Chapter 14: Becoming Chunin 6
The First Part of the Chunin exam was easy for both Itachi and me. It was the written exam, the main goal of this exam was for shinobi taking the exam to skillfully cheat without getting caught.
From a Young age, we have read a lot of books, books that covered many fields from history to even theory on jutsu. In the first part of the Chunin exam, we didn't need to cheat. A balance between brain and browns is something both Itachi and I fully agree on. it was our ideal image for a shinobi.
When there was first a clear mind, superior physical abilities could amply show off. But no matter how skilled in the ninja arts the body was if a ninja was unable to make appropriate decisions, failure was almost inevitable and in the world of the ninja, failure was directly linked to death.
My pencil danced across the paper, easily answering questions that many Jonin would find troublesome to answer. I was so bored I was looking around while writing, watching as many people were asked to leave as they were caught cheating.
As this was a team exam, if one of your teammates was caught, then the rest would also have to leave. I rubbed my chin slightly, wondering if I should put everyone in a genjutsu and have them all make a mistake that would lead to them getting kicked out. But that would be too boring,
'That's new.' I thought while looking at Itachi who was sending chakra outwards in all four directions. It seemed like Itachi was using that to sense what was happening around him, I already knew Itachi was almost done, it seemed like he was taking a small break to take note of the people he would be facing. Itachi was the type of person who liked to plan,
I kind of smiled, Itachi was the type who kind of lacked common sense. For example, back in the academy, Itachi got into a fight because someone was blaming him for the death of their mother. Itachi answered that by asking him why he didn't save his mother. Itachi at times thinks people are at his level, which is why he was doing stuff that wasn't needed.
"Time!" the examiner for the first test said, announcing the end of the first part of the exam.
"Pencil down! Those of you who are still here, head to the second exam. the result for the first exam will be given out once the second exam is complete." He said to which many began asking questions,
The first question was if we would fail the chunin exam even after passing the second exam because of the result for the first exam. The answer to that was a hard yes, which left me speechless. Didn't Naruto not write a single thing on his paper? How did he pass then? Was this plot armor? Should I not waste my time writing stuff?
Anyway, we left for the second exam, which was the forest of death. This one had a high risk of death, which had us all signing a few papers before we could enter. But once we did, we were given the rules.
There was a heaven and an earth scroll. Everyone would have one of the said scrolls, and the goal was to pretty much get the other scroll from the other examiners. Killing was allowed, and pretty anything was allowed. Once you have all of the said scroll, you are supposed to reach the center of the forest where a tower stands.
The forest of death was given that name because it was filled with danger, many dangerous beasts, poisonous insects, fruits, and so on could be found here. We didn't simply have to pass the exam but also survive here for the following days until we do so or fail. We had 5 days,
"Haha, you're the Uchiha fool taking the exam on his own?" A laugh sounded while I lazily walked toward the center of the forest. I stopped, and calmly looked at the fact I was surrounded by 3 people, from the village hidden in the stone. 2 guys and one female, the person who had spoken was one of the guys.
"You guys have the earth scroll?" I asked lightly, I was holding the Heaven scroll in my hands, clear for everyone to see. I was currently in a race with Itachi, and I didn't want to waste my time.
"You're cocky, don't you notice you are outnumbered?" What seemed to be the leader of the group, a woman with long black hair asked with a cold mocking smile.
"I see someone who is outnumbered... and it's not me," I said lightly, the 3 blinked in confusion before their pupils shrank. Why? Because, well, I had disappeared, long gone with the Earth Scroll in hand.
I had no time to waste with trash... Well, the girl was cute, If I saw her again, I had to get her name. Long before they made their move, I had already moved to take their scrolls and was rushing towards the center tower. I didn't want to lose to Itachi.
'Gaara in the anime finished this part of the exam in like 2 hours, or was it 1 hour?' I thought, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of not being cool before those three shinobi. Now they would say all I'm good for is stealing, and that didn't sit right with me and left me feeling like I had an itch I had to scratch...
But that was quickly thrown out of my head as I looked at the tower up ahead of me before I turned to the side, where Itachi was rushing towards the tower at full speed. I wasted no time, quickly making hand seals before I shot a Huge Fire Ball towards Itachi.
Itachi waved his hands, and even without a lot of water to work with, Itachi opened his mouth, spitting out a ball of water toward the fireball. Water and Fire hit each other, creating a world of steam that covered the land around us.
'Fast as always.' I thought while quickly jumping around, dodging the kunai thrown towards me from all sides. These kunai had hit each other, causing them to turn around, and shoot toward me. but that wasn't everything as strings were connected to these kunai.
'the steam to weaken my eyesight, and also ensure I don't notice the strings right away.' I thought with a smirk, smoothly jumping through the gaps in the strings while throwing out kunai which I sent flying into the sky. but the Kunai hit each other, sending them flying towards Itachi.
'Annoying.' Itachi thought while throwing kunai towards the kunai flying towards him, not wanting them to remotely get close to him. He looked at the watch on his wrist for a split second, 1 hour had already passed.
Unlike in the light novel where Itachi had taken his time, and even took the time to ask for people to give him the scroll or else he would fight them, Itachi had put them in a genjutsu and ran off with the scroll. In the novel, Itachi did waste a lot of time, as he wasn't in a hurry, leading to him finishing the exam in about 5 hours, a record which would be broken about 7 years later by Gaara and his siblings who would finish in about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
'That sneaky...' I thought in shock seeing a Kunai shooting towards the tower up ahead. Itachi had thrown that kunai to draw my attention, making me think he wouldn't use that jutsu.
I shot off, throwing Blue towards the Kunai. Seeing that, Itachi wasted no time, using the body Flicker Jutsu to teleport to the Kunai, where he grabbed it and threw it towards the tower with everything he had, while he was sucked towards Blue. But the next moment, Itachi's eyes widened as I shot past him, using Blue to launch me forward before I turned it off.
Itachi quickly used the hand seal for the body flicker jutsu, and with a flash, he teleported to the Kunai, while creating a lot of afterimages.
"No way!" I said in shock and amazement that he learned the Body Flicker jutsu to such a level. only Shisui, the master of the body Flicker was able to use the body flicker to such a level, that he created after images that had mass. Was this what Itachi was training with all this time?
'This is so annoying.' I thought as I couldn't tell the real from the after images. I quickly removed my blindfold, wanting to see which among them was the real thing. But it was pointless as they all looked like Itachi, they even have the afterimage of Itachi chakra,
"Move!" I said while throwing Blue to the side, while at the same time, a red orb formed at my feet. The next moment, I was sent rocketing forward at high speed, reaching the tower just as Itachi teleported over, grabbing the Kunai.
"A tie," Itachi said lightly, to which I snorted lightly. He only used tricks to win... but then again, that reflected poorly on me, so I said nothing.
"Report, Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Gojo finished the exam in 1 hour and 5 minutes. The fact the two did the exam all by themselves, and even turned it into a game shows just how talented these two are." A man reported to Danzo, making Danzo smile slightly. He knew those twins were special. He still didn't know which twin he wanted,
'Which one should I have joined the root? Itachi has the mindset of a ruthless killer, someone who would kill a thousand to save 2 thousand.' Danzo thought while thinking back to the question he had asked Itachi.
"If a person on a boat caught a deadly sickness, and held the risk to inflict the others on the boat. What would you do?" Danzo asked the young Itachi,
"I would kill him, he is going to die anyway," Itachi said without hesitation, which brought a smile to Danzo's face, as that was the type of mind Danzo wanted.
"If a person on a boat caught a deadly sickness, and held the risk to inflict the others on the boat. What would you do?" Danzo asked the young me,
"It depends, do I know the person? am I cool with the person, and are there extra boats? How deadly is the sickness, can it be healed up once we reach land? How am I supposed to answer a question with such limited information?" I asked with a shrug, causing Danzo's eyes to narrow.
"What if the person is your best friend, and there is no way to save him?" Danzo asked, to which I thought for a moment.
"It depends, is the illness making him suffer, or is he still able to enjoy life? Am I on the ship? Because if I am on the ship, he dies. Then there is the question of who is on the ship. are there other friends, strangers, or whatnot?" I said with another shrug, leaving Danzo looking at me with narrowed eyes for some time, before walking off.
'One is logical, one puts his interests first.' Danzo thought while looking at the man who had just reported back to him about the twins. From that short amount of time he had spoken with me, Danzo had gotten a good understanding of who I am, but how was he supposed to use that to his interest?
"The 3rd exam should start soon, we should be on our way," Danzo said getting up to set off.
"With regards to that, I have a single report." the Shinobi said, causing Danzo to pause. Danzo listened to the report, which caused him to burst out laughing. For a long time, he had regrets that the twins were of the Uchiha bloodline, and now that feeling was at its highest.
What was the report? All of the genin of the hidden leaf who were going to face Itachi in the first round had already given up, leaving me who wasn't going to face someone from the hidden leaf.
"Who is Itachi facing in the second round?" Danzo asked, and upon hearing the name of the person, Danzo nodded. Someone with the title Sleepy, a guy who fights when he is asleep. He was immune to genjutsu, so it would be interesting to see how Itachi would fight him.
Danzo's eyes brightened, he was surprised at himself at how he was looking forward to this battle. But he composed himself and headed off.
"To repeat, there are no rules. The match will continue until either side admits defeat. However, if the judge judges that the match can't continue, he would step in to stop it. You both understand?" The judge of the match asked, to which I nodded while looking at the woman in front of me who had long black hair. she was the same person I ran into in the forest of death, what were the chances?
"I have the feeling you're younger than me," I said lightly, I was currently 9 years old. Yes, I didn't look like it, but I could at least tell when someone is young.
"I'm 7 years old." She said with a cocky smirk, causing my eyebrow to raise, as well as everyone who was watching as she was pretty much the youngest person here. 7 years old, and passed the chunin exam to reach it this far, she had to be an important figure in the world of Naruto right?
"Wow, you're so lucky. When I was 6, I couldn't even enter the academy because it was destroyed. Although I did join the academy and graduate the next year, it was a huge waste of time. Then I was put onto a team, where I couldn't take the exam... sigh, I envy you. You must have some big background which allowed you to just zoom through stuff without having to wait." I said with a sigh, leaving a crowd of hundreds of people speechless. Was this something to be down about?
"Wow... I didn't know Grandpa helped that much." She said in shock, to which I sighed in envy. Why was my family background so weak... no, why couldn't my dad pull some strings for me? Where was the justice?
"By the way, the name is Gojo. Sorry I couldn't sit and talk to you during the chunin exam, I had a record to destroy." I said with a charming smile, which made her blush lightly.
"I'm Kurotsuchi." She said quickly snapping back to reality, so what if the guy before her was cute? this was the person who took her scroll with her not noticing a thing, she couldn't let her guard down like last time.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful girl, may the best shinobi win," I said charmingly while holding out my palm, causing her to blush while hesitating. but she took my hand, and shily shook it, under the odd gaze of the crowd.
"Are you going to fight with your blindfold?" She asked in a soft voice,
"For you, I will remove them," I said gently while removing the blindfold, showing off my beautiful blue eyes which was for many, the first time they saw them. Instantly, everyone froze, looking at the beautiful blue eyes. but many couldn't get a good look at it, and only Kurotsuchi could, as she got lost in my eyes.
"How about we go talk after the Chunin exam, I feel a connection, and I can see fate is bringing us together," I said making Kurotsuchi's face turn bright red as she looked around, not knowing what to say to such words.
"L-Like a date?" She asked Shily,
"it's too early for a date so let's call it a pseudo date. Just a way for us to know more about each other... Although I don't mind If you want to rush things, I know what I feel is real." I said while pulling her into my arms, causing her to scream in embarrassment before pushing me away and running away.
The crowd was left speechless, they came to watch a battle, yet here they were watching a kid asking someone out on a date.
"Gojo!" Fugaku said with a sharp glare,
"You want me to bring her home to introduce her to the family?" I asked in confusion, causing Fugaku's face to turn dark. he wanted to jump down there and beat me black and blue, but to reach me, he would have to show off his MS, something he wasn't willing to do right now. Plus, the more he used his MS, the more he would become blind.
Fugaku only grew more annoyed hearing a few people laugh at this, thinking it was funny or something. But he saw nothing that was funny. Kurotsuchi was the granddaughter of Onoki, such a relationship between me and her wouldn't be good. That's even more so when he knew I couldn't stay loyal to one girl.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone