Ninja, from various villages, sitting in rows of desks. A few turn to look at the new arrivals, some openly staring, most just glancing. There's a group of nine Leaf genin chatting near the door, all about twelve or thirteen years old - including the three girls they ran into earlier, Rian with a blonde girl half draped over her. Mariko's the only one who turns to look at the Sand team, eyes sharp. 

She pushes past to claim a set of desks by the wall.

He smiles at the young Leaves as they go by.

Mariko scowls back at him, and very gamely doesn't stick her tongue out.

No one contests their claim, and people continue trickling into the room.

An older Leaf genin with grey hair approaches the rookies, strikes up a conversation with them - apparently insults Sound somewhere in there, because the Sound team very quickly picks a fight with him, and are interrupted only by the arrival of the proctors.

The first test is introduced - written, they're to take numbers telling them where to sit. There's ten questions total - although only nine are on the paper - and they can get a total of ten points. They'll lose two points per cheating attempt if caught by the watchers. 

Rian and her team take their seats. She knows Mariko and Sakura have this in the bag - for all that Mariko's a trouble-maker, she's smart, and Sakura's a fairly classic bookworm - but her, on the other hand? Yeah, these questions are way above her level; she doesn't even recognize all the kanji. 

Well, nothing for it. In fact, the person sitting in front of her is going almost suspiciously fast through these... And is very easily copied with her sharingan.

Difficulty of the questions combined with the two point deduction per cheating attempt if caught implies that this is not primarily a test of knowledge, but rather covert intelligence gathering. Kankurou and Tsubasa are both bright enough to grasp that so she won't worry about them. She pulls a thin trickle of sand out, just enough to use a clone jutsu to make it into an eye. This she sends skittering off to spy one on of the few people in the room that seem to be confident in what they're writing.

The answers look approximately correct, so she copies them.

Mm. Very tricky. But not impossible. He can solve these. Elieyha could too, but she's likely to take the easier path and cheat. Tsubasa won't be able to, and her abilities aren't suited for cheating. So his problem is getting answers to her. If he had another paper... But people would definitely notice theirs disappearing. Not much of distractions here, everyone's so focused.

A kunai thuds onto the desk of someone across the aisle from him. "What - what was that?" the genin - Hidden Leaf - protests. 

"You've been caught cheating five times. You, and the two on his team, get out of here."

The three slink out, leaving their papers on their desks - one's behind Kankurou, the one who was caught is on the other side of the room, but one's in the row in front of him. 

That'll do. A small chakra string will yoink the paper off the desk while he absent-mindedly taps his forehead, bringing it underneath his chair. He fumbles his pencil and bends down to retrieve it, snagging the extra sheet at the same time. Placing that one underneath his own, he fills out the questions, leaving an impression on the bottom sheet. When he finishes, he slides it into his lap and quickly folds it into an origami mouse that he puppets over to tap against his sister's leg.

She grabs it up and unfolds the paper. Oh good, she's not being left out to dry.

There's a glint in one of the watcher's eyes, and something's written down, but they don't get thrown out, so.

That's what counts. There's only about twenty minutes left of the time they were allotted.

When there's ten minutes left, the main proctor, Ibiki, stands before the room, and says, "And now, we will begin the tenth question. Before I give you the question, I will go over the additional rules. First, for this tenth question, you must choose whether or not you will take it."

That's not a choice.

Somebody voices exactly that, and Ibiki smiles. "You see, there's more special rules - if you choose not to, your points will be dropped to zero, and both you and your two teammates will fail the test. But if you choose to take the question and answer incorrectly, that person will be unable to enter the chunin selection exams again!"

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" one of the Leaf genin protests. "Plenty of people have taken this exam before!"

Ibiki starts to chuckle, then - "You guys got unlucky. I wasn't the proctor before; this year it's my rules. But I'm giving you an out - just choose not to, and you'll be able to try again next time." He pauses for people to digest that, then continues with, "And now let's begin the tenth question! Those who choose not to take it, raise your hand. Once your number is confirmed, leave."

There's a long moment of silence, then someone raises his hands, apologizing to his teammates. Slowly, people start to trickle out.

Rian narrows her eyes. This - feels like another trick, but she can't put her finger on how. Still, she doesn't raise her hand, instead crossing her arms over her chest.

If they backed out, Elieyha would kill them. Not that they were going to.

Eventually the trickle peters out entirely, and after a few minutes have passed with no one raising their hand, Ibiki frowns. "I'll ask you all again - your lives are riding on this decision. This is the last chance to quit."

There's some murmuring, but no one does.

Ibiki smiles. "Good decisions. Now, to the fifty-four remaining... I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

"Wait - what - what about the tenth question?"

"There never was such a thing - or you could say that choice was the tenth question."

Tsubasa lets out a soft breath of relief.

Cheap, pointless tricks. Waste of time. Shouldn't have allowed those who would leave to be here in the first place.

He goes on to explain the purpose of the first nine questions - information gathering under pressure - "But those who cheat poorly fail," as he removes his bandanna, revealing numerous scars, and goes on to explain the importance of accurate information.

Torture is unreliable, but those scars are certainly impressive.