15 3/4

The first museum we visited was the Exhibition Hall of Shinobi Warfare. It recounted the events surrounding all three wars and Kusagakure's stance during the period. They were non-belligerent during the first, they sided with Konoha for the second war and tried to remain neutral during the last war. Their location between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth begrudgingly pushed them into the conflict during the final stages of the last war, were they sided with Konoha only on paper. In reality, no Kusa shinobi fought; they remained protecting their lands from the other two nation's onslaught. By the end of the war, the northern part of the Land of Grass was the center of the scuffles between Iwa and Konoha, but after the destruction of the Kanabi bridge and the Yondaime Hokage's decisive victory, most of the fighting in the area was done.

Kusa recovered quickly and went back to their neutral stance between the two nations. Even if there was no mention of their relationship with Amegakure, I would guess Kusa was happy that most of the fighting took place in the Land of Rain.

The 'museum' only had some documents, rusted weapons and various paintings of battles and aftermaths. Nothing of worth.

The letter I was after was in the next museum we visited, the Kusagakure National Museum, which showcased some historical documents -those without any real value I presumed, it was a shinobi village after all- and other excavated small artifacts regarding its foundation and its early history. There, in a deserted and almost forgotten section, the letter old man Yataro wanted was exhibited.

Kusa was founded later than the other shinobi villages, but the Land of Grass was already stablished before that. After the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth created their respective shinobi village and unified their lands, the daimyo of the Land of Grass decided to follow the same steps. Why did a letter from the Nidaime Tsuchikage ended up in a Kusagakure museum? The grass daimyo bought the western arable lands from the Land of Earth, the same region where the second Tsuchikage's family -or clan- allegedly originated from before moving to Iwagakure after its foundation. The letter was just one of the many minor documents found later in the area.

The letter was almost completely foxed, the paper browned and its borders were chipped. The ink had all but faded and blotches covered what little hasn't vanished yet. I could only make out a couple of words and kanji here and there, but it didn't bother me. I wondered why old man Yataro wanted this thing, it shouldn't have any historical value if it had not been stolen yet.

'Now, all I have to do is plan.'

The next morning, we visited another small museum and had lunch afterwards in a local restaurant serving Kusagakure's gastronomic specialties, those being different types of game meats. Mostly different types of boar. Bow hunting was a national hobby, I learned from the waiter. There was even a yearly competition of glass arrowhead hunting.

That afternoon, we stayed at the hotel preparing for the exams. We went through formations, tactics, information gathering protocols and a few rounds of 'where can everything go to hell.' Suguna and Kichiro shared their experience of their last exams with me. Kichiro also set us up with a lot of different tactics to use against rock jutsu -him being a lighting user and their old teammate having to fight an Iwa genin on the final round. I shared some of my simple pain-inducing poisons with them and gave them each a small vial of the antidote too, just in case.

"Should we coat kunai with these right now?" Kichiro looked at sitting on his bed. Suguna was sharpening her ninjato and her tanto on the bathroom.

"These toxins degrade quickly with air, so unless you can keep them sealed in a scroll..."

He put the vial inside his blue coat and cocked his head. "Where did you study poisons? Did Yugito Nii teach you?"

"Yes and no. I've always wanted to study poisons and she gave me a small book. Most of it has been testing, failing, and trying again. Kumo is not renowned like Kiri is." I sighed.

Kichiro nodded again, and went over to check on Suguna.

They went to sleep early, and I was left alone sitting at the hotel's reception to plan. I only had one clear reference about this type of exams: the Konoha's chunin exams. If anything was similar, according to the schedule, was the final round at the local stadium. All I could do was assume what the prior rounds would be, but I was almost certain one of them would be a team test.

As every night, I cleared my head and went into deep meditation. There was something bothering me in the back of my mind since we left Kumo, and I couldn't point a finger at it.

Orochimaru. I forgot about Orochimaru and his Kusagakure base.

'Fuck!'

I opened my eyes around 4 am. How the hell could I forget about such minor detail?

Orochimaru was one of the people I wanted to kill or, if Itachi did everything according to canon, I had to kill Kabuto to avoid the fucking mess the fourth war was going to be. Neither should have been pardoned at the end of the manga in my opinion.

'Let's see.' I thought to myself, trying to remember the original timeline. My memory was perfect, true -a benefit of the gamer's mind- but that didn't mean I could recall everything from my past life. Every day I forgot something new, and it felt dreadful not knowing what memories you were forgetting with each passing day. Some things stayed, like my bitch of a mother and-

'No, focus on the present.' I breathed in and out,

Orochimaru was a part of the Akatsuki until Itachi arrived and bitch-slapped him away. When did that happen?

The Uchiha massacre happened when Sasuke was seven, so if it didn't happen already, it will happen soon. I wouldn't know, it's not like that type of news would be made public immediately, but I haven't heard any rumors yet.

So Orochimaru was probably still wearing the black and red-clouded cloak, or he recently ran away. He would then go to the Land of Rice and establish Otogakure.

Was I safe? If I used my kekkei genkai publicly, would that put a giant target over my head? I had my orders from the Raikage, although it seemed like a bad idea now. I was strong, but not strong enough to survive Orochimaru yet. But then again, he wasn't interested that much in Kumo's version of the magnet release, didn't he?

'No, fuck that guy.'

I wouldn't go back to being afraid. I needed to my promotion, I needed to get strong quickly enough to take the world, so the world wouldn't take her from me.

I'll give them the show the Raikage expects, and we'll see the repercussions later. At most, this will put an international target over my head, but that also meant that Kumogakure would have my back.

In time, my iron sands would make me unstoppable.

Until then, I'll have to survive.

Opening my inventory, I started sorting my supplies, my poisons, my antidotes, the kunai and the shuriken -and their poisoned variants-, my black sand and my crimson sand, just in case.

"You look worried." Haou-sensei commented that morning.

"I am worried."

"Now that's a nice building." Suguna observed.

Haou-sensei walked us early to where the exams were to start; a huge building constructed with of maple-leaf colored wooden planks, stone pillars and covered with blue rooftiles. It had the standard old Japanese building look that most of the village's structures shared, and it was surrounded by a beautiful green garden and cherry blossom trees that I bet looked beautiful in spring. Above the door, the words "Kusa Shinobi Administrative Building" were painted proudly.

"This is where I leave you." Haou-sensei addressed us. "You know the drill, so come back alive. You are strong, you will do this. But remember there's no shame in walking away if your lives are in danger."

That last remark was obviously meant for me.

We thanked him and went through the building's main door into a large reception area that was almost empty, except for a single jonin who was leaning against the opposite wall with his arms crossed.

He was wearing the typical jonin attire of Kusa bar the common straw hat -dark pants and shirt, dark green jonin vest and typical combat boots. The only peculiar thing was his head, it was covered by bandages, even his hair if he had any. Only his eyes could be seen.

He was holding a note pad on one of his hands, so without a pause, we approached him.

"Names?" He stated with a lazy but unusually loud voice, still leaning against the wall. Suguna staggered a bit, surprised by his loud voice.

"Suguna, Kioshi Shirasu and Kichiro Nagumo, from Kumogakure." Kichiro answered.

"The girl, to room five. You," the jonin said to Kichiro, "to room four and you, to room two." He didn't like our curios glances. He pointed in the direction of a hall to the left. "Move!"

We nodded to each other and walked through the corridor at the end of the reception hall. The first door to the right had the number 2 painted over the door's header. I gave one last smile to my teammates and went inside.

It was a small sized classroom, with rows of desk, white walls, white ceiling, big windows covering one of the walls, a lustrous wooden floor and a teacher's desk in front of all the others. An in that desk, right next to the door I just barged in, a jonin sat with a serious expression.

"Welcome. Go and sit down." The proctor greeted me unemotionally. He was a short and stout individual, but imposed respect to everyone around him. The long katana strapped to his back, a nodachi, really helped to uphold that effect.

As most of the shinobi in this village, he wore the simple jonin attire, and besides his stature and the blade, his only special feature was a dense black beard. Also, his head was bald. He looked badass in my opinion.

The room was packed with genin. About 16 kids were sitting, patiently waiting for the test to begin. I could see their names floating above their heads forming a sea of semi-transparent boxes.

I sat down at an empty place at the middle, next to a kid from Iwa. He didn't look tough, besides his level, but appearances can be deceiving -me being the prime example. He looked down at me and turned away, scoffing.

Name: Senzo SatakeTitle: Genin of Iwagakure.Level: 36Age: 12Senzo is a genin from Iwagakure. He specializes in taijutsu, learning his family's fighting style from a young age. He's the youngest of three brothers, and as such, he's both loved and resented by his them.Relationship level: Neutral.

Before I could Observe any other genin, the proctor stood up and gestured us to quiet down.

The classroom immediately became dead silent, everyone looked anxious and glanced around themselves.

This was clearly going to be a written test, but what would it really be? Would it be a simple information gathering test like Naruto's or a more convoluted trial with some obscure purpose in mind?'

The proctor stood in front of us and studied us for a while before unsealing a bunch of papers.

"You will remain silent." He simply voiced.

He handed a stack of papers to each genin sitting in the front and motioned them to pass the exams backwards, so they took one and did as told.

"This is a standard exam involving everything a chunin should know." The proctor continued while the exam papers were passed around. "Your team will be graded according to your individual scores, and only the top 60% will pass. You are not allowed to copy or disturb any other genin. Begin." He sat down in the teacher's desk, crossed his arms and leaned backwards wrinkling his nose. His focused gaze began scanning the room.

I looked down at the test in my hands. Almost all the questions were about information not taught in the academy. Advanced formations, historical weaponry, historical facts, chakra theory, nature transformation theory, basic anatomy, international border laws and their history before the foundation of the shinobi villages, important moments of history, etc. Questions you would expect a chunin to know, with answers not normally taught at the academy.

I answered them all as best as I could, but the anatomy portion was centered on first aid knowledge which I didn't really cared to learn, gamer body and all.

Another thing to add to the ever growing 'To Learn' list, I guessed.

During the test, I didn't see nor sense anything suspicious. The proctor remained seated in front of the class, calmed and collected, with a stern eye focused on each and everyone of us. None of the genin were called out or kicked out. This was just a simple test, made to assess our knowledge of shinobi topics that we should have learned after graduating.

However, even if I correctly answered ninety percent of the test, passing this section would also depend on my teammates' score and the average score of the whole batch of genin.

I shrugged. 'Well, the die is cast.' I finished my test and relaxed back on my chair.

After an hour, the bearded proctor began collecting the tests and ushered us out of the classroom. There, Suguna and Kichiro were already waiting for me.

"How did you do?" he asked me.

"Yeah, fine." I answered nonchalantly. "Had some trouble with the anatomy part, but everything else was a piece of cake."

Suguna was standing next to him, chewing on her lips and holding her magatamas beds between her hands. Kichiro had his arm around her shoulders.

"You?" I asked them.

"Oh, we both did well. Nothing so complicated, Haou-sensei hammered most of that information into our heads the first year." Kichiro answered and Suguna nodded in agreement.

I turned to the multitude and began Observing whoever I found interesting.

There were five teams from Kusa, three teams from Ame, four teams from Iwa, two teams from Taki and us, the single team from Kumo. That meant 45 genin on 15 teams.

Kusa, as the locality, had the most participants and Iwa was second. I was impressed to find two teams from Taki, as I believed they allied with Konoha, but since they became more neutral after the war, they didn't seem to mind sending genin to this particular exam.

It was obvious that we, as the only team from Kumo, were at the receiving end of some of glares. Some ignored us and some were studying us, but some of the closest ones were shamelessly scowling in our direction.

Konoha and Suna didn't send any teams, nor did they to the last exam in Iwa as Sadako informed me. It wasn't unexpected. I believe they schedule their own independent chunin exams for themselves and their allies.

Most of the other genin in these exams weren't high leveled, and only a bunch of them looked like they could give me a run for my money. But all was a conjecture, there was nothing I could surely say about them.

Two teams from Iwa and one from Ame looked tough, based on their levels alone. The highest level genin was an Iwa kid named Shuzo Satake, level 38, and judging by his last name, he had two brothers in this exam. One of them sat besides me during the test.

That was all. I couldn't see, not from last names nor from their description, any kekkei genkai wielder or any member from a known clan among the participants.

I was halfway through my assessment when a group of jonin stood in front of the crowd. One voiced, "Silence and listen!" and proceeded to name all the genin teams that passed. "Senzo Satake, Sachi Satake and Orito Koide from Iwagakure; Kichiro Nagumo, Suguna and Kioshi Shirasu, from Kumogakure; Yoshitora Kane, Kinuye Kido and Umeka from Kusa..." He went on naming the nine teams that passed the first portion of the chunin exams: three Kusa teams, three Iwa teams, two Ame teams and us.

Some kids celebrated quietly, while others complained loudly when the jonin concluded his listing. They were kindly removed the premises by the other proctors.

"Congratulations everyone," the jonin spoke up after the losing teams left the building, "the next part will begin immediately on training ground one." And without saying anything else, all the jonin shunshined away.

"Uuuh... where is training ground one by the way?" Kichiro asked me.

"Guess we'll have to ask around." Suguna answered more calmly, her magatama beads back to their resting place around her neck.

"It's one and a half miles to the east." I said reviewing the villages map in the corner of my vision. "There was a small map at the hotel." I added after I noticed the questioning they were giving me.

We ran and followed the map east, and reached the training grounds where we saw the crowd of genin begin to form again. The same jonin that announced the passing teams, now wearing a straw hat, stood again in front of the group.

"The next portion of the test," the proctor began to address the lot even if some teams still had to arrive, "will be a team-based survival test. Each team will responsible of a flag to defend, and to pass, you will need to procure two flags and exit the area before sunset of the third day. However, there are some rules." The proctor consecutively raised a finger accentuating each rule. "First, you're not allowed to tamper in any way nor move or remove your team's flag from its mast until the dawn of the second day. Second, leaving the area without the required flags will grant you a disqualification. And third, if any member of a team dies," he concluded with an eerie voice, "the entire team will be disqualified."

Murmurs erupted between the genin, but the proctor continued.

"One last thing, though. The exams will be held in the valley beyond the Emerald Mountains," he said pointing to the hills to the west, "then a proctor will guide each team to their corresponding flag. It'll be a two-hour run, so get going." He motioned us to follow the group of jonin, who began walking to the village's western entrance.

The silence only lasted about ten seconds, followed by immediate complains, grumbles and murmurs among each team, as they began to follow.

I focused on the problem at hand.

We had three days to collect two flags before leaving the area, similar to the Konoha's Forest of Death exam. But here there was a catch, we had to defend our flag during the first day without moving it. Scuffles would thrive as teams will send scouts to observe or capture an enemy flag, which might prove a good tactic; leaving some teammates in defense and sending the others on the attack to secure a flag on the first day, and then defending both until the next day. We'll have to keep an eye on counter attacks or an attack on the defending teammate.

After crossing the village's gates, we ran at low chunin speeds heading west to a modest mountain chain -there really wasn't anything like Kumo's mountains. The climb wasn't very taxing, but some of the kids were panting halfway through. That was a great way to take point out the physically weak genin. I Observed each of them and memorized their names.

This time, Kichiro and Suguna didn't tire much.

An hour and a half later we crossed the mountain pass onto the next valley, where we collectively gasped at the beautiful jade-green forest that emerged. It covered the whole valley, from the feet of this mountains to the base of the snowy peaks miles away to the west. From this height, I could even distinguish through the canopy several small streams meandering around the trees. Meandering waters always meant a low water table and flat terrain, a rare landscape to find so far from large water masses, specially this cold. It was clear that the whole valley had an extremely differentiated microclimate.

"Fuck this is beautiful!" A kunoichi from Ame exclaimed.

"Amazing! and so green." Another girl, this time from Iwa, added.

The jonin ushered us go move, and we headed down to some small buildings halfway down the slope of the mountains, passing a small signpost next to the trail.

"Quiet Forest.Only authorized shinobi beyond this point."

A small shiver crawling down my spine reminded me of the Forest of Death.

As the crowd of genin and the proctors approached the small block of buildings, another group of Kusa shinobi walked out to receive us.

"Each team will now follow an assigned jonin to their respective position." The proctor ordered, and soon enough a jonin approached my team and beckoned us to follow her.

Kichiro and Suguna were fine, if a little winded, from the two-hour jog, but just as fast and just as silent, we descended to the foot of the mountain and entered the forest.

The trees were not as massive as those shown in the Forest of Death, but they were numerous. Most of them were conifers -pines, spruces and firs- and scattered elms and small birch trees. The mossy groundcover and the shrubs and wildflowers scattered around added to the evergreen sensation of the forest. Only the small trees and oaks were bare of green, as they already shed their seasonal leaves. There was no trace of snow, but I could feel the cold slowly creeping into my body. The tall conifers already blocked a good part of the sunlight, and I wasn't looking forward to the cold nights inside this place. At least we carried our winter cloaks sealed in ours scrolls.

Not long after, we reached a grass clearing among the trees were sunrays touched the ground and some berries grew. In the center, a 6 feet metal pole protruding from a small stone altar-like structure stood.

The jonin kept quiet and climbed the pole with chakra. She unsealed a small piece red cloth and tied it to the top.

"There you go," she said after dropping down, "that's your flag. Do not move it or tamper with it until the sun comes out tomorrow."

"Thank you." Suguna replied.

The jonin smiled, made a peace sign and shunshined away.

It was already about five o'clock in the afternoon and the sun was already falling behind the western mountains, so we started with the basics.

We quickly double-checked our supplies: kunai, shuriken, traps, scrolls, camping gear, exploding notes, etc. We were all set up. We also had enough food to last for about a week, more if I didn't eat.

"I'll go find a good place to set up camp." Kichiro began. "Camping under the flag wouldn't be a good idea and we better have some trees nearby to protect us in case of an ambush. Kioshi, you and Suguna should start laying traps around the flag before we lose daylight to deter other competitors from attacking, that would be the best way to at least slow them down. Make them as hidden as you can, but maybe leave a couple obvious ones for them to think we are not good at laying traps; maybe they'll get arrogant and-"

"Yeah yeah, Kichi. We got it." Suguna gave him a peck in the cheeks.

'So fucking cute.'

"The forest is about 10 miles across and wide. If there are 9 teams around, that means that there should be around three miles between every flag if they are equally spaced." I commented. "That's too close for my liking, so don't go too far Kichiro, we still have to make lunch. If I sense anything, I'll let you both know."

Suguna and I got to work and began laying down traps.

I was hiding some explosive traps around de outer rims of the clearing when a notification rattled me up.

Ding!

Airborne Toxin detected![Resisted.]

I opened my eyes wide and jumped to my feet, scanning the area. We were alone, no metal signal whatsoever around us, only Kichiro's some feet away.

On the lower right corner of my vision, a small red window was blinking. I selected it.

Status Effects:

Long acting neural toxin [Resisted].- A strong acting airborne toxin secreted by the Suigiku flower that provokes hallucinations and psychosis.Effects commence after one to three hours of exposure; psychosis begins after a 36-hour exposure.

"Fuck!"

"What?!" Suguna leaped to her feet, taking out a kunai and scanning the area.

"There's poison in the air, a hallucinatory toxin." I dryly commented through clenched teeth. "Get Kichiro!"

Suguna scampered to get her boyfriend.

'What kind of forest is this?' I wondered. If there was a toxin in the air, this test had just gotten far more difficult. It didn't matter if it was a slow acting kind, every genin in the forest will be hallucinating in a matter of hours, and by the end of the third day...

"Fuck!" At least I was immune, because of the gamer's mind perk or my Poison Resistance skill I wasn't sure, but my teammates could start hallucinating soon.

"What happened?" Kichiro arrived with Suguna, looking at me worriedly.

"There's a toxin in the air," I answered, "secreted by one of the plants in this forest. It's a hallucinatory poison that will yield psychotic effects after a long exposure."

Kichiro's face morphed to a worry expression. "Can you make an antidote?"

"I'll need to identify the plant first, but even the simplest of poisons require complex processes and unexpected ingredients, so I don't believe I can create an antidote, not here and not fast enough" I confessed.

"What do we do?" Suguna asked with her hand around her magatama beads.

"Is any of you seeing or hearing or sensing anything out of the ordinary?" I asked.

"H-How could we know?" Suguna's eyes glanced around.

"Use your experience." I began. "This place is not so different from the Land of Lighting's forest near the borders, if you feel anything out of the ordinary, tell the others. Hallucinations might be visual, auditory, olfactory or tactile; they can even mess with your equilibrium or your thermal regulation. Work from your experience." I was looking at them dead-serious. "I've studied with poisons and worked on my immunity: this will not affect me. Any suspicious symptom you talk to me, ok?"

Suguna was trembling, and Kichiro just hugged her close to his chest.

"We need to get out of here tonight." I concluded.

"But how? We'll fail the exams!" Suguna looked between Kichiro and me.

Kichiro stood motionless holding her hand for a moment. "We need to get two flags, right?" he asked me.

I caught on what he was implying, a detail that didn't escaped me but I reserved for later querying. "They never said one of the flags had to be our own."

Kichiro nodded. "We are closer to the northern borders of the forest, but we can't be sure if there are any other teams in that direction. Better go the way we came." He pondered for a second before continuing. "We have to move now while we still have light. We are about 7 miles from entrance of the forest, we are bound to find other teams that way. Pack up, we leave immediately."

Suguna took a deep breath and jumped to action.

We left the traps as they were, packed what little we unpacked and left our flag behind. This was going to be a long night.

We ran through the forest at top speed while I focused on my sensing.

"I'm hearing birds." Suguna commented through her scarf. I wasn't sure if it made any difference, but I told them to wrap their scarfs around their mouths. It may filter the toxin.

"You're beginning to hallucinate. I haven't heard birds or any other animal whatsoever inside this forest." I responded. "Ignore ambient sounds unless I say otherwise."

Two miles later, I signaled my teammates to stop. 'Five hundred feet to the north east. Three strong signals and various static small signals.' The metal clumped together were obviously from kunai and hitai ates, the others, probably traps.

'Approach, assess.' Kichiro signaled back. If he wasn't convoluting his orders, he was dead serious.

We moved silently and stopped about a hundred feet from a Kusa team. They were crouching around a clearing. As ours, their flag stood at the top a flagpole at the center.

"I'm telling you, there's a whistle coming from the forest!" One of the Kusa genin complained while trying to dispel a genjutsu. "Kai!" He was wearing a blue jumpsuit, a sand colored cloak covering most of his body and a straw hat over his head.

Yui Ichikawa[Neutral]

"Whistling? Those are birds! What is wrong with you?" A black short-haired genin answered back, still installing a trap at the base of the flagpole. He wore black baggy pants and shirt and a brown cloak over it; a thick purple rope belt tied everything up. He reminded me of Orochimaru someway.

Tadataka Hino[Neutral]