The next day, once Jiraiya arrived to their training ground, he grabbed the three Genin and wordlessly Body-Flickered right in front of the Hokage Tower. Curiously enough, there was a crowd of what seemed to be the entire village minus the shinobi who were at the war.
"What do you think is going on?" Minato whispered.
'War. Jiraiya wouldn't have a Genin team if the war wasn't getting better! And, if the whole village is gonna be here then– NO WAY! That must be why Lord Hokage called Jiraiya to his office. There've been more shinobi in the village, lately.'
"He's announcing the end of the war, isn't he," Amaya said. She phrased it as a question, but her tone made it sound more like a statement.
"You Nara..." Jiraiya sighed.
That was enough of an affirmation for the three Genin.
"CITIZENS OF KONOHA!" the Hokage's voice boomed. "AFTER YEARS OF WAR, THE LOSS OF A KAGE, JONIN, CHUNIN, AND GENIN ALIKE, I CAN OFFICIALLY DECLARE THE SECOND SHINOBI WAR, OVER!"
The following year was full of chaos. Shinobi were getting used to peacetime missions, Tsunade-sama left Konoha, Sandaime-sama, who was barely in his mid-thirties, was getting used to the position as Shodaime-sama intended it to be used. Konoha, like the other shinobi villages, had not experienced such a time, and it was clear that no one was quite sure how peacetime actually felt. There was no need to build the village, there was no war to fight, and shinobi were at a loss for what to do.
Of course, that didn't mean none of them liked it. It was quite refreshing to be apart of a time where you rarely had to fight for your life. Genin, Chunin, and Jonin were smiling more than they used to, and it wasn't rare for Genin to willingly take a C-ranked mission.
Jiraiya started Minato on fuuinjutsu and Wind Release, Hajime on trapping techniques and Fire Release, Amaya on Earth Release, and even attempted to help Amaya with some of the medical techniques that being on a team with Tsunade came with. Amaya's genjutsu dreams hadn't yet taken off –learning to channel chakra through her voice was much harder than it seemed– but she did know some basic genjutsu. As of right now, she was the support-type of her team, and though the fact that she wouldn't be able to hold her own as well as her teammates could annoyed her to no end, she was glad that she was focusing on medical ninjutsu. Without Amaya, her teammates wouldn't have been able to make it through their C-ranks as well as they did.
So, two years after the end of the war, when Jiraiya nominated them for the Chunin Exams, Amaya was confident that they would make it out alive and maybe even Chunin.
"T– The Chunin Exams?" Hajime shrieked. "People die! Is it even going to be held in Konoha?! Suna still isn't pleased with Tsunade-sama, Kumo is so violent, same with Kiri, and Onoki-sama hates us! We won the war! People are out to get us!"
Amaya giggled. "Calm down, Hajime. It's exactly because we won the war that people will be afraid to get us. Besides, Jiraiya-sensei wouldn't nominate us if we weren't ready. We have at least over thirty successful C-ranks under our belt so it's more like people are wondering why we aren't Chunin already!"
"You won't be alone in it," Minato smiled. "We're going to have each other's backs."
"If it helps, it's in Konoha, but we'll most likely have shinobi from Iwa and Suna here as well. It's really a show of trust, but Kumo and Kiri like to keep to themselves," Jiraiya explained.
Amaya groaned. "Politics suck. I'm glad I'm not clan heir."
Minato shook his head, "You wouldn't have the energy to deal with that."
Hajime nodded, "Politics are the worst. Seems like a whole lot of pressure to please everyone, and look how well that went for nee-chan."
Hajime was the first male child of his family, so naturally everyone wanted him to inherit his family's business instead of his elder sister, never mind that his sister had much more talent. It was something that upset their team to no end. Especially with how both Hajime and his sister were treated because of it.
"Well, all the other teams from your class are also running this year, so you might go up against them. Oh, and if you all want to take the exam, go to room 604 in the Academy section of the Hokage Tower at 10 a.m. Bring all of your equipment." Jiraiya said, Body-Flickering away.
The twelve-year-olds slapped their foreheads at Jiraiya's last words.
"It wouldn't hurt to give us more of a warning," Minato sighed. "Are you guys going to do it?"
Amaya nodded.
"It's worth a shot," Hajime said slowly. "Why not?"
The next day, the three Genin met up outside the Hokage Tower. Walking inside, they found that each and every door was guarded by Chunin.
"Heh, we're not taking any risks," Hajime commented.
"It's been two years, but it doesn't hurt to be careful," Minato said.
Team 7 made their way up a few flights of stairs feeling more and more lethargic as they walked on. They stopped when they found a bunch of Genin crowding around a door that was labelled '604'.
'Didn't we walk up four flights of stairs? I'm feeling really itch– Genjutsu!'
Amaya disrupted her chakra flow, and grabbed Minato and Hajime's hands, doing the same for them.
"Genjutsu," she hissed. "This is room 504. Let's get out of here before anyone else sees us."
The boys nodded, and soon they found themselves inside the real testing room. Amaya surveyed the room for a moment. The room was set up with one desk at the front of the room, facing the other end. There were tables and chairs set up in rows with Genins already sitting there, decently spaced apart. It looked like a generic exam taking room, nothing too inconspicuous. Amongst the sea of heads, Amaya found a shock of red hair sticking out like a sore thumb.
'Kushina-chan!'
Amaya looked around and noticed not only Team 9, but Team 10 was there, too.
'Huh. So, as usual, the teams with the clan kids were the ones that passed.'
A few moments later, a blonde woman with pupil-less blue eyes appeared out of thin air behind the lonely desk at the front of the room. A second later, Chunins followed suit, one at every end of each row.
"Everyone, join the three kids over here at the front. I'm Yamanaka Minori, the proctor of the first exam," said the woman in a no-nonsense sort of voice. "Each seat is labelled. I will be giving you a number and you will sit in the seat indicated. You maggots are competent enough for that, are you not?"
Some Suna and Iwa Genin glared at her, but she didn't seem phased.
"Get a move on! Anyone not here in a nice, orderly line with their teammates will be eliminated~"
Team 7 immediately started the line with Hajime at the front followed by Minato and Amaya. Hajime looked at his slip of paper and sighed, slouching his way to the middle seat in the front of the room. Minato picked up his slip and walked over to the third row from the front. Amaya was handed her piece of paper next and had to smother her instinct to groan. She was given the furthest possible spot from her teammates.
Amaya put on the bored facade that all Naras were famed for and made her way to the seat in the back left corner of the room, faking sleep on her desk to sell the act.
Soon, everyone was seated.
"As you brats can probably tell, this is a written test. Answer all the questions in an hour, don't cheat, and don't get out of your seats –not even for the bathroom– if you don't want to be eliminated. You'll be graded as a team. Each question will be worth one point, and any team with less than twenty points will also be eliminated. I'll be ba–"
'Where's the paper?'
Someone voiced her thoughts.
"Where are our papers?"
"Good question, maggot. If you hadn't interrupted me, I might've answered."
And then the Yamanaka disappeared.