Naruto stood just off the porch of the house in his mindscape that his mother lived in. He was reluctant to enter. All the previous night he could tell that his mom knew there was something wrong with him, but he had blown off her inquiries. From experience, he knew that she would not put up with it again. He had hoped that he would make progress in figuring out what was bothering him, but, if anything, the day's events had solidified his worries.
His mother appeared in the doorway. "Come in, Sweetie, and tell me what's bothering you," she said in a kind, but no-nonsense manner.
He sighed and followed her in. She gestured to a couch while she went into the kitchen. In hardly any time, she returned with tea. One advantage of his mindscape was that they could summon anything, including food and drink. The food and drink did not actually do anything for them—his mom did not actually need to eat—but it was comforting at times, and it did taste good.
He sipped his tea before blurting out, "Mom, who's the real Naruto?"
She sighed and asked, "Is this about you acting differently when you're posing as Tsunami?"
He gawked at her. "You knew!?"
"Not exactly," she said. "I knew that you wore a mask at the Academy and in the village. I also feared that when you started posing as Tsunami, that you would develop a different mask for her, since the point was that you wanted to be treated differently. If you recall, the whole disguise made me nervous."
He frowned. "It's not just Tsunami. Even when I'm out and about in the village in my birth form, I act differently now than when I was in the Academy—and I act differently with Konohamaru-kun than I do with Old Man Hokage or the shinobi supply stores."
"That's natural, Naruto, to a certain extent," she said. "Everyone acts differently among friends or family than they do with professional contacts. Most people also act differently around their friends than they do their family."
"I fell like I only really act like my true self here," Naruto said.
"That's because you're keeping secrets from everyone," his mom explained.
"That's not true," he protested. "The Old Man and Kurenai-sensei know."
"Are they your friends or peers?" Kushina asked.
"No they're not," he admitted.
"You should consider telling a friend or two," she said.
"I can't," he protested. "Hinata-chan still likes male-me. It would make things super awkward. Sakura-chan would murder me." He shuddered. "She would think I did it to spy on her like a pervert."
"What about other friends?" she asked.
"Sasuke-kun, surprisingly, might be okay with it, but I find it hard to relate to him in anything other than training. I don't think talking to him about it would help much—same with Shino-kun. Kiba-kun—just no. I've heard him talking about female-me in a way that made me feel unclean. I've had no real contact with Ino-chan, Chouji-kun, or Shikamaru-kun since we graduated. Konohamaru-kun is too young. . ."
"You know that the longer you go on without telling your teammates, the worse it will be if they take it badly."
He sighed. "I know that intellectually, but every time I think about telling them I get physically ill. I can almost taste their scorn and loathing."
His mom wrapped him in a hug, "Oh, Sweetie, if they're true friends, you'll get through it."
"But what if they aren't?" he asked quietly. "I think I'd prefer having fickle friends to no friends."
He squeezed his mother and let her comfort him.
Tsunami brought four armbands to the team meeting the next day. They each had a special seal on the inside.
After Kurenai had handed out the forms for the Exams, Tsunami handed out the armbands.
"What are these for, Tsunami-chan?" Kurenai asked.
"When you taught us tap code a month ago, I thought I code make a set of seals that would allow us to use it in more circumstances," Tsunami responded.
Tap code was designed to be used at night or in the dark when speaking was contraindicated. A series of long and short presses on the back of the hand or neck corresponded to hiragana which could be strung together to make words or phrases. None of the genin were very fast at it yet—using or interpreting it—but the seals should make it a lot more useful since you did not have to be right next to a person to use it and it would send the message to the whole team.
"You focus chakra into the seal and all the other armbands receive the signal," she continued. "At first I think we'll need to use fingers to use the seals, but eventually we should be able to focus the chakra through where ever the seal is touching our skin."
"This is a very clever idea, Tsunami-chan," their sensei said. "Did you prepare it for the exam?"
The redhead nodded. "I thought it would be a good place to use them. Obviously, you won't be needing yours yet, Sensei. But since it was already made, I thought I'd give it to you."
"Thank you, Tsunami-chan," Kurenai said. Hinata and Sakura also expressed their thanks.
Kurenai told them the location they needed to bring the forms to in the Academy building and then left after wishing them luck.
"Look," Tsunami said. "I know we can't make a lot of plans since we don't know what the exam involves, but I thought we could go over general strategies. You're both coming, right?"
The other two girls nodded—Sakura firmly and Hinata shyly.
"I think we should try and keep a low profile—at least to start off," Tsunami said. "As an all-kunoichi team we'll be attracting a lot of attention anyway. We don't need other teams ganging up on us or thinking we're an easy target."
"Wouldn't it be better if they underestimated us?" Sakura asked.
"Yes," Tsunami said, "but not too much. If they all target us, we'll eventually get worn out—even if we're one of the stronger teams."
"Ah, that makes sense," the pink-haired girl responded.
"This means you should avoid fawning over Sasuke-san or fighting with Ino-chan, Sakura-chan," Tsunami said.
"But I've hardly seen him since graduation," Sakura whined.
"You'll make a better impression on him if you take the exams seriously, Sakura-chan," Tsunami said. When she looked dubious, the redhead added, "Look, your current approach hasn't succeeded in interesting him. Try something new. Besides, this will help your career as a kunoichi, which you said you wanted to do regardless of Sasuke-san."
"Okay," Sakura agreed reluctantly, "but you'd better be right about this, Tsunami-chan."
Tsunami sighed. How did she become the responsible one?
Before they separated, they tested how tap code worked with the armbands and decided on some protocols to make it work better.
The three girls met at their normal meeting place with plenty of time to make it to the Academy before the first part of the exam started. Tsunami was excited, Sakura was nervously excited, and Hinata was nervously optimistic.
In the months that they had been a team, Sakura had matured a bit and stopped assuming that she was a great shinobi just because she had been one of the best Academy students and started working harder. Hinata had become more confident and agresseive, but was still shy.
When they got to the Academy building, Tsunami thought of trying to get in a different way, but decided that doing so would likely attract attention they were trying to avoid. She led her teammates through the main entrance. They were supposed to go to room 301, so they headed up the stairs. The door that led to the third floor was locked—and barred according to Hinata's Byakugan—so they exited the stairwell at the second floor.
To her mild surprise, there was a group of shinobi gathered around the door to one of the classrooms. The room number on the door read 301 despite being only on the second floor. Two shinobi were preventing the others from entering and denigrating the other candidates.
"Genjutsu?" she asked quietly.
Hinata flickered on her Byakugan and replied, "Yes."
"Let's get passed them without making any waves," Tsunami said.
They edged around the crowd as unobtrusively as they could. One of the bullies made eye contact with her, but did not call attention to them.
The other stairwell was blocked going down, but open going up. On the third floor they found Kurenai waiting for them. Tsunami supposed that there was a monitoring seal somewhere that allowed her to know they were there, since no other sensei were present.
She smiled at them. "I'm glad to see that you are here together. This test is only for full teams. If one of you had decided not to come, I would be required to turn you away. Stick together and help each other out and I know you'll do well."
"Thanks, Kurenai-sensei," Tsunami said. Her teammates also acknowledged their sensei's words.
Inside the real room 301 was a small table with two proctors sitting at it. They exchanged their enrollment forms for seat numbers. A glance at the arrangements showed that their assigned seats were not close to each other.
While they were not the very first ones there, they were among the first. Rather than go to their seats they elected to remain near the back and talk—or rather Sakura chattered at the other two. While Tsunami knew it would be best to take their seats to avoid attention, she could tell her teammates were nervous and allowed them to remain together.
Chuunin hopefuls filtered into the room. Most of them took their seats after checking in, but groups also gathered. The first people that they recognized were Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji's team. Ino waved at them, before settling in to watch the door like a hawk. Shikamaru rolled his eyes before slouching against a nearby wall. Chouji joined him. Others filtered into the room.
Five minutes later the whole room's attention was caught by a squeal. Tsunami looked over and saw Ino hanging on a scowling Sasuke's back.
She looked at Sakura's angry face. Her teammate started toward their old classmates but Tsunami grabbed her arm.
"I know we talked about this Tsunami-chan," Sakura said, "but I can't just let it go."
"Look at his face, Sakura-chan," she prompted.
"He doesn't like it!" the pink-haired girl said excitedly. "I can go and rescue him!"
"Look at how much attention they're attracting," Tsunami said. "Remember, we don't want to look too strong or too weak yet."
"I agree with Tsunami-chan," Hinata said quietly.
"Fine," Sakura said with a pout.
"There will be other times to save Sasuke-san from Ino-chan's depredations, Sakura-chan," Tsunami said with a grin.
The three kunoichi kept a clandestine watch on their old classmates while observing their other competition. Not long after Sasuke's team entered, Tsunami felt a small amount of killing intent. She looked over and noticed a Hyuuga glaring at them. The boy was obviously in the Branch House because he was wearing his Leaf Badge over his forehead, which Main House Hyuuga never did. His features were somewhat similar to Hinata's, so it was possible that they were close relatives. Tsunami was not sure how the Main/Branch split worked in the Hyuuga family, other than being pretty sure that one could be condemned to the Branch as punishment. The Hyuuga boy was accompanied by a boy in a truly-garish tight, green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers and a girl with her hair in buns wearing a pink sleeveless blouse and navy pants.
"What's his problem?" Tsunami asked.
"Neji-niisan is very talented," said Hinata sadly, "perhaps the most talented Hyuuga in generations, but he is in the Branch House. He finds the situation hard to bear."
"He's your brother?" Sakura exclaimed quietly.
"He's my first cousin," Hinata answered. "Our fathers were twin brothers. I've always thought of him as my brother, especially after his father died, but he's grown quite distant over the years."
Distant did not seem to cover it to Tsunami. She wanted to ask why her cousin was in the Branch House, but now did not seem to be a good time to ask about Hyuuga clan policies and politics.
Tsunami noticed when an older silver-haired Konoha genin with glasses joined the other rookies and started showing them some cards. After a few minutes, three genin with musical notes on their Shinobi Badge ran up to them. They were the typical two boy, one girl team. One of them with a bulky metal object on his forearm swung at the older genin. He was stouter and covered in bandages. He missed, but the Konoha genin toppled over, dazed. A small amount of blood leaked from his nose and his broken glasses hung off his face.
"Put this on your cards, Four Eyes," the assaulting genin roared. "The shinobi from Otogakure will definitely become chuunin!"
A cloud of smoke filled the front of the room. When the smoke dissipated, it revealed several Konoha shinobi. In the center was a man wearing a dark trench coat and a blue kerchief over his head with the Leaf Badge attached to it. He had two long scars running across his face.
"Stand down, Oto genin," he growled. "Any fighting without authorization from me is grounds for being sent home in disgrace on the grounds of gross stupidity."
"Sorry, sir," the attacking Oto genin said. "This is our first time and we let the excitement get to us."
"Sorry doesn't cut it, maggot," the lead proctor said. "One more mistake and you're gone. All of you get to your places. My name is Morino Ibiki, tokubetsu jounin of Konoha and for the duration of this test, I own you."
The fact that the Oto genin had attacked a fellow Konoha nin made Tsunami angry. She palmed one of her seals from her holster and slapped it on the underside of a desk as she passed. She activated a seal on her collar and said quietly, "What a bunch of morons. You'd have to be an idiot to attack a shinobi in their own village while surrounded by their comrades. Morino-san must think their stupidity will make a good object lesson for him to let people so incompetent through." The seal on the desk broadcasted her words, disguising them as a deep, masculine voice. The seal spoke by vibrating the air over an area, making it hard to pinpoint exactly where the voice came from. It was loud enough that the whole room heard it.
To her delight, one of the Oto nin, the skinny one with spiky hair, screamed, "Which of you Tree Huggers said that!? Whoever did is dead!"
"Get that moron and his team out of here!" growled Ibiki.
Proctors in chuunin vests surrounded the Oto nin, grabbing their arms. The loudmouth was spluttering in protest. The Oto kunoichi was pale as a ghost. The bandaged one grimaced.
"You can't do this!" the loudmouth said. "Our leader will. . ."
"Quiet, Zaku," the apparent leader said. "I protest Oto's only team being ejected before the exam even begins."
"You should have thought of that before you agreed to come with someone as unprofessional as your buddy," Ibiki said.
"My other teammate and I would be willing to compete as a short-handed team," he said.
Ibiki shook his head. "The rules are quite clear. Only full teams are allowed to compete for the first two stages of the exam, but more importantly, you've managed to irritate me. Maggots who irritate me don't last very long."
"What about the punk who triggered this?" the Oto nin growled. "Is Konoha going to show favoritism?"
Ibiki smiled. It was not a pleasant expression. "If you can pick out the offender, I'll kick him and his team out too. If you can't. . . Well, let's just say he was right in his assessment and we'll allow him to stay."
The Oto shinobi frowned, but nodded. He pointed to an older Konoha genin not far from the desk with the seal.
"Are you the one who spoke out of turn?" Ibiki asked the accused.
"No, sir. I'm not," he answered. The voice was clearly different than the one that had triggered Zaku's blow up.
The scar faced man arched an eyebrow at the Oto nin.
"He's disguising his voice," the Oto shinobi said.
"If you can't prove that he is in the next few seconds," Ibiki said, "we're done with this. I've already given you more time than you deserve."
The Oto ninja remained silent.
"Get them out of here," Ibiki growled. "And there better be no more disruptions from the supplicants."
As they were leaving, Tsunami saw the Oto kunoichi whispering frantically with the proctor escorting her away, but she was much too far away to tell what she was saying.
Those genin who were still standing, found their seats and Ibiki explained the rules. You started with ten points. Each wrong answer cost a point. If you were caught cheating it cost two points. Anyone with zero points was kicked out with their teammates. One question would be asked orally near the end of the exam. It looked like a few people wanted to protest, but Ibiki stared them into silence.
At the signal, Tsunami turned over her exam. The questions looked to be much harder than what a genin or even chuunin would be expected to know. She mentally laughed. They looked to be as hard as the questions that she had been tested with on Naruto's genjutsued Academy tests. She wondered if this was where Mizuki had gotten the questions.
She could answer one or two of the questions at best and that was only because of the extra tutoring that her mom gave her in her mindscape. After thinking about it for a few moments she realized that the test, with its odd scoring system, was designed to see if they could cheat without getting caught.
Tsu, she sent her teammates over their tap code armbands, signaling that she was the one sending. Test too hard. Odd scoring. Want us cheat. Byakugan? Over.
Sa, Sakura responded. Hard, but can answer. Over.
Hi, Hinata sent. 2 answer questions too fast. Plants? Over.
Tsu, she sent. Nata gives answers. Kura checks. Over.
Sa. Copy.
Hi. Copy.
Tsu. Out.
Hinata sent the answers to the questions via tap code. Sakura signaled that the answers that Hinata gave were correct. The process was slow, since they were not that fast with tap code, but they still had more than enough time to finish before time was up. After Sakura stopped writing and was about to turn her sheet over, she jerked oddly. Tsunami noticed that Ino was slumped over in her seat. Tsunami recognized the Mind Body Switch in action. She also noted some other cheating, some more subtle than others. It was hard to know what the proctors thought was acceptable and what was not because they only called out people that had been caught enough times to fail.
"Times up, maggots," Ibiki growled. "Put down your pencils." He waited while all those still working did."
He explained the extra rules for the last question. He explained that they could opt out of the last question, failing the exam, or they could take it and risk the special consequence for the question, being permanently banned from participating in the Chuunin Exams if you missed it. There were loud protests at this that were quickly quenched. He explained that all of the Kage and village leaders had authorized the punishment, if he felt it were needed, and that the Oto shinobi had irritated him enough to implement it.
Two candidates immediately gave up.
Hi, her teammate sent over the armbands. Plants leaving first. Out.
The fact that there was no matching teammate or teammates only confirmed that to Tsunami. Tension filled the room and others followed the plants out. The teammates of the quitters were also forced to leave. The whole thing was fishy to her. She knew Old Man Hokage better than most and knew that he would never agree to the punishment. He was all about second chances where possible. He certainly would not delegate that authority to a tokubetsu jounin. She also did not see foreign leaders giving that authority to a Konoha nin. There was too much chance for abuse.
She looked over and saw her teammates wavering.
Tsu, she sent. Don't quit. Trick. No authority. Over.
Sa. You sure? Over.
Hi. Scar man very convincing. Over.
Tsu. Positive. Other villages never give Konoha authority. Over.
There was a pause before her teammates sent there responses.
Sa. Copy. Over.
Hi. Copy. Over.
Tsu. Out.
The tension mounted as teams continued to quit. Ibiki waited stoically. The other proctors smirked.
Finally, after no one had quit for several minutes, Ibiki said, "Is everyone certain they want to take the question? This is the last chance to save your career. . ."
When no one else quit, he said, "Very well. You all pass."
The room exploded into shouts and yells—some happy and some angry. Ibiki silenced them and then explained the purposes of the test—to see if they could be sneaky and to test their determination. He told them of the risks they had to be able to take as shinobi and especially chuunin. He took off his kerchief and showed them the disturbing scars that he had accumulated as a shinobi.
As he was retying his kerchief, one of the windows shattered and a bundle crashed into the opposite wall. The bundle was a banner that was nailed to the wall with a couple of kunai that followed it. The weight that had propelled the banner into the room crashed loudly to the floor. The kunai were followed by a figure somersaulting through the broken window.
The figure halted under the banner, which read, "The Stunning and Sexy Second Exam Proctor: Mitarashi Anko-sama!"
The figure spoke, "This is no time to celebrate. I'm Mitarashi Anko, your new proctor!"