Chapter 11. Chuunin Exams: Part One.

All twenty teams lined up in outside Konoha's T&I building. Its shadow loomed over us in the early morning as silence reigned and a nervous sense of dread settled over that year's chunin hopefuls. Only Konoha Genin could be found among the lines due to the recent end of the war and, as far as I could see, other than my team mates, there were only two familiar faces.

Four rows to my left stood Hana with her team. There was nothing that caught my attention about them other than Hana herself was an Inuzuka and her sensei an Aburame. I knew better than to underestimate her team though, I'd seen my friend training with the other two on various occasions, and was well aware of the threat they could pose.

To my right, about six teams away, stood Itachi with his own three man cell. I'd never met his team, but I could easily tell who the new member out of the two was. There was a sense of uneasiness about the pre teen that neither Itachi nor the kunoichi of the group had. Both of them stood with the poise and calm of a shinobi who had experienced fieldwork, while the new kid seemed to be having a hard time suppressing his nerves.

Behind me, my team stood every bit as still as I did, scanning the other teams, trying to figure out which team would threaten us the most. I'd already told them to be weary of Hana and Itachi's teams. Even if the only other Uchiha had the handicap of a new untrained comrade, underestimating them would be a grave mistake; one that could cost us our promotion.

Not that the other teams mattered on this first instance of the exam. It was common knowledge that the fighting belonged in the second and third instances of the chunin exams, and that the first was usually about the team's ability to work under pressure and making decisions on the spot. And now we stood there, facing the heads of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation department. It was meant to be an intimidation technique, I knew that, but for the life of me I couldn't bring myself to be completely at ease in the presence of those two. If anyone ever said Morino Ibiki and Yamanaka Inoichi weren't at least a bit scary, they were either insane or very, very stupid.

"Okay newbies, here's how things are gonna go:" started Ibiki with the deepest, most authoritative voice I'd ever heard. "You gakis are going into the T&I building and retrieving a scroll with your team's number on it." Every genin on the premises were giving him his undivided attention, and when he made sure of that, he continued. "Whichever fails to bring back the scroll within the next two hours is out of the chunin exams."

The task sounded fairly easy: go in, get the scroll, and get out. In fact, it seemed way too easy, no mentions of fighting or hints of there being something wrong had been made; which to me, was what had raised all of the red flags in my head. A few excited whispers could be heard among the lines of waiting genin, who apparently hadn't thought anything was amiss.

Behind me, my team mates were as silent as I was; we had been on the receiving end of Akira-sensei's teachings for too long to believe there wasn't more to the exam than what met the eye. We stood silent, waiting for the proctors to call the number of our team. It had been surprising that they'd decided to make the teams go one at a time. In general, the first and second instances were taken by the entire body of chunin hopefuls, so when they told us we would be examined separately; I decided something was definitely up. They wouldn't have called in the teams one by one if there wasn't something specific they were hoping to get out of them.

We were the eighth team, and if the faces of the people that went before us was anything to go by, then there was a lot more to the exam than what we had expected. Hana's team, I noticed, had been one of the few to pass the first instance, and a surge of pride overcame me. that was my friend, my sister who had got through the first part of the chunin exams when a lot of other people hadn't. If they had done it, so would we. I wasn't about to get left behind, and neither were Hota and Taka.

Soon enough, it was our turn. Ibiki and Inoichi were waiting for us to come forward by the gates of the T&I building. The structure loomed behind them like a somber, threatening beast waiting to pounce on its pray. If this was what it felt like to go in willingly, I had to wonder what it would be like for a prisoner. The proctors checked our names and team number before giving us a single wrist watch. Taka received the item and looked to Hota and me for an explanation.

"Select your team leader, they will wear the watch. You'll have fifteen minutes to get the scroll and bring it back undamaged."

My two team mates glanced at each other and with a nod and no words exchanged, Taka gave me the watch. I barely had time to put on the watch and make sure it wouldn't come off, before Inoichi made a hand sign and opened the gates.

"Your time starts now!"

I wasn't allowed to process the fact that I'd been made team leader, the chronometer on my wrist started the countdown on its own and we all jumped into action. As we ran to the building, I switched gears and started to form a plan in my head.

"Hota, take point. Locate the scroll and any traps there might be for us. Taka, the scroll will surely be trapped or guarded, be at the ready and get behind Hota. I'll take the rear."

There was no way for us to know what was inside the building waiting for us, all we could do was adapt to whichever situation was thrown at us and deal with it when it presented itself. For now, all we could do was follow standard procedures for when in enemy territory.

And Kami were we in enemy territory. Our way to the scroll was crawling with traps, which we either had to avoid or have Taka disarm. Both my team mates were navigating us through the building, and the fact that I could do nothing to help made me slightly annoyed. I didn't allow the feeling to settle though, we had a mission to get through and the pity party could wait.

We arrived at the site without much inconvenience, but even then, all three of us knew the hardest part was ahead of us. Hotaka stopped in the middle of a hallway, not unlike the ones we had been through before, dark, badly lit, empty and painted a depressing shade of grey. I looked down to my wrist. We'd spent seven minutes and had eight to go.

"The scroll is inside the ventilation duct. There's at least three traps in there" Announced our team mate before turning to us once again. "There's a timed seal inside the scroll; an incendiary seal."

Taka gasped beside me, we had little time left, and the clock was still ticking. I asked our Byakugan user if the seal would be set off were we to open it. He didn't think so.

"Okay, Taka get up there and retrieve the scroll. You have three minutes max." Our team mate nodded and started to walk up the wall with chakra enhanced soles.

I turned to Hotaka as the other boy worked on disarming the traps, and started to try and decide what the best course of action would be.

"I'm no expert at fuinjutsu, but I can try and delay the timer, maybe disarm it even. Our only other option would be to remove it from the parchment, but that would be an even bigger risk." Hotaka shook his head.

"That won't be possible; the seal is inked into the scroll, all over it like a water mark. It will take either very careful seal-work or a miracle." He said.

I looked at my watch again. We had four minutes left.

Taka landed beside us with a triumphant grin and a sheet of sweat on his forehead. It was time to make a decision. I took the scroll and opened is whole length on the floor. Inside were the instructions to one of Konoha's most common Interrogation jutsu and on the parchment, just like Hotaka had warned, was the seal. It was barely noticeable and had Hotaka not had the Byakugan, we would never have seen it.

"I'll try to disarm the seal. Hotaka take the spare scroll and ink from my back pouch and copy the contents. Taka, take a break, our way back will be rough."

As my team mate looked for the supplies inside my pouch I sat cross legged in front of the scroll and tried to remember everything Shisui had taught me on fuinjutsu as well as what I'd read along the years. Step one: find the base elements written in the seal formula as well as those used to balance and trigger it within the ink. Step two: create a formula with as many variables as you were able to find and calculate all the possible outcomes. Step three: when the correct formula is found, select the hand seals that will match it best. Step four: hope you didn't fuck up.

"Hota, are you done?" I asked once Id exhausted all other possible formulas in my head.

"Hai."

"Okay, take cover and hope I didn't go wrong somewhere." I said with a nervous chuckle. "Tora, Saru, Ne, Inu, Tori, Ni!"

I flew through the hand signs and slammed my hand on the scroll, channeling my chakra into the seal and hoping it wouldn't rip my arm off. The seal vanished. I looked Up to Hotaka, who had been hiding from the possible blast around the corner of the hallway.

"You managed to delay the thing," he said scanning the parchment with his active Byakugan. "But it's still there."

That was enough for me.

I stood and rolled the scroll back up before putting it in my back pouch. We had three minutes left. I signed for Hota to take point once again and we set off on our way back at breakneck speed. Without traps in our way and the Byakugan guiding the way, we managed to get back to the gates just in time.

Both Inoichi and Ibiki were there waiting, and once we arrived, the Yamanaka head stopped the timer. Hotaka deactivated his Byakugan and we all took a couple of seconds to try and recoup from our desperate sprint back. We were panting and covered in sweat, but there was a general feeling of victory between us that I was sure the proctors could feel.

"The scroll, gakis. We don't have all day." Said Ibiki when he deemed we'd had enough of a respite.

I moved forward, taking the extra scroll Hota offered me and getting the original from my own pouch. Both jonin raised an eyebrow, expecting a reason to why there was an extra scroll being handed in.

"The original has an incendiary seal. I managed to delay it, but not deactivate it completely. The spare one has the information within the original; it is a failsafe in case we failed to deal with the seal." I offered, handing in the two scrolls and noticing Inoichi was writing something next to our names in the list.

"You, pass. Dismissed."

We all sighed in relief and made our way out of the premises as Taka gave Hota and I a one armed hug that nearly left us gasping for air. He was inviting us over for celebratory homemade lunch, when I felt someone's eyes on me.

I turned only to see a pair of familiar eyes staring at me from across the road where the other genin still waited for their turn. I gave Itachi the widest smile I could muster and a thumbs up before mouthing 'good luck'. He returned the smile and waved as my team mates dragged me around the corner and out of sight. He would do great, he didn't need me to wish him luck, but I did anyway.