Hey guys, this is the new chapter. Please enjoy the jonin exams.


"I think it's time for you to take the jonin exams" said Kakashi in the middle of their sparring lesson. She almost sank into the lake they were sparring on, but she managed to collect herself.

""You mean I'm ready ?"

"Well, it's hard to say. At the very least you can probably get the tokubetsu jonin rank through it, so there's no harm in trying. I've also asked Kiba and Choji if they're willing to give it a try, and they agreed."

Well, that was nice. Though from what she knew, the jonin exams weren't taken as a team. They didn't even have a consistent format. And unlike the Chunin exams, it wasn't open to other villages. Every village conducted it within it's own boundaries, and a lot of effort was put in keeping it quiet. After all, the jonin of the village were the most powerful force. While the Kage was often one of the strongest shinobi in the village, all the jonin together could easily win. And so Shinobi of the jonin rank had the most freedom and a lot of opportunities available to them.

She turned her thoughts back to the exam. From what she'd heard, they were more of a demonstration of skills than a competition. It focused on testing whether the Shinobi posessed the innate traits needed for the rank. Another aspect was the fact that it actually tested for both jonin and tokubetsu jonin rank. Moreover ...

A cough from Kakashi took her out of her thoughts, and she turned her attention back to him. He continued, and said "Now, before you take the exams, you need to choose a speciality to present, so you can also be considered for the Tokubetsu jonin rank. So, what would you like to choose ?"

She considered her options. Frankly, she didn't really have aby real special skills. It was probably easier for her teammates, given their straightforward skill sets. She had decent skills in genjutsu, but nowhere close enough for it to be a speciality. Her ninjutsu wasn't terrible, but she didn't have any specific strengths in it. Her earth jutsu was decent, but she only had one real jutsu, and it wasn't suitable as a speciality. She had some medical ninjutsu, but it was mainly for healing herself, which was far easier than healing others, and she hadn't practiced with it that much. She was tempted to put in fuinjutsu, like her idol, the Yellow Flash. But she knew her skills weren't that good, at least not yet. Her swordsmanship was also rudimentary. She knew that the speciality didn't have to be as specific as a field of jutsu. There were Shinobi who had teaching and interrogation as their specialties.

She heard Kakashi say "All right, I'll leave you to it. We won't have any sparring sessions till the exams, as you'll need your energy. I'll give your name, so just fill out this form, and show up on the day of the exam. You have time to figure this out."

She took the form absent mindedly. Frankly, this question was beyond just the exam. It was about where she needed to focus her skill set. She'd acquired a mix of skills and had become a jack of trades. She was probably a pretty strong candidate for jonin. But her goal wasn't to become a jonin, it was to be a legend. She thought back to her answer when she'd told Kakashi her nindo. 'I want to be the kind of Shinobi who can shoulder that darkness, and allow generations of Shinobi to enjoy a peaceful life.' It was a nice idea, but the gap between that ideal and her reality had become clear to her. She needed to take that next step, and in order to do that, she had to find the 'image' she wanted to represent.


It was unlike Sakura to arrive after he did, but on this day, she did. Just as he was getting ready to leave to pick her up, she arrived in a body flicker. She'd clearly rushed over as fast os possible. "Sorry for being late guys. I was busy with something last night, so I was tired today." As he studied her for any injuries, he heard Kiba say "C'mon Sakura. Don't tell me you're taking after this guy. The village would implode if it had to deal with another Kakashi." As they all laughed, he took the form Sakura handed him. He knew that the speciality question had worried her, and he could hazard a guess at why, but she seemed fine now. What choice did she make ? He looked at it, and there it was, in bold letters:

'Speciality: Aerial Combat'


A/N

I bet ya didn't expect that. Anyway, it's good to be back, and I'll try to be a little more consistent with updates.