25 Chuunin Exams

The sun was setting down on the horizon, dyeing the huge building of Earth Federation HQ blood red. Thousands of corpses of mech pilots and federation troops were scattered around. The remains of destroyed giant mechas, battle stations and armed sentries just layed there.

Takeru knew that the giant RX-78-2 Gundam, that was aiming its vulcan gun at him while holding a beam saber, was not real. But all of it felt too real.

The destroyed cityscape, shattered pavements, broken skyscrapers and damaged objects scattered around, all of them seemed as real as it could be. He could not find any faults in this reality.

Takeru shut-off his five senses as the giant mecha pressed the trigger and 'PEW' the laser beam pierced Takeru's left arm.

Takeru felt the pain but did not even flinch as he concentrated on his sixth sense, his sensing ability. He knew it was all a genjutsu. And he needed to get out of it. He felt his chakra that was in disarray inside his chakra pathways.

Takeru with just sheer control, started vibrating the chakra all over his body. The mech rushed at him and its beam saber had almost touched Takeru when it stopped.

Cracks started to appear on everywhere. The sky, the ground, the buildings, the environment everything started having cracks like a broken mirror.

The world shattered into countless pieces as Takeru's senses returned and he found himself sitting under a tree surrounded by his shadow clones at the training grounds in the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Yosh, you did it boss. It has been 20 seconds. You are improving." - a clone spoke.

"Yeah, there is improvement. But it is getting harder and harder to shorten the time." - Takeru sighed as he dismissed his clones.

It had been 2 weeks since Takeru learned the second part of the Extreme Concealment Technique. He personally practiced it under his mother's supervision, while his shadow clones practiced it on their own.

There were many accidents during the practice. Sometimes Takeru got himself stuck inside some surface. Sometimes Takeru involuntarily melded himself into the ground. There was one time when Takeru woke up from his sleep and found himself underground.

Only due to Akane's constant supervision and guidance Takeru could save himself from painful death many times. Nonetheless with enormous effort and practice, Takeru had somehow managed to negate the involuntary and uncontrolled usage of this technique.

After learning how to use genjutsu properly, Takeru practiced genjutsu everyday. He wanted to hone his genjutsu prowess to the best of his abilities. Takeru learned Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique and mastered it easily.

From then on, Takeru practiced genjutsu dispelling with his shadow clones. His shadow clones would put him under a combined maximum powered genjutsu and Takeru would try to dispel it by himself. So far, he had lowered the time needed to dispel such genjutsu to 20 seconds. It was a lot of time, especially in combat situations but he was sure that he could someday lower the time required to a minimum.

For the past one year or so, Takeru never stopped practicing fuinjutsu. Although with the lack of a teacher, his progress was short. He nonetheless learned. Takeru managed to learn two new seals.

First was Chakra Draining Seal, which drained chakra from an individual. The other one was a nifty little seal called Tracking Seal. Now tracking seal worked just like its name implied.

If an individual got marked with Tracking Seal. The user of the seal would be able to track the individual from anywhere, regardless of distance. It was a useful seal.

But the most useful technique Takeru learned was Finger Carving Technique. He learned it from the small book that was gifted to him by Shibuya Uzumaki.

Takeru worked especially hard to learn it as with this skill, the user would not need any writing utensils. He could use chakra from his fingertips to write seal formulas on any surface.

Takeru had performed few missions with his team for past two weeks. Most missions were normal. Except one mission where they had to guard the village perimeter and it was boring as fuck. Takeru understood the plight and boredom of the gatekeepers and shinobis on watchman duty.

Shunsui had already given them registration forms for the chuunin exams. Takeru, Shikatsu and Biwako, all three of them had filled that form immediately and gave it back to Shunsui. All three of them wanted to participate. They knew that thier team was one of, if not the most capable team among all the teams of their generation.

Takeru packed his belongings and returned home today. The exam would start tomorrow and Shunsui warned all three of his students to come early together at the exam center. Takeru neither wanted to be late nor to be unprepared.

So, he did less training today. He mostly took care of his weapons, instruments and various supplies. Takeru made various fuinjutsu tags and various fuinjutsu seals and stored them. He bought enough kunais, shurikens and senbons. And lastly he prepared his apparel.

It was his standard black shinobi outfit with armguards, inner mesh armor, back hand-guards. Takeru checked everything multiple times to see if there was anything he had missed. He had readied everything. Satisfied, Takeru spent the day meditating, chatting with his family.

The next day Takeru got prepared. He checked himself thoroughly for the last time. Toru and Akane wished him all the best. And Takeru went out towards the exam venue near the outskirts of the village.

The exam venue was a newly built building that was made just to hold this exam and probably future exams like this. Takeru stood near the gate and waited for his teammates.

Biwako and Shikatsu soon came. Both of them had heeded Takeru's advice and prepared themselves mentally, physically and equipment wise. The three genins greeted each other and went into the building.

Upon entering the building Takeru sensed many familiar people, but some unfamiliar ones too. He focused on his senses and found 12 unfamiliar people whose chakra signatures were all too similar to what he sensed when he went to the Land of Whirlpools.

'Uzumakis? What are they doing here?' - thought Takeru as the three genin met up with Shunsui who was standing in the hallway.

"You guys came just at the right time. The exam room is room number 209 on the 2nd floor. Go ahead and take seats. Remember, always be vigilant and always look underneath the underneath. Now, go and good luck." - Shunsui wished them and went away.

The trio nodded as they walked down the hallway and up the stairs as they reached their destination without any hassle. Biwako noticed a team of redhead Uzumakis who were standing outside the room.

"Hey, are not those guys from the Uzumaki clan?" - Biwako asked as she could not think of why genins from the Uzumaki clan would come to their village to take part in the chuunin exams.

"Yes, they are from the Uzumaki clan. I think our little chat on the boat had some serious effects." - Shikatsu said.

"Yes, the meeting between two villages went well it seems." - Takeru nodded.

Although Takeru knew that the involvement between both the allied hidden villages would only increase after that meeting between two kages. He never considered the possibility of genin coming from the Hidden Whirlpool to take chuunin exams here.

The Uzumaki team went inside the room. Takeru and his teammates followed after. Upon entering the room they were bombarded by loud commotion and talks. Takeru saw many of their batchmates present in the room.

The room was shaped like a regular classroom just larger with much more seats. There were more than a hundred genins in the room. Takeru noticed the absence of a few of genins who had graduated along with him. Takeru saw Shikatsu was frowning. It seemed Shikatsu too had noticed the sudden absence of their past batchmates.

Takeru saw Hiruzen and Kagami's teams sitting at the back. Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu went towards them and started chatting about various things.

All of them were somewhat nervous except for Takeru as he atleast knew what chuunin exams were all about. Hiruzen was anxious as his father had ordered him to perform to the best of his abilities. While Kagami was the most carefree of them all. He just did not give a shit.

Shikatsu just sat on a seat bored out of his mind. Biwako and Koharu talked about girl things. Torifu was eating some dumplings he got from who knows where. Homura just there all silent as if he was meditating. Danzo on the other hand was checking all the other genins participants. But his eyes mostly hovered on Hiruzen, Kagami and Takeru. He wanted to prove his strength to his rival and these geniuses. He was brimming with anticipation.

Hiruzen was constantly trying to strike a conversation with Biwako. While Biwako was trying her hardest to ignore the short monkey. Kagami started conversing with Takeru. They talked about the sudden appearance of genins from Hidden Whirlpool Village, how the exams would play out and how much they had progressed.

Takeru learned that Kagami had already matured his sharingan to 3 tomoe. Although he had not yet mastered it, he was close. Takeru also told him about his slight progress in wind nature chakra. Takeru, while chatting with Kagami, started checking out the other participants in the room.

Out of all the genins from the Leaf Village, Takeru's team, Kagami's team and Hiruzen's team had the most chance of passing the exams successfully. There were also 2 other teams from the Leaf which were powerful than others. One of the two teams Team 3 had a Senju, a Yamanaka and a Hyuga. While the other team, Team 5 consisted of a Hatake , an Inuzuka and an Aburame.

On the other side, among the four teams from the Hidden Whirlpool Village. There was one team that piqued Takeru's interest. Takeru was observing that team. One member of that team had a gigantic scroll on his back, the second one had two short swords on his back.

Takeru was looking at the last member of that team when the Uzumaki genin turned and faced Takeru. Takeru kept his face neutral while he and the Uzumaki genin, both of them looked at each other in the eye for a bit. After a bit both of them smiled and nodded at each other.

Thr Uzumaki genin gave Takeru a feeling of certain competence and confidence that was even more than Hiruzen or Kagami. Takeru turned around and whispered into Shikatsu's ear.

'The Uzu genin sitting at the front right end corner, blue pants, grey shirt with red body armor and long hair. He is a sensor and dangerous."

"Hmm, got it." - Shikatsu just nodded a bit and went back to sleep.

Takeru sensed that the Uzumaki genin was also doing just the same as he just did, telling his teammates about Takeru.

After a few minutes the door of the room opened and a blonde haired man in his thirties wearing shinobi battle armor came inside the room, followed by 20 other shinobi. All the genins stopped their chattering and payed attention.

The blonde haired shinobi who was probably a jounin carried a large box and placed it on the front desk.

"Hello, everyone. I am Isao Namikaze. I will be the proctor of this first part of the chuunin exams. This will be a written exam. All of you form a line and come here. Take a slip of paper from this box. Each slip of paper has number written on it. Your seat will be determined according to the number."

All the participants did what they were told and took their seats. Every member of every team sat away from each other randomly. Biwako's seat was at the front of the room while Shikatsu sat in the middle and Takeru at the back.

After everybody took their seats, the accompanying chuunins distributed the question & answer sheets among the participants. The proctor then wrote the rules of this written exam on the board and described them.

There were a total of 10 multiple-choice questions. Each question described a specific situation and asked the examinee to make his preferred choice of action in that particular situation. There were no correct or wrong answer, just different choices.

After each answer the participant had the option to justify the reason for making the particular choice. Each question answered was 10 points. Thus making the highest score 100 points and the lowest 0. The duration of the exam was 1 hour.

As the questions were directed at the individual. Participants were told to not cheat and to answer truthfully. The proctor stood at the podium while the chuunin invigilators spread out and stood guard all around the classroom. The proctor looked around from the podium. He saw all the participants and said, - "Have you all understood the rules? Good. Then the first part of the chuunin exam begins now!".

All the participants started checking the questions. Takeru too checked the questions. He was just starting to answer the first question when he stopped. Takeru noticed something peculiar.

All the questions were directed at the participant and there were in a sense easy. There was no reason to cheat as every participant would answer the questions differently. But then why the proctor and the chuunins were guarding so vigilantly? This question suddenly popped up in Takeru's mind.

'Is it to make sure that the participants do not try to cheat? But there is no reaso...' - Takeru's thoughts stopped as he realised something. He checked all the questions thoroughly again and finally found the hidden trick.

All the questions were easy, yes. But in a sense all the questions were hard too. The questions were directed at the individual but the individual in question was part of a team. If members of a team chose to act differently in a given situation. It would result in chaos and disorder. The chances of failing the mission would increase dramatically and the end result would be catastrophic.

'These questions are not directed to the individual. These are directed to the team as a whole. So, the points do not even matter. It is a trick. The main reason for this exam is to test the individual's ability to gather information surreptitiously and to test the mutual understanding between teammates.' - Takeru thought as he realised why all the chuunins stood guard.

Takeru knew he would have to communicate with his teammates. He trusted his teammates and they too trusted him. Their mutual understanding was very developed. Takeru knew what choices his teammates would make. But he refused to put matters into belief and fate's hand. He wanted to be certain.

Takeru focused his sensing ability and saw that Shikatsu and Biwako both had written nothing on their sheets. Takeru smiled as he understood that both of them had found out the hidden objective of this exam. But there was a problem as the questions were given in different order among the participants.

Takeru silently made a shadow clone behind him, hidden from the prying eyes of the invigilators. The clone concealed itself immediately and phased through the ground as it went towards Biwako while Takeru spread out his invisible chakra strings towards Shikatsu.

Takeru channelled fire nature chakra precisely to only effect the end tip of the chakra strings. He could not have done this before. But his perfect chakra control made it possible for him to do so now.

Takeru controlled his chakra strings and burned words on Shikatsu's desk using fire chakra. Shikatsu noticed it immediately and hid it with his arms as he pretended to sleep.

Takeru's clone tapped his finger rhythmically on Biwako's feet. Biwako was startled at first but calmed down as the clone Takeru began writing the answers under the desk. Biwako intentionally dropped her writing brush on the floor. And as she went to pick it up. She saw only half of the answers written under the desk. Biwako was confused but nonetheless she copied them and wrote down the answers.

Takeru wrote his answers on Shikatsu's desk with his chakra strings. Shikatsu copied them and wrote down the answers. Just as Takeru had finished writing the answers, he hurriedly dismissed his shadow clone and retracted all but one chakra string as he noticed a chuunin invigilator activating her sharingan.

Shikatsu was confused at first but noticed the kunoichi and understood Takeru's sudden actions. He finished writing the answers on his sheet exactly as Takeru had written on his desk.

The female Uchiha invigilator was standing on the left side. So, Shikatsu used Shadow Possession Jutsu and slithered his shadow towards Biwako hiding it from the invigilators.

Biwako had only written half of the answers. She was starting to feel nervous. Just as she was beginning to entertain the thought of writing the answers on her own. A shadow crept up to her hand and Biwako suddenly felt the loss of control of her hand.

Biwako noticed the shadow and calmed down. The only Nara in the room was Shikatsu and he was a prodigy in his clan techniques. Takeru wrote the remaining number of answers on Shikatsu's desk that he had not given to Biwako. Shikatsu understood the situation.

Biwako's right hand began moving under Shikatsu's control as he wrote down the rest of the answers on Biwako's answer sheets as Takeru wrote down the order of questions in Biwako's sheet on Shikatsu's desk.

Soon, Shikatsu undid his jutsu as he finished answering Biwako's answer sheet. The end of the examination was just 10 minutes away. All three genin of Team 9 had completed their answers and all of their answers were exactly the same.

The bell rang and the exam ended. The invigilators took the answer sheets from all the participants. The proctor told them to stay put on their seats as the all the invigilators started sorting and checking the answer sheets.

All the genins waited in their seats. Some were nervous and anxious. Some were confident and carefree. After sometime, all the answer sheets had been finished checking. The invigilators showed the results to the proctor.

The proctor smirked a bit at all the hopeful genins and started speaking.

"All of you have answered the questions truthfully. No one has skipped a question. But not all of you can pass this test as there was a hidden rule in it which some of you might have noticed. The team of which the members have answered the same 60% or more have passed. The rest of you fail."

A hubbub sounded out as many participants were shocked and outraged. They were not told about any extra rules. They were unconvinced. Many voiced their opinions but some genins which included Takeru and his teammates stayed calm and sat silently.

"Silence! What did you think? What was this test about? Is it about the your choice in a certain situation or is it about your team's choice? Each and every one of you are a member of a team. Your decisions will make a major impact on your team's actions. The outcome of a mission, the result of a battle, everything depends on your choices.

So, when you make a choice disregarding your teammates and your comrades. You carry the burden of the results and consequences of your choice. Your life depends on your teammates hands as does their lives depend on yours.

A mission can only be completed successfully if every member of the team gives their utmost to achieve a single goal, make a single choice together and act upon it. The mutual understanding between the members is the most important aspect of a team.

Information gathering is a fundamental skill of a shinobi. Sometimes information is more important than life. And on missions and on the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it. Important information in your hands can be a powerful weapon for your comrades and the village.

Some of you might not have noticed but I did not forbid you to cheat. Yes, I discouraged cheating and the invigilators were here to make cheating harder but it was not explicitly forbidden. There was no rule in which you would have gotten disqualified for cheating.

The ability to be courageous and survive any hardship. The ability to believe in your comrades and consider the situation as a team. The ability to make difficult choices. These are the abilities needed to become a chuunin captain. Those who can not put their destinies on the line, those who cling to the uncertain future and make choices that only suit themselves. Those cowardly pieces of trash do not deserve to become chuunin." - Isao Namikaze, the proctor said coldly as the whole room stilled in silence.

The multitude of genins sat down stunned. Realisation struck them as they understood the point of this test. The cries of outrage stopped as many of them hung their heads down in shame.

"I will now name the participants who have passed the test. You are all to follow this invigilator to the next part of the chuunin exams. But for now, congratulations to all of you." - the proctor smiled for the first time as he started calling out names.

Takeru and his teammates' names were called out soon along with Hiruzen and Kagami's team. All of them congratulated each other for passing this test. Biwako hugged both of her teammates as she thanked them.

Two out of the four teams from the Hidden Whirlpool had failed, leaving only two teams of which that sensor guy's teams was one. All of them followed the invigilator towards the next part of the exams.

Takeru counted and saw that only 16 teams have passed the first part of the exams. Takeru sighed at the ridiculous failing rate. The crowd followed the invigilator through the Leaf Village and went towards the outskirts on the other side.

Soon, they reached their destination. Takeru noticed a large fence made of wire mesh surrounding a huge area. The fence had multiple danger and forbidden entry signs on it.

Takeru had a bad feeling about this. Suddenly a Leaf shinobi wearing standard battle armor came in front of them. The invigilator flickered away as the newcomer spoke with a chilly smile.

"Welcome, cute little genins, to the next part of the chuunin exams, the Zeroth Training Ground.".