Nukenin

One day when our training was getting to the end, sensei surprised us. “As you for sure know, Chunin exams are happening soon. It will take place here in Konoha, and since I think you might be capable of passing them, I registered you. Exams are going to have three parts. First one is a theoretical test, the second is done as a team, and the last one is fight one on one, so you will be on your own. Hokage agreed that till exams, every team that will be participating, won’t go on any missions, so will be able to focus on training.” 

This might be interesting. Chunin exams were held twice a year, but it was a big event every time. Theory would be fine, but the fight might be tricky. Not that I would be afraid of losing, this would be the easy part, but I didn’t want to show more that would be necessary. I really don’t need others to know about Kurama and the opening seal.

The following trainings were pretty much boring, even though we were fighting most of the time. Not being able to use all of my power was annoying. But if I used it I would blow up my secret and most likely injure Sasuke or Sakura since there was no way they would be able to defend themselves. At least the month was quickly behind us and the first day of the exam was there.

At first they welcomed all the genins that were going to do their best to pass. There were a lot of people from other villages since it was for all of them. We got lucky that this time it was held at Konoha so we didn’t have to travel somewhere else. Once they were done, they took us to a big classroom and gave us sheets of paper filled with questions.

When I looked at my paper, I stopped for a minute. Something was off. I knew the answers. They were pretty easy for me. But they shouldn't be for others. The things that they wanted from us were on a much higher level than they were supposed to be. I would expect them if someone wanted to be a jounin, not chunin.

I carefully looked around me. Others had a confused look on their faces. They quickly understood that they were screwed. I had to know that they wouldn’t make it so easy for us. If we had the test that everyone was expecting, they could just look at it one day before and score the minimum points they would need for passing.

I asked Kurama to also look around. He had more options to do so. He saw two guys who were the only ones who were writing something. They had everything right and didn’t get stuck on any question. They surely weren’t there to take the exam. So the only way to get through this was to somehow copy their answers.

Then suddenly one of the guys, who were watching over us, spoke up. “Last row. You in the red hat. You and your team go out.” He got caught. Two boys and one girl got up and with head low went out of the classroom. Second part is in teams so it wasn’t a surprise that when one is out, all of them are out. The Atmosphere in the room changed as everyone understood that their score affected their teammates too. 

I didn’t really care though. I didn’t need to copy anything and even if I had to, with Kurama it would be a piece of cake. As the end was coming near, there remained only about a three-quarters of how many of us were there at the beginning.

Ten minutes before the time was over one guy stood up. It was the one who sent the first three away. “Now, everyone listen to me.” He tried to get attention. “Now it’s time for your last and the most important question. You have a chance to quit now and try it next time, since if at least one from your team doesn’t make it, all three of you would never be able to participate again.”

That’s really great. I just hoped that Sakura wouldn’t get up. Sasuke wasn’t a problem. I was sure that he wouldn’t give up. He would be willing to take the risk.

I watched as the other six people got up and left the room. The rest of us just sat there and waited for what would come next. For a few seconds there was absolute silence. If a pin fell, we would be able to hear it. “Congratulations, you passed the first test.” Said the same guy. Everyone looked at him as if he had two heads.

Like, what? What the hell was happening. We didn’t do anything. They didn’t even give us the last question. Then I wanted to slap myself. Of fucking course.

Next ten minutes we had to sit there and listen to him as he was explaining the meaning of this part of the exam and how it would help in our future as ninjas. Like come on. Was it really necessary for every damn test we take to have some hidden meaning? I just hoped that the rest of the exam would be somehow normal.

“Anyways. The second part will be tomorrow. Exactly at seven in the morning be ready in front of the gate to Forest of Death. If you’re late, it’s not our problem.”

When he stopped talking, our sensei came for us. Kakashi literally patted our heads like some dogs as praise that we made it. Then he let us know that the second part would probably last for more than just one day, so we could get prepared for it. After that we could finally go home for the day.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be that bad. Some of the other genins looked strong, so it might be even challenging. I’m also really curious about the forest. We as genins and people from village, other than ninjas, are forbidden from going there. They were saying that you can easily get lost there and a lot of beasts lived there. Yeah, that sounded like fun.

As they told us, right at seven, we stood in front of the gate to the forest. There was already some young woman with hair in a ponytail waiting for us. She was eating dango like there was no tomorrow, one in her mouth and two others in her hand. She must have really loved them.

“Alright kiddos, welcome to the second part of the Chunin exam. The principle is simple. Every team gets a scroll, and now listen to me closely. Do not open the scroll. On every of them is a text, Heaven and Earth. To pass, you have to have both scrolls. It’s completely up to you how you get them. By fighting, agreement, or whatever. With scrolls you have to get to the building in the middle of the forest. Go get your scroll over there and in half an hour we will start.”

At that moment most of the people ran to the stall that the woman pointed to. We and the smaller number of others were standing farther from it. We would rather wait than get stepped on by tens of people before it would even start. Like, we would be there for a few days so that would be enough. We didn’t need to have some injuries to start.

When we finally got our scroll and looked at it, we found out that we got the Heaven one. And just as was said, after half an hour the gate opened and it began. Crowd moved and all of us went inside. From now on we were on our own without any help from outside.

We agreed that it would be best to hide for a while and think about our strategy since we didn’t have too much time to do it to this moment. After about an hour the first sound of fighting appeared. “Ok. It would probably be for the best if we just go towards the building. We will surely meet other teams on our way.” Sasuke spoke up.

Me and Sakura nodded at it. It was logical. If we focused on finding a team with a scroll of Earth it would take too long and we would most likely get lost. But like this, even if we didn’t meet a team with the right scroll soon, as we would get closer to the centre there would be more teams with both of them. 

After we started moving, it didn’t take long before we were attacked. It was some team from Grass village. They looked quite confident. But unfortunately for them, they really underestimated us. If they thought it would be that easy, then they weren’t ready for this exam. It was a pity that they also had Heaven so they weren’t useful for us. We decided to let them go so they would have some chance. It was up to them if they were going to use it.

Unfortunately, after our first fight we weren’t lucky and didn’t come across anyone for a long time. Just some beast of the forest but they weren’t that hard to defate. It was even getting darker. It didn’t feel like we were there for the whole day already.

“I think we should find some shelter where we would be able to spend the night. It would be too dangerous to go somewhere in the dark.” I suggested. In the night we wouldn’t be able to see properly and who knows what other monsters are coming out at this time. It’s common knowledge that at the day time the weaker ones are out. With this plus the disadvantage of lack of light, it would be stupidity to go anywhere.

“Yeah, you’re right. This way it would be safer. But we have to find something good so no one would find us. It would be an immediate loss.” Agreed Sasuke. I was glad that these two quickly understood that I’m not the same stupid child from academy. It would be annoying if they refused to listen to me, when I have plans or something.

Soon we found a good hiding spot. It was the entrance to a small cave hidden by a thick bush. It was an ideal place. We decided not to make a fireplace so it wouldn’t reveal that someone is here. Even if one of us were awake on guard, it would be easy for other teams to steal our scroll. Like stealing candy from a baby.

In the morning I woke up first. Rays of sun were shining right to the cave. I started stretching to shake off the tiredness when something caught my attention. I turned my head and looked at Sasuke who was still sleeping peacefully. His face was relaxed without his usual cold expression. Like this he looked almost… cute.

I stared at him for I din’t want to even think how long, before I shook as he started to wake up. It’s been some time that I have been having similar thoughts when I was around him. And sometimes when I was alone. I felt weird about it and should have probably done something about it before someone noticed me and I would look like an idiot.

We waited for a while for Sakura to get up too and then we went on our way. At least we had better luck than the day before since it didn’t take long before we met the team that had the right scroll. They looked upset when we managed to get it from them, but that was not our problem.

Now, we just had to get to the building. As we ran I started to think about something. When we were fighting, Sasuke and one guy from the other team got farther from us, where we couldn’t see them. At first I thought they just fought. But there was something odd. When they got back, they didn’t look like they were fighting. They weren’t tired or bruised. Nothing. Also Sasuke was acting weird. The fact that he didn’t talk too much wasn’t new, but that was different. Zhat expression of him. Like if he was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t care about his surroundings. Maybe they talked about something. But I didn’t ask. If something really happened, it was up to Sasuke to do something.

Since we had all we needed, we ran as fast as we could towards the building. We could hear people fighting around us, but we didn’t meet anyone again. Just a few more beats that were easy to take care of. When we got to our goal we saw a giant text on one of the walls.

After some solving we found out that now we were supposed to open both scrolls. As soon as we did it we realized that they were scrolls for summoning ninjas. We were told that we succeeded and since we were first, we had to wait for others to arrive.

It was a boring wait but we couldn’t go anywhere outside of the building. It took until the evening of the next day for the rest to arrive. Then they took us outside of the forest where we met the ones who didn’t pass. Many of them looked beaten up and tired. Some seemed angry and I even heard one girl screaming at the team that passed. Probably the one that got their scroll.

I tried to ignore her and listened to our new instructions. They gave us a whole free week before the last part. After it ended, Kakashi got to us and told us that we wouldn’t have any training with him during this week. He wanted us to get prepared by ourselves as best as we thought we could.

It was a shame that we didn’t know who would be against us in the advance. At least the first one. Like this we could prepare for their style of fight. It was logical but hey, who wouldn’t want some advantage. In this situation I would have to improvise and adapt.

The winner from the first round would then go to the second round and to the other, until there would be only two who would fight for first place. But it didn’t really matter who won. Kages were the ones who decided if the Genin from their village was promoted to the Chunin. Even a person who lost in the first round would be able to convince them that he was ready for it.

The free week wasn’t any different from how I normally spent my free time. Training in the woods with Kuraam. I didn’t have anything better to do after all. I didn’t hang out with others and being at home all days would be boring.

On the day of the final part of the exam we all gathered in the big stadium. A lot of spectators came too. This is the only part that is accessible to the public and people want to see it. It’s quite funny how people find it entertaining when a bunch of kids get to one place to kick each other's asses.

They showed us the order in which we would fight, that was given by lot. I got some girls from Stone village. She looked like she would start to shake like a chiwawa. I almost felt sorry for her. It wouldn’t be hard so I might go easy for her, so I wouldn’t scare her too much. It was possible that it would deter her from trying harder the next time.

Our fight was one of the first ones. Right from the start it was noticeable that she was focusing on close fights with weapons. I was quickly done with her. Once I made her throw at me all the weapons she had with her, she couldn’t do anything and rather gave up.

Before the second round I watched others' fights. After about three hour the first round was finally over and little bit less than half of the people remained. Some, even when they won, weren’t able to continue because of their injuries. Right away we continued with the second and third round. In these I finally got some good opponents. But even then no one was good enough to force me to use stronger jutsu or Kurama’s power.

From our team Sakura didn’t get past the third round but Sasuke held on. He started from the other side than me, so we would have to get to the final round to fight. That would finally be something interesting. Sasuke wouldn’t hold back against me and I knew that he was strong for our age.

In the fourth round there was only me, Sasuke, a girl from Sand village and a boy from Star village. To this day I didn’t even know that this village even existed. But it was true that we mostly knew about the main one, even though there were much more of them.

I didn’t have a problem during my fight, but Sasuke at one moment looked not very good against the Sand girl. He almost made me worry that he wouldn’t win, but then with the final attack the girl went to the ground. It was clear. We were going to fight. I looked forward to having some fun.

“And in the final fight, there will stand against each other Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.” They announced. As we stood in the middle of the stadium, Sasuke looked surprised. He knew that I got stronger but still couldn’t believe that I got this far.

We heard the signal for the start of the fight. In the beginning, we took it easy. Few kunais flew through the air, before we started to use techniques. Then the fight started to intensify. The first row of the auditorium probably got pretty hot from how big Sasuke was making his katons. 

Sasuke was a tough opponent and I slowly ran out of techniques that I could use without getting unwanted attention. Then I remembered something. I did a few signs and speeded my movements. Nothing big, just fast enough. After a while I got what I wanted. Sasuke activated his Sharingan. For the first time during the whole exam.

For others it looked like I got at a disadvantage, but I knew a trick that they didn’t. Kurama taught me a few months back. It's a handy thing, but I didn’t think that I would use it that soon. Eyes are called windows to the soul. But if you position it just right, the window can become a mirror. Who would think that the same applies to eye techniques? I never tried it before since I didn’t have a chance, but I hoped that I would be able to do it. Kurama told me everything I needed for it.

Without waiting any further I ran towards Sasuke. We met in the centre, right where we started. We crash into each other with kunais in our hands. Sasuke didn’t waste time and activated Sharingan to put him into Genjutsu. I couldn’t help but smirk as I looked right into his eyes. In a second Sasuke fell. The trick actually worked.

Everyone just stayed silent, looking at us. They didn’t understand. There was no way that they saw anyone to be able to fight this before. Kurama told me that this was something that he thought up during the time he was sealed in me. He could resist eye technique, so he tried to find a way to do so. And it looked like he made it.

“The winner is Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha.” They announced loudly. I kneeled next to Sasuke to get him out of his own jutsu. He frowned before he opened eyes. He looked so confused why he was lying on the ground. I offered him a hand to help him to get up and surprisingly he accepted it. Together we went inside of the stadium.

“How the hell did you do it!?” He insisted on me telling him, as soon as we got out of the open space. I just smiled and put a finger in front of my mouth. “That's a secret.” He tried to make me tell him, but it just made me laugh, so he stopped.

With this exams were over and the last thing that had to be done was Kages telling who passed. They started with other villages and Konoha went as the last one. I listened closely when it was our turn, “... Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaku Naruto.” He said us as the last ones. It looked like sakura didn’t make it. But there was still next time, so she would be able to train more and try it again.