Chapter Seven
"Welcome to the chūnin exams. I am Chatan Aika and this is the first test. As with other exams, up until the last test, everything is done in teams. If one of you fails, you all fail, as it would be in a real mission. Now then, your task is simple. Each team will be given a description of a person they need to follow and gather information on. They need to do so without getting caught, if you do get caught, you fail. You will follow this person around for one whole day, when the day is up, you will return here and report all the information you have gained," the Iwagakure kunoichi explained with a smirk on her red-painted lips.
"When you arrived and signed in, you should have gotten a number from one to thirty for your teams. I will call your teams' number and you are to come up and get the description of the person you are to follow from me. Once everyone has their target, I will give you five minutes of planning before beginning the test. Now then, team one, come up here," she ordered and a group of Kumogakure ninja walked up to her.
As they watched people get called up, Team 4 of Konohagakure sat in their chairs, sizing up their opponents. They hadn't spoken since they arrived in the testing room, but there was unspoken happiness in the group that they had forced Tsuneo to bring his brother Arihiro to teach them information gathering. The last year had been spent studying the art of information gathering, with some time for missions and other training in-between. Takeo, out of the group, was feeling the most fulfilled as he had started training to become a medic-nin and currently knows the basics of medical ninjutsu.
"OK, last but not least, Team Thirty," Aika called out, bringing Team 4 of Konohagakure out of their thoughts. The trio walked up to the jōnin of Iwagakure, confidence radiating off them, making the other genins in the room wary of their presence. "Konoha genin hmm? The only one for this round of exams. You have to find this woman and gather all the information you can about her. Like with all the other targets, she's a chūnin," Aika explained, holding up a photo of a fairly generic-looking woman with olive skin, black hair, and black eyes. "Remember, failure to gather enough information, to keep track of your target, or to remain hidden means instant disqualification, and a one-way ticket back to the Leaf."
"We understand," Miyako replied and the woman nodded before gesturing for the genins, now dubbed Team Thirty, to leave.
The trio headed to a corner to plan their approach on the mission. They had five minutes to get a basic plan going, and it was those five minutes that would mean passing or failing the test. The trio knew they had a disadvantage, as Aika said, they were the only team of Konoha-nin in the chūnin exams, most were from Iwagakure with some from Sunagakure, Amegakure, and Kumogakure. In other words, the trio stood out like a sore thumb amongst the other teams, made har5der by the fact that they were younger than the rest (Miyako being nine whilst her teammates were turning ten later in the year).
"OK, we can assume that the chūnin's are aware they are being used in the exams, meaning they will be more aware than otherwise. However, we can also assume that they don't know who is following them, besides them being genins. Meaning we have an advantage of hiding in plain sight," Miyako stated and her teammates nodded. "First thing first, we need to find our target and learn her basic mannerisms. Then we split up, switching over whose watching our target every couple of hours from afar, and who's going to be in plain sight. Our age also comes as an advantage, they said nothing about us hiding our forehead protectors, nor did they say anything about us pretending to be local academy students. In other words, we can talk to our target, but they can't know that we are genins following them."
Takeo and Hisoka agreed to Miyako's plan, just as Aika declared the start of the exam.
...
Twenty-four hours later, Team Thirty arrived at the testing room with the other genins. They noticed right off the bat that only twenty teams were left, cutting the total participants down from ninety to sixty. The odd was getting more and more into Team Thirty's favour.
When they were called up, they gave their report, and Aika's – the first proctor – eyes widened with how efficient the trio was in their skills. As [part of the exams, they had to explain how they prevented themselves from being spotted, and Aika was impressed with the strategy of pretending to be academy students, as she had seen the three talking to their target a couple of times in the last twenty-four hours. From the corner of her eyes, Aika could see the shocked look on the genins targets face as she realised how close her followers were the whole time.
"OK, ten teams have failed, leaving only twenty-teams. I will now hand you over to the proctor of the second exam, Chatan Jitsuko," Aika stated and stepped aside to reveal a woman who looked identical to herself.
"OK everyone, there was a reason why we had you gather information about your individual chūnins'. That is because you will be defending a civilian from them as you travel to a village three days from here, and then back. Your job is to protect your civilian from the chūnin we had you watch over the course of seven days. The rules are simple: you have three days to get to the village, failure to do so will equal in disqualification. You will remain in the village for one night, and then you have three days to get back to this village, failure to do so will also equal in a disqualification. During the attack, you must protect your civilian, as well as protect yourself. If your civilian gets captured, you lose. If one of you becomes incapacitated, you lose."
The genins in the room shuffled nervously, as there were many ways to lose in the next test, especially compared to the last test. Miyako suspected that half, if not more, of the teams, will fail this test. The tests were designed, after all, for the genins to fail. Jitsuko's gaze studied the genins, giving them time for the information to sink in.
"The test starts at dawn tomorrow at the front gates of the village. You have today and tonight to rest up and prepare. You are all dismissed."
...
The next day, the trio made their way to the front gates of the village. They wore nothing more than their ninja clothing and a belt on their waists, inside the belt pockets were scrolls sealed with food, weapons, clothing, and medical gear. They noticed that most of the other genins wore travelling backpacks. The trio looked around until the found a male merchant, elderly in appearance with a hunched back, holding a sign that said Team Thirty. The trio walked up to him and bowed in respect.
"We are a Team Thirty, from Konohagakure," Miyako greeted as she stood up, studying the olive-skinned man with grey hair and brown eyes.
"Bit young to be shinobi," the old man stated gruffly.
"We graduated two years ago, this is our second time taking the chūnin exams," Miyako explained and the man nodded, respecting the trio for graduating at such young ages. "I assume that you know of what is required during the test."
"Of course, I've been helping with the chūnin exams since I was a young lad. In fact, this exact test has been done so many times I lost count," the man explained. "I expect you to 'protect' me from the enemy."
"Of course, even if it is a test, we won't treat it any less than a mission," Hisoka stated and the man nodded as the genin teams and their civilians were brought to attention by Jitsuko.
"OK, don't forget the rules, and we begin... now!"
The genin teams moved off, many of which were carrying their civilian and running. Miyako sighed, shaking her head as her team walked out of the village casually as if going for a stroll. The old man looked at them in amusement, not even surprised that they took the almost lazy route of completing the test.
"Did you calculate how long it would take to walk with me already?" the old man questioned and Miyako giggled.
"Takeo did, he calculated how long it would take in general to get to the village without a civilian, and then estimated how long it would take in each age range, from eighteen to twenty-five, twenty-six to thirty-five, thirty-six to forty-five, forty-six to fifty-five, fifty-six upwards. Assuming that we only get attacked no more than twice in a day, we should arrive at the village at midday on the third day," Hisoka explained.
"Clever then. I am Ehara Fumito. Out of all the teams I've had so far, you three interest me the most," the old man explained.
"I am Fuchigami Takeo," the eldest boy greeted, already being ten years of age.
"I'm Haruno Miyako," the youngest teammate greeted.
"I'm Uchiha Hisoka," the final boy stated, making Fumito look at him in surprise.
"Never met an Uchiha before, you have the Sharingan?" Fumito questioned and Hisoka nodded with a blank face. "Interesting. So, are you the tactical expert in the team, Hisoka-san?"
"That would be Mi-chan," Hisoka stated, gesturing to the young girl who shot them a grin.
"Really? How old are you anyway, Miyako-chan?" Fumito questioned.
"I turned nine only a month ago. Takeo is ten, and Hisoka will be ten by the end of the year," Miyako explained with a grin. "We all graduated at the same time. I was in their class at the academy because of how advanced I was."
"Now that I think about, you never did explain about that," Takeo mused with a smile.
"True, you're not from a clan, so your skills make no sense. And it wasn't your aunt and uncle, after all, Sakura-chan is very weak," Hisoka added and Miyako pouted.
"Oi! Sakura-chan is only six, of course she's not strong. Besides, I want her to strengthen up in her own time," Miyako stated but paused in her step as a stray thought crossed her mind.
There they are. I can't believe I didn't realise they were foreigners. They're good. I'll send some clones to test their skills to find out what their skills consist of.
"Guys, incoming," Miyako stated simply and shot forward with a kunai as a clone appeared. She stabbed it through the chest, the clone turning to mud as the two boys surrounded the civilian, who stared at the girl in surprise. "Our follower is trying to gauge our skills, keep to taijutsu and throwing weapons, no use of ninjutsu or genjutsu!" Miyako ordered as more clones appeared and the trio started fighting them off, remaining close to Fumito who watched in amazement at the trio's skills, even without using jutsus.
Damn it, they won't show me their other skills. I'll pull back, for now, maybe attack when they set up camp later. The voice though as the last of her clones vanished at the hands of Takeo.
Miyako looked at her teammates with a smile. "We should be fine for now. Keep an eye out, just in case."
(I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews and favourites and follows so far. And I hope you all keep continuing on in enjoying this fanfiction as much a possible. Any suggestions are welcomed, as I'm always updating and improving on the story regularly and would love ideas for new chapters or to extend older chapters.
I have also added a new story which is Fallen - The Academy Years which is short stories about Miyako and her friends (and Itachi) between Part I: Chapter Three and Part I: Chapter Four. So if you want more check it out.
Thanks, AJHLing xx)