Chương 24: Chunin Exams, the Written Test
"Why did you stop me Gaara? I could've handled those guys easily," grumbled Kankuro. We were now walking towards our apartment we had been given to stay in for the exams. Temari and Kankuro had already gone and registered us all so I didn't have to go. Kankuro was still frustrated I had stopped him from attacking Sasuke. If only he knew how outmatched he would've been against the Sharingan. Detecting the movement of chakra and the movement of your opponent almost before they did was a big advantage. Sasuke would've seen right through Kankuro's chakra threads and Crow's hidden mechanisms.
"It would be better if we didn't start any unnecessary incidents Kankuro. Especially with one of the surviving Uchiha," I told him. The last thing we needed was to get thrown out before the chunin exams even started.
"Your no fun Gaara," he grumbled. I looked at him and felt sort of proud. The interactions between Gaara and his team in the anime at this point were strained. Most interactions involved Gaara threatening to kill them if they got in his way. That wasn't the case anymore, Kankuro looked relaxed as well as totally conflicted about arguing with me. To me, it meant I was doing something right. Neither Temari nor Kankuro was scared of me anymore. Not only were they not scared of me, but they also trusted me.
"How come Sasuke didn't ask my name? Why do you get all the attention Gaara," complained Temari. Just what I needed, a star-struck girl who was in love with Sasuke. Hopefully, she'll get over it quickly, I didn't want her distracted.
"He's our rival Temari he wants to know about his main competitor," I informed her. That only made her more unhappy.
"You're telling me that you are the only one he sees as his competition?"
"No that's not what I mean-"
"That's what it sounds like though Gaara. You think we can't handle him," said Kankuro as he joined in. Both of them were looking at me now with looks I didn't like.
"Don't put words in my mouth. You know what I meant," I quickly told them. Thankfully they backed off and didn't require any further de-escalation. The three of us kept walking toward our apartment in the heart of the village when a smell caught my nose.
"You two hungry? I heard from someone at the representative meeting that there is an amazing ramen place," I said. I of course was lying but they didn't know that.
"A ramen place? Fine, maybe the food can redeem this place," said Kankuro. Temari nodded as well and followed me to Ichiraku's. We walked through the drapes of the shop and sat down. Currently, we were the only customers at the restaurant, which was lucky for this time of day. With some luck, we would get out of here without running into anybody.
"We're eating at this run-down place," asked Temari skeptically. Kankuro seemed to agree but then they smell the aroma coming from the kitchen. Drool started forming at the edge of their mouths. They both eagerly picked up menus, as did I. We each ordered our ramen, mine being miso ramen with pork. It was Naruto"s favorite so I had to try it out.
"You look like you are from the Hidden Sand," said Teuchi. He was the owner of Ichiraku and always looked to have his eyes closed. I was a little odd but I guess he was just squinting all the time.
"You recognize our headbands old man," asked Kankuro.
"Of course, I've met ninjas from almost every land," said Teuchi with a chuckle. The man truly was an easygoing person. He talked lively with is about the chunin exams and Leaf ninja who visited his restaurant.
"One of my most valued customers will be competing in the chunin exams this year, or so I hear. I hope he does well after all of his training he's done," said the old man fondly. I smiled at Teuchi's reference to Naruto. He certainly had a soft spot for the knucklehead.
"I'm sorry to say this but if I don't crush the kid, Gaara will. You're looking at the winner of this year's chunin exams," said Kankuro confidently. He gave me a playful slap on the back which I allowed so as not to reveal my sand shield. It was strange what the sand classified as a threat or as a friend. I didn't stop all contact but at the same time, almost everything that caused physical pain would be blocked, even a playful slap on the back from Kankuro.
"I guess we will have to wait and see. Here you all are," said Teuchi as he slid us our bowls. All of us stared at our bowls with watering mouths. The smell coming from them was beyond delightful, it was almost coma-inducing. Without further delay, we each dug into our meals. There was no talking or conversation between us, we were enjoying our meals too much for that. I finished first, slurping every last drop from my bowl. Kankuro then finished with a satisfying gulp and lastly Temari.
"Gaara, you need to tell me who recommended this place to you. A personal thank you is a must," praised Kankuro. Temari and I both chuckled at the comment and Kankuro soon joined in.
"Thank you for such a compliment young man," said Teuchi with a smile. I stopped laughing for a moment and looked at Kankuro as well as Temari. Both were smiling and laughing, looks of happiness on their faces. I imagine my face didn't look too much different since I shed my sand armor mask earlier. This was far more than I could ever ask for with my history. Yet, here I was with my brother and sister, all of us enjoying a good laugh. There was one thing missing though, something I had to do to feel right about enjoying this moment.
"Shukaku." The tanuki soon came to the forefront of my mindscape.
"What do you want Gaara," muttered Shukaku. I smiled at the fact he was still using my name. It was heartwarming to know he was taking me seriously.
"Thank you for helping me with everything. You've really become someone I respect and I value your input. You've even saved me a few times when I didn't ask," I said as I thought of the Flare Release encounter. I would have died if not for his help after using Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral.
"It's nothing, now quit acting so strange and babbling on," said Shukaku quickly. He sounded a little flustered which I had expected of him. It's not every day someone complimented him. Then again I was the only one who could technically compliment him. No one understood how a jinchurki worked or liked Tailed Beasts in general.
"I'm counting on you to help me out if I need it in these next few days. I'll let you be in control if things get out of hand," I told him.
"You better uphold the deal," he growled. He then sunk back into my mindscape. I had received a much better reaction than I had hoped for with Shukaku. Progress was definitely happening between the two of us.
"Everything alright Gaara? Your spacing out" asked Kankuro.
"It's nothing, just thinking about some stuff that was on my mind. We should get going to our apartment, Baki-sensei is probably waiting on us," I said to them. We paid Teuchi and thanked him again for the good meal.
"Maybe the Leaf Village has more to offer than we thought," remarked Temari. Kankuro only gave a slight nod of his head, still skeptical.
"As nice as this was it is time to focus now. A lot is riding on this for the three of us since it's our first chunin exam. I honestly don't want to take this again or lose to any of the other Hidden Villages or any genin from our own. We are rookies so we won't be taken seriously by most," I told them with a deadpan tone. They both nodded at my assessment, agreeing.
"Sounds like you desert brats have high hopes," said a nasty voice. The voice came from a group of three boys who had been sitting at a shop nearby. They all three got up and started walking towards us. Hidden Waterfall headbands gave away that they were ninjas. Most likely genin from their attitude and ones that had failed the chunin exams before, judging by their age.
"What do you want," I said with annoyance. I didn't really feel like being hassled by a bunch of nobody's right now.
"Just want to help you understand what the chunin exams are," said another boy with a sneer. Kankuro's hand now rested on the strap that held Crow's bindings. Temari was slowly moving her hand to her large iron fan, both ready for confrontation. They were both looking at me for a signal, not wanting to move unless I okayed it.
"We already know all about the chunin exams. I don't need anybody telling me something I already know," I told him coldly. The three boys all seemed to get darker expressions from what I had just said.
"This will be our third time taking these exams. What makes you think a bunch of rookies like you can beat us," asked the third boy harshly. They had gotten stiflingly close to us, all of them smelling awful. These boys were obviously looking for trouble, they wouldn't admit it but they were nervous. They wanted to reassure themselves they would become chunin this time by picking on other genin like us. Unfortunately for them, I wasn't in the mood to humor them. Today had been long and tiring, I wanted to go to sleep.
"What makes me think we will beat you? Maybe it's the fact I have more skill in my pinky finger than you three combined do. Or maybe it's the fact that a pebble has a greater chance of passing the exams than you three. Who knows, it might be both," I told them with a grin. I could hear Kankuro snickering along with Temari behind me. The expressions of the three Hidden Waterfall genin were beyond angry. Veins twitched on their foreheads, their hands were balled into fists.
"You little sand rat," shouted the lead boy. He then cranked his right arm back to punch me. The two boys behind him went to reach for kunai. Sand shot out of my gourd, grabbing the lead boy and one of the others behind him. They screamed as I yanked them off the ground, using the sand to hold them in the air. The last boy had his eyes wide with fear, he had lost all anger in his expression. He started to run away but the almost invisible chakra threads of Kankuro yanked him backward. He fell to the ground at Temari's feet. She didn't even unfold her iron fan, she simply smacked the boy on the head with it. It was gentle enough to not seriously injure him but enough to knock him out.
"Let us go!" I glanced up to see the lead boy was now crying. Both of them no longer had the air of swagger or confidence from earlier. People tend to lose their composure when hanging twenty feet in the air.
"What should we do with these guys Gaara? They saw you control your sand," asked Temari. She was currently poking the unconscious one on the ground with her iron fan with disgust on her face. She definitely didn't like the smell these guys were emitting.
"Please just let us go," whined the other boy who was trapped in my sand. I sighed, these guys were such a nuisance. I didn't like that they had seen me manipulate sand. If they told any other genin then knowledge of my abilities would spread. People might formulate plans to defeat me with that information which would put me at a disadvantage for the Forest of Death section of the exam as well as the elimination phase.
"We can't kill them because it might get us in trouble," I told them.
"Then what do we do with them? We can't let them go," said Kankuro. I glanced up and looked at the whimpering fools. They didn't deserve death but I couldn't have them messing up my chances.
"Listen up or I will drop you, which at that height will definitely break something," I said to them. They quit their crying and paid attention.
"Good, now you are going to do what I say. You won't tell a soul about what happened here. This not only will protect your dignity but prevent you from blabbing about my ability," I said to them sternly. Kankuro and Temari gave me looks of surprise. It wasn't like me to go off of trust that these guys wouldn't say anything but I didn't have many other options.
"Why should we listen to you," asked the lead boy shakily. Looks like he still had some nerve left in him.
"Because if you don't then I will make sure no matter what happens, that you don't walk out of the chunin exams in one piece," I said with menace. They both flinched at my threat. It had the desired effect I had hoped for then.
"We won't say a word," said the lead boy. The other guy quickly nodded in agreement.
"Excellent," I told them with a grin. Just to mess with them I dropped the two of them. With piercing screams, they plummeted to the ground. I chuckled and caught them right before they hit the ground, tossing them to their friend. They scrambled to stand up, grabbing their friend as well as freaking out the whole time. They desperately dragged their unconscious friend away with them.
"Look at those punks scramble," laughed Kankuro. I had to agree with him on this one, it was hilarious to watch them freak out.
"Come on you two, it's getting late and we need our rest for tomorrow," said Temari. All of us fell into line and continued to our apartment. Temari certainly was right, tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
----------------------------------------------
"I wish you all the best of luck," said Baki. We stood in front of the building where the first part of the chunin exams would be held. Kankuro and Temari had both looked very determined ever since they woke up. No jokes or conversations had happened at all since waking up. All of us were doing our best to prepare for the exam. I had the advantage of knowing there was a written exam first. I wanted to tell Kankuro and Temari about it but they would want to know how I had gotten such information. No answer I told them would be reasonable enough to believe.
"Thank you Baki-sensei. You don't need to worry about any of us," I told him. I was answering for all of us since neither Kankuro nor Temari wanted to speak. With that, Baki leaped off to do who knows what. He probably had to sit through another session with the Third Hokage. Hopefully, he would get to relax though, Baki never got enough downtime in my opinion.
The three of us walked into the building and began making our way to the room where we had been told to gather.
"You two need to relax and trust in your abilities," I said to them both. They both suddenly stopped, which made me swivel and look at them. Kankuro had a slight bit of confidence on his face. I knew that the plan was to disguise Crow as a sentinel and use him to get Kankuro out of the room unsupervised. I would then supply Kankuro with a list of answers by using my sand and he would copy them down. Then he would pass a copy to Temari on his way back to his seat. The plan was slightly different than the anime, the Gaara in the anime hadn't cared about Temari or Kankuro so they had to scrounge up a cheat sheet on their own. I had no idea how they had found such a thing in the anime but it wasn't necessary now. I would simply use my Desert Eye Jutsu to get all of the answers from the sentinels hidden in the room.
"Don't worry about us Gaara," said Kankuro with fake confidence. He must not want me to worry about him.
"Aren't you two a little worried our plan will fail? We are going to cheat and we were lucky enough to find out the first part of the exam is a written test from Baki," said Temari nervously.
"You can't worry about things that haven't even happened yet Temari. Yes, we don't know anything for certain but that doesn't mean we should freak out about it. We are shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Sand," I told them with encouragement. Thankfully it seemed to work, Temari gained a smug smile she normally wore on her face. Kankuro now had a look of fierceness in his eyes. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do if that hadn't motivated them. I wasn't a natural-born motivator, or at least I didn't believe I was.
"Let's get going then Gaara," said Kankuro. We now moved on with a slight spring in our step, much better than before. When we entered the room, dozens of eyes briefly looked at us before most of them turned back to whatever they were doing. I noticed a few eyes stayed on us though. Dosu and his teammates, Kim and Zaku, were some of the eyes that didn't leave us. They were cautious of the three of us, as they should be. I didn't want to think it true but Orochimaru most likely told them about us, me specifically. I'd need to be careful since this world had already shown differences from the original. Who knows if Orochimaru even still wanted Sasuke still? Isori or even Migaki might be his target now, yet another possibility I had to account for. In my opinion, though he would go for Sasuke just as in the anime. Sasuke was the direct air to the Uchiha clan, his father Fugake had been its leader. Both his older brother Itachi and his father Fugake had awoken the Mangekyou Sharingan. Orochimaru would know this and want to unlock a power like that.
We all sat down at one of the many tables in the room. No one bothered to sit by each other with such an important task ahead. I looked around and found several familiar faces. Migaki, Isori, and who I believe was their teammate Toziwa sat at a table in the corner. Migaki saw me and gave me a friendly wave. Her hand was quickly forced down by her brother Isori. He gave me a vicious glare, a clear sign of what he thought of me. Toziwa simply looked at me with a curious gaze. I turned away before Isori started any trouble due to my staring. I then saw something surprising, bright red hair. I had completely forgotten about Karin and the fact that she was at these exams. This was where she first saw and was rescued by Sasuke. She had been brought along as a chakra tank for her teammates, one of which was the boy that Migaki had beaten. That heartless monster deserved much more than what Migaki had done to him.
"Gaara look who it is," said Kankuro with a nudge. I turned to find Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke at the door. Everyone looked at them just how they had us. Many didn't stop staring though, the rookies were now making quite a racket. I saw Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka talking to Team 7.
"It's that Uchiha from earlier," I said to Kankuro. Temari was also looking at Sasuke, not in the way Kankuro and I were though.
"What happened to focusing on the exams Temari? The last thing I need is you doing what you are doing now," I told her. She blushed and quickly averted her gaze. I didn't get what the big deal was about that guy, he wasn't that good-looking in my opinion.
"You worried about him Gaara? He is an Uchiha after all," said Kankuro curiously. Temari looked up from her embarrassment to see what I would say. They both wanted to know if I was worried eh?
"He will be a difficult opponent but not one that I can't handle," I told them. Kankuro snorted a little and Temari rolled her eyes. I guess I was on a bit of an arrogance streak. I didn't really care though, I knew what I was talking about. Speaking of future opponents, I looked around a little more and found one of them. Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Tenten sat at a nearby table talking about the rookies. Seeing Rock Lee in person made me remember all of the amazing moments he had in the anime, including the fight between Gaara and him at the exams. I didn't think he would be too much of a problem though. I was already stronger than the Gaara in the anime at this point.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and gonna beat every one of you, believe it," shouted Naruto. I smiled and looked at him, my sand armor mask giving a look of annoyance. I guess I had missed Kabuto explaining everything to the rookies. I then saw Ino and Sakura arguing in the background as Naruto grinned. Everyone in the room was looking at Naruto as well as the other rookies now. The looks were less than pleasant, many borderline murderous. There were a few smiles and laughs though which was nice to hear.
"That's the kid from before isn't it," commented Kankuro. I nodded in agreement, Kankuro probably barely remembered Naruto.
"He yips just like a little dog," said Temari. Kankuro laughed a little at that one but I made sure to keep my sand armor mask an expression to be intimidated by. Couldn't break character too much. I glanced at Dosu and his teammates, waiting to see what would inevitably come next. The three Sound genin became blurs as they bolted across the room. They made it there quite fast for someone of their age. Kankuro took notice and went to take Crow off his back but I stopped him. He gave me a curious look but I simply shook my head. It wouldn't be wise for us to get involved. Zaku appeared in the air and threw two kunai at Kabuto which he dodged. Dosu swung his fist with the strange contraption on it. I kinda wanted to intervene but I had to let things play out. I'd get to have my fun later during the Forest of Death section.
Dosu finished his swing, seeming to miss Kabuto. Kabuto's glasses cracked and the lenses fell to the ground in shards.
"So it was that kind of attack," remarked Kabuto. His smugness didn't last long, he kneeled over suddenly and vomited all over the floor. Everyone in the room seemed surprised to see such a reaction from Kabuto when the punch clearly hadn't connected. I knew better though, it was an attack through sound. The vomiting had come from the sound reaching Kabuto's eardrum. It was a clever kind of attack due to it being invisible to the human eye. Naruto and Sakura rushed to Kabuto's side, with Dosi and Zaku rambling on about the Sound Village. A huge puff of smoke abruptly appeared on the other side of the room.
"Alright you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and list up," shouted a loud voice from within the smoke. Ibiki certainly wouldn't be any different from the anime. The smoke cleared and the scar-faced man along with the sentinels stood there.
"It's time to begin. I am Ibiki Morino and I will be your proctor and from this moment onward your worst enemy," said the man sadistically. Most of the genin seemed unsettled by Ibiki which wasn't unfounded. The man's demeanor was downright scary.
"Firstly, who said you could fight? Do you Hidden Sound ninja want to be disqualified from the exam before it even begins," barked Ibiki. Dosu and Zaku smugly laughed as if the question was a joke to them.
"Guess we got a little excited," said Dosu. Ibiki smiled a little before stating the rules about fighting.
"No fatal force? That's not any fun at all," said Zaku. Did this guy have to be such a smug idiot? Ibiki then went on and told everyone to grab a piece of paper with a number that would decide where they sat.
"Once you are all seated we will start the written exam," said Ibiki.
"Written exam," said Naruto with a stutter. I then remembered what came next and use parts of my sand armor mask to cover my ears.
"NOOOOOOO, NOT A WRITTEN TEST," howled Naruto. I heard him clearly through my sand earplugs, I could only imagine how loud it was without them. Everyone then begrudgingly picked numbers and sat down at their seats. When I went up with Kankuro, a sentinel stepped in front of us.
"You're going to have to remove your gourd and that bundle from your back," he informed us curtly. Kankuro had a bit of a smile on his face when he set Crow against the wall. He was probably thinking about how the plan was working perfectly. I was also happy no unseen problems were popping up. We then parted ways to find our seats. Kankuro, Temari, and I were all spaced pretty far apart. The distance only made the cheating riskier but it was something we would have to deal with. The tests were handed out but something made me nervous when it was placed in front of me. Not only was the exam different than I remembered, but there were also three pieces of paper. Each paper had drastically different questions than the other. One was the exact same as the test from the anime but the other two were different. What exactly was going on here? Something had changed and I didn't like it one bit.
"As you can see there are three papers in front of you," said Ibiki. I hung onto every word since I would be in the dark on this test too.
"Each test has varying levels of difficulty," said Ibiki as he drew three crude rectangles to represent the tests.
"Your team must have one person complete each test within an hour. The last question to each test will be handed out during the final fifteen minutes. They will be different for each test," said Ibiki as he drew further details on the board. This was really bad, far more than I had thought it was. The first test was moderately difficult, the second was the one from the anime, and the third was beyond difficult. Not only would I have to communicate to Kankuro and Temari about which test for them to take, but our strategy was also now foiled. There wasn't enough time for me to gather info on all three tests or even two and get the answers to Kankuro.
Ibiki continued to explain the rules which were mostly the same as in the anime. I wasn't paying attention though because I was too busy getting sand out of my gourd. I was moving only small amounts so I wouldn't get noticed. I moved roughly a handful of sand to where Temari was sitting and a handful of sand to Kankuro's location.
"You may begin," said Ibiki with a cold smile. It seemed I had gotten done just in time. People around the room began to frantically move papers and answer questions.
The chunin exams had officially begun.
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