Chapter One
"Come on, Mom, please let me go!" Mio pleaded her mother. "I already told Ibiki I could!"
"Forget it, Mio," Amaya, Mio's mother, said. "The Chuunin Exams are no place for a lady." Mio rolled her eyes.
"You do realize there will be many kunoichi there, Mom?" she pointed out.
"Many what?" Amaya eyed her daughter.
"Kunoichi- They're female ninja," Mio explained. "See? The Chuunin Exams are for both men and women!"
"You call those ragamuffin broads women?" Amaya questioned.
"Mother!" Mio cried, scandalized.
"Listen to me, Mio-chan," Amaya said. "Ninja or not, you are not going with Ibiki to the Chuunin Exams. Point finale."
"But I already told Ibiki I could!" Mio repeated. "If I can't be a kunoichi, at least let me be around them! At least I can take a look at what I could have been!"
"Oh, Mio, don't start," Amaya scolded. "I've told you time and time again that real ladies do not become ninja; Are you a lady or aren't you?"
"You can still be a lady as a ninja," Mio argued, "except you've got the adventure and dangerous mystery in your life!"
"Women shouldn't have adventure in their lives," Amaya shot back. "Women should stay at home and look after the house and family while the men go off and fight or do whatever shinobi do."
"Mom, that's really sexist."
"It's not called 'sexist', Mio, it's called 'proper'."
"Oh, Mom, it's not like I'm all of a sudden going to become a kunoichi, just let me go!"
"Mio, I said no!" Amaya snapped. Angry, Mio marched upstairs, made her way into her room, slammed the door, and locked it. Sighing, she flopped down onto her bed and hugged her pillow to her chest.
It just wasn't fair.
Ever since she was six, Mio wanted to be a ninja. She was inspired by her older brother and his long time friend, Ibiki Morino. Both men were superb shinobi, and Mio was always intrigued by their stories of valour, importance, and daring adventure, and soon decided she wanted to serve Konahagakure as a kunoichi.
Amaya, however, had different plans for her daughter.
Amaya cam from a very traditional family, where her mother was a stay at home house wife, and her father was a shinobi. Amaya was taught that the woman's place was the home, and she held onto that rule like a child hangs onto his most treasured toy. And she tried to pass that rule down to Mio… Tried, anyway.
On top of being very old-fashioned, Amaya was also no one to be pushed around. And being married to an easy going, quiet man that didn't really meddle with his wife's and daughter's affairs accentuated her controlling and bossy manner. So, upon hearing Mio's kunai and jutsu filled dreams, Amaya tried to squish all the 'ninja' out of her.
But Amaya hadn't succeeded yet. Mio wanted to be a ninja more than ever after Ibiki offered to take her to see what the first stage of the Chuunin Exams were like. But she knew it was impossible to become a kunoichi now; she was nineteen, there was no way she'd even get into the Academy.
Well, what am I supposed to do now? Mio wondered. She rolled onto her stomach and gazed out her window, watching the branch of a huge tree outside reach for the sill.
Ibiki's going to be waiting for me, what do I do? Mio studied her window and the branch extending towards it. An evil grin crept onto her face.
Wasting no time, she hoped off her bed, grabbed her shoes and shoved her feet in them. She walked over to window, and opened it, and was about to put her foot out onto the branch, but she ran back to her bedroom door and pressed her ear to it. No one was coming. She ran back to the window, and cautiously put one foot on the sturdy branch, slowly making her way out of her room.
Don't look down, don't look down… Mio told herself as her tried her best to balance herself on the branch. She closed her window as quietly as she could, and slowly walked toward the trunk of the tree, shaking. She hated heights.
Apprehensive, Mio climbed down the tree, taking care to remain inconspicuous and avoid any windows of her house she may have passed on her way down.
Once she had her feet on the ground, Mio gave her house one more glance, and ran off to meet Ibiki.
--
"Ah, Mio, there you are," Ibiki said.
"Hi, Ibiki," Mio greeted her brother's friend. He was wearing his usual long trench coat, and bandana that covered his whole head. Mio smiled up at him and tried her best not to show she was hiding the fact that she had just snuck out of her house.
"So, this is where the first stage of the Chuunin Exams are," Ibiki said, gesturing to the Ninja Academy behind them. "Everyone's waiting on the third floor."
"Waiting for what?" Mio asked.
"For us to start, of course," Ibiki laughed. "Come, we've still got a while until we begin, you can mingle with some of the ninja there, and then I'll come get you after."
"Where will you be?" Mio asked.
"Ah, don't worry, you'll be able to find me," Ibiki assured her. He led her into the building and up two flights of stairs. As they walked down a hallway on the second floor, Mio saw a large group of kids in another corridor, crowded around a door that two older teenagers were guarding. One of them pushed a kid in a green body suit down as he tried to get by. His team mate ran to help him.
"Ibiki-sama," Mio whispered. "Those kids are trying to get by, and those teenagers aren't letting them. Shouldn't we go put a stop to that?" Ibiki chuckled at Mio's naïveté.
"Those 'teenagers' are supposed to not let them through, Mio," he explained. "Those genin are looking for the third floor and they have to realize this is the second. If any of them can see through it, we cast a gen-jutsu on that sign up there-" he pointed to the small white sign near the door everyone was trying to go through. "-and made it seem like this was the third floor. If any of these kids were paying attention, they'd realize this isn't the floor their supposed to be on… Read the message within the hidden message…" Mio heeded Ibiki's every word as she followed him away from the gang of genin, praying that for their sake they would see through the illusion eventually.
Mio continued to follow her brother's friend up one more flight of stairs, and down a long hallway. There was a door at the end of it.
"Everyone's waiting in there," he said. "You can go wait with them; I have some business to attend to before we begin the exams. If anyone gives you any trouble, just give a shout, alright?"
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" Mio asked, a little worried now.
"Well, the Chuunin Exams are opened to ninja from every nation," Ibiki said. "And some of them aren't the nicest. But won't worry, you probably won't get on anyone's bad side." With that, he shoved Mio through the door and quickly closed it.