Kabuto frowned as he looked at the Uzumaki boy who had just entered the room. The boy had turned out to be something of a wild card but, then again, that was something to be expected, considering the fact that the boy had snuck aboard one of the ox carts that had been hired to take his and several other teams to the Chunin Exams in Kumo four years ago.
It had been his first Chunin Exam, and one of the Jounin senseis who'd been from a wealthy family and happened to be rather pregnant at the time had refused to hike all the way to the ass end Lightning Country. Rather than hoofing it, as was traditional in cases where the Chunin Exams took place outside Konoha, Konoha's teams had been given a ride which had been followed out of the village with a great deal of jeering and teasing from the more experienced ninja, and a bit of undue fanfare which had caused a number of the village children to run up to them and excitedly send them off. One of the little well-wishers had decided to go on an adventure it seemed, since he had managed to make his way aboard one of the carts the pregnant Jounin's family had hired during the commotion.
It had been at the end of the first day that they'd discovered that they'd had a little stowaway. Which said a great deal about the boy's stealth skills, despite the child's current love of over-bright colors. It had been a good thing he'd been there too, considering the fact that one of his teammates had broken his leg while pulling some sort of asinine stunt before they'd left Fire Country, and he and his team would most likely have ended up being forced to turn around and lose a rather choice information gathering opportunity if there hadn't been a "Substitute" available. An Academy Second-year substitute who really should've been back in Konoha.
It had been allowed, since Academy students had been signed up for the Chunin Exams as a joke before, there being one famous example from three decades back where one of the Academy Students who'd been put in as a prank had ended up completely bypassing the rank of Genin. Somehow, in spite of being encumbered with what he'd thought of as dead weight until the kid had caught an opponent in a rather ingenious trap that had been derived from one of the boy's more infamous pranks, they'd made it past the second phase of the Exam with said Academy student in tow. He'd quit at that point, but the Uzumaki kid who hadn't yet learned a single Jutsu, had the crappiest Taijutsu he'd ever seen, and absolutely no knowledge of Genjutsu or strategy had gone on and gotten himself steam-rolled during his first fight in the Arena a month later.
When he'd encountered the boy again following their return to Konoha, the kid had not known who he was, and had had absolutely no memory of the Chunin Exams he'd participated in, or even of the fact that such a thing as the Chunin Exams actually even existed. Whether or not this had been a result of the rather nasty concussion the boy had received during his bout in the Chunin Exams which had left him unconscious for three days, or an attempt to prevent the child from trying to run off and take the Chunin Exams again, he didn't know. Suffice to say, the boy hadn't made Chunin, so it didn't really matter whether or not Naruto remembered his participation in the Exams when he was eight.
Now though, Naruto had yet again done something that defied expectations and threw him for a loop. It wasn't so much what he did though, as what he was. Apparently, Naruto had some Uchiha blood in him, and it had been strong enough for him to manifest the Sharingan. This of course was completely strange, as there had been nothing in what little family records were available for the boy to indicate that that would be the case. There were a couple incidences of "Father Unknown" in the boy's mother's family tree, but none that seemed like they would be close enough for the Sharingan to crop up.
Deciding that he'd spent far too long just staring at the Uzumaki boy who was starting to notice, he headed over to the small group of rookies, hoping to study their reactions to him as he deliberately slipped up in a way a green ninja probably wouldn't notice, as that would tell him a great deal about them. Including how observant they are. The carrot he'd be offering them in this case as he gained their confidence as an older mentor figure would be an offer to let them have a peek at his ninja info cards, of which he had several sets.
Ino frowned from her perch on Sasuke's back. Rather than yelling at her and calling her "Ino-Pig" like she usually did when she encountered her rival in love, Sakura had pretty much ignored the fact that she'd come up to greet her future husband. Her approaching, much less touching Sasuke-kun was something that would normally get a rise out of the other girl, but not today.
"Something wrong forehead?" she asked, seriously worried that there might be something actually wrong with Sakura. "You're not giving up on Sasuke-kun are you?"
"You can have him." Sakura said, sounding disgusted with the idea of dating the Uchiha. "I heard my parents talking, and apparently, the Uchiha were responsible for the Kyuubi attack."
"Yeah, I know." she replied, having heard that enough times when her parents hadn't thought she was listening when she was little. "But, it's not like Sasuke-kun did it. He was like a little baby at the time. 'S why dad never says anything to him about his parents, even though he hates them."
Sasuke who'd been standing stiffly as she held on to him flinched at this, but said nothing.
"You knew, and you didn't tell me?!" Sakura said.
"People don't talk about it, just like they don't talk about what happened to the Yukimori clan, or what that Shimura guy's doing on the Hokage's council of advisors despite the fact that he..." she started, before she realized what she was saying and shut up before she said something that could get her killed. There was a lot of things that "Everyone" knew, but never talked about. It was a real surprise when you ran into someone who wasn't in the know. Though she probably should've expected it since Sakura was from a family that had started off civilian about a generation or two back, not a clan.
"I just still can't see Sasuke the same way I used to though." Sakura said, apparently deciding not to ask what had happened to the ill-fated Yukimori clan who'd run out of money during a particularly nasty winter and refused all charity, even when it got to the point that there was nothing edible in their compound except..., or why someone like Shimura Danzo was one of the Hokage's advisors despite the fact that his being such was quite the risk.
"But he's Sasuke-kun!" Ino exclaimed as she squeezed said boy who had yet to get out from under her for some reason even more tightly.
"You might not have lost family in the Kyuubi attack, but I did. And, what his family did to Naruto..." Sakura started, working up a head of steam until several shinobi appeared in the room.
"Settle down brats!" yelled one of her father's colleagues, a scarred man named Morino Ibiki.
"Aw damn, and it was just getting interesting." one of the foreign Genin muttered.
When Ibiki had ordered them to come up and take a test form and a number, she brushed past the gray haired boy who'd been standing at the edge of her and Sakura's conversation, looking like he was waiting for an opportunity to introduce himself. Seeing as he looked like he was in his late teens, there was a good chance that he was a perv who'd been looking to "mentor" a rookie during the exams. Her dad had warned her about that sort, and how no matter how nice they seemed, you never went off with them alone.
Shuddering over the fact that she'd been that close to the skeevy creep, she grabbed her test and her number and went to find her seat.
Hinata smiled sadly when she realized who she would be sitting next to for the written portion of the Chunin Exams. She still had a crush on the boy, but she knew that none of her dreams in regards to him could ever come true. He was Uchiha, which placed him in the "never in a million years" category.
It wasn't just that their clans'd had something of a rivalry going for ages. A mutual antagonism that had picked up in recent days after Sasuke had leveled some shocking allegations against her clan and refused to apologize even after he'd learned that he'd been in the wrong. The Uchiha and the Hyuuga had always been like oil and water, or Fire and Water rather, and this generation - barring Naruto - was no exception.
The thing that barred her and Naruto from ever marrying in the future despite the fact that he was of a clan of near equal importance to her own was the fact that the Sharingan and the Byakugan were completely incompatible. Any daughters they might have would have serious eye problems. If they weren't born blind that was. There was just something about the genes for the Byakugan and the Sharingan that didn't mix properly.
She admired Naruto's tenacity however, his refusal to give up or give in. Knowing the boy's smile was more of a mask than anything, she admired it all the more. She admired it because the boy had the strength to refuse to show anyone that they'd hurt him, that they'd won. She would always admire that.
Even though she could never have him, she would do everything she could so Naruto's fire wouldn't go out.
Edited 8-8-17.
