Leave it up to Naruto to make things worse than they already were. The Chūnin Exams hadn't even begun yet and the eleven rookies were already public enemy number one; they were young, loud and confident. It wasn't something that the veterans liked. They didn't think much of them, of course, but a tiny sliver of confidence could be a sign of some kind of talent that could ruin their chances at becoming Chūnin.
Akira and Sasuke had tried to pass unnoticed immediately upon entering the room, but newcomers would always be stared at no matter what. It didn't help that most of her Academy classmates were obnoxiously childish or that Naruto was currently addressing the entire room of candidates as though he had a death wish.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna beat every one of you!" Naruto yelled. "Believe it!"
"Hey! What's that idiot trying to do, get us killed?" Ino shouted at Sakura. "Tell your boyfriend to keep his big fat trap shut!"
"Whose boyfriend!?" Sakura countered, waving her fist at Ino.
"Oh, I forgot. You can't get one!"
"What'd you say!?"
"Give me the strength not to punch them," Akira sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Tell me about it," Kai said, walking over to his best friend. "Feels like a circus in here."
"Uh, can you say that a little louder?" Kiba called to Naruto, trying not to laugh. "Didn't quite catch it."
"You moron. Are you trying to get everybody in the place to hate our guts, or what?" Shikamaru added.
Naruto only laughed and Akira smiled despite herself. While the boy was a complete idiot, it was reassuring to see that he wasn't intimidated by all the stern faces around the room. That was one thing she loved about Naruto—he never backed down.
"Naruto, you jackass!" Sakura said, launching herself at him and putting Naruto in a chokehold. "Why'd you have to go and do something like that you obnoxious little—"
Sakura stopped herself when she saw all the people who were glaring at her and Naruto.
"Oh, hi everyone. Don't mind him. Sometimes he says these spazzy things. He doesn't really mean them. They just kinda come out. He's got this condition you know. Sort of psychological—"
"Sakura," Akira called, only loud enough for it to reach her. The pink-haired girl turned to Akira. "You're making it worse."
Just then, a quiet sound, like the whooshing of wind, reached Akira's ears. She looked ahead at the crowd, ignoring those who were glaring at her, and spotted someone rapidly weaving through people to get to the front. She couldn't tell who it was or from what village they hailed, but Akira wasn't taking any chances. She crossed her arms and gently grasped the hilts on the tachi strapped to her arms, ready to pull them out at a moment's notice. However, Kabuto took a step forward, and though it was subtle, Akira saw that he'd shook his head. She gave him a slight nod and relaxed her position just as the person from the crowd lunged at him.
Then, a second ninja ran at him, and that's when Akira noticed the insignia of the Hidden Sound. He swung at Kabuto, but he dodged it narrowly. Akira quirked an eyebrow. Kabuto was fast. However, Akira's eyes widened when she noticed Kabuto's glasses crack. She glanced over to the attacker and to his equipment. There was a porous metal gauntlet on his arm that had been covered by his long sleeves.
"So it was that kind of attack," Kabuto said, seemingly un-phased as he calmly removed his cracked glasses.
"Hang on, I saw it all," Sasuke said, stepping forward. "He dodged the attack. How did that happen?"
"It must have come closer than it looked," Shikamaru reasoned.
But it hadn't. Being this close to Kabuto, Akira saw it happen. The Sound ninja had come close to hitting Kabuto, but there was no contact. Akira looked back to the metal gauntlet. There was something else going on with that thing.
"Look at him acting like it was nothing," Shikamaru complained. "Real tough guy."
Suddenly, Kabuto's eyes widened and he gasped, falling to his knees. Akira frowned and, in an instant, was at Kabuto's side. She looked back at the Sound ninja and glared. There had been an attack, but it was delayed. Clearly, the metal gauntlet was an active part of the trick, but the answer didn't come to Akira until she lay her eyes on the village's insignia again. It was sound. Sound waves travelled faster than the naked eye could see. This guy probably used sound waves to screw with the body's inner ear and brain.
"Hey, Kabuto. You good?" Akira asked, gently placing a hand on his back.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, as Akira helped him to stand.
"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, he and Sakura joining Akira by Kabuto's side.
"Not such a tough guy, after all, I guess," the sound ninja said through the bandages covering most of his face. The only thing you could see was his left eye. "Maybe that's why he's on his seventh try."
"Or maybe your backhanded way of winning battles is unfair," Akira said in a warning tone.
"Why you—"
Just as the Sound ninja was about to come back for more, a smoke bomb went off in the classroom. As everyone struggled for air, a tall man with a scarred face emerged from the smoke. He glared at everyone there, standing steady and proud, his hands behind his back. Behind him were a number of ninjas standing calmly and, by the looks of them, they all seemed to be Jōnin.
"All right, you baby-faced degenerates!" he shouted. "Pipe down and listen up. It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor. And from this moment—your worst enemy."
There was a collective gasp from the crowd as they stared at the scarred proctor.
"First, you candidates from the Village Hidden in the Sound, knock it off! Who told you you could fight? You wanna be failed before we've even begun?"
Akira's eyebrows rose and she unconsciously stood straighter.
"Sorry, it's our first time," the ninja with the gauntlet said, sounding unconvincingly apologetic. "Guess we're a little jumpy... sir."
"I'll say this once, so listen up," Ibiki said sternly. "There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking without the permission of your proctor. And even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?"
"Hmpf, no fatal force?" the other sound ninja said. "That's no fun."
"Now, if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chūnin Exams. Hand over your paperwork. In return, you'll each be given a number. This number will determine where you will sit. We'll start with the written test once you're all seated."
"The what?" Naruto said, dumbfounded. "Did he say... written?"
Kabuto, Sakura and Akira stared at him as Naruto got to his knees and yelled in despair.
"No! Not a written test, no way!"
"You'll do just fine, Naruto," Akira said, patting him gently on the shoulder. "Just trust in your abilities."
Naruto wasn't convinced, but there wasn't any time to dwell on it. All the candidates formed a long line around the room and slowly waited to get to the front to exchange their applications for a seat number. When Akira got to the front, she looked at her number and followed the row numbers until she got to the right area. A small sense of dread rose within her when Akira realised who she would have to be sitting next to. She looked at her number again to make sure she wasn't mistaken then took the middle seat beside Gaara of the Desert. She didn't dare look at him, mostly because he wasn't looking at her, but also because there was a little fear bubbling at the pit of her stomach.
When everyone was seated, the ninjas that were standing behind Ibiki Morino were seated all around the room at fixed intervals. Akira assumed they were there to make sure no one cheated.
"Everyone, eyes front," Ibiki said, tapping the blackboard with a piece of chalk. "There are a few rules you need to be aware of. And I won't answer any questions. So you better pay attention the first time around. All right, rule number one is this: the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. You all begin the exam with a perfect score of ten, and for each answer you get wrong, you lose one point. So, if you miss three, your final score will be seven. If you miss ten, your score will be zero. Rule number two: teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all members."
"What? What a second!" Akira heard Sakura yell. "You're saying we all get scored as a team!?"
"Silence!" Ibiki yelled. "I have my reasons, so shut up and listen. Rule number three: the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score."
Akira frowned. Subtracting points to discourage cheating was an odd choice. If he was making such a big deal out of it, why not just fail them on the spot?
"Be warned. Their eyes are extremely sharp. And if they catch you cheating five times, you'll be dismissed before the test is even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be."
A smirk rose to Akira's mouth. She understood now. They weren't being told not to cheat, they were being forced to. The proctor was testing their ability to gather information covertly.
"One more thing. Should any candidate get zero points and fail the test, then the entire team fails."
Akira's forehead suddenly dropped to her desk in despair. She would kill Naruto if he didn't get at least one question right.
"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period. You'll have one hour total."
Akira rose her head and grabbed her pencil. She twirled it in her fingers a few times, waiting for Ibiki to give the signal. Akira then turned to look at Gaara and, without a second thought, wished him luck. He turned to look at her just as Ibiki gave the signal, and though Akira's gaze was already on her exam, she saw Gaara look back at her for a few seconds.
Akira glanced at the questions one by one, just to see what kind of an exam it was. Every single question got harder and harder as it went, filled with integrated problems based on principles of uncertainty and required complex mechanical energy analysis. There couldn't be more than a handful of students in this room that understood these. She wasn't even sure that Sasuke would understand them. At least she understood how she'd pass this exam, and she hoped that the rest of her team did too.
It was clear to Akira that she had to cheat in order to succeed, as it was strange that they'd made a big fuss about cheating but not fail them on the spot if they were caught. Ibiki Morino wasn't actually forbidding the candidates from cheating, he was expecting them to, daring them to cheat and not get caught. Only exceptional shinobi could get away with it under these circumstances. That's what the two-point reduction was for. Each time someone got caught covertly gathering information, they'd be screwed in normal mission parameters. It was harsh, but it was genius.
Akira sighed and listened, closing her eyes. If the real test was to gather information, that meant there was someone in this room from whom she had to steal it—someone in this room had all the information she needed. Slowly, her own breathing began to drown out, the random swishing of nervous legs, the tapping of feet—it was all gone. Then, Akira's eyes opened, looking right behind Naruto. There was a ninja there who was writing consistently, without a beat.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Gaara's hand gathering sand. After a few seconds, it formed an eye that began hovering over the ninja she'd spotted. A small smirk rose to her lips. She had to hand it to Gaara, it was a smart move. Akira, however, didn't need to form eyes out of sand when she could use her own. Moments later, Akira was copying the target's movements with the use of her Sharingan, jotting down the answers without even knowing what she was writing. It took only minutes for Akira's exam pages to be full. Now all she had to do was wait for the final question.
After around twenty minutes, Ibiki stood.
"All right, listen up!" he called. Akira looked up at him, determined. "Here's the tenth and final question! But before I give it to you, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of."
"Jeez, this guy likes to hear himself talk," Akira muttered under her breath.
"These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully and try not to be frightened by them. Rule number one: each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision."
"Woah, so what's the catch?" the Sand Village girl that stuck with Kankuro and Gaara said. "Let's say we decided not to take it. What happens then?"
"If you chose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail," Ibiki said, and most of the class gasped. "And that means, of course, your teammates will fail as well."
There was scattered whispering throughout the room. They were all scandalised that anyone would choose to fail. However, Akira wasn't convinced. There had to be something else going on here. Nothing is as it seems during the Chūnin Exams.