His mask fell at her feet, cracks evident of its soon-to-be short lifespan, but its structure still in one piece. With unsteady hands, she picked up the mask he always stood proudly behind and slid it over her face. As she blinked away silent tears...
"Y-yeah," Sakura replied, a little taken back at Qui's sharp attitude. Even though the raven-haired girl wasn't yelling and making a scene, her tone was no joke.
After Naruto caused a nice big ruckus, a proctor came in and started spitting instructions at them.
And we've been separated, Naruto thought in horror. He could only face the front, too terrified to look behind him and from where he sat, neither left or right of him could he see any of his teammates.
Curse it. We've got an illiterate reader, Sakura groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. A familiar annoying giggle from behind her let her know Ino, her biggest rival, was right behind her. Sakura would never admit it, but just being around Ino made her feel vulnerable and exposed. However, it consequently made her more determined to win Sasuke's heart.
A writing exam? Qui mused, looking about herself cautiously. She hadn't expected to be given a written test so early. That's supposed to be expected though. As a Chunin, you have more responsibilities and an even narrower room for error. One mistake can cost a life. Or many.
Why a written exam? Sasuke wondered, glaring aimlessly at the desk. Would they really just ask how much we've studied to become Chunin?
The doors at the back of the classroom the Genin were all seated in slammed shut. Everyone quieted even more as Chunin sat in the outside aisles with clipboards and pens in hand.
"I am Morino Ibiki, your first exam proctor. This will be a written test and cheating will not be tolerated," a tall, intimidating man said briefly, staring at them all.
Intimidation. He might as well have said that was his name.
Ibiki continued talking quickly about the exam they would take, emphasizing a few rules here and there and the phrase "cheating is definitely not allowed" was thrown back and forth a lot between sentences.
For this particular written exam Ibiki presumably designed, everyone started out with ten points. If they were caught cheating, they lost two points. So the maximum number of times a person could cheat without being kicked out was four. Caught cheating five times gave that person a big slap of disqualification and a kick out the door.
To make life even more nerve-wracking, everyone would be thrown out by teams. So it didn't matter if you decided to be the good kid and not cheat. If one of your teammates got kicked out, your number would be called and you'd be kicked out right away.
"Begin!"
At first, it seemed everyone would be the good egg and not cheat. However, after a couple minutes, some people began to...obviously cheat. It was almost ridiculous.
The Chunin who sat in the outside aisles of the classroom started picking on the obvious cheaters and kicked them out without preamble. Those who tried to fight were taken down swiftly without mercy. Ibiki never moved and continued to survey the classroom.
Eventually, many Genin discovered ways to cheat without getting caught. Of course, some more conspicuous than others, but the majority of the people put on a fake face and played the game skillfully, their unique talents giving them the upper hand over those who did old-school cheating.
I can't believe people still think this isn't obvious, Qui thought, watching the boy in front of her glance at his neighbor's paper. When you attempt to cheat, your body unconsciously leans slightly towards your answer key and--boom! Out you go.
Qui knew actively turning around her chair to look at what other people were doing wouldn't be a good idea either. Instead, she figured she would focus on her own test and trust in her team.
She leaned forward, pencil in her right hand, and her left innocently tucked under her as she pretended to read the questions. To the proctor's eye, she was hunched over, only reading her paper. In this position, her left hand was perfectly placed to reach her bracelet that was clasped on her right.
The bracelet was a chunky piece of jewelry, designed to have a hidden compartment. With her left hand, Qui opened the hidden compartment and found the eye contact lens case. Pretending to rub her eyes tiredly, Qui slipped the contact lenses in and slumped in her seat.
Now, Qui was seated in the very front row. In fact, she was in front of Ibiki. Since he was the only proctor that wasn't moving, she decided to use this to her advantage.
"Let go of me!"
"Numbers 37, 59, 10, fail!"
While everyone was briefly distracted, Qui lifted her head and stared right at Ibiki's forehead protector, the mirror being her guide.
Since Ibiki's head was angled downwards to keep an eye on the exam applicants, Qui would be able to see the answers of the rows behind her with the contact lenses she wore. Even if his head was angled to look at the rows further in the back, Qui would still see the answers, just from different people. Then, all she had to do was write in reverse of what the mirror showed her and she was done.
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The only downside of this problem sometimes was Ibiki wasn't always looking in her direction. However, he didn't move at all and he only turned his head slightly before glaring around the room. Besides, Qui only had to get a gist of the answer and a few numbers before figuring out the actual answer in sentences. She didn't have to write word for word like other cheaters might.
