DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Latest chapter here. Over 50k words at this point, and I gotta say, this story is doing great so far! You guys are awesome! Besides that, this story is fun to write, so I don't see me burning out of it any time soon. Anyways, read, review, and as always, enjoy!

Chapter 11 - Competition of Genin

The days leading up to the Chunin Exams had gone by very quickly. Team 7 still met for the occasional training, but mostly, each member was left to their own devices. Obito didn't seem to want to spook them before the Exams, which was bound to happen if they ever found out the truth about the teams that entered.

Luckily, none of that mattered, as Naruto caught sight of both Sakura and Sasuke when they entered the courtyard. Up until then, he'd been sitting on the steps of the Hokage's tower for what felt like ages. The whole place was crawling with Genin and sensei that he didn't recognize, many of them from other villages.

A team from Kumo had even shown up. It was made up of three dark-skinned Genin and a sensei of the same complexion. One was a boy that had short, blonde hair and always seemed to have a sucker in his mouth. Another was a skinny girl with wild red hair. The third was a shorter girl with blonde hair braided to her left side. Their sensei had the same blonde hair slicked back over his head, a white scarf, and he wore dark goggles. Each of them carried a sword, and in the case of their sensei, he carried seven.

Naruto remembered his father saying something about Kumo sending a team as a formality. The Raikage apparently held Minato in the highest respect, and had also agreed to attend the third part of the Exams, that being the one on one tournaments.

Other than the team from Kumo, the most noticeable team was one from Suna. Each of their Genin looked like they wanted to murder everyone else there, especially the small redheaded boy with the dark eyeliner. Naruto even got a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach when their eyes met.

He was starting to get bored when Sasuke and Sakura walked through the gate together. The blonde greeted them with a smile and a waving hand. "What's up? I've been scouting out the competition, and this whole test should be a breeze!"

"Say that a little louder, why don't you?" Sasuke said sarcastically glancing around at the few teams that heard the blonde's boast.

Naruto waved the comment aside. "Where's Big Bro Obito?"

"Behind you," Sakura said plainly.

Naruto practically fell on his hindquarters when he came face to chest with Obito, who had somehow materialized behind him without him noticing. The Uchiha crossed his arms, approval showing on his face as he nodded.

"Good, you're all here. That means that you're all here for the right reasons."

"Right reasons? What do you mean, sensei?" Sakura asked.

Obito regarded them with his cold eyes. "If even one of you hadn't shown up, the other two would be unable to take the Exam."

Sakura turned more pale than she already was. She had been the only one on the fence, after all. In the end, she was glad that she chose correctly, though.

Obito nodded again. "I believe that all of you are ready. Now I have to go, there is a meeting of all of the sensei that I have to attend."

Obito slowly walked away with his hands in his pockets as Naruto turned to his two teammates. "Whaddya say we pass on the first try? I really want to win that tournament for my dad!"

"In your dreams," Sasuke scoffed. "I'm winning that thing."

"Guess I'll see you in the finals, then," Naruto grinned, bumping fists with his best friend.

Their moment of brotherly love was soon interrupted by a mass of purple clothing and blonde hair that tackled the son of the Hokage. "Naruto!"

"What the…? Ino? Get the hell off of me!" Naruto demanded from his spot on the ground.

Ino sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, lip protruding in a pout. "You're no fun. We haven't seen each other in months and this is how you greet me?!"

Naruto stood to his feet and dusted himself off. "Ino, how many times do I have to tell you that you're annoying?"

Ino looked visibly hurt by that, so she turned to Sakura. "I may be annoying, but I bet Naruto likes me more than Sasuke likes you!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm not that same fangirl, Ino. Not anymore."

Ino's eyes widened as she grabbed Sakura by the shoulders and shook her. "What happened to you?! Are you feeling okay? Who am I supposed to argue with boys about now?"

"As long as it ain't me, I don't care," a new voice said.

"Shikamaru," Naruto grinned. The Nara heir stood next to his best friend and human garbage disposal, Choji.

Choji took his attention away from his bag of potato chips to raise a hand in greeting. "What's up guys?"

Sasuke nodded to them. "Guess that means you guys were recommended for the Exams, too, huh?"

"Unfortunately," Shikamaru placed a hand on the back of his neck. "It's a total drag, but Rin-sensei is pretty persuasive. As in she got my mother to yell at me until I agreed to do it."

That made all of them visibly cringe, for the nara matriarch was well-known for her ability to nag and yell. Sometimes, they even caught Shikamaru and his father sitting outside when they'd pushed her too far.

Choji, on the other hand, had entirely different motivations. "Rin-sensei said she'd treat me to barbecue again if I took it and passed."

"Of course she did," Sakura deadpanned.

"Heard you guys had some big time mission a while back. Sounded like a drag, so I was glad it wasn't our team that got picked for it," Shikamaru yawned.

Sasuke crossed his arms. "Only reason we survived was because Obito-sensei was there. We would have died otherwise."

"That guy? I thought he was supposed to be mentally unstable or something like that," Ino commented with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto shook his head. "Everyone keeps saying that, but it's not true. He just never opens up to anyone. You now we've never seen his real eyes? He always hides them behind his sharingan."

"He's still creepy," Ino said, wrapping her arms around her bandaged midsection. "But at least he's not as bad as dog breath."

"Someone say dog?" a new voice asked.

Both teams turned to see Kiba approaching with Shino and Hinata. Ino practically gagged at the sight of the two boys, but she was indifferent to Hinata. The Hyuga heiress was always the quietest of all of the kunoichi in their class. She rarely spoke, if ever, though she was exceptionally gifted in the physical arts, far outshining Ino and Sakura in those. She stood behind her two teammates with her head bowed and hands clasped in front of her, shy as ever.

Kiba, on the other hand, was loud and outgoing. Naruto never had a problem with him, but all the girls seemed to despise him. Shino as well, the bquiet bug user was simply far too creepy for any of the girls. Sasuke respected his quiet intelligence, though.

"Kiba!" Naruto recognized, walking up and touching fists with his friend.

The Inuzuka smirked. "Heard your sensei had to bail you out of a sticky situation, Naruto."

The blonde stepped back and furrowed his brow in annoyance. "That is not what happened! Sasuke and I had him on the ropes!"

Kiba let out a laugh, and Akamaru on his head even joined in with small barks. "Sure you did. Anyways, what's with all these other teams giving us the stink eye?"

"We're the rookies, they see us as the weakest here," Shino observed.

Naruto glanced around again, noticing that all of the other Genin were indeed staring at them. The only team that wasn't glaring was a team that had a Guy look-alike, a Hyuga, and a girl with her hair in buns. The Guy look-alike grinned and gave Naruto a thumbs up when their eyes met.

Before anyone else could speak, the appearance of a shinobi on the top of the steps leading up to the Hokage's tower caught all of their attention. "Itachi?" Sasuke asked in confusion.

The Uchiha clan head raised a hand to quiet everyone down. "Greetings and welcome to all Genin, especially those from other villages. I am Itachi Uchiha, and I will be the proctor for these Chunin Exams. As all of you know, these Exams are to determine your standing as shinobi, and whether or not you are skilled enough to advance to the next level. The first challenge will take place on Training Ground 18. Be there in less than ten minutes, or you are immediately disqualified."

With that, Itachi disappeared in a flicker, and the mass of Genin immediately turned around. Naruto quickly grabbed both of his teammates by the back of their collars before they could be trampled by the incoming crowd. A second later, they found themselves in Naruto's living room.

"What the heck?" Sakura asked in surprise. "Weren't we just at the Hokage's tower? Why are we at your house, Naruto?"

"Because it's already halfway to the training ground, now let's go," the blonde said, panting lightly from the chakra strain of moving two people and himself. He stepped out of the house and immediately leapt onto the nearest roof, Sasuke and Sakura quickly following.

They arrived at the training ground that already held Itachi and Genma. It was a large, open field with green grass that flowed in the slight breeze. It was surrounded by thick groves of trees on all sides except the way they'd just come from.

They were only the second team of Genin to arrive. The first was the team from Suna. How they'd managed to beat Naruto's Flying Raijin in speed, they had no clue. The rest of the teams slowly trickled in, with onle four or five arriving too late. They were promptly sent away.

"I thought we'd at least eliminate a few teams with that time limit, but I guess we underestimated them," Itachi commented to Genma, who chuckled.

Itachi cleared his throat and faced the assembled Genin. "Alright, the first challenge is an obstacle course. Beyond those trees," he pointed to a thick grove, "is a pit of mud. If even one of your team members fall in, you fail. Sabotage between teams is absolutely allowed, but the use of deadly force will cause you to be arrested for murder. Also, there will be traps in the forest, that much goes without saying-"

Sasuke nudged Naruto and Sakura, jerking his head towards the trees with raised eyebrows. Naruto and Sakura nodded their understanding, and they took off at top speed, heading directly for the trees. They looked back when they reached the treeline, and saw that other teams had followed their example and left early, though they were further behind.

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "When we get inside the treeline, make some clones and sort them into teams of three. Henge into me and Sakura, then use them to slow down the other teams. With any luck, we'll be able to finish without meeting any of the other teams."

Naruto nodded, stepping behind a tree and making fifteen clones. Five of them turned into Sakura, and five more turned into Sasuke. They followed for a while until they came to a large log that signaled the beginning of the mud pit that was clearly visible. The clones all took up position around that point, hoping to catch some of the teams at the very beginning.

The real Sasuke led his two teammates onto the log, which turned out to be the beginning of a series of them. Some hung from branches by thick lengths of rope, while others had been placed on stilts that protruded out of the mud pits. The logs themselves were extremely long, and several of them were connected to form each section. They figured that was the way to spread out all of the Genin so that they wouldn't be crammed together on the same sections.

Sasuke wordlessly jumped forward to the next one, and his teammates followed. They leapt from log to log, and began to hear the sounds of metal clanging behind them. The other teams had started to catch up, and ere engaging their clones. Naruto's eyes seemed to flicker every time that one of his cones was destroyed, the memory filling his mind.

Sasuke made a judgement call and decided to activate his sharingan, and just in the nick of time, too, as kunai and shuriken suddenly flew from both directions. Sasuke dropped flat onto the log while Naruto used a kunai to dig into the log and hang there on one arm. Sakura used her chakra control to stick to the log horizontally as the weapons sailed overhead and embedded themselves in trees on either side of the obstacle course.

When the rapid clicking finally stopped, Naruto hauled himself up onto the log as Sasuke stood up and Sakura walked up the surface. "Well, Itachi did say there would be traps," Naruto said dryly.

"Let's keep going, the other teams have to be catching up by now," Sasuke said.

The three Genin resumed their travel. Over time, they learned to simply deflect the kunai and shuriken traps with their own, instead of stopping each time. As they went on, the traps grew less and less obvious, though. As they ran along the latest log, a click could be heard, followed by the whistle of senbon.

Sakura was forced to bend backwards at nearly a ninety degree angle, but her foot slipped on the surface of the log. Her back hit the log beneath her, and she bounced off of it before she could attach to it with her chakra. She seemed to fall in slow motion, looking up and seeing the canopy of the forest grow farther and farther away as she plummeted towards the mud.

She began to curse herself for failing the team on the very first challenge. This was not the way to become a ninja. Her weakest link status had never been more apparent. She lost all hope until a pair of hands were suddenly felt on her shoulders, and a second later, she was standing next to Sasuke and Naruto on top of the log she'd just fallen off of.

"What...how?"

Naruto grinned. "You didn't think I would let you fail that easily, did you? I put a mark for my Fying Raijin on both of you during the bell test on the first day we had as a team. The mark never goes away."

Sakura bowed her head apologetically, tears threatening to flow out of her eyes. "I'm sorry, you two. I almost cost us the Exams. I-"

"Look, even if you had something to apologize for, which you don't, we still have an obstacle course to complete, so can you do this later?" Sasuke said.

Sakura wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and nodded. The three leapt on to the next log and continued their journey. Out of nowhere, three small platforms of sand flew over their heads, a Suna Genin on each one of them. Naruto realized that was probably how they beat them to the training ground in the first place.

The sound of footsteps behind them alerted them to the presence of another team. Kunai being thrown forced Naruto to turn around and deflect them before making a few shadow clones. While he continued to run, hie clones turned to face the enemy. They met on a large log and engaged in three separate taijutsu matches.

It ended when one of Naruto's clones swept the legs out from underneath one of the ninja. The boy stopped his fall by grabbing hold of the log with both hands, but ut was clear hat he hadn't mastered tree walking, or he would have been fine. Naruto normally would feel bad about sabotaging people from the same village, but not when his own success hung in the balance. He placed his foot on the forehead of the boy and pushed, sending him down to the mud below.

With that accomplished, all three clones dissipated, as with one member down, the entire team failed. Naruto smirked as the memory flooded back to him, shooting a thumbs up to Sasuke and Sakura to assure them that the enemy had been dealt with.

Thsi went on for half an hour, and was starting to get boring, if they were being honest. The obstacle course was so large and expansive that their odds of running into an actually skilled team were slim to none, as evidenced by their sparing encounters with teams that were taken out by Naruto's clones in a matter of seconds.

Just as Naruto was about to begin complaining, the end of the course came in sight. They followed the final few logs and leapt off, sighing with relief when they had finally cleared the pit of mud beneath them. The trio sprinted through the treeline and emerged in another training ground, this one in sight of the village walls.

There were a decent number of teams already present. Evidently, the small head start that they'd managed to gather at the beginning hadn't amounted to much. The team from Suna was obviously here, along with the team with Guy's look-alike. Genma met them with a clipboard and checked something off.

"Team 7, pass."

Team 10 arrived a few seconds after they did, Ino grumbling about how Choji slowed them down. Team 8 arrived soon after, along with the rest of the teams that trickled in slowly. But after a certain point, the 'pass' from Genma turned into a 'fail'.

"Was there a time limit?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe. We didn't stay to hear about it, though."

When teams had finally stopped emerging from the forest, they were separated into two groups. Those that passed stood to the right, and those that failed stood to the left. A good portion of the failing students were covered in mud, those being the ninja that had caused their team to fail.

Itachi, who was standing between both groups, raised a hand to call for silence. He turned to the group of failing students. "I suppose many of you are wondering why you failed if you completed the course without losing a member. The answer is simple. By staying to receive the full instructions, you consequently fell behind the other teams. Unfortunately for all of you, what you didn't know was that only the first twenty teams were given a passing grade. Therefore, by staying, you were really only giving yourselves a handicap. Better luck next time."

Itachi then rotated to face the passing teams. "To the sixty of you that passed, well done, but do not think that this means you are ready to be Chunin. The next exam will be much more difficult, and your numbers will be reduced even further. These twenty teams will meet at the Forest of Death tomorrow at seven in the morning. If you are late, you fail. Dismissed."

Naruto grabbed both of his teammates by wrapping his arms around them and pulled them into a bear hug. Sakura blushed at being so close to Sasuke, but the Uchiha only struggled against his best friend, even if he was fighting off a smile of his own.

"We passed the first round!" Naruto cheered.

"What did I just say, Naruto?" a voice asked. Naruto released his teammates so they could see Itachi approaching.

The elder Uchiha nodded to his younger brother. "Good job recognizing that you didn't need to stay for the instructions."

"Well, it helps to think like you do," Sasuke admitted. "I figured that there had to be some sort of twist involved if you were the proctor. I'm expecting the same for tomorrow as well."

Itachi chuckled lightheartedly at is younger brother. "Just get some rest, Sasuke. This was nothing compared to what tomorrow will be like."

"I can't wait," Sasuke rolled his eyes. Itachi simply smirked and disappeared from view.

It was then that they began to take stock of the remaining competition. The other two rookie teams had passed, as well as the team with the Guy look-alike. Also among the Konoha representatives was a team with two shinobi wearing dark goggles and cloth head covers with their forehead protectors sewn in. The third member was a rather tall shinobi with silver hair and glasses that he seemed to have a habit of adjusting. Beyond them, the team from Suna, and the team from Kumo were the only ones worthy of note.

Naruto pounded a fist into his open palm, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Let's ace the second round so we can fight these guys already, whaddya say?"

Sakura facepalmed at the eagerness of her teammate, but couldn't help a small grin from breaking out across her face. "If we have to," she relented.

"Yeah," Sasuke agreed with the smallest of nods.

The three young shinobi traveled back to the heart of the village in each other's company before splitting to go to their separate homes, in need of rest. They all drifted off quickly, the trials of the day weighing on them.

There was something of a celebration at the Rusty Kunai that night. Kurenai had insisted, and had roped Asuma into gathering everyoen for her. Of course, Obito was already there, as he often was, but the pair had managed to find Guy and Rin. They crowded around their usual spot at the bar, wide grins on all of their faces except for Obito's.

All of their Genin teams had passed the first round. Asuma, being the only one without a team, raised his glass when he received it. "To the next generation!"

A collective cheer went up around the bar as everyone downed a drink at once. Guy smacked Obito on the back, a hearty laugh escaping his lips. "Our teams advance to the next round, my rival! I suppose that if you won't agree to take me on in a challenge, we shall have to let the youthful flames of our Genin decide the winner!"

"Don't count my kids out yet, Guy," Obito warned. "Your team may have freakish endurance and physical ability, but mine have something yours don't...a brain."

Asuma nearly spit out his drink when he heard that from Obito, and he nudged the shocked Guy with his shoulder. "You gonna let your rival talk to you like that, Guy?"

The taijutsu master shook his head faster than the eye could follow. "Of course not! My rival, I challenge you to an arm wrestle!"

Rin noticed Obito's feeble attempts at fending off the now heated Guy, trying to hide her laughter as she conversed with Kurenai. The two kunoichi had become fast friends, and had remained that way since the war. They were the only two kunoichi left out of their class, after all. As such, Rin often got roped into Kurenai's rantings about Asuma, a topic she really didn't care about.

She managed to excuse herself from Kurenai just as Obito rose from his stool and made his way out of the bar after placing down a few hundred yen. He had chosen this opportunity because Guy was wrapped up in a discussion about taijutsu styles with Asuma. Obito was sure that the bearded Jonin was doing him a personal favor, but he really couldn't be bothered to thank the man.

Since celebrations weren't exactly Obito's scene, he decided to leave early. No particular destination in mind, he made his way into the cool night air, glancing up to the star-dotted sky with his red eyes. Before he could turn a corner, though, a voice stopped him.

"Obito."

Would she never leave him alone? He was fairly certain that he'd dropped enough hints to her. It was true that he had begun to think about her in certain situations lately, such as the time back on the docks of Tazuna's house, but he hoped that by pushing her away, the thoughts would be purged from his mind. So far, he was having little success, because she always seemed to find him and force a conversation out of him, even if they never ended well.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Obito carried he motion until he had turned all the way around. Rin stood just ut of the doorway of the bar, the golden light from inside framing her figure. It gave her the appearance that her brown hair had caught fire. Her beauty suddenly became very evident, but it would take a lot more than that to break his cold mask of no emotion.

He looked her up and down with his sharingan, and she seemed to take that as an invitation to walk closer. Obuto turned and walked in the opposite direction, and she caught up with him. He allowed her to walk next to him, thankful that she had yet to say anything, but he knew that it was coming eventually.

Sure enough, a small rush of air sounded from Rin's mouth as she inhaled before speaking. "All those people make you uncomfortable, don't they?"

Obito made no response, because she knew the answer, even if she'd asked the question. Rin nodded to herself, expecting his silence. She'd even grown accustomed to it by now. She found just the simple nature of his presence oddly comforting, even if he always held a cold shoulder her way.

"You want to go somewhere quiet?" she asked. It was a longshot, she knew, but she had to keep trying. At this point, she was desperate to help Obito. He had let too much slip, and now, she would never leave him alone.

When Obito didn't respond or attempt to leave on his own, she took that as a silent victory. She didn't let it show on her face, though, and simply followed along next to him. He had yet to speak, but that was nothing new. It often took special prompting from anyone other than Guy or Minato to get Obito to speak. Though his Genin probably fit under that umbrella by now as well.

Speaking of the Genin, thinking of them brought a new idea to Rin's head. This whole time, she'd only ever tried to talk to Obito about himself. The one time she'd asked about his team, he'd shot her down instantly, as it was their first conversation.

"How are Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura?"

"Idiots," Obito breathed out. "But they're skilled enough. Better than I was."

Rin had half a mind to chastize him for that, but she had a feeling that the conversation would lead to another argument about Kakashi, so she left it alone. "My team is...difficult," she laughed lightly. "Shikamaru has no work ethic, all Choji cares about is food, and all Ino wants to do is gossip."

"Sounds like Kurenai should've gotten that team instead," Obito said.

Rin stuck her bottom lip out in a mock pout. "Are you insulting my teaching skills?"

Obito said nothing. The pair walked in silence for a few minutes after that, Rin following every movement of his feet. They passed a few clan compounds, then the Hokage's tower. The light on in the top window signaled that Minato was still inside working. Rin shook her head in amusement at how much her old sensei worked.

Returning her attention to Obito, she finally realized where he was taking them, but she said nothing until they had reached the top of the massive staircase. Obito turned and walked for a few more meters before dropping off the ledge and landing on top of carved spiky hair.

Rin landed next to him, and the pair sat down. Obito leaned back, placing his hands behind his head, and Rin crossed her legs and brought her knees to her chest. Obito's eyes lingered on the stars, something that Rin noticed.

"Do you come here often?" she asked, looking down at Obito's face.

He gave a slight nod. "One of the three places I go when I can't sleep."

"What are the other two?"

"Training grounds," Obito said. "The third is private."

Rin nodded in understanding. She didn't want to overstep her bounds. This was Obito in his natural state at the moment. No anger showed in his eyes whatsoever, and she found the red orbs somewhat peaceful, even if they were holding back over a decade's worth of emotion.

She quickly turned away to hide the blush that formed on her cheeks when she realized she was staring. Obito either hadn't noticed, or didn't react. The latter was the most likely, as nothing seemed to escape his notice these days.

"What do you think about when you're up here?" she asked.

Obito shook his head once. "I don't, really. The stars keep me distracted from thinking. My third spot is where I do most of my thinking."

"I hope that I get to see it someday," she said softly.

No response. Obito clearly thought that was too private for her, but he didn't decline entirely, so she still had hope. Looking back down, she noticed that Obito had closed his eyes. He looked so peaceful this way. His features were relaxed, and for a second, her mind flashed back to that boy who used to be her best friend all those years ago. She would often find him in this position after their training sessions when he fell asleep in the grass. That was the Obito she wanted to come back, and seeing him like this gave her hope that he would.

Before she could stop herself, Rin's hand suddenly found itself on his head, her fingers combing through his hair. Not a second later, Obito was in the upright position, her wrist held in his rough grip. His eyes were cold, and seemed to convey a warning. He released her hand and stood to his feet.

"Good night, Rin."

The flutter of his clothing as he dropped off the side of the cliff was the last thing she heard from him that night.

Kakashi never minded travel. In fact, he quite enjoyed it. But no one would enjoy being chased by a squad of Suna ninja after his infiltration of their village. It was a good thing that he'd declined to wear his cloak on the mission, or the Akatsuki would have attracted some unwanted attention before they were ready.

Despite his pursuers, the mission had been a success, and the Kazekage had been placed under his control. Just in time, too, because the team of Genin had been dispatched to the Chunin Exams the following week.

After retrieving his cloak and ring from where he'd stashed them, Kakashi continued along at a leisurely pace now. After all, it wasn't like they were in any sort of hurry, especially not him. His part of the operation had already been carried out, and the full-scale attack on the village wouldn't take place for another month.

Using this to his advantage, Kakashi stopped in a few villages on his way back to Orochimaru's hideout. The unfortunate downside of having two sharingan that you couldn't deactivate was that you had to use a transformation jutsu to avoid unwanted attention. But that was no longer a problem for him, as his enhancement with the Hashirama cells had turned his once respectable chakra pool into one of a Kage's.

When he finally arrived back at Orochimaru's hideout, he had to once again let his nose grow accustomed to the putrid smell of snakes that seemed to permeate every inch of the air that Orochimaru had ever set foot in. His mask helped somewhat, but there was only so much of it that could be filtered.

He found the Snake Sannin poring over a large scroll, but his head turned when he sensed Kakashi's arrival. "Ah, dear Kakashi. You sure took your time on that mission," the man teased, humming with amusement.

"I completed the mission in no time at all, I simply took my time getting back."

"The Kazekage is under your control, then?" his partner asked.

Kakashi nodded from beneath his mask. "He is. For now, he will plot without alerting Konoha to his intentions. Regrettably, the Kotoamatsukami is quite vague, so even I have no way of telling what his final plan will be, I only know that there will be a signal to begin the attack."

Orochimaru smiled, his long tongue snaking out to wet his lips. "Kabuto has informed me off his advancement into the second stage of the Exams. He'll keep an eye on both jinchuriki for the time being. Then we should know what to expect when facing them. I've heard that the Nine Tails is quite powerful, after all."

Kakashi leaned up against one of the stone walls, the torchlight dancing across his sharingan. "What of it? With these eyes, no mere child can defeat me. And you'll be stealing Itachi's body as well. You'll finally have the power you need to take on our leader."

Orochimaru seemed surprised, yet he only grinned with a chuckle. "How did you know I was planning to steal Itachi's body?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It's the only conceivable answer as to why you gave me both of Shisui's eyes, given your obsession with the sharingan."

Orochimaru hummed once again, an impressed smirk showing on his features. "Very good, my dear Kakashi. Once we both possess the Mangekyou Sharingan, we will have the power needed to destroy those who stand against us. I'll finally get to kill that senile old fool of a sensei, along with that brat that stole my Hokage's seat."

Kakashi snorted. "As if the village would have actually picked you. I heard he won by a landslide. Anyways, killing Obito and that bitch Rin is all I care about. After that, I suppose that the goal of the Akatsuki doesn't sound too bad. Then again, if all war is ended, there won't be anyone to kill."

Kakashi shrugged to himself and strode out of the room, leaving Orochimaru to his evil thoughts yet again.