"Through these doors is the second task. You'll notice that each is labelled with one of the big three shinobi arts. This is because you're going to be choosing the nature of this task yourselves."
I cock my head. "Like, the whole thing?"
...
"Here's how it works." He tugs at his chunin vest. "There's a lot that's required to be a successful chunin. A certain mindset, a set of skills, an affinity for leadership, all sorts of things. But first and foremost, before any of that, you've got to be strong enough to fight on a chunin level. That's what this task is for. A straight test of your abilities in each of the three shinobi arts.
"The directors of this task realize that not all chunin are perfectly well-rounded, and that they don't need to be to be successful, so we're giving you a choice." He gestures again at the doors. "You can choose a Genjutsu challenge, a Ninjutsu challenge, or a Taijutsu challenge.
"These challenges are possible to pass by yourselves, so each of you can take a different door if you all have different strengths. Once you get through the doors you'll be presented with a mission scenario and the test will begin." He grins. "You have three minutes to decide your doors. If any of you aren't through a door by then, you're disqualified. Go."
"… Wow," I say into the beat of silence that follows. "We really should have gotten here earlier." My teammates don't bother replying, not even to smack me upside the head, regarding the doors with twin looks of consideration.
"Excuse me, proctor," Sakura says.
"Yes?"
"Which category does Fuinjutsu fall under?"
The nameless chunin's lip quirks. "Good question. Fuinjutsu falls under the Ninjutsu category, while Kenjutsu falls under Taijutsu and stealth and trap setting falls under Genjutsu."
I hum, scratching at my whisker marks. "So you guys take Ninjutsu and I'll take Taijutsu, you think?"
"Of course not," Sasuke scoffs. "You have to go Genjutsu."
I look at him in bewilderment. "Wait, what?"
"They're trying to trick us," he says, jabbing a finger at the doors. "They're flat out telling us to pick the fight that suits us best. There's no way it's that clear cut. They have to have switched the categories. The proctor didn't even say we'd get a Taijutsu fight if we picked the Taijutsu door. Just a Taijutsu 'challenge.'"
"Which could mean a fight that would challenge Taijutsu specialists," Sakura pipes up, though she doesn't take her pensive gaze off of the doors.
Sasuke nods. "Genjutsu for Taijutsu, Ninjutsu for Genjutsu, and probably Taijutsu for Ninjutsu. So you need to take Genjutsu and Sakura needs to take Taijutsu."
The proctor coughs. "Two minutes."
"Alright, wait a sec." I look over at the proctor, who's regarding us with a neutral expression, and my eyes narrow. "What happens if they're making it obvious on purpose? Tons of people thought the proctors wanted us to mix and match our partners in the first task because there was nothing connecting us, and then they got screwed by the contact seals. What happens if I walk through the Genjutsu door and they actually use Genjutsu on me?"
"That's what I'm worried about," Sakura agrees, finally looking over at us. "This could be a feint."
"I hate being a shinobi," I groan. "Why couldn't I have been a samurai instead? They never have to deal with this crap."
"We need to pick doors that we can handle whether or not they're trying to trick us, then." Sasuke glares at each of the entrances to the next task. "That means Naruto can't take Genjutsu or Taijutsu, and you can't take Ninjutsu or Taijutsu. I should be able to handle any of the three."
"You sure that's how they work?" I ask. "Taijutsu being the weak side to Genjutsu, Genjutsu being the weak side to Ninjutsu, and Ninjutsu being the weak side to Genjutsu."
"That's how they taught us back in Konoha," Sakura murmurs. "But we aren't in Konoha anymore, are we?"
"One minute," The proctor says, an amused smirk on his face.
"Damn it, let's all just pick Ninjutsu," I say, shifting anxiously from foot to foot. "We can all get by if it turns out to actually be Ninjutsu, Sasuke and I can handle things if it's Taijutsu, and you guys can pick up my slack if it's Genjutsu."
Sakura blinks, looking back at the proctor. "Can we do that?"
"It's worth noting," he says after a careful pause. "That while you can help each other, you're all being tested as individuals. If your teammates beat your opponent for you, you're still going to be graded on how you fought them yourselves."
I pinch the bridge of my nose, clenching my eyes shut. "Never mind."
"Okay," Sakura says. "So we need to decide if-"
"Thirty seconds."
"Alright, screw it!" I shout, dashing forward past the proctor. "I'll take Ninjutsu. See you on the other side!"
"Naruto, wait!" Sakura cries, but I'm already shoving the Ninjutsu door open and rushing inside, determined not to fail by timeout.
I stop a few steps in, and the doors swings shut behind me. I find myself standing in a massive room filled with stone platforms jutting horizontally out of the walls at varying heights. On the other end of the room, close to the ceiling, is a platform leading to another door. A chunin proctor is sitting cross-legged on the platform, blocking the way. A few seconds pass between us in silence. He doesn't move, and I'm too wary to.
Then as if on some silent cue, he plants a hand on his knee and pushes himself up. He steps forward and drops from the platform, landing lightly on the ground level a few feet across from me. He levels me with a stern look.
"I will be your opponent for the second task of the Chunin Exams," he says in a deep, rumbling voice that goes well with his towering figure. "The scenario is that you've been caught in the midst of an enemy camp. Your objective is escape."
"… That's it?" I ask.
He nods. "Begin." He falls into a Taijutsu stance, and I have a split second to send a silent thank you to Sasuke before he rushes forward and I'm forced to focus on the fight. He pushes me back with a series of attacks that make it painfully clear that I'm not going to be winning any tests of strength in this particular fight, and I begin my dance.
The purpose of the Dancing Fist has always been to put me on an even playing field with other close combat specialists. It negates the inherent advantage they have over me by making the difference in strength between me and them a moot point, no matter how strong they are. It has its weaknesses, one of the primary ones being that when it's used right the user stays on the defensive for the entire fight. I've never liked that, having to wait until the very end to even try to make a move, and have slipped up on more than one mission because of it.
I've always had a teammate of some sort to back me up when it happens. Even in the first task, I had Samui to watch my back. Now, though, it's me against the proctor, one on one. Just like my first mission. So I don't bother trying to attack. I duck, I juke, and I spin. I dodge the monstrously powerful haymakers that look to be the staple of his fighting style, and I watch for an opening.
I dance.
He swings a wide right at me and I swing beneath it, pivoting around the knee that he brings up to slam into my chest and sliding back from the elbow he drops down on my head. He throws another haymaker at me and I bat it aside with a gust of wind from my open palms. For a split second his torso is left unguarded, but I don't try to capitalize on it.
I could probably get a solid hit on him if I'm quick enough, but he'd be guaranteed a return hit on me unless I somehow killed him in one hit. And as my twinging leg is quick to remind me, I can't afford that.
Instead I spin away from him and leap up onto one of the platforms hanging low to the ground. I reach into my weapons pouch and procure a fistful of shuriken, cocking my arm and sending them screaming towards the pursuing chunin all at different angles. He stops on a dime and jumps to the side, deflecting the one coming at him from that angle with a kunai.
I turn my attention to the platforms leading up to the exit, and begin my ascent to the one at the top. That should be a good enough display of my skills, considering the 'mission' objective. They might even give me some extra points for being quick about my escape.
I touch down on a platform about a dozen feet in the air, pulling a handful of senbon out of my alternate pouch and letting them fly at the proctor a couple platforms below me. He's forced to dodge again, to a lower platform, giving me another few seconds of breathing room.
"About time those needles did something," I mutter to myself, jumping off towards another platform jutting out several feet in front of and above me.
Halfway up something snags on my foot, and I hear a wire snap.
...
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