Chapter 2
The trip to Hidden Waterfall was relatively uneventful. We were attacked once; however, the inexperienced three-person team from Sound was easily overwhelmed by the six Genin , two Jounin, and Rai in our party. We arrived outside the Village within three days.
Hidden Waterfall ninjas have always been notorious for their secrecy. A Waterfall Jounin met us well outside the border. We were all blindfolded to be led to the entrance to the city; even once we reached the "entrance," in a hidden cave, we still had to swim through an underground stream passageway and take a short boat trip to reach the city walls.
It was worth the trip. Waterfall was beautiful, surrounded with water, draped with mist, with a giant tree in the center of the village. I had never seen anything like it.
The Waterfall Jounin led us on a tour around the village, then dropped us off at the practice fields so Nariko, Jomei, and Shiro could train for the exam. Because we arrived early and were not due to meet Waterfall's Kage for at least an hour, Sutiibu-san, Garuki and I stayed to watch. Katana spoke quietly with Sutiibu-san and the Waterfall Jounin for a moment before slipping away. I believe I saw her enter a practice field several gates down.
Like in most ninja Villages, the practice areas were completely surrounded by tall, vicious-looking fences. In Waterfall, a smaller village, all the practice fields aside from one were in a row on the edge of the village. The entrances could all be seen from where I stood. The fields, however, were all obscured; even the areas made to simulate open fields inside were circled with trees. A security measure, to protect the secret techniques of the practicing ninjas, I suppose.
In any case, I couldn't see where Katana went.
Juro-san opened the gate for Nariko, Rai, Jomei, and Shiro, who entered the area. It was an open field inside, chosen specifically so Rai could work alongside the team. He was nearly fully grown – too large to be of much use in a forest.
Juro-san turned to Sutiibu-sensei. "Would you like to join us? I don't mind if you all watch." He grinned. "It's not as if our students don't train together on a regular basis anyway."
Sutiibu nodded. "Sure. Hotaru-chan, Garuki-chan, what do you say? Let's go cheer them on."
Sutiibu and Garuki entered the training area. I was about to follow when the next gate down was opened.
"Hotaru-san? They let you come take the exam?"
When it became clear that ignoring her was not an option, I turned to her, sighing and trying to keep my patience. "Aiko-san. Congratulations on being nominated for the exam."
She crossed her arms, cocked her head to the side, and stared me down. Her two teammates, both girls, stood behind her merely looking on.
"Wait." She smirked. "They didn't nominate you, did they? You're just here to watch, aren't you?" She laughed when I didn't answer immediately. "I should have figured."
"That's not it. Sutiibu-sensei doesn't let any of his students take the exam until they've been Genin for two years. It's the rule."
"Whatever. It's not as if you would be able to take the exam. You'd probably have been killed." She eyed her comrades. "Although, I suppose that would have been for the better. Your teammates would finally be able to go on a mission without having to save your butt."
How…how does she know? I thought, shaken.
"Of course, that little boyfriend of yours would probably be heartbroken."
That brought me back to reality. I rolled my eyes, ignoring the incorrect boyfriend jab in favor of getting to the heart of the matter.
"I'll have you know, Aiko-san, that my team and I are here on a special mission from the Yukikage herself. A B-ranked mission."
I happened to know, courtesy of Nariko's enigmatic information-gathering ability, that Aiko-san's team had never even been considered for a B-ranked mission. That was normal, of course. But I knew it would bother her.
Aiko's eye twitched. "Hmph. Whatever. Be sure to come watch me win the final exam. Ta-ta."
She and her flunkies sauntered off, and I joined my team in the practice area. Garuki have me a questioning raise of an eyebrow upon my late entry, but I shrugged it off. I was used to it, after all.
The first part of the exam was the very next morning. Those of us not participating were not allowed to watch; Garuki, Katana, Sutiibu and I were on security detail outside the building anyway. It probably would have been more effective if we were outside the walls of Hidden Waterfall, from whence an attack would more likely come, but the Waterfall Jounin were weary of the careful and time-consuming process required to take us back and forth across the border through the hidden tunnels. We stayed within the city walls.
After our shift was over, Garuki and I searched out the local Ichiraku for a hearty lunch of ramen. I went back to the spare Waterfall Academy dorm room that Nariko and I were sharing, hoping to sneak a nap in before my team's next shift, and found Nariko and Rai sitting on the floor of the room staring at a piece of paper.
Rai looked up at my entrance. "Hello, Hotaru-san. How were the rounds?"
"Uneventful, thankfully. How did the exam go? Nariko-chan?"
Nariko was quiet.
"It went quite well," Rai said jovially. "It was a written exam. Aside from that, though, we aren't allowed to give you details. Only that three of the Snow teams, including ours, passed."
"Only three?"
Nariko sighed, finally speaking. "Aiko-san's team was another, of course."
I smiled, however. "Congratulations, Nariko-chan. I hear less than half of the teams pass the written exam. That's pretty incredible you guys made it on your first try."
"The next round is a six-day wilderness survival exam. In the woods."
"Oh." I understood why she appeared so stressed. "Rai's allowed to come, though, right?"
"Sure, he's allowed."
"But I'd only get in the way," Rai pointed out.
Nariko looked at me. There was an unfamiliar shine in her eyes; I'd seen it once before, when someone had mentioned Nariko-chan's father.
"Hotaru-chan. I'm not ready for this. We're allowed to kill, from here out."
"Kill? At an exam? Among allies?" It seemed ridiculous.
"I…I can't do that to Rai. You know what happens if I get hurt or die…"
"…he does too."
It was the price of their peculiar bond.
"I told her I'd do it," explained Rai. "I have faith in her. Besides, it's not like we don't put our lives on the line in normal missions."
"But this isn't a normal mission," Nariko said. "It's just an exam."
"So why don't you wait? You can train really hard for the next six months, now that you know what to expect, and I'm sure you'd be prepared for the next exam. It's no big deal."
"Shiro and Jomei are both ready, Hotaru."
I considered. "You're right, at least Shiro would pass for sure. But that has nothing to do with you."
"Hotaru…the exam is done in teams. If I drop out, they can't continue either."
I stared.
Nariko looked down at what I realized was a liability waiver, which had to be signed before they entered the next round.
"I have until tomorrow to decide."
"Don't you have something more useful to do than spying on the examinees, Hotaru-chan?" asked Katana, with her usual skepticism. "Training, perhaps?"
I didn't answer.
"Come on, Katana-nee-san," Garuki said. "She's just worried about her friend. We were planning on spending some time in the training fields as soon as we find out what's going on."
Katana looked at me as we walked the streets of Waterfall, face appearing oddly sincere. "Listen, Hotaru-chan, I'm just trying to look out for you, right? You heard the Waterfall's Kage, they want us on patrol tomorrow and the attacks have increased. We need to be in top form. I'm going to spend the day training too; it's not meant as a jibe towards you in particular."
She halted outside a practice gate. "This is where I'm going to be working for the day. Have somebody come get me when it's dinner time, okay?"
"Mind if we join you in a bit, nee-san?" Garuki asked.
Katana frowned. "Actually, why don't you work with Hotaru a bit. I'm not going to be working on any group techniques today. I need practice with needle and wire attacks."
"But those are your specialty!" I said.
She grinned. "Which is why these new techniques are going to be spectacular. Farewell, now. Get some practice, and then rest up, you two. We'll be out there awhile starting tomorrow."
Garuki and I waved as she entered the enclosed area and closed the gate behind her, and then made our way toward where we knew the examinees would be gathering that morning.
"Is it just me, or did she seem especially cordial this morning?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I guess this mission is a pretty serious one. Guarding the Exam Area that's been hidden in the forest outside of the village; I bet she's just worried about us. You know how she gets."
"Like an older sister." Complete with sibling rivalry, I suppose, I thought.
"Yup. Oh, look! There they are."
Around the corner from the building to our right, the examinees were gathered, listening to the instructions of a Waterfall Jounin. He must have been the examiner in charge of the Second Exam.
Garuki and I knelt behind the bush at the corner of the building and he formed a simple genjutsu to keep us concealed. Unfortunately, we weren't able to hear much from the distance we were at; something about turning in forms to receive scrolls, staying with your team, being transported blindfolded out of the village and to the secret Second Exam location, and that was all. The Genin all broke up into teams, and one team at a time entered an enclosed tent. I saw Aiko's team enter, followed by a formidable-looking group from Konoha, two black-haired boys and a girl whose outfit I really liked, who was carrying a large scroll. Then several groups from smaller villages like Rock and Rain.
"Look," I whispered, pointing to Garuki. "There's Nariko, Jomei, Shiro and Rai. Next in line for the tent."
They entered, and left several moments later. Nariko led the way, Rai beside her. She was trying to ignore the incensed protests of Jomei, who was following her, trying to keep up to her ever-increasing pace. Shiro was several paces behind his teammates, pensive, silent.
"Well, that answers that," I said to Garuki.
He nodded, and frowned as Nariko and her company disappeared around the corner of a nearby building. Nariko was heading back to our shared dormitory, from her direction. I wanted to check on her, but it would have to wait. Garuki stared after them, biting his lip.
"It's going to be a little uncomfortable in our group for awhile, isn't it?"
"Yeah, Garuki-chan, most likely. But you know Jomei and Shiro. They won't stay mad for long."
"Yeah. So…what now?"
"Shall we head over to the practice fields until dinner? I've packed a couple of obentos for lunch, so we can stay until dinner."
He pouted jokingly as he stood. "What, no ramen?"
"We can eat at Ichiraku for dinner, Garuki-chan." I laughed. "We should probably have at least one quality meal today before several days in the woods."
"Yeah. I guess so."
We walked in silence until reaching the line of practice fields. A Waterfall Chuunin was on guard, but wasn't paying much attention; after we wrote our names on the Field Sign-up Sheet, he didn't give us a second glance. I saw Katana-san's name on the list under "Field Two: River/Field." The surprise was that under "Number of Ninjas" was the number 2.
"Do you think she's training with Sensei?" I asked Garuki as we moved down the row of gates to ours.
"I thought he was on guard duty today," he replied. "Besides, he always works us as a team."
As we passed Gate Two, I snuck over to the fence. Garuki stared at me, like he couldn't believe what I was doing, but I didn't care. I was curious.
I slipped inside the gate and hid in the bushes, making my way to the center of the area. Soon, I saw Katana, facing away from me, holding some needles in between her fingers and shooting a frustrated glare at the young man standing beside her. He was facing my way, needles held at slightly different angles; the proper way, I guessed. His hair was the shocking silver of the Yukikage's, although his eyes and posture gave away his youth. He couldn't have been much older than me.
He was wearing an ANBU cloak.
"Yukiko-sama's little brother," I guessed. The one from her office. And it occurred to me that I had seen him once before; in a Yuki training field with Sutiibu's old team, before Garuki and I joined. He'd been a Chuunin at that time, if I recalled.
I hadn't made a sound, but the silver-haired young man's eyes suddenly pierced mine. He made no indication that he'd spotted me, but I could feel it. I left quickly.
Garuki and I spent all day at Training Field Five, one of the forested areas. I came up with some pretty good ideas for combo moves, but the reality was, Garuki just had way more chakra than me. I wore out too quickly, wasn't able to practice for long periods without a break, and wasn't able to do my part for the combos we put together. Finally, worn out and running low on daylight, I suggested we break for ramen. Garuki, of course, acquiesced.
We picked up Katana-san at her training field on the way out, as requested. By the time we showed up, she was alone, as if she'd been alone the whole time. She looked exhausted.
"I thought you told us not to overly tire ourselves, nee-san," I chided as we walked to Ichiraku.
She merely glared at me.
"I'm sure she'll be fine if she gets a good rest," Garuki felt the need to put in.
I changed the subject. "So, Katana-nee-san, why are you working with the Yukikage's little brother? Is he your boyfriend or something? He's about your age, isn't he?"
Her eyes grew wide, more from disbelief than anger as far as I could tell. "How…How do you know? I mean, it's none of your business…he was on Sutiibu-sensei's team before I was, and he often helped out with our training, before you guys came along. But then he got into ANBU, so…" she shrugged. "He's a specialist in mixing genjutsu with weapons techniques, and he was here on assignment, so I asked him to train me. That's all."
"So what's the big deal?" Garuki asked. "Am I missing something?"
"Sensei doesn't know, does he?" I asked her, suddenly guessing.
She wrinkled her nose in a little sneer. "You know he wouldn't approve of me getting special training on my own. So you aren't going to tell him."
I shrugged. "Like I care."
We reached an intersection and Katana turned. "I'm meeting Sensei for dinner at the Yakisoba place over there." She nodded down the road. "I'm assuming you two are headed for the usual?" And she left without waiting for an answer.
Garuki and I continued down the road we'd been on, approaching Ichiraku. Something occurred to me.
"Hey, Garuki-chan. Do you think…do you think Katana's trying to get into ANBU?"
"That's ridiculous! They almost never take Genin!"
"Yeah…" I said. "But, she is unusually talented. And it would be a way out of this team, without passing the Exam." It's my fault. I'm holding her back, I thought.
But Garuki shook his head. "Nee-san wouldn't leave us. She feels responsible for us, I think, even if she wouldn't admit it."
Still, I had to wonder.