Me: I do not own Naruto!
Gaara
"Ah... another guy who pisses me off." The guy snarled, flexing his trembling hand.
"Get lost!" Sasuke snapped coldly.
"Boss! That was so cool!" Konohamaru beamed up at his idol, stars in his eyes. Moegi and Udon crowded around him, torn between idolizing Naruto and the cool guy that had just showed up or running away in fear at the upcoming confrontation.
"Hey, punk, get down here!" The bastard yelled up at Sasuke, grabbing the mummy-thing on his back and swinging it out and onto the ground. "I hate show-offs like you the most."
"Hey, you're even going to use Karasu?" The girl asked, looking wary all of a sudden.
"Kankuro, stop it." An ice-cold voice interrupted, and Naruto whirled around on instinct, making sure to keep the duo in front of him in his line of vision. A boy stood upside down from a branch close to Sasuke with red-hair, a tattoo that said 'love' on his forehead, and terrifying green eyes.
"You're an embarrassment to our village." He said heartlessly.
Naruto's eyes flickered from him to Sasuke, judging the distance. Too close. From how tense the Uchiha was, he hadn't sensed the new guy either. What the hell was going on here?
"Ga... Gaara." The make-up guy, also known as Kankuro, greeted nervously.
"Losing control of yourself in a fight, how pathetic." Gaara said. "Why do you think we came to the Leaf Village?"
Kankuro pointed a finger at Naruto and the trio of Academy students, prompting a round of shivering and hiding behind the genin's legs. "Listen Gaara, they started it, and..."
"Shut up. I'll kill you." Gaara said and there was no trace of teasing in his tone. Naruto stiffened, watching as Kankuro and the kunoichi paled and trembled in fear. They were a team, he realized. Just like how he and teme and Kasumi-chan were a team. Except... they obviously weren't anywhere as close.
"Ok, I'm sorry..." Kankuro apologized quickly.
"I'm also sorry... really sorry..." The kunoichi smiled nervously, linking her hands behind her back.
"Sorry to you guys." Gaara said shortly to Sasuke and disappeared in a whirl of sand. Naruto's eyes widened; was that a Sand Shunshin?!
"It looks like we got here too early but we didn't come here to play around." Gaara appeared in a whirl of sand in the middle of Kankuro and the kunoichi, who tensed up immediately.
"I know that..." Kankuro muttered.
"Let's go." Gaara turned his back, but Naruto had had enough.
"Oi!" He shouted at them. "Wait!"
The red-head turned back to look blandly at him. "What?"
"What the hell are you doing in our village?!" He demanded, cerulean eyes zeroing in on their headbands. He knew that symbol, he knew he did. "You're ninja from the Village Hidden in the Sand, right?! Why are you in Konoha?!"
From the tree, Sasuke smirked triumphantly. Looks like all those hours banging common knowledge into the dobe's thick skull hadn't been an entire waste. Kasumi would be pleased.
"Hey, talk about clueless." The girl said, holding up a pass. "Don't you know anything? You're right; we are genin from the Hidden Sands. We have come to your village to take the Chunin Selection Exam."
Wait. Huh? What was that? Before Naruto could ask, someone answered.
"It's," A new, much welcomed by Naruto, voice interrupted smoothly, "an exam held for highly skilled genin from separate villages as a chance to become a chunin." Kasumi stepped out gracefully from an alcove of shadows behind the Sand genin, startling them into whipping around to stare at her.
Well, the kunoichi and Kankuro whipped around to stare at her. Gaara just slowly turned his head around to gaze coldly at her.
Like Sasuke did, Naruto thought, like that Gaara guy did. It was sorta like they were all trying to out surprise-appear each other. Wait - he sweatdropped - now that he thought about it, that was probably totally a ninja thing.
"As of right now, you three would be guests of Hidden Leaf." She said, nodding to the trio of genin. "However, in any case, attacking our Hokage's grandson would still be a serious liable offence.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" The kunoichi scowled, placing a hand on her hip.
Kasumi gestured daintily towards Konohamaru, who obligingly puffed out his chest proudly. "Sarutobi Konohamaru. Grandson of Sandaime-sama, Sarutobi Hiruzen."
Both Kankuro and the blonde kunoichi paled, while Gaara showed no reaction. "You... you're not going to report us, are you?" She asked, sounding scared and desperate both. Naruto caught her shooting a frightened look at an impassive Gaara and frowned. Were things between them really that bad?
"Of course not." Kasumi smiled graciously. "Provided that you give me your word that, unless necessary and if my team is nominated for the Chunin Exams as well, your team will not bother us."
Sasuke stiffened, turning to scowl darkly at Kasumi and opening his mouth to protest, but she shut him up with a warning look. Naruto shifted his weight from one foot to the other, gazing at the spectacle uncertainly.
The kunoichi's mouth tightened and she turned to glance questioningly at the red-head. When there was no response, she traded a glance with Kankuro and nodded curtly, "Fine. I give you my word that, unless necessary and if your team is nominated for the Chunin Exams as well, my team will not bother your team unless you attack us first, so long as you don't report us."
Kasumi inclined her head and stepped aside, indicating her willingness to let them pass. Before they could leave, Sasuke appeared in front of Naruto and the kids via Shunshin. "Hey you, what's your name?" He called, prompting the three to turn around again.
"Huh? You mean me?" The kunoichi asked, blushing, and Naruto snorted in the privacy of his mind. He would never understand what girls saw in the teme. Thankfully, Kasumi-chan was immune.
"No." Sasuke rejected bluntly. "You with the gourd." Of course, of course Sasuke simply had to go with the one that Naruto's instincts screamed was the most dangerous one of all.
"... Gaara of the Desert." The red-head said slowly. "I'm also interested in you; what's your name?"
"It's Uchiha Sasuke..." Sasuke smirked his smuggest, most irritating smirk of all and Naruto couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey! What about me? Huh?" He yelled loudly, more to dispel the tension than anything else.
Still... "Not interested. Let's go." Gaara said frankly. Ouch, that hurt!
Naruto sulked in a dark corner as the Sand team made their way out. Why was it always Sasuke?!
Endanger
Kasumi watched the sand-nin pass her warily and felt a shiver go down her spine. Well... shit. She sighed softly, stepping lightly towards the kids, who were fussing over Naruto. Why couldn't they ever have more than a week or two of peace and quiet?
"Konohamaru-san." The brown-haired little boy looked up at her, wide-eyed. She smiled kindly, saying, "Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah."
Politely ignoring the blush on his cheeks, Kasumi looked over everyone else and determined that they were unharmed by the encounter. But, Kami-sama, the Chunin Exams already? She was busy planning out their training schedule for the next six days when Sasuke moved to her side.
"Kasumi." She glanced at him questioningly, half-distracted. He frowned darkly at her, obsidian eyes flashing with irritation, "Why did you wring that promise from them? I wanted to fight him!"
Kasumi blinked slowly, "Sasuke-san, you do realize that we do not yet know whether or not we will participate in the Chunin Exams at all, right?"
His glare intensified and she sighed. "There is classically a tournament at the end of the Exams. And simply because you would like to fight Gaara-san does not mean I do." In fact, she wouldn't like to fight that one at all.
Sasuke grunted, but let the topic drop. She wasn't stupid enough to think that he wasn't still angry at her, though. In the background, Naruto wailed about how it was unfair and Kasumi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Must they?
Applications
"We're not sparring today." Kasumi declared as soon as both Sasuke and Naruto had arrived at the bridge.
Naruto's jaw dropped and Sasuke scowled. "Why not?" They pressed in unison and then proceeded to wince at unison at the grating sound of their voices in conjunction.
She swallowed down her laugh. "Sparring is all well and good, but we'll have to focus a bit if we want to survive the Chunin Exams... that, mind you, we don't even know if we've been nominated for."
The mulish looks on the boys' faces convinced her to go on, regardless. "I think it would be best if we focused every morning until the Exams start on one specific aspect of ninja combat. Ninjutsu, stealth, awareness, genjutsu, tactics, information gathering, taijutsu..." She listed, deliberately throwing in some of the catchier types to keep their attention.
Honestly, what was she supposed to do with these boys, she thought with an exasperatedly fond smile when her plan worked perfectly, interest flashing in cerulean and obsidian eyes.
"So, how about we start up with 'ninjutsu: combination attacks'?" She suggested innocently and was promptly met with an eager grin and an approving smirk.
Two hours later, when Kakashi finally designed to turn up, he sweatdropped at the scene that greeted him, his one eye widening. The formerly pristine - sorta - healthily green - mostly - field was gone like the wind and it didn't look like it was coming back. It looked a bit like an inferno had swept through, and had then been followed by a flood and a tornado.
He glanced down at his students who blinked at him in a 'we're-totally-not-guilty-of-any-charges-even-though-we-obviously-are way'. Kakashi sighed, eye-smiling reluctantly. "Maa, maa, I see you ducklings have been busy."
"Yeah! Unlike you, Mr. I-Got-Lost-On-The-Road-Of-Life!" Naruto yelled, pointing a finger up at him.
"Naruto-san."
"Sorry, Kasumi-chan." Naruto let his hand fall back down to his side, rubbing sheepishly at the back of his neck.
"Hn. You're such a dobe."
"What was that, teme?!"
"Ducklings, ducklings, you're both pretty; there's no need to fight!" Kakashi said flippantly, taking no note of the twin death glares that were swiftly aimed at him. Kasumi hid her smile beneath her hand as Kakashi jumped down to stand in front of them, two fingers raised in front of his face.
"This is sudden, but I've nominated you guys for the Chunin Selection Exam." He said cheerfully.
"Yeah!" Naruto jumped into the air, pumping both fists in the air.
"Is that so...?" Kasumi smiled, completely unruffled, and tranquilly ignored the I-told-you-so glance from a Sasuke who was ever so smug.
"Here are your applications." Kakashi held out three slips of paper that were hastily snatched from his fingers.
Naruto grinned and outright glomped their poor sensei, screaming, "Kakashi-sensei! I love you!"
"Hey, stop, let go of me..." Kakashi flailed helplessly, quite unused to flying hug attacks while Kasumi giggled and Sasuke sweatdropped.
"Ahem." Once Naruto saw fit to release him to crackle over his application form, Kakashi straightened up, eyeing his blonde student a bit warily. "This is just a nomination though. Whether to take the Exam is up to each of you. Those who wish to take it should sign those papers and turn them in at Room 301 at 4 pm tomorrow."
"That is all." Kakashi vanished in a blur of Shunshin, leaving the three genin to themselves.
Doubts
"Well? What do you think?" Kasumi turned to the boys, although she had a pretty good idea of what they thought.
"We should definitely do it!" Naruto exclaimed, oozing confidence and excitement.
"Hn." Sasuke agreed as they began to walk across the bridge. "There'll be a lot of strong opponents there."
And of course the boys wanted to fight. Kasumi exhaled slowly, wrapping her arms around herself. She wanted to get stronger and become a chunin, too, and she didn't doubt their abilities and teamwork when it came down to it, but...
Her cold hand clenched on her arm. Since their meeting with Gaara and his team, there had been a lead rock in her gut, a fist gripping her heart. She knew not to dismiss the signs. Her instincts were screaming at her to run, to get away from the tidal wave that was coming. But she couldn't do that, could she...?
"Kasumi-chan?" She snapped out of her trance to see Naruto peering at her with worried eyes and Sasuke frowning at her. She wondered how troubled she had to have looked that Naruto had noticed. "Is something wrong?"
When she said nothing, Naruto kept on with the rapid-fire questions, "Do you not want to go? Are you scared? I won't let anyone hurt you, I pr -"
She shook her head, rebellious strands of cream hair flying in the air. "No. It's not that."
"Then what is it?" Sasuke demanded, obsidian eyes shrewd.
Kasumi sighed and tilted her head back to look at the sky. So pure, so bright, so untouched... "It's just... genin die in the Chunin Exams, boys." And the sinking feeling in her heart warned that death might not even be the worst thing they could encounter. Sometimes, she hated what her bloodline told her. Like now.
Distracted as she was, she didn't notice the glance the boys traded. While suitably cautious and realistic, Kasumi didn't lack for courage or daring. For her to be fretting...
Naruto responded first. "Don't worry about it, Kasumi-chan!" He said brightly. "I'm sure everything will be alright!"
"It's useless to worry. If you're that concerned, we should just do more training." Was Sasuke's - in Naruto's opinion, worthless - contribution.
"Hmm." Kasumi didn't look all that comforted, but she turned to flash a warm smile at them. "Alright. Ichiraku Ramen, then? To celebrate?"
Naturally, Naruto didn't have any protests against this. "Yeah! Ramen!~"
"Hn. I'm going to go train." Sasuke declared, turning to walk off. But Kasumi caught Naruto's eye and winked, and Naruto grinned a foxy grin. Darting forward, they both caught one of Sasuke's arms and, ignoring his spluttered protests, dragged him to the Sacred Ramen Stand, laughing and joking.
In the end, Sasuke just gave up, recognizing a losing fight when he saw one. Kasumi and Naruto glanced at each other and discreetly high-fived.
Teams
"We all got entered into the Chunin Exams?" Kasumi blinked, eyes wide. As far as she knew, such an event was nearly unheard of.
"Yeah. So troublesome." Shikamaru yawned and went back to watching the clouds. At his side, Choji did his best to rapidly decimate his bag of potato chips. Kasumi had split off from her team after lunch and joined with her Academy friends on their usual rooftop.
"Is anyone else going from Konoha?" Kasumi asked the group at large, dancing a senbon between her fingers.
"I-I think another g-group is g-going." Hinata stuttered, weaving a flower wreath with her deft fingers.
Kasumi glanced at the shy girl in surprise and saw Shino straighten up from the corner of her eye. So, even Hinata's teammate hadn't known about this, huh?
"Hinata, who is it that you are referring to?" Shino questioned lowly, adjusting his glasses.
"I-I... my c-cousin." Hinata managed to get out, staring intently at her flowers and looking extremely uncomfortable.
"Your cousin's in that team?" Choji interpreted, to her grateful nod.
"So three rookie teams and one other." Kasumi said thoughtfully, lying next to Shikamaru as his current ally in cloud-watching. And that 'other' she noted to herself, seemed to hold a powerful Byakugan user. "Well. This'll be interesting."
"Troublesome." Shikamaru corrected lazily. "This'll be very troublesome."
"Indeed." She whispered.
Medicine
Despite Naruto and Sasuke's reassurances, and her friends' silent support, Kasumi didn't feel better. So, she decided to do something about her worry rather than simply pace in her bedroom.
The kunoichi made her way steadily down the Hospital's hallway, alert brown eyes darting from here to there. She was looking for someone... and there! She cut her way gracefully towards the pink-haired girl doing her best to carry multiple folders in her arms, reshuffle them, and walk in a straight line at the same time.
"Sakura-san."
Haruno Sakura glanced up, green eyes wide when she spotted Kasumi. "Oh! Kasumi!"
"Need some help?" She asked with a playful smile.
Sakura snorted, "Oh, shush you. Grab some of my folders, please?"
Kasumi's smile only widened and she helpfully did as asked, lessening the rosette's workload by a substantial amount. "Where are we going?"
"Not far." Sakura assured her, weaving with confidence through the complex hallways. "...There!" She kicked open the door and dumped all of the files on the wooden desk with a relieved sigh, brushing back a few strands of pink hair as Kasumi followed suit.
"So." She sent a surprisingly perceptive glance at Kasumi, but then again, in the few weeks since they had struck up a friendship, Kasumi had realized that Sakura, when not distracted by Sasuke, was eminently intelligent, enough so that her evaluation of their relationship had changed from 'potentially useful' to 'useful and enjoyable'.
"Why are you here?" Sakura asked, point-blank. "We agreed to meet two days from now, and you normally don't smirch on appointments."
Kasumi smiled and didn't bother deflecting the question. She was on a time limit, after all. "I need a favor."
"What is it?"
"I need a crash course on First Aid and I need it now."
Sakura frowned, taking off her white coat and placing it on the chair. "On what sort of injuries?"
"The sort of injuries that occur when rookie genin take the Chunin Selective Exam."
Sakura's gasp was loud in the silence. As a medic apprentice, she must have heard of the Exams. "You're taking the Exams now?"
"Now." There really was no point in hiding the truth. "Or at least, in three days.
"Oh God." Sakura's face went five shades paler. "Okay, okay." She collapsed on her chair and put her head in her hands. "Let me think."
Minutes passed in silence while Kasumi took a seat on a nearby chair and waited patiently. Finally, Sakura took a deep breath and looked up. "I'll teach you about lacerations, broken bones, and fractures and dislocations. A little on bruising and stitches and poisons. Will that be enough?"
"It has to be enough." She said honestly. "Can we start now?"
In response, Sakura bolted out of her seat, grabbed Kasumi's hand, and pulled her down the hallway. She proceeded to go the Hospital's equivalent of a Library and all but threw books of the shelf and into Kasumi's arms. They were quickly followed by fast-paced lectures and diagrams and enthusiastic arm-waving.
Kasumi listened quietly, absorbed everything into her sponge-like mind, and hoped it was enough.
Next time:
The cream-haired girl went predatory still, a cold shiver running down her spine. It took every ounce of her control to keep her breathing steady, to turn her head around at a moderate pace, and not take off running. It felt like someone had grabbed her heart in an icy grip and throttled.
Me: And... the Chunin Exams are here! Reviews, lovely reviews~
ShadowPhoenix24: Lolz, I can get where you're coming from. Thanks for the review!
ShikiUploadz: :o! Maybe .0000000000000000001%. Maybe.
Anime hotty lover. 18: Yup, yup! It's okay, he has Team 7 now. Gaara is most certainly here. Though he wants to kill everybody at this point. Thanks for the review, hun!
TamashinoSuzume: Yup, team bonding! Hmm... owl and lion, huh? I'll consider it, thanks for going to all that trouble! Hope you enjoy this chapter, darling!
lostfeather1: Lolz, that they are. Those two have an epic rivalry, really. A fox and a cat, hmm? I'll consider it, thanks for the lovely review!
starrat: I'm glad! Here ya go, hope you enjoy!
wookie. cookie. : That's great! Thank you very much! XD
TheQueenofGoodbyes: First series? You mean like the first half of Part 1 of Naruto? More romance will certainly be coming up. Wolf or a dolphin, hmm? I'll think about it, thanks for the suggestions, dear!
LateNightOwl: Aww, thank you so much! I'm delighted that you like my story. Praying mantis? That's a new one, but I like it! Thanks for the review, darling!
Deception is Decepticon: I'm very happy you like my story. :3, thanks for the review!
Rosy Fire: Yup, yup! Eagle or a hawk, hmm? I'll consider it, thanks for the great suggestions!
animemangaobsessed: Lolz, a passive-aggressive lioness? Sounds interesting! XD
helenGet: That's awesome!~ Hope you enjoy this chapter then!
Elaine302: Aww, thank you! Here's your update, hope you like!
MylaUchiha: Mm-hm, Naruto had to get that off his chest. Thanks for the review, hun!
Bella-swan11: Hmm... Kasumi and Gaara, huh? Ideas, ideas. Thanks for the review!
Guest (Arcana the Wolf): Lolz, hiya! Naruto and Kasumi? Err... maybe in a more family type way? Poor Konohamaru is fine, don't you worry. Thanks for the review, darling!
rinievermilion: Oh, that's fine, hun. Rabbit Kasumi? That'll be interesting... thanks for the review!
Marie: Yup, yup!
Me: Okay! So many reviews, thank you all! Oh, and my wonderful betas, too.
Question: What would be one word that you would use to describe Kasumi?