"Listen up. Here's the tenth and final question."
"Yes! We're almost done!"
"So close...can't get caught, I think I've been written down already…"
"I wonder if it'll be more difficult than the others…"
"Here we go...everything's riding on this one...believe it!"
Then there was the prompter. "I bet I'll get them with this one...I need to get rid of at least a few more or she'll have my hide…"
"But, before we get going, there's a few more rules we have to go over."
The poor sand village dude walked in and everybody turned to him. Hehehe…
"These rules are unique to question ten, so listen up...and try not to let them frighten you."
Tap tap tap. Tap-tap. Tap tap-tap. Tap-tap tap tap-tap tap-tap. Tap tap-tap tap-tap tap. Tap tap tap-tap. Tap-tap.
Her taps translated to "stay put."
Then Nuji had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing as the prompter began thinking about how much fun he was having tormenting the genin.
"If even the rules are scary...what's the question?"
"Very well then, rule number one! Each of you are free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision."
One of Gaara's comrades shouted out what she was thinking unlike everybody else. "Wow! So what's the catch?! What if we decide not to take it, what happens then?!"
"If you decide not to take the tenth question, regardless to your answers of the other nine, you'll get a zero." He smirked as he stared at the outspoken girl. "In other words, you fail. And that means, of course, your teammates fail as well."
There was murmuring around the room. They weren't going to back out because it said their teammates would have to leave as well.
"Not so fast, you didn't let me finish."
"More rules? Enough already!"
"If you accept the question but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail...but you will be barred from taking the chunin exams ever again!"
"Hey that's bull man! That's boggis! What kind of ridiculous rule is that! There's lots of people here that have taken the test before!" The rookie that stood up seemed furious, and the puppy on his head barked in agreement.
For a dog, that animal had some very human-like thoughts...including a not-so-clean mouth.
The prompter just laughed, but Nuji and her partners had lost interest. His attempts at scaring them hadn't worked, though the rest of the room seemed worried.
Soon, about half of them were raising their hands to leave. Surprisingly, none of the rookies left. Nobody from the leaf village. Naruto seemed torn between staying and going. Some weird dude was the first to go.
"Go on Naruto, it's alright. Raise your hand, don't worry about us…" Sakura began thinking about a memory...Naruto wanted to be Hokage, no matter what he was going to achieve his dream.
And he slowly did…shakily but still.
And Nuji looked up and back as he did, feeling the surprise in many of the rookie's minds. And she sat, and she listened as Naruto acted tough and called them out. He said some interesting things then. Despite the sentinels and the prompter seemingly unenthused by his words, their thoughts said the exact opposite, as did most of those left in the room. Nobody else raised their hand.
"Remarkable...that little outburst has given the others a little backbone. He's inspired them to stay…78 left, a little more than I expected… But I don't see anyone wavering. I think that's it…"
"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else. For those of you left, there's only one thing left to do...and that's for me to tell you...that you've all passed the first exam."
As some of them stared at him in astonishment, Nuji began laughing behind her hands. She buried her face into her elbows as some of the sentinels stared at her. In fact, even the prompter seemed to think they were all funny too. He explained how the test was to see how well they would function under pressure. The test was impossible and encouraged cheating.
The thoughts left the test quickly as the prompter took off his headband to show… actually, I'd rather not say. It's kind of gross…
He wished them all good luck, sending Naruto into celebrations. Just as he finished, another prompter flew through the window, throwing kunai at the ceiling and hanging a banner as she landed. Nuji let out a laugh and applauded, earning a few strange looks but a grin from the woman.
"Let's go, follow me!" She just got a few strange looks and Obiki peeked around the banner at her.
"You're early...again."
"Great. A screaming nutcase, reminds me of Naruto."
"What the hell is going on?"
"I wonder if I should be worried…"
The woman seemed embarrassed at first but then began looking around the room. "How many are there? Obiki...you let all these guys pass? Your test was to easy. You're going soft."
"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year."
"Hmm. They don't look it. Trust me, when I'm through with them, more than half will be eliminated. This is gonna be fun. You maggots have had it easy so far, but things are going to be different first thing in the morning. Dismissed…"
Nuji began to like this prompter. She was...different.