AN
DarkRavie: Well, he's a good guy, but no one ever said he's a 'good' good guy, some of his attitude still leaks out now and then, and it's my intent that he stays scary even as a good guy, heh.
Serenity Maxwell: Itachi wants Naruto to get a rank more suited to him- jounin may be a bit of a jump, but at least chuunin is a step in the right direction- wink
WOOT! Over 10k hits!
If Matsuri comes off as OC, I'm sorry, I read the manga, and she's an anime-only character except I think she's one of the girls who swear to be the one to save Gaara next time? I know she's supposed to have gotten over her thing with weapons by now- and that's about it…
End AN
"You must be joking," Tsunade said in a voice that bordered on exasperated. Naruto sat deadpan next to Itachi whose brilliant brainchild this had been.
"How can you think that, anything else smacks of favoritism, or worse, copying the Sand."
"There are so many problems with that idea that I don't even know where to start- but I think first of all the most immediate problem is team 7 is one short."
"Like it's that hard to find a replacement team member- in fact I already know three people willing to do it. One of whom is still a genin ready to take the exams."
"Oh?"
"I talked to Gaara and he says Matsuri is ready to take the chuunin exams as well, failing that, Gaara himself, as well as I would be willing to fill in."
Tsunade's expression bordered between terror and wits end. "You and Gaara are WELL above Chuunin level."
Itachi shrugged, "Well, we'd only need to be with him through the first two parts of the exam, besides, that's why I asked Gaara about Matsuri, or any other Genin in his village who he thought might be willing to work with Naruto."
"All right- all right- you've out thought me on this one- Naruto, what do you think," Tsunade looked over to Naruto who had been silent this whole time, hoping he realized how ludicrous this thing was too.
Naruto perked at his name, and looked between Itachi and Tsunade, easily able to tell he'd suddenly become the pitch vote- each wanting him to side with them. Naruto stifled the urge to curl into a ball and roll on the floor laughing. "Several things-"
He noticed Tsunade seem slightly relieved as he said that.
"First, Tsunade is the Hokage right now, so her word should be final- however I haven't heard an official final say- leaping into that- Itachi has a point that we don't want to show favoritism towards me. I must admit two conflicting things, I kinda like the idea of being in the chuunin exams again- but at the same time I'm not sure I want to waste the time- …" Naruto snickered, "Who am I kidding, I'd love another chance to show everyone else what I can do, get a little more respect now that I actually can…"
Itachi smiled this time-
"But, it is dangerous; we all remember what happened in my last chuunin exams. So I say we go for it, but Itachi should be disguised as one of the chuunin examiners. And since Gaara will be a judge this time, that leaves Matsuri to be my fill in member."
Tsunade promptly sat down. She took a moment to think, stretching the moment as long as she dared with Itachi and Naruto waiting for her reply…
kaKAkaKAka
Kakashi came in to visit Sakura again, today she would be losing the bandaged look, and hopefully there wouldn't be any scars left behind. Itachi and Naruto had gotten back from Sand today, but he didn't expect them to already be in with Sakura when he came in. They were talking animatedly as he came in. But stopped and turned to him as he opened the door-
"Kakashi-sensei! Tsunade agreed to let us enter the Chuunin exams if you want to put us up for it."
Kakashi faulted- "Excuse me- what about Sas-" Kakashi cut himself off from finishing, knowing that was a taboo word these days, "What about the fact we're short a team member?"
"We got that covered; Matsuri from Sand will be our temporary fill in."
Kakashi paused, "One condition, when Matsuri gets here, we'll do THAT test again."
"That test," Itachi wondered for a moment…
teTEteTEte
Matsuri had spent most of the trip trying to pry any extra information out of Temari that she could about Team 7. She honestly cared more about knowing who she was working with than trying to scare up any information she could about the Chuunin exams. This slightly impressed Temari, who was going to the exams to help proctor them. A whole wash of nonsense as far she had been concerned, until she found out Matsuri was going to fill in for Sasuke. Suddenly she was a little more interested. Matsuri was the only Sand-nin who was prepared enough to take the exams that wasn't already a Chuunin by now. And this was another epic rare, a team of mixed villages, this would prove to the world that Sand Village had changed, and truly respected its alliances now- 'well,' Temari smirked, 'it proves it to the Leaf anyway…'
That got Temari thinking; many of the other smaller villages most certainly only pay token respect to their alliances as Sand did. If war broke out and it came down to Sand and Fire Villages against the rest- could they win? 'Against them all as individual inter-bickering nations- probably, against them all unified- especially under Akatsuki'- suddenly the idea of Akatsuki became more real. Gaara had told her most of what Itachi told him, especially about Akatsuki's goals and plans for the Biju. It seemed ludicrous, that anyone would dare, when the Jinchuuriki were only a partial success. Naruto had seemed an anomaly to her as one, until he'd gotten to Gaara. Gaara cared now. But Akatsuki- with all nine, it didn't matter if they were like Naruto or like Gaara had been- either way was frightful. Temari remembered Naruto's fights in his last Chuunin exam; he'd learned to look beneath the hidden. All of Leaf's genin seemed good at that- Shikamaru was a genius, if he'd just apply himself more he could be insanely powerful. He'd almost beaten her in their first battle, and he'd grown stronger since then- but then so had she. She smirked as she thought it through.
Matsuri shot ahead of Temari as she stopped cold. Temari had a look of utter disbelief and when Matsuri saw that she went into hyper-alert mode trying to spot whatever had shocked Temari. Finding nothing she looked back at Temari, "What?"
Temari's attention snapped back to Matsuri, "Nothing, I was just thinking."
"About what- that would startle you like that?"
Lying quickly she told her about what she had been thinking about before, about Akatsuki and her realization on how dangerous they really were. Only when Matsuri looked contented and took off again did Temari let her mind return to the real problem. This was- as Shikamaru would put it, 'Troublesome.'
Temari was relieved to have distractions taking up her thoughts again when they finally got to Leaf Village. Being foreign Shinobi they had to sign in…
saSAsaSAsa
Sakura was glad when Tsunade shoo'd off everyone to take off her bandages, to be honest, she didn't want anyone to see her until she knew what they were going to see. Tsunade came forward with a pair of scissors because of the amount of bandages it was impractical to unwrap her from head to toe. Tsunade started at her waist and took the bandages from her torso. Sakura instinctively pulled in her waist as the bandage came free, but breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw perfectly healthy skin beneath. Tsunade purposefully left her head for last, freeing her legs next. She knew Sakura would have trouble dealing if she was disfigured in any way, and she wanted to be sure to keep her there until all the bandages were off. When she got to what they were both waiting for, Tsunade cut carefully from the forehead down, and pulled the last of the bandages away. Sakura reached up to feel her face, and let out one last sigh of relief. Tsunade smiled as she handed Sakura a mirror so she could be certain.
Sakura smiled triumphantly and held out her hands in a 'V' for Victory…
