~Defeating A Mirage~

OOC: How could I resist having her lose her temper? ;D

Anyway, it's not about knowing the name of the rite. It's the whole "how did it go" thing, suggesting that she knows that there's some way for that rite to go. It's just Hanako's interpretation of the words anyway. x3

Oh, and since I had a technique slot free and just came up with this neat little number, I've added the Amatsu Hananoka technique to Hanako's arsenal. I know it's sort of past the last minute, but I hope it's alright. Ish technically a partial dance of blossoms. :3

IC:

Hanako was not overly surprised or intimidated by the shuriken toss. Akane was always tossing sharp objects about, and Hanako had grown used to interposing them in the interest of not losing a team member to murder charges. No projectile of the brunette's would get through her forest's skin technique. Still, she had no desire to push her luck with the pocket-edition shinobi whom, in spite of the temper flares, she did regard as something of a friend. The fact that she had let her off with a warning without declaring permanent war suggested that the feeling was, at least partially, mutual, and so the girl restrained the inevitable question about how she dealt with her father or how she thought she been born in the first place from getting voiced.

Instead, the girl put on her usual friendly grin, "Alright, alright, Akane-chan." she replied, "You don't ask me to reveal the rites and I won't ask you about the boys, alright?" the teenager winked, sauntering into the exam room after her short-tempered comrade, who was currently busy tormenting the person in charge of handing out seat numbers. The examiner looked vaguely familiar, and as she got a better look at the scarred man, Hanako finally grasped the name. Ibiki Morino, interrogation specialist. He had been around in the clan complex once, to request the use of the Sennen Aganai, though she had immediately been ushered into another room by her mother when that subject came up. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she accepted her own seat number from the examiner, who -- wisened by his encounter with Akane and a quick glance at the casual way Hanako's hand rested on the hilt of her blade -- took great care to address her respectfully. Why would an interrogation specialist be handling a written exam?

This question remained at the back of Hanako's mind as she took her seat at the right-hand side of the class, right behind a male sound genin whose long, gray trench coat reached all the way to his shaded eyes. He seemed wrapped in concentration, betraying no side of noticing the newcomer, even as something in his manner suggested the opposite. The girl's attention was quickly drawn back to the choice of examiner, though. Even though the test hadn't even begun yet, she had a distinct feeling that it was more than just the information content of their heads that was at test her. Well, Hanako decided for herself, confidently locking her eyes with the examiner's and oh-so-discreetly flashing the scar from the first conviction his way, though he predictably enough betrayed no sign of noticing. She was a member of the Tamori clan, a member with quite a bit of misdemeanors to her name. If he thought that he was going to psyche her out, he had another thing coming. In fact, the prospect of a battle of wills was invigorating. Hanako had expected a dull session of pencil scratching where the greatest threat was a papercut, but if Morino-sensei was planning to apply his skills, this might actually turn out interesting.

Drumming her fingers against the desk in front of her, Hanako sought eye contact with each of her scattered teammates in turn, giving them a confident grin each to assure them that she had no worries about passing this exam.

Dansei, having been scanning the room repeatedly, finally caught sight of Hanako and made eye contact with her. "Good luck," he mouthed, relieved she and Akane had both made it here. Well, not so much about Akane, due to the fact that she had attempted to assault him and was absolutely disrespectful to the ninja up front. Dansei shrugged and touched his fingertips together to form a circle, his pinky fingers touching his abdominal area -- a habit he had picked up from watching Shikamaru. He needed to think. His vision was failing already, and his chakra levels were low. In a little less than a minute, he would go back to being blind.

Come on... I need to take this now!

Yumi was about to respond to the question but thought against it and gave a nod in response. If he didn't know where Hanako was then he was pretty lucky according to her. She started getting bored and sighed occasionally. The other guy making trouble in the room wasn't enough excitement for her. She just wanted the stupid test to start already. Her wish was granted once the examiner started speaking. He looked kind of creepy to her though. After listening to his speech Yumi stood up to recieve her number. Getting this over with quicker would bring her one step closer to the exam.

'So my number is 12 huh?' A bit too far from her teammates if you asked her. But then again you can't hold your teammates hands either. 'Oh well you guys better pass without me.' she thought as she walked over to her seat completely ignoring those who were sitting next to her and everything else. Yumi was completely confident in the fact that she would pass this test, after all she had information on most of the ninja in the village. She recongized him from one of the files and if his profile was any indication then she would know what's coming. Besides, it's not like she couldn't pass the test anyway. Yumi was confident in her academic skills and thought nothing of it when the examiner was trying to look intimidating. 'Trust me, I've seen worse.'

OOC: Aww.. man i should have picked a better fake kekegenkai so it would help on the test >.<


Keiko sighed. "Souran do you always have to start a commotion when you don't get your way?" Keiko took a card from Ibiki and looked at it." So... I got seat 13. Six down from Souran. 10..11..12..13, here we go". Keiko took his seat, got out a pencil and waited."I wonder if our team will make it to part 2 of the exam this year?"Keiko took a look at his ninja tools while he waited for the test to start. "24 kunai, 12 shuriken, 34 feet of wire, 5 paper bombs and a light bomb.

Dansei sighed. "Dispel," he whispered, not wanting to waste anymore chakra. He was blind again -- and because this was a written test, he would be unable to do anything. He simply hoped that he could regenerate chakra fast enough to be able to use his Sight Rebirth Technique again.

Hopefully I can get enough chakra to use it in about an hour... They should give us about that much time to get this test done.

As the day slowly ticked away, the higher ranked shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village began to pass out papers to all the genin sitting at their desks. Almost all of them shared an evil glare, trying to intimidate the lower ranked ninja. Once the papers were past out along with pencils, Ibiki began to explain the written test that the room full of genin would soon take. He walked forward to the very front of the room and spoke up.

"There are some rules that follow along with this test and I shall explain them, so listen carefully. Rule one; Each of you start off with ten points from the get-go. Each question on this test is worth a single point...there are ten questions as well. For each question you get wrong, a point will be deducted. Second rule; The pass or fail decision will be determined by your teams added points together. Rule number three; If a fellow examiner decides that you have cheated or have done something of the similar crime, you will lose two points each time you are caught. Meaning some of you may be gone before getting your test even graded. Though, if a single person obtains a zero, the entire team fails. The final question will be given after forty-five minutes have past since the test begins. You have but an hour...begin!" Ibiki yelled just as the clock seemed most fitting to him, commencing the start of the written test.

"Sheesh, talk about antagonizing. Well, better get started on this-!" Souran stopped once he took one glance at the first question on the paper. He was astonished that they would expect a mere genin to know what they were asking.

"You've got to be kidding me! If a shuriken is thrown at a distance of ten feet, will it hit the target traveling one mile an hour?! That doesn't even make sense what-so-ever!" Souran stressed in his head, trying not to break out into an outburst. He took a look around, seeing how the competition was doing. He noticed that many others were as stressed as he was, but only a few were writing. Then out of the silence came the sound of a chuunin yelling, "Number twenty-two, fail!...Eriki Kuzo and Yuzu Trino fail as well!" Souran sighed, glad that it wasn't his teammates being caught.

"Well, I guess that's one team we wont be worrying about...that's a bit odd. Why do they make being caught cheating seem more worse than getting an answer wrong? What if...are we supposed to cheat? Well, even if it isn't the right thing to do, it's the only thing I can do if I want any chance in passing this test without getting a zero and automatically failing the whole team." Souran decided just before forming his hands into a sign, then taping his left eye, closing it and holding his index finger there, then whispering; "Eye transfer jutsu." a technique he has been practicing for a while now which enabled him to transfer his eye with the one of a victim of his body transfer, and with the blue jay still atop his shoulder, successfully made the transfer.

"With a birds eye, this should make spying a lot." Souran finished, before using the bird's eye to view a random genin's paper who had answered the questions. Souran then gained a smirk and he began to think to himself; "This may be simpler than I thought. The difficult part will be performing the body transfer along with eye transfer with Keiko and Fen, plus, since I haven't fully understood the eye transfer, anything could happen."

OOC: AHH Re:Mix! number fifty-seven is me! rofl.

Fen watched the rest of the class bored. These questions were way beyond his thought spectrum. He looked around the class and watched everyone feverishly writing and thinking. Fen felt no pressure at not knowing the answers though. He looked around the room patiently watching the exam proctors writing feverishly.

"Number 26, FAIL.... number 38 FAIL" The numbers seemed to be getting faster... and Fen hadn't even wrote down a single thing. he scanned the room for his team mates spotting Keiko and Souran across the room.

"Hm... Keiko... hasn't written anything yet... he looks completely dumfounded. I expected that, so its all up to Souran for information gathering..." Fen's gaze shifted to Souran who was writing quickly. "hm.... so Souran has the answers... he does have that one jutsu... maybe if i cause enough of a distraction, he can pull the jutsu off and give me the answers.... Its worth a shot, i hope he realizes what i'm doing. Fen thought to himself.

He leaned back in his chair and looked to the ceiling, chewing on his pencil. Suddenly his chair slipped out from underneath him and he fell to the ground with a loud thud. A kunai fell from his pouch and went sliding to an empty corner of the room. It slowed to a stop and settled. Fen stood up quietly and and returned to his seat in its normal position and leaned over his test and pretended to write. He reached up to his head and scratched his head and as his hand came down, he made two quick hand signs and whispered to himself.

"Wind style.... Sonicboom..."

The kunai in the corner of the room made a small explosion of wind that sounded like a gunshot and blew papers around the room and sent everyone astir. Fen received death glares from the other genin and the proctors on the sides of the room.

"SORRY! sorry... sorry... the kunai has an impact timer.. set for a delayed explosion after contact..." Fen said, fake apologizing to the other genin and proctors, of course lying to them. But they would never know since it was a jutsu of Fen's own creation. Fen returned to fake writing, hoping that Souran knew to take advantage of the situation. Distractions and going overboard... Fen's specialty. Souran should know the que

"Come on Souran...its up to you to have used that time to set up your jutsu without anyone seeing..."

Hanako couldn't help being slightly amused by the way the shinobi handing over her exam paper looked. He was going for the stern man of discipline look, but next to the mental image of Yuukijiji's stern face, it looked almost comical, like watching a mouse roar, and Hanako had to cover her mouth to prevent the laughter from spilling out. Needless to say, this invoked another score of weird stares, not least from the assistant who's stern demeanor didn't quite reach the same level as he proceeded to hand out the remainder of his paper stack.

Oh yeah, Hanako was on a weirdness roll today.

Stifling the last of the laughter, the kunoichi finally turned to her exam paper. She wasn't worried. After all, how hard could this possibly...be?

"You've got to be ribbing me." she hissed, staring in disbelief at question number three, 'If a shuriken travels at a speed of 16 m/s at an angle of 28 degrees to the ground on a rainy day, what is its mass? Give you answer to the nearest gram.'. A quick scan of the questions revealed that none were the simpler. In fact, it was almost the opposite.

Hanako groaned. Sure, she may have skipped out on a few theory classes. Okay, quite many theory classes, but she had never even heard of determining a weapon's mass by velocity and weather conditions alone. Didn't velocity depend on the person throwing it too? This was bad, this was very bad. Biting the wooden end of her pencil in concentration, Hanako shut her eyes in an attempt to focus on what she had been taught about projectile weapons. Much to her annoyance, it was getting increasingly harder to do so. The girl might not have been hyper-sensitive like Yumi, but neither was she stone deaf, and with all of the commotion breaking out in the exam room that was pretty much what you needed to be in order to not be annoyed by the noise. People were getting disqualified left and right, frustrated groans, complaints and explanations resounded across the classroom and were effectively punctuated by a resounding blast, created by a genin with weird, green hair whom Hanako vaguely recalled sitting next to back at the academy. She hadn't really talked to him, though, not beyond the usual chatter she kept around herself, and as such she had no name to associate with the face. The girl shook her head, fully intent to return to her paper when the obvious realization suddenly struck her.

These weren't any accidents everyone was apologizing for. They were cheating! A quick sweeping glance across the room confirmed her suspicions: it was everywhere, genjutsu and ninjutsu galore, even bloodline abilities; all applied for the sole purpose of peeking at the nearest paper. It was a royal cheatathon. So Hanako wasn't the only one struggling with the paper, then. But...if everyone was copying everyone else...no, that couldn't be right. Someone had to actually write something of their own, but...who? It was a tad too late for observation now. Pencils were scratching against paper everywhere, and there was no telling whether anyone had copied right. So, she'd just have to chance it then, but...who to copy?

Hanako bit her lip. This type of sneaky skull drudgery had never been her thing. It was just so...tedious to stalk an answer for hours at an end when you could just ask. But that wasn't the point here, was it? They liked their Chuunin sneaky. It was obvious. Surely, the numerous instances of cheating which even Hanako had spotted wouldn't have escaped each and every one of these shinobi? No, of course they hadn't, they were just weeding out the klutzes from the little Yumis in the crowd, and Hanako would be damned if she let that little hissy upstage her.

Shutting her eyes, the young swordswoman attempted to focus. Peeking over someone's shoulder obviously wouldn't do, she needed a plan, but the constant noise around her was making it a real chore. Was this the reason that Yumi kept getting annoyed at loud conversation? One noise in particular was being obnoxious, a steady scratching followed by a rhythmic tapping.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Okay, so both her dances were obviously out the question. The Forest's Skin was a defensive technique, so that was no good either, and Petal Blade was hardly an ideal diversion. So that left...Hanako gave an inward cringe, the Amatsu Hananoka. Yes, that was both unexpected and sneaky, but at the same time it was so...Yumi, odds were that that had been her main reason for always disliking the technique. Still, she reminded herself, Yuminess was what was called for if she wanted to pass this test, and -- a quick glance at the clock revealed -- she needed to pass fast. With only twenty minutes to go before the final question came around, she'd have to hustle if she wanted to get the answers written down in time. So she had her diversion and she had what she thought was a decent method for taking advantage of it, that only left the target...

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Annoyed, Hanako finally tore her gaze away from the paper, soon localizing the source of the nuisance. It was the sound nin sitting in front of her. His expression was just as unreadable as ever, but his right index finger kept tapping against the wooden desk with alternating intervals, while his hand...Hanako's eyes widened, the sound nin was writing at a rapid pace without even glancing at his paper, and a quick sweep of the area revealed that two others donning the sound emblem were doing the same. In fact, their movements seemed almost...synchronized. It was then that the realization struck her.

'Morse code!' Hanako had to constrain herself not to shout the word out loud. The sound nin were communicating in morse code, though it seemed to be a different set of patterns than the regular. No doubt they had some kind of trick to keep the din of the classroom from disrupting them. The guy with the shades was somehow copying the answers off someone else (Hanako would not have put it past him to recognize it by the sound of the pencil movements) and passing them onto his teammates, and by the looks of it...he was done.

Oh yes, target ready to go.

"Shimatta! This makes no sense!"

Several heads turned turned as Hanako let out a scream almost as loud and terrifying as that of a dying animal, her face buried in the test paper as her right hand pounded the desk in frustration, a few faked tears running down her cheeks and onto the desk amidst a soft chanting of curses, followed by a dramatic finale in which she grabbed the flower from behind her ear and tossed it feebly forward. A number of glances ranging from annoyed and scornful to sympathetic acknowledged her and then duly dismissed her, a few of the examination shinobi exchanging knowing glances. Yep, even the cocky ones crumbled in time. Soon enough, everyone had turned back to their business, thinking that there was at least one team that would be failed for sure.

They should have paid a bit more attention to what the other hand was doing under the desk.

"Tamori style, Amatsu Hananoka."

The kunoichi's voice was barely a whisper, and the only one in her vicinity with hearing sharp enough to discern it had failed to take the flower that had landed on his desk into account before it was too late. Though his expression remained as unreadable as ever, the sound nin's pose slouched ever so slightly as the genjutsu ensnared him. Hanako grinned at the desk, step one had been successfully completed. Now there was only one thing to do...pressing her scabbard against the bottom of the desk, the young swordswoman performed two additional hand seals.

"Tamori style, Branch Shackle."

The faint creaking that the snake-like branches made as they crawled across the surface of the wood was covered by a series of theatric sobs as the tendrils snaked their way across the floor and up the bottom end of the desk in front, smoothly interchanging the Sound Genin's paper with Hanako's empty one before retracting towards their owner. This took chakra control far greater than what the teenager was used to, and the lack of clear sight contact was a bother, but she was pleased to find that -- even though the branch was on the verge of loosing its grip around the paper at one point -- she managed to haul the paper within reach, discreetly slipping it beneath herself, after which she made a show of steadying herself, wiping away the fake tears and even blowing her nose for good measure.

"Kaijo." with that simple command, the branches dutifully slithered back inside the scabbard while Hanako observed her prize. Yep, it was all there, every last answer. All she had to do was rewrite this in her own handwriting and she was home free!

The need to play the role of the sobbing, stressed out Genin-to-fail was the only thing that kept her expression straight as the Sound nin slowly recovered from the illusion and took a look at the paper in front of him. Oh, that had been a mean trick to pull, but that was part of skull drudgery too, wasn't it? Grasping her pencil with newfound vigor, Hanako quickly began erasing the answer to the first question she had memorized. If her team would fail, it certainly wouldn't be because of her.

'In your face, Yumi-chan!'

OoC: hey! keiko is not that dumb he could at least figure out the first question


Keiko tapped his pencil a few times."This should be easy... maybe?" Keiko looked at the first question. "Okay if I only awnser the last, first, and middle questions I should not bring the team down to far if I get them wrong." Keiko wrote down the answer down to the first question. "If a shuriken is thrown at a distance of ten feet, will it hit the target traveling one mile an hour?It should hit if the reflexes of the ninja throwing the shuriken are fast enogh to throw them."

'Simple......Simple...............Simple..' Yumi had been zooming through her paper as soon as the test started. Being a top kunoichi wasn't earned just by fighting! She had, by now, blocked out the commotion going on in the room. If she could ignore Hanako for an entire day then she could handle little shouts and groans coming from the room. The explosion however......

'WHAT THE...?!'

A lot of papers had been blown through out the room completely throwing off Yumi's concentration. She had been on the second to last question too... She tried getting over it to the best of her abilities and calmed down once she had stared at the question for a few seconds.

'Ok... the miles times the speed.. divide that in half..' Staring at the last question she had brought her pencil down to the paper before stopping as if something had just registered in her brain. 'The pass or fail decision will be determined by your teams added points together.' Oh no... that meant if Hanako didn't pass then....No! She wouldn't think about that! Surely even Hanako could answer these questions! Yumi couldn't doubt her teammates, especally if it was making her lose her concentration. However..NO! No! No! ' Just answer the last question and then you can panic.' Ok, she could do this. The last question was about genjustu, she could do genjustu so I must've been easy for her. All the while Yumi was still trying to keep herself stone-faced. The examiner didn't scare her and neither did the other ninjas in the room. As soon as she had finished her last question she sat down her pencil on the desk and let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Shimatta! This makes no sense!"

Yumi froze. She knew that obnoxious voice anywhere! Her eyes slowly turned towards Hanako and she was...crying? No, she wasn't, it was fake! But why on earth would she fake crying? 'It must be part of some plan for the test.' Yumi felt relief wash over her and figured that Hanako must've thought of a plan to pass the test. She wasn't going to question Hanako's methods or even try to figure out the plan. If it worked then it did and that's all that matters. Now, all she had to do was sit back and watch the show. The obvious sneaks and tricks were going to be noticed immediately especially by people that this man picked. He's an interrogation specialist. But with this kind of test, there had to be a catch. It just wouldn't fit with his style to do something as simple as a test. Something had to be up and she was going to find out in due time.

"Number 36 and 45! Disqualified!" Yumi had her face completely emotionless as they called out more and more names. She looked around and made sure to study their faces. After all she was sure she was going to see them later.

Sharpay, ThatInsaneKid, one paragraph minimum please. If you need more help on what a 'paragraph' is, it would help to read the rules.

Warning 1

Dansei smiled. The Sound-Nin in the room weren't the only ones who knew morse code -- Dansei knew it due to the partial dependence on his hearing.

Chakra levels are rising a bit... I'll just use it for a minute. Sight Rebirth Technique!

Dansei quickly copied down the answers he was hearing, in addition to any others he knew. Luckily, the ones he didn't know were the ones that the Sound-Nin were conveying through their tapping.

Dispel.

Dansei pretended to continue writing, his deep blue eyes becoming cloudy. He had to make sure no one knew he was blind. Otherwise, they'd count him out from the start.

"Shimatta! This makes no sense!"

Hanako...

Dansei didn't look in Hanako's direction for fear of being disqualified, but he figured he knew what she was doing - cheating.

She better get the right answers... If she loses, so do I.

Shiitake! Shimatta! Whatever those other stupid euphemisms are that Hanako keeps tossing out! Why the hell does it have to be a written exam?


Akane continued to grouse mentally, staring blankly at her paper as she idly worked out a few problems. The first few, the 'mass of the shuriken' problems, were surprisingly difficult, but not out of the question. It was only when Akane saw question number nine- "A chuunin group of four knowing exactly twelve B-level ninjutsu between them encounters and engages in combat the Sandaime Kazekage of Sunagakure. List the twelve jutsu that would be most optimal for usage in this battle, and devise a strategy by which the basic four-man cell could overcome the Kazekage."- that Akane knew that the whole exam was a cheating fest for sure. She dimly remembered studying a few nights before just in case the written portion of the exam turned out to be an actual quiz. She would have slapped herself if she could have. She might as well have spent that time playing with Midori for all the good it did her on this test! Cursing privately, she managed to sneak a glance at Hanako. To her surprise, the girl was carrying on in a very un-Hanako like manner. It didn't take too long for Akane to guess what was going on: her team mate was cheating, and sending up a distraction so as to confuse the other genin.

Akane briefly reviewed any jutsu she had that could possibly be used to cheat with and drew a blank. None of the Yamato-clan jutsu that she had mastered would be any good in a situation like this one. She did have quite a few Yamato flash-bombs tucked away in her pouch, but they would do no good in this situation. Fed up, she sneaked a quick glance around the room. Didn't anyone-

It was then that Akane received a huge break. It was as if the gods of cheating had pitied her, and left a massive answer book open in the heavens. Directly below Akane was an exam paper that had been blown aside by Fen's earlier prank with the kunai. And written on it, to her surprise, were the answers to quite a few of the questions. Akane didn't waste time looking down, it would have been noticeable. Instead, she lay her head on top of her own exam paper, doing her best to make it appear as if the mental effort of the quiz had exhausted her. As she did so, she made sure that she caught a glimpse of an answer on the paper below. It didn't matter which one, as long as she had one correct answer then the team wouldn't fail. She allowed her head to rest on the desk long enough for the act to remain convincing, but pulled it up before an examiner could become suspicious of her true motivations. She needn't have worried- most of the examiners in the room had their attentions centered on either the sobbing Hanako or a failing student of one sort or another. It was during this utter confusion that Akane took the initiative and quickly scribbled an answer, making a big show out of erasing and writing out work that made no sense. Half of being a successful spy was acting, after all.

"Hey you!"

Akane froze. The examiner's finger was pointed directly at her.

"Number sixteen, Kenta! Failed! Numbers 45 and 34, you fail right along with him!"

Akane made sure not to relax too quickly. The brush with death was too close this time. She finished transcribing her answer and took to doodling lazily on the paper as she stared blankly at it. Hopefully, the answer she had managed to copy would be enough for her team to pass. Hopefully.

Just as Souran had copied down an answer from one of his victims a sudden blast of wind had came through, throwing some of the papers around. With the windows all closed completely, Souran instantly knew it was Fen. After Souran stared at Fen for a moment, giving him a confused look, the tap of pencil to paper startled Souran, making him turn to the source of the noise. It had been one of the examiners. Souran was frightened for that moment, knowing it must have been Fen's seat number being written down or his own for turning his head to another genin.

"Dang it, Fen, what did you do that for?" Souran wondered with his confused expression stuck on his face still. It wasn't long before he had finally copied all the answers. Now if they were right is all that is left to be known. Souran slightly turned his head back over to Fen, preparing to perform the body transfer. Souran first took a look to the clock which showed that the shinobi only had but ten minutes left until the final question is revealed. Souran wasn't sure if he would be able to perform the technique on both Fen and Keiko in ten minutes, it took him long enough to write all the answers on his paper but on an extra two papers, it wouldn't be possible, he'd have to use the technique on the both of them at the same time, but it'd be too difficult to control two people. That's when it hit him. Souran knew what to do, but it'd be very risky. He'd have to use body transfer on his pencil, get it to write the answers on their papers and using the bird's eye to be sure I'm doing everything right. But there is still the issue with the time which has now gone down to eight minutes. Souran had no other choice, he'd have to use two pencils, so instead of using his, he decided to use Fen and Keikio's pencils, of course, this would need precise aim and with luck, Souran was able to hit both pencils with his technique. Now that that was done, Souran began to write the answers on both their papers hoping that they'd know what was going on. This had used much of Souran's chakra so he was starting to become tired but he was forcing himself to stay awake. The clock ticked with only five minutes left.

"Come on, just a little more..." Souran commanded from himself. Just then he heard the sound of pencil to paper from the side of the room yet again. Souran had a feeling that it was his number this time from the way he was slouching in his seat. He fixed his body to sit in the correct way as to not show signs of cheating.

Fen still looked to Souran hopefully... but it had been too long since the distraction... had he known what to do? this is too much... and Fen had no other jutsu to try and get answers.

"This is hopeless... sorry team... but i don't know any answers..." Fen said but was suddenly interrupted by his pencil of all things.

The pencil started rocking slowly back and forth. Fen quickly grabbed it so no one would see it and held it upright in writing position. Fen looked over to Souran who was slouched in his chair.

"so he got the jutsu off after all... i knew i could have faith in him. Way to go Souran." Fen thought to himself as the pencil began writing on its own and guiding his hand around the paper. He looked to the clock. 5 minutes until the final question... it was almost over and almost half the questions were copied. This was ideal. After the written test was over, no doubt it would be Fen's chance to shine with a show of jutsu and skill. But no time to think about that.... Fen returned to focus on pretending to be writing the answers as the pencil continued to guide his hand.

'And thus, it would be plausible to overcome the Kazekage given the aforementioned conditions.'

With a sigh of relief, Hanako finally placed her pencil down and relaxed, merely a few minutes before the final question. The ninth one had been a chore to write down, and seemed like a pipe dream scenario to her, even though she had to admit that the answer made a certain bizarre kind of sense...well as much as a four-man cell overpowering a Kazekage could make sense anyway. Briefly, Hanako was struck with concern over whether or not she had picked the right person to copy, but it was too late to worry about that now. With only two minutes to go, she wouldn't have had the time to correct her answers even if Ibiki Morino himself had marched in front of her and propped the answer sheet right beneath her nose. At least she had something on everything -- and a pretty impressive something at that -- her situation was certainly far preferable to that of the Sound nin in front of her who was fervently tapping his finger against the desk, as if the answers were so many worms which he could lure out of their holes if he just kept making the noise.

Were it not out of fear of being disqualified -- which, after her brilliant ruse, would have been just plain stupid -- Hanako would have checked on her teammates' progress. As it was, she just kept her gaze nailed to the examiner instead. It was like Yuukijiji said -- well, when he wasn't saying things like 'your behavior is a disgrace to the family name' anyway -- sometimes you just had to wait and have faith. Faith...

Hanako groaned inwardly at the notion. She had always preferred straight answers.

"The Tenth Question; Giving Up?"

"Alright, one more question for Fen and he'll have all of his questions finished along with Keiko and I...almost done and-!" Before Souran could finish Fen's final question, he was interrupted by a loud ringing coming from an alarm clock sitting atop Ibiki's desk in front of the room. This ringing was very annoying, Souran never liked alarm clocks. At the moment, if it weren't for the fact that he'd be booted out as well as his team, he'd walk right up to the front, snag the clock and beat it until he was satisfied with how torn apart it would be. Luckily he had some form of self control. Once Ibiki seemed satisfied with how annoyed he made all the genin become, he stood up firm from his seat and gave an evil smirk before speaking.

"Well, doesn't seem like many of you were caught cheating...quite impressive. I bet you think you're all some smart ninja. Just wait till ya' hear the tenth question...But before I tell you what the tenth question is, I feel like being a little charitable, which is lucky for you all 'cause I'm not one to usually be nice...Anyway; before I give out the final question, I'll give those who want to quit a chance to leave now, but be cautious, for if those who stay and get the final question wrong, they will be kicked out and will never be aloud to become a shinobi in their entire lives. Though, if you quit now, you can try again next time...Make your decisions now."

Souran was fairly shocked at what had been announced: Giving up to try again, or don't quit and never be aloud to become a ninja ever again. This was a difficult decision to make, but you also have to think of your team; are they ready to continue, should they quit and train for the next exam so it'll be more simple? In just this beginning exam, all of Souran's team had to rely on him to retrieve information in order to pass. What if one of the other exams would call for a talent that none of the team possessed. Souran had just gained a headache form all this thinking. He wants to believe in his team but there was so much going against it. He knew that Fen and Keiko were great ninja and they are very talented, but could they better train themselves, or could even Souran, himself train better? Souran gave a faint groan that didn't pass the ears of even the examiners. Then, out-of-the-blue, Souran's thoughts changed.

"Come on Souran, get a hold of yourself, you honestly don't think you'll win? Please, if it weren't for all the higher ranked shinobi all together in the room, you'd be able to take down this pitiful Ibiki guy...Lets do this. I'm sure Fen and Keiko won't quit either, and if they show the slightest bit of motion of their hands going up, I'll force those things down no matter what...Bring it on Ibiki!" Souran began to think, becoming over-confident as he showed a defiant smirk.

The alarm rang loud through the room, startling Fen from focusing on the pencil writing on its own. The final question was finally explained. To leave and fight another day... or to possibly lose the ability to take the test ever again...a tough decision for any ninja.

A genin stood up apologizing to his team. He couldn't take the pressure of the last question. He left the room... head hung low.

"Numbers 54 and 76 you're also out." one of the shinobi on the sides called out. More and more lost their confidence in themselves and stood to leave. As the crowd thinned, more and more hands went up the genin were dropping like flies.

"....This is stupid.... so.... what.... is that suppose to be intimidating?" Fen said loudly over the mumbling of the thinning group of genin. "I mean honestly, my team came this far on this test and i'm suppose to just up and leave? No matter what title ranking you guys give me... i'll know who the best is, and i don't need a Chuunin or Jounin title to tell me that. No matter what ranking i'm given, i know i'm a Shinobi, born and raised and you guys can't take that away from me. And besides, my team mates would sooner fight me one on one before they would let me walk out that door and take them out of this exam." Fen said grinning to Souran and Keiko and leaning back in his chair once again, tossing his hands behind his head and relaxing, staring at the ceiling.

"Lets do this last question already... my butts startin to fall asleep sitting in this chair for so long."

Dansei cringed as the alarm went off. Actually, it was more of a tiny-seizure. He quickly gained his composure and listened as Ibiki explained the tenth question.

Ugh...

Dansei reactivated his Sight Rebirth Technique and looked around the room at Hanako, Akane, and Yumi, trying to think of a way to get them to look at him. He considered throwing senbon at them, but that would be too obvious, and he'd probably be reprimanded for it. The ninja swore under his breath and relinquished his sight, staying firm in his seat.

There was something about defiant speeches, especially defiant speeches made loudly in a situation where you technically weren't allowed to speak up at all. Hanako had kept quiet for now, but upon hearing the green-haired kid's tirade -- and, specifically, noting that he wasn't getting into trouble for it -- her patience had reached its limit.

"Damn straight!"

The young swordswoman's exclamation -- punctuated by her sudden rise from her seat and the loud stamp of foot meeting floor -- caused several of the Genin around her to wince, "I didn't go through all this skull drudgery crap just to quite and go home when it starts getting interesting. Besides, when you take on a task you see it to the end, stand or fall! That's team 11 honor, and if anyone on my team was even thinking of backing out, remember I'll kick you square if you do!"

Hanako's manner, as usual, was far from tactful even though her intention had been to encourage her teammates, but in a tense situation like this, it wasn't the words that counted; it was the spirit of the thing. Murmurs of assent had already spread across the room as Fen finished his part, and a single person daring to join in was all it took for the rest of the sheep in the classroom to follow the flock. Soon a third kid at the back of the classroom piped up his own piece, followed by another, and another, and another...it was like watching so many dominoes topple over each other.

"Enough games, Ibiki-sensei." the teenager remarked with a satisfied little smirk, as if this had somehow been her plan, "His oshiri isn't the only one who's getting tired of your stalling, so let's have that question already."