A/N Ok, a few people made some really good points about the plot do I'll do my best to answer the questions here. Firstly, Nawaki's excuse about the paint was badly explained. That was intentional, as Nawaki was too nervous to come up with a good excuse. So he took Hisa's line and ran with it. Konahamaru knew he was lying, but he was distracted by Hisa and decided to leave it. I hope that helps anyone who was confused.
Secondly, one reviewer made a very valid point that permanent dye wouldn't wash off. I'm not a hairdresser, and I don't know anyone who is, so sorry about that mistake. I needed a way for Sasuke to find out, so I'm just going to pretend that there is no permanent dye in the Naruto world, and Nawaki uses hair dye that has to be reapplied every few weeks. Thanks again for pointing that out.
Two people have said that they want a happy ending, so I think I'll run with that as best I can. Thanks again for all the reviews.
There's been a two year time-skip.
"Congratulations, out of all the genin that competed, you were the best on offer. Today, you become chunin!"
Naruto paused to look at the faces in front of him. Most of them were genin he barely knew, but a few stuck out.
"For some of you, this was your first and last time entering. Congratulations for completing it on the first try. For others, you tried and failed, trained harder, and came back when you were ready. This shows an excellent strategic mind."
He paused again, this time to stare at two of the brand-new-chunin.
"And for two of you-naming no names- it was about time you passed!"
Nawaki shifted sheepishly, but couldn't wipe the grin off his face. Next to him, Oki looked equally happy. After years of training, the exam itself had been surprisingly easy. They had both made it to the final of the one-on-ones. It had been a tough match, but Nawaki had eventually won. Both of them had fought so hard that that match alone was good enough for a chunin jacket.
Once Naruto had given them their jackets, they left the office. As soon as they were out of sight, Nawaki broke into a victory dance.
"We're chunin! We're chunin!"
Oki grinned as people began to stare.
"You know, we could have become chunin years ago if you had just worked up the courage to try again. Besides, it's only special if you pass on your first try."
Nawaki stopped dancing to glare at her.
"I wasn't scared! I was using my 'strategic mind'! And who told you it's only special if you pass on your first try?"
Oki pretended to think about it.
"Hisa, Naruko, Karura, Lu, Shikai and Toruko. Basically everyone who passed on their first try."
Nawaki was about to retort when Hisa ran up to them.
"Guess what?" they all said at the same time.
"You go first," Nawaki said
Hisa grinned.
"I just passed the first two tests of the Jonin Exams! There are three more to go, but I have a few weeks off to train."
Immediately, Nawaki's feeling of triumph disappeared. Why did Hisa always steal his thunder? Couldn't she have waited for another six months before entering? He sighed, it wasn't really her fault, but he couldn't find it in him to be happy for her. Oki, on the other hand, was delighted for her friend.
"That's great! How was it? Was it hard?"
Hisa shrugged.
"It was like the Chunin Exams, except everything was brought up a notch. The first exam was the psychological one. They used real torture to try and make you confess. The second exam was survival, but instead of just fighting against other chunin, there were professional jonin all waiting in the forest with orders to kill you on sight. I think they went easy on me though. None of them wanted to tell the Hokage they had killed his daughter."
Oki looked at Hisa in concern.
"Did you say they tortured you? Are you ok?"
Hisa grinned slightly.
"I'm fine. It hurt a lot but I have to put up with Nawaki every day. A little torture was nothing compared to that."
Nawaki made no comment back. He just turned and started walking towards the village gates. Konahamaru had informed them (at the last minute of course) that they had a mission today. They were supposed to meet at the gate in half an hour.
As they walked, Hisa remembered something.
"So you said you had news, what was it?"
Oki opened her mouth to tell Hisa about becoming a chunin, but Nawaki cut her off.
"Nothing. It wasn't important."
Oki looked at Nawaki in confusion, but he kept his eyes on the ground. She shrugged and kept silent. Hisa was staring at them in confusion, but when it became clear that no one was going to tell her, she started a new conversation about the Kakashi/Anko/Iruka rumours.
"Did you hear that Ibiki and Shizune are somehow involved in it all? Nawaki, you trained with Kakashi for a month. Did he ever give any indication about what was going on or who he was dating?"
"I don't think anyone knows what really goes on with Kakashi. People generally avoid Anko and Iruka's being unusually stubborn about the whole thing. You'd think that after five years he would crack and tell someone what's happening."
"Five years? I thought Kakashi and Iruka had something going on for longer than that."
"I did too, but that's before Anko came in. Honestly, I think we're better off not knowing. The truth would probably scar your mind."
By this time, they had reached the gates where Konahamaru was waiting. He smiled when he noticed the chunin jacket hanging out of Nawaki's backpack. Neither Nawaki nor Oki had gotten the chance to put them on before Hisa arrived. Now, Nawaki didn't feel like putting his on at all. Konahamaru stepped forward and began to explain the mission.
"Alright. First of all, congratulations to Hisa for passing the first two Jonin Exams. Here's hoping you pass the last three, and try and watch out for a man named Might Guy. Trust me, if you get him for the fourth exam, you'll be scarred for life."
Konahamaru shuddered slightly, remembering his own Jonin Exam. Nawaki wondered if it was worth asking about, then decided against it. Some of Konahamaru's stories should never be told in public.
"The mission is a standard rescue mission. A group of missing-nin have attacked a small village and kidnapped a few children. They are holding them hostage in the nearby forest. Our mission is to retrieve the children. However, the missing-nin are strong, so we may have to kill them."
Nawaki gulped and Oki looked nervous. Neither of them had killed on a mission yet, and it wasn't something that Nawaki was looking forward to. Hisa on the other hand, looked completely unaffected by Konahamaru's statement. Nawaki supposed that after killing a bunch of innocent genin at the age of six, killing criminals wasn't that big a deal for her anymore.
Once they had all double-checked their supplies, they set off. They walked in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Nawaki, as usual, was thinking about his family. Ever since the 'Pink Incident', Sakura's visits had gotten rarer. Both she and Nawaki were aware that Sasuke knew, but as no move had been made to capture Nawaki, both of them had agreed that Nawaki should stay in the village. However, sometimes when he arranged to meet with his mother, an ANBU member would tail him. They never saw anything, as both Nawaki and Sakura were cautious about meeting. It was a strange life, Nawaki mused, to have a mother who he barely saw, and who wouldn't come back to the village and who left out important details about her past. It was even stranger to have a father who knew he was his son, yet pretended that he knew nothing about it.
After a few hours of walking, they reached the area of forest where the missing-nin had their base. Konahamaru came to a sudden stop, and the others stopped behind him.
"What's wrong?" Nawaki asked.
Hisa was the one who answered him.
"Three missing-nin up ahead. It's an ambush. They haven't noticed us yet."
They made a small circle around Konahamaru, waiting for his orders.
"We need to take them by surprise. We can't let them get word back to their comrades."
"I can get them all with my special kunai." Hisa offered.
Konahamaru shook his head.
"Too dangerous and too much chakra. Let me handle this for now. You three wait here in case I need backup."
Hisa didn't look to happy but she didn't protest. Instead, she handed Konahamaru a kunai. Nawaki's eyes strained to see the missing-nin. They were hidden well; he could barely see the tip of a boot poking out from behind a leaf.
Konahamaru crept forward slightly. Suddenly, he disappeared. Nawaki began to panic until Oki nudged him and pointed to the place where the missing-nin were hiding. Konahamaru had appeared behind them. With two well-placed blows to the neck two of them collapsed unconscious. Nawaki watched as Konahamaru looked around, searching in case another missing-nin was hiding nearby.
Suddenly, Nawaki noticed a missing-nin creeping up behind Konahamaru. The shinobi held a kunai in his hand, and brought it down swiftly, aiming for Konahamaru's back. Nawaki opened his mouth to warn Konahamaru, knowing that it would be too late. He watched helplessly as the kunai came down.
And then Hisa was there, blocking the kunai with one of her own. Nawaki looked beside him to where she had been only seconds before. He remembered the kunai she had given Konahamaru. He had to admit, the teleportation jutsu was useful. Hisa kicked the missing-nin in the stomach, before landing a swift rabbit-punch on his head. The man's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the tree branch.
Nawaki waited until Konahamaru had given the all clear before he and Oki ran forward to join them. They were about to move out again but Konahamaru held up his hand to stop them. He pointed to the unconscious shinobi.
"I don't know if he warned the others before trying to attack me. They could already know we're here."
Hisa frowned.
"So what, we do nothing? We've got one jonin, one almost-jonin and two…" She looked over at Nawaki and Oki. "Did you two get your chunin jackets yet?"
Nawaki rolled his eyes.
"So now she remembers." he muttered "We got them today. Oh, and by the way, there's no such thing as an almost-jonin."
"What are Tokubetsu Jonin then?" Hisa challenged
Konahamaru interrupted before they could get into a full blown argument.
"I can't see anything suspicious up ahead, but I can't be certain. We'll go slowly and stick together. That means no teleporting Hisa."
"Too late." Nawaki said as Hisa disappeared.
Konahamaru groaned.
"That little idiot. Naruto will kill me if she gets hurt."
He jumped quickly off the tree branch, Nawaki and Oki following him. They raced ahead, searching for wherever Hisa had teleported too.
After five minutes, they caught up to her, just as she was about fling another kunai.
"I've scanned the area." she said. "There are no missing-nin for at least a mile."
"What about the one behind you?" Oki said.
Hisa turned just as the missing-nin swiped. Nawaki shot a fireball and Konahamaru yanked Hisa out of the way. The fireball missed the missing-nin, but it gave Oki time to sneak up behind him and put her sword to his neck. The missing-nin froze.
"Well," said Konahamaru "I don't think you looked properly Hisa. This looks like a missing-nin to me, and he's definitely closer than a mile. You are a missing-nin aren't you?"
The man nodded once. He was young, in his twenties and he looked terrified.
"Your Naruto's kid." he whispered looking at Hisa "The one with the Rinnegan."
Hisa rolled her eyes and Oki pressed her sword in a little harder.
"She's the one with the creepy purple eyes, and I'm the one with the sharp pointy weapon that could cut your neck at any minute. Now that we've established the basics, let's discuss what to do with you."
"No one knows." the man said hurriedly. "None of them know you're here. I was the first one to see you, and you caught me before I could get word to someone else. Please don't kill me."
Nawaki blinked. "Well that was surprisingly easy. What now?"
Oki lifted her sword from his neck and smacked the hilt down on top of his head. The man collapsed, unconscious.
"The ones we knocked out before should be waking up soon. We need to hurry-No teleporting!"
Hisa sighed, just about to throw the kunai.
"Fine, fine. We'll go by tree."
Another hour passed, in which Nawaki's paranoia grew. They were in enemy territory, yet they hadn't seen a single missing-nin since the one Oki knocked out. The ones they had knocked out should have been awake by now. Why hadn't they warned the others? Where were the others in the first place?
Konahamaru seemed equally suspicious.
"I think we were slightly misinformed. There's definitely more than a few missing-nin hiding around here. The client told me there were 'a few' but I'd say there's at least twenty."
"How can you tell?" Nawaki asked.
"The forest is big, and the base is located much deeper than we are now. If they could afford to set an ambush this far away from their base then they must have men to spare."
"Then why haven't we seen anymore?" Oki asked.
Konahamaru thought about it.
"My guess is that they know we're here and their planning a much bigger ambush once we get close enough."
"So what do we do now?" Hisa asked.
As if on cue, Nawaki stomach rumbled. He looked pleadingly at Konahamaru. Konahamaru shrugged.
"Why not? Let's stop for dinner."
Hisa stared at him incredously.
"Are you serious? We're in enemy territory and you want to stop for a snack?"
Konahamaru considered her words.
"You're right. If we get any closer they could ambush us. We need to be at full strength when we face them. Let's make camp for the night."
Hisa sighed.
"Whatever. I'll go on ahead and you guys can catch up with me tomorrow."
She reached into her pocket for a kunai. Nawaki waited for her to teleport, but her hand came out empty. She glared at all of them, until they noticed Konahamaru dangling something between his fingers.
"Looking for this?" he asked fingering the special kunai.
Hisa's eyes narrowed.
"Give me that. Now."
Konahamaru shook his head.
"You need to eat. I'll give you them tomorrow."
For a second, Nawaki thought she was going to attack Konahamaru. But she merely grabbed her backpack and jumped down to the ground. Soon, they had unpacked their bedrolls and were eating dinner. Nawaki had never been camping in a forest full of enemies before. It was nerve-wracking. Every time something scurried across the forest floor, all four of them reached for their weapons. Eventually, they learnt to distinguish between animal noises, and other noises.
Soon, Konahamaru declared it time to sleep. They had all decided to sleep outside tonight, in case of an attack. Konahamaru volunteered to keep watch all night, leaving the others with nothing to do but sleep.
Soon, Nawaki was certain that the other two were asleep. He himself had become so used to his mother's visits he rarely ever slept when he was outdoors. Konahamaru was sitting on a branch nearby. He watched his sensei for a few minutes. Konahamaru was so still, he could pass for an oddly shaped branch. Nawaki jumped slightly when he spoke.
"Are you going to stare at me all night, or are you going to tell me what's on your mind?"