The sun shone down on training ground six, illuminating a beautiful early summer morning. The grass was green, birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and Nara Shikamaru was bitching. Head pressed all the way back against the old wooden post he was leaning against, he let out a jaw cracking yawn, "Auhhh…Why the hell are we here this early?" Looking up at the sky he shaded his eyes, 'No clouds in the sky, what a horrible day.'
"We're here because Asuma sensei ordered us to be here, and that's good enough." Ino said, glaring at Shikamaru as she stepped around a mud soaked puddle and vaulted up to sit on top of the post next to his. "Can't you just stop moaning for once and get on with your life?" she asked shaking her head, long blonde ponytail waving in the breeze.
Shikamaru eyed the puddle suspiciously, 'it hasn't rained in weeks, where did that come from?' he wondered. "Well, where is he then?" he asked, kicking a stone over at the puddle and sounding more like a grumpy old man than a boy who was three months short of thirteen.
"How should I kno…Woah!" Ino yelled as a hand reached out of the puddle to catch the stone. Even before the word was out of her mouth she had jumped down behind her post and whipped out a kunai, pointing it at the young man who was pulling himself out of a pool of water that looked no more than half a meter across and a few centimeters deep. The only visible weapon he carried was a wakizashi he wore on his hip. He was a head taller than them and two or three years older, wearing a dark aquamarine yukata patterned with dark blue snowflakes. He had two long tails of straight black hair framing his face, parted by a Leaf forehead protector. It was a handsome face, perfectly symmetrical and bordering on feminine. 'I almost hope this guy is up to no good, so we can capture or kill him', Shikamaru thought, 'otherwise Ino is going to be beyond troublesome with a guy like this to moon over.'
"You're not Asuma," Shikamaru said bluntly, gathering his shadow at his feet, connecting it to the shadow at the base of his post and then to the base of the next, ready to strike and bind if the stranger was hostile. "Who are you, and what you doing here?" he demanded.
"A little paranoid, are you not?" the young man asked in a voice with a soothing soft quality to it. "Not surprising from someone who noticed that puddle shouldn't have been there. You have good instincts," he said as he slowly pulled a scroll from his sleeve and tossed it over to Shikamaru. "You'll find the answers to your questions in there. My name is Haku, and I'll be your teammate until Choji recovers."
"I'm not taking my eyes off you to read this unless you're under control of my binding technique." Shikarmaru said cautiously.
"Be my guest" Haku said with a smile, "I think I'm going to enjoy working with you."
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, and made the sign of the Rat, his shadow lashing out to merge with Haku's. He unfurled the scroll and began reading, while the young man across from him pantomimed his actions. "Geez, looks like everything here is in order, signed and stamped by Asuma sensei and the Hokage himself." The boy grimaced, "Man, we're going to have to compete in the Chunin Exam after all, what a drag!" And with that he let his shadows go.
"Huh, I thought we couldn't take it without Choji," Ino said looking over at him.
"In cases were a teammate's been injured, or promoted ahead of his comrades, another genin can be used as a substitute," Haku interjected. "It happens all the time. Don't worry, even if you two get promoted, Team 10 will still stay together. They won't break up the new Ino-Shika-Cho."
"Oh, well that sounds okay then," Ino replied. "You seem to know a bit about us, but we don't know anything about you. How about you tell us about yourself? We're going to be working closely together after all." She said coly, a light blush rising in her cheeks.
Shikamaru felt a migraine coming on, 'She's looking at him just like she does at Sasuke. Man, I wish I could just refuse to take this test, but then she'd make my life a living hell.'
"I suppose that's fair," Haku said sitting cross legged in front of them, waving them down to do the same. He looked surprisingly dry for someone who had just climbed out of a puddle. "As I said before, my name is Haku, and I was born in the mountains of the Land of Water, the last scion of an ancient shinobi clan, the Yuki."
'A foreigner, how troublesome' Shikamaru grumped to himself.
Haku went on, "The Land of Water is not well known in the Land of Fire, but I'm sure you know that land is wracked by war and by hatred." His eyes were looking beyond them now, into a dark past that only he can see. It was a look that every ninja recognized, and even Shikarmaru had to admit feeling some sympathy for him. "I won't trouble you with the details, but it suffices to say that at the age of seven I ended up on the street, awaiting death by starvation at best."
Ino looked totally enraptured by the tale. 'Asuma's going to pay for this, pay for this dearly,' Shikamaru thought, letting his mind drift to plots of petty revenge while keeping an ear open for anything important.
"It was at that time that Jiraiya, of the Legendary Three came across me," Haku continued. "He took pity upon me and adopted me as his ward, training me these last eight years as his apprentice."
"Wait a minute!" Shikamaru interrupted, jolted out of daydreams of tricking Asuma into paying for an Akimichi clan banquet. "You've been trained that long by Lord Jiraiya and you're still only a genin?" he asked, skepticism tingeing his voice.
"Lord Jiraiya spends most of his time outside of the village, and where he goes I go. I just haven't had the opportunity to take the exam yet." Haku explained.
"So how strong are you then?" Ino asked eagerly, leaning forward and drinking in the sight of him.
"I have an advanced chakra nature bloodline called Hyōton." He held out his hands, summoning a swirling vortex of wind in one hand and reaching out to the puddle beside him with the other, skimming it across the surface, pulling up a fat globule of water bigger than his fist. "I have instinctual control over water and wind, which I can use to make ice," he demonstrated it by putting his two hands together and freezing the sphere of water solid.
"Wow, that's amazing Haku!" Ino gushed, clapping her hands together.
The apprentice of the Toad Sage lifted an eyebrow at the familiar tone and forged on, "I haven't developed my Wind affinity much yet, but my mastery of Water and Ice ninjutsu is acceptable."
"That's rather vague," Shikamaru pointed out, "acceptable by whose standards?"
"By my master Jiraiya's," Haku replied. "I've trained with him so much I don't really have any other solid standard of reference."
"Really!?" Ino squawked in unfeigned amazement.
"Lord Jiraiya is as strong as a Kage!" Shikamaru objected, staring at him. 'Is this kid for real?' he asked himself. 'If he can really throw around ninjutsu of that level maybe this exam won't be so troublesome after all.'
Haku took the objection in stride, "And he demands nothing less from his students. I don't think I'll ever match what he's told me of the Fourth Hokage, or Nagato the orphan from Rain, but I won't shame him either."
'Who the hell is Nagato?' Shikamaru wondered, then disregarded it as irrelevant for the moment. "I suppose it's to be expected, what with a bloodline and training from Lord Jiraiya," he conceded. "After all, I was the one who doubted you could be a genin. Any other…notable abilities?" he asked dryly.
"Sensei says my handsigns are more efficient than anyone he's ever seen." Haku paused a moment, while Shikamaru shot him another incredulous look at that claim. Then he continued, "Shizune, the apprentice of Princess Tsunade, taught my quite a bit of anatomy, first aid, acupuncture and herbalism, so if one of you gets hurt I can offer some help. I don't know any medical ninjutsu though, we didn't have time for that. Aside from that, I suppose I'm pretty fast for my age." Tilting his head in thought he went on, "My taijutsu, genjutsu and other skills and abilities aren't anything special, about the level expected of a solid chunin."
Shaking his head as if he didn't quite believe what he was hearing, Shikamaru said "Well seeing as we're going to be going up against genin in this exam, that should be more than enough."
"Eh," Haku made a noncommittal noise before going on "I hear the Kazekage's children are going to be participating. They're supposed to be pretty good. Don't worry about it though, if they bother us I'll take care of them."
Shikamaru wasn't quite sure why, but he just knew that statement bolded ill. 'Pretty good,' it had the air of understatement to it. 'Looks like this exam is going to be troublesome after all.
"With you on our team our success is assured," Ino insisted. Then she followed up with, "Now that we know about you, you should know more about us."
Shikamaru leaned back against his post, tuned Ino out and looked up at the cloudless sky in disgust. 'It's going to be a long day until 4 pm'.
Team Ten strolled up to the main gate of the academy complex which had been cleared out for today's Exam. They were coming from a late lunch at Shikamaru's house. His mother was a good cook and a rather…forceful woman in Haku's opinion. It was his father that was really interesting though. 'That man is sharp. I'm sure he saw through the real reason I'm here. He wasn't even subtle about it, asking me to take care of them like that,' he thought in annoyance. 'The way his son twitched in response means he understood it was much more than a parental platitude.' He considered it further and then decided that could be to the boy's benefit, 'It means he'll take things seriously.'
The girl on the other hand was chattering away, sending him flirtatious glances. She was a typical genin kunoichi. Compared to the women that Sensei had thrown at him in the last year she was a complete amateur. It was a good thing she was still twelve, she would obviously grow up into a stunningly beautiful woman and if she was just two years older he'd have to add Jiraiya to the list of those he'd have to protect her from.
"So you guys decided to show up after all," Sarutobi Asuma drawled from his position leaning against the wall next to the main gate. He took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled the smoke with pleasure.
"As if we had much of a choice," complained Shikamaru.
"Stop whining Shika!" Ino commanded, slapping him upside the back of the head. "We would have passed this exam with Choji, and we're going to absolutely dominate it now that Haku's on our team!" she declared fist held up, vibrating with intense conviction.
"That's the attitude Ino! You guys stay confident, stay cautious and know thyself and you will be able to overcome any obstacles." Asuma's voice, the tenor and the way he said it made such maudlin sentiments sound deep, and as he was patting his genin on the back and waving them through the gate, he glanced over Haku's way. Just a short look, but that's all he needed to communicate a message of confidence in him. Haku nodded back, 'there's no way I'm going to fail this mission.'
He followed Ino and Shikamaru through the gate and then jogged past his partners to take the lead. Then rather than going through the door of the building assigned he started to walk up its gray concrete wall.
"What are you doing?" Ino asked in confusion.
"There's probably obstacles in there to weed out the hopeless cases right off the bat, so instead of jumping through their hoops we might as well head straight to the third floor," he told her.
"That makes sense," the blonde girl said following him up, as Shikamaru took up the rear grumbling his favorite word under his breath
He tried to slide open a window but it wouldn't budge. 'What's the point of locking it?' he thought, grimacing in annoyance, 'Any genin could get around this, Sensei had me cracking tougher locks than this at eight.' He took out a kunai, jammed it between where the sill met the window and flexed. There was a huge crack as wood splintered and the lock snapped, but he wasn't trying to be stealthy. He pushed the window all the way up and slipped through.
Ino gave a little gasp, "Should we be destroying school property?"
"They're testing ninja, I'm sure they expect some things to get broken," he chided. "Don't worry; if they charge us I'll cover the bill. I got plenty of money piling up in the bank from the missions I've carried out for my master."
"Sounds good to me," said Shikamaru has he climbed in the building.
It was a shirt trip down the hall to room 301 where a jonin was leaning against the wall near the door. Tall and lean, with spiky chalk colored hair, he had his Konoha forehead protector pulled down over one eye and lounged with a casually dangerous demeanor. It could only be one man, "Good afternoon Hatake Kakashi" he said politely. Aside from his renowned skill, all Haku could recall about Kakashi was that he was the last living student of the Fourth, was super laid back and constantly late. His Sensei always found time to complain about the later when talking about him. "Worried that your students have picked up your bad habit?" he gently teased.
Kakashi cocked an eyebrow and answered in a droll tone "Is Lord Jariaya telling tales about me?"
Haku just smiled and shrugged in response, "Maybe."
Kakashi got an oddly serious look on his face, "Well to answer your question, if my students took up the unfairly maligned hobby of publicly reading pornography, I'd be thrilled and just so so proud!" He sobbed dramatically.
Haku gaped at the man, and Ino shriked "Ewww!" Shikamaru was just shaking his head in the background, as if he couldn't believe what he just heard.
"I…I meant your penchant for being late," Haku said faintly. "I forgot that Jaraiya sensei said you're a big fan of his books."
"Please tell Lord Jiraiya that I am eagerly awaiting his next masterpiece." Kakashi said fervently, eye closed and smiling.
"I will," Haku said visibly perturbed. He was used to his sensei being creepy, not so much from men he'd just met. "Ah, we've got to get going, the exam waits for no one" he said opening the door and stepping inside. The room was packed with chunin hopefuls, almost all of them older than Haku's teammates and all of them attempting to look as brutal and badass as possible. Most of them couldn't pull off the look in Haku's opinion. Team Eight was huddling in the corner off to the right, eyeing the competition.
Ino followed sliding along the wall on the other side of the hallway from Kakashi and making a small noise of disgust when he pulled a little orange book out of his pocket and began reading it with a giggle. Shikamaru quickly followed, "That was more troubling than troublesome," he said scornfully. "He makes Asuma look reasonable in comparison."
"Wow, there are a lot of people here." Ino said softly, briefly overwhelmed by the glaring crowd.
Haku put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly, "Most of them are paper tigers," he said loudly. "The only ones we have to worry about is that Sand team with the Kazekage's kids," pointing them out with his other hand. The Sand trio looked at him speculatively, weighing his worth with their eyes, while the rest of the gathering seethed with anger at their casual dismissal. Grumbled threats and weak spikes of killing intent followed. Ino seemed more interested in the hand on her shoulder than any of them though, looking at it out of the corner of her eyes and flushing scarlet.
He jerked his hand back with a wince, 'Come on, we don't have time to deal with this right now,' he thought with irritation. 'Your life is going to be on the line here.' She turned to say something, then her eyes widened as the door opened behind him. He spun around to see Team Seven entering the room.
"Hey Forehead!" Ino yelled, waving at her with one hand and reaching out to put her other around Haku's waist. He smoothly slid to the side and out of her range.
The pink haired kunoichi of the team snarled and pointed at Ino "Pig! Don't call me that!" Haku thought her name was Sakura, a child from a minor shinobi family. Her father had had great potential but had been forced to limit his career to the rear echelon due to injuries suffered in the Third Shinobi World War. She gave a start at the sight of him, "Who's this?"
"And what happened to Choji?", Naruto asked. As always he was decked out in orange and he was looking at Haku as if he was on the tip of remembering something important. The Uchiha scion next to him eyed Haku with calculated interest disguised behind a mask of indifference.
"He's in the hospital, recovering from getting sliced with a poisoned knife on our last mission. He should be good in a week." Shikamaru answered bluntly.
Team Seven got a little quiet at that, but Naruto didn't seem one to be depressed for long, he smacked a fist in his palm, turned to Sakura and said "I know who this guy is! He's the old perv's minion!"
"Old perv?" Sakura asked in surprised, shooting a startled look at Haku.
He let out a long suffering sigh and said in a loud clear voice "My name is Yuki Haku, and I'm the apprentice of Lord Jiraiya of the Legendary Three."
The background chatter went silent at that and Sakura's mouth fell open, with even Uchiha Sasuke looking interested at that point. She whirled around at Naruto, "Don't call Lord Jiraiya an Old Perv!" she shouted in scandalized tone.
He answered with a smirk. "Who do you think writes all those little orange books Kakashi sensei is always reading?" A wave of horrified understanding washed across the girls face. Naruto went on, "That old letch is a perverted, irresponsible drunk, who thinks being a good Godfather is limited to paying for my apartment and popping into visit and check on how I'm doing every couple of years."
"Lord Jiraiya is not a drunk!" Haku objected. "He's the Hokage's right arm, and he's constantly at work enforcing his will. He visits you whenever he can." That was mostly the truth. 'Of course he only met you that first time because I badgered him unmercifully when I learned he had a godson he'd never met.' Haku thought, 'Still, the last two visits were his idea and to his credit.' "Now that you're a shinobi, Sensei will have much more to offer you." Haku explained.
"I know, I know," Naruto said with frustration. "He's an alright guy underneath it all, it just sucks growing up mostly alone."
"You're Lord Jiraiya's godson!" Ino shrieked in surprise while Sasuke and Sakura stared at Naruto like he'd grown a second head.
"Well well, looks we've found something interesting," Inuzaka Kiba said, finally deigning to saunter over with his team. He had a wild, shaggy look that contrasted with the restrained visage of the Aburame to his right, and the timidness of the Hyuga to his left. "Looks like Team Ten might be a surprise contender, and Naruto is even more pitiful than we believed."
"Kiba! You shouldn't" Hinata started to object meekly, before Naruto roared over her. "We'll see who's pitiful at the end of this exam. I'm gonna crush you, and the same goes for the rest of you bastards here!" he shouted, spinning to glare out at the crowd.
"Are you some kind of moron?" Shikamaru asked with a look of disgust on his face. "You just made everyone here your enemy."
"Big words from a little man," laughed Kiba.
"Hey!" Naruto pointed emphatically at Kiba, and was about to launch into another tirade when they were interrupted by a tall young man with glasses, his light gray hair gathered in a pony tail that hung to the nape of his neck.
"You know you rookies really shouldn't make so much of a ruckus," the young man said with a condescending smirk. "Screaming like school girls and throwing out playground taunts is just gonna rile this crowd up," he warned. "These guys are the best of the best, ruthless veterans that are looking for weakness."
"Oh well," he shook his head. "I can't really blame you; I was the same way back in the day." It was all just a bit too melodramatic for Haku's taste; there was just something a little off about this guy, though he couldn't say what.
"Who do you think you are to talk down to us?" Ino demanded.
"My name's Kabuto," the silver haired teen replied. "And..."
"You're trying to psych out the up and coming competition." Haku interjected, looking at Kabuto with reproach. "Don't listen to him kids. You're here as rookies because you have talent, while guys like this don't."'
Kabuto's cheek twitched, drawing his smirk up into a brief grimace. He opened his mouth to respond and the front of the room exploded with smoke as two dozen ninja flickered in.
"Shut the hell up you worthless bastards!" yelled the man in front with a menacing burst of killing intent. It seemed to rattle the crowd and Haku supposed he made a rather imposing sight to most genin what with his height, solid build and the long scar that trailed down from just outside his left eye, down across his mouth to the bottom of his chin on the right. "I am Morino Ibiki, and I am the proctor for the first phase of the Chunin Selection Exam. I am the word of God to you maggots! Those that disobey me will fail immediately!"
He went on, staring down at anyone who even twitched. "Rule number one, there will be no fighting in this stage of the exam without my permission. In the unlikely event I grant permission, killing your opponent will not be allowed." Some in the crowd murmured at this, making light of Konoha's 'softness'. Ibiki smirked and his scar flexed in an unsightly manner. "Cross me on this and I will crush you."
"Now, hand in your paper work and take a token from this box and sit at the seat assigned. Once you are all seated Kotetsu will hand out the exam."
"What!?", Naruto wailed in disbelief, mouth gaping open in a look of horrified despair. "A paper test!?"
Despite himself Haku couldn't help but smile at the boys antics. He patted his two teammates on the back and told them, "Good luck Ino, Shikamaru, just try your best and remember to read underneath the underneath."
It took a couple of minutes for everyone to get a number and then find where they were supposed to be; but soon enough everyone was in their seats, test paper turned over in front of them. Haku ended up sitting in the middle of the third to last table to the back on the right side, while Shikamaru was in the same row at the table on the left and Ino was at the middle table one row further back. 'Pretty convenient given her mind body switch technique' he thought. 'There's no way this exam is a simple as a paper test.'
He was quickly proven right as Morino quickly outlined a series of rules that made clear that the objective of the test was really to measure the ability of the genin to cheat and not get caught. 'Morino isn't exactly being subtle with that little monologue about proud shinobi,' Haku thought. 'Just two points off for cheating, you pass or fail as a team and all these sentries here just to enforce that rule… it can't be clearer. This is a simulation of our ability to gather intelligence.' The difficulty of the questions only reinforced that impression when he turned over his paper, 'I can solve this cryptography question, and maybe one or two of the others, but that's it. I bet most of the kids here can't even do that, algebra isn't exactly a core shinobi subject.'
Haku polished off the cryptogram in couple of minutes, 'Sensei's shopping lists are better encrypted then that,' he thought with annoyance. 'Might as well get the rest of the answers the easy way, there have to be plants in here for us to cheat off.' He surveyed the room with his eyes, and caught just the hint of reflected light from one of the lights fixtures set into the ceiling. He thought someone had managed to plant a mirror there, but it was angled in such a way the glare wouldn't be detectable by the proctors. 'Clever, but whoever put it there probably lost a few points getting it up there. I think I can do better than that.' He kept his gaze on his paper, pencil in his right hand, while his left hand made signs tight against his thigh. A small mirror of ice solidified in the well of the light ahead of him. It was simple for him to manipulate it and get a good view of a test sheet that was more than half full and filling up fast, and there was really no way for the proctors to trace it back to him. 'That should do it,' he thought and began to transcribe.
Haku was finished with time to spare and contemplated flashing the answers over to his teammates. 'Coordinating with Ino could be a little tough with her out of my line of sight, but Shikamaru's definitely doable,' he thought. A single movement of his hand and the angle of the mirror shifted, flashing in Shikarmaru's eyes. The boy looked up and after a few seconds started writing. 'Ino will have to take care of herself,' he decided, 'her technique is perfect for this.' After that he spent his time watching the competition get whittled down as team after team was tossed out for cheating. He heard a small thump to his back and off to his left, 'Ino must be using her technique, but on who?' he wondered. 'I'm surprised she didn't pick me,' he thought, surveying the crowd. 'Ah, there we go.' Sakura was oddly stiff, staring at the exam sheet she held in her hands. 'Guess cheating off her paper is just a continuation of their silly rivalry,' he thought with a sigh.
With that the exam was effectively done for Team Ten. There were some interesting sights to be seen before it officially finished up. There was the little act with the older Sand boy and his doll as the proctor called it. 'A puppet', Haku decided, 'Sand's known for its mastery of the shinobi art of puppetry.'
After that Morino put on a wonderful display of intimidation that had most of the genin quaking in their boots. 'Keep them genin forever? Who does he think he's kidding?' Haku wondered. 'There's no way the Hokage, let alone foreign villages would ever agree to that.' Despite the obvious though, team after team was dismissed as genin gave up to their consternation of their teammates. 'How did these kids even survive their first C-class mission?' Haku asked himself in disgust.
Thankfully Naruto put a stop to that. "Don't underestimate me!" he screamed. "I will not run! I'll take it! Even if I'm a genin forever, I'll will myself to become Hokage! So I don't care! I am not afraid!"
"I'll ask you again." Morino said, eyes looked on Naruto with a glare that could melt through iron. "Your life is riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit."
"I follow my unbending words," Naruto replied. "That's my ninja way."
'Now that's a speech Sensei would love,' Haku thought with a smile. 'The will to endure hardship and face adversity, that's what being a ninja is all about.'
The proctor was just wrapping up his speech on leadership and making tough choices when the window to his right exploded in a spray of breaking glass as a wildly spinning woman somersaulted through it. As she cartwheeled upright she threw kunai into the ceiling, unfurling a giant banner theatrically announcing herself as Mitarashi Anko, the exam's next proctor. "Listen up you guys!" she yelled. "This is no time to be celebrating! I am the Examiner for the second test! Mitarashi Anko!" she redundantly introduced herself, fist thrust dramatically in the air. "Now let's go!"
Everyone stared at her in shock. 'That was an entrance that would make Sensei envious; she's like a young female version of him!' Haku marveled. Then he realized what she was wearing, her toned muscles and soft curves were covered by a trench coat, miniskirt and chainmail and not much else. Haku felt his cheeks grow warm. 'She cannot be allowed to meet Sensei! That would be an absolute disaster waiting to happen,' he thought with alarm.
"Seventy-eight!" Mitarashi yelled in outrage. "How could you leave twenty-six teams Ibiki?" She sounded scandalized. "Your test was way too easy this time!"
"This time there are a lot of exceptional candidates" Morino replied.
"Whatever, I'll cut them in half at least during my test," Mitarashi said dismissively. "Ah, I'm getting excited," she said with wild smirk. "Follow me kiddies, I'll explain when we get there," and then she vaulted out the window.
The genin followed, breaking several more windows on their way out. About five minutes later they reached their destination, just outside the outskirts of the village. A great tangled forest, surrounded by chain link fence, dense with trees a dozen meters thick and ten times as high. "Welcome to the second stage of the Chunin Exam, training ground forty-four. Otherwise known as the Forest of Death!" Mitarashi announced with relish.
'Looks like this is where my real mission begins,' Haku thought solemnly. Then he shook his head. 'What I'm getting so worked up about? I've been on eleven A-class missions. As long as I manage to avoid a decisive engagement with Gaara we'll be fine.'