A week later, Fujin, Hoka, and Mieko met in front of the academy building. Fujin looked at them and asked, "Prepared guys?"
Both Hoka and Mieko smirked and replied, "Of course"
The trio went into the building together. The 1st phase was held in room 301. Fujin wondered, 'Will someone cast a genjutsu on the 2nd floor?'
However, there was no commotion on the 2nd floor. They entered 301 without any issue.
On entering the room, they saw hundreds of other genins there. Hoka and Mieko were surprised, while Fujin pretty much expected it. As soon as they entered, they got weird looks from everyone. After all, they were the only 10 year and 9 year old genins here.
The trio didn't bother looking for anyone as none of their classmates were participating. While some other Hyuga and Uchiha were participating, Hoka and Mieko didn't bother looking for anyone. They just grabbed a few empty seats and sat down together.
The room was very noisy, as one would expect when hundreds of teenagers and preteens were put in the same room.
At the stroke of 9, a bell rang. It rang thrice, quieting the room. At that time, the door of the classroom slowly opened. Everyone's attention was drawn to the door. A sickly man walked into the room. He coughed a few times, as everyone watched with confusion.
Even Fujin wondered, 'Who is this guy?'
At that instant, 6 ninjas wearing Konoha chunin vests entered the room carrying a lot of papers.
The sickly guy coughed again and began saying, "I will be the *cough* Proctor for the 1st *cough* phase."
Everyone's eyes twitched. The genins from Konoha thought, 'Seriously? They couldn't find anyone else?'
The genins from other villages wonder, 'Is Konoha in such a dire state that they can't send someone better to hold the exam?'
Immediately the room was filled with genins whispering or chatting with one another. Some even mocked out loudly.
At that time, the sickly guy coughed again and said, "Anyone who makes noise *cough* will be thrown out *cough* of the room!"
As soon as he said that, he released killing intent, targeting each and every genin in the room! That immediately quieted everyone! No one underestimated him anymore. The majority were frightened by his aura.
Even Fujin, Hoka, and Mieko had grim expressions. Fujin wondered, 'How many did he kill to develop such a killing intent?'
He continued, "All of you, *cough* sit one on a *cough* bench."
The entire room rearranged quietly. Occupying one seat each. Since he didn't say anything regarding seating arrangements, everyone sat close to their teammates.
Once everyone was seated, the chunins began distributing the papers. They kept the blank side up so that the genins couldn't read the questions.
The sickly guy announced once more, "Don't touch the papers. *cough* At 9:15, you will *cough* turn the papers over." On saying that, he coughed continuously for a minute.
He then looked up and said, "Each paper has 10 *cough* questions. You have 5 *cough* minutes to answer all *cough* questions. To pass, all *cough* three in a squad *cough* need to score full!"
That immediately made everyone even tenser. Fujin thought, 'Just 5 minutes? And a 100% score? The only way that would be feasible is if the questions are too easy.'
He however kept wondering, and so did many others. They all were wondering only one thing, 'What exactly is this old man up to? Something is off here!'
The room was completely silent, other than the Proctor coughing occasionally.
At 9:14, that sickly guy announced once again, "Copying is not allowed!" And he began coughing non-stop once more!
At 9:15, a bell rang again. Everyone immediately turned over the paper. What Fujin saw left him speechless!
It wasn't just Fujin, every single of the 336 genins in that room was flabbergasted!
Fujin's question paper read :
Q1. 3 x 3 =
Q2. 4 - 2 =
Q3. 9 x 2 =
Q4. 3 ÷ 1 =
Q5. 9 × 7 =
Q6. 8 ÷ 2 =
Q7. 1 - 1 =
Q8. 9 x 0 =
Q9. 9 + 9 =
Q10. 8 x 4 =
The shock left everyone stunned for a few seconds. However, soon many began answering their questions. Only a few didn't.
Fujin analyzed really hard, 'What the fuck is this? No way the exam will be this simple! Will he play a trick at the end? Like get us too comfortable and then pull a fast one over us?'
He thought quickly and concluded, 'No, something else is off. I am feeling uneasy.'
He wrecked his brain hard for a couple of minutes before it finally hit him! 'I'm feeling uneasy. Actually, it's not just due to this paper. It's my chakra!'
On realizing this, he finally calmed down and closed his eyes. He observed his chakra, it was flowing very smoothly. He took a deep breath, and suddenly, disrupted his chakra entirely.
With his entire chakra disrupted, he opened his eyes and looked at the question paper. Every single number had changed! Fujin immediately began sweating due to how easily he had fallen into Genjutsu.
He lifted his head and looked at the sickly Proctor. Surprisingly, there was no sickly man at all! Instead, a tall, healthy, and handsome man with long hair stood. He looked at Fujin, smiled, and nodded.
Fujin thought, 'Kurama Illumi! No wonder.'
[A/N : He was shown earlier during the Graduation exam]
He put his head down, and secretly disrupted his chakra again, to ensure that there wasn't any multi-layer Genjutsu.
He then quickly began answering the questions. Though the numbers changed, the questions were still extremely easy.
While writing, he lightly kicked Hoka, who was sitting in front of him, and poured his chakra into him, disrupting his chakra. That broke the Genjutsu on him. He noticed that the numbers had changed, and all his answers were wrong! He quickly changed them.
While Hoka was changing his answers, Fujin turned his head and looked at Mieko, who was sitting on his right, 'Great, she has her Sharingan activated.'
Mieko too had noticed the Genjutsu and broken it. After she was done answering, she checked Fujin and Hoka's chakra with her Sharingan. Seeing that neither was in a genjutsu, she sighed in relief.
Fujin answered all his questions and then wondered, 'When exactly did he cast his Genjutsu?'
He looked at Kurama Illumi and noticed that he was still coughing occasionally. Fujin smiled bitterly on understanding, 'His coughing is causing Genjutsu to happen in this room. Maybe not just coughing, even those bell-ringing cast Genjutsu on us. Sound-based Genjutsu, applied in very small amounts to ensure that we don't notice any sudden altercations in our chakra and since it only changed the question paper that we never saw, we all thought that everything is real.'
While analyzing, Fujin realized, 'Wait. He actually gave us many clues. His continuous coughing was suspicious. And what was the most suspicious were these questions. If the questions were difficult, I'd have never realized the Genjutsu!'
Fujin sighed, 'I didn't expect to learn anything here. But this exam shows that I'm not as careful and on guard as I need to be. If this was a battlefield, I'd be long dead.'
By 9:20, everyone, irrespective of whether they figured out the genjutsu or not, was done answering.
A few seconds before 9:20, Illumi announced in a steady and commanding tone, "Everyone, put your pencils down. Anyone who holds the pencil after the bell rings will be disqualified."
The steadiness in his voice surprised many. Right after, the bell rang loudly. Only this time, instead of casting Genjutsu, it broke the Genjutsu.
As soon as the Genjutsu was broken, the eyes of many genins widened. They noticed that the questions changed, meaning that their answers were all wrong. Even the sickly Proctor suddenly turned into a healthy guy.
Some immediately began creating a ruckus, but Kurama Illumi leaked his killing intent once again. This instantly quieted down the room.
Overall, only 31 genins managed to write all answers correctly. And only 8 squads had all 3 members answer correctly.
Among the remaining 7 genins, 1 was sitting far away from his team, while the other 6 recognized the genjutsu at the last minute and couldn't communicate with their team members in time.
Fujin sighed in relief, 'Lucky that Hoka was sitting right ahead of me!'
Once the results were known, Kurama Illumi smiled and said, "In battle, many times the enemy will subtly cast Genjutsu on you. That will result in you making one horrible move that'll put your whole squad in danger. Enemies could also use such methods to pass you misleading information. If you were to fall for it, you might put your entire village at risk. So always be careful and on guard while doing your missions. After all, one wrong move and you could be finished.'
While saying the last sentence, he released his killing intent once again.
He then announced, "All those who failed, leave. The ones who passed, wait here. The Proctor for the 2nd exam will meet you here at 9:45."
On announcing that, he disappeared. All the remaining genins disrupted their chakra out of reflex. But they couldn't see him anymore.
The genins who failed left in disappointment. But irrespective of their results, all genins learnt an important lesson.
[A/N : Damn. Had to think hard and long to come up with something original here. Let me know whether you guys liked it.]
