Exam 1

Mon Jan 02, 2017 4:05 am

Mission Details:

Komon awoke to the sound of his alarm in the early morning. The damn thing was loud and annoying and Komon hated using it, he was the exact opposite of a morning person and dreaded waking up early. But certain occasions just required it to be used, today for instance he was supposed to be at the training center by 6 AM, for his first official chuunin exams after making it through the preliminaries. As he was thinking all of this to himself he realized his alarm was still going off and quickly slammed down on the button to shut it off.

Obviously tired Komon looked around the room that was still quite dark and waited for his eyes to adjust to the lighting so that he could find his way around his room and to the light switch. In the meantime he would try to wake himself up and sat up on his bed stretching his arms to the sky and puffing out his chest before letting out a rather loud yawn that echoed through the empty house. Shapes began to make themselves known to Komons vision as his eyes started to adjust to his surroundings. And he took this as a sign that it was time for him to start his day, using his arms to push himself off of the surface of his mattress and placing his feet onto the floor of his apartment.

Now on his feet Komon dragged himself to the front of his closet, looking into the mirror attached to it and placed his right hand gently onto his left shoulder. The arm had less than a week ago been dislocated by an extremely well armored combatant along with his other one. Komon had been to the hospital to get it healed but it still hurt quite a bit, and it didn’t seem to be going away, Komon rotated his arm to test for the pain once more and was greeted by a sharp sting on the back of his shoulder blade. Quickly he placed his arm back down to relieve the pain and looked into the mirror against making eye contact with himself. Komon didn’t like the expression on his face, it was one of fear.. Whether he would admit it to himself or not the third trial had left him traumatized, it had made him feel helpless, and there was nothing in the world Komon despised more than that feeling.

Desperately trying to stop thinking about the encounter Komon began to dress himself placing on his standard ninja gear, his vest and his hoodie. With the gear planted firmly on his body Komon began to strap his vest together so that it would effectively protect him from attacks. Komon had no idea what the next exam would hold for him and was not looking forward to a fight with the pain in his arm’s although he would most certainly fight through the pain. Completing the outfit komon grabbed his headband and and tightened it around his forehead once more concealing the curse mark he had placed on himself.

Komon was now completely dressed in standard gennin uniform and was prepared to face his next trial, looking out his window he could see the sun was beginning to rise and estimated his trial began some time in the next hour, not wanting to be late he decided it was time to start moving and walked to the front of his room swinging open his door and making his way down the hallway stairs and passed his kitchen. He knew he didn’t have time to eat an entire meal so he grabbed a protein bar from the cabinet on his way out and opened his front door placing himself onto the streets of Kumogakure.

A mere 20 minutes later Komon stood in front of the Kumogakure Training Center he had been assigned too by the man immediately after his last preliminary. The building looked even smaller than the one Komon had been placed in before which caught him off guard, based on the size of the building it couldn’t possibly be a combat mission. The young gennin was relatively happy about this, it would give his arm’s time to rest for his next mission and hopefully they would be in great shape by the time he had to use them.

Curious as to what the exam would be Komon made his way into the small building to see that it was only one room, in the middle of it an elderly woman awaited him. She seemed to have been a shinobi in the past, her body was riddled with scars to prove it. “Komon Hyuuga? Welcome.” She would utter as he walked into the center of the room to join her. The lady was sitting in the middle of the floor and Komon felt he was supposed to do the same so he walked directly in front of her before lowering himself to her eye level and taking a seat in front of her, and waiting for his instructions.

The woman waited about 10 seconds after he sat inspecting him with her ancient eyes as if she would find out some important information by looking at him. “You need to work on your posture boy.” She muttered after the silence then laughing clearly amused with herself, before telling him how the exam would be conducted. “Komon, in the preliminaries you demonstrated skill in several situations, In your first exam you showed you could adapt to a situation without relying on your byakugan, and in the second you demonstrated your skill with ninjutsu, a vital tool for a shinobi. In the third you fought against impossible odds and did not waver. All these are admirable traits, but the cloud needs to know that you can be trusted and that your intentions are honorable, in this exam I will be exploring your subconscious through your own point of view and together we will figure out why you truly want to be a shinobi. If your intentions are pure you will pass, if not you will fail.” The woman finished her sentence and studied Komons facial expressions as he processed what she had just said.

Komon couldn’t help but think this exam sounded a lot like the Eye Mind Reading jutsu he had just learned with Tayo in his training merely two days ago. He hadn’t liked when the jounin had used it on him, he had found people going through his private thoughts to be rather disturbing and by no means was excited for this exam, but he understood the need for it. The raikage needed to be sure that he could trust his shinobi, and what better way than to explore their most private thoughts. “Ok… I’ll do it.” Komon muttered in response to the elderly woman in front of him.

The woman seemed almost careless towards his response, she hadn’t been asking permission after all it was a required test, and komon was going to have to do it if he ever wanted to be a chuunin. ”Alright then, close your eyes komon, and I’ll start the genjutsu” she instructed the young gennin in front of her. Komon of course listened to her and closed his eyes, still sitting in the physical world. But when he did so he didn’t see darkness like he would expect, instead he was in a white room and he was looking at himself. This version of himself wasn’t his age though, he was still a child that couldn’t be more than six years of age, he didn’t even have the scar across his eye yet, and the eyes where different too, the young version of him looked up with innocent and pure eyes that komon hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Who are you?” The young komon asked. Komon smiled and responded to the child. “I’m a friend of course” He would say as he reached out and patted himself on the head. As he did so he saw a door with a heavy chain lock on it, it was almost exaggerated like something someone would draw in a comic. ”What’s over there?” Komon would ask himself. The young version of him looked at the door with a hint of terror, before scurrying behind Komon placing the gennin between him and the door. “That's the bad place, I don’t go there and you shouldn’t either” The terror in the child’s voice almost convinced Komon not to proceed, but Komon knew that this was his subconscious whatever was in there he was eventually going to have to face regardless. ”It can’t be that bad, Here let's go check it out” Komon suggested to the child looking up at him. But the kid couldn’t be convinced and journeyed to the far corner of the room in an attempt to reach the safest spot.

Komon sighed, It looked like he was going to have to face this alone. And turned to face the door once more. The chains still keeping the door shut. Komon knew how he would deal with the problem in the real world and decided to see if it would work in his subconscious. He quickly wove the signs for chidori and was relieved to see that he could still use ninjutsu in this strange plane of existence. As the lightning surged to his hand he stuck it out and gently sliced through the metal chains before dispersing the jutsu and pulling the still hanging chains off of the door. Komon got anxious as he pulled open the door afraid to face what was inside. When he first peered into it it seemed to be a completely black hole of nothingness, but when komon stepped into it a light flickered on to reveal a red seat resting in the middle of the room. Komon figured he was supposed to sit in it and proceeded to do so. As he took his seat however he was alarmed to see a metal strip rise up on each arm rest and pin him to the chair. His legs where then caught in a similar fashion and pinned to the bottom. Komon was breathing heavily until he heard the old woman’s voice that seemed to come from the heavens.

”Calm yourself Komon, this is just to make sure that you don’t run away from what you’re about to see” her words echoed through the almost pitch black room. Then another light switched on about 20 meters in front of komon revealing a dense fog, before light began to project on it and a scene began to take place. At first Komon didn’t recognize what it was but as the seen began to progress it began to come clear to him. The scene playing in front of him started black and then proceeded to open, he was seeing this event from someone's point of view and they were just waking up. As the room around them began to materialize he began to recognize it as his own, but the toys and objects in his room showed that it wasn’t taking place in current time. The room he was seeing belonged to that younger version of him he had just talked to a little while back.

Komon watched as his younger self got out of bed and ran into the hallway pounding on his brother's door to wake up and come downstairs to eat. His younger self then proceeded to run down the stairs and turn the corner and what Komon saw when he did so struck a cord. He knew what this scene was going to be as soon as he saw him. ”Hi Dad” the young Komon could be heard saying as the current Komon felt a tear running down his cheek. ”Good morning Komon!” the man replied. Komon had long forgotten what his father sounded like, so of course his subconscious had filled the voice in itself and it sounded like some kind of distorted version of his own voice. He watched as his father handed him a breakfast, it was Komons favorite… Waffles.

Moments later Komori, came down the stairs and was handed the same plate before their father took off his cooking apron and hung it on the rack in the corner of the kitchen, pulling his jounin vest off the same rack and fastening it around his torso. It was the same vest komon still wore today, but looked clean and brand new. Alright guys, I have to leave on a top secret mission and I’m gonna be gone for a while, I should be back in a week. Be good for your mom while I’m gone. His father told the two young twins in front of him. The young komon waited for komori to finish saying goodbye before running up to his father and giving him a hug.

Komon was in tears at this point, the child version of him didn’t know it yet but that would be the last memory Komon had of his father being alive. His mission had been to guard a caravan from enemy shinobi, but his father and two other jounin were killed in action and wouldn’t make it back to the village. They were all killed due to multiple stab wounds.

As if to snap his focus back to the scene Komon heard a loud pop that sounded vaguely familiar but he couldn’t quite place it. Then he saw that the scene had changed. Now instead of the bright day the memory had taken place on it was night, and the child version of Komon had been playing with his brother Komori in the living room near the front door when the doorbell came on. Komon was too young to reach the front door handle at the time, so he called for his mother telling her someone was at the door. Komon watched his mother enter the scene and remembered what this was almost instantly. He watched as his mother opened the door to be greeted by two jounin who looked uncomfortable to say the least. Komon had been out of earshot during this event but he would never forget the look on his mother's face at this exact moment. She was broken in an instant, as if a piece of her had been shattered. This memory took place about four days after their father had left and was the day his family received the news of what had happened to their father. This was komons first experience with something he would learn all too well in the future. Loss.

After this the scene began to fade back to blackness and the light that had revealed the dense fog died out. The iron strip on his chair however stayed and continued to restrict him from moving. Again the ladies voice appeared from the sky. ”Komon this would be a traumatic experience for any child, what did you take away from it at the time and how has it shaped you?” The woman asked. Komon knew he was being tested and that she could tell what he was thinking anyways so he decided to be honest. I was only six, and my father had just died, of course what I felt was sadness, but in that moment I also realized that my father had died because he was weaker than the man he had fought, and I never wanted to be in that situation.”

When he finished the sentence the restraints on his legs and arms lifted freeing him from the chair. “We will be moving on now, head back to the white room and face yourself she said with almost no emotion in her voice. Komon was now slightly afraid of what would come next, but followed his earlier path back to doorway he had entered the area from bringing him back to the white room. Across the room and huddled in the corner Komon saw the same child he had seen before entering the black room. But there was something different about the way he carried himself now. Komon couldn’t quite place it but as he grew nearer it became clear to him.

It was the eyes. Whatever innocence had been in them was now gone, and the child spoke sternly to him ”I told you not to go in there, it makes your heart hurt” Komon smiled at the child before responding cheerfully. sure it hurt a little, but hey… In a weird way I got to see my dad again, I’m glad I went in, and I hope you cherish that final moment with him like I do. Komon was going to continue talking but was alarmed when the back wall of the white room began to move upward revealing another black room. Again the younger version of him scurried behind him shielding himself from the black room. Komon sighed, before yelling ”So I guess one traumatic memory wasn’t enough for you!? He waited for the voice from the sky to give him a well thought out lecture but heard nothing. The silence kind of worried him, but he assured his younger self everything would be ok and told him to wait for him until he got back.

Once more Komon paced against the white room fading from purity to darkness. And again as if to mirror the other room a light switched on in the middle of the room and another red chair revealed itself. Komon had no intention of sitting in it however as he hated the metal restrictions that had binded him in the earlier room. “Oh im not falling for this again!” He yelled to the woman. Again there was no response, but seconds later an unreasonably strong gust of wind lifted him off of his feet and sent him flying across the room into the chair, and the metal once more bound his arms to the chair. “It’s not optional” Was all the woman said before starting the next scene.

Komons eyes focused on the thick fog, before the scene began to play and once more he realized he was seeing a memory from a younger version of himself once more. This particular memory was one Komon knew all too well… It still haunted his dreams. The memory was actually initially a happy one, it was about two years after his father's death and Komon and Komori had just turned eight, the two had been playing ninja in the woods near the training grounds at the village, mocking hand signs they saw jounin making while training and pretending to hit each other with the jutsu they had seen. Komon was having the time of his life imagining himself as a strong shinobi and komori had been enjoying it too. But the good memory wouldn’t last forever, Night was falling and the twins decided it was time to head home.

They knew something was off when they got home and the front door was hanging wide open, and the living room was pitch black. Before they entered the house they heard an ear splitting scream that could make a grown man's blood curdle. It was a sound that marked death, and when Komon rushed into the house his fears were confirmed, standing in the hallway was a dark figure, enveloped in shadows, and a ray of light shined to the floor to reveal Komons mother, laying lifeless on the ground with her face facing the floor and blood leaking around her.
The young Komons vision began to blur due to the tear streaming out of his eyes but when the current Komon concentrated he could see his twin brother Komori dash at the assailant and throw a punch only to be easily dodged by the attacker. The dodge caused the man to step into the ray of light and Komon could briefly see the symbol of his headband that marked him as a shinobi of the hidden mist before the man snidely commented. “You brats aren't worth my time, I already possess what I came here to collect” Before raising a Jar containing his mother's byakugan in it, and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Komon was caught of guard when he again heard a familiar popping sound, but he still couldn’t place it. It was oddly familiar however and he knew if it was happening in this scenario it had to be of at least some importance.

The scene again faded away and his metal binding released him from the hold of the chair. Before the old woman’s voice once more echoed throughout the dark room. “Komon I know this is hard but trust me… It’s important for you to face these memories and realize what they mean to you. This man, He killed your mother and of course that had to feel awful, but in that moment you decided you wanted to become a shinobi. Why?” she dug at him wanting an answer. Komon of course obliged her as it was part of his exam despite the fact that he hated talking about this moment in his life. “Well I’m not like my brother and the moment certainly doesn’t define me. My life goal isn’t to seek out and kill this man. Of course if I saw him I can’t honestly say I’d be able to restrain myself from attacking him. No I’d say what I took away from this moment was that at this point in time in that particular instance I had fallen into the situation I had told myself I never wanted to be in just two years ago when my father had died. I was weaker than my opponent, and helpless to protect the people I loved. I was frozen by fear and allowed my brother to rush in to attack an opponent that could have easily killed him alone. At this moment I learned what true fear was, and I told myself I would not let it control me ever again and that I would start training to become a powerful shinobi that could protect my brother. Not for vengeance or anything like that, but for survival.” The words komon spoke were true to his person, he lived them every day and they were the reason for his progress so far. He waited for a response from the elderly woman as he finished his sentence.

Ok then. Once more I’ll ask you to go face yourself in the white room before returning to this one. Komon sighed, this exam was going to get repetitive fast, if it continued in this pattern, He didn’t know what memory they would explore next as he couldn’t recall anything nearly as traumatizing as the last two memories, but he was sure they had more in store for him. In no rush komon began to walk himself back to the white room, where he had told the kid to wait for him.

He was taken aback by what he saw when he entered the room however, the childish version of himself had now grown significantly it looked like he had aged almost two years, and now Komon could see a ragged scar running down the child’s face that matched Komon’s own. Komon knew where the scar came from, a younger version of himself had once decided that waiting for the academy was much too long and raided his father's old ninja chest and found some shuriken and taken it upon himself to learn how to use shuriken. He had only been eight at the time and it had happened merely days after his mother's death, not wanting to sit around and do nothing waiting for the world to take another important person from him. So the young version of him brought the shuriken and a couple of targets out to the back yard setting them up fully intending to hit all the targets. But the tools where much to heavy and he had been much to weak to aim accurately, when threw the weapon it veered off course and hit a metal pole ricocheting off and hitting him back in the face, Komon had been quick enough to try to drop himself to the floor but the metal still cut into his face as it glided across it leaving a scar across the entire right left side of his face. This would remain there for the rest of his life.

When he looked at the boy he almost felt sorry for him, the kid was only eight and had already felt the sensation of a blade piercing his skin. But whatever sorrow he felt, he quickly extinguished. Seeing the determination in the kids eye, assured him that he had made the right decision all those years ago, the lesson had taught him that if he was going to commit himself to becoming a strong shinobi, that the possibility of severe injury and death was always around the corner, and that he was more than willing to face both if it meant there was even the smallest possibility of him coming out of it a stronger shinobi.

This time when the wall opened back up to reveal the dark room, the younger version of himself made no effort to hide from it, whatever fear he had of the room had been beaten out of him by the harsh world he had been born into. He knew better than to fear the darkness at this point in time. But the younger version of himself knew that it was not his room to enter, instead he pointed into it and told his older self. “You know what you need to do, I’ll wait for you again… Good luck.”

Komon was taken aback by the certainty in the boy’s voice, it sounded older and wiser than the earlier versions Komon had witnessed, and he couldn’t help but feel proud, watching yourself grow up was not something everybody got to experience. “Alright, I’ll be back in no time at all.” Komon stepped into the black room again, but to his surprise no light flickered on. No this room had something different in store for him. In the background he could hear a faint sound he could barely make out, and light slowly began to pour into the room as he began to be able to make out the material of the floor below him. It was a grey stone he had seen somewhere before but he couldn’t quite place. As the light began to get brighter and the scene began to fill itself in Komon could recognize the sound as it got louder. It was footsteps.. Armor Clad footsteps to be exact. And then to Komon’s horror he began to recognize the small 5x5 room he was in. 2B, Chuunin exams preliminary round 3.

He watched the door rattle for a bit, and once more felt the anxiety rising in his chest that he had felt merely a week ago when this memory took place. And the terror he had felt when the 7 foot ironclad man had entered the room. He recalled the almost emotionless way the man had spoken to him, and treated him. “I won't go easy on you, in fact I'm here to make sure you fail now, I don't particularity like the way you manage yourself. So make this easy for me and give up now, otherwise I'm going to break both your arms.” Komon had been irritated at this point in time, and the mans following remarks about what he had done to Jiyo, had enraged him. He remembered how he had wanted nothing more than to hurt this man in that moment.

Then he remembered the series of events that occurred afterwards, how Komon had thought it may be a good idea to gain speed before attacking and the man simply matched it, in an almost effortless manner at that. He remembered how the armor seemed to deflect any and all damage he could possibly put out, and how the man overpowered him in almost every way. It had made him feel helpless.

That feeling was only further increased when he attempted to strike out at the man’s eyes and his arms were put into a solid hold that he couldn’t free himself from. He was forced to watch through his own vision as the man half fulfilled his promise to the boy, and then it clicked. The popping sound he had been hearing throughout all his memories played again in perfect synchronization with the armored man popping his arms out of their sockets and dislocating them. He watched himself desperately try to free himself with his legs and the man almost instinctively begin to dodge it, but then something strange happened, he seemed to stop himself, almost allowing Komon to land his kick and free himself.

Komon knew if it had been a real fight and that man had been out to kill him he would have died in that moment, and everything he had worked for would have been for nothing, his brother would be the sole survivor of his family, and he wouldn’t be alive to protect him. But what mattered most to him from this memory came next. Through the entire hopeless exchange, all of his attacks being countered and both of his arms being dislocated, and finally being free of the opponent's grasp, what Komon did next made him proud.

He stood up clearly exhausted and in immense pain, and had the audacity to raise a defensive position to the man, even after being so severely beaten he had continued fighting, not allowing his fear to control him like he had done so long ago when witnessing his mother's death. He had looked his fear in the eyes and confronted it. At this the memory faded into blackness once more and the old lady's voice rang from the ceiling again.

“In your last two memories you told me what you learned from them was that you didn’t want to be weak, and that you never wanted to be afraid. From this exchange you looked both terrified and weak. Can you honestly tell me you've lived up to your own promises?” The lady asked, Not in a rude way but in a concerned voice. Komon had an answer for her almost immediately. “I knew from the age of eight that being a shinobi had risks, my own shuriken taught me that… And yes I resent being weak, but I realize that there are people out there that are stronger than me, in a situation where i'm forced to fight them I can only hope that I give everything I have in me to defeat them and survive. And I never claimed that I didn’t want to be afraid, I only stated that I didn’t want to let my fear rule me, and as you can see at the end of that last memory I confronted my fear head on. Komon told the voice. There was a pause for a while before the voice replied. “So if you where required to face this man in combat again to gain the rank of chuunin… Would you do it again knowing the difference in power between you two? Komon paused to think over the question before giving a response. I would, I believe my encounter with him made me stronger and made me realize how much I still need to train. Komon replied to her.

The woman didn’t respond but simply opened the door to the white room again, Komon knew by now what he was supposed to do and began to walk towards the white room. As he entered it he no longer saw a child, but a mirror image of himself. He had just physically watched himself grow from a toddler to his current self and could honestly say it was a strange experience. There was a slight difference between the mirror image of himself and him however. The mirror image still had the two dislocated arms.

”Why does it still hurt?” He would ask, before Komon felt a surge in pain in his shoulders similar to the one he had felt earlier that morning. The pain however seemed to be amplified and forced Komon to the ground. At this moment Komon came to a realization. And pressed his hands flat against the floor pushing off against it raising his body into the air and back onto his feet slowly but surely, as the pain began to dissipate. He looked himself in the eye and answered its question. “Because I let it”

Komon had been using his encounter with the man and his injuries from it as a crutch, an excuse to avoid combat… But these memories had reminded him of who he was and what he was destined to become. If he was to be his brothers protector he had to confront fear not hide from it. If he was to be a strong shinobi he had to jump into combat not run from it.

Almost as soon as the thought had entered his mind the womans voice rang throughout the white room. “Komon, were done reliving your past, with the knowledge you gained from your experience today I want you to give me a solid answer as to why you want to become a chuunin of the hidden cloud. Make it a good one or you will fail” The abruptness of the question shocked Komon and as he looked to his left his mirror image began to fade. He was left alone in the white room with nothing but his thoughts, and time. Used that time and space to think of the womans question. “Why do I want to be a chuunin” He thought to himself.

Komon didn’t need long to think however, his experience today had made the answer quite clear to him. With confidence he gave his answer to the woman. “I want to be a chuunin because I’m aware we don't live in a perfect world, at the age of six this world took my father from me and merely two years later it also took my mother. In both of these events I was powerless to prevent their deaths. This world is a world where only the strong can survive. And in order to make a difference in this world I need to be alive, I believe as a chuunin I will be sent on combat missions that allow me to confront my fears, and by confronting my fears I can become a stronger shinobi with the experience I will gain.” Confident with the answer he had given he opened his eyes in the real world breaking the genjutsu the woman had placed on him.

So did I pass? Komon would ask. The woman however would simply shrug saying it wasn’t up for her to decide, and that she would relay it to a group that would decide his fate. After saying that she assured him that he would get his results soon and that his exam was over. Komon now relieved to have finished his first official exam thanked her for guiding him through his subconscious and rose to his feet as he told her goodbye, exiting the dark room the two had been sitting in for what Komon could only assume to be hours. However when he opened the door he was alarmed to see that the sun had hardly changed its position since he had entered the room. The genjutsu he had just exited must distort time because he had felt like he had been in there for hours, but according to the position of the sun it had barely been minutes.

His stomach however began to growl, apparently the single protein bar he had eaten on his way out the door hadn’t been enough nutrition to sustain his appetite. Now obviously hungry Komon decided it was time to visit his favorite diner and eat some waffles while he waited for his results.

WC: 6130
Requesting:
3K ryo
7 AP
Next Mission

Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:49 am

Approved <3

Exam 1

Exam 1

Re: Exam 1