(The epic Chunin Exam Arc is underway! In the Forty First Chapter of the arc, the exams are over and everyone is headed back to the village. What will happen in the aftermath? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
The sun beams brightly overhead with not even a hint of a cloud in sight. The crickets chirp loudly, out in large numbers due to the heavy humidity. Jando picks at his robes fruitlessly attempting to keep them from sticking to his skin. He wipes the sweat off of his brow and grumbles, "Man, it is hot, I am so tired."
"Relax, we are almost back to the village," Sakura chides.
"I still can't believe the Hokage sent us off on an escort mission," Jando remarks, "I thought everyone was supposed to go back together after the Chunin exams."
"I'm also curious about that," says Sakura.
"That businesswoman was very persistent," explains Kayo, "Plus, she offered to pay five times the regular amount. It would have made the village look bad if she refused."
"Yeah, okay, but why did our team have to go?" Jando questions, "I'm sure somebody else could have handled it."
"It is the result of our performance during the exams," Kuroda answers, "Weren't you listening at the closing ceremony? We are going to be getting a lot more missions from now on."
"Yeah, yeah, we all know you're so talented that you won the whole thing and got promoted," Jando mocks.
"Just because I am now a Chunin doesn't mean they weren't watching you closely as well," Kuroda counters, "I'm sure Kayo already submitted her report about your victory in the preliminaries."
"Whatever, I'll just have to train harder so I can surpass you," says Jando, "Then everyone will request our team because I am on it."
"I can see the wall, we're almost home!" Sakura cheers, putting a quick end to the confrontation.
"Finally," sighs Jando, wiping his brow again.
They begin approaching the familiar great wall that surrounds the village and can even view the Hokage Mountain in the distance. Already they can see that the gates are open, but there is little foot traffic. There are only a few people visible, chatting with the guards at the gate station. The rest of the Konoha citizens are tucked safely inside, going about their daily affairs.
"Hey, Sensei, I've been wondering about something. How would we know if someone snuck into the village?" Sakura asks, curiously, "I mean, if they weren't spotted by the guard patrols."
"There is a barrier around the village shaped like a sphere. It is not a physical barrier but a chakra one," Kayo explains, "Anytime anyone steps through it their chakra is recorded. Everyone in the village has had their chakra recorded and placed into a catalog when they were little. So, if the chakra is not on that catalog, then the barrier team will be alerted and send a squad to investigate."
"Wait, so a team is there 24/7, monitoring the barrier?" Jando inquires.
"Well, there are four different shifts of specially trained personnel and they change every few hours," Kayo responds.
"What about for regular people who don't have chakra?" Sakura asks.
"Everyone has chakra. It's just that normal people have such a minute amount that they wouldn't be able to perform even the simplest Jutsu," the Sensei responds.
"Is there any way to bypass the barrier?" Kuroda asks, deviously.
"If you knew the barrier codes you could," Kayo reveals, "Or if you had a space/time Jutsu, but those S-rank techniques are nearly impossible to learn, let alone master. Or if someone was already inside they could use a summoning Jutsu to get you in. But other than that it would be impossible to get in undetected."
"I bet they use a lot of Hyuga clan members on that barrier team," Jando comments.
"Actually, they don't," Kayo states, "The Byakugan would be wasted there. They don't need to visually see the foreign chakra in order to detect it. A Hyuga clan member can better serve the village by being on the team that actually confronts the intruder."
"How do they decided what ninja would be good for the barrier team?" Sakura asks.
"Sakura, don't you remember all the testing we did at the academy?" Kuroda comments.
"Yeah, but I thought that was just to see if we would get to become Genin," she replies.
"That was just one purpose. All that data is looked over, scrutinized, and evaluated down to the very last bit," Kuroda explains, "They go over it again and again trying to break down every aspect of who you are, what you can do, and what you may be capable of in the future. First, they take out any kids who show they have abilities beyond the norm for their age. They send those ones off to be trained in specialized areas or just advance them to a higher level so they can start going on missions earlier than the regular group. Next, they place the rest of us into balanced squads of three and continue monitoring. The Chunin exams, mission reports, medical and psychological evaluations, all of these things are added to our files and used to determine where we eventually end up spending the majority of our ninja career."
"Wow, how do you know so much?" Sakura inquires.
"I'm not sure if you remember, but before Ichimaru and I became the pranksters of our class we were actually the top students. You also know I spend a lot of time at the library," Kuroda states, "With a bit of research I was able to figure things out. That is when I started purposely missing questions on tests and not doing homework assignments. Secretly, I knew all the material and could have aced the tests, but I chose not to."
"And why would you choose to do that?" questions Kayo, hoping he will let some information slip.
"That should be obvious," Kuroda remarks, "I didn't want to get cornered into a specific path, like becoming part of the barrier team that almost never goes outside of the village. I wanted to choose my own destiny, so I hide my abilities. I made sure to do just good enough not to get kicked out of the ninja academy, but not so well as to get noticed by any of the elite or specialized squads."
"Even back then you were already planning for your future, amazing!" Sakura comments.
Before anyone notices the team is already passing through the village gate. The guards on duty wave and one kunoichi says, "We heard about your team from the group that arrived a few days ago. They said you put on a great show at the Chunin exams. You've done the village proud!"
"Great job and congratulations," comments her partner.
"Thank you," Sakura blushes.
"Did the Hokage and everyone make it back safely?" asks Kayo.
"Yeah, they didn't have any problems," replies the female guard.
"That is good to hear," she says before turning to her students, "I've got to go and report about our mission. You should all head home. I'm sure more people will want to talk to you and you all need some deserved rest."
"Okay, see you later, Sensei," replies Sakura, eagerly rushing off to see her parents.
"Bye," waves Jando, nonchalantly. He heads toward the Hyuga clan section of the village, already planning out a new training regimen that will help him improve on what he learned from watching the one-on-one matches.
"Guess I will go to the library," says Kuroda, not having a family to go home to, "There is a book I have been wanting to check out."
Kayo watches her students depart in different directions, but her thoughts are focused on only one. "Even as an academy student Kuroda was already miles ahead of anyone his age," she thinks, "I wonder if that is when he came up with this dream of his. Maybe something happened to him back then. I should go look into his file and see when his grades started changing. I might just have gotten another clue to the mystery that is Kuroda Taishi."
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? Kuroda's mischief started long before he became a Genin. Just what is he up to? What is next for Team 3? As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)