Sakura drums her fingers restlessly on the thick railing of the Knife Runner , a large elongated ship as pointed as it's name, and gazes out at the docks and through the colourful packs of Tea country merchants and noblemen in search of the distinctive heads and backs of her teammates.
"Take a breath, Sakura. You're wearing ridges in the ship." Kakashi-sensei chastises from behind her.
Sakura starts a little, lifting her hand from the railing, and finds she has in fact left rather deep divots in the mahogany the precise size and shape of her fingers. "Sorry, sensei. Just restless."
"Not to mention bored." Kakashi muses. He's leaning against the foremast with his face buried in his social barrier of cheap porn. Sakura has to admit that the ruse works well– not a single shiphand or nobleborn passenger has had the nerve to approach him yet, though if anyone actually bothered to look, they would notice that he hasn't turned a page in over an hour.
"They're stupid late." Sakura whines. "And I'm starving ."
Kakashi gives the sky a contemplative glance. "The delegation should be here soon. If they don't hurry, the ship is going to leave before they get back."
Sakura slumps against the railing dejectedly. "I just want my pork buns and dango." She grumbles.
"I'm sure they won't be much longer." Kakashi assures her, though he must be just as hungry as she is if not more so– at least she'd had breakfast before they'd left, Kakashi-sensei had been too busy feeding both them and the ninken to manage the same for himself.
"They better not be." She growls, her stomach rumbling again for her attention.
The four of them have only been in Tea Country for a day and a half and Sakura doesn't exactly hate the place. Tamakai city houses the largest port in the whole of the country, curling out into the pale green of the shallow sea that frames Tea Country on all sides. Its broad plazas and lanes host a wide array of shops and parlors, all selling goods from across the sea. As one of the rare neutral zones, Tea country is free to trade with most of the major elemental countries, and as a result boasts everything from fine silks and textiles to exotic cuisine. Protected by a rotation of contracted ninja that changes every few months to ensure equality and reduce the chances of corruption and espionage, Tamakai is terribly peaceful.
And terribly boring.
"Sakura." Kakashi-sensei says her name soft and sharp, a call for her attention, and Sakura turns immediately, directing her gaze to match the focus of her sensei's. There's a ship coming into harbor, an elaborate construct of painted wood in rich red and deep dark navy. It's sails are thickly waxed and layered paper instead of cloth, reinforced by horizontal bamboo slats. It's a type of ship common to the far south, and now that she gets a good look at it she can tell why the delegation had chosen to change ships at dock– unlike the Knife Runner , this elaborate ship has few defences, and those it does have are ill equipped to deal with the kind of assault it's likely to find in ninja-controlled waters.
It had been decided before they were even assigned the mission that the delegation would take ship almost the whole way to fire country– a ship at sea is far easier to defend from attack than a caravan on land, and the trade agreements that the delegation is apparently carrying are worth a great deal to the fire daimyo– as well as any major elemental country that could get ahold of them.
"Well isn't that pretentious." She mutters.
"Best not say that in their company, cub." Kakashi reminds her. "They are guests of the daimyo after all."
"And obviously used to being treated like royalty."
Kakashi just gives her a look , and Sakura sighs.
"Oh fine, I'll keep my snark to myself." she concedes.
"Only while they're in earshot." he assures her amicably. "Though this does mean that the boys are officially 'stupid late.'"
"What is taking them so long? They stopped to go shopping I'll bet you. Sasuke'll blow our whole budget if left unchecked."
"Not with Naruto there he won't." Kakashi disagrees, standing straight and snapping his book shut. "Either way we don't have time to wait for them. Come on."
Sakura sighs and follows Kakashi over the ship railing and onto the dock to greet the ship as it pulls in. Deckhands swarm the riggings of the ship, scampering over the netting and up along the yardarms, pulling in the sails and gliding the opulent ship into harbor. Now that the people aboard no longer look the size of ants, Sakura can see that the delegation has arrived with a company of soldiers, a dozen men in fancy-ass lacquered armor that screams private guard .
"They do realize that's not going to do them any good, right?" Sakura mutters.
"The Yucheng archipelago and it's dynasty operate too far south into the Jade sea to have any real interaction with the elemental countries." Kakashi explains. "They've recently expanded a great deal north, and are here to offer these trade agreements in exchange for Konoha's protection against Kiri raids."
"And their contact with actual ninja?" Sakura asks.
Kakashi laughs. "Minimal."
"Great." she grumbles.
"Consider it an exercise in patience."
Sakura is halfway to some kind of witty comment, but snaps her mouth shut before she can voice it.
The ship slides to a stop before them, settling into dock with a rush of parting water, and a gangplank descends to rest on the boards a few meters in front of them.
Almost immediately a pint sized rocket comes barreling down the ramp, dark haired and blue cland and giggling madly. He's followed immediately by two armoured guards shouting expletives and clomping at the kid's heels.
"Young master!" shouts the first down the ramp, an older man with thinning hair and a pointed goatee, but the speeding boy pays him no heed, giggling madly and spinning in circles across the dock like a mad windmill, uncaring of the thin breadth of the dock and the fact that if he spins much further he'll take a header right off the edge and into the water.
He does however have the good fortune of whirling right past Kakashi, who is used to reacting to and wrangling up much rowdier brats than a hyper four-year-old. He snags the kid by the back of his dark blue embroidered changshan tunic with two fingers, pulling him from the edge and setting him safely back on the planks.
"Bohai!"
The little kid whips around to face another form standing at the top of the gangplank, a young man in a golden tunic with the same dark hair and pale green eyes, no more than a handful of years older than Sakura.
"Apologies, young lord." The elder guard sounds exasperated, like it isn't the first time this has occurred. "We only took our eyes off him for a moment."
"You can't take your eyes off him at all ." The young man growls as he stomps down the gangplank. "A moment is all it takes. Bohai, come here."
The kid shrieks "GEGE!" and bolts back up the gangplank to meet who must be his brother halfway.
"You must be Jinhai." Kakashi states as the young man lifts his little brother onto his hip, and Bohai entertains himself by playing with his brother's dark hair, spinning it into messy braids.
"I am," the young man replies, looking the faintest bit uncomfortable. "And you are Hatake, I presume. I was told there would be more of you."
"The rest of our team will be back soon." Kakashi assures. "Their absence will not interfere with the departure time."
Jinhai nods, looking vaguely confused as his eyes track from Kakashi to Sakura and back up again. "Very well. We will need an hour or so to transfer our supplies, after which we may depart."
"Sakura is going to kill us." Naruto mutters, but doesn't look away from the shop window any more than Sasuke does.
"She'll thank us later." Sasuke insists. "We're not going to get another chance to come back here until after the Chunin exams."
Tamakai is a treasure trove of non-native goods, and includes several shops selling items native to the other four elemental countries– rugs and textiles from Suna, silks and art from Kumo, metals and jewelry from Iwa. So far they've found Sakura a pair of elegant scale metal cestuses and a set of crystal edge scalpels they plan on saving for her next birthday. They've gotten Shikamaru a new set of simple obsidian and gold earrings capable of chakra storage (he's not vain enough Sasuke, they have to be useful ), Kiba some thick leather Katsu armbands, Ino some abalone hairsticks meant to hide half a dozen senbon apiece (It's subtle Naruto, I don't expect you to understand the concept), Choji a set of shinobi cookbooks with recipes to boost stamina and improve muscle mass, Shino a pair of metal insect chakra constructs that can be used for surveillance, and Hinata an elegant silk and steel black obi, embroidered with pearlescent Hyuuga white and thick enough to stop a kunai.
Sasuke has not-so secretly been looking for something that suits his idiot– ideally something protective that's going to be useful for the upcoming exams, but so far, even with all the abundance of Tamakai, he's come up short.
"We can't be out much longer or the freaking ship is going to leave without us." Naruto reminds him for the third time in an hour.
"We'll catch up to it." Sasuke argues. "Come on, this way."
"Jerk…" Naruto mutters as he's yanked down another side street, but at this point it's a token resistance at most.
"If we're getting something for literally everyone we know then we're getting something for ourselves too." Sasuke mutters as they enter another shop.
"I don't see the point." Naruto counters. "Besides, we still need to get things for Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei. And it's impossible to shop for Kakashi-sensei. Not to mention that if we don't actually get Sakura her pork buns she will actually kill us."
Sasuke just huffs, blowing a strand of his raven hair out of his eyes with the breath. "Details."
"Something I can help you with?"
The irritated snap of a sentence startles Jinhai out of his idle staring– he had been looking around for the white-haired man, the shinobi , and lost track of his thoughts trying to wrap his head around the pink haired girl leaning easily against the starboard railing. Surely someone had screwed up with the missives somewhere, because Jinhai doesn't understand how a girl several years younger than himself could be part of the team responsible for the entire vessel while in enemy waters. Though despite her age and stature there is iron in her eyes and sureness in her body language that confuses him– surely someone so young could not have so much steel in their spine.
"I was looking for your commander." Jinhai admits after a long pause.
"Commander?" She questions with a tilt of her head. "You mean Kakashi-sensei? He was talking to the captain last I saw. I think we're shipping out here in a minute."
Jinhai blinks at her. "So soon? We only just got settled. And are we not still short half your team?"
The girl dismisses his worries with a negligent shrug. "The boys will catch up. Besides, it's best to leave as soon as possible. The longer we sit here the longer your delegation has a target on their back."
"Catch up? How on earth–"
"ANCHORS AWAY! ALL HANDS TO SAILS."
Jinhai is startled out of his sentence by shouts and flurries of movement as the deckhands swarm the rigging and masts, going through the motions of pulling the ship from dock. One of the deckhands waves over at them, one arm tangled in the rigging and both feet planted on the side of the mast.
"Miss Sakura! Would you mind giving us a hand with the main lines? We can shave at least twenty minutes of fumbling with your assistance!"
The girl gives the man a quick cut smile. "Sure thing Sato, I'll be right up!" she then turns back to Jinhai and points towards the back of the ship. "Kakashi-sensei is aft. If you need anything else, best ask him."
She doesn't so much as hesitate for a reply before she's bounding away, there and gone so quickly it leaves Jinhai blinking after her.
He stops to check on Bohai before heading that way, mildly comforted to find him absorbed in chasing wooden dice and thoroughly interfering with his men's gambling. His guard captain gives him a diligent nod after noting his presence, and then returns to watching the youngest of the royal family steal all his winning rolls.
He finds the shinobi commander right where the girl said he'd be, leaning casually against the aft rail and speaking lowly with the older woman that Jinhai knows to be the ship's captain. The white-haired man's single visible eye flicks to him once and then flicks back to the captain without breaking conversation or focus, so quickly that the captain herself doesn't seem to notice the momentary division of attention at all.
"We'll have the tahou cannons armed and ready before we reach full sail into the gulf." the captain is saying.
"Thank you, though it should be an unnecessary precaution." the commander responds with a respectful nod.
The woman shrugs. "Helps calm my nerves if nothing else." At that moment the woman turns her head and notices Jinhai over a well muscled shoulder. She gives a small nod, though Jinhai can't tell if it's and idle motion or something directed at him, and then turns back to Hatake. "I'll let you get back to it. Holler if ya need anythin'."
"Noted. Thank you captain."
The woman waves off the pleasantries and strides away in the direction of the foresail, already shouting orders and expletives at the deckhands, her feet sure on the already swaying deck.
"Lord Jinhai." The man addresses politely. "It there something I can help you with?"
"I wanted to formally apologize for my mother's inability to travel here in person. I'm aware this could… complicate things."
The shinobi tilts his head, meeting his gaze levelly. "And why is that?"
Jinhai blinks up at the man, taken aback. He has always been tall and lanky for his age- even at sixteen he can match most of his guardsman centimeter for centimeter, but this man seems to tower over him, even if the true difference in their heights isn't that great. "Excuse me?"
"If you are expecting your age to bother me, it does not. So long as you prove to be competent, things should go quite smoothly."
Jinhai finds himself standing even straighter despite the words. "That is an… uncommon philosophy to have." He finds himself saying after a moment.
"Not at all." Hatake disagrees. "You'll find it's a common one in the elemental countries. Though I'll admit I was not expecting you to bring a four-year-old along for a diplomatic mission that could potentially place you in danger."
Jinhai grimaces. "I'm afraid there wasn't much of choice. Our mother is not capable of caring for him in her current state of illness, and Bohai has a… talent for escaping his caretakers."
"So I've begun to notice." Hatake drawls. "In fact I'm surprised he hasn't yet managed to get himself hurt."
"Yes well, along with having uncanny energy, Bohai also happens to have the luck of the devil."
That startles a soft laugh out of the shinobi. "Well I hope that luck holds. And speaking of the devil." The man lifts a hand to point over Jinhai's shoulder, and when he turns his stomach drops clear through the deck.
Bohai it walking along the portside railing, arms outstretched on either side of him, giggling each time he wobbles in his steps.
"BOHAI!"
Before he can bolt across the deck a firm hand grips his arm. "Calm down. He's not in any danger." Hatake tries to assure, but Jinhai is already panicking.
"What do you mean not in danger!? He's– Bohai!"
But it's too late, Bohai wobbles too far, his tiny chubby arms flapping for balance, and he's too far, Jinhai won't make it–
This time when he lunges forward Hatake lets him go, and he sprints across the deck as fast as his legs can carry him, throwing his torso over the railing to search the water for Bohai's blue tunic. But he sees nothing, only wave upon wave of clear turquoise water, not a wisp of navy or flash of gold.
For several heartbeats he can't even move, can't even breathe, and then suddenly he does see gold– not in the water but at the corner of his eye, and–
"Um, somebody lose something?" says a voice out of nowhere, followed by a high-pitched giggle Jinhai knows very well.
He turns and finds a young man perched on the rail, soaked to skin and sitting casually back on his haunches. He has golden hair and eyes like jewels, and he also has Bohai draped casually over one shoulder, laughing maniacally.
The boy shifts Bohai so that he falls forward, checked only by the wrap of an arm around the four-year-old's knees at his shoulder. Bohai, obviously convinced this is some kind of fun new game, shrieks in delight as he's tipped upside down. "This yours?" the boy asks dryly.
Much to Jinhai's embarrassment, the first words out of his mouth is not a question as to his brother's safety, or even an exclamation of surprise, instead he asks– "How on earth did you get here when we're at full sail?"
"We walked." The boy says as if that's a perfectly reasonable answer. "Or ran, I guess. We're kind of running late. You seen our teammate? Angry? Pink hair? Sorta hard to miss?"
"She's helping the deckhands… I think." Jinhai responds in a daze, just as Bohai squeaks out an enthusiastic; "Gege!"
Jinhai takes his baby brother from the young man with some rather awkward maneuvering, just as another boy lands beside the first. This one is dark where the other is bright, with back hair and black eyes and a dark expression as he jostles his companion enough to almost send him overboard again. He's noticeably dryer than his friend, and is carrying several bags filled with something savory that Jinhai can smell from where he's standing.
"Hurry up idiot." The dark one growls. "There's not enough room here for two."
"Well no one asked you to land right up here with me." The bright one snaps back.
" YOU JERKS! "
As one the two boys freeze where they are with their eyes fixed somewhere over Jinhai's head. When he turns he sees the pink haired girl so visibly livid Jinhai could swear she's steaming, and he only barely has the presence of mind to duck before she launches herself over the railing and tackles both boys back down into the water.
"I hope we've learned a valuable lesson from this experience."
"Sensei, if you're going to say something about 'not being late' I'm going to call you on the hypocrisy right now."
"Of course not. But leaving your teammate to starve while you went shopping was poor judgment."
"We brought like six extra servings of pork buns, and apologised, and dango ." Naruto counters.
Despite this Sakura still hasn't spoken a word to them since they returned, in fact she hasn't even stopped stuffing her face with meat buns since they sat down. She's halfway through Naruto's portion already, but he's not stupid enough to say anything until she's finished.
Kakashi-sensei has eaten his portion already, as usual while everyone had their backs turned or were otherwise occupied. "What were to two up to, anyway?" he asks.
"That's classified." Sasuke tells him seriously, and Kakashi-sensei throws his hands up in placation.
Naruto leans around Sasuke's back to send a glare at Sakura. "Come on, you can't stay pissed at us forever."
She just takes another vindictive bite out of one of Naruto's pork buns and glares right back. "Watch me, Uzumaki. Three hours. Three ."
"We apologised . And brought you four flavors of dango."
Sakura narrows her eyes and peers hesitantly at the bag just past Naruto's knees. "Did you get the sweet red bean kind?"
Naruto snorts. "Of course I did, what do you take me for, some kind of heathen?"
"... You can have your pork buns back."
They get attacked by pirates like, twelve minutes later.
Sakura is still cranky enough about the pork buns to break their ship with her bare hands.
Kakashi-sensei says it's better that she break an enemy ship with a chakra charged right hook than the one they're currently standing on, and Naruto is inclined to agree.
Shikamaru sits cross-legged in the center of the room, his hands steepled in front of him, forefingers pressed against his mouth in concentration as he thinks. The Black Temple seems finished, for all intents and purposes. The walls are riddled with the elegant tracework of Naruto's seals, improvements to the chakra flow and regulation systems already built into the walls by old masters that predated the second Great War. Shikamaru has learned a great deal from this room over the last few weeks alone; it has five rooms in total, the main room in which he is sitting, and four smaller ones that flare out in the cardinal directions, each one named for one of the Four Heavenly Kings of buddhism.
The first room, just past the entryway to the east, is the Jikoku room, which they've taken to calling the White room. It's a place of purification and cleansing, a sauna-esque chamber ment to purge contaminants and impurities from mind, body, and chakra. The second room going clockwise is the Zojo-ten room to the south, also known as the Blue room, for setting growth and conditioning. The third is the western Komoku-ten room, or Red room, for improval of the fives special senses. The fourth is the northern room of Bishamonten, the Green room, for improval of the spatial and chakra senses.
The central room, the one in which he's sitting, is simply called the Gold room, a wide circular space host to twelve deep oval basins sunken into the floor, arranged in a flowering pattern consisting of an inner and outer ring. Each basin serves a specific function, only five of which Shikamaru has been able to work out so far, all in the outer ring.
He's musing over the sixth when a sound brings his attention away from his thoughts, steady steps through the entranceway and the soothing support of a chakra signature Shikamaru knows very well.
"You still stewing over this puzzle?" Choji asks with a laugh, stepping around the outer ring of basins towards him.
Shikamaru huffs a breath and drops his hands into his lap. "Something about this room is bothering me." He admits to his friend. "I feel like I'm missing something."
"Well take a brain break, yeah? I brought lunch."
Choji takes a seat in front of him and produces a bag of takeout that Shikamaru recognizes as being from a kebab place on the market square. It only takes one deep inhale for Shikamaru to realize he's starving.
"You're a lifesaver." He says with feeling as Choji hands him a carton. "How's Ino doing?"
"Still swinging her giant cleaver around. I think she's in love."
"Whatever makes her happy." Shikamaru mutters, mostly to himself, and reaches for a skewer.
He's halfway through a kebab before he has the self-awareness to notice Choji staring at him. He immediately checks his mouth in case he's gotten sauce on his cheek or something, but he finds no evidence of a mess and Choji is still staring. "What?"
Choji just shakes his head, a weird little half-grin on his face, and says "Nothing."
He goes back to inhaling a steak kebab and Shikamaru doesn't question it further.
"So," Choji asks when they're finished. "What's tripping you up about this place now? You got the side rooms figured out pretty easily."
"Naruto helped. And the directional rooms weren't as complex." Shikamaru explains. "I think they all feed into this room somehow, but I'm not sure how, or why."
"What about the basins you got working?"
Shikamaru leans back on his forearms, eyeing the Ivory basin on his left. "I managed to figure out that some of them are meant to help regenerate and strengthen certain types of tissues; bone, tendon, muscle, that kind of thing. The inner six might have something to do with chakra, but I'd need the sharingan to get a read on the components in the walls."
"Then we wait for the monster triad to come back." Choji suggests easily. "Most of it is working right? The rest can wait until after the exams."
Shikamaru sighs and rubs a knuckle between his brows. "You're right." He admits. "How was 'breathing practice'?"
"Genma-san's a hardass." Choji complains, flexing a hand. "But you can't argue with the results."
"No you can't." Shikamaru agrees. Choji looks sturdier, more muscle and less pudge, though still with the healthy heft of his Akimichi energy stores. Combining the natural force of Choji's hits with the calm power and rhythm of the breathwork has turned even his regular punches into a force of nature.
Shikamaru finishes his meal and Choji waits patiently as he does, since his portion has already been reduced to the pointed skewers the Akimichi is currently using to absently clean his teeth.
"Is team 8 In-village currently?" Shikamaru asks, packing up the trash from their meal back into the bags for easy disposal.
"Got back yesterday." Choji answers. "Smash and grab on the Grass country border, I think."
"Good, I've been sitting too long. I think I'll have it out with Kiba before we meet up with Ino for gift shopping."
"We should have time." Choji assures him, chewing absently on the end of one of his skewers, probably still hungry if Shikamaru had to guess, which he really doesn't. "Ino won't be done for another few hours. Why Kiba? I thought you and Shino have been sparring lately."
"Shino's endurance and mine are about the same. I need to work on it, and Kiba's got more reserves."
"Hinata's reserves are better than Kiba's." Choji points out.
"Yeah, but she's been dealing with clan shit all week, so I'm not going to bother her. Plus, taijutsu on taijutsu Hinata would kill me."
Choji gives a hearty laugh at that. "I don't know, brother. You're still a hell of a lot faster."
"Yeah well she only has to catch me once for me to be dead ."
Choji dissolves into laughter and Shikamaru rolls his eyes to cover the fond quirk of his lips.
He leans back and away and clears a space on the floor. Then he sinks a canine into the side of his thumb, flicks his fingers through a handful of signs, and presses his hand to the smooth polished floor. A low haunting hum and a swirl of misty silver later Veylan stands before him, eye to eye, large cupped ears flicking side to side. She's lost a few of her spots already and has grown into her long limbs a little, but for the most part she's still a fawn, hardly three feet at the shoulder. Despite her age and size she's as quick as a dart and as agile as any feline, capable of cutting corners and scaling cliff faces just as fast as Ino's squirrelly little leopard things, the Zheng. But Veylan suits him just like the Zheng suit Ino and Choji's Nian suit him– large, plate armoured, bearlike, and sweethearts right up until you corner them or something they care about, and then you end up as a neat red smear on the pavement.
"Shikamaru-sama!" Veylan greets cheerfully, tucking around him to nuzzle her nose against his temple. He strokes a hand down her neck, with the grain of her soft fog-like fur.
"Hey kiddo. Can you do me quick favor?"
"Of course." Veylan agrees readily. Whipping around and shifting restlessly foot to foot, awaiting orders.
"Can you run down Kiba for me? You remember Kiba."
"The jackal boy with the red fang markings? Yes I remember. Would you like me to bring him a message?"
"Tell him to meet me on training ground nine if he's not busy or exhausted."
"Are we sparring? " The young wraith hart questions excitedly. "I love sparring."
"Sure are. Let's give Kiba and Shasa a good run around, yeah?"
"Oh absolutely ." Veylan agrees with a lot of predatory glee for a herbivore. "I'll find you on the training ground!" She's gone then in a puff of greyish smoke, and Choji is chuckling.
"So much energy. All her brothers and sisters are so calm."
"She's still just a kid, she's allowed to be excited about little things." Shikamaru defends as he stands.
"True, true." Choji agrees and follows. 'I'll probably go train with Ino for a bit. I'll come get you when we're done."
"Sounds good, we should be long finished by then."
Kiba and Shikamaru are not done sparring by the time Choji and Ino find them on training ground nine. Ino has her shiny new nagamaki balanced against her shoulder, and she hasn't stopped talking about it since Choji came to pick her up.
"I just love the balance of it! It's got all the heft and grace of a naginata with twice the blade, and it just, works , you know? I don't know what I was thinking not picking one up before now, and Hayate-san is an awesome teacher, even if he has to take breaks every now and then…"
Choji has always prided himself on being a good listener, and so long as that smile stays bright on Ino's face, he'll sit here and listen to her talk about steel quality and aerodynamics for the rest of the day.
They both have to duck as the enter the training ground when Akamaru goes flying over their heads, a tiny white ninken leading a pack of vicious looking blood jackals anywhere from two to four times his size.
"I see Kiba upped his summons count again." Ino comments blithely.
"He's not the only one." Choji points out, gesturing to the trees around them. If he concentrates he can spot the myriad of dark ghostly harts and hinds darting back and forth in the trees, outrunning and cutting around the jackals. Even though the jackals do still outnumber the wraith harts, several of Shikamaru's summons are almost fully grown, with racks of wicked sharp horns and hooves capable of denting steel.
Shadow ripples and flexes to their right and Shikamaru materializes as though stepping out from behind a curtain. He has a wickedly long trench knife gripped in each hand– the right protects Shikamaru's knuckles with a serrated cage, and the left is equipped with a sword-breaker extension on the handle, which, with the right application of angle and force, can shatter steel and disarm kunai.
He touches down for maybe half a second before he bounds away off into the dark again, pulling shadow up around him once more, slipping it on like a familiar coat and vanishing inside it. Seconds later Kiba crashes through the brush and lands on all fours with a snarl, head on the swivel. He's in full beast mode, eyes slit-pupiled and fingernails curled into thick razor claws.
"Slippery bastard." He growls, voice a hair too low for human vocal chords, but he sits still long enough for Choji's wave to actually catch his attention.
The Inuzuka blinks at him and Choji can practically see the mental backtrack out of Hunter Mode; his pupils expand to normal human width again, his ragged chakra softens and smooths, the hair on the back of his neck drops from its bristle.
"Oh. Hey Choji. Ino. What're you doin here?"
"Here for our Nara." Ino informs him. "We're gift hunting."
"Gift hunting?" Kiba questions with a doglike tilt of his head. "For who?"
"The monster trio." Choji answers.
Kiba perks visibly. "That's not a bad idea. Sasuke gave me some of their modified shuriken and I've been meaning to pay him back."
"Wanna come? We can make an evening out of it." Ino suggests, twirling her nagamaki and then settling it against her opposite shoulder.
Before Kiba can open his mouth to reply Shikamaru drops out of nowhere to land feet first on Kiba's back, knocking the breath out of his chest with a grunt and pushing him face-first flat into the grass.
"Watch your back, Inuzuka." Shikamaru chastises with small cut of a smirk.
Kiba's first response is an unintelligible string of rumbling snarls, and his second is a very clear mutter of "Stupid sneaky Nara."
Shikamaru looks up at his teammates boredly, not bothering to relieve his weight from Kiba's back. "Don't forget we should get something for Asuma-sensei too."
Kiba turns his head enough to glare up at Shikamaru. "If you'd get off me, I could get Hinata and Shino and we could all go together ."
"Magic word?"
" Now ."
Shikamaru's smirk flashes wider in amusement but he straightens out of his crouch and steps off Kiba's spine, just as Akamaru comes flashing through the trees with his pack of jackals. He runs up to Kiba and gives his face a long lick, and Kiba laughs wryly as he pushes himself up out of the dirt.
"Little late for a rescue, bud. But good try."
Akamaru yips and dives into Kiba's sweatshirt, dark grey trimmed with red and relatively new, a gift from his sister when he ruined his old one. Shasa skidds to sit at Kiba's heels, tail on the wag, followed closely by six of his siblings– four brothers around his size and two sisters twice that.
Shikamaru's summons also step to the Nara's side, the first of which is Ravain, a dark coloured hart that is the largest of Shika's current summons– a reserved male with charcoal fur trailing ghostly smoke in iridescent green.
He's also the only one of Shikamaru's summons to bear a full rack of dagger-sharp horns, branching in curled points above the beast's head. He's a bit taller than Shikamaru, and he dips his large head over the Nara's shoulder for a neck scratch, which Shikamaru obliges.
"Are we finished for the day?" He asks his summoner, and Shikamaru nods.
"You're free to go. Thank you."
"Of course. If you need us again don't hesitate."
"Of course." Shika parrots, and the wraith harts dismiss themselves in a puff of silver fog.
Kiba's blood jackals wrestle with him a little and then dismiss themselves as well, leaving him covered in mismatched fur and red on the arms from play-bites and scratching.
They pick up Shino from the jutsu library and Hinata from her family compound. Choji waits outside the property line with Shikamaru and Ino while Kiba and Shino run in to get her. By the frustrated look on Hinata's face and the way Kiba and Shino have her sandwiched between them, the process was not a smooth one. Choji doesn't ask, it's not his business, but he does buy her a stick of tri-color dongo from a stand when they get to the marketplace. It's worth the surprised smile she gives him in return, and Shino mouths a 'thank you' at him behind her back over the collar of his jacket.
Choji has always been a fan of the little things.
Kakashi spends the morning before the chunin exams drinking coffee in Iruka's kitchen and being a general nuisance as Iruka goes through all the prep work of the procter rosters and the candidate screenings.
And fusses. He might also be fussing.
"Did they get enough sleep?" Iruka asks as he sorts through a messy stack of files.
"You asked that already." Kakashi informs him as he walks around the table, stopping to study one of the many knick-knacks dotting Iruka's countertop.
"No I didn't."
"You asked me if they were fully rested thirteen minutes ago."
"It's not the same. They could be physiologically rested and still not have gotten enough sleep for psychological well being–"
" Iruka ."
" What ."
Kakashi cocks a hip against the table and idly opens the fridge. "If you fret any harder you're going to strain something. And I can't believe I'm the one telling you to calm down."
"The Chunin exams are no joke, I'm allowed to be worried about my own kids dammit and get your hands off that daifuku Hatake or I will take them off your wrists."
Kakashi snaps his hand away from the plate of mochi sweets. "Touchy, touchy." he mutters, but doesn't reach for them again.
Iruka sighs. "Look, I just want to be sure they're prepared. That's all."
"They've been prepared for months now." Kakashi reminds him patiently, wandering over towards the coffee maker again. "I've been thinking of setting up extra parameters during the test just to make sure it's even challenging."
"It's the Chunin exams, Kakashi. There's still a lot that could go wrong."
"And they're prepared even if things do go south." The Jounin insists, and wanders back over to the table to set a steaming cup of coffee by Iruka's wrist.
He takes a sip from the offered mug without really thinking– Kakashi knows how he likes his coffee and isn't stupid enough to mess with it– and looks up when he registers the unfamiliar weight and shape of the cup in his hand.
"Whose mug is this?" he asks as he twists it in his hand. It's pinwheel colourful, a striped twist of three colours painted vertically up the ceramic and glazed in something silvery.
"Yours." Kakashi answers blithely, flipping through some of Iruka's exam memos.
"I don't own a mug like this."
"You do now. Look closer."
Iruka turns the mugs slowly, examining each of the three swirls of colour. One is fuchsia and bears little designs of cherry blossoms etched out in pale turquoise, the second is dark blue with a pattern of down-facing crescent moons, or perhaps fans , and the third is dark orange and covered in trailing black spirals.
"The kids made this?"
Kakashi nods. "It's sealed and strengthened so that you could shoot it out of a cannon and it wouldn't even crack. Look at the bottom."
Iruka takes a long drink of his coffee to reduce the risk of spilling and then holds it high so he can see the underside. Two rows of cramped scrawl read;
'To the World's Greatest Teacher; For putting up with us.'
For about a quarter of a second Iruka is certain he's going to tear up. It's a whiplash onset of emotion, the combination of the source of the gift the sentiment of it, and the obvious thought they put into making something with him in mind. Iruka has never been a fan of expensive or ornate gifts, but gifts like this one, packed with meaning and sentimental worth, have always been his favorites.
"Those brats." He manages around a lump in his throat, and Kakashi smiles at him from beneath his mask.
"They went on a shopping spree in Tea country when I wasn't looking. Turns out the whole of the Rookie Nine had the same idea."
"The Rookie Nine?"
Kakashi shrugs. "Teams 7, 8, and 10 collectively. They're all taking the Chunin exams right out of the gate, so Genma took to calling them that and I suppose it stuck. They all had a little gift exchange last night."
"But they didn't buy this." Iruka counters. There are little imperfections in the ceramics and the glaze, fingerprints in the painted clay and bubbles in the glass that all say hand-made .
"You and I are special, apparently."
Iruka places his new mug back on the table and makes a note to throw out all his plain white ones. "What did they get you?"
Kakashi reaches for the equipment scroll at his hip and unfurls a little of it. With a quick hand sign he suddenly has a long and heavy drape of fabric flooding over his arms to nearly scrape the floor. Kakashi holds the piece of clothing up by the shoulders and shakes it out for Iruka to see.
It's a traveling cloak, thick black and trimmed with something silvery, a swath of soft grey fur ringing the collar.
"That's gorgeous." Iruka marvels as he reaches for the hem of it. "And heavy ."
Kakashi chuckles. "I'm starting to think the cubs doubt my ability to protect myself. So far I've counted six different kinds of anti-chakra seals that are Naruto's handiwork, weapon sheathes of Sasuke's doing hidden in just about every seam, and Sakura sewed in an entire layer of lightweight chainmail. Then of course there's this."
Kakashi holds the collar of the cloak towards him and Iruka makes out three little symbols sewn into the inside edge, an Uchiha fan, and Uzumaki spiral, and a Sakura blossom.
"The little cretins just dropped it on my head on the way out the door this morning, not so much as a word in edgewise, and asked me to take that with me when I came here." Kakashi continues, gesturing to the mug Iruka is now clutching with both hands.
"That is very like them." Iruka laughs. "Also, I've been meaning to ask you. I know Ryouta gave the kids a pre-exam checkup yesterday, but when I asked him about it he just walked off cursing about needing to clear his emergency ward in preparation for the 'apocalypse.'"
"Oh, that. Sakura is starting to develop a Kekkei Genkai."
Iruka almost spits out his coffee. "A what? "
Kakashi has the nerve to shrug and wave his hand dismissively. "I'm not sure why it surprised him so much. Sakura's chakra has always interfaced oddly with her physiology. It's not the first time something like that has manifested in someone without shinobi parentage. I mean Minato-sensei–"
" Kakashi ." Iruka interrupts. "What kind of Kekkei Genkai?"
Kakashi blinks for a second. "Oh, so far she can harden her skin and reinforce her bone structure with chakra latices. But that's relatively new. It turns out she's been reinforcing her muscle fibers that way for months now without doing it consciously."
Iruka sighs and lets out a high, semi-hysterical laugh. "You're right. I shouldn't be worried about them at all. I should be worried about the Sandaime's blood pressure when the village becomes collateral damage."
Kakashi just shrugs again. "Details."
Shikamaru's dad corners him during one of the rare moments of the morning that he actually bothers standing in front of a mirror. He's almost completely ready for the exams; he has on the reinforced cargo pants Ino had bought him, extra pockets packed with Choji's new compact energy bars, some strings of rigged and modified shuriken and his assorted seal tags. His shirt is one of the heavy black steel latticed long-sleeves that Naruto had cut him from his rolls of Ido-senshi armour silk, the same material all nine of them are wearing into the exams in some form. He has Asuma's gift clipped around his waist, a thick utility belt with kunai and senbon pouches, as well as holsters for his knives and pockets for his field medicine equipment. He has on his reinforced fingerless gloves and bracers, his hitai-ate banded tight around his upper arm, and his totem necklace looped around his neck.
The last was his gift from team 8, a set of four chakra carved jade beads separated and secured by thin metal bracers on a length of black cord, made for the intent purpose of detecting and breaking even the most delicate of genjutsu. Shikamaru strongly suspects that Kiba got the idea from Kurenai.
Now he's just having minor trouble with the earrings.
"You have to chakra imprint them first."
Shikamaru doesn't jump, but he does pull in a breath too fast.
"Can't you knock, old man?"
Shikaku snorts from where he's leaning against the bathroom doorframe, like he's been there for hours instead of seconds. "Door was open, brat." He tilts his head at the minimalistic jewelry in Shikamaru's palm with interest, and then holds out a hand. "May I?"
Shikamaru shrugs and drops the black and gold hoops into his father's waiting hand. "Knock yourself out."
Shikaku tilts them back and forth in the light, expression softening to thoughtful. "Not really something you would get for yourself. A gift?"
"Team 7. They're from Tamakai port."
"Work like this is pretty rare. Capable of storing a half-body's worth each of chakra when fully charged." Shikaku comments as he returns the hoops to Shikamaru. "Keep care of them."
"That goes without saying." Shikamaru mutters back, "And not just because they're useful."
Shikaku hums but otherwise doesn't respond as Shikamaru sends a soft pulse of dark chakra through the hoops and they pop open. He'd charged them earlier, but he hadn't counted on jewelry this small having a lock and key system.
He's just managed to get them in when his mother shouts from the kitchen.
"Shikamaru! Choji and Ino are here! Get going!"
"I"m going, I'm going." He calls back, turning around to slide past his father and out of the bathroom.
He's surprised into stopping by an uncharacteristic move on his dad's part– Shikaku plants a hand on his shoulder and squeezes firmly once. "Knock 'em dead, kid." He murmurs, just loud enough for Shikamaru to hear, and then lets him go.
"That's a given, old timer." Shikamaru calls over his shoulder, over the soft swell of new confidence in his chest, and Shikaku is still laughing when he turns the corner towards the front room and heads out the door.
Ino and Choji are waiting just outside, and they both look ready for war. In the still faint light of the 5am sunrise Ino's hair reflects silvery, bangs plaited back from her eyes and the rest tucked into a practical bun accented with her new abalone hairsticks, both packed with poisoned senbon. Her high necked armour silk top sits under a chakra laced mesh three-quarters, tucked down into dark shinobi pants with armour plating up the sides. Her nagamaki is absent, likely stored in one of the three storage scrolls harnessed to her hip alongside her kunai packs.
Choji's armour silk is invisible beneath the lacquered segments of his family's signature paper armour, red lacquered and thick enough to easily stop the full-heft slice of a katana no matter how fast or how hard it's moving. His shinobi pants are armoured on all sides, though with smaller and less flamboyant plating than Ino's. Over his armour he's wearing a leather bandolier packed with his essentials, including his homemade rations and his family's chakra pills in case of emergencies.
Ino whistles as he slides out the door. "You cleaned up nice. Combat gear looks good on you, Shika."
"Speak for yourself." Shikamaru fires back, and Ino giggles, leaning forward to throw an arm over his shoulder. "Hell, Choji. You look like a walking tank."
Choji flushes happily and turns, showing off the red shine of his armour and the Akimichi clan symbol in broad black strokes across his back. "Isn't it awesome? Mom made it for me early. It fits like a glove."
Ino tugs Shikamaru in the direction of the street. "Come on slow poke. We don't want to be the last ones there, do we?"
They're the second team to reach Ichiraku Ramen, and they walk into the stall while Naruto and Sasuke are in the middle of a heated conversation that may or may not actually be an argument. They're discussing several chakra condensation theories and Shikamaru hears the words 'chain' and 'hard seal' several times but he has no idea where it might be leading or what it's really about in the first place.
All three of them are dressed head to toe in Ido-senshi armour silk, base clothes of high necked sleeveless tops and long shinobi-style pants wrapped down at the ankles and thighs. That's where the similarities stop however; Naruto's arms are covered shoulder to fingertip in chakra reinforced arm wraps that shine softly with seal lines when the light hits them right. He has a similar talisman to Shikamaru's necklace tied around his left wrist in bright blue that serves the same purpose, and has four medium-sized dark grey scrolls cross-strapped around his waist, two on each hip. With the exception of a set of thigh strapped kunai pouches he isn't otherwise armed, though Shikamaru gets the feeling that whatever is in those scrolls is more dangerous than any obvious weaponry.
Sasuke's upper arms are bare but for the the spiral traces of several seals that he hasn't bothered to cover, some of which vanish beneath his shirt at the shoulder. His forearms bear dark leather bracers that could easily conceal two full kunai or a handful of shuriken, and he has two small scrolls harnessed to his right hip. The most obvious thing however is the katana-tanto set he has strapped to the small of his back, handles facing opposite directions.
Sakura is wearing a utility belt much like Shikamaru's, though hers is clearly meant solely for medical supplies and kunai. At one hip is a medium sized red scroll strapped in a vertical style meant to allow access to the scroll without detaching it from it's harness. At the other is the pair of chakrams that Ino had insisted on being their gift for Sakura; they've been modified somewhat, and there are seals carved into the handle that match ones carved into steel bands around her wrists just past her brutal looking armoured gloves. She too has seals along her arms, through hers are more concentrated around the forearms, and her upper arms bear thick bands meant for concealing shuriken.
She's the one who spots them and waves them over, standing up with a laugh to give Ino a spine cracking hug. The Yamanaka doesn't seem to mind though, and returns the hug hard.
Naruto and Sasuke stop their argument to greet them, Naruto laughing and nudging at Choji's new armour with interest, and Sasuke asking about how Shikamaru's new chakra reservoirs are working.
"We honestly thought you guys would be here last." Naruto laughs, leaning and arm on Shikamaru's shoulder. "What with how Ino normally needs to drag you out of bed by your toes."
"I was up at 4am thank-you-very-much, Uzumaki." he gripes, and then waves for Takeuchi's attention. "One bowl of shio with scallion, one shoyu hold the egg, and three bowls of tonkotsu with extra pork belly, please." He rattles off, and Teuchi nods with a grin.
"One Ino-Shika-Cho coming right up."
He sits down on Naruto's left and Choji plops down beside him, while Ino trails to the other side to sit on the last booth next to Sakura. By the looks of it Naruto is already halfway through his second bowl, with Sasuke only now finishing his first.
"You guys were up even earlier than we were." Shikamaru surmises.
"This idiot's stomach woke us up at 3:45." Sasuke grumbles, smacking Naruto in the arm.
"Yeah well we went to bed at like, 6, okay? We usually eat two more times after that."
"I swear sometimes that you eat for two." Sakura comments. "I think Kurama gets half your calories."
"Or he just has a metabolism like a shrew." Sasuke suggests.
"Hey, you eat just as often as I do."
"Yeah, at half the meal sizes."
"Aw man, are we late to the party?" Kiba cuts in, ducking into the stall with Shino and Hinata close beside him. Like the six Genin at the ramen bar team 8 is decked out in battlefield dress, all hard steel and dark reinforced fabric, all except for Hinata, whose Hyuuga robes and black-on-white steel obi make her seem like a spirit among devils.
"Naw, we only just got here." Choji assures as Kiba plops down next to him and waves down Teuchi to take his order.
"Everyone appears as ready as they can be." Shino muses. "I have a hard time believing it won't be enough."
"If that's your roundabout way of saying we can't lose, then that something we can agree on." Kiba chuckles, slapping his teammate on the back.
"Don't jinx it, you two." Hinata warns.
"True enough." Shino agrees. "We should still be ready for anything."
"You've got a point, bug boy." Kiba agrees mildly.
"Okay, now you guys are freaking me out." Hinata chuckles. "You usually have ten fights before this time of day."
"We could argue about something if you like." Shino offers. "I'm sure there are still some buttons to push."
For the next two hours they eat and talk, trading ideas and strategy and speculation as to what challenges the exam will present. The ideas get more and more outlandish as the morning progresses until they're all trying to outdo each other with outrageous speculation. Shino wins the argument by suggesting the the exam is actually a 200 page written test designed to measure a ninja's potential resistance to mental torture.
The look identical of horror on Naruto and Kiba's faces is a priceless image Shikamaru is taking to his grave .