10 Chapter 10: Chunin II

27 April- year 8 AK

We had to stay still for a whole hour in a waiting room, all the other teams slowly trickling in.

"How many?" Hana asked.

"Twenty-five teams." Shin drawled, I could smell the sake in his breath from where I stood. And that reminds me.

"I still can't believe your solution had been getting your prisoner drunk," I said.

They had the decency to at least look sheepish, even if it was Hana who, almost uncharacteristically, rolled her eyes and dismissed my whining.

"We only took ten minutes, you're a tough guy, we knew you could handle it." She said.

Still sore because I haven't told her why I set up a tent in the Uchiha District? I wondered.

"Genins." The proctor called our attention, and the somewhat relaxed environment turned into a more tense one. All of us were staring at him waiting for instructions.

"One genin from each team will come to this stand and be given a wooden chip." He rose one in the air so that everyone could see it.

"On it, there is etched either the Saru, Tatsu, or Tora handsign. To pass the second stage your whole team needs to reach the end of the training ground behind the stall in five days, with at least one of every kind of chip."

And before anyone managed to raise their hands to ask a question, the proctor added: "You will be monitored during the test. You all signed up for this, so everything is allowed to complete your mission, if you want to back out, now it's the time."

I swear I heard someone say 'cool'. What's wrong with these people.

Hana started walking towards the stall when I stopped her. Trying to out-think the second stage. In my head, I ran over the instructions that we had just been given, making a comparison with what was implied.

Take the chips in the training ground and reach the end of it. I summed up. Only, the proctor didn't say when we could start gathering the chips. I looked at the stall, there was a jonin giving them away, so I didn't wish to test my plan against him.

I started gesturing. ~Shin take it. Hana memory smells.~

And before they could question my orders I clapped my hands, plastering a goofy smile on my face. And channeling my own inner Naruto I pointed at Shin.

"You on queue duty, since you are boring," I said at a normal volume, which meant everyone was listening, hoping to get information on the competition.

I turned towards Hana: "You on 'not killing anyone duty!' "

She frowned, she had no idea what I was doing, but she trusted me to have a plan. She whined, and grumbled something under her voice, she even growled a bit, before crossing her arms and pointedly looking away from me.

"And you?" Shin drawled, already walking towards the forming line.

"I'll make us friends!" I exclaimed raising my hands in the air.

For the following half an hour, I mingled, annoying the shit out of everyone, but when I started telling raunchy jokes, on one side I disgusted someone, on the other people, were cracking up. And for shinobi trained to not show emotions, it was kind of a big deal.

Shin went back to Hana, occasionally rocking in the balls on his feet, and making a show of giving the chip to our favorite kunoichi.

Whit a skip in my step, I joined them while the proctor divided us into smaller groups, who would enter the training ground through different gates.

We got lined up with one of the youngest groups, they were from Iwa. When I got a close look at their kunoichi, who was in line for the chip while I was mingling, I froze.

She had pink eyes, no pupil, only two or three years older than Sasuke. Kurotsuchi.

I sighed. Bloody hell what's up with people so eager to climb the ladder?

We were led to a stone gate already opened for us, let inside with a "The end of the training ground that you must reach from here it's somewhere north."

Very specific. I rolled my eyes.

As soon as the gate close behind us, the Iwa genins pounced on us, and before my teammates could butcher the fools, I moved.

To the genin eyes, I simply disappeared, no blur, no telling twitch of my muscles, simply, I was no longer there.

I was behind them and kicked their legs out from beneath them, making them fall to the ground. They were good enough to slam their arms down and turn an embarrassing fall into sloppy handstands.

"Attacking someone you know nothing about is the pinnacle of stupidity." I lectured them with a bored tone, "What would your families say?"

The Iwa team scrambled to get on guard, each of the kids assuming what I supposed was their standard taijutsu stance.

"Relax," I said, raising my hands in a soothing gesture. "Shin, Hana, north, full tilt," I said out loud, while my hand quickly gestured.

~Targets stolen before~ And once again I lamented the existence of a less than satisfactory vocabulary in the combat sign language Hana had created years before. It was a Team 10 thing on which I had insisted a lot. Still, it could be better.

"Aaaw, but they want a fight!" Hana cooed at the younger genins.

"And there was this thing I wanted to test on a human target..." Shin argued.

"You are not deep frying the Tsuchikage's grandaughter while we are in Iwa, Shin." I reprimanded him.

"Besides, Kuro-chan looks kind of cute, with her pigtails and whatnot." I kept going when literally everyone's jaws fell on the ground.

"Why...?" stammered the boy on Kurotsuchi's side. While nobody from team ten had exuded killing intent, it was pretty clear that we could have butchered them without breaking a sweat.

And they probably grew up with horror stories in which the Yellow Flash was the monster.

"I didn't come to Iwa to kill children." I gruffed as an answer.

I grabbed my teammates by the shoulders and yanked them towards the north. Then I spoke to the Iwa genin, who were sweating under the implication of my absolute dismissal of their abilities.

"If you make it quick to the objective, you're in for a gift."

And I started running, followed by my teammates, at a speed that no genin could hope to match unless he too trained extensively under Might Guy for the better part of four years.

The terrain was rock. Period. I distantly heard the trickle of a little course of water, but otherwise the training ground we were crossing was simply a plain crisscrossed by trenches, burrows, and likely tunnels. Probably filled to the brim with the strange kind of dangerous animals that enjoyed to populate training grounds. Very much like the Forest of Death, or training ground 44, in Konoha.

After a while, I could feel their eyes boring into my back. I sighed. "Okay, questions?".

"Why are we heading to the endpoint already?" Hana asked.

"I presume it has something to do with your 'making friends' while I was in line." Shino commented.

I smiled smugly. "You guys remember that I'm good at stealing, right?"

They stood silent for a second, letting my answer sinking in, before snickering.

"You pickpocketed them!" Hana laughed.

"And you started to mingle before everyone had returned from the line so you wouldn't have raised suspicion," Shin commented. I could tell that he was actually impressed.

"And that thing with the Iwa team?" he then asked.

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't want Onoki to fall on our backs like a ton of bricks." I explained in a tone that conveyed how stupid the question was.

"I meant how did you know her name, and that she is the Tsuchikage's grandaughter." he clarified with an annoyed tone. Ha! I'll rile you up even if you're drunk.

"I listen when I walk." I smoothly lied. "The granddaughter of Onoki taking the exam was being whispered at every corner since we arrived, and I put it together with the way the other Iwa genins looked at her." I lied smoothly.

"And about the chan part?" Hana asked with an unreadable expression on her face.

"To freak them out. Everyone is big on honorifics, so many and so complex that makes only easier to offend someone." I shrugged.

"You're strange Daiki." Shin accused me.

It wasn't the worst thing I've ever been told, and not far from the truth either.

We crossed another team along the way, they were setting an ambush of some kind, we didn't bother engaging them.

Nine hours later we reached our objective, Hana unnaturally developed sense of direction was more than enough to guide us the right way.

We stopped before a tall stone gate, Immediately noticing the three podiums where we were to place our honestly earned wooden chips.

"Hey before going on, can we play a prank on the competition?" I offered, grinning madly.

Hana, sweet Hana, smiled mischievously in my direction.

"Am I the only one who thinks we are vastly overpowered to attend the exams?" Shin asked rhetorically out of the blue, but he was already taking out a scroll from his pouch.

"So, I can set 15 lethal traps, 12 non-lethal ones, or I can rearrange what I have to make up eight very embarrassing ones."

Obviously, we all agreed on the last option.

"Wait! Let's make one where they have to get drunk to obtain a chip!" Hana suggested.

"Shouldn't we thin the competition?" Shin objected.

I shrugged. "Eh, the more the merrier, besides, if the first stage was about gathering information, the second about... survival, I think? The third will likely be a tournament. The more the opponents the more chances Konoha has to show off."

And so, we spent another three hours making humiliating traps that held a wooden chip as a prize, Shin started snickering halfway through and we had to stop to regain our composure.

During our work, Hana and I followed Shin's instructions to the letter. It wasn't like we weren't able to make a trap of some kind, but ours were mostly obvious and brutal, while Shin guided us to create insidious and invisible ones.

At the end of our work I placed the three wooden chips on their respective podiums and the stone gate opened for us.

The proctor greeted us with a cold tone that did nothing to hide his annoyance at us. Hey, we were being fast tracked to Tokubetsu Jonin, it's not anyone's fault. I sarcastically commented in my head.

"In the next hall there is food, there is a staircase that will lead you to the lower floors, where there are free rooms if you need to rest. You cannot leave this building for the next five days."

We all nodded, the orders were quite simple. "Can we go on the roof? You know, fresh air..." I couldn't contain myself.

The proctor turned on himself and walked away without another word.

Five days later

We spent the days in a comfortable routine. Once chosen the biggest room available, we left it together only for eating. One of us would keep guard on the door, one rested, and one performed light exercises or meditation.

It was difficult for me to train my fire or wind natured change without a leaf to check on my results, but I made do with scraps taken from scrolls.

Why natured chakra was important? After all both Itachi and Sasuke were able to spit fireballs without going through the change of their chakra into a fire natured one.

The ability to change your chakra into an elemental natured one came with three important perks. First, you could go and try to craft your jutsus, or simply use fire natured to lit a candle, just bringing it to the tenketsus on your fingertips and brushing the wick.

Second, it was way cheaper performing elemental jutsus in terms of chakra spent.

Third, it opened the road to ninshuu, which was some hazy strange shit that I didn't understand.

Since the third day, genins started trickling in, most of them were a bit skittish, and the way they reacted to the sound of a wire snapping was hilarious. It confirmed that Shin's traps had hit true.

They herded the teams that managed to pass the stage into a great hall, where the proctor explained the third stage.

A tournament after a month of vacation. Duh.

"But first there will be preliminary matches. You win, you get to the tournament. Lethal force is allowed, however, you'll stop at the moment the referee says so, or you will be stopped." The proctor dropped the 'not-news' on me with a bored tone.

We proceeded to the extraction, and one again, I picked the number seven.

Now, this makes me think it's rigged. I realized.

My suspicion was strangely confirmed by the fact that Kurotsuchi, of all people, was to be my opponent. Either because the Sandaime told Onoki about my reticence about killing, or they watched when I said I didn't want to kill children. Anyway, she and her team were not ready to be chunin, at least skill-wise.

When I let my eyes run over the posted names, I froze. Yugito Nii.

Bloody fucking hell, that's why she looked familiar. Only in the anime, she appears... eight years from now? Something like that.

I gulped. What was terrifying was that I knew what kind of bat-shit crazy stuff a jinchuriki could throw around, and from her I could feel nothing. I didn't dare press my chakra around her to get a feel of how her chakra worked. I had learned that while it was something everyone with sufficient awareness of their chakra could do, it was also very easy to spot for those experienced enough. And the equivalent of 'copping a feel'.

Kakashi had been the one to explain it, giggling madly. I suspect that the total absence of any kind of shame annoyed him.

I got that it was rude, and since then I used it only sparingly, but as long as it gave me an idea of what the person was like, I wouldn't ignore it.

Hana picked Shin. And that confirmed once for all the whole 'rigged' business. It wouldn't do having a single team from Konoha reaching the finals and monopolizing the show. So they played to reduce the risk.

When we regrouped, Hana was looking a bit... defeated?

Ah, she probably wanted some time to shine. She is fast, and definitely no pushover, but one hit kills are hardly a way she can truly see how far she can go.

"We all know that Shin is stronger." She pouted.

"More like 'better suited for open combat', I think." I gently corrected.

She huffed. "Ooh, fuck off, I don't need pity." But her hand gestured ~Kind~

In that contest, it was a 'thank you'. We used that to indicate when we took a non-lethal approach to an ambush, so I'd take that as a victory.

Shin had a bored expression on his face. He didn't care one way or another. His preferences were traps, money, and more recently sake. The thought of surrendering to Hana didn't even cross his mind. Nor hers, for what mattered.

We had to win the whole thing, Hokage's orders. He will have a stroke when he finds out about the jinchuriki. Ha!

An idea wormed its way through my brain before I could stop it. We know that I'm the most well rounded of the group, and frankly, the one who has pushed himself further. So the lion's share of the job was mine already...

"I'll win it." I sighed.

And my teammates turned towards me.

"I'll win it," I repeated. "So Shin can be lazy and sit this one out, while Hana can be her usual competitive self and play with the other genins."

Shin's eyebrows rose into his forehead, while Hana's moth formed a cute 'o' .

I could relate with their surprise, I honestly could. It wasn't like me at all to promise to do something not necessary. Even less so that one teammate could 'play'.

"But you'll owe me. Both of you." I added. I could as well try to win something out of this. "And Hana, you're the one who'll explain to sensei, I don't want Shin to be hanged on a golden rope made of youthful exuberance because he chooses to not participate."

Their expressions relaxed when I added my conditions, I made deals, not favors, they were more used to it. Then we shared a good laugh on the youthful image I had suggested.

"Besides, there aren't many genins strong enough to give us a run for our money." I reasoned. We didn't know that, obviously, but we and the jinchuriki were the actual monsters here, which were the possibilities of a giant unseen threat? Some genin would undoubtedly be good, but without kidding anyone or inflating my ego, my lovely team 10 was downright scary.

7 teams passed the second stage. And while nobody pulled a Kabuto, 5 people were not in a condition to continue. By the way, where the fuck is he? But again, the chunin exams are held twice each year, so maybe he'll start from the next one. Or the butterfly effect is already at play here.

We were 16 ready to go ahead, which meant that the tournament would be composed by 8 contestants. And if I remembered correctly, in the manga the last stage had seen one from Oto, the three from Suna, and seven from Konoha.

Now, three teams from Iwa had made it, Yugito's team had made it whole, another from Kiri, one from Suna, and finally my team. That was before the five wounded or exhausted ones went to the infirmary.

The matches started, and I carefully observed the competition. Most of the genins had only one trick up their sleeve that allowed them to sneak their way forward. Commendable, really, versatility was one of the most useful traits to have.

I dedicated a particular kind of attention to those that picked my eyes as 'potentially dangerous'. Yugito was on top of that list.

She had long, straight, blonde, hair bound with taut bandages, dark eyes and she had yet to start wearing lipstick. She wore a long-sleeved black blouse and purple pants, both of which had a design similar to clouds on them, purple fingerless gloves and a chain of blue beads wound tightly around her right wrist. She also wore the standard Kumogakure forehead protector, sandals and a kunai holster, which was strapped to her right thigh. Her forearms were left bare, while there were bandages that kept the end of her trousers from flapping and revealing her position. A dirty white belt around her waist broke the dark colors of her figure. All in all, similar to she would one day appear but with more care to camouflage.

The way she walked however, was far more revealing. Silently, like most, if shinobi and kunoichi did subconsciously, but she lacked that... 'I don't fucking care about the world' vibe that fully trained jinchuriki had. From what I knew, she had a decisive personality, but her eyes darted around a bit too much for her to be sure of herself. It stood to reason that she wasn't as powerful as she was in the manga. In it, she couldn't transform into the Nibi, so maybe she didn't even have the version 2 of the chakra cloak yet. I certainly hoped so.

It was Shin and Hana's turn. The referee gave the signal to begin, and Shin immediately surrendered.

Hana squealed. She hugged him tightly while the bewildered referee decreed her as the victor. And I gleefully noticed Shin blushing. Ha! And I bet that's not the sake's fault!

I could tease them so much.

Soon, it was my turn. I schooled my expression and walked down into the small arena. Kurotsuchi had jumped down from the balcony in a youthful example of enthusiasm.

I stared at the girl, my eyes scanning her. Iwa kunoichi, 135cm 31kg. Too young to have a niche, chakra coils not developed enough for intensive jutsus. Likely reliant on taijutsu, shuriken and kunais to compensate. Dangerous kekkei genkai and a suiton user.

I looked again on the balcony, searching for her jonin. Kakashi hadn't bothered showing up, but the other' teams senseis were... ninja-ing their way around each other. Likely searching for information while letting slip half-truths and bullshits in equal measure about their home country, maybe bragging about their genins. The referee shouted: "Start!" and the game was on.

Because for me it was a game.

I opened with a mocking smile that angered the girl. Well, there's no reason to not make friends with the next Tsuchikage, is there?

She threw a smoke pellet on the ground and used the following cover to... do something. I couldn't see her after all.

The telltale whistling of shuriken warned me with time to spare and I simply hopped to the side, leaving the smoke cloud in the center of the arena.

She tried to close the distance to... engage in close combat? Is she suicidal? Then I smiled.

The girl had been trained well, her solid bushin was done fast and quietly, and she didn't shout her technique out loud, instead likely whispering it under the sound of the smoke sizzling. However I had to be stupid to not notice the fizzling of the paper bomb on the back of the clone.

Instead of dodging or trying to put some distance between us, I kicked her bombed tsuchi-bushin.

The construct was hurled through the smoke, from were jumped out a startled kunoichi a second before it exploded.

"A naïve plan, bet well executed," I commented with an encouraging smile. "And a tsuchi bunshin at your age, impressive."

She raised her guard and glared at me, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead and her breath heavy. Probably trained to keep quiet in a fight.

"But it took a lot out if you, didn't it?" I asked tilting my head. I took a step forward and engaged her. Still silent.

"Let's see your taijutsu before wrapping this up uh?" I offered. She kept quiet. It could have been unnerving if it didn't come from ten years old with pigtails.

I wasn't behaving like a patronizing bastard humiliating her or anything like that, I simply wanted to know what Iwa nin were taught. It was too soon for her to have learned a style beyond the basic one they taught at the academy. So I was going learn their basic through our little match, if there was one thing team 10 was scary at, it was taijutsu, so we could decode a lot from the way she balanced her weight.

Soon, she stopped keeping quiet because of a strategic choice and started doing it because she was out of breath.

I went forward with a wide punch that she countered with a perfectly executed textbook block: her right forearm protecting her head, which had been my target, and her left arm shot forward, her punch aiming to my crotch.

I raised my left knee, stopping her in her tracks, before kicking her in the gut.

I was matching her speed and carefully controlling my strength, but my hit still threw her back a few steps.

"Your taijutsu is subpar," I noted. She had all the time to kick my leg sideways, or just sidestep.

She was pressing a hand on her stomach while shaking a bit her right arm, trying to loosen up her wrist.

"Don't block head-on when your enemy is physically stronger than you." I lectured.

And for the next ten minutes, we fought hand to hand, and I forced her to bend, sidestep, evade, looking with meticulous attention at how she moved. I offered her openings to see how she would try to hit, I offered her more than one at the same time to see what she had been taught to prioritize. Sometimes I left obvious openings that screamed 'trap', she started refusing to take them after I almost broke her arm when she had overextended herself.

I brought up very gradually the speed, every couple of minutes raising it a bit. She managed to keep up nicely, her sensei did a lot to raise her stamina. But after a while, I felt that I learned everything that I could, and she would have been dead on her feet, if not for the heavy breathing and the occasional cursing.

"You're good for your age." I started. "You adapt well, and even if your taijutsu is... crap, you adapt quickly. Your aim is mostly spot-on and you recognized some of the most obvious traps."

I slapped away her weak kick and swiped away the leg she was standing on.

"You're not good enough, but you'll get there." I smiled at her panting form. She could barely twitch her fingers, rising from the floor was beyond her. Then I saw her breath deepening and her eyes closing. Uh, she passed out.

The referee came over. "The winner is Daiki from Konohagakure." I blinked, taking in the news.

That old bastard!

The Hokage had removed 'eatslug' from my papers!