"Are you fucking with us!?" Sasuke was furious. "What is this supposed to mean? Just because I killed your puny little shadow clones? No way!"
As Sasuke yelled at him, Kakashi calmly jumped down in the mud and released the Labyrinth technique. The walls started to crumble and fall down, leaving behind about thirty piles of dirt. He had neither a single scratch on him, nor did he looked exhausted or even very interested in Sasuke's rant. In a flash, he stood before them with his usual unreadable expression.
"I saw what I wanted to see."
"And that's..." came a protest from Sasuke, which was quickly cut off by Kakashi's outward-facing palm, ordering him to stop talking.
"Let me finish, first. I saw what I wanted to see and moreover I think, that you are suited to become Chuunin, even if you'd never actually stood a chance against me. If I wanted to, I could have ended the battle in the first battle. But then I wouldn't have been able to make any observations on the succes of your training and your team work. Furthermore there was another reason."
"What would that one be...?" Sasuke was still looking infuriated over Kakashi's game but was trying his best to control his emotions. All three of them knew that Kakashi was completely right, when he said, that he could have ended the fight immediately. He was a Jonin, afterall.
"Well" Kakashi went on. "While it is true that the meeting is in three hours..." His voice suddenly changed. He now sounded overly excited and even though his mouth was concealed one could imagine the huge grin on his face. "I planned to watch a sneak preview of the Flirting Paradise movie at the theatre."
This conclusion shocked them. They simply didn't know how to react. Both Sasuke's and Naruto's mouths fell open, as they stared at Kakashi. Sakura on the other hand, got a hold of herself rather quickly and did what everyone wanted to do, after they had been able to fully grasp the meaning of Kakashi's last sentence: She ran at her Sensei with a furious scream and, before the latter could react, sent him to the ground with a punch to the face. This sudden act of unforseen violence was a rather extreme way of expressing her feelings, but noone really criticized her for it.
Instead, Naruto was cheering her on with excitement, whereas Sasuke, who seemed to be deeply disappointed by this turn of events, turned around and went off. What he wanted to be a serious test to his skills and a way to prove his power to himself, had turned into a show act, a mere distraction for Kakashi. Of course he would say that he had been carefully evaluating their success and ability to cooperate, but in reality, Sasuke believed, this white-haired slacker just killed some time playing with them. And above all, he could not stand not being taken seriously. He rushed off to the city centre with the intention to find a place to clean himself and his clothes of the mud that covered the usually clean and soft cloth of his blue jacket.
But just as he was about to reach the village, his ears caught the rattling of a single person following him through the woods from the direction of the third training ground. He jumped up and stopped completely, concealing himself with leaves and branches and waiting for his pursuer to pass him.
When the person came into sight, he easily recognized her by her long, blonde ponytail and the purple clothing: Ino Yamanaka. The second girl that had been clinging onto him since his first year at the academy. A situation which had been continously growing worse until graduation, upon which he had been blessed by at least having not to deal with her during his training. Up until now his aim had been, by avoiding closer contact to her or Sakura to systematically starve their interest in him. But right now a collision seemed unavoidable.
He allowed himself to drop a few levels through the treetop, safely landing right beside Ino, who had been stopped after his trail had disappered and was looking on the ground for any indicators of a hostile takeover or a possible abduction of her target.
„Oh!" She emitted a slightly surprised sound of joy. „I didn't know you went this way, Sasuke."
„What a blatant lie that is. You were following me, weren't you?"
His blunt way of revealing her intentions dyed Ino's cheeks in a light red.
„I... you know... didn't really..."
Sasuke sighed. His interest in conversing with a person as boring as this daughter of middle-class ninjas born into a middle-class clan, doomed to eternally live life as utter average, was effectively zero. Yet on a superficial level, he enjoyed her attention just enough to not directly shrug her off and ignore her foolish ways of trying to be near him.
XXXXX
Another party followed the flow of Kakashi's fight from a farther, safer distance. At the edge of the glade - about fifty metres away from the location, where Team ten had been making their observations – a tree hid the three Otogakure-nin. The person in the middle of the huge branch that was carrying them, didn't show his forehead protector openly as the other two. In fact, everything on him was different. Whereas his companions both had dark hair – the man spiky and unkempt, the woman silky and long – his hair was curly and of a bright white just as the light Yukata he wore. Even his complexion was pale, giving away the image of an albino. Only the eyes didn't fit to this assumption. They were of a white as pure as the rest of his image but appeared to be liquid, making simply looking into them painful. If one were to catch a glimpse of those milky-white, unnerving eyes, it was easy to be lost in their ocean of nothingness.
At first glance this frail and obviously blind boy gave off a laughable image for a ninja and even more so for a henchman of Orochimaru. Yet, he seemed to be emitting an aura of respect and fear, carelessly shaking his uncovered legs from his sitting place in the tree, while the other two covered his left and right side.
The girl, a relatively good-looking person with her long hair, a face that could only be described as "pointy" and the camouflage-patterned outfit, she wore, was standing on the right and the man, with his yellow shirt, marked by three "death" characters and a scarf in the same style as his partners clothing – camouflage- was on the left side, spinning a kunai in his hand with slight nervousity in his look.
"Ahh, calm down, Zaku..." The boy in the middle smiled candidly after the kunai had completed its fourth round. "We're just oberving for now. That's what Orochimaru-sama wants us to do: Get an impression of Team seven and Sasuke Uchiha in particular. Besides, their teacher can't save them during the exam, so we should be fine, when we finally get the order to strike." He uttered a relaxed sigh and continued to sway his legs up and down like a child on a swing. "You'll see... This whole story will be a cakewalk for us."
Zaku nodded against his will. He didn't want to obey this kid, didn't want to go on a mission against a team with a leader like Kakashi, but what he feared more than death was Orochimaru's reaction if the mission were to fail. He knew that Kin was thinking the same way since they both had been witness, when Orochimaru punished their old team leader, Dosu, for failing to get a certain information out of a prisoner and killing him in the interrogation. He had yet to verify the thesis wether the slow peeling of Dosu's skin or the snake poison killed him in the end, but as a result their newest team member had been the strange boy with the name Kumori. Thislyoungster had been bossing him and Kin around for the whole mission, always with a cheerful smile and an odd way of relaxing in the strangest of situations. But Orochimaru's orders were abolute. To defy them would mean having to care for surviving being skinned alive or serving as guinea pigs to the cruel experiments in one of the countless hideouts. Kumori, who bore the confidence and playful nature of someone, who didn't know these fears in the slightest, acted as Orochimaru's voice and seemed to be something like his favorite toy at the moment.
Zaku suspected that the white hair and the blindness of Kumori as well as the weak body and his ashen skin were the result of one of Orochimarus "improvements". Still, he was careful enough not to ask and played along with this kid's strange optimistic and deceptively naive jokes.
Kin finally found the courage to disagree with Kumori. She pointed across the open field, where the walls of mud had collapsed Kakashi was presently getting beaten by Sakura.
"I'm not fighting them. If they are able to hit this guy, they must be much faster than anyone I have fought so far."
Kumori chuckled. He was easily amused and enjoyed the feeling of being superior in his talent for accurate observation and clear thinking.
"You are really gullible, aren't you, Kin? It's - quite frankly – rather obvious, that the white-haired guy was not really hit. He's just a good actor. So you don't need to be afraid of some Genin from Konoha. Besides... neither of our Jutsu can be avoided with speed alone, so you should be fine either way. Like I said: Relax and watch the show..."
Surprisingly, the power to perceive things that the eye didn't catch, was one of Kumori's specialties. Although he was blind, his senses were much improved and he was able to distinguish the scent of two persons from great distance, predict rain just by its sound up to two hours early and lastly he had a different way of seeing. Something more complex than even the Sharingan. The gift of Spirit Seeing.
Kumori's eyes caught the fine traces of life force that every living thing emitted. Similar to infravision, this kind of seeing allowed to trace his prey or estimate their strength simply by seeing a person once. He was able perceive the slightest diruption in the subtle field that every person possessed, making it easy to detect lies or distress even if the person was trained to hide those feelings away. Only people with little or no emotion at all could withstand his interrogation, which was the main reason, the blind child with an abnormal lust for violence was currently Orochimaru's favorite toy. However, even the team that had been made to obey Kumori as if he were Orochimaru himself, feared him and was disgusted by his false nature. There was none of the usual bond of trust that was to be expected by such teams or at the very least a common understanding of ideals and values. If there were to be a situation in which they could choose to stop protecting the fairly weak and helpless Kumori, whose abilites granted him little to no advantages in real combat, they would take the chance without a second thought.
Kumori stopped his swinging and stood up. Zaku immediately stopped spinning his kunai as well and awaited his orders with the usual shiver that resulted from Kumori's look. The latter presented him with a huge smile, revealing his pearly white teeth, that were lined up just perfectly.
"Let's go, okay? I'm bored."
XXXXX
Ino's chance had finally come. For her to be able to walk home with Sasuke and talk to him alone... Even though Sakura was on his team, she was getting ahead. And of course this was not about some little rivalry between girls. It was about true love and the man of her dreams. Or so she thought. For Sasuke, the chatter with the Yamanaka girl was both relaxing and amusing. The frustration that had built up during training and lastly the sparring was slowly drifting away. Mainly, he realized, he was angry at himself for not being able to improve faster and get better results in the training. If he released this tension for a little bit, he hoped, he would eventually releasing his mental blockades, that kept him from improving, as well. Somehow those thoughts rang false in his head but he tried his best to ignore this unsettling feeling. If he wanted to deceive himself for a little bit, who would stop him? Still, he was getting nervous for yet another reason. While Ino blushed and cheerfully snickered even over the most plain of his remarks, he could not help but to feel as if he was being followed. The Sharingan revealed nothing and he was perfectly shure that noone was around either. Afterall, they were now approximately a hundred metres away from the gates of Konoha and noone would risk being detected by the guards, stalking two Konoha-nin just outside the village.
As soon as they reached the gate, the silent threat was gone and all that remained was a strange feeling of angst. Ino, unable to detect his disturbance continued her prattling about how Sakura's forehead was clearly too wide and flowers said more than a thousand words, non-chalantly hinting at her family's flower shop. When she finally blurted out the question if he wanted to come along, Sasuke shook his head, turned around and headed for the opposite direction and the closest Onsen.
Without paying Ino or her flower shop a second thought, Sasuke payed the man at the counter, handed over his clothes for cleaning and entered the male bath on the outside. The hot spring was bordered by rocks on one side and a huge screen, ornamented with depictions of a dragons engulfed in mist curling aroung the tip of a mountain, on the other side, where the female section of the bath was located. When he entered the hot water and placed a cold towel on his head, his attention was almost instantly drawn to the back part of the bath. One of the three persons was no other than Neji Hyuuga, a genius at the gentle fist and bright star of the Hyuuga clan. His face was nearly experssionless and only his forcefully controlled movement and nervous twitching of his right eyebrow indicated just how much he despised the presence of the two men next to him.
They could have been twins if one of them hadn't been for the gap of round about twenty years between them. They shared the same hairstyle, a hideously ugly bowl-cut that resembled a black helmet and both wore something that looked like a bathing suit. A dark blue one-piece dress suited for even the deepest of deeps but certainly not a hot spring.
The two of them, however, didn't seem to be troubled by this fact in the slightest and were presently holding a fierce competition. Who could hold his breath the longest while doing pushups underwater? Neji lent his support to them, by keeping them from pushing themselves up with his feet. When younger one finally admitted defeat and gasped out for air, his head red fom the hot and water and the deprivation of oxygen, his hairstyle remained marvellously intact. Perhaps there was some kind of hardened gel around their heads?
"You beat me, Gai-sensei!" the boy with the strange haircut howled after he regained his breath. "As punishment, I will kick through five logs. And if I'm unable to do that, I will perform onethousand and fivehundred squats." Still hyperventilating, he bowed down, expecting his Sensei's final judgement.
Maito Gai grinned, sending out a beam of concentrated light with his eyetooth in addition to his thumbs up and winking. "Listen, Lee! You have to improve your stamina and strength or you'll never be able to beat me! Ten logs, at the very least! And three thousand squats if you can't do that!"
The harsh words resulted in Lee looking up in tears, clenching his fists and shivering slightly.
"G-Gai-sensei! I never knew you cared about me that much! I will do that!"
With that, Lee bowed again, while Gai nodded in approval.
"That's the spirit. Right, Neji!?"
Neji sighed and nodded as well with less than peripheral interest. He then simply dove into the hot water and ignored the rest of the conversation between Gai and Lee.
XXXXX
After Sasuke stayed undetected, as long as Gai and his pupil held their competition, the two ninja now turned their attention towards the entrance of the hot spring. Gai recognized Sasuke first. The most promising student of his old rival Kakashi Hatake. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the last survivor of the famous Uchiha-clan. Their strength was legendary and this boy certainly inherited a good portion of it, from what he could tell by what Kakashi had told him. His own student, Rock Lee, finally spotted Sasuke as well. It was easy to tell from his determined look and his sudden change towards a more reserved comportment, that he as well came to realize, just who happened to take a bath at the Onsen, Gai's team regularly visited after training. It was none other than the other genius Genin of Konoha besides his teammate, Neiji: Sasuke Uchiha.
While Lee was an able user of Taijutsu and honed his skills with a passion that far exceeded the will of an average human being, he just didn't seem to be able to beat Neiji at all. The Hyuuga was always ahead of him, always mocking the efforts he made and the harsh training he endured just to finally overcome the one, who seemed to be fated to be a ninja of greater strength than anyone else in his age. Sasuke, however seemed like someone, who, albeit often being called a genius as well, predestined to a great future as one of the most powerful ninja in Konoha, would not be able to defeat him so easily. Afterall, if he would challenge him, maybe he would be able to prove just how hard work and dedication could triumph over destination and talent.
However, for now Lee was simply observing Sasuke, who was growing increasingly uncomfortable, being in the same bath as those guys who not only put on such a strange act, but also seemed to know him. Neiji's white and empty eyes followed his every movement, while Gai and Lee stared at him as if they were facing a rare animal that was only wating to be hunted down for trophy. All this attention made him feel more than uncomfortable and it certainly didn't help much, that they were currently alone in the hot spring. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of staring and evaluation, the door was pushed open and a small group of about three men entered. One of them corpulent and bald, the other two slender and slightly drunken. They splashed up the water, as they entered and hurried to distribute flat drinking cups. Then the chubby person filled his cup with a clear liquid from a small bottle and raised it.
"To you, Han. Thanks for inviting us today and good luck with Mina. May your wallet be ever as pleasingly full as it's now! Cheers!" he uttered his toast and began pouring down the alcohol, the other two hooting in agreement and raising their cups as well.
Team Gai took this classic ritual of comradeship as a signal to end their bath and leave the Onsen for now. They settled for the exit under the observation of Sasuke, who was keeping his distance towards the other people in the bath. The last thing he heard from them was the sound of the closing door and the rattling of the shelves in the locker room. For now he decided to listen to chat of the other people in the bath and not to pay too close attention to the strange glares he had been receiving from the other Genin.
"...You know, I actually wanted to visit Konoha, while the exam is on. It's always a great spectacle to see some action and meet people from all around the country. Great, you're marrying around now, man. This way I can enjoy the matches and your party." The skinniest of them grinned and smoothed back his hair, after he took another shot of sake.
"Yeah, I already figured, you might be in town at this time. That's why I invited you, so you can have an extra event on your schedule to get drunk. It's not like I'd like you or anything." Han, the one who brought the alcohol and the cups as well as a dashing smile, replied. "If you are here anyways... might as well come to my wedding, right?"
After this, the three of them bursted out laughing and refilled their cups again. Their topic shifted from marriage over women to work, where it became clear that one of them, was a carpenter, the other one, Han, an official at the construction office and the first one's superior and the last person, who was emptying his cup the fastest was working at a bank in the Country of Birds and was frequently visiting other countries on his business trips. All in all they were nothing but boring persons with boring personalities and Sasuke lost his interest in listening to them any longer. He left the bath, picked up his cleaned clothes from his shelf in the locker room and went home. His intention was to go to bed early and get back to the training ground even before dawn. He'd have to work even harder to prepare for the Chuunin-Exam.
XXXXX
"Yo, Kakashi!" Asuma greeted. "Late as always, are we?" He smiled at at the cryptic looking face that appeared at the landing of the ninja academy's southern stairs the department in which todaays meeting would take place. Kakashi was exactly three minutes late on the assignment, due to the fact that he had stopped for a tea on his way to the academy. He replied to the greeting by nodding in Asuma's general direction and casually waving at Kurenai, who was already present as well. Asuma, accustomed to Kakashi unenthusiastic comportment, kept his smile for a while longer and then proposed to enter the Hokage's office, since it was already past time and it would be rude to make them wait any longer. As neither Kurenai nor Kakashi obejcted, he opened the door that was leading to the office, revealing that the three of them were indeed the last to enter the assembly.
Besides the Hokage, any teamleader, a few selected teachers from the academy, among them Iruka, and the Konoha interrogation force, which was responsible for the first part of the Chuunin selection exam alongside their leader Morino Ibiki were present.
As they entered, everyones eyes fixated the door and the three intruders that dared to appear on delay. Asuma closed the door, hastily bowed down and mumbled something like "'xcuse me...". Kurenai bowed down as well, however far more composed than her smoking colleague.
"Please excuse us." she said, looking up with an engaging smile that would have been enough to even excuse one hour of lateness. It was impossible to ignore her humble plea for forgiveness of the offense and the Hokage cleared his throat several times in succession, unsure how to continue after he had been interrupted so pleasently in his idleness before the start of the meeting. After he cleared his throat a fifth and last time, he stood up and raised his arms.
"Well then. I'd like to declare the start of this meeting. First, I'd like to have this half-year's Chuunin-Exam discussed. I asked you to prepare a list of the students you'd like to participate and I already received Gai's in writing. He recommends every student on his team." A slight mumbling went through the room as this was announced but noone really seemed to want to say something and the Hokage simply continued with his narration. "Since this team has already absolved eighteen missions and has one year of experience as Genin, I've decided to approve of the decision to let them participate: They pass." He declared and looked at Gai, who was smirking from ear to ear and nodding to each and every word, the Hokage said. The Hokage then signed three pieces of paper and handed them over to Gai. "Please inform them about the details and the procedure."
"Of course, Hokage!" Gai grabbed the papers and returned to the back of the room to his place next to Iruka, who was closely watching Kakashi, ever since the Jonin entered the room.
"Next are the leaders of our current rookie squads. Team seven, Team eight and Team ten: Kakashi Hatake, Kurenai Yuuhi and Asuma Sarutobi. Please step forward and name the ones you'd like to recommend."
Kakashi made his move and with a firm voice he listed up every member of Team seven:
"Under my name, Kakashi Hatake, I recommend Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno."
The Hokage shortly nodded and then looked at Kurenai, who listed up every member of her team as well. Finally, Asuma declared just as the other team leaders that he wanted to recommend each of his students. The mumuring that followed this time was stronger than before. And although the interrogation force kept their role as bystanders, one of the teachers, Iruka strongly protested.
"But Hokage-sama! I know those students since they entered the academy and can't approve of this. I know perfectly well that all of them are quite talented, but I think it is too early for them and they..."
"I had been a Chuunin for six years, when I was at Naruto's age, Iruka." Kakashi interrupted his objection. "Please don't interefere with my decision. They are my subordinates afterall and if I want to test if they are able to overcome their childish quirks and annoying attitude, when they are facing a real danger. Of course I consider the psooibility that they might die, but..."
"Then you want them to die!? What the heck are you even saying!?"
"Iruka..." The Hokage silenced the teacher. "I understand what you are saying."
"Then..."
"However... I already discussed this with the team leaders in advance. I see that you are worried about your former students. But please accept that they are now first and foremost members of their respective team and as such, the team leader's orders are absolute. The Genin, who have been called out, have all reported remarkable success on even dangerous missions and are among those, who I would recommend myself if I were a team leader."
Iruka, hardly keeping his bearing, shrugged and went back to his place. He looked back at Kakashi with narrowed eyes, disparagingly scrutinizing him.
"Well then..." The Hokage resumed the assembly after he handed out the applications. "Next will be an overview over the first part of the exam by Ibiki Morino: Please continue..."
-End of Chapter 2-
