Chunin Exam Arc: Among Us
Yuina walked up the stairs to the fourth floor. Other participants exited on the second and third floor, and others continued climbing the stairs even once she stopped. She walked slowly to look into the other classrooms. There was plenty of hostility - the frigid reception and vocal complaints types.
She reached room 408. Yuina scanned the hall once more, looking for oddities, before slowly entering the room. Her mind raced to figure out what the trial was. She also eyed the other six people in the room as they appeared to be her direct competition.
"Hey Shiba!"
A Kiri-nin entered the room. That made seven other people.
Shiba, the ninja the newcomer called, didn't look enthusiastic about their newest addition. His grimace straight up showed his disgust as if he categorized his fellow Kiri-nin with the rest of the people in the room.
Two Iwa-nin, two Kiri-nin, one Kumo-nin, a Suna-nin, and surprisingly a Tai-nin. Taigakure had been invited? Yuina missed that.
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 additional goals or whether it was a way to pry beneficial scientific details from her. Less so the agricultural stuff, as the Land of Fire was prosperous on that front, but more so the information that could be used destructively – cripplingly so.
Another Kumo-nin, who Yuina recognized from the inn, joined them. He looked at everyone else in the room who kept 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. It was 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. "I you're 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 when it's read there aren't any spies among you. 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 designed to turn people against one another. Ninja don't always get paired with people they're familiar with for missions. Separating people when entering limited who in each group knew each other, and the tensions and rivalries between nations was going to add another layer of tension. Furthermore, it was a prime opportunity to disqualify the competition early. Yuina wondered if using that thread would be deemed a show of cunningness or incompetence.
"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 would 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.
Yuina's 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 there was no rule that there was only one. They could have been a distraction from other people infiltrating their group. Yuina kept that to herself. She feared people would become more reactionary and start kicking more out. She didn't want to face everyone at once if she didn't have to.
Before seeking to prove deception from others, she needed to ensure others knew who she was. Hopefully, it wouldn't kick her in the ass. She wanted to prove who she was so they would let her be. It needed to be clear enough that it didn't seem to like a cover story.
Yuina wanted to sigh and scowl. She wished the test was something more straightforward. Something that she only needed herself to rely on. This was particularly annoying, but she tried not to let it show. People were generally more accepting of pleasant people. Someone that could be considered friendly and someone who didn't cause problems. Lean a little into manic happiness and people were more likely to pass off any oddities as a personality trait than suspect something. It had worked on a number of Kiri Kumo-nin already.
"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 traveling here together. Though your 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 occupying in the same inn as you." Yuina tapped the edge of the metal on her forehead. "I'm Orochimaru's student. Or can you not even remember a mere ten Konoha-nin after being here three days?"
"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 who's 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, Uchiki, 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-nin.
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 an 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 temporarily 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 I'll understand if you 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 Genjuu.
The Iwa boy clicked his tongue as he looked at the older girl at his side. "Not quite, but I'll need the rest of you to trust me." He didn't look happy to admit he required the group's faith.
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 Yuina's 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 worried about a possible third infiltrator hiding among them. Still, this round, at the very least in room 408, the exam was totally skewed in Iwa's favour.
He pointed his thumb at his fellow Iwa-nin. "She's already a chunin. She gets stuck on gate duty 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, she 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."
The Iwa boy was combative at first, but relented when he caught on. The Iwa infiltrator complained but gave in too easily under the easy promise of failing two more of them, with the thoughts that the other half would continue to have problems with each other.
If they got through this, he was someone Yuina would need to keep an eye on moving forward.
The three of them left the circle they had formed and reached the door. At the last moment, Yuina pushed the Iwa girl out of the room while the Iwa boy already took action by running to the proctor. There was nothing in the rules that stated everyone in the room needed to agree. The deciding factor was whether a traitor was in the room or not while reading it.
The other genin, minus Genjuu and Shiba, rushed to stop him, but it was too late. The Iwa-nin opened the scroll and read the contents out loud. It was two names.
Yuina quickly pieced together that the names belonged to the infiltrators in their group. The problem is that she didn't know half of their names. Were they right?
"That was messy, but you all pass." Touko leaned back against the wall.
"Wait. I don't get it. Was she a chunin or wasn't she?"
The Iwa girl 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.