Just to let everyone know, while I know that Bee raps pretty much everything he says… I cannot physically write that. This chapter would never come out because I would be spending forever trying and figure out rhymes to fit what I want to say. So, we're just going to pretend that this is before he starts rapping all of the time. And in any future chapters, he reappears in he won't rap-talk around Kagome for reasons. Mainly my complete inability to write rhymes for any reason
All of the Sensei's of the teams/students were waiting at the finish line for the second test. This whole test just got slightly tenser as information had come in just before the second test had begun. A mission had been failed and the war had officially begun. They were to all take their students back to their hotels/homes if they were cloud genin. Jiraiya was grim, he knew the person that had failed and he was worried about what the repercussions would be. It would surely hit the man hard. He had gotten a missive from the Hokage explaining what was going to be happening from here on out. Poor Sakumo Hatake had been put in a tight spot, his teammates or the mission. He didn't know what he would have done in his spot, but the final ruling was that because he had chosen the lives of his teammates over the mission, a very important mission, war has begun. There were already attacks being made upon their teams out on missions, five teams failed to report in already and they were presumed dead. They needed more active bodies, so this year's academy graduates were going to be anyone who could pass the tests. Not just the oldest group, but all the way down to the class that his own student had graduated early from. The only difference was that his student was mentally older than all of them. He was worried that once the year ended and more graduates passed than normal, they were going to end up losing a good number of future shinobi who were not ready for the life yet. Especially jumping right into a war. Sure the newbies would get stuck with the low-level missions so that the more experienced could keep up with the influx of missions that were sure to come up.
They had been discussing whether to cancel these chunin exams or not, but the final decision was to keep them going. They were already halfway through, so might as well finish. No genin have shown up yet but they still had ten hours left, and a lot of noise had been heard from within the testing grounds. They didn't have to wait much longer for someone to finish up. And to his immense pride, it was his adorable little student and a boy from the cloud from the looks of it. He was a bit confused as his genin was clearly supporting the slightly older boy. What was his cute little genin doing with a cloud boy?
He noticed the moment that Kagome caught sight of him as a confused look crossed her face. It disappeared quickly enough as she directed them towards the active proctor. With a smile on her face, she held out the two scrolls to the proctor, the boy from the cloud seconds behind her.
Proctor Ishida glanced down at the two quite injured children in front of her. From the dossiers, she had received on all of the potentials this year she knew that the two in front of her had some of the highest potential out of all of them. So, it did worry her a bit about just who had caused that much damage on these two. She pushed that worry to the back of her mind for now.
"Congratulations you two, you are the first two to complete the second test. Your Sensei's have all the information for the final test. You will have a month to prepare for it. Do either of you have any need to see a medic?" Ishida asked glancing at a rather large gash going across Kagome's side.
Kagome shook her head, "No I'm fine. I have medical training." Kagome turned to Bee, "I can heal you up to if you'd like, or you can go to one of the healers."
Bee faced her before nodding, "If you wouldn't mind."
Kagome grinned at him, "Not a problem."
Bee glanced at the gash she had received pushing him out of the way of an attack, "I'm not as injured as you, heal yourself up first." He had seen her with the energetic man with long spiky white hair and he assumed it was her Sensei. He started walking in that direction and since she was mostly supporting him she had to follow him.
Jiraiya looked his kid over, she was much more injured than he thought she would be. He would definitely be getting the story out of her later. He had to hide his smirk though once he finally recognized the boy she was with. Of course, she would go out of her way to make friends with a jinchuriki. He had nothing against jinchuriki unlike most idiots so he was happy that Kagome's weaponized niceness had stuck again. He watched as his student healed herself up for the most part before moving onto the cloud's jinchuriki. Not that the boy would have needed her to with his natural advanced healing. While he would have normally loved to let her stick around and make new friends. However, right now he needed to get his little baby Namikaze back to the hotel so he could fill her in on everything. With her being partnered up with him and the nature of the missions he gets sent on, their workload and the lethality of them were going to skyrocket especially in the upcoming months. He put a hand on her back and started leading her away.
Kagome looked up at Jiraiya slightly confused. From the serious look on her face, she knew something must have happened. So she looked back at Bee and shouted out, "We'll have to meet up later to talk. I'm staying at the red-roof inn, come over whenever."
They walked towards the Inn in silence for a few minutes before Jiraiya finally spoke, "Okay, start from the beginning. What the hell happened?"
Kagome gave a small breathy laugh, "Well it pretty much started right after the first test finished. It went like this…"
Kagome glanced calmly at the boy who sat down next to her. Neither of them said anything at first; the boy simply propping his head upon his hand, getting comfortable. Their tests had been rounded up and were in the process of being checked over. The proctor had told them that they were free to converse quietly amongst themselves until she got back. As soon as the proctor had left the jinchuriki from the Cloud had gotten up and made his way down to her. Her initial impression of him was that he looked rather bored being here.
She decided to take the initiative, since Magatsuhi had been the one to invite the two, and be the first to speak. She sent him a carefree smile and held out her hand, "Hi there, my name is Kagome Namikaze."
"Bee." He answered shortly as he shook her hand with the one that wasn't holding up his head.
Kagome tilted her head curiously, "Like the letter or the animal?"
Bee smirked slightly as nobody had really asked him that before, "Animal," it looked like he was going to say more but they were interrupted by one of the older kunoichi participating from Konoha.
The kunoichi slammed her hands down fast and angrily on the table in front of Kagome, probably hoping to make her jump. Which she failed at, Kagome had sensed her coming the moment she had gotten up. Kagome took her hand back from Bee and she felt her face unconsciously slip into a neutral expression. One that she has been perfecting around the genin and civilians of Konoha. She amused herself in thinking that she was channeling her inner Sesshomaru.
"Can I help you?" Kagome asked calmly to the girl.
"What did you do to that girl, Witch?" her fellow kunoichi spat out accusingly.
Kagome held back a sigh, knowing that would only make things worse. Honestly, what was her crappy luck that the stupid nickname had actually stuck around? If she was still in the feudal era Inuyasha would have never let her live it down.
"I didn't do anything," she finally answered calmly, which was absolutely true. That had all been Magatsuhi and his sadistic sense of humor, "I simply have extremely fortified mental defenses and she tried to break into my mind to cheat. She ran into one of my mental traps."
The kunoichi glared at her, trying to be intimidating, before turning towards Bee, "I'd watch out for her kid, she's not one you should make friends with. She probably put a curse on you when she shook your hand, I'd be careful."
Kagome rolled her eyes hard, "Believe whatever you want, now can you please leave us alone?"
She ignored Kagome, "Consider yourself warned kid. My mother says that she bewitches people in order to get close to them. She's already got her grubby little hands into four different prominent clans. Even the Hokage has been seen giving her special treatment. She's infiltrating Konoha from the inside out for her own nefarious means, whatever those are. Who knows what she plans on doing with the false trust she'd gained. She might be starting to branch out to other villages now starting with you." Having said what she wanted she got away from the witch as quickly as she could. She'd warned the kid, whether he chose to believe er or not was entirely his prerogative.
"Honestly, people's imaginations are incredible. I don't have any plans for any of them, their just my friends. Everyone just thinks it's weird since they are so much older than I am. They are good people and I'm honored to be friends with them. There is no false trust between any of them and myself, we all trust each other fully. I saved a friend of mine from a group of bullies a while back, which led those boys to spread rumors of me being a witch. They just didn't want to admit they got their asses handed to them by a girl that was younger than they were. The nickname has unfortunately stuck and I'm pretty sure it isn't going anywhere anytime soon." She paused in consideration before adding, "Though, I'm sure you're no stranger to false rumors yourself." She did her best to defend herself to her hopefully new friend. She wouldn't go out looking for them, but if she ran into any jinchuriki's she really wanted to befriend them. She felt for the demons sealed inside, especially after talking to Kurama.
Bee had a conflicted look on his face for a moment before it smoothed out, "I get it. I don't sense any ill intent coming from you, and I usually have a pretty good sense of character. My… friend, however, is confused about the existence of your friend." He accepted her explanation and skirted around saying anything about the tailed beasts.
Kagome smiled her thanks for his understanding, then nodded briefly, "That makes sense, unfortunately, I don't really have a great explanation about my friend that is believable. I don't want to lie to you, but at the same time I don't know you yet and I can't exactly just come out and tell you all my secrets. However, I can say my friend's name is Magatsuhi. Can you tell me your friend's name?"
"Gyuki, his favorite number is eight," Bee mumbled out with a small blush.
Kagome smirked and giggled slightly at Bee's round-a-bout way of explaining things. So, he was the host to the eight-tail. From what little Kurama has told her about his siblings she eight-tail was an octopus. Kagome gave a small shrug, "I can't say that my friend has a favorite number the way yours does. The best I can say right now is that he is not exactly from around here." Either was she, she thought with humor. She was quiet for a moment before her face lit up with a thought, "Oh, and he favors dragons quite a bit."
She saw Bee's eyes widen in surprise, but before either of them could say anything else Proctor Ishida came back into the room holding a stack of papers. All conversations stopped instantly and the few people who were standing quickly found a seat, even if it wasn't their original one. Ishida split the papers between three different Cloud chunin who started handing tests back.
"Everyone listen up. The test was one hundred questions long and each question was worth a single point. If your score is under fifty you are now free to leave as you are not ready to become chunin. Being a chunin is not just about one's strength. You do need some brains to back that up. If you are going to be trusted to lead others, stupid and ignorant people are not needed." She explained bluntly.
If it was possible for the silent room to get quieter they somehow managed it. Kagome looked down at the test the moment it was placed in front of her. One hundred was the highest possible score to achieve, right? A smile split her face as she saw the big 100 written at the top. She did it! She glanced over at Bee's test and saw a 96. Her new friend did rather well himself. There were a few grumbles of disappointment around the room as three more genin got up and slunk towards the door, their scores just not cutting it.
"I am slightly disappointed to say that only a single person in the room got full points," she glanced towards Kagome who felt her chest warm-up in pride, "Good job Namikaze."
Kagome felt the eyes of the room turn towards her and she did her best not to show that it bothered her. She knew that the proctor, intentionally or not, had just painted a huge target on her back. She did glance to the side when she felt the slightly heavy gaze upon her. It was the two from the Sand that she had noticed earlier. The boy was glaring at her while the girl was grinning at her almost hungrily.
Proctor Ishida turned her attention to the rest of the room, "Now, for those of you that are left, congratulations on passing the first test. It only gets harder from here. All of you follow me to the next testing area, I shall explain more once we arrive there."
They all followed after the Proctor as worried murmuring starting flowing throughout the group. She was pretty sure they all had the feeling that the real test was only just beginning.
Kagome was happy to notice that Bee was walking next to her instead of going back to stick with the rest of the Cloud genin who were all grouped together. Being a few years younger than him she only made it up to his shoulder, but he was slowing his pace to match hers. A happy smile made its way onto her face.
From her few talks with Kurama she knew that typically Jinchuriki were not usually treated all that well. They were looked down on, feared, and used. It wasn't all that noticeable with Kushina, as Kushina honestly and truly didn't care what others thought of her. she did what she wanted, where she wanted to do it. She cared only about what her friends thought and nobody else. Kagome had noticed since the beginning of the first test that the other Cloud genin hasn't really made any moves to get any close to Bee than they had to. She didn't know if their behavior bothered Bee or not, but she hoped not. She understood that Jinchuriki were most likely hard to gain the trust of. So, she was glad that he was taking the time to give her a chance at friendship.
They had been walking for a few minutes and she noticed that Bee was starting to get a little fidgety. She sent him a concerned look and was about to ask if he was alright, but to her amusement, he started dancing as he walked along next to her. It reminded her of a mixture of break dancing and beatboxing back from Tokyo.
Kagome giggle slightly and sent him a smile, "Don't like staying still Bee?"
"Naw, I just get too restless," Bee answered. He wasn't sure how he felt about her dropping all suffixes after only knowing each other for less than an hour. At the moment he was leaning more towards not really carings. She didn't seem to mean anything rude by it. She wasn't saying his name mockingly or anything like that either like some people did. Honestly, she was rather refreshing from the people he has normally had to deal with lately. Lately, all he's ever heard were insincere people calling him Bee-Sama from him being the new Raikage's little brother. He could always tell that they didn't like him, there was always a sneer in their tones. His new… friend? seemed genuine in her advances of friendship.
Plus, it looks like the genin of the leaf liked her just as much as the genin from the cloud liked him. Outcasts need to stick together. Unless she ends up showing any underlying motives, which he doubted, he would accept and return her hand of friendship. He knew that Gyuki was curious about her as well. Gyuki had told him that she had similar chakra energies as the famous Sage of Six paths, apparently the father of all the tailed beasts. Also, the discovery of a new unknown demon was rather intriguing. If the Sage of Six Paths hadn't made the demon within Kagome, who had?
He glanced over at Kagome walking next to him and didn't see a single ounce of discomfort by being next to him. He did appreciate that she didn't seem to mind his dance-walking. Most people found it annoying or embarrassing. He noticed that she had a content smile on her face and he decided to carry on the conversation.
"What do you think the next test will be?"
Kagome hummed in thought and she clasped her hands behind her back as she continued walking, "I'm not for certain but my brother told me that the second test is usually something that cuts the remaining group by at least half for the final round."
Bee grunted to show that he had heard her but otherwise stayed silent as he thought of the possibilities awaiting them.
They came to a stop at the edge of a tall cliff that dropped off into a very deep cavern.
"Is… is this the test site?" a nervous-looking genin from Iwagakure asked, looking down the very long drop with a pale face. He clearly wasn't a fan of heights.
Proctor Ishida cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention, "This is our largest site for practicing jutsu. In a few hours, you will all be at the bottom of this site and the second test will begin. Now, listen closely as I am only going to explain this once.
Proctor Ishida cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention, "This is our largest jutsu practice site. In a few hours, you will all be at the bottom and the second test will begin. Now, listen close to the rules as I am only going to say them once. Each individual, or team, will be given a scroll with either an O or an X engraved into it. Your goal is to obtain the opposite that you initially receive. This test is timed, once the clock starts you have twenty-four hours to obtain your second scroll and keep both of them safe for the whole time limit or make it to the finish line. Only those with both the X and O scrolls will continue to the final round of the chunin exams. Once we are all at the bottom of the ravine, jonin from the cloud will build up walls to build a maze around you. There are no rules, but let us all try to keep the death count to a minimum. To those of you who signed up for the exams as a team, you will be participating as that team. Either you all pass, or you all fail. There are no exceptions."
One of the more egotistical boys from Konoha shouted out angrily, "You mean I have to drag these two dead weights with me the whole way?" His two teammates glared at him angrily. He didn't even pause to give anyone a moment to speak as he pointed sharply at Kagome, "What about Namikaze over there, she's from the leaf but she doesn't have to drag a team with her!"
Ishida shook her head as she looked between the boy whose attitude probably wouldn't get him through the third round if he managed to pass this one, and the youngest applicant this year. She turned her attention onto the girl, "Namikaze-chan, did you sign up for the exams with a team?"
Kagome shook her head, "No Ishida-san, I don't have a team yet."
Ishida nodded in acceptance and turned to the boy, "Well there you go, she didn't sign up with a team so she doesn't have to compete with one."
"That isn't fair! We weren't given the choice of applying without our team, it was all of us or none of us."
"That is not my problem." Ishida said, clearly dismissing the issue, "Now, let's head down. When we are at the bottom I will hand out the scrolls, which will be distributed at random."
The first hour or so went by pretty quietly. She hadn't run into anyone, but she could sense many people around her. She was biding her time for the moment, she had plenty of time to get the other scroll. She was hoping that she could spy around for a bit before possibly setting up some traps. That plan was thrown out the window when the two genin from the hidden sand that had unnerved her from earlier jumped out and ambushed her. In her attempts to get away she learned how each one liked to fight. With how similar they looked alike they had to be twins. The girl seemed to be quite into poisons as all her weapons were coated in them. Thankfully because of her Ki she was mostly immune to most poisons as her powers actively went to destroy any foreign substances in her system as she has been nicked by a couple of her weapons. Her brother was extremely talented with wire and paper bombs. The two of them together were a force to be reckoned with. She had gotten away with a combination of her shadow clones and substitution jutsu. They were, however, right behind her having seen through her deception. The memories of how her clones had been killed flashed through her mind. Those twins were ruthless, did not hesitate for the kill shot.
She was pretty sure that she'd be able to take them in the long run, but she had a time limit and she didn't want to push that. She was wondering exactly what to do when Bee's aura flashed across her own. In a split moment decision, she split off her path and dashed towards Bee's aura. She sent a shadow clone to continue her previous path and masked herself as much as physically possible. A partner would probably be best in this case and Bee was pretty much her only option.
She found Bee merely minutes before the sand twins would be upon them. She felt bad but she couldn't even give him a moment to think about it. She grabbed him with a quiet shout of "I swear I'm not attacking you, but please be silent. They're right behind me." She pulled him into a nearby bush and very quickly set up a barrier with her sutras.
The two red-headed sand genin landed where they were moments before. The girl growled in frustration as she looked around, "Dammit, we lost her."
"We'll find her again. We have plenty of time, but we need to get our scrolls so we can pass. Come on sis." He jumped away and started taking off in a different direction.
The girl kicked a nearby tree angrily before taking off after her brother.
"What is going on?" Bee asked in confusion after he was sure the two were gone.
She had her suspicions but answered, "I'm not sure, but they've been on me hard since the beginning of this test." She bit her lip before just jumping to it, "Hey, do you want to work together on this? I'm plenty confident that I could do this on my own, and I'm sure you could as well, but I think it would be more fun if we teamed up. Plus, we could get to know each other better."
Bee frowned in thought, "I'm not completely against it, but what if we have opposite marks?"
Kagome shrugged, "We would have to get two more scrolls anyway for both of us to pass, we'd just have to look for one of each instead of two of the same kind. Honestly, that would probably be easier. I mean if you're worried about me turning on you if the time dwindles down and we don't have the correct symbols you don't have to. I would never do something like that. I am either going to pass these exams fair and square, or I'm not going to pass them at all. If it really came down to that I would probably just give you my scroll and let you move on. I'm still pretty young, so I have plenty of time to pass. The only reason I'm taking this exam in the first place is so I can go on higher-ranked missions with my sensei. If I don't pass I can wait on that." She explained as earnestly as she could. Yes, she wanted to pass and become a chunin, but she would never do it by screwing somebody else over. That was not the type of kunoichi she wanted to be. Ninja already had a very difficult job, having to kill people who might not even deserve it, she would not go down an even darker road by making decisions like that.
Bee looked at her, her eyes were wide and almost pleading for her to not be lying. He knew that both shinobi and kunoichi were trained in the art of deception, but he could somehow just tell that she was speaking the truth 100%. He looked away from her and thought it over, as long as she truly didn't turn on him there weren't any real downfalls to a temporary team-up. Finally, he came to a decision, "Fine, we can work together. But if you try anything funny, you'll regret it. Deal?" he held his hand out to her.
Kagome didn't hesitate to grasp onto it, "Deal!" she said excitedly. She wasn't going to be in the hidden cloud for long. Probably a month at the most. She wanted to get to know Bee as much as she could before they had to go home. There weren't many missions that took people from Konoha to the hidden cloud, so after she leaves it would probably be a long time before she could see him again. Plus, the upcoming war would push that future meeting even further. She would have to remember to get his address and give him hers so they could write to each other in the meantime.
"We ran into the two sand psycho's a couple more times and a few of the other competitors. We managed to get our scrolls and I used my Ki to track Proctor Ishida's aura to get to the exit. I didn't think these tests were going to quite like this." Kagome finished up. She glanced up at Jiraiya, "What happened on your end?"
Jiraiya let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair, "We are now at war."