Kozachi Genin Exam [solo,nk]

Kozachi had woken up that morning, refreshed and refilled. Today was going to be a great day, and her father seemed to be out of the house, which meant no pre-test assessment. Good, she could tackle her tasks without much stress. After finishing her chores, she headed out to the classroom where she'd (hopefully) be graduating from the academy. With any luck, she'd pass and be on her way to the top, way behind Kenjiro, of course.

Standing in front of thirty or so empty seats Risako briefly pondered ways to spice up the Academy Exam so as to prevent herself from diving headfirst out of a three story window out of boredom. Turning around, she sulked over to the desk and took a seat while scanning over the objects on its surface. There were several headbands folded and placed neatly into columns, a clipboard with a list of the student's names, and a cup of water her attendant had left for her. Reaching out for the clipboard, she brought the list closer to her face. While her free hand pinched at the loose red fabrice hiding her armour, she perused the names for a second before deciding what today's spicy change to the exam would be. Until the students had arrived, she would tidy up the room and make sure everything was presentable. They would find her seated behind the desk once they did arrive.

Once the students were present, Risako decided to kick things off proper by announcing "We'll be going in reverse alphabetical order today. Kozachi Uchiha, please come to the front." Presuming the student followed orders, the Hokage would continue to relay the directions for the exam after a short pause. "Today I'm going to need you to perform the clone and transformation techniques. Follow it up with a short explanation as to why you want to be a genin."

[800 words, you know the drill.]

Holy balls, was that the hokage? Right, formalities. Bowing slightly in obeisance, she took a breath and gathered her thoughts. Right, so the clone technique first. She'd practiced this one with Kenjiro, so she was pretty sure she'd be able to do it first try. It's the damn Hokage, something told her. You'd damn well BETTER get it right first try. Gah, way to put pressure on a person. Of course, it could be that the Kiri folk were trying to humiliate their leader by having her grade these exams, or maybe she'd made the choice on her own. Either way, it didn't really matter. All she had to do was to perform the jutsu and catch up to her brother.

Three handseals, right? Ram, then snake, then tiger. The first handseal was easy. It was similar to tiger in may ways, except with one hand transplaced downward slightly, the two extended fingers farther toward the palm of the other hand involved in the handseal. Her chakra (which was still rather weak, according to the clan members around her) started circulating within her body as she moved into the second seal, but she felt completely in control, as well she should. SHE was the master of her energy here.

The snake handseal was simple, albeit different from the other two. Pressing her palms together, she interlaced her fingers together and completed the handseal. It… didn’t really look like a snake’s head at all, but that was the designation that it had been given, and it certainly did the trick as far as the jutsu was concerned, and that was all she needed. 

The tiger handseal was similar to the ram one, just with one hand shifted upward so that the fingers were adjacent to each other rather than skewed. And just like that, with a bit of exertion of chakra, two exact copies of Kozachi appeared, one on either side of her. Success! Kozachi held her joy and exultation in check, as the exam wasn't over yet. She raised and arm, then lowered it and each of her clones did the same, to show that she had indeed learned the jutsu in its entirety. While she made noise, the clones did not, which is why she considered the jutsu to be... well, mildly useless. Still, she'd probably think of some use for them later. A good shinobi could use all the tools around them to gain an advantage, as her mother had told her more than once as a lesson on resourcefulness.

With but a thought, she dispersed the clones. Now, for the transformation technique. Having spent hours figuring out this one herself, she barely had to think about it to perform the jutsu. Three handseals, dog, then boar, then ram. While mostly more complex than some of the ones she had performed before, the amount of work she had put into this one had made it so that these had become ingrained into her muscle memory, which was a good thing overall.

She picked a form and surrounded herself with chakra, using the same form as she had in practice: the janitor of the academy, some northern immigrant lady who might be an ANBU but might not be. Most likely, Kozachi would never find out, but that didn't bother her too much. She had successfully performed the jutsu, and she felt happy with herself. Almost done, she thought as she released the jutsu. Still, the techniques had been the easy part, but now was the hard one. She couldn't just blurt out "I want to be as strong as my older sibling", could she? Then again, that wasn't the REAL reason why she had wanted to become a genin. Being as strong as Kenjiro and showing it to the rest of the clan was nice and all, but it was just a nice side effect when compared to her true goals. 

Those ambitions weren't really evil at all. Was there anything wrong with wanting to be one of the best and brightest in the village, with wanting the recognition and adulation that came with hard work? Kozachi wasn't the most vain of girls, but she definitely had the same flaws that every other human being did.

So, when she looked the Hokage straight in the eyes, she told her the truth.

"I want to become one of the best that this village has to offer through my own efforts. I want to do much for the people here, and to show my clan just how far I can go. Becoming a shinobi is definitely the best way I can do that." I might not have as much talent as the others, she thought to herself in the silence of her soul, but I'll be damned if I let them pass me up.

[WC 803, genin exam passed...?]

Per usual, Uchiha students passed the exam with flying colors. As they say, variety is the spice of life and in the soon to be present they say that spice smells like a culling. Maybe it's a genocide? I dunno.

Risako stood up, carefully picking up one of the headbands so as to avoid ruining the folds as she did so, and carried the item to Kozachi. Presenting to the girl her headband, Risako bowed her head befire congratulating the genin. "May you meet your goals with success then, you may proceed to the Administration Center for your first task or you may take the day off." With the formality out of the way, Risako simply told her, "Dismissed." Afterwards she returned to her seat and rattled off the next student's name.

[Promoting Kozachi to genin.]

Approved