Acquisition 2.1
There was no charge for entry into the stadium that held the chunin exams, and apart from the VIP and competitor's sections not all that much security either. Hisana, however, was facing an additional complication. She'd stupidly mentioned the chunin exams to Naruto, who of course had never heard of them and immediately wanted to go. She'd then complained about said slip to Sasuke, forgetting his age and desire to observe stronger ninja.
The two boys had even managed to stop sniping at each other to pester her into taking them. Luckily, she was able to impress onto Sasuke what she was trying to do there, and she'd simply told Naruto that as part of his ninja training, he had to pretend Sasuke and Hisana weren't Uchiha. Getting Sasuke out of his fan-backed shirts seemed a small bonus to Hisana.
"I can't believe we're gonna get to watch real ninja fight!" Naruto said, as they walked leisurely towards the stadium. Hisana had actually dyed her hair pink (she'd wanted to do it before she'd died, but never found the time), worn a completely different style of clothing, and used a few bits from a disguise kit to change up the shape of her face. Sasuke was just wearing a shirt without the Uchiha symbol on it and a hat. She'd picked up a pair of cheap sunglasses from a convenience store and confirmed that they didn't stop her copying of jutsu.
"They're only genin." Sasuke said, dismissively, but Hisana could tell he was excited about seeing the chunin exams from his body language.
"Not necessarily in strength, since they're up for promotion and made it through the first two rounds. Plus, we've just finished our first year in the Academy; so let's not get too ahead of our selves, yeah?" Hisana said, and Sasuke grunted out a reply.
"What're the other rounds 'bout, sis?" Naruto asked. She'd tried to stop him calling her that, but like many a ninja before (or should that be after) her, she failed.
"Well, the first one is usually some kind of paper test with a gimmick, and the second's a survival exercise. They probably held it in the Forest of Death." Hisana said casually, and only just managing not to smile at Naruto's expression when he heard the words "paper test".
"A pa-paper test!? You mean we have to do more after we finish the Academy!?" Naruto shouted, looking deeply concerned.
"Cut it out, Naruto. We're here." Sasuke said, also looking faintly smug.
"Please remember that me and Sasuke are supposed to be in disguise, guys." Hisana said, and got confirmations that they'd understood it from Naruto and Sasuke before proceeding. A couple of bored chunin waved them through after seeing they lacked bags to search; and they were off and into the stands. They'd gotten to the stadium fairly early, but most of the good seats were already taken. They managed to run across some empty rows to get into a trio of good seats before a trio of kids around their age they didn't recognise, who did not look happy.
"Hey, those were our seats." The burliest one of them said.
"I don't see you sittin' in them!" Naruto replied, exaggeratedly leaning back and kicking his feet up.
"You littl-" The big one began, only to be interrupted by his friend.
"Come on man, it ain't worth it to get chucked out over these losers." Said the smaller one of the three kids. The middle one echoed his agreement, and the big one sighed and walked away.
About twenty minutes later, all the contestants had arrived on the field. Hisana had snagged a program and betting guide on their way in, and after a quick perusal she saw that whilst Konoha had the largest number of contenders in the finals at six, no other village had more than three. Sand, Mist and Grass both had three; with Waterfall, Snow, and a bunch of minor villages she didn't recognise having one. Presumably they were either never mentioned or from Filler. Given Waterfall and Snow's appearance, however, it seemed that whatever was "canon" for this universe extended beyond strict manga-only.
First up was a genin from the Leaf against one from Mist. The other competitors retreated back up into the stands, most simply walking up the sheer walls of the arena. The genin from the Mist looked to be about sixteen, and after Hisana put her sunglasses on and activated her Sharingan, she could see that the female Mist ninja had no kunai or shuriken pouches; but did have a pair of seals at her wrists. Vaguely remembering Sasuke doing something similar in canon, she thought they might be replacements for weapons holsters. The Leaf genin was a boy of about fourteen, with a sword at his hip and some kind of senbon launcher on the opposite wrist.
"BEGIN!" Shouted the proctor over the stadium's speaker system, and he jumped backwards in a blur of speed. Sasuke and Naruto sat forward in their seats, and Hisana looked intently down upon the fighters. The Mist genin drew two hands of shuriken from the seals at her wrists, and the Leaf genin raised his senbon launcher. With her Sharingan, Hisana could see that the Mist genin was attaching chakra strings to her shuriken, and that there was some kind of seal with chakra running through it stuck on the inside of the shuriken's ring.
They both launched their projectiles at one another, the boy's launcher spitting out senbon like a machine gun as the girl dodged and threw hers. She was fast, and at first it seemed like both genin has missed the other. The mist ninja's shurikens, however, curved back around in an impossible flight path as the girl controlled them like a Sand ninja would a puppet.
The shuriken sped for the boy's back like a heat-seeking missile; and only an admirably quick substitution saved him from being hit. Then, the Mist ninja pulsed her chakra strings and the seals on shuriken exploded. Each was less powerful than an explosive tag, but there were ten of them and they had ready made shrapnel to propel. Deadly shards of metal raced out, and one scored a nasty gash across the boy's left arm.
The Leaf genin retreated across the arena to the sole cover, a copse of trees. The Mist genin summoned more and more shuriken and began to have them orbit her, creating a swirling cloud of death. Then, there was a burst of smoke and the boy burst out over cover, a bunch of illusionary clones covering him as he charged at the girl, his sword drawn.
Shuriken flew forwards from the Mist genin's orbit; each destroying a couple of clones as it exploded. Then, Hisana noticed it - a small rodent with a chakra signature exactly like the Leaf genin's racing across the field, having already flanked the Mist genin. The Mist genin hit what would have to have been the real Leaf ninja, but he was apparently better at ninjutsu than he lead on - the "real" him amongst the illusionary clones was a shadow clone.
The rodent became the Leaf ninja in a burst of smoke, and he very nearly managed to land a decisive hit with his sword, only for the Mist ninja to dodge - revealing that she'd known about his flanking attempt - and smash a heavy blow with the ring of a kunai into the back of his head. The leaf genin slumped to the ground, unconscious. Hisana deactivated her Sharingan to conserve chakra, and found herself determined to learn how to do
that with her Shuriken.
None of the other matches had anything quite so tasty as Shuriken frag grenades, but she managed to copy a number of useful looking, low level elemental jutsu as well as a few foreign staples, such as the Hiding in Mist jutsu, and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. She'd drained her chakra levels to nearly nothing to do it, but it might have been the single most productive day of training she'd ever done.
Over the next year, select three of the following projects for Hisana to work on whilst training.
[x] - Fuinjutsu:
[x] - Reverse-engineering the controllable, detonable shuriken
[x] - Reverse-engineering the wrist storage seals
[x] - Ninjutsu
[x] - Work on finding and training Hisana's elemental affinity
[x] - Learn to do an efficient Shushin
[x] - Kenjutsu
[x] - Learn techniques intended to counter ninja from a former Samurai
[x] - Learn to integrate basic ninjutsu into your kenjutsu
[x] - Iryojutsu
[x] - Attend the basic medical theory classes the hospital holds for Academy students.
[x] - Investigate dojutsu specific techniques