The next morning, Kobaru awoke early, the disappointment of the previous day weighing heavily against his chest.
Willing his chunin selection to materialize had taken up a significant portion of his night. Nohara-sensei would acknowledge a foolish mistake and he would awaken to a dream.
Sadly, not even his subconscious was able to give him the solace he so desperately needed.
Rather than that, it chose to evoke traumatizing nightmares. Horrid ones that worked even when the boy was at rest, to maintain his mind in a state of panic.
He hated his brain as much as he loved it.
He was at the east gate thirty minutes ahead of schedule. His duffle bag, filled to the brim with supplies he thought would last for two weeks.
The reserve genin appeared a minute later.
It was one the girls.
Considering that he had little reference for actual girls of his age. He subconsciously began comparing her to Nagisa.
From the look of things, she was nicer—she had at least gone through the trouble of greeting him. Oddly, he discovered that he was partially reacting against his own will.
The blonde pigtails that stuck out to the side of her head were most likely the cause. Or the most brilliant amber eyes Kobaru had ever seen, paired with a beaming smile that crowned her chin.
In an attempt to avoid coming across as bashful, he developed an interest in his feet. An act that would almost certainly always leave him looking nervous.
He wanted to part in engaging conversation for several reasons. A minor one being that he had not taken the time to learn her name and asking now would do him no good. Yet the most important of any excuse he could find was that she was pretty.
Which begged the question.
How on earth has he been able to ignore everyone else at the reserves?
Before he could answer that, the four chunin assigned arrived precisely at the contracted time. Kobaru was happy with how accurate they had been thus far.
So, he had taken a quick liking to them.
That was until one of the girls noticed that him and the bag he was carrying were roughly the same size. She then gestured to the other girls in the group, who immediately joined her in their unappreciated obeisance.
"Look at his eyes, he's like a little kitten."
Kobaru waved for the other genin to come help, but they chose to focus their energies somewhere else.
This genin, whom he hardly knew, had turned him into an enemy.
"He's got a little ponytail."
One put up his hair for inspection while they cooed at one another.
sigh was heard from behind the trio of girls. The only other person who seemed to be aware of Kobaru's unease was a man.
"Can we just sign out already. I'd like to get to the outpost on time."
A barrage of scowls and boos turned this upside down; he met the reception unfazed.
They turned away from Kobaru and began walking away.
"You're no fun," the first girl to spot Kobaru took the lead of the group walking them towards the gatekeeper' booth.
He kept far enough distance from the group to prevent them from resuming, but still staying close to them. Without revealing it to them directly, Kobaru tried inadvertently to show them that he was capable.
Being looked down upon was the last thing he needed at this moment. Although they deemed him worthy of chunin rank, he was one of the best genin at the reserves and would stop at nothing to prove it.
This implied doing his share—and, if allowed the option, a little bit more.
After having their bags checked they were off to their destination.
Kobaru had hoped that this outpost was different than the last. They could probably make things interesting, given that he was rounded up with real chunin this time around.
Maybe they'd be able to maintain an air of seriousness.
"So, how many reserve genin are heading to the hidden cloud?"
One of the higher ranked shinobi decided to ask the two newbies as they jumped from tree to tree.
Kobaru shot a glance at his fellow genin, who seemed to be more concerned with keeping up, than the question.
He turned back to the older girl keeping his features neutral as he responded, "six."
The girl studied his expression before giving him a small smile, "you think it's bullshit."
The realization that Kobaru's veil was easily lifted brought a frown to his face.
She giggled to herself.
"Yes it was that obvious."
They continued in silence for awhile before his curiosity lead to him breaking it.
"You guys are chunin right?"
She nodded her affirmative.
Kobaru thought for awhile trying to articulate a statement that didn't seem like a big ask.
"How long did it take you to become one?"
The chunin smirked, "I was a genin for about three years before I passed the exam."
That length of time shocked Kobaru to no end. He'd be upset with himself if he took that long to get a new title. Yet here she was smiling and enjoying life after such a set back.
"It took me a year and a half to actually get recommended," she delved further into the details of her promotion, "then another year and a half to actually get the flak jacket."
It appeared that one of the girls at the front was interested in the conversation because she chose to step back a little and join in.
"That serious guy running ahead of us," she pointed while maintaining her stride, "I think he has the most exam fails in village history."
The first girl nodded in agreement then called out, "Ryunosuke how many times did you fail the exam again?"
The man looked back then joined them at the rear, a slight look of annoyance on his face. Ultimately he decided that answering would be in his best interest.
"More times than I have fingers and toes," he replied looking at his open palms, "to this day I still haven't. I actually got by on a field promotion."
Kobaru recoiled some more.
He was surrounded by the extreme exceptions.
"How hard is the exam?" Kobaru asked his shock quickly melting into wonder.
"Not that hard honestly." Ryunosuke asserted, despite having only mentioned that he had failed more than twenty times.
The first girl chuckled at that, "the whole chunin examination thing is just a front. I've personally seen someone win the festival but because of how it's graded fail promotion."
It seemed that the look on Kobaru's face seemed to twist without conscious thought, because the chunin began laughing at him.
That he acknowledged as a justified response.
He did not want to try to establish rank requirements for the ensuing five years. Yes, he was blessed with time and a tenacious mind-set, but such delays would prevent him from receiving approval for the more complex techniques.
"So..." Kobaru snuck to the centre of the group his voice caught in a whisper, "are there any secrets that you guys can share?"
The group burst out laughing again at this question, making Kobaru wonder if he should have asked in the first place. When they went on much longer than he had expected, this wonder eventually turned into extreme embarrassment.
The moment reached its crescendo, when one of the girls had to backtrack in order to regain her bearings. They laughed even harder as a result.
Luckily, one of them glanced up at his face and motioned for the others to calm down.
"Sorry kid but Konoha ain't raise no snitch."
This sparked off a string of more chuckles that appeared to be the last of their outburst.
"Don't be in a hurry to rank up," the more talkative of the two girls placed a hand on his shoulder, "being chunin gives you a bit of freedom, but it comes with responsibility that someone your age would be better without."
Kobaru shot her a bemused look which she snorted at, then ran off ahead of the group. Leaving the young boy to glare daggers at her back.
"Kid trust us," the second girl added with what Kobaru assumed to be a comforting smile, "if your sensei didn't select you it's because you need a bit more work. Just keep your head up and hopefully you'll get chosen later on this year. Okay?"
"Okay," he sighed seeing that he had no choice but to agree.
"Great now keep up."
XXX
Pure immobilizing shock.
Those would be Chusei's preferred words to express the emotion he was experiencing.
It was common to feel confused, and surprise seemed too positive. These words however stood head and shoulders above the rest. As he had spent the entire night and early morning drifting through consciousness.
He was naturally excited about his selection, but in the end, he thought he would get promoted along with his friends.
From the time of the announcement, he could already sense the amount of effort he would have to put in. When he realized his cell would not be present, the struggle became multiplied.
He was chastised for arriving at the factory a few minutes later than scheduled. Imagine his surprise when he realized that two other jonin had taken Nohara-sensei's place.
They informed him that Nohara-sensei was, for all intents and purposes currently on vocational leave. With these random individuals more or less taking up the responsibility of official escort.
They would go over The Land of Lightning's social norms with the genin for about a week. In hopes that the teens didn't accidentally offend the locals. Given that during his academy days Chusei would use the geography period as nap time. He held his tongue and decided to pay attention.
That was his goal at least.
It took him all of three minutes to find a suitable distraction.
The new focus of his interest, the temp genin.
The boy's name was too lengthy for Chusei to remember, so he had forgotten it. However he could perfectly recall two things about him.
That the kid was armed from head to toe and he hated Kumo-nin.
Which left him confused as to how the boy would operate once there.
He caught sight of Chusei's staring and shot the older boy a nod.
They hadn't started the exam yet but Chusei could tell the gods had no plans to make it easy.
Seeing his reserve genin, he used this as an opportunity to further divert his attention by taking a quick head count.
In addition, there were two other boys and two girls. He had worked closely with each of them for the past month, learning their strengths and weaknesses. Whatever the combination, he could see himself benefiting from his journey north.
Sure they weren't as skilled as Kobaru and Nagisa, they were all specialists in their own right. To add to that, they were also far more receptive to instructions.
A small amount of conceit accompanied those two's early learning curve advantage. Kobaru preferred to fail first before asking for help, and Nagisa frequently needed to be informed twice before receiving assistance. They had even more traits that left him confused more than he would like to admit.
He could confirm that they were challenging to work with even as their friend.
Oh.
There it was.
Chusei had pondered the reasons behind their rejection for an ungodly long time. He thought he could see the situation from several angles. He went through all of the possible exceptions and gave justifications for each party. And yet the obvious simple answer proved to be the right one.
During the last month of on site training, the six genin here were the ones that seemed more workable.
Though Nagisa was efficient in the three basics, she also thrived more when she worked alone. Kobaru seemed to be great at both Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, but he admitted to being piss poor at identifying illusions. With the young boy finding it far easier to create a technique to deflect them altogether.
They needed to be at the minimum requirement as well as capable of working with any team.
Chusei sighed to himself, believing that he had just discovered the key to his group's future success. A pity he was a day too late.
Hopefully they were smart enough to figure it out themselves.