Chapter 15: A green storm

He was still in a good mood, all things considered, the not so subtle insult from Sakura-chan stung a bit, and meeting with the herb freak Hojo, had been a bit upsetting, but nothing Naruto couldn't deal with.

After all, this was it.

They were finally getting the chance to prove everyone just how much they'd improved (how much he had improved, his opportunity to show he did belong with his friends), and the blond wasn't sure anything that could happen to bring him down. So he kept smiling like he failed to notice the anger radiating from his two best friends. It wasn't like anyone else would be able to tell anyway; they were both pretending to be calm.

"They're not playing around, it seems." The words were low, but Naruto could still hear her.

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"Concentrate, moron," Sasuke snapped, although he seemed to have lost some of his earlier edge.

The prankster closed his eyes and tried to concentrate; on what he wasn't sure, but he did anyway.

"Feel for chakra." The boy nodded at the soft advice of his childhood friend.

He'd never been good at this stuff, though the meditation sessions Kakashi-sensei insisted he needed did seem to improve his skill for sensing chakra a little bit...when he didn't forget to actually do them, that is.

Something prickled the edge of his senses; it was a small thing, so faint that he'd have missed it had he not been certain Kagome was never wrong about these things. There was something here, crossing his arms, he tried to follow the light feel of chakra to no avail.

"Genjutsu," she said when she realized he was drawing a blank. "someone really wants us to think we've reached the third floor."

"A proctor or just a genin?" Sasuke asked, his voice just as low as the girls.

"Why would a genin want to make a genjutsu for the full floor?"

"The number of people who actually get promoted is really low, even if you join two exams, I doubt any country gets more than five chuunin a year if they're lucky." Despite what she was saying, she kept walking, her hand still pulling on his own. Shouldn't they try to get out of the illusion field then? "It wouldn't surprise me if some of the ones who've failed before tried to reduce the number of opponents."

Whatever it was he was going to say next was drowned out by the loud, well-known sound of a fist connecting with flesh. A shared glance with his friends was all they needed to speed up, questions about the genjutsu quickly forgotten.

"Is someone as talentless as you seriously trying to take the exam?" A new mocking voice rose above the muttering of a crowd in the middle of the hall. "Why bother?"

Cleverly placed elbows and kicks got the three of them to the front of the crowd. There; on the floor, with a bruise quickly forming on his cheek, was a boy not much older than him in...green...spandex?

No, no, that wasn't important. The important part here was the two teens standing in front of a door labeled 301. So it was other genins then, the ones behind the genjutsu his friends felt. A quick look around suggested either none of these people knew they were being fooled or didn't care enough to show their hand. Kinda like Kagome and Sasuke were doing right now.

Before he could open his mouth to ask why they were still in this place, he felt a slight tug on his sleeve. Years of friendship had him shut up as the realization sunk in. Oh, so they wanted to see what was going to happen. It made sense now that he thought about it; these guys could become future opponents, and knowing what they could do would probably be useful later on.

"Bunch of green toddlers," said the one with the oversized weapons strapped to his back.

"You said it!" the other laughed.

"Please..." a girl he vaguely remembered as an older graduate intervened. "We're begging you...let us in."

The girl made a move to get closer only to be sent back to join her teammate on the floor with a backhand. And this was getting out of hand; a look at the two standing in the door confirmed they were also from Konoha...why were they being such jerks about it?

Murmurs broke through the crowd.

"That's just cruel."

"What did you say?" The jerk with the weapons turned to the crowd. "You misunderstand. We're just trying to spare you here."

"The Chuunin Selection Exam is remarkably difficult; we should know, we've failed three times so far." The bandaged one gave them a darkly amused look. "There are people who made it then immediately gave up being shinobi...others who ended up crippled...some reduced to vegetables, we've seen it all."

"Besides, chuunins are cell commanders; they lead their units." "The responsibilities for failed missions and dead shinobi rest firmly on their shoulders. And you little punks have the nerve to apply?" And here, Naruto thought Sasuke was the peak of arrogance. These guys failed thrice, and yet here they were, trying to look all cool or something. "We're saving a step by weeding out the obvious losers beforehand."

"That sounds good, in theory," Sasuke's voice sounded too loud in the silence that had fallen after their little monologues. "but you'd better let me through; and drop the genjutsu while you're at it, we've got business in the third floor."

A proud grin spread over the blond's face as he listened to the whispers around him, confusion lacing the not-so-quiet questions. Like he thought, their team was clearly the best here (and sure, he may have failed to notice the illusion at first, but he managed it once Kagome-chan pointed it out, and that was the whole point with being on a team, making up for the others' weaknesses).

"So, you figured it out, huh?"

"We did study in this building for years." This time it was the girl who spoke, her soft tones a bit less tense now. "Not noticing an illusion was placed over it would be a bit embarrassing, after all.

"Haha, of course, it was really obvious." Yes, he was exaggerating. But it was obvious for his childhood friend, so technically it wasn't a lie.

"Not bad, but..." The world around them rippled as the genjutsu was dispelled with a single movement, the unknown genin disappearing for an instant. "Just seeing through it is not enough!"

Or not.

For someone so used to sparring with Kagome, this guy was actually not that fast. Hell, the bastard was probably faster, even being the slowest in their group Naruto could probably block this easily. Unsurprisingly, Sasuke was already moving by the time the guy's last word was finished.

"Sasuke-kun!" The pink-haired kunoichi screamed near his ear (when had she even made her way to the center of the crowd? Shouldn't they still be looking for their reminder teammate?), not for the reason he expected though.

There, right between the two would-be fighters, was the green spandex-clad genin that had been flung to the floor just a few minutes before. Completely and effortlessly stopping both kicks.

The kind of kick that would usually cause Naruto to take a step back.

And this time, the blond really failed to catch even a glimpse of the not-so-weak genin as he moved to stop the fight. A quick glance to his right showed a surprised look in Kagome's face for just an instant before it was gone under the mask of polite interest. She couldn't see him move either then.

"Hey," another voice he didn't recognize, spoke, loud and annoyed. "That's not what we agreed! You're the one who insisted we should avoid drawing attention to ourselves."

Naruto had to blink at the pale, whitish, pupil-less eyes in the stranger's face. Was this one of Hinata-chan's relatives? He knew no one else from that clan was on their year, but he didn't look too old, probably one or two years at most. They certainly looked similar enough, but geez, just with that one sentence, it was clear their attitudes couldn't be more different. He didn't interact with the Hyuuga heiress all that often, but the little time they'd spent together gave him the impression she was a kind girl, shy and with a tendency to blush a lot, but nice enough.

"Eh, but..." The bowl cut kid fiddled with his fingers before looking his way...wait, not his way but to his right. A determined expression on his face as he walked to Sakura-chan, who was still trying to make sense of what had happened.

"Hi, my name is Rock Lee." Well, he had a name to call him now, at least. "You're Sakura, aren't you?"

The pink-haired kunoichi appeared to have momentarily frozen at the direct approach of Rock Lee.

"Would you like to go out with me?" Lee smiled, a weirdly bright glint sparkling from his too-wide smile. Oh, this guy was weird, alright. "I'll protect you with my life!"

Silence fell upon the hall again, though this time for a completely different reason as Sakura-chan was apparently trying to get her voice back from the shock. Not that Naruto would blame her, even Kagome-chan was looking on the scene with her own surprise clear to the world. Her mask was completely forgotten this time.

"No...way...you're completely out of hand!"

"Come on, guys, let's just leave."

Kagome-chan pulled on his sleeve slightly before letting go and making her way to Sasuke. Clearly, she wanted nothing more than to move away from this place, and looking to the start of the hall, the blond could clearly see the reason. Two more genins were making their way to the crow, the redhead looked fairly annoyed, but the herb-smelling brunet was still smiling. Yep, the girl was right, they better left and right now, besides, this whole thing was slowly turning into a freak show.

"Hey, you!" The strict voice of Hinata-chan's relative stopped them in their tracks as they tried to slip away. "What's your name?"

Irritation built up inside him, the Hyuuga had to know who Sasuke was. The boy had forgone the infiltration clothes, so the Uchiha crest was once more proudly displayed on the back of his shirt. Everyone in the village knew the Uchiha crest, everyone knew of the tragedy, this was just a show to make it obvious he was acknowledging the bastard. And once more, Naruto was simply ignored; hell, he was standing right between the two, but the Hyuuga had looked past him like he didn't exist.

"It's common courtesy to give your own name first."

"You're a rookie, aren't you?" the older teen ignored the ice in his friend's voice. "How old?"

"I don't have to tell you a thing." And again, the Hyuuga didn't seem faced by the Uchiha's retort.

Huffing, the blond walked past them. "You're coming or not?"

He felt a bit of satisfaction when his teammate's response was to scoff and resume walking. Sure, the two of them were more rivals than friends at times, but at least he never had to wonder if the other boy considered him worthy of being acknowledged.

Hell, the fact that the Uchiha hadn't raised up a fuss with the whole rotating training during Wave was more than enough proof that he trusted him to be capable of keeping Kagome safe if needed.

They had a rocky start, but at the end of the day, as it was, theirs was still a friendship.

"Say, Kagome-chan..." he started, forcefully pushing his irritation away. "How hard is it to place a genjutsu on the floor?"

"Humm... a bit, but not that harsh. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a good number of people already in the classroom, though. The illusion was realistic, but they weren't doing much to hide the chakra traces around the start of the field.

"But what about all those people?" He thought back to the big crowd in the hall. "Weren't those two jerks stopping anyone from moving on?"

"You're telling me you wouldn't be able to slip through the crowd, or even enter the third floor from the outside if they somehow managed to block the stairs?" Sasuke scoffed.

Now that he thought about it, those two were only blocking the entrance to room 201, so long as he didn't raise a fuss, he could just pass through the gathered genins and keep going. Getting to the third floor from the outside wasn't really difficult; he could just walk up a window.

"The smart ones probably passed without saying a word, the bigger the number of applicants stuck on the second floor, the fewer the potential opponents," Kagome said, a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Huh? Wait, if it's like that, then why did you..." he turned to glare at Sasuke. "...went and did that?"

"Because he's almost as dramatic as you," Kagome laughed at the same time Sasuke's glower increased. The tension of the last couple of weeks finally letting off, this was more familiar to the friendship he'd known so far.

"Wha..." the Uchiha sputtered before glaring at him instead of the girl, but there was a hint of red on his face. "I was not being dramatic, I was just making a statement."

"Yeah, right." Naruto cackled out loud, oh this was priceless. "Admit it, you bastard, if Kagome-chan said it, it has to be true."

"She also called you dramatic, in case you didn't hear, you moron."

"Well, at least I..."

"Hey, you with the scowl!" A loud voice stopped them... again. "Wait up!"

Naruto frowned; did the guy climbed to the thrid-floor and then went all the way to where he could see the second-floor hallway? He was just behind then, why not just catch up to them.

"You and me, here and now...want to fight?"

Kagome suppressed the urge to sigh; things seemed to be getting more and more troublesome by the minute. Just for once, she'd like her life to pass in a more normal way, no hidden conspiracies nor random persons challenging them to a battle.

"You want to fight me...here and now?" Disbelief colored Sasuke's words as he looked up.

"Yes."

And he jumped down.

She knew she should've stopped the boy from showing off earlier; his patience for anything related to the village had been short lately, not like hers was any better, to be honest, and the silly game with the genjutsu had grated on his nerves. But the only thing letting him blow off some steam had done was generate more troubles.

"My name is Rock Lee. Among elites, etiquette requires one to introduce oneself before asking for the name of another." There was a determined look in his eyes that was giving her a bad feeling about this. "Uchiha Sasuke."

Of course, the spandex-clad boy, Lee, knew who he was. Unlike the Higurashi crest, which had been forgotten as the generations passed without a single member being seen, the Uchiha symbol had been prevalent until very recently. Even then, the stories about what happened to the clan were still whispered whenever Sasuke was not in public.

"Look, Lee-san, was it?" Kagome stepped forward; she really didn't want to waste more time here. "I'm terribly sorry, but is there any chance we can leave this for another time?

"We're all here for the exam, and there's not much time left until it starts; besides, we're all from Konoha here. Instead of fighting between us, surely it would be better if we just go our way, so none of us is tired before the examination starts."

"Oh, uhh..." The older teen flushed, clearly not expecting her to interfere. "no need to apologize..."

"Higurashi Kagome," she said as he trailed off.

"Right, no need to apologize, Higurashi-san, but I fear it cannot be postponed." The girl almost winced at the loudness of his response; he was polite but way too energetic. "It's precise because the exams are about to start that I'd prefer to have our fight right now. I want to test the effectiveness of my techniques against the last surviving member of the legendary Uchiha."

This time, she sighed, if she'd had any hopes of stopping this, they were gone when Lee mentioned the clan. If being identified as the last Uchiha was something that bothered him before finding about the apparent coup...well, now the boy was pissed.

"So, you're challenging me even knowing my lineage?" Fake pride laced the words masking his rising hatred for his family. "In other words, you're a fool. So, tell me, do you really want to know what it means to go against an Uchiha?"

Taking a step back, the girl fought back the incoming headache. For the last few days, the feeling of being watched had been a constant buzz in the back of her head, now that they were actually in the exam, it had just gotten worse. She really should've insisted on just slipping through the crowd.

"Hold it! Let me handle him, he'll be toast." Her childhood friend rushed forward. "Just give me five minutes."

"Is this really necessary?" she muttered to no one.

"I have no interest in fighting you, only Uchiha."

She loved her friends, she reminded herself, she really did. So she wouldn't strangle either of them for ignoring her and their own common sense for being baited into a useless and time-consuming fight. Pgheaded and stubborn as they were, she was still fond of them...or so she kept repeating in her head as she watched Naruto sprint towards Lee with no plan in mind.

"Like you have any right to choose here!"

Naruto launched a punch, which was immediately deflected. The blond was forgetting himself in his rage of being overlooked for Sasuke; maybe she should try to help him with his meditation exercises because they clearly weren't working.

Azure eyes narrowed as the prankster's high kick was evaded without hardship, a move she couldn't quite catch sent Naruto flying against the wall. Lee looked just as calm as he was before the impromptu attack. It was nothing but a confirmation of what she'd guessed back in front of the fake room, the guy's whole team was faking their weakness. One of his teammates was a Hyuuga for crying out loud, there was no way he couldn't see the chakra surrounding the floor. And there was no doubt that someone able to stop one of Sasuke's kick without stumbling back was hiding something else.

"Mark my words, none of you will be able to beat me." It wasn't arrogance, Kagome realized with a frown, simply confidence in the older genin's voice. "I am the greatest fighter among all genin in Konoha."

Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea, for as impulsive as this guys seemed to be, it was unlikely he'd refuse to stop the fight if they got too close to the time limit of the battle somehow ended up stretching that far. At the very least, she could get some nice info about the skill level they'd be dealing with. Giving a small nod of acceptance, she kept quiet as Sasuke stepped forward.

"This could be useful, I accept your challenge."

"Just don't take too long, will you?" she asked as she made her way to her childhood friend. A hit like that shouldn't be able to really hurt the blond, but he still seemed a bit out of it.

"This will only take five minutes," he echoed their friend's words.

Fast, this guy was fast. Perhaps not to the level Haku reached inside his mirrors but...was Lee as fas as she was?

"Konoha hurricane!"

He was moving first this time, and this time the girl was beginning to struggle to follow his movements. Too fast to dodge.

The sound was deafening as Lee's kick connected...

She saw him block though, Sasuke had more than enough time to block, he did, so how...

No, it wasn't that Sasuke failed to move; he was used to fighting with faster opponents; it also wasn't about the strength of the kick either. Lee had somehow gotten past his guard. Kagome frowned, while Sasuke was used to sparring with her; he could usually block most of the attacks he couldn't avoid. Even in the instances he failed to, one of her kicks wouldn't have sent him to the floor so easily.

While speed was one of her grater weapons, physical strength was most certainly not. She wasn't built for that, so instead of investing time in a skill she'd only ever be mediocre at, Miko...her former instructor, had chosen to dance around the issue. Just slice the right muscle or tendon, and movement would become impossible. One cut in the proper vein or artery, and someone will easily bleed to death in seconds. In fact, as far as she could remember, shinobi didn't rely on physical strength all that often. They needed to have a handle on it, of course, but ninjutsu and genjutsu tended to be more effective during missions.

Clearly, Rock Lee had chosen a different path.

"Fine, this may be a good chance to get some more practice," Sasuke grumbled.

Crimson overtook the onyx she was so used to seeing; it could certainly give him an edge, but only if the other boy was using some form of ninjutsu or genjutsu. Something that Kagome hadn't seen the older teen do.

She breathed a little bit easier when, instead of rushing, Sasuke remained on the defensive. Until he had a chance to see and analyze the attacks, jumping head-on was risky. Feeling Naruto stirring beside her, the girl allowed her sight to move away from the fight, the blond still looked a little woozy, but at least his eyes were focused as he stared at what she wasn't sure could be called a fight.

The extra edge of using the sharingan was allowing the boy to properly dodge all of Lee's attacks, but that was about it. And it would stay that way until the other boy started using chakra.

"Wha..."

"He hasn't used anything but taijutsu so far," she answered the blond's unvoiced question.

And Sasuke was getting tired of it; the boy had chosen to stop evading attacks, this time, he was running towards his opponent. Probably trying to force to do whatever it was that broke through his defenses.

She couldn't even see the moment Lee moved, his leg extended in a kick that now sent Sasuke straight into the air.

"Exactly, this is neither ninjutsu nor genjutsu," the teen said before he all but vanished, reappearing in the shadow of Sasuke's falling body. "My moves are strictly physical.

"I'm sure your sharingan is invaluable against ninjutsu and genjutsu, but taijutsu in its pure form is a very different story."

Warning bells were ringing loud in her head. This was bad; it had gone from a sparring session to something way more serious. Even just a normal fall from that height could be bad news if Lee tried something else then...

"You lack the speed and strength to counter them. It doesn't matter what your eye can see if your body is too weak to act!"

A senbon was in her hand by the time she stood up, they were falling too fast; she wasn't sure she could catch up, even if she did, there was no guarantee she'd be able to get Lee away from Sasuke.

Not the time.

Forcibly she pushed down the boiling rage that had been steadily rising since the fight started. This guy was from Konoha; she could spin this as self-defense, but she'd place the spotlight on them. No permanent damage then.

A pressure point would have to do.

"Naruto, at my signal."

There was no need for any more instructions; they'd trained together for years, he knew what she needed him to do.

Taking a calming breath, Kagome took aim...

And froze

A...pinwheel, of all things, had pierced Lee's bandages just a fraction of a second before she let go of her needle...which was not the actual reason why she stopped though...

Turtle...

There was a turtle in the middle of the hall. Speaking out loud.

Since when were turtles considered good animals for summons? That's what it was...right?

Not now, Focus!

"Naruto!"

The blond jumped at her command, jumping and tackling the Uchiha while still in the air to slow down the fall. A trembling sigh escaped her when her eyes fell on her two teammates landing, it was a bit harsh, but they shouldn't have any serious injury. Still, she sprinted to their side, her gaze already on Sasuke's tense form searching for wounds. Gods, he was pissed.

"That's enough, Lee!" The scream forced all three of them to look back at the talking turtle.

"Y-you saw...?" Lee was stammering as he looked at the giant turtle.

"You know the rules, Lee! That move is strictly forbidden!" The summon was scolding the older genin...for some unknown reason.

"P-please, forgive me...I was only..." The teen's voice died with a single frown from the turtle. "I...I wouldn't have used the reversal move...I never meant to."

"Hey, hey," Naruto started, taking a couple of steps forward as if to get a better look. "That thing over there...that's a turtle...right?"

There was an air of uncertainty to his words, pausing several times as if unsure if there was any sense to what he'd just said...Kagome couldn't blame him. For the Gods' sake, it looked like even Sasuke's rage had bee dowsed somewhat by the bizarreness of the situation. "Yeah...I'm pretty sure it is."

"So, what's the deal here, can turtles become ninja?" There was a forehead protector tied to its neck.

"Don't ask stupid questions," Sasuke snapped back, though it was missing quite a lot of heat.

"You fool!" And now the turtle was getting angry... "Do you think I care about your feeble excuses? Consider the repercussions of a shinobi, any shinobi boldly explaining all his secrets!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

Whatever sense of danger the situation had, was completely destroyed by now, and she wasn't sure if this was the better outcome. Next time some random stranger came asking for a match, she was getting them all out, if she had to tie both boys up and drag them out, then so be it. The little information they got was not worth this odd feeling of reality being twisted.

"I hope you are properly prepared?"

"Y-yes, sir..."

"Well, then...he's all yours, Gai-sensei."

There was a...person...standing on top of the turtle summon...

Maybe posing was a better word compared to standing...

"Ah, the exuberance of youth, all of you are full of it!" the...man...screamed.

Green spandex, bowl haircut, bushy eyebrows...he took a quick glance at the other genin and couldn't repress a shiver. Somehow, he got a feeling he got the feeling he was seeing both future and past at the same time. It was...disturbing...and the man grinned. Were teeth supposed to glint so brightly?

"He's got the biggest eyebrows yet!" Ah, so Naruto had finally snapped out of his shock. "They're almost alive."

"And the same dorky hairdo," he scoffed.

"I've never seen anything like this..."Even Kagome's politeness was faltering.

He-hey! Don't try to make fun of Gai-sensei." Lee shouted without moving from his spot.

No, this wasn't making fun of the man; they were just literally stating facts here. For once, he couldn't muster enough strength to get offended at being defeated by some random weirdo. Things were just too strange.

"Oh, shut up! I don't even know what to make of all the freaks who keep popping up here!" Oddly enough, the Uchiha could relate.

"Wha..." the older genin began to say before being interrupted.

"Lee!"

"Oh! Yes, sir."

"You, idiot!"

He punched him.

The older spandex weirdo had punched his miniaturized clone to the floor...there was even blood dripping from the older teen's lip. And Sasuke was beginning to wonder if he should just go ahead and try to dispel a genjutsu. Maybe the one on the floor wasn't the only one. At his sides, his teammates sounded just as perplexed.

Especially when they started crying...honest to god crying...both of them.

"Gai-sensei...I."

"That's enough, Lee!" Did these guys understand the concept of indoor voices? "Not one more word!"

"Gai-sensei!"

Oh gods, now they were clinging to each other while still crying. Were these people really shinobi? Whatever happened to shinobi must lock away their emotions? And how about just not creating a freaking drama in the middle of a hallway during an important exam?! How was he beaten by an overgrown crybaby?!

"I understand, it's because you're young!"

"Master!"

"Doesn't this give you a warm fuzzy feeling?" Naruto grinned; arms behind his head as he looked on the scene, the weirdness was, apparently, spreading.

"Naruto-kun..."Kagome trailed off. "please, don't say that again, ever."

"It's alright, Lee!" Seriously, could this guy not lower his voice; he was going to get a headache. "Mistakes and youth go hand in hand. But I can't let your attempt to break the big rule go unpunished. Your penalty will be to sweat after the chuunin selection exam."

"I understand!"

"Five hundred laps around the practice arena!"

Yes, sir!"

And now they were posing, both of them this time.

Maybe Kagome had the right idea from the beginning; they should have just kept walking and let reality keep making sense.

"What's the deal with the turtle anyway?" the blond asked.

"Let's just leave."

"The exam will start in a few minutes..."

"By the way." The loud voice of the jounin stopped them. "How is Kakashi-sensei?"

"You know Kakashi-sensei?" Of course, their weirdo of a teacher just had to be friends with other weirdos...though, this one took the price by far.

"Do I know him, hehe" The man grinned at him. "I should say so! We're arch-rivals!"

He turned back fully, onyx orbs narrowed at the realization that if Lee had easily been just as fast, or even faster than Kagome, his teacher had to surpass him. Hell, from what he'd seen, the man was probably faster than Kakashi-sensei and even Haku while inside the mirrors. Was the man even human?

"The score stands at fifty to forty-nine!" Guy proclaimed while posing again. "I'm stronger than him."

"I know Lee started this fight, but take pity on his old teacher. For the sale of my own self-respect, forgive him, gotta save face here."

"Ah, please, there's no need." Kagome smiled, kind and gentle and fake before bowing. "In fact, please, forgive our team for getting carried away. I should have done more to stop them."

Sasuke stayed back, pushing down his displeasure at seeing Kagome have to apologize for the idiocy of the other genin. Whether he liked it or not, the girl was the one who'd been trained in diplomacy; if she considered smoothing things over was necessary, then he'd let her choose how to deal with it.

"Aha, such a good girl, you're the Higurashi girl, I suppose." the man announced loudly.

"I am Higurashi Kagome, a pleasure."

"Ah, don't worry about it, no problem." She really shouldn't since they didn't start the fight. "It's nice to know that some of the stories were true."

"What stories?"

"Oh, you don't know?" Guy smiled at the blond as Sasuke fingers dug into his palm; Kagome's smile remained untouched though he could see her hand tensing for just a second. "The Higurashi clan was said to be completely pacifistic, even though back then, all clans were constantly battling each other. I've heard some rumors saying the reason for the clan entering the wars was not to win them, but to heal those who fell on the battlefield. Most believe that's why they placed themselves in danger by helping found the village."

"Eh, really?" the blond looked to look at Kagome, too surprised to realize he should shut up.

There was not much he agreed with his father anymore, but he shared the thought that it was because of that obsession with pacifism that the clan ended up being corned into hiding. And even then, the only thing they obtained was to delay their gruesome deaths by a generation or two.

"It seems my clan was really invested with their own religious ideology, so they tried to stop violence whenever possible. I haven't been able to find much about it, though."

"Ah, that's a pity; for so much history to be lost like that." The man shook his head before grinning again. "In any case, you and Lee should head up to the classroom." With a careless wave of a hand, a kunai flew, taking the pinwheel out of the bandage. "Best of luck, Lee! Later!"

"Yes, sir!" Before they could make it out of the room, Lee spoke again. "By the way, Sasuke…I was blowing smoke earlier; I'm really here to prove my own strength in combat.

"And I don't think you're the strongest Konoha genin. The strongest genin is a member of my own team, and I intend to take him down. That's why I'm entering; oh and also…you're on my list too." With a single jump, the boy reached the roof. "Well, I'm off to apply for the exam. Be ready for it, okay?"

He could feel his fist shivering, his nails digging in his palm. Not only had he ended up having to be saved from what should've been an easy fight, the other boy went ahead and all but brushed him over. Like all the training they'd done until now as for nothing.

"What crap was that?" The Uchiha glared at the blond. "Maybe, the sharingan isn't so great after all."

"Shut up..." Hitting his childhood friend would only make them lose more time, and they were cutting it close as they were. "Next time, he's dead meat."

"Despite how much we all sucked this time?"

"Naruto-kun, we underestimated our opponent." There was an edge to the girl's voice that wasn't usually there when talking to the prankster. "That's all."

"You saw his hands, right?" He continued. "The bushy brows freak probably gets some sort of super special extra training day after day. Even worse than the ones we've gotten."

He'd seen it; the awful accumulation of bruises and scars were evidence of a hellish training regimen, not even Kakashi-sensei had subjected them to. From what he could remember, Itachi had never shown up with such bruised hands either.

Then again, this was what he wanted, wasn't it?"

If they wanted to get to the bottom of what had truly happened that day, they'd turn the village against them. If he couldn't handle someone who was still classified as a genin, then how was he supposed to confront the one on the top.

A laugh escaped him, "things are starting to get interesting, this Chuunin Selection Exam is really going to get things moving."

"It won't if we stay here much longer." There was way too much tension in her voice, the earlier comments still bothering her. "Shall we get going?"

Miroku glanced at the people gathered around the classroom, a bored expression in his face as he let his shakujo rest on his shoulder. Apparently, this was the best the official villages had to offer...he had to say he wasn't all that impressed yet.

Unsurprisingly, most of the crop seemed to be formed of Konoha genins. With them hosting, he figured it was only natural to be a bit more relaxed on the quality they were pushing forward. After all, they lost nothing even if they failed in the early stages of the exam. Actually, they could potentially gain some valuable experience with little consequences; the other villages, on the other hand, would take big hits to their reputation if they sent half-baked rookies to a show like this. Like the big crowd that remained stuck on the lower floor because of a lackluster illusion.

Purple eyes scanned the room again; most of them were trying to give the same tough facade (aside from a small group of surprisingly young applicants), his hopes of finding someone interesting went down drastically.

Even though they'd found the heiress to the Higurashi clan, the girl looked quite young. Despite the hitaiate tied to her thigh, the chances of her team being pushed into the exam weren't exactly high. The trip wasn't a complete waste of time, of course, they'd still managed to get some interesting droplets of data, but without her in the exam, they had literally nothing to do.

He would give it to Konoha; they knew how to make an effective information black-out. For all the digging they did, nothing concrete about her ever came up; the girl even wore her crest (if discretely) on her clothes like most members of distinguished clans they'd gotten not one picture of her.

Miroku was nothing, if not resourceful though, once they were inside the village, his moves became quite more effective. It may not look like much, but the fake monk had managed to gain quite a decent amount of information about the girl from the few times he'd been lucky to catch sight of her. His teammates' reports were...well, there was a reason why he was usually the one appointed for information gathering. There was so much more one could get from what was not said so long as one knew what to look for, and Miroku definitely knew where to look.

What he'd seen could be somewhat troubling if he was being completely honest; for one, the girl seemed to have been raised by the Uchiha.

This mission had been sprung on them with little to no warning, so his time to research had been severely limited. Still, he knew a fair amount about the family from their oldest legends and stories.

The Higurashi clan, while strong and capable of tremendous feats in some of their oldest legends, were very much devoted to their religion. It may have been weird for such a gentle clan to have a close alliance with a clan like the Taisho, well known for their love of battle. The more he thought about it, however, the more sense it made. The pacifistic Higurashi had no need to enter as many conflicts with the Taishos at their back; on the other hand, they could always rely on them for support with medic jutsus and powerful barriers. It was a symbiotic relationship that worked well for all parties involved...until the Higurashi decided to help create a village.

And well, there was no shinobi alive who hadn't heard of the Uchihas (or the subsequent tragedy that befell them), and their aggressive approach to conflict.

It was a logical decision, he figured, to choose the clan that had headed the military police force, had been old, and strong enough to keep an asset like a Higurashi, safe. But it still created problems, if what Touga-sama looked for was a renewal of the treaty like it used to...was it still possible when the new clan head was raised by such people?

And that wasn't all. Miroku was lucky to find an inconspicuous corner to see her confrontation with the Suna nin, all it did was confirm his suspicions. There had been a hidden blade in her words all as she kept up a polite facade.

To make things more tangled, she and the remaining Uchiha were extremely close. The few questions he'd risked to ask a couple of civilian vendors revealed they seemed to be joined at the hip. His own observations revealed that whenever she wasn't with him, she'd been about to meet with him. Constantly, she'd start some sort of physical contact, and notably enough, the sullen and often moody boy did nothing to discourage her. When he'd been about to lounge at their pink-haired colleague, it had been her touch that stopped him. His attention had been hyperfocused on her the moment the foreigners showed an interest in her. He had a feeling it would be easier to catch Sesshomaru-sama cooing at a kitten than separating those two.

"Will you stop with the fucking clinking?" Inuyasha snapped at him.

Oh, he'd failed to realize he'd started tapping his weapon as he went through his analysis, around them some people were sending annoyed glares that could not compare with the silent death threats of their commanding officer (because there was just no way any of them felt comfortable calling the clan heir something as nice as 'teacher').

"My apologies, I seemed to have drifted off."

"Don't forget where we are, Miroku." His beautiful teammate sent him a reprimanding look.

"Ahahaha, are you worried about me, Sango, dear?"

"More like this close to being pissed," Inuyasha scoffed. Rude, as always his friend.

"We don't need more attention on us." It was a light scolding and a reminder all in all.

True enough, the symbols carved on their forehead protectors were more than enough to draw quite a bit of eyes from those that bothered studying foreign diplomacy. Getting their actual competition's ire wouldn't help their case. Not that there was any chance they could pass unnoticed, now that they were here, they would need to ace this test. It wouldn't matter if their clan used the same way to measure their worth or cared enough about what the other nations thought. Sesshomaru-sama would make them beg for death for dragging mud over the Taisho name, and worse...his own.

"I'll keep quiet, I promise…" his voice trailed off as the doors opened once again. Violet eyes widening at the sight of the small heiress they were told to observe enter the room, her two teammates flanking her. Now then, didn't this just turned into something so much more interesting.

OMAKE

When he saw the three forms determinedly walking towards him, Kakashi couldn't say he was surprised.

He'd be shocked if any of his three genins had chosen to skip the exams. The whole thing had been little more than a formality to give them the chance to truly think about their next action...by which he meant he was sure all their forms had been signed by the end of that first day.

"Yo, so I see you all got here." The man smiled under his mask only to be cut off by an overly sweetly smiling Kagome.

"Say, Kakashi-sensei..." It was surprisingly reminiscent of their first interaction. "we didn't know you had an 'arch-rival'."

He froze slightly, and judging by the looks on all three brats, it was one moment too much.

How in the hell had Gai ended up in a situation to talk to his students?

He knew he'd have to avoid the man but he hadn't expected him to run his mouth to his team...

"Yeah, yeah why didn't you tell us you've lost fifty times?" Naruto asked, an irritating grin on his face. Sasuke just scoffed.

Of course, the loud ninja had chosen to spread that sort of information...he didn't even take half of those challenges seriously! He could feel a headache coming his way at the idea of how much it would cost to fix the stupid misunderstanding.

Hatake Kakashi, elite jounin, former ANBU captain and prodigy of Konoha did not groan despite the realization that not one of his brats would believe him.

If only because they probably found this funnier.

A/N: The omake was really short this time, I'm still happy with it considering I wrote it at like 2 am.

The chuunin exams are officially starting and from here on out the bigger changes are going to start, and well I just had to keep the Lee fight in. Admittedly some of the tension kind of disappeared with it (there's just something about meeting Guy and Lee at the sam time that makes it hard to keep serious), but it's coming back full force now that the exam is going to officially start. As for Hojo...Sakura needed teammates and I couldn't resist adding him.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, an like always any review/comment/criticism is greatly appreciated, they really help lift up a writer's spirits.

To the guest review who left no name: Thanks so much for sticking with the story even if it started somewhat slow, I realized that especially at the beginning since it does follow the original material closely, but I thought it was best to show the slow build up instead of starting with drastic changes that might feel out of nowhere. As for the characters personality, I figured that adding a new element to the story like Kagome had to make changes in how they act, Kagome herself acts quite different but she was also raised in a completely opposite way than cannon. And well, I've also started reding fics that were abandoned, I understand why the writers do that when real life gets too busy, but it is just a tiny bit disappointing not to find out what's going to happen. Regardless, gracias por leer la historia de una amateur!