Zakari Akari's Genin Exam

Zakari was in a full blown panic. He had hurried from his house completely declining the offer of food from his mother, which was unheard of. He was so worried about this exam that he had arrived early. He now stood in front of the door, where his exam would take place. Zakari reached out his hand to open the door, but pulled back. 

He still had a few minutes left before his exam was suppose to begin. He needed to calm down. The young Akari was bouncing from foot to foot, his nervousness showing. Finally, he slapped both of his hands to his face trying to focus "You can do this Zak. No problem, this is what you trained for. Now, smile. Show confidence act like this is where you belong?" That was good enough, he seemed to physically calm down at his own words as he stopped moving around so much.

He reached out for the door, and instead of opening it quietly, he slid it own loudly and stepped into the room with a confident grin on his face "Zakari Akari present for genin exam. Ready to show you what I got."

Reading people is an important skill in life, but perhaps none more so than in the life of an anbu operative. Misreading a person or a situation did not simply lead to a misunderstanding. No, it often lead to injury or death. Suffice to say Ashi had become quite skilled in reading people around her. That said, one did not need to be skilled in understanding others in the slightest to see the nervousness in the eyes of the genin hopefuls. Certainly, some were more nervous than others, but that was just how it went.

Now the next up was...Zakari Akari, who, as chance would have it, walked through the door right on cue. Funny how things work like that sometimes, right?

"Very good," Ashi laid the class list down on the desk in front of her. "Please come to the front of the classroom and perform the transformation and clone techniques. Also, tell me what the will of fire means to you."

Falling silent, the Inuzuka leaned back in her chair and pulled the clipboard onto her lap. As per protocol, she was required to write an in-depth report of each exam, which was more than a bit of a drag. However, protocol is protocol.

[Please craft an 800-word post doing what was asked of you and you'll be made a genin. Don't and, well, you won't. Best of luck!]

The minute Zakari heard another voice his nervousness threatened to return again, but he did not let it show. Just the fact that Zakari knew that the ninja speaking to him was at least a genin also seemed to make this more real. Still, he had walked in with a confident persona, and he was going to keep it. He walked up to the front of the class room. He actually noticed his breathing was slightly heavy, but he quickly calmed himself.
When he was prepared to form the jutsu he decided to perform the clone jutsu first,since it was the first one he had learned. The hand seals were vivid in his head from the countless time he had practiced the jutsu. He went to form the hand seals without trying the jutsu yet, and already he stumbled over the hand seals and messed up. He sighed as he calmed his breathing and began to focus. He had to pass this if he wanted to become a genin, and a genin was just the start. If he could not do this, then how would he ever become a jounin. Zakari closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He felt his chakra gather, and felt his hands moving to create the seals. His hands were quick and accurate creating the Ram seal, then the snake seal, and finally the tiger seal. He felt the sensation of the chakra energizing the jutsu. When he slowly opened his eyes he was pleased a see a clone of himself staring back at himself. He could not help, but wear a stupid grin on his face. He flashed a thumbs up sign towards his clone, who did the same thing back. Then, the clone disappeared. He was already happy, but the exam was not over. He still had the transformation technique, so he dropped his smile and tried to focus. Before he began the jutsu, he remembered his earlier training. For this jutsu, he had to release the chakra more evenly, and get a clear image of the person he was transforming into. His eyes turned to his proctor and began to look over her and take in every bit of her appearance. He looked at her hair, her height, the red markings on her face, what color eyes she had, and last but not least, her clothes. With the image fresh in his mind, Zakari closed his eyes and gathered his chakra. He released the chakra steadily throughout his body, trying to match it to his steady breathing. He pictured the image of his proctor in his head clearly. After a moment, it felt like the jutsu had taken hold, but was it good. He slowly opened his eyes to look down and see that his clothes looked like hers. The jutsu had been successful. This caused another grin to break out on his face. He wanted to jump up in celebration, but was stopped with a realization. The exam was still not over. His proctor had requested one more thing, before he could pass. What was it? He suddenly remembered it. She had asked about the will of fire, and what it means to me. To be honest, he had never really thought about it, but now was just a good a time as any. He thought about what he knew about the will of fire. He had heard his dad mention it several times, but every time that usually included something about someone needed to die by the clan. That did not sound right to him, the will of fire was about protecting people, not killing people.
He had heard many of his teachers talk about the will of fire before, and they had a conversation like this in his classes, but he had always cruised by with simply giving the obvious and stereotypical answer. However, now that he might actually be becoming a ninja. It was a little bit more relevant that he had his own ideas on the will of fire. Zakari went deep into thought, What is the will of fire? It means to protect the village with everything you have, but why? Well, because the village is your home, therefore it means all the villagers are your family. And, one never turns their back one family. That sounded nice in his head, but was that all their was to it for Zakari. Suddenly, Zak started speaking before he even realized what he was saying "My will of fire is protecting everyone. Other ninja, the villagers, and even the hokage if I have to. This village is my home, so that makes them my family. I protect them, so they can protect their own will of fire." When he was done speaking, he was kind of surprised with himself. He had no idea where the last sentence came from. Did I just say I was going to protect the hokage? Why would the Hokage need me? The Hokage is the strongest in the village. He realized he had just been standing their looking down at the floor, so he quickly looked up at the proctor and locked eyes with her awaiting for her decision.

WC: 867

A note here and a scribble there was all the feedback the Akari would get from Ashi during the exam. She thought it important to avoid discouraging or encouraging the genin hopefuls during the exam. Doing either would show some form of bias she wished to avoid. Luckily, bias wouldn't be too important in this particular exam as the student performed all the required jutsu perfectly—a step up from the last exam where the student couldn't perform the clone jutsu.

Meeting the boy's gaze, Ashi's expression remained stony and for a few brief moments, she simply sat there. Sometimes it was important to let people draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, the genin exam was not meant to be a mental exam, so eventually, a thin smile slipped onto her face.

"Congratulations," her voice genuine and warm. "You are Konoha's newest genin. I wish you the best of luck in your future as a shinobi."

Reaching into the drawer at her side the Inuzuka pulled out a shiny new headband devoid of any marks save for the proud emblem of Konohagakure.

"Do our village proud," she placed the headband on the desk in front of her and fell silent.

Alas, today was far from over.

[Nice, make your exit post and you'll get all the rewards for your rank including a free specialty, +15 stats, and the free jutsu alloted to your rank, which can be found on the all rules page.]

Standing in front of his proctor, while she just looked at him could not have lasted longer than a few seconds, but to Zak, it was the longest seconds of his life. For a few seconds, Zakari began to doubt himself, and wonder if she was going to fail. Fortunately for him, a few more seconds passed by and she finally told him he had passed. In his head, he was screaming and dancing, but in reality. He eagerly stepped forward and accepted the headband.

He was about to just turn and leave, but he remembered his manners "Thank you, I will." He tied his new ninja headband to around his forehead. It was probably the most satisfying moment of is life. He quickly exited the room, and hurried off to his home.

[Exit Post]

Welcome
To genin Zakari, approved for Genin rank, 15 free stat points, 1 free spec, any free jutsu you do not know in the rules guide for Genin, and a lifetime of servitude to the leaf. Have fun!