Let the Chunin Exams begin.

As mentioned before starting whit this chapter, I'll introduce a whole bunch of new characters to give our kiddies some competition during the exams. Sakumo will also take a bit of a back-seat, while Ino, Shika and Cho show what they've learned. This Chunin Arc is getting a bit longer than I first planned it. Please tell me when you get tired of it, then I may decide to cut it a bit shorter.

Greetings,

Ceies

The Written Exam

The next morning his team was still tired, moving sluggishly and slow. He didn't give them any slack, though. For the next few days to the exams he had them work their asses off. Sometimes he made them spar to the point where they almost dropped, often he just let them run and every two days or so the Hokage would have a small mission for them to mix things up.

It didn't take long before he saw some improvement, though he didn't think they even realized that they kept holding out longer and longer after a few days. In the end, however, two weeks were hardly enough to drastically improve, but he did feel confident that they had gotten stronger without even them realizing how much. Maybe they wouldn't ever realize it, he guessed, but now he was sure they could take on opponents they previously wouldn't have stood a chance against. If it was enough to make Chunin, he wasn't sure. They were still young, had only made Genin a few months ago. Most Genin did not pass their very first chunin exams.

At the day of the exams he left his students at the Academy. As they took their places in the classroom for the written test, he moved to the Jonin Standby Station to wait.

"Sakumo?" He heard somebody ask as he entered. "I didn't expect you here. Wasn't your team still very young."

Sakumo walked over to the man with blueish white hair, smiling broadly at him as he sat comfortably on a wooden bench with empty scrolls spread on a table in front of him. Dan Kato was Tsunade's new fiancé. He had just celebrated his 25th birthday a few weeks ago, just before the Battle of Uzushiogakure. Jiraiya had cried big fat crocodile tears as Tsunade had made the relationship official last year. Sakumo couldn't really hate Dan for breaking his best friend's heart, though. Neither could Jiraiya for that matter. Dan was just too likable. He was quiet, maybe even a bit shy but always willing to help those around him. Sakumo had hardly known him, before he had somehow weaselled his way through Tsunade's obsession for Orochimaru into her heart.

"Dan? What are …? Oh, I forgot, you took a team last year."

"Yeah. Before the war broke out." Of course. Dan was strong. With the war the Hokage would not have made one of his more capable Jonin an instructor for Genin, just like he only made Sakumo a Sensei because Sakumo had been injured at the time. "You have the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho, right? Tsunade told me."

Sakumo nodded. At that moment the door burst open again. "Speaking of which," he mumbled as he recognized Cho Akimichi standing in the door searching the assembled Jonin instructors. Finally, her gaze settled onto him.

"Sakumo," she bellowed and waved before marching toward him. "I have something for you." She looked a bit annoyed as she searched in her weapons pouch for something. "That idiot Shika completely forgot to give this to you! You really can't rely on him at all. The man will be the death of me!" She muttered until she finally found what she was looking for. Then she held a small wooden casket up to him.

Sakumo stared at her in confusion. He didn't take it until she basically pressed it into his chest "Here, take this!"

"Wha…" he took the box because he really had no other choice. "What is this?" It looked like she was giving him some jewellery. Old jewellery if the age of the casket was any indicator.

As he opened it there indeed was jewellery inside. Three silver knob earrings blinked in dark velvet. "Thanks, but what …?" He was really confused.

"Did that old man not tell you anything?" Cho seemed legitimately angry now, as she rubbed her neck in frustration. "I told Inori, that lazy idiot can't be trusted to do anything you ask him to." Then she shrugged. "Well ..." She pointed to the earrings. "These are family heirlooms to be given to your students. You know that it is a tradition for the Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka to work together? We did this already long before the foundation of our village. Since then, we normally ask a high ranking Sarutobi to fulfil the role of Sensei and Instructor to our young, but as there was no Sarutobi available this year, Shikaruma was very happy to suggest, you take the position." Sakumo already somewhat knew this much. He hadn't known that normally a Sarutobi would have his position, but he did know that there was great tradition between these clans. "But of course, you would not know any of our traditions the way a Sarutobi would. Shika should have informed you, but, well, I guess it's my job now. The moment they all three make Chunin we ask you to give these to our children." She pointed at her own ear where she was wearing a similar earring.

Sakumo felt a bit flattered by the suggestion he take part in this tradition. He also felt out of his depth. "Is there anything I'd have to say to them?"

Cho looked at him quizzically. "It's not a complicated ritual, boy," she laughed. "Just give it to them and tell them whatever you'd tell them as their teacher. But only once they all made Chunin."

Sakumo nodded relieved that there was not much else to this. "Fine. Thanks." He didn't really know why he was thanking her and maybe she didn't either, but he did feel oddly flattered at being included in an old family tradition. Maybe she appreciated his appreciation, because she smiled after a moment and for a second Sakumo felt as if she wanted to ruffle his hair like a young child, before she briskly turned around and left.

"Quite the boisterous woman," laughed Dan behind Sakumo when Cho was gone.

Sakumo chuckled at that. "Well, she's not worse than Tsunade."

The other Jonin flushed a bit. "Huh? Yeah … So, do you think your team will make it?" Maybe he wanted to forcefully change the topic and Sakumo let him. No need to embarrass the man.

"I wouldn't have registered them, if I didn't," he declared self-confidently. It would get difficult, of course, but he did believe in them.

"Oho?" Dan smiled. "Well, then I guess I'll have to keep an eye on them should they even make it to the second part."

That was of course also a possibility, Sakumo had to concede. He really didn't fear that they lacked any theoretical knowledge. Inoichi was good in that aspect and Shikaku had the logical mind to be able to answer most questions even if he had to guess. Choza might have some trouble, but he had learned more than anybody for this. Still, answering the questions was not the most difficult part of the written exam.

"Who's the instructor?" he asked.

"You haven't heard, yet? Thought you might be the first to … ah, maybe they purposefully left you out. Strategic Command."

Sakumo groaned. "Shikaruma?"

"Nah, of course not. You know how he is. I bet he used his son's participation as an excuse to step down. Your friend Takeru Hyuuga."

Takeru? The Hyuuga was a Jonin a bit older than him. Sakumo and he had started working for Strategic Command together. For a few minutes Sakumo thought about what kind of trick Takeru would pull. He couldn't come up with anything. Like him Takeru still did a bit of everything in the department not specializing in anything yet. However…

He remembered that Takeru had a special interest in encoded battlefield communication. So, maybe he'd do something with that. He couldn't be sure though. The only thing he knew, was that this would acquire his students to think. Jutsu prowess or even teamwork would not be as important as just plain thinking of a strategy. He worried a bit about Choza; not so much about Inoichi or Shikaku. They'd find a way. He just hoped they'd also find a way to communicate that to Choza.

It took two hours until there was finally some movement. Then the Jonin could see that several young shinobi flooded out of the Academy to assemble in the courtyard. Dan stood up peering down through the window.

"It's over," he informed the other Jonin in the room. Then there was a collective nod and while some of the instructors hardly even moved from their seats most of them stood up to walk down to their charges. Sakumo could see Shinso Uchiha stroll down the stairs lazily.

Sakumo followed the other Jonin down to the courtyard where he scared Choza half to death as he shunshined behind his three students.

"So, how did it go?"

Choza almost cried as he saw him. "Horrible! The questions were so difficult. I don't think I made it." He seemed about to jump Sakumo to hug him and cry his eyes out while simultaneously avoiding eye contact with his two friends. "I'm so sorry, guys. If we didn't make it, it's all my fault."

Sakumo raised a questioning eyebrow at the other two, because Choza didn't seem coherent enough to be able to explain anything in a way that Sakumo would understand it. "Was it that hard?"

Inoichi shrugged, but it was Shikaku who answered. "The questions were tough, but we told you, Choza. Don't worry. I bet we made it."

"How can you be so sure?" cried Choza. He wasn't quite tearing up yet, but there wasn't much missing. "They said if one in the team didn't make at least fifty points, the whole team would be screwed. I'm lucky if I made twenty points." He looked altogether miserable. "I knew the written test would be hard for me, but … I learned so much and now … I bet you'd have easily made it without me."

"Don't worry, Cho." Inoichi said self-assuredly. "I bet we made it, trust me. Shika and I …"

"But I'm sure I didn't make enough points!" Choza cut in.

"Choza," said Sakumo putting his hand on the boy's shaggy hair to calm him down. "Listen to what they want to tell you." It seemed like Inoichi and Shikaku had wanted to explain something to the Akimichi who was too lost in his self-pity to even realize that. Sakumo himself didn't know yet, what plan they had come up with, but they both seemed very sure of themselves.

So far, all he had understood, was that this year as it was most of the time not the individual points decided whether one had passed, but the total points of a team. There apparently was a threshold, though, that prevented any team from passing where the individual members could not achieve more than fifty points.

"See," Inoichi started, and with a glance at Sakumo he sighed and explained it to both of them, so Sakumo too would understand. "There were so many questions that they didn't fit on one test sheet, but two, front and back. You could achieve a maximal 200 points per person and a total of 600 points per team. 150 points were needed for the entire team to pass but should one member make less than fifty points the whole team would fail."

He paused, mostly to make sure that Sakumo had followed the rules. Of course, he had, they were very simple. There was one oddity, though. If every member had to make 50 points at least and 150 points were everything that was needed to pass as a team, why sum up the team's points at all? This system seemed to suggest that as a team you could help out the weaker partners, make up missing points of one teammate through the other members. But if fifty points were needed individually and only 150 for the entire team that wasn't the case. Unless of course, there was a way to cheat, a way that you could make the examiner pass a team even if somebody did not in fact achieve the fifty points.

"At first I thought we could cheat and somehow give Choza the answers but that was really almost impossible."

Shikaku nodded with an annoyed frown. "Yeah, they arranged the room and seats in a way we could hardly see each other."

"So, what did you do?" asked Sakumo though he already had an idea.

"Shikaku and I wrote Choza's name on the sheet," he explained almost a bit proudly. Shikaku seemed bored as if that had been the only natural conclusion. "I mean, I admittedly needed a while to understand that. I wrote my own name on the first sheet stupidly. Shika figured it out right away." Inoichi glanced at has friend who only shoved his hands in his pockets. "At the top we had to write our team leader and name, but if the teams total points count, not your individual score, then the team leader is already enough information to count those points. And with Choza's name on all of the sheets it's pretty much impossible to figure out how many points he made and how many points we made. So, they can't kick any of us because we made too few points individually. They can't proof it." Inoichi blushed a bit as Choza looked at him with wide astonished eyes. "I mean we also had to fake your writing style, but I think it should work." He scratched his head awkwardly.

"That's so smart," exclaimed Choza. "Will that work?" He glanced at Sakumo questioningly. The other two also looked a bit worried now.

"Well, as long as you all wrote the same team leader on the sheet there shouldn't be a problem." He smiled at their suddenly worried looks. Secretly he really thought the question of team leader was the actually important one. There had been multiple ways to cheat out of this scoring system by using the name: Everybody writing the same name, mixing the names, not writing a name at all. There might have also been ways to cheat during the exams and give somebody the answers or steal them from others even if his team hadn't seen that. On top of that there must have been ways to communicate throughout the exam, as that was Takeru's own little passion. His team might have missed a chance there. But really, he thought, the more important question was not 'How many points did they make?' but the other question that had somehow been forgotten in this whole thing, so much so, that in Inoichi's explanation it had only really been a passing thought: Who was the team leader? Because for most Genin teams their team leader was their instructor. With Sakumo now out of the picture they were suddenly asked who their leader would be, and however easy that question sounded, if they screwed that up, it would be an automatic fail, he was sure of it. As a shinobi you could not walk into any situation – and be that an exam setting without knowing who your commander is.

"Eh …," Inoichi suddenly turned to his teammates, "who did you write in?"

"You," said Shikaku at once.

"Yeah, me too." Choza smiled.

Sakumo looked down at the Yamanaka. He too would have chosen Inoichi. Ultimately, when they had a bit more experience, when Shikaku was finally ready to take responsibility, he was sure the Nara would take over command because that was really what he was made for. He was the strategic mind in the team. But for now, Inoichi was the one they looked at for guidance. He only hoped Inoichi saw that too. Of the three, Inoichi would be the first to relinquish leadership to Shikaku. When it came to strategy, he rightfully knew that he wasn't up to Shikaku's level and would often push Shikaku into a leadership position where Shikaku still felt uncomfortable in. So, for a moment Sakumo worried, that Inoichi might have scribbled in Shikaku's name. However proud Inoichi was, Sakumo knew that the Yamanaka was at least tempted to do that.

But then Inoichi nodded. "Good." He shrugged as the other two grinned up at him. "I wanted to write Shika in at first, but then I decided differently."

Choza bumped his fist into the air in joy, while Sakumo used the time they waited for the results to survey the other teams. Dan Kato was waving at him as their eyes met. The older Jonin stood next to a team of twelve or thirteen-year-olds: an Inuzuka-girl and two boys without obvious clan signs. The competition, Sakumo thought a bit passively. If they'd pass their teams would be opponents.