"This is insane," Shikamaru breathed next to her, and Ichigo honestly had to agree. She grabbed the paper and brought it close to her face, thinking that surely there was some kind of illusion at play and these could not be the examination questions; however, despite her bringing it so close the tip of her nose brushed against the soft paper, they were still there. What the hell? These are questions no normal Genin could answer! Ichigo was a bit on the smarter end of the scale, having devoted herself to her studies since for the longest time she had no specific techniques to perfect, but even so… Quickly scanning over the questions, she surmised that she could only answer up to the sixth question.
Sakura is probably the only one in this room who can answer all ten of these questions easily, so that's ten points in the bag, she frowned, setting the paper down and crossing her arms as she considered her plan of action. I can definitely answer up until the sixth question, but that's four points sacrificed right there. Naruto definitely won't be able to answer these, poor thing, she thought with another passing glance at the blond a few rows down. He was fidgeting anxiously and tugging at his spiky locks in clear distress. Her eyes flickered to Sasuke a few rows up, hunched over the desk and concentrating immensely. To be honest, I'm not even sure Sasuke can answer these questions! It requires extreme analytical skills and consideration of many hypotheticals and variables! Sasuke was the top student in our class because he was well-rounded, but both my and Sakura's test scores likely surpassed his. She leaned forward, a hand covering her mouth with her index finger tapping repeatedly against her cheek. Okay, Ichigo. Just answer these six questions to start.
It took about twenty minutes for Ichigo to fill in the blanks next to the first six questions. Upon reading them in detail, she was astounded at the sheer level of difficulty. These are Chunin-level, maybe even Jonin-level questions! She grimaced silently as she stared at the beginning of her stump, the seventh question. Hotaru, do you have any idea how to answer these last three questions? The sheet indicated that the tenth question would be provided fifteen minutes before the exam ended, so Ichigo elected to cross that bridge when she got there.
Hotaru laughed dryly from within the seal.
I didn't know how to answer the first six. Ichigo pursed her lips in a dour pout. Her wolf would be useless in riddling out the answers to the last three questions. If Sakura and I ace these ten questions, then we should be in good shape even if Sasuke and Naruto do miserably! Naruto only needs one question to stay afloat, and surely, Sasuke could answer some of them, she hoped, taking another fervid look down the row. Sasuke had shifted in his seat and she was astonished to see not a speck of lead on his examination sheet. Sasuke's stumped too?!
"Man, what a drag. They just had to go and make it complicated, didn't they?" Shikamaru sighed beside her, and she looked over to see him sitting there with his hands behind his head, leaning the chair back on two legs and rocking lightly back and forth. She looked at his exam sheet to also find it blank.
"Shikamaru, what the hell are you doing? You definitely know how to answer some of these!" she hissed at him under her breath. Shikamaru was lazy as all hell but had the IQ of a certified genius. He shot her a sour look out of the corners of his eyes.
"You haven't figured it out yet, have you? Man, and I thought you were supposed to smart, Ichigo," he smirked at her derisively. She blushed and looked back to her paper haughtily. He was implying that he knew something she didn't, and that aggravated her. Come on, Ichigo. There must be a reason that these questions are so hard and there are so many proctors… Wait. The proctors! Why are they giving you five chances to cheat? She thought, taking looks and both rows of Jonin. Every so often, one of them scribbled down something on their clipboards. Five chances is a heck of a lot. Usually, there's a no-tolerance policy!
Maybe it's not about the cheating itself, but how you cheat, Hotaru offered in a helpful growl. Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed thickly on her brow. That made sense- too much sense! She gasped quietly as the puzzle piece clicked together in her mind, and out of the corners of her eyes, she could see Shikamaru smirking approvingly at her.
"Of course! They want you to cheat, just intelligently! You have no business being a Chunin if you only have pathetic information-gathering skills. It's all about using the tools you have effectively!" she whispered to herself.
"Careful, someone might hear you," Shikamaru quipped sardonically. Ichigo flushed again and hunkered into herself, the gears in her brain smoking as they turned violently in her brain. Sasuke had very likely figured out he could cheat by now; he could most definitely use his Sharingan to find someone in the crowd who was answering the questions and mimic their movements. If he did well enough, she, Sasuke, and Sakura would have thirty points between the three of them! Still, Ichigo had to find a way to get those last four points for sure, and then there was Naruto- even if he figured out that he needed to cheat, she didn't know if he had any way to do it! His specialty was clones, after all, and it was stupid obvious. Ichigo hummed under her breath as everything crashed around in her head.
All right. Worry about Naruto later. First, you need to figure out a way to get these answers! She asserted, staring hard at the three blank boxes on her exam sheet. Ichigo only had some ninjutsu and Hotaru at her disposal. She thought back to the day that Hotaru had taught her how to more effectively summon him. Wait! Hotaru, you said you could be big or small, depending on how much chakra I remove from the seal. What's the smallest you can go?
The smallest bit of chakra you could probably pluck from the reservoir would put me at the size of a tiny rodent, I imagine. Ichigo's lips curled down into a small frown. It was small but could still be noticed by the adept proctors lining the stairs. Hotaru would have to take the stairs because the desks were blocked by wood in the front and burning his way through would produce noticeable smoke. He couldn't travel over the tops of the desks, as he would be noticed by the other examinees. It doesn't matter. It's my only option!
She set the exam paper down and hunched over, pretending that she was taking a rest. Her seal would begin to glow during the summoning, and the proctors would surely notice. She squeezed her eyes shut tight to visualize the small meat-bun shaped fiery orb of Hotaru's chakra burning within her. All right… Just pluck off a teeny, tiny piece! If she messed up and took too much, she would be disqualified instantaneously, no doubt. She had one shot and it had to work! With an imaginary hand, she reached out to tear off a piece of the chakra and bring it forth. The dark space created by her arms over her head was filled with a dull red glow. She had taken her sword off when she sat down, and it was laid at her feet; she could see the metal glowing red as the chakra was channeled through the indentation, and then tiny flames began to sputter from the space where the hilt met the scabbard. The fires flickered there for a second before jumping off, forming a small ball that bounced a few times over the classroom floor. It landed between her feet before sputtering out, leaving a weensy Hotaru behind. He was about the size of a baby bird and looked more like a ball of fluff than a wolf creature. Ichigo breathed a size of relief as she beheld his wee form. One hurdle down.
"What are you doing?" A shiver traveled up her spine as Shikamaru spoke. He was leaning forward, trying to peer down at the ground between her feet.
"Shut up! Do you want to get me caught, asshole?" she snarled under her breath at him and shifted her feet to hide the tiny wolf behind her shoe. "Worry about yourself! You still haven't answered a single question!" As she rebuked him, she kept looking frantically at the proctors. One of them was staring hard at her, but he made no move to mark her name down. At the very least, they didn't seem to care much about them conversing with each other, as long as it didn't obviously look like they were cheating. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her head as he continued to stare at the area of floor she was hiding. "Do you want something?!" He suddenly turned away with a snort, then began clicking his pen compulsively.
This guy… she thought with a scowl before trying to think of how she was going to get Hotaru down the stairs. She jumped as a proctor suddenly announced three participants' names and kicked them out of the exam for cheating. She began to sweat a little. Had she been pinged after all for all her talking with Shikamaru? What if she was on her last chance? If they noticed Hotaru, that could be it for her and her team, and it would be all her fault. How could she live with herself for her stupidity? She would look like such a fool, too, after spitting all that big game only to be kicked out in the first phase! Examinees started getting kicked out rapid-fire, and she slunk lower and lower in her seat as her anxiety mounted. Shikamaru was clicking his pen at irregular rhythms that was the final tick in driving up her blood pressure. She was about to snap and yell at him to quit it before she noticed he was staring at her out of the corners of his eyes, like he was trying to tell her something. She glanced down at the pen, watching his thumb click it repeatedly. Morse code?! She realized. She began concentrated on the series of clicks to figure out what he was trying to say.
ABOUT TIME. ILL HELP YOU.
She looked at him incredulously before taking her own pen and quickly rattling off an answer.
WHY?
He looked a little annoyed with her response, and his thumb rapidly bore down on the end of the pen.
OUT OF TIME. Ichigo looked at the clock. It had now been thirty-five minutes since the exam started. Ino was of the Yamanaka clan and had mind-related jutsu available to her; surely Choji and Shikamaru were banking on her to give them the answers, so he had his way out. She couldn't fathom why he would be so keen on helping her. She couldn't give him the answers, because Hotaru's mind-link only worked on her. She continued to stare at him suspiciously. He rolled his eyes and clicked, OLD TIMES SAKE.
A flush appeared on her cheeks at the series of letters. That sentence was a whole lot to unpack that she frankly didn't have the time to. She rapidly relayed an agreement before shifting her feet, instructing Hotaru to go clamp down on Shikamaru's left boot. The wolf scampered past her to dig his claws and teeth into the tough material, tail wagging to signal that he was ready. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the small creature before raising a hand to flag down one of the proctors.
"I have to go to the bathroom." The Sand ninja Kankuro had also used the excuse earlier, likely to aid in their effort to pass. Hotaru strategically wormed his way around the boot to avoid being seen as the proctor handcuffed Shikamaru's hands and escorted him down the steps. When he passed Sasuke's row, Ichigo could just barely spot a flash of red fur as Hotaru hopped off and scampered underneath the test-takers' feet to reach Sasuke. The boy's shoulders jumped a little when the wolf reached him and pawed at him. He didn't look back at Ichigo- he was too smart for that- but he raised his pen and swirled it in his hand in a lazy gesture to signal to Ichigo that the operation was in motion.
All right, Ichigo. Are you ready? Ichigo quickly scrawled down the remaining answers as Hotaru read them off from Sasuke's examination sheet. All right. That's it.
Tell Sasuke "thank you."
He said, "Reckless move, loser." But I almost detected a fair bit of amusement. Ichigo rolled her eyes and smiled at Hotaru's quip. Shikamaru had planned for just enough time to pass, as he then came strolling carefreely back into the room. As he mounted the steps, Hotaru jumped onto his opposite boot to ride it back up to his summoner. Shikamaru was released by the proctor and eased back into his seat with a yawn; Hotaru was panting as he leaped off the boot and dug his claws into her leg to climb up to her lap. She bit down on her lip at the needly sensation, leg shifting as a few dribbles of blood began to run down her leg from the scratches. She crossed her legs once he was safe in her lap to hide the evidence. Sorry. I need to hide until time's up. The puff of smoke and noise will be noticeable, he told her before burying himself underneath her baggy shirt.
THANK YOU. She clicked to Shikamaru, watching for his reaction with her peripheral vision. He only smiled at her. Suddenly, he slumped forward in his seat, and Ichigo felt a flare of panic spike in her belly. She was just about to alert the proctor that he may be ill before he sat up and gave her a devilish grin that reminded her too much of a platinum-haired blonde slumped onto her desk a few seats up.
"Well, well. You have Shikamaru wrapped around your little finger, don't you?" Oh, that was definitely Ino. Somehow she was in his body. Ino grabbed the sheet and began filling in the answers. "Ugh, so lazy. He definitely knew the answers to these," she grumbled. Ichigo continued to watch her with narrowed eyes.
"You got the answers by possessing Sakura."
"Indeed," she answered nonchalantly. "Billboard-Brow is useful at times like this, I'll grant her that." Ichigo snuck a glance down the rows to see Sakura sitting up and rubbing her head, like she had just awoken from a short nap. "Never knew what hit her." The pen continued to scrape across the paper, leaving wet ink behind. "Stupid Shikamaru. I can't believe he helped the enemy."
"I'm not your enemy."
"Weren't you just touting that you were gonna beat all of us and come out on top?" she scoffed. Ino's tone in Shikamaru's voice was a weird sound. Ichigo gulped slightly and shifted in her seat; how much should she really tell Ino? She didn't have any bad blood with any of her ex-classmates, really, but Shikamaru especially she was fond of, because…
"L-look,' she grumbled under her breath as she played with one of her pigtails. "It's true that I'm aiming for the top, but I'm not gonna have it out for any of you guys, either. I'm sure we'll get to the point where we're all gonna face off one-on-one, but until then, I was just thinking it would be nice for the rookies to represent, right? All these older ninja are looking down on us. If we work together a little, we could really make a name for ourselves and we might all get promoted Chunin," she argued. Ino clucked her tongue and looked at her interrogatorily. Ichigo held the firm stare. She meant it, after all. Though they had mostly been squabbling, getting together with her old classmates again had been fun, mostly because Ichigo finally felt like she was on an even playing field. The only way they would really see how much Ichigo had changed was to experience it first-hand- and they would all have to make it a good ways into the exam to do so. Ichigo was more than willing to play friends for a while in order to earn their recognition. "Come on, Ino. Surely being insulted so blatantly makes you at least a little bit bitter?" she pressed.
"You really are a cunning little weasel," Ino said and blew steam out of her nose. She finished the last question before setting the pen down and smiling ruefully. "You do have a point, though. I would hate for someone else to take down Billboard-Brow before I get a chance to finally prove which one of us is more worthy of dear Sasuke's heart." Ichigo couldn't give a rat's ass about the two girls' petty love rivalry, but if it was enough to get Shikamaru's team on board with her, she was more than willing to encourage it. "All right. I concede. We won't purposefully hunt down your team in the next phase of the exam, but don't think we're all buddy-buddy now, all right?" she said, and then she was gone. Shikamaru slumped over again before twitching with a low groan, rubbing his head.
"Ugh. I always hate how that feels," he muttered. He glanced out of the corners of his eyes at her when he found her smiling in satisfaction. "What did I miss?"
"Oh, nothing. Just a bit of girl talk," Ichigo hummed in contentment. He raised his eyebrows quizzically. Before any more exchange could occur between the two of them, Ibiki suddenly rapped his knuckles on the chalkboard to get their attention.
"All right, piglets. Now I will announce the tenth question."