Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

A test of Faith

Chapter Four: A Test of Faith

A chunin exam wasn't a proper chunin exam unless the Forest of Death was involved somewhere. It was a place most genin had a healthy fear of, and it was understood that if you could traverse it from one side to the other and come out with all your body parts intact and mostly venom-free, you were roughly chunin-level or above. This was the real benchmark that would decide their capability as middle-class fighters, for if they couldn't fight their way through this, they had no hope.

When they got the news early the next morning that they were to gather at the edge of the forest to await instructions, the genin were understandably horrified. Parents of two children decided to withdraw them from the test on the spot, which left just eighteen candidates. This was some good news for the rest of them, as one of the first things they were told when they arrived at the checkpoint on the forest edge was that there were only twelve chunin positions open and less competition was always welcome. But this meant that, regardless of whether they all performed perfectly or not, six of them would be going home empty handed in the end.

Minato looked around at the others who were all shooting furtive, calculating looks at each other, and he knew it was no coincidence that the examiners had chosen to reveal this rather important fact so late into the exam. The next test was, after all, a test of teamwork, and there was no better way to test teamwork than to subtly set them all against each other.

Worst of all, the strict examiner was back. She stood against the fence, glowering at them all as if they'd offended her just by turning up. "In the middle of this forest," she announced, "there is an outpost. At this outpost will be nine lockers, for which there are nine keys, and everyone who gets inside one of these lockers and retrieves the item within will automatically pass this second test. As you may have noticed, only half of you can pass this test."

"And where do we find these keys?" Nara Shikaku asked bluntly.

"You don't. They're right here." The examiner withdrew a crumpled white envelope from her pouch and tipped nine small keys onto the dusty ground. They glittered in the strong morning light, and the genin stared at them like magpies.

"What are you waiting for?" the examiner announced. "Take them."

There was only one beat of hesitation, then as one they all threw themselves forward into a shouting, squabbling pile at the woman's feet. They keys rapidly disappeared into tightly clenched fists, but it wasn't over. With only nine keys and eighteen genin, there was still a lot of squabbling and scratching a few pained bleats as hair was pulled. Minato hung back. He knew an impending massacre when he saw it.

Tenacious little Kushina, on the other hand, was right in the thick of it, biting someone's fist to get at their key.

"Enough!" the examiner bellowed, enough to make the young ninja scuttle away. "Who now has a key?"

Six rather beat-up children raised their hands. There had to be three more but they were wisely not going to advertise the fact.

"That's not fair!" Yamanaka Inoichi protested, dabbing his split lip. "If they have keys and we don't, then the test is already decided!"

"If you wanted fairness, this wasn't the career choice for you," the examiner reprimanded him sharply. "Your task now will be to capture a key for yourself. Those who already have a key, your task will be to keep it. Do not overestimate your advantage! It doesn't matter who starts out with a key at this point... only the superior among you will be holding one in the end.

"Now. You will be divided into teams of three, as travelling through this forest alone is not recommended for ninja of your level, but ultimately do not forget that you individually need a key to pass this test, regardless of who else on your team has one."