Country folk are a different breed. And we're heading into the Chuunin Exam Finals! Uni's back this week and it's going to be a busy semester, but I'm determined to continue to write FanFiction and post regularly.
o.O.o
Chapter 11
Dai exited his final exam and immediately faceplanted. Hikari, coming up behind him, knelt beside him.
"Dai, are you okay?" she asked, tugging his stump.
"Mmrph," he muttered. Kaito left the exam room, saw Dai collapsed, and shook his head.
"You grab his shoulders and I'll grab his feet," he told Hikari. The blonde made sure his backpack was on securely before wrapping his arms around Dai's feet. Hikari grasped his armpits and pulled so that his head rested against her back.
The pair walked like this, Dai hanging between them, until they reached his house. It was a common occurrence. They'd been surprised he'd held on this long. He'd made it through four days of exams without collapsing. Now, on the fifth, he'd given in. Usually he collapsed two or three times at the end of exams, and if someone didn't take him home he lay there all night. Seriously, the first time it happened Kaito and Hikari left him there, and they went to school the next morning and he still laid in the exact same spot.
His brain simply wasn't built for academics.
They carried him inside the house and dumped him on the couch, where Ruka would find him and bring him back to the land of the living. Shaking their heads, they left Dai and went home to celebrate no more school!
An hour later Sasuke came home from his hardest day of training yet, exhausted but buzzing with power. He saw Dai motionless on the couch and, thinking he was asleep, went straight past him.
Kakashi came back soon after and noticed something odd about Dai's sleep. It didn't seem natural. He hunted down Ruka in the greenhouse.
"I think Dai fainted," he told her. "Is it heatstroke?"
Ruka chuckled and wiped her hands on her apron.
"No, he's in exam mode."
"What now?"
"Whenever he has exams his body does this. He collapses and Kaito and Hikari are kind enough to carry him home. It's from stress. He studies much too hard, especially given he never gets beyond a pass."
"Don't you ever worry?" Kakashi couldn't see Ruka dismissing something like this. It was dangerous.
"It only happens during his exams. I'll get out the smelling salts before dinner and he'll be right as rain." She smiled and Kakashi shook his head good-naturedly. He would never understand country folk. They were plenty pleasant, emphasised by Ruka's unfailing kindness and cheer, but strange. "He'll be out all afternoon. Would you care to help me with the animals?" Kakashi nodded and they left the greenhouse. She glanced sideways at him and sighed.
By all that was good and holy in the world, why couldn't she be ten years younger?
o.O.o
Dai woke to the smell of herbs, spices and salt. He opened his eyes and saw Ruka standing above him, smelling salts in hand. Damn, he must have collapsed. He didn't get why that happened, but he was sure Kaito and Hikari always got a laugh out of it.
"Dinner's ready," Ruka said. He got up slowly, yawning, and followed her to the dining room.
What a feast! Barbecue pork ribs, glazed with all the sauce in the world, a tower of rice balls and countless other goodies. Dai's eyes bulged from his head. His hahaoya had really outdone herself.
Dai sat, the last one at the table, and Ruka raised her sake in a toast.
"To our guests," she said. Juro and Kakashi raised their cups too. "May you have a safe trip home, and may Sasuke perform well in the Chuunin Exams."
"Hear, hear," Juro said, taking a deep swig of sake. Dai and Sasuke made do with herbal tea, and sipped the tiniest bit before digging into the feast set in from of them.
The last month had been nice with Kakashi and Sasuke staying with them. Tomorrow morning, they would all be heading to Kohonagakure for the Chuunin Exams and the house would be empty again. It wasn't fair to Ruka and Juro, but it couldn't be helped.
After dinner, Dai and Sasuke went to bed and fell asleep fairly quickly. They had a big day tomorrow.
o.O.o
Kaito and Hikari met them outside the farmhouse early the next morning. It was a long walk and they wanted to get started.
The atmosphere was light between the five travellers as they spent all those long hours on the road. Kaito talked animatedly about the betting pool, while Hikari and Dai asked about who was fighting who and what to expect. Kakashi was quite knowledgeable in that regard. Sasuke only knew who Naruto was fighting: some idiot called Neji who had an ego the size of the Hokage monument.
As they reached the last leg of the journey, Kakashi and Sasuke separated. They would return to Kohonagakure the following morning just before the fights began, as Kakashi wanted to give the Uchiha some last-minute advice and training.
The trio approached Kohonagakure and presented their Chuunin Exam tickets to the front gate guards. They entered the Village and made their way to the hotel Kakashi had booked for them.
"What name is the booking under?" the hostess asked.
"Um… Hatake Kakashi," Dai replied.
"Hatake Kakashi? You must be Dai Nakamura."
"That's me."
"Here are your room keys. I hope you enjoy your stay with us!"
Dai took the room key from her and the tired trio climbed the stairs to their room. They dumped their bags and smiled, each having the same thought. They high-tailed it to the Hot Springs, which were packed due to the influx of visitors here to watch the fights. They weren't there for long, as there were too many people for it to be relaxing and comfortable.
"Well that wasn't as fun as last time," Kaito said as they left. "Ichiraku's?"
The trio made their way through the dark streets, but they weren't anywhere near as imposing as last time. People dotted the streets, talking and laughing, and Dai felt comfortable. They reached Ichiraku's and found only three customers, one of them the blonde terror who Sasuke worried about every night.
"Na-ru-to!" Hikari called in a sing-song voice. The boy whipped around in his seat and smiled.
"Hey guys! It's been forever! Sit, there's plenty of space!"
Dai and Kaito sat on either side of Naruto and Hikari sat on Dai's other side. They ordered their ramen quickly before Dai fixed his gaze on the blonde who Sasuke was smitten with.
"You nervous?" he asked, noting a green tinge to the boy's face.
"A bit…" Naruto sighed. "I mean, I got training from Jiraiya-sama, and Sarutobi-sensei gave me some really cool tips, but I don't know if it's enough to beat Neji. How did Sasuke go? Is he ready to fight Gaara?"
"I think so," Dai said.
"I'm worried. Gaara's dangerous, I don't think he knows his own strength. I don't want Sasuke to get hurt."
"Sasuke will be fine," Hikari assured him. "He's a big boy, he can take care of himself."
Ayame brought over their bowls, at which time Kaito blushed and stuttered, and she looked past them and her face went white. She tapped Naruto's arm and pointed behind him. The four customers turned and looked at the redhead boy with a gourd tied to his back standing at the entrance.
"Gaara!" Naruto blurted. The redhead looked at the blonde with… was that confusion? And curiosity in his eyes? Dai watched his body language. The boy was stiff and uncomfortable, but meant no harm. Not this second anyway. Dai nudged Hikari and the pair moved down a seat, taking their bowls with them and leaving a gap for the redhead.
"Gaara, is it?" Dai asked. The boy's green eyes fixed on him. "Would you like a seat?"
Gaara slowly walked through the ramen shop, gaze switching between Naruto and Dai, and sat. Dai noticed that the other patrons in the shop left pretty quickly at the redhead's presence. Ayame stepped towards him and smiled.
"What can I get you?" she asked. Gaara looked at Naruto's half-eaten bowl.
"What he has."
"Coming right up!" Ayame disappeared into the kitchen. Hikari, the most approachable one in their group, smiled and spoke first.
"So, you're fighting Sasuke huh? Where are you from?"
"Sunagakure," Gaara said. His voice was harsh and gravely, like he didn't do a lot of talking.
"Is it nice there?"
"It's sandy."
She and Dai exchanged a look and knew their next course of action: continue talking with Naruto and allow Gaara to sit there and listen. No need to make the boy more uncomfortable than he already was.
Before Dai could stop her, Hikari started telling Naruto stories about his exam mode, describing some of his most memorable face-plants and how heavy he was when they carried him home.
"One time last year his butt stuck up in the air fabulously, so we took a photo to immortalise it. He doesn't know where we hid it." Hikari and Naruto were in stitches at that point. While that happened, Ayame brought over Gaara's food, and Kaito struck up a conversation with her about her hobbies.
During one of Hikari's renditions of Dai's spectacular fails, he swore he saw Gaara almost smile.
