I streamlined this chapter; no nosy Iruka trying to qualify Team 7, no pissing contest between Lee and Sasuke.
The building itself wasn't intimidating. It was the academy: a building with a green, square face and a large leaf symbol over the door; it was familiar and nostalgic, but this time, we were going up to the third floor. We went in the front door and up a flight of stairs. There was a mass of people crowded around room 301.
"I guess everyone's registering in that room," I said.
But instead of entering, everyone was gathered around a fight. A strapping young boy in a green leotard fell against a wall, and his attacker gloated loudly.
"Maybe you kids should just go back to preschool; this test is for real genin, weakling." He aimed another kick at the downed kid and I almost stepped in; Sasuke beat me to the punch.
"Hey, asshole," he interjected, "why don't you drop the tough guy routine? The genjutsu, too. It's painfully obvious."
What?
I gasped a small "oh"; we'd only gone up one flight of stairs, so it wasn't the third floor, and this wasn't room 301. The genin sniffed and threw a kick at Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke matched with his own.
Before they made contact, the green ninja got to his feet and caught a shin in each hand. His face cleared of fear and now bore only solid determination. He released their legs.
Again, what?
His teammates looked disappointed.
"Lee, wasn't it your idea to hide our abilities?" the girl hissed. Her hair was pulled into two cute buns; I noticed she had two extra weapon pouches on her belt. I saw the boy next - his white, pupil-less eyes flicked toward me and Naruto in disdain.
"Drop the genjutsu," Sasuke repeated. The genin with the red nose made a reluctant sign. The air shimmered like a mirage, and the sign changed from 301 to 201.
"Let's go," Sasuke said, turning to leave. I was still trying to process the events of the past few seconds; I had the distinct impression that my brain lagged behind the others.
"Wait," the white-eyed boy started. Sasuke stopped. "What is your name?"
Poor Naruto thought the boy was talking to him and piped up, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"
"I was speaking to your teammate. I don't care who you are."
"It's common courtesy to say your own name before demanding someone else's," Sasuke said.
The boy considered it. "Neji Hyuga."
I recalled the name from a history text; the Hyuga were an ancient, powerful clan; a find-and-replace for the Uchihas, right down to the powerful eyes.
"I'm Sasuke. Uchiha."
He must really like saying his name like that.
It was then I realized the green boy was looking at me.
"And I would like to know your name."
"Oh - me? I'm nobody," I said. He shook his head and took my hand. He used the same boxing tape I did.
"No, you are not," he insisted. "Everyone is somebody! I must know your name!" The determination in his eyes was highlighted by his thick eyebrows. I felt like I was looking into the sun.
"Hika Korin," I said, if only to get him to stop holding my hand.
"Hika Korin, I would like to ask you out on a date!"
A fuse blew in my head. "Are you joking? Please, tell me you're joking." I regretted the words instantly, but he took it in stride.
"Absolutely not! I would consider it a great honor!"
"Um... why?"
Naruto grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs before Lee could reply, and I almost did a dance on the landing in relief.
"Thanks," I muttered.
"No problem, he seems like a real weirdo," Naruto grimaced, though they might've had more in common than he realized. Dressed in one color, energetic, oblivious-
I saw a familiar sprout of silver hair in front of the real room 301.
"Sensei?" I asked. He jutted his chin in greeting.
"Glad to see you all made it."
"Are those the kinda guys we'll be up against?" Sasuke asked - a strange occurrence in its own right. Since when did Sasuke care about the competition?
"I wouldn't worry. Regardless of the circumstances, you all deserve to be here. Hika. Naruto. Sasuke. I'm very proud of you. I wish you the best of luck." Kakashi opened the door for us.
When we stepped into the registration room, it was already filled to the brim with potential candidates, and every one of them stared directly at us. The door closed behind us.
"So it begins," I muttered, stomach dropping a few inches.
A sudden irritating presence made itself known by tackling Sasuke.
"My dear Sasuke! It's so good to see you and your dark, sexy good looks!" Ino Yamanaka squealed. Sasuke threw her off. Her ponytail twirled around and she shot me a familiar look.
"Drop dead," I muttered. Her sharp eyes honed in on me.
"You want to repeat that, little dyke?"
"I said drop dead, fuckface," I repeated, a little louder.
She was startled, and I felt a small (very small) pang of guilt. But I'd silently endured her insults for years and owed her a few of my own. Shikamaru and Choji showed up right behind her.
"She just cursed at me!" she complained to them. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"Sorry, Ino, but you deserved it," he said lazily. I hadn't expected him to come to my defense; he always slept through class, and hadn't paid attention to anyone. But apparently it didn't take much time to learn to despise Ino.
Team 8 walked over to us from their lonesome corner. Hinata said a shaky "hello" to Naruto he didn't hear. I smiled and offered her a hand. She took it.
"How are you?" I asked.
"F-fine," she whispered. Akamaru barked at me from Kiba's head and I pulled my hand away in a surrendering motion.
"She's okay, Akamaru," Kiba said and pat his puppy on the head. He surveyed the room like a hunter. "This is gonna be fun. The nine rookies together again. Well, until one or more of us fails."
Well, you didn't have to say that last part...
"Can't wait," I said viciously and narrowed my eyes at Ino.
"You guys might want to keep it down," another genin walked up to us. He had large glasses and a silver ponytail. "You're drawing a lot of attention."
I recognized him, vaguely; he'd taken the test before.
"Who the hell even are you?" Ino asked.
"My name's Kabuto Yakushi. But you shouldn't be worrying about me," he gestured to the room with a hand. I'd been aware people were staring, but now it was painfully obvious. I recognized the Suna-nin in the crowd. "Worry about those rain ninja. Everyone's on edge, but them especially. Their village isn't the most hospitable in the world."
Kabuto took out a card - on it was a small map of the continent.
"These ninja are from all over, and to be honest, in four years I've never seen a more promising batch. Especially those guys from the Sound village - Otogakure. It's a small village, only recently appeared, so no one knows much about it."
"Kabuto, right? You've taken the test before," I said. "I saw you last time. You flushed out in the first round."
"So did you, as I recall. Hika Korin." He pulled out a card. I started. "I have every candidate's information on these special cards. I've taken the test seven times, so they're pretty extensive."
The card was blank at first, but after a second, my picture appeared, along with a few stats and charts. Morbid curiosity welled up in the pit of my stomach; I wanted to see what it said.
"You're fourteen, well-rounded with excellent taijutsu, but you're not good with weapons. You like to fight with your eyes closed, so you clearly have good chakra sense. You graduated from the academy six months early. You took the test once before, but your teammate, Inoue Kicho, forfeited and your team was disqualified. Afterward you transferred to Kakashi Hatake's team, I assume because of friction. Seven D-rank missions, one C-rank."
I concealed my surprise. His information was painstakingly collected and thorough.
"Those cards - you've got everyone?" Sasuke asked. Kabuto nodded.
"Then I've got two people for you," Sasuke said. "A guy named Lee, and Gaara of the desert."
Kabuto expertly pulled out two more cards and showed Lee's stats first.
"Terrible with genjutsu and ninjutsu, but he's got some of the highest taijutsu scores I've ever seen." His scores were twice as high as my own. "His sensei is Might Gai. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga."
Neji Hyuga. Hearing the name again made it click into place; he had the same white eyes as Hinata. They were related. That wouldn't be easy...
He put Lee's card aside and put a finger on the second. Its graphics popped in a moment later.
"Gaara… He did a B-rank as a genin!" Kabuto exclaimed. "But other than that, he's a total mystery, except… every mission he completed, he came back without a scratch."
"Yeah right," I huffed in a bout of uncharacteristic skepticism. Maybe the stress was getting to me.
"What the hell is with this guy?" Shikamaru fretted.
"Gaara of the desert," Sasuke mused. "He's no joke."
If I didn't know him better, I'd say he was worried.
On the surface, Naruto looked frightened as well, but I'd been his teammate for a good few months, and I could tell he was bursting with irritation. Why? I had no idea; an educated guess put the blame on Sasuke.
He pointed an accusing finger at the ninja crowding around us, and the room grew quiet as he shouted:
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to beat every last one of you to a freaking pulp!"
Inwardly, I swore and pulled out my hair, and cried a little bit, because now they were all staring at us with poisonous, cold, dead stares. I always fucking hated that look.
Outwardly, I smiled. Ino almost had a stroke.
"Hey, dyke, get your boyfriend to calm down and stop drawing attention to us!"
I get the impression you don't know the definition of the word "dyke". Buy a dictionary.
"He's excited. Let him express himself," I defended. I put an arm around him and addressed the room. "Sorry everybody, this one's a little mouthy." I smirked.
"Guys, I don't think this is helping," Kabuto said all of a sudden. "See the Oto-nin? They aren't exactly the friendliest-"
A flash in the corner of my eye.
The ninja ran at Kabuto and I heard the swish of an outstretched fist. The displacement of air was accompanied by something else - something light, high-pitched. A burst of sound. The punch missed, but the frequency didn't.
I watched Kabuto's glasses shatter. He fell to the ground and hacked up a spot of blood.
"So that's why they're called sound ninja," I said under my breath.
His attacker was covered in head-to-toe bandages, and he wore a strange glove on his arm.
"You should speak carefully about us Oto-nin," he growled.
"Duly noted," Kabuto coughed.
The bandaged guy turned his ugly mug to me, gave me a good stink eye, and returned to his seat.
I approached Kabuto, not to offer help but to investigate the damage. It had messed up his insides, knocked something out of place for an instant like a momentary hernia.
Next moment, the doors were thrown open by a man with hideous facial scars and a large, black overcoat.
"Candidates," he boomed, "take your seats. The written test will begin in thirty seconds - anyone not seated will be disqualified!"
I bolted to a seat, Kabuto forgotten; Naruto and Sasuke disappeared from my view to find places of their own.
"Pass these down the rows," the scarred man yelled as he crossed to the front of the room. He threw a pile of papers over our heads. I snatched one from the air and pulled out a pencil. I automatically wrote my name in the top right corner and looked it over.
"Woah boy," I muttered. I saw complex diagrams - vectors and variables criss-crossed the page. There were nine questions, and by the looks of them, they were hard as fuck.
"As you can see, there are nine questions on this test. There is also a tenth bonus question which I will give to you once your time is up. Unlike the tests you're probably used to, each person starts with ten points. For each question you get wrong, a point will be deducted from your score. You will be evaluated based on the total score of each of your teammates."
I almost groaned, but my body was still catching up to the situation. Naruto was awful at written tests, and I wasn't great either. Our only hope was Sasuke. Boy was that a sad state of affairs...
"The sentinels you see around the room are there to monitor you for signs of cheating."
I searched the room - there were chunin stationed around the edges, surrounding us.
"For every instance of cheating they see, they will write your name on their clipboards and you will lose two points. If you are caught five times, you will be disqualified. Furthermore, if one person fails, the whole team goes with them."
"Shit," I grunted as the class gasped collectively. I put a hand over my covered eye; my newest tic. A phantom pain (at least I think that's what it was, since the nerves were dead) filled the right half of my skull like a balloon.
"This is just like last time."
"You've taken this before?" the genin on my right asked. I looked - I was sitting next to Neji Hyuga's female teammate. She sounded aggressively intrigued under her outer shell of apathy.
"Yes. My other team… we were disqualified," I said, and almost added, "because one of us couldn't cut it." She didn't look back at me; I saw her grit her teeth.
"If you're clumsy enough to get caught, you don't deserve to be here," the instructor shouted. I jumped. "If you think you have what it takes, then show us how exceptional you are."
He paused. "Begin!"