OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sasuke frowned. Kakashi had given him and the other two people on his team forms for the chunnin exam today. He said other two people instead of team mates because they weren't a team. He suspected Kakashi had only passed them because he looked bad, never passing a team, and because of him. He stuck his hands in his pockets, heading back towards the Uchiha estate. The exams started tomorrow.
Once he got back to his house, chills started to run down his spine. Someone was here. "Show yourself, whoever you are. I know you're there." Sasuke growled and held up a kunai when a very familiar figure stepped out of the shadows "Itachi! What are you doing here? I'll kill you!"
Itachi said, looking his little brother in the eye, "Sasuke, that wasn't me! What happened, it was Orochimaru, he pretended to be me and killed our clan!"
Sasuke cried "You're a liar! Why should I believe you?!"
Itachi took a step forward and said "Sasuke..."
Sasuke said "You killed our parents in front of me! And everyone else! You're a murderer! You told me I should hate so I could grow stronger and I've hated you every day since that day and I've gotten stronger! I will defeat you and then my revenge will be complete!"
Itachi was heartbroken. His little brother hated him, with all his heart. He pleaded "No, Sasuke, please understand...Orochimaru did this."
"I don't even know who this Orochimaru is! You're making him up!"
Itachi said "No, he is very real. He killed our clan. If you want to take revenge, then help me to take revenge against him!"
Sasuke said "He's not an Uchiha, is he? No, he's not, so you're lying. No one but an Uchiha could use tsukiyomi. I saw the red moon myself."
Itachi said "He used a genjutsu on you, Sasuke."
Sasuke cried "I don't believe you! Get out of here!" Some doubt was starting to trickle into Sasuke's mind. "Get out now or I'll kill you."
Itachi said, quietly, "Otouto...I'm sorry...that I didn't come after you...that you were left alone all these years while I...while I found a family...I wish that...that you could...that we could become brothers again, Sasuke." He dissapeared into the shadows. Leaving Sasuke very confused and still angry.
Shina frowned a little, seeing Itachi return. "You took quite a while at the bathroom, Itachi."
Miwa asked "What's wrong? You look...so sad."
Itachi said "It is nothing...let's go to the hotel room neesan got for us. I'm...tired...and we should all rest up for tomorrow."
Shina said "That does sound like a good idea."
The others were already there and meeting up in the room that Nekomi was staying in. She said "Good, now everyone's here. Listen up." They all took standing positions or sat down.
She said "I know all of you already have your papers and entry forms, so first, just a reminder to bring them, and keep your necklaces on at all times. Also...if anything bad happens...do not interfere unless i give the go ahead. I will have contact with Gaara, Ishigo and Itachi during the exams at all times, so if you need to contact me, go through them." She paused to make sure they all understood.
Ishigo asked "Do you have a bad feeling Ba..."
Nekomi cut him off "Also, be careful about names."
Ishigo looked embarassed. She continued "To answer your question, I have been feeling uneasy, but I am not sure of the reason why, so it is just a warning."
Itachi said "Is the meeting finished."
Nekomi said "Yes, that was what I wanted to tell you, but otouto, I want to talk with you alone. Can everyone else leave the room for a minute?"
Everyone else left. Naruto asked "Hey, Gaara, what do you think kaasan wanted to talk to Itachi-niisan about?"
Gaara said "Hey, remember we're not supposed to use our real names."
"Oops, but this place is spy proof right, Kaasan checked it first."
"She still said to be careful."
Naruto said "Gomen gomen, but what do you think's wrong with niisan?"
Gaara said "I don't know. Remember that time he said he had a little brother and he lived in Konoha?"
Naruto nodded. Gaara continued "Maybe it has something to do with him."
Inside the room...
Nekomi had put up a sound cancellation jutsu for privacy. She said "Itachi-kun, did you seek out your little brother?"
Itachi looked a little surprised. Nekomi said "I figured you go through with it and do it. It didn't go well, did it?"
Itachi looked down and choked up as his throat began to grow hot and tears came to his eyes "He...hates me, despises me. The look he had in his eyes..." He choked on a sob "He s..said he hated me a..all these years!"
Nekomi's heart saddened. She said "Poor boy...I'm so sorry." She hugged him and smoothed his hair "Tell me everything that happened. It'll make you feel better." Itachi retold the tale.
Nekomi thought about it, then said "At the end, you said he told you to get out before he said he'd kill you. At the beggining he was talking about killing you from the start. I think you've at least made him doubt what he's been thinking all these years. You may yet have a chance to save him and become an aniki to him once more."
Itachi's eyes widened, hopeful. "Do you...do you really think so?"
Nekomi smiled "Yes, I do."
Itachi looked her in the eye, then looked down "Neesan, if I do save him...can he..."
Nekomi smiled "Of course. If he wants to come with you, I will gladly accept him into our village."
Itachi frowned "Couldn't that cause problems though, if he just dissapeared?"
Nekomi frowned a little. She hadn't thought of that. She said "If it comes down to that, we could have him die before he comes with us."
"A fake death? Wouldn't that get waterfall in trouble with Konoha?"
Nekomi said "Waterfall nin wouldn't kill him. Don't worry about it. Prepare yourself for the exam tomorrow."
Itachi said "I've already taken this exam, neesan, I was an ANBU here."
Nekomi smiled "Then go give some advice to the others. I'm sure they'd appreciate a heads up."
Itachi smiled slightly "Okay."
Nekomi said "Good boy, but before you leave, let me establish contact with you. I'll do it with Ishigo and Gaara in a little bit." Itachi obediently mirrored Nekomi and performed the jutsu to that they were connected mentally. He asked "Why just the three of us?"
Nekomi said "It is very difficult to maintain connections. Three is my limit if I still need to remain conscious of my environment and interact with it."
"I see."
Nekomi smiled "Go on. Why don't you do something fun tonight? I bet Misa would like to try some dango from Konoha."
Itachi blushed a little across the bridge of his nose "I think I will stick to informing the others of the workings of the exam." He left. Nekomi chuckled and called in Gaara and Ishigo and established connections with them as well.
The next morning... They all walked down to the testing center together and the nine 'genins' went inside, while the four adults waited in the area they were supposed to wait in.
Meanwhile, a certain chronically late jonin was on time for once to meet with his team to sign them in for the chunnin exams. He noticed Sasuke seemed troubled about something. Sakura was pestering him about it and so was Kai. Sasuke yelled "It's none of your business! Leave me alone!" He stormed in to the hall. Kakashi sighed. He said "Well, I guess I'll see the three of you in the next part of the exams. Good luck." He poofed away, leaving Sakura and Kai. Sakura chased after Sasuke. Kai sighed and put his hands in his pockets. 'Why did I have to be stuck with emo kid and one of his fangirls?'
Naruto looked around at all of the other genin. There were a lot of them. He said "Konoha has the most genin in this exam."
Haku said "That makes sense, since they're holding the exam and they're one of the main nations."
"How strong do you think they are?"
Haku said "I see a couple of Hyuugas. They're pretty strong. I don't really know the other clans here much."
Itachi said "The Hyuuga are the strongest clan left. The Uchiha clan used to rival them for strongest clan, but they are all but gone now."
Misa said "I'm sorry."
Itachi said "You have no need to be sorry. You weren't there."
Takeo said "Hey, hey. Look at those kids." He directed their attention to a certain boy with black hair like a duck's butt getting knocked back by another boy, demanding to be let though and for him to drop the illusion.
Taro said "Tch, how annoying. Now all the rest of these people know it's a genjutsu. He should have just gone around. There's another stairwell in the back." They watched as a small fight broke out and they were finally let in.
Haru sighed when they were let in, seeing the papers on the desks "A written exam...geez, isn't this what academies are supposed to be for?" Several others groaned.
Miwa said "It's not that bad. I bet they won't even be that hard." They all sat down after they were assigned team numbers by the proctor.
Naruto looked at the back of his paper, waiting for the proctor to give the start command. He didn't really pay any attention to what the proctor was saying. 'Blah..blah..cheating gets points taken away...you fail your team does...blah blah...' He was glad when he could finally turn the test over. He went through it. The problems were difficult, but not harder than the problems kaasan had him doing the past year. He worked through them, looking around at his team mates and seeing them making similar progress.
Ibiki looked at the genins taking the exam. Many of them were sweating, nervous. Some had already caught on and were using surveillance techniques to cheat. He had already had to fail some of the more obvious ones, but what sparked his curiosity was the teams from waterfall. He couldn't see them using any methods of cheating at all. Could they really work those problems that easily, or were their methods so good that he couldn't even detect them? Either way...it was interesting...He waited for a long while and then gave the tenth question.
Naruto was bored. Finally he said "Blah blah, I'm sure all of us in here are here 'cause we want to be chunnin, right? If we've gone this far, why the hell would we back out now? I'm sure not going to!" His eyes blazed.
Ibiki was amazed. The boy had wiped the doubt from the others left in the room with that statement. He saw even his team mates were looking at him curiously. He sighed "Fine, no one else wants to leave? Remember, if you get this question incorrect, you can never take the chunnin exam again." He waited for a few minutes and thought 'Anko will never let me live it down, that so many teams passed.' He said "You all pass." There was an uproar of questions from the genin, still not understanding the purpose of the test. He had just gotten through explaining the tenth question when...
the window broke and Anko came in with a banner "Now's no time to celebrate maggots! I'm Anko Mitarashi, the proctor for the second part of the exam and it just gets harder from here!"
Ibiki muttered "Anko, you're early, again."
Anko sweatdropped, then she really took a look at the genin "Ibiki, that's a lot of runts. You let that many pass? You must be getting soft in your old age."
Ibiki said "There's a good crop of candidates this year." He glared a little at Anko 'And I am not old.'
Anko said "They don't look all that strong to me." She paused "Anyway, follow me, ya runts, it's time for stage two." They all followed her outside.
"Welcome to the forest of death!"