Phew – next chapter; this was harsh.
Everyone who thinks Tsume is a bad mom: I actually think she's taking care of Kiba the best she can. In wolf packs females are the most aggressive (supported by canon Kiba saying his mom scared his dad away) and Hana is her heir, so Kiba is basically free game for the rest of the clan. He'll be either mediocre and ignored for the rest of his life, or he'll be great and they'll try to use him. She's setting him up for something she thinks he would want: the freedom only a small clan can offer and the possibility to be great. And if there's someone who lives and breathes 'I wanna be great', it's Kiba.
Kiba is a real pest.
Naruto has, in true Uzumaki-fashion, adopted the mutt as soon as it became clear that they were of equal mind. Much to everyone else's annoyance, they were also of equal voice box. This has resulted in a slightly surprising partnership between Sasuke and Sakura – surprising, because it's uncharacteristically serious and professional in nature, and also: Sasuke – born from simple self defense.
In about three weeks, Kiba has therefore half completed and half destroyed all of Hisana's carefully laid plans.
Team Sakura-Sasuke: complete.
Team Sakura-Sasuke-Naruto: not so much.
"Say," she asks the boy, headache rapidly approaching, "do you enjoy tormenting me?"
"Tor-what?"
"Forget it."
While incredibly disruptive, Kiba's continued presence is a surefire sign that the Inuzuka more or less consider their objective complete and have turned their attention elsewhere.
Now she only needs to be rid of him, without looking as if she were rid of him.
One of the now semi-regular scuffles between Kiba and Naruto give her just the right idea.
"What about a tournament?"
The mention of any sort of competition silences the boys immediately. Sakura tugs at her.
"I don't think this is a good idea, Nee-san …"
"Shh, I know what I'm doing."
More or less.
"A tournament?" Kiba scratches his head. "Everyone against everyone?"
"No. I want you to go talk to you classmates and pick teams. Then I'll give you three weeks to train like you life depends on it and afterwards the teams compete against each other."
He makes a face.
"But a real ninja always fights alone!"
Surprisingly it's Naruto who contradicts him first.
"Nuh Uh. There are tons of teams around. Genma-baka had a team. And the old man trained a team too!"
Kiba seems genuinely impressed.
"Then I'll have the best team ever! You'll see, we will wipe the floor with you."
He runs off without a further word. Immensely self-satisfied Hisana turns towards Sakura.
"Will you ever doubt me again?"
"Not when it comes to handling idiots, Nee-san."
The next day Sasuke reports the enthusiastic agreement of their classmates. It's really rather exciting, Hisana thinks. This will give her the opportunity to have a look at all the Rookie 9, without actually having to interact with them. There is a little bit of fangirl left in her, after all.
They don't see Kiba for two weeks after that. He doesn't even check in with them to taunt Naruto; apparently he's taking this very seriously. Team 7 also seems invested. Team dinner falls flat several days a week now, because they'd rather spend the time on teamwork exercises and strength training. She's known Naruto to be a hard worker if he needs to, but she expected the other two to be much calmer about this. Upon questioning them though, the answers to this little mystery seem obvious in hindsight.
"I want to show Ino-pig how good I've gotten! She'll be fuming!"
"They're idiots, but they're mine. That means they have to be better than the other idiots."
Well, a gift horse and all that.
Genma at least, seems appreciative.
"This is great," he gushes, "so great! They'll win, I'm so proud."
"You haven't done a darn thing."
"Well, no, but if they kill it, I'll rake in the credit anyway. My superiors won't care."
At least she can count on Genma to support her in this. She's half worried a teacher might get behind her – possibly – half-illegal tournament plans and puts a stop to it.
But another two weeks later nobody has tried to get her into trouble.
Genma has reserved an entire training ground. There are kids milling about and, oh sheesh, parents.
None of them look angry, more excited. Genma is flitting back and forth between them. While this calms her down a bit, her heart immediately shoots back up into her throat at the sight of Ito-sensei doing the same.
"S-sensei!"
She curses the nervous stutter and plasters a bland smile onto her face.
"Hisana-chan, hello."
Ito-sensei rights her glasses and puts a hand on Hisana's shoulder. It squeezes uncomfortably tightly.
"Hisana-chan, would you be so good and explain to me, in detail, why I had to find out about this from Genma?"
"It was … an impromptu affair."
"Three weeks ago it might have been an impromptu affair."
Yes … sensei's full attention is not something she usually thrives for. She very suddenly remembers why.
"It was actually just supposed to be a small thing."
"You were trying to keep Kiba-kun busy, I've heard."
Hisana's head snaps up.
"How?"
"I am acquaintened with Inuzuka Tsume; Kiba-kun's sudden interest in you and Sasuke-kun has her name written all over it. And once I mentioned a few keywords, Genma folded like a house of cards."
That traitor. She takes a deep breath. Sensei still doesn't seem angry, though she's starting to think that doesn't mean a thing. So she does the only thing she can do.
"Am I in trouble?"
There is a lengthy pause, in which Ito-sensei watches the excited children, and Hisana's pulse shoots through the roof. Genma is now ushering three-man groups into different corners in what looks like make shift battle arenas.
"No. This might actually be good for them. At this age we don't put much emphasis on teamwork yet. I think that's a major fallacy in our curriculum."
She turns back towards Hisana.
"I am, however, disappointed with you naivety. Did you really think a whole class could participate in this without any of us hearing of it? And without any medics or parents present?"
In hindsight, this may have been a little stupid. Team 7 flounces towards them, decked out in full battle gear. They are covered, head to toe, in dark, sturdy clothes; all of them are wearing masks to cover their mouths and noses. She really wishes Kakashi were here to see this.
"What in all the world are you wearing?"
Sakura gives her a reproachful look.
"Nee-san, don't you always talk about proper skin coverage in battle? And didn't you also say 'all battles are serious battles'?"
She does remember saying something like this to Naruto, after he goofed off repeatedly against Sakura. Who in turn broke his nose twice. If he weren't the Kyuubi vessel, she would have had to drag him to the hospital.
"But … the masks?"
Naruto excitedly beckons her closer.
"Pepper bombs," he whispers into her ear and bursts into giggles. Oh yes, he's planning to humiliate Kiba. Next to her, Ito-sensei is inconspicuously covering her mouth. Her face is calm, but her shoulders are trembling with hilarity. Then her hand vanishes and she's entirely composed again.
"As I see it, the tournament is about to start. I will leave you to your team meeting."
Indeed, Genma whistles through his teeth and everyone snaps to attention.
"Listen up, brats: We're going to draw the match up out of a hat now. You better listen closely, because I'm not going to repeat myself. If you miss your turn, you're out."
Team 7 is in this case named team 2 and first up against team 1.
Team 1 is an interesting one, at least from Hisana's point of view. The kids are all super excited, of course and not very concerned with whom they are actually fighting. For a moment she wonders whether or not she should warn them.
She decides against it. This is a learning experience and, if necessary, she can lecture them after they've lost.
She's rather sure though, that at least Sakura has already realized the implications of facing Hyuuga Hinata. Said girl is looking slightly green around the gills at the prospect of fighting Naruto. Hisana has no doubt that, at this point, she could easily beat him. But she doesn't seem to be in the right mindset for it, so one of the others will probably take on the blond.
She doesn't know what would be more fun to watch: a fight between Hinata and Sasuke or the Hyuuga girl and Sakura? Sasuke is arrogant; he won't take her seriously if she uses the Academy style. If Hinata is proficient with the Juuken, though, he will have to. But then it might be already too late.
Sakura's taijutsu is not yet very sophisticated, but the force is devastating. She's nowhere close to punching holes into the ground – Hisana doubts anyone but Tsunade can teach her that – but she's fierce and her anger is terrifying. She's also shrewder than Hinata.
One thing Hisana didn't factor into the initial plan, is that little Academy students, if left to their own devices, would inevitably form teams with their friends, rather than balanced ones. As far as she remembers, Hinata was supposed to have always been very shy with few friends.
Therefore her teammates are two wimpy looking girls, one blonde, one red-headed, who were probably left over and banded together out of sheer necessity.
Looking over the rest of the teams, she can make out the classical Ino-Shika-Cho set up, Ami and her strange looking friends, and who she assumes to be Aburame Shino, far apart from what must be his teammates.
"Cousin Shino was very excited," a voice says behind her, and Hisana very nearly jumps out of her skin.
"Shizuha. I never heard you coming."
The girl gives a slight, half-embarrassed shrug.
"I have been practicing my stalk."
She turns back into Shino's direction, and Hisana can make out her brows furrowing.
"They asked him to be on their team. He was very pleased. But when they found out that he cannot actually do any of the clan techniques yet, they became angry."
"What do you mean, he can't?"
There's a beat of silence.
"Go get ready," she tells her team. "I don't want to see you lose the first fight."
"What?! BUT NEE-CHAN –"
Sasuke looks back and forth between them, but then nods. He cuts off Naruto mid-rant by grabbing him by the collar and dragging him away.
"Wish us luck, Nee-san," Sakura chirps.
They prance off, completely ignoring the aghast looks of parents following them.
Shizuha fidgets, which is uncharacteristic.
"It is … not something we tell outsiders. I should not have said anything."
Hisana considers that for a moment. It's true, that she doesn't feel much attachment to the Uchiha's clan secrets. She won't go blurting out the intricacies of the Sharingan anytime soon, though, so she does understand. The kikai are probably a sensitive subject no matter how you look at it.
"Ok," she finally says.
They watch Genma shut up the cheering parents and direct Ito-sensei and even Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei to oversee several fights going on at once.
"It is his ninth birthday next month," Shizuha finally offers quietly. "That is an important age for us."
"We missed your ninth birthday."
"By a little," she agrees.
"We can get cake after this," Hisana decides. "Let's get closer to the fight first."
She grabs the girl by the wrist and drags her towards the team 7 match.
They pass Shiki, who is so furiously whispering to the Ino-Shika-Cho team, that she doesn't even see them. Hisana tugs at her ponytail and they vanish into the crowd before the girl has time to turn around.
It turns out that Hisana didn't need to worry. The whole of team 7 looks pumped for the fight. Even Naruto watches all of the girls with calculating eyes. It looks strange on his sunny, chubby face and maybe a little chilling.
"They seem very determined," Shizuha comments.
"They better be. If they embarrass themselves, we'll never be rid of Kiba."
Shizuha stares at her and Hisana belatedly realizes, that this leap of logic must seem rather outlandish to her.
"It's … a long story."
Genma whistles and on the field chaos breaks out. She's proud to say, her team is not part of it. Neither is Hinata. The two other girls, who'll she bet belong to the cheering civilian women across from her, run forward with break-neck speed. While fast, their eyes are entirely focused on Sasuke, who they're probably deeming the most dangerous of the three. If they had paid a little attention to their surroundings, they would realize that Naruto has vanished. It's a low-level genjutsu that only holds for a few second, but it's enough. A second later he reappears behind Hinata, whom he rightfully deems the most dangerous one.
The girl squawks and blocks his hit on sheer instinct. She doesn't seem to have realized yet, whom exactly she's defending against, which is why she lands a harsh blow against Naruto's sternum. He's catapulted across the field.
Only Sakura's quick reflexes save him from being thrown right out of the arena and therefore disqualification. She catches the shorter boy around the middle and throws him towards Sasuke, who looks deeply unhappy defending against the girls by himself. As soon as Naruto's out of the way, she takes his place against Hinata.
"Oy teme, need help?"
Sasuke's answer are two hits against blondie's kidneys and a vicious stomp into the red-head's instep. The girls drop like stones; one unconscious, the other howling.
"No."
They both stalk towards where Sakura and Hinata are trading blows. Hinata has activated her Byakugan; Sakura's right arm is dangling uselessly. She weaves through the Juuken admirably though. The fight ends abruptly when Sasuke's arm shoots out, impatient with the fight, to grab Hinata's neck. She startles and Sakura lands a left hook into her stomach.
The girl wheezes and faints.
Genma's whistle officially ends the match.
"Victor: team 2."
He throws the girls over his shoulders and carries them off, out of the marked off arena.
There's some commotion as their parents fuss over them and curse at Genma about the 'much too violent match – don't you have a doctor or something?!'. He tells them, yet again, to shut up.
"If they can't take a simple knock out, maybe they should rethink their careers. Nothing's broken or even bruised. They'll be fine."
He looks around for a Hyuuga adult; when he finds none, he puts the girl down in front of Hisana.
"Just wait until she wakes up."
Hisana fights off the initial onset of 'nonono' and nods. The team is currently being mobbed by Sasuke's adoring fangirls.
Next to them Hinata stirs. It takes a moment until her eyes clear of the post-knock-out haze. The moment she recognizes them, what little colour has returned to her face drains again immediately.
"E-e-ehh … Uchiha-san …?"
"Three against one were impossible odds," Hisana finally says. "Well done."
Hinata squawks out something unintelligible, bows hastily and runs.
"Nice girl," Shizuha remarks. "Very nice girl."