My first attempt at a Naruto fic. As with Death's Dawn, it's a completely unrelated story to the original series. This time however, I decided to leave the bloodlines and the clans from the original series in there though. So expect to see the Uchiha, Hyuuga, Nara, Inuzuka, Aburame, Uzumaki,.... clans in the story
Nevertheless, don't let the lack of known characters scare you away from this fic. I'll try to make it as good as possible.
Prologue
It was what could be considered a typical midsummer day in Konoha. A few creamy white clouds dotting the skies, with plenty of sunshine falling down in between the gaps. Trees lined a small path that snaked its way through the dense forest that covered most of the Fire Country's surface, giving Konohagakure, the village hidden in leaves, its name. A small three man team of shinobi was currently walking on the path, heading towards the village, even though it was more accurate to call it a city.
They were proud shinobi of Yamigakure, the village hidden in darkness, and among the first ones to graduate as genin from the academy located in the newly created village. It had only been created a few years before by their leader, who was now the Shodaime Yamikage, the first darkness shadow. He had, together with a few hundred other shinobi, mostly chuunin accompanied by a few dozen jounin, managed to convince the leaders of the Woods country to allow him to form a hidden village. The process had been difficult, but eventually they had accomplished their mission and had formed Yamigakure.
Eventually, the village academy had been founded, with the teenagers currently heading towards Konoha being the top graduating team of the first group of genin.
"Why can't we travel by night?", one of the three asked her two compatriots.
"Hikari, why can't you act a bit more like your name, it's a perfect day. Besides, it's not like there isn't any shade around here you know, there are plenty of trees around", one of the two males responded. He turned his head towards his teammate, though the small motion was more meant as a gesture. But even though he was blind, he knew exactly how she looked right now. He figured she must be sweating right about now, they'd been walking in the sun since the morning after all. Combined with her usual attire consisting of a pitch black one-piece leather body armour combined with the standard shinobi equipment, a few kunai, some shuriken and various items that could be of use during a mission. Add to that a pale white skin, knee length black hair and an aptitude for being depressed or complaining just about everything, and you'd have a perfect image of Hikari, who unlike her name, didn't have a bright personality at all.
"I didn't ask to be given this name Michio, and I hate sunlight, unlike you", she snapped back at her teammate, "besides, unlike home, these trees hardly block the sunlight".
"Sheesh", Michio sighed, "I was just kidding". He shook his head. She was exactly his opposite in almost every single aspect. Where she was a small fragile girl with an aptitude for the darkness and stealth, he was a pretty big blonde block of muscle with a preference for the light, though he did like to use it to bombard all that opposed him.
"Could the two of you please keep it down", the shinobi walking in between them suddenly spoke up, instantly catching the attention of his two teammates.
"Sorry Hitoshi", the two of them answered at the same time, causing Hikari to cast an angry glare at Michio, the latter not even noticing the look on her face. Being blind had its advantages from time to time.
Their quick apology had a decent reason though. Whereas one could look at the two other members of the genin team and see a couple of normal, though admittedly strangely dressed, teenagers. A mere glance at their leader would immediately cause a normal person's basic instincts to go haywire. And the massive scythe, engraved with intricate symbols with a yin yang sign in the middle, strapped to his back would add to that just for good measure. He had, just like his female teammate, pitch black hair, though his was kept short. He hated anything that might get in his way during a fight.
Though strangely, his own clothing looked old and overused compared to the leather armour and traditional monk outfit of his teammates. The deep crimson fabric of his vest being visible through gaps in between the metal bands covering his chest, stomach and part of his lower arms. His trousers were mostly the same as his vest, the only differences being the lack of any armour and them being black.
"I still don't see why we were ordered to go take the Chuunin exams", Hikari muttered, the sunlight still annoying her to no end.
"It's because we're the Yamikage's students and the best team to graduate from the academy this year", Hitoshi answered calmly. Ever since the team had been created, he had been constantly at work to keep the balance in the team. He counteracted the conflicts that were constantly appearing between teammates.
"Light is the opposite of darkness. It's only natural that someone that signifies balance as much as I do would be assigned to keep the peace", was the single thought that would come to his mind every time he defused another argument between the teammates.
Silently increasing his pace, he kept on leading his team towards Konoha, one of the most powerful shinobi villages in the world. In his mind he was already planning ahead, thinking about what the chuunin exams might hold in store for them. He had already discussed several possible situations and the different strategies they could use to emerge victorious. Nevertheless, it still caused a shiver to run down his spine every time he thought about it, after all, it would be the first time he'd be fighting foreign shinobi, whose techniques were unknown to him. Not only that, but he knew that some of the participants in the exam were only twelve years old. Compared to his own age of seventeen, that would create quite the age gap. Though he had a good reason for this being the first time taking the exam. It had taken quite a bit of time to form the village and even more to form the academy. And as the international shinobi laws stated, a person would not be allowed to take the chuunin exam if not affiliated with a village and if he hadn't attained the rank of genin first, something that could only be done if one was affiliated with a hidden village that had an academy.
It was nearing the evening when they finally arrived at the front gates of Konoha. The sheer sight staggered them. The scale of their own village was nothing compared to that of Konohagakure.
"I think this wall is even taller than the Yamikage building back home", Hikari breathed as she took in the sight in front of her.
"Agreed", Michio said, "for once".
"And how exactly would you know how tall that bloody wall is huh?", she retorted, shooting another rather ineffective glare in his direction.
"Let's go inside", Hitoshi said calmly, though his teammates immediately understood the meaning behind the words. He was absolutely not in the mood to listen them bicker. They'd learned the hard way that their teammate was not one to challenge, unless you wanted a severe beating.
Stepping through the wide open gate, they were immediately confronted with a pair of Konoha shinobi, their leaf hitai-ate signifying their status as leaf shinobi. The flak jacket they were wearing indicating them to being chuunin rank shinobi.
"State your business in Konoha", one of the two men said, holding out his hand, indicating for them to stop.
"We are the team from Yamigakure, sent here to participate in the upcoming chuunin exams", Hitoshi explained, keeping an eye on both the shinobi.
"Ah yes", the man replied, "we've been expecting you. Your guest passes are right here". Reaching into the pouch on his side, he pulled out three slips of paper, each stamped with the official seal of the hokage. He handed them to the genin team, thus granting them access to the village.
"Just make sure you don't cause any trouble alright? Or we'll have those passes expire faster than you can pull a kawarimi", the other chuunin warned them before they both turned back towards their booth just off the path that led through the gate.
"Warm welcome", Hikari muttered under her breath as she followed her teammates as they made their way into the village. A hotel had been booked beforehand by their village and they'd been given the address. Now the only task was to find it. That however, proved to be a bit difficult as they noticed the veritable myriad of streets and alleys that crisscrossed all across the village.
Hitoshi sighed, handing the slip of paper with the address on it to Hikari. Understanding his intentions immediately, she memorised the information on the paper before handing it back. Forming a few handseals, she quickly activated one of her signature jutsus.
"Yami no me", she muttered as she held her hands in the nezumi sign. Instantly, eyes started to open in the shadows all across the town. Feeling the mental link establish, she quickly started searching for the correct address. It only took her a few moments to locate it, and using a few landmarks, she was able to backtrack her way to the team.
"Found it", she grinned, "follow me".
Using the newly acquired information, she made her way towards their hotel, Hitoshi and Michio following right behind her.
They were up at dawn the following morning. Again using Hikari's technique to find their way to the exam centre. As they arrived, they already noticed a few oddities. For one, the building was riddled with several genjutsu traps. Already several unfortunate genin had fallen for them.
"What's up with these weak genjutsu", Hikari sighed as they made their way to the third floor.
"Keep in mind that a lot of the students graduating from the academy are only twelve or thirteen years old", Hitoshi said calmly, gently pushing a younger student out of his way every now and then. "Most of them are inexperienced enough to fall for even the most simple of illusions".
"Point taken", she sighed again.
"I wish our sensei was here to watch us", Michio muttered lightly as they walked towards the double doors of the room where they had been told to report.
"He's the Yamikage Michio, you can't expect him to attend a simple chuunin exam when he's still right in the middle of building a hidden village out of nothing. I'm even surprised he took us as his students", Hikari replied, for once using reason in a conversation with her blonde teammate.
Hearing her comment, Hitoshi raised an eyebrow in surprise. It was surprising to hear Hikari talk in a normal tone to Michio. Usually the two of them were halfway at each other's throats during a conversation. Deciding not to break the magic moment, he simply stepped forward and pushed open the doors.
The Chuunin Exam had begun.