Chunin Exam Arc: Among Us
Yuina walked up the stairs to the forth floor, watching some other participants exit on the second and third floor. She kept her pace slow to look into the classrooms. There was plenty of quiet hostility to go around, whether through frigid reception or vocal complaints.
She reached room 408 and entered. It was an open space like the other rooms which led her to think, trying to figure out what the trial would be.
She eyed the other six in the room with her.
"Hey Shiba!"
Seven as a second Kiri-nin entered the room.
The ninja known as Shiba didn't look enthusiastic that the newest boy joined them. He looked at him with disgust as he had with everyone else in the room.
Two Iwa-nin, two Kiri-nin, one Kumo-nin, a Suna-nin, surprisingly a Tai-nin. Had Taigakure been invited to the exams? They were the closest village to Iwagakure and she heard that there had been a small group of Kusa-nin, less than even Konoha, but she scavenged her brain for answers.
The downside of her mission was that she had too much information without the proper time to fully process it all. She was glad Orochimaru came with her. Any extra support was lovely when she may have gotten in a little over her head. Sometimes she even doubted whether the Hokage agreed because he thought she could accomplish her side goal or whether he wanted the scientific details of the information she shared. Less the agricultural stuff, as the Land of Fire was prosperous on that front, but more so the information that could be used as weapons.
Another Kumo-nin, who Yuina recognized from the inn, joined them. He looked at everyone else in the room who were keeping their distance from each other before settling himself against the wall, keeping distance himself.
However….
The person Yuina tried not to stare at was the Suna-nin. No one said anything, but she also caught the Tai-nin and one of the Iwa-nin eyeing them too. The Suna-nin's transformation was fine visually, but he was weirdly exuding chakra keeping the form. Something a beginner would do by mistake.
Yuina first thought of them as a hidden proctor of sorts. They needed eyes or something to accurately report on people, but dismissed it because it felt too juvenile.
A woman sporting the Iwa insignia and brown vest entered the room and closed the door behind them. She stood front and centered as her eyes roamed over the nine genin in the room. "I'm Surudo Touko. I'll be the proctor for your exam." All eyes were on her and most of the genin stood alert. The open space left a foreboding feeling. Touko held up a scroll. "You all gave me your mission report. All you need to do is read it to me."
"That's it?"
Suddenly, the 'Suna-nin' made a lot more sense. "But only when we're certain there's no infiltrator," said Yuina.
Touko smiled. "It doesn't matter how many people you kick out, as long as those reporting are all participants. If there is an infiltrator when you report then you all fail. Similarly, only those of you who remain to read the report will pass. It doesn't matter how many or few of you there are."
It was meant to turn people on each other. Ninja don't always get paired with people they're familiar with for missions. Separating people when entering further divided people, and the broadness of affiliated villages wasn't going to help ease tensions. Furthermore, there was an opportunity to get the others disqualified to lessen the competition. Would taking that thread be a show of cunningness or incompetence, she wondered.
"How do we kick people out and how to we finish the test?" an Iwa-nin asked.
"Whenever you're ready, tell me and I'll pass you back the scroll. As for how to kick people out, that's up to you." Touko crossed her arms. A few people had already been on edge to attack and her words hadn't done anything to deter them.
Yuina inhaled through her nose to calm herself. Take too much control and people will want to point fingers. Do nothing, and she would easily become a casualty. Getting this done fast before doubt festered too much was her preference. More competition didn't scare her as long as she could get through the round.
Her eyes landed on the Suna-nin.
"We should think about this rationally!" The Kiri-nin who gave his greeting earlier to Shiba panicked.
"I'm not trusting you all to my success."
Yuina stalled. It was an elementary mistake but not everyone caught it. She could understand some having it as an area of weakness, but for a test it was too obvious. The 'Suna-nin' was the obvious infiltrator, but did that mean they only meant they weren't the only one? If that was brought up, she feared the others would become more reactionary and start kicking more out. What if that was the point? To have one obvious spy but have them turn against each other.
Her first step needed to be to make sure the others knew she was who she was.
She wanted to sigh and scowl. She liked being happy. She was happy feeling a little less burdened by society lately. She didn't like forcing exuberant happiness. People were generally more accepting of happy people. More easily they're considered friendly and unburdensome as long as it didn't go into smug territory. It would irritate some people, but there were more pros for her situation than a few people who may be irritable. Plus, lean a little into manic happiness and people were more likely to pass off any oddities as a personality trait than suspect something.
"Normally introductions are done before starting a mission, but I'm Hatake Yuina."
One of the Kumo-nin shifted their foot to angle himself towards her a little more. "Introductions are pointless. Knowing each other's names doesn't mean much when we don't know each other."
"Don't think that way Genjuu." The Kumo-nin tensed at his name. "Aw, don't be that way. Your friend Koromi had a lot to say about you, and don't tell me you don't at least know Uchiki after travelling here together. Though you're group was big enough so maybe you don't know even that."
Uchiki who hadn't spoken a word timidly spoke up. "How do we know you aren't the infiltrator? It would make sense you know our names if you helped organize the exam."
Yuina grinned condescendingly as her eyes narrowed in on him. "Don't tell me you haven't paid attention to anything since getting here. I know there's a lot of you, but us ninja from Konoha have been residing in the same inn as you." Yuina tapped the edge of the metal on her forehead. "I'm Orochimaru's student."
"It's true that Orochimaru is in the village," said the Iwa girl as her frown grew.
"We're not so emotional that we'd let our emotions impact a mission, would we?" Yuina tried to aim for their professional pride. Their styles and motos may vary, but the core work was the same. "There are more appropriate avenues where we can prove whose the most competent, but that can't be done if we can't competently complete one pseudo mission."
"Like I care what you have to say." It was insight she wouldn't expect from an Iwa spy. Sakumo personally had tense relations with Suna. If the transformation wasn't obvious she may have second guessed whether he really was one.
"You don't need to." Yuina made eye contact with the Iwa boy then Tai-nin. "We already know you shouldn't be here." She was glad the other two clued in. They distracted him as Yuina tapped his arm, disrupting the flow of chakra needed for him to perform the jutsu. Something really only possible with a static low level jutsu like the transformation jutsu.
The Iwa boy glared at her. "It wasn't for you. It's only because we can't pass with him here."
Yuina brought her thumb and index finger together to create an o. "Understood!" She didn't let it deter her.
"How did you…?" The younger Kiri-nin watched her hand with fascination and horror. He truly didn't know.
Yuina brought a finger to her lips. "Trade secret." It wasn't difficult, but she didn't need to share any skills, regardless of difficulty, to foreign ninja.
The Tai-nin lead the formerly disguised Iwa-nin out of the room. The lack of retaliation was great. It solidified that this test wasn't about physical prowess. He turned back to the group. "You should do that to everyone else."
"Huh? But we got him," said the young Kiri-nin.
The Tai-nin rolled his eyes. "And this is assurance that there's no one else."
Shiba narrowed his eyes. "Do anything funny and I'll kill you."
Tension grew in the room again with the acknowledgement that the Tai-nin's idea meant they were temporary susceptible to whatever Yuina did. Of course, it would make them uncomfortable.
"It's not technically a jutsu. If you see me start to make a hand seal or reach for anything then attack me." It was true, but there was a lot missing through omission. She could burn or zap someone without formal seals, with chakra manipulation alone.
She touched each of them and sent a flow of chakra through them. No one changed.
So then why did she have a nagging feeling.
"So that's it," said Uchiki.
The Iwa boy clicked his tongue as he looked to the older girl at his side. "Not quite, but I'll need the rest of you to trust me." He didn't look happy at that admission.
Yuina wanted to smack her head. She should have noticed a lot sooner.
A little detail easy to miss when most people were exhausted upon arrival, but someone they all would have seen. In her defense, she had seen way too many people.
He knew. He knew from the start there were two infiltrators and could have dwindled the numbers down. No. That was assuming he wasn't concerned there wasn't a third hiding among them. Still, this was totally skewed in Iwa's favour.
He pointed his thumb at his fellow Iwa-nin. "She's already a chunin. She helps out at the main village access point a lot."
"You just want to get rid of me," the Iwa girl pouted. She glanced at the others who weren't fully convinced. "How can we work with someone like that?"
Shiba and Genjuu's eyes widen as they finally put the puzzle together too.
"How do I know you're not an infiltrator too? Or you?" Uchiki turned on the Iwa boy and then on Yuina. She feared this would happen if there were multiple infiltrators. The group was split in two.
"Four of us remember her," said Genjuu trying to convince the other half that the male Iwa-nin was telling the truth.
"Then why didn't you say anything sooner?"
This was getting nowhere.
As much as she hated to admit it, her and the Iwa boy had been on the same page the whole time. If she could get him to cooperate, they could force this to end. "We're at a standstill. All three of us will leave then."
He seemed combative at first but relented when he caught on.
If they got through this, he was someone to keep an eye on moving forward.
Yuina thought the Iwa girl would resist but gave in too. They reached the door and Yuina pushed her out of the room while the Iwa boy was already running to the proctors side. There was nothing in the rules that stated they all needed to agree. Only that there wasn't a 'traitor' in the room while reading it.
The other genin, minus Genjuu and Shiba, rushed to stop him, but it was too late. He read it out loud and it out loud. Two names.
Yuina didn't ever get most of their names. Were they right?
"That was messy but you all pass." Touko leaned back against the wall.
"So she really is already a chunin?"
The Iwa chunin reentered the room. "Mou, you should have taken more of them out."
Touko glanced up at the clock. "There's still some time before the next phase starts, but my job is done. Ishira here can take you to the second round."
That could have gone a lot better. Hopefully, the next round was a lot less dependent on other people, otherwise Yuina might go mad.
