Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto because if I did things would probably go A LOT differently. Plus I'm not Japanese and I'm not that good at drawing.
Note: This chapter has been edited. See previous notes if you have no clue about what I'm talking about. If this is your first time reading this story, ignore this.
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When Obito, Sai, and Rin finally made it past the last tree and stepped onto the grassy field, they got a good look at their new opponents. Obito's mouth dropped as he saw the three that were standing there and he raised a shaking hand to point at one of them.
'This cannot be happening to me,' Obito thought, disbelieving even in his own mind. 'God can't be that cruel.'
Apparently He was.
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"Fuzzy brows!" Obito screamed at the genin in bright green spandex that was standing with both fists on his hips in front of him. Sai even raised a brow at the spectacle in front of them.
'Wow,' Sai thought. 'He looks just like Buggy except for the eyes...' Sai decided to smile and practice a little with the team before engaging them in combat.
"Wow, that's a great nickname! You guys must be good friends!" Sai said while beaming at the two younger boys. Obito looked at him like he had three heads and the other two on "fuzzy brows" team turned to the eldest boy with a similar look on their faces. Rin simply looked appropriately embarrassed.
"While I may not agree that it is a great nickname, I do agree that we are all great friends!" Cue wink, smile, sparkle, thumbs up combo. "Being as we are all in the spring time of our youth as well as leaves of the great tree of our village, we are indeed friends no matter what comes between us!" Cue new pose and more sparkle. Oh, and not to mention the crickets.
"Uhhh...riiiight," said Asuma as he rubbed his forehead as if trying to prevent an oncoming headache. Kurenai had a look of disgust frozen onto her face at the weird hip gestures the spandex wearing boy had been making.
"An-Anyway," Asuma tried to pick up where he left off although it wasn't nearly as intimidating as he had hoped it would be and it was all thanks to his freaky team mate.
Gai had better put up a damn good fight.
"Let's get the greetings over with," Asuma demanded. "What kind of scroll do you have?"
Sai looked at the boy in front of him. He knew that Gai was a formidable opponent however he had never had the chance to meet Asuma before he was killed by the Akatsuki.
He looked nothing like the pictures he saw of the man. He was admittedly brawny for a 13 year old, since well developed muscles could clearly be seen from under a partially open dark blue robe style top and the mesh that was underneath. He did have signs of stubble, but Sai had at least 3 years on the kid and in the long run that meant a lot more than have the beginnings of beard growth, no matter what the kind of superiority complex that might give the kid.
So, the only tangible thing that Sai knew about this man was that he had an affinity for wind like Naruto and that he was the Hokage's son and that could mean everything or nothing. Sai's blank eyes finished their study and he forced them to take the shape of half crescents as he put on his most pleasant smile.
"Well, Asuma-kun," Sai began and Asuma growled at being called by his first name by Sai without having given his consent. "We have the heaven scroll. And you?" Asuma smirked at this.
"What luck," Asuma gloated. "We have the earth scroll." Asuma pulled the scroll out of his sleeve to show it to them.
"Lucky us," Sai remarked. "Shall we begin then?" Asuma scoffed a little at the formal speech.
"Oh, by all means after you," he said mockingly. Sai gave another unnervingly wide smile.
"All right!" Obito yelled, startling them all. "You and me fuzzy brows! Let's go!" Gai made a face and started rubbing the back of his neck.
"W-what's with that face!" the young Uchiha demanded. Gai looked at Obito apologetically.
"Well, although I do admire your exuberance and your youthful challenge, um...it is a well known fact that you have not been able to defeat my eternal rival...ever. And seeing how I am currently ahead of him with a score of 20:19! It seems quite unfair to engage you in a fight. I apologize profusely," Gai said and he bowed to emphasize his apology at the end.
Obito's eyebrow was twitching. This...this could not be happening. Even when that short little jerk wasn't there it seemed he was making fun of him! Obito's mind must be playing tricks on him! Yeah, that was it...there's no way this guy said he was superior to Kakashi when he knew damn well that those challenges weren't even taken seriously by the Hatake.
'I mean who would take thumb wrestling and mud slinging as appropriate challenges?' thought Obito furiously.
"You..." Obito finally managed to find his words although he was trembling with rage.
Gai looked up from his bow to stare at the older boy questioningly.
"You," he repeated. "I'm gonna kill you!" Obito pulled out a kunai and charged at the younger boy. Gai's eyes went wide and he performed a couple of back flips to avoid the charging Uchiha.
"Hmmm..."Sai hummed thoughtfully. "Well then, Rin-san?" Rin looked up at the older boy.
"Since Obito-kun has decided to engage fuzzy brows-san would you mind taking Kurenai-san? Leave the fat one to me," he said pleasantly.
Rin sweatdropped, but nodded and motioned for the other kunoichi to take their fight away from the boys. Kurenai nodded her agreement and followed her, but not before giving Sai a look that said she thought he was deeply disturbed. Sai didn't pick up on it and waved at her. He turned to look at Asuma. For some reason his eye brow was twitching uncontrollably. He wondered if he was the carrier to some sort of eyebrow disease. It seemed that most of the people he was around had uncontrollably twitchy eyebrows. Maybe it was in his scent? Sai almost lifted his arm up to check when Asuma began to speak.
"You..." Asuma began.
'Hmmm...Maybe Obito-kun is carrying around some sort of disease too. The 'you' disease maybe?' Sai mused.
"I'm not fat, you bastard!" Asuma yelled. "What the hell?"
The young Sarutobi pulled out his two specialized knives, still fuming in place, and was sending the root member nasty looks. Sai's smiled dropped when he realized it was time to fight.
"You're going down!" Asuma yelled as he dropped into a battle stance. Sai gave a light smirk.
"On the contrary," Sai said as he flipped himself backwards quickly onto a tree branch and took out his brush and paper. "It will be you who is going down."
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Genma raised his eyebrows at the two high-fiving genin. Apparently the two made a great team. He had went after the leader of the waterfall village genin and had left the other two to his partners (hoping that they wouldn't get killed). When he came back, scroll in hand, the other two waterfall genin were on the floor.
'Sweet,' Genma thought. 'I might become a chunin after all' Genma cleared his throat and the other two stopped cheering to look at their 'leader'.
"All right, good job," Genma smiled at them, they smiled back. "Ready to go to the tower? I think we're about 7 km away." Izumo and Kotetsu saluted.
"Sure thing," Izumo said.
"Yeah, but I'm almost disappointed," Kotetsu whined a little. "That was way to easy"
Genma chuckled.
"Well, we'll probably have some action on the way back if that's what you're disappointed about," Genma said as he began to walk in the direction of the tower. "7 km is a long way and there's probably a bunch of teams waiting to ambush as right before we get to the tower." Izumo's eyes widened, but Kotetsu whooped and danced in place.
"Alright!" Kotetsu shouted. They followed him while Izumo looked miserable and Kotetsu continued to do his wiggling victory dance.
"Wait!" Genma called suddenly while holding out his hand. "Shut up!"
The two smaller genin snuck up to Genma's side slowly and quietly and looked over to wear he was. They snuck together as a group to some a natural peephole through some leaves and looked at the ninja that were fighting in the clearing.
"Hey," Izumo said. "It's Gai and Obito! They're fighting!" Kotetsu snickered.
"Yeah, fighting. Is that what they call an ass-kicking nowadays?" Kotetsu asked with a falsely sweet tone of voice. His two teammates snickered as well.
"Hey, look past them," Genma said suddenly. "It's Asuma and...who is that?"
The boy in question was sitting on top of one of the trees branches with what looked like...a brush and a scroll? Genma shook his head. He really didn't want to know what that was for.
"I think that's that new guy that just showed up with Kakashi's uncle," remarked Izumo.
"Obito and Rin needed someone to take Kakashi's place so that they could take the exams so that guy filled in. I think his name is Sai. No family name." Genma grunted and absorbed the new information.
"Well, let's leave them to their fights. No need for us to get involved," Genma urged them to move away from the clearing. Kotetsu seemed slightly disappointed, but they both agreed and soon their team was moving at top speed in the trees towards their destination.
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Rin huffed as she took out some more kunai. She could admit this girl was tough and she obviously paid more attention to combat instead of the healing arts like herself.
'Damn it!' Rin thought as she missed her target when she threw her kunai.
Kurenai sighed as she eyed her opponent. The girl obviously didn't train her body as often as the boys did. Kurenai knew that the smaller girl in front of her did more training with medical ninjutsu, but still...
'Whatever,' Kurenai thought. 'Let's just end this quickly' She stood her ground and began making hand signals.
"W-what...," Rin was startled when black began to close in around her. "Oh no!" She finally, although belatedly, realized that she was being caught in a genjutsu. When she tried to form the right seal and release herself she found that it was too late and her body was being immobilized.
'Someone!' Rin thought desperately. 'Anyone! Help me!'
Her world turned black.
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Obito coughed as he rubbed his sore ribs.
'God damn that fuzzy brows,' Obito thought as he glared at the green clad shinobi in front of him. Gai was currently giving him a rather pitying look and it set his nerves on edge.
'I'm better than that bastard!'
Obito grabbed some kunai from his holster and flung them at his opponent. Gai sighed and grabbed one of his own kunai to deflect the ones currently aimed at his body. Obito smirked as the taijutsu user was focused on the kunai and he began to make the necessary hand seals for his next attack.
'Let's see him dodge this. Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu,' Obito thought as he felt chakra push it's way up his throat. Obito opened his mouth and let loose one of the biggest fireballs he had ever created. Gai eyes widened before he was enveloped completely in flames.
Obito sighed as he finished the technique and dragged the air in and out of his lungs rather forcefully. He was exhausted, having taken a beating from Gai and then having been forced to use a technique that took up a lot of energy. The area was still up in flames and Obito smirked with satisfaction.
'He probably won't die, but this should put him out of commission,' Obito thought as he adjusted his goggles. Then he felt air move against the back of his neck. His eyes widened with shock and he quickly turned around to see that Gai was standing there looking slightly charred, but nevertheless better than he did. Gai sighed in pity for the shocked genin in front of him.
"My deepest apologies Obito-kun, but it seems that we are on completely different levels," Gai said. Before Obito could work up any rage in response to the degrading statement, he felt himself gasp for air as he was punched in the solar plexus.
Obito grabbed the arm still connected to his stomach, but did him no good as he started to fade away into unconsciousness.
'Damn it!,' Obito thought. 'Why...Why me?'
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Sai huffed as his ink animals were all being destroyed with relative ease by the genin in front of him. To think he would see the day where his jutsu would be rendered useless by some fast moving knife action that was being executed by a thirteen-year-old genin.
'Well, he is the third hokage's son,' thought Sai as he drew some more lions and quickly sent them into battle since the Sarutobi had just finished demolishing his ink snakes.
'Perhaps I can wear him down and when he's not looking I'll replace myself with a clone and attack him from behind,' thought Sai as he began drawing the next few of his ink monsters. His train of thought was shattered be the genin in front of him.
"Hey asshole!" Asuma yelled as he effortlessly destroyed another of the ink creatures.
"You wanna try something else? I could do this all day, but I'll admit I'm getting kind of bored. Why don't you fight me yourself, coward!"
True to Asuma's self-assessment he was barely breathing hard and the puddles of ink surrounding him were growing greater in volume. Sai ignored the insults of his bravery and tried to re-strategize. It seemed that he would not be able to wear out the genin in the near future and although he wasn't worried about running out of ink, he wanted to have a certain amount in case other fights occurred later on in the next five days.
"Argh! That's enough!" Asuma shouted as he destroyed the last ink lion and he began to channel a large amount of chakra into one of his blades. He then tied some wire to the handle and quickly flung it at the Root member. Sai's eyes widened in uncharacteristic shock as he realized just what Asuma's knives could do when they were filled with wind-type chakra like that. He dropped down from his perch swiftly and just before the tree branch exploded from being ripped through roughly by the chakra enhanced knife.
Asuma tugged on the wire in his hand and he deftly caught the blade as it came soaring back to him. The future jounin sensei smirked at the shinobi in front of him.
"I've got you right where I want you," he said smugly as he began to charge. Sai quickly put his scroll, ink, and brush back into their respective places on his person to unsheathe the katana on his back.
'Direct confrontation it is then,' Sai thought wryly as he steeled himself for the first blow.
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I'd like to take the time to say that while writing this story I'm taking a lot of liberties with these character's personalities. We don't really know what they were like when they were younger and as you know people can change a lot from childhood to adulthood. I mean look at Kakashi.
With Asuma, in case any of you complain about OOC-ness (if you were going to complain), he was reported to have left the leaf village and joined the twelve elite guardians of the fire country daimyo. Apparently he wanted to 'make his own path'. I'm assuming that this meant he was pretty rebellious when he was a kid and usually a bit of cockiness goes with that. I don't think he knew Kurenai this early in his life, but I couldn't resist. It's my story anyway :P
Same goes for other characters as well.
As for the Rock ninja, as I believe one of you have asked, I'm going to exert more artistic license and assume that the war hasn't started just yet, but it will soon. It makes the story so much more interesting and as a consequence easier for me!
I think that's it! Review!