Iroko POV

I woke up at 8:30 AM and as the fogginess from my mind cleared, the first thought that seeped into my head was this:

Today is the day.

I leapt out of bed in anticipation and blazed right through my daily routine, doing everything with spunk in my movement. I was way too excited.

Throwing on my jacket and wearing my protector, I looked at my wallpaper of Naruto-sensei. I'd had this wallpaper for as long as I could remember. It featured Naruto holding out a thumbs-up and saying: "You Can Do It!!!" Whenever I was losing motivation, I would look at the wallpaper and strength would flow through me.

I threw a passionate fist at him, grinning determinedly.

As I walked into the living room, I caught a whiff of what I could only assume was shokupan along with other delicious scents.

I sauntered over into the kitchen and dining room, and there I saw it: A whole buffet!!

My nose had not deceived me, there were two whole loaves of shokupan bread along with a jar of jam, a bowl of yoghurt and butter, fried eggs, even ham and cheese! I could see Oneechan in the kitchen, frying some sausages.

"Is this real? It's not even my birthday." I gaped, drool hanging from my mouth.

"Oh, good morning!!" she looked over her shoulder. "Well, it's a special day today so I figured I'd prepare you a special breakfast!!"

I got onto the ground and bowed before her. "Doumo arigatou gozaimasu. Anata ha watasi ni ha mottainai. Watashi wa anata ni zenzen fusawashikunai--"

"Alright, enough of that!! Just start eating!!"

"So how are Asami and Yuura doing?" Oneechan asked in the midst of the breakfast.

I swallowed down on a slice of toasted shokupan buttered with jam before answering: "I dunno. I haven't actually talked to them since I began training. I saw Yuura at one point but he was hanging out with Daito Odachi and I once waved at Asami down the street but she literally did nothing to respond even though I know she saw me! So, yeah, not sure what the deal is."

"Of course, they are still your teammates," said Oneechan. "If you didn't see them, it was probably because they were out training too. Don't jump to conclusions, 'kay?"

"Yeah, okay," I agreed, opening my mouth to put in a sausage.

"Hey." She placed a hand on my hand and drew her face closer to mine. "You're gonna do great, all three of you. I can feel it! Just remember to give it your all, every time. I'll be watching you when it comes down to the Preliminaries."

I smiled warmly. "Seriously, thanks, Oneechan. I really don't deserve you."

She smiled even brighter. "What do you mean? You deserve the whole world, Iroko!"

With my hands full from Oneechan's support and an ocean-size of resolve, I marched onward to the Academy to take the Chunin Exams.

I landed before the gates of the school, my face eclipsed in shadow by the sun in a badass pose. There were other genin that were walking through to the entrance. Back in the day, all I would've been able to do was watch them. But now I'm part of it.

You've come this far! I said to myself. You're not the same good-for-nothing loser who couldn't even form one clone. That's right, I made it here with my own skill and willpower! I deserve to walk through those gates just like everyone else here! I'd like to see the look on the faces of all those non-believers! There's nothing anyone can say or do that can stop me now!!

I took one more step forward, and then--

"JIKO!!!"

--I froze. My heart wanted to jump right out of my chest. I crookedly turned around and saw Kaz walking up to me.

Holy freaking crap, Kaz was actually walking towards me!! His red eyes were seething with the flames of hell. He must've been pissed! Okay, it's okay, act calm and answer normally.

I put up my hand and said: "Hey, Kaz!! Long time no talk! How's it going?"

He stood right in front of me, using his 3-cm-more height advantage to somewhat tower over me.

"So you actually came to take the freaking Exams, huh?" he said. "How'd you do it?"

I sweatdropped. "Huh? How'd I do what?"

His expression of annoyance turned into anger. "Don't try to play the smarta$$ with me! How'd you manage to become a ninja?!"

I flinched at the rise of the tone of his voice but then I was confused right after. He doesn't know how I became ninja?

Looking back, the last time we had had an actual conversation with each other was... well, I don't even know how long it's been, so I suppose he'd be confused about how I was here at all, but not knowing how I actually became a ninja? Did he really look that far down on me?

"How do you think?" I replied. "I never gave up."

I think I really did it then, for he instantly shoved his left hand onto my right shoulder. I was afraid he was gonna cause a scene so I tried to budge his hand but it was harder than steel! Oh, no...

"You know you really piss me off," he breathed, a shadow over his face. "You're so weak and naive, and yet you have the balls to try!! Did you learn nothing back then? People like you aren't meant to achieve anything!! You just end up a bigger failure than before!! But you still went ahead and somehow winded up here. That s%&# doesn't add up!! Now, I'll ask you one more time: How'd. You. Do It?"

"I already told you, I never gave up." I heard a bit of surprise escape his mouth. I was still feeling like nothing could stop me, and that allowed me to stand up to Kaz. "You pushed me down a lot, but now I'm ready to stand back up. I don't know what the future holds in store, but I know I won't be in your shadow anymore! I'll strive to be the greatest ninja, same as you!"

Kaz's grip on my shoulder massively tightened and I felt myself wince painfully. He glared at me with almost murderous intent. I then caught sight of his right hand being raised, sparks flying out from it.

"What're you--?"

"If that's your answer, then I'll just have to find out for myself." The flames of his jutsu blazed out.

My eyes widened in shock. "No, no, Kaz, don't--!!!"

He swung at me, but his arm never even reached me. We both looked over his shoulder and there was Asami holding his arm tightly. She had actually stopped him.

"Is there a problem here?" she asked coolly.

"Asami!" I couldn't believe what I had just seen.

"The new kid, huh?" Kaz scoffed. He tore his arm away from her. "Don't think you'll be able to try that again, you hear me?"

Even now, though, as he scowled at her, Asami remained unimpressed. Looks like I had found someone Kaz's remarks had no effect on.

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"HEY, KAZ, YOU DUMMY!!!" someone shouted out. From a distance, Tensho Hyuga came running up to us.

"Are you giving them a hard time?" she pressed him, her hands on her hips. "Don't you think you have better things to do like getting ready for the test?"

Kaz gave his legendaryTch sound and avoided looking at her.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!!" she persisted.

He looked at me. I looked at him.

"This isn't over." He walked on past us, bumping my shoulder.

"Ah, jeez," Tensho sighed, exasperated. "Hopefully, he didn't give you guys too much trouble?" She addressed the two of us.

"Nah, it's okay!" I answered, waving it off. "I'm used to it!" Besides, I thought, looking over my shoulder at him, He's my rival.

"You're a saint, Iroko," said Tensho. "I don't know how you were able to put up with him for so long! Sometimes I just wanna bash his head against a wall!!"

I laughed awkwardly. So this is Kaz's teammate. It's weird how he didn't blow up on her, though.

"Anyway, we'll be heading on inside, good luck to you guys!" she said. "Come on, Jin, that's enough hiding, we gotta go!"

I looked around me. Jin? Where is sh--

Something then bolted past me at near light speed and I saw the familiar purple-haired girl beside Tensho in an instant, with her hands still covering her face. What the hell? That was faster than my Flash jutsu!

"Hey, thanks for saving my butt back there!" I said to Asami. "I owe you one!"

She turned her head away from me. Ah, back to square one, eh?

Next to arrive on the scene was Yuura who had just witnessed what had happened and had a worried look on his face.

"Hey, you guys, are you alright?" he asked. "I just saw Kazue with the two of you, and then Tensho came and I thought they would have a screaming contest or something!"

"Hey, Yuura! There's nothing to worry about it! It's all over!" I assured him.

"Hm, well, that's a relief," he commented. "It feels like it's been ages since I saw you guys!"

"Yeah, I know, right?" I replied. "Looks like we''ve all been getting our training on! So lets all do our best in these Chunin Exams, yeah?"

"Indeed, you should all do your best," came the voice of Hisao-sensei.

We looked behind us at the android-for-a-sensei, who was looking down at us with a smile. "Hello there, Iroko and Yuura! It's been some time since we spoke yes?"

I crossed my arms and turned my whole body away from him with a great big "Hmph!!"

"Um, I think Iroko is still annoyed at how you only trained Asami, sensei," Yuura pointed out to him with a sweatdrop.

"Is that so?" said Hisao-sensei. "Well, I think it's become quite clear that if I had agreed to train you, you wouldn't have met the perfect teacher for you, correct?"

What? I looked at him in shock. Did he know about Sasuke-sensei?

His face said it all. I could just imagine the smug look in his eyes behind those shades. "The same goes for you, too, Yuura," the android pointed at Yuura. He seemed to shrink back a little, looking down at the ground in embarrassment.

"You've all grown, and you're bound to grow even more," he addressed the three of us. "But never forget to rely on, to trust, and to have faith in each other. You're a team. As long as you stick together then you will be unstoppable."

That's when he said the coolest thing. He raised his hand out before us and cried:

"TEAM 12, GO ULTIMATE!!!"

It was super weird coming from him but was inspirational nonetheless.

"You got it, Hisao-sensei!" I ran forth towards the entrance of the Academy. "Let's go, you guys!!"

Passing through the gate, I thought I also caught a glimpse of Sasuke-sensei watching me from the trees.

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We were inside a classroom, along with nearly thirty other genin ninja. There were all kinds of faces in the crowd, hailing from even the Sand and Cloud Villages. Everyone in this room was here to take the Chunin Exams, that was obvious, but what I couldn't help but wonder was...

Why are we in a classroom?

That was when a tall and intimidating figure stepped into the room. He must have been well over 6 feet tall and he carried such a grim and serious expression on his face that everyone stopped talking as soon as they saw him. He wore a hat-styled forehead protector and was virtually clothed in black. The class was completely silent.

"Talk about first impressions," I whispered to Yuura who sat beside me along with Asami.

He walked to the very front of the class where there was a board and, with white chalk, wrote on said board Written Test.

Eh?

"Welcome to the first part of the Chunin Exams: the Written Test," he addressed us. "I'll be your proctor for the next hour and a half, Ibiki Morino."

I screamed internally. Whaaaaaat?! A-A Written Test?! I did NOT study at all for this!! Training with Sasuke-sensei took up all the days I had!! Why did no one tell me about this?

Ibiki-sensei then went around with several papers and pencils in his hands. He dropped off a bundle of them in front of every genin there face-down and the pencil beside them. When he was finished he returned to the front of the class. I started sweating beads just looking at my test paper.

"I will now explain the rules and what it takes to pass this portion of the Exams: This Written Test is composed of 30 questions. 25 are multiple-choice and the remaining five are written response. You have exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes to answer them. In that time you are not allowed to directly communicate with your teammates or anyone around you. You are also not to be caught cheating by me. If you do your whole team fails the Test. You are allowed to use the washroom in between but only once and you must return within the timespan of 5 minutes."

A genin raised their hand.

"Yes?" Ibiki-sensei prompted.

"What if we have to do #2?" they asked.

Ibiki-sensei smiled wickedly. "You only have 5 minutes to use the washroom and return. If you do not return in that time you automatically fail the Test, regardless."

This answer was met with widespread talk. I noticed Kaz was rather calm amongst all the reactions.

"That being said," Ibiki-sensei went on, "I am the only sentinel for you lot, so I can't keep tabs on you while you're in there. How lucky are you? Also," he waved a small pile of paper in his hand, "with me here is the Answer Key to the test. It'll be with me at all times."

He laid the Answer Key on the desk before him. I could feel all the eighty pair of eyes on it, mine included.

But, why would he go so far as to tell us that? Unless...

"One more thing. You need at least a 70% score to pass this test. If you finish the test before the time limit runs out you're free to kick back and relax but do not leave the room or try to talk to anyone. That's all. Any questions?" Someone was about to raise their hand. "Ha, just kidding! Turn over the papers before you and begin!!"

Nobody bothered to complain, or rather there was no time to. We turned over our papers, grabbed our pencils and began the test.

Okay, Iroko, you got this, you got this!! Even if you didn't study, you're somehow able to always get at least a 60% on your tests. Ibiki-sensei said the minimum pass mark was 70% right? So I've just gotto reach that. No problemo! Let's do it!

I opened up the test paper and came face to face with the first question.

Okay, Question 1, I read, 'The adjacent between an enemy and a tree is 15-m with an angle of 70 degrees, calculate the hypotenuse between the ninja and the enemy in order to deliver a straight kunai attack.' Huh, this sounds a lot harder than I thought. Okay, the options, 'A:18-m, B:19-m, C:20-m, D:201-m'.

...

Well, that makes no sense! Next question! You have three explosives tags at your disposable, solve the diameter of the Fireball -- what? What is this?!

I flipped over all the pages and it seemed like the questions got harder with every next one.

This is impossible!! I can't answer a single one of these!

Subtly, looking all around me, I realized I wasn't the only one who thought that way. There were several other genin sweating profusely as they struggled in vain to answer the questions.

How can he expect us to pass with a 70% mark when these questions are this hard?

I rummaged through my mind for a solution and Ibiki-sensei's actions from earlier suddenly popped into my head.

That's right, the Answer Key...! I looked up at the pile of papers on his desk. Why would he tell us about that ... unless he wanted us to take it? Now that I think about it, this is a test for ninja. It would never have been as simple as just answering the questions. There's always more to it than meets the eye. 'A ninja must see through deception'. I quoted from the ninja guidebook. I looked up nervously at Ibiki-sensei. But how exactly would one go about stealing the Answer Key?

Then Ibiki-sensei, who was previously just standing with arms crossed and minding his own business, suddenly walked over to the table of a genin on the farthest left side of the classroom. The genin looked up at him in puzzlement.

"Get out," Ibiki-sensei said, "You're done."

The whole classroom gasped.

"Wh-what do you mean, sir?" the genin stammered.

"Please, no one here has time for your games," Ibiki'sensei replied. "You were cheating, of course."

"No way!!" another genin close by declared, standing up from their chair, presumably the other's teammate. "How can you prove it?"

Ibiki-sensei smirked. He then proceeded to grab the genin's arm and hoisted them up from their chair, revealing a strange device wrapped around their wrist. Attached to the device was what looked like a small drone robot.

"Ninja tech is forbidden when taking the Exams," Ibiki-sensei said, "therefore, as per violating the rules, you and your team are disqualified. Now get out."

The genin tore their arm out of his grasp then walked to the exit of the classroom along with their teammates, whispering to their them: "How the hell did he see me?"

Everyone was staring at Ibiki-sensei, frightened.

What was that just now? There's no way he would've been able to tell that they were cheating! They were on the other side of the classroom! Now I know for sure I won't be able to get the Answer Key off of him! I might as well just try to answer these questions to the best of my ability.

Just as I was putting my head down to actually write something in the test I noticed a yellow note on my lap with words on it:

Don't be fooled.

It wasn't him that could

tell they were cheating.

Huh? Is this Asami? I realized. Before I could turn my head to look at her, another note was swiftly shot only lap.

Don't look at me or Yuura, do you want us to fail?

I may know a way to get the Answer Key.

I deadpanned at the first half then brightened up on the second. She may know a way? Seriously? But what did she mean by 'it wasn't him that could tell they were cheating'? Then a third note arrived.

Heads up. Don't screw

us over.

Wait, what?

"What are you looking at down there?"

My heart nearly skipped a beat. I looked up to see Ibiki-sensei towering over me with a glint in his eyes.

Crap...!