Kawa Inuzuka had been having a relatively easy time in the Chunin Exams. The minefield wasn't a problem, seeing as they had a Byakugan and a trained ninja dog. They had been making good progress through the minefield when Obito had suddenly stiffened.
"What's wrong?" Toruko had asked quietly.
Kawa had known instantly that something was wrong. Obito was the cheerful joker of the team, so when he got serious, something bad was about to happen.
"Run." Obito said
That was all they needed to hear. They took off, following Obito. Kawa accidently stepped on a small mine and almost got blasted. Kiiromaru barked angrily.
"Sorry boy." Kawa muttered sheepishly. He still hadn't learnt how to translate all of Kiiromaru's barks.
They ran for a minute or two. By this time, Kawa was dying to know what had scared Obito this much. Nothing seemed to be happening, so why were they running?
Obito came to a stop and held out his hand.
"We should be safe here." he panted.
"Safe from what?" Kawa asked.
The entire minefield behind them exploded.
"Oh," said Kawa. "Safe from that."
"What caused it?" Toruko asked.
Obito grimanced.
"Hisa. Mom's going to kill her."
"Wait, Hisa did all this?" Kawa said incredulously. "She's that powerful?"
Obito nodded.
"I don't think she even knew she was going to cause this much damage. I'd say she's killed around a tenth of our competition."
"Is she ok?" Kawa asked, worried for the girl's health. Using this much chakra would cause a big strain on your chakra points. For a second, he felt admiration for the girl. She was one hell of a shinobi.
"Apart from being an idiot?" Obito grinned. "She's fainted, but she's alive. I'm more worried about how she'll react when she finds out what she did. I wonder how her team's coping?"
"What're you talking about?" Kawa asked.
Obito's face went slightly pale. A haunted look flashed across his face for a second.
"I got us out of hearing range, but I'm sure Kiiromaru knows what I'm talking about." he took in his teammates confused expression and explained.
"I could hear them, the screams. Kids our age have just been massacered, and Hisa's team had to experience the whole thing. Unlike us, there only seven years old, I doubt they'll love what she did."
"I don't like it either." Toruko admitted.
Obito nodded in agreement.
"The only reason I don't hate her now is because I know it was an accident. She may be an idiot with a superiority complex but she's still my sister."
"You're sister that almost killed you just now." Toruko added.
Obito chuckled.
"Like I said, Mom's going to murder her. Aunt Hanabi is probably laughing right now though. I think this will be her favourite Chunin Exams so far."
Kawa shuddered as he remembered meeting Obito's crazy aunt.
"Shall we get going?" he asked.
The other two nodded and they began to navigate the minefield again.
!
Inori Yamanaka was not pleased. Not at all. That lazy idiot Shikai had decided to take the most dangerous route. Of course, Chouko had agreed with him, they always backed each other up.
Usually, Inori got along great with Shikai. They were both the future heads of their clans, and their parents were best friends. They had spent a lot of time together, and usually trusted each other. But Inori couldn't figure out why Shikai had chosen this route.
The left side of the minefield was much easier to navigate, but Shikai had refused to travel that way, stating that the right side would be better. This confused Inori even more. If he refused to take the left side, surely the next best option would be straight down the middle? While the left side was the safest way, the middle was the quickest. The right side was obviously the worst, yet here they were, slowly making their way across the field, chucking rocks to deactivate the mines.
They were making very slow progress. It took them five minutes to walk twenty metres. Inori was getting more and more impatient.
Just as she was about to snap, a loud boom could be heard, and the ground around them shook. Inori looked up, and saw a massive explosion coming from the left side of the minefield. It was so huge she could see it clearly from this far away. She turned and looked at her teammates. Chouko was staring at the explosion, completely shocked. It was clear he hadn't expected this. But Inori was able to see a tiny smirk on Shikai's face.
"You knew about this didn't you?" she accused.
Shikai sighed and ran his hand through his ponytail.
"I didn't know that there would be a huge explosion. I just knew that most genin would choose to go the left side, seeing as it's easier. The genin with abilities like the Byakugan would go straight down the middle. If we went that way, we would be toast. The stronger and more confident genin would probably choose the left side as well, to lessen the competition. That means that the best option for us was the right side."
He finished his explanation and moved on ahead. The tremors from the explosion had deactivated a lot of the mines, so progress was a lot faster. Inori smiled at Shikai.
He was many things, but he was not an idiot.
!
Hizashi Hyuga had been making steady progress through the middle of the minefield. His Byakugan could pick out most of the traps, and Ning speared the ones he missed with kunai. Lu wasn't doing much, just commenting occasionally about youth. Lee-sensei was having far too much of an effect on him. Thankfully, he hadn't started wearing a spandex suit yet.
The ground started to shake and Hizashi heard a giant boom.
"What was that?" Ning said sharply, a scroll of kunai already in her hand.
Hizashi tried to use his Byakugan to see what had caused the explosion, but he couldn't see far enough. Frustrated, he turned and kept walking.
"Hizashi, what's wrong? What did you see?" Lu asked.
"Nothing Lu." he said shortly, "I saw nothing."
Lu seemed confused by this, but Ning seemed to understand. She grabbed Lu's arm and dragged him behind her.
"Just keep moving." she said. "Hizashi will warn us if anything bad is happening."
Hizashi wished that he could believe her. But he knew that he didn't have the skill or the power to protect his friends. There was nothing special he could do to help the team. For a second, he wondered how Obito was doing. His second cousin was a prodigy with the Byakugan, he doubted he was having much trouble.
!
Obito Hyuga was in trouble. He was in very deep trouble. He had dragged his teammates behind a small bush five seconds earlier. They were both looking at him in confusion, but he put a finger on his lips. They nodded their heads in understanding.
Taking a deep breath, he whispered "Byakugan." He hoped that it was all a mistake, and that the team he had seen was actually friendly.
Unfortunately, his suspicions were confirmed. The three genin he had seen were the Kazekage's kids. They were facing off against another team of genin. Obito wished he could run away. He had already seen enough carnage today. Maybe Naruko changed since you last saw her. he thought hopefully.
Five seconds later, when she annihilated the other team, his hopes were dashed. Kawa and Toruko had obviously heard everything, as their faces were white and Kawa was shaking slightly. Obito kept his Byakugan activated.
"Naruko," the boy named Yashamaru spoke. "You really don't need to kill everyone you come across.
Naruko just stared at him coldly.
"I don't want to have to do preliminaries. If I have to kill everyone else then so be it."
"Dad won't be pleased when he finds out." Karura warned.
Naruko started walking.
"I don't care. He never lets me do anything."
Obito shivered slightly. He had met Naruko once before, and he didn't want to see her again. She was worse than Hanabi. At least Hanabi had a reason to be slightly crazy, Naruko was just drunk on power.
He wondered what his aunt was doing now, she was probably laughing at the screams. Forget what he said before, Hanabi was just as bad as Naruko.
!
Hanabi was having a brilliant morning up until she received a visitor.
She had been using her Byakugan to track the genin. When she had seen Hisa blow up half the minefield, she had grinned. That's my girl!
The screams of the genin had just made her smile harder. She was half about to break into a dance when someone had come up behind her.
"Hanabi."
She had stiffened when she recognized the voice. Pure hate had coursed through her, followed by a sadness and a hint of regret.
"Hello Father." she snarled, turning to face the man.
He remained as emotionless as ever. It reminded her of sixteen years ago, when he had told her that she would become a member of the branch family, and would get the caged bird seal. She had cried, and felt betrayed, but he hadn't shown a single emotion.
She glared at him now.
"What do you want Father?" she snapped angrily.
His gaze remained impassive.
"I came here to inform you that a stranger has been found hiding in the minefield. We are not sure who he is, or what his objective is, but the council sent me here to warn you."
Hanabi pushed all thoughts of her father out of her head. A wicked snarl appeared on her face. Someone was trying to mess with her part of the exam? Oh, she would make sure they regretted it.
She turned to leave when a hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.
"Where are you going?" her father asked.
She snarled at him.
"Where do you think? I'm going to find this man and kill him."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." her father said, still not showing any emotions. "The man has been branded a possible S-Rank, I can't let him kill you."
"Why do you care if I die?" she sneered.
"I care about you Hanabi." he said seriously. "I care about you a lot."
She laughed bitterly.
"You care about me? Yeah right. It doesn't matter anyway. You wasted fifteen years of my life controlling me and moulding me into the Hyuga heir, then you just abandoned me. You have no say in my life anymore Father."
A hint of sadness flickered in his eyes.
"I won't let you get yourself killed Hanabi." he said, as if she was still a naïve child. "If you insist on going, I will have to use force to stop you."
She smiled. She was hoping he would say that.
"Byakugan." she snarled.
"Byakugan." Hiashi echoed.
His chakra points suddenly became visible to her. Her hand darted out, lightning fast. Her father raised his hand to block it, just getting there in time. Her father was good, but he was also retired. She on the other hand, was perfectly fit and motivated. Her next strike managed to get under his defence and cut off a chakra point on his arm.
They fought like this for several minutes. Hiashi managed to get two or three of her chakra points, but she got at least twenty of his. She aimed a kick at his feet and he barely managed to dodge it.
"Rotation!" he yelled.
"Rotation!" she yelled at the same time.
The two chakra shields collided. Hanabi gritted her teeth against the force. His rotation was strong, but so was hers. Slowly, her chakra gained the advantage, and she was able to break her father's shield.
Once he was open, she lashed out, hitting ten of his chakra points in one go. The last strike she gave hit him straight in the heart. He flew backwards and landed heavily on the ground.
She smirked, and walked slowly towards him. He was beaten and they both knew it. She took her time, enjoying the sensation of beating the man she despised most. He looked up at her, desperation written all over his face. So he has emotions after all. she thought sarcastically.
"Hanabi." he said quietly. "Please don't make me use the seal. Believe me when I say that I don't want to see you suffer."
She froze, her hand automatically reached up to her forehead.
"Hinata banned that technique." she said, her voice low and hoarse.
Her father's gaze went cold again.
"Hinata is too foolish to do anything to me if I use it. The branch family may idolize her, but you and I both know how weak she is."
Hanabi felt rage bubbling up inside her. She loved her sister, and didn't blame her in the slightest. To hear her father scorn her like that made her hate him even more.
"If you think she's so weak, why the hell did you choose her over me?" she screamed.
Her father didn't answer her. He just stared at her. It pissed Hanabi off, how he thought himself superior to them all. She rushed at him, hand aimed for his head.
Her father closed his eyes, regret flashing across his face.
"Forgive me." he whispered.
Pain erupted in her head. It rushed through her, sharp daggers of it spearing her brain. She clutched her head and crumpled to the ground. Her body shuddering against her will and small tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She could feel the seal burning her, and knew that the skin underneath her fringe would be glowing.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was her father staring down at her, tears running down his face.
I care about you Hanabi.
Forgive me.
Never. she thought.