"Just let us through!" Lee screamed, stepping up to the two Chuunin who was blocking a door to what was believed to be the entrance to the first phase of the Chuunin Exams.
Hisako held back a growl in annoyance, "How long are we keeping up this charade? We all know this is a Genjutsu and the two Chuunin only masked that door to look like the door we need,"
"Lee said he wanted us to act low key for the Chuunin Exams. Not show off our real strength until we need to," Neji reminded Hisako, shaking his head.
Hisako watched as the Chuunin punched Lee square in the jaw sending him back a few feet with a screech as he landed on the floor rubbing his chin.
"Alright! I've had just about enough of this," Hisako shouted, her temper finally reaching the end of its fuse.
She stepped up to the two Chuunin, bringing up a hand to give the two an ear full when one of the two raised his fist. Hisako's eyes widened in disbelief and she watched the closed fist come down onto Hisako too. She gasped in surprise as she felt the jarring impact of his fist on her chin. She flew back, joining Lee on the floor grimacing in pain as she rubbed her jaw too.
Neji's patience ran out as well. He stepped up, about to intervene when the crowd behind them finally parted. Everyone stopped as none other than Team Seven walked into the fray. Sasuke was leading the group.
"This is dumb," Sasuke said, his voice bored, his arms crossed over his chest as he regarded the two Chuunin at the door, "do you really think we'd fall for this obvious Genjutsu? Pathetic,"
"Huh? What are you talking about! This isn't a Genjutsu, you punk!" one of the Chuunin screamed at Sasuke.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, looking over his shoulder to where Sakura was standing, "Go on Sakura, why don't you tell him? You do have the keenest sight on our team. I'm sure you were able to detect the Genjutsu before any of us,"
Sakura looked flustered at first, a blush forming on her cheeks from the praise Sasuke had given her.
"M-Me?" Sakura stammered, her green eyes darting between Sasuke and the two Chuunin, "Oh right! Yes, of course,"
Sakura cleared her throat, her tone becoming more serious, "Well, it's obvious this is a Genjutsu. The room we need is on the third floor, and this is only the second!"
Like a demon being called out, the sign above the door with the room number on it spun with chakra before the Genjutsu finally broke. The room number read 203. The entire crowd around them booed and quickly broke up to go to the room they actually needed to sign up for the Chuunin Exams.
Hisako stood up with a sigh, still rubbing her jaw. Lee, however, seemed to be immediately taken by Sakura. Neji and Hisako stood back as they watched Lee rush over to Sakura, taking up her hand, his black eyes lighting up with an inner fire as he announced his love for Sakura.
"Oh boy," Hisako grumbled rolling her eyes.
"And if you be my girlfriend, I swear to protect you with my life!" Lee shouted.
Sakura looked like she was about to lose her mind. Her hair stood on end, and her eyes were wide and wild as she internally began a battle with herself. Hisako let out a long sigh.
"I should probably help Sakura out," Hisako muttered.
She completely ignored the stare off Neji and Sasuke were in, lightning dancing between the two of them as Hisako firmly placed a hand on Lee's shoulder.
"Okay, c'mon Lee. We gotta go register still. You can talk to Sakura later," Hisako scolded, pulling him away from Sakura.
Sakura let out a sigh of relief and Hisako gave her friend a wink. It did sort of stink for Lee, that the first girl he had to crush on already had a crush. And of course, Sakura had to have a thing for Hisako's cousin. But, unfortunately, she also knew that as Sasuke is now, he would never fall for Sakura. Or for anyone for that matter.
"Hey! Hold up, Hisako!" Lee stammered, pulling Hisako to a stop as he turned to her.
"What now Lee? We seriously do have to go," Hisako argued, placing her hands on her hips.
"I know, but go on ahead without me I'll meet you there, I've got to do something real fast," Lee replied, rushing away from the two of them.
"He's gonna get into trouble, isn't he?" Hisako asked in a whisper.
Neji let out a sigh, "If he does, it's not our problem," Neji replied, turning and walking away from where Lee had run off to.
Hisako rolled her eyes before she went to go follow Neji. They made it to their correct room and registered for the exams without any other hiccups. They both found a section and sat down, waiting for Lee to join them.
It was a long boring twenty minutes. When Lee finally did show up, he had dried blood on his face and a nasty bruise on his cheek. It looked like someone got a good punch in on Lee. Hisako raised her eyebrows. Did Lee get into a fight with someone?
"It seems the might of the Uchiha isn't as powerful as I originally thought," Lee said, giving Hisako and Neji a thumbs up.
Hiskao stared at Lee in disbelief, her mouth dropping open in realization as she hissed, "Did you fight Sasuke?"
"Yes, I did! And he lost to the Power of Youth!" Lee shouted, giving her a smile, his white teeth glinting in the light.
"Then why do you have a giant bruise on your face?" Hisako demanded, leaning in closer to Lee, her face inches from his.
Lee suddenly looked nervous, and he rubbed the back of his head, "Guy Sensei found out and uh… Yeah," Lee muttered.
"Guy Sensei did that to you?" Hisako almost shouted but caught herself before she screamed.
"Fool," Neji grumbled beside Hisako, diverting his gaze away from Lee and Hisako.
Hisako brought her hand up to her face, hiding her face in her palm, "You're unbelievable Lee," she grumbled.
She was also slightly annoyed that he would be daring enough to mock the Uchiha Clan in front of her too. Even though they disowned her, Hisako was still an Uchiha. And, she could have told Lee that Sasuke wasn't going to be a match as he is now. He just graduated from the academy less than six months ago. He hasn't had enough experience as Team Guy did. Especially, like Hisako did.
"All right, that's enough chit chat!" the instructor for the first exams boomed.
Hisako looked up and saw a man marked with scars. He had a piece of dark blue fabric wrapped around his head and he was wearing normal shinobi attire.
"I'm Ibiki Morino. Your first examiner for the first test in the Chuunin Exams,"
Hisako's eyes widened at that name. Ibiki Morino. She's heard his name before. He was in charge of the interrogation sector among the Anbu. Oh, this was going to be bad. She almost couldn't believe that they would have one of the most fearful and terrifying people in the Anbu as their first proctor. That almost felt too brutal. She hasn't heard a lot about Ibiki, only that he knew how to get people to talk.
She listened to the terms of the first test, it was supposed to be a simple written test with ten questions. They were to get the tenth question during the last fifteen minutes of the exam. Everyone was going to get a number so that they would all be seated sporadically, blah blah blah. Okay, she could do it. She was great at school.
Everyone got their number and found their assigned seats. Then, the test was passed out. Finally, it was time to start the test. Everyone flipped over their pages and Hisako stared at her test in horror. The questions were too difficult for any Genin to know. As she read through the test, question by question, she realized they were all complex what if questions.
If a shinobi throws a kunai knife at targets A B and C, the wind is blowing ten miles an hour towards the south, calculate the force needed and the angle needed for the shinobi to throw each kunai knife and hit all three targets. And then the question showed a diagram.
Sure, Hisako could probably figure these questions out, but it would have taken her the entire duration of the test just to calculate one of these questions. Let alone the other nine.
She gulped. This wasn't going to be easy. She lifted her gaze and looked around her. It seemed that everyone else was having the same realization at the same time. She dropped her gaze again. Okay so if this test was too difficult for anyone to solve, then what? Her gaze drifted over to the sides of the rooms where there were rows of Chuunin sitting, taking note of people who were cheating.
That was the other kicker, if they were caught cheating three times, they were expelled from the test as well as their entire team. They made cheating very difficult but… They didn't say cheating was forbidden.
Her grip around her pencil tightened as she made that realization. Okay, so if cheating was the name of the game, then, bring it on.
She allowed her hair to fall into her face, obscuring her eyes from view as she activated her Sharingan. With her ability activated, she saw one person two rows ahead of her who obviously knew the answers. She smiled as she watched him write down each and every answer. It took her only twenty minutes to do so, and so far, it didn't seem like anyone caught her cheating. She smiled to herself.
She shifted her gaze away to look at how the rest of her team had faired. Neji was cheating beautifully with his Byakugan, but then there was the issue with Lee. He was sitting in his seat, trying to appear as calm as he could, but his taijutsu wouldn't help him with intel gathering like this without getting caught. Hisako frowned to herself. She had to find a way to help him.
She lifted her gaze and saw mirrors nailed to the ceiling. Her eyes widened and she dropped her gaze again. She hoped Lee was paying attention to that. She looked back to Lee and saw that thankfully he was looking at her. She placed her hand with her thumb up on the table and Lee discreetly looked up. He nodded his head in understanding.
Now comes the tricky part. Hisako calmed her breathing and slowed down her chakra to not draw attention to herself. If the Chuunin felt a raise in chakra, they would immediately focus on her and she could be thrown out for assisting someone else to cheat. She slowly reached for her pouch that was on her back, grabbing onto the near invisible wires that were in there. She grabbed four of them, and with a flick of her wrist and some chakra put into the wires, got the wires to stick to the mirror above her. She sighed in relief.
She watched Lee's movements and when he was able to see her test through the mirrors, returned the subtle thumbs up gesture from the table. All Hisako had to do now was hold this position until his pencil stopped moving.
It felt like a lifetime of Lee writing down the test answers, but finally, she noticed his pencil stopped moving and she retracted the wires. Hisako deactivated her Sharingan and sat back with a sigh of relief. The hard part was over. Now they just had to wait for the final question.
Forty-five minutes into the exam, and they were finally all ready for the final question. At this point, over a dozen teams have already been disqualified for cheating. Hisako, too concerned with getting herself and her team to pass, hadn't been paying attention to who was caught cheating and who wasn't. But, as she looked around the room, the most peculiar thing was that all of the rookies that graduated from the academy six months ago had passed the first forty-five minutes. That was impressive. She was sure at least one of the rookie teams would have failed by now.
"Alright, and now for the tenth question," Ibiki started, "keep in mind that if you get the wrong answer on this test, you will never be able to try for the Chuunin Exams again. You will be a Genin for the rest of your life,"
Gasps went out throughout the room and Hisako squirmed in her seat. Okay, that was an interesting stipulation. She couldn't help but wonder why such a harsh rule. And if that was really how this was going to play out, that was brutal. There were a ton of people here who have gone through these exams multiple times to try to become Chuunin. To knock Genin out of these exams forever felt like it shouldn't even be allowed.
"What? How is that fair? There's a ton of people here who have taken the exam multiple times!" someone behind Hisako shouted. She agreed.
"Life as a shinobi isn't fair!" Ibiki barked back, "And I haven't finished yet. On the flip side, if you do decide to forfeit now, and not hear the tenth question, then your entire team will be disqualified,"
That wasn't new. It took a three man squad to be able to partake in the Chuunin Exams at all. So the fact that the entire team would be disqualified wasn't shocking. But, it would still make the person who would forfeit feel guilty for causing their entire team to fall out. That would be hard on anyone.
Silence spread among the Genin, and after a few minutes, someone raised their hand.
"I give up! I can't take this pressure anymore,"
Hisako couldn't help but feel bad for that Genin. His entire team stood up and the two of them went to comfort their comrade as they all left the room.
"It's okay man, there's always next time," one of them consoled as they exited the exam room.
After that, it was like the floodgates opened. Team after team gave up, not being able to handle the suspense of hearing the tenth question. Hisako was completely unaware of the internal struggle Naruto faced until she saw his trembling hand slowly raising. Even though she was sitting behind Naruto, she felt the torment and the agony that radiated from him. The silent battle of whether he should stay or forfeit now.
But, as he raised a shaky hand, suddenly, out of nowhere, his blue eyes which were a moment ago turbulent like a stormy sea, steeled and he slammed his hand down on the table in front of him startling everyone as he stood up.
"No! No way am I giving up! You can't scare me into forfeiting! So just tell us the tenth question already! I'll answer it and I'll become Hokage one day! Believe it!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs.
Hushed silence spread throughout the room again, but this time, all eyes turned to Naruto. The room that was one moment ago terrified and contemplating their next moves now found a new resolve as they watched Naruto standing, panting, shaking as he stared down the Ibiki Morino without fear.
Naruto single handedly turned the tide of this internal struggle everyone felt. He was able to bring a sort of peace to the turbulent sea of emotions that Ibiki wrought on everyone in this room. Hisako tapped the end of her pencil against her desk with a smile on her face. Naruto was something else, that was for sure.
She knew Ibiki saw it too as a smile of approval spread across his face, pulling at one of the old scars. There was another long pause of silence and Ibiki raised his arms to embrace the Genin.
"Congratulations! You all pass the first exams!" Ibiki announced, a deep booming laughter escaping him.
Hiskao sat back in shock and surprised murmurs went around the room.
"What? But what about the tenth question?" Naruto yelled, pointing a finger in Ibiki's direction.
"There was no tenth question! Well, more precisely, the tenth question was to test if you all could face the unknown. As a Chuunin, you will be responsible for leading missions which means you'll have to make fast decisions and you may not know what lies ahead on your mission. The lives of yourself and your teammates will be resting in your hands and you must be willing to face the unknown," Ibiki explained.
During his explanation, he took off the cloth from the top of his head to expose the skin on his head to be twisted with horrible, ugly scars that looked like someone had punched holes in his head at some point in his life. Gasps went throughout the room as he placed the cloth back over his head.
It felt like everyone sagged in their chairs in relief and Hisako had to admit, even she felt a little lighter knowing the first phase of the Chuunin Exams was over. However, the relief was short lived when smoke erupted in the front of the classroom. Some of the Genin jumped in surprise and when the smoke cleared, a banner remained with a name on it and decorated with flowers.
"Huh?" Hisako grumbled.
Ibiki was standing in front of the banner, an exasperated look on his face. He stepped aside as the banner ripped and a lady wearing a revealing top with a vest that wasn't zipped up, short cropped black hair, and dark eyes jumped through the banner.
"Anko, you're early," Ibiki scolded quietly.
"And you're too slow!" Anko retorted, her voice loud and booming as she placed her hands on her small hips laughing, "Alright maggots! I'm Anko Mitarashi. I'll be your proctor for the second phase. It'll be taking place in two days! So be ready!"
Anko paused, and turned her dark eyes to Ibiki tilting her head in question, "Ibiki, I thought you said you were going to disqualify a lot of these sorry excuses for Genin,"
"Well, it seems like we have a good batch this year," Ibiki replied, his voice nonchalant.
"Or you're just going too soft," Anko accused turning her attention back to the Genin, "No matter. The second exam is sure to cut this lot down by a lot! I'm expecting no more than ten squads to remain after the second exam is over,"
Hisako blinked in surprise as her gaze wandered the classroom. Ten squads? She quickly counted twenty-six that had passed right now. Was the second phase really going to be that terrifying and grueling? Hisako bit her bottom lip as she turned her attention back to the two proctors at the front.
"Alright, dismissed!" Anko yelled, throwing her hand forward.
Hisako let out a relieved sigh as she stood up. She waited for Neji and Lee to catch up to her before exiting the exam room. She was grateful so many familiar faces had passed. Naruto's team, Ino's team, and Hinata's team had all passed. Even Gaara's team passed. Even if for some reason Gaara had changed since she last saw him. Maybe she could reconcile their friendship before the second exam in two days.
The next day she found Gaara standing alone near the training grounds. She wasn't sure how she found him really. She has been spending most of the day walking around the village aimlessly. Running mindless errands or taking her mind off of the next exams by shopping. She only did light training with Neji in the morning. No one wanted to go crazy with training and be exhausted for the next phase of the exams. Okay, maybe everyone but Lee decided to take it easy.
"Oh! Gaara!" Hisako shouted, giving Gaara a wave and a friendly smile as she casually walked over to Gaara.
Gaara stopped and turned to Hisako, his expression cold, and dare Hisako to say heartless as he stared at her. Hisako stopped in her tracks, feeling a sense of bloodlust and evil seeping out of Gaara. Her expression suddenly turned serious as she stood observing Gaara in almost confusion. She didn't remember this feeling from him when they were younger. How could she have missed something so evil coming from him? It greatly disturbed Hisako.
"G-Gaara?" Hisako asked, despite her own resolve to not show emotion, her voice trembled.
"I don't care to talk to you," Gaara responded, his voice cold and dead.
Hisako was taken aback by his words, her hand going to grasp the crystal around her neck, "I just, I thought it would be nice to reconnect after so long-"
"Talk to me again and I'll kill you,"
Hisako couldn't hold back her gasp of surprise by his words. She felt the evil coming off of him like a wave, but to go that far? Then again, he did threaten to kill his own brother earlier. Something was wrong with Gaara. He was different, and Hisako was getting annoyed by his attitude.
She gritted her teeth, and her determination to figure out what happened to him outweighed the fear she felt from his threat. Despite how he was treating her, they were still friends once. And what type of friend would she be if she just let him go down a dark path like this? But, she wasn't sure what much she could do. An image of Sasuke flashed through her mind and she fought down the urge to run away from Gaara.
"Gaara! What happened to you? You weren't like this-"
She was interrupted when Gaara turned around, his eyes narrowing on her as his sand responded to his bloodlust. She screamed when she saw spears of sand flying at her at blinding speeds. She brought her hands up and using what chakra she had stored up in her crystal, was able to deflect some of the sand away from her. One of the spears still got through and she felt the burning of a deep cut on her cheek from where the spear struck her.
She screamed in pain, and right before Gaara was able to do more damage, Guy Sensei was there. He moved so quickly, Hisako couldn't even see his movements. But, whatever he did, Guy had dispersed the sand and probably saved Hisako's life.
Hisako stumbled back, her hand holding onto her cheek as blood trailed down her face dripping off her chin. Her breathing was short and ragged and she felt her pulse react to the adrenaline that coursed through her veins from the near death experience she just had.
"Hisako!" Lee and Neji yelled at the same time.
Hisako straightened up, her hand still over her cheek as her two teammates ran over to Hisako.
"You're hurt," Neji exclaimed, his hand gently grabbing onto Hisako's wrist so he could see the wound.
"How could you!" Lee shouted, stepping beside Guy Sensei, "You attacked one of my teammates when she was just trying to be nice!"
"You're all pathetic," Gaara retorted, his dead cold eyes locked onto Lee, "If you really want to get stronger, I'd recommend ditching your pathetic excuse for a Sensei,"
Lee yelled in anger, his fists shaking at his sides as he took a step forward, the desire to defend his Sensei coursing through his blood, clouding his better judgment, "You take that back! Guy Sensei is the most amazing, powerful-"
"Lee, that's enough," Guy Sensei told his student, his voice gentle as he rested a hand on Lee's shoulder.
Just Guy Sensei's touch seemed to be able to calm Lee down.
"Look, how about we just settle this in the Chuunin Exams? Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll be able to fight my student. And then you'll see exactly how strong of an opponent Lee is," Guy Sensei told Gaara, his voice calm and even but then his voice got a stricter, dangerous edge to them, "However, I will not allow you to kill any of my students. You hurt Hisako today when she had no intentions to fight you, and I will not soon forgive that act,"
Gaara scoffed at Guy Sensei, turning his attention away from the group as he walked away.
Neji led Hisako over to a nearby bench, keeping some gauze on the wound to slow the bleeding down. Guy Sensei and Lee stood where they were for a few more minutes almost like they were waiting for Gaara to return, to finish what he had started with Hisako.
"I think you need to get the cut looked at by a medic at the hospital," Neji told Hisako gently.
"I can just heal it myself," Hisako replied with a frown.
She really didn't feel like spending the rest of today in a hospital for a dumb cut on her face.
Once Guy Sensei and Lee felt safe enough to turn around, Guy Sensei walked over to Hisako and Neji. He gently removed the gauze from her cheek shaking his head.
"No, Neji's right. Even if you do know the basics of medical ninjutsu, this cut is on the face. It's better for a professional to look at it if you can. We're in the village, take advantage of the hospital,"
Hisako puffed out her cheeks in defiance which aggravated the cut and she grimaced in pain a second later, "Alright, fine," she conceded.
She held the gauze back to her cheek and stood up from the bench, her gaze dropped.
"Hisako," Guy Sensei asked, making Hisako look up at him, "what did you say to Gaara that had him try to kill you?"
Hisako's gaze grew sad and almost scared as she dropped her eyes again, "I wanted to say hello,"
Her voice was so quiet they had to strain to hear her. When Guy heard that, he stood up again, his eyes wide in what she could only assume was horror.
"But why? That guy is a jerk!" Lee shouted, raising his fists.
Angry tears stung Hisako's eyes, "He wasn't like that!" she shouted back, looking at Lee, her lips pressed into a thin line.
"Are you saying you knew him before?" Neji asked quietly.
"Yes. He was one of the first people I met after the Glacier Village was destroyed. I met him in the Sand Village and he was… different back then. A lonely boy with no one in the world, kinda like me. So I wanted to be around him. He made me feel a little less alone," Hisako explained, her voice sad and scared, "I don't know who he is now. All I know is this wasn't who I knew back then,"
Guy Sensei rested a hand on Hisako's shoulder, "I don't know what happened to Gaara between then to now, but, he isn't like he used to be. I would recommend not being around him if you can help it. There's something off about that boy,"
Hisako lifted her gaze to her sensei and numbly nodded her head. She understood. She understood completely. But, her heart still ached for Gaara. Whatever did happen, must have been horrible to have changed his personality as much as it did. It frightened her to know that Gaara was so far gone. That now, he might as well have been the enemy.
Another thing she didn't understand, however, was the extent of bloodlust she felt coming from him. It was enormous. Almost… almost like he was a demon himself. And that thought, made her blood run cold.
