0

Ch10: testing…

In all honesty, the tests aren't hard. True to the Hokage's word, there were ten questions; each question ranging for different levels of intelligence. The first question is basic algebra, followed up by the second one. I feel like Shiori might have some trouble with those ones.

Shiori. She is by no means stupid, she just has a problem when it comes to letters and numbers. I have the feeling that she happens to be dyslexic, but I can't do tests to prove it. She is very logical in battel and has a wide variety of certain smarts, but math isn't one of them. She could tell you the difference between nightshade and Rhubarb down to the chemical properties, but she can't tell you the difference between 1010 and -1100.

Now Touma on the other hand, is extremely smart and has the ability to calculate any sort of numbers problem at the drop of a hat. His problem lies in experience so he has the tendency to doubt himself and hesitate.

Riku doesn't have super smarts or anything, but he isn't bad at math. Mostly he just needs to see it written down to be able to figure it out, so I have faith he'll do fine.

We are all sitting at a desk separated from each other while being watched carefully from three chunin's and the proctor. Said proctor is currently pacing slowly in front of us seeming intimidating. I just stayed impassive as I answered my questions rapidly. The rest of my team didn't seem bothered by him either; they simply wrote down their answers as well. Shiori looked like she was shaking a bit, but I highly doubt that's from Ibiki and his pacing.

The next few questions gave us scenarios in which we had to describe what we had to do.

Question 3: Your team is attacked for an unknown reason by shinobi from another nation. What do you do?

Answer: Capture unknown shinobi and hold him for questioning. If shinobi has teammates, use one as a hostage to gather information from teammates. If shinobi is alone and refuses to give information, use a genjustu. If tactics do not work resort to physical pain. First cut off his ear. If tactics do not work, take out one eye. If tactics do not work cut off a finger. Proceed with this until target dies or relents the information.

This is the standard interrogation way in Ame.

Question 4: You traveling with your team at top speed on a path in the woods to reach your destination that is approx. 50 meters away. You sense foreign shinobi up ahead. In front of you, your path splits off into three sections. The right path leads up to a mountain trail while the left goes down into an old mine shaft. The straight path leads to foreign shinobi, but stays straight. Keep in mind you are on a time limit and you have one hour and thirty minutes left. What do you do?

Answer: I would lead my team off the path to the right of the straight path. Not leading them onto the mountainous trail, but instead through the woods close enough the straight trail, but not so much so that the shinobi would bother us. It is possible for my team to travel mountainous trails in remarkable speed, but it would not be wise to push them too hard. We should be able to make a large semi-circle around the shinobi before heading back on the path.

Huh, this was kind of like my chunin exams, but at the same time not really because I actually know the answers now. I'm sure the others can answer this too, I have faith in them.

The next question gave us a coded message…

Question 5: You are trying to get into an electronically guarded room using the passcode. There are ten digits required for this passcode and they are arranged like this: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

You are given the following as a clue: (Bh-S) (N) (Se-Ti) (N-H-H) (H+H+H) (Pm+H) (O)

Oooookay… This is confusing even for me… this definitely wasn't on my chunin exam. So what do these letters represent? Do they represent the placement they have in the alphabet? If so then Bh= 29. N=14… But wait, that doesn't work. There's only one space for N. Hmm… Why is there one capital letter and then a lowercase letter. It seems to follow that rule too, besides when there is only one letter. It reminds me of the periodic table. The only problem with that is its letters not numbers. Maybe the letters look like a certain number?..

Wait.

Just wait a second.

The Periodic table does have numbers: the atomic number! There is also the atomic mass, but I think it's safe to guess the atomic number.

Kami I'm an idiot… so let's see… is H = Hydrogen and the atomic number for Hydrogen is 1 then that makes the fifth number three.

_ _ _ _ _ _ 3 _ _ _ well there's one. I hope this is the correct scheme… Well I'm going to go with it.

Answer:9171253628

(Bh-S) (N) (Se-Ti) (N-H-H) (H+H+H) (Pm+H) (O)

Bh=Bohrium Atomic Number=107

S=Sulfur Atomic Number=16

107-16 = 91

I did this to find all numbers.

I am a little unsure of my reasoning, but all of my calculations seem correct and they all appear to fit nicely. I'm not so confident in the others on this question. It took me a while to remember all of the atomic numbers. Thank kami that we aren't on a time limit.

The next question was testing us about angles, and how we throw kunai when the wind blows at a certain speed.

I quickly zipped through these questions to wrap up the test. When done, I turned my paper over and glanced at my team. Touma, as expected, was done. Riku was, guessing from where his pencil on the paper was, almost done… and Shiori, well she's…getting there…

I got bored of waiting, so I started doodling on the back of my paper. It was a little stick figure. And just to prove I could draw, I gave my stick man a shadow.

I glimpsed up from the paper to find that Morino Ibiki was looking intently at me. Silently, I placed my pencil horizontally down on top of my paper and met his gaze evenly. I even took it one step further by raising one eyebrow. For a while I worked under him in my past life so I'm not even shaken. I mean, he is a pretty scary guy, but once you get to know him, it's like it changed him from a giant grizzly that will kill you for so much at breathing in his direction to just a slightly annoyed bear that will growl at you but won't actually bite.

One of the chunin that have been watching us, strutted up to me and took my paper up to the front desk. It was soon joined about five minutes later with another paper, so I assume that Touma finished his. All this time Ibiki and I have not broken eye contact. It's actually kind of weird. I know he's just trying to get me to crumble, but I simply refuse.

The next thing I noticed was that Riku was not writing frantically. And Shiori… she was still getting there. If anything, I think she could have answered the thing about the coded message is she figured out that it was the table of elements. She's definitely smart enough, but she doubts her own brains.

The proctor had to look away momentarily to read the papers that were presented to him. Soon enough Riku added his paper in and we were all waiting on Shiori.

I looked over to her to see that she was now scribbling hysterically… kami help whoever it is that has to read her godawful handwriting.

Oh wait…that would be Ibiki…haha instant karma…

Now that she's finally done writing, she waltzed up to the proctor, either unaware or unaffected by the killing intent he secreted and placed her test confidently on the table. From the looks of it, it doesn't look completely finished, but at least she's proud of what she was able to get done.

We were ushered out of the classroom and onto the busy streets. The sun was about an hour away from setting so we figured we had enough time to grab something to eat on the way home.

Touma suggested we go to a little tea shop that had an uncanny resemblance to the one that I visited with Itachi the other night. In fact, I think it might be the same one. We sat for a while and talked about the test. It was mainly uneventful, except for the girl from the genin corps who strutted up to us with a scroll in her hand. She has the Inuzuka clan tattoos on her cheeks, and she had long brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. Judging from everything she had to be Hana, Kiba's older sister. Been a while since I've seen her. We worked together before, since she does work on animals and I heal people we decided to teach the other a little about the others anatomy. I didn't know her so well to say she was a close friend, but she was definitely a great acquaintance.

While I was busy dwelling in the past, Shiori read the scroll for us and apparently delivered the message despite the fact that I was lost in the sea of my mind. I was brought back to earth by the hand that was waving wildly in front of my face.

"Yes?" I looked at the boy with the blue hair.

"You were spacing out."

"Annnd," I drawled before giving him a blank look. "That compelled you to frantically wave your appendage directly in my cornea?" He pegged me with an innocent look.

"I tried calling your name…" His pale eyes betrayed his innocent look by swirling with mischief. I simply rolled my eyes at him. Honestly, I feel as if I work out my eye muscles more than my actual body with the sheer amount of times I've rolled my eyes.

"Well anyway," The bluenette started then gestured to the scroll in his hands, "We have a map of Konoha with a marker in there we meet up. The scroll says to bring our gear…"

Riku looked at the scroll, then to us a little confusedly. "Why would we need to bring our gear? Do you think this will be a combat or survival test?"

And there go my eye muscles again. It almost hurts, but I just can't pass it up… "Actually, I think they might want to take us to the movies so we can – of course its going to be a combat or survival test!"

He sent a biting glare my way.

"Well what did you expect?" My eyes were wide and I spread my hands in an exasperated manor. "You asked a stupid question"

His gaze dulled until he shrugged exasperatedly at me. "true enough"

"So… T' summ'rize , We go t' this place, alright? Then, we fight or try an' survive. Right?" Touma nodded his head at her. "Damn…" she shook her head and took a depressed bite out of her dango.

I poked her with my stick. "What's the issue here blondie? I know you love fighting."

"Mhm, th' thing is we might have t' survive in an unknown place!" comically, she cried out her dismay.

"Typically," the bluenette started as he cocked his head, "That's what ninja's do to, oh you know, stay alive." And thus began the tackle fight of my two insane friends. You could even hear the mandatory 'Dobe!' and 'Teme!' among all of their incoherent insults. Riku and I just starting conversing quietly while the rest of the people in the tea shop looked at us oddly…

The sun was setting now and the sky went from a romantic orange to a deep and mysterious purple. All of us are walking in a shoulder to shoulder manor. The breeze was quite chilling for this time of year…

As soon as we reached out destination, Shiori crashed into the couch and Riku soon followed after.

Touma nudged one with his foot. "Come on guys…can't you wait until it's actually bedtime?" Promptly, Riku threw a pillow in his face. "Apparently not."

I looked at the heap that was my teammates and sighed. "Guys I'm headed to bed."

"Mmmmmurrrph" … I think that was Riku… oh well… I'm too tired to care.

The ground is a blur. My eyes are watering, but determined. My legs are numb, and my shins have splints in them. My ears are ringing. My heart is pounding. I'm running. Fast.

I glance left: dried, cracked, crumbled terrain with bodies strewing it. I look right just in just in time to jump back from a noxious flare-up. My eyes gathered debris, but I shielded them in time to protect any real damage. My lungs felt as if I were breathing in scorching hot sand and my mouth and throat were fairing no better.

Water.

If only I could have sip…

People are lined up in front of me. The agonizing expressions they make stab my soul as I cut them down.

Wait…

They're not staying down…

No…

They're clawing at my ankles.

No…

They're screaming my name.

No…

I killed them, and… and they want retribution

NO! I can't take it.

NO! I can't breathe.

NO! I can't close my eyes to deny it!

NO! I can't take it back...!

Please… when will this horror end?

My thrashing form leaped off the bed in an attempt of getting away. I gulped in the suddenly nontoxic air. I felt some boiling hot trails of liquid roll down my face.

I did a once over and I realized I was still the only one in the room… I sauntered over to the mirror and I saw how horrible I looked. …And yet I could still smile. A broken, twisted, cruel smile, but a smile nonetheless.

I looked out the window to see the twilight sky lighting up. Another day in this hell.

On the bright side we have the exams today… That might go over well. Now the question is should I wake my friends up and pack? Or do I pack first then wake them all up? Huh… decisions, decisions.

Well, if I wake them up now they can pack all of their shit, but then it's going to be like trying to heard a group of drunk chickens that won't stop screeching at each other. I'll just pack my stuff before them and then wake them up… there, compromise.

I went in my closet to pull out my uniform which consists of: black hakama pants. A black spandex shirt, my shin wrappings and my arm guards. My sheathed tanto that was vertically strapped to my upper back. Last but not least, my grey cloak with a hood. There, I was in uniform at least.

I packed some seals with extra kunai and shurken, just in case they forget to. I also made sure to stuff my first aid kit full of crap I just know we'll need.

As I was putting the finishing touches on my pack, I noticed trickles of light falling through the clouds and into my window. I realized then how thankful I should have been being born in Konoha. I guess you could say it dawned on me... Alright, enough of that… I need to get the others up.

I propped my pack up on my bed and sauntered out of the room. I quick walked to the boy's room and noted that not one, but two have made it safely to their respective beds… now then, where's our local blonde? I felt around the house for her signature, and sure enough she was just downstairs.

When I walked in the room I immediately saw that she sunk down on the ground with her knees pressed to her chest. Her bright blue eyes wide and darting from wall, occasionally scrunching shut as her hands clenched the hair right above her ears. I noticed the way the skin on her nose scrunched up as she snarled; sharp canines bearing as the usual dimpled in her cheeks sink deeply. She was trying to un-see it, un-hear it, un-experience it. Her eyes snapped wide open and locked on me. It was the first time I noticed the black circles under her eyes…

Unimportant. Irrelevant. Trivial. Insubstantial. Annoying. Aggravating. Those were all the adjectives I'd use to describe right now. Here we are, waiting in perfect line. Waiting for our papers so we can start the next exam.

Let me explain.

We have been standing here. For just a little over six hours. While waiting, the Hokage himself lectured us on the will of fire and the importance of discipline. They also checked if our packs were field ready. Three times. Three unnecessary times.

We're in a room. A square room. A low celling. And the walls are an unforgiving stark white with obnoxious fluorescent lights above us… the only thing missing is that horrible, headache inducing antiseptic smell.

As far as I can tell, I think they're just testing our patience. Wonderful, ain't it? I just love how I can't feel my feet after standing here for so long… come to think of it, I can't feel my shins either… oh no… walking isn't going to be fun.

There we stood in perfect line, shoulder to shoulder in the position of attention. Our feet at a 45 degree angle and out hands balled at our hips with the tips of our thumbs tucked into our hands.

"Listen up chicken shits!" One of our inspectors, a dark haired bulky man with a scarred nose, shouted. "This will be your test. This is a test of resourcefulness and the occasional combat"

I knew it. Ha. Ha. Take that.

"You will be sent out on a mission outside of Konoha's walls but still in the fire country. The mission will last a minimum of three days to a maximum of five days. This is to gauge at what level this group is when it comes to efficiency and timing. Understand?"

A chorus of us brats yelled back at him. "Yes sir!"

And with that the Hokage handed us our mission scroll after debriefing us and sent us on our way.

So! Sorry I's been such a lone time. I was thinking of not continuing this story..

So tell me how you think, It would really help a lot, honestly the only reason I finished this chapter is because a very nice person commented saying how they would like to read more

Anyway, I feel like my characters aren't that great,

How do you feel about the plot so far? So I need to make it funnier? Faster? Slower? There will definitely be feelings down the line and I don't mean romantic when it comes to sakura.

So if you would just take little bit of time out of your day to tell me how you feel and how you think this story could be presented better please please let me know and I'll do my best to deliver !