Chapter 207: The Information Test

Lee traded blows with the two men guarding the examination room.

Feet struck arms, bodies blurred, and candidates crowded the corridor to watch. Lee drove both opponents backward before Neji and Tenten emerged from the stairwell.

"Lee," Tenten called. "That is the wrong room. Stop fighting them."

Lee broke away and landed beside his teammates. "The wrong room?"

Sasuke stepped out behind them. "A genjutsu changed the room number. The real examination is on the other side."

The gathered genin stared. With two puffs of smoke, the guards resumed their real appearances as Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane.

Izumo smiled at Sasuke and Neji. "This group may be stronger than expected. You discovered it."

The false entrance had tested whether candidates noticed a trap before forcing their way through it. Once exposed, there was no reason to continue the performance.

The genjutsu itself was simple enough for a capable genin to dispel. Its strength came from the crowd. Each new arrival saw other candidates gathered before the same number and accepted their behavior as confirmation. Those who questioned the sign still had to choose whether to challenge two older shinobi or search for another route.

Gaara appeared around the corner with Temari and Kankurō. "Boring."

The Sand team turned toward the true room.

Naruto was the only member of Team Seven who had struck the disguised door hard enough to hurt himself.

"If you knew, why did you not tell me?" he shouted at Sasuke.

"Idiot."

Sasuke walked away with his hands in his pockets. Naruto chased him, and Sakura hurried after both boys before they reached the actual exam in the middle of another argument.

Tonbo watched from concealment and sighed.

The expected duel between Lee and Sasuke had never happened. Sasuke's reputation had drawn Lee's attention, but something in the altered sequence of meetings had prevented the challenge. Tonbo had wanted to see how badly Lee would beat him.

At the moment, Sasuke would have struggled to answer Lee's speed. Team Guy had completed four Battlefield Simulation sessions during the last month alone. They also possessed another year of missions and training, along with bodies that had developed beyond those of the newest graduates. Team Seven's talent would close the difference with time or special training, but it did not erase it today.

Tonbo chewed a special ration pill and considered Kakashi.

Guy had asked for the simulations because he welcomed any ordeal that might strengthen his students. Kakashi was a more balanced shinobi and could teach most subjects himself. He was unlikely to request Tonbo's help, especially when every meeting brought another joke about marriage and another public display of Tonbo's happy home.

Kakashi's Sharingan, experience, and command of several releases gave him answers for almost any ordinary weakness. Guy sought outside help because his own specialization was obvious; Kakashi might regard the same request as an admission that his broad education had failed. Tonbo could offer Battlefield Simulation, but he could not make another jōnin accept it.

The thought amused Tonbo until noise rose from the written-exam room.

He arrived in time to see Naruto's group collide with the Sound candidates. Their arrogance made conflict almost inevitable. Kabuto Yakushi stepped between them before the first blow and produced his information cards.

One by one, he displayed facts about notable candidates: names, villages, previous attempts, known missions, and visible techniques. The demonstration was useful enough to gain Naruto's trust and public enough to hide the information Kabuto collected from every reaction.

Smoke burst across the front of the room.

Ibiki Morino appeared with the proctors behind him. Tonbo remained hidden instead of taking the examiner's position he had held in the future he remembered. Another shinobi occupied it now.

"Quiet," Ibiki said.

The single word silenced the room. His team projected the weight of experienced interrogators, and most candidates stopped breathing loudly enough to be noticed.

Tonbo recognized several members of the Analysis Team among them. Mibu Shinobu stood near Ibiki. Dokuraku Meguri and Seishimon watched separate aisles. Shinobu's gaze no longer carried the dull distance Tonbo remembered from their earlier years; working beside Ibiki appeared to suit him.

The Analysis shinobi were accustomed to reading pauses, inconsistencies, and attempts to conceal knowledge. An information-gathering examination suited those skills. They could distinguish a nervous glance from a deliberate signal and recognize when a candidate repeated a failed method because panic had replaced judgment.

"My Analysis Team truly holds Konoha together," Tonbo thought with satisfaction.

Ibiki announced the rules.

Every candidate began with points that could be lost through detected cheating. Repeated failures endangered the whole team. The questions were far beyond what ordinary Academy graduates could solve. A few theoretical prodigies might derive the answers from knowledge extended through missions, but everyone else needed to steal information from the planted candidates without letting the proctors catch them.

The linked punishment made the room sweat. One clumsy attempt could condemn two teammates who had done everything correctly.

Some candidates reacted by doing nothing, afraid that any attempt would cost the group. Others cheated so openly that the proctors marked them before their pencils returned to the page. The useful middle lay between them: gather what the mission required, conceal the method, and abandon an approach once the enemy had recognized it.

Naruto lifted the paper with confidence. Kiba's rivalry had made him study more seriously than he otherwise would have, though his effort still came in erratic bursts.

Then he read the first problem.

He did not understand it.

Naruto glanced around. Many candidates wore the same blank expression, which brought immediate relief.

"Everyone is stuck," he thought.

Kiba turned over his pages, scanned the questions, and began writing at once. Akamaru sat upon his head and gave small signals whenever Kiba needed another detail.

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Kiba is cheating."

The injustice felt sharper because Akamaru's theoretical knowledge was better than Naruto's. The ninken could assist without turning his head, while Naruto could see rows of proctors waiting for him to stretch his neck toward another page.

Iruka often said that a person pushed to the limit discovered abilities he never knew he possessed. Naruto tried to believe the pressure would reveal an undiscovered talent.

The first problem remained mathematics.

He scratched his head, looked toward Hinata, and saw her writing slowly. Shikamaru appeared annoyed but filled his page with steady speed. Sakura worked without hesitation. Sasuke understood enough of the rules to search for an information source rather than solve every question himself.

Naruto stretched his neck a fraction toward the nearest page and saw a proctor turn. He bent over his own paper at once. The retreat prevented a penalty but gave him nothing except the knowledge that the obvious route was watched.

Both of Naruto's teammates noticed his furtive glances and feared the first round would end their examination. They had already grasped the hidden structure. Academic strength was one route. Covert information collection was the other.

Across the room, genin used insects, eyes, animals, mirrors, and chakra techniques. Neji activated his Byakugan. Gaara formed a small eye from sand to watch one of Ibiki's planted answer holders. Even those two needed to cheat.

The changed generation still showed Tonbo's influence. Sasuke no longer needed the Sharingan for every answer, and most of the Konoha rookies had improved their theory. Only Naruto and Chōji remained visibly lost for long.

Tonbo admired Ibiki's design. The questions created despair, the proctors supplied targets, and collective punishment made every decision costly. A candidate could possess enormous power and still fail because strength could not replace information.

In this room, successful cheating was not shameful. It was the skill being examined.