Chakra Wizard
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Sorry to those who’ve enjoyed this story so far for the long wait. I’ve finally finished this year of college, though, so I’ve got plenty of time to start working on this again
A little side note: I said before that I hint at a lot of things early on, but don’t confirm them until later in the story. One of them, I do quite a bit of hinting at in this chapter and the next, so if you don’t realize what they’ve been doing by now, …well, I’m still not gonna admit what it is, but I do feel a bit sorry for youxd Anyways, enjoy
Here’s my previous chapters, for those who missed any:
Chapter 009: Stage One – The Written Exam
While Shino’s assistant collected paperwork, ten shinobi entered the room and took their seats by the windows, clipboard in hand, and another ten did the same on the other side of the room. Looking around, the proctor spotted a pair of genin from the Cloud village mumbling to one another and quickly sent out two of his beetles to bring their conversation to an end. Sure enough, no more than fifteen seconds later, the two jumped out of their seats upon noticing that small insects were resting on the tips of their noses.
????: Wh-wh-what the heck is that, man!?
????: Whoa!! Hey, get off me!!
Shino: That’s enough. Now, both of you, take your seats and we’ll get started. I’ve gotta lay out a ground rules first. And listen up, cause I’m only gonna given them once.
Hints of aggravation present in their faces, the two reluctantly complied with his orders. Meanwhile, Shino turned around and walked over to the chalkboard on the opposite end of the room. Once there, he immediately picked up a piece of chalk and began writing the instructions for the exam.
Shino: Now then, the written test is based off of a point-reduction system, with each contestant starting off with a perfect score of ten points. The exam has ten questions. For each one that you get wrong, one point is deduction from your score. Therefore, if you were to miss two questions, your score would be eight. When the exam’s over, each team of three will have their scores added together and the decision of whether or not you pass or fail will be based on your team’s total score. Also, if any of your teammates should happen to get a zero on the exam, the entire team will be eliminated.
As he spoke, a large number of genin in the crowd before him began to show signs of worry as the severity of just one teammate’s failure became clear to them. However, having taken the exam himself long ago, Shino knew the feeling all too well and paid them no mind.
Shino: …On that note, I want you all to look to both your left and your right side.
Without hesitation, every genin in the room did as requested. Upon noticing this, Shino continued giving his instructions.
Shino: These twenty sentinels have some of the sharpest eyes in the Leaf village…and their job is to watch over you. If they catch you trying to cheat, they’re going to place a mark by your name. Each mark they make is two points deducted from your total score, …so, if you get caught cheating five times, you’ll be kicked out of here immediately, along with the rest of your team. …Those fool enough to allow themselves to get caught by a sentinel don’t deserve to ascend to their rank, so prove to us that you’re actually worthy of it. …You’ll be given forty-five minutes to complete the first nine questions of the exam, then you’ll be given another fifteen minutes to answer the tenth question, so you have one hour in total to complete the written exam. Do I make myself clear?
As he had anticipated, no one made an attempt to question him, …and with an exam now laid out in front of every genin in the room, there was nothing left but to-
Shino: Begin!
In an instant, two hundred and forty-three papers were simultaneously flipped over and the first phase of the Chūnin exams started off with a bang. Just as it had happened to Naruto and his peers over forty years ago, almost every contestant immediately began sweating in fear as they realized that the questions were far too advanced for them to answer. A select few, on the other hand, found no trouble in answering every question correctly with minimal effort on their part, including Airon. Finishing in record time, he pulled out six small tags, doing his best to hide them, and crumpled five of them up before flicking them across the room in different directions, placing the last one on the back of his hand upon completing this task. Each of those which he disposed of landed in front of a member of either his or Minto’s team, all of whom quickly unfolded them and, upon realizing where they came from, pressed them against the back of their hands.
Airon: (Hey, …can all of you hear me?)
Inase: (…Yeah, I hear you.)
Minto: (…Loud and clear.)
Nakama: (…Same here.)
Taigen: (…Yeah, I’ve got you.)
Kei: (Yeah, I can hear you fine. Man, these questions are just brutal! I don’t know the answers to any of them!)
Airon: (Not many genin would. …Guess we now know the reason Grandpa said we would have to cheat.)
Nakama: (HAVE to, Airon?)
Airon: (…Hmhmhmhm, well, I did say there were a few that didn’t.)
Kei: (Man, you’re such a smart-aleck!)
Inase: (Kei, calm down, alright? Just focus on the exam for now.)
Kei: (Yeah, well, that’s kind of hard when you don’t know any of the answers, Inase.)
Minto: (He’s got a point, you know.)
Airon: (Hmhmhm, that’s why we’re here, Minto. Don’t worry about it.)
Kei: (Uh-uh, heck no! I told you, Airon, you’re not helping me-)
Airon: (Kei, take your hand off of that seal!)
Looking behind him with a burning look in his eyes, he caught the gaze of his younger brother a few rows back, whose hand was laying on the small tag he had just received from Airon moments ago. Refusing to break their eye contact, he waited until Kei had followed his demand before turning back around.
Airon: (I’m not saying that you aren’t smart, Kei, but stop acting like you can solve these questions on your own. Only a handful of genin in this room can manage that and I know for a fact that Inase and I are the only ones between the six of us that have a means of cheating. …If you’d rather not lean on my shoulder, then ask your sister for help, but take what the proctor said about failure more seriously.)
Kei: (…Got it. …Sorry, bro.)
Airon: (…It’s alright. I’m sorry, Kei. …Inase, are you finished?)
Inase: (…Yeah. I just finished a few minutes ago.)
Airon: (He adopted a much more sarcastic tone before carrying on.) (Did you cheat?)
Inase: (Playing along, she started using a voice that suggested offense to Airon’s accusations.) (Hmph, now just who do you think I am?)
Airon: (Hmhm, that a girl. Go ahead and help Kei out, then. …How are you three holding up?)
Taigen: Huhhh… (Completely clueless. Like you guys said, we’re just not up to par with these kinds of questions.)
Minto: (Yeah, same here, unfortunately.)
Airon: (Hey, you’re not the only ones, I promise you. …Nakama?)
Nakama: (…Hmhm, I guess I’m with the rest of my team.)
Airon: (Hmhmhm, okay then. I’ll just start with the first question.)
As Airon and Inase fed their answers to their comrades, multiple genin around the room were now beginning to understand the purpose of this exam, using whatever tricks they had up their sleeves to fulfill it. On equal footing with Airon as always, the intelligence inherited from his grandmother allowed Manako to proceed through the questions without any cheating whatsoever, followed shortly afterwards by Irezumi, Kūrogane, and Shikaru. Many others, though, were not gifted with such exceptional intelligence, as was the case for Hitomi, Akame, and Katsuto, forced to use their respective dōjutsu to copy the answers of those who had already completed their exams. The majority, however, were those that possessed no methods for gathering answers at all, among whom was Chōzen, sweating in frustration as he sat trembling in his seat.
Chōzen: (Oh, man! This isn’t good! …Looks like I’m gonna have to cheat to beat this, but how the heck am I supposed to do that without getting caught!? …Huh? What the-?)
For reasons he couldn’t decipher, Chōzen suddenly found himself incapable of moving his own hands, let alone any other part of his body. After a few moments of sitting completely frozen in his seat, his right hand suddenly started to move of its own accord, drifting above his pencil a brief moment before grabbing it and moving over to his exam to begin writing answers. Still completely dumbfounded by what was happening, a forced turn of his head quickly revealed the source of this strange occurrence, smiling at him from only a few rows back.
Chōzen: (…Thanks, Shikaru.)
Relief immediately fell over him as his body continued to mimic the movements of his teammate, but in the moment that followed, he felt his heart skip a beat as a kunai passed in front of his face. It came no more than two inches away from penetrating his flesh as it continued on its path towards the eighteen year-old genin sat at the end of his row. Landing right on top of his exam, the contestant in question quickly jumped out of his chair in near shock.
????: Hey-hey! What the heck was that!?
????: Candidate number forty-four…failed! Candidates seventy-nine and one hundred and two, also failed! Now get the heck out of here!
????: W-w-what!? …Y-you’re full of it, man! There’s no way you saw me cheat five times! This is some kind of set-
Before he could continue with his assertions, the young shinobi found himself pinned to the wall by the sentinel who had thrown the kunai.
????: I didn’t ask for your alibi, kid. And I told you that I caught you five times, which means that it’s true. …The twenty of us were chosen specially by the Hokage himself, under the notion that it’s not in our nature to make careless mistakes. …Now get out of here before I drag you out.
Having obviously been dissuaded from making any attempt to stick around, the genin slowly began making his way to the door as his teammates got up to join him. Airon, having had his eyes on him the entire time, decided to use this opportunity to have some fun of his own.
Airon: (Hmph, what a shame. Maybe next time, you should be more careful when snooping around for answers.)
????: I dare you to say that again!
When he looked around to find his heckler, though, he instead found that almost everyone in the room was wearing the same puzzled expression, as if they didn’t hear Airon’s taunts, …which of course, they hadn’t.
????: Huh? What the-?
????: That’s it! You’re out of your mind! I’m taking you out!
????: No, wait! I’m serious! Some punk was just…hey, get off me! Stop it!!
Not even giving him a chance to reestablish his sanity, the sentinel quickly grabbed him and knocked him unconscious before handing him over to his teammates, who were both rather embarrassed by his antics. Most of the remaining genin continued to look on in confusion, all the while Airon did his best to keep himself from laughing loud enough for anyone else to hear him.
Minto: (Low, man. …Just…low.)
Airon: (Hehehehahahaha! Come on, Minto. Was that not somewhat funny to you?)
Nakama: (Hmhmhmhm, well, it was rather mean of you, Airon.)
Airon: (…Huhhh, yeah, I guess it was.)
Before she could say anything about his sudden change in opinion, Airon shot a quick glance at Inase, who was sitting a few rows behind him. Naturally, she giggled softly at his…sensitivity, but nonetheless said nothing about the issue.
Taigen: (It didn’t take very long for the first one to bite it, did it?)
Airon: (Hmm, …he certainly won’t be the last, though.)
In the forty minutes that followed this small incident, however, only a handful of other genin happened to find themselves in this same predicament, even fewer creating incidents that posed a significant distraction to the genin that continued to work on their exams, collecting answers from those around them or puzzling over what means they could use to do so. Among them, Kenji and Ide sat idly in their seats, the former fiddling with his pencil in an almost habitual manner and the latter doing the same with her thumbs, …as if both of them were waiting for something to happen. Sure enough, after a few minutes passed by, both of them found themselves greeted by the presence of what appeared to be overgrown fleas, each of which carried a small shred of paper on which they were sure to find answers for the exam. Knowing precisely where they came from, both of them turned around and looked towards the back of the room at their teammate, who looked up and greeted the two of them with a smile.
Ide and Kenji: (Thanks, Irezumi.)
Only a few seats away from Irezumi, Inoka continued to bide her time looking around the room, searching vigorously for a reliable source off of which to steal information. After waiting patiently for nearly fifteen minutes, she finally found one sitting a few rows in front of her, just now setting down his pencil after having completed his exam. Without a moment’s hesitation, she quickly formed the required hand sign for her clan’s signature technique, aligning it perfectly with her desired target before executing it.
Inoka: (Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu!)
Within an instant, her mind successfully superseded that of her fellow contestant. Quickly glancing over the exam now laid out in front of her, she immediately ended the technique in the following moment, in order to prevent her mindless body from showing any significant signs of its current empty state. Upon returning to it, she proceeded to form a small smirk out of satisfaction.
Inoka: (Heh, piece of cake.)
Quickly putting her newly attained knowledge to good use, she looked towards the center of the room after filling in her answers, just in time to see Chōzen put down his pencil.
Inoka: (Hm, good. It looks like our team’s getting through to the next stage. …I just hope everyone else is finding the answers, too.)
Indeed, most of the other remaining contestants had now successfully completed the exam, Hitomi and Kūrogane tactfully supplying their respective teammates with answers, sending the rest of the Leaf genin through to the second stage. Around this same time, those from visiting villages were also obtaining the answers they needed. Gaara’s grandson, true to Irezumi’s word, made use of the sand-manipulating powers inherited from his grandfather to utilize his renown Third Eye technique, then use the small organ to copy off of his cousin, who had already completed his exam with help from one of his puppets. Taking notice of the estranged eye now looking over his answers, the young Sand genin known as Yatsuri shot a quick glance over at its source, who held his right eye shut in order to keep the jutsu active.
Yatsuri: (Looks like Ryūza’s figured it out, too, …)
Looking over towards the opposite end of the room, he also caught sight of his other cousin, who was studying the answers of her neighbor with the help of a small mirror hidden in her right hand.
Yatsuri: (…and so has Sabure. …Heh, guess the three of us are heading to round two, then.)
As the Sand village’s strongest genin cemented their own advancement, the elite shinobi of other foreign villages did the same. Among them, the Stone village genin who had managed to earn Irezumi’s fear sat silent in his chair, wondering how he might go about taking his intended course of action. After spending a long time in deep thought, he finally reopened his eyes and shifted their gaze towards the genin sitting beside the one directly in front of him, who had just completed his exam. Keeping his gaze fixated on him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small toothpick before placing it in his mouth, certain that none of the sentinels would think he had any other purpose in mind for it. Setting his arms on the table before him and intersecting his fingers, he held them in front of his face to hide the toothpick from their view, then began maneuvering his lips in order to align it with his target. Once this task was completed, he lifted his hands slightly to give him enough space to spit the toothpick out, giving it enough momentum so that it landed directly in front of the aforementioned genin, who immediately took notice of it.
????: (Hey, what the…?)
Turning around in search of the one to whom it belonged, the two almost immediately locked eyes. Having succeeded at getting his attention, a barely noticeable smirk emerged on his face.
????: (Perfect. …Now, then…)
As if by magic, the young genin’s eyes suddenly began to give off a vivid, blue flash of light, which left his target completely hypnotized. Only moments later, it disappeared, his victim left utterly confused by what just occurred, while the Stone genin began looking around the room in search of his teammates. Upon doing so, the two young shinobi, who had been expecting his assistance, looked up to meet his eyes, which quickly began emitting the same blue aura as before. His female teammate was the first to be caught in his gaze, reminiscing on the event once it was over. She sported thin, black hair, the back of which was braided and decorated with numerous beads, a red shirt with short sleeves and matching pants, a basic tan flak jacket, legwarmers, and a red forehead protector, which she wore in its proper position.
????: (…Thanks, Asuka. …I just hope you’re in a good enough mood to show Takeshi the same courtesy.)
A hint of sarcasm present in her thoughts, considering Asuka was never in a good mood, he nonetheless moved to employ his bizarre technique again, this time on the one she addressed as Takeshi, whose attitude towards their teammate was not nearly as positive. Takeshi had spiked, dark-blue hair, which stood on end a considerable length, a tan, short-sleeved shirt worn over a dark-grey, long-sleeved undershirt, dark-brown pants, and his forehead protector worn at the base of his tall hairstyle.
Takeshi: (…Huh, I guess Amiko and I aren’t just baggage to him, after all. …Now, if we could only guarantee that, I might be able to sleep tonight knowing he won’t just kill us during the second stage tomorrow.)
This multitude of events lasted only minutes, during which Airon found himself completely incapable of taking his eyes off of Asuka. Enough time eventually passed, though, and he turned his attention instead to Manako, who was sitting a short distance away and, like Airon, could only watch mesmerizingly as these events unfolded right before his eyes.
Airon: (Please, tell me that you saw that.)
Manako: (Almost put off by Airon’s intrusion, he glanced at him from across the room a short while before looking away again.) (Couldn’t miss it. …That’s a rather odd dōjutsu.)
Airon: (Hm, tell me about it. …Raises a lot of questions about its inner workings.)
Manako: (Yeah. …I must be honest, I’m surprised that you’ve managed to keep your composure up until this point. The tension must be killing you on the inside.)
Airon: (Hmhmhm, you have no idea. …Huhhh, instances like these, though, are what prepare me for situations when I don’t have this ability at my disposal. …They improve my overall skills as a strategist…and as a ninja.)
Manako: (Hm, and my respects to you for doing so. …Just promise me you don’t get too cocky later on, Airon. You have many very powerful jutsu in your arsenal. …Use them when the situation demands it.)
Airon: (He spent a moment reflecting on what Manako just said before replying to it. …He had to admit, that was some rather good advice.) (…Got it.)
Looking around the room one last time to ensure that none of his friends had failed to complete the exam, Airon rested his head against his entwined hands and directed his eyes towards the clock at the opposite end of the room. There, they remained for the next four minutes, watching attentively as the few remaining seconds of exam time counted down.
Airon: (Now, time for the real show to begin. …Who’s got the guts to stick around?)
Shino: Your forty-five minutes are up. Everyone, drop your pencils.
Waiting until everybody had followed this command, he proceeded with his instructions.
Shino: Now then, …it’s time for you to answer the tenth and final question of the exam.
The written exams pose no challenge for the new generation!!!
The End
A little side note: I said before that I hint at a lot of things early on, but don’t confirm them until later in the story. One of them, I do quite a bit of hinting at in this chapter and the next, so if you don’t realize what they’ve been doing by now, …well, I’m still not gonna admit what it is, but I do feel a bit sorry for youxd Anyways, enjoyHere’s my previous chapters, for those who missed any:
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Chapter 009: Stage One – The Written Exam
While Shino’s assistant collected paperwork, ten shinobi entered the room and took their seats by the windows, clipboard in hand, and another ten did the same on the other side of the room. Looking around, the proctor spotted a pair of genin from the Cloud village mumbling to one another and quickly sent out two of his beetles to bring their conversation to an end. Sure enough, no more than fifteen seconds later, the two jumped out of their seats upon noticing that small insects were resting on the tips of their noses.
????: Wh-wh-what the heck is that, man!?
????: Whoa!! Hey, get off me!!
Shino: That’s enough. Now, both of you, take your seats and we’ll get started. I’ve gotta lay out a ground rules first. And listen up, cause I’m only gonna given them once.
Hints of aggravation present in their faces, the two reluctantly complied with his orders. Meanwhile, Shino turned around and walked over to the chalkboard on the opposite end of the room. Once there, he immediately picked up a piece of chalk and began writing the instructions for the exam.
Shino: Now then, the written test is based off of a point-reduction system, with each contestant starting off with a perfect score of ten points. The exam has ten questions. For each one that you get wrong, one point is deduction from your score. Therefore, if you were to miss two questions, your score would be eight. When the exam’s over, each team of three will have their scores added together and the decision of whether or not you pass or fail will be based on your team’s total score. Also, if any of your teammates should happen to get a zero on the exam, the entire team will be eliminated.
As he spoke, a large number of genin in the crowd before him began to show signs of worry as the severity of just one teammate’s failure became clear to them. However, having taken the exam himself long ago, Shino knew the feeling all too well and paid them no mind.
Shino: …On that note, I want you all to look to both your left and your right side.
Without hesitation, every genin in the room did as requested. Upon noticing this, Shino continued giving his instructions.
Shino: These twenty sentinels have some of the sharpest eyes in the Leaf village…and their job is to watch over you. If they catch you trying to cheat, they’re going to place a mark by your name. Each mark they make is two points deducted from your total score, …so, if you get caught cheating five times, you’ll be kicked out of here immediately, along with the rest of your team. …Those fool enough to allow themselves to get caught by a sentinel don’t deserve to ascend to their rank, so prove to us that you’re actually worthy of it. …You’ll be given forty-five minutes to complete the first nine questions of the exam, then you’ll be given another fifteen minutes to answer the tenth question, so you have one hour in total to complete the written exam. Do I make myself clear?
As he had anticipated, no one made an attempt to question him, …and with an exam now laid out in front of every genin in the room, there was nothing left but to-
Shino: Begin!
In an instant, two hundred and forty-three papers were simultaneously flipped over and the first phase of the Chūnin exams started off with a bang. Just as it had happened to Naruto and his peers over forty years ago, almost every contestant immediately began sweating in fear as they realized that the questions were far too advanced for them to answer. A select few, on the other hand, found no trouble in answering every question correctly with minimal effort on their part, including Airon. Finishing in record time, he pulled out six small tags, doing his best to hide them, and crumpled five of them up before flicking them across the room in different directions, placing the last one on the back of his hand upon completing this task. Each of those which he disposed of landed in front of a member of either his or Minto’s team, all of whom quickly unfolded them and, upon realizing where they came from, pressed them against the back of their hands.
Airon: (Hey, …can all of you hear me?)
Inase: (…Yeah, I hear you.)
Minto: (…Loud and clear.)
Nakama: (…Same here.)
Taigen: (…Yeah, I’ve got you.)
Kei: (Yeah, I can hear you fine. Man, these questions are just brutal! I don’t know the answers to any of them!)
Airon: (Not many genin would. …Guess we now know the reason Grandpa said we would have to cheat.)
Nakama: (HAVE to, Airon?)
Airon: (…Hmhmhmhm, well, I did say there were a few that didn’t.)
Kei: (Man, you’re such a smart-aleck!)
Inase: (Kei, calm down, alright? Just focus on the exam for now.)
Kei: (Yeah, well, that’s kind of hard when you don’t know any of the answers, Inase.)
Minto: (He’s got a point, you know.)
Airon: (Hmhmhm, that’s why we’re here, Minto. Don’t worry about it.)
Kei: (Uh-uh, heck no! I told you, Airon, you’re not helping me-)
Airon: (Kei, take your hand off of that seal!)
Looking behind him with a burning look in his eyes, he caught the gaze of his younger brother a few rows back, whose hand was laying on the small tag he had just received from Airon moments ago. Refusing to break their eye contact, he waited until Kei had followed his demand before turning back around.
Airon: (I’m not saying that you aren’t smart, Kei, but stop acting like you can solve these questions on your own. Only a handful of genin in this room can manage that and I know for a fact that Inase and I are the only ones between the six of us that have a means of cheating. …If you’d rather not lean on my shoulder, then ask your sister for help, but take what the proctor said about failure more seriously.)
Kei: (…Got it. …Sorry, bro.)
Airon: (…It’s alright. I’m sorry, Kei. …Inase, are you finished?)
Inase: (…Yeah. I just finished a few minutes ago.)
Airon: (He adopted a much more sarcastic tone before carrying on.) (Did you cheat?)
Inase: (Playing along, she started using a voice that suggested offense to Airon’s accusations.) (Hmph, now just who do you think I am?)
Airon: (Hmhm, that a girl. Go ahead and help Kei out, then. …How are you three holding up?)
Taigen: Huhhh… (Completely clueless. Like you guys said, we’re just not up to par with these kinds of questions.)
Minto: (Yeah, same here, unfortunately.)
Airon: (Hey, you’re not the only ones, I promise you. …Nakama?)
Nakama: (…Hmhm, I guess I’m with the rest of my team.)
Airon: (Hmhmhm, okay then. I’ll just start with the first question.)
As Airon and Inase fed their answers to their comrades, multiple genin around the room were now beginning to understand the purpose of this exam, using whatever tricks they had up their sleeves to fulfill it. On equal footing with Airon as always, the intelligence inherited from his grandmother allowed Manako to proceed through the questions without any cheating whatsoever, followed shortly afterwards by Irezumi, Kūrogane, and Shikaru. Many others, though, were not gifted with such exceptional intelligence, as was the case for Hitomi, Akame, and Katsuto, forced to use their respective dōjutsu to copy the answers of those who had already completed their exams. The majority, however, were those that possessed no methods for gathering answers at all, among whom was Chōzen, sweating in frustration as he sat trembling in his seat.
Chōzen: (Oh, man! This isn’t good! …Looks like I’m gonna have to cheat to beat this, but how the heck am I supposed to do that without getting caught!? …Huh? What the-?)
For reasons he couldn’t decipher, Chōzen suddenly found himself incapable of moving his own hands, let alone any other part of his body. After a few moments of sitting completely frozen in his seat, his right hand suddenly started to move of its own accord, drifting above his pencil a brief moment before grabbing it and moving over to his exam to begin writing answers. Still completely dumbfounded by what was happening, a forced turn of his head quickly revealed the source of this strange occurrence, smiling at him from only a few rows back.
Chōzen: (…Thanks, Shikaru.)
Relief immediately fell over him as his body continued to mimic the movements of his teammate, but in the moment that followed, he felt his heart skip a beat as a kunai passed in front of his face. It came no more than two inches away from penetrating his flesh as it continued on its path towards the eighteen year-old genin sat at the end of his row. Landing right on top of his exam, the contestant in question quickly jumped out of his chair in near shock.
????: Hey-hey! What the heck was that!?
????: Candidate number forty-four…failed! Candidates seventy-nine and one hundred and two, also failed! Now get the heck out of here!
????: W-w-what!? …Y-you’re full of it, man! There’s no way you saw me cheat five times! This is some kind of set-
Before he could continue with his assertions, the young shinobi found himself pinned to the wall by the sentinel who had thrown the kunai.
????: I didn’t ask for your alibi, kid. And I told you that I caught you five times, which means that it’s true. …The twenty of us were chosen specially by the Hokage himself, under the notion that it’s not in our nature to make careless mistakes. …Now get out of here before I drag you out.
Having obviously been dissuaded from making any attempt to stick around, the genin slowly began making his way to the door as his teammates got up to join him. Airon, having had his eyes on him the entire time, decided to use this opportunity to have some fun of his own.
Airon: (Hmph, what a shame. Maybe next time, you should be more careful when snooping around for answers.)
????: I dare you to say that again!
When he looked around to find his heckler, though, he instead found that almost everyone in the room was wearing the same puzzled expression, as if they didn’t hear Airon’s taunts, …which of course, they hadn’t.
????: Huh? What the-?
????: That’s it! You’re out of your mind! I’m taking you out!
????: No, wait! I’m serious! Some punk was just…hey, get off me! Stop it!!
Not even giving him a chance to reestablish his sanity, the sentinel quickly grabbed him and knocked him unconscious before handing him over to his teammates, who were both rather embarrassed by his antics. Most of the remaining genin continued to look on in confusion, all the while Airon did his best to keep himself from laughing loud enough for anyone else to hear him.
Minto: (Low, man. …Just…low.)
Airon: (Hehehehahahaha! Come on, Minto. Was that not somewhat funny to you?)
Nakama: (Hmhmhmhm, well, it was rather mean of you, Airon.)
Airon: (…Huhhh, yeah, I guess it was.)
Before she could say anything about his sudden change in opinion, Airon shot a quick glance at Inase, who was sitting a few rows behind him. Naturally, she giggled softly at his…sensitivity, but nonetheless said nothing about the issue.
Taigen: (It didn’t take very long for the first one to bite it, did it?)
Airon: (Hmm, …he certainly won’t be the last, though.)
In the forty minutes that followed this small incident, however, only a handful of other genin happened to find themselves in this same predicament, even fewer creating incidents that posed a significant distraction to the genin that continued to work on their exams, collecting answers from those around them or puzzling over what means they could use to do so. Among them, Kenji and Ide sat idly in their seats, the former fiddling with his pencil in an almost habitual manner and the latter doing the same with her thumbs, …as if both of them were waiting for something to happen. Sure enough, after a few minutes passed by, both of them found themselves greeted by the presence of what appeared to be overgrown fleas, each of which carried a small shred of paper on which they were sure to find answers for the exam. Knowing precisely where they came from, both of them turned around and looked towards the back of the room at their teammate, who looked up and greeted the two of them with a smile.
Ide and Kenji: (Thanks, Irezumi.)
Only a few seats away from Irezumi, Inoka continued to bide her time looking around the room, searching vigorously for a reliable source off of which to steal information. After waiting patiently for nearly fifteen minutes, she finally found one sitting a few rows in front of her, just now setting down his pencil after having completed his exam. Without a moment’s hesitation, she quickly formed the required hand sign for her clan’s signature technique, aligning it perfectly with her desired target before executing it.
Inoka: (Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu!)
Within an instant, her mind successfully superseded that of her fellow contestant. Quickly glancing over the exam now laid out in front of her, she immediately ended the technique in the following moment, in order to prevent her mindless body from showing any significant signs of its current empty state. Upon returning to it, she proceeded to form a small smirk out of satisfaction.
Inoka: (Heh, piece of cake.)
Quickly putting her newly attained knowledge to good use, she looked towards the center of the room after filling in her answers, just in time to see Chōzen put down his pencil.
Inoka: (Hm, good. It looks like our team’s getting through to the next stage. …I just hope everyone else is finding the answers, too.)
Indeed, most of the other remaining contestants had now successfully completed the exam, Hitomi and Kūrogane tactfully supplying their respective teammates with answers, sending the rest of the Leaf genin through to the second stage. Around this same time, those from visiting villages were also obtaining the answers they needed. Gaara’s grandson, true to Irezumi’s word, made use of the sand-manipulating powers inherited from his grandfather to utilize his renown Third Eye technique, then use the small organ to copy off of his cousin, who had already completed his exam with help from one of his puppets. Taking notice of the estranged eye now looking over his answers, the young Sand genin known as Yatsuri shot a quick glance over at its source, who held his right eye shut in order to keep the jutsu active.
Yatsuri: (Looks like Ryūza’s figured it out, too, …)
Looking over towards the opposite end of the room, he also caught sight of his other cousin, who was studying the answers of her neighbor with the help of a small mirror hidden in her right hand.
Yatsuri: (…and so has Sabure. …Heh, guess the three of us are heading to round two, then.)
As the Sand village’s strongest genin cemented their own advancement, the elite shinobi of other foreign villages did the same. Among them, the Stone village genin who had managed to earn Irezumi’s fear sat silent in his chair, wondering how he might go about taking his intended course of action. After spending a long time in deep thought, he finally reopened his eyes and shifted their gaze towards the genin sitting beside the one directly in front of him, who had just completed his exam. Keeping his gaze fixated on him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small toothpick before placing it in his mouth, certain that none of the sentinels would think he had any other purpose in mind for it. Setting his arms on the table before him and intersecting his fingers, he held them in front of his face to hide the toothpick from their view, then began maneuvering his lips in order to align it with his target. Once this task was completed, he lifted his hands slightly to give him enough space to spit the toothpick out, giving it enough momentum so that it landed directly in front of the aforementioned genin, who immediately took notice of it.
????: (Hey, what the…?)
Turning around in search of the one to whom it belonged, the two almost immediately locked eyes. Having succeeded at getting his attention, a barely noticeable smirk emerged on his face.
????: (Perfect. …Now, then…)
As if by magic, the young genin’s eyes suddenly began to give off a vivid, blue flash of light, which left his target completely hypnotized. Only moments later, it disappeared, his victim left utterly confused by what just occurred, while the Stone genin began looking around the room in search of his teammates. Upon doing so, the two young shinobi, who had been expecting his assistance, looked up to meet his eyes, which quickly began emitting the same blue aura as before. His female teammate was the first to be caught in his gaze, reminiscing on the event once it was over. She sported thin, black hair, the back of which was braided and decorated with numerous beads, a red shirt with short sleeves and matching pants, a basic tan flak jacket, legwarmers, and a red forehead protector, which she wore in its proper position.
????: (…Thanks, Asuka. …I just hope you’re in a good enough mood to show Takeshi the same courtesy.)
A hint of sarcasm present in her thoughts, considering Asuka was never in a good mood, he nonetheless moved to employ his bizarre technique again, this time on the one she addressed as Takeshi, whose attitude towards their teammate was not nearly as positive. Takeshi had spiked, dark-blue hair, which stood on end a considerable length, a tan, short-sleeved shirt worn over a dark-grey, long-sleeved undershirt, dark-brown pants, and his forehead protector worn at the base of his tall hairstyle.
Takeshi: (…Huh, I guess Amiko and I aren’t just baggage to him, after all. …Now, if we could only guarantee that, I might be able to sleep tonight knowing he won’t just kill us during the second stage tomorrow.)
This multitude of events lasted only minutes, during which Airon found himself completely incapable of taking his eyes off of Asuka. Enough time eventually passed, though, and he turned his attention instead to Manako, who was sitting a short distance away and, like Airon, could only watch mesmerizingly as these events unfolded right before his eyes.
Airon: (Please, tell me that you saw that.)
Manako: (Almost put off by Airon’s intrusion, he glanced at him from across the room a short while before looking away again.) (Couldn’t miss it. …That’s a rather odd dōjutsu.)
Airon: (Hm, tell me about it. …Raises a lot of questions about its inner workings.)
Manako: (Yeah. …I must be honest, I’m surprised that you’ve managed to keep your composure up until this point. The tension must be killing you on the inside.)
Airon: (Hmhmhm, you have no idea. …Huhhh, instances like these, though, are what prepare me for situations when I don’t have this ability at my disposal. …They improve my overall skills as a strategist…and as a ninja.)
Manako: (Hm, and my respects to you for doing so. …Just promise me you don’t get too cocky later on, Airon. You have many very powerful jutsu in your arsenal. …Use them when the situation demands it.)
Airon: (He spent a moment reflecting on what Manako just said before replying to it. …He had to admit, that was some rather good advice.) (…Got it.)
Looking around the room one last time to ensure that none of his friends had failed to complete the exam, Airon rested his head against his entwined hands and directed his eyes towards the clock at the opposite end of the room. There, they remained for the next four minutes, watching attentively as the few remaining seconds of exam time counted down.
Airon: (Now, time for the real show to begin. …Who’s got the guts to stick around?)
Shino: Your forty-five minutes are up. Everyone, drop your pencils.
Waiting until everybody had followed this command, he proceeded with his instructions.
Shino: Now then, …it’s time for you to answer the tenth and final question of the exam.
The written exams pose no challenge for the new generation!!!
The End
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