Disclaimer: Own Naruto, I do not. Speaking Yoda talk, I am.

Chapter 7

Swift Stealth: Cheating Under the Radar!

What is this supposed to mean? Tamaru thought, looking at the note in his hand. The ink was already fading, so he read quickly. If Raigar went through all the trouble risking being disqualified for cheating, this was probably something useful. Or at least, Tamaru hoped it was. Raigar wasn't the type to do something needlessly though, so it probably was helpful in some way.

Test must be rigged… maybe a trick… read between the lines… able to answer 2, 4, 9, and 10… think loudly what you want to say to us..

Well that's an odd note… thought Tamaru. Test must be rigged, maybe a trick. That was pretty straightforward. Read between the lines obviously meant look for the trick. As for thinking loudly, he was probably telling Rasha right now to turn on her Seigan and read both their minds, so that they could communicate through her.

It was the part about 2, 4, 9, and 10 that got him. Yes, he had answered question 10, that was about the teamwork. But 2, 4, and 9 were impossible! Maybe Raigar meant 1, 6, and 8. Those were the ones that were easy enough for Tamaru.

NOT RAIGAR'S QUESTIONS FOR ME, FOR ME THEY ARE 1, 6, 8, AND 10! He thought as "loudly" as he could. He wasn't sure what thinking loudly consisted of but he kept repeating the same message over and over again in his head, thinking of nothing else. Meanwhile, he rubbed the message off his hand.

Sure enough, three minutes later he felt a hand press his ankle again. He received the ink message from Raigar's hand.

All different easy questions… 2, 4, 9 for me, 1, 6, 8 for you, 3, 5, 7 for Rasha. 10 same for all of us. Think us your thoughts.

Tamaru sat, confused, rubbing the message off. So they all had different "easy" questions, and the rest were hard. Well, except for 10, and that was something random about teamwork. What was that supposed to mean?

I HAVE NO CLUE BUT I THINK WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE. WHY ARE THEY ALL DIFFERENT AND WHY IS 10 THE SAME? He thought over and over again.

The answer came a few moments later as a cold hand pressed against his ankle.

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When it came to scouting, they were the best. When it came to communicating, though, that was a little harder.

Akamaru had spied on everyone in the room from Kiba's head, relaying the messages to him. Hinata used her Byakugan and Shino used his bugs to achieve the same. Quicker than everyone else, they had come to the conclusion that all the tests were different except for question 10.

So I have 1, 6, and 8; Shino has 2, 4, and 9, and Hinata has 3, 5, and 7. But why? Why are all of the questions different?

Akamaru told him next that each of the teams in the room were like them, having different tests with one having 1, 6, and 8, the next 2, 4, and 9, etc. etc.

So the teams all have different tests.

Kiba flipped his paper over as he saw one of Shino's bugs crawling onto his desk. The bug gathered some ink off of Kiba's pen onto its antennae, then began to walk around. First it drew the numbers 1-10 downwards, then wrote K, S, and H at the top going horizontally. A chart, Kiba guessed.

Then it started to walk to different places in the chart and form a check. It checked off the questions that each of them had been able to answer in their respective columns and rows, checking three times all the way across on number 10, then flew away, presumably to do the same on Hinata's paper.

Kiba stared at the chart dumbly. Number 10 had three checks in its row, and the other 9 had one each in different columns. It didn't make any sense to him.

What was he missing?

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Just like last time, Team 9 was using Tenten's mirror on strings trick to work their magic. Neji, who was at the front of the room, saw the mirror with Byakugan; since Lee was behind her, Lee had no trouble seeing her mirror.

They wrote simple messages on the back of their papers that seemed to convey the same confusion with all three of them. They, like the others, had compared their info and found what the others had, but couldn't make sense of it. Finally, Lee wrote his absolute cluelessness and Tenten had to agree as well. It didn't make any sense at all.

So, it was left up to Neji, the Hyuuga genius. Then again, there was nobody Tenten would rather put the fate of their team in then him. If anybody in the room could piece this puzzle together, maybe he could. It wasn't as if either she or Lee were having any luck.

Finally Neji wrote a message and Tenten tilted the mirror that way.

What do you think of this? the message said, then had the numbers 1-10 going downwards. Then it had the word "Easy" at the top, and the letters of their names going downwards next to the numbers 1-10.

N, T, L, T, L, N, L, N, T, E. It said.

Okay… so there were each of their initials, and E probably meant everybody. So Neji was showing them the order of who had the easy questions with which numbers, and that everybody had the same number 10. What was the point?

After showing it to Lee, she wrote her question and showed it to him.

The point of it I'm still figuring out. came the reply.

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After looking around with his sand eye, Gaara decided to confer with the others. He sent grains of sand to each of their desks, where they would arrange themselves into a message.

Temari could speak back to both he and Kankuro with one of her wind techniques, whispering and using the air to carry the sound all the way to their ears. Kankuro just wrote his responses on his paper and let Gaara's eye see it, who would then tell Temari.

Temari had long since determined that Shikamaru must have written this test, and that made her all the more angry. She saw him standing in a corner, apparently bored out of his mind- he wasn't looking for cheaters, apparently there for no reason.

Except, thought Temari, to oversee the test. And why would he do that? Because he wrote it.

They were competing with a genius.

Then again, maybe he was just there solely for his apparent purpose- to mark off names of those who were disqualified. But she doubted it.

Speaking of disqualification, more and more were getting disqualified by the moment. As people started getting desperate and deciding they couldn't solve it on their own, they turned to teamwork- like Gaara had- but their teamwork ended up getting them all disqualified.

But their teamwork wasn't as discreet as their teamwork.

Then something clicked in her mind and she hid her mouth so she could whisper to the two of them.

Gaara looked up as she heard Temari's voice whisper to them.

"What is the significance of ten." she said.

Gaara thought about it, then sent his sand to respond.

The mentioning of Teamwork got everybody thinking of talking to their teams, like it did for me. He replied.

"Yes, but why?" she asked.

They were silent for a time. She had their brain gears turning, heading towards the right direction that she was thinking.

"Think quicker." she said after a few minutes passed, "We only have five minutes left."

The response came immediately in sand.

Kankuro says- and I agree- that it's because we're SUPPOSED to talk to our teams.

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"But that's what I'm saying!" Ino said, exasperated, "If what you're saying is true, then that means that the two of us that have hard questions are the ones we have to answer, which we can't answer anyway."

"It was just a thought." said Chouji defensively.

"Look, we're talking as a team like we're supposed to be. We've established that. Now the question is, why?" Ino asked.

"Maybe we'd figure it out if you quit shouting." said Chouji.

"Maybe if you had studied more in stead of eating so much you could actually offer half-good ideas!" Ino retorted.

"Quiet, you two! I'm trying to think!" Sakura said.

They were silent.

Chouji's thoughts may not be thought out all the way but at least they're thoughts. Thought Sakura, Ino already gave up and is resorting to criticizing Chouji. But actually, some of his ideas aren't half-bad. I just haven't been able to think it through because of all the shouting.

"All right." she said, calmly, "Chouji, what was your last suggestion?"

"Well… that maybe the easy questions are there to throw us off, to make us feel right when we're not." he said.

Sakura rubbed her temples.

"Hmm… that doesn't seem quite right, but…" she began.

"SEE? I told you!" Ino shouted.

"Quiet!" Sakura cut her off, "But… maybe the other way around…"

Then something clicked in her brain, like a veil being taken away from her sight.

"Stupid." she said.

"What?" Chouji asked.

"No, not you. Me. It's so obvious!" she said.

Ino brightened visibly.

"You solved it?" she asked.

"I… I think so." Sakura said, "Here's what we're going to do…"

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Rasha has hunch. Write these answers down quickly in order. The message from Raigar said, followed by a list of answers.

Tamaru brightened. Rasha was smarter than he was, and about equal with Raigar. But the difference was that Tamaru trusted Rasha more than Raigar. If Raigar had told him to write down a list of answers for the most important test of his life, he would have argued to the bitter end. Instead, he just went with it.

Kekkai Genkai

Tamaru looked at his paper. He already had that down. Good, he actually had something right for a change.

Leaf, Sand, Mist, Cloud, Rock

Tamaru frowned. This answer made no sense with the ANBU question. But, he decided to go along with it. He wrote down the five words.

Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu

Tamaru felt annoyed again. This answer didn't make sense at all to "How many Kunoichi died in the Great Shinobi Wars", but he didn't really have a better idea… he wrote down the three too…

And the list continued all the way to question 9, the ones he had already answered were the same as what he had in the first place, while the answers to the hard questions made no sense at all. But he just went along with it, and right as he finished writing down number 9 when…

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Shino's chart had given Hinata an idea. She had conveyed it to the others as fast as she could, acutely aware of the fading time. She hoped she was right, because…

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Tenten put her full trust in Neji, and Lee appeared to as well. His idea was odd, and when she inquired about it all she received as reply was: Low time, just write, I'll explain later.

All right, she thought, copying the list of gibberish answers, But you had better be right, Hyuuga Neji, or there will be consequences. Namely, me being ticked off at you for life.

We'll see soon enough…

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Gaara sighed contentedly as he finished writing it down. The three of them put their brains together and came up with something: It didn't seem too plausible but it was better than nothing, and since they came up with it together it wouldn't be so bad if they were wrong.

Teamwork… he thought, Now THIS is what teamwork is really about…

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"TIME!" Shizune exclaimed suddenly as the secondhand hit the twelve exactly. Sakura was glad; she had finished with just enough time leftover. That was close. Too close.

"Put your pencils down, I'll come collect your papers. No talking!" she snapped.

Sakura almost laughed. This façade Shizune was doing… Tsunade must have made her do it… it was so unlike the Shizune Sakura knew that it was funny. But, most people didn't know that…

Once she had come around and collected all the papers, she exited the room, probably to go grade the tests. Once the door closed an eerie silence filled the room, the quiet of anticipation.

Then, to most people's surprise (except Temari, Ino, Chouji, and Sakura), Shikamaru walked away from the corner and stood at the front. He rubbed the back of his head with one of his hands and sighed.

"Honestly, I don't care if you talk or not, but I'm supposed to say this for some reason so I'm going to. It's troublesome, but I'm supposed to tell you… that test you just took? I wrote it." he said.

There were immediately shouts of outrage among the Ninja, the half of the original number of Ninja that hadn't been weeded out by being caught cheating.

"I knew it!" yelled Temari, bolting up out of her seat, and pointing at Shikamaru accusingly.

"Hey, hey, don't get mad at me, now, okay? It was way too troublesome, but I had to do it." he said.

"What was the deal with that test?" Tamaru asked, "Why couldn't you have made it something simple, like a personality survey?"

"Because you'd still fail the survey." Raigar said from across the room.

"Why you-" Tamaru said, turning, but Shikamaru cut him off.

"Sit down." he said, "That wasn't the point anyway. Had to make it hard, she says. Had to weed out a lot of people, she says. Too much work, I say."

He seemed to be talking to himself at this point.

"If I fail this test, Shikamaru, I'm going to… to…" Temari said threateningly, still pointing at him.

"Relax. You'll find out soon enough." he said.

Then he returned to the corner.

As if on cue, Shizune walked back in.

"All right, I'm going to call the names of those who passed." she said.

"Cloud Village, Team 18." she said.

A man stood up triumphantly, pointing at himself. Two other girls stood up and apologized humbly for "their teammates inappropriate behavior".

Team 9 shook their heads. What a ridiculous team…

"Sand Village, Team 1."

Both Temari and Shikamaru looked visibly relaxed, Temari because she passed, Shikamaru because now he wouldn't get killed by Temari. Kankuro and Gaara just sat motionless.

Shizune called the names of some other teams, then:

"Leaf Village, Team 10."

Sakura sighed in relief as Ino leapt up in exultation, raising a fist in the air. So her hunch had been right. Shikamaru had been very clever, but apparently, she had outwitted him in the end.

"Rock Village, Team 4."

Nobody stood or did anything of recognition. Team 8 glanced around for that strange Rock Team, eyeing them suspiciously once they found them.

"Leaf Village, Team 8."

"Way to go, Hinata!" Kiba exclaimed along with Akamaru's barks.

Hinata blushed and averted her gaze. I'm actually being acknowledged.

More names of other teams.

"Leaf Village, Team 9."

Way to go, Neji. thought Tenten, Your audacious idea paid off.

"Mist Village, Team 22." she said.

The three Mist Ninja stood and, led by the one in the center with the strange curved blades, bowed and sat.

Those are the ones who attacked us for no reason. Thought Sakura, I'm not tricked by their polite act.

Shizune read more team names, until she held three more papers in her hand.

Most people were rejoicing too much to notice the Leaf team that was still sweating in anxiety, namely a certain Tamaru.

"And, finally… Leaf Village, Team 6." she said.

"YES!!!!!" Tamaru cried, leaping up out of his seat.

"Sit down." said Raigar as his hand jerked Tamaru's collar until he was forced back into his seat, then the hand shot back to Raigar.

About half of the other teams seemed incredibly disappointed, or outraged.

"WHAT? What do you mean, we failed? What was the right answer?" A particularly loud team member protested.

"It was really simple enough," said Shizune, "Tsunade thought too simple, but Shikamaru assured us it would work. Apparently, it did; it got rid of about a fourth of you."

"Each team consists of three people. Not counting the tenth question, which was the same for everyone, there were nine real questions. Divide that by three, you get three questions for each person. That's why everybody had three easy questions, along with other impossible questions. Nobody had the same easy questions in a team, and put together they formed questions 1-9. Question 10 was an opinion, so anything went for that." she said.

"Wait, so you're saying that the real test was a combination of the easy questions from all three of our tests?" asked the team member.

"That's right, and the answers accordingly." Shizune said, "That's why, for those of you who did figure it out, the answers didn't seem to match the hard question that was on your test for a certain number; that's because it wasn't supposed to match the hard question, but the easy question on one or your teammates tests."

"DAMMIT!" Yelled the angry person loudly as he stormed out the door.

Shizune shrugged.

"If you failed, please file out now." she said.

About half the room left, leaving about a fourth of the original number. The teams scooted back together now that they didn't have to be separated, discussing what had just happened.

"I thought you were insane." Tenten told Neji.

"At first, so did I." he said, chuckling.

Other various comments such as those were passed around before Shizune cleared her throat.

"Okay, anyway, Congratulations on making it through the first exam, and you will now rest up and meet tomorrow morning at 6:00 at the Forest of Death. If you don't know where it is buy a map: It's on all of them." Shizune said.

So it IS going to be the Forest of Death again… Sakura thought.

Shizune left the room, and the teams started filing out one by one, probably going to tell their instructors they passed. Once they told Asuma, he congratulated them and wanted to hear all about it, inviting them to Korean Barbeque (You can imagine Chouji was quite happy about it) for supper.