„Achoo!"
„Bless you."
„AchooI!"
„Bless you."
„ACHOO!"
„Ble...No now I'm not in the mood anymore," said Kiba, playfully offended. I laughed and blew my nose into the handkerchief. Honestly, I was grateful to him for lightening my mood a little, even if more or less unintentionally.
We had gathered in a room with the other genin and were waiting for someone to tell us our assignments for the exam. Excitement ran through me like one surge after another as I thought of Kakashi's words. Maybe I actually had a chance and could become a chunin.
Soon I would turn fourteen and that would be the perfect birthday present. But even if I didn't make it, this exam would test me, and I could also gain different experiences through it.
I turned my head as the door opened and three genin entered the room.
„Here we go!"
No. Seriously? Why hadn't he told me about this? Not a peep.
Good. I had to admit that we hadn't seen each other at all for the last few days. Yet somehow it surprised me that Team 7 was here.
Sakura rushed forward and tackled the Uzumaki. Groaning, he tried to wriggle out of her grip, but the Haruno remained ironclad.
„Now pull yourself together. Are you actually completely stupid? Stop acting like a little kid."
And she didn't or what? The moments when she acted like that weren't exactly rare either. I sighed and started to move. My team followed me as if it were a matter of course. Kiba was right on my heels, a smug grin on his lips.
He didn't seem to see Team 7 as a challenge. Quite the opposite of me. I wasn't going to underestimate the three of them. Kakashi certainly hadn't nominated them for nothing.
„Let him catch his breath Sakura. I think he's just as excited as the rest of us."
The Haruno paused and looked at me in irritation. Sasuke eyed me narrowly, still not trusting me. I couldn't blame him; it was the same with me.
Incredibly fast Naruto had wriggled out of Sakura's grip and rushed towards me. Now I was the one gasping for air. Man did he have strength.
„Naruto...no air."
But the Uzumaki didn't seem to hear me.
„N-Naruto can you let her go? She's already pale."
Hinata's slightly shaky voice now interfered, and sure enough, the Uzumaki let go of me. Gratefully, I looked at the Hyjuga, who only nodded delicately and looked aside shyly as Naruto looked at her.
„Hey Hinata...what?"
I could really see his brain wheels rattling. Even though I liked him a lot, sometimes he was really quite off.
Kiba finally slid in next to me and grinned cockily at Team 7. Admonishingly, I nudged him. If he continued like this, he would not only make himself unpopular, but the whole team.
„Hey, you sissies. You don't really think you're going to be ahead in this test. This is going to be Team 8 for sure." I snorted angrily. So much arrogance was truly not healthy.
„Don't get too excited there Kiba. We have a whole lot of other opponents here, and they're not rookies like w..."
„What did you just call us?" Angrily, his small dark eyes sparkled at me and Akamaru gave an approving growl, which made rather no impression on the little dog. Kiba's facial expression made all the more of an impression.
Unimpressed, I looked up at him.
„I'm just saying, Kiba. There are some here who have more experience than we do. I'd say you're overestimating our current situation by quite a bit."
A dark growl escaped my teammate's throat. Ah yes right cohesion. Teamwork and all that. What was going to become of us during the exam if I couldn't help but give the Inuzuka a piece of my mind already?
„She's right," said a voice behind us.
Confused, I turned around. A genin was coming toward us. His face looked young, yet he seemed to be several years older than we were. He was perhaps nineteen or twenty. His gray hair was tied back in a simple braid and the glasses he wore on his nose gave him an educated look.
With his hands at his sides, he stood next to me as if it were a matter of course to talk to a couple of genin who were complete strangers. I frowned. But why? If we were here, nevertheless, actually all opponents.
„Who are you?", Naruto asked, perplexed.
„Kabuto."
He adjusted his glasses with dignity and smiled kindly to the group. Naruto and Sakura returned it. Sasuke remained as always, and my team had turned away. He seemed almost a little too nice for my taste. But apparently, I was the only one who found that strange.
Sure, I had also become friendly to the genin from Suna. But that had been something else, because at this time the test had not yet begun. But now, was rather little time for being friendly, important was only to assess the opponents and find out as much as possible about them.
My gaze wandered to the corner where the genin from Suna were sitting. While Temari and Kankuro talked about something, Gaara leaned with closed eyes and folded arms against the wall. He had placed the thick sand gourd next to him. He always seemed to have the dark circles under his eyes. He didn't seem to sleep much. I wonder if it had something to do with the demon that rested deep within him.
At that moment, the redhead raised his head and stared directly at me from his ice-blue eyes. He had known it. Just like me, he could feel it when someone looked at him. Somewhere along the way, I had involuntarily acquired this ability. Sometimes it was useful, but mostly it was just annoying. Because sometimes you didn't want to know such things.
Another reason why I had often moved invisibly through the village in my genin time. I hated the curious or gawking looks of the people as soon as they saw something that they did not know or was unusual, such as my strange eyes.
„And who are you?" Kabuto's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, but I didn't avert my gaze from Gaara, instead nodding briefly at him before finally looking at the gray-haired man after all. He had spread out a few cards in front of the others. On each of them the picture of another Genin was to be seen. Among them the faces of Gaara, the guy in the green costume and ... me.
„Tora," I replied curtly, staring at the cards. They revealed virtually everything about the other genin ... except that there was almost nothing on mine. Only my missions and the team. However, not much about my abilities.
Sasuke stared at me from narrowed eyes. Apparently, he had been the one who had wanted to find out what my abilities were. Bad luck. Possibly one reason was that I had kept much of my past and everything else a secret. And that had been a good thing, as it now turned out.
„Extremely strange that so much cannot be found out about you. Would you mind telling us...?" Kabuto made a dissolute hand gesture, and I noticed that all the genin from Konoha had gathered around us. Shikamarus team was also there. The latter looked at me and shook his head slightly, seeming to distrust the grey-haired man as well. And not without reason, as was proven to me just now. Suna's also looked over at us curiously.
However, I couldn't help but look at Kabuto as if he were ... well ... completely stupid. That's why he now also made quite a high flight in my distrust ranking and landed on the proud third place, right behind Sasuke and Gaara. Whereby he already started to dispute the second place with the Suna-Nin.
Because Gaara I could at least halfway like, even if he were a little scary. But Kabuto seemed to me to be a false character, which is why I had to be on my guard with him.
I started laughing and the others stared at me, puzzled.
„You don't seriously think I'm going to tell you about my abilities, do you? No. I'm certainly not that stupid. And besides. Do you really think they're so interesting that you even want to know them? Forget it," I snorted.
Something flashed in my counterpart's supposedly gentle eyes. Was it anger?
„I think you misunderstand me Tora."
My eyebrow moved sharply north.
„Do I Kabuto? I may be a child in your eyes, but I'm not stupid. Trusting strangers, I leave that to others."
With that, I turned away from the others and settled down on the windowsill, my previous perch, and began making a mental list. Of the Genin I had met so far. Their abilities and intentions. I would certainly be able to use that again sometime. If I had time, I could also make a written list. Probably that was even better.
But there was something else that worried me, looking this way toward Naruto and Kabuto. The blond Uzumaki was one of the few who knew about my abilities. Of course, I trusted him, but still I feared that Naruto would get too wrapped up in the other. And then I would have a problem. On the one hand, I wouldn't be able to convince him of Kabuto's strange game and on the other hand ... he might say something about my abilities to the grey-haired man.
No. That would not happen. Naruto was my best friend. He would stand by me. Despite the test. And despite the fact that we were opponents here. No. I trusted him, and he would not betray me.