Today is the day, I’ve been giving it my all for the past week, and it will all pay off. Hinata, Kiba and I have worked hard, and I usually stayed to practice tearing torrent. It still not perfect, but I can use it in battle, Yamato said so. I stocked up on shurikens and kunai.
I stretch the sleep away before I change. I felt nervous, but excited, a mixture of both. It made my stomach feel uneasy, and my clammy hands tied the head protector. It took longer, to get ready this morning, I double checked I had everything. The exam I am most afraid of is the written exam, Hinata told me what happened last time she took the test. Ibiki, their proctor, made them second doubt themselves, torturing with the unknown that will come. I doubt they will put him as the proctor again, but I had to be prepared for anything. I won’t let anyone bend or break my will, just this once I will be strong headed.
I tie my hair into a ponytail, getting all of the loose hair out of my way. I’ve been waiting for this day for such a long time, I could jump of happiness, but I’ll celebrate when I get the certificate and the jacket. Kakashi is already up when I make my way to the kitchen. I see him heating some bread into the toaster, and taking the milk out of the fridge. He’s changed as well, I wonder what he will be doing while I am in the exams.
Sakura was kind enough to bring me some of her tea last night, supposedly it helped with tense muscles and it keeps your chakra at a nice flow, it was disgusting I couldn’t stomach a single drop. The tea is still in the fridge and I know it won’t be heated up and tasted any time soon. I push it aside, and reach for the juice.
“So are you ready for the exams?” He questions, and applies the spread onto his toast.
“More nervous than anything, but I’ll pull through.” I reply, and put some bread in the toaster for myself. I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I need my strength. I wait for my toast, and pour my juice into a cup. I tap my fingers on the table, trying to think of something that isn’t related to the exams. I know if I overthink it, I’ll end up making mistakes.
“Do what you did during practice and you’ll be set.”
I eat breakfast, the sun was shining today, the rain clouds that lingered last week are gone. Birds have settled into a nest not too far from the last one, they are higher, and I’m happy to see that they moved on. Higher away from the cat, I’m getting farther away from my mistakes in the past. Like keeps moving forward.
“I’ll be on guard today for the exams, during the group challenge however I’ll be outside the gates. If there is a problem Lady Tsunade will inform the groups through the speakers. So don’t worry about anything else, just focus on the task.” Kakashi says. Tension I didn’t know I held, loosened. I kept thinking about the possibilities of Moon Ninja attacking while I was in exams last night. His words reassured me that Lady Tsunade has looked though everyone's profile thoroughly. Lady Tsunade is a kind soul, but she does seem like a tough teacher. Sakura will be a tough woman like Lady Tsunade in the future.
Kakashi leaves to report in, while I walk to the academy for further instructions. A lot of kids around the age of thirteen were walking to the academy, in groups of three. There were many of them, I on the other hand was going to meet Hinata and Kiba at the entrance. The memory of my first day at the academy blinks into mind. I was so nervous, entering my classroom, I must have been around seven years old. I entered late because I didn’t know the process of enrolling, my father didn’t tell me when school started, so I went without paperwork, and I figured it out on my own. I roamed the halls like a lost puppy, and today wasn’t much of a difference. I am still nervous, I have to clutch my hands, so they can stop shaking. I stand in a swing that hung by a tree branch, waiting. I’ve always liked to observe people, and their actions, their expressions. Sometimes I would even put my hands over my ears and not hear a sound, instead I would watch their lips move. Its a weird habit.
“Kiyoko sama.” Hinata smiles when she catches my attention.
“There is no need for honorifics. I’m equal to you Hinata. Just call me Kiyoko.” I say. I’m flattered she thinks highly of me, but I’m not senior of her, not in ninja way. Age yes, but that’s all. She was jumpy too, even if she took it last year.
“I couldn’t make lunch today.” She tries to crack a joke, a smile appears on my face. While we practiced as a team, Hinata always brought lunch, but today, well that’s a different story. I hear Kiba before I see him, Akamaru panting behind him, it looked like they came running. I sigh leave it to our team leader to be almost late for the exam. In the past week we’ve had great teamwork, Kiba is usually the one who calls the shots, and makes suggestions, so naturally I followed. I’m not in any position to lead, especially because I’ve never experienced the chunin exams, and they have. Already their much wiser and experienced than me. We walk to the signaled room, red arrows pointing to the right room. When we enter the room, its hard to hear myself breathe, there was a lot of talking. The seats were filled and many were standing or leaning on the wall. Mixed forehead insignias were on different colored forehead protectors, some came from the Sand Village, others from the Mist. I gulp the nervous saliva when I see the Mist ninja.
They don’t know who you are. None of them do, I think to myself. My heart beat goes back to normal. I see a handful of Stone ninjas, along with Grass villagers and Waterfall ninjas. Most of them were, of course, Leaf Ninja. I seemed to be a few of the older ninja. If we all pass the first exam, then the group challenges are going to be tough. I wipe the sweat off my palms, and follow Kiba to a less crowded area. He doesn’t look to nervous, actually he looks relaxed. I couldn’t keep my foot from tapping, it wasn’t until Kiba sent me a glare that I forced myself to stop.
“Just don’t let them get into your head.” He says. I nod, afraid that if I speak it’ll show how nervous I really am. I see Sakura’s pink hair across the room, she sits beside Ino, and Choji, Choji has a bag of chips in his hand. At least they don’t look terrified. A loud sound comes from my left, and the room goes quiet. A tall, lanky woman enters. Her brown hair is cut short, like Sakura’s. Her brown eyes look over the crowd, and her thin hands hold a clipboard. She looks to tall and thin to be a ninja, but her voice booms.
“I will be your proctor for the first exam. I am Ume. We will move to a room, this clipboard is for you to sign. Before you sign, consider your options. If you are not feeling confident, leave, but if you believe in yourself, sign and continue to that room.” She points to a blue door, not too far from me. She sets it on a table, and the line begins to grow, luckily for us we were standing close by, so we don’t wait for long. We enter, and the escort us to our assigned desks, Kiba sits in the back, while I sit in the front, Hinata sits on the other side of the room. I feel completely alone, but they are in the same room. I’ve been spending so much time with them I kinda got used to them being around. The kids slowly sit, and I notice the younger students are not all here, they must have doubted themselves and left. Every seat is taken, and Ume makes her way toward the front of the class.
“You will be given twenty questions. I expect all of them to be completed in the given amount of time. You will have to complete it to go to the second stage of the exams. Cheating will not be allowed, I will personally kick you out of the room, if you don’t think you can pass, you can leave when you’d like. I don’t want to get your hopes up, so don’t have too much faith in yourself. You may have answered all the questions, but if they are wrong you’ll still fail. This will test your intelligence.”
Part of me wishes Ibiki was proctor. If it was him then all I had to do was hang in there, and ride out the time, but Ume, she’s really all about this test.
“But I do have two options. One, you can work on your own, get about one fourth of the questions wrong, and I’ll still pass you. The second option, you may work with your team, however you must get every single question right to pass. I’ll give you one minute to decide and move.” Ume stands as the front of the class. I want to pass, I do, but I don’t think I can do it on my own, certainly Hinata and Kiba know more than I do. And if things come to worse Hinata can use her byakugan for answers. I look around, Hinata and Kiba are already looking my way, I nod. They were thinking the same thing. You know what they say three heads are better than one. Not counting Akamaru.
I stand and make my way through the crowd, Kiba following closely behind, to Hinata table, it was much less crowded there. We need each other, we need to rely on each other to pass. I grab a chair and set it in front of Hinata, while Kiba sits besides her. Akamaru lays down at his feet, he knows he won’t be much help, so he closes his eyes, and tries to go to sleep.
“Your minute is up. The test will be handed out in just a few minutes. Those who are working independently, move to the right side of the room, no talking is permitted. Those of you who are working with your team, move to the left side of the room, you may talk among yourselves, but try to talk quietly, you don’t want to give you answers away.” Ume points to the right and the left. We don’t move, since we are seated on the left already.
I notice there are more individuals than groups. There must be about nine groups, out of twenty who stayed to take the test with their groups, out of sixty genin only twenty seven chose to do the group test. I see Sakura sitting with her team, so she isn’t doing this alone either. We were one of them, and feeling their presence next to me, makes me a lot less nervous.
I’ve been alone for a lot of my life, and now that I know how it feels like to have friends and comrades I don’t want to feel alone anymore. Kiba and Hinata are more like the siblings I never had. Kiba acts like an older brother, leading us, and directing us. Hinata is like the younger sister, always taking care of everyone. Strong, and kind. I, don’t know what role I would fill. The older sister? I want to protect them like they really are my siblings, I can’t imagine the thought of anyone hurting them, of hurting anyone I’ve met. Even Guy, as much as he freaks me out sometimes. And Master Jiraiya, no matter how pervy he is, I don’t want anything to happen to him or Naruto while they are gone. I pray for their safety every night before I go to bed.
The test land in front of each one of us, I take a deep breath before I read the first question.
What angle should the shuriken be thrown, if the enemy is twenty feet away, and ten feet below you? A diagram is beside the question. I scan the rest of the questions, I curse under my breath, they only get harder. Hinata begins to scribble, does she really know how to solve this? Man do I feel like the weak link. There is no way a genin would have to know this. Half of the vocabulary on this sheet of paper, I don’t know what they mean.
“Well I think this is how you solve it.” Hinata shows us her paper, he voice is quiet, that its hard for me to hear her clearly. I see her work, and nod, I don’t know if its right of wrong, but I’m in no position to question her. I copy down the answer. Kiba reads the next question, while I try to understand the question after it.
I watch the clock that hangs on the wall, we are given one hour and a half, and we already spent half an hour on five questions. Fifteen more to go. I don’t know where the time goes, but the next time Ume speaks, she warns us than we have five more minutes left. We hurry, copying answers off of Hinata’s test, since she’s the smartest one out of the three.
“Start wrapping up. I will correct each test right now.”
We have one more minute, and my hand hurts from writing so quickly. I sigh, and set my pencil down.
“I’m sorry if we get some answers wrong, and get us thrown out,” Hinata says. I reach for her hand, and squeeze it, in encouragement. She lacks confidence in herself, a lot like myself.
“If we fail, we fail as a team. You did your best and that’s all we could ask for. Without you I wouldn’t be able to pass the first question.” Kiba agrees, Hinata smiles, and lifts her eyes from her lap.
“Alright. Everyone who took the independent tests, you fail.” Ume says. Immediately after they begin to shout complaints.
“Thats not fair!”
“You didn’t even look at our tests!”
“This is bull!”
“I know I got everything right!”
She smiles a little, but turns her attention to the groups, “You all pass.” My heart leaps with joy, we passed the written exam. A smile overtakes my face, we’ve gotten over the hardest of the three, in my opinion. I’ll do much better in the group tests, I can support them much better there than here. The other side of the room, is still shouting.
Ume raises her hand, trying to get everyone to calm down.
“I’ll tell you why you failed and why you passed. A chunin must have faith in their teammates. Working together as a team will make or break a mission. Trust is key in a team, if you can’t trust your teammates, in a quiz like this, then how can you trust them with your lives? This was a test of your trust in each other, and working together in overcoming hard obstacles. The students who chose to do them in group had faith in their team’s intelligence, and those who worked individually only believe and trust themselves. You can never become a chunin if you don’t believe in teamwork.”
The room is silent, and after a few seconds the room is loud with the dragging of chairs. The students who failed, exit, their heads hanging in disbelief and shame. The groups watch them as they leave. Akamaru, sits up, coming out of his deep sleep.
“Now for the next challenge.” Ume says. The group challenges are next. I wonder what awaits us?
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Chapter notes: first part of the chunin exam
sorry if its short and boring
Chapter end notes: new challenges awaits team kiba,
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