The Psychic, The Swordsman, and The Sorcerer
Chapter 28
I do not own Naruto (Masashi Kishimoto), X-Men (Marvel Comics, in association with 20th Century Fox), Zorro (a public domain character, no matter how loudly Zorro Production Inc. claims otherwise), or Harry Potter (JK Rowling, in association with Warner Bros. Studios). Fun Fact: Alan Rickman was the only person other than J.K. Rowling to know about Snape's feelings for Lily for the longest time, having been told upon being cast as Snape.
Every single member of the teams that had passed the Forest of Death portion of the Exams arrived at the arena they'd been told to go to just in time to see what appeared to be the tail end of a discussion between the coughing jounin and another jounin, who had a senbon in his mouth.
"Look," the healthier jounin told his colleague, seeming to not notice the new arrivals, "I don't like this anymore than you do, Hayate, but, orders are, until you get that cough back under control, I'm going to be helping you with the announcements, so we're both going to just have to deal with it."
"The kids are here, Genma," Hayate noted with a cough, changing the subject as he pointed at the crowd of genin behind his friend, "So, why don't we explain what's going on to them?"
"Alright, then," Genma stated, turning to face the group, "As you probably already know, this is Gekko Hayate, who's the lead proctor for this part of the Chuunin Exams. I'm Genma Shiranui, and I'm going to be helping him do the announcing and things like that. Now, as you might have heard at the start of the last part of the Exam, there were more teams that managed to pass the written part of the Exams than we expected, and now we've gotten more teams that passed the Forest of Death portion than we'd expected, so we're going to have some preliminary matches to see who gets to advance, with the winners getting to go onto the main event, and the losers not getting to be considered for Chuunin until the Chuunin Exams, next year."
"The only problem is that we have an odd number of students for this session," Hayate interjected with a slight cough, "And we don't want to be unfair to anyone by having them need to fight twice if we don't have to. So, if anyone wants to call it quits before the matches, now's the best time to do it."
To the surprise of none who had dealt with him, it was Kabuto Yakushi who raised his hand, clearly uninterested in advancing in rank.
'So, the spy's unsurprisingly the one who bows out. . .' Ino mentally remarked to Sakura, 'Granted, it's a nice cover, since it's beneath notice, but does he have to make himself look so cowardly?'
'Not particularly,' Sakura responded telepathically, 'I think he just wants to go above and beyond for his disguise. Still, I suppose it wouldn't hurt for one of us to give someone on our side a hint. We don't want to make things too easy for the invaders, do we?'
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Genma said after Hayate had written down Kabuto's name, "I want all of you to be seated in the designated sitting area we've provided until you're called up. The selection process of this part is done by computer, so it'll take a few minutes while we get him out of the system before we can get started. So, follow us and we'll show you to the reserved section. We've got to get you all out there and settled in for the most part before you can get started."
With that said, the genin found themselves being taken out into the stadium, each trying to decide exactly who they'd be sitting with and where they'd sit.
"Neji, my Eternal Rival," Lee whispered as his team picked out their seats, "She has that book on bloodlines and clan techniques, again."
"I'd pray for whoever she's set her eye on if not for the fact that whatever happens to them was already decided by Fate," the Hyuuga prodigy replied quietly, "I do pity them, however."
"Gaara, my friend, Lady Hinata, why don't your teams accompany mine?" Zorro called out, "I'd be glad of the company of both of you, and I don't believe that you have been properly introduced to one another."
As the genin were being ushered in, Zabuza Momochi was sitting with his technically adopted daughter, not entirely interested in the upcoming event.
"I still don't see why I have to come to this," he commented, "I didn't even have to go to one of these to get promoted, myself."
"We are going to support our new village and my friends," Haku answered from behind her still cracked mask, "More importantly, you haven't gone outside very often and could use fresh air. Besides, you have the Kubikiri Houcho with you."
"But I can't even use it outside of a training area until my parole's up," Zabuza replied, only to suddenly see his protege apparently notice something in the reserved section that made her twitch slightly. Turning to see the genin, he was surprised to note that there was a girl, who he could only assume was 'the bun-haired assassin' Haku kept telling him about, who was sitting with a book on bloodlines in her hand. When the girl seemed to glance in their direction, he could almost have sworn that Haku was reaching for her senbon.
As his surrogate daughter did this, the former Swordsman of the Mist contemplated Haku's latest behavior. She was somewhat paranoid, apparently had a ritual of sorts with the girl where she'd elude capture as the girl chased her, and the girl was apparently where she'd gotten her shiny new senbon from. As he contemplated the evidence set before him, compounded with his admittedly somewhat inaccurate understanding of how people worked, he reached a simple conclusion that brought a smile to his face under the ever-present bandages. He was going to need to get Haku to invite the girl over for dinner if he wanted to be able to fulfill one of his childhood dreams.
