Her Mask (Shikamaru x Oc)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Shingami hopped off the desk, her feet making no sound whatsoever and stood right beside Ibiki in front of the sentinels, even though they all towered above her.

“It’s time to begin. I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor. And from this day forth your worst enemy.”

All the genin stared wide-eyed at him as he pointed towards the squabble in the back of the room. “First, You candidates from the village hidden in the sound, knock it off! Who told you, you could fight?! I know Shingami wouldn’t have said you could, do you want to be failed before we’ve even begun?!”

The one wrapped head to toe in bandages spoke up. “Sorry, it’s our first time. Guess we’re a little jumpy. Sir.”

Ibiki glared at him before addressing everyone in the room. “I’ll say this once. So listen up, there will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctors. And even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified eminently. Got it?”

The other boy from the hidden sound scoffed. “No fatal force? That’s no fun.”

Ibiki completely ignored him. “Now if we’re ready, we will proceed to the first stage of the Chunin exams. Hand over your paperwork in return you’ll each be given a number, this number determines where you will sit. We’ll start the written test once you’re all seated.”

It was quiet until naruto started freaking out because he didn’t know it was a written test. 

Everyone ignored him.

_________

After everyone got their numbers and was in their seats Ibiki redirected their attention. “Everyone 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 the first time around.” He turned to the board and began writing. 

“Alright, rule number one is this, The written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system, contrary to what some of you may be used to. You all begin the test with a perfect score of ten points, one point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong, so if you miss three your final score will be seven.”

He stopped writing with the chalk and spoke again. “Rule number two, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members.” 

That made every team uncomfortable. Especially team seven. Sakura let her head smack the desk in front of her and say, “What?! Wait a second, you’re saying that we all get scored as a team?!

“Quiet! I have my reasons so shut up and listen.” Ibiki snapped before returning to what he had to say before. “Rule number three, 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, they will deduct two points from the culprits’ score, be warned their eyes are extremely sharp and if they catch you five times, you’ll be dismissed before the tests are even scored.” 

That left all the genin quiet. “Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn’t deserve to be here.”

That made Kotetsu smirk dangerously and say, “I’ve got my eye on you guys.“ This also made Shingami smile under her mask seeing how it got under the genin’s skin.

“If you want to be considered shinobi,” Shingami began getting all their attention. “Then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be.”

She looked at Ibiki for a moment before continuing. “One more thing, if any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails.”

This got a big reaction out of them. A majority looked uncomfortable and some seemed angry like Sakura and Sasuke because of Naruto. She kind of felt bad for the blonde but it was something that had to happen.

“The final question will not be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period, you’ll have one hour to complete the test.” 

Ibiki waited for the second’s hand on the clock to reach twelve before saying. “Begin.” 

Ibiki glanced at Shingami once all the students had begun the test. 

She had literally taken the words he was about to say out of his mouth and he smirked at her before turning back to the genin.

Shingami looked around the room seeing that half of the testers looked confused except Naruto who just looked like he was constipated. 

She leaned against the desk staring at each genin, her eyes completely obscured from the view of others. She knew which of the ‘genin’ were actually members of T&I from the rest.

Shingami also wasn’t fooled by half-assed cover-up attempts on cheating; some were so bad she wanted to slam her head against the desk she was leaning on. While others were smarter about it like the Uchiha using his Sharingan, if it wasn’t for the small spike of his chakra she wouldn’t have noticed it.

After a few minutes, she watched Shikamaru put his pencil down, yawned not so subtly and looked over at her. He rested his head on his crossed arms, looking at her masked face he blushed slightly before closing his eyes taking a little nap.

Shingami smiled even though nobody could see it and shook her head a little at Shikamaru’s actions. 

______________________

“Alright listen up! Here’s the tenth and final question.” Ibiki said.”But before I give you the question, there are some more rules you need to be aware of. Rule number one, each of you is free to not be given the final question. It’s your decision.”

This made Gaara’s sister ask. “So what’s the catch? Let’s say we decided we don’t want to do it, what happens then?”

“If you choose not to take the tenth question regardless of your answers to the other nine, you’ll get a zero. In other words you fail. That also means your two other team mates also fail.” Shingami answered making the genin murmur saying that they would do the final question because it would result in them failing.

“Not so fast, you didn’t let me finish. If you do accept the question but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the chunin exams ever again.” Ibiki said

Shingami glanced at Ibiki with a smirk under her mask as Kiba stood up and said. “That’s bull man! That’s ridiculous! What kind of crappy rule is that? There’s lots of people here that have taken the test before!” Everyone in the room got really quiet. ibiki started laughing menacingly.

“I guess you're unlucky. I wasn’t making the rules before, but I am now. Of course if you don’t want to take it, you don’t have to. If you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year.” He laughed again.

“Now then if you're ready, the final question, those who don’t want to take it raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you are free to go.” Then like a domino effect people started raising their hands and leaving.

This question was the one that you needed to answer right in order to pass the entire part of the exam. More than half of the testers had stood up and left. 

Shingami watched each person leave the room, not feeling bad for them. Until she saw Naruto raise up his hand, getting her completely off guard.