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Title: New Wind Nation: Alliance
Chapter 8: Chunin Exams ~ Straight Ahead (part 1)
Notes: Finally, next arc! It's also the last arc, haha.
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Sarutobi - Third Hokage of Hidden Leaf Village - moved with deliberate care as he pulled out his worn pipe, filled it with his favorite tobacco and used a small application of fire-natured chakra to light it. Then, he took a deep drag of the pipe and slowly breathed out. Smoke wafted toward the ceiling leisurely, unconcerned with the tense atmosphere in the Hokage's private office.
The other five shinobi present - Kakashi and Jiraiya, to report on their impressions, and the elders Danzo, Homura and Koharu, to give their counsel - waited patiently as the Hokage went through the motions, almost like a ritual.
"So Orochimaru has finally resurfaced," Homura said pensively, letting out a heavy sigh.
"It was bound to happen," Koharu said, with asperity. "At least he didn't actually invade. To think he even organized his own hidden village…" She shook her head, more in frustration than disbelief.
"Yes, we were fortunate to receive forewarning of his actions," Danzo agreed, in a tone that indicated how displeased he was with relying on fortune - and how little he thought of that warning. "But was it necessary to concede hosting the Chunin Exams to Hidden Sand? We should have proceeded. It would have been a good opportunity to lay a trap for him."
"Even Orochimaru is not arrogant enough to go ahead with his invasion plans after Hidden Sand pulled out, especially since he could easily guess that the Kazekage would inform us," Sarutobi said. "He wouldn't have taken the bait, even if we had still hosted the exams. And it was a good way to show our appreciation to Hidden Sand for informing us."
"Not that they had much choice, given that they had to have the great Jiraiya rescue them," Jiraiya grumbled.
"Why didn't you pursue Orochimaru?" Danzo asked, turning his demanding one-eyed glare on the Sannin.
Jiraiya glared back. "If he wanted to have it out with me, he would have fought me long before. I can guarantee that he ran as soon as he realized I was nearby. And I was a little more concerned with, you know, protecting the Kazekage than going through the endless cannon fodder experiments Orochimaru would leave behind to cover his escape."
"Jiraiya's choice was correct," Koharu said, cutting off the brewing argument. "But we should take this opportunity to act. We have allowed Orochimaru to do as he pleases for too long. With his plan for the Chunin Exams foiled, he'll be off balance too. This is our chance."
The others looked away as Sarutobi's hand clenched around his pipe. Even Danzo managed to refrain from making any comments - about how, if only Sarutobi had dealt with Orochimaru ten years prior, none of this would be necessary. Danzo didn't need to say anything, not when Sarutobi was already thinking it himself. His rogue student had always been a point of weakness and self-recrimination for him.
"Yes, but the Hokage is right," Homura said. "Orochimaru will not act now that his plan has been foiled."
"Then we need something to draw him in," Danzo judged. His gaze shifted to Kakashi, who had remained silent until then. "According to your report, his subordinates expressed a special interest in the Uchiha boy. Most likely, it is for his Sharingan. Orochimaru has long held a fascination with bloodlines and with mastering all jutsu. If the Uchiha boy were to enter the Chunin Exams in Sand, away from the village and vulnerable, that would be an irresistible opportunity for Orochimaru to get close to him..."
"With all due respect," Kakashi began, his tone sharp, "using Sasuke like that is irresponsible. He's only a genin. The risk of that kind of operation is too high."
'Using a child as bait, as expected of the Darkness of Shinobi,' Kakashi thought bitterly, barely keeping himself from tensing as if for battle.
"He is a shinobi. It is an honor to serve the village," Danzo replied. "His sacrifice will help us deal with a grave threat." He didn't even try to hide little chance there was that Sasuke would make it through such an operation unscathed. It never ended well for the bait.
"I would rather no one is sacrificed, especially a child," Sarutobi said. The steel behind his mild tone made Danzo pull back.
"Same here, sensei, but as much as I hate to say it, he's got a point," Jiraiya spoke up. "It's our best bet for finally catching Orochimaru. Otherwise, he'll go to ground again. I've tried to pull up everything I have on Hidden Sound, his supposed village, but it's all just rumors."
"If we don't clear this up, the boy will be in danger too," Koharu pointed out. "We can't keep a guard on him constantly, waiting for Orochimaru to strike. He'll just remain a target. At least this way we can arrange protection for him."
"Sand will cooperate too," Homura added. "Orochimaru tried to dupe them and kill their leader. This much we can count on."
Silence settled over the room as Sarutobi contemplated the situation. Any missing-nin allowed to roam free was a sign of weakness for their old village - someone of Orochimaru's caliber even more so. Furthermore, Orochimaru himself held a deep grudge against the Leaf. With this new information, the lengths he was willing to go to and the true extent of the danger he posed were more apparent than ever.
Danzo and Jiraiya were right. They couldn't let this chance to deal with Orochimaru slip by.
"We will carry out this operation," Sarutobi decided finally. He looked across the shinobi before him as he gave the verdict. "Sasuke will attend the upcoming Chunin Exams in Hidden Sand. But," he said to forestall Kakashi's protests, "we will make every effort to ensure his safety and Orochimaru's capture… or death."
"Hokage-sama, I would like Sasuke to be informed of the circumstances," Kakashi said quickly. Otherwise, he suspected Danzo would attempt to send the genin in blind, with some excuse like making sure his reactions were authentic or so that Sasuke couldn't give anything away.
After a moment of consideration, Sarutobi nodded.
"He'll need two more for a team," Homura pointed out.
"And we'll need to send at least one other squad," Koharu added, "or it'll look suspicious to everyone, not just Orochimaru."
"Not to mention, who's going to face him?" Jiraiya said.
In the privacy of his own mind, Sarutobi sighed wearily. None of those questions, he knew, were going to be easily answered.
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It was several days later that the preparations were finally complete on their end.
"You've informed Sasuke?" Sarutobi asked Kakashi. They were alone in his office now, and the old man had shed his formal robes and hat for much plainer attire.
Kakashi's mouth quirked. "Yes," he said, with a sigh, "he's quite... excited."
Given the boy's stoic and brooding demeanor since his clan's distraction, Kakashi was stretching the truth somewhat - Sasuke's reaction was better described as grim anticipation. No doubt, to him, this was a stepping stone on the path to his ambition, a way to measure how far he had come. That kind of obsessive focus worried Kakshi more than anything. It often made Sasuke blind to common sense and self-preservation, not to mention good judgement of his opponent.
"Regarding my team," Kakashi went on quickly, not wanting to hear the Hokage's attempts at consolation, "that Sai boy... He's one of Danzo's, I take it."
"Most likely," Sarutobi sighed. "Root was officially disbanded after the Uchiha massacre, but the members remain very loyal to Danzo, especially those he trained from a young age. Danzo offered a second for the team as well… but to be frank, I don't trust his men around Sasuke. Watch them both, Kakashi."
The jonin nodded. "So then the Hyuga girl, Hinata… She's insurance. I suppose even Danzo will hesitate to move against the Hyuga clan head's daughter."
"I informed her father of the true nature of this mission," Sarutobi said, hiding a wince at Kakashi's blunt assessment. Even though he felt it was necessary, using children in such a way did not sit well with him. "She was one of those that failed her jonin instructor's test and was sent back to her clan for remedial training. Her father felt… this is a good opportunity. If the mission is a success, she has the chance to prove herself to him and the clan, or if Orochimaru does not appear, then she might make chunin instead…"
Those were, of course, just the platitude he told himself. And Hiashi's words regarding his daughter had been a great deal more dismissive. "Perhaps she can finally be of some use to the village," he had said without much faith or interest.
"Her cousin is on the other team," Sarutobi added. "If worst comes to worst, he might be able to protect her. The most dangerous part will be immediately after Orochimaru appears, most likely during the second exam. He'll choose an isolated location, so it will be hard for reinforcements to reach our team. Make sure they understand - their greatest goal is staying alive."
Kakashi nodded sharply. "Yes, Hokage-sama. I won't fail."
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News of the sudden change in the semi-annual Chunin Exams' location was important enough to draw the daimyo to Hidden Sand once more. That suited Temari, who had naturally traveled with him to the village as part of his guard, just fine. Released from her duties temporarily while the daimyo met with the council and Kazekage, she quickly stalked off to find some answers - and she knew just who to ask.
Kankuro was too busy trying to dodge an assault by five puppets - Chiyo felt he didn't deserve more than one hand's worth of effort - to tell her anything, but Gaara explained in calm, even tones about everything that had occurred.
The answers left Temari too stunned to even realize that this was the first full conversation she had held with her youngest brother for years.
"I can't believe it. He really did it? " she muttered, shaking her head. Regaining a little of her composure, she added, "Hmph, that brat must have some ridiculous luck. Unbelievable!"
"I don't know the details," Gaara said, frowning faintly. "I haven't seen him since he returned. I only know what happened from the Kazekage's report."
His look clearly conveyed what he wanted. Temari sighed. "Fine, fine," she said. "I'll check on him." She had to wonder why Gaara himself didn't do it, but then realized that - given how little experience Gaara had interacting with people, period, much less helping a friend with something - he probably wouldn't even know what to do when he found Naruto.
His worry was kind of cute anyway.
To her surprise, when she found Naruto sitting atop one of the large domes overlooking the village, he appeared to be… sulking. There was no better word for it, except maybe "brooding," but that seemed entirely too heavy for the cheerful idiot she had helped train.
"I heard about what happened," Temari said, plopping down next to him. "That's some nice… luck."
That startled a snort or maybe a chuckle out of Naruto. But a moment later, his expression lost all humor and he slumped again. "Yeah… I got really lucky," he said, and sighed heavily, burying his head in his arms.
The uncharacteristic gloom in his tone made Temari stare in surprise.
However, Naruto went on before she could muster a response - truthfully, he wanted to talk to someone. "I got really lucky, you know? That's all it was," he said, frowning miserably. "I didn't think it through at all. Sure, I found Orochimaru like I planned, but I didn't think about what would happen then. I just… decided I'd figure it out when I got there."
"Just finding someone like one of the Sannin is impressive in its own way," Temari said neutrally. "Anyway, I don't understand why you're freaking out now, of all times. It's not like you haven't charged in without a plan before. In fact, I don't remember you ever having a plan, for anything."
Naruto glared. "This is different! I almost got the Kazekage killed!" he hissed. "The Kazekage! And if it hadn't been him, if he'd just sent someone else with me or if I'd gone by myself… Sure, I would've found out that Orochimaru was going to betray us anyway, but I wouldn't have even been able to take the news back! I knew from the start that I didn't have any idea what to do when I confronted him, but…"
He buried his head in his arms again, groaning.
"Before, I always just charged in," Naruto muttered without looking up, "but it turned out okay because I knew Gaara or Baki-sensei would back me up. Was I expecting Kaze-san to do it this time? I don't even know. I just ended up dragging him into danger. What would happen to the village if he died?" He groaned again, curling up into a ball of misery.
Rolling her eyes, Temari whacked him across the back of the head. "Enough with the self-pity," she said, when Naruto glared at her, teary-eyed. "You messed up. You're right - you're an idiot who talks big but can't back it up." Her expression softened a little. "But the way you always charge straight ahead… it's not all bad. It's… done pretty good stuff for us, for the village. You just need to actually think things through, instead of hoping it'll work out somehow."
"Yeah. Yeah, I need to do that," Naruto agreed, some of the tension in his shoulders finally relaxing. "And I need to get stronger, so I don't just always count on someone else to bail me out." 'So I don't end up being the one who has to always be protected,' he thought, remembering the way Gaara and Kaze both had to focus on shielding him, whenever there was a real battle.
"That too," Temari agreed, a smile already tugging at her lips. She knew what was coming next.
"Temari-sempai!" Naruto exclaimed, turning toward her and groveling. "Please train me!"
"Okay," Temari agreed, smirking. "But this time, the kid gloves are off. We've got about two weeks, and you're going to be chunin-level when I'm through with you. Got it?"
To punctuate her point, she slammed one end of her battle fan into the rooftop in front of Naruto's nose. Suddenly, he could feel himself breaking out in cold sweat. Naruto might have bitten off a little more than he could chew...
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Naruto groaned weakly, face down in the dirt. Temari felt rather like groaning herself.
"Okay, so we definitely know you're not a precision type," she said, exercising every bit of patience she had learned, serving the rather obnoxious daimyo.
Lacking in precision was putting it mildly. That was something of a problem, since most high level wind-style ninjutsu operated on the premise of fine, invisible blades that could be manipulated to attack from any direction. The emphasis was on "fine" blades, and Naruto, while perfectly capable of molding wind chakra, was falling quite a bit short of the sort of honed edge that anything above a C-rank jutsu required.
"Can't you just teach me something big and powerful?" Naruto whined, turning onto his back. "Not this fiddly stuff! Something you can't miss with! Like Kamaitachi, but stronger!"
Scowling, Temari kicked him in the side. "Do you even get the point of Kamaitachi? You're supposed to use it to attack your opponent from the direction they can't see coming. From the side? From behind? It doesn't matter, Kamaitachi can do it. Even if they run, it'll still hit them as long as they're in range. That's how it's suppose to work! It might look random, but that's just to confuse the opponent! It's a precision technique too."
Naruto shot her a dirty look. He had never really been able to direct where Kamaitachi cut, and thinking back on it, he wasn't even sure he ever hit Orochimaru and his underling.
"I just want something really powerful," Naruto complained, rubbing his side. "Sure-kill, you know? And something that's easy to hit with and hard to dodge. Wide-range." He spread his arms to demonstrate.
"If you can't even figure out how to direct the cutting edge of your wind, you're never going to hit anything," Temari said flatly. "You haven't been able to properly hit the target even once, you dunce."
She gestured in frustration to the two boulders they had been using for target practice. One, Temari's, had two clean cuts intersecting in the center, forming an X. The other, Naruto's, was haphazardly scratched up, with nicks randomly along its side and one gash along the top. Not a single wind blade had landed anywhere near the center.
It wasn't even that his aim was bad, per se, Temari despaired a little. It was just that all higher level wind style techniques were in created by two opposing winds colliding and honing each other. Naruto couldn't control the opposing forces well enough, so his jutsu became unbalanced, lost their edge and went wild.
"Well, what about something like Reppusho? But, you know, stronger and actually dangerous," Naruto said instead, refusing to give up.
"It's because Reppusho is weak and doesn't have a cutting edge that it affects such a wide area," Temari insisted. "Sure, you can make the wind stronger, but it's never going to be above a C-rank. Maybe a B, if the user is very high-class. Which you're not."
"Whatever! Then I'm just going to have to make my own technique!" Naruto insisted, crossing his arms stubbornly.
"Oh really?" Temari muttered. "I'd like to see you try…"
"Then I will," Naruto declared. 'So what if there's things I can do? I'll just work from what I can do!'
His eyes narrowed, and he clapped his hands together once more.
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Gaara made his way onto the training field with an uncharacteristic uncertainty. Holding a paper bag in his arms - like all those years ago - he hesitated for a moment before forging his way onward.
A wild gale tore across the training field, and Gaara's sand automatically rose to protect him, obscuring his vision. He could feel several small rocks hit the shield and practically disintegrate under the force of the impact. As the winds died away as suddenly as they had appeared, Gaara frowned and narrowed his eyes to peer through the dust that had been kicked up.
As the dust cleared, he could see Naruto sway and plop down on the cracked earth. With a heavy sigh, Naruto let himself collapse onto his back, just lying spread-eagle. It took several minutes for his heavy breathing to slow, but when Naruto finally opened his eyes, he caught sight of Gaara and waved, upside down.
"Yo, Gaara! Did you come to see the cool jutsu I've come up with?" Naruto asked, grinning. The scratches on his face and the weary edge to his smile showed how hard he had been training.
Gaara shook his head and, kneeling next to Naruto, held out the paper bag. "I… brought lunch," he said.
"More like dinner, isn't it? It's pretty late," Naruto commented, but he accepted the package and the steamed buns inside. "But thanks. I really worked up an appetite with all this training."
As Naruto bit into one of the steamed buns, tearing off a chunk and practically swallowing it whole, Gaara explained quietly, "We have our new orders. We'll be entering the Chunin Exams here in Sand, and we are to observe one of the two teams sent from Leaf. They have reason to believe that team may be targeted by Orochimaru."
Finishing off the last bun, Naruto wiped a hand across his mouth. "Great," he said, grinning wide enough to bare his canines. "This'll be a good chance to pay him and his minions back. This time'll be different."
He looked over his shoulder, and Gaara followed his gaze. To one side, a single boulder bore two clean cuts in the shape of an X. Next to it, there was a small scattering of rough stones, surrounded by upturned earth - all that remained of another boulder, reduced to nothing but rubble.
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Q&A:
Temari got promoted because she mentored Naruto? Yes, kinda. Naruto was very star-struck by her wind ninjutsu, so Temari might have, well, started showing off and finding fancier ways of using her jutsus, without really meaning to. When she did that at the chunin exams, the Wind daimyo - a rather shallow type - was impressed and specifically asked after her. Since the council and Kazekage want to get on his good side, they promoted her and sent her on an ongoing mission to serve the damiyo.
Temari actually hates it, because it's boring and requires a lot of patience in dealing with petty, annoying nobles, but it's for the good of the village.
How does the mentoring system work? Hidden Sand has more shinobi than missions. They also want to raise the quality of their shinobi as much as possible. So they encourage everyone who doesn't get work regularly to "mentor" trainees or even new genin - basically teaching without any pay. The ones who mentor are usually lower level shinobi, chunin or even older genin, but they can provide individual attention, which helps.
Is Naruto able to use seals at all? It's a mixed bag. Naruto knows surprising amounts of theory regarding seals, but he's absolutely terrible at applying any of it. Storage seals are about the most he can accomplish. He also doesn't have any real interest in it.
Can Gaara learn taijutsu? Theoretically. He can practice the movements. But he can't actually spar with anyone. And any attack that actually get through his sand shield and armor will probably be beyond his taijutsu skills.
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