Me: I do not own One Piece!
Last time:
Kasumi listened quietly, absorbed everything into her sponge-like mind, and hoped it was enough.
Tactics
Kasumi, Naruto thought to himself dizzily, was a sadist. Either that or something was seriously wrong. He couldn't quite decide which as he slumped to the ground, birds flying in circles above his head.
"Naruto-san." She sounded a mix between amused and exasperated, which was more and more likely now a days. "It's not that hard."
"But, Kasumi-chan...!"
"Shut up and suck it up, dobe." Sasuke said, but Naruto heard that note of disgruntlement in his tone, too. Sasuke wasn't any happier with this than he was.
"You shut up, teme." Naruto groaned, too brain-dead to muster up proper anger.
"Boys." Kasumi had that tone again, the pay-attention-or-you'll-regret-it tone. Naruto gulped, hurriedly dragging himself up to sitting position. She quirked an eyebrow at Naruto, and he was briefly envious. No matter how much he practiced in front of a mirror, he couldn't do that, even though Kasumi-chan and teme could.
"Focus please." She requested. "Now then, Naruto-san, if your enemy was in hiding..."
Naruto groaned and wondered if he would have enough brain cells left by the end of today to eat ramen for dinner.
Genjutsu
"Ahh! My ramen! My ramen! Give me back my precious ramen!"
Sasuke deadpanned as he watched the dobe run around, waving his arms in the air, and smack straight into a tree. Damn, Naruto really did suck at genjutsu. It was around seven already, and so far, Naruto had failed to dispel all but two of the genjutsu he had been placed under.
Sitting under the shade of a tree, Kasumi winced as Naruto slid down to the ground, muttering something about ramen and his atrocious orange jumpsuit. Sasuke had no real problems with genjutsu with his Sharingan, and Kasumi had breezed through it, too.
Sasuke hadn't been nearly as surprised at her capability for it than at how she broke through his genjutsu. Instead of dispelling the flow of his chakra with a surge of outward chakra like normal, she had somehow... pushed out with her chakra from within her own body. To him, it had felt like she had nudged his chakra out and away from her.
He had never heard of something like that, and when asked, she'd explained it as a side-affect of her kekkei genkai. In layman's terms, the Tentaiora was wholly alien and thus rejected invading chakra if utilized, thereby preventing Sasuke from manipulating the chakra flow of her cerebral nervous system and casting genjutsu on her.
Sasuke hadn't quite understood it, but let it go as 'Kasumi won't be bothered by genjutsu'. Which, he could admit, would probably be extremely useful in the future if they came upon a genjutsu user, which they probably would... sooner rather than later, with their team's luck.
"My ramen!"
But first, he sighed, they would have to get Naruto up to par. His eyebrow twitched as Naruto ran head-first into yet another tree, this time getting tangled up in the nearby bushes. It didn't help that the blonde idiot was rather gullible.
Bring up anything on ramen or the Hokage's hat or flashy jutsu, and he was hooked. Sasuke could only hope that their enemies never found out about that particular weakness.
Acquisition
"Err..." Naruto fidgeted uneasily from behind the bush they were hiding behind, eyes fixed on the blue-haired Hyuga walking down the street some distance away. "Kasumi-chan, are you sure this is okay?"
"It's fine." She soothed, crouched beside him. "It's Hinata-san, I'm sure she won't be mad at you. Besides, I need to assess your skills in larceny."
"Hn. If you're so worried, dobe, just make a shadow clone and get it to do it." Sasuke said pragmatically.
Naruto lit up, a wide, relieved grin stretching across his face. "You're right! Looks like you can have some good ideas after all, teme!" Ignoring the twitch of Sasuke's eyebrow, he snapped his fingers into a familiar seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A second later, a clone popped up and nodded to the trio. Naruto nodded back seriously, and they watched as the clone transformed himself into an average looking citizen and walked confidently down the street. From their hiding place, they had a perfect view of the scene as it played out.
Clone Naruto sauntered down the street, walking past Hinata without a glance in her direction. Hinata being Hinata, she avoided his gaze, staring at the wall to her left like it was the most interesting thing in the world. The clone turned down the right corner and was back with the original two minutes later, Hinata none the wiser.
"Got it!" He grinned foxily at the real Naruto, holding out a pale blue wallet. Naruto took it, grinning that same grin back.
"All right!"
The clone dispelled in a poof of smoke, and Naruto turned back to his teammates with a proud grin. "Well, well, well?! What do you think?! That was pretty good, huh?! I bet you two didn't see a thing!"
"It was very good." Kasumi replied with an approving smile. "I was even looking for the exchange, but couldn't see it." Which either spoke badly of her observational skills or well of Naruto's theft skills. She chose to think it was the latter.
"Hn." Sasuke didn't dish out an insult, which was about as close to a compliment as he could get.
Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, I've had practice..." As soon as the last word left his mouth, he froze visibly, eyes darting back to his teammates to evaluate their expressions.
Kasumi kindly put his fears to rest. "Why don't you go and give Hinata-san her wallet back? I'm sure she would appreciate it."
"Eeh? But what would I say?"
"Simply imply that it fell out of her pocket and onto the street. You came along, saw it happen, and decided to give it back to her." She suggested easily.
"Okay! I'll be right back!" Naruto jumped down and raced after Hinata without a second thought. "Oi! Hinata!"
Kasumi watched with a satisfied smile as the two conversed, Hinata nearly fainting as she accepted her wallet back with a trembling hand. It helped that, with the orange monstrosity in the garbage, Naruto was wearing a dark blue shirt over black pants with orange strips down the side, and he no longer looked like a neon sign in the dark.
Wonderful. Two birds with one stone.
Sasuke glanced at this female teammate, taking in the devious glint in her chocolate eyes warily. "... Kasumi. What did you do?"
Kasumi turned to smile sweetly at him, batting her eyelashes 'innocently', "'Do'? I didn't do anything."
He eyed her cautiously and wisely decided not to ask.
Fine
"Ah... everyone ready?" Kasumi rested her chin on her interlaced fingers, her elbows braced on the counter of Ramen Ichiraku the night before the start of the Exams. She was already done with her bowl of miso ramen.
"Yosh! Believe it!" Naruto flashed his mega-watt smile at her, complete with a thumbs-up, having wisely swallowed his bite of ramen before speaking. He was learning, albeit slowly.
"Hn." Sasuke smirked confidently, placing his chopsticks down as he finished his ramen as well. "We'll be fine."
"Yeah! We'll kick their asses!" Naruto chimed in.
Kasumi smiled ruefully, rather certain those reassurances were aimed at her. Neither of the boys truly lacked in confidence when it came down to it. The kunoichi was torn between being pleased that her teammates could read her so easily and being perturbed by the same thing.
She had trained, she had prepared, she should be ready. Yet, despite that, Kasumi couldn't shake off the apprehension that troubled her. It was as if they were being stalked, slowly but steadily, by a snake in the grass. She swallowed harshly and forcibly made herself tune back into the rest of the world, just in time to hear:
"Dobe. At this rate, you're going to kill yourself by overeating before we ever get to the Chunin Exams."
"Shut up, teme! You can't take away my ramen!"
Never mind. Kasumi tilted her head back, eyes on the gently shining stars above. She was sure... she was sure they would be fine.
(She hoped they would all be fine.)
Lee
"Have you got everything?" Hiroshi fussed with a worried frown on his face while Kasumi stood motionless by the door, a half-exasperated, half-fond smile on her face. "Are you sure you're ready? Maybe you should bring some more kunai. Or ninja wire. Or - "
"Onii-san." Kasumi cut in with a small sigh, lifting up her hands to fend him off. "Stop worrying. We'll be fine." That was what she hoped, anyways.
Hiroshi sighed, shoulders slumping dramatically. "Alright, alright. My little girl's growing up. Just be careful, alright?" He petted her head gently.
"I'll be careful. Love you." Kasumi got up on her tippy toes and pressed a kiss to her brother's cheek.
"Love you, too, Kasumi-chan." He grinned at her brightly.
She smiled back and left. Unsurprisingly, Sasuke was already there when Kasumi arrived and he raised an eyebrow at her as she walked up.
"It's not like you to be late." He commented.
She smiled apologetically. "Onii-san held me back a bit." Kasumi bit back a laugh as Sasuke's eyebrow twitched at the mention of her brother. Her teammates still remained wary around Hiroshi when Kasumi wasn't around.
"OI! KASUMI-CHAN! TEME!" Naruto chose that moment to make his entrance, as loud and flashy as possible. Ah well, at least he wasn't still wearing his orange jumpsuit, she mused to herself as she turned to wave back to the blond.
"Good morning. Ready to go?"
"Yeah! Let's do this!" Naruto grinned, pumping his fist into the air.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, hand shoved into his pockets, and headed off for the doors. "Hn. Come on then."
Naruto grumbled and Kasumi sighed, but they fell into step beside the Uchiha as they climbed the steps. Not five minutes in, Kasumi blinked as she felt the wave of a genjutsu wash over her. Already...?
The scene they arrived at was... interesting. A large crowd was gathered in front of a pair of doors that proclaimed 301 and two shinobi stood guard before them, arms crossed, evidently blocking their way.
Two genin were on the floor in front of the hostile shinobi, tell-tale marks on their faces that spoke of being struck. Kasumi's eyes instantly zoomed in on the pair of milky violent eyes of a ninja with long, dark hair, who was offering a hand to a kunoichi she assumed was his teammate.
Hyuga. This one, then, was Hinata's cousin, she assumed. But... from the impression she had gotten from the meek Heiress, her cousin was extraordinarily powerful. So, what was he doing with this team that was being publically humiliated?
Obviously, those two were chunin, probably as a preliminary test before the actual Exams, but they wouldn't be displaying power above genin level.
"Kasumi?" Sasuke stopped several feet away from the commotion, dark eyes glancing at her questioningly.
She hesitated. The genjutsu ploy would effectively weed out the weaker competition, thereby giving their Team less trouble later. But how to sneak by...
"Hold on." Kasumi whispered, snapping through a minor genjutsu. No one with laudable intellect would fall for it, but that was hardly the meaning of this test. A moment later, their image blurred to any outside eyes and then disappeared entirely.
The Hyuga glanced up sharply, eyes narrowing. He activated his dojutsu after a moment, veins bulging out as those white eyes instantly focused on Team 7. Kasumi ignored him; if he had any common sense he wouldn't point them out. He had his own problems at the moment.
"Stay quiet." She instructed quietly, and the boys nodded in understanding. They carefully tip-toed past the horde, paying no mind to the Hyuga, whose eyes followed them attentively. They were almost to the stairs when a voice interrupted them.
"Hey, guy with dark eyes!"
In unison, Kasumi, Naruto, and Sasuke turned around to see the genin from before standing on a platform above them. The bruises on his face had vanished without a trace, leaving a boy around their age with a bowl-shaped haircut, thick eyebrows, and round eyes in a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers.
"What is it?" Sasuke replied coolly.
"Will you fight me right here?" He demanded.
Sasuke blinked. "A fight right now?"
"Yes." The genin flung himself off the platform and landed in front of them in a blur of green. "My name is Rock Lee. You are Uchiha Sasuke, right?"
"Heh, so you know?"
"I want to fight you." Lee declared, settling into a fighting stance. "I want to test my techniques against the offspring of the genius ninja clan."
Kasumi took a glance at her dark-haired teammate and sighed, recognizing the gleam in his dark eyes with ease. Sasuke wanted to fight this interloper. Shaking her head slightly, she lightly grabbed Naruto's wrist and tugged him back.
There really was no reason for them to be caught up in this mess.
Gai
Kasumi watched Sasuke and Lee fight apathetically, although, truthfully, it was more of a one-sided beating on Sasuke's part. The Uchiha tried to utilize his Sharingan, of course, but Lee's style of fighting was pure taijutsu, pure speed, and even the famed dojutsu couldn't give Sasuke the edge in this fight, his speed no match for the other genin's.
Thankfully though, Sasuke was able to avoid the majority of the damage, his Sharingan and reflexes advanced enough that even if he couldn't wholly predict the attack, he could still avert the full brunt of it. Although she was sure his ego was taking quite a blow.
Kasumi inwardly congratulated herself on the speed drills she had made her team go through, even as she worried over the amount of damage Sasuke was going to suffer through by the end of this fight. They still had the entirety of the Chunin Exam to go through - they did not need one of their members to injured gravely beforehand.
"That's enough, Lee!" An unfamiliar voice barked out as Lee prepared to perform some obscure taijutsu move on Sasuke mid-air, and a pinwheel whirled through the air to attach one of Lee's bandages to the wall. Kasumi glanced to the left and blinked.
A large, large turtle with a leaf forehead protector tied around its neck scowled, as much as turtles could scowl, at Lee, who suddenly looked decidedly guilty as he spun away from Sasuke. "Ugh!"
Who... was still falling, making no move to cushion his landing. Kasumi sighed, running forward and catching Sasuke in her arms. Setting him down gently on the ground, she swept her eyes over his form, cataloging his wounds like Sakura had taught her.
Bruises, mostly. They would fade within a day or two. For now... she sighed again, turning to face the man who looked like a carbon copy of Lee, albeit older. Naruto skidded to a stop beside her, looking torn between looking over Sasuke himself and gaping at the jounin that had just arrived.
'Really, what is with my team's luck?' she mused as he introduced himself, very flamboyantly, as Maito Gai, Lee's sensei, and Kakashi's eternal rival.
And then he proceeded to traumatize Team 7.
Entrance
"Ah! So you ducklings finally arrived." Kakashi greeted them in front of the true '301', hands in his pockets. "Looks like all three of you came after all."
"Oh?" Kasumi inquired, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Had their sensei been aware of her doubts?
"The truth is this test can only be taken by teams of three." He revealed, sounding completely unrepentant.
"Huh? But you said taking the test was an individual choice. Did you lie to us?" Naruto frowned, scratching his head.
"Ah, well, I didn't want to pressure any of my precious students into taking an Exam they didn't want to take." Kakashi eye-smiled at them. "But now that all of you are here by your own free will, I wish you luck in the Chunin Exams!"
Sasuke smirked, Naruto grinned, and Kasumi smiled.
"Now go!" He commanded, stepping back to let them through the doors behind him.
"Yeah! Let's go!" Naruto shouted as Kasumi and Sasuke pushed open the door. Upon entering, three pairs of eyes widened.
"W... Wow." Naruto breathed in awe and a whisper of consternation.
"..." Sasuke observed their competition through narrowed eyes, sharp obsidian eyes scanning the room.
"Looks like we have company." Kasumi smile faintly even as her mind whirled, already hard at work.
Genin of all ages littered the large room - some standing, some sitting in the chairs or on the tables, some leaning on the walls - and everyone's attention focused on them as conversation died down for a brief moment.
The silence was hard and stifling, tension stretching uncomfortably as dozens of eyes locked onto Team 7, judging them in a glance, trying to stare them down, but none of them were anywhere near as intimidating as Momichi Zabuza.
"Sasuke-kun!" A familiar, shrill voice cut through the attempted intimidation. Yamanaka Ino hurled out of the darkness, latching onto Sasuke's neck with unnerving accuracy. "You're late!"
"... You guys are taking this test, too. Don't die." Was Shikamaru's opening gambit as he and Choji walked up to them, following their female teammate, the one that Sasuke was currently wrestling off of him. As usual, the Nara was slouched, hands in pockets, and Choji was eating chips.
"Oh! The Idiot Trio!" Naruto said, nicely ignorant to the true capacities of the group outside of the Academy.
"Don't call us that!" Shikamaru sighed, too lazy to properly work out enough anger. "Man... this sucks..."
"Kasumi-chan!" Choji grinned at Kasumi, holding out his bag of chips. "Want one?"
Kasumi wasn't very hungry, but she took one anyways. "Thanks, Choji-san."
"Yahoo! Found you!" Kiba walked up to them, Akamaru on his head, with a giant grin, Hinata and Shino by his side.
"H-Hello." Hinata greeted shyly, cheeks flushed.
"Well, well, everyone is assembled." Kiba sounded gleeful.
"You guys, too, huh?" Shikamaru breathed a resigned sigh. Then again, he had probably been expecting this outcome since that afternoon on the roof.
"I see... all nine of this year's rookie genin are taking the Exam. I wonder how far we will get, eh, Sasuke-kun?" Kiba mocked.
"Pft... you seem confident, Kiba." Sasuke responded with a smirk.
"We did a lot of training. We won't lose to you." The Inuzuka claimed.
"Shut up! We won't lose to the likes of you!" Naruto jumped into the fray.
"Sorry, Naruto-kun. Kiba-kun didn't mean it in that way..." Hinata apologized sweetly, pressing the tips of her fingertips together.
Naruto only waved it off. "Eeh, don't worry bout it. Not your fault."
Kasumi eyed the crimson color of Hinata's face and, after a moment of thought, decided that the other kunoichi wasn't going to faint. Yet.
"Hey, you guys. You should be more quiet."
The cream-haired girl went predatorily 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 it.
Blazing sienna eyes fixated on the silver-haired teenager with glasses that was walking towards the group. No... just no. This person was bad, bad, bad news. Almost subconsciously, her hands reached out and gripped the hands of her teammates. She wasn't sure if it was because she wanted reassurance that this man wouldn't harm her or if she wanted to reassure herself that this man hadn't harmed them.
Both Naruto and Sasuke stiffened subtly and shot a look at Kasumi, but she didn't look back at them. Discreetly, she took a step back, forcing her teammates to move with her as the teen introduced himself as Kabuto and advised them to take a look around.
Kasumi joined the rest of the group in glancing around purely to escape suspicion, noting - to her non-existent surprise - that a large part of the room had taken offense to the loud noise coming from their section and was now glaring at them. A group of four with headbands consisting of four parallel lines had particularly murderous glares.
"Those guys behind you are from the Hidden Rain, they have short tempers." Kabuto said in faux helpfulness. "Everyone is nervous about the Exams, quiet down before you cause a scene."
She said nothing as they turned in unison to look back at him questioningly, the kunoichi's hand tightening on Naruto and Sasuke's. A snake, Kasumi thought with suppressed horror as her teammates reciprocated the pressure. He reminded her of a slimy snake coiling itself in preparation for a strike.
"Well, I can't blame you. You're clueless rookies. You remind me of how I used to be." A hand rested lightly on his utility pouch.
"So this is your second time?" Ino spoke up, lifting her chin.
"Nope. My seventh time. This Exam is held twice a year so this is my fourth year." He admitted without the slightest embarrassment.
Kasumi didn't believe him in the least. The warning blaring red, red, red in her mind wouldn't be there if this ninja was as pathetic as he was making himself out to be. He wasn't genin level. Then... what... what was going on...?! She took a deep breath, smashing down on the rising panic.
This wasn't the time to lose it.
Sasuke edged his way in front of her slyly, dropping her hand with one last squeeze, while Naruto stepped back, worried blue eyes flickering from her to the-genin-who-wasn't-a-genin. He gripped her hand lightly, the other hand resting near his shuriken holster.
"You must know a lot about this Exam then." Ino said shrewdly, and, belatedly, Kasumi remembered that her father had been the Head of T&I.
"That's right." Kabuto smiled. "How about I share some info with you cute rookies? With these nin-info cards..." He held up a deck of cards that he had retrieved in front of his face invitingly.
Kasumi swallowed hard, licking her lips nervously. Information. There were two types of information. There was the type where it was, if not obvious, tangible. You could find it out if you were perceptive enough. That was stuff like height, specialization, friends, and enemies.
Then there was the type of info where it wasn't. Where, no matter how much you might analyze, you wouldn't be able to deduce it. That was classified information. Secrets. Ciphers. Files, papers, whispered conversations, that was where you might find it.
That was the difference between an observant ninja and a spy.
Of course, Kabuto could be a Leaf nin in disguise, but if that was the case, Kasumi's gut wouldn't be churning, her heart beating against her ribcage like a struggling bird. No, Kabuto was not an ally.
"Nin-info cards?" Ino frowned, brow furrowing.
"They are basically cards which have info burned on to them with chakra. I have four years of info here. Over 200 cards.. they look blank but to open the info on these cards..." He removed one of the cards and placed it on the floor, one finger pressed to the center as chakra spun.
"What are you doing?" Ino demanded.
"You can't view them unless I use my chakra. For example..." A small poof of smoke and suddenly the previously blank card held a detailed map.
"Wow, a really easy to read graph. What kind of info is this?"
"This is the number of those taking the Exams and the breakdown of what country they are from."
Okay, okay. That wasn't too bad. It didn't push him past that fragile line. Kasumi waited for the other shoe to drop.
Sasuke glanced back at her a question in his eyes. She knew what he wanted to do, knew that he was asking if he should do it. Kasumi contemplated it, decided without much uncertainty. Fine, she would throw that other shoe then, and wait to see where it would land.
She inclined her head and Sasuke stepped forward, "Do you have cards with info on individuals?"
"Hehe, there are some guys you're worried about? Of course, the info on all of this Exam's participants isn't perfect, but I do have it. Even of you guys." - Kasumi had the sudden, suicidal urge to plunge a kunai into Kabuto's heart - "Say something about these guys and I'll take a look."
"Gaara of the Hidden Sand and Rock Lee from Leaf."
"Oh, you know their names. Should be easy then." He swiped his hand over the cards and held up two cards.
"Show me." Sasuke commanded.
And Kabuto sealed his fate. Kasumi glanced up, met Shikamaru and Shino's gaze. Although Shikamaru's eyes were heavy-lidded and Shino's were hidden by his glasses, the same sentiment passed between the three of them.
Kabuto... is the one we need to avoid.
Next time:
Naruto took another look at the accursed paper and gripped his head. 'This is bad! Seriously...! Seriously! SERIOUSLY!" Beads of sweat ran down his face as he flipped out. 'What should I do... What should I do... What should I do... !"
Me: Yay! Reviews!
Anime hotty lover. 18: Lolz, yup! Chunin Exams! Thanks for the review, hun!
GaaraXKasumi: I don't think that's the main pairing here, Reader-chan, but nice try! XD, here ya go, enjoy!
starrat: That's great! Here's the next chapter, hope you like as well!
wookie. cookie. :O.O I think things got even more intense, darling! Thanks for the review!
Guest: :O, I would never leave my readers hanging! Though, my plot bunnies sometimes do swamp me and I get knee-deep in another story. I'm so happy you like my story, hun, enjoy the new chapter! And thanks for the review!
Rosy Fire: Uh-oh! Oh well, I could try, couldn't I? :3 Orochimaru and Sasuke, hmm? Guess you'll have to wait and see! Thanks for the review, sweetie!
SleepAroundTheClock: Oh, that's a good one! I like it, describes Kasumi very nicely. Thanks for the input!
ShikiUploadz: Are you sure? I don't think there's that many people...
hey: Hmm, precise fits pretty nicely too. Kasumi and Tsunade... well, maybe... Lolz, thanks for the review!
Guest: Well, for now, she's just the sorta cunning but weak girl in his eyes. Ah yes, Kabuto is only the beginning. Thanks for the review, darling!
Iluvcandyiluvcandy: I love candy, too, Reader-chan. XD, I'm overjoyed that you enjoy my story! Lolz, there was a bit of him up there. If you really want more of him, there's a side story that's called Facets of Color with plenty of Hiroshi. Thanks for the review, hun!
purplesmurf712: Aww, thank you so much! As for Orochimaru and Sasuke...you'll have to wait and see! Unique... I like it! Thanks for the review!
TheQueenofGoodbyes: *sighs* Well, it'll have to happen someday. Yes, Kasumi is quite aware of how things are starting to crest. Idiosyncratic... I think that's a beautiful word, thank you! Ocean...it fits her, she is from the Hidden Mist. Lolz, Kasumi quite literally means misty actually. Thanks for the lovely review!
LateNightOwl: Ugh, I agree wholly. Predator, hmm? Well...we'll get to the prey part later. Thank you and I will do my best!
SasukexhinataXOC: Lolz, well, it fits. XD, thanks for the review!
the shadow of nature: Yay!
whiteOostrawberries: Oh, lolz, I never noticed. Let's pretend we never noticed, :3. I'm so happy you like my story and style of writing! No worries, KasumiXSasuke is most certainly the main pairing. Thanks for the wonderful reviews, hun!
Me: Okay, my attention has been wavering a bit lately cause the plot bunnies attacked me and dragged me off to write a new story. But, don't worry, I'll recover soon. Hmm, thanks to my fantastic betas and go...review? The blog website isn't functioning so well at present. Cha~
Question: Which of the seven deadly sins is Kasumi?