YO! Here's chapter 10 up and runnning... er, just up, it can't run...
Any who... Most people believe Takeo is Naruto... I'd like to take this opportunity to say... We'll see heh heh... Brainwashing though? Have I no shame for playing such a card? Do I? Not sure but again, we'll find out soon enough!
Anyways, the new Bleach and Naruto manga are getting intense and awesome... Finally the meeting of the five kages begins... What will happen? Well damn, I don't know, but I sure do want to find out...
I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed for chapter 9 and the chapters before that... Helps me write faster [wink, wink...]
So without stalling any longer, enjoy the story...
Chapter 10: He will keep his promise! Believe it!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, but Kishimoto better make Naruto return Hinata's feelings because if not, I will make a one-shot where Naruto's tortured. How? I really hope we won't have to find out...
Last time on Naruto of the Immortal Clan...
"What's your name?" Takeo asked. Hinata only said one word.
"H-Hinata..." Takeo smiled under his cloak as he leaned down and kissed her hand. This action caused a small blush to appear on her face and caused Takeo's smile to widen after letting her hand go.
"Sunshine huh? Well I'll be seeing you around Sunshine!" Takeo said as he walked with his team back to the hotel.
"Kumo ninjas..." Hinata said quietly. It was odd for her; seeing a Kumo ninja save her after trying to kidnap her two times. She shook it off and started walking home and waiting for the Chunin Exams to start tomorrow. Something was telling her that this was going to get interesting.
[*.*.*.*]
It was the day of the exams and Hinata was already late. She was running to the academy, hoping her teammates would not mind her being a couple minute late. She did not want to be late, it's not like she wanted her father to give her a lecture on how he was expecting her to pass. She blocked out most of it but made it seem like she was paying attention. When he finally let her go, she was already late and rushing out of the house.
She ran across Ichiraku's only to stop. She looked back at it and a small tear came to her eye. She brushed it away and smiled at the memories she had with Naruto.
She especially remembered that one time when Naruto and her stayed to wash the dishes. But before she could continue that thought, she saw Takeo walk by the ramen bar with his two other teammates. It was odd for Hinata; she wanted to be afraid of them, hate them at least for Kumo's previous attempts but somehow, she couldn't bring herself to hate or be afraid of them. Though she didn't really want to talk to them so she continued to make her way to the academy.
"Sunshine!" Sadly, fate would conspire against Sunshine as she turned around and saw Takeo running over with his teammates following. He stopped in front of Hinata and gave her a large smile.
"Hey Sunshine, how you been?" Takeo asked. Hinata felt her blood rushing to her face, making her sport a small blush, though her heartbeat remained on a constant pace. She wondered why she was blushing but decided to answer Takeo first.
"I-I've been fine, thank you Takeo-san." Takeo just waved her off.
"Don't add the 'san', Takeo is fine. Anyways, where you headed off to?" Hinata went back to her nervous habit of pointing her index fingers together.
"I-I'm going to go take t-the Chunin Exams." Hinata answered nervously. But that's what worried her.
'Why am I so nervous?'Hinata made an inaudible gasp. 'Do... do I like Takeo?' Hinata shook herself mentally. 'I only have one person that I like, and he'll always be the only one.' She was brought out of her thoughts when Takeo shook her shoulders.
"Huh?"
"I said that was great and I went on saying that I wish you luck." Takeo said. Hinata's blushed darkened into a deeper shade of red. Takeo's female teammate walked closer to Hinata and gave her a calculating stare.
"She looks tough but she could be better." She stated, though Hinata didn't care. Takeo glared at his teammate.
"Come on Nozomi, don't be like that. Of course anyone could be better, but you didn't have to put it like that." Takeo said, defending Hinata. His other teammate walked near Hinata, also giving her a calculating stare.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Cross Xavier, I am both Takeo's and Nozomi's teammates. I hope these two children haven't bothered you." Cross said. Takeo glared at Cross, letting go of Hinata's shoulders.
"What did you say?" Takeo asked as Nozomi also gave him a hard stare.
"I'm sorry, adults. There, is that better?" Cross questioned sarcastically. Takeo lifted up his fist but stopped when he heard Hinata trying to stifle a giggle. He smiled at her and smiled.
"There you go Sunshine, glad to see your happy!" Takeo said loudly. Takeo heard Cross chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Takeo asked. Cross kept chuckling until he calmed down.
"Nothing, but I just figured out you're an idiot." Cross replied, angering his silver haired teammate. Takeo stood up straight and went face to face with Cross.
"What did you just say?" Takeo yelled. Cross just smirked.
"Now I think you're an idiot and deaf. Now let's go, I don't want to be late for the Chunin exams." Cross said as he walked for the academy. Hinata was giggling at Takeo's and Cross' banter. It somewhat reminded her of the banter between Sasuke and...
"Naruto-kun..." Hinata said softly, all happiness she felt leaving her body.
"You say something Sunshine?" Takeo asked concern evident in his voice. Hinata looked up for a moment before shaking her head and going in the same direction Cross was going. Takeo walked quickly to catch up with her. "So from what I can see, you're from this place aren't you?" Takeo asked curiously.
"Y-Yes." Hinata answered.
"Cool, I always thought this was a cool place. Hey, do they have... damn what is it called... ramen?" Takeo asked. Hinata looked at him a cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Hinata asked, curious as to why he wanted to know. He just shrugged his shoulders and put his hands behind his head.
"This guy once told me about it. It's supposed to be really good or something. He seemed really obsessed with it. Hey, maybe sometime you and me can go try some. How about it?" Takeo offered despite Nozomi's killer intent suddenly appearing. Hinata also noticed the sudden killer intent but chose to ignore it, she was thinking about Takeo's offer. While she thought it over, she was having a hard time coming up with an answer. Some part of her, a part that she knew wasn't to do with attraction in any way was screaming to say yes. Another part, a stronger part, was also telling her she couldn't betray Naruto by going on a date with Takeo – even if she was only doing it to get information; to allay her suspicions – but she knew that something was wrong.
"A d-date?' Hinata thought frantically.
"Y-You mean like a d-date?" Hinata asked. Takeo smiled broadly.
"Yeah, I guess you can call it that." Takeo said casually. Hinata again couldn't speak; she was still struggling with her loyalty to Naruto and her want to find out why she felt something was wrong with the ninja in front of her. Takeo took her lack of an answer as her answer.
"That's ok then." Takeo said sadly. Hinata looked up and heard the sadness in his voice. Something inside her snapped; 'Naruto trusts me to be loyal to him, and I always will be – he would know that I wouldn't love anyone else but him'.
"I-I'd love to." Hinata said with a small, forced smile that she hoped looked genuine. Suddenly Nozomi's killer intent sky rocketed, but neither seemed to mind. Takeo's attitude brightened substantially and he smiled an ear to ear smile.
"Great, I don't know when that'll be but I can't wait!" Takeo yelled. Cross happened to be close enough to hear Takeo's yell and wanted to know what he was talking about so he stopped walking so Takeo could catch up.
"Can't wait for what?" Cross asked. Takeo just scowled at him, and then smiled as he stuck his tongue out at him.
"I got a date!" Cross, stifled a laugh, then he chuckled and finally busted out laughing. "What the hell is so funny?" Takeo screamed. Cross replied after calming down.
"That last thing you said. It sounded like you said you got a date." That earned Cross a bump on his head. He fell back and grabbed his head. "OW!"
"Yeah, hurts don't it? Next time maybe you should keep your mouth shut!" Takeo said as he, Hinata and Nozomi walked on by. Cross stood up and followed after his comrades, grumbling on the way there. When the four of them finally arrived outside the academy, Sasuke and Haku were waiting for Hinata, and by the looks of it, Sasuke was starting to lose his patience. When he saw Hinata and the Kumo ninjas arriving, he was glad and confused.
"Who are these losers?" Sasuke asked Hinata. Cross didn't like how Sasuke called them losers.
"We're not losers..." Cross retorted. Sasuke gave one look at Cross before saying.
"I call them like I see them." A kunai flew past Sasuke face, leaving a small cut on his left cheek. He looked to see who threw the kunai and saw Nozomi with her hand still out.
"The only loser here is you. Mock me or my friends again and next time it won't just be a scratch." Nozomi said lowly. She retracted her hand and put it on her hip. Sasuke just growled and grunted as he looked away. Haku, meanwhile, walked up to Takeo.
"How do you know Hinata?" Haku asked.
"I don't, we just met; well officially." Takeo said. He stuck out his hand and smiled.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Takeo Ryusaki." Haku shook his hand and gave him a smile of her own, oblivious to Nozomi's killer intent.
"My name's Haku, nice to meet you too."
"Can we go take the damn test now?" Nozomi said impatiently. Takeo looked at her and shot her a look that yelled 'CALM DOWN!" Nozomi registered the look before administering one of her own saying 'What?' Takeo sighed and looked at Hinata. When Hinata looked at Takeo, she felt as though a strong genjutsu was placed on her because she thought she saw a little bit of Naruto in Takeo.
"Guess she's right, let's go." Team Kumo and Kakashi walked up to the academy and went to the room they were told to go to. On the way there, they passed by a class that had a genjutsu over it. Takeo looked at it curiously and watched as a Genin was shoved back, landing on her back.
"Hey come on, let us through." The brown haired Genin pleaded. She had her hair in a bun and had a light red Chinese shirt and green capris with her blue ninja shoes. Two Genin were standing in front of the supposed exam room, kicking everyone out of it.
"No chance, we're just cutting down the casualties. We're actually doing you guys a favor by not letting you through. You should be thanking us actually." One of the Genin said. The next Genin who tried to get by the two Genin was a black spiky haired Genin with a green shirt underneath some weird looking protective vest. He wore green shorts and black ninja shoes. He too was knocked down after trying to enter.
"Lee!" The brown haired Genin yelled in concern.
"I'm ok Tenten." Lee said as he stood and moved behind a crowd of Genin forming at the door. Hinata tensed up when she saw her cousin join up with his team. Before Sasuke could react, Sakura appeared behind him and hugged him from the neck.
"Sasuke-kun! What a surprise!" Sakura yelled. Nozomi covered her ears and Sakura's high pitched yell almost deafened her. Takeo laughed at Nozomi and Cross only smirked. She saw their reactions and didn't like it one bit.
"What do you think is so funny?" The sounds of Sasuke struggling to free himself could be heard in the background.
"N-Nothing." Takeo said, fruitlessly trying to stifle his laughter. Cross just shook his head with a smirk, finding her facial expression hilarious. Hinata herself was trying not to laugh after seeing Nozomi face when Sakura yelled. She was lucky Nozomi wasn't looking at her.
"Nothing, well then stop laughing or I'll..."
"You'll what? I dare you to do something." Takeo said, trying to call her bluff. Nozomi just smirked and looked away. Takeo realized what she was doing and tried to stop her.
"You know I was kidding right? You don't have to do anything. Is it the dare, is it because... I triple dog dare you not to do something. Come on I was just kid... Damn it Cross you can at least help me out!" Takeo yelled at his friend. Cross just shrugged his shoulders. "Do I need to remind you that she's angry at you too?"
"You know... Takeo's right Nozomi, there's no harm done. You don't have to do anything drastic." Cross agreed. Nozomi's smirk just grew and she walked away.
"Nozomi come on... Damn it! You know we're screwed right?" Takeo asked. Cross nodded his head, hoping whatever it was she was going to do wasn't going to be as painful as it was last time. Hinata watched on in fascination. It was incredibly funny how Takeo was, and to her surprise, she actually enjoyed being with him. Again sporting a blush, her thoughts returned to the earlier idea of her crush on him. 'It's only because he reminds you a bit of Naruto – but he isn't him.' She kicked herself mentally at how weak her argument sounded.
"Sunshine?" She was brought out of her thoughts by Takeo.
"Huh?"
"Ok, you're awake. I thought you somehow managed to sleep while standing up. Anyways, me and my team got to go, I'll see you later!" Takeo said before running off with Cross to catch up with their teammate. Hinata watched him go and was a little bit saddened. No one had been able to make her feel happy since Naruto. This silver haired ninja made her feel that way for the first time in months. She hated herself with how quickly she had gotten over Naruto. She just couldn't deny it anymore; she had taken a liking to Takeo and there was nothing she could do about it. However, she still had the feeling that something was wrong, and so held onto her love for the blonde-haired ninja that she loved.
Hinata then turned her attention to her teammates who were having a bit of a situation. Haku and Sakura were trying to convince Sasuke not to fight Lee just to see who was stronger. After making eye contact with her cousin, Hinata looked away and sighed. The exams hadn't even started and already she wished they were over. She followed after Sasuke and the other leaf Genin, ignoring the other Genin who obviously haven't seen the genjutsu yet, while thinking about Takeo.
'Why does he enter my mind? Why won't he just leave? His silver, short hair... his dark blue eyes, which seemed to glisten when the sun got in it... the way he smiles at me... the wh... Wait a minute!' Hinata abruptly stopped thinking about that and thought back to Takeo's face. She wasn't so sure if he had it but she was sure that she hadn't seen it. She could be wrong but the next time she saw Takeo, she would find out.
[*.*.*.*]
After Sasuke had lost his battle to Lee, badly, Team Kakashi went to the third floor where they saw Kakashi standing at the door.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you guarding the door?" Haku said warily. Kakashi cocked his only visible eyebrow.
"Uh, no... I'm actually here to tell you guys to be careful. Also, don't forget about team work." His team just nodded and he eye smiled.
"I'm sure wherever Naruto is, he's probably eating ramen." Kakashi said trying to lighten up the mood. It worked to some extent, just more so on others. Haku and Sasuke took it lightly and let a small smile tug on their lips, but Hinata tried not to shed a tear. No matter how long he went missing, she would never forget Naruto. She wanted more than anything to taste his lips once more, to have him hold her tightly and never let go. Sadly, that would never happen, in her mind at least, not so long as Naruto remains wherever he was.
"Now go out there and take that exam!" Kakashi encouraged. Team Kakashi looked at one another and nodded before entering the room. When they entered, they saw Genin from around the nation. They saw some from Suna, Kumo, Kiri, Iwa, and Oto and even from Konoha. It was amazing the number of Genin who were taking the Chunin exams.
Unfortunately for Sasuke, Team Kakashi weren't the only ones looking around the room.
"Sasuke-kun!" Ino and Sakura screeched simultaneously as they jumped Sasuke.
"Ah!" A yelled pierced through the room, silencing other conversation and getting their attention. Nozomi was on the left said of the room, holding her ears after hearing the two banshees screech.
"Damn it, don't you two ever shut up!" Nozomi yelled, causing many of the other Genin from various places to chuckle. Takeo and cross stood by Nozomi, trying to calm the scary-when-angry girl down. Sakura and Ino stuck their tongue out at her and blew raspberries, again causing most of the Genin in the room to chuckle. Takeo and Cross held Nozomi back as she tried to rip the two fan-girls limb from limb. When she calmed down, Team Kumo walked over to the rest of the rookie twelve minus one.
"Hey there Sunshine!" All the girls, save Nozomi, chuckled at Hinata's nickname, of course Hinata's reply was to blush. All the guys were indifferent, save Kiba and Neji. Neji didn't think very highly of Hinata, so when he heard Hinata's nickname, especially coming from a Kumo ninja, it didn't exactly look good to him. His facial expression summed up exactly how he felt about Hinata, which didn't go unnoticed by Takeo. Kiba was furious, no one's been able to make Hinata blush since Naruto. With Naruto gone, Kiba saw no one to compete with for Hinata's affection. But now, some lowlife punk had already done what most haven't been able to do.
"Who you calling Sunshine?" Kiba questioned. Takeo cocked an eyebrow while a small smirk appeared on his lips.
"Why Sunshine of course." Takeo stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kiba's veins popped out as his animosity for Takeo grew tenfold. Cross, seeing his expression and the fact that Takeo's innocent smile wasn't helping, he stood between Kiba and Takeo and tried to calm Kiba down.
"Whoa there little doggie, let's not..." Cross didn't finish as he was sucker punched in the face by Kiba.
"Who are you calling...?" This time Kiba didn't finish as Nozomi gave him one of her own sucker punches. Her breath was shallow and controlled as she tried to control her anger.
"What the hell was that for?" Kiba yelled.
"What the hell do you think?" Before he could answer, a Konoha Genin with silver hair and glass walked up to them.
"Hey, you guys might want to keep it down." He warned. Cross, not really like the vibe he got from the Konoha Genin, looked at him suspiciously.
"And why is that?" Takeo asked warily.
"Because then everyone here will mentally put a bull's eye on you."
"What's your name?" Nozomi, who was also suspicious of the Genin's intentions, said after getting up from the sucker punch he was given.
"Kabuto Yakushi." Takeo lowered his sights and saw him holding cards.
"What's with the cards?" Takeo asked. Kabuto looked at the cards in his hands and chuckled.
"These are info cards I collect. You see, this will be my seventh attempt in the Chunin exams. Though my past failures didn't go to waste as I have information on ninjas from Konoha and from other nations." Kabuto explained, raising Nozomi's and Cross' suspicions.
"What if they get into the wrong hands, they may lead to the downfall of many in this room, in and out of the Chunin exams." Nozomi said.
"Probably but these cards only respond to my chakra so it'll be ok." Kabuto reassured, though Cross still wasn't convinced.
"Well let's see what they can do!" Takeo yelled. Kabuto smirked and took out his cards.
"Well, give me any kind of description; blond, tall, skinny, fat, short, odd... anything." Kabuto said eagerly.
"Rock Lee..." Sasuke started, though someone else continued in his place.
"Gaara of the desert and Neji Hyuuga." Takeo said, surprising himself with the second person he asked for. He silently growled at his stupidity.
'I'm not supposed to let my emotions get control over me.' Takeo thought.
"You know there name? That's no fun." Kabuto applied some of his chakra to three different cards and everyone watched as the three aforementioned ninja's information showed up.
"Let's see, ah, quite impressive. Rock Lee with his team have completed over fifty D-rank missions, twenty two C-rank and one B-rank. What he lacks in ninjutsu and genjutsu, he makes up for in taijutsu. It says here he is an expert in hand to hand combat and pretty handy with a Bo staff.
"Gaara of the desert; it says here he's done fourteen C-rank missions, seven B-rank and eight A-rank. It also says that he always returns from his missions without a scratch. That's incredible, almost unbelievable. There's not much else in here about him, weird.
"Neji Hyuuga; in the same team as Rock Lee so you already know the number of missions. Says here that he's been trained in the art of the Gentle Fist. He's a branch member and is considered a prodigy in the eyes of his clan. His kekkei genkai is the famous Byakugan, very impressive. Seems like this year's Genin are tougher than last year..."
"Wait, what about him?" Sasuke asked pointing at Takeo.
"Me?" Takeo asked. Kabuto looked at him and searched his cards.
"Strange, there doesn't seem to be a card on you, what's your name?" Kabuto asked.
"Takeo Ryusaki." Kabuto searched his cards again but still didn't find him. Kabuto raised an eyebrow and looked at Takeo.
"Who are you?" Takeo just smirked.
"I thought you're cards had information on everyone here."
"They do, even that small group from Oto." An Oto ninja, not from them, cocked an eyebrow.
"Let's show them just how small our group is." The leader said as he and his team charged. He threw a fist at Kabuto but Kabuto blocked it.
"You're going to have to do better than that." Kabuto's eyes widened and he fell to his knees. He soon threw up and saw that his glasses were cracked. Whatever the Oto ninja had done, he wasn't able to see it.
"Humph, pathetic." A sword was then placed on the throat of the Oto ninja who spoke. He looked to his right and saw Takeo with an odd looking sword. It had completed no guard; its grip was black with small inscriptions that made no sense. The whole thing was black except the blade which was a pure silver color much like Takeo's hair. The blade was also thicker than most swords the Oto-nin seen before.
"Let's wait until we start the exams, I think that'll be in everyone's interest." Takeo said dangerously low, putting more pressure on the Oto's neck until a little blood leaked from his neck. Suddenly, a smoke bomb blew up in the room and a voice boomed out.
"Alright maggots sit down in your designated seats and shut up because I am not going to repeat myself. You, Oto and Kumo, you don't want to be disqualified before the exams starts do you?" Both Takeo and the Oto nin shook their heads, causing the loud Konoha ninja, Ibiki Morino, to smirk.
"Good, now sit down and I'll explain how this is going to work." Ibiki explained how they will be taking a written exam with ten questions. If they get caught cheating five times, they would be kicked out of the exam. Ibiki gave them forty-five minutes to answer the first nine questions before he gave them the tenth questions.
Hinata was lucky or unlucky enough to sit right next to Takeo. He smiled at her before he looked down at his own paper. Hinata's blush returned yet her heartbeat remained the same, which seemed odd to her. After a moment however, she gave herself a small smile. 'He'll always be the only one…'
"Candidate number thirty eight, you and your teammates get up and leave; you're busted." One Chunin in the room yelled and three Genin stood and walked out of the room. Hinata panicked but was glad she wasn't called on. When she started reading the questions, she knew that she didn't know any of the answers. She inconspicuously looked around and saw one or two people furiously writing down the answers. Then she saw some on the other Genin using their kekkei genkai or other abilities to cheat. Kiba was using Akamaru, Shino was using his bugs, Sakura didn't have to cheat, Sasuke used his sharingan and even her cousin was using his byakugan.
It suddenly clicked in Hinata's head; they wanted her to cheat. It was so simple and yet cleverly deceitful. She quickly activated her kekkei genkai and started copying off one of the Genin who answered all the answers. When she was done, she put her pencil down and waited for everyone to finish. She put her head down and closed her eyes. She fell asleep soon but woke up again because she felt something painful in her arm.
She opened her eyes and saw Takeo asleep as well with drool over his test. Hinata tried not to laugh at the sight in front of her, it reminded her so much of Naruto when he took a test in the academy. She then remembered what she wanted to find out about Takeo and looked at his face.
'I knew it.' Hinata thought but she couldn't get further with her thoughts as Ibiki yelled.
"Alright, that's it for the first nine questions, now it's time for the tenth question. Now let me warn you know; those that do not answer the tenth question correctly will be dropped from the program and never be allowed to take the Chunin exams ever again." This brought everyone's attention on Ibiki. Many looked like they were about to complain but Ibiki spoke up first.
"Before any of you start crying, you can leave now and take the test next year. So you have two options; one, leave now, fail and take the test next year or two, risk your whole shinobi career on one last question."
[*.*.*.*]
"Hmm... it's so peaceful without the Genin running around. I almost miss them." Kakashi commented, taking out his perverted book. Asuma took another breath from his cigarette and blew out the smoke. Kurenai held her breath as the smoke traveled through the room.
"Don't worry; they'll be back before you know it." Asuma said.
"Why's that?"
"I heard there first examiner this year is... Ibiki." Kakashi put down his book and looked at Asuma with a questionable stare. Kurenai just watched as they spoke.
"Great, already I don't think they'll make it. Funny how they gave them that sadist right off the bat."
"What sadist?" Kurenai asked. Asuma laughed as he took in another smoke.
"I guess you are a new jounin otherwise you wouldn't have to ask that." Kurenai glared at Asuma.
"So I'm ignorant, who is he?"
"He's what you might call a specialist."
"In what?" Asuma took some time to answer but answered nonetheless.
"Interrogation; torture. Of course it's nothing physical, not like he needs to. He likes to work on the mind instead of the body, he's famous for that. Everyone knows he's head of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Core for Konoha." Kurenai gasped, wondering how smart it was to let her Genin take the Chunin exams.
[*.*.*.*]
"That's bull man," Kiba yelled at Ibiki. "I've seen people take these exams more than once, what's up with that." This caused Ibiki to laugh and laugh, confusing many of the Genin.
"Maybe so but..." Ibiki's demeanor suddenly got serious as he spoke. "They didn't have me supervising the exams those years but you; you have the misfortune to have me this year. So if you're not feeling confident about it, then be all means, drop out and try again next year." Many of the Genin looked at each other with uncertainty. Team Kakashi didn't care though, they were going to stay and take the tenth question. After a couple of minutes of people dropping out of the exams, Ibiki decided to end the exam.
"So you're all that's left huh?"
'Seventy two huh? That's a lot more than I expected. This year seems like it's going to be interesting.'
"Those of you remaining, I'd like to say... you pass." Everyone was shocked, Sakura though decided to speak up.
"Wait, what do you mean we pass? What happened to the tenth question?" Ibiki laughed and answered.
"There was no tenth question, well, not technically. You see, in a way, your decision to stay and answer the tenth question was the tenth question."
"Wait a minute, so we wasted our time answering the other nin question. Is that what you're saying?" Temari questioned.
"No, not really, on the contrary. They served their purpose, to test your ability to gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstance."
"Oh well that explains everything." Cross said sarcastically.
"Then let me explain. You see I not only had to test you individually but as a team and how well you function as a team. That's why every time you did something or failed to do something greatly affected your team; to see how you'd handle the pressure." Takeo nodded his head.
"I thought it was something like that..." Takeo's other teammates just sweat dropped and Hinata giggled at his antics.
"As you probably realized by now the questions were hard, too hard for normal Genin to answer or even understand. Most of you realized this and started cheating. The fact is that this test encouraged cheating, it almost demanded it. Of course, it wouldn't help if you couldn't copy off of someone with the right answers so I had two Chunin who already knew the answer sit in with you." Takeo sweat dropped and lowered his head.
"Better to not cheat then to do it badly." Ibiki removed his headband and showed everyone the scars on his head. Everyone freaked out at it, most handled it well compared to others. He continued to talk after putting his headband back on.
"Depending on how well you can gather information can determine whether a mission is a success or a failure. But you got to be careful of who you get your information from. Getting it from the enemy doesn't necessarily mean it's accurate. In fact, disinformation is worse than no information; it could mean the death of a comrade or the loss of a village. That's why I forced you all to cheat to pass. Those who could not do so without getting caught were dismissed."
"Ok, but I still don't get the whole tenth question." Temari asked again.
"It's simple really; it was the whole point of the whole test. As I mentioned, the whole point of the test was to test your teamwork. I gave you two options, both difficult choices. You could play it safe and try again net year, though it meant that you and your teammates failed. Or you could take the risk and try to answer the tenth question even though you knew that if you got it wrong, you could fail and ever become a Chunin. A lose-lose situation, but Chunin face this sort of situation everyday." Ibiki took a long pause and exhaled loudly.
"Let me give you a hypothetical situation. Say you were given a mission were you had to retrieve a scroll from an enemy base. You have no idea how well guarded it is or how many are guarding it. Furthermore, you have reason to believe they're expecting you, so you could be walking into a trap. So do you pass the insane mission just so you and your comrades could live another day, to avoid danger? No, you will have many more missions that'll seem almost suicidal in retrospect. But that's not what you think about. You think about the success of the mission and the discipline and courage you need to complete your goal."
Most Genin resolve were now unwavering, knowing they made the right choice. Ibiki smiled at the Genin before he jumped back and saw a small black ball open up and spread out a sheet that announced the arrival of the second Examiner.
"Listen up you punks, my name is Anko Mitarashi ad I'll be babysitting all of you brats for the next part of the exam!" Anko yelled. Most of the Genin were surprised and Ibiki sighed.
"You're early Anko." Ibiki stated, Anko looked around and hung her head.
"You're getting soft Ibiki." She said. Ibiki just shrugged. He honestly wasn't expecting these many Genin to have the guts to continue the test…
"Come on, let's go to the next part of the exam; it'll take place in... The Forest of Death." Anko smiled as she licked her lips in an animalistic way. Takeo just smiled and scoffed it off. Hinata's reaction wasn't as daring as Takeo's; she didn't really care. Takeo stood up and offered his hand to help Hinata stand.
"T-Thank you." Takeo nodded his head as they left the room. When they were outside Hinata asked Takeo something.
"T-Takeo, why are you s-so nice to me?" Hinata asked curiously. Takeo got into a thoughtful pose.
"Because I made a promise, and I always keep my promises." Before Hinata could question him more, Takeo changed the subjust. As they made their way to the forest of death, two pairs of eyes followed a cetain person in the group. The two ninjas hidden in the shadows saw Takeo casually place an arm over Hinata and talk to her while she giggled and blushed.
"Why should I wait for them to enter the damn forest?" Growled the shorter ninja. The taller ninja just smiled, letting its hair flow freely in the air as the ninja felt its comrade's killing intent rise.
"Don't like what you're seeing?" The second ninja asked. The shorter ninja just glared.
"No I don't, you know I bloody don't; this is a load of bulls-" The shorter ninja yelled as he was clapped across the back of his head.
"What did I tell you?" The taller ninja scolded. The shorter ninja grumbled and looked at the rest of the Genin walk to the Forest of Death.
"Come on, let's get going, we don't want to lose them." The taller ninja nodded and they followed the Genin, all of whom were unaware that they were being followed. Angry eyes flared and another pair of eyes filled up with excitement and blood lust as they continued to watch the Kumo and Konoha Genin interact. Then, a ninja with a black cloak appeared in front of the two ninjas following the Genin.
"I've found you; where have you been?" The new ninja said.
"I was tied up at the moment, what do you want?"
"I've come here to train you." The shorter figure thought about it.
"Let's just wait until after the second part of the exams. Trust me, we'll have more time then."
"But why wait until then?" The third ninja asked, causing the shorter ninja to smirk.
"Because a promise is a promise." The third ninja nodded and disappeared.
"This time I will get my revenge. This time it will be you who loses. Just you wait Takeo Ryusaki."
Holy crap! Who saw this coming, I sure did heh heh...
Any who, what do you guys think, pretty exciting right? Unexpected huh?
Well anyways, I had trouble with this chapter... I really didn't want to explain the chunin exams rules but I had to, I wouldn't be a decent author without it...
Yeah, I'm sure some of you are confused by this chapter with Takeo being super nice to Hinata and calling her sunshine... Also by the three ninjas watching the group of genins head over to the Forest of Death, who are they and what do they want with Nar... I mean Takeo... What was the promise Takeo made and to who? What was up with the shorter ninja and his quest for revenge against Takeo? Did he have issues in the Village Hidden in the Clouds?
Well, we'll see heh heh...
Next Chapter: Promise vs promise, who's will is stronger? Part 1
Goodbye for now and good luck with whatever!