A/N: Ah, hello. Here is the tenth chapter. I decided to cut a bit so the finals are after all in the next one. But here is some jounin lounge goodness. I hope the canon cast is in character.
And! We'll have some more insight into Minami's and Akio's personalities before the shit hits the fan.
Chapter ten: Finally the Leaves see through the Fog of secrets
"Hanafuda?" Minami held up the cards at Akio. The brunette's lips twitched.
"Sure. After the excitement of yesterday I need something relaxing now."
"Definitely." The blonde sighed.
But before we go to the card game and the month full of training, let's take a look at the Konoha shinobi and how they assessed the chuunin exams held.
A week ago, jounin lounge
There was jounin senseis of Konoha and other jounin (and tokubetsu jounin) gathered. Some chuunin had had the bright idea to install cameras to the rooms of the first part of the exam and also the forest of death. How the cameras at the forest would survive an entire week was anyone's guess.
"Interesting to see the batch of this year." Mitarashi Anko grinned borderline sadistically and leaned closer to one of the screens in the lounge.
"Are the rumors true that specifically T&I is going to organize the next ones since it's general Intelligence this year?" Yuuhi Kurenai asked next to her friend.
"Perhaps. You gotta confirm with Ibiki though."
"Who has the tally of participating teams?" One of the jounin in the room asked.
"Aoba I think… For some reason he was taking the applications this morning." Tatami Iwashi mused. "Does anyone know why?"
"…Didn't he leave his post for some poor chuunin around midday?" Hatake Kakashi (Miraculously in time. Or not, he was actually shirking from a meeting while in the lounge.) asked from behind his Icha Icha book. "I heard the chuunin got harassed by an Iwa team."
"Aoba does work for Intelligence." Anko mused and then turned to talk with a pair of Tokubetsu Jounin entering the lounge. "Hey, Genma! Seen Aoba? I wanna set up betting pool for the teams making it to the third round!"
"Nah, haven't seen him the whole week." Senbon clacked against the man's teeth as he spoke. "I did hear he was planning to gather his old genin team for reunion though."
"Dragging Toshiro along then?" Namiashi Raidou frowned as he followed the senbon user to the seats near one of the screens.
"Yeah, why?" Why did Raidou seem so displeased about the notion of his cousin?
"Toshiro has been avoiding me during this week too."
"And Aura then?"
"Haven't seen her either." Anko announced. "But she seemed really interested in one of the teams coming here."
"…" Gekkoo Hayate attempted to speak up. And promptly coughed into his fist. "Do you think Aoba wanted that team's application then? If he left in the middle of his shift?"
"Possible." Iwashi shrugged. "But why would he – or those three anyways – be interested in some genin team from some other village before the exam even starts?"
"Tanigakure…" Kakashi stated. "Didn't their jounin sensei, Namikaze Nanami, move to Tanigakure?"
"Yeah…" A comprehension dawned on the faces gathered around.
"And there is that Academy student from Tanigakure, too, isn't there?" Kurenai asked. "On the same class with majority of clan heirs."
"I think Toshiro does have kept contact with his sensei…" Raidou thought aloud. If there had been any other remarks to be made, those trains of thought were interrupted when the self-proclaimed Green Beast of Konoha and Eternal Rival of Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, barged in.
"YOSH, MY YOUTHFUL COLLEAGUES! I HAVE THE LISTS WITH ME! AS SOON AS I HEARD OF YOUR ANGUISH, I WENT TO GET THEM FROM AOBA-SAN!"
"Finally!" Anko jumped from her seat and snatched the papers from the taijutsu master's strong grip. It was a miracle that they weren't ripped apart. "Who wants Konoha's listing? Aoba has already put down probabilities for passing." She held up one of the papers. It was taken by one of the jounin sensei of the participating teams.
"Iwa and Kumo!"
"Mizu and Suna!"
"Minor villages!" (minus Tani because on some standards they didn't exactly fit into the definition minor)
The papers were dealt. Some more copies of the Konoha one was spread around the lounge.
"What about Tani, Anko?" Raidou asked. He didn't fail to notice that the three jounin previously mentioned in the conversation were still absent.
"That's…" The woman chewed on a dango stick thoughtfully. Where had she pulled one didn't matter. Something about the paper she still had in her hand, was obviously bothering her. "They sent two teams… One of them is a regular one but the other… Apparently they picked one student from three separate teams. They have the senseis listed here." Diversion tactic, now!
"Ooh, are the senseis big names then?" Where had Yuugao come from?
"Sure, just listen. Kisaragi Shigure, Torino Fukurou and Nohara Mari. The Shadow Killers themselves." Anko grinned. "Their students ought to be tough stuff." She pointedly wasn't looking at Genma.
"The Shadow Killers?!" Some of the jounin gasped.
"They have students?"
"Didn't they anger both Iwa and Kumo at the same time?"
There, diversion success! Anko tucked the paper(neatly folded) into the waistband of her skirt. She'd confront Aoba later. And his two teammates. And set up the betting pool. Oh, she couldn't wait.
During the first exam
"Considering the amount of applicants this year the tasks are tailored to be cut down as many teams a possible, right?" Kurenai asked aloud as she and her fellow chuunin and jounin watched the first part of the exam taking place in three separate rooms.
"Yeah. The second task especially. It'll reduce the remaining group into fifth." Anko grinned. "Man, I wish in three years I'll have the same opportunity."
"It's sort of disappointing how easily some of these are failing." Raidou grumbled. "It's like some villages tried to hide their poor quality in quantity."
"It's like they don't have any faith in their team mates either." Iwashi pointed out. "Once the crowd started to thin, chuunin plants for example, they began making more mistakes because of their nerves and the suspicion that their teammates will screw up. And behaviour like that has no business in chuunin exam."
"Ooh, that kid is using chakra strings. I thought it was predominantly Suna technique." A jounin sensei of one of the teams noted.
"Where?" His colleague leant closer.
"The kid on the third row of room number two."
"Indeed. I'm more interested in the girl in room three though. She seems to be using Hyoton."
"Those two are from Tani, right?" Yuugao mused. "Who's their third teammate?"
"If the silent confidence shared between the other two is anything to go by, I'd say it's the blonde in the backrow of room number one." Hayate answered to his would-be-fiance. When Anko took a look at the trio spoken of, she couldn't help but marvel how none of the jounin(+TokuJo) had mentioned their alikeness to certain people. But then, sometimes even shinobi tended to be willfully blind to certain things.
During the second exam (next day)
"I don't know what should I think about the tactics of some of these teams." Ibiki grunted with a frown. One of the cameras in the Forest of Death had just recorded how team from Iwa steam rolled a team from Konoha. Neither team had had any proper coordination between the members.
"Despair?" Anko grinned. "Seen Aoba by the way? I wanted to see if he was going to participate on the betting pool."
"No. Not since yesterday when everyone else also did. At the canteen for lunch."
"Ho?"
"He yelled for everyone to hear how 'mini-Nami' had finally arrived. Soon after that Toshiro and Aura followed him out."
"And no one has seen them since." Tobitake Tonbo added as he took a seat next to the snake summoner. "Pity, I had a nice conversation with Aura-chan."
"Mini-Nami, huh?" Anko mused, her thoughts drifting to the name she'd read from the application list what she'd concealed from everyone else then. PIeces of puzzle she'd suspected already were falling into their places and confirming the picture she'd her head.
Last day of the second exam
There was whispers among Konoha genin. About a not just about any ghost. No, it was about a ghost of the Yellow Flash. The whispers travelled through the genin taking part of the chuunin exams(both Konohan and foreign) and via them to jounin senseis and the rest of the rank. Thus when the genin teams were assembled at the hall in the central tower of Forest of Death, the atmosphere was… tense. No one knew what to make of those rumours and no one really knew where it had began from in the first place. Was it some sort of hallucination caused by the forest or a tricky genjutsu? Was this phenomena face only by th Konohan's or other genin too?
The genin were assembled into lines and Hokage was at the front with the proctors and jounin senseis. Mari was acting as a sensei for Minami's team. She was the least conspicuous and least known of the three Shadow Killers after all.
Minami stood in the middle of his team's line. As Akio was tallest one of them currently(and Haru shortest) they'd decided to assemble according to height and not a perceived strength or position in the hierarchy of the team. It'd also throw a bit the other teams and gave Minami a chance to hide. Especially with the rumours going around. Rumours which greatly irked him. After he'd been called the Yellow Flash's ghost back in the forest, he'd decided to put an end to any possible rumours right then and there. And proceeded to hide in one of the rooms in the tower when he waited the days to tick by. And while the Konoha team responsible of this whole mess hadn't made it to the final round somehow they'd gotten the word to their fellows and from there it had spread like a wildfire. And if the ticking vein on his temple was anything to go by, he probably wouldn't last long.
Akio watched with slight amusement when his teammate bowed his head a gritted his teeth while the Sandaime Hokage droned on and on. It was obvious that they boy was trying to listen to the speech but without much success. The brunette couldn't wait to see how Minami would react this time. Minami rarely lost his patience but when he did, the results were spectacular. No, the blonde didn't explode in rage. Instead he became deathly calm and composed and gave off an impression of someone beyond his years and experience. Like a ghost of the old. It was something hypnotising to see Minami to verbally rip apart his opponents while letting out a subtle but bone-chilling killing-intent. It was like being in the middle of Haru's ice mirrors except that you had no idea whether you'd be dead afterwards or not. With Haru you knew that if you were an enemy, you were dead. If you were an ally, you were not. When Minami snapped, you did not want to be on the receiving end of his icy-cold stare that lied in a mask of indifference or polite smile. Or a venomous glare but that wouldn't be talked out. Akio had to repress a shudder even when thinking about it. That combination mission with teams Five and Eight hadn't been a nice mission to begin with.
Haru glanced behind at her teammates. Minami was clenching and unclenching his fists, trying to keep calm. Akio was watching his friend with amusement and concealed wariness. What Haru had learnt about the to boys was that they were quite similar. Both semi-polite and laid-back with penchant for pranks. Both calm and collected for the most of time and when one of them began to be nervous for a reason or another, the other would start joking and making sure one wouldn't drift too far from present. Like had happened during the first days in Konoha. Akio had been nervous of being discovered to be the 'technically kidnapped' boy from nine years ago so Minami kept an eye on him. And now Minami seemed to be reaching his temper's end point so Akio kept an eye on him a was ready to step in and silence anyone who'd come into the way. It a was a good dynamic. And surprisingly Haru had fitted into it as well. She wasn't sure how, but she didn't feel like an outsider with them.
Hokage ended his speech and the Inuzuka proctor from the beginning of the second exam held out a box. The applicants were to pick a number which would be situated in the tournament roster then. How much it would be rigged, no one knew. Except the one who possibly rigged them of course. The tags were picked in the order in which the teams had come to the tower.
(No one was surprised when Konoha-nin drew number fifteen and had the chance to sit out the first match.)
Haru drew number one. Akio had number five. Minami looked at the number eleven in the rectangular tag he held in his hand. The genin were now a disorganized group and eyeing each other speculatively. The Iwa genin Minami would face in his first match was sneering(no surprise there).
"Yer the ghost, aren'che?" The Iwa boy spat out. His name was Masamune or something to that direction. Minami honestly didn't care. He simply stared despondently at the older boy who radiated arrogance and stupidity. Not to mention the way he spoke. Completely mangled.
"I'd consider your next words carefully." Minami stated calmly. His already thin and stretched nerves were wearing really thin. While he didn't usually mind being compared to his uncle, the manner it was done here: without any factual knowledge, was annoying. He was his own person, thank you very much.
"Why? Ye goin' ta kill me like that dead corpse of a Ho-."
"Shut up."
That words weren't loud. They weren't a whisper either. But they were a command. A command that swept the entire room and made people listen and turn their attention to the duo in the middle of the room. Other competitors were giving them a wide breath, making it obvious who were the cause of the commotion. Not that the jounin in the room would have any problems in spotting it.
Two teens. One large, tall and dark-colored, with tanned skin and dark eyes and hair(mud colored really). The other slim, shorter and light-colored, with pale skin and blue eyes and blonde hair. The contrast was clear between the two as was the power balance, but not to the direction to which a casual observer would tilt the scales.
The genin around were holding their breaths.
"Shut up before you foul this air with your stupidity." At the back of the crowd, leaning against the wall, Akio winced. It was the in different mask this time. Minami wouldn't even bother to be polite. And twinge of killing intent leaking wasn't really helping matters. Oh, well… He'd step in before something drastic would happen.
"How dare ye! Don'che know who yer talkin' ta, ghost?"
Minami inhaled. And exhaled. He was already trying to reign in his temper. "Technically the second part of exam is over and the third one hasn't started. That means there is no in-exam restrictions for me to kill you right here and now. Or during the up-coming weeks. Because neither of us is a Konoha shinobi, they wouldn't be able to retaliate either. Or course it could cause more of a strain between Iwagakure and Tanigakure but that's minor compared to what my sensei has managed during the last years… At most I'd receive a bingobook entry but in the end not many would be interested in me since I'm a relatively unknown genin still… Do you really want to try my patience once more? Or would you rather wait until the tournament where you might have a marginal chance of defeating me after a month of training and information gathering?"
"I… As if ye could beat me!" This specimen was more thick skulled that Minami had approximated. The blonde sighed once again and a kunai fell onto his hand from his jacket sleeve.
"You are trying my patience. One last chance. Even though you aren't even worth of the effort."
For some reason the jounin around were simply observing the situation. Maybe because there wasn't a Konoha genin in line. Or a clan kid. Because even the Iwa team's jounin sensei was doing nothing.
Or maybe, they wanted to see if Minami really was the ghost of the Fourth Hokage. Well, Akio wouldn't let that happen. The brunette pushed himself off the wall and walked casually through the crowd, stopping right behind Minami but not apart from the people behind him.
"Mina-chan, maybe intimidation is already enough? You can humiliate and slaughter and whatever hell you want to in the tournament then." Akio tucked his hands into his pockets and rocked on his heels. The silence was palpable. He could almost taste it.
Minami straightened his back. He had been half-hunched while trying the keep calm and remained so when threatening. The blonde fixed a narrow icy-cold stare on the genin who obviously didn't realize he'd been saved from certain death here only to be thrown into certain humiliation. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. The blonde sighed once more and tucked the kunai away. He turned on his heels and strode to Akio.
"Don't call me that, I'm two months older that you, Aki."
"Whatever you say, Mina." Akio shrugged with a relieved smirk on his face. He was about to lead Minami away from the crowd when the blonde spoke with clear voice.
"For everyone's information… I'd appreciate if you didn't compare me to my uncle. My name is Kazekoi Minami and I'm a shinobi of Tanigakure no Sato. I'm not a ghost of a dead man regardless of how much I respect him."
Meanwhile in the Jounin lounge once more
"Stop the video." Genma told Hayate. The sickly pale man obliged in the midst of harsh coughs. "Who is that kid?" The senbon user pointed a brown-haired boy with bandana-styled headband(with Hayate's style though, not Genma's) and goggles hanging from his neck. The quality of the video didn't capture the facial features that well but Genma could guess he was from Tani.
"Hmm… I'm not sure. Anko had the last list of applicants."
"I can try and find her." Yuugao offered. "It's weird how she never let us see that last page of the list and kept it for herself." With a whirl of leaves, the purple haired woman was gone.
"That's true." Kurenai nodded slowly. "She only mentioned that the Shadow Killer's were the senseis for them and by that time the first exam began we were paying attention that and not to the list itself."
Next to Genma, Raidou slowly reached to let the video from the central tower play on. It showed the altercation between Tani genin and Iwa genin. The threats weren't heard; they were said too quietly for the camera microphones to catch them(though the Iwa genin's responses were loud and clear). But then the blonde Tani-nin spoke up.
"For everyone's information… I'd appreciate if you didn't compare me to my uncle. My name is Kazekoi Minami and I'm shinobi of Tanigakure no Sato. I'm not a ghost of a dead man regardless of how much I respect him."
A stunned silence was among the jounin now too. Even Kakashi who'd lurked on the background with his orange book, was paying attention.
"Uncle?" Iwashi frowned. "Isn't that the kid who was the cause of the ghost rumours? The behavior just now would fit at least."
Kurenai, piecing two and two together, nodded slowly. "That would explain Aoba's behavior too. Wasn't Kazekoi Kenta the name of his sensei's fiancee?"
"You mean that after Nanami-san left to Tani, she had a kid there? This Minami kid?" Raidou pointed at the screen.
"Quite likely. And a reunion like that would easily be that cause of old Team Nanami's disappearance."
"But what about the brunette then? There must be something about him too, since Genma is all hackles raised about him."
"Maa… Genma, don't those two look like the two kids who visited Konoha two years ago?" Kakashi spoke up then. "The Two Month's of Terror?"
The senbon user groaned. "Oh, hell no…"
"Those two!?" Raidou choked on nothing. "They were a menace. Especially when teaming up with the Uzumaki brat."
"Didn't Anko try to chase them down after their stunt in T&I?" Kurenai giggled.
"That I did. And didn't succeed." And cue the entrance of the resident dango had apparently tracked the woman down and brought her to the lounge. "Now what is this about? I was in the middle of drafting the odds for the tournament betting…"
"Already?" Hayate frowned. "The results are barely out."
"Aoba." Anko replied like it explained everything. And it did really. One way or other.
"You found him then?"
"Yup, yesterday. And then today. The Terrible Trio was at Ichiraku's with Torino Fukurou."
"Terrible Trio? Since when was that a thing?" A new voice joined the conversation. It was Takenaka Aura who apparently had followed the two younger kunoichis to the tower.
"Since you three began conspiring with the Jounin Commander of Tanigakure." Kakashi replied.
"Since our graduation then." Aura deadpanned and sank into one of the couches in the lounge. "No one exactly bothered to intercept our letters to Nanami-sensei back then. And then Minato-san became Hokage and wouldn't have stopped it even if he had the authority to. And now… Sandaime-sama either doesn't know, doesn't think it's relevant or has forgotten about the matter, or something along those veins."
"So… That blonde Tanigakure kid? Is he Nanami-san't son?" Raidou asked.
"Yeah. Cute kid, aren't he?" Aura grinned. "Fastest kid I've ever met. I bet he'll eventually surpass his uncle too. With Fukurou-san's tutelage that's more than guaranteed."
"Torino Fukurou… The Seer. Wasn't he identified as the two pranksters contact two years ago? When the strange rain hit village?" Iwashi thought aloud.
"The same rain that was over Forest of Death some days ago?" Yuugao threw in. Next to her, Anko sighed in irritation.
"Are you going to keep speculating or tell me why you actually dragged me away from my dango?"
"The list." Hayate spoke up. "*cough* You have the list of the Tanigakure participants that you refused to give us."
"Ah… Yes. I need to confirm something with Aoba but when I couldn't find him at first I just… Well, I just kept the list for myself." Anko sort of lied smoothly. She had only yesterday managed to confront the Intelligence TokuJo and squeeze the full story from him and Toshiro and Aura.
"So, since you've been in contact with him by now, you can give the list to us, right?" Iwashi smiled. "Withholding information must've messed up with some of the betting."
Anko swallowed. This wasn't her secret to tell. Yeah, the shit would hit the fan eventually but… The young woman glanced at Aura who was following the conversations with disinterested face. Their eyes met and the older kunoichi sighed.
"Go ahead, Anko-chan. They'd find out sooner or later anyways. And I bet by the time Nanami-sensei comes to the village, Hokage-sama will call a meeting with some of us."
"A meeting?" Genma frowned a suddenly everyone's eyes were on Aura. And woman just flicked her blonde hair behind her ear and didn't answer, waiting for Anko to show the list for the shinobi in the room. And like on command the paper exchanged hands between two purple haired women.
"I wash my hands from this. The whole situation is way too messy. Contact me again if you have bets to set for the tournament." Anko huffed and left with a whirl of her long coat. Yuugao stared at the retreating back before taking a look at the list. And froze.
"This…? How? Why?" The paper was promptly snatched by Hayate who simply coughed with slightly wide eyes before passing the paper along to Kurenai. And so the paper exchanged hands, rendering the jounin in the room into a thoughtful silence. And none of them were willing to look at Genma in the eyes until the paper reached him an Raidou. Aura in the other hand was watching this all in bemusement.
So the last remaining in the dark took a look at the names directly below Kazekoi Minami and…
"Toshiro and Aoba were in the gate guard duty on that day, weren't they?" Raidou spoke up while Genma remained staring at the list, his face completely white and the senbon already fallen on the floor from his lips.
"Yeah. We spoke with Nanami-sensei before she left with Fukurou-kun and Minami-kun… And Akio-kun too, since the boy so nicely asked to come along with them." Aura smiled, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the atmosphere in the room had completely changed.
A/N: Here. Phew. I hope you enjoyed this, reviews are welcome too. In the next chapter will be a meeting at Hokage's office when the Akio's disappearance is finally solved and it's time for him to make decision: whether to join Konoha forces or remain in Tani. Also, the final's will finally take the place and there will be three Kage and Nanami in attendance. Also, Fukurou is back in town, what will happen? Find out next time!
(Damn, that sounded so cheesy...)
I noticed when rereading my previously published chapters that I did not explain which techniques Haru, Mina and Aki are talking about when in Konoha. I'll rectify it here.
From chapter 8:
-Hiden: Shuugou Senshin - Hivemind technique that allows the user connect their mind with others. It's close to what the Yamanaka did during the Fourth War but not the same. The proper explanation will come when I introduce my Hanada characters to the story(no, Hanada Mirai doesn't count, she has another purpose).
-Hyoton: Hyome Kagami - Ice Release: Ice-Eye Mirror. Inspired by both Haku's mirrors and Gaara's sand eye. Haru can observe everything from the mirror even though she remains on her seat.
In general I try to use techniques found in Naruto Wikia(Like the ones used in chapter 9) but when needed, I'll come up with my own.
Poll for SI-OC is still open if you are interested. Pairing suggestions are also open. And other suggestions. My plot has lot of empty spaces for fillers currently.