Ch11 The First Phase

It was mid-afternoon in Konoha, and students were pouring out of the ninja academy like a horde of savage beasts, eager to be free from their encampments. Hiro Akimichi was among them, a chubby nine-year-old glad to be free early but not glad to be in a crowd.

Today his mother was out on a mission, so he'd have to go home alone, not something he was looking forward to.

"Hey Hiro, where are you going?"

Hiro stopped, looking at the source of the voice. A tall figure dressed in navy-blue haori and black slacks, the man had his face covered under a large hood, with only slips of his messy brown hair poking out.

"Hey, I don't come to see you for a week and you don't even recognise me."

"Who're you?" Hiro asked, flinching as a hand covered in copper gauntlet tried to ruffle his hair.

"It's me, silly, can you not tell?" Aki said, removing his hood revealing a pale-tanned face with gold-rimmed round glasses.

"Big brother? What happened to your voice, and why are you wearing such-"

"-Concealing clothes?" Aki said, patting his large haori jacket with a big hood. "Designed it myself, for the chunin exams. Don't you like it? It makes me sneaky."

Aki flashed the back of his jacket to Hiro, showing him a giant white planet printed on it with black kanji for EXALTED in its centre.

"They are… nice…"

Aki raised an eyebrow at that response. Kids these days don't have any sense of fashion, he thought.

"Need me to drop you off, kiddo?"

"No, big brother." Hiros said. "I'll go on my own, catch you later."

Aki bade goodbye to Hiro, moving back to where his team was sitting. Yasuo Onida was clad in a grey armoured flank jacket with the word 'Logistic' engraved on his left pauldron. Raven haired Masaru sat beside him, wearing a black jacket and pants.

"So, how many did you spot?" Aki asked, sitting beside them on the bench.

"There are three clowns on the tree on our left. Two squads from the Rain are in the drain, one from our own village is posing as the kids on that slide." Masaru said.

"We are not counting the pigeons?" Yasuo asked.

"I don't think we are passing this exam, Aki." Masaru said, pointing at Onida.

"Not with that attitude, young lady…"

"Grandpa-Onida, Masaru is a boy."

"With that haircut, I bet she is."

Aki sighed, moving on his seat to get a better view of the tree with three genins.

"Where are those clowns from, Masaru?"

"I don't know, their headband is not visible, but to hide in green leaves wearing grey camouflage, they should be pretty stupid."

"Let's wait for the crowd to gather. Let's go in after scoping the competition a bit."

"Solid plan, lad. Don't you think so, young lady?"

"I'm a boy!" Masaru cried.

The odd trio remained sat on the bench for two hours, examining every participant gather around the ninja academy. Masaru Chiba took notes of how many teams were taking part while Aki and Yasuo were feeding the pigeons near them.

"Hey Masaru," Aki said, poking his teammate in the shoulder. "See that boy with long hair and a creamy jacket?"

"The one with that weirdo in a green body suit?"

"Yes, him. He's going to be a serious competition. From what I remember, his name is Neji Hyuga." Aki said. "When I was in the academy, people used to say he's the most talented Hyuga in this generation."

"Anything on his teammates?"

"No, we were in different sections." Aki said. "I think we have seen enough. Let's submit the form."

Aki and his team left their seats and made their way to the academy. Since the time to submit the forms was drawing close, many other teams were doing the same.

The trio reached the gates of the academy and circled around it, moving to a section that was less populated and shadowed by trees of the training grounds nearby.

"301," Masaru said. "Third floor, room one. I think we are standing below it."

"Why not go from the front door, kids?" Yasuo said, forming ram hand seals and walking on the wall.

"What kind of ninja enters through the front gate, Grandpa Onida?"

"A polite one." Masaru said, following behind the old goat of the team. "You sure the one responsible for collecting our forms won't kick us out?"

"Why should we give up our home ground advantage? If we can sneak somewhere, we will. If the staff dislikes it, so be it. I don't care."

"Are you lads sure this is the room?" Yasuo said, poking his head into the window of the room. "Seems empty to me."

"There is still time before the 4:00 pm deadline. Maybe the staff is punctual. I think we should wait inside."

"Good Idea Masaru." Aki said, following behind the boy into the room.

Unbeknownst to the three of them, a chunin proctor was hiding in the room's ceiling, observing them through a concealable pin hole. He noted down their unconventional entry method to report to the authorities later.

"Lads, listen carefully. Chunin exams are almost always divided into phases." Yasuo Onida said with an unusual graveness to his voice. "In most scenarios, there is a phase that pits teams against teams. In that phase, I want us to go after Hidden Rain."

"Old grudge, Yasuo?" Masaru asked.

"Yeah, Grandpa Onida, why the unusual request?"

"No, nothing as fancy as an old grudge. Just plain curiosity. Back in my days, Hidden Rain was famous for Hanzo of the Salamander and great technological reforms." Yasuo said. "Now news on both aces of Hidden Rain has become scarce. I don't care about Hanzo, but their weapons and technology, they itch my curiosity."

"I never knew Hidden Rain was good at anything." Aki said.

"Told you it was back in my days. I'm just curious how things are now."

"Speak of the devil, genins from the Hidden Rain." Masaru said, pointing at the genins from hidden rain.

"Twenty one of them, plenty for our purpose." Yasuo Said.

"And here I thought you were doing this to impress your daughter." Aki said.

"She is my WIFE!"

"Don't shout, old goat, your heart might just fail."

"Such an impetuous girl. I don't know what your parents taught you."

"You-"

"Masaru, grandpa Onida, you guys continue." Aki said, standing up. "I spy some acquaintances. I'll be back after dropping a greeting."

Aki walked away from his teammates, making his way towards genins from his uncle's team. From what he could remember, these runts were fresh graduates, so it was a surprise seeing them here.

"Uncle must be losing his touch, sending you guys here." Aki said, with his right gauntleted hand raised in greeting. "You sure you are not lost, kids?"

"Who are you, weirdo?" Ino asked.

"Don't be rude, Ino." Choji said, wolfing on his chips.

"What a drag." Shikamaru said.

"Hey, that is no way of talking to your seniors." Aki said, undoing his hood and sliding the collars of his shirt down to reveal his face. "Kids these days, they don't have any manners."

"Spare me the lecture." Ino said.

"If you guys are participating, does that mean the rumour about other rookies is true too?"

"Beats me." Shikamaru said.

"What rumour? I didn't hear anything." Choji asked.

"You know, the one about the other fresh graduates-"

"-Sasuke!! You're late <3."

Before Aki could complete his sentence, Ino pushed him aside, jumping on the back of a raven haired boy in a dark blue turtleneck. Aki remembered the boy and his team from the Konohamaru incident. He smiled from the sidelines as the academy friends got together, leaving them to their reunion to sit with his team.

"Your friends Aki boy?"

"No grandpa Onida, just some acquaintances from a mission."

"That so?"

"That is the rookie squads people have been talking about. Uchiha, Hyuga, Aburame, Akimichi… that's quite a lineup." Masaru said.

"You don't say, tell me, young lady, who is that white-haired genin with them?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm a boy-"

"Interesting." Aki said, interrupting the banter between his teammates. "The four eyes may have some fascinating intel. Look at his cards."

"It could prove quite useful. What do you think should we steal it Aki–"

"MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI!!" the blond boy in the orange tracksuit declared loudly, cutting Masaru mid sentence. "I WON'T LOSE TO ANY OF YOU BASTARDS!! GOT THAT!!"

Aki chuckled at the declaration as the entire crowd in the room started staring daggers at the kid. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the silhouettes of grey camouflaged genins moving for the team of rookies.

One of them jumped above the crowd, throwing kunai daggers at Kabuto. The attacker had the headband for Hidden Sound village tied around his forehead, just like his bandaged friend who went for an assault on the white-haired genin Kabuto.

Kabuto dodged the kunais and the punch coming for him easily–or so Aki thought. Kabuto's glasses shattered as suddenly he went on his knees, vomiting his bile out.

"They're not playing nice, are they?" Aki said, standing up and flexing his fingers.

"Stand down boy." Yasuo said.

"Hmm? Don't worry, they won't know what hit them." Aki said, smiling and whistling through his fingers.

Gin, the impatient white marten who was in his heraldry form, turned back to normal under Aki's hood, travelling down his arms and out of his jacket. Dan, his accomplice in white haori with black fur, did the same, emerging from the Aki's shadow and running for the sound ninja through the shadows.

Dan emerged from the shadow of the bandaged shinobi, holding a barber's razor and smoking his pipe. Before the genins could even flinch, Dan had his large silver razor under his chin.

"Conflict is the current of heroes. Ride it with caution, gozaru." Dan said, smoking his pipe.

"Get away from him, rat!" Zaku Abumi, the Sound genin with spiky black hair, exclaimed.

"Move, and bid goodbye to his bandaged head."

Aki saw the sound genins move to attack Dan, despite the threat of losing his comrade. Aki stood up, leaving a wide-eyed Masaru behind to go help Dan.

Gin, the drunk marten done with his thieving of the scattered intel cards, jumped to block the kunai from the spiky-haired boy Zaku. On the woman, he spat a jet of alcohol, shooting her back on her feet.

"Don't move. I don't like the stench of burned flesh." Aki said, holding a lit lighter over the woman with long black hair. "But, move and I cook her in body and soul."

A loud bang went at one end of the classroom, bringing with it a lot of white smoke. Aki held his lighter firm, observing a group of leaf ninja emerging from the smoke.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting. I'm Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the first test of the chunin exam."

Ibiki Morino was a tall man dressed in a black trench coat and a dark-blue bandana with Konoha's symbol. Two deep scars marred his gaunt face, his steely eyes fixed on the participants like a vise.

"That is no way of treating our guest genin. Move." Ibiki said with a smile on his face.

"Just returning the courtesy, sir." Aki said, moving away from the girl and walking back to his seat with Gin and Dan.

He ignored Ibiki's stern warning to the three sound village genins, taking his seat near his teammates.

"Now, to the rules of the exams."