Tsukiko's pov:
The second that we stepped into the room every eye in the room looked at us, it was rather creepy. And it didn't help that Blondie from the academy yelled up and threw herself onto Raven, only to piss of Pinky.
Before I knew it, it was 'raining' rookies that I already knew from the academy. And of course they had to start fighting and provoking each others.
Shy for once in my life I stepped slightly backwards with my index finger slightly in my mouth, I was hiding behind Raven since Naruto and Pinky were off to pick fights with the other rookies. Raven just let me, he didn't seem to mind and he even straightened up to hide me better.
"Hey you guys! You should be quieter. You guys are rookies just out of the academy? Screaming like school girls.... Geez.... This isn't a picnic." Some grey-haired guy with glasses said, someone asked who he was and he answered: "I'm Kabuto. But instead of that, look behind you."
Slowly the others turned and only then they noticed how everybody was starring at us. Then Kabuto proceeded to tell them about the rain Nins, that had very short tempers, and about how everyone was nervous. I giggled and leaned in to whisper in Raven's ear.
"I'm not nervous for the exam." I whispered and he glanced back at me.
"You're tense." Was all he said.
"My stalker is the protector in the next exam, besides I don't like people looking at me like that..." I whispered to him and he smirked.
"Hn." He hn'ed and I shook my head at him.
"That's an awfully long word!" I giggled in his ear and he hn'ed again with his ghost smile on his lips.
I turned back to the conversation just in time to see Kabuto pull out a deck of cards while saying. "With these Nin-info cards."
Nin-info? On cards that appear blank, but shows info when feeded chakra? That actually smart...
I giggled as Kabuto offered to find info on anybody for us.
"Gaara of the desert and Rock Lee from the leaf." Raven said and I giggled and looked over his shoulder on the cards.
They were both pretty strong judging by the cards.
"Mini-Guy are a Taijutsu specialist and Redhead controls sand and wears a sandy sand amour, see? Now I just beat the cards." I giggled in Raven's ear and he nodded, then he suddenly looked at me.
"How do you know?" He asked surprised and slightly loud making Kabuto look up curiously, apparently he didn't know I was there.
"It's not hard to get info in this village, no one seem to notice me when I walk off and such. Only a very few people notice me to be honest. Like that Kabuto-guy, he didn't know that I was there." I mumbled into his ear and he nodded.
"Who knows what?" Kabuto asked and Raven hn'ed, but didn't answer.
"What about the most youthful daughter of Kakashi Hatake?" Mini-Guy asked from his place on a table, before he jumped down and walked over to Kabuto, who found a new card out and infused his chakra into it.
"Goes by Kiko Maris Hatake, but it doesn't say that under her name, it says so under nicknames, which isn't a normal felt on these cards. Her name felt is only says unknown." Kabuto started confused and I looked up over Raven's shoulder, weirdly enough a lot of people were listening. "Her hair color is unknown due to the use of hair dye, her eye color is unknown due to the use of contacts. Her age: 11. Birthday: unknown. Blood type: unknown. Hobbies: drawing. History: unknown." Kabuto seemed very frustrated as he held the card closer to his face. "Chakra nature: unknown. Origins: unknown. Kekkei Genkai: unknown. Size of chakra reserve: unknown. Jutsus: unknown. Team: unknown. Sensei: unknown. She came to the leaf village a few months ago, she was adopted by Kakashi Hatake on her second day in the village and passed the academy on her second day there. Her records are mostly sealed. She doesn't seem to have gone on any missions, at least it doesn't say so in her records. She never goes anywhere without her bag, but it doesn't seem like she uses it for anything."
I giggled at his frustrated face and turned to Pinky as she spoke.
"This is kinda a déjà vu from our team introductions." Pinky said with a small sigh. "She really doesn't tell anyone anything about herself. Unless you ask very accurately and nicely and doesn't get off track when she avoid the subject. At least that's what sensei said."
"She's in your team?" Kabuto asked. "Shouldn't she be here?"
"Hai, she is in our team and she is right he..." Pinky said, but stopped when she couldn't see me, then she turned to Naruto and Raven. "Guys, have you seen Kiko? She isn't lost or anything, right?"
"Now you are mean, I don't get lost. But couldn't you have said that before we went in here? Then I could have 'gotten lost' to avoid ever showing up here...." I muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
"Why didn't you just not show up?" Pinky asked and pulled me out from behind Raven, which made me pout.
"Otou-sensei said that he would punish me if I didn't, besides he dragged me here. Meanie pants." I said in a slight baby-voice and Blondie from the academy stormed up and embraced me.
"Awww! She is just so sweet and cute! I don't know why I ever hates this girl!" She said happily as she hugged me close.
"You hated me..." I asked her teary eyed and looked up at her.
"Iie! Iie! I would never! Gomenasai!" She said and hugged me closer.
"Ino-pig let go of her!" Pinky yelled at her, but she refused.
"Let go of her." A cold voice sounded from Raven, which made Blondie let go right away.
I giggled and jumped over to Raven, who still stood close to Kabuto, though with his back to him. He stood as if frozen with the card with my info in his hand. Suddenly he began moving, he started to pace.
"This got to be a mistake! How can I not have any info on such a small kid?! Why would her files be sealed?! I must have switched her name with someone else’s! She can't be the one adopted by Kakashi Hatake, it's supposed to be someone strong! She's too weak!" He muttered loudly, pouting I looked up at him.
"Weak? Why would you say that? Of course I'm not strong, I'm just a little girl." I said softly, before continuing loudly. "You're such a Meanie!"
He froze again and looked at me, I smirked inwardly and took control of the blood in his arm. I forced his arm up towards my face, making him hit me.
I know, it sounds weird.
But if you hit a small 'innocent' girl, then you are looked at weirdly. In this exam you would probably become a target. It's the same in prison, if you're in there for hurting or killing a child, then you're screwed.
Okay, so maybe I'm overreacting a little, but there was something wrong with that boy!
When his hand made contact with my face I noticed what it was, he smelled of snake. Not the rather nice, warm and calm snake scent Anko smelled of, but a different one, a bad one.
I started to sniff slightly and then I let it develop into tears, everything had frozen up at the sound of his hand against my chin, but it unfroze as I started to cry softly. The hit had actually been hard, it was as if he had already wanted to hit me.
"How dare you! Get away from her!" Naruto yelled and ran to my side, pulling me protectively behind him.
I saw three rain ninjas behind Kabuto, they seemed to have thought of attacking him, but they were frozen in shock, just like Kabuto seemed to be.
"Alright guy worthless bastards! What happening here?" I heard a stern voice, that I recognized as Ibiki's, said. "Ah Kiko? You're taking the exam this time, alright then. Get up here to the front row, I'm pretty sure I'll need to watch you myself. Come on! As for the rest of you, I am Ibiki Morino...." He went on and on talking about who he was and what the others was going to do, though I ignored him as I walked up to the seat at the front row that he had pointed at.
I sat down still sniffing slightly, I had to hold up the facade or people would notice. The others was drawing numbers telling them where to sit down, before Ibiki looked back at me. At first he just seemed to look at me with a small smirk, but then the smirk dropped.
"You're crying, kid?" He asked and looked closer at me.
"I'm fine, don't worry." I fake smiled at him, it was clear that it was a fake.
It was kinda weird though, I didn't feel like I was pretending anymore. I wasn't crying because of Kabuto 'hitting' me anymore, I knew that. It was more like everything that I had held inside for so long was trying to make its way out, not that I would let it. I forcefully got a grip on myself and forced everything bad back to the cold, dark corners of my mind. Finally the last sniffings stopped, but my red-looking eyes still talked its clear language about my crying.
"What happened to your chin then?" He asked with a slightly scary look.
My chin? I slowly reached up to my chin as the seats around me were taken by the ones that took those numbers, Kabuto sat at my left and Gaara at my right, while there sat a weird grass ninja, that gave me the creeps, next to Kabuto. It seems that my chin was sore and rather bruised, I hadn't made him hit me that hard, it seems that he put something into it himself. Meanie pants! Moppet man! Puppy pasta!
Having a family and friends seemed to effect me more than I thought, but I kinda liked it.
Both Kabuto and Gaara seemed to be interested in my hurt chin, but because of Ibiki’s presence at least Kabuto didn’t say anything. Gaara was just being quiet. I looked back up at Ibiki, who was still waiting for his answer, and smiled a not so fake smile.
"How would I know? It could have been earlier this morning, but it might also be walking into a door or something. Or falling over my own feet, you know I'm such a klutz, maybe I could train if away. What do you think?" I said with my hurt chin turned away from Ibiki, but with a forceful yet caring grip on my cheekbones Ibiki forced my face the other way, allowing him to examine my chin.
“It seems that we are going to the hospital after this exam is over.” He stated with a smirk, making me stick out my tongue at him.
Like I would go freely!
It was like Ibiki knew what I was thinking, because he started to chuckle lightly. Then he turned to the others, as they had all taken their places, and started to tell them who he was and what the rules for this exam were.
I really tried to listen, but all I heard was: Cheat, cheat, cheat, don’t get caught.
I giggled a little at him and he looked at me with an amused smirk as I started to write down the answers not even having to cheat, I finished quickly and pushed the test papers a little away from me. I wasn’t really worried about the team, if any of them failed Ibiki would be screwed, I would make sure of that. Then I laid down my head on my arms starting a staring contest with Ibiki, he was rather quick to catch on which made some of the Chunins laugh quietly.
The score ended up with 2-1 to me. He started out with a win, then I challenged him and won and then he challenged me and lost. It was fun.
But then he had to go on with the 10th question, so we couldn’t play anymore. Apparently it had taken very long for our matches to end….
Oh well.
And apparently there are ‘special’ rules for that question, I yawned provokingly at this and giggled slightly as Ibiki glared at me.
“First, for this 10th question… You must decide whether you will take it or not.” Ibiki said and made sure to have eye contact with each of the examinees.
“Choose?!! What happens if we choose not to?!!” Redhead’s blonde asked loudly.
“If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero… You fail! Along with your two teammates.” Ibiki stated with a nasty look in his eyes, some of the other examinees began yelling, but Ibiki calmly continued. “And now… The other rule. It you choose to take it… And answer incorrectly… That person will lose the right to take the chunin selection exam again.”
The dog rookie started to yell up about how there were people here that had taken the exam before and that it was a stupid rule. Ibiki started to laugh creepily before he answered.
“You guys were unlucky. This year it’s my rules. But I am giving you a way out. Those that aren’t confident can chose not to take it… and try again next year.” He said and held an artistic pause before continuing. “Now let’s begin… The 10th question. Those that do not wish to take it, raise your hand once your number is confirmed, leave.”
Slowly people began to raise their hand and quit the exam, more and more left the room with their teammates bickering behind them. I didn’t really care until I looked behind me and saw Naruto raise his hand. No?! Why?! Come on Naruto, I know you as better than this!
Suddenly his hand slammed down onto the table. “Don’t underestimate me!!! I will not run!!!! I’ll take it!! Even if I’m a genin forever…!! I’ll will myself to becoming Hokage anyway, so I don’t care!! I am not afraid!!!!!”
“I’ll ask you again. Your life is riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit.” Ibiki stated with a low voice, trying to sound all dangerous and such….
Didn’t work…
But then again, maybe it’s just me…
“I follow my unbending words… That’s my ninja way…” Naruto said with a grin on his face, I sent him a proud smile and he gave me thumps up.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ibiki smile. “Good decisions. Now to everyone still remaining… I congratulate you on passing the first test!!! To the 79 who remain congratulations on passing the first test!!”
I giggled at the fact that we passed, but I seemed to be one only ones not confused, so Ibiki had to explain. Which I wasn’t listening to, I had gotten bored and was therefore drawing Ibiki in a bikini on the backside of the test. With a small giggle I wrote Ibikini as the title, while Ibiki went on and on and answered questions.
Suddenly everything stopped; I looked up to see Ibiki without his bandana. His head was severely damaged; it looked like I probably would look like if I hadn’t ever had my water jutsu to heal me. I quickly turned back to my drawing and began to do some shadows, in the end it looked like he stood out of the paper.
I listened with a half ear to Ibiki as he explained that the 10th question was to see if you could take on dangerous tasks and not give up. A second after he wished us good luck the window was scattered by none other than Anko. Ibiki stood completely still and I didn’t move from my seat either, but everyone else scrambled away. Well the creepy grass ninja didn’t seem like he wanted to, but he did it since the others did it. She threw two kunais into the walls to hold a giant banner up behind her, then she turned to ‘greet’ the room.
“You guys!!! This is no time to be celebrating!!! I am the examiner for the second test!! Mitarashi Anko!!!” She yelled, but paused when her eyes reached me, I sent her an innocent smile, but she seemed a bit distracted after that and her eyes kept going back to me. “79?!... Ibiki!!.. You left 27 teams?!! The test was too easy this time!…”
“This time there are a lot of outstanding ones, The Bird is taking the exam this year.” Ibiki said calmly and there was a collective gasp in the room.
Did I forget to mention that Otou-sensei sometimes takes me with him on missions out of the village? He usually gives me a mask like his and a bandana-like hat to hide my hair, he takes me with him under the name The Bird and the records of these missions are always written under my true name Tsukiko Yuzuki. Pretty weird if you ask me, but old man and Otou-sensei insist, so I just let them.
And apparently I got a probably false image with its own rumor behind it….
I’m apparently famous….
“Oh you heard that, Ibiki? Our little birdie is rather well-known!” Anko grinned and sent me an amused look, why does everybody amuse themselves on my behalf? It’s no fair!
“Well of course! It’s our bird after all.” Ibiki stated and I felt the heat run to my face, even though he tried to hide it I heard his deep chuckle.
“Anyway, I’ll at least have them cut in half in the second test. Ahhh… I’m getting exited… The next exam will be set tomorrow…. Your senseis know when and where… That’s all. Dismissed.” She finished and as the others left the room she placed herself so that she blocked my way discreetly.
I sighed and stayed put, but then I remembered my drawing, if Ibiki saw it he would kill me.
Didn’t really think that one through…