Team Badass (A Naruto Fanfiction)

Revelations

Sasuke carefully looked around for a person who was writing nonstop. If this test was designed to make people cheat, then there must be a few people here that already know the answer! Come on...which one are you? There! He found him. But how to cheat? If only he had his Sharingan.

A pang of regret and anger shot through him, but he shook his head and cleared his mind. It wasn't time to wallow in such things. He sighed then looked up, then blinked in surprise.

There were freakin' mirrors attached to the ceiling, giving him a clear view of everyone's papers in the room. He followed the near translucent wires to the owner. A girl with twin buns on her head. It just happened that he was in the perfect angle to use the mirrors. Interesting.

They do say luck is part of skill. Sasuke copied down his answers, then relaxed, content.

Naruto was in a fix. He didn't know what to do! He couldn't answer any of the questions. What to do what to do-

"Umm, Naruto-kun?" A shy voice wrenched him back to reality. "Would you like to look at my paper?"

Naruto jerked his head twice. He didn't need to copy from her. He was Uzumaki Naruto, bound to be great! He wasn't a cheater! "No thanks Hinata—Waoh!" A sharp kunai shot by his face and imbedded into an unlucky genin's exam paper.

"You, minus ten points. Get out." The proctors kicked the unfortunate team out of the room with little mercy.

Half scared to death, Naruto just kept his paper down and staged all his hope on the last final question.

...

Ibiki swept the room with his gaze. It was about time. More than half had thinned out. "Alright, it's time for the tenth question. But before that, I'll tell you all this: If you fail the tenth question, then you will never have the chance to become Chuunin again. If you are not sure of your outcome, give up now."

Anxious rumbles erupted in the room. Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes. They were confident.

A few teams gave up. Naruto gave those teams and Ibiki a, "What the fuck?" kind of look. "You messing with us? We rookies went through so much to get here. We went through maniacal teachers and crazy d-ranked turned a-rank missions, melodramatic fights, paintball fighting, and flimsy genjutsu barriers." A few proctors bristled at that. "That's only for rookies. I bet all the other Genin went through worse. You expect us to give up just because of a 'maybe?' You sure don't know anything about us. We're ninja, that's what. And ninja never give up!"

Drat that little annoying kid! He totally took over my exam today! Ibiki cursed Naruto, but silently gave the blonde props for his guts. He saw the look of determination that came to the eyes of everyone remaining, then groaned internally. However, he respected the blonde for being so charismatic, and so brave, albeit a bit foolish. "Do the rest of you feel the same?" No one responded. "In that case...You all pass!"

"Eh?" The shocked cries made him smile a bit. He then moved to the explanations. "The life of a shinobi is harsh. You can't doubt, you can't hesitate, and most of all, you can't give up or jeopardize the lives of your teammates. If you give up, then you condemn the rest of your teammates with you. A Chuunin is a squad leader. If he or she doesn't have the guts and intelligence to pull through in these kinds of situations, then he or she will end up killing their whole team.

"But all you have performed admirably. Part of this test was to test your information gathering skills. Those that did not have the ability to spy accordingly were knocked out of the game. You guys made it through in every aspect, and I commend you all.

"It'll only get harder from now on." Ibiki reached up and pulled his bandana off. "You might be tortured, compromised, captured, killed or threatened, but as loyal shinobi to each of your respective villages, you will all pull through, no matter the consequences."