Say Something (A Naruto Fanfic)

Ch. 27 The First Exam Explained

I do not own the picture above. Forest of Death.

Previously

My eyes widened a fraction. All most everyone in the medical wing was there. I took a breath and slowly looked around at the ANBU gathered in the room. I hadn't thought that anyone would come and watch so this was a little jarring. Finally, my eyes landed on the Captain near one of the far ends of the crowd. He nodded to me before puffing out of the room.

Present

I sighed. I looked around the room again. There were more ANBU filing in. They were probably wondering what everyone else was doing here. I shook my head. Curiosity was so troublesome at times. I made a hand sign and shun-shinned back to my room.

Curiosity is so troublesome but it was a part of being human. I have a feeling that Tiger will ask me to sing with him again in the future. It was understandable. He had a good voice but if we ever did another duet, we would have to work on harmonies and probably figure out a new song or find one that wasn't as common in the Leaf.

If we ever sang together for a festival, we would likely draw a crowd much larger than the one we drew in the ANBU. It was to be expected since there would be civilians out and about during a festival instead of just ANBU in the base. There were very few ninja that wanted to be ANBU. It was understandable considering how demanding the job was.

I heaved a sigh and sat down on my bed. Lord Fourth had  informed me of when the first part of the Jonin exams would be held and where. The first exam consisted of going to the Forest of Death to be paired up with someone. These pairs were decided by the Kage of the hidden village. The pairs would have to survive at most five days and get two scrolls and be at the tower in the middle of the forest by the time the exam was over.

If any of these requirements weren't met, you would fail and either stay as or be demoted to the Chunin rank. This should be a simple test considering that there is likely to be a large amount of candidates which means there is a high chance that at least have of the candidates will fail, if not more.

This was meant to be hard but the first test was nothing compared to the war. Even though it had already been a few months since then, the memory of the war was still fresh in my mind. I hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen in the future.

I wasn't sure anything would happen and I doubted anything would since the peace across the nations was new. No one could afford to have another war. As far as I knew, people were still missing from the Third Great Shinobi War. It had been a long time since something like this had ever happened.

I stood up and quickly made my way over to training ground three. It was almost completely deserted. Only one silver haired teen was there. Kakashi Hatake. He was looking at the memorial stone again. I looked at him sadly for a moment before walking soundlessly over to him.

"Hey," I said once I stood next to him.

"Hn," He grunted.

"You know most people don't communicate using only sounds?" I asked.

"Hn," He responded. I guess that was a 'yes' for him.

"Hn, hn, hn, hn," I grunted, imitating Kakashi.

"What do you want?" Kakashi asked.

"Hm? So you can talk. Why didn't before?" I wondered.

"I only talk when I have to," Kakashi responded.

"That's depressing," I deadpanned.

"How so?" Kakashi asked.

"Don't you want to have conversations with other people instead of acting like you have a stick up your arse?" I asked making Kakashi scoff.

"What would you know?" He said bitterly and turned from the Memorial Stone so he could leave.

"I know more than you think, boy. Trust me on that," I said, my voice void of emotion. Kakashi stopped and turned to look at me.

"Like what?" he asked.

"You promised Rin Nohara you would try not to close yourself off if she didn't come back from a mission, boy. You also promised Obito Uchiha you would protect Rin Nohara," I said bitterly. Kakashi growled. A hawk's call alerted us. It was the Hokage's summoning. I sighed and shun-shinned to his office. I kneeled before Lord Fourth's desk.

"Get up, child," Lord Third said. I obeyed his command and stood. Soon enough, I heard a knock on the door.

"Enter!" Lord Fourth called. The door to the Hokage's office opened and I heard a growl.

"Boy," I said. I heard the door close and footsteps as Kakashi came to stand next to me. Lord Fourth raised an eyebrow. I sighed. I explained to him what happened and Kakashi just hn'd when asked if what I said was correct. Lord Fourth chuckled at our antics.

"The two of you will be paired together for the upcoming Jonin Exams. I trust you will be able to get along?" Lord Fourth asked.

"I believe we will be able to make this arrangement work. If I may ask, Lord Fourth, how long do we have to train together?" I asked.

"The exams begin one week from today. Good luck, you two," Lord Fourth said. I nodded and shun-shinned back to my room in the ANBU. This was going to be one long week.

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Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I do not own the picture used! It is a map of training ground forty four — the Forest of Death. There will be a lot happening in the next few chapters so stay tuned.

Anw... I hope you have a good day/night and I'll see you in the next chapter! Bye guys!