DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto

[Chunin Exam Arc] [Chunin Exam: Race Sub-arc]

Chapter 35: Race Back Home

Ankoku and the rest of his team were racing across the Great Naruto Bridge. He was getting to far ahead from his teammates.

"Hey Ankoku!" yelled Shinji, "Would you slow down a bit?"

"No!" yelled Ankoku, "I can't prove it but I know Hiroshi is the one that put is in that earth dome so I want to get back home as quickly as I can to kick his ass!"

"Stop this nonsense!" yelled Aki. "If you do anything to jepordize our chance at becoming Chunin, I will kill you!"

Aki's threat felt real to Ankoku so he then stopped dead in his tracks. Shinji didn't realized Ankoku stopped and ran right into him, knocking them both to the ground. Aki casually walked up to them as Ankoku argued with Shinji.

Aki sighed, "Boys."

Tsunade was beginning her daily routine and reading through a never-ending mountain of useless paper work when a knock came to her office door.

"Enter!" she yelled.

Shizune walked into the office and spoke, "Tsunade-sama, the first team has returned."

"Really?" questioned Tsunade and Shizune nodded.

Tsunade was a bit relieved to get away from the paper work for a bit. She got up from her chair and grabbed a folder and walked out of the office with Shizune. They walked downstairs to a meeting room and Tsunade walked in to find the team from Kusagakure sitting and waiting.

Tsunade opened the folder she was carrying and looked through the list of foreign ninja teams participating in the Chunin Exam until she came across the Kusagakure team. All three where wearing brown ponchos.

'Bokusōchi Inago, Tsuka Ari and Hikari Atsui,' Tsunade read.

"Which one of you has the scroll for me?" Tsunade asked.

"I do," said a male as he stood up. He took off his straw hat revealing his face. He had oval, hazel eyes and his light brown hair was a mess from the straw hat.

"My name is Inago from Kusagakure, here is the scroll," Inago said as he handed Tsunade the scroll.

Tsunade took it from the ninja and walked over to a table. She opened the scroll, she asked Shizune a question. Shizune answered and then Tsunade wrote something down on a paper she had taken out of the folder she had brought with her.

"Thank you," Tsunade said. "You may return to where you've been staying. Once all of the other teams have returned to the village, I will have someone call you to a meeting place where I will announced the results on who will be going to the final exam."

"Yes ma'am," Inago said and turned back to his team.

Nightfall

"Hiroshi, it's getting late," Himawari said.

Night had fallen and they had been traveling all day. Hiroshi didn't want to stop because he knew they were about halfway back home. He looked to his left and could tell Himawari was getting tired. He looked behind him to find Shiro was starting to fall behind.

'Damn it,'

Hiroshi stopped. Himawari followed suite as well as Shiro.

"I'm sorry guys, I was just focused and getting home and I just made this whole thing about myself. Let's get some rest," Hiroshi said.

"It's okay, we all want to get back home so we're not out of the Chunin Exams," Himawari said.

Shiro was going to joke around but with the way Himawari and Hiroshi had been touchy lately, he decided against it and just stayed quiet then decided to offer to be the first lookout.

"You two go ahead and get some rest first, I'll take first shift as lookout," Shiro offered.

Himawari and Hiroshi looked at each other, puzzled because Shiro never offered to go first.

"Uh, okay, sure," Hiroshi said, stunned.

Shiro walked climbed up a tree and sat on a branch above the camp the team had created to keep watch. Hiroshi was asleep within seconds it seemed like. Himawari giggled and turned to fall asleep as well.

Twelve Hours Earlier

Tsunade sat down at her desk once again, placing the folder inside a drawer. She sighed as Shizune was about to walk out of the office. She knew that sigh so she just had to ask.

"What's wrong, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

"I need you to send Kakashi, Lee and Kiba to Yuki no Kuni. I think I know what Kami is up to."

"Did Sasuke send any information or Kawamaru?" asked Shizune.

"No, the last name of the girl in the Kusagakure team triggered a memory about a story I heard when I was a child," Tsunade answered. "I'll explain later, just get Kakashi, Lee and Kiba here quickly!"

"Yes Tsunade-sama, right away!" Shizune said as she scrambled to leave the office.

Two Hours Later

"Are we ever going to stop?" asked Todo.

"No, I want to be the first team back," answered Kawari. " We'll have plenty of time to rest when we get there."

"Come on Kawari-kun," Suki said in a saltry voice, "My feet are killing me since we've been traveling nonstop since we left Nami no Kuni."

Kawari suddenly stopped, "Okay, okay, we will rest for a little while but then we are heading back out, understood?"

Todo and Suki nodded.

Ten Hours Later

Shiro kept an eye around the camp as Hiroshi was snoring up a storm and gave Himawari kudos for being able to sleep through that. Suddenly he noticed something coming.

"Shit!"

Shiro jumped to the ground and kicked Hiroshi, not hard, but enough to wake him up and shook Himawari.

"What's going on Shiro?" asked Hiroshi.

"Someone's coming," Shiro said.

Hiroshi scrambled to get up and pack up his sleeping bag.

"Damn it, I knew he should..."

"Well, well, look at what we found," said a familiar voice.

Hiroshi turned to see Ankoku, Shinji and Aki. Hiroshi, Shiro and Himawari just stared down the other team. Without saying any words, the two Konoha teams jumped up into the teams to try and beat one another.

"Now this is a race," Hiroshi said, pumped up.

"But I am still so tired," Himawari whined.

Nine Hours Earlier

Kakashi, Kiba and Lee entered Tsunade's office at her request.

"You wanted to see us Lady Tsunade?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes, I'm sending you on a mission to Yuki no Kuni, I need you to warn Kazahana Koyuki that the Missing-nin Kurosaki Kami is trying to locate the sealed ninja Kurosaki Gekkou," Tsunade said.

"The Kurosaki Gekkou?" asked Kakashi. "I heard he had died."

"That was the story everyone was told to keep his sealed body from being discovered," Tsunade said.

"Very well, we will head out now," Kakashi said.

Lee and Kiba bowed and headed out with Kakashi.

"And you figured this all out by the last name of a girl from Kusagakure?" asked Shizune.

"I guess I need to tell you the story," Tsunade said.

Eight Hours Later

The race between Hiroshi, Shiro and Himawari and Ankoku, Shinji and Aki continued with no signs of slowing down. The two teams would take turns getting out ahead of the other team. Hiroshi and Ankoku seemed to be enjoying the race much more then the rest of their teammates. Himawari and Aki fell back from the four boys.

"This is stupid," Aki said.

"I agree," Himawari said. "Boys."

"They're so stupid sometimes," Aki said.

The two girls giggled as they eventually caught back up with the boys.

'I see it, the village gate' Hiroshi thought.

He pushed himself as hard as he could, he wanted so badly to beat Ankoku at something. As he and Ankoku continued to push themselves to get to that village gate. Ankoku landed on a weak branch that broke as soon as his full weight was placed on it. Ankoku went straight down to the ground.

Hiroshi stopped and turned back to Ankoku. He jumped to the ground where Ankoku was sitting.

"Why the hell did you come back? I fell to the ground which meant you would have beaten us to the village," Ankoku said.

"You and I may have our differences, but we're both ninja of Konohagakure so you're still my comrad. What kind of comrad would I be if I just left one of our own behind?" Hiroshi asked.

Ankoku was surprised by Hiroshi's response but it made sense.

"Can you walk?" asked Hiroshi.

"No, I sprained my ankle trying to do a fancy landing," Ankoku said.

"Come on, forget this racing shit, we'll both have the same time," Hiroshi said.

Hiroshi bent down to allow Ankoku to put his arm around Hiroshi's shoulders to help him move. Shinji came to give Hiroshi a hand in helping Ankoku back to the village.

Thirty Minutes Later

The two teams reached the village gate where two of the Chunin Exam proctors where waiting. They wrote something in both's team scrolls. One of them took over helping Ankoku to take him to the Hospital to check him over. Shinji and Hiroshi made their way to the the Hokage's tower to turn in their scrolls and hoped they'd make it to the final exam.

Few Hours Later

As the sun came up, the other teams participating in the Chunin Exam started entering the village. Kawari, Kudo and Suki and soon after, a team from Takigakure and Amekagure strolled in as well as Iwagakure, Kumogakure and Kirigakure. They were just hours away of finding the top four teams that would be going to the final exam.

Shizune opened Tsunade's office without knocking which Tsunade didn't like at all but before she could make any kind of fuse about it, Shizune started explaining her intrusion right away.

"We just got a message from Yuki no Kuni. They're asking for help because as they have spotted the Tatsumaki wondering in their land and believe they're trying to find Mount Sōsetsu."

"Send them a message that help is already on the way," Tsunade said, calming down from Shizune's intrusion.

'Damn it, my fear is right. Kami is going to try to find a way to unseal Gekkou.'

Next Up: Power of Two Clans