It was not long after that that their proctor walked in and explained the rules.
"Okay, maggots, listen up," a man some of them recognized as Ibiki "Set" Pesedjet yelled. "You have to take a test today, with a lot of questions, all but one available from the start. The final question will be given to you near the end of the testing period. If you get caught cheating, you're marked down as if you got one more question wrong than you actually did. If you get caught cheating three times, both you and your team fail. If anyone in your team fails, then all of you fail. Understood?"
Seeing that there were no spoken objections, Ibiki continued, "alright, take your assigned seats."
--
Naruto had been ready to show off his skills. He had been prepared to show all those who looked down on him how he had changed, how he had improved and gotten strong as a Scion. He had not been prepared for another written test.
It's the Academy all over again, he thought. Back then, he had thought that if things were more based on field work than trivia, he might have done better, even if his Purview skills were still subpar, and since graduating, his experience with genuine field work had only reinforced that belief.
Training in knives and Knacks had saved him, and the only Purview Boons that had helped him thus far were ones that the Academy hadn't taught him. So, when he looked down upon the test paper, he couldn't help but feel a little cheated. Was this just how Villages thought? Kids in the Academy took tests, so kids long out of the Academy should be even better at taking tests. He would have continued his internal rant if he hadn't noticed the first question.
'A Scion, a Demon, and an Angel are all engaged in combat. They attack by launching supernaturally generated bursts of water. Please identify which Purview, Lore, and Path were used.'
Well, that was convenient. Maybe field experience really did help with tests. Marking, 'Water Purview, Lore of Storms, Path of Wind and Water,' Naruto confidently continued onto the next question, which told him a story about a man of great character and virtue on the path of Duat, known for yelling in anger but otherwise incredible kindness and justice in all that he did. It ended the story by asking which Judge of Ma'at he would face. What?
--/
Sakura knew the answers to about half the questions. Unfortunately, the one about Brehon laws, whatever those were, eluded her, and the one math problem, which she could already arrange into the proper formula in her head, and could calculate if she could just figure out the value of 'z,' had the confounding condition z=the current price of a buffalo hide in the Central Market of the Weird West. And then there was that one that seemed to be a word-salad referencing as much of Kue-Jin philosophy as possible.
These are meant for experienced Heroes, who've had interactions with the other Villages, she thought in despair. Having gone above and beyond in her studies in the Academy, and with her experience with Zabuza getting her more interested in figuring out the other Supernatural Men's capabilities, she was doing better than most, but she was concerned about Sasuke and terrified about Naruto.
--
It was the first question that tied it all together for Sasuke. He couldn't begin to figure out most of them, and he doubted anyone without Intelligence Knacks could, but the specificity of the first question to his recent encounter made him wonder if Kakashi had had a hand in making questions and exploited it to rig things slightly in his students' favor; it would have been subtle, as that actually would have been a difficult question for most here. Most Scions would probably assume all three were using the Water Purview, as Sakura had initially with Zabuza, and Demons and Angels would probably assume the other way with their own categories.
When his train of thought was in that direction, Sasuke had first assumed that it was for only one question, as the next was an obscure religious reference to the Pesedjet Underworld as understood by priests in the Land of Resurrections, which would probably be simple enough for the Mummies but meant nothing to him.
Then, as he read through them, not having the slightest idea how to answer any of them, it occurred to him that many from other Clans and Villages would have the necessary information offhand. Thinking on the strange rules about cheating (why not have us immediately expelled after being caught once?) and the first question so clearly tied his own Band's experience made him realize; the test was explicitly designed so that most could reasonably answer only one question. They were expected to try to cheat off each other without being caught.
It made sense; one aspect of mission-solving was gathering information, often from people trying to prevent you from gaining such information. Simple enough for him; "Sun Purview: Penetrating Glare," he whispered, glancing around the room to find people who had answered different questions than him.
Looking through several of them, he found half the answers he needed in little time before one of the proctors noticed him looking around and glared suspiciously. He hadn't been marked down yet, but Sasuke still stared down at his paper and then realized that there might be an easier solution.
Waiting until the proctor's attention was elsewhere (apparently another group hadn't been as careful when the proctors noticed them, if Ibiki's shout of failure and people screaming as they were dragged out was any indication), he murmured "Tsukomo-Gami Purview: Wakeful Spirit," and then simply asked the paper if it knew the answers to the questions on it. It did, but didn't know the context behind any of them, and also wasn't inclined to immediately help the boy.
"I'm a test, I'm supposed to be difficult."
Thankful that the Kami was being quiet, at least, Sasuke whispered about how it was the most difficult test in the world, and that he would make sure that everyone knew it if he could just get the answers. That not only persuaded the paper-spirit, but convinced it to let the Kami in Naruto's test know as well.
Sasuke had no intention of failing because of his bandmates' incompetence, and he should be able to hear Kami even in if he didn't know how to awaken them. Sakura didn't have that talent, but he trusted her with a test, at least.
--
Hinata had no idea how to answer the majority of the questions. When she finally worked up the courage to use her Awareness Arete to find opportunities to cheat, she was frustrated to find that even some of those she tried had been wrong. Lore of Storms? Why not Lore of Water?
Since they were allowed animals, she had no doubt that Shino and Kiba could find ways to cheat if needed, and Shino could commune with ghosts on top of that, so she found herself fearing that she might be the weakest link here. As always.
No, don't think that way, you can do this.
She looked to Naruto, the closest familiar Scion to her, and thought about that time when they were both children and he had tried to stand up to those bullies. He had been so brave, and she had been so cowardly, but he didn't look down on her for it. She had always admired him, even when the rest of the class disdained him for whatever reason, and now she used him as a source of strength. It was actually a quick glance at his paper that showed her the answer to the first question, though he seemed completely lost on all the others.
Then he started freaking out.
"Who's talking to me!" He shouted way too loudly.
"Number 53, please stop disrupting the test." He quieted down, returning the whole room to serenity with the exception of Sasuke slamming his head against his desk in apparent frustration. She wondered what that was about. The test must be getting to both of them.
Seeing as how they were both so frustrated, and she really didn't want Naruto to fail, she kept her Awareness to where the proctors were paying attention and started writing out the answers on the side of her desk, where the shadow cast by the top of the desk made it impossible to see anything.
She couldn't write in more than that small area without letting the proctors know, but she hoped it would be enough. Since learning from her training with Sakura that he was skilled with the Darkness Purview, Hinata figured that he would be able to read what she wrote in that shadow even though practically no one else could. Grunting to help ensure that he got it, the daughter of Zeus continued with her test.
--
Temari was absolutely certain that neither Kankuro nor Gaara would get the second question, which annoyed her. Understanding Ma'at was important to what they did as Mummies, and knowing the ways of the judges was the central part of that, but still she supposed that such specificity was a little unreasonable.
She wondered what they would have done had no one known the answer to a given question, as, having come to the same conclusion that Sasuke did, she felt that even the question meant to be their one reasonable one was obscure. Honestly, the first one required one to be familiar with Angels, Demons, and Scions. Which Village was that meant for?
Regardless, she deftly pulled a paper, carefully torn from the charts she normally kept on her back so as to have something to call on discreetly, and channeled her Sekhem into it.
"Celestial Hekau: Book of Thoth." Granted a small piece of Thoth's knowledge, she used it to learn what answers were put on other students' tests, except for the one math problem where she merely asked what the current price of buffalo hides in the proper context were, as she had too much pride in her own intelligence to not do that one the hard way. The one Cowboy she had a good look at seemed to be struggling with the math anyways.
Her offered Sekhem and desired knowledge were deemed acceptable, and the answers she sought were provided on the paper written in the old language all Celestial Hekau users had to learn if they wanted to properly use the power. Thoth did forbid the answer to the final question, but she hadn't been counting on that anyways.
Of course, once she had actually begun writing, an insect crawled onto her desk, made of marble if one stared closely. Once the math was done, she sat back and let it gather information for Kankuro by tracing over her answers with its body. Disappointingly enough, it did in fact trace over the question about Ma'at.
--
Shikamaru wondered how many of these he could have figured out if he had access to the necessary trivia. As it was, he was doing quite well on his own merits. Still, the necessary studying of random topics needed to know all the things for this whole mess would have been way too much of a drag, so as it was he found himself draining an inordinate amount of Ichor using "Cheval Purview: Rada's Eyes" and seeing what everyone else had figured out.
Shino had known the Brehon law question, Sasuke knew about the water techniques of other creatures (he was really glad that he hadn't simply answered "Water Purview" as he had been planning before realizing that there was obviously a trick), a Cowboy had written down the current price of Buffalo Hide, even if he seemed unable to put the rest of the math problem together, but Shikamaru could handle that on his own.
Ino had used her Appearance Knacks to distract the Proctors while she quickly used the Fertility Purview to make a natural fungal growth in the dark corners of the desk grow rapidly, which in turn freaked out the unfamiliar student next to her and got him to stand up, which caused the proctors to call him out while she quickly glanced over his answers. Apparently the kid had managed to get quite a few of them.
A Kue-Jin had written out the references to the word-salad gibberish that made up the seventh question, though even he seemed unable to put them together. Shikamaru, once he got the references, did not experience the same difficulty.
Choji, much to Shikamaru's surprise, had solved the seventh question on his own, but he seemed lost on all the others and how to cheat to get them. Well, my bandmate, I don't wang to do this to,but I suspect you'll understand later.
"Cheval Purview: Horse," Shikamaru whispered, channeling his Ichor into an old gift his dear friend had once given him, and used Choji's limbs to write out the answers he had gotten onto that same friend's paper.
--
Rock Lee was horrified. This was just like the Academy at its worst, where he was told over and over again that the Great God-on-Earth had plenty of places for a Scion with no Hero potential. No matter how hard he worked, it wasn't good enough for them. It was only on Guide Gai's personal recommendation that he was allowed to pass without Purviews, in spite of having unsurpassed Strength and Stamina Knacks, and that fact still pained him deep down.
Now, with all of the training he had provided for this very moment, he found that it was worthless. He didn't know how to begin to answer any of these questions.
He was well-versed in Perception Knacks, so maybe he could study what answers the other examinees…no, cheating was wrong and dishonorable, and he would never sink to such a level! He would push through this! It was his way!
An annoying light started to shine on his paper, making a bunch of weird symbols that he recognized as writing. Glancing up to its probable source, he barely saw a glass dart…Tenten is aiding me.
His brilliant bandmate had managed to sneak some weapons onto the ceiling, and was using her command of the Sun Purview to cheat for him. While he still found it dishonorable, he also realized that he could not let his bandmates down, and if they were going to risk this much for him, then he could not refuse their aid!
--
Fuu was very annoyed by this test. She tried to find pride in her work, to be excited to get out of the Village and do good things for it, to be the champion and savior of her people, but…those people hated her, and this was frustrating.
It wasn't like the Courtiers pretending to be Commoners that they sent to watch over her needed a promotion, so she briefly considered just failing and telling the Seelie King that she tried and wasn't up to muster. After all, it wasn't like he invested serious time into training her properly, so what could she do in the end?
Imagining that blowhard's face when he got the news briefly caused her to smile, but her frown returned when she remembered that she wouldn't do it.
She was still loyal to the Village, in spite of everything, as evidenced by the fact that she hadn't run when those mysterious maggots had infested their cart and just coincidentally destroyed the back wheels in a wilderness area where it would have been inordinately difficult to find her if she ran.
While the fantasies were definitely there, she had ignored Crom's opportunity, and so here she was asking Crom to instead invest his power into aiding the people they both hated.
Obligingly, a maggot crawled over several desks unnoticed before reappearing over her paper and spitting out a coating of frost that matched up with what looked like written answers.
--
I should just kill them all, Gaara thought. The Hem-Netjer-Tepi can have his invasion at any time.Why should I care about it?
Yet care he did, for reasons neither he nor the great serpent inside of him could discern. Unable to resolve it for now, he instead summoned a bit of flint, and tossed it into the eyes of the future victim next to him, then let one of of his fingers extend like a snake, grow its own eyes, and stare at the boy's paper.
There was enough for him to assume that the right answers were there, and none of the proctor's had responded so he guessed that he was being subtle enough, so he simply wrote them down and waited. There should be some opportunities to satiate his bloodlust later.
--
Naruto had randomly noticed that the girl next to him, Hinata if he remembered correctly, was writing and then erasing answers to the questions in the shadow cast by her desk. With Night Eyes, he could read them perfectly well, which prompted him to both wonder why she could possibly be doing that and whether he should risk copying her.
Cheating was frowned upon, and the scary instructor guy had been very clear that he could get his entire Band punished, but there was also no way in the Over, Under, or Middle World that he was going to pass this test fairly, and that also meant that his entire Band would go down with him.
So, he wrote down the answer to the second question, according to Hinata, when one of the proctors shouted, "you're out of here! Take your team with you!"
Some older Scion that Naruto had never met before was desperately trying to deny his actions while his bandmates glared at him. The proctors were having none of it as they grabbed him and escorted him out of there. No, I'll just stick with the answers I slready hsve snd hope it's enough. It was almost certainly not enough, considering how few answers he had managed, but he was stuck with it for now.
--
Ibiki was mildly disappointed by how few of his examinees were failing. He had hoped to instill fear in the supernaturals under him, intimidating them before the next portion of the test. Anko would mock him relentlessly if too large a percentage passed. Well, let's hope the final question thins some out.
"Alright, you worthless worms, time is up. Now, let's get to the last question."
Holding the room silent for some lovely suspense, Ibiki finally said,"if you choose to back out now, you can try again next time they hold the Rank Exams. However, it should be noted that if only one of you backs out, your entire team is disqualified."
A lot of people snorted or made various sounds of disbelief in response. There was no way they were planning to back out now that they'd gotten this far! What was this guy thinking! Ibiki smirked.
"In the interest of fairness, you should know, that if you get the final question wrong, you'll be banned from ever retaking it. Nor will you ever be promoted." That shut everyone up. "Your teammates will continue on, missing a member, but you will stay a Lesser Hero, Lick, Freshmeat, whatever you want to call it for the rest of your life. So, what's it going to be? Try again at a future date, or risk losing it all here? It's your call. While it does affect your teammates, everyone can decide for their team as individuals."
He sat back and let the panic set in. Not seeing as much freaking out as he'd hoped, he decided to add, "by the way, a lot of you figured out that the whole purpose of this thing was to cheat, and I was being pretty lenient on some of you. That goes out the door right now," and he smiled as he got the reaction he was hoping for.
--
Sakura was confident in her ability to figure out the last question, whatever it was. She was even more confident that Naruto would have absolutely no clue, but he'd be far too stubborn to admit it.
The boy threw himself at challenges without thinking, but this…would ruin him. Being stuck as a Lesser Hero forever would shatter any dreams of being the Great God-on-Earth, even if she didn't have that much confidence in his chances in the first place, but considering how things had gone for him thus far, she didn't want to see how he would handle such a burden.
As several teams backed out, often one suffering the fury of his comrades, she looked at her own comrade, realized that he wouldn't be able to do what was best for himself, and started to raise her hand…until Naruto shocked her by raising his own hand.
--
"I have something to say," Naruto spoke up.
Ibiki looked at him, bemused, "alright, if you wish to back down…"
"I don't back down, and I'm not going to. You know why? Because I'm going to be the Great Kunitsokami, and if I get stuck as a Lesser Hero all my life, well, then, I'll be the best Lesser Hero this Village has ever produced, and then they'll promote me straight from there all the day to the top! Believe it! Throw your impossible questions at me! I'm not letting them get in my way!"
In spite of himself, Ibiki found that he was taken aback, but quickly regained his composure, "very well, it's your funeral. Who else wants to back down?"
Surprisingly, no one else did after that. His speech had apparently gotten through to a lot of the others on the edge; was this some Charisma Knack bullcrap? Sitting back and waiting, he eventually realized that yes, the rest of the class was staying. Anko was going to give him so much hell for this.
"We'll be looking over your tests. Anyone with two right answers or more passes." Some of the smarter examinees had already figured it out, but most were utterly confused.
"What about the final question?"
"So what's it going to be? Try again at a future date, or risk losing it all here?" He repeated. "That was the final question. You didn't back down, and that's the sort of courage we need in the Upper Ranks. When you're in a leadership position, you're often going to be making decisions that put both yourself and others at risk. It's not just your rank that will be in trouble in the future, as it will often be your lives. Rushing into danger is stupid, but it also has to be done, and so we want people passing these exams that are willing to do so." He got off his metaphorical soapbox.
"Also, the first test wasn't a complete waste of time. Courage is only valuable when tempered by intelligence. As I said, you still need to have gotten at least two questions right." With that, they were dismissed and told to meet at the Forest of Death tomorrow evening.
--
Ibiki looked over the tests, giving careful attention to the boy who spoke up. I just passed someone who did the bare minimum. Maybe Anko deserves to mock me.
He only got two right, one of which was that question Kakashi had suggested; Ibiki normally wasn't inclined to take suggestions from a Guide with students in the running, but the amount of Scions who had obviously written 'Water Purview' for all of the answers and then hastily changed things when they figured out how to cheat was just as amusing as the Silver Trickster had said it would be. Besides, why would his Band be more likely to know such bizarre trivia anyway? He was just suggesting hard questions.
Finishing his look through the test papers, and being satisfied that everyone who passed deserved to, he decided, curiously, to check out this Naruto boy's record. A lot of simple chores around the Village, and then a mission with unexpected danger parameters including…a Demon proficient in the Lore of Storms and an Angel proficient in the Path of Wind and Water. Gods damn you, Kakashi
--
Anko "Tlazlteotl" Aztlanti stepped out of the bath and called for one of the younger male servants explicitly. Enjoying his awkward attempts not to stare as he handed her a towel, she made a show of only drying her hair and tossing the towel to the side as she asked him to give her a report on everything she needed to know, slyly reminding him to look her in the eyes while doing so.
Technically being the Aztlanti Clan Head, she had a lot of privileges and more responsibilities, and so who could blame her more taking advantage of some of those privileges while engaging in said responsibilities?
Casually responding to his financial notes on the Clan estate and the requests the Great God-on-Earth had of her for the next week, she took a pose that made it harder for him to look at only her eyes (not the only thing getting harder, she bemused), until he mentioned that the new Village allowed into the Exams this year, the Village Hidden in Sacrifice, had been initially called the Village Hidden in Itzli before changing its name and trying to hide that fact from Legends. There was, indeed, reason to suspect that the former Aztlanti Rogues had formed their own Village in one of the minor countries.
Jumping up in shock, she composed herself, thanked the man with an embrace that did not help his frustrated state, briefly considered dealing with that frustration personally but deciding that she didn't have much time before her role in the Exams came to fruition, she let him out to whatever needed to be done (she had suspicions about what he would be doing, but in uncharacteristic move chose mercy and said nothing), got dressed as she considered this news.
It's not necessarily Orochimaru, but...who am I kidding?
Realizing that her best bet would be to simply watch over the kids from this strange Village and be prepared, she calmed herself, put on her best game face, and got ready to face whoever had survived Ibiki.
--
Oh, I am going to give him so much crap for this,she thought as she saw just how many examinees had actually made it through the first part of the Exams. No reason not to start now.
"So, Ibiki's apparently gone soft. An unfortunate fate for many older men. Fortunately for everyone except you, you have me to look out for you in the second stage, and I don't play nicely."
The examinees were all pretending to not be intimidated and largely failing at it, with the exception of several of the boys who were trying not to stare at her rather…revealing outfit. While it was mostly for her amusement, it also served that very purpose. Sex was a common weapon among the Supernatural, and they had to learn to deal with it if they hoped to survive.
"So, they call this place the Hostile Titanspawn Research Reservation, or 'Forest of Death.' It's a fun little hotspot full of all sorts of titanspawn, uh, I mean Monsters from those of you not used to the Village."
Her smirk widened as many of them freaked out. "Of course, the greatest threat will be each other. Each of you has one of three scrolls, the Overworld, Middle World, and Underworld Scrolls. You need to bring all three to the center of the forest before the end of the week if you want to make it to part three, and that's where you get to dance like a trained monkey for the mortal rulers, so try to get there!"
Some of the Demigods assigned to aid her glared in disapproval, but she ignored them. Why should she lie about the real reason they were doing this? She already got to send a bunch of kids to their deaths, even if she couldn't really feign outrage considering how much she enjoyed it, so shouldn't they deserve a tiny bit of honesty before they went?
"Regardless, three scrolls to one team, so only a third of you will stand a chance. Considering how easy Ibiki's test apparently was, maybe I should add a fourth, but, oh well, I'm nice like that. Get them from each other, by whatever means you find necessary. Everyone gets their own entrance, find it after you've got your scroll, we want to keep you separate so it doesn't start with a bloodbath." She grinned. "That happens inside the Forest."
--
Terms:
Ma'at-the judges of Truth that ultimately measure the life and fate of those connected to the Pesedjet Underworld
Sekhem-energy coming from one of the five parts of the human soul, manifests and concentrates into an energy that Mummies can absorb and use
Hekau-the different categories of spells that Mummies can use, and a Purview only used by the children of Egyptian Gods that allows them to call on different powers from the different parts of their souls, not related to one another outside of a connection to Ancient Egyptian mysticism
Techniques:
Celestial Hekau: Book of Thoth-can channel Sekhem into a piece of paper to request knowledge be written on it, supposedly coming from the God Thoth's own books (Scions of Thoth in the Village Hidden in Legends dispute that characterization)
Effigy Hekau: Lesser Animal Effigy-can channel Sekhem into an artistic representation of an animal to give it the properties of a living variety of the animal in question, and control it with proper skill
Fertility Purview: Blessing of Growth-user makes a plant or fungus grow rapidly