Disclaimer: The only characters I own are Katoiya, Masahiko, Kenji, Miako, and Hanari. All others belong to our beloved Mesashi Kishimoto.
After being approved at the village gates, Hanari Sensei left the group to explore the Leaf. Masahiko led them around, seeing as he had been there before. He had had quite a few missions there in the past. Miako, who was usually smiling, had his mouth set in a firm line.
"What's wrong Miako?" Katoiya asked.
"Nothing," he stated, turning to her slightly as they walked. "I just don't like this place." Kenji snorted. "Right...That's totally it," he said.
"Guys," Masahiko said, grabbing their attention. "These tests are going to be tough. Trust me, these aren't like the academy days. They are dangerous. I lost one of my team mates when I went through them," he said seriously.
Katoiya was shocked. He had never told her this before. "Masahiko?" she questioned. He sighed.
"You remember Taaru, right?" he asked, referring to an old team mate of his.
The girl nodded. "I only told you that he had moved because you were a child," the elder sibling said. The three genin remained quiet. Then Masahiko clapped Katoiya over the shoulder. "But hey! Let's not dwell on the past, huh? How about something to eat?" he smiled.
"I'm up for it!" Kenji announced.
"Where are we going?" Miako asked, now thoroughly enthused.
"How's ramen sound?" Masahiko asked, smirking at Katoiya.
Her eyes got huge. Ramen was her absolute favorite! She took in a deep breath, and then ran off in a random direction. She heard the others yelling after her. True, she had no idea where the local ramen stand was, but when it came to ramen she didn't think much about anything else. It wasn't long before she lost her team.
The girl rounded a corner and ran right into someone's back. They stumbled forward and she fell on her butt. As she got up and rubbed her tailbone, the other person clenched their teeth. The boy whipped himself around and glared at her.
"Look! I just had this brat run into me and now you!" he said, pointing to a kid behind him.
There was also a blonde boy and a pink haired girl with the kid, and the boy she ran into had a blonde girl with him.
"Kankuro, I told you we don't need to deal with this..." the girl said.
"I don't care Temari! These brats are getting on my last nerve!" he said.
Then he turned back to Katoiya and took a bundle off of his back. No way was this dude going to attack her. "Get ready for a puppet show..." he said.
Yup, he was going to attack her. She snarled at him and pulled out her sword, holding it in front of her. The blonde boy started running her way.
"Dude, leave her alone! She only ran into you by accident!" he yelled. The boy named Kankuro twitched his fingers and the other boy tripped.
Then a rock flew from the trees, hitting Kankuro's hand. He dropped the bundle to the ground and everyone looked up to where the rock had come from. There was a pale boy with raven hair and dark eyes sitting on a branch and tossing another rock.
"What are you doing in our village?" he asked.
"Sasuke!" the pink haired girl squealed.
The blonde looked at him with discontent and Katoiya regarded him solemnly. Not completely unfortunate looking, pretty smooth, but he seemed full of himself. She couldn't tell if he would actually be a worthy opponent. After all, he only threw a rock.
"Another kid to piss me off," Kankuro said, still holding his hand.
"Get lost," the boy in the tree said.
"Hey kid, get down here," Kankuro said. "It's show-offs like you I hate the most." He bent down for his puppet again.
"Are you actually going to use Crow?" the girl with him said.
"Kankuro, stop," another voice said from the trees.
There was another boy there now. He was standing on the underside of one of the branches. He was also pale and had crimson hair and empty aquamarine eyes. There were completely black circles around them and the kanji for love was tattooed on his forehead. On his back was a gourd.
"You're an embarrasment to our village," he said.
Unlike the other boy, this one struck fear into Katoiya's very soul. There was just something about him that wasn't right. He reeked of killing intent and the air around him seemed to quiver at his presance.
"Ga...Gaara," Kankuro said, clearly also terrified by his team mate.
"Losing control of yourself in a fight, how pathetic...Why do you think we came to the Leaf Village?" the new boy said.
"Listen Gaara, they started it and..." Kankuro said, pointing at her and the other group.
"Shut up...I'll kill you..." Gaara said.
She had a strange feeling that he meant it with every fiber of his being. If he wasn't so stoic she would even go so far as to say that he was excited about it.
Kankuro was sweating. He swallowed. "Okay, I'm sorry..." he said. "I'm also sorry..." the girl said. "Really sorry..."
"I apologize for them," Gaara said to the other boy in the tree. Then, in a swirl of sand he was gone. He reappeared in the middle of his two team mates, which was very close to Katoiya. She didn't show it, but it made her very uncomfortable.
He straightened up. "It looks like we got here too early, but we didn't come here to play around," he said.
"I know that..." Kankuro said.
"Let's go," Gaara said to them.
"Hey wait!" the pinkette said.
"What?" Gaara asked calmly.
"Judging from your headbands you guys are ninja from the Hidden Sand Village, right?" the girl said. "And you're from the Hidden Grass?" she asked, pointing to the Grass ninja. "You may be allies with the Leaf Village, but it is forbidden for shinobi to enter each other's villages without permission. State your purpose. Depending on it, we may not be able to let you go," she said.
Katoiya blinked. This girl was a member of the village where the Chunin Exams were being held and she didn't even know they were going on? Was she really that stupid? Katoiya held back a smile.
"Talk about clueless..." the girl with the fan said. "Don't you know anything?"
Katoiya pulled out her pass and held it up. "See this pass?" she said. "We have permission."
The other girl looked at her and then back to the Leaf girl. "She's right. We are genin from other villages, but we have come to your village to take the Chunin Selection Exam," she said.
"Chunin Selection Exam?" the blonde boy asked.
Wow...Katoiya dumbfounded. Was this entire team that dense?
"Geeze...you really don't know anything..." the girl from the Sand said. "The Chunin Exam is where outstanding genin from the Sand, Leaf, and other neighboring villages assemble to take an exam to become a chunin..." she said.
"But why do we take it together?" the blonde boy yelled.
"The main purpose is said to be to improve relationships between the allies and to raise the shinobi level, but also each country likes to maintain a power balance and..."
"Hey, Konohamaru! Think I should enter this Chunin Exam thing?" the blonde boy said, interrupting.
"You bastard!" the Sand girl said, making a fist. "You asked the question, listen till the end!"
Then the raven haired boy appeared in front of his team. "Hey you, what's your name?" he asked.
"Huh? You mean me?" the girl asked.
"No. You with the gourd," he said.
"Gaara of the Desert..." the other replied. "I'm also interested in you, your name?" he asked.
"It's Sasuke Uchiha," the raven said, smirking.
"Hey! What about me? Huh?" the blonde asked, smiling.
Gaara turned back to his team. "Not interested...Let's go," he said. The three disappeared.
Katoiya finally resheathed her sword. These three weren't necessarily a problem and she wouldn't need it anyway. The blonde and the raven started fighting and she just stood and watched. For team mates they didn't work together very well. At least Kenji, Miako, and herself could have a good time and were coordinated.
Just then, Miako ran around the corner. It was about to be the same situation she just had with Kankuro, but as she had just thought, they were coodinated.
His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before, instead of trying to stop, he jumped into a side spin. Katoiya bent backwards into a 90 degree angle just as he went over top of her. She went back up and spun around just in time to see him land. Everything was silent. She glanced around him to see the other team and the kids staring at the two of them.
"What?" she said. Miako turned around to look at them.
"How did you do that?" the kid with the scarf asked.
"Simple, we've been doing it for years!" the green haired girl said.
Miako turned back to her. Now he looked annoyed. "Really Katoiya, the word 'ramen' and you're gone. Do you even know where you're going?" he asked sternly.
She yanked her sword out again and held the tip to his throat. "Don't give me lip like that! And ramen is very important!" she said.
The others had gone silent in shock again. Miako glanced down at the blade. Then he burst out laughing. She started too and put the sword back. "But seriously," she said. "Ramen is important."
"Yeah, yeah..." Miako said. He touched his hand to a radio on his neck that Masahiko had probably given him. "Guys, I found her. She's about three hundred meters due east of the starting point," he said.
"Got it..." Katoiya heard her brother's voice through the speaker.
"So..." he said, turing back to the other team. "Who're you guys?"
The blonde immidately jumped at the chance to make himself known. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" he said enthuziastically.
"And I'm Sakura Haruno," the pinkette said.
"Sasuke Uchiha," the raven reintroduced himself.
"I'm Miako Soregana. Sorry about my team mate." She waved. "Her older brother suggested ramen and she kind of ran off...We're thinking about getting her a leash," he teased.
"Oh very funny," Katoiya said. "By the way, my name's Katoiya Umino," she said.
The three looked at her. Then they seemed to just ignore what had caught their attention. Weird. She seriously hoped that the whole Leaf Village wouldn't be like this.
"So anyway," she said. "Can you guys tell us where the local ramen stand is?"
"Sure!" Naruto said. "You'll love Ichiraku's! They're the best!"
"Naruto, you can't!" Sakura said. "We have a meeting with Kakashi sensei."
"Oh, come on Sakura! He's always late anyway!" Naruto complained.
"And if he's not late today?" Sasuke asked.
"That's okay. I think I can take it from here," Masahiko said from atop the wall lining the street.
The others all jumped. Sakura stared at him and then to Sasuke and back to him. Katoiya giggled to herself. she wasn't going to lie, Masahiko was probably the most handsome guy in the entire Grass Village. Sakura probably hadn't been exposed to anything like him in her life.
"Finally!" Kenji said, walking around the corner. "You do realize Katoiya that in running off so eagerly to get to the ramen stand that you made it just that much longer until we get to eat?" he said.
"Whatever," she said, smiling. "Maybe some other time then?" she offered to the others.
"Yeah, sure!" Naruto said. Sakura rolled her eyes at him and Sasuke said nothing, looking annoyed.
"Come on guys, this way," Masahiko said, jumping from the wall and going back around the corner. Katoiya and the rest of her team followed him.
"So, what do you think of the Leaf ninja?" Kenji asked.
"Well..." she said. "If they're all like those three, then they shouldn't be too tough to beat."
"Awesome!" Miako said. "See, I told Hanari sensei that we had this in the bag."
"But those Sand ninja that you didn't see," she continued. "They actually looked like they knew what they were doing. The shortest one was actually terrifying..." They looked at her, expecting more. "He just had this killing intent and he actually seriously threatened to kill one of his team mates. He has a lot of skill as far as I can tell, and I barely saw anything. But still, it'll be best if we stay away from him," she said, shivering.
"Well, well. If it isn't Masahiko Torezuki," someone said, snapping them from the convorsation.
A white haired man with a mask over his face walked up.
"Kakashi!" Katoiya's brother said, going to shake the man's hand. "It's been too long!"
"Masahiko, you know him?" she asked.
"You know I've had missions in the Leaf before Katoiya. I've been paired with Kakashi many times. He's a good friend of mine," he explained.
"So this is the adopted sister you told me about," Kakashi said, looking at her.
"Yeah, that's me," she said feeling like a child before the experienced man.
"Does she know it all?" he asked her brother.
"Oh yeah. She knows that she's originally from the Leaf, but seeing as she was raised in the Grass for practically her whole life I don't think she thinks about it too much," Masahiko said.
"Hello," Katoiya said. "I actually do have a voice."
Kakashi laughed. "I'm sorry, so do you know what family you came from?" he asked.
"Yeah, but my parents died when the fox attacked. That's probably why I stayed in the Grass," she explained. "I kept the name though. I'm Katoiya Umino."
Kakashi straightened up. "You don't say?" he asked.
"You know someone?" the girl asked.
This was new. If he knew somebody that was related to her that was still alive...
"I might," he said. "Tell you what. I'll have him show up to the second exam if you all make it. He'll want to meet you."
"Kakashi, I hate to say this but don't you have some students waiting on you?" Masahiko said.
"How did you know?" Kakashi asked.
"We ran into them on the way to the ramen stand. The girl said something about you," Kenji said. "If I were you I'd show up early to throw off the blonde boy," Miako said. "He was actually going to show us to the stand and show up late because he said that you would be."
Kakashi laughed again. "You know, I would, but I'm already late as it is," he said. "I'm actually going to give them the papers to enroll into the exam. Maybe you'll have someone to fight."
"Maybe they will...Good seeing you again Kakashi," Masahiko said. Then the man disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Well, today was very interesting. Katoiya had so much on her mind about the exams and this possible relative that she almost forgot about the ramen. That is, until she smelled it coming out of the stand nearby.