Hello! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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Hikaru lay in his training ground, his eyes closed, the grass whispering against his cheek. While it was a bit dangerous to be like this- open and somewhat honest with his body language, dozing off in the middle of a deadly forest- Hikaru couldn't bring himself to care.
It had been so long since he'd been able to just relax like this. It had been even longer since he'd laid down without worrying about anything- not the war, not what he would do, not even himself.
And he wasn't filled with the urge to move like he had been when he'd first arrived, so Hikaru found himself slowing down. Everything had gotten a bit sharper, louder and easier to pick up. He had constant headaches, and he couldn't bring himself to walk through the village without wincing at the noise.
So he rested, his muscles relaxing for the first time in awhile. It was peaceful- the birds not quite singing, no genin to distract him, nobody knew where exactly he was. He would be unbothered.
Hikaru let his eyes flit open as something landed on his stomach. It was a rabbit, its golden nose twitching, beady black eyes staring at him with curiosity. Hikaru realized with a pang that Kurama would love this moment- peace and quiet for once.
He reached up a hand to pet the rabbit, feeling the soft fur beneath his fingertips before it raced off.
A small smile was on his lips, and Hikaru let himself sigh, leaning back up and letting himself stare at the thick branches overhead. He wasn't worried about bugs- all bugs naturally hated him- nor was he worried about animals.
Hikaru closed his violet eyes again, not letting his mind drift from how the wind felt on his cheeks, the rustling of the leaves overhead. He would never let himself forget such a peaceful moment.
He ended up falling asleep there, curled in the grass with a serene expression on his face.
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One day to the Chunin Exams.
Hikaru was walking around with the genin and Kakashi, taking them to find a place to eat. He'd talked with Sarutobi about what they were going to do- they were going to stick as close to Hikaru's timeline as possible, and if things skewed left, let them. Or make the timeline itself go even more left.
There was a rasp of sand in front of him, and then Gaara was in front of Hikaru.
His screams echoed across the-
Hikaru pushed the memory away. "Gaara." He greeted smoothly, and Gaara blinked.
"Hikaru-san." Gaara rasped. "These are my siblings, Temari and Kankuro." The two in question stared at him. Temari waved, a strained smile on her face.
"Hikaru-san, I've heard that you're the one that fixed Gaara's seal? You have Suna's thanks." Temari said, before turning towards his team. "This your team?"
"Ah, it's Kakashi's actually." Hikaru said, looking back at the confused genin and Kakashi, who kept reading his book. "This is Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto."
"Nice to meet you. You guys trying out for the Chunin Exams?" Kankuro spoke up. Naruto nodded, blue eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Yeah, dattebayo!" Naruto grinned over at the Sand Siblings. "You guys in it as well?"
"Yep." Temari interjected between the two, glancing over at Sasuke and Gaara, who were having a not-so-secret glaring contest. "If you'd excuse us, Hikaru-san, we'll be on our way." She gave a swift nod, heading off. Kankuro and Gaara followed shortly after.
"How do you know them?" Sakura asked, tilting her head up at Hikaru. Hikaru glanced back.
"I fixed Gaara's seal. He's a biju holder, and the biju was unstable, so the Kazekage called me down to fix it." Hikaru explained, continuing to walk down the road. The genin trailed after him, while Kakashi was lost in thought.
It was almost strange.
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There was nothing that he could do to fix it. There was nothing that could be done to fix it, per se. There wasn't any jutsu that couldn't be undone- nothing.
So Hikaru was more than a little nervous for the Chunin Exams. Despite Orochimaru being dead, there were a number of ways that it could go wrong. Any one of his genin could die.
Sarutobi, however, had refused any interferance from their side. Hikaru reluctantly would comply, but there wasn't anything said about lounging in his training spot in the Forest of Death, just in case something happened.
But it would interfere with the Exams.
But his paranoia would be eased, and besides, he doesn't want any of them to die.
Hikaru sighed softly, letting his head thump onto the drawer in front of him. It was the morning of the Chunin Exams, and he had yet to even eat breakfast. He'd also forgotten if he'd had dinner or even lunch- he knew he'd gone out with the genin and Kakashi in the morning, but what had he done after that?
Hikaru had a vague idea that it was similar to panicking- it could be why he has zero recollection of the day before.
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Hikaru sat on the edge of his seat.
They would do well. They would do well.
In the meantime, he was in the jonin lounge, hearing the other jonin make bets on who exactly would win. Kakashi, not quite an active participant in most things, was surprisingly betting that Team Seven would win. Gai put in twice as much money than Kakashi's meager amount.
It was lively.
Strange, of course, but lively. Hikaru hadn't been around people like this in such a long time- longer than he wanted to admit. He'd been so focused on his original timeline that it was easy to get lost in it and forget about other people.
Anko sat next to him, a bag of dango in her hand. "Hikaru-san! Glad to see you here." She passed him a stick of dango, which Hikaru accepted.
Don't eat in front of them don't-
He pushed it away. He could relax for once- his genin would be safe in the room, especially with Ibiki.
Something will go wrong. It will.
Kakashi sat on the other side of him, sighing softly. "Yo." He waved over at Anko, eye-smiling as he turned towards his book.
He had a feeling there was something going on that he was definitely not included in.
Anko barked out a laugh at something Kurenai had said, before turning to Hikaru. "I didn't introduce you guys, right? Well, even if I did- this is Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Maito Gai."
Gai's eyes narrowed at him, and Hikaru just nodded.
"Nice to meet you." He said, then turned towards Anko. "Don't you have an exam to watch?"
Anko chomped onto her dango stick, before her eyes went slightly wide. "Oh, yeah! The kiddos!" She cheered. "I gotta torture them- I'll be back!"
Hikaru sighed, scooting a bit away from Kakashi as Anko disappeared. While he didn't mind- Kakashi was someone he somewhat trusted- he didn't exactly enjoy the closeness that had come from squeezing on the couch.
He just hoped that his genin would be okay, and stay relatively safe.
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Naruto's POV
He sat in the room, staring down at his test. The questions were mildly hard, especially for him. And the girl next to him kept glancing over- what was with that?
Naruto looked over, trying to place where he'd seen her face. Oh, yeah, it was that girl from the Academy.
He shrugged her staring problem off and focused on the next question. Soon enough, he'd finished- guessing on quite a few, employing the 'fake-it-till-you-make-it' that Hikaru had taught him. While it wasn't exactly his strongest point, he could play it off pretty well.
Ibiki called time before introducing the tenth question. He tilted his head, glancing around at his teammates, knowing that they wouldn't give up. Especially because it rested on their fate of being shinobi.
But others didn't know that, and hands raised up.
He wouldn't stand for that- not when the girl next to him was trembling softly and others were looking horrified. So he slammed his palms on the desk and huffed, loudly declaring words of encouragement.
At the last possible second- Naruto was sitting back down- there was a loud crash and shards of glass flew through the room. A purple-haired lady crashed through, rolling on the floor, a shard of glass stuck on her spikey hair.
"Anko, you're early." Ibiki grunted out, and Anko just grinned.
"I'm assuming these are the passed?" Anko raised a purple eyebrow at the other. Naruto huffed, glancing to look back at Sasuke and Sakura, who were doing somewhat okay. He just hoped they weren't as traumatized by her outfit as he was.
"Oi! Brats, my name's Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your procter for the next exam! Follow me."
And, with those inspiring words, she leapt out the window. Naruto blinked as the class stood up and followed her, and he blindly went with the flow. He, thankfully, ended up next to his teammates.
Naruto yawned, as well as his teammates. Sasuke glanced at them before making a sound of discouragement.
Then they arrived at a forest that Naruto hadn't even known that Konoha had. The trees were huge- bigger than 10 of himself just by the base.
Naruto craned his neck upwards to look at the trees, before snapping back to attention. It was mildly boring- there were gates everywhere and yadda yadda yadda. The only interesting part was that Sasuke stole something from the booth- a scroll that Naruto didn't really care about.
He yawned as they headed into the forest. Why was he tired?
And, speaking of which, normally he would've cared? What was going on?
Naruto glanced around for his teammates, who were suddenly on the ground. A confused exclamation tore its way out of his mouth.
He could feel himself falling.... falling...
He hit the ground with a thud, meeting Sakura's scared green eyes, suddenly connecting to oh kami there was something over him-
Not like this. He didn't want to die like this.
Naruto tried to stand, tried to do anything but he couldn't even move his fingertips, let alone his entire body.
Sasuke...? Where was Sasuke?
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Thank you for reading!
This chapter contains 1740 words.
Original: 11/28/2020
Edited: 11/30/2020