["Gladiolus"- Give Me a Break...I'm Really Sincere; Flower of the Gladiators]
Shin let out a deep sigh, nervously tugging on his ponytail. It felt strange to change his usual attire in such a way, but it was necessary.
Instead of the standard ROOT uniform, he was wearing the typical jounin outfit. A flak jacket and thin pants, all drab in color and looking very ill-suited on him. Even his old uniform had some personalized elements to it- it would have to, or else Sai wouldn't have been able to wear his crop-top. Shin shuddered to think of what should happen the first time someone told his young partner that he wasn't allowed to wear it- heads would roll, no doubt.
He couldn't fight a smile at the thought. He was just imagining Danzo and Sai in a tug of war over Sai's crop-top. The mental image was almost enough to make him forget his unease at this mission. But not quite.
"Shin-kun?" a voice called out.
Shin turned, giving a smile even though it felt awkward. "Yes, sir!"
Katō Dan, jounin commander and husband of the infamous Senju Tsunade, stood there, gesturing towards him to come over. Shin complied, though not without some apprehension. It felt a bit silly, as there was little chance of any of these shinobi recognizing him, especially since he'd dyed his hair brown and dotted a light dusting of freckles across his nose. But the nervous energy just wouldn't abate.
"Good to have you," Katō said, nodding in greeting. "You ready for this?"
"As I'll ever be!" Shin laughed, though the way he kept running a hand through his hair belied his lively statement. "I'm excited to see how it's all going to go down, honestly. I'm just imagining all the people that are gonna be showing up. It's all pretty exhilarating, huh?"
"Definitely!" Katō grinned in reply, reaching up to tuck a piece of his long, silvery hair behind his ear. "I saw in your file that you got a field promotion, right?"
"Yeah," Shin nodded, praying that no one would look too deeply into that. Or ask what kind of mission he'd been on to deserve an advancement straight to jounin. As far as his 'official file' said, he'd graduated from the academy, gone into the Genin Corps and somehow lucked out enough to get involved in some kinda big, important mission. It was the kind of alibi that made sense, so long as you didn't think about it for too long. Or ask any questions.
ROOT was many things, but despite Danzo's best efforts, subtle wasn't one of them. Honestly, it was a miracle that no one had bothered to look too closely at their operations- they'd have been screwed at the first person to raise the alarms. Having the support of a village elder, who was for a long time also the trusted friend of the Hokage, really did go a long way.
Shin didn't begrudge them for it. Even if the situation completely sucked for him, personally, it was worth it. Because in the end, it was for the good of the village. And wasn't that what they were all fighting for?
"Well, good for you," Katō replied, and Shin forcibly pulled himself back to the present. "This'll be your first time watching the chunin exams, then? I've heard we're gonna get a nice crowd this year!"
Shin followed along when he began to walk towards the stadium, only a little nervous now.
"We're going for a bit of a different theme this year," he began, gesturing expressively as he spoke. "Minato's really pushing for more of a 'teamwork' angle. Kushina tried to protest, saying that the other villages would make fun of us for it, but then Minato countered with the fact that she just wanted to see children engage in gladiator style death matches, which was totally true, believe me. So she backed down, but not without some booing. She was helped, of course by Tsume-san, who also seems to enjoy watching children fight to the death. They were resoundingly shot down, which I won't deny that I'm happy with. I remember Nawaki's chunin exam being a complete nightmare. Of course, that was during a time when we were all certain that war was going to strike at any moment, but the comparison still stands."
"Uh... right," Shin said eloquently, head spinning with all of the rapid-fire information being thrown at him. Fucking hell, he never knew that Katō was such a chatterbox. Usually he just saw the man standing next to the podium when the Hokage was making a speech, in which his job was to just look regal and wave at people. That probably explained it.
"Oh, and don't even get me started on Shizune's exam-"
"Yes, please don't," a new voice said dryly. Shin was about ready to cry from gratitude, until he saw who it was.
Uchiha Shisui smirked back at him- and of course it was him. One of the only people to see Shin when he was off duty, and thus not wearing his mask. Of course. That was just Shin's luck.
"Hey. Need a save?" he smirked, thankfully without any sort of recognition.
"Oh, come on," Katō huffed, though his expression remained friendly. "I'm not that bad."
"Not yet," Shisui retorted, before reaching out to clasp Shin's shoulder, giving him a conspiratorial look. "Just wait until he starts talking about Tsunade-san. He'll never shut up."
Shin laughed, the sound awkward and strained. "O-oh, that's... nice?"
At that, Shisui's grip on him tightened briefly, as if in surprise. He spun Shin around, running his eyes over his face intently.
Oh, fuck.
"Hey, I know you!" he exclaimed, sounding absolutely delighted. "We never see people at that crappy training ground, so that day really stuck in my mind. You changed your hair! How's your brother doing? Learn any cool techniques? What's-"
"Woah, slow down, Shisui-kun!" Katō chuckled, pulling Shin gently out of the other teen's eager grasp. "And you say I talk a lot!"
"You do," Shisui replied mulishly, though he let go without a fight.
Shin thought that he was in the clear, but then they both turned to him expectantly. He scrambled for what to say.
"My brother? He's, uh-" If you're asking about Sai, he's busy repressing the last two weeks. If you're asking about Raiden, well. Last time I saw him, he seemed to be going through some kind of mental breakdown, so. "Fine. He's fine. A pain in the ass, but that's not unusual. As for the hair, it was just a last minute sort of thing. Decided that if I was going to be doing an important job like this, that I should at least try to look professional. Besides, it was a pain to keep re-dying it blue all the time."
They didn't need to know that the blue was actually his natural hair color. He wanted to keep his identity as ambiguous as possible, after all.
"That's fair," Shisui nodded agreeably, before giving him a teasing slap on the back. "I wouldn't worry too much about being professional, though. This is Konoha after all, if we don't act at least a little weird the other villages will get suspicious!"
Now that made Shin let out a real laugh. "Alright, I'll take your word for it!"
/=\
When participants began to gather for the first part of the exam, Shin went and made himself scarce. He was proctoring the third part, so he didn't really have to worry for now.
Instead, he kept to the shadows and watched the proceedings with curiosity. As was to be expected, there was a ton of Konoha teams. Whichever village was hosting the exams inevitably put in the most teams, as there was really very little to lose in that situation. A familiar environment, surrounded by allies- what more could you ask for?
He was a bit surprised by the amount of Amegakure teams, however. They'd only recently started to recover from the aftereffects of their civil war, and their economy was still pretty shitty. They were probably hoping that sending more of their teams out into the world would draw more attention to their village, and remind people that they were available to commission for jobs. It was a sound strategy, if a bit basic.
Shin found himself intrigued, now. Most of the Kage's were supposed to be here was well, and the Amekage undoubtedly would, seeing as how Amegakure and Konohagakure had been fairly solid allies for quite some time. He'd heard good things about Yahiko. It would be interesting to see how the man lived up to the legend.
Quickly, his attention was stolen by the ongoing test. Shisui was the proctor for this first one, and Shin was reluctantly impressed. It was only a basic test of will and endurance, combined with information gathering skills and stealth, but he made it seem like a performance.
Shisui was loud and exuberant, alternatively setting people at ease before bearing down on them for some suspected wrongdoing. He had somehow raised his annoyingly nosy and cheerful tendencies to an art form, the perfect way to distract a bunch of genin with a time limit. He didn't try and scare them- he didn't need to. Instead, he heckled them, trying to get one of the genin riled up enough to respond to his comments. If anyone did, he would have them disqualified for 'disturbing the other participants'.
Shin found himself increasingly amused by the whole thing. He saw one Inuzuka get elbowed repeatedly by his Hyuga and Aburame teammates in order to stop him from shouting out. He even noticed Yakushi Kabuto- a chunin plant, no doubt, subtly egging on anyone who seemed to be working up the nerve to stand up for themselves. He could appreciate that kind of slyness, even if it was coming from someone who Yūto had declared to be his 'mortal enemy'. Perhaps especially then, if he was being honest with himself.
But soon enough, it was over. A decent amount of teams were eliminated, and when Katō entered the room to make his announcement of the next task, Shisui approached him with a wicked grin.
"Did you see the look on that Uzumaki girl's face?" he bragged, eyes lit up with so much real enjoyment that Shin couldn't help but go along. "Man, on my last run through I thought she was actually gonna take a swing at me! And hell, that's not even mentioning those Kurama twins that were giving me the murder eyes-"
He chattered on like that for a good ten minutes, and even though Shin had seen it all happen, he was still happy to listen. Shisui was such a genuine person- blunt in his actions and speech, free with his affection and praise. It was so different from what he was used to in ROOT.
Shin thought that he could grow to like it. Perhaps he already had. Nevertheless, he was content to let Shisui babble on, adding excited hand gestures to the mix when his words just weren't enough. It was cute.
Honestly, Shisui reminded him of all the traits he loved in his ROOT comrades. It was like seeing Tonbo's mischievous nature mixed with Yakumo's subtle kindness, Fū's sarcastic quips combined with Torune's propensity for enthusiastic rants.
It made Shin feel just a bit more at home. Like the rest of the world wasn't too different from his own little corner of it after all.
"Alright you two," Katō said, cutting off Shisui mid-sentence. "We're about to head over to the Forest of Death. You don't technically have to come, but I thought I'd let you know just in case. Remember, Shin-kun, you have to be at the stadium when the final task begins, okay?"
"Not a problem," Shin replied, more confident than he truly felt. In fact, he was feeling a bit queasy just at the thought of it.
Perhaps Shisui picked up on it, because he clasped Shin's shoulder with a serious look.
"Hey, don't worry. You've got this," He gave a gentle smile, before then adding teasingly. "And even if you do mess up, I'll still like you."
"Gee, thanks," Shin said dryly. He was almost tempted to roll his eyes. Clearly, he'd been spending too much time around Raiden.
Shisui laughed, slinging an arm over Shin's shoulder. He dragged the other to the next event place, seemingly intent on watching the spectacle unfold. Shin went along, but his heart wasn't in it. He'd been fine at first, but then-
Then, he'd seen the team Shisui had been talking about earlier, with the Uzumaki girl. He was surprised he hadn't noticed them earlier. The girl had a rather strange hairstyle, smooth on one side and jagged on the other, as if she had gotten up that morning and decided to only brush half of her hair, and one of her male teammates seemed way too tall to be a teenager. But it was her other teammate that really caught his attention.
Silvery-blue hair, only a few shades lighter than his own. The same type of haircut, the same eyes- though admittedly, Shin's were darker in shade. Regardless, if the two were to stand side by side, they could easily be mistaken for brothers.
But that was impossible. Wasn't it?
