𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 ─── 𝘪. 𝘰𝘵𝘴𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘶𝘬𝘪

𝟏𝟗| 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗧

CHAPTER NINETEEN
—OR, I totally didn't forget to add a title —

"I'll say this once so listen up, there will be no combat between candidates. No, attacking each other without the permission of the proctor, and even then, the use of force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who thinks about messing with me will be immediately disqualified," Ibiki said glaring at everyone in the room.

"Whoa, calm down bud. You're scaring the kids," Kuro said as she bit into the last piece of her takoyaki and smiled at him with a flower-like aura around her completely ignoring the tension around her.

"PAY ATTENTION TO THE ATMOSPHERE!!" Sakura and Ino screamed at her.

Kuro completely ignored their existence and leaned into her seat, chewing on the delicacy in her hand.

The boy next to her grinned mischievously and grabbed her hand that was holding the half-eaten takoyaki and brought it up to his lip before eating it. Kuro watched in horror as he smiled wickedly at her.

"That was mine. The...the last piece..." she said.

Indra just shrugged with a smirk on his face as he looked at her expression. Why did she look like a puppy that had been pushed aside...?

Ibiki shook his head at the couple and continued explaining the rules, "Now, if you're ready, we will proceed to the first phase of the exam. Hand over your paperwork, in return, you will be given a number. This number will determine where you will sit. We'll start the written test when you are seated,"

Sasuke and Naruto smirked, they shared a look and then looked at their brother who nodded at them. They both sighed thanking their brother for the hours of studying he put them through.

Everyone took their designated seat, "Alright, eyes front. There are a few rules you need to be aware of, and I won't answer any questions, so you better pay attention. Alright, Rule #1, the written part of the exam is conducted in a point reduction system, contrary to what some of you may be used to. You'll all begin the test will a perfect score of 10 points. 1 point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss 3, your final mark will be seven. Rule #2, teams will pass and fail based on the total number of scores of all three members. The exception being the two-man team of Indra and Kuro. Rule #3, the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating, and for every incident they spot, it will subtract 2 points from the culprit's score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times you will be dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here, if you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobis you are," Ibiki explained.

"You are one sneaky bastard, you know that Ibiki?" Kuro said while smirking evilly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ibiki chuckled while closing his eyes.

"I've worked with you long enough to understand how that brain of yours works, Ibiki," Kuro said.

Ibiki scoffed before continuing, "I forgot to mention, if a candidate gets a zero and fails the test then the entire team fails," Kuro raised an eyebrow at his words before she smiled. The whole scene was giving her a sense of nostalgia as she remembered watching this exact scene play out. Although it was from behind the screen.

Sakura gasped and looked at Naruto who looked at Ibiki with a bored gaze.

"The final question will not be given until 15 minutes before the end of the testing period," Ibiki continued.

Some of the candidates gasped, "You'll have an hour total," he finished.

"Still the same old Ibiki, huh?" Kuro said and turned to the jonin that sat to her right. "How has he been doing with the Interrogation?" She asked him.

"Same as always, scary and crazy as hell. Reminds me, there was this one time when he came to work grumbling something about "run-away" and "not enough sleep", so on the very same day, he ended up torturing his victim so much that the person ended up going into solitary confinement and it's said to be that he went crazy. So the Hokage gave Ibiki a one-week holiday and Ibiki destroyed base later that day," the jonin narrated.

"Oh wow, that explains why it was in pieces when I visited later on," Kuro reminisced.

"The Hokage also cut his budget and put it to repairing the base, he's been in a sour mood ever since," the jonin finished off.

A kunai whizzed past the two and they turned to look at Ibiki who glared murderously at them,
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, chill out dude," Kuro said while the Jonin sweatdropped.

"Don't remind me of that day," Ibiki grunted.

"Haha, loser got his budget cut off. Sore loser," Kuro snickered at him. Said man labeled as a 'sore loser' just glared at her before glancing at the clock.

"Alright, you can begin," he said before sitting down on the chair.

Kuro laughed at his misery before looking down at her paper, she raised an eyebrow at the questions. She closed her eyes and sensed two familiar chakras. She smirked, 'hmm, so it begins,' she thought to herself.

These questions were simple for her, the others, however... She glanced around the room and saw that few of the deciphered his code within the rules, to put it in simple terms, 'Cheat but don't get caught,'  Kuro sighed and wrote down her answers, and began twirling her pen around her finger.

She scanned her surroundings once again and caught a few cheating quite a handful of times. She sighed and felt someone fiddle with her fingers. She looked down and saw a familiar hand playing with her fingers, she looked up and saw Indra looking at their hands together like it was the most interesting thing in the world. She looked at him with a wry smile before she let him do what he wanted, and she placed her head on the desk.

"That's it, all four of you, get out. You with the green eyes, wait by the door," Ibiki ordered and they did as told.

"Hey Ibiki, wanna play poker?" Kuro questioned.

"Not right now," he replied.

"Fine, I'll be sleeping, wake me up when the exam ends," she said as she flopped back onto the table and closed her eyes.

The events of the exam played through her head as she sighed. She'd deal with it later, right now, all that mattered, was sleep.

The jonins shook their head at her and the exam continued.