The Land of Water was a series of islands with a cool climate and usually covered in mist. Kirigakure was situated on the largest one, right in the middle of the cluster. The Chunin hopefuls had to travel for three days until they reached the west coast of The Land of Fire and spend another 2 days on a boat trip along with their Jonin Sensei.

Julia did not recognize a single one of them and so treated them as the side characters that they were and ignored them to focus on her daily training. She never was much of a people's person ironically enough for her occupation, and for some strange reason heading into a village full of serial killers to take the Chunin exam didn't make her feel talkative. It might've been a terrible thing to think, but she was pretty sure most of the kids on this boat weren't going to make it back alive anyway so why bother making friends?

Kiri's Genin Exam involved the class having to kill each other to graduate after all.

"Look alive kiddos, we're here. Welcome to the Bloody Mist. I wouldn't suggest you wander around without your Jonin sensei if you want to back it back in one piece."

Apparently Aizawa was as cynical as she felt. They may have all been granted permits to allow them into the village and partake in the exams, but this was a place hostile to its own people, especially people with Kekkei Genkai. They haven't even stepped off the boat for a minute before glares filled with suspicion and anger were directed towards them, the sole Hyuuga in the group understandably paled.

It would've been far too easy to make a few kids disappear or have an unfortunate accident within their home turf. She was mildly tempted to look for Kisame, one of the Akatsuki's strongest members, or Zabuza. She doubted she could sway them to her team, and trying anything funny here would be a death sentence, but she was really curious about how they'd be younger and not Missing-Nins.

Julia put the thought on hold as she and her Sensei went to grab breakfast before heading to their hotel. She idly looked around the village as they walked, noting the differences with Konoha as she went, and there were many. The buildings were all stacked incredibly high and most were in the shape of cylinders rather than the rectangle or squares she was used too. The air was incredibly humid from the dense mist and she had to be careful not to run into anybody while walking. The stone they used were even grey to book.

Overall impression: Dark and dreary.

Almost like an old school style 1800s London except for the fact that anybody off the street was as frightening as "Jack the Ripper"

"Finally! Let's go, I'm so sick of this place!"

Julia was beyond sick and tired of this place. Seriously, everywhere she went she got dirty looks and people being assholes to her, the nights were freezing and the hotel had shitty heating, plus the humidity was doing terrible things to her hair and skin. Oh, and as if that wasn't bad enough, her bed collapsed last night and she had to pay for the damages, which was complete bullshit since it wasn't her fault the damn thing couldn't hold her weight. The wood was probably rotting away from all the damn moisture in the air aways!

All in all, it absolutely sucked and she couldn't wait for the deathmatches to begin so she can get the hell out of this shithole.

Aizawa-sensei only gave her an amused look, the smug bastard somehow had perfect hair while hers was unruly and fizzled. There was a trick to it, there had to be, but the old man refused to tell her. Even Shiromaru and Haru's coat were perfectly silky and smooth! It was mildly depressing to think that a pair of dogs were more well-groomed than her.

A Shunsin later and she suddenly found herself at the place of the exams, a smaller island on the north of Kiri. She made a point to avoid looking at the 4th Mizukage because for all she knew Obito could see her from his eyes and stared at her feet while half-listening to the speech.

Blah Blah Blah, let's get to the part where we kick each other's asses already. I wonder how Itachi's doing with his new team? Maybe she should bring back some souvenirs for Mikoto or little Sasuke.

She should buy some Kiri specialty treats and snacks back too.

"Begin!"

"Huh...? Aww, fuck, damnit so not the time to be a scatterbrain, Julia."

Thankfully she managed to weasel out the objective from another Konoha Genin. A nice 14-year-old girl, Julia wished her luck and hoped the helpful girl would make it. The goal was to reach the other side of the booby-trapped island filled with man-eating beasts. Once you reach the finish line you must stay within the coastal area where you will receive a wristband which grants you passage to the next stage of the exam. Of course, the damn thing was slapped with special Fuinjutsu to glow bright as fuck in the dark and attract wild beasts. Taking it off disqualified you, so does covering it.

43 contestants, 20 spots for the next round, first come first serve. The test ends in 3 days.

Fast, simple, and easy just like how she liked it.

It'd probably be smarter to take your time getting there to avoid ambushes and save your energy, but the slots available will decrease by 1 every hour. It'd take most Genins an hour to cross the distance of the island if they were to run with all they had not including all the traps and monsters laying around nor the hazard of other competitors. At best less than 50% of them will pass, but so can none of them.

Kiri doesn't fuck around with their tests it seems.

Julia bit out a curse before running, eyes darting around wildly to check for any traps, but the mist was so dense that she had trouble seeing more than a couple feet in front of her and it was only getting denser as she got deeper into the jungle. She was so focused on what was ahead of her that she never noticed the mist shifting behind her.

Without warning, something flew past her face, cutting deeply into her right cheek. Suprised but not stunned she instantly dodged to her right, spinning around as she pulled out a kunai in each hand.

"Come on out, asshole!" nothing but her echo answered her. She waited for a moment tensing her knees to be ready to spring out of the way of whatever her opponent threw next when the same unknown thing hit her once more from behind. This time her back had a long gash from shoulder to hip. Whatever it was tore through her mesh under armor as if it was wet paper. She didn't sense anything, not a hint of sound nor Chakra.

Julia tried to calm her breathing and focused on her Chakra sense for anything in the area, but she couldn't feel anything and only gotten 4 more cuts to show for her effort. She still didn't even know what was hitting her!

She didn't want to show off her hand this early but she had no other choice if she wanted to avoid death by a thousand cuts.

"Shadow clone Jutsu!"

Four clones surrounded her in a square formation as she started healing herself. Suddenly one of them popped before her eyes. It was a stroke of dumb luck, but she managed to catch a glimpse of her assailant.

"... A humming bird?"

It looked similar enough with a few key differences. The entire thing was the size of a person's palm, its wingspan looked disproportionately large, and its beak was thicker and jagged as if a segregated knife. It had attacked her clone with incredible speed, but it didn't expect its prey to suddenly disappear and ended up hitting the tree it was behind. It's steel-like beak sliced through the wood easily but slowed it enough that Julia managed to see it.

Even as it flapped its wings at an incredible pace, so much so that the looked like blurs to her trained eyes, the girl couldn't hear a single sound. It was absolutely silent.

"The Silent Killing Technique...? What in the fuck?"

Suddenly her other clones all popped at once and Julia winced at the memory. Gouged right eye, slit throat, pierced ankle.

Four new shadows hovered ominously around her and Julia paled considerably. Not even a minute into the contest that she thought she was well prepared for and she was already being cornered.

The Bloody Mist seemed determine to drink once more.