(1st of July, year 55 AK)
As soon as Yuta completed copying the answers, he carefully dispelled the genjutsu. The person he was targeting didn't notice anything from start to finish.
'Well then, less than ten minutes left. Let's check on Hikari, it would be problematic if she fails, also it would be nice to have her owing me one.'
Yuta controlled the sound of his voice so it would travel in a specific way and only Hikari would hear him, then he glanced back in her direction and covered his mouth with his hand, "Hey, need help?" He said with a bit of superiority in his tone.
Hikari just briefly glanced back at him and turned away from him immediately, ignoring him demonstratively.
'Well, it seems that she's got it.' Yuta thought as he turned back and patiently waited for the exam to be over.
Soon the hour that the proctor gave them ran out, and everyone submitted their sheets. Yosuke Yamanaka and his helpers were quickly checking the sheets on the spot and after ten minutes, Yosuke finished and read the five names who scored zero, so another fifteen participants were eliminated.
Then he read another two dozen names of those that scored the least, and this time almost half of the participants were eliminated from the exam.
Only about eighty people were left in the room in the end from about one hundred fifty in total. Yuta and his teammates obviously still remained in the room.
"Everyone who are still here – passed." Yosuke declared in a harsh tone that didn't have even a tinge of praise or warmth in it, "Now follow me, the second phase of the Chunin Exams will start shortly."
As Yosuke led a group of about eighty people thought the streets of Konoha, the six people that had answers from before – all quietly left the group without many people noticing. Yuta noticed that only a while ago, then he remembered that in the original story there were fake participants with answers, so participants will have targets for their intelligence gathering.
As Yuta proceeds walking through the road that led to the outskirts of the village, he thought, 'As I expected, the second part will be similar, this is the way to the training grounds with restricted access number 44, the biggest training grounds in the village, placed on the outskirts, also known as the Forest of Death.'
'They aren't very creative with the exams, aren't they? Well, why change something that works, I guess... When Ibiki starts to partake in proctoring the first phase of the exam, he would change and improve it quite a bit with his final tenth question, but is it even necessary?' Yuta casually thought as he walked beside Itachi and Hikari while following Yosuke.
'The whole point of it is to test ninja's skills in gathering intel while being put in a tense and difficult situation. It also tests the ability of figuring out what is going on, after all it wasn't just a written test, and it was expected for us to cheat in the first place. Ninjas don't have to be knowledgeable in all that advanced academical stuff, after all.'
'And Ibiki's final tenth question is just another test, psychological one. If I remember correctly, he gave two options, the first one is to leave and try another time, and the second is to stay and try to answer the tenth question, but if you fail, you will be banned from all future exams permanently. It tests the resolve and the ability to follow through no matter the risk. Quite a nasty psychological test indeed. No wonder Ibiki was called the master of psychological torture...'
Soon they arrived in front of the fence that was enclosing the whole training grounds 44 along its perimeter. Another middle-aged Leaf ninja showed up, thanked Yosuke for bringing the participants, introduced himself as the proctor of the second phase of the Chunin Exams and told them about the rules.
It was similar to what Yuta remembered from the original story, each team will receive a scroll at random, there is two types, Heaven and Earth, each team needs both to proceed and supposed to enter the tower in the middle of the forest in the span of five days with both scrolls. Fighting is allowed, everything goes. Each team starts at a different entrance to the forest. Five days is the limit. And there was no consent forms like in the original story, and the possibility of dying was heavily implied even without it.
'Nothing really new here, huh... There is no Anko Mitarashi, just some dude instead, sadly... Anko must be about seventeen right now, I thought maybe she is already conducting these exams, but it seems not...' Yuta thought absentmindedly.
Soon enough their team received their scroll, it was Heaven, and Itachi received it without even a thought of hiding it from other teams. He openly holds it in his hand as he walked back and only then he put it away into his pouch. Yuta noticed that many participants were vigilantly watching who received which scroll, while trying to hide their own scrolls from the prying eyes of others.
Then Yuta glanced at Itachi who just unintentionally showed their Heaven scroll to the whole crowd with indifference. Yuta thought nothing of it. He even thought that it would be easier now to find other participants to take their scrolls, since they will be delivering themselves to Yuta's group voluntarily now, or so he thought. Hikari only silently smirked, seeing that.
Soon their team were led to the remote entry point some distance away, and after a bit more time they were allowed to enter the forest.
Without communicating, the three of them start running at a steady but unhurried pace in the direction of the center of the forest.
The forest quickly darkened their view, the trees were vast and covering the sun almost completely. There were some giant leeches and other huge insects that they had to spot and avoid all the time, and going through this forest was quite an annoying experience for Yuta, but nothing too difficult.
And as Yuta already predicted, after just ten minutes he felt some chakra signatures on the edge of his chakra senses that was quickly approaching them. By now Yuta's chakra sensitivity was about two hundred meters, so it was already too late to hide and avoid the approaching group since they were moving fast.
Yuta only had time to simply state, "Group of three, incoming from the left."
As Yuta and his teammates stopped, Itachi calmly said, "Yes, I sensed them a while ago. There is another group sneaking behind them too."
"The more the better." Hikari commented with a bit of excitement.
"Sigh, I doubt you'll find a worthy opponent in here..." Yuta commented as he glanced at Hikari, there was a bit of disappointment and a bit of hope mixed in his tone.
Next instant a bunch of shurikens flew from the cover of the bushes in their direction.
Yuta pulled out a kunai and easily deflected a few shurikens that were flying at him, Itachi and Hikari did the same, and as Yuta already calculating his next move to put all three of their attackers into a genjutsu, Itachi was a bit faster and already flickered into the distance.
Next moment Yuta already put his kunai back into his pouch as he felt how the three chakra sources had suddenly calmed down and Yuta understood that Itachi must've knocked them out.
Yuta sighed again as he thought about the unfairness of this exam, realizing that there won't be any interesting fights for him any time soon.
If any other participants beside his own teammates were to hear him complaining about the unfairness of this exam, they would've died from anger and would've cursed him out loud...
Everyone was genuinely struggling through this exam, having to fight against multiple other teams of similar strength, having problems with food and water supplies, and having to constantly fight against the hostile environment of this forest...
And Yuta dared to complain in his mind that the exam is "unfair" because he doesn't have any interesting opponents to fight while being hard-carried by Itachi, who was knocking down all approaching enemies before Yuta could even see them...
Yuta glanced at equally displeased Hikari by his side and said, "He said that there is second group hiding, you might still make it in time if you hurry up.". Not that Yuta was being generous by giving up on an opportunity to fight some ninjas, it was that he understood that Hikari would likely outrun him anyway, so why bother...
Hikari didn't hesitate even for a second after hearing that as she was already about to run and search for that group, as Yuta's chakra senses finally picked up that another group, and then in the next instant their chakra also suddenly slowed down and calmed.
"Nope, too late, they are out cold too already..." Yuta commented and felt a sense as if he was being robbed.
Next instant Itachi flickered to them with an Earth scroll in his hand.
'Sigh, it's not an exciting exam anymore, it's just a boring waste of time it seems...' Yuta sighed tiredly, 'He took only one scroll? How nice of him, huh...'
Yuta glared a bit resentful at Itachi, and although he didn't see it at that moment, the expression in his eyes was absolutely identical to Hikari's.
"What?" Itachi asked as he saw both of his teammates glaring at him judgingly.
"Nothing..." Yuta and Hikari replied in unison and glanced at each other.
"Well, there is still the next phase of the exam..." Yuta commented without much faith in his tone.
"Let's keep going. Other participants are weak, and we already have both scrolls, there is no point staying here." Itachi said calmly. He understood the desire of his teammates to test their skills against other ninjas, but he also understood that the current participants in this Chunin Exam was much weaker than them and that they would be only further disappointed if they were to go and look for opponents here.
And so, Itachi quickly led them further into the forest, and after about an hour later they arrived at the tower's entrance. On their way they weren't confronted by any other teams, since they were moving fast and other teams didn't reach that area yet, since everyone started from the perimeter of the forest, so the first two teams that Yuta didn't even see with his own eyes were the only enemies they've met here.
'It was... Quite underwhelming... Wasn't expecting this part of the exam to be less interesting than the written test...' Yuta thought as he was entering the tower with Itachi and Hikari, 'Well, at least I would be able to rest now, I guess, the mental exhaustion that I had accumulated in the mindscape while working on that jutsu is starting to catch up with me...'
--- AN ---
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