Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I do own Kumi, though.

Warning: child abuse and bullying (mostly mentions of it), some dark themes, too much fluffiness sometimes, DRAMA!, unbeta'ed. A real rollercoaster (or, at least, it's supposed to be).

Author's note:

Hiya, guys! I'm back with a new chapter! Kumi's Chūnin Exams are finally here, but before skipping all the way down to the chapter, pay attention here!

Last chapter, I spoke about my idea of writing a Side stories/One-shots/Drabbles story from prompts of you guys. I just wanted to say that it's been posted, you can check it on my profile (All Things: Side Stories).

To make it clear once again, not all them will stories that really happen in this stories, but simply prompts you made. FOR EXAMPLE: If someone asks for a Shikaku/Kumi date, it doesn't necessarily mean that said date happened in All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy. It means that someone asked me to write how a date with them could go and wanted to see it play out. (Duh.)

Anyway, enjoy the chapter and keep prompting me here or on the Side Stories, whatever!

(No Shikaku this chapter. Sorry. Don't kill me. No brownie points for me. I know.)

(Finally managed to end the chapter in a lighter tone... Cookie points? Anyone?)

(OH MY GOD, ALL THE REVIEWS!)

All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy

By Amaryllis D. Namikaze

Chapter XV:

The Solution

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right."

- Henry Ford

Kumi,

Do your best in your Chūnin Exams, sweetie! Go roll all over them!

Love,

Mom

"Man, it's such a downer that the only reason Koharu-sensei let us participate is because Konoha's the host this time," Tsume complained, all but melting on the chair she was sitting.

Kihito rolled his eyes at her, "It's all your fault, you know."

"What are you trying to say, Monkey Boy?"

"Nothing really."

Ren laughed at our friends' argument. Chitarō simply sighed, exasperated and annoyed all at the same time. I kept to myself, admiring Mikoto's endless patience at her team's antics.

In a way, Tsume's complaint was true. The Chūnin Exams were taking place this week, a little over a year since the last one in Suna. Since our village was hosting said exam, most Jōnin-sensei chose to register their teams, even the rookie ones, as a training experience. The only glaring exception was Team One, the next First Response Team, a fact that everyone in the ninja corps knew.

Oh, we were participating alright. But while no one expect any of the rookies to become a Chūnin, Team One was being carefully observed. As if I wasn't pressured already.

I turned my attention back to my friends just in time to see Tsume stuffing her face with dango. I stifled a giggle - she resembled a squirrel with her cheeks puffing out like this.

"Oh, yeah," she said and munched on her treat at the same time. "Why is the King of Brats with us?"

I glanced at Mikoto's little brother. The guy hadn't changed much since the last time I saw him. Thankfully enough, the Uchiha heir was getting busier and busier with his Academy classes and family training, which drastically reduced the chances of Mikoto trying to make him less anti social. I loved the girl and her kind heart, but Uchiha Kizoku was more annoying than Ren on caffeine.

"Hn," was all he said. I'm not even kidding. The Uchiha clan certainly won the prize for Who Can Stay Silent the Longest? hands down.

Kuromaru growled alongside his partner. Tsume was the last person you'd want to give attitude.

"Seriously? Damn Uchiha," she muttered, turning back to her food.

Mikoto blushed, "I apologize for his rudeness."

I felt bad for her. It must be hard to have such a horrible brother. My Sister would know.

Chitarō, always the peacemaker, patted her head good-heartedly.

"It's not your fault your kid brother can be a mature person instead of a bratty jerk."

Ren outright laughed at our friend's honesty. Well, we could always count on the Nara frankness to comfort a person.

Kizoku snorted, turning his chair away from our joined tables.

"Shitty brat," Tsume murmured, sounding displeased.

I couldn't help it - I burst out laughing.

"Did you take stomach medicine? You know you sometimes get stomached when you're nervous. What about a roll of bandages? What if you get hurt? Here, take some paper and ink in case you need to write a seal. Oh, no! I totally forgot to buy ration bars - we run out of them after my last mission!"

I sighed, observing my brother ran around our one-bedroom apartment like a headless chicken. Seeing such a calm person lose their cool like this somehow made me less nervous, which was a pretty good thing considering the first part of the Chūnin Exams was about to take place.

I put my hand over his forearm to stop his search for ration bars.

"Onii-chan," I said, knowing that the now seldom used -chan would get his attention, "We didn't run out of ration bars. I put them in my pouch for this exact moment, remember?"

Minato paused, "You did? Oh..."

I smiled at his embarrassed at expression.

"Sorry."

"It's ok. Let's go, otherwise I'll be late."

As we lived closer to the clans' districts instead of the main market, the streets weren't brimming with excited villagers. The Chūnin Exams were a big deal as it brought foreigners and new products, though it'd only get real full during the third part of it.

"You're quite calm," Minato commented when the Academy entered our sight and I didn't turn around to run away.

I stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, not trusting myself to speak. My brother stopped on his tracks, looking around to see if any of the foreigner Genin was paying attention to our interaction before putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Ok, so you're not so calm," he joked, trying to ease the tension. "It's alright to be a little nervous - just remember not to let it stop you from doing what you need to do."

I nodded, though most of his words went over my head.

"Does the baby need her Nii-chan to hold her hand?" a mocking voice drew my attention away from my brother's reassuring eyes. The usage of a feminine pronoun didn't even make me depressed anymore.

I searched around for it, but the owner had already made himself scarce. Minato sighed, taking his hand off my shoulder.

"Sorry," he said.

I bit my lower lip, reaching with the very tips of my fingers for his hand. I smiled up at him.

"I don't mind," I said and, feeling unexpectedly confident and remembering Mom's words, I added, "I'll just roll all over them."

Minato's lips twitched. He crouched down a little in order to rest his forehead against mine.

"Go out there and show them how terrifying Namikaze Kumi can be," he told me with a grin.

I nodded dutifully.

"Kumi-chan!" Ren's voice called a few meters away from us. He waved excitedly, completely not getting the mood around us. Chitarō walked behind him with no hurry.

I pictured Sakumo-sensei's confident grin at us yesterday while he gave us his last tips. I locked my jaw, balling my hands into fists. I could do this. I would pass this exam. We could do this and officially become Team One.

"This is too much, oh, God!"

Said line wasn't spoken in desperation. Beside me, Kihito, Tsume and Ren were laughing their asses off.

"All of them think you're a girl," Kihito said between chuckles. As we had decided to wait by one of the corners of the classroom, his revelation went unheard.

Mikoto's thin hand rested over my arm in a comforting manner. I smiled at her, but I wasn't feeling irritated at their mistake at all. Most of the village already thought I was a girl when they saw me for the first - and sometimes even second or third - time. A bunch of foreign teams underestimating me because of my gender, size and age would only work in my favor.

"Alright, PIPE IT DOWN!" A voice shouted from the front of the classroom. Almost immediately, all whispers stopped. Someone shushed another Genin. "My name is Kagetsu Naori and I'll be proctor of this part."

Ren and I exchanged glances. He probably remembered her because she worked in the same division as his father, Head of the T&I, but I was familiar with the name from Sakumo-sensei's monologues. Our Jōnin teacher was always stressing the importance of knowing the names of our comrades and their abilities as it could help during a future mission if we happened to be paired off with another person.

Kagetsu Naori was one of Konoha's poison specialists. The Kagetsu family lived in another village in the Land of Fire and sold herbs all over the world, so it was no surprised that she specialized in poison making. She was the only Kagetsu currently living in Konoha, which made her pretty famous here.

"Each team will receive three flasks containing different types of liquid. Two will have water inside, another will have a colorless poison capable of knocking an adult out for three days, thus rendering said person incapable of continuing to second part of the exam. Choose wisely who will drink which flask, because you will have to give me the flask that contains poison to get out of this room."

Murmuring filled the classroom while some Chūnin gave each team three silver-colored flasks. Some people didn't even seem worried, while others were pointing fingers and each other and deciding their plans.

"Hah," Tsume made, "She never said it was odorless. There's nothing an Inuzuka nose can't differentiate."

Kihito raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "I'm amazed that you even know what differentiate means."

"Why, you-"

"You have one hour! BEGIN!" Kagetsu Naori shouted, disappearing in a puff of smoke. The Chūnins followed soon after.

Chitarō sat down, resting his back against the wall. We let him close his eyes and think while we analyzed the flasks by ourselves. Ren tried sniffing them like Tsume - and a couple of others - was doing, but he shrugged at my questioning stare.

"Smell the same to me," he admitted.

"They look the same too, though that's pretty much the purpose of this test," I reported to Chitarō as he wasn't even looking at the flasks.

Ren frowned, "Why would they make someone drink a knock-out poison? To eliminate a bunch of people and proceed?"

Chitarō opened his eyes, looking serious.

"That's a good question. Technically speaking, teams don't become Chūnin as a whole, but it's a well-known knowledge that the second part of the exam are team-based. As Genin squads are made of three Genins, it probably means that we have to find a way around the poison no matter what."

"No matter what?" Ren scratched his cheek in thought. "Like a We won't pass if one of us is unconscious shit?"

Chitarō nodded. I looked up at the ceiling, wondering. Having watched most of the Naruto series, what they were saying made sense. All the teams in the Chūnin Exams were always eliminated as a unit during the first and second part of said exam. If any of us drank the poison and were knocked out, all of us would be out.

"Ok, so what do we do?" Ren asked no one in particular. A few teams had already found a solution to the problem and were sent out of the classroom, even though only five minutes had gone by.

"Well, none of us trained to attain poison immunity," Chitarō said, mostly to himself. "We don't have Tsume's nose, obviously. We don't specialize in poison making to be able to spot any difference or know how to be able to differentiate. We don't have bugs like the Aburame clan."

Our Nara friend frowned, before sighing.

"Damn," he muttered. "Aniki would have the answer by now."

Ren lightly hit his arm, "Hey! Look, Shika is my friend and all, but we don't need that guy's brain to pass this exam. You're smart, Chita."

I smiled at Chitarō, reaching up to pat his head like he did to calm me down sometimes. It was easy to forget that we had problems with the way our group acted most of the time.

"I could try to create a poison detecting seal," I suddenly spoke up. I usually didn't speak before thinking, but my friend's discontent face was on the front of my mind while I was trying to think of a solution.

Both my teammates turned in my direction, surprised. Ren's mouth opened in wonderment.

"Wow, Kumi-chan, inventing a new seal in one hour?" He sounded amazed.

I looked away, wishing I hadn't spoken anything. I had gotten much better at Fūinjutsu under Suzaku-sensei careful instruction, but creating a seal in one hour was basically impossible.

Wait, I thought to myself. I didn't need to create a seal from scratch. Modifying a seal was much easier and less time-consuming than inventing one. And, thankfully enough, an identifying seal already existed. They were mostly used as a way of detecting an enemy in whichever place you decided to apply the seal. It worked as a sensor's ability would, except you didn't have to use any type of chakra field for that and anybody could sense another person as long as they applied chakra to the seal.

But was I capable of modifying a sensor seal in under one hour?

Does the baby need her Nii-chan to hold her hand?

I closed my eyes, blocking any negative thoughts about myself. This wasn't about me. If we couldn't find a solution in the next fifty minutes, none of us would pass to the second part of the exam. All of our hard work this past year would have been for nothing. Sakumo-sensei's faith in us would be meaningless. Suzaku-sensei's diligent teaching would be pointless.

I looked up from my shoes, vanishing any jitters I'd been feeling until now and staring into my friends' anticipating expression. This wasn't the time to be a scaredy cat. This wasn't the time to let Father, Sister and Bullies' voice reach deep into my soul and scare me away.

"I can try to work with something that already exists," I said, not even adding something such as But keep thinking of other solutions while I'm at it. I simply sat down and took my paper slips for seal-making and a ink pot. Surprisingly enough, my hand wasn't even shaking while I held my brush.

Go out there and show them how terrifying Namikaze Kumi can be.

Go roll all over them.

The sensor seal had been invented by an Uzumaki a long time ago. The creator hadn't surprised me when Suzaku-sensei explained the origin of said seal - not because the Uzumaki clan had created most concepts in Fūinjutsu, but because many of them had been recognized as competent sensors and would know the intricacies on sensing chakra enough to invent a new method of doing it without actually utilizing chakra.

Ironically enough, they were pretty simple in the Fūinjutsu department. Any seals with less than ten different symbols were considered easy to learn and use. As it was written in a circle with six symbols, a detecting seal was considered uncomplicated, which made its modification cleaner.

I stared at the combination of Greek letters - though in this world they were simply Fūin tools - making sense of them in my head. There was a theta beside a symbol that distinctly looked like an X, usually used to represent the word chakra in a seal, which explained the non-necessity of chakra usage to sense the enemies. Thetas were used as a nullifying tool. As it was common of Uzumaki seals, it was written in a loose circle - easy for stabilization even if all elements weren't perfectly matching each other.

I bit my lower lip, thinking over the X-wannabe. There were two of them in the seal - the one to represent the non-necessity of using chakra and another to represent the purpose, that is, sensing chakra. Maybe if I simply replaced the chakra part of the seal for something that resembled poison in Fūinjutsu vocabulary, I'd be able to sense which flask contained something different from the others.

I paused.

That was it. There wasn't a symbol for poison, but there was a symbol for contrasting frequently used in barrier seals to specify the surface in which the seal should act on. Maybe if I added a magatama, useful to bring a symbol back to its base form, I'd be able to obtain the differentiate purpose.

I carefully brushed theta followed by X in my blank paper. Three perpendicular lines came soon after, indicating what was known as the beginning and end of the seals as was common in Uzumaki circles. Circles were endless forms, theoretically speaking, but, in Fūinjutsu, that was where the chakra should be applied and where the effect would be directed in case something wasn't balanced enough. Most beginners in seal making added three perpendicular lines just in case things went south. I let the two next symbols as they were, since their meaning was sense when put together. And, finally, instead of writing X once again, I put down the Greek letter regularly used in barrier seals, phi.

"Fifteen minutes," Ren murmured beside me. His warning wasn't to put pressure on me and urge me on, but my nerves - which had been doing fine until now - stilled for a moment.

I took a deep breath, calming myself. My seal was ready. There was no need to panic. I looked over it twice, checking for possible mistakes or any necessary alterations. Seal modification wasn't that hard considering the fact that I had already created a seal from scratch. I mentally thanked Suzaku-sensei for making me work so hard even though his first instinct as a Nara was to take a nap instead of trying to teach a eleven-year-old Genin the nuances of such a complex art.

"It's done," I said, finally looking up from the paper. The classroom had progressively emptied itself in the past minutes and, by now, most teams in room were the ones with no solution and no way to proceed to the next part. The desperation to pass hadn't reached those teams yet. If everything went right, we wouldn't be here to see frantic Genin forcing poison down their teammates' throat in the final five minutes.

Ren was observing my seal with a critic eye, before smiling lopsided at me.

"I can't make head or tails of it, Kumi-chan," he cheerfully admitted.

"Try to sound less proud of yourself when you speak about it," Chitarō said, hitting the back of our blond friend's head.

I smiled, feeling pleased with myself even though my cheeks were on fire at their rewarding grins.

"It isn't all that difficult to understand," I rambled. "It basically says No chakra Stabilize Sense Difference."

My friends looked at each other. Ren chuckled.

"Kumi-chan, it is that difficult. Accept the praise and make this baby work. I'm frankly tired of this boring classrom - as if our Academy years weren't enough."

I applied the paper slip around the three flasks - as they were thin, my seal went around them with no problem. I pushed chakra into the seal to make it work for the first time - even though it wouldn't be needed a second time if it was the case - and my hand automatically reached for one of the flasks as soon as the sensation popped into my head. Sensor seals were definitely creepy.

"Yes!" Ren celebrated, picking the flask from my hand and doing a victory dance. Other teams looked at us with envy.

Chitarō yawned, "Troublesome."

I smiled to myself. As we exited the classroom to wait for the next part of the exam, I felt that even someone like me could become Chūnin - that even someone as broken as me could get himself together long enough to, yeah, go roll all over them.