Nawaki was extremely confused. Why had he failed? All around him, genin were getting up and leaving, but he remained rooted to his chair. What did he do wrong?
He was sure that he had done fine in the test. Most of the answers he gave were good ones, and he was sure that he could use them if the situations given were real. But maybe they hadn't been the answers the proctors were looking for. It still didn't make sense why everyone had failed! Surely at least one person would have the right answers?
He was angry now. What right did Ino or Shikamaru have to say that his answers were terrible? He knew his answers had been perfectly fine.
He stood up and slammed his hand on the desk, gaining the proctors attention.
"I'm not leaving this room until you pass me!" he yelled "My answers were good. I don't care what you think!"
Ino grinned menacingly at him.
"Do you really want to challenge me and Shikamaru? He's the smartest person in Konoha."
Nawaki hesitated, until he saw someone else stand up. He recognized the boy as Hisa's brother, Obito.
"If he won't challenge you then I will." Obito said "My answers were good as well."
Nawaki looked around the room. Some people were still leaving, but others were standing up and nodding. Nawaki was relieved to see that Hisa and Oki were standing.
Ino shrugged.
"It's you're decision. I'll give you three minutes to leave. If you don't, we'll challenge you and if you lose, you'll remain a genin forever."
This statement made at least half the remaining genin leave, but Team 7 stayed, along with Obito's team. Nawaki also noticed that the Ino-Shika-Cho team stayed, as well as the team with Hizashi Hyuga on it.
"Time's up." Ino announced "Shikamaru, tell them what's going to happen next."
She noticed that Shikamaru had fallen asleep so she whacked him over the head.
"Hm…" he looked around the room. "Can I leave yet?"
"Tell them what's going to happen to them!" Ino yelled.
"…Oh right, you pass. G'night."
With that, he fell back asleep.
Ino sighed.
"Well that was anticlimactic. I suppose I should tell you the reason that you passed since Shikamaru obviously won't. You all believed in your own ideas. While it's important for a shinobi to listen to each other, it's also important to believe in yourselves."
The genin began to mutter amongst themselves. Nawaki made his way over to Hisa and Oki.
"The survival test is next, right?" he asked. "I wonder who'll be proctoring it."
This time, Hisa was the one who turned pale.
"I really hope I'm wrong about this…"
The door slammed open and a young woman stormed into the room. She had long black hair that went down to her waist and a fringe that covered her forehead. Her pale, pupil less eyes marked her as a member of the Hyuga clan.
Hisa groaned.
"It's Auntie Hanabi. We're doomed."
Nawaki once again wondered how much aunties and uncles Hisa had.
The woman ran up to the front of the room.
"Sorry I'm late!" she gasped. "That bastard Konahamaru wouldn't stop bugging me. He kept trying to show me his new pervy ninjutsu. Why the hell did he think I'd want to see that? Is there something on my face that says 'come and do perverse ninjustsu techniques in front of me'?"
Ino smiled camly.
"Relax Hanabi, you're not late. In fact, you're right on time."
Hanabi seemed to notice that the genin were staring at her.
"What're you brats looking at?" she snapped.
They all quickly looked away. She grinned at that.
"Alright you bunch of squeaky-voiced, spot covered worms! Time to go to the Minefield! I want to watch and laugh as you explode into pieces!"
Nawaki gulped.
"She's not exactly the… friendliest person is she?" he whispered to Hisa.
"She's nice once you get to know her." Hisa whispered back.
Nawaki wasn't sure he wanted to get to know her. The gleam in her eye when she'd talked about them dying scared him.
"I'll see you all there! If you're late, well… you'll find out."
With that, she jumped out the fourth floor window, smashing the glass in the process.
Ino sighed.
"Why do the survival proctors always feel the need to smash windows?"
!
They made their way to the minefield training ground as fast as they could. Hanabi was waiting for them when they arrived, idly tossing a kunai from hand to hand. Once everyone had gathered, she began to talk.
"Alright, here are the rules. You have three days and three nights to make your way across the minefield. Your entire team must be alive. Otherwise, you won't be allowed leave. Those are basically the only two rules. Everything is allowed. So you can push your opponents into a minefield if you want. In fact, I'll give you a lollipop if you do. Any questions?"
One chubby boy nervously put up his hand.
"What happens if we don't make it to the other side in time?"
Hanabi grinned maniacally.
"If that happens, fatso, then I get the pleasure of pushing this button here." she whipped out a small remote. "This button will make the entire minefield go boom! Hopefully with you still in it."
She laughed. "Let's hope I don't accidently sit on it. That would be too funny."
"Hisa, you're aunt's a psycho." Nawaki whispered.
Hisa shook her head.
"She's just a bit… eccentric." she argued.
"Is everyone ready?" Hanabi yelled.
A few people yelled "No!"
"Too bad! I'm opening the gate."
"Wait, we need to get our plan ready." Nawaki yelled desperately.
Hanabi looked at him like she was contemplating murder.
"Do I look like I care about your plan? Get going!"
Nawaki bolted straight at the gate, Hisa and Oki running to catch up with him.
"Hisa!" Hanabi yelled. "Hinata wanted me to tell you to take care of your brother. Personally, I would prefer if you pushed him onto a mine, but that's just my opinion."
"Okay Auntie!" Hisa yelled back. "I'll try my best!"
Nawaki finally understood where Hisa got some of her attitude from. He vowed to stay as far away from Hanabi as he could. He also decided to warn Obito that his sister was trying to murder him.
Once the three of them were inside the minefield, they paused to regroup.
"What should we do?" Oki asked.
"We could stick to the fence." Nawaki suggested
Hisa shook her head.
"It would take too long. We'd never make it out in three days. "
"We wouldn't make it out, but when she blows the place up, we'd still live."
Hisa looked at him arrogantly.
"I don't' know about you but I came here to become a chunin. If I valued living more I would stay a genin. Don't tell me your scared?"
Nawaki glared at her.
"I'm not scared at all! I just want to become a chunin before I die!"
Hisa sighed.
"We won't die. I'll use my Rinnegan to pull all the mines up, then I'll send them shooting away from us. We'll be perfectly fine."
Oki looked at her in concern.
"Are you sure you're strong enough to do that?"
Hisa bristled.
"Of course I am! Come on, let's go before we waste more time."
She stood up and stretched out her hands. She seemed to focus on the ground in front of her.
"Universal Pull!
Nawaki expected that a few of the nearest mines would start rushing towards her. What he didn't expect was for the entire ground in front of Hisa to crumble and start floating towards her. Around three meters of land hovered in the air. Hisa's face was white and Nawaki knew she wouldn't be able to hold it for long, but he didn't know if she had enough strength to push it all away. He knew she was too stubborn to back out, and sure enough, he heard her yell.
"Almighty Push!"
It was like watching an action movie in slow motion. Nawaki had seen many a movie with his mother, and action movies were his favourite. This was like he was watching one on a movie screen, not actually experiencing it.
He watched as the mixture of earth and mines shot away from them. It all flew away, scattering pieces of earth every few seconds. Finally, it landed at least twenty metres away. Any further and Nawaki would have lost sight of it. For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then the entire ground exploded.
The heat of it seared Nawaki's face, his hair was blown backwards with the shockwave. All he could hear was the sound of mines exploding, and all he could see was explosions. Then, he began to see a little clearer. He saw Oki sitting next to him, just as stunned as he was. He saw Hisa wobble for a minute, before crashing to the ground. He was worried about her, but all of it disappeared from his mind when his hearing came back.
All around him, people were screaming. He heard a few names being called, a few people were sobbing and others were yelling, clearly in pain. It took him a minute to realise that genin like them had been caught up in the explosion.
The explosion that Hisa had caused.
It sickened him. He felt like throwing up there and then. He had accepted that sometimes, people died on missions, and that some enemies wouldn't hesitate to kill you unless you killed them first. But this was different. The people Hisa had killed had just been innocent children. Most of them had been twelve years old. He was disgusted that anyone would let children die like this, especially children from their own village. Was this what being a shinobi was about?
He couldn't think any deeper than that. All his thoughts were focused on the screams. One question kept circling round his head. How many families will have lost a child by tonight? By the sound of the screams, he'd say at least ten.
He wondered how Hisa felt about killing all those people. She had been ready to kill enemies on their missions, but how did she feel now? These people were not enemies. He looked over to where Hisa had fallen and realised that she was unconscious. She had used up all of her chakra. Nawaki envied her for a moment. She didn't have to see the result of what she had done.
He realised that someone was poking him. He turned and looked at Oki. She had obviously heard the screams, as she had tears running down her face, but she seemed to be alright.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
He wasn't sure he had it in him to open his mouth. So he just nodded. She seemed to understand and gently took his hand in hers.
"Let's go get Hisa." she said. "It's best if we keep moving and try not to think about it. Once this is over, we can think more clearly about everything. But for now, our main priority is to survive.
Nawaki heard what she said, but his mind wasn't following. The screams had subsided now, but he could still hear them echoing in his head. He let her lead him over to Hisa. A trickle of blood ran down the side of Hisa's mouth, but Nawaki couldn't find it in him to care. He couldn't care about her until he fully wrapped his head around what she had done.
The smoke from the explosions had cleared by now and Nawaki was able to see the field clearly. There was barely anything left. The entire area that they were standing in was just hardened earth. Not a single sound of life could be seen.
"I think she got rid of them all." Oki said. Nawaki wondered if she meant the mines of the competition.
Oki reached down and picked up Hisa, throwing Hisa across her back.
"We'll take turns carrying her," she said.
Nawaki still couldn't speak. But if he could speak he would have said that he wasn't going to carry Hisa anywhere until she woke up. He would judge her when he saw what reaction she had to causing all those deaths.
The three of them set off across the barren field.
As they walked, Nawaki heard moans coming from either side of him. He went to find out where the noise was coming from, but Oki grabbed his hand.
"You don't want to see that." she said firmly. "You're shaken up badly as it is."
For a minute he wondered why she was so calm, but then he realised it was her way of coping.
"Your sister is doing the exam isn't she?" he realised. It was the first thing he had said in ten minutes.
"I'm trying not to think about it right now." Oki said quietly.
They continued to walk in silence. Nawaki couldn't help but notice how far Hisa had pushed the mines. They had been walking for at least half an hour, and there was still no living thing in sight apart from his team. This made him realise that a lot more than ten people had gotten killed.
He tried not to think much after that.
!
Naruto was once again in his office when Hinata burst in.
"I heard screams coming from the minefield. Should we check it out?"
"Hm?" Naruto said, focused on his work (for once) "Oh, don't worry about the minefield. The chunin exams are happening there.
Hinata relaxed, glad that no wandering civilian was dying, then she realised something.
"Is that the exam that Hisa and Obito are doing?"
"Yes dear."
"So it's possible that they were the ones screaming?"
"Yes dear."
"…"
For the first time in five years, Hinata fainted.
"…"
"… Hinata?"