Naruto shifted his attention to the rest of the room.
Tools were easy to deal with. The hard ones were people using dojutsu or sound-based methods. The simplest solution was still to neutralize the chunin plants with answers.
He adjusted his forehead protector mirror and finally locked onto an eyeglass-wearing candidate writing furiously, no visible support from any tool.
How do I get him…? Naruto pondered, then felt a wild idea click into place.
His eyes turned crimson again, and this time faint malice seeped around him.
Hinata's eyelid twitched. She turned—met Naruto's gaze—went pale and froze.
"Shh. I'm fine. Just testing something," Naruto whispered.
He stretched Nine-Tails chakra outward in a long, transparent ribbon.
Every candidate it brushed was flooded with fear. Some even felt warmth in their pants; others' hands shook so badly they couldn't write a single word.
The chakra touched the glasses-guy. He stiffened like he'd been hit by a spell, drowning in hostile intent. His eyes reddened with panic.
Bingo, Naruto thought, delighted.
He didn't blanket the whole room—too much of a disturbance might draw Konoha higher-ups, which would be insane.
As he searched for the next answer-holder, he justified himself: I'm not screwing you guys over. The Forest of Death is going to kill a bunch of you anyway. Getting eliminated now means you live longer. I'm doing you a favor.
Look at how much I'm sacrificing for you, Naruto sighed internally.
Then a chill shot down his back.
He looked up—straight into Ibiki's eyes.
Did he notice me?
Naruto narrowed his gaze. "Kurama chakra really boosts my senses too…"
He pulled the chakra back.
Even so, that stunt had already made a lot of people give up on writing.
They genuinely thought some nameless evil was staring at them.
On Sakura's side, she still hadn't written anything. She was debating whether to let Ino copy answers.
In canon, Ino used Mind Transfer to steal Sakura's answers and pass them to Shikamaru and Choji.
After a long silence, Sakura decided not to.
Maybe the original Sakura's feelings still affected her. She didn't want Ino and the others to keep going, even if Shikamaru lost his shot at promotion.
Leaving Shikamaru aside, Ino and Choji had zero self-defense right now. If the new transmigrator was a psycho, they could die.
Let fate decide, Sakura sighed, leaving them to their luck.
Time slid into the last ten minutes.
Ibiki scanned the room, glanced toward Naruto again, and shouted, "Alright! Now I'll announce the tenth question!"
"But before that, I'm adding a few rules…"
He grinned like a sadist. "Rules… of despair… huh?"
The lights seemed to plunge into darkness for a heartbeat—then snapped back.
Ibiki couldn't help glancing at Naruto again.
Who did that?
Meanwhile Naruto felt a little irritated. I'm literally helping your atmosphere. Why are you choking mid-speech?
He thought Ibiki was being unprofessional.
Ibiki cleared his throat and continued. This time he delivered smoothly. Despair spread across the room.
Naruto layered in an extra pulse of Nine-Tails dread as special effects. For a second he even wondered if he should bill Ibiki afterward.
Lighting guy? Mood guy? What am I, a stage tech?
Ibiki sensed something off again. Now he was hesitatingly locked on Naruto.
This kid… looks familiar. Something's wrong. How could a brat radiate this kind of pressure?
Still, the atmosphere was so thick that people began raising hands to withdraw, lining up at the exit.
Seeing that, Naruto finally pulled his chakra completely back.
"That's enough. Another few seconds and Hiruzen might show up," he muttered, wiping sweat mentally.
He kept scanning for abnormalities.
Still nothing obvious.
The Konoha Twelve, Sound trio, Sand trio, Kabuto… none had been affected. But the number of random fodder had dropped hard.
Hopefully the transmigrator had been hiding among them…
Wait, if they got eliminated, would they just camp outside the door?
Naruto tensed again and watched the withdrawing candidates closely.
Hinata, seeing the boy she liked constantly looking around with a troubled face, felt a stab of worry. She took several deep breaths, gathered her courage, and gently tapped his arm.
"Naruto-kun… are you really okay?"
"I'm fine…" Naruto waved it off, then immediately pivoted. "Uh—actually I'm not. I feel kind of weird lately. After this test, can you check me with your Byakugan?"
Hinata thought a moment, then nodded shyly.
Nice. Konoha's flower girls are great, Naruto thought, smiling. He planned to push things a bit further with Hinata today.
Ibiki asked one last time if anyone wanted to quit. When no one answered, he declared solemnly:
"Then I announce… all of you here have passed the First Stage!"
The room erupted. People asked questions; Ibiki explained. Everyone finally understood.
But while he spoke, he kept throwing glances toward Naruto.
This kid is dangerous. Not surprised once, eyes on guard the whole time… like he already knew everything. Is he still stuck in exam mode?
Sasuke was watching Naruto too. Naruto hadn't written a single word, yet he'd caused multiple "accidents." Even the death-sentence tenth question didn't budge him.
He looked like someone who already knew the answer.
"Naruto… what else are you hiding?" Sasuke's curiosity intensified.
Sakura saw Ino and the others pass and sighed. Fine. If something happened later, it wouldn't be on her.
Ibiki wrapped up. "Congrats on passing! Keep working hard!"
As he spoke, Naruto suddenly felt something brush his foot.
He looked down. A tiny paper ball lay there, crumpled tight.
Naruto picked it up and unfolded it. There was only one line:
[I've found your secret, hehe.]
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