A New World

Sylvan ran full tilt through the doors to the school, hurtling down the halls. She did not intend to be late, or leave anything to chance. She was making good enough time to not need to run, but she would do so anyways. Besides the fact she liked to be paranoid, it was good practice for doing and weaving through crowds. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t mind the close-quarters and crowded halls of the school halls, but she didn’t have paranoia attacks in here. She was quite glad that she didn’t, since it would make going to school extremely awkward. Taking another sharp turn and leaping to the side of a particularly slow student, Sylvan arrived at her classroom…. Which was still locked, unfortunately. Sighing, she sat down next to the door, waiting.
(Several minutes later)
Sylvan was a bit nervous. She would be doing the most important hurdle yet, as far as she could remember. Here, she would try to graduate from Academy Student to Genin. She was intensely aware that Genin would be a state she inhabited for quite some time. However, she was also aware that time waited for no one. The Chunin exams would come around eventually as well, and she intended to be ready for them when the time came. First though, she had to cross this hurdle. There were many things that would become easier once she was a Genin. Money, for example would be more readily accessible. She did not crave wealth, but she would need to buy gear. And food. And pay for her house. ’Come to think of it, there’s quite a lot we need money for.’ ’Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t it?’ ’I know everyone needs money, it just seems like you should be able to live peacefully in a hut in the woods somewhere.’ ’You’d get terribly bored though. I’m the one that likes forests, unless something has changed.’
While internally she is nervous, externally she seems to move with a ghostly walk, striding over to her desk and sitting down. The written portion would apparently last an hour. This would hopefully be sufficient time to complete the exams.
The first question was a fill in the blank on the various combined chakra affinities. She had looked over the charts in Sena’s room during their visits, as well as having studied before the test. Wind and Water made Ice, Water and Earth made wood. Simple enough. The next few questions revolved around the proper use of medical treatment and poisons. Sylvan had studied up on these, and recognized many of them from the forest. She was able to answer it quite easily. A few of the questions gave difficulty, like the one about the escort, but she was able to puzzle her way through it. The simplest tactic was to circle around if it was on a larger scale, and attack the threat while their attention was focused elsewhere if not. General, but workable. Hopefully that was sufficient. After all, it was quite hard to give a good answer without a specific event to use as context. The didn’t even have the decency to mention the scale, which particularly annoyed her.
This pattern continued with the rest of the questions. Sylvan had a good memory, and had actual studied in advance unlike some of her classmates. As a result, she finished a full fifteen minutes before the rest.
Many of them seem frustrated or angry at their results, while a few were excited. Sylvan was confident in her work, but showed no sign of it outwardly. A classmate had told her previously that this was “creepy”. He then ran off. The entire encounter generally confused her. Sylvan was shuffled to the back of the line for the next portion. Blasted alphabetical ordering systems were never kind to her, regardless of whether they were based on the first name or the last name. The line was for performing the jutsu’s needed to pass. Clone, transformation, and one other of the student’s choice. She had an interesting on in mind. Her Mind Body Swap Jutsu. The only question was whether to use it on a student or an instructor. A student was probably better, as she’d have a much longer period of control. Also, the instructors might be rather annoyed if she stole one of their bodies and used and used it as a puppet. Apparently that was frowned on. She wasn’t sure why, exactly. It seemed no different than getting stabbed with blades and such. Given that doing such to other people was part of their job description, the bias against it confused her.
The first person to walk up failed at the clone technique but was able to demonstrate the transformation well. Their demonstration jutsu appeared to be some sort of small fire they could create between her hands. Interesting, but the instructors seemed highly unimpressed. Sylvan wondered what they would think of her. She was pretty sure the instructors had asked her sensei about each of the students, but she wasn’t sure what he had said about her. She tended to stay in the background, answering an average number of questions and doing very well in terms of grades.
The next few students declined the offer of demonstrating a jutsu. This trend was broken when a student tried to perform an earth jutsu and covered an instructor in mud. They did not look amused.
Finally, it was her turn. First she was asked to perform the clone jutsu. She went through the hand seals quickly, placing a clone to her left. She had used it before against Nathan, and it had worked quite well. As such, she had practiced it extensively since then, and was able to perform it flawlessly. Sparring had paid off, evidently. This pleased Sylvan, as the task she had undertaken had accomplished its intended goal. She’d gotten to test another of techniques during that spar, really. Genjutsu, Mind Body Swap, and her clone technique. It had been quite a good experience, all n all. Perhaps she would thank Nathan at some point. Then inquire about another spar. Perhaps he’d improved since last time. She hoped so, otherwise she would simply stomp on him again, only this time with a much more varied skill set. She had taken her own advice as well. The next few days after the match she had pursued various close combat related skills, giving her a much better variety. It also helped against Uchihas who actually had their sharingans, like Iku. Sylvan did not relish the thought of getting caught in one of her own genjutsu, and was glad she’d no longer have to worry about it. True, she still had to worry about other people’s genjutsu, but she at least had an alternative to illusions when facign off against Uchihas. To the bets of her knowledge, they were the only clan with the genjutsu reflection ability, but it was possible some other group in a faraway land had discovered a method of doing it too. To assume that was not possible was foolly, and such folly could mean death.
The next one would be much harder though. The transformation was slightly more difficult in that she had to perform it completely from memory. She thought back to the most recent class. The instructor’s clothes, their forehead protector… his hair was white, his eyes green. He wore the standard flak jacket and blue suit of Konoha chunin and jounin. She quickly performed the hand seals, sighing in relief as her outward form matched that of her instructor. Good enough, at least. It probably wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny from someone that knew him extremely well, but it would certainly work in combat or at a distance. When asked if she’d like to show a jutsu of her choice, she nodded. Murmuring mind body swap where only the judges could hear, she spun, forming the seal and letting her soul fly. The student behind her wasn’t expecting it, and she was able to use his body to prevent her own form hitting the floor. She slowly lowered her body to the floor, making sure she wouldn’t have any pain when she returned to her body. Once that was done she said aloud “I, sylvan Yamanaka, have taken control of this body.” The judges nodded, and she disengaged the jutsu. One of the judges stepped forward. “Sylvan Yamanaka, we have seen your ability with jutsu and read over your test paper for this graduation exam. Now we are pleased to announce that you have passed the Academy's graduation examination and are now a Genin rank ninja.” Sylvan smiled, very slightly, as she stepped forward and accepted her forehead protector. Bowing respectfully to them, she walks outside; content in the knowledge she had passed. It was time to head back to the house, and help Yusuri with the cooking. She wondered if Yusuri would congratulate her, or merely nod and go back to keeping the meat from overcooking. Sylvan didn’t really mind, in any case. She would help cook, make mental conversation, then head upstairs where she would trace the maps. After all, she would be visiting those places soon on her missions.
{1535 Words}