The Hidden Question Revealed

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With more than twenty minutes left before the exam ended, Kanna had nothing to do. She sat up straight and began brazenly surveying the other candidates.△,

The proctors noticed her movement, but when they saw that she had put down her pen, they didn't react.

Ahead and to her left, a pretty girl tapped her fingers on the desk without making a sound. Every few taps, she tilted her head to listen, then started answering the questions.

The girl was definitely cheating. Kanna was also certain that the proctors had seen what she was doing, but none of them stopped her. Her technique seemed quite clever: she was using the echoes of sound waves to gather information. She was probably skilled at intelligence gathering.

Three seats to Kanna's right, a boy with bright, dark eyes and a restrained gaze stared intently at the movements of the people around him as they wrote. Whatever strokes they made with their hands, he copied, transcribing their answers through sheer visual observation.

Kanna could just about manage that level of observation, but accurately translating those movements into specific words was difficult. It meant he could read other people's pen strokes, lip movements, and body language. Another fellow who was good at intelligence work.

There was another remarkable one sitting to Kanna's left: a fat man with red markings painted on his face and dark goggles. He was slightly bowing his head, gazing at a puddle of clear water on the floor.

"Hm?" Kanna was taken aback, as if she'd understood something.

That puddle of clear water—no, it had to be the water that the candidates who'd personally tested the first question had spat out. And now it seemed the first question wasn't just a trick question; it was also an aid the examiner had given the candidates!

As Kirigakure ninja, most of the candidates present were skilled in Water Style. Whether offensive or supportive, their jutsu relied on water. But if they openly created water in the exam room, everyone would know they were trying to cheat. There was no way the proctors could let them get away with it.

So the examiner had deliberately set that question, indirectly providing the candidates with a source of water.

Kanna's pupils narrowed. She could just make out the faces of the candidates in front reflected on the surface of the puddle beneath the fat man's feet.

"How is he cheating?" Kanna pondered for a moment, then suddenly had a thought.

"No way. Is he copying the answers by watching the eyes of the candidates in front of him in the water's reflection? That's ridiculous!"

If you enlarged a mirror or a reflective surface of water dozens of times, Kanna could also see the reflected image on the retina of the person being reflected. And this fat man was using the water to observe the eyes of the people reflected in it, impossibly making out the image of their exam papers in their eyeballs.

"Without special eyes, there's no way he could see that clearly." Kanna frowned. "Either he has a bloodline limit, or there's something special about his goggles."

Kanna focused chakra around her eyes and gave it a try. She could only see the reflected person's eyeball and the faint image of a paper projected on the retina—so blurry it was practically useless. Any finer detail, such as the writing, was completely impossible to make out.

"Incredible!" Kanna marveled inwardly.

Up ahead, a boy who had been sitting without writing for a long time stretched. Then he casually kicked his legs, just happening to step in a puddle of clear water. With a splash, countless droplets sprayed into the air.

"Another one!" Kanna was greatly intrigued and looked closely.

When it came to physical abilities, she was only strong in a fight; her eyesight and hearing were nothing special. But when it came to understanding jutsu, she could rank among the top three in the exam room, even if she wasn't first. So she immediately saw what this fellow was doing!

He controlled the water droplets, splitting them again and again until they were as small as sesame seeds, then suspended them in the air. From different angles and directions, they peered at the other candidates' papers. It was a form of information-gathering jutsu used in Kirigakure.

The Barrier Team in Kirigakure maintained a huge sphere of water at all times. Water droplets constantly surrounded important areas of the village, day and night, reflecting what they saw back to the huge sphere. It was an ingenious surveillance system, and the boy's technique came from the same source.

What surprised Kanna, though, was the damp sensation she felt washing over her. It was easy to imagine that countless tiny, invisible droplets now surrounded her.

Had that fellow made her his target?

"Interesting, interesting." Kanna smiled faintly, picked up her pen, and wrote a few words on her paper.

"Ganbatte." (Good luck.)

The boy up ahead stiffened, suddenly embarrassed. After all, copying someone's paper without asking and getting caught in the act wasn't exactly pleasant. But when he saw that Kanna wasn't making an issue of it, he smiled too. He hid his right hand in his sleeve, formed a hand seal, and then closed his eyes.

In his field of vision, different words—and even individual radicals—appeared across the curved surfaces of the water droplets. He pieced them together and made deductions, forming complete answers!

After quickly copying down the answers, the boy made the droplets land on Kanna's desk and arrange themselves into words.

The water droplets quickly evaporated, leaving a line of water marks on the desk.

"Arigatou gozaimasu." (Thank you, in a very formal register.)

By now, the candidates with less capable methods had been eliminated from the exam room. Those who remained were no ordinary people. What surprised Kanna was that no one seemed opposed to cheating, nor did they resent others copying from them. If they could help, they helped; if you had the skill to copy their answers, they didn't mind.

The people trained by Kirigakure really did have impressive magnanimity. A few pairs of candidates were already helping one another and cheating in perfect sync. The proud ones didn't take the initiative, but they didn't object either. Zabuza, for instance, had laid out his paper for anyone to copy.

Ring! Ring! The alarm clock set by the chief examiner began to ring. All the candidates instantly put down their pens, folded their papers in half along the center line, and placed them at the corners of their desks.

"Ahem. Collect the papers," Ao said flatly.

The proctors left their seats and began collecting the papers. Then they returned to their seats and started grading them right away.

"Please wait a little while. We'll be done soon," Ao explained. "The restrictions are lifted now. You may talk freely, but don't make too much of a commotion."

The candidates relaxed and began chatting with the people on either side of them, in front of them, and behind them. The room was lively, but not noisy.

Before long, the proctors had all finished grading the papers. They signed each one and handed them to Ao.

Ao began leafing through them for a final check, but as he read, his expression grew strange.

The exam room fell silent. Everyone felt a little uneasy, unsure what Ao meant.

"Ahem. Not bad." Ao nodded and patted the papers in his hands. Then he suddenly called out, "Tachibana Rei!"

"Here!"

The pretty girl who had gathered information by tapping on the desk stood up and answered calmly, without a trace of nervousness.

"Seventy-five points. You passed." Ao said. Just as a smile appeared on Tachibana Rei's face, he changed his tone and said coldly, "However, I've noticed that many people gave answers just like yours—almost exactly the same. In my judgment, someone must have copied. Now, name the person who copied. Was it you, or someone else?"

"If you were the one who copied, name the person you copied from. If it was someone else, then step forward voluntarily! Don't make a girl take the blame. And if no one accepts responsibility, then all the candidates with matching answers—heh."

Ao didn't finish stating the punishment, but everyone's hearts tightened.

Tachibana Rei's lips began to move, and she was about to speak when a boy with a stubborn look in his eyes suddenly raised his hand.

"Hm? Looks like someone's stepping forward." Ao smiled faintly. He glanced at the roster and nodded for him to speak. "Kyu Shichito, right? What do you have to say?"

"Chief Examiner! I object! If this is an exam, there must be correct answers! I think the fact that everyone's answers are the same only proves that we all got them right. Some people's methods of answering may be similar, but that's because we all went to the same school and received the same education. You can't conclude that anyone cheated!"

"Heh." Ao smiled and began flipping through the papers. Soon, he pulled out several and said to Kyu Shichito, "I'm sorry, but as the chief examiner and the one who wrote this exam, I'd already considered that possibility. So I deliberately included many open-ended questions. But unfortunately, the candidates I suspect of cheating all wrote the same answer. That's the evidence!"

"And now, let's see, Shichito. I'm sorry, but I'm declaring that I suspect you of being one of the cheaters too. Four candidates gave the same answers as you. So tell us the name of the person you copied from, or the candidate who copied your answers."

"Damn it!"

"What the hell is going on?"

The candidates began muttering angrily among themselves, all of them dissatisfied.

"If you disagree with my judgment, you're welcome to complain to the Mizukage. But for now, since you're still taking the exam, you must follow my orders!" Ao said in a stern voice. "Lastly, all those who cheated, step forward! Whether you did so willingly or not, stand up! If you sincerely repent and expose the others, I'll let you off. Otherwise, everyone involved will be eliminated! Now, when I call your name, stand up!"

"Jia Ma! Stand up!"

"Mujin Kurumi! Stand up!"

"You! Yuji! You're also suspected of cheating. Stand up!"

Ao called out several more candidates, and the scene immediately grew more chaotic.

"It's here! The hidden question!" Kanna thought warily. She turned her head and exchanged a glance with Linqin Yu Yuli.

None of the people present were fools. Many had already guessed that this was the final question, one that wasn't stated in the exam instructions or written on the paper.

But what was this question actually testing? Kanna still wasn't sure.

It might be testing whether you could keep a secret when captured by the enemy—whether you could resist divulging information no matter how much they tortured or tempted you.

It might be testing whether, when most of your team was in trouble, you dared to step forward and take responsibility for everything, shouldering the burden yourself!

It might also be testing your eloquence, your ability to argue, and your ability to react under pressure. If you could persuade the chief examiner, of course, everything would be fine.

It could even be testing your willingness to make sacrifices: at a time like this, should you abandon your teammates and survive on your own? After all, the mission was the most important thing. Sometimes, abandoning teammates was acceptable if it meant completing the mission.

"Calm down!" Kanna took a few deep breaths, her thoughts racing.

"If you look at these fifteen questions as a whole and make some deductions, you get this scenario. First, while carrying out a mission, the team gets false information (the reversed Water Style: Water Clone Technique), which leaves the team wounded and one member captured. But after a series of efforts—the next nine five-point questions on normal theory—the team finally obtains the correct information. However, it's incomplete, and a specialist in intelligence needs to check, judge, and supplement it (inferring the effects of the Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique from its hand seals). Finally, while the team is escaping, the captured member suddenly shows up (what to do when a captured teammate reappears). So that's it. I understand!"

"Add the chief examiner's hints: name the person you copied from, accept responsibility, expose the others. My deduction can't be wrong!"

"At a time like this, the intelligence specialist must be protected! Isolate or even kill the captured teammate, prioritizing completion of the mission and delivering the intelligence to the designated location! There's no mistake. This has to be it!"

"So, in this situation, I—the team leader—need to step forward, kill the several 'captured teammates' who have been named, and accept all the blame myself?"

Bang! Kanna kicked her chair aside and stood up.

"Kanna?" Ao's expression didn't change. He checked the list and asked, "Are you going to expose someone, or turn yourself in?"

"Heh. Of course I'm going to expose someone," Kanna said with a smile.

As soon as she said that, quite a few people's faces changed. These were the candidates who had openly or secretly copied from Kanna's paper.

"But! But before that, Lord Ao, I have something to say." Kanna grinned.

"Oh? Go ahead," Ao said, looking amused.

"It's like this. As a jōnin in the Intelligence Department, Lord Ao, perhaps no one can fool you. But we're all Genin. If someone copied our papers without our knowledge, we shouldn't be at fault, right? After all, everyone was busy working on their own questions. We didn't have much time to keep an eye on what everyone around us was doing."

"Hmm..." Ao considered it for a moment, then nodded. "That's true. As long as they didn't knowingly let someone copy from them, those whose answers were copied are innocent. There's no question about that. What do you want to say next?"

"I want to..." Kanna chuckled a few times, then turned serious and pointed at Kyu Shichito. "Him! He copied from me!"

"What? Hey!" Kyu Shichito's expression changed on the spot, and he was about to argue.

But Kanna cut him off, speaking quickly. "And him! Mujin Kurumi copied from me too!"

The two Kanna had pointed out were candidates who'd used ordinary cheating methods, such as sneaking a glance at the paper of the person beside them. They had little skill, but they sat close enough that the proctors couldn't say much. As long as they hid their eye movements a little, they were generally impossible to catch.

"But!" Kanna continued. "I also want to turn myself in. I used a certain jutsu to copy from the following candidates' papers."

"Tachibana Rei, Jia Ma, Yuji, and Linqin Yu Yuli. They didn't notice what I was doing, so none of this has anything to do with them. That's all!"

Kanna named the people who had used various advanced methods of cheating, then sat down and waited for the verdict.

In reality, Kanna's explanation was full of contradictions. Their answers were all basically the same, with barely any difference between them. That made it obvious that almost all the answers had come from one person: Momochi Zabuza. He was the only Anbu member in the exam room who knew all the answers. And he was sitting right in the middle of the room. The seating arrangement was interesting, too...

Kanna was a little nervous, but she was also confident. She had figured out the meaning of the final hidden question. As long as she met the requirements, she would pass: expose others (abandon the "captured" members who had no value), accept responsibility (sacrifice herself to protect the important intelligence specialist), and deliver the intelligence (help the intelligence specialist pass and dispel the chief examiner's suspicions).

Ao's mouth curled up as if he were smiling. He ignored Kanna and said, "All right, then. Kanna, Kyu Shichito, and Mujin Kurumi have lost their eligibility to take the exam. Tachibana Rei, Jia Ma, Yuji, and Linqin Yu Yuli are innocent. Is anyone else going to expose someone or turn themselves in?"

"You bastard! Just you wait!" Mujin Kurumi pointed straight at Kanna and cursed her, his face full of indignation.

Kanna didn't react. She put her hands behind her back and waved at Linqin Yu Yuli, signaling her not to step forward.

Yuli understood and abandoned the idea of standing up to expose someone and turn herself in. It was clear that she had more or less understood the process for passing from Kanna's actions.

Besides, the exam didn't need too many people to turn themselves in. The candidates Kanna had named were effectively under her protection. If they just waited, they would naturally pass.

"I! I want to expose someone too!"

Soon, one of the candidates couldn't hold back and stood up, casually pointing out a few people.

"Yong Kong copied from me, and Yura did too."

The candidates he named scowled and said nothing.

"Anyone else?" Ao asked again.

"I'll do it too!" Someone else stood up and rattled off a few names. "They copied from me!"

"Mm." Ao gave no indication of what he thought. "Anyone else?"

This time, Zabuza stood up too and said gravely, "I'll do the same as Kanna Nanako. I'll expose people first, then turn myself in."

"Oh?" Ao's smile widened. He nodded and said, "Go ahead."

Zabuza casually exposed a few ordinary candidates first, then named several "intelligence specialists" and said that he had copied from them. Kanna smiled without a word, watching Zabuza's performance from behind.

After Zabuza, several more candidates followed a similar approach, exposing others first and then turning themselves in. Before long, everyone in the exam room had been named. No one was left out.

This also proved, in a way, that Kanna had been talking nonsense. Quite a few people here had figured out who the "intelligence specialists" were and who the "ordinary team members" were. Claiming they hadn't had the time to pay attention was just an excuse. A ninja's attention was never fixed on only one thing.

Clap, clap, clap! Ao began to applaud.

"So many people cheating together—it's a rare and spectacular sight! Truly spectacular!" Ao taunted them. "Now, I can tell you the final result."

"Kanna, Zabuza..." These were the ones who had turned themselves in.

"And Tachibana Rei, Jia Ma, Yuji, Linqin Yu Yuli..." These were the people who had been protected.

The people named stood up one by one, waiting for the verdict.

"I hereby declare that these people..." Ao paused, then swept his hand out. The stern look on his face gave way to a relieved smile.

"Have all passed!"

(P.S. What kind of written exam has a hidden question like this?)