A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship
A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship
My number was 36. I was walking down one of the two aisles in the long rectangular room, which separated the long rows of desks into three sections. I stopped short when I saw whom I was going to be sitting by.
“Good luck with that,” Lloyd whispers in my ear as he passes me towards the front of the room.
Sasuke turns his gaze away from me when I take my seat next to him. You’re not the only one displeased with this seating arrangement, I think coarsely.
I sigh wearily and glance over my left shoulder and catch Rakuyo’s eyes on me. He smiles reassuringly and I roll my eyes in annoyance back.
“So, this is going to be a written exam. Man, I’m so nervous,” I hear a genin say in front of me. He was talking to one of his teammates obviously, who was sitting on the other side of Sasuke.
I chuckle uneasily. He definitely wasn’t the only one.
A flash of orange crosses m peripheral vision. Naruto smiles at me as he passes, but he wasn’t fooling me. I knew he was as worried as they come, if not more. Writing portions of tests was definitely not his strongpoint. He sits down next to Hinata, and I thought just briefly how lucky they were. Just briefly though, because the instructor at the front of the room had cleared his throat for attention. The time had come for the written exam to begin and I couldn’t let my sitting next to this bastard cloud my mind.
Ibiki sensei picks up a piece of chalk and begins writing on the chalkboard behind him. “Alright, before we begin this writing exam, there are three rules in which you need to know. First off, you all will start off with 10 points, and if you get a answer wrong one point will be deducted. Second rule, each student will either past or fail based on the total scores of all members of that team.”
“What!” Sakura screams in disbelief. “Are you serious? We pass or fail based on each member?”
“There will be no outbursts or questions!” Ibiki sensei answers back just as loud. Sakura’s shoulders slump forward.
I knew exactly why Sakura had made that outburst; Naruto. I had nothing to worry about though, even though the rules spooked me a little, my team would be fine with this exam.
“Rule three, these centennials seated around the room are there to catch you if you are found cheating. 2 points will be reduced from the entire team. Therefore, if you lose 5 points because of it then you will be disqualified from this exam.” Ibiki sensei’s face becomes graver, if that was even possible. “Anyone foolish enough to be caught by the centennials doesn’t deserve to be here.” A smirk softens his expression, a bit. “If you want to be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be.”
Lloyd glances back at me, and we exchange small smiles. But those smiles went away at the instructor’s next words, and everyone who wasn’t fazed by the second rule sure as hell was now.
“If any team member should get a 0 on this test, then the entire team will fail along with them.”
Everyone in the room shifts uncomfortably. Sakura’s mouth was agape, Sasuke clenches and unclenches his fists, and I notice Naruto trembling. My heart went out to him. This was definitely not going well for him.
“There are nine questions in front of you. The tenth question will be given fifteen minutes prior to the end of the testing period.”
“What?” I exclaim in a quiet tone.
“You will have one hour to complete this exam.” His eyes then close and a hushed silence falls over the room. “Begin!”
‘Okay. First question.’ I pick up the sharpened pencil and read over question #1. I stop halfway through it, already completely confused. I move on to the second question, but it was surprisingly harder than the first.
These couldn’t actually be the questions we are supposed to answer. They were much too complex for our level; even some higher rank ninja may have a little time solving these. There had be something to this exam, something I missed…
“Anyone foolish enough to be caught by the centennials doesn’t deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be.”
…that was it. I remembered Ibiki sensei’s words, and I figured it out. They weren’t testing us on our knowledge but on our ability to gather it. And as I looked around the room, I saw that everyone else had figured it out too.
Kiba had Akamaru perched on his head, looking for answers for him. Kinuta Dosu, the Sound ninja I had stopped from attacking Kabuto, had his eye closed, probably studying the vibrations of a pencil. Shino had a bug flying around him, which creeped me out slightly. I saw Tenten moving small mirrors that were situated on the ceiling and she was controlling then with strings in her hand. Ino makes a hand sign directed at Sakura.
“Number 27, fail!” a centennial announces flatly.
The genin stands, outraged. “What!”
“Number 62, fail!”
“Number 19, fail!”
Many people left the room, cursing as they went.
All right, now was not the time to dawdle, but to get serious.
“Byakugan!”
“Sharingan!”
I clear my mind and make a hand sign with my right hand, with both my index finger and middle finger pointing up. The air brushes around my arm, growing more intensive and gathering speed and form. A small wind dragon materializes around my arm, like a snake coiled up around its prey. Its red eyes were piercing against its almost invisible body. I tell it to go and find me answers and it nods slowly and disappears back into the wind.
Seconds later, my dragon returns to me, and blows on certain parts of my exam paper. The answers to questions 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9 appear out of thin on my paper. I smile in recognition at the dragon. I then tell it to go to Lloyd and Rakuyo, and it vanishes once more.
Naruto was still trembling, and I wished I could do something about it. Have my dragon go to him as well, but I knew I couldn’t, it would be wrong. And also knowing him he probably would freak if he saw a dragon appearing at his side without warning.
I glance at the clock on the wall. Only twenty minutes to go before the hours was up, meaning that there was only 5 minutes before the tenth question was to be given.
“Good luck with that,” Lloyd whispers in my ear as he passes me towards the front of the room.
Sasuke turns his gaze away from me when I take my seat next to him. You’re not the only one displeased with this seating arrangement, I think coarsely.
I sigh wearily and glance over my left shoulder and catch Rakuyo’s eyes on me. He smiles reassuringly and I roll my eyes in annoyance back.
“So, this is going to be a written exam. Man, I’m so nervous,” I hear a genin say in front of me. He was talking to one of his teammates obviously, who was sitting on the other side of Sasuke.
I chuckle uneasily. He definitely wasn’t the only one.
A flash of orange crosses m peripheral vision. Naruto smiles at me as he passes, but he wasn’t fooling me. I knew he was as worried as they come, if not more. Writing portions of tests was definitely not his strongpoint. He sits down next to Hinata, and I thought just briefly how lucky they were. Just briefly though, because the instructor at the front of the room had cleared his throat for attention. The time had come for the written exam to begin and I couldn’t let my sitting next to this bastard cloud my mind.
Ibiki sensei picks up a piece of chalk and begins writing on the chalkboard behind him. “Alright, before we begin this writing exam, there are three rules in which you need to know. First off, you all will start off with 10 points, and if you get a answer wrong one point will be deducted. Second rule, each student will either past or fail based on the total scores of all members of that team.”
“What!” Sakura screams in disbelief. “Are you serious? We pass or fail based on each member?”
“There will be no outbursts or questions!” Ibiki sensei answers back just as loud. Sakura’s shoulders slump forward.
I knew exactly why Sakura had made that outburst; Naruto. I had nothing to worry about though, even though the rules spooked me a little, my team would be fine with this exam.
“Rule three, these centennials seated around the room are there to catch you if you are found cheating. 2 points will be reduced from the entire team. Therefore, if you lose 5 points because of it then you will be disqualified from this exam.” Ibiki sensei’s face becomes graver, if that was even possible. “Anyone foolish enough to be caught by the centennials doesn’t deserve to be here.” A smirk softens his expression, a bit. “If you want to be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be.”
Lloyd glances back at me, and we exchange small smiles. But those smiles went away at the instructor’s next words, and everyone who wasn’t fazed by the second rule sure as hell was now.
“If any team member should get a 0 on this test, then the entire team will fail along with them.”
Everyone in the room shifts uncomfortably. Sakura’s mouth was agape, Sasuke clenches and unclenches his fists, and I notice Naruto trembling. My heart went out to him. This was definitely not going well for him.
“There are nine questions in front of you. The tenth question will be given fifteen minutes prior to the end of the testing period.”
“What?” I exclaim in a quiet tone.
“You will have one hour to complete this exam.” His eyes then close and a hushed silence falls over the room. “Begin!”
‘Okay. First question.’ I pick up the sharpened pencil and read over question #1. I stop halfway through it, already completely confused. I move on to the second question, but it was surprisingly harder than the first.
These couldn’t actually be the questions we are supposed to answer. They were much too complex for our level; even some higher rank ninja may have a little time solving these. There had be something to this exam, something I missed…
“Anyone foolish enough to be caught by the centennials doesn’t deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be.”
…that was it. I remembered Ibiki sensei’s words, and I figured it out. They weren’t testing us on our knowledge but on our ability to gather it. And as I looked around the room, I saw that everyone else had figured it out too.
Kiba had Akamaru perched on his head, looking for answers for him. Kinuta Dosu, the Sound ninja I had stopped from attacking Kabuto, had his eye closed, probably studying the vibrations of a pencil. Shino had a bug flying around him, which creeped me out slightly. I saw Tenten moving small mirrors that were situated on the ceiling and she was controlling then with strings in her hand. Ino makes a hand sign directed at Sakura.
“Number 27, fail!” a centennial announces flatly.
The genin stands, outraged. “What!”
“Number 62, fail!”
“Number 19, fail!”
Many people left the room, cursing as they went.
All right, now was not the time to dawdle, but to get serious.
“Byakugan!”
“Sharingan!”
I clear my mind and make a hand sign with my right hand, with both my index finger and middle finger pointing up. The air brushes around my arm, growing more intensive and gathering speed and form. A small wind dragon materializes around my arm, like a snake coiled up around its prey. Its red eyes were piercing against its almost invisible body. I tell it to go and find me answers and it nods slowly and disappears back into the wind.
Seconds later, my dragon returns to me, and blows on certain parts of my exam paper. The answers to questions 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9 appear out of thin on my paper. I smile in recognition at the dragon. I then tell it to go to Lloyd and Rakuyo, and it vanishes once more.
Naruto was still trembling, and I wished I could do something about it. Have my dragon go to him as well, but I knew I couldn’t, it would be wrong. And also knowing him he probably would freak if he saw a dragon appearing at his side without warning.
I glance at the clock on the wall. Only twenty minutes to go before the hours was up, meaning that there was only 5 minutes before the tenth question was to be given.
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:P Im trying to kind of rush through this first exam cause I really want to get to the second one. ^^ hopefully you like it and please leave me comments thanks!!