Whoa! Sorry for the wait. I've just been really busy. Life as a junior in high school is hell.
Arashi: Evil SATs. Curse them and their 25-minute time limit for essay.
Kyuubi: Just get on with the story.
Me: Story? (Remembers chapter 3) WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!! NARU-CHAN!! (Crying)
I feel really bad about……I can't even say the damn word. I feel bad about, making……Naru-chan……disappear forever………..waaaaaahhhh!!
--
The Next Day
Ni had been right. When the Konoha shinobi had woken up, there was someone waiting for them outside. The ninja wasn't one of the Council because he lacked a kanji number on his mask. When Tsunade came out of her housing structure, he bowed politely.
"Hokage-sama, I hope you enjoyed our hospitality. I have been ordered by San-sama to escort you and your shinobi to the registration center and the location of the first exam. "
She only nodded and followed the hawk-masked ninja with all her shinobi behind her. Sakura and Hinata had been still in too much shock so Shikamaru was the one who had told her about Naruto and Cagalli's fates. It was taking all of her strength to remain calm, but she was still hurting on the inside, as was everyone who had been told. Still, they had to be strong and not let their despair be shown in front of the other nations.
The Hakumei shinobi, who had told them his name was Kaito, had led them to the administration building and then began leading them to the enormous waterfall that was behind it on the left.
The falls crashed down with what seemed like enough force to level mountains. Yet when it reached the pool that branched off into the village, the water was pristine and showed no knowledge that it had come from such a powerful source. The crashing was so deafening that they barely heard Kaito when he yelled 'at' the falls.
"SAN-SENSEI! ALLOW US PASSAGE!" And as if in response, the falls began to part at the bottom to allow passage. Behind the waterfall was a hollow tunnel that led into darkness. Kaito led everyone quickly behind the falls before they closed behind them.
"You're late, Kaito." A voice said. Out of the dark shadows came another masked ninja. His mask was that of a shark with the kanji for 'three' engraved on it. One could barely see his short, spiky from hair behind his mask but it was a gray-blue color with dark blue waves flowing through it. He wore a blue muscle shirt and black shorts that looked as if the ends had been bitten. What was really odd about this ninja was the fact that he wore manacles on his wrists and ankles. The shark-masked ninja crossed his arms in irritation and was apparently looking at Kaito.
"You were supposed to be here a half-hour ago."
"Sorry, San-sensei. I have no excuse. I overslept."
"Be grateful that the Konoha shinobi still have plenty of time to register and that Hachi-sama is out training." San looked to Tsunade and gave a small bow.
"My apologizes, Hokage-sama. Please forgive my idiot student."
"It's quite alright. We enjoyed Katio-kun's company."
"Indeed, now if you will follow me, I will take you to the site of the first test. Stay close for it is easy to get lost here." San looked to Kaito, "Go meet your team and tell them to warm-up."
"Yes San-sensei!" and with that, Kaito shunshined away.
San led the Konoha shinobi down the dark passage. San was silent the entire way. He only stopped for a moment at any fork they reached and then began walking down what seemed to be the right path. The passage opened up into a room that was twice the size of any academy classroom. Shinobi of many villages sat with their villages and didn't notice the Leaf ninja entering. Sakura saw Kaito with two other Hakumei ninja and he waved back at them.
San led the group to a table with two of the three seats filled. The shinobi on the left was Roku, who was rocking in his chair, looking extremely bored from his body language. He almost fell out of his chair when he noticed San standing in front of him.
The other ninja was unknown to them. Her red hair was streaked with orange and yellow, making it look like it was fire. Two fiery bangs framed the sides of her elaborate bird mask that had the kanji for "five" engraved on it.
"Welcome, Konoha shinobi, my name is Go. We will begin the First Exam shortly. We are just waiting for someone. Make yourself comfortable." The bird-masked council member said.
Tsunade nodded and led her shinobi to an area of the room that wasn't occupied. Everyone in the room was nervous, and there was reason to be. Hakumei was new, and no one had any idea of what their exams would be like. The only ones who didn't seem worried from their body language were the Hakumei shinobi themselves.
Tsunade took a look around once again, just to take in what villages were here. There were at least 12 shinobi from the Hidden Mist, 15 from the Hidden Stone, 9 from the Hidden Rain, 6 from the Hidden Grass, and 15 from the Hidden Twilight themselves. Tsunade was surprised to see that there were 12 ninja from the Hidden Cloud. The Sand shinobi were there too, but only 5 of them, two of which were Temari and Kankuro. Gaara wasn't there, but it came as no surprise. The Akatsuki had come for him two years ago, and they couldn't get to him in time. He had either been moved or they destroyed the body, but either way Gaara was gone.
The Hokage and jounin talked with either other, leaving the Leaf ninaj taking the exam together. Just then, Kaito walked up to them with his teammates.
One of them wore a weasel mask and had blue hair tied in a short horsetail. The other wore the mask of a monkey and her borwn hair was tied in two side ponytails.
"So you guys ready for the exam?" Kaito cheerfully said.
"Are you?" Sakura asked. His weasel masked teammate scoffed.
"We've been ready for this exam since we became chuunins. It's pretty obvious what San-sensei and the other have planned for us."
"That's not nice Hayase. They aren't from here. It's not their fault they don't know what the exams will be." The monkey masked girl said.
"You mean you know?" asked Kiba.
"Of course. By the way, my name's Saru."
"The exam will begin behind those doors." Kaito said pointing to a series of three doors behind the desk where Go, Roku and San were sitting. "Each council member here will enter one door and each ninja will be called one by one. The test will be different for this leg for everyone."
"One by one? Won't that take a while?" Shikamaru said.
"Seeing that it's Go-sama, Roku-sama, and San-sensei proctoring, not really." Hayase responded.
"After that, the remaining ninja will be brought deeper into the catacombs. I don't know the specifics, but you'll have to get through and that place is a giant maze. Half the people who go in will get lost."
"And getting lost won't be the only thing you have to worry about. I heard that even Hachi-sama and Kyu-sama themselves designed the traps." Saru said.
"WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHO TOLD YOU THAT?" You could tell that Kaito and Hayase were now very nervous.
"Hachi-sama told me."
The two masked male teammates were silent for a moment and then Kaito began to speak again.
"Well anyway. The final exam's a given. One on one fights."
"Wow, they don't seem much different than the chuunin exams." Sakura said with a sigh of relief.
"Not even close."
"The jounin selection exam, especially in Hakumei, has always been extremely difficult and precise on what the judges look for. This test is what separates 'the wolves from the housedogs' as Hachi-sama put it." Hayase explained.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Kiba growled and Akamaru barked. Saru put her arms in the universal 'whoa Nelly' gesture.
"Relax, it's just a metaphor. Hachi-sama always refers to great ninja as wolves and normal ones as housedogs. There's nothing to get offended about." She said.
Suddenly everything went quiet. Kaito and his group ran back to the other Hakumei ninja. At the table, the three Council members were standing up. In front of them was another masked shinobi. From his white/gray hair and his body structure, it was easy to assume that he was old. He wore a dog mask with the kanji for 'four' engraved on it.
'This must be the Yon that Hachi had been talking about.' Tsunade thought, remembering the visit of the Hakumei members. He had a grace of power and authority around him that made it seem that one shouldn't talk formally to him. Too bad that Tsunade's assumptions were wrong.
"You're late you crazy old man." It was Roku.
"I am never late. You were all just early." One could hear a huge amount of snickering from the Hakumei ninja.
"Welcome to the First Exam of the Jounin Selection Exam. I am Yon, Kyu-sama's second in command. Behind me are San, Go, and Roku. They will be administering the exam." You could tell he was looking around at all the participants.
"Each shinobi will be called one by one into one of the rooms behind us. There, you will be administered your personal First Exam. No one person's exam will be the same as anyone else's. They are all unique. If you must know, we have prepared over one hundred possible exams choices…………"
"One-by-one?! That will take forever, you old geezer!" A ninja from the Hidden Cloud yelled.
"Back off Cloud ninja! I won't let you disrespect Yon-sama!" A bear-masked Hakumei shinobi yelled back.
"Or what?"
"SILENCE!" Everyone turned; it had been San who yelled. Everyone was silent, mostly because you could feel a murderous intent just emanating from San.
"Thank you San-hokai." Yon said, San bowed and then Yon began to talk.
"I appreciate your concern Kumamaru, but it is quite alright." The bear-masked nin backed up "As for the rude Cloud shinobi, you'd be surprised on how fast the First Exams will go." The Cloud shinobi also backed up.
"If you fail, you will be sent back to the housing section that was designated for your village. If you pass, you will be directed to another door which will lead to the location of the Second Exam which will begin once everyone has finished. Anymore questions?" No one responded.
"Excellent, ninja from the Hidden Mist and Stone please line up by Door 1." There was silence as the Stone and Mist lined up at the door that Roku was now standing at.
"Will the Hidden Cloud, Rain and Grass please line up by Door 2?" There was equal silence as the said ninja lined up by San's door.
"And finally, Hidden Sand, Leaf and Twilight, go to the remaining door." There were now three lines of shinobi minus the instructors and leaders. "Now if the leaders and jounin will follow me. Begin the exam." And with that the adults left and the line began to move.
Yon had been right. After only 20 minutes, 1/3 of the line was finished for each door. The only problem was that there was no way of figuring out what kind of test the person before you was taking. Despite the fact that there was supposedly over one hundred possible tests.
15 minutes later, the first of the Konoha shinobi, Sakura, entered the door to her First Exam.
((A/N: I'm only gonna show one of the tests. Doing all of them would take waaaayy too long.))
When Sakura entered, she took a moment to take note of her surroundings. It was an empty room except for a wooden chair in the direct center of the room. Go was standing a few feet away from the chair, looking directly at Sakura.
"Ah, Miss Haruno. Please sit down and we will begin." She said, backing away from the chair. Sakura went over and sat down. There was nothing about the bird-masked council member that could reveal what would happen next.
"Tell me Miss Haruno, what made you want to participate in the exam?" Sakura was confused. Was this her test?
"Well, my sensei……" she started but was interrupted.
"I don't care that your sensei thought you should participate. What matters is that you could have chosen not to take the test, but you didn't. Why? And tell the truth, for I will know very easily if you are lying." It was then that Sakura knew that this wasn't like the Chuunin exams at all. You weren't supposed to lie, they wanted the truth.
"Well, one of my teammates betrayed our village and left. Before then, I hadn't been much help for my teammates, I was just a burden. When my first teammate left, the other said that he would do whatever he could do get him back. I knew then that I couldn't allow myself to be a burden. That I had to get stronger so that I would be able to get him to come home. And then, the other teammate left. No one knew why. I knew that I had to get even stronger. To get both of them back."
"Those teammates wouldn't happen to be Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, would they?" Sakura's eyes widened in shock. How did she know?
"Thought so. Anyway, let's have a hypothedical situation. Say you and a team of four other ninja confront, let's say, Sasuke Uchiha. You are team leader and some of the members of your team are badly wounded and need more medical treatment than you can provide. However, if you leave, Sasuke would get away and you might not get another chance like this. What would you do? Would you escape and help you teammates or would you leave them and pursue Sasuke?"
"I… I would help my other teammates."
"Explain, because it means that Sasuke gets away."
"I know… but, As team leader, I would have to make sure that everyone survives the mission. Even if it means losing Sasuke."
"The mission is a failure then."
" I would take full responsibility." Go started clapping softly.
"Congratulations. You pass Exam 1." Sakura looked up in confusion.
"That's it?"
"Yup."
"But…" Go raised her hand and interrupted her,
"A jounin must be able to lead, that is true. But to us, they must b able to take a risk and also take responsibility of their actions no matter what."
Sakura stood up and made a slight bow to Go, who in turn also bowed.
"Thank you for your time, Sakura," she waved her hand and another door appeared, "Please follow that door and it will lead you to the next exam."
Sakura hen realized something, "You use Shadow Clones to administer the test. That's why it takes a short time."
"Come now, was it really that easy?"
"Kind of."
"It's an effective method, no?"
Sakura smiled and nodded. She walked to the door, opened it and walked down the hallway.
Go reached into her pocket when she was sure that Sakura was gone. She held a small switch which had two buttons, one for PASS and another for FAIL. She pressed the one for PASS and there was a sound of moving gears.
DEEPER IN THE CATACOMBS
The passage way opened up and Sakura found herself in another open area, still underground. On the opposite wall were about 10 entrances that seemed to lead deeper into the catacombs. She located the other Leaf ninja and went over.
"Everyone passed?" she asked.
"Yeah, but it was dead hard. I had to fight Go and I wasn't allowed to have any help from Akamaru." Kiba said.
"Hinata could use any Gentle Fist techniques and I could use my Byakugan at all." Neji said.
Sakura looked around. There weren't that many ninja still in the exam. About half of the shinobi who went into the First Exam were missing. Suddenly a square opening opened in the floor and a platform rose up. On the platform were three figures. One of them was Ni, but the other two were new.
The first figure wore a raccoon mask with the kanji for 'One' engraved on it. His red had was spikey and had a gold color on the tips. He wore a dark tan overcoat and black pants.
The other one was much shorter than Ni and Ichi.
((A/N- Shichi: I'M NOT SHORT!!))
She wore a badger mask with the kanji for 'Seven' engraved on it. Her an/brown hair was short in the front and the back was in a ponytail. She wore a sleeve-less brown shirt with multiple armbands along on her arms and brown short and similar legs bands along her legs.
The shorter one ((A/n- Shichi: I'M NOT SHORT!!)), called out to the remaining ninja
"Welcome to the Second Exam. I' m Shichi. With me are Ichi and Ni, and we will be administering the exam."
"AND WHAT EXACTLY IS THE EXAM?" Someone called out. You could hear Shichi smirk.
"It's a Maze, and basically, you have to get through it without dying."
--
Wow…..this was long, for me.
Arashi: We'll begin working on Chapter 5 next.
Kyuubi: Be warned. Finals, Regents, and other important things are coming up. So it might be a while.
Me: Till then! BYE!