Sasuke was worried. The chunin exams were known for their high death toll, and now his brother was going to take part in them.
Having foreigners over was a big security risk on its own, but competing with them? What if something happened? What if Naruto got injured?
Sasuke immediately requested an audience with the Hokage, intent to share his concerns as the Head of the Police force.
His request was accepted, and an ANBU came to collect him shortly after lunch.
He was led into a meeting room that was already occupied by the Third, the elders, Shimura Danzo, Nara Shikaku, Morino Ibiki, a few other unknown people and his sensei, Hatake Kakashi.
Upon seeing Sasuke, Konoha's top interrogator immediately extended his hand to the unknown man to his right and looked expectantly at him.
The bearded man huffed in displeasure and reluctantly placed a bag in Ibiki's hand. It was clinking suspiciously.
"Ah, Sasuke. Excellent." The Hokage nodded into the boy's direction and turned to the room at large. "Now that everyone is present, let us begin."
"Hiruzen," Danzo interrupted him, glaring heatedly at Sasuke. "Why is the child here?"
The Third sighed. "We have been over that several times now, Danzo. Uchiha Sasuke is the Head of the Police force and therefore required to be present."
"But there is not even a police force anymore!" Danzo disagreed vehemently. "A single person does not make a force!"
"I beg to differ," Sasuke interjected calmly. "First, the Uchiha police force does not only consist of one person. It has three active officers and I wish to point out that Deputy Uchiha Naruto is indeed capable of being an entire force just by himself."
"He has a point," Ibiki agreed. "The brat's good with his clones."
"Wait," Shikaku interrupted. "Three officers? Who is the third? Your female team member?"
"Sakura is not an Uchiha," Sasuke answered immediately. "I am talking about Hatake Kakashi, of course."
Every head turned into the direction of the jonin in question, who waved lazily, seemingly completely disinterested in the current topic.
"What?" Danzo snapped. "He is not an Uchiha!"
"He has a Sharingan," Sasuke disagreed, throwing the man a challenging look. "That makes him an Uchiha, too."
"Uchiha-dono," Koharu sounded almost desperate. "You cannot go around claiming random people as part of your clan."
"Actually," the jonin commander cut in, amusement in his tone, "as the clan head, he can - provided both parties consent to it and Kakashi does not really look like he minds. "
Hearing his name being mentioned again, Kakashi looked up from the page he was reading. "Hm? What did I miss?"
A couple of snorts and muffled laughter echoed throughout the room.
Enraged, Danzo stormed out of the office.
"Well, now that we have taken care of that issue…" Shikaku snickered slightly at the double meaning in the Hokage's words. "Let us get to the point of this meeting. Ibiki you have the floor."
The scarred man stepped forward and began to speak.
Naruto waited patiently while Sasuke checked his gear for the sixth time in a row. His older brother had already replaced his entire shinobi equipment weeks ago, refusing to entrust his little brother's safety to 'items of inferior quality.'
The Deputy Commander of Konoha's Police Force was now the proud owner of perfectly balanced kunai and shuriken. Even his favorite outfit had gotten an upgrade in the form of resistance seals that increased its durability against physical force and elemental attacks.
Deciding that Naruto's gear had not mysteriously damaged itself since his last check three minutes ago, Sasuke finally nodded and affixed the bag with the official Uchiha Sasuke seal of brotherly approval.
The Chunin Exams themselves, however, were completely failing at their brother-friendliness. The exams were not even two minutes in, and yet they had already drawn the Uchiha's protective scorn.
For starters, he had been placed two rows away from his brother. How could he make sure that nobody hurt Naruto when there was so much distance between them?
And then the questions! They were way too difficult. Even for him - and he was not lacking in the intelligence department, thank you very much.
It was obvious that they had to cheat. But his little brother would never do that.
Thoroughly annoyed, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and wrote down the correct answers before he stood up and resolutely marched across the room, replacing his sheet with Naruto's in full view of everyone.
"What?" he snapped when everyone stared at him in disbelief. "Have you never seen someone cheating before?"
He ruffled Naruto's hair and went back to his seat. "That means I am losing one point, right?"
Ibiki placed his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Sasuke, we are in the middle of an exam. You cannot arrest people for attacking a police officer!" Sakura watched in desperation as her overprotective teammate put handcuffs on Naruto's attacker.
Sasuke ignored her. "I am confiscating this," he told his captives and took their scrolls. "You might have hidden some dangerous information in there."
"These are the exam scrolls!" one of the Sound genin yelled. "You cannot do that."
"Be quiet," Sasuke replied sharply and pocketed the confiscated goods, before sealing the three Sound genin into a prisoner scroll.
Then he turned around and smiled at his brother. "Let's go to the tower, shall we?"
Naruto grinned brightly at him. "Sure!"
The two sauntered off, leaving Sakura to run after them, and they entered the tower at the same moment a certain snake summoner decided it was time to find Sasuke.
Too bad the boy had already left.
Morino Ibiki stared at the prisoner scroll he had just been handed by one of the supervising chunin. It was rather... unorthodox to take genin right out of the middle of the exam, but so far Uchiha Sasuke had proven to possess a good intuition when it came to discovering threats.
Especially when they were directed at Uzu- Uchiha Naruto.
He unsealed the scroll and loomed over the three prisoners.
The genin blinked and recoiled when they saw the scary proctor.
"What the hell are we doing here?!" one of them demanded, looking defiantly at Ibiki.
The man smirked down at him. "This is a question you will answer for me. Now, are you going to cooperate or not?"
An invasion. Uchiha Sasuke had discovered an invasion plan. Ibiki really had to hand it to the Head of their Police Force. He knew what he was doing. It was nice to have a competent person to work with.
Ibiki would make sure to bring it up during their next performance meeting.
But now he had to inform the Hokage.
They needed to plan.
Sasuke was confused when he had been called to this secret meeting in the middle of the tower period.
He looked around to see the Hokage, the jonin commander, Morino Ibiki, Hatake Kakashi and several ANBU scattered around the room. He steadfastly refused to even acknowledge Danzo's presence, tired of the man's constant attempts to relieve him of his office.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the Hokage began, once Sasuke had closed the door behind him. "You have done Konoha a great service. Thanks to you, we have discovered Orochimaru's plans to destroy the village. You have brought pride to your clan."
Sasuke honestly doubted that Itachi would send him congratulatory flowers any time soon. But Naruto would probably buy him a new tomato plant.
He was nice like that.
"Now let us discuss our plans to deal with the threat…"
Naruto stared at his brother. "We are dropping out? Why?!"
Sasuke handed his brother the bowl of miso ramen the Hokage had been nice enough to get for him.
Naruto's eyes lit up, and he immediately attacked his treat.
"There is going to be trouble ahead that will make the exams invalid. Continuing now would only be a waste of time," Sasuke answered.
"I still don't like it," Naruto grumbled. Sasuke saw that he had a noodle hanging on his cheek and grabbed a napkin to wipe it off.
"I know," he replied, grabbing Naruto's chin to stop him from fidgeting.
Naruto grimaced at the cloth in his face, but still allowed his brother to clean it.
"Look at it this way," Sasuke told him and put down the napkin. "Now you have more time to train. I'll help you find some jutsu scrolls."
Naruto's eyes sparkled, and he leaned forward to hug Sasuke. "You are the best, Nii-san!"
"Yo! Sasuke and I are out! Thanks for having us! Good luck with the rest of the exam!"
The assembled shinobi watched in complete disbelief as Uchiha Naruto waved cheerfully at them and proceeded to drag Uchiha Sasuke out of the arena, talking loudly about advanced training… and ramen.
Inside the jonin box, Hatake Kakashi calmly stood and bookmarked his page. "Well, I am off, too. I have a prior appointment I don't want to be late to."
Sakura sighed deeply and followed them outside.
Her team was really ridiculous.
Meanwhile outside Konoha:
"Itachi?"
"Yes, Kisame?"
"What are you doing with those flowers?"
"Preparing a congratulatory gift."
A/N
And another one. =D
Thanks for your nice comments!
ShadowRave: Thanks! Jup, that would be hilarious. I would love to see that, too.
TrisJacksonTodoroki15: Well, I hope I did not distract you for too long. ^^" Glad you liked it, though.
Blackbird0, TheDevilsMusic , Carvaiine: Thank you! (⌒▽⌒)
sayaka uzumaaki: Oh dear, that would be...disastrous. I can really see him trying to lock up Jiraiya for life. XD
StressedByAMountainofBooks: Thanks, I hope you'll continue enjoying it! =)
