When Minds Meet Challenges

Dracoso looked over his instructions again. His teacher had told him to head over to the main office and hand in a request form for the exam and to await a proctor. The proctor was unique each time and would provide their own challenge for the student to address and overcome. Dracoso had asked what kind of challenged past students had encountered. His teacher grinned and outlined a few specific instances where students had to wrestle a human-sized snake bare-handed, deroot a tree using a river, and even seduce a woman to give up her secrets. 

Dracoso stood with his eyes wide, a bit shocked at what this exam entailed. On the other hand, his teacher broke out laughing and shook his head. He said that Dracoso just had to show a couple of specific techniques, which he was already well-practiced in, and possibly additional tasks to show that he was well-rounded enough to deal with missions. The fact that he was already a Genin and that this was just a formality meant that the proctor may not even take him seriously.

He sighed in frustration and said, "I want them to take this seriously. If I don't face the real thing, how can I know I am ready to really go out and help people?"

The teacher relaxed and seemed to become more solemn. "You know, it is good to keep our mistakes in mind when we wish to grow, but we can't let them define us or they will be repeated," he said. Dracoso looked him in the eye, analyzing his words. The teacher continued, "I know you had a rough start to all this learning. Failing before you even began is a tough burden. I can tell you to stop beating yourself up over every time you let loose a little, but I don't think that will change much for now. All I can say is, make sure the weight of your successes outweighs that of your losses."

Dracoso thought over those words carefully before nodding softly and saying, "Thank you professor. I... need to get ready for my exam." He turned away and left the room, not seeing look of care, and concern, on his teacher's face as he went.

Dracoso thought over his jutsus and decided to take a small pouch of water with him and stopped by the main office. Once the request form was in, they let him know that he would need to head out to the front and that when a proctor was available, they would meet him there. He nodded and headed out into the cloudy day. The sun was obscured from the sky and the air felt still that day. It felt nice to have a cool air around him and to enjoy the sensations of the quiet air. 

He had spent so much time preparing and learning, that he felt a little excited by the possibilities. He wondered just what kind of situation he would be in when the exam started.

(WC = 503)

Shikami would report to the academy early that morning, He had however gotten lost and was entering into the exam room late and after the student did, After sitting down in his chair and getting his clipboard and pen ready he would look up at the student, he took no notes at this time mentally on this kid.....Wait as he looked at the man, he tilted his head, this was a grown man taking the academy exit exam. he would shrug and after taking a soft sigh would speak finally to the man "This Exam is to test your knowledge and usage of the technique taught by the Academy, Start with the simple clone technique, Flow into Transformation no limits on what to become, just finish the exam showing me you know how to walk up the wall, and if you show enough promise executing these techniques I am granted the ability to give you a Headband are you ready.....?" He would look down at the paper for a second to get the name of the man and finished his question with the mans name.

Shikami would wave his hand to the floor in front of him indicating it was open to him to begin his exam

As the sun was shining down on the academy, Dracoso waited outside. The minutes passed slowly as the different thoughts of what the exam might hold came forward. Maybe the instructor would summon something that he had to transform into. Would he need to substitution the proctor to look like him? His thoughts were spinning by the time a man quickly shuffled past him.

Dracoso turned and looked at the back of the individual as he seemed to jog into the main office. Dracoso took a few steps closer and listened in as the man apologized for running late. The person at the front office confirmed and informed him of which exam room they would be located in. Dracoso quickly turned and, with a quick Ram gesture, flickered ahead towards the exam room. 

He was barely in his seat as the proctor walked in. His stride seemed to speak of a tension that was just settling as he took his seat. Dracoso met his eye contact and took in the words as he quickly wrote down the steps, speaking softly to himself, "clone techniiiique...transformation....walk..on..wall." He nodded to himself as he finished and stood up, a little shakey. The man seemed relaxed, but Dracoso felt a bit intimidated just by the fact that he had to impress a stranger.

He stood up and walked to the front, still reading his paper to memorize it. He bumped the desk that had been in front of his as he stood before the desk and slipped the paper into his pocket. He wanted to make a good impression, so he would go with the more challenging water clone technique. With a deep breath and a nod, Dracoso pulled out his hip flask and took a quick swig of the water. In his haste, he spilled a bit on the ground and quickly stepped away. Feeling his anxiety rise slightly, he quickly did the hand gestures to try to make up for his slip.

His anxiety only made things worse as he started by spitting the first shot right beside teacher's chair, causing a clone to suddenly form right beside him. Dracoso got the second clone to form beside him and, once the first clone had run over to join them, the three of the immediately began the transformation hand seals. As he tried to focus on transforming himself and his clones in unison, he realized he had never tried this before. He quickly tried to remember all the forms he had taken before for one that might work and didn't realize that he had already finished making the hand seals.

With three successive poofs of smoke, each Dracoso transformed. As the room cleared, a 3-foot-tall snake was standing between a cow and a very tall pair of legs. The snake and the cow glanced over at the legs before slowly moving a foot away from it. The legs kicked angrily at the air and Dracoso's anxiety only rose further. He quickly thought back to the instructions and immediately took off for the nearest wall, trying to throw up his hands to catch himself. Only, his arms weren't there as he collided softly with the wall. He shook his head as he pressed to the wall and tried to focus his chakra into his stomach and his tail and tried to push up the wall.

With this odd body, he began to slowly climb up the wall, feeling himself rise in small jerks and motions. He gritted his snake teeth as he could feel himself getting further and further. He stopped making progress suddenly and couldn't figure out why. he looked down at himself, only to see below him that the cow clone had lifted him up with the legs on top of it. Both had slowly lifted him up the wall. Dracoso decided he was done with this form and transformed back, letting the clones dissipate as he went to grab the wall. His hands slipped along the surface at first and he began to fall. 

In slow motion, he felt like he was failing this test at every step, and out of a last second desperation, he threw up the ram hand seal and flickered directly up into the ceiling. He quickly flooded his whole body with chakra and lunged with every part of himself at the ceiling. He was suddenly stuck like a gecko against the top of the exam room. With quick breaths, he looked down at the proctor to see his response to all this. 

Because of the angle, and the blood rushing to his head, he wasn't fully sure what he could see, but he decided that he had done more than enough damage for one day. He slowly made his way to one of the walls before making his way back down to the floor. As he returned to the ground again, he hung his head and went back to his seat. His body was still a bit sore from the impacts, but he wasn't sure how much he just bared. With another deep breath, he looked up and tried to meet the proctor's eye before saying in a slightly deflated tone, "tadaaaa."

WC = 865

Shikami would not notice that the student had only entered the room just before he had, and he had given the instructions and he was ready to take notes,  the first note was that the man had instead used water clone technique rather than the basic clone technique, Shikami would look down as he wrote his note and shook his head. Than Shikami was watching the man and his use of Transformation, and his clones also using it, a cow, a Snake, and than a pair of legs... SHikami sighed and took down another note at that time, and finally he would watch the man use the surface walking technique, and when he fell , Shikami would jot down another note and when the man did his tada moment, Shikami stood.

Shikami was looking over his paper and shook his head and let out a sigh, while the man showed poor use and wrong techniques, over all he showed the promise required. Shikami would pull out a headband and offered it out to the man "For your use of a clone technique, even if it was not the academy version, Transformation technique being used, no matter how unimpressive it was, and for Surface walking technique no matter the length of time it was used, I Present a Headband of Kirigakure, You are officially a Genin of Kirigakure, Congratulations" After handing off the head band Shikami would turn around and walk out of the room, over to the desk and see about any more students he needed to quiz. If not he would than head back like he was gunna go take on a mission or two.

In the back of Shikami's mind he would pull the image in his head of the paper of the male he examined today, he did not start that long ago and was already using techniques of a much higher grade. Shikami would let out a sigh as he would head back to the academy and was looking over paperwork for recently graduated genin and he was starting to plan out a selection of genin to take under his wing and if he needed to in different teams.

570 Twc, 5 Vigor

(EXIT)

Dracoso would take the headband and look it over as the man left. He had seen so many ninja wearing them throughout the village, yet to have his own in his hands felt like crossing a threshold. His hopes taken form in this strip of metal and cloth that he now held. He softly gripped the headband and lifted it up, wrapping the cool cloth around his head. As he tied it off at the back of his head, he felt the tightness in his chest loosen slightly. He looked around for a mirror and ran to one of the nearby windows. The light was hitting it so that he couldn't quite see himself. 

As he sighed, a thought came to mind. He quickly repeated his earlier steps and created a single water clone of himself. As it formed with his headband, he looked closely over it. It really made the color of his eyes and hair stand out and kind of made him look more like a water clone himself. With a quick shrug, he gave himself a high five and strode out of the exam room. 

As he stepped out into the sun and looked out at the world, it felt like something had changed. While everything looked the same and people seemed to treat him no differently than before, he felt ready to start being a ninja. All he had to do now was to find a good place to start.

{Exit{

WC - 244

WC Total: 1612 (503 + 865 + 244)
Stats +16 (8 Chakra, 6 Vigor, 2 Speed)

Jutsus learned:
C Rank - Butterfly Effect - 1000
D Rank - Throat Chop - 500
C rank - Summoning Technique - 325/1000 (adding 100 to the total of of 225/1000 from the previous post, Hands-In Learning)

Approved!