COTE x Naruto: New Beginnings

Chapter 30: Announcement

With the sport festival, the students of the Advanced Nurturing Highschool were given some time to rest once again. Well, they did have to write the midterms again with the same promise of being expelled if anyone were to get a failing score, but for Kakashi and the rest of Class A, that was hardly an issue.

It was the middle of October when Mashima-sensei decided to reveal something to the class. Another special exam was coming, this one disguised as the finals.

"In a week, a small test will be held. It will cover material from the third year of junior high, meaning that it will test your grasp of the fundamentals, therefore there's no need to really prepare for it. However, this mini test, despite not having any effect on your grades or having any consequences even if you were to get zero points, will end up deciding the pair you will be sorted into for the finals - which will be held in the form of an exam called the 'Paper Shuffle', which I'll explain in a bit," Mashima-sensei had begun.

"These pairs will be chosen based on the results of this mini test. These pairs will matter in the finals, or the Paper Shuffle exam if you will. During this special exam, your class will be required to collectively choose one of the other classes to go against. Then, you all will be asked to prepare a 100-question final exam for this class. The same will be done for you, of course. A class will lose or gain 50 class points depending on whether they beat the overall point score of the class they choose to compete against," Mashima-sensei continued his explanation, every student in Class A completely silent, listening to his explanation.

"Additionally, you will be writing the finals in the pairs that are chosen for you by the school once we get the results of the mini test you all will be writing in a week. In these pairs, you have to get at least 60 points in every subject on the test. If you don't, the pair will be expelled. These 60 points are the addition of both of the students' scores, so you could say that if one student got 60 points from the English exam while the other got 0, the pair would still be fine."

That sounded like a safe haven to the less academically inclined students in Class A, of which there weren't many admittedly. Still, Kakashi could see some of the students who were afraid they wouldn't pass eye the smarter students.

"That, however, isn't the only rule. In order to pass the exam, the group needs at least 700 points total from the eight individual subjects the exam is written on. That means that nobody can really afford to slack off and depend on their smarter classmate to ensure their safety."

It essentially meant an average of 43.75 points per subject per person. So if someone wanted to completely get carried in the exam, then their partner had to get 88 points out of 100 in every subject, which only 5 people in Class A could achieve.

"Sensei, about the Paper Shuffle, does this mean we're essentially able to steal those 50 points from another class?" Yahiko wondered.

Mashima-sensei nodded. "The highest amount of points a class can earn in the Paper Shuffle is 100. 50 by challenging another class and the class receiving less total points on the finals, and another 50 by another class challenging the class and losing the challenge. I hope that clears everything up."

Kakashi let out a deep sigh, rising his hand for probably the first time ever. He wasn't too fond of speaking up in class, he preferred doing things in the shadows. However, Arisu was sitting too far away from him for him to whisper his question to her so that she could ask, and so was Hashimoto for that matter.

He really needed more allies, preferably not ones he blackmailed like Arisu did with Kamuro.

"Mashima-sensei, how often is a pair or more expelled due to this exam?"

Mashima-sensei smiled at the question. "Every year, I believe. Usually from Class D, but there'd been at least one pair expelled from Class A too, as well as the other classes. Does that answer your question?"