Round 2 [Genin Exam]

Asami was having one of those days.

You know those days, don't you?

Those days where everything falls into place, the sun shines for you alone, and nothing can go wrong.

For the first time in what must have been forever, the young girl awoke before her parents; an hour before them to be exact and didn't waste a second of time. She got dressed, did her hair, and ate breakfast all before the sun even thought about rising. Yet, try as she might she could not escape the house fast enough as her pajama-clad mother slipped into the kitchen just as she was leaving and caught the teen in a close embrace.

"Good luck, honey," her mother cooed softly before kissing her on the forehead and sending the young girl on her way.

"Thanks, mom. Love you," Asami called over her shoulder as she ducked out the door—she'd take her luck where she could get it.

The sun broke over the horizon just as she arrived at the academy; she was an hour early just as planned. The last time she had taken the genin exam nothing had gone right, but this time she had a buoyant feeling in her chest and she had studied harder than ever before. Though she much loathed the cliche she knew she was 'ready for anything' that might arise on the exam. After all, how could anything go wrong when she was wearing her lucky purple hairpin?

The only flaw in her plan, of course, lay in the fact that she could not yet make time flow faster, so she sat outside the classroom waiting with only her thoughts and the distant slosh of the sea to keep her company.

Tick, tock, tick, tock...

(Good evening, I'm Valen and I'll help you out with this hon. The proctor will be an NPC so don't refer to him as Valen, the name will be in the post somewhere.) 

Honor? Kindness? These were signs of weakness in the eyes of this Kirigakure Exam Proctor. Yet he always ended up having to deal with snot nosed weaklings who wanted nothing more than to ‘fight with honor, and help those in need’. Sure, to a degree a little altruism could be useful. A tool to help extend to dominant power of the mist across the world while keeping its loyal subjects happy. But bringing it into combat? Your enemies? Honor to a degree sure, so long as it wasn’t suicidal. He was of the opinion that one should be ‘honored’ to die for their village and so if they threw themselves upon the crashing waves that was the monstrous power of the mist. Well then that was the greatest opportunity for them to have any ‘honor’ that Matodo Itsuzumu could think of for them. As it stood however his job was to weed out the strong from the weak in this years crop of genin hopefuls. He’d been around multiple rooms already and failed quite a few. They needed power shinobi, or at least those with the potential to become one with the right guidance. As such those that failed to meet qualifications were dealt with swiftly. Usually with an extra word load of training and a harder test later on. After all, even those with no potential could still become decent fodder. His next applicant was one Asami Miyamoto, a 16 year old whom he’d heard had failed her previous exam. He’d soon find out if she was one with potential who simply bloomed a bit late, or was one to be trained to become fodder like all her classmates before.


He’d move up to the room, his long white hair, blue eyes and hard stare probably giving off a cold demeanor. He noticed the girl then, short ‘usually poor for outright strength, but good for agile fighters and sneaking around.’ She didn’t seem to weigh too much or too little ‘good build, she takes care of herself, good. A shinobi must always take care of themselves to remain strong for the village.’ He’d think to himself before opening the door and moving inside. “Come..” He’d say simply, loud enough for her to easily hear and hard enough to show that this would not be taken as a game. He’d step to the front of the room with the girl presumably following for instruction. “Stand in the middle.” He would say before turning at the front of the room to face her and began to check mark off certain aspects on a clipboard. ‘Punctual, check. Sober, check.’ That one had to be added after a particularly interesting exam a few years prior. He’d silently flip the page, and began writing what he would have her do for the documentation. “Asami Miyamoto, age 16, failed a previous test hm?” He’d begin, the hardened edge still in his voice. An, albeit minor, intimidation tactic to see if applicants could hack it. “Let’s see if you’ve improved.” He’d say before he finished writing and look up at her. “I want to see the clone technique, the transformation jutsu, and then I want to see 30 push ups, 30 jumping jacks, and 30 push ups. As fast as you can manage them, but no time limit.” He’d order, there was a trick in that regard. If she didn’t finish fast enough she wouldn’t pass, and if she didn’t know how much time she had to do them it’d push her far harder. It was a test to see how well she did under minor amounts of psychological stress. She would need to be in shape  physically and mentally after all. “Begin!” He’d yell, starting the timer in his head.


(800 words performing the tasks above. I tried to give you plenty to write about since only writing about clone and transformation can be a bore.)

The dull clunk of footsteps on the wood floor broke Asami from her daydreams. Glancing down the long hallway she spied what could only be the proctor: relatively tall, white hair, and an air of superiority that many Kirigakure higher-ups, for better or for worse, seemed to exude in their every action. In a hurried scramble, the young girl got up just in time to give a deep bow and sputtered out a ‘good morning’ before following the man into the examination room.

The room looked like any other classroom she’d been in through her extended stay in the academy. High windows made the place feel suffocating as even the light struggled to find its way in adding to the gloominess of the room itself when one looked at the black abyss that was the chalkboard. In fact, the only real difference Asami noticed as she stepped into the center of the room as instructed was that the chairs and desks were all carefully stacked on either side of the room.

Flashing a weak smile and unconsciously straightening her posture at the mention of her past failure, Asami said nothing. In her first exam, she’d made the mistake of talking far too much and later found out that she lost points for it. Since her enrollment in Kentomoto Sensei’s boot camp of sorts she’d come to accept that, more often than not, a good shinobi was a silent one. And though it was against her nature to not make conversation, she suppressed the want for the time being. After all, she wanted to pass more than anything for herself, but, more importantly, for her parents who, since her failure, invested both time and money into her education.

No, she wouldn’t let them down—she couldn’t, not this time.

Begin. The genin hopeful didn’t have to be told twice.

“I’ll be performing the clone technique followed by the transformation technique,” she chirped unable to keep her good mood from infecting her voice.

Ram – Snake – Tiger

Moving her hands in tandem with her thoughts she wove the three necessary hand seals in a slow deliberate way so as to demonstrate to the proctor that she did indeed know each one. Following the creation of the tiger seal, she felt what had become the familiar rush of chakra flowing through her body like a cold stream. Then, right on cue, a single illusionary image of the girl appeared on either side of her with each detail matching right down to the purple hairclip and determined eyes of gray.

All three versions of the black-haired girl then gave a shallow bow in unison before the two clones blurred into nothingness. Not wasting a moment, Asami took a second or two to size up the man before her. Under Kentomoto Sensei she’d learned that the trick to the transformation technique revolved around having an accurate mental image of the person you wanted to transform into. Without such an image, the transformation often looked inauthentic and not all that…well…human.

Dog – Boar – Ram

Smoke engulfed her small frame and as it cleared a new figure stood in her place. Instead of soft, carefully cared for, black hair hung long strands of white. Her eyes now looked as blue as the sea, she’d grown taller, and her features hardened into more masculine lines. Gone was any trace of the genin hopeful; in her place stood a perfect replica of the proctor. Holding the transformation for a minute to prove it was not just a fluke she finally released it with another plume of smoke.

Alright, the homestretch…

Dropping to the ground she went to work on the physical aspect of the exam. With hands shoulder-width apart and back straight she began the first round of pushups. Controlling her breaths, she counted out each one mentally making sure not to do too many or too little.

Twenty-eight…Twenty-nine…annnd thirty.

Next came the jumping jacks—these were easy. What Asami lacked in strength she made up for in endurance and jumping jacks were, in her opinion, all about endurance. Jumping up from the pushup position she began going a bit faster than she probably should have because by the time thirty came around her normally ivory complexion had become redder and her breaths more uneven.

Undeterred by her body telling her to take a break she pressed on—or rather up—and began the last set of pushups. This round felt much harder. At times, her arms shook and more than a few times she caught herself arching her back involuntarily, but she soldiered through until she could see the finish. With three more left her breaths became heavier and accented by soft grunts, but gritting her teeth she made it through all thirty.

Taking a deep breath she pushed herself up into a standing position, folded her hands in front of her, and waited for the verdict. Her heaving chest told a story of someone who could perhaps do with more conditioning, but her gaze told of someone confident in her performance. Of course, as she well knew, confidence didn’t always amount to all that much in the genin exam.

In the end, she did not control her fate, the stony-faced proctor across from her did.

This is it…

[WC: 879]

Asami’s former exhaustion fell away as in her excitement she nearly dropped the headband tossed to her by the proctor. In place of exhaustion rose the heady feeling of success. Even as she bowed respectfully to the older man she could not keep a jubilant smile from tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“Thank you,” she responded rising from her bow.

Grasping the headband tightly in her hand she then took her leave at a slow restrained pace. However, this pace quickly broke down into a run as she left the academy grounds. Dodging through a crowd of merchants she wove her way home only stopping once to apologize to an elderly gentleman she almost barreled over.

Before bursting through the front door, the newly minted genin paused, composed herself, and hid her headband behind her back. Walking calmly into the kitchen she found both her parents sitting across from each other with bated breath. For a moment, a sense of sadness filled the house as it crossed both parent’s minds that their daughter had failed again, but even as the young girl moved her hands forward with the headband all that changed. In a matter of seconds, the whole family joined together in a hug filled with praise and general chatter about the exam.

[Exit; Total word count: 1386 using 1000/1000 to claim Body Flicker. Also claiming Genin rank, +15 stats, Ninjutsu specialty, and the free jutsu for the rank.]

Please list your TWC. I would also recommend you make a claim with the WC you used in this topic, but that's up to you

Edited the total word count into my last post, but I think you are mistaken. It is my understanding that in the case of a npced genin exam one cannot claim stats or jutsu save for those from the rank up. Then again, I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

You cannot claim stats, you may however claim jutsu.

Understood.

I edited my post again to include a jutsu claim, thanks for the clarification.

You can claim stats. It's been done in the past and to my knowledge there's nothing that says you can't. Regardless you're approved of your claims, you may edit the stat claims if you so desire.