Eizo-Mori enjoyed his walk. He saw lots of pretty birdies. Lots of ladies cooed over how cute he is, but he wishes they wouldn't. It gets super annoying. Once he is free from his pushchair, Eizo-Mori goes looking for Pretty Big Sister. Big Sister Itachi is nice, but those lines under her eyes look funny. Now, where is Pretty Big Sister?
Eizo clomps carefully down the hall to Pretty Big Sister's room. She is not there. Maybe she is in the secret room. Eizo forces his way into the wardrobe. He giggles and dives into the mess that Pretty Big Sister refuses to clean up. Then Eizo pushes the Secret Button. He feels like a spy, or a de...de...dectective? Detective! He feels like a detective. "Pretty Neechan?" he calls down the ladder.
No answer.
Then the kitty Daddy calls Peanut jumps up the ladder and starts rubbing her head against Eizo. "Mrrooww! Mrroow!" the kitty sounds sad.
"No Pretty Neechan?" asks Eizo, sadly.
"Mrrow," says Peanut-kitty.
Eizo decides to go and find Pretty Big Sister. Eizo is still wearing his shoes, since Mummy was preoccupied with Big Sister Itachi and didn't take them off. Eizo is all set to go and find Pretty Big Sister. Eizo-Mori sits down and thinks about it inside his head. Everybody has a thingy that Eizo can feel, that is different for everyone. If he concentrates, maybe he can find Sasuke's...thingy. He doesn't know what the word is. But he knows how to find the Thingy.
Eizo concentrates hard and finds a trail of the Thingy leading outside. He follows the trail carefully. After a bit of walking, Eizo comes to a place where the Thingy goes off one way, then comes back and goes another way. Eizo decides to follow the Thingy the second way. Soon he finds himself at some big gates. There are two people sitting at a desk arguing. Eizo ignores them and keeps following the trail of Sasuke's Thingy.
Eizo is very tired now, but he keeps going because he wants to play with Pretty Big Sister. They are friends now. Friends play together.
Eizo follows a path to a forest with a giant fence around it. There is a lot of big people standing in front of a gate. A nice lady with funny hair is telling them a bunch of stuff. Eizo sees Pretty Big Sister. He giggles and crawls up to her. He is too tired to walk now. Pretty Big Sister doesn't see him, because she is looking at the lady.
"Nee-chan!" Eizo shouts, pulling on his sister's pants.
Pretty Big Sister looks down at him and glares at him. "What are you doing here?" she asks.
"Play!" Eizo-Mori says.
"No!" says Pretty Big Sister. "I'm taking the chunin exam, I can't play with you right now!" Eizo wonders why her face is all red.
"Aw, is this your little brother?" asks the nice boy standing beside Pretty Big Sister. "He's so cute!" the nice boy crouches down and pats Eizo on the head. "I'm Naruto. What's your name, little guy?"
"Pirate," says Eizo-Mori. That is not his name, but the only words he knows how to say are 'no', 'pretty', 'big sister', 'play' and 'pirate'.
"No it's not!" says Pretty Big Sister, turning even redder. "His name is Eizo-Mori! He can't say very many words."
"Sorry to have to tell you kids this," says the Lady, coming over to them. "But the toddler will have to stay with me. No babies are allowed in the Forest of Death."
Eizo is sad. "No play?" he asks.
"No," says the Lady. "You can't play with your big sister. You can play with me though."
Eizo thinks about this. The lady seems nice. He smiles. "PLAY!" He grabs the bottom of her coat and laughs. The Lady picks up Eizo and puts him on her hip.
"Alright, everyone," the Lady says. "As I was saying, fill out your consent forms and hand them in in exchange for a scroll. Once everybody has done that, each team must go to a different gate and wait for the signal to begin. Try to spread out as much as you can: even though there are 30 teams this year, there are still plenty of gates. Any questions?"
"Um…" Pretty Big Sister raises her hand all scared-like. "Can you take my little brother home once we're all in the Forest?"
"I have to stay and supervise," says the Lady. "But I'll get someone to take him home. Who're your parents?"
"Um…" Big Sister turns all red again.
"She's Mr. Nice Police Chief's kid!" says Naruto.
"Oh so you're Itachi's kid sister!" the Lady pats Pretty Big Sister on the head.
Eizo wants to tell Pretty Big Sister he will be alright, and she should go play in the forest with the other kids, but he does not know how to say the words. Eizo pats Big Sister on the head instead. "Pirate!" he says, encouragingly.
"We're ninjas, not pirates," laughs the Lady. "Now to the rest of you, I have one final piece of advice: DON'T DIE!"
"PIRATE!" yells Eizo, feeling the need to add his opinion.
Pretty Big Sister groans and turns even redder.
"Let's go take the chunin exam!" yells Naruto, and runs off with Pretty Big Sister and a boy with pink hair. He's silly, doesn't he know pink is for girls?
All the big people write on the bits of paper the Lady gave them and give them to a man at a table with a curtain around it. Eizo does not know what it is called, so he points to it and tries to ask what it is called. All that comes out is; "Gaa?"
"No, you can't go over there," says the Lady, not understanding.
"NO!" shouts Eizo, frustrated. "NAME!" He points to the table with the curtain. "NAME!"
"Oh, that's a booth," says the Lady.
"Pirate," says Eizo, happily. He is still very tired, so he leans his head on the Lady's shoulder and yawns. Her shoulder is all hard, like Big Sister Itachi's. Eizo thinks that they probably wear the same kind of shirt. Ah well, Daddy wears one of the hard shirts when he is being a policeman. Eizo closes his eyes to take a nap.
Eizo-Mori is woken up when the Lady hands him to a strange man. "Take him to the Police Chief," the Lady tell the man. "I've gotta keep an eye on Stage Two. Whatever possessed you to pass 30 teams, Ibiki?"
"They are an exceptional bunch this year," says the man. He has funny lines on his face and he is wearing a pirate bandanna. "Can you believe that the pink haired boy answered all the questions in the written test without cheating? And that Naruto kid copied the answer sheet exactly, but no one saw how he did it!"
"Ibiki, if we have to have a preliminary match before the finals, I am making sure they know it was your fault."
"Isn't making me return a stray baby revenge enough, Anko?"
"Pirate!" says Eizo.
The adults look down at him in surprise.
"Oh, so you're a pirate baby, is that it?" asks the man.
Eizo grins. He likes this man. "Pirate," he says, and snuggles into the man's chest.
"So do you think his parents know he's missing yet?" asks the man.
"Unless Shisui got Itachi pregnant and they literally just found out, I think the head of the Uchiha Clan and his wife definitely know their pirate baby is missing," says the Lady.
"Well, considering they haven't come looking for him, I'm going to assume they haven't noticed yet." The man makes a hand sign. "I'll return him soon, but first, there is a prisoner I need his help with."
"Wait, WHAT!?" the Lady yells.
A second later, Eizo and the Man are in a strange room. There is a window nearby, where a man is tied to a chair.
"Sir, why is there a baby here?" asks a funny-looking man.
"This baby is here to help us," says the man who is holding Eizo. He sits down and stands Eizo up on his lap so they can see each other's eyes.
Eizo pokes the man's face-lines and grins. "Pirate," he says.
"No, I'm not a pirate," says the man. "I am Ibiki. Now, little pirate-baby do you want to help Uncle Ibiki?"
"Ooh?" asks Eizo, cocking his head to one side.
"That man sitting on that chair has something he needs to tell me," says Uncle Ibiki. "But he needs some encouragement. You're so cute, I bet he'll tell me right away if I let him hold you."
This sounds like a good idea to Eizo, so he smiles and says, "PIRATE!"
The other man does not like this idea. "But that guy is scared of...babies…" then he grins too and says, "You know what, do it captain."
Scared of babies? Does Uncle Ibiki want to scare the man on the chair into telling? Eizo understands this sort of thing. He spent an entire hour screaming at the top of his lungs to get Pretty Big Sister to cuddle him. Eizo giggles. Uncle Ibiki is awesome.
Uncle Ibiki takes Eizo into the room where the man is tied to the chair. "Hello again," says Uncle Ibiki. "I have someone here for you to play with."
"Gaa!" says Eizo, smiling and waving at the man.
"Get it away from me!" screams the man, going all white.
"Why?" asks Uncle Ibiki, pretending to be surprised. "He's just a cute, innocent little baby."
"Pirate," says Eizo firmly.
"Sorry, pirate baby." Uncle Ibiki puts Eizo on the scared man's lap.
"Get it off me!" says the man, struggling to get free.
Eizo grins and puts his arms around the man's neck.
"Please! Have mercy!"
"Tell me who you work for," says Uncle Ibiki.
"OROCHIMARU!" shouts the man. "I WORK FOR OROCHIMARU! SHE'S PLANNING TO INVADE THE HIDDEN LEAF DURING THE FINAL STAGE OF THE CHUNIN EXAMS! SHE HAS SHARINGAN NOW, AND SHE WANTS TO TEST ITS POWER! NOW PLEASE, GET THIS THING OFF ME!"
Eizo is proud of himself. He got the man to talk. He smiles and pats the man's cheek. Then he climbs off the man's lap and runs to Uncle Ibiki. "Pirate!" he says, smiling proudly.
"You did good, little pirate," says Uncle Ibki proudly. "Now I had better take you home to your parents."
"Um, Captain?" asks Uncle Ibiki's friend. "Whose baby is that?"
"Oh, this is Itachi's baby brother."