Ch251- The First Exam
Zabuza woke up annoyed and in a room stuffed with four others. He expected a lot more from one of the great hidden villages but there was no one to complain to, Ao certainly wouldn’t listen.
Sat up in his futon he yawned and stretched his toes till an odd few popped. Utakata snored next to him, his duvet and legs splayed about like he’d fought someone in his dreams. He moaned, turned over and kicked his leg over to Mangetsu’s empty futon.
Of course he’s up already. Zabuza thought, he was still too sleepy to feel competitive but he was waking up with every second that passed. He sniffed and got out of the futon, eyes set on the bathroom. They’d only been in the village a night and the first of the exams was due tomorrow, today would be the only time they had to see the Sand Village.
And yet everyone’s still asleep. He didn’t know about the girls, their room was on some other corridor somewhere but Utakata, Tamura, and Yaga were deep in sleep, each of them having said something about sleeping till they’re Chuunin. The only one that wasn’t here was Maita and for good reason too— he was rich enough to afford his own room and Ao strongly suggested either he or Mangetsu do so.
Zabuza kept his movements light as he crossed over the bodies of his teammates and subordinates to get to the bathroom. As he reached for the handle it swung open and Mangetsu walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist, hair slick with water.
“All yours.” he said, walking past without a glance.
Irritation welled up in Zabuza’s throat but it was different, and had been for some time since their journey began. He grumbled nonsense under his breath and shut the door behind him just as Yaga and Utakata stirred awake.
He carried the thought with him into the shower as he got the water running and stripped. Maybe it was the time they’ve been forced to spend together, so far it’d been the longest any of them have been on a mission together in team 3’s history. It didn’t do either of them any good to let their rivalry get in the way of how they functioned. It also didn’t help that team 3 was charged as leaders of the rest of team Kirigakure— dysfunction isn’t a look either of them wanted to present or be the cause of.
I guess it also helps that there's a greater source of dysfunction in Maita. Zabuza thought as he quickly lathered up. Today was the first and last break they’d have before the exams ended and he’d promised Utakata his company while he went sightseeing.
They’d arrived at night and in the cover of darkness and sand the village was truly well hidden. Its single entrance left little to be imagined about their security and their walls were as high as the valley the village was clefted into, but at the time of their arrival few of them were interested in its geography or its infrastructure.
Even with Pakura guiding them, they had to wait nearly an hour at the gates before it got to their turn to fill paperwork and sign waivers. By the time Pakura dropped them off at the designated accommodations, a place to shower properly and a bed to lay on was all anyone cared about, especially the girls.
Someone came wrapping at the door. “I need to get in there.”
Zabuza didn’t miss the urgency in Tamura’s usually calm voice. “Go somewhere else!”
There was silence for a moment and Zabuza went on cleaning up. Then another knock came. He was about to sling curses at Tamura when Ao’s voice boomed through, “Team Kirigakure, you have one hour to assemble at the rooftop.”
The door slammed shut immediately after those startling words and Zabuza went to town scrubbing, rinsing and brushing. In a few minutes he stepped out and let Tamura in, the Poison Mist shinobi was standing in wait, shirtless but notably still wearing his gas mask.
In under thirty minutes Tamura, Utakata and Yaga were done washing up. They headed up to the rooftop immediately Yaga was dressed, there they met the girls and Maita but no sign of Ao.
With twenty minutes on the clock the team shuffled around each other. Akane and Haruka checked in with Yaga before poking around Tamura for something and Maita stood far at the edge of the roof, occasionally responding to his team’s deadweight kunoichi but more often tossing heated glances at Mangetsu.
Including the rooftop, the building was at most three stories high but even then it hardly felt like it. It provided just enough of a vantage point to overview the village full of similarly oval shaped buildings. Electric lines ran along the top of many roofs, nearly all of those had rounded tops with no barriers stopping a fall. Still, it was windy up here and the hotel’s height offered a high enough view to satisfy Utakata briefly.
The Jinchuriki stared out with a wide grin on his face, finger pointing here and there. Akane joined him, equally fascinated by the Sand Village. “I don’t know why but I really thought there would be more sand.” she laughed.
Zabuza rolled his eyes but didn’t turn back to look at either of them as he said, “It’s one of the great hidden villages, by your logic we live in the sea and Konoha builds homes in trees.”
“Zabuza…” Utakata started.
“What?” Zabuza turned to them, shoulders raised in a shrug. “I’m just saying.”
Akane rolled her eyes and surprisingly smiled at Zabuza. “It’s fine, Utakata, he’s just upset that I and Haruka had to save his life from sand bandits.” she stuck out her tongue.
Nostrils flaring Zabuza started walking up to her, “I had that handled, you two just capitalized on the—”
“Team Kirigakure!” Ao yelled, suddenly at the centre of the rooftop, standing like he’d always been there with his hands behind his back.
Akane’s smirk only grew as she and the rest of the team quit socializing and quickly assembled around Ao. Stern faced, he revealed a scroll from behind his back and started addressing the team as he unfurled it.
“Mizukage-sama briefed us all before we left but for the sake of those who have forgotten or simply weren’t paying attention.” Zabuza felt his single-eyed gaze fall on him. “I will go over the single advantage we’ve scored over the other teams.”
Ears hot with embarrassment, Zabuza listened closely this time. The Mizukage had somehow acquired intel on what the first exam will be. Utakata mentioned the first exam is usually a written one, something to test the knowledge of the aspiring Chuunin. For someone like Zabuza a written exam could be a problem.
Can’t remember the last time I opened a book to study. If it wasn’t a Ninjutsu or mission scroll he couldn’t imagine himself sitting down to read or understand.
Before Ao started reading off the scroll he formed a one-handed seal. Chakra surged and the veins around his eye-patched bulged. He stayed still and silent for a moment before the veins receded.
“The first exam will be a written test, you will be asked to evaluate the viability of a mission based on scattered information reported by your ‘subordinates’. Mizukage-sama has secured intel on what lines of information are guaranteed to be false.” He handed Utakata the scroll to read. “You all need to memorize those lines before the exams.”
Zabuza leaned over Utakata’s shoulders for a look, he was muttering sentence after sentence as he continued to unfurl the scroll. There were at least three dozen short sentences that flagged as false information.
Utakata chuckled after a while. “I guess this is goodbye to those sightseeing plans.”
Taking a deep breath, Zabuza readied his mind for a strenuous day of study in the Sand Village.