Much thanks to the very sleep-deprived, NaNoing dakeyras for beta-reading.
This chapter getting written and posted this early comes entirely because the stress of Election Week combined with NaNoWriMo resulted in some unexpected speed. I make no promises that the rest of the month will see more updates besides the usual beginning/end of month one.
"—think this was their village, with those attitudes," Ino complained.
I barely avoided crashing into Naruto. I had gone from being spinny and light-headed from drinking too much in too short a time, on top of bone-deep exhaustion, to being completely sober and well rested. Combined with the sudden bright late-morning or early-afternoon sunlight and people suddenly around me wasn't the most disconcerting sensation ever, but it was up there.
"Whoa," Naruto went as he stepped out of the way and turned to look at me. "Hey, Sasuke, are you okay?"
"Got lost in my thoughts," I answered. It wasn't entirely a lie; if dreams didn't count for that, I wasn't sure what would. But it still gave me enough time to fully take in my surroundings as I shook my head to reorient myself.
For whatever reason, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were with us. 'Us'. When did I start thinking of myself as part of the same group as Naruto and Sakura?
"Maybe save it for when we aren't on a main street," Shikamaru muttered. He was slouched over, his hands in his pockets.
Sakura looked between him, and me. "Things have been kind of tense since..." She drifted off, meaningfully. She clearly meant Kakashi ending up on probation— and the apparently dramatic way it had been packaged up— but it wasn't clear why she was reluctant to speak up about it until we passed by a group of men and women, some of whom were in uniform, who, when they got a good look at us, exchanged glances between themselves.
After we had passed them by, I could pick up their voices as they spoke, half indistinguishable.
"...Hatake's genin, aren't they…?"
"Of course he'd turn out like his old man..."
"You don't think..."
I wasn't the only one, gauging from the reactions. Naruto's hands clenched into fists, and he bit into his bottom lip, half-frowning. He obviously wanted to say something.
Chouji shook his head at Naruto. "You can't yell at every adult we see," he said, before he pulled out a handful of chips from the bag he was holding.
Sasuke and tomatoes. Chouji and potato chips. I wondered for a moment where— no, not where, how— the geography would even work for those to exist. It didn't really matter, but it was still interesting.
"Watch me," Naruto grumbled, though he didn't push the matter. "I could almost understand why they hate me, but Sensei's supposed to be well-known and has a reputation and all that and they still started acting like this?"
"It's like in the academy," Ino said, sounding thoughtful.
Sakura looked unimpressed. "I thought we were supposed to 'grow out of it' when we got older?"
"What, being hypocrites?" Shikamaru asked, glancing between the girls. "I overhear Tou-san talking to Kaa-san about this stuff sometimes, when he thinks I'm not around or paying attention. A lot of the jounin are just as dumb as the younger academy students sometimes, the way he talks."
Chouji and Ino made faces at this discovery. For Sakura and Naruto, exposed to Kakashi's peculiarities and then Gai's, this was nothing new.
Sakura looked thoughtful at Shikamaru's comment. "Your father's the Jounin Commander, isn't he?"
"Yeah, but don't ask me anything about it or what he thinks or whatever. 'Things the Jounin Commander complains at his wife about' doesn't actually tell you anything interesting and I'd rather not get murdered by my mom if she found out I was saying anything," Shikamaru answered, with an exaggerated shiver. At least, I assumed it was.
"Didn't you just right now?" Naruto asked, sounding confused.
Shikamaru scoffed. "I didn't say anything that isn't obvious."
"It's boring when they talk work, anyways," Chouji said, half-complaining. "We aren't really supposed to know, but they talk about it anyways, but since we don't know what they're really talking about it's just boring and doesn't make sense. You'd think if they wanted to talk about work so much, they'd just go and do it and leave us alone."
Ino looked frustrated. "Well, maybe they're just trying to spend time with us while they can," she said with surprising heat to her voice. "We're lucky they work in the village, but things can still happen."
Shikamaru looked taken aback, making a face at her. "Don't talk like that," he muttered, sounding unsettled. "It's such a drag."
Naruto looked between me and Chouji, trying his best to convey… something.
I shrugged.
"Why are we talking about this, anyways?" Chouji asked.
"Don't look at me. Ino's the one who made it turn all serious," Shikamaru told him.
"What?" Sakura frowned. "It was already serious before, wasn't it?"
"Not like that." Shikamaru snorted a breath through his nose. "Let's just forget it."
The conversation trailed into silence. At this point I was wondering if we were even actually heading anywhere, or if we were just aimlessly wandering.
"Uh, why don't we grab some store bento and have lunch?" Naruto awkwardly suggested, which ended up answering the question. "We can eat in a park somewhere."
"Sounds good to me," Chouji answered.
"Since when is your go-to idea a store bento?" Ino asked, not quite scoffing. She sounded more baffled, than anything.
Naruto scratched the back of his neck, grinning self consciously. "I'm broke, and if we go to this one mini-shop near the park here up on one of the walkways, they usually have some old bento that are at least half-off. Just avoid the fish ones. The jii-san who runs the place doesn't have a good nose for when the fish has gone bad." The grin transformed into a cringing expression at that, which said more than anyone needed to know. "He's alright besides that, though."
Everyone, myself included, made faces of disgust at that.
"Anyone against Naruto's bento idea?" Sakura asked.
"Fine with me," I said, as Ino shook her head.
"I don't care," was Shikamaru's answer.
Naruto ended up taking the lead, heading up a stairway against a nearby residence that led onto an upper level walkway, only a short rail keeping it from being a steep drop-off on one side. The other was against upper level homes and the occasional storefront, with the rare steep staircase that led to even higher and more rickety levels that looked like they had been added on as an afterthought. Occasionally there was a bridge crossing above the street, connecting the precarious levels to other built-up sections.
There were more people up here than I would have expected, but I wasn't that fond of heights.
Our route ended up being cut off by a trio of teenagers up ahead, in the middle of what appeared to be an argument, or worse. They actually seemed to be surrounding someone, going from the closed off circle they were in and the vague outline of a figure between the breaks between bodies.
Naruto squinted. "Who are those guys?"
"Those are Kiri hitai-ate on their heads. What are they doing here?" Sakura wondered.
"Kiri-nin? Should they even be in the village?" Chouji sounded— and looked— concerned. He had closed his bag of chips entirely. "We should turn around."
Before we could get any closer or anyone had a chance to ask what they were doing, whoever it was in the middle of the cluster of bodies made their move, attacking the brown haired boy closest to the outer railing. All we could make out from our vantage point was them being pushed back, probably from being punched, and then a sandaled foot striking out that sent them toppling over the railing and then down to the street below.
There were cries of alarm from the ground.
The mystery fighter didn't stop there, however; he or she moved right from that to evading an attempted grappling from the teen that was right next to the building wall. Water briefly glistened in the air before there was the sound of a body smacking against liquid— a harsh slapping noise— that forced that one into a hard spin from the force. It was followed by a sharp knee right into that teenager's groin that had all of the boys wincing in sympathy.
"I told you to fuck off!" That was a particularly aggravated teenaged boy's voice.
Instead of waiting for an actual reply though, another flurry of movement— still blocked by the remaining standing figure of the three who had been the original aggressors— dropped the final teenager, who fell over with a moan.
As if to punctuate his point, the remaining teenager— white haired and angry looking— pulled a water bottle from off of his belt, chugged it, and then smashed it onto the last fallen teen's head before looking at us. A Kiri hitai-ate was tied loosely on top of the belt, hanging slightly from his hip.
"What do you think you're looking at?" Houzuki Suigetsu asked us, still scowling.
"A real asshole," Naruto answered.
Sakura looked a mix between impressed and affronted.
Chouji didn't look that happy at the fact that we had his attention. I could only imagine that the fact we watched him lay out three other people single-handedly without any real apparent effort had to do something with it.
"Foreign nin aren't supposed to be fighting inside our walls," Shikamaru answered, sounding annoyed; it was probably at himself, for attempting to be responsible. "Who are you?"
Suigetsu scoffed. "If I didn't, they were going to start it anyway. I'm Houzuki Suigetsu. You're just lucky I didn't actually finish them."
Ino made a face. "You kicked one of them onto the street. You could have killed him."
"So?" Suigetsu leaned over, and ripped the hitai-ate off of the teenaged boy that was collapsed against the wall. He then chucked it over the side, where we could see it hit his first opponent square in the forehead.
He screamed. "Fuck you, Houzuki!"
"See? Still alive," Suigetsu said. He looked like he was trying to be more flippant than he actually was. In spite of his words and actions, he was still eyeing us, gauging our reactions. It was all a show.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm Nara Shikamaru, and this is Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino."
Ino crossed her arms, straightening to stand at her full height. She didn't look that happy at either Shikamaru deciding to do their introductions or Suigetsu now knowing her name.
"Oh, you're a genin team," Suigetsu said, sounding unimpressed. "You three actually spend time together willingly?"
Naruto made a face. "Hey, my team hangs out when we're not training, too."
"Fine, the Leaf is filled with over-friendly brain-dead idiots," Suigetsu snarked.
"Compared to aggressive brain-dead idiots?" Sakura asked, getting angry. "You're the one asking for trouble. You can't even put up with your own comrades in a foreign village."
"They aren't my comrades," he shot back.
Naruto gave him a confused look, before glancing at everyone else to see if we had any idea of what that was supposed to mean. We were just as at much of a loss, if not more. Then again, Kiri was pretty messed up in the series and Suigetsu did get snatched by Orochimaru somehow. So maybe that played into it.
"If you keep throwing tantrums like this, you're going to end up getting attention you don't want," I said calmly. "We're going to grab food and eat in a park. Why don't you join us, before you get yourself thrown out the village gates."
Suigetsu looked like he'd just sucked on a lemon and got smacked in the face with a rolled up newspaper at the same time.
I felt somewhat awkward as I realized the others had their attention split between me and him, waiting for a response. It was unexpectedly tense.
"Whatever," he said, though the anger from earlier had fizzled out, leaving only defensiveness. "It isn't like I know where to get food here that won't charge me extra because I'm not from around here."
"The hitai-ate and pointy teeth kind of give it away," I said, blandly.
"Wait, he has pointy teeth?" Naruto suddenly said. Without warning, he rushed over to Suigetsu, stepping over the still-groaning Kiri genin on the ground between us, and tried to stick his hands in Suigetsu's mouth to check, getting far too close for comfort for the other shinobi.
"What the fuck, get off of me!" Suigetsu said. Or at least that's what I guess he was trying to say. He was trying to fend Naruto off with far less poise than he had shown with the other Kiri-nin.
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted.
Shikamaru dragged a hand down his face and groaned. "Why..."
"It is kinda funny," Chouji said, watching.
Naruto yelled as Suigetsu bit him on the hand. That had taken far longer than it should have. I could only guess that pride— or maybe some unexpected sense of hygiene— had some role to play in Suigetsu not biting down sooner. It was probably one thing to have weird teeth, but perhaps it was another to use them. Maybe he had no idea what to make of an obvious genin who was willing to stick his hands into a foreigner's mouth. Then again, I couldn't actually remember seeing any of the ninja from Kiri in the show who had sharp teeth actually biting anyone.
Naruto backed away, shaking his hand and sending droplets of blood into the air before he gripped it with his other one in an attempt to staunch the blood. "They really are sharp!"
"Sorry about our idiot," Shikamaru deadpanned.
Suigetsu spat onto the floor and glared at Naruto. "Keep your hands to yourself, you weirdo!" In spite of this unexpected assault, he didn't seem angry enough to kick up another fight.
"We should probably get going before all of us get in trouble," I decided to say.
Ino looked over the railing. "I'm surprised no one's shown up yet. That kid's still down there."
"You first," Suigetsu said, eyeing Naruto cautiously.
I ended up walking over, trying to not step on the unconscious teenager on the floor, and grabbed Naruto's wrist, pulling him past Suigetsu, who eyed him cautiously. "Food was your idea," I reminded him.
"Oh yeah," he went, willingly being dragged. "We aren't that far away."
"Sorry about Naruto," Sakura said, looking at Suigetsu. She had rebounded back into being apologetic, despite Suigetsu's continued attitude that was more reminiscent of 'wet cat' than anything else. "I'm Haruno Sakura, and those two are Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto."
"Hi," I said, flatly, after I could feel his stare boring into the side of my face. I decided to ignore it.
"I'm going to become Hokage someday," Naruto announced. "Believe it."
"With what survival instinct," Suigetsu grumbled under his breath. "You'll be lucky to survive to make chuunin if that's what you do to strangers."
"I don't know," Ino said, lightly. "Naruto can be pretty convincing at times. He could really do it."
I— and everyone else— turned to look at her at that comment. In my case, since I was still pulling Naruto by the wrist, it was so quick that Naruto ended up tripping, barely saving himself from stumbling entirely. Even he looked a bit confused that someone else from the academy was saying it.
It still didn't stop him from beaming though. "Really? Thanks, Ino!"
That only made the doubt on everyone else's faces deepen.
Ino made a face, before tilting her head up. "Fine, don't believe me." Somehow, it came off as more definitive than Naruto's usual exclamation.
"Whatever," Shikamaru said.
We finally came across the mini-mart Naruto had talked about, and I was mildly surprised by its appearance. It reminded me of the tiny neighborhood shops a block away from one of my uncles' houses, where someone's tia or abuela usually hocked cheap candies and snacks from either a window or a side room with its own door to the outside to the local kids. Sometimes with the latter they had a muggy looking fridge for cold drinks and food.
In this case, it looked like the latter. The door and large window showed obvious signs of being added later, and the small room— packed mostly with shelves of snacks and small sundry goods, one wall given up for freezers and fridges with glass doors— had an archway that was partially hidden by the cloth divider hanging over it. There wasn't even a real counter space; instead there was an elderly man, balding and leathery from a life in the sun, lightly snoring behind a rickety table with a cash-box behind him. There was no register in sight.
It probably wasn't even running legally, but I doubted the owner— and anyone who stopped here— actually cared.
As we filtered in through the door, everyone except Naruto was giving the place unsure looks. I let go, and he immediately made a bee-line for one of the fridges in the back.
"Hey, hey, I brought people with me, can I get a discount since they're buying stuff?" Naruto asked, loudly.
The old man startled, and for a moment there was a kunai in his hand, before he fully roused, looked at us, and set it on one side of the table, which immediately tilted. "No discounts," he answered, just as loudly, before he nodded right back off again.
It was honestly impressive.
Stopping at one of the fridges, Naruto pouted. "It was worth a shot," he grumbled, before he opened its door. He crouched, and started to look at the packaged food containers that were at the very bottom, their fronts labelled with red stickers.
"How'd you even find this place?" Sakura quietly asked, seeming to not want to wake the old man until it came time to pay.
"Ducked in here to evade some chuunin when I got them with a prank one day," Naruto said with a grin. "They didn't even think to check."
There was a crinkle of plastic as Chouji investigated one of the middle shelves. "I didn't even know some of these flavors existed," he said. For someone who enjoyed food, he didn't sound like he was actually thrilled by this. He held up a bag of potato chips to show to Shikamaru.
"Coffee flavor?" Shikamaru read out loud. "Chouji, those are three months past their best by-date."
Suigetsu made a face. "That sounds gross."
"I'm going to buy them," Chouji decided.
Ino made a sound of disgust.
"I need to know," was his only answer. "Hey, should I get the peppermint or Iron Country Spice flavored ones too?"
"What's 'Iron Country Spice' even supposed to be?" Naruto asked, comparing two bento.
"I don't know," Chouji answered. "Maybe spicy?"
"Don't get either," I spoke up. The idea of peppermint potato chips was too horrible for me to want to think about, and if the second was a mystery it seemed too risky. I yanked a random bento out from a stack above Naruto's head, and backed away to let any of the others look if they wanted.
Eventually, everyone had managed to pick something or other up, and we ended up paying the old man, who loudly counted the change out where it was necessary. At the sight of Suigetsu's hitai-ate, he loudly proclaimed, "No refunds!" That was interesting on its own.
Suigetsu looked extremely tempted to say something, but apparently decided to hold off, instead choosing to dump the money on the table for the bento and giant bottle of green tea he had picked out, and tried to edge out of the building as quick as he could; it was probably in the event the proprietor decided to change his mind about selling to a Kiri-nin.
"You forgot your change!" the man shouted just as Suigetsu reached the store's threshold. He froze, eyes widening and then narrowing as he turned around just barely in time to catch the coins thrown at him, juggling the tea bottle in an attempt to not drop anything.
"Are you really going to drink all that on your own?" Sakura asked, giving the large bottle a skeptical look. Unlike Suigetsu, who was the only one who had actually been menaced, she had a paper bag to hold what we got. Sakura and I had combined our purchases with Naruto to get food and one of the larger bottles of tea to share as well, before we subtly and wordlessly dumped extra change back on Naruto, who hadn't noticed that we had given him more than he should have gotten back.
"Yeah," he answered, defensively.
To my personal horror and disgust— and everyone else's as well— Chouji had ended up buying all three bags of potato chips. I didn't want to think about how any of those would taste.
After that, we returned down to the street on the ground.
Chouji's questionable chips had ended up becoming an ice-breaker, since the others— Suigetsu included— were arguing with increasing heat over what other terrible flavors could possibly exist. Chouji was getting flustered at some of them.
"Strawberry flavor," Shikamaru said, with some thought.
Sakura shook her head. "No, it's okay as a fake flavor, it couldn't be that bad. Maybe nattou?"
"Strong, but it'd be an old people flavor," Ino said, dismissively.
"I know," Suigetsu announced. "Naruto flavor." He nudged what he was carrying towards his chest to be able to point at Naruto directly.
Naruto puffed his cheeks out. "What! Just because narutomaki is an ingredient," he said, making sure to emphasize the full name of the food in question, "it doesn't mean I'm food!"
"Then why'd you stick your hand in my mouth!?"
"I wanted to look at your teeth!"
"You didn't have to put your hand in my mouth! That's not normal! Is there anything actually in your head?"
"It's mostly just thoughts about ramen," I spoke up, before Naruto could defend himself.
"I'm not that bad," he grumbled.
"Yes, you are," was echoed back at him in some form or another.
Naruto didn't have a chance to retort, because something down the side street we were crossing caught his attention, making his eyes go wide. He waved both his arms, as his face broke into a wide grin. "Hey! Hey! Look! It's Zabuza! And Haku! HEY! Sensei! What are you doing with them!?"
Sakura and I twisted, turning to look in that direction, which only led to more questions.
That was Haku, yes, smiling in our general direction, giving a much more sedate single-handed wave in return to Naruto's enthusiastic one. And that was Kakashi, with everything about his body language and what was visible of his face was all but screaming how much he did not actually want to be doing… whatever it was he was doing. And that was Zabuza, too. But what had me staring was the fact that he was wearing the blue and white hat of the Mizukage, and a white haori over his clothes. His immense sword was strapped over it, resting on his back.
I had no idea how the hell that had happened. It didn't make sense. This wasn't something I could possibly come up with; just like that, I came back to my senses.
I had completely forgotten this was a dream.
Suigetsu was staring at Naruto in disbelief. "You know them? How?" he demanded, as he shifted the bottle of tea under one armpit and the bento into the crook of that side's elbow to free up his hands. He swept the now completely freed arm out in emphasis.
Shikamaru had one eyebrow raised, looking between Suigetsu and Team Seven, and Zabuza, Haku, and Kakashi. "I don't want to know," he said, finally. Chouji was looking at Ino with some visible concern, since she looked far more flabbergasted and confused than Shikamaru. If anything, her level of confusion was at least matching mine.
"Ah, there you are," Kakashi said, trying and failing to fill his voice with his usual apathetic levity when he was about to dump something on us. "As you can see, I'm no longer on probation. It seems you three have ran into our current mission by chance. We're in charge of assisting the Kirigakure delegation from Wave while they are here for the chuunin exams. I'm sure you remember Zabuza-sama." This last part was said through gritted teeth, as though he didn't want to say this out loud at all. It was probably only remnants of whatever professionalism Kakashi had that even made the words come out in the first place.
Sakura, unlike Naruto, was not taking this well, her earlier smile frozen on her face rictus-like, staring at the hat. It was only that that reminded me of what she had actually said that ended up stopping the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza from happening in the first place. She was clearly remembering it herself. Hidden villages needed people to be villages, or something along those lines. And Kakashi's mention of them being a delegation from Wave…
That, combined with Suigetsu's angry comments when he insisted the Kiri-nin he had ended up fighting against weren't his comrades... everything fell together.
Sakura hadn't just accidentally encouraged revolution. She had, entirely without meaning it, inspired Zabuza to declare a splinter government. A second Kiri. It was still a revolutionary action, but very, very different from trying to directly usurp power. And by showing up here, wearing that hat, he was claiming legitimacy in a way that was impossible to ignore at all with the upcoming chuunin exams.
The swordsman standing in front of us was clearly revelling in the chaos of this conversation happening in the streets, given the amount of doubletakes from both passing chuunin and jounin and those that were shameless enough to stop either in the road or on nearby rooftops, balconies, and walkways. The amount of people who had just overheard this alone meant there was no way it wouldn't spread.
It was grade-A shitstirring on Zabuza's part, only made more blatant by the fact that Haku, standing by his side, appeared completely unaffected by the obvious staring going on.
"I see you've met Naruto-kun and his friends, Suigetsu-kun," Haku said, smiling placidly. "I hope he's had a chance to show you around his village."
Suigetsu's expression immediately turned into one of fury the moment Haku addressed him. "That idiot stuck his hand in my mouth!"
"Yeah? You bit me for it!"
Kakashi let out a quiet sigh as Naruto and Suigetsu escalated into bickering, but didn't even bother to make any comments about it, sly or otherwise. Instead, he went with a reprimand. "Naruto... please treat the foreign ninja with respect while they're within our walls."
Naruto actually shut up, looking sheepish, before he apparently circled back to Kakashi's earlier words, beaming at Haku and Zabuza.
"Zabuza-sama, Haku-sempai, these are some of our former classmates from the academy," Sakura said, still looking a little dazed, but trying to follow some kind of social convention. "Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Chouji Akimichi."
None of them seemed to know exactly what to do with being introduced like this; Shikamaru scuffed the side of his sandal on the ground, and Ino's confusion was still evident, not even hidden under her attempt at a smile. Chouji was actually the only one who seemed to be handling it, holding a hand up in greeting, and even that was awkward and self-conscious.
Haku smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you all," he said, while Zabuza said nothing, only observing them.
Naruto seemed to have finally processed what Kakashi had said earlier, bouncing lightly on his feet as he grinned. "Hey, hey, wait, you guys are here for the chuunin exams?"
"I decided it would make a good entrance," Zabuza said, overly casual. There was a gleam in his eyes, though. "Haku was never actually a genin of Kirigakure before I left Water. I decided it would make sense for him to earn chuunin by merit, because of this. It'd look bad if I decided to just give him a promotion on my own." He put two fingers to the brim of the hat, almost mockingly.
"Zabuza-sama gave me one of his hitai-ate when he decided I was fit to join him in battle," Haku said. I wasn't sure if it was the presence of Team Ten or Zabuza's apparently self-given promotion that warranted the suffix upgrade. He had done it the first time, when Zabuza had called him in to introduce himself, but that had been showing off.
"Suigetsu-kun will be one of my teammates when the exams begin." If it weren't for the three-member team requirement, I imagined that Haku would be able to easily blitze the whole thing on his own. He wasn't a genin by any sense of the word. Zabuza looked in Suigetsu's direction, who immediately bristled again. "Where is our third team member?"
"I left him behind in our room at the inn, Haku-sempai," Suigetsu said, looking sulky. He didn't seem to like Haku that much, but unlike with us, or even the Kiri-nin from earlier, he wasn't willing to cross into outright hostility. Then again, even without taking into consideration just how skilled Haku was, it was a particularly demented Pokemon set-up. Water-types were weak to ice-types. Or was it the other way around? Whichever it was, I was pretty sure that if it came down to a fight between them, Haku would be able to turn Suigetsu into a particularly cranky paleta.
Zabuza waved a hand dismissively before Haku had a chance to answer. Haku was actually looking slightly unimpressed by Suigetsu over that reply. It seemed like they were having some teamwork issues, to put it mildly. "Choujuurou shouldn't need to follow the Houzuki kid everywhere."
"I'm old enough to look after myself, Zabuza-sama," Suigetsu gritted out. "I'm not a kid."
"No, you're a little bloodthirsty demon all on your own. It just can't be inside this village."
Suigetsu opened his mouth to make a retort, but looked like he thought better of it.
"So you weren't supposed to be beating up other Kiri-nin?" Sakura asked, putting her hands on her hips. She seemed to have mostly recovered from her earlier shock, if she was willing to be disapproving like that again.
Suigetsu stared at her with a mix of upset and rising anger, but before he could speak up, Zabuza began to laugh.
"No more temper tantrums because your nii-san isn't around to help you clean them up?" Zabuza asked, still laughing. "As long as you keep it non-fatal, I won't have a problem. We're not trying to be the 'Bloody Mist', after all." Normal aggression was completely fine, though, it seemed.
Suigetsu's hands curled into fists. "Understood, Zabuza-sama."
Apparently deciding to ignore all of this, Kakashi spoke up. Probably to try to defuse the situation, I could only guess. "I might as well tell you three now. I nominated Team Seven for the exams. I'll give you the paperwork eventually."
Shikamaru looked at Kakashi, and then at us, with an expression of extreme doubt on his face. He wasn't bothering to voice it— in front of Team Seven's jounin-sensei and then the foreign-nin— but it was extremely clear what he was thinking.
"You guys? Really?" Chouji asked, holding the bag from the mini-shop close to his chest. "Aren't they supposed to be dangerous sometimes? If you three are going to be in it, did Asuma-sensei nominate us, too?"
Ino was biting down on her lip, looking between Chouji and Kakashi. She almost looked like she wanted to say something, but was holding back for whatever reason.
Kakashi held his hands up, to forestall any more questions from them. "They can sometimes be dangerous. As for your team, I'm not the one to ask. Only the jounin-sensei of the genin teams in question are supposed to be the ones announcing whether they were nominated or not." That was oddly vocally normative for him, but we still had a large audience, and Kakashi was probably on thin-ice to begin with when it came to creative interpretation.
Shikamaru sighed. "This is too troublesome. C'mon, let's go," he said, to Chouji and Ino. "So much for a 'morning off' and 'easy day'," he groused.
"Huh?" Ino went. She blinked, before she turned to look at Shikamaru. "Yeah, sure." She didn't sound particularly enthusiastic. She held a hand up, to give a small wave goodbye. "It was nice to meet you, Suigetsu-kun. Stop by the flower shop later, Sakura?" She eyed Zabuza and Haku awkwardly, apparently unsure of what to say or do. Meeting a foreign kage— especially one who was self-anointed but somehow had enough people with him and backing to warrant being dealt with on a political level instead— and their student was probably beyond even Ino's mien to handle.
"Oh, sure," Sakura answered. "I hope your team got nominated for the exams, too."
Ino gave a thin, unsure-looking smile. "Me too."
Chouji gave a shrug. "Thanks for showing us that shop, Naruto," he said. "We should stop by there again and try a bunch of the weird flavors together."
Naruto beamed. "Yeah! Just not that weird peppermint one you got." His smile faltered at the idea. My stomach fluttered uncomfortably at the idea of actually eating it.
"Nah, I'll make Shikamaru try it with me."
"What? No way. I'm out of here," Shikamaru said. "Bye." He left, going at a fast paced walk. Probably to get away from the peppermint potato chips.
With that, the rest of Team Ten left, before they could manage to lose Shikamaru to him speeding ahead for what was probably the first time in their lives.
"Now that we've found my genin and one of your lost ninja," Kakashi said, very carefully, "why don't we return to the inn your delegation is staying at?"
"You don't like the show?" Zabuza asked, snorting, as he motioned at the onlookers. His words travelled far enough to successfully shame a handful of ninja on a balcony overhanging the street, who exchanged glances with each other before leaping off in the opposite direction.
"Not really," Kakashi said, toneless.
Zabuza shrugged. "Works with me. Your Hokage would probably feel better with me off of his streets." He sounded amused. "I should probably make sure the rest of them know you'll be our point of contact while we're here. We don't want more 'incidents'."
Suigetsu didn't look too happy at the idea. Neither, for that matter, did Kakashi or Sakura.
Naruto cast a longing glance at the paper bag with our lunch that Sakura was still holding. "Could we join you later? We kinda got food and I'd really like to eat first..."
Kakashi sighed. "Fine," he said. Kakashi was clearly suffering more than he usually did. It was kind of fascinating to watch, in a masochistic sort of way.
"Zabuza-sama, do you mind if I join them?" Haku politely asked, looking up at the older ninja. "While I'm sure Suigetsu-kun would be able to lead them to where we're staying, it would be nice to catch up with Naruto-kun and his friends."
"Go," was Zabuza's response.
It sounded more like an order than a real answer, but the polite smile Haku had been wearing most of the time turned into a more genuine one, just slightly more upturned at the corners of his mouth and reaching his eyes. Haku didn't waste any time in moving to stand by Naruto, who immediately beamed upwards at the older boy.
Suigetsu's shoulders slumped, and he sucked in one cheek in obvious annoyance. Someone's plans had been ruined, I guessed.
"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, enthusiastic and earnest. I had a strong suspicion that today would be a high-ranking one for Naruto, if he was the sort to do that. Food— even if it wasn't ramen, since Kakashi off probation meant he wouldn't have to scrimp as much for the near future— and friends. Including a new one, though I think if Suigetsu was aware that by being willing to stay in Naruto's vicinity he was signing up for that particular friendship he would have bolted at the start. As it was, it was probably already too late for him.
Now that that was settled, Naruto took off, happily chattering to Haku and Suigetsu about different things about the village that managed to be informative but completely useless for hostile or sinister intent at the same time. It was mostly to do with what places had good prices for cheap foods, the different flavors of cup ramen he had found at one shop, the time he had accidentally bought a whole fish because of some misunderstanding— which made Sakura shoot him a look of confusion— and various stories of times he had skipped out from the academy or had pulled a prank on unsuspecting members of the village, whether they were ninja or civilian.
Suigetsu was looking increasingly baffled as to how Naruto had earned his hitai-ate in the first place.
Sakura kept shooting what were supposed to be discreet looks at Haku and Suigetsu, before she finally pulled me off to the side, following the others from a short distance.
"Did we—" she cut herself off, before she actually finished her sentence, and waved vaguely at Haku and Suigetsu, a plaintive expression on her face.
"I think so," was all I said.
Sakura gave me an alarmed look. I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
I shrugged back.
She made a sound of frustration, and lapsed into silence.
"Hey, why are you guys back there?" Naruto asked, turning his head towards us, as he led us down another street. "We're almost there, it's right around—"
"Naruto, pay attention to where you're—" Sakura attempted to warn.
"Huh?" Naruto almost walked into one of the light poles at the corner, only narrowly being gently pushed out of the way by Haku. Unfortunately, he tripped and sprawled.
"—going," Sakura ended, flat-toned.
"You think Konoha wouldn't just leave their trash lying around," a disdainful teenaged boy's voice said, speaking up.
I turned towards the sound of the voice. Whatever else was going on with this dream, it was almost reassuring to see the Sand siblings show up, if not in the same way as the series. The only odd part was Baki was with them— or at least it was until I realized that they were in front of a storefront that had posters up saying it sold 'Authentic Konoha Goods', with some tables and a shopkeeper out in front. I wasn't sure if the idea of some of them souvenir hunting made more sense or less, until I noticed that only Temari and Baki actually looked like they had done any kind of shopping. Gaara was staring at us— no, Haku and Suigetsu, I corrected— unnervingly and unblinking. Kankurou looked like a very typical grumpy teenager forced into an unwanted shopping trip, even with all the facepaint.
"You shouldn't be so impolite to other genin," Haku said, smiling, as he offered a hand up to Naruto, who took it and got back up on his feet. It didn't meet his eyes. "We're all here to participate and foster good relationships between our villages, aren't we? It'd be a shame if you managed to fail at that single-handedly."
Kankurou's eyes darted to look at the symbol on Haku's hitai-ate. "Since when was Kiri participating in this exam?"
"We arrived with the Mizukage early this morning," Haku answered serenely.
"Wait, where are you from?" Naruto asked. He looked at Kankurou with a momentary grumpy look on his face, before he looked back to where Temari, Baki, and Gaara were. When his eyes set on Gaara, a rare and dangerous expression lit up on his face. Naruto was thinking. It almost immediately shifted into an eager one of delight, and Naruto suddenly started to move in Gaara's direction, only to be blocked by a suddenly angry and fearful looking Kankurou.
"What do you think you're doing!?" he half-shouted, as she shoved Naruto back.
"Hey! Hey!" Naruto yelled over Kankurou's shoulder. "You! With the red hair! What's your name?"
Gaara only stared at Naruto, his expression having not changed at all. There was the faintest sound of sand shifting, and the lightest touch of grit as sand pulled itself from the road and the sandals I was wearing. It was like the initial flutter of movement that sometimes came before the first blast of a spring sandstorm, but the lack of a breeze only made it feel unsettling.
I wasn't the only one who noticed it, it seemed; Temari shifted, moving out of a neutral standing position as she looked at Gaara warily, and Baki, his face hard, stepped forward. Sakura yanked Naruto away from Kankurou. Suigetsu was looking at the Suna-nin with poorly-disguised alarm written on his face. Haku appeared perfectly calm.
To my surprise— and everyone else's— Gaara replied to him. "Gaara."
Naruto looked visibly disappointed. "Just Gaara? Oh. I heard that Uzumaki usually had red hair and that's my family name and…" He left the sentence drift off, a rare bout of self-consciousness boring down on him. "I just thought…"
"Sunagakure is a very long way from where Uzushio used to be," Baki spoke. His words sounded carefully picked and neutral, especially with the tension in the air in mind. "It's doubtful any member of that clan would have travelled that far."
Kankurou stared at Naruto for a moment. "You actually thought—" He burst into slightly hysterical laughter, unable to finish what he was saying.
A hand slapped onto his shoulder in warning made him stop. "Stop taunting the foreign-nin, Kankurou," Temari said. "I'm Temari, and this is our jounin-sensei, Baki. Who are you all?" She blushed lightly.
I immediately decided to at least pretend it was Haku who had caused that.
"Houzuki Suigetsu," Suigetsu answered shortly. He was still looking at them with concern— Gaara most of all. At some point in the last couple of minutes he had gone from being near the front of the group to standing behind Haku.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said, managing to scrape most of the cheer that he had lost back into his voice. "And these are my teammates, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."
I was beginning to really get tired of the repeat staring that brought. Unfortunately for me, Temari only blushed even more at finding out 'my' name. Considering she was actually a teenager and a few years older than Sasuke, it just added another layer of weird to the whole thing.
Haku looked at the Suna-nin with some consideration on his face. "You're the Kazekage's children, aren't you?" Temari looked startled at the comment; apparently that connection wasn't supposed to be made by most people here. Even the casual way Haku had mentioned it had resulted in attention on this street suddenly focusing even more on us than it already was. "My name is Haku; Zabuza-sama—" he caught himself, "the Mizukage— and I are supposed to meet with your father when he arrives here."
Baki's expression immediately shifted into one of consternation, frowning, despite the fact that he had shown no sign of being put off just moments earlier at the possibility of Gaara being set off by Naruto. "You're part of the missing-nin group that's appeared in Wave."
Haku only smiled. "We are fully sanctioned and funded by the Daimyo of Wave with his blessing instead of operating by force. That is more than Karatachi Yagura can say of his village in Water."
Baki looked like he regretted making that comment.
"I think that makes us more deserving of calling ourselves Kirigakure, don't you? I hope we will be able to find allies in both Konoha and Suna's leadership." His smile showed teeth this time.
Temari looked uncomfortable at the comment, shifting uneasily where she stood, and exchanged a glance with an unsure-looking Kankurou before finally speaking. "I'm sure O-tou-san and your... Zabuza-sama will be able to have a long conversation." She seemed reluctant to actually call Zabuza Mizukage; whether it was more a fit of impoliteness because Haku had outed them like that or not wanting to accidentally affirm Haku's claims from what could end up being seen as validation from the Kazekage was the question.
While Haku didn't seem to be thriving off of it in the same way as Zabuza, he was still showing skill in saying the exact sort of things to push buttons and catch attention. It was supposed to, I realized. They were probably aiming not just to make as many people know before the chuunin exams actually started, but between actively putting to words not just the ability to question the validity of Yagura's rule and the original Kiri's legitimacy but put it into people's heads in the first place… It would be, in reality, incredibly risky politics to get away with. I wondered exactly how good at understanding politics most ninja would actually be, before I decided that it was a dumb thought to even have in the first place, dreaming about it or not.
Regardless, he was putting the Suna-nin, with the exception of Gaara, into a position where they were only looking more and more uncomfortable looking with the maneuvering he was using.
"I'm bored of this," Gaara announced, which startled his siblings into actual nervousness. "There's no point to talking about any of it."
"Uh, yeah," Kankurou said, in what had to be the most interesting combination of frayed nerves and actual relief that I had ever considered. "You're right."
"We were already done here anyways," Temari said, her attention split between looking at Gaara and Haku; she clearly wasn't entirely sure of what to make of the other teen. "We were going to return where we were staying, weren't we, Baki-sensei?" With that, she smoothly shoved responsibility onto the only adult.
"If any of you are taking part in the chuunin exams, I wish you the success you deserve," Baki said, which Gaara seemed to take as a cue for being able to leave, forcing his siblings to follow in his wake.
This was at least something Naruto could actually understand. Or at least partially understand. "Yeah! We're gonna be there! And we're gonna win!" Naruto shouted at their retreating figures. He dropped his voice to be slightly quieter. "This is something we can win, right?"
The last thing we could hear from the Suna-nin was Kankurou loudly asking, "How the hell did an idiot like that get nominated?" before they turned down another street, and were completely out of view and hearing.
"Can we quit before it starts?" Suigetsu asked, still staring at the spot we had last seen them. "There's something wrong with that red-headed kid."
"Yeah, he was kinda weird," Naruto agreed. "Maybe he didn't get enough sleep or something. He looked kinda tired, didn't he?"
"Weird isn't the right word," Suigetsu grumbled.
"We're not quitting," Haku answered, voice firm. "He is someone to watch out for, though, I agree. They might have a jounin leader, but Baki wasn't the one making the decisions. Their focus was on keeping him placated. When Naruto-kun approached them too quickly, the jounin's attention was focused on Gaara."
"I didn't agree to this to get killed by some Suna creep…" Suigetsu leaned over in a slouch, voice sulky.
"Do you really think he's that dangerous?" Sakura asked, looking between the two of them.
"They can't really do anything if they're here for the exams, can they? And c'mon, if we keep stopping like this, we're never going to get to eat." Naruto shrugged, and started to walk again. "I'm starving, I skipped breakfast." As if to underpin it, his stomach actually gurgled.
"We were told before we left that the chuunin exams can be fatal," Haku explained. "It's not always due to the other genin, but Zabuza-sama made selections for who would come with that in mind. The original Kirigakure wasn't planning to send anyone to this season's exams in order to prepare for a stronger show in the next one, but since they've found out we were coming..." Haku smiled. "Any genin teams they send this time will be either unprepared or will be chuunin young enough to easily pass as genin."
Sakura blinked in surprise. "Why would they send chuunin?"
"Because of us," Suigetsu answered. "That and to spy on everyone else, but mostly us. If they beat or kill us, they think it will eliminate most of the threat we pose." He snorted at the idea.
"Suigetsu-kun is actually the youngest member of our delegation, but he's already very skilled. His older brother used to be a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist alongside Zabuza-sama."
Naruto's attention immediately became directed at Suigetsu. "Hey, hey, you have a brother? Is he cool like Zabuza?"
The white-haired boy stiffened, and, glowering at Naruto, icily said, "My brother's dead."
Naruto grimaced, and held his hands up in apology. "Sorry, sorry. He must have been, though, right?"
"Just shut up," Suigetsu snapped.
All conversation died off, and Naruto didn't say anything even when we finally reached the park.
I woke up the couch again, with my phone on my chest.
I stared at my phone, trying to force my brain into thinking. Friday. I didn't have to do anything today. No class. Nothing for the English department. Nothing for the college. Not even any grad events.
I clawed the fuzzy blanket that hung over the side of the couch down, not even bothering to sit up, and immediately went back to sleep, occasionally waking up from the work being done near my building, and when the sun shifted and hit me in the face.
I napped until late afternoon, and even then was still exhausted.
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