The Crucial Ninth Question

"Could this guy be a genius? The names of Konoha's Sannin... He wrote Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hashirama Senju, and even Hatake Sanyu?"

"Anyone else, sure, but Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, has completed an A-rank mission with us!" Shiyu was close to falling apart. Earlier, when Kakashi Nao said he was bad at written exams, Shiyu had thought he was just being modest. Now, it seemed that was hardly the case.

"I don't know. Guessing at random is one thing, but he guessed his own father's name. Isn't that a bit much!?" After his initial despair, Shiyu could only feel helpless. For all his formidable strength, he couldn't do a thing to help Nao.

The exam continued under tense circumstances. Some candidates saw how easy the questions were and scribbled away, while others answered cautiously as before. They were all weighing whether to attempt the ninth question.

"Whoosh!" Suddenly, a kunai flew toward the center of a candidate's desk, striking his exam paper dead on.

"Wh-what's going on?" The Genin was flustered, as if he'd done something wrong.

A Chunin said grimly, "Cheaters are permanently disqualified from taking the exam!"

"I-I wasn't cheating!" The candidate didn't want to admit it, but his behavior only grew more frantic.

"Candidates on the same team as him, please leave the exam hall quietly. Don't follow his example."

"Still refusing to leave? And shouting, too!" The Chunin used the Body Flicker Technique, appearing right in front of him. Then he grabbed the candidate and threw him out of the exam hall.

The Chunin's lightning-fast actions instantly silenced every candidate in the room.

"How embarrassing."

"Let's get out of here."

The ninja on the cheater's team were seething with resentment, but they didn't dare complain or say a word. They left the exam hall at once.

This move instantly scared off the candidates who had been planning to cheat.

"Cheating on a test this easy? I don't know what you people are thinking," Shikaku scoffed before continuing to proctor.

Using the White Rinnegan, Shiyu saw that Kakashi Nao had already gotten half the questions wrong. Of the eight questions, only four were correct.

In other words, Nao had only scored forty points so far. If he didn't answer the ninth question, or got it wrong, there'd be no chance for Shiyu and the others to make it to the preliminaries.

"Oh no... Nao, our Hizashi squad's entire hope of passing the written exam rests on those nine questions!"

In the original story, Naruto hadn't answered a single question and still passed. That was because the chief examiner, Ibiki, worked in Konoha's interrogation unit. He had put them under constant pressure to test their mental fortitude, hoping to make the weak-willed give up.

But this time, chief examiner Shikaku had not only used psychological tactics, he'd also planted impostors in the crowd, causing many candidates to leave. Yet he'd made the questions so easy. Shiyu truly couldn't figure out what Shikaku was after.

The chief examiner, Shikaku Nara, was Shikamaru's father. Known as Konoha's greatest strategist, he was comfortably among the top five smartest characters in the Naruto world. In the future, he would be capable of succeeding the Hokage as commander of the Ninja Allied Forces. It was no wonder Shiyu couldn't figure him out. But Shiyu knew the ninth question would decide his squad's fate.

"Time's almost up. I'm sure you've answered the first eight questions by now. You must now choose whether to answer the ninth. If you decide to answer it, write YES below question eight. Otherwise, write NO," Shikaku said.

"In five minutes, the assistant examiners will give you the ninth question based on your choice. Also, if you think your score is too low to pass even if you answer the ninth question, this is your last chance to leave on your own." Shikaku used psychological tactics once again.

A few more candidates sighed and chose to give up. Every one of them was an impostor Shikaku had arranged.

What Shiyu hadn't expected was that quite a few genuine candidates would follow suit and withdraw.

"Under Shikaku's scheme, these candidates really chose to quit. They're still too green. With mental fortitude like that, they're probably not cut out for promotion to Chunin." Shiyu spoke as if he were a seasoned veteran, even though he was only five himself.

Shiyu didn't hesitate. He wrote YES beneath question eight. Through his White Rinnegan, he saw that many candidates had written NO. They probably wanted to play it safe. It was unlikely that they had scored below sixty, but the odds of getting the ninth question wrong were high.

Since they had agreed on it beforehand, Kurenai also wrote YES below question eight.

Nao hesitated, but he seemed to understand that he had gotten quite a few questions wrong. If he didn't take a chance, it might get the whole team eliminated. After agonizing over it for a while, he wrote YES.

"That's the right choice!" Shiyu believed his squad still had a chance to turn things around.

After five minutes, the assistant examiners began grading the papers row by row. Those who had written YES received a card marked with the character for "ninja."

As the assistant examiner handed out each card, he also made notes on his clipboard.

Those who had written NO below question eight naturally received no card, and the examiners made no notes about them.

Shiyu examined his card for a long while. It didn't seem to have anything special about it, but he sensed chakra pulsing from it, like a thin barrier.

"Maybe a question will appear on the card in a moment? Maybe everyone's question will be different?" Most of the candidates could only guess to themselves.

But Shiyu seemed to have figured something out.

Once the Chunin had finished reading all the papers marked YES, Shikaku surveyed everyone. Then he formed a hand seal and said to the candidates, "Are you ready? Release!"

Shiyu was astonished to feel a pulse of chakra from the card in his hand. Then the character on the red card slowly changed into three green numbers.

"100."

"Does that mean I got a hundred?"

Shiyu wasn't the only one surprised. Everyone who had received a card found it amazing.

Those without cards were curious, too, wondering what the cards in their hands meant.

But Shikaku soon announced, "I declare the ninth question over. The written exam is now finished!"

"The ninth question?"

"Where was the ninth question?"

"What do these numbers mean?"

"The exam's over? What about the ninth question?"

"Why didn't I get a card? What is this thing? What does it mean?"

As if he'd expected the candidates to have these questions, Shikaku said, "Quiet!"

"First, congratulations to those whose Ninja Recognition Cards display green numbers. You passed! Congratulations on passing this exam!"

"As for those who didn't receive a Ninja Recognition Card, or whose card displays a red number, I'm sorry, but you and your teams have been eliminated!"