The Breaking Point (SasukeXOC)

35

Ibiki filed us into the exam room and assigned us all seating. I was in between the redheaded sand ninja and one from the Hidden Sound. Naturally I was sat between two enemies that hated Konoha, my team, and me. Not only did they want to beat me out for Chunnin but they also wanted to beat me up.

Honestly, don't I have the best luck?

"Listen up, don't turn over your exam packets yet. There are a lot of rules to this first exam. I'll write them on the board while I explain them, but questions are allowed." The instructor began. I could feel my attention wavering. I wanted so badly to tune him out, but I knew this was important.

My eyes wandered around the rows of Gennin finding each of the Konoha rookies. Naruto was up front, Sakura was in the middle, and Sasuke was to my left. My eyes halted on Sasuke's, who had caught me not paying attention. He scowled at me and signaled with his eyes to pay attention. I pouted and turned back to the front.

"...Each team will compete to see who holds the most points at the end of the exam." Ibiki was explaining.

"Wait!" Sakura shouted. I blinked at her and glanced to the boys on either side of me who scowled at Sakura. I sunk down in my chair hoping they didn't recall that I was on her team.

"This is a team test?" She continued. Ibiki rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I just said that. Be quiet and listen." He snapped.

Sakura isn't worried I'll do poorly on the exam and ruin our team score, is she? ... I know I'm not that smart but jeez! Have a little faith, Sakura! I'm not a total idiot!

"The shinobi caught cheating is disgraceful. Be proud and fair ninja, that's what it means to be Chunnin." Ibiki continued.

Crap, what was he saying?

"Those that lose all their points during the exam and those who don't answer any questions correctly will fail with their team." Ibiki finished. I felt a chill down my back and turned to see Sasuke glaring sharply towards the front. I followed his eyesight, catching Sakura also glaring in the same direction. Their target seemed to be Naruto.

"Begin!" Ibiki shouted and I flailed to turn over my test quickly.

Ok! First question... looks hard... I'll just skip it and come back...moving on!

I scanned through the exam. Each question created more and more panic within my chest. All of these questions were super hard and I had no idea how to answer any of them!

My team is going to kill me. I really am an idiot!

I bit my lip nervously. I wanted so badly to glance around and see if everyone else was freaking out as much as I was, but I couldn't! I heard parts of what Ibiki was saying and knew that if he thought I was cheating I would be totally done for!

Ibiki is right. I'm a proud shinobi of Konoha. I'll finish this test with honor and integrity. I'll try my best; it's all I can do.

With my resolve set, I began the exam for real. I didn't have any idea what the questions were asking, so I broke them into pieces. I wrote down any given information and did all calculations by hand. Once I got started it wasn't as bad as I thought. Sure, everything was crazy difficult, but I was starting to get the hang of the types of questions they were asking.

Maybe they'll give me partial credit.

"Ok, we will now begin the 10th question." Ibiki cut in. I breathed a sigh of relief; I had only just finished scribbling down an answer that totally didn't make sense for number 9. For the first time in an hour I glanced up from my exam.