He had been back in the Village Hidden by Leaves for a week. Team seven had been doing only easy D rank missions after their C rank mission turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. As usual they would all meet at the bridge near the training grounds to wait for Kakashi to arrive, he would be late, and as usual, provide a stupid excuse. However, because they were only doing D rank missions he had been sending a clone to the Library to study more advanced theory concerning chakra manipulation. He was considering learning his element affinity once he had saved enough to purchase some chakra paper. It was unfortunately very expensive and the shops that sold it would likely charge him more. Ever since he had graduated the allowance he had received from the village for living expenses had been stopped. He was now relying solely on what he could make as a genin shinobi. Given that he had only been doing D rank missions He wasn't making enough to maintain himself fully. He had been dipping into his savings account but even that was lower than he was comfortable with.
He had hoped that after they had proved themselves by successfully completing a C rank mission that they would have more C rank mission when they returned. His hopes meant nothing. He really needed harder missions soon so that he could make a little more money to support himself or he would be in serious financial distress. A week was long enough to rest. They had proved they were capable of handling more difficult missions while they were in the Land of Waves. That was at least a B rank mission probably higher. He had a suspicion that the one holding them back was Sakura who was the weakest member of the team. She had good chakra control and the knowledge to use it effectively but she lacked power, strength, and stamina. Quite frankly she dragged them all down. He could only be thankful that what missions they did complete were all successful.
He was walking back to the mission room in the academy after their most recent mission with the others when he spotted a bird flying in circles above them. He knew that the bird was likely a message sent by the Hokage but had no idea what it could mean. He could see Kakashi staring at the bird and knew that he understood what it meant.
"I have to go submit the mission reports now," Kakashi said using the body flicker technique to leave.
He scowled at the spot where he had been. He was going to ask what the bird meant and now he would be unable to. He should go to the library and see if there were any books on bird messages used by the hidden leaf.
"Sasuke, how about we work on strengthening our teamwork?" Sakura asked nervously with a blush on her face.
She was rubbing her hands together while looking at the ground in a way she probably felt was demure. He couldn't help but snort at her ploys to get Sasuke alone. She sent a glare in his direction when she heard it. It would definitely backfire on her as there were three people on their team. Also, Sasuke tended to be more annoyed by his fangirls than interested in them. As long as Sakura insisted on being a fangirl she would never win Sasuke for herself only drive him further and further away.
"If you have time to mind me, go practise a technique or two. To be honest, your abilities are the lowest on the team," it was unexpectedly harsh when someone said what they had all been thinking aloud.
Poor, pathetic Sakura. It looked like her heart was being crushed into tiny pieces with every word Sasuke spoke. He felt the need, for the sake of their teamwork, to assist her in her time of need.
"Excellent point Sasuke," he said, "I would be happy to go to the Library with you, Sakura. I've been wanting to research something interesting recently. We can all go as a team."
Sakura was still depressed about Sasuke's rejection but still managed to glare at him again. Sasuke just nodded his assent and started walking in the general direction of the library. He fell in to step beside Sasuke.
He glanced over his shoulder at Sakura, "Your choice."
"I'm coming," she huffed grudgingly after a breif pause.
She caught up with them quickly taking the place at Sasuke's other side. He wanted to know how someone could be so persistent in trying to gain the affection of someone who never wasted an opportunity to turn them down. Sasuke wasn't even nice about his constant rejections and still the fangirls kept on squealing.
They had to walk across the village to get to the Library from where they currently were. They had only been walking for two minutes but the silence was full of tension mostly caused by Sakura's pouting. He was almost tempted to slip back into his prankster persona and challenge them to a race just so he could run away and leave them to deal with their issues alone. Sakura's crush had nothing to do with him apart from the inconvenience it caused him.
"That hurt, brat," a loud voice suddenly filled the silence.
He looked at the source and saw a guy wearing a cat suit. Cat Suit was holding his minion up by his scarf. He could tell that his minion was scared. He could pretend he didn't notice the situation. Sasuke and Sakura hadn't reacted to the older boy at all. But Konohamaru had been his minion since the day after he graduated. His very first minion. It would be bad form not to interfere. He would hate to lose Konohamaru's trust and admiration, though much like with Inari he had no idea how he had earned it in the first place.
With a sigh and a shrug he veered left toward his imperilled minion, "Konohamaru."
Sasuke and Sakura stopped walking but didn't follow him right away.
"Stop it. We're going to get scolded later," a blond girl said without any sort of force behind the words.
She spoke like she just wanted to be able to say she had tried to stop him, not like she actually wanted stop him. As he got closer he felt Kurama stir inside him. He felt his curiosity peak. If Kurama was reacting at least one of them had to be interesting. Looking closer at their headbands he saw that the two shinobi were from the Village Hidden by Sand. It was rare to see foreign shinobi in the village.
"But I want to play around before some noisy people come," Cat Suit hadn't loosened his grip at all, "You're very energetic kid."
He was proud to see that Konohamaru was struggling to get free but it was troubling how little success he was having with the endeavour. His kicks didn't seem to even register with the brute. He had been using a clone to help Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon to train recently when he could spare one. It was disheartening to know that Konohamaru still had so far to go before he could be useful to him. Next time they trained he would definitely focus on how to escape enemy capture.
It was about time he stepped in since no one seemed to have heard him call Konohamaru's name.
"Too late. If you do not release my," he felt he shouldn't say minion aloud if they weren't alone, "friendly acquaintance. I'm afraid I will have to notify the proper authorities of your deplorable behaviour toward the Hokage's grandson."
Name dropping was never a bad thing if it could increase the chances of a situation ending smoothly. Hopefully, knowing who they were attacking would help convince them that it was a bad idea to continue. If they left Konohamaru alone he would let them get continue with their business unimpeded. Unfortunately, he was dealing with an imbecile.
"Are you threatening me," Cat Suit asked aggressively, but he did note that his hand did loosen a little on Konohamaru's scarf.
"Not at all. I am merely making you aware of your situation," he smiled, "You can of course continue to bully the boy, but I do have to wonder, is attacking the Hokage's grandson in front of multiple witnesses worth jeopardizing what you are doing here?"
"You piss me off. I hate short people anyway. And you're so impertinent for someone younger than me. It makes me want to break you," Cat Suit said trying to be menacing.
He wasn't intimidated but before he could respond the girl sighed, "I'm not going to be responsible for what you do."
She at least seemed to have a brain but lacked a back bone. She excused herself from the situation but made no attempt to stop her teammate's foolishness.
Cat Suit smiled but it was ugly, "I'll take care of this shorty first, then I'll deal with you."
Cat Suit pulled his arm back to punch Konohamaru in the face. He sensed movement behind him and leaned to the right just in time to be missed as a rock thrown by Sasuke went flying past his ear. He would need to speak to Sasuke later about endangering him in order to defend him.
"Thank-you Sasuke for your assistance in saving my mi-friendly acquaintance," he said without looking back, he could feel Sasuke come to a stop just behind his right shoulder, "Teammates should back each other up, after all."
He directed his second comment at the blond who scowled but remained silent. She had already denied responsibility so it would have looked bad for her to suddenly decide to interfere. That made her a safe easy target for any insults he might use.
Sasuke spoke to Cat Suit, "What do you think you're doing in another's village?"
"Another kid that pisses me off," Cat Suit said through gritted teeth as he cradled his hand to his chest. Knowing how skilled Sasuke was his hand was probably broken.
"Why don't we just say that everyone in the Village pisses you off and call it a day," he offered reasonably.
Konohamaru had run over to him the instant he was free with that odd look he sometimes got. It made him uncomfortable but as the grandson of the third Hokage he couldn't afford to let such a great connection slip through his fingers just because he was awkward. He squeezed Konohamaru's shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting way. It felt unnatural to him but Konohamaru was smiling so he would assume that it worked.
"Get lost," Sasuke affirmed.
Rather than take their kindly given advice, Cat Suit went for the bandage covered bundle he was carrying on his back. Based on the blond's shocked reaction he was going to actually attack them with a jutsu. He hadn't believed it possible for anyone to actually be so stupid. When in a foreign shinobi village, even if it is allied with your own village, you do not attack the village's children with jutsu. Every jutsu is harmful to the opponent, some more so than others. What Cat Suit was about to do could be considered by shinobi law an act of war. Simply put, he was completely flabbergasted by the development and was recalculating the best way to respond taking the boy's idiocy into account.
"Kankuro, stop," a short red-headed boy said from the tree next to them, "You're a disgrace to our village."
The boy was standing on the bottom of one of the trees branches hanging upside down. Despite the odd place he had chosen to stand he gave off a threatening aura. His pale teal eyes looked cold and lifeless. He knew those eyes.
'I knew I had sensed one of my siblings close by. Careful, Hadrian, that boy is the jinchūriki of Shukaku. He is very likely insane. My brother likes to torture his jinchūrikis by making it impossible for them to sleep,' Kurama suddenly shifted inside him.
'That's very cruel of your brother, but I can see the dark shadows under his eyes,' he thought for a moment, 'Will he be aware you that you are sealed inside of me?'
Kurama snorted, 'Shukaku would never share anything that might be important with his jinchūriki. He hates them.'
He looked at the small boy who had probably gone through many of the same things he had, 'That's a pity. It's better to get along with each other. It's less lonely that way.'
'Agreed.'
He looked the boy in the eyes and smiled. The least he could do is be friendly to his fellow jinchūriki. If possible he would very much like to be friends. He knew they would have a lot in common. He would find a way to get him alone so they could talk, a chance to speak to another jinchūriki may never come again. But instead of smiling back the boy just looked suspicious and frowned hatefully at him. That was confirmation enough that Shukaku did not share any information with his jinchūriki. It also aligned with his suspicions that jinchūriki were treated the same in every village. That was fine though, he wasn't like the villagers.
"Gaara," Kankuro stuttered clearly afraid.
He liked Gaara already if he could cause that reaction from Cat Suit.
"Why do you think we came all the way to the Hidden Leaf?" Garra asked.
"Listen, Gaara, these guys started it," Kankuro was a terrible liar.
"Shut up," Garra demanded.
"Alright, I was at fault. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry," Kankuro apologized to the wrong person.
"Excuse them, you guys," Gaara said disappearing in a swirl of sand before reappearing next to Kankuro and the blond.
He turned to look at Sasuke to gauge whether he wanted to continue the fight with Kankuro. He seemed bored with the whole situation so he felt it was fine to end the confrontation there. But he did hat not having the last word.
"Because I like you, Gaara, was it?" he paused waiting for the redhead to nod.
He smiled at him, "We'll forget about your teammate's behaviour."
He felt Sasuke tensing behind him but dismissed it. If it was important Sasuke would tell him later.
Gaara narrowed his eyes but nodded once in their direction before turning away, "Let's go. We didn't come here to fool around."
Once the sand shinobi were out of sight they continued walking toward the library. Even his minion decided to came along. The beating he almost received seemed to have really shaken him. He kept his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder as they walked and slowly felt the tension bleeding away. Sakura's attitude also seemed to have gotten better as she chatted with his minion's friends which he had failed to notice earlier.
As they entered the library he leaned close to Sasuke so he wouldn't be overheard, "Did you do any research into what I am yet?"
"No," Sasuke said looking thoughtfully at the shelves of books.
"Gaara is the same. Watch out for him," he added helpfully.
"Is that why you suddenly decided to like him?" Sasuke asked quickly.
"Part of it. Also, did you see how scared Cat Suit was of him? I think he is definitely worth knowing," he said with a chuckle remembering the look of fear on Kankuro's face.
The following day he went to meet his teammates at the bridge near the team 7 training grounds. As usual, they were waiting for Kakashi to arrive. He leaned against the railing of the bridge watching they water. He felt calm as he watched the water sparkle in the sun. They had only waited for thirty minutes when Sakura reached her breaking point with a growl. Her patience rather than improving seemed to be growing shorter every time Kakashi made them wait.
"Why does that person always make us wait when he's the one who told us when to show up? I couldn't even blow dry my hair this morning because it would have made me late and he didn't even bother to show up," she yelled at him and Sasuke like they could do anything about it.
"He is always late. I'm sure you could have blow dried your hair and still gotten here before him, or if not he couldn't actually get you into trouble given his own perpetual lateness," he told her.
She glared at him. He saw her take a deep breath so she would have enough air to yell at him.
Just in time for him to avoid Sakura's temper, Kakashi popped into place on top of one of the wooden arches of the bridge, "I got lost on the path of life."
"Liar," Sakura yelled as Kakashi jumped down.
"I'll get to the point. I recommended all of you for the chūnin selection exam, so take these applications," Kakashi said holding out three thick envelopes.
"You recommended us for the chūnin exam?" Sakura asked, shock clear in her voice.
"Don't you want to be able to take on higher paying missions, Sakura?" he ahe was sure msked her.
She still seemed unsure. He frowned he was sure they would need to convince her to take the exam. He knew from the Sand shinobi they met yesterday that the exam would likely be done in groups of three, at least to start.
"The recommendation does not force you to take it. You decide if you want to take it or not," Kakashi reassured her, he wished he hadn't.
"So we just fill out the paperwork?" Sasuke asked confidently.
"If you wish to take the exam, fill in the forms. You have five days to decide, if you choose to participate hand them in at the academy outside room 301 by 3pm," Kakashi advised them, "Also, all nonessential missions are suspended until after the exam."
After he finished speaking Kakashi poofed away in a cloud of smoke. He felt his stomach drop at the parting line. He was already struggling to survive on what little they were making, but now he would be without income for at least a week maybe longer. He really needed to pass the exam so he could make up the difference or he needed to come up with something else quickly.
He walked over to Sasuke and spoke quietly so Sakura wouldn't hear, "We will need all three of us to take the exam, can you please manipulate her into accepting."
"Why?" Sasuke asked eyes narrowing in her direction with distaste.
He hated to admit weakness and even though Sasuke had proven in wave that he could be trusted he refused to give up his private worries, "If we're going to get stronger we need to be able to go on harder missions. I want to be Hokage, you want to kill your brother. We need to advance. D rank missions are worthless."
Sasuke considered his words before sighing, "Alright, I'll do it but you owe me."
He smiled at his friend, "Thank you. I owe you one reasonable favour."
"Fine," Sasuke agreed.
He knew Sakura had been trying to listen in. She was staring at them with a huge frown on her face. He smiled at her as he left. When he glanced back on his way off the bridge he saw her angry glare turn into a huge smile as Sasuke approached her. With a sense of satisfaction in a job well done he left them with a spring in his step.
He had just entered the trees that blocked the bridge from view of the village when Kakashi stepped out to walk beside him.
"I know what you're doing. I specifically didn't mention the exam was in groups so all of you could decide on your own if taking the exam was something you each wanted," Kakashi's voice dripped disapproval, "You also shouldn't take advantage of Sasuke's feelings for such low purposes."
"She will make the decision herself. She would never risk separation from Sasuke and we both know he will enter the exam. I'm just helping her realize what she wants sooner than she would have on her own. And helping each other is what friends do. I will return the favour later when Sasuke needs help," he said coldly.
"That's not-, people can die in the chūnin selection exam," Kakashi added after cutting himself off mid sentence.
He sighed getting angry, "We won't. Sasuke and I would protect her; Sasuke's a prodigy and I am a jinchūriki. She will make it through the group portion of the exam, after that if she's really worried she can leave. I have training to do now, good-bye sensei."
He left before Kakashi could say anything else to piss him off.
He punched and kicked at one of the training posts on the training grounds reserved for team 7. He was angry because someone from rain had tried to attack him out of nowhere. He had won easily but it was the principle of the thing. Why did all the forein shinobi coming to the village think it was a good idea to attack the hidden leaf's shinobi? It made no sense.
He would need an edge in the exam, something beyond the shadow clones. He needed something new that even his teammates didn't know he could do. Relying on Kurama while in the village was a terrible idea, the council would probably try to kill him if they thought the seal was breaking. It was all so frustrating. If he could get his hands on some chakra paper he could look into elemental justu but he couldn't afford it.
'I have an idea,' Kurama chimed in.
'You do?' he asked hopefully.
'What about Kushina's technique?'
He felt intrigued by the idea but saw one major flaw, 'Wasn't she only able to use that technique because she had a special type of chakra?'
'Her technique was stronger because of her unique chakra but the jutsu itself was an Uzumaki clan technique,' the fox explained.
He smiled. It was absolutely perfect except for the fact there was no longer an Uzumaki clan to teach him. All of their fūinjutsu was lost when the Village Hidden by Whirlpools was destroyed. Anyone remaining from the clan had gone into hiding in other villages.
'I can give you the hand-signs it's up to you to figure out how much chakra to use and how to control it,' Kurama warned him.
He smiled, 'I'll figure it out. I have a whole week.'
He had spent the last four days training. He had stopped training earlier in the day so he could go to sleep early. He wanted to be in excellent condition to take the exam the next day.
He was just finishing his instant cup ramen that he had forced himself to love because it was the only thing he could afford to eat. He heard an obnoxious tapping sound at the kitchen window. He waited for whoever it was to stop but the tapping continued for nearly ten minutes. With a huff of frustration he walked over to the counter looked out the window. The counter dug painfully into his lower stomach as he leaned over it to look outside. He had been expecting a shinobi but what he saw was a plain brown owl. Now that it saw him the tapping stopped and the owl seemed to be waiting for him to open the window. He palmed a kunai from his weapons pouch and opened the window slowly aware it could be a shinobi using the transformation jutsu to look like an owl.
As soon as the window was opened he jumped back and held the kunai defensively in front of him. The owl flew in, dropped a letter on the counter, ate some of his ramen, and then flew back out the window. Worried that the letter might be a paper bomb he threw the kunai toward it so that the kunai landed on it without damaging the writing. He waited about a minute for something to happen before deciding that it wasn't a paper bomb and he could probably open the letter.
The letter was addressed to Mr. Hadrian Potter which he could only assume was the last name of his unknown father. He read the letter, at first the writing was illegible but as if something clicked the golden power inside of him seemed to absorb power from the letter and then he could read the words that were written with ease.
The contents of the letter were simple. He was invited to Gringotts Wizarding Bank to accept access to the trust fund his parents left him before they died. He would only be eligible to withdraw from the fund when he turned eleven. He also had to meet certain conditions his parents had placed on the vault in question. The conditions would be explained more fully in person when he arrived via a port-key.
He had no idea what a port-key was but apparently the letter was one and to activate it all he had to do was say the password aloud while holding the letter. In his case, the password was something that would not come up in normal conversation. He supposed that was to avoid accidental activation. The password was Rutabaga.
He snorted at the password but found himself intrigued by the letter. Unfortunately, with the chūnin exam beginning the next day he didn't have time to try the port-key right away. He put the letter on the counter planning to use it once the chūnin exams were finished. The fact that he might have money was a huge relief but he was concerned about the strings attached. He knew his parents would have intended to raise him themselves so the conditions may be beyond his ability to accomplish with them dead.
He would just have to put his worries and questions aside until the exams were done. His birthday was still a month away. The chūnin selection exam was the only thing that was important him right now. There was also the chance that the letter was an elaborate attempt by the village to prevent him from entering the exam. They probably already had a replacement teammate lined up for Sasuke and Sakura in case their plan worked.
He had no intention of giving the village the satisfaction.