Chunin Exams Begin!
Two weeks later, Team seven completed their mission when Tazuna finished his bridge. They all sat together at the last dinner they would have at his place before they left for Konoha in the morning. Kakashi looked at his team while they ate. Naruto was laughing and joking with a now happy Inari and a drunk Tazuna. Sasuke was trying and failing to hide his blush as Tsunami gave him a motherly smile as he asked for seconds. Chiharu ate silently with a sad look in her eye. He sighed as he knew the reason was the boy they had tied up upstairs. She was too soft and she wasn't expecting the way Haku would act when he awoke to find Zabuza dead. The boy face went devoid of all motion and he had said one sentence. "Kill me."
After that, he hadn't spoken or willing eaten anything for the past two weeks. He was only alive because Kakashi was forced to intervene and shove food down his throat every day. Although, he did partially understand why she acted this way. Her first friend she made outside of Konoha happened to be an enemy ninja they had to fight the next day. She would have eventually learned that their would be people in this world who would deceive her. It was just happened earlier than he wanted, in his opinion.
His musing ended when Chiharu stood up and picked up her half eaten plate. "I'm going upstairs." Kakashi watched as she walked out of the kitchen and towards the stairs. He could see Naruto was also watching her with a frustrated look on his face. Naruto didn't like seeing Chiharu so sad and had made it his mission to knock some sense into Haku. Sadly, even Naruto words seemed to bounce of the unresponsive boy. The only response he gave was when Zabuza's name was said and at most it was a twitch or eye shift.
After dinner, Kakashi entered the room where Haku was kept to see a familiar sight. The boy laid on the floor unmoving while Chiharu sat across from him. As always they both sat still and were both staring at each other silently. Between them was a plate of half eaten food that Chiharu had brought up. He could tell from Chiharu's sad face that Haku was refusing to eat once again. He cleared his throat and both of them turned towards him. He gave a fake eye smile. "Hello, Haku. How are you feeling today." Haku merely stared at him with a blank look before he turned away. He didn't let that annoy him as he walked over and sat beside Chiharu. "Tomorrow we will be heading back to Konoha. I'm sure that you know that you have no choice but to come with us." As expected, Haku didn't really seem to care that he was going to be brought back to an enemy village. "However, I would like it if you would at least try and make the journey there not so hard. So… I have a deal for you. If you promise to actually eat from now on, then I'll allow you to see Zabuza's grave before we leave."
Two things happened after his little speech. Chiharu let out a surprised gasp as she looked at Kakashi in shock and Haku actually sat up. Kakashi simply stared at Haku as he saw the first signs of emotion in his eyes for weeks. There was a war between his will to die and his will to see his master's grave. Ever so slowly, Haku reached for the plate and begin to slowly eat. Chiharu smiled for the first time in weeks as she scooted closer and tried to get Haku talking. Kakashi sighed at the sight before he left the room. They had a long way to go to get Haku to want to live again. He had sparked some life into him. Now it was all up to Chiharu and the others to keep him alive long enough to want to live.
The next day, his group and Haku were standing before a grave with a huge blade behind it. Haku was in front of team seven as he looked at his master's grave with many emotional swirling in his eyes. Kakashi was behind him with a watchful eye. He was going to make sure he didn't try anything stupid, like impaling himself on the sword in front of him. Luckily, Haku kept to his promise and all that happened was a few tears shed as he silently grieved his master. "Time to go." said Kakashi as he gently pulled the boy with him.
They met up with Tazuna and the others at the now completed bridge. It was a quick sad goodbye with some tears shed, mostly by Naruto and Inari, as they left the village. As Tazuna watched them go, he grinned as he heard one of the villages ask about what the name would be. "I got a super perfect name for it… it will be called The Great Leaf Bridge." The village looked at him in confusion. "Why such a name." He smiled as he watched team seven in the distance. "It's in honor of those leaf ninja who fought to protect this country when we did not. Hopefully, this bridge will serve as a reminder to us to always fight for our dreams."
Team seven return trip home was uneventful as Haku stuck to his bargain to eat. He was no longer unemotional but now he always gave off a depressing aura that was getting on everyone's nerves. Naruto actually cheered as he saw the gates of Konoha as he knew he was going to be free from the depressing aura. Kakashi told his team to rest up and meet him two days from now for more missions. Then he took Haku to the Hokage's office and was unsurprised to see Chiharu was following him. He turned towards her with a eye smile. "Chiharu, you don't have to be here for this. I can tell you where they put him later." She looked at Haku worriedly before she turned toward him. "You promise they won't kill Haku?" Kakashi nodded. "I promise." Chiharu gave him a grateful smile before she headed home to crash.
He was truthful to his word as the Hokage decided that he would be imprisoned for his own safety. The boy had no known bounties and was never a ninja of any village. So they had no worries about causing an incident with other villages. The only problem they had was his attitude he had about his life. They couldn't willing allow a person who wanted to die free reign in their village. That was an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully, things would change as time passed and Chiharu visiting him might give him a reason to live.
He sighed as he finally got home. He crashed on the couch and pulled out his book. He had two days of relaxation before his team got any more missions. He was going to use them to the fullest. Sadly, his plans were destroyed when Kotori came into the leaving room with a serious face. "We need to talk." He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like this "talk".
[…]
The next day, Chiharu found herself sitting at Ichiraku Ramen stand in confusion. She had planned to visit Haku that morning. She was determined to get him to at least give life another chance. She was armed with Puffball in one hand and a lunchbox in the other when she left her house. Then came along the hurricane named Kotori as all her plans were washed away when she was grabbed by her and dragged there with Naruto. Kotori had sat herself in between them and demanded that they tell her about the mission. So for the next hour, they told her all about the mission, Tazuna's family, the fights, their training, and all about Haku. She listened the entire time with a serious face and only interrupted to ask a question or two.
Once they were done explaining, she had smiled and congratulated them on even surviving the mess. Chiharu didn't know if she should be happy or worried that Kotori didn't seem that worried that they had fought an A-rank missing ninja. She sighed as she saw a glint in the other girls eye as she turned toward her. "So… I hear your making a fuss over this Haku fellow." Chiharu blushed as Kotori wiggled her eyes suggestively. "It's not like that Tori! He… is just a friend I made before I knew he was the enemy." Kotori grew serious as she saw the sad look on the girls face. "So what are you going to do about him then?" Chiharu sighed. "Sensei said the best thing to do is to keep visiting him." Kotori nodded. "Yeah, nothing like a little human contact to get a boy going." She blushed as she looked at her in shock. "Tori, please stop teasing me! I'm being serious." Kotori laughed "Fine, but I want to meet this boy later and make sure he doesn't corrupt my little Chiharu." Chiharu blushed as Naruto chocked on some ramen as he overheard what she said. "Ohhh, Your hopeless Tori!" She stood up and ran as she took Puffball and her lunch with her to eat with Haku.
Kotori watched her go with a pleased face. Chiharu always looked better blushing or laughing instead of that sad look on her face. A quick shake of the head cleared her thoughts. I'm starting to act to much like Anko-sensei. She turned towards Naruto. Now I got to get Naruto out of his own depression. Now to a stranger, Naruto would look perfectly happy as he munched away on his ramen. To Kotori, the signs were clear as day. Once you saw the real Naruto and his overwhelming emotions, then you could come to tell when something was bothering him. Right now at that moment, Naruto was wearing his "happy" mask he used to wear when he was in the academy. It usually involved an all too stiff smile that never left his face as he tried to shove fake joy out of his ass.
Well, she was having none of that. "Hey Naruto, what's wrong with my favorite little orange ball of sunshine today." Naruto stiffened before he plastered a grin on his face. "What do you mean Tori. I'm eating ramen, why wouldn't I be happy to be eating the best food in the world?" She placed her elbow on the counter as she leaned against it. "Oh, so nothing from the mission bothered you at all?" Naruto grin seemed to grow bigger that it almost sickened her with its fakeness. "Why would it bother me at all. I mean my team did an A-rank mission and were still just genin. Were awesome." She just stared at him silently before she poked him in the forehead. "Liar…Now put away that mask and tell me everything."
Naruto sighed as he felt his mask shatter under her poke. She always seemed to be able to break his mask with a simple poke to the forehead. He looked at her with regretful eyes and told her everything. From him freezing in his first battle, not listening to Kakashi, and not being there for his team when they needed him the most. By the time he was finished, he was staring at his ramen. He didn't want to look at her and see the disappointment he knew was there.
"Idiot…" He looked up in shock to see an annoyed Kotori. "That's what got you all tied up in a knot?" Naruto felt some anger rise up in him at the casual dismissal of his worries. "Tori, Those thing are rather important to me." She grinned at him. "I know, but those things are easy to fix." Naruto looked at her in surprise. "Tell me how I can fix them. I… don't ever want to not be able to help my friends again." She leaned against the counter in a comfortable manner. " Easy, from now on for the next month, your going to train with me." He looked at her in confusion. "How am I going to do that when we both have our own missions and my training with team seven." She didn't look trouble at all. "My new mission is based inside the village. So, I'll be here in the village for the next two to three months. As for you, you probably only receive D-rank missions for awhile and I'm sure Kakashi's training isn't even that long."
Naruto actually felt excited for the first time in days. "Okay, then when and where should we meet up!" Kotori smiled. "Around three at training ground 24. Oh, and there is someone else training with me beside you. I'm sure you won't mind. In fact, I just "know" your going to love this person." Naruto leaned forward in curiosity. "Who is it? Come on tell me!" She smirked as she stood up. "Ah, where would be the fun in that. You'll know tomorrow. Oh, and Naruto." Her smirk turned dark. "I'm going to beat those faults and fears out of you." She laughed at Naruto face before she disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto gulped as he began to wonder what he had gotten himself into.
As promised, Naruto found Kotori waiting for him at training ground 24 at three. "Oh, you're a little early Naruto. You excited about training with me?" Naruto laughed nervously as he nodded. "You know I'm never one to refuse training." She grinned at him. "Go do some stretches, we still have to wait for your training partner to get here." He smirked at her. "Yes, "sensei" whatever you say." She rolled her eyes at him as he set about his stretch exercise.
Five minutes, later and Naruto was shocked to see his favorite pink haired girl was none other than his training partner. His joy wasn't shared as Sakura looked at Kotori pleading. "You can't be serious…" Kotori smirked at her. "Oh, I'm serious Sakura, and you have no right to complain. Naruto should be the one complaining here." Behind Sakura, Naruto was making pleading motions to not get Sakura angry at him. She ignored him completely. "Naruto here is the genin and you're an academic student. He has successfully complete actual ninja missions while you have done none. I'm aslo sure his skills are on another level than yours." By now Sakura was fuming as Naruto was crying in frustration at Kotori. Sakura took a deep breath before she gritted her teeth. "Fine…It's nice to be training with you…" Her face seemed to contort in pain. "Naruto." He completely missed her painful expression as he jumped in joy. "This is going to be great Sakura. Were going to have loads of fun training together." Kotori laughed as she watched Sakura try and not have a meltdown.
"Okay that's enough you two. Before we begin, I need to know what skills you know Naruto." He stood to attention as he listed off his skills. "Shadow clones, Sexy jutsu, tree climbing, water walking, henge, ..uh… that's it." Kotori almost smashed her face into her palm. That was all he knew? What in the world was Kakashi thinking? At least he knew water walking so she could skip directly to his taijutsu and ninjutsu. "Uh, that's not good, better then Sakura's but still not good." Said girl looked angrily at her. It wasn't her fault that she was still an academic student. "Naruto, I'm going to train you in taijutsu first. I can already tell that you don't even have the academic style down. So, I'm going to teach you that first before I go into anything else."
Naruto looked at her in shock. "That's it? I thought it was going to be hard training!" She rolled her eyes at him. "I can't train you if you don't even have the basic down first. The academic style is know for its adaptability. Most Taijutsu styles today have been born from one changing that style into something more. Once you learn it, we can work on creating your own style. As for ninjutsu, I'm going to have to talk to Kakashi before I start training you two." Naruto looked at her in confusion. "Why so you have to talk to Kakashi-sensei first." She sighed. "Because I'm going to need some special paper from him. I'm going to find out your chakra nature before I start teaching you jutsus. It will help me know which jutsu you can learn quicker than others." Naruto still didn't quiet get it, but if it would make him stronger faster then it had to be good. "Okay."
Kotori sighed as Naruto finally accepted her decision. "Naruto you can't question my training so much, or will never actually have time to train." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry." She waved his apology off before she jumped back from them. "Okay, I want you and Sakura to spar against each other." Naruto looked worried. "Don't worry Naruto, Sakura is better at Taijutsu than you think. Plus, this is only a taijutsu spar using academic style and nothing else." He still looked a little worried but nodded as they both got into their starting stance. Kotori almost groaned as she saw the huge difference between them. "Naruto, look at Sakura's form and then at yours. See the difference, that's not a good thing. Try and make it look more like hers." Naruto fumbled around as he tried to copy Sakura's stance. "uh…That's good enough for now. Now remember guys, this is only a spar. Don't try and hurt each other, especially you Sakura." Sakura looked slightly sad while Naruto looked relieved. "Okay guys, you can begin."
Five minutes into the fight, and Kotori had already corrected Naruto "fifteen" times while Sakura only messed up three times. "My god Naruto, how in the hell did you even pass the taijutsu part of the test." Naruto blushed as he dodged another punch. "I don't know, I just winged it the entire time." She rolled her eyes. "Of course." An hour passed before she brought their training to an end. "Okay, now I want you Naruto to help Sakura with water walking for the rest of the time." Sakura looked at her in surprise. "What!" She grinned at them. "Simple, my training schedule is going to be Taijutsu, chakra control, and then ninjutsu when the time comes. Seeing as you won't learn ninjutsu for now, I want you two to work on your chakra control." Sakura looked at her in confusion. "But why is Naruto going to teach me." She shrugged her shoulders. "eh, Naruto already has this exercise down. Plus, you two need to learn to work together if you two are going to train together." Naruto looked happy. "Don't worry Sakura-chan. You're the smartest girl I know. You'll get it easily." Sakura still looked unhappy but nodded as she followed him to a stream nearby.
Kotori watched them for afar with a grin. Naruto was shouting words of encouragement as he jumped excited on the river as Sakura took her first tentative step onto the water. She laughed when she saw her fall in. Naruto was quick to help her out of the water. Instead of laughing, he was grinning ear from ear as he praised her for doing better than he did on his first try. That probably wasn't much of a compliment, but Sakura didn't look to embarrassed now. In time, she knew Sakura would come to respect Naruto. She was also sure Sakura would come into her own as a great ninja. She sat down and watched them for the rest of the hour as Naruto repeatedly encouraged and helped Sakura. She felt weird at the sight of them standing wet together by the stream and why in the hell did she feel like a matchmaker all of a sudden.
[…]
A week had passed, and Kotori was having a great day. Naruto and Sakura were both improving fast. Kakashi finally got her the paper she needed to test their chakra nature. To top it all off, she also had time to make a quick visit that she had been planning all week. She stopped before a door that had a chunin guarding it. She nodded at him before he opened the door and she walked in. The resident looked up from his bed and was surprised to see it wasn't the girl who usually visited him. Before her sat the boy that Chiharu had talked about, Haku. She grinned at him from beneath her mask and skipped over to his bed and sat beside him.
Haku looked at her in shock. This girl had barged into his room and had made herself comfortable on his bed. "Hiya" He jumped a little at her greeting. "So you're the "beautiful" boy I've been hearing my little Chiharu talk about." He looked at her in confusion. She had a funny way of talking and her mask didn't make him feel any more comfortable. "Names Kotori, and I just wanted to stop by here and see how you were doing." He stared at silently before he turned away and sighed. Why couldn't these people in the village let him die. First Chiharu and now her friend was coming to visit him to probably try and cheer him up. "Your just like they described." Her voice went from cheerful to serious. "You need to get over yourself." He looked up in shock. Gone was the relaxed girl and was replaced by a serious one. "Stop wallowing in pity for yourself or you'll never see the second chance you are literally being handed."
Haku felt anger for the first time in weeks. "What if I don't want a second chance. What if what I wanted was to die and be with Zabuza." She scoffed at him. "Then you're a fool." Haku gritted his teeth. "I am no fool… just a mere broken tool that was unable to protect his master." She looked at him in disbelief. "That's it. That's the big reason you want to die. Because you consider yourself a broken tool? Wow, Chiharu really knows how to pick them." Haku shook his head sadly. "You don't understand how it feels when you are unable to protect those precious to you." She shrugged at him. "No I don't and neither do I ever want to know. But to simply die because you think you are a broken tool is not very smart." His anger was gone and all that was left was a deep sadness. "It doesn't matter what you say. I am a broken tool that no one should want or need anymore."
Kotori grinned as she jumped from the bed and stood before him. "That's where your wrong! I know someone who has been trying very hard for the past few weeks to make you her little "tool", or as we say it, friend." Haku looked up at her in surprise. "And I know you know who I'm talking about. She is hardly missable with her rather distinguishing traits." Haku knew who she was talking about. She had visited him every day since he been put in here. He didn't understand why she went so far. "It doesn't matter, I could never be what she needs." She snorted at what he said before she looked him straight in the eyes. "Then don't be what she needs, but be what she wants." He looked at her in shock. "If she wants you to be her friend, then be her friend. If she wants you to be her protector, then be her protector. If later on in her life she wants you to be more, well… then be more."
She sighed as she stepped away from the stunned boy. "Let her fix you and I promise you'll never regret it. Just…" She skipped to the door and turned towards him with a sneaky look. "Don't make me a godmother any time soon." Her laughter echoed through the hallways as she left a blushing Haku.
[…]
The next three weeks flew by as Naruto and Sakura trained with Kotori. They had found out that Naruto was a wind type while Sakura was surprising a water type. She taught Naruto a D and C rank wind jutsu while she only taught Sakura a D-rank Jutsu. She told them this was because she was still considered a academic student and it was frowned upon for them to know higher technique before they were ready. She stressed to Naruto that he should keep his new jutsus quiet so he could surprise everyone on his team and his enemies.
Their taijutsu training took three weeks before Naruto could fully do the academic style right. From their they spent the last week increasing his speed and strength as he spared with Kotori. Sakura was slightly better as she perfected in two weeks and had stamina training for the final two. There chakra control had taken a much higher leap then she excepted. They had mastered the water walking in the first week and she had moved them on to leaf concentration exercise. It was an exercise where they kept leaves stuck to certain parts of their body while they fought. Naruto could only hold a leaf to his forehead while he fought. Sakura could hold one to her forehead, and both elbows. Kotori had said that it was due to Naruto's huge chakra reserves that was making his training slower.
Sakura and Naruto's teamwork had gotten along much better as well. They could actually talk without Sakura trying to hold back her urge to hit him. Although there was no romantic turn in their relationship, Naruto had kept his hope alive. Finally the last day of training arrived, Naruto and Sakura were standing across from a proud Kotori. "You guys did awesome, but today is the last day I can train with you guys." Naruto looked disappointed. "Why can't we train with you any more." She laughed "It's not that I don't want to train with you guys anymore, in fact I find it quite fun to go against your endless shadow clones. However, I have a mission to help with the chunin exam this year. So I can't train with you guys for awhile." Naruto and Sakura looked at her in confusion. "Chunin exams? What are those." She grinned at them "It's a secret! If you want to know, then ask Kakashi." She puffed away before Naruto could say anymore. "Damn it, why does she always have to do that. I should have asked her to teach me Shunshin instead!"
There was an awkward moment as both Naruto and Sakura stood there. "uh… want to get some ramen?" She rolled her eyes at him before she sighed. "It's always ramen with you." Naruto pouted at her. "But it's good!" Sakura couldn't stop herself from smiling at him. "Fine, but this isn't a date. We are going as just friends." Naruto yelled in joy as he begin to tug her towards his favorite ramen stand. Sakura let herself be dragged behind him as she sighed. When did I become friends with Naruto?
[…]
"What!" Naruto looked in shock at Kakashi as he was handed the registration paper for the chunin exams. "Like I said these are you applications for entering the chunin exams." Kakashi was unprepared for Naruto jumping up and hugging him. "I love you Kakashi-sensei." Kakashi wobbled around as tried to pull Naruto off him. "Get off me!" Sasuke and Chiharu ignored as they both looked at their own paper. They could become a chunin if they passed this exam. For Sasuke, it meant one step closer to reaching his goal in life. To Chiharu, it would mean she was one step closer to establishing her own ninja clan.
They returned their attention to Kakashi as he finally got Naruto off him. "Turn this in at room 301 by 4pm if you want to enter. That is all." Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto couldn't stop himself from grinning. "Chunin exams! Of course we are going to enter!" Chiharu laughed as she walked beside him. "Of course, Naruto. With this we can get closer to our dreams!" Sasuke smirked as he thought of all the strong people he could fight there. "It will be interesting."
The next day, Team 7 found themselves standing in the back of a huge group of ninja stuck on the second floor. "Whats going on here?" whispered Chiharu to Sasuke. He grunted as he tried to look for an something that could tell him why everyone was on the wrong floor. It became apparent when he noticed that the doors to the stairs were locked shut. Whispers could be heard as other people tried to figure out why the door was locked.
Sasuke smirked as he figured out what was going on. "They are testing us." His teammates looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean testing us." asked Naruto. "Whoever did this is trying to see if we are even worthy of entering these exams. There must be some trick to this. A ninjutsu or genjutsu that is keeping the doors locked." He activated his sharigan and discreetly looked around the room. There was no genjutsu on the door or anywhere on the walls. He stopped when he saw a team leaning against the wall. "There is a team hiding behind a genjutsu against the wall over there." He nodded his head towards the group so his teammates could see them. "Are they the ones blocking our way?" asked Chiharu. Sasuke thought about it before he nodded. "Most likely." Naruto grinned "Then why don't we make them open the way for us."
They pushed through the crowd and walked over to the spot Sasuke had saw them. They looked around in surprise to see they were gone. "Sasuke, I thought you said they were hiding over here." whisper Naruto angrily. "I did dobe. They must have saw us coming and moved." He activated his Sharigan again and looked around the room. He caught sight of them near the entrance to the room. The girl in the group smiled at him and waved. His eye twitched. "There purposely evading us. Were going to have to outmaneuver them to catch them." Naruto had a determined look. "There is no way I'm going to fail here."
The next ten minutes were some of the most annoying minutes of team seven's life. No matter how they went at them. They just couldn't seem to catch the bastards. Naruto was so angry that he was getting ready to summon a dozens of shadow clones before they were finally caught. To their surprise, a boy with long brown hair and white robes seemed to quite easily catch a hold of one of them. "Ah, you caught me. Guess, my funs over!" Naruto and Chiharu stiffened as they recognized the voice.
Kotori and two other chunin were standing in front of the group moments later as each one was wearing a rather large grin. "Leave it to a Hyuga to ruin our fun. Isn't that right Neji." Said boy hned at her as he rejoined his teammates. A bunned hair girl and a freaky looking boy in green. "Ah, don't be that way... Anyways! Congratulation on capturing me. Now you can all actually get to the exams. It would be boring if none of you even made it to the first part, you know?" She smiled as she turned around and unlocked the door. She turned around and waved at everyone that was staring at her. "See you guys later!" Three puffs of smoke later and the chunin were no longer standing in the doorway. There was a silent moment of awkwardness before all the genin begin to slowly entered the doorway and head to the exam room.
Team seven hung back as they allowed the majority of the other teams to pass them. Chiharu looked slightly embarrassed for no reason. "I can't believe Tori did that!" Naruto laughed as he remembered the look on everyone's faces. "That was totally great. We so have to get Kotori to tell us how she came up with that." Sasuke merely hned as he tried to hide his annoyance at being led around by one of Naruto's friends. Their musing were interrupted when the Hyuga's teammate walked up to them.
"A most youthful welcome Chiharu." She looked over to see Lee standing there. "Lee! So Gai decided to let you enter this year!" Lee gave her Gai's signature pose. "Yes, Gai-sensei has acknowledge my youthful flames." Naruto and Sasuke watched their exchange with weird looks. How did this…thing know Chiharu anyways. "I look forward to having a most youthful match against your team in the future." Chiharu laughed. "I'm sure Sasuke and Naruto would love to fight with you." Not liking where this was going. Both of them grabbed her arms and pulled her towards the exam room. "Huh, w-wait guys, I wasn't done talking with Lee." She turned her head and gave Lee a apologetic smile. "Sorry Lee, but it seems my teammates are in a hurry." Lee only laughed as he too joined his team. "It is good to see that you team is so fired up for these exams. Their youthfulness is burning bright for all to see!" Their only response was to speed up as they tried and failed to put distance between them.
Two people were watching them as they practically ran into the exam room. "Ah, my rival Kakashi, you students are most energetic about entering these exams." Kakashi sweat dropped. "I don't think that was the reason they were running Gai." Gai wasn't listening as excitement clouded his mind. "I cannot wait to see which one of our teams will prove to be the stronger. Kakashi, we must show our own youthfulness too. I challenge you to another duel!" Kakashi looked up at him. "Did you say something?" Gai gritted his teeth. "Damn you Kakashi and your hip attitude." Kakashi ignored his rant as he began to walk away. "Oh, and Gai" Gai looked at him. "Did you forget that Chiharu is on my team?" He puffed away as Gai screamed in horror as he realized that he would have to choose between cheering for Lee or Chiharu.