A/N: And the next chapter is here. Covering the first exam completely. I'm trying to incorporate both manga and DoS but mainly it's Kairi being surprised by changes. Anyhow, I hope you like this chapter too.

As the Sea calls 5
The Little Match Girl

Kairi met her jounin-sensei and teammates in front of Konoha's Ninja Academy.

"Good luck, all three of you." Natsuhiko told them before leaving to join the other jounin at wherever they convened. He did whisper yet another 'order' for the girl to know. Kairi didn't react to it and just gave a look at Hara and Souseki. This would be trial.

"Let's go then. Floor three, room 301." She gestured them to follow. And to her astonishment they did it with minimal grumbling. While Hara was usually very vocal in his protests about anything that Kairi did and Souseki was a prissy bastard sniffing disdainfully at both of them, apparently Natsuhiko managed to beat some sense into them during the past week.

The Academy was a real maze. It served a tactical purpose and gave an edge for Konoha-nin but was also the first obstacle, even if not an official one. It took a moment to find stairs that led directly to the second floor and not a floor in between the two at some other part of the academy. It took a moment more to find the only corridor that led to stairs to the third floor. And there was a genjutsu around the doorway about the middle of it. Considering the amount of stairs, it was easy to confuse genin from any village with that genjutsu.

The most current problem was the genin blocking the corridor.

"Alright. Can you henge into something that can easy slip past everyone? We'll see at the stairs beyond the corridor." Kairi asked the boys. Hara paused thoughtfully while Souseki grinned before flashing through the handseals.

With a mild puff of smoke, a gopher snake was in his place and slithered towards the sea of legs. There was surprised shouts but it looked like no one tried to kill the boy. Hara went next, as a gecko along the wall over the doorway.

"Ho? They can actually be sneaky then." Kairi mused but forwent subtlety. She transformed into Shanna and raced towards the other genin, most of them surprisingly from Konoha. She jumped up, landed on the head of the closest one and then leaped at the next head. And next. And next. All the way to the other side of the crowd. People let out cries in surprise and slight pain when her claws dug into their scalp.

"Who let animals in?!" Someone shouted. Kairi laughed/barked at that and dodged aside when someone tried to catch her. Cancelling the henge as soon as she was on the floor and behind a corner, she met up with her teammates.

"That was fun." She remarked to the boys. Hara snorted while Souseki was still grinning disturbingly. Without much ado, the trio walked up to the final stairs and found the room where some of the genin were already gathered at.

Kairi took a seat by the benches lining the classroom/auditorium. The same benches that the chuunin proctors would sit on later during the written portion. Souseki and Hara sat next to her. All three of them looked around the room at the genin assembled there. Kairi noted that Team 1 was there already and so was the Oto team, Kabuto's team and two out of three rookie teams of Konoha. Well, it was three-thirty-one. Bit less than half-an-hour left for the rest to arrive.

There was some vaguely familiar faces too that Kairi remembered from her previous exams. Like that team from Ame with a kunoichi that had shuriken shaped earring. Or that team from Taki dressed in kimonos. And… Oh, that Kusa team had Uzumaki Karin with them. While recognizing all three of them, only the two boys Kairi had actually seen before in the Iwa exams.

The doors opened a couple of times and every time everyone's attention shifted to the newcomers, assessing, judging.

Team 3 arrived next. Neji's eyes flickered to Kairi, the boy probably remembering her and her chakra from the training sessions, but didn't indicated otherwise knowing her. Good. She really didn't need Lee causing a scene.

The last team to arrive – not surprisingly considering the rules of narrative – was team 7. And Kairi's suspicions about the Nara girl being Sakura's replacement were confirmed. As Sakura was missing, the interactions between the rookie teams were tamer than in canon. Less explosive and loud. Though still noisy enough. It started with Yamanaka Ino who went to glomp Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sasuke, where've you been? Boy, you have no idea how much I was hoping you'd show up here. I've missed those broody good looks of yours." The blonde Yamanaka girl said. Where was the honorific? Or were the rookies closer to each other in this universe?

"Took you guys long enough." Nara Shikamaru spoke next. "I thought you were going to be late."

"Of all the habits I could pick from sensei, that's the one I want least. We got waylaid on the way in." The Nara girl replied to her clan's heir. Hmm… how close were they? Clans were quite big and most likely they knew each other from the Academy, but it could be that they were more directly related too.

"The genjutsu?"

"Nah. One of the other teams. Year above us. Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga and Tenten. Watch out for them." Huh. Kairi blinked. Western order when addressing people? But in Suna and Iwa both they had eastern order. Kairi had noted that people used longer and more formal name of other villages than of their own but that was just natural. Home was home after all. But this… This was interesting quirk. Was it just the language that was pseudo-Japanese or some other cultural/universal difference?

"Well, well, whaddaya know? It looks like the whole gang's back together again." Inuzuka Kiba approached his former classmates with his team.

"Backstreet's back alright…"

"You guys too, huh? Man, everyone's here for this stupid this." Shikamaru complained.

"Yup, here we all are. The Nine Rookies. This is going to be fun. At least… for those of us good enough to make the cut. Right, Sasuke?" Kiba's tone was… not wrong per say but different. Now that Kairi really thought about it, so had Ino been.

"Kiba. Careful you don't get overconfident." Sasuke replied to the challenge. He was more relaxed than expected as well.

"Just you wait. We're going to blow you guys away. We've been training like crazy."

"What do you think we've been doing?" Naruto rose to the bait but not biting it. "Sitting around picking daisies? You don't know what training means!"

"Uh, don't mind Kiba. I'm sure he didn't really mean anything by it." Hinata said then. 'Speaking up' was a bit wrong word since Kairi could barely hear her voice despite how well the slight shifts of the air currents in the room had carried the rest of the conversation to her. It was a handy eavesdropping method that didn't even require that much chakra. Kairi first jounin instructor had taught it to her, Koto and Yomi during their first year as genin. Haruko had been a good sensei. Strict but fair.

"Don't worry about it, Hinata." The Nara girl told the Hyuuga. Damn, what was her name? "We're all going to do our best."

"Damn right we are." Ino agreed with her… friend? "I didn't come here to let some little test beat me."

"Sheesh, you guys sound confident." And there was Kabuto, in his way to 'help' the rookies and gain their trust. Kairi kept her face impassive but her eyes followed the spy's movements. Her hand went to her pocket where a little slip of paper was tucked away. The paper was from Natsuhiko-sensei. And it was Kairi's job to get it to the Oto spy. She didn't know what was written in it and she didn't want to know.

Kairi didn't like Kabuto. Hadn't liked as Katie and still didn't like him. He was interesting and complex yes but she liked him better before his backstory. When she thought of him as the boy saved from warzone and just Orochimaru's spy. Not when he was Root agent that had worked in many countries and later became an Orochimaru-copy that immediately hopped into Madara-bandwagon. His originality was stripped away with that. While he reformed himself during the war… Just no. Kairi didn't want to interact with him.

"I mean, no offence, but you are the nine rookies, right? Fresh out of the Academy. I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. You might wanna try keeping it down." True.

"Well who asked you?" Ino snapped at the boy. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi. But really-…"

At this point Kairi glanced at the Nara girl who'd frozen stiff. It wasn't quite killing intent that went through the tiny girl but something akin to it. Something very subtle stemmed from strong and sudden emotions but without clear direction and intent, thus only lurking beneath skin. It was all in body-language and with the girl so young and inexperienced, she couldn't quite conceal it.

Kabuto showed his ninja-info cards. One with statistics about the participating genin team by country. Kairi remembered the statistics too. It was all in her Archive. 153 individuals overall. 51 teams. Ten from Suna, seven from Ame, two from Kusa and Taki both, one from Oto and Getsu and… 28 teams from Konoha.

"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates? Individually?" Sasuke asked the older boy. Technically it was possible to scout out people during the week after the jounin instructors nominate the kids but… stats about strength and missions, especially of those out of village, were impossible to find. Not to mention the sheer amount of cards the guy had. It was impossible to get information out of everyone even if some were retaking the exam in such a timeframe. And those things should've alerted people.

"Well, I can't promise my information is complete or perfect. But I've got something on just about everyone. Including you guys, of course. So which one is it? Anything you know about them. A description, where they're from, whatever." Kabuto told the boy.

"Rock Lee." Sasuke said.

"And the team from Sand with… Gaara." The Nara girl added. Huh, yet another deviation. Before Sasuke said both of the names. Kairi really shouldn't be surprised anymore.

"Aww, you even know their names. That's no fun." Kabuto complained good-naturedly. "Let's see…"

Kairi already knew the stats of Lee and Gaara both so she tuned out of the conversation. Instead, she plotted how to get the paper she had to Kabuto. Most likely during the written portion when they all were sitting in the chairs. She was pretty decent with chakra strings. Or then she could boldly introduce herself to him. They'd seen in previous exams too after all and 'shared the misfortune'.

"Well, at least you're confident." Kabuto told Naruto and Kiba as he made to leave. "Maybe that will be enough, yeah? I better get back to my team. The exam will probably start soon."

The older boy walked away from the rookies, first towards the aisle between the row of desks but with a flick of her wrist, Kairi attracted his attention. Well, actually she used a chakra string to snag his ankle. Not to pull or trip him. Just enough to hold and gain his attention. Once she got it, Kairi got on her feet and approached the older boy.

"Nice to see another veteran and familiar face here, Yakushi-san." The girl greeted. And technically she wasn't lying. It was just that she didn't want to see this particular face.

"Ah, Fuukatsu-san." Kabuto smiled back and of course he knew her name. "I see you're trying again. Better luck this time?"

"The same to you." She offered her hand for shaking. The older teen took it. The paper changed location. "I won't be holding back though." Unlike you.

"I wouldn't expect it." Give me a good show.

"Good luck for the big day." Even if it won't be like expected.

"The same to you." Don't forget your mission.

And they parted ways just when the proctors from Intelligence division arrived in an explosion of chakra. Kairi let her eyes follow the spy's back while her teammates got up and sidled next to her. They were quiet but not suspicious of her. That and they didn't want the proctors' attention either.

"Alright, you baby-faced degenerates! Pipe it down and listen up!" Morino Ibiki bellowed. "It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor and from this moment… your worst enemy."

That was certainly dramatic. And… Kairi just realized that the Oto team hadn't attacked Kabuto. Why? What had changed? What happened in canon that didn't happen here to provoke the Oto-nin any further…

Naruto. Naruto didn't announce to beat everyone in the room. He was calmer and not agitated by Kiba and Ino and…

Pages and images flashed past Kairi's eyes as she accessed her Archive. Yes, it needed a capital letter. But because the whole discussion between the rookies and later with Kabuto had been so different. Could it really be that the Nara girl was behind it all? Kairi knew butterfly and ripple effects but that girl hadn't even spoken that much. Yet…

"Just how much influence have you had on your friends, little deer?" Kairi thought with narrowed eyes as she glanced at the group still by the door. It was going to be interesting but how much all these changes would affect the plot?

"Now if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the chunin exam. Hand over your paperwork. In return you'll be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated." Ibiki explained just in time for Kairi to tune in to listen to the instructions.

"Written test?" Hara hissed. Souseki sighed in dismay.

"So… disappointing for Konoha to assign written test." The prissy boy muttered. Shouldn't he be happy that he didn't need to go to the forest now?

Three registration forms in exchange for the paper exams and the seat numbers. The number plates had been organized in groups of three, making sure that the members of the same team weren't sitting anywhere near each other.

Place number thirty-five. Approximate in the middle of the left part of the third row. Each row had fifteen genin sitting and doing the test. Kairi's both teammates were sitting in the rows behind her.

"Everyone, eyes front." Ibiki barked and began explaining the rules. Kairi kept her face impassive. She knew the rules and dearly hoped that neither of the boys would fail her. She looked at the chuunin sitting by the wall. Hagane Kotetsu, Kamizuki Izumo, Tobitake Tonbo… and naturally bunch of unknowns. Well, regardless, Kairi would be doing her best.

"You have one hour total. Begin!"

Scratching of pens filled the room. Kairi read through all the questions. The answering space was ridiculously small for some of them. But nevertheless, no run of the mill genin could answer those questions. Not necessarily many chuunin either.

"Umm… I'd just like to know one thing…" A girl got up from her seat. She was from Suna too. Nejiri was her name. "How many teams will pass this test?"

"It's not like knowing will help you." Ibiki answered. "Or do you want to be disqualified?"

"No, sorry…" Nejiri sat back down. Kairi felt sorry for the girl. She wouldn't be promoted in these exams either.

No matter though. She needed to concentrate on her own answers. The cipher was easy, Kairi used those all the time. Math was alright. History very easy. Economics, blegh but alright too. Politics she liked even less. Physiology… so and so.

Around her people were more or less cheating. And some were getting caught. She finished with the ninth question and was lying her pen on the table when a strange sensation took her over. Like falling sleep but it was too sudden to actually happen. But there was no strange smell so it wasn't drugs. Besides neither genin next to her were reacting the same.

But Kairi didn't have a chance to ponder about her situation when she was already falling yet her body remained seated.

"What is going on?"

It was like she was showed back and as a passenger in her own body. Kairi found herself sitting on a giant book in a clearing that had the map of the world drawn to the ground. There were some trees and flowers but they didn't seem… natural. Not really.

"Where am I?"

Kairi twisted on her seat and looked at the cover of the book. It was her family book. Looking around the clearing, she found bookshelves between the trees.

"Is this a genjutsu? Or my mind?"

Mind… Hadn't she been sitting around in the same line than where Sakura had sat in canon? Straight on the firing line for Ino to use her family jutsu.

"Just brilliant…" Kairi sighed. "But I guess this isn't the intended side-effect for the Yamanaka jutsu. I'm simply different from the rest."

Then as suddenly as she had been pushed back, she was brought back to reality. Kairi's hand caught the edge of the desk to brace herself against when she was in control of her body once more. Her pen and paper had moved a couple of centimeters to the right while she'd been… absent.

"Sloppy…" The teen muttered. "Very sloppy, Ino-chan…"

Not only for the fact that Kairi noticed that someone else had touched her answer paper but the proctors certainly noticed Ino using the jutsu on her.

People were getting caught more and more.

Slam!

"Do you have any proof that I cheated 5 times?" Komaza, a Suna-nin just called out shouted at the proctors. Are you guys really watching us at all-…"

Tobitake Tonbo slammed the boy to the wall.

"Listen, among chunins we are the elite that were assembled to watch over this exam. We haven't missed anything you've done. You could say that this strength is our proof."

The boy and his team was escorted out.

More time passed. Kankuro implemented his plan and went to visit the bathroom and returned just in time for the final question.

"Listen up! Here's the tenth and final question. But first, there are some things you need to know. These rules are unique to question ten, so listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you." Ibiki announced. Not frighten. Yeah, right. Kairi snorted but listened to the rules anyways. People protested. Temari, Kiba and many others. And the situation just stretched and stretched. People dropped out. And then Naruto did… well, it was probably an early form of Talk no Jutsu.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want, but you guys aren't going to scare me off! No way. I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life. I'll still become Hokage someday!"

"Well, I admire your determination, if nothing else." Ibiki replied and gave a dramatic pause. Were all Konoha-nin dramatic assholes? "For those of you remaining, there's just one thing left to do. That's for me to tell you… you've passed the First Exam."

Kairi sighed in relief, letting the tension pour out of her. She had gotten through. Hara and Souseki hadn't failed either. She survived that Yamanaka mind-jutsu thing.

"Hold on, what just happened?" Someone asked. Kairi saw them wearing a Taki headband.

"There never was one. Not a written one at least." And wasn't it disturbing how the head of T&I was grinning happily now. A complete one-eighty from his previous attitude. "Actually, you could say that your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second, so the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time? Is that what you're saying?" Temari demanded angrily. Damn, she had temper. Kairi had forgotten it even if she'd seen plenty of examples of it during academy.

"No, not at all. Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important overriding purpose. To test your abilities to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

Intelligence and infiltration. Two things quickly becoming Kairi's specialties. The girl dug out one of her card decks and began shuffling it while listening attentively. She needed to do something with her hands to destress herself.

"Information. It can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather information can determine whether a mission is a failure or a success. There'll be times you have to risk your life to get it."

Pen is mightier than sword.

Knowledge is power.

Books! Best weapons in the world!

The previous world was full of quotes and wisdoms promoting learning and knowledge. It was theme in fantasy books where the greatest weapon wasn't a sword or anything like that but something intangible. And limiting information was a way for the dictators to gain control over their people. Censorship, forbidden books, blocked websites… Times changed but the methods remained the same and carried over to other worlds too.

And Ibiki's scars under his bandana were truly horrifying. Were those from the last war? Kairi couldn't imagine torture like that being implemented during peacetime no matter how rocky the relationship between villages was. But during war Ibiki would've been… A preteen? Same age than Kakashi anyways. So maybe not during war then. It was doubtful that he would've been in a position to be captured and then survive the torture. So peacetime torture it was then. How fun…

Kairi pulled a faced but kept shuffling her cards while the explanation continued and Ibiki finally covered his head again.

"…Can you chose to avoid danger? No. There will be many missions that seem almost suicidal if you think about it. But you do not think about it. You think only of the goal achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a chunin squad leader."

And that was why after Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang, hero of Second Great Shinobi War, was scorned and looked down upon and blamed and beaten down. Why he chose to take his own life so his son didn't need to live in the shame he brought to his name. Why, despite him saving his teammates lives like Konoha promoted their shinobi to do, he was driven into corner, friendless and alone and with no other way out than with his trademark tanto. He broke the rules. He was considered trash. And abandoned by his friends and comrades. Those essentially worse than trash.

Kairi admired the man. And despised his teammates. And she was certain that Danzo had something to do with the failure. Either faulty information or deliberately wrong information. After all the old goat was a warmonger and puppetmaster.

"You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this stage of the Chunin Selection Examination completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck." Ibiki concluded his speech.

And then the window broke.

"Heads up, boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi!" The woman who emerged from a bundle of cloth announced. And wow, she wasn't wearing a bra under that fishnet. Well, at least her trench coat was obscuring her assets slightly. But the way she entered the auditorium… Kairi couldn't help but giggle quietly at the woman.

"78? Ibiki? You let 26 teams to pass?" Anko asked her superior officer. "Easiest first exam in ages!"

"There are a lot of good candidates this time." The head of T&I replied.

"Bah, that's fine. I'll cut them at least in half in the second test." The woman scoffed before turning to the genin still seated. "Alright, you maggots have had it easy, but thing will be different starting first thing in the morning. Meet me at Training Ground 44. Dismissed!"

And that was that. Kairi got up from her seat and swept out of the room, Hara and Souseki following after her.

"I'm glad that neither of you did nothing stupid."

"The test was easy. Gathering information even easier." Souseki smiled but didn't elaborate. Hara was scowling. He probably didn't fare that well and had banked on scraping the last points from the last question. Like Naruto had in canon.

"I see." The girl nodded. "Now excuse me, I'm going back to hotel."

Five days together with the boys, she deserved some alone time before that. And maybe she could go to check that yakiniku place too. She was hungry and who knew what she could eat once that the forest. She had no idea if anything there was edible or if she'd have to live with rations.

A/N: Anko's line "Easiest first exam in ages!" is taken from Naruto Finnish edition and translated into English. Because it was simply better than the scans in mangareader provided. And it's something I remember despite last having read the Finnish edition almost ten years ago. Okay, it was eight years.

Kairi... plays a spy. And thinks about Kabuto's backstory. Honestly I think that the manga was better before Danzo and Madara were introduced. And when it didn't try to redeem and explain every single villain. I mean... read the exam arc again with fresh eyes and look at Kabuto. Hell, look at Neji before the prelimins. He actually seems to care and acknowledge Lee. First impressions are just so much better than backstory.

Replies to Reviews:

-kankanime123:
Yup, I've decided that she'll make it to the finals. But... considering how the tournament goes, I't possible that Kairi doesn't get a chance to shine... Unless I pit him against Shikamaru when Kankuro forfeits...

-10th Squad 3rd Seat:
Yes, she is. Even when she has cheat codes in her head, she can work without them too. :)
Oh yes. I love foxes. They are just so cute. I needed some animal that survives on desert and foxes were the first that came to mind that appealed to me.

-Guest:
Thank you. I'm glad you like Kairi. :)

-The Real Chys Lattes:
Someone yes. But I think that because they're summons, they aren't solid enough reason for people to hate someone else. I mean, if she had snakes, then it would be a different matter...

-fatjack36:
Thank you. I try to update every second day or so. I have a good writing rhythm currently but who knows what happens next. I have other fics to update too...