Masaru's Genin Exam

While he was well aware that he the exam ought to be easy for everyone who had paid attention in classes, Masaru could not help but feel a little nervous. He used to do fine in the tests, and he had been training a little more than what might be healthy as of late, but he could still not help but feel like there was something he was forgetting, like there was something critical that he had completely forgotten about. However, he had probably been over everything at least thrice. He was just being paranoid. Although that was not a bad trait among ninja, he had been told. He believed that he had also been told that being paranoid made you live, on average, at least twice as long as most ninja, although whoever had told him could, of course, just be lying.

As the proctor said his name, Masaru realized that he was going to be the first one. He took a deep breath, as he had hoped that he would have at least a few people before him, so that he might see how they did, and possibly hear a few words of advice that the proctors might give to them. He did, however, let out a sigh of relief when he heard which techniques he had to perform; Henge no Jutsu and Bunshin no Jutsu. He was very much sure that he had the Clone Technique down, at least assuming that he would not have to create three or more, although he believed that he would be able to manage three, he had merely never made more than two at once. The Clone Technique, on the other hand, he did not have that much practice with. He did, however believe that he would be able to perform it.

Taking another deep breath, Masaru moved down in front of the class, walking slowly, taking a few looks at his classmates. Some seemed to be rather anxious, others eager, and a few looked like they would prefer to be anywhere but this. The first he could understand and he shared a bit of the eagerness of the second group, while he could not help but fear that he might feel like that after the exam.

But he should not think like that. He should focus. This was it. Now he might be able to become a genin, which was the first step on his way to becoming a powerful ninja. After this, he could finally get some field experience, although he had heard genin complain about some of their missions. Something about ‘grunt work’, and that the things that they did were a waste of their skills. However, were ninja, especially Konoha ninja, not supposed to protect and help the citizens of Konoha, whatever that might include?

As he finished those thoughts, he began moulding chakra. He had decided to start with the technique that he was sure of; the Clone Technique. Mostly because he wanted to start with the easier of the two techniques, in order to hopefully give him a little boost in confidence. He made the hand seals for first the Ram, then the Snake, and lastly the Tiger, which resulted in a clone of him appearing to his left and to his right. A single clone would probably have been enough, but it was kind of satisfying to do more than what you were asked for.

He could not help but fear that his clones were little more than slightly humanoid-shaped globs of chakra, but as he quickly looked at both of them, he could not help but smile a little, as both were perfect clones of him. Of course, assuming that nobody noticed the missing shadows of the clones, but one had to use a more advanced kind of clone technique in order to be able to do that. He ought to learn one of those, sometime in the future, Masaru thought, as his two clones were dispelling. Good, halfway there, he thought, before he began moulding chakra once more.

He wondered about who he should turn into. Should be turn into the proctor? The Hokage was a possibility as well, of course, although Masaru decided against the latter, but decided to keep the former in mind. He could, of course, choose to turn into one of his classmates, but he did not really have any special kind of relationship with any of them. He had neither a special friendship nor someone who he did not like, so he would not really know how to turn into. Another possibility would be turning into someone from his family, but he refused to turn into his stepmother or one of his stepsisters. He had some friends outside of the Academy, of course, but while he could certainly imagining becoming rather good friends with them in the future, it was the same with them as it had been with his fellow students at the academy.

In the end, he decided to turn into the proctor, and did the dog, the bear, and then the ram hand seal, after which he turned into a mirror image of the proctor. After he turned back to his own shape, he let out a sigh of relief, not realizing before now that he had been holding his breath. The proctor had told him that he would become a genin, should be perform those two techniques, but was there more? He would not be surprised if it was decided that in order to be genin, one must be able to adapt to circumstances or something, with a surprise test. That is not to say that he would be annoyed if that happened, but he hoped that he was merely being paranoid.

WC: 816

Approved, congratulations on becoming a Genin of Konohagakure no Sato!