Drifting by AlphaDelta1001

Part 18 - Crossing the Margin

Drifting

Crossing the Margin

As soon as the massive doors at the end of the entrance chamber opened, a massive white cloud suddenly exploded forth from the darkness and flooded the entire area in fumes. The wall fell upon the Genin closest to the entrance, startling many and causing numerous shouts of surprise to ring out as everyone's view of the second gate was blocked out. Moments later, as people started to wave away the screen of smoke, their eyes then fell upon a squad of five adults, all dressed in beige proctor uniforms designed specifically for the exams.

When the white clouds cleared enough for everyone in the vicinity to see, every Genin in the area, including the now recovering Rookie twelve in the back could see that all five of the Jonin that had appeared out of the entrance were shinobi from each of the five great shinobi nations. The most notable of them was a man standing in the center, wearing a black trench coat over his proctor uniform, had a bandana wrapped around his head and scars across a stern face.

"Alright you little bastards, eyes front!" the tall man in the formation bellowed, causing all those closest to him to freeze up. Hands behind his back, the scarred official looked out across the sea of nervous humanity standing in his line of sight. "Introductions! I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor for the first stage of the Chunin Exams, and for all those who don't know me... your worst nightmare."

Silence reigned over all individuals present. The hundreds of eyes scattered around the room looked towards the man in awe and shock. Those who weren't prone to reacting extremely however maintained their composure and glared back at the tall, brutish shinobi with barely a waver in their expressions.

It was while he was sizing up to the crowds and taking count of all those present, Ibiki then noticed the results of the chaos in the room that had ensued prior to his arrival and scowled. He pointed across at the Iwagakure teams to his far left, the same ones that had been harassing the Kirigakure group. "Before we get started... you upstarts from the hidden stone village; knock it off! Who told you that you could fight with the other contestants? Do you want to fail before we've even begun?" He then looked over at the Kiri team, where he saw Naruto standing amongst them staring back curiously, before glancing across at the troublemakers from Iwa. "This is an event conducted under specific laws and guidelines, so I will have no quarreling between participants without authorization."

The Iwagakure squad members who had moved to help their friend that had been sent flying across the room glared back at the man hatefully.

"What gives you the right to tell us what to do, Konoha ninja?"

The one to respond to that question was the Iwa shinobi standing beside Ibiki, a very tall and brawny shinobi with a bulbous nose and a beard. He growled as he focused his attention on all the insubordinate Genin, "Keep quiet! All those from Iwa and every other village are to follow the instructions of their proctors no matter what village they are from! The rules that have been applied to past Chunin Exams apply to this one as well. Just because there are more contestants of different nationalities and the scale of the trial period is even larger than previous events, doesn't mean that the game has changed. You will all do as you are told and fight when you are allowed to fight, and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Until the allotted time you are given the proper consent, shut your traps and listen up!"

This pretty much had all Genin, Iwagakure shinobi especially, straighten up and go completely quiet.

Ibiki smirked and nodded toward his fellow proctor, "Thanks for that Kitsuchi-san."

The Iwa Jonin smirked, "They're all still kids. You have to be firm with them if you want them to listen to you."

"No matter how old they get, Genin will always be regarded as children. It's a fact of life, I guess," the Jonin from Kumo standing on Ibiki's left chuckled while rubbing the back of his head. He was a young man with blonde hair and a kind face, so standing in contrast to the others he seemed a bit out of place. Nevertheless, appearances were deceiving. "Let's get this ball rolling." He then turned towards the crowd of international Genin and smirked, "Welcome to this year's Chunin Selection Exams. As of this moment the first stage of the assessment process has started, whether all teams nominated to participate are present or not. If you miss out or if any of your teammates are absent: tough luck. If you're all here and accounted for then pray you make it through to the next round."