Start From Naruto: Shino the Dominator

Shino sat at his desk, pen hanging over the blank page of his Chunin exam written test.

He had prepared for this moment for months, memorizing every aspect of the test material, and training his mind to recall everything he needed to know - not. Honestly, he mostly focused on upgrading his strength - the critical puzzle piece to his survival.

The only details he personally memorized were those explicitly relating to strength and survival.

As for the rest... Shino called out the lovely Alina in his mind.

"Alina, analyze the test questions and fill in the answers. Set the result to... 80% accuracy."

[Affirmative, Overmind. Analyzing… searching database… matching… 100% of data found – modifying temporary data to reduce accuracy… generating answers… Overmind, the 80% correct answer sheet has been completed. Please review.]

A visual image of the test paper appeared in Shino's mind, completely filled with answers. The power of an agile artificial intelligence was impeccable.

With a smile, Shino calmly filled in the wrong answers. After filling in 20% of the test paper with wrong answers, he completed the rest of the paper with short, random answers that could easily be changed later. Afterwards, he paused.

Shino looked around the room. He could see that not everyone had prepared as diligently as he had.

There were students staring at their test papers with looks of shock and despair, others frantically scribbling answers down before the examiners could catch them. Then, there were some – confidently sitting in their seats and waiting for others to fill out their answer sheets.

Adjusting his glasses, a sly smile appeared on his face. The pit had been dug - Shino wonders who would cheat off him.

In the meantime, Shino hesitated for a bit before commanding, "Alina, send some bugs to help Kiba as planned."

Although the smart Akamaru, peeking from Kiba's head, could communicate with Kiba, Shino honestly couldn't expect a dog to accurately explain the answers to every one of these complex problems. So, some secret assistance had already been in place.

Naturally, Shino won't give Kiba the wrong answers, despite the tempting allure to give him retribution for all his interruptions.

He couldn't afford to play a prank here – lest he shoots himself in the foot and end up being disqualified, turning Konoha 11 to Konoha 8... Now that would really cause a big butterfly effect – something he didn't want to see.

As for Hinata, an occasional checkup revealed she had no problems. The shy lady had an outstanding mind. It was only her hesitation holding back her growth.

The rest of the time, Shino focused his attention on Alina's reports.

[Target 19 has discovered the marker- marker has been eliminated…]

[Target 43 has crushed the marker through her unintentional movement. Estimated Reason: Anxiety…]

[Scent of target Sand Ninja Temari gathered. Establishing index in database...]

[Marker 32 has been discovered by examiner and obliterated…]

[Target Kiba Inuzaka had failed to comprehend the provided answer – simplifying answer… rearranging bugs…]

[Marker 9 infiltration success. Target, disguised puppet of Sand Ninja Kankuro, has been marked. Implementing second infiltration...]

[Attempt #4 in establishing a marker on Sound Ninja failed. Implementing attempt 5…]

[Marker 12 has been obliterated by unexpected sand. Suspected to be Sand Ninja Gaara – executing avoidance protocol...]

Shino had a stoic face, not showing any emotions despite the many failures in his plan. He innocently looked down at his paper, as if he was just an innocent scholar doing a test and the sneaky actions of planting bugs had nothing to do with him.

Of course, Alina was still extending the tentacles of his Zerg army outwards. At the same time, he received feedback from his bug's surveillance of the exam room, looking out for cheaters of interest.

Time ticked away. It didn't take long for Shino to discover the first cheater.

Indeed, this was never a paper exam in the first place. It was a test of intelligence gathering, and the real test had now begun.

As the exam progressed, Shino noticed that some of his fellow students were getting more and more creative with their cheating methods. Some were easy to discover, such as using ninjutsu to peek over their neighbor's shoulders.

Others were more discreet such as spawning an eye of sand in the air or using their special eyes.

Then, there were some Shino could probably guess, but couldn't see, such as Ino who was probably using her Yamanaka clan ninjutsu to communicate with her team, most likely to get the answers from Shikamaru and share it with Choji.

As for stealing answers from Sakura like in the original anime, that was only used to verify answers for some questions - ones Shikamaru was too lazy to answer.

Shino watched as one student summoned a tiny insect that crawled along the desk and whispered answers into their ear. Um? Was there another Aburame clan in here?

Another used a transformation jutsu to make themselves look like the examiner and casually walked around the room, checking other students' answers… Not long later, an examiner patted him on the shoulder.

"Even a six year old can think of this - Be more creative next time," the examiner then dragged the shocked examinee out of the exam room.

Hey! Did you miss the other brat who did the same with his puppet?! Even when caught in the act, the puppet master oddly didn't get disqualified, but others weren't so fortunate.

Despite their ingenuity, the examiners soon caught onto their tricks – or maybe, it was just simply time for elimination. The atmosphere in the room grew tense, with students glancing around nervously and trying to avoid the gaze of the examiners.

One examiner walked up to a student and snatched a tiny insect from their hand. "Nice try," he said, a stern expression on his face. "But cheating won't get you anywhere in life… unless you do it right."

Shino adjusted his glasses. Perhaps his camouflaged bugs set the standards too high? Why else would the other bug users get sent out?

Another student was caught using a jutsu, clearing displaying his hand signs, to copy their neighbor's answers onto their own paper. "You're lucky we're only disqualifying you from this exam," the examiner said, shaking his head in disappointment. "If you're caught out gathering intelligence behind enemy lines, the consequences will be much more severe."

Shino felt a sense of satisfaction watching the cheaters getting caught. After all, he knew it had nothing to do with him.

Shino also discreetly glanced at the few unlucky fellas who were copying from his paper. He knew that hard work and dedication were the only true paths to success, and cheating that relies on others was a deep pit that placed the cheater at the mercy of others.

Oh, was he a cheater? Ahem, no, his wasn't a cheat. It is the power of his golden finger trained from consuming a lot of gold content from the houses of books!