"Twenty eight..." Shizuka mumbled as she looked for her assigned seat somewhere in the middle of the room. Finally finding it, she nervously plopped down at the desk, smiling as she noticed she was sat next to an equally nervous Chouji.
The boy looked a little pale at the prospect of a written test as he had steadily ranked in the bottom half of the class during his academy years. Shizuka on the other hand had straight up missed years of theory from the academy.
Shikamaru was sat directly behind her, while an unknown Sound ninja sat on her other side. She quickly scanned the room to locate her teammates, finding a panicking Naruto sat close to the front next to a blushing Hinata. Her cousin was off to her right, a few rows behind her with his arms crossed in front of him appearing completely calm.
"I won't be answering any questions during the exam, so you guys better listen closely." The proctor, an intimidating man with scars running criss cross over his face, spoke loudly. "The written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. You will al begin with ten points and one point will be deducted for every wrong answer. Teams will pass or fail based on the combined scores of all members of their squad."
Shizuka let her forehead bonk against the desk in despair. They were so screwed. She was sure Naruto had never not ranked last for any written exam in his life. Looking off to the side, she already saw Sasuke glaring daggers at the blonde in the front. It was a combined score though. Sasuke was pretty smart as far as she was aware and she wasn't dumb either. Maybe they could pull it off.
"Surely, you have all noticed the chunin sitting at each row. They are here to watch for any signs of cheating. For every incident of cheating they spot, two points will be subtracted. I'm warning you now, their eyes are incredibly sharp. If they catch you cheating five times, you will be disqualified immediately."
She let her gaze drift to the uniformed woman sitting at the end of her row, the rather pretty redhead smiled sharply as she nodded at the staring contestants.
"Lastly, if a candidate receives a zero on their test, the entire team fails."
The sound of metal clunking on wood resonated again as Shizuka thunked her head on the desk once more. They were so gonna fail. Lifting her head from the desk she looked at the ceiling, praying for any god out there to gift Naruto with a stroke of genius luck.
"The tenth and final question won't be given until fifteen minutes before the end of this exam." The proctor stated. "You will have one hour to finish your test. Begin."
The sound of paper fluttered around the room as dozens of genin simultaneously turned over their test sheets. She scanned over the first question, eyes narrowing at the complicated cypher they had to decrypt. Were they ever taught how to do that? Maybe before she started the academy?
Discarding the question for now, she looked at the next question... and the next as a pit of despair made itself nice and comfy in her stomach. These questions were hard. Her gaze surreptiously flitted around the room, quickly finding most of the candidates stumped.
Was this really chunin level? Surely not, she had skimmed through some theory books before the exam and none of this was in there. So then what? She looked at the chunin thoughtfully for a bit until the woman winked at her. Okay then.
Two points were subtracted when you were caught cheating... Why not disqualify them immediately? Unless-
Her eyes widened in realization. Of course. They were meant to cheat. This written test was just a way to test their information gathering skills. But how was she going to do that? Sure she could put a genjutsu on the chunin but her neighbors also didn't have the answers.
A few moments later, Chouji mechanically started writing out answers. Shizuka snuck a glance to the floor to see a shadow connected to his. Shikamaru, of course he knew the answers. She smirked, letting her eyes bleed red. Now that she had someone to cheat from, it was showtime.
She purposefully sneezed, causing the chunin to lock eyes with her and allowing her to ensnare her into a genjutsu, making the woman believe she was merely doodling on her answer sheet. She quickly leaned closer to Chouji, whose arm dropped down the desk to allow her full view of the answers (thank you Shikamaru).
"Release." She muttered under her breath as soon as she had all the answers copied to her own sheet. Now all she had to do was wait and hope her teammates had come to the same conclusion as her.
Sasuke would be fine with his Sharingan. Naruto however, even if he figured out he had to cheat, and that was a strong maybe, didn't really have any special means to do so...
A loud thunk was heard from the front of the room, causing everyone to look up. A kunai was sticking into the desk behind Naruto.
"What was that for?!" The unlucky candidate demanded, standing up angrily.
"You just failed the test, kid." Their chunin informed leisurely. "Five strikes and you're out."
"No way! I didn't even cheat!"
"You and your teammates are to leave the room immediately." The chunin drawled on, lazily motioning towards the door.
Two other candidates stood up and left the room while giving their teammate a dirty look.
Another chunin began calling out other exam numbers, informing them that they had failed. Nearly half of the room was empty by the time the final question was to be revealed.
"Alright" The proctor called. "It's time to reveal the tenth and final question. Before I do that, there are some rules you need to be aware of-"
The man cut himself off as a young sand nin stepped into the room with a chunin proctor.
"Ahh just in time." The proctor continued with a smirk. "I hope you found your trip to the bathroom educational."
The boy grinned sheepishly before sitting back in his seat. Shizuka could have sword he dropped a piece of paper on a girl's table as he walked past her.
"The new rules are unique to the tenth question. First, you're free to choose whether you want to be given the tenth question or not."
"What's the catch?" The sand girl asked haughtily.
"If you choose not to answer the final question, you will receive a total score of zero. You and your teammates will fail immediately."
Shocked whispers broke out across the room. Shizuka frowned, just how hard was this question going to be?
"You didn't let me finish." The proctor continued on, crossing his arms. "If you do choose to answer the tenth question and you get it wrong, not only will you fail, but you will be banned from taking the chunin exams ever again."
The whispers grew louder as Shizuka exchanged a nervous look with Chouji. Never take the chunin exams again? They would be stuck as genin forever.
"What kind of rule is that?" Kiba spoke up angrily. "Plenty of people took the exam before!"
"I guess you're just unlucky that I'm the one in charge of the test this year." The proctor replied unbothered. "Of course, you don't have to answer the question if you don't want to. You can always leave now and come back next year if you don't think you can handle the question."
After a few moments of stunned silence, people started dropping out. Should she? Being stuck as a genin forever was a miserable prospect, but her cousin would hate her for all of eternity if she bowed out now, dragging him down with her.
She nervously peered around the room until her eyes landed on Naruto slowly raising his hand. Was he really going to give up? She'd never expected him of all people to bow out here. To her surprise, however, her teammate slammed his hand back down on his desk with a resonating smack.
"Don't you underestimate me!" He spat. "I don't quit and I sure don't run! You can act tough all you want but you can't scare me off! No way! I don't care if I will be stuck as a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage someday!"
Her jaw dropped down at his outburst. Trust Naruto to make a scene anywhere and anytime. Interestingly, no more people dropped out after his words.
The proctor waited a few more moments, looking every candidate in the eyes one by one.
"For those of you remaining." He started. "There's only one thing left to do and that is for me to tell you that... you passed the first test!"
Shizuka nervously peered at the dark forest, surrounded by a high wire fence. Several do not enter signs were plastered on the fence.
"This is our second test location." The new proctor, a purple haired lady called Anko, announced. "It's the 44th training ground, also known as the forest of death... and for a good reason. I suppose you'll find out soon enough."
Oh yeah that was reassuring.
"I suppose you'll find out soon enough." Naruto mocked in a ridiculously shrill voice. "Do your worst, I can handle anything."
Shizuka slowly shuffled further away from the blonde. Mocking the examiner was surely a bad idea.
"Well, well" Anko grinned widely, reaching into her jacket sleeve. "Looks like we've got a tough guy in our midst!"
Pulling out a kunai, she swiftly threw it directly at Naruto, grazing his cheek and leaving a thin cut. In the blink of an eye, the proctor appeared behind him.
"You think you're so tough?" The woman murmured in a frozen Naruto's ear. "Guys like you are always the ones who leave their blood all over this forest."
Slowly, Anko reached up to wipe the blood from his cheek, before swiftly pulling out another kunai and whirling around.
A grass nin took a quick step back, not having anticipated the fast reaction. The kunai that Anko had previously thrown was wrapped in the nin's long and forked tongue.
Shizuka shivered at the sight. The woman had something unnerving about her, besides the obvious tongue situation, but she couldn't quite place what it was.
"I was just trying to return your kunai." The grass lady spoke lowly, shifting her long black hair behind her back.
"Oh thank you." Anko replied with fake politeness. "You probably don't want to approach me from behind while wielding a kunai. Unless you have an early death wish, that is."
"My apologies." She replied, slowly gazing at the other genin. "I guess I just got a little... excited because of the blood and the kunai slicing through my hair."
With that, the lady turned around to head back to her team with unnaturally soft footsteps, even for shinobi. These exams sure drew out some weirdos.
"Now," Anko grabbed a thick stack of papers from her coat. "These are consent forms, which you'll need to read and sign before commencing this test."
"Uhhh why?" Naruto asked dumbly, still clutching a hand to his cheek.
"Because not all of you will come back from this test alive." She laughed airily. "I don't want to be held responsible for that. Now come and grab a form and I'll explain the test."
With some hushed murmurs, the stack got passed around the group. Shizuka scanned over the pages critically, face turning paler as she got on. 'Konohagakure will not be held responsible for any deaths occurring due to maiming, killing or poison'.
Their team was totally going to die here.