Hoshigaki

Unlucky

Team Eight melded into the confused, chattering crowd that surrounded the entrance to the first examination waiting room. Two smug-looking genin stood guard at the door, but their smirks and postures only made Kiba narrow his eyes.

"They're the gate dudes that always check us in," he murmured as he assessed their younger guises. Akamaru wriggled his nose pointedly as he rested in the front of his partner's jacket. "Same smell of syrup and ginger root, too. This a test or somethin'?"

"It has to be," Sakura replied in an equally low tone as she stared up at the room number above the door— two-oh-one. "The waiting room's on the third floor. We're on the second." She wore her typical sleeveless navy shirt but this time with a gray tank top hoodie thrown over to cover up her hair and lower her chances of immediate attention.

Shino hummed. "So a genjutsu, then. Surely a handful of teams have noticed but are biding their time as well. Why? Because a test such as this would have the few genjutsu types here realize they've been tricked. No one is making a move towards the stairs. Everyone who knows is waiting it out, just as—"

A sudden shout cut their conversation short as a genin dressed in a jumpsuit was thrown back and landed in a clumsy heap on the ground. Eye-straining green, neon orange weights, and an immaculate bowl cut. Kiba shivered.

"Holy shit he looks like Maito Gai. Did sensei ever say anything about him havin' a kid?!"

"Rock Lee. The only relationship he has to Maito-san is being his student, astoundingly," assured Shino.

"You sure? You're shitting me." Akamaru yipped quietly and Kiba shook his head. "Right, right, stay focused. Sorry. So— Maito's team. That kid can't really get tossed like that. He's got, like, four of those monster weights on, and we only know how much they weigh 'cause that's the team sensei got your weights from." He nudged Sakura. "And the guy he's with's the Hyuuga we're worried about. Neji. Y'know, noble clan, total sticks up their asses. He wouldn't be caught dead with a lousy teammate, 'else he woulda been transferred by now."

Sakura tilted her head in acknowledgement as her eyes roved over the rest of the participants. She was right to have walked the streets those few times prior to the exams since most of the faces are vaguely familiar at worst, very little of them completely foreign to her at all.

Tenten, the last member of Maito's team, rushed to Lee's side as murmurs of disapproval rippled through the audience. Sakura ignored them too in favor of scrutinizing one of the exasperated-looking figure leaning in the shadows and watching the confrontation with a humored tint to his eyes.

But then he blinked and moved his gaze to her.

"Unfair?" the guard with the bandana scoffs. He addressed everyone gather with a puffed chest and a pointed smile, but Sakura paid no mind and nodded across the room. "We're being nice to you brats—you think these exams are for weaklings? I've seen people quit after realizing what they have to go through to get to the top, people getting crippled for life because they pretended to be strong."

Kankuro took the nod with a lazy wave of his own and motioned towards the guards, the word boring silently dripping from his mouth as he rolled his eyes.

The second guard with the spiked hair continued on with a sadistic grin. "Chuunin need to be leaders. You're going to have missions that fail, subordinates that'll die—"

Kankuro gestured to his head with a decidedly mocking smile and Sakura shrugged, giving her hood a little tug with one hand and using her other hand to rub at her cheek with only her middle finger. He snorted.

But then something in his face changed as some sort of realization crested his skin like the sunset. His lips pressed into a grim line and he turned away, his blonde teammate oblivious of their discussion and watching the slowly churning disaster like the rest of the crowd, and his red-haired teammate stony-faced as he intently eyed green jumpsuit.