"Indeed, little man. Things can go pretty bad in here too." Musha replied to Minato's remark with a smirk. Meiko found it difficult to take the fact that the little man standing all the way on the other side of the room was Naruto's father, especially having in mind the fact that he appeared much younger than his supposed son, although there were more than enough similarities for the blacksmith to not question it in any relevant way, leaving it up to be more of a surprising trivia type of fact.
"The stage you see in front of you is an improvised shogi stage. It has been divided into two sets of cubes: white and black ones." Musha explained, directing the attention of all the present teams at the stage of a perfect, square shape that was divided into smaller sections of matching, perfect, square shapes of black and white colors, just like the proctor suggested.
"How fitting of the black and white cube motif…" a young man wearing a Sunagakure headband that held his spiky, brown hair in a tall and hedgy formation sneered. His headband was not the main notable feature, however, it was the metallic visor that covered the young man's eyes and the green markings that appeared like rivers of emerald tears that went down from where his eyes would have been underneath the visor and ran down the man's cheeks.
"We thought so too…" Musha smiled, playing with her fingernails and showing off her impressive bicep with prideful body language. Once she got serious, the proctor returned to the briefing. "What you see here is a game of shogi, where instead of pieces there will be you – the examinees. Each and every one of you has a predetermined way of movement and a manner of "cutting" other pieces, that is to say – other examinees, down. Some of you will be able to move one square forward, some of you will be able to move sideways or diagonally, the movement and "cutting" capabilities of each examinee will be lighted up on the board before the piece makes its move."
"What kind of bullshit is that!?" a man of six arms and a Kumogakure headband showed his outrage. Meiko recalled seeing this particular man before the end of the Forest of Death stage of the last Chuunin Exams. He was the powerhouse of Team Nimbus – Spyder-Wolf of Kumogakure and the teammate of Jean-D and Jon-D. "You're leaving something as important as the fate of an entire team to a random chance of how a piece moves or eliminates other pieces!?"
"Don't get your panties up in a bunch," Musha smirked with a wink at the furious examinee. "There is more than just a random chance to the way each of you will move. We have determined that depending on intelligence provided by your village or, in some cases, your universe, about your abilities and mobility on a battlefield."
"In that case…" a gentle and shy feminine voice came from a location not too far from Naruto's side, the voice appeared to be very familiar to the future Seventh Hokage, enough so for the youth to burrow through the masses of displeased genin to locate the young woman and have his jaw drop by his questions being confirmed by her appearance. "There is more than just chance to this game? It appears to be a rather accurate simulation of an actual warfare scenario, an improvised battlefield if you will…"
"Sakura-chan!?" Naruto pointed at the young woman with an almost accusatory stare. "I thought you were already promoted, you know! Isn't that why you left me all alone to find my own team and why I've teamed up with Kiyomi and Meiko, you know!?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Naruto." The teen with shoulder-length pink hair tied her hands over her waist. "I am still a genin and back in my universe you have left with Jiraiya-sama on your training trip. I'm not the Sakura you know. If anything, I should be mad at you, because, since you left, I had to look hard for a team of my own to enter the exams."
"Oh… I see then, you know…" Naruto scratched his cheek, embarrassed. "You're Sakura-chan from before I returned with Pervy Sage, you know… I see you've teamed up with Choji and Ino. Makes sense, since Shikamaru is promoted already, you know…"
"Sakura Haruno of Team 7 is right, this little game is meant to test your abilities to work together in a situation of a potential warfare scenario. In war, there will be times when you might require to lead smaller squads of entire armies of various ninja of varied backgrounds and abilities and utilize their skills to the best of your knowledge. You are free to decide how each of your teams play the game – elect a leader that calls the moves or just move about randomly, however, a misplay means you've surrendered your move for the turn so be careful." Musha answered Sakura's ponderings.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but what about the elimination of teams in this challenge?" a silver-haired young lady with an Iwagakure headband inquired. "I was under the impression that at this stage of the exams teams are comprised of three members and that under no circumstances can a team be one member short without the whole team being eliminated. What if one of our teammates gets "cut", as you've expressed yourself? Is the entire team eliminated in that case?"
"Nope." Musha cut short with a smile and a lively shake of her pink-haired head. "A team is only eliminated if all three of their members get cut. Those that were cut but were not eliminated with their team will return back to the exams if their side wins the war simulation. Although the game will be played like your average shogi match."
"Damn…" Naruto squinted his eyes as if he had a nasty case of diarrhea brewing deep inside. "I'm not at all good at those sort of things, you know. This whole stage is such a nightmare… Shogi was more of a Shikamaru's thing…"
"Yeah." Meiko nodded. "I know next to nothing about it as well. Then we have another problem…" she looked at unconscious Kiyomi. Both members of Team Hokage had counted on their leader being recovered from her horny stupor by now.
"Oy!" Naruto raised his hand with a loud yell, grabbing the proctor's attention without any prospects for failure. "Our leader is still out from the other challenge." He explained.
"That's even better. There are ten teams in total here and the game requires sixteen pieces on each side. We've wondered how to make that work but if your teammate is out – that just solves the final problem. Too bad about your chances to win and all…" Musha shrugged with a sorry look.
"Just great…" Naruto grumped, wrapping his arms over his chest and pouting his lips. It looked as if he was just a few degrees of boiling away from kicking the unconscious team leader of his.
"If there're no more questions, I'd like to list the participants of this challenge as well as the teams to which you've been sorted. Team Black will be comprised of Team Sajin of Sunagakure, Team Shigure from Amegakure, Team Asuma from Konohagakure, Team Shira from Sunagakure, Team Phobos from Getsugakure as well as Uzumaki Naruto from Team Hokage. Team White will be comprised of Team Nimbus of Kumogakure, Team Kurenai from Konohagakure, Team Jiraiya from Konohagakure, The Three Senka Brothers from Kirigakure, Team Rutile from Iwagakure and Wakizashi Meiko from Team Hokage. I'll ask the contestants to take their places on the board and prepare for the next challenge of the first stage of the Chuunin Exams." Musha listed the teams.
Meiko looked down at her unconscious teammate and thought for a while about how she should feel about being split from Naruto. Her first impression suggested that it made her chances of survival better as she and Naruto were both on split teams, which meant that even if one team was completely eliminated, which was inevitable in this sacrificial game of Shogi, one of their team might just survive although… One member was an awfully thin straw to grasp for one's survival on…
"I suppose it will be best if I take charge of this lot." Jean-D of Team Nimbus faked a humble pose while she appointed herself the commander of this entire cocktail of ninja.
"Wait up, that's a bit sudden, isn't it!?" a young man of sharp, spiky brown hair and even sharper pair of fangs sticking out from his mouth, a leather jacket and Inuzuka clan markings on his face objected. "Maybe we should see how each of us move and cut other pieces before making judgments like that?"
"Movement and cutting are irrelevant to leadership positions. The one to lead should be the most intelligent one of us with the most talent for board games." His teammate who appeared very fond of hiding as much of his skin as possible which just screamed of Aburame clan habits and sense of fashion argued with his own teammate.
"This is not your average board game." Minato, apparently Naruto's father, cut in, despite his team appearing the youngest out of the bunch by a decent margin. "Board games like Shogi often demand to sacrifice pieces, without a doubt war also demands to sacrifice of one's soldiers but… It would be preferable if our commander did not sacrifice pieces nilly-willy, given the meaning of each piece."
"Hmph… You're such a wimp. Your sister will get us all kicked out while you'd be a decent commander, yet you fold to her whims, as usual…" Spyder-Wolf grumbled out a laugh while cheeking his own teammate.
"We work very well together. I wouldn't mind if, because of that synergy, I or my brothers would be appointed as commander of our forces." A young man with blue hair and a standard Kirigakure uniform rose his hand up. By himself, the youth would have been very unremarkable, however, due to the fact that he was surrounded by two brothers, all of whom were a spitting image of the one who had raised this suggestion, the trio sort of demanded appropriate attention.
"Hmmm… Perhaps these three have something?" a young lady with white hair scratched her chin while looking at her teammate as if asking her for approval. Meiko could not quite recall any of the three members of this team although she did feel more comfortable attributing them to the local ninja rather than visitors from another universe. The Iwagakure headbands that the trio of two kunoichi and one young man wore suggested that these three were Team Rutile. That did not sound like any team names of the teams from other universes, all of which seemed to be either named after a member of the team or had some number attributed to them.
"Don't be so naïve, Vespiga, that's what got Hafred killed in the last Chuunin Exams, remember? In fact, I would not mind taking the charge either." The second female of Team Rutile stood out amongst those that have decided to quarrel over leadership.
"And what are your qualifications to oversee a board game of this caliber?" Jon-D turned at the Iwagakure kunoichi.
"None, though that's about as good as those of any of you." The Team Rutile kunoichi wrapped her arms over her chest and showed the Kumogakure youth her tongue.
"I think that the little guy should take charge." Meiko suggested, being one of the very few to suggest somebody else, furthermore, she may have been the first to suggest someone from another team, another village, and even another universe.
"Me?" Minato pointed at himself with moderate bafflement. "I don't know if I'm much of a leader, I just voiced my opinion, that's all…" he smiled with politeness and reservation. Could such a calculated and reserved person truly be Naruto's father? His mother must have been a rampaging maniac to outweigh the odds in the favor of the traits he had inherited, in that case.
"I agree, why? Because you appear to have sounded the most mature out of all of us." The Aburame from Team Kurenai nodded, approving of Meiko's suggestion. There were curious sparks in the eyes of all three members of Team Kurenai, could they have recognized this young man, just like Naruto had? While Meiko could believe that Shino would regard the youth's points and supposed maturity beyond his years as notable, it was difficult to believe that any of the three would just agree so easily to hand the leadership into the hands of this kid unless they knew him from some accomplishment back home.
"Hey, that's just ridiculous! Don't go around deciding that sort of stuff like that!" Jean-D objected, stepping into the fray and getting into the faces of everyone in her team. That was especially ironic, given how while Jean-D was a tall lady and must have taken decent pride in her physical stature, she was a whole head shorter than Meiko and far less physically imposing than the blacksmith whom she just tried unnerving by establishing aggressive eye contact with.
"Fine, how about we vote?" a black-haired teammate of Minato's with stepped up with a confident smirk. "I vote for Minato to be the leader, what about you, Kushina?"
"Hell yeah to that, ya know!" a girl of hair so red they appeared to be clawing at one's eyes and near-impossible not to notice in one way or another declared with a loud mouth that matched if not surpassed Naruto's. While due to her tomboyish and loudmouthed nature Meiko would have attempted to guess that she was Naruto's mother, given how he already established the father, the verbal tick that she let out at the end, one similar to that of Naruto himself, all but sealed that answer onto the sheet of paper.
"Given how most vote for themselves or one of their teammates and two whole teams plus Meiko-san vote for Minato, that means Minato wins it." The black-haired youth with a braid that he held folded over his head and pinned to the rest of his shoulder-long hair fisted the sky.
"Tsk. Fine, but if we lose because of him, I'm not leaving it like that, you hear?" Jean-D stepped forward, pulling out a knife ranging from the elbow to the end of her fingertips in length and clutching it by her side.
"Oy, did you just threaten Minato!? I'll pummel your whole face if you did, ya know!" Kushina was already rolling back her sleeves, however, before any of the two kunoichi could jump at one another, Minato jumped in between the two with a whole different pair of eyes than those he had just moments earlier. The circumstances demanded no combat moves to settle the situation but judging from his eyes alone – he would have defused it if he felt he had to without hesitation.
"Save some of that for the enemy and the trials ahead." Minato said, no, he ordered. Just like a leader would have. This boy was so hesitant to take up responsibility but once it landed on his shoulders he took charge on the ranks with the best of them.
Meiko noticed the sparks gleaming in the eyes of Team Kurenai, that is, all of them except for the Aburame, since he was wearing shades and there seemed to be no way to tell what he was thinking or where he directed his stare at.
"Alright. Given how Musha-san all but confirmed that the way in which we move as pieces will not be random, I take it that our movement and cutting properties will be dependent on our real-life combat skills. I favor short-range, taijutsu and close-range ninjutsu and the like. However, I am quite fast. I would imagine that I as a piece will have high mobility, perhaps I will be able to move multiple squares in any direction but I will only be capable of cutting once I close down to a piece." Minato began crafting the strategy of their team without wasting any time after being elected Team White leader.
"Don't worry, he'll be mumbling like that for a while but he'll pull us through, ya know…" Kushina nodded, giving the rest of Team White a shrug that was meant to reassure them. It was still out in the air if it did anything of the sort.
"However, it still remains a mystery if I will be able to move diagonally. I am torn between placing myself in the back row to reserve myself until the late game, where the spaces will be much emptier and my mobility will be of great value or to use it for an early advantage…" Minato rubbed his cheek as he pondered, strategizing out loud, likely as an invitation to anyone that knew what they were doing to but in.
"Might I suggest the bottom line corner?" Jon-D stepped up. "In that case, you will remain safe in the back until you deem your mobility needed but you will not be too blocked off to step in early in the game if need be."
"I see. Your teammate was right. You are quite good at this." Minato smiled with a nod and flickered. Meiko couldn't contain her smirk. Some of the Team White members got worked up over how suddenly the youth utilized a technique as advanced as the Body Flicker Jutsu and how he moved with such speed and precision without losing his polite smile.
"We need the front row. I'm not sure who would benefit being in the front the most but it would be best if we did not place all of the members of any of our teams in the front. I have a feeling that the vanguard will get cut before the game reaches later stages. By placing one or two members of each team in the front, we'll fill one of the most important roles without risking eliminating any of us at this stage." Minato pointed out, standing at the corner of the stage, on a black square.
"It would be the best if the vanguard was comprised of ninja that are much slower in real life but pack a punch, that way they will have the opportunity to position themselves carefully, one move at a time, allowing us to gain board control gradually and ensuring our victory, whatever the sacrifices." Jon-D nodded, taking a dash to the vanguard himself. Despite not relying on Body Flicker, Jon-D was no less swift than Minato and kept up with the boy without showing any signs of effort.
"I knew it…" Meiko thought to herself. She was quite cumbersome but powerful compared to an average ninja, it would have made the most sense for her to take the vanguard as well, even though that way she risked the elimination of Team Hokage which already was in the cards, given how Team Hokage had only two members in. Despite that, she only hesitated for a brief blink before taking her position out in the front. An Inuzuka from Team Kurenai took his place beside Meiko, giving the redhead a thumb up and showing his fang in a cheerful grin.
"Heh, thanks for sticking up for Lord Fourth back there. You won't regret it, you'll see!" he said.
"Lord Fourth, huh…" Meiko blinked a couple of times, given the recent influx of engaging details about everyone around her and the ever-rising stakes of the exams, somehow the blacksmith took this little tidbit of information calmly.
"Hey, nobody will be able to shoot through their own folks!" Jean-D flipped her hands up in the air. "Instead of placing our heavy hitters out front, place our long-range attackers upfront so they can use the early game to land some early blows!"
"That's so short-sighted, sister." Jon-D shook his head, looking down at his scorned sibling from above the stage. "It is true that such a strategy will score us a few good early cuts and I do believe placing a pair of long-range pieces into the corners of the upper row might be a good idea, investing in this strategy will result in slow pieces being all that's left in the end – we'll be in the total mercy of the enemy."
Minato took a glance at the opposing team, noticing a handful of Amegakure ninja with umbrellas on their backs placed out in front on the opposing side of the board. He did not take long to put together that the enemy was employing this strategy and placing their long-range ninja out in front so that their full abilities would get realized.
"Alright, change of plans, let's take a mixed formation of long-range ninja and short-range ninja, one beside the other. I don't want the vanguard to become fodder so let's have them have some ranged support, just for some payback for the early hellfire, then we'll have a bit heavier late game, though, hopefully, with fewer sacrifices this way." Minato smiled politely at his teammates.
"Playing safe is riskier than risking. As little sense as this makes literally." Jon-D let his leader know that he was opposed to such a strategy but one-by-one, Team White took their places on the board and the most elaborate game of ninja chess in the world in the second challenge of the first stage of the Chuunin Exams could begin at last.