Two Hundred and Fifty Nine.
"What are we going to do about our teams for the chunin exams?" Asuma asks Kakashi and Kurenai. "We are all missing one member of our team, so if one of us splits our team between the other two, there will be two full teams. However, we don't want to create team formations our genins will hate us for."
"I say we let them decide what the team formations should be," says Kakashi. "They might decide to do an all girls team and an all boys team, or they might surprise us with who gets to be on which team."
"I agree," says Kurenai. "It will be fun to watch them fight it out."
Asuma agrees, so they head off to round up their genins. Once Madoka, Sasuke, Hinata, Kiba, Choji and Ino are all gathered together, Asuma tells them to choose what way they will split the teams. "You can do one person from each team on both teams or you can split one team between the other two. It's your choice."
"I say we split up one team," says Ino. "I want Madoka on our team."
"That would be unfair," points out Sasuke. "You and Madoka are both medics. If you're going to split up Team Seven it would be better to put Madoka on Team Eight."
"That's right," chimes in Hinata. "If we split one team between two, then we can't put both medics on the same team. I agree with Ino that we should split team Seven, and also with Sasuke that we should put Madoka on Team Eight."
"Well from a tactical perspective, that is the better way to do it," sighs Ino. "But I don't know much about how Sasuke fights and I feel like we could work better with Madoka."
"I'm with Hinata," says Choji. "Besides, Sasuke is really strong, so we get a massive power boost to our team if we get Sasuke."
"See that's why I'd rather have Sasuke on our team," says Kiba. "Madoka might be a medic, but Sasuke is hella strong."
"Let's flip a coin," says Madoka, pulling one out of his pocket. "Heads I join Team Ten, tails I join Team Eight."
"Go," says Sasuke.
Madoka flips the coin. "Tails. Looks like you're joining Team Ten, Sasuke."
The cross-village chunin exams are being held in the Hidden Rain. Sasuke hopes she will see Itachi there. It's been a year since Sasuke's first attempt at the chunin exams, and if she hadn't gotten her grounding sentence absolved, she might very well still be grounded and unable to take part. The teams from the Leaf and their jounin senseis arrive in the Hidden Rain the day before the first test. Team Shisui and Team Guy are there, along with Team Asuma and Team Kurenai. Kakashi sensei didn't come, saying he doesn't need to because Kurenai and Asuma will keep an eye on Sasuke and Madoka.
The day of the First Round arrives, and the teams make their way to the designated room. Upon arrival, Sasuke sees some familiar faces. Haku, Suigetsu and Namiko are sitting on a table at the back of the room, chatting while they wait for the proctors to arrive.
"Hey Namiko," says Hinata, high-fiving Namiko.
"Hello Hinata," says Namiko solemnly. "If we end up fighting, I will not hold back."
"I should hope not," says Hinata, grinning.
"Madoka, Sasuke," says Haku, smiling at them. "It's been a while. I see you are fully recovered Sasuke. That is good."
A team of Stone ninjas enters the room. They see Namiko and head over. "Are you even old enough to be taking these exams?" the ringleader asks, getting close enough to look down on Namiko intimidatingly. "You barely look old enough for the Academy."
Namiko stares at the ringleader in the eye and says, "I graduated from the Hidden Mist Academy about a year or two ago. I am perfectly qualified to take the chunin exams."
"Is she one of those girls that looks super young for no apparent reason?" asks one of the other stone ninja. "She looks about seven."
"I am about seven," says Namiko evenly.
"But she acts like an old lady," says Suigetsu, grinning.
At that precise moment, the clock mounted on the wall at the front of the room strikes nine, the hour appointed for the exam to begin. A bird bursts out of the door underneath the clock face crying cuckoo, cuckoo!
Sasuke wonders what kind of morons are proctoring the first stage of the exam.
The sound of crows cawing heralds the arrival of the proctors. When the flock of crows disperses and the cuckoo clock stops making noise, who should be standing at the front of the room but Itachi and Kisame of Akatsuki.
Sasuke groans.
"Do you know them?" asks the stone Ninja ringleader.
"Itachi is my sister," says Sasuke glumly. "This is going to be a weird test."
Itachi snaps her fingers and the doors close and lock. "Now that we are all here," says Itachi. "Let's begin. I am Itachi Uchiha, and this is my partner in crime Kisame Hoshigaki. We are with Akatsuki."
"Akatsuki is gonna proctor this exam because we are less likely to be biased towards certain villages," chimes in Kisame. "Itachi and I are your proctors for the first round."
"The first Round is a paper test," says Itachi. "You will each have a sheet of ten questions to answer. Everyone from your team must answer at least one question correctly or you will fail. If anyone is caught cheating they will instantly be disqualified. Note that I say caught. If we only suspect you are cheating, we will not disqualify you, but if we catch you red handed you are out."
"So cheat but don't get caught," Sasuke whispers to Choji.
"Out of every team that makes it to the end of the First round," says Kisame. "Only the top 20 will pass - but that's only if more than 20 teams pass this test. However, if the number of teams gets down to 15, we will stop this round and advance the remaining teams. Any questions? No?"
"Good," says Itachi. "Now before we begin, there are some rules you must follow. 1) You are not to leave your assigned seat for the duration of the test, even for a toilet break. You should have gone before you came here. 2) You are not allowed to fight or harm any other candidate in any way for the duration of this test. 3) There will be no talking during this test, even to ask us questions. You had your chance, and now you must be silent."
"Come and receive your tests and one of these seating cards," says Kisame, holding up a tile with a number on it. "Then find your seat and stay there. Do not begin your test until we say you can."
They line up to collect their tests and numbers. When it is her turn to take her test, Sasuke mouths to Itachi, who she knows can read lips, Shisui still doesn't know about the matching outfits. Dad thinks it's hilarious and Mum thinks it's adorable.
Itachi grins. I'll visit after the chunin exams. She mouths.
Sasuke takes her test, grinning, and then takes her number from Kisame. Sasuke goes and sits down, noting confused expressions from the other test takers. What is the test? Sasuke reads it. Question One: How many kinds of dango are there in the Hidden Rain? Question Two: Why do tiger sharks only ever give birth to one or two babies at a time? Question Three: How many eggs, on average, does a crow lay in one nesting season? Question Four: What's the average speed of a swimming shark? Question Five: Do crows fly north for the summer? Question Six: What is the average lifespan of a shark? Question Seven: Please write out the recipe for dango, including ingredients, method and cooking time. Question Eight: What are sharks' natural enemies? List as many as you can. Question Nine: Draw a diagram of a crow's egg with a two-week chick inside. Label every part of the diagram. Question Ten: In degrees, what is a shark's field of vision?
Sasuke can feel her eyebrow twitching. They don't cover this stuff in the academy! There are a couple of things a lot of people should know, but if they want to pass this exam the candidates need to either be massive nerds or really good at cheating. With Itachi watching them, there will be many who are disqualified. Sasuke won't be surprised if they get down to 15 teams.
Finally everyone is seated and Itachi says, "Make sure you write your name on your test before you start. You have one hour to complete your test. Begin."
Sasuke reads through the questions again. She can answer one. Question five. Sasuke writes her answer, which she knows from hanging out with Itachi. Now, how to answer the others? Uncle Madara knows the recipe for dango. If only he'd taught Sasuke…
Now, how to cheat? Sasuke can't use her sharingan because Itachi will know right away. So, what does Sasuke still have in her arsenal? Hmmm… Oh yeah, there's that seal. Sasuke subtly glances around the room to see where Itachi and Kisame are. They are patrolling the room, keeping an eye on everyone. Sasuke watches them for a minute to see if there is a pattern to their patrol. There is. At any given time they are both looking away from at least one candidate. Sasuke figures out when they will be back facing her and, in those precious few seconds, Sasuke draws the Time Stop seal and activates it. The room freezes. Sasuke is glad she mastered that seal while she was still wheelchair bound and tied to crutches.
Moving as fast as she can without upsetting anything, Sasuke gets up and heads over to one of the test-takers she identified as being a fake candidate with the answers. Sasuke activates her sharingan long enough to speed-read the answers and memorize them. Once she has learned the recipe for dango and a bunch of useless facts she will never need to know, Sasuke heads over to Ino and writes Mind Transfer me when I and Ki aren't looking. Tap pencil on desk 3 times as signal first. ~Sa on her test. Ino is sitting directly behind Sasuke, and Choji is sitting two rows ahead and slightly to the left of Sasuke. Sasuke checks that Ino will have a clear shot to Mind Transfer Choji, then she draws a seal on Ino's leg, out of sight of the proctors, links the seal to her own chakra and sits back down. If this fails, they will be disqualified.
Now that her preparations are complete, Sasuke ends the time stop jutsu.