Hello people! Hope you guys like this chapter. Thanks to larrycucumber2, lovingo0Kawaii0oGirl, ruler of dragons, Lyris88, Valinor's Twilight, MistFairie93, Hibiki-chan, Uchiha Sasha, uchiha black, japcherryblosom114, and ForeverInTheMoment for reading and reviewing. Also, a special thanks to ruler of dragons for editing this chapter. Please review, the sooner you review the sooner I update and the more reviews I receive the more I write. Now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the love yet clumsy Rei, the dashing and cowardly Okoru, the childishly charming Zakyo, and the arrogant but loyal Yu.
Chapter Forty-Five
Rei cursed as she woke up to the furious glare of the sun. She groaned again and rolled over in an attempt to ignore the bright light streaming through the window. Unfortunately, she failed to notice that she was already at the edge of the bed and so she fell with a sudden yelp of surprise and a loud thump as she hit the floor. Meanwhile, Okoru grinned as he heard the noise from Rei's room and knew she was awake. He knocked on her door.
"Rei, just get up, I know you're awake so just accept the fact that you have to get your lazy ass off the bed before noon."
He backed away a bit just a kunai appeared through the door. It got stuck halfway through, but he still had to admire her accuracy when she had just woken up. Still, he was unfazed as the same thing happened every morning. In fact, there were now various small holes and scratches on the door. He sighed at his friend's morning attitude.
"Just try to be in the kitchen in less than an hour." He sighed.
Rei groaned yet again and got up grudgingly. She glared at the door as if she could see Okoru through it and then directed her glare towards the stupid oversized star that had dared to wake her. She trudged to the restroom and got into the shower. She winced and swore loudly as the water hit her skin.
Back in the kitchen Okoru smirked as he served Zakyo her breakfast and Yu walked into the room.
"Sounds like she's in the shower, that was quick." Yu said calmly.
"Yeah, I didn't even have to throw water on her today." Okoru responded.
At that moment, Rei stumbled into the kitchen and collapsed on a chair.
"Coffee…" She groaned as her head fell on the table.
Okoru shook his head and placed a rather large cup in front of her. She looked up and smiled as she looked at the warm drink fondly. Okoru grinned.
"Should I leave you two alone?"
Rei ignored him as she gulped down the drink. She put the cup down and grinned. Okoru sighed as he knew she was now in her regular mood. He wasn't really sure if that was good, but at least she was no longer trying to burn everything and everyone with her glare.
After having breakfast and two more cups of coffee, Rei left on her own. Okoru was going to train with Zakyo for the day. Okoru was still curious about where she was going, but he didn't ask her. He groaned and slumped over as he went to get ready to train with his cousin. Now it was his turn to be in a bad mood.
Rei walked to the training grounds and stopped at the memorial stone. She frowned slightly. She hadn't told anyone about it, but some days ago she had asked the Hokage about her father in the hope of finding any new techniques. He didn't know anything about that, but he told her that because her father had died trying to defeat Orochimaru his name had been added to the stone. She was a bit surprised to hear this as her father wasn't on a mission, but the Hokage said that trying to get rid of Orochimaru and giving up his life to save her was worthy of a shinobi and if he had succeeded it would have been great for the village.
She sighed as she looked for her father's name. She smiled as she found it and wished she could have gotten to know him more. She had enjoyed training with him when she was small and she had missed him greatly after going to Orochimaru. Just thinking about the way he had died made her angry. After all those years, she still blamed her mother for everything. In her opinion she had been responsible for her father's death. She sighed and just stood there for a while.
"Hatori, Asahi." She read.
She smiled as she remembered her father. It had been a long time since she had last thought of her father as much as she was doing at that moment and she could almost see him as she pictured all of his features as if he was standing in front of her. She could see him in his shinobi clothes with his vest and Konoha Hitai Ate on his forehead. His short silver hair as messy as ever and then she could see his eyes. They were the same eyes she saw every morning when she looked into the mirror. She was glad she had those eyes that were so bright and blue. Still, his eyes were different they were kind and shone with a hint of mischief, but they were also vivid with determination.
"You, know, he was a great shinobi."
Rei turned around and saw the hermit that was training Naruto. She was surprised to see him there and wondered if he had escaped from Naruto again.
"Hello, what are you doing here Mister Hermit." She said cheerfully.
The hermit smiled at the girl.
"Call me Jiraya and I just happened to be passing by when I saw you. Your father was a very good shinobi."
"You knew him?"
"Your father was very popular here in Konoha. He was a fine shinobi, he was very gifted, but he always looked after his friends. You should be proud of him."
"I am, I just wish I could have known him better."
Jiraya just watched the girl as she stood there and had a feeling that she was very much like her father. He smiled, Rei turned to him and smirked in a way that made him uneasy.
"Hey, mister Jiraya, shouldn't you be training Naruto-kun?"
Jiraya laughed nervously.
"Oh, well, I thought it would be good to give him a break. You know, he's been working hard lately."
"Riiiight." Rei said suspiciously.
"Well, I guess I should go, but I think I'll ask Naruto why he isn't training when I see him." She said as she smirked.
She turned and began to walk away. Jiraya stared in surprise before hurrying after her.
"Now, now, is that really necessary? I mean, I'm sure he doesn't mind."
At that moment Rei heard Naruto calling out to the old man.
"Hey, perverted hermit, where are you!?! I know you're hiding here somewhere!"
Rei smirked.
"Naruto-kun!" She called out.
Jiraya cursed his luck as Naruto appeared.
"There you are you prevy old man!"
Rei laughed as Jiraya escaped with Naruto after him. She sighed and decided to walk around the village for a while. She really didn't feel like training and she had trained enough already. The exams would begin soon and she couldn't wait to see Sasuke again. She grinned as she thought of him and hoped that he was strong enough to beat Gaara. From what she had heard he was very strong as he had seriously injured Lee. Still, she wasn't too concerned about it as she knew Sasuke was strong and most of all he was too stubborn. The thought of him losing a fight was rather amusing to her as it would be interesting to see his reaction.
For the time being she decided she should concern herself with her own upcoming fights, but for some reason she couldn't focus too much on them. She knew she sounded somewhat arrogant, but she was almost sure that she would be able to defeat Yu. She knew Okoru would probably laugh if she told him, but she was more worried about Zakyo as she was not sure of what she could do or of what she was working on at the moment. She sighed and decided she would just deal with things when she had to instead of concerning herself with things ahead of time. With that she headed back to the marketplace. She decided to relax for the day and get back to training later.
Rei woke up and rolled over as she tried to hide from the sun's glare. Sadly, she failed to notice how close she was to the edge of the bed and found herself on the ground for the fourth time that week. She groaned and raised herself up as she cursed at everything she saw. She glared at everything around her room and then she heard footsteps outside.
"Rei, if you're awake, you might want to get your lazy ass up and get ready. The exam starts in half an hour."
"WHAT!!!"
Okoru smirked as he heard her rushing to get ready. He began to chuckle evilly as it was actually an hour and a half until the exams. He just thought it would be funny to bother her before the fight. Unfortunately for him, Rei just happened to look at her alarm clock and didn't find it particularly funny.
Okoru suddenly found himself fighting for his life as Rei desperately tried to choke him to death. He was lucky that Yu walked by and pried Rei off of him. She then sent the fuming girl back to the restroom to get ready for the fight. She turned to Okoru with a smirk on her face.
"Well, you must be either very stupid or suicidal to do that to her, you know she has low blood pressure in the mornings." She said with amusement.
"Yeah, but I couldn't help it. Besides, I'm not dead so things went better than I thought they would." He said as he rubbed his neck.
Yu shook her head at her friend.
A while later Rei, Yu, and Zakyo found themselves standing in a line in the middle of the fighting arena. Okoru was sitting on the stands waiting for his friends to fight. Rei looked around and sighed. Both Sasuke and Naruto were missing and she wondered if they were fine. She was relieved when Naruto appeared a moment later, but Sasuke was still missing. She shook it off and decided that he would probably just be late, he was after all, training with Kakashi. As she thought about this she failed to hear the proctor talking about the fights. However, she was quickly snapped out of her thoughts at the mention of her name.
"The order of the fights has been altered, please check to see who you are fighting.
She looked at the chart and saw that she now had to fight Yu and then Zakyo right after. She frowned as she wouldn't have time to rest if she beat Yu. Still, she wondered what had happened to make then change the fights. She sighed and glanced at her friends. She didn't see much of a change in Yu, but Zakyo seemed somewhat happy. She smirked as she guessed she was just anxious about the fight.
Naruto was going to fight Neji in the first round so the others headed up to watch the fight. Rei sighed as she leaned on the railing and watched Naruto. She hoped he would win. Actually, she was fairly sure he would. Even with the Byakugan, Neji wouldn't be able to beat Naruto as she knew he was determined to win. He had trained hard and she knew that he had gotten stronger, she could feel the change in his chakra. She smiled as the fight progressed.
After a while everyone was sucked into the fight as Naruto's unexpected moves had surprised the crowd. Apparently, no one had expected him to be able to last against Neji. She smirked, the people of the village really didn't know what Naruto was capable of. Eventually, Naruto beat Neji. Rei was glad as she watched her friend run around the arena while the people cheered.
"Wow, Naruto-kun did really well." Zakyo said.
"Yeah, but the crowd isn't here for him, or for any of us, for that matter." Yu said.
Rei looked at her curiously and Yu turned to her.
"Most of the people are here to see Sasuke fight Gaara. After all, a fight between Gaara of the sand and the last of the Uchiha sounds pretty interesting."
"Yeah, I guess it does." Rei sighed.
Shikamaru's and Temari's fight was next as Kankuro withdrew from the competition. Rei was impressed by Shikamaru's ability to look ahead of his opponent's moves. Temari had fought well, but in the end, Shikamaru's intelligence proved to be too much. After the fight there was some commotion as everyone wanted to see Sasuke and Gaara fight. However, it was decided by the Hokage that they would continue with the tournament while they waited for Sasuke to show up.
"Well, I guess it's our turn to fight." Rei said calmly.
"Yeah, just don't hold back." Yu said.
Rei sighed, but didn't respond. The two girls walked down to the arena and faced each other. They ignored the crowd and the proctor and just stood there looking at each other. Rei had never fought with Yu and she knew that she was looking forward to it, but she was not. She frowned slightly at her friend.
"Yu, although we're fighting for the right to advance as shinobi I refuse to injure you more than is necessary. Because of that I have to ask you not to use that technique."
Yu looked at Rei strangely and smirked.
"I see, so you're trying to do the noble thing and save me from getting hurt. Well, I really don't need you to look down at me and show me mercy. I guess you must think you're too strong for me to defeat, but don't worry, I haven't been wasting my time. I'll show you I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what to do."
Rei sighed. She knew her friend was too stubborn, but she would still hold back from hurting her too much. Meanwhile, Okoru watched as his friends stood facing each other in the center of the arena. He wondered if Rei would actually be able to beat Yu as easily as she had said she would. He still wasn't sure about who would win the fight, but one thing he was sure of was that it would be an interesting battle.
End Chapter Forty-Five
Hope you guys liked it and please review. The sooner you review the sooner I update and the more reviews I receive the more I write. Sayonara!