Earning the Headband

Mara Asano paced back and forth in front of the Academy building. She'd gotten here early and had been mentally recalling the techniques. She'd have actually performed the techniques if she wasn't worried about running out of chakra. The previous few days had been some intensive training.

When the class finally shuffled in, she took her seat, foot tapping nervously. Today was the day she earned the rank of Genin...theoretically. She needed too actually pass the exam first.

At the sound of the door opening, she looked up toward the entrance to see the exam proctor enter. With her name so early in the alphabet, she'd likely be one of the first to go.

[WC: 114 | TWC: 114]

[Requesting Proctor]

The middle-aged proctor sighed. Another day on the job, another class full of degenerates for him to watch miserably fail at the simplest of tasks. He should really get a raise for this. Maybe he'd bring it up with the Raikage, whoever it was this week, after this shift. The man made his way through the hallways of the academy. He had walked this path so often it was surprising there wasn't a groove in the the floor. There was a slight limp in his step, the right knee of the man playing up due to the cold weather, but it was something he had long since grown used to.

With another heavy sigh he opened the door and made his way to the front of the class room that served as today's examination hall. As per his usual he did not bother to memorise the faces. The proctor doubted he would see them after this. Unless they failed and retook the exam, but usually the failures went on to become better paid workers in other career paths.

The man looked down at his list and called out the first name and gave the young boy the usual explanation. As he did to the next student, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, before finally reaching the name the protagonist of this topic longed to hear. "Mara Asano, you're next." Once the student had mad their way to the front of the class he spoke again. "Same as the others. Perform the transformation technique and the clone technique in order to pass."

[Hello, make a 800 word post performing transformation and the clone technique please.]

[The protagonist of this topic ]

Mara nearly jumped at her name, sending the pencil she’d be twirling flying across the room and out an open window. She really hoped no one had seen that. She'd been excited for her exam, sure. But after the brief string of names, recited in the uninterested tone of her instructor, she had briefly forgotten that she would be getting up next. Shaken from her trance and a little embarrassed, she got out of her chair. “Wish me luck,” she whispered to her friend Idrina, as she stood up.

“You’re going to do fine,” her friend replied.

She made her way to the front of the class. There were so many other students, with their eyes on her. Definitely no pressure then…

"Yes, sir. Thank you,” she replied, not quite sure what she was thanking him for. She blushed briefly before focusing again. Here goes nothing. “First, I will perform the Clone Technique.”

She'd start with the clone technique. Ram → Snake → Tiger. As she formed the final hand signs, she visualized her chakra extending outside herself and focusing in two spots beside her. She focused her mind on her own image and completed the Tiger sign.

With a poof, two copies of her visage materialized next to her. They were about as strong a showing as she had managed yet. For once, she actually pulled off the minor details. The colored fringes of her clothes looked good. Her hair was the right length. And none of them was preposterously short or tall. To demonstrate her ability to hold it, she released the handsign and spun in place. Her clones did the same. She had to admit it was also an attempt to show off the accuracy of the clones. This humble boast was partly for the proctor, but mostly for her fellow students. Many of them were younger than her, so she felt a special pressure to demonstrate her abilities. She smiled inwardly. One technique down. But she couldn't get cocky. Stepping toward the proctor, flanked by her clones, she looked on for an analysis.

Upon his feedback, she dismissed the clone images. In all honesty, her clones were definitely stronger than her Transformation Technique. She’d put nearly twice as much practice into this one and still felt uneasy about the quality. That’s why she’d spent so much time preparing her image.

"Next, I'm going to demonstrate the Transformation Technique." Mara straightened her back. She focused hard on the image she'd formed in her mind, Idrina. She tried to remember all the key details of her friend and suppress her own image. She took a deep breath. The room was still mostly full and she was too nervous to make eye contact with any of the others. No more time to delay.  She tentatively wove the hand signs, but finished it with a bit more certainly. Dog → Boar → Ram.

With a surge of her chakra, she enveloped herself in the image of Idrina. She didn’t open for eyes for a moment, half certain that she had failed to manifest the illusion. But the sounds of the room told her otherwise. No laughs of dirision. No mocking applause.

She slowly opened her eyes, looking forward. She couldn't see many of the details herself without looking harder. Her hair looked good though. It was appropriately darker than her own blonde, and she had Idrina’s bangs down perfectly. She had illusury eyeglasses in front of her eyes, though they did nothing to change her vision. She wondered if the glass looked convincing to the others. That was a detail she’d have to take into account in the future, especially under more stressful conditions.

And she had that slightly awful orange dress nailed, the one Idrina loved and she couldn't stand. Perhaps because of her strong feelings for the color, she was impressed with her accuracy. But beyond that, she simply had to hope it was convincing. The approving nods of her classmates helped build her confidence in the image. Idrina stifled a laugh at the dress, fully aware of Mara’s feelings toward it. Her friend gave an approving thumbs up at her would be imitator.

She once again performed a turn and walk maneuver, demonstrating that she could maintain the illusion in motion. She even added a small preplanned flourish, removing the glasses and holding them in her hand, before putting them back on. That part seemed a bit more difficult. With no physical glasses to work with, she couldn’t be sure that it looked realistic as she placed them back on  his face.

“The Transformation Technique, sensei,” Mara said, doing her best Idrina impression. It was far less realistic than her visage.

It was a huge relief to release the image when the proctor indicated that she could end the jutsu. I'll definitely need to practice that more. Its a huge chakra drain, she thought to herself.

Now that she'd made it through the techniques, all that remained was to find out how she did. She turned to face the proctor for her assessment.

[WC: 846 | TWC: 961]

His body had aged, however his mind stayed sharp. The proctor caught the movement from the corner of his vision. Tracking it with his eyes for a brief moment he afforded himself an inner chuckle. That was the highlight of the day so far. The others before had been standard procedure. Some had shown a few nerves, some had outright fallen flat in their capabilities. The thin haired man had seen it all at this point in his life. Although credit given where it was due it had been a decent shot, an unintentional one but no one cares if you hit the target on purpose or not right?

This one was definitely nervous. It was plain as day to even the most dense of humans. He wasn't one to take note of such things. His job was to grade the execution, not the preparation nor the fumbling. In hindsight he probably should, yet another thing he would bring up with whoever was Raikage next week.

Handseals, correct. The man thought to himself as he observed the girl performing the jutsu. Appearance, spot on. Movement as well? Quite the show off. He gave a slight nod as a sign for the young girl to continue on to the next jutsu. His expression remained the stony neutral that it had been throughout the entirety of the exams so far. Trick #4 of being a shinobi, never give anything away.

The transformation technique. It was always the one the students struggled on the most. Copying your appearance was easy, you've spent your entire life knowing what you look like after all. It required more control and more thought. This was why it was always deemed to go second in the exams. A progressive experience, that was what he recalled the headmaster had called it. Bunch of nonsense but at the end of the day he wasn't paid enough to voice his complaints.

By the time his own musings had ended the girl had performed the final hand seal. Complete failure, looks nothing like me...no wait. The proctor thought to himself. So often was he himself the visual target for the technique he had almost forgotten it was not a mandatory thing. His tired eyes flickered between the hopeful and the one who had been copied. The proctor blinked upon the removal of the glasses. That was new. Another check off the list of things he had seen.

The illusion was shattered of course when she spoke. His neutral expression broke into a thin smile. Needs work. He commented to himself in amusement. "That'll be all that's necessary." The man finally broke his silence. A moment of pause was taken as he jotted a few notes down. "Mara Asano, pass. Collect your headband from the instructor outside." He made a motion to dismiss the girl and moved on to the next in the long list of names. Honestly, as much as he complained he loved this job.

[Congratulations you're now a fully fledged Genin of Kumogakure. You can claim 15 stats, a free first spec and the free jutsu found in this list under the Genin section.]

Mara was ecstatic at his words. "Th...thank you, sir!" It took some substantial discipline to keep herself on the ground as she exited the room, a broad smile across her face.

She arrived at the table outside before she'd finished processing it. As the instructor handed her a new shiny headband, she beamed. She'd made Genin! She considered putting it on her forehead, but decided to indulge her theatrical side and save that for special occasions. Instead she tied it off around her waist, before running off toward the training grounds. No point in wasting time after all. This was one rank, and she was only getting started.

[Exit. WC: 90 | TWC: 1067 .Claiming:
-  Genin Rank
-  Ninjutsu Specialty
-  +15 Stats (Health 1, Chakra 6, Stamina 2, Speed 5, Strength 1)
-  Free Jutsu (Tree Climbing/Surface Walking)]

[Also, just to be sure, I'm not supposed to claim the word count here for jutsu/stats, right? I assumed as much, but don't want to miss out either.]

[Approved of the claims.

I'm going to say no toward putting the WC for this toward other things, I'll ask about and if I hear otherwise I'll get back to you.

Topic Closed~]