Not Alone

[40] 1st Chuunin exam ends & Jounin exam

Megumi pov

"Someone wake her up!" Ibiki's voice boomed across my half conscious mind. The next second I felt an object flying towards me. I sat up making the shuriken hit the seat I was laying now.

"Now what if that had hit me? How were you going to explain?" I looked the genin in his eyes and he trembled under my gaze.

"Enough. Time for the tenth question." I hummed leaning on my wrist and staring out the window. I only looked back when Kankuro returned with..ohh he used his puppet for the answers. That's smart, bet Ibiki noticed too.

"Nice timing, was your doll playing beneficial?" oh he totally knew "Hurry up and sit down!" once Kankuro sat Ibiki waited a moment "Now I'll explain...these are the rules of desperation..." and he lost me again.

Though I wasn't fully paying attention I did notice some people raise their hands and they alongside their teammates left. It kept going on like this until a loud slam resonated throughout the room. Looking to the source I had to sigh. Of course, it was him...

"DON'T YOU UNDERESTIMATE ME!! I WILL NOT RUN!! I'LL TAKE THIS EXAM, EVEN IF I'M A GENIN FOREVER!! I'LL WILL MYSELF TO BECOME HOKAGE ANYWAY SO I DON'T CARE I'M NOT AFRIAD!!!

"Heh, I'll ask again. Your life is riding upon this decision. This is your last chance to quit."

"I follow my unbending words! That's my ninja way!  Plus, my aneki didn't raise a whimp!" Naruto smirked folding his arms and sitting himself down. I inhaled proudly scratching my nose and looking away.

Oh I'm so proud of that knucklehead! Gah! I want to give him a hug so bad he's truly sticking to his ninja way!! Tou-san, kaa-san are you seeing your son right now?!

Ibiki smirked looking around at everyone of his chuunin even us hidden in the seats. All of us nodded. There was no need to continue this exam, all of the genin in this room, had passed.

"Hmm, to all the remaining genin... I congratulate you on passing the first test!!"

"HA?!"

.....

The room was filled with confusion.

The moment we were allowed to reveal ourselves I stopped suppressing my chakra and in a puff of smoke my silver hair returned.

"MEGUMI?!" Multiple voices yelled Lee, Naruto and even Sasuke were the voices that were the loudest. I turned to each of them smiling the famous Hatake closed eye smile and peace sign

"Yo!"

.....

"Wahh!! Ane since you were there you heard everything I said!!" Naruto freaked out. I laughed pulling the shorter boy into my arms

"I did! And I'm so proud of you, Ruru. Even though I know you didn't answer any of those questions you gave nothing away like a true chuunin!" He laughed bashfully rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ahem!" I smiled turning to Sasuke and pulling him into a hug also.

"And I'm proud of you too! You were so sneaky getting answers with the sharingan! The way you made it look like you knew the answers from the start was amazing ! You gave nothing away either. Though, since I too had to answer the questions I bet I missed when you internally panicked cause you didn't know what to do at first." hearing this Sasuke pulled away from me shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Naruto and I laughed at him Naruto hitting Sasuke on his back then placing him in a headlock

"I knew you didn't know the answers either! No matter how much we studied with aneki and Kaka-niisan we could have only studied genin stuff!"

"As if you even remember the genin stuff!!" Sasuke pushed Naruto away.

"Oh yeah! Ane, before we go. I wanna introduce you to team 8!" Naruto took my hand dragging over to the three next clan heads. "Guys! I told you I knew her! Suck it, Kiba!!" said Inuzuka growled which went ignored "Aneki, Kiba Inuzuka, he's a dog boy, but I like his dog Akamaru. Hinata Hyuuga, she's shy and turns red around me a lot. Dunno why. And lastly Shino Aburame he likes bugs and has lots of them too." Naruto pointed to each person as he introduced them

"Nice to meet you all. Gomen ne I wish we could talk longer but I have to report to oji and you all have the 2nd exam to head to. I'll speak with you all more after, ne?" I smiled at them I turned to team seven "Teamwork. Remember it. Good luck to you all." I gave Naruto a kiss on his forehead, did the same to Sasuke and ruffled Sakura's hair "Ja ne!" then I disappeared in stone.

I reappeared close to the Hokage tower which was not the goal, looks like I must train the stone substitution some more. Shrugging I ran up to the building and for once entered through the door.

"I should place you in exams more often if this is the result."

"Heh.  Don't get your hopes up oji. Now, there's something you need to know..." I told the old man of the snake scent wafting around the sound ninjas and Kabuto I told him of my suspicions but without proof we couldn't act on anything. And the second half of the exams allows killing which makes it all the more harder to prove anything sus about the four people.

"I see. In either case I'll have the examiners keep closer watch of the participants." I nodded

"Well I completed the first half, do I have to go towards the second as well? Am I monitoring again?"

"No. This time you're headed to the jounin exams." I blinked. I blinked again

"HEEHH?!" oji chuckled breathing out the smoke from his pipe.

"That's right. I think you're ready to be jounin. First you must take the jounin exams though. Today is also the written exams for that. Immediately after you have to go in a bigger forest of death, which will be filled with man made traps as well as nature's traps itself. One on one's and later a real life disaster. Do you think you can handle it?"

"...Couldn't you just recommend me to the ANBU exams?" I pouted turning away slightly.

"If I did, you'd have no choice but to follow your teammates out to battle. My child you are strong. Stronger than most your age and even most higher than you. Hai. You are worthy of being ANBU but I do not wish to see you on such missions yet. Those missions take a toll on the soul.... Those boys were born into that world and placed there by force. I wasn't even the one to take them out of it. They were."

"But..."

"You can handle it? That maybe so but others around you cannot. Do you see how you behave when they're gone this long? Only you care for them this much. Imagine if you went away this long? How do you think Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi will react? They are not yet ready for you to be gone for so long." I huffed. 

"Alright. I understand. How long will this exam take?"

"It moves a bit faster than chuunin as there is less hesitance in ones actions. The written are today as I said and they'll begin in half an hour at the same place. Right after you'll head off to the second biggest forest with more poisonous plants and manmade traps than the others. It lasts three days. If you finish before you'll be given a no. it will tell you who you're fighting one on one but you won't know the person until that day comes."

"Then I better get a move on. Anko is taking the team to the forest of death, before their days are over I better finish mine first." with that I dashed out the window and made my way back to the academy. I quickly signed my name as instructed and went to the second floor where I waited.

Jounins were in the room but not nearly as much as the chuunins. The papers were already on the table with the back facing up so we can't see the questions yet. The room didn't full up much but they still waited half hour before they began the test.

"For this exam you have 40minutes. When I say stop you stop. Keep writing and you and your squad is out. You have 20 questions. If you're caught cheating you're out. Ready? Good start!" everyone flipped their papers over and began the exam.