Chapter 10: Chuunin Exams [Rewrite]

"Alright Team!" Guy Sensei tells us seriously one day. "I've submitted your names for the Chuunin Exams. Don't disappoint me, and show everyone the might of Team Guy. Together, you will dominate these exams and make me proud!" He strikes a 'nice guy' pose after his rather serious speech. 

"Yes Guy Sensei!" We all say in varying levels of enthusiasm. 

"To make the team look as great as possible and show a unified front, I got you each one of these!" Sensei pulls out three green jumpsuits, just like his own and forces them into our hands. Neji and I cringe and set them less than politely on the nearest surface. Lee starts to glow when he got his. Lee goes on for a while longer about what an inspiration Sensei is, but Neji and I already took our Chuunin exam forms and are walking away. We've mastered learning when Guy is done talking, even if he doesn't actually stop talking, so we know there's no more left to say.

"We're finally going to become Chuunin. Finally, the main family will see our worth. We will not fail." Neji says to me as we walk home.

I try not to make eye contact with him. It's mean, I know, that he's going to lose and I know how to stop it, but honestly he needs the Naruto speech moment. He's still so full of spite and rage at the main family, but for the wrong reasons. He feels so caged because of our curse, which is true, but he is letting that just make him burn with hatred. I know that we both have arrogance as well because we never lose, but at least I'm never outwardly mean to others about it like he is. He still constantly puts Lee down all the time, even though he secretly respects him. I'm just incredibly confident in my skills I have mastered, so my arrogance comes from that.

"Whatever happens during the exams, I'm sure we will come out as greater shinobi." I say confidently to him. 

I think back as we walk home. I haven't seen my friends very much lately, so this will be nice to see them again. I haven't seen Kiba in almost a year, Shikamaru in about four months, and Sasuke I do see more often, but not as much as I used to. I did happen to run into him before his bridge builder mission, but that was more on accident as I was on a walk.

~ flashback ~

I was on a walk, choosing to explore the woods outside the village thistime. I was hoping to run into Kiba while I was there, but if not, at least get some change of scenery.

"Sasuke?" I call out, seeing him at the front gate, standing with Naruto and Sakura and an old man.

"Ami. Been a while." Sasuke says, turning to me with a nod but keeping a straight face. I smile and walk up to him.

"I see you graduated. Congratulations. Sorry I haven't been around lately, I've been busy with training, but since you're a genin now, I'm sure you know all about that." I say with a smirk.

"Hn." He does his stupid noise thing, this time with a smirk.

I throw a kunai at him immediately. He did that on purpose, the little shit. He caught it easily, I didn't throw it very hard, not actually wanting to hurt him anymore, this is tradition at this point. His teammates freak out for a moment before they notice that both of us are smiling slightly.

"Try again, brat." I tell him firmly.

"Thanks." He growls out after rolling his eyes. "Yes, I've been training." 

"That's better. Going on a mission now?" I ask him while smiling again, taking back my kunai as he hands it to me.

"Yeah, to the land of waves." He says to me.

"Hmm..." I say vaguely. I try to think of a useful bit of info to tell him, but also to be subtle about it. "Don't die, I guess. Train hard while on your mission." I say with a shrug. There really is no good advice I could offer without sounding weird. Even if I told him he would almost die, nothing would change. He is going to activate his Sharingan on this mission, so he will be much stronger when he returns. 

"Thanks." He draws out sarcastically, then gives me a small smile as I wave goodbye. I can hear Sakura in the distance asking him aggressively who I am. I hate fan girls so much. I'm so thankful that Lee isn't a fanboy, it would have made our team dynamic awful. Well, he is a fan boy, just not a romantic type of fan.

~ flashback end ~

I had visited Sasuke in the hospital when he returned. He wasn't too badly injured by that point, but he had to get the last of his wounds properly taken care of once he returned. He proudly showed me his Sharingan too, since I called him out on almost dying. I was surprised he showed me, I thought he would have kept it secret, but I guess we're close enough friends that he didn't want to hide it from me. There's almost nothing he hides from me, even though I hide my skill's from him. Basic ninja training, never reveal your hand fully.

The day of the exam, Neji and I both put on our new ninja clothes. I laughed at Neji when he bought his, it's exactly the same as his last one, just a size bigger since we grew, but he says they are 'all new'. He then said the same to me, that it's still a dark teal kimono like the last, but I argued it was different. It had slightly longer sleeves, and a pattern on the ends. Totally different. I made sure my scrolls for my bow and for my fans were packed into my clothes, and that I was stocked on all my kunai and shuriken's. I also made sure to bring some food pills and blank scrolls too, in case we go straight to the second exam from the first. When we were both dressed and ready to go, we headed down to the academy where the first test would be. We met Lee along the way, that way we could arrive all together.

"It's a genjutsu. This is the second floor." I whisper to Neji and Lee as we make it to the first distraction.

"We are early, let us see why they have the genjutsu set up." Lee says back.

"Remember, just don't give away any of our skills." Neji says, letting Lee go. We had set up this idea days ago, to not show any of our special skills until later.

"Ha! You plan to take the Chuunin exam like that?" The 'genin' at the door sneers after kicking down Lee 'easily'. "You should quit now."

"You're just a little kid." The other 'genin' arrogantly says to Lee, who's on the ground 'injured'.

"Please, let us through." Lee says innocently. He gets kicked again. Neji and I go to 'see how he is' in 'concern.'

"Listen, this is a kindness. The exam isn't easy, even we have failed three times straight. Those that take this exam and end up quitting as shinobi's, those that die during the exam, we've seen it all." The fake genin says to everyone gathered. "Yet kids like you think you can pass." He sneers.

"Let me pass." I hear from behind us. Cue Sasuke's entrance. "And remove the genjutsu you created. This is the second floor." He then gives Sakura a little pep talk moment while Lee wipes off his fake bruise and we all step back a second, watching the exchange.

"You noticed?" The fake genin says in surprise, then drops the genjutsu. "Hmm, not bad. But all you did was," The fake genin goes in to attack, "See through it!" He swings a kick at Sasuke while Sasuke does one in counter. Lee instantly stops both kicks, unable to resist interfering.

"Hey." Neji says to Lee after he's done blocking them. "What happened to the plan? You're the one who said we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves." He scolds Lee who looks ashamed.

"Well..." Lee says, then we see his eyes target lock onto Sakura. I sigh, knowing what's about to happen. He walks briskly over to her. "Hi. My name is Rock Lee. So yours is Sakura. Let's go out together!! I'll protect you until I die!!" He exclaims at her loudly with a 'nice guy' pose. She rejects him instantly.

Neji walks up to Sasuke, "Hey you. What's your name?" He asks Sasuke arrogantly. I giggle behind him in amusement.

Sasuke turns around to face Neji. He catches me laughing behind his back and he smirks at me. "When you want to learn someone's name, you should give yours first."

"You're a rookie right? How old are you?" Neji asks rudely.

"I don't have to answer you." Sasuke says shortly. He turns slightly to face me as I walk up behind Neji's shoulder. "Hey Ami." He smirks to me.

"Hey Sasuke. Fancy seeing you here." I tease as Neji stares at me hard with a questioning look. It's not my fault he never asked who I was hanging out with. I've said his name multiple times in conversation, he must now be putting two and two together. "Don't you fucking do it." I warn when I see Sasuke's smirk forming. He frowns that I cut off his stupid noise he was clearly about to do.

"Fine." He turns with a shrug and walks away with his team.

"Come on Lee, let's head to the exam." I say as Neji and I walk past him. I know what he's about to do.

"I will catch up to you two." He says simply, then walks towards Sasuke's team. I smirk in response.

"Wanna secretly watch?" I ask my brother, nudging his arm.

"Fine. Nothing better to do." He shrugs. We follow at a distance, not entering the room where Lee is challenging Sasuke. By the time we get there, Naruto has already been beaten up. We hear Lee declare himself the strongest genin in the Leaf village, to which Neji scoffs in response quietly.

We watch as Lee easily fights Sasuke, who is trying to use his Sharingan against him. It doesn't work at all, and he is getting destroyed effortlessly. The fight still continues on, Lee obviously getting carried away with it, even starting to use the primary lotus. Before he can, we watch as Sensei's tortoise summoning, Ningame, appears and starts to lecture Lee after stopping him mid-attack. Then Sensei himself appears and punches Lee hard, multiple times, and lectures him again. Then they have one of their very creepy moments where it's like a romance novel. Neji and I both cringe, Sensei has tried doing these moments with us too. It's uncomfortable every time. Guy goes to talk to Sasuke's team about his rivalry with Kakashi next while Lee starts to wrap up his arms again.

"Sasuke, I will say one more thing." Lee says after Guy leaves. "The truth is, I came here to test my abilities on you. Also, I lied before. The strongest Leaf village genin are on my team. Both of them. I've entered this to defeat them, and now you're also one of my targets. Be prepared during the exam!" He calls out as he runs away, back towards where we are. Neji and I quickly disappear down the hall and act as if we didn't just watch that.

"Find what you were looking for, Lee?" I ask him casually when he rejoins us.

"Yes, I think I did." He replies and we meet up with Sensei outside the exam room.

"Congratulations, you three! You are about to enter the first stage for the hardest test of your lives." Sensei says dramatically to us, "And I just can't believe you all are here... Dressed like that!!" He points at Neji and me with an appalled expression. "You could have gone in representing Team Guy in fashion, heck you could have at least gone dressed as twins! But no! This is a disgrace! How will anyone know you guys are a team!? Where is the similarity?!" He wails out.

Neji and I look at each, then back at him with a deadpan expression. "We're literally twins!" We yell at him together.

"But I am not your twin!" Lee wails next to Sensei, "How will anyone know I am on your team?!"

My brother and I just sigh and walk past the two, turning in our slips to the proctor.

"These are for teams of three, where is your third member?" The proctor ask us.

We both point simultaneously to the door, "Give him a minute." We say in exasperation. Sure enough, a minute later Lee has bounced back to his normal positive energy and joins us. We check in and start to walk towards the side of the packed room before I hear my name being called out.

"Ami! Is that you?" I turn and see Kiba and his squad walking towards me. I separate from my team for a moment to greet them.

"Kiba, long time no see." I say grinning to him, then turn my attention to Hinata behind him. "Lady Hinata." I say formally with a small bow. It's a customary formality for whenever greeting the main family. I've seen her plenty of times since her terrible third birthday, but never gotten close to her because her father keeps her separated.

"Ami nee-san." She gives me a small awkward but kind smile and I turn my attention back to Kiba.

"Sorry I haven't been around for a while, I miss our adventures though." I say honestly to him.

"Yeah, I've been crazy busy training too. But! You haven't gotten to meet someone important yet!" Kiba says dramatically, and I see the boy next to him step forward. Ah, poor Shino, I know it's not him I'm about to meet.

"Is this Akamaru? Or did you choose a different name after so many years?" I ask as Kiba holds out a small puppy to me. On reflex, I reach out to take the puppy, but hesitate right before grabbing him. I have to remember not to touch another ninja's pet. However, Akamaru struggled in Kiba's hands and jumped into my still outstretched arms. I caught him easily and held him to me, smiling down at him as he yipped cutely.

"Yeah..." Kiba says, stunned. "That's Akamaru. Who usually hates other people. Huh. Come here Akamaru." He says, pulling the dog back. I hand him over back to his owner, and watch him snuggle into Kiba's hood.

"Ugh, this is so troublesome." I see Shikamaru walk up behind Kiba silently, slightly startling him and him team when he spoke. "Ami, been a while." He says when he spots me.

"Shikamaru, nice to see you again. How's Asuma?" I ask kindly. I haven't seen Asuma in a while since he got his genin squad, so it's been about three or four months.

"Ahh, he's fine. Didn't know you knew each other." He says lazily.

"Our Sensei's are friends." I say vaguely, then turn to join my team again. "See ya around." He also walks off to find the other rookies. We can hear them all talking loudly once Naruto comes in.

"Those are your friends? I knew Kiba, but not the others." Neji says a little bitterly.

"You are friends with Sasuke Uchiha?" Lee asks me in awe. "That is amazing!"

"I guess?" I say to him with an unsure tone. "But yeah, that was Shikamaru just now. You know, if you ever joined my walks you would have met them, nii-san." I tease him. 

We start to hear the crowd around us whispering. Most are talking about the rookies and how annoying they are, but occasionally, we hear and see people pointing at us and saying 'those are the genius Hyuga Twins.' At this, Neji and I quiet down and maintain a stoic expression while Lee looks determined. He doesn't have a reputation yet, but I know he will eventually.

We hear Kabuto talking to the rookies, going over the information cards. When he gets to Lee's, I listen in.

"Rock Lee, Leaf village. His team leader is Might Guy, and his teammates are the genius Hyuga twins, Neji and Ami. They have completed a lot of missions, 20 D rank and 11 C ranks. His taijutsu radically improved last year, and he and his team earned a lot of attention, but for some reason they didn't participate in the last exams." Kabuto and the other rookies go on to talk some more about the exams, but I tune it out until Ibiki comes in to start the exam.

"Just remember what we studied, and to send any signals if you need help." I whisper to Lee as the proctor calls everyone forward to take our seats. I cheated a little bit with my knowledge of the world and had Lee study advanced math before the exam. I told him it was a training mission from Sensei, and he didn't question it at all and threw himself into studying. We have backup plans in case he can't answer any questions, but they are more obvious. Neji and I can easily just use our Byakugan to find the answers, so I spent more effort in devising plans for Lee to pass.

We get scattered out all across the room. By random dumb luck, I ended up sitting next to Gaara. I try not to smile too much at him, but he's such a cute little angry boy. Instead, I give him a soft smile as I sit down next to him. His murderous intent is insanely high, but I can easily ignore it, probably because I know what it is.

The tests get passed around, and when Ibiki finishes going over the rules, he starts the exam. I flip it over, and I could honestly answer a lot of these questions myself. They are way too advanced for my 13 almost 14 year old body, but my mind is older than that, so I could answer these. I quickly do the easier questions before activating my eyes and gathering the other answers discreetly. Someone a few rows down and to my left has the full answers, so I just copy what's on his sheet. After I'm done, I look around at everyone else without being spotted. I feel something graze lightly over my hand, and look down and see tiny grains of sand swirling around Gaara's hand, forming into an eyeball that he sends floating away. That was both cool and creepy to watch.

I spot Neji and Lee in the hall. Neji is done as well, his body appears relaxed, but I know he's keeping a lookout. Lee is still working on his answers. When he gets to a break, he taps his headband three times. That's a signal he needs the answer to number three. Then he swipes his finger in a figure eight and a tap, that's a signal he needs number nine. He stops after that, so he only needs two answers. I pull out a spare tiny scroll, and he pulls an identical one out. On my scroll, I write down the answers to his needed questions, and to be safe, I add the answers to the others in short hand. I then roll up the scroll again, and use a substitution jutsu with the one in his hand. He now has the answers, and I can see him going back to writing. I'm glad I sent all the answers, because I use my sight on his paper and see two of his answers are wrong and he's correcting them. Simple, easy, done. Now we just wait for the final question.

The room clears out for a while after Ibiki dares people to leave. Naruto stands up and gives his little speech, and then Ibiki says there is no last question. I hear Gaara growl lightly at him in annoyance. As everyone is griping, Ibiki goes on to talk about the importance of gathering information. His example he uses, about stealing a heavily guarded scroll with unknown variables, catches my attention. I do plan on stealing a scroll or two in the Leaf village, one of which will be from Danzo, so it won't be easy to get. 

Suddenly, while Ibiki is still talking, the window explodes and a woman, Anko, swoops in annoying Ibiki as she waves a banner around.

"Wow Ibiki, so many passed. Going soft on them this year? Losing your touch?" Anko teases Ibiki. She goes on to sneer at us and threaten us, and tells us where to meet her in the morning for the next task.

As we are walking home as a team, I turn to my teammates. "Guys, pack emergency rations and a medical kit for tomorrow. Be prepared for anything, even something lasting longer than a day. The first test was too easy, they are probably going to make the next one more difficult. Good work today though." I warn and commend them. They each nod, and Lee goes off to his home. Neji and I rest well for the night after I make us a large dinner.