Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden

Chapter Seven

Natsuki sighed as she leaned back in her wheelie chair. She stared up at the ceiling of the camera room as she glanced at the clock; there was still three hours left for the fourth group.

"Shouldn't you be a little more attentive to the genin?" Rolling her eyes, the Uchiha sat up properly in her chair as she shot a cold stare to the intruder.

"Maybe when you're a proctor, you can tell me how to do my job. Until then, zip it." What right did some sorry excuse of a Sharingan-wielder have to try and lecture her?

Kakashi stared at Natsuki for a moment before he took a seat in front of the multiple monitors. His eye flashed across each one, noting who was where and what was going on. But his attention hadn't been entirely caught until he found himself staring at Karibi. He watched for a few moments, and when he tried to tear his gaze away to make a few notes, he couldn't stop himself from glancing back up.

She was taking a beating.

"You know her?" Looking to his left, Kakashi watched as Natsuki pulled up beside him and stared at the screen he'd been watching just a few seconds earlier. "She's rather promising. She aced every single one of her questions on the exam, and from what I've heard through sources, she was one of the best students at the academy." Kakashi said nothing as he turned his gaze back to the screen, mentally flinching as the girl hit the ground but quickly rolled on to her feet.

"…We'll see how promising she is after this part of the exam." Natsuki scoffed as she crossed her arms.

"The rumors about you are pretty true." The 28 year old watched the young boy carefully as he continued jotting notes down on a piece of paper.

"Believe whatever sort of stories you hear. I couldn't care less." And that was the whole truth.

§

There were two things that Karibi had figured out.

One—the genjutsu had been created by a chunin. And two?

Her opponent had this annoying ability where he could evade all physical attacks.

To start with, Karibi was the least talented with taijutsu. But she was also lacking in ninjutsu. Her forte was more in fuinjutsu and genjutsu. Things that dealt more with chakra-control and molding it were better for her. And although ninjutsu was rather similar in that sense, it seemed she wasn't quite as skilled in comparison to someone like Hayase—who could perform a perfect jutsu in his sleep.

He was nearly doing it then.

"Hayase! Snap out of it!" Karibi knew it was no use, because when it came to genjutsu, there were only a few ways to break it. Still, she had to try something. And although she wanted to break her teammate free from the illusion herself, it seemed that her opponent knew that as well; he wasn't going to let her.

"Give it up, kid. You can't beat me. Not like this," the older boy stated evenly as he shrugged. Karibi shook her head as she pushed herself to her feet, wiping the dirt from her face; she only succeeded in smudging it all over her cheek.

"You think I'm that weak?"

"No. I just think you're not strong enough right now." At least he was honest.

Karibi frowned as she looked over at Hayase and then to the forest. From what she knew, the chunin had left her to the mist genin. But that meant that he would return when she was at her weakest point. Not only that, but the chunin was still close by—close enough to keep Hayase locked in his genjutsu. And that left Hana. If Karibi was fighting one of the genin, that probably meant that his two teammates had stayed behind to deal with Hana and her ninja dogs. And if they hadn't shown up yet, then that meant that she was putting up a good fight.

That made Karibi smile.

Tsuichi watched the young girl carefully as he kept a straight face. He had originally wanted to make this quick, but this Karibi had been a bit too persistent. In normal cases, someone would have already given up. After the amount of times he hit her around, she shouldn't have been able to move. But he had quickly learned that she seemed to have a rather quick recovery rate. And since she had nearly used none of her chakra, she still had a bit of fight left inside.

But that was no good for him.

"Well, if you want to finish this all off so badly, then why don't you come and get me!" Karibi smirked as Tsuichi raised a brow. He stared at her for a moment as he contemplated the idea. And then in a second, he was running towards the young girl. He narrowed his eyes as he morphed his entire body into water; he was going to finish this now.

"I—" Tsuichi stopped. Not willingly. His entire body had suddenly come to an abrupt halt. "What—" Looking down at his feet, the eldest Hozuki's eyes widened as he watched thin strips of paper with writing began to wrap around his leg. He stared in horror as it engulfed his body, tying around him and holding him in place.

"Finally." Karibi smiled happily as she pulled out a tag from her small pack on her waist. She held it out to Tsuichi as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Not even you can get around this."

"What is that?" the mist genin snapped as Karibi sighed, letting her shoulders sag for just a single moment.

"It's a sealing tag. I wasn't just being thrown around by you. I wasletting you hit me around." Tsuichi scoffed. "I needed to place these tags on the ground without you noticing. So I purposely left myself basically defenseless against you. And when I hit the ground, I placed a tag down. You had to step on one eventually." Karibi smiled widely.

"Don't go anywhere!"

"You little—" Tsuichi watched with an irritated sigh as Karibi quickly ran up to her teammate, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Release!" Immediately, Hayase fell to his knees as he squeezed his eyes shut; his head was spinning and he was sure that the ground beneath his feet was making him stumble.

"Hayase!"

"Ka—Karibi?" He looked up and his eyes widened; she looked rather swollen. "What happened—" His teammate pointed to the trapped mist ninja as he blinked. He looked back to the 8 year old as she smiled down at him.

"What the hell happened?"

"I'll explain later. My Sealing Tag Barrier won't hold forever. He has a special ability to change his entire body into water—as you can see," she explained as she pointed to the watery figure trapped in her tag. "I would take him out, but his teammates are going to be looking for him."

"You think Hana—" Karibi nodded as Hayase frowned before looking back at the enemy genin.

"She's strong, and I'm sure she's still holding them off, but who knows how strong they are. I could barely keep this guy off me—I got lucky," the youngest of Team 2 stated as she sighed. "So we need to take the three of them out all together."

"Alright then. How do you want to do that?" Hayase asked as Karibi smirked.

"Well—that's the fun part."

§

There were only two hours left for this group of genin, and surprisingly enough, for the proctor and the jonin—time had gone by rather quickly. Their eyes stayed glued to the screens as they switched from watching the dog-tamer to the two other genin. Natsuki smirked as she watched the Nara perform hand seals.

"So that's what they're up to."

Kakashi said nothing as he merely watched, his eye lingering on Karibi before he turned his attention to Hana, who fell from a tree branch but was caught by one of her dogs; the Hozuki's had finally gotten past.

"This is where it will get interesting." Kakashi merely shrugged as his companion began to pout. "Don't you have any other emotions other than stale?" The 12 year old looked over at the older woman before he stared up at the screen. His gaze was hollow for a second as he stared aimlessly.

No, he wasn't sure if he had any other emotions anymore.

"Well, looks like that girl and kid are making their move." Ripping his attention away from the demons whispering in his ear, Kakashi turned his attention back to Karibi.

It was the only time in which the clenching in his heart relaxed.

§

"Rinko! Hurry up! Tsuichi's not going to be happy if we take any longer."

"Whose fault is that? It's not like I could have predicted that the girl had dogs!" The Hozuki twins moved swiftly through the forest, leaping from tree to tree. They finally reached the clearing as the landed silently on their feet. A smirk etched itself across the older twin as he began to approach Tsuichi, who was knelt down in front of a cracking stone barrier; that must have been where the scroll was.

"Looks like you did a number on these guys." The young twin smirked widely as she glanced at the limp bodies of a girl and boy from the leaf. Her eyes lingered on them, the two lying motionlessly on the ground.

"Tsuichi?" Asuka frowned at his older brother's silence as the two continued to approach the young man. Stopping behind him, they raised a brow. "What's wrong—" Suddenly, they were stuck. Rinko yelled out as strips of parchment began to intertwine with her body, Asuka gasping at the same time.

"Now!" Their eyes widened as they looked over their shoulder, the two limp bodies now rising from the ground.

"Nice work, Karibi!" The two looked back as best as they possibly could, the once unconscious boy slowly standing to his feet from the distance. As he stood, Tsuichi began to stand as well, mimicking the opponent's movements.

"Tsuichi! What—"

"Let me explain."

Gaining everyone's attention, Karibi dusted herself off as she glanced over at the copy of Hayase beside her. She smiled as the copy disappeared in a cloud of smoke, her own clone now standing beside her. "A—A transformation and a shadow clone?"

"That's right!" Approaching Hayase's side, the two smiled at each other.

"We wanted to take you guys out all together. Seeing as it was two against one, I knew that you'd eventually get past Hana," the young leaf genin began to explain. "I had already immobilized your teammate, and since he was able to shift into water, in order to keep him from changing back, Hayase attacked him with a fire style jutsu." Hayase nodded as he smirked.

"It's like drying out a wet towel."

"Without the moisture, you guys can't shift into water, right?" Rinko grit her teeth at that.

"I come from a family who works a lot with shadows, so I took advantage of that, and in order to make it look like your teammate was trying to get the scroll, I made him do it," Hayase explained as Tsuichi scoffed.

"You think these little sheets of paper are going to be able to hold us?" Rinko snapped angrily as Karibi shook her head.

"Nope. But that's why we're going to finish this now." Releasing his jutsu, Hayase stood to his feet, Tsuichi falling to his knees and panting; he was out of energy.

"Ok, Haya-chan. I've never actually tried this jutsu before. But I've read on it multiple times!"

"I'm not sure if that's exactly the same…"

"Well, I'm sort of all out of ideas."

"Can't I just knock them out?"

"Him? Yes. But those two—they can still morph into water. So even if we try land a hit, they can still change, they just can't move," Karibi stated evenly. "I don't want to give them a chance to get their strength back. We take them out and then I can seal them securely, and for the rest of the time we won't have to worry about anything other than a possible sighting of a chunin." Hayase hesitated but nodded as he began to follow his teammate.

"Wh—What are you doing?" Asuka asked apprehensively as he watched the leaf genin stand around them, just across the way from the other.

"Don't worry! We're just going to knock you out for a bit!" Karibi assured.

"Now. You remember the hand signs I taught you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Ok. We perform those at the same, exact time. Or else this will have all been for nothing."

"Got it."

Hayase smirked as he nodded to Karibi and she smirked back at him. Nodding, the two began to simultaneously make the same signs. Never once did they break eye contact before they both knelt to the ground, slamming their palms into the grass.

"Seal Barrier!" Without warning, a sealing formula appeared around the three mist genin. Their eyes widened when a burst of energy surrounded them, nearly suffocating them.

Karibi winced as she felt her chakra coursing through her body, sinking through her fingers and into the formula. She began to tremble as she glanced up at Hayase; she only needed just a bit of his chakra. Looking up at the three mist ninja, the 8 year old grinned as a light consumed them before the formula disappeared, leaving Hayase and Karibi breathless.

Watching carefully, Hayase laughed when the mist ninja fell to the ground, their chakra and most powerful jutsu now locked away. "It worked!"

"I—I told you…" Karibi winced as she fell to the ground. Hayase stiffening.

"Karibi!"

"I—I'm ok!" she called out with a laugh, though she didn't bother moving. "Just a little…little tired," she stated as she closed her eyes.

"Hayase, check their packs and make sure to remove any water from them. I'm sure they have tons in order to stay hydrated enough for that jutsu they use."

"Ye—Yeah." Hesitantly, the 10 year old did as he was told before he quickly approached Karibi's side and helped her sit up.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. Just need rest," she stated as she kept her eyes close, falling in-and-out of consciousness. Hayase frowned before his eyes narrowed. He gently set Karibi on the forest floor as he pulled out a kunai, standing to his feet. Silently, he waited for the unknown intruder to appear, but he relaxed when he finally recognized the stranger.

"That better be you this time, Hana."

"What are you—Karibi!" Hana emerged from the trees with her dogs, and she found three, tied up mist genin and an unconscious Karibi. "Wh—What happened?"

Hayase sighed. "It's a long story."

§

Her eye lids felt heavy, but she was sure she could hear voices. She recognized them, but she couldn't quite match faces with them. Still, she continued to try as she slowly began to open her eyes, wincing as she stared up at the sun through the leaves. She frowned as she slowly turned her head to her right, the world at a strange angle from where she was; she was lying on the ground.

"H—Hayase…Hana?" Karibi whispered as she watched the two kick back two leaf chunin. She frowned to herself as she carefully began to sit up, their voices suddenly evening out and reality finally settling over her.

"Hayase!"

"I can only hold up to eight people with my Shadow Paralysis!"

The last two hours had been rather easy to deal with. Hana had her ninja dog drop the bound mist genin in the far end of the forest as Hayase made sure to stay by the scroll and Karibi's side. After that, it was just about waiting the time out. But towards the last stretch of the second part of the exam—that was when the trouble had truly began.

There were twelve chunin. They had appeared without warning, and they had been relentless with the team from the start. Hayase had been quick to push back most of the chunin, but that had only succeeded in holding them back. Hana's dogs had easily eliminated several of the chunin, but that still wasn't enough. With only a few minutes left until time ran out, Hana and Hayase did their best to hold their ground. And although they were doing well on their own, it was still difficult.

"Hana!" Hayase yelled out as he glanced over his shoulder, one of the chunin slipping past them. Said girl quickly kicked on of the chunin aside as she frowned, looking back as the man laughed, jumping and landing right before the scroll. With a simple kick, he removed the stone barrier Karibi had placed around the scroll as he smirked to himself.

"I—"

"No!" Thin arms wrapped tightly around the young man, a body tackling him before he could reach the scroll. He flinched as he hit the ground, his captor growling over him. "We've come too close!" she snapped.

"Karibi!"

"Move!" Doing as she commanded Hayase released his jutsu as he quickly leaped over and pulled Hana aside. They watched as their awakened teammate threw a kunai, the blade digging into the ground just in front of the few chunin.

"What—" Eyes widened. "Paper bomb!" Within seconds, the bomb had gone off, a cloud of smoke and dust filling the air.

Fanning away the dust, Hayase blinked before he helped Hana to her feet. They quickly ran up to Karibi's side as she sat directly in front of the scroll, panting. She glanced up at the two before she grinned.

"Time's up!" The three froze as they blinked, Natsuki suddenly appearing in front of them with her hands on her hips. "And would you look at that. You guys pass."

Lost for words, the three leaf genin sat in silence for a moment before they exchanged glances. The proctor watched them carefully as she flicked a piece of her black hair over her shoulder and away from her face. Nearly jumping out of her skin, the older woman sighed, the genin cheering happily.

"Yeah! We made it!" Karibi laughed as she jumped to her feet, but the second the base of her sandals touched the ground, her eyes widened as her knees buckled. She yelped before two sets of hands quickly caught her.

"We've got you!"

"Thanks, guys."

"Relax, punks. A chunin will escort you to the other end of the forest, where you will wait for the last two rounds."

"Right!"

I just want to start by saying that I'm not so proud of this chapter. Still, I hope that whoever is here reading still enjoyed reading this! A friend of mine said that not every chapter is going to be a favorite chapter, and I think this chapter is just one of those situations. I've been working hard though, so I hope that shows in the writing! I can admit that there's still a lot for me to do in order to become a better writer, so I'll definitely be working on what I can.

I've explained this in the last chapter, but just in case someone missed it, Hana's age is incorrect here. I got her age from an incorrect source, so unfortunately her age is off from the series itself. For the sake of this story, she will remain as 12 years old in this story. I truly do hope that all readers can over look this mistake I've made and continue to read and enjoy! I'll work even hard from this point on to make this story better :) Sorry for the mix up and for the confusion!

Thanks for all who are still reading and thank you to whoever has just begun reading. I appreciate the support and I appreciate everyone for taking the time out to give this story a shot! I'll do my best to do better and better. And I hope whoever is reading this will continue to read and like this story! If there is anything you want to see or anything corrections I should make please feel free to message me or leave me a review! :)

Reviews:

BROTH3R MENACE: I know I message you about your review, but I just wanted to say, again, thank you for pointing out the error in the age! Hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for the review! After the chunin exams things will begin to speed up a bit and you'll get to see how exactly things for Karibi work out! So just bear with me on this! Thanks again!

love4music55: I'm glad that you're excited for the chunin exams! There are going to be a few more chapters with the exam, so hopefully you'll end up liking those chapters :) And like I've said before, I know it's slow, but there's going to be gradual progress with Karibi and Kakashi as well as other characters as well! I wanted to be able to make a friendship that was believable rather than relationship right off the bat, so we'll see how it all works out, but I'm happy to hear that you appreciate that! Thank you for reading, I really appreciate you taking the time to read! And I hope you continue to keep reading! Thank you!

Guest: I know there isn't much about Karibi's past just yet, but there will be more to be discovered once more chapters are written. I'll admit there's still a ways before Karibi and Naruto meet, but when the time comes, I hope their first meeting will be a good read for you and all other people who decide to stay tuned for that moment! As for how far I plan on taking the story...well, this story will definitely be a bit longer, but it's going to be cut up into parts, so with all the parts together, this story may be long, but if you were to divide the parts of the story up, it won't be too long. Thank you for reviewing and reading :D And I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and the writing, and I can only hope that you will continue to like it! Thanks again!