Yo
Well I'm back again and I hope I still have alot of my readers. I mean I did throw a surprising curveball in on that last chapter. All I can say is that I did it for a reason, and if you want a hint as to why, I'll say that I did it for the romance part of this story that, believe it or not, does and will exist. I'll leave the rest up to your assumption.
I own neither Naruto or the group x reference in here.
Reiko had been training with Zabuza for almost a month now, and was now just starting to learn the difficult but powerful Kirigakure no jutsu, and was making good progress with his sword fighting. Every day, he would get off of his mission and go train with Zabuza for about five hours. After that, he would work the night shift at his other job because he didn't sleep much anyway. Face it, when you see nothing but hell around you all the time, it's kind of hard to rest.
On this particularly fine day, Reiko was taking a quiet stroll around his version of Konoha before he met up with Kakashi. It wasn't much different from the normal version, except that it was a fiery burning wasteland. And of course that was a fine day. You'd hate to see what a bad day looked like….
At any rate, on this particularly fine day, Reiko carried his blade naked on his back. He always carried it there, but today, he was looking forward to training with it even more than he usually did. But what did he find standing in his way? Naruto's small friend getting attacked by a strange guy in makeup. Sadly enough, the makeup wasn't a hallucination. Although standing right behind the strange guy was a beautiful woman, whom he intended to meet.
"Why hello there young lady." Reiko said, appearing behind her quite suddenly, as was his training "If I may be so bold, I wish to ask what the strange one is doing to that small child?"
Everybody jumped, namely the girl with four pigtails. Naruto only stared at him for a second. Sakura stared at him for a long time. The boy with the makeup was eyeing Reiko's sword suspiciously, and the pigtail girl seemed to be very nervous. Reiko just couldn't have that, so he decided to be extra polite. He bowed and actually kissed her hand.
Everybody freaked out. Naruto stood there with his jaw open. Sakura looked at him slightly angrily. The boy with the makeup was slightly identical to Naruto, as was his small prey. The girl with the pigtails seemed the least shocked. She actually kept her cool and replied back to him in kind.
"Kankuro, put the boy down." The pig tailed creature ordered the masked creature. He did as he was told. "I'm Temari of the sand, and this is my idiot brother Kankuro."
"Temari…what a nice name. I'm Himura Reiko, of the leaf." Reiko said, standing up smiling. "I believe you've already met my team. This is Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. If you were very careful, you might have noticed my other team member, Uchiha Sasuke sitting in that tree over there."
Sasuke grunted at being found. He didn't like being shown up in any sense, but it seemed that with Reiko's skill set, it was hard to get things by him. He was trained by a highly skilled assassin, and thus, was getting some useful abilities out of it.
In the middle of the group, a small tornado of sand developed. As everyone shielded their eyes, they found it replaced by a short boy with red hair and a tattoo on his forehead. His overall aura was that of a demonic presence. He was one scary person, but things like that didn't affect Reiko.
"What do you think you're doing, talking to my sister?" The red haired boy asked dangerously.
"G-gaara!" Temari squeaked, clearly afraid of this boy. Reiko however, was looking him straight in the eyes without fear. "We were just talking. It's nothing to worry about. Himura san was just introducing himself and his team."
"Hello there Gaara san." Reiko said amiably, holding out his hand. This astonished everyone even more than his strange behavior before. "I am Himura Reiko of the leaf. I meant no harm in speaking with your sister."
"I am Gaara of the sand, at your service." Gaara stated calmly. His stare was that of a basilisk, freezing all in its path, except for Reiko.
"If I may ask, what are three people from the sand doing here in Konoha?" Sakura asked the trio of sand shinobi.
"I guess you all haven't been informed." Kankuro said, showing his papers allowing him to walk freely in Konoha. "We're here for the chuunin selection exams."
"Ahh, the chuunin exams." Reiko said, stroking his chin slightly "I do hope master Kakashi plans to enter us. I haven't had a good fight since the wave country."
"We must depart now. I do hope we get a chance to fight during the tournament." Gaara said as he led his siblings off to wherever it was they were going.
"We need to go and meet Kakashi sensei in about ten minutes." Reiko said, scratching the back of his head.
"Don't you mean we have to meet him in a few hours?" Naruto asked questioningly.
"Why yes, a few hours might be better." Reiko said, recollecting upon that idea "I guess we have some spare time…"
About three hours later, Kakashi showed up at their meeting place with some lame-ass excuse as to why he was late. As usual, Naruto and Sakura yelled at him for being late and lying. Maggots were crawling around in his skull…Of course that end part was just how Reiko saw it.
"You all might want to know that I recommended you all for the upcoming chuunin exams." Kakashi said offhandedly. Stupid jounin and his lax attitude towards everything…
"HELL YEAH BITCH!" Reiko shouted a little too loudly for those around him to be completely comfortable "I knew all my training, hard work, and sexiness finally paid off!"
"Um…you're a little creepy…" Kakashi said, causing Reiko to bow his head in shame for a short time. "At any rate, fill out these applications."
"Oh my god sensei, I love you!" Naruto said, tackling Kakashi. Kakashi didn't enjoy that very much and had to pry him off with a broomstick.
"The exam is completely voluntary. Don't take it unless you want to." Kakashi said to him, recovering his composure. "If you decide to enter, just turn those forms in to room 301 at four o'clock tomorrow at the school. Now go away, all of you. Especially Reiko."
Reiko ran off to go tell Zabuza and Haku the good news. He was so excited that he ran up the Konoha wall and leapt outside into the trees, just for the sheer joy of doing it. About two miles and forty shouts of exuberance later, he finally made it to Zabuza and Haku's camp…residence…thing…
"Guess what guys!" Reiko yelled enthusiastically to them as he quite literally jumped directly into the middle of the camp.
"Um…do we have to?" Zabuza asked warily, trying to decide whether or not to walk away at that moment.
"What's going on Reiko kun?" Haku asked politely with a smile. At least SOMEONE had some manners. "Does it have anything to do with the chuunin exam?"
"Why Haku chan, I do believe you are correct…I'M GONNA KICK SOME FOREIGN ASS!" Reiko yelled, pumping his muscles in victory.
"I don't know if you're ready for something like that kid…" Zabuza said skeptically. It didn't actually mean anything, that's just how it was. "The chuunin exam'll be pretty tough for someone at your strength."
"Are you kidding?" Reiko asked incredulously "I've got kickass senbon, kickass sword skills, kickass sneaking skills, and last but not least, my kickass ability to put your ass in a genjutsu with the mere touch of my hand! I've got it in the bag!"
"Reiko kun, you shouldn't curse so much. I am a lady remember?" Haku said quietly. Yeah, she was using the fact that she was a girl to get what she wanted, just like the rest of them.
"Oh, sorry Haku chan…" Reiko said, suddenly getting much quieter "At any rate, I want to do some extra training before I go in for the exam tomorrow."
"You don't train the day before an exam or mission stupid." Zabuza said while not even looking in Reiko's direction. "And it's not like any extra training would help you at this point. You need to rest."
"Like hell I plan to rest!" Reiko yelled before he caught Haku's eye "Heck…I said heck…"
"What could I possibly teach you in a few hours." Zabuza asked sarcastically "You're not even that good at what I did try to teach you."
"I'm plenty good! Haku chan, you agree with me, right?" Reiko said defensively, and then asking for backup.
Haku merely stifled a laugh. She wasn't laughing because he wasn't an able shinobi, but because she always enjoyed watching the two of them go at it. Zabuza really didn't have any complaints, but he was just being himself. Reiko being as stubborn as Naruto never helped the situation either. They both didn't mean most of what they said though, so neither of them took the other very seriously.
"All the same, extra training can't hurt anything." Reiko said, finally calming down enough to make some sort of sense. "You could also give me some helpful pointers I might need."
"For once, you do make a good point." Zabuza admitted "But don't even bother with new skills or anything of the sort. Any skill you don't take your time to learn isn't even worth learning."
"Now that's what I like to hear!" Reiko exclaimed, having won an argument for once in his life.
The next day, the four members of team seven headed into the school to turn in their forms and take the chuunin exam. After merely a few floors though, they found themselves in a crowd of people, who seemed to be trying to get through a door that was guarded by two dangerous looking guys. Just as they walked up, one of the guys threw a girl to the ground rather violently. For some reason or another, Reiko rushed over to her.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, his voice genuinely concerned. "Here, I'll help you up."
"Reiko kun!" the girl said in surprise as she took Reiko's hand to help her up. "I didn't know you were going to be entering the exam!"
"One second Tenten chan…" Reiko said, looking at the two guys standing guard in front of the door. "First off, you shouldn't hit a girl, let alone one of my friends. Second off, if that genjutsu's yours, you did a pretty crappy job. Now, if the two of you don't vacate my rather blurry field of vision, I will impale the both of you before you can say 'poopty peupty pants-ss'"
The two guys looked at each other for a second, trying to decide whether Reiko was for real or not. They took a look at the sword on his back and decided they didn't want to risk it, and they left in quite a hurry.
"Reiko kun, you didn't have to do that for me you know…" Tenten said, looking rather embarrassed as she stood in front of him. "You know that they didn't even hurt me very badly."
"Yeah, but I gotta build up a reputation you know." Reiko said cheerfully as the rest of team seven happened to walk up. "Hey Tenten chan, this is my team. There's Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Guys, this is Tenten chan. Her family owns the weapons shop where I work part time."
"It's very nice to meet all of you." Tenten said with a smile "Hey, I have to go now. Good luck during the chuunin exam."
"I didn't know you had another job…" Naruto said suspiciously "How do you find time for it all?"
"Well, I don't sleep much and I'm sure you can figure out why." Reiko said with a shrug "The best I could do was make some money off of my ample free time. No use letting it all go to waste."
They all walked into the hallway leading to the room they were sure they needed to be. What was odd though, was that Kakashi was standing there in front of them. Kakashi wasn't supposed to be here. It was an odd thing indeed. Even more odd was that he was on time.
"I'm glad you all made it." Kakashi said amiably "This way you all qualify to take the exam."
"But Kakashi sensei…" Sakura said, slightly confused "I thought you said it was up to each of us whether to apply or not. Were you lying?"
"I said what I said to keep your partners from pressuring you to come along." Kakashi explained, "Even if you had no interest in applying, one word from Sasuke and you'd have come along and gone through the motions, though your heart wasn't in it."
"What would have happened if Sasuke, Naruto, and Reiko had shown up without me?" Sakura asked curiously.
"They'd have been eliminated immediately." Kakashi said with a smile "But you're all here, so it doesn't matter. I'm very proud of you, now go in there and give it all you've got."
With that, the four of them walked into the examination room, prepared for anything that could have been thrown at them. Maybe it was Kakashi's encouraging words, maybe it was Naruto's unbridled exuberance, or maybe it was Reiko's ignorance to things like how hard this was going to be…or where he was…