Chapter 2: It's all in your Head
"Here's how this portion of the exam will work. In the ninja world, the enemy will use any tool at their disposal. Some will use fists to achieve their goals; others however will use their minds to attack you through genjutsu. As ninja you must be prepared to resist these tactics in order to protect your fellow shinobi. In order to test your resistance to genjutsu techniques, each of you will be told a safe word by myself. In order to pass this next set of exams you will need to resist telling your instructor for 5 minutes. If you can't resist that long then you will immediately fail this test." Ibiki explained. "Only 5 minutes? This is going to be too easy." Said Joe. "Only an idiot like you would believe that Joe." Sakura said. "Genjutsu is way more complex than that. While it may only be 5 minutes for the caster, for the victim five minutes can turn into five hours. Even five days!" "Five days of torture?" Joe thought. "That's a lot longer than five minutes! Still, I can't back down now. Not after making it through the first part." Having reassured himself, he headed over to the line of students. One by one Ibiki called out the names of his classmates. As each student approached, they either nervously headed to the instructor's tents or back to the forest for the long way home. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he heard his name called by Ibiki. "Ah so this is the slacker from class 110. I have heard much about you from your instructor Hirotama." Ibiki said. "All good things I hope sir." Joe replied. "According to him you are brilliant." Ibiki stated. "Yeah I know usel… wait what?" Joe exclaimed dumbfounded. "You didn't let me finish. He said that you are a brilliant ninja but are lazy. You don't study for tests and sometimes flat out refuse to show up for class." Ibiki finished. "Well there's a reason for that sir, you see classes for some reason always tend to start after I wake up and no matter how many times I ask Hirotama-Sensei to move the class times he always turns me down." "That's enough joking around Joe, if you wish to be a ninja you had better start taking this more seriously or else. I will not let anyone who is not 100% committed to this program join. Now your word is will. You had better have a strong will boy because this next test will push you to the limit. Now head over to your assigned tent." "Yes sir." Joe answered. As Joe walked toward his assigned tent, he wondered what sort of genjutsu they would use on him. "A one on one fight I can handle, but genjutsu's different. I had better be on my guard." When he reached the tent, he opened the door.
Inside he saw a table, a couple chairs, and a fridge. "This looks nothing like a tent, whats going on here?" Joe thought. "All right, where's this instructor who is supposed to torture me?" Joe shouted. "Hello? Anybody home?" Not hearing anything, he decided to leave in case he had entered the wrong tent. As he went to open the door, he hit the wall. "I must have forgotten to turn the knob." Joe said. As he looked down, he could not find the knob on the door. In fact there was no door at all. "Doors just don't disappear, maybe I'm in that genjutsu they were talking about. Still, if taking away a door is the best they've got then this should be a piece of cake."
Outside of Joe's mind Ibiki stood next to Hirotama. The boy was kneeling in front of them with a blank look on his face. "The jutsu has taken full effect Ibiki, he is completely under my spell." "Good work Hirotama." The other students had already been given their safe-words and were undertaking their examinations. Ibiki however, had decided that Joe's genjutsu resistance test would be given by himself personally. It was not that he hated the boy. But he had a duty to his comrades. "If this slacker becomes a full-fledged ninja, he will put his comrades in danger. I cannot let this happen under any circumstances. Time to stop messing around." Ibiki thought to himself. Ibiki than moved next to Hirotama. "Hirotama, step aside. I'm taking over. Let's take it up a notch."
"HELP ME!" Joe wheeled around as he heard somebody scream. All of a sudden a shadowy hand came out of nowhere smashing through the walls of the house. Joe was caught off guard as it grabbed him and threw him out onto the streets. "Something about all of this seems familiar" he thought to himself. All of a sudden it dawned on him. He was standing in the middle of his nightmare. "So this is how they plan to torture me huh? That's a low blow." He began scanning the area but there was no one in sight. Then he saw them, the red eyes, except this time the shadow had the form of the spider he had fought before. A chill went down his spine as he remembered how close he had come to being spider chow. The spider slowly crept toward him, intent on finishing him off. Joe tried to move, however for some reason his body refused to respond. "What is the safe word?" the spider asked. Remembering the exam rules Joe replied, "over my dead body!" "I can see that pain will not change your mind." Another scream rang out. "But perhaps the pain of another will." With that, the spider began to pull against the air. Looking closer, Joe noticed that there was some sort of string being pulled by the spider. Another scream and all of a sudden Joe's heart dropped into his stomach. "You bastard!" he shouted, "Leave her out of this!" Joe watched in horror as Ariana was being slowly dragged closer and closer to the monster. "You will tell me the safe word, or you will watch her die." The Spider said. "Help me Joe!" Ariana yelled her eyes wide with terror. Joe struggled with every inch of his being to move, even a finger. But it was no use, he could only struggle as Ariana was now at the feet of this evil being. "I will only ask you one more time, give me the safe word or I will kill this girl!" "Alright you win, I'll tell you the password." Joe said in defeat. "You would do so? You know that if you tell me this information you will give up your place as a ninja?" "I know, but Ariana is more important. If I have to sacrifice my dream, then so be it. The password is-"
All of a sudden, Joe found himself back in front of Ibiki. He noticed Hirotama was standing in front of him as well. Slumping his shoulders in defeat, he prepared to leave the tent when Ibiki said," Where do you think you are going?" "I failed the exam." Joe replied. "even though I never said the safe word, I still was about to give it up. If this was a real mission I would have betrayed my comrades." "No you have not. In that nightmare you were just put through, I gave you a choice. I made you decide between you and someone other than yourself and you passed with flying colors." Ibiki said. Joe a little confused, suddenly asked, "but the safe wo-" "was irrelevant." Ibiki interrupted him. "The most important part of being a Konoha shinobi is being able to put the safety of others above your own. To have learned this at such a young age is commendable." "So I made it master Ibiki?" "That's right, you passed the second test. Dismissed." "Yes sir thank you sir I have to go sir." Joe replied as he raced past Ibiki and Hirotama. "Why did you let him go? He failed the test." Hirotama asked. "Look at the timer." Ibiki answered. "What is this? 10 minutes? How did he survive that long and why did you wait longer than usual?" "You heard me Hirotama. I wanted to test him to see if he had the character of a shinobi." Ibiki responded. "As for how he survived. Watch that one closely Hirotama, he has a burning fire in his eyes that isn't dying anytime soon."