Room 301 wasn't just a room. It was a pressure cooker.
The air inside was stale, heavy, and saturated with the scent of fear. Hundreds of Genin from various villages sat in rows, casting nervous, evaluating glances at each other.
Naruto sat mid-row, sandwiched between Hinata Hyuga and some guy from the Rain Village. Sakura and Sasuke were seated far from him, lost in a sea of strange faces.
The door swung open, and darkness entered the room.
Leading the squad of proctors was a man whose very existence screamed danger. Tall, clad in a long trench coat, his face was crisscrossed with gruesome scars—marks of torture and brutal interrogations.
Ibiki Morino.
He didn't just walk in. He seized the space.
"Quiet down, scum!" His voice sounded like grinding gravel. "I am your proctor for the first stage. And from this moment on, your fate is in my hands."
Naruto observed him calmly.
He kept his Qi Sensory strictly contained to avoid attracting the attention of sensors among the proctors.
Ibiki's aura was... iron. It was cold, hard, and unmoving, like prison bars. It was the aura of a man who had broken human wills hundreds of times. He radiated waves of psychological pressure, specifically directed to crush the weak-spirited.
Interesting, Naruto thought, keeping his face absolutely impassive. He uses his chakra not to attack, but to create an atmosphere of terror. Psychological warfare before the exam has even begun.
Ibiki explained the rules. The point system. Team scoring. And most importantly: if one team member gets a zero, the whole team fails.
Sasuke exhaled somewhere to the left. Sakura, sitting ahead, also relaxed. Naruto felt their relief through his sensory perception—their auras remained steady while others trembled like candle flames in the wind. They weren't afraid of a test. Their team never had problems with theory.
"Begin!" Ibiki barked.
Sheets of paper rustled.
Naruto flipped his test over.
First question: "Decipher the cryptogram using a type-B rotation key and determine the enemy shinobi rendezvous coordinates, factoring in kunai trajectory with a wind speed of 7 m/s..."
Naruto blinked.
These problems were clearly not for Genin. These were tasks for experienced Chunin specializing in intelligence and ballistics.
He scanned the other questions. Physics, chemistry of poisons, deep history of strategy.
Impossible, he analyzed coldly. No ordinary Genin knows this. Sakura might solve a few thanks to her cramming. Sasuke... barely. Me? I read a lot of books in the library, but even I don't know the answer to number 7.
He raised his gaze and, using peripheral vision and sensory perception, "inspected" the room.
The auditorium filled with strange activity. Thin threads of chakra stretched from puppeteers' fingers. Insects crawled across the floor. Sand turned into an eye. Mirrors on the ceiling...
They are cheating, Naruto realized. The point of the test isn't knowledge. The point is information gathering. We were given an impossible task to force us to obtain answers by any means necessary without getting caught.
It was a spy game.
Naruto could have used Qi Sensory to read the answers from the hand movements of Genin around him. Or he could have created a micro-gust of wind to flip someone's sheet.
But he didn't.
He already guessed the true purpose of this test, though he wasn't entirely sure yet.
The blonde quickly answered the few questions he knew and neatly placed his pencil on the desk. He folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes.
He assumed a meditation pose.
The young cultivator became a rock in a raging sea of panic. Pencils flew around him, people were dragged out for cheating, Ibiki pressed down with his presence, but Naruto sat motionless.
He used this time for Circulation.
Preparing for what would come next.
The tenth question. The main course.
Time passed. 45 minutes expired.
"Stop!" Ibiki's voice cracked like a whip. "It is time for the tenth question."
The atmosphere in the room thickened to the limit. Fear could now be cut with a knife.
Ibiki stepped forward. His face was a mask of sadistic pleasure.
"But before that... I will add one rule. The rule of despair."
He explained. You can refuse to answer. Then you leave, but you can try again next year.
But if you choose to answer and answer incorrectly... you lose the right to take the Chunin Exam forever. You will remain a Genin for the rest of your life.
The hall exploded with whispers and panic.
"That's bullshit!" someone shouted. "There are people here who have taken it before!"
"They were lucky," Ibiki grinned. "And you are not. I am the law here. Well? Who wants to leave? Raise your hands!"
The exodus began.
One by one, Genin broke. Psychological pressure, fatigue from the test, fear of eternal shame—it was too much.
Sakura was trembling. She stole a glance at Naruto.
Naruto... he dreams of becoming Hokage. If he gets it wrong, his dream dies. He's not stupid, of course... but if he suddenly doesn't answer... should I raise my hand for him?
She hesitated, debating whether to raise her hand.
And at that moment, Naruto opened his eyes.
He slowly, calmly raised his hand.
Sakura's heart skipped a beat. Is he going to give up? Is Naruto giving up?
Ibiki looked at him too, narrowing his eyes.
"Decided to run, kid? Smart choice."
Naruto looked straight into the eyes of Konoha's chief interrogator. In his blue eyes, there wasn't a drop of fear. Only icy, adult resolve.
"I'm not running," his voice was quiet, but in the complete silence of the auditorium, everyone heard him. "Never."
He swept his gaze over the trembling Genin.
"A shinobi who fears the future is already as good as dead," Naruto stated. "Stay a Genin? I don't care. My path forward continues even if I'm an eternal Genin. I will force that path open with strength if I have to. But I will not retreat before the fear of the unknown."
His words, amplified by a light, almost imperceptible pulse of Qi, washed over the crowd like a wave of calm. He became an example. If this guy isn't afraid... what are they afraid of?
Sakura exhaled. Her trembling stopped. She looked at Naruto and saw not an outcast, but a leader.
Sasuke scoffed. Idiot. But a stubborn idiot.
Ibiki stared at Naruto for a long five seconds. He pressed with his aura, trying to find a crack in the boy's armor.
But there were no cracks. Naruto's aura was dense, solid, and calm as the surface of a mountain lake.
The interrogator chuckled. For the first time, it wasn't a sadist's smile.
"Good answer," he said. "In that case... everyone remaining in this room..."
He paused.
"YOU PASS!"
Shock. Disbelief. Cries of "What?!"
Ibiki ripped off his bandana, revealing gruesome scars on his head—marks of torture.
"Information is a weapon," he explained. "The tenth question was a choice: betray comrades for safety or risk everything for the mission. Those who stayed chose the risk. You passed."
Naruto exhaled slowly, releasing the tension. He had guessed the nature of the test, but there was still a risk that he was wrong.
He is a dangerous man, Naruto noted to himself.
At that moment, the auditorium window shattered.
CRASH!
Glass, fabric, and something large flew inside. Two kunai embedded themselves in the ceiling, unfurling a huge banner: "Second Stage. Proctor — Anko Mitarashi!"
Standing before the class was a woman in a trench coat and mesh suit. Purple hair, a brazen smile, and an aura...
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
His sensory perception instantly focused on her.
Anko's aura was bright, wild, but... there was some kind of filth in it.
On the woman's neck, a dark, ominous cluster of foreign chakra pulsed. It felt like a parasite embedded in the energy system.
What is that? Naruto froze. First time I've seen anything like it.
"Why the long faces, maggots?!" Anko yelled. "I am your next nightmare! Everyone follow me to Training Ground 44!"
"Also known as..." she licked her lips predatorily. "The Forest of Death."
Naruto stood up. His Qi circulated steadily. The first step was taken. Now the real exam began.