Chapter 14: The Meaning of Being a Shinobi
Itachi stepped into the exam room behind a rowdy crowd of genin. Yoji had been smart enough to slip his way into the room before the crowd approached the doorway, their group so massive that it was practically impossible to get into the room without forcibly jostling his way through. Having no other choice, Itachi slowed his walk to mere tiny steps as he dawdled behind the rambunctious group who seemed more interested in socializing among each other than getting to their destination.
Beside him, Yamato let out a small sigh.
The kid at the front of the group was the culprit for the hold up. He was the tallest among the group, so Itachi could easily make out his facial features as he turned to point at a few of his peers, boasting to them how he was definitely making it to chunin on his first attempt. His peers indulged in his antics, responding to his comments with their own light-hearted sarcastic jabs at him.
After what seemed like forever, the bottleneck in the door cleared when the tallest kid finally stepped into the room. The rest of the group filed in after him, congregating in the corner of the classroom to continue socializing.
When he stepped into the classroom, he tore his attention off of his potential competitors and focused on sweeping the room for any sort of clues. Although the exam hadn't officially started, the first and only advice Yamato had given him was to "look underneath the underneath."
Itachi didn't want to rule out any possibilities.
A couple of the genin were already seated, most of them sitting near their teammates. Some other smaller groups gathered in corners around the room, although their conversations were a lot more soft spoken than the first group. While confidence practically radiated off of the large crowd in the front of the classroom, the others gave him more of a timid feel.
Yoji was among the students that were already seated, picking a spot in the middle row right next to the window.
Strategic. The location made for a quick escape if necessary. Then again, the chances of that were minimal, considering Shisui tipped him off that the first exam was usually a game of intelligence and wit. The physical portions of the exams didn't come until later.
Itachi walked past the rows of tables, fingers gliding over the smooth surface until he reached the second row from the back. He took a seat at the very end of the table, the one closest to the wall.
No reason other than for nostalgia's sake. During his Academy days, Itachi always sat in the back of the room.
With Itachi in the back of the room and Yoji in the middle row, Yamato chose to sit in one of the front rows, taking one of the aisle seats. Was this the first test? To see how they would choose their seats? If so, Itachi hoped their choice to sit far away from each other wouldn't be to their detriment.
When a puff of smoke exploded in the front of the classroom, all of the standing students scrambled to their seats. Predictably, most of them found seats next to their teammates or people they were already familiar with. Only the odd ones out ended up in random seats scattered across the room.
By the end of the scramble for seats, ten students still remained standing.
"The first test has already begun. For those who didn't get a seat, you may now exit the room," the proctor announced. All ten of them were rooted to their positions until the short dark haired girl took the first step towards the exit. The others followed quietly, save for one boy.
"Does that mean we're disqualified?"
"Yes."
The boy sputtered. "What do you mean we're disqualified? The test hasn't even started yet!" His short bout of bravery made the other nine disqualified participants halt, interested in seeing if the intervention would lead to anything. Itachi could even make out a tiny sliver of hope simmering in the eyes of the girl standing closest to him.
"On the battlefield, the enemy does not wait until the fight has started to attack. You need to remain vigilant of your surroundings at all times. When you were signing in for the exam, the bulletin board next to the table had a flyer with the number of participants in this year's exam. A simple calculation when you entered the room would have told you that there were more participants than there are seats," the proctor explained. "A mere recommendation from your sensei doesn't entitle you to participate in the exams. You need to earn your position."
"But–" was the boy's last ditch attempt to protest, but the proctor shut him down quickly.
"Better luck next year." The proctor lifted his arm, finger pointing towards the door. "You can see yourself out. And." His dark eyes swung towards the crowd. "If any of those people who just walked out are part of your genin team, you are automatically disqualified too. An incomplete team cannot proceed any further."
A handful of students stood up from their seats, the bottom of their chairs scraping noisily against the wooden floor in unison. As the students filed quietly out of the room, Itachi had gotten an eyeful of one of the older boys with his hands balled tightly into angry fists. The boy was the last to step out of the room, taking his angry energy with him.
The room was silent.
"Congratulations for passing the unofficial first test," the proctor said, as if he was reciting the line rather than actually being heartfelt with his message. "Now, the official first test will begin. As you know, this is the written portion of the exams. It's pretty straight forward. Answer the questions on the exam. Each question is worth ten points and your entire team needs a score of at least two hundred eighty points to pass the exam. Oh, and if any teammate gets the last question wrong, it's an automatic disqualification for your team. Good luck. Your time starts now."
Just as the main proctor finished giving instructions, one of the chunin volunteers had just placed a paper face down onto his table. Itachi flipped over the paper, eyes scanning through the questions.
Everything seemed doable. They were all simple calculation questions that he would be able to nail with a bit of time. Itachi wasn't worried about his teammates either; Yamato's goal was to get Itachi to the final round of the exams and Yoji cared too much about the promotion to let down the team.
Yet…
The exam was too straightforward. Too simplistic. If this was an exam designed to eliminate unqualified candidates, this set of easy questions wouldn't get anyone other than the few who struggled in the Academy.
Nine questions. The last one didn't even look particularly hard…
Wait. According to the instructions, each team needed two hundred and eighty points to pass. If each question was worth ten points and each member received nine questions, the maximum number of points was only two hundred and seventy.
Did his other teammates have more questions?
From the way the chunin volunteers passed out the exams, it seemed to be in no particular order, not in any way that suggested they singled out a person based on team formation.
Maybe each volunteer had a different set of exams and those team members who sat close to each other would end up with the same number of questions. In his case, the team on his row wouldn't be able to pass with all having nine question exams…
But what was the importance of the final question to warrant an automatic fail? A cursory glance told him it was no harder than the rest, and upon further inspection, Itachi found himself solving the problem in just five minutes.
No matter. Itachi made quick work of solving the other eight problems instead of wasting his time pondering over the hidden meaning of the exam.
Once Itachi was confident in his calculations, he glanced at the clock that hung above the chalkboard at the front of the room. Twenty minutes left of their exam, just enough time for him to continue to decode the intent of the exam.
It was far too straightforward to be true. Yamato's advice rang in his head.
Look underneath the underneath.
Mimicking Yamato when he received the application for the Chunin Exam, Itachi held up the test paper to angle it underneath the light. His bold movement had gotten a few strange looks from the genin sitting around him, and even captured the proctor's attention. He merely raised an eyebrow before going back to reading his scroll.
There was nothing. Itachi gently set the paper back down onto his desk.
His next move was to use his Sharingan to inspect the paper, but of course, his search came up empty. Even before he tried, Itachi doubted there was anything to find; if possessing a dojutsu was a requirement to figure out the hidden meaning, everyone would fail.
Still, Itachi didn't want to let go of any possibilities, especially since he had time to spare.
Currently, he had ninety points. Without knowing what his teammates' exams looked like, it was too risky to bank on them having more questions than him.
Was this meant to be a communication exercise?
Itachi glanced around the room. Mostly everyone's head was bent downwards as they scribbled furiously to finish their exams. When Itachi made eye contact with one of the chunin volunteers, he signaled to Itachi to keep eyes on his own paper.
Hmm. They were monitoring for instances of cheating. Maybe communicating with his teammates wasn't it.
Scrapping all of his initial thoughts, Itachi examined the questions he answered and started to search for patterns within them. Other than the obvious connection that they all yielded numeric answers, there wasn't much else. Numeric…one digit answer except for the ninth question.
Itachi read over the questions again. Was it simply a coincidence that all of the questions yielded one digit answers when these types of questions asked usually had two digit solutions? What was the importance of those numbers?
Scribbling down the numbers at the bottom of his paper, Itachi stared at the string of numbers, wondering if it was meant to be a code that they were supposed to be familiar with. Rewriting the numbers in various combinations didn't give him any ideas, so Itachi gave up on that train of thought.
Back to the individual numbers for each question. Itachi tackled the ninth question first, figuring it must hold the key to solving the mystery if the proctor specifically pointed it out and its solution was the only one that was different from the rest. After staring at the question for two minutes, Itachi drew a blank on ideas.
Ah what the hell? Itachi figured it couldn't hurt to try, so he started counting the number of words in the problem.
Seventeen.
His answer was eighteen. Did it refer to the punctuation?
Latching onto that train of thinking, Itachi started extracting the words from the problem based on his calculations. Scribbling the words in the blank space at the bottom of the paper, Itachi found the tenth question staring back at him.
Explain what being a shinobi means to you.
What did it mean to be a shinobi? That was a question that Itachi struggled to answer since he was old enough to think. After Yamato's advice of suggesting Itachi fit into Danzo's mold of shinobis to gain his attention, Itachi mulled and pondered over the philosophical question for weeks. Itachi asked everyone around him their definitions of what it meant to be a shinobi; their conflicting answers swirled around in his mind, tugging him in every direction.
Of all the answers, how many were genuine answers? How many were recited?
Despite the conglomeration of contradicting responses floating inside of his head, there was one that always seemed to appear at the forefront of his mind whenever Itachi mulled over this topic.
The proctor issued a five minute warning, jolting Itachi out of his thoughts. Putting his pencil down on the paper, he began to write – there was no more time to contemplate the meaning of a shinobi.
If a few months of pondering still left him without an answer, Itachi doubted he would suddenly be enlightened in the next five minutes. Instead of writing his own thoughts, Shisui's words were the ones that made it onto the paper.
True shinobi are nameless individuals who maintain peace from the shadows.
Those words stared back at him.
They weren't as foreign to Itachi as they originally seemed.
Ten teams advanced to the next round. One chunin volunteer was left behind to walk up and down the rows to collect the completed exam papers. Upon reaching the last seat in the second row from the back of the room, the chunin's gaze lingered a tad longer than necessary on the exam sheet.
While no one was looking, the exam sheet was snatched from the table, tucked away neatly into the right pocket of his pants. The chunin continued to collect the remaining exam papers.
The stack of exam papers were locked away in the middle drawer of the filing cabinet of the Academy Headmaster's office. Except one, which was passed off into the hands of an Anbu member.
In the dim lighting of the underground Root headquarters, Danzo examined the folded piece of paper that Snake had just delivered to him. The Anbu Root member had long left the room, leaving Danzo alone to peruse the newly gained information.
Danzo unfolded the paper. He glanced straight at the bottom of the page, reading over the same sentence at least three times. So much conveyed with just a few neatly written kanji.
How interesting.
Predictably, the second part of the exam was a team exercise. The ten passing teams were instructed to meet at Gate Fifty-Four to the Forest of Death at the crack of dawn. Before the sun even began to rise in the horizon, half of the teams had already congregated in front of the gates. Huddled in three member groups, each broke their conversations to warily eye any newcomers before resuming their hushed conversations.
Itachi was the second of his team to arrive. He wordlessly walked over to where Yamato was standing and merely tipped his head as a way of greeting. Unlike the others, Yamato's posture was carefree and lax; some of that energy helped Itachi to ease some of his own nerves.
More than a promotion was riding on his performance at the Chunin Exams. Itachi couldn't blow this opportunity.
"Have you heard anything?" Itachi murmured so quietly that he doubted if Yamato heard him.
"No. We haven't been in contact," Yamato responded. "There's not much you can do at this point other than to show your best."
That had been the end of their short lived conversation as Yoji strolled up to join their group. The three of them stood silently while they awaited the second exam's proctor to show.
They didn't have to wait for long.
The premise of the second round seemed simple; however, after the experience of the first exam and Yamato's advice ringing incessantly in his head, Itachi wasn't quite so willing to take the instructions at face value.
Every team had twenty-four hours to reach the Central Tower, located right in the center of the Forest of Death. The only criteria for passing was that they arrived as a full team within the time limit. Just as some of the teams began to let out a sigh of relief at the simplicity of the exercise, their proctor, Minato, added a caveat.
"Each member of your team will start at a separate location. You'll have twenty-four hours to reunite with the rest of your team and head for the tower."
And there it was, the complication. Minato's blue eyes practically shone with amusement as he watched a few genins' crestfallen expressions.
"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"
An exasperated groan could be heard from the crowd. Minato ignored it and proceeded to randomly separate the thirty of them into groups of three, presumably the same people that they would enter the forest with. Once the groupings were settled, Minato headed towards the closest team, ready to teleport them when he stopped to his tracks.
"Oh one last thing, only the first five teams will be able to pass. Good luck." With that, in a blurry flash of yellow, the first team was whisked away.
Itachi couldn't help but chuckle mirthlessly to himself as he stood with the tall boy who blocked the classroom in exam one and a girl that he didn't have any impression of. The examiners knew what they were doing by separating them.
His dark eyes darted inconspicuously between the boy and the girl. Were they the type to jump on the opportunity to attack and get rid of as many competitors as possible? Or would their focus be on reuniting with their team?
Itachi couldn't deny the appeal of attacking straight away. If he was able to beat both of them, that disqualified at least two teams – or at least placed them at a severe disadvantage. Regrouping with his team had its perks too; they were stronger as a team than individually.
What choice was Danzo looking for him to make? Didn't Anbu members often act individually? Was it the right move to attack?
Itachi wasn't the only one with those thoughts churning through his head. From the not-so-subtle wary glances the other two genins tossed at him, they were thinking the same thing too.
What was their approach?
In less than two minutes, Minato had whisked away the other nine teams to their appropriate locations. Itachi's team, the tenth group, was the only one left in the clearing when Minato came back.
Minato approached them, with an easy going smile on his face.
"Your group will go through this gate," Minato instructed. Using his thumbnail, he flicked off the clasp to the pocket on his flak jacket. A blue scroll slid out of the bottom opening into Minato's awaiting hands. Untying the string around the scroll, he unraveled the contents.
"Your group is also assigned a special task."
Another layer of complication. Itachi should have seen it coming.
"To pass this round, you have a choice. You can either pass by regrouping with your teammates and arriving as a full squad at the tower or you can arrive alone. However, if either of your other teammates show up, you fail. In order to pass, you must be the only one who successfully arrives at the tower."
A scowl stretched across the older boy's features. "You're suggesting that we betray our teammates?"
Minato shrugged. "That choice is up to you. If you arrive as a three member team, your chances of succeeding in the third round will be diminished. Of course, there is also the appeal of working with your teammates to get to the tower. Strength in numbers."
"What about our teammates? Did they receive similar instructions?"
Before Minato even spoke, Itachi knew that they weren't getting an answer to that. That was the mind twister of the exam. If his teammates received the same directives, then regrouping with them was a risky option. However, if his teammates didn't have the same directions, then regrouping with them was the safest way to ensure that Itachi passed, whether by betraying them or entering the tower as a complete squad.
With no way of knowing, every single option seemed risky. Currently his best option was to track down Yamato first, knowing the other boy would most likely reveal his secret instructions for the sake of helping him pass.
Itachi needed to steer clear of Yoji before Itachi decided what he was going to do. With his stop-at-nothing-to-obtain-his-goal attitude, if the Aburame had the same mission as him, dealing with him was the last thing Itachi wanted to do.
Bearing all of these considerations in mind, when the second round officially started, Itachi bolted from the gates, leaving behind the other two, who had chosen to eliminate their competitors.
The tracking skills that Itachi learned from Shisui during their many training exercises paid off immensely. Although Itachi was no skilled tracker, most genin weren't well-versed in hiding their tracks either, so it made it ridiculously easy for Itachi to pick on their trail.
Within the first two hours since the round began, most people Itachi encountered were still alone. Wanting to conserve his chakra levels, Itachi picked his fights carefully. Itachi passed on fighting those who remained high on their guards, ambushing them would be impossible and Itachi wasn't interested in blowing his chakra.
Not everyone was as careful though. Itachi managed to knock out three genins with hardly the use of his chakra other than muting the sound of his footsteps.
From his observation of the others' movements, a good portion of them seemed intent on searching for their teammates. The more genin that Itachi tracked down, the more their actions seemed to corroborate his deduction that only selected members had the same mission as he did.
That made his mission a lot easier.
Yamato was the one to find him. The other boy literally jumped out of the trees, sending all of Itachi's battle instincts into overdrive as he threw the first kunai with deadly accuracy. The sharp edge of the blade nicked Yamato's sleeve before embedding itself with a dull thunk into the tree trunk behind him. Yamato's gaze flickered down to the ripped sleeve before approaching Itachi, as if unafraid Itachi would try to attack him again.
"Have you seen Yoji?"
Itachi shook his head. "How did you find me?"
"I am very attuned to nature," was the only explanation Yamato offered. Did Danzo teach all of his operatives to be that cryptic with their responses? "I received a special mission. Did you?"
"Yeah," Itachi murmured. "What was yours?"
"I have to be the one to track down my teammates first or I'll fail." The corner of his mouth twitched, a telltale sign that Itachi recognized to happen whenever Yamato was lying. Perhaps Itachi had been wrong to think he could trust Yamato after all.
Every shinobi still had their secrets.
"Mine is to get rid of one of my teammates," Itachi told him. "If we arrive at the tower as a two member team, we still pass on the condition that the third member doesn't show up separately."
Yamato raised an eyebrow. "And you're telling me this because…?" His eyes practically dared Itachi to fight him, to challenge him. Although Itachi won most of their spars during training because of Yamato's refusal to utilize the full extent of his powers, in a real fight, the outcome was uncertain. A lot of Yamato's skills were unknown to him.
And he was a member of the Anbu. Highly qualified. Highly skilled.
"I'm proposing an alliance. I'll let you track down Yoji so you can complete your special mission and then we'll pretend to go to the tower as a team. Before we get there, I'll fight Yoji to make sure he's out of the running."
"And why would you want to do that when we could pass as a three man team?"
Itachi found himself echoing Minato's words. "If we arrive as a three member team, our chances of succeeding in the third round will diminish. You know how important this exam is to me."
Yamato nodded. "Alright. I'll help you."
A/N: Hi again!
Thank you for reading, until next time!
-MM