So in this chapter, the ninjas teach you that cheating is a-okay! As long as you don't get caught!
Chapter Nine: Cheating Exam One
"This written test is composed of nine questions and one verbal question, of which you will answer at the end of the allotted time. You will have approximately one hour to complete this written test. You pass into the next round if you and your team are able to answer at least one question correctly each. If one member of your team fails, then everybody in the team fails. Also, I need to remind you that cheating is absolutely forbidden. All around the sides of this room, you see examiners stationed. They will monitor your row and they will catch anyone who is cheating. If you are caught cheating, you fail and your teammates fail along with you. Do I make myself clear?" Sasuke explained his rules as he sat on top of his desk. He saw many frightened and shocked faces while some were overly cocky. In response, Sasuke smirked and closed his eyes. "And by the way, because I can...Sharingan!" His eyes quickly opened, revealing a set of red irises with black marks.
Almost instantaneously, everybody cringed and cocky looks faded away. Sasuke could already spot a few nervous wrecks in the lecture room. One person even pulled back her genjutsu, of which he could clearly see. This one was a crafty one. She probably placed everyone in this room under a genjutsu and dispelled it the minute he used his Sharingan. But, by that time, she probably had all the answers. Sasuke glanced at his watch. It was almost three.
"Begin!"
Shun quickly skimmed over the nine questions. There was a large variety of questions such as specific ninja history, math, obscure topics, drawing seals, and much more. Shun read over the questions again; this time, much more in depth. Out of all these questions, the seal was obviously the easiest for him. He was from the Tetsuya Clan! Their entire shtick was seals that related to space-time ninjutsu! And they decided to put a hard one too. He had to draw a certain seal meant to completely store away a set of weapons and have each weapon appear in different rooms through a separate seal. There was a precise amount of inscriptions that had to be in the right place. He had to draw the main seal and then, the supplementary seals. After that, he had to label and explain the different parts of each seal. It was difficult! If he wasn't a Tetsuya clan member, he would have a large difficulty with this question! And this exam too! He couldn't answer all the other questions. One was of a ninja throwing a shuriken at an enemy from a tree and he had to figure out the optimum height, angle of depression, the speed of the shuriken, and also the best situated tree given the time and date. This was difficult! He guessed that most of the people in this room couldn't answer these questions!
And that hit him…like a ton of bricks.
Nobody could answer these questions at all. They were too difficult. He wondered how Ryuu was doing. The boy was situated in the middle of the room while Shun was in the last row. But, in his opinion, Kinako had it the worst. She was in the first row and her seat was right in front of Sasuke. Shun glanced at Ryuu, of whom was fiddling around. Did he succeed?
Ryuu nervously fumbled with his pencil and paper. Damn it! Now that the proctor turned on his Sharingan, Plans A and D was now a bust! Whatever! Who cares! He still had fifty more to go! Ryuu secretly took his pencil and dropped it on the floor. This plan was the oldest trick in his book. Find a way to travel around the room and peek at students' answers. It was brilliant! Brilliant! "Excuse me! I dropped my pencil. Can I go pick it up?" Ryuu called.
Shun wanted to hit his desk with his head. That idiot! Was he trying to get caught?
Sasuke glared at Ryuu and he hastily chucked a kunai knife with at least ten pencils tied to it. "There's your pencil. Keep working!" Sasuke barked.
The kunai knife almost landed on Ryuu's hand, giving him such a fright! But now, he couldn't execute Plan Z! Crap! This was harder than he thought!
On the other hand, Shun was getting started to work on the seal problem. He already ensured his pass since he needed to only get one question correct. But, as soon as he started, Shun felt something had whizzed by his eye. He turned left a little and spotted a measly fly drifting around the room. This fly was weird though. It didn't fly around in circles and then, randomly to a location. It seemed to head over to a certain location and hover over a student, like a recon eagle. Somebody was cheating! And he had a good idea who!
Since Shun was in the back, he saw everybody. Megane was close to him. Shun saw that the nerd had reprogrammed his glasses to show what the fly was seeing. And he just had to copy everything into his piece of paper.
Shun turned his eyes to where Sanae was sitting. Instead of keeping everything secretive, she was very blatant. She was obvious. She literally stood up and peeked at the students around her. Nobody called her out for it. But that was because nobody could call her out. She probably placed an illusion on the people near her that she was still working. Only Sasuke's Sharingan could see through her illusions and she merely turned it off once she was in his line of sight. So she was cheating as well!
Shun actively scanned the room until he could find his rival, Kenji. He had his forehead protector tied onto his arm similar to Shikamaru. And knowing what Kenji could do, that guy was probably bending light from whatever his forehead protector reflected into his eyes. He was cheating as well.
Why was all three of Trible B cheating?
The answer dawned upon Shun. Of course! No wonder they placed so much emphasis on cheating! They wanted people to cheat! Shun looked over at his teammates. Ryuu may have not figured this out, but he was still bent on cheating. Kinako could have figured it out, but what was she going to do?
Soon, random people were called out of the room. At least two thirds of the previous occupants were left.
Sasuke chucked his shuriken at another cheater he caught. "You fail! Get out of this room!" He called and the boy silently left. This guy didn't even try to hide his cheating! He was doing the old chakra expansion trick. Even in real life, it wouldn't work!
Sasuke soon spotted a thin line of chakra that went from the girl sitting in the front and was connected to the pencil of another student. So every time that student wrote something, the pencil of this girl would write the same thing. Smart. Except she miscalculated. He has the Sharingan!
Sasuke loomed over the pigtailed girl, about to call her out for cheating. She noticed his presence and turned her paper around. Neatly, in one of the boxes, she wrote, not an answer, but a message:
If you fail me and any of my teammates, I will tell your wife that you...
Sasuke froze. His breath turned cold, a rarity of an Uchiha. How did she know that? And by the false polite smile on her face, he could figure out her hidden malice.
The young girl pouted and wrote down another message:
I'm serious.
She wasn't joking. And so, he smartly backed off.
And Kinako got right back to cheating again. It was a good thing she got a good look at his face before starting this test. Hopefully, her teammates realized they were supposed to cheat like she did at the very beginning.
Ryuu wanted to slap himself in the head...a lot! He was at his wits end! He wanted to try manipulating the wind to blow a few papers in the air, but Sasuke's Sharingan kept catching him just as he was starting. He wanted to cheat by looking at the papers in front of him, but Sasuke just called out someone for doing the same thing. He even tried flipping a coin in the air and reading the reflections, but it made such an embarrassing noise! What was he going to do? He was totally fucked! He couldn't cheat! He had no idea how to answer these questions. And sooner or later, the cold hearted proctor was going to call him out! Why was everybody in the world against him?
"Ryuu-kun," a whisper was heard at his left ear, "Are you okay?"
"Sanae! What are you doing? They'll catch you!" Ryuu harshly whispered back.
The girl shook her head. "No. I placed a genjutsu on everyone around us. They think we're still working on the test. Why aren't you doing your test?"
His shoulders shrugged down in disappointment. "I just don't get this test. And I can't find a way to do my usual thing."
Sanae was quiet for a moment since she was brainstorming along with him. Then, she snapped her fingers as if she had a brilliant idea. "I know! Ryuu, do you hear the rain?"
"Yeah..." Ryuu nonchalantly glanced out a nearby window. The rain drops made popping noises against the glass, the only sounds of this room. Suddenly, Ryuu snapped his fingers. "I got it! Thanks Sanae! I owe you."
She nodded and returned to her work.
Meanwhile, Ryuu madly cackled and snicker as he stuck his hands under the table and performed a few hand signs. A little wind couldn't hurt anybody. Once he was done, a window near him flew open from the wind and drops of rain flooded the room. Like Ryuu wanted, the papers in that area floated up, allowing him to sneak peeks at the writing...except...it was too small! Damn it! Why can't people write larger so it's easier for him to cheat?
"Close that window!" Sasuke barked and glared at the poor students in that vicinity. "And all of you fail!"
"What! That's not fair! We didn't do that!" One mad student yelled. He was from the Mist.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, not planning to answer. He waved his hands nonchalantly, ordering for that student and his team to leave. When that was done and over with, Sasuke scanned at the rest of his test takers. With those people gone, he narrowed everyone down by a third. It was good enough. "Everyone put down your pencils. The written portion of this test is over!"
What! Ryuu slammed his head on the table and covered his head frantically with his arms. He didn't even get to write down any answers! He was doomed! Doomed!
Shun silently observed from the back. It looks like Ryuu didn't get a single answer down. He still had the tenth question left.
"Before I issue the tenth question, I will give you one last chance to withdraw."
"What? We just sat through an hour test and you want us to quit!" Ryuu angrily yelled.
Soon, an activated Sharingan was burning holes into the boy's eyes.
"Because, if you decline to take the tenth question, you can have another chance to take this exam next year. However, if you accept and you get the question wrong, you can't ever take this exam ever again. You'll remain a genin. Forever. Your choice."
The quiet, meek girl with pigtails was scoffing. He ignored her.
Shun face palmed. Can Ryuu ever shut up?
Ryuu gulped and sat back down. "I'll take it."
Seeing that no other students were falling for it, Sasuke sighed and began, "The question is...do you want to pass this test?"
"...yes..."
"Good job. You pass."
"What!" Ryuu jumped out of his seat again. "That was it?! That's the tenth question!?"
The tall ninja shrugged, "Yeah. Pretty much."
"But that's too easy!"
"That's the point." Sasuke finally turned off his Sharingan. "Originally, there wasn't supposed to be a tenth question or the use of my Sharingan, but I changed it since I get to proctor this year. Choosing to answer the tenth question was technically your question. That's to show that you had the courage to take risks."
"Then what was this whole test for?" Kenji asked as he showed his completed paper.
"That was to show your skills in gathering information discreetly. Such skills are much needed when infiltrating the enemy. This test was designed to eliminate all the weak cheaters and the people who sacrificed their papers. Any information must be kept a secret. In order to make this possible; we planted two disguised chunins in the room who already knew the answers. They were your main source to find the answers. The people around the side of the room were supposed to catch all the cheaters they spotted. Those were the weak cheaters. The good cheaters were the one that required me to use my Sharingan to catch them. So I can tell you, 98% percent of the people here cheated and I caught them all with my Sharingan." Sasuke explained and smirked. "But I'm surprised you never caved in."
"That's because you suck at intimidation!" One punk cackled, but he soon quieted down when he felt a cold blade against his neck.
Sasuke had instantly appeared right behind the boy, drew out the sword, and looked ready to make the slash. He let the blade drag a little, making the boy shiver and crumble into a heap. That should teach him. "Actions speak louder than words." Sasuke coolly replied and sheath his small blade.
Shun silently observed from the back. This man was a trained killer.
"You're right. I'm not any good a psychological intimidation through plain speaking, but remember this: I have a Sharingan and there are other ways to make someone spill their secrets." Sasuke explained, "Besides, I'm not even the official proctor to begin with. That guy would have done a better job than me since this was his actual job. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to proctor this year since his students are among the test-takers."
Sasuke made eye-contact with the girl at his front. He had a good idea that she was one of them. Their strategic thinking was similar.
"Wait...so we're all done?" Ryuu was thoroughly confused.
Sasuke sighed, "Yes. You all advance to the second round." That boy reminded him of a certain dobe.
"Sasuke-kun?" Everybody's heads turned to see a pink-haired woman peeking into the room. She was a youthful woman, even in her late twenties, with full lips and dazzling green eyes. Looking at the symbol of her uniform, she was an active medical ninja. She slowly walked in and looked around the room. "Is this everyone?"
"Yeah." Sasuke carefully shifted his eyes to the treacherous girl in the front. The young one smirked once she saw the medical ninja come in. He still ignored her.
Sakura nodded and ushered in the new proctor.
"Hey everybody! Get your gear! We're moving to the next stage of this exam!" A woman's voice boomed into the room, someone Shikamaru's team knew very well.
"Temari-sensei!?" All three of Shikamaru's team exclaimed.
Temari gleamed and slammed her fan into the ground. "My name is Temari of the Sand and I will be your proctor for the second test!"
OoOoO
It was only Sasuke and Sakura left in the exam room. Temari had already taken the remaining genins out to the field so she could explain to them on what they were doing. Sasuke had to play janitor and pick up all the remaining papers. For some reason, Sakura wanted to help out.
"Aren't you supposed to be on medical guard right now?" Sasuke asked his wife.
Sakura giggled and replied, "Not right now. How about after the second exam starts where I'm actually needed?"
"Why are you here then?"
"Maybe because I want to help?" Sakura said matter-of-factly. "And I feel a little bad for making you cover for Shikamaru. He couldn't proctor since his kids were here."
Sasuke glanced at the paper at the top of his pile. That one belonged to the pigtailed, chestnut hair girl with wide, green eyes. She managed to read him like a book. And he definitely needed to burn this paper. "I have a feeling I met one of them." Sasuke remarked.
"Which one? The loud one? The prodigy one? Or the girl who can read your mind?"
"The last one."
"Ah! I heard about her! I hear she can read your mind just by looking at you." Sakura said with a grin, but she coyly walked up to Sasuke. "So…what did she see in you…?"
"Nothing!" The Uchiha ninja blushed and turned away.
"Come on! Tell me! I'm your wife!"
"Shut up! You're annoying!"
"Sasuke-kun~"
Next chapter is the "Forest of Death" chapter where you get to see more ShikaTema action. And SasuSaku is now a married couple in my fic! And since two of the main trio showed up, guess who is going to show up next?
