61 The Second Phase

Mizuki groaned slightly as he awoke to the sun that just started to rise over the horizon, indicating the end of the first phase of the chunin exams.

Mizuki: {Why the hell do we have to get up so early?}

Hearing a slight sneer, Mizuki turned to his left only to be face to face with Anko, who appeared to already have woken up.

Anko: "Gott say, im proud of you. You were actually able to wake up without me needing to do anything"

Mizuki let loose a light chuckle before yawning, revealing that despite the night's rest, he still wanted to go back to sleep.

Mizuki: {That was a damn uncomfortable position too, I'm starting to think I should have been reincarnated as a Nara.}

Mizuki: "Don't get used to it, I still need you to get me up in the morning when we are chunin."

Anko gave him a fake annoyed side glare before her gaze melted into one of ammusement.

Currently, around half the group of genin had woken up, with the others soon to follow.

Looking around, Mizuki saw that whilst most of the guys were relatively spread out, there were three groups of people who were clustered close together.

Firstly, there was Asuma and Kurenai, who were just oddly close together. A knowing smirk appeared on Mizuki's face as he saw the two as he knew what was passing through their minds.

The second, was Obito and Rin. Apparently, Obito's change in attitude had affected her perception of him, as in this timeline she was not infactuaded with Kakashi, but rather, was in an adorable relationship with Obito.

(A/N: The Obito Rin relationship was the most wholesome in the show (at least them in the third war). Fight me.)

And finally, there was Anko and Mizuki? Mizuki pannicked slightly at the thought. It was true that he enjoyed her company, and she was very attractive. But he was a thirty year old man damnit.

Last thing he needed was to have the internal knowledge that he was a pedophile.

Soon, five minutes passed, and the group of genin were all awake and ready to go.

They left the room that they were in and all converged just outside the outpost, where several different genin were starting to congregate.

Roughly sixty teams had been able to make it to the outpost, as opposed to the maximum of seventy five, still, this left nearly 120 people still in the race.

The low sound created by the constant chatter among the genin rapidly decreased as the noise eventually developed into complete and utter silence, as Shikaku came into view.

Shikaku: "alright *yawn* listen up kids"

Shikaku: "To those of you who *yawn* are here, congratulations on *yawn* passing the first phase of the exam."

Hearing the confirmation that they had passed the first phase officially, smiles of pride could be seen decorating the faces of the majority of the genin.

Shikaku: "Now, *yawn* we are just going to wait for the arrival of the protctor for the sconf exam."

Shikaku: "*yawn* Until then, I'm going to take a *yawn* nap."

Saying that, he unceremoniously began to walk back into the outpost, to find a good spot to continue his nap no doubt.

However, unfortunaetly for Shikaku, these dreams of his never came to pass.

As just when he was about to enter the outpost, a voice could be heard echoing through the canyon.

??: "My, My Shikaku. Always so lazy. What does Yoshino see in you I wonder?"

Shikaku: "Shut it old man."

??: "120 people, eh. I get we are in a war but surely we can afford to be a bit more strict than this for our standards"

Hearing the insult, the smiles that previously decorated the faces of the genin vanished, as they looked around for the source of the voice, expressions of annoyance and anger decorating their faces.

Shikaku: "Unfortuenatly not. It's all hands on deck for this war old man."

??: "I suppose."

Instantly, leaves blew in the wind as they bent around an area before disspeling, revealing a man as they blew away.[1]

Kurenai: "Dad!?"

Shinku: "Hey sweetie, sorry but I can't play favourites here so I can't be to familiar right now, how about we talk about your day later at dinner when you come home?"

Kurenai: "Ok"

Kurenai gave him a bright and innocent childish smile.

Looking around, Shinku noticed that Kurenai was awfully close to the Sarutobi Boy.

Shinku: {IF THAT BOY WAS NOT THE HOKAGE'S SON, I WOULD BEAT HIS ASS INTO NEXT WEEK}

Shinku Yuhi had a mop of black hair, mostly covered by his leaf bandana, although some of it could be seen loose coming down the back, with his eyes being exactly the same as Kurenai's, only his being a deeper blood red compared to her's.

His skin was begining to be worn and wrinkled, clearly having seen better days and soon to see worse with the stress of the upcoming war.

A sword could be seen on his back, overtop the standard konoha uniform with the traditional green flak jacket and black undersuit.

Shinku: "Anyways, I am Shinku Yuhi, and I will be the proctor of the second phase of your exam."

Shinku: "The following exam will be similar to this one, although naturally, the difficulty will be raised."

Shinku: "By the time this exam is over, although there can techniquily be 60 of you who pass the test, I dont expect that number to be above thirty"

Shinku had a dastardly smirk on his face as he saw the reaction of several of the genin transition between confidence to downright fear.

Shinku: "The sight of your second exam; The forty fourth training grounds. Otherwise known as the Forest of Death."

Shinku then went on to explain the rules of the exam, with them having seemingly not been changed compared to when Naruto and his team take the test.

Eventually, Shinku finished explaining the rules and quicly began to to hand out scrolls to teams at a breakneck pace, whilst Mizuki used the opportunity given to take a nap.

Eventually, Mizuki's group was called into the tent, where they were given an earth scroll and sent on their way.

Finally, after what felt like forever, all of the scrolls were handed out and the teams assigned to their entrances, a horn blared as the gates in front of the teams swung wide and all of the teams immediatly lept through them and entered the forest.

Shinku: "Let the second phase of the chunin exam...begin!"

[1] Some Applications of the body flicker use different objects for assistance, such as leaves