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Year 55 AV (After Village)
The Clouds of smoke, dust and rain had abated after the Nine tails attack. The intermingling of people and the busy merchants in the main center of the village indicated that life finds a way to move on. A special congregation of people had surrounded the area outside the newly refurbished academy.
After the Nine-Tails incident, the academy area was expanded a huge lot of land, which had been aquired some from the Uchiha Clan`s land and some of the boundaries of the Village Wall had been extended towards the tributary of Naka River flowing at the end of the Right side of Hokage face memorial mountain.
Only after a month had passed since the incident, and people had began to move on with their lives. A special excitement could be found on the people crowd due to recent announcement. The announcement gave new hope to a lot of civilian people who had been given special emergency priviliges to open chakra nodes. The air was palpable with excitement as the people finally saw hope to tackle their uselessness, which they felt during the calamity just a month prior, when the lives of people men and women, young and old were threatened. If it were not for the shinobi guards employed outside the allotted point of examination, excited parents would already have stormed inside the academy.
The parents were separated by the candidates further away. Shin along with the retinue of his friends from the orphanage namely the brother duo Akiko and Hiro as well as two new participants Yaraki and Izume made their way thorugh the density of the crowd. The process was simple really – whichever normie did not comply with a simple push from Akiko, got a Thousand Year of Death from the back by Hiro. After three or four such examples, the way forward became much less cumbersome, as no normie wanted to lose his backside on the Exam day.
It was 6 am in the morning when the gates of the main academy opened and Two Ninjas in the military uniform walked out along with the great retinue of intructors at the back.
About a Hundred Tables were set up in the open ground in front the academy and each instructor set at the table. One of the Ninjas in the lead who looked to be from the Hyuga, announced the start of the exam and the candidates to move towards the tables for registration.
The crowd immediately leapt towards the table forming lines in front of each table. If a line was crowded then the candidates moved on to the next and subsequently all of the tables were filled with atleast around 30 candidates as instructed by the announcer.
Shin headed towards the inner ground, after registering his name. He was the first one to occupy a table given his advantageous position at the start. Before going inside, he surveyed the rest of the field and found that all his friends were also near registering. He smiled and waved to them, and headed inside.
Arriving at the Testing location, he showed his tablet, he recieved from the counter to the Ninja instructor.
The Chunin smiled and gave him direction , "15th, huh, first you will have a physical test. Please head to the right"
Shin curious about the exam pattern, asked, "Um, excuse me. can you tell me how is the exam going to be conducted.", The ninjas laughed, prompting an annoyed look from Shin, "Hey, dont get ahead of yourself kid, First you need to pass the physical. A lot of the candidates will fail before even starting". Showing off his toned muscles, he said "If you dont have the muscle, you will never be a ninja anyway", He kissed his arm muscle repeatedly umm, umm and smiled.
A look of cringe appeared on Shin's face. Scowling, he replied in affirmation and headed towards the physical exam.
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"Remove your shirt", the ninja asked.
Seeing his toned body, Shuko, The chunin assigned for the physical was surprised. Shin's body showed signs of regular workouts. He approved with a nod and then asked, "Hey kid, Your name's Shin right. Did you do training before the exam?"
"Yes"
"What kind of training did you do?"
"Oh just running and lifting stones in the forest", Shin replied innocently. Shuko's eyes scanned the boy's hands, it looked too rough to be just normal training and although the boy had no discernible outward muscles like the Taijutsu ninjas, signs of the muscles had already appeared. 'Hmm, another taijutsu talent at just eight years old'.
A smile appeared on his face, seeing the boy's hardwork he approved and said, "I wont ask much about it, but it looks like you have been working out for quite a while, good good. Youngsters should be filled with energy. just like you. If you pass the exam I would introduce you to another Chunin. He is a Taijutsu specialist. I think it would be great for you".
'He is probably thinking about Guy, right. great, Now I dont have to approach the future Youth Kage on my own. I'll have an in', Shin thanked Shuko for his praise and then moved towards the next location.
There were already eight kids sitting on the ground. Shin looked at each of them, recognizing each of them by their clothes. All of them seem to be from the clans. There were two Uchihas currently staring daggers at the instructor doing the physical, each of their legs moving as if reaching the heights of patience, a senju girl twirling her hair in a circle over and over again, lost in her own thoughts.
The Hyuga kid was calmly practicing his punches while sitting, looked to be an oddball. Another boy from the Nara clan, which Shin recognized immediately due to his bored and carefree behaviour. He was looking at the clouds as if wanted to immerse himself in the view and nothing else interested him.
Another kid wearing the Sarutobi clan garb looked to be practicing jutsu signs with extreme focus. He looked to be the most normal of the bunch.
The Kid from the Inuzuka was currently preaching loudly about dog supremacy towards the miniscule crowd who wasnt listening anyway while simultaneosuly ignoring another clan member who had a cat in her arms and looked to be ready to attack the hate preacher.
Shin gave a cursory glance to the group and sat beside the Sarutobi brat who looked to be the most normal. 'Hmm. Good.. He is practising hard'.
As he sat on the the ground beside the Sarutobi kid, he heard soft muttering... "Fire style: Mountain killing Flame.. No.noo. Fire Style: Ocean extinguishing Fire of the Moon, noo it needs to be more flashy, Fire Style Heaven and Earth Destruction".
Shin silently moved away from the Chunni brat, avoiding it as if running away from a contagious virus. The boy didnt even realized that someone had moved by him, currently deeply immersed in his Jutsu innovations.
He sat down beside the Nara kid. Both of them ignored each other. Shin concentrated on the incoming emotions from the people in every direction. He had managed to control the severe input he recieved when he first awakened his empath ability. The ability was taxing to say the least on his concentration atleast for now. Even during Chakra infusion, he had to wait a bit to concentrate first and only then would he be in state of doing the Leaf concentration exercises.
As the time passed, more and more kids arrived turning the area into hub of noise and chatter. The Inuzuka kid named koba had a bit larger crowd this time and gradually turned from enthusiastic preacher to a fanatic.
Finally, After two hours or so of waiting, the chunin instructor responsible for the next phase arrived. It was the same muscle loving freak Shin met at the entrance of the main gate.
"Allright everyone, all of you who have passed please move towards the field again, we will unlock your chakra pathways. Those who already have awakened their chakra network, please wait here. Those who did not passed the physical please leave the area. Dont worry, you can always try next year. Remember to train daily, and you will surely pass", he laughed youthfully.
'Could he be influenced by Guy?.. meh' ,Shin turned his gaze away, trying to hide amongst the crowd but as he tried to avoid the gaze. But the muscle head spotted him anyway. The guy took a weird stance and took a huge jump.
Thud.. He landed in front of Shin, showing his characteristic smile. For some reason, Shin found him to be veryy creepy. He was still trying to concentrate on the mental input, yet the guy had come to annoy him directly.
"Hey hey hey, Look what we have here. Brat why arent you going over there." With a widening smile, he moved his face towards Shin and muttered in soft voice "Dont tell me, have you already awakened your chakra?".
As if stung by an electric current by having his face so closer to him, he moved back and replied, "Ah yes sensei, I awakened my chakra accidently during the Nine Tails attack"
"Ah, so, that the case", He acknolwegded. "Great for you. Dont worry, a lot of kids awake their chakra that way". Hearing his dismissal, Shin sighed with relief.
"However, some more talented can awake their chakra on their own. They're few but great geniuses." As if muttering to himself, he moved away making a side glance at shin as he flew away to the Academy ground.
Shin lost in thought at the side remark made by the muscle head Jonin. It sounded something meaningful but also didnt. Ignoring the incident, He looked at the field. As expected Akiko and Hiro had passed. What was unexpected was that Yaraki had also passed.
Shin waved at them, scanning the surroundings. Suddenly, he noticed a familiar silhouette. A girl same age as him, little with twin tails of hair and a cute look was also standing among those who had passed.
'Eh, Yumiko. How did you get here. How were you able to pass?', Shin was flabbergasted at the sight of the young girl standing among the kids about to awaken their chakras.
Group by group, all of the kids awakened their chakras, and Akiko, Hiro, Yaraki and Yumiko came towards Shin.
Shin greeted them happily but then stared at Yumiko. "Yumi, why didnt you tell me you were going to take part in the exam. You should have joined us in the training like Izume and Yaraki".
Yumiko fidgeted with her hands, a red glow in her cheeks appeared, "Uh, um I wanted to surprise you, Shin. did you like it?" She turned her gaze towards him as if asking him to accept it.
"Huh, I like the surprise but still, its dangerous. Did you tell Dai and Emi?"At his approval, Yumiko eyes spread happily. But then turned away at this questions.
"Um..No..But. I'm gonna tell them anyway after I have been selected"
Shin look at the confident girl and sighed. He decided to let it be and helped her with Dai and Emi. Dai was easy to convince as Shin had the ultimate weapon in the form of Akiko Jutsu. But Emi was a problem. Akiko Jutsu didnt work on her.
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Author's Notes:
Need your Power Stones!!!.
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