Author's Note: It has been a pleasure sharing this story with you. If you're interested in book two, the Chuunin Exams, please alert me as an author.
11.
The morning of, I was nervous, excited - that strained, anticipatory feeling I had right before Kakashi's test into an active-duty Genin. I said goodbye to my parents and made my way to the Academy. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. No one's Sensei seemed to have told them what the Chuunin Exam would consist of. I tried looking it up, but it appeared the test varied based on what year it was and what village was hosting it, making it hard to get any concrete information.
Sasuke and Naruto were waiting for me out in front of the Academy, knowing we had all agreed to take the test. We walked in together and up a flight of stairs to the second floor, where I paused in surprise. Room 301 was on the third floor, not the second, but here on the second floor was a classroom whose sign said 301.
"Genjutsu," I said in surprise, watching two teenagers beat away, one by one, a crowd of Genin who were trying to get into "room 301." "They must be examiners."
"They're weeding out the unlikelies," Sasuke muttered. "I would leave them to it, but we have to go through this crowd to get to the stairs for the third floor."
"I actually saw the Genjutsu this time!" Naruto was saying excitedly.
"It's a little unfair, though, isn't it?" I asked as we walked up. "The foreign ninja don't know the layout of Konoha's ninja academy."
"We're being kind to you guys," one of the examiners was saying. "This exam is hard. If you can't even get through us, you might as well give up now."
"Fortunately for me, then, I plan on passing," said Sasuke. "Get out of my way." His voice was steely as he stepped up before them.
"Let's just move past them," I muttered, grabbing his arm. "Don't cause a scene." For all his talk about wanting to leave the examiners to it, he wasn't just moving through the crowd toward the staircase at the other end of the hall like I'd wanted to. He appeared to want to assuage his ego and show off.
"Move past us? You have to get through us to get to room 301!" said one of the examiners mockingly to me.
I rolled my eyes. "It's a genjutsu," I said, in a quieter voice than I meant to because now everyone was looking at me. "We're still on the second floor." Really?
There were some 'ohs' as Genin looked around at each other.
The examiners' eyes widened in panic and then they moved in front of us to try to keep us from passing to the staircase for the third floor. "Fine, then, we'll fight you another way -!" One of the examiners lashed out in a taijutsu combo, but before my teammates and I could do more than tense, one of the Genin who'd been beaten back showed speed and taijutsu superior to anything he'd shown before. He ran in front of me, blocking the attack for me and my teammates.
The examiner stepped back, more cautious.
"What are you doing?" The first Genin's two teammates walked up to him. "You were the one who didn't want to stand out as exceptional." So they must have been faking it, pretending they couldn't see through the illusion and pretending to be beaten back, to be underestimated. It was a smart move.
One glance at one of the boys' eyes confirmed my suspicions. His eyes were silver, like Hinata's, marking him as a Hyuuga; his hair was long and dark, tied back in the traditional Hyuuga way. That meant the boy probably had Byakugan. Any Doujutsu, or eye technique, could easily see through genjutsu. It was one of the things that made them formidable. His female teammate was slim, brown haired, and pretty, wearing a Chinese silk shirt. It was the one who had saved me who looked peculiar. He was wearing a tight green body suit and orange leg warmers; his haircut was modish, falling around his eyebrows, which were very thick.
"I know I didn't want to stand out," said the boy with the leg warmers. "But..." And here, he glanced over at us, almost hesitantly. (I distinctly saw the Hyuuga boy roll his eyes and mutter, "Not again.")
I didn't understand what the Hyuuga boy meant until his teammate came and stood before me. "My name is Rock Lee," he said. "What's your name?"
"Haruno Sakura," I offered, blinking. All these people were asking me my name...
"Sakura-san! Please go on a date with me! I will protect you until I die!" Lee beamed for best effect.
I gaped. My teammates looked almost as surprised. "You want me... to go on a date... with you?" I asked at last.
"Yes!"
"... Why? You just met me." I had never been so utterly confused.
"Because you're pretty!" said Lee, with all amount of innocence.
"And do you always date the pretty girls and then leave them out to dry? Your teammate said you'd done this before." I scowled, putting my hands on my hips.
"I - None of the pretty girls have said yes to me yet! Sadly, life got in the way." And here, he looked down, quieter. But then he looked up, smiling irrepressibly again. "But I hold out hope!"
And suddenly, I got a clearer picture of Lee constantly being turned down by girls because of his appearance. It kind of made me feel bad. It was also nice to be called pretty when I didn't really believe I was all that attractive myself...
"You really want me to go out with you?" I asked at last. I looked closely for any sign he was making fun of me, but he didn't seem to be.
"Please! I will protect you with my life!" He seemed to enjoy the idea of playing the gallant warrior.
"Are you going to be wearing that on our date?" I asked next, looking down skeptically at his clothing. I distinctly saw the girl hide a smile behind her hand and the Hyuuga boy smirk in amusement.
"Why? What else would I wear?" Lee asked in utter, oblivious confusion.
"Because if you're going to wear that on our date, the answer is no," I said bluntly. "And as for what else you would wear? The answer is 'anything else in your wardrobe'." The girl really did laugh this time.
Why were all the guys who asked me out so fashion retarded?
"You're Hatake Kakashi's students, aren't you?" the Hyuuga boy asked then.
"Yes. Why?" I asked in confusion.
"Oh..." Neji looked away, smirking. "Our Sensei happens to know him. It was... just a lucky guess."
"Anything else in my wardrobe? I... well, I have a karate shirt and pants set," Lee said at last, still looking confused.
"What color is it?"
"White," he said.
"That..." I sighed. "That sounds okay," I said, looking him over tiredly. I felt oddly like his mother.
Lee brightened. "So you'll go out with me?"
Everyone, Sasuke, Naruto, the Hyuuga boy, the other girl, all waited with bated breath. I looked at Lee closely for a moment. It wasn't that he was ugly, necessarily. Take away the outfit and it wasn't so bad. He was tall, lithe, and strong, with a thick, shiny mop of dark hair cut in that long, modish hairstyle. So he was a little odd looking - he obviously didn't pay any attention to his appearance. But we could work on that. And he just seemed so... nice. Honest. There was nothing arrogant or elaborately flirtatious or anything else there. It was just - a request. A smile and a compliment and a request. And he wasn't my teammate. He had no strange secrets. He seemed a little older than me.
Why not?
"Oh, I guess," I said at last. "What the heck? I like new experiences."
"YES!" Lee jumped into the air.
"Really?" the girl said, eyebrows rising in surprise. "Wow, that's a first."
"Great, now that's all he'll be talking about all day," the Hyuuga boy muttered.
Sasuke just looked mystified.
"You're kidding me?! Him?" Everyone looked around. Naruto had, at last, spoken, as if broken out of a kind of horrified trance. He was staring between me and Lee as if I had personally betrayed him. I winced. Naruto walked quickly forward and pulled me aside.
"Sakura-chan," he said, getting close up to my face, "the guy's a clown. He's an idiot."
"He's an older Genin who's obviously fast and strong and was trying to trick everyone into thinking he was weak," I argued.
"Yeah, but... He's so weird."
"He looks weird. I can fix that. And he seems really nice!"
"But - but we're -"
"What's going on?" Lee asked, stepping between us.
Naruto scowled and got right up in his face. "I'm not just gonna let you walk in and date my - teammate!" he added at the last moment.
"Ah, a rival. Fight on it?" Lee asked, almost eagerly.
"Boys," I said desperately, "the Exam will start soon!"
"We all got here early," said Naruto, a mischievous, anticipatory grin filling his face. "The Exam doesn't start for another half hour. How about the big space at the end of the hall?"
"Fine by me! A good fight between respectable men!" Lee seemed to like this idea.
"Hey, no one's fighting for me," I said angrily. "I get to date whoever I want to! It's my choice!"
"Fine, then," said Naruto, eyes widening dangerously. "I'll just say I'm fighting him because I want to beat the shit out of his smug little face!" And he stormed off down the hall. Great.
"Can't you stop this?" I asked, turning to Sasuke.
"Actually," he admitted, smirking, "I was kind of looking forward to watching this." Seriously?!
Lee had followed Naruto down the hall. The unnamed older girl looked after Lee for a moment and then sighed. "Come on," she said in dread to her other teammate. "We'd better go make sure he doesn't hurt himself."
So me, Sasuke, the Hyuuga boy and the girl (their names were Neji and TenTen respectively - I asked) all followed Lee and Naruto to the wide space behind the door at the end of the hall. For their "fight" that supposedly "had nothing to do with me."
This was going to be humiliating.
(It was only later that I'd realized the examiners were gone. They'd cleared the way for both of our teams to proceed up to the staircase to the third floor.)
Naruto and Lee got in stances across the space from each other while the rest of us stood off to the side to watch.
"Don't worry, Sakura," Naruto called out, bluffing, "this won't take long!"
Lee kept up a smile, but his eyes narrowed.
"How talented is your teammate?" Hyuuga Neji asked then.
"Naruto? He's... hard to define. He didn't do very well in school, but sometimes he can surprise people. Why?" I asked.
"Because unless he's extraordinarily talented," said Neji, "this is going to be very painful for him."
Naruto ran at Lee. Lee did not move. Naruto swung at Lee. Lee barely moved and managed to dodge by a mile. Naruto kicked out at Lee. Lee twitched his hand a little and sent Naruto flying. Naruto landed on his feet like we'd taught him and came at Lee again. He tried everything. He tried Kage Bunshin coordination and various kinds of taijutsu combinations, he tried little tricks with his ninja equipment to make Lee trip up.
None of it worked. Lee kept a single minded focus on the fight before him. Contradictingly, he didn't even seem to be trying. He always went just that little bit faster than Naruto, no matter how fast Naruto went, and feats of enormous strength came casually to him.
Lee kept mostly on the defensive for a while, but then Naruto, breathing hard, called out angrily, "Come on! Fight me, damn you!"
So Lee finally went on the offensive. Naruto was out in less than three moves and about ten seconds. All of a sudden, Lee just became this whirlwind, graceful and elegant, and Naruto couldn't keep up with it. He was cold cocked, knocked flat on his back with one heavy punch.
"Naruto!" I called out, reflexively. Sasuke's eyes had widened.
"That's what I meant," said Neji, smirking grimly. "Lee doesn't really use any chakra related techniques. But as far as pure hand to hand goes, pure strength and speed and technique... Lee is without equal among Genin."
Naruto wasn't moving. I took a step, paused, and then ran over to him. "Naruto!" I rolled him over carefully on his back and shook him gently. He wasn't waking up. I turned around, slightly panicked, to Sasuke.
So Sasuke came over and called, slightly loudly, "Hey, Naruto. Ramen!"
Naruto jerked awake. "See?" Sasuke shrugged.
"... D'I win?" Naruto mumbled after a moment, squinting at the world as if his head hurt. I felt terrible.
"... No," I said slowly. "Not that it would have meant anything anyway!" I added quickly.
Naruto still closed his eyes.
Lee walked up to me. "Good fight," he said evenly to Naruto, who didn't respond (and that was worrisome in and of itself). Then Lee turned to me and smiled. "So - it looks as if we're going on a date."
"It looks that way," I said, standing and tucking a strand of hair back behind my ear. "But we were going on a date anyway! It was my choice!" I kept feeling the need to stress that.
Lee just smiled. "Of course," he said.
(I had to admit somewhere in the back of my mind, though: Lee was more attractive after he fought. It was the power thing at play again.)
"Neji advocated for you," I said, nodding to his teammate.
"Really?" Lee raised his eyebrows. "Interesting. I would consider us rivals!"
"But people can be rivals and friends as well," I said, thinking of Sasuke and Naruto.
"True enough," said Lee. "It was nice of Neji, considering he's a more talented Genin than I am. I strive to compete with him!"
Neji and TenTen were standing off to the side as if ready to go.
"So... I should tell you my address," I said at last, and I wrote it down for him on a piece of paper, along with my phone number. Seal it with lipstick, said Ino's mischievous voice in my head. I most profoundly did not listen to her mental advice.
"I will pick you up there at five o'clock tonight!" said Lee, taking up the piece of paper.
"Five o'clock?" I said, surprised. "Isn't that a little early?"
Lee beamed. "I want to take you hiking," he said. "I have a favorite spot in Konoha. If you climb all the way up there, you can see the sunset, and it's beautiful! And - I want it to be romantic." He smiled, embarrassed.
I supposed I should have expected such a physical person to take me out on a physical date. "Sounds good," I said, and mentally reminded myself to wear comfortable shoes. "You dress nice. Remember what I said." I pointed at him. "Wear the karate jacket. And... do something with your eyebrows." I waved a general hand.
Lee looked confused for a moment, but he agreed enthusiastically enough. He seemed excited, and it made me smile; his energy was a little infectious.
But before Lee left, he turned to Sasuke. "By the way, I saw the Uchiha clan symbol on the back of your shirt... You would be Uchiha Sasuke? The survivor of your clan?"
Something about the wording caught at me. Sasuke had said his clan was dying off, and it was one of his goals to revive it. He really must not have a lot of family members left alive.
I turned in surprise to Sasuke, who frowned. "Yes," he said, tightly, cold. It couldn't have been a good topic for him.
"I would be willing to fight with you," said Lee. "I have to admit, it's you I was really after. It would be an honor to fight the infamous Sharingan!"
"I'd be willing to see it myself," Neji added, stepping forward at last.
"But it's more passionate for me!" said Lee. "In this world, there are two kinds of people. There are the hardworking kinds, like me, who must always pit ourselves against the ones with natural talent born into them, like you and Neji!"
"Hey, just because Sasuke was born an Uchiha, that doesn't mean he's not a hard worker," I began defensively. "I'm sure Sasuke works very hard with his Sharingan in his own time! Right, Sasuke?" I turned confidently to Sasuke -
Whose face had darkened. "... I don't have it," he forced out after a moment.
Everyone in the room was surprised. Including Naruto, who was just getting to his feet.
"... What?" I don't even remember who asked.
"I haven't. Awakened. My Sharingan," Sasuke forced out through gritted teeth. He seemed furious and humiliated.
There was a pause. And then the most horrible, condescending kind of smirk filled Hyuuga Neji's face. "I see," he said. "Too bad for the Uchiha Clan." I could tell that Sasuke almost vaulted across the room and hit him right then and there.
"Ah," said Lee, awkwardly. "Well. We should all be getting to the Exam room. See you there. I'll see you later, Sakura!" he called, blowing me a kiss almost playfully, and then Lee's team left. The dismissal was clear. They were older Genin and they didn't have time to deal with a rookie who hadn't even activated his bloodline limit.
I turned around uncertainly to my teammates, trying to be sympathetic and not pitying. Neither one of them seemed to be taking this Exam so far very well.
"Well," said Naruto sourly, "I feel pathetic."
Sasuke's face twisted, his fists clenching, and suddenly he seemed every bit the cold, dark young boy I remembered from his rooftop introduction on our first day as a team. "This is ridiculous," he spat. "Have I improved none since I became a Genin?"
"Wh... what about your old clan scrolls?" I asked, trying to be helpful.
And then Sasuke exploded, all the tension coming out at once. "There's only so much you can learn from old scrolls! Maybe if Kakashi would actually teach me something every once in a while! Is he trying to hold me back?" Sasuke was practically throwing a hissy fit.
"Hey, man, cool it," said Naruto, scowling. "Don't take it out on Sakura, she hasn't done anything wrong!"
"I... I've been training with Kakashi-sensei ever since getting back from the Wave," I admitted, frowning worriedly. The boys turned to stare at me. "You just had to ask him. Like with the way we have to request higher level missions. I... I'm so sorry, I thought you knew." The boys suddenly sagged, looking defeated, and that was the saddest part of all. "I guess there's no way around it now. You'll have to wait until the Chuunin Exams are over to ask him for help." I looked at them in concern. "Do you think you'll be okay until then?"
Naruto, I might have expected to have to worry about. But it had never occurred to me that Uchiha Sasuke might need to improve his skills. He'd been the best in our graduating class. What did that mean for the rest of us?
All the new rookies were taking the test. Were any of the nine of us really prepared?
Naruto growled and his fists clenched. "Damnit! We'll be fine." He lifted his chin. "It's like I said. We'll just keep training and fighting strong people until we're better."
"It's the right place for it," said Sasuke, and it did seem to be.
We made it at last to the third floor, and Kakashi-sensei was waiting for us outside room 301. We handed him back our filled out applications.
"So you all came here of your own free will and made it past the genjutsu," he said. "Very good."
"Came here of our own free will?" I asked.
"Yes. To tell you the truth, the test can only be taken in teams of three. But I told individuals they didn't have to come if they didn't want to so there wouldn't be pressure from the team. The Chuunin Exam is not something you can just do casually unless you really want it," Kakashi explained. "But if only one or two of you had shown up, I would have had to turn you away from the Exam."
"And... the genjutsu?"
He shrugged. "The people who couldn't see past it were detained by the examiners on the third floor staircase and told they were not allowed to continue. But you must have seen through it, because you made it here. It's just a basic beginner's test. Pre-exam exam, if you will. It usually cuts the numbers about in half. When you go through these doors, you will encounter, be tested against, and compete beside the remaining half."
"I'm ready!" said Naruto, and he looked it, and in an angrier way so did Sasuke.
Kakashi's eyes went down the line and they came to rest on me. I felt a bit more uncertain than Sasuke and Naruto seemed. Perhaps Kakashi saw it, because he said, awkwardly, after a moment, "I am... proud, of you three. I hope you know that."
I will always remember him telling us that just before letting us through to the exam doors and beyond.
The minute we walked into the classroom, it was like being hit by a visceral wave of chakra presence. The classroom was covered in Genin, older, muscular, talented. They all looked around when we came in, glaring, tight with nerves. It was nerve wracking, to say the least. I felt myself step a little closer to Naruto and Sasuke, even as they did the same with me.
It appeared we were all waiting for the Exam to start.
"Sakura! Sasuke-kun!" We looked around. Ino had run over to us, Shikamaru and Chouji walking up behind her. (Chouji was the eater and Shikamaru was the complainer. Remember them?) Ino got to me first.
She grinned and caught my hands. "We're going to do awesome!" she said excitedly, clearly unfazed by the people around her.
I smiled despite my nerves. "Totally," I said, feeling a little better. Ino always had that effect on me.
Then Ino grabbed Sasuke in a gigantic hug and rubbed up against him flirtatiously, as shameless as always. Sasuke tried his hardest to pull out of her grasp and looked like he deeply regretted even one of his fangirls following him into the active duty forces.
I was broken from my amusement by another voice. "Well, it looks like the gang's all here!" The other rookies three had walked up to us: Kiba (the extrovert, who had spoken), Shino (the quiet bug kid with glasses)... and Hinata.
We met each other's eyes for the first time since that night in Ino's living room. Then we both looked away, pained and awkward. I wanted to tell Hinata that Naruto wasn't dating me, but when I knew he was still interested in me the idea seemed wrong, somehow. The words just wouldn't come. That was if Hinata would even listen.
Suddenly, I couldn't bear it anymore - the pain and the tension. I moved away from the group of rookies at center stage in the front of the room and melted quickly into the crowds farther within the classroom. I heard Ino call after me, pained, and Sasuke and Naruto also say my name in confusion, but by then I was already in another part of the room entirely.
The minute I had melted into the crowds, I wondered if it had been a bad idea. Suddenly, I was in close quarters on all sides with big, strong people with a lot of killing intent, all of them just barely moving out of the way to make room for me irritably. And I was all alone. I stumbled my way through a lot of people, a mass of differently symboled headbands, from Konoha and Suna as well as other places I did not recognize. (There was no Kiri. Kiri did not have an alliance with Konoha. It appeared only people with an alliance to Konoha came to the Chuunin Exam when Konoha was hosting it.)
Just when I was feeling extremely lost and lonely, I almost ran into three familiar faces. There before me were Kankurou, Temari, and Gaara, the Kazekage's children. I stopped short just before I stumbled straight into them, startled. We met each other's eyes for a moment. Temari looked contemptuous and remote, as before. Kankurou almost said something, meaning to step forward - but then Gaara held out a hand and held Kankurou back, protecting me once again. Or, perhaps, protecting the reputation of his brother.
Gaara leveled a stare at me, as emotionless as before. I felt once again strangely like he was assessing me.
I looked down, oddly embarrassed. "Sorry," I muttered, and pushed on through the crowds.
"Sakura!" I looked up in wild hope. Lee had called me over. He waved and smiled. I went over quickly and sat down beside Lee, TenTen, and Neji - three relatively friendly faces.
"Hey. What's going on?" I whispered. The tension in the room made it seem wiser to whisper.
"Your fellow rookies are making idiots of themselves," said Neji dryly. "Loud and dorky, just like everyone expected." I winced.
I looked ahead and was just in time to see an older Konoha Genin finally go up to the other rookies and tell them to cut it out. I thought I heard the words, "Keep it down." Ino shouted something defensively, and then the rookies got into a conversation with the older Genin. I was too far away to make out the details of what they were saying. Their voices had grown softer. I sighed and shifted, wishing I'd brought a book for the wait.
Then, suddenly, something startling happened. Uzumaki Naruto turned right around from his conversation and pointed at the entire room. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto," he shouted, "and I'm not going to lose to any of you!"
I was as always torn between being embarrassed and proud.
"And he just made enemies of the entire room," said TenTen dryly.
"At least he's in good spirits," said Neji.
"He burns with passion," Lee agreed.
"Did Lee not beat him up enough?" Neji asked with typical dry humor, turning to me. There was a genuine question behind the joke. Neji, TenTen, and Lee looked around at me curiously as if trying to understand Uzumaki Naruto.
Gamely, I represented him in the best way I knew how. "It doesn't matter how many times you beat Naruto," I said. "He just keeps getting back up. He's like one of those pop up dolls you hit with a mallet at the carnival."
"So he's determined," said Lee, seeing the positive side of things to the end.
"The metaphor seems apt," said Neji, looking around in amusement at Naruto, who was in the process of appearing rather pleased with himself.
Just then, a fight broke out, and it didn't even involve Naruto or any of the other rookies. Three ninja from the Hidden Village of Sound, Oto, who had been close to the front of the room, attacked the older Genin who had been conversing with the rookies. Why, I couldn't tell. An Oto ninja with a weird metal armband aimed a punch and the older Konoha Genin seemed to dodge it, but then the Konoha nin's glasses broke and he collapsed as if close to throwing up. It was like he'd felt some peculiar sense of vertigo. But why that would effect his glasses, I didn't know. The only thing I could guess at was that the power came from the Oto nin's armband. It appeared to emit some kind of wave.
Either way, it had only been a matter of time before the tension in the room exploded over into a fight. Lee and Neji were muttering to each other and I was half standing when there was this weird, dramatic explosion of smoke and then the examiners appeared in the center of the room. I supposed they had to get their kicks in somehow. The lead examiner was noticeable, a huge bear of a middle aged man with watchful dark eyes and a cloth covering his bald head.
"Silence, everyone!" The fighters turned to the examiners, everyone turned to the examiners. The tone to the room was strangely eager. "Sorry to keep you waiting," said the lead examiner dryly. "We will now begin the first test of the Chuunin Exam. I will be your examiner. My name is Morino Ibiki. Oto nin! We will fail you if you act outside the official boundaries of the Chuunin Exam. No one is allowed to fight in this Exam unless it is specifically permitted.
"Everyone take a number from the front of the room. The number will assign you to a specific seat in this classroom. A warning: though you are taking this test as a team, you will not be sitting with your teammates."
I wondered how many 'tests' there would be as I went to get my number. Somehow, in this place, it seemed odd to ask. The atmosphere was stifling. Once we were seated, it was revealed what we would be doing. The scenery had already hinted at it: the first test would be a written test.
As the papers were handed out, I took a glance to the room around me. None of the people I recognized had been seated together. But then I spotted that this wasn't quite true. Hinata and Naruto had been seated next to each other. Naruto appeared to be chatting Hinata up, leaning in close and smiling in a very certain way. Hinata was blushing furiously, confused.
Despite my inner discomfort, I thought, Good for them. I hoped Hinata would take the opportunity for what it was and not become a self conscious mute, as she sometimes could.
Once all the papers were handed out, all the assistant examiners sat on either edge of the classroom, clipboards in hand. They had been faced so they were watching us. I wondered at this. It would soon be explained to me.
Ibiki called for attention, brisk and official. He wrote out the rules for the test as he talked.
"I will not be accepting any questions, so listen carefully. Every applicant has ten points at the start of the test. This written exam has ten questions. Each question is worth one point. Every time an applicant gets a problem wrong, one point will be deducted from their total score. Not answering any questions will get the applicant a zero. The applicant's total points will be tallied up with their teammates' at the end of the test. Whether the team passes or fails will be determined by their total number of points. Two good teammates can carry one mediocre one, but if any teammate gets a zero, everyone on that team will automatically fail.
So that was what he meant when he said that the team, though separated, would be taking the test together. Sasuke would be fine; I definitely would be fine, this was my home territory. I worried a little about Naruto, but finally I decided there was nothing for it. I would just have to trust him to pass and do what was best. If we failed, we failed.
"If one of the examiners placed on the edges of the room sees you cheating during the test, they will deduct two points from your score. If they see you trying to cheat again, two more points will be deducted, and so on and so forth. If your points reach zero, you will be thrown from the test, as will your teammates. So think carefully before cheating. You're being tested for Chuunin status, you're here to prove you're good ninja. Act like a Chuunin. Act like a good ninja.
That explained the examiners sitting and staring at us.
"There are only nine questions on the paper. The tenth question will be given forty five minutes after the test has begun. The test total will take one hour.
"Begin!"
So in the silence, I started reading over the test. My eyes slowly widened as I glanced down the page. It was then that I realized my mistake. I'd assumed Sasuke, a good student, could pass this. I'd assumed Naruto would be able to get at least one question. But... this test was incredibly complex. Way above basic Academy level. There were complex ciphers and geometry problems, things no ninja was required to know. I recognized a lot of the questions from the extra reading at the end of Academy textbook chapters, but who besides me bothered to read those? I wasn't sure even Sasuke could do this.
It didn't make any sense. If only the people who had done the extra reading were allowed to make Chuunin, Konoha should be severely lacking for Chuunin. And yet we weren't. Was Ibiki just not the examiner every year?
I could work my way through about half of the problems on my own. As I worked, I tried to figure out how my team could pass this test in the back of my mind. Right now, I was looking at getting about fifty percent of the problems correct. Sasuke and Naruto probably couldn't even do that much on their own. They had no techniques I knew of to help them cheat safely.
Did I?
A part of myself, the good student, was horrified at the very idea of cheating. But at the same time, I wanted us to pass and so what other choice did I have? Not even I could answer about half the questions on this test. Even if I had been able to figure out every problem with enough time we didn't have, I couldn't carry the team on my own.
So, despite my nervousness, I took a deep breath and tried to help myself first. I put one hand under the desk as if to scratch my leg and there under the desk I made a silent hand seal. One of the first things Kakashi had taught me was how to expand my basic hiding genjutsu. "You're good at hiding, which is excellent for stealth, one of the premiere qualities of a ninja. I'm going to teach you how to hide anything, no matter how small or big, in plain sight." I weaved the genjutsu around me, making it so that a mirage filled my space at the desk. The image was of me bent studiously over my paper, totally not cheating. That was what the rest of the classroom would see.
Meanwhile, I steeled myself and stood up, careful not to make any noise. It was unbelievable the amount of nerve this took in a silent classroom full of people taking a test. I waited. The examiners looked right through me. No examinees looked up. No one could see me standing.
I looked around, trying to find someone writing who knew what they were doing. There was one boy a few seats down from me who seemed pretty sure of his answers. The answers themselves looked correct. I glanced over his test, took a mental snapshot, sat back down just like I knew what I was doing, and started copying the image in my head that I had committed to memory. Stunned by my own daring.
I looked up again at the end, as I slowly and subtly let the illusion go. None of the examiners were yelling at me. No one seemed to have noticed my cheating!
But it was around this time that other people began reminding me what a close thing it was. We had gotten to the point in the test when examiners started calling out the numbers of people who had gotten zeroes through cheating. They would throw kunai at them when it was time for them to go; the examinees, grown ninja, would jump horribly, and then would walk out shame-faced alongside often angry teammates. Some ninja even struggled and had to be bodily thrown out of the testing hall by examiners. The silence in the classroom was very heavy as more and more people left. I wasn't doing so badly, but when I looked around me, other people were shaking, sweating, pale, nervous, bent with concentrated frowns over their papers. They were terrified of being caught, and terrified of failing. They were panicking, like Kakashi-sensei and our missions had taught me not to.
Now for the ultimate question: did I want to risk being thrown out again by helping Sasuke and Naruto cheat? I looked ahead of me. Naruto was visibly shaking in his chair. Sasuke had a scowl etched over his features and was bent over the paper, but was staring at it blankly as if it had offended him in some way. I winced. Neither of them seemed to be doing so well.
We would fail if I didn't help them. I had to give it a try.
I went to help Naruto first, because he was the least likely to be able to figure out a single problem. I looked around to try to find someone around Naruto who knew the answers. To my surprise, Hinata was writing as if sure of herself. Then I remembered: the Byakugan's X-ray vision. Hinata's head was bent so no one could see her eyes underneath her bangs.
So I made a one-handed silent seal under the desk again and focused my chakra on Naruto. Having become used to trying to sense it, he could feel it when my chakra wrapped reassuringly around him. I was half afraid he'd look back at me and ruin the whole thing; he jumped a little when he sensed me, but then had the good sense not to do anything else, keeping his back turned to me. I made it so that it looked like Naruto was bent over his paper... and then I added a second layer. This was hard; it took me almost a minute to figure it out. I made a black arrow appear only to Naruto, on his desk over his paper, floating and shimmering. The arrow was pointed at Hinata's paper. I held it there for a few seconds with a terrible effort, and then let the second layer go, my hand visibly shaking with effort underneath the desk.
Naruto seemed to understand. He trusted me. I was the only one who could see through my genjutsu, so I saw him bend over and look at Hinata's answers, though no one else did. Hinata looked up, startled; as a ninja with a Byakugan, she could of course see through the illusion and knew right away what we were trying to do. And then Hinata, beautiful Hinata, bent her head back over her test and pretended she had seen nothing. I couldn't tell if it was for me or for Naruto, but I silently thanked her in my head.
Naruto finished writing, and then slowly, carefully, I let him go and turned to Sasuke. It was hard, keeping up a genjutsu that long, and harder the second time. Sasuke understood before I'd even given him the arrow. He leaned over shamelessly to the row of desks in front of him and began scribbling as he stared fixedly at someone else's paper. If he'd had the Sharingan, Sasuke would probably have been able to do this without my help by copying the hand movements of the confident person nearest him, but (to my eternal surprise) he didn't.
It was shortly after I'd let Sasuke go, somewhat out of breath, and sat back for the long, silent, awkward wait for the tenth question - it was shortly after this that something strange happened. There was a ripple through my mind, that's the best way I can describe it, and then all of a sudden my mind went blank. Everything went black, and then I was pulled back into consciousness again to find myself sitting in my seat, exactly the same as I had been, only five minutes had passed on the clock.
I narrowed my eyes as I realized what had happened. Ino, with one of her family's mind control techniques, had invaded my head and looked at my answers. I glared backwards at her, but without any real malice, and she smirked. I hated it when she did that. (Read: every Academy test ever. Ino was what was traditionally called "a good ninja.")
And then, as I thought this, I remembered Ibiki's words at the beginning of the test. He'd told us to think carefully before cheating, and to be good ninja. He hadn't told us not to cheat. We'd just assumed he didn't want us to because it was a punishable offense. But really, he'd made the cheating system incredibly lenient, only two points per caught action. He'd made the test incredibly hard. And he'd told us to think carefully before cheating.
A good ninja, in this situation, was one like Ino, who would steal another's answers. Was he purposefully trying to...? I looked up discerningly at Morino Ibiki, standing there hulking and unreadable at the front of the room. Was he trying to test our information gathering skills? I couldn't tell.
Either way, if he was I had done well. And if he wasn't, my test and my teammates' tests still looked like we'd done well. I waited for a few more moments, but sure enough... there were no kunai thrown in our direction. We had succeeded.
I sat back, tired but satisfied. I would have to work on my genjutsu endurance after this exam was over. To barely be able to hold a two-layered genjutsu for five minutes was rather unacceptable.
"Okay," Ibiki said at the forty five minute marker, and everyone's heads shot up. The atmosphere of the entire room set my teeth on edge, and I wasn't even that worried. "I will now give the tenth question -"
The classroom door opened and a Genin boy came back in with an examiner after having used the restroom. The Genin stopped, seeing everyone turned around to stare at him. I recognized him: that was Kankurou.
"Have fun playing with your puppet?" Ibiki asked dryly. Kankurou's eyes widened - I assumed that meant he'd been using his puppet to cheat somehow while in the bathroom. "Sit down," Ibiki barked, and Kankurou went quietly enough back to his seat.
"Let me explain the tenth question. There are some special rules for it," said Ibiki. "First: you are going to choose whether or not you want to take the tenth problem."
This puzzled me. Temari voiced my own question for me, "So, what happens if we don't choose to take the tenth problem?"
"Your points will be reduced to zero and you will fail. So will your teammates," Ibiki said simply. No judgment, no flair. He was matter of fact.
Then of course we were going to take the tenth problem. The choice was obvious. What wasn't he telling us?
"However," Ibiki continued, "if you choose to take the tenth problem and fail it, you will never be able to take a Chuunin Exam again."
My eyes widened and I sat back. It took me a minute, to absorb that. Never again. There were field promotions, of course, but they weren't common. Ibiki was effectively blocking off our ability ever to graduate beyond Genin. I was positive of my ability either to answer the question correctly or to cheat my way through it, and that made even me pause for a moment.
"But there are those here who have taken the Chuunin Exam in the past!" Kiba argued, flabbergasted.
Ibiki answered as I'd already suspected: "Lucky them, they didn't get me as an examiner. You did." He chuckled darkly. "Why do you think I gave you the option of quitting? Those who aren't confident can choose not to take the question and wait to graduate to Chuunin some other year."
That was when Ibiki asked the impossible: he asked everyone to raise their hand if they chose not to take the tenth question and wished to fail the Chuunin Exam, or to keep their hand lowered if they chose to take the tenth question and wished to risk being a Genin forever.
If I were really honest with myself, I'd never expected to make it this far anyway.
I hadn't. I'd always seen myself as an unexceptional person destined to an unexceptional life. So maybe it was weird, but the idea of being a Genin forever didn't bother me as much as it might have bothered my high-technique-powered clan peers with all that pressure to be great riding on them. My parents were proud of me just for making it this far. I wanted to succeed, but I didn't need to like a lot of my classmates felt they did. Even Naruto wanted to become the Hokage. I just wanted to be strong. Strength didn't have to be measured in rank.
Besides which, I was confident. If I had been able to answer or cheat my way through all the other questions, why should this one be any different? I was pretty sure I could take this question and go on to be a Chuunin. I could help Sasuke and Naruto do the same. I certainly wasn't going to quit for their sakes. Not because I didn't care, but because I did. And I knew they'd hate that - the only thing worse than failing, for them, would have been a teammate failing for them because it wasn't thought they'd be able to handle things. I mean, they were ambitious, macho boys. A girl keeping them from fighting would have galled them.
So I thought about it long and hard for a few moments, and then, swallowing, I kept my hand lowered.
Other people were not so certain of themselves. One man, older than usual, looking heartbreakingly ashamed of himself, raised his hand to quit. His teammates failed alongside him. And then it was as if a flood gate had been opened. Now that they were not first and not alone, it seemed everybody in the classroom was raising their hands and getting up to leave. The numbers startled me, and even made me feel a bit more unsure of myself. All these people were leaving?
I tried to focus on the people who weren't. All my fellow rookies stayed, perhaps stupidly and stubbornly: Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji - even the people I'd expected to leave. None of them raised their hands. Sasuke and Naruto stayed in their seats. Lee and his team looked pretty confident in themselves. The Kazekage's children stayed. The older Genin who had talked to the other rookies was somehow still around, and so were the jumpy Oto nin who'd attacked him. (I couldn't see the other foreign nin who had attacked me while out jogging around anywhere; as a genjutsu user, he couldn't have fallen to the genjutsu, so he must have been caught cheating while I was busy on my test. Served him right.)
"... Any other takers?" Ibiki asked at last, looking around the classroom, which had thinned out considerably. There was a pause, an agonized one. "Anyone...?"
"Shut up, old man, no one's raising their hand! Hurry it up so I can make Hokage already!" That was Naruto's voice. He was leaned back in his seat with his feet up on the desk. Hinata was looking at him like he was the only thing that mattered in the whole world.
I was amused despite myself. Good old Naruto. The tension in the room relaxed a little.
"Are you sure?" Ibiki asked. "This is a choice that will impact the rest of your life."
"Screw you!" said Naruto defiantly, sitting upright. "I'm not afraid!"
And then it was like a switch had been turned back on. People were sitting up straighter, there were even some smiles. Naruto, with his penchant for humor and rebellion, had effectively changed the tone of the entire room. I remembered what I'd told him, that his words could affect others. Good job, Naruto, I mentally congratulated him.
And then, of all unaccountable things, Naruto looked back and smiled at me. That was what he'd been intending, all along. That was the moment I think I really started to believe Naruto could make it to Hokage.
(Hinata looked away.)
Ibiki paused for a few moments longer. He seemed to be counting the room. I did, too. I counted roughly eighty people who had stayed to take the last question, in the long lecture hall.
"Alright," said Ibiki at last. "Nice determination." It was the first compliment he'd paid anyone. "Everyone here..." We waited in dread for the last question... "... passes the first test."
Wait. What? I was reminded of Kakashi. But it couldn't have been good teamwork this time. So what was it?
Morino Ibiki lost all the dark seriousness to his face. He took one look at our bewildered expressions and started laughing uproariously. It was strangely funny.
"Sir," I said at last, raising my hand hesitantly, "could you explain?"
So Ibiki explained: The first nine questions had been built to test our information gathering skills. Applicants were covertly encouraged to cheat, not just so they themselves could pass, but so their teammates could pass. The applicants would then really be tested on whether or not they cheated "cleverly": in as few moves and with as little noticeable action as possible. Ibiki even took off his cloth cap and showed us his head. It was full of long scars and screw marks. He said he'd gotten it being tortured by the enemy for information during the last ninja war. Information, said Ibiki, could be more valuable and decisive than any battle.
That was when I raised my hand again. "Sir," I said on a suspicion, "if I could ask... what is your title in the ninja forces?"
Ibiki smirked. "Special class Jounin," he said. "ANBU Torture and Interrogation. Psychological unit."
There were a few gasps. People gaped. That was what I'd thought. Really, it was amazing we hadn't fared worse. Maybe Ibiki was actually a nice person.
That was when Temari raised her hand and asked what the last question was for, then. She seemed annoyed, that she and her teammates had gone through all that work only for the last question to make it all irrelevant.
"But the last question was the whole point of this first test!" said Ibiki, raising his arms expansively. "Imagine this: you've become a Chuunin. You're leading a team, alone, into a dangerous mission. The objective is to capture a secret document. The number of enemy ninja is unknown. Their abilities are unknown. Their weapons are unknown. The enemy may have set up traps you have not foreseen. There is a very great possibility you all could die.
"Do you accept the mission for your team anyway?
"You have to, if you are to succeed as a ninja. Most missions carry huge risks. Like with the risk of remaining a Genin forever." The risk my mother hadn't wanted me to take up. That was what he was talking about. "One has to show courage and make it through the bad situations. It's central to being a ninja. The point was not to snap. That was what this test was testing. That's what we look for in a Chuunin, a squad leader."
I was reminded of what Kakashi had told me, that panic and self doubt had been my greatest weaknesses as a ninja starting out. I had just proved I had eradicated those. And for a moment, faintly, smiling slightly, I was proud of myself.
"The first test of the Chuunin Exam is over. You have broken through the entrance," said Ibiki. And then he smiled. "Good luck."
Naruto began cheering, jumping up and down in his seat, and I would have been exasperated but all of a sudden I was just so relieved. My shoulders slumped and an unnoticed knot of tension uncurled from my stomach. I felt an odd moment of euphoria at having made it.
The next examiner burst in then. I do mean that literally. She jumped through the classroom window with a gigantic sign boasting her name, Mitarashi Anko. She had purple hair and a long trench coat full of bulging pockets. She was loud and abrasive and told Ibiki fearlessly that there were too many people here and he hadn't tested them hard enough!
Then she turned to us and smiled, sickly sweet. "Oh well," she said. "I'm about to fail more than half of you with the second test. And that's what I get off on, is torturing cute little Genin like yourselves. We will meet at a specific point and time tomorrow. Ask your Jounin teachers for information. Dismissed."
"Kakashi-sensei, you didn't tell us we'd be tortured," was the first thing I said when we met on the bridge that afternoon as a team.
"Ah, sorry about that." He smiled sheepishly. "I only found out later Ibiki was the one proctoring the first test. But I heard you all made it out okay? I know for a fact that at least one rookie Genin instructor didn't think any of you would make it through."
"We all did," said Sasuke, and then he looked sideways at Naruto. I knew what he was thinking. It was mostly Naruto's words that had kept everybody in their seats. Naruto was still dancing around, cheering, and so was unavailable for response.
"Where we will be meeting tomorrow?" Sasuke asked Kakashi.
"Tomorrow at 8 AM at training area 44. I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to tell you any more than that," said Kakashi honestly.
I thought hard for a moment. "It's going to be physical, I assume... Should we pack for an extended stay away?" I asked tentatively.
Kakashi nodded firmly. "Yes," he said.
"So it will be a kind of survival training," said Sasuke. "It could take days."
Kakashi didn't say a word, but the way he looked at us, we knew we were right.
"I'm going to have to pack..." I muttered, and then I remembered and my eyes flew open. "Oh. I have to go!" I ran off.
"Where are you going?" Kakashi called.
"Oh, yeah," I heard Naruto say, distinctly sour, his cheer fading.
"She has a date with Rock Lee," said Sasuke, still sounding puzzled by the whole affair, and definitely not jealous.
"Really? Lee?" I remembered then that Lee's Sensei knew Kakashi. "Geez," said Kakashi, "I didn't think he had it in him."
I fiddled with myself in the mirror for a while getting ready for the date. Usually, things were so clear-cut: I wore ninja attire for missions and dresses for dates. But Lee was going to take me hiking. Should I wear a dress and heels? I didn't think so. It took me some time to put a good in-between outfit together.
Eventually, I decided on a dark pair of legging pants, some black slip-on sneakers, and a deep red boat necked shirt. Not that there was much in that area to show off. But it did make my shoulders and collarbone look nice. I played with my hair for a while and eventually just left it up in its bun. I really should cut it at some point. There was no point in keeping it long anymore. That certainly hadn't attracted Sasuke.
The doorbell rank promptly at the appointed time and my parents, who had been prepared for their daughter's "first date", sprang into action. By the time I'd reached the staircase, my Dad had already opened the door.
"So," he said, in a falsely bright, cheerful voice, "there he is. The guy."
My Dad had been waiting for this moment my whole life.
As Lee was practically yanked into my house, his face almost comically surprised, I looked him over. He looked nice. He was wearing a nice white set of karate pants and shirt with black trim. His haircut was easier to take in a different outfit, as I'd suspected. His build was tall and surprisingly muscular; his hands were large and callused, not unlike my Dad's. He'd even made his eyebrows a little smaller. I'd been afraid he'd shave them off or something, but he hadn't. Maybe he'd asked TenTen for help.
Dad sat him down in the chair in the living room, before the brick fireplace and mantel piece. Lee had trekked dirt all over our white carpet and my Mom pursed her lips disapprovingly. I winced. If I continued dating ninja, I had the feeling my Mom would be pursing her lips disapprovingly a lot.
"So," said Dad, in a friendly yet threatening tone of voice, looming up over Lee, "you like my daughter, do you?"
"She is as beautiful as the sunset I am taking her to see!" said Lee passionately, sitting forward, his eyes wide and earnest.
My Mom looked around at me and raised her eyebrows, almost impressed. 'Wow' she mouthed. Ino would have given me a thumbs up. I looked down, embarrassed.
"That's right, she is," said my Dad without missing a beat. "Poetry. I know that trick. Matter of fact, I've used it. But she also has a whole host of other good qualities, doesn't she? Things worth sticking around for? Things worth respecting?" Oh God.
"Yes, of course! Sakura-san is smart; she saw through the first test of the Chuunin Exams immediately! She is kind; she went to help a fallen teammate! She is independent; she wants to make her own decisions about things!" Lee continued gamely.
Dad sat back as if trying to find something wrong with this, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Look, I'm just going to be honest," Dad said at last. "Sakura's our only child. She's important to us. And I don't like you because you're dating her." Dad leaned close into Lee's face, almost as threatening as a ninja. "You got that?"
Lee swallowed nervously. "Of - of course, sir, I wouldn't expect you to!" Great, my Dad was going to scare him off.
"So if you hurt her in any way -"
"I won't!"
"But if you do - don't think that just because you're a ninja, I won't kill you. I can. And I will. If you hurt her, death is in your future."
"Dad!" I finally cried from the stairs, scandalized.
"Don't worry, Sakura-san!" cried Lee. "If I hurt you, I would deserve a thousand painful deaths! I would run endless laps around the training fields! I would throw myself off the Hokage Monument -!"
"Okay, let's not go that far," I said. "Suicide is not in your future, young Lee. Dad, can we go?" I looked at him angrily, warning.
"Not yet," said Dad, ignoring me stubbornly. (I got it from somewhere.) "I want to know just who this Lee person is. Does he have good prospects? I don't want you going off and dating just anybody."
"Lee's an older active duty ninja and a talented master of hand to hand well on his way to becoming a Chuunin," I reeled off in irritation. (Lee beamed, brightening.) "Can we go now?"
Dad looked between us for a moment, his eyes narrowed. "Alright," he said begrudgingly. He stepped back and my mother put a comforting, knowing hand on his arm.
"Come on," I told Lee, "let's get out of here before he thinks up something else." And quickly, gratefully, we both left.
"Let's hurry, Sakura-san!" said Lee, enthusiastic, hurrying ahead of me down the dimming Konoha street. "We have to reach the sunset. I can't wait for you to see it!"
So we didn't talk much as we walked quickly out of the main part of the village and up a green hill toward a place at the very top. Once we got up there (I was breathing hard; damn, Lee was fast) I saw what he meant. You could see the whole expanse of the village out here, all laid out so neat below us. We sat underneath a tall oak tree and we'd just made it in time for the sunset.
And the sunset? The sunset was gorgeous. A whole mess of reds and oranges and golds and pinks, all mingled together before us in the sky like a painting.
Lee did the whole thing very traditionally and romantically. He laid out a picnic blanket and served me wine and little cut up sandwiches and he held my hand in his rough, training-hardened one. He told me I was beautiful. It was all a little overwhelming. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be saying in return. Lee just seemed so much more mature in that moment than I felt. I smiled and was charmed and tried to keep up.
At one point, Lee brightened. "Oh. You know what I really like to do up here?"
"What's that?" I asked, almost suspicious.
He smiled in embarrassment. "Shout," he said sheepishly.
"Shout?" I asked, curious and confused.
Lee stood. He took a deep breath. And then he yelled, "I'M ON A DATE WITH A BEAUTIFUL GIRL!" It echoed out across the green valley below.
I had never shouted before. Maybe that sounds weird, but I'd always been too quiet, too inhibited. But, gamely, embarrassed, I stood up and decided to try it. Why not? "I'M ON A DATE WITH A REALLY ROMANTIC GUY!" I shouted, and the words echoed out across the valley. It was actually kind of exhilarating!
Lee strove to outdo me. And then I strove to out-shout him. And pretty soon we were both screaming bizarre things toward the skies.
"I'M EATING SANDWICHES!"
"I HAVE POLKA DOTTED UNDERWEAR!"
"MY FAVORITE FOOD IS CURRY!"
"I DANCE AROUND TO STUPID SONGS IN A FIGHTING SPIRIT CLOAK!"
It was actually one of the best dates I think I've ever had.
And then Lee turned to me. "I'm so in love with you," he said.
There was a huge pause as everything suddenly went silent. I had no idea what to say or do. "I... I think you're really great," I said at last.
Lee seemed to deflate a little. He smiled uncomfortably. "Oh," he said.
I felt awful. But what was I supposed to say? I didn't fall in love that fast! Why were all these guys suddenly expecting more from me? Was there something wrong with me, that I didn't know how to react to situations like this?
Lee walked me home in the late twilight. I turned around to him on my front step. He took me in for a moment. He was very close. Then he smiled, and he leaned in and gave me a quick, chaste kiss on the lips. "See you tomorrow at the Chuunin Exam," he whispered, and was gone. A flair for drama, perhaps.
I went back inside and my mother was waiting up for me. "How did it go?" she asked from where she was sitting.
I smiled. "I think it went well," I said tentatively. Because it had. Hadn't it? I thought about calling Ino, and maybe I would later, but not now. I felt so strange now.
I went slowly up to my bedroom and looked out the window to the street below me. It was a view I had seen a million times before, but it seemed so different all of a sudden. I thought back for a moment to that last day at the Academy. I'd come a long way since then, farther than I'd ever believed I would go, and so fast it made me dizzy to think about. Would my life always move this fast from now on?
I looked up at the sky and had the strangest feeling that it would.