Reborn in the Mist

“Who’s nex-”

“We are!” Zabuza roared to the front, dragging Utakata and Mangetsu along with him before any of the other teams got brave enough to answer.

Already four teams had gone in and only one wasn’t hauled out by disgruntled Suna-nin. Zabuza wasn’t anymore confident in his chances but it was obvious the exam wasn’t just about answering questions correctly— there was pressure. Pressure from the proctors and horribly from the scorching sun. The longer he or anyone stood in wait underneath it the more the pressure mounted.

Get it over with now. Pass or fail…definitely pass. He gulped as he submitted himself and Team 3 to Pakura. She raised a brow at them, eying Zabuza in particular with a subtle confusion in her eyes. “You’re rather eager. Are you two fine with this?” She asked Mangetsu and Utakata.

Utakata nodded with a huff as he straightened himself before the famed Jounin. “Yes.”

“I would have preferred to walk myself here, but yes.” Mangetsu grumbled, eying Zabuza.

“Very well, come with me.”

“Goodluck, Utakata! Mangetsu!” Haruka and Akane called out and after a thought they added. “You too Zabuza!”

He ignored them as Pakura and her assistants opened the doors up to their team. It slammed shut almost as quickly as it’d opened and before them were three dark openings yawning along a front wall.

“This way.” Pakura said, beckoning them over to the hatch stairs. She made a gesture at her assistants and they went to work sealing the opening with a large metal door that slid from the top.

He’d gotten a good enough glance at it before following Pakura underground and it supported his guesses that the proctors wouldn’t be passive forces during this exam. The final nail in the coffin was turning the corner after the stairs and finding chairs placed right outside the three chambers from upstairs.

Similar cells lined the walls, far beyond the confines of what could be seen above ground. A single bulb lit up the long corridor, illuminating clearly to Zabuza that the facility may have had more functions than a simple outpost.

A prison? He caught a dark look on his teammate’s faces and the satisfied glint in Pakura’s eye.

Mangetsu sped off checking each of the three open cells directly below the orange light. He whipped around, concern drawn on his features. His gaze carried Zabuza’s towards the proctor's set up chairs, placed on them were clipboards with score sheets. Right next to the seats were packs of water.

“Is this an oral exam?” Utakata asked.

“It seems this batch catches on early.” She said, propping her fists on her waist. “Will you give up?”

Zabuza began to answer furiously but the extra thoughtful look on his teammates' faces gave him pause. Mangetsu hustled back over to them and they turned their back to the Jounin in a team huddle.

“This changes things.” The Hozuki set it straight. Zabuza had never seen him this shaken, he swallowed thickly and added. “They can kill us at a whim, whoever they want.”

Utakata nodded direly. “I can’t die here.”

There was something cold and desperate in the Jinchuriki’s hushed voice that made Zabuza stop and take in the stakes. What if they surrender?

The implications were too real now. Chuunin or not, faced with an oral evaluation, one heavily dependent on the whims of their proctors and their ability to satisfy it. The purpose of the exam was to test their tactical knowledge with hypotheticals, something that left far too much nuance not to be constrained by a student answer sheet and multiple options.

Moreover…those cells don’t look inviting. All three teams that’d returned after surrendering were fully invaded by sand, peppered with bites and stings and were drenched in even more sweat than the teams standing in the sun. Of the four teams that’d gone before them, only one hadn’t returned before the proctors called for the next team.

Zabuza took that to mean they’d been the ones to pass and were lead out another exit. Now he was beginning to think they’d been the only ones not to surrender and they died for it.

“Stop.” He snapped at them. “The pressure is getting to us already, this is their plan, the point of the exam. Shake it off and let’s start.”

He broke the huddle before they could say anything, there was little to say anyways. They had couldn’t surrender before they tried after all and whether or not the exams were biased didn’t matter to their mission. If they failed, they’d simply stay in the village and supervise the others, albeit shamefully.

If we fail I don’t see the other passing. Zabuza thought solemnly as Team 3 presented themselves to Pakura once again. “We’re ready.”

“Pick a cell. The only voice you’ll hear is that of the proctor in front of you.” Just then her assistants made it down the stairs and picked up their clipboards. “You’ll be evaluated promptly based on your answers and there will be consequences for inadequate responses.”

Zabuza shared uneasy and possibly final looks with his teammates as he walked crouched into the cell. It was unusually small, more so once he got in and looked up to find that the ceiling was a sealed grate.

Despite what he’d seen above there was barely enough space for him to walk more than two steps in. Pakura slammed the creaking metal door shut and he immediately felt the heat trapped in the stone walls, a bare whiff of air came from the cell door’s slit.

Pakura peeked at him through it before backing away. “Mission scenario one.” she began. “You escort a merchant class client through a canyon pass in Wind Country. First scout reports state the route is secure and no rogue elements were detected within five kilometres. Do you proceed as planned?”

Zabuza’s eyes narrowed. He might not have memorized a third of the cheats the Mizukage acquired for them but he read through it all several times. Certain wording tended to stand out.

“No, that report is unreliable.” he answered, confident and ready to move on to the next. There couldn’t be more than ten hypotheticals on there and if luck was on his side this would move quickly.

Only Pakura went on to ask. “Why?”

“Uh…why? I mean…” The cheats were just phrases, sentences and declarative statements. Bits and bops of the larger scenario. He’d never tried to find the reasoning for why one phrase was false and another was insufficient, cramming that volume of random lines alone was plenty of work.

The grates that made the ceiling slit open ever so slightly, releasing a pouring of steaming sand into the cramped cell. “What? Wait, I was about to answer!” Zabuza cried as his clothes

“Mission scenario two.” Pakura said, carrying on emotionlessly. “Your target, a Rogue-nin, was sighted entering a desert town two hours ago. Reports from the last encounter state the target may possess explosive tags. The town houses over two hundred civilians, your target may be hiding among them or seeking to resupply before fleeing again. How do you proceed?”

After exactly a minute of pouring the grates snap shut. Zabuza counted as he crushed a scorpion underfoot. There were other bugs crawling through the heated sand that was reaching up on his ankles.

He didn’t recognize any phrases in the second scenario but even if he did it wouldn’t give him any more of an advantage. He played the scenario in his head, pulling the integral pieces apart.

Missing-nin. Paper bombs. Large number of civilians. The underlying question here was obvious then— aggressive pursuit or patience?

The recent past taught Zabuza the value of patience and that aggression need not apply in every situation. Still, his instincts screamed to answer with overwhelming force.

Snuffing the life from another creeping bug, Zabuza answered as formally as he could. “I would maintain surveillance on the town’s entrances, keep tabs on its most wealthy citizens and prepare for the next encounter with the target.”

Pakura was silent for a moment and Zabuza quickly took it as a good sign that the grate didn’t open up. “Mission scenario three. You are escorting nobility across Wind Country when your rear guard reports a group of shinobi trailing your convoy from a distance. The client insists on continuing at full speed. How do you proceed?”

This one sounded easy but the involvement of a noble client muddles things quite a bit. They might be civilian and weak but they were the backbone of power across the world, their wishes were difficult to ignore, even for Kages.

At the same time, their elevated importance would very well be the reason shinobi would trail the team. Zabuza turned the tables in his head— If I were hunting a noble convoy I wouldn’t approach from a single, noticeable direction.

The rear guard was an obvious point for ambush. If he chose to confront their pursuers he might well be falling into an ambush on multiple sides. He hummed, deep in thought and considered going ahead with the noble’s insistence— chances are they knew who their enemies were and the best way to deal with them in the short term. Evading an encounter would bring the mission to completion faster but if evasion wasn’t possible…

“I would alter—” the grate cracked open above, releasing sand at an even faster rate than before. Zabuza gritted his teeth in anger but didn’t protest and continued answering even as heated granules rolled down his neck and down his shirt. “I would alter the path. Create a diversion, if the enemy falls for it I’d have gained valuable intel on their capabilities and numbers.”

“Gained valuable intel…how?” Pakura pressed.

Zabuza chewed his lip as he counted thirty seconds of filling sand. His foot was fully submerged and it felt like it was being baked.

Wracking his brain for an answer he spurted out, “By my own power! Infiltration and concealment are skills I have honed.”

After another thirty seconds the grates were still pouring sand and Pakura’s impassive voice came through the crack . “Mission scenario four.”

Shit.