Well, hello there. Long time no see!
After, like, 3,000 years, one or one-hundred bottles of coca cola zero and 1,000 entries on .com later, I've finally spewed out a new chapter.
We are still deep in the Chunin Exams, and Gaara is still as balanced as a drunk cow riding a unicycle on a balancing rope.
On the other hand, Inari still is an (hopefully) adorable idiot trying not to fail as a shinobi...or a human being as a whole. At least she's trying.
So, see both of them approach this first challenge in their own ways in this chapter!
I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, I'd sure like to hear your opinions and thoughts on it!
So, if you feel the urge to tell me anything about the story so far, please let me know in the review section or over PM, whatever floats your boat!
Unfathomable
Incapable of being fully explored or understood
"The test will last one hour."
The scarred examiner peered at the clock hanging over the door frame, waiting for the clock-hands to show exactly right time. Only the rhythmic ticking of the clock cut through the tense and heavy silence filling the entire room. Everyone was waiting for the signal to get started as quick as possible, some more anxiously than others, as Inari quickly noted. She herself wasn't as anxious as some others appeared to be, but saying that she kept her cool would have been a bit of an overstatement; There was always a possibility of failing. But she was confident, if not in herself, then at least in her team. They would make it, no matter what. With that certainty, she allowed her gaze to wander one more time before the signal would be given.
A lot of the contestants looked tense; some of the faces she could peek at had determined looks on them, but there were also not a few of them looking doubtful, nervous. Surprisingly, Inari noted that she had apparently been seated next to the only person in the entire room who did not looked phased at all; Gaara just stared ahead with an air of cold and calculating confidence. It captivated her, although she tried her best not to openly stare at him; That would have been weird. Even weirder than their verbal exchange two minutes prior. That conversation still confused her immensely, distracting her rather effectively, to her own silent annoyance. Alas, she could not help but flinch slightly when Morino Ibiki finally barked "Begin", cutting through the room like the slash of a sword.
Her eyes flew to the sheet laying innocently right in front of her. She would pass this test, no matter what, not forgiving herself if she'd be the reason for disqualifying her team in the very first phase. Being the smartest one wasn't usually the title she was honored with, but that didn't mean that she was an idiot either. That was at least what she had thought from herself until she had actually read the questions written down in front of her.
In her defense, she knew some of these words, but most certainly not in such a constellation. Not only did she not know the answers to these questions, she did not even know what these problems wanted her to solve, and the small pictures were not helping. Actually, the small illustrations and graphs were making things worse. And a quick scan over the remaining questions told her that those were the easy ones. Cold panic took hold of her as quick as a kunai flying right at her face; she'd probably never forgive herself if her failure would cost them the opportunity to go on in this exam. She could already feel Uzume's freezing blue gaze of disappointment and silent judgment, and Sarutahiko's unintelligibly, but undoubtedly viscous mumbling that would screw up their entire group dynamic for eternity. Unless of course, they were failing just as awfully as she was, which was thinkable for Sarutahiko, but never for Uzume. Maybe Uzume would take her revenge on both of them.
Yet, she couldn't imagine being the only having no clue what these letters wanted from her at all. Wasn't there anyone else having just as many difficulties as her?
A quick scan through the room showed her a lot of desperation, with a majority of the participants looking just as lost as she was. From silent resignation to barely audible sounds of consternation. That should have soothed her worries, seeing that she wasn't the only one failing in this room, yet in reality, it only added to her slowly building anxiety. All other candidates failing – in this case – would not help her one bit. Not to mention that she did not possess a competitive spirit big enough to fuel her motivation. Seeing her friends also looking as clueless as ever made her feel disillusioned. She could even coincidentally spot Sasuke, who she had officially proclaimed a moody genius, and saw that he looked lost too. Uzume, on the other hand, whose reputation of a genius had once been lost in the shadow of wonder child Neji, looked rather moody. Absolute disbelief wasn't a reaction neither of these people were allowed to display in this situation. If they were having problems, then what was she supposed to do?
And still, not everyone appeared to be lost. A quick glance to her right showed a totally calm and collected Gaara staring his sheet of paper silently to death. At first, it made the impression of him just thinking very hard for the answers, as if he had a chance of solving each problem. But he had not written anything down yet, and his gaze did not focus on one question, but scanned over the entire sheet of paper. He was just as clueless as she was, he just wasn't quietly flipping out...yet. So he was having problems too. Somehow, Inari liked that thought; During all that time she had been seated next to him – which, admittedly, wasn't that long, but still enough – he had been cold, and surrounded by an air of deadly superiority. Seeing him confused and frustrated in such a way made her feel sympathetic towards him. Actually, confused was the main state Gaara was remembered by her, just with different causation.
Almost lost in her own thoughts again, she quickly shook her head and looked away; This wasn't the right time to get distracted by him and her own thoughts. She needed to come up with a plan. What did her sensei say again? Assessing the situation is already half a plan. Okay, no, those hadn't been the exact words, but something along those lines.
So, what was the situation? She had a test to pass and she did not know shit. So if she did not know shit, maybe someone else in this room did. But that would mean cheating. Cheating would get her disqualified...and her team right with her.
'Cheating five times will get you disqualified. Which means cheating four times keeps you safe and sound, no matter what.'
Well, that was correct, and that realization was surprisingly reliving. Suddenly, the rules that had seemed so evil and against her appeared to be much less threatening than at first anticipated. These were better conditions than a normal test she had not been prepared for, if she was honest.
But that still put her before her next problem; Cheating. She doubted that the old-fashioned way of peeking at her neighbor's sheet would work with those watchers at each end of a row. Sadly, that was pretty much the only way she was able to cheat without doing any preparations beforehand. Which, obviously, she hadn't. Nobody here had. And those who had probably were some weird nerds who were of a mythical kind that liked such exams anyway. Seriously, what could ev...
She was going off-track again, losing her focus. What was her initial problem again?
Oh yes, she was dumb as shit and couldn't figure the answers out on her own. Such a jolly topic.
Someone would have to give her the answers; put someone under a genjutsu and force them to do so. But she wasn't good at creating those, the only one on their team who created decent genjutsus was Uzume. It was now that Inari noticed just how much Uzume tended to almost carry their team on her shoulders all alone. Maybe she should write Uzume's name on the test sheet and see if that would help her.
Her teammate probably had it all figured out by now, she always had been a quick thinker. Not like her and Sarutahiko, who were more brawn than brain, as she sometimes grouchily had to admit to herself.
If only she could at least ask her, but shouting through the entirely silent room would be obvious.
Unless no one who wasn't meant to be addressed knew who was shouting at whom. Wait a minute; She was onto something.
Oh, she wouldn't use her voice, but there was more than one way to communicate with each other. Not as smooth, but she wasn't here to be elegant.
Inari checked the time. Thirty minutes left before the tenth question would be revealed. And if she wanted to make her plan work, she needed some preparation time. And then some more in order to collect answers and writing them down on her blank testing sheet. All based on the hope that Uzume had some answers in the first place. Yes, this plan wasn't exactly foolproof, but luckily, she wasn't a fool to begin with. From her perspective, at least.
Admittedly, this had been more difficult than Gaara had imagined at first. Of course, by now he had figured out what was truly tested here, but the questions themselves had caught him off-guard nonetheless. He had always thought himself more intelligent than the average person by far. The time spent in cold isolation over the years had given him lots of opportunities to indulge himself in books concerning all sorts of topics he could imagine. In comparison to other people, the pages had been worth his time. The raccoon dog had never been too happy about it; He had called it boring, monotone, stupid. Reading did not spill blood on sand, after all. But it had been the knowledge of these books that had given Gaara an even better understanding of this cruel world outside. It had helped him countless times, even though the raccoon dog insisted he would not have needed that with his power at disposal. Ironically though, it did not really like Gaara using it's own power either. The beast did not make a lot of sense most of the time.
Just like this test. Or at least the rules of this test. They left so many openings that it was almost insulting. The emphasis on not letting yourself get caught cheating while at the same time softening the penalty for doing so was about as obvious as it got. The fact that one got tens points to begin with and only could lose points by not answering questions and cheating. These questions were the last piece of the puzzle, and it fit perfectly. Either you cheated without getting caught or you failed. Not anything that would pose any difficulty. Still, that left him with only one issue: His siblings.
While he trusted his abilities blindly, he could not say the same about his siblings. And it frustrated him to no end that his success depended on other people, especially ones less competent than him. If he failed because one of them, he would certainly kill them. His eyes roamed over the room, stopping only when he found his brother's frowning profile staring at his test. Gaara watched – internally impatient – as Kankuro seemed to notice that something looming was observing him. Finally, a nervous glance around him caused his brother to meet his gaze and hold it.
Gaara tried deciphering if his brother at least understood what they were required to do. If one of his siblings understood the situation, they would help each other out. That's how weak people survived. But they would not include him in whatever plan they'd come up with. He did not need their help.
Only when Kankuro nodded ever so lightly before focusing back on his testing sheet was Gaara sure that even if he had not entirely understood the task hidden beneath these flawed rules, he still would pass this test. Good. He wouldn't accept any other outcome.
At ease now that he was sure that he would pass this test despite his siblings, he took in the scene before him. He spotted five pathetic attempts to cheat right away. By the sounds of pencils writing something down from the row the supervisors, they did too. Not much of a competition. Once every few minutes or so, a team would be disqualified. Some people – on the other hand – had part of their testing sheets already filled out, and Gaara could not figure out how they had managed to gather information. Uzumaki Naruto, to his disappointment, seemed to have a small panic attack. Not that he had expected much from him, he had made the impression of an idiot right away. Still, he would have been very much interested in his brawn. Something he wouldn't get the chance of seeing.
That reminded him of the girl sitting right next to him. He did not turn his head. He did not want to get two points off because some idiot sitting at the end of the row thought he'd make such a daft attempt at cheating. Anything else but a perfect score would be an insult. But he watched her from the corner of his eyes. She was staring holes into the untouched paper in front of her. Which either meant she was thinking very hard or in shock; The facial expression could have fitted both. But either way, she looked lost, incompetent. He had expected nothing less. General weakness aside, seeing her here it was easy to forget that she was probably just another noble playing shinobi. He still remembered that ridiculous illusion of hers. She did not belong here, even less than all the other incompetent contestants here. At the end of these exams she would disappear from the face of the earth either way, but maybe she'd be kicked out sooner than anticipated. Fitting for her, to disappear prematurely, never to be seen again. He still wished to be the one to make her disappear.
It almost amazed him how vehemently she managed to ignore his intense side-glare. People usually noticed these, especially when it lingered longer than a few seconds on them. But she was as oblivious as always; A pathetic excuse of a shinobi's awareness. Oddly enough, it was him who started to notice something instead: Like a subtle, almost non-existent crackling in the air that slowly surrounded her. Then, it was like a smooth, cold feeling laying itself easily on his skin. Suddenly, it felt scratchy, ragged stone rubbing against the arm closest to Inari. Before he could even name that sensation though, it morphed into a sharp sensation, like a million thin strings pressing into skin, almost drawing blood. Bizarrely, it then felt as if his arm was changing, or as if it wasn't his own anymore, estranged from his own body. Yet the switch had been flipped again just as quickly, since his arm now felt hot, like sitting at a warm camp fire.
It kept flipping between so many different sensations that it started hurting his head if Gaara focused too much on trying to differentiate them. But if he did not even look out for that anomaly, he barely even noticed anything at all, and then also only in the body parts closest to Inari. He doubted that any of the supervisors would notice anything at all. Whatever sort of jutsu it was, it was annoying as hell. Trying to figure it out right now would be irritating, to put it mildly. And as annoying this sensation was – now that he was aware of it – Gaara did not put it high on his current priority list. He still had a test to write before he could think about some childish trick.
And he knew exactly how he would gather the required information. The small amount of sand around him swirled lazily around his form, as if heeding his command by instinct. It was almost disappointing to use his chakra in such a negligible way, but he was here to finish a mission. He put his right hand over his left eye while gathering his chakra in the palm of his left palm. Molding his chakra like this was almost an automated process by now, considering the countless times he had used this technique before. The sand, following his chakra as if caught in a current swirled around his arm, before gathering into a small ball in his left hand. Quickly, the ball took a more precise form and color, taking the shape of an eyeball. It was now that a tingly sensation blossomed behind the left side of his skull, where his real left eyeball was positioned. On a spur of a moment, the dark spot in his vision was filled with images of himself looking at his palm, while his open right eye was looking at the same image, but from the perspective it was supposed to be seen from. It always took him a moment to get accustomed with this sudden change of vision, but by now the mild irritation was reduced to a fleeting moment.
'The third eye is opened.'
He wasted no time crushing the perfect imitation of an eyeball into sand again, letting the left side of his vision abruptly get dark again. Now, he only had to discreetly direct the sand to someone who was eagerly writing down some answers and –
It didn't feel so much like a punch in the face, but more like a heavy blanket thrown over his head, no, the entire room. Chakra, in anomalously high density filled the room, not high enough to feel thwarted or pressured, but noticeable enough to overlay any other low-energy jutsus. It almost dissolved his control over the third eye, had he not reacted quickly enough and used more chakra to keep the connection upright. But it wasn't the intensity or density that caused major interference; It was the nature of this sudden expansion of chakra, or rather, it's inconsistency. It was ever changing, as erratic and fickle as one could possibly imagine. At one moment, it was almost crackling with electricity in the entire room, in the next room, it was like a vacuum in one corner of the room while simultaneously turning almost frosty in another corner. It was completely random and chaotic, or at least it was for anyone who was not familiar with this...occurrence.
Finding the source of this anomaly was almost impossible to figure out by observing the fluctuation of the chakra; It was too random and disorganized to find a consistent center of energy. The whole room was caught in a wave of confusion, trying to discreetly figure out what was even happening and who was responsible for such a huge and bold interference. Gaara, who still had a hold of his third eye, could see – though with some difficulty due to this unpredictable shift of chakra – the confusion spreading, even under the supervisors; Their eyes roaming the rows like hawks searching for their prey. And then slowly turning into almost panicked chickens trying to find that one peck of seed in the dirt. But they weren't having any success.
Gaara almost knew immediately who the source was:
It was as if the disordered feeling that had brushed over his left arm only minutes ago had suddenly exploded over the entire room. It almost gave him a light sensation of nausea.
He looked critically at Inari. Admittedly, he had not expected her to do such a thing. Yet, at the same time, he could have expected her to do use such a loud and obnoxious jutsu in a test where discretion and fraudulence was a key factor. But she seemed unfazed, letting her gaze wander through the room concentrated, but not stiffly, even though her body had tensed up. But not suspicious enough that one could trace this jutsu back to her.
Was she trying to cover something up? Or was she just trying to sabotage everyone else? Both was equally possible in Gaara's mind. Doing his own jutsus under these conditions took way more concentration and chakra than he considered appropriate, not to mention that the execution was still sloppy. His view with the third eye shifted from exceedingly detailed to drowsily blurred to shaky. On the other hand, he could use a larger amount of chakra without getting detected. Sloppier attempts from other genin would be covered by this random camouflage of chakra, if they only concentrated enough. The smart ones certainly would make their moves now.
"Hey, what kind of technique is that?! As if the questions weren't difficult enough, now this?! You didn't tell us anything about this, at all!"
Apparently, the not so smart ones were making their moves as well. A genin from Konohagakure had stood up, challenging Ibiki head on, a look of outrage adorning his features. Gaara was watching him with his right eye, while his artificial one had resumed it's search for the answers for his test.
"Sit down kid, or do you want to get disqualified?"
Ibiki stared daggers at the genin, daring him to continue with his childish outbreak. Gaara noted silently that he had not mentioned that this 'disturbance' was not part of the test. He had also yet to call Inari out on her jutsu. And the supervisors looking over their row had yet to write something down. They did not have a clue either who was causing this small ruckus. And they wouldn't admit it.
"No, this just isn't fair! Tell us right now-"
"You are disqualified, you and your team can leave the room now and come back when you've learned not to cry like a little brat anymore."
Ibiki had not even raised his voice considerably, but if looks could kill, that genin would have already died way back in his infancy.
What a pathetic idiot that genin was.
"Number 23, you fail! 37 and 04, you can thank your idiot comrade and tell him to shut his mouth next time someone tells him to." one of the supervisors reconfirmed.
That settled some of the commotion. The only other oddity Gaara witnessed was the collapse of the red-haired girl from Kusagakure next to Inari, seemingly overwhelmed by the randomness, ever changing intensity and confusing fluctuation of chakra. Strangely enough she was not disqualified, nor did she quit. She just laid there, head on the desk,her entire test sheet filled out, miserably waiting for the final question. Gaara did not really understand why such weakness was allowed to proceed, but it wasn't really his problem either. Should she ever get in his way, he'd just kill this nuisance.
In the meantime, he had resumed his focus on answering the questions himself. It took some more time than he had initially presumed, but soon enough, the blank spaces on his sheet were filled with the right answers. It was almost ten minutes before the tenth question would be revealed when Kankuro also made his move. His puppet, disguised as one of the supervisors 'escorted' him to the toilet. Gaara was honestly surprised that this worked in the first place, not expecting that the contestants were even allowed to go to the toilet, let alone leave the room. He noticed right away that despite Kankuro's skills with making his puppets move naturally, he had difficulties doing so under these 'conditions'. Karasu, though still convincing, walked a little bit too clumsy and rigid for a chunin chosen specifically for his exceptional skills.
There wasn't anything else Gaara could do right now but wait for the final question. It gave him enough free time to observe Inari again, the most interesting thing on his hands right now. To his surprise, she hadn't written anything down yet. Her sheet of paper was still as white as it had been when she had received it almost 45 minutes ago. And it didn't look like she would be writing something down anytime soon. Their eyes met for a brief second. Cold and calculating turquoise eyes clashed with roguish and playful golden ones. He knew that she knew that he was aware of the fact that she was the source of the most recent ruckus, and she did not seem too fazed.
Her facial expression could almost be described as teasingly cheeky, even though she had done nothing but mess with the whole process. Except of a few single individuals, she had probably anonymously helped everyone else in this room but herself. Gaara was once again reminded that she was an idiot, a wasteful idiot. An even bigger one than he had first deduced. He really hoped that he could be the one to wipe that cheeky expression off of her face. His whole body tingled at the thought of that, and this time it wasn't because the chakra around him was changing it's nature approximately ten times a second.
And then, suddenly, her face went blank. He could watch in mild confusion as her pupils slowly dilated, her smile faded and her position slacked. Her eyes left his, fixing the test in front of her once more. Somehow, her looking away like that made him even angrier than her slightly smiling at him in a disgustingly carefree way. Was she ignoring him now? How dare she?
He was so caught up in that odd change of behavior, he almost did not notice how the storm of chakra slowly calmed once more. It was a slow process, not as abrupt as it had appeared, but sure enough, the atmosphere and energy in the room was going back to normal again. He wasn't the only one noticing the change, or the lack thereof. Ibiki was letting his gaze roam over the room rapidly, looking for any hints under the remaining contestants. But as far as Gaara could tell, he still could not find the culprit.
The noise of something being written down could be heard right next to him. He could observe how Inari had finally started answering the questions, five minutes before the final question would be revealed. But something was off; there was no tension in her body, she seemed almost slack while writing, and Gaara noted suspiciously that her eyes were half closed. She didn't even know what she was writing down, but he could tell that they were the same answers as his. Was this part of her jutsu? Or an external influence, like a genjutsu? Had she been drugged, or was this another jutsu entirely? He didn't know, and if there had been anything else to do, he probably wouldn't care either. But in this situation, trapped on this bench, she was the most interesting thing right now to observe, simply because it was the most bizarre thing in close proximity.
The second the minute hand of the clock had reached the three o'clock mark, Ibiki spoke up again, his loud voice booming through the whole room:
"Ok, it's time. We will now start the 10th question."
Kankuro wasn't back yet. That was problematic. If they failed because Kankuro had spent too much time on the bathroom, he'd squish him as slowly as possible. At the corner of his awareness, he noted how Inari apparently snapped out of her trance at the loud voice sounding through the room. Her testing sheet was filled out completely now.
The rows had thinned out a bit, Gaara noted, but he would say that more than two thirds still remained. That seemed a lot. Either this test had not been as effective as it should have been, or the following test would be a lot harsher.
"Now, before we get to it, I'd like to go over the added rules for this question."
A unison wave of surprise washed through the rows of contestants. Gaara was unfazed, he had other concerns. If Kankuro did not show up anytime soon, they'd be disqualified. The desire to make his 'brother's' life as miserable as possible rapidly rose.
Luckily for Kankuro, he had just enough sense for timing to come in just at that moment. Good for him. It made Gaara feel at ease again. If Kankuro now managed to relay the information to Temari, than that would be the end for his forced teamwork with these two clowns. Then he could depend on himself and only himself again.
"Heh, nice timing. I hope you enjoyed your time playing with your dolls on the toilet."
And that meant a two-point reduction for Kankuro. It didn't mean though that he was disqualified, so Gaara did not care that much. He only resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he watched Kankuro's expression of disbelief. Of course, his brother tried to remain cool, but that was terribly executed. What a walking disgrace.
"Just sit down and be lucky that you didn't come in while I was explaining the rules. God knows I hate brats who think they can interrupt me."
'Just get on with it.'
Gaara started to get really impatient by now. He watched in mild contempt as his sibling walked back to his place, as if he really put effort into walking as slow as possible.
"I'll now explain. These are the rules of desperation."
So much drama Gaara did not care about. He did not sit here to listen to a melodramatic wannabe-instructor. The pause Ibiki made to let his words sink in was almost torture to Gaara, if only he had known how much of his precious time would be wasted. He didn't even bother to glare or snarl or anything, he would just impatiently wait and maybe even pretend to care.
"First, for this 10th question you must decide whether you will take it or not."
"Choose?! What happens if we choose not to take it." Temari interrupted angrily.
Gaara swore that he hated Temari even more right now than he already hated Kankuro. How was it possible for the more sensible of his siblings to ask such irrelevant questions?
"If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero. You will fail the exam along with your teammates."
"Well, then of course we will decide to take the question!"
"What kind of proposition is that even?"
'Just shut up, you all. I want it to end.'
Obviously there would be a catch, and they would get to it the minute these idiots would be quiet again and listen to the instructor.
"Now, the second rule: Those who choose to take the question, but answer it wrong will loose their right to take the chunin exams ever again."
There was the catch, and not a very impressive one, as Gaara deemed. He was confident enough to be convinced that he would be capable of answering the question right. He was so confident, he even believed that Kankuro would pass this question.
Obviously though, others weren't as confident in their intellect.
"What kind of stupid rule is that?!"
"There are people who have taken the exams before."
'What a bunch of idiots. Do they even listen properly when someone explains something to them?'
"You guys were just unlucky that they made me responsible for making the rules this year. But don't worry, I'll give you another chance right now."
That got almost everyone on the edge of their seats. It was an easy way to spot those who could not assess their own capabilities. Gaara, secretly hoping that this should just end by now, watched silently as a cruel and crooked smile spread over Ibiki's scarred lips. Whatever was to come, it would have a sour taste to it.
"If you are not sure if you can answer the question correctly, you will get a chance to somewhat redeem yourself. Name another contestant who managed to cheat without getting caught and tell me how they did it and I might be convinced to overthink my rule concerning these persons. The contestants who you name – along with their teammates – will be excluded from the following stages of the Chunin Exam."
For everyone else who isn't too sure of themselves, you can simply drop out and try next year."
Involuntarily, his gaze wandered to his seat neighbor. Not that he needed to make use of that vague extra rule, but watching Inari fail did have a special appeal to it. Once again their eyes met, and he watched in silent joy as realization settled in her facial features. Now that was a look of shock and silent pleading. He was more than familiar with it, and he loved seeing it on his victims. Especially when said victims would soon realize that the dreaded outcome was inevitable, no matter what they did. Because they were weak and pathetic, and he did not know mercy.
"So, before you decide if you take the question, raise your hand if you want to report a cheater."
