Team 8

Chapter 12: Stress Testing

Naruto stared down at his paper, holding his head in his hands. The rules, as explained by the scarred special jonin, were pretty straightforward. The teams were split up into randomly-assigned seats before the test papers were passed out. Everyone started with ten points, but wrong answers cost a point for each question. Getting caught cheating cost you two points every time you were caught. Run out of points and get removed from the exam. Simple, right? Oh, and if you get a zero your teammates fail as well... Just answer the questions and don't cheat, right?

Except for the fact that Uzumaki Naruto was abysmally bad with written tests. They were the bane of his existence at the Konoha Ninja Academy. Practical exercises were different. He failed a lot of those too, but at least there was a chance. Sometimes he could figure out a way to succeed, or work around the rules. Like with the kunai-throwing examination – Iruka hadn't specifically forbidden him to use an explosive tag, and the bull's-eye was certainly destroyed, even if he'd struck the target three inches to the left of center...

But a written test... there was only one way to answer them correctly. No way to distract the examiner and move the starting line. And only one correct way to actually do the problem. No room for creativity at all.

A drop of sweat rolled down Naruto's forehead and traced a path down his nose. He rubbed at it irritably. At least the first question wasn't multiple-choice. The parabola, B, represents a shuriken's path after being thrown by an enemy ninja from a height of seven meters. Calculate the strength of the enemy ninja that can be observed from the trajectory followed by the shuriken and figure out the maximum throwing distance on flat ground. Explain your reasoning.

Oh crap, he thought with horror, it's even worse - they want me to do math!

OoOoO

Hinata leaned forward with her eyes closed, appearing to be lost in thought to an outside observer. This motion also caused her short hair to hang slightly forward along the sides of her face, as her hands moved under the desk. She oh so carefully twisted her concealed fingers into the seals that would activate her family blood-limit, whispering "Byakugan" in a ghost of a whisper. Her chakra flow was so slow, and so controlled, that the students on either side of her didn't even look up. The bulging veins on her temples were now concealed by her hair, so she gave no outward sign as her closed eyes scanned the papers of nearby candidates. If she was going to cheat, as this test seemed to require, she was determined not to get caught.

Finding one who seemed to have filled out most of his test, she began memorizing his answers. Everything was going according to plan. She'd hoped when they began assigning seats that she'd be able to sit near Naruto-kun, but of course the 'random' assignments would be altered to separate teammates. Much as she wished she could help her friends, she was confident that they would find some way to succeed.

OoOoO

Shino nodded slightly as his spy returned. A specially-bred subspecies of kikai, it had extremely well-developed compound eyes to assist with reconnaissance missions.

Unfortunately, its brain wasn't quite as well-developed. Though he could communicate with it easily by using one of his attuned queens, its conversational skills were as underdeveloped as those of his teammate when contemplating hot ramen. In addition, the flying insect's memory was only sufficient to memorize a single answer at a time.

Though tedious to use, it was effective nonetheless. He only hoped that his teammates were also finding ways to succeed. A single zero would bar the entire team from progressing.

OoOoO

Naruto sweated as he looked over the other test questions. None of them looked particularly easy. Most of them he felt he could eventually puzzle out given unlimited time or access to the right books, but he had neither at the moment.