The infamous list:
Shippuu no Naruto-Taiki
Arashi no Sasuke-Masaru
Sabaku no Gaara-Shinta
Rasen no Neji-Haru
Nisshoku no Sakura-Emi
Gesshoku no Hinata-Rei
Hara no Haku-Ryou
Shin'en no Sai-Hideaki
Haka no Kimimaro-Yuuma
The meeting of Hakumei took place at a late hour in Team Dattebayo's room, after making sure that there wasn't a hidden camera in there. There wasn't. Apparently, no one really wanted to see the Genin dress and undress. The meeting was quick, it had to be. For one thing, teams kept coming in at all hours of the night, and they didn't want to bring too much attention to themselves. Thankfully, most people would think they were cooking up a strategy to use with one another the next day. Naruto allowed them to keep that delusion.
The meeting itself was quick. Kimimaro described what they had found, and Naruto, with Sasuke and Sakura's interjections, described what happened in the forest. They also produced the paper with the message that Naruto had found. That produced a lot of discussion.
"So, it's either written by someone with terrible handwriting, or it was written by someone who's using their other hand," Neji said thoughtfully, "So instead of saying who it was let's work out who it wasn't."
"Sounds good," Haku agreed, "I don't think that it was Kabuto-san."
"Me neither," Kimimaro and Neji both said at the same time.
"It wasn't Yumi," Sasuke supplied.
"Nope," Naruto agreed.
"So, that leaves us with...nearly everyone else," Hinata sighed, "Other than Kinen of course, since we know that they're on our side."
"So, basically, we have to wait until they reveal themselves to us," Sakura said.
"Sounds like it," Haku said thoughtfully.
"I hate waiting..." Sai sighed.
In the end it was decided to wait to see what happened and to keep their guards up. After all, they didn't even know if the note was genuine or a hoax created because someone was suspicious and wanted them to reveal themselves.
"By the way," Hinata said as they began to get ready to return to their own rooms, "Taiki, we're going to talk to Frog Face about Fuzzy Wuzzy when we get home. And don't you dare not tell us if you're worried about something. We're family. Family doesn't keep dark secrets."
Naruto grinned a little bit at her.
"I'm fine," he said, "Really, there's nothing to worry about."
"When you get like that, you make me worry more," Hinata sighed, "I swear..."
"Really," Naruto repeated, "It was just a bit of a shock. I haven't really had the time to think about Fuzzy since I was seven. When it came out it startled me. That's all."
"Remember this, Taiki," Hinata said looking away a little bit, "When you don't tell people what's wrong, they worry. Fuzzy is a big problem, but it's not as big of a problem as it could be. Let's talk to him about this later, and then we can figure out what happened. It's probably completely natural. It looks like the seal is designed to let out a little Chakra anyways."
"Thanks, Rei." Naruto grinned.
The others exchanged bored looks as Hinata blushed a little and Naruto looked a little confused. The looks were pretty obvious: this guy is so oblivious that it's disgusting.
Morning was not a welcome thing. Naruto hadn't wanted to wake up after the effort from the meeting. He was tired, and the team in the room to his right was very, very loudly celebrating their success in the Exam. Naruto had a feeling that it was the Sound team that he had fought, but didn't bother to see if he was right.
Naruto slept later than usual, but dragged himself up in time to catch breakfast before he missed it. It was a rather sorry breakfast, only a bowl of rice and some fish, but Naruto had long since learned not to complain about food when placed in front of him for free.
He was surprised when the Chuunin who was guarding the door for some reason that escaped Naruto told them that they would be summoned into the Main Room, which seemed to be were the orientation for the Exams was held, at noon. That would be the official end of that part of the Exams. Naruto would rather have it end at a better time, but he supposed that this way, he could rest and prepare himself for whatever was going to happen during the next part.
Mostly, Naruto ended up playing shogi with Sasuke, Neji didn't want to play with him, since he couldn't really think of what to do with himself. If the next part involved fighting, he would just have to make sure that he didn't use any techniques that may be recognized as coming from Konoha. That was a problem, since most of the best techniques he had were either variants of the kage bunshin or things taught to him by Jiraiya that were very memorable, like Rasengan. Naruto would be limited, but then again, that limit would probably make him look like just another Genin with slightly above average skills. That was what he wanted.
Naruto wasn't the best shogi player in the world, and Sasuke managed to have his ego stroked a great deal before the bell to announce the noon meeting finally came. Naruto sat up with a sign of relief. Sasuke glowered a little as he packed up the board.
"Awful timing," he muttered.
"Only for you," Naruto sighed, "I was getting tired of watching you destroy me over and over again with that same stupid smirk on your face like this was something new. You know that I can't play this game all that well."
"Then think and don't talk," Sasuke said rolling his eyes, "I've seen you come up with good strategies before."
"Only on the field," Naruto replied, "This is completely different."
"Only in your head," Sasuke said.
Haku stuck his head into the room where the two were.
"Are you ready?" he asked, "I heard someone say that the people who show up late get disqualified."
"What?" Sasuke growled, "I didn't hear that!"
"Well, come on," Haku said motioning them, "Just leave the board. I don't think that anyone would want it anyways."
Naruto, Sasuke and Haku ran down the hall toward the door that Naruto had thought led to the orientation room. He was right. It was a large, stone room with a computer that seemed to be there to announce something. There were balconies that all surrounded a large clear area at the base of a statue of two hands performing a seal. There was already a large group of teams in that clear area. All three of them took their places with their respective teams. Sakura gave a reproving look to Naruto and Sasuke, and Neji and Kimimaro both hissed something at Haku who looked apologetic and glanced over at Sasuke.
"Shogi nut," Neji whispered.
Kimimaro looked at Neji in a slightly amused way.
"That came from you?"
"I don't forget when a major tournament is going on just to play shogi," Neji replied.
Kimimaro smirked a little. Sasuke glared over at them, but didn't say anything. He was trying to muster up what remained of his dignity and ignore them completely. Besides, there were other, far more important things happening.
A set of doors that was in the opposite direction of the one they had come into opened revealing the Godaime Hokage along with a guard of Chuunin and Jounin instructors from every village participating. It had been five years since Naruto had seen Danzou. Now, he stood in his Hokage robes of white trimmed with red and the traditional hat. His face was still wrapped in bandages, and he leaned on a cane. Part of Naruto was amazed that he looked so weak. The other was amazed that he didn't look like he had aged a single day.
Danzou looked over the crowd of children with a completely unreadable expression on his face. His one eye was hard and sharp, and his grip was relaxed. Although he was watchful, Danzou didn't see a single person there as a threat to him.
'Just you wait,' Naruto thought.
"Greetings all," Hayate said, coughing a little and smiling in a slightly sickly way, "My name is Gekko Hayate, and I will be the examiner of this part of the Exams. Before we discuss that, the Godaime Hokage has a few words to say to you."
"Welcome," Danzou said calmly walking up, "All of you who have passed this part of the Exam have proven that you have the ability to service on an extended mission. Congratulations. Yet, this is not the end as many of you have most liked deduced. A Chuunin is only a temporary step before reaching Jounin or Special Jounin. You have proven that you have the ability to survive against the elements and stress. Now you will be tested to see if you have the ability to survive against your fellow ninja."
"I will tell you each something: the Chuunin Exams are not a way to help with foreign relations," Danzou said with a thin smile, "They are an organized form of war between all nations. Nothing more. That is why even nations who are enemies send their Genin here. All other things said are pretty lies told to keep the daimyos and the civilians happy."
"The final Exams are scheduled to take place in one month. This allows lords and nobles as well as business men from around the world to arrive and know who is participating. These lords enjoy betting on participants, and they are able to see promising talent that they will request from the Genin's village in the future. This year is a unique one, as so many of you have managed to pass. Unfortunately for all of you, there is a maximum number of Genin that can participate. There are far too many of you. As such, for the first time in years, we will be holding a preliminary round. You will be matched against one another in a one-on-one battle. The winner will proceed to the final Exam. Furthermore, I declare all teams temporarily dissolved for the duration of the preliminaries. They will begin immediately. I give all who feel that they are not able to compete in this preliminary the chance to forfeit now, as we are not responsible if one of you who is too tired to fight is killed."
This statement led to a very long and ominous silence as the participants digested this piece of information.
Slowly, a few people raised their hands. One good thing about this was that those who had raised their hands were ushered off through another set of doors, probably to some underground passage or other way to get back into the main city of Konoha quickly. Naruto was sure that was something like that somewhere. Danzou wasn't going to want to fight his way through if he didn't have to.
"I see," Danzou said in an emotionless tone as those who had chosen to stay watched him apprehensively, "Those of you who have chosen to stay, go up to the balcony, and this computer will randomly select your matches."
Naruto filed up the flight of stairs and looked around to see who else had passed. The other Grass team was there, talking to their sensei in quiet voices. Naruto doubted that he had ever seen a man quite that large and...well ageless. He could have been anywhere from fifteen to twenty-something. That was by itself strange. Yumi, Shino and Kiba had made it through and were talking to Kakashi, or rather Kiba was talking to Kakashi and Yumi and Shino were both nearby. The Sand Team had made it. Temari was looking over at Matsuri with a look that told him that it was no thanks to her that they had made it so far. The Sound team had also managed to pass. They were talking to their sensei, and Naruto noticed that the one, Dosu's, eyes met his once but he couldn't read the look. The girl who Neji had confronted in the Exams was there, but her team seemed to have forfeited. The same was true for Sora. Naruto was hoping to get matched up against him from the first. Just because that smirk on his face was annoying.
Naruto stood with Sakura and Sasuke as he waited for the computer to come up with the combinations. The computer had turned on and it seemed to be shuffling the names up and sorting through them very quickly to choose a random selection. Final there was a pinging sound and two names appeared on the board.
Inuzuka Kiba vs. Yuuma
"Oh yeah," Kiba punched one fist into the air, "I'm up! Wait. Aw, I got a weak opponent. Come on, Akimaru, let's get this over with."
Kiba had turned away from the others and was stomping down the stairs, grumbling a little about how he had wanted to fight Shino or maybe Sora or at least one of the tough looking Kusa nin.
Naruto looked over at Kimimaro, who hadn't even turned a hair at Kiba's statement. He seemed more or less amused by the whole thing. Calmly, instead of using the stairs, Kimimaro jumped down, landing on his feet in a crouch and walking up to where Hayate waited. Kiba joined them a second later, giving Kimimaro a slightly confused look, but doing his best to look like he knew everything that was going on.
"This match is between Inuzuka Kiba of Konoha and Yuuma of Kusa. There is no time limit for this battle, and all weapons are permitted."
"Before we start, are you sure you don't want to forfeit?" Kiba asked.
Kimimaro looked at Kiba thoughtfully.
"You know," he said, "I was intending to go easy on you, but now...I think I'm going to take you a little more seriously than I had meant to. If only because you annoy me."
Kiba started to growl a little in response to that.
"That mutt-kid's going to die, isn't he?" Zabuza asked, coming up behind Naruto.
"I wouldn't say die," Sakura said thoughtfully, "but his ego is going to be in shreds after this. Yuuma looks as if he'll use his tongue as a mop for this arena."
Sasuke nodded without saying anything. He seemed to be more interested in the actual match than giving a whole lot of commentary on it. Kimimaro's battles were usually interesting.
Naruto heard something and looked over his shoulder to see Shino, Yumi and Kakashi walking towards them.
"So, Kusa nin," Yumi said softly to Sasuke, "Do you think that your friend will be able to survive an attack by a Konoha nin?"
"We'll see," Sasuke said calmly.
Shino said nothing.
"Hey, Yuuma," Kiba said, "I have a great idea. The loser has to address the winner as '-sama' and bow to them. What do you say?"
"If that's the stake you want to play..." Kimimaro said, "Personally, I would have had something more like the loser has to tell the winner all of their teammates abilities, but they're your stakes."
"Begin!" Hayate called.
Kiba wasted no time on further speech, he charged Kimimaro with the first punch, but only got air as Kimimaro evaded him. Kiba punched again, but met only air.
"Stop running away and fight me!" Kiba growled, jumping up into the air and aiming a kick at Kimimaro's chest.
Kimimaro stood his ground this time, and Kiba's grin turned into a look of shock, pain, and horrified disgust when Kimimaro's rib cage came out and caught his foot like a trap. Kiba twisted his foot, but it remained where it was.
"H-how," Kiba stuttered out.
"Unorthodox, aren't I?" Kimimaro asked, a smirk on his face, "This is the kekkei genkai of my family, Inuzuka-san. You've seen it before once. Don't you remember?"
Naruto noticed that Danzou had straightened where he stood, his eyes on Kimimaro, and had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking. This kid had just displayed a kekkei genkai that was thought to have been extinct for a long time, and the family itself had been killed off. How was it that someone had inherited it? How many other people had it? Also, Kiri had kept the power of its clans a careful secret. That would mean that Danzou had no idea what attacks Kimimaro could use or just how strongly the Kekkei Genkai had manifested itself.
"Is that...the Shikotsu Myaku?" Shino asked.
"Don't be stupid," Yumi said dismissively, "The entire Kaguya clan was killed in an attack on Kiri, everyone knows that. Also, the bloodline had become tainted with outside bloodlines, so the power had died out."
"Yumi-san, I'm sorry, but it appears to be the Shikotsu Myaku," Shino insisted, "I don't know how, but it seems that one of them survived and with the full power of the bloodline."
Meanwhile Kiba was still attempting to wrest his leg free, until finally Kimimaro allowed him to. Kimimaro was now in a fighter's crouch. It looked like he had decided to stop playing with him and truly defeat him.
"You...that hand..." Kiba breathed.
"Yes, that was me," Kimimaro admitted in a careless tone, "I wanted someone to experiment on. You have an ego problem. I thought it was perfect. Now, enough games. Come at me with everything you have."
Kiba growled, "You're going to regret saying that, freak. Come on Akimaru, let's turn this guy into dog food."
"That was quiet possibly the worst 'tough' statement that I've heard," Sasuke commented.
Akamaru jumped back onto Kiba's head and Kiba gave it a small pill of some kind. The effect was instantaneous. The usually small, white dog began to grow and darken into a brown color. Also, its teeth, which had been unimpressive, had become long and vicious looking. The monster version of Akamaru growled at Kimimaro, who seemed to be studying it and forming a plan of some kind.
"Shikyaku no Jutsu!" Kiba called, falling to all fours as his nails and teeth grew longer.
Kimimaro extended his hands in a style that Naruto was well accustomed to. This was Kimimaro's weakest attack, but it served as his only long range one where he didn't show off his final attack or his more powerful ones. Naruto had a feeling that Kimimaro wasn't going to show everything, and was trying to only use as few of his attacks as he could. After all, Danzou didn't know just what Kimimaro could do, so he had the element of surprise. Even if they knew that he had the Shikotsu Myaku, no one in Konoha knew how to fight it or what its weaknesses were.
In Naruto's opinion, Kimimaro was sort of the Shikotsu Myaku's last gamble. He had pretty much been given all the powers that the bloodline could offer in the bloodline's attempt to survive. If Kimimaro died, that bloodline went with him, but the chances of him dying weren't too good.
"Teshi Sendan," Kimimaro said calmly.
Kiba didn't understand what Kimimaro was doing until it was almost too late and he had been shot. It was also thanks to the fact that Kimimaro didn't have the greatest aim when he was trying to do a general sweep, so Kiba got to see one of the bones hit the wall about three millimeters from his head. Both Kiba and Akamaru started to run towards Kimimaro running in a zigzag pattern trying not to get hit by the bullets. Kimimaro grazed his shoulders a few times, but Kiba mostly was unscathed as he closed in. Once they were close, they both began their attacks, biting and scratching at Kimimaro, but were finally repelled by a barrage of bones.
Kiba jumped back, panting a little bit, but his eyes lit up when he saw that there was a cut on Kimimaro's arm that was bleeding.
"Heh, I told you that Konoha nin are more powerful than Kusa nin," Kiba grinned, "Next to my ultimate techniques, your little bones are nothing!"
Kimimaro laughed softly.
"What's so funny?!" Kiba yelled.
Kimimaro raised his hand, "This little cut...does it make you happy?" he asked, still smirking, "Only an inexperienced ninja would refer to a technique that didn't kill their opponent in one blow as their 'ultimate technique.'"
Kimimaro charged, not using his bone structure yet, just simple taijutsu.
"There is no such thing as an 'ultimate technique'," Kimimaro said, sending a roundhouse kick that Kiba blocked but was knocked back.
Akamaru charged and jumped, aiming a bite for Kimimaro's head, but he dodged. Kimimaro's speed matched both of theirs exactly. Akamaru took a large bite out of air and skidded to the ground, slightly confused.
"A. True. Ninja. Is. Always. Growing," Kimimaro said between punches, "Always. Learning. Stronger. Techniques. And. Never. Allowing. Themselves. To. Stop."
Kiba had blocked most of Kimimaro's punches and had jumped back, landing next to Akamaru. He had started to really pant, and for the first time was really taking his opponent seriously. He snarled a little bit.
"You don't know anything about strength!" Kiba snarled, "I promised myself that I would be the strongest there was! No, stronger, and you're not going to stop me!"
"I'm curious," Kimimaro asked, still in his crouch, "Why do you think you have to be so strong? Family pride? To bring glory to your village?"
"Neither!" Kiba said, "Because you're an orphan, you might understand. What would you do if someone killed one of your friends?"
"They would be dead before they had taken a step," Kimimaro said in a cold voice.
"Well, I wasn't there!" Kiba yelled, "One of my friends was killed by foreign ninja when he was just a kid. Yeah, he was weak, slow and sometimes I doubted the guy's sanity, but he was still my friend."
Naruto wasn't sure whether he should be angry, or be happy, or just hit Kiba for being stupid. What was he thinking, buying into everything Danzou said just because that one of his friends had been involved? Surely he wouldn't have acted like that... Naruto would have thought out the things he was being told. Particularly when the attack on Iwa revealed that no one knew anything about that assassination. Then again, that was what Tsunade and Jiraiya had taught him maybe without them...
"So I decided that I would find the people who kidnapped them and kill them myself, and no ninja from a washed up, has-been village is going to stop me!" Kiba continued, "Akamaru, let's go!"
"Useless," Kimimaro whispered.
Akamaru jumped close to Kiba and there was a puff of smoke.
"Jujin Bunshin!" Kiba's voice yelled.
The smoke cleared and Kimimaro now faced two replicas of Kiba. Both were grinning at him and panting a little bit. Kimimaro did not appear all that phased by two Kibas any more than he had been by one. He simply changed his stance a little bit. Naruto leaned forwards, looking at Sakura and Sasuke. They were doing the same thing.
Naruto knew that stance really well. It meant that he was prepared to fight a large group of opponents such as Naruto's Kage Bunshin. It was also a technique that didn't show a great deal of Kimimaro's real power. For this kind of a fight, it was perfect.
"If you think you're so tough, you're going to face my most powerful technique," Kiba said smirking.
"I hope it's better than your last one..." Kimimaro muttered.
"You'll see for yourself," Kiba said proudly, "Gatsuga!"
Kiba and Akimaru seemed to spin rapidly like two drills and moved directly for Kimimaro. Kimimaro raised his arms.
"Karamatsu no Mai," Kimimaro said calmly.
From all over his body, bones shot up. The drills moved back, but attacked again from another angle. Kimimaro began to spin, the bones flashing sinisterly. There was a howl of pain, and one of the attackers fell back, bleeding and changing back into Akamaru. The other drill whirled around and attempted to catch Kimimaro from the back, only to meet another bone that dug into his shoulder.
Kimimaro stopped and calmly looked at Kiba, his eyes appraising him. Then the bone shot back into him, and Kiba fell to the ground in a heap.
"I avoided puncturing your lungs," Kimimaro said, "But there is no way that you could kill the man who killed your friend."
"What do you know?" Kiba hissed.
Kimimaro calmly put his foot on Kiba's head, "I know that right now I could kill you, and there's nothing you could do about it. If you were defeated by me, you couldn't possibly win against someone who was ANBU level or higher."
"I can still fight," Kiba growled.
"I see your partner means nothing to you then," Kimimaro said, his eyes on Akamaru, and extending a hand in the position of Teshi Sendan towards him.
The dog was bleeding badly. It struggled to get up, but it was unable to do so. When he noticed Kimimaro's eyes on him, Akamaru growled, but it was a weak, tired sound. There was no way that he was going to manage to escape Kimimaro's attack. Kiba's eye flickered back and forth between Kimimaro and Akamaru, as the debate took place in his mind. Finally he gave in.
"Alright, you win," he gasped, "Just don't hurt Akamaru."
"Inuzuka Kiba has forfeited the match," Hayate said calmly, "The winner is Yuuma."
All of Hakumei cheered loudly.
"Weakling," Yumi said calmly, "Letting his feelings for his dog get the better of him. He should have continued and bought a new dog."
Shino said nothing.
"So then he would have been beaten and his dog killed as well?" Sasuke asked, "Yuuma crushed him."
"Because he cared too much about his mutt, and your friend didn't have anything to tie him down," Yumi said calmly, "People are only at their strongest when they have nothing to limit them like a bomb. That is why ROOT is so effective in Konoha. I assume you have heard how they destroyed Iwa?"
Naruto had to disagree. The most dangerous that he had seen Kimimaro was the one time that he had thought that they were going to be killed. The same went for all of them. Alone they could be picked off, but together they were a force to be reckoned with. Hakumei usually worked as an entire unit, unlike other groups, who were usually divided. Yumi had a point that people who didn't have any connections to anything were dangerous, they were also weaker since an opponent could know for a fact that unless it benefited the team members, a ROOT team could be broken up and couldn't rely on each other.
Also, Kimimaro's mother, who ever she was, had named him well. He had completely dominated that match.
Kimimaro walked up the stairs as Kiba was taken away by some medic nins along with Akamaru.
Kiba didn't really understand what had happened. It had been like everything that he had done had been completely useless against that opponent. Where had he made a mistake? He had done everything the way that he should have, but it hadn't been enough. What was worse was that Akamaru was very badly hurt. Kiba felt even worse than if he had simply been defeated. He had caused his partner to be hurt as well.
That Yuuma guy had made it clear that if he had wanted to, he could have killed him and Akamaru.
Naruto would have laughed at him so hard he would have started hyperventilating then he would have said how he would have crushed Yuuma with his awesome skills if he had been matched up against him. Naruto always did have a huge head and not a whole lot of sense.
Kiba buried his face in his pillow. Yuuma had been right. He didn't have the power to defeat the people who had murdered Naruto. He couldn't even fight against a stupid Grass nin...
Kiba...
Kiba turned around to look at Akamaru. He had been bandaged up, but he was still tired and weak from the use of the soldier pill, which was very draining, and the loss of blood. He wagged his tail a little bit.
You did really great you know.
"He totally crushed us," Kiba sighed, "and we made ourselves look weak in front of Danzou-sama. How are we going to advance looking like that?"
...I thought we did pretty good...
Akamaru sounded a little upset, or maybe just hurt. Kiba couldn't tell, and that bothered him. Usually he was in tune with almost all of Akamaru's feelings.
"Hey, Akamaru," Kiba muttered, "I'm sorry...I actually considered letting that guy kill you so I could win...I...I don't deserve to be your partner."
But you didn't let him. You forfeited instead of letting me die.
"Yeah...I guess I did," Kiba was sometimes amazed by Akamaru's loyalty, "Well, Yumi's right. I don't have the willingness to make sacrifices to be a true ninja...but...I guess I'll have to redefine what a ninja is along with you. After all, we're partners and if the traditional ninja can't have a partner, we've got to change that! We'll make our own nindo!
Akamaru wagged his tail in agreement.
"If there's something in your way of being the best, knock it down...we got beat because I didn't think enough about my partner...I've got to get stronger and build my partnership...you'd agree wouldn't you...Naruto?"
Kimimaro got some pats on the back from Hakumei as congratulations on a job well done. He looked rather pleased with himself as he smirked at the others. Shino and Yumi, along with Kakashi had moved back to where they had been before. Naruto noticed that Kakashi was leading them and Shino looked a little reluctant to go.
"You took too long," Neji told him.
"I wanted to enjoy myself while I trampled his ego." Kimimaro admitted.
"You're sadistic," Hinata sighed.
"Only mildly so," Kimimaro said, "I don't enjoy hurting people, just...messing with them a little bit. You have to admit that his face was funny when my ribs came out."
Naruto grinned and had to agree, but felt the eyes of Danzou on them. He and the other former Konoha runaways would have to be really careful if they didn't want to be caught...
"The next match will begin immediately," Hayate called out.
Once again, the computer began sorting through the names of the participants and Naruto and the others waited. Some of the Genin leaned forwards hopefully, while others held back and watched the screen with a sort of calm anticipation. The only one who didn't seem to be looking forwards to the announcing of the next match was the Sand girl, Matsuri. She just looked a little on the sick side.
Finally, the pinging sound rang again and two names appeared.
Yamanaka Ino vs. Kankuro
Ino looked over at Kankuro, who smirked at her, and bit her lip.
"That guy's just flat creepy looking," Naruto heard her whisper to her teammates, "I really would rather not fight him..."
"It's a pain, but that's the rules," Shikamaru grumbled, "at least I don't have to fight now..."
"So selfish," Ino whispered, "Sometimes I can't believe they put you on a team with me."
"It's alright," Chouji said, "We don't mind."
Ino glared over at Chouji and stormed off down the stairs.
Naruto knew for a fact that there was a very good reason that that team had been placed together. First of all, they were a tribute to their dads, who had been a pretty famous team, and now were drinking buddies and had probably timed it so that their wives had kids in the same year, and the other was that their families were all officially critical of Danzou. (Also, Naruto knew for a fact that all three heads were members of Kinen.) They weren't openly against him or anything, but they were the only critics that Danzou faced. It was natural that he would put the children together under a teacher that he knew was loyal.
Naruto wouldn't have kept them together though. It seemed the Danzou underestimated the amount of strength that people could get from one another. Or maybe he didn't care too much. It was very hard for Naruto to tell with Danzou. That guy gave off almost no real feelings. It was creepy.
Had Sai been like that?
"Well, this is a nice break up," Neji said, "Who do you think is going to win?"
"Ino," Sakura said in a dead tone.
"Really?" Sasuke asked.
"Yeah, I think I remember reading about that family," Sakura said thoughtfully, "She might look like nothing more than a slightly sleazy girl with a loud mouth, but if she knows her family's moves, she's pretty dangerous."
"Hm," Neji said thoughtfully, "This match might be more interesting than I thought."
"I hope so," Sai said, "I really don't like watching guys beat up helpless girls..."
"I never saw you jump in to save us," Sakura pointed out.
"That's because you're not helpless."
"Does he have a thing for weaker women?" Naruto hissed to Sasuke.
"Apparently, I'm not complaining though, for a while I was worried that he wasn't interested at all. I think sensei was just as worried. He'll be thrilled."
"Can we please change the subject..?" Haku asked.
"It's starting," Hinata leaned on the ledge.
"This match is between Yamanaka Ino of Konoha and Kankuro of Suna. As before there is no time limit and all weapons are permissible. Begin!"
Ino wasted no time. She dashed towards him, feinted, and tried to attack from the side. Kankuro matched her movements exactly, blocking her punches, but not making any moves of his own. Naruto watched for a while. This didn't seem right for Kankuro for some reason. He had struck Naruto as being more like him and wanting to get the whole fight over with as soon as possible. He seemed to be reading her movements and growing accustomed to them, but what was he waiting for? In a match of strength, he would easily win.
What was he waiting for?
Naruto watched, trying to remember what Konohamaru had said about what Kankuro did. He played with dolls...and Kankuro had called them his weapons...What was a weapon that could be thought of like a doll?
"Hey, Shinta," Naruto called Gaara, "isn't Suna famous for having ninjutsu that used puppets?"
Gaara nodded, "It's one of Suna's distinctive traits. Some of their best ninja were puppet users. I believe that there are a lot of laws about what you're allowed to do now though. I remember reading that someone thought that it would be a bright idea to use human bodies as puppets."
"That's disgusting," Haku remarked.
Kankuro seemed to have either had enough of being beaten up by a girl or had read her all that he wanted to. At any rate, he punched out, forced Ino back, and jumped towards her while she was still a little unsteady, grabbing her long ponytail in one hand
"You're not too bad at taijutsu," he said, "but this isn't going to be a taijutsu battle anymore. Let's use our real techniques."
Ino smirked.
"You're going to regret saying that!" she said, "but if that's what you want, and you asked so nicely, I guess a lady like me has no choice but to agree.
With one motion, Ino had cut off the chunk of hair that Kankuro was holding, and she spun around to face him as Kankuro let go of the hair in disgust.
"But now I am mad," Ino said crossly, "You made me cut my precious hair!"
"Girls who fight shouldn't have hair that long anyways," Kankuro shrugged, "Don't they teach you anything. Hair's a target cutie."
"Heh, it's also a weapon!" Ino shouted.
Kankuro's smirk changed into a look of surprised as he looked down as his feet, which seemed to be straining but unable to move. He tried a few times, but it seemed that nothing was working.
"What's this?!" he asked in shocked.
"That, my friend, is a technique I thought up," Ino said proudly, "There's no way you can escape from me now!"
"Hm, Miss Gorgeous is pretty good..." Sai said thoughtfully.
"Better than I thought that she would be," Neji admitted.
Ino placed her hands so that she was looking at Kankuro through a circle made from her thumb and middle and index fingers and said calmly but very softly, "Shintenshin no Jutsu,"
Ino crumbled to the ground in what looked like a faint.
"So her great technique is to faint on command?" Sasuke asked.
"I hope not," Kimimaro said rolling his eyes, "Who would come up with such a stupid technique?"
"You're not listening," Hinata reproved them.
Kankuro was completely still for a moment, and then started to laugh a little bit. Slowly, Ino got off of the ground clutching her head and moaning a little in pain. She looked up at Kankuro in a confused way and gasped a little. Slowly, the clay that covered Kankuro's head began to break apart to show a completely mechanical face and the strange wrapped up thing on his back came undone in order to reveal the real Kankuro.
"What..." Ino gasped out.
"This is my Kugutsu no Jutsu," Kankuro smirked, "You really had rotten luck getting matched up against the only guy that attack wouldn't work on. Tough luck. Do you surrender or do you want me to use Karasu?"
"I surrender," Ino grumbled, "I can't fight with this headache..."
"You heard the lady," Kankuro said to Hayate.
"Yamanaka Ino has surrendered. The winner is Kankuro!" Hayate said calmly.
"So she possessed people?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, and apparently, you can't possess an inanimate object..." Sakura said.
Naruto would keep that in mind, just in case he ever had to go up against one of the Yamanaka clan. So, that was what Konohamaru meant. Naruto had thought so, but he just hadn't been completely sure up until now. Actually, Naruto didn't think that it looked much like a doll, and he was sure that it didn't just look nasty.
Gaara looked a little troubled, but Naruto didn't ask him if there was anything the matter. It might have something to do with the fact that Kankuro was his brother or something. He would ask later, if he had the chance.
So, Konoha had lost twice. Naruto was feeling a little more calm now that things were showing themselves that he had nothing much to worry about. The computer began its shuffle through names again, and Naruto watched boredly. He wasn't confident that they wouldn't face any trouble, but thing were looking much easier. There was a ping, and Naruto looked up to see the two names, and felt a rush of worry clench him stomach.
Uchiha Yumi vs. Emi
Anko tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Iruka. He had better be grateful for all the time that she had wasted watching the stupid Exam just so that he could see if his little favorite would be alright.
But that wasn't the reason that she was there.
From what she had seen of him in that little scuffle with the Sound team, he could take care of himself, and when he couldn't, he traveled in a pack to eliminate anything bad that might happen. It was clever, but somewhat disturbing. It had been a long time since she had seen kids that powerful.
Anko was actually against the Academy. It, in her view, actually made the students weaker because those who were naturally better had to slow down for those who were naturally worse. She knew that her thoughts were cruel when it came to the actual children, since five year olds shouldn't be fighting wars anyways, the Uchiha had proven that with Itachi, but as war continued, Anko wondered if at a certain age, those with talent should have been trained differently.
Iruka would disagree. For all that he now seemed to have split personalities, Iruka was firm on the notion that children should be allowed to have a childhood. Perhaps it was Anko's own lack of one that made her so cold. She had apprenticed to Orochimaru at a very young age, and that had changed a lot about her.
The thought of that monster made her lip curl. She had thought so highly of him once. She would have been willing to do anything for him. Once, he had had that ability. Orochimaru had been able to inspire loyalty and trust in others. When he had started to ignore her training slightly and act strangely, Anko had written it off. When he had placed the cursed seal on her, Anko's first thoughts were to justify him, to find any reason why he had changed so quickly and so dramatically. Anko hadn't wanted to believe that someone she had liked had used her like that, and she would have taken any excuse to believe that either it wasn't him or it wasn't his fault. Finally, the truth had been too obvious to ignore: Orochimaru had hid his true personality from everyone, and when it was advantageous to him, he had showed it.
What was amusing was that it wasn't even that advantageous to him. Maybe he had just gotten bored or something...
There were soft footsteps and Anko turned around to greet Iruka.
"You're late," she said, crossing her arms, "What are you taking lessons from Kakashi? Did you get lost on the road of life?"
She stopped when she realized that this was Iruka's annoying little friend Mizuki, a white haired, smooth talking ninja who Anko trusted as much as the average poisonous spider. She just got a really strange vibe off of him, and Anko had learned to trust the vibes that she got off of people.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mitarashi-san," Mizuki said, "Were you waiting for Iruka?"
"No, I just like standing around here looking bored," Anko said.
Mizuki laughed in a nervous kind of way and scratched the back of his head.
"You're a funny person, Anko-chan,"
What was it about this guy that got on her nerves? He had this irritating way of constantly being nice and charming, and it set her teeth on edge. Seriously, what guy was as even tempered as this one? Even Iruka could get angry, and his calmness and sweetness generally made her feel a little more normal than usual. This one just made her feel ready to kill someone, preferably, him.
"Get lost, Mizuki," Anko said, "What are you doing in Iruka's office anyways?"
"I was looking for some files on a few students that I think he had," Mizuki told her, completely ignoring her rudeness, "I want to know just how many rules Konohamaru-kun had broken so I can give a good report to Asuma."
Oh, yeah, like he was interested in what that little brat did. Anko knew for a fact that Mizuki had nothing to do with the troublemakers. Or maybe it was just because Konohamaru happened to be the Hokage's grandson.
...Who would name their kid 'Konohamaru' anyways... No wonder he was happily on the path to being a delinquent. Anko had heard that Hyuuga Hanabi had beaten the snot out of the kid for stalking her and showing her some horror that she refused to speak of...
"Yeah, well, do it some other time," Anko, said, suddenly struck by inspiration, "I have...business...with Iruka-kun."
She winked at the end of that sentence.
Anko knew perfectly well that most people assumed that she was fast. They also assumed that she didn't have a shirt on underneath her armor. Idiots. Armor was only so good. The more clothes the better. Anko had to admit, she didn't mind messing with people's dirty minds or presenting what looked like an easy target. In this case, it was going to come in handy. Mizuki would come to the dirtiest assumption his little mind could see, and he would go crawling back to whatever hole he had crawled out of with some R-rated fantasies to tell everyone. Then her trips to Iruka's office would seem perfectly normal.
She was such a genius.
Mizuki's face went red, and he made some stuttered excuses and left quickly. Aw, he was shy. Anko made a mental note of that. Could he really be this pathetic? No. Therefore he was suspicious.
"Anko-chan," Iruka asked walking in through the office, "is there a reason why Mizuki was in here?"
"He said he was looking for files on Konohamaru for some reason," Anko smirked, "I got rid of him. Now it's just the two of us."
Anko edged a little closer.
"Would you please not do that?" Iruka asked, "It's rather disturbing."
"Aw, but it was so fun," Anko grinned, "Did you know your friend was a closet pervert? Like Glasses-kun?"
"You get too much pleasure out of doing that," Iruka sighed, "What's more ironic, is that you've never even dated let alone-"
Anko hit him very lightly.
"Who cares, of course, if you're interested...?"
"When did we go from your trying to feed me to your snake to this?"
"I don't know, I guess sometime of working together made me realize that you really weren't a pervert." Anko grinned, "At any rate, I'm here for a reason. Jiraiya-sama gave me this to show to Kinen individually."
Anko took out a message capsule that was used for hawks and such, and she opened both the bottom and top flaps, coming up with two messages. The first was to Jiraiya, but the second was what had caught Anko's attention the most.
Ero-sennin,
Yes, that does happen to be your code name with us. Deal with it or harass Shippuu. I really don't care which.
Anyways, I have noticed that in the Exams there was a group who claimed to be from Kusa like us; however, they showed no sign of being confused by our presence and made a claim similar to ours as a reason why that did not know us. Enclosed is a reply to an inquiry that I sent to Kusa, giving them a description of the Genin and asking if they are what they claim.
Please know that I wrote this with the original inquiry and, since I have no means of receiving the letter in private, used one of your birds. I'm sure you're annoyed, but I'm also sure you'll live with it if this information tells you what I think it will.
Haka.
"That Haka kid is pretty interesting," Anko said with a smirk at Iruka, "Now, look at what he dug up."
Iruka picked up the other letter and read through it.
"If this is true..."
"And it is," Anko supplied.
"Then we have a team running around from some random place that we don't know about," Iruka said softly, "No one from Kusa matches those descriptions, but that names are the same as the Genin who went missing with their sensei. It looks like they killed those Genin and stole the identification papers. But why?"
"I think we should be informing the others right about now," Anko said calmly.
"You're right,"
A moment later, the office was abandoned.
Omake: Sasuke meets Lee
It was the day before the Exams, and Sasuke was wandering around Konoha with Sakura, trying to get familiar with the layout and ignore the feeling that he was being followed. As he turned a corner, he suddenly took a step backwards as a greenish blur streaked past him.
"Halt, oh unyouthful evildoer!" a voice yelled.
"Oh no," Sakura sighed, "not this guy again..."
"Hn?" Sasuke asked as the green thing streaked towards him again, obviously trying to attack.
"Um, Lee-san," Sakura said, "What are you doing?"
"Defending you, oh beautiful blossom of youth, from the clutches of this evil person who has been following you. Never fear, I will defend you as Konoha's Beautiful Blue Beast!"
Lee stopped and posed in his entire bowl cut glory, "You are not worthy of being my rival, evildoer, I will slay you as you stand!"
It was unfortunate that Lee happened to be standing right above a private home where the woman of the house was emptying out her bucket of dirty water out the window. Lee was suddenly soaked as he stood, and was blinking in a confused sort of way.
"Gomenasai!" the woman called, shutting the window.
Lee continued blinking.
"Just don't look at him," Sasuke whispered to Sakura, "If you ignore that kind, they won't go away, but they might stop stalking you."
Sakura and Sasuke edged away from Lee while his mind rebooted itself. When Lee was aware of the situation again, he was standing drenched in front of a large curious crowd of onlookers.
"Well, get the show started," an irritated man said, "We haven't got all day. If you want to get ahead in street performing you have to get over stage fright."