Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Iruka surveyed the tools spread out before him. More scrolls, blank tags, ink, and brushes than he could ever use were piled on the table, but not much else.

Even with the nerves running through him, he had to fight back a grin. Whatever came next, he had this.

A whistle sounded and he grabbed the nearest brush without hesitation, dipping it in an inkwell before drawing an intricate pattern on the first scroll he could get his hands on. His brow furrowed in concentration as the complicated lines of concealment spread out stark and black against the white of the scroll.

When he'd decided to take the test to become a tokubetsu jounin, he'd given the mechanics of the test more thought than was probably healthy. If he were proctoring this test, what would he do?

Drawing the final strokes, he gathered chakra in his hands and slapped them against the parchment, not caring that the ink was still wet. It wouldn't mess up this jutsu.

An opaque black dome surrounded him, making it all but impossible for anyone outside to see in. Now he just had to hope none of the proctors were Hyuugas.

What would he do if he were proctoring this test? He wouldn't say he'd cheat, but he'd always stay a step ahead of the examinee. The dome would make that a little harder.

They'd said the test would start with thirty minutes of prep time, not that he had thirty minutes of prep time before the test started. It was a subtle difference, but he wasn't going to risk his promotion on the assumption that this part of the test wasn't being graded.

He hadn't seen anyone watching, but he'd felt eyes on him from the moment he'd stepped into the arena. And he didn't need any prying eyes for this next part.

Grabbing another scroll, he moved on to the first of the two main tasks he had to complete.

The test's format was simple enough and designed specifically for him. He wanted to earn his specialty in seals, which meant he needed to show off what he could do with them, both offensively and defensively in battle. But more importantly, he needed to prove he knew what he was doing when it came to using fuuinjutsu for securing information and also for breaking into other people's seals to get concealed intel. Because if he passed this test, that was what they'd be using him for.

He rolled out the scroll in front of him and got to work. He needed to hide a book inside a seal that the Intel team testing him wouldn't be able to break. He didn't have as much time as he'd like, but he had enough. It'd been obvious they'd test him on this, and he'd prepared accordingly. He'd practiced this seal so many times, he could do it with his eyes closed.

The seal was the most complicated one he knew, layer after layer of protection twined together in a disconcerting pattern of kanji and symbols. The complexity of it was unsettling to look at on its own, but a hidden genjutsu in the pattern caused the characters to swim, making it difficult to focus on for long enough to solve. Iruka wasn't confident that the Intel team wouldn't be able to crack his seal, but he was going to make damn sure they got a little seasick for their troubles.

Those protections in place, he set the book they'd given him on the center of the design, sealed it inside, then rolled the scroll up.

The outside of the scroll received its own protections as well, with the 24 strokes of connection hidden into the spiraling patterns that wound around it. He rolled up his left sleeve and drew the same characters onto his forearm, feeling the cool ink dry before charging both sets of characters with chakra. It wouldn't prevent the team from breaking his seal, but it'd notify him when they did.

Twirling the scroll around his fingers, he grinned. This next bit was going to be fun. It would indulge a part of himself he rarely let out to play anymore, the part that had put a multiplication seal under his homeroom teacher's desk right before their final tests one year. Their teacher had been less than pleased when his pile of forty tests had turned into four hundred the moment he'd set them down.

Iruka wasn't planning to go quite as far this time, but that didn't mean he couldn't make things a little more interesting.

He sealed the scroll into another that was protected by his second-best seal, one that would make two copies of the scroll when unsealed. That went into another scroll with two decoys with fake seals. One final scroll contained it all, along with a genjutsu that would make it look like half a dozen scrolls appeared when it was unsealed. There was an easy trick to cancel that genjutsu, but it might confuse the Intel team, giving him a few extra minutes.

Each scroll received the same final kanji as the first, and the skin under his sleeve now had connection written four times across it, there to give him an idea of how far along his opponents were.

He wasn't under any illusion that even his best seal was uncrackable, but he needed to give himself time for the second part of the test, and no one said that his unbreakable scroll couldn't be a nesting doll of multiple seals.

He had ten minutes left. Just enough time to make the other seals he thought he might use in whatever battle scenario he was about to face. Counting down the time in his head, he made barrier seals, binding seals, fuuinjutsu traps, exploding tags, sealed genjutsu, and more.

This part didn't require as much concentration, and for all his preparation, it was now that his nerves started to emerge in full force.

He didn't need this promotion; he'd still be working at the Academy even if he did pass. But the challenge excited him, made him want to prove that he could do it. More for himself than anyone else. Besides, he'd get the chance to consult on seals the Intel department got in, which he couldn't do as a chuunin, and the thought of all those puzzles waiting to be solved made his fingers itch.

The pile of seals and scrolls next to him grew steadily.

Two minutes left.

Most of the scrolls were dry enough to roll up and tuck into his vest and pouches while he left the final one he'd made still laying open on the table. It was more delicate than the concealing dome seal and needed to be dry to work, but it should be ready before the test started.

This was all he was going to have time to make, but he created a clone to make a few more as he placed his sealed intel scroll into its designated box. He prayed to anyone listening that his seals held long enough for him to do what he needed to do, then stepped away from the workbench and activated the Light Refraction tag he'd created, feeling a wave of chakra wash over him, concealing his presence. It would only be effective while he stood still, but that was all he needed it for.

One minute left.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and listened.

The arena they'd chosen for this test wasn't particularly large. No mission would ever be limited to such a small area, but it'd serve its purpose.

There was a small hideout at one end of the arena and a makeshift building that would serve as his base on the other. Wide swathes of trees and open area separated the two. The briefing he'd received before the test had said a scroll was hidden somewhere in that hideout. He needed to find it, bring it back to his base, and crack it. If the Intel team broke his seal, the test was over. If he got his intel home and broke the seal, the test was over. Whoever completed their mission first won.

Simple enough.

Until they added in the team of ANBU that he would be up against.

He couldn't pinpoint their location, but he knew they were out there, waiting for him.

Ten seconds left.

He took another deep breath. Fighting had never been his strong suit, but if he could avoid the worst of it, he could do this.

Another whistle sounded.

That was all the warning he got before the dark bubble around him shattered. It hadn't been defensive, just obscuring, never meant to hold up under even the slightest attack.

He had one brief moment to appreciate his clone's feigned expression of utter shock, the desperate way it reached for some weapon, any weapon, before it triggered the scroll he'd left on the table.

With a pop, the clone and the ANBU that had been charging towards it disappeared into the scroll.

Iruka didn't let himself celebrate that victory. It was too easy. He'd gotten lucky the first ANBU had underestimated him, had thought he wouldn't be prepared for an attack the moment the test started. Like attacking without warning wasn't the exact sort of thing Iruka would do to test his own students.

One ANBU down, the rest of their team to go. The others were watching. They wouldn't be so easily tricked. He could only play weak once.

Iruka started towards the hideout, but his steps faltered at the quick burning sensation on his arm as the ink of one of his warnings dissolved. He bit back a curse. The Intel team was already through his first seal. He'd thought he'd have a little more time.

Shaking his head, he pushed himself forward again. All he could do now was find the scroll. He moved towards the hideout, waiting for the next ANBU attack.

He'd thought about how he would conduct this part of the test too. It didn't seem likely they'd send all the ANBU after him at once, or at least not at their full strength. Crushing him immediately would tell them nothing about his skills. Which meant either the ANBU were instructed to go easy on him at first and make it harder the closer he got to completing his mission, or they would be introducing more ANBU the longer he survived. In the case of the first, it was important for him to get as much done as he could before things got hard. If it was the latter option, he needed to take out the first few ANBU that came after him. He really didn't want to face off against an entire squad of ANBU if he could help it.

Either way, he needed to get to the scroll as quickly as possible, with the knowledge that the level of difficulty might be increasing with each step he took towards it.

The wards on the hideout were easy to crack, and it wasn't hard to find the scroll once he was inside. The briefing he'd been given had been largely accurate, though the placement of the scroll had been a little off. But it wasn't that simple. The intel had failed to mention that the scroll was sealed inside an ornate chest. He hadn't been the only one to think making his opponent break more than one seal was a good idea. He was going to need to break this before he could take the scroll anywhere else.

Iruka took another moment to listen to the arena again. Still no signs of the other ANBU.

The burn of another warning announced the Intel team had broken into his second scroll. This time Iruka did curse.

Quickly assessing the seal used to protect the scroll, he got to work.

On the surface, it looked simple. If the scroll was moved without disarming the seal, the entire box would explode, likely designed to take out the ninja that had meddled with it as well as destroying the intel. But near the part that could be used to disarm the explosive, there was an odd bit of kanji he'd never seen on this type of seal, and it took him a moment to figure out its purpose. Then it hit him.

He could disarm the explosive, but it would trigger the second part of the seal. Transport.

It was the same as the one that had been used on the Chuunin Exam scrolls to transport him to Team 7 after they'd made it through the Forest of Death.

So, his options were: a giant explosion or the sudden appearance of one or more ANBU in the room with him. Lovely.

Grabbing his last two sealing scrolls, he rolled them out onto the floor next to him within easy reach, took a deep breath, and disarmed the explosive seal on the intel scroll. He didn't wait for the telltale ozone pop of the ANBU being transported into the room. Instead, he twisted back towards his scrolls, started their short timers, then threw them at the newly appeared ANBU.

Of course, it wasn't that easy.

Unlike the first ANBU, these two were prepared, both hitting the scrolls midair with fireballs before they could activate and seal the ANBU inside.

Iruka grabbed the intel scroll and ran. He knew his limits. He wasn't going to defeat two ANBU in close quarters.

Tucking the intel scroll into his vest, he sped towards his home base. It wasn't that far, if he could just make it there...

But no, that wasn't going to happen. Not without a fight. He could feel the ANBU closing in.

He had every disadvantage. Two against one. They knew this arena; he'd only had time to do a quick scan. They probably took more missions that involved combat situations each year than he'd taken in his entire life.

He moved through the trees, the ANBU silent shadows hot on his heels. He needed a plan, something that would trick them and give him a chance to get away, but he didn't have time to think it through.

He grabbed another scroll from his vest pocket, unrolling it as he ran then activating the genjutsu it contained. If he took vision out of the equation, he could still navigate through sound. There was a chance it'd help level the playing field.

The distorted reality barely had time to settle around them, pulling a blanket of pitch-black night over the arena, before it was dispelled by one of the ANBU. Okay, no genjutsu then. On to the next seal.

He had to stop for this one, a risky bet, but if it worked, it'd give him enough time to get to the other side of the arena. He just needed it to delay the ANBU for a few seconds.

Iruka slid to a halt, unrolling the scroll as he did and slamming a chakra-infused hand against the paper before he started running again.

Behind him, the earth shook and roared, a line of defensive walls rising high into the air, casting long shadows that stretched out in front of him.

And just as quickly, those shadows crumbled as the ANBU broke through.

Iruka cursed as he ran, mind spinning through his remaining options. He could try binding the ANBU with a seal, freezing them in place. He'd made one in case it would come in handy, but using it would require concentration to hold them, which would make it difficult to work on the scroll at the same time. It'd slow him down too much; the intel team would break his scroll first. He also didn't have much practice holding two targets at once. And even if he could hold them and break into the scroll, what would he do after that? He was out of sealing scrolls, so he couldn't lock the ANBU away. He could use some of his exploding tags, but if the ANBU were frozen, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. It wasn't a safe option.

Which left him with one realization.

He wasn't going to make it to his base.

He needed to stop and fight. But more than that, he needed to achieve at least one of the objectives of this mission. He wasn't able to get home, but he might be able to crack the seal on the intel scroll. He didn't know if he could get partial credit on a test like this, but it was worth a try.

Skidding to a halt again, he unrolled a third scroll, activating it as the ANBU closed in. A barrier sprung up around him, the dome protecting him from the rain of kunai the ANBU sent his way, the weapons bouncing off the transparent surface with clicks and thuds.

He shook his head. He wouldn't be completing his mission, but this was better than nothing.

He took out the intel scroll and studied it while the ANBU hit his barrier with fireball after fireball. Even with the protection of his strongest barrier seal, he felt the heat of their attacks.

The scroll was simple enough. It wasn't sealed from the outside, so he crouched down and unrolled it on the ground in front of him, his eyebrows climbing as he saw the complicated design drawn inside. He let out a low whistle. No wonder it wasn't sealed on the outside. With a seal like this, there wasn't much need.

He'd barely had a chance to take it all in when the remaining two warning seals on his forearm burned away in quick succession.

He froze, breath held, assuming the test was over.

A moment passed, and then another. No whistle was blown and the ANBU continued their attacks on his barrier.

He let out a breath.

The Intel team must have found his warning system and disabled it. He still had time. He turned his attention back to the seal.

There were five unique layers to it, that part was clear enough, and each layer had five defensive nodes that connected them all together. They spiraled inward, leading to the release in the center. With as connected as the layers were, he'd need to work quickly. Breaking into one would cause the others to become unstable, more likely to set off any self-destruct safeguards built into the seal.

The earth shook as one of the ANBU attempted to break into his barrier from underneath, but Iruka stayed focused.

This wasn't the type of seal that was meant for one person to open. Each of the five layers had an elemental nature woven into it. The outermost layer was built with fire chakra, and each subsequent layer followed the chakra cycle, ending with a layer built with water. The key to breaking each layer would be using the type of nature transformation that layer was weak against. Water for fire, fire for air, and so on.

He'd need to thread a bit of the right kind of chakra through the main defenses of each layer and deactivate them. If he had a team, each person could take on the layer their own affinity would naturally give them an advantage over. But he didn't have a team, so he made two clones instead.

The first two layers wouldn't be a problem. Water and fire were the elemental transformations he could use without difficulty. Air and lightning on the other hand...

The ANBU continued to chip away at his barrier. Spidery cracks spread across the surface, showing the strain it was under. He needed to do this now.

He took a deep breath and nodded to his clones, signaling them to gather chakra. Then he started.

He ran water chakra through the fire layer of the seal, connecting the five nodes together, then pushing outward, shattering the defense. He didn't wait to see what would happen, just gathered fire and moved on to the next layer.

The hardest part was waiting for his clones to take care of the lightning and earth layers. The amount of air and lightning he could transform was nominal at best, so there was no finesse to the way they molded it. He could only pray they managed not to destroy the whole thing while he molded earth chakra for the final layer.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he broke through the water defense, but it was short-lived.

The scroll started to hiss like an exploding tag getting ready to blow.

He'd missed something.

The dome around him shuddered and groaned, threatening to give away to the barrage of attacks the ANBU were hitting it with. Iruka spared it a quick glance before looking back down at the scroll.

He sucked in a sharp inhale as his eyes fell on the central release. It wasn't using just the five elemental transformations, it was using all the nature transformations. The release needed yin and yang chakra as well.

He nodded to one of his clones, who nodded back. Iruka gathered his chakra one more time and molded it into a yang release while his clone did the same with yin. Together they released the central seal.

A crisp pop sounded inside the dome, and a book appeared on top of the scroll.

Iruka grinned. He allowed himself one moment to savor his accomplishment. No matter what else happened, he'd cracked the hardest seal he'd seen in his life. He could be proud of that.

Glancing at the state of his barrier, the cracks more noticeable now and ever-growing, he considered his options.

He could try to cause a distraction to give himself a chance to get away from the ANBU, but no matter how many angles he considered it from, he couldn't see it working, not with any of the seals he'd prepared. He'd trapped himself here. There was no way to get the intel home.

The smart thing to do would be to give up, to admit defeat, but he was too stubborn for that. He could fight if he had to. He'd drop the barrier and make one last stand. Maybe he'd get unbelievably lucky and manage to defeat the ANBU after all.

He mentally prepared himself for the fight that was to come, trying to think of ways he could use his remaining seals as his barrier edged closer to collapse. He had the exploding tags left, another genjutsu seal, another earth wall seal, the binding seal, a few more.

But in the end, it didn't matter.

The final whistle sounded loud and clear over the arena. The ANBU stopped their attacks and body flickered away.

The test was over. The Intel team must have broken his seal. He hadn't completed his mission.

He grimaced. The only thing left to do now was hear the results. He dropped what remained of his barrier, dispelled his clones, and headed towards home base.

He didn't know how he would grade a student with his current results. He'd managed to hold off the ANBU long enough to get the scroll open, but if this had been real, he would be dead. Getting the intel meant nothing if he couldn't get it home.

The proctors were waiting for him when he arrived at home base, a half a dozen tokujou and jounin flanked Tsunade and Inoichi as Iruka walked up to them.

It'd been a long time since he'd been on this side of a test, and he couldn't say he'd missed it.

"Well," Tsunade said, looking him over. "Did you pass?"

Iruka blinked. "I think you need to tell me that, Tsunade-sama."

"Do you think you passed?"

"I'm not sure."

"Explain."

"I was able to get the seal open before the Intel team cracked mine, but I wasn't able to get it back home."

"Would that be a problem on a real mission?"

He opened his mouth to answer yes, of course dying in the field without bringing the intel home would be a problem, but her raised eyebrow stopped him. She was doing the same thing he'd done to countless students after tests. Walking them through their results, getting them to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

He considered the mission again.

"No," he said after a moment. "You'd never send me out to get intel alone."

Inoichi nodded. "We don't send seal specialists on solo missions. They're always assigned a protection detail when we do send them out of Konoha. Furthermore, your use of seals was creative, and you were thinking ahead by blocking our view at the start of the test."

Iruka tried not to get his hopes up as Inoichi continued.

"And while the Intel team did manage to break your seal, the book was partially destroyed in the process."

He didn't let himself grin at that. "Does that mean I passed?'

Tsunade gave him a cool look. "You also tried to trap or incapacitate the ANBU instead of killing them."

"In a real situation, I wouldn't have done that."

"Wouldn't you? Your lack of killer instinct has been noted in your file for years."

Iruka would kill when he had to, especially to protect the people he cared for, but he avoided it whenever possible. He didn't take many missions where he'd be put in that situation.

"Tokubetsu jounin need to be capable of leading a team if required. Hesitation could cost your teammates' lives."

Iruka nodded, unable to argue with that.

"There is also the issue of your over-reliance on seals."

Iruka gave her a confused look. "It was a test to see how well I could use seals."

"No, it was a test to see if you are a good shinobi who uses seals well. Did you even once consider throwing a kunai at any of the ANBU?"

Iruka's jaw dropped. He'd been so focused on the need to show off his abilities with seals, he hadn't considered using the other tools at his disposal. He'd made the test harder than it had needed to be. "Oh."

"I thought as much," Tsunade replied, shaking her head in exasperation. "So, taking all that into account, we've decided your results."

Iruka's heart pounded in his chest. He held his breath and waited for their decision.