A/N: just a small note, some readers have asked me if Maiko activated her Mangekyou sharingans yet from witnessing her teammate gets killed, and I might have left it a bit vague, but the answer is no, unfortunately. I have read somewhere that apparently after a person had witness the death of someone close, they will experience irritation in the eyes until they either decide that they care about that person deeply and are saddened by their death, in which the Mangekyou awakens, or they decide that they don't care, in which case the irritation fades and no mangekyou is awaken. Maiko's case is the latter, it's not that she doesn't feel anything from Daichi's death, but rather, a) she wasn't close enough to him yet, and b) she decided herself that she need to move past his death, to not care about him anymore, so that she would stay sane. It is in a way, her own coping strategy in which she developed, thinking it's the only way to survive. The activation of sharingan and mangekyou are of different degree, normal sharingan can be activated from traumas, but Mangekyou had to be activated from greater ones and the person has to care deeply about the one that died. Maiko is simply not there yet, that's why I wrote nothing happened to her eyes when the irritation faded.

Anyway, after the tedious explanation here is chapter seven! Chunin Exam Part II. I think I am going to update every week on Saturday, however, please forgive me if the update slows down in January and May since those are my exam times and I'm graduating this year.

Beta'd by the Fantabulous Alice J. ^_^

Chapter 7 - Only One of Us

When the bright light disappeared, we found ourselves standing in an unfamiliar hall. Immediately, the cautious side of me went for my tantō until I saw the exam proctors in the room.

"Your team has successfully passed the second stage of the Chunin Exam. The third stage, the Tournament, will be starting right after the end of this stage. The line-up will be announced at the starting of the tournament." The proctor said emotionlessly before they escorted us out of the hall quickly.

"Well, that's that, at least we got out safely instead of being transported to somewhere in the desert." Shun said as we walked back to the hotel, and I couldn't agree more. At that moment, nobody knew what the hell was going on, maybe except for Itachi.

On our way to the hotel, we met Akira-sensei and Hatake Kakashi. Akira-sensei looked at as for a second before cracking a laughter, "What happened to you?" He asked while trying to contain his laughter. It's true we were not exactly on our best appearance right now, my shirt had multiple tears from the battle and thank Kami I had bandage wrapping on my chest beneath the shirt to save my dignity. Shun's orange-blonde pony tail had one side charred and he was missing one sleeve. Itachi, probably the most dignified out of all of us had a huge slash on his high collar T-shirt, as while as a burn mark on his pants.

We looked at each other and said at the same time, "Puppets" "Lightning release" "People". Then we stared at each other again before all breaking into random laughter, even Itachi gave us a smile.

"Either way, I need a shower. So don't you dare fight me for the first place on using the shower." I said as I glared Shun, knowing he will be the one always bickering with me.

"Hey, my hair was on fire, I think I deserve the first place." Shun fought back, not backing down for the sake of his hair.

"Your hair will be fine, besides, what's gone is gone. One the other hand, do you know how oily those puppet joints are? Be a man and let the girl take a shower first" I retorted, seeing the unbelievable face Shun was making.

"A girl? What kind of girl breaks people's bones and joints like dolls?" Shun yelled.

"So you do understand that I could break your bones like a doll." I said while seeing his face paled a bit, we had some painful sparring sessions before, though I never actually broke his bones before as I controlled my power so that it only inflicted temporary pain.

We bickered all the way back to the hotel, leaving our sensei behind sighing at our childishness. Eventually, I won the argument, but Itachi took the shower while we were arguing. Although I yelled at him, I couldn't help but feel happy about Itachi's occasional playfulness.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Akira watched as his three most prized students bickered all the way back to the hotel feeling both pleased and relieved.

"What do you think?" He asked the Anbu Captain beside him, his students didn't need to know that the Jōnin instructors could watch the exams-in-process but they weren't allowed to interfere.

"They certainty have the talents. The Chunin exam should be no problem to them. Their teamwork seemed good, it's just… " The famous Kakashi of the sharingan said calmly.

"So you noticed, the gap between Shun and Itachi. Their reaction time to each other was significantly slower than with Maiko. You could say that she is the link for this genin team." Akira explained, it's a problem he kept on noticing for some while now. Because of how fast they react compare to the normal genins, his students never once noticed the gap between them.

"Was it because…" Kakashi asked, even without him finishing the sentence, Akira knew what he was going to ask. After all, as a former Anbu, he knew his identity as the Hound.

"Yes, it's because of Daichi. I was hoping that the barrier Shun had against Itachi would vanish with time, but I couldn't delay the Chunin exam any longer, they deserve it, and Daichi's death was not any of them's fault. The only reason this team is holding together is Maiko's link with both of them." Akira explained, he regretted not having enough time, but the pain of losing a teammate and the courage needed accept a new one was not something to be rushed.

"I'm sor… " Kakashi started but Akira stopped him.

"It's not anyone's fault. However, Maiko and Shun are only children, they may not understand it. Especially Maiko, she is the most perceptive children I've ever seen at her age, and I'm sure she already realized that my introduction about you is a lie. Be careful about your identity around her, she may seem like the calmest and most ruthless when it comes to battle, but that doesn't mean she had no emotions." Akira said thoughtfully and Kakashi nodded.

"I can understand Hokage-sama's decision, but you need to do your job and at least put on an appearance as an assistant teacher, or else, even I couldn't keep up the lies." Akira warned his kouhai; as much a genius Kakashi was, he was not a teacher material, at least, not right now.

"I'll keep that in mind, Akira-senpai. Those children have the strength to succeed this exam, but I'm afraid that their blooming strength would left them as vulnerable targets. Shun-kun should be fine if he choose to go to intelligence division, and I would propose to Hokage-sama to place the Uchiha children into special apprenticeship before they are strong enough instead of normal chunin teams." Kakashi proposed. Akira nodded at his careful plan, it's true that they would be able to grow faster with an apprentice, and the fatality rate would be lower.

"You are right, but it's very likely that it won't be their choice. Shun is a branch of Yamanaka, so he'll probably have a choice for his future. But seeing his ability in sensory and Mind techniques, he'd probably be recommended for intelligence division. But the other two, they are direct descendants of Uchiha. Just like Maiko once told me, their future is drawn out for them." Akira said sadly, pausing for a second to let this sink in.

"Their clan will probably make them as prominent as possible. Although Maiko would make a great candidate for Anbu, it will only be if she ever lets go of the prejudice. You haven't seen her fighting one on one in taijutsu, but you will see. She once admitted to me reluctantly that her taijutsu was made for killing and assassination, that unless she was able to use it without restriction, they will never reach their true power. Pretty grim for a nine-year-old, but I've seen it in action." Akira admitted before he started to walk toward the hotel they were staying.

Kakashi trailed behind, Akira-senpai did not know that he already seem those moves for assassination in action before. Once again, his mind moved to the image of the cold and ruthless eyes of that seven-year-old girl, eliminating the enemy at the first sight of opportunity without any hesitation and emotional turmoil. As rarely as it happened, it was like she was built for Anbu.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Since we finished the second stage quite early, by the time we were all cleaned up, it was only half-past eight in the evening, which meant, we had some time before tomorrow morning's tournament.

I was silently drying my hair with a towel as the boys rest on the bed. We were all pretty tired from the earlier ordeal, but seeing the lights outside on the Suna streets, I couldn't help but stare at the lively night market outside. Due to my training in my previous life at OLYMPUS, I was never given the freedom to go where I wanted to. Father wouldn't allow to us to miss training for something he deemed so trivial.

My face must have expressed some longing, because Itachi immediately noticed and asked me: "Do you want to go to night market, Mai?" I stared at him for a second, not sure what to respond. "No, we should rest, it's late. You must be tired." I said. The streets in a foreign village were not safe, we could be killed in a back alley for all I knew.

Before I could get away from the window, Itachi body flickered in front of me and poked me in the forehead, he said: "You should really act like a little sister sometimes so I don't feel like an inadequate big brother."

"Let's go, come on, act like a child once, a cute one, not the annoying one who likes to bicker with me." Shun added with a casual smile.

"Your funeral then. But really, thank you." I cracked a smile at my teammates, appreciating their caring nature.

As we walked on the main street of Suna, looking at the fancy lights, hearing the laughters of children and smelling the delicious aroma from food stalls, I couldn't help but wonder if this was a normal scene for normal children. Even though their country was constantly fighting and arguing with others, they still laughed and played like nothing was happening. Were they oblivious, or were they just numb from all of it? Probably the first option, they seemed way too innocent for the second option. I was speaking from experience, I was numbed by the numerous kills of my targets, and the numerous deaths of fellow operatives. They were not important, we were not important, so I let them be forgotten. At least, that's until my death, then everything came back, including the memory of him… ironic, considering I didn't even know his real name… Geez, can I not think about it, it's such a nice day.

I walked past a small weapon shop, the things they sold there weren't that useful in normal shinobi fights, but they looked quite interesting. There were some kids gathering in the shop, so this weapon shop must have been catering to children.

"Excuse me, Mister, may I see that please?" I said sweetly to the shop owner, and he smiled back, taking the merchandise I wanted off of the wall. I was surprised when I saw that thing, but it looked awfully like a crossbow from my previous life. To my knowledge, shinobi in this world rarely use things like bow or crossbow, since they have shuriken and kunai for that. However, in my belief, learning to shoot something was so much easier than to throw something, just take guns and shurikens for example.

"It's an interesting design, right? My son introduced it from the west, he said it was called a 'crossbow'; thanks to his ideas, our shop has become a lot more popular." The middle-aged man said to me. I smiled at him like a child would do, but I was quite surprised that the man called out the actual name of the product, not a Japanese translation, but said the English with a Japanese accent.

"Maiko, why would you buy something so strange? You can't use it in battle." Shun said quietly beside me as I examine the crossbow, even Itachi looked very curious at the strange new weapon I was holding.

"It's Sasuke's birthday today, I should give him a present from Sand when we return, to say sorry for missing his fourth birthday." I said nonchalantly as I tested the crossbow with a shop board about twenty meters away. The wooden spike in the crossbow struck exactly where I wanted it to be, on the star beside the shop name. The penetration still needs some work, but I could fix that up at home, I thought, it's an easy weapon for Sasuke to use and it wouldn't require a lot of practice like shuriken throwing. For now, it would be great for personal protection.

"You are buying your four-year-old brother a weapon for his birthday?" Shun asked with disbelief.

"Of course, it's Sasuke, he loves weapons." I said calmly as I pulled out my wallet and paid the price. It's not that expensive since it's a shop mostly for children. The shop owner wrapped the crossbow for me in a bag and handed it to me.

"Come on, stop staring, let's go eat some mochi and dango. I heard there are different flavors than what we have in Konoha, you sure you don't want to try?" I tempted Itachi. If there was one weakness he had, it's his sweet tooth. Like I expected, he looked away with a red hue on his face.

"Once in a lifetime opportunity, where we can eat at a Suna sweet shop without being branded as enemy shinobi." I said as I grabbed Itachi with my right hand, and Shun with my left and dragged both of them with me toward the sweet shop.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Next day at 7:00 am, all the surviving genin teams lined up in the big arena made of sandstones and limestones. After two stages, there were only six teams including us left. There were two Sunagakure teams, one Iwagakure team, one Kumogakure teams, Konohagakure team, and one Amegakure team. Surprisingly, there was no Kirigakure team, as a result of that, only the Kages from Suna, Konoha, Iwa and Kumo will be attending the final round.

We stood in the Arena, surrounded by cheering audience, judged by examiners and the Kages, like gladiators from Roman Empire, I didn't even know if this was an honour or humiliation.

"The third stage of Chunin exam, the tournament will start now. The line up will be announced immediately. Match one: Uchiha Maiko from Konoha vs. Fushimi Keigo from Suna. Match two: Daikoku Kojiro from Kumo vs. Fuwa Meiha from Ame. [...] Match six: Yamanaka Shun from Konoha vs. Ishikawa Daisuke from Iwa. [...] Match nine: Uchiha Itachi from Konoha vs. Fuwa Mizuko from Ame. The order will be reshuffled each round. Do your best and show us the full extent of your abilities." The Suna-nin said with a loud voice, just like a gladiator show, the crowd cheered excitedly.

As the crowd died down and the arena cleared, the first match started. I walked into the center of the arena and my opponent did the same. He was a Suna ninja with a medium build, his face covered in a standard hijab the Suna-nin usually wore. There were really nothing out of ordinary with him, but as soon as the match started, I cursed my luck. He used PUPPETS.

Immediately, I charged lightning chakra into my tantō, and let the bright light crackle with a familiar humming sound. The joints of the puppets were suppose to be their weak points, but they don't feel pain, so unless I could destroy all the joints at once, they don't stumble and fall because of a dislocated kneecap. So instead of my usual lock and twist technique, I went with straight brutality with my sword, the kenjutsu Akira-sensei taught me was not a soft wind, it was a piercing hurricane. I body flickered to behind one of the four puppets he had out, and pierced the lightning blade into the joint between it's body and head. I willed the lightning chakra to burst and jumped away from the puppet the moment it's hand swung up to attack. After my landing a few meters away from the puppets, the wooden puppets was charred and busted apart by the lightning current I sent through. One down, three to go.

Of course, things were never that simple. The puppeteer moved his finger and the three puppets opened it's mouth and spit out senbons. I had no idea where they came from, but my priority right now was to dodge the damn pointed objects. I ran around the arena to get away from the senbons, in the meantime, I made the hand seals for Katon: Great Fireball Technique and let the giant fireball shot out of my mouth. I aimed the Fireballs at the puppeteer, and as expected, he moved to dodge and sent one of his puppets to block the attack. That puppet spun around at high speed in an attempt to create whirlwind to decrease the damage of the flame.

Quickly, I bend down and made the hand seal for Raiton: Rairyu no Mai. This time, I extended my palm and only shot out two lightning dragon and put full power into it. I aimed the lightning dragons at the puppets as there is a time lag between the control of the puppeteer and the actual movement, thus the maneuver speed was no match for the full power lightning. Quickly, in a flash, the two puppets were struck by the lightning dragons, and they burst into charred mess at the huge amount of chakra I used. Without missing a beat, using the time for the puppeteer's surprise, I rushed toward him. A puppeteer was no puppeteer without the hands, I couldn't be sure that I won't kill him with the lightning release, but I could make sure that his hands won't move anymore.

I appeared behind his back and grabbed his arms with my two hands. Then I jumped and flipped over his head, bringing his unprepared arm with me. I could hear the scream when I landed on the ground and the unnatural twist of his arms, and without hesitation, I turned around and placed my sword at his neck. There was a drop of blood coming out of the thin line where it touched his neck.

"Surrender, your shoulders are dislocated, and I don't suggest moving them before it's healed. You move one finger and I will slice your head off." I said coldly, watching his expression filled with pain and fear.

"I surrender." He yelled, and I dropped the blade, but still keeping my eyes on him until the examiner came and pronounced me the winner. The Sand genin gave me a look full of hatred before he was carried off by the medics. I quickly walked off of the field, I may have overkilled a bit, but the puppets, I really hate them. I sat silently down on the audience section along with my teammate. They nodded to me and I smiled back; my show was over, it's their turn.

After a few match, it was Shun's turn. He walked into arena calmly, facing his opponent from Iwa. Beside me, a voice asked, "Do you think he could win, to me he seemed like a support for the team." I immediately realize that the voice is from the supposed teaching assistant. Without turning my eyes away from the arena, I answered "Really, he must be getting good at acting. Shun, well, he's not flashy as us, and I doubt people will pay attention to others when they saw two sharingan users on one team." I paused, looking at the arena, the Iwa-nin was getting angry at the projectiles that Shun kept throwing at him. The Iwa-nin was a rather well-built boy, and Shun was trying to avoid getting close up to him.

"Shun is the smart one, he just doesn't like to show it around," I said as I narrowed my eyes at Shun, who is trying to dodge from the wave of rock from the earth release. "What he doesn't show is that his long range projectiles are almost as good at Itachi, he spent a lot of time on it. It isn't fancy like in the way the Uchihas like to do it, but rather it's the calculation of projectile paths. Just use your sharingan, Hatake-san, and you will see." Shun was still sending waves of shuriken and kunai out at the aggressive Iwa-nin. Occasionally, he will use some water release or wind release to halt the attacks. But from the outsider's point of view, Shun was barely hanging on.

Beside me, Kakashi of sharingan quietly raised his hand to uncover the hitai-ate hiding his left eye. I saw the large scar that ran across his eyes, and when he opened his left eye, I saw the familiar red iris with black tomoes. He stared for a second before widening his eyes in realization.

"So now you see, and it's right on time." I said quietly as the battle ensued. The Iwa-nin was about to finish the attack with another earth release, to him, it seemed like that Shun was no threat but a fly hanging on. But before he could finish the seal, Shun shot out a kunai that seemed to be in the complete opposite direction from his opponent.

It all happened in a blink, while the Iwa-nin was still doing the hand seal, there seemed to be something invisible around him that started to restrain him. His hands were bound by something and he couldn't finish his sign. If one were to look closely, they would see the thin, almost transparent wires wrapping around the Iwa-nin's arm, neck, leg, and fingers.

Of course, those thin wires wouldn't be able to completely restrain the bulky Iwa-nin, however, a second of his immobility is enough. Shun had already finished his hand seal for Mind-Body Disturbance technique. His conscious wrapped around the Iwa-nin precisely, and with a harsh strike, Shun willed the Iwa-nin to picked up his own Kunai and stabbed himself in the chest, barely missing the heart. When Shun's control over his body was over in three seconds, the examiner immediately stopped the match, clearly seeing that Shun could have killed the Iwa-nin with a potential stab to the neck.

"Geez, just how many people you've fooled with that innocent smile of yours?" I teased as Shun walked back triumphantly, and all he did was stuck out his tongue and smiled at me.

"Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black? Either way, I got lucky." Shun said behind me as we continue to watch the match. A few matches later, it's Itachi's turn. No one was really worried about him, that Ame genin really tried to put up a fight, but the moment she let Itachi wrap a genjutsu around her, she was doomed. Itachi finished quickly, using the projectiles and fire release to distract her, and then putting a genjutsu on her. I believe she fainted after the genjutsu. He didn't show his true strength at all, even I wasn't sure how strong he was now.

The round two started right after the first one. There should be nine winners, but in one of the matches between a Suna-nin and Kumo-nin, they almost killed each other, resulting in the Kumo-nin's victory, but he also collapsed from injury right after, causing him to be unable to proceed the matches. The tournament was also a place of showing each village's strength as the Kages were watching. The entirety of the tournament has to be completed on the one day where the Kages were visiting, and since Suna was in charge, it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to scratch off a foreign competitor under the excuse that his injury was too grave. Of course, he did look almost dead, so even if he were to continue, he could be killed in one shot. The way Suna announced him as unable to continue due to injury helped save their faces, since their Suna genin was beaten by this kumo-nin in the first round. So now, there were eight genin left, three from Konoha, one from Kumo, three from Suna and one from Iwa, and we were paired off as four matches:

Kazeyama Sunari (Suna) vs. Kihara Fubuki (Suna)

Uchiha Itachi (Konoha) vs Tsukichi Kenji (Iwa)

Uchiha Maiko (Konoha) vs Omoi (Kumo)

Yamanaka Shun (Konoha) vs. Akihito Katsu (Suna)

I watched in silence while the first match continued. Those Suna genins were good, not in a magical way, but still could be called talented. They only seemed 12 or 13 years old, which were younger than the average age of 14 for chunin exams. One of the Kunoichi, Sunari, was significantly stronger than the other, Fubuki. Unlike Fubuki, who was most likely specialized in ninjutsu/genjutsu by the look of her previous matches, Sunari was an all-rounder. Her hand to hand combat was quite good, especially in a mix of Taijutsu and occasionally some ninjutsu. Against, Fubuki, whose only strength seemed to be her long range wind release and area of effect earth release, the moment Sunari got closed to her, the battle was done. I had a feeling that Sunari would be advancing to the final, although with whom, I had no idea.

The next match, centered around Itachi being awfully calm all the time. The Iwa-nin he faced was not the usual bulky kind you'd imagined, but a lean guy. Still, he could pack a punch, judging from the crater of the impact, I did not want to be hit by those. However, Itachi, like Sunari, was an all-rounder. He may present himself as a ninjutsu/genjutsu long range fighter, but his taijutsu was not to be trifled with. The Iwa-nin was misinformed and got beaten quite quickly.

Soon, I was standing in the arena facing off with Kumo genin who looked as small as me. He had dark tan skin and bleached blonde hair. He had a katana behind his back. I eyed him coldly. I thought I was the youngest at this chunin exam, but apparently, this boy, Omoi seemed to be as young as me, maybe even younger.

"Hey, you specialize in Kenjutsu right? Let's have a fight in kenjutsu." He said coolly. I tipped my head to the side, contemplating his words. It's true my best weaponry was kenjutsu, but my fighting skill did not consist of just that, nor would I say it was my specialty. My specialty was… Assassination.

"No, my kenjutsu is not that good that I'm confident that I can win with it alone." I answered.

"That's a shame, but I will beat you with my sword." Without wasting any time, he pulled out his long katana and charged at me.

Within the blink of an eye, he was in front of me, his katana crashing straight toward my face. I immediately brought my tantō up and blocked his strike. He was obviously stronger than me, as his katana pushed my tantō back towards my face. I couldn't give him the advantage of attacking whenever he wanted since his katana had a longer reach than me, so physically I was at a disadvantage.

Quickly I jumped back and twisted my body in mid-air to avoid another strike at my ribs. I landed a few meters away and started moving quickly. Omoi was following me, he caught up with me and engaged me in another set of kenjutsu battle. He hacked at me with amazing speed, his kenjutsu allowing him to reach a full circle behind him to block my surprise attacks using body flicker. I dodged once again at his full circle swing, lowered my body and aimed for his leg. I just need to slash one nerve, and then his muscle would have fallen apart.

However, he was an intuitive kenjutsu user, he seemed to sense my intention and now we were locked in a stalemate. I was fast enough to dodge his powerful strikes and he was intuitive enough to see through my fast strikes. I jumped up again as he struck towards my neck. Softly, I landed on his katana just for a second and jumped out again, pushing his katana down in the process. I twirled my tantō in my hand down and it grazed him on the shoulder as he dodged it. I flipped away and landed behind him. I struck again, aiming for his neck before he could turn around, but he realized that and quickly he brought his katana up and blocked the strike.

We held our swords in that position for a while, he was pressing forward hard, and I was trying my best to keep his blade from hacking into me. It's now or never, I thought, then I stared into Omoi's eyes with my red eyes, but immediately, he closed his eyes shut. For that second, I spun my tantō around, let his sword slide down on me, moving my body so it wouldn't slice me open. I saw his eyes widen in shock as my sword lost all strength against him and his sword whizzed passed me. I ignored the cut on my arm as his sword fell down, and went for his shoulder. I grabbed his shoulder and elbow, gathering chakra on my left hand on his shoulder and I twisted it down with full force.

At the same as I heard the familiar sound of a shoulder dislocating, I felt a crushing force in my stomach. He punched my stomach just as I dislocated his shoulder. I flew backward, but I balanced my body quickly and rolled my body to minimize the fall. As soon as I got up, I saw Omoi's right arm hanging uselessly and his katana now in his left arm. Alright, Kenjutsu was not working, so let's try other stuff. Quickly I formed the hand seal for fire release, and let a great fireball shot out of my mouth. He started to dodge, but I wasn't finished, up next, phoenix sage fire shot out of my mouth, and he dodged some while canceling some with lightning jutsu. Once again, I did a fire release, I pressed my hands on the ground, and lines of fire ran from my palm toward my target, it looked just like fire serpent trying to catch it's target. He jumped up in haste while trying to dodge both the fire line on the ground as well as the flying sage fire in the air. He used the lightning release to cancel one of the fireballs flying, but as soon as the fire and lightning dissipated, he was staring into my sharingan with the tomoes furiously spinning.

He went into a stupor for a moment as I cast a fast working genjutsu on him, then I sprinted, moving past my own ninjutsu and body flickered behind him, slightly above his head. Then I started a string of familiar motion, as I landed on the ground I locked my arm on his shoulder, brought my knee up and hit his spine. His body was stronger than I thought, and thus, the hit didn't really damage his back, but it just gave a painful feeling and the involuntary curving of his back. Then I bent backward into a bridge, flipping his body over my head and let it crash into the ground head first as I did a backflip as well while still clenching my arms on his neck, choking harder than ever. The moment I landed on his back, I pulled up his neck in an unnatural position. Kill him, don't kill him, kill him, don't kill him. It's simple, his body might be strong, but his neck was still weak and mushy, one twist, he's a goner. But he didn't threaten my survival, therefore no need to kill him.

The debate ended in a flash and I quickly gathered some lightning chakra and pressed my hand on his neck. I clenched the back of his neck hard as I send electrical currents into his body. Strong enough that he would be paralyzed but not enough to kill him. Usually, this amount of current would kill someone instantly if not paralyze them forever. However, this is a ninja world, and our bodies were stronger than normal, especially Omoi's. I kept the current coming until I could no longer feel any resistance. The only sign telling me that he's alive is the occasional spasm of his muscles. Quickly, the proctor announced the winner, not wanting anyone to die in their exam. Omoi was carried off of the arena by the medic, and I left it with large bruising on my stomach.

"Tell me, are you happy with your kenjutsu?" As soon as I walked to where my teammates were sitting, Akira-sensei asked me in an icy tone.

"No." I said honestly, lowering my head a bit in shame. I knew that Akira-sensei spent a lot of time training me in kenjutsu, yet I almost never had the chance to perfect it, as I had another way of fighting that I was more comfortable with. If I just had a straight kenjutsu battle with Omoi, I would no doubt lose.

"That's right, I've been too relaxed with your kenjutsu, and you've grown arrogant with your arsenals. It was your choice to take up kenjutsu from me, so I expect you to master it regardless of what else you can do." Akira-sensei pointed out harshly and I nodded my head. My kenjutsu was definitely lacking, so after the Chunin exam, I would need to spent time master it. But had I grown too arrogant? I had no idea, maybe I had. The logical answer would be that I had. With my previous life, I thought of myself as an adult in a child's body. Was it confidence or arrogance, I was confused. I had grown comfortable with the feeling of being a prodigy, even though half of it was like cheating with answers you gain from your previous lifetime. I debated on other's lives as if they were that simple. Ah, I had definitely grown arrogant, and arrogance leads to downfall. But before I was more time to think about it, Shun's match began.

It was a hard match for him; the Suna-nin, Akihito Katsu was strong just like Sunari. Shun was trying his best, but his opponent's type was just too much of a hassle for him. Katsu specialized in long range wind attacks with his twin tessen, and now that Shun's first trick using projectiles and ninja wires had been exposed, Katsu was very careful to sever all the ninja wires and blow all the projectiles away. Shun might have met his match, but he sure left with a bang. I suddenly understood why he had packs of explosive tags. That explosion was both pretty and heart wrenching. Although Katsu won, he left the arena with half of his cloth burned and black smoke covered his body, and Shun just gave us an apologetic smile before surrendering, claiming his chakra was depleted and all his weapon used. I had no way of telling if that's true or not, but I trust Shun must have had a reason.

When the line-up for the third round came up, all of the member's of my team took a breath and smiled bitterly. It said clearly on the wall, with bold letters and caption:

MATCH ONE: KAZEYAMA SUNARI VS. AKIHITO KATSU

MATCH TWO: UCHIHA ITACHI VS. UCHIHA MAIKO

Oh, this was going to be fun.