Systematic Shinobi - Chapter 35.1 (Patreon)

Thankfully, with Sasuke awake to banter and take the piss out of, time seemed to flow in a lot quicker, and he was a lot less bored.

Sure, the Uchiha liked to be quiet and tried to brood as he tended to do a lot, but Daiki's boredom could not be quenched with such a thing, and as such-

He spent hours annoying Sasuke.

That too was a form of the grind.

His ability to annoy his enemies, was a vital skill.

Sasuke made for a good test dummy, being the brooding stoic guy he was, so if something got to him, it would easily get to most others.

And he kept that up right up until one of the chunin outside the door let them know that the next part of the exam was beginning.

"…Finally." Sasuke groaned in relief as they made their way through the hallways, heading towards the ground floor.

His face was currently bereft of any doodles.

…For now.

"Somebody's happy to get his fight on." Daiki noted with a grin at his side, arms crossed behind his head casually.

"No, I'm just glad I won't need to sit around and listen to your nonsense anymore." Sasuke snorted.

"Zat so?" Daiki mused, grin widening.

For that, he would make sure to time his little prank very well for maximum points.

                                                             ___________

They arrived not long later, to find that they were the last to enter, all eyes turned to them, inspecting them.

Man even Kakashi was here before them. Talk about a brass neck.

There was even a few frowns shot their way.

Well now, it seemed that they held them up a bit.

There were a few smiles as well of course, specifically from Hinata. Such a good girl.

Naruto was lucky Daiki was a bro, and it wasn't bro-like for him to pursue Hinata.

Sasuke ignored them, as was customary for the broody teen. Daiki on the other hand, just grinned.

They made their way over to the gathering of genin, taking position at the back of the crowd.

Daiki specifically, stood beside Tenten, since she and her team were at the very back.

"Yo." he greeted her.

Tenten was one of the ones that had been frowning at him.

She gave him a dry look, before turning her nose up at him and looking back towards the Hokage who stood in front of a pair of giant rock sculpture arms formed into the seal of reconciliation. Behind him, were multiple jonin and chunin, the staff of the tower, alongside the jonin sensei for all the teams who passed.

The only non leaf sensei being Baki standing away at the back. Heh, must be awkward.

'She's still mad at me.' he laughed inwardly.

She wasn't happy at all she had to put on that little simpering fan girl-esque fake personality and hype him up to get him to heal Lee.

Though he felt more like she was putting more effort up into acting like that to him rather than was actually mad at him now.

"Congratulations to all of you!" Anko's voice broke him from his thoughts and he looked to the front to see her taking position beside the Hokage, "On passing the second exam!"

She looked around the gathered genin, eyes passing over each and every single one of them. She only paused, and briefly at that when she met his eyes.

He winked.

She had no reaction and her eyes continued on.

"…So that's Gai-sensei's eternal rival, Kakashi?" Tenten murmured at his side and he looked to see the bun haired older girl looking at Kakashi admiringly, "He definitely has Gai-sense beat out on looks and cool factor at least."

"Kakashi has a tiny penis, like miniscule, even baby's have bigger ones half the time." Daiki helpfully informed her.

Kakashi visibly twitched and his head turned from where he was blandly staring forward to look into Daiki's eyes with his own singular revealed eye.

It narrowed at him.

Daiki stuck the finger up.

Kakashi flashed the finger back at him for a split second before it was hidden away again.

Tenten turned to him then and gave him an odd look, "And you know that how?" she asked.

"I've been on a few missions with him," Daiki shrugged, "He got drunk on our way back one time, started bawling like a little girl about how he was still a virgin at his age, and the closest he ever got was third base, barely, the chick he was with laughed at him apparently for how small his penis is and left him." he blatantly lied.

Uncaringly, without any guilt.

He was a shinobi after all.

And Kakashi was a prick.

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched noticeably.

Daiki's grin grew to shit eating proportions.

Tenten sighed, "So he only looks cool then?" she said, sounding disappointed, "He's just as big a weirdo as Gai-sensei?"

It was good that Tenten was so used to Gai, that this was so easy for her to believe.

"Weirder even," Daiki nodded, "He walks around reading smut constantly to get his rocks off because he's a super hyper virgin, he's given up ever getting laid, a tragic guy really.”

"…I mean it is a bit weird, but more sad to be honest," Tenten grimaced, "I still think Gai-sensei is weirder than that, you don't deal with him and his quirks like me on a daily basis."

He noticed Sasuke was looking at him from his peripheral vision, looking completely weirded out, before glancing at Kakashi, giving the man a pitiful look.

Negative one hundred respect.

Hopefully he let Naruto and Sakura know about that little tidbit the next time he annoyed his team, and then Naruto being a loud mouth and Sakura being a bit of a gossip with Ino, would get it spread around the entirety of the leaf.

Get fucked Kakashi.

"If you say so," Daiki shrugged at the bun haired girls words, "So, I see you're talking to me again."

"I'm still mad at you." she replied flatly.

"It was just a joke." he pointed out.

"A humiliating joke," she responded, "Only Neji was privy to it, but that's enough. He's been giving me odd looks."

"Probably jealous that you acted that way for me and not him." Daiki assured her.

Tenten snorted, "Somehow I doubt that," she noted dryly, "Even taking him out of the equation, it was still humiliating, I have my pride as a kunoichi you know? And I know for a fact if you got your pride hurt you'd start punching and ask questions later."

…Well, she wasn't wrong.

She pouted at him then, "You're such a bully."

…Cute.

"I kinda am," he agreed, before laughing lightly, "Alright, how about I make it up to you? And well, lemme say first, you're a tough one, one of the best here, I don't think any less of you or anything for that little act, actually I was impressed with your acting skills." he complimented her.

"…Well, that's good to know I guess," her lips almost quirked upwards, before she smothered the smile that wanted to emerge, "And how will you go about making it up to me?"

Well, he had a few options.

"I could take you out on a date." he teasingly replied.

He was testing the waters.

"You're already going to be doing that that though." she replied with a roll of her eyes.

And he scored. She hadn't decided against them pursuing that relationship option later on.

Good, good….good.

"True, I guess you'll have to settle for just a summoning contract then," Daiki shrugged casually, "What would you prefer? A giant pack of wolves or a giant Conch that has a super tough defensive shell and can use a bunch of cool things like a genjutsu mist and big ass water jutsu?"

"Wait, what?" Tenten goggled at him, eyes flying wide open.

But before she could press for further information, Anko apparently decided it was time to move things along and that they'd had enough time to digest their passing the second exam.

"Now, the third exam will begin and Lord Hokage will be graciously taking the time to explain it all to you," she explained, "Make sure you all listen up and take all of his words to heart, you might learn something."

Old man Sandaime chuckled lightly at Anko's words, before smiling at them all, "You have all done well to make it here, each and every single one of you are fine ninja and will no doubt go far," he praised them, "Now though, the third exam is about to commence, but, before we go into the specifics of how things will progress, let me make one thing, perfectly clear, which pertains to the underlying purpose of this exam!"

He paused briefly to let his words sink in, making sure they were all listening, before continuing on, "Tell me young ones, why do suppose an examination of this nature is being jointly conducted by all of the five great nations?"

His smile turned into a faint grin, "To promote friendship among all the nations and raise the overall general level in the ninja arts," he revealed, "I will be very clear in what this means, what these series of so called examinations are all about."

Daiki noticed Tenten swallowing heavily at the mans words, and she wasn't the only one visibly reacting to the mans words.

After all, the old man was completely relaxed, his stance and smile wholly welcoming.

Yet a powerful pressure seemed to exude from him just naturally as he spoke and it was pressing down upon everyone gathered.

Daiki crossed his arms, eyebrow raising, 'He's just flowing his chakra.' he noted, he could see it clearly. The man wasn't even letting any of it escape his body, yet still, just circulating his chakra within his body caused this kind of pressure.

Such powerful chakra. It utterly dwarfed his own.

The old man could probably crush most of the genin gathered here by just flaring his chakra at them.

And to think this was him far from his prime and much weaker than he once was. Old man third was a complete monster.

'That is indeed very impressive chakra for a human.' Isobu agreed.

…The fact his Bijuu actually noted that in of itself, was impressive and telling enough. Isobu after all, still felt his own chakra capacity and strength, now in the realms of a kage, if a low level one, was pitifully small.

"Quite simply, the chunin exams are war in miniature," the Sandaime continued after a moment, "The chunin exams exist to promote the villages in place of war, a tentative stop gap and agreement between each of the five great nation ninja villages to stop our loyal ninja dying en-masse during times of strife like they did for so many years. This is the friendship of we five villages."

"…That's the stupidest friendship I've heard of!" shouted out in reply.

Naruto, as expected.

Though, he wasn't the only one that seemed to be uncomfortable with the Hokage's words and the true nature of the Chunin Exams.

Quite a few voiced a similar opinion as Naruto, though, few of them had the guts to say it so loudly and proudly, challenging the words of the Hokage as the blonde did.

"Make no mistake, these exams are not just about you young ones, but the glory and honour of the shinobi villages as well," Hiruzen wasn't daunted in any single way by the whiny grumbling, "While this exam needles out any of you unfit to ascend up to the next rank, it will also more importantly showcase to many honoured guests, the ability of the villages, this includes the rulers and nobility spread around this continent, each and every single one of them will be watching you, and your actions and abilities will reflect on your home."

"What that means," he began clarifying, "Is that if any nations ninja show outstanding talent, ability and superiority the gathered nobleman's eyes will be on them and they will in turn be quick to commission the village who trained those superior fighters and talents for work, promoting the growth of their villages, conversely, if inferior ninja take the stage and make a bad showing, it will reflect poorly on the village and may lead to less work commissioned."

"So…so why then is it necessary for us to stake our lives and fight here?!" Kiba called out, stopping the Hokage from continuing.

Quite a few made muttering agreements with him.

Daiki withheld the urge to groan in annoyance. How could fucking clan kids be this fucking stupid when it came to the duties of a shinobi or kunoichi?

You know what, this was taking too fucking long.

"For fucks sake, isn't it obvious?" Daiki's words escaped his mouth before he could stop them, many eyes turned to him, all eyes in the room actually, "It's a dick measuring contest you moron, it's basically a big show to say 'Look how fucking badass our genin are, if our little wimp kids are this strong, how strong do you think our Jonin are? Come hire us, we'll beat everyone's asses for you cuz' we're the best of the best and all those other punk ass bitches can't measure up to us.'"

There was utter silence at his words, and quite a few gaped at him, mostly the other genin.

The likes of Sakura, Ino, Naruto, Kiba, Choji and such were outright goggling at him, but the ones in the know, were pretty impassive.

Which was fine, he just wanted this shit to get a move on.

Of the Jonin, only a few gave any visible reaction. Kurenai's eyebrows rose, while Asuma snorted in pure amusement, and Anko smirked widely, giving him a nod of approval.

The Sandaime gave an audible cough, breaking the silence, "Yes, while the wording was a bit crude, that is indeed what the Chunin Exams amount to," the old man agreed with him, all eyes turning back to him as he began speaking again, "The strength of a nation is derived from the strength of its ninja village which in turn draws its strength from the many shinobi and kunoichi whom call that village home and fight for its prosperity. You ask why you must fight? It is because the greatest strength of these shinobi and kunoichi only emerges in the midst of a life and death battle."

As he finished, one of the flak jack wearing shinobi standing impassively near him made his way to the front and took a knee in front of the Hokage, "Hokage-sama, if you don't mind, would you allow myself to take over the proceedings of the exam from here as its proctor?" Gekko Hayate asked.

"Very well," Sarutobi nodded, "You may proceed Hayate-kun."

"Thank you," the man kept his head bowed for a moment before standing up and turning to face everyone, displaying a pale skinned face with thick bags under his eyes, "Good to meet you all, I am Hayate and I will be the proctor of the third exam, though before that, I will need to ask something of all of you."

He made sure everyone was paying attention to him before he continued on, "You see, before the third exam begins, there will be a set of preliminary battles and whether you proceed to the true third exam or not, is dependent on you winning." he explained.

"Preliminaries!?" surprisingly the one to shout out, voice aghast was Shikamaru, "The hell, are you kidding?!"

"Hayate-san, I'm in agreement with him," he heard Sakura's voice speak up, "Why can't we all proceed to the third exam? Why do we need to take part in preliminary battles?"

"…Well, I don't want to say the previous two exams weren't a trying experience, but the fact of the matter is, we still have too many applicants," he replied, "As Hokage-sama explained to you all moments ago, we will have many rich and powerful guests watching you all, very busy powerful people at that, So we must not only keep the exam intense, but also fast paced and make sure that only the best of the best show off their skills."

"B-but-" Sakura sputtered.

Hayate cut her off before she could finish, "If you are worried about your promotion, don't worry, this is a chance for you to show off your abilities as well, everyone gathered here to watch will be judging your abilities as ninja to see if you are worthy of promotion or not, even if don't win or make it through to the true third exam, you still have a chance at promotion," he explained, before clapping his hands loudly, "Either way, if any of you want to drop out, now is your chance, because the preliminaries begin now!"