I didn't have a purpose, but becoming strong was something that could keep me busy.
So I wasn't desperate for a soul-shattering, mind-blowing revelation that would give me a 'main quest'.
Doing my own thing sounded pretty good. Even if I had to find a way to stop Obito from resurrecting Madara. That was a big bad threat looming at the horizon.
...
"Oi, oi." Hana snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Are you even there?"
I looked at her, honestly not knowing what she wanted. "What?"
"She asked you why sensei hadn't you leave the Uchiha compound." Shin came in my rescue.
"Oh." I forgot she was questioning me. "Because I explained my reasons."
"Which are..?" Hana asked.
"The ones I'm not telling you." I flippantly concluded. Worsening her pout. She is so different from the other Inuzuka.
"Maa maa, children, we're here." Kakashi stopped Hana from going on a rampage.
We entered in a great hall where a lot of other genin teams were already waiting. I narrowed my eyes.
"Hatake-san, I swear that if we are late because..."
"And now that Konoha nins had deemed us worthy of their presence." A jonin in an Iwa uniform interrupted me, and I noticed that Kakashi had vanished from where he had been standing. Son of a bitch. I repeated in my head.
"We can begin." The Iwa jonin went ahead.
"The exam will be threefold. The first stage is about to begin. One member from every team will come here and pick a random number." He waited for a second.
"Now."
I exchanged a look with my teammates, and seeing that they were acting shy all of a sudden, I rolled my eyes and went ahead.
There are a lot of teams. I noticed again. I didn't exactly remember how many people attended, Or will attend.
I corrected myself in the safety of my mind, the chunin exams in Konoha, but I knew that everyone could be squeezed into a classroom, even if a big one. That was not the case.
I placed my hand into an urn and extracted a white rubber ball. The number seven gleaming in black over it. Wasn't it a lucky number?
When every team had a number, the proctor went ahead.
"There were two balls for each number. The one who picked up the number will be given a secret and become a prisoner.
The other two members of his team will have to obtain said secret from the other genin who picked the same number. The secret is necessary to rescue your companion.
While the one... questioned, will have to keep it secret. To pass the first stage a team must not only not divulge the secret, but also obtain it. Questions?"
A kunoichi from Suna raised her hand, she, like me, belonged to the group that extracted the numbers. "What are the two doing the questioning allowed to do?"
The proctor didn't miss a beat: "What are you willing to do for your village?"
Many of us gulped, and for a second, I was worried.
Then I thought about what I knew about the first stage of the exam. In the manga, it had been a giant trick. So I just have to free myself? I started to plan.
"So we are allowed to kill the prisoner?" An Iwa shinobi from the bigger group asked, looking at me with a... hungry gleam in his eyes. Fucking Iwa.
Then I exchanged a look with Hana and Shin. What would I be willing to do for my village?
I was relieved to be the one questioned. I sure as hell wasn't going to torture any of the hopeful chunins around me.
I looked around, taking in the general age of the genins. There were some younger and some older than me, on the older side there was a kunoichi from Kumo with sharp features that reminded me of someone... probably a filler character.
So how do I free myself? I started plotting possible solutions.
They separated us and an Iwa chunin led me to my 'prison cell'. It was a square cube carved out from the rock. It was lit by a torch behind the single wooden chair. "Sit." He ordered me. Then he tied me, without being too rough, to the chair.
Hands far from each other behind the backrest, my hips, and legs tightly immobilized too.
"The other two will come in a minute after I leave the room. Your secret is 'Dawn'."
He tonelessly said. Uh, I guess the Tsuchikage picked the more level headed to deal with Konoha. It's... almost kind of him.
Then my eyes narrowed. He didn't say in a minute, he said a minute after I've left. Exactly one minute. Why not 'will be here shortly'?
I nodded thankfully to the Iwa chunin, who had seen fit gagging me too. It's not like I can bite through the ninja wire.
I blinked. Well Hana could. Sensible precaution. I had a minute to organize the counter trap. Firstly I examinated my gag.
Well shit. It wasn't a gag, it was a slip of paper, and since I couldn't feel my chakra I deduced that not only it kept my mouth shut, but was also a chakra inhibitor. It wasn't that it stopped the flow of chakra, it simply made me unaware of it, and thusly unable to manipulate it.
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