The spire turns out to be pretty far from our hotel. We spend a good ten minutes traversing the stone rooftops of the capital before we arrive, and walk in with a handful of minutes to spare before the start of the task. The front doors are guarded by twin stoic samurai, and when we enter we find the place bare except for another samurai standing by a stairwell.
"You're here for the chunin exams?" He asks when we walk up.
"Yeah."
"Up one floor. Try to go any higher and you'll be immediately disqualified, no exceptions."
Harsh.
We head up the spiraling staircase, and promptly step forward into the lion's den.
Back during the meeting in the old man's office, I had made the vague observation that fifteen teams per village, and twenty for Kumo, was a lot of genin. It didn't really go past that, so now when I lay eyes on the competition I find myself thrown by the sheer number of shinobi in the room. It's a big room, easily twice as big as Iruka-sensei's classroom back at the Academy, but it's stuffed to bursting with shinobi of all shapes, sizes, and allegiances.
I see headbands with hourglasses, rocks, waves, and even more obscure symbols from villages that I don't even remember learning about. And all of them are facing me, along with the glares of over two hundred shinobi. Whatever quiet conversations might have been going on before we entered halt. Dead silence.
I lean over and whisper into Sasuke's ear. "I feel uncomfortable."
"Finally showed up, did you?" A voice cuts through the silence. A large throng of what look to be Kumo genin part, revealing a tall, muscled genin with tan skin, short spiky brown hair, and the typical kumo garb of gray shinobi shirt and pants and a white vest. His eyes roam over the three of us, and he sneers. "Man, Konoha really skimped out this year. A cripple team and a bunch of brats."
"Did we ask your opinion?" Sasuke asks, raising an eyebrow.
"No, but you're getting it." The Kumo genin crosses his arms over his chest. "If you were smart you'd ask for more of it. It might get you through the first task, if you're real lucky." A little wave of snickers passes through the gaggle of Kumo nin.
Sasuke snorts. "If you were smart I just might."
Sakura fidgets beside me as the glares intensify. The large genin laughs, elbowing one of his Kumo buddies. "Look, Hayao, big boy Konoha nin thinks he's clever. Wonder how many jokes he'll be cracking when I cut him all up."
"You might not get the chance," Hayao, a shorter and more slender genin with a critical stare, says. "They don't look very experienced. I'd be surprised if they had more than a couple months under their belt."
I scowl. "Three, actually."
The taller genin just laughs even harder.
"A rookie team," he says, voice dripping with mirth. "A two man squad and a rookie team. Konoha really has given up."
"Will you be quiet, Isamu?"
The tall genin's laughter dies. He turns on another one of the Kumo nin, glaring. "What's your problem now, Omoi?"
Omoi, a shinobi around Sasuke's height with dark skin, spiky white hair, and the typical Kumo getup, sighs. "You're causing yourself a lot of future trouble that you don't need to."
"The hell are you talking about?" Isamu demands. "They're just a bunch of rookies."
"What if there's more to them, though? What if they're all prodigies? They could be heirs to powerful clans, masters of the shinobi arts, or even Bijuu in disguise." He shivers. "Do you really want to taunt a Bijuu, Isamu? Does that sound like a good idea to you?"
Isamu, for his part, just kind of stares at his fellow shinobi in disbelief. He opens his mouth, but before he can say anything more a girl with long, shaggy red hair lunges forward and smacks Omoi over the head. Said genin jerks forward, clutching at his throat. Oh, did he just swallow that toothpick he was chewing on? I wince. Ouch.
"Quit it with that nonsense, you idiot!" She yells. "Why would there be Bijuu hiding in an exam for genin? That doesn't even make any-"
"Alright, shut the hell up you whelps!" A loud, feminine, adult voice booms. "We're your proctors for the first task, so listen up!" Everyone in the room stands to attention as a group of jonin walk into the room from a doorway opposite from us. They step up onto a podium, probably set there for that exact reason. I catch sight of the Konoha headband on one of them, a busty woman wearing a trench coat, fishnet, and not much else.
"What the- How did she get here?" I ask, voice hushed. Not that I'm complaining about the view or anything. It's just that she definitely wasn't with us when we made the trip.
"The proctors for the Chunin Exams are decided before the nominees, and have to help set up the tasks they're assigned. They probably had to show up here earlier than we did," Sakura murmurs. I blink.
"Oh, okay." I glance over at her. "Thanks."
She gives me a little smile, pointing back up at the podium. There are five jonin in all standing above the mass of genin, and a quick glance at their headbands tells me that there's one for each Great Hidden Village. The one from Iwa, decked out in a red uniform with only one sleeve and a brown vest, clears his throat, giving the Konoha jonin a disdainful sideways look.
"Thank you for that, Mitarashi-san," he says. He turns his attention back to us genin. "Now then, the first task is about to begin. It will be held outside of the village, so follow us and do not stray."
"Why didn't we just meet wherever you're taking us? Why come here first for no reason?" A genin from Iwa calls.
The jonin from Kumo twirls a finger lazily. "This building is easy to navigate to, no matter where you are in the village. The area you'll be competing in isn't. Also, we have some business we need to take care of here. So cool it on the back talk, or I'll give you an intimate introduction to the back of my hand."
The Suna jonin holds up a metal box about the size of my head, glaring sternly at all of us. "This box is filled with slips of paper, each with a number printed on them. There are enough for each genin to take one. Form a single file line, and if any of us see you try to take more than one, you'll be disqualified on the spot."
It ends up being less of a line and more of a funnel, since there are a lot of genin and not a lot of space, but some twenty minutes later Sasuke, Sakura, and I make it to the proctors. Sasuke picks first, then Sakura, and then I grab the very last slip in the box, which the Suna promptly snaps shut.
"Alright, let's go, maggots!" Mitarashi cheers, and the genin all hurry to make room for the jonin as they pass. I look down at my slip. A little number nine stares back up at me.
"What'd you guys get?" I ask, falling into step with the crowd.
"Twenty-three." Sasuke says.
"I got twenty-three as well," Sakura says, surprised.
"I got nine." I twirl the paper between my fingers. "Wonder what they're for."
They lead us out of the building and through the streets, a procession of samurai appearing out of nowhere to surround us. Civilians watch us as we pass, pointing and murmuring in excitement, some calling out support for their village of choice. I hear a lot of "Kumo"s and "Iwa"s, but not a single Konoha.
The streets become less and less populated as we go, buildings becoming sparse and and far less huge, and I even begin to see trees popping up here and there. Then the buildings and the people disappear altogether, the stone roads turns to a dirt path, and we arrive at a blue stone bridge connecting the two sides of a ravine. I peer down as we cross it, and find that I can't see the bottom.
We pass under a statue of a sheathed katana with twin weights hanging from each end of it, and the Land of Iron transforms once again. Somehow, in the middle of a country suffocated by snow and ice and cold, a forest envelopes us. There are trees everywhere, some growing straight on the side of the small mountains springing up around us.
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