Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I do own Kumi, though.

Warning: child abuse and bullying (mostly mentions of it), some dark themes, too much fluffiness sometimes. A real rollercoaster (or, at least, it's supposed to be).

Author's Note:

Heeey! Sorry it took so long, guys - you wouldn't believe how many times I rewrote this chapter. I made it extra long and added Shikaku's point of view to compensate for the wait :)

And before anyone complains about TOO MUCH DRAMA, do look up and read the genre of this story, yes?

On another note, I finally posted the other SI-story I promised. It's called Until Forever Quietly Slipped Away and it's not yaoi (sorry, yaoi fans!). But it is Itachi/OC, which always warms my day, so give it a go and tell me what you think later.

Enjoy the chapter!

(Guys, I'm serious, I don't hate Kushina. Really.)

All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy

By Amaryllis D. Namikaze

Chapter XII:

The Sand Village

"Disappointment is just the action of your brain readjusting itself to reality after discovering things are not the way thought they were."

- Brad Warner

Shikaku had one of the best minds in all of Konoha, which meant that learning, memorizing and rationalizing wasn't hard at all for him. This simple fact made it easy to comprehend why he vividly remembered his first encounter with his brother's littlest friend.

He had heard about Namikaze Kumi before he saw him for the first time, of course. Minato - a friend he had made through Inoichi - wouldn't shut up about his baby brother. Apparently, the kid was the cutest kid ever. Minato's words.

After Minato, Ren was the second one to comment about the little guy. Apparently, they had met in the park and the Yamanaka was anxious to be in the same class as him. Shikaku hadn't been able to see how - Minato, after all, had ranted enough about his baby brother's age for Shikaku to know he wasn't old enough to enter the Academy. Even his younger brother had only entered at seven. A few days later, however, Chitarō lazily told him about his new classmate.

He had heard so many praises directed to the youngest Namikaze that he was surprised when he saw him for the first time. His mental image of him didn't connect at all with the real one.

First of all, the kid was short. Shikaku was tall for his age, but this didn't change the fact that Namikaze Kumi looked like a four year old child. And, second, he could have been a girl for all that mattered. That coming from a guy who had Inoichi as one of his best friends. Enough said.

But, yeah, Minato had been right - he was the cutest kid ever.

Much like his Father, Nara Shikato, Shikaku was an analyzer. His strongest trait was the capability of deconstructing people's personality, finding their strengths and weaknesses, and creating a plan around them. Truthfully speaking, the most competent one in direct fighting in this generation - and, really, all the others too - Ino-Shika-Chō was the Akimichi heir. Inoichi, of course, was the one who kept the team together.

With such a great mind and an ability to observe and learn like his, Shikaku was used to leaving the speaking to his friends and simply falling into the shadows and watching. During his Academy days - when everything had been much less troublesome - he and his friends occasionally met up with the younger kids. Most of the time, he yawned on the sidelines and kept careful watch over his brother's friends.

In a way, his brother's group of friends had been exactly what he expected. There was Ren, who, much like his older brother, managed to keep everyone together despite their absolutely different personalities. Inuzuka Tsume and Sarutobi Kihito were a duo that should've gone very wrong, what with their strong-headed stubbornness, but quiet Uchiha Mikoto was there to calm the hotheads. And, at last, there was the much commented Namikaze Kumi, who at times appeared too mature and too silent for someone his age and size.

None of them made sense sometimes and, perhaps, none of them would be great alone, but when the six children remained together for the years to come, Shikaku could almost see the brilliance of their future.

Which brought him back to tiny Kumi.

Shikaku had spent hours of boredom pondering over the little guy, thinking about why he seemed so ingenious at times and so dull at others. He had learnt how to classify people into different categories with the current head of the Yamanaka clan and had been doing so for a long time. No one was the same, but no one was absurdly odd enough to be granted an special pedestal.

Except for petit Namikaze Kumi, apparently.

His brother, for example, was the usual lazy Nara with a thin layer of determination that would keep him alive in the next years. Minato, too, was simple to classify - he was the gentle genius kid of their generation, the one that probably wouldn't crumble under pressure and still save the day. Kumi, on the other hand, wasn't consistent enough to put on one category.

He was quiet and shy, sure, but it never kept him from going and getting what he wanted. Chitarō had spent countless hours commenting about how the kid was searching for a Taijutsu style and, weeks later, mastering said katas. Shikaku himself had witnessed how much of a crybaby Kumi could be, though he always had his reasons to shed tears. He was loud in his opinions, but never in his voice. His peers seemed to see him as prodigious, but he didn't seem to view himself as more than 'could still be better'. He was sassy, even though no one but Shikaku appeared to notice it.

It drove Shikaku crazy how a person could be so many things and still not completely be those things. It didn't make any sense when he first started analyzing and certainly did not make any more sense years later.

He couldn't understand this offbeat kind of shyness, this unusual way of portraying himself - almost as if Kumi desperately wanted to be here, but chose to hide away instead. He simply couldn't comprehend how someone managed to be so obviously brilliant while being so genuinely oblivious about how other people saw him as. And, finally, he couldn't follow how someone could be so innocent and so somber at the same time.

In a way, Minato's cute sweetheart, Namikaze Kumi, had offered one of the hardest puzzles to solve as of yet and Nara Shikaku had always loved puzzles.

Kumi,

I hope your first mission outside the Fire Country goes well! I'm hooting for you, sweetheart!

Love,

Mommy

P.S: Do remember to take sunscreen with you if you're going to Iwa or Suna. I remember when your father came back home full of blisters because he was stubborn to listen to me.

Suna was hot.

I had been British in my previous life, which had never seemed to matter much, except for some horribly melting days in Konoha. In the middle of the roasting desert, however, I felt as if my limbs were slowly merging with the scorching sand and staying behind like a bunch of corpses.

"Please, tell me we are close," Ren muttered beside me. With his rosy cheeks and sweaty brows, he looked as bad as I doubtlessly did. Perhaps better, for his skin was naturally tanned instead of ivory.

Sakumo-sensei laughed. The front of his hair was matted with sweat and he was wearing short-sleeves instead of the usual blue hoodie-like shirt Jōnin wore, but, except for these details, he seemed completely fine. Damn experienced ninjas.

"If we keep this pace up and there's no sandstorm, we'll probably arrive in three hours or four. Otherwise, we might stop when it becomes too dark and start again tomorrow morning."

Chitarō groaned on the other side of me, sounding pained. I could almost hear his muscles protesting with each step. Frankly speaking, the only reason I managed to keep going was because of sensei hellish training - otherwise, I'd have stayed behind two days of travel earlier. In our team, my stamina was worse than even a lazy Nara's one.

"Try not to look so tired and defeated," Sakumo-sensei lightly reprimanded. With his chin, he pointed at the three families following us. "They are counting on us to protect them."

"Hai, sensei," we dutifully nodded, managing not to sound too exhausted.

I briefly turned my neck to look over my shoulders, but there were too many taller people behind me to catch Team Four's expressions. I could imagine Tsume and Kihito holding their complaints in front of Utatane-sensei's scary eyes. The woman was a tyrant in training and education, seriously. It made me glad that my sensei knew how and when to relax sometimes.

"Mikoto-chan is probably as red in the face as you," Ren teased me, but it was too hot for a real laugh make its way through his teeth.

I crossed my arms over my chest, "I'm sure I'm not so red."

Sakumo-sensei and Chitarō took their time sending me a look explaining how rosy a tone of skin like mine could get. I ducked my head, looking away. A gentle hand patted my naked nape, right under my high ponytail, and I drew comfort from Chita's usual form of consolation. My forehead protector was, for once, in its designated place instead of around my neck, protecting my head from the sun.

Almost an hour later, we stopped for a couple of minutes to let our civilian clients rest - or, at least, that's what sensei said. If anything, it felt as if the coffee break was for us. I couldn't point out which Genin was more sweaty.

"Hey," a voice called and I looked up, squinting my eyes to see, through the sunlight, the figure towering over me.

I got up from my crouching position, thinking that maybe Ojiro-kun, one of the oldest kids in the group, had gotten thirsty and drank all his water like the much younger Kimi-chan. I was already dreading having to share my minimal water when he spoke up again.

"You're Namikaze Kumi-chan, right?" He asked, but didn't seem really confused about it. "A friend of mine told me about you. He said you're the cutes-"

But whatever he was meaning to say was cut off by Ren's quick interruption, "Kumi-chan is pretty tired from walking, you know, you should let him rest instead of pestering him with questions."

The Ojiro kid looked so offended - no doubt due to being spoiled by his rich parents - that I entered the conversation, trying to calm everybody down. It would do no good to have the merchants angry at us for 'mistreating' one of their kids.

"Ren didn't to sound so rude, Ojiro-kun. It's just that sometimes he speaks before thinking things through. Isn't it, Ren?" I turned to my friend, giving him my friendliest smile.

I wasn't going to hear sensei ranting about being polite to our clients and whatnot just because Ren had made one mistake.

"Oh, I'm sure he meant every word he said," Chitarō murmured a few paces behind me. Thankfully, Ojiro hadn't been trained to spot the faintest sounds like us and didn't seem to hear it.

The dark-haired civilian snorted as undignified as possible, turning on his heels, sending the damn sand everywhere and marching off to his parents. We had been told he was more or less our age, but it was easy to forget that shinobi children matured much more quickly.

Sakumo-sensei softly hit the back of Ren's head, and, after throwing a disapproving glance at Chitarō, said, "How many times have I told you to control that tongue of yours? That's exactly why Chitarō and Kumi-chan are the team leaders in simulation more times than you."

Ren whined an undistinguished sound and pouted the biggest pout of all History.

I rolled my eyes. And I was the crybaby.

Our arrival took longer than expected due to a sudden sandstorm - must have been sensei's jinx - and we barely made it to the third round of the Exams, managing to reach the hidden village just in the morning of the finals.

Our clients paid us the half that was missing from the mission - the other part had been delivered back in Konoha - and barely bade us goodbye. I rolled my eyes. Some merchants were just too annoying and rude to bother.

"We should meet up with Nii-san," Ren practically bounced on his heels, talking excitedly. "He's probably shitting himself in fear, so I wanted to wish him good luck."

Tsume crossed her arms, "Like hell we're gonna waster our time finding 'em. I'm hungry and we only have a couple of hours 'til the start. You can wish him good luck after the Exam."

All of us paused. Seeing our disbelieving looks and raised eyebrows, the Inuzuka heir huffed.

"He'll need any good wishes to be chosen as a Chūnin, trust me."

"Hey, what does that mean?"

"No fighting, kids," Sakumo-sensei warned, coming back to us with Utatane-sensei. The Hokage advisor was standing with the sternest look on her face I'd ever seen.

She glanced at all of us before speaking up, "I have a meeting with the village Elders, which means I cannot spend my time making sure you behave yourselves like civilized Konoha citizens. Team Four!"

"Hai!"

"Try not to make fool of yourselves bickering like children in front of so many foreign shinobi. Sakumo-san will be your team leader while I am away. Be back at hotel no later than eight. Dismissed."

"Yes, Koharu-sensei," Team Four bowed back. I was surprised to see Kihito and Tsume so well-behaved. Mikoto simply seemed uneasy at the idea of being without her Jōnin-sensei in a different country.

I sent a soft smile at her, trying not to show that I too was nervous.

"Let's eat, folks!" Tsume shouted, throwing her arms up. A couple of civilians glanced at us warily, eyeing Kuromaru, who had grown a lot since the first time I saw him and had managed to acquire the fiercest pair of fangs I'd ever seen.

Kihito groaned, "Did you just calls us folks?"

"Shut up. Monkey Boy."

It was Chitarō's turn to groan.

"How are they still alive after so many months in the same team?" He asked no one in particular.

I shrugged, observing the usual bickering. Utatane-sensei must be feeling ashamed in her heart somewhere in Suna. It was peaceful, in a way, to see my friends behaving like themselves despite not being our home village. Almost as if nothing could affect them.

It seemed like even I could draw this reckless bravery from them.

"Nervous for Minato?" Ren skipped to Chitarō and me.

I tried to smile back, but all that came out was a wince. Ren patted my back sympathetically.

"You know he'll make it," he assured me.

I nodded, because a large part of me agreed with his statement. Minato was one of the strongest Genin of this generation. Perhaps I was little biased about it, since he was my brother and I knew what would come off him in the future, but it didn't change the facts. Minato was incredibly talented and could probably defeat most opponents in this tournament.

Despite the confidence in my mind that Minato would make it, I - like always - was shaking like a failing leaf while waiting for my brother's turn a few hours later. I couldn't even see him or his state of mind, since all Genins participating were sent to waiting rooms separated by village. Apparently, Suna didn't let the participants watch each others' matches, in case one would advance and fight the other. It was just like them, too, to worry about secrecy and stealth.

I observed as a bulky Iwa Genin fight against a tiny girl from Ame. Their height difference was ridiculous, despite it looking like they were the same age. I winced at a particularly rough punch delivered right at the stomach of the Ame girl and she was sent flying.

"Wow, it's almost unfair how obviously stronger the Iwa guy is," Ren whistled beside me, sounding impressed. His eyes were narrowed in concentration, analyzing the older boy thoroughly, even though he sounded laidback.

Mikoto's fingers were anxiously twitching over her lap. She was never one for meaningless fights, even more than me. It didn't keep her from doing her job, of course, but it still manage to upset her how soft her personality was sometimes. Her little brother was always taunting her about it, after all.

A shout from the audience interrupted my musings. I looked down to see the Iwa Genin staring stupidly at nothing in the middle of the arena. The Ame girl was a few meters away, her hands in the position of the Ram hand seal. I was aware that it would be stupid to release my chakra field simply to try and confirm if a genjutsu was in place, so I merely waited for the proctor's call.

"Winner: Heisui Chiname," the Suna-nin announced as unenthusiastically as possible. Nevertheless, a lot of people started clapping, excitedly commenting about the vicious fight.

I frowned as the Ame girl walked out of the arena. Her hair was a common shade of brown, but her hazel eyes were startlingly huge and her face were strangely familiar, which made no sense whatsoever. I had never gone to Amekagure and had never seen a Rain ninja in Konoha either. Even my Naruto memories were limited - I could only remember Hanzō, Konan, Yahiko and Nagato. Well, there was Pain too, but considering he wasn't really a person, I-

I totally stopped on my tracks. This girl - Heisui Chiname, was it? - her face looked familiar, because I had seen it before, only with piercings covering its cheeks and shockingly-orange hair covering its head. Her face belonged to one of the Six Paths of Pain. I couldn't remember which one, but there had been a tiny woman among the paths, hadn't it?

I paused, trying to calm myself and wondering why I was getting unsettled. This woman couldn't be one of the Six Paths of Pain. She was at least seventeen, going by her appearance, and would be too old to be fit the image I had from the series. Probably the Path's mother, then.

I was still fidgety at the uneasiness her presence made me feel. I had been seeing canon characters for a long time now, some even directly related to the most important pieces of Konoha's future, but someone from another village left me feeling absolutely lost. It was easy to pretend the only thing that would - could - go wrong in the future was the Kyūbi attack, but the Ame girl's unexpected relation to a canon character reminded me of something important: this world was all messed up and many things were going to go downhill from here on.

"Kumi-chan?" Mikoto's voice hesitantly brought me out of my deep thoughts.

I looked up from my lap, snapping back to reality. Another fight had obviously ended, going by the audience's cheers, and I had been distracted the entire time.

"Sorry, Ko-chan," I smiled apologetically at her. "I wasn't paying attention."

She grabbed my hand and I was used to the slightly bigger size of it by now.

"Minato-san is going to do well," she assured me.

Surely enough, when my brother's fight came, he calmly entered the arena. He hadn't changed much in the two months away. I could see a few centimeters extra on him and his bangs had grown longer, but he was essentially the same, which eased my mind a little. My brother was okay.

His first fight - because there was no doubt he'd advance - was against a Kumogakure boy who looked surprisingly young. Both of them entered their own stances and the proctor declared the beginning of the match.

Tsume raised her head, concentrating on whatever she was listening to with her incredible hearing.

"Huh," she made, managing to sound neither excited nor worried, "Apparently, this brat is the youngest participant in the current Exam."

Kihito frowned, observing the boy, who looked my age, actually, more attentively. Minato ducked a kick and went in for a punch. I wasn't the greatest at Taijutsu, but even I could see that the advantage wasn't with the younger boy.

"He's pretty good, I'll give him that," the Sandaime's oldest son admitted, "But not good enough to defeat Minato. He still has a long way to go."

And he was right. When my brother started to use one of his Wind jutsus - his repertoire had grown ever since Jiraiya became his sensei, but he still focused on Ninjutsu less than I did - the other boy stood no chance. The Kumo Genin was a Lightning type, which was weak against Wind in normal circumstances.

I watched the familiar pattern of Minato's katas and smiled when I saw a specific sequence of hand-seals.

"Fūton: Daitoppa!" Minato inhaled deeply, before expelling a giant gust of wind from his mouth. It was one the most basic Wind techniques, the Great Breakthrough.

The Kumo shinobi was sent flying against the walls. For a moment, I thought he'd get back up and continue fighting, but his body wobbled and he fell face-first to the ground.

"Winner: Namikaze Minato," the proctor declared. Said Genin bowed briefly to the audience, silently thanking them for their whistles and clapping.

"Woohoo!" Ren cheered beside me, clapping madly. I smiled to myself, happy for my brother's victory.

The matches kept on going. A preliminary round had been done to eliminate the excessive number of Genin, but there were still an unusually huge group to fight in the finals. From Konoha, there were two Genin whose name I didn't know - probably had graduated a couple of classes before my brother's generation - and a few familiars faces.

Yamanaka Inoichi lost against a Kiri-nin after spending too much chakra. Akimichi Chōza had been knocked out during the preliminaries. Nara Shikaku fought the shortest match ever without spending more than full cup worth of chakra. Aburame Shibi impressively managed to scare his opponent to tears (long story). Hyūga Hiashi and Hizashi were pitched against each other and, after a brief tense silence in the beginning of the match, ended up tying. Uchiha Fugaku had been unable to fight due a serious injury from his preliminary match. And, finally, there was brash Uzumaki Kushina, who managed to win against a Iwa-nin, but not without getting a broken arm and countless scrapes.

All in all, I was impressed with Konoha's future Jōnins. Technically speaking, Konoha suffered more losses (and a tie) than wins, but the showcase was amazing. Most Genin tended to stay Genin after their first Chūnin Exams - actually, young Chūnins came in times of war. Usually, you'd see sixteen-year-old Genins around the village in times of peace. Kakashi's generation was a glaring exception to the rule.

"I grabbed a paper with the order," Tsume said, running back to the place we were sitting. There had been a pause between the next fights to give sometime for recover. Medic-nins weren't allowed inside the waiting rooms, but rolls of bandages were distributed to the Genins.

Chitarō glanced over her shoulder, looking mildly interested. I smiled behind my hand - for all that he said about his brother, Chita sure cared a lot about Shikaku.

"Uh, Shika is fighting the Ame girl - what was her name again?" Ren asked me, trusting my usually good memory.

"Heisui Chiname," I promptly answered, without having to ponder over it too much. I had always had a great memory and way of learning things through books, but Suzaku-sensei had been honing this ability ever since he noticed it. According to him, one of the greatest assets a Fūinjutsu could have is the capacity of visualizing entire seals and projecting them in the air with chakra. For that you needed great control of said energy and amazing memory.

Lightly reprimanding myself for getting distracted so many times in only two hours, I tried to pay attention to my friends' conversation.

"That Ame girl is totally done for," Ren insisted.

Tsume shook her head and Kuromaru barked in agreement with his partner.

"No way. Short-stuff will trap Shikaku in a Genjutsu faster than he can say Kagemane no Jutsu," she argued. You'd think it was weird for a Genin of Konoha to defend another village's Genin ability, but ninja children were inclined to analyze things unbiased. Or, at least, they were supposed to.

According to our Academy teachers, it was supposed to help us in the long run. Then, again, assassination techniques were to do so too - and no sane person would have taught ten-year-old children how to kill people silently in my old world.

"Tch, Aniki will win," Chitarō said from the chair in front of me. He looked somewhat pissed off.

Uh-oh.

"Why don't we simply watch and see the results for ourselves?" Sakumo-sensei finally spoke up, sounding exasperated. Despite his easygoing personality, he was the most mature out all of us.

Kihito snorted, "As if Tsume could patiently wait for anything."

Mikoto sighed, but it sounded fondly even to me. I sent her a smile, which was returned with a soft laugh. She really was a sweetheart. I certainly agreed with Chitarō - how had her team not manage to kill themselves was a mystery.

"Shh," Ren made, waving a hand at the bickering duo. "Shibi-san's match is about to start."

Aburame Shibi was a weird guy, I decided. I had seen him before, of course, as the Academy wasn't all that big, but had never talked to him. Since he was in Kushina's team, I didn't see him all that much in the village either, for I tended to stay away from the redhead.

Nevertheless, I was inspired by the way he ruthlessly managed to defeat his opponent - a girl from Kusagakure - and walk away with no more than a few scratches. He seemed calm and controlled, and I wished I could have this kind of personality. I'd probably do a lot better in my fights if I didn't hesitate around my enemies. Actually, hadn't Shikaku-san told me exactly this a couple of months ago?

"Next match: Nara Shikaku versus Heisui Chiname," the proctor called.

Tsume's predictions turned out wrong, which didn't surprise me one bit. Not because she was bad at seeing outcomes - though she wasn't great, really - but because there was no way Shikaku-san would lose. The guy was the scary genius type. Seriously.

The next match was a drawn out one, quickly boring the audience. It was a Takigakure boy against one of the Konoha-nin whose name I didn't know. The girl from our village won, but just by a thread. There was no way she'd win her next fight in the state she was.

"Next match," the proctor called, "Namikaze Minato versus Uzumaki Kushina."

No.

No, the thought repeated itself inside my head, as if surprised. This couldn't be right. I hadn't looked at the paper Tsume brought with the fighting order, though I should have. Maybe, then, I wouldn't be so startled by this turn of events.

A sudden coldness seeped inside me when I saw Minato's frame entering the arena. He was in almost perfect condition even though his fight against the young Kumo boy had fried the sleeves of his shirt. Kushina, on the other hand, had her arm in a makeshift sling made out of bandages and a hair ribbon. She was in no condition to fight - much less against my brother - but there was no way the stubborn, motor-mouth girl would give up.

Which was exactly the problem.

I knew what was going to happen before Minato opened his mouth.

Don't do this, I wanted to say. I stayed in perfect silence.

"I, Namikaze Minato, give up on this match," he said to the proctor, who raised unimpressed eyebrows. "Frankly, I'm spent and it would be reckless of me to charge in a battle right now."

I could tell by the Suna-nin that he didn't believe one bit of my brother's words, but he still called out, "Winner: Uzumaki Kushina."

Inside my numb mind, I could see everything. My friends' surprised stares, my teacher's analytic eyes, the proctor's silent reprimand, even my brother's calm expression. But, most of all, I could see Kushina's face twisted in a ugly grimace, as if she was shocked and angry all in the same package.

For some reason, her expression made me even more furious at the situation.

I wanted to get up and march to Konoha's waiting room, but a rational part of my brain argued that there was no way they'd let me enter in the middle of the Exams. I waited surprisingly patient for the end of the matches. Shibi easily won against the wounded Konoha-nin and Kushina's simple loss against Shikaku left a bitter taste in my mouth.

My friends politely clapped when Aburame Shibi ended up winning against Shikaku due to greater stamina and chakra pools, but I couldn't will myself to bring my hands together in a clap. I couldn't will myself to do anything.

"Now can I see my brother?" Ren petulantly asked Tsume, who grabbed his head to give him a good noogie at his sass.

Chitarō's hand fell over my hair, catching my attention.

"Are you okay?" He questioned me, sounding uncharacteristically kind. Chitarō was perceptive, but he never dropped his voice to a gentle tone. It was too troublesome.

I nodded, even though I was not. There was no way I was okay after such a show of stupidity from my own brother.

We walked toward the waiting room with no hurry, sensei quietly trailing behind us. We met along the way with the Genin who had lost in the preliminaries and hadn't been allowed inside Konoha's room.

"Hello, Kumi-chan," Chōza greeted me warmly when he saw me walking down the corridor with my group.

I waved at him. I was feeling strangely numb.

The waiting room wasn't silent, as I had expected, when we arrived. The Konoha ninjas whose names I didn't know - and had finally been recognized as Umino Tetsuo (wasn't that surprising?) and Shinji Aiko - were carefully away from the middle of the room, where a discussion was taking place. Inoichi and Hizashi were busy holding an angry Kushina from punching my brother.

"You had no right to give up like a pansy!" She was saying, her hair truly moving behind her in her anger.

My brother stood no even two meters in front of her, calmly observing her features twisted in irritation. His lack of action made me annoyed.

"I was feeling well enough to fight against you," Kushina protested, trying to ease her way out of Hizashi and Inoichi's arms.

No, you weren't, I told myself. Even now, her broken arm was simply painful to look at, especially after my own open fracture.

I glanced around the room. There was Jiraiya leaning against one of the walls, seemingly bored out of his mind. Another teacher - Kushina, Shibi and Hizashi's, if I wasn't mistaken - seemed ready to intervene; his onyx eyes and dark hair gave me no doubt that he was an Uchiha. Ino-Shika-Chō's sensei, on the other hand, looked amused at the scene as well as Umino-san and Shinji-san's sensei.

"I think that's enough, Kushina," the Uchiha teacher reprimanded his student.

"But Yashiro-sensei," Kushina protested and her stubbornness, not for the first time, made me annoyed.

Kurama Murakumo-san, who I now identified as future head of the Kurama clan, sighed as if disappointed at the loss of his source of fun. I thought about glaring at him - there was no way this scene was funny - but it wasn't his fault, in the end. It would irrational to blame him for Kushina's reckless behavior and Minato's complete idiocy.

My brother finally seemed to noticed he had an audience. His eyes flew from person to person until they landed on me. A smile bloomed on his face, immediately fading at my serious face.

"Mii-chan," he came in my direction, his arms open and ready to embrace me.

And wasn't it so-damn-stupid that a part of me wanted nothing more than receive his hug and not be mad at his stupidity?

I stayed right where I was and my brother eventually stopped coming in my direction. I opened my mouth to tell him everything on my mind, perhaps even shout like Kushina had done, but I closed it.

I wanted to say that the Chūnin Exams were important for both of us, because a Chūnin earns a lot more than a Genin and we paid our own bills. I wanted to say that he was my hero inside my own mind and he had utterly disappointed by giving up because of a girl - because of Kushina. I wanted to say that he was stupid and that was all he'd ever be.

I wanted to say many things, but I didn't say anything. I turned on my heels and left the room. If I stayed, I was sure I'd start crying.

I did turn out to be the crybaby, after all.