Game of Shadow

Chapter 36

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor The Gamer. I own nothing, really.

Chapter 36

The first stage of the Chuunin exams itself was unchanged, strangely enough. I was kind of expecting something different, what with all the changes I had apparently caused in canon. It was still a welcome thing though. I was growing tired of being surprised by things at every turn, even if I was getting used to the deviations. Like when Kabuto kept to himself instead of pulling the information cards from canon.

All this meant that, as we were told where to sit, obviously separated from our teammates, I was simply there waiting to have permission to start writing my answers. After all, if I didn't know the answers to the questions, I would be surprised. And even if I was, I had a very solid plan to find the planted Chuunin and get the information anyway.

And so, the First Test began.

Turning the sheet around, I looked at the questions and smiled. With a slight shake of my head, I started writing. They were beyond a normal Genin's knowledge, that was for sure. I would go as far as saying that they were hard for a Chuunin, even. But considering the real point of the test, it made sense. Regardless of that, I had done a whole lot of self-study with library books and books I had gotten from Danzo, not to mention things that Anko taught me every so often during our training sessions, and so, it was pretty easy to answer the questions.

Still, I could still gather information during this part, even if it wasn't the information I was expected to. Or who knows, maybe it was meant to be done for the reason I had come up with.

'Living Thread, Web Sense,' I called out mentally, not even stopping my writing. Slowly, I moved a wire that was still inside the pouch on my hips. Good thing the jutsu didn't need skin contact to be used, just close proximity. First, I wrapped one end to one of my pants' belt loops. From there, I moved the free end down to the floor, carefully keeping the thread glued to the chair to hide it better.

Time passed, and eventually, I could sense the whole room with my through my wire. It wasn't like I needed to move the wire much, really. With 20 meters of range, I barely needed to move the wire at all, but I wanted to have a good view of the outside of the room too, just in case.

Done with my sheet, I leaned back and looked straight at the proctor. My focus though, was on what I was receiving from my jutsu. Ino was already copying the things she had gotten with her jutsu. Shikamaru was writing his and Chouji's exam. Hinata, obviously, was having a pretty easy time. Kiba had Akamaru spying for him where he was sitting on top of his head. Shino was gathering the answers with his bugs.

Tenten was using wires and mirrors. How she set them up, I had absolutely no idea, but I would bet on her setting those with some distraction or another during the time we had to wait. Rock Lee was using her mirrors too. Neji didn't even need them.

Kankuro didn't go to the bathroom this time, although his trick didn't really need that anyway. He had added a new examiner in the shape of one of his puppets, which I guessed he could share sight with in some way. Same with Gaara and his sand eye technique. They probably worked in a similar way to my Web Sense, although instead of adding a new sense, they worked with a preexisting one. 'Maybe I should have started with that?' I mused. Temari though, probably didn't need help at all. What with her being said to be almost as smart as Shikamaru.

Sasuke was copying someone else with his Sharingan, which… 'Wait,' I paused with a frown. 'When did he unlock it? Didn't he unlock it during the Wave mission? But it changed since there was no Zabuza and Haku so… when did he unlock it?' And how hadn't I known, was another question. 'Did they purposely hide that from me? A surprise of some kind?' It was a possibility, but I guessed I would find out eventually.