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A Mere Formality
The large room we were admitted in was circular, and hosted a reasonably large number of genin hopeful about their chances at a promotion. Instead of focusing on the room itself, however, knowing that Neji would have already blinked on his Byakugan only to be sure that we weren't about to be ambushed, and that maybe my metaknowledge would unsuspectedly turn out to be useful.
Between the lack of synchronous time between the events that I had witnessed in the manga, the years since I had last read it, and the easily underestimated point that this was my actual life, for the time being, I didn't have much luck in spotting anyone with some relevance for Naruto's story. No Jinchuriki appearing conveniently, no strange Sannin masquerading as a genin, nothing strange.
"Remember to focus on the major villages." Kabuto's voice trickled in from my left, "There is a reason why they are 'minor' despite their smaller numbers."
I snorted at the reminder, "You don't have to tell me," I turned towards Neji, "You didn't even notice when you trashed those genin did ya?" I referred to one of the few missions that Team 7 conducted after our first Root-extermination-examination C-rank mission.
Neji's face didn't express his laughter, but his left cheek twitched, and I knew he almost snickered.
"Nobody expects to see a genin from a minor village outshine one of the Great Five." Kabuto kept talking in his somewhat whispery voice, "After all, the best of them have less than 5 middle A-rank jonin, it would be a joke if they trained someone capable of keeping up with you two."
"You're not exactly defenseless, Kabuto." I rolled my eyes at the medic-nin, my thoughts distractedly considering how I could get him to whip up something useful for my longer-term game.
"We can begin." The Suna jonin standing on stage suddenly began, his voice thundering in the room and making everyone quiet down, "The exam will be threefold. The first stage is about to begin. One member from every team will come here and pick a random number." He waited for a second. "Now." I exchanged a look with my teammates, and seeing that Neji had activated his bloodline, I simply shook lightly my head.
There was no point in trying to cheat already if we didn't know yet the task at hand, so I simply walked forth, my bloodline deactivated after I already memorized all the other competitors. I would study them and their likely strengths and plausible weaknesses once I had the time to go over my memories.
I didn't know how many people tended to participate to these things. Generally, the only people knowing the number of the participants with large enough advance were the Kage of the hosting village and those involved in the most important parts of the planning. After all, inviting a bunch of foreign shinobi in your home was a security risk, and not a small one.
It wasn't because of the chunin hopefuls, obviously, most of them wouldn't know the end of a kunai from another, but the Jonin-sensei that accompanied them, which had a blatant excuse to roam some parts of the hidden village, and like Orochimaru would demonstrate in a few years, could easily be infiltrated.
Knowing that much, I placed my hand into an urn and extracted a white rubber ball. The number seven gleaming in black over it. Wasn't it a lucky number?
Once every team had a number, the proctor went ahead: "There were two balls for each number. One member in each team will be given a secret and become a prisoner. The other two members of the team will have to obtain said secret from the other genin who picked the same number." his eyes washed over the suddenly muttering gaggle of genin, "The secret is necessary for the two 'interrogators' to gain access to their fellow countrymen that is being questioned by the other team. In fact, the two interrogators will be given a second piece of information, that coupled to the one of the prisoners will allow them to go ahead."
"Obviously, keeping the secret prevents the 'interrogators' from rescuing their companion." the proctor continued with his bored tone, "The first team that rescues the third member passes this stage. Questions?"
A kunoichi from Iwa raised her hand, she, like me, belonged to the group that extracted the numbers. "What are the two doing the questioning allowed to do?"
The proctor didn't miss a beat: "What are you willing to do for your village?" he waited for an instant, before sighing, "In this phase, however, you're not allowed to cripple your prisoner." the Tokubetsu jonin stared at the Iwa genin with a blank expression that didn't manage to hide his exasperation, "that means no killing and no Bloodline theft, if anyone wants to be a smartass, I'll throw them out them immediately. The interrogators have 15 minutes to obtain the password."
After that stern warning, many sighed in relief, after all, a method to keep the team from rescuing the prisoner would be to kill him.
For a couple of seconds, I was worried as many others, then I remembered that I was overqualified for this shit, only for my metaknowledge to kick in: in the manga, it had been a giant trick. So I just have to free myself? I started to plan, the rules and terms given were willingly and knowingly loose. Enough for someone that thought outside the box to take advantage of them.
I looked around, taking in the general age of the genins. There were some younger and some older than me, on the older side there was a group from Kumo with different swords that reminded me of someone... probably a group of filler characters. So how do I free myself? I started plotting possible solutions, more out of habit and as a mental exercise than out of any real danger that I was feeling.
Soon enough, they separated us and a Suna chunin led me to my 'prison cell'. It was a simple room carved out of the yellowish stone that characterized the buildings in Sunagakure no Sato. The place was lit by a single light bulb, which flickered somewhat menacingly against a single wooden pole that had been forced in the ground at the center of the room
The chunin moved me with my back against the wooden pole and quickly tied me with my hands uncomfortably tight, surprisingly enough, he took the time to force my hands apart thanks to a slab of wood, likely to keep me from performing hand-seals.
"The interrogation is monitored," the Suna shinobi spoke calmly, "in the moment they break the rules, they're out and your team passes this level. Otherwise, you simply have to shout their password, and you'll be let out. But if you guess it wrong, your team gets kicked out of the competition, understood?"
I blinked in surprise at the revelation: "Why telling me?... oh."
I felt a smile blossom on my face, and I didn't bother hiding it: just as in canon the genin was expected to cheat in order to figure out the necessary answers, I could make use of the rules at my advantage if I didn't manage to exploit an eventual loophole. Also, the risk of being thrown out because of shouting the wrong password would stop me from randomly attempting to guess it.
"Your two interrogators will come in a minute after I leave the room. Your team's secret code is 'Dawn'." the Suna shinobi tonelessly said.
He didn't say in a minute, he said a minute after I've left. Exactly one minute. Why not 'will be here shortly'? I nodded thankfully to the chunin, who didn't see fit to gag me since I would need to speak in order to reveal my password.
However, the fact that they didn't see fit to seal my chakra, or even to drug me in order to keep me from activating my doujutsu, meant that I had a very easy way out. How much did Kusagakure know about the total hack that the Sharingan was?
Mind games first, then. I decided when a kunoichi and a shinobi entered the room. Kusa kunoichi. 13. 160 cm. 48kg. No distinctive signs. Pale blond, dark brown eyes. Likely a support role. Kusa shinobi. 15. 175cm. 70kg. A scar across the nose. Slight discoloration of the left iris, possible trauma. Brown hair, brown eyes. No taijutsu or kenjutsu user. Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. They slammed the door behind themselves.
Seriously? This should be intimidating? "When they explained the task I couldn't believe our luck." started conversationally the girl, who, with an uncaring twitch of the wrist palmed a kunai, ready to start cutting in order to get me to talk, "You're a fucking kid! This will be a piece of cake."
"You see, my father is in the Torture and Interrogation department." she went on, "So I shared what I knew, but Hano-kun, here, is a natural. And while we both enjoy this kind of game, we really need to be quick. So, we are going to ask only once, and you are going to tell us." 'The or else torture will start' went unsaid.
The shinobi, Hano, my mind provided, cracked his hands threateningly, a twisted sort of smile spreading on his face.
"So." The girl asked, "What's the secret?"
Hano took a menacing step forward, his eyes meeting the lazily spinning Sharingan just an instant before I repeated the process with the kunoichi.
The shinobi's expression twisted in sudden surprise and immediate fury as he acted basing himself on what my illusion provided as reality: his right fist cracked on the side of the girl's head with all the relatively impressive strength a genin was capable of, followed by an elbow on the vagus nerve on the kunoichi's shoulder, which caused her to drop unconscious.
"Free me, Hano!" I gritted out, feeding new elements to an illusion that would have been able to trick Kakashi for a split second, "Then let's interrogate this little fucking kid!"
I knowingly echoed both the tone and the pitch of the girl, using also the term 'fucking kid' in order to push more on the fact that Hano's companion had been Kawarimed with their actual target.
Quickly, even as he kept an eye on who he believed was Sasuke Uchiha, Hano freed me, and I quickly directed him to tie up his teammate: "Make sure to not tell him our password... ugh," I hesitated, grabbing my head as I simulated a wave of nausea, "That substitution fucked me up, which was our password again?"
The Kusa genin frowned in worry at my words, securing the prisoner with an extremely tight knot: "Did you hit your head against the pole? It's 'Sunset13'..."
I nodded thoughtfully, only to waver and fall on my ass, a shocked expression on my face: "Hano-kun... I don't remember the road to get home... how do we get back to the Village?"
"Well," the Kusa shinobi hesitated, clearly worried about his teammate suddenly developing memory issues, "ordinarily we need to move through the marshes to avoid leaving tracks, but otherwise..."
Twenty minutes later, just as I finished milking Hano for the standard set of paths that genin used to get in and out of Kusagakure, as well as having obtained a rough sketch of the village drawn on the dirt floor with a kunai, the door to the room was opened, Neji was shaking his head in ill-concealed amusement while Kabuto was openly sniggering: "You think they'll give us more point for obtaining actual information?"
"Did you read this idiot's lips when he told me the password?" I asked casually as the Kusa genin fell asleep, "What took you so long?"
Neji nodded: "Kabuto had already drugged our captive, it took us a while to... reassure him enough to freely talk about his village."
"Well, that was... kind of underwhelming. Let's hope the next two stages are more interesting." I murmured, walking out of the room only to notice the amused expressions of the chunin that clearly had been observing our team.
"We're Team 7," I bowed mockingly at the man, "always happy to show up any idiot on our path."
"Stop playing." Neji's voice reached my ears, while his hand started to make a signal as we walked towards the next area.
-READ. LIPS.- he mimicked a suck's beak opening and closing with his left hand, only for his fingers to transition into a closed fist, with his thumb pointed outwards to twirl clockwise, before he raised only his pointer finger towards the ceiling -SEARCH. SURVIVAL.- his fingers were all splayed out in the end, his palm undulating as if mimicking the waves on the sea. Given our location, it could mean only -DESERT.-
"It will be only a formality then." I summarized. Meshed with my metaknowledge, it was easy enough to foretell that we were going to be dropped into an area of the desert, where we would need to find something to gain entrance to the last part of the chunin exams.
With Neji's bloodline, it would be ridiculously easy.
With a sigh, the Hokage rested his back against the throne-like chair of his office, his eyes leaving the report on his most recent gamble in order to wash over the rest of the room.
The three ANBU guards had gotten better, their presence all but completely invisible to his senses, but Bear's havit of shaving every morning with a kunai meant that the slight dampness of his skin dragged just a bit too much against the collar of his uniform, producing a sound that was easily picked up by Sarutobi's unreasonably sharp senses.
Peacock, on the other hand, was completely invisible to the mundane senses, but his vast reserves of chaotic chakra made it difficult for him to completely erase his presence from the aged Kage's senses.
Rat was... Sarutobi blinked, temporarily distracted by the absolute absence of his presence, that shouldn't have been... the hidden ANBU exhaled, revealing her presence for a split second before she held her breath once more, apparently ceasing to exist.
The Sandaime turned his head minutely towards the kunoichi who managed the feat of complete ghosting, if only for minutes at a time while she kept herself from breathing, and nodded slightly, complimenting her silently.
After his eyes roamed once last time over the slightly reduced pile of paperwork he had left to shift through, he lit his pipe and lowered his hat over his brow, his weary eyes closing slowly.
And as he rested his eyes, lazy swirls of smoke leaving his pipe, his thoughts shifted as they often did, between the political moves necessary to stave off, if not outright avoid, war, and the more recent reports about the extremely promising, if troublesome, Team 7. There was little doubt now, that given the curve of their growth, both Sasuke and Neji could achieve S-rank. Which was unheard of for a Hyuga, and slightly unnerving in the case of the extremely young Uchiha.
Despite their numbers and strength, the Hyuga Clan tended to produce a large amount of A-rank shinobi, their bloodline, nurtured as it was, granted a capable ninja with almost blanket immunity from genjutsu that relied even minutely on sight, it made them skillful trackers and expert recognitors, which coupled with their unique brand of taijutsu turned them in good operatives for both capture and wet works intended to send a message.
After all, when a single touch could explode your heart, it left for a chilling reminder of the might of Konoha. Not only that, but a softer use of the Gentle Fist meant that capture could be achieved simply by shutting down the opportune tenketsu, and their bloodline allowed great insight into the human body: it was difficult to lie to someone that could almost see your neurons flare when coming up with a likely but not quite a truthful story.
Still, the genin in Hatake's care, which apparently was from time to time nudged in the right direction from the Uchiha, who knew him well enough to handle his personality with only a few words, seemed unrelenting in his growth. His power grew steadily, if in predictable directions as he maintained his chakra control as perfect as it could be, while he adapted to the evergrowing roost of capabilities that his rival picked up like pebbles from the ground.
When the Visual Genjutsu stopped having any kind of effect on Neji, the Uchiha figured out how to use sound as a trigger. When Sasuke apparently spotted a hole in the perfect vision of Neji, the latter pulled a Main Branch Technique out of his ass. When his fingers started to deal massive amounts of damage to the muscles, and not only the tenketsu, the Uchiha personally made use of the months he had spent observing a wide variety of craftsmen to adjust pieces of armor he had in the compound into something that closely resembled Madara's blood-red defensive equipment.
And if the glint in Sasuke's eye had been an indication, it appeared that the young survivor was not only aware of the fact, but that he intended to use it as a weapon, turning his appearance, with his fully developed Sharingan and shaggy mane of black hair that reached the middle of his back, into a fearmongering promise of ruin.
One he will need to grow into. The Hokage's lips almost twitched in amusement at the nine years old kid that tried to summon the memory of Madara through his appearance. In truth, had he not known of his learning curve and creativity, he would have actually laughed.
When the Hyuga started to harness his Doton affinity to turn punches into hammer blows capable of putting the Uchiha's armor to the test, the latter started making use of a tanto, and later a small jian that he forged for himself, accounting for the diminutive size that characterized the nine and half years old. All that in order to keep the admittedly lethal hands of his rival from landing a blow during their constant sparring.
The two seemed to almost make a game of it: who could come up with something to erase the advantage of the other.
With absolutely 0 shame, the Hyuga added a ceramic, ANBU quality armor to his equipment, along with twin, butterfly swords. Both the defensive and offensive equipment were hidden under the large folds of his white and grey traditional Kimono. The two short blades, which rested in the same scabbard, were short enough to be easily incorporated in the swinging motions of the Gentle Fist, and their hooks turned them into a nightmare against any other swordsman.
The evergrowing Ninjutsu repertory of Sasuke, whose talent in Katon was still unheard of even as he complemented it with the less chakra-intensive applications of Raiton, was more or less stopped cold by a combination of Vacuum Palms, Kaiten, and Earth Natured Ninjutsu that rose opportune covers from the ground.
Truly, the plan of throwing Gai at the two genin to force them to adapt to a staggeringly vast repertory of close combat, while making Kakashi run them ragged both in Ninjutsu and Hunting, making the two chakra control freaks learn how to mask their presence, how to spot when they were being followed, and how to track had been both obvious and, from the reports or the occasional glance into his crystal ball, beneficial.
The deep belief of Gai into the practice of building a personal philosophy to live by hadn't apparently brought stark changes in the Uchiha, but both he and the Hyuga had been spotted simply looking in the night sky, deep in reflection about, plausibly, their place in the world.
The Uchiha had made use of his influence and insight into his companion to talk to him about his well-earned grudge against the Main Branch. And, during the previous couple of months, Neji had gradually come to realize that misplaced hate is a useful tool for the enemy to manipulate you by. On one hand, he had stopped almost killing the Hyuga heiress during the mandatory spars that Hiashi forced on the two, on the other, his hate for the elders and his uncle, in particular, had focused and sharpened into steely resolve.
If not for the existence of the Caged Bird Seal, there would have been worry about Neji's growing skills. So insightful when it comes to the Hyuga. Sarutobi sighed, his thoughts turning towards the young Sasuke, who had made genuine connections with his to-be peers.
A shinobi of his strength with the Caged Bird Seal as an obvious weakness... that won't do. the Sandaime Hokage pushed that thought to the back of his mind before focusing once more on the other potential problem.
If the Uchiha ever learned about the truth of his clan, his reaction would be unpredictable... on one hand, the young prodigy had shown enough pragmatism and cleverness to realize the tactical implications of his family's planned coup, on the other, the image of Itachi as a traitor had been deemed useful to ensure the loyalty of his brother.
The latter's growth had brought forth the uneasy feeling that history could repeat itself in some echelons of Konohagakure. Oh, many were blind to the possibility, after all, their hearts went out for the sole survival of his clan, who wanted to become powerful enough to revenge his poor parents. Hiruzen knew that besides Danzo, only Hatake had an idea about the possibility that Itachi wasn't what met the eye, but the recently ex-ANBU was trained enough to not poke his nose when he wasn't allowed to.
The Sandaime knew that in theory there wasn't any proof for the young Uchiha to uncover, there weren't tracks that could link Hokage Tower to the Massacre. But... Sasuke, even if generally quiet and unwilling to go out of his way to make his thoughts known unless Neji's development was in the way, was inquisitive. It was clear because of how his Sharingan had been stressed to learn a multitude of crafts in Konoha, because of how he freely experimented both with his ninjutsu and his hobbies, which ranged from blacksmithing to gardening, from cooking to kite-making.
In truth, with less than another year of training, Neji Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha would be able to force Kakashi to go all out, his larger chakra reserves the only reason he would be able to outlast the Doujutsu Duo.
The potential was there, for both of them: the Uchiha's reserves were well above average if only because of his constant risking chakra exhaustion, his Katon manipulation was as good as it would get, while he was halfway through with his Raiton. The Hyuga would undoubtedly become the most terrifying close-quarters fighter of Konoha once his body matured enough for Gai to start truly hammering him into shape.
Danzo's proposal had merit, there was no way to deny it. The fact that the Uchiha Clan had a single member outside of Sasuke had more or less silenced the unrest that the Sharingan wielders caused with their existence.
Maybe Hiruzen could force himself to do it, after all, he had placed Kakashi in an impossible position with Team 7, his authority had been almost non-existent since the very first day, and the genuine trust that always formed in your first genin team simply hadn't managed to blossom. Not when the Uchiha and the Hyuga were so closely tied together, not when neither managed to bring themselves to trust Kabuto, and not when Kakashi lacked the emotional depth to generate any shape of sympathy.
Maybe there would be a way for the God of Shinobi to salvage that part of the Hyuga and Uchiha. Maybe...
After the tournament. He promised himself. Even if they are a mere formality by now.
With another sigh, he opened his eyes, which rested briefly on the open report on his desk. The results of the first two stages of the chunin exams were a simple confirmation of what he had already known: truly, the exams were nothing but a formality.
AN
I did start this chapter by basically copy-pasting the chunin exams of my other naruto fic, then I thought 'are these parts necessary?' do they give more exposition to the characters, reveal some fuckery going on in the background, or set up something that I'll be able to use later?
The answer was... 'more or less'. So I didn't bother pulling anything new out of my hat, instead of milking the occasion to push forward and faster, nearing us to the big ass plot twist that I have going on in the background. I forced myself through the second stage and set up the traditional tournament that everyone was expecting.
I wanted to mention some of what the Hyuga and the Uchiha have pulled out during the training, and so I used Sarutobi to give a different perspective on it.
Also, while Gai and Lee are blatantly inspired by Bruce Lee, the Gentle Fist is Wing Chung plus Tai Chi.
Both in this fic and in Meddling Giant I've refrained from writing the date at the top of the page, has anyone caught this fact? I used to think it allowed for an easier following of the progression of the events, as well as being useful to me when I have to make snap-references to past chapters. But I'm trying out this format (the lack of a date) because I'm trying to carry on stories in which I remove what is not necessary.
In my first fics, I've often published things that acted as a potential setup for stuff that I've never come around to use, and they weighted considerably the story with no benefit whatsoever.
So... opinions?