CH 12 The tenth question

"We will now begin the first part of the chunin exams. Turn in your applications, take in one of these seating arrangement cards and report directly to the seat indicated. When everyone is seated, we will pass out the written part of the test."

Aki's eyes bulged out of their socket when he heard Ibiki's words. He felt like the world was conspiring against him, trying to fail him in the first phase of his first chunin exam. Dreadfully, he looked at Masaru, passing him a nervous smile.

Masaru Chiba seemed to be lost in his own world, paying little heed to Aki.

"Leave her be, boy." Yasuo said. "Women get frightened of ugly men."

"Am I ugly, grandpa Onida?"

"Not you, silly boy. Him, the invigilator. Look at him, staring at kids, scaring their souls out of them."

"Then why are you shivering grandpa, you're not a kid."

"Just my bones acting up. I fear nobody." Yasuo said, patting Aki on his shoulder. "Don't worry, it will be alright."

"Easy for you to say." Aki murmured. "You can read… and write."

Aki submitted his form, taking a seat between two Konoha shinobis. Fortunately, one of them looked a lot smarter. With enormous glasses on his face, he seemed the type to ace written exams.

"Paper face down until I give the signal." Ibiki said. "Now listen to me carefully. There are a few big rules that pertain to the first test. I'll write them on the blackboard and explain them all, but I'm not taking questions, so listen carefully. I will say this only once."

Aki's eyes drooped, losing himself in the familiar world of mad words doing mad things. If not for Ibiki speaking the rules as he wrote them, he'd be a goner.

Rule number one. Each one you start out here with ten points. The test has ten questions, each worth one point. For each question you get wrong, we subtract a point from you.

Get all ten right, you keep the ten points you have.

For example, if you answer three questions incorrectly. We take your ten points and subtract one point for every wrong answer. So in the end your total drops to seven.

Rule number two. This is a team event. Passing or failing will be determined by the sum total of your three men cell.

"Wait!" Sakura cried, raising her hand. "The concept of starting points and deduction is hard to follow… but what is this team total you're talking about?"

"Did you not get the memo on 'no question' bit? We have our reasons, so shut up and listen. You might even learn something." Ibiki said. "The next bit is crucial."

Rule number three. If, during the course of the exam, a candidate does something out of the ordinary. In simple words, anything that leads the proctor to determine he or she cheated. We subtract two points from each member of the cheater's team.

"The most likely scenario is some of you will lose all your points allowance during the test. If so, you'll be failed, and be asked to leave. The last important point. If any one individual loses all ten of his/her points, that person's entire team, regardless of how well they do, will be DISQUALIFIED!"

Aki turned his neck to look at Yasuo Onida, only to find the old man brushing his denture on his table. Onida spotted Aki's eyes. Smiling, he waved his hands towards him as if saying don't worry.

"I will announce the tenth question forty-five minutes after the tests start, and you have one hour total to finish your test." Ibiki said. "And your timer starts now!"

Aki took a deep breath, ready to battle his greatest adversary of all time. Written tests.

"Dan, can you solve any of these questions?" Aki whispered.

"Absolutely not, gozaru."

"So, it's pointless to ask Gin then."

"Don't give me snark, kid."

"Dan, climb the ceiling and scout the answers. Be sure to drop by grandpa Onida and Masaru. Help them if need be." Aki said, letting his left hand drop to the side.

Dan dropped from Aki's sleeve into his shadow on the floor, swimming through the network of them till he reached the back end of the room. After casting a camouflaging gen-jutsu around himself, he climbed the ceiling of the room, scouting for the answers from up above.

"Whatever you do kid, remember passing in this exam is vital for us." Gin whispered in Aki's ear.

"I'm trying, you know. I didn't know they'd spring a written test on us." Aki murmured in response. "Any record of previous chunin tests mentions only the last exam, the competition in front of the lords."

"Yes, the very place to make our name."

"Don't put more pressure on me, Gin. I might just shit myself."

"If you do that in the competition, we might make a name for ourselves-"

"Shut it, Gin."

Twenty minutes into the exam, and the only thing Aki had written on his test paper was his name. The words on the paper were dancing, mocking him as waited for Dan to return.

"I think I'm going to murder some these ink blotches." Aki murmured.

"That would be awfully barbaric of you, gozaru." Dan whispered, emerging from the shadows and jumping into Aki's haori.

"Dan! Tell me you have the answers."

"I do. There are quite a few smart people here." Dan whispered. "Even Masaru, tailing him for two days, did not allude to the fact that he was so smart."

"Uhm, what happened?"

"He completed his test before anyone else. Almost like he knew the answer to these questions."

"Oh, isn't that something? Fine, leave it for now. This guy is definitely a trouble. I just don't know what kind. Oh, yes, what about grandpa Onida?"

"I applied a gen-jutsu on him, making him see the answers. I'll do the same for you."

"Now, how do we write the answers? I mean, if any of you pop out to write mine, I'm sure proctors would be more than happy to mark us down."

"Just pull your hand inside the sleeve of your haori, kid. I'll do the rest." Gin said.

Aki did exactly that, hiding his arm in his wide haori sleeves. Gin made a Saru hand-sign, manipulating a few strands of his tail hair, carefully wrapping them around Aki's fingers.

"Now, you can take it out."

Aki extended his right hand out, hoping no proctor would notice a few strands of thin white hair wrapped around his copper gauntlet.

"Now don't resist." Gin said, making an Inu hand-sign with his paws. "Let your hand loose. I'll manipulate it with my hair strands."

"I hope you're not writing anything inappropriate." Aki said, watching his hand move and write answers under Gin's tug.

"As much as I like to. You winning this competition in front of a crowd is important to me."

Time passed as the Exalted and his marten struggled to fill the exam sheet. The exam had been going on for forty-five minutes and it was time for Ibiki to announce the tenth question.

"Alright cadets, it is time for the tenth question." Ibiki said, tapping his fingers on the podium. "But before that, let me add one more new rule."

Aki gulped, hoping against hope that the tenth question did not involve him solving a problem on the blackboard. That would be like living his worst nightmare.

"Let me explain. This rule is absolute." Ibiki said, creating tension in the room. "First you must choose. Whether to accept or reject this question."

"What happens when someone doesn't accept the question?!" Temari, one of the sand genin Aki had met and scuffled with, asked.

"If you reject the question and don't even try to answer it. You'll lose all your points immediately and fail. And both your teammates will fail right along with you."

"Then why would I want to reject this stupid question… sir?" Aki asked, standing up.

"Because of the other rule." Ibiki said, motioning Aki to stand down. "If you try to answer this question, and get it wrong. You'll never be permitted to take Chunin exams in your life."

Aki's eyes bulged out of his socket as he stared at the scar faced proctor Ibiki. Was this man high on power, or did he have some screw loose? He could not make rules like that, not out of the blue, at least. Right?

"You can't be serious, that's ridiculous!!" Kiba Inuzuka protested, standing up. "There are ninjas here who have sat for chunin exams more than once already."

"Heh heh, just your rotten luck. I wasn't making rules in the past." Ibiki said, smiling. "I am now."

Aki ignored the proctors' next words of encouraging them to quit the exam and try another year. Not only were they demoralising, they were manipulative. Besides, he had Dan with him.

"Ready now, cadets? Those who wish to leave raise your hands." Ibiki said, trapping all the class in his trap.

"Gin, how many do you think he weeds out with his manipulation?"

"Certainly a few of them." Gin said.

"I'll warn your teammates against quitting." Dan said, disappearing into Aki's shadow.

Aki watched as genins, one after another, started raising their hands. This was certainly a mind game. Ibiki was making a show to make people fear and choose the soft option. At least Aki hoped that was the proctor's goal.

In his musing, he saw one of the kids he knew raise his hand. He was a rookie named Naruto. The same kid with whom his little cousin was hanging around a lot. The same kid who was hated by many adults.

The sight of that kid triggered a lost memory in Aki. A memory from four years ago.

"Benimaru, where are we going?"

Aki's maternal grandfather looked at his grandson sternly, searing his intense gaze on the ten-year-old kid. The kid's face did not resemble his daughter much. Much to his relief.

"How many times have I told you to call me grandfather?" Benimaru said in a stern voice, knocking the ten year bald boy on his head, skewing his round gold-rimmed glasses down.

"How many times have I told you not to hit me on the head, Benimaru?!" Aki said, rubbing his bald head. "Priests at the temple say it'll knock my wisdom down a peg."

"You don't have any wisdom to lose!!"

"I guess that is one trait I got from you."

"You have no trace of my blood, runt."

"Fine by me Benimaru, you're an ugly old ape, anyway." Aki said, bolting away from Benimaru.

Benimaru Sarutobi, an aged blacksmith for the local shrine in the village, chased after his rebellious grandchild. After chasing the rebellious kid for a few allies, he cornered Aki when the boy collided with another child, falling to the ground.

"Hey watch where you are going." Aki cried.

"You watch where you're going, baldie." Naruto said.

"Watch your mouth you little shi-"

"We are leaving Aki." Benimaru said, lifting Aki up and interrupting him mid-sentence.

Aki looked up at his grandfather, expecting to see wrinkled angry eyes ready to berate him. He found those angry eyes, just not on him but the blonde boy sitting on the floor. Old eyes wrinkled with anger and filled with hate.

"Come, we are going to Onida's." Benimaru said, tugging forcefully on Aki's hand.

"Stay away from that boy, Aki." Benimaru said, when they were sufficiently away. "He is the curse your kind has placed on us people."

Even a ten-year-old Aki knew what Benimaru meant by your kind, the shinobis. His grandfather was biassed like that, a biassed fool who never acknowledged the surrounding peace was bought on that kind's blood too.

There would have been no shrines for him to go to if the shinobi around him just up and vanished. Benimaru was a biassed man, fixed in his views and ways, but he was the only family a ten-year-old Aki had left. So he put up with the stubborn old fool.

Naruto smacked his raised hand on the table, creating a loud enough noise to pull Aki away from his memories.

"Never underestimate me. I don't quit, and I won't run!" Naruto said. "I'll accept your stupid question. Even if I risk being a genin for the rest of my life. I'll still become the Hokage, even if I make it by pure stubbornness. I'm not afraid of you!!"

I don't think this boy is any curse Benimaru, maybe stupid, but no curse. Rest in peace, you old ape, may your eyes open to truth in death, Aki thought, smiling and remembering Benimaru.