A.N.B.U.

Chapter Eighteen : The Chunnin Exams (part 1)

   Like every single day, I woke up to the raising sun, did my chores, and dropped by TI to have breakfast... That was fairly new but once I'd known Ibiki-san was doing the cooking, I shifted my routine a bit to always eat with him and the rest of TI... I came inside the break room already feeling a lot better than when I woke up... Living a lot more of my life with interrogators and psychology experts made me realize that I had no way of hiding what I truly felt so I could relax and stop trying... I almost died when a kunai embedded itself next to my feet...
"Kitsu-chan... I thought ANBU knew not to have habits...
-I do... I mean I don't have habits... I mean...
- save it Fox, Tonbo, here is just trying to prove that him being blind is no problem for his work..." A voice coming from the kitchen area answered. Morino steered the pot of curry, all the while putting a batch of fresh rice in the cooker... The enticing smell helped me hurry to set the table, a small ding was heard and Morino looked at the clock before rushing out of the break room... He came back after 5 minutes accompanied by a disheveled-looking Iruka, part of me wanted to know why then I remembered that he wasn't my subordinate anymore so his private life was none of my considered... The other part of me was happy not to have to ask what Ibiki-san and he were up to. We all say down to eat, like always the food tasted great and I didn't even bat an eyelid at the green liquid in my glass knowing full well that I would feel like vomiting once I drank it... Poison tolerance was a very useful skill after all.

   After helping around TI for a bit, and checking the ANBU mission board to know if I was scheduled on an urgent task, I finally went to the training ground where my team was supposed to meet... Of course, Kakashi was late, but then again, when was he on time for anything? I waited for the inevitable: the news that our team would be presented to the chunnin exams was already old for anyone jonin or above... Our teacher waited for a few minutes before giving us his little speech and handing us the paperwork for the exams.

  Sakura-san didn't want to sign it at first but after a bit of persuading, she accepted to sign the waiver... Then Kaka-baka finally said that it was the first test because if all of us hadn't signed it, we couldn't participate because the exam required us to be passed as a team... This is total BS, the smaller village made a random team just to be a 3-man "genin" team... It wasn't anything special for A.N.B.U level "genin" to be sent with a secondary objective such as recon, seek and destroy, or even to make it seem like their village was the best... We then trained for a bit before being dismissed.

I walked back home, changed, and put on a henge before going out to buy groceries. Ramen was good and all but no one could really live off the stuff, plus I'd promised Morino-san to go and buy some vegetables for him and Iruka-chan. I went into one of the few shops that actually treated my persona decently, I bought some ginger, spices, rice, and other necessities... I walked back home with a sense of accomplishment, I was definitely capable of living in this society...

   A few days came and went without anything much going on except my meeting with the Suna jinchuriki, Subaku no Garaa... But the day of the chunnin exams had finally come, all of team 7 was standing in front of the academy entrance... They were probably anxious. Sasuke was being arrogant and Sakura was being a fan girl, after a nice and quick good luck by our own unique Kakashi who had managed to only be 10 minutes late. We entered and went straight to the second floor... How our team and any of the others didn't realize this was the second floor, I don't know. But we waited for 10 minutes before someone laughed and said that this was only the second floor... We all proceeded upstairs where the Teme had to pick a fight with Guy's Genin: Rock Lee... One of the best in Taijutsu... Luckily for the Teme Gai-sensei interrupted the fight before either of them could get seriously hurt... We entered the examination room and we were greeted with a wall of KI and a disgusted stare. Time to be the idiot I'm supposed to be...

While distracting everyone with my clever acting I noticed a few odd groups here and there... Like a two-girl, one-guy group with no headbands which was definitely high jonin level if not ANBU level... They hid well and the only giveaway was the way they blended in, they hid their chakra too well to be Genins... It was probably unconscious, they didn't show any signs of being tired or anything... They looked at me and  signed in Common Ninja Signs :
"Hey there... How are you? Don't worry we aren't hostile, we're just here because our village needs more visibility... We're from our country's Black ops. We don't want any trouble.
- Well you do know I'll have to report you guys to our interrogation unit, right" I signed back... They looked a bit worried but smiled again. The sign for doing what you must was given and they showed me in a very covert way their passport, signed by the daimyo of the land of fire... I couldn't believe, how could there be another Ninja village in Hi no Kuni. My thoughts were interrupted by the entry of Morino and his team... He looked around before his eyes locked with mine...

~Luciolle24