What can we say guys? Summer is a tough season.
"So." Tsunade said conversationally to the jounin in front of her. "How did it go?"
Konohamaru shrugged. "Nothing too eventful. She did exactly what she said she would. It was depressing and I cried like I did when grandpa died."
Tsunade nodded "Any information gleaned?"
Konohamaru rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like I'm going to ask a mourning thirteen something year old about specific details. Besides, from what I saw, it was nothing we didn't already know."
Tsunade nodded again. "Very well. You may go."
Konohamaru bowed and left without another word.
Meanwhile, Nara was greeted by her teammates in a less than friendly manner.
"Where da 'ell were ya Na-chan?" Sarunte cried out, tackling her. "We were worried we wouldn't be able to enter the chuunin exams, and we would need to use a snot nosed brat!"
Haruna was next to Sarunte, folding her arms, and had a slight pout on her face. "You didn't even tell us where you were going. That's hardly fair at all."
Nara kicked Sarunte off of her. "Call me Na-chan again and there will be trouble."
Sarunte shrugged. He had received much worse threats.
Nara frowned. "Wait, the chuunin exams?"
Haruna nodded. "Yeah, they're in exactly two weeks. Sakura says that we can choose whether or not we want to sign up, but Sarunte and my parents say that you need a team of three, so I dunno what she's going on about…"
"So wha' CAN I call you Nara?" Sarunte asked, interrupting with an entirely unrelated question.
"Anything, but Na-chan." Nara snapped back. "And it's fine. We'll train together and make an unbeatable team."
Not to mention…if Nara passed the chuunin exams…she would be free. She would be away from the village, and it would no longer have to be in danger of attack from Itachi.
But…she would also have to leave Haruna and Sarunte. Not to mention Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi, Sakura-sensei…
She would miss them, to say the least.
But it was for the best. The best for her, the best for them, and the best for Konoha.
But now was not the time to ponder such problems. Now was the time to practice chakra training. If Sakura-sensei had missed her while she was gone those three days, she did not show it. She set Nara straight on balancing slabs of thick rock on her head with chakra.
Ow…
"Uhm…Sakura-sensei?" Sarunte said, as he wobbled across the water, walking slowly, and tripping several times.
"Yes, Uchiha?" Sakura asked, not entirely annoyed.
"So, when we're gonna be in the exam's an' all, we needta be in top shape…righ'?"
"Yes. Sarunte."
"So…if we had thi' really cool ability, tha' could help an'all…should we tell ya?"
Sakura raised an eyebrow, realizing where this was going.
"Sarunte." She said, quietly. It had been originally planned that he would receive training once he became a chuunin, or had reached a certain level of skill. "If you wish to do so, you must tell your team mates as well."
"Yeah…yeah I know." Sarunte said. Figured his sensei already knew about his you-know-what. "I wanna."
Sakura nodded. "Cataki. Uzumaki. Come over here!"
"Bwah!" Nara cried out, breaking her concentration and falling over from the imbalance.
Haruna dashed from the water, soaked to the bone from having to keep the chakra all over her body.
"Uchiha?" Sakura prompted.
Sarunte shut his eyes, and opened them, revealing red pupils, with a tomoe in one, and a tomoe and a half in the other.
Haruna made a loud squawking noise, and Nara fell silent and paled.
So it wasn't just her imagination. She had thought she had seen the sharingan back in the Sand…
"YOU have a kekkai genkai ability TOO?" Haruna cried out in shock.
"…uhm…yeah?" Sarunte said awkwardly.
"But...you…" Haruna's eye twitched. Sarunte making fun of her for using her Zajigan. Sarunte never giving such a hint of having a kekkai genkai… "You LIAR!" Haruna yelled.
Sarunte frowned. "I'm notta liar 'Aruna-chan!"
"Oh shut up! I hate you!" Haruna cried out.
Sarunte withered a bit. "I only goddem a couplo days before graduation…"
Haruna turned around, a bit hesitant to forgive him. "That doesn't make it ok…"
"I used it in the battle 'gainst that ninja guy when we were in the Sand. That was the only time…"
Haruna looked indignant. "I don't care how much you use it! Why didn't you tell me? We're teammates! And I thought we were friends!"
Nara bit her tongue at that comment. If Haruna got that mad over this, how mad would she be to know that Nara was keeping secrets from her?
Nara attempted to make eye contact with Sarunte, but the red eyes were too unnerving. Even if they were not in mangekyou sharingan form.
It was still the sharingan!
Even…even if…it wasn't like Sarunte was Itachi, after all. Sarunte was thick, but not evil. In no way evil. He was a nice guy, actually.
So why did she still feel uneasy?
She would just have to suck it up. Sarunte was her team mate. She just had to see the positive in this…
But WHAT was there to be positive about?
…
A sparring partner.
A sparring partner with the sharingan.
A weaker sharingan, but someone she could practice against, and maybe even learn a few moves…
Even if he was nothing like Itachi, maybe it could be the first stepping stone to defeating him once and for all.
And then…maybe…she could come back to Konoha! Oh that would be wonderful!
Even with that mindset, she still did not feel very comfortable making eye contact with him. It was natural instinct after all. Eye contact with Itachi resulted in an unbreakable genjutsu.
Sure, Sarunte couldn't do that, but no need to destroy a perfectly good instinct.
Haruna had calmed down a bit, and then Sarunte turned his attentions to Nara.
"Hey, Nara-chan, you're good with this, righ' ?"
"Uhm…" Nara looked down, pushing her fingers together, "Sure Sarunte. I'm fine with this completely." She managed to get herself to say, forcing a faked smile at him.
Sarunte took this interaction to heart, and smiled hugely back, and hugged her tightly. "Aw thanks Nara. Knew ya'd understand!"
Nara sighed faintly. Well, at least he was happy.
" Alright," Sakura said crisply "Enough fooling around. We're going to do another couple of hours on chakra training and then, and only then, will we start focusing on individual needs. Got that?"
Haruna rolled her eyes, Nara nodded sadly, and Sarunte groaned, but they did as they were told.
Sakura frowned to herself. They were a good bunch, and they clearly wanted to try joining the chuunin exams, but Sakura had not actually nominated them yet. Back when she was younger, the chuunin exams were usually meant for genin that had a couple years of experience. Then for some strange reason, the younger genin started taking over, and they had to make the whole exam even harder, just to compensate for the ease the younger ones were achieving success. It was a cyclical thing, really. It happened every 50 years or so, according to Tsunade, who was old enough to know that sort of thing.
As for her team, she would need to try and take care of their weaknesses.
Haruna was an absolute mess. She was highly skilled in her Zajigan, which made her the most talented in terms of genjutsu, but physically she was weak, her taijutsu was poor, and her ninjutsu was average at best.
Sarunte was probably the most well rounded. Sort of. He had a habit of being rash, resulting in any training going down the tubes. Just like Naruto…
Nara was extremely above average in certain areas, and below average in others. She was good at taijutsu, a trait she got from her mother, and ninjutsu. Genjutsu she was ok at. The problem was her fighting techniques. She was a hit and run type of person, and she seemed stubborn on remaining that way.
What was she going to do with her team?
She supposed she could drag her good friend Kankuro-kun into this, and they could pit their genin against each other and see which ones lived the longest.
That probably wouldn't fly though. Not only might it result in Kankuro's team coming after her team in the actual exam, she would get flak for 'revealing village secrets' from the more…isolation favoring villagers.
She supposed she could talk to the other genin teacher, Gyaro Ketsuki and see what his plans were. Or maybe even talk to Kiba-kun or Lee-kun, whom had raised genin to the chuunin level. In fact, Lee-kun was even applying for a second team. Guess he REALLY liked teaching…
Kiba-kun had actually taught Ino-chan's son, along with Chouji-kun's son and Shikamaru-kun's daughter. Sakura knew that Haruna had a rivalry going on with Shikamaru's son, maybe it might help her to get a few pointers from his superior.
Lee's team was a possibility as well. He had taught a Yamashiro, a girl that had great talent in summoning crows, as well as two other minor clansmen whose abilities Sakura did not remember. One of them, if Sakura remembered accurately, had followed the tradition of wearing a jumpsuit, and became a Lee clone, just as Lee had become a Gai clone.
She would also have to talk to the Hyuugas about getting a teacher for Nara, so she would be able to practice Taijutsu. While it would be helpful to get Neji to do it (she knew he had applied to be Nara's teacher, before Hanabi had shot him down), any Hyuuga would do.
Haruna was already getting lessons from her family. Maybe she needed to spend these two weeks alone in a forest with Lee. That might strengthen her up a bit. Or kill her. No real loss though…
Sarunte…Sarunte would probably do just fine with the training he was currently getting. He was fairly good at adapting to new training situations.
How she was supposed to train his sharingan was beyond her. She knew how the sharingan worked, thanks to Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-kun, but they were both…well, dead.
Perhaps Ketsuki-sensei would be willing to help her out. He had a high talent when it came to understanding chakras. Even without the sharingan, he probably would be able to teach Sarunte exactly what he needed to know.
In fact, that wasn't such a bad idea. Have Haruna train with Lee-kun, Nara with a Hyuuga, and Sarunte could spend the two weeks with Ketsuki and his team.
Now all she had to do was convince Hanabi.
This was going to be fun.
To Be Continued