"Tanko Shigin, please come forward", Lord Sixth proceeded with the hearing procedure. The genin of a goofy face, brown spiky hair and a dopey smile that he barely ever dropped stepped forward. He moved with energy and great confidence in his abilities, his invincibility must have had such an effect on how the young man approached life. Then again, Mana could barely imagine living like that. When nothing threatened her at all, life seemed pointless and dull.

"You've shown absolutely nothing of interest to the council. Your curious ability is intriguing but as a ninja your mindset is entirely missing the mark of what the Council was looking for when promoting people. Almost unilaterally, the Council chose to keep you in the rank of genin", Lord Sixth read this rather derogatory report with the kind of indifference that made these sharp words register in a dull and toothless manner. Even if this man publically made fun of someone, as long as he delivered his tirade in that tone – the person would be none the wiser.

"I understand and agree completely!" Shigin laughed out, making Mana raise an eyebrow in an uncomfortable expression. This youth really did act and appear like an idiot. Maybe it was for the best that he had come to acquire this ability of his, that will make him losing his head somewhere impossible.

It appeared that the Sixth entirely seconded Mana's thoughts, even if he was not quite aware of them as he also gave the young man a curious and surprised glare. He had expected the youth to erupt into a forceful, bordering violent, attempt to convince him otherwise but nothing of the sort had happened and the Sixth looked to be checking if he had heard and seen things right.

"Very well, Erumo Budoki, please step forward." Lord Sixth proceeded as the young lady took a worried step forward. Mana could sense the sweat coming off of Erumo's body, she could almost hear the intense heartbeat. There was a wedge between the two. Mana was not overly fond of the girl's constant attempts to bite her and Erumo had shown to be outright hateful towards Mana but, at that moment, the magician sort of felt bad for the genin in the same manner she felt bad for a classmate in the Academy when they were called up to answer a tough question in front of the class.

"The skills you have demonstrated were impressive. The Council noted that as a support-type ninja you have done remarkably well against one of the more powerful ninja in the finalist roster. Those skills deserved praise but they were troubled to see you effectively surrender to your opponent when you felt you have shown enough. A true ninja must be ready to give up their life on the line, not just impress some objective criteria of their own design before giving up, there was a reason why surrender, as a rule, was ruled out. Even if it came through great pain and consideration, the Council chose to keep you in the rank of genin due to your approach in battle." Lord Sixth finished reading the file before closing it and placing it in another pile.

Erumo's dedication and inner fortitude were admirable as the young woman, clearly weeping, bowed to the Sixth before taking a step back. Waiting a short while before she stepped behind the line of genin to wipe her tears, choosing to hide them under her thick, hue of almond hair. The magician sighed in unease, wondering if she should maybe try and mend things with Erumo, it was painfully clear that the girl needed some company.

"Nakotsumi Mana, please step up", Lord Sixth exclaimed, for a moment Mana jumped up in fear, the tone of the Sixth implied he was repeating the request so she just shuffled forward with a careless leap before bowing her body to an extremely submissive degree.

"The Ninja Council was confused by your public status as an entertainer and first saw it as a conflict of profession. That being said, one particular member raised an interesting case that it could perhaps be utilized in infiltrating other countries effectively. While this idea seeded unease amongst the Council, their prime purpose is seeing ninja as potential chuunin and not focus on judging them as threats to their own national security", Lord Sixth began.

Mana's feet shifted in unease. Standing in front of her peers while she was being judged was an agitating experience, to say the least. She also could freely imagine the discomfort of the Ninja Council considering her a possible security threat. Seeing how the identities of the Ninja Council were a secret, for the most part, there must have been non-disclosure of information clauses somewhere playing a part. Why else would these men and women feel so uneasy about Mana's infiltration potential as a star entertainer? They could just warn their superiors ahead of time about her eliminating the threat…

"In any case, the match you and your opponent put up was stupendous in terms of skill, strategy and devotion to both your respective nindo. I can only speak for you, not your opponent, but the Council was particularly impressed with your ability to use summons and easily considered there being no point in keeping you at your lowly rank any longer – you are promoted to the rank of chuunin." Lord Sixth looked at Mana.

For a moment the two ninja shared an awkwardly long glare, the lips of Lord Sixth shifted around, making his thick moustache brush around in a rather entertaining manner as he wondered if he should say something to escalate this along. For as long as it lasted, the man chose to just let Mana experience the joy of being promoted.

Mana bowed, repeating the angle and the intensity of her previous bow before approaching the Sixth's assistant and taking the chuunin flak jacket and the ceremonial tanto off of his hands. She bowed her head to the administration servant as she did so before moving back to the lines of the genin without turning her back to the Sixth of his table and chair. Mana was adamant on behaving herself as courteous as possible.

After the uneasy start between Mana and Lord Sixth, she saw the congratulating glare that the man gave her as a sign that he admitted possibly have misjudged her, or, at the very least, a shift in the possible usefulness of the girl in his eyes. As a past Black Ops, the man clearly valued possible assets for infiltration missions such as intelligence gathering tasks and assassinations. Granted, given Mana's psychological profile and nindo in the file, as someone who wanted his assassination actually done, no leader in their right mind would have assigned her with such a mission.

"Yamanaka Kiyomi, please come forward", Lord Sixth looked at the gold-headed Yamanaka heiress who took a confident step forward. The eyes of Kiyomi were probably the least wavering and the most mature alongside all of the genin, granted, she was one of the most experienced alongside them.

"The Council found your match with Tanko Shigin rather underwhelming. Perhaps it was a case of mismatched opponents… Given your clan heritage, the Council had expected you to make short work of your opponent but you failed your attempt at beating your opponent mentally multiple times. While the Council did see some impressive and innovative techniques and experience out there, the performance you gave did not fit what they wanted to see from an esteemed Yamanaka when facing a favorable opponent." Lord Sixth intended to just keep reading before something he did not want nor expect happened.

"Excuse me?" Kiyomi objected. "The only reason I failed to take over his mind was because his mind was like none other I've scoped before. It was like controlling millions of feeble minds at once."

"That's right", Shigin chuckled like a hillbilly, "Sometimes when I concentrate really hard, the voices in my head just all start buzzin'!"

With a cold glare of a man who had ended more lives in his day than one could fit a file cabinet of a reasonable size, Lord Sixth silenced both of the two with just a glare. Mana could feel the Killing Intent seeping off of him like crazy, nothing like Tanshu-sensei used to have but the fact that he possessed it to a sensible extent in the first place terrified her. She had to use every long dug up trick in the book on controlling her emotions to not get completely paralyzed in fear and the man was not even looking at Mana to begin with.

"For the listed reasons, whether the Council had all of the information on the matter, or not, the Ninja Council chose not to promote Yamanaka Kiyomi to the rank of chuunin." Lord Sixth breathed out easier once the reading and the hearing was complete. With a comforting glance, Mana looked at Kiyomi's shaking fists and her barely controlled from crying face.

"Promote her, right now" Mana was almost blown off her feet from a tremendous pressure of chakra erupting from right beside her. The magician just barely managed to tuck away her chakra sensory before her heart exploded to a bloody pulp from the world's most intense and early stroke. Chestnut Hanasaku was about to go postal right by Mana's side and the woman looked blood-serious.

"I can't do that, Hanasaku", Lord Sixth sighed, for someone who was the focus of ire of the most powerful woman in the world whose strength defied all logic or common sense, he was behaving remarkably calm. "That is why I knew that starting bit was integral – I figured something like this would happen".

"Hanasaku-san, you're behaving a little bit unreasonable here…" Dorimi tried to disarm the heated situation with a friendly smile but he just froze in mid-step closer when Hanasaku looked at him.

"Kiyomi was one of the most powerful genin in those Chuunin Exams, certainly the most experienced. She barely has failed a single mission while completing missions a genin should not be even taking a part in." Hanasaku was heating up again as her blazing eyes switched back on Lord Sixth.

"Surely you don't intend to count missions you yourself overs…" the Hokage's assistant tried to speak up before his own windpipe was also paralyzed by a single glare of a woman who usually never behaved in this manner.

"The members of the Ninja Council that rule over promotions are to remain secret at all times. You can just promote Kiyomi and no one will dare reveal anything or question her rank." Hanasaku glared back at Lord Sixth.

"You know I cannot do that. This isn't the Establishment Period, we don't just make-up ninja ranks here. The only cases where we promote ninja to the rank of chuunin are once they are promoted in the Chuunin Exams or, in very select few cases, after a notable display of extraordinary skill and judgment. Even in the latter case, the procedure is much more complicated than slapping a mark on the file." Sixth answered all of Hanasaku's heated assaults with calm and collected, if a little irritated, manner. "I do acknowledge the injustice of the Council not possibly having all the information, granted, making that information known to the Council was part of the test, as many genin have shown."

"Promote her or I'll leave", Hanasaku took a firm step forward, the assistant or the jounin would have stepped in but they were too frozen to make a move. Anyone who has seen Chestnut Hanasaku play around on the battlefield would have been wise to stay out of her way when she was pissed, there was a certain level that no numbers could have beaten, a level that required an equal threat to defeat it and there were few, if any, equals to Chestnut Hanasaku in the world.

"Hey, Hanasaku-sensei… What are you saying? Stop…" Kiyomi began course correction, stepping up to Hanasaku and grabbing her elbow, trying to pull the woman back but no matter how hard Kiyomi yanked her, the woman did not budge one millimeter.

"Are you threatening me, the appointed by the Fire Lord and our Council leader of our village, with what you think with your weak mind treason is? You are a Sannin, you can leave whenever you want, Zairyo is barely ever even here, to begin with." Lord Sixth dismissed the woman's threats without a spice of care.

"Can you afford me leaving? Can anyone you control even stop me if you ever wanted me stopped? What will happen to you and your Fire Feudal Lord when the other villages find out that Konoha has no more Sannin watching over it? Unless you count Zairyo as a Sannin, he's the Sannin of the entire world and you know it…" Hanasaku kept on digging the hole of rebellion deeper. By the point she was finished, the woman was staring at the man's face so close they were inches from touching their noses.

"You speak of very interesting times, Hanasaku. Times of shadow games and conflict but you forget whom you are speaking to. I grew up and refined my skills serving the village in those same times. I was killing people behind the enemy lines and preventing wars before even Howoku's time. I would enjoy nothing more than for those shadow games to return once again", the Sixth replied with probably the most honesty he had used in his voice since forever. This time, for sure, he was speaking from his heart. "You were Hokage because there was no one to take the seat, you were disgracing this chair every moment your bottom was warming it up for me. As a Sannin, you've paid your dues already so feel free to walk out the gate, I will even come wave you good riddance. Your student stays a genin for at least one more year."

The atmosphere in the office was so heated that Mana could almost hear it screaming in her ears in a phantom moan for the tension to stop.

Hanasaku just shrugged, in an instant, the pent-up anger and pressure emanating from her disappeared, just as fast as it has come to be. "Oh well, I tried, I guess you'll have to try next year, Kiyomi." The woman relented, looking at her protégé with sorry and soft eyes. It was like the banshee of physical obliteration that just inhibited her body was gone in a blink of an eye.

Kiyomi just nodded with a heavy gulp. The rest of the jounin breathed out easier while the genin only began to comprehend what had just happened. It was not tough to see that Hanasaku and Lord Sixth did not like each other, their backgrounds, or the way they behaved as Kage. Still, neither one of them outright hated the other and crossed the line of firing verbal arrows and angry glares from the other side. It appeared to have worked best this way until now.

The Sixth's assistant cleared out his dry throat and fixed his tilted headband that was beginning to slip off his head. "I-If no one else has any objections, you are free to leave. Business as usual from now on…" he announced as Sixth settled back in his chair by finally pressing his back against it.

"A-Actually there's something else I wanted to discuss. It doesn't have anything to do with the Chuunin Exams so… Maybe I can…" Mana politely requested some time with Lord Sixth. The assistant nodded and encouraged that the rest left the office at their own pace with a lazy gesture.

"Speak, Mana", Lord Sixth exclaimed with a tired tone. For a moment, the magician was stunned that the man referred to her with her proper name and did not use either her stage name or the name she was called in the Council – "The Golden Child" which she acquired through sheer luck of being tremendously useful to the village in a couple of affairs. Whereas the Council referred to her thusly due to her remarkable usefulness in the aforementioned affairs, Lord Sixth referred to her that way in a rather demeaning manner.

"I'd actually like to discuss my retirement." Mana wondered in a timid manner. She was relatively familiar with the laws that governed her own village but the complicated red tape procedures still were not entirely clear to her. It would have been much easier to be scoffed at by a man who barely liked her, to begin with than it would have been to research this matter properly with countless laws and revisions to be researched.

"If you abandon your duty before the rank of chuunin, it's considered a unilateral termination of your service to the village. It can be done in a manner that does not leave you in criminal responsibility but you would wave farewell to any social welfare you'd receive when actually retiring." Lord Sixth answered with a raspy voice, while he began working on some paperwork residing on his table.

Mana blinked a pair of time, she hesitated to point out that the Sixth Hokage appeared to identify the case of her relationship with the village wrong but then his assistant intervened.

"The reason why Lord Sixth referred to your case as being "abandoning your duty before the rank of chuunin", is because you have not yet served the mandatory six months as a Konohagakure chuunin. Therefore, you are a chuunin by the letter of the law but not in this particular case, and this particular case alone, treated as such." The man explained.

"Six months, huh?" Mana wondered, rubbing her elbow shyly. Had she known she would have considered if she even desired the social welfare and a proper sendoff or if she was fine being released in a more disgraceful, unceremonial manner.

"Look, Mana, your father is retired with an injury and receiving a rather shy pension for it due to his average rank. Your mother may be a bit more successful with her business venture and, honestly, I've no idea how well your entertainment business pays. My point is – just sit tight for your mandatory six months. As a chuunin you'll no longer be obliged to wash dishes in the name of the village. You may not even see action during those six months at all if nothing deserving your rank comes up. My advice is – do it right and do it by the book, retire honorably with the appropriate welfare. You never know what might happen in the future." The Sixth Hokage advised the magician with a much softer tone.

The big chair was literally changing people from their core outward. Chestnut Hanasaku became a much smarter and more sensible woman after what little time she served as the Fifth Hokage. Sixth also appeared to act and talk like a village leader who could see when which face was more appropriate to wear when he has spent the entirety of his life living in the shadows and snuffing out the wrong people before they even knew whom they have wronged.

Mana bowed in a static angle, as politely as she could, before leaving the Sixth's office with a better sense of purpose in her chest. Before her future seemed kind of murky but now she had a date for her service, she had a limit to look up to and there was a way of leaving that life of violence behind honorably, without shaming her veteran father or well-respected mother. That was indeed the ideal way.