Chapter 10

Can We?

Natsuki POV

Things seemed to be getting worse around the village. The chunin exams would be soon, and I still didn't know if I was going to compete or not! These chunin exams were the ones where Orochimaru came! I have to be there to help.

I've been training so hard, I may be able to beat Sasuke at this point. If I didn't get to go to this exam, I would kill somebody!

Mai has become sad. It's most likely because I have been so distant. I've been training alone or privately with sensei, so I haven't seen her during training. Missions are short and simple. I complete the mission without a word, and run off.

I've tried training with Team 7, mostly with Sasuke, seeing he's the strongest in the group. Between them and my new job, I was always tired going home. I work at a bakery in the village. My homemade cookies are their best-selling item!

I've gotten my own apartment, so I no longer have to be a nuisance to Sakura and her family. This made things a little easier. Sakura's mom was no longer screaming all the time and Sakura could stop asking me at every turn, "How did training with Sasuke go?"

I wish I could tell her what he was going to do so she could be prepared for it, but I couldn't. She would never believe me anyway. So it didn't matter.

I was walking to Team 7's training grounds. Kakashi had agreed to let me train with them sometimes since it gave Anko-sensei more room to train Mai and Ayume. Hopefully we could all get to the exams.

When I got there Naruto, the usual ball of boundless energy that he was, ran right up to me and hugged me.

"Naruto, let go." Usually all it took was a single glare to make the idiot let go of me, but his grip only tightened.

"Let go, dammit!" I screamed, punching him on the head. Anko-sensei had helped me control my strength a lot better, so I didn't hurt him bad. Only enough to get him off me.

He fell on his butt, rubbing his head. "Natttsukkkiiii…" That stupid, whiney voice pierced through my usual serious air, causing me to roll my eyes.

"I warned you, dobe."

"That's my line." Oh, there was Sasuke. And everyone else.

"Oh, really?" I said calmly, looking over at him. "You can't claim a word, Sasuke."

"No, but I've claimed using it on the blockhead."

"No. I can say whatever I damn well please!"

"Just don't steal my lines!"

"Baka! What are we in, a movie shoot?! I just said that you can't claim a word!"

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi had been watching this the whole time, and this is when Naruto spoke up. "So you're fighting over who gets to call me dobe?"

"No Naruto. We're fighting over the fact that no one can claim a word."

"Ohhhh…. I still don't get it." I looked over at Naruto, a confused look on his face.

"Baka." I turned around and lent against one of the trees. "What was the hug for anyway?" I asked, bored.

"Oh! That's right! We're gonna be in the Chunnin exams!"

"Wow. Really?" I couldn't let them know I knew anything. Of course I already knew that they were in the exams. I just can't let them know that.

"Yeah! We're gonna be chunin! Yes!" Naruto just kept dancing around and singing, "I'm gonna be a chunin, I'm gonna be a chunin!" That numbskull.

Sakura came up to me. "So… are you in the exams?" Sasuke walked up behind her.

"Doubtful. They've only been genin for what? A couple months? It's way too early for them."

"I haven't been told yet. And your one to talk! You've only been genin a couple weeks longer then us!"

For some reason Sasuke and I have been fighting a lot. I was a slight Sasuke fangirl back on Earth, but there's more of a rivalry between us then anything now.

"Yes, but we're more skilled then you."

"Oh really?" I smirked. "If I wanted to I could kick your ass. Fortunately for you, I'm hoping to get into the exams and am building chakra reserves."

Sasuke just scoffed and went out into the forest, most likely to decimate a few trees. I laughed and turned to Naruto.

"This will be the only time it's here for a few years, right?" I asked, already knowing the answer. "That makes it far more interesting and exciting. People from all different villagers, all different shinobi lands, all coming here. I wonder what they're like."

My thoughts strayed to Garra. That dangerous, cute, strong, half-psychotic killer. The one that had never known love. If I could only show him what his own tattoo meant.

All he'd ever known were looks of hate or fear, because of something which he had no control over and no choice of. One comes to be like what they see around them. Those looks of hate were all he knew, and so he had permanently adopted such a look.

People feared him automatically, and for no real reason. If he could learn what true love was, he would see an emotion he did not know of, and it may change him completely…

I couldn't get my hopes up now. If I soften Garra, he may die during his fight with Deidara, instead of during the extraction. If he was killed early, there goes a gigantic chunk of plot, and he may not be saved. I could not endanger Garra's life by having him fall in love.

I turned my thoughts back to the exams. If my team enters, there will be extra people. That means that there will be more scrolls during the second exam, and more competitors in the preliminaries and finals.

That may mean that I may not have to fight a main character. Yay. The mains always win unless it is significant to the plot that they lose. But first I had to get in…

"ki….Natsuki! Wake up, Dattebayo!" I bolted at the sound of the noise.

"Sorry Naruto. You say something?" He just looked sad and sighed.

"You really need to stop doing that. I said, you should go ask Anko if you made it. It would be great if you did!"

I got off the tree and nodded at Naruto, speeding off. My speed and stamina had increased greatly since I've been here. Thanks to my training, I can do 50 laps around the whole village before my asthma even starts to kick in. Which is fantastic seeing how much my stamina sucked back when I was a human. Or am I still human? Does it even matter at this point? I would ponder it later.

I made it into the forest, arriving at our teams meeting spot. Anko-sensei, Mai, and Ayume were all there. Good.

"Ah, just in time Natsuki. I just told Mai and Ayume that" she got cut off by Mai's scream of excitement.

"Yesss!! I'm gonna win! I'm gonna win, and I'll be a chunin! Yes!!!" She ran up to me and hugged me. Great. More hugs. I was about to shoot her a glare when I saw that her eyes were serious.

We would have to talk about what would go on at the chunin exams in private. For now though, we just had to act like we were thrilled to get to participate.

Not to hard, just tricking a bunch of highly trained shinobi with a single smile.

………………hi…………………..

After this, it will be a while until I get any new chapters up. Fans of the series, I would suggest setting up an alert so you'll know when it gets up.

-Natsuki

-KunaiBlade

-Vietnam