Chapter 56: The First Exam
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Jounin Kanzaki
Before the Exams began in earnest, there was a formality the Konoha ninja asked she observe. It was their law that the students be given a choice in their growth, since even if the sensei was confident the students might have doubts. Thus, even with their sensei's recommendation, genin teams had the option to refuse.
It was unspoken that her team, as the first of Konoha's allied villages to participate in their Exams, didn't actually have the option to refuse. But she had to ask them anyway.
With dirty looks pointed her way from every Konoha ninja chunin ranked or higher as she left the Hokage Tower, she contemplated how well her team would do with the Exams. She'd never had to participate -- her chunin promotions had been merit-based. She was good at what she did.
While, as an outsider, she didn't have all the information on the Exams -- Jiraiya had told her the bullet points. The first stage of the test always tested information gathering and willpower, the second tested field survival and mission objectives, the third tested combat ability. Doing well in all three was not a promise of promotion, it would be up to Konoha's council who received their flak vests.
And, because her team participated in foreign Chunin Exams, it would be the same for them.
She approached the bamboo forest where Orochimaru's house had been built. The initial structure was fully done and being furnished progressively every day -- Noburu's clone army and Sayaka's loaned ant summons were hard at work on detached buildings nearby. A bath and smokehouse were in the works.
Sayaka didn't understand the need for a smokehouse, but Noburu had said something about Orochimaru's snake summons needing food offerings to remain cordial. She had plenty of bite scars from her chameleons, so she understood that sentiment. If snakes preferred smoked meat, fine.
She passed by a cat-sized ant with a spool of copper wire on her back which a team of ninja mice unwound to carry into the detached buildings, and went in search of her students.
Junko was in the midst of hauling a boulder from the rockpile for the smokehouse's foundations, Noburu was mixing the cement, and Haruki was working on the electrics. Busy little genin. It was just like in Otogakure's first expansion -- when every pair of hands had to help build the village from the sound-floor up.
"Everything going okay? No fires near the roofing tar?" Sayaka's tone was light as she came to a stop, flipped, her coat's internal seat, and sat down with the armored coat as a make-shift tent. Moments later, she flipped the hatch and stepped out of the armory coat to help Junko begin carving the boulder.
"Orochimaru went to play in that mahjong tournament down by the bakery," Noburu mentioned without taking his eyes off the cement. His byakugan was active, so he could monitor the mixture's structure presumably. "Princess, got a crimp in your wire."
Haruki turned and looked down to where the ninja mice had stumbled and produced a bend in the wire. Without further prompting, he bent the wire back into position and gave them the thumb's up to continue.
Junko passed Sayaka a humerus sword and together they started to carve the boulder into smaller blocks for the foundation. "Are the jounin here as lazy as they were last time?" Her question was framed innocently, but Sayaka noted a bit of stiffness in Junko's sword arm.
"They didn't pick a fight, so I had no way of knowing." Sayaka shrugged. "Jiraiya's in charge of the village until the Hokage gets back, so -- "
"The gloves are off, and they're staying off," Noburu snarled with a raised voice.
"He just wanted me to ask." Sayaka held her hands up, warding the vengeful jinchuuriki off further shouting. "And… I recommended you guys for the Chunin Exam."
"Awesome," Haruki spoke up and struck a pose. "We get to style on these soft mainlanders in a professional setting. In front of prospective clients!"
Junko joined in the pose striking, using Nuibari and her humerus sword. "We can show them what hard work can get them!"
Noburu slid in behind them to join in what obviously had been rehearsed poses. "And we can beat their scrawny asses as much as we want."
Sayaka stared at them as they held their pose for a few seconds. Some ninja mice came up nearby and pulled tiny confetti poppers to add to the pose's energy. The tiny amounts of confetti barely reached the genin's knees, but the wind caught them.
"So… you're good with participating in the Chunin Exams? Just need an official yes or no." Sayaka kept her tone neutral, because if she allowed her control to slip she'd have laughed at the stupid poses her team had done. Just a couple months ago, she'd be with them, but from the outside she could see how ridiculous it looked.
They'd need training in better dance choreography to find poses which looked better when held.
She added that to the list of things to teach them later, and returned to work.
They finished the smokehouse and bath over the next day, which left them six days to train in preparation for the Exams. Sayaka noticed right away that there was a gap in their combat ability -- none of them had training in genjutsu.
Junko was a terror to fight when she got serious -- she was fast, strong, and durable. Nuibari afforded her some trap-laying ability with her lightning release ninjutsu. Her kekkei genkai meant she could never be disarmed.
Noburu was the most durable of the bunch, and he was their medic. His chakra strings, coral release, and eyes gave him extensive battlefield control. With massive chakra reserves, he could keep his teammates in fighting condition physically as well as with chakra.
Haruki was hitting his stride with kenjutsu, which made up for his lackluster taijutsu skills. As their ninjutsu specialist, he had a wide array of general jutsu, as well as two elemental releases to use.
Genjutsu was the most obvious weakness in their composition. And it was something she was sure Team Orochimaru noticed during their group training. She taught what she could, and had to hope for the best.
A hope she had to maintain when the Konha military police came banging on their door at the stroke of midnight on the seventh day since the recommendation ceremony.
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Genin Uzumaki
Kushina was upset. She was irate. Perturbed. Irked. Annoyed. The whole spectrum of rage was present in her blood when her family was woken up by the military police at midnight, and she was told there was a warrant for her arrest.
Two Uchiha policemen handcuffed and escorted her from the edges of the village into the urban section. Kushina could see more of the fan-sporting police at work. She glanced her teammates in the crowd, and saw other genin being escorted toward the Hokage Tower.
Many of the genin were loud -- protesting, pleading, one even attempted to bribe their escorts. Kushina's temper made her one of those -- she spent the entire trip telling her Uchina guards what terrible manners they had, waking up her poor geriatric grandpa and making him think she was a criminal.
Other subjects, like not being allowed to get dressed or contact her barrister, also made the list for what she groused about. She was grateful that she wasn't alone in not being given the option to change out of her pyjamas. But she was even angrier that some of the older genin had sleeping attire not fit for the public.
Eugh.
When they got to the Hokage Tower, they were frog-marched down into the basement levels. Dark stone lined the walls -- too dark to see if there were water or blood stains. The only light in the basements were lit candles.
It felt like they were taken deep under the village -- thick pipes lined the walls of the basement, Kushina could hear rushing water within them -- before the arrived at their destination. A massive room filled with freestanding cells and cages of various sizes. In the dim light, she could faintly see a couple gibbets hung up from the ceiling.
There was only one way in or out of the room -- the way they had come.
Into the cells and cages the genin went -- older genin got cells, while the younger and/or smaller ones were fitted into cages. Kushina got the honors of being in a gibbet, along with Noburu she saw once she was heaved off the floor. Once they were locked up, the cuffs were undone and the police left the room without anyone getting an explanation.
"So." Noburu commented, conversational despite being in pajama pants and a t-shirt. "I got the faces of every single one of those duck-headed pigs committed to memory. Wanna get sweet vengeance when we're out of here?"
"That depends, does your idea of revenge require them being alive afterward?" Kushina's response was a vicious snarl. She was hung up in a gibbet in her nightie -- not a position she wanted to be seen in.
"Eh, Iunno. Depends on what this is all about." Noburu shrugged. "If it's something stupid -- we could maim them a little. They don't need two legs to do their jobs." There was a glint of gold chakra, and Noburu's teeth had become visibly sharper. "I'll leave it up to you if we stop at the knee or go higher."
"You're such a gentleman." Kushina let the fantasy of bloody vengeance mollify her as they waited for an explanation.
After what seemed a long wait, there was movement. A burst of smoke in the middle of the room revealed a trio of Konoha ninja. They all wore grey clothes, reminiscent of prison guards. But one wore a high-collar black leather jacket as well. He was handsome, laid back in his body language, with his hair pulled back into a ponytail that resembled a pineapple due to natural spikes.
"Hey," the man said with a shrug and drawn out tone. "Sorry for making you all wait, had to get the facts straight." He waved his hands when the genin in their confinement started to shout.
Kushina noted he wore black gloves -- the kind reinforced by steel, meant to take a hit from kunai.
"Hold your noise lil' girls and big boys. Iffin you quiet right down, I'll tell you what this is about."
"Huh," Noburu muttered and tilted his head. "So that's what Iruka's dad looked like. Nice."
The man glanced at Noburu, but kept waving his hands to quiet everyone down until they were mostly silent. "Nice kids, good and quiet. Let's get this settled then, alright?" He smiled, all pleasant, and started to walk between the cages and cells. "I'm Isamu Umino, proctor for the Chunin Exams. Here to tell who's legit or a scam."
He stopped and glanced up at the two jinchuuriki in gibbets, then kept on going. "See, someone in here went and made a mess. We've narrowed it down to y'all, more or less."
"Okay the bad rhymes are starting to get so annoying," Kushina muttered and banged her head on the bars of her gibbet.
"All you guys were in for a surprise. Each time, the exam's different -- new sights for new eyes. But some of you soldiers stole a file from us. All of our plans for the Exams have gone bust." He spread his arms wide in an exaggerated shrug. "We know some of y'all came in and went out, it's them and their teams we gotta kick out."
"Minus one point for rhyming a word with itself," Noburu said and pointed at the guy. "You're on thin ice, bucko."
Isamu waved his hands, placating, and moved to the other side of the room. "We'll take some of you out, have a talk, a chat. If we find who we're looking for, we're done, that's that. You walk out those doors, we trouble you no more." He interlocked his fingers as he walked. "But if we can't find the ones who went and sneaked, then all of your careers will have unexpectedly peaked."
His tone lowered dramatically as he gravelly spoke without any of his prior rhyming. "Meaning if we can't find the ones who stole intel about the Exams, you're all barred from future Exams. Either we find them, or y'all rat them out."
As if the earlier Isamu never existed, he snapped his finger at one of the rookie genin. The other two Konoha ninja opened her cage, and cuffed her before they exploded into smoke.
As soon as they were gone, the room erupted into noise all over again.
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Genin Kaguya
Oh, how fun! She hadn't been spirited away before, her mother told her it was all the rage twenty years ago back in Kiri. Someone would kidnap people and try to kill them, only to look like a fool if the tables got turned on them. The time of Ryoukoutsusei's ascent to Mizukage had been so interesting.
After the Konoha ninja had left with their first interrogation subject, things became far more interesting. Accusations were flung, would-be leaders tried to talk to a peaceful solution, cowards looked around for any sign of a way out.
If things went well, there would be a riot. Ah! A jailhouse riot was always a good way to start the day. Junko hummed to herself as she stretched what she could in her cage. She'd have preferred a gibbet, but hey. Cages were a good second option, absent any iron maidens.
One of the other genin in the cage with her struggled to turn to look at her given their cramped quarters. When he saw her unconcerned and stretching, his eyes widened with sudden realization. "You!" He pointed at her. "You're one of those Oto ninja! It had to be you and your team who stole information about the test!"
Good old fashioned tribalism had the other genin in their cages abandon the shoving and accusations they'd begun to start accusing Junko and her team.
"Yeah!" "They don't care if they're barred from our exams!" "With allies like you, who needs enemies?!"
Junko kept humming and stretching as she and her team became the objects of their fury.
Noburu, in his gibbet, and Haruki, in his cell, didn't comment on the development.
Haruki's cellmates tried to make a move on him -- grabbing him by his silk robe, and promptly found their noses intimately connected to Haruki's knuckles. "We didn't steal anything from you glorified squirrel people," Haruki groused with a raised tone. "We've been working all week, for Lord Orochimaru. Now, if you think we're good enough to steal stuff while on the job for him...."
"There's no way they know Lord Orochimaru!" "Lord Orochimaru doesn't talk to anyone!" "Liar! You're going to get us all stuck as genin!"
The hundred-odd genin crowd separated by bars and space was unconvinced.
Junko looked around, and sighed. The riot looked significantly less likely now. Oh well.
"You're wrong!" From the other side of the room, Hizashi shouted and pushed his way to the front of the bars. "I am Hizashi Hyuga, and they're telling the truth! My team trained with them -- and they're Lord Orochimaru's house guests!"
"We can't believe you, you have a foreigner on your team too!" "But, he's a Hyuga -- they don't lie to help others." "If it's not them, then who?!"
Junko watched and tested the bars of the cage idly with one hand. A squeeze bent the bars easily enough -- they had to be made with low-grade iron. Her eyes narrowed. Low-grade iron cages weren't enough to hold ninja, because the iron couldn't endure chakra treatment to increase its strength.
"Wait a minute," one of the older genin -- just as pudgy as Noburu -- pointed at a rookie in a nearby cage. "I heard you asking jounin about the Exam at my aunt's restaurant!"
The rookie in question firmly denied the charge, all while his cellmates circled in on him. Alas, he couldn't put up as much a fight as Haruki to make them back off.
Isamu returned with his fellow ninja and the rookie they had questioned, and took the other rookie who had been outed as asking questions. They had the good graces to put her in the cell he had vacated, gave her a bit more room.
However, they had only been gone a few minutes before they brought the rookie back.
"Come now, kiddies, don't waste my time," Isamu complained with a sigh. "When I'm in a bad mood I compulsively rhyme." They selected an older genin to question next, and left the room with their target.
The crowd murmured to themselves as they tried to sort out who it could be. Strangers asked each other who had been near the Hokage Tower in the past week. Every fifteen minutes or so, Isamu and his fellows would come by and swap out who they talked to. Each time they swapped out, the ones who had been talked to would refuse to talk about it.
Junko could feel the tension in the air increase again, nearing where it had been in the first place. But, she noticed, there was no easy way to relieve the tension. Whenever the genin facing questioning was swapped out, the tension rose considerably.
When Isamu swapped out some kunoichi for another, someone snapped. An older genin tried to shove her way out of the cell when it opened for the exchange. Junko felt nothing for her as she made it all of ten steps before one of Isamu's ninja neck-chopped her and put her over his shoulder.
"Oh, looks like we got a guilty mind." Isamu rubbed his hands together. "Why don't we have her teammates join this time?"
Isamu and his other helper returned the kunoichi they had first wanted to talk to, and took the escapee's two teammates.
A squeak drew Junko's attention. There was a rat -- familiar after a moment's thought. "Keigo?" She whispered with a smile.
The ninja rat nodded, and slipped her a piece of paper before he scurried off into a nearby cell.
There were shrieks and cries as the ninja rat scurried, which gave Junko time to read the scrap.
'We's busting out of here. Be ready to make a break for the door.'
She nodded, sure Noburu saw her, and cracked her knuckles to make herself ready.
Isamu returned with his fellows, without any of the genin from before, all smiles and happy faces. "We found some promising criminals," the Konoha ninja sing-songed as he skipped through the cells. "But all in all, the number's so minimal. Why, I feel like there's so much more talking to do." He came up to Noburu's gibbet, and put his hands on his hips as he looked up. "What's up, little guy. How's that sound to you?"
"Sounds like rain," Noburu responded and kicked his feet in his gibbet.
"Wha -- "
The second, the literal second Isamu opened his mouth, Noburu snorted and hocked a phlemy projectile right in the elder ninja's mouth.
Isaum's eyes bugged out of his head, bloodshot, as he started coughing and wheezing with his hands clasped around his throat.
Junko casually reached out and grabbed the ankle of one of Isamu's helpers as they ran to assist. With deft ease, she had him hit the ground, then flung him into a nearby cell wall.
The third helper found herself lifted off the ground with Kushina's legs around her neck. The Uzumaki girl held her tight as she improvised a knee-joint sleeper hold. Once she was still, Kushina dropped her.
Junko and her team made quick work of getting out of their confinement. Noburu's reduction jutsu allowed him to shrink inbetween the gibbet, Haruki melted the bars of his cell, and Junko simply bent the bars of her cage away.
"Everyone who wants out, gets out. Let's go before the duck-ass brigade mobilizes." Noburu and Junko easily tore the doors off most of the cells, while Haruki helped Kushina down from her gibbet with acidic steam.
Isamu rolled on the ground, hacking and coughing like his life depended on it, while they engineered an escape.
Junko was unsurprised when lots of the genin in their cells were alarmed that a jailbreak had been attempted. While Team Orochimaru joined them, along with some rookies and a couple more desperate teams, the vast majority stayed in their confinement without moving.
They looked at them like they were maniacs for leaving the cells, cages, and gibbets. When the last cage door was pulled open, Isamu had recovered enough to pull a whistle from his jacket and begin blowing on it.
Junko was about to stomp on him to silence him, but Noburu grabbed her arm and pointed at the door. Freedom lay just up those stairs.
"Cheese it!"
Up the stairs they ran, the pyjama parade, through the floors of the Hokage Tower basements. Junko skipped rather than ran, but kept up all the same. She was sad they didn't have a riot, but hey! A jailbreak was okay!
In minutes, they were outside and ready to scatter. However, it became clear they weren't alone -- as several grey-uniformed ninja stood in a circle around the door of the Tower, and along the walls of the buildings around it.
The cool night air contrasted the stuffy Tower they'd left behind. Through the doors behind them, they could hear cries of despair and anguish that contrasted the silence outside. It put Junko in a great mood.
"Alright!" Junko grinned and pulled two humerus swords from her shoulders. "A fight!"
"No no no!" From amongst the group, another black-coated figure stepped forward with her hands held up. "No fighting! The first part of the Exam is complete!" She had long brown hair, and an overall frazzled. "I'm Keiko Umino, a proctor for the Exam. You passed!"
"...You wanted us to break out?!" Kushina, and another kunoichi with red triangle tattoos on her face both shouted in near-perfect sync. The sentiment was echoed in other genin -- but they remained on guard. "You had us arrested and wanted us to break out?!"
"The exam was testing your ability to resist interrogation and prevent information being taken by the enemy -- of course we wanted you to escape!" Keiko kept glancing at Junko's humerus swords -- clearly, she considered Junko a threat.
How complimentary Konoha ninja could be, when they weren't being lazy.
"'Umino'... so either they're already married or Iruka had a bigger family than I thought." Noburu crossed his arms and arched his brow. "You doing good Junko, Princess?"
Junko guessed it to be some future information, and spun her humerus swords in her hand while the despair and anguish from the basements behind them grew worse. "I'm good. Ready to get my hands bloody."
"Other than having my robe touched by people who consider bathing a suggestion, I'm good." Haruki disdainfully muttered and joined his teammates in the crowd. "Seriously, does Konoha not have deodorant at least?"
Junko giggled at the thought -- it would be so easy to track Konoha ninja down if they stank. She tuned back to the other Umino talking as she mentioned the next phase of the Exam.
"...So. The next phase of the Exams will take place at the twenty-third training area tomorrow morning. You've completed the first part of the exams, and you should be proud of that." Keiko gave them a dramatic thumb's up, as if that diffused the whole situation. "Any questions, genin?"
"Yeah," Haruki piped up. "Since it's after midnight, you mean 'tomorrow' to mean at least twenty-four hours right?"
Keiko hesitated to respond, then glanced at Junko. She flinched when Junko spun her swords around and blew a kiss in her direction. "Um. Yeah. Sure, let's go with that."
While they might be lazy, at least Konoha ninja knew how to read the metaphorical room and realize actions would have consequences.
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Hey, I'm back! A little rusty, but hopefully it's an enjoyable read! On to the next phase of the Chunin Exam!
