Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

As the audience cheered and clapped, Itachi looked round at the other three remaining. There was him, Jun, Taro no Sunagakure and Tadashi no Amegakure. Who will I fight next? he wondered. I don'tparticularly want to face any of them – they're all very strong. Unbeknownst to him, the other three were thinking the same thing.

Chapter 14 – Sisters' Squads

They had all been forced to acknowledge the other three's skills in the previous matches. As before, when they were finally dismissed Itachi headed straight to the infirmary. As he entered, he saw Hotaru sitting in the waiting room.

"They wouldn't let me watch," she said sullenly. "Who's through to the next round of fighting?" Itachi grinned (a grin that four years ago would have sent the kunoichi swooning) before answering.

"Me, Jun, Taro and Tadashi."

Hotaru gave an almost fangirlish squeal of delight.

"I knew you'd make it! After all, you are the strongest Chuunin who took the exam this time around," she said. Tadashi strolled towards them.

"Everyone has such a high opinion of your abilities, Uchiha," he drawled. "I won't deny that you are good, but I know better. In Amegakure, I am classed as good but my teammates aren't. Koushi was a push over, really."

Itachi nodded.

"Not very clever, either," he said. "I know that Ame ninja are supposed to be unparalleled in their genjutsu, but we're not too shabby here in Konoha."

Tadashi grinned.

"If you've got the impression that you can beat me if we fight, you are wrong," he said. "You haven't seen half of what I can do."

"Likewise," Itachi said. "As I'm sure you've realised, I've been holding back like anyone else with any brains."

Hotaru watched the two, following their conversation carefully. Finally, she stepped in.

"I may not know your abilities, but I know Ita-kun's. You must be really good if you think that you have a hope against him."

"Hotaru's right," Suigetsu said, appearing and putting an arm around his daughter's shoulders. Tadashi looked at him.

"You are Hōzuki Suigetsu of the 'Sound Squad', am I right?" he said. The water ninja nodded.

"So you know me. Itachi is stronger than me – think about that," he said. Tadashi shrugged.

"I probably am, too," he said. "You probably wouldn't stand a chance against me if we had to fight."

Suigetsu shrugged.

"Someone has a high opinion of his abilities," he commented. "Don't let your head swell too much. I've seen what happens to ninja who overestimate or place too much faith in their abilities. That's where Itachi here surpasses you. He hates to hear people talk about him as though he's the best-"

"That's because I'm not," Itachi interrupted. "My father is stronger than I am, and so is my uncle."

Suigetsu snorted.

"See what I mean?" he asked the young Ame ninja, who looked at him disdainfully.

"I couldn't care less how he rates his abilities," he shrugged.

"So stop bothering him," Mikoto said, standing behind Tadashi. He jumped.

"How did you get there without me noticing?" he demanded. The kunoichi shrugged.

"I'm ANBU," she said. "Does that help?"

"You tell him, Mik," a kunoichi with long brown hair said. "Long time, no see, Itachi."

"Hana," he acknowledged. "Arisu, Taiki." He nodded at the other two members of the ANBU squad. Taiki merely nodded back, his black and red streaked hair moving with his head. Arisu, on the other hand, reacted slightly differently. She yawned and fingered her mask before looking at him.

"Nice to see you, too," she said. "Now why don't you kick this guy back to his village right now?" Her wavy, dark hair moved in the slight breeze.

"That wouldn't be right," Hana said. "Then he wouldn't be able to do it in front of an audience. That'd be no fun."

"I thought that Arisu was supposed to be the one with a twisted sense of humour," Tani said, walking up to her brother with her squad mates in tow. The bright blonde girl grinned at Itachi. Tadashi looked taken aback as another head emerged from the young kunoichi's neck.

"Good luck," it said. "Looking at those other guys, you're going to need all the luck you can get."

"Good luck," the blonde kunoichi said, echoing the head that was stuck out of her neck.

"Thanks Wana, Yuri," Itachi said. The two grinned at Tadashi, sensing his confusion.

"We're sisters," the head said. "I'm the older one, but my sister, Yuri, is usually the main body." Tadashi looked no less confused.

"It's our kekkei genkai, Sumo no Ko," Yuri explained. "Wana shares my body." She said no more and Wana's head disappeared and re-emerged out the back of Yuri's neck, where she wasn't in the way.

"You'd think I'd be used to that," the shinobi on their squad said. "But I'm not yet. A few more years maybe." He looked at his older sister, Hotaru, and sighed. "That was soooo embarrassing, the way you got beat like that," he told her.

"Shut it, Surin," she countered. "Or I'll shut your mouth for you." Her brother blanched and faded into the background. Suigetsu quietly tutted at his daughter for being mean to her brother.

"Let's go," Itachi heard Hana mutter to Arisu and Taiki. "Let the family have a little chat." They nodded and left, placing their masks on their faces. Mikoto fingered her wolf mask as she glared at the Ame ninja, who hurriedly departed too.

"He's bad news," she told Itachi as soon as Tadashi was out of earshot. "That jutsu he uses: that's no ordinary technique – it's extremely dangerous. I don't know exactly what it does, but it seems to reflect jutsus back on the castor so that they take the damage, not him." Itachi nodded. There was a 'poof' and Yuri and her sister disappeared. They were soon followed by Hotaru, Surin and Suigetsu.

"Nervous?" Mikoto asked. Itachi nodded. "Good. It would be a bad thing if you weren't," she told him. He nodded in understanding. "Go sit down somewhere," she added, seeing how pale her brother was. "Your Chakra levels are rather low." Itachi nodded and walked off.

"Will he be alright?" Tani asked her sister as they watched their brother walk off. Mikoto nodded.

"He's strong. If anyone can manage this, he can," she assured her little sister – and herself.

Meanwhile, Itachi had walked into a room to find somewhere to sit down when he froze, realising that he wasn't the only one in there. He'd just walked in on Hana and Taiki kissing. As soon as they noticed his presence, they broke apart, blushing furiously.

"Are you two going out?" he asked innocently. They glared at him

"Tell anyone and you die," Hana threatened. Itachi gulped and nodded his understanding. They were ANBU – he didn't feel like having an argument with them. They put on their masks (Hana was the owl, Taiki the lion) as more footsteps were audible. Itachi slumped into a chair as Arisu entered, her bat mask obscuring her face.

"I thought we left you with Mik," she said to Itachi, who shrugged.

"She thought that I should have been sitting down so she sent me to rest," he explained. The young kunoichi shrugged and removed her mask. She was the youngest in the ANBU squad, being only sixteen while the others were eighteen, but no-one with any sense would oppose her right to be ANBU. Like Itachi himself, she was a prodigy, and therefore far more powerful than most people her age. Taking their cue from her, Hana and Taiki removed their masks. Hana was the daughter of Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, so she was obviously strong – she even had the Sharingan in her left eye, even though she wasn't related in any way to the Uchiha Clan. Taiki was, admittedly, weaker than his teammates, but talented nonetheless. There were more footsteps and Mikoto appeared.

"Good, you're sitting down," she said. "Unfortunately, you only have about five minutes until you have to be ready to fight again. Thank Kami you recover quickly!" Itachi sighed.

"You fuss too much," he said. "I can look after myself." The four ANBUs burst out laughing.

"'I can look after myself', eh?" Arisu said wickedly. "I doubt it. Mik pampers you and you know it." She laughed again.

Why does she have such a twisted sense of humour? Itachi wondered despairingly. He could answer that though. He knew what a tough childhood she had had. Like Hisuke and Yorusuke, she hadn't been born in Konoha. She came from Kiri, where those with a kekkei genkai were despised and feared. Not long before they had become ANBU, Mikoto and her teammates had been on a mission when they had stumbled across a fight where one teenager was being attacked by many Kiri shinobi. They had stepped in and saved her, bringing her back to Konoha. Naruto, as the Hokage, had accepted her into the village where she joined the squad that had brought her salvation.

"Spacing out again?" Arisu asked scornfully. "It's time you went back to the arena." Itachi stood, pleased that he was steadier on his feet than he had been earlier. In silence, they walked back to where Shino and the three other competitors were waiting.

"What took you so long?" Tadashi asked scornfully, clearly over the shock that Yuri and Wana had given him.

"Feel like the rules are beneath you because you're an Uchiha?" Taro taunted. Mikoto glared at them, but Itachi took no notice of their jibes. Jun seemed oblivious to the insults being hurled at his fellow Konoha shinobi. In a bad mood, Mikoto stomped back to the stands with her teammates.

Thanks for reading!

Tsari