AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
I believe I should begin this chapter by mentioning that I have gone back and made a few changes in previous chapters after realizing I had made some mistakes. An example would be that I've so far been referring to all villages by their Japanese names, except for Otogakure, calling it the Sound village, and its Shinobi, Sound Shinobi. Now, besides other, similar fixes to that, there was one major, yet still small change in addition to this in chapter 10. I've changed it from Karin's mother being alive, to her being dead. It came to my attention that Karin only inherited the duty of healing others with her ability after the death of her mother. With her being in the exam, and her purpose being that of providing healing for her teammates, making sure they pass, I'd say it is safe to assume that has already happened. As a result, in order not to contradict canon and follow the rules I set for myself writing this story, it has been changed. Which, honestly, saves me the trouble of making an OC in the form of Karin's mother, even though I would have liked to keep her alive.
Speaking of OC's, this chapter introduces the very first one I had to make. Can you figure out which one it is?
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Chapter 18: Third Exam, what is it?
It turned out that after Iruka left, another Chūnin proctor had come to lead them to a big room with all of the other passing participants. Naruo had a big smile on his face after spotting Karin waving at him with a smile of her own.
The room they had been led into contained what looked like the arms of a big statue, forming the ram seal, coming out of a purple wall. In front of it, on a step high ledge, stood several Jonins.
Team seven found themselves recognizing several of them, and able to guess the identity of a few others. Farthest to the left stood a Kusagakure Jonin, presumably Karin's Sensei, as she and her teammates seemed to be the only Kusagakure Genin in the room. He had blond hair and wore obnoxiously big glasses while wearing the Jonin west unique to his village. Next to him stood a Sunagakure Jonin, the Sensei of the Sunagakure Genin they had run into before the exam. They had apparently also passed the second exam. The third from the left was Kurenai Yūhi, team eight's Sensei. Their former classmates, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata had made it this far as rookies, just like them. In the middle, or rather forth from either side, standing close to Kakashi who was the fifth from the left, stood Might Guy. Team nine's Sensei, teaching Lee, Neji, and Tenten. Unfortunately, team seven didn't know his name, but they could likely ask Kakashi later, as the Jonin was trying to keep a one-sided conversation with him, while Kakashi simply ignored him. Fifth from the left was Kakashi, their own Sensei who they would recognize anywhere. Next to Kakashi, as the sixth Jonin from the left stood Asuma Sarutobi, the Sensei of team ten. Their former classmates Chōji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, and Shikamaru Nara who had also made it this far. And lastly, was another, sandy-brown, brush haired Konohagakure Shinobi who seemed to be the Sensei of Kabuto's team, as Sakura had spotted him in the crowd.
Further in front of the seven Jonins, on a semi-circular outcropping of the stake, stood the Hokage, while on either side of him, below the one-step high stage stood four Konohagakure Shinobi each, all of them easily recognizable as part of the organizers and the Chūnin proctors for the exam. Ibiki, Anko and Iruka were all amongst them.
All of the twenty-one passing Genin had been shown inside and made to stand in front of the Hokage in seven lines with their teammates. From left to right, the teams were team ten, team eight, team seven, team nine, Kabuto's team, Garaa's team, and Karin's team. Team ten had Ino standing in the front, followed by Shikamaru and Chōji. Team eight had Kiba standing in the front, followed by Hinata and Shino. Team seven themselves had Naruto in front, with Sasuke behind him and Sakura in the back. Team nine had Neji in the front, followed by Rock and then Tenten. Kabuto's team had Kabuto standing in the front, with his two teammates standing behind them. Both of them having their appearances almost completely concealed, and the only way to tell them apart being by the glasses they wore. The one wearing small, round sunglasses standing behind Kabuto, while the one wearing regular glasses stood in the back. Gaara's team had Gaara standing in the front, while Kankurō stood in between him and Temari. Lastly, Karin's team had her standing behind two boys. The one in the front having brown hair and wearing a blue jacket on top of his black one-piece suit, a kunai pouch strapped to his right thigh. The boy behind him had his hair hidden as he kept his headband unwrapped towards the top, covering his head. He wore a short, muddy green coat with beige shorts and a dark grey undershirt. On his back, he wore a single sword.
"First off, congratulations on finishing the second exam." Anko welcomed them, smirking in anticipation, knowing what would be happening shortly while thinking about how she had thought the number of participants getting this far would have been down in the single digits.
For a moment, everything was silent as everyone had thoughts of their own, from the Jonin, to the proctors to the genin hoping to become Chūnin. Sasuke was thinking about how he was a step closer to his goal. Sakura remarked on how all the Konohagakure Genin rookies had managed to make it through to this point, and Naruto was excited about how the Hokage, Kakashi, Iruka, and Guy, stating that it felt as if everyone was present.
"Now then, we will now have the explanation of the third exam from Leader Hokage. Listen carefully, everybody!" Anko continued, letting everyone know it was finally time to get this over with.
Stepping forward and clearing his throat briefly before speaking. "Before the explanation of the third exam that we will begin conducting shortly, I have just one thing I want to tell everyone flat out." While everyone wondered what could be so important as to have them postpone the third exam, even by a little, the Hokage continued. "About the true purpose of these exams." He continued.
"True purpose…?" Sakura thought to herself, while Inner groaned, predicting that the entire thing was about to become a lot more complicated.
"Why do the allied nations conduct the exams on a conjoint basis?" The Hokage quizzed, giving the Genin a moment to ponder the question before he continued. "Raising the levels of the Shinobi and friendship among allied nations. It won't do to have the wrong idea of the true meaning of that statement. These exams are so to speak... " The Hokage continued explaining the answer, before pausing, removing the pipe from his mouth to let out a small puff of smoke. Once more giving the Genin a moment to ponder on the answer themselves.
"A microcosm of battle between allied nations." He finally revealed to the shock of most of the Genin.
"What does that mean?" Tenten asked out loud, hoping for clarification. Many of the Genin around her, glad to receive one as well, while avoiding standing out for asking the question themselves.
Removing the pipe from his mouth once more, the Hokage began to explain. "If we look back on history, the allied nations of today were once neighboring nations that continued to vie with each other and battle for power. In order to avoid a futile crushing of each others' military strength, those nations mutually selected a place to battle. And that is how the Chūnin Exams originally began.
"W-why do we have to do such a thing? We're not doing this to select Chūnin?!" Naruto demanded to know, confused, and horrified at the idea that the nations were practically fighting for no reason, or at least, no good reason that he was aware of, and therefore asking for the Hokage to provide one. There had to be a good reason after all.
"There is no question that these exams are to select Shinobi worthy of becoming Chūnin. However, on the other hand, these exams also provide a venue for Shinobi who carry their nation's pride on their backs to fight for their lives!" Was the response, causing a bit more confusion.
"Nation's pride?" Sakura asked under her breath, a little horrified viewing the exams from such a perspective. The Hokage continued, elaborating on his explanation.
"Many feudal lords and those of prominence from many nations who request Shinobi for work are invited to this third exam as guests. The feudal lords and leaders of each Shinobi Village of the nations will watch your battles. If the gap in national power becomes unbridgeable, the strong nations are inundated with job requests. The requests of nations deemed weak, on the other hand, decline. Therewithal, we can exert pressure upon each neighboring nation… That is to say, just how much military strength our village is developing and has." The Hokage explained the situation.
"Politics," Inner said with disgust. She could understand the idea, but it still wasn't a pleasant picture the Hokage had painted for them. They might be in an era of peace, but if a village messed with the exams somehow, war could easily break out. At that thought, Sakura's eyes widened as she realized something. It was only a suspicion, and she didn't have any real existence, but if the Otogakure Shinobi who had been following Orochimaru's orders had managed to mess things up, they might have very well been able to start a war between nations. It scared Sakura how potentially easy it seemed, while Inner tried to assure her she was wrong. "I'm certain that we're not the first to think about this. The transformation technique is the basics of basics. There's probably a bunch of precautions all the villages have in place in order to prevent any nation from starting something and then shifting the blame of someone else with intentions to start a war. They'd have something in place to prevent Orochimaru from doing the same if that was his plan." She reasoned, managing to calm Sakura down. Still, she'd have to bring it up with her team and the proctors later. They might have told Iruka about Orochimaru, but they had neglected to mention anything about the Otogakure Shinobi following his orders.
"Even so, why is it necessary for us to fight for our lives?!" Kiba demanded to know, speaking up in annoyance.
"The nation's strength is the Village's strength. The Village's strength is the Shinobi's strength. And the true strength of the Shinobi is created only in a fight for one's life! This exam is a place to measure the strength of each of the allied nations and their Shinobi Villages and a place to display this as well. It is because it is an exam where you truly fight for your life that this has meaning. It's for this very reason why you forerunners fought in this exam, a dream worth striving for." The Hokage clarified, trying to impose on them the importance of the exam and its worth to them as Genin attempting to become Chūnin.
"Then, why use the expression "friendship"?!" Tenten demanded to know.
"I said it at the start, didn't I? That it won't do for you to have the wrong idea of the meaning. It's a custom where balance is preserved by fighting and removing life. This is the friendship of the Shinobi world." The Hokage explained, making Sakura wince inwardly as she realized that perhaps, even if Konohagakure was allied with Kusagakure, getting them to give Karin up wouldn't be easy if they cared enough to want to keep her. Hopefully, Karin's heritage and personal wishes would be able to help her in moving to Konohagakure.
"This is a fight for life with the pride of the Village and one's own dream on the line." The Hokage finished explaining, waiting to see if anyone else had any questions. There was a silent moment as everyone digested the information, only broken as a certain knuckleheaded, orange wearing blonde decided to speak up.
"Heh, I'm convinced." He said with confidence, believing that it made sense for the villages to do this if the other alternative was war. It was the lesser of two evils, and in a certain way, a very cool way to support one's own village.
"Anything is fine. Just tell us the content of that fight-for-life test" Gaara responded impatiently, seemingly not caring either way about either traditions or relationships between the different villages, only the task at hand.
"Very well." The Hokage agreed with a nod. "Now then, this is where I'd like to explain the third exam. But actually…" The Hokage trailed off, coughing once before one of the proctors moved from his spot next to Anko, body flickering into a kneeling position in front of the Hokage.
"Hokage, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, who was given the task of judge to speak first." He asked the Hokage humbly.
"I'll leave it to you..." The Hokage agreed. Standing up, Hayate, without turning around to face the Genin began speaking again.
"Nice to meet you, everyone…" He began, before coughing once, sounding as if more coughs were coming and he was having a slight problem keeping himself from going into a coughing fit. Turning around to face them, he continued. "Umm, there's something I'd like you all to do…" He told them, interrupted by another cough before finishing. "before the third exam.´" He informed them, revealing that even after all that, they still had to wait for the reveal of exactly what the third exam would be. Another coughing fit taking over him and filling what would otherwise have been a silent pause.
AN: Honestly, this chapter was a bit of a bore to write. I've attempted for it not to be a complete bore of a read, but I'm no miracle worker. I was severely tempted to simply skip past all of these explanations, but considering the changes I've made, I found myself required to keep this all in. Besides, even if I didn't enjoy writing this chapter as much as I wish, I can't go lowering my standards.
Some of you might also have noticed that a lot of scenes are missing that we get to see in Canon. Well, the explanation is simple, this story focuses on Sakura, and whatever happens in those scenes is largely unchanged, so if I were to write them out, I'd merely be posting a retelling of the anime. I believe that not only would it make for an incredibly boring reading experience, but I'd be delaying the rest of the story as well, wasting everyone's time.
Of course, there are some scenes that I've excluded that play out differently, even if I haven't written them out. For example, Iruka's report concerning team seven's encounter with him would change the discussions had between the Hokage and Anko concerning Orochimaru.
Funnily enough, it wasn't until writing the previous chapter that I realized why Orochimaru had been present in the room during Canon. He simply took the role of the Otogakure team's Sensei, as those were all invited to stand behind the Hokage. I never realized that before revisiting this episode.
Now, as a little reward for you people who do read my Author's Notes, What do you think will happen now that Kabuto never had the opportunity to observe team seven like instructed, and Orochimaru is unable to infiltrate the room to observe anything himself? Can you guess what I have planned with this little hint? Either way, I do hope that regardless of how I felt about this chapter, that you find enjoyment in reading it and in my frequent updates. I will attempt to keep them regular for as long as possible.