "Cheaters will be permanently disqualified from the exam!"

"I-I didn't cheat!" The examinee, though unwilling to admit it, became even more flustered.

"Examinees in the same team as him, please quietly leave this examination hall. Don't be like him."

"Lingering! And shouting!" The Chunin instantly used the Body Flicker Technique, appearing before the person and then throwing him out of the examination hall from his seat.

The thunderous action instantly stunned all the examinees in the hall.

"So embarrassing."

"Hurry up and leave."

The ninja in the same team as the cheater was filled with resentment but dared not complain. They didn't dare say a word and immediately left the examination hall.

This action instantly scared back those examinees who had intended to cheat.

"With questions like these, you still need to cheat? I don't know what you're thinking." Shikaku scoffed, then continued proctoring.

Meanwhile, Shiyu, using his White Rinnegan, discovered that Hatake Nao had gotten half of them wrong. Out of eight questions, only four were correct.

This meant Hatake Nao currently only had forty points. If he didn't answer the ninth question, or answered it incorrectly, then he and Shiyu would be out of luck for the subsequent preliminaries.

"Heavens... Shiyu, whether our team, the Hizashi squad, can pass the written exam, all our hopes rest on those nine questions."

In the original story, Naruto didn't answer a single question and still passed because the chief examiner, Ibiki, was from Konoha's interrogation department. To test their psychological resilience, he constantly applied pressure to make those with weak minds give up.

"But this time, the chief examiner, Shikaku, not only used psychological warfare but even arranged decoys, causing many examinees to leave. Yet, the questions were set so simply. What exactly was Shikaku's purpose? Shiyu truly couldn't figure it out at this moment.

The chief examiner, Shikaku Nara, is Shikamaru's father, known as Konoha's number one strategist. His IQ is solidly in the top five in Naruto, and he is destined to take over as the commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces in the future. It's normal for Shiyu not to understand, but Shiyu knew that the ninth question would decide his team's fate.

"Time is almost up. I believe you have all finished the first eight questions. Now you must choose whether to answer the ninth question. If you decide to answer the ninth question, write YES below the eighth question. Otherwise, write NO." Shikaku said.

"In five minutes, the assistant examiner will give you the ninth question based on your choice. Additionally, if you believe your score is too low and you still won't pass the passing line even after answering the ninth question, I'll give you one last chance to leave voluntarily." Shikaku once again employed psychological tactics.

A few more examinees sighed and chose to give up. Without exception, these were all decoys arranged by Shikaku.

To Shiyu's surprise, many actual examinees chose to follow suit and give up.

"Under Shikaku's scheme, these examinees actually chose to withdraw. They're still too green. With such psychological fortitude, they're indeed not suitable for promotion to Chunin," Shiyu said, calling others green with great maturity, though he himself was only five years old.

Shiyu, without any hesitation, wrote YES below the eighth question. Using his White Rinnegan, Shiyu noticed many examinees had written NO. These examinees were likely aiming for a sure thing, as the possibility of not reaching sixty points was small, but the chance of getting the ninth question wrong was very high.

Because they had coordinated beforehand, Kurenai also wrote YES below the eighth question.

Nao hesitated, but seemed to realize he had made many mistakes. If he didn't take a gamble, he would likely cause the entire team to be eliminated. Thus, after a moment of struggle, he still wrote YES.

"That's the spirit!" Shiyu believed his team still had a chance to turn things around.

When five minutes were up, the assistant examiner began grading the papers row by row. Those who wrote YES were given a card with "Endure" written on it.

As the assistant examiner handed out the cards, they also recorded something on their own record board.

Those who wrote NO below the eighth question naturally received no card and no examiner's record.

Shiyu took the card and examined it for a long time, finding nothing special, but there seemed to be a surge of Chakra, like a thin barrier.

"Perhaps the questions will appear on the card later? Maybe everyone's question is different?" Most examinees guessed privately.

But Shiyu seemed to have realized something.

After the Chunin finished reading all the papers with YES written on them, Shikaku surveyed everyone and then made a hand seal, saying to the examinees, "Are you ready? Open!"

Then, Shiyu was surprised to find that the card in his hand transmitted Chakra fluctuations, and then, the character "忍" on the red card slowly turned into three green numbers.

"100."

"Does that mean I got one hundred points?"

Not only Shiyu was surprised, but all those who had cards felt it was magical.

Those without cards were also very curious, wondering what the meaning of the cards in their hands was.

However, Shikaku soon announced, "I declare that the ninth question is over, and this written exam is concluded!"

"The ninth question?"

"Where is the ninth question??"

"What does this number mean?"

"The exam is over? Where's the ninth question?"

"Why don't I have this card? What does this thing mean?"

As if anticipating the examinees' questions, Shikaku said, "Quiet!"

"First, congratulations to the examinees whose Ninja Recognition Cards have green numbers. Your scores are qualified! Congratulations on passing this exam!"

"And those who did not receive a Ninja Recognition Card, or whose Ninja Recognition Card has a red number, I regret to inform you! You and your entire team have been eliminated!"