"Way to turn a room full of strangers to a room full of enemies, you two," Shikamaru grumped as Kiba stood behind him, hands over his mouth to suppress his amused snickers. Eyebrows raised, she glanced over her shoulder to find endless pairs of eyes concentrated strictly on herself and Naruto. Nope, they sure don't look happy, she thought with a bashful chuckle. Maybe she had gone a tad bit overboard, but she just couldn't help it; her blood had already been boiling with the multi-front assault by her classmates, so the looming challenge of proving her worth had just punted her right over the edge of the cliff of insanity, apparently. She looked back to Shikamaru and flashed him a wink, sticking out the tip of her tongue.
"You're just jealous that I'm the one who saved face, aren'tcha?" she said, jabbing her thumb into her sternum as she straightened up tall. Ichigo meant to make good on her "borrowed personality," as Ino called it; her recent encounters with the various participants in the exam had elucidated much for her. If Ichigo wanted to grow stronger and get noticed, then she would have to make the effort to stop complaining and act on her desires, and, well- talking a big game and having an ego could do wonders for her self-confidence, she was finding; she was feeling a heck of a lot better than her unsure self in the Land of Waves and herself following her kidnapping. She gave the wide-eyed Shikamaru a cocky smirk. "I meant what I said to them. I'm gonna come out on top of this thing, one way or another. I'm not the shy little girl from the Academy anymore." She jammed her thumb into the metal of her headband. "I'm a Leaf shinobi and I'm gonna damn well act like it."
"You…" His dark eyes glittered at her as his mouth began to inch up into an almost delighted sneer.
"Seriously, Ichigo, you're gonna get us killed!" Sakura whined, and Ichigo let out a surprised "urk!" as the pink-haired girl popped up beside her to grab her in a chokehold. Sakura lightly strangled her until she wheezed out a half-hearted apology. When the girl's arm dropped from her neck, she exhaled deeply and rubbed at her neck with a pout.
"I'm just trying to keep the mood light, is all…"
"Bullshit; you're just tryin' to talk yourself up," Kiba leered at her, but he seemed more amused by it all than annoyed. It worked, dinnit? Ichigo wanted to say, but she supposed she had done enough gloating for the time being. Kabuto was watching them with an entertained expression. Ichigo just happened to look at him as a man wearing black spot-printed pants leaped out of the crowd to chuck a pair of sharp kunai at him. Kabuto gasped and lunged backwards, but another wearing similar clothing- the assailant's teammate, no doubt- cornered him, rearing back for a punch. It all happened so quickly that Ichigo could only watch wide eyes and her mouth hanging agape in shock. The man swung a heavy arm with some strange device at Kabuto, and she watched clearly as the bespectacled ninja tipped the upper half of his body backward to evade it.
Such a high-speed brawl… Those men totally surprised him, but Kabuto was able to dodge their attacks nonetheless, she thought in awe. A pink tint came to her cheeks as she shuffled bashfully; she really had been popping off about how she was all that, but she couldn't help but wonder if the strange ninja would've caught her unawares… I gotta make sure I back up my words during this exam, otherwise I'll look like a complete joke! She worried, chewing on her bottom lip. She heard Sakura gasp and glanced back at Kabuto to see the shattered lens of his glasses plinking to the floor and him on his hands and knees, hurling.
"What? What happened? He dodged that punch; I saw it!" she insisted as she ran over to him, putting a hand on his back. She grimaced at the feeling of his body shaking, and she looked up to glare at the three ninja standing on the edge of the crowd. They were bearing identical smug smirks and headbands etched with a music note. "Kabuto, are you okay?" she fretted as he slowly eased himself into a sitting position, wiping the corner of his mouth with a gloved hand.
"Yes…"
"You're a pushover for someone who was acting so high-and-mighty in front of all these brats," quipped the man that had attacked Kabuto with whatever strange technique had him upchucking on the exam room floor. He was a creepy-looking fellow, most of his face covered in bandages and sleeves down to the floor and a big bristly coat on his back. Ichigo's skin crawled just looking at him, especially when his one visible eye fixed on her with ill-intent.
"Write this on your ninja cards, Four-Eyes," scoffed the one next to him, dark-haired with a face plate adorning his angular, hard-edge jaw, "The three applicants from the Hidden Sound are all gonna make Chunin this year."
"What'd you do to him, you creeps?" Ichigo growled as she hooked an arm under Kabuto's elbow to ease him to his feet. She set her own wide in a defensive stance, just in case the trio of Sound ninja decided to get a little rowdier. "He dodged that punch. I know he did."
"Wouldn't you like to know, Princess Pasty?" the woman of the group laughed haughtily. Ichigo's jaw set at the very rude jab at her complexion and hair; she had to give her props, though, it was an insult she hadn't heard before.
"Princess Pasty," Ino echoed in a low voice behind her, and Ichigo wasn't sure if she actually felt bad or was recording the nickname for later use. Once more, Ichigo's fingers were itching to free her sword from its sheath, and she thought for a second that she might very well do it this time. Bloodlust was sizzling in the air from all sides, threatening to mount to a breaking point.
"Would everybody please just shut up?!" snarled a voice, follow closely by a voluminous puff of smoke at the front of the room. The square-off momentarily ceased as all eyes flew to the front of the room, where a row of Jonin were now standing purposefully in front of the wide green chalkboard. Front and center stood a tall, broad man with his hands clasped behind his back and linear scars disfiguring his stocky face. "Sorry to keep you waiting." He had an assertive, yet threatening, air about him that made Ichigo's back straighten on instinct. "I'm Ibiki Morino, the proctor for this first section of the exam." The entire room jumped and quivered as he suddenly pointed with a gloved hand at the back of the room. "You, Sound ninja! There are no unauthorized fights permitted before the examinations. Are you going to behave, or should I just disqualify you lot right here?" he barked, voice dripping with unpracticed authority. He didn't need to practice; he was just naturally commanding.
"Very sorry, sir," the bandaged man droned with a voice barely seeping sarcasm. "It's out first exam… We got a little carried away."
"'Carried away,' my ass," Ichigo grumbled as she crossed her arms primly. "You call chucking kunai and socking a guy getting 'carried away'?"
"Shut the hell up, Ichigo! It's your fault we're probably in this mess, mouthing off like you did!" Ino hissed and grabbed her bicep, manicured nails pinching into her pale flesh. Ichigo found herself scowling in embarrassment; of all people, she was probably the one who had gotten carried away.
"I probably said a little too much," she admitted begrudgingly and allowed the platinum blonde to tug her away from Kabuto and the three Sound ninja, back into the small cluster of Genin. It was strange, almost a protective motion, but also, she could definitely see that Ino was probably trying to keep her from going off the rails and smacking those Sound ninja a time or two.
"Don't worry, Ichigo," Sasuke smirked to her as Ino delivered her to her team before whining to Shikamaru about how they were all going to get killed for her foolishness, "You were only saying what was on all our minds."
"No," Shikamaru whined with a look of disgust, "it was just on your minds, you crew of absolute maniacs…"
"We need to set some ground rules!" Ibiki's thunderous voice silenced the quibbling Genin. "From this point forward, there will be no more fighting without explicit permission from the proctor." Ichigo cringed and prodded her bruised belly with her fingers, recalling the spat with Rock Lee outside. "Even if that permission is granted, anything endangering another applicant's life is forbidden." He punctuated the assertion with a bold glare at the three Sound ninja. At least they have standards, Ichigo thought silently.
What a bore, Hotaru responded with a disinterested whine. He had been so quiet throughout the entire ordeal that Ichigo admittedly jumped a little hearing his gruff, wolfish voice in her head again.
"Any of you little piglets that break that rule are out, disqualified, no second chances. Got it?" Tense silence was his answer. He then announced that the exam was about to begin, so the ninja turned in their application forms and were given seating assignment cards in exchange. Naruto's fists flew into his blonde hair and he stamped his feet around when it dawned on him that this obviously implied a written test, and he sulked about it right up until the point he plopped down beside a blushing, nervously shifting Hinata. All of the teams were separated, obviously to prevent cheating; Ichigo was plunked near the back of the room next to a certain lanky, dark-haired, scowling boy.
"This is a drag," Shikamaru groused, tipping his head back over the top of his chair. Ichigo leaned her cheek in her hand as she side-eyed him, lips poking out in a small pout.
"What were you expecting?"
"Shut up, Ichigo." The corner of her mouth twitched as he returned her stare with a half-lidded one. He had bothered enough to remember her name throughout their time at the Academy, though for a great portion of it, she had just been the girl who had sat in front of him. However, before that… Does he remember? She found herself thinking again. He had never treated her as meanly as her classmates, but he just wasn't the type to bully people anyway. It probably had nothing to do with-
"All right. Now, listen up. There are a few big rules that pertain to this section of the exam," Ibiki said, picking up a piece of chalk to scrawl across the chalkboard behind him. "I don't take questions and I'm not repeating myself, so listen up. Rule number one!" he said as he whirled around, the chalk scratching over the surface as he quickly wrote down characters. "You all begin with ten points. The test has ten questions, each worth ten points. For each question you get wrong, one point is subtracted. Get all ten right and you retain your points."
Right. Easy to understand so far.
"However, this test is still a team event. Rule number two- passing or failing is determined by the sum of the points held by all members of a cell. The object of each team is to have as few deductions as possible from the joint thirty-point total." Ichigo's skin began to sting at the extremely obvious stipulations he was about to announce.
"J-just wait a second!" Sakura cried, jumping up with her hand in the air and looking panicked. "'Team total'? What do you mean?"
"Obviously you don't listen well. I said no questions. Sit down and you may learn something, little girl," Ibiki growled. Sheepishly, Sakura edged back into her seat. "Now… Rule number three- if, during the course of the exam, a candidate does anything out of the ordinary and is thereby suspected of cheating, two points will be subtracted from each member of the cheater's team." Ichigo looked around at the two rows of Jonin on either side of the room, seated in chairs with clipboards and pens. Honestly, who would be stupid enough to cheat with this many proctors?! "If you let the proctors catch you cheating, you'll bring both yourself and your friends down!" Ibiki said with a pointed smirk at the crowd of applicants. "If you aspire to become a Chunin and if you want to become the best shinobi you can be, you'd better start acting like you already are!"
"You think he was listening to you?" Shikamaru snorted in derision. Ichigo's mouth crumpled up into a bashful yet vindicated smirk. Maybe all that big talk was useful after all. Still, that's not what she needed to focus on now. Naruto and written tests were like oil and water… He was lucky to get any points at all!
"One more thing. If any individual loses all ten of his or her points, then that person's entire cell, regardless of how the other team members do, will be disqualified!"
As if they were in sync, Sakura, Naruto, and Ichigo all slammed their foreheads into their tables.
You've got to be joking! It's like they designed this test with Naruto in mind! He's got to be freaking out right now! She thought, peering over her arm to see him with his hands in his hair, which was already sheened with nervous perspiration. "Another thing!" Ibiki quipped, making Ichigo groan. Could it get any worse? "I have been informed that a cell of four is taking this examination. In order to promote fair assessment, the proctors and officials have discussed it and certain extra provisions are being put in place." Ichigo's cheeks heated up as she was suddenly placed in the hot seat. "The official fourth member of the team will start with a score of zero, rather than ten, to preserve the joint thirty-point total. If his or her score reaches a negative ten, then their team will be disqualified." Ichigo ran a hand over her face; she wasn't struggling to process it, but it was a heck of a lot of information to be thrown at her at once.
All I can do is get all the questions right without cheating. I can't drag the rest of them down! She thought as she looked at the upside-down paper in front of her. She couldn't help but sneak a forlorn glance at Naruto. Naruto… You can do it! You're gonna be Hokage someday, remember? At least get one point! She prayed silently.
"You have one hour starting… now."
Sucking in a breath, Ichigo flipped over the examination paper, ready to face whatever challenge lay in front of her.
In the next second, half of her wanted to scream, and half of her wanted to erupt into uncontrollable laughter.
What the hell is this?!