Title: Rin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warning: Unbeta and horrible grammar. Language.

Chapter 30

It was an internal type of exam. Thus only we Konoha ninjas were involved in this exam. Due to the shinobi war previous years, the hidden villages were still vary among it.

Chouma's experience from his previous chuunin exam really did help us a lot. We managed to pass the first stage easily which was a disguising paper test and the second stage was a real challenge but we made it till the end. We were supposed to find a scroll inside the forest of death and surprisingly, Chouma frowned about the changes. Last time he took the exam, they had to fight among other teams to obtain certain goods and they need to collect three set of it. The venue was still same but the test was different.

Apparently we still had to fight for the scrolls since it was limited and only half of the teams were going to pass the second stage. Our team had crossed path with Haru's team at one place where a scroll hidden and like her brother, that Hyuuga girl was strong! We lost to her team and managed to win from another team which its members were arguing among themselves. It was pretty stupid to watch them and Iruka simply web them into his traps thus the scroll was ours. It wasn't a cake walk to the tower since we had to fight few teams and protecting our scroll.

It was good thing that we had been practicing before the exam.

Iruka and Chouma grinned at me as we reached the tower. I grinned back to the boys.

"Hey you're Umino Iruka huh?"

We stopped from our walk inside the tower and looked at the direction where someone had called the brunet. My eyes widened slightly as we met with the same team that Iruka had trapped earlier. Chouma and I changed our gaze as Iruka stepped forward.

"Yes, that's me."

"Well, I'm Hagane Kotetsu and that's my best friend Kamizuki Izumo," Kotetsu who had spiky black hair grinned.

"Your trap is pretty impressive," Izumo said and shrugged. "We reached the tower but sadly both of us are going to drop ourselves here. Only Maira is going to enter the final stage."

"Huh, why?" I asked.

Kotetsu sighed and pulled up one of his trouser leg. There was thick bandage with hint of blood around was covering his right calf. "I couldn't fight normally with this injury. Don't worry isn't from your trap Umino-san."

"Mm, Iruka is just fine. What about you Kamizuki-san? You look pretty fine." Iruka asked and we all focusing at him.

Izumo laughed. "Just call me Izumo and him Kotetsu you guys; we are around similar age range even though we aren't in the same year of graduation."

"Um okay," I said slowly and stared at him. "So?"

"Ah, I just don't want to leave Kotetsu behind. We're going to be chuunin together. There are always next time."

"Wow what a deep friendship," Chouma said and smiled.

"Yeah." I nodded.

After exchanging some opinions and tips, we decided to go our way. Silently Izumo called my name and I stopped.

"Yes?" I blinked.

Izumo took his time to spoke out his question. "You and Iruka are good friends, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we are a good friend." Right? I added in my mind.

He grinned. "Good luck."

"Um, thanks." I smiled and wondered. Why he asked that?

Inoichi-sensei greeted us with a warm smile and simply patted our shoulder or in my case, he patted my head. I frowned a bit but he simply ignored it.

There were four teams passing the second stage but with Izumo and Kotetsu withdrawing, there were only ten genins. The third stage or the final stage of the chuunin exam was a combat battle and it wasn't a team match anymore. It was a single match and the contestants were picked randomly. It wasn't a tournament type thus we only had one single match and the overall result was accumulated from each stage. The hokage had come and gave speech about the village, importance of teamwork, the exam and finally gave us a good luck wish. I turned around and looked at Iruka.

"Hey, this is it."

"Yeah," Iruka said excitedly.

My eyes then caught Haru. We exchanged our smile and then we followed Inoichi-sensei to upper part around the battle floor.

The final stage of the exam started with Maira from Izumo and Kotetsu team versus a raven haired boy named Suzuma from another team other than our and Haru.

I could hear Izumo's and Kotetsu's voices cheering for their team mate. Maira was a skillful fighter and healer. Her long wavy raven hair was in high ponytail matched with her pale skin. My mind instantly wandered at certain Uchiha who had similar complexion like Maira. Until the day of the exam I didn't tell anything to Itachi.

Actually we didn't meet properly after the night of my birthday. I stared at the floor and silently prayed for Itachi's safety out there. I shuddered slightly as I remembered his kiss on my cheek. For a chibi ninja, he was really brave to take that action. I sighed softly as I wondered what I was going to say the next time we meet. Groaning and felt my cheeks warming up, I shrugged. I felt three pairs of eyes were focusing at my sudden action which wasn't related with the event right now but, I ignored it. They didn't need to know about it. I wasn't even going to share it too.

"Now, I'm worried," Inoichi-sensei said as he was crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't like how randomly they are choosing the contestant."

"What do you mean sensei?" I asked as my gaze focusing at Haru and Chouma. It was the third battle after Maira won the first round and one of Haru's team mates won the second round. Aburame Shio was really something and his bugs, it was fascinating. I focused at the fight. It seemed that Haru was at disadvantage. Chouma had too much stamina and fighting experience from the missions since he was barely tired while Haru already panted heavily due to repeating motion of her kaiten for protecting herself from brutal attack from the Akimichi.

"There aren't too many contestants left, Rin," Iruka spoke softly.

Instantly I looked at the brunet. "I don't like the news," I said and looked at the floor before scanned the other contestant. Inuzuka Mizu from Haru's team and a brown haired girl from the team I didn't know who were their members but two of them had already lost from earlier fight. I looked at Iruka. "Somehow it is sounded like you and I are going to fight each other." I shook my head slowly. "I don't like it."

"Me too," Inoichi-sensei said stiffly. I looked at him and saw he was face palming and groaned softly.

I raised my eyebrows. "Sensei?"

"Let's go, Rin," Iruka said and walked to the stairs.

Slowly I looked at the battle floor and found Haru was being carried on the stretcher by the medic team. It seemed that she had fainted after too many defensive moves and became very tired from it. Chouma was announced as the winner. My eyes then darted to the screen and shuddered.

"Oh…"

On the screen it showed 'Umino Iruka vs Suzuhara Rin'

"Good luck both of you," Chouma said as he passed both of us.

I smiled and nodded as thanks to the chubby shinobi and followed Iruka to the floor.

The moderator came and confirmed our registration and arranged us in standard fighting range.

"Umino Iruka vs Suzuhara Rin begin!"

I pulled out a kunai and held it in front of me. Iruka did the same.

We both stood in defense position and eyed on each other warily.

"You and Iruka are good friends, aren't you?"

Izumo's question suddenly came to my mind.

How long it had been since I met him?

"Spiritual energy and physical energy worked together in order to create more chakra." A voice continued with mine making me looked up and turned to my left. There was a boy with ponytail where he leaned his head on the desk while his arms were nesting around his head. He looked drowsy.

I blinked. He had scar across his nose bridge and it was looking fairly new. "Um, hi?"

The boy grinned. "I'm Iruka. Umino Iruka."

How many pranks we had done together?

"Rin, this is jounin class apartment." Iruka spoke out his mind and looked at me with worry.

"Yes, I know. Aren't you excited Iruka?" I smirked evilly while rubbing my palms.

"Excited?" Iruka's eyes widened and he looked away in dismay. "Somehow I could see how I'm going to face my death day. We're going to prank a jounin? Oh kill me already."

The sadness we had faced.

My eyes stopped at smiling face of Kohari and stoic face of Ikkaku. They were good parents and loyal ninjas. I was so going to missed Kohari's food, her advices and Ikkaku's teaching on target practices and traps. I glanced at my side, Iruka was no longer sobbing and he was wiping his tears.

The happiness we had shared.

Without any thinking, I tied moderately my hitai ate around my neck, just making sure it wasn't dangling much. Iruka stared at my direction and grinned when our gaze clashed.

"You look nice with it there." Iruka spoke with a smile.

I touched my hitai with my fingers ate and smiled. "I'll keep it this way then."

The bond we had lost.

"No!" Both Iruka and I shouted together and we cried. Inoichi-sensei quickly placed his hands on Iruka's and mine shoulder. We stared at each other face.

Slowly Hanan opened his eyes and stared at the sky. "Wow…the sky is so beautiful…same with Konoha…I love it, its people…and team six…Rin…Iruka…please…tell Haru…do your best…and I'm sorry…for everything…"

Smiling briefly, I huffed. "So, this is it huh?"

Adding chakra around my legs, I dashed forward and threw the kunai in my hand to his direction. Iruka dodged it by minimally moved his upper body and dashed to me before attacking at my bare arm. Hastily I grabbed another kunai and blocked his attack and pushed him away. Jumping backwards for a few times, I performed hand signs for a fire jutsu. Taking a deep breath and focusing at my chakra, I felt a wave of hotness came up from my lungs. With composure, I released a large fire breath to the brunet.

Surprisingly Iruka blocked it using a barrier seal. Damn, he knew my moves too well.

Then I pulled out my fire scroll which I used for training with Jiraiya-sensei. Unsealed the fire element toward Iruka as a large fireball, I threw a few kunais with it.

The fire went away and my eyes widened as Iruka remained still in front of me. What did he do? Then I caught a few torn parts on his shirt. Okay, at least the kunai did its job. Next, what should I do? It seemed that any elemental jutsu wasn't a good choice as Iruka managed to deflect it twice except for physical attack. Ah!

Taijutsu then! I would place my hiraishin seal on his body. From Minato's scroll, hiraishin seal wouldn't easily gone after being placed once but obviously that only happened for a proper and level of the jutsu being used. As for my situation, I had only managed placing the seal but not maintaining it over a long time thus I need to reapply it once again after a few days. After all I wasn't a powerful ninja like Minato. He was the hokage and I just simply a genin. To be able to use this jutsu was a pure luck after several failed attempt. I nearly gave up about this teleporting kind of jutsu but somehow Minato entrusted the knowledge. I couldn't simply let it go, right?

Decreasing our gap by jumping to him and giving a dive kick, Iruka once again managed to avoid it. Quickly I made a swift kick once I crouched on four on the floor. He dodged it again and jumped to the air and threw out several shurikens. Using the kunai in my hand, I deflated the attack but one managed past my defense and ripped my jacket.

"Ah!" Quickly I took looked at my shoulder and glared at Iruka. "This is my favorite jacket!" I hissed.

"Whoops! Sorry?" Iruka grinned.

"Tch! Save your sorry Iruka," I grunted and dashed to him before throwing a few punches right to his face and upper body. Now I did feel regret for wearing this blue and grey hoodie jacket. Silently I wept in my mind.

We focused on our punches, kunai attack and defense when I found an opening; swiftly I made a knee kick on Iruka's stomach and pushed his shoulder with my chakra imbued palm. I narrowed my gaze as my eyes caught the flare of my seal on his shoulder before it hidden. It seemed that the seal placement was a success. I would use that later.

Iruka was gasping the air and glared at my direction.

Slowly I moved into offense stance. This was my chance to prove everything. I really liked to show that Kaka… Ugh! I would deal with him later. I quickly regained myself and looked at Iruka. He formed several hand seals which I never seen before.

"What the?"

Iruka grinned as he finished his hands movement. "Just kidding!" Suddenly in his hands there were his kunais and his face became serious. My eyes widened in surprise, since when he had that many in his hands? Oh those hand seals were a trick! Without any delay, he threw it randomly but if anyone knew better, Iruka was targeting at every kunais movement. He was preparing his trap as I could see few of his kunais were bounded with chakra wires and paper tag.

"Oh no no no, you're not preparing any traps here!" I shouted and deflated a few of his kunai so that it went somewhere else. Briefly I looked at Iruka for his expression but somehow he remained indifferent. As if I was played into his plan. Damn!

"Yes, I am! And you're now in it!" He threw the last kunai and smirked. "Now you can hardly move Rin or you're going to regret everything."

"Damnit!" I cursed and eyed the floor warily. I couldn't see the wires and it made me feel unsecure. Iruka used the floor pattern and concealed his wires properly. Slowly I looked up and met with Iruka's gaze. "Now I'm scared. Tell me what kind of combination did you use?"

"Everything, I used everything in it."

I released a shaky breath. When he said everything it meant that there were colour traps, explosive tags, pepper seal, kunais and shurikens, senbons too, and the chakra wire itself. Iruka was a creative person and his traps were different from time to time depending on the situation he was in and his mood. Somehow, I couldn't read his expression for today. I guessed he really did grow up from the first moment we stepped out of the academy as a genin.

"Now, this is your chance to yield, Rin," Iruka said with a smile.

I eyed his face and noticed something. Wait a moment…was his smile a little bit strained?

"No," I answered him and moved my left foot a bit. The brunet's smile was twitched slightly. Ah!

Iruka pulled out one of his shurikens. "I don't want to threaten you but…"

"My answer is still a no, Iruka." I moved my right foot and stopped it once I saw a glint of chakra wire. Now I noticed that around my feet there was a mess of chakra wires network. This was something new from Iruka. He never used many chakra wires at once. Wrong move really would do some harm to me or in this situation…Looking up at Iruka, I narrowed my gaze. It seemed that he was holding his breath. Heh…It would do harm to both of us I guessed. I relaxed in my stance and smirked at Iruka. "Why don't you just yield Iruka?"

"I don't think that is applicable to me, Rin."

"Then what about this?" Activating my Hiraishin seals, I instantly teleported to Iruka and grabbed him before teleported to my first kunai I threw. That kunai was out from range of Iruka's trap. Loud explosion blast and kunais with shurikens together really made the battle floor a little bit happening. I could feel Iruka was gasped in surprised as he eyed the floor behind my barrier seal. It seemed that he really went all out as there were kunais and shurikens flying out at every direction around the floor.

"Phew, that's dangerous," I said and let the barrier down once the explosion finished. Iruka already stood up and sighed in defeat.

"I yield," He said and shrugged.

The moderator nin came with a clipboard full with shurikens and announced my win. Iruka chuckled awkwardly when he saw the board. I sighed and looked at the brunet.

"That was a good battle, Iruka," I said and patted his shoulder.

Iruka nodded and smiled. "Yeah. It was really good."

We grinned at each other and laughed before went up to Inoichi-sensei and Chouma.

The final round ended with Mei Mei, the girl from unknown team won after a quick fight with Mizu. That girl was really something. She used the scroll as her weapons storage and it was a lot! Anyway our rank wasn't solely determined on this final round. The exam was finished and we were able to went back home and the result will be informed later.

On the next day, there was a messenger came to my apartment unit on early morning. Quickly putting everything, we teleported at the Hokage tower and there I met with Chouma in front of the Hokage office.

"Hey, Chouma you're here too."

"Yeah and Iruka?" The Akimichi boy nodded at my greeting.

His question made us searched around and didn't found the brunet.

"Oh," I said and shrugged. Iruka wasn't here, he didn't pass?

As if sensing my sadness, Chouma patted my shoulder. "Mm…maybe he is already inside?"

I smiled slightly and followed him entered the room. Inside the room there were Maira, Mei Mei, Shio and Suzuma but no Iruka. I felt a disappointed feeling came by but quickly hidden it with a smiling face to the others. We greeted each other and stood in straight line and bowed properly at the Sandaime once he entered the room with several other shinobis behind him.

This year of chuunin exam there were seven genins going to chuunin rank and I was one of them. I stared at the flak jacket in my hands before looked up at Sandaime. Our eyes met each other and I quickly bowed before went back to the line. Jiraiya-sensei words came into my mind. I briefly looked at Sandaime who was congratulating Mei Mei.

He knows, my mind supplied and I looked at the floor in thinking. Ah, maybe it isn't important right now since my memory about this world is sealed; I added and agreed with my own conclusion.

Once everyone had received their certificate and chuunin flak jacket, one of the shinobi explained that we were going to have a briefing at the academy at eleven o clock.

Chouma patted my shoulder before he left with his original team while I simply stood at the now empty hallway before leaving the building. Once I stepped outside, I saw Iruka came with Inoichi-sensei followed behind him.

I stared at the certificate paper and the jacket in my hands.

Iruka smiled and patted my shoulder. "You're a chuunin now, Rin."

I nodded and wiped my tears. "Hn! Yeah!"

"Geez, don't cry would you!" Iruka sighed. "If anything, I'm the one who want to cry. I lost to someone a year younger and she is a girl too!"

"I'm not! There're just dusts in my eyes!" I huffed. "I just don't believe this! You're a strong opponent Iruka! Those traps of yours are really frightening!"

"Well, since you showed out your surprisingly fire jutsu and everything, I don't want to do it half heartedly but sadly I trapped myself in it too." Iruka frowned. "My lost for acting without thinking back then. And I said the same thing to Kakashi-san too." The brunet blushed slightly and sighed.

"Mm…" Iruka's speech made me remember about Kakashi and that anbu guy. I groaned silently.

Inoichi-sensei shrugged and patted my shoulder. With a smile, he spoke. "Congratulations Rin."

"Thank you Inoichi-sensei," I replied calmly after wiped away those tears. Noticing something wrong with him, I asked the question. "Sensei? What's wrong?"

Iruka slowly released his hand from my shoulder and stood beside me so that we both were facing our blond haired sensei. Inoichi-sensei smiled at us but his smile wasn't like the usual one. It was more strained that it should be. As if he was forcing it.

"Sensei, I know about it already, why don't you just made it clear with Rin now?" Iruka shrugged.

I looked at Iruka briefly before focusing at Inoichi-sensei. "Yeah, what's it?"

Inoichi-sensei sighed. "Team six is going to disband now."

"Huh?"

"Rin, you're a chuunin now and you're going to go for a different mission after this and Iruka is going to another team before the next of chuunin exam. As for me, you both know that I'm under torture and interrogation department and I'm going to fulfill my place there for full time after this." Inoichi-sensei explained calmly.

I nodded slowly. "Oh…in a bad way seeing it, it feels like that you're trying to get rid of us."

"Now, now, Rin don't make me feel bad more. This is hard for me too. You three are my first genins under my wing."

Iruka crossed his arms and sulked. "And you just throw me to another team. That is just too much."

"Ugh Iruka…I think we made it clear already."

"I will miss using my pepper bomb seal on you, sensei…" I said and stared at the paper seals in my hands.

"I'm not going to miss that!"

"Oh, I should put some dye in your shampoo later sensei."

"Don't you dare Iruka!"

We enjoyed our last moment as a team with laugh and tease until Izumo called Iruka. We stopped and looked at each other. Slowly I bowed in respect to Inoichi-sensei.

"Thank you very much for your guidance, patience and help from the first day us as a team until today, Inoichi-sensei. I understand the circumstance you're in and I'm sorry for my rude behavior and my lack in anything you deem undesirable. I enjoyed our time together and Hanan did feel the same too, I'm very sure of that."

"You're welcome Rin, I do feel the same and from now on, we're no longer a student and teacher. We are comrade now." Inoichi stared at me knowingly.

I nodded once and looked straight at him. I got your message Inoichi-san. "Yes, Inoichi-san!"

Iruka also bowed in respect and thanked Inoichi with everything he had done to us. Last bow to each other then we went away to different direction, with Iruka ran to Izumo and Kotetsu, Inoichi walked into the Hokage tower building and me went to the academy building.

Ah, academy…

I was sitting on the swing when someone approached me. Looking up I saw Itachi.

"Oh, hey Itachi…"

Itachi didn't answer me as he stared at the flak jacket on my lap. I looked at it and shrugged.

"Oh…um…"

"Congratulation Rin," Itachi said calmly made me quickly looked up and our gaze clashed.

Hastily averted my gaze, I stared at the dry ground. "Thank you, Itachi."

"Mn," Itachi replied and we became quiet.

I didn't like the chill air around us and the raven haired Uchiha stood silently in front of me. Slowly I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

"Are you busy today?" We both asked the same question and stared at each other.

Laughing softly, I grinned. "After the briefing, maybe I'm going to be free for today. What about you?"

Itachi just nodded and smiled. After a moment, he decided to walk away. I blinked repeatedly and looked at the retreated boy. Hastily I stood up leaving the swing.

"H-Hey, say something at least!"

Itachi stopped and looked at me. "Just wait here when you're done," He said coolly.

I stunned with his calm and cool reply. Since when he became like that? I shrugged. "Uh, sure."

Thanks for reading, following, favorite and review this story. I don't really enjoy this chapter but, wow I never thought that I'm going to write till this long. It is still a far way to go and thanks for the support everyone. (^v^) I'm feeling a little bit generous right now so here is the next chapter hint: Itachi and Rin meet Kakashi on the same road of life? First mission as chuunin and another meeting. (^,^)