((Hey, people, I'm on time this week! Anyway, I introduced all of the cameos this chapter finally. If you have any complaints about how I wrote your character, feel free to voice them in a review or PM. I'm always willing to accept commentary, even flames.
Also, I would like to thank my BETA, Rinfanalltheway, for not only beta-ing all of the chapters up to this point but providing me with four excellent poems for this chapter. I don't know what I would've done without him!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I own Hah-kah Hitayio, Rei Felina, Taru, or Tsukino Hotaru, for they all belong to the people who reviewed with them. They have, however, given me free reign on the things I can do with them. :laughs maniacally:
I think that's all the AN I have for now, so let the story commence!))
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The New Rookie Nine
Hari groaned in pain as he slowly stood up next to the set of buttons; two at knee level, two at shoulder level, and one at eye level.
"I take it back. I hate this exam," he murmured, referring to the incident from two days previous. Shino-sensei had given them a day of rest following that day as the exams were to start the next day, today as it was. He sighed, thinking back on earlier that morning, when the team had met briefly.
0o0o0oFlashback no Jutsu0o0o0o
Hari watched in irritation as Taka walked up, five minutes late as usual. "Are you ever going to show up on time?"
The redhead just looked at him with a sweet smile on her face. "Maybe someday."
The green haired genin rolled his eyes as he turned to his other teammate and teacher. "We can still enter, right?"
Shino nodded. "You'll probably be one of the last ones through, but you should be able to."
Hari let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good." He put on a big grin, pumping his fist into the air. "Then, let's go!"
The sensei smiled down at them, though he knew they couldn't see it. "I am proud of you all and your hard work…" He surveyed them one final time as two of them grinned back with Katame giving a slight upward curve on her lips. They were ready, and he knew it. "…Good luck."
All three nodded as he stepped out of the way, allowing them access to the door behind him. They walked past him with determination as two heart rates increased with anticipation. Cautiously, they pushed open the door and stepped through-
-Only to find a single chuunin sitting behind a desk, looking incredibly busy with the stacks of papers in front of him, speaking soundlessly to nonexistent forms around him. Katame's eyes narrowed as she recognized a genjutsu but decided not to act against it as it seemed to be there for the sake of the examinees.
The team quietly approached the desk, confusion written on two of their faces. "Where is everybody?" asked Taka curiously.
It took a few moments for the chuunin to respond as he seemed distracted with noiselessly communicating with an invisible person. When he finally did turn to them, he let out an irritated sigh. "That's none of your concern, young lady," he answered, holding his hand out to receive their paperwork.
Looking slightly offended, Taka gave him her exam application along with her teammates, receiving more paperwork in return.
"Sign the safety agreement and hand it in to be allowed through to the first test," explained the chuunin monotonously.
Hart scanned the paper briefly, understanding it to mean that he took responsibility if he got hurt, before signing it and handing it back. As the chuunin received the signed papers from the two girls, he motioned for them to proceed through the door next to him.
"That was faster than I thought it would be," murmured Taka loud enough for her teammates to hear. Hari just shrugged as he opened the door to the first exam-
-Only to be met with another basic room with one door. Taka let her annoyance be known rather quickly. "What the hell kind of test is this?" She stepped into the room, giving it another once over, followed shortly by Hari.
Katame, however, remained at the door with narrowed eyes. As her teammates reached the middle of the room, she held her hands up in a single sign.
"Kai!" (Release)
The other two looked around in confusion as the genjutsu dropped, the single door disappearing, revealing three doors with plaques above them on one of the side walls. Hari stared at each in turn, not understanding their meanings in the least. Then, he looked at the larger fourth plaque that stood above the other three that read:
In each you seek
What you have not
To cover you
In battles fought,
But now you face
A darker feud
When you're lost
To solitude.
Once a crutch
Now a heel
As you, Achilles
Will surely feel.
In this profession
You're forced to part
From those you know
And are close to heart.
Go forward young
To what is shown,
And tame your fear
When you're alone.
Hari stared at the strange piece of poetry, slowly piecing together a meaning. "So, each of us goes into a separate room?" he finally asked after a few minutes, tilting his head to the side.
"So it seems," replied Katame in a whisper.
"And, is it just me, or is it mocking us?" he continued to inquire. As he turned to look at Katame, all he got was a raised eyebrow.
"Chakra control on the left," declared Taka, startling Hari into looked at her as she held her hands in the sign for her Nezumi (Rat) Isshiki no Jutsu and her eyes wandered the smaller plaques. It took a second before he realized that she was using the rat jutsu to decipher the complicated writing. He turned back to the plaques and examined them more closely, starting from the one Taka had already identified.
I dance the razor's edge
Along the river's bank,
Laughing at a passing boat
Barely still to remain afloat.
I seek to see it sank.
From my midst I set ablaze
The failing form that I gaze.
Now you stand at its bow,
And your hands grip an oar.
Paddle fast sailor,
Or you'll never see the shore
Hari nodded approvingly. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he recognized the references to the water walking chakra control exercise, thus meaning that the test was most likely chakra control through that door.
With that conclusion, he read the middle one.
Bear agile eyes
And feathered feet
If this test
You dare complete.
The other two are heart and mind.
You must leave these far behind.
Born by sweat and hate,
Your path is severed
If you wait.
Never falter in your will.
Push past the pain that you feel
For scars will dull and fade
But wounds of shame never heal.
Hari frowned in confusion at it. Leaving heart and mind far behind? Weren't those kind of important to living? Severed path if you wait? What on earth was it talking about? Well, at least he could understand the ending: whoever went to this one would most likely be feeling quite a bit of pain…
Before he could become more bewildered, he turned toward the final plaque.
A mountain's breath,
A mouse's roar
Is what you face
Behind this door.
A paradox that does exist
For I am life
With a deadly twist.
Now square your feet
And steel your mind
For the sights
That lay behind.
So take two steps forward,
Then take a breath.
Take one step backward,
And do the rest.
The green haired genin's eye twitched as he stared at the literature. He had no clue what that was supposed to mean. Hell, that one was even more confusing than the last one. Two steps forward, one step back…Why would you want to do that? It would be a waste of time!
Grumbling about a lack of intelligence in himself, he glared at the floor in front of him gloomily. This lasted all of two seconds before Taka spoke again, bringing the mask wearing genin back to reality.
"Middle is agility taijutsu."
He placed his palm on his forehead and shook his head as he looked up at the door, resigned to just go with whatever his teammate came up with. "So, what's the last door then?" he asked as he spun to face the redhead.
She blinked at him a few times before responding. "What? You can't tell?"
His expression became angry as he glared at her. "What do you mean by that?!"
She merely raised an eyebrow and nodded toward the final door. Rotating, he found Katame standing in front of it with her hand on its handle, ready to go through.
"Genjutsu then?"
"Hai," answered Taka, "So, which door would you like?"
Hari brought his hand up to his chin as he examined the two remaining doors carefully. "Hm…Chakra control or agility?...I know I'm going to regret this, but I'm probably better at agility, so I should probably take that one."
Taka nodded her agreement. "That's probably best. I'm left with chakra control then."
"You sure you're okay with that?"
"Hai." She smirked sideways at him. "I'm better at chakra control than you would think."
The male genin shrugged. The two stared at each other in silence a moment before turning simultaneously to walk toward their chosen doors. They rested their hands on the knobs in the same way Katame was.
"Ya know, I don't think we have to go through at the same time," the redhead broke the silence.
The green haired boy smiled over at her. "Better safe than sorry."
She rolled her eyes before nodding the point. Then, she looked back at the door. "On three…" Hari gripped the knob more tightly. "One…" He brought his second hand to lay on his first. "Two…" He twisted the knob open. "Three!" He pushed the door open and stepped through-
-Into another room. His eye twitched as it landed on a plaque on the wall in front of him.
Choosing to ignore it, he scanned the rest of the white room. There stood a lone door on the wall under that plaque and some sort of machine attached to the adjoining wall. Curiosity getting the better of him, he walked over to inspect the device.
It had five buttons with the one at eye level flashing with the word "Begin". Above it were the words "strikes" and "completed" with enough room to make a short list under each. Mentally placing those under the "unnecessary" category in his brain, he went on to examine the bars that connected the buttons to the wall, as well as the buttons themselves carefully, before settling on scrutinizing the sole active button. He stared as it blinked mere inches from his nose.
Then, he stood back up to full height, grumbling about idiotic mechanisms, and strode purposefully to the door that had yet to be opened. As he pushed himself against the door to throw it open, he found it locked tight.
Snarling viciously, he scanned the room again. The door he had come through had disappeared, no doubt a genjutsu to prevent backtracking. The rest of the nearly empty room remained the same. He glanced at the plaque above him, once more ignoring its words, before going back to the machine.
He stopped in front of it and glared at it before sighing in resignation. "Here goes…"
0o0o0oEnd Flashback no Jutsu0o0o0o
Hari was really wishing he had read that plaque right about now. At least then, he might've had some idea of what was coming, even if it did confuse him. Instead, he had jumped in blind. Thus, after he hit the begin button, he had had no clue what to do as the right hand button flashed green. He now realized he should've probably hit the thing as, since he missed his chance, he was electrocuted by a strong bolt of electricity, forcing him to the ground.
As he was now recovering from that shock, he glanced up at the two places he had noticed earlier to find an 'X' under the strikes section. He scowled at it before turning his attention back to the button in front of his face, which now flashed "Resume-10" with the number reducing by one with every blink.
He growled irritably before taking a deep, calming breath. "Alright, let's try this again." He took a fighting stance as the resume number flashed at five.
"Let's hit the buttons as they flash then, shall we," he thought sarcastically as he hit the button in front of his face.
A green light lit up at his right hand, and, a moment later, that hand connected with it, causing a 'ping' sound to resonate throughout the room and a check to appear under the completed list. "Hoorah! Figured it out!" he cheered mentally.
He smirked as a red light appeared at his left foot, immediately kicking it-
-And screaming in pain as a second electric shock ran through him, bringing him to his knees. His lungs continued to burn as he stayed there, recovering his breath. Groaning, he pushed himself back up shakily. He glared when he noticed a second 'X' under the strikes area, along with the word 'warning' showing brightly beneath it. He took another deep breath, thinking, "Okay, don't hit the red ones."
Hari sighed as he dropped back into a ready stance, wincing as he noticed that the electricity had aggravated the leg he had taken an arrow to a few weeks previous, making it numb. Scowling, he punched the leg with the outside of his fist, trying to get feeling back into it before the resume timer ran out.
He flinched as he started to receive the pain of the hits. He quickly looked up and smacked the resume button with just three seconds left. The right hand target flashed green again, instantly being hit. Two more green blinks occurred, neither lasting more than a second. Then, a red light appeared at eye level, and Hari had to restrain himself from head-butting it, grinding his teeth in the process.
About 30 seconds later, he had ten checks under the complete list and only the same two strikes as before. A loud click sounded through the room as the lights on the machine turned off in front of the genin.
Hari let out a sigh of relief as he turned to the door. He had succeeded somehow. Now, he only had to trust his teammates to do the same.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Taka stared up at the plaque above the locked exit. It read:
"Put on the body suit. Increase flow of chakra to the points indicated by the suit a total of ten times to proceed. Failure to do so will result in a strike, of which you have three."
Slowly, she lowered her head to view the full-body suit that rested at her feet. Her eyes wandered back to the message on the wall, beginning to twitch.
"You've gotta be kidding me…" she thought in disbelief.
She scanned the rest of the nearly empty room, searching for some spot that someone could be watching her through. After three scans and numerous examinations of suspicious looking locations, she concluded that she was safe from her dreaded enemy, the pervert.
She quickly changed into the skin tight black body suit that covered all but her head. Grumbling, she wondered vaguely what she was supposed to do as she noticed the complete and strike lists located on her forearms.
Before she could think any further, she felt a warming sensation near her left wrist. Not sure what else to do, she scrutinized the site as it gradually heated up. She rubbed the wrist curiously, only to have the temperature spike there, causing her to bend over and grip her arm near the elbow tightly in pain, grinding her teeth at the same time.
A moment later, the heat died down, leaving her breathing heavily with a sensation like she had just held her hand over an intense fire for far too long. Gasping for air, she reexamined her burned wrist, only to be distracted as she noticed an 'X' had appeared under the strikes category. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that the increase in temperature had been the 'point indicated by the suit'.
Standing back up to full height with a look of determination on her face, she brought her hands up into the universal chakra gathering hand sign. A moment later, the warming sensation appeared again, this time around her right leg. Focusing, she channeled chakra to that location, causing it to cool to normal.
She smirked in triumph.
The heat returned at her stomach, and she focused chakra there. This process continued for about a minute, at which point she had collected ten successes, causing a loud click to resonate in the room. Grinning, she quickly changed back into her normal clothes and proceeded in triumph to the exit.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Katame glanced around the room suspiciously. It was completely empty, no door, no machine, no suit, nothing. Except for the plaque next to her. She scanned it briefly, reading:
"Dispel all of the illusions to proceed."
She scanned the room again. She had no doubt that there were numerous genjutsu in place on her. Without further ado, she began dispelling the mirages.
"Kai!" she shouted, bringing her hands up into a sign.
The room around her slowly dissolved, blurring as it changed colors and forms. A second later, the blue haired kunoichi found herself on a small deserted island with a single palm tree. She raised an eyebrow in slight amusement before breaking the second false image.
"Kai!"
The scene blurred again before forming as a burning hot, dry desert. She glanced around emotionlessly before deciding to try a new tactic. She brought her arms up to form a short series of hand signs.
"Shikai!" (Initial Release)
The technique caused her to emit a constant, though slow, flow of chakra that kept her surroundings in a permanent hue of rainbow colors as she destroyed genjutsu after genjutsu. Finally, the changes slowed, settling on a white room with a single door and a bright sign above it offering a colorful 'Congratulations!".
Knowing of the previous techniques numerous flaws, Katame didn't even bother looking around, instead, running through even more hand signs.
"Bankai!" (Final Release)
A heavy shockwave of chakra burst forth from her, disintegrating the room instantly. A moment later, she stood aboard a large ship, rolling with the waves of the sea supporting it.
The genin glared at nothing in particular. This was getting repetitive, not to mention a waste of chakra. Thus, she turned to the second method for dispelling genjutsu.
Unable to do it on the fly yet, she sat down cross-legged with her hands held up in front of her, palms pressed together. She took a deep breath before closing her eyes, concentrating on reducing the flow of her chakra to prevent the illusions from affecting her.
Once she felt the rocking waves stop beneath her, she slowly opened her eyes, only to find herself on a wide open plain with nothing to see but grass and the far off horizon. She scowled as she stood up, abandoning her attempts to temporarily end her energy flow.
She had been sure that she had managed to succeed in her challenge, but still she couldn't break all of the fakes. That left her with one option.
Resigned, she took out a kunai. Silently, she made a small cut down the back of her forearm, gritting her teeth slightly as she focused on the pain.
A second later, she stood in another white room, this one with two doors, one with a sign over it reading:
"You may now proceed through here."
Deciding to be absolutely sure she had gotten all of them, she gave one more burst of chakra, accompanied by a quick murmur of "Kai." When nothing changed, she concluded that she had completed the challenge.
With a small smile on her face, she walked through the door with the sign.
"I am going to kill whoever made this exam!" A familiar female voice reached her ears.
"I think I'll join you!" A second familiar voice, this one male.
The genjutsu user rolled her eyes as she approached her two teammates.
Taka's face brightened as she noticed the kunoichi walking towards her. "Hey, Katame!" she greeted, happy that the whole team made it through. Then, she became unusually serious. "Did they hurt you, too?"
The blue haired kunoichi stared at her a moment before softly shaking her head. The redhead frowned. "Lucky. They burned me pretty badly." She lifted her arm, showing Katame what looked like a second degree burn on her wrist.
Hari stepped up next to the pair. "Yeah, and they lit me like a bulb. So bad, in fact, that my leg went numb again like it did against the nukenin we captured a while ago." He scowled as he put weight on the leg, and it tingled dangerously.
Katame glanced between the two blankly. "You don't really care, do you?" asked Taka with a raised eyebrow. She sighed when all she received was a shrug. "Well, whatever. Any idea what we're supposed to do now?"
The group, at this point, looked around the room. It was rather large, almost auditorium size, and currently held a good one-hundred shinobi, most standing in groups of two or three. At the front sat what seemed like a jounin with his black hair pulled back in a ponytail, looking quite asleep. The rest of the ninja seemed to be genin taking the exams, some of them looking incredibly intimidating.
Katame took special notice of an older group of Kiri genin, in their late teens it looked like, that seemed entirely too sure of themselves. The one she assumed to be the leader stood leaning against the wall, his hitai-ate sticking halfway out of a pocket on his black vest, which covered a tight net undershirt, with black pants to go along with it as his black hair reached down to mid-back, giving him a slightly feminine appearance.
One of his treammates, a girl with similarly long, purple hair being held back by her hitai-ate, stood with her arms crossed over her chest with her own net undershirt showing past a halfway buttoned up black blouse with tight black pants, emphasizing her strong leg muscles.
The other teammate sat next to them, indian-style, on the floor, his dark maroon hair pulled back in a short ponytail, his hitai-ate around his forehead, thin black clothing covering most of his skin, a long sword sheath on his belt, whose blade was being held up by his hands for his eyes to examine. His handsome features, emphasized by the black clothing, drew attention to his face.
Together, they gave off an arrogant vibe, ignoring all who came near, despite any possible threat to them. Katame made a mental note to watch them in the future.
She turned back to her teammates again as they resumed talking. "Should we wake up the guy in front and ask?" inquired Taka, "He seems most likely to know."
"I don't know…" responded Hari hesitantly, "No one else is doing anythi-"
"Spike!"
He was interrupted as a body suddenly tackled him from behind, knocking his unprepared form to the ground with a startled cry. He let out an "Oof" as the body landed on top of him. The unknown form let out a giggled as he groaned. He tried to open his eyes, only to realize that his vision was entirely blocked by the person. Another giggled erupted as the obvious female lifted her upper body off of his.
He then found himself staring at two round bumps that soon traveled downward, out of his field of vision, to be replaced by two purple eyes staring back at his own.
"Hey, Spike! Long time, no see!" the girl exclaimed happily.
"Magusa?"
Her face became pleasantly surprised. "You remembered!"
Hari blushed, realizing where that meant his face had probably just been, which happened to be the same place it had been all those weeks ago. "Er…Yeah…" he said nervously as he thought, "Kinda hard to forget…"
He continued talking awkwardly. "Nice to see you, too, I suppose"
She smiled widely down at him before standing up from where she had been straddling him and offering him a hand in getting up, which he took, his face bright red. Then, she immediately wrapped her arms around one of his possessively.
"I hope you're ready for defeat this time, Master," Sokudo stated, putting exaggerated emphasis on the last word, as he joined his teammate and rivals. Toukan stood behind him off to the side with his arms crossed, looking highly annoyed.
The redhead smirked back. "We'll see, ya little Kitsune-gaki." (Fox-brat)
The Mist nin raised an eyebrow and was about to respond when he was interrupted by another shout.
"Hari-Nii-chan!"
Said green haired genin wasn't entirely surprised when he was tackled to the ground again, bringing a startled Magusa with him. A second later, he lay on his back with a body on each shoulder, glaring daggers across his chest at each other.
"Who the hell are you?" demanded the Mist kunoichi furiously, pointing an accusing finger at the young boy across from her.
"I'm Hari's brother, so you can go away." Sutamina stuck his tongue out mockingly.
The blonde Kiri nin's eyes flashed dangerously. "We don't need a stupid gaki getting between us, right Spike?" She looked expectantly at the male genin, joined shortly after by the Cloud nin.
Hari's eye twitched before he sat up, placing a hand on each of their faces and pushing them away from him. "Both of you can go away! I'm not in the mood."
Sakkaku laughed as she and her other teammate approached them, Uppun with a half-frown on his face. "Come on, Suta, you can't own everybody." Then, her face became suddenly serious. "And quit running off, darn it!" she commanded, much too loudly for an indoor scenario, causing everyone nearby to cover their ears momentarily.
As Taka allowed herself to listen again, she heard a sharp hissing noise. Lifting her head, she found a young, extremely tall, graceful-looking girl in short sleeve netting with a Konoha hitai-ate tied around her chest. She wore long black pants along with the typical black ninja sandals. Her eyes glared from behind red metallic sunglasses. "Must you be so loud?" she asked heatedly.
Taka nodded in understanding. "Of course Felina Rei, with her strong cat-like hearing, would be hurt by such a yell," she thought, remembering the girl from her academy days.
"Ah, come on, Rei-chan, can't you tell it's a party over here?" came a cheerful voice from past Felina. The tall cat-nin stepped to the side, allowing a boy with red hair down to his waist with hints of black at the bangs just above his eyes to walk up. Taka noticed from her position slightly to the side that there was a red wing design on the back of his black shirt. His dark Capri's came just past his knees, and his hitai-ate was wrapped where it should be around his forehead. He laughed joyfully as everyone stared at him.
Taka rolled her eyes. "Hah-kah Hitayio, sarcastic as always," she thought, once more thinking of her academy experience.
She looked beyond him to see a shy girl with light purple hair tied back in a braid and bright pink eyes nervously approaching. Her hitai-ate, which had a small piece of a leather choker showing beneath it, was tied around the neck of her red tank top, which Taka could see from the side had a silver crescent moon on its back with a katana sheath strapped over it, showing long fishnet sleeves that covered her entire arms. Her black knee-length pants led down to her thin legs and leather sandals.
Taka stared at her as she half-hid behind Hitayio. "And the shy and cautious Tsukino Hotaru. Interesting that they would be put on a team…"
Hotaru continued to stand there silently as she appraised the gathered group. She seemed slightly insecure as she looked at the foreigners.
The response to Hitayio's previous sarcastic comment about a party came in another new face, which appeared in the middle of them quite suddenly. "Party? Where? I want some booze!" The shoulder length snow-white hair of the tall, clumsy-looking boy flew around wildly as he searched for the non-existent social gathering. His belt, which held up baggy cargo pants and a vest-shirt, was lined with kunai and weapon holsters. The yellow hitai-ate band stood out sharply around his neck, along with his bright yellow eyes, which were mostly covered by his bangs.
Taka stared at him in amusement. "The same fun-loving Tenshou Kizui that I remember."
Her thoughts were interrupt by yet another new arrival. "There is no party, genius. It's called sarcasm. Ya know, the thing you use constantly." Kizui's head drooped in disappointment as his teammate joined the circle of genin, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. His short blond hair seemed unusual on the mature-looking face. His hitai-ate was wrapped tightly, just above his calm teal eyes. His blue sweatpants and t-shirt hung loosely on his form with a single kunai holster on his belt.
Taka blushed as she saw him. "My Emerarudo Tuonyo-kun. So cool!" However, her attention was drawn away from her crush by a muttering nearby.
"What a pain…" A gentle-looking girl murmured as she joined the growing crowd. Her hitai-ate held back her medium length blond hair. A small, gold, heart-shaped locket hung around her neck on the outside of her white shirt with black pants. However, what was really strange was the tiger cub that lay, asleep, on top of her head.
Taka slightly glared at her for being on the same team as her crush. "And Seidou Taru, the lazy bum."
Hari then laughed rather suddenly. "Hey, wha'd'ya know, the new rookie nine together again." Magusa cleared her throat, drawing his attention to the half-assed glare she was giving him. "Er…Along with some tag-alongs." Her glared turned full force as she placed her fists on her hips, causing him to take a step back. "I-I mean, along with some very close friends!" She continued to advance, causing Hari to bring his hands up to protect his face. "Don't hurt me!"
Hitayio burst out laughing as Rain's intimidation factor dropped to normal levels. "He's not even a teenager and Hari-kun's already whipped!" Everyone except Katame, Toukan, and Uppun shared a chuckle at Hari's expense.
Taka sighed as she finished, breaking out into a large smile around the group. "It's good to have so many allies."
"Here, here!" agreed Tounyo. Everyone with the exception of one ice using Mist nin and one grappling Cloud nin shared an agreeing nod, signaling the hope of friendship among all but the two.
Off to the side, the over-confident Kiri team that Katame had taken notice of earlier watched them with slight glares. "That's them, right?" asked the female among them.
Her dark-haired teammate nodded. "Hai."
"But only the Konoha teams, correct?" inquired the sword wielder from the ground.
"Hai," answered the leader once more before breaking into a wicked grin. "Let's have some fun with this, shall we?"