Thank you to Angelfang for reviewing :)
Thank you everyone else who read :)
The name of the story itself is actually a line from the song It's My Life by Bon Jovi and I'm naming the chapters after songs and so far there's been:
Chapter 1- Stop and Stare by OneRepublic
Chapter 2- Ninjas by The Midnight Beast
I really am hoping to actually update this story every once in a while. But a good friend of mine has been in hospital a lot recently with diabetes… Lovin' you Emma 3.
Also this chapter is a lot shorter than I'd like it to be because it's the first test and I really wanna keep the tests separate. Otherwise it'll just be like when all my food's running together on my dinner plate. And I hate that. I truly, truly hate that.
"Regular speaking"
Thinking/ sarcasm/exaggerated words (Sorry, I'm patronizing you guys.)
Whatever I think needs to be bold.
Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got. ~Art Buchwald
I yawned and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, making those strange, half asleep mumbling noises. I rolled out of bed and landed with a 'thump' on the hard-wood floor. How the hell I ended up in bed I don't know, but I think it might have been Kakashi. Dammit I must have fallen asleep or something. Oh yeah the Chunin Exams start today. I thought to myself. And then I thought: CRAP! CHUNIN EXAMS START TODAY! I didn't think this because I was scared or anything, just because sometimes I really hate having to do work. Okay maybe I was a 'little' nervous. I groggily changed into a fresh pair of clothes and brushed my hair, not bothering to tie it back just yet. I looked in the cupboards and couldn't find anything worth eating. Mmmh, disappointment for breakfast again. I actually really don't like to skip breakfast; it's the most important meal of the day. I dragged myself out of my apartment (which is hell cold in the mornings, might I add) and began the long walk to the exams building. Actually I had totally forgotten where I was going. What can I say; no one showed me where it was. Suddenly I accidentally bumped into someone.
"I'm sorry," I said, apologizing on instinct. I looked up and rubbed more sleep from my eyes. It was the blonde sand girl from yesterday. "I'm sorry," I said again, but a little quieter.
"That's okay," she said. She seemed a little fascinated by my hair, which was dragging along the ground and had gone a little brown at the end. I dropped my head and sighed. I picked my hair up by the middle and batted the dust away before tying it up in its usual high ponytail. I looked behind her and noticed her brothers standing there. Kankuro seemed to be in good spirits and Gaara looked pretty blank.
"Umm, this is gonna sound really dumb, but could you guys show me to the exams building, please?" I asked bashfully, rubbing the back of my neck.
"But don't you live here?" Kankuro asked incredulously. I laughed nervously.
"Uh, yeah, but I've only been here a month, and I wasn't really s'posed to go anywhere without supervision and all," I explained.
"Err, okay then. My name's Temari, by the way," Temari said with a friendly smile.
"That's a nice name," I said absently. It was something that Haku used to say. "Sorry, I'm still pretty tired." Temari and Kankuro laughed.
"You know, you're pretty cool for a Leaf brat," Kankuro commented. I smiled cheerfully at him.
"Gee, my week is complete. But I'm not actually a Leaf brat. I still maintain that I am from the Mist," I said, pointing at the headband on my waist, which had the four wavy lines of the Village Hidden in the Mist engraved into it.
"So how'd you wind up here?" he asked.
"Uh, it's sort of hard… I'll tell you later, maybe," I said evasively, twisting a piece of my hair nervously around my fingers. "Oh look, seems like we're here," I said, changing the topic and stopping outside a large building. "How did you guys know where you were going?"
"Our sensei showed us," Temari said as though pointing out the obvious. We entered the building, ignored the genjutsu and continued on to the waiting room.
"Thanks guys, that would have been a hella lot harder on my own," I said with thumbs-up and a smile. At that point I realised that a group of Hidden Mist ninja were glaring in my direction. I didn't know who they were, but they made me uncomfortable. They seemed to know me.
"Who are those guys?" Kankuro asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen them before… I think," I replied uncertainly. Next thing you know, Naruto's in the room, screwing everything up. Not really, but he did cause a 'ruckus', so to speak. His friends and he somehow stirred up the team from the Village Hidden in the Sound. Everyone took a number, as instructed, and I went to my designated seat. Ibiki Sensei announced the rules and we turned over out tests. Despite the instructions, my first thought was 'To hell with it, I'm cheating.' Mostly because if didn't get all 10 questions correct I wouldn't be allowed to continue with the Chunin Exams. This was to try and make things fairer, since I didn't have a team to possibly drag me down. Then I realized that there was a flaw in the system. Ibiki Sensei didn't specifically say that we couldn't cheat, just that we couldn't get caught at it. God bless me and my pessimism. All I had to do now was figure out how I would go about this 'cheating' business.
15 minutes passed before an idea crossed my mind.
A brilliant, brilliant idea that was going to rely almost solely on luck and a human's natural desire for precious things.
I forced a crocodile tear from one of my eyes, and as I predicted, it turned into a diamond in mid-air. I caught it before it clattered noisily on the desk and flicked it inconspicuously over to an older guy who was hastily writing down answers. My left eye hardened into solid diamond and I closed it to concentrate better. Instead of the regular darkness that generally came with shutting one's left eye, the image of a leaf genin gingerly picking up my tear-diamond and inspecting it thoroughly played in my eye. I turned my gaze through the diamond to the boy's test paper and hurriedly wrote down what he had written so far. He had only completed up to question five, but he seemed to know what he was doing. In fact, it was almost worrying, how well he seemed to know the answers.
He set the diamond down, right on top of his test sheet, and began writing out more answers. I imitated him with little trouble, but my left eye was beginning to feel painful and strained from looking through the odd angles of the diamond for too long. As soon as all nine questions on the sheet were complete I cut off the connection and rubbed my eye in relief. Looking at the clock I discovered that there was 15 minutes left before the final question was going to be given out. So I occupied myself with doodling. Soon there was a small, detailed sketch of Zabuza's Decapitating Carving Knife and my beanie that had ear flaps. An odd assortment of pictures, but hey, it took up 15 minutes.
"Alright!" Ibiki Sensei said loudly, making me jump a little and the sudden loud noise. "Listen up. Here's the tenth and final question." I held my pencil a little tighter and bit my lip lightly.
"But, before I give you the question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of."
His speech was interrupted by Kankuro re-entering the room.
"Ah, made it just in time. I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening," Ibiki said. "Well, take your seat." Ibiki stepped forward and continued.
"These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully, and try not to let them frighten you," the proctor said menacingly. I concentrated very hard on what Zabuza told me about not letting people get into my mind like this, and surprisingly it helped. But I could already see people cracking around me.
"Very well then, rule number one: Each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question; it's your decision."
"Woah, so what's the catch? Let's say we don't wanna do it, what happens then?" Temari called suspiciously.
"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero. In other words you fail, and that means of course both your team-mates fail as well," Ibiki said with an evil smile.
"Of course we'll do it then!" Some people said among the gasps and whispers that this statement stirred. I had my doubts about them, he hadn't told us the rest of the rules yet.
"Not so fast, you didn't let me finish. If you do accept the question and answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail- you will be barred from taking the Chunin Exams ever again!" He said forcefully.
That's what sealed it for me, really. I had nothing to lose by staying a genin forever, but I wouldn't let people say I was too cowardly to try and become a Chunin. I'd promised Haku that I'd try…
"Hey that's bull, man! That's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that? There's lots of people here who've taken the test before!" Kiba stood up and yelled, Akamaru barking in agreement at the end. The scarred proctor laughed.
"I guess you're just… unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now," He said evilly. "But if you don't wanna take it, you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident then by all means, skip it, you can come back and try again next year," Ibiki Sensei ended with another sadistic laugh.
"Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't wanna take it raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go." He said. At first nobody moved, but I could see people becoming even more worried by the second. It wasn't too long before the first person chickened out. Then a second, person, and then a third person. Pretty soon a small crowd was shuffling out the doorway. I, personally, was surprised that Naruto hadn't given up yet. But I couldn't be too sure, his stubbornness and strong-will might actually get him through. Now that I'd thought about it, the second option seemed far more likely.
Again, the orange-clad blonde surprised me when he began to shakily raise his hand. Then I glared at him. I don't like being wrong. The world seemed to turn the right way again when Naruto slammed his hand back down.
"Don't underestimate me, I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want, but you guys aren't gonna scare me off!" He almost just did, you noob. "I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage someday!" Naruto yelled.
"This decision is one that could change your life. If for any reason you would rather quit, now's your last chance," Ibiki warned.
Naruto's little stunt seemed to have given the remaining genin some courage, however, and nobody else pulled out. The proctor looked to the sentinel, who nodded to each other in confirmation.
"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else. For those of you remaining there's only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you… that you've all passed the first exam!"
"Crap!" I said, hitting my pencil off the desk in annoyance. So everything else was all for nothing? Bleeeehh. Sakura stood up and opposed this also. Ibiki said that there never really was a written tenth question, and that our decision to stay had answered it. Temari angrily asked what the point of the other questions were and the scarred proctor explained it easily. I think we fully understood the value of the test when he took off his bandana. It was brutal.
The happy silence was broken by Naruto's partying, would you believe?
Then a giant ball of cloth flew through the window. I kid you not. Two corners soon became pinned to the roof by kunai and a purple-haired lady unfurled herself from inside the cloth, which was actually more of a banner now than anything.
"Heads up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'll be you're next proctor, Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the second test? Good! Then let's go, follow me!" Anko said energetically. There was an awkward silence. Ibiki stepped out from behind the banner.
"You're early. Again," he said in a deadpan tone. They conversed a little, but nothing of and importance was really said except for the fact that more than half of us would be gone by the end of the second test. Yep, nothing important.
"Alright, you maggots have had it easy so far, but, things are gonna be different starting first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you're to meet me. Dismissed," Anko said, cooing the last word very creepily, in my opinion.
I can beat-box: *Clears throat* uh… that's it.
Pleaze review ^.^ Else I'll be sad