Chapter Four-
On their way back from lunch, Sasumi noticed several people from other villages talking quietly in groups and looking around suspiciously. She saw Sasuke narrow his eyes slightly when he spotted them, but he didn't say anything. Naruto had cheered up considerably and was talking loudly about something or other. She supposed she should be glad that Naruto hadn't noticed them, because if he did he would probably start yelling at them. However, it wasn't Naruto who started the events that would soon transpire.
They were walking along a particularly deserted street when they began to hear the noises.
"You little brat! You should apologize when you run into someone!"
"Kankurou, let him go. We have better things to do," came a cold voice.
"Ga-Gaara! B-But this little brat ran-"
"Now. Or I'll kill you."
There was a thudding noise and a boy of about eight ran past them.
When they rounded the corner they saw three figures. One was wearing all black and had purple stripes on his face. The other was a girl with blonde hair and was holding a huge fan. The last one was shorter than the other two and looked about Sasumi's age, if not younger. But she immediately knew that it was him who had spoke the last words. He had strange black circles around his eyes and his rust colored hair looked strangely bloodstained. At their approach he looked them up and down quickly. Sasumi eyes widened involuntarily as they briefly made eye contact. In a split second she had realized three things that caused this reaction.
They were siblings.
The Sand and the Sound were planning a secret attack against the Leaf toward the end of the Chuunin Exam, for reasons this Sabaku no Gaara did not know.
The short boy who stood before her was a jinchuuriki.
Just like Naruto. And her.
ShitWarning bells were going off in her head. She prayed that neither Naruto nor Sasuke would say anything stupid. That boy was dangerous. And from what she'd seen, he didn't have any qualms about killing random people on the street. Unfortunately for her, while her teammates didn't say anything, the Sand-nins did.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" said the boy she now knew was named Kankurou, "More pathetic Leafs?"
Sasuke glared at him, half wondering if he was as strong as he looked. The blond haired girl beside him sighed.
"Kankurou, can we just go?"
The boy with a gourd on his back didn't say anything. Instead, he was looking at them like they were some sort of rare specimen. Sasuke glared at him as well and the boy glared right back. Interesting.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Naruto, plainly angry at what the had boy said.
"Alright, Temari, we'll go," he said, completely ignoring Naruto, "nothing interesting here anyway."
Naruto looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped when Sasuke glared at him. As they walked past them the boy with rust colored hair looked over them once again and then they were gone.
"What the hell was that?" Naruto said angrily, as soon as they rounded the corner, "Why were those bastards here anyway? They sure as hell aren't from Konoha!"
Sasuke ignored the urge to roll his eyes, "You moron, do you ever listen to what Kakashi says?"
"Shut up, bastard!" the blond snarled, "Just answer the question, if you know so much!"
Sasuke was tempted to hit him, but decided that wouldn't help in the slightest. In fact, it would probably make him even stupider, if that was even possible.
"As Kakashi said, less than an hour ago, tomorrow is the Chuunin Exam," he paused, "You know what is, moron?"
"You bastard! I'm not stupid!"
"Could have fooled me," thought Sasuke, but decided not to voice this particular thought.
"In the Chuunin Exam, which the Leaf is hosting, shinobi from other countries also compete. Get it, moron."
A look of recognition appeared on his blonde teammates face, "Oh, so that's why they were here!"
Sasuke decided that he could take Naruto's stupidity no longer and walked off to his apartment. If he was paying more attention, he would have noticed that throughout the entire time he and Naruto were arguing, his other teammate had the strangest look on her face.
The next morning he woke up exceptionally early and climbed down from his place on the tree. He walked quietly back to his apartment, and began to pack. Sasuke knew from when his brother had taken the Chuunin Exam that it would take a few days and would probably involve some survival training.
He packed practically all his weapons, some food and a large water bottle. He would have packed extra clothes, but he decided that they weren't all that important. Sasuke opened the pamphlet that Kakashi had given them and found that the first part of the Chuunin Exam was at a nearby building. He walked over to the building and found a bunch of other people waiting at the entrance. He was slightly perturbed to find that Naruto was already there. They walked in silently together and found room the room numbered 301. He noticed that Sasumi kept glancing at him and Naruto, who were slightly ahead of her.
"What?" He asked finally, annoyed by her glances.
"Where are you going?" She asked, as monotone as usual.
Sasuke raised his eyebrows slightly, "Room 301," he said, "That's what it says in the pamphlet."
She looked over at the room where a bunch of people were fighting. Sasuke caught a few words, but he couldn't make out completely what they were saying. Sasumi looked back at him.
"That's Room 201," she said.
Naruto stopped and look at her worriedly, "Oi, Sasumi, are you feeling alright?" the red haired girl raised her eyebrows as he continued, "Both me and Sasuke see 301."
Suddenly Sasuke saw something akin to recognition appear in her eyes, but only for a second before it disappeared.
"Genjutsu," she muttered softly.
"What?" asked Naruto, obviously confused, but Sasuke understood. He had felt a strange chakra pulse when the entered the building, but had thought nothing of it.
"It's an illusion," he told Naruto shortly, "We're really on the 2nd floor."
"Ohhhhhh."
Unfortunately for them, they had to walk past the bunch of people fighting in front of the fake Room 301 to find the stairs. A few of the people eyed them when they walked up and then stared as they walked past.
A man with spiky black hair who seemed to be instigating all the fights called after them, "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
Sasuke turned around slightly and looked at him disdainfully, "To Room 301, obviously."
The man looked annoyed, "So you've seen through it, huh?"
Sasuke smirked, "Of course, a pitiful Genjutsu like that, anyone could see through it."
He could feel the glares of the other Genin in the room already.
"Why you-" the man started, bringing his leg up to kick Sasuke, "-little brat!!"
Sasuke brought his own leg back and was just about to kick the guy to oblivion, when his leg stopped. Confused, he looked to his leg and saw there was something green in-between his and the other man's leg.
A boy about his age, dressed in a green jumpsuit, had jumped in-between their kicks and were now holding their legs He dropped his leg before Sasuke could wrench it away. Another boy with long hair and pupil-less eyes came up behind him.
"What are you doing, Lee?" He hissed angrily, "I thought we agreed not to do anything stupid."
A girl with two black buns on her head sighed, "Whatever, it's too late now. Let's go, Neji, Lee."
While the girl was talking, the long-haired boy turned to look at Sasuke.
"You," he said, "What's your name?"
Sasuke smirked again, "Aren't you supposed to give your own name first," he said, ignoring Sasumi's look, "Let's go." He turned around and he and his teammates walked out.
They had just entered a large room and were about to climb up the stairs when he heard a voice.
"Please wait!"
He turned to see the boy 'Lee' looking down at them.
"What do you want?" He asked slightly annoyed that they kept getting stopped.
"I am Rock Lee," he said, ignoring Sasuke's question, "It is customary to give your own name first, right, Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke raised his eyebrows, "So you know. What do you want," he asked again.
"A fight. With you," the boy clarified.
A fight? This boy with his weird haircut and eyebrows was asking him for a fight?
"Alright," he said.
"Oi, bastard," he heard Naruto's voice, "Don't take so long, alright? We got thirty minutes."
Sasuke smirked, "Don't worry, this will only take five."
Kakashi waited at the entrance of Room 301. He was a bit annoyed that his team was late and started to wonder if they were going to come at all. However, he reminded himself that this was Naruto and Sasuke he was thinking about. If they didn't come then Kakashi had never been late for anything in his entire life. Sasumi would probably be dragged along, she didn't seem like a person who would go against the group. Not only that, but he had noticed that his team had become especially close after Sasumi had fainted and he doubted that Naruto and Sasuke would come alone.
He didn't have to wait much longer, because from around the corner came his team. Naruto and Sasuke were exchanging insults and Sasumi was emotionless and quiet as usual.
"Well, you're finally all here," he said distracting Naruto and Sasuke. He noticed that Sasuke's clothes were a little dirtier than usual. He had probably got into a fight.
"Kakashi-sensei! What is today with weird sensei?"
Kakashi blinked, "Weird sensei?"
Naruto started talking rapidly about some weird guy (no pun intended) they had met. He couldn't understand every single thing Naruto was saying, but after catching the words, 'green,' 'eyebrows,' and 'spandex,' Kakashi got the idea.
"Okay, Okay," he said, cutting Naruto off, "I came to say good luck to you all, not be deafened."
Naruto glared at him.
"So in you go," he said gesturing at the doors, "Good luck."
They walked in, all three of them silent. He waited for a few minutes until he heard them talking with a few of the other Genin inside.
It made him think of when he, Obito, and Rin took the Chuunin Exam. The Third Hokage had all passed them and at the time Kakashi remembered himself thinking that only he should have passed. They had worked better together then, before the wars started. Their sensei had even complemented them on their teamwork, something that Kakashi wasn't proud of until after Obito's death. When they got older, he and Obito grew apart. He suspected that it had a lot to do with the fact that Obito's father was displeased that he had not gained his use of the Sharingan. Obito had grown loud and annoying, as if to hide his insecurity. In fact, every time he looked at Naruto's fake smile he was reminded of Obito. Even while he was dying, he was worried that the gift of his left eye would not be good enough. Like because it was apart of him it would be trash. Obito's insecurity, he knew, was partly his fault. He never complimented him and couldn't think of anything he had ever said nice to him. He should have been kinder. He should have been understanding. He should have done a million things differently. But he didn't. And there wasn't anything in the world he could do to change that.
But it was mostly the Uchiha Clan's fault. It was the pressure of being a tensai that had made Obito the way he was. They made him think he was a loser and a drop-out. Kakashi had noticed that Sasuke seemed to be under the same pressure, but he had only lived with that pressure for seven years.
But some of the pressure would never leave him, like that fact that Sasuke hated to lose. He had to be the best at everything and hated to be beaten. In a way, he reminded Kakashi of Itachi. He has no doubt that it was the Uchiha Clan that made Itachi the way he was. It was about ten years after Obito died when the Uchiha Massacre happened. Kakashi had been an ANBU at the time and had cleaned up the bodies. He was surprised to hear that Itachi's younger brother was still alive and didn't understand why until the day that Sasuke became part of his team. Then he realized why. Because Itachi wanted to play with Sasuke. He wanted to mess him up, wanted to make him do anything to kill him. It was like he was taking out all his anger on his younger brother for reasons Kakashi didn't care to know. All he did know was that there was no other explanation for Itachi's behavior than that he was under too much pressure.
Sasuke seemed to be happy with his teammates, but Kakashi had to wonder how long that would last. As Kakashi walked away from the doors, knowing that he was late for lunch with a few friends, he swore to himself that he wouldn't let Sasuke end up like Obito.
He had gotten halfway down the hallway when he heard Naruto's loud voice yelling something about beating everyone up.
"Well," he thought, "At least someone isn't nervous."
Sabaku no Gaara stared at the loud, short, blond boy front of him. People like that annoyed him especially. He heard Kankurou muttering beside him while the boy continued to grin. How weak. He turned his attention to the doors on the other side of the room. Waiting for the instructors irked him. He was only here, after all, to find some interesting opponents and then kill them. If the instructors didn't show up, the Exam wouldn't start, and if the Exam didn't start, the Sand wouldn't attack and then he wouldn't get to kill people. He felt Temari shift nervously beside him. They were both afraid of him. Not only the demon, but of him too.
"Good," he thought, "Then maybe they'll leave me alone."
Finally the instructors arrived, breaking up a fight between an older Leaf nin and three Sound nins. The head of the instructors bore a scar across the expanse of his face. He had a strange haunted look in his eyes. Gaara liked killing people like that, for some reason it always felt better. He had noticed that the black haired teammate of the stupid blond had it as well. He wondered how strong he was. Maybe he would make a good opponent.
The scared man named, Morino Ibiki, had them sit down and explained the rules of a written test they were taking. He didn't listen to much, just that he would need one question right to pass and that if he was caught cheating five times his entire team would fail. It was easy enough and Gaara wanted to get it over with, but the rest of the people in the room seemed to have a problem with the rules. He wished they would all die.
Finally they started the test. After looking over the questions carefully he realized that he knew the answers to none of them. He narrowed his eyes slightly. Not even bothering to put his hands under the table, he made a hand seal and formed his third eye. He directed it over to a person in the third row who seemed to be writing very fast.
As he was writing he felt Kankurou's eyes upon him and looked at him without moving his head. His elder brother looked away in fear. Gaara smirked inwardly, Kankurou and Temari would have to find the answers themselves. He wasn't going to help them. And if they failed, he would kill them for their uselessness. With this pleasant thought in mind, Gaara continued to write.
Naruto was panicking, really, really panicking. Dammit, what did written tests have to do with being a ninja! It wasn't his fault that he didn't listen to Iruka-sensei's lectures during his years at the academy. He had read every single question on the test at least ten times each and he didn't know any of the answers no matter how he looked at them. And he couldn't cheat because he'd get caught. He was a horrible cheater, Iruka-sensei had caught him every time. Hinata (that was her name right?) had offered to 'help' him, but he had been a moron and refused. And it didn't help that his time was running out.
"Arghh, why am I so stupid!"
His only hope was to answer the last question on the bottom and pray to whatever gods were out there that he got it right. If not, Sasuke was going to hurt him so much…not that he'd let him…not that made any sense at all…well- okay brain, shut up and work!
Minutes seemed to snail by and all Naruto could think of was that he had better get this question right or the shit would hit the fan…whatever that meant.
Finally the time was up and the creepy guy with the weird scar on his face told them to stop what they were doing.
"Alright," he said, "Here's some rules for the last question."
"More rules?"
"If you get this question wrong, you fail the whole test, and are banned from taking the Chuunin exam ever again."
"OH SHIT!!!"
"Now, all of you will get the choice of if you want to answer the question and risk getting it wrong or wait until next year."
This was not good, really not good! He was so screwed! Should he take it and risk getting it wrong? Or back down and take it next year? While he thought about it, he heard people start to complain, but he hardly heard what they were saying. It quieted down after a while and one by one people began to raise their hands and leave in groups of three.
As they left Naruto started to notice that just before they raised their hands they had this scared look on their faces. It was almost laughable, they were scared! Well, alright, the creepy guy was kind of scary, but that was besides the point.
But they were scared. He wasn't scared, right? Right. He wasn't. Naruto wasn't going to back down. Being Hokage just meant being the best in the village. You didn't have to be a Chuunin to be the best in the village.
So he sat there and watched a few of the last Genin walk out. There were about eighty left, he decided, quickly counting the remaining Genin in the room. The scarred man didn't say anything, as if waiting for something. What could he be waiting for?
Finally, after almost a minute, he said, "Is that it?"
The rest of the Genin in the room just stared at him. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, wait did he want them to leave? How dare he!
"Ch, not all of us are just going to run away, you know," he said loudly, "I'm not scared of your questions! Bring it on!"
Surprisingly, the man didn't look annoyed, but smiled slightly, "Alright," he said, "If that's it…you all pass!"
"Huh?"
Sasumi eyed the Morino Ibiki carefully, wanting to know more about him. When they had briefly shared eye contact, Sasumi had known. She didn't have to had read his memory, though she did anyway. She had caught a few images of a scroll and chains and blood, but that was it. She wanted, no, needed to know more.
His eyes were just like hers, no matter his current emotion, they always had that dead look in them. That look that she knew she scared people with.
But she had more pressing matters to deal with. Much more pressing. Concerning one Yakushi Kabuto. The second she looked into his eyes she knew she was in deeper than she thought. She hadn't known that Orochimaru, one of the great Sannin and a traitor to the Leaf was involved. And that the traitor Sannin wanted the body of her dark haired teammate, wasn't exactly reassuring either.
And then there was something about a curse seal. She hadn't seen enough to find out what it was, but it was important. She glanced over at Sasuke. If only she could warn him. She had already worked out a way to warn the Leaf about the attack by the Sand. A simple anonymous note would do. But with the Orochimaru affair, she didn't have enough time. She didn't know when exactly he would try to get Sasuke's body, but it was probably sometime during the Exam. Not good. At all.
She had read about Orochimaru. He had been thrown out of Konoha after he performed illegal experiments on human subjects without their consent. In other words, torture. Which made her want to kill him even more. However, if she attempted using her full strength, well let's just say that she would be in a lot of trouble.
She inwardly sighed and watched the instructor for the next part of the Exam fly in through the window. She just needed time to think this out. Something which she didn't have. This was definitely not good.
A/N: Okay people I'm kinda touched, and then kinda not. I had six people put Shi no Me on their Alerts list and one person put it on their Favorites list. Thank you, you people that did that (I would mention your names, but I…eh…he…forgot them (ducks flying object) but I've only had two reviews! Two! Until I saw the Alerts/Favorites thingy I was going to take it off for lack of popularity! So please, be nice, review, and don't be lazy like me. All kidding aside, getting positive reviews really makes my day.