Within just a few hours, the messenger hawk carrying the intel flew back from the Land of Rain to Konoha. The intel department swiftly delivered the scroll to the Third Hokage's desk.
At this point, the Third Hokage had already changed into his sleeping robe, ready to finally rest. He had been so swamped with work that he didn't even bother going home and was preparing to spend the night at the office.
But, of course, before he could even lie down, more work showed up.
"Hokage-sama, this is a report from Lady Tsunade, sent from the camp in the Land of Rain," said the shinobi delivering the message.
"Thank you," the Third Hokage nodded and opened the scroll. But after just a few moments of reading, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"That damn Tsunade!" he muttered, half amused, half exasperated. "Is she serious?"
She was suggesting sending a ten-year-old kid to represent the village in peace negotiations. If that wasn't ridiculous, what was? And to make matters worse, Tsunade herself was being incredibly stubborn. If Takuya didn't help out, she outright refused to go to the talks. She even said, "Whoever wants to go can go. I'm not dealing with it."
Rubbing his temples to soothe his growing headache, the Third Hokage pulled out Takuya's file, reviewing all the boy's accomplishments and the records of his contributions in the field.
After a careful review, the Hokage let out a sigh of relief. Takuya's record and achievements were more than enough to justify promoting him to jonin. Making him take the jonin exam wasn't exactly against the rules. Even the council members, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, wouldn't be able to argue with this.
The negotiations couldn't be delayed any longer. After all, Konoha was still fighting with the Sand Village over in the Land of Rivers. Resolving the situation with the Land of Rain as quickly as possible was vital if they wanted to free up resources to deal with the Sand.
"Send word to Yagami Takuya first thing in the morning," the Hokage instructed. "Tell him to prepare for his personal jonin exam."
"Understood, Hokage-sama," the ANBU ninja acknowledged before disappearing.
With that, the Hokage put away the files and scrolls, finally feeling like he could relax and get some rest.
"What?"
The next morning, Takuya was barely awake when he found an ANBU ninja standing outside his door. He opened the door, still groggy, and the ninja got straight to the point.
"Yagami Takuya, please proceed to the testing grounds immediately to participate in your personal jonin exam."
Without waiting for a response, the ANBU vanished, leaving Takuya standing there in utter confusion.
"Jonin exam? I didn't sign up for this!" Takuya muttered, dumbfounded. And it was a personal exam, no less.
He could understand the chunin and special jonin exams being somewhat flexible, but the jonin exam? That was a whole different story. Whether in times of peace or war, the jonin exam was notorious for being the most rigorous and difficult.
Because so few shinobi applied for the jonin test, it was rarely held, and when it was, the exam was always kept secret. There were no shortcuts, no leniency. And this test would be just as challenging as any of the regular group exams.
Takuya scratched his head, still trying to make sense of the situation. "I didn't sign up for this test... so why is this happening?"
Was it April Fools' Day? Did the ANBU decide to play a prank on him or something?
"Dammit!" he cursed, realizing that no, this was no prank. It was real.
After swearing under his breath, Takuya hurriedly got dressed and sprinted toward the testing grounds.
When he arrived, the area was almost completely deserted. Only two ANBU members stood there, waiting for him. One of them gave him a brief nod.
"If you're ready, the exam can begin right away."
"Ready? I didn't even get a chance to prepare!" Takuya thought, rolling his eyes. He couldn't help but ask, "Who signed me up for this exam?"
"This was a direct order from the Hokage," one of the ANBU replied curtly. "Please take your seat in the exam room."
Takuya let out a long, frustrated sigh. "Of course, it's the Third Hokage again. What's he playing at this time?"
The old man had already pushed him into the chunin exam without warning. And now this? There wasn't even an option for special jonin—it seemed like they were skipping that step entirely. So here he was, sitting alone in the exam room, with only the ANBU as proctors.
The test papers were handed to him.
Takuya scanned the questions. They weren't as hard as he feared. With a shrug, he picked up his pen and started answering.
After he finished and handed in his exam, one of the ANBU members spoke up.
"Your test will be sent to the Hokage's office for grading. Please wait here in the meantime."
Takuya leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the desk. "Great. Like I've got a choice."
The ANBU didn't seem to care about his laid-back attitude. They were used to it. Talented ninja with strong abilities often had personalities to match. In fact, compared to some others, Takuya was still pretty polite.
Elsewhere, in the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage reviewed Takuya's exam. Most of the answers were spot-on. But when he reached the section on the "Will of Fire," the Hokage found himself shaking his head. Takuya's response was a total mess.
Still, after deducting a few points for that, the boy had passed the written exam with a decent score.
"He still needs to learn about the Will of Fire," the Hokage thought, sighing. "I'll have to ask Tsunade or maybe Jiraiya to give him some lessons on that."
"Pass him," the Hokage said to the ANBU delivering the test. "Tell him to proceed to the intelligence-gathering portion of the exam."
As expected, Takuya passed the written test with no issues. As for the whole "Will of Fire" nonsense, Takuya didn't really understand or care about it. He just wrote whatever came to mind.
But at least it didn't affect his overall score. He passed, and that's all that mattered. As for whether the Hokage had any thoughts about his response... Takuya couldn't care less.
"Yagami Takuya," an ANBU member called out, "you passed the theory exam. Next, we'll proceed to the intelligence-gathering exam. Please follow us to the Forest of Death."
Yes, even the jonin exam involved the infamous Forest of Death, but unlike the chunin exams, this wasn't about fighting. The focus here was gathering intel.
Once they arrived at the forest, the ANBU explained the task.
"Within the Forest of Death, we've hidden eleven intel scrolls in various locations. Your mission is to locate at least seven of these scrolls based on clues left at staged battle scenes. If you can find seven or more, you pass."
The ANBU glanced at the small white fox perched on Takuya's shoulder.
"You may use summoning animals to assist in gathering intel."
After all, summoning creatures were considered part of a ninja's skillset, and there was no rule against using them during the test.
Gathering scrolls? Takuya thought. This is practically a freebie.
Finding the first staged battle scene, Takuya turned to his summoning fox, Snowy. "Sniff out the scent and start searching."
"Right away, Master," Snowy replied, hopping down from Takuya's shoulder. After catching a whiff of the lingering scents, the little fox darted off into the woods, with Takuya following close behind.
Snowy led Takuya around the traps and directly to the hidden scrolls.
The ANBU overseeing the test exchanged puzzled looks.
"Is this even difficult?" one of them muttered.
Takuya wasn't cheating. Using his summoning animal was completely allowed. Still, it almost felt like cheating with how quickly Snowy found the scrolls.
***********
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