Kotone had felt sick the moment Iruka stepped into the one-on-one arena. Per her feelings, she could only clench her jaw as both he and Osamu Takashi were removed from the arena unconscious. Even coming from the oldest squad in the Hidden Mist, at age eleven, Osamu stood a few inches shorter than Iruka, but the fight was more intense expected. Osamu's squad was the only who knew what they were doing.
While the other teams had their sensei standing behind them, offering reassurance and protection of sorts from the jeering crowds, Team 6 of Konoha was alone. Kotone briefly looked up at where the Kage sat and Hiruzen gave the slightest nod. He had seen the double blow that took out Iruka and Osamu, he was watching them, he was watching her. For that brief second, the look in the Hokage's eyes demanded her best and heaven forbid if she did anything less.
"The next match between Kotone Matsushita of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and Nobu Akiyama of the Village Hidden in the Mist is to begin. Competitors make your way down."
The boy, also of Osamu's team, smirked. "Get ready for a beating, Leaf bitch."
"Bastard." She seethed back, her anxiety quickly fueling into hatred. Why was she worried? These people were inhuman, malicious beings who only sought to destroy whatever was in their way with no consideration to others; these people killed her mother.
"As the rules of Chunin Exams state, fight with intention to kill. If I wish to step in at any time I may. The round ends when one competitor is unable to fight or is killed."
Kotone almost laughed. The Hidden Mist proctors had yet to step in once during any round, instead sensei jumped down calling their student unfit to continue. They were lucky that Iruka's partner passed out at the same time as him.
"You may begin."
Kotone hesitated her step by a second after feeling something prick the back of her leg, and took the blow from Nobu to her stomach. With a heavy wheeze she was thrown back, but made struggled to move faster. Her actions were noticeably sluggish as the audience screamed of a letdown fight. She took a kunai to her cheek, shuriken raked across her thigh tearing the fabric and skin.
Her lip twitched in a sneer. She refused to lose like this.
Nobu grinned. "Not so fierce now. Do all of you Leaf suck this badly?"
Above the Hidden Leaf section of the stands, Tenzo and Kakashi stood poised watching the match.
"She was good, what happened?"
"Quiet, Cat." Kakashi snapped using his partner's codename.
Kakashi squinted at Kotone unsatisfied with what his eye alone could see and discreetly let his Sharingan fill in the blanks. He followed her eyes, every twitch of her body was in slow motion, broken down. A disgruntled 'hmph' escaped his lips, the muscles in her right legs were spasming.
It seemed for minutes (hours to Kotone) that she took each blow without grace, but when she finally caught her breath, Nobu couldn't get away fast enough.
Somewhere between arriving at the arena and seeing Iruka carried away practically lifeless, all feeling vanished from Kotone. She didn't care about the promotion to chunin or her parents, and while Iruka's injury added to her rage, it was far removed from her mind. Every shout from shinobi not hailing from the Leaf caused her blood to heat up. If they wanted a match, they would have one.
Kotone met Nobu head on, each slash of her knife concise, blocking and taking an aggressive offensive to Nobu's previously cocky attacks.
"Trying to corner me? Nice try." Nobu growled dodging Kotone and breaking for the center of the arena. She gasped feeling shuriken sink into her back.
"What... the hell…" Kotone spun around to a second Nobu and then dropped to the ground as more weapons came at her face.
"I made a clone when you went down earlier." Nobu grinned, but it was forced. Kotone's surge of energy worried him, she should have passed out long before now.
Most shinobi failed to realize the power hatred carried into war and Nobu didn't count on her anger surpassing his own.
Another shuriken hit her upper arm. Kotone let out flurry of curses. She could've dodged that one at the least, but instead she was bleeding more. A lot more. As her sight blurred, she could only sense his approaching attack and futilely tried to avoid another serious injury; still the hit sent Kotone forward, blood spewing from her mouth.
She wanted to get a sense of whether his attacks were coming from speed or power, but really that was an excuse she gave herself to explain her inability to move quicker. Surely exhaustion shouldn't have taken its toll so early on. Kotone put herself at eight minutes before she was done for. If she could stand back up and finish it right, she'd only need five.
"Hm, you still look weak to me." Nobu gave a bloody grin and spit near her head. "I was told by one of our jounin, life is only fair to people who survive and you know? I think your luck's running out."
The words pounded in her head. Nobu gaped when Kotone threw up then immediately got to her feet.
She snarled grabbing his arm and flipping him. "Who the hell said that! I want a name!"
Nobu vanished into a small puddle of water.
"Where are you!?" Kotone kicked the dirt where the clone was. "Damn it! Summoning jutsu!"
Everyone heard Hayabusa before they saw him, his screech causing all but Kotone to cover their ears with pained groans. The sound, however, was Nobu's mistake as Hayabusa dragged him out from behind a rock. The boy screamed slashing at Hayabusa's feet drawing blood, but the falcon pushed through.
Kotone took the distraction to get into position: her feet were shoulder width apart, both hands' fingers were tightly together, but open palmed. She willed chakra out of her fingertips in nearly invisible needle shapes.
Shiro's lesson replayed in Kotone's mind.
"You don't have Byakugan like I do, so you will never be able to locate an exact point on an opponent to disable them, but your chakra control… Hit with them about an inch above each forearm, you'll temporarily block the flow of chakra, for three minutes at best. It'll work long enough to come up with a counter."
From the stands, anyone with any knowledge of the Hyuuga shot to their feet. One Hidetsugu Hyuuga's nostrils flared at the sight before him. He activated Byakugan in indignant disbelief as Kotone charged toward Nobu at a speed someone bleeding like that shouldn't have been able to run. Hidetsugu noticed right away she missed the actual concentration of chakra nerves, but it was definitely an intentional aim to stop it from reaching his hands. He nearly spat nails at the deceased member of his clan. Shiro had dared to teach one his students something resembling Gentle Fist. Even worse than that, she executed it well.
Hidetsugu looked up to the Hokage with narrowed eyes and then across the stadium where Mist shinobi watched Kotone with vehement interest. What had Shiro been thinking? The enemy was obsessed with stealing Byakugan, and he practically handed them a girl with the same level of chakra control without Hyuuga protection. Even the Sand shinobi's eyes were glued to her.
At Nobu's loss of ninjutsu, Hayabusa disappeared and Kotone swung her fist. The boy crumpled. He froze stunned by the incapacitation, and Kotone wasn't letting up.
"Give… me the name…!" She hissed.
"Fuck off…"
Kakashi grimaced (something he felt he did a lot of these days) behind the mask and it deepened hearing a pitiful shout from the sidelines. Iruka appeared with crutches next to Mizuki, horror plastered on his face.
"Mizuki! Get down there and stop this! Something isn't right!" Iruka pleaded, but their teammate shook his head solemnly.
"We'll be disqualified."
As she leaned away to throw up blood again, Nobu pulled out his last kunai and shoved into the right side of her chest. Mizuki held Iruka back as he screamed. "KOTONE."
Both competitors fell back, yet Nobu who the one who managed to shakily stand and yank the weapon from her chest triumphantly.
Kotone's body trembled, a cold sweat taking over. She kicked with the last of her strength as hard as she could; the crunch of his kneecap breaking and his cry was enough to let her eyelids grow heavy. Nobu fingers wrapped around her throat while he seethed. "This is for my village during the war."
Kakashi reacted faster than he could process what was happening. Someone from audience had senbon needles aiming at Kotone. His own senbon knocked both the enemy weapon out the air and Nobu's hand away.
His voice was harsh as he moved in front of Kotone. "This match is over."
The boy practically crawled away.
"Nobu Akiyama is the winner." The proctor declared. The crowd erupted into roars.
Kakashi turned his attention to the senbon on the ground. The enemy just threw three, he threw three, but there were two more where the fight started. He picked it up with a cloth and put it in his pocket before finally pressing his hands against Kotone's chest with hard pressure. Her body became dead weight in his arms.
"Shit… Come on." Kakashi murmured. "Dying here isn't okay."
Eyes furrowed, he looked to the stands; the Mizukage was speaking a med nin. The Third Hokage was on his feet with a steely glare toward the Mist Kage as he spoke to other Leaf ANBU. Kakashi had seen plenty of shinobi bleed out, but not at a chunin exam due to slow medical response.
If he was right, and he was nearly positive he was, then Kotone had been poisoned from the start. That added to her current injuries was asking for something bad.
The stretcher came; Kakashi caught a glimpse of vials poking out of her pouch as Kotone was hoisted up. He couldn't figure out why she had medicine on her, or what purpose it was supposed to serve in a battle. Decidedly, it wasn't his place to pry, not yet, anyway.
"Dog." Tenzo spoke behind the older ANBU. "Lord Hokage wishes us to report to him immediately. And then Lord Danzo would like a briefing as well."
"Right."
.
.
"Is this a joke?" Kotone stared Hiruzen and Danzo with wide eyes. She had been in the Village Hidden in the Mist's ICU for three days, this was her first one conscious and then they dropped the news.
The Hokage gave a mildly amused smile at her informality, but sensed Danzo's disdain for the girl.
"No to both Kotone." Hiruzen replied. "You displayed incredible talent despite having been poisoned before your fight. I strongly believe had that not occurred that you would have only impressed the council more."
"Forgive me, Lord Hokage, Lord Danzo, but I'm not anything special… I mean… I would've passed out either way." She normally wasn't one to point out her own flaws to a superior, but the words continued to tumble. "And I'm just now being given chunin status, not jounin, so joining ANBU-"
"You aren't necessarily joining ANBU." Danzo clarified, wishing he had gotten his hands on Kotone earlier. He wouldn't lie; he passed over her file many times when recruiting because of her illness, but he also hadn't been aware she held... potential for another great Konohagakure clan's talent. That word, potential. It was what the Hokage had said when asked about Kotone's use of the Gentle Fist. Unfortunately, Danzo wasn't given the chance to overhear the conversation between Hidetsugu and Hiruzen, but it was apparent whatever the Hokage had said failed to appease the Hyuuga clan leader.
"Then I don't understand."
"You possess multiple skills that we've deemed essential for reconnaissance missions. If you agree, you will undergo an altered training format so that you may join a scouting team we are preparing to send into the Land of Lightning. If you would like, we can call it a trial run for ANBU, see how your condition fairs under those conditions, but more honestly," Danzo gave her a critical once over, "this will be a one-time thing."
He couldn't let Hiruzen know that he fully intended on keeping Kotone for ANBU; Kotone wasn't wrong, as of now, she was nothing special beyond some loose chakra control training, but Danzo Shimura would push her past her limits. He would make her into a prodigy.
She squinted curiously. "Reconnaissance?"
"I cannot tell you more unless you agree."
Hiruzen placed a hand on her shoulder. "You may take the rest of the day to think about. We have guards stationed outside your room in case whoever attempted the attack returns."
"Thank you." She bowed her head from her sitting position.
The men left and quickly taking their place were Iruka and Mizuki. Like every instance something serious happened, no one seemed to speak for a long time. Kotone wanted to shrink under Mizuki's glare, Iruka's look of hurt.
She wished she wasn't bed ridden because running away seemed like a solid option.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Iruka broke the silence, taking a step forward. When she didn't respond, he curled his hands. "Why didn't you tell us, Kotone! You could've died!"
"Tell you what." She muttered.
"You never play dumb, that's what we do." Mizuki was curt. "So why didn't you tell us you had hemophilia?"
"I didn't want you guys to think I was weak."
"Weak? You've always been the strongest out of the three of us, how could we think you're weak?"
"Or that I needed extra protection. Every little injury would have you freaking out over me when that kind of thing gets you killed."
"And hesitating during a fight doesn't?" Iruka asked. "Don't think I've never noticed, every mission we've been on, when we have to fight, you're the best but you seemed nervous at first. If you're scared of bleeding out why do it?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"I said I don't know. I thought… I don't know what I thought, I really don't."
Kotone's eyes watered. How could she possibly know why? The answer she wanted to give was ever changing, always hypocritical. Her Achilles heel: uncertainty, indecisiveness. The events of the last year left Kotone with no amount of stronger resolve or better understanding, and more than ever she felt completely and totally lost.
Suddenly, Danzo's proposal offered Kotone an escape from it all. Time to figure out everything.
"When we get back to the village and I'm healed, I'm being sent on a co-op mission with jounin." She felt her shoulders fall. Better to lie than let them know it was with ANBU, they'd worry less.
"Jounin? They made you a chunin?" Mizuki raised his brows.
"Yeah."
The white haired boy forced a smile. "Wow that's great! See, why were you worried, I told you that you were the best of us."
"I'll be gone for a while."
"How long?"
"Three months, I think."
Iruka moved forward and set his crutches down before gently wrapping his arms around her. "Kotone, swear you won't hide something like that again."
"...Iruka?"
His voice grew raspy. "I… you and Mizuki are my only family. I don't know what I'd do if one of you guys disappeared forever."
Her fingers curled against him and Mizuki joined in.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. That sentiment was true, she didn't want to drag others down.
Iruka grinned. "Well, Mizuki, ya owe me ten bucks. She got promoted."
Mizuki rolled his eyes with a smile. "Yeah, guess you're right."
"You idiots placed bets on me?"
A second of silence and then giggles erupted from the trio, immediately followed by wincing which only made them smile again.
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Oh man, I'm so excited to write the next couple of chapters. I hope you guys are enjoying all of this so far! Thanks so much for reading