Ok, so, the Akatsuki haven't attacked or attempted to capture any of the Jinchuuriki yet. So, most of the ninjas in Leaf don't recognize them yet. Just a note.
Eight cloaked men and one cloaked puppet walked slowly up the flat road to the leaf village, Konohagakure. The looming, red gates to the hidden village of the leaf stood right in front of them, its closed gates beckoning yet terrifying, in an academic way. The eight men and one puppet strode briskly forward and stopped inches from the gates. The sun was shining brightly in the sky even after Pein's original outburst of anger, and the rays shone upon the men's cloaks. At Pein's suggestion, they had switched their Akatsuki cloaks for normal hooded black cloaks to hide their identity. Also, the Akatsuki members all wore the forehead protector of Amegakure on their foreheads.
"Happy to be home, Itachi Uchiha, un?" Deidara demanded. "If you are, you're a pussy," the artist added under his breath.
"Hn," Itachi mumbled, not paying attention.
Deidara was heavily annoyed by this. His eternal rival was ignoring him completely! "Uchiha…"
"Drop it, gender bender," Kisame Hoshigaki snarled, stepping in between the two teammates. He raised Samehada threateningly. Sharp spikes burst out of the bandaged sword as Deidara tried to step forward, stopping the bomber-artist in his tracks.
"All right, all right," Deidara grumbled, glaring over at Itachi, who was still staring blankly into space. "Let's just get in. What time is it, anyway, un?"
"You think I know? Who has a watch?" Kisame demanded, looking around at the other Akatsuki members. They rolled their sleeves up, revealing bare wrists, until Sasori rolled his up. The self-built human puppet had a digital watch embedded in his wooden wrist.
"Smart, puppet," Kisame sneered. "What time is it? Are we late?"
"Call me by my name, shark boy," Sasori replied coldly. "Hidan, tell him the time." The puppet lifted his wrist towards the Jashin priest, who swung his scythe over his shoulder and glanced at the digital watch determinedly.
"Ehhh…" Hidan muttered, scratching his hair in confusion. After staring at the digital watch again, he straightened up instantly. The priest's eyes narrowed at Kisame's glare." Look, shark-boy, if you want to know the time, look it up yourself. God gave you eyes for a reason!"
Kisame groaned. "Don't tell me you don't even know how to read the time!"
Sasori sighed and pushed Hidan away. He strode over to Kisame, who read the time and nodded.
"It seems like we're gonna be late, guys," Kisame announced grandly to the relief of the Akatsuki members. Hidan even gave Tobi a high five when he heard Kisame's words. They clearly did not like taking tests.
"However, Pein's gonna be real pissed if we return as Genin," Kisame continued to the disappointment of the Akatsuki members. "Let's just grit our teeth and finish this exam!"
"Grit our teeth…easy for you to say," Deidara mumbled. "Just open those doors, un!" Kisame shot a death glare at the artist, but proceeded to follow his order anyway.
He strode over to the gates and roughly pulled them open. The gates screeched noisily as they were flung open to reveal the village of Konoha. Villagers were bustling about, minding their own businesses, and other takers for the Chunin Exam were hurrying by. Kisame ignored the glances of the villagers at his sharklike appearance and pointed at a Leaf Genin running up an alley. He turned back to his comrades. "Let's follow this Genin, I'm sure he's taking the exam too. If we're going to be late, at least he's going to be late, too."
The shark-nin started running after the Leaf Genin, and the others followed closely. Sasori was last, pulling the heavy Hiruko over with Chakra strings. However, the Akatsuki members soon arrived at the test center in the nick of time, which meant five seconds before being disqualified from the written exam. Hiruko rumbled into the double doors just before the clock on the wall rang loudly. The Genin who had arrived earlier immediately stopped talking and suddenly confident and determined expressions washed over their faces. They were clearly determined to become Chunin.
The proctor, Ibiki Morino, handed each of the exam takers a token to determine where their seating would be at. Itachi, fully hooded, took his token from Ibiki's gnarled hand and proceeded to the long desks. After a few minutes of searching, the Uchiha found himself sitting next to Hidan on his right side. The Jashinist leaned in and leered, revealing yellow teeth. "So, I'll just relax while you tell me the answers, all right?"
"Hidan, if you copy my answers, you'll be disqualified," Itachi warned his Akatsuki comrade sternly. "You'll have to find another way to gather answers, Jashinist."
"Damn." Hidan grunted. "Looks like you can't win everything."
Itachi waited patiently for the proctor to hand him the test paper in which he already knew all of the answers to. In his last Chunin Exam, he didn't bother using his Sharingan to cheat. He was exceptionally intelligient and a true prodigy, so why bother cheating? Itachi unrolled the paper he held in his hands and glanced briefly at the first question. His eyes widened in shock as he realized that the first question wasn't the same as last time! Oh yeah, he forgot...every year, the proctors changed the test questions. The Uchiha groaned. How could he forget that?
Ah well, no big loss. He was still intelligient. The Uchiha reached for his pencil on the desk, but accidentally knocked it onto the ground; it clanked on the tiled floor and rolled under the chair of the person on his left. Itachi glanced at the person on his left, and he was shocked for the second time in a row. He quickly turned aside and tried to cover his face up more heavily. He could not believe it; it was such a coincidence. It just wasn't fair to sit him next to his very own brother, the famed Sasuke Uchiha! Itachi was still shocked, and he did not hear Ibiki the proctor explaining the rules of the first test. No big loss; he already knew them all.
"Hell, my luck seriously sucks," Itachi noted to himself. "Hey, you, mind picking up my pencil for me?"
"Nine questions, blah, blah, blah," Ibiki was explaining. "Gather information, blah, blah. Caught cheating, blah, points, blah, blah, blah..." the proctor droned on and on.
Sasuke slowly turned around. Itachi breathed in heavily, his heart pounding; beads of sweat rolled down his face. Thankfully, as Sasuke faced him, oblivious to the fact that he was sitting next to his hated older brother, Itachi sighed in relief; Sasuke did not have his Sharingan activated. Sasuke bent down without a word, picked up the pencil, and thrusted it in Itachi's smooth hands. The younger Uchiha did it with style; his older brother could not help admiring him. Itachi muttered a quick thanks and turned back to the test paper on his desk. It was then that Itachi remembered that the Sharingan wasn't the same as the Byakugan; it could not see through clothing. The elder Uchiha pounded his head with his left hand. I'm losing it! Seriously! Just because of little Sasuke here!
"Next time, try to be less of a butterfinger," Sasuke quietly drawled before turning back to his own test paper. Itachi flinched slightly; that had been a simple remark, but the elder Uchiha took it as a heavy insult. He was not used to being advised by Sasuke; in the past, it was also Itachi who had scolded and pointed out Sasuke's various mistakes.
He was stuck in his uncomfortable reverie until he heard Ibiki Morino's booming, deep voice. "You have heard the rules; you may begin." Itachi immediately regained the posture of his old, Genin self; the prodigy position. He held the pencil tightly in his right hand and began to read the first question. Itachi instantly placed the pencil tip on the paper and began to write, his hand a blur since he was writing so fast. He knew the answers all right, but what about his Akatsuki comrades? Most of them aren't that bright. Itachi could feel people behind him concentrating on his back; but that was normal. You gotta cheat to gain answers, unless you were smart like a Uchiha.
It was then that a lanky chunin sitting on the side of the room stood up, wrote on his clipboard, and pointed at Itachi. "Fail."
Itachi wasn't sure if he heard correctly. Fail? What the? the Uchiha thought numbly. How? Impossible! I must be dreaming! He turned his head towards the chunin in unmasked disbelief.
He suddenly realized that the chunin was not pointing at him; rather, he was pointing at somebody near him. That somebody was sitting right beside Itachi, on his direct right. The Uchiha braced himself for a loud shouting match, and hurriedly stuck his fingers in his ears.
"FAIL? WHAT THE HELL?" the Jashinist bellowed. "What do you mean, fail? What does it mean anyway?"
The chunin who disqualified Hidan was dumbfounded. He didn't know what fail meant? "Uh...no matter! Hidan, you're disqualified, so get out of here! Kisame, Tobi, you too! What weird names you have..." the chunin added in undertone.
"DISQUALIFIED? NO WAY!" Hidan continued to protest. "YOU piece of shit! Any proof that I cheated?"
"Hey, watch your language!" the chunin yelled back. "And I never mentioned that you cheated! Which means, you admit it yourself! Out you go!"
"ASSHOLE!" Hidan sneered. "Make me!"
Kisame Hoshigaki stood up, his face filled with anger. Tobi, well, no one knew what he was thinking about behind that spiral mask. "Ah, come on, Hidan, face the facts! Let's go..."
"Damn you, Hidan," Kisame breathed. "I'll get you one day, don't worry about it."
"Go f*ck yourself!" Hidan snarled at the angry Kisame. "And you," the Jashinist pointed a finger at the chunin, "You're nothing but a pathetic bastard who doesn't know what he's saying!"
"Watch your language man!" Ibiki Morino growled, stepping in front of the stunned chunin. "You're disqualified. Get out, or I shall make you!" Every Genin in the room held their breaths as they watched the stern proctor step towards Hidan slowly. They had never seen Ibiki in action before, but everyone said the Head of torture and interrogation was a merciless man. Hidan, who did not know this, blew a raspberry at Ibiki.
"Show some respect, Hidan!" the chunin ordered the Jashinist. Hidan shot an intimidating death glare at the chunin, who shuddered slightly.
"Um, never mind. I'll leave this to you, Ibiki-san," the chunin stammered, defeated. This Genin wasn't normal. Ibiki nodded slightly and continued to stare at Hidan with that menacing stare of his, probably used when he interrogated prisoners.
"Fucker," Hidan grunted, giving up. "Whatever. I hate tests anyway, especially written ones. I'll leave, so just go back to your seats, pussies. You don't have to strip in front of me."
Ibiki was enraged at that insult. "You shut your mouth!" the head of torture and interrogation was rarely this pissed off. His face was red, steam was practically bursting out from under his cap. He reached into a pouch at his side, slowly bringing out a gleaming kunai.
Hidan proceeded to show Ibiki and the chunin a very rude gesture with his hands as he headed towards the door. "That's what I think of you two pussies." With that, he slid open the door, and stomped out, not looking back. His poor teammates, Kisame and Tobi, followed suit without any kind of argument. Kisame was extremely angry; he had almost completed his paper to question eight when that fool Hidan had to get himself disqualified for looking over at the person on his right!
"Sad, sad," Sasori sighed. He quickly glanced over at Hiruko, who was practically crushing his chair and squeezing the two testers who had the unfortunate luck of sitting beside the overgrown puppet. Sasori was forced to control Hiruko and write his answers at the same time, but he was a puppet master. It didn't matter the slightest; his fingers were extremely swift, and Hiruko was sitting right in front of him. All he worried about was Ibiki or some chunin catching sight of his chakra strings; he was certain that the Genin had no idea, except maybe for a fellow Sunagakure puppeter. Only those with awesome eyesight could; it was practically transparent, as Sasori had trained hard under the advice of Pein himself. And, another good thing was that Sasori had installed an ingenious video transmitter/camera system inside Hiruko, which could then be projected to himself via the chakra strings. A new string of information was sent his way, and Sasori began to write...
"What a fool," Tobi muttered. "He definitely isn't a good boy like Tobi!" The masked Akatsuki followed the disgrunted shark-nin away. Hidan's roars that Ibiki and the chunin were pussies still echoed down the hall. Kakuzu couldn't help laughing, but thankfully his laugh was mostly muffled by his mask.
Ibiki Morino waited until the trio were out of sight in the brightly lit hallway, then shut the door heavily. He glared back at the rest of the Genin, challenging them to cheat so openly like Hidan. They were all glancing at the proctor in fear. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with your work, or I'll disqualify you all!"
Itachi finally finished writing, and placed his pencil on the desk, rubbing his sore hands. He had completed the test easily; the paper was filled thoroughly from top to bottom, one to nine. His handwriting had always been neat as well; they were evenly spaced and were written in just the perfect size. Itachi grinned at the empty seat beside him. I feel sorry for Kisame, he's got to put up with a retard like Hidan. Ah well, at least I'll pass no problem. He leaned back in his chair, and couldn't help glancing over slightly at his younger brother, who was still writing. Sasuke was clearly using the Sharingan on the person in front of him to cheat. Too bad he isn't a brain boy like myself.
Kakuzu, being a money-loving bounty hunter, barely read or studied, except for occasional reads of the Bingo Book. However, he wasn't going to get himself disqualified; no, he needed to finally show Hidan some superior skills. Hidan's immortality was far better than his way of avoiding death, but this was a great chance to show his academic knowledge. The greedy bounty hunter reread the first question for the tenth time in a row, and hurriedly grabbed an eraser on his desk, plunging it onto his wrinkled paper. He had been doodling while watching Hidan's argument, and had been drawing various faces of his next targets on his paper. Kakuzu constantly did this at his leisure; this way, he would not forget their appearances. His targets have a habit of disguising themselves thoroughly, but with the original structure and face, Kakuzu could easily track them down. All that's important now, though, was the obstacle looming in front of him: the Test Paper. I should've grabbed a nerdy shinobi's brain instead of their heart!
Sasuke's teammates Suigetsu and Jugo glanced at their leader, sitting five rows in front of them, still bent over his paper, writing in concentration. Suigetsu had no way of cheating, and that was the case with Jugo as well. Only Sasuke had the Sharingan. Life was unfair sometimes; leaders of teams were always gifted with great qualities.
Sasuke knew he didn't really have to answer the nine questions, he'd just have to settle for the tenth one to ace the test. However, he was bored, so why not show the others his improved knowledge? It was Kabuto who had taught him these; Orochimaru, being the lazy, perverted snake he was, only sparred with Sasuke for around five to ten minutes each day before excusing himself, saying, "I need to shed my skin."
While the Genin taking the test were busy at work, three people outside were not. Hidan, Kisame and Tobi sat on a bench moodily. Kisame glanced enviously at the closed door to the exam room, thinking about how he could've easily aced the test due to Itachi's guidance beforehand. Tobi, being a good boy, had prepared well for this. Hidan, though, made them all fail. The Jashinist was busy hurling insults and taunts filled with vulgar language at Genin who had been caught cheating. The Genin were so depressed that they didn't even try to counter Hidan's words; they merely slouched past the three Akatsuki members, lost in their own thoughts. Kisame even heard one Sand Genin vowing to cut Ibiki's head one day when he became Kazekage. As if that's possible at this rate, Kisame thought, glancing at the heavily turbaned Sand Genin and his angry teammates, who shot evil glares at their teammate from behind. The Shark-nin glanced at Tobi, who was sitting in solitude, then at the person who made him fail. His hands gripped Samehada tightly, preparing to swing it with all his might at Hidan's neck.
"To hell with it!" Kisame howled, standing up, his cloak billowing. He didn't care about the consequences now! The shark-nin raised Samehada above Hidan's head, poised to end the Jashinist's damn life. "Say your prayers, Hidan, you're going to die right here!"
That was then Kisame remembered Hidan's immortality. Still, even without killing the priest, he could just lop off his head and leave it on the bench to shock the other disqualified Genin. The shark-nin grinned, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth, and started to bring Samehada down. Tobi watched this with interest.
"Wait, wait!" Hidan shrieked as he saw the rapidly falling sword above his head. Kisame stopped one inch from Hidan, surprised that the Jashinist had noticed the sword in the midst of all his insulting. "I've got a plan, shark boy. Revenge should be sweet."
"Oh yeah?" Kisame challenged. "I should just end your misery right here, your brain is probably on the verge of explosion from thinking up all those vulgar insults!"
Hidan smirked. That Kisame clearly did not know him well. His brain, in fact, was savoring the gory thoughts Hidan was thinking about; all in all, the priest was downright violent. He raised a hand to stop Kisame from raising further objections. "Ever heard the saying, if you can't join them, beat them?"
Kisame looked blankly at the Jashinist, while Tobi shook his head violently in the corner. He stood up and pointed a finger at Hidan. "Tobi is a good boy, Tobi will not join Hidan-sempai in comitting misdeeds!"
"Get over it, Tobi!" Hidan hissed, glaring at the masked man. "Enough of your 'good boys'!" He turned to Kisame. "You should've seen the stuff he's done when you, Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara were out. Pein had me and Kakuzu scrub the toilets for weeks!"
Kisame laughed hollowly. His laugh sounded like somebody underwater who was struggling to breathe. "Oh yeah, that was amusing, wasn't it! Tobi, what exactly did you do?"
"Ehh...Tobi is a good boy! Tobi did not do what Hidan just mentioned!" Tobi protested, folding his arms in defiance.
"Whatever, asshole," Hidan grunted smugly. "Let's just talk about our plan, you two naysayers. Here's what we're gonna do..." He began to speak in a low voice, and his two teammates leaned in for the explanation.