─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
"𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘..."
Hoshi breathed out as the man appeared, Inari harshly elbowed him, "Quiet." She narrowed her as at him, he, in response rolled his eyebrows and pretending to zip his lips shut.
The instructor introduced himself, "First off, you candidates!" He pointed his finger at the direction of the ninja who attacked Kabuto, "Candidates from the Village Hidden In the Sound, knock it off! Who told you, you could just fight? You wanna be failed before we've begun?" He asked sternly.
"Sorry. It's our first time, guess we're a little jumpy, sir." One answered, the instructor scoffed at their sorry excuse before he continued to talk, "I'll say this only once, so listen up. There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor! And even then... the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited." He stated and narrowed his eyes, "Anyone who thinks of messing with me will get disqualified immediately. Got it?"
Inari watched with the other candidates. "Now, if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin Exam," when he said that Hayase perked up a bit, "Handover your paperwork, and in return you'll be given a number." He said and held up a number card.
"This number determines where you'll sit, we'll start the written test once you're all seated." He finally finished.
"T-The what?" Naruto asked, "Did he say... written? Not a written test! No way!" He stood there, defeated. Inari glanced at him and sighed, she's pretty sure she warned him about it and told him to study but of course—he didn't listen.
...
Inari sat there, patiently between two ransoms. She saw Hayase sitting a few seats ahead of her, they glanced at each other for a moment and Inari rested her cheek on her hand and rapidly tapped her foot.
She glanced at the two boys sitting between her, sadly, she didn't know any of them. The only thing she hoped is that the written test is the same thing every time and that they retook them Exams before.
"Do you need something?" The boy sitting to her right asked, she looked at him again, his eyes didn't leave the chalkboard but he got a glance of her, "Nope." She said, "Hey, you're the girl who said you'll kick everyone's butts right?" He looked at her again, Inari didn't answer but he smirked, "I admire your confidence but no one enjoyed it. It was cute."
Before Inari could respond, Ibiki slammed a piece of chalk against the chalkboard, "Everyones eyes up front." Inari turned her attention to the board, "There are a few rules you need to be aware of, and I don't answer any questions. So you all better pay attention the first time around," he stated as he began writing on the board. "All right. Question number one is this: The Written part of the Exam is conducted on a point reduction system, you all start with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong."
Inari twirled the side bangs with her finger and looked around, the sweat beads rolling off some faces while others kept a poker face although they were dying inside, "Rule number two, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three or four members," Ibiki stated.
Sakura yelled out a question only for Ibiki to ignore, "Rule number three, the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating and for every incident they spot they will subtract two points from the culprit's score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp."
Inari looked around to find where each of them stood, "If they catch you five times, you'll be disqualified before the test are even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here." He finished.
"I've got my eye on you guys," a sentinel said then smirked, making everyone alert. Inari wasn't nervous, her team was a lot of things but they weren't dumb, Inari knew how to cheat, she would choose a random person around the room and activate her Sekigan discreetly and she would attach a chakra string to their hand and copy their pencil movements. But Inari doesn't want to play dirty, she studied long grueling hours for this.
"You wanna be considered a shinobi? Then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be."
The red eyed girl scanned the room, observing the nervous kids quivering at their seats her eyes shifted towards Ibiki again when he spoke, "If any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails. The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period, you'll have one hour total,"
The clock ticked at 12 and everyone held their breath, Begin!!"
Everyone began to write, she read the first question, 'Decipher a code.' Inari scanned the twice over and breezed past the question.
Line B in the diagram indicates the trajectory of a shuriken thrown at enemy C by ninja A seated atop a tree 7 meters tall. Describe and formulate the trajectory required if C were positioned at points D, E, and F. Also predict the farthest possible range of the shuriken and explain how you arrived at your answer?
Inari furrowed her eyebrows and aggressively answered the question, she began to fly through the questions and when she finished she let out a deep sigh and dropped her pencil. There was a quick bright line that caught her eye, she squinted her eyes and then her eyes softened when she realized it was a chakra string, but from who?
She glanced over at the boy next to her with a small smirk on his face, his eyes met with hers and she looked away.
"All right! Listen up!" Ibiki began, everyone's attention turned to him, "Here's the tenth and final question!"
Inari rolled her eyes and bit her bottom lip, "But before I give you the final question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of. These rules are unique to question Ten," Ibiki said as he put his hands into his pockets, "Listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you, rule number one, each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question it's your decision" Inari glanced at Hayase and then Kiyoko, all she could hope is that neither of them chickened out.
"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine you'll get a zero in other words, you fail, and that means of course, all of your teammates fail as well."
People around began to panic, Inari felt her heart skip a beat for a second.
"Hey. Not so fast, you didn't let me finish, if you do accept the question but you answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the exam ever again!"
"Seriously?" Inari thought. It basically didn't even matter if you got all those questions right, the final question is either the one that makes you fall or stay high. She then thought about Kabuto and how he failed each time, but he couldn't have failed on the question, each and every time.
"That's bull man, what type of rule is that!? They're plenty of people here who have taken the test before," Kiba shouted.
Ibiki chuckled, "I guess you're just unlucky, I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now." He replied, Inari raised her eyebrow.
"Of course, if you don't want to take it, you don't have to."
The boy that cheated off of her leaned closer to her and started to whisper to her, "You think he's bluffing?" He asked, Inari's eyes narrowed at him, "Why should I answer you?" She questioned, taken aback as to why the guy who cheated off of her thinks he can ask her more questions.
He smirked, "Oh no reason, just that you look pretty smart." Inari raised her eyebrows but she kept a stoic face.
"I don't know, really. For my sake I'll assume that he's not, I guess." She whispered back.
"But what if it is?" His purple eyes turned to her, "Which means what?" She looked back at him, "I mean like the tenth question is more of a test, to see who gives up. I could be wrong, but that's a low possibility." He answered, Inari licked the inside of her cheek, "Maybe so." and turned back to Ibiki.
"Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question, those who don't want to take it, raise your hand."
A dozen hands rose to the sky, Inari was shocked to see it, "Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go." Inari watched people get up and walk away, she tilted her head and glanced at the purple eyed boy, who had a confident look on her face.
"Don't underestimate me, I don't quit and I don't run! You can act all tough all you want, you guys aren't going to scare me off! No way!" Inari turned to Naruto's voice from the other side of the room, "I don't care if I can do get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage some day!" He yelled standing up in his seat.
Inari smiled a bit at his proud statement, "This decision is one that could change your life, if for any reason you would rather quit now's your last chance." Ibiki reminded everyone once again.
"Well, then, I admire your determination, if nothing else," Ibiki began. "For those of you remaining there's only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you that you've all passed the first exam!"
The boy beside her laughed a bit, "I told you~" He poked her shoulder, she looked back at him, a smirk tugged the side of her lip, "Just in case, what's your name?" He asked curiously.
Inari glanced away for a second and opened her mouth, "It's Inari, why?" He tilted his head as a wide smile formed on his face, "For when we see each other again in the final rounds."
She raised an eyebrow, "You seem certain you'll make it to the finals." He scoffed, "Oh I know I'll make it to to the finals." He replied triumphantly.
"Where's the tenth question?" Sakura asked , "There never was one. Not a written one, at least! Actually your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question," Ibiki began to explain everything. "You have passed through the first gate. There's nothing left, but to wish you all good luck."
Hoshi shot up and cheered, he ran over to Inari, grabbed her hand to make her stand up and danced around with her, "We passed!" Inari couldn't help but smile, "Ooh, don't touch."
A window broke and a woman appeared, they stopped celebrating and turned their attention towards her, "Heads up, boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi," The woman introduced herself. "You ready for the second exam?"
Before anyone could breath she interrupted them, "Good! Then, let's go. Follow me!"
Everyone got up from their seats, "All right, you maggots have had it easy so far! But things are going to be different starting first thing in the morning!"
"Dismissed."
─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───