Chapter 5: The Written Test

Akahana had to force herself to swallow what little saliva she had in her mouth. As soon as she swallowed, she felt the tissues in her throat becoming dry. She glanced around the room somewhat frantically, trying to find Akihiko or Zero. Unfortunately, from her seat, she couldn't find them. She turned back to the desk in front of her and had to force herself to be calm. Alright, calm yourself, Akahana. You know that the teacher's just trying to scare the students into doing well on the test and she doesn't really mean it. Or does she? No, she couldn't possibly mean it. However, it's possible that she means it. Gah! What am I thinking?! Of course she means it! It's the stinking Chunin Exams, for Pete's sake! Akahana sighed loudly, knowing that it was useless to try and convince herself of something that wasn't true.

Akihiko was not exactly calm himself. He had never faced something this scary or drastic before. He was beginning to wonder whether or not coming to the Chunin Exams had been a mistake on his part. He mentally smacked himself right after he finished the thought. You can't be thinking like that! And you certainly can't bail out on your teammates now! What would they think of you if you did something like that? Probably not very highly. He bit his lip with his fang and forced himself to remain calm. Even Zero was a bit intimidated by what the woman said. He wasn't freaking out like some of the other students were, but he wasn't very calm, either. No one was, he assumed after a quick look around the room. He kept his eyes hidden under his bangs, not wishing to make eye contact with people.

Haruo was a bit surprised at the statement. He knew that the Chunin Exams were not going to be easy, but he hadn't expected that. He was also slightly impressed with the woman, if he did say so himself. She knew how to intimidate people very well. They could've gotten along, if only he wasn't the student and was much older. He sneaked a glance over at Ayane, who was on the other side of the room. She looked somewhat excited by the whole thing and wanted to groan in frustration. Does anything get through that girl's thick skull? Sheesh! Sometimes I think she's from another planet and Mom just took her in as an infant because she was cute. Ugh... He turned his head and saw Lee a few seats behind him, somewhat shaken by the whole thing. He didn't exactly blame him for that. He just wasn't used to this sort of thing, and he would probably be the same way if he was in his shoes.

Takashi's eye widened in surprise. Whatever happened to making it sweet so we don't get scared like little kids and monsters under the bed? He set his hands in his lap and tried not to crack his knuckles. He didn't want all of the eyes on him. That would be extremely awkward and somewhat creepy.

Ray remained the statue that he was; unfazed and dead serious about the whole situation. Although, he had to admit, he was somewhat impressed with the way the woman intimidated the students. I could probably learn a thing or two about intimidation from her once this whole thing blows over. He didn't smile externally, but internally, he was.

Karin was cleaning one of her ears with her index finger. Did she hear what she had just heard? That thinking like this was going to be a breeze would get you killed in the exams? She hadn't prepared herself for that. She pulled her finger out of her ear and listened to the silence of the room. She figured, because of the lack of sound, that the teacher was giving the students a bit of a chance to absorb the new information. Her eyes darted over to the white-haired male sitting next to her (Yuuta) and he looked pretty rattled from the sudden statement. She shrugged and turned back to the person in front of her, staring at the back of their head like she was trying to bore holes through it using solely her eyes.

Rose bit her lip to keep herself from gasping. She could feel the fang puncture the skin and make blood seep from the newly-created wound. She licked the blood into her mouth before it could run down her chin and onto the desk. She surveyed the area, trying to find either one of her teammates. However, she failed to do so. Rats! She wanted to bite her lip again, but didn't want to suck blood into her mouth again.

Dante, he believed, had just gotten one heck of a wake-up call. He hadn't prepared for something like this. Damn, I need to better prepare for this kind of stuff. I'm a ninja! I should be able to expect these things by now. Then again, I'm only a genin. What do I know? He gave up on the thought and placed his arms on the desk, and then setting his chin on top of them He looked at the woman, who was still staring at each and every one of the students. Some part of him feared for his life. The woman then nodded, satisfied with something, and broke the silence,

"Now, I know what you're thinking. Some of you are scared, and others are utterly terrified or at least a bit intimidated. What I said is true. Do not think for one second that these exams are going to be easy. That kind of thinking will leave you in the deepest pit of hell." Students gasped and gulped at this. The woman didn't hesitate this time to look around the room and continued on,

"It's a scary thing to hear, I get it. I heard the same thing when I was taking the Chunin Exams. I'm just repeating what I've heard. Now, on with the exam. The first part of the Chunin Exams is probably one of the easiest things you'll have to do. It's just a written exam. No tricks and no gimmicks whatsoever. But just remember, this test will determine if you move onto the next part of the exams. And also, you can't cheat, just like with every other test. If you're caught, you're out and can't retake it. I'll hand out the written test and the pencils. I'll tell you the rest of what you need to know when all of you get your tests and pencils." As she was talking, she was pulling out something from her desk. She placed a pile of papers on top of the desk and a cup of pencils next to it. She could see students staring at the papers and pencils on the desk, but it didn't really matter to her. She grabbed the papers in one hand, walked over to the students closest to the door, and placed the pile of tests in front of them.

"Take one and pass it around." The first student reached for it, grabbed one, and slid the pile to the second student. They did the same thing, and this process continued until the papers got to the last student in that row. They picked a paper off of the pile, picked up the rest of the pile, and handed it off to the next front row. She watched as the students received their tests and nodded once before walking back over to the desk and grabbing the cup of pencils. She then walked back over to the same students that got the tests and placed the cup down. Before she could say the same thing from before, the students nearest to the cup took a pencil each and passed it off. She smiled somewhat at this and went back over to her desk, silently watching the students do what they were told to do.

Every student now had a test on their desk and a pencil in hand. The woman was satisfied, and it showed somewhat on her face. It disappeared when she stood up from her chair again and stared at them.

"Alright, the last thing you need to know about this test; you only have one hour to complete it. Ten questions, ten minutes max on each. Any questions?" The students started to talk to one another, surprised and possibly somewhat angered by the time limit. The woman didn't blame them for how they were reacting. She had seen the same thing when she herself had taken the Chunin Exams. She pushed the thought out of her head and looked around the room. She cracked her knuckles and it silenced the whole room (it was that loud). She took in a deep breath and spoke,

"Alright, no one has any questions about anything at all?" The students remained silent, as if they thought they were going to get killed if they dared ask a question. She placed her hands flat on the desk and narrowed her eyes.

"If that's how it is, I guess we'll begin. It now two o'five. We'll go to three o'five, exactly one hour. Begin!" The students were shocked into picking up their pencils and beginning to read the questions and answer them. The woman sat in her chair and leaned backward slightly. Even though people said to her in the past that watching students take a test was like watching grass grow or like watching paint dry, but she found something interesting about this type of situation. It was fascinating to her to watch the students that breezed through their tests and the kids that were nervous and tapping their feet on the ground or biting their nails or lip while trying to figure out the correct answer. She could sometimes laugh at this, but never did. She was just as content with watching them take their tests. She started to wonder who would pass and who would fail. Let's hope that they're better than last year's genin. Oh, man were they horrible! Only about five percent of them actually passed the exam. I could and still can definitely see why the Hokage was slightly disappointed with them. Oh, well. That's all in the past now. Let's see what these rookies have to show me. She smiled a little at the last part of the thought. She was going to enjoy herself today.

Akahana was reading the first question for the third time. What exactly was the question looking for? She read it another time, and then another time. What was she missing from the question? What was she just not getting? She decided to come back to the first question and moved onto the second one. She read it and, as she was reading it, that it seemed a bit harder than the first question. Well, that's odd. Why did the question get harder? She read it more carefully, making sure she wasn't missing anything. She scratched the side of her head in confusion. Weren't tests supposed to have some easy questions and some hard ones? She felt that this test had just hard questions and they were just going to get harder as she went on, she feared.

Akihiko had breezed through the first question and was finishing up the second one quickly. He seemed calm, but actually, he was abnormally tense. He felt like someone was peering over his shoulder just to get his answer on their paper. He had to resist the urge every time to look back to confirm his suspicions. The teacher had told the students that if they were caught cheating; they were taken out of the room and not allowed to take the test again. It hadn't scared him before, but now it was for some reason he couldn't identify. He would just have to deal with it as it came.

Zero was having it no better than Akihiko. He felt like someone was trying to peer over his shoulder to copy his answer. He wasn't mentally freaking out because of it, but he felt there was some cause for concern. He sighed very softly so no one would hear it and began to complete his answer to the third question.

Haruo was breezing through the test. He was already on the fourth question. He sneaked a glance toward the clock and grimaced a little. It hasn't been twenty minutes yet. I'm going to be sitting here doing nothing while the others finish. Too bad they wouldn't let me bring something in so I could entertain myself should I finish early. Ah, well. No time to be dwelling on that. I've got a test to finish. He read the fifth question and was slightly stumped by it. He read it again, taking mental notes in his head of the most important details. He made sure to read it another time to make sure that he didn't miss anything. He then formulated a response to it and began to write it somewhat quickly. He was never one to like spending too long on a test, and this test was no exception to him.

Ayane struggled with the third question. She had barely gotten past the second question and was now stuck on the third one. She pouted like a child who didn't get their favorite chocolate bar from the store and thought about what the question could possibly be asking her. Is it asking me to write out a formula based on the data given or is it asking me to make an equation and solve it? Darnit, I wish whoever made this test would make this question make more sense! She picked up her pencil again and began to reread the question. She wasn't about to fail the test just because one little question stood in her way. She'd torture the living heck out of it and answer it (and I'm not sure how exactly you torture the heck out of a question. It's just her.) so she could pass this darned exam and move onto the next part.

Lee was on the fifth question, just like Haruo was, but he was puzzling over it. He was still trying to grasp what in the world it could be asking him. He tried picking out the most important details, the ones that would help him solve this problem, but some of them were hiding from him. Was he just not getting the meaning of the question? He noted it as a possibility. He bit the inside of one of his cheeks, a nervous habit of his. He kept trying to dissect the question into individual parts so he could solve it.

Takashi was finding this test to be a bit harder than he had previously thought. He was on the fourth question, and he was not getting it. What did it mean? He lightly punched his head, as if it would help get the answer into his head. Apparently, it didn't work, since he still did not have the answer to the question. Ray and Karin are probably doing better than me. He thought miserably. And he was right, about Ray, anyway.

Ray was already on the sixth question and already formulating an answer to it. He tapped the eraser end of the pencil on his right temple lightly. He sucked on his lip some before putting his pencil to the paper and began writing his response. He wrote it quickly, his thoughts pouring onto the paper almost effortlessly. He had done this many times before in the past with tests, and this one was no exception except with one test. It was the final test before the graduation exam. One of the questions had baffled him, and when time was nearly up, he bullshitted an answer and just handed in his test. He was still surprised that he got a good grade on that test. He expected to fail that test completely. He drew his thoughts away from the memory and focused on what was at hand.

Karin was stuck on the fifth question. She just didn't get it. She frowned and put her pencil down. She put her face in her hands and forced herself to breathe deeply to compose herself. I'm letting this test get the best of me. I'm letting it light my temper. I can't let it do that. I just can't! Calm yourself, Karin, calm yourself. Just breathe and you'll be able to think more rationally about this. Just breathe, just breathe. She blew out the air in her lungs and sneaked a glance toward the white-haired male next to her (Yuuta). She noticed that he was only on the fourth question and seemed to be deep in thought. She cursed to herself silently and picked up her question. Looks like she was going to have to make something up just to get past this hurdle.

Rose bit her bottom lip nervously. She was stuck on the sixth question, and she had barely managed to get past the fifth one. She could already taste blood in her mouth, but she couldn't make herself stop biting her lip. She scratched the side of her head, totally bewildered by this problem. Why couldn't she figure out the problem and what it was asking? She scratched her head somewhat harder and could feel her fingernails digging somewhat into her skin. She kept reading it, hoping that it would make sense eventually.

Dante was just as baffled as his teammates. The fifth question was making him stop dead in his tracks. He tapped his pencil on the base of his neck, his expression somewhat serious. He reread the question, trying to decipher the meaning of it. However, he wasn't getting anything useful. Damn, they made this test hard! The people that made this certainly knew what they were doing. He had to admit to himself, he was impressed. Yuuta was right when he said that they didn't know what to expect from the exams. He would have to thank him for warning him about this once the test was over.

The woman was reading a novel she had gotten from one of the teachers at the academy. She had grown bored of watching nervous students contemplating over their tests. She had decided to read the novel, and was finding it pretty interesting. She was beginning to wonder why she didn't ask for the book sooner. She was going to have to personally recommend it to some of her friends later once she finished it. Her eyes glanced up at the clock and noticed that it was 3:00. How fast did time go in here? She lifted her head some and spoke for the very first time since the genin first started,

"You got five minutes left to finish the test." She knew that there was going to be some more tension in the students because of this update, and there was. The students were now frantically trying to finish the question that they were on. The woman watched this and smiled slightly. They're freaking out. I love it! She put her head back down and kept reading the novel. She had to know what was going to happen to the protagonist next.

She looked up again and noted that it was 3:03. Two minutes until the test was over and she could get the hell out of there. Even though she liked the book she was reading, she wasn't very fond of where she was. She couldn't wait to get out of there, just like the majority of the students. She sighed softly and continued reading. She looked up at the clock again and it was 3:04. Why is time now going so frickin' slow?! Oh, yeah. I'm desperate to get out of here, that's why. She closed the book and placed it on the desk. She let her eyes glance over toward the clock and watched the second hand make its way around the clock. When the second hand reached the twelve, the minute hand moved onto the one, indicating that it was now 3:05.

"Alright, everyone stop working on your tests and put your pencils down!" The students looked up suddenly, some nearly jumping out of their chairs. They placed their pencils down on the desks and looked at her. She cracked her knuckles and stared at the students.

"You have just completed the first part of the Chunin Exams. Congratulations to all of you." The students murmured to one another, excited and relieved that it was finally over. She knew, however, that they were just waiting to get the heck out of the school. And she was about to grant them their wish.

"You're all dismissed! Go home and rest. You'll need to for the second part of the Chunin Exams, which is thankfully within a week. Now get out of here!" The students scrambled out of their chairs and went for the door. They formed their little squads and went out of the room to do whatever they wished. Once the room had cleared, she began to go around the room and look at all the tests, reading the answers to every question. She was going to have one heck of a time grading the papers, and she knew that she would have to send letters to the genin that passed the test that they could go onto the second part of the exam. She was going to have one heck of an evening doing it. Ah, crap... She was not in the mood to do it, and having to grade all of these papers was not going to help it one bit. It would be a miracle if she even finished them tonight. Well, I chose this job. I've gotta do my part and just get it over with. She began gathering the papers, not knowing what else to do.

Well, that took a while to finish! And I'm sorry if it's kind of boring, but the next chapter will be more exciting! I promise this!