In which the flames of Minato and Kushina's rivalry grow that much hotter as their possible one on one battle approaches, Jiraiya tries and fails to make an appropriate analogy, and the kages gossip.

When all your kids plus an extra one slaughtered the chunin exams in record time, slaughtering the very infrastructure of the exam for good manner, while you were in a foreign village still awaiting that third and final phase of the exam, there really was only one thing you could do.

Well, he wanted to lecture them to death, especially Lee, and or bemoan his woes to an unsympathetic Orochimaru and or Tsunade but neither of those options were available. The second because Oro and Tsuande were back in Konoha and the first because giving Lee the lecture she deserved would be saying, out loud, in a foreign village crawling with ANBU, that Lee had a lot more up her sleeve and that her extravagant kage level dotun jutsus and alarmingly strong genjutsus were actually the tip of the iceberg.

Point being, that conversation was just going to have to wait until Konoha, plus it'd be that much more intimidating if it also came from the hokage. He was pretty sure that everything he said to Lee went in one ear and then right back out the other, or at the very least, was carefully considered then completely disregarded.

So, he did the next best thing, he invited his cute little tadpoles out for dinner (well, along with Uzumaki out of pity since Mito, the shodaime, or the nidaime weren't leaving the village for obvious reasons), to one of those overpriced few and far between Suna restaurants to celebrate their success thus far. Only, this time, it wasn't just the civilians staring, no, every other table was filled either with some other team taking their brats out for a meal or else Suna nins. And yes, over there at one of the tables that was far too close for Jiraiya's comfort were the honorable siblings of Sunagakure, Chiyo leering at him with no shame whatsoever.

Good god that woman was terrifying.

Well, he guessed it just went to show, that apparently the entire village really had been watching the exams.

At least they were being polite enough to keep their distance, that or Jiraiya's own growing ill humor apparently was enough to ward them off, either way, so far none of them had tried to talk to them yet in the spirit of peace and inter-village cooperation.

And that was fine by Jiraiya.

His eyes drifted to the kids, Uzumaki and Minato bickering while Lee dug into one of the cheaper appetizers that Jiraiya had bought for the table and Haru just watched with a somewhat exasperated and fatigued expression. At least they were having a good time.

Still, looking at them, his mind wandered back to the results so far and what it would mean for the rest of the exam.

Konoha did well enough, extremely well, compared to the other villages. Several their teams didn't make the time limit, well, those teams that hadn't already been cut in the first round. But still, of the three villages participating they'd had the most teams make it through.

His own team had obviously finished along with Uzumaki, well before the deadline and screwing over pretty much every other team in the meantime.

Uchiha Mikoto's team had scraped by. The Uchiha girl's sharingan, an oddly advanced iteration of it allowed her to breeze not only through the first part of the exam but also through this second task by allowing her to disable traps much quicker than others, particularly those based on genjutsu, though it didn't help her divine a way closer to the exit. That said, it was clear that she had played the lead, and that compared to her, her teammates were average and best considered dead weight.

The Hyuga twins had gotten through with the dirty cheating known as the byakugen, allowing them to see through the walls and to the exit, the only thing slowing them down being the traps they had no choice but to confront.

The Inuzuka and Aburame clan heirs combined with the likely future clan head Uchiha Fugaku succeeded due to their tracking abilities, namely, tracking down team seven before Lee had given up on the exam entirely and then figuring it out from there. A somewhat admirable if unconventional solution.

And that left the last team, the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi team which had somehow made it through with wits alone and strategically following the path of destruction team seven had left in their wake and then getting fairly lucky, only just barely managing to find their way through.

Basically, everyone you would have placed a bet on passing did, but there were no real surprises, anyone who had been on the fence, or didn't have someone with a clear advantage and or ridiculous blood limits on their team hadn't made the cut.

This left the odd smattering of completely green genin and a few returnees.

And that wasn't even getting to Sand or Mist, who hadn't fared nearly as well.

Only two sand teams had managed to get through, unsurprisingly the ones containing the two boys Chiyo had said were worth keeping eyes on. Oddly enough, it was because both had managed to avoid the slaughter that Lee had caused in the middle of the task. The first, the team with the younger blonde Yashamaru, because Lee and Minato had taken them out relatively early, giving them time to recover and miss the fishing scheme that occurred later. The second because they'd arrived slightly late to the slaughter and had the sense to stop and use their heads, noting that every team that followed the path to confront them hadn't come back, instead they'd avoided team seven like the plague and struggled their way through the exam eventually making it to the exit in the nick of time.

Mist had done embarrassingly worse than this, none of their teams making it. It seemed that they'd hit a dry spell this generation, possibly because they kept killing each other all the damn time. He supposed that they were due for one, every village had off years now and then, but either way it seemed that every Kiri genin had gotten the shit kicked out of them by Lee and company during the great genin massacre and none had managed to recover in time to make it to the exit.

The mizukage, naturally, was fuming.

As it was the Sarutobi-sensei and the kazekage, supposedly after some hem-hawing, had given Kiri three slots in the next round out of pity, that, or to make the bracket easier on everyone and not have to deal with an abundance of wild card rounds.

Yes, Jiraiya wasn't envying Sarutobi-sensei right now.

Still, for a tournament, what did this leave? Fifteen from Konoha, six from Suna, three from Kiri, so twenty-four total. Sixteen or thirty-two would have been a more ideal number, but he supposed you took what you were given. That meant twelve were out in the first round, then six, then three with the odd semi-final of two battling then some lucky bastard getting to battle the victor to be champion of the chunin exam. For whatever that was worth, anyway.

That made five rounds of this? Not too bad, all considered, especially since that first round would start tomorrow and act as more of an elimination round than anything. Either way, everything should wrap up within the month, which would be about when everyone was ready to go home.

Not that Jiraiya wasn't ready to go home already.

"You're pretty quiet, sensei."

Jiraiya looked up to find Haru staring at him, or well, staring at him behind those black aviators. And good god, if he hadn't spent so long looking at the kid's face he'd barely have recognized him with the glasses as well as the shockingly white hair. He wondered what his parents had had to say about that.

Or about great grandmother Uzumaki Miho.

"Just thinking," Jiraiya said with a sigh, "What about you kids, looking forward to the next part of the exams? It's a tournament, you know, which means you'll likely be facing genin from Konoha in combat."

Haru paled, his lips twisting into a grimace that said more than enough, probably that he'd been hoping to have somehow been disqualified by this point. The others however, turned their attention towards him, and appeared much more confident.

"Sure, although I have to say, sensei, I thought this thing was supposed to be a lot harder," Lee said with a small shrug, "I can't believe people have to repeat this."

Jiraiya felt his own smile become somewhat strained, "Well, Lee-chan, maybe, if you thought about the skill level of a normal genin, you'd realize that the chunin exams are not, in fact, easy. Besides, passing or not passing a portion of the exam isn't always indicative of who becomes a chunin."

Like, if Lee didn't have S-ranked abilities, and if she didn't show some strange eccentric form of leadership and teamwork and thinking outside of boxes, then there was no way in hell he'd ever promote her to chunin. Even though her being promoted to chunin at this point was almost a given. And at the rate she was going she probably would be at least tokebetsu jonin by next year.

Because having a chunin with those kinds of abilities was almost as embarrassing as having an S-ranked genin.

Either way, if they were in Konoha he wouldn't have to mince his words as he reminded her that he'd told her to tone it down and that making sand jutsus on the spot and calling it dotun jutsus was not, in any way, toning anything down.

"Well, I'm looking forward to kicking Namikaze's girly ass," Kushina exclaimed, sticking out her tongue towards the boy in question, "It's going to be an ass-kicking to remember, believe it!"

That girl did not mince words, Jiraiya hadn't seen too much of her, but even he was starting to notice a general theme in her conversations with Minato.

"Are you still on about that, Uzumaki?" Minato asked with more irritation than he usually allowed himself, "You do realize we might not even end up fighting each other."

"I think you're just scared to lose and embarrass yourself in front of Lee," Uzumaki proclaimed along with extravagant hand gestures and a grin that was much too large, "Which, really, I can't blame you, because she'll likely never think as highly about you again and you'll become Dead Last Two: Electric Boogaloo."

Well, that was a Lee-ism if he'd ever heard one, at the sound of it even Lee gave a surprised blink as she mulled over that final term, probably trying to think if she'd called anyone or anything that before.

As it was, Haru certainly noticed, and didn't appreciate the coining of new even worse nicknames for himself.

"Thanks, Kushina," Haru groused, "For dragging me into your weird territorial battle with Minato."

However, neither Minato nor Kushina seemed to pay him much attention as they continued to focus on their own bickering.

"Oh, believe me, Uzumaki, if it were within my power I would make you eat sand for months with three villages for witnesses," Minato replied with a far too cheerful smile and a small charming laugh even while the very air between the two of them seemed to hum with lightning.

"In your dreams, blondie," Kushina said, crossing her arms with an indignant huff, as if Minato was completely and utterly beneath her.

"Enjoy your delusions of grandeur while they last, tomato," Minato retorted, an almost Oro like sly grin appearing on his face, and good god that expression didn't belong on his face, Jiraiya hadn't even realized Minato was capable of that kind of a smile.

What was wrong with those two? If Jiraiya didn't know any better, and hadn't seen the eerie relationship between Minato and Lee in action, he'd have said they were playing the adolescent version of the will-they-won't-they game.

As it was Namikaze Minato and Uzumkai Kushina just had this strangely intense rivalry, reminiscent of his and Oro's rivalry back in the day, with Eru Lee as this almost indifferent third wheel.

Well, if Orochimaru had been a girl, and attractive, and less of a dick.

Actually, in this situation it was probably the cooler-headed Minato who was playing the role of adolescent Orochimaru, well, a less stuck-up ice queen version of Orochimaru while boisterous Uzumaki Kushina was the cocky braggart Jiraiya, desperately trying and failing to impress Senju Tsunade-hime. Except… In that scenario, then Lee clearly was Tsunade-hime, chronically unimpressed by Uzumaki the Jiraiya's tactics and far more appreciative of genius Minato the Orochimaru, which only fueled Uzumaki the Jiraiya's ridiculous rivalry with Minato the Orochimaru, which only made Minato the Orochimaru that much less impressed…

And clearly this analogy was going off the rails and he needed to stop thinking about it before he concluded that Orochimaru wanted to be in Jiraiya's pants or else that Uzumaki Kushina wanted to be in Lee's.

As if to emphasize this point, between bites of food Lee finally chimed in with her usual serenity, "Uzumaki, just so you know, if we end up fighting before Minato has a chance to publicly humiliate you in a match-up, I'm not going to show you any mercy."

Which basically translated to Kushina being out of the running.

"Lee, you know you're supposed to support me in this, right?" Uzumaki said, actually looking a bit insulted, and oh boy, maybe she was trying to get Lee's attention, "We serious non-fangirl kunoichi have to stick together!"

Lee considered this for a moment, before sparing a glance to Minato and asking, "Minato, what's a fangirl?"

And on that note, Jiraiya felt he should interrupt before the conversation derailed completely, "At any rate, just remember brats, try not to let your success so far go to your heads."

Not that it was going to their heads, Minato, despite fanning the flames of his rivalry with Uzumaki seemed as even-keeled as ever, Haru as filled with despair and foreboding as ever, and Lee at her most Lee, when, if she had any decency at all, she'd be at her least Lee.

None the less, Jiraiya continued, "Also, not sure if you've been told this or not, but this first round is more an elimination round than anything else. After this we'll have a few weeks to continue training to help you face whoever is left until eventually there's only one genin left standing. Of course, I'll just reiterate this, losing doesn't mean you won't become a chunin, and winning doesn't mean you will, it's more in how you fight and approach any given problem."

Jiraiya then looked straight at Lee, "Like, for example, following a sensei's very reasonable guidelines during the final portion of the exam."

Lee, blinking, and then nodding at him with a stupid smile on her face, clearly wasn't getting it. Perversely, Jiraiya hoped that a miracle would happen, and that Minato would kick her ass.

The sun was shining, if there was grass in Suna it probably would have been green, but the sand was a comforting shade of yellow, and Haru was about to die. Or, at the very least, be hospitalized.

He was standing inside the arena, sweating under the morning sun (and why was it so bright when it was still so early in the day, not even close to noon yet), and he was one of the first two victims in this round for the chunin exams, about to face his death at the hands of a Kiri nin who undoubtedly had fond memories of either Lee, Minato, or Uzumaki beating him into submission while Haru had sat by uselessly playing solitaire while trying his best not to pass out again.

Either way, staring out from behind his sunglasses, holding his initial fighting stance, feeling the sweat roll down the back of his neck, and that ever present fatigue leaking through him as he hemorrhaged chakra, Haru thought the results were more than clear.

This was to be the last clear-headed moment of his life, and he was spending it sweating, feeling rather light-headed, anticipating his pummeling by a vengeful Kiri genin.

And on his gravestone Lee would engrave "Here lies Dead Last, fondly known by his comrades as Sunglasses Magoo. Somehow, after eating a magical peach, he became even more useless. He once got kidnapped by my emotionally supportive clone."

The referee announced the beginning of the fight, Haru began to move, circling his opponent to prevent him from getting a good first hit in while he delayed the inevitable. Although, oddly enough, and maybe because he was just too used to facing Minato or Lee who knew all his unimpressive tactics, he dodged or at least blocked every move made towards him. Of course, this was probably because he himself kept in constant movement, and because the Kiri bastard was toying with him.

Sometimes Lee, like a cat, would play with her food before she destroyed it entirely.

With one block he felt his sunglasses slip slightly, his eyes connecting with the genin's who paled at the sight of them before Haru managed to push the glasses back up his nose even as he used his other hand to swipe out with a kunai, and surprisingly, managed to get a decent cut in before the Kiri nin darted backwards.

However, Haru was too busy watching his life flash before his eyes to pay this much attention, or at least, as much attention as it probably deserved. To his horror, much of his internal flashback was devoted to Eru Lee or some iteration of her in the form of a clone. Everywhere he looked, there she was along with Minato, laughing at something or else calling him Dead Last.

Like he needed the constant reminder that he had only barely graduated the academy.

Oddly enough, as he desperately dodged or blocked the kunai being hurled at him, he had a flash of Eru Lee, or rather, her clone, on the bridge, and that strange smile that she had never offered him in person.

He could see himself back there on that bridge, on that peaceful morning, as if it had only happened a moment ago.

"Maybe I'm just not meant to be a ninja," he'd said as he'd looked out at the water and the sunlight glinting off it, "Maybe I was supposed to be a merchant or ramen chef or anything but a shinobi. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't know I wasn't talented. I just thought, maybe if I tried hard enough or worked at it enough, I could be better and…"

Only this time, the Eru Lee of his imagination, a softer and more patient thing, said, "You know, Haru, there's no shame in surrender."

She smiled at him then, that strange rather un-Lee like smile that she'd given to him back then, "To know your own limitations is a kind of strength, I think, and perhaps in this situation recognizing your own limits is the most honorable path you can take. You've kept with your team this far, now though, you aren't holding any of them back and can think of what's best for your own career."

Then, finally, "After all, haven't you already exceeded your own expectations? Haven't you made it to the final round of the exams without injury? You can still stop while you're ahead, and remember, that there will be other years, and that most take the chunin exams more than once."

The scene faded, and reality reasserted itself as the epiphany drew down upon him, that yes, there wasn't any shame in admitting he couldn't do it, or at least, not now. Maybe when he got these eyes under control, when he was out from Lee or Minato's shadow then maybe he'd have a real chance of becoming a chunin.

Just not here and now, but that was fine, and there was no shame in admitting it.

He opened his mouth, took a breath…

"I surrender!"

He hadn't said it. He felt his mouth fall further open in shock, trying and failing to come to grips with what had just happened, what must have happened, that the Kiri genin had somehow surrendered before he had.

From the Konoha section of the stands above him, where the other chunin hopefuls prepared for their own battles, he could hear Lee breaking out into hysterical laughter even as a quiet murmur went up through the crowds.

For a surreal moment, Haru was able to view himself from the outside in, that is, he was able to recognize just what he looked like right now. A few months ago, he was perfectly ordinary. Brown hair, brown eyes, average skin tone, average height, and less than average abilities, in other words in no way remarkable or remotely threatening. Now though, with white hair, sunglasses, his own flickering eyes, and his proximity to Minato and Lee he probably looked downright terrifying and like he had a wealth of secret blood limits honed in Konoha for generations. A stray offshoot of the Uzumaki clan. Likely, this poor bastard, due to the trauma of being pummeled by an impatient and concussion suffering Lee, probably didn't even remember that Haru hadn't put up a fight.

Or, maybe he had, but it'd made it seem like Haru was the final boss or something, like he was so much more dangerous than Lee, Minato, or Uzumaki that he didn't even bother to take part. Had instead amused himself with solitaire while his lesser minions did his work for him.

Or, and here was a strangely nauseating thought, somehow Kiri's dead last was worse than Konoha's. In other words, Dead Last had just been in a face-off with Dead Last Two: Electric Boogaloo.

Either way, distantly he heard himself announced the victor, and in a daze found himself ascending from the arena and back to where his teammates and an assortment of other genin were all waiting for him.

"Nice job winning by default, Dead Last!" Lee said, slapping him across the back with a large grin, probably feeling like she was being incredibly supportive. Which, for her, she was, he was honestly surprised she wasn't still rolling on the ground in laughter.

"What the hell just happened?" Haru asked and judging by the look on everyone else's face they were all wondering the same thing.

"Well," Minato started, looking Haru up and down with a musing expression as he tried to put it together, "I think you psychologically terrified your opponent, by avoiding all of his early hits, and not making any overt moves in the beginning besides that one where you landed a hit, along with what happened in the second task, you seemed much more… menacing than usual. Likely, they mistook you for being at my or Lee's level."

Minato offered him a rather apologetic and sympathetic smile and shrug as Haru just stared blankly at him. Well, wasn't that just wonderful.

"If it makes you feel better," Minato added with a more cheerful smile, bashfully rubbing the back of his head, "You'll probably lose next time."

And that was even worse. Why was it, that he always felt like the gods were somewhere up there, laughing at him? Probably because Lee, right there in plain sight on the ground, was still desperately stifling giggles even as Minato elbowed her in the ribs to force her into politeness.

"Well, I'll be damned," Jiraiya said, "He pulled it off."

Jiraiya didn't want to say he couldn't believe it, but, well, about five fights later and he still couldn't believe it, and judging from Haru's expression as he cheered on his comrades he couldn't either. Against all odds, Haru had somehow progressed to the next round…

He wondered if Tsunade, somewhere in Konoha, had made a bet with someone and how much money she had just lost.

"Alright! In your face Namikaze, Uzumaki Kushina is on her way to victory, believe it!" Kushina grinned as she stepped up from the arena, victorious in her fight against the older Aburame heir and…

Well, it'd actually been eerily anticlimactic. She'd just kind of stood there while he'd covered her with his weird bugs and she'd set up explosive seals, then before she could even really set any of them off he'd surrendered saying something about too much chakra and how it was pointless to keep going.

She'd sort of been looking forward to a more impressive fight, this just felt… sad. She spared a sheepish grin towards the older boy, but he was as stoic as ever as he silently walked past her and towards his own teammates, apparently not bothered at all that he'd surrendered to the glory that was Uzumaki Kushina.

Which, well, good for him she guessed.

Hopefully, it would mean that she and Minato were actually paired up next time and she'd have a real chance to show him what Uzumakis were made of.

Kushina for her own part, made her way to her pretty much adopted team of team seven as well as Mikoto who grinned up with her and offered a cheerful thumbs-up. Ready to come over to celebrate Kushina's victory as soon as she was done trash talking.

"Congratulations, Kushina, try not to let your victory go to your head," Minato dully droned out, looking anything but pleased by her winning, which somehow made him look almost adorable.

Oh, she would enjoy crushing him and rubbing his unnaturally pretty face in the dirt.

"Oh, believe me, that's just one fight down and one step closer to me winning the tournament and becoming hokage!" Kushina grinned with even more confidence than she actually felt, which was impressive, because she was brimming with confidence right now, "And one step closer to you getting your ass handed to you on your path to becoming my secretary."

"If you say so," Minato said in that same rather terse manner before stopping, lifting his head as Mikoto and her grumpy cousin Fugaku were announced to face off next. Mikoto's eyes dimmed, a hardened expression appeared on her face, and she offered Kushina a small wave and a 'we'll talk later' hand signal as Kushina saluted her future victory, watching as both she and Uchiha Fugaku walked down into the arena below them.

"Wow, Uchiha against Uchiha," Kushina noted quietly, "That feels kind of wrong, I mean, that it's taking place this early."

"Well, it's supposed to be randomized," Lee said with a small shrug leaning against the railing separating them from the arena as she looked down on the two dark-haired genin, "So I guess there's always a chance, and we have to face each other sometime."

"Still, that means one of them's not going to be in the next round," Kushina said, and, she didn't know too much about the weird politics of Mikoto's clan, but that didn't seem like it'd be a great idea. Mikoto was always a little tense about her family, especially Fugaku who she was technically engaged to.

Fugaku, who by marrying her, would end up clan head someday.

"Wait a minute, you two are next, right? Or coming up, anyway," Kushina said suddenly, looking at Minato and Lee, before Mikoto and Fugaku could start, "That means we're almost done, who's still left?"

Lee and Minato looked at eachother then their companions but before either of them could respond Haru answered.

"There's me, of course," Haru started in, still looking oddly depressed over his victory, you think the guy would have preferred losing or something, "Then there's that blonde Suna nin that we faced in the second test, the red-head Suna nin who looks just as terrifying."

He then motioned over towards Shikaku, Inoichi, and Chozu who were now moving towards the railing to watch the fight as well as the rest of Konoha's chunin hopefuls, "Ino, Shika, Cho, the Hyuga twins, you, and then whoever wins this fight, along with whoever wins in Minato or Lee's fight."

"So, basically everyone who knows your dirty secret of being Dead Last," Lee pointed out, rather untactfully.

"Yes, Lee, basically that," Haru responded with a sigh.

Kushina however didn't pay this much mind, instead she watched as Fugaku and Mikoto started. Both were very fast, and both activated their sharingans right away, Mikoto's markedly different even at a distance, but even in the beginning Mikoto seemed to read Fugaku better than he did her, and it was clear that she was pulling ahead of him…

Something that the clan probably would never have predicted, or wanted to predict. Because if Mikoto was just supposed to be the wife of the clan head, rather than the clan heir herself, what did it mean for the clan that their future chosen clan head would lose to her?

What would that mean for Mikoto? Because somehow, even as Fugaku began to flag and Mikoto moved in for the kill, she didn't think Mikoto was supposed to win this fight. And that perhaps, it would have been better for Mikoto, if she and Fugaku had never directly fought one another.

Kushina would have to talk to her, probably when they were back in Konoha, but all the same…

"Well, that was quick and anticlimactic," Lee noted as Mikoto was named victor, "That was almost as fast as your anticlimactic fight, Dead Last."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Haru asked but Lee didn't seem to pay much mind to this.

"I guess it makes sense though," Lee said musingly, "If you think about it."

"What makes sense?" Kushina asked but Minato and Lee simply looked at each other then back at Kushina, before Minato gave a cheery grin and an explanation of, "Oh, nothing, just blood limit nonsense."

The sharingan? Mikoto had said something about having a more advanced sharingan for whatever reason but she hadn't really explained it to Kushina. Which, made sense, as that was clan business… She wondered if and how Minato and Lee would know more about it than she would. As far as she knew Mikoto barely talked to the pair of them without Kushina.

Then again, there was that strange episode Mikoto had recounted about Lee bulldozing her way through the compound and to their daycare, although maybe that was about something else.

They all looked up as Minato's name and that of an unfamiliar Suna genin was announced, Minato's eyes drifted to the other side where he caught the gaze of a terrified looking boy, "Oh, well, if it isn't our old friend from the second part of the exam."

"Is that the short blonde kid's useless teammate?" Lee asked, leaning over the railing to get a look at the boy descending down into the arena, Minato cracking his knuckles and grinning, "Yes, Lee, yes, it is. Oh, this will be fun I think."

Without further ado Minato hopped down onto the steps and then down into the arena itself, looking like he didn't have a care in the world, which somehow made the other boy look that much more terrified.

"Geez, and he tells me I have too much confidence," Kushina noted but neither Lee nor Haru seemed to pay her much mind. Strange, she didn't think she liked the feeling of being overlooked so easily, by either of them.

Well, by anyone, really, that was half of why she was always so loud and boisterous, deep inside Kushina was a fear of fading in everyone's memories, of being passed over…

"Oh, don't worry, Minato's going to eat that boy alive," Lee said with the strange overwhelming faith that she always seemed to have in Minato, "For the honor and glory of Konoha, of course."

And he did, in short order too, not even having to use anything other than taijutsu and knocking the boy out cold in only a few hits. A truly anticlimactic fight if there was one, not that he seemed to mind, the way he exited the arena and grinned at Lee. And for a moment, just a moment, Kushina wondered if she had ever given him enough credit publicly or privately.

Because surely, even if it was only to herself, she could admit that there had always been something about Namikaze Minato.

"Hokage, just what are you playing at?"

Hiruzen had expected this ages ago, really, that the sandaime kazekage and the sandaime mizukage had chosen only to approach him now spoke of their restraint or perhaps their own caution and bafflement.

The kazekage was a notoriously shrewd man, the most powerful and inventive kage that Suna had seen thus far, someone who could probably give Hiruzen a run for his money if push came to shove. He'd probably had a heart attack when he saw Eru Lee not only manipulating sand, as per his own techniques, but perfecting it to a degree that had taken him decades to master. Hiruzen could only imagine the look on his face when Lee obliterated his labyrinth and then, with a few patently incorrect hand seals, rebuilt it.

The mizukage was slightly less notorious, he paled in comparison to his eccentric predecessor and his control over his own village was dubious at best, especially in the wake of their near pyrrhic victory with the destruction of Uzushio. They had lost many good ninja in that fight, perhaps too many, for them to have considered it worth obliterating Konoha's sister village. Likely, the man had been hoping to fill the ranks quickly and that this new generation would be crucial to that. That this didn't appear to be Kiri's year was just his luck, that Konoha's team seven had obliterated every genin he'd entered without breaking was devastating.

Of course, they did not yet realize that this was par for the course when it came to Eru Lee. There was a reason he had a filing cabinet dedicated to her.

Still, during the first and second portions of the exams each kage had kept mostly to his own section, evaluating each genin team's performance with the various jonins accompanying him, only now did they sit together in a box dedicated to the kages as they watched over the beginnings of this final phase.

Of course, at the moment Hiruzen was the only one who had the decency to watch. Perhaps some of this was warrented, the overwhelming majority left were Konoha genin, but all the same, the mizukage could at least spare a glance for a few of his brats after he'd whined about the results of the labyrinth.

Not that it mattered anyway, as all but one of them had been eliminated, and Eru Lee's victory over her Kiri nin opponent was a foregone conclusion. Still, it was in the spirit of the thing, forgoing watching your own shinobi just for the sake of village gossip could not be good for morale.

That was what spies were for.

Although, in a way, this was the first real chance they had to confront the sandaime hokage on just what the hell was going on in Konoha these days. Likely, with rumors of the shodaime and nidaime hokages' resurrections, they had been anticipating this moment long before they'd caught sight of Eru Lee.

Hiruzen, for his own part, merely sighed and lit the end of his pipe with a small flame, that girl caused him far too much trouble, "The same as you, I imagine, evaluating the future chunin of my village."

Both the mizukage and kazekage looked rather irritated by this response. There was a tension about them too, the war had ended not so long ago, likely it pressed on their minds just as much as it did Hiruzen how new and fresh these treaties between them were.

"Future chunin, is that what you call it?" the mizukage asked, "You do realize none of us are impressed by your throwing a pint-sized jonin in here for show."

"I assure you," Hiruzen said with a wry smile, "Eru Lee is anything but a jonin."

In fact, the very fact that she was merely a genin, and had only been one for a year now, was rather embarrassing.

"She could be a kage," the kazekage noted, and he did not mince words. To Lee's minimal credit she appeared to have tried to act the part of a normal genin, at least, until she'd gone and gotten concussed. Even then, within the walls of Konoha or on a mission, she was notorious for being far more blatant with her S-ranked techniques. No, the sad truth was, Eru Lee was undoubtedly of the belief that she was being perfectly subtle.

"Perhaps, but then, there's more to being a kage than raw power," Hiruzen noted, but not expanding more than that, leaving it to their imagination to supply just what it was that Eru Lee lacked that she was only a genin.

Undoubtedly, in some other village, she would have been pushed well beyond her ranks. Even in Konoha, had she been a little older during the height of the second war, she would have likely found herself in a higher position of command long before she was emotionally ready. However, Hiruzen did not believe in such measures when they were not necessary, a trait he did not share with many of his fellow kages.

Likely, they found such ideology soft hearted at best and beyond foolish at worst.

With a sigh Hiruzen explained further, "There are good years and there are bad years, this is not a new pattern for hidden villages. And Konoha, for whatever reason, has had a very good year."

The mizukage, next to him, ground his teeth in irritation, undoubtedly thinking of his own lackluster year while the kazekage just stoically took in Hiruzen's words.

"Perhaps, instead of worrying about the abilities of one genin, we can take this as a sign of the strength of our alliance with one another and the benefits it will bring each of our villages in years to come."

Hiruzen didn't bother to state the unspoken threat, that to cross Konoha now, or in the coming decade, would be a very poor idea indeed. If Eru Lee was going to be blatant he could allow himself the luxury of using it to his own advantage.

Not to mention the unspoken, unacknowledged, truth of the shodaime and nidaime hokages' resurrections. A truth that, apparently, not even the kages were willing to breech at the moment, trusting instead intelligence brought to them by their spies.

When in doubt, a shinobi would almost always resort to subtlety, which, for the moment, was fine with Hiruzen.

For now, they all watched, riveted, as the red headed Eru Lee entered the arena below them, a rather put-upon expression on her face as she approached her quaking opponent. They stared at each other for a few moments, waiting for the referee's signal, and as soon as the flag was thrown a pillar of sand rose up from the earth and shoved her opponent into a wall where he twitched there as he fell unconscious.

She waited for a few polite seconds as the stunned referee declared it a match, then walked back up the stairs, hands shoved into her pockets looking as if she was contemplating her next meal.

Very likely daydreaming of ramen.

On stepping out of the arena, turning to Minato, Lee asked, "Is it just me, or was all of that very anticlimactic?"

Author's Note: Next up, a training montage, and more one on one fighting, and conspiracy theories undoubtedly abounding. And then being done with the chunin exams, eventually, likely in a few chapters. Man, the chunin exams are long. Enjoyable, but long.

Thanks to readers and reviewers, reviews are much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Naruto.