Shinobi of Ice Chapter 3
Disclamer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any characters mentioned in this fanfiction
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Demon Talking"
"Demon Thinking"
0ooo0o0o0o0o0 – Time Skip/Author's Note
"Every person has a chakra affinity… one of the ways to find out what your chakra affinity is to use a special paper that reacts to chakra being circulated through it in different ways according to what the chakra affinity is. If the affinity is fire, it ignites and turns to ash. If the affinity is wind, it will be split in half. If the affinity is lighting, it will wrinkle. If the affinity is earth, it will turn to dirt and crumble away. If the affinity is water, it will become damp… The chakra affinity of each person is what style of jutsu will be able to be used by the person but it is possible through dedication and training for people to use other styles of jutsu. Only very few people can use all five chakra affinities… The paper cannot be used to see if a person has a Kekkei Genkai although it is possible to find out if you locate a sealing master." Toshiro put down the book and then stared at the ceiling. It was useful to know and all, but he didn't know where to find the paper anyway, not to mention he could already do Fire Style, -which he was pretty sure it wasn't his chakra affinity- but he wanted to know what he would be best at.
The ex-captain then sat up suddenly and slipped off of his bed, walking out of his room, calling out, "Minato-san, where are you?"
"I'm in my room, Shiro-chan!" Minato's voice came from the left of him.
Toshiro changed his direction to the left and walked into his 'father's' room where he found Minato looking over stacks of paper at his desk, "What's up?"
The 'child' stood on one foot with his other foot on his ankle and said, "I was wondering if you had or knew where to find chakra affinity paper."
Minato smiled and then opened a drawer, taking out a few small index card sized pieces of paper, "Here."
Muttering a thank you, he took the papers, told Minato he was going out, and then walked out of the house without his jacket. Holding one of the papers between his index and middle finger as he walked, he took a deep breath and channeled some chakra into the paper. A few minutes later when he had arrived at the training area he had first met his team a week ago, the paper had pretty much dissolved in his hand because it had been so wet. He tried the rest of them until they were all gone and was completely sure that his chakra affinity was water.
Now what? Toshiro sighed and then watched a leaf fall out of a tree and flutter to the ground. Wait, I'm pretty sure that the book said something about what sort of training to do afterward and it had to do with leaves… Oh, right, "Once a person knows their chakra affinity, instead of just trying to start off doing jutsu, they can cup a leaf between their palms and circulate chakra in it and try to make it react the same way the paper did. This will be more difficult because the paper was hyperactive and the leaf is ordinary, so once the leaf reacts instantly to the chakra affinity like the paper, the person is on their way to mastering their affinity."
Remembering, Toshiro grabbed a leaf and squished it between his palms and started circulating chakra through it. After a few minutes, he opened his palms and found that only the stem of the leaf was even slightly wet. In annoyance, the ex-captain squished the leaf again and then poured more chakra in it. He stood like that for a good thirty minutes before he opened his hands again, finding that the whole leaf was wet, but only a few parts of it were soaking. Dropping the leaf, he summoned some shadow clones and made them do the exercise with him, and continued doing so until Minato came and found him at sunset.
Walking home, Toshiro sensed Minato glancing at him every so often and without looking at him, asked, "Is there something you need, Minato-san?"
"Uh, well… um," caught off guard, the Jounin panicked. "The Chunin exam is coming up and… I was wondering if you were ready for it and all... So…"
Inwardly, the ex-captain smirked but outwardly he looked at Minato and asked, "What's the Chunin exams?"
A few seconds passed before Minato responded, "Well, um, it's the exams that genin's need to take to become Chunins, the next level of shinobi. It's pretty tough so many people never pass it and a lot of time people die."
Toshiro's felt genuinely upset and he frowned, "Die, huh? All for some stupid test to get to the next rank?"
Minato seemed to think he made a mistake and said quickly, "Which is why I want to make sure you're ready, although if you're not-"
"No! I need to become a Chunin as fast as possible!" Fiercely, the genin and soon to be chunin glared at his 'father'.
Surprised at the reaction, Minato didn't say anything for a few minutes, "I understand."
For the rest of the walk, neither of them said anything and the Jounin kept thinking about what had just happened. It was very, very rare for Toshiro to ever get defensive or angry, and generally was happy or impassive. Only when he was focused on learning something or on defeating someone, did his eyes narrow into something akin to a glare. Even then, it was more of a look of determination and dedication, nothing else but focus. Sighing, Minato decided to put aside how strange his 'son' was, and focused on walking.
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"So, Rin and Obito, you remember the Chunin Exams, yes?" Minato asked, his hands hidden behind his back as if he was hiding something.
Rin's eyes lighted up in understanding while Obito just kicked at the dirt mumbling something with a scowl on his face, Kakashi just blinked and then walked away, and Toshiro watched the already Chunin boy go away from the group.
"Well, it's that time of the year again with the Chunin Exams coming up, and I think you're all qualified to go!" Minato grinned, holding out three pieces of paper.
"Yata! I'm gonna' become a Chunin!" Obito yelled, jumping into the air and snatching one of the papers.
Rin just smiled and grabbed a piece of paper while Toshiro looked knowingly at his teacher and grabbed a piece of paper, "Alright, you have the rest of the day and the rest of the time till the Chunin Exams -which is in five days- so that you can train although you can come find me if you need any help."
Obito just yelled out in delight and ran from the training area while Rin walked up to Minato and started asking some questions. Toshiro looked around for Kakashi, but found that he had left during when Minato had been talking to them and he grunted. Walking away from the area, he found a tree, summoned trees, and started training.
At the end of day two, and three days till the Chunin Exams, Toshiro could wet the leaf so that it broke apart and was disgustingly soggy after fifteen minutes, and decided that he would have to leave it there and train later. The next day, Toshiro did endurance, strength, and flexibility exercises for the first half, and the second half, he practiced Jutsu that Minato had taught him and that he had read about. The last day before the Chunin Exams, he rested and read books and let himself rest from the training he'd done the past four days.
The day of the Chunin Exams, he met up with Rin and Obito at the memorial stone and they all sweared a pledge to become a chunin this year. They walked together up to the academy together and were then all assigned different classrooms. Toshiro found himself on the second floor on the right in the back, which was far from any exits or entrances. Glancing around the room a few times, he saw that Konoha genin filled the small room, all ranging from the common 13 to the rare 57. Most of them wore dark clothing, but there were a few who wore bright and obvious clothing like a boy dressed in all bright red.
A few minutes after arriving, a darkish tan skinned man wearing typical Jounin attire walked into the classroom, went to the front of the class, and then sat down lazily on a chair as he pulled out something from his pocket, waiting for people to notice him. Toshiro just glanced at the man and then rested his head on his arms and watched as people slowly noticed him.
Around fifteen minutes later, the room was silent and the man finally got up, staring coldly at the group, "Congratulations, you just gave an enemy ninja 15 minutes, 13 seconds, and 52 milliseconds to observe your group and slaughter you. In any time period when facing enemy ninja, especially now, all your throats would've been slashed. That's being generous though, because I walked in here and just sat down without trying to hide myself at all, and if an enemy ninja is hiding, then a lot of you would never notice them."
Even without seeing their faces, Toshiro could feel the hostility in the room, and he blinked slowly. He said he didn't try to hide himself, but in truth all he did was hide in plain sight, walking in like he owned the place. Nobody would pay attention to him like him, although it appears a lot of people didn't seem to get that. Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention back to the man.
"Now, you're all here for the Chunin Exams and not for me to lecture you on how to survive through the next month, so I won't bore you. This is the first trial of the Exams and it;s a written exam. Someone will now pass out the papers. You must write your name and your teammates names on the top right corner. No talking is permitted, if any talking is heard, you will be disqualified. Go ahead and cheat, it doesn't matter," with that, the man sat down and left many people with questions.
What does he mean? Usually something like cheating would result in immediate disqualification, but he just said that it didn't matter, so that has to mean either what we put on the paper doesn't count or we will gain nothing from cheating. Is it possible that we all have different questions? No, I think… we all got separated from our team so perhaps it has something to do with them. Toshiro leaned back in his chair and waited for the paper to come.
When it did come, it had small text on it but the ex-captain couldn't read them because the words weren't words they were symbols, random, stupid symbols that made no sense even to his mind, except for the very few numbers hidden within the symbols. The hostility that had plagued the room before was now almost palpable and Toshiro glanced around warily as people crumpled up their papers in anger. Tapping his foot against the floor, he took a deep breath and for the first time since he had gotten to the Elemental Nations, he used Hyorinmaru's powers. Thin, clear ice crept along the floor to the door, went under it, and spread out toward his teammates classrooms. It crept up to their seats and attached itself to their legs and their hands.
Rin felt it immediately but refrained from immediately looking down and instead pretended she was looking at the paper but was actually looking at her leg and hands. She felt the coldness coming from them but knew it had to be something from one of her teammates, although Kekkai Genkai's involving ice were extremely rare. On the other hand, Obito didn't notice that it existed but only found his leg and hands cold and was confused.
It was only when a voice sounding like Toshiro said from nowhere, Hello?
Fighting the urge to scream or jump, Obito thought, What the hell is going on?
A second passed before another voice came, Obito, is that you?
Dumbly, he responded, Yeah, that's me, Rin.
The voice that had spoken earlier spoke -or thought- again, It's me, Toshiro. This is my Kekkei Genkai, obviously it involves ice and this is one of it's uses. I'm assuming we all got papers with things -words or symbols- on it?
Before Obito could think about how cool that was, Rin came through, Yeah, I got two papers with a bunch of lines on them with spaces in between a cluster of them, like words are supposed to go there. Well, I actually got three papers, and the other one is a bunch of symbols and numbers with what looks like English letters under them.
Me too, well, except I just got a bunch of words… but they don't make sense. Like, it says, 'Knee hooked and barfed grandma her, Janet.' Obito thought, looking at his own paper in confusion.
Nearly a minute passed before Toshiro said something, I have a bunch of symbols and numbers like some sort of code and they seem to be in order. Wait, maybe your words are supposed to be rearranged sort of like, 'Grandma Janet hooked knee and her barfed.' Or something.
Oh I think I know! 'Grandma hooked Janet and her knee barfed!' Obito thought excitedly and like he thought he'd gotten it correct.
No, no! I think Toshiro-san was closer. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be 'Grandma hooked her knee and barfed, Janet.' Like somebody's who's talking to somebody named Janet and is trying to tell her what happened. Rin scolded.
That sounds correct, perhaps it goes one of the papers with the spaces and lines. Toshiro thought, glancing around his room.
A few seconds later, Rin reported back, Yeah, it fits in one of them but not the other…
Rin, put your hands over the paper with the symbols and numbers on them. The youngest ordered.
Without question, the kunoichi put her hands over the paper and kept them there. In another room, an image flooded through Toshiro's mind and he scratched some letters on the paper in correspondence to the symbols and letters and since he had studied English before, he read what it said. 'Pandora's box opened and out came all the horrible things of man like pride and lust and envy.'
Reporting back, Toshiro told Rin what letters for her to write and told them he thought the test was over now. Once they said their goodbyes, Toshiro's ice retreated from the hands and legs and from their classrooms and back to him where his reiatsu was absorbed back into his foot.
He looked across the room and with surprise, saw that some people were starting to figure it out and were writing down things, some people with the three papers like Rin and he managed to read what it said. All the papers said different things, but even so a few idiots with the three papers wrote down what other papers said, grinned, and then leaned back in their chair with their legs on the table as if they were smart. Inwardly, he smirked at their stupidity and closed his eyes, waiting for their time to run out.
Thirty minutes later, the man at the front of the class stood up and shouted, "Everybody stand up and put your pencils down!"
Doing so, Toshiro found himself the shortest in the room, and frowned as the man took his time looking at the papers, looking at the name for almost all of them and then he sat back down. A few minutes later, a ninja in a Chunin vest came into the room and whispered something to the man at the front, leaving a few seconds later.
The Jounin then stood up and simply said, "Overall, only 4 out of the 14 teams that applied for the Chunin exams have passed. That being said… I will now call out those whose team did pass. Watanabe, Toshiro, Ginko, and Yuma! The three of you will exit this room and immediately go to the academy classroom of 108. The rest of you will sit down!"
Ignoring the other three that had passed, Toshiro walked down from his place at the top of the class, avoiding tripping on a leg that had suddenly found itself in the isle, and then walked to classroom 108. Inside, he found Obito and Rin waiting for him and he sat at a table with them, watching the other three groups sitting together but away from any other group. A few minutes later a short woman came in looking rather uncomfortable.
Standing at the head of the class, the woman said nervously, "Uh… hello, my name is Ruki Iou. The next stage will start immediately after I talk to you all. Since so few teams have passed, the next stage will have two other teams of Jounin involved in the next stage. Um… usually new chunin will have to fight shinobi at the rank of Jounin or Anbu so that is why the other teams are Jounin and not Chunin. Go to the Forest of Death, or rather training ground 44 now!"
Squeaking out the last part, the woman disappeared -who Toshiro realized was actually an Anbu- and his team got up and they walked to the windows, slipping out them and walking to training ground 44. Once arriving at entrance 1, they were directed by a Chunin to a form, which they read and signed, and Obito was given a scroll with the word sky on it and was told to hide it. He hid it in the right inside pocket of his coat. It wasn't long before the other teams showed up and hid it as well, although they were all in separate tents and when they came out the scroll was nowhere to be seen.
Ruki appeared again at the first gate looking a little more composed, "Team Jiu, go to gate 35. Team Hikarui, go to gate 10. Team Musoe, go to gate 25. Team Minato, go to gate 45. You were already informed about this, but just to clarify, you are to get another scroll that is labeled differently than yours and once you do, go to the large building in the middle. Go!"
Team Minato shifted the left one gate while the other teams moved to their gates, and they caught sight of one of the Jounin teams. They were wearing typical Jounin attire and one of them wore a short sword across their back which was used by the anbu. Not long after they disappeared from view, the a horn sounded and the gates swung open. Rin and Obito immediately sprinted in, and after giving one last glance toward Ruki, he ran after them. The gate swung shut a few seconds later just around the time he caught up with his team, and they all slowed to a walk and tried to be quiet..
"All right, what's our first move?" Obito asked, glancing back at the two.
Rin thought for a second, "I think we should find someplace that can be our base close to the middle close to water and food -if we need to stay here for a long time- and then go track some of the other teams."
"I didn't see which scroll we had, so which one do we need to get?" Toshiro asked quietly, his right hand twitching in the anticipation of stealing one.
"Uh… we got…" Obito started, trying to remember. "...Sky?"
"No, we got Earth, Obito!" Rin hissed.
"Oh, uh, yeah," the genin scratched the back of his head sheepishly and then put his goggles over his eyes to hide his blush.
The ex-captain took a deep breath and then said, "We won't be able to run forever, and we don't know how big this place is, although by the fact that there are 44 gates with one next to the other so far apart you can't even see it, this place must be big. Not to mention that this place is called the Forest of Death so it must be dangerous. So, when the sun starts to go down, we should start looking for a place to rest."
Rin and Obito nodded firmly and none of them talked until sundown where they sat in a cave, with Rin at the front of the cave on look out.
"So… this the end of day one, but we're supposed to have like, a week right? So, I think it'll take us maybe a day to travel to the center if we're being cautious and walking, and maybe a day to track down another team, and then maybe a couple hours to find where the scroll is, and once we fight them, we can just go to the center and turn our scrolls in!" Obito exclaimed, taking a couple minutes in between sentences to figure things out.
"That sounds right," Rin said from the opening, not looking back at the two.
Toshiro inwardly frowned at the fact that he'd have to spend so much time in this place when he could've done it in a minute or two, "I agree… Who wants to take the first shift of night watch?"
Neither of the other two responded so Toshiro eventually just said, "I'll do it since I've got a lot of energy. You guys should go to bed soon."
Pushing off of his knees, the soon to be Chunin stood up and replaced Rin's position at the door. A few minutes later the sun was only a sliver in the sky and the other two tried to sleep on the bug infested rock floor. Hours later, Toshiro got up from the front of the door and walked silently toward the two, seeing their chakra signatures instead of their actual selves, and made sure they were asleep. Then he returned to the entrance and created two clones, both of them guarding the door while he went into the forest.
