Author's Note
I really tried to think of a different format for the Chunin Exams, because most fanfics who deal with them, basically copy the canon version.
I really didn't want to do a rehash of the exams thrice in this story. So I'm going to try to change the first round, slightly.
That being said, I'd like to thank everyone who read and liked my story. Who stuck it out, despite the mess in formatting that the first few chapters were.
This is the penultimate chapter in this story. Once the Chunin Exams end, so does this story. Don't worry though. A sequel will follow. It's called The Fifth Hokage. But that's only around next year. So anyway enjoy guys.
NARUTO POV
When I woke up, I was confused for a few seconds. Why does my room look so weird, I think. It hits me then and I leap up from bed. The Chunin Exams! Today is the day that the first task will begin.
I look around and I see Neji is still sleeping, Yakumo must be in the bathroom. My lips stretch into a smile. Quietly, I slowly move in the direction of Neji's futon.
Just as I reach him, his voice rings out. " Don't even think about it, Naruto. " That's when he turns towards me, smirk firmly in place and his Byakugan activated. I grimace.
I point a finger at him. " Just you wait Neji, one day I'll catch you off guard and then you will be sorry you ever doubted my incredible pranking skills. " He snorts. Before he can reply however, Yakumo enters.
She has an unamused expression on her face. " If the two of you are done playing around, could you go and take a shower. Hurry up! We only have an hour before the first stage starts and we haven't even eaten yet. "
A sheepish expression crosses my face. A glare from her cuts off whatever I was going to say. I groan. I don't waste any more time though. I take my supplies and rush out the door to head to the showers. Neji follows, trying not to look rushed. This time, I'm the one that snorts.
I don't even get the chance to relax in the shower. In two minutes, I cut the water and dry myself. Then I hurriedly get dressed. Luckily, my sis isn't here to scold me.
Once we head back to our room, we seal our things away and then buy ourselves breakfast. Sadly, here's no ramen, so I have to settle for three rice balls and a can of soda. Hardly the breakfast of Kage but what can you do.
Strangely enough, the first stage of the exams isn't actually held inside the fort. We have to go outside to meet the proctors. When we get there, most of the Genin are already there.
' There ' being a field with a huge rock in the centre. There are trees too, but nothing like the trees that are found in and around our village.
There's a low buzz of various conversions being held. At the same time, everyone is scoping out the competition. So far, there isn't really anyone that stands out, but looks can be deceiving as big sis says.
Still, all this standing around is so lame. I'd rather we fight each other right now and see who's the strongest, but that's not how things work in the Chunin Exams. I wish it was. I'm totally ready and able to kick some Genin ass.
The other Genin are getting steadily more annoyed. The time that the exam was supposed to have started at, has come and gone. Yet, there's no sign of any proctors.
I can see on the faces of the other competitors, that anger is starting to build. Eventually a voice rings out " something isn't right here. Why were we told to be here at this time, when clearly there's no proctors? "
" We should go look for them. " I don't recognise his headband, so he must be from a minor village. He then heads back inside the fortress, his teammates following. After a few seconds of hesitation, more Genin teams are following.
Within five minutes, a bit more than a third of the teams have gone back in, to find out what's happening. Before anything else can happen, three Jounin rise up from inside the rock itself.
There are a couple of screams, from those who are truly caught off guard, but my team isn't surprised at all. Neji saw them there and he gave us the heads up about them.
The lead Jounin, the tall bald man in the middle, speaks then. " Listen up kids. Generally, the first stage of the Chunin Exams is usually a test of knowledge. We decided to try something different. "
" The test would be split up into two parts. They would revolve around skills that a successful shinobi would need. The first part, is about patience. There are many times during a mission, where to rush in, means death, where hasty actions, means the failure of a mission. "
" Patience, is a skill which you Genin must cultivate. It is a skill which younger shinobi mostly ignore. Keep that in mind. That being said, all of you pass the first half of the first stage. "
" Unlike the other Genin, you didn't rush to conclusions and hasty decisions, so you move ahead to complete the rest of this stage. Follow us. "
That said, he rushed away and after a second of thought, we rushed after him. It wasn't a long journey, maybe half an hour. Surprisingly, we went at a somewhat fast pace and I could see that some of the Genin looked confused. Still confused from earlier even.
Eventually, we came to a river. The lead Jounin stopped, while the other two moved further downstream. He cleared his throat and we all focused on him then.
" This is the second and final part of the first stage. Listen closely because I won't repeat myself. This is a test now, of your speed and your endurance. Both vital skills for a shinobi to have. "
" The faster shinobi after all, is the victor. Endurance is self-explanatory. This is what you're going to do. Each team will run on the surface of the water for two miles. Only the twenty fastest teams will progress. "
Based on the amused expression on his face, I bet there's more to this than what he said. I look towards Neji and Yakumo and see that they both look suspicious as well.
It turns out to be warranted, because the Jounin then goes through a couple of handsigns. The ground starts shaking a bit, then, a six foot tall wall appears. It runs all the way to the end of the route we're supposed to run.
Most of the Genin look impressed. Neji snorts softly. Too soft for any of the other teams to hear him. I get what he means. There's no way that this Jounin has that much chakra. Not without him collapsing.
He isn't even breathing heavily. The shinobi of his village must've practiced synchronised movements. Which means there's probably more of them hidden along the route.
Neji doesn't have his Byakugan activated right now. While his chakra has grown a lot, thanks to big sis, he prefers to be stingy with it. He's probably only gonna activate it when it's our turn.
The proctor is still droning on. I tune him out. I know that my teammates will tell me if I've missed anything important. Movement catches my eye though and I snap out of it.
Turns out that we're starting now. The proctor calls each team up individually and then they have to scale the wall and run. The Jounin himself is standing on the wall.
I get bored again. Despite all the Genin who didn't make it this far, there's still many left. We don't know when we'll be called, because the proctor is calling teams at random.
I look around then. Most of the other Genin are either lost in thought, talking to their teammates or psyching themselves up. I look at my team. Yakumo and Neji are both looking in the same direction, so I follow their line of sight.
I grimace. They're looking in the direction of the teams from the Hidden Cloud Village. Well, Yakumo is looking. Neji on the other hand, has a full on glare on his face. It seems that one of the Genin can feel eyes on his back, because she turns around.
She looks around for a moment, until she spots Neji looking in her direction. I sigh and I hear Yakumo doing the same, because the Cloud Genin does something really stupid then. She smirks at Neji.
Neji's body stiffens, but he doesn't react further than that. I let out my breath in relief. If big sis didn't talk to Neji before the Chunin Exams started, he probably would have snapped.
Then it would've been a free for all fight here. I hide my smile at the thought. As much as I'd love to kick some Cloud shinobi ass, I don't wanna be disqualified. More importantly, I don't wanna dissapoint my big sis.
So I'm glad Neji does nothing. Now, that is. I almost feel sorry for that Genin. If she ends up fighting Neji in the later rounds, it won't be pretty.
After nearly an hour, we were called. I was jittery. I'm not used to standing around for so long and doing nothing. Luckily it was our turn now and I was ready.
We quickly leapt to the top of the wall and then over. At the motioning from the proctor, we walked to the centre of the river and at his signal, we took off.
Yakumo was the slowest of the three of us, but that didn't mean that she was actually slow. We decided to keep pace with her. There's no point in racing ahead when we're all going to get the same score.
After running for a couple of seconds, Neji shouts at us to duck. We do and dozens of shuriken pass where our heads just were. We trade looks. I knew this stage felt too easy.
Our next obstacles were rock spikes that suddenly came out of the water. I took a deep breath and with pure power, roared. It was an original jutsu of mine that big sis helped me with.
It was nothing special, but it was dead useful. Raw wind chakra raced out of my mouth and shattered the rocks. We didn't slow down, just leapt over the debris.
Next, there were what appeared to be two shinobi blocking the way. Yakumo dealt with them by catching them in a genjutsu. Suddenly, they started fighting each other. She laughed as we raced ahead of them.
The final obstacle, were kunai headed our way from both directions. Neji leapt up and spun around in mid air. A half formed dome of chakra appeared around him and deflected all the kunai away from us.
With no more obstacles, we rushed ahead to the end. When we reached the end though, we were shocked. Many of the Genin were on pallets, being treated by medical ninja.
Problem was, there were only about five actual medics there and about a dozen helpers. Yet, there were over a hundred injured Genin. I looked towards Neji, his face was blank however, so I guess he won't help them.
We move to a more secluded area and sit down, out of the way. It's Yakumo that breaks the silence. " I don't think the proctors or the higher ups of The Hidden Waterfall Village expected this stage would be such a disaster. "
" Don't get me wrong, they didn't do anything wrong. It's the Genin that were taking part in this stage. The first stage is always a knowledge based one. They probably thought it would be something easy. "
" Nobody could have predicted that so many would be disqualified before the first stage even began. I think, based on how many Genin are injured, that this whole thing has been turned on its head. "
I didn't say anything, but I agreed. This was a mess. I wonder what's going to happen next. Turns out that we don't have to wait long.
I can see the poorly hidden dismay on the face of the proctors, when it's announced that only four teams have made it in fighting condition. Our team, one from Cloud, one from Sand and one from Waterfall. Everything is confirmed in the following announcement.
" Congratulations teams. You will go down in the history books, as survivors of the hardest first stage in Chunin Exams history. Because there are so few of you, there will be no second stage. "
" The test of speed and endurance, will count in its stead. You are fortunate. The second stage usually lasts for a few days, but now there won't be one. What that means is that five extra days will be added to the month you would have had originally, to train for the Chunin Exams Finals. "
" At this point, all I can say is good luck. Dismissed. " Neji and Yakumo look glad. I do too. Not glad that there isn't a second round, but glad that we get more time to train.
We make our way back to the fort. Later on, as we explain to big sis what happened, she looks amused. She won't say why though.
Once we're done explaining, she tells us to pack our things, because we going back home to train. There's a scary expression on her face when she says ' train '. I roll my eyes though. I don't care. I'm gonna win the Chunin Exams!