Get Lost

Chapter 10

Kazue ended up next to Shikamaru.

Why? Why do you hate me?

"Listen up!" the proctor said. "Here are the rules. Listen well because I won't be answering any questions."

No questions?

"You each start off with 10 points, a perfect score. You lose a point for each question you get wrong. You all are scored collectively, as a team."

A few people shouted out. Ibiki wouldn't hear any of it.

"You see those sentinels watching you, they'll be watching for cheating. Anytime they catch you cheating, they'll take off two points. Anyone foolish enough to be caught cheating doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to become a shinobi then show us what excellent shinobi you can be.

"Finally, if any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails."

Kazue tried to even her breathing. She'd probably do fine. They probably all would. They were a balanced team. She just really didn't want to hold them all back.

"You'll have one hour total. The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes remain. Begin!"

Kazue flipped over the paper and scribbled her name. Alright, here goes.

She read over the first problem. Then again. What is this saying? Kazue started to panic a little. No. No. No, panicking. I can do this.

Kazue read over it slowly. She had a hazy understanding of what it was saying. She wrote down an answer anyway.

Kazue glanced at the clock. That had taken a lot more time than she had thought! Kazue glanced over the other problems. Every one of them was much more difficult than even the first one. There were probably only a handful of people who knew what these were even asking for, let alone how to answer them.

She sat still for a while, trying to not panic. A few people around her were already writing, some furiously. Shikamaru sat quietly. A couple of rows ahead and a few seats over sat Sakura, she was writing like crazy. How did she understand any of this?

Kazue clutched her hands together. She was going to fail and she was going to take Sonomi and Rokuro with her. She tried to look around. She was only able to see Rokuro. He was writing too. He knew what he was doing. She was going to get him flunked out.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kazue saw Sakura slump forward. Kazue frowned. But Sakura had been writing like crazy a moment before. She just sat there for a moment, then she sat straight again.

Kazue knew those movements. Something about that was familiar. Kazue was able to see a row or two behind Sakura. Ino lay slumped on her desk.

Mind Transfer Jutsu. Ino was reading Sakura's answers through Sakura's eyes! She was cheating. Kazue frowned. She looked around more. She saw other signs of cheating. Shino had bugs flying around him and he was studying them intently. Couldn't he communicate with bugs or something? And other genin staring up at the ceiling. There were mirrors up there. They were placed in a way where they were of no use to her, but people were cheating.

Maybe that was the point. Maybe they were supposed to cheat. They were supposed to be ninja after all. They should be able to collect information without being caught, even if they were being watched this closely. After all, why would they only get a point deduction for cheating instead of an automatic failure?

Alright, so they were supposed to cheat. How was she going to?

Shikamaru started scribbling. What? he didn't have any way to cheat? He couldn't see anyone else's paper or take over their mind. Then Kazue noticed Sakura was back to scribbling but Ino was still passed out. Ino had taken over Shikamaru and was writing for him.