After dinner, the team decided to have a meeting, mostly listening to Shisui's briefing. "So, the first round is a written test. I guess that's not so surprising. You think you can handle that?"
Anko shrugged. "I don't even know what they were going to ask, how am I supposed to know?"
Shisui only glared at her, while turning his gaze to his other teammate. "Are you ready, Kaeru?"
"No," Kaeru answered truthfully, shaking his head, "I never passed the Academy, I've only been here for a few months. I don't know if I can do this."
"You can always cheat!" Anko grinned, "What do you think? I'll teach you how!"
"I won't cheat!"
"Actually, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Shisui commented, "I mean, it takes skill to be able to cheat successfully without getting caught. Besides, we're shinobi, we're bound to be dishonest at some point."
Kaeru crossed his arms, "I'm not cheating."
"But Kaeru-..."
"No. If I can pass without cheating, then I won't cheat."
Hearing this, Shisui sent Anko a look, which made her pout as she turned away. Then the Uchiha smiled at Kaeru. "Alright then, just tell me if you need any help."
And for the rest of the night, Kaeru stayed awake, memorizing every single book he could get his hands on.
| × | × | × | × | × |
The sun came up before they knew it. Kaeru, half-asleep, woke Shisui up and went to Anko's room. While the Uchiha prepared a quick breakfast of instant ramen for the three of them, Kaeru poured down a glass of cold water onto Anko's sleeping face.
"I can't wake you up," he reasoned, but really? Kaeru did it just for the fun of it. Heck, nothing compares to being chased down the halls by the half-sober Anko, dodging flying slippers, a hairbrush and two empty bottles of sake. Who knows where she stole them from.
After that, Shisui caught the pair of fools and dragged them back to his room. He also forced Kaeru to drink two cups of hot coffee, not giving a damn about the possible side effects.
Once they finished their breakfast, the team left their inn.
Kaeru was... quiet, most of the time. He barely got any sleep (not that he's complaining) with all the reading he did, and Shisui doesn't have the heart to stop him. The Hatake's antics were as crazy as usual, maybe even more, but he did so without many words.
It was still early, the streets weren't so crowded. Kaeru didn't seem as jittery as usual, which is good. Though Anko enjoyed it when Kaeru is hyper, happy and fueled by energy, she still likes it better when he's calm, just like how he is right now.
Honestly, this trip is a nice change for the three of them. Anko is tired of waking up at 5 every morning to finish all the errands Ibiki gave her. She was supposed to be his apprentice, but lately, it feels like she becomes his object of torture. Not that she blames him, Anko knows how hard his work has been for that Morino; but she wishes he could have held himself back from yelling at her all the time, pointing out her mistakes and keeping her awake with his drinking.
Shisui, too, needs a break from his clan. It was always too noisy, too busy for him to have the slightest peace and quiet with his mind. First the over-excited kids, then their annoying parents (with those sticks up their asses), and the worst are the elders. Almighty elders with their traditions and impossible expectations. Really, his uncle needs to control them. Oh, wait, Fugaku is just as messed up. Itachi is a kid, not a soldier, damn it!
And of course, don't forget Kaeru. Aside from the villagers' nasty stares, the tension between him and his brother is already a lot to take. Kaeru knows that Kakashi hates him, yet the elder pretends to love him and care about him. It's like two nemesis playing best friends, living with each other, and neither of them is going to quit the game anytime soon. Kakashi, out of guilt, and Kaeru simply wanted to savour the sweet moments while they last.
A team of three fucked up kids. How fun.
"It's just as big as the one in Konoha," Kaeru commented, pulling Anko's sleeve, "Are you nervous, Anko-chan?"
Well, looks like the caffeine is starting to do its magic.
"No way!" Yes, of fucking course I am. "What about you, Kaeru?"
The Hatake shrugged. "I don't know how to feel, but I think I'll be okay."
Shisui gestured his teammates to come closer as he approached the building's entrance. He pulled out his ID and showed it to the guards, who asked for his teammates' and checked the three of them. Once it was done, they stepped aside to let the team in.
"You three don't look so strong. You're the only ones from Konoha?" Anko nodded, and the said guard smirked, "Well, try not to die, then. Wouldn't like to send your corpses back to your village."
Shisui shook his head and walked inside, followed by Anko. "Thank you for the advice!" Kaeru smiled and waved at the guards. Somehow, seeing that calms down his teammates. Shisui was a little worried, just like Anko, but Kaeru is slowly switching back to his usual self.
The inside was a little crowded. There were a lot of genins, some were accompanied by their intimidating jonin sensei, others were putting up brave facades.
"This place is full of freaks," Anko muttered, sneaking a glance at a girl who was playing with kunais in chakra strings. One of her teammates was making an origami out of paper bombs, and the other one has a bottle of dark-colored liquid in his hands, currently poking the lid with a long senbon needle.
Shisui eyed his purple-haired teammate and scoffed. "Is it supposed to be a bad thing? We're gonna fit in perfectly."
Kaeru laughed. "I think it's gonna be fun!"
| × | × | × | × | × |
"This is totally not fun."
Shisui smiled in amusement at Kaeru's words. "Of course not. It's an exam. A written test. Why would it be fun?"
Anko ignored Kaeru's pout. "Well, it's starting soon! Good luck!"
"Don't." Shisui smirked, "You need it more than I do, young lady."
"How dare you-..."
A booming voice interrupted all of them. "Alright, brats, get to your assigned seats! I want you all to shut up now, or I'll rip your tongues out!" In a few seconds, all the chatters had turned into pin-drop silence. The head proctor smirked and began his speech, all the rules and regulations which only made Kaeru doze off, head on his table.
Footsteps approached him, and Kaeru jumped when someone slammed their fist onto the wooden surface. There were a few mocking, amused chuckles, and when Kaeru looked up, he saw the same man staring down at him. He was giving him a death glare, complete with an evil smirk on his face.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The said proctor dragged his fingernails along the table, the screeching noise made many of them flinch, though they clearly tried to hide it, "A stupid little mouse couldn't even follow such a simple order!"
"... Actually, no one said I'm not allowed to sleep..." Kaeru muttered under his breath, but unluckily for him, the proctor heard his statement and suddenly pulled his hair and leaned down to whisper in his ear.
"You think you're so smart, huh? You brats really don't understand your place here, do you?" He suddenly slammed Kaeru's head onto the table, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to make it hurt. Kaeru could hear some faint gasps, and when he looked up, he could see his teammates' worried gaze. Shisui seemed to be mouthing something at him, but Kaeru couldn't even process what the man in front of him was saying.
His head began to throb, and his sight was blurry for a few seconds. He couldn't bring himself to focus, at least until a large hand went to grab his collar, which he instinctively dodged. It was like someone had flicked a switch in his head. Kaeru grabbed the proctor's wrist and glared at him.
"You sounded like you really don't like having to deal with us, so why do you keep talking? We already know your role in this exam, unless you really feel the need to prove your superiority?"
The proctor's face hardened as he broke free from Kaeru's grip. "I'm gonna disqualify-"
"You can't; the only rules applied in this room was for us not to communicate with each other. There's nothing stopping me from talking to you or any other staff." Kaeru growled, "Why don't you start the exam already, so maybe we don't have to waste more of our time here?"
Shisui and Anko could only stare at each other, their expression screaming 'we're so fucking screwed', but the proctor's booming laugh interrupted their inner panic. The man gestured to the other proctors to distribute the papers as he gave Kaeru a slow, almost mocking clap.
"I'm gonna enjoy seeing your dead body later, brat."
Kaeru huffed. "Bring me roses to my funeral, will you?"
The head proctor only walked away.
| × | × | × | × | × |
Kaeru had to hold himself back from humming and singing, and that was already hard to do even without having to answer the written test. Though he wouldn't give a damn about what the proctors would say, Kaeru still wouldn't like to disturb the participants, because that's just rude. It's not nice to be noisy when people are trying to focus on an exam.
The Hatake repeated the first question in his head, frowning slightly.
1. Explain all of the chakra natures!
It sounded too easy, but then again, they had written 'explain' instead of 'write down'. Does he have to write everything, including the connection of each of them? That is surely troublesome, but at least he knew the answer, right?
Next.
2. Which one would you rely on the most: taijutsu, ninjutsu, or genjutsu? Why?
Kinda strange, since the answer would differ for everyone, Maybe they wanted to compare between each team? Whatever it is, it looked like it would be best to just be honest.
Taijutsu. Ninjutsu, while it may be more powerful, also has its own downsides with each chakra natures, which can also usually expose where did the said shinobi came from or their rank. Genjutsu is effective against many shinobi, but it can be weak against certain clans, and usually will not work on those who already realize the type of Genjutsu used on them. Taijutsu doesn't require much chakra, which allows the user to store their chakra for something more important like healing or working on seals and many other things. Also, Taijutsu user usually has better speed and endurance compared to others, which gave them an upper hand in a long-lasting battle, Kaeru wrote down as neatly as he could. It wasn't illegible, but he's sure his handwrtting is at least on par with Anko's.
The next question, Kaeru figured, seemed to be fun, more than the rest.
3. IBA FOT TEM TSO SYA PRAH OOT CUM FOH TEM EBO RAP YLA DEZ. EEF EML CAF EME NOC ORT EML VEN SRE CCU BMU.
A code; that's surprising, since Anko had told him that decoding messages is usually a task given to high-level chuunin or T&I operatives. Which means that his team would have the upper hand, because Anko is Ibiki's apprentice, Shisui had most probably done this a lot within his clan, and it was one of Kaeru's first lessons back on Earth. With a grin, he spent the next few minutes translating the question and gave his answer for the riddle.
4. What do you think is your greatest weakness?
Now this one, this totally sounded like a trick question. What kind of shinobi reveals their own weak points? But wasn't he supposed to answer this, too? Inwardly groaning, Kaeru wrote down the first thing that came into his mind, knowing full well that basically he just described his act of defiance towards the head proctor just a while ago.
My lack of respect towards almost everyone, my inability to understand the right time and place to say and do certain things.
Didn't seem too good, but there's nothing else he knew he could write without disclosing information that might backfire against his team later.
The last question sounded a bit familiar to him, but Kaeru just couldn't put his finger on it.
5. Your team was sent to deliver a scroll containing the village's secrets, with you as the leader. On your way, your team was ambushed and one of them was held captive by the enemy. You can either save him and give up the scroll or leave him and finish the mission successfully. What would you do?
I'll take the risk of trying to do both, Kaeru wrote down, before he added, A team consists of at least 3 shinobi, which left me 2 members to make the choice. One of us will try to rescue our captured teammate. The other will create a fake scroll after destroying the real one, and with the information already memorized, will continue the mission as normal. Worst case scenario, if all of us got captured instead, at least the enemy wouldn't be able to get the content of the scroll.
Satisfied with (most of) his answers, Kaeru flipped his paper and went back to sleep on his desk, giving a smirk to the head proctor before he closed his eyes.
| × | × | × | × | × |
Raven here! This took so long, but I'm glad I finally finished it. Anyone who can solve the code gets a follow and a shout out here (you can comment or PM, whichever works)! I pretty much made it up, so good luck trying to browse it on Google, if you're into that kind of thing.
Anyways. Hal-chan is back, which I'm totally glad for, but now my laptop's acting up again so no promises on updates.
But feedback, please? Or vote, Kaeru might appreciate that. Thanks guys! Over and out!
- Rae