013 - The Exams {PT. III}

KONOHA

"...Uchiha Sasuke." Ibiki stared at the black-haired boy, his gaze squinted in an expression of solemn contemplation. When he made the decision to conduct the exam in the manner in which he did, the scarred proctor had considered the possibility of certain over-specialised Genins abusing the loopholes that were intentionally introduced into the examining structure. That was to be expected of course. Life wasn't in any way fair; the next generation of elite shinobi shouldn't be coddled into believing it was.

However, what Ibiki had failed to consider was the apparent ease with which some might exploit this very system. In hindsight, it was not so hard to believe that on his lonesome, using two possibly original techniques unknown to the shinobi world prior, the infamous Genin would plot the elimination of fourteen opposing cells. And counting.

Once was happenstance; twice, coincidence, probably; three times, definitely enemy action. After the eighth cell fell to his scheme, the majority of the rest of the examinees had already caught on to the Evil Flame's insidious plot. Although the majority still failed to ascertain the true origins of the assault, a pattern had already been established. The targets were visible for all to see. A few lucky ones, upon discovering the target painted on their backs, managed to dispel the hex before it implicated them. The rest could only sit in trepidation of being the next to fall victim.

Attempts were made to complete the exams honestly but with little success. Being able to answer the questions without cheating would defeat the aim of the test after all. They were meant to cheat their way out of the test. Yet, with one move, the Uchiha boy stole their only option away from them, effectively stranding them between Yomi and the First Asura.

To cheat, or not to cheat? This was the question of the day.

Defanged, frustrated and left without options a few Genin reacted rather… explosively, choosing to resort to senseless violence in the face of despair. They demanded the culprit behind their hopeless straits face them. Fight them. The fools. Insults were hurled and masculinities were challenged to no avail. Sasuke stared at the rabid characters impassively. Their words seemingly had no effect on him.

A few Jōnin rose to settle the crowd. The examinees' reactions were understandable of course, but not one that would be tolerated.

The first scapegoats served as a warning to the rest who would think of doing the same. Another team was disqualified as one of its members had predictably been caught trying to defy the odds. A heroic effort, true, but a foolish one nonetheless. The gloom in the air deepened. An aura of despair and misery loomed over the forms of dozens of examinees like an excluded ghost. Haunting.

Ibiki glanced at the cause of all this anguish. The Uchiha boy sat silently in his seat appearing to be the textbook definition of innocence. The chief examiner's gaze narrowed as the Uchiha's onyx eyes flickered to meet his. One of the boy's sculpted brows rose in a questioning manner., as if to say…

…What?

Ibiki sighed to himself as he broke eye contact. "Inoichi would be so pissed to hear that that fool allowed a six-year-old to copy a Hidden Jutsu during what was supposed to be a simple assassination mission. Evil Flame or not, that was still a very disgraceful showing, Fuu Yamanaka."

"Time's up!" Ibiki growled, eager to end the farce that this exam had become. A few voices arose in complaint but they were quickly ignored. The papers were collected and the scores were soon collated. With a sigh and begrudging glare shot towards the Uchiha, the scarred proctor announced the results.

***

Predictably, we easily managed to keep our team's scores within the top twenty per cent despite suffering a twelve-point penalty ourself. Though our methods of accomplishing this came with some downsides.

For one, we had inadvertently confirmed possessing the Yamanaka clan's hidden Jutsu. This little tidbit of information might very well transform the entire dynamics of the relationship that existed between us and the village's upper echelon. The true extent of this change remains to be seen though. Either way, good or bad, we weren't really concerned. There were only so many ways the village could escalate without violating the unspoken truce that has existed between us since that last incident involving Fuu. They were at the moment, toothless.

Harmless.

Unsurprisingly, it was Naruto who proved to be the true nuisance. The blonde was elated to find out we scored the lowest in the team. He adamantly refused to let us hear the end of it, reiterating, time and time again how we were dragging the entire team down and how much better a shinobi he was. We quickly tuned him out, our attention focusing on the proctor that had replaced Ibiki in front of the hall.

"My name is—" *cough* "Hayate Gekko," said the Tokubetsu Jōnin, his words interspersed by dry, heaving coughs. "I—" *cough* "am the chief—" *cough* "examination officer for—" *cough**cough* "your second exam. Please—" *cough* "Follow me."

***

The sign in front of our next exam venue read "Training Ground Zero-Nine". We arrived at the outskirt of a fenced forest about fifteen minutes after we departed from the academy. The wire fence that surrounded the forest towered exactly fifteen meters above us, its surface dotted intermittently with Fūinjutsu tags, that at a glance, were meant to keep whatever was inside sealed rather than prevent entry. A few plastic signs were hung on the gate to the forest. "No Trespassing!" one read. "DANGER!" read another. Multiple padlocks and loops of metal chains held the gates shut with even more Fūinjutsu tags stuck on to ensure the barrier was impervious to attacks of a more mystical nature.

*cough*

Our attention flickered back towards the chief examiner. "This is the ninth Battle Training Zone," the man began as he coughed into his curled fist, " also known—" *cough* "as Asura's Garden. It is Konohagakure's—" *cough* "sixth largest and most dangerous training ground." *cough* "Your objective for this—" *cough* "exam is a simple—" *cough* "King of the Hill. Each team—" *cough* "will be given a scroll containing—" *cough* "the details of the assignment. But—" *cough* "but before that. You will have to—" *cough* "sign these."

The Jōnin waved a stack of papers at us. Written boldly on the front of one of said papers were the words "CONSENT FORM" in large blocky fonts.

*cough*

"You all will need to sign before you can go in—" *cough* "And yes, it is important. Konoha should not—" *cough* "be held responsible for any of—" *cough* "your unfortunate—" *cough* "deaths after all."

The papers were distributed. Our eyes skimmed over the words on the page in our hands, before we pulled our Fūinjutsu ink brush from the folds of our kimono. Placing the bristled tip in our mouth, we sucked on it, coating it in chakra-infused saliva before using the now non-inert brush to sign our name at the back of the form. Shooting a glance at our teammates still engrossed in reading their forms, we submitted ours and awaited further instructions. Five minutes later the rest of the examinees submitted their forms and Gekko returned to address us.

"I will be giving—" *cough* "an overview—" *cough* "of your next assignment so pay close attention. There are twenty-five teams who will—" *cough* "be competing in this "King of the Hill" assignment. There are eight locations representing the target "castles"—" *cough* "scattered throughout the forest. Your mission is simple." *cough*. "Using the information in your scrolls, locate and secure the "castles" for the duration of the exam. Each team possessing control of a castle at the end of the exam"—" *cough* "would be deemed a "king" and would qualify to move on to participate in the exam preliminaries." *cough* *cough*

"This exam will hold for a duration of one hundred and sixty-eight hours. A week." *cough* "As for the rules of this exam; rule number one—" *cough* "Any team not in possession of a castle at the end of the exam is disqualified." *cough* "Rule number two, Any team that loses a member, either to severe injury or death, is disqualified." *cough* "Rule number three, losing possession of your mission scroll results in an automatic disqualification should you fail to retrieve it before the end of the exam. And finally—" *cough* "Rule number four, under no circumstances can you leave the forest before the exam concludes. Doing so would result in an immediate disqualification"

The Jōnin's sleepy gaze panned around as if for the first time he acknowledged the presence of the participants present. He coughed another one of those dry heaving coughs of his before exhaling, an aura of conclusion settling on his shoulders.

"When you've received the scroll containing your mission details, choose the gate you wish to begin from. You have fifteen minutes till the start of the exams."

*cough*

"Good luck."