I wrote this after taking my first final. I felt like I was in the first part of the chunin exams. I really liked this one, so please tell me how I did. (equilibrium)
The room was a mixture of mind blowing concentration and near perfect relaxation. The rustling of paper and rhythmic tapping of pencils was soothing to some, and stressing to others. Pockets of stress gathered in some places, and would disperse the second something was figured out. Some never moved, but gained in intensity as the epicenter swirled, trying desperately to find a way to answer the question. Some people almost laughed at how easy it was. Others were near tears at how impossible it appeared to be.
But underneath the tide of not-quite-calm, there was a ferocious current of movement, rushing through the room and sweeping all, the predators and their prey, along with it. How could the proctors be so blind to this turbulence? This facade of calm that should have been seen through in a minute was left unpenetrated by their skilled eyes. Or was it? When they failed a cell it became clear, and only for that moment, what they were really doing. Looking for ripples in the tension, ripples that shouldn't have been there, and tracking them back to their source, to the person who fumbled and created them. One ripple and you were on their radar. Five and you were history.
The predators picked their prey with great skill, choosing those who they believed knew the answers and continuing on faith, or painstakingly riffling through the pile until they located the ones who truly knew. Some wasted valuable time attempting to locate them, and ended up finding the wrong one. That was what got many caught, because if clumsy, searching created many ripples.
Some had advantages to the point of unfair, kekeigenkai and clan or village abilities that put them on another level. Penetrating or mimicking eyes were ideal, but some of the most obvious techniques sometimes worked wonders. If a dog was on your head, wouldn't it be a red flag? What if that dog was looking around? Wouldn't that raise eyebrows? Apparently not, considering how one of the most obvious techniques created no ripples.
As time ticked further down, seeping through some cosmic filter, the relaxation began to melt away, and the tension began to reign. It began to pound in their ears, began to prick at the most calm and stoic hearts, until they too pumped with righteous fear and uncertainty. Whenever another cell was flunked, one huge ripple flowed from everywhere, causing a disturbance on the failing calm. The facade was cracking and the turbulence was leaking through. Soon it would replace the calm, and they wouldn't search for ripples.
They would search for eruptions. The thicket of emotions had been tainted, poisoned with worry, doubt, pride and many others. Now the only way to find something was to watch and wait to see what happened. For they would all snap eventually, and the test had been calculated accordingly. After an hour, people would snap. Best no to torture them for too long. The rest of the exam could take care of that.