Chapter 2: The Exam
The door opened and two ninjas clad in black and green vests stepped in. One looked at the clipboard in his hand and his eyes widened.
"All from this class!?" he whispered loud enough for everyone to hear to the other ninja showing him the clipboard. He motioned to Akuri who walked over to them and stepped outside with them. The classroom buzzed as neighbors talked to each other about what could be happening.
The door opened and Akuri stepped back into the classroom.
"As you all know, the Graduation Exam will be taken next week," Akuri started. "However, due to high test scores, oral exams, and mastery of ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu a select group of students have been selected to take the exam early from the 102 students attending this academy. 30 students were selected and, amazingly… all of you were selected."
There were a few shocked gasps, some "Of course I was selected," and one "Me?"
"You will all take the exam tomorrow!" Akuri said happily. "I have never been more proud of all my students at the same time! Due to the exam tomorrow, I am allowing all of you to go home and rest. Dismissed." he finished vanishing in a poof of smoke.
Everyone got up and left. In the hall everyone was conferring with their friends about the selection and the upcoming exam.
When all the students arrived at the academy, Akuri opened the door to the classroom. When they had all gotten in and been seated Akuri started talking.
"The exam will take place in Room 201B. When you arrive at the room, wait outside. The proctors will call you in by twos. The exam will start in ten minutes. If you have any last minute preparations take care of them now."
Keith started eating a chocolate bar that said, "High in Sulfuric Acid" on the wrapper. Jack practiced moving his shadow around. Jill started drawing in her notebook. Logan kept shrinking and growing. Donn was shooting down flies with his chakra. Everyone was confused because Courtney kept using genjutsu and making the location appear to change. Charles was spitting fire out at regular intervals. Kim kept disappearing and reappearing. Margo just sat there with his eyes closed.
No one knew what the exam would be like and they all were nervous. Yet they looked forward to it.
"You guys better go," Akuri said penetrating the silence. "Two minutes until the exam starts." Everyone filed out of the classroom. They walked down the hall in silence.
When they arrived at the room, it was blocked by two proctors.
"You must be the class of Akuri, eh?" one asked. "Only stinkin' class that had all of 'em get selected."
"The other students are just finishing now," the other said. He consulted his clipboard. "The first two are… Keith and… Logan. Go on in." Keith and Logan walked into Room 201B.
The room was small and desks lined the walls. Three proctors sat behind a large teachers desk.
"This test will consist of a written and physical exam," the furthest left proctor started.
"The physical exam will consist of you doing a clone jutsu and a technique of your choice. This is the physical exam," the middle proctor continued.
"The written exam is a 25 question test- 10 multiple choice and 15 short answer. You will be graded separately on each and they will then be averaged by the rule that the short answers will count for 75 of the test and the multiple choice for 25," the right most proctor finished. "Keith will begin. Please walk to the center of the room."
"The clone jutsu first I think," the middle proctor said. Keith did a few hand signs and then was surrounded by clones of himself that had appeared in a puffs of smoke. "Excellent work. Now have all of your clones and yourself do your chosen jutsu." Keith looked at his clones and nodded. They all hit their stomachs as hard as possible and… they vomited! They put their hands together with their index and middle fingers sticking up.
"Vomit Clone!" they shouted in unison and the vomit rose into a humanoid form.
"Disgusting, but useful," the right proctor said. All the proctors wrote down something on clipboards in front of them.
"Logan, please step forward," Logan walked into the middle of the room. "You will do your chosen jutsu first."
Logan pulled a dagger handle with a strange tooth on the end from a pouch on his back waistline. He did the same sign Keith had done for his Vomit Clone with the dagger between his fingers.
"Enlargement Jutsu!" he shouted and the tooth grew long and wide until he was holding a tooth short sword. So that is how he grows after his shrinking jutsu, Keith thought.
"Very good. Now the clone jutsu," Logan did a few hand signs while somehow managing to maintain hold of the sword in his signs and was then encircled by himself.
"Nice work," the left proctor commented. They wrote down some more stuff on their clipboards.
"Please leave through that door," the middle proctor said pointing to a door on the opposite side of the room from which they had entered from.
Keith and Logan exited through the door as Jack and Jill entered. The proctors gave their speech on the test and then,
"Jill you will go first," the middle proctor said. "Please walk to the center of the room. Jill did so. "Now do your chosen jutsu first." Jill got out her notebook and set it open on the ground. She did a series of hand signs then placed her palm on the drawing in the notebook.
"Living Drawing Jutsu!" she shouted. A bright yellow canary sprang from the notebook. Jill stuck her left arm straight out and the canary flew up to perch on her arm.
"Interesting technique. Now please do the clone jutsu," She did a couple of hand signs with the bird still on her arm.
"Drawing Clone!" she shouted and immediately she was surrounded by canaries that were perched on her everywhere. The proctors looked surprised and they were whispering to each other rather loudly. Jill thought she heard something like "bonus points" said. They quickly scribbled on there clipboards.
"Excellent work, Jill. Now, Jack, please come up." Jack walked to the middle of the room. "The clone jutsu first." Jack was shaking in his shoes. What if I mess up and she thinks I am an idiot?, he thought. He did some hand signs and then was surrounded by clones.
"Good," the middle proctor said. "Now please do your chosen jutsu." All of the Jacks put their hands in the neutral pose. All of a sudden, they were engulfed in chakra.
Wow! To be able to make your chakra visible… incredible!, Jill thought awestruck. The Jacks did a series of hand signs.
"Shadow Armor!" they all shouted. In an instant the chakra turned purple and turned into armor- helmet, breastplate, arm guards, gloves, legs, boots, and a long curved sword in all their right hands.
To have enough chakra to do that… Jack is more powerful than he lets on in class, Jill thought.
The proctors looked at each other and wrote down a few things on their clipboards. "You may leave," the right proctor said pointing o the door through which Keith and Logan had exited.
Now Courtney and Charles entered the room. The proctors gave their spiel on the tests and then called Courtney forward. She stepped forward. "The clone jutsu first, please." She did a few hand signs and was then besieged by her clones.
"Your chosen jutsu now," Her and her clones put their hands in the neutral pose. All of a sudden, the proctors thought they had a knife to their throats. The left proctor recognized it as genjutsu and dispelled it.
"Mmm… quite good," the left proctor commented. The proctors then wrote down a few things on their clipboards. "Charles, please step forward." Charles walked to the center of the room. "Your chosen jutsu first," Charles did a few hand signs.
"Ice Style!" he shouted circling his mouth as he had done when he had spit fire from his mouth, but this time he spit ice from his mouth onto the ground creating a pillar of ice.
"Well done. Now please create some clones for us," Charles did a series of hand signs.
"Ice Clones!" he shouted and the pillar of ice split into two separate pieces which changed into living ice sculptures of Charles. The proctors whispered among themselves before writing on there clipboards and dismissing the two. Next in came Donn and Kim. The proctors once more gave their little speech on the test and called up Donn.
"Your clones first," Donn did some hand signs and created a couple of clones. "Good. Now your chosen jutsu," Donn did a lengthy series of hand signs and made his hand into a gun again.
"Machine Gun Finger Jutsu!" he shouted and shot all his clones with rapid firing chakra from his fingers.
"Hmm… I do not recommend shooting your clones in battle, but it did show us your jutsu well," They wrote down a few things on their clipboards. "Kim, your turn." Kim walked to the center of the room. " Show us your chosen jutsu first, please," Kim did a few hand signs.
"Ghost Jutsu!" she shouted. She disappeared as she had done before and reappeared fifteen seconds later.
"Now show us your clones," Clones appeared all around Kim. She had made them while she was invisible and kept them invisible until they were needed.
"Good. Thinking ahead. Anticipation," The proctors wrote down something on their clipboards. "You may go." Donn and Kim left through the door the proctors pointed out into a room a little bigger than the one they had just been in. There was four desks in the room- one in each corner. Courtney and Charles were in opposite corners and the two open desks had a packet of papers and a pencil on them. Donn and Kim went and sat down at the two open desks. In the packet there was rules, an answer sheet, and the actual test. They started immediately after reading the directions and rules.
A few minutes after they had entered, Charles, then Courtney, got up and left the room through another door. A minute later, Margo entered and sat down at a desk. Kim and Donn got up and left a few minutes after that and exited through the door that Charles and Courtney had left through.
They walked into a hallway where all the other students were. Keith was talking to Charles. Jill was playing tic-tac-toe with Courtney. Jack was leaning against a wall glancing around at everything- mostly the tic-tac-toe game. Logan was nowhere to be seen.
A few minutes after they had entered the hallway, the door opened again and Margo stepped in. The there was a poof of smoke and the middle proctor appeared.
"Good afternoon, students," he said.