Chapter 9 Petty Girl Adventures, Part 2, The Chunnin Exams
As I struggle to get out of bed, more specifically the futon on the floor and right hip on fire, I put on some basic shinobi clothes and adjust my shuriken belt and pouch while tucking in a beige red shirt on my side. As my squad walks over to the second stage, Shikaku gives me a look but I just smirk back and say nothing. He amusedly shakes his head as we walk. The first stage of the exam was relatively a cakewalk although Roja decided to make an ass of himself afterwards and paint even more of a target on our back as one of the 2 Kohona squads that are here. The other was a standard civlian one albeit with a wary 16 year old Hyuga with looked at me funny and so after making distant but rocky acquaintances, we headed home to prepare with the mountainous terrain in front of us.
It was a essentially an marathon based cross country race to the top of a mountain. Ah did I mention, it's SNOWING. Ice glazes the floor at the right spots on the surface, but they were "not BAD enough" to postpone. There were 40 different paths, that go in and out of bear mountain, and 38 different squads available. With floors that intersect in between, you need to always watch your back and get to the top within 5 days. There was also the same condition of with getting a heaven/earth scroll from the other team, and we received earth for our troubles. As I shiver under my shinobi jacket, an Iwa squad decides to come over looking like 16 year old buillies as we wait at the starting line.
Mob boy A: "Oy, you're with the rude boy Roja, huh? I'm going to make sure it hurts", while towering over me locking over his fist and hand and pounding them together, and my puny form.
Roja, for all the good he tries to be, but really just causing more trouble for us, decides to "help".
Roja: "Ah, Ebi-jackass, you really had to almost cheat on the first exam, I just couldn't but laugh, my 'friend'".
Mob boy A and Roja proceed to argue like children, turning into a mini-spectacle, but entertaining nonetheless instead of the frigid atmosphere from before. On the side, I can See Yugito give me a pitying look and Aki sends a nasty glare at me for some reason. Sigh, the troubles of even trying to sit still. The nervous anxiety keeps me bouncing on my toes as I stare at the starting circle line.
As the proctors finish dispersing us at different pants that circle Bear Mountain, I turn to face my team.
Mi:"Plan?"
Both shake their heads as they don't know.
Mi:"We take this, metaphorically one step at a time", rushing this seems stupid. Even if we're slower and head into more traps as a result, we'll at the very least see them somewhat coming with Sight from my sharingan. If we rush ahead, the target on our back for being as one of the top dogs, besides already being Kohona-nin, seems stupid beyond measure.
Both nod, although Roja reluctantly, but he's come around to some basic common sense.
Without further time to talk, a gunshot sound rings aloud, and we're rushing inside the mountain.
As I peer, with my sharigan, inside I curse my breath as it starts us in a Hunger-games style cornucopia with all 38 keys with bright yellow tags surrounded by a fuinjustu barrier in a circle.
Mi:"Quick henge into IWA standard SHINOBI, NOW"
As me and my squad do so and every other squad darts in looking like Iwa shinobi too. For all the bloodbath this was potentially going to be, there was an awkward moment where everyone stopped for the briefest of moments. Realizing I couldn't let the princess take over the situation, I quickly yelled out:
"Don't let the princess take control, GRAB Your key and run."
You don't want to get into a situation with you harden yourself into control, in such a situation, hardening into significance, makes life that much harder.
Other than that, there's nothing left to be said. Every battle is different.
Aki: "IWA FORM ROCK WALL JUSTUS OR JUST THROW ROCK JUTSUS AT THE BARRIER IF YOU CAN'T.", after throwing glaring at
Tsk, there goes my plan. But it at least wakes the other squads up as it becomes somewhat clear who is or isn't from IWA. Luckily not every Iwa squad has the chakra nor the dumbness to straightforwardly spend their chakra on something they'll need. Along with the fuinjutsu barrier bouncing the rocks back, for it seems Onoki can't play favorites too much. 12 squads dash forward, while the rock walls and rocks start to cascade everywhere. Amidst the chaos, I spot slight vein bulges on seemingly regular eyes and decide to chase the Hyuga squad into the milleu of cascading chaos. As his teammates, not him, he's leading the squad with 359 degrees of vision, I flash them my seemingly one tomoe sharigan, Uchiha disguise eye contact lenses that a kind grandma provided me during one tea ceremony with Mikoto, for my great "attitude", the Hyuga out front begrudgingly nods and lets follow.
As he grabs number 13 and me, 28 our quickness towards the exits seemingly catches the princess's eye.
Aki:"Oy!"
But I, and thankfully Roja, don't turn to look around as we rush through our entrance and lock the door behind us. As tempted as I am to smirk back, I realize, pissing off a princess doesn't Work. And so I quietly dash away, not playing any mind games with The Princess.
Welp, so much for staying low key.