Our team left for Iwagakure with five others that would be taking the Chunin Exams. We were by far the youngest team in the group with the next youngest being fifteen and sixteen year olds. Misaki and I were both eleven and Kenji was still twelve because he had a late birthday. He'd actually turn thirteen during the exams themselves.
The journey was uneventful. Aside from small talk about food, the road and what to possibly expect from the Exams, we didn't really interact with the other Konoha teams we traveled with all that much. Their jonin sensei seemed to have an issue with Hiroshi for some reason, and their students followed their jonin's lead and avoided us.
I didn't recognize any of them, either the jonin or the genin, from the anime, so I often pondered whether or not they lived to see canon and if some of them would die in the Exams we were headed towards now. None of them were from clans either, at least none of the major ones. It was no secret that Iwa and Konoha didn't have the best relationship. There was still a lot of bad blood left over from them invading us and Minato eradicating their entire advance force on his own, so the other clan kids had likely stayed behind for this Exam. I didn't like heading into openly hostile territory to take the Exams, but I was pretty sure Danzo was to blame, which meant there wasn't much I could do in the way of refusing. Hiroshi had prepared us as best he could in the time available to him, and we'd given it our all. That was all we could do.
We passed through several check points on the way to Iwagakure, presenting documents and stating our business. At each stop, the Iwa shinobi on duty glared at us with one kunoichi even going so far as to spit on the ground. Her superior openly punished her in front of us, but the message was received. They didn't want us here any more than I wanted to be here.
The village itself was horrifying. Not in the aesthetic sense. No, I actually thought the way it melded with the mountains of stone all around was rather beautiful. It was horrifying in the sense that I never wanted to have to fight here. If I was ordered to attack this place, I would be going up against some of the greatest natural barriers around, guarded by a force of magic assassins capable of manipulating those natural barriers however they chose. I had no doubts that we were completely at their mercy here. The only thing keeping us from ending up dead before the Exams started was the universal peace treaty that I knew for a fact would be violated in the future. That didn't fill me with confidence for its effectiveness in the present.
After we presented our paperwork and identification to the guards at the front gate – there were many scoffs and eager grins as the Iwa nin saw how young we were – we were given accommodations in a single room at a nearby hotel and handed an itinerary that showed the times for each stage of the Chunin Exams. For the duration of the Exams, we would be Team 3. The number meant nothing detrimental. It was just that we were the third team to sign up for the Exams, so it was easy to bookkeep us that way.
The other Konoha teams were sent to different hotels entirely. Hiroshi quieted my concerns about them splitting us up to ambush us by saying they were splitting us up so we didn't try anything and that Konoha did the same whenever we hosted the Exams.
Like when Naruto went through, there would be three stages with the third being a tournament so the Daimyo could watch ninja kill each other. The first two stages were secret. We'd learn what they were when we arrived at them.
Our team decided to make straight for the hotel. Hiroshi had been on his guard the entire time we'd been in Iwa territory, and we were attracting a lot of looks. Misaki especially seemed to be a point of interest. We passed few other genin teams on the way to our hotel, but one Kumo team seemed absolutely fixated on Misaki. None of us liked that.
"I want you three to stay together at all times during the exam." Hiroshi ordered us when we were safely in our hotel room. There was a single bed, a table with no chairs and an attached bathroom with just a toilet and a shower. The accommodations sucked, but we'd been sleeping on the road during our journey, so we'd make do.
"We will, sensei." Kenji said. He was the most serious I'd ever seen him. I'd thought the stares and open dislike towards us would have made him nervous, but it seemed to have done the opposite and hardened him for the coming Exams.
Hiroshi nodded sharply. "Good. You three all get some sleep. I'm going to stay up and keep an eye out. I don't think anyone will try anything, but it's better to side with caution in this case."
"They want my eyes, don't they?" Misaki asked quietly, a trace of fury in her voice.
Hiroshi was silent for a moment as he looked at her before he ultimately nodded. "Yes, they do. Do not leave the room except to attend the different stages of the Exam. While we reside within Iwa's hospitality, we have their protection, but that does not extend to the rest of the city. Stay with Kenji and Shinto at all times and do not let your guard down for a second."
Misaki nodded. "I won't, sensei."
"Good. Now all of you go to sleep. You'll need to be rested when the first stage starts." Hiroshi said.
After a brief discussion, Misaki and Kenji took the bed. It was large enough for two, and there was no reason for them to sleep on the hard floor when I had an alternative. I melded the shadows in the corner into a makeshift futon and laid on it. Shaping my shadow like this was something Shikaku had walked me through during our preparation for the Exams. I didn't need to expend any chakra to maintain its shape so long as I didn't move away from it, so it was good for a field bed. I'd slept on it during our travels as well.
Tomorrow, the Chunin Exams would begin, and I'd get my first taste of the violent world I'd been reborn into. I'd been sheltered for the first eleven years of my life, but that lease on safety was up. It was time to open my eyes to the world that lurked beyond the safety of my shadows.
X
Misaki, Kenji and I had arrived at the venue of the first stage of the Chunin Exams early. We were the seventh group there after four Iwa teams, two Suna teams and a Kumo team. The Kumo team had a hushed conversation the moment we arrived, their eyes darting to Misaki when they thought we couldn't see them. Kenji and I positioned ourselves between her and the Kumo team as we waited.
The venue was a wide open expanse of flattened gray rock. It appeared to be some form of massive training area. It was kilometers long on all sides. The only reason you could see all around the area was because it was perfectly level.
As time went on, more and more teams joined us. We saw the other Konoha teams as well as a sea of shinobi from other villages. The Konoha presence was heavily outweighed by the number of teams sent by the other villages. There were fifteen Konoha shinobi out of nearly three-hundred participants by my rough estimate. I liked this situation less and less as time wore on.
Each shinobi stood with their team, eyes analyzing as they inspected the other teams. There was a tense silence in the air only broken by the occasional whisper of hushed conversation. Finally, the scheduled time for the event came.
An Iwa jonin used the shunshin to appear in the middle of the group of applicants. "Listen up, genin!" he shouted, an irritated look on his face. "My name is Ryzo Ahm! I was told ten minutes ago that I'm the proctor for this test. I was told to cut the pool of teams down to no more than twenty, so that's what I'm going to do."
Ryzo glared out over the crowd, daring anyone to speak up against him. He smirked when everyone stayed quiet, hanging on his every word. "Alright! Here's your test." He lifted his right hand high into the air. He was holding something. "In my hand I have twenty sticks I picked up on my way here. Each team has to retrieve one of these sticks and bring it to me on the other side of the training area. If you bring me a stick other than one of the ones in my hand, I will know and you will be disqualified. If your stick is broken, you will be disqualified. If you do not bring me a stick, you will be disqualified. Everyone understand? Good. Go!" He threw the sticks into the air and used the shunshin to vanish, appearing far away at the other end of the square training area.
There was an explosion of activity the moment the sticks left Ryzo's hand as teams began knocking into each other trying to retrieve a stick. Several jutsu were being thrown around to blast enemy nin back from the sticks. Jets of water, balls of fire and great walls of stone rose up all around us, but my team didn't care. We were already running towards Ryzo.
When Ryzo had thrown the sticks into the air, I'd seen the opening for what it was and reached out with three chakra strings towards the sticks. Next to me, Kenji had done the same, except he only sent one string. We weren't the only ones with this idea. One of the sticks I'd been going for with my third string was pulled away before I could grab it by a ninja wire sent by a Kiri genin who'd been standing closer to Ryzo than our team was. Another stick was snatched by an Earth clone that threw the stick back to its creator before being scattered by a wind jutsu that cut it in half. Kenji's string wrapped around a stick, and I was able to grab two. I handed one to Misaki as we ran. It was better to spread them out to guarantee one of us getting hit didn't lose them for us.
With our three sticks clutched protectively to our chests, we dashed towards Ryzo, an unspoken truce between us, the Kiri team and the Iwa team that had sent the clone to not screw with each other. If we fought, the odds of our sticks breaking or being lost was high, so it was better to just ignore each other unless we were attacked first.
"Four teams chasing us. Seven o'clock. None are from Konoha." Misaki reported, the veins around her eyes bulging under the effect of her byakugan.
Either the teams behind us knew that we had multiple sticks, or they didn't want to deal with the hundreds of genin fighting over what sticks were left behind, hoping to steal ours instead. Either way, we had to lose them.
I closed my fist around my stick, using one of the techniques Shikaku had shown me during our training to cut it in half, but holding it together with my shadows so it didn't appear to be broken.
"Kenji, Misaki, keep hold of your sticks. I'm throwing mine away to ditch our pursuers." I reported before tossing my stick high into the air.
"One team following us. Six o'clock." Misaki reported. My diversion had worked, but not well enough. We were almost to Ryzo now, but I didn't want to risk that other team slowing us down enough for the other genin behind us to steal our stick.
"Kenji, give me your stick." I ordered. He handed it to me without a word of complaint. I repeated my shadow trick, slicing the stick in half but holding it together with my shadow as I threw it straight into the air.
"We're clear." Misaki reported as we closed in on Ryzo.
The Iwa team had beaten us to Ryzo. He was holding their stick and they were standing behind him, not appearing even the least bit winded. I attributed their greater speed to a home field advantage, but I made a note of their faces just in case.
Misaki held our stick out to Ryzo as we stopped in front of him.
Ryzo looked bored as he plucked the stick out of her hand and looked it over. "What team are you?"
"Team 3." Misaki reported.
"Team 3 passes." Ryzo said, grabbing both ends of the stick Misaki had given him and snapping it in half. "Stand behind me and wait for the test to be over."
We all fell in a few meters away from the Iwa team and watched the rest of the test. Off at the other end of the field, there were still jutsu being thrown back and forth. We all watched closely, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the fighting ninja.
This test had gone about as well for us as it could have. We got through it in second place and revealed almost nothing we were capable of. All we'd used were chakra strings and Misaki's byakugan which was already a known quantity. I also used my shadows, but I was hoping the teams who caught the sticks I threw would think it was a genjutsu. We'd also prevented two teams from progressing after us.
The Kiri team that had snagged one of the sticks I'd been going for with ninja wire finished behind us. Then two Iwa teams were disqualified as the sticks they presented to Ryzo fell apart in his hands, no longer held together by shadows.
It was very hard for me not to grin in triumph at the furious looks those teams shot my way. I just stared straight ahead and acted as if they didn't exist. That only seemed to piss them off more.
When all was said and done, fifteen teams had passed the first test of the Chunin Exams to move on to the second. In addition to the two sticks I had broken, three others broke in the mad fighting back at the start. The upside was we would be facing fewer teams in the second round. The downside was we were the only team from Konoha to advance, and there was only one team from Suna, a tentative ally of Konoha. The rest of the teams were from Iwa and Kumo with the exception of the Kiri team that finished right behind us and a team from Ame. I didn't recognize any of the people we'd be facing in the next round from the anime, which was good and bad. Good in that they weren't named characters with absurdly busted abilities. Bad in that we knew nothing about them so they might have absurdly busted abilities.
When the final stick was delivered by a beaten and bloodied Kumo team, Ryzo snapped it and turned to everyone that had passed the first test. "All of you with me." He turned and began running up the rock wall of the area.
My team quickly followed, moving at a slightly slower pace than the Iwa teams over the unfamiliar terrain.
Ryzo ran us around the village in a wide berth. For my team and the others that had finished quickly, keeping up wasn't an issue. For the teams that had to fight for their sticks and had suffered injuries, it seemed hellish. One of the Kumo shinobi was leaking blood from a wound in his shoulder when he'd turned in his stick and was starting to look pale. It wouldn't surprise me if his team dropped out.
After Ryzo had ran us a little over halfway around the village, he suddenly stopped. He was standing on the edge of a cliff. In front of him was a valley. A stream was visible through sparse trees and jagged rocks on the valley floor. Several kilometers away, almost even with the horizon, was a high rock wall that was on the other side of the valley.
"Tenjo!" Ryzo yelled, a scowl on his face. "You better not be sleeping on the job!"
"I'm right here, Ryzo."
The Kiri and Suna teams jumped as the tall, black-haired man rose out of the rock next to Ryzo. The only reason my team hadn't leapt back was because I'd held all of us, myself included, in place with the Shadow Imitation Technique. We were young and therefore already appetizing targets, I didn't need the other teams to also think we scared easily as more incentive to hunt us down.
"Good. They're your problem now. I'm heading to Bork's." Ryzo said. He vanished in a shunshin, leaving us alone with Tenjo. Tenjo, like Ryzo, wore a rock headband and jonin jacket, but there wasn't much else notable about him.
"My name is Tenjo Osuki. I will be the proctor of the second test of the Chunin Exams." He stuck a thumb over his shoulder. "Behind me you'll see the venue for the second test. We call this the Valley of Crows, because the crows always have something to feed on. Your task is to make it to the other side of the valley and meet me there But," He said, glaring at an Iwa team as they moved to leap off the cliff. "There is another detail. In order for your team to pass, you must have a captured nin from another team with you and you must reach the other end of the valley in no more than five days. How you capture them is up to you to decide, but the hostage must be alive when you reach the other end of the valley. As nin, there will be many missions where you'll need to take a target alive. Consider this practice for that. Are there any questions?" Tenjo asked, looking around the group of gathered genin. There were forty-five of us here. The valley was about to turn into a warzone.
The Kumo kid who'd been hit in the shoulder raised his hand weakly.
"Yes?" Tenjo asked patiently.
"If I…withdraw. Can my team participate…without me?" The Kumo kid was struggling to speak. He needed a medic soon or he'd bleed out.
Tenjo nodded. "The only rule is that a team must have a living hostage at the other end of the valley in five days to pass. A team of two or a lone individual that arrives with a living hostage will still pass the test."
The Kumo kid looked at his teammates. "Sorry, guys." When his teammates gave him encouraging nods, he turned back to Tenjo and said, "I'd like to withdraw."
Out of nowhere, an ANBU in a mask styled to look like the face of a two-dimensional ghost appeared at Tenjo's side. "Please take him to the med nin, Spirit-san." Tenjo said.
The ANBU picked the Kumo kid up bridal style and vanished.
Another hand went up, this one that of an Iwa kunoichi.
"Yes?" Tenjo said, his patient air still about him.
"Is killing allowed?"
The atmosphere turned tense after the question was asked. The remaining genin were watching each other warily out of the corner of their eyes.
"The only rule is that a team must reach the other side of the valley with a living hostage in no more than five days to pass the test." Tenjo said. There was no change in his tone of voice.
The Iwa girl grinned evilly. She made eye contact with one of the shinobi from Suna and licked her lips. I didn't know what her issue was with that guy – maybe they'd traded blows fighting over a stick? – but I was happy she'd be trying to kill someone other than me.
"Are there any more questions?" Tenjo asked. When no one spoke up, he said, "You will be allowed into the valley in the order you finished the first test. There will be a fifteen minute gap in between each team. Team 42, you were first. You may enter the valley."
The Iwa team that had beaten us to Ryzo in the first test shot off into the valley, running down the face of the cliff and quickly disappearing among the trees and rocks below.
The more teams that were allowed into the valley before you, the more likely you would be to walk into a trap or an ambush. It was good we were going second.
"It will likely take us a full day to reach the other side of the valley while moving at a cautious pace." Misaki said quietly after pulling us away from the other genin teams, her byakugan still active as she watched the genin around us.
"Should we set a trap?" Kenji asked, his eyes narrow as they flicked between our competitors.
"No. Too much risk of the other teams showing up after the fight and taking us out while we're tired." I said.
"Then we move to the other side quickly and set up a defensive position?" Misaki asked.
"Unless either of you have a better plan? We can take a hostage easily. It's making it out with that hostage that will be tricky."
Kenji nodded. "We'll stick with your plan."
The three of us fell silent as we waited for our turn to enter.
Tenjo hadn't moved since appearing. When fifteen minutes was up, he said, "Team 3, you may enter the valley."
Misaki, Kenji and I took off down the side of the cliff, Misaki's byakugan active as she watched for any traps or other nasty surprises the Iwa team might have left for us.
The second stage of the Chunin Exams had begun.