"A lot of people are arriving now, huh?" Atsuko quietly remarked, eyeing the crowded street below.
Naomi simply nodded. Their perch upon one of the taller buildings gave them a good view of the street; the crowds wore a myriad of different clothes, indicating allegiance to different villages. Typically, everything felt much busier around chuunin exam season but even this felt far more hyped up than usual. There were more people than she ever remembered, far bigger crowds than the chuunin exams itself would typically draw in any other time of the year.
"There are more people coming than usual." Hiruko voiced, bringing life to the thoughts that had swirled in her head.
They had spent the better part of the morning training, taking a break now for lunch. Naomi had always hated crowds, thus was the one who suggested they took to the roof. The store owner was, fortunately, a family friend from outside of the clan and didn't complain when she had announced their plan to do so.
She slowly picked at her food (though, she had always been a slow eater, to begin with), eyes slowly sweeping back and forth, watching people go about their day. She had spotted a few familiar faces earlier, other genin and chuunin who she had seen around the village but did not know the names of. She had seen a few ANBU earlier, though they had disappeared as soon as she saw them; in the blink of an eye and no slower.
"I take it you're all taking a nice break on this fine day?"
None of them reacted when Yura had appeared behind them, taking a seat next to Naomi at the end.
"Food." was all Hiruko gave him for an answer, in which he simply nodded as if approving.
"I take it you haven't had any run-ins with any of the other participants, have you?"
None of them had an answer to that; truth be told, they had spent the past few days training while everyone had been trickling into the village. They barely saw the other Konoha genin, let alone anyone else from outside the village.
"I'll take the lack of responses as a resounding no, then."
Naomi snorted out a half-laugh, somewhat amused at the idea that their sensei thought any of them had come across any of the other participants. Atsuko was the shyest of the trio, tailing them all around like a lost puppy; an introvert after her own heart. Hiruko didn't care enough to engage in a conversation unless he deemed them interesting enough. Not many people seemed to fit the bill, as it turns out. Naomi herself was never the most social, she barely had the energy to hold a conversation for more than a few minutes anyway.
Needless to say, the three of them barely talked to anyone outside the team.
"Should we be worried about interacting with any of them before the exams anyway?" Atsuko asked though it was more a rhetorical question if Naomi ever heard one.
"You don't have to, necessarily." Yura remarked, "It wouldn't hurt to, though."
They all fell silent, drowning now in thoughts that kicked up dust in their heads like a wind that was just waiting to become a tornado. Yura quietly left, leaving his three students to their quiet contemplation, having had his fun giving them one other thing to think about.
But he knew that they were just going to continue the way they had been; habits are hard to break after all.
After lunch, they decided in unspoken unison that they were far too distracted to continue training that day.
By the time they decided to make their way around the village, it seemed that the crowds had already dispersed. Despite that, however, it was still ridiculously busy.
Not that it had been surprising by any stretch. Her eyes followed a couple that had been chatting animatedly as they walked into a nearby restaurant, then swept to eye a team of three standing at the corner, looking as if they were arguing about something. Judging from their uniforms alone, they were Kumo nin.
'Cloud nin," she mused 'genin probably, here for the chuunin exams.'
Hiruko hummed next to her, though it was more in annoyance than anything. Atsuko had dipped into one of the stores, and neither Hiruko nor Naomi had any intentions of doing any shopping.
"What's taking her so long?"
Naomi scoffed, though it was more of a breath of laughter than anything. Her teammates were ridiculous sometimes but honestly, she loved them for it; at least they were bearable most of the time. Well, when they weren't spending 5 minutes arguing about absolutely anything.
"It's only been like five minutes, Hiruko. It hasn't been that long."
He simply huffed in response, but did not argue; she was right, why would he argue? It really hadn't been that long, he was just impatient. But she couldn't complain about his impatience, she was no better most of the time. It just so happened that he was much more vocal than she was about the fact.
"Oi, Naomi, Hiruko!" called a voice from not too far away.
She didn't look at them as they approached; their voice alone was recognizable enough. She caught Hiruko quietly sighing but he didn't say anything, just giving her a look as if he were expecting her to deal with them alone. Which, that in itself was not an issue; the issue was she was barely all here mentally at the moment. Any conversation with someone with as much energy as Naruto was going to be exhausting at best.
"Yeah, Naruto?"
He was as energetic and insufferable as he usually was. But judging by his expression alone, this was likely another bickering session he was having with Sasuke. Her suspicions were only confirmed when she spotted Sasuke and Sakura tailing behind, both looking, in varying degrees, agitated and exasperated.
"Tell your brother that-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before Sakura clocked him over the head. She started yelling about something or other, though Naomi stopped paying attention at that point. Her attention had panned over to where the crowd thinned out, eyes landing on another trio of genin, clearly not from Konoha, though they were not the Kumo nin from earlier on; those three had disappeared moments prior.
Suna nin, judging by their attire. Their expressions were difficult to read but she got the feeling that they were on edge. Well, at least two of them seemed to be more on edge than the third, who was leading them, if she had to guess. From this distance, it was difficult to distinguish any facial features, but something about the way the one in the lead was looking made her uneasy; despite not having a good read on them from this distance, something about his expression sent shivers down her spine.
But as they drew closer, everything slowed down. Their eyes met, for the briefest of moments that felt like it stretched on for much longer than it did.
As they passed, the conversation died, leaving an uneasy silence in its wake. It was as if everyone all held their breath, almost like rabbits caught in a cage with a starving wolf. Even though they were on home ground, the atmosphere was as frigid as ice, if not moreso; it was as if everything had slowly started to freeze over.
Not a word was said even after the trio disappeared. Moments passed in a very uneasy and very tense silence.
"What the fuck was that?"
Not one of them had a response; the only thing Naomi knew for sure that this was going to be a long exam period.