Child of the Moon

Exam Begin!

Once everyone was seated, some minor guidance from Aiyanna to get Nanami to her seat without giving anything away - even though all the Leaf jonin and chunin knew about her condition, and probably most of the genin - Aki found herself seated right behind the creepy guy, whom she had decided to dub "Gourd Guy" because names were not her strong point.

"Alright, eyes up front!" Scars snapped.

Aki snickered to herself, as she imagined Nanami's deadpan "I'm blind" comment before she remembered that that was probably going to be a problem in a written exam, and her head thumped on her desk a little louder than she thought it would.

"The heck was sensei thinking? How are we supposed to help Nanami out in this one?"

"There are a few rules you need to be aware of," Scars continued. "And I won't answer any questions. So you better pay attention the first time around."

He turned to the board and started writing stuff down, which caused Aki to groan. There was no way Nanami would know what's going on if he's writing crap down!

"The written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system," Scars explained. "Contrary to what some of you may be used to. You'll all begin the test with the perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. If you miss three, your final score will be seven."

"Ugh, that means Nanami will be getting a zero no matter what!" Aki mussed her hair up, trying to contain her frustration. "Being a ninja sucks!"

"The second rule is this," Scars continued. "Teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members."

"WAIT A SECOND!" Aki was pretty sure that the girl's name was Sakura, but she wasn't sure. If yes, bingo, if no, then that's her name anyway. "Are you saying we all get scored as a team?!"

"Meaning Nanami's score will bring the rest of us down unless we can figure out a way to do this," Aki realized. "Whatever, if I'm stuck as a genin forever, then it is what it is. I'm cool where I am anyway. No way am I leaving either of my girls behind in this one."

"SILENCE!" Scars snapped. "I have my reasons. So shut up and listen."

Aki paused at that. "Reasons? Pass or fail as a team... Didn't Tsukiko say something like teamwork being the ultimate test of carrots? Wait, no, I think that's wrong. Why would teamwork be needed to test the level of carrotiness in a carrot? That makes no sense. Wait, Scars is saying stuff. I should pay attention..."

"Rule number three, the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating," Scars explained.

"I figured it was something like that," Aki sighed, glancing around the room absently.

"And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score," Scars was clearly enjoying himself. "Be warned: their eyes are extremely sharp. If they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored."

Aki thought she heard Katsu make a noise of distress from somewhere to her... left? Could be right... Also maybe behind? No, everyone is making noises, Katsu is not alone in his distress.

"Anyone fool enough to be caught by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here," Scars continued. "If you want to be considered shinobi... then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be."

"Phew, so many rules..." Aki sighed again.

"One more thing."

"Really?"

"If any candidate should get a zero, and fail the test," Scars said ominously. "Then the entire team fails."

"Welp, there it is."

"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period," Scars finished up. "You'll have one hour total!"

"Oh, cool, I guess it couldn't hurt to stick it out. I got nothing better to do... Maybe I'll catch up on some sleep."

There was a sharp pinch on her ankle, and when she looked down, she saw the stone had shifted to form words. Don't worry, I got this. Just shade your paper when the test begins, when letters appear underneath your paper. Signal to Nanami to do the same, when she can feel the letters under the page.

Aki grinned to herself. "Yes Aiyanna, you beautiful genius you!"

Aki quietly tapped her desk, just enough that only someone with hearing as sensitive as Nanami's could pick up on. She saw Nanami a few seats ahead, near where Naruto was, and saw her smile over her shoulder, indicating that she had got the message.

"BEGIN!"

There was a flurry of pages being turned over, and Aki grinned confidently.

"We've got this in the bag!"