The rest of the time before the Chunin exams was spent in relative calm. We sparred with each other in preparation, in a small quiet space we found the first day. But otherwise, we kept to ourselves.

When the day came, we made our way to the auditorium type building and to the classroom inside. When we walked inside, we were faced with a room full of strange faces. Most of them looked older and more experienced than us. And the open malice everyone gave off was intense.

"This is gonna be one heck of a test." I mumbled quietly to the other two. Taka was alert and tense on my head. I could feel the tips of his claws gripping my chestnut hair. The room was filled with desks, and some of the other participants had taken seats, but we stayed standing close to each other near the side of the room.

There were ninja from several different villages here. Most of them seemed to be from the Hidden Sand, which would make sense. But there were some from the Hidden Rain too.

Taka chirped, alerting me to the presence of a new chakra approaching the room. I looked away from the other participants and towards the front of the room. The door opened to reveal what could only have been, the proctor and the people with him. I assumed they were there to help with whatever the test was.

"Everyone take your seats." The new man stated.

We moved towards the desks. There were no spots where we could sit directly together, so I looked at the other two before we spread out throughout the room. We started with team tests, right? I grabbed Haiku's hand, reaching into my pouch pocket quickly and subtly handing him a small in-ear radio. "I don't know what's going to happen, but if we need to talk, we'll use this. The room is small enough that it should work." I whispered. He nodded and headed into the room. Kokuei smiled as my gray eyes met his dark ones. "I know already." He murmured and moved out. I sat towards the back corner of the room. The other adults who had entered with the proctor started handing out pieces of paper.

"This will be a written test. You will be graded on a point deduction basis. You all will start out with 20 points. Each question you get wrong will cost you 4 points. Additionally, every time you are caught cheating 2 points will be deducted. Get caught three times, and you will be disqualified." Some murmurs went through the room, but no one said anything more. We all had a feeling he wasn't done yet. "If you are disqualified, your teammates will also be ejected from this exam room."

I received my paper from the shinobi helping out, and looked down at it.

"Your overall grade is also based on your performance as a team. You must score at least 50 points." That meant we could only lose 10 points among us. I looked at my other teammates scattered through the room. These questions were all multi step problems. I wasn't sure I could answer any of these right. Let alone my teammates as well. Even if all of us only got one question wrong, we would still have lost too many points.

I could see the other members looking around as well. They were all doing the math like I was, and some of them looked like they were already losing hope.

"One more thing, before we begin. You will have two hours to complete this test. At one hour and 30 minutes, you will all be given one last objective. Alright, your time starts now."

I looked over the questions more carefully than I did the first time. They really were all extremely difficult questions. There was no way shinobi of our level could answer all these questions correctly. Lifting my eyes, I scanned the room. All the aids that had been handing out papers were now scattered throughout the room with clipboards.

Points were deducted for cheating, and three strikes meant the whole team was out. These ninja must have been placed to keep track. But why such a low penalty for cheating? Each of us could get caught twice before the team was thrown out. Taking this into account that meant…oh. I looked towards my teammates. So that was it. They wanted us to cheat. They were testing how well we could gather information. I wondered if the others had caught on yet. I scratched Taka's wing who chirped in response, letting me know he was ready for anything.

I caught Kokuei's eye first as I was looking around. He nodded at me, letting me know he had caught on as well. I nodded and looked at Haiku, who subtly pulled out the in-ear radio I had handed him. So he had caught on as well. Good.

Next was to try and find someone who had the answers. I scanned the room, looking for someone who seemed to have the answers. I noticed someone sitting in front of me whose pencil was moving pretty regularly.

'Eagle eye Jutsu!'

I rested my head on my hand, obscuring my closed eyes with my fingers. Taka readjusted as I moved, but otherwise stayed on my head. He focused on the paper of the person who was writing in front of me. Through him, I could see what the person was writing. I watched until he finished the first question, then released the jutsu. I wrote down the answer onto my own paper before starting to tap with my pencil in code. Telling Haiku the first answer as well as to hold off until the guy had had enough time to write all the answers, and then I would transmit again. Watching Haiku, I saw his pen start to move on his paper, and then Kokuei started to write as well. Checking over the answer, I made sure that it made some sort of sense in order to check that I had cheated off the right guy. The problem was complicated, but from the steps I could understand, it seemed like it was a reasonable answer.

"Thanks Taka." I mumbled, and he chirped a welcome to me. I smiled and took the opportunity to watch our observers. I needed to give our mark some time to write, and I was curious what this last task might be.

There really were an unfair number of watchers here.

"Seat 41. You're done." One of the proctors announced suddenly.

"Seat 4 and seat 17 you as well." Another proctor added.

There it was. The first team was out already. As more teams got eliminated, it would be harder to hide our intel gathering, but I was also pretty certain we would get by just fine. I only needed to transmit one more time for Haiku once I had all the answers. Kokuei had his camouflage jutsu that he could use to keep his clone hidden, and Taka could see the answers from his spot on my head. The biggest worry I had left was the final task. I wondered what it could be.

As much as I pondered, I couldn't think of what the task could possibly be. Well, a better way to put it would have been. There were too many answers. Sighing, I settled back to wait. I figured an hour would be long enough for all the answers to be written down. As I waited, more and more groups were slowly removed from the room. I merely watched our mark and the clock. Haiku occasionally glanced over with worry, but I merely shook my head to tell him to wait a little longer.

Once the hour mark passed, I performed my jutsu once more. Quickly, I transcribed the answers before releasing the jutsu to see what I had written. That done, I once again transmitted the answers to Haiku before placing my pencil down and reading over the paper. I noticed his pencil start to move and let out my breath, relieved. I watched Kokuei, who also seemed to have finished. Just a little longer till the last task.

The time ticked by slowly, but eventually, the last half hour arrived. The main proctor moved to the front, grabbing our attention.

"Alright. Time for the last task." He stated. Grabbing a piece of chalk, he began writing on the board.

"This is where all of you need to meet up." He wrote the name of the entrance gate we had walked through to get to the village on the board. I gripped the desk. What did he mean? We were supposed to meet up there? As in the ones here passed? That didn't seem right. I looked around the room. The other adults seemed like they were getting ready to stand. All of them had their weight shifted forward. Instinctively, I copied them.

"You have your last half hour to get here." He said, pointing at the location on the board. "But, we won't just be letting you get there so easily."

That was what he meant. He wanted us to escape this room and make it to that location.

"Anyone who gets caught is disqualified." The proctor smiled with a twisted grin. "Good luck."

I shot up from my seat, making my way towards the closest door. Taka took off in front of me. Everyone in the room did the same. Including the observers. One of them made it to the door before me, and I doubled back towards the room. Haiku met up with me tapping my back as he threw a kunai, breaking the window of the room.

"Kokuei went camouflaged. He's going the long way to the window." He shared in that brief moment, and I nodded, avoiding one of the other teams as they tried for the door to the right.

"We can't get out of here without a bit of a fight, though." I growled. I held out my right arm, and Taka flew back to it, gripping the padding with his claws as he used it to quickly pivot and escape through the window.

One down. Three to go. I threw some kunai at the observer who had moved in front of the window shortly after Taka had flown out of it. We needed to get him out of the way, but he merely deflected them. I looked at Haiku, and pulled out a kunai knife. I went straight for the guy as if I was going to engage him. I didn't stand any real chance in a straight on fight, but if I could just get him out of the way of the window.

Just then, a second window shattered a short distance away from him, drawing his eyes from me. Good. I took advantage of the minute distraction and diverted my path away from him and towards Haiku. I grabbed the collar of his short sleeved jacket and yanked him towards the newly shattered window. I wasn't sure we would be fast enough, but if Kokuei was taking the way I thought he was, he would be about the same place we were. If we timed it right, we would manage to get out of here.

I noticed a small shimmer of light that let me know my thoughts had been correct. We were about to be cut off by the proctor, but he was suddenly pushed backward by Kokuei, and we were out free. Kokuei quickly made his way out behind us before becoming visible again.

"Good job, guys." I shouted, letting go of Haiku's collar so he could run properly.

"You didn't have to drag me, you know." He grumbled as we leaped through the village.

"Sorry. there wasn't enough time to properly formulate a plan. I wasn't going to let the proctors hear us, so I just took the opportunity I saw." I responded quickly.

"But I'm sure we aren't free from them till we get to the village gate." Kokuei added, coming up alongside us. "And I used a lot of chakra during the first portion."

"Yeah. We gotta be smart. But at this point, the stealth portion is basically over. This is gonna be speed and evasion ability." Haiku responded.

"Kokuei, you just keep running ahead. Haiku, Taka, and I will take the brunt as much as possible." I planned as fast as I could. Taka and I were still pretty good on chakra, and Haiku was more or less fresh at the moment.

With my wind style, I could push everyone faster, but I didn't want to do that till the end if needed. We had gotten out, but that was only step one, and I saw some other forms moving along the rooftops as well. Those must have been the other teams that had made it out.

"Should we move down into the streets? We'll be less visible there." I asked the team as we ran.

Haiku shook his head. "We don't know the village well enough for that." He responded.

"I can look through Taka for guidance." I suggested.

"But then I would have to carry you, and that will slow us down." He argued.

I grunted. He was right. I couldn't see where I was going if I was looking through Taka.

At that moment, Taka screamed down an alert. "Enemy to our right." I translated, and Kokuei, who was farthest right, pulled out a kunai and rotated mid jump to deflect the attack of the proctor who had tried to sneak up on us.

"Taka. Pull him away!" I shouted. Taka dove down, flying directly into the proctor's face as Kokuei disengaged. He drove his claws into the man's face using the momentum to launch himself back into the air and away.

It only gave us a few seconds, but it was long enough for Haiku to create a clone to leave behind as a distraction. We dropped along the side of the building we were running over as we did. We couldn't stay down there long, but hopefully, the short amount of time that we were down there was enough to break the guy's line of sight.

One down. Who knows how many left. But if we didn't stop for more than a few seconds at a time, we could easily make it to the gate before the end of the half hour.

"Halfway there, if we don't stop moving we'll make it with time to spare." I announced, recalling what Taka had told me.

"Only if we don't get fully caught up by one of the proctors." Kokuei warned. I nodded my agreement, pulling out a kunai in preparation.

Taka swung left with another screeched warning. "My side. Below" I shouted. The other two moved farther away from me as I purposefully slowed down, just a tad, grabbing some shuriken from the pouch on my leg as I did so. Turning around, I threw them down before the proctor even reached me. He dodged them and slammed into me, sending me backwards. Luckily, that was still the direction I needed to go.

As I fell backwards, I formed the hand signs I needed. Wind style: Gale palm. I pushed myself away from the lower rooftop towards the top of the next building, regaining my balance as I did so, so I would be able to land on my feet. I grabbed an exploding kunai knife as I landed and turned to run. I threw it behind me as I took off. It never hit the proctor, but it made him pause, creating more distance between myself and him. I glanced around to find my teammates. They had created enough of a gap in front of me that I took the opportunity to turn tail and drop fully to the ground out of sight to draw the proctor away from my team and lose him at the same time.

Running along the back alley, I looked to the sky for Taka. I was separated, but as long as I could see him, I could make my way back. I slid to a stop behind a dumpster, waiting for the sound of the proctor running past me.

Satisfied that he had lost me, after a few moments, I started off again following Taka. I pushed some chakra into my feet to increase my speed. Running along the path until the straightforward path ran out. It was only then that I went back up to the roof level. It didn't take me long to spot the other two. They had slowed down but hadn't stopped moving. We were almost there. Taka let out a sharp screech, though. We were still being chased.

"We're almost there. Push it!" I shouted, catching up to them. At that point, we all pushed chakra into our feet, going as fast as we could go. I checked behind us. Three. There were three proctors on our tail. We hadn't actually lost any of them.

"Kokuei. Drop down and go transparent. I'll push Haiku to the end."

Kokuei nodded, dropping off to the side. We were close enough that even though he had used most of his chakra, he could hold it long enough to get there. I formed the hand signs for my wind style, and Haiku leapt into the air, pointing his body so his feet were in my hand.

I used the gale palm again, launching him forward with the pressure of the blast. As he did so, though, he threw back some ninja wire, which I wrapped around my wrist. He would toss me forward using the momentum he had gained from my jutsu in a kind of slingshot movement.

The gap between us and the proctors was closing, but we were only meters from the rendezvous location. With the prep done, I turned towards the group of proctors squaring myself and waiting for the wire to tighten and take me. I made it seem like I was about to face them. Though, as they reached the same roof, I was standing on the wire cinched down, and I went flying away.

I landed on the ground hard, but I didn't care. We had made it. I felt my back slide into Haiku's side. Kokuei was standing above us, his arms crossed. "Glad to see you finally made it." He joked as Taka landed on his shoulder. I sat up, looking around. The main proctor was already here, along with a few of the participants, but it only looked like two teams had made it before us. I looked back at where we had come from for the three proctors who had been chasing us. They watched us for a moment or two before they disappeared. Probably to go after the other teams. I groaned and rubbed my shoulder. It had taken the brunt of that slingshot move, and it was definitely burning a bit. Once I stood and brushed myself off, Taka hopped over to my head, and I helped Haiku up. We moved off to the side while we waited. There was still quite a while left before the end of the test. It was a good opportunity for us to recover. I sat down, resting my back against the wall. Haiku and Kokuei did the same on either side of me.

In time, other teams trickled in. All in all, sixteen teams made it to the rendezvous point before the time ran out. We gathered closer as the proctor stood up from where he had been relaxing.

"Congratulations. You all passed the first portion of the exam." I sighed with a smile, finally relaxing. Though with the pressure released, I did start to wonder about the point system that had talked about so much.

"What about our scores on the test?" I spoke up.

"That was merely to root out those who couldn't gather the information without raising suspicion. As much as gathering information is important. You must not be caught doing so. Then you must be able to get back to your village with that information or it was all pointless." The proctor explained.

I nodded. I was a tiny bit annoyed that we had spent so much time and chakra on that part of the test, but I guess that's what testing was for. I looked around at the teams who had made it. The hidden sand teams made up the bulk of the passing teams. But since they were also the bulk of the participants, it wasn't entirely unexpected. I was more surprised that both the rain teams were still here, too.

The proctor pulled out a map of the village. Turning it to us, he circled a spot near the outskirts. "This is the 1st training ground. You will meet here first thing tomorrow." He stated. "Beyond that, you are released."

Turning to my teammates, we all started heading back to our rooms. We took our time getting back. Today had been tiring, and walking was nice and also a good way to recover. I lifted my hand to Taka, who stepped on it. I brought him down and hugged him into my chest. I stroked his head and wings absently. Taka churred happily at this.

Eventually, we made it back to our rooms. We were greeted by our Sensei, who smiled. "I know your families aren't here, so I'll say this on their behalf. Congratulations, I'm proud of what you all have accomplished. I believe in all of you to keep doing well."

"Thank you, Sensei." We responded, all of us were smiling now. I knew how nice it felt to be recognized for our efforts. We weren't done yet. There was still a lot we needed to do.

"How about I treat you all to dinner tonight?" She suggested, and we all nodded. Taka chirped, and I laughed.

"He says not to forget him."

"As if. It can just be hard to get people to hand out guts." She responded with a wave of her hand. Taka fluffed up defiantly before wiggling out of my arms and onto my shoulder but so that his back was facing our Sensei.

With an affectionate sigh, I scratched his wings. "Do you have a place in mind, Sensei?" Haiku asked

"I found a BBQ place for us." She said, pushing herself off the wall. I smiled, Haiku cheered, and Kokuei merely nodded.