Ibiki, after introducing himself, turned toward Team Dosu and Kabuto. Looking in their direction, he said, "Who gave you punks permission to fight during the Chunin Exam? Without the permission of the examiner, you do not have the right to fight here, or else you will be disqualified. Do you all want to get disqualified?"
As soon as Team Dosu heard this, they knew they could no longer attack Kabuto, or else they would be disqualified. That would definitely not be good for them, especially when they were here to follow Orochimaru's orders.
Thinking of this, Team Dosu immediately retreated. The tense atmosphere in the room loosened slightly as they stepped back, though many candidates were still staring at them warily.
After they retreated, Ibiki instructed everyone to submit their paperwork—that is, information about which village they belonged to, their temporary ID cards, and similar documents.
The room was soon filled with the sound of papers being shuffled around, chairs scraping against the floor, and candidates moving from one place to another. Several proctors moved between the rows with cold expressions, collecting the documents one by one.
Once that was done, every candidate was given a number card, and according to that, they took their seats in the classroom.
And as expected by Shamrock and Uta, all of the people from the same team had been separated. In their case, they had even been separated village-wise.
Shamrock was seated in one place, Uta in another. Ren, Aoi, and Haruki were all seated far away as well.
Shamrock's eyes moved across the classroom for a brief moment, trying to locate everyone. But with how scattered they were, it was impossible to communicate with each other now. So this is how they are planning to do it.
After everyone was seated, Ibiki Morino told them the rules for the exam, which could be summarized as follows: every candidate currently had 10 marks, and this exam was deduction-based. That is, the more questions they got wrong, the fewer marks they would have left.
And if anyone in the team failed, then the whole team would fail.
There was also one more important rule—they could never get caught cheating. If they were, then marks would be deducted from them, and they would not even be told that their marks had been deducted. The deductions would be done silently by the examiners who were sitting around the classroom, observing every movement with sharp eyes.
As Ibiki explained all of this, the atmosphere inside the room became even heavier. Several candidates were already sweating. Some had pale expressions on their faces, while others looked around nervously.
Soon, the question papers were distributed.
The moment Shamrock received his paper, he lowered his eyes toward it and started reading through the questions one by one.
After thoroughly reading the entire paper, a smile appeared on his face.
Out of the nine questions on the paper, he knew the answers to eight of them. He only did not know the answer to one question.
Thinking about whether his teammates knew the answers or not, he first made two hand seals beneath the desk. The movement was small and subtle, hidden from most people around him.
Immediately, his thoughts connected with Uta.
"Sister, how many questions do you know?" Shamrock asked mentally.
As soon as Uta heard this, she replied, "Brother, I know all the questions. What about you?"
Shamrock said, "I know only eight of them."
Uta was not surprised by this.
Then Shamrock talked with Ren, Aoi, and Haruki as well, and they all also knew around seven or eight questions.
Neither Shamrock nor Uta was surprised by this, and there was nothing surprising about it at all because they had been educated in all of this for nine years.
Uzushiogakure was the only village that focused on written education simultaneously with ninja training for 9 years. And because of that, they had nine years of time to study all kinds of subjects alongside their combat training.
So technically, they had a lot of time.
Because of this, them being able to solve seven to eight questions—or even all of them—was not that surprising.
It only showed who was more brilliant than the others.
Uta clearly was the smartest when it came to theory. Shamrock was slightly weaker in that area.
And Ren, Aoi, and Haruki were also among the elites. That was why they were here to represent Uzushiogakure, or else they would not have been chosen in the first place.
And if you were an elite graduate from the Uzushiogakure Ninja Academy, then most probably, you had both qualifications—the strength of a ninja and theoretical knowledge as well.
Shamrock and Uta immediately started doing their questions. And for the one question that Shamrock did not know, he asked Uta, and Uta answered him without hesitation.
At the same time, Shamrock also helped Ren, Aoi, and Haruki, telling his teammates from Uzushiogakure the answers they did not know.
Their thoughts moved back and forth quietly beneath the silence of the examination hall.
And while they were doing so, Shamrock and Uta, with their Observation Haki—which was active the entire time they were taking the exam—were able to tell that many participants were trying to cheat.
Some were glancing sideways. Some were looking at reflections in glasses or headbands. Others were moving their fingers in strange ways beneath the desks.
But most prominently, there were two candidates who were writing absolutely very fast, as if they knew all the answers already, as if they did not even need to read the questions.
The scratching sound of their pens never stopped.
This immediately gave rise to suspicion in the minds of Uta and Shamrock.
And when they recalled Ibiki's earlier words, they soon understood something.
Cheating was prohibited only if you got caught.
If you were not caught, then that was a different matter.
So, most probably, these two had been deliberately made to sit there and already know the answers. From them, others could cheat if they had the ability to do so by using any method, as long as they did not get caught.
A faint smile appeared on Shamrock's face as he realized this. So this exam is not only about knowledge. It is also testing information-gathering abilities.
While Shamrock was helping Ren, Aoi, and Haruki, Uta, at the same time, used the telepathy technique on Naruto.
Directly inside Naruto's mind, she said, "Naruto!"
As soon as Naruto heard someone calling him, he suddenly started looking here and there with a startled expression on his face.
When Uta continued, "Don't look around. I am talking inside your mind. I am Uta."
As soon as Naruto heard this, he calmed down and stopped moving his head around.
Then Uta asked, "Did you complete all the questions?"
As soon as Naruto heard this, he said loudly, "No!"
Several nearby candidates turned to look at him for a moment.
As soon as Uta heard Naruto saying "no" out loud, she placed her hand on her forehead out of helplessness and said, "You do not have to speak loudly. You can say it in your mind."
Naruto quickly replied inside his mind this time.
"No."
Uta asked, "Okay. How many questions did you do?"
Naruto said, "I completed two, but the other questions are very hard."
As soon as Uta heard this, she said, "Okay, I will help you. You write all the answers as I tell you."
Immediately, Naruto started telling her the questions which he did not know, and Uta started answering them for Naruto one by one while Naruto hurriedly wrote them down on his paper.
His pencil moved across the page as fast as it could, and small beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Every few moments, Naruto looked like he was about to panic again, but Uta's calm voice inside his mind kept him steady.
One by one, the empty spaces on Naruto's answer sheet started filling up.
Finally, just at the moment when Naruto finished his last question and completed all nine questions of the exam, Ibiki, who was standing at the front of the class, said, "Very well, now is the time for the tenth question of this exam."
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