บท 14: 012 - The Exams {PT. II}

KONOHA

"...Question number fifteen. A shinobi, elevated on the bough of a tree, throws a steel kunai weighing 67.1 grams at an enemy 113 meters away on ground level. It is known that the velocity of the kunai at the point of launch is 89.408m/s, the air resistance acting on the kunai is 14.7N, and the elevation to the target is 8.37 meters. If the force of gravity on a body of mass 1gm in a similar state equals 1.4N, calculate; the force of gravity acting on the kunai, the acceleration vector of the kunai in motion, and the final velocity upon impact."

We looked up at the chief examiner, Ibiki, who stood stoically at the front of the hall before glancing back at the questions on the table in front of us. There was no way Naruto could solve any of these questions. We glanced at the boy. Sure enough, he stared at his script with the paleness of a man on death row.

Shaken, horrified, the demon container curled into himself, clutching his bright orange hair, his face bearing an expression of utter despair. We shook our head internally. We could not allow his inaptitude to constitute a barrier to our progress. We could not fail this exam.

With about one-eight of the stealthiness and fluidity we were capable of, our hands flashed, forming a modified Ox, then Dragon, seal. As we executed the technique, a subtle but concentrated burst of chakra shot out of our glabella towards Naruto. Of course, as predicted, the boy's potent chakra naturally resisted the invasion of our essence. But with a deftness that spoke of experience and months of diligent practice, we bypassed the resistance, slithering up his chakra network into his brain to stimulate his hypothalamus. The next moment, our teammate yawned, muttering some words lightly under his breath before immediately falling asleep.

A few examiners and examinees glanced at the boy snoring loudly as he lay sprawled over his table, their expressions turning strange at the sight. Experiencing a bout of genuine exasperation, we guided our chakra towards his respiratory system to ease his nasal canal. He relax and only then did the snoring stop.

Satisfied and assured that our scores wouldn't be compromised should Naruto attempt to cheat, or worse, be intentionally implicated by another team, we turned our attention towards Sakura. Of course, we expected the girl to have little problems with the exam itself. Despite her tendency to play the role of a love-stricken ditz, she could be quite reliable if given enough motivation.

Although, currently, she was rather preoccupied with glaring at Naruto. Distracted. Not contributing positively to our collective scoreboard. We suppress the urge of our human ego to get annoyed. Instead, we executed the hand seals for Honshitsu Kisei no Jutsu again. Essence Parasitism Technique. Another pulse of concentrated Chakra shot out of our glabella towards Sakura. Unlike Naruto, the girl's resistance to the technique was seemingly nonexistent. Our Chakra effortlessly slithered up her Chakra network, dispersing itself with her. Our essence sublimed away, hardening her against most Genjutsu techniques after placing her under a Genjutsu of our own that compelled her to subconsciously ignore our blonde teammate and protect her answers from espionage.

Seeing the pink-haired girl hunch closer over her work in a childish bid to hide it from view we sighed before turning our attention back towards the proctors. Four points. We had already lost four points. Sakura and Naruto possibly lost two each for being our "accomplices". Naturally, our Jōnin supervisors would have noticed our chakra expenditure. We considered Sakura for a moment before shaking our heading internally. It wasn't worth it to lose another two points just to ingrain in her subconscious the necessary skills to protect herself from copycats. Instead, we turned our attention towards the rest of the examinees.

In a span of three breaths, we had sorted out all our potential targets. All Genin from Konohagakure were excluded. Same as all non-native genin we had had friendly relations with. This decision was not born of us developing a sentimental attitude towards these individuals. Rather, we did this solely to present the guise of being sentimental whilst under the scrutiny of so many of Konoha's elite shinobi. Ignoring the low-hanging fruits that were the inexperienced Konoha Genins was in our opinion a very, very minuscule price to pay in light of our more… long-term ambitions.

Despite this decision, we still had a very large pool of targets to deal with. They were organised into their respective cells; the more competent members of each team we sieved out. All that was left were the weak links. These were all we needed. After all, Ibiki did clarify that the exam was a team effort. Should a single member be disqualified for, say cheating, the entire team would be disqualified.

Our chakra churned. One proctor's head swivelled to regard us. Six points. The loss was negligible in light of what we aimed to achieve. Our hands flickered, nine hand signs forming in quick succession. Reverse Rat suppressed our chakra signature at the cost of efficiency. Modified Tiger-Ox amplify it at the cost of even more efficiency. Dog, Snake and Monkey followed in quick succession, the first two facilitating chakra transformation with the third copying the targets' chakra signature. Dragon merged attributes into a facsimile of the original. Modified Ox and Hare to suppress evil intent, and finally Ram, to execute.

"Multi-essence Parasitism Technique!"

A cord of chakra slowly slithered out of our glabella, gliding like an ethereal serpent towards our first target, a boy from Otogakure seated directly in front of us. After extending about a meter out of our head the cord stopped then began writhing and splitting at the tip like some tortured creature. Then, suddenly, it branched out, shooting menacingly towards our over four dozen targets. The branches latched onto the unfortunate Genin, breaking off from the original as they melted away into their bodies.

Eight points.

Our attention returned to our sleeping teammate. Now came the riskiest part of our plan. Ibiki's attention swivelled to fully focus on us as our hands formed the Jutsu-specific hand sign for performing the Yamanaka clan's hidden technique. The same technique that a certain Fuu Yamanaka attempted to assassinate us with.

Shintenshin no Jutsu.

The Mind-Body Switch Technique.

The feeling of a portion of our soul being disembodied as it left our physical vessel in the form of spiritual energy was a strange one. The Hidden Jutsu had a different effect on us compared to other users. Given the nature of our soul, it was theoretically impossible for the technique to contain the amount of Chakra needed to move it in its entirety. It wasn't even fully manifested in reality, our fleshy shell wholly incapable of housing it.

Ten points.

Unlike with the speed with which our deceased assailant executed the Jutsu, our chakra moved sluggishly, straining under the weight of its burden. We stared ahead, not sparing the scarred Jōnin a glance as the technique acquired its target. With a heady rush, we felt our ego invade Naruto's mindscape, our eyes panning around to take in the familiar scenery. A filthy sewer, representing the continual corruption of the boy's Chakra pool by the demon he played host to, laid beneath our feet. At the other end from us was a great ornate gate. A glided cage one might say, with inlays of gold and black jade. Inside, hiding in the shadows of the farthest corner, sat a great orange fox restrained by golden chains. It glared at us with eyes alight with hate, malice…

And fear.

To imagine we once let ourself be frightened by such a pitiful creature… how undignified.

We ignored the fox, letting our chakra permeate the boy's own. Naruto's eyes opened and we stared at the outside world through them. On the table in front of us, his exam papers were covered in drool. We ignored the other Genin in the hall, some of whom suddenly, inexplicably, lost control of their chakra as they attempted to cheat through the exam. They were disqualified of course, and very quickly the hall grew bereft of competitors. On the other hand, we seemed to be doing alright. We cancelled the Hidden Jutsu, our mind snapping back in place as we returned to our body.

Twelve points.

Naruto awoke moments later. He looked around in confusion before looking down at his now-completed exam papers. The body stared at it befuddled for a few moments before shrugging seemingly in acceptance and moving on. With a sigh, we looked down at our exam sheet. Empty without a single character written on it. We glanced at the wall clock hung behind Ibiki at the front of the class. Just fifteen minutes had passed since the start of the exam.

Well, at least, we still had time.