Naruto stared down at his paper, holding his head in his hands. The rules, as explained by the scarred special jonin, were pretty straightforward. The teams were split up into randomly-assigned seats before the test papers were passed out. Everyone started with ten points, but wrong answers cost a point for each question. Getting caught cheating cost you two points every time you were caught. Run out of points and get removed from the exam. Simple, right? Oh, and if you get a zero your teammates fail as well… Just answer the questions and don’t cheat, right?
Except for the fact that Uzumaki Naruto was abysmally bad with written tests. They were the bane of his existence at the Konoha Ninja Academy. Practical exercises were different. He failed a lot of those too, but at least there was a chance. Sometimes he could figure out a way to succeed, or work around the rules. Like with the kunai-throwing examination – Iruka hadn’t specifically forbidden him to use an explosive tag, and the bullseye was certainly destroyed, even if he’d struck the target three inches to the left of center…
But a written test… there was only one way to answer them correctly. No way to distract the examiner and move the starting line. And only one correct way to do the problem. No room for creativity at all. Especially with a multiple choice test like this one.
A drop of sweat rolled down Naruto’s forehead and traced a path down his nose. He rubbed at it irritably. He hated math too. The parabola, B, represents a shuriken’s path after being thrown by an enemy ninja from a height of seven meters. Calculate the strength of the enemy ninja that can be observed from the ellipse formed by the shurikenand figure out the maximum throwing distance on flat ground. Explain your reasoning.
Oh crap, he thought with horror, they want me to do math!
I can’t wait to see how this chapter turns out. It will be interesting to see how Naruto will do in the first exam. Given all of the differences from cannon I think that he would preform better than in the original. The preview leaves me early awaiting your next update.
hey, i was just wondering if they were going to try to set up the sand team, you know make it look like they’re cheating so they can get them thrown out of the exam or something. Shino seems smart enough to pull something like that, you know using bugs to pull their papers off their desks of something. Is naruto going to get any of the problems on his own, because he was discussing all that stuff with his team mates, even if he wasn’t writting it down. Great story! update soon!
OMG! I can’t wait for this chapter to end! I only took a quick glimpse, I didn’t want to ruin the chapte by spoiling some in advance; I’ll just read it all in one. You’re incredible for writing so many in one chapter!
Naruto should be much better than in the original (Kurenai DID encourage him to do a lot of thinking and stuff), but Hinata shouldn’t really be sitting next to him, right? So, I wander what he will do.
Excellent!!! I’ve been curious as to how you will handle this part. Obviously Naruto is smarter about certain things in your story than he is in Canon. Just as obviously, he isn’t going to be able to answer the questions by himself. The real question is, will he take the same route and rely on the last answer, or will he attempt to cheat? I am of course assuming that with his greater prowess as looking “underneath the underneath” that he will eventually figure out the true purpose of the exam. I just don’t think that he has the spying skills yet to pull it off. I guess we shall see however, as we all eagerly await the next installment, which seems to have gotten off to a wonderful start.
Hmm. Plot idea forming, if Naruto gets placed next to Sakura would this potentially inspire her to attempt to mend the fence between her and Naruto given what he told Lee about her?
I just remembered something. In the last chapter Lee DIDN’T fight Sasuke. This means Sasuke doesn’t know any of Lee’s moves. So if Sasuke gets to the Prelims, it’s possible that he won’t be able to beat that chakra-sucking guy without using the cursed seal. This might furball out of control greatly, and he might not end up in the finals for one reason or other. Of course, the line-up might be different, and someone else might win or lose against him.