Chunin Exam Arc: Leaving Konoha

Yuina triple checked she had everything before slipping her arms through the straps. She adjusted where they rested on her shoulders before sliding her hands under her hair, at the back of her neck, to free the strands trapped under the straps.

She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Mission Start.

She walked to Yuuhei Park, her arranged meeting spot. Yuina got nervous when Orochimaru was late. Things hadn't even started yet and something may have gone awry.

Yuina always made sure she was on time, but it seemed for once she might be late meeting up with the other chunin exam nominees. They were meant to leave as a group at 7am outside the northwest gates. She needed to breathe. Surely, it was nothing.

"Orochimaru-sensei." She sensed him before she saw him. She was unsure when it started. She couldn't distinguish chakra from a similar source from each other. She could tell what was human, but she couldn't distinguish between people. Manabu's observations suggested summoning could imprint. Maybe that was the reason? She tried to think back, but she hadn't been able to identify him back then by his signature. Had she become more attuned to chakra? Has the summoning imprint increased over time?

"Let's go."

Yuina blinked. "Are we not waiting for Arai?" She, unfortunately, remembered the boy from team assignments. He had been the one getting up in Kakashi and her's face as he rejected the reality that they graduated the same time as him. Apparently, a teammate of his had been promoted to chunin. Arai had been nominating, but it made more sense to have him tag along with them to get to Iwagakure.

"He's dropped out last minute."

Huh? That didn't sound like him, not that she really knew anything about him. He may have been a shinobi, but he was still developmentally growing. Maybe he had changed. Yuina just hoped that their group wasn't scrutinized even more for having one less than anticipated. Surely, it wasn't unheard of.

Yuina showed her documentations to one man at the gates. It was a double entry method to ensure the village accurately had information about who was in and out of the village. She was sure there were ways to veto the requirement for ANBU and such, but that didn't apply to her. It was all the more important to record who left for the chunin exams to track who lived.

She could see the others going to Iwa waiting. Yuina had gotten their information ahead of time. Surprisingly, they were all teams. Statistically speaking it was an improbability. Granted, many wouldn't want people they knew to compete in Iwa. It wasn't uncommon for the hosting country to have the greatest number of participants.

Yuina approached the group and bowed. "Sorry for the wait. Arai dropped out." She was throwing him under the bus. She wasn't about to gain a reputation for tardiness because of another person, at least not while she wasn't in charge of him.

Yuina looked at the redhead. That was Uzumaki Kushina. She nominated her students: Uchiha Ryuu, Hayakawa Masumi, and Aburame Nobu. They were notably the newest shinobi, having graduated back in the spring. They didn't even have a year of experience yet.

The blond man was someone familiar to her, Yamanaka Inoichi. He stood with his students Kinoko Koberi, Sarutobi Noriaki, and Hagane Hirochika. Interestingly, Noriaki was the Hokage's oldest son, as she had come to discover. It was an interesting choice to have him participate in this chunin exam. Yuina only vaguely recalled them as the bunch scared to deliver scrolls to Orochimaru. It was a brief and fleeing encounter. She had forgotten all about it until seeing their faces in person triggered her memory.

The last jonin was Hyuga Hizashi. He no longer oversaw most of their activity, but they were still teamed up on occasion. His students were Nara Yori, Mezato Takasue, and Kamizuki Mushiro. They had been genin the longest and had the most time to develop their fighting styles.

It was surprising how young the jonin were. A true testament that they were valued. The youngest was Kushina at 18 years old and the oldest, not including Orochimaru, was Hizashi at 23 years old. Jonin were the smallest group in ranking. Having gotten the rank of jonin and having had at least a year of experience under their belt before being allowed to have a genin team made them all quite young when they were promoted. A feat considered the average age of becoming jonin was mid-twenties.

As far as Yuina knew, no one else was involved. That didn't mean the other joinin didn't know, but she couldn't be certain. They could know or they could be oblivious. It was easier operating under the assumption they didn't know. Some might consider it a giant oversight, but if the worst-case scenario occurred, it would be best that she didn't know.

Kushina rushed to Yuina with rosy cheeks. "It's nice to finally meet you! I'm Kushina. I've been curious about Kakashi's sister!"

Yuina staggered a little as she greeted Kushina back. How did Kushina know Kakashi?

"Wait," said Masumi. "But you need a team to compete?"

Yori eyed the younger genin. "Iwa doesn't require registering as a team." It was a condition Konoha often instated much to the detriment of other nations. Playing mix and match between genin and those who have received promotions was a nightmare. It was a little easier for those villages who had a different standard for their genin.

Masumi pointed at Kushina. "You lied! You told me it's all or nothing."

Kushina whistled and looked off to the side. She twisted her body so that her team could only look at her back. "You'll be fine."

"We should get going," said Hizashi, motioning his team to start moving.

Yori's ears perked as she took a good look at the group of Konoha-nin in disbelief. "This is it?" She wasn't terribly expressive, but 10 nominations to an exam was an insanely low number.

Mushiro stared at Hizashi before he looked at Yori. "I'm more confused about why we still need to be babysat. You would think we could be trusted to go alone by now." It would be three years come spring. Mushiro tensed. "No offense! You're great sensei! Some autonomy would be nice, though." He pouted.

Hizashi raised a brow. "And how many of you have been to a foreign-nin village before without supervision?"

Takasue raised his hand.

Mushiro looked at Takasue in shocked. It wasn't him because Yori gave an inquisitive look too. "When?" he asked.

"At the start of the year. I was teamed up with Yumi and Jirushi for an envoy mission. Unless you count Eiichi who was the chunin in charge." He lowered his hand. "So, I guess not." All the more reason to become chunin.

"Well, whatever." Mushiro's mood soured a little that he hadn't been part of that mission. "I'm passing this time and I'll get cooler missions going forward."

"You've taken the Chunin exams before?" Ryuu looked over to Team Hizashi.

Noriaki scrutinized Team Kushina. "I have too." That surprised Yuina. She needed to reevaluate her expectations of Noriaki. She had heard good things about his skills. It was what people expected being the Hokage's son. However, Yuina wondered why he hadn't passed last time if that was true. "Hiro, here, is the only one from our team who hasn't tried yet." Team Inoichi graduated in the spring of last year. It had been nearly twenty months now. They hadn't been allowed to enter the first year like Team Kushina, but Noriaki and Koberi entered the summer chunin exam in Kumo.

"Ha. I'll become a chunin before you, then." Ryuu found satisfaction that they were nominated so young. Most of the others were taking it again so logic was they didn't get promoted, whereas Ryuu promised himself he would on his first try.

"Don't take it lightly," scolded Yori. "Your senpai are telling you that nominations are the barrier to entry. The real challenge hasn't begun."

Inoichi had learned to go along with it a long time ago. His genin were rowdy and eager. It wasn't a surprise the newest batch of genin were the same way. Even Yuina was more chipper than he recalled. She was the only other genin he was familiar with from the bunch, so he addressed her. "I see you've finally left the cave to come join."

"You know her sensei?" asked Hiro.

"That's Yuina," said Noriaki blandly, as if it should have been the most obvious thing.

"That tells me nothing. I don't know everyone like you do."

That was a great exaggeration, but Noriaki was more knowledgeable about these sorts of thing. Not the things most people thought he would know. He was the son of the Hokage. Dad or not, Noriaki wasn't being told about village secrets. "She graduated the year before us," explained Noriaki. Hiro analyzed Yuina, trying to make the numbers add up. "She also joined the academy the same year as my brother."

"Isn't your brother like seven?"

"Eight."

Koberi rolled her eyes. "He's saying she graduated early, you idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!"

"You don't need to fight over this," said Yuina.

Masumi counted her fingers, then gawked. She pointed at Yuina. "That can't be right. You would have been five!" Masumi was surprised enough when a younger boy in green was shoved into her graduating class announcement, but Yuina would have been even younger than that boy who irked her on principle.

"The Hatake Clan caused a lot of commotion that year," said Nobu. He could faintly remember the adults chatting about it. It had left him curious, but it was hard to get more information than the few typical talking points. That was until his medic aunt mentioned gossip around the hospital. It was the around the same time the other Hatake was promoted to chunin, so it was wave after wave of attention than a typical passing gossip.

Takasue became wary of the youngest. His parents beat it into him to never let first impressions blind him, and this was why. He sneaked a peek at Orochimaru but quickly looked away when Orochimaru's eyes connected with his. Takasue shivered. He was frightened by what a prodigy would teach a prodigy.

Mushiro thought the opposite. Yuina may have graduated early, but there had to be a reason she hadn't taken the exam before.

Yuina thought the remarks were as tedious as ever, but for once she needed the reputation. "Putting that aside, it's a lab, not a cave. And I was never cooped up there."

Inoichi wasn't convinced. Yuina would have had to spend a ridiculous amount of time accomplishing all that she did. It was more than plenty of adults contributed over their lifetimes. Though, it was partially why she was considered a prodigy – exceeding expectations in record times. He wanted to know how her brain worked. He even knew someone from the Research Centre that had eyes on Yuina. Inoichi would bet anything that they would try to recruit her the moment she became chunin. The only thing that held that man back was internal policies that required a higher rank and additional clearance.

"Orochimaru-sensei? What's Iwa like?"

Mushiro coughed only realizing who Orochimaru was after hearing the name. How could he not? Orochimaru was a legend. Takasue already knew if getting elbowed by him was any indication.

Orochimaru didn't have fond memories of Iwa. The memory that stood out the most was being trapped in the cave, a moment away from killing Jiraiya so he and Tsunade had a chance to flee.

"You didn't ask before leaving?" Mushiro was now even more assured that Yuina wasn't ready.

"Nope." Yuina closed her eyes and smiled. The past few months had been hell. She set up more work for herself just to make a statement, which now required her to make a bigger statement. "I needed to train and all that."

"The training better be worth it," said Ryuu.

Her smiled morphed into a grin. "Don't worry. It totally was." She made real progress in her training. Competing against a bunch of genin didn't frighten her. She would have made a deal with a devil if it gave her the strength.

Yuina thought back to being cornered in the forest. Never again.

Orochimaru didn't need to put thought into his response. It wasn't a personal question, nor was Yuina oblivious to Iwa. No expert, but she didn't need to be. Her words were performative. Though, while she may have been taught some things, but she still had never physically visited the Land of Earth. "It's up in the mountains. Rock and stone as far as the eye can see. The fertile lands by the border long vanish before reaching the village. Crispy mochi, dumplings, noodles, rice, mutton, and donkey are popular. Housing is carved into the stone. I hope you've all brought warm clothes. It will be cold this time of year. If not, they're known for their textiles. There should be something you can buy be it blankets or clothes."

Yuina shrugged. "What's a trip without some souvenirs and sightseeing?"