Turns Out I Was a Fake Academic Star

There were only ten minutes left before the exam began.

A jonin wearing a headscarf and a trench coat pushed open the doors and strode powerfully to the podium.

Behind him, several chunin in proctor uniforms silently took their seats along both sides of the examination hall.

"I am Morino Ibiki, the chief examiner for your first test." From the podium, the headscarfed man swept his gaze across the room. Anyone he looked at felt as though they were being watched by a hungry wolf, their breathing unconsciously catching.

"Now, I will announce the examination rules..."

Naruto gathered information about the room. The three of them had been completely separated. No, not just the three of them—every team had been split apart.

To prevent cheating, perhaps...

The written test rules were more or less the same. Though this test's rules were more outrageous, Naruto had plenty of confidence in himself and his teammates. Their theoretical knowledge was not as absurdly strong as Sakura's, but it was not bad either. Under normal circumstances, getting average scores would not be a problem.

The Chunin Exams had three stages in total. He refused to believe they would all be written tests. It did not matter if they lost a few points in the first stage.

They could make up those points in the later tests.

He was quite confident about that.

Before long, a clean exam paper was handed to him by a proctor.

"Let me take a look. First question: code decryption."

"Following the advantages of military strategy, pursuing the path of mastering every kind of skill and art, then among all things none shall surpass me..."

"Very good, next question!"

"A ninja throws a kunai from the top of a tree. How can they throw it the farthest? Describe the characteristics of the ninja on the ground as thoroughly as possible."

"This one's alright. I can mostly do it."

A few minutes later.

"Next question..."

"Very good, pass!"

"..."

Ten minutes later, Naruto calmly set down his pencil, folded his arms across his chest, and quietly stared at the blackboard.

Of the nine questions that had been revealed so far, he could only answer two, and one of those answers was still open to debate.

It truly proved the saying: when people were pushed to their limits, they could do anything—except solve math problems!

And this exam paper not only had math, but physics as well. Wonderful! Just wonderful!

As he watched the other examinees in the room still scribbling away furiously,

he did not feel the slightest bit nervous.

He had every reason to believe that at least half the examinees could not write a single thing.

And him!

At the very least, he had solved one question!

What was this one question?

A gift from heaven?

Wrong! Completely wrong!

This was clearly his hope of advancing!

He had figured out this test. Given the knowledge level of most genin, it was deliberately forcing people to cheat...

Cheating?!

Naruto seemed to have found the key to the problem. The hand with which he picked up his pencil again trembled slightly.

But a moment later, he helplessly put it back down.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the veins around Hinata's eyes bulge slightly. He knew her Byakugan was at work.

He was very envious.

But there was nothing he could do.

If this were not an examination hall, he was confident he could snatch an answer sheet with the correct answers from among nearly a hundred papers.

But there were no ifs. This was the examination hall.

Others had all sorts of ways to cheat, while he was simply too honest. He had no methods at all.

With nothing else to do, Naruto could only close his eyes and rest.

He would come back next year.

After all, his teacher had said that participation was what mattered...

"Hehe!" Izuno Akigiku, whose body had become slightly more feline, proudly looked at the completely filled-out exam paper in her hands.

The appropriate spacing between desks in the examination hall had successfully prevented people from copying with peripheral vision. If they wanted to look at the answers on a nearby desk, they would have to make larger movements. But if their movements were too obvious, the proctors beside them were not blind—they would catch them on the spot.

But that distance had only been set based on the limits of human eyesight.

It did not apply to cats.

A cat's field of vision was far greater than a human's, and its viewing angle was more than twice as wide.

For humans, copying answers in this exam was somewhat difficult, but for cats, it was much easier.

I wonder how those two are doing?

With one glance, she saw that one had already begun resting with his eyes closed, while the other was still scratching his head without writing a thing for ages.

Just as expected of Naruto...

Izuno pressed a hand to her forehead.

If she had guessed correctly, Naruto was definitely already thinking about next year's exam...

"Meow!"

A cat's cry suddenly rang out beside Naruto and Raimon's ears at the same time.

Immediately afterward, their previously blank exam papers were filled with answers.

Genjutsu? Nicely done, Akigiku!

Naruto's mood instantly improved. He hurriedly memorized the answers, and Raimon did the same on the other side.

A few minutes later, Izuno Akigiku slumped weakly over her desk. It was the exhaustion caused by excessive chakra consumption.

The cost had been great, but the rewards were plentiful as well.

Half an hour later.

"Now, I will announce the tenth question." Morino Ibiki checked the time, then raised his head and spoke.

Click!

The sudden sound of a door opening drew everyone's attention.

Facing the many gazes upon him, Kankuro gave an apologetic smile and silently returned to his seat.

Thud...

With a soft sound, Temari quickly covered the note Kankuro had dropped.

"For the tenth question, you must first make your own choice—will you take it, or not?" Morino Ibiki withdrew his gaze and continued.

Clearly, the other examinees had never encountered such bizarre exam content before, and they immediately began raising questions.

"What does that mean?"

"What happens if we don't take it?"

"..."

"Anyone who forfeits will automatically receive a score of zero for this exam."

"???"

"Hey, hey, hey! Isn't that ridiculous? Then what was the point of the questions we did earlier?"

"..."

"What if we choose to take it?" Temari of the Sand ninja stiffened slightly.

"If you choose to take the tenth question but cannot answer it, you will permanently lose your eligibility to participate in the Chunin Exams." The moment Morino Ibiki finished speaking, the examination hall fell silent.

"Why? There are clearly examinees here who have taken the Chunin Exams several times already!" Kiba could no longer hold back. He slammed his hand on the desk, rose to his feet, and demanded angrily.

"Clearly, your luck is poor. You ran into me." Morino Ibiki sneered coldly.

"Now, make your choice!"

"Will you abandon this year's results and wait until next year, or will you stubbornly press forward and drag down your teammates? The choice is yours."

At that moment, his words were like sharp blades, viciously piercing the hearts of the many examinees.

Should they continue? Or wait until next year?

If they took it, they might permanently lose their qualifications to participate; if they did not, they would directly drag down their teammates.

Most of the less confident examinees fell into hesitation.

"The pressure seems a little intense..." Naruto glanced toward Raimon in the distance.

Of the three of them, Raimon had the least experience. He might not be able to endure this ordeal.

Naruto did not particularly care about being a chunin.

As long as one was strong enough, the world was vast and one could go anywhere. Why would anyone need others' recognition?

Hang in there, Raimon!

Izuno looked at her boyfriend's back and silently cheered him on.

If not for the rule that it would affect his teammates, she believed Raimon would definitely take the tenth question.

But the problem now was that if he chose to take it and failed, he would drag down his teammates...

Raimon was not the only one suffering inwardly in the examination hall.

Especially those examinees who had taken the Chunin Exams several times before—the urge to give up had gained the upper hand.

They had already taken it for so many years anyway. Another year would not make much difference...

"I'll give you three minutes to think. After three minutes, any examinee who has not left the examination hall will be considered to have chosen to take the test."

Seeing that everyone was still hesitating, Morino Ibiki added more fuel to the fire.

Time passed second by second.

Ten seconds.

No one raised a hand.

Twenty seconds.

Still no one.

Thirty seconds.

One person raised his hand.

"I'm sorry!" he apologized to his teammates.

Thirty-one seconds.

Ten people raised their hands...

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Ten-odd chapters should be enough reading time.