Behind the Waterfall

#24 First Stages

"Are you ready to do this?" The voice of Kiba was loud and full of happiness as Hinata smiled at her teammate.

"We won't know if we don't try." Shino replied, stoically as ever.

"I guess so. We had an extra year to prepare after all." Hinata stated, recalling once again the time when Kurenai had told them the previous exams got canceled.

Arriving at the academy, Hinata grew a bit worried seeing the many people in front of the building. She saw her sister's team arrive as well. The two Hyuuga nodded at each other briefly before the younger entered the academy with her team.

Hinata still was unsure about her sister's feelings towards her. After Naruto had disappeared, Hinata had started training on her own, using the time she had previously spent on following the blonde boy. The training paid off, as she had successfully defended her right to be the clan's heiress last year against her younger sister. Hanabi had seemed to take the loss well at first but ever since she had distanced herself from her older sister, saddening the purple haired girl.

They saw the other team from their graduating class, Ino and her teammates Shikamaru and Sasuke. Hinata smiled at the trio, as Ino waved at them. She remembered the academy days when she would spend the breaks with Ino and Sakura, simply because they were the only other girls in the class with a shinobi background. Even though they would always gush about Sasuke, Hinata didn't mind it, she would just listen to them bicker. It had come as a shock to hear that Sakura had not passed the genin exams, although it was true that her fighting capabilities were practically non-existent, since she didn't want to build up some muscles since it would make her less feminine in her own words.

Shaking her head at the thought of the pink haired girl, Hinata followed her teammates into the academy. 

The trio noticed that they had only gone up two flights of stairs and her Byakugan confirmed the genjutsu that was used to weed out the weakest of the teams as they walked past the crowd and up towards the third floor of the building. There they saw Kurenai smiling at them among with a lot of other chunin teachers that were still waiting for their teams.

"I see you all decided to take the exams." She observed.

"We waited for three years after all." Shino replied, as they handed the invitations to their sensei who gave them a number in return.

"Good luck and stay safe." The woman said, opening the door to the classroom.

The classroom was full of genin teams, the different voices clashing against each other, creating a loud undertone where you could barely talk without shouting.

"Do you see anyone we know?" Hinata had to repeat the question three times before her teammates understood her.

Kiba was about to answer when they heard Rock Lee, Hinata's cousin's teammate, exclaim something about youth. He always was a strange boy, not being able to mold chakra. However he made up for it by being extremely dedicated and loyal. Hinata was glad to be able to call him a friend, as he was always there if she needed help. They turned to where his voice had come from and made their way over to them.

When they arrived, Neji bowed to his cousin, a sign of respect towards the main branch of the Hyuuga family. It had taken a lot to earn his respect, since his father had died to protect the main branch,but eventually as he saw how dedicated Hinata had become to being a shinobi she had earned his respect. 

"Hi guys." The third member of the team greeted them. She had black hair and surprisingly seemed to carry no weapons. But Hinata knew that this was part of her deception, Tenten was very skilled with almost all weapons and carried a wide variety of them in storage scrolls in the small pockets of her pants.