Chuunin Exam Round 1 - Written

The Hyuuga found himself navigating through the halls of the academy - his destination was the classroom assigned to him to take his written exam. It’s been quite some time since he’s actually stepped foot inside of one, the last being his graduation from the leaf academy. There he was taking to endure sever training from his father, tutelage from his mother. The eyes of the boy lowered as his mental was flushed with traumatic recall that left him feeling ill. Souji’s father - a member of the royal branch of the Hyuuga, highly respected and revered as one of the great minds of the clan. In the public eye, he was ideal. His presence did not quite demand respect and attention, it took it without hesitation. There was no one that did not listen with intent when he was speaking, this also includes Souji. But behind clothes doors, that very same man was a harsh, cruel and I forgiven perfectionist. The mere thought made the boy shudder. 


Turning the hall he would take notice of the room number that was given to him to take his test - 102. Approaching the door, he slid it open, closing it behind him. His eyes took note of the genin that were quietly taking their exams. Locating a nearby desk he would take his seat and immediately begin on his paper. The questions were pretty straightforward - all except the last, it was coded.... something that shouldn’t be too hard to decipher. 


He took his time in the test, answering as plainly as the questions were displayed. He found no reason to overplaying his answers. This reminded him of when he was isolated to study under his mother’s eye. She wasn’t as cruel as his father, but she wasn’t too far from it either. One wrong answer, or hastily given one and he was cracked upside the head with a palm of her hand. Darken eyes would glare as he would look towards his aggressor- his mother. He shook his head, feeling his emotions slowly getting the better of him, feeling his control ebbing as he willing recollect the past within the prison known as the leaf. He had to rid himself of those memories - he had to focus on what was before him and nothing else. He had a stake in all this. 


After some time the boy would place his written object down and move his paper to the front where he would leave it on the main desk, eyeing the jounin moving about the room to notify him of his completed work. He would take his leave. As he did he wound notice that same ashen haired boy from the gates, but ignored him entirely as he exited the area. 

Exit
[WC 462]
Claiming 9 AP Max stat

Being one of the last to arrive at the exam center wasn’t poor attention to time, it was more so the fact that Yuuma felt no rush. A readiness that came with having had weeks to prepare and spending the last couple of days relaxing his taxed mind and body so that he was prepared to tackle the exam at one-hundred percent. But the time for relaxation was over. This was the first day- the first trial- and Yuuma walked towards the academy with a small spring in his step. In no particular hurry, he had left the house early to take a walk through the gardens a reminisce about a few pleasant memories, stop by his growing favorite ramen shop to have a small udon bowl with an egg, enjoying the simple tastes of the morning before making his way to the academy with a full belly and an empty head. Archimedes had opted to remain behind today, knowing he wouldn’t be able to attend anything related to the test nor observe in any manner without it likely being assumed Yuuma was cheating. Not that either of them had even considered the action, but it was best to simply avoid the possibility of accusation altogether.

Crossing through the front walkway of the Academy, Yuuma would give a little wave to the big bear that sat like an imposing if somewhat lethargic guard to the building. “Hey, Archie.” Yuuma offered with a grin, not anticipating any manner of response. The Genin almost wish he had something to offer the creature as a snack though he feared anything he could have offered wouldn’t have made much of an impact on what was sure to be a massive appetite. Pushing through the doors to the building, Yuuma would pace down the hall to the room without much need of direction- he had been a student here once, after all. Eyes scanned along the wall to the class photos, pausing at the one he had taken of the class himself not too long ago. Stopping before the photo, he would recall for a moment the last time he had come here to take an exam. His graduation overseen by the man he had revered. The man whose statue was now missing from the shrine up the hill, whose name had been scratched out as he had been marked a traitor to his people. His brow would drop softly as a hand reached up to touch the scar on his forehead. “This is your chance to do better. To be better.” Filled with resolve, Yuuma would lift his gaze once more and drop his hand back to his side. “Best not to let it slip.”

Arriving in the classroom, he would find that many of the seats had already filled. Granted, he knew most of the people by name thanks to having let them in the gate, but there were a few faces he hadn’t seen quite so recently. His eyes flickered to the other Hoshi Genin that were present. Zeo. Enishi. Tsuna. His grin picked up a bit at spotting his scar-sporting companion, though he had a moment to meet the eyes of anyone else that cared to linger their gaze on the late entrant. Yuuma took the moment to return to acknowledgment to anyone that offered him their own, though he would collect his test and the paper used to record his answers and take a seat at the front between two other test-takers, squeezing behind one of them with a mumble “excuse me” before settling into the middling seat of the chair that felt just a little smaller than he remembered it being. It felt strange- surreal, even- to be sitting back in the academy to take a test. His mind pushed away from the thoughts of Valen and centered itself once again. Taking in a deep breath, he’d release it in a long, slow exhale before looking down and beginning to read over the questions the test had for him. 

Line after line, he scanned each query and didn’t give any much thought as he skipped on to the last. That was until he got to the very bottom and found the riddle. A quiet exhale of defeat left him as he looked over the scramble of a question. “Great...a riddle. I’m screwed,” he’d think to himself, setting down the paper and leaning his head against one of his hands propped up by an elbow on the desk. Not long after he settled in, the proctor would announce the beginning of the test time and all at once, a tense silence would fill the room. All attention had turned down to the tests, and Yuuma was no exception. Taking in a few calming breaths, Yuuma would close his eyes for a moment before opening them slowly and beginning at the very top of the page. A combat question. Reading over the entirety of the scenario several times, he would lift his pencil to tap at his lips gently. “Hiding like a mole seems a little too obvious...I’m not terribly familiar with either of these techs being thrown at me but the one on the left has something to do with the ground. The guy on the right is too close for comfort- who knows what else he has besides a weapon..I need to create distance..” He would continue to reason out the problem, feeling unusually prepared despite having seen few life-or-death battles. But he had done quite a bit of running away, and this was essentially the same thing. “Yeah...okay, yeah, this could work.” His mind picked out a few strong tactics and cut them down, eliminating needless steps and fast-tracking his goal to the front of his actions. Putting his pencil to paper, he would write out a lengthy response to the first question, feeling quite confident by the time he had finished the summary.

The second question was an interesting one, but not one he wasn’t prepared for. Chewing on his lip, his pencil would tap at the sheet a couple of times as he tried to devise the best way to write it. “Not too dramatic, but not vague enough to be impersonal. This is a question of self-reflection. How much have I considered myself to this point? I bet whoever grades this will want to understand that I am not without self-reflection.” Once again, his pencil would place on the page and begin to write out the answer. By the time he was partway through, he’d hear someone getting up and walking to the front of the room to turn in their test. “Done already?” To his lack of surprise, he spotted the back of Tsuna’s head making its way up to the front. A gap formed between Yuuma’s lips as he realized his rather sharp friend had already fired all the way through his test already. Part of him wished he could speak up to his friend, but with Tsuna’s determination to depart the room, Yuuma could only mentally call after him, “Hope it went well!” But no words would come. Instead, Yuuma would straighten his back into his chair and look back to his paper. “Okay. Gotta get this done.” His pencil touched the paper once more as he completed the second answer and moved on to the third. 


This one was much easier to answer. Both answers were terrible. Neither of them fit exactly right. One of them was certainly closer to the other, but it was a stretch to encompass it completely. “What an interesting question,” he thought. “Was this a measure of our morality?” In the end, Yuuma would discern this question to be something to absorb mental power. Likely, this question was simply a way to fill out the test. Despite that, Yuuma would fill out the answer to completion with a few careful lines of thought, words carefully sculpted at the tip of his pencil. More than halfway done, Yuuma would lean back in his chair and eye the fourth question. Taking in a deep breath, Yuuma felt something in his stomach that told him this one was important.

“There are a lot of good answers. They probably want to see something practical: the skill of a person’s martial prowess. Perhaps their proficiency in jutsu. How many people they have slain.” A silent sigh would leave his nose as he tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. His mind would drift to his work, his medicine, and the things he had done to make it. His mind would drift to the missions and the people he had met on them, the people he had helped. His hands lifted, placing the pencil between his upper lip and his nose before his hands slipped behind his head. His lips puckered, the edges flaring as he held the pencil in place while he let his mind drift off and away to search his feelings for what felt like the best answer. His mind would drift to the gardens, and to the girl he had met there. The smile that spread across her face, and how her hair had stuck to the side of her head thanks to her exuberant workout. The pencil stuck between his upper lip and his nose would wiggle back and forth as his lips pushed from side to side. His mind would follow those long, hazel locks to the thought of the library. The quiet moments shared between whispered voices. A small tuff of laughter left him right as one of the proctors passed by. A Hoshi Jounin with brown hair and blue eyes that he had never met before. The two of them locked eyes at that moment with Yuuma’s hands behind his head, lounging back in his chair, and wiggling a pencil by his upper lip.

This gaze would hold for a moment, the wiggling coming to a slow stop as Yuuma slowly undid his hands from the back of his head, holding the gaze of the proctor as he picked his pencil back up and moved his attention back down to his page, hoping that the deep stare of the Jounin wouldn’t linger on him much longer as he went about forging the answer that had come to him. A simple yet fulfilling answer that he felt best matched the thoughts that had jumbled back into place in his head. Swift marks pecked at the paper as he allowed his emotions to dictate this answer; it was probably not what the test makers had been interested in seeing, but to deviate now would only give a faux impression of the boy’s intention. If they wanted to see his tougher stuff, they would get the chance when he inevitably passed this portion of the exam and made it into the next round.

Rounding off the answer he had come to, his pencil would slip down the page to rest at the last question. The one he had been dreading the most. The one that he knew was going to take him the longest to answer. “A damn riddle..” he cursed to himself quietly. If ever he had considered cheating, this was the time. It wouldn’t be so hard, would it? His eyes glanced sidelong to the proctors, taking note of their position. He could utilize his shadow jutsu, attach to someone’s shadow and follow the movements of their pencil. As the thought completed, he could feel his stomach church like he had just swallowed a bag of rocks. The thought of disgracing himself by stooping to such levels made him nearly physically ill. He even silently scolded himself for even allowing the thought to pass through his mind. Even facing down the monstrous task of trying to solve a puzzle. With a small measure of trepidation, he would begin to try and work out the cipher to the riddle that awaited beyond.

Over the course of the next hour, his resolve would be sourly tested. The clock ticked the minutes away, and with each batch of ten, the hair of the young boy would steadily work its way into a disheveled state as his hands continued to rack through his dark locks. The color of his shirt would be tugged out as he worked over the puzzle, feeling his internal temperate begin to rise as his leg bounced under his desk. “This sucks…” he said, his forehead planted in his palms as he stared down at the paper. He had gotten through the cipher, but now the actual riddle was tugging at his nerves, his synapsis firing in rapid succession as he went into overdrive to try and figure out all the different possibilities. “Wide and as large? Lighter than air?” he puzzled, his hands slowly running down his face to tug at his cheeks and distort his eyes. It didn’t help that more and more people were getting up to turn in his test; he dared not glance around the room after the first handful out of fear that he was going to be the last one in there still thinking about this by the time everyone else was at dinner. “The ground? No….the air? No that doesn’t make sense either. Maybe a shadow? Chakra? Space? The Future? Fulfillment? Innovation?” Answers swam through his mind like the countless schools of the sea. All of them looked identical to the last, none of them fitting perfectly the mold of the question he had been asked.

By the end of the hour, Yuuma had buried his head into his arms before he pushed himself up with a sharp intake of defeat. He couldn’t linger on this forever. With more than a couple instances of hesitation, he would put his pencil to the bit of space he had saved between his many attempts at decoding and deciphering to fill in the last question. By the time he had dotted the last sentence, an immense weight had lifted off him as though a giant had finally stood up from the seat on his shoulders. Still refusing to see who was left, Yuuma would stand, scoop his paper off the table, and move around the empty chair beside him to turn in his paper at the front. Exiting the room, he would feel his spirits instantly lift as he spotted Tsuna in the hallway. “H- hey man!” Yuuma spoke up after closing the door to the classroom. “You’re still here. Did you wait for me?” A sort of comfort peppered his voice as he approached the younger boy, his hair still showing signs that reflected the mental exhaustion that wrapped around Yuuma like a second robe. Despite this, that warm smile would stick to his lips as he lifted a hand to pat Tsuna on the shoulder. “Man...I hate riddles..” 


WC- 2,473

Gin sat the exam, completing it in a timely fashion, his stomach rumbling throughout. Having finished, he left the room, moving into a rest room before sending his hands into a series of handseals. He placed one seal onto his stomach, chasing it with a second seal that he placed onto his throat after another series of handseals. Taking a small pause, he sent his hands into another series of handseals, placing a third seal onto his chest.

AP - 690 - 20 - 10 - 90 = 570

https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t47192-stomach-stomach-seal
https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t47315-breath-seal#365947
https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t45041-chakra-storage-seal-v7 (60 AP)

Lost in the endless depths of his mental, Tsuna was retrieved from it as he heard the voice of Yuuma, not only that, but sensed him as he stepped into the range of his passive radius of sense. Indigo eyes met with azure pairs. He gave him a smile as he immediately inspect him from head to toe. Finding that most of his odd features were coming from his head. Raising a single brow the boy couldn’t help but to laugh. “I think you did fine, Yuuma - despite your current appearance of stress, hahaha.” He joked, closing his eyes to take a few whiffs of the lingering aroma from the breath of his comrade. Slowly opening his eyes he would give him a lax stare. “So you are before the written exams? What did I tell you about eating before and during a mission, or something of importance? You will through your concentration that way.” He stressed, closing his eyes and shaking his head, but he couldn’t truly fault Yuuma, he was used to a certain pattern and eating was one of them. 


Tsuna then shrugged, releasing a sigh. “At any rate, I waited to see how you was fairing in the test. What did you think of it? From my perspective it wasn’t much of a test, not even sure of how they grade such questions. I basically threw the entire thing, I rather take my chances with the second round, provided it doesn’t force me to put in more effort than I want to.” He said, leaning back against the wall as he awaited to see what his ally was thinking. 


He would soon realize the time and give Yuuma a wave farewell. Heading off to take care of something. Knowing that he would need to complete before the real challenge began. 

Exit
[Total WC: 907]

Reallocating Stats:
Max Stat 300

Vigor: 50
Chakra: 111
Speed: 110
Strength: 29

Taking 1 from 
Chakra: 111 > 110

Placing in
Strength: 29 > 30

AP Gained: 18

Approved

[EXIT]

TWC- 2,477

Claims- (Discount applies)

- 516 to finish  Investiture of Elements [3,750/3,750] Previous progress here.
- 1,875 to Mystical Palm [V7.2] [1,875/1,875]
- 82 WC can go unspent.

Signatures memorized:
Tsunayoshi Hatake
Zeo Kamigawa
Arashi Tekiatsu
Kouma Yamaguchi
Enishi Kurosawa
Kita Hajime

IS approved.