Word count: 4,206

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Konoha is one thing, the Mist is another. 'Harumi' didn't really do much other than change his name and the graduation ceremony changed.

Three-tails, Mizukage, Grid-face, Cloth-mask, Meizu, and Gozu. I'm an academy student. I'm not Harumi anymore. My name is Fuyuki. The Mizukage wants me to become a tool for Kiri. Takeshi, Harumi, Fuyuki... what is my name?

Never mind, names change... nothing new.

~"It's such a shame you're not an Uchiha."~

I shivered, vaguely remembering Madara's voice claim. "It's such good luck I'm not an Uchiha."

Harumi, Meizu and Gozu stealing from stands, inside the Mizukage building, inside a dark room with futons, and inside a classroom. What do I do there now?

After a long moment of silence I finally said, "Damn..."

Before I could further analyze the situation I heard a knock at the the door. Oh good, distractions, I can't believe I'm saying this but I need them.

I quickly- and literally, dropped everything I was holding and jumped to the front door and opened it.

"Hi, Takeshi-kun we heard you moved and we just wanted to visit." Rin said happily smiling at me.

"We?" I cocked an eyebrow.

Looking behind her I saw three other people, Obito, Gai and Genma.

"Hey," Genma greeted, his voice clearly showed he was forced to come here.

"Hi, sorry about the place I haven't completely cleaned."

Friends, I've learned to make some and I've learned to keep most. But I never learned how to lose them and I never learned to stay away from them. Now I must suffer the consequences that my personal decisions bring... hasn't the world had enough already?

Is it really the world at fault here? Or do I just live with the delusion that it punishes me?

Either way it's too late to turn back now. I have plans, I have to make them work. Whether it is productive or counterproductive to the village, it must be done.

I am not going to live my second life doing nothing, I know the future I must control it. Whether it is Takeshi, Harumi or Fuyuki, names don't matter, what matters is survival and completing my goals.

A goal to let the world know what it has done to me, a goal to make them suffer and feel the pain of their own destiny.

Because, what else is a person like me supposed to do in a world of murder? Might as well go with the flow, don't you think?

Oh, would you look at that, time flies even when you're not having fun. Minato and Kushina are getting married next year.

\( - _ - )/|oo0oo|\( - _ - )/

~"The exam will be held at the 44th training ground, the same place where the Chunin Exam is held every 1st of july, but instead next week on the 15th of january. The ten of you will be partaking in the Jonin Exam. The exam is held every five years."~

~"This year we actually have quite a lot of examiners but that wouldn't be much of a problem. The exam has only one stage and it will be explained by your examiner. Congratulations in getting the chance to participate in this exam, good luck."~

Hiruzen said quite a lot.

For the exam I wore a grey sweater under my flak jacket and had two holsters on my right leg and another set on my left, both filled with senbon. Three more holsters hung by my waist, one filled with bomb kunai and regular ones then the other two had small biscuits and bandages.

Basically, what I'm trying to imply is I looked ridiculous... and heavily armed. The forest itself already gave me an advantage but in the Forest of Death, you can never be sure about anything.

Bears, wolves, bees, and poisonous plants. It's like a nursery for dangerous plants and animals, once you enter you're automatically the target of the extremly territorial ones.

Everybody sat down by the gate of training ground 44, most practiced and some started conversations. From the looks of it most of us are teenagers, 12-18 years old.

Why is the examiner late? The only reason I see would be that-

I stopped my thoughts when I heard the familiar whistling noise of a kunai bomb. Instead of dodging like a sane person, I pulled out a regular kunai and threw it at the weapon.

*clang*

There was a sound as the enemy's kunai made a turn and luckily landed by an empty spot and exploded.

The rest of the 'examinees' pulled out their weapons, a girl with orange hair pulled out a bow and arrow, one muscular guy weilded swords, another had her hands in a fist with a large amount of chakra focused on them, and the last one pulled out chains of weapons from his pouch- literally, a chain with kunai tied to it.

I felt something move behind me and gawked to see Sora with my bomb kunai. How did he get my weapon?!

He threw it at the direction where he thought the attacker was, another kunai followed and exploded at the same spot.

A quick shadow moved and disappeared, rustling noises sounded from the trees. In a flash everybody was back-to-back in a circle with their weapons out.

I had my leaves floating above me while I held a kunai. Looking around, I saw more of the competition.

One guy had an umbrella, another had a her sleeves up revealing a contraption with weapons, one had small sheets of paper, a boy crouched down with his hands already holding the tiger hand seal and the one beside me- Sora, had a dagger and a... small, wooden doll.

Is he a puppet master? I literally growled. "Puppets," I sneered in my mother language.

The leaves seemed to have a mind of their own, they warily floated beside Sora. Luckily, he doesn't seem to mind- or notice, he was too busy fiddling with hid tiny Mokujin.

The attacker finally decided to slightly reveal himself with a creepy laugh that spread throughout the small clearing. Some flinched and every hair we all had probably stood up, Sora however hummed a happy tune. We ignored his behavior and turned to see only the attacker's body, his face was hidden behind the shadows.

He wore dark pants and black open-toed shoes. His upper outfit was concealed under a black cloak that only reached his waist.

"Who are you?" The Tsunade copy-cat demanded. "Show yourself!"

He laughed. "You are all here today for the 'Jonin Exams', welcome." Everybody stayed on guard dispite the claim.

"The rules are quite simple," He pulled out three scrolls, ignoring our suspicious looks. "But before that remember this, each of you have a number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. You will all collect three scrolls with the specific number and color you get. The scrolls are scattered all around the forest, you are only allowed to open them if you have them all in the same place."

The scrolls disappeared in a cloud of smoke and was replaced by a sheet of paper. "There are also sheets of paper with your name on it, find it and answer all 20 questions. But you have to find the one with the exact same number you have, be warned only one with the same number can be found. If the paper gets destroyed you fail. Same goes for the scrolls, only one and you fail."

The paper disappeared. "All this you have to do in a matter of 5 days, be sure to arrive here- at the entrance, with your scrolls and your sheet. Understood?"

"Who the heck are you?" The guy with the umbrella asked, pointing his weapon at our 'proctor'.

"Oh! I almost forgot," He pulled out ten sheets under his cloak and presented it to us. "You are to sign this form so that if anything were to happen to you I will not be held responsible for it."

The guy growled. "Answer me!"

The 'proctor' simply laughed at his stupid attempt. "Oh my! How rude of me," he stepped out of the shadows and stared us down with his yellow, snake-like eyes. "My name is Orochimaru, I am your proctor for the only round of the jonin exams." He said with an unnerving smirk.

"O-Orochimaru-san! I-I..." He cowered.

I inwardly laughed. That's what you get for being a loudmouth.

"No need, no time to apologise," He smirked and eleven snakes emerged from his cloak and lined in front of us, hissing wildly. The guy with the umbrella was frozen stiff, his anxiety can be felt from the way his chakra jumped.

Orochimaru chuckled in delight. "Don't worry they won't hurt you. They simply carry the numbers and colors you have, choose wisely."

Is he serious? I thought. Look children, here are eleven deadly snakes, pick the one you like the most!

Sora scooted closer to me and whispered. "Our proctor is a bit on the weird side, hm?" He asked. And that's coming from him.

I looked at him and the rest of the group. "Were all weird, Sora-san."

He considered my observation. "I guess." He nodded to himself. "Yep, humans are weird."

Humans from this world, that is. What's with the sudden change from creepy to 'slightly normal'?

Sora bounced happily and said, "I choose first!"

Orochimaru chuckled. "Fine... by the way did I mention you have to work in pairs." He asked as a snake wrapped around his arm.

Oh, great I need a partner. I scowled. Why do we need partners? Working alone would be easier and faster.

I complained like a child for a while more until the word hit me. Teamwork.

Damn i- I was pulled by the arm and trapped in someone's grip. I didn't try to yank my arm, because some muscles might get stretched. Instead I stared at my captor, Sora. "Yes, Team Sky Warriors, for the win!"

"W-What?!" I disaprove of this!

"one last thing," Orochimaru took out ten pieces of paper from under his cloak. "I need you to fill out these forms. This states that you are fully aware of the concequences of this exam, permanent injury and even death. I wouldn't be responsible for any of your failures or foolishness. Now, whos first?"

This test's not only about teamwork, isn't it?

Only a few streaks of light were able to shine to the ground, the 'Forest of Death' didn't seem so deadly at first glance. But when the animal calls started, it put me on the edge.

The minute I entered, I immediately made ten hawks and five rats. They scattered and went to look for six scrolls. The first is red with 4 written on the side and the other set is violet with number 7.

~"Take good care of the scrolls, damage one and you will be disqualified. Do not open unless all scrolls are in the same area."~

~"Answer all questions in the sheet and take good care of it, damage it and you will be disqualified."~

~"Successfully bring all scrolls and the sheet back at the entrance in five days, or less. All items must be in perfect condition."~

~"Refrain from dying."~

~"Successfully work with your partner and always have each other's back. Try not to kill each other... I really do hope luck is on your side."~

I shivered. Orochimaru said everything with an unnerving smile. I wasn't sure if he was being sincere, the tone he uses makes it sound sarcastic but it somehow makes it feel real.

The 'Jonin Exam' sounded cool, to say the least- scrolls, middle of the forest tests and all those other stuff. But all I ended up doing the first day was explaining why Sora shouldn't eat apple seeds.

"Because they are poisonous."

He spluttered. "Right, 'poisonous'. But how many exactly? How many apple seeds can I eat before I drop dead?"

"I don't know, would you like to find out?"

First day we got to nothing, most exciting thing was running away from a wild boar who had a green scroll around it's neck. Damn, if our scroll is around a black bear's neck I'm just going to slash my kunai at the closest... I took a deep breath and clenched my fist. Thinking murderous thoughts won't help. I scolded myself.

"How the hell do we find three scrolls-"

"Six,"

"-six scrolls in five days?" I asked. "We only have three and a half days left and we don't know where we are. Our 'proctor' didn't even give us basic information on the forest." By now I sounded like an immature brat, demanding his parents to give him a toy. But the frustration and sleep deprivation was getting to me, slowly. I was first watch last night.

"Well, it adds to the challenge" He started. "Training ground 44, also known as the 'Forest of Death', is a large place 44 gates and a metallic fence, blocking all exits... unless you could fly. There is a tower in the middle of this forest."

"A tower," I remember that one from the canon chunin exam. "Should we search there?"

"Mm," He considered it with a few clicks of his tongue. "Haven't your 'animals' reported anything yet?"

"We don't communicate telepathically, that only works with clones, so unless one of them comes back or 'dies', I wouldn't know what they're doing."

"So why didn't you make clones inst-ooohhh... right it would be much easier to hide." He tapped his chin before continuing. "Anyway, you know where they are, right?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Where?"

"Give me a minute," I concentrated on my scattered chakra. Even with the trees and animals around I could still sense my chakra, I probably wouldn't be able to do it to other's chakra though.

"5 kilometres north-west, 3 hawks. 2 kilometres east, 1 rat. 1 kilometre south, 2 rats. 7 kilometres south-east, 3 hawks. 10 kilometres west, 3 hawks." I answered.

"Approximately?" I nodded. He took out a map, a pencil, a ruler, and, surprisingly, a compass.

"In this map 1 cm is equal to 1 kilometre," He grabbed the ruler and wrote the distances I told him. That is a small map.

I stood there waiting while he calculated our distance. While waiting, I noticed one of my hawks closing in on our location.

"Um, Sora-"

"Wait, wait... almost... got it! I'm not sure where we are exactly, but we, without a doubt, are on the east side. So the tower is either to north-west or south-west." He announced.

Forgetting the hawk, confusion washed over me. "Wow, Sora that's amazing?" I complemented.

"Of course, do you want to know how I did it?"

I gave him a quizzical look. "No it's fairly, basic. Plus, I can see your calculations from here. You're not exactly putting any effort into hiding your work." To my dismay, he wasn't listening.

He explained how he figured it out. I'm not lying when I say he sounds like Hideo. The slightly creepy tone in his voice was gone and was replaced with a rather relaxed and patient one.

I was so distracted that I barely noticed three scrolls falling from the sky. "Sora-"

"Wha-*bonk* ouch, *bonk* ugh, *bonk* duck feathers." He faceplanted as the scrolls rolled on the ground. I grabbed them and grinned in delight.

"Sora we found two 7-V's and a 4-R!" I exclaimed.

"T-That's nice... now there's only one 'savah-vis' and two 'fur-rars'." He said with a thick Japanese accent.

"Right," I released the clone and found out the scrolls hiding spots. "Tree tops, tiny hole in the ground, underwater... man, good thing my creatures don't need air to live."

Sora rubbed his head and pouted. "Why did your bird drop those on my head?"

"It didn't do it on purpose you just so happened to be at the right spot at the wrong moment."

He rubbed his head and sighed. "Can you make two birds to check for north and south west?"

I nodded and made two more birds. They flew away in an instant.

We both decided to stay there and wait for the birds to report but a loud hiss told us to do otherwise.

"Run for your lives!" Sora screamed as we tried our best to outrun a giant snake.

"Guinness World Record people try to measure this one!" I shouted. "Sora, plan!"

"Mind blank! Mind blank! Panic attack, unable to function normally!" He screamed.

"System overload as well, Sky-pe computer program dude!" I returned. Terrible word play.

We continued our sprint and was luckily able to outrun the creature, by throwing a few senbon to distract it. Overwhelmed by the fact that we were alive, he hugged me. I was too distracted to protest and sagged.

"We live to see another day!" Sora cheered.

But our happiness was short-lived, two people bumped into us and we all fell on our backs.

"Trees everywhere!" I heard a familiar voice complain. I opened my eyes and saw the guy with the umbrella.

Sora scowled. "We are not trees!"

His companion was the Tsunade wannabe she sneered and shrieked, "What the hell?!"

In a less than 10 seconds the four of us were trapped inside a barrier. What is this?

I looked everywhere and saw a jonin, by the north of the barrier holding it in place. The scene looked familiar as hell but I couldn't pin point where exactly I saw this first.

Suddenly, Orochimaru appeared with the snake who chased us moments ago. He smiled eerily and said, "There is a reason why the exam only has one stage," He smirked. "Simple rules, fight and the team who lives wins... or the battle could stop if one side forfeits. Let the second battle begin." He announced and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Second battle? So, we weren't the first to get stuck in this?

"A fight to the death... surprise, surprise." I said with sarcasm.

The guy with the umbrella narrowed his eyes and got into position. His hands grabbed the end of the umbrella and opened it. "Now who the hell would forfeit," He asked, retorically, as a cocky smirk made its way to his face. "You're both just little kids." He looked about sixteen.

The girl grabbed a kunai and placed it in her mouth, accompanying them with rows of senbon which she held. She smirked. "Little kids, don't last long. I don't even know how you two are chunin. Was the Hokage just playing favourites?"

How the hell is she talking with that thing in her mouth? And was the Pose no Jutsu and the failure of an attempt of a Trash Talk no Jutsu really necessary? If this was a show on TV I would have facepalmed, but this was real life so instead I rolled my eyes and gave them an unimpressed look.

Sora, however, got into it, he pulled out ten tiny puppets and his dagger. Those pouches can hold a lot.

"Little kids?" He chuckled, mocking them. "Silly, ignorant couple I'm eighteen."

This got the duo worked up. "We are not a couple!" The Sakura wannabe, denied.

Unfortunately for her, my back-talking side made a few words slip, "That's what they all say." I said with a sigh. This exchange of childish retorts is far worse than Meizu and Fuyuki's 'small talk'.

I pulled out a kunai and placed it in front of me taking the very simple academy stance.

I felt her smirk from a yard away. "Basic," she sneered.

"Basic techniques to kill a human who sounds like a screeching frog." I retorted. "Oh, did I say kill? I meant... never mind, that is what I meant. Now," I pulled out senbon and gave her a smile. "Enough chit-chat, child."

I charged in with no warning and aimed a punch at the girl. She dodged it and kicked me in the gut. I grunted in pain then threw the kunai her way when I recovered.

But she expertly dodged it and threw a wave of senbon my way and I countered it with a simple explosion. The smoke filled the part of the field and I noticed the guy and Sora battling, katana vs dagger. Sora got the upper hand with his puppets floating around shooting senbon every now and then. He's pretty handy with a dagger.

The familiar whistling of bomb kunai's brought me back to my battle I jumped away and hovered in the air for a while. The girl appeared from behind the smoke and gave me a chakra enhanced uppercut, I could have sworn I saw all white for a while.

I did my hand signs and blasted her with Water Release: Wild Water Wave before I fell on all fours. She was hit directly but disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Shoot! I created two shadow clones of my own and sent them in to the cloud of black smoke. The girl's fighting style is obviously taijutsu based and relies mostly on chakra control, much like Sakura and Tsunade... she's a medic-nin.

I smirked. She's a medic-nin, her strength relies on her chakra enhanced blows... but is it enough?

I chuckled. "Of course not," a sickly, sweet smile made its way to my face as I did the hand signs for my favourite technique.

My body turned into a swarm of leaves excluding my eyes and I made my way over inside the smoke. My clones did the same thing and went for the girl as well. I stayed low and hoped that no one would put much notice on the moving pile of leaves.

Sora and the umbrella guy's weapons clashed, the sound of metal making contact rang around the field. They expertly dodged and countered each others blows.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Sora conjured hand signs and shielded himself. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

Sora looks fine, for now. I thought before focusing on my opponent. She and my clone are exchanging kicks and punches. Attempted leg sweeps, uppercuts, gut jabs, and round house kicks were distributed and of course ducking and shielding.

When my clone managed to get a good kick on her side, she jumped back and so did her partner. They stood back to back both equally worthy to get a fist to the face.

"They're not too bad, right Mizuki?" She asked.

My clone and Sora jumped back as well. Sora gave my clone a funny look, so it told him to keep quiet he nodded and remained silent, watching the two. He catches on fast... oh would you look at that, something I like about my temporary teammate.

"Yes, Shizuka," he started. "I guess we can take them seriously... without hurting them too much."

Shizuka chuckled evily and gave me a disturbing smile. "What did you call me again, little boy, 'child' you say?" she chuckled again, "One can only dream to be older than they actually are. Although, I will give you credit for having such a funny and cute imagination."

Oh, man... not this bullshit again. Sora glanced at my direction as if to question my earlier remark.

"You know girly, for someone named 'quiet' you sure don't know how to shut up." My clone said.

She sneered. "You'll regret saying that," she warned. Mizuki intergected by planting his sword on the ground. The surface of the umbrella he held started to peel of revealing multiple seals imprinted on it. Mizuki placed his hand above one seal and summoned a kunai, double the size of Sora's dagger; it was almost as long as my arm.

Getting out the 'big guns'? I thought.

My clone took out two kunai and planted them on the ground. Ram, boar, dog. My clone's hands crackled with electricity, the current stayed on my hands and didn't spread.

"Lightning Release: Electric Transfer..."

\(- _ - )/

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

A/N: I found out there was no such thing as a "Jonin Exam" so I made one up. Too easy? What is it about? This is a "Konoha" exam, so the first few requirements aren't that hard to figure out... I think. Also, I'm (kind of) finally understanding how fight scenes work. Let me know how I'm doing, if you have time. 10,000 views! you guys are the best.