Chapter 4: The Chunin Exams Begin!

The day that all young ninja enrolled in it had arrived; the first day of the Chunin Exams. The sun had risen into the sky, just like on any other day, shining its light upon the village. People were already roaming the streets, going along with their business for the day. The Hokage was already in his office, checking through the paperwork for that day. He was slightly anxious himself because of the exams. He didn't get to see the genin take the first part of the exam (since it was a written test, and that was kind of a bore to him, anyway) or the second part of the exam (the Forest of Death, which was something he wasn't exactly planning on reliving the memories of), but he would get to see them in the preliminary rounds later on. That little fact alone was making him nervous, but excited at the same time. He smiled a bit at the thought. He picked up another sheet of paper and tried to read it, but his mind was too occupied at the moment by the exams, so he set it down on the desk and leaned back in his chair, sighing. It was going to be one of those days, he thought somewhat miserably.

He then noticed, as he looked at his desk, a cup of tea sitting on its tiny white saucer, the steam coming out of the cup in its wavy fashion. He lifted one hand and grabbed it, bringing it to his lips. He sipped at it some and smiled. Jasmine tea, eh? Sakura's had a thing for it lately. He pushed the thought back and sipped at it again. He felt the warm liquid slip down his throat and smiled a bit more. He finished the tea in five minutes and set the empty cup gently back on the saucer it came on. He then picked up the document that he had failed to read a few minutes before and began to scan it for important details, just like how Sakura and Angel did it (and he had seen them do it plenty of times in the past).

At the Yamazaki household, Akahana was up in her room, preparing herself for the big day. She knew that she had to be prepared for it, and she couldn't show up willy-nilly in a goofy fashion. She had to make a good first impression, since the exams were huge. She had combed her red-pink hair into submission after wrestling out the many tangles in it and had on a light blue T-shirt, black capris, and dark gray ninja sandals. She looked at herself in the mirror, examining herself from every possible angle she could get. Satisfied that everything was in order, she began to head out of the room, grabbing her Konoha headband along the way. She descended the stairs quickly and went straight for the door, but not before calling out,

"Mom, I'm going to the academy!"

"Well, good luck, sweetheart!" She heard her mother say back. She slid open the door and stepped out into the outdoor air. She breathed in deeply and a wide smile came upon her face. She walked quickly down the street, determined to make it on time. She had promised to Zero and Akihiko (right after George had left them to take care of some 'important business') that she would be there before the exams started, and she wasn't about to let her teammates down because she was late for an important exam. She hurried down the street, dodging groups of people along the way. She couldn't afford to be late right now. It could spell trouble for her, and she didn't like being in trouble. It only meant bad things for her, and she had learned this the hard way. She shivered slightly at the thought before dismissing it and focusing on the task at hand.

She made it to the academy several minutes later and saw her teammates standing outside of the front door. Akihiko was wearing a black button-up shirt with long sleeves, black pants, and navy blue kung-fu sandals. His red hair was still as shaggy as ever, she noted, but didn't bother to say anything about it. It wasn't a priority right now. Zero, on the other hand, was in his usual outfit; a black hooded sweater that had a zipper in the front and had a white and red design on the front as well, a black hat that resembled a rabbit, black pants, and gray sneakers. He also had his bangs covering his eyes again, something that she secretly wished would stop one day (but it will have to wait for some other time). Akihiko gave his usual small smile and wave to her and spoke in his low, soft voice,

"You made it."

"See? I told you that I would make it on time. Now, why are we just standing around here when we can be in the building, getting ready for the beginning of the Chunin Exams?"

"Agreed." Zero spoke up for the first time since he had arrived there.

"Alrighty! Let's go!" Akahana declared while pointing toward the double doors, as if she was telling her teammates to ram down the door and charge inside. The trio walked up to the door and pulled both of the doors open. They stepped inside and felt cool air hit them straight in their faces, making them shiver and get goose bumps. They walked down the hall somewhat cautiously, not knowing what to expect. Akahana was questioning in her mind why the place seemed so quiet. Were they late? Were they early? And where the heck were the other genin? She just didn't know, but she would find out, along with her two teammates, the answers to those questions very soon.

They reached the end of the hall and stopped when Akihiko put up a single hand. He looked down the hall to his right, and then turned his head to look down the other hall on his left. Akahana and Zero stood silent as Akihiko did this. The trio then began to hear voices, faint and muffled, coming from the hall to their rights.

"We go down this hallway." Akihiko said while pointing down the corridor on his right.

"Right." Zero and Akahana responded at the same time. They turned and headed down that hall. They made it to the end in less than a minute and they noticed, as they had gotten closer, that the voices had gotten louder. When they reached the end, they could almost hear what people on the other side of the door were saying. Akihiko slid the door open and stepped inside. Akahana and Zero followed suit and the three teens got a big surprise; the whole room was occupied by other genin, and a lot of them were from the other villages. Akahana swallowed some saliva that was in her mouth in some sort of effort to calm herself down and Zero shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the wooden floor. They walked further into the room so they weren't blocking the door. Some of the genin looked at them with different expressions on their faces, but most of them just went on with their own business, as if the newcomers didn't exist at all.

Ayane had watched the three newcomers walk into the room and smiled. To her, the more competition, the better. She liked playing with other people (and what she means by playing, she actually means fighting them and toying with them in the process) and the more people that showed up, the better. A wicked smile came upon her face, and Haruo happened to look over at that very moment. He noticed the expression on his younger sister's face and sighed loudly in annoyance. He was beginning to think that he wouldn't even get a moment of peace during the exams. He averted his eyes away from her and looked at his younger brother Lee, who was folding a piece of paper into an origami piece.

"What'cha making?" He asked, slightly curious about it. Lee glanced over at Haruo for a moment before turning back to his work. He studied it for a few moments before making up his answer and voicing it,

"I was trying to make a crane."

"Oh, that's nice. Can you teach me sometime?" (And he actually meant this).

"Sure. After the exams."

"That's what I meant."

"Okay." Lee went back to finishing his crane while Haruo looked over toward the newcomers. They don't look like much, especially the green-haired boy in the bunny hat. Although, I can't exactly say that. I do not know their strengths or weaknesses. I'll just find that out when the appropriate time comes. As for the others...well, they'll be the same deal. He did, however, have one exception to this, and that was the man that called himself Ray. He could feel that the boy, from the first moment he walked through the door, that he was trouble. He could feel the dark aura that had come off of the boy and actually felt the goose bumps crawl up onto his skin. He knew that, if they encountered each other in a fight, that he was going to have to fight with all he had. Lee noticed the somewhat contorted look on his elder brother's face and started to worry a bit. I've never seen that look on his face before. What's going on with him? He didn't bother asking, though. He didn't want to potentially be yelled at right now.

Karin surveyed the room full of genin and grimaced. What the hell's this? I didn't expect this many people here. Then again, many genin want to make the transition from being a rookie ninja to being a more experienced one. And what perfect way to do that than to take the Chunin Exams? However, they're going to have to pass it in order to achieve that goal. She had talked to Josh yesterday, asking him for more details on the exams. He told her that, from what he remembered when he took them, that there were three stages, or parts, to the exams. First off, there was a written test to see what they knew from their classes in the academy. Second, there was the Forest of Death, and it earned its name because many genin did not make it through. That scared her a bit. A forest that could kill you in seconds if you weren't careful? She caught herself wondering, for just one moment, that even Ray would probably have some trouble passing through this so-called 'Forest of Death', and she knew that he was one tough dude to break.

Next, there was something called the preliminary rounds, and these occurred between the second and third parts of the exams. It was a series of matches that determined which genin were fit enough to move onto the next and final part of the exam. It sounded like fun to her, and it would test her skills against new opponents. The final part of the exam was the most important of them all; the official matches. Genin fought in a public arena to determine who was best fit for becoming a chunin. Afterward, some lucky genin would get called to the Hokage's office and given the honorary promotion to Chunin. It shouldn't be that much of a big deal, if I pass the preliminary rounds. That, and the Forest of Death are going to be the most challenging for me and everyone else. They do sound difficult. I can just imagine how much harder it's going to be once we get to those stages. Well, there's no point dawdling over it now. Might as well focus on the test. By the way, where's the instructor? I thought they were supposed to be here before everyone else. Takashi seemed to detect the question in her mind, because he then spoke,

"Maybe the teacher's running late." Karin turned to him, surprise apparent in her pink eyes. She forced herself to be calm and looked at him dead in the eyes.

"Maybe so. Who knows?"

"You're right." That was surprising. Karin had expected him to say something, like a smartass comment, but it wasn't the case this time. This disturbed her a bit. She averted her eyes away from him and looked around the room again, trying to distract her mind from what had just happened. Ray saw her looking around, but said nothing about it. He wasn't going to go through the trouble of having to speak to her. She annoyed him just by being there (they didn't exactly get off to a good start when they first met). He kept staring at his lap, wishing that he had brought along at least one knife so he wasn't wanting to run out of there for no good reason (yes, he's very attached to his knives. They're like his babies. He cares for them a lot). He played with a piece of loose skin on one of his fingers, trying to somehow distract himself from not having his knives with him.

Dante, Rose, and Yuuta were in one of the corners in the back of the room. Rose was silently observing everyone else in the room, since she was too anxious to even think about talking. Yuuta and Dante were having a quiet conversation with each other, discussing things about the Chunin Exams.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Dante started off.

"I honestly don't know. I'm just hoping we don't get butchered. I heard from Yumi-sensei that some kids don't make it past the second part of the exams."

"Isn't that the Forest of Death?"

"Yep."

"Well, we're in for an interesting ride."

"You can say that again."

"We're in for an interesting ride." They stopped talking and Yuuta looked around the room. He was amazed at how many people had showed up in this one room of the Konoha ninja academy. They must be serious about wanting to be chunins. Then again, who isn't in this room? He knew, from his sensei, that things would sometimes be tense, but that was because the exams put a ton of pressure on people at certain times. He was just hoping that he was not going to be one of the people that went crazy from taking these exams. That would spell disaster, and only bad things came from disasters, he frequently saw.

Just as he finished his thought, he heard the door slide open and someone stepping inside. The clicking of the shoes' heels against the wooden floor suggested that the person was wearing high heels. He looked up from the floor and saw a black-haired woman at the front desk. Her hair reached to about halfway down her thighs and was as black as anything he had ever seen. Her deep crimson eyes looked as if they could pierce someone's soul just by looking at them dead in the eyes. This scared him a bit. Also, the woman held herself in a way that made him think that she was in charge. And he was about to be proven right.

"Everyone in your seats now!" The woman hollered. Everyone stopped talking immediately and scrambled around, trying to find a vacant seat. Yuuta managed to find one next to a blonde-haired girl that wore a side braid. The students were in their seats in seconds and the woman looked each and every one over carefully, as if she was trying to pick out some detail that Yuuta just couldn't quite figure out. Then the woman began to speak in a low voice that radiated seriousness,

"I can probably assume why all of you think you are here." All there was was silence. She continued regardless,

"You think that you're going to become chunins. Some of you might, and some of you might not. No one knows. But remember this; these exams are going to test you in ways that you never even dreamed of. So don't think that this will just be a walk in the park. That kind of thinking is what gets people killed in here." Yuuta gulped in fright. He could hear other students doing the same thing, and he couldn't blame them. They had just been told that they could possibly die during these exams. It wasn't an easy pill to swallow. Yuuta now got the idea, like some of the other students, that the Chunin Exams were going to be much harder than he had ever thought...

Well, that took a bit more time than expected to complete. Regardless, it is complete! The Chunin Exams have officially begun. How will the students fare in the first part of the exam that is the written test? Find out in the next chapter!