"Kankuro, that idiot. He's under a genjutsu!"
Temari covered her face.
Kankuro had been brimming with confidence, yet he'd completely failed to realize he'd been caught in a genjutsu.
[She single-handedly changed the entire mood of the exam]
[Grass, I suddenly find this way more interesting. I thought it'd just be ordinary exam cheating, but turns out everyone's got a hundred schemes running]
[Once they realized they couldn't cheat, they immediately started making sure nobody else could either. Peak realism, I'm dead]
[If I'm going down, we're all going down, hahahaha]
[Sasuke's steady as a rock, but Naruto still hasn't realized he actually has the answers]
[Where's Naruto's Mom? Naruto's Mom, save him!]
[Naruto's Mom's got a short fuse too. I think she's basically Naruto in adult form—she's got some sense, but not much]
[Grass, that's so accurate]
[Naruto's Mom's been acting weird since the exam started. Foreshadowing maybe?]
From outside the exam hall, the audience was trying to catch every detail, though their available angles were limited. But the viewers had their own advantages—they could pause, screenshot, and discuss with each other, making it easy to spot things that might otherwise slip by.
The devil was in the details.
Inside the hall, cheating and counter-cheating were raging at full intensity.
Hanabi herself, meanwhile, had settled comfortably into her chair after setting a few fires, looking perfectly at ease.
Zhuixia intensified its effect whenever Hanabi was idle.
It was unpleasant, but after fully engaging her adaptive capacity, it was actually manageable enough to enjoy.
The instigator may have stepped back, but the scene had already spiraled out of control.
A portion of examinees had begun displaying clearly detectable "counter-cheating" behaviors.
And the result was that even more people got eliminated.
Only Naruto sat there looking completely lost, never once realizing what was going on around him. He just felt like things were getting kind of hectic, which only made him more anxious.
"I'll just have to bet everything on the last question...!"
Naruto gritted his teeth.
"That idiot..." Sasuke wanted nothing more than to march over and smack Naruto upside the head, then force him to pull out the exam sheet Hanabi had prepared.
As for everyone else, they were all silently locked in their own private war.
Soon enough, the forty-five minutes were up.
"We will now announce the tenth question." Ibiki Morino visibly relaxed the moment the exam timer hit forty-five minutes.
These forty-five minutes had been more agonizing than any interrogation he'd ever endured.
No—this WAS an interrogation.
But now, it was finally his turn.
A cruel smile spread across the interrogator's face.
The exam hall, which had been so "lively" moments ago, fell "silent."
"Before we begin the final question, there's one additional condition," Ibiki continued. "Allow me to explain. This is a—rule of despair."
Through fear-mongering, he reimposed pressure on these Genin.
From the audience's perspective, the broadcast cut to Kakashi's group, where the three jōnin were discussing this chief proctor—Ibiki Morino, head of Konoha Anbu's Torture and Interrogation Force.
[I mean, doesn't it kind of feel like the chief proctor's the one who got interrogated?]
[From his perspective, the normal exam rhythm completely fell apart. This isn't just torture—it IS torture]
[Tautology much? But yeah, this really was torture]
[What manner of torture is this!]
[And Naruto still hasn't realized he already has the correct answers]
[Director Hanabi's plan went off the rails]
[I feel like Director Hanabi predicted this all along and is just laughing her head off right now]
[Telling Naruto after the exam that he actually had the correct answers the whole time—yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing Hanabi would do]
Hanabi's arrangements had worked.
And the answer-sheet situation was indeed as described.
The only thing Hanabi hadn't expected was that Kushina also hadn't noticed. But then, Kushina's personality was pretty similar to Naruto's, so it wasn't surprising she'd missed it either.
Though this might have had something to do with another person in the exam hall.
Although the "original story" hadn't given her any screen time here, Karin of the Uzumaki clan was actually also taking the Chūnin Exams.
Ah, right—Karin was just "Karin." "Uzumaki" was her heritage, but she didn't actually carry a surname. In the world of Naruto, many people only had given names with no family name.
Take Tsunade, for instance. She was Princess Tsunade of the Senju Clan, but that didn't mean her surname was "Senju." The same went for Haku and plenty of others.
Because of this, in the Naruto world, people often called each other by their given names even when they weren't particularly close—another way the ninja world differed from reality.
"First, before answering, you must make a choice—choose whether or not to attempt this final question." Ibiki spoke again.
"What happens to examinees who choose not to answer?"
Temari pressed the issue. Her mood was terrible—she hadn't gotten the cheat sheet, and what Kankuro had given her had literally nothing written on it.
"If you choose not to answer, you'll be disqualified on the spot. Naturally, your teammates are eliminated as well." The moment Ibiki said this, the room erupted in agitation.
"But—examinees who choose to answer and fail will be permanently barred from ever taking the Chūnin Exams again!"
"But there are people here who've taken the exam multiple times!" Kiba couldn't help but speak up.
Akamaru had been feeling sick since midway through the test, which had tanked Kiba's performance, so he was pretty rattled right now.
"That's just bad luck. Because today, I am the chief proctor—I am the rules! Besides, I already gave you a choice, didn't I?" Ibiki played the villain while scanning the room.
The wavering was widespread.
Perhaps because of the pressure Hanabi had applied earlier, the atmosphere in the hall had grown suffocating.
Many people's exam performance had been poor.
"Now then, let's begin. Those who don't want to answer the tenth question, raise your hand. You and your teammates will then leave." Ibiki delivered the final ultimatum.
More and more people left.
The tension in the exam hall plummeted to rock bottom.
"Damn it—damn it—damn it—"
Naruto was torn.
"Naruto..." Kushina said nothing, only watching him quietly.
Naruto stood up.
"Don't underestimate me! I'll take this question! Even if I'm stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life, I'll still become Hokage!"
"Ara, ara ara~"
Hanabi tilted her head.
The exam had been a storm of schemes and sabotage, yet it was Naruto—big-hearted, oblivious Naruto—who'd been the least affected of all.
Because Naruto's words seemed to rally everyone around him, and after that, no one else moved to leave.
"Naruto..." Hearing his answer, Kushina felt a deep swell of pride. "Oh, right..."
It seemed like Hanabi had given Naruto something before the exam started.
Was it... a cheat sheet of some kind?
"An admirable resolve." Ibiki nodded. "Then I hereby declare—everyone present passes!"
Some of the remaining examinees were stunned, but the oppressive atmosphere that had hung over the room evaporated in an instant.
Ring, ring, ring...
And then, a hand went up again.
Ibiki's vision went dark.
Wait—sis, the exam's over. Why are you still raising your hand?