Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Withdrawing her hand, Temari smiled slightly at Naruto: "This is the first time I've heard someone say they want to be friends with Gaara."

Temari temporarily set aside her rationality and showed her emotions to Naruto.

As Gaara's older sister, Naruto's words just now did make her very happy.

Naruto responded to Temari with a smile.

How truly...pure.

Naruto glanced subtly at Temari's retracted hand.

Sometimes, communicating with people in a way similar to Naruto's personality from the original work can be surprisingly effective.

I don't know if it's because of the influence of Ashura's chakra.

After all, they are the two sons of the Sage of Six Paths.

Indra represents a terrifying power that can make everything possible;

Asura, on the other hand, possesses a powerful cohesive force based on the world's "love," enabling them to gain the recognition of others.

However, when Naruto said things like "Let's become friends with Gaara," he wasn't really trying to win Temari's favor.

This whole thing was a spur-of-the-moment idea from Naruto after Temari took the initiative to talk to him.

Naruto only guessed Temari's personality by combining his memories from his past life.

And they simply took advantage of the situation.

Gaara is now immersed in darkness, a complete bloodthirsty madman.

However, Gaara also values ​​the remaining familial bond between Temari and Kankuro and him—although the current Gaara may not necessarily understand why the two are so important to him.

Next, if Naruto is unlucky, he might end up facing Gaara.

Naruto can control Temari to some extent to suppress Gaara's actions.

The backup plan that Naruto had previously laid out for Kabuto was a deliberate act by him.

Temari approached him willingly, and Naruto's subsequent plan against her was purely accidental and incidental.

There is no conflict of interest between Naruto and Gaara.

But Gaara is ultimately the jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Beast.

Naruto needs to consider whether Gaara's reckless behavior during the Chunin Exams will affect his plan to defect from Konoha.

Since Temari took the initiative to approach Naruto, Naruto didn't mind giving Temari the Flying Thunder God Seal as well, in order to deal with any unexpected situations that might occur in the future.

With preparations complete for "the next step," Naruto focused his attention on "the present."

His conversation with Temari didn't take long.

But that's enough time to pass the five minutes of drawing seat numbers without even realizing it.

The Chunin examiners were already seated side by side against the wall in the examination room, having completed their preparations for proctoring the exam.

"Keep quiet!"

Only the examiner, Ibiki Morino, remained standing on the podium.

The entire examination hall was within his sight.

All candidates sat in their assigned seats according to their seat numbers for the exam.

The ninja team, originally divided into groups of three, was randomly assigned to different seats, surrounded by unfamiliar strangers.

Ibiki Morino took out a piece of white chalk and wrote words on the blackboard.

"Now, I will begin explaining the rules for the first exam!"

Chapter 32 Various Aspects of the Examination Hall

1.笔试以扣分制进行，每人拥有10分的满分。试卷上一共有10道题目，答错1题便扣除1分；

2. When the examiner discovers "cheating or acts deemed to be cheating", 2 points will be deducted immediately for each instance of such behavior.

3.以三人一组的忍班所拥有“团队总分（1人10分，3人则为30分）”判定笔试是否合格；

4. If a student answers all questions incorrectly or cheats 5 times, their score will be reduced to 0 points, and the other two students in the same class will also be deemed to have failed, resulting in the elimination of the entire class.

5. The exam duration is 60 minutes.

The rules for the first exam were clearly written on the blackboard in white letters on a black background.

"These are the rules for the first exam. Now turn over the exam papers in front of you so that you can answer the questions."

After putting the chalk back into the chalk box, Ibiki Morino, the chief examiner, glanced at the clock hanging on the wall of the examination room.

The clock shows that it is exactly four o'clock in the afternoon.

"The exam begins!"

Ibihi conveyed the signal that the exam was about to begin.

……

Naruto glanced at the exam rules Ibiki had written on the blackboard, then focused his attention on the exam paper in front of him.

The first question on the exam was about cracking a code.

The same questions as I remember.

Naruto lost interest in the next eight questions and focused his attention on the last one.

[10. At the 45-minute mark of the exam, the chief examiner will present a question. Please write the correct answer based on the examiner's question. The allotted time is 15 minutes.]

It seems that the core of this written test has not changed.

That's true... How could Ibiki have imagined that he would use interrogation techniques in the exam, with such carefully prepared questions?

For Naruto right now, it's an open-book exam.

The purpose of Ibixi, the examiner of the first exam, was confirmed.

Naruto lost his sense of tension about the exam.

Not only that, because his exam seat was at the back, Naruto became quite interested in observing the reactions of the other people.

Naruto noticed that no one had started writing down their answers.

As soon as the exam began, all the candidates behaved as if they had agreed to do so.

The process involves grading the papers first, then identifying and answering the questions that you are confident about.

However, Ibihi deliberately increased the difficulty of the nine questions that had already been published on the exam paper.

However, these questions are not so difficult that test takers will not be completely unable to understand them.

Ibixi's questions are highly targeted, allowing test takers to understand the questions but not answer them correctly.

Furthermore, it will make test takers clearly realize that "randomly answering these questions by luck" will absolutely not yield the correct answer.

The questions on the test paper were simply not questions that a ninja of the lower rank could answer.

The grading time won't be that long.

The fact that no one in the exam room actually wrote down the answers speaks volumes.

However, the Chunin hidden among the examinees did not write anything, which Naruto could not understand for a moment.

Did Ibiki not, as in the original story, arrange for a Chunin who knew the answer to infiltrate the test takers this time?

The moment the question arose in his mind, Naruto immediately dismissed it.

The two Chunin disguised as examinees must have been instructed by Ibiki not to answer the questions immediately.

The tension of not knowing the correct answer during the 60-minute exam can turn into irritability and depression as time goes by.

The less time there is in the exam, the more likely candidates are to lose their composure if they are unable to answer the questions.

They become unable to grasp the true purpose of the exam, leading them to act impulsively—not through ninja-style cheating, but through the most foolish and utterly naive form of cheating.

These candidates, who have absolutely no ninja talent, are Ibiki's top priority for elimination.

In addition to the types of candidates mentioned above, there are also candidates who cannot answer a single question, are unaware of the purpose of the exam, or even dare not cheat.

They will pin their hopes on the questions being presented live 45 minutes into the exam.

But most of the interrogation techniques Ibihi had prepared for this exam were concentrated on the last question.

Candidates who answered the first nine questions correctly could hardly afford the consequences of answering the last question incorrectly.

Those candidates who didn't get any points to begin with will only break down even faster when faced with Ibixi's live questions.

But there are exceptions.

Naruto looked at the pink figure in the middle of the exam room, sitting in the row in front of him.

After the grading was finished, Sakura began to answer the questions.

She was the first candidate in the entire examination room to start writing.

They can answer questions faster than a Chunin who knows the answers but is pretending to be a test taker.

Perhaps it was an accident that Sakura, as a genin, possessed an extraordinary amount of knowledge, allowing her to "take the exam through normal means" like an anomaly.

Ibiki watched Sakura with great interest for a while.

As Sakura began to answer the questions on the test paper.

Finally, the sound of pencils sliding across paper began to fill the examination room.

Naruto was surprised when the second candidate started answering the questions.

"I didn't expect it to be Karin..."

The speed at which Karin was wielding the pencil didn't look like she was just scribbling randomly.

This contrasted sharply with her two fellow ninja classmates who were scratching their heads and pulling their hair.

Karin's theoretical knowledge is actually on par with Sakura's.

However, upon closer reflection, it's quite normal for Karin to excel in her studies.

Both Sakura and Karin will be medical ninjas with powerful medical ninjutsu in the future.