With only 15 minutes left for the test, Ibiki announces that it is time for the 10th question. Ibiki tells everyone that before he announces the 10th question there are some rules that everyone must be aware of. Kankuro and the “sentinel” re-enters the room and is told by Ibiki to take a seat. As Kankuro passes by Temari’s seat, he drops off a piece of paper.

Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma are sitting in a room together. Kakashi tells the other two jonin that it is quiet without the rookie genin. Asuma tells Kakashi that won’t last long because their first proctor this year is Ibiki. Kakashi realizes that the rookie genin’s chances of passing are already lower. Kurenai doesn’t know who Ibiki is. Kakashi and Asuma tell her that Ibiki is a specialist in interrogation and torture. Asuma tells her that during the test he’ll be torturing their minds.

Ibiki begins explaining the rules. The ninja are free to choose not to take the 10th question, but if they do they will get a zero and fail (also their teammates fail). If they take the question and answer it correctly then they will fail and will never be allowed to take the chunin exam again. Kiba tells Ibiki that that is bull because others have been allowed to take the exam again. Ibiki just laughs and says that Kiba is just unlucky that he is the proctor and is making the rules. Sakura considers the options. Ibiki tells the ninja that those who don’t want to take the question need to leave now. Naruto runs the possibilities through his head. Sakura thinks to herself that it’d be ok if Naruto raised his hand because they can always take the test again. Around the room ninja begin raising their hands and leave. Sakura urges Naruto to raise his hand in her head. Thoughts of Naruto saying he wants to be hokage rush through her head. Sakura decides that she can’t let Naruto forfeit his dream just because he is too stubborn to raise his hand so she begins to raise hers. However, she stops when Naruto raises his hand.

Asuma continues explaining Ibiki’s torturing techniques to Kurenai.

Naruto slams his hand on his desk and tells Ibiki and the sentinels that they shouldn’t under estimate him because he doesn’t quit. He goes on to say that he doesn’t care if gets stuck as a genin for the rest of his life because he will still be hokage. Ibiki tells everyone that this is their last chance to quit and Naruto says he doesn’t go back on his word. Ibiki notices that Naruto’s outburst inspired others to stay. With no one else leaving, Ibiki tells them they have all passed the first part of the exam. Everyone is shocked and Sakura asks where is the tenth question. Ibiki says there never a tenth question (a written one at least) and their decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question. Temari asks if the other nine questions were a waste of time. Ibiki tells her no and explains that they were testing their ability to gather intelligence. Ibiki says his objective was to test them as a team. Naruto claims he figured it was something like that and that’s why he kept his cool. Ibiki goes on to say that the first nine questions were too difficult for more genin to solve so it almost demanded that you cheat so he put two chunin in the room who already knew the answers. Naruto realizes the entire time one of the chunin was in front of him. Naruto acts like he knew he had to cheat the other time. Sasuke sees through his deception and is shocked that Naruto never realized they had to cheat. Ibiki takes off his headband and tells the ninja that intelligence can make a mission a success or a failure (his head is covered with scarring and puncture wounds). He puts his headband back on and tells them that there are also times when disinformation can occur. Temari says she still doesn’t understand the 10th question thing. Ibiki says the 10th question was the point of the exam. Sakura says she understands that but wants Ibiki to explain it anyways. Ibiki says that the goal was to test them as individuals and as part of a squad and that the 10th question had two choices: Choice one was to play it safe and skip the question but fail with your teammates. Choice two was to answer it but if you got it wrong then you could never become a chunin. He goes on to say that Chunin are faced with questions like this all the time and gives an example mission where the leader is forced to decide whether the mission is too dangerous for his ninja and if he should not complete it or if he should take his ninja into harm’s way and risk it all. Ibiki says you should only think about completing the mission and that is the quality he wants in chunin. Ibiki says this part of the exam is over and wishes them luck. Naruto starts cheering. A woman bursts into the room through a window. She introduces herself as the second proctor, Anko Mitarashi. Anko tells the genin to follow her but Ibiki tells her she is early. Anko is surprised that there are 78 genin that passed and wonders if Ibiki is getting soft. Ibiki says that it is a stronger crop of candidates this year. Anko says by the time she is done with them over half of them will be eliminated.

That evening Ibiki is picking up the tests and comes across Naruto’s. He notices Naruto didn’t answer a single question and laughs.

The next day all the genin are gathered in front of a giant forest that is gated off. Anko says they call it the Forest of Death.