Wildflower | Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter67: Truth Untold

Sakura was positively put down. You see, the first Chūnin Exams of the year were just around the corner and, to be frank, while she was surely far better now than the previous year, she couldn't take part without teammates. Also, seeing as the veteran shinobi were all busy with serious work, the genin have found themselves straining to move up the ranks in order to create an equilibrium. There were an alarmingly large amount of genin in Konoha, as compared to the alarmingly low amount of jōnin. It was a mess, one that Lady Tsunade was working overtime to fix.

Shizune and Kakashi had been gone for three weeks, the medics were doing everything in their power to not let the system collapse what with the unruly amount of near dead shinobi that were coming in everyday. While, for her, it was good practice for medical ninjutsu, it was unfortunately a indicator of the broken system that Konoha had. You see, this year, Lady Tsunade had planned to lay off the exams in order to allow the shinobi villages to recuperate from the madness of the previous year. Sure enough, that wasn't a good idea. It had far too many implications to it.

Luckily, and I mean by the most random streak of luck, Tsunade changed her mind and allowed for the exams to go on. Hence, the village was teeming once again with shinobi and civilian alike, from all over the shinobi world. Now, while this was especially awe inspiring, Sakura was still wary of the shinobi of other villages.

Anyway, she couldn't afford to worry about that at all. There was a shortage of medicine at the hospital, and Lady Tsunade had asked her to look for medicinal herbs towards the west side of Land of Fire. As such, while a large group was entering the village, she was leaving.

...

She was only five years old, Minato had taken the liberty of putting Tama in a genin team after consulting with the third Hokage,making her the only Chūnin in her three man squad. Of this, Mikoto was aware, but Fugaku wasn't. However, you couldn't have someone who was smarter than most of her peers and seniors sitting in one place and doing nothing. Especially when this person was as resourceful and crafty as Tama.

She was put in Yamanaka Santa's team, with Inuzuka Miwako and Hyuga Asahi who were, at the time, fresh out of the academy themselves.

The Chūnin ranks that year caused a stir, but because her parents were always away, Tama was able to avoid being found out. She had Minato to thank for this. While it meant that, for the duration of the more clustered missions, she had no familial support, pregnant Kushina was there to cheer her on from among her many Anbu bodyguards, one of whom was the renowned Inu.

Anyway, it was one thing to go through the whole exam, and a completely different thing to be hand picked to play the part without the usual trial. The pressure was definitely there. However, she had told Minato that she was up for the task of being a Chūnin, so she fought the best that she could, and ended up doing as she promised.

Of the three preliminary missions, the toughest was the second one, when she had to send a missive to Sunagakure on her own. So many people lost a lot back then, but because she and her had the right motivation, she found uncanny ways to get through by ploughing her way to any obstacle that came her way.

She remembered each of her opponents like only recently fought them. It was this very period in her life that taught her use and prioritise speed and evasion over strength and force.

...

"Well then, all of you here are good enough to go, so I'll be testing you beforehand. We're counting on these exams to gain the Daimyou's favour. He counts on the Land of Fire for service, but if he sees that we're capable enough then he'll consider us before Konoha."

Karin winced as if in pain. She, Tama and Akira were set to leave for Kusa later that day. Meanwhile, the clan and villagers were set to leave for Konoha. Shisui would lead the village under the guise of a tall, slim, blonde, purple eyed male called Tamaki. The Uzumaki clan wasn't clear, but it seemed that they had everything sorted.