Aaah it's been so long since I updated!! I've had major writer's block in ALL of my stories, but I think I finally got some inspiration enough to finish this chapter!
Last Time:
"You're… from Haijin… aren't you?" Yuki asked. The boy nodded, still not facing Yuki.
The two of them stood there for another minute or so, Mamoru still facing away from Yuki. Finally, he broke the silence. "…What… are you?" He asked.
Yuki was taken by surprise by his question. "Wh-what am I?" Yuki repeated. "You mean… who am I?"
Mamoru said nothing at first. "…Sure." He said. Yuki gulped.
"I-I'm Hisako Yuki." She said proudly. Mamoru nodded again.
"I see." He said as he began walking towards the edge of the roof again. "Farewell for now, Hisako Yuki." He said; suddenly, he launched himself off of the roof and landed gracefully on the ground below.
Yuki let out a long sigh. "M-mamoru…" She breathed. "I feel bad for the poor Genin that has to fight him…" Yuki shook her head, pulling herself together. "And that feeling…" She whispered to herself, "such killer intent…"
Chapter 10
The next morning, Akari woke up early. She sat up in her bed and blinked groggily. She yawned and looked at her clock.
7:34
Akari moaned and lay back down. She put her hands behind her head and sighed. She really didn't want to get up. Well, half of her did, half of her didn't.
Today was the beginning of the Chunin Exams.
By the time Akari had completely woken up and had gotten out of bed, it was 8:30. She stumbled out of her bedroom and into her kitchen. She opened her screen enough for her head to stick through and she stuck it out. She could smell Ichiraku's ramen from her balcony.
Smiling, Akari shut the screen door and walked into the kitchen. She popped a microwave ramen pack into the microwave and walked back into her bedroom. She opened her closet and yawned.
Akari grabbed her usual outfit and held it up against her body. She cocked her head to one side. She raised an eyebrow at herself in the mirror. Then, sighing, she threw the outfit onto her bed. "Nah…" She muttered.
Akari went sifting through her closet for something else to wear. Finally, she found something. Smiling, she held the outfit against her body; it was a short sleeve, green camouflage shirt with black sleeves. Akari nodded and slipped the shirt on.
Instead of tying her hair in a ponytail like she would normally do, Akari left her hair down and stuck a hair tie in her pocket. Akari had put on a pair of jet-black Capri pants. She had her kunai holster strapped to her right leg and she tied her Konoha headband around her neck.
To complete her outfit, Akari dug through her dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of black, fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back—like Kakashi's.
After examining herself in the mirror, Akari nodded and smiled. Then, she heard the beeping of the microwave and ran into the kitchen.
After she was done eating, Akari grabbed her gear and registration papers—for the Exam—and hurried out the door. By now it was 9:54. The exams started at eleven.
Akari ran down the hall and hopped over the guardrail. She landed—barely—in front of Ichiraku.
"Hey! Akari!" Teuchi—the owner—exclaimed. "How 'bout some ramen?"
"Sorry Mr. Teuchi!" Akari called, running down the street. "I've gotta get going! I'm taking the Chunin Exams!!"
Teuchi blinked, then smiled. "Good luck!!" He yelled. Akari smiled.
"Thank you!" She called back.
Akari ran down a busy street and almost slammed into a few people. After a while, she skidded down an alley and tried to find a shortcut.
That… didn't really work.
In only a matter of minutes, Akari had gotten lost. Frustrated with herself and worrying that she would be late, Akari wandered down random alleys.
At least half an hour later, Akari finally found her way to Konoha's main street. Sighing, she walked up to a large building—the building the Chunin Exams would take place.
Shaking her head, Akari smiled and walked confidently into the building. She followed a group of Genin up a few flights of steps until she finally came to a HUGE room filled with dangerous looking people.
But one thing caught her eye: Naruto's orange-ness. Akari breathed a sigh of relief and tried looking for her team. She spotted Yuki leaning against a wall in the front—foot holding her up—and Kasumi with the rest of the Rookie Nine.
Suddenly, the doors flew open and a few men walked in. Akari turned around and her eyes went wide; the lead man's face was covered in scars. Akari slowly backed away until she was with her friends.
The man spoke up. "Quiet down you maggots." He demanded. "Each of you will get a number that corresponds to a seat." He paused. "When you get your number take your seat and we'll begin the written test."
The whole room grew silent. Naruto's eyes were wide as well as Kasumi and Akari's. Yuki, from the corner of the room, smirked.
'NO!' Akari thought. 'A written test?!'
The man with the scars passed out pieces of paper with numbers on it. Akari got number 85. Sighing, she took her seat.
A minute later, the Genin that would sit next to her sat down. Peering out of the corner of her right eye, Akari saw a flicker of red hair.
She swore her heart skipped a beat.
It was Gaara!
Mentally flipping out, she turned to whoever would be to her left. She also flipped out over this person. It was a woman with black hair and black eyes. She wore a tan and black outfit with a purple rope tied around it. She had a Grass Village headband on as well.
Something about this woman freaked Akari out. She couldn't really tell what about her made her uneasy, but it was definitely something.
The man with the scars passed out the test papers in silence. He proceeded to explain the rules of the test and then was silent.
"You have three hours!" He announced at the end. "Begin!!"
Akari flipped her paper over and her eyes shot wide.
Math. Shit!
Akari groaned and literally slammed her head on the desk. She noticed Gaara roll his eyes and continue looking at his paper.
This was going to be a long three hours…
Meanwhile, at number 62…
Hisako Yuki stared blankly at her test paper. Half of it looked like gibberish. She blinked and her eye zipped to the corner. She was sitting next to the two worst people she could possibly sit next to—in her opinion: Uchiha Sasuke, and a Cloud Village ninja.
Great.
Always hating other villages, Yuki loathed the Cloud Village with a passion. No one—not even Jotaro—knew why. Or if they did, they weren't about to tell anyone.
Yuki also loathed Sasuke, but maybe a little less than the Cloud Village. She and Sasuke had always been archrivals ever since Yuki entered the academy.
Suddenly, a chill ran down Yuki's spine. The shinobi in front of her had his headband on backwards, acting as somewhat of a mirror. Yuki peered into the metal plate and her eye twitched. That Mamoru kid was sitting behind her. Yuki gulped and looked down at her paper. She groaned.
Yuki rested her head in one hand. She rolled her eyes slightly and for a split second noticed a small mirror in the ceiling. Knowing she couldn't turn around, Yuki just stared at it, hoping to see where it came from. But she had no luck.
'Huh…' Yuki thought, 'somebody's cheating…' Then she noticed a few others cheating as well. She could see Inuzuka Kiba talking to his dog, Sasuke had his Sharingan activated, and that Gaara freak was using some kind of foreign jutsu.
That's when Yuki noticed Akari. She seemed shaken up by something. Then, she remembered what had happened the other day. Shaking her head, Yuki began drumming her fingers on the desk.
Finally growing bored, Yuki did what she thought was necessary: she cautiously pressed her hands together and performed a strange hand sign. She muttered something under her breath and a small dark cloud began forming above the person in front of her. The boy's hair began to stand on end and soon he tried to flatten his hair down.
Smirking to herself, Yuki took her chance. A small yellow streak slowly glided down in front of the bust kid and Yuki could see the reflection of his paper. Laughing silently, she dispersed the jutsu and scribbled down some answers.
Yuki could feel Mamoru's eyes on her as she cheated. He was probably doing something to look off of her paper, but at the moment, she wasn't concerned with that.
Over at 33…
Hideki Kasumi was having it easy at the back of the room. For once, she was confident and relaxed.
Her red eyes had turned white and the whites of her eyes were red. She held her hands in a strange position and sat as still as a stone.
What she was looking at would've been undetected by the normal human eye. But from Kasumi's point of view, everything was gray… except for the people around her.
Sitting in front of her was Haruno Sakura. The only thing Kasumi could see of her was a pink outline and thousands of pink threads all through her body…
Her chakra threads.
To people with Kasumi's kekke genkai, they can see people's chakra by different colors. Granted, some people have the same color, so the technique isn't without its flaws.
Not only could Kasumi see Sakura's chakra, she could also see where it had been. Concentrating, she found her chakra marks on her paper and began to copy them as best as she could.
Piece of cake.
Two hours and forty-five had gone by and Akari hadn't gotten a single answer.
Now she was freaking out.
She glanced out of the corners of her eyes for something—anything to copy.
Suddenly, the person to her right did the most unexpected thing imaginable; he shifted his paper over an inch.
Akari froze for a moment. She glanced up at the shinobi next to her—and then remembered who it was, and her eyes widened.
Gaara was trying to help her!
Akari stared at him for a second. He avoided eye contact. Akari felt her breath caught in her throat. The only thing she could force out was a muffled, "Wha…?"
Gaara glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. "I want to fight your teammate." He said darkly. Akari was taken aback, but she was somewhat relieved… and still freaked at the same time. "Hisako Yuki… right?"
Akari nodded slightly. Gaara closed his eyes.
"She can't advance if you keep holding her back." He snapped, with malice. Akari blinked, but said nothing. "You and that blond girl… pathetic…"
Now Akari felt a little anger, but still kept quiet.
Gaara continued quietly. "If she doesn't advance… I'll come after her anyway… but if she doesn't… I'm coming after you as well…"
Akari's eyes widened and suddenly she felt the urge to cheat!
So she did, furiously scribbling down Gaara's answers.
Although she only got a few answers down—due to Gaara's handwriting and the pressure she felt—Akari felt like she was doing ok…
…Until the man with the scars began to speak again.
"Stop writing!" He ordered. "It's time for the tenth question." He paused. "I'll warn you… if you chicken out and don't want to answer the question, you may leave now and take the exams another time." He paused again as a few Genin sighed in relief. "However…" He continued. "If you attempt to answer the question and get it wrong… you'll NEVER be able to take the exams EVER again. You will stay a Genin for the rest of your lives. Got it?"
The entire room was silent. From the back, Kasumi sat with her mouth slightly ajar. Yuki's eyes were narrowed like slits. Akari's heart was racing.
'The only reason I got this far was because of Gaara!' She thought, glancing over at the Sand Ninja. 'I'm dead!' She looked around and tried to find Naruto. 'It'd be better if I just quit while I'm ahead! I can always take the exam next year, right? … Right…?'
There was a long, eerie pause. At first no one said anything. But then, gradually, Genin began to stand up and leave the room. Akari's heart was still beating fast.
Suddenly, Naruto stood up, hands balled into fists. Akari's eyes widened. She never in a million years thought Naruto would back down.
Naruto barred his teeth together and took a deep breath. Then, he laughed loudly and slammed his fist on the desk.
"If you think I'd back down that easily, you're dead WRONG!!" He shouted. Everyone was silent. "I'm in 'til the end!!"
In a few seconds, a few others—including the rest of the Rookie Nine—began standing up exclaiming 'Me too!' and 'Me three' and so on.
But no one in Squad Nine said anything. Finally, from the back of the room, Hideki Kasumi slowly stood up. Akari turned around to find her friend looking confident and sure of herself; Yuki was leaning back in her chair, hands folded across her chest. Her eyes were closed and she had a blank look on her face.
Kasumi took a deep breath. "I… I may have chickened out last time…" She began, "B-but I'm not going anywhere this time!!"
From the middle of the two Squad Nine teammates, Yuki smirked. She opened her eyes and raised one hand.
"You can't get rid of us that easy." She said emotionlessly. Akari bit her lip. Could she do this?
And then she realized something.
Already, in her thirteen years on this earth, she'd been teleported through dimensions—twice—survived crazy antics with Uzumaki Naruto, ninja training with Iruka, crazy and ridiculous missions, almost getting killed a few times by a Mist Ninja maniac, standing face to face—eye to eye—with Sabuka no Gaara, and survived training sessions with an ANBU black op.
OF COURSE she could do this!!
Drawing up as much courage as she could, Akari shot out of her seat, causing Gaara to give her a weird look, and thrust her finger at the man with the scars.
"Team Nine," She began, "WILL SURVIVE THIS THING 'TIL THE END!! We're not backing down, and we NEVER will!!"
The man with the scars' eyes narrowed, but then, he smiled.
"Well then," He began, "Congratulations. You all pass."
Akari, Yuki, and Kasumi all blinked curiously. Yuki raised an eyebrow and sat upright in her chair.
"Wh-what the hell?" Akari managed.
The man with the scars smiled. "You heard me." He continued. "You all pass. The tenth question was to see if you had the confidence to take it to the next level. And you all had that confidence."
After a small moment of silence, the entire room erupted with cheers and laughter. Akari and Naruto turned to each other and gave the victory sign, laughing. Akari turned towards Kasumi and did the same. She gave Akari the thumbs up and smiled. Then, Akari turned to Yuki and smiled, flashing the thumbs up, but something was wrong…
Yuki had both hands gripping her head; she had her middle finger pressed against her temples; her eyes were squeezed shut and her teeth were barred.
Overall, she looked in pain.
I'm happy with how this came out ^-^ I actually had this chapter already written up, but when the Haijin shinobi came in, it was a major setback. Luckily, all I needed to do in this chapter was edit a little ^-^
So let me know what you think, and Please Review!!
The New Kid Fact #2
Originally, Yuki, Kasumi, and Jotaro were place-fillers.
Yuki and Kasumi weren't supposed to have major roles, but now they really do.
The two of them weren't supposed to go on the Land of Waves mission either.