I tightened my bandage and walked over to my team. "Hey," I said, putting up my hand in a lazy wave. Naruto's smile beamed back at me. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at me, and Sakura... Something was wrong with Sakura.
"Hey, Sakura." I bumped her with my shoulder.
"U-Uh, yeah?" I frowned.
"What's wrong?"
Her eyes widened then she waved her hands dismissively. "N-Nothing! Nothing! It's nothing..."
My frown deepened, but I decided to let her go.
"Well," Naruto said, putting his hands on his hips. "What are we waiting for?!" He walked right through the door as if he owned the place. I chuckled and walked in behind him, Sakura and Sasuke behind me.
The many heartbeats in this one place overwhelmed me. I grunted in pain and clutched my head. It felt like I had a major migraine, all the heartbeats beating and echoing in my head.
"Hibiki, are you alright?" I clutched my head harder and didn't answer until I got used to the rhythm of the echoes.
I let go and gave Sakura a weak smile. "Yeah, fine."
We walked up right as a girl with two buns was punched by... a mini Kotetsu? They even put a crappy genjutsu on the sign of room 201.
"You think this is a joke? Chunin get chosen to lead missions. The lives of your squad members are in your hands. Delicate little girls don't belong here."
I walked up in front of the girl and raised my eyebrow at the two. "Oh really? Says the two that merely guard the gates almost everyday." They sweat-dropped when they saw me.
"Nothing ever gets past you, Hibiki." Smoke covered them as they undid the transformation jutsu and genjutsu.
Almost everyone gasped as their true forms were revealed. Everyone except my team of course.
"Hibiki is amazing at discovering genjutsu and transformation jutsu. She's great at sensing others too. Along with Sakura, our brains." Sasuke walked up beside me with his hands in his pockets.
"Hey," came a voice. I turned towards the girl that Kotetsu had punched. "Thanks." She put her hand on my shoulder as a boy with weird hair in a bowl-cut pulled her up.
*FLASHBACK*
Tenshi-Sensei put her hand on my shoulder and looked over at the piece of paper on my desk. "You can't think of one person?"
I shook my head with a sigh. "No... I can't think of anyone to put as reason one."
Tenshi-Sensei put her hand over mine, saying, "May I?" I nodded my head and let her move my hand. She wrote her own name in slot one.
A smile lit up my face. "I didn't even think of that! Sorry Tenshi-Sensei!" She pat my head and began to walk out my room.
"And, hey, you don't even have to fill in every spot now. You could meet others later."
*FLASHBACK END*
I grabbed her by the wrist and flipped her over my shoulder.
"Hibiki?!"
I leant on my knees and tried to calm my breathing.
It's not her, it's not her, it's not her, it's not her, it's not her, it's not her, it's not her.
"It's not her." Someone pushed me from behind. It sounded like Neji, but I'm not sure. So many heartbeats were pounding my skull. Her face flashed across my vision.
I pushed myself up and looked around at all the surprised and slightly frightened faces of ninja. I looked down at the girl, but couldn't meet her eyes.
"I'm gonna go on ahead." I said, keeping my eyes on the ground and tugging nervously at my bandage. "See you there."
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*Kakashi's POV*
I put my book back into my weapons pouch as I saw Hibiki coming up to me. She kept nervously tugging at her bandage and didn't seem too happy or excited to see me.
"You're the only one who decided to participate in the exams?" I asked her. She stayed quiet. No, Sasuke wouldn't give up on revenge so easily... Would he? Only if he found out about Hibiki being an Uchiha. Yes, that's the only way he would ever give up. And even then, it would be a tough chance since he has been so enthusiastic about it.
"If you are I'm sorry to inform you, but-"
"They're coming soon enough," came her blunt response. I tilted my head towards her, finally getting a full glimpse of her masked face. She looked angry and sad at the same time. But she also had a look on her face I had only seen once. She looked concerned, scared, and confused.
Her eyebrows were inched together and a scowl lay on her masked face. What had happened? I took my book back out and was about to start reading again when she spoke up.
"I don't care about becoming a Chunin."
I looked away from the book and at her concerned face once again.
"I thought your dream was to become an ANBU. Almost all ANBU were Jounin before they join. And to become a Jounin you need to become a Chunin."
"It's not that," she sighed. "I lied because my real dream is stupid. And just what the name suggests; a dream."
"Any dream can become reality."
"Not when your me."
"And why is that?" I tried to recall anything from the interrogation about a real "dream" of Hibiki's. I do remember one thing though, there was one large section of her memory blocked off so no one but Hibiki could access it. Not even a great interrogator like Inoichi could succeed at unlocking that part of her mind.
"The circumstances..."
"Then what is this real dream of yours?"
She sighed. "Playing questions again are we? Whatever. What do I have to lose if I tell you?" She let go of her bandage mid-tug and looked up at me. "My dream was to become the greatest medical ninja in the Tsukino clan."
I was caught a bit off-guard at her dream. I thought it might be something like Sasuke's hunger for revenge, or maybe a hunger for power. Never would I have thought that Hibiki would want to be a medic ninja.
"Due to the kekkei genkai, Blood Style, that the Tsukino possess they are all great medic ninjas. Or, they supposed to be. They created the blood clone jutsu so they could treat more patents. They figured out how to put their chakra into blood so that they control it and easily keep a patient from bleeding out.
"But with such power comes hunger. People wanted the Tsukino power, so they were hunted. Originally from the Village Hidden in the Stars, they went into hiding. Many of the jutsu created to protect the clan were marked as forbidden; never to be used again. Like the million heart explosion jutsu I used in the Land of Waves."
All of this information was new to me. I knew the Tsukino were great medic ninja and that they possessed something others wanted, but other than that the Tsukino were a mystery. They had hidden themselves so well that it was at least two weeks until they were found. Every single one dead.
"Why can't you achieve your dream?" I asked, deciding to push my luck and ask her one more question.
"They're here."
I looked from her to where the rest of Team Seven was making their way over.
"I'm glad you're all here. Especially you, Sakura." I made sure to look as serious as possible for what I was about to tell them.
"Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and Hibiki." I gave them all a closed-eye smile. "I'm proud of you. Couldn't ask for a better team." I stepped out of the way of the door. Hibiki pushed herself off of it and gave me a look. A look saying, "thanks for listening". At least, I think that's what it said.
"Good luck."
"We won't let you down Sensei, believe it!" Naruto said.
Sasuke pushed open the door, revealing the many people participating in the Chunin Exams.
I chuckled to myself before poofing away to where I was to meet with Asuma and Kurenai.
*Hibiki's POV*
"Whoa..." Naruto said from beside me.
"I-I guess we're not alone." Sakura said, with a surprised look on her face.
I caught some of the people that saw me flip the girl that was supposedly on Neji's team give me frightened or suspicious glance.
I put my hand on Sakura's shoulder, only to have her flinch away. I tried not to let my sadness and disappointment show on my face.
"Don't worry, Sakura!" Naruto said. I zoned out of their conversation in search of Gaara. I finally spotted him amongst the crowd and walked over to say hi.
(I know! I'm sorry there are so many POV switches, but I want to show the canon characters more of Hibiki's past! So bear with me!)
*Sasuke's POV*
A boy with silver hair walked over to us rookies, a smirk on his face. "Hey, would you mind keeping it down? You're the nine rookies, right? I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves."
"Who asked you?" Ino screeched. "Who are you?"
"I'm Kabuto Yakushi, but really, just look around. You've made quite an impression." We all turned and looked at the other Genin participating in the Chunin Exams. Every eye was on them.
"And you see those guys? They're from the Rain Village. I'd watch out for them. I heard they're very touchy. Everyone is. This exam makes everyone tense. I guess you can't help it, you're rookies after all. You all remind me of the first time I was here. It's... It's my seventh time taking the exams."
"Wow! You must be an expert by now." I mentally scoffed. He never passed the exams, how's he an expert? I could do better than him now than he's done all seven times put together.
Shikamaru voiced my exact thoughts. "I guess what they said about the exams are true. I knew this was gonna be a drag."
"Hey, maybe I can help you guys out with my," he took out some orange cards and held them in front of his face, "ninja info cards." Intresting... I'm going to have to use those to my advantage.
"It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra encoded with what I've learned over the past four years." He set them on the floor and explained a bit about the Chunin exams and why they're held.
"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates? Individually?"
"They might. Depends on who you're looking for. Have anyone in mind?"
"Maybe."
"Well, I can't say that my information is completely accurate, or if I even have that person at all, but I have something on almost everyone. I even have you guys. So who do you want to know about?"
"I have three people in mind. Gaara of the Sand, Rock Lee of the Leaf, and Hibiki Tsukino of the Leaf. She may be from the Mist or any other village. I'm not completely sure."
"Intresting, let me see..." He found cards on the Sand boy and Rock Lee. I have to admit, I was itching to see the card on Hibiki.
"And last, Hibiki Tsukino...." He searched through his cards and frowned.
"I don't have a Hibiki Tsukino of the Leaf. I do have a Habiki Tsukino of the star though."
"What? Star? Does this have to do with what happened yesterday Sasuke?" Naruto asked from beside me.
I didn't bother answering him. This could be it. This could be the answer to my suspicions.
"Actually, I've been wondering about her too. She's kind of weird..." Sakura said. The others agreed with her.
"Hibiki Tsukino it is..." Kabuto spun the blank card around, revealing a whole card full of information.
The weird thing was, Hibiki's card wasn't "updated". The picture was of a small girl who looked to be about seven years old. She had on a weird headband with a star engraved in the middle.
"Hibiki Tsukino, of the Village Hidden in the Stars."
"The Village Hidden in the Stars?" Naruto said.
"Yes, it's a relatively small village, not one of the Five Great Nations obviously. It's odd, considering they barely send people to the Chunin Exams, let alone seven year olds." He pointed to a category titled, "Ninja Experience".
"And look at this, 24 D-Rank, 12 C-Rank, and 2 B-Rank. That's amazing..."
He pointed to a spot with a hexagon. "She's best at ninjutsu and she is apparently quite skilled at using her Kekkei Genkai. I have yet to find out what it's called though. She is okay at genjutsu and is horrible at taijutsu." He then pointed to three people; a boy with short green hair and blue eyes, a girl with brown hair and eyes, and an older woman that was most likely her sensei with brown hair and green eyes.
"These are her teammates: Luna Hayashi, Mikazuki Saito, and her sensei Tenshi. I wasn't able to get a last name for her. There isn't much more information." The card went blank again.
Hibiki, what are you hiding?
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*Hibiki's POV*
I clenched my head as a lot of heartbeats suddenly appeared in the room.
So many people at once?! Can't I just get a break?!
"Are you alright?" Gaara asked me. I nodded and let go of my head. "Yeah, fine."
"Alright you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up!" I looked over to where the heartbeats came from.
"It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor and from this moment, your worst enemy." I gulped at the name.
Crap.
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WHOOOOOO!!!! Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Who's excited for the Chunin Exams? *raises hand* ME!!!! As you've noticed, I've been letting a lot of Hibiki's past show. That's because........ This book is almost over!!!! But don't be sad, I'm planning on making a Shippuden. And yes, I know this is shorter than most fanfictions, but there's a reason for that. BTW, Hibiki Tsukino literally translates into echo of the moon. You'll understand why later. I've decided to start asking questions at the end of every chapter. You guys can answer in the comment section. I'll start off with an easy one. Also, if you have a question for Hibiki, I'm planning on doing a Q&A. Ask in the comment section. Hibiki will answer as long as it is not to big of a spoiler. ;P
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