A/N:
To lilnudger82, I'm glad that you like Misaki and Haku's as siblings and enjoyed this chapter.
To darkdust27, thanks for the review!
To Shae Vizla, I felt like Choza's experience of almost dying in his first c-rank would make him want to make sure his genin is well trained. To Misaki, her most important priority is to make sure Haku is safe she is willing to dive head first into becoming a shinobi if that will enable her to protect him. They have already been threatened twice in their young lives and both times Misaki was near helpless so it has made her that much more determined to be able to protect Haku.
To the guests that reviewed, thanks for the reviews :D
To alice, thank you for the review!
To 8, funny that you should mention a big dragon-shaped ice monster, I plan on Misaki using her kekkei genkai quite creatively and she does have a fondness for dragons. I'm assuming that in the canon Zabuza had seen ice release being used and tutored Haku in its usage. Misaki doesn't know how her kekkei genkai has been used so she's not limited by preconceptions. Right now she is still a beginner at controlling and using it so she won't be doing anything too big for a little. But as she gains more and more aptitude expect her usage to become quite creative. Thanks for the suggestions.
To Shadow of god, that's good I've been trying to avoid making her a mary sue. For Misaki, she honestly doesn't give a shit about the missing nin she had killed. As she expresses in ch9 between her team's lives or the enemies she has no problem choosing their lives. It's more the action of taking another humans life after she had used the fact that she had kept her hands free of blood to soothe her conscious in her past life. She doesn't hate herself but she feels the loss of her last scrap of innocence keenly. I'm actually not sure what it smells like. I've never smelt what burnt flesh smells like thankfully but I have smelled burnt hair before and it smelled disgusting. For the genin, it was the smell combined with the acts they had just committed that caused them to throw up. Burning someone alive seems like it would be a particularly gruesome kill to witness.
Chapter 10: Chunin Exams
Misaki jolted awake and breathed a sigh of relief as she realized it had all been a terrible nightmare. Ever since her first kill two months ago, she had suffered nightmares of the actual event and nightmares from events in her past life. Thankfully they had lessened in frequency after the first week and that was the first one she had in a while.
The nightmare she had just awoken from though was particularly bad. She had been dreaming of the events that had occurred in the Astronomy tower. However instead of choosing to lower her wand, she chose to kill Dumbledore. She had watched numbly as he fell from the tower as Severus burst through the doors. In her dream, Severus had been unable to hide the split second of disappointment at her actions that showed in his eyes before he hid his true thoughts.
After the war, Misaki had discovered a portrait of Severus that he had made during the brief period when he was headmaster. He had bequeathed Spinner's End to her in his will with the note stating while it might not be much that it could serve as her reprieve from the outside world. She had gone to Spinner's End and was overjoyed to discover that a sliver of her precious godfather remained in the world. While most of the populous of Hogwarts detested him, Severus had always been there for Draco.
The very first thing he said to Draco upon seeing him was that knowing that he lowered his wand against a powerful wizard like Dumbledore had simultaneously filled him with anger at Draco's stupidity for he was better trained than that but also the proudest he had ever been of his godson for choosing to the right thing.
People were always so quick to judge Slytherins and assumed the worst of them. He didn't know many people that would have the strength to defy the dark lord's wishes because it was the right thing to do when their family's wellbeing was at stake. He had told Draco that while he was marked, he had been between a rock and a hard place and tried his best.
Tears had fallen from his eyes when Severus had told him that. It had been hard walking out in public after his trial and subsequent exoneration. Though he had been exonerated, people openly spat at his feet as he passed, glared at him, or even confronted him about his actions.
He didn't mind the glaring but being spat at and yelled at so often by random people and just taking it had been hard. The old Draco would've had a scathing retort for each and every one of them but he hadn't fought back because he felt that in a way he deserved it and that nothing he could say would change their minds anyways.
He had felt like he had been aimlessly drifting through the passing time prior to talking to Severus. All the career choices he had been considering were no longer options. He had been considering being a warder or going into magical research. Who would want a former death eater to do the wards on their home or trust their research? Let alone if the ministry would even hire him.
When he had mentioned it in passing to his godfather, his godfather's response was to arch his eyebrow and silkily inquire why he would allow incompetent dunderheads to dictate what he chose to do in life. Severus had reminded him that time was fleeting and people only have one life to live.
Also he had encouraged Draco at least try to pursue his dreams. His biggest regret was that he had never attempted to pursue any of his. He had taken Severus' advice, applied and surprisingly been accepted to work as an unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries.
Even though wide awake she knew that he, of all people, would understand her choices in her new life it hadn't stopped her subconscious from subjecting her to that horrid nightmare. Despite the fact that it was 4:30am, Misaki knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep after a nightmare like that.
Instead she got up and started writing down more of her past as fairy tales for Haku as she sat on the sill of her window to enjoy the sunrise. After the first initial night where Haku had read to her, she realized that writing about her past was therapeutic.
It reminded her of all the good things in her past life. It also had highlighted the vast differences between that world and this world. She sometimes wondered how her past life's friends and family would react to her choices and current occupation. Where killing could be avoided for the most part in her old world, it was unavoidable in this world.
She would probably always be at the very least slightly bothered by taking another human's life but Choza-sensei had told her that feeling that way was natural. The best thing was to learn how to best deal with it and find some sort of way of coping. For Misaki it was writing down her past and reading to Haku. Seeing the joy radiating from his innocent eyes simultaneously soothed Misaki and firmed her belief that her path was the right one.
The next two months after that horrible c-rank mission, their team had gone back to doing D-ranks. A fact that none of them had complained about. Choza-sensei had upped their team training by two hours each day and had taught them several more elemental jutsu.
Shogo had not been the most diligent about training before but after that c-rank mission he changed his attitude towards training. He took their team training more seriously and also began training to use his clan jutsus under Tsume. The past two months of more serious training was just starting to bear fruit. Shogo, while still not near Itachi's and Misaki's levels, had improved leaps and bounds in his ninjutsu, taijutsu, and speed. His genjutsu was still pretty horrible but he had improved at being able to detect and dispel them.
Itachi and Misaki had always been serious about their training so nothing changed in that regard for them. The only difference was that they both wanted to get stronger to be strong enough to be merciful.
Misaki had first been driven to become stronger solely to protect Haku, but as she thought about Choza-sensei's advice the night they had returned to Konoha she decided she wanted to become strong enough to avoid killing when possible. She would do whatever was necessary but if possible with the least amount of bloodshed.
After the first two months after their first kills, Choza-sensei had resumed getting the occasional c-rank mission for them. They still did d-rank missions but they averaged one to three c-rank missions a month. Now that they had proved their combat skills they were considered among the more experienced genin and were slated for c-ranks that could be done by genin. They had to kill once more in one of their c-rank missions but for the most part their c-ranks were free of fighting other ninja.
Six months after the mission, Choza-sensei had informed them that if the upcoming summer chunin exam in a month wasn't in Water country that he would've nominated them for it. No one outside of Kiri nin had attended a chunin exam in Water Country since fifteen years ago when the civil war fighting had caught several foreign genin team in its crosshairs and caused their deaths.
Though no outside competitors went to their chunin exam, Water was still one of the five main elemental countries and it would be a huge snub if another country decided to hold a simultaneous exam. Besides even if outside nin did attend and compete the chunin exam in Water as three genin with kekkei genkai there was no way in hell that they would be sent to Water's chunin exam.
Information coming out of Water country was rare so no one knew exactly what the Yondaime Mizukage was doing but there were terrible rumors whispered about sanctioned bloodline purges and other equally horrifying things. Konoha would never risk their genin by sending them into an unknown situation like that.
Choza knew that his genin would be ready for the chunin exams in Konoha five months from now in November. Over the past six months, Choza had taught each of his genin several elemental jutsu in preparation and he would continue to teach them what he could in the coming months. Skill wise they were going to be the cream of the crop at the exam.
Even if he had wanted to allow them more time to be genin, he recognized he wouldn't be able to. Other than wanting to give them more time to mature, he had no valid reasons for not nominating them for the exams. This November it will be close to two years since they graduated from the academy and they were more than skilled enough to make chunin.
At the last head of clans meeting, Fugaku had already made pointed inquiries about Itachi's progress, point blank told Choza that they seemed more than ready, and asked if he was planning on nominating them for the exams. It had been obvious to Choza that Fugaku was frothing at the bit to show off his prodigal heir's skills especially at an exam in Konoha.
Itachi was already at a weak chunin's level in all his skills. His mastery of his fully mature sharingan put his genjutsu skill at mid to high chunin. His Uchiha style taijutsu was a deadly force to be reckoned not even counting his skill at ninjutsu. His chakra reserve being average sized was the only weakness Itachi had. Even then he had much more chakra than first generation shinobis but overall it was average among non-first generation shinobis. Still even with an average sized chakra reserve, he would have no problems in the exams. Neither would Misaki.
By the time the November exams rolled around, she will have finished learning the katas from the crane style Gai was teaching her. Misaki's taijutsu was at a weak chunin's level and she was also at a weak chunin's levels in most of her skills. Her genjutsu skill level was the only thing below chunin level and even then it was at the level of a very strong genin.
Misaki didn't lack the necessary concentration or chakra control to use genjutsu; she just seemed to prefer to use other tools at her disposal. Her excellent control and creative usage of her ice release only continued to increase as she trained with it. The speed at which she could create ice had also increased. If she wanted to she could probably easily surprise and take chunin level ninja out with it now.
Shogo's taijutsu was now at a very strong genin's level, his speed at a strong genin's level, and his proficiency in his clan jutsus had greatly increased. His skill in taijutsu and clan ninjutsu along with his teammates' skills in genjutsu made up for his lack of genjutsu prowess.
Shogo was the only one of his genins that he would even be slightly concerned about. Over the past six months he had made vast improvements physically but Choza was worried about his rash nature. In battles he tended to charge in without thinking. Overall, Choza believed Shogo would be able to hold his own against most of the genin he ran across aside from his own teammates.
Choza knew that with the three of them they would be able to breeze through the first and second part of the exams. He knew there was no way that Misaki and Itachi didn't get promoted but he was not positive if Shogo would be promoted this time around.
Shogo still had a tendency for being reckless and not being strategic when he fought which could keep him from being promoted. He informed his genin of his decision to nominate them in the chunin exams five months from now and dismissed them early for the day as Chouji was sick with a cold.
After being dismissed Itachi and Shogo headed home. Haku was now in first grade at his civilian elementary school so he didn't get out of class until two o'clock. Misaki had four hours of free time before she needed to pick Haku up from school. Hana was in class, Taro probably had team training, and Misaki didn't feel like doing more training at the moment.
On her way to her favorite café to grab a snack, she passed the shinobi library. As she was about to walk past the library, she remembered that she had wanted to check something out after hearing about it in the academy but she had forgotten about it until just now when she passed by the shinobi library.
She showed her ID to the ninja behind the library counter and headed to the genin section. Browsing through the titles, she found the book she wanted and sat down to read it.
During her time at the academy, Akira-sensei had briefly touched on the topic of seals during one lesson. Misaki had thought that seals sounded similar to ancient runes from Akira's brief explanation and had decided to look more into seals hours before she had been approached by Itachi to meet his parents. After meeting his parents, Misaki had forgotten all about seals and wanting to look more into it.
As she sat in the library and read the only book on seals, she was thrilled to find that her original assumption was correct. While not the same, there were some similarities between sealing and ancient runes.
Ancient runes had been one of her favorite classes and once upon a time she had considered becoming a ward expert. She checked out the rudimentary book she was reading and resolved to ask Choza-sensei about seals.
Unfortunately Choza-sensei didn't know much about seals and he mentioned that the few people well-versed in seals would be unlikely to help her. Choza knew that Misaki was definitely intelligent enough to be able to pick up the art of sealing even without much guidance. Knowing that, he had cautioned Misaki that sealing was a dangerous art and asked when she got to the point where she was actually making seals to do so under the supervision of another shinobi.
Misaki found that despite the differences between ancient runes and seals there were enough similarities that she was able to easily comprehend the basics of the art of sealing. Some of the key differences are that with ancient runes a person could only use the surface area available to etch runes into and runes were used mostly for protection.
With seals, you had to anchor the center of the seal with chakra to whatever you were sealing or drawing the seal on. After anchoring the center, one could write past the paper they were drawing on or other various surfaces.
When you completed the seal and sealed it, all the kanji would compress and the resulting size of the seal depended on how many layers there was and how much kanji was in the seal. Her handwriting and kanji had always been extremely neat so she hadn't needed to improve them at all to use in seals.
According to the book she had read, the easiest way to utilize seals was to use specialized sealing paper and chakra infused ink. Skilled seal practitioners could utilize seals on just about any surface and apply touch seals but it would be a long time before Misaki was close to being that proficient at seals.
As sealing paper and ink were expensive, Misaki purchased only a small amount of each. Eventually she would be able to imbue ink with chakra on her own but she hadn't worked on let alone mastered that skill yet.
After a month of dissecting available seals like storage scrolls and explosive seals as well as finishing reading the book on seals, Misaki was ready to try her hand at replicating a seal. She had practiced writing out the seals but had yet to imbue it with chakra. After Choza-sensei's words of caution, she had agreed to make seals under his supervision until she proved that she could do it safely.
Itachi, Shogo, and Choza-sensei stood off to the side as Misaki ignited her first ever explosive seal and tossed in into the trees on training ground 14.
"So… how much chakra did you put in that Misaki?" Shogo asked aghast as he looked the smoking crater where trees used to exist on training ground 14. The resulting explosion from her explosive seal had decimated the area it landed in and showered the training ground in slightly smoking woodchips.
Choza pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked at the destruction his genin had wrought. He wasn't looking forward to having to plant a bunch of trees. The rule about training grounds was if a person messed it up to that extreme they had to fix it or pay for someone else to fix it.
"Not that much… comparable to what I put into my water release gunshot jutsu." Misaki stated as she slowly took in all the destruction her seal had caused.
Hearing Misaki's response, Choza felt the slight migraine that had started to form at all the destruction grow a little. "Misaki, for the explosive seals you can purchase generally have around double to triple the amount of chakra used for a replacement technique. Not the amount of chakra they put into a C-rank jutsu. Even then the amount of chakra you put in your c-rank jutsu's is double that what normal people use. I've noticed that you have more chakra than most jonin. With a blast radius that large, there is a higher chance of injuring comrades or even yourself."
He had never mentioned to Misaki just how much chakra she had than the average genin. But judging from her reaction he should have. When he mentioned how much more chakra she had than other genin her age, she looked stunned.
The academy teachers were supposed to talk to each academy student about the size of their chakra reserves. As Misaki had only been in the academy for one year, maybe she had missed that lesson. Thank goodness she had listened to his advice and waited to test her first seal with him there, an explosion that size could have seriously injured someone.
Seals interested Misaki greatly but without a formal teacher and as there were no other books on sealing in the shinobi library, it was a lot of trial, experimentation, and error. She made sure to excise extreme caution and use minute amounts of chakra when she replicated seals.
One day as she was examining a storage seal she had made while Haku did his homework, Haku stopped doing his homework and came up to Misaki. Seeing that he wanted her full attention, she put the storage seal down and gestured for him to sit on the couch seat next to her.
Haku sat down and spoke the words she had dreaded coming out of his mouth since she had her first kill. "Nee-chan, I decided I want to become a shinobi too."
"Are you sure Haku? Why do you want to become a shinobi? Being a shinobi isn't all fun and games. It is very dangerous. There are a lot of other safer or fulfilling career options." Misaki asked. She wouldn't stop him if that was truly his wish but she wanted to make sure that he wasn't becoming a shinobi because he thought it was cool or that the techniques they could do were awesome.
"Misaki-nee I'm sure. I want to be able to protect my precious people like you do! I know it won't be easy but I want to at least try. If you have time can you train me like kaa-chan trained you?" Haku replied with an earnest and determined expression on his face.
Misaki closed her eyes. "Very well, if it is truly what you want I will enroll you in the academy in the coming spring. If at any point you decide it is not something you want to do all you have to do is say the word. Of course I will train you Haku-kun. Don't expect me to go easy on you because you're my baby brother though."
At Misaki's agreement, Haku grins happily and scampered off to finish his homework. Watching him happily do his homework, Misaki was tempted to rescind her agreement but she could tell that he was determined and would fight to go to the academy. He was almost as stubborn as she could be. Her stubbornness had definitely rubbed off on Haku.
Even knowing all of this, she was still tempted to try to convince him to change his mind. She knew she was a skilled enough manipulator that she could easily influence him into changing his decision. But though it was for his safety, she didn't want to damage their bond by manipulating him to that extent. One day once he was old enough, he would realize what she had done. Besides who knows, he might not enjoy the academy and decide that being a shinobi is not for him.
She was unhappy about his decision but at the same time she realized if he became a shinobi he would also be able to protect himself. There were pros and cons to him going down this path. The only thing she could do was prepare him as best as she could for the harsh life of a shinobi and be there to pick up the pieces if he needed her to.
Shortly after that conversation with Haku, she started him on the physical conditioning exercises her mother had started her on as well as the basic chakra control exercises. She begins training him in the afternoons on the days she doesn't meet Gai-sensei for taijutsu training. As she watched him try to stick the leaf to his hand, Misaki could tell Haku's chakra control was a lot steadier than hers had been when she first started. It doesn't surprise her though as she had an entire adult's worth of magic reserves converted to chakra already at her disposal when she first started.
As she trained Haku she was also slowly but surely improving her fuinjutsu skills. By the time of the chunin exams she was able to replicate storage seals, explosive seals, and smoke bomb seals. The morning of the chunin exams, Misaki felt excited but slightly nervous as she walked to the entrance of the exams with Itachi and Shogo.
When they entered the exam room, Misaki was glad to see Masashi, Keiko, and Atsushi also were taking the chunin exams for the first time. She didn't know the Aburame girl on Masashi's team nor Atsushi very well but it was nice to see some familiar faces.
The instant her team had walked in the genin in the room had given them predatory glances. The older leaf genin in the exam room hadn't given them as predatory of glances as foreign teams had but they still stared at them.
It was slightly unnerving to have a hundred and forty or so genin staring at you. But Misaki could understand why they caught everyone's attention. At ten years old, she and Itachi were by far the youngest competitors in the exam. The next youngest were Masashi's team and Shogo who were all 14 or 15.
The proctor, Yamanaka Inoichi, walked into the room and ordered all the genin to come up and take a slip of paper with their seat number on it. Once they were all seated, chunin proctors passed out the exams and Inoichi explained the rules of the exam. "It is an hour-long written test with ten questions. Nine of the questions which you must all answer correctly are hypothetical situations that a ninja may encounter as a chunin. Examinees have to examine the information given to determine the best course of action. The last question would be administered at the end of the exam that will also allow genin to pass even if they don't complete the exam. Only genin with the correct answer will pass. Each genin starts with ten points and if they lose all their points they and their team are eliminated from the exam. Cheating is not allowed and every time a genin was caught they will lose five points."
Misaki looked down at her exam and perused the questions quickly. They had thought it would be a written exam based on information they had accrued over their genin career. The three of them had spent the last few days before the exam studying together.
Even though the exam wasn't what they expected, Itachi and she would have no issue answering the hypothetical situation but strategizing was not Shogo's strong point. Looking across the room and seeing his worried face, she can tell he knows it too. However as she examined each hypothetical question on the exam more closely, she realized there definitely wasn't only one correct answer for any of the questions.
Thirty-five minutes into the exam, Itachi checked on his teammates. So far fourteen teams had been disqualified for cheating. Misaki didn't seem worried at all as she sat watching the clock. Shogo on the other hand was ruffling his hand through his hair and his eyebrows were furrowed with frustration as he stared down at his exam scribbling down answers and then erasing them.
Seeing that there is only twenty-five minutes left for the test, Itachi hoped that Shogo realized the true objective of the exam. Upon receiving his exam, Itachi had realized that most genin would not be able to correctly analyze and come up with the correct answer for each hypothetical situation. Plus there were multiple correct answers for each situation.
Those facts and the fact that five points were deducted each time someone cheated meant the true purpose was not to cheat but to realize that the only true question in the test would be the last one. Inoichi had stated that there was only one correct answer not answers. But as Itachi looked at Shogo's exasperated face he knew that Shogo had not realized the true purpose.
His mind rapidly calculated the best way to enlighten Shogo to the true purpose or help him the answers but there was no feasible way Itachi could do so from his seat position. Misaki was seated in the very back right corner of the room, he was seated in the second row closest to the exit on the left hand side, and Shogo was seated all the way right in the front by the proctor.
Shogo looked down at his mostly empty test in frustration as ten minutes remained in the test. Another six teams had been disqualified in the past 15 minutes. He wasn't good at analyzing or strategizing like his teammates were.
He had been struggling to answer the questions until about five minutes ago when he realized the true purpose of the test. Though he knew now with only fifteen minutes left in the test most of the genin who had finished turned their papers face down and those that hadn't were zealously guarding their papers.
The genin in his vicinity had all either been caught and disqualified or they had their papers turned face down. There was no one seated around him left to cheat from. His only chance was the tenth question. As the minutes until the test finished counted down, he hoped he didn't screw it up for his other teammates.
After he called out that they would now be getting the 10th question, Inoichi warned that if the genin answer the question incorrectly that they will not be allowed to take the exams ever again but if they forfeited before hearing the question that they would be allowed to retake the test another time.
Hearing that answering wrong would disqualify them for genin exams in the future caused a lot genins to start forfeiting. Atsushi raised his hand causing Masashi and Keiko to also be disqualified. Shogo almost raised his hand too. He didn't want to be stuck as a genin forever. But as he was about to raise his hand, he realized that if he did he would also be disqualifying Misaki and Itachi.
Shogo knew that if not for him they were skilled enough to have taken the genin exam last November in Suna. It was only him that had not been strong enough. He didn't want to hold them back again. If he could never retake the chunin exams he would just have to be the best damn genin out there so they gave him a field promotion.
Decision made, he kept his hand firmly glued to the table as other genin raised their hands and were disqualified by Inoichi. By the time people finished forfeiting only forty-two out the ninety genin that had passed the written portion were left.
Looking at the seated genin Inoichi said, "There is not a tenth question just as there is not only one correct answer for any of those questions. A chunin must be able to process the information they're given and discern the truth from misdirection and lies. A ninja's mind is one of his sharpest tools. In any of those hypothetical questions, there are multiple paths that are equally correct. However by me stating that there you must answer all the questions correctly, those of you that chose to take my words at face value wasted precious time trying to figure out each correct answer. Some also were more hesitant to cheat off of your neighbors as they might not have had the correct answer as well. The purpose of this exam was not to cheat but for genin to use their mind to realize that there is no way each situation only had one correct answer and the only question with a correct answer would be the tenth one. Or for them to have the fortitude risk everything and face the unknown."
Shogo breathed out a sigh of relief when he found out there wasn't a tenth question before turning to his teammates with a giant grin. They had passed the first portion of the chunin exams. Just as he was about to ask them if they had realized the true purpose of the test, Gemna opened the door and announced he would be taking them to the next portion of the exam immediately.
There were five teams from Konoha including them, three teams from Suna, three teams from Ame, two teams from Kusa, and one team from Taki left in the exam.
Unsurprisingly there weren't any teams from Kiri and Iwa at Konoha for the chunin exams. According to Choza-sensei, Kiri preferred to have their shinobi take their genin exams and while they had a peace treaty it was pretty much a known fact that Iwa detested Konoha shinobi.
There also weren't any teams from Kumo but Misaki would've been more surprised if there were after the whole Hyuuga kidnapping incident a few months prior. Even as a genin, Misaki had heard about how the Kumo ambassador had attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress. The rumor mill in Konoha was still alive and strong.
All of the genin stared at the imposing barbed wire fence surrounding the forest of death as they signed death waivers and were handed an earth scroll. The starting bell rang as the gates opened and they all dashed into the forest of death.
As Misaki, Shogo, and Itachi leapt from branch to branch Shogo asked, "So… what's the plan?"
"Judging from the way all of the genin were eying us I'd say the plan is for us to make our way to the tower as fast as we can and set up traps to slow down anyone following our trail. We don't need to hunt down any team. They'll be gunning for us. What do you guys think?" Misaki replied.
"I concur. Those genin stared at us as if we were the desserts you make that Taro salivates over. They will definitely come after us. I'll take point with Shogo bringing up the rear." Itachi stated before they all upped their speed.
Misaki internally laughed a little at the way Itachi always seemed to correlate things in relation to dessert. She had thought she was a true sweet-aholic before meeting Itachi. Her love of desserts paled in comparison to his obsession with sweets. Taro had introduced Itachi to pocky a few months back and since then he always carried a box or two on him. In fact, she bet he probably had a stash of pocky somewhere on him right now.
She pitied the fool who ever tried to come between Itachi and his sweets or left their sweets unattended near him. The last time she had made chocolate croissants, Itachi had slyly eaten the last one as Shogo and Taro bickered over it. At their horrified expressions, he had shrugged before he stated with a completely deadpan expression that as they were too busy arguing to eat that he decided to help them solve their problem. She had laughed for ages at their outraged expressions.
Just as Misaki was musing whether or not Itachi would actually share his pocky with Shogo or her as the only food they had was ration bars, Shogo signaled that there was a genin team incoming.
An older team of leaf genin took a look at their headbands before darting off to hunt down some other team. At the older genins' actions, smiles lit up all of their expressions as they continued their path towards the tower. None of them had wanted to fight fellow Konoha shinobi. It was nice to see Konoha shinobi looking out for their own.
They continued their pace for another thirty minutes before Shogo caught wind of another incoming team. This time the team that approached them was not another leaf team. However instead of being smart and ambushing them, not that they would've been able to with Shogo's nose, the team of kusa ninjas step out into the open.
"Hiro, isn't this our lucky day? We were lucky enough to run into the fresh meat. Hand over your scroll and we'll let you leave unscathed." One of the kusa nin stated as he swung a kunai around on one of his fingers.
Unimpressed, Misaki rolled her eyes at his attempt at being intimidating. Obviously they didn't have full confidence in their ability to take them down or they would be fighting already not talking. Besides these idiots didn't even realize she had already frozen the soles of their shoes to the ground as the tallest one had been talking.
Not only that but they were making eye contact with Itachi. Didn't they read up on anything about Konoha before attending the chunin exams? Itachi had a bit fat Uchiha crest on one of his arm guards.
Itachi switched on his sharingan and put the Kusa nin that had spoken under genjutsu as Shogo swiftly tied up the guy on the left as he was freaking about the ice climbing up his body and Misaki knocked out the one under Itachi's genjutsu with a swift chop to the back of the neck.
Itachi turned to the last conscious Kusa nin and held out his hand. The Kusa nin scrambled to pull his scroll out of the unconscious guy's vest and toss it at Itachi who frowned at the sight of another earth scroll. Seeing Itachi frown, the ninja began to inch backwards only to release a sigh of relief as they left the clearing.
Well that was rather anticlimactic Misaki thought as they raced away in the direction of the tower. Misaki had known that they weren't that strong the minute they chose to try to bargain rather than just attack. But she hadn't expected them to be that weak.
They continued for another fifteen minutes before a team ambushed them. Unlike the Kusa genin, this team didn't waste any time trying to bargain. Still their ambush failed even before they attempted it. Shogo had known they were trying to ambush them and had signaled a warning. Aside from that fact, they moved rather slowly.
Misaki dodged a slow axe kick before kicking the ninja in the abdomen. To her surprise her kick threw him into a tree where he slumped over. Suspicious she carefully approached him thinking it was a trap only to find he was actually knocked out.
Similarly Shogo and Itachi made quick work of their opponents. Shogo's opponent was unable to dodge his gatsuga and Itachi's opponent had quailed at how quickly they defeated his teammates and at the sight of his sharingan. He raised his hands in surrender and handed their scroll over. The ame nin had a heaven scroll which they pocketed before making their way to the tower.
Ebisu popped out of the two scrolls when Itachi and Shogo had unfurled them. He congratulated them and informed them that they had beaten the previous record. At 106 minutes they had beaten the old record by 20 minutes.
"So… anyone think that the teams we faced were ridiculously weak?" Shogo asked as they relaxed in the room they had to stay in for the next five days. As he bit into his pork bun, he mentally thanked whoever had thought to stock the tower with actual food.
"Yeah I was thinking that too… The kusa nin nearly pissed his pants when he thought Itachi frowned at him. Then again it's not surprising considering they chose to try to go after who they'd thought was the weakest team." Misaki said in between giggles at the fact that a grown ass sixteen year old had been utterly terrified by a rather short ten year old boy. Even Misaki was slightly taller than Itachi.
"That's true but it's not just them being weak. We're overqualified for this exam."
Misaki raised one of her eyebrows at Itachi's words.
"With Choza-sensei's intensive training combined with my Otou-san's training I'm able to defeat most of my cousins that are chunin." Itachi said in response to the question in Misaki's eyes as he opened a box of strawberry pocky.
Itachi's words made sense. Choza-sensei had mentioned something about how he would've nominated them for the summer chunin exams if they hadn't been held in Kiri.
She just hadn't realized how advanced skill wise they were in comparison to other genin. She knew that she and Itachi were both considered prodigies but the some of the genin in the exams were in their mid to late teens with much more training.
The only genin they routinely sparred with aside from the members of their team were Taro, Eiichi, and Haruka. As Choza-sensei and Inoichi-sensei were good friends they would spar against them from time to time. Misaki had assumed the skill gap was due to them not being a combat oriented team.
Several hours after they first arrived, the Konoha team that had turned away from fighting them arrived.
As they spotted them in the dining hall, the girl on the team let out an impressed whistle, "How long have you guys been here?" At their response of six hours she said, "Man, I'm glad we decided before the exam to not fight fellow Konoha shinobi unless we absolutely had to. Whoever decided to ambush you guys must've gotten a nasty shock, huh. I'm Tanaka Natsumi and my teammates are Aburame Taka and Narita Daiki."
"Both teams did." Misaki said with mischief glinting in her eyes as they all introduced themselves to the older genin.
They spent the next five days doing what training they could, relaxing, and hanging out. Over the next five days, genin teams began to trickle in to the tower. Itachi, Misaki, and Shogo mostly hung out as they couldn't do much training because they didn't want to show their future opponents their skills.
During the five days, Misaki clicked really well with Natsumi. She was a bubbly, fun-loving fifteen year old with auburn hair and sparkling green eyes. Shogo really liked Natsumi a lot. In fact by the way he blushed around her when he thought no one was looking, Misaki was pretty sure he had a crush on Natsumi. Misaki could definitely see what Shogo saw in her. Not only was she pretty and bubbly but she had a great sense of humor.
As a byproduct of hanging out with Natsumi, they also hung out with her teammates. Itachi and Misaki got along relatively well with her teammates but Shogo and Taka did not get along at all. Misaki didn't know if it was because Taka could tell Shogo had a crush on his teammate or if they just rubbed each other the wrong way. Either way Misaki could cut the tension between them with a kunai.
On the fifth day, the genin that had passed the second part of the exams were brought to an arena. Of the 14 teams that had entered the exam only 5 teams had passed. Two teams from Konoha had passed which were Natsumi's team and Misaki's team. One team each from Suna, Kusa, and Ame had passed as well. Two genin from the Kusa team and one from the ame team declined to continue to the finals which left twelve finalists.
The hokage congratulated them on passing before telling them the first round matchups. The lineup was Shogo against Narita Daiki, Misaki against a Suna genin named Kondo Junya, Natsumi was matched against a Suna nin named Kato Akira, Aburame Taka against Ame nin named Nakamura Chihiro, Itachi against an Ame nin named Fujii Kaoru, and the remaining Suna nin against the remaining Kusa nin.