As she stood inside a large domed arena, Akira's mind seemed to be stuck in a haze.
She hadn't the faintest idea how they had made it to the tower at the centre of the Forest of Death. She only recalled bits and pieces of the journey there. The clearest things she should remember were Shikamaru's face, agonising fatigue, and Sakura's new short hair. Everything else was choppy at best. She recalled being by a river and fishing when someone else showed up. Then the next thing she knew, she was fighting hundreds of clones of a ninja in a yellow jumpsuit. And then, she was standing in front of Iruka-sensei, being congratulated on a job well done.
Even then, Akira remembered the feelings more than the images flashing through her mind. The most prominent was an unanticipated surge of power rising within her, followed by an incessant pain in her arms and fatigue everywhere else in her body. Looking down at her arms and seeing the burns that littered her skin, Akira could tell that she'd had to perform Inazuma without her tachi. Patting herself down, Akira realised that her tachi were nowhere to be found, most likely lost in the Forest of Death somewhere. However, Akira hadn't the faintest idea as to what caused the surge of power, or even if it had come from her. Akira wasn't sure she wanted to know. The fuzziness in her head wasn't normal, and there was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that told her someone incredibly powerful had been involved. However, Akira couldn't remember anything distinct at all. It was as if someone had wiped the slate clean on purpose, forcing her to forget what had happened for her to get to this point. Glancing at Sakura who was standing to her left, and taking note of the worried look on her face, Akira knew that it was nothing good. Beyond that... she knew nothing but the fog in her mind.
Akira turned to the front for the first time since she'd arrived in the arena. Ahead, in front of a large stage stood eight Jōnin, two of which were Anko and Ibiki, as well as the next proctor who was still unidentified. In the centre of the stage stood the Hokage, clad in his traditional white cloak and hat, staring seriously at all the candidates before him. Behind the Hokage stood all the team leaders. Kakashi was there alongside Kurenai, Asuma and Guy. The only other Leaf ninja up there was the leader of Kabuto's team who was unknown to Akira. Beside them was the Hidden Sand's Jōnin, the leader of Gaara's team. However, her eyes caught a glance of the man beside him and Akira couldn't help but narrow her eyes at him. Despite the haze in her brain, she recognised Maru, the man she kept seeing around every corner. A smirk drew itself on his lips and Akira glared at him, rubbing away a dull pain in her shoulder. There was a Sound Village insignia on his headband and, as far as she could remember, the Sound ninja hadn't been the friendliest of people. So, what was it that made their Jōnin offer help to a young and inexperienced Leaf kunoichi? If anything, Akira was less tempted by his offer of help than before.
"Congratulations on finishing the second part of the exam," Anko called, drawing Akira's attention away from Maru.
"Hey, look," Sakura whispered. "All of the Leaf Village rookies are here, too."
"Woah, everybody's here," Naruto said. "Looks like no one got left behind this time."
"I don't have a very good feeling about this," Sasuke said. He too was rubbing his shoulder.
"All right, listen up all! Lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you," Anko stated. "You better listen carefully, maggots!"
"First, before I tell you what the third exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself," Lord Hokage said. "Listen closely now, it's something all of you need to understand. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these exams."
Akira frowned. The strange haze was making it hard for her to focus on words. All she could seem to focus on was the growing pain in her shoulder.
"Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies? To raise the ability levels of our shinobi and increase friendship with allied nations for sure, but it's important you understand its true meaning. The exams are, so to speak, a representation of the battle between allied nations."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Akira heard one of the candidates say.
The more people talked, the more the haze seemed to fade. However, it didn't seem like the memories were returning as the mind fog receded.
"Now, if we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were neighbouring nations that continuously fought each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each other's military strength meaninglessly, those nations picked champions to do battles representing their countries at a mutually selected location. That was how the Chūnin selection exams originally began," Lord Hokage explained.
"Well, that's great, but why do we have to go through these exams then?" Naruto asked. "I mean, it's not like we're doing this to pick Chūnin to go fight."
"Well, actually, there is no question that part of the point to these exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chūnin, that's just not the whole story. These exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their backs and fight against other ninjas for their very lives."
"The pride of their nation?" Sakura whispered, a little confused.
"Many leaders and people of prominence are invited to attend this exam as guests, and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take notes of each ninja and each technique a nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between the countries, the strongest villages are inundated with job requests for their ninja and conversely, requests to countries deemed weak will diminish. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when it comes to negotiating with neighbouring countries is. So, it's important to show how much military strength our village has."
"Okay, but even so, why is it necessary for us to risk our lives?" Kiba asked, irritated.
"The country's strength is the village's strength, and the village's strength is the shinobi's strength," the Hokage said. "And the true strength of shinobi is only achieved when pushed to its limits, such as in a life and death battle."
Akira winced again at the pain, but she was finally able to hang onto every word the Hokage was saying. She thought that maybe the surge of power she'd felt had come from deep within her when hers and comrades' lives were in danger.
"This exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi and hence, the strength of the nation itself. It is because this is an exam that your life is on the line, and it has meaning. And it's for this very reason, as well as the strength of the nation, that your forerunners fought in this exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."
"Then why use the expression 'friendship' before if all we're doing is backstabbing each other?" Akira asked, voice louder than she'd anticipated.
"In the world of the shinobi, preserving balance by fighting and dying is friendship," Lord Hokage said. Akira remained unimpressed. "The third exam is a fight for life with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake. Now listen closely, I'm going to tell you exactly what you'll be doing for the third exam."
One of the ninjas in line disappeared and reappeared in front of the Hokage, and Akira rose an eyebrow at the katana strapped to his back. Surprisingly, there weren't many sword-wielding shinobi in Konoha. Seeing someone whose primary method of fighting seemed to be kenjutsu was impressive. The two men exchanged a few words and then the swordsman turned to face the remaining candidates. He looked as if he hadn't slept in months, dark circles prominent under his eyes, with dark hair kept under his bandanna. As Akira and the rest of the Genin would soon learn, the Jōnin also had an unexplained cough that plagued him.
"It's nice to meet you all," he said in a lazy voice, then coughed. "I am Hayate Gekkō, proctor assigned to the third part of the exam. There is something I would like to do before the third exam."
He coughed again, this time a lot harder. Akira raised an eyebrow at him.
"We need to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one."
"Preliminary!?" Shikamaru complained. "What do you mean by that?"
"I'm sorry, sensei, excuse me," Sakura spoke up politely, "but I really don't see the point. What's this preliminary for? Why can't we just move on to the third exam?"
"Well you see, the first and second exams might have been too easy," Hayate said, then coughed. "The fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chūnin exam, a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining."
"Is that fair!?" Ino gasped.
"It's just that at this stage we have to speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said, a lot of important guests will be watching. We can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best. So if there are any of you who feel that they aren't in top physical condition, now's your chance to—"
Hayate's coughing interrupted his speech.
"Speaking of top physical condition," Akira muttered under her breath.
"Sorry about that. As I was saying, any of you who don't feel up to this now's the time for you to bow out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately."
"Come on, you mean right now!?" Kiba shouted.
"Man, this is such a drag," Shikamaru sighed.
"Oh, and the ones moving on will be determined by one on one battles, sudden death," Hayate added.
Akira let out a long sigh. She was in no condition to fight. Her arms had never seen worse days, there was a throbbing pain in her shoulder, and half her memory was gone. However, Akira wasn't just going to back away. In a huff, she crossed her burned arms over across her chest, displaying them to everyone, and stood tall. Akira had a goal and she intended to reach it. Much to her surprise, Kabuto backed out, listing several reasons why he didn't want to stay, and then left. Akira didn't understand. He was far better off than she was and he had four years of experience in the bag. However, she wouldn't complain about having one less opponent to fight.
Suddenly, another wave of pain rushed through the Uchiha siblings' shoulders, causing them to audibly wince. Sakura turned to them, worry plastered on her features.
"Sasuke, Akira, you've got to back out—you can't go on like this."
"Are you nuts?" Akira whispered harshly. "This is my chance to prove to everyone that I'm not a useless Uchiha. I need to show everyone what I've got, Sakura! I can't back out now."
"You're in pain—the both of you," Sakura argued. "You've been like this ever since you tangled with Orochimaru and it's obviously getting worse."
Akira frowned. She knew the name but only from textbooks. Had they met Orochimaru in the Forest of Death?
"It's that mark he put on you, isn't it?"
Akira frown deepened. She had no recollection of a mark. However, looking over at Sasuke's shoulder, Akira spotted a mark, an amalgam of three black tomoe shaped into a spiral. Did that mean she had one too?
"You can't deny it, guys. Please," Sakura insisted, on the verge of tears. "Please, both of you, quit now before—I don't know. I'm scared. Come on, you know as well I do that you're in no condition to fight. Especially you, Akira. I mean look at your arms. And you haven't remembered anything that happened in the last few days. You need rest."
"Shut up, Sakura," Akira growled.
"You think I'm blind or something!?"
"Will you please be quiet?" Sasuke insisted.
"You don't think I see the suffering you're going through!?"
"That's enough, Sakura," Akira said dangerously low.
"I'm sorry, I can't let you do it to yourselves!" Sakura said, tears falling from her eyes. "I'm going to tell them about those marks. Then, maybe you'll—"
Sakura began to raise her hand but Sasuke snatched it and pulled it down.
"Don't you even think about telling them about these marks," Sasuke said.
"I don't get what you guys are trying to prove," Sakura said harshly. "Am I just supposed to stand by and watch you guys tear yourselves apart?"
"Sakura, I'm not going to let this thing dictate what I can and can't do," Akira said calmly. "Just let us get through the preliminaries, please. I can't be eliminated for something I had no control over or can't even remember."
"Akira—"
"No. This thing isn't going to take me out, Sakura. I know it. I can feel it. Sasuke and I are both stronger than this." Akira sighed. "I know it's wrong—I mean, I can't imagine this thing is good. But I can't risk telling anyone about it until at least the preliminaries are over. Look, sometimes you have to head straight for the danger to achieve your goals, Sakura. It's like Ibiki-sensei said, no shinobi can afford to take the easy way out. So, I'm not going to."
"This isn't right."
"I know, Sakura. I know."
Sakura eyebrows knitted and she sighed, relenting to Akira's decision. She nodded stiffly and Sasuke let go of her arm.
Akira sighed. She glanced over at Kakashi and frowned, apologising to him in her mind. There was no way he'd approve of this, no way he'd let her go on with this reasoning as easily as Sakura did. But Akira had no choice. Nothing was going to stand in the way of becoming Chūnin.
Akira's eyes wandered over to Maru and she found that he was already looking at her. The girl's eyebrows knitted together and she sighed as a smirk rose to his mouth. He was less than trustworthy. There was a dangerous aura to him that Akira couldn't shake off, but a charisma that she couldn't seem to ignore. It was almost certain that he could help her, no matter how sketchy her request would be, given that his team was so disreputable. But it was just those things that made her hesitate. In the back of her mind, she knew that everything about him was wrong—just as wrong as the thing on her shoulder. But maybe that was it. Maybe it was going to take something just as malevolent to counter whatever evil was surging through her veins.