"Oi, oi, can't you read what's written on the blackboard?" Shikamaru's face appeared on the television set placed in the front-left corner of the classroom. "No fighting unless you wanna get disqualified. Oh, and no breaking anything or leaving the room, either. Man, what a drag…"
Mei clicked her tongue and sat back down next to Sasuke without protest. Scanning the room, Sakura saw that every other desk was already occupied by at least one person, so she'd have to find someone else to sit with for the duration of the exam. A few desks ahead of Sasuke sat a busty Hidden Rain kunoichi all by herself, so that place looked rather appealing…
"Oi, Sakura, over here!" shouted Kiba, waving at her.
"Arf!"
Sighing, Sakura stalked down the aisle and plopped herself down next to Kiba. Akamaru had grown larger over the past two years, so he'd serve as a much more reliable partner for Kiba this time around. Those sharp canines looked like they would really hurt…
"Everyone made it in?" Shikamaru asked. "Yeah? Good, then let's begin. I'm Nara Shikamaru, and I'll be your proctor for the first part of the Chūnin Exams this year. You may now come up and take one sheet from the stack of papers at the front desk, then return to your seat."
A few moments later, everyone was back in their seats, staring down at their papers. There were three questions in total: the first worth 30 points, the second 40, and the third 50. The first two were multiple-choice, and the third was an essay— but all of them were so easy, Sakura could've finished the exam on the walk from the teacher's desk to her seat.
Just what was Shikamaru playing at?
"Everyone in their seat?" continued Shikamaru. "Now, each of you will only have to answer one of the three questions. Your team's point total will be added up, and that will determine whether you pass or fail. Score above 100 and you're automatically disqualified. Score under the class average— not counting the point total of those who've been disqualified— and you'll also fail."
If all three squad members answered a question correctly, the possible point totals were the following: 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140 and 150. Anything other than a 90 or a 100 was an automatic disqualification, so they had to be careful not to overshoot.
However, one couldn't undershoot either— if each team member, scattered across the three classrooms, chose the lowest-value question— the one worth 30 points— the team would only earn a total of 90. Since all three questions were too easy to fail, and some teams were bound to score a perfect 100, the average (excluding disqualified scores) would naturally fall somewhere between 90 and 100. That meant a score of 90 would amount to an automatic fail as well.
In other words, the only way to pass was to get a perfect score of a 100.
"Tricky…" Sakura murmured to herself, as the classroom descended into pandemonium. "In order to pass, I have to find some way to communicate with Ino and Chōji… or do I?"
"Do you have an idea, Sakura?" asked Sasuke, abandoning his seat and walking up to Kiba's and Sakura's desk. People were already trying to scream which question they would take, hoping their voice would carry through the walls. But with such a racket, it would be impossible to recognise a teammate's voice…
Sakura already had an enormous advantage due to the fact that she knew Ino and Chōji had swapped bodies. Before returning to her own body, Ino would have left a message on Chōji's exam paper telling him which question to pick. This reduced the possible permutations to two, but the problem was that Sakura still had no way of making sure which of the two options was the one Ino had selected for her:
Either Ino and Chōji each solved the 50-point question, leaving Sakura free to doodle boobies in the essay part of the question and score a 0, for a total of 100 points… or they both selected the 30-point question, leaving the 40-point question for Sakura to solve…
"Hang on, I'm thinking…" said Sakura. "Lemme just do a few calculations…"
There was another solution: ensuring that the average score plummeted by making everyone fall asleep with a Genjutsu. In which case, scoring 90 would be enough to pass! The only problem then would be that Ino and Chōji might pick the 50-point question. At 130 points, they would get disqualified…
Sakura started counting the number of people in the classroom— twenty-four Leaf, nine Sand, two Mist, one Waterfall, two Grass and five Rain— a total of forty-one. If all of them scored zero points, then the new average would fall somewhere in between 60 and 70… ish. But then again, this wouldn't be of any help if Ino and Chōji picked the 50-point question.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
…
BANG!
One, two, three, four… five times, the building shook, as someone took out their anger on the walls. Or perhaps… was that a signal? But if that person had wanted to signal which question they would take, they should have only hit the wall four times… signalling to their two teammates that they ought to solve the 30 pointers.
"Unless they intend to score 0 points, leaving the others to score 50 points each!"
The banging noises continued in bursts of five, though they weren't always perfectly regular. In other words, the anonymous wall-banger(s) from another classroom wanted everyone else to score 50… ensuring that everyone passed the written part of the exams!
"Don't turn in anything," Sakura told Sasuke and Kiba. "I've got a message of my own."
Sakura knelt and laid her palms flat on the ground.
"Chakra Enhanced Strength!"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Sakura let out five equally strong bursts of chakra from her palms in quick succession, each one much more powerful that the wall-puncher's from the downstairs classroom. Since they had trained together and been on the receiving end of her punches, Ino and Chōji would easily be able to tell that she was the source of these sounds and score 50 points! And for added benefit, it would confuse the exam takers who didn't know about her extreme chakra control!
'Was that you just now?' Ino's voice echoed in Sakura's mind. 'We get it already; we already solved the 50-point question. You're the one who told us you'd be taking a step back, remember?'
It was Ino's Mind Transmission Jutsu!
'I was wondering if something had gone wrong!' exclaimed Sakura. 'Couldn't you have done that from the very beginning!? You got me all worked up for nothing…'
'Made you nervous, did I, Cow-Tits?' Ino sniggered. 'That was the point! Bleh~!'
Honestly…
How very Shikamaru, to create an exam that his teammates would be able to complete without breaking a sweat! Ino was a telepath, so she could easily share her thoughts across short distances, and even through walls…