Ibiki's gaze swept across the entire classroom. He spent no more than a second on each face, but every Genin he stared at unconsciously straightened their backs a little.
"Now, I will announce the rules for the first exam." Ibiki nodded in satisfaction and held up two fingers.
"Step one, submit your application forms and receive your seat numbers at the same time. The seat numbers are random. You may not change them, and you may not swap seats with anyone."
"Step two, sit in your assigned seats, and the proctors will distribute the written exam papers."
"That is all. Now, begin submitting your application forms and take your seats in order."
Upon hearing this, everyone began to follow Ibiki's instructions, lining up to walk to the podium to submit their application forms, receiving small slips of paper with seat numbers from the proctors, and then finding their seats according to the numbers on the slips.
Naruto glanced down at the slip and found his seat. He sat down, and as he turned his head, he saw a pair of white eyes in the adjacent seat quickly dart away from his gaze.
Hinata sat in the seat to Naruto's right, her knees pressed together and her hands resting on them. Her body trembled slightly, revealing that she was far from calm.
"Hinata, what a coincidence."
Seeing Hinata, Naruto lowered his voice to greet her.
"Na... Naruto-kun, let's do our best on the exam."
Hinata seemed to have used all her strength to finish that sentence. After she spoke, she quickly lowered her head.
Seeing this, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head. Just as he was about to say something else, Ibiki's voice once again rang out through the entire classroom.
"The exam rules are as follows. First, everyone starts with ten points for the entire written exam, and there are nine questions in total on the paper."
"Second, candidates caught cheating will have two points deducted each time."
"Third, if the three members of the team have a cumulative total of more than three deductions, the entire team fails and is eliminated on the spot."
"Fourth, the tenth question will be announced after forty-five minutes."
"The exam duration is one hour. Now, the exam begins."
With points being deducted, even if just one person on a team was caught cheating three times, the whole team would be eliminated.
This rule was equivalent to weaving an invisible, high-voltage electric net among all the candidates. One person's mistake would implicate the entire team.
The moment the exam papers were distributed, the air in the classroom changed.
The Genin who received the papers had varying expressions. Some furrowed their brows, some turned pale, some picked up their pens only to put them down again, and beads of sweat dripped from their foreheads.
Naruto flipped open the first page of the exam paper and scanned it from top to bottom.
The first question was code-breaking, requiring the analysis of the encryption rules for a non-standard code and the writing out of the plaintext.
The second question was about the mechanics of Chakra nature transformations, providing a Chakra attribute distribution chart for a seven-man squad and requiring the deduction of the optimal counter-strategy under various battlefield terrains.
The third question was even more absurd. It provided half of an incomplete explosive tag diagram and required the examinee to complete the remaining runes and mark the detonation time deviation value.
Flipping further, the subsequent questions were even more outrageous than the last. One question even asked them to calculate the ballistic trajectory of a shuriken under headwind conditions.
Naruto closed the exam paper.
These kinds of questions were simply not something a Genin could answer. One could even say they weren't meant to be answered at all.
Asking twelve-year-old Genin to complete Explosive Tag runes?
Only Jonin and Special Jonin would come into contact with them. Ninja Academy had only taught the basic principles related to them for two lessons.
The true purpose of the first exam was not to test whose knowledge base was more solid, but to test who could gather intelligence under high-pressure environments without revealing themselves.
This exam didn't test the candidates' brains. It tested their core qualities as a ninja: intelligence gathering ability and anti-reconnaissance concealment skills.
Naruto scanned his surroundings without changing his expression.
As expected. A few Genin in the back rows had already begun to move.
After realizing the content of the exam, many ninjas began to cheat.
A Kusagakure Genin secretly released a spider smaller than a fingernail, which crawled down the table leg.
Gaara had his eyes slightly closed, and the sand in front of him slowly spread out across the table and then gathered, arranging itself grain by grain into the shape of words.
Shino, who was wearing sunglasses, tilted his head slightly, and a Kikaichu peeked out from his collar.
After Sakura received the exam paper, she quickly browsed through all nine questions, and the corners of her lips curled up slightly.
These questions were impossible for ordinary Genin, but not to her. When she was at the Ninja Academy, she was the top student in the theory classes. She scored full marks in everything from cryptography and Chakra attribute analysis to pharmacology.
Sakura pulled out her pen and lowered her head, the tip of her pen scratching across the answer sheet.
Sasuke flipped open his exam paper, read the first question and realized.
Were these exam questions something a Genin could normally answer?
No, this was a pure selection test. What was being selected was not knowledge reserves, but another kind of ability.
Then, how many could he answer himself?
He flipped through the exam paper from beginning to end, and then curled his lip slightly.
Alright, he couldn't answer a single one.
However, Sasuke didn't panic, because he had already noticed that the actions of several candidates nearby were suspicious.
He loosely clenched his hands on the desk and then slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his pupils had transformed into the two-tomoe Sharingan.
It was just copying answers. The Sharingan could even copy Ninjutsu instantly, so copying a Genin's written exam paper posed absolutely no technical difficulty.
The candidate sitting two rows in front of Sasuke was lowering their head and scratching away at the exam. The handwriting on the answer sheet was clearly visible to Sasuke.
'Hmph, easy.' Sasuke looked smug.