7 Chapter Seven

Inside my tank my vision had returned enough to the point I could now see my reflection clearly in the glass.

Sadly anything beyond that was still just a blur.

One thing I noticed immediately was my eyes seemed to be an odd orange colour.

I have no idea what they transplanted into me but their appearance was freaky to say the least.

My body that would randomly spasm with pain was also almost settled down now. Thankfully meaning it had almost adapted to the cells they transplanted into me.

Honestly if not for gaining a body like Shin Uchiha before my rebirth I can honestly say there would be zero chance of my survival especially when you add the eye transplant that evil bastard also added just to increase my suffering.

The guy is definitely one of the biggest sadists I had ever come across and that's for sure.

Even my time on Team 6 and some of the ninja's we would have to combat be they from rival villages or missing Nin seemed like Mr Rogers by comparison.

Speaking of my time with Team 6, after my month off to come to terms with my having killed two people we got back to business almost immediately.

As I suspected Macaca had experienced quite a growth after our disastrous first C rank mission.

He took his role far more seriously from that point on and rarely if ever complained.

Sure he still drove me mad though as despite the shift in work ethic he was still a hardcore Hiruzen fanboy and his every action since our return to action seemed to go by the motto WWHD or "What would Hiruzen do?"

As such any action we took that didn't conform to this rather stifling world view would have to be debated over and over again.

Honestly if not for having to take another month off after Rugosa's first kill and Macaca's own later on my ideas of killing him and burying him in a shallow grave may actually become a reality.

Our first year as a team was a rather eventful one.

We garnered experience in so many varied types of missions of varying degrees of difficulty that by the time Sakumo Sensei informed us we were to participate in the Chuunin exams we were ready for almost any eventuality.

Hell we were over qualified for such an exam by that point as Rugosa, and Macaca were easily at the elite Chuunin level with myself now easily able to hold my own with almost any Jonin we came up against.

Infact by that point Sakumo Sensei would often leave such actions up to myself and would only step in if he felt I made a mistake or the enemy was beyond me (which wasn't very often).

Unfortunately he couldn't come with us to the Chuunin exams as it was being held in the Hidden Sand Village and he had a rather negative relationship with that village having killed so damn many of them in the previous war.

As such he pretty much left me in command of our team.

He did however ask his friend the Eternal Genin Might Duy to keep an eye on us just in case.

It was with these circumstances we travelled to the Land Of Wind and the Hidden Sand Village along with the other Genin Teams due to take the Exam's.

The travel was brutal as going from the land of Fire to wind was like going from Naboo to Tattooine in Star Wars.

How the people here can live such lives I have no earthly idea.

The only thing keeping me remotely comfortable was the fact I could use Water Release to create a seemingly endless amount of drinking water for myself my team and Duy Senpai.

Thankfully the hellish travel eventually came to an end and we arrived at the gates of the hidden Sand.

As expected the relationship between them and the Leaf had improved after our first C-rank mission as the tariffs imposed on the Land of Earth and Hidden Stone aided the impoverished Shinobi Village to no end.

As such the citizens of this village weren't as downtrodden as I was expecting.

Hell some even seemed downright optimistic.

We quickly went through the entry procedures and logged our identities and handed over our Shinobi identification cards for the remainder of our time here.

From there we were escorted to the area we would be staying for the duration of our stay.

It was nothing fancy just a small house made with clay in the similar style of the rest of the architecture here.

Each team was thankfully assigned their own dwelling and in ours it was just Rugosa, Macaca, and I as we were the only team here without their Jonin Sensei.

As expected that didn't stop Duy Senpai from stopping in to check up on us from time to time.

I spent the days preceding the first part of the exam exploring the areas of the Hidden Sand we were allowed to view.

Obviously these were mere what could best be described as the tourist areas but it was enjoyable none the less.

As someone who spent most of his time in this life in the Leaf seeing a whole other Shinobi village was incredibly interesting to me.

It also helped that I was rather loose with my money and thus earned quite a good reputation with the store owners in the area too.

Sadly the peaceful days had to eventually come to an end and they did with the first part of Chuunin Exam's that being the written portion.

We were immediately directed to the examination area, thankfully there was little theatrics here as the Sand simply got down to business and proceeded to issue the written tests almost right away.

As I had studied extensively since I had come to this world I was one of the few in the class who didn't have to resort to cheating to pass.

The same went for Rugosa who would often help me in the planning stages of any of our missions over the last year.

Between us we managed to garner enough points on the test to secure our place in the next round.

And yet I still wasn't leaving anything to chance.

As such I used the Chakra Strings I had learned to mimic the Ito Ito no mi and used Macaca as a marionette moving his hand over his paper filling out every answer to make sure he also passed.

Thankfully I had become so skilful with Chakra Strings over this year that even the examiners from the Hidden Sand didn't even notice their use.

Then came the final hidden question which was designed to separate the weak from the strong.

Said question was remarkably similar to Ibiki's from the Naruto Chuunin exams with one minor difference.

It was obviously not to test if we had the will to put our careers on the line but if we were willing to sacrifice team mates for the good of the mission.

Given the nature of the village we were in it was obvious that the answer that Sakumo Sensei drilled into us over our year together wouldn't be accepted here.

As such I informed my team mates via the hand signs what to do.

We each cut the others of our group free for the "good of passing the exam".

Of course neither Rugosa or Macacsa seemed confident but they trusted me.

I simply hoped I hadn't over analysed the situation.

Thankfully I sighed with relief when after a brief bit of posturing and staring by the examiner we were informed we passed.

"As expected Shu's perspective proved accurate" Rugosa praised me.

Macaca simply nodded in gratitude.

We were then informed where the next stage of the exam was to take place and returned to the small house we were staying in.

We had a small celebration for passing the first stage during which my team mates and a downtrodden looking Might Duy (Who failed the final question) asked how I managed to see through the purpose of the exam.

I simply explained that this village doesn't hold the same mentality as we were trained by and which made determining the exams reason even easier if you thought about it.

Of course my explanation shocked and dismayed my team mates and Duy Senpai as none of them gave it all that much thought.