Hayabusa came to a screeching halt to double back. He flew past Iruka in a fury, talons out, and then past Mizuki and Kotone.
"Hayabusa?" Kotone froze watching his quickly fading form.
"Ambush." He stated going into the trees to knock a small boy out.
The Mist genin's lip curled as he hit the ground. "Bastard."
Kotone inhaled sharply. She hadn't really looked closely at her competitors thus far, she assumed they would be her age, but the boy, he was no older than ten. No. She put him at maybe eight or nine.
"A kid?" Iruka asked.
Said boy twirled a kunai with a horrible gleam in his eye and then let out a low whistle. Hayabusa immediately saw multiple chakras closing in rapidly and informed his group.
"They must have an alliance." Mizuki hissed reaching for weapons.
There was no time to think. Five Hidden Mist genin appeared, all young and frail; Kotone could tell they hadn't been training for long. The way they handled their weapons looked clumsy, more desperate than confident and on top of that their hand to hand was just as unskilled.
She dodged a flying shuriken with ease then darted forward to clash with two genin. They both came at her with kunai. Kotone only needed one hand with a weapon to fend them off, and she sensed a third's chakra behind her trying to grab her pouch which contained their scroll.
Hayabusa knocked the girl away uncaring of age. He kept her pinned, a talon pressing into her throat. "Dare to touch my mistress again and I will tear out your eyes."
The little girl spit at the falcon before kicking him away and making a break for it.
All of the mist met eyes and spoke simultaneously. "Water clone jutsu."
Iruka frowned at the duplicates, one boy's was missing an eye. "Have you all graduated?"
"Graduate?" He seemed momentarily confused, albeit angry as hell, but confused. "We train with a sensei off the bat."
"What?"
"Shut up, Leaf scum."
Iruka was startled to find the same boy and his clone in front of his face. He only had time to throw his arm out to take the blow of the knife with an irritated growl.
The thought crossed of killing them crossed Kotone's mind, one of these kids' elders killed her mother, she couldn't take their lives. They were little kids. Stupid, stupid little kids who couldn't even form a clone properly, how any one of status thought they could enter these exams was plain crazy. She willed chakra into her hand and then hit the back of her attackers necks. The two enemy genin crumpled instantly.
"Jiro! Matsu!" One of boys still standing looked shocked.
Mizuki took his pause to grab his arm and pin him down, kunai to the neck. "Move and I'll end your exam right now."
The other three, the second Mist squad, tensed up further. Kotone and Iruka glanced to each other. He nodded and lunged for the nearest genin while Kotone sprinted over. She wasted no time sending a jolt of her chakra into the girl's neck. When her body went limp, Iruka gently set her down.
"I'll kill you! I'll rip your fucking throats out!" The boy Mizuki had kicked and screamed. He was having a tantrum.
"They aren't dead." Kotone snapped. "They'll wake up in a few hours."
Mizuki let go of his captive. Once again, no one said anything, but the gaze between Iruka and Kotone spoke a thousand words.
'We couldn't let them follow us.' Kotone's face was set grimly.
'We're meant to kill them… if this was real.' Iruka looked down at the unconscious girl. He shook his head unable to relax, though Kotone's hand on his arm helped.
Hayabusa sighed ruffling his feathers out from the rain. "We are halfway to the peak, we should get moving."
"Right." Kotone squeezed Iruka's arm again.
That eliminated two teams for at least three hours. There were eight teams who entered the arena, so now if they could avoid the rest, they might make it the to the end unscathed. Or at least no more injured than they were.
"How could they send out little kids?" Iruka's voice was quiet.
"Well…" Mizuki started, "I can't say for sure, but I heard almost all their older students got wiped out during the genin exam a few years ago."
"Wiped out?"
"Yeah, some kid went crazy and just killed all of them. Even the ones who weren't a part of the exam, pretty much any student around that day got slaughtered. It's not like the Mist can just create new shinobi. I doubt there were even enough adults to you know… after the war. They probably grabbed whatever kids were left around the village and threw them into genin teams for missions."
"What good can they do if they don't know the basics? They can't even fight!" Iruka growled. "The war is over isn't it!? Why is looking strong more important than the safety of little kids!"
"They have missions to fill too, Iruka." Mizuki shrugged.
Kotone muttered. "Enough."
This what the world of shinobi did, the side glory and dedication couldn't cover up. It took children moldable by age, bitter through loss then threw them into life or death in the hopes a fews' instincts were good enough to help them survive. Kotone wanted to feel more upset, more angry, but the longer this went on the less she felt anything. She pitied the Mist kids, but nothing else. She wanted Iruka and Mizuki to survive. That was the end of it.
.
.
By a miracle, they managed to reach the peak at sunset. All three collapsed in exhaustion to the ground watching the signature plume of smoke billow. Hayabusa didn't look much better, though he tried to appear otherwise.
"Hayabusa." Kotone spoke. "Go home and rest."
"Are you sure that is wise?"
"It's not wise, but it's an order." She felt her eyes grow heavy.
"Kotone-" He was cut off by Iruka.
"It's all good, thanks for watching out for us." The scar on his nose wrinkled up as he smiled. "I'll take the first shift."
The falcon looked apprehensive, but noticed Kotone had already dozed off with Mizuki not far behind. "Iruka, take care of her."
"I'll put my life on the line for the people precious to me."
"Good." Hayabusa poofed away into smoke, the summoning jutsu releasing him back to his original place.
The night was lonely, but Iruka couldn't bring himself to wake up either of his friends to switch shifts. Nightmares of the Nine Tales had yet to leave him making sleep the less appealing option lately. Rain fell in sheets outside of the ledge that his team had claimed for the evening and behind the stormy clouds the light of the moon casted an eerie glow, shadows coming and going off the walls.
He looked down at himself and squinted. He was soaked to the bone, yet the rain still couldn't remove the mud stains on his clothes. Or was it blood? He really wasn't sure anymore. The bandaging around his ankles became pointless once waterlogged and he had removed it way earlier in the day. Kotone offered to heal it better with chakra, but Iruka hadn't wanted to be a burden or strain, though now he was wishing he had let her. It stung every time he shifted his feet.
He leaned his head back against the rock wall. Kotone wasn't on her game, no matter what she or Mizuki said. Only two things ever set Kotone off, the mention of the Village Hidden in the Mist and Leaf ANBU, and since they stepped foot into the Land of Water she was dazed.
He pursed his lips at the crack of thunder. They were told conditions wouldn't be pleasant here, but the weather seemed to mimic what he had read on the Village Hidden in the Rain. Typhoon season, as he was told, made any area near water ugly. When it wasn't pouring, it was so humid and muddy they were practically drenched anyhow.
At a flash from lightning, Iruka rubbed his eyes then sprung up in a panic. He swore he saw shinobi leap off the cliffs across from them and hesitantly stepped out from the cover of the ledge. Without a second thought, he aimed a kunai in the general direction where he saw them and threw it as hard he could. If someone was there, Iruka wanted them to know that he was aware of their presence. In all reality, he wasn't sure if his weapon made over the ravine.
.
.
Two masked ANBU made no movement when a kunai fell a few feet in front of them.
"They'll make it tomorrow and finish a day early." The voice spoke behind a cat mask.
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"The white haired one doesn't seem to care much for his squad."
"Well, the cliff thing is debatable."
"You can't see it yet." Kakashi's eyes were trained on the dot that was Mizuki asleep. "He has no concern for their survival. Only his own."
"How can you be so sure, senpai? They've already gotten this far." Tenzo tried to understand, but as far as he could tell they were a good team.
"If you don't see it, you haven't learned much."
Tenzo pulled a face behind the mask. "Should we be worried they saw us?"
"Umino won't chalk it up past another team being here. Besides, they need to stay on edge."
Contrary to what the Mist jounin stated, there was a default plan of safety for all Hidden Leaf genin. The Third Hokage opted for sending in ANBU to observe the Konohagakure teams; they could not interfere until a shinobi was on the brink of death or called out a forfeit, but it was better than any alternat. Hiruzen despised the Village Hidden in the Mist's blatant disregard for the life of young ninja, not when every village was already lacking strong fighters as it was.
Kakashi moved his gaze to Kotone. She undeniably improved in all areas of combat, and he was mildly fascinated by the attack she had used against the Mist genin. To him it looked like a form of medical ninjutsu, but it was too fluid. If a year ago she had any of the skills he'd seen today Kakashi may have had a harder time immediately ruling Kotone out for genin status.
He wondered if this jump in skill was why Minato had been so adamant about moving her up the ranks. Better yet, how could the Fourth have known she held such an untapped potential? Kakashi almost laughed. He didn't think she even understood how many resources went into her training, though he couldn't be cynical-she never seemed to take things for granted. It kind of pissed him off, but Kakashi couldn't bring himself to admit the feeling came from guilt of his own selfishness. Images of ditching training flashed through his head, all the times he left early or showed up late because he didn't want friends. The mission only.
He left Rin and Obito in the dust during his Chunin exams. Sure Kakashi was with them to make sure they didn't get him disqualified, but he did almost all of it on his own.
"Senpai?"
"Yeah?"
"You still smell like bird crap."
Kakashi mock glared, and while Tenzo couldn't see his face let out a small laugh at the older boy.
"That falcon tried to do a number." Tenzo snorted quietly.
"I should have let Pakkun eat him." Kakashi grumbled. Hayabusa had picked them out of the trees early on and decided to attack first, ask later. He and Kakashi butted heads, and when Kakashi used his summoning Hayabusa went ballistic. He started swearing up and down about dogs. Kakashi let a snarky comment drop about birds being dirty, and before Pakkun could warn him that Hayabusa took insults seriously, the ANBU found a glop of white bird poop on his arm.
Kakashi would have been impressed by Hayabusa's speed if it weren't for the crap dumped on him.
"He seemed… Very angry considering we're from the same village."
He wasn't going to bother explaining why the bird was so upset, but both were thinking about what the falcon had said.
"You nasty, disgusting, filthy mutt. You dare to show your face! And you, son of White Fang, yes that's right I know who you are; only one clan uses such simple summons. You are so incredibly lucky I do not have it in me to tear your or Pakkun's throat out. After all you have put Kotone through… I assume this is the Hokage's orders, but I want you as far away from her as possible. Especially you, Pakkun!"
Kakashi grimaced.
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I'm not in love with this, but I really want to get working on the next chapter so a necessary evil. And so many people have read this (or at least opened the page a few times haha) and to the people who have favorited/followed I'm so grateful holy crap? I love seeing that there's an audience to this! As usual, reviews are welcome!