Chapter Four
"Okay, as long as Ar and Zeon got it, I-I should be okay, too…" Hotaru told herself frantically.
"Let me tell you all something about this tenth and final question," Ibiki started. He cleared his throat. "You may choose…whether or not you take it."
Several gasps were heard.
""But…you and your teammates would immediately fail if you were to decide not to. And if your team takes the question and answers it correctly, you will all pass. Now…if you get the question WRONG…not only will your team fail…" Ibiki paused. His devilish grin vanished. "…but your team will be barred from these exams, forever!"
Hotaru froze. She wasn't so sure of herself anymore. Her heart pounded.
"What?! You're kidding!" someone yelled angrily. "That's totally unfair!!"
"Calm down. Those are the rules." said Ibiki, his grin returning. "Anyone who would like to drop out now, please raise your hand."
Another pause. A few people began to sheepishly raise their hands. Once they had left, Ibiki continued.
"All right," he said lowly. "Before we give you the final question, I would like to tell you all a little something…"
Silence. "What is it, then?" Sasuke asked impatiently.
More silence. Pounding hearts.
"Congratulations," said Ibiki. "You have all passed the first exam."
Dead silence. All were astonished. Hotaru's pencil dropped to the desk.
"Wait, what's going on? We all pass? What about the tenth question?!" she cried, now not only shocked but a bit frustrated.
"First, allow me to explain something about the test," said Ibiki, holding up a hand as if motioning the students to wait. "Did any of you notice the difficulty of this test?"
Sasuke and Hotaru smirked at each other out of the corners of their eyes.
"Duh- they were way too-" someone blurted out.
"Too difficult for people your age?" Ibiki interrupted. "Then I gave a rule that you could each get away with cheating five times? During a normal test, you SHOULD be disqualified upon cheating only once. You see, this test was not meant to test how well you knew your shinobi tactics- it was testing your abilities of secretly gathering information and not getting caught. Two of our Chuunin sat in with you, and their tests had all the correct answers."
Two men chuckled and held up their hands.
"Clever," muttered Hotaru.
"Okay, but what about the whole 'tenth question' thing?" shouted Zeon from one of the back rows.
"There never was one!" Ibiki laughed. "THAT was a test of intimidation. Most of those who just left were too worried that they would mess it up for their teammates."
"And…you wanted to see if we could get past that thought, right?" asked a pink-haired girl in the row in front of Hotaru.
"Exactly. And you all passed." replied Ibiki with a smile.
Hotaru smiled, too.
"Time for round two," she thought, excited.
And an hour later…
"That was pretty confusing, huh?" Hotaru sighed as she and Sasuke chowed down on rice at a diner. She giggled a bit. "By the way, thanks for your help back there."
"I'm surprised you didn't figure it out first," said Sasuke, staring out the window. "That was close. But don't get fooled like that again."
Hotaru frowned. "Y'know…you've really changed, Sasuke," she mumbled. "Is something wrong? I mean…you don't seem as happy as I thought you'd be to see me…"
Sasuke stared at Hotaru, groping for words. "I didn't mean anything…But, that's pretty much all there is to it. I've just changed…a lot.
They ate some more, silently. Then Hotaru got a thought.
"Sasuke…do you hate Itachi?" she asked seriously.
Sasuke froze and gazed up at Hotaru. "I'm gonna kill him for what he did," he responded lowly. "But I need more…power…"
Hotaru stood deliberately, her frown growing. "You're so much different…and I want my best friend back."
She left at that word, leaving Sasuke dumbstruck at the table. He sighed and paid the bill.
That night…
Hotaru staggered into the motel room. No one else was there yet. She plunked down onto the bed with a sigh.
"I should've assumed he'd changed…" she muttered. "But maybe I shouldn't have been so…stuck-up back there."
A while later, Arc came in and noticed Hotaru. She had fallen asleep on the bed, but her eyes appeared lined with tears.
Arc frowned and pulled a blanket over her. Then he lay down on the floor and sighed.
"We never should've brought her here…" he mumbled softly. Then he closed his eyes and soon fell asleep as well.
Hotaru met Sasuke the next morning at the meeting grounds for the second exam.
"Sasuke, I uh…Sorry about last night. I didn't really mean any of th-" she started. Sasuke held a hand up.
"I understand." he responded. "Trust me…you have no idea. I DID miss you."
Both of them smiled until someone with blonde hair poked out from behind Sasuke.
"Heeeey, who's the girl, Sasuke?" he teased.
"I'm Hotaru," she giggled. "And you are?"
The blonde boy pointed to himself and grinned proudly, shouting, "My name's Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm gonna be the strongest ninja in the village one day! The hokage, believe it!"
Hotaru stared at him quizzically. "Wow. Spontaneous." she replied slowly. "So, you're a friend of Sasuke's, too?"
"He's my teammate…" Sasuke sighed, frowning with embarrassment.
Hotaru tried not to laugh. She reached up on her toes and whispered into Sasuke's ear, "I'm sooo sorry!" She grinned as he glared at her.
"Hotaru, huh? Where ya from?" asked Naruto.
"Actually…here," she explained. "But for a while now, I've lived in the Land of Wind."
"You used to live here?" said Naruto, confused. "I don't remember you. What clan?"
"I'm from the U-" Sasuke slapped a hand over Hotaru's mouth. "Ther Urchiher clern." she ended up mumbling.
"What're you doing, Sasuke?" Naruto grumbled with a frown.
"Forget it." said Sasuke. "Where's Sakura?"
Naruto hummed in upset. "Talk about changing the subject…" he muttered. "Well, whatever. She's over there." He tossed his head a bit, motioning behind him. Hotaru realized that his gesture was towards the same pink-haired girl that she had seen at the first exam. Sasuke led her over to the girl named Sakura, Naruto tagging along behind them.
Sakura saw them coming and called, "Oh, hi Sasuke! Hey, who's your friend?"
"Her name's Hotaru. She came back here for the Chuunin exams." said Sasuke as Hotaru bowed playfully.
"Came back?" Sakura repeated curiously. "You used to live here? I don't think I've met you before."
"I moved away for a while. But I did live here, at first." Hotaru explained again.
"Well anyway, my name is Sakura Haruno! I'm Sasuke's teammate."
"Saku-ra!" Naruto whined. "What about me?"
"Ahh, pipe down, ya big dork," Sakura grumbled, folding her arms.
Just then, a voice yelled out over the crowd. "All right, you worms! Time for things to get serious. My name's Anko Mitarashi, your proctor for this, the second exam!"
Hotaru gulped just seeing the purple-haired woman. She continued: "And this is the location, Area 44. But we like to call it…the Forest of Death."