Straw Hat Ninja

Truth and Death

Minato was in his office working on the demonic fiend called paperwork until a fox jumped through the window and landed in front of him. "Lord Hokage," said the fox as the Minato looked at it in disbelief, "do not be alarmed; I am a messenger from Captain Naruto." Minato was surprised; wasn't Naruto supposed to be in the exams at this moment? "The Captain is taking the exams as we speak," said the fox, "but he wanted me to send you a message about a snake in the leaves and to keep an eye out for any snakes, especially the albino ones." After completing its job, the fox vanished in a cloud of pink cherry blossoms. Minato eyes narrowed as he silently thanked his son for the cryptic message.

Naruto was writing the answers to the test with one eye closed. "Your control of the Hana Hana no Mi is getting better," commented Robin as she saw Naruto's test paper through one of his eyes and the answers that one of the observers had with the other. "Thank you Kaa-san," said Naruto as he spoke to his mother figure in his mind as he finished writing the last answer. Naruto let the eye he placed on the observer disappear, turned his paper over, and decided to take a nap. Let's see if any Hyugas can read backwards, Naruto silently laugh at the challenge he had given to the other cheaters.

Ibiki wasn't surprised at the tactic Naruto had used; find an instructor with the answers, plant one his eyes on him (Ibiki still didn't know how Naruto done it), and skillfully wrote the answers. He had to let out a chuckle, which scared the other chunin hopefuls, when Naruto presented a challenge that only a Hyuga that knew how to read backwards could do. Ibiki then saw how Uzume was going at the test after see how her brother had just finished; she was letting her jealousy get to her, making her sloppy.

"ALRIGHT, PENCILS DOWN!" shouted Ibiki as he released some Killer Intent, making everyone obey and waking Naruto, "TIME FOR THE FINAL QUESTION!" Naruto already knew that there wasn't a tenth question; it was just a lie to see who all was willing to risk everything under pressure. "Now," said Ibiki as he drew back the KI, "all of you will have a choice of whether or not to answer; if you decide to not attempt the question, then please leave immediately. If you do decide to try the question and fail, you will be banned from taking the chunin exams again!" After Ibiki's speech, some genin teams decided to back down and left.

"But first," said Ibiki as he walked towards Naruto in a calm, but threatening, manner and glared at his prisoner, "I saw that little eye trick of yours. Are you going to tell me how you did that?" Naruto saw through Ibiki's rouse as his torturer had already known about Naruto's powers, but decided to help with the entertainment. "All shinobi have their secrets, Ugly" said Naruto with a level head as Ibiki then grabbed him by the throat and lifted him in the air.

Ibiki let out a lot of KI aimed at Naruto, with the boy countering it with his Haki as he kept his calm, cool glare. Everyone, including the instructors, felt the intense air as they watched the stare down between prey and predator. More genin teams left at the fear of being close to such demonic auras.

The stare down continued until Ibiki relented and set Naruto down. "Congratulation," said Ibiki, "you all pass the first part of the exams." Ibiki was about to explain the true purpose of the test was, but one of the windows had shattered to reveal a woman with purple hair. "That was a great show you two," said the woman as she patted Naruto head, "I'm Anko Mitarashi; I will be your proctor for the second exam. Now meet me at Training Grounds 44 in the next 15 minutes or your team will fail."

Everyone had immediately left as Anko turned towards Ibiki. "I was actually wondering who would win that stare down of yours," said Anko with disappointment, "but you had to ruin it back backing down like that." Ibiki didn't really want to say it, but Naruto was actually beating him at the contest. How can you be the scariest person in the Department of Torture & Interrogation if a genin can scare you?