Chunin Exams · First Stage

The classroom was a compressed battlefield. Three hundred and one people were crammed into Konoha School's large classroom. They were not there to study—they were sniffing one another out. Every ninja was sensing everyone else's chakra. Not with their noses, but with instinct.

Ringo stood at the door. He did not rush inside.

The system was vibrating. Not red—it was chaotic. Gold. Orange. Purple. White. Every color flashed across the panel. Not one card at a time, but handfuls at once, as if someone had dumped an entire box of cards onto a table.

[Detected: Within the examination hall, Gold Fragments ×3, Orange Fragments ×2. Sources unknown. Recommendation: Focus on the exam; deal with them afterward.]

Three gold. Two orange.

This was not "good luck." It was "there are five dangerous people in this room."

He walked in, his gaze sweeping across the room. The three Sand ninja sat in a corner. Gaara leaned against the wall. No—sand was holding him up. The sand in his gourd was not a weapon. It was a third hand. Kankuro and Temari sat on either side of him. Not to protect him, but to isolate him.

The Sound ninja. Three of them. The ones wearing straw hats—no, one of them was not. White hair. Skin that was unnaturally pale. Not a ninja, but a test subject. Another had bandages wrapped around his head. The third was a woman, her eyes cold. No—not cold. Hollow.

Konoha's people were all there. Naruto was in the second row. Sasuke sat by the window. Hinata was in the middle row, beside the aisle. It was not the seat she had chosen. It was a seat that let her see the door.

Ringo walked over and sat beside her. Not deliberately. It was simply the only empty seat.

"Ringo-kun—" Hinata's voice was soft. Not nervous. Close. Too close. Their shoulders were less than a fist apart.

"Mm..."

"So many people."

"Mm..."

Nothing more needed to be said. She was telling him that she was here too. In this room packed with monsters. Credentials—he swept his eyes across the entire room. Every expression was being interrogated, every person being read.

"First stage: written exam. Ten questions. I will not reveal the ninth question. The tenth will be announced before the exam ends. Cheat five times, and you are eliminated. If you are caught, you are eliminated. You may cheat. Just don't let me catch you."

The classroom fell silent.

...Three hundred people had frozen. Three hundred minds all thinking at once—How do we cheat?

Ringo opened the test paper. The first question was codebreaking. The jonin were testing not "what you know," but "how you obtain knowledge."

He understood. This was an intelligence war. Ibiki was simulating this—if you infiltrated an enemy country and needed intelligence but had none, what would you do?

He activated the system. Not synthesis. Perception. The system's scanning range was chakra. When everyone wrote, chakra flowed through them—their pen tips, wrists, arms, brains. By observing the rhythm of chakra, he could tell. Those who had the right answers had steady chakra. Those who were wrong had chaotic chakra.

A chunin's answers carried flat chakra, like the surface of water without a ripple. Because they were certain.

He found one. At the back of the classroom, a bespectacled Sand ninja. An arranged chunin, disguised as a genin, specially seated in the exam hall to provide answers. For those capable of finding him.

Ringo's pen began to move. First question. Second. Third. Every stroke followed that chunin's chakra rhythm. He translated the calmness of chakra into answers.

He finished, then looked up. There were still twenty minutes left.

Hinata was still writing. Her hand trembled. She was nervous. Ringo could see it. Her chakra was fragmented, broken into pieces.

He touched the hand she had resting on the desk. Just one finger. Fingertips, lightly.

"Don't be nervous," he said, quietly enough for only her to hear. "I know every answer from the first question to the tenth."

It was the truth. She looked up at him, into his eyes. There was something in them. Her tension eased.

Hinata's face reddened, heat rising from her neck. But her hand did not pull away. She did not want it to.

The forty-fifth minute.

Ibiki stood. "Before I announce the tenth question, you may choose not to answer. If you do not answer, you receive zero points, but you may proceed to the next stage. If you answer and get it wrong, you may never take the Chunin Exams again."

It meant, Your life is over. The classroom exploded—not in sound, but in tension. Someone stood and left. They were calculating. One team. Two teams. Three teams. More than a dozen people left. No—it was simply not worth it.

Ringo did not move. He knew Ibiki was lying. This was: Do you dare? Do you dare gamble once when you do not know the rules? This was the battlefield. No—it was: Do you dare go?

Naruto stood up and raised his hand.

"I—I—I won't answer—"

Everyone looked at him. They waited. They waited for him to say, "I won't answer." But—

"I—I—I won't answer, my ass!!"

He slammed his desk. Wood chips flew. It meant, I'm not leaving. No—it meant, Even if I can never become a chunin for the rest of my life, I'm not leaving.

Ibiki watched him. The corner of his mouth twitched. There's one.

"Everyone here," Ibiki's voice changed. It tightened, shedding the shell of the interrogator. "You have already passed the tenth question. It was a choice. A choice of whether, when you do not know the rules, you have the courage to continue."

"This is not an exam. It is a battlefield. Intelligence is never complete. The odds of victory are never certain. But you have to go. You have to complete the mission. You must."

He smiled. No—it meant, This batch isn't bad.

"Everyone has passed."

The corridor. Ringo walked out. Hinata was at the door, having just come out as well. The two walked side by side, still a fist's distance apart, just like before. But it was different. Before, they had been in the classroom. Now they were in the corridor. It was long.

"Ringo-kun—about earlier..." Hinata's voice was very soft. "When you said, 'I know every answer from the first question to the tenth,' was that true?"

"It was."

"You weren't just comforting me?"

"I wasn't."

Hinata lowered her head. That's wonderful. Not He lied to me, but He didn't lie to me. No—it was: He was beside me. He sat beside me on purpose. There were other empty seats, but he did not take them. He sat beside me.

Ringo stopped. Outside the window were trees. The Forest of Death was black and green. The trees were too dense for light to penetrate. Beneath the canopy, it was always dusk.

"The second stage—the Forest of Death," he said.

The system vibrated faintly. Not gold, not orange. Something new. A premonition. There was something in that forest. A will. A snake's will.

"Ibiki announced—the first stage is over. The second stage is tomorrow, in the Forest of Death."

Five minutes later. Survival. That forest. Predators. Every tree, every leaf, every inch of soil was one.

"Orochimaru—"

He did not say it aloud. But in the direction of the "snake," the system lit up. Not orange. Something deeper. Black. No—it meant, Are you ready?

Hinata stood beside him, watching him. Watching his eyes. They looked ordinary, but she saw it. Not He is worried, but He is thinking about how to protect everyone.

"Ringo-kun—tomorrow—"

"Mm..."

"Together—"

"Mm..."

Together. Everyone alive. Not I will protect you, but side by side. They already were. Since Training Ground Three. Since the Land of Waves. Since the infirmary. Since the classroom. Since the corridor. They had always been.

No—it had never stopped.