Chapter 2: Exam continues, Judges Surprise
"Shadow Clone Jutsu"
The moment I said so, in my spot, three more giants jumped in many directions while one kept running further ahead, going through more hand seals, hiding quickly behind a tree before jumping through trees again.
'I hope this works. Why would she show up here…' I thought, hoping beyond hope that my spur-of-the-moment idea would work out, while questioning why she of all people would show up.
I kept on jumping through the trees in the direction of the supposed Evacuation site. Face pale, cursing my bad luck in terms of the exam and fake enemies.
"Oh?" Running are we?... I do love a good hunt!" Anko Mitarashi said in a sing-song voice, finishing by licking her lips
The technique I used just after the clones was the "Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu".
I mumbled the technique's name after I hid for a split second behind a thick tree, which allowed me to hide underground, and was also the reason I managed to win multiple fights against stronger opponents in some missions. The 'me' running away was another 'Shadow Clone' I called upon just before disappearing underground.
I have practised it to such a quick degree that I only need the hand seals at the moment for hiding underground like a mole. This allowed me no longer to have to say the name, meaning I could use it and say something else to bluff. However, due to the stress of being hunted, I did whisper the name just to be sure things worked.
After quickly managing to hide underground with the 'Earth style: Hidden Mole Jutsu,' I watched Anko slowly walk towards my location, humming a tune with a sadistic smile.
The technique allows me to be underground to hide for some time. The ground will be like sand for me to move through as if it were water, and it also allows me to move around as fast as I want, depending on the chakra I use, all around my body. The best thing is that the moment you use it, the hole disappears right away, leaving no trace of where you were before.
For now, I stayed where I was, thinking of the only attempt I would have ever had to surprise her, or to run away. Luckily for me, Earth is my main Element, with a weaker secondary of Water, and the same for Wind as a tertiary element.
But right now, only Earth will be useful here.
'To think this mad woman would be here… What did I do to deserve this? I just want to do my exams and become a Jounin… I only have one attempt left, all due to being a fool in the past. Soon, only Field promotions will be left, and we're not at war, meaning… chunin forever… or doing suicidal missions and maybe get promoted, sigh.' I thought in my head in despair
I started to think of any possible angle I could use. At this moment, my clones are still doing well running from the snakes, but for how long? They're just playing around.
'Time to gamble, I'll fail here, but if I succeed in the other portions, I could still become a jounin, low ranking but still jounin nonetheless.' I thought, while I had decided on my Hail Mary attempt
I slowly moved under Anko, who had stopped close to my location, planning to use the next technique that is often used in collaboration with the Hidden Mole technique.
'Last and only attempt I have, all the clones took too much out of me, two is my max and stay in a fight long term, three if need be, but four… I'm almost out of juice.' I thought grimly, my smile strained but still in place
— — — — —
With the judges, things were chaotic to say the least, so much so that Shikaku Nara had to use his clan technique 'Shadow Possession' to stop Tsume Inuzuka from attacking Ibiki Moreno.
"LET ME GO! LET ME RIP A PIECE OF THIS BASTARD!" Tsume Inuzuka growled, trying to resist but not able to budge an inch.
"Only if you calm down, 'Troublesome Woman, ' Ibiki explain. Or I will let go." Shikaku said in a no-nonsense voice
"... Fine… Anko… was bored… she pestered me for something and I quote here "FUN" to do, since due to the peace we hardly get a new influx of prisoners." Ibiki emotionlessly stated
This confession, which is rather unlike Ibiki, surprised everyone and made Tsume stop trying to escape Shikaku's justsu.
"HUH! What are you talking about! You mean Anko was bored, and you threw her into the Jounin Exams to ruin any potential Jounin we could gain?" Tsume growled out in surprise
"Normally, your daughter Hana, and Jounin Yuuhi, and 'her' stayed close together; however, Yuuhi-San is preparing for her first genin team, and 'her' is away on missions, meaning nothing to keep Anko entertained or occupied," Ibiki said with a twitching eyebrow
"Bah! I train with Anko often! Her poisons are what are keeping our Ninken and ourselves immune to most things in use, so her being bored, albeit believable, is a stretch…" Tsume said in a normal tone of voice now
Shikaku noticed that even though Tsume's voice is still brash and aggressive-sounding, it sounded more scoffing than anything.
"SIGH, that would explain why so many ANBU Rookies ended up in the hospital… " Shikaku said with a heavy sigh
*BOOM*
A big explosion happened, drawing everyone's attention back to the exam at play, even though, due to the heavy smoke, they could not see much.
"YOU!" That was my favorite trenchcoat!" they heard Anko yell in an angry and annoyed voice
"Hahaha!... I'm done!... I give up!" They saw Bunta standing there swaying on his feet, laughing and breathing heavily.
When the smoke cleared, they saw Anko standing there looking murderous with the under portion of her Iconic trenchcoat missing a large chunk, which was clear that Bunta was holding in his hand.
"HUH! How did that brat pull that off!" Tsume yelled in utter shock, watching the giant Akimichi fall backwards.
— — — — —
While the judges were close to a fight, on the exam floor, Bunta, still being underground, moved into position to perform the next stage of the follow-up jutsu in combination with 'The Hidden Mole Jutsu'.
'I'm now in place… man, so nervous. Only one chance… NOW!' I thought going through the next set of hand seals
"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"
As the name implies, it is a jutsu that lets you pull someone from above into the ground with only the head still sticking out.
This would allow for great torture, or to decapitate the enemy, also a great way to mess with those who are highly arrogant and humble them a bit.
It was always fun on those Uchiha, and on the Hyuga's, it's a no-go, they see too much and can't take a joke, and will complain and force us to pay compensation for nothing.
At least the Uchiha were too proud of any of that…
The moment I performed the jutsu right underneath Anko, I grabbed both her feet, dragging her down quickly.
*BOOM*
I used way too much of my chakra doing so, causing a large dust explosion to happen. I did so because of my nervousness and the stress, but also expecting her to notice and use a ton of chakra to jump away, which would have caused my failure
If I had been any of those perverted morons from other fanfictions in this head of mine, I might have cupped a feel or done some other stuff… but I'm not like them, and I would rather stay alive.
All I cared about was the fact that it had to work, and happily, it did, so I ripped a part of her trenchcoat.
"YOU!" That was my favorite trenchcoat!" I could hear Anko yell in an angry and annoyed voice
'Now, with a piece of her trenchcoat in hand, I could call this my win… right? Even so… can't… focus… dizzy…' I thought soon after the success, and moving out of the ground.
"Hahaha!... I'm done!... I give up!" I stood there swaying on my feet, laughing and breathing heavily.
Standing tall, I saw my vision sway as if it were all moving. I fell backwards on the ground, and I also got the memories of my first three clones.
Guess the snakes got tired and got rid of them when they heard Anko scream.
But soon I also got my last clone's memories, and it made me smile just before everything turned black and I lost consciousness.
— — — — —
The judges jumped out of hiding quickly the moment they saw Bunta fall backwards with his iconic smile on his face, out cold soon after he did.
"Anko, explain…" Ibiki began in his stern, no-nonsense voice to the unhappy and seething Anko
"Dammit, you bastard, you knew this would happen, huh! That is why you agreed to let me do this at all!" Anko began interrupting Ibiki Moreno, her boss in the Torture department
"Look at this! This coat is trashed!" Anko showed her trench coat that had a large part missing.
"Annoying brat! explain what happened here!" Tsume intervened and saw Anko calm down when she did, and showed her mischievous smile
"Well, he's much better than expected, I thought, as an Akimichi, he would mainly use the clan jutsu. You know, so I could mess around a bit, use him as a punching bag for a bit and call it a day… just have some fun and all… but earth style…" Anko began explaining, seeing the look in Tsume's eyes
"Fucking hell, Earth style and so flawless! Him!..." Anko continued pointing to Bunta
"I never noticed it at all, no disturbance, no nothing, no scent dislocation… I will get him back, and I will tell you that, for messing up my COAT!" Anko spoke in an annoyed tone, yelling the last word again, showing her damaged coat before sitting on Bunta's round stomach
"Anko, you do know this was his last attempt to become Jounin." Ibiki stated
Everyone watched as Anko Mitarashi, self-proclaimed snake mistress, froze up and went pale.
"... No way!.. Is he done? Everyone knows how much he wanted this…" Anko barely got out when someone interrupted
"Nara-Sama, here is the scroll for the test, a clone brought it." a kneeling chunin who just arrived informed everyone, with a group of five other kneeling chunin around him
"So he succeeded, good." Tsume said in relief, with a smirk on her face, accepting the scroll in question
"You're dismissed." Shikaku said, watching them salute and disappear
"Anko, he has two more tries, it is 'Troublesome', but as Jounin commander, I have to be around when these exams are taking place to know what each jounin can and can not do for future missions." Shikaku spoke up, and saw a hopeful glint in Anko's eyes, and her face regained color
"The first, he just became a chunin and rushed to try for jounin, but he never arrived at the location, meaning he did not have the skill needed yet. The second try… he was barely alive when he arrived at the exam hall. Just back from a mission, injured and about to collapse from chakra exhaustion… I never counted either attempt… because it would have been such a 'drag'." Shikaku explained in a bored tone of voice
"Really! Good, I would feel kind of bad, ya know… kind of, sort of… well, really big time, he's such a Jolly guy, I just can't hate him. It would be a bummer if, because of me, he would fail." Anko started saying, turning to a ramble soon after
"That's enough. This was his first attempt, which counted. Panda, get him home, and dismissed." Shikaku said, watching how the ANBU in a panda mask showed up, grabbed Bunta, and disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves soon after
Then walked away, hands in pockets, slightly slouched forward, dragging his feet.
"Tss, you coming with me, girly, we got stuff to talk about! Bored? Ha! "Not on my watch!" Tsume growled, grabbing Anko, who had fallen on the ground, when Bunta disappeared with the Panda masked anbu
After they disappeared, Ibiki also disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves, leaving the two non-descript jounin alone
Who smiled and walked towards the Akimichi compound after nodding to each other. Much calmer and more relaxed now, as all those big shots left
— — — — —
Bunta woke soon after being delivered home by the Panda masked anbu.
"Thanks, I have it from here." I told him, about to hand him a bag of chips, when he disappeared
I sat down on my porch in my small front yard when I saw two guys in jounin uniforms walk towards me
'Such a cocky walk for both of them… glasses who you think to imitate, that guy Ebisu? Or that cool guy using crows, I think his name was Aoba? Whatever, and the other is just weird, how can you even see with hair covering your eyes and face like that?' I thought watching these two supposedly jounin.
Sure, in the things about Naruto anime and manga and all those fanfictions in my head, many people were never mentioned, but these two look just out of place in jounin vests.
The uniforms are too new, hardly worn as well… guess they got promoted not long ago.
"Bunta Akimichi, we are here to inform you of the results" the glasses wearing man began
"You failed your last attempt, and will never become a jounin." the one with hair over his eyes continued
'I knew as much, it was a clone that delivered the scroll not my person, guess I lost points on that, and the fact I tried to engage Anko instead of running away, as per mission perimeters, the fact Anko even arrived and the fake battle sounds were gone… I guess that was really the point that made me fail, letting others die for nothing while messing about.' I thought after analysing the situation
"That is all, we got work to do, good day." the glasses wearing man said before both disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves
"Sigh, thought as much, I also collapsed from exhaustion, should have let a clone engage while I wend for further on… always after the ordeal you think things trough… typical." I said in a whisper, shaking my head
I got up and went inside my house to my room and without changing collapsed on my bed.
"It is over and done…" I said, closing my eyes for some sleep, still exhausted.
I trained so hard after all these months, when I woke up in Bunta's body and received all his memories.
This blow hurts. The wish to become a jounin was so strong. I wanted it for us both, you could say, as repayment to him for taking over his body.
But now the sadness, pain, and pure disappointment hit me hard, and I fell into a deep, restless sleep.