Chapter Twenty - The First Test
My alarm woke me as always. I got ready quickly and woke Migoto up. I brushed my hair as I walked across the hall to wake the other two up. Once they were awake I went back to my room to replace the brush. I checked my holster. Thirty kunai's, ten with exploding tags attached. Twenty shurikens, ten seperate exploding tags, and some wire. I attached it to my leg and walked into the hallway. Neji was waiting outside, and it looked like he was about to knock when I'd opened the door. We went to make breakfast with Hinata. We were done in about thirty minutes, and we served everyone. Breakfast was a silent affair. The three of us - Hinata, Neji, and I, finished first. We excused ourselves and left. Outside Kiba and Shino was waiting for Hinata. We parted there. Neji and I walked towards Tenten's, where we planned to meet everyone.
"Are you ready?" I heard Neji say.
"I'm pretty sure I am." I told him. "The only problem I might have is my cast." He nodded. "What about you?"
"I'm always ready."
"Of course."
"Hm."
As we rounded the corner, we spotted Lee and Tenten. The saw us, and Tenten waved. I waved back. Together, the four of us made our way to the academy, where the first test was being held. As we walked, we discussed our plan.
"We need to act like we're afraid and weak." Neji said. "Don't draw attention to yourself. Let them underestimate us, and then we'll be ahead." We nodded as we entered the building.
After we walked up the first flight of stairs onto the second story, I saw a large crowd around a room. The number said "301", which was the room we were supposedly testing in. But it was on the third floor, not the second. I continued walking with the others. We went to pass, when someone was shoved directly in front of us. The person was Sasuke, whom I vaguely remembered from the night at the ramen stand. He lashed out towards the oncoming bully, but Lee stopped both of them.
"Thanks a lot Lee." I muttered.
"What happened to lying low?" Tenten demanded.
"Go on ahead. I will catch up." Lee told us. We began walking and entered the classroom. We turned our papers in and then found a place against a wall to stand. Lee entered the room about ten minutes later. He spotted us and sauntered over.
"So, what took you?" I asked softly. He just shook his head and I rolled my eyes. A sudden movement caught my eye, and I saw sound ninja attacking another person. The silver-haired boy dodged the attack, but his glasses broke and he vomited. Then, the proctor entered, yelling all the while.
Soon, I found myself in an assigned seat in the second row from the front. Tenten was three seats to my left in the row behind me. Lee was in the last row, directly behind me. Neji was in the front row, seven seats to my right. Papers were handed out, rules were dictated. No cheating, points, blah-blah. I flipped the paper over.
Wow.. that's stuff's hard! There's no way I could answer these! I decided to use Omoi-Kaihou, my only option. I laid my head down on my desk with my hands in my lap, and then I was gone. I skimmed over minds, until I found a person with all the answers. I imprinted them into my mind, and found Tenten, relaying the answers slowly to her. She whispered her thanks as I moved to Lee, and then I was back in my body, writing my own answers. It was just too easy. I set my pencil down. The test was supposed to last a total of one hour. Fifty minutes was designated for the first nine questions. The tenth was a whole ten minutes long.
Fourty minutes later the proctor - Ibiki-sama, told us to stop, and that he was giving the tenth question.
"I will now give instructions for the tenth question. This is a pass or fail question. If you answer correctly, you will go on to the second round. If you answer wrong, you will never become a chuunin. You will forever be a genin. All who wish to drop out now, and have a chance at becoming a chuunin next year, please raise your hands. Also - if one teammate leaves, all leave. Choose."
There was many complaints, and just as many people left. There was a lot of "I'm sorry" and "Forgive me, please" going on too. Finally, people stopped leaving. Ibiki then announced that we passed, and gave his reasoning. Not two seconds after he told us we passed, a black banner was thrown through the window and pinned up to the ceiling. It read "Anko Mitarashi - Second Examiner". We followed her out of the room. After a short trek, we were standing next to a gated area. Anko stopped us in front of a tent.
"Your second exam is in the Forest of Death!" She announced dramatically. After a moment, she continued.
"Your objective is to get two scrolls. One is the Heaven scroll, the other is the Earth scroll." She held one of each up. "Each team will be assigned a scroll, and you must battle in the forest with each other to get the second. Once you have both scrolls, you will make your way to the middle of the forest, which is where a tower will be. Between the gate and the tower is fourty miles of wildlife. The test will last for five days."
"What will we do about food?" Someone demanded.
"Use the wildlife. Survive. That's what this test is about." Anko grinned. "But before we can begin, I need each of you to sign this waiver. It keeps me from being liable."
"Liable for what?" Another called out.
"I don't want to be the one in trouble if you die." Everyone grew quiet.
"We might die?" I heard a voice call out.
"Once you're a chuunin, you will be given more dangerous missions than you have now. You might die on one of those as well. Being a shinobi means you're ready to put your life on the line." She then handed out the papers. I signed mine unblinkingly.
"Turn these papers in for your scroll." After my team got together and had all our papers signed we got in line. We were inside the tent shortly, and soon we had a Heaven scroll. Tenten was given it, and it went immediately into her holster. We were sent to Gate Twenty-Eight to start from. A chuunin stood with us, watching his watch. Three or four minutes later, I could faintly hear a yell. The chuunin nodded and flung the gate open. We darted inside. We were silent, and we made our way deeper and deeper into the forest. There was one light skirmish, but they fled. Soon it was nightfall, as the first exam had taken a lot more time than we had thought. We began to plot.
"What time will the most people be weak?" Tenten mused outloud.
"At night, while they're asleep." Lee and Neji said in unison.
"So that's when we'll strike." I finished.
"Alright, so here's the plan." Neji said, who was the chosen leader for our group.
"We'll stay here until tomorrow night, when everyone is tired from two days of being on edge. We'll search for an hour, then, we'll come back to this spot. Understand?" We nodded.
"Alright. Tenten, you have first watch. Then me, followed by Akari and ended by Lee. Any questions?" We shook our heads. "Good." We all went to sleep in a large tree. Lee and I shared a branch and Tenten and Neji shared another. I fell asleep.
All too soon, I was being shook awake by Neji. I went into instant awareness. I caught his arm before he moved away.
"I'm going to be using my jutsu. I'll need tomorrow to recover." He nodded.
"Be careful." He muttered, and I nodded in return. Then he went to his branch, where he settled against the tree trunk. I jumped onto the branch above us, not looking down. Lee was against the trunk, so I used this branch to support me. I rested against the trunk and preformed the handseals Dragon, Boar, Dog, and Horse in fast unison. Then, I went limp as my mind extended. I made a barrier out of my mind, like I had on our fake C-rank mission. This one was about ten yards away from our sleeping forms, and would detect anything that passed in or out of it. I kept a constant flow of chakra going through my hairthin line. The less space I took, the less chakra needed. I could probably keep this going for five hours, but after that I'd pass out. Thank goodness my shift is only two and a half hours long. I wouldn't need as much recovery time.
Nothing besides a large cat, a rodent or two, and a snake passed through my barrier. I came out of my trance and, carefully, dropped down to the branch I shared with Lee. I prodded him awake.
"Your turn." I whispered. He nodded. I laid down on my branch and fell asleep.