Our team left for Iwagakure with five others that would be taking the Chunin Exams. We were by far the youngest team in the group with the next youngest being fifteen and sixteen year olds.
Misa and I were both eleven and Kenji was still twelve because he had a late birthday. He'd actually turn thirteen during the exams themselves.
The journey was uneventful. Aside from small talk about food, the road and what to possibly expect from the Exams, we didn't really interact with the other Konoha teams we traveled with all that much.
Their jonin sensei seemed to have an issue with Ren for some reason, and their students followed their jonin's lead and avoided us. Maybe they knew that he was a root agent? But then again there was no reason to hate him unless they knew about the ill deeds of Root which I am sure that they did not know or Danzo might have left them alive.
I didn't recognize any of them, either the jonin or the genin, from the anime, so I often pondered whether or not they lived to see canon and if some of them would die in the Exams we were headed towards now.
None of them were from clans either, at least none of the major ones. It was no secret that Iwa and Konoha didn't have the best relationship.
There was still a lot of bad blood left over from them invading us and Minato eradicating their entire advance force on his own, so the other clan kids had likely stayed behind for this Exam.
I was sure that Shikaku had also protested about me being part of the exams. The same was true for Misa by the Hyuga clan. She was a main branch after all. But it seems that their opinion did not matter much. And considering that Shikaku was the jonin commander and Hiashis was the leader of one of the strongest clan, it meant whoever overruled them was quite politically strong.
I didn't like heading into openly hostile territory to take the Exams, but I was pretty sure Danzo was to blame, which meant there wasn't much I could do in the way of refusing.
Ren had prepared us as best he could in the time available to him, and we'd given it our all. That was all we could do.
We passed through several check points on the way to Iwagakure, presenting documents and stating our business.
At each stop, the Iwa shinobi on duty glared at us with one kunoichi even going so far as to spit on the ground. Her superior openly punished her in front of us, but the message was received. They didn't want us here any more than I wanted to be here.
The village itself was horrifying. Not in the aesthetic sense. No, I actually thought the way it melded with the mountains of stone all around was rather beautiful.
It was horrifying in the sense that I never wanted to have to fight here. If I was ordered to attack this place, I would be going up against some of the greatest natural barriers around, guarded by a force of magic assassins capable of manipulating those natural barriers however they chose.
I had no doubts that we were completely at their mercy here. The only thing keeping us from ending up dead before the Exams started was the universal ceasefire treaty that I knew for a fact would be violated in the future. That didn't fill me with confidence for its effectiveness in the present.
After we presented our paperwork and identification to the guards at the front gate – there were many scoffs and eager grins as the Iwa nin saw how young we were – we were given accommodations in a single room at a nearby hotel and handed an itinerary that showed the times for each stage of the Chunin Exams.
For the duration of the Exams, we would be Team 3. The number meant nothing detrimental. It was just that we were the third team to sign up for the Exams, so it was easy to bookkeep us that way.
The other Konoha teams were sent to different hotels entirely. Ren quieted my concerns about them splitting us up to ambush us by saying they were splitting us up so we didn't try anything and that Konoha did the same whenever we hosted the Exams.
Like when Naruto went through, there would be three stages with the third being a tournament so the Daimyo could watch ninja kill each other. The first two stages were secret. We'd learn what they were when we arrived at them.
Our team decided to make straight for the hotel. Ren had been on his guard the entire time we'd been in Iwa territory, and we were attracting a lot of looks.
Misa especially seemed to be a point of interest. We passed few other genin teams on the way to our hotel, but one Kumo team seemed absolutely fixated on Misa. None of us liked that.
"I want you three to stay together at all times during the exam." Ren ordered us when we were safely in our hotel room. There was a single bed, a table with no chairs and an attached bathroom with just a toilet and a shower. The accommodations sucked, but we'd been sleeping on the road during our journey, so we'd make do.
"We will, sensei." Kenji said. He was the most serious I'd ever seen him. I'd thought the stares and open dislike towards us would have made him nervous, but it seemed to have done the opposite and hardened him for the coming Exams.
Ren nodded sharply. "Good. You three all get some sleep. I'm going to stay up and keep an eye out. I don't think anyone will try anything, but it's better to side with caution in this case."
---------Author Notes--------
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