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Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
-Henry David Thoreau
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IX
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Somewhere in Konoha, in a pretty ruined hotel, between discarded papers laying aimlessly around the small room, our protagonist awoke from her sleep at the same hour every morning, her internal body clock chiming. Lifting her head from the unorganized desk, she yawned loudly and wiped mechanically the small drool rolling down her chin. Her half-lid eyes then searched for a piece of paper she'd spend almost all her time working on.
Konoha was on the verge of invasion, but this was not the reason for her uncharacteristic behavior, apparently her frustration did not accrue from being smacked on the head by an irrational vicious grandmother.
No. She was very irritated from thinking too much of the consequences of their mission. They were royalty going to screw the storyline sideways with a nail gun.
Although she rather slept, she sluggishly rose up from her uncomfortable position and entered the bathroom.
The Chunnin exam would not wait for anyone.
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When her team entered the building, she caught a glimpse of Lee in the corridor where a lot of genins had gathered around. Neru touched her face just to make sure that her mask was still on and pulled up her hood for self-assurance. If he recognized her, it would be too much of an hassle to deal with.
"Let's just skip the commotion already." She tss-ed in a bitter tone.
"Someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Too excited for the exam? You don't have to worry. We have your back." Shisui said and patted her head.
"You have no idea." She replied sarcastically. "I don't want to stay here..."
"I agree with Logan. A genin's fight is none of my concern." Inabi fully supported her.
Logan somehow became her code-name.
She could easily react to that.
"We are going to miss all the interesting parts! Oh-I sense trouble" As it was, when Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura entered the building, it picked up Shisui's interest. However, Inabi and Neru remained stubborn and narrated what was going on with complaints and snarky remarks which made Shisui more amused of their obvious plot to change his idea.
He finally relented by good nature.
The team took the staircase that led them straight to the third floor.
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A yawn escaped her mouth. As her palm rested on the side of her face, Neru observed critically the examiners and the participants in the classroom, a habit of being mindful of her surrounding.
Neru caught Inabi's eyes and she slowly nodded.
No worries.
She never doubted her teammate's legerity. A quick glance around the room indicated that not all the contestants had caught on.
Naruto was sweating bucket looking at his paper and Sakura was simply scribing intensely.
Neru peeked at Shisui. He seemed to be doing just as fine despite his handicap. His hand was moving in a steady pace.
That was good.
She looked back at her paper, questioning herself if she should leave it blank or not. There was no doubt that the writing test was not worth the trouble. The next part was definitively going to be more of a challenge with the Jormungand lurking in the shadows. Neru'd identified Orochimaru among the participants since she'd came into the room. He was sure different from his original form, but still some straits clearly belonged to him. Long black hair, skin as pale as a ghost in some cheap horror movie, reptile tongue and thick purple rope belt.
His disguise was… horrible.
She could feel the hair standing up on the back of her neck, knowing that he was five sits behind her.
Thirty minutes left. She scanned the questions meant for passing time. Neru snorted at the unforeseen bonus number which made the examiners and Ibiki looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She mirrored back their expression.
Bonus
If an enemy appears at the vicinity of your village, what are the surrounding elements that could be used to repel their attack? Explain for each element.
It was as plain as the stick in their ass that Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force was trying the get some information out of them. If she wrote water, she had to explain that her village was near an ocean. Or if she chose fire and wrote that a volcano's eruption could be used to fend off the enemies, she would basically reveal clues to Paramnesia location which was unknown to the whole world.
The bonus conventionally placed at the end of the test urged most people to make subconscious decisions. If you lacked time, you would simply answer it without thinking beyond the box. As an easy given point compared to the rest that didn't demand any need to cheat and have any ulterior motive for certain nations, all participants were inclined to complete the empty space.
Nerveless Inabi and Shisui would never get this easily deceived. Her thrust in them was immediately proved when black letters surfaced on her desk making sure that she'd noticed the trap arranged especially for them.
Before any more team could surrender rather than taking the tenth question, Naruto's speech on bravery and confidence affected them altogether as he became the cynosure of all eyes. People often tended to go along with the majority, mostly when they were in the presence of a charismatic speaker such as Naruto.
It was a shame.
They could have caved in before things started to heat up.
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Day 1: Second stage, the Forest of Death
Sasuke breathed out fire.
The enemy succeeded to escape.
"Sakura, go get Naruto. We need to get this straight."
Sakura nodded determined. "Hai, Sasuke-kun!"
They gathered together and decided to use a password to identify among themselves.
"Be careful. If we relax a single second, we are going to get ourselves killed." Sasuke warned.
"Baka! We are always careful, dattebay-" The wind suddenly picked up, scratching slightly Naruto's cheek. "Ouch. What?"
Sasuke shield his face from the dusk and the wind slicing through the air by putting his arms up. When Naruto appeared in the clearing, he immediately knew that the person was fake. Pfft. The moron couldn't even spell words right. There was no way he could memorize the complicated password.
The impostor turned out to be a Grass shinobi who was skilled enough to evade his attacks.
"You want my earth scroll, right?" The enemy said. "Since you guys have a heaven scroll."
Astonishingly.
He swallowed the entire parchment and licked his lips in a disgusting manner. Those wise intense eyes lifted up at Sasuke. He froze in the opposite direction.
"Now let's begin the battle for each other scroll…with own lives in the line."
Sasuke saw death.
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"Did you hear that?"
Neru and Inabi looked at each other questionably than at Shisui. "Nop." "No."
"Now, you guys definitively hear that, right?"
Neru pursued her lips.
"Just because you are blind doesn't mean that you have better hearing than us." Inabi scolded, not even putting the effort to look at Shisui as he cleaned the tip of his katana.
"Shhhh" Shisui incited. "Listen closely."
Flock of flying birds suddenly slashed thought the serene sky.
They were immediately on the move.
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Short? New update in 3-4 days
- Jormungand: The World Serpent in Norse mythology.
(There is an anime with that name. It is really awesome!)
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