First Step: Passing the Genin Exams

Natsume awaited the exam with impatience. Luckily for her, Koutaichi was smack dab in the middle of the list of participants. She pitied the poor kids that would wait forever because their last name started with something absurd like 'Z' or 'U'. Still, if she would be forced to wait, she would use her time wisely. Natsume flipped open her ever trusty notebook and started to read through the elaborate notes she'd taken over her time in the academy. It was hard to focus on the words, however, as her mind was busy listening for her name.

Natsume's ears twitched as the proctor called out her name, her head shooting up soon after. "Present! Yes, sir. I, Natsume Koutaishi, will now perform the Transformation Technique followed by the Clone Technique." She stepped up before his worn-down gaze and bowed deeply in respect, her eyes briefly darting over to the intriguing tool strapped to his hand.

As she straightened back up, she brought her hands together in front of her. She had practiced these two jutsu so many times ever since learning them from Zyxis-senpai and hearing they would be on her exam. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, fail here.

She closed her eyes and focused on the form she would become—remembered the shapes, broke them down and understood them. The chakra built up under her skin, thrumming as she directed it around her body, moulding her chakra like a potter would mould clay. Only after she’d satisfactorily recreated the image in her head with the sense of her chakra did she start on the seals. Dog, boar, then ram, each seal done with a speed and grace that spoke of the several late nights spent forcing her hands through the motions, over and over again.

The transformation seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. One moment, Natsume’s molten lava eyes were staring out across the classroom, and the next, the tired white eyes had replaced hers; she had become Notmon’s doppelganger. The slight smile looked wrong on the copycat’s face, a stark mismatch to the broken expression Notmon wore. When Natsume went to speak, after clearing her throat, her voice came out fairly close to Notmon’s own. “Okay. We all know the drill. Clone technique next.” Before releasing, Natsume went through some basic kata, demonstrating some of the speed and strength she still maintained. As she released the transformation, she continued through the last of her kata, keeping the speed and strength of her movements steady. While she wouldn’t fool anybody into thinking she could fight like a Chunin, she was definitely still capable of fighting at her own level even under a transformation.

She had considered keeping the transformation up for the next step, but memories of the last time she’d attempted to do so put a stop to that. Surely, it would be easier, now that she was fully rested, but Natsume dared not take that chance on such an important day. She had better things to do than test making clones under a transformation — like passing the Genin Exams.

She brought her hands together once more and closed her eyes as she prepared for the Clone Technique. It was a comparable feeling to the transformation, but her clones were intangible and only really needed to mimic her appearance rather than her mass. She went through the seals quickly—Ram, Snake, and Tiger—but with precision, her attention to detail showing in her textbook-standard hand seals.

Four clones appeared, two on either side of Natsume, and waved at the class. They had, much like her transformation, arrived with little fanfare. Not even smoke to annunciate their creation. She smiled at her clones and, with a thought, made them smile back. Then, they were gone.

It took a sizeable chunk of her chakra levels to do so much. She shook her hands out. “Probably a fourth of my chakra to do that?” she thought to herself, frowning slightly. “I need to train more.”

She sighed and focused back on the topic at hand, which was, summarily put, explaining her motivations. Surely there could be no way of failing this part of the exam, except for perhaps saying that being a ninja meant becoming powerful enough to usurp the village and become an S-rank missing nin. But nobody was that stupid. At least, she hoped nobody could be that stupid.

“What it means to me…?” Natsume was quiet for a while as she mused over how to put her thoughts into a coherent sentence. She looked over each of her classmates, each with their own stories, some that she had come to learn, others that she many never get to hear. Had any of them known her story? Known why she’d stopped coming to the academy for so long, then suddenly returned with a fierce vengeance? She pursed her lips.

“We ninja are the tools of our village, carrying out the will of our esteemed Raikage.” Something dark swam in the depths of her soul, waiting to consume her. She knew her true reason for being a ninja, knew the revenge that sang in her heart, but she would not let them see what still tormented her at night. “But we are more than that. Being a ninja, for me, means experiencing new things, constantly. Being pushed to limits I never knew existed, and having to surpass them.”  She smiled, satisfied with her twist on a textbook answer.

She cocked her head and looked at the proctor. “What about you, sensei? What does being a ninja mean to you?”

 Natsume tried to get a glimpse of the photo Notmon pulled out, but this broken expression somehow seemed even sadder than usual, if it were possible. She had a heart, so she didn't push him for more info, instead chipperly nodding as he confirmed her new status and escaping through the door to go pick up a headband.
 
 The headband was hefty and comforting in her hands. She took the time to admire its weight and shine. "Almost there, mom," she whispered as she bent over and tied the band around her upper right thigh, "Soon you'll be avenged."