Meng Ka ducked as Hinata's gentle fist came flying at her and she kicked her feet out from under her. Hinata yelped as she fell down on her back and looked up at Meng Ka dismayed. "Come on, Hinata. Don't give up, you're getting better." Meng Ka said as she held out her hand to her.
Hinata took it and stood up, "Am I really?" She asked in a small voice.
"Yeah. You may not see it since it's a very slow progress for you but you are getting better. Why just a month ago when we first started training I didn't have to move as fast as I just did to dodge your attack." Meng Ka said, trying to be encouraging but it wasn't having the effect she thought it would.
"Oh, so I'm not getting that much better." Hinata said as she frowned and looked down.
Meng Ka sighed just as Kiba burst through the bushes with Akamaru beside him. Meng Ka laughed as they tackled her to the ground. The three of them rolled around for a bit as Tinktink rested on Hinata's shoulder. Kiba and Meng Ka laughed as they finished rolling around and Meng Ka ened up pinning him down with Akamaru on her side.
"Hey! Akamaru! You traitor." Kiba said as he smiled up at the two.
"Ha! The shortie wins!" Meng Ka said, using Kiba's nickname for her and smiling down at him. "Huh?" Meng Ka looked down as she noticed a bug land on her hand, "Where did you come from?" She asked as she held it up to eye level and then screamed when she was suddenly covered in them. Rolling off of Kiba as he laughed at her and Shino came out.
"A ninja should never let their guard down." Shino said as he called his bugs back and Meng Ka laughed.
She had known that' what the bug was for since she had been helping them train for a while now but she liked to let them feel like they had gotten her off her guard. She really did enjoy training with them, though she did still train with Naruto's team as well sometimes. They were a fun bunch to train with too as they were always trying to best each other while Sakura was just trying to get Sasuke's attention.
The four of them trained a bit longer before Kurenai walked into view. They stopped what they were doing and smiled as she waved them down. "Hello, Hinata, Shino, Kiba and Meng Ka. I have something very important to tell you. I just entered all of you into the Chunin exams." She smiled at the three in front of her as Meng Ka chuckled.
Kiba and Akamaru seemed very excited while Shino's expression didn't change but Hinata seemed a bit worried. "You know what this means. Time to start training double time. Would you like to keep helping Meng Ka?" Kurenai asked as she looked over at the girl.
Meng Ka shook her head, "Maybe later. I need to go help Kakashi with his team. I'm sure they'll be a handful now that they're entered as well." She smiled and waved at the group as she left, going to find the three of them.
She soon found them talking to some other ninjas that must have come for the exam. She called out to them as she ran up and smiled, "Congrats on getting the exam! Kakashi is going to drill ya'll real hard now." Sakura sighed as Naruto continued to glare at the three in front of them.
Meng Ka turned around and sized the three up in front of her but then smiled as she noticed they were from the sand village. "Hi!" She said as she came up to them and smiled. "I'm Meng Ka and welcome to the Leaf village. Are you from the Sand village?"
"Ugh, freak, no one cares." Konohamaru said as he stopped hiding behind Naruto and his friends backed him up by agreeing with him.
"Hey! That's no way to talk to Meng Ka!" Naruto said while Sakura scolded them.
Meng Ka looked back over her shoulder and bit her lip, nervously. The reason they didn't like her so much was mostly because of this very reason. The adults always took her side and always scolded them.
"I'm Gaara." Meng Ka heard someone say in front of her and she turned her head back around to look at the red head who had spoken. The other two beside him looked shocked as they looked at him, fear evident in their eyes.
Tinktink suddenly puffed up her chest and Meng Ka came out of her daze, his eyes having caught her attention the most. "Oh, this is Tinktink as well." She smiled up at them as Gaara nodded his head.
"This is Kankurō and Temari." Gaara said as he motioned towards the two by his side who still seemed very shocked by his actions.
"Well, good luck with the chunin exams. They're a pain in the butt but you gotta do what you gotta do." Meng Ka shrugged and waved as they turned to walk away, "It was nice meeting you Gaara!" She called after them.
Gaara turned his head to look back at her and nodded his head in a silent response. Meng Ka turned to look back at the others behind who were looking at her with shocked faces now as well. "What?" She asked confused.
"Well, he just seemed like a completely different person when you talked with him." Sakura said as she looked back at the trio walking away.
"Yeah, I was ready to rip that guy's head off with his insults." Naruto said.
"Freaks just get along with other freaks." Konohamaru said as he crossed his arms.
"Hey!" Naruto yelled as he hit Konohamaru on the head and Sakura started to lecture him again. Meng Ka shook her head and walked away from the group, not wanting to get in the middle of things. She found it best to avoid Konohamaru and his friends; it just made her life easier. The kid was just jealous of the attention his grandpa showed in Meng Ka, even though he would never admit it and Meng Ka never asked for his attention.
She honestly just saw the third Hokage as her own grandpa as well, since he had always taken the time to let her visit him and he had even taken her out with Konohamaru a few times when they were younger to spend time with each other. He didn't want them to be fighting with each other but with their age, it was hard not to.
-Few Days Later—
Meng Ka sat on Kakashi's shoulders as they stood in front of the remaining groups. She smiled at Kakashi's team and waved over at Gaara when she saw him a well. Looking around a bit more she also Kiba and his team, Meng Ka waved at them as well, happy to see that they had gotten through.
Then the Judge started to talk about the preliminary fight since there were too many of them advancing towards the final fight. Many of them didn't like the idea of it but it was necessary and needed to be done. The same thing had happened during her chunin exam and she sure didn't like the idea of having to fight after making it to this point. In fact, during her chunin exam she was a one man team. Since she hadn't gone to the academy and had been personally by Kakashi and Asume, she didn't have a team. Well, Kakashi and Asume were her team but they couldn't go through the chunin exams since they were jounin.
The girl who was in charge of the exam turned to Kakashi, "You shouldn't let him fight." She said referring to Sasuke.
"He'll be alright." Kakashi said, shrugging. The girl started to go on a rant and Kakashi sighed, looking up at Meng Ka who was trying not to laugh at Kakashi's suffering. He reached up and poked her side, making her giggle as she tried to keep his hand away. The girl got even more irritated at the two as they were clearly not paying attention and started to bug the Hokage.
Meng Ka giggled quietly but then sneezed as she noticed the smell of smoke and she noticed Asume a little ways in the distance with his cigarette in his mouth. She smirked and concentrated on the fire in his cigarette and then smiled proudly when it went out and Asume looked at it before turning to look at Meng Ka. Meng Ka smiled innocently and Asume glared at her, flicking his cigarette over at her but Kakashi caught it in his hand, waving a finger at an amused Asume.
"Yoroi vs Sasuke!" Called out the judge, bring the three's attention back onto the situation before them. Meng Ka looked between the two and smiled as Kakashi began to walk forward stopping behind Sasuke.
"Sasuke. Don't use your sharingan. If the curse mark gets out of control, it could endanger your life." Kakashi said, warning Sasuke since he knew he couldn't keep him from fighting.
"I believe that." Sasuke replied, still looking forward as he took Kakashi's advice to heart.
"Well, I'll be coming in to stop it at that point. Good luck with the match." Kakashi said as he continued to walk away with the other two following them as they went up the stairs and to the side.
Meng Ka jumped off of his shoulders as Tinktink landed on the railing beside her. "I'm glad to see that you made it this far, Kiba." She said as he came up beside, Akamaru hiding a little in his jacket.
"Yeah, it was easy." Kiba said with a smile and a wave of his.
Meng Ka raised an eyebrow and took Akamaru from his jacket and feed him a small treat, "Akamaru seemed to think otherwise." She said softly, not looking up at Kiba.
Kiba was startled a bit at Meng Ka's insight but he was getting used to it, plus Akamaru wasn't really hiding his fear. "Yeah, the one called Gaara really scared him. His chakra level is massive." He said as he rubbed Akamaru's head.
"Hm?" Meng Ka looked up to look at Gaara. She knew he was powerful, she felt it when she had ran into him the first time. "He didn't seem all that mean when I met him." She commented, still petting Akamaru.
Kiba looked at her sharply, "He's dangerous Meng Ka. For your own safety, I don't want you going around him." A low growl coming from him as he looked back over at Gaara.
Meng Ka tilted her head to the side, still looking at Gaara. She really did like his eyes and he was the only other ninja she had ever met who had red hair like she did. Looking back at Kiba, she could tell how much he unsettled him and nodded her head, "I'll try my best." She smiled up at him.
Kiba looked back down at her and relaxed a bit, giving her a small smile just as the battle started. Then it was battle after battle as they all fought against each other. Many of them they had to interfere to keep someone from getting killed and even Meng Ka jumped in on the ones between Hinata vs Neji and Lee vs Gaara. As soon as she had seen what Gaara was doing she jumped in as fast as she could, her wind shield blocking out Gaara's sand attack but not in time to save Lee.
Finally it was all over and only ten remained but they were all a bit dismayed when they were told that the final matched wouldn't happen until a month has passed. Meng Ka squealed as Asume came up behind her and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder. "Kakashi. I thought I'd take this brat off your hands for a little while."
"I'm not a brat!" Meng Ka yelled as she hit him on the back.
Kakashi chuckled, "I couldn't be any happier at the thought. Though, what are you planning on doing with her?"
"I just promised my team I would take them out to BBQ and figured it had been a while since I had treated Meng Ka to something as well. Plus she hasn't really met my new team yet, it's about time that she did." Asume said as Meng Ka positioned herself on his shoulders and smiled over at Kakashi.
Kakashi shook his head, "Fine but don't spoil her."
"Yay!" Meng Ka said as Asume laughed and walked out with his team following behind him.