A Senju Tale: Change of Fate - 19 The Written Exam

The trio navigated through the academy building and approached the classroom where they would be taking the first portion of the exam. As they came up to the room, Nawaki kept his sensing abilities active. He was trying to identify who he should look out for.

Suddenly, he felt a huge presence approaching them. He stopped moving and turned to where it was coming from. He then saw a team of three genin from Sunagakure. The one on the left was tall. He wore a cloth on his head that covered half of his face. On the exposed half of his face there were two tattoos that came to a point under his eye. He wore white pants and a cream colored long sleeve shirt.

The one on the right had short red hair and soft facial features. He wore a black shirt that resembled the Uchiha style three quarter sleeve and sand brown pants.

The one in the middle had an intimidating presence. He had small eyes and sharp facial features. He had short, messy burgundy hair. He was dressed in a v neck three quarter sleeve shirt and pants. Both were black.

The one in the middle noticed Nawaki looking at him. Before reacting, he observed. He sensed a powerful energy coming from him that reeked of strength. He then spoke up saying, “Hey you, what’s your name? While you’re at it, have your teammates introduce themselves.”

Nawaki grinned. This was just like the stand off between Gaara and Sasuke. He then said, “My name is Senju Nawaki.” He motioned and his teammates said, “I’m Namikaze Minato,” “and I’m Uchiha Fugaku.”

The Suna ninja was excited at the mention of the Uchiha and Senju. He knew their clans were legendary and he would be able to test their power first hand. He then said, “Nice to meet you guys. I am Rasa. My two teammates are Sasori and Baki. I’ll be looking forward to fighting you guys in the finals.” Rasa and his team then walked past team Jiraiya and entered the classroom.

Nawaki was star struck. He just met Sasori, the legendary puppeteer, Baki, a future elite Suna ninja, and Rasa, the fourth Kazekage and user of the magnet release. He grinned and was eager to see how he would compare to them. He never realized that being in Minato’s generation would allow him to grow up with all of these legendary ninja. This generation was truly special.

Snapping out of his daze, he turned to his teammates and said, “Watch out for those guys. They are really strong.” Minato and Fugaku nodded and the three of them entered the exam room. When he entered, he was amazed.

On top of the three Suna ninja, he saw some other familiar faces. From Kirigakure, he saw Ao, future ANBU and aid to the Mizukage, Terumi Mei, future Mizukage, and Hoshigaki Kisame, who would become the tailless tailed beast. From Iwagakure, he only recognized Kitsuchi.

Other than them, there was not really anyone else too noteworthy other than his classmates. The trio made their way over to an empty bench and sat down together. 15 minutes passed and it was time for the exam to start.

The door opened and a man wearing the standard Konoha flak jacket lead a group of other Konoha chunin and jonin into the room. Aside from the leader, they all took their seats around the perimeter of the room.

Standing at the front of the room, the man spoke up, “Welcome to the first stage of this iteration of the chunin exams. My name is Nara Shikaramu and I will be the proctor for this portion of the exam. This is a written exam. Each one of you will receive a test. Everyone on your team must answer at least 80% of the questions correctly or you will fail. You have 1 hour to complete the exam.”

He signaled to the supervisors and they began distributing the tests. Once all of the tests were handed out, he said, “Everyone must wait until time has run out. Then we will collect the tests and announce the passing teams. You may begin.”

Everyone began scrambling to answer the questions. Nawaki looked down and opened the test booklet. As he read the first question, he noticed it was very easy. He quickly scanned through the other questions. There were 50 in total and they got progressively harder. He knew there was some kind of trick to this test. He was trying to figure out what it was but came up with nothing.

Nawaki decided that he needed to clear his head so that he could come up with a plan. He closed his eyes and began to meditate. He focused inward and then immediately noticed that something was off. His chakra flow was disturbed. He thought to himself and realized that he was in a genjutsu. He quickly stopped the flow of chakra in his body and then restarted it by flaring it.

Now that he was out of the genjutsu, he opened his eyes. He realized that the test booklet in front of him was not a 50 question packet. Instead, it was one singular page with a line for his name. Below it was one question asking, “Would you like to pass the written exam?”

Nawaki sighed as he noticed that he had not even written his name yet. He filled out the sheet and answered the question with a definitive YES before setting his pencil down. He looked up at the clock and noticed that not even 5 minutes had passed. Seeing this, he decided to look around. He saw his teammates had also released the genjutsu and filled out their sheet. Aside from them, he noticed that all of his classmates had also done so.

It was the slowest hour of his life. He was somewhat disappointed that he didn’t even have anything to do. He started to doodle on the test paper. If he was asked what he drew, not even god would be able to answer the question. After a while, he started having a conversation with Kensho to pass the time.

Finally, time was up. Shikaramu called out and said, “Time is up, pencils down.” He smirked as he noticed that most of the genin were still in the genjutsu. He signaled to his assistants and they released the genjutsu. He then said, “Everyone look down at your papers. If your exam is blank, you have failed. You are dismissed. Better luck next time.” After all of those people shuffled out of the room, Shikaramu said, “Those of you that remain, congratulations on passing the first portion of the chunin exams. I will now hand off the reigns to your next proctor.”

As he said this, the doors opened and none other than Koryu walked in. He quickly said, “Everyone follow me.” As he said this, he held a stop watch in the air for everyone to see and started the clock. Everyone quickly left the room and followed him down to the academy courtyard.

Once they all arrived, Koryu turned to the group and said, “My name is Uchiha Koryu. I will be the proctor for the second part of the exam. This exam will start 1 hour after the end of the first portion. It will take place at the 35th training grounds. Anyone who is not there at the starting time will be disqualified and be sent home. No fighting will be permitted between the teams during this time. You are…”

As he went on with his explanation, Nawaki felt something was off. He had started the clock as soon as he came into the room to get us. Then he realized what was at play. Time was of the essence. He turned to Fugaku and Minato and signaled. They understood. The three of them flickered away and took off towards the exam site.

Once they arrived at the exam site, Nawaki chuckled. Koryu was already there. Apparently the one that came to get them was a clone. After looking around, they noticed that only one other team was there. Seeing them he wasn’t surprised. It was the three Suna genin that they met before the first portion. Team Jiraiya walked over to them and made some small talk.

As they talked, there was 10 minutes remaining until the start time. With 5 minutes to go, the other teams started to trickle in. At the start time, only a handful of teams remained. The Konoha teams included Team Tsunade with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Team Orochimaru with Hyuga Hiashi, Aburame Shibi, and Inuzuka Tsume, and lastly Team Sakumo with Hyuga Hizashi, Uchiha Mikoto, and Lee Itsuki. The others that made it were included Mei’s team and 2 other Kiri teams, 1 Kumo team, Kitsuchi’s team, 1 other team from Suna, and 2 teams from Uzushiogakure.

In all, 13 teams or 39 genin made it to the second exam. Koryu noticed that it was now time to start the exam. He said, “The second portion of the exam will work like this. Each team will receive four tags. Throughout the training ground, some number of tags are hidden. Your task is to collect 10 tags and then reach the center tower as a team. There will be a time limit of 4 days or 96 hours. Once you enter the exam area, you will not be allowed to leave until the exam has concluded. Lastly, you are prohibited from using any type of seals to conceal the tags. Everyone who is ready, please step forward to sign one of these waivers and retrieve your team’s tags.”

Nawaki sighed. That last rule made it so that he could not keep the tags in his inventory. It seemed to function similar to a spatial seal to that was off limits. His team stepped forward and signed the waiver. Nawaki went to retrieve the tags and then returned to his team. He then said, “Let’s discuss our plan once we enter the exam area. I don’t want anyone to catch wind of our ideas.” Fugaku and Minato nodded and they all remained silent.

After about 20 minutes, all the genin were ready. Koryu then said, “Each of you will be guided by one of my assistants to a starting gate. Once everyone is in position, all of the gates will open and the time will start. Good luck everyone, you’ll be needing it.”

Nawaki and his team were escorted by one of the proctors to a gate. While they waited, Minato turned to the proctor and asked, “What did Koryu san mean when he said we’d be needing luck?”

The proctor smirked and then said, “Since you guys are fellow Konoha ninja, I’ll tell you. The 35th training ground is also known as The Final Frontier. It is called that due to the amount of dense vegetation and dangerous beasts that live here. There are rumors that some of the species that live there are somewhat intelligent. I kinda feel bad that you guys had the luck to have this as an exam site. That Koryu really is cruel.”

Nawaki smiled and said, “I couldn’t have asked for a better exam site.” He then sat down into the lotus position and gathered natural energy. He could feel that it was quite dense. It only took him about 20 seconds to enter sage mode. While it wasn’t as dense as the energy at Mount Myoboku, it would still be enough for him to maintain sage mode for the entirety of the 96 hours.

Seeing this, his two teammates smiled. They gained a boat load of confidence that this was in the bag for them. Then out of nowhere, a countdown sounded out from a PA system. “5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Begin.” As the countdown finished, the gate slowly opened. Once it was open, the trio took off to take on The Final Frontier.