Whoa... I'm still alive! I'm sorry for the (very, very) long wait. I was either very busy, or had no inspiration for writing :( And... um... I honestly forgot to post this chapter! (I finished it over a month ago...) Thank you kiki2222 for reminding me about posting this ;)

And of course thank you readers & reviewers and, of course, my beta :)

-oXo-

Chapter 36: They grow up so fast

13th of March

"I'm afraid."

"Ah, Sceri is back."

"I said, I'm afraid," Eri's angry voice told Kenji.

"I-it will be alright, Eri-chan," Ryomaru tried to comfort her, as nervous as he was.

"I'm so excited."

Kenji looked over to the side where Eri was lined up beside him. "Which is it?"

"I don't know. I think I'm happy too." Eri looked around the enormous stadium they were standing in. The stands to their sides were filled; all senseis and other ninjas were looking down upon them. She looked to her left, at Ryomaru, who looked anxiously around at the overwhelming sight. "This is so, so…" Eri was shaking from joy.

"Shh," Kenji shushed her. "Don't act like this is our first time."

"It is our first time." Suddenly Eri stopped looking around and her mouth opened. "It's sensei, he's right over there!" she pointed to the stands.

This earned Eri some angry glares from some surrounding genins. Waving happily, almost jumping, both Kenji and Ryomaru tried to calm her down, neither wanting the attention.

In the stands Naruto saw Eri waving and held up his hand, waving back at her. A jounin sensei with orange hair combed mostly to one side of his face who stood in front of Naruto also noticed the girl waving in their direction.

"Look at that girl. She obviously is in the wrong place. Maybe she doesn't know school is on the other side of the village."

"Yeah," the dark man beside him sniggered. "Well, at least she and her team will be wiped out in the first exam. They won't last five minutes."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me, could you move aside, my student is waving at me," he said, pushing the two fazed men aside. "You go for it!" He yelled so loudly that the two men closed their eyes.

Ryomaru turned bright red, Kenji pretended not to have noticed, and Eri smiled broadly.

Naruto grinned. "Thank you," he told the men, twitching his ears playfully before moving back, crossing his arms. He was proud of his team, and no one could take that pride away.

The Mizukage walked onto a podium, her long red hair waving behind her. She stopped at the balustrade, looking down upon the gathered genin participating this year's exam.

Silence fell as everyone noticed that the Mizukage had arrived.

She closely looked around over the genin before she spoke. "I am very delighted that so many genins have come to the chuunin exams this year." She lowered her head slightly, looking almost stern. "We will make sure only the best will be able to become chuunin, so I wish you all luck." Then she smiled and turned away.

Eri leaned over to Ryomaru. "She's really beautiful."

Ryomaru nodded. "And a bit scary."

Eri looked slightly confused. "I thought she was really…" Her face showed a smile as she turned her head to the Mizukage. "She looked very strong, and like she is a great leader."

Ryomaru didn't dare to say anything after Eri's confession. He was afraid she might snap at him if he did.

A man came walking up to the genin with a scroll in hand.

"Ahem," he coughed to get everyone's attention. "For the first exam, all genin and their senseis will be expected to meet at the training in sector G5. Everything for that exam will be explained then and there by your senseis." Then he closed the scroll and looked up to where the Mizukage was still watching over the young shinobi. The man nodded to her before walking away.

"I officially start the exams," the Mizukage said. And then, to everyone's surprise, she bowed. "I bow to our future. May you make all of us shinobi and kunoichi proud by advancing and becoming a

ninja that will protect your country." After a mysterious curl of the lips that might have been seen as a smile, she left the podium.

It took a while before the genin finally dared to speak up and talk to one another after that.

Eri was practically beaming. She was shaking.

"Are you still scared?" Kenji asked concerned.

Eri turned to Kenji, and then he saw her face, all happy and excited. "I want to be like her!"

-x-

Sasuke woke up inside an empty bed. He looked down next to him, showing no sign of anyone having slept there before he looked up to the sound that had woken him up.

Thump.

Checking the time, noticing it was just 5:30 in the morning, Sasuke got out of bed and walked over to Akira's room. Rubbing his eyes, he opened the door to the boy's bedroom. "What are you doing?"

Somewhat confused, Akira stepped out of his closet wearing nothing beside his underwear and a pants on his head.

When he got no answer, just a sleepy stare, Sasuke took a step closer. "Akira?"

Still no answer. Akira only turned away from him.

"Are you nervous about today? Can't you sleep?" He walked up to the boy and softly took his arm, turning him around. "Akira?"

"What to wear?" Akira asked sleepily.

Sasuke just stared. Was he… sleepwalking?

"You know what? I will find you something to wear and you just go back to bed and sleep for a bit more."

Akira nodded and walked away. Sasuke grasped one of the legs of the pants on Akira's head and pulled it off. Akira just stepped into bed and slept on.

After having put the pants away and taking out some clothes for Akira to wear, Sasuke walked out of the bedroom and went downstairs.

He probably couldn't sleep anyway. He was used to getting out of bed early.

Sitting at the kitchen table, eating his breakfast, Sasuke smiled. He hadn't stood up this early only for missions lately. Somehow Naruto made him stay in bed longer. He kind of missed getting up this early, sitting alone in the kitchen and listening to all the birds sing. Taking his tea, he stood up and walked over to the living room, where he opened the sliding doors to the porch and leant against one of the posts.

Every once in a while he liked being alone. He had been alone for so long. He liked the quiet peaceful nature. Maybe he should go for a walk before Akira would wake up.

-x-

Eri was skipping beside Naruto as they went over to the area called G5.

"She was so cool, so… she stayed so cool and beautiful. It was like she said, I would always protect you, but if you ever hurt someone in my country I will behead you. She was just radiating… coolness, even her eyes, so cool and level, and-"

"Let me guess, cool?" Kenji muttered, by now having heard enough of Eri's new idol. "I thought they were more plain cold than cool." Luckily for him, Eri hadn't heard.

Ryomaru just kept nodding to everything Eri said.

"I bet she would be able to beat Hokage-sama."

Kenji and Ryomaru turned to Eri, and both stopped walking. Eri noticed this and looked around to the other two. Naruto stopped too, looking down upon his team.

"What?" Kenji asked Eri. "You think she would defeat Hokage-sama?"

Eri crossed her arms. "I do."

Ryomaru gasped, but didn't dare to say anything as he saw the tension between his two teammates rise.

Kenji narrowed his eyes. "You do?" he asked, almost muttering from anger and disbelief.

Eri stayed strong and straightened her back. A short, but firm nod proved he had heard right.

Kenji stepped up to her, reaching for her collar, but Naruto took his outstretched hand and stopped the fight.

While Ryomaru tried to think over what had happened, and figure out that Naruto had indeed been standing a few meters along instead of between Eri and Kenji, Eri and Kenji looked up to their blond sensei.

"It doesn't matter which baa-chan would be able to win from the other. Not right now. You need to focus on the exam and the team."

Eri and Kenji exchanged looks, both narrowing their eyes at the other. Then a hand hit their heads painfully, making them look up to their sensei. Wanting to protest, Eri had already opened her mouth, and Kenji wasn't far behind, until they saw the look on Naruto's face.

"This is like a mission; you need to put your differences aside." Then he smiled. "I want to tell Sasuke what great genins I have. Oh, wait… chuunins."

Muttering ever so softly Kenji and Eri nodded and put their discussion aside. Slightly blushing by the praise they walked on.

-x-

Sasuke pulled the black shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back over Akira's head.

"And then I dreamt I had nothing to wear, because everything else was in the laundry. And then at school, Akane wasn't there, I was all alone. So the sensei said he didn't want to teach just one student, and he left the room. And then I had to go home, but I didn't wanted to. And then you became angry because I could not go to the academy for another year and-"

"Calm down, Akira," Sasuke said, pulling a comb through the dark hair.

Akira looked up. "You wouldn't be mad, would you? If I couldn't go to the academy this year?"

"That would never happen, Akira. There are a lot of kids that need to go to the academy this year. At least there were a lot of parents when I had to go to the academy for that information evening."

Akira blinked.

Then Sasuke put the comb away and looked down to Akira. "Of course I wouldn't be mad for something like that."

Akira smiled.

Then he ran off. "Can we have pancakes for breakfast?" Kou followed behind him, getting off the closet he had been sitting on all this time.

Sasuke stood up and followed the boy, shaking his head.

The pancakes Sasuke had made had disappeared so quickly into a small dark hole inside Akira's mouth, that Sasuke would almost believe he hadn't made any pancakes at all. He was quite surprised Akira could eat at all. He had been sure the boy would be so nervous he would have to force feed him even just a little bit.

"Can we go already?" Akira asked when Sasuke was done with the dishes.

"It's not even 7 o'clock yet."

Akira turned to the clock, studying it, before turning back to Sasuke, thinking. "We still have an hour?" he asked. Sasuke nodded. Silence fell once more.

Finally Akira looked up, innocently. "Can we go practice in the garden?"

Sasuke grinned. "Sure."

Again Akira was gone with Kou before Sasuke could put away the last clean plate that he still held in his hand.

-x-

Naruto looked down upon his team as they tried to somehow look over the 3 meter high fence in front of them.

"What's behind it?" Eri asked once more.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I can't tell you," he said.

"But I bet some other senseis will tell their team, to get some advantage."

"Could very well be," Naruto told her, looking down with a serious face.

Eri lit up. "So you can too."

Naruto shook his head. "Can't."

Eri pouted. "Why not?"

Kenji turned to Naruto. "How will anyone know if you told us or not?"

"They won't," his sensei answered.

"Then tell us, quickly, because we need to go in soon," Eri said.

"I will not tell. Besides, you wouldn't really profit from knowing anyway." Naruto started swaying his tail, slightly annoyed by Eri's persistent nature.

"Then it won't hurt to tell us either."

"I-I think there's a forest," Ryomaru suddenly said softly. Eri and Kenji turned to their green haired teammate.

"How so?"

Ryomaru opened his mouth, looked up to Naruto, and closed it again. After a moment of silence he asked nervously, "Is it not?"

Naruto shrugged. "I will not tell."

"Why~?" Eri whined.

Naruto looked down to her. "Eri-chan, I will not teach you how to cheat." He looked sternly at her, which made her stop questioning him.

Slightly grumbling she turned to the closed gate in the fence, waiting for it to open up for them.

After a while Naruto looked down upon a watch. "Alright, listen up."

Eri spun around quickly, hoping Naruto would finally tell.

"All I have to explain to you -and all I know about this exam- is that you need to find your way out of it as fast as you can."

"Out of what?"

Naruto pointed to the fence. "Whatever is behind the fence."

"You still won't tell?" Eri asked sneakily.

Naruto shook his head. "You'll get a day to find the correct exit on the other side of this place."

"I think Ryomaru was right about that this is a forest." Kenji turned to Eri, who was already opening her mouth to talk, but Kenji silenced her by turning his narrow eyes to her. "But more than just a normal forest." Then he turned back to Naruto. "Sensei, how are we supposed to find the correct door on the other side? Are we supposed to get out through a similar gate like we will enter?"

Naruto smiled, liking that Kenji was so quick to catch on to things. "You're right; you will have to find a gate that another team used to enter." Naruto's tail, still swirling behind him, curled around him toward his students. "Ryomaru, hold up your hand."

Ryomaru stiffened up, before shakily raising his hand to Naruto. Naruto smiled at him and his tail moved over Ryomaru's hand. As he did so, Ryomaru felt a warm weight fall into his hand. Looking down they saw-

"A key?" Eri asked.

"There's only one door it fits on."

Ryomaru studied the key, holding it up to his face. It wasn't a special looking key, a greyish metal key.

"Lastly," Naruto continued. "I wish you luck." He smiled. "I'll see you on the other side." He walked to the gate and unlocked it. This reminded him of his own first chuunin exams, where they had to move through the forest of death. This would be different, he knew, but also similar.

Opening the gate he stepped aside so the trio could enter. "Good luck."

Slowly the three walked in, and Naruto closed the door behind them, locking it again.

-x-

Walking proudly a few meters in front of his father, Akira couldn't help but smile. It just wouldn't leave his face. Kou was happily squeaking to him, so Akira petted him.

"I'm so excited Kou-chan. You too?"

No answer came from the small bat, but Akira didn't really care. This was his first day at the academy, his first official school day. From now on he would be training and learning to be a ninja, officially. He would be just like Sasuke and Naruto.

He turned around to Sasuke, seeing him look out over to some trees to their side.

"Tou-chan?"

"Hm?" Sasuke looked down to his little copy.

"What kind of teacher will I get?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't know, but I think it will be Ririko-san."

"What is she like?" Akira asked.

Sasuke shrugged again. "Kind, I guess."

Akira understood. "What about Iruka-sensei?"

"He already has a class as far as I know."

"Oh."

"It doesn't matter Akira."

"It doesn't?"

"No, your sensei will teach you everything, regardless of who it will be. All the sensei at the academy are well trained ninja's and know how to teach."

It wasn't exactly the answer Akira had been looking for, and he wasn't sure if he understood what Sasuke was talking about, but he decided to let it pass.

A block before they would come to the academy, Akira waited for Sasuke to reach him. Then he walked beside him.

When Sasuke felt a small hand fumble with his, he knew Akira was more nervous about his first school day then he had let on. Sasuke softly squeezed it while they walked on and the academy came into view.

Walking onto the playground Akira slowly let go of Sasuke's hand. Instead he pulled at Sasuke's shirt.

Sasuke crouched down beside Akira, as he leant to his ear. "Where you nervous at your first school day?" he whispered.

Sasuke nodded. "A little, yes."

Akira's eyes twinkled, happy it wasn't just him.

"Don't tell Naruto, will you?" Sasuke added.

Akira shook his head. "I won't!"

Sasuke smiled. "look, Akane is here."

Akira looked around and was running to Akane but not fast enough for Sasuke to pull his hand over Akira's head. "Have fun today," he said softly as he stood up, knowing Akira wouldn't hear him.

-x-

They had been walking inside some sort of forest for a while now, and were thankful not to have met someone else yet. It was a very interesting forest, not a usual forest. It wasn't like the forest back in Konoha with dangerous or enormous animals. This forest was special because of how the trees were planted and growing. In fact, it was more of a maze than a forest.

All the trees were so close to each other, so that thick walls were created, closed by all sorts of other plants and bushes. The close gaps between big trees were filled by smaller trees. The gaps they left were filled by bushes and if any light could penetrate that, plants grew in between.

The path that was left to walk on was still very narrow and hard to move through. Sometimes branches had grown over the path, making it difficult to go on. A few times they had to cut down the plants to be able to move ahead. Trice until now they had been left to choose between two or more paths to choose from. Every time Kenji carefully considered all the options, trying to find the position of the sun and wind, but Eri had told him that it would be no help.

It was cold, for only little sunlight could reach all the way to the ground. Ryomaru had suggested to move up, to move through the branches where more sunlight came, but Kenji had told them 'no, not yet'. Eri didn't really see the advantage of moving low on the ground as to being able to look around up higher.

"There is also more light there, it's easier to be spotted as well. It's dark down here, hard to see through all the branches. We stay close to the ground for now," Kenji said when Eri asked once more why they shouldn't move up.

Then Ryomaru stopped the other two. "I think we should m-move over here for a while," he said, pointing to a hollow tree. A small ray of light shone through a hole in the bark.

Kenji nodded. Though he wasn't quite sure what Ryomaru wanted, he had a feeling what it might be about. If he was right, then Ryomaru had a point to do this.

Crouched together inside the huge hollow tree, a few scratches from pushing themselves through the narrow crack in the old tree, they looked over to Ryomaru. He was moving quite a bit, in a place where not a lot of space was.

"Ryomaru-kun, what are you doing?" Eri asked slightly annoyed as he squashed her a few times.

Finally he held up the key in his hand, showing it in the small ray of light.

"Oh…" Eri said, looking at the small object.

"You think we should look it over?" Kenji asked Ryomaru.

The green haired boy nodded. "I-I think it might give us some clues as to what kind of lock or door we will be looking for. In a while, when we reach the other side, we will p-probably find a few doors we can choose from."

Kenji nodded. "Yes, according to my calculations, there were about 48 teams at the openings ceremony. That means there will be at least 48 doors in here too, probably more. Some doors will probably not have been used to enter, but can still be a door we might need to exit through."

Eri took in all the information. "You counted all the teams?"

Kenji glanced over to Eri. "You didn't?"

"Why should I?"

Ryomaru went on, before a fight would erupt. And since there was way too little space to have an argument, he talked. "Look at the key."

The other two looked over to him, before glancing at the key. Ryomaru handed it to Eri. "What do you see?" he asked.

Eri looked at it, turning it around in the light. "A copper key, that really needs to be cleaned. It's getting green. I know just the-"

"Go on, Eri, don't talk about cleaning products," Kenji said slightly annoyed.

"Sorry." Eri turned it further.

"It has an oval head. It looks quite old, and the grooves are triangular and square in shape. I think it might be a key that is around 60 years old."

Eri raised her eyebrow as Kenji gave his report.

"Right, but otherwise it doesn't look like a special key to me," she said.

Kenji shrugged. "Indeed."

Then Ryomaru got the key again from Eri, who looked up confused.

Ryomaru narrowed his eyes and rubbed his finger over the key a little.

"Don't try to clean it like that, Ryomaru-kun, it won't really help. I told you I know just the thing. Too bad I don't have it with me. I hadn't expected that we might need to clean a key."

Kenji stared at Eri, while Ryomaru got closer to the key. Eri had been right, he couldn't really clean it.

It really looked just like an old key, quite smooth and nothing fancy, no decoration of any sort; except for the small symbol drawn around it. "What's that?" he asked.

He held out the symbol to the others, who came closer to.

"It looks like a seal," he told the other two.

"Let me see," Kenji said, gripping the key.

It was a seal, a very tiny and small one, but a seal none the less.

"You think Naruto-sensei put it there?" Eri asked. "Or the examiners?"

"The examiners, for sure. I don't think Naruto-sensei can make any seals at all."

"He can!"

"Doesn't matter." Kenji handed it back to Ryomaru. "What do you think it is for?" he asked. He knew Ryomaru's expertise about seals was better than his own.

It was quiet for a while. Eri started to listen to the sounds of the forest instead, only to come to the conclusion that there were no natural sounds at all. There were probably hardly living any animals at all down here. Just some insects.

Just as she was thinking this over, she looked back to Ryomaru, noticing a spider hanging above his head. She sniggered as she noticed it lowering until it hung just above the short green spikes.

Hearing her snigger, Ryomaru looked up, which caused the spider to land into his hair. He froze up as he felt something on his head.

He stayed very, very still, just the occasional shiver said that he was actually afraid.

Eri leant forward and removed the spider.

Quickly Ryomaru moved his hand over his head, before looking at the key again for a second. "I think it might be some sort of seal that needs another seal to activate."

"When it is put in the correct door?" Eri asked, looking up from the place where she had put down the spider.

Ryomaru nodded.

"That's our clue. On the door must be a seal that fits this one." Kenji turned to Ryomaru. "What do you think it might look like?"

"Probably big enough to be quite clearly visible. And I think it might be the inverse of this one, but I can't be sure. I'm no expert about seals."

"Good, that will be enough for now. Eri, imprint the seal in your head, got it?"

Eri nodded. "Yes sir."

"Okay, as for now, I want to add one last thing. Sensei said we will have a day to get to the other side. It means the maze is not really that big, but probably quite complex. That's why I was so careful to choose the right path to take," Kenji said.

"It's strange then that we haven't met any of the other 47 teams yet then." Eri said.

"Exactly." Kenji moved a bit to get more comfortable. "I bet some teams think they will be out easily, or have already found the right door, and just want to get out as much of the competition as possible. Or get up their chances of finding a door they can open by stealing keys. This means-"

"Traps," Ryomaru ended Kenji's sentence.

"We have to be careful."

-x-

Sasuke had watched Akira walk inside along with the other children, already happily chatting with the other kids.

Sasuke was glad Akira could talk to other children so easily. Plus he had Akane with him, she was in the same class as he was.

Still standing there at the gate, looking over the empty playground in front of the academy, he suddenly noticed someone standing beside him. Without looking around his eyes turned to his usual, somewhat cold, look. "Kurenai."

"Sasuke," Kurenai greeted, smiling.

It was quiet for a moment while the other fathers and mothers slowly left.

"They grow up so quickly, don't they?" Kurenai asked Sasuke. She was watching him, taking in any sign of emotion or whatsoever.

"Hm."

Kurenai grinned as Sasuke turned to her, about to greet her and leave. However, Kurenai laid her hand softly on his arm before he could do so. "Come with me." She let him go and turned away, walking off.

Sasuke stood there for a moment before he decided to follow her. He knew she had known he would do so.

After a while Sasuke noticed where they were heading, but didn't leave Kurenai's side. All kurenai did was glance at him with her scarlet eyes every once in a while. He was slightly uncomfortable coming here with her, but she knew he would be alright.

They reached the destination and Kurenai walked up to the grave of Asuma, looking down at it. Sasuke stayed a little behind her, not sure what to do. Kurenai closed her eyes and muttered some words to her deceased husband. Finally she opened her eyes again and looked up to Sasuke.

"Don't you need to see her grave?"

Sasuke frowned at her.

Kurenai pointed to Akiharu's grave. "She's his mother. She would like you to keep her up to date."

Sasuke's frown deepened. He didn't believe she would. "She's dead. Like she can hear." He was about to turn away, but Kurenai stopped him.

"She is dead; her body is no longer living, but she is still very much alive."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Kurenai smiled gently. "Inside Akira's heart." She laid her hand on her own heart. "This is important to him. I see how often he comes here to tell her about what his day. Go with him more often, even if you don't believe she can hear. It's important to your son."

Sasuke thought this over. Akira probably came here with Kurenai or Naruto, because Sasuke knew he didn't take Akira to his mother's grave, only on her birthday. Besides that he only took Akira to his parents grave every once in a while. He didn't really like visiting the graveyard all too often.

"Hn." He turned around and left. Kurenai didn't say anything as she watched him leave. Then she turned around and looked down. "He's still so stubborn," she told Asuma.

-x-

Naruto had waited next to the door for some time now, and started to get bored. So he had decided to head into the village to find him something to eat. Lost in thought about what he would like to have if, god forbids, he would not be able to find ramen, when he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Naruto reached out to prevent the woman he had walked into from falling backward. When he held her arm, his eyes grew wide. Slowly he pulled her up.

Two purple locks of hair fell beside her face and the rest of her probably long hair was tied into a bun, held together by two senbon. Her black, but nearly as dark as Sasuke's, looked right into his.

When she had straightened up, she straightened her violet and white kimono, adorned with small flowers, she grinned at Naruto.

"Kazuko-senpai?" Naruto asked stunned. "What are you doing here?"

The kunoichi smiled. "Watching the chuunin exams."

Naruto looked her over. "In a kimono… far away from the exam?"

Kazuko sniggered and placed a hand on Naruto's chest. "You got me all figured out."

"I have?" Naruto asked confused.

"I'm here for you."

Naruto's mouth fell open. He was sure he was clear when he had told her he was together with Sasuke.

Then she burst out laughing. "Haha! I'm just kidding, Naruto. The look on your face, haha."

Seeing she had been joking, Naruto awkwardly laughed along.

"So, why are you really here? Your team is mostly already chuunin rank, right? Did you find a new team to go to the exams?"

Kazuko shook her head. "No. Only Naoko isn't chuunin yet, Michi advanced last time. When I found out that the Water country was so strict about three man cells to enter, I tried to form a new team for Naoko, but I couldn't do so in time. Plus I think Naoko didn't really want to go yet." Kazuko grinned. "So, my only hope is that only one of your genin becomes a chuunin, which means that next time our teams can join."

Naruto's face fell. "Really?"

"Well, of course not, I hope they all become chuunin." Her hand followed her side, the pattern on her kimono. "Okay, maybe I do hope two will fail."

"Huh?"

"Just kidding," she said, pushing Naruto.

Naruto's eyebrow rose. Was she joking or not? She didn't make it sound like she did.

"Well, anyway," Kazuko decided to change the topic, "how are you and Sasuke doing?"

Naruto smiled, glad she might be over him. "We're doing really fine. I do miss him though, and we've not even been away for that long. But I will probably miss Akira's first day of school. I would have liked to be there. Instead, Sasuke promised me he would have a surprise ready when I would come back." A huge smile broke Naruto face almost in two.

"Ooooh, I see," Kazuko said, her eyebrows going up and down.

Naruto looked confused. "You know something about it?"

Kazuko grinned. "I think I certainly do."

"You do?" Naruto asked surprised. He shuffled closer to her, holding his hand up, his tail quickly sweeping back and forth. "Would you tell me?"

Kazuko quickly brought up her hand to her mouth as she almost spluttered upon Naruto.

"What? What is it?"

Kazuko shook her head.

"Please?"

Kazuko carefully removed her hand from her mouth. "W-would you let me watch… when you get it?"

Naruto looked confused. "Um… sure?"

Naruto was sure he saw blood coming from Kazuko's nose before she had turned around.

"Are you alright? Do you have a nose bleed?" He tried to turn her around and help her, but she kept moving away from him.

"No, no, I'm fine, thank you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She took a few steps away. "I… I need to go now. I'll see you later, bye."

Naruto stared at her back. "Uh… Bye."

Women, so confusing…

-x-

Sasuke sat at home, reading and correcting some reports. The spelling and grammar mistakes that people made in their official reports was just absurd!

Crossing some word, and correcting it, he shook his head. He knew Tsunade wasn't that strict about well written Japanese, but he was sure she at least cared a little bit about it. It certainly had to be readable. He was sure that whenever Naruto would become Hokage, the quality of the reports would soon drop. Luckily Sasuke was there, and he would make sure Naruto would have some ninja under his command that would pay attention to the quality of the reports. Right now Sasuke always corrected the blond's reports, sometimes even rewrote them. Naruto wasn't much of a writer.

Putting aside another report a colleague had asked him to reread, Sasuke leant back. It was so quiet in the house now. He didn't really miss the sound of Akira, but it was strange, somehow a bit empty, but not necessarily in a bad or sad way. He actually was expecting Akira to come inside any moment now, holding up some sort of beetle he had found, talking excitedly. But he wouldn't. He was at school.

Sasuke smiled. He could get used to this, Akira away at school. He could be alone for a bit, could go on longer missions again. And otherwise he could be home alone, just with Naruto.

He looked down at the ANBU file in his hand. Longer missions. He liked that. He could get up in rank again; put some more effort into being a ninja, an ANBU. Naruto had his team to take care of, and Sasuke had to take care of Akira, who came before missions. Now he could do both.

Taking a sip from his tea, he leant forward again, taking in all the information about a possible ANBU mission he might have to take part of.

-x-

Eri pushed a small boy away from her, punching him in the face. "Get away, you creep!"

The creepy boy completely covered in black, just his mouth visible, launched forward again in some sort of spidery way.

It was past noon, and they still had over half a day to find the right door, but they had bumped into three teams already in such a short time. The first time they had met another team from

Konoha, so luckily there had been no fight, but the second time they had been less fortunate. Still the battle had been short when another team had joined in, making team 9 able to slip away.

"I really hate grass ninja," Eri muttered, throwing shuuriken at the boy in front of her.

"Like you leaf ninja are so wonderful?" The boy returned the shuuriken.

"Leafs are way better than grass, having to cut it short again and again; as if it's a pest." Eri pulled one of her twin wakizashi swords out of its seethe.

"Stupid leaves that you have to sweep together and throw away every year again and again." The boy got out a kunai, ready for the next attack.

"How many times have you entered the exam before?" Eri asked while she attacked him.

"Like I would tell you?" He countered her swing.

"Ha! You are so creepy and-"

"Don't call me names, or are you so low?" The boy tried to stab her in the stomach, but missed.

"Alright, I won't anymore; you're right about at least that, but I can't help but calling you creepy. Because you are. Why else would you cover up so much of yourself?"

"Because I would like to be unrecognizable and blend in, like a real ninja? I won't go around waving my hair in other's faces all the time."

"I don't do that!" Eri said angrily, pushing away one of her braids.

"You're a girl; I bet you scratch your opponent too."

Eri frowned. "Just sometimes!"

"Haha." The boy started laughing.

Suddenly Eri slapped him in the face. The boy looked up surprised, lowering his kunai a little when he saw Eri looking angrily at him, her own sword lowered. "Don't give me the 'you're a girl, so you must be weak' shit."

The boy rubbed his cheek. "I didn't. I just said you probably scratch your opponent in a fight. I never said that you are weak."

Eri thought this over. "True. Besides, it's just Kenji I scratch anyway," she muttered, looking over to said orange haired boy as he was fighting another member of the grass team.

"Kenji-kun, huh?" the boy asked, peering over to the Yamanaka. "You like him?"

Eri turned red and swung her sword to the boy. "Of course not! What makes you think that?"

The boy blocked her sword once more. "Just wondering."

"Why? Like you care about us leaf ninja."

The boy lowered both of their weapons. "I can't?"

Eri stared at the boy. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Ha, like I would tell you?" he said, puffing his chest.

"I'm Buki Eri." Eri grinned. "It's only polite to return the favour."

The mouth of the boy fell open as he stared at her for a moment. "I… I… Aargh, that's not fair!" He crossed his arms. "Fine, my name is Ibe Ruki."

Eri smiled. "Well, Ruki-kun, let's see who is the better leaf!"

"Leaf?"

"Grass is a sort of leaf too, isn't it?"

Ruki's mouth fell.

"Haha, which means a leaf will win either way."

Ruki had no time to react as his teammate came jumping to him with their female member hanging over his shoulder. "Let's go, we'll kill them later!" He jumped off.

Eri and Ruki looked at each other.

"Well, we'll have to finish this fight in the next round then," Ruki said. "Ja." He jumped away.

Directly Ryomaru and Kenji came to stand next to Eri on the same branch she was on. "Let's go," Kenji said, "before others that might have heard us fight grab their chance."

As they jumped away, from branch to branch, to quickly get some distance away from the fighting place, Eri noticed Kenji's face make an emotion it didn't do that often.

"What are you smiling about?" Eri suddenly asked as she noticed Kenji grin.

He fumbled in his pocket and out of it came a key. As he held it up to see Eri's eyes grew.

"You stole-?"

"She was really pissing me off, that grass kunoichi. She was telling me how they had met with a different team from Konoha earlier, and how they had defeated them, taking their key." Kenji grumbled. "She said it wasn't the first key they had taken, but I doubt that they had more. I knocked her out and took the key."

Eri smiled too. "You are so sneaky, Kenji."

Ryomaru smiled carefully. "Let's get back to the ground. We must be close to the other side by now."

Kenji nodded. "You're right, Ryo. Let's get one of these two keys to work."

-oXo-

A/N: R&R? ;)