Chapter 23: Chunin Exams: Part 1-Writing
Suki leaned back against the railing of a small bridge found near one of the training grounds with her elbows bent.
"How are you two on training?" Suki asked.
"I've been doing what you've suggested. I've been having my clones read and practice while I do my training routine. It definitely helps now that I don't have to read anything myself, even if the clones like it less." Naruto muttered at the end.
"What do you expect?" Sasuke commented. "They are literal clones of you. Everything you dislike, they dislike."
"Anyways," Naruto started. "Any idea why Kakashi-sensei wanted to meet us here?"
"Probably about the Chunin Exams he mentioned to us a few days ago. I know the dead line is due soon and we will have to decide if we want to enter it or not." Suki guessed.
"Well, I don't think Sasuke or I need to ask if you will be competing in it." Naruto threw out. "I also know that I'll be competing and we'll blow everyone away with our skill!"
"I'm with Naruto on this. It sounds like we all have already made up our minds on competing." Sasuke finished the conversation.
"Well then," A voice started, causing the three of them to turn and acknowledge Kakashi. "Seems like today will be a short meeting then. It was indeed about the Chunin Exams and I have to give you these." He held three slips of paper out. "These are the registration forms. You need to sign these in order to take it." The trio each grabbed one. "Report to the location listed on the slips tomorrow by 8 am."
With that, he released the three of them.
"Let's go have Ramen to celebrate!" Naruto exclaimed.
The two Uchihas shook their heads, still not used to just how much he loved it.
"Alright, since it is an occasion and we haven't eaten as a team for a bit." Suki told.
Sasuke sighed before agreeing he would come with.
They spent the next hour eating while chatting.
They eventually split off and went to wherever they planned to go, which happened to be their apartments.
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Next Day
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Suki and Naruto were waiting out in front of the building they needed to be at.
Suki glanced over at Naruto, seeing him fidget.
"Nervous?"
"A little bit but mostly excited." He told her.
Suki placed a hand on his shoulder.
"There's not much to be nervous about. After all, you have Sasuke and I to have your back, just like we have you to watch ours."
He smiled at that.
A few minutes later, Sasuke showed up.
"Ready?" Suki asked, getting nods.
They walked into the building before stopping due to a large amount of people.
"What's going on?" Naruto asked aloud.
Suki heard an impact that sounded like someone hitting the ground.
Suki made her way through, Naruto and Sasuke following close behind.
When Suki got to the front, she saw...
"Lee?"
Lee looked in her direction.
"Suki!" He quickly jumped back up onto his feet.
"What's going on?" She asked, feeling a large amount of Deja vu.
"These two," He gestured to two adults standing on both sides of a door. "Won't let us or the others into the room needed to take the test."
Suki easily felt the genjutsu placed over the number above the door.
Suki grabbed him and brought him close enough.
"We're on the second floor. We need to be on the third." She whispered to him.
She backed up before looking over her shoulder.
"Naruto, Sasuke, follow me for a second."
She walked past all the other people and continued walking.
"What's up?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing, just getting us to the actual place we need to go to." She explained, Sasuke nodding.
Naruto grimaced. "Genjutsu?"
"Genjutsu. Remind me to help you with them when we get the time." She noted aloud. "While you likely won't be able to use them due to the large amount of chakra you have, you can at least learn how to detect and release them. Which actually is easy due to the chakra you have."
They continued walking before someone spoke up.
"Suki!"
The three of them turned around and saw Lee and his teammate approaching them.
"How would you like to have a spar once more!"
"Lee, we don't have time for this." His teammate spoke up.
"Unfortunately, your teammate is right. The kind of spar we would both like to have would either drain the both of us of stamina that we will need to have or take too much time." Suki told.
Lee looked saddened at that.
"Tell you what," She started. "Make it past the second phase of the Exams and we may be put up against each other."
"Very well! I will even our score!"
That seemed to have surprised his teammate.
"Even? We're 196-193 in my favor." Suki reminded.
With that, she turned to her team. "Alright, let's go."
They continued climbing stairs before reaching a door with Kakashi standing there.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Good thing all three of you actually did decide to participate. If only one of you stayed back, I wouldn't allow the other two to continue." He told. "Usually I'm supposed to say something motivating, but I'll keep it short. Good luck."
"Luck? Would we be your team if we needed luck to win this?" Suki asked, wearing a smirk.
"Yeah! We're not just going to win, we're going to show that no one can compete against us!" Naruto exclaimed.
Kakashi gave an eye smile. "Still, good luck." He then Shunshined away.
Suki walked forward and opened the door, only for a large amount of killing intent to flow out.
While large in 'quantity,' it was very low quality compared to the killing intent they could give off and have felt from Zabuza.
Suki raised an eyebrow before looking at Naruto and Sasuke.
They looked just as unaffected by it and Sasuke even looked a little bit offended.
So, she let out a small part of her own killing intent, overwhelming theirs and causing a few of the very weak Genin to even pass out.
She reined it back in.
"Now then," She spoke, however sounding like a yell considering most of the room was silent. "Let's go find somewhere to get comfortable until this starts."
The three of them walked for a bit before finding some people they knew.
"Hey Shika." Suki greeted.
"You just had to join as well? This will be troublesome." He muttered at the end.
"Hey Suki." Choji greeted, still eating chips.
"Hello Choji."
"Hey Sasuke." Ino started.
Due to not having a 'rival' for Sasuke's attention, Ino actually fell out of crushing on him pretty fast. She still liked him, just not enough for it to be more than a crush.
"Well, we're all back together huh?" A boy with a dog on his head spoke next.
Suki looked at him before remembering his name and the two people next to him.
"Kiba, Shino, Hinata." She greeted.
"H-hello." Hinata stammered.
They continued talking until someone else spoke up.
"You guys must have just come out of the Academy." A voice spoke up, causing the 9 of them to look at the voice.
'Kabuto.' She thought.
"Is this your first time as well?" Ino asked.
"No, this is actually my seventh time. I've gotten unlucky for the past few times. And the Chunin Exams are held twice a year, meaning this is my fourth year." Kabuto told.
"You seem to know a lot about the Chunin Exams." Kiba commented.
Kabuto then held a deck of cards in his hands.
"These are Nin-info cards. They have information burned onto them with chakra."
He then pushed chakra into one, before it revealed itself to be a map with the number of shinobi each of the countries have sent to participate.
"I even have some on some competitors." Kabuto stated.
"How about Gaara of Sunagakure?" Sasuke asked.
He pushed chakra into a card before it revealed Gaara.
"His mission history is 8 C-ranks and. Wow, he's done a B-rank mission as a Genin." Kabuto said with some surprise. "It's also said that he came back from each mission without a scratch."
"How about Suki Uchiha?" A boy commented, causing her to look over and see that it was Neji, Lee's other teammate.
"Oh? Interested in me?"
Feeling Kabuto's chakra move, she turned back, preparing herself to find out just how much he knows about her.
"Suki Uchiha. Part of Team 7 which includes Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. She focuses on Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. She trained under the same person who trained Rock Lee, Might Gai. She has had her Sharingan most of her life. Also seems to be able to use an unknown flame that is violet in color. She also has access to something called the Eight Gates. I don't have much information on what those are." Kabuto told.
Suki didn't seem to react to her information being told, however, Sasuke and Naruto both noticed that she had tightened her grip on her arms since she had crossed them.
"And who are you?!" Naruto exclaimed, planning on learning about him next.
Before he could give some kind of answer, Suki cut him off.
"Neji Hyuuga." She spoke. "And I don't need to know about him, considering I know enough about him."
"And what's that Uchiha?"
She stared him straight in the eyes.
"I know that you consider everything to be predetermined. Something I find completely idiotic. Especially considering how much of a hypocrite you are."
Neji narrowed his eyes at that.
"I also know that you think you're stronger than Lee." Suki commented. "Let me tell you something, you have no idea of just how false that idea is. After all," She stepped closer to him. "He isn't my rival for nothing."
No sooner than saying that, did a large explosion of smoke appear.
"Quiet down you bunch of worthless bastards!" A voice yelled out.
They all watched as several figures appeared.
"Thanks for waiting. I am Ibiki Morino, the Examiner for the Chunin Exam's first test." He then looked around the room. "There will be no fighting during this part without permission. Even with permission, you are forbidden from killing. Those that disobey me will fail immediately. Am I understood?"
He then gestured to someone next to him, holding a box. "Instead of the current seating arrangements, you will come up and grab a tile with a number on it and a piece of paper. That number is where you will be seated. Once everyone is seated, the test will begin."
One by one, each person walked up and grabbed a paper and a tile.
'182.' She thought before heading to her seat, finding herself surrounded by unknown ninja.
"Listen up," Ibiki started. "There are some important rules that I will write up on the board. First rule: you start out with 10 points. This test uses a subtraction system. You put the wrong answer for three questions, you're left with 7 points. Second rule: this is a team test. Whether you pass or fail, will be up to the total points your team has at the end. And the final rule: If I or any of the instructors catch you cheating, you will be deducted 2 points. If anyone's score is deducted to 0 points, the entire team fails."
Suki could feel the sudden tension in the room.
"The exam will last for 1 hour. Begin!" Ibiki exclaimed.
Everyone flipped over their papers while Suki stared at the rules.
'Start out with 10 points but we lose a point for each question if the answer we put is wrong.' She thought before looking at the questions before being slightly shocked at the difficulty. 'No Genin could answer these.'
She looked around before seeing a few people blow through them easily.
'Would they take points if we didn't put anything?' She thought. 'Not to mention that they want us to...cheat.'
A memory seemed to click.
'Information gathering! This is testing if we could gather information reliably while also not putting down false information. That's why we start out with 10.'
She decided to answer the 2 or 3 questions she actually could before stopping and turning the paper back over.
She placed her hand under her chin and closed her eyes, taking time to consider what she should do in the next part of the test.
The minutes flew bye before she opened her eyes and caught a kunai thrown at her.
"Contestant-"
Killing intent flooded the room, causing several people near her to almost pass out.
"If you want to accuse someone of cheating, make sure that you can properly throw the kunai at the right target." She told. "Otherwise, someone may just cut those strings."
She knew the 'person' who threw it was a puppet.
They had no chakra except the amount a 5 year old would have. The same amount needed for the chakra string.
She spun the kunai before stabbing it into the wood and placing her hands and chin on top of the ring and closing her eyes again.
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'So that's the new Uchiha Prodigy.' Ibiki thought.
The puppet hadn't escaped his or the instructors sight and knew it was a puppet. They let it go but were about to intervene when it threw the kunai.
Only to get a scene that surprised most of the instructors.
'This year's Chunin Exams will be interesting.'
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Time passed quickly after the incident before it was time.
"We will now start the tenth question!" Ibiki called out, getting everyone's attention.
"There will be added rules for this question." That seemed to surprise most people. "First, you must decide if you will take it."
"Choose! What happens if we choose not to!?" The girl from Suna exclaimed.
"If you choose not to take it, all of your points will be reduced to zero and you and your teammates will instantly fail."
"Why wouldn't we take it then!?" A random ninja from Kumogakure exclaimed.
"Now, for the other rule: If you answer the question wrong...that person will be forbidden from taking the Chunin Exams Selection ever again!"
"What?!" A large amount of people yelled.
"What kind of stupid rule is that?! There are people here who have taken it multiple times before!"
Ibiki smirked. "You got the unlucky chance of having me as the Examiner this year. However, I am giving all of you an out. Those who are not confident enough to take this question, may leave and try again next year."
He waited before speaking again. "Now then, to begin the 10th question. Those that do not wish to take it, raise your hand and wait until your number is confirmed."
A few moments went by before the first person rose. The next few moments passed as more and more people rose.
As they started to slow, Naruto started to raise his hand.
Before slamming it down.
"Don't underestimate us!" He yelled out, surprising a lot of people. "Even if I'm stuck as a Genin forever, I'll still become strong enough to become Hokage! I won't run!"
Suki had to smirk at that.
"I'll ask you once again." Ibiki started, staring straight at Naruto. "Your life is riding on this question. This is your last chance to quit."
"I won't waver from what I said. That's my ninja way."
The silence afterward hung in the air for a few moments before Ibiki smirked.
"Good decision. Now then, those of you that are left, I congratulate you on passing the first part of the Chunin Exams."
As people were confused, he eventually explained that you couldn't avoid missions just because you didn't have all the information and have to take a leap of faith if anyone wanted to become a Chunin.
As people started to settle down, a figure crashed through the window.
The figure rolled before standing straight up, revealing it to be a woman.
"Now is not the time to relax! I am Anko Mitarashi, the second Examiner for the Chunin Exams! Follow me!"
Weekly Power Status
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