I am skipping directly to the chuunin exams because...well...I have nothing to really write other than filler, and fuck that!

so enjoy the time skip to the chuunin exams!

(we all know that's the best part anyway ;P)

Fighting Dreamers

Scroll 8: Time-skip

Haruka

Thin green leaves fell gracefully, dotting the pathway in visual remnants of the moving air. It smelled like fresh rain and oak. The sky was a beautiful blue reflecting light off of a cloudless sky. Every few minutes a deer would pass swiftly beneath the moving tree branches. That were covered in drops of dew, that sparkled like small stars through the distant canopy line. It was so nice to be back, the Hidden Leaf Village always had a way of making Haruka feel nostalgic and at home, even though she had few memories here. It was certainly beautiful, watching the small dots of dew grow closer. Listening to the woosh of her teammates as they sprung through the trees, feeling the sun, and watching Riinchi in front of her grow...BIGGER!

"RIIN..OOMPH" Haruka fell with a thump, onto the forest floor. She took a moment before opening her eyes again, straining her now bruised collar bone.

"RIINCHI WHAT THE..."

"Fabulous falling twerps!" yelled Midori-sensei with a smile, and a laugh from a branch above. Ayame sat next to her, shaking her head.

"Whaddya want?" Riinchi yelled up, "These branches are all damp and slippery. I've been busting my butt just keeping my footpads the same texture to hold on. That takes a decent amount of chakra! And why the hell is the village so damn far any...UGH!"

Midori-sensei plugged his mouth with a dirt clod.
"Riinchi, I shouldn't have to keep saying this to you," Midori-sensei started, "You need to stop relying so heavily on your keshohin no jutsu, and learn how to function in small situations without it, or else..."

"BUT YOU SAID..." Riinchi opened his mouth and ended up swallowing the dirt clod, which didn't stop him from talking, "YOU SAID I NEEDED TO LEARN TO CONTROL MY CHAKRA!"

"She didn't mean learn control by using it every single second!" Ayame yelled down to him.

Haruka put one knee up and rested her elbow on it, tipping her head onto her fist, as she watched the age old power battle of Riinchi and Ayame. She thought back on the past year. Her team had been on several missions now, and it had been a whole two years since she was put on this team. She was used to the day-to-day clash of their personalities, and had even come to find them humorous. For a while, she wasn't sure if she could handle listening to the two of them battle it out every day.

"Okay, just get back up here runts," said Midori-sensei, "and let's get back. I've still got deadlines to meet, and Haruka promised to be back in the shop before tommorrow morning."

They all continued on their path back. After a brief send off, Midori-sensei sent them on their way. Haruka began her trek to one of the first places she had come to feel familiar with here. It was a fabric and tailoring shop, one of the better ones in the whole of the Land of Fire. She had gotten a job there through many months of hard work, trying to prove herself to the owner. The whole establishment was a small ways from the main village. Kumonosu-Sempai used her entire estate for production. She was a niece of one of the feudal lords, so her land was fairly large.

Haruka opened the large cherry wood door, and entered into the front room. This was where boss kept all of the finished works, grand kimonos, fabric armor, handmade scrolls, spools of satin, and bolts of fine textiles.

Off to the back of the room there was an opening, from which hung strands of shimmering amber beads. Haruka drew them back, entering into the wide back room. In there sat rows of work tables, complete with a sewing machine, and the necessary tools for fabricating orders. Past this room was the office area, and then a large warehouse where the textiles were made. Those both were inaccessible to customers.

Haruka was overwhelmed during her first walk-through here, and admittedly had felt out of place. A year and a half ago, she had saved her genin work money and bought a sewing machine. This came about due to her studying the information Hokage-sama had given her when she arrived in Konoha. She had come across a few pages that described her family as fabrication and textile producers. It was hard for Haruka to remember much, but she did recall her mother showing her different stitching techniques when she was very young. Their house was always full of printed fabrics, hung on the walls with intricate patterning.

She had decided to sell some of her small crafted works after Lee commented on how well made they were, and then signed her up for a market the very next day in excitement of her success. He had signed her up without asking, or telling her; But instead, he had showed up at her place on a Saturday morning, packed all of her things, and blind folded her until they were there. It was a favorite memory of hers. She had continued selling at that market for a few months, and that was where she had met one of the secretaries of Kumonosu-sempai. They were impressed by her stitch-work, and were interested in her families history. Haruka was offered a job later in Kumonosu-sempai's front shop with a cleaning and upkeep position. From there, she had worked her way to the back room, where she followed patterns, stitched products, and learned about draping techniques. Haruka hoped that one day she would learn how the textiles were made, so she could start infusing her chakra directly into the string, and study how it effected the finished textiles.

Haruka set her supply box down and began draping over a nearby dress form. "Oh good, you did make it today," one of the supervisors came through the office door, her name was Akari. She was always wearing the same midnight blue wrap dress, with a silk white robe over it. And her hair was always twisted up over a silver curved ornament, with small stars hanging like chandelier crystals from it. Her skin was always shimmering with some kind of powder, and her make up elongated her eyes and eyebrows, while making her lips smaller and puckered. She spoke with an aire of high class accent, as if elongating her words like her eyes would make her seem more prominent as a socialite. "We filled most of the orders this morning, so we didn't need much fabric staff past early afternoon...but," Akari looked down at a clear clipboard in her arm, "Hmm." She glanced back up at Haruka with a questioning expression. "How do you feel about learning scroll work?" Haruka's face lit up. "We have a special order from the Hokage himself, and It needs filling immediately."

Scroll work was chakra work. It was the production of ninja scrolls that served different purposes, like sealing, instruction, and so on. "The h-hokage?" Haruka stared blankly and breathless. An order from the Hokage was a big deal. Nonetheless to have someone who wasn't a part of senior production to work on it. "You want...me," Haruka pointed to herself, "to work on an order for the Hokage?"

"No, a ha ha ha" chuckled Akari, "I just figured you might want to know the process of scroll construction. I mean, you can't actually make these scrolls anyway, since you might be participating in the chu-unin exams. I was just going to teach you how to infuse a scroll, and the threading necessary to construct a basic one. The more complex things, like giving it purpose and placing the necessary markings don't come from us. Those are given via scribes."

"So, they make the scrolls paper and we provide the chakra fabric for activation?" Haruka asked.

"Sort of, but not entirely," Akari stated. Haruka opened her mouth to question further, but Akari put one finger up in motion of silence. "I can-not indulge any questions as to how the scribing process is done. One, you are not high enough in skill level," Akari held up one finger, and then another, "and two, to know what is on these scrolls would be che-ating."

"ch-cheating?"

"Y-es," Akari raised a slim long eyebrow, "You are participating in the chu-unin exams, aren't you?"

"I think...so?" Haruka squinted.

"Well, then I can't let you know what is hap-pen-ing for the exam, of course," Akari said matter-of-factly, looking at Haruka like she had never even picked up a sewing needle before. "A-nyway, follow me, we'll begin with chakra infusion, and spinning the fabric for tex-tile creation."

Haruka's ears perked up like a cat. She was finally going to be taught how to infuse chakra directly into textile production.

Anei

"ACK!" Anei strained her eyes at the feel of a cut. She stopped the weaving she was doing, and looked down at the red blotch that was now stained into her work. "What the shi-" she sighed, looking around the room for her removal solution. Opening cabinets, and drawers, there were rustling noises all about. Anei knew she only had a few seconds before the blood would be fully stained, and she would have to restart her whole job. She winced, feeling the sting of the cold damp air on her cut. "WHY IS IT," she screamed, still rustling through her storage cabinets, "ALWAYS SO DAMN COLD AND DAMP HERE?" She had gotten control over quite a few things since joining up with the Sound nin, but her temper seemed to only get worse.

"Well," said a voice from behind her, "It may be because this place is entirely underground."

"Kabuto, what the.."

"Hold on," Kabuto held his finger up. He had somehow managed to find the solution and was dotting the blood stain off. Anei watched, rolling her eyes at him, as usual. "There we go," Kabuto stood back up, capped the solution, and handed it to Anei with a smile, "Try to not ruin the supplies before we even get them tested."

Anei snatched it out of his hand, "I know how to do my job, thanks," she spat. "I mean if you think you can do better, you could take over, hmm?" She sneered.

"Ah, haha, you got me there," Kabuto smiled, Anei hated his condescending smiles, "Always so cold, Anei. Shame. Just watch where you are bleeding. The Chuunin exams begin in only a few days, and Lord Orochimaru needs these to get himself, and the rest of us into the exam unnoticed."

"A small spot of my blood wouldn't mess the mechanics up that badly, Kabuto," Anei defended.

"From what I know, your items work off of blood and chakra," said Kabuto, "Your chakra mixed with the blood of whomever you want to disguise as makes the full cover, undetectable, since you are using direct DNA from the source of another. So, I would say that getting your blood on it would be bad since none of us can just waltz into the chuunin exams as you." He walked up closer to her, looking her straight in the eyes, "Since we all know that you have the most at stake with the take over of Konoha."

Anei turned around, meeting Kabuto's cold solid stare, "I have nothing to lose here." She glanced to the side, "except for maybe a pest or two."

Kabuto chuckled, and began making his way out of the room. "You'll miss me Anei," he said as he walked out the door, "what entertainment will you have if I'm gone?"

"none," she called back to him, "that's the point!"

She sat back down at her weaving, and glanced over at the solution bottle. "Asshole..."she muttered. Anei would never admit how worried she actually was about this whole plan. She knew this would be around the year Haruka would be trying for chuunin. If any of the Sound nin met her during the exam, or worse, Orochimaru; She'll never forgive herself for keeping Haruka a secret.

"Maybe I should go behind them," she sighed and shook her head. That wasn't going to be possible. Orochimaru would detect her for sure, and then there would be questioning. For now, she would just have to hope that Haruka had gained enough strength to stand on her own.

Haruka

Haruka stretched her fingers out, her hands had never ached so much after working. She was proud of herself though, she managed to create and chakra infuse a good number of scroll backings today. The sun was gone now, it was dark, and the wind swept lazily down the streets of Konoha. Haruka was excited to get home and finally try infusing her chakra into her own work. "I haven't gotten my home sewing machine out in a while," she said, watching the starry sky pass her overhead. She got home and dug the sewing machine case out from under her bed. She remembered how to set the wires up, and thread the thread and bobbin.

'EEEEKKKKKKKK' she jumped and turned to find a badger scratching at her window.

"I HAVE TOLD YOU NOT TO," Haruka flung the window open, and the badger ran away, dropping a scroll from it's mouth in fear. "ugh," Haruka sighed, "not to scratch the glass." She picked up the scroll, and began unrolling it. It was certainly from Midori-sensei. This was how training was scheduled. At ANY time of day, Haruka would find fresh claw marks on her window and anywhere between 1-5 scrolls just sitting outside of it. Haruka wondered if Midori-sensei thought through this. If it were to rain, the scrolls would be ruined, or a bird could think they were worms, or something. It wasn't a stable way of communication. But, like Midori-sensei's faithful badger, she did not seem to give a shit.

Haruka began reading off the scroll. It seemed to be an application for the chuunin exams. "I guess she forgot to mention it when we got back," Haruka sighed. There was also a small note saying where to sign up tommorrow, and what time to be there by, as well as 'good luck twerps' and a doodled Midori-sensei smiling and winking.

"well," Haruka breathed, "I guess I am taking the exams then. Better start on practicing." She turned and sat back down at her sewing machine, pondering what would help her in the exam to come.

THAT'S RIGHT MIDORI BADGER JUST DON'T GIVE A SHIT!

Anyway um, review or give me attention somehow, sorry for the confusing time skip :P