first chapter is from sakura's pov but it won't always be.
Sakura rolls her eyes as she lets Shikamaru use her back like a wall. Being the lazy, procrastinating Genin that he is, he didn't bother to fill out his Chuunin application before meeting her and Ino, late, in front of the Academy. Sakura had predicted this nonetheless, and even brought a pen for him.
"The Academy is right here, Shikamaru," Sakura complains when she feels the pen dig a little too deep in her shoulder. "There are other flat surfaces you could be using."
"Like your chest?" Ino comments with false innocence.
Sakura raises her first, ready to attack, but Shikamaru hardens his hold on her trapezius briefly. "Just wait… I just need to sign at the bottom… Okay, now you can beat up each other," he says monotonously, tapping her shoulder twice.
Sakura deflates with a weak groan. "Later, we're already late because of you. Let's just go in."
Walking into the Academy and up the floors to room 301 confirmed Sakura's previous suspicions; no one else will be signing up. The hallways were empty except for Kotetsu and Izumo in their Henge adolescent forms, looking quite bored at the lack of participants to bully.
The humorous sight would have usually brought a smile to Sakura's face, but it only reminded her that; Ino, Shikamaru and her were the only ones from their promotion not to have made Chuunin, and that the other (younger and older) Konoha Genin would rather chase after cats and babysit spoiled aristocrats for another six months than take the exams in Kiri.
Sakura can't exactly blame them. She wouldn't mind turning away right now either, wait six more months and take the Selection Exams in Suna (and, having been to Suna, it just goes to show how much she does not want to go to Kiri). But Sakura did have her pride and honor as a ninja, despite what some people – cough, cough, Ino – might say. And she didn't spend the last excruciating years training under her Jounin sensei, Tsunade, Shizune and even Anko for nothing. It would be an insult to their teachings and to her own hard-earned abilities to turn away from Kiri to wait for an easier exam. Especially when most of that training was to prepare her for this very test.
Sakura opens the doors to room 301, and Ino practically pushes her out of the way with her shoulder, like an obnoxious kid trying to be the first in line. Sakura growls, about to pick up her pace in an attempt to beat Ino to the Chuunin guarding the empty application box, when she feels a hand on her shoulder. Shikamaru shakes his head softly and Sakura deflates in front of her arch rival for the second time today.
While Sakura had been too busy with her training to think about passing the exams before, Ino hadn't. Not to say that she rested on her laurels—Ino studied under her Jounin sensei, her father and Tsunade when she had the time—on the contrary, Ino had already passed the exams successfully. She was a Chuunin up until a few months ago, when she got demoted.
Sakura understands her rage. She was put into an impossible situation on her first A-rank as a team leader, and did the best she could under the circumstances. But her client ended up getting hurt, and Ino had to perform an impromptu amputation. The mission wasn't a complete failure, but the client was a rich and powerful man, who required Konoha's services oftenly and is one of the Fire daimyo's most generous donators. When he had asked of Hokage Tsunade that Ino be dishonorably discharged, the most she could bargain for was that she be demoted back to Genin.
Sakura places her application on top of Ino's and Shikamaru follows suit.
"Finally! I'm glad to see you trying to move up in the world, Nara," the Chuunin says.
Shikamaru gives him a quick smile. "You can thank the nagging women in my life for that."
Sakura and Ino take turns hitting him across the head. Ino gives him an additional slap, and Sakura assumes it's on Yoshino's behalf.
Shikamaru had no excuse for still being a Genin. It both angered and saddened Sakura. Shikamaru could be one of the strongest shinobi in the Hidden Leaf if he had just a little more motivation and a little less sass. From what she gathered, he had forgotten the deadline to turning in the application the last three times and overslept.
The Chuunin writes some things down on three different templates, stamps over them while humming gleefully. When he's done, he gives them their participation permission slips with a smile.
In a week, the time it takes for Kiri to be aware of all their participants, they will be in another room entirely, about to take on the first test.
It took Sakura, Ino and Shikamaru longer than they thought to get to Kiri. The village was almost impossible to locate with the thick mist surrounding it, and a regular sense of direction was useless in the middle of it. When they eventually find the front gates, Ino groans loudly in relief.
"Why bother making a village so hard to find when already no one wants to—hi!" Ino greets the hard faced Mist shinobi guarding the gates. "We're here for the Chuunin Selection Exams." She pulls out her travel papers, a leather bound card protected by a plastic window, with the basic informations about her written next to her picture.
Shikamaru and Sakura show theirs, and the Mist shinobi let them through. They would have to find their way to Kiri's Ninja Academy quickly if they didn't want to be late. That mist had really delayed them.
They find their way eventually, and almost wish they hadn't. Sakura gulps; they aren't rookies anymore, they have the experience and the scars that come with the years of serving. Their eyes don't hold that naive, caught deer look they once did, yet, they stood out like sore thumbs. In this sea of shinobi, they felt like prey.
Sakura holds back a shudder. Everything is different and scarier in Kiri. She couldn't imagine growing up in such an place. It reminds her of this pond near the village, absolutely filthy and filled with sick, ugly ducks. When healthier ducks tried to join into the pond, they would usually die in a few days, their bodies unaccustomed to the unhygienic environment.
Sakura chases the thoughts out of her head. The progress she made is here, it can be seen in her eyes and on her body. She's not the same kunoichi she was before.
As they try to make their way across the hall and into the classroom, two Genin around their age stop them with cunning smiles on their faces. Sakura immediately goes into Bitch Mode and her teammates mirror her stance. They might not be from Kiri but they won't be pushed around.
"You guys should be careful," one of them says. He's the obvious leader, a Mist nin with sharp eyes and a crooked nose. "Some people here are so petty that they'll steal the foreign shinobi's IDs to prevent them from competing. Just to boost their own chances."
"Those assholes," his teammate adds sarcastically.
Sakura keeps her gaze leveled with the leader's as her hand shoots out to grab the wandering hand of their third teammate, slithing dangerously close to her front pocket. Her thumb presses harshly on a certain spot and the kunoichi behind her lets out a hiss. Sakura lets her go and the girl joins her team with a pout.
The leader shakes his head mock-sadly. "Ninjas these days."
Sakura grabs Ino and Shikamaru by the arm and drags them away from the would-be thieves.
"Everyone check their travel papers," Sakura says when they're further away.
"I'm good," Ino says, waving her ID.
Shikamaru nods. "Me too." It's only when they walk into the classroom that his eyes widen. "Wait. She could have used a shadow clone."
"What did you say?"
"Every Genin team is composed of three ninjas. That Mist kunoichi should have used a clone. They should have known that it would be obvious to us that one of them was the thief while the other two were the distraction." He slaps his own forehead. "And they did know. And the examiners don't need to see our IDs, they just need our participation permission slips."
At his words, Sakura and Ino start rummaging through their pockets and their pouches. When they come up empty, Sakura bunches her fists.
"They stole our slips!" she growls. "They're not getting away with—"
Sakura cuts herself off mid-angry speech when she notices the hand reached out to her, holding all of their stolen papers. The hand is attached to a tall shinobi, a Mist Chuunin proctor judging by his attire, and his other arm is busy holding the Genin from earlier against their will as they kick around uselessly. He looks suspiciously like the leader of the trio, and Sakura assumes they must be related in some way.
Sakura takes back the papers and thanks the man, who laughs in her face in response.
"Don't thank me, I might have just signed your death warrants."
Shikamaru scoffs. "You shouldn't underestimate Leaf shinobi."
The Chuunin laughs even harder and crueller at that. "You guys are soft, you won't last through the first test. Wanna know why I gave you these back?" he asks, not waiting for an answer. "The more Genin fail the exams, the more impressive my brother and his teammates will look when they pass. That's it." With that, he walks away from them, taking his brother's team to their seats.
Sakura seethes. Her body burns with rage and humiliation.
"Cool it," Shikamaru says. "Don't pull a Naruto."
"I'm starting to understand him," Ino growls. "Everyone here thinks we're soft."
Shikamaru sighs. "Being underestimated goes a long way, sometimes."
Sakura looks around, judging the turn out. From what she could see, most of the Genin here were Mist, with the exception of a few Sand and Lightning ninjas. There was one Sound team, but no one from Iwa, Ame or Kusa.
The atmosphere is different from her first time trying out in Konoha, and now that Sakura thinks back, there weren't any Kiri Genin that time. They're different, she feels. In Konoha, and she assumes in other Hidden villages as well, the strongest Genin only targeted those they deemed 'interesting', which was code for the-ones-to-beat.
This is different. This is worse. No one believes in their abilities but everyone keeps their eyes on them. It amuses them, Sakura thinks, crushing the weak. She doesn't know what she's angrier about, that they think she's weaker, or that they might be right. Kiri is a cruel pond.
"I don't think you're weak," a rather old Genin with a Kiri hitai-ate tells them as soon as they take their seats. Can he read minds? Weird adult-Genin, if you're a mind reader, hold up three fingers. "I think you three are rather brave to have come all the way to Kiri. Akagi," he introduces himself.
Sakura breathes a sigh of relief at his immobile hand, then she smiles at him. She decides against ripping him a new one for his condescension and introduces herself back, "Sakura. This is Shikamaru, and that's Ino." She points at them.
"How hard are the tests, here?" Shikamaru asks. "You look too old to still be a Genin."
Akagi laughs, a little embarassed. "I don't know. Hard? I don't really have a measuring scale for you, this is the first time we've hosted the exams, but the rules are universal."
"Hey, does Kiri not send their Genin to pass the exams in the other Hidden villages?" Sakura asks.
"Nope. But that's probably going to change after all this."
Shikamaru nods knowingly. "I think I heard my father talking about it. Kiri's economic state has been slowly degrading over the past decades and building relations with the other villages might help." At their confused looks, he continues, "Image goes a long way. And Kiri has that reputation of being a ruthless and violent place. The Bloody Mist, anyone? Anyway, while their reputation earns them a lot of S-rank missions, it costs them a whole panoply of Ds and Cs. Despite what you might think, it's the easy, small-paying jobs that keep our economy well oiled."
"Add to that the fact that Kiri has the highest percentage of nukenin in the elemental nations and that a high percentage of their forces consequently becomes hunter-nin, it makes for a bad economic flux," Ino adds. "I listen to my dad, on occasion."
"Exactly. It's smart of them to open their borders. When word gets around, maybe the villages of the Land of Water will stop coming to Iwa and Kusa for ninjas." Shikamaru says. "Which is undoubtedtly why there are no Iwa or Kusa Genin in the room."
"You guys are well informed." Akagi chuckles. "That's probably the strategy here, Fifth Mizukage Terumi Mei is all about reforms and diplomacy. But I'm not sure it will work. You've probably heard that the Land of Water citizens are prejudiced against anyone with a kekkei genkai, but that's actually not true."
"It's not?" Sakura asks. She remembers Haku and what Naruto had told her about his life and frowns in confusion.
"Not entirely. Truth is, they're afraid of people with Suiton-based kekkei genkai," Akagi specifies. "The result of a war in which Kiri shinobi with those kinds of power showed themselves a little too ruthless. And, you know, this is Kiri. Most kekkei genkai here are Suiton-based."
Sakura nods in understanding though some of it still didn't make sense to her. Especially Kiri not participating in international Chuunin exams. These exams work towards the purpose of keeping an eye on the next village, although that wasn't said out loud, hiding under pretexts of relation fostering and understanding between ninjas.
It's difficult to imagine why Kiri would be exempt. It's important to maintain the balance of military power between the lands, isn't it? Sakura can't fathom a reason as to why the other Hidden villages would let Kiri hold back information that they easily give out.
She realizes that the room has gone quiet when Ino elbows her in the ribs. When she looks in front of her, a man stands before all of them.
"My name is Kurouta Madao. I will be your first chief examiner."
A/N: thank you for reading. would love some feedback.