Here To Stay

The World's On Fire

     Ibiki immediately set to laying down the law. Chastising the Sound nin for fighting. 
 
       “If any decide to cross me. Disqualification is waiting for them.” Ibiki’s voice was low and intimidating, I shivered at the implication.

     Ibiki was tall, he wore a trench coat that fitted his muscular arms. He had two slashing scars over his face, one on each cheek, reaching from eye to jaw. He wore a bandana over his presumably bald head. His eyes were merciless.

    “Now, come up and we will give you a number. This will be your seating arrangement.” 

     Once all seated a test was passed out. I could sense Naruto’s panic from across the room.

    I looked down at the test and tried to read the first question, but gave up when Ibiki spoke again. 

     “This is a point reduction system. You will all start out with ten points and every wrong answer will take away one point. Teams will pass and fail based on a cumulative score. If you get a zero then your entire team fails. There are people around the room that will be watching you carefully, if you are caught cheating there will be a two point deduction. If you are caught cheating five times you and your team will be immediately disqualified. The final question will be given out at the last fifteen minutes. In total, you have one hour.”

    Ibiki finished instructions and turned to sit in a seat and stare at us.

    “Start.” 

  With that we all looked down to the test.

   Question one. 

     ‘Decipher this block of text after it's been encoded.’

    I blink at the problem. I had to read it a few times before I got the answer.

    These questions were way too hard, Naruto didn’t stand a chance. I looked over to my teammates.

   Naruto wasn’t writing anything. Sakura was going at it. Sasuke stared at it blankly, but then his eyes flashed red and he started scribbling furiously.

    I cringed and looked down to my paper again.

   Question two. 
    
    ‘Line B is the greatest possible distance a shinobi can throw his shuriken from a tree of 7 metres. For enemies who appear within the circumference of the shuriken's range, explain his attack options. Show work.’

    I study the diagram before writing down the options.

    When I move on to the third problem I feel my blood run cold.

     I look up to try and find the source of my anxiety.

    Ibiki meets my eyes.

   He smirks but doesn’t look away. I cringe but stare back.

    Eventually he seems satisfied with my resolve and he moves to torment other kids.

    Shaking my head I look back down and stare at problem three till my mind wonders.

     There’s a vibration next to me and I look over to see a boy shaking so bad his knee is almost invisible. His face was ravished with fear. 

    ‘Ibiki’s got these kids so scared they might shit themselves.’

     I cringed at the thought and went back to my test. There was no way I could answer the rest of the problems. I couldn’t even tell what they were asking.

    ‘Naruto must be so scared!’

    If I can’t answer them there’s no way he can.