It was finally time. Hasuka awoke on the examination's morning brimming with an anxious energy. In slumber two nights before, Garoma had relayed his disapproval of her fighting, but what other choice did she have? Seeing as he was unable to sway her conviction, he had offered her something instead.
A technique that he had been saving from her because she had never asked about such an ability. It would require a severe amount of energy on her part, but with this knowledge she would be able to summon Garoma to her position in a time of need. He warned however, that in order to do so, she would need to sacrifice something in exchange, for she did not hold enough power to do it on her own.
Something that always troubled her about whenever they talked however, was that he always called her Komura. Sure, that was what her name was when she had met him, but she didn't feel that way anymore. When she had relayed her feelings to him, Garoma had dismissed them as nonsense and refused to call her by that name. It kind of made her uncomfortable, like she was being pulled in two different directions in life, unsure which one is better.
Taking special care, with these thoughts in her mind, Hasuka fitted herself into loose green and brown clothing, wrapping creme colored bandages around her wrists and ankles. After wrapping her hair up in hair sticks, she tried to put her newly acquired forehead protector on different parts of her body.
Finally deciding on sitting it at the waistband of her thrice-cut skirt, Hasuka then began to apply a kunai pouch that was bound onto the, in this case, waist protector. In another pouch, located on the opposite side, she put other instruments of healing. Saifa had said, after giving her the protector, that the symbol on the front was of a Medic-Nin.
It had confused her, both because she didn't quite know what a Medic-Nin was, nor why she would be one, but he had continued. In order to look like one, she had to have more bandages and some chakra pills. They had instructed her, or more like Sanchin had, that if one of her teammates ran out of chakra, then she was to give them these.
"Whatever happens," they said before she left. "do not die."
Asoka, Emoda, and Hasuka all arrived simultaneously at the large building near the center of Sunagakure. The stadium had been built for one purpose and one purpose only, to house the Chunin, or in some cases Jonin, Exams.
The trio did not speak once to each other as they entered the building, each grim faced and trying to calm kitty nerves. For Emoda, he hoped that they would be able to stay together as a team long enough to win. Asoka thought of making sure that non of them died, already planning possible ideas of how to win quickly and efficiently.
As for Hasuka, she thought of training. She wasn't sure if she was ready for this, not to mention that what she was doing was practically illegal. "Do you know," Emoda asked, trying to calm their nerves as they passed through a dimly lit tunnel all alone. "Why we were a team of two and not three?"
Hasuka, startled out of her reverie, looked sharply at him and shook her head. "It's because our other member, our cousin, died. It was a sudden sickness that couldn't be treated because there were very few healers left. So now we're to complete this exam with you instead of him."
Frowning, Hasuka asked, "What was he like?"
"He was skilled with weapons. He could make one out of anything."
"Anything?"
"Anything," Emoda stressed. "Bodies, sticks, trees, ninjutsu-wise he was most proficient in water which was helpful in case I ever got out of control..."
Hasuka was about to ask what exactly he meant by that, but the roar of hundreds of civilians drowned out her thoughts as they reached the entrance. The ring was huge, an entire forest and clearing seeming to have been encompassed in it. And that was just the ring.
People from all villages had come to see this year's age in fight their way into the next ranks. In times like these, people flocked to what amusement could be found, even if it was little kids.
To go to their place at the end of the line of teams, they had to cross in front of each other team. Feeling self-conscious, Hasuka found herself straightening her hair sticks and skirt to look more presentable. The other two didn't look much better, double-checking each other to make sure they looked alright.
Ninja from every village looked upon them, sizing up the competition. They didn't look like much, but looks could be deceiving, especially for the blue-haired one. Many pegged her as the weakest link because of her forehead protector and it's medical background. That title always fell to the least promising of any given group, and even those who had their own eyed her condescendingly.
Finally nearing the end, they filed into place, Asuka standing in front as the student leader. A handful other teams came in after them, but compared to the number they had to walk past, it seemed that had their work cut out for them.
"Thank you," Boomed a loud voice, echoing throughout the stadium. "For coming to this year's Chunin Exams! The contenders this year are as follows, Team 3 from the Hidden Stone, Team 5 from the Hidden Stone, Team 3 from the Hidden Sand, Team..." The proctor continued naming Teams and Villages for each group until they reached the end.
"Team 9 from the Hidden Sand," he announced, Emoda, Asoka, and Hasuka each standing a little straighter as their team was called. "Team 4 from Hidden Rain, Team 7 from Hidden Sand..."
"The first challenge," he began after everyone had been called. "A team battle. Team against team to determine who moves on and who loses." At this, the teams started whispering and grumbling among each other, not expect something so direct so early on.
"Only three rules, no killing, no kinjutsu, and no going out of bounds. The perpetrator will immediately be disqualified and lose a person for their team. Now, will Team 2 of the Hidden Leaf and Team 8 of the Hidden Stone be the first contestants."
The two groups took their stances against the other team, a burning fire in their eyes. These two nations were at war, so it almost wasn't surprising that they hadn't killed each other yet. As it was, the heated battle ended in Iwagakure's favor, the Leaf Genin having sustained several deep wounds.
Two other pairs of teams went before it was their turn to do battle against a team from the Hidden Mist. They took up a similar position to the original triangle, although the twins had switched positions, so Emoda was on Hasuka's left and Asuka was on the right.
When the gong rang out for the battle to begin, the other team leapt into action, one of them, a male with green hair, raining a shower of kunai in their direction. They responded by diving out of the way, Emoda to the left, Asuka to the right, and Hasuka jumped upwards.
The kunai however, rose up with her on clear-colored strings tied on to the handles. Before being pulled up, the tips brushed the ground, leaving small black streaks of dead grass in their wake. Of her teammates, they were occupied with the other two opposing ninjas, evasively trying to dodge their own poisonous weapons.
As Hasuka fell towards the incoming kunai, she panically threw out her hair sticks connected by energy strings to a nearby tree. They hit the trunk, allowing her to narrowly dodge the deadly objects by pulling on the strings.
At the same time, her attacker made a hand sign and called out his jutsu as the visibility of the arena decreased, "Hidden Mist Jutsu." A fog expelled from his mouth, covering the entire arena and making it hard to see more than a wrist length away.
Removing the hair sticks from the trunk, Hasuka knelt on a branch, alert for any attackers in the fog. Yet none came. All she could hear was the sound of her two comrades doing their own battles. Without her sight though, she dared not go in after them.
Within a few minutes of each other, the sounds ceased, and all she was left to was the blood pumping in her ears. "Hasuka..." came a muttered whisper in the darkness. "Unleash your power..."
That sounded like Asoka, she thought, her apprehension increasing dramatically. "If we lose then you're to blame."
"Where is this coming from...?" She warily asked as he arose from the fog, climbing the tree.
"Unleash your power," he replied just as forcefully.
"What-"
"We're not your friends here after all."
Baking away from the trunk and making her way out onto a branch, Hasuka tried to get him to talk with no avail. "My brother dies if you don't hurry up. Kill them all, and we will win, unless you want to fail."
"I can barely see you...are you okay?" She asked. Trying to bring him to his senses. "I'd be fine if you wouldn't be such a pain! You shy away from real battle but have no problem fighting us? Why?! If you have no problem killing my brother, then you'll have no problem with my revenge."
Making the rat hand seal, Asoka called with a commanding tone, "Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu." With the completion of his technique, the leaves of surrounding trees whipped around her, obscuring everything else from view. With a 'whoosh' the leaves whisked away, revealing a land made of fire and ash.
Her eyes widened, flashbacks of her first time in a genjutsu coming back. Flames ran rampant over the black earth until they surrounded her in a ring. Without much else to do, she leapt through the ring, crumpling to the ground on the other side from burns on her right leg. Looking down though, the skin was seeping with a green poison.
Realizing that, the world went up once more in a cylinder of leaves, only to reveal the same attacker from before. "Next time, you won't be so lucky," he mutters, putting the stopper back on a glass bottle. "In fact, you won't be this time either." As panicked as she was, all thoughts of keeping up her disguise disappeared, and her transformation jutsu slipped away.
The green-haired boy threw the bottle to the ground at her feet, the clone disappearing instantly. The glass shattered, sending shards in every direction and leaving several cuts all over her body. Despite the pain from imbedded glass, Hasuka knew that the poison was much more important to heal.
Fishing out a kunai to wipe it off with, the poison began to erode the metal on contact. Hissing furiously and barely able to handle the kunai because her hand was shaking so bad, she was able to get a significant amount of the poison off of her body before too much damage was done.
Hasuka wrapped more bandages around her leg in an effort to hide the burns and shakily rose to her feet. Feeling the clothing to be too big for this body, she remembered that she must keep it up at all times, and returned the appearance to her body. The mist having cleared during the time in the genjutsu, she was finally able to see the battle as it happened once more.
The boy was holding his own against her two comrades who were having trouble keeping him in one place long enough to hit him. Asoka's words came back to her then, as she gazed at the neck and neck battle.
Gazing at her hands, Hasuka's conviction returned full-force. From her tree, she threw her hair sticks with no hesitation and no strings attached, hitting the boy in the solar plexus, a satisfying squelch indicating the hit.
"And that, ladies and gentleman, ends this round of the first trial!"