Itachi is extremely polite she noted, at the beginning of their team days, his wide dark eyes are somewhat expressive but as the months pass they get darker.
He looks tired a lot. Stress lines form under his eyes as the amount of sparring matches he losses continue, which is a lot.
Sensei Daisuke seems to pair them a lot, she wasn't entirely sure if it was because they were more skilled than Kabuto.
Kabuto on the other hand is all warm smiles and bright eyes, however there's resignation in those dark pools, he seems to have accepted that he will likely not surpass them.
It's easier to form a bond with him. We share stories of being orphans.
How Kabuto had to prove himself to the clan by graduating early, how she had to catch up to other Clan kids who had an early start at the academy.
"The clan talk about you a lot" He confides. "An orphan who's so talented she can beat the heir of the clan in all spars, the clan elders are not happy, they've doubled Itachi's training"
"Oh...I didn't mean to cause trouble for him at home" she replied, not exactly sure how to process the information.
"Nah it's okay, the clan elders are just being jerks, they think Itachi is the moon and sun. It's sad honestly... having all that responsibility placed on your shoulders, poor kid"
After that she noticed how intensely their Sensei watches their spars, most likely he will have to report to the clan elders on Itachi's performance.
Itachi doesn't change his treatment of her at all though, still ever polite, and their missions continue on without a hitch.
Today their outside of the village, on a mission to destroy some bandit camps, apparently the bandits have been intercepting travelers who were stupid or poor enough to travel to and from Konohagakure without ninja protection.
Daisuke sensei spoke up, "There are four separate camps, I'll take the one in the North, Itachi destroy the one in the South, Kabuto take the west camp and Mikasa the East camp is yours, if you face any trouble radio in Head out!"
And that was that Daisuke sensei had so much faith in our ability to handle ourselves it was almost scary.
She sped to the east making quick work of tracking the camp, she perched herself in a tree branch to look down on the camp.
'20 or more people tops' She thought, using observe was a dud, a message indicating that the target was too far to be viewed popped up.
There were missing nin in the camp, slashed headbands worm proudly as they went about.
After burning their guard rotation to mind she carefully gathered Chakra to form a Chakra Scalpel, none of the missing nin so much as twitched.
'None of them are sensor nin then, good! I'll take the ninja out first'
Carefully she dropped down using Chakra to silence her landing before rushing to a nearby missing nin, she first struck him in the larynx cutting of his ability to make any sound, the second strike was to the temple and he slumped, dead.
Critical sneak attack! Instant kill!
450 EXP
She carefully laid his body down before moving on to the next target. After many missions outside of the walls she'd killed her very first victim months ago.
The missing-nin never stood a chance against her, 'Most likley they've gone a long time without sharpening their skills' She thought as she decapitated one that was at chūnin level before her fist shot out landing Square in one the ninjas trying to sneak up on her. She felt his sternum shatter as he was sent skidding across the field.
'He's out' Turning around slowly she noted that the remaining five missing nin left had surrounded her.
They came at her simultaneously, though they were far from synchronized. They were desperate their moves becoming more erratic as they failed to land a hit.
The Nagareru Mizu fighting style Sensei Daisuke taught her focused on speed, as such she was drastically faster than the missing-nin.
Taking advantage of the various openings she saw she dove underneath a kunoichi with blue hair and struck. Her fist tossed her high into the air jaw and teeth crunching.
She rapidly spun around and landed a kick on the one on her left and she shot into a tree before slumping over.
Jumping high into the air, she descended on the remaining three two dived to the side while one crossed their arms over their head, when her Chakra infused axe kick landed the earth below cracked, the enemy spewed blood before collapsing to the ground.
Her attention zeroed in on the remaining two who were near shaking.
Deciding to take mercy upon them she charged both her hands with electricity before shoving them into their brains.
You have killed five missing-nin
1 060 EXP
1 220 RYO
Their possessions were meager at best, nothing of value to take with her.
After burning the camp to a crisp she headed to the meeting point, finding everyone already there.
She was out of her depth, majorly so.
When she was invited to Kabuto's birthday party they went to an Uchiha orphanage, cooked food for the kids and gave them presents, its what Kabuto wanted to do for his birthday.
For her birthday they went to an Akamichi BBQ restaurant, she even brought along Naruto while Itachi brought Sasuke.
Attending Itachi's birthday party was vastly different, rumours of the Uchiha clan unleashing the Kyūbi upon Konohagakure had not yet picked up steam, seeing as nearly all the important clans were here even the Hyūga clan was here.
She readjusted her hold on Naruto, when Itachi invited her, he stressed that his mother said she should bring Naruto along.
Taking him to where the other kids were playing she dropped him off near Sasuke, who instantly crawled over and they started babbling at each other.
'What did Itachi say? Avoid the elders like a plaque'
She weaved in between the throng of people intent on spending the party hidden in a corner.
"Mikasa, please do come over here," The Hokage called out to her, and would you look at that he's with the Uchiha elders and company.
She bowed as she reached them, "Hokage-sama, Elders and Danzou-Dono," To say she sucked at proper etiquette would be an understatement.
"You are the girl who was teamed up with Itachi-sama?" One of them asked, nose turned upwards.
"Yes elder-san" His eyes narrowed at being addressed so informally.
"It's impressive for a lowly girl like yourself to excel in the Shinobi arts, hokage-sama must be training you well," He sharply remarked.
"Not at all, I trained myself since a young age I only received proper training from the medical division, anything else is a result of my hard work," She replied with honesty, suppressing a smile as the elders looked to each other in disbelief. At the corner of her eye she noticed Hokage-sama biting back a smile.
"Its true," the wise the leader confirmed, "Mikasa is an exceptionally talented prodigy, she is very impressive for her age. dare i say Kohonagakure has never seen such talent before," The old man continued to praise her
She cleared her, "I am afraid I must find Itachi-kun, i have a present for him," Ignoring their affronted expressions at having their heir referred to so casually she quickly walked away, intent on finding Itachi.
"I got you a present, here!" she eagerly shoved it to him.
Delicately he unwrapped the present.
His eyes widened, "The bringer of darkness technique...I...thank you Mikasa-san," He bowed lowly. "Where did you acquire the scroll?"
She winked at him, "It's a secret, but that's not the real surprise,"
He fiddled with the scroll a bit before finding a coupon, his face lit up as he discretely hid the coupon.
"Thank you I shall make sure to enjoy it,"
Seriously Itachi's love for Dango might be his downfall. He had a strict diet and training regime and he didn't get to enjoy one of his favourite food.
"I thought the scroll is necessary since the Chūnin exams are next week, I already gave Kabuto one," She explained.
Itachi nodded softly, "It will help a lot I'm sure, what do you think the exams will be like?"
"I'm not sure honestly, the exams normally consist of a written portion, survival portion and finally one on one matches. I think since the village is trying to bring in funds and show off the first two portions might be easy, then again the other genins from our village and others might possibly be war veterans who never got field promotions, so they would be far more experienced then us," She finished her observation.
"All other genins from our village are war veterans I checked, majority of them formed during the war when they were paired off after their teammates died, chances are their far more experienced and know each other better, from what I have observed they think very little of us, me and Kabuto got selected for the exams due to the clan pulling 'strings' and you were selected because you are favoured by the Hokage," Itachi replied as she snorted at the ridiculousness of it all. Honestly they have worked of their asses to get here!
She huffed, "Sorry to sneak of so early but I need to find Kabuto, I promised him a spar so he can improve his taijutsu,"
"It is no problem at all, I also have to entertain the guests, help yourself to the food before you leave...I will try to sneak of when the party is over," He politely replied.
The party had long finished and instead of being with his friends Itachi was seated in front of the elders instead. They called a meeting soon after the party finished and demanded his presence. "Itachi..." his father started, face fixed into the scowl he always wore when he had to deal with the elders, "Daisuke-san has informed us that your team can now function as a coherent unit after he extensively trained you all. With that in mind it has been decided by me and the elders that your training schedule will be drastically changed," Itachi steeled himself for what came next, "You will attend team meetings and go on missions but after that you are to come back into the compound tom start training, no more leisure meetings with your team as your training has already suffered enough," His father finished, Itachi fought to keep his blank mask as anger consumed him. They wanted to take away the part of life that felt normal! When he was with his friends he didn't have to pretend!
The mask he wore hid all these feelings as he instead bowed and replied, "Yes father,"
"Report" An elderly man ordered.
"Subject Mikasa Sato has not shown any irregular behaviour since observation began, contact has been limited to the container, the Hokage and members of the Uchiha clan. Her skills have continued to improve at a rapid rate even exceeding the Uchiha heir. She has continued meditating at random spots in the village and whenever she has finished meditating her chakra reserves always double in size,"
He hummed as he mulled over the information, "Keep on watching the girl, I refuse to believe someone can train themselves to such levels, let alone a child and her connection with both the container and the Uchiha clan does not bode well. Dismissed!" As soon as the root agent disappeared two more took his place.
"Two Uchiha jonin have been sent on an S-ranked mission, tail them and wait for an opportune moment to take their eyes. Leave no trace of your involvement. Dismissed!"
Mikasa held back a yawn as she rapidly answered the questions set for the first exam. Kabuto was seated next to her head titled forward to hide his crimson stained eyes as his hand perfectly matched hers. Her and Itachi had been right then test they set was hard even for most chunin but for the team it was a breeze, Itachi had long finished and was observed the others cheat. Kabuto on the other hand had preferred to answer roughly seventy percent of the questions and cheating of her the thirty percent left.
As soon as the test was done the papers were took and not once had they been told what the passing mark would be or when they would receive their results. They were escorted to the forest of death and surprise! surprise! Given a heaven scroll to protect which meant they needed an earth scroll.
"What do you guys think we should do? Acquire a scroll and leave at once or eliminate as much competition as possible first?" She asked, they mulled over the question for a bit before answering.
"I think we should get an earth scroll and head for the tower, I have observed everyone's method of cheating and formulated possible fighting styles they might use," Itachi softly replied.
Kabuto nodded in agreement, "Plus if many teams pass they will hold preliminary exams and we can observe everyone's fighting in depth and guess what they may be working on during the one month break," Her and Itachi nodded in agreement at his assessment.
She offered, "I'll scout out a weak team with an earth scroll, then we can go," They both nodded, at this point most people were under the impression that she had insane sensor abilities when instead she used observe on threats.
"Found a team from Amegakure, their relatively weak so we should make quick work of them," As soon as she finished the sentence she dropped down from the tree, heel raised. The strike rang true a sickening crunch was head as the collarbone shattered under her heal blood spewing from his mouth before he collapsed from the shock.
Next to her his teammate dropped unconscious from Kabuto's genjutsu while the other's expression twisted painfully, mouth open in a silent scream as tears rolled down his face. Itachi came up behind him, crimson eyes settling back into charcoal black as he took the scroll away from his.
"We have what we wanted lets leave," They flew into the tree tops, heading straight for the tower.
"Team 11 from Takigakure, you all failed the written exam had you performed exceptionally in the second exam you might have passed but that is not the case, you are dismissed. Todoroki Akira of team 8 from Kumogakure while you passed the second test your results..." One by one people trickled out as their results were called out until a few remained.
A deafening silence was heard as the Hokage stepped forward, "Firstly congratulations on passing the first and second stages of the exams. The exams are not only a place where your fighting abilities are tested but it is where..." She looked around at those who had passed the exams. Twenty of them passed, their village having the most genin with nine who passed. Observe revealed some rather interesting opponents.
Kaguya Chiyoko Lvl 43
HP: 85 000/85 000
CP: 63 450/63 450
Kamizuru Shoto Lvl 45
HP: 75 000/75 000
CP: 91 000/91 000
Gobetsu Tayuya Lvl 44
HP: 73 500/73 500
CP: 88 000/88 000
Three opponents stronger than her, the weakest one being three levels above her. 'This just got interesting' she thought with glee. The Kaguya one will be the one she would be hard pressed fighting with his bloodline making it dangerous to fight in close.
"... Now if we could all look to the screen," she snapped back to reality as the the screen on the wall blurred through names.
Kamizuru Shoto
VS
Mei Ito
They all vacated the arena save for the two opponents who were to fight. Mei took out a pair of kunai and dashed straight for her opponent. Shoto calm and collected simply called out, "Dust element: Atomic abruption technique!" A cube formed in between his hands before it rapidly shot out and encased Mei. It glowed a brilliant white before an explosion was heard, when the glow disappeared nothing was left behind. "Winner Kamizuru Shoto of Iwagakure!" The proctor announced. Next to her Daisuke Sensei whistled.
"That's one way to open up the preliminaries," he commented as he stared appraisingly at the Iwa genin. Itachi and Kabuto assessed the boy as he also vacated the arena.
Kabuto spoke first, "I don't think I want to face that guy anytime soon or well...ever," His voice was a bit shaky after witnessing the display of power.
"He possesses the infamous Dust release, it is nearly impossible to fight against due to the destructiveness it possesses. Rumour has it the current Tsuchikage can disintegrate entire mountain tops using dust release," Itachi supplied. A dead silence filled the arena after the first match concluded, everyone's eyes were firmly set on the screen.
Sato Mikasa
VS
Yamamoto Akane
"Wish me luck!" She called out as she jumped into the center of the arena. Akane on the other hand leisurely made her way down using the steps before coming to a stop a few feet away from her.
"Second match, Sato Mikasa vs Yamamoto Akane. Begin!"
Quest Alert!
Match up:
Win your match up
Bonus:
Win without using observe
Rewards:
5 000 EXP
10 000 RYO
Bonus reward:
5 Stat points
Failure:
You fail the exams
Accept (Y/N)
As she selected yes she was lifted off her feat, "Wind style: Great Breakthrough," Akane announced as Mikasa painfully smashed into the arena wall. Mikasa lifted herself from the ground, noting that Akane had a fan in her left hand while she flew through hand seals with the other. "Fire style: Dragon Flame Bullet," A massive dragon formed before it short straight at Mikasa, but Akane wasn't done, "Wind style: Great Breakthrough," The wind jutsu fanned the flames of the fire dragon as it doubled in size and burned even hotter. To most of the onlookers it caught Mikasa dead on.
-with the spectators-
Akira Tanaka from Iwagakure, genin to Jonin Akiko Nakamura and teammate to Shoto Kamizuru and Akira Suzuki watched with glee as the tree hugging wench got roasted, "That Ame girl burned her to a crisp!" He excitedly voiced out. To his right Shoto shot him a disappointed look.
"Instead of yapping your mouth you should be watching carefully idiot!" He sneered out.
Back with the Hokage Homura shot Hiruzen a look, "I told you putting the girl in the exams will not work out!" He hissed as Hiruzen tilted his head back at the arena, silently commanding his advisor to watch.
-Back at the arena-
Akane briefly closed her eyes before they snapped wide open as she sensed the enormous chakra below her, she quickly jumped high into the air as the ground beneath her exploded. Her fellow kunoichi flew right up to her fist cocked back. Sensing the amount of chakra being channeled she swiftly titled her head to the side to avoid it but the resounding shockwave of her punch blasted them apart. She quickly adjusted herself midair and as soon she landed her and Mikasa engaged in an intense taijutsu battle. Akane had to admit the girl was talented, she was using chakra scalpels to counter her wind enhanced fan. Her taijutsu was finely tuned as she was quickly losing ground but Mikasa wasn't even sweating.
Deciding to end this she put some distance between them before blurring through hand seals, "Wind release: Pressure Damage!" compressed tornado like air formed and Akane smiled sure that victory is hers, only to hear, "Wind release: Beast Tearing Gale Palm!" Akane watched in disbelief as the chakra infused wind attack tore through her own attack before viscously slamming into her, her vision rapidly darkened as she slumped over.
The proctor was quick to announce, "Winner of second match Sato Mikasa of Kohonagakure!" Mikasa walked back to the spectator stands giving Daisuke sensei and Kabuto a high five while Itachi settled for a verbal congratulations.
Shoto was intruied by this slip of her girl, she was easily the youngest in the exams and it appeared she had the skills to back herself.
"Shoto if you face her at any point during the exams, crush her, Hard," His sensei commanded. He nodded as he watched the following fights. Everyone was skilled as expected as most of the genin had fought in the war but the two Uchiha teammates stood out. One had showed an impressive skill for fire release his attackes even burned blue, which was very impressive. The other one had made a complete mockery of his opponent trapping him in a number of genjutsu that at the end the poor boy facing him was a screaming mess. The Kaguya also showed an impressive albeit unorthodox fighting style that would make fighting him in a straight taijutsu match impossible while the Kumogakure girl shows impressive use over the storm release technique.
"If we could all look at the screen.." The proctor began, "It will decide the matches for the one on one tournament a month from now," They all watched as the screen as it lit up once more.
ROUND 1
Sato Mikasa
VS
Kaguya Chiyoko
Kamizuru Shoto
VS
Kobetsu Tayuya
Uchiha Itachi
VS
Uchiha Kabuto
Daku of Kohonagakure
VS
Aburame Inei
Yamanaka Inoka
VS
Nara Mikoto
"These are matches that are to take place, you have a month to prepare with your teachers, you will be informed of the venue in due time. Dismissed"