This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Naruto, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto. Everything aside from the original characters are created from the wonderful mind of Kishimoto.
Also I'm planning to change this part of the series' rating to from M to T because I want the first part to emphasize their childhood innocence and nativity, focusing more on their maturation process, so forgive me but it would be a slow burn process.
Comments, suggestion, etc are greatly appreciated.
Thank You!
Chapter4:
Everybody inside the exam room were still reeling from Uzumaki Naruto's display of confidence. A few found it amusing, some didn't care, but majority of the room were agitated at the very least, but all that mattered to Misaki is that in doing that, Naruto felt a lot more better. She watched in amusement as the rest of the rookie nine reacted to his own display, especially with Sakura's reaction, it almost reminded her of her mom.
Then from the corner of her eyes, she saw figures moving across the room, fast. So fast in fact that were moving at an entirely different wave.
Like the speed of sound.
Misaki almost stood from her seat when they started attacking the guy who approached the rookie nine, but Kazuhiko held her down by the wrist.
"Hold it Misaki, besides, Ibiki-sensei would be here at any moment" he said in a voice so low, Misaki doubted anyone else could have heard it.
"Thanks" Misaki said smiling as she moved to sit back down. At that instant a smoke erupted in front of the room, along with the loud commanding voice of Morino Ibiki.
"Silence degenerates!" the smoke cleared revealing the very man along with his small army of assistant proctors who will be there to help facilitate the first part of the chunin exams.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, I'm the proctor for the first test of this Chunin exam, I am Morino Ibiki" every genin followed his every word, his presence rattling them to the core, even Akihiko was hiding under Kazuhiko's armpit. Misaki slightly nudged Kazuhiko's arm with her elbow to gain his attention.
"Hey, does Ibiki-sensei always love always making a grand entrance?" Misaki whispered, making Kazuhiko choke, trying to stifle his laughter.
"You from Otokagure! No doing as you please before the exam, you want to fail before you even get a go?!" he yelled pointing to the opposite side of the room.
"Sorry, this is our first time to take the exam, we flipped out despite ourselves." the guy who had bandages surrounding his whole head, besides one eye said.
"Tche, what do they mean by 'despite themselves'" Akihiko muttered followed by a colorful array of curses.
"This is a good opportunity so I'll say this, there would be no battles, fighting or anything without the permission of the proctors, and even if you do get a permission, actions that could lead to death will not be permitted, any pig that screws with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?!" Ibiki explained.
"This exam lookst to be easy" the one from Oto with the smug face blatantly bragged and belittled at the same time making Misaki shake his head, not here comes an even bigger idiot. Even the other facilitators were laughing at his declaration.
"Now then, we will start the first test of the Chunin Exam, turn in your application in exchange for these number cards and sit in the seat with matching that number, after that, we will hand out the paper for the written test." A few moments after Ibiki had finished instructing, Misaki could hear Naruto's voice in the background saying something about a paper test.
It wasn't that long ago when she herself found herself in this kind of situation where in she had been a young genin aspiring to advance to the rank of a chunin, she could remember exactly how it gone. First step to being a successful chunin examinee, follow your proctMisaki followed Ibiki's instructions to a fault, just like any chunin examinee would do. Getting on the proctor's bad side in this part of the exam, actually on any part of the exam would always end in a disaster, villages didn't pick their three specific proctors for nothing, and they would not fail what they are tasked to do.
As expected, teammates were shuffled, making sure to place everyone who knew each other as far away as possible from each other. Misaki sat in the exact middle of the exam room, with a turned down paper in front of her and a single pencil and eraser.
'If I broke the pencil, will I actually get another one, or am I doomed to fail, no wait I can't fail I have already passed this exam' Misaki pondered, her head once again travelling a million light years from where she actually is.
'As usual, mom's right, I still need to work on focusing more, speaking of mom, I wonder where she is right now, probably binging on some sweets since it's time for her tea anyway' Misaki thought looking out the window and into the clear skies as Ibiki began broadcasting the rules of this test.
The third hokage stood on top of the Hokage Residence building as he continued to smoke from his pipe. It was past noon and the first part of the chuninn exams have no doubt started. It was an inspiring occurrence, watching young ninjas aiming to move further on the path they have chosen, untainted and unbroken, yet.
However, as he could not help to extend caution, even as to observe the city from his view. Chunin exams leave the sponsoring village open to the other shinobi villages, in a certain position one could call vulnerable. Sarutobi Hiruzen continued to gaze in silence until a presence made itself known behind him.
"How long have you been lurking there?" he said, unfazed that someone came up to him without noticing.
"Not long, I just arrived few minutes ago" the female voice said as she walked closer.
"How did it go?"
"It is as expected, the organization are taking in dangerous missions at a low price. The identity of its members are still unknown, but many believe them to be hidden village deserters, S-Rank" the voice continued and the third frowned at this.
"And you are still willing to continue, even with that kind of information on hand?"
"Yeah, I need to know what happened that night, if not for me, but for them" blue eyes stared at the sky as the wind swept her long blonde hair and the edges of her yukata.
It had only been a few minutes since the paper test began and Misaki was beyond bored.
'It's no use staring at the sky without feeling the breeze at all, it just won't do' she thought as she looked at the clock, four minutes since the test began and already she is counting the fifty-six minutes to end. She started tapping her fingers and rested her chin on the palm of her hand, and looked around the room. Genins from all over the lands looked at their test paper like it was their own personal brand of laxative.
'Was I required to answer the test, or can I just skip it, but then again I really don't have anything to do for the next fifty-six minutes, so why not?' Misaki thought and flipped her test paper, reading all the questions first. Misaki frowned at the question, these are problems that could be found in advanced books and other materials, problem based questions focusing more on the scientific and methodic sides of every movement a ninja is well versed in, some theoretical questions and others more on strategy and situational questions.
"Is a genin really required to know all of this?" she muttered biting the end of her pencil, giving each question some time before jotting down her own answer with the best answers she could probably think of.
"There" she said answering the final question, when she realized there were only nine questions when Ibiki specifically reiterated and even written on the board that there would be ten questions to this exams.
'Probably a vocal one' Misaki thought staring at her paper. She looked at the clock, still thirty minutes until the exam is over. Misaki's eyes widened, she had taken less time than she actually needed, leaving her thirty more minutes with meaningless sitting around, to her frustration.
Then Ibiki's sentinels began sending students out of the room, those who have been caught cheating five times. Then the thought immediately hit Misaki, the ninja selected to participate as Ibiki's sentinels were no ordinary ninja. Judging from their uniforms he had seen Kazuhiko use on several occasions. these are people from the torture and interrogation team, one that Ibiki personally leads. Meaning the goal is not to pass the answered exams, the goal is to cheat and answer the questions without getting caught.
'That would make for a wonderful game' Misaki thought as she began looking for examinees who are using unique and unorthodox methods to collect data, trust Morino to come up with an exam like this.
First there was Kiba who had Akamaru on his head look and tell him answers, in a language he is only going to recognize, that much is certain, same goes for Shino who was using bugs to scout his answers for the exams. Neji and Sasuke had their unique eyes activated, answering their exams at an amazing speed.
'Might be nice to be gifted with those kinds of eyes' Misaki pondered, looking at Sasuke who was writing fast, without even looking at his paper, instead his eyes were focused on the person in front of him. Come to think of it, most of the successful cheating methods involved a certain kekkei genkai, including Ino who had just used her families mind switch jutsu on Sakura.
Ten ten, as clever as she is, had strings attached on her pencils connecting to the mirrors on top of the room.
'When did she install those?' Misaki mused as she continued looking at the room, the sentinels smiling every time they would meet eye to eye, and she would just smile back. They obviously knew she had already finished answering her paper, and answers weren't what she was looking for. What they did not know is that no matter what they do to her, she would be there for the second and the third part of the exam, regardless of the turnout of the first test.
Red headed Gaara had his one hand covering his eyes and some sand out, probably used a technique with sand and his teammate, the man who had paint on his face was next to a, non-living sentinel, who for the life of Misaki, can't remember seeing when the whole team entered, well appeared in the room.
At exactly forty-five minutes after the exam had begun, Ibiki's domineering voice boomed across the room, alerting everyone of elusive tenth question.
The door opened and in came Kankuro with the non-living sentinel.
"Aren't you lucky, it looks like playing with dolls wasn't a waste after all?" Ibiki said, making it known that he knew exactly what Kankuro had been up to. Of course he would notice if there was a person who immediately added the room, those sentinels were under his wing. So that guy was a puppeteer, come to think of it, the puppet next to him had the same head of hair as the one he was always dragging around. What was with his team and lugging heavy items anyway?
Misaki then looked to Ibiki, who was probably the only other person who knows that she isn't a participant. Even without lifting a finger, Ibiki knows of ways to torment one person without lifting a finger, he wasn't head of the torture and interrogation for nothing. Even Akihiko and Kazuhiko who was already used to his presence right now are shaking at one point or the other heck, Kakashi and Kaede call him sadist.
Ibiki began stating the rules specifically designated for his tenth question, which he called the 'hopeless rules'
The first rule was that they had to choose whether or not they are going to take the tenth question to finish the exams, and if they choose not to answer the tenth question they automatically fail.
The second and the most bone chilling one is that if they accepted the tenth question and were unable to answer, they will relinquish their rights to taking the chunin exam, ever.
'What kind of bluff is that?' Misaki thought, then it clicked to her, Ibiki was pressuring these students, and they were beginning to react. Mainly Kiba, who questioned the rule that follows, then why are there second and even third timers for the exam.
Ibiki just laughed and said he makes the rules this year. Even Misaki herself, who didn't have to take this exam seriously felt panic rise in her veins.
'So this is how the head marshal of the torture and interrogation team works, it's so scary' Misaki said and nearly fell off her table when she saw Akihiko visibly shaking on his seat.
"Then let's begin, for those who will not be taking it raise your hands!" Ibiki said and that very moment struck Misaki like a lightning.
'His tenth question was if they will be willing to take the risk of answering the tenth question; that is the question?' Misaki internally debated Ibiki's elusiveness regarding the exam, and frankly it is making her question every single thing he has been saying since he entered, err appeared inside the room.
Misaki was taken from her internal interrogation of her mindset when those who have been affected by Ibiki's intense bluffing, the other participants began volunteering to not take the tenth question, choosing to take their chances on the next chunin exams, dragging their teammates with them.
Followed by another, and another and another. Misaki then looked to Naruto's shaking figure then to his exam, that was blank except for the printed questions. Misaki found herself screaming at the top of her lungs, inside her mind hoping Naruto would take the hint that the question was already answered just by staying put in his sit. Misaki also saw that Sakura had begun moving to raise her hands, but Naruto beat him to it, freezing every fiber inside Misaki's body, even Sasuke's cool façade was as rattled as those who knew Naruto.
Then he slammed his hand on the desk in front of him, screaming, the determined look on his face back ones again.
"Don't underestimate me! I won't run, I'll take that tenth question, even if I'm stuck with being a genin forever, I'll become the hokage no matter what it takes, I'm not scared" he declared out loud and sat down with a huff, making Misaki release a relieved sigh.
"I'll ask again, it's a choice that will alter your life, if you want to quit now is your chance!" Ibiki pressed.
"I'm not going to take back my words, this is my nindo" Naruto said and Misaki can almost see the fire in his eyes, fire that always burnt fervently no matter how weak or wet it got, it still burned with a determined refuses to bend to anyone.
Unbeknownst to his actions, Naruto was oblivious that he had just given his will of fire to the other genin, offering them the strength to push through with this exams, and Misaki knew Ibiki is thinking the exact same thing judging by the look on his face.
Misaki then watched him look at all his sentinels who all subtly nodded their heads to him and he nodded back in the same manner.
"I like your determination! For those of you who are still here, the first test…you have passed it!" Ibiki announced and Misaki watched in obvious amusement as the students took their time to process Ibiki's words.
Sakura stood and started questioning the existence of the tenth question, something that Ibiki just laughed at, the previous atmosphere his presence had created already flying out all possible exits.
Then the girl from Suna questioned the purpose of those questions that did exist.
"They weren't for nothing, the objectives of the nine questions were already accomplished, and that is to test your individual ability to gather information." Ibiki started and went on explaining the complexity behind his seemingly simple paper type test.
"First, the focus of this test was on the system of determining the pass or failure based on the three person groups that was proposed in the first rule, by grading the exam on a group basis, I added the unimaginable pressure of dragging down your teammates. The question on these tests weren't things that you genins would have been able to solve, I imagined that most of you would have come to this conclusion: 'in order to score points, I have to cheat,' in other words, this exam was created under the premise that all you would cheat, That being said, there is a team of chunins here who are known to be able to answer without any problem from which you could cheat from."
Misaki laughed as Naruto acted like a genius and bragged that it was obvious from the start.
'That idiot didn't know a thing at all from the start' Misaki thought, then listened a little further to what Ibiki had to say.
"However, for those who just foolishly cheated, naturally they were disqualified" he started then removed his head cap exposing his scarred hear to the genins to make his point before continuing.
"Information, depending on the time and situation, it would be more valuable than life, and in a mission or in the battlefield, you will always have to risk your life to fight for it! When information is gathered, the enemy or a third party finds out about it, that information is no longer guaranteed to be correct, just remember this, to be given the wrong information, can bring an catastrophic to your friends and village, so that is why out of necessity, we forced you to cheat, in order to test your ability to collect information, and we filtered out those who were clearly lacking those abilities"
"But the last question doesn't make any sense"
"The whole point of exam was the tenth question. Let me explain, the tenth question was to take on the question or not, needless to say it is a painful decision to make, those who chose not to take on the question would be immediately failed along with their whole squad, those who chose to answer the question and got it wrong, would be robbed of their chance to take the exam forever, it really is an unfair question, then how about these two choices?" Ibiki said and started walking around the classroom.
"Let's say that you guys did manage to become a chunin, and had a mission to steal a secret document, you have no idea how many ninja enemies has their ability and other armament they may have, on top of that there may be the pitfall of an enemy trap, now this mission, will you take it or not? Because you want your life spared, because your partners will be put in danger, can you get away from dangerous missions? The answer is, you can't, there are going to be missions you cannot avoid, no matter how dangerous it is, showing your courage to your teammates in a tight spot and the ability to get through the hardships, this the quality that is needed in a chunin troop leader. In a pinch, there are those who cannot risk their own fate, and those who waver and give up their chances because they think they will have another chance. I believe that such fools who don't have strong determination have no right to become a chunin. For those of you who chose to answer the tenth question, you can say that you have successfully answered the difficult tenth question. You shall be able to take on the adversity that may lie in your way. The first test for the Chunin exam has been completed, Alright, I wish you well" Ibiki said and Misaki smiled, she had been happy of how things turn out, especially with Ibiki's lament. He is strict, but he showed a side of him towards the students that no one would ever see outside the exam room's walls, and Misaki was quite happy that the sadistic torture and interrogation marshal was more complex than what he lets others know.
How to be a chunin examinee step number two: acknowledge your victory for passing the first phase, and celebrated she did, but not for her, but for Naruto, who was already doing his own fair share of victory gestures. Then a dark ball entered the classroom by the window. The dark ball unfolded in front of their eyes, kunais imbedding on the four sides of the front of the room as a woman stood tall in front of them.
'My god what is with this proctors and grand gestures as entrances' Misaki scratched her head as Mitarashi Anko introduced herself as the second phase's proctor.
"78 students, Ibiki you let 26 teams slide by?" Anko asked as she surveyed the room, Misaki not missing that she didn't count the 27th team, hence their team. Ibiki defended his seventy eight passers with ease.
"No matter, I'll drop more than half of them in the second exam" Anko declared and Misaki shivered, -knowing the certainty of that promise, after all, the second phase will take place at the forest of death.
"We'll meet up tomorrow we will be moving to another location, get the details from your jonin sensei, until then, I'll see you tomorrow" she declared and everybody started filling out the room dreading what that loud lady had in mind for them to drop out more than half.
"Man, I thought my mind was going to melt" Akihiko declared as he and Kazuhiko gathered around Misaki who was catching a few words with Shikamaru.
"Ne, see you for the second phase tomorrow then" Misaki said and joined her two older teammates.
"Is Ibiki-sensei always this intense?" Misaki asked as Kazuhiko walked closer to her.
"Eh, believe it or not he wasn't even making an effort" Kazuhiko confessed and Misaki visibly shivered.
"Say who do you think were the chunins meant to be cheated on" Akihiko making Kazuhiko pound his head in irritation then proceeded to drag him by the neck as they left the classroom, leaving only Morino Ibiki to gather the papers.
Most of the papers were all the same, papers with blank questions and gathered answers.
But amongst all the test papers stood two.
First was Uzumaki Naruto who wrote nothing on the paper save for his name, the second was Namikaze Misaki who answered the questions and more, the questions encircled on several words, labeled by different words and the reference of which specific book and page was the question taken from. Just who is the child prodigy Namikaze Misaki?
Misaki and Kazuhiko were sitting on the grass crossed legged in front of the forest of death, waiting for other participants and the proctor for the exam to commence.
"Good morning everybody!" Akihiko said running up to them, with his usual childish manner.
"You guys ready for the second phase" Akihiko said stretching his limbs preparing for the five days they are required to be inside the scary forest.
"Not at all" Misaki said contradicting the gentle smile on her face and that is all it took for Akihiko to sulk, revealing his true anxiety on entering the forest of death.
"Tche, you're pathetic as always Akihiko" Kazuhiko said and that was the pre-requisite for another one of their arguments in which Misaki patiently waited on, as always.
Sasuke was standing next to Naruto and Sakura staring at the entrance of the forest of death, when a commotion behind them broke out. He turned to see Misaki and her team, who was arguing nonstop as she just patiently laughed at their antics.
'She looks beautiful when she laughs.' Sasuke thought and his eyes grew wide with embarrassment when Misaki locked eyes with him and she smiled gently to her.
Like she always has, and probably always will.
"Tche" Sasuke muttered before returning her smile with a sneer then turning his back towards her. Sakura easily caught on to Sasuke's irritation and looked at the direction he was looking at. There she saw Misaki and her teammates playing it off like kindergartens.
Sakura frowned, it was no secret in the playground that Sasuke was pretty attached to his red headed friend who was both pretty and kind. Sakura always looked at her and would always think that she doesn't mind losing Sasuke to her. Then it just changed, Sasuke had turned 180 degrees from Misaki and never looked back, then Sakura thought maybe she had a shot at being with Sasuke, especially when they were teamed up together. However, did she really stand a chance?
Kazuhiko and Akihiko's argument resulted in a physical brawl, like it always did no surprise there, but no one expected Akihiko barreling backwards unable to catch himself landing on another participant. Out of all seventy eight participants, Akihiko landed on that hot-headed smug faced guy from Oto, who claimed that the exam would be easy.
"Watch where you're looking at punk" he said and motioned to hit Akihiko. Misaki frowned, his hand was open, indicating he was going for an open palm hit, but his posture didn't indicate that he was going for a push. He was going for a hit, and Misaki knew from watching countless Hyugas that there was always a reason why would someone prefer an open palm hit against a fist that would theoretically put more damage. In addition, despite being personally threatened with failure from the proctor itself, he still proceeded to push through with his hit, giving Misaki a recognition that this guys were not here for the exam.
Misaki moved fast and collected as much chakra as she can in her palm and slammed her own palm on the palm of the guy about to attack Akihiko.
"High five peace" Misaki said with a smile, but was silently gauging her opponent's palm. She internally frowned, she was right, she could feel sound waves being fended off by her chakra. If this was her bare hand, then a much graver problem would have happened and internally, Misaki remembered that stranger with the glasses. He missed that punch, but they were using sound waves with their attack, sustaining damages even after dodging it.
"Sorry, but that proctor said no fighting without their permission, I was hoping we could get through this exams in peace together" Misaki smiled then removed her hands smiling at the frowning and shocked face of her opponent.
"This place is called Forest of death, you'll soon realize why" Anko started and Misaki laughed out loud as she saw Naruto trolling with Anko.
"That kind of threat won't work on me, I'm not scared at all" Naruto declared to Anko's amusement.
"I see, you have a lot of energy" she said then sent a hurtling kunai towards Naruto, grazing his cheek, and before Naruto can react Anko was behind him.
Misaki frowned when a participant handed Anko her knife, by her tongue, sending shivers down her back.
"Hey why do we also have to sign this too?" Akihiko cried as he signed the certificate then handed it to Kazuhiko as Anko continued to discuss the nature of the earth and heaven scroll.
Anko then proceeded to announce the nature of the second phase. Bringing out death consents to be passed on.
"All together twenty six teams made it through the first phase of the exam thirteen teams would be handed this heaven scroll and the other half would get the earth scroll. You need to present both scrolls to the tower in the center. You should be able to present the scrolls at the center in one hundred twenty hours, exactly five days"
Five days with only themselves and their weapons, meaning Anko is including natural elements in her exam, a true survival phase. Anko was right, no more than half of the examinees are going fail this phase. After a quick break to decide their participation on the dangerous phase, the genin teams were handed their scrolls and designated to enter on different gates.
Meanwhile Anko briefed with the three undercover chunin.
"So what do you think of the exam, pretty exciting right?" Anko said as she chomped on a piece of dango.
"I guess if what you mean by exciting is danger with the imminent certainty of death" Misaki said bothered by the fact genin corpses excited her, something they were assigned to prevent.
Not long after their short break, the participant gathered as one by one the scrolls were handed in secret behind a curtain.
"Anko-san said we weren't going to be given a scroll, but it doesn't mean that the other teams know that, so from now on we will be working with a double edged sword." Kazuhiko explained as they sat far from the other participants.
"I wonder if anybody of them realized that Anko-san specifically mentioned 26 teams, but here we are the 27th" Akihiko wondered out loud.
"The forest is expansive, so to cover more ground, I think we're going to have to split up" Kazuhiko said drawing a makeshift map of the forest on the ground.
"Teams would be entering on different points, so it would be pointless to try to cover from the edges, I say we wait keep close to the tower and scout there, spotting them probably won't be that difficult since they are too busy hunting for scrolls. We'll part the forest into three sides, I'll take that right, and Akihiko will take the left, Misaki can you handle the rear?" Kazuhiko asked the rear would be the one where most of the students would be entering, Kazuhiko believes that this is where most of the fight is going to occur since this is where their strength is at its peak. Misaki just nodded, as if he needed to ask, he wouldn't admit it but Misaki could easily crush the two of them together, and he never doubted that she would be able to handle herself and the rear.
Once they were called in behind the tent, they were escorted to a random entrance and from there they did one last huddle.
"Be wary of Oto ninja, I don't think that they are what they say they are" Misaki said and Kazuhiko and Akihiko merely nodded at her, not questioning her judgment.
"Alright, I'll be seeing you guys in five days, try to not get in trouble without me!"Akihiko yelled back at them as he jumped from branch to branch.
"Seriously that guy" Kazuhiko said chuckling, before turning to look at their youngest member.
"Will you be alright?"
"Without a doubt, I'll see you in five days?" Misaki said.
"Five days" Kazuhiko said then left to move to his position.