Definitely a few hours late on delivering this chapter. My bad! Laptop is still broken. But anyway here it is! Finally back in Konoha and I swear ( I know I keep saying this but I really do mean it) we're almost done with cannon rehash. Thanks for the helpful reviews about spelling and grammar! Always great to hear feedback. Let me know what you think of this, if you have any questions or if you don't understand something!
~Line break~
Even though I was lazy and averse to work, it was through no fault of my own that we left Wave a week late. The fault for that lays solely at sensei's feet. He'd kept up the rotating schedule for training which meant that Tazuna could only rely on Naruto's mass army of shadow clones for menial labor every other day instead of every day. I had been switched into the training rotation as well; with no imminent threat of a missing ninja attacking us, Kakashi found that 1 on and 2 off training worked well enough for his plans. Our remaining time in Wave was spent improving on dodging (Naruto), Working on chakra control (Sasuke), or working on bringing up stamina (me).
When the bridge was finally completed, I was grateful to finally see the last of Wave. Because of our over staying the mission, we had ended up living out of Tazuna's home for over a month. I had packed the most sets of clothing, and even I was fed up with rotating out the same three shirts. Naruto and Sasuke were similarly put out; when Naruto had objected to continuing the dodging lessons because he no longer had any clothes that didn't have a hole in them, Sensei had merely smiled and held up a thread and needle. I have no idea from where because one second his hands were empty and the next, he looked ready to begin an embroidery lesson with an already threaded needle. The end result was a very patchwork looking Naruto and a very disgruntled looking Sasuke.
Of course even when we finally left, Sensei couldn't make life easy for us.
"Can't we just walk home?" I complained outlaid for once, very vocal in my annoyance.
"No. We've been walking. You guys are slow. So we're going to take a break and learn how to tree walk." Kakashi huffed. If I didn't know him any better, I would've said he was annoyed with our pace. As it was, I did know him, at least a little bit by now, and he was clearly getting enjoyment out of his continued torture. I mean, training.
Naruto and Sasuke shared a look, confirmed their horror and turned to me for help. But with sensei's announcement, I smirked, dropped my pack to the floor.
"Don't look at me. I learned how to tree walk earlier this year. My dad showed me; said I had to practice chakra control exercises before I could do medical ninjutsu." (I still struggled with unconscious water walking, but we were the village hidden in the leaves, not the mist. I could hold off on mastering water walking for a little while longer.)
I found comfortably shady spot under the trees and hunkered down for a nap. Falling asleep to the sounds of children yelling out in pain and annoyance was relaxing; it brought back heavy nostalgia of my orphanage days and I fell asleep with a small smile.
~Linebreak~
Sensei's 'short break' ended up taking a full 2 days: he wanted to be sure Naruto and Sasuke understood the principles behind tree walking. The first day, I napped, okay with taking what had been classified as a 'short break'. The second day, when I started getting annoyed at their slow pace, I alternated between shouting insults and helpful advice disguised as insults.
"You're both pathetic. Honestly it doesn't matter who gets their first; you're competing for dead last and second to last."
"Oi Naruto are you a civilian or a ninja? Use some chakra!"
"Naruto, you should stop avoiding falling on your head. Maybe it'll knock some more sense into you."
"Hey emo, I can't tell how mad at the world you are; use more chakra why don't you."
Kakashi kindly didn't tell me to stop and even threw in a few of his own (not so)helpful comments.
Shooting sensei and I glares the entire time, by the morning of the third day two boy were wobbly, but they'd gotten the basics down. Kakashi expanded further on the impromptu lesson.
"Maa, like I said, you guys walk really slow. So we're going to expand on chakra cycling. You should've learned the basics in the academy." He spoke louder to drown out Naruto's question 'what is that?'. "WHAT IT IS—brat shut it. I'm explaining it right now!—What it is is just channeling chakra constantly through your muscles. You use it to increase your stamina, energy, strength, all that stuff. In your taijutsu spars, I've noticed you all already do this. For you Naruto, it's probably unconscious. Sasuke…Maa, also probably unconscious. Kage-chan you do it on purpose, right?" He eye smiled at me.
I nodded my head in lazy affirmation. I wouldn't be anywhere near as strong or have as much endurance without chakra. I probably wouldn't be able to lift my current leg weights without my chakra augmented muscles. Once, when I had tried racing Shisui without chakra, I had only managed a couple miles before puttering out, exhausted. He'd laughed the entire time he'd dragged me home.
"I want you to combine chakra cycling with tree walking." Kakashi continued "That gives you the normal method that Konoha shinobi travel through the woods. Now up you go!" He started walking up the nearest tree. I reluctantly rose from my comfy position on the ground, shrugging on my pack and following him. I didn't want to get left behind. Both boys eagerly raced up the tree while I continued up at a much more sedate pace. Once we were all at the top of the tree standing on a thick branch, Kakashi continued talking:
"We're going to be jumping from branch to branch. You need to cycle chakra to your muscles for the jump, and then you need to release chakra from your feet before you land on the branches. Same concept as before; too much chakra and you go flying to far. Too little chakra and you wont stick to the tree you're trying to land on. Good luck!" A patronizing eye smile later and then the three of us were chasing after him.
Sensei had a very hands off training policy. He didn't bother to explain any of the intricacies of the tree running technique. It wasn't just a simple step up form tree walking; this was combing two totally different chakra techniques and using them like second nature. It was like trying to whistle while breathing in; possible but very difficult and probably requiring more explanation then 'good luck'. That didn't stop Naruto and Sasuke from both flying off. Just like sensei had predicted, Sasuke used continued to use more chakra then necessary. He was flinging himself into tree branches and tree trunks. He needed to cycle less chakra into his muscles on the jump and less out of his feet when he landed. Still, it looked comically painful, but I didn't have the breath to laugh at him. While, continuous cycling of chakra done consciously took effort, but was nothing new to me. Switching between cycling chakra and exerting chakra through my feet? Much more mental effort and physical strain. And because I had small chakra stores, I needed to make sure I was being precise in my chakra utilization. That further complicated the task before me. Still, it was better then slipping from the branches and to the forest floor which kept happening to Naruto from his lack of chakra usage.
In the end, as usual with Kakashi sensei's madness, I couldn't argue with results. It had been a four day walk to reach Tazuna's home. The way back? We'd walked for two days until we were well within Fire Country, and then, discounting our training break, it'd only taken us a day to finish the trek. Exhausted and irritable, we arrived at the looming gates of our village, a day earlier then we would've if we kept walking.
The ninja at the gates ribbed us, but none of us reacted to their gentle teasing, bar a few glares from Sasuke. I was too exhausted to get in a fight with friendly chunin who thought that "The little genin are so cute."
Sensei ignored them as well. He'd had his nose shoved in a book the entire way back and he hadn't looked up from it to acknowledge the village guards. (I marveled again at how lucky we'd been to get Kakashi sensei as our jonin sensei. He made being a ninja seem effortless. As someone learning to be a ninja, I wondered how long it had taken him to achieve such fluid prowess with his skills. And how much longer it had taken him to become so unassuming) Once they finished teasing us, (and validating out identities) the chunin let us into the village and we followed Kakashi sensei towards the Hokage tower. I trudged along, slumped in my distinctive walk, however today wasn't for show as my muscles ached. Naruto seemed to have regained his boundless energy now that we were finally out of the endless forest that made up Fire Country.
Sasuke kept his head ducked, hiding his bruises and scrapes from his collisions with the trees. I nudged his arm with my shoulder. "I would heal them if I had the chakra left…"
He gave a stiff nod in acknowledgment and I left it at that. Naruto was chattering in sensei's ear about something and I listened to him prattle on while allowing the comfortably familiar village to ease my homesickness. We eased through the winding streets and I noticed that most ninja moving towards the tower were hoping roof to roof. I shivered grateful that while our sensei was a sadist he wasn't so cruel as to continue the tree running exercise on the roofs. (or maybe he didn't want to deal with the property damage that a still struggling-to-regulate-chakra Sasuke might cause to the poor roofs.)
"SO WHATS OUR NEXT MISSION GOING TO BE? CAN WE DO ANOTHER C RANK, BUT THIS TIME I'LL SAVE A PRINCESS, DATEBAYO!"
"NO!" Sasuke spoke up. "Just—no. A few D rank for a week? So that we can enjoy being back in the village?" he looked at me pleading and pointed with his desperate eyes at Naruto. Clearly emo needed a break from demon boy. Fortunately for Sasuke, I agreed.
"Sensei, I'd rather do a few D rank instead of back to back C rank. I need time to recover form all the chakra I've lost. Also I want to spend some time in the village too…"
Naruto, bless him, didn't look the slightest bit betrayed. Instead he latched onto the idea of being back in the village. "I wonder how everyones doing? Ya know from our graduating class. Kiba wanted to be Hokage too… I wonder how far he's gotten since we've been gone…"
Sensei ignored our rambling and kept reading his book. (I didn't think he'd want to take another mission right away, but I figured we had head off Naruto early, before he got too excited.)Thankfully, while Naruto had continued his mumblings, we had arrived at the tower and could finally be done with this mission. I mentally sighed in relief. (This mission was way too much excitement. I wanted simple easy missions from now on. Nothing too difficult.)
Reporting in from a mission was nothing too difficult. We'd done it tons of times for our D-rank missions. However, because Kakashi sensei had been upgraded the rank mid-mission from a C rank to an A rank, instead of just verbally reporting in at the missions desk, we were all required to now submit a written report each. I scowled at Sensei. He sighed and patted my head in commiseration. I relented a bit. No one on our team liked paperwork, so if it was avoidable, we probably would've avoided it. Not surprisingly Kakashi didn't pickup another D rank to finish the day with; Besides our exhaustion, it was already late evening and the sun was going to set soon. He let us go after telling us to meet at training ground 3 the next morning.
"Bring paper and ink. We'll just do the reports before we continue training." We all quickly agreed, breaking up to g to our respective homes.
~Line break~
We fell into a comfortable routine once we were back in the village. Kakashi sensei kept up a very hands off approach to training—sure he physically helped us train by throwing stuff at us, but he only trained us when we put the effort into learning. Usually he just augmented lessons by making them teach us more then one thing. With Naruto finally done asking sensei to show him flashy jutsu, he was instead focusing on the basics. Sasuke too continued working on his chakra regulation and control, like in Wave, but also worked on his genjutsu and speed with seals. I ambled through training, working on my stamina and endurance. Kakashi also forced me to practice my sparring, often one on one with him. I simultaneously hated and loved those days more then the other practice days. (None of this was unusual for a team training. No, what made sensei such a hard ass and a good jonin sensei was his refusal to live in the box that normal society thought in.) Kakashi sensei managed to combine all our individual efforts and turned it into training as a team. His creativity was annoying at times. He forced us to work on our water walking, but we all had to be holding hands. We continued tree running, but we had to play leapfrog while doing it. Things that didn't directly involve him in training, but undoubtedly would help us improve if we took the lessons to heart. Our teamwork improved tremendously with the exercises and so instead of complaining (too much), we put up with every detestable practice he dreamed up.
And as our teamwork did grew so did our slight friendship; we went out for food after practices and missions. Sasuke had finally cracked after the forth day in a row of ramen and had forced the three of us to an inviting Akimichi restaurant just outside the Hokage Tower. (He had been dragging Naruto and had missed the dirty looks shot at Naruto. I simply gave a brilliant smile and demanded a table for three. We hadn't had any issues since.) I had doubled down with Sasuke and invited my team over for dinner with my family rather then stomach more ramen. Sensei was always invited as well, but he usually disappeared before we could force him along with us. The rare times he joined us, we all eyed him, trying to see his face. (I had seen it in my past life and it was a good looking face. I wished he'd show it of to the village) It was a peaceful time. Our team actually enjoyed each others company and life was progressing smoothly.
Of course it wasn't going to last.
I found out about the chunin exams when I was meeting up with Sakura one weekend. In the month I had been gone to Wave, she had far surpassed my skill with medical ninjutsu even though I had begun learning before her. In just the month I had been back, she had taken to teaching me what she'd already managed. Fortunately, I was happy with the arrangement; her teaching me just meant more mastery over the subject. And my learning from her just meant a more individualized lesson. Sakura had already moved past what she taught me: mending broken bones and healing torn muscles. She was beginning to delve into recreation of dismembered flesh; she might've been able to help Zabuza if she'd been in Wave with us. Her skill with healing was well beyond genin level. (In fact, it skirted past chunin and dangerously into mastery of medic ninjutsu territory. I wondered how she had first met her blonde haired teacher. Very soon she was going to need a dedicated sensei with high level techniques to show her father then just books.)
"I'm surprised we've been able to meet up so regularly. You would think two genin teams would be busy with missions." I hadn't seen Shika in a week; he should be coming home from his mission in a few days. (I also had only seen Shisui in passing, preparing to leave for a long term mission in tea country, but I forced myself to not think about that.)
"Oh, of course not! Sensei is a jonin; he's been asked to not leave the village unless necessary."
I straightened up. "Why not? What's going on in the village?"
Sakura looked at me surprised. "Haven't you heard by now? We're hosting the chunin exams. Not that we don't trust the other villages but…Sensei said its best to keep the jonin in the village just in case of any issues. So my whole team is stuck inside Konoha. Sensei doesn't even want to take a C rank. Isn't that why your team is only doing D ranks?" She moved to close her textbooks. I glanced at the sky. It was getting late and we would be wrapping up our meeting soon, but I needed to pump her for information first.
"Huh, I must've forgotten. Lucky thing I'm a rookie. No chance at going in the tournament even though its based here. What about you? Your sensei insane enough to recommend your team?" I tried to sound nonchalant and I think I succeeded. I hoped for my friends sake she wasn't being recommended. While most people our age aspired to be chunin, the test was dangerous and often resulted in numerous wouldn't be quite so deadly being hosted in Konoha, but I still wanted her to have more experience and practice before she went out for the test. (I thought it would be another year or so before sensei recommended team seven after all and I thought we were pretty good.) Sakura paused in her packing, frowning.
"No, I don't think so…All of us are progressing pretty well in our practices, but…It doesn't really feel like a team, ya know?" I blinked at that, shaking my head. She stayed quiet, but I waited for her to expand on the comment.
"It's just…Sometimes it feels like we're three students who meet up for a study group and practice spars. I don't think teams are supposed to feel like that. Like three people that happen to meet up to practice and then go home."
I hesitated to respond. I didn't understand that feeling. Maybe in the beginning, but….No definitely after Wave, but even before then, and with all the practices we'd done together, I felt like I knew my teammates. Sure, I'd been friends with Naruto before, but now I felt closer to him in some inexplicable way. I couldn't quite explain it. Because even though Sasuke continued his glares, Naruto was still loud and obnoxious, and I was an unrepentant asshole, constantly shooting out snarky and sarcastic comments, our arguments didn't feel like they had the same bite anymore.
"They feel like family." I said out loud for Sakura and my own benefit. She snapped her head at me surprised. I continued, feeling the need to clarify. "Not like how Shikamaru is my brother. But kind of like that? Like no one could replace Shika…but I don't think anyone could replace Naruto or Sasuke either?" I winced. I wasn't explaining this very well.
"It's okay Kage-chan." Sakura said softly with a small smile. "I think your placement for teams was very well done. I have always admired Sasuke-kun, but I don't think I could've fit in a team with him and Naruto as well as you have."
She quickly finished packing her things and I watched her hasty departure. I collapsed back into the seat, fighting the slightly hysterical laugh that threatened to surface. ('Sakura has no idea. If I wasn't here, she would've been on this team. She would've had the family I just described. She wouldve—') I sit down that train of thought and forced myself to stand up, collecting my books into a neat organized pile. I packed everything up, and turned to walk home. I couldn't stand here and obsess with what ifs. I just had to keep moving forward.
~line break~
After meeting with Sakura, I actually looked around the village, instead of shuffling along aimlessly. I don't know how I could have been so blind. Clearly, the village was gearing up for something. The stalls were repainted; new awnings hung in front of them all. The merchants were excitedly receiving new shipment. The amount of ninja strolling the streets was higher then normal (Which should've been the first thing I noticed; why would we have so many ninja in the village instead of out on missions?) I fixed myself up, pulling my hair out of its customary pony tail and shaking to loose. I swung both straps go my book bag over my shoulder and removed my head protector.
"Excuse me sir," I politely inquired to a ninja supply stall owner. I recognized him from his shop a few streets over; the stall must be to grab any walking tourists. "I heard that the chunin exams are being held by Konoha. How soon are they? I want to ask my mom to take me to watch…"
The man beamed at me, "Of course little girl! Konoha is hosting the tournament for the first time in years! The exam part begins in just a week, but it's the tournament part that you're going to want to see. The finals are going to be held in the colosseum in the western edge of the village, by the Kento district. That is what has the village so excited! There's going to be so much business!" He rubbed his hands together in excitement, but I tugged on his shirt, still acting the part of curious kid, my head upturned to his face, grateful for my short stature.
"When is the tournament? Will I get to see leaf ninja fight?" The man chucked and ruffled my hair. (I tried not to let my annoyance show. I hardly knew this guy, and he's being overly friendly albeit to a kid. It was weird.)
"Of course you're going to see leaf ninja! Konoha is the strongest of the 5 great villages of course. Why else would we live here?" He shot me a relaxed smile. "And the tournament is one month from Friday, so you better ask your parents now if you want them to take you. Tickets are going on sale soon, and from what I've heard, they're going to sell out quickly." I thanked him and hurried off.
I pulled the same act to a stall owner a few streets away, but got the same information. Speaking to a passing ninja let me know even less then the two stall owners, but that was to be expected. Any ninja not named Naruto was naturally more tightlipped then necessary.
All my information gathering was making me more and more nervous. I made my way though the busy streets of Konoha and wondered what was going on. 'Why wouldn't sensei have mentioned this to us?' It could've been a test; he might've wanted to see how well we paid attention to our surroundings. Of perhaps he just didn't feel like brining it up. Maybe he thought we already knew; Kakashi was the opposite of superfluous. If he thought we already knew, there was no point in saying it twice.
I brushed off my uneasy feeling and continued training. My anxiety only raised when I began to notice sensei ease up on our training towards the end of the week. Not obviously of course, but slightly enough that when we went out to eat after practices, we still had energy to jump around and make closer we drew to Friday, the easier he seemed to make it for us. I thought maybe it was my paranoia, so before practice Thursday, the day before the exam's start, I spoke up.
"Sorry to interrupt Kakashi sensei—I can see that you have something to say, but I just want to check." I gave a shaky laugh. "I know I'm probably going to seem crazy, because come on, right, but I've hard some rumors about a chunin exam and I was wondering if you were planning on enrolling us…" I trailed off at his wide eye innocent look.
"What the fuck, sensei!" I hissed at the man. Sasuke was looking form sensei to me vaguely alarmed and Naruto just looked curious.
"Ah—team I have an announcement to make today." Sensei spoke up as if I hadn't said anything at all. I glared at him. "I have here," he reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out three once official looking papers. They were now crinkled and slightly torn from being shoved in his pocket. "Your chunin exam participation forms! I've recommended you three!" Naruto and I both looked like we were going to say something, because Sasuke elbowed both of us into silence.
"If you want to participate, you'll just need to show up at the academy tomorrow. 11 am. There's information on the back of the form. Don't be late!" He dropped the papers and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Sasuke snatched the three papers out of the air and turned to look at me and Naruto. I still held an ugly scowl on my face.
"I don't wanna do it."
"I wanna do it! CHUNIN DATEBAYO!"
Sasuke looked vaguely amused. "We'll I guess you're going to be the last person on the team to make chunin then Kage." Naruto shook his head vigorously.
"No! Kage-chan, you have to join with us! We work best as a team! You said it before! We're 10 times stronger together then apart."
I chucked mirthlessly. "I said I didn't want to do it, not that I wouldn't. I first heard about this test a week ago. In that time I heard more then sensei thought to tell us. Like teams have to compete in cells of three. Which means if I don't go, neither do you." Sasuke tensed.
"Why wouldn't sensei just tell us that?" Naruto asked cluelessly.
"He was probably testing our teamwork. You know how he is with that." I nodded in agreement with Sasuke's assessment. "Which means we all either pass together or fail together."
"If we're doing the test, we all pass." I spoke firmly. The two boys looked at me surprised to hear my conviction. I explained, "The test is supposed to be really hard. A pain in the ass. I don't want to have to do all this over again. We do it this time and we all become chunnin. Or I'm just going to stay a life-genin." Naruto blanched at the idea of a lifetime genin but Sasuke nodded thoughtfully.
"We can do this. Let's meet up tomorrow at 9. We should find out as much about the exam as possible today and then we should compare notes tomorrow."
"And packs" I added. "I heard a rumor that theres a survival portion in every chunin exam. We're lucky this one is in Konoha so we generally know the conditions we're gong to be up against, but we ought to bring all our survival stuff with us to the academy tomorrow, just in case."
Both boys gave sharp nods. I continued though, not quite finished with my assessment. "I'm going to run to the ninja district shops. I wanted to grab some extra supplies. Let me know what you guys need. I'll grab it and you can pay me back. I'm also going to get some more ration bars and some chlorine tabs for us." The boys looked at me blankly. (Shit were they called chlorine tabs in Japanese? It'd been a while since I'd made an English blunder. I played it off like my teammates were just clueless.) "You know, water purification tablets." Their faces cleared up and Sasuke added that he needed more ninja wire and
"I could use more trapping supplies. Should I just go with you?" I shook my head at Naruto's request.
"See if Iruka sensei can help you pack again. He's a chunin in the village, so maybe he will take some pity on you and help you pack supplies necessary for the survival training." Naruto gave me a big smile and two thumbs up before hurrying off. I waved goodbye to Sasuke, who seemed to be lost in his own world, and also departed.
I first headed to the shinobi district. Just outside of the residential portion of the district, was the ninja shops. The wares here were generally more expensive, but undeniably better quality then the general weapons shops in the central portion of the village. This was where Shisui had taken me for my first set of weights.
I flounced from shop to shop, picking up ninja wire, ration bars, flares, chlorine tabs, a medical supply kit, some extra first aid supplies because my team had very bad luck, three extra sets of sharp kunai and shuriken each, some exploding tags, smoke bombs, stink bombs, and extra thin wire. I politely turned down the shop owners suggestion of chakra pills. I would get any pills, herbs and medicines from my family stores.
I hesitated by the clothing store, but eventually decided to pick up the mesh wire shirts for my teammates. They might chose to not wear them, but I figured every advantage would help them.
Satisfied with my purchases, I headed home. I passed a few curious faces on the way home. Some were my fellow ninja, wondering why a Nara was carrying so many bags. Others were foreign ninja, wondering if I was their competition.
To the first group, I gave a small smile and a lackadaisical shrug of my shoulders. The second set received a slight grin and cold eye. I wasn't just their competition; I was the competition. While I had no interest in being thrown in this exam, I was going to pass. That much was certain. Sensei was a smart man; he would never have nominated his team if he didn't know the rest of the competition. The fact that he still did meant he thought we surpassed them.
So perhaps my cold eyes and slight grin looked just a little bloodthirsty when I eyed the foreign ninja. I blamed sensei's training.
~Line break~
The next morning I was up early (for me) and was unsurprised to find Shika also awake. He made eye contact with me and motioned towards my half packed bag. I nodded. He sighed.
"What a drag."
"It's pretty bothersome."
"Only the once though."
"I agree."
"We'll talk later?"
"Sure."
No more words needed to be said. We each gave a goodbye hug to mom and then walked each other out of the compound. Shika went right (towards the Akimichi compound) and I went left (towards training field 3, where I would find my teammates)
I was the first person there, which didn't surprise me. I was a bundle of nerves. I knew I would be fine once the test began, but for now I was running through possible scenarios and trying to plan for every situation. I had hardly been able to sleep last night.
Sasuke arrived next. He gave me a slight Hmm and then joined me on the ground to wait for Naruto. When he finally arrived, he joined us on the ground crosslegged, forming a circle.
I passed Naruto the thin wire (better then ninja wire for pranks and traps because it snapped easier) and the rest of his supplies. I did the same of Sasuke. I split the tabs equally among us and tossed each boy a sealed scroll. "The scroll is full of ration bars. I heard the last part of the exam is in a month, so I want to make sure we have enough food to supply us until then."
Naruto paled. "You think the test is going to be a month long?"
I shrugged. Sasuke answered instead, "I heard the tournament is in a monht, and one month isn't too crazy for survival amongst three people. We would just have to stay hidden. It's a reasonable assumption dobe."
"Well Iruka-sensei didn't have me pack a months worth of stuff. He also didn't tell me anything. He did help me pack the standard stuff. He called it the 'standard pack'. It actually kind of looks like it did before the academy survival test…" Sasuke and I both nodded in remembrance. So theta meant the test was probably in the woods and involved general survival tactics. Konoha ninja had the home advantage. I turned to Sasuke.
"What else did you hear?" I asked curiously. I hadn't heard too much about the exam in detail because no one wanted to give gory details to a little girl. Clearly they didn't have that problem with Sasuke.
"Good chance of death; lots of people don't pass because one of their teammates die." Sasuke shot us both a glare. "You're not allowed to die. We all pass or we all fail. Got it?" I gave a thumbs up, waiting for him to continue.
"I also heard the format is usually three or four parts. Usually a written portion to weed to the stupid, a physical portion to weed out the weak, a survival portion to get rid of the people who cant work in teams, and then a tournament portion to sort through the left overs."
"Ouch, that's a pretty harsh way of looking at it." I raised an eye brow at him. Sasuke flushed.
"That's just what I was told! It makes sense though. When I heard about the format of the exam, I wasn't worried about us. Not too much anyway. The written portion shouldn't be a problem for us, but…" He turned to look at Naruto. I paused, considering.
"Don't worry about me, datebayo." Naruto gave a weak chuckle. I saw through his forced nonchalance at once. While now a very good friend, Naruto was a shitty liar. "I've been studying. And nothing can hold me back. I'm going to be—"
"Calm down idiot." I sighed. "I'll probably be able to finish any test early. Hopefully it's the same version of the test for everyone. Once I'm done, I'll just use shadow imitation to copy my answers on your test." Naruto brightened up at once. "but please don't fight it. In fact, it might be easier if you go to sleep. I don't want to waste chakra on you fighting me." He nodded in agreement.
"Fall asleep. Got it!" Sasuke stifled a smile at Naruto's cheery acceptance of my plan.
"I think we'll all be fine on the rest of the parts. With Kakashi sensei's lessons, we've all improved pretty dramatically. And we also have each other as backup if worse comes to worse." My teammates nodded in agreement. I looked up at the sun. We'd wasted enough time exchanging supplies, so I hesitantly pulled out the mesh shirts.
"I got these for you guys. You don't need to wear it, but if you do its a bit of extra protection." Naruto gave a huge grin and unzipped his jacket. I smiled at his eagerness and tossed Sasuke his shirt. He sniffed in disdain, but also removed his shirt to toss on the light armor. Naruto was wearing a black tee shirt over it so just the edges of the of mesh showing under his collar and his shirt sleeves. Sasuke's wire shirt didn't show at all. I nodded at Naruto.
"You ought to keep our jacket off for the survival portion. You're not as conspicuous in just a T shirt, and everyone will be looking for orange not black. And trust me they will notice the orange during the first part." He nodded along, always ready to agree with me.
Sasuke stood up. "Time to go. We've got an exam to begin." I nodded in agreement, grabbing my bag and also moving to stand.
"If we don't want to stand out, should we all try to look really…I don't know….not very good?" Naruto suggested as we started walking to the academy.
I raised an eyebrow at him. "You're going to sleep through the written portion of the exam. I don't know how else we can make ourselves seem clueless. But i guess lets try not to show off? We also don't want to look to bad because then we'll be targets for being weak. We want to seem average…unassuming."
Sasuke agreed with a quiet hmm.
Naruto grinned at me, "Okay! We won't show off. 'Be careful of the tall grass, because there are snakes lurking underneath!'" I shot him a look.
"Did you just quote me?"
"You're very quotable." Sasuke teased. I sputtered. Half the stuff I said was plagiarizing from a past life! I had quoted Albus Dumbledore and Eddard Stark to them!
"You cant quote me! It's not right!"
"Stop getting so mad. After all 'Angry people make stupid mistakes.'" Sasuke quipped. Naruto guffawed. My tensions were dissolving the longer I spent with my team. We made our way to the academy like this, filled with laughter.
We walked in through the side entrance, following the instructions on the back of our referral forms to room 301. The fastest way was through one of the side entrances because they led directly into the stairwells. The front entrances would lead into the main hall which I was sure would be packed with people. Naruto had wanted to go through and make an entrance, but I reminded him about staying under the radar. With his assent, we quickly made our way up the side stairs with no interruptions and no other ninja. (Which actually stood out as fairly odd. I would've expected some ninja to be watching the participants arrival for foul play.)
"Hey Naruto," I asked quietly. "Do you notice anyone around us?"
He got the hint and kept his voice quiet as well. "There's people watching the stairwells. They chunin level, but they didn't make any moves to stop us so I ignored them." I nodded my head.
"The exams already begun then. They're already watching the combatants on arrival. Be careful from now on. Naruto, even if someone looks like us, check that our chakra feels the same. If we split up from here on out, double check our identities when we reconvene. And from here on out, we trust only each other completely. My brother's team is also in the exam, but I'd still rather we didn't rely on anyone else. Only in an emergency. But I also don't want to fight them if we can avoid them. Lets just act like they don't exist unless they need help."
"Got it." "Hng" That was enough agreement for me. I'd have to let Shika know.
I pushed open the door from the stair well and walked down the hall towards room 301 trailing after Naruto who liked to take the lead. Sensei stood outside the room, waiting for us. "I see all my cute little genin decided to show up for the exams!"
"No thanks to you! You didn't tell us we all had to come!" Naruto accused sensei. Kakashi just eye smiled at us innocently. His face was betrayed by his serious voice.
"And here you all are. Be careful from here on out. This exam can be deadly. But I have faith in my team. Look out for each other and you'll do fine." He ruffled our hair. "Good luck team seven!" Sasuke glared at sensei, but was gentle when he pushed past him. Naruto grinned at sensei and followed Sasuke into the room. Sensei gave me a look and I sighed. This was such bullshit. All I wanted was a simple year as a genin. Not too much work, no real responsibility. So far my only 'real mission' had been a freaking A rank. And now here I was, a rookie taking the chunin exam.
I followed my team into the room.
It was packed with other ninja. Not all of them were our age either. Most of the ninja here were actually older then us. I scanned the room and saw Ino's platinum blonde hair. I nudged Naruto and pointed with my chin towards team 10. He excitedly dragged me and Sasuke over to the InoShikaCho team.
"Hi guys! Are you excited to become chunin, datebayo?" Naruto had his indoor voice on, thankfully. I wasn't interested in drawing any extra attention to ourselves, not yet anyway. I'd need some way to channel that to our interests.
"You guys are part of the exams too?" Ino sounded surprised. "I thought just our sensei was crazy enough to recommend three rookies." I shook my head in agreement. Rookies in an exam like this were going to be targeted by all everyone.
"I guess it makes sense to have more then one group of rookies in the exams. It's troublesome but we can look out for one another." Shika gave me a searching look. I glanced at my teammates then spoke carefully.
"Of course I would look after Leaf ninja. Especially my cohorts from the academy." Shikamaru nodded. I had given him enough to work with.
"Team 8 is here too!" Ino said excitedly. I looked towards the door. Sure enough, Kiba, Shino and Hinata were walking in.
"I wonder is team 9 is competing. Last I heard from Sakura, they weren't but then, neither was I…"
Shika shook his head at my thoughts.
"Our three rookie teams have the highest chances of success. The village is also trying to show off our clans and geniuses. They wouldn't recommend a civilian made team when they have three teams of all clan heirs and prodigies." I nodded my head thoughtfully. It was a shame, but I knew Sakura would overcome the civilian prejudice that she faced in the ninja world. She was an amazing medic and would also become an amazing ninja.
Shika nudged me slightly to the side, while the rest of the group moved to greet team 8.
"I spoke to my team; I don't want an alliance. I;m sure you don't either. Too much work. I'm looking for more a partnership. Just an agreement of nonaggression. Perhaps a little more so, a promise to help if we see the other team in danger."
I nodded in agreement. "I mentioned it to my team. We're working together, and we don't plan on relying on any other teams…but nonaggression and a promise to help if we notice your team in need…or team 8 for that matter…thats do able." Shika nodded satisfied with my answer once again.
"Don't worry brother. We've got this. Just the one exam, remember?"
He gave me a grim smile. "I hope so."
There wasn't anything else to say to that so I didn't. Instead we merged back into the group. Sasuke shot me a look, but I just shrugged. It was exactly what I had expected. Shika and I were siblings, so of course we wouldn't want to fight in an exam like this. Choji and Ino were like family; I didn't want to be pinned with them either. And I was a little soft hearted, but I also didn't want to fight with team 8 either. There were dozens of teams in the room. I figured we could safely avoid fighting with two other rookie teams without jeopardizing out chances at passing.
Shika looked at me and I motioned for him to take the floor. He mumbled troublesome but stood forward. The group slowly fell quiet. We bunched around him, like we'd been taught in the academy, stopping his lips from being read. Keeping his voice pitched low so it wouldn't carry, he asked team 8 the same thing he'd asked of me.
They fell quiet before Hinata of all people spoke up for her team. "I would rather not fight with my friends. Let us make this a good exam where we can fight together." She had stuttered out, rather strongly. I was impressed. Being a genin was a good change for her.
"Team 7 also agrees. No need to fight amongst ourselves when there are other villages to take down." Sasuke spoke up for formalities sake. Ino nodded.
"Obviously my team agrees, since we suggested it."
"Ah agree on what? Sorry to interrupt, but you guys are drawing all kinds of looks over here. A pile of rookies is quite a sight after all." An older grey haired genin sauntered over to us. He looked like the snake guys apprentice from the show, but I was hesitant to label this guy a traitor based on just appearance.
Naruto twitched next to me. (Naruto twitching also wasn't strong enough evidence to call someone a traitor, but my suspicions were raised even higher.) I didn't give any indication I had noticed anything was wrong, but Sasuke wasn't as slick. He straightened up, eyeing the new comer.
"Who are you?" Asked Kiba. It might've been rude if this guy hadn't interrupted us and opened by talking down to us. as if we were children who just happened to wander in here and not rookies good enough to gain their sensei's nomination. As it was, the feeling had passed all around the group of us, and all three teams were eying the guys suspiciously. I kept up my innocent look, eyeing him with open curiously and none of the hostility Naruto wore.
"Eh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to interrupt. My name's Kabuto. This is my seventh time taking the exam, so I was wondering if I could give any advice to my fellow leaf ninja." He rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed.
Something was pinging in the back of my head. (He's definitely snake guys apprentice. He just disarmed everyone with textbook technique. Make us underestimate himself by mentioning his failures, check. Make himself seem like the nice guy by offering help, check. remind us of village ties, check and check because he was subtly shifting his head protector with his embarrassed rubbing)
I could play that game. "That's so nice of you! I'm nervous." I pouted shooting my teammates a slightly irrupted glare. "I don't even think we're ready, but sensei said we all had to compete and that I shouldn't hold back my teammates." I crossed my arms, but slumped in feigned disappointment. Naruto and Sasuke looked more annoyed, but hid their surprise well.
Kabuto latched onto my opening. "Don't worry!" He announced brightly. "I'm sure you guys will do fine. Just don't let yourselves get hurt. You can always try again next time and use this exam for information gathering."
All around him, the genin bristled, which had probably been his intention.
"If you've taken the exam 7 times, we definitely shouldn't take any advice from you." Ino sniffed.
"You look pretty weak." Kiba added skeptically, his arms crossed as he eyed the older genin.
"Yea, you're just going to show us how to fail!" Naruto was slowly losing his indoor voice at his annoyance. I held back a smirk and pushed in front of Naruto.
"Hush you! I want a chance at actually passing this exam. What do you know already? What do I need to know?" I started at Kabuto as if he was the sun. I stood like a weak little girl with my hands clasped infant of me. I let my voice waver when I asked him questions. In short, I played him. And while I couldn't be sure, because he was treasonous bastard who probably was experienced with liars—I was pretty sure he fell for it. (Everyone underestimates the girl. He wouldn't even see it coming.)
He just smirked at me indulgently. "Don't worry, I have just the thing. Over the years, I've gathered a ton of information! And compiled it all on an easy to read deck of cards. I can point out the most dangerous people in the exam. And the weakest so you have some targets." He pulled out a deck of cards from his satchel. I eyed the blank card on top with unfeigned curiosity. He preformed a quick jutsu, then flicked through the deck and passed me, Shika, and Hinata a card each. (Shika, I knew, was playing along just like me, but I wondered about Hinata…)
"The red haired genin from Suna. Gaara of the dessert. Uses sand and is a dangerous opponent. His mission list is impressive, but whats more impressive is that he reportedly completed all those missions, A ranks included, without getting any injuries. You rookies should avoid him at all costs." That was Shika's card. I saw the red hair and dark eye shadows. (The future Kazekage was our age? I knew he was going to be friends with Naruto, but why was he being called a flee on sight? I wished for the billionth time that I had watched the show with Kayla.) "The next one is a Konoha shinobi. Hyuuga Neji. Branch family member, last years rookie of the year. I'm sure Hinata here knows that he should be avoided. He's a prodigy the likes of which haven't been seen in years." Hinata let out a slightly frightened squeak. ('He knew Hinata's name already.') This one was my card. "The last one I gave you is grass ninja. Kenji. I heard he's ruthless. Only reason he didn't pass his exam last time was because his teammate was killed." I didn't even glance at the picture.
I didn't trust any of Kabuto's information. Instead I moved him along, pumping him former information. "Who do you think we have a chance against? Can I see my card?" I needed to know what this guy (this traitor) knew about me and my team. How accurate was his information? Dad would want to know the level of detail later too.)
"Sure! Here's your team." He passed me all of my teams' cards. I glanced at them, making it seem like I was studying the info, but in reality I was sighing in relief. He explained what all the stats and metrics meant, but I ignored him, already understanding them. Besides I was focused on depth of information, not so much detail. It had Sasuke's specialty as Taijutsu, nothing about his genjutus abilities. It did know of his ninjutsu ability, but only as far as he had preceded in the academy. Naruto's had him as weak near dropout. No mention of his sensory abilities or his improved taijutsu skills. It did however, note his skill with the shadow clone technique. My own card was also out of date. I had never been a middle of the pack student like my card showed. Improving my stamina and endurance had only brought me further ahead of the pack. (Maybe Kakashi wasn't keeping our records updated. I might've called him paranoid if it wasn't coming back to help us today.)
"Awesome! How do you know all this stuff? It had stuff about Naruto I didn't even know! Naruto, did you really fail the genin exam 3 times?" I let my voice carry. He burned red, snatching the card up.
"Let me see that! This is stupid! I'm way better then this card!" Naruto seemed legitimately upset, but I brushed off my guilt. If this is what it took to convince everyone our team sucked, so be it. Naruto had been the one to suggest down playing our skills after all. And I was sure that after Kabuto's involvement, everyone would be targeting the rookies anyway. He'd drawn attention to our group, announcing us as rookies loudly and clearly numerous times. I considered this minor damage control.
Kabuto gave a slight laugh. "Sasuke-kun's is right though, isn't it?" Sasuke gave a slight nod, keeping a straight face. Naruto spluttered"Anyway, as rookies, I think you guys should focus on the other rookies here: The sound village. They are fairly new village and while I don't have much information on them, they're probably your best bet."
"What was that four eyes?" A ninja with a musical note straightened up in offense at Kabuto's words.
"Ah I wasn't trying to cause offense! I was just strategizing!" He held up his hand in a placating gesture. It wasn't enough to make the other ninja back down. He moved forward, egging on a placating Kabuto. It wasn't long before the sound nin escalated it, launching a punch at Kabuto. The ninja had an exaggerated swing, so slow that I was sure an academy student could dodge it. Sure enough, Kabuto simply leaned back, avoiding the glancing blow. "weak!" Cried Naruto when Kabuto's dropped to his knees. But I had noticed that the fist hadn't touched his face. So had everyone else and they were confused when his glasses broke and he vomited. I blinked and kept my face clueless. (Sound wave attacks from the sound village. Very original. Still thats bothersome. I'll want to avoid them. Sound waves from a glancing hit were enough to produce concussive like injuries…)
"THAT'S ENOUGH." A loud, angry voice called out. I turned along with the rest of the room to see a giant man. He was intimidating looking with a dark bandanna covering his face, but not managing to hide all the scars from his face that continues up to hairline. He had a sadistic grin plastered on his face, even as he scolded the sound ninja. "NO ATTACKING ANYONE IN THIS STAGE. If anyone else is seen fighting, you will be disqualified." His booming voice carried over the now silent room. The sound ninja mumbled something about not knowing the rules and the Konoha Ninja sneered at him. "This isn't your cozy little village anymore. If you don't know the rules yet, you better learn them. NOW everyone grab a number and then move into the next room. The number is your participation number for this stage of the exam. You're to sit at the place with your number at it. Well? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? MOOOVE!"
Everyone started, rushing towards the chunin sitting at a table by the doors to the examination room. I pulled Naruto and Sasuke's arms, holding them back. (mentally I wondered about teaching the two of them English. I needed a way to communicate with them that couldn't be over heard or have the code be broken. Shika and dad already knew a little bit of spoken English from a bored childhood me, so maybe the team would pick it up as well…)
"I don't like Kabuto. Let's not trust anything he said?" Sasuke agreed. Naruto gave us an uncharacteristically grim look.
"His chakra felt like sensei's when he's wandering around the with us in the village. Like he's suppressing it. So he has a lot. So why would he have failed the exams?" I shrugged. I hadn't noticed an abnormal amount of chakra. He'd seemed slightly above average to me and I had been sensing all around us for high signatures from when we first walked in the room. However, Naruto was better then me and could be more discerning then I could so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
"Those cards alone make him a traitor. He shouldn't have information on us in such detail and he also shouldn't have anything on one of our ally villages, Suna. I'm going to let my dad know after all this, if Shika doesn't before me." Sasuke nodded in approval. Before I moved however, I noticed the sand siblings standing to the back of the room. "Speaking of allies, I'll be right back" I informed my team. I moved over towards Gaara and and his siblings. They eyed me with open hostility, while Gaara met me with disinterested eyes.
"What do you want leaf brat?" The girl, whose name was eluding me at the moment spoke first. I gave her a pleasant smile.
"I just wanted to greet you and welcome you to Konoha. As allies of the leaf, of course I hope this exam goes well for you. All of you." I motioned towards Gaara and puppet guy. (I was hoping to get on their good side. For one, they were very strong allies. But for another, I didn't want them as enemies.)
They all tensed at this. (Weird way to react to hospitality, but okay) "It's a shitty village." The girl scoffed, recovering.
"I'm sorry to hear you say that. My name is Nara Kageko, a member of the Nara Clan. Perhaps after this stage of the exam, I can show you around the village a bit." They seemed stunned, even Gaara who I'd always thought of as more stoic then an Uchiha. Puppet guy was giving me a calculating look while his sister was glaring at me again.
"We might want to do that. I'm Kankuro, and these are my siblings, Temari and Gaara." His voice shook slightly when he said Gaara, and I took note of that. Wasn't he supposed to be close to Gaara? It must be nerves; I was positive I had seen an episode where Gaara had died and these two were close to him in the episode. His advisors. ( Oh man, speaking of, imagine a Kazekage like him. I remembered Kayla's description. He was an awesome leader, apparently willing to die for his village and I was happy that at least one country would get such a passionate leader. Konoha was destined for an angry drunk.)
"Kage, hurry up!" Naruto called. I glanced back. He was near the front of the line. I turned back to the siblings.
"I also want you to remember me Gaara-sama." I bowed low in the form I reserved for my own Hokage. I grinned cheekily when I stood up. "Please remember I was the first to treat you as Kazekage-sama when you finally have the hat." I think even that managed to startle Gaara, but I turned before they could say anything and hurried back to my team, cutting in front of the other waiting ninja just in time for Sasuke to be handed a number. I told the chunin my name and was handed my own number.
We followed Naruto into the room. He was already in the first row, sitting next to Hinata. He shot us two thumbs up.
"What was that all about?" Sasuke mumbled in my ear. I just shook my head and smiled, nudging him towards his seat. He reluctantly broke off from me and found his chair in the middle of the third row, while I delightedly settled in the last row. (From here, I could see everything, and more importantly everyone! I was also almost directly behind Naruto which boded well for my shadow imitation if needed. I also was right what felt like the chakra signature of one of the desk ninja from Hokage tower. That meant I didn't have to be worried about an enemy attack coming from my left at least ) I straightened up when the scary instructor shushinned to the front of the class room, not able to fight shit eating grin from taking residence on my face.
Here was where Naruto would meet Gaara, future Kazekage. Here was where the bonds between our rookie teams would grow. Here was where we began the path to becoming chunin. What reason did I have to not smile?