jackpot_kun
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[GUtW]—❈—36:: Trump Cards
🕑 Added 2023-07-18 18:29:30 +0000 UTCSorry for the delay, my life's been... hectic.
—❈—
I stare at my laid-back sensei, my thoughts roiling.
I'd known about The Chūnin Exams of course, it's hard not to considering it's held every year at the same time. However, even before I got Caleb's memories and my opinion of a lot of things had changed, I'd had no interest in rushing into them.
Unlike in the story where it was made to seem like The Chūnin Exams are the singular way to get promoted to chūnin, the reality is far from the case.
In truth, The Chūnin Exams are largely a display of power. There are no tests of wit or teamwork, or even of ninja skills beside fighting ability, it is, in essence, a ten days long tournament held in the capital of the country of the hosting village.
Virtually every ninja village on The Continent sends at least one team to take part every year if they have one available, since not doing so means missing out on an opportunity to showcase the talents of your younger generation; an opportunity to show potential enemies why they should stay just that; potential enemies.
Also importantly, The Chūnin Exams are a great opportunity to accurately gauge the strength of the competition; an exposé on each village's future assets, if you would.
The exams are not just important on the ninja side of things either, they're important on the civilian one too.
The strength of a country's resident hidden village is relevant to its perceived military might, therefore, unsurprisingly, ninja villages are 'encouraged' by the Daimyō of their countries to put in good showings at the exams.
Honestly, there is a reason why The Chūnin Exams are oftentimes called a substitute for war.
Regardless of the event's epithet however, the point is, like I said, I never had any intention of rushing into it.
Never really cared about joining, to be honest.
After all, while the exams may be a great way to test myself against other genin, it's still completely useless to me, since the opponent I aim to surpass and kill is an S-rank ninja.
Proving you're the strongest ant is completely meaningless if your enemy is a lion.
So, no, I never had any intention of rushing into The Chūnin Exams. And now that I have Caleb's memories, memories that make me even more hesitant to do so, I'm faced with a jōnin-sensei who's saying things like: "Oh, didn't I tell you? I signed you up for The Chūnin Exams."
"No, Kakashi," I bite out, "you didn't tell us."
"We're gonna be chūnin?" Naruto asks, excitement in his tone.
Sakura sighs. "No, Naruto, we're not going to be chūnin. We're going to get our butts handed to us by older ninja in the first round."
Naruto gives the girl an odd look.
"What?" she asks when she notices it.
Naruto shrugs. "I expected you to say something about how your precious Sasuke will be the only one among us who'll win or something."
Sakura looks at me. She looks guilty.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke," she says, the words seeming hard for her to admit. "But we'll be going against the best. And they'll be older; at our age that means a lot."
I stare at the girl.
I don't completely agree with her, I think I could make a good showing in the exams if I set my mind to it, I think we all could, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be offended because she made what she feels is an honest assessment of our capabilities.
Who does she think I am, Naruto?
I turn to Kakashi.
"Why did you sign us up for the exams?" I ask.
We've been genin for one week. One week, for fuck's sake. We've only been on one mission. And while I'm aware that the twenty mission rule to be eligible for chūnin promotion doesn't apply to those of us on the Mentorship Program (hence why it has a moniker like 'the fast track' in the first place), it's still too soon.
Now, I know my team isn't weak. I know we're skilled and talented and strong for our age. But that's just it, we're strong for our age.
Everyone who will be in that exam will also be skilled and talented and strong for their age, but unlike us, they will be at least a year older, and like Sakura said, at our age in the earlier stages of puberty where a ninja's growth rate is at its fastest, a year matters. It matters a lot.
Not to mention, the chūnin exams are dangerous; contestants die.
This is not a place for people to go and see what they're made of; it is a place for people who already know what they're made of.
Signing us up for the exams, and without informing us no less, is remarkably irresponsible.
I expected better of Kakashi.
After my question, Kakashi stares at me for several seconds quietly.
Finally, he says; "As you all know The Chūnin Exams is a tournament; thirty-two contestants fighting it out over ten days."
"How does this answer my question?" I begin to ask, but Kakashi holds up a finger and stops me.
"Do you know the last time fresh genin like yourselves made it into the last eight?" our sensei asks.
My teammates try to remember. I don't bother. The Chūnin Exams were started a year after The Third War, and there have been fourteen so far, this being the fifteenth. And while I could remember the names of some of the winners, I know there's no way I'll remember much more than that.
My teammates seem to realize this too, because they give up.
Sakura, naturally, still can't help but make an attempt, so she asks; "Never?"
"Exactly," Kakashi says. "Never. By the time of the exams you will only have been genin for less than a month; no one in your position has ever made it past the second round."
"And you think we can be the first," Sakura says, realization of what Kakashi is leading towards dawning on her like it is on me and, I imagine, Naruto.
"Wait," Naruto says, "is this about that sannin thing you talked about?"
"Wait, what?" Sakura asks, mirroring my thoughts.
Kakashi smiles. "Yup," he says.
Naruto's eyes grow. "We need to introduce ourselves to the world in a big way, and you want us to do that by kicking butt in The Chūnin Exams." The boy cackles. "That's brilliant."
He's right. It is.
"You're welcome," Kakashi says magnanimously.
"Wait," Sakura says again, "you were serious about the sannin thing?"
"Of course I was serious," Kakashi says, sounding mystified. "Why would I joke about that?"
Sakura splutters for several seconds before finally getting herself under control.
"Okay," she says, "even if that's your plan, how are we supposed to make it that far in the competition? We're still outclassed."
"I'll give you trump cards," Kakashi says. "Jutsu powerful enough to give you an advantage even against stronger opponents."
So that's the plan.
In a way I'm disappointed in myself for not seeing it.
"You're gonna teach us cool jutsu?" Naruto asks excitedly. "Awesome!"
"That's why you agreed to teach me The Chameleon Jutsu," Sakura says in realization.
"No," Kakashi corrects, "I agreed to teach you that because you asked me to teach you. I have something else planned for you."
"What are you gonna teach me, sensei?" Naruto asks, excitedly grabbing onto Kakashi's trouser leg. "Please say Wind Scythe Storm. Please say Wind Scythe Storm."
Kakashi sighs. "Fine, Naruto, I'll teach you the Wind Scythe Storm."
"Really?"
"Yes, really; you have the chakra to waste on it anyway. Now let go of me."
"Nuh uh," the boy says and hugs Kakashi. "I'm really happy."
Kakashi lets out an even longer sigh.
"What about me, sensei?" Sakura asks. "What will you teach me?"
"Well, we need something you can master quickly," Kakashi says, patting Naruto on the head, "so it can't be too technical to use. It also needs to be powerful but not wasteful. In the end, the only thing I could come up with was the rasengan."
My surprise at that news is as evident as Sakura's. Even Naruto pulls back from Kakashi.
"The Fourth Hokage's jutsu?" the blonde asks.
Kakashi nods.
"That's a very chakra intensive jutsu," I point out. I honestly can't see Sakura, as she is right now, using that jutsu more than once or twice.
And, accelerated growth rate or not, two weeks is nowhere near enough time to appreciably improve one's chakra reserves.
"He's right," Sakura says.
In lieu of a verbal response, Kakashi simply holds out his right hand palm up.
A ball of glowing, blue chakra appears above it, then, with a whine like a jet turbine, it begins to spin.
Faster and faster the ball of chakra above Kakashi's hand spins, until it begins to generate enough wind to rustle our clothes.
Then, as quickly as it sped up, it slows, and eventually stops. Then the ball of chakra settles onto Kakashi's palm and sinks into it.
"The same thing you did with your shadow clones," Sakura says.
Kakashi nods. "It shouldn't be too hard for you to learn," he says, "and then you can use the rasengan as many times as you want without worrying about cost."
Sakura swallows, then looks down at her own hand, likely picturing what the rasengan would look like spinning over it.
"So," I say, drawing attention to me, "we're doing this? Entering The Chūnin Exams?"
My teammates stare at me, then at each other.
"I guess we are," Sakura says.
"Yes!" Naruto shouts. "We're gonna be Sannin."
