14.

<< Timeskip, Chunin Examinations >>

"Children, you already know that the Chunin Examinations are dangerous. Kushina-san told me how strong you are, but you must be careful. Even though it's neutral territory, it's not a quiet time right now, so you'll most likely be hunted by Earth and/or Cloud ninjas, the same goes for them, so stay together and don't attack Konoha ninjas, we're not in our village to take risks and play around." - A black-haired man with red sunglasses and Konoha's protector on his shoulder finished warning them.

"""Hai""" - 3 children in front of him said at the same time.

This test won't be as peaceful as in the anime and as our temporary commander said, we are not in Konoha, we are in Takigakure in Waterfall Land. In a few weeks, the Third Shinobi World War will begin, so the second stage will most likely be a massacre. Even if I finish my project, I don't want to show it to anyone.

"Kushina-san told me that you have already learned some elemental transformations, at what level are you?"

"Me and Yui-chan know some fire and earth techniques, but our maximum is C-rank. Gonda has water and lightning affinity, but because of his insects, he can't use lightning near his body, almost the same goes for water, right now he can't combine water with his clan's jutsus, so he can't use elemental ninjutsus in battle," Ichimaru said and Gonda nodded.

Actually, my main affinities are Yin, Water, Earth and Wind. Yin is understandable, water is my mother's main element, earth comes from both of my parents, as for wind, when I was a kid I mostly tried to manipulate wind because a) it's everywhere, b) it's attacks are hidden for almost everyone, and C) I want to FLY *glinting eyes*. I can already make chakra strings to hold myself in the air, I can even float now and move slowly, but it takes too much attention, puppeteers won't have a problem with speed, but I'm not a puppeteer and I don't have time to train in puppetry. So right now, I need the same weight control technique as Oonoki, and eventually, with the wind, I'll be able to FLY.

"Hmm, not bad with these skills, it won't be much to pass, but be careful. Oh, one more thing, there is a boy in Korozumo's team who can use Wind Release, so if you need help in a fight, ask him to combine your jutsus."

"Okay, Konusi-san, thank you." - Ichimaru bowed slightly.

"O-Okay, let's go to the building. I don't want to be late." - Yui.

 When they entered the building, they saw a group of participants, almost all of them looking at other groups with a bit of hatred. They were ready to kill each other. Ichimaru's group was met with the same look, they moved to 2 other groups from Konoha.

Konoha sent only 3 groups, at first, they wanted to send only 2, but Kushina's group insisted and the Hokage added them as well. Kushina wasn't allowed to go with them, so Konusi replaced her. He is a special jonin, but he has the jonin exams next month, so he is not a weak shinobi and specializes in ninjutsu(fire) and kenjutsu.

They greeted other teams and told the boy Konusi had mentioned what their commander had said. He agreed without a problem and they began to discuss a strategy for the second stage. After 1 hour, a man with Takigakure's protector arrived and told everyone to follow him to the classrooms.

On the way, illusions were set up in which 2 groups were caught, but no one helped them. 2 Genins of Konoha were caught as well, but they were rescued.

After some time, the participants entered the classroom and the examination began with the explanation of the rules. Everything was like in the anime, with 1 difference. They were supposed to get information under killing intent. 3 Konoha genin were disqualified, 2 of them from one team and 1 from another, but the remaining genin could still participate because the only requirement for the second stage was to have a team of 3 from the same village.

Ichimaru's team passed easily thanks to my and Gonda's skills, and they even helped one of our villagers when they saw that he was about to be disqualified. You may ask why they didn't help everyone? It's because 3 of them were weak for this test, compared to them, these 3 had a chance to help them. Is that cruel? No, they helped them and maybe even saved them.

Nearly 60% failed the test.

I didn't think it would be that much, but when I think about it, most of them focus on strength and ninjutsu, they can be described with two words: muscle heads.

At the second test, they were only 72. They were taken to the outskirts of Takigakure, there is a large waterfall, behind the waterfall is a large labyrinth of caves. They had to find 2 scrolls in there and bring them out, there are only 12 scrolls. In addition, 2 of the last team left. This means that they only want 5 teams + 1 genin to participate in the next trial.

"We'll meet in the cave, try to avoid the fights until we meet." - Ichimaru said without much hope, they nodded.

They entered through one of the entrances where an examiner had told them to go. It was almost completely dark, but thanks to their senses and Gonda's insects, they could find their way around.

"I sense something 400 meters away from us." - Ichimaru.

"Who is it? How many are there?" - Yui.

"I don't think it's another team, more likely an animal." - Ichimaru.

"My insects sense something familiar. I will send some of them." - Gonda.

After a while, Gonda: "It's a giant ant, D-rank beast. They can communicate with each other using chakra, so it will be better to avoid it." - They agreed.

After that, they met and avoided 4 more ants.

If more than 6 of them come to fight us, we won't be able to win.

After a while, they found a scroll near an ant, luckily it was alone. He entered the ant's mind to control it, which he was able to do, but after a few seconds, the "invader" received a chakra signal that Ichimaru didn't know how to respond to. Meanwhile, Yui took the scroll and ran back to us. When she came back, he returned in my body.

"We have to run away as soon as possible; I couldn't react to their signal, so I think they will come here in a few minutes." - Ichimaru said as he regained consciousness.

"You are right, they will be here soon." - Gonda agreed and we started to run in the direction that Ichimaru felt was free. After a minute, he could feel some signatures at their previous position.

"Okay, one more scroll and we're done, it can be good to meet other teams as well, but that's not our main goal." - Ichimaru said and waited for their decision, but when Ihe didn't hear anything against it, they continued their way.

On the way, they found a dead team, surrounded by dead ants, most likely they didn't have a sensor in their team. They started to search for a scroll, but dead Genins didn't have it, so they decided to leave. Without his team's knowledge, Ichimaru sealed their bodies in his dimension.

I don't think they have any Kekkei Genkai, but who knows, maybe they will be useful for me, I think their last owners don't need these bodies anymore.

For the next 2 hours, they didn't meet any team at all.

I understood when an investigator told us that it was a big cave, but I didn't think it was that big.

However, in two and a half hours I sensed a large group of chakra signatures, and most likely they were going to fight each other. Luckily, they were on our way, so I didn't have to say anything and change our direction, which could reveal the range of my ability. When we got a little closer, I recognized chakra from 2 of them. They were our ninjas. 2 ninjas from Konoha were fighting against 5 ninjas from Cloud and 3 more were waiting to ambush the winner.

I would rather not interfere, but I'm part of a team and I don't want to lose their trust. They might understand if we waited for a winner, but it might destroy our friendship. So he decided to help their allies. He deactivated his restrictions and charged at Kumo's ninjas from the left, while making hand signs to form some jutsu, he placed a seal on his head that made him unconscious and imitated a blood, he created this seal to collect enemies alive without my teammates noticing.

Yui shunshin and pierced another genin with a kunai. Gonda distracted 2 enemies to give Konoha's genins time to rest. However, the third used his Lightning Jutsu to kill one of our ninjas. Meanwhile, Gonda's enemies started to form a combined Water + Lightning Jutsu, he didn't want to give them time to finish, but Ihe could only kill one of them, he decided to kill a boy who formed Lightning and ordered Yui to use Earth Wall. She understood what he was doing and started to form a wall. He used the same seal on the boy and he collapsed to the ground without finishing his jutsu, he was electrified. This is what happens when someone doesn't finish a technique.

At the same time, Yui stopped a water with the cost of her wall, if she had been a bit faster, the wall wouldn't have been destroyed, but it wasn't critical. Meanwhile, our last ally threw a lot of shurikens into the enemy, which killed her teammate, and Gonda attacked a boy who used Water Jutsu.

Everything seemed to be going well. But as Yui ran towards the boy who was slightly injured by the shurikens, a hidden team ambushed behind Konoha's genin, 2 of them with katanas. The first one cut off the girl's arm, the second one wanted to cut off her head, but on his way, a wall of earth appeared and protected the kunoichi.

After that, Ichimaru used fireball and killed the one who didn't attack and prepared a jutsu. Luckily, it was a Wind Knife Jutsu, so after colliding with each other, it came back to the user empowered with fire, the result was obvious, his dead body collapsed on the ground.

A girl who had cut Kunoichi's arm attacked Ichimaru with her sword, but Ichimaru easily dodged her attempts, after 3 attacks, he placed a seal on her head and she collapsed on the ground. Seeing this, the third enemy screamed and rushed towards Ichimaru, blinded by rage. Sensing that this time, his opponent was using a lot of chakra that was concentrated in the sword, Ichimaru didn't want to prove how this attack would work on him, so he dodged it with Shunshin, appeared at 20 meters and used Mind Transfer Jutsu on his enemy, who couldn't move because of the overload. He captured it and moved it to his body. He began to place a seal on his head. Just before the seal was placed, he came back to his body.

As the boy collapsed, he turned to his teammates and saw that they were fighting one last enemy, almost killing him when the enemy activated a bomb and blew himself up. Yui defended with her earth wall, Gonda used his insects to protect himself, but he was thrown back and lay unconscious on the ground. Yui lamely went over to Gonda and examined him. Meanwhile, Ichimaru created a clone, a clone received a scroll and went to hide, Ichimaru went to help an injured girl with her arm after he finished bandaging it.

"We have to get away from here, because of the noise, in a few minutes, there will be enemies here and we are too exhausted to fight them." - Ichimaru said.

"Okay, are you done with the girl?" - Yui asked as she put the unconscious Gonda on her shoulder.

"Yes, she is too weak so I have to take her on my back." -Ichimaru replied and looked at the girl.

"O-Okay w-wait a seehcond" - The girl replied and straightened the bandage on her arm.

After they left, Ichimaru's clone came out and placed the corpses into the dimensional scroll before destroying it and vanishing.

Luckily, I was able to create Fuin of the second door. Although I only made 4, 1 is in my house, 1 is outside the village and the other 2 I have with me, Ok 1.'

On the way, Gonda regained consciousness and they left the cave at a higher speed. Halfway they met a boy from the land of rivers, as this land is not an enemy, they helped him to get out.

After they came out and gave the scrolls to the examiners, the girl's teacher took her to the hospital. Ichimaru's team went to the hotel to sleep and wait for the results.