45. The First Stage

The first stage of the chuunin exam was to be held at the Academy. It was a written test, like the first stage usually consisted of, and it made Obito look somewhat green. He had made it past the first test the last time they had made an attempt of becoming chuunin – barely – and the test changed every time. Obito had been quite confident up till this day, but now, he looked convinced he had passed it the last time due to pure luck.

"You'll be fine," Minato said and suppressed a yawn. He had stayed up most of the night with Kushina, given her month-long mission outside the village starting this morning (not having her own genin team awarded her with long, hard missions, something Minato thought was good for her and bad for him – he'd miss her, every time).

"I was lucky half the test was about eye techniques the last time," Obito said. "What if the test's more difficult this time?"

"Like the last time, the test is only to see if you can do the basics," Minato said for the tenth time, leaning against the wall outside the Academy. "You can do the basics better than most genin your age. You'll do fine."

Obito continued to look anxiously at the door, but didn't complain any more; he looked as though he'd throw up if he opened his mouth.

"It's a bit unfair that we're only two, though," Rin said. "I mean, most teams here are three, which is the rule, right? The whole team has to show up. And our team is just the two of us. Won't the other teams have an advantage there?"

"Depends," Minato said. "And it's not really unfair. The exam is designed to reveal skills you can also use in a real situation, and meeting a larger enemy team on missions is possible. Think of it this way: if you two defeat a team of three, you'll get more credit."

"So if we win a match against a three-man-team, the chances we'll pass will be higher?" Rin asked.

"Something like that," Minato nodded.

Obito looked a little less green, but swallowed when the door to the Academy opened and a tall man with a bandanna and glasses walked out.

"Registration," he announced shortly, holding up a list of names and a pen. Minato held back his two genin, waiting for the area to slowly empty as the different teams got registered and moved inside. Obito bounced up and down of nervousness.

"Obito."

Obito looked up at Minato.

"Just keep your head cool," Minato smiled, quoting Kushina from the many motivational speeches she had given him. "I know you can do this."

The boy nodded, looking somewhat more confident, and Minato pushed his two genin lightly in the back to move them to the jounin with the glasses.

"Team nine, Namikaze Minato."

"Check," the jounin with the glasses said with a dull voice. "Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito present?"

"Yes," Rin and Obito said in unison.

"All right, you can go."

Minato wished them good luck and went to stand with Kousuke as they waited for their teams.

"Hey, man," Kousuke said. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," Minato said and sat down against a tree with a swing that hadn't been there the last time he was around the Academy.

"So, no birthday party this year?" Kousuke asked as he sat down next to him.

"Nothing that I've planned, at least," Minato replied. "I'll be busy getting Obito and Rin through this exam so there won't be time, really ..."

"Yeah, same," Kousuke said. "Been having some trouble with my team too, takes up a lot more time than necessary."

"Oh?"

"Ever since I signed Ebisu and Genma up for the new exam, Gai has been fully devoted to helping them train, but they don't like that. Especially Ebisu, he put up a fight with him yesterday ..."

Minato sighed. "Sometimes I wonder how the third can allow eleven-year-olds to take this exam. Most are pretty sore losers."

"Still some nagging with your team, too?"

"A lot more lately. They're talented kids, but ever since Kakashi graduated there's been no teamwork whatsoever. I just hope Obito doesn't take this opportunity to show off or something ..."

Kousuke grimaced. "We're pretty much in the same boat."

They watched as the door to the Academy stayed unopened, with the exception of a jounin entering sometime during the last half hour of the exam. And a little more than an hour later, discouraged and glum genin shuffled out of the Academy.

"They're the ones who didn't make it," Kousuke said, but didn't sound too worried. And when the door shut behind them, there was no sign for any of their genin. Minato found himself immensely relieved.

"Did you have any doubts?" Kousuke asked as he saw the look of inner peace at Minato's face.

"Not really," Minato replied. "But I can't even imagine the mood Obito would be in if he failed."

Kousuke grinned. Shortly after, the rest of the genin – a quite large bunch – came out looking relaxed and happy.

Except from Obito, who was too happy to relax.

"I take it you passed?" Minato grinned as Obito approached half-skipping, dragging Rin along.

"Passed!" Obito exclaimed. "It was easy!"

"It wasn't that easy," Rin said.

"It was," Obito argued. "At least once you figured out the main key -"

"Well, yeah, but you saw how many people who failed -"

"Hey, slow down," Minato said and got up. "When's the second stage?"

"In two days," Rin replied. "We're meeting at the same forest as last time at nine in the morning."

"Come on, let's grab a bite," Minato said, pushing the two chattering genin ahead and waving goodbye to Kousuke. "So," he said as they walked towards Ichiraku's. "How did they make the test this year?"

"We were supposed to plan an escape from an invented mission," Rin began quickly. "They described what the mission was about, what we'd already done and that we had been discovered and had to get out."

"Yeah, and they didn't say anything about the mission being a team mission" Obito continued. "So at the first look it was as though we were doing the mission alone -"

"- but they had made it so that we had to sort out the information carefully, and those who failed hadn't read the part with what we'd already done well enough -"

"- yeah, 'cause there were things they said we did that at first seemed all right, but when I thought about it, I thought that I couldn't possibly have done that on my own -"

"- and they had given all the teams different missions to match with the number of members, so our mission was designed for two -"

"- and I'd either have to be at two places at once or make a bunshin, but the task didn't say anything about a bunshin so it was obvious I was working with Rin -"

For thirty minutes, Obito and Rin talked almost in unison about the first stage and the test, until their ramen had gone cold.

"Did they say anything about the second stage?" Minato asked, ramen long gone from the lack of space to talk between Rin and Obito's blabbering.

"No," Rin replied and grabbed her tea cup. "They said we'd get all the information in two days."

"But I guess it's team battles like last time," Obito said through a mouthful of ramen. "I mean, it's always been team battles, hasn't it?"

"I guess," Minato replied. "It's been like that since I took the exam, at least."

"Did you pass on the first try?" Rin asked with mild interest.

"D'you really have to ask?" Obito said, looking at Rin with a raised eyebrow.

Minato chuckled and paid for the bill without answering the question. Yes, he had passed on the first try. No, he didn't mention he was the only one in his generation that had passed that year. He was proud of his hard work, but he wasn't much of a show-off.

Two days later, on a foggy Thursday morning, Minato led his team towards the location of the second stage of the exam. Kakashi had come along (by force) to wish them good luck, but had so far not said much.

"He's not going to watch, is he?" Obito whispered to Minato.

Minato suppressed a sigh, and only replied that no, Kakashi had a mission later, so he wasn't going to watch.

"I wonder who we'll be fighting," Rin said. "D'you think they'll put teams of two and three against each other?"

"They might," Minato replied.

But as they arrived outside the fences of Exam Area 09, they were surprised; first of all, the sign that announced that this was in fact Exam Area 09 was replaced by a sign saying 'Forest of Death'. Although the genin looked horrified at this, Minato couldn't help but find it a bit of an overstatement.

Second of all, team battles had been replaced as well. On a long table outside the fence lay a large number of scrolls, each looking exactly the same as the other. The jounin with the glasses stood behind it with his registration sheets and pen, while several serious-looking shinobi stood on the other side of the table.

"Don't worry, no one's died in there," Minato had to reassure an anxious-looking Rin and patted her head. "It's just to scare you."

"I'm not scared," Obito said confidently. He had gone back to his certain self, no longer doubting he'd win the whole thing.

"All right, listen up," one of the serious-looking jounin, a woman, said. "This exam will be different from the previous ones. This time you'll be giving life to the first stage of the exam, so you better have written a damn well escape plan."

"We're not doing team battles?" a boy Minato had never seen before asked.

"You will, but at your own necessity," the woman replied and pointed at the scrolls. "These scrolls contain enough food and utilities for half a normal day. You'll be spending the next two nights in the forest, so it's a fight for survival. Find your way to the tower in the middle of the forest, and once you step inside, you're safe. At nine o'clock the third day, the task will be over."

The jounin with the glasses held up his registration form again, announcing with one word that they had to come over and get registered. When they had, Rin turned to another of the serious-looking shinobi.

"But what if someone doesn't get enough food?" she asked. It was clear she was still scared of the title 'Forest of Death'.

"We have skilled ANBU patrolling the forest in case anything happens," the man replied. "The Hokage can't afford to waste shinobi in these times."

Rin shuddered at the thought that they might have been on their own if there hadn't been a war coming up, but said nothing else.

"All right, genin," the woman said loudly. "Come up here and get your scroll. You'll be entering from different entrances, so get ready."

Rin and Obito went to get one of the small, green scrolls, and was awarded entrance number five. The entrances were placed far away from each other to give minimal sight to the other teams, so they were given instructions to wait until the gate opened and enter as soon as it did. A bear-masked ANBU stood next to the gate, nodding politely to Minato as they arrived.

At nine thirty, the gate opened.

The current Naruto chapters are representing the longest fifteen minutes I've ever seen. You'd think that with time pressure, no one would really care for nostalgia, but damn, these guys find a time and place for everything.

Seriously. If it had been me standing in front of a plant that would in a quarter of an hour erase all life (so to speak), I'd give no crap about what the next man's dream was or how the first Kage gathered some ages ago. I'd just scream at everyone to get their asses going and beat that plant to mud.

(and that's why I'd die in battle)

(Naruto ch. 648)