Mana gently pressed on the shoulder of her friend's body, the young medical ninja was totally passed out on the table with his head pressed at a book he was reading. This was odd as the magician couldn't remember Kouta reading anything before she finally went to sleep last night. He must've either lingered for a bit longer than she did or woke up early to study.
"What time is it?" the young ninja smacked his lips before flipping the book closed and shoving it aside. A moment later he began feeling a little bit bad about passing out right on top of Mana's book.
"Wake up 'o clock. Really shouldn't have read that, they won't test us on books we've read or math. It won't be a basic knowledge quiz." Mana sighed in playful irritation over her boyfriend's refusal to listen to what she told him yesterday.
"Can't know that…" the boy objected after finding his shirt and quickly slipping into it and carelessly stroking his hair using his hand in front of the mirror in Mana's room.
"Yes I can. The Exams are not quiz shows, they are practical procedures meant to find out not our knowledge of certain subjects but to ensure that our thought process matches that needed. It'll be a psychological or a mental test more than a usual written test." Mana argued, she had woken up earlier and left the medical ninja asleep in his unflattering position so she could have a shower and comb her hair. She didn't want to be seen in the early morning and was quite glad she wasn't.
"Well… I just wanted to know, when I look at that test today, that I've done anything and everything I can to be ready for it. Just so that I don't blame myself if I fail." Mana was always impressed by how fast the guys got ready, even right now Kouta just jumped on his feet and was completely ready to go in just a couple of moments and elementary self-checks.
"Can I use the bathroom?" he wondered.
"Sure, don't worry, mother wakes up early for work and father's gone for herbs and medical check-ups. By the time they come back we'll be out." Mana explained. It's been that way for a long time with mother and father, at least in mother's case the café she managed was becoming somewhat of a famous spot for small-time dating activities and just simple coffee breaks. As far as father was concerned there was little to no hopes for improvement of his injuries, after multiple Mystic Palm sessions his hands were looking almost like they weren't almost completely incinerated but what looked normal hid agonizing pain that nothing was able to cure, just temporarily calm it down.
"Alright, give me ten, I'll be ready to go." Kouta nodded after his face betrayed the boy's relief that he didn't have to waltz around the house in fear of the awkwardness of bumping into the magician's parents.
Obviously the relationship between the young man and Mana's parents was nowhere near as toxic and complicated as that of Mana's with Kouta's father. Come to think of it, the magician hadn't even really met her boyfriend's mother, not to her memory or knowledge. It may have been possible that she met the woman in the hospital and simply didn't know it though…
Kusagoro Jugo was a terrible man, pushing and manipulating the events around his own son to have him make all the same choices he did. He wanted Kouta to become an ANBU captain or at the very least an operative. From the way Kouta sometimes looked at Mana it was clear that the young man was conflicted about it. He wanted the training and attention of his father, obviously, the two did have some sort of a bond and even Mana could see it every time the two spoke or the magician saw them training in the training grounds. Still, whenever he accepted the man's training or allowed himself the pleasure of interacting with his father figure he knew he's accepting the deal with the devil who wanted him to be mixing the pot of sinners with his own fork one way…
Her own parents didn't look to mind Kouta, for as much pain as father was in during the late evenings, when his pain management herbs wore off, he was quite chill about the whole thing. Mother even teased Mana and fed the young man. Mana's guess was that they must've seen the darkness that the ninja life, the life of an adult, was rooting in their daughter and didn't mind some more down to earth bonds to be made. Something as simple and innocent as a young love to keep the shadows of the life of a living tool of the village from taking over. A flaming sword to fight off the inner demons.
The magician sighed and slipped into the blazer of her uniform and checked all the pockets, all the strings and devices, she then took a magnifying glass her father gave her and placed it above her hat observing the state of the seal. There was almost a whole pocket dimension inside there, a good couple of hundred square meters worth of storage and Mana didn't always remember if she refilled the hat with tools and cards that were meant to be used.
It was too bad that she herself was no sealing expert like Meiko or her father. In that case she would've had so many ideas about what could've been done with the seal. It could've been altered and connected to multitude of other seals so that the magician could've used any hidden pocket of her uniform and pulled out tools from her hat from those pockets and pouches.
In a manner of stretching out the magician quickly blurred her speedy hands through a bunch of hand seals. It was unlikely that a single jutsu would have to be used in the written test but it didn't hurt to stretch one's muscles.
Hearing the rustling from the bathroom coming from the shower the magician quickly ran in and knocked on the steamed glass.
"We've got two hours, I'll make something to eat!" she let Kouta know.
Usually, way back during the mission looking for the Box of Ultimate Bliss, she'd have received some sort of sign of frustration or disappointment from her boyfriend. After multiple nights cooking the other three of her companions never failed to come up with new ways of telling that her cooking sucked. A genuine and wide smile was on Mana's face the whole way downstairs, she was glad that she took some time to learn how to cook better with old man Aporius.
Once the gathered crowd of over a hundred and fifty teams was already well in sight Mana and Kouta wished each other good luck. They also parted ways as the team of the medical ninja was waiting for him outside whereas Kiyomi and Meiko were nowhere to be seen so Mana assumed that they were waiting inside. Politely making her way through the stuffy hallways and staircases the magician looked around for the two in multiple floors until she found them when approaching the second floor from another, more western staircase, as she had missed her friends when looking at the same floor from the eastern wing.
"Mana!" Kiyomi yelled out before greeting the magician with a friendly hug. "You better compensate for Meiko's lacking score with a killer score of your own!" she playfully taunted the blacksmith as well as tried complimenting and somewhat relaxing Mana. Judging how nervous Meiko looked it may not have been the best of ideas.
"Look, Meiko, it's going to be just fine…" Mana tried calming her friend. "They're weighing all three of us as a team, in the past there were some simple mental tricks that just tested one's drive to be a ninja or their determination. You'll be great! I know of very few people who work nearly as hard as you do." the kunoichi tried to solace her friend a bit.
"I'm gonna screw everything up…" the redhead kept on stepping around and thrashing the little air that remained, all the people overcrowding the place just added to the kunoichi's panic. "I'm so stupid, I'll never pass a written test! I was never good at those, I'll drag you two guys down!"
Kiyomi looked pretty surprised by Meiko's lack of confidence. She must've not seen the redhead frustrated and self-destructive before or when she saw it she must not have paid it too much mind. The blacksmith could've gone outright depressing when she was seriously into self-belittlement.
"Don't worry, you won't screw up. There's no use worrying before you even see the test…" Kiyomi tried to play the comforting more for laughs as she kept calmly and softly laughing the whole way through but it was clearly not the funny kind of self-hatred. The Yamanaka must've never encountered that kind of self-aimed negativity before.
Any semblance of firm ground beneath her feet disappeared as Meiko lifted Mana off the ground by the magician's collar, the redhead's eyes were beginning to water slightly and she was clearly acting in total panic. Not even when Akimichi Francho threatened to kill her after he did so to Shimo did the magician see this much pent up apprehension in her friend's eyes.
"Why did you recommend me to Hanasaku-sensei!? Why did you force me to fit all those expectations!? I'm not as good as you guys, I'm gonna mess this up, I don't deserve to be here!" she began shaking in fright.
Mana softly focused her chakra into her fingertips and smacked the blacksmith's wrists at the side forcefully relaxing the grip. She grabbed Meiko's head by the back by firmly holding a fistful of red hair and pressing the blacksmith's face to hers. For a brief moment the magician just stood there allowing her friend to just stare at Mana's serious and friendly eyes. She could almost feel her friend's breathing steady out, her panicking orbs focusing and her eyelids finally lightly blinking again.
"It's going to be fine, even if it won't, it's no big deal. I recommended you not because you're my best friend but because I have utter trust in you, because there's no one else I'd rather have watching my back. Please have faith in my trust." Mana quietly whispered to her friend. Meiko was already hers the moment the magician freed herself – the redhead was much more skilled martial artist and an incredibly faster one. Had she not wanted Mana to get her hands on her – the magician would be lying knocked out on the floor about now.
Meiko didn't say anything, she didn't really have to. Her newfound tranquillity was all of the answer that was needed. For that short magical moment even the surrounding harmony of twaddle all died out.
"Wait, you mean I'm not your best friend?" Kiyomi teased Mana making all three girls crack up a bit.
Finally a strict looking man walked up to the one of the office doors and gestured with his arm to let those scheduled to take the test there in.
"We're going in!" Kiyomi chanted out, obviously referencing some movie she had seen, her highly acted out manner of speech suggested so. Seeing how Mana was no movie buff, as her older model television set could only be watched for four hours at a time before given time to cool down and not burst into a ball of flames, the reference flew over her head. Meiko was too worried clashing her own fingers against one another in fear, the magician could only hope that the blacksmith's irrational dismay for the first stage of the exams would settle down somewhat once the test is done.
"No, only one of you comes in here, the other two choose rooms besides this one." The man who let the genin in fixed his glasses. His most effeminate looking long, brown and curly hair got in his way and partly covered up the man's strict eyes.
"Hanasaku-sensei said that we're scheduled to take the exam here!" Kiyomi objected.
"There's been a change in the examination order. Teams will take the test in separate rooms, if everyone would please cooperate and split into three rooms it'd go much smoother…" the middle aged man informed after he stretched out blocking the entry to the classroom.
For a second there Mana was worried that Meiko would flip out again as all blood stopped reaching the upper part of her body, apparently. The blacksmith paled out like she was being separated to face an executioner or something.
"Stupid, red turtleneck wearing…" Kiyomi kept on bumbling as she worked her way through the crowd holding Meiko by the hand until the blacksmith split off right up close to the room Kiyomi entered to take the test.
Mana was one of the first people to get into the classroom, choosing to sit down at the nearest front corner seat she could find. Waiting for the test was not easy. She was so busy soothing Meiko that she completely forgot how worried she was about all of this. There were more than enough reasons to be worried. If she and her team failed this test they'd be eliminated from the Chuunin Exams and would have to wait for years before the next Exams. They'd probably have to leave elsewhere to take the exams in another country like so many sitting there had.
Even if she did find another country with a closer examination date, she'd be being examined as a part of another team. Chestnut Hanasaku had made it clear that Mana was no longer a welcome sight for her eyes and that she was no longer trusted, therefore she'd be kicked out of the team as soon as the exams ended. Things would be even worse if Mana was the one to fail this test and cost Kiyomi and Meiko the elimination. That would piss off the woman who was such an authority figure for the magician even more, not to forget how more difficult things would be with Kiyomi who still couldn't have forgotten that survival training not too long ago…
Being a stage magician, Mana knew that fear was an inevitable part of any performance. When standing behind the closed curtains one imagined all sorts of various failure scenarios, each worse than the other. This fear somehow felt welcome in the girl's chest, it made her body prepare for the upcoming trials, take this exam more seriously.
"Well, I sure hope that everyone's here…" the man who unlocked the room smiled before locking the door to the office which was quite recently reworked to resemble a classroom more. A couple of genin taking the exams gulped heavier realizing that what was transpiring in front of them was very real and very serious. The red turtleneck guy then approached a large collection of papers stacked on top of one another and pulled in his kunai to cut the ribbon that tied them all before giving the whole office another pitying look.
The man then took the impressive pile and placed a single piece of paper on each office table still having a huge stack left after he finished. Mana didn't as much as glance at the paper, not feeling sure if she was allowed to as the test had not yet started. Her theory of this all being just a psychological trick of some sort was beginning to nag her more and more, what if those who stared at the test before it began would be eliminated for some sick reason? Only after she saw almost every other genin staring at the paper in confusion and analysing it thoroughly, flipping it to see the other side before looking at the examiner with confused stares did she bother to take a look.
The paper was almost completely blank. There were only some sick looking, completely identical grotesque needle devices, that instead ending with the typical sharp needle ends ended with a nasty looking crescent shaped horizontal blade, on each side of the paper printed out as they were just artistic representations of some sort of gothic syringes. Besides her, already on the table was a purple marker and each of the syringe had a blank glass-like middle area, possibly meant for colouring.
Finally the examiner finished with his laborious task and sat on the front table carelessly, almost flipping the damned thing over with his sloppiness. He then giggled into his knuckle before pointing at himself and beginning to speak in a silky smooth voice.
"Well then, now that this is out of the way we can begin…" he sung out. "My name is Akina Ishi. I will be your supervising officer today, overseeing this exam. It will only be me and no one else so feel free to attempt and pull something funny if you feel cornered and hopeless, I'm just one man and I may just miss it…" the man laughed at his own sentence with a surprising degree of creepiness to it.
"This sheet of paper you've been handed is all there is to this exam. If you finish it I will accompany you to the door and unlock it for you and you're free to have a nice day. Sadly, because there're so many of you we're forced to improvise and come up with a very difficult, in a way of looking at it, written test. Our aim is to leave at least ten to fifteen teams in the end, that's right – this is the one-in-ten success rate test!"
The office full of genin just questioningly weighed the paper in between their fingers looking at their neighbour and trying to figure out if anyone here had figured out what was the deal with this test.
"The test is simple – you've been captured by the enemy and given a box full of syringes. Two thirds of them contain poison, one sixth of them contain a truth serum chemical that forces you to reveal all the information you have after which they will undoubtedly kill you. The remaining one sixth are harmless." the man began, after this sentence was uttered a handful of genin started to raise a ruckus.
"You mean this is it? That's stupid, we had this test in the Academy! It's not an actual test. It cannot be done right!" yelled out a small brat in bone rimmed glasses.
"This has to be a joke! The Chuunin Exams reduced to a simple game of chance!?" another genin – a taller young man in a ragged and worn out sleeveless shirt and a vertically striped bandana objected.
"No. There's more to this than that. You see – the test some of you may have taken in the Academy has been modified with an additional condition. This test was usually given to Academy Students to demonstrate their thought process. The purpose of the written test of the Chuunin Exams is the same. However we've added an additional condition, your objective in this test is not only to survive but to also to pick the same syringe your teammates pick. That means that you pass this test if you fulfil both of these conditions: a) your choice ends up leaving you alive, b) it is the same choice your teammates picked. You have forty five minutes…" the man topped his briefing off with a sadistic smile.
Just as he finished speaking the magician could almost feel time beginning to tick, the cruel ticks overpowered every other noise around her sinking the surrounding office room in total silence and isolating Mana from everyone else going through the same exam she was taking.