Please Don't Leave Me

Start Your Engines: The Chunin Exam Begins

(Kazumi's P.O.V.)


"It shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates who have come to take the chuunin exam. What villages they come from and how many from each village. Why do you guys think they all came here to take the exam together, at the same time? It's to foster friendship between nations of course. International brotherhood and all that, and it's true enough as far as it goes" he says and we stood there looking at him confused
"But there's another reason" says Sasuke
"Yeah, you see the important thing is that this way we can regulate the total number of shinobi to end up in each village there by maintaining the balance of power" he says and I look at him suspiciously, he knows a lot about the exams and what their goals are even if it is his 7th time. That information wouldn't be very important to a genin traveling. What makes him so curious? Something tells me he's after more than just becoming a genin, like he has a hidden motive. I can't know for sure, but why give us all this information? We don't need to know it, so what is he really after?
"Oh yeah, balance of power" says Naruto confused
"Balance of power, big deal. It's all a drag" says Shikamaru as Kabuto clears his info card
"If the balance isn't maintained one nation could wind up with more shinobi than it's neighbors and might be tempted to attack them, so they try to maintain the status quo. Make sense, I suppose" he says
"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates? Individually?" asks Sasuke stepping forward
"They might. You have someone special in mind?" he asks
"I might"
"Well, I can't promise my information is complete or perfect. But I've got something on just about everyone. Including you guys of course, so which one is it? Tell me anything you know about them, a description, where they're from, wherever. Anything at all" he says swiping another card
"He's Gaara of the desert. And there's Rock Lee of the Leaf village while you're at it" Sasuke says
"Man, that's no fun. You even know their names, that makes it easy" he says as he takes two cards from his stack putting them on the floor
"Here they are" he says showing two blank cards
"Show them to me" Sasuke demands
"Ok, first up is Rock Lee" he says putting chakra on his card (Do any of you notice in the series he used his middle finger to spin the cards? I don't know why I said it, I just wanted to)
"Looks like he's about a year older than you guys, mission experience: 11 C-ranks and 20 D-ranks. His squad leader is Guy. In the last 12 months his taijutsu has radically improved, but his other skills are pretty shaky. Last year he got a lot of attention as a genin but for some reason he chose not to participate in the chunin exam, this'll be his first time as a candidate same as you guys. His team mates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga" he says as I take a sideways glance at Hinata who seems to remember that name, as far as I know she didn't have any siblings, a cousin perhaps?
"Huh? Hyuga?" asks Naruto as Kabuto takes his other blank card using his chakra again
"Ok, now for Gaara of the desert. Mission experience: 8 C-ranks and get this, 1 B-rank as a genin. There's not a lot of information on this guy, he was a rookie from another land originally. But there is this, he survived every mission without getting a scratch on him"
"The dude's done a B-rank as a genin and has never even been injured?" asks Shikamaru
"What's the deal with this guy?" asks Naruto as Kabuto takes out another card
"Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound. From the looks of it, they've all sent exceptionally skilled candidates to the exam this time around. Of course, the hidden sound village is small. It sprang up recently, no one knows anything about it. Those guys are a mystery" he says as I can almost feel the eyes of the Sound people on us.
"Well, you get the point. The competition's going to be intense this year"
"So it would seem, it's almost enough to make you lose your confidence" said Hinata looking a little worried
"It's a fine time to start talking like that!" snaps Ino and I elbow her in the stomach to stop talking to Hinata and she sends a glare at me that I ignore
"Do you really think it's going to be tougher this time?" asks Sakura
"Oh yeah, in the 4 years I've been coming I've never seen a crop of candidates with as much potential as this bunch. Yep, we've got our work cut out for us" he says and Naruto looks like he's getting upset and he has his head down shaking his shoulders. But when Sakura comes up behind us I can see him grin.
'Oh no...' I think
"Hey, don't worry Naruto. We'll be fine" says Sakura in his ear as his grin gets even bigger before he stands up straight and points his finger at all the rookies.
"MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI AND I'M GONNA BEAT EVERY ONE OF YOU!! BELIEVE IT!!" he yells and I stand there with a sweatdrop looking at him.
"Hey! What's that idiot trying to do? Get us killed?!" shouts Ino
"Tell your boyfriend to keep his big fat trap shut!" shouts Ino again
"Who's boyfriend?!" Sakura shouts back
"Oh, I forgot, you can't get one!" she shouts back
"What'd you say?!" she shouts
"Ahhh, yeah. I feel a lot better now" he says looking relaxed
"Uh, can you say that again a little louder? Didn't quite catch it" says Kiba sarcastically
"You moron, are you trying to get everyone in the room to hate our guts or what?" asks Shikamaru

'Naruto, you aren't supposed to make enemies until you fight. We've barely even started and you need to make more enemies that probably want to cut us to pieces more so than before. Oh brother' I think

Sakura comes up behind him apologizing to everyone saying he's unstable. I smell something coming close to us and it's hard to see but I see a group of genin coming at Kabuto. One of them is in the air and he throws a kunai at him, thinking quickly I grab a shuriken out of my weapon pouch throwing them at him just as he throws his kunai knifes at Kabuto and my shuriken clash with the knifes sending them to the wall. He looks at me and comes at me as I backflip over him avoiding his attack as I see another ninja coming at me with bandages on his face and a large cow print fur coat and he swings his right arm at me to punch me but I dodge the attack last second before he can punch my face.
"Wow, Kazumi is really fast huh?" asks Sakura
"Cooooool" says Naruto. I look back at Kabuto to see if he's ok but I see him standing with a smirk on his face until his glasses crack. At the same time I feel my bandages on my eye unwinding, not wanting people to see my eye I try to hold the bandages up with one hand.
" Oh, I get it, so it was that kind of attack huh?" asks Kabuto as he takes off his glasses, and he stands there still smirking until he has a look of shock dropping to his knees, then he throws up on the floor.
"Kabuto! Are you ok?" exclaims Sakura and they all look at me before I feel like something was punching my stomach repeatedly but I still stand, I don't feel nauseous but my stomach hurts. Naruto and Sasuke come to my side as I try to hide my expression of pain looking at Kabuto seeing he's not doing so well either.
"Not such a tough guy after all I guess, maybe that's why he's on his 7th try"
"Wrist this on your little card punk, the genin from the Sound village will be chuunin when this is over guaranteed" he says then directs his attention to me
"And don't you forget, not to get into people's business, could get you hurt" he says smirking at me but then a puff of smoke came from behind us and there were about 20 jounin with Ibiki in front of them, I only met him a couple times but it was usually small talk unless he was briefing Kakashi on a mission as he would cover my ears.
"Alright you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up. It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino your proctor. And from this moment, your worst enemy" he says as the genin look at him in awe. Behind him is Izumo and Kotetsu
"So you were working, I thought you were just looking for an excuse to not be working" I said walking up to them
"We may do that a lot but this time we had permission to not be there" said Izumo
"First, you candidates in the village hidden in the sound, knock it off. Who told you you could fight? You want to be failed before we've even begun?"
"Sorry, it's our first time, guess we were a little jumpy, sir" says the person with the bandages
"I'll say this once, so listen up. There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?" he asks as all the genin keep their mouth shut until the one right next to me speaks up
"Hmph, no fatal force? That's no fun" he says smirking at all of them
"Now, if we're ready we'll proceed to the first stage of the chuunin exam. Hand over your paperwork. In return you'll each be given a number, this number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated" he says
"The what? Did he say....written..?" he asks and my eyes go wide, this isn't going to be good. Naruto doesn't do well with written tests, he didn't usually pass his written tests in the academy, just to show Naruto Kotetsu raised his hand with lots of papers in his hands. Naruto shouted out throwing himself on the floor.
"Not a written test! No waaaaaaaay!!!" he yelled as some of the jounin snickered at him. Everyone got in line and started to hand in their papers. I looked at mine and they gave me number 34. After everyone got their numbers they sat down in their spots where there was a turned over piece of paper and a pencil.
"Everyone eyes up front, there are a few rules that you need to be aware of, and I won't answer any questions. So you better pay attention the first time around. Alright, rule number 1 is this: the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin with a perfect score of 10 points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss 3, your final score will be 7. Rule number 2, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all 3 members"
"What?! Wait a second!" yells Sakura behind me
"You're saying we all get scored as a team?!"
"Silence! I have my reasons, so shut up and listen" snaps Ibiki
"Rule number 3, the setinals you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract 2 points from the culprit's score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp. And if they catch you 5 times you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the setinals doesn't deserve to be here"
"I've got my eye on you guys" says Kotetsu looking around the room until he stops at me and smirks in a way that says 'yes, especially you'.


"If you want to be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be. One more thing, if any candidates should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails" he says and I widen my eyes with worry.
"The final question won't be given out until 15 minutes before the end of the testing period. You'll have 1 hour total" he says as everyone tenses up as the clock is ticking.
"Begin!" he yells as everyone picks up their pencils and begins the test as I look down and start reading there's no real answer for them. Line B in the diagram indicates the trajectory of a shuriken thrown at enemy, C, by ninja A seated atop a tree 7 meters tall. Describe and formulate the trajectory required if C were positioned at point D, E, and F. Also predict the farthest possible range of the shuriken and explain how you received your answer. In combat most people don't have time to question or think about what the shuriken is capable of by the thrower or what the enemy will do if they will dodge or be attacked depending on their luck.
I highly doubt any of the genin from this class is going to understand what to write, I doubt even Shikamaru is smart enough to find all the answers on his own. I caught a peek through the corner of my eye and someone was writing, he knows exactly what he needs to do. And the person in front of me is also writing down the answers, I can even hear a few people behind me scribbling on their papers. They either know what to do, or they're guessing. Regardless, if someone knows what to do and no one else does they're most likely not regular genin. If we're caught cheating then we lose points, but I would have to be sneaky........like a real ninja. That's it! If we want to pass we have to be stealthy like a true jounin ninja and find the answers by cheating. That's sneaky.

I lowered my hand under the desk looking upset doing a one handed jutsu. I feel a tear come from my eye as it slides to the floor and up the walls to the ceiling hovering over someone who's writing the answers. I let the drop fall on his desk as he doesn't notice, this eye drop is from my own eye and it's got the same cells and shape of a flat eye ball. Since it's from my eye I can see through that tear drop since it's connected to me it's like it's right in front of my face and I write down the answers with my one free hand.
Within a few minutes I was done and released the jutsu as my tear evaporated into thin air. Peering at the clock I see we have a little over 17 minutes and I have nothing to do but sit still and wait. I still have my pencil in hand and having nothing better to do I draw on the back of my test.

I finally see that I was drawing Itachi and Sasuke, as I look closer I notice Itachi's happy face. He used to be the happiest person I knew, and he always made me and Sasuke happy too. Where did he go? I miss him, he did something wrong but he's still my brother. I feel tears come to my eyes and I blink them away turning my paper back over. I feel something get in my eye and it was irritating, I wiped my eye with one hand and out of my other eye I can see a small sand eye. It's obviously Gaara, it smells just like him. I use my other hand to pat the eye and it looks up at me with the pupil shrinking a bit thinking I was going to give it away but I nodded my head and the eye widens again but none the less goes back to work.


(Quick Gaara's P.O.V.)

Why? Why is she letting me copy? If she saw someone cheating they're supposed to turn the person in and go back to their work and she just stands there silent softly smiling at me as I go back to her answers. She's obviously figured it out and that we need to cheat to pass this test, she's very smart and fast. What is her story I wonder, she didn't react badly when Kankuro was hitting on her and didn't try once to hurt him until she noticed that he was holding that little boy. There's something about her, something that I'm missing. She's not a regular girl like the ones from the sand village, that is one thing I know but she's also not afraid to talk to something like me. What is on her mind? And what was on the back of her test that made her so upset? She's worth examining (NOT that way! Sheesh!!)


(Kazumi's P.O.V.)

"Alright! Listen up, here's the 10th and final question. But before I give you the question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of" he says as the door behind us opens and out comes Kankuro.
"Ah, made it just in time. I hope you found your trip to the bathroom to be enlightening" he teases him
"Well, take your seat" he says as he sits down
"These rules are unique to question 10, listen carefully. And try not to let them frighten you. Very well then, rule number 1: each of you is free to choose to be given the final question, it's your decision"
"So what's the catch? What if we decide we don't want to do it, what happens then?" asks Temari behind me
"If you chose not to take the 10th question regardless of your answers to the other 9, you'll get a zero. In other words you fail. And that means of course both your team mates fail as well" he says as people around the room are saying they'll stay, as for some they don't look as certain as the others
"Not so fast, you didn't let me finish. If you do accept the question but answer it incorrectly you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the chunin exam ever again!" he yells as everyone is in shock and looks less confident.
"Hey! That's bull man! That's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that?! There's lots of people here who've taken the test before!" yells Kiba a row across from me.
"I guess you're just...unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now. Of course if you don't want to take it, you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident then by all means skip it. You can come back and try again next year. Now then, if you're ready, the 10th and final question. Those who don't want to take it raise your hand, your number will be recorded and you're free to go" he says and for a second it looks like no one wants to leave but some do stand up shaking saying they don't want to go on and leave with their squad. I know he's trying to scare us himself, he's head of the interrogation and torture squad of Konoha. He does his job well, he may not torture us physically but he's toying with us mentally.


Poor Naruto though, he was shaking before the test even began and it was most likely because he was worried he was going to fail us, but Ibiki made him more scared and there's no doubt he's contemplating his decision. We could always do it next year but until that time Naruto will always be hard on himself that he wasn't able to be brave for his team mates and if he shows weakness or sadness he's going to bring himself down even more if he was thinking about how he wants to be Hokage. It's his dream, and if he makes us take it next year he's going to be beating himself up over that. But it is a hard choice, if you're that scared do you stay for more or do you leave?