Despite being told to stay away, opening the earth scroll is tempting for Naruto. Does Naruto open the Earth scroll?
Naruto does open the Earth scroll, but he waits until he’s allowed. He doesn’t prematurely open the scroll, as Naruto worries about the repercussions of breaking the rules.
Team 7 learns later that any ninja who breaks the rules and opens the scroll was knocked out until the end of the exam.
Naruto decides to open the Earth scroll
In chapter #64, Team 7 decides to open their Heaven and Earth scrolls. They successfully gather the scrolls during the Forest of Death section of the Chunin Exams, and they believe it is now safe to open them after reaching the end tower.
Jonin instruct the young ninja not to open the scrolls during the exam. It was important to gather both a Heaven and Earth scroll, but a mysterious punishment was implied for those who read their scrolls early.
Naruto and Sakura open both scrolls at the same time. The messages “Human” and “Mankind” are sketched into the centers of each. Each word begins to push itself out of the page, with Sasuke recognizing the action as a spell of summoning.
Scrolls are explained to Team 7
Surprisingly, Iruka Sensei emerges from the dust of the summoning jutsu. He explains the spell was designed so that Chunin could greet the applicants at the end of the second exam. Iruka being the messenger for Team 7’s scrolls was pure coincidence.
Iruka congratulates Team 7 on passing the second exam. Naruto jumps on Iruka out of excitement.
Still curious over the exam’s rules, Sasuke asks Iruka what would have happened if they opened the scrolls too early. Iruka says that an important component of the exam was to demonstrate ability in maintaining a mission’s parameters.
If a ninja were to disobey their orders and open the scroll, instructors were told to knock the student out until the second exam ends. It is similar to the previous exam, where those caught cheating are punished. Naruto had to cheat to pass the written Chunin test.
So that’s the answer. Naruto does open the earth scroll, but he waits until the allowed time to do so. He does not disobey the rules and open the scroll during the exam.