Chapter 29
"Sometimes the smallest ripples can lead to the largest changes. That begs the question, 'what happens if I throw in a brick?' I'm scared to test it because it will either be good, neutral, or somehow end the world."
Twelve genin stood in the center of the tower's arena, their bodies and faces marred with bruises and cuts. Vibrant red blood still smeared across the cracked tiles of the floor behind them, the walls scarred with gashes from their kunai and shuriken. Yet despite the battle-weary looks they wore, they stood with their shoulders held high as they faced the Third Hokage, their eyes sparkling with fierce determination.
The elderly shinobi veteran's lips quirked into a faint smile as he surveyed the long row of youths facing him, their clothes and natural coloring producing a subdued rainbow. Five different symbols adorned their hitai-ate, the gleaming silver plates creating another sort of rainbow. Rarely did so many different villages have genin make it to the final round in a single exam, and Hiruzen's heart swelled with pride as he noted the ever-familiar leaf insignia adorning half of their bands.
"Everyone who stands before me today has proven themselves," he declared in a booming voice. "Though this is only the preliminary rounds, you have demonstrated great talent and skill to reach this point and have all earned the right to compete in the tournament at the end of this month. There you shall have the honor of representing your villages, and your performance shall determine whether or not you will earn the right to receive the title of chuunin.
"However, regardless of your performance then, remember this. You have survived numerous trials to reach this point, and several of you have demonstrated an incredible ingenuity today alone. You are the future of your villages, and after what I have seen today, I am certain your villages will shine bright with shinobi like you at their helms."
Having finished his congratulatory speech Hiruzen turned and departed the arena, his footsteps echoing loudly in the ensuing silence. As soon as the door closed behind him he heaved a large sigh, his weathered features growing drawn and tired. He began walking down the hall at a brisk pace, not bothering to slow or turn around when he sensed one of his ANBU agents appear behind him. "Report," he ordered briskly.
"No signs of Orochimaru have been found. However, we have found evidence of a spy near the Uchiha's apartment." The news made his lips press into a grim line.
"What sort of evidence?"
"A corpse, sir." Hiruzen stopped mid-step, turning to level a sharp look at the man.
"A corpse?" he echoed lowly, and the man nodded once.
"Yes. The face was mauled beyond recognition, so preliminary DNA tests are currently being run on the remains to see if we have any information on the man's identity. However, we found something very interesting with his remains." As he spoke he produced a folder from the folds of his cloak, and Hiruzen snatched it and flipped it open to study its contents with sharp eyes.
Immediately he understood why the ANBU called the discovery "interesting," as the top photo showed the two Uchiha boys walking down the street from afar. Normally spies wouldn't carry such blatant evidence on their persons, and Hiruzen counted his lucky stars that this one had been an exception as he studied the picture. A red pen had been used to circle Sasuke, but what really caught his attention was the red "x" over Masaru's right ear.
Few people knew of Masaru's partial deafness, and the placement of the "x" seemed too precise to be mere coincidence. On its own he'd say it had been meant as a reminder of his weakness. Combined with the fact they'd circled Sasuke, however, Hiruzen swiftly concluded the photo had been marked as a reminder to the agent to prioritize Sasuke over Masaru.
Targeting even one Uchiha caused plenty of reason for alarm on its own, but to potentially single out one over the other due to a little-known physical disability? That indicated that whoever the spy worked for had an interest in the boys extending beyond merely attaining the Sharingan, and that did not sit well with Hiruzen at all. That didn't even take into account the fact he had to figure out where the photo's owner learned about Masaru's deafness.
Frowning as he mulled over the implications, Hiruzen flipped to the next photo, which showed the spy's remains. Just as the ANBU said, the face had been brutally mauled, deep gashes rendering it little more than ripped muscles. A less seasoned shinobi would probably vomit at the brutality of it, but Hiruzen had seen far worse and spared it little more than a glance before studying the series of small paw prints burnt into the man's chest.
Despite the severity of the situation his mouth curled into a small smirk, a morbid chuckle escaping him. It appeared that Ryoko's ninneko summons still played a more active role in her son's life than he'd realized. He pitied anyone who would try to harm Masaru under their watch, they could be quite savage.
Still, Hiruzen couldn't leave the Uchiha boys' safety in the hands (or paws) of ninneko alone. He had no doubt the spy worked for Orochimaru, and his former student would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
"Summon Tiger and Kakashi to my office at their soonest convenience," he ordered, and the ANBU nodded before flickering away, leaving Hiruzen to resume his walk to the tower in contemplative silence. What exactly are you planning, Orochimaru?
After a long day of training, Masaru sat on the couch with a book on chakra control theories when the door to the apartment suddenly banged open and Sasuke stumbled inside. His clothes looked a bit ragged and he had a few scratches, but overall he seemed fine and radiated an air of subtle satisfaction. Bolting upright in surprise, Masaru closed the book and greeted eagerly, "You passed the second phase?"
His cousin just smirked.
In all, Konoha had six genin pass the preliminaries. Aside from Sasuke himself, Naruto also passed, as did Neji, Shino, Shikamaru and—somewhat surprisingly—Hinata. Meanwhile, all three Sand Siblings passed, while Oto, Taki and Ame each passed one genin. It made for a grand total of twelve genin proceeding to the finals, which would make for a good show for the foreign dignitaries.
With some prodding, Sasuke filled him in on a few of the matches as they sat at the table. Of course, being Sasuke he didn't go into much detail, but he gave Masaru the key details of the ones he found most relevant. "I beat Ino," he said with a shrug. "She went down pretty easy, our fighting styles didn't mesh at all so she couldn't counter me that well."
"What about Naruto?" Masaru asked, naturally curious about his good friend. Sasuke scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"The dobe got paired with some dumb pervert from Taki who kept ogling the girls."
(Earlier...)
Raising his hand in a single sign, a puff of smoke consumed Naruto and his three shadow clones. Upon clearing three nude pigtailed girls stood facing their opponent in an assortment of flirty poses, swirls of smoke providing just enough coverage to keep a PG rating while still inciting angry parents over the sheer amount of skin visible. Not that Naruto's opponent would complain.
"Natsuuu-kuuuun," they chorused, giggling and blowing kisses at the Waterfall genin. He stared at them dumbly, his eyes bulging as he took in their nude forms.
Then the real Naruto popped up behind him and whacked him over the head with a harsh karate chop, sending him collapsing to the ground.
Five seconds passed in total silence, Naruto and the three Narukos staring at the fallen genin expectantly.
Hayate coughed, and raised his hand. "Match, Uzumaki Naruto."
Five more seconds passed.
Then Naruto recoiled in shock. "WHAT THE HELL!?"
(Back in the present...)
"He actually argued with the proctor for about five minutes about getting a do-over," Sasuke deadpanned. "The guy's own teammates were pretty split on whether he deserved another chance."
"Only Naruto," Masaru groaned, shaking his head in a strange mixture of shame and awe. He knew from Sasuke's anecdotes that Naruto had gotten much stronger over the course of their training, but his prankster roots still held strong in his fighting style. And of course it would irritate him that he won through such a weak trick, hard to brag about beating someone through the power of sexy transformations.
Pushing the thought away, Masaru mentally reviewed the list of genin who passed and frowned as he noted one significant absence. "What about Sakura?" Sasuke's face darkened a bit, and he looked away with a sigh.
"...She lost to that Sand kunoichi," he confided lowly. "She almost won, but the girl blew back one of her poisoned shuriken with a wind jutsu and it ended up hitting her arm. When she went to grab an antidote Temari knocked it out of her hand, so she ended up having to forfeit to get treated. She's not too happy."
"I bet," Masaru mumbled, frowning as he leaned back. Out of the three members of Team Seven, Sakura had definitely been working the hardest. She lacked Naruto's immense chakra reserves and Sasuke's natural talent, having to depend on hard work and her sharp mind to keep up. To stay behind while her two teammates passed would undoubtedly crush her. "Poor Sakura..."
Sasuke grunted, and Masaru sighed. Another face flashed through his mind at this point, making him perk up. "Oh yeah, did you ever see Kabuto?"
The name made Sasuke tense ever so slightly, a cold look flashing through his face for a split second before fading. Anyone else would have likely missed it, but after spending nearly five years living together Masaru easily recognized the glimmer of hostility in his cousin's posture, making him frown. Before he could comment on it though Sasuke responded, "I saw him in the first phase, but he didn't pass the second so I don't know what happened to him."
"...Again, huh." Masaru sighed, shaking his head. "I think that makes six now." Poor Kabuto. Masaru liked him, he seemed so nice, but maybe that meant he just wasn't suited for shinobi life. Pacifists simply had no place working in a field which revolved around murder.
"Masaru..." He paused when Sasuke suddenly spoke again. His cousin had a strangely serious look on his face even by the usual Uchiha standards, his eyes seeming to waver with a tinge of uncertainty as he hesitated. "There's one other match you should know about... No, not just that, but two things." Masaru's frown grew, leaning towards him with an intent look silently imploring him to continue.
Inhaling through his nose, Sasuke folded his hands in front of his mouth and leaned forward, his eyes narrowed and intense. "First, I need to tell you about what happened in the Forest of Death. On the first day, we got attacked. A man named Orochimaru infiltrated the exam."
"Orochimaru?" Masaru repeated, the name vaguely familiar.
"Sakura told us about him afterwards. He's one of the Legendary Sannin and an S-rank missing-nin from Konoha. If the ANBU hadn't shown up when they did..." He trailed off and looked away. Red flickered in his onyx eyes briefly but faded before the Sharingan could fully manifest, and his lips pulled into a scowl. "He was after me. I don't know why, but I'm willing to bet it has to do with the Sharingan. And if that's the case..."
Sasuke didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't need to. Masaru felt his throat tighten, a sudden rush of dread filling him. If Sasuke really had been targeted for the Sharingan, then naturally Masaru would be a target too. Judging by Sasuke's heavily tense posture while speaking about his encounter, he could guess Orochimaru would not be an easy opponent to survive, let alone win.
A few minutes of heavy silence fell at this point, the two stewing in their own thoughts as they each mulled over the implications. Swallowing dryly, Masaru eventually looked at Sasuke and asked, "What's the other thing?" This time Sasuke hesitated even longer, only adding to his apprehension.
"...During the preliminaries, that one genin you warned us about from Suna—Gaara. He got matched up against one of the ninja from Oto, a guy named Dosu." His eyes grew sharper, a ghost of a grimace briefly flickering across his face. "Gaara crushed him with his sand. The match didn't even last two minutes."
Masaru felt his breath hitch, his eyes widening in shock. "His opponent... Is he...?" He trailed off, unable to finish the question.
"He's alive," Sasuke told him, "but his body was almost totally crushed except for his head. The jounin wouldn't tell us anything, but from what we saw I doubt he'll be able to recover enough to even walk normally, let alone return to being a shinobi. That's not the kind of injury people can heal from."
A grim atmosphere descended upon the room, Masaru's chest sharply constricting as he processed this new information. From the moment he first lay eyes on Gaara he'd felt something off about the boy, but for him to be that dangerous... It left him uneasy. His gaze fell to his lap, recalling the cold, empty look in Gaara's pale green eyes as he stared at him.
"When we drew lots for the third round, I got matched against him."
Sasuke's words pierced Masaru like an electrified kunai, his head snapping up to stare at his cousin wide-eyed. "What?" he whispered, the color draining from his skin. Icy chills steadily spread through his body as he thought of Sasuke—his cousin, his family, his only family in Konoha—having to fight against... that. A spike of anxiety flooded him, and he almost knocked over the chair as he sprung up to lean over the table. "You—you can withdraw, right? Just... forfeit?"
Sasuke's face immediately darkened, shaking his head firmly. "No. That's not an option. I'm not backing out just because he's more dangerous than other opponents."
"But—"
"Masaru," Sasuke interrupted, "Gaara wants to fight me, and I get the feeling that he won't just leave me alone if I back out. If anything, it'd probably just make him angrier." Masaru immediately opened his mouth to protest but his voice died in his throat. While he wanted to argue, he knew that Sasuke was right; Gaara had that kind of intensity, the kind where if he wanted something from someone, he wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
Frowning, he slowly sank back into his seat, looking at his lap dejectedly. Across from him he heard Sasuke huff a small sigh. "Kakashi's going to give me specialized training, starting tomorrow. He said we'll probably be spending the night in the field to maximize the time so I probably won't see you that much."
He heard Sasuke's chair scrape against the floor, and he raised his head to find his cousin leaning over the table, his eyes intense as he stared at Masaru. "Promise me," he said. "Promise me, right now, you'll be careful this month."
Masaru looked at him in silence, taking his time to process everything. "I will," he finally agreed, "But you need to promise me something too."
"What?"
"Come back for your birthday." His response seemed to catch Sasuke off guard, and he stared at Masaru for about a minute before slowly sinking back into his chair, smirking at him.
"I'll be there," he promised, and Masaru smiled before getting up.
"Come on, let's go," he said, heading for the door, and Sasuke offered him perplexed look as he rose to follow.
"Where are we going?" he asked, and Masaru glanced over his shoulder with a bright grin.
"You and Naruto both passed, right? So you should celebrate together!"
"But where—" Sasuske stopped mid-sentence, realization visibly dawning on his face before grimacing. "Ichiraku's."
"Where else would he be?" Sasuke groaned loudly but offered no resistance as Masaru grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door. If it made him happy, then Sasuke could put up with a bit of ramen. As they exited their apartment building and ran down the street they failed to notice the small swarm of ANBU agents shadowing them from the rooftops, or the dozens of feline eyes glinting from the alleyways.
"So, you passed the preliminaries. You will have to train hard this month for the finals."
"Yes, father."
Hinata bowed her head deferentially as she murmured her assent, fiddling with the braided bracelet hanging on her right wrist nervously. Her father's pale gaze seemed to bore into her, yet it held no judgment or scorn, or any particular emotion really. It felt as if he were looking at a random person on the street, casually assessing them but not searching for any crucial details. It made her feel invisible, and yet at the same time as if she had all the eyes in the world on her.
She grimaced and pinched the bracelet.
"Take the rest of the day to rest," Hiashi told her. "I shall draw up an appropriate training regiment for you, starting tomorrow. Hoheto should be available this month, he's been put on temporary leave pending a minor medical procedure so I'll place him in charge. I expect you to adhere to his instruction and avoid bringing any shame to our clan."
Swallowing thickly, Hinata murmured, "Understood," and then rose and scurried out of her father's study. Once she'd reached the relative privacy of the hallway and closed the door, she breathed a small sigh and let some of the tenseness in her shoulders slip away. Less than two hours had passed since she returned from the preliminary matches for the third phase, and even so she still had yet to feel any particular elation at passing to the finals.
Passing the second phase, winning her match... It had been a fluke.
Her opponent had entered the arena with one arm in a sling, a slight limp to her step but her eyes full of determination. Though her opponent's obvious handicap had made her briefly hesitate, Hinata threw her full heart into the match, doing her best to make her teacher proud. At the end her fingers brushed her enemy's thigh in an attempt to strike the tenketsu point, but rather than disrupt the other girl's chakra flow, the pulse of chakra instead added the final push to an already highly stressed bone.
Even now Hinata could hear the sickening crack as the girl's femur shattered, her bloodcurdling screams echoing as she curled on the floor in agony. Her strike hit close to the hip, the crack making it impossible for her leg to support her weight. Hinata's heart squeezed with guilt and sympathy for the Ame kunoichi, and even now the hateful gazes of her opponent's teammates as she mounted the steps to rejoin her team flashed through her mind, making her wince and squeeze her eyes shut.
"Please, go away," she whispered, trembling as her hands pressed against her forehead. "I-I d-didn't mean to..."
"Onee-san?" Hinata gave a small start when she heard her sister's voice and turned to see Hanabi standing next to her, her pale eyes filled with concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm... I'm fine," Hinata managed, forcing a weak smile onto her face as she lied through her teeth. "I-I'm just... stressed, that's all." Hanabi frowned, tilting her head with a childishly inquisitive glance.
"But... you won your match, didn't you? Isn't that good?"
"I... It is, but..." She trailed off, letting her false smile vanish and looked to her feet with a nervous frown.
"You should have just forfeited."
Hinata felt her blood run cold at her cousin's words, turning to look at him with large, fearful eyes. Neji leered at her disdainfully, his pale eyes seeming to penetrate through her even without his Byakugan active. "You won by a fluke and nothing more," he said. "That kunoichi was already injured. Had she been able to fight at her full ability, you would have failed."
Shuddering, Hinata swallowed and averted her gaze, sweat trickling down her face. She knew Neji had a point. That girl had shown so much potential, her eyes held so much more experience, had seen so many more things than Hinata's Byakugan ever had. If not for that "lucky" strike, Hinata surely would have lost.
"You are too kind," her cousin continued. "You have no confidence in yourself and you despise conflict. You only entered the exam because it must be taken in a team of three, and you could not deny your teammates' request. You did not expect to make it this far, and even now you feel guilty for hurting your opponent to the extent you did. Am I wrong?"
She didn't respond, she couldn't respond. Her body trembled as she stood motionless, unable to bring herself to continue moving as her heart twisted with guilt and shame. Ahead of her she could see her teammates and teacher watching her worriedly, Kiba taking a step her direction as his mouth opened to speak.
"HEY! Shut up you bastard!"
Hinata jumped when she heard an angry yell, and her head snapped upwards in surprise to see Naruto standing right in front of Neji, standing on his toes as he defiantly glared up at the taller boy's face. "Hinata-chan did an awesome job down there! She took that girl down even when she started swinging all those crazy super-long nunchuks around! Stop saying all that bullshit about her being weak!"
Neji just scoffed and turned his head away, not even bothering to deign Naruto with a response. Huffing angrily, the blond spun around to face Hinata, his eyes blazing with fiery resolve. "Hinata-chan, don't you dare listen to that bastard! I don't care if he's a genius or whatever! You're awesome no matter what he says! Got it?"
Her heart had soared so much to hear him defend her like that, to hear Naruto—her Naruto, her sunshine, her inspiration—tell her that she had done a good job. For so long, Hinata had only heard harsh words of disappointment and scorn from the adults around her. Every day her father's heavy expectations weighed on her shoulders so heavily it felt like she would be crushed under them, and even at the academy she could feel the teachers watching her with high expectations based on her clan alone.
That had been why Naruto's words meant so much to her. Just like her, he grew up with harsh words and criticism, everyone telling him he would be a failure. Yet he never once gave up, he persevered under the unfairly hateful gazes of everyone around them and pushed past every failure even more determined than before. They rarely interacted but even so at some point Naruto had become Hinata's inspiration, his unwavering resolve inspiring her to push harder.
His encouragement—his acknowledgment—gave her strength, filled her with renewed determination. If Naruto could believe in her, then surely she could believe in herself too, right?
Then they drew lots to decide the matches in the tournament, and that dreamlike happiness shattered.
She still remembered the icy chill when Naruto cheerily called out "Five" while she stared at her own slip of paper, the character for "Six" never feeling so ominous. Of all the people to fight, why, why did it have to be him? Her chest felt tight just thinking of it. Hinata couldn't use his words as motivation to fight him, she couldn't bring herself to think of possibly impeding his dream—
"Hinata-nee-san!" Hanabi called, and Hinata gave another small start, squeaking in surprise. Hanabi frowned and tugged her sleeve, trying to get her to follow. "Come on, you're spacing out. Let's go into town and get some cinnamon buns from that one bakery, okay?"
"R-right..." Hinata slowly nodded, offering her a shaky smile. Inside she felt even worse that her younger sister had to try to comfort her though, the sweet promise of cinnamon buns slightly soured by the realization Hanabi knew they would help lift her mood for even a few seconds. As the older sister Hinata should be the one caring for Hanabi, yet somehow the roles had been reversed. But then, hadn't they always been reversed?
Hinata always was a failure after all. Hanabi never had any of the troubles she faced, she should have been the heir.
Trailing behind the five-years-younger prodigy in gloomy silence, the older girl's gaze flitted to the braided bracelet dangling on her wrist one more time, her finger tracing the thick strands of red braided among white and lavender.
I wish... I wish it happened to me instead of you...
Deep in Ame rain poured from the gloomy skies as it always did, but it did not prevent its residents from milling about the city and going about their business. A group of children ran down the street chasing each other, adults yelling in annoyance as they splashed through large puddles and their laughter drowned out by the steady pitter patter of raindrops. A lone figure watched them from the second floor of a small cafe, a black and red cloak draped over the back of his chair and a cup of tea warming his hands.
Light footsteps approached and he turned his head to see a woman walking his way, gliding across the empty room with a grace that made her almost appear to fly. Slipping into the seat across from him, she elegantly folded her hands atop the table and looked at him with blank amber eyes. "Thank you for meeting me, Itachi-kun," she told him. "I hope the tea here is to your liking."
The Uchiha clan killer merely nodded in reply, turning in his seat to face her more fully. "Konan-sama," he greeted coolly, his own face equally aloof. "It is rare to be summoned for a direct meeting, especially individually."
"It is rare for a situation like the present to arise." As she spoke she slipped a piece of folded paper from her sleeve and extended it to him. Eyes narrowing warily, he gingerly took the note and unfolded it, skimming its contents. When he finished he folded it again and handed it back to her, lifting his teacup once more.
"So a genin from Ame has passed to the final stages of the Chuunin Exams. Congratulations."
"Thank you. However, while it is certainly an honor, this means that we must send a representative to Konoha. Currently, no one knows we defeated and replaced Hanzou, and we would prefer to keep it that way."
"Can you not simply send one of your jounin and claim him as a representative in his place?" Itachi reasoned calmly. "As far as I am aware, the old leader had a reputation for being quite standoffish and paranoid. It would be well within his character to send a proxy."
"We could," Konan allowed, "but we would rather use this opportunity to personally gather information." Itachi sipped from his tea quietly as she spoke before setting his cup down, his eyes closing.
"You wish for me to provide assistance because I am a native and know the village," he murmured, and Konan allowed a small smile to slip through.
"Correct. I will be attending as Ame's representative in order to gather information. I will not demand you join me due to the risk, but I believe we would benefit from your presence. Sasori's spy rings have given confirmation that Orochimaru has shown a particularly strong interest in the exams this year, and this may provide an opportunity to eliminate him."
Konan's smile had already vanished by the time Itachi's eyes slid open, her face back to the same aloof mask she always wore. The Uchiha regarded her coolly for a long moment but eventually he sighed, inclining his head in affirmation.
"Very well. I trust you will make appropriate arrangements for disguises. A mere transformation shall hardly suffice for a long-term infiltration mission, and as you are aware, my face is quite well known there."
"Of course," Konan replied smoothly, not missing a beat. "I have already created a few ideas for you to use, and you may browse the stores here for whatever components you need. We shall arrive in Konoha one week before the tournament."
Itachi merely nodded in reply and resumed sipping his tea, only the sound of rain gently pelting the roof filling the silence.
