Sky on Fire: Slow Burn - Chapter 14 (Part 1)
Title: Slow Burn
Chapter: 14 Perspective (Part I)
Author/Artist: Killaurey
Word Count: 17,918
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. AU immediately after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Part 14 of ? Unbeta'd.
Ino studied the Chuunin that stood in front of her team, her eyes curious. That much, at least, she allowed herself to show. They were Chuunin hopefuls--being incurious would be noted more than her interest. He was a tall man--maybe twenty, no older than twenty five, in Kumo's standard uniform for Chuunin. He had long grey hair left loose and silvered eyes. His hitae-ite was sewed onto the right arm of his uniform.
Not bad, she thought lightly. Ino approved of eye-candy.
He, in his turn, studied them right back. She wondered what he made of what he saw. Ino glanced sideways at Sakura--looking pale, but composed and determination radiating from her posture--and at Chouji--looking deceptively serene, it was his mask as much as her laughter was--and then back at the Chuunin. What did he see when he looked at her?
Ino didn't look down at herself. That would be too much like revealing a weakness--an uncertainty. She knew what she looked like anyway, from the vibrant glasses perched on her head, to the bandages wrapped around her arms and legs. Purple top, purple skirt, standard-issue blue sandals. Nothing out of the ordinary about her, Ino knew, and that was perfectly alright with her.
"You're to lead us to the place for the first exam?" she asked. Ino wondered why they weren't just going to all go there the way they'd done in Konoha.
But this wasn't Konoha, she told herself firmly. And this was another exam entirely. She'd known things changed between exams, but it was one thing to know it, Ino realized, and another thing entirely to experience it.
"That's right," he said easily, his voice smooth and remarkable only for how utterly unremarkable it was. "I'm Takahara Jun."
"And you already know us," Ino replied, not inclined to give away more information--he had to already know their names at the very least, if not a basic idea of what they could do. They were Genin, after all.
She could only hope they were ready to become Chuunin.
Chouji's faint smile said he understood where she was coming from. "We should get going," he said, and Ino wondered if she was the only one that could hear the thread of excitement--anticipation?--underneath his calm demeanor.
"I agree," Sakura said, giving the Chuunin a long look. Her eyes were hard, as they'd been most of the morning, and Ino knew it was what that meant. Sakura was focused on the Chuunin hopefuls from Oto. "Have we passed your inspection?"
Takahara Jun's smile seemed to mock them and Ino resisted the urge to bristle. "Follow me," he said, and turned.
Ino frowned slightly as they stepped out of the building and glanced at her teammates. Had she only imagined that Takahara Jun had added, after telling them to follow him... and we'll see.
Something to keep in mind, she resolved. And her blue blue eyes hardened as she, Chouji and Sakura, followed where he led.
There were few things more nerve-wracking and thus hated, in Nobuko's opinion than waiting. Patience was something that all shinobi must have--not should or could, but must--and while she had it in spades when it came to putting things into motion or gauging the right moment to do so, waiting around on someone else's clock had never been her strongest point.
She straightened her hitae-ite and refused to touch her hair even though it would soothe her. Right here, right now, as they waited for their Chuunin to come for them to lead them to the examination area, wasn't the place or time to indulge in what was a comfort.
They weren't supposed to be comfortable.
Shifting from foot to foot Nobuko critically eyed her teammates. Yes, they'd do. They'd have to do.
And so would she.
There was no doubt in her mind that for all she judged them harshly, that they would be judging her just as harshly back. It wasn't quite the same sort of friendly bond that seemed to have infected the rest of the Konoha teams, but it worked well enough for them and they were thoroughly used to one another. Which, she supposed, was a type of friendship too.
Just a more critical one.
"Stop fidgeting," Koga Renjiro said irritably. "Can't you see that the Chuunin is just making us wait longer because you're giving away your nervousness?"
"I'm not nervous," she objected, startled out of her musings. "I wasn't even thinking about the exam, how can I be impatient?"
It wasn't, quite, a lie. She'd been thinking about their team and their friendship and while that would come under fire during the exam (all exams did that, she knew) that wasn't the exam, so she felt justified in saying she hadn't been thinking about it.
"What were you thinking about?" asked Yamaguichi Minoru, before Renjiro could come up with a suitable retort.
One, Nobuko thought, would involve daydreaming idiots who didn't think about the thing that was going to change their future as it was happening.
Maybe she even deserved that.
"Bonds," she replied, with a faint smile. "And what they can withstand before breaking."
"Do you think there'll be a lot of that in the exam?" Minoru mused, tilting his head back to study the sky for a moment. "I guess it's possible. It depends on what they plan to test us on and how many tests there are."
Renjiro scoffed. "Everything depends on that right now. There's nothing but going forward to see what happens that we can do. I don't even know why we're talking about this, guys. We all know that."
Nobuko shrugged. "It's better to think about things than brood and work ourselves into a panic."
"You don't think it's worth a bit of panic?" Renjiro arched an eyebrow. "You know, just an exam that might change our lives. Oh no, nothing to panic about at all."
Her lips twitched. "Precisely."
Minoru snickered.
"Minions," their Chuunin, a heavy-set man with a broad smile and beady, unfriendly eyes, said. "Come along, darlings. We're heading out."
Darlings? Nobuko mouthed as she followed the Chuunin. Ugh. Not even.
But at least they were moving forward. Far better to do that than stand still.
"Are you serious?" Sayuri asked incredulously, glancing at the Chuunin. "We've got to have our hands held like babies to get to the first exam? We live here, it's not like we don't know where the areas are."
The Chuunin, a pretty woman with green eyes that literally glowed, gave her a smile as empty as a light bulb. "That's the orders, Genin," she said, and Sayuri was certain that the laughter she heard lurking under the woman’s voice wasn't just her imagination.
Sayuri drew in a sharp breath, ready to protest, when Inori laid his hand on her arm. "Let it drop," he advised, shaking his hair out of his face--it was escaping the hold his hitae-ite had on it and she knew that was irritating him. Sayuri attributed the annoyance in his voice to that. "Chuunin Exams are different."
She glared at him anyway. This was ridiculous. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to head for the examination area without a guide who, in this case, had to be more of a guard? Did they really think that any of the foreign shinobi were so stupid as to attempt bloodshed in the middle of the village?
Well, there was that Gaara... everyone knew his reputation. Sayuri huffed. She hated it when she could find loopholes in her own thoughts. That meant that, maybe, other people might have a point when they said she was being irrational. And that was not something that she wanted to countenance.
"And you're making us late," Hideki added, a sigh in his words. He tugged on his sleeves (they draped over the tips of his fingers) and glanced at the Chuunin.
Her eyebrow twitched, even as she understood his message. Did he think she didn't know? She fully realized she had to be making a poor first impression but Sayuri didn’t care. If she had to, she could always apologize later.
It was, after all, easier to apologize after the fact than to ask permission. Sayuri figured that worked for everything else too.
"I don't like this," Sayuri informed the woman haughtily. This was embarrassing and, even worse in her opinion, insulting. She understood it for the Genin from other villages but--
They were different. This was their home. Sayuri narrowed her eyes and drew in her breath to complain, again, when Inori placed his hand in front of her. She hissed at him.
He looked unimpressed--not unsympathetic, she knew that, which only made indignation bubble higher. "Let it go, Sayuri."
Sayuri took a moment to savour the fact that both Inori and Hideki were eyeing her apprehensively by now, and turned her gaze back to the Chuunin woman. She lifted her chin--no matter what, she wasn't going to be embarrassed by her actions. Sayuri had known what she was doing, after all. "Go on, do your job and lead us there."
The laughing woman gave them a mocking bow. "As you wish! I will be sure to do my job with excellence."
Somehow, Sayuri thought, as they headed out, that didn't reassure her very much. Maybe it was the glint in the woman’s eyes.
Tsubaki was reasonably certain that she was going to die. And not even die the way a shinobi ought to die--out in the field, facing down enemy Jounin, or defending a team who held confidential information that was important enough to give her life to protect it and buy them time. But no. If things kept up this way, she thought, then she wouldn't even get a chance to do any of that.
She was going to die of boredom.
"--and so," Ryouma, their Chuunin guide, who'd been quick to insist that they call him by his given name, continued, "you see, that's how I wound up being the one to guide you three."
"I see," Tsubaki replied, even though she absolutely didn't and didn't really want to. He hadn't had to use so very many words--he'd talked for nearly fifteen minutes and now they were that much behind the other teams. She arched an eyebrow in disbelief at her teammates--surely this was not what all the teams were dealing with. Surely not. She'd never heard of anything like this before.
But then, it was true, Chuunin Exams changed every year. Not that she had much experience with past exams but stories got told and tales got passed around. Ninja were gossips at heart. Too many years of training in information gathering made gossiping an ingrained habit. Everyone wanted to know everything-even if they didn’t admit to it.
"Are you done prattling?" Taka drawled, stretching out with his arms over his head. Tsubaki winced. "We want to head over. No offense, but it's probably more interesting than listening to you."
"At least," Tsubaki interjected mildly, in the hopes of making up for Taka’s rudeness, even if she agreed with the opinion, "for today. Forgive us our disrespect, Ryouma-san. We're merely excited about the exam."
She was irritated, but still didn’t want to make an incredibly bad impression: what if they made Chuunin and wound up having to work with Ryouma? Even if the very idea of it filled her with dread--did he have to talk so very much? It was still better to bite her tongue now and keep things as smooth as possible while being honest.
Always be honest when dealing with the higher ranked ninja of their own village. That way she wouldn’t be caught in a trap of her own design, at least. Or give them reason to doubt her.
The Chuunin studied them and, for a second she thought he might have a mind behind his chattering ramble, and then he laughed and she decided he was a bit of an idiot all over again. How had he made Chuunin? "No offense taken. We move out."
"Finally," muttered Masanori. "He was going to talk for forever."
Tsubaki agreed, which made it all the more galling that her own personal standards meant she had to insure that all of them got along well enough.
Please, she thought, following after Ryouma-san and her team. Please let us get through this without trying to kill him.
That would just give the very worst impression of their team, if that happened.
It was a glorious day!
No one on her team had any injuries-Akira’s broken wrist had been cleared only two days ago by their sensei to be back up to full strength, even though it had healed more than three weeks ago, and that had been their greatest and most obvious weakness, as far as she was concerned, even though they’d deliberately not mentioned it even to the other teams of their village.
A broken wrist, after all, was second only to broken fingers to a shinobi. Jutsu required their hands and there were more than a few shinobi who'd been forced into an early retirement because of hand injuries.
But that didn't matter today! She refused to consider it any further--after all, it didn't really matter, as Akira had healed perfectly anyway, and so they were in the Chuunin exam and that? That was more than glorious. Stupendous, maybe, though Ima wasn't sure that was a good enough word for either, not when she was feeling so very excellent.
Ima glanced through blue bangs at the total cutie they'd given them as a guide and studied his ass as they followed him through the streets. Nice ass, she decided, definitely at least an eight.
Not that it mattered, not exactly, but it was something to do while following him. And he hadn't exactly seemed like the sort to care for talking despite the fact that they'd tried.
Pffft. Cutie, but totally not a talker.
Ah well, some of the older ninja back home were like that too. Ima idly compared the Chuunin they were following against some of their ninja. Konoha ninja, she decided, after a few minutes of contemplation of the Chuunin's ass, were way hotter.
And not just because they weren't the enemy.
"Stop ogling him," her teammate, Yasuo, teased in an undertone. They both knew the Chuunin would likely hear them but Ima had never been one to succumb to shame and just shrugged when the Chuunin glanced over his shoulder at them, eyebrows raised. Really now, if he hadn't noticed her staring at him before they'd given him a reason to react, she'd eat her gloves.
"It's not like the scenery is exciting," Ima defended herself. And it had the added bonus of being true. House, house, house. More houses! Why it was just like every other street ever. What was exciting about that? "I'm just keeping myself entertained. This place is confusing."
It wasn't, not really. Like most of the foreign Genin, she'd been picked to attend the exam for more than one reason and Ima thought that, after her stealthy study, she'd have been able to find her away around the village with little effort. Even with their boring streets.
That wasn't something she was really keen to admit to in front of an examiner from another village--one that was known for hostile relations with her village. The enemy.
"Confusing," Yasuo agreed, glancing around with a shiver. "And a bit creepy."
Akira’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully when the Chuunin snorted his amusement. Ima filed that away under 'potentially important' and cheerfully went back to her ogling.
There was no point in letting an exam get in the way of that after all.
At first, the walk had been interesting enough, if slow. All of their team, after all, were more than used to going the other way--too fast, pushing the limits of what was supposed to be possible. And now they were going too slow.
Tenten cast a sidelong glance at Neji, who bore his impatience with chill indifference over his features--only someone who knew him would guess that, from the way his eyes were intent and the strain in his shoulders, that he felt anything other than mild boredom and vague interest, which was an interesting contrast but nothing that would, or she corrected herself hurriedly, nothing that should overly concern any of the Chuunin who were proctoring the exam.
She let her gaze travel to Lee, after giving Neji a nod--she, too, knew how he felt.
Of the three of them, it was clear that Lee was the most… pumped up about the current situation. He practically vibrated with the effort to keep to this pace and not go racing off to see if he could reach the exam area, despite not knowing where it was, before they could at their walk. Tenten couldn't blame him. It was worrisome but she felt almost the same way and she spared a moment to wonder if Gai-sensei and her team was rubbing off on her a little too much.
Nevertheless. Lee looked like he was going to burst if they didn't pick up the pace and Neji's mood was creeping through her defences. And neither of them would, of course, say anything. One because of pride, one because he likely had decided that the pace itself was a challenge that had to be surpassed.
She transferred her glance to the Chuunin--a tall, severe woman with ice-blonde hair and warm blue eyes--and stepped up so she could speak to her. "Excuse me, Shinobi-san," Tenten said politely. "Could we--"
"We'll get there when we get there," the woman replied, cutting Tenten off. "Patience, Genin." It was said firmly, but not angrily. Like it was more of a fact than an order.
Patience, she thought sourly, wasn't something she was unfamiliar with. At the same time, however, Tenten bit her tongue and fell back.
She didn't like it, no. But it wasn't her place to make a fuss.
Lee was almost comforting when he started in on how she'd made a valiant attempt, Tenten didn't bother to hide the smile that got out of her. He was trying, hard, and she did appreciate that.
A valiant attempt, sure. Absolutely. Neji snorted and her smile grew. A glance at him proved that while he was definitely still not best pleased, that her attempt had at least distracted him from a truly bad mood.
Good enough. They could exercise their patience. Tenten’s smile widened as she listened to Neji and Lee with half her attention. The other half of it was busy studying the turns they were taking to see if she could guess where they were heading.
All information was good information to a shinobi.
...Really, she thought with a sigh that was kept purely internal, why did everyone here have to talk so very much? It was as if they were worried that their words would run out and so they had to use as many as possible while they still had them.
Sana glanced at the talkative Chuunin through half-lidded eyes and twirled her hair around one hand. It was heavy, thick hair. Deep brown, red highlights. Of course, she thought, with a faint smile coming to her lips, that was only what it looked like. Appearances could be deceiving and it brought her some small pleasure to know that her hair was a great lie, when looked at from the right way. Nothing so simple, obviously, that a kai could reveal, but she wondered if there would be any with bloodline limits that would see something other than hair.
Would it register when it both was and wasn't hair all at the same time?
She glanced at her teammates-Kozue, who was looking bored, and Haruki, who was getting irritated.
Really... why couldn't they say anything? Boys were so tiresome.
"Hey," she said, her voice coming deliberately slow and languid. It was a peculiar thing, but she'd noticed people reacted with more alacrity when she spoke like that. Kozue had once said it made her sound like her father. "Can you stop talking? It's annoying."
Sana brushed past the blinking Chuunin with a sweep of her long hair, feeling better already. It was always nice when people actually were silent for a change.
Haruki and Kozue... she didn't have to look back to know they were grinning at each other. Very well, that she could deal with.
They were a team.
Mmm, she wondered, frowning distantly as the Chuunin behind them squawked and started talking again--he sounded agitated; she wondered why he insisted on being such a bother.
She wondered if this exam would have any other teams worth noting. That was always interesting and she was very glad her sensei had permitted them to attend this exam.
So much to observe.
"I thought," she drawled, turning to rest on hand on her hip and giving the Chuunin a long look. "I thought I told you to be silent unless you have something important to say."
He stared at her.
"Well?"
"Turn left?" The Chuunin squeaked and Sana was pleased when he said nothing further.
They weren't here to win allies. They were here to be tested. Why waste time being polite to nuisances like him? She didn't see the point to it at all and if she didn't see the point to something, she was little inclined to actually go forth and do that something.
Her Academy teachers had despaired of her, for that. Their criticism had rolled off her like raindrops. The only one she'd listened to was her father, her feared, famed father.
That was how it should be, she thought, almost content, almost wearily, and wondered if she ought to needle the Chuunin (who was giving her wary glances now) a little more. Was it needful?
Probably not, she thought, which was all to the good, even if it was a little boring, without a distraction.
Ah well. Surely the exam would get more interesting? This was, after all, only the start.
The Chuunin stared at them and Temari found that she had to admire the way he managed to do so without any sign of fear. That was more than most people here could say, for all that her brothers and her were only Genin. Fear made them weak. Was it skill or stupidity that let this Chuunin gaze at them so calmly? Whatever it was, Temari had to admit that it was a pleasant change. A tiny little interlude where they were almost treated like every other team.
She kept her gaze, her mostly disinterested gaze, just to the side of the Chuunin while her brothers stared back at him. She wondered what they were thinking. Kankurou was easier to read than Gaara but both of them were in full mission mode, like herself, and that made even the simplest expressions a little more challenging to guess. Especially, she conceded, when checking those expressions would mean she'd have to quit her own study of the Chuunin.
It wasn't worth the effort. “We don’t bite,” Temari said finally, shooting Kankurou a glance when he snorted. She bared her teeth in a predatory smile. “Much.” Just to see what the Chuunin would do, of course.
She was interested.
The Chuunin gave her a bored glance. Not even a twitch. That impressed her. Mildly.
“Temari.” Gaara glanced at her, voice mostly flat, but that was normal. Better flat than malicious though he’d been less and less malicious ever since the last Chuunin exam.
“I got it,” she replied. “Sorry, Gaara.”
Years of habit, years of being scared of her brother rolled neatly into that statement. I’m sorry, please don’t kill me. I’m sorry, please don’t look at me. I’m sorry, please don’t notice I exist.
This apology wasn't any of those ones and if this change in her brother, wrought by Uzumaki who'd done in a fight, a conversation, held, then she'd never have to use one of the old apologies again. Now 'I'm sorry' meant just that, even though a lifetime of experience meant past associations of the word were harder to overlook.
“Stop staring,” Temari said, narrowing her eyes at the Chuunin with aggravation that was mostly faked and only a very tiny part real.
Mostly, at this point, she felt anticipation.
Last exam they hadn’t been able to simply focus on the exam itself. This time would be different. New. That was something to enjoy in, to be able to pretend that they were simply another Genin team in an ordinary exam. This was neither an ordinary exam--and everyone with brains knew that, not when it was Kumo who had sent out the invitations--nor were they an ordinary team of Genin. That didn't mean the patina of pretence wasn't appealing in a peculiar way. Temari wondered if her brothers felt the same way.
She wouldn't ask that, though. Not to them. She directed her attention to the Chuunin, her voice cool. “Get moving. We’re supposed to be heading to the examination place.”
He bowed slightly, mockingly. Temari decided him for an idiot and hoped Gaara didn't kill him.
Getting disqualified from the exam at this point would be revolting.
She all but danced with poorly repressed excitement. Chuunin Exam! Chuunin Exam! They would kick the butts of everyone here and wouldn't that be the best thing ever? She thought so, really she did, and that was enough to carry her excitement. So far it had lasted through a sleepless night, spent restlessly going over things and making sure she was totally pumped up and ready for today.
After all, it was definitely the sort of thing that she was supposed to be ready for.
She, Midori, glanced impatiently over at Natsu and Ryu but firmly bit her tongue and kept her mouth shut. All things being equal, right now, she knew better than to say anything. It was so hard to keep a lid on it, but she managed and that was the important thing, she knew that.
Ryu was listening to what their Chuunin--was it a pet, could they keep it, why did it keep talking when it was supposed to be escorting?--had to say and after all this time she knew better than to interrupt Ryu when he had that look on his face.
He was very patient with her. Except when she interrupted him. Even if she did still want to know if they could keep the Chuunin as a pet. They probably wouldn't let her, she thought, with a twitchy sort of shrug. They knew how her pets ended up.
Which, whatever Ryu and Natsu said, was totally not her fault. What else did they expect from her?
Natsu was listening to their Chuunin but it was more of a lazy sort of 'well, there's nothing better to do' kind of listening and that was pretty normal for him. It meant that it absolutely didn't care about what the Chuunin was going on about (and neither did she, truly, because if asked to say what the Chuunin was taking about she wouldn't have the slightest idea). He didn't care. When he cared about something he stopped smiling and he was smiling right now.
He was pretty good at looking harmless, really, which was one of the things that she liked about him. She looked pretty harmless too. Everyone said so.
And more importantly than 'everyone', her team said so. They definitely counted more. Wide green eyes, her vibrantly orange hair up in pigtails that bounced with every step and an open face dotted with freckles. Energetic. Hyper. Totally harmless.
Totally not. Her eyes narrowed contemplatively as she spun in place. They'd get through the first exam. And the second. And after that the third and if there was a fourth or a fifth or a sixth--it was hard to tell how many exams there would be, some had has many as seven--for sure.
And then nobody would ever be able to say they weren't strong when they were.
"Midori," Ryu said, getting her attention.
She brushed off the fact that he sounded annoyed (like he'd had to call her name more than once) and perkily danced over to him on light feet. She flung her arms around him exuberantly. "Are we going?"
He bore the hug with good grace. The Chuunin raised an eyebrow. Natsu kept on smiling.
"We're going."
There was something off.
Ino studied their surroundings through lowered lashes and doing her best to look like she wasn't drinking in the area and attempting to commit all of it to memory. It was a bit like an itch, she mused, being certain there was something wrong and not sure what it was. She couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that had her so on edge but from the way that Chouji kept glancing down at the ground as if to make sure it was still there, it wasn't just her.
That was rather comforting, at this stage in the exam. If she'd been the only one on edge, it would have been tempting to merely write it off as nerves. Ino could only imagine her father's reaction to that.
How, he'd want to know, are you supposed to trust your instincts when you ignore them?
So she wasn't ignoring them. Confirmation was still nice.
Sakura's eyes were slightly too wide, not enough that someone who didn't know her would spot it, but more than enough for Ino to tell. Best friends and rivals since forever--you learned mannerisms of a friend and knew them inside out simply as a matter of course. She had no doubt that she was radiating signals that were as blatantly obvious to Sakura.
Chouji's fingers flashed in a signal and Ino's faint smile was the only indication that she'd seen it before she increased her pace so that she could walk beside the Chuunin while Sakura fell behind to walk with Chouji.
Peppering the Chuunin with questions--everything from the simplistic to the complex (at least, as complex as she thought wouldn't seem out of the ordinary for a Genin from a different village to a) be curious about and b) have the nerve to ask and expect a reasonable answer)--Ino kept the man busy, even while pretending she wasn't.
Oh no, she was absolutely, really and truly, curious about how many apartments there were in the city and the average rental price.
Sakura tripped, the movement clumsy, but a natural clumsy, and so much so that Ino resisted the urge to applaud. Ino had graduated with the highest marks in kunoichi arts, but Sakura had done quite well. It was a fabulous, and entirely fake, stumble.
Chouji was there in an instant as they stopped and glanced back. Ino kept talking, like this was an everyday occurrence. Sakura was absolutely a klutz, see? Who wouldn't believe them? Ino laughed lightly in response to the Chuunin's answer and rattled off another question. She kept it casual, light, that way there was no reason to suspect anything.
Well. Anything other than the fact that Ino was terribly nosy and chattered like a magpie and could go on and on and on about any subject under the sun. But that was a given--she was a kunoichi.
Sakura's face was pale as she got to her feet. Embarrassment at having fallen, considering that they were being graded on being a ninja. Ino chirped out a query as to if she was alright. Sakura's response was petulant, even as she shook her head slightly.
Which was the true answer to the true question and the whole reason Sakura had 'fallen'.
Whatever this was, wherever they were going, whatever weirdness they could all feel creeping over their skin--it was more than a simple kai could break.
Ino narrowed her eyes thoughtfully at the challenge, while pretending she was interested in what sort of fruit was currently available. Her hands, behind her back, signalled Chouji and Sakura that she'd keep the Chuunin busy.
While they figured out what was going on. Of the three of them, she was best suited for this particular distraction.
She really didn't like their Chuunin. Not only did he keep referring to them as 'minions' and 'darlings' and once 'cupcakes' but he also gestured as he talked and more than once she'd been forced to duck as his hand was flung out in an expansive manner.
Nobuko hoped the other Genin teams were having such a horrible experience. She hadn't pinned her hopes on it or anything, but all the same, all things considered… she'd wondered how they would handle her participation in the exam.
Clearly they'd decided to treat her like any other Genin. That was probably the smartest thing, truly, as this way the Chuunin in front of them didn't have to know anything about anything and no one else would have a chance to figure things out--but there was a small part of her that still wished for a little preferential treatment, however dangerous that would have been.
Oh well, Nobuko took her petulant thoughts and tucked them away. There was no need for her to mope on things that hadn't happened right now. She ducked another swing (how did he always get within hitting range of her when she'd made certain she was out of his reach?) and frowned at the buildings.
Something was wrong about them but she couldn't put her finger on it. She glanced at Renjiro and arched an eyebrow at him before nodding towards the buildings. Did he have any idea?
He frowned at her, eyebrows furrowing slightly before turning his attention back to the Chuunin. They both ducked again and Nobuko resisted the urge to giggle. This was stupid. The Chuunin exam was happening today and they were stuck with this loser of a Chuunin?
It was only training that kept her from jumping at the unexpected touch across her shoulders. It was Minoru and she'd have shoved him off except that here and now was no time to indulge in petty behaviour and one quick, sneaked glance at his face told her he was being serious.
She could put up with being touched for that. Nobuko leaned into his shoulder, casually flipping her hair over his hand and he smiled down at her the way, she thought, a boy was supposed to smile at the one he liked.
Minoru was the best liar of the three of them. Nobuko hated that about him too. Even if it was useful.
They couldn't talk, not with the Chuunin they had, who kept them busy with ducking and jumping as he rattled on, with an edge of nastiness under his cheer. But with her hair to help as cover, they could manage a conversation of sorts.
Minoru’s fingers were warm on her upper arm. Yellow. Not blue. The houses.
Nobuko tilted her head towards him, doing her best to look relaxed and at ease. Even if there were only so many ways Genin could fake and get around a conversation, they had to make it look good.
Paint? she replied, but even as she did so, Nobuko knew that was wrong. If they'd painted the houses, they would be able to smell it. There was no smell…
Her eye lashes fluttered. She hadn't noticed before because she could still smell her teammates and the Chuunin smelled like something vile, but where were the everyday usual scents? Her fingers tapped out another message, before Minoru could reply to her. No scents but ours.
You sure?
She didn't even hesitate. Yeah.
So what were they going to do about it? Was this a joke of their Chuunin?
Or was this the exam?
It was only Hideki’s hand on her shoulder, squeezing warningly, that stopped Sayuri from mouthing off at their Chuunin guide.
Possibly for the best, she acknowledged, with an irritable glance, as she shook herself free. Really, it was like they didn't trust her or something. Didn't they know that she wasn't going to say why she was mouthing off? Already Sayuri had proven that she was a brat of the highest order--continuing that would take both little effort and wouldn't arouse suspicion on the Chuunin's part.
So why couldn't she just keep on being a brat? Other than the small, insignificant fact that the Chuunin might squash her flat as a bug. Which, while highly entertaining to contemplate other people being in that position (her sister, for one) was not so much 'in good fun' when it was herself.
She had no aspirations towards squashed bughood. Or any sort of bughood, for that matter.
With another glance at Hideki and a glare at the Chuunin's slim back (and forcibly reminding herself that just because the Chuunin looked vulnerable didn't mean she was) Sayuri bit her lip and thought furiously.
The thing that had roused her ire was that, as Genin from Kumo, born and raised in Kumo, they knew the village inside and out.
… And what they were walking through right now was the same street, over and over and over. Sayuri wondered if they'd made any progress in getting towards where they wanted to go at all, or if they were merely walking in place and looked like right idiots.
Gauging from the way the woman had been so very ebullient, right from the start, Sayuri rather thought that they were moving in place--that they'd probably gotten about a block from the hotel and then… this.
That was what she would have done anyway.
Making sure to keep her expression irritated--which was easy enough--because the very last thing that they needed was the Chuunin noticing that they'd figured it out, Sayuri's hands flicked out a message in code.
Trapped, her fingers gestured, making it a question. Exam?
It almost had to be.
Now what were they going to do to get out of it? That was her second question and, Sayuri rather thought, that it was the more important of the two.
Was this a genjutsu? She watched as Inori stepped up and began talking to the Chuunin. Ostensibly asking about previous exams, which wasn't a topic that she'd have chosen--too easy to get caught that way--but was one that made sense when they were on their way to the first exam.
Supposedly.
Sayuri sniffed, making sure to roll her eyes as the Chuunin went on about the dangers of previous exams. Another tiny bit of misdirection couldn't hurt at this point in the game. They needed every small advantage they could find.
Hideki nodded shallowly at her. She was doing fine--which she'd known, but was pleased to have confirmation anyway--and, carefully, they linked hands. Like they were dating, thought they weren't.
It was, however, the easiest way for her to cover his presence with hers. He had to repress his chakra and she had to let hers burn just slightly brighter. Keep what he was doing off the radar.
First, they had to find out what this was.
Then they were going to bust out of this. No matter what, they were making it past the first exam.
Now…
So far, she thought optimistically, they'd not killed Ryouma-san. It was a small victory, but it was definitely one. His voice, as he was still going on and on and on, had gotten more grating on her nerves with every word, and Tsubaki was well aware that of her team, she was the one with the longest fuse.
And he was so very close to having her lose it on him. Didn't he ever shut up? Pinching the bridge of her nose, Tsubaki took a deep breath, held it for five seconds, and then exhaled. Right. They were not going to visit violence upon the Chuunin. They were going to get through this exam, with distinction, and after that, and then they would track down the Chuunin and…
Well, Tsubaki thought, peering at him through lowered eyelashes, then he'd find out what they really thought. From the way that Taka and Masanori looked and moved at the moment--Taka was moving far too stiffly to be anything but incredibly annoyed, and Masanori’s eyes had gone dark with irritation--she highly doubted that they'd put up any fuss over getting some of their own back when it came to dealing with the Chuunin.
No one got on the nerves of their team and didn't pay for it, for all that as far as anyone knew, they were one of the milder teams.
But still waters ran deep, Tsubaki thought, and for shinobi they run deeper than most.
As deep as their frustrations ran at the moment, however, it was a pleasure to her to know that all his attempts at distracting them, distracting her, and getting their team hopelessly behind… had failed.
Oh, he talked and talked and talked, and they snapped and snipped and backpedalled like pros whenever Tsubaki thought they'd gone one or two steps too far in insulting the Chuunin who was, after all, still their superior in rank. And the trap they were in was a very pretty one indeed--a layered illusion, she thought, and Masanori had agreed with her.
His eyes were better than hers for spotting that sort of thing. It was why she used his aid so much in forming her own brand of illusionary jutsu. Not quite genjutsu, not quite ninjutsu, but taking aspects of both…
It wasn't an easy thing to do, she knew that from her own attempts, and this was a masterpiece of skilful combination. Tsubaki wondered how many of Kumo's nin had to be holding the jutsu up and feeding it chakra. Were they using the same thing on all of the teams?
Like bubbles, perhaps?
Tsubaki sighed, making sure that it coincided with a break in Ryouma-san's speech, as if she were just unutterably exhausted at all of the talking and let her hands fall behind her back casually, but not too casually. Like she wanted to reach for a kunai but didn't dare because they were, after all, a polite team that wanted to make it to the exam.
Taka began arguing with Ryouma-san, buying her time, while Masanori interjected now and then, as if admonishing Taka. Tsubaki contented herself with looking bored out of her mind, as if this happened every day and it really wasn't worth trying to stop it.
Once she was sure that he thought nothing of her movement, Tsubaki wound her fingers carefully, painstakingly, through the seals that would summon one of her chakra melds. It was harder to do when she couldn’t see her hands and was working backwards, but Tsubaki knew better than to let that stop her.
A tiny butterfly, pink with energy, slowly formed in the palm of her right hand and she took care not to squish it even while she layered the commands that Tsubaki wanted the butterfly to discover.
Seek, she ordered, keeping it simple. Find the exit. Then report.
And the butterfly lifted off her hands and she knew without looking the exact moment it faded, becoming one with the illusion around them. Tsubaki could feel her butterfly's existence fluttering against her chakra. She nodded slightly, once, to alert her teammates that so far, all was well.
Now they had to wait.
The nice part of everyone thinking you were more than a little dim was that they seldom noticed right away when you figured out more than you were 'supposed' too. Ima nibbled on a strand of hair (already it was coming out of the braid she'd tossed it in, her hair was one battle that she was never going to win) and stared intently at the Chuunin's ass.
At least, that was what it looked like. And admittedly, the appeal of it was still there. But what really held her attention was the way that the pebbles and gravel that they walked on, that had been kicked lose from the streets, were repeating themselves. There was a definite pattern to the grit on the streets and that was unusual.
Twirling her hair around one finger, Ima made sure her expression didn't waver even as she straightened slightly, getting the attention of Akira and Yasuo and catching their eyes. Then, like she hadn't noticed them at all, Ima went back to her staring.
Only her gaze drifted to the ground, deliberately, for a second, before back up. Not rushed, though, for all that it took only seconds. Rushing was the surest way to be caught. Nothing looked guiltier than being in a hurry.
Her gaze was the biggest hint she could give them. Ima hoped that it was enough for them to figure it out. She couldn't do more without giving away that she'd noticed to the Chuunin and she had a funny feeling, now, that the Chuunin wouldn't want them to have noticed. Was this the exam?
Had it already started?
Reluctantly Ima had to admire the tactic if that was the case. It would definitely weed out those who weren't expecting anything.
Unfortunately for their Chuunin, they were fast enough to adapt. Ima let out a girlish sigh, with an emphasis on 'girlish', and was amused when their guide (their captor? their watcher?) twitched.
Apparently he wasn't much into having a girl as cute as her ogling him so openly.
A pity.
Ima hid a smile as Yasuo’s chakra slid down her spine and Akira’s became muted. She didn't need to see them when years of working with them had attuned her to what they were doing.
When the chakra of her teammates met, she reached behind her with one hand, looking nothing so much as she was going to clasp her hands behind her to look even cuter, and gave the chakra a twist and felt it slide into place. Hiding it in her chakra masked the changes enough that they'd be undetectable.
And now, she thought with satisfaction, things would get done. She didn't bother to glance over her shoulder at Akira and Yasuo.
To all appearances, both of them would be there.
Which was, she thought, true enough in a way. Certainly, both Yasuo and Akira were there. But of the two walking behind her, only one was real and the other was illusion made solid. A pretty little genjutsu.
Akira, now, had free reign to explore and discover the source of the oddities they'd noticed. It had taken the three of them to pull off the deception.
A smile touched Ima's lips.
That, too, was teamwork.
The sliver of a toothpick, she'd broken it soundlessly in one of her pockets, was dropped on the ground as they kept walking. Tenten affected not to notice that she'd done anything and no one else gave any sign they'd seen anything either.
That was good, though she wondered if the Chuunin would have said anything even if she had noticed. Though with Neji looking like storm cloud beside the Chuunin it was obvious that their watcher had other things to think about.
On the bright side, Tenten thought, trying to be optimistic, Neji was no longer truly in a bad mood, despite his expression, and while Lee was still vibrating with eagerness, it had taken on a different sort of energy. She didn't think that would be noticeable to the Chuunin, though she wasn't counting on it not being so--that way lay madness and weakness and leaving exploitable loopholes for an enemy to get in--and Tenten cast a glance at the woman's back.
She almost hoped that they would get to try and take her on. Something about her demeanour left Tenten feeling like their Chuunin would be an interesting target. Filing that wish away, there was no chance of her deliberately starting that fight, not here and not now when they were the enemy warily regarded in Kumo. If they started something, they would die.
That much was obvious.
It was really too bad that Neji couldn't easily use his Byakugan. No one would believe him if he tried tripping to get his hair to cover his face--even here, he was known as a genius. She'd heard a few of the hotel workers talking about him the night before and had been careful to note that fact, even though it had been something they'd guessed might be a handicap even before they'd entered Kumo.
Kumo had spent decades, generations, trying to get the secrets of the Byakugan from the Hyuuga. Gai-sensei had made sure that they'd been aware of that though, of course, Neji had already been quite--familiar--with the practice.
So they couldn't try that. If this was an exam, that would be the first thing that they'd look for them to do. And if that was the case, if they were being graded on this, then Tenten didn't doubt that they'd be marked down (fairly or not) for using something so simple and obvious.
Which left Neji playing distraction, by walking near the Chuunin. She couldn't picture him chattering, which he wasn't, and it was luck that had the Chuunin distracted enough by his presence that she didn't appear to be paying as much attention as she should have been to the others of the team.
Her loss.
Tenten didn't feel sorry about that, though she did feel a slight twinge of remorse for Neji. He did so hate to play the distraction and, in his defence, he wasn't the best at it. Too blunt, too arrogant, too himself.
And they never did train the shinobi with the thoroughness of the kunoichi in the art of deception at the Academy. That came later, if it ever did, for them.
She nodded slightly as they came across the shard of a toothpick she'd dropped earlier. A loop, then. Of about fifteen meters.
It took only the slightest twitch of her fingers to let Lee know the distance and the time. He didn't acknowledge it. Which, she knew, was his greatest and simplest deception. Usually, when Lee noticed something, he noticed it.
Stage one, complete.
And Operation: Break Out was a go.
Previous Chapter // Chapter List // Next Chapter
Chapter: 14 Perspective (Part I)
Author/Artist: Killaurey
Word Count: 17,918
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. AU immediately after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Part 14 of ? Unbeta'd.
Ino studied the Chuunin that stood in front of her team, her eyes curious. That much, at least, she allowed herself to show. They were Chuunin hopefuls--being incurious would be noted more than her interest. He was a tall man--maybe twenty, no older than twenty five, in Kumo's standard uniform for Chuunin. He had long grey hair left loose and silvered eyes. His hitae-ite was sewed onto the right arm of his uniform.
Not bad, she thought lightly. Ino approved of eye-candy.
He, in his turn, studied them right back. She wondered what he made of what he saw. Ino glanced sideways at Sakura--looking pale, but composed and determination radiating from her posture--and at Chouji--looking deceptively serene, it was his mask as much as her laughter was--and then back at the Chuunin. What did he see when he looked at her?
Ino didn't look down at herself. That would be too much like revealing a weakness--an uncertainty. She knew what she looked like anyway, from the vibrant glasses perched on her head, to the bandages wrapped around her arms and legs. Purple top, purple skirt, standard-issue blue sandals. Nothing out of the ordinary about her, Ino knew, and that was perfectly alright with her.
"You're to lead us to the place for the first exam?" she asked. Ino wondered why they weren't just going to all go there the way they'd done in Konoha.
But this wasn't Konoha, she told herself firmly. And this was another exam entirely. She'd known things changed between exams, but it was one thing to know it, Ino realized, and another thing entirely to experience it.
"That's right," he said easily, his voice smooth and remarkable only for how utterly unremarkable it was. "I'm Takahara Jun."
"And you already know us," Ino replied, not inclined to give away more information--he had to already know their names at the very least, if not a basic idea of what they could do. They were Genin, after all.
She could only hope they were ready to become Chuunin.
Chouji's faint smile said he understood where she was coming from. "We should get going," he said, and Ino wondered if she was the only one that could hear the thread of excitement--anticipation?--underneath his calm demeanor.
"I agree," Sakura said, giving the Chuunin a long look. Her eyes were hard, as they'd been most of the morning, and Ino knew it was what that meant. Sakura was focused on the Chuunin hopefuls from Oto. "Have we passed your inspection?"
Takahara Jun's smile seemed to mock them and Ino resisted the urge to bristle. "Follow me," he said, and turned.
Ino frowned slightly as they stepped out of the building and glanced at her teammates. Had she only imagined that Takahara Jun had added, after telling them to follow him... and we'll see.
Something to keep in mind, she resolved. And her blue blue eyes hardened as she, Chouji and Sakura, followed where he led.
There were few things more nerve-wracking and thus hated, in Nobuko's opinion than waiting. Patience was something that all shinobi must have--not should or could, but must--and while she had it in spades when it came to putting things into motion or gauging the right moment to do so, waiting around on someone else's clock had never been her strongest point.
She straightened her hitae-ite and refused to touch her hair even though it would soothe her. Right here, right now, as they waited for their Chuunin to come for them to lead them to the examination area, wasn't the place or time to indulge in what was a comfort.
They weren't supposed to be comfortable.
Shifting from foot to foot Nobuko critically eyed her teammates. Yes, they'd do. They'd have to do.
And so would she.
There was no doubt in her mind that for all she judged them harshly, that they would be judging her just as harshly back. It wasn't quite the same sort of friendly bond that seemed to have infected the rest of the Konoha teams, but it worked well enough for them and they were thoroughly used to one another. Which, she supposed, was a type of friendship too.
Just a more critical one.
"Stop fidgeting," Koga Renjiro said irritably. "Can't you see that the Chuunin is just making us wait longer because you're giving away your nervousness?"
"I'm not nervous," she objected, startled out of her musings. "I wasn't even thinking about the exam, how can I be impatient?"
It wasn't, quite, a lie. She'd been thinking about their team and their friendship and while that would come under fire during the exam (all exams did that, she knew) that wasn't the exam, so she felt justified in saying she hadn't been thinking about it.
"What were you thinking about?" asked Yamaguichi Minoru, before Renjiro could come up with a suitable retort.
One, Nobuko thought, would involve daydreaming idiots who didn't think about the thing that was going to change their future as it was happening.
Maybe she even deserved that.
"Bonds," she replied, with a faint smile. "And what they can withstand before breaking."
"Do you think there'll be a lot of that in the exam?" Minoru mused, tilting his head back to study the sky for a moment. "I guess it's possible. It depends on what they plan to test us on and how many tests there are."
Renjiro scoffed. "Everything depends on that right now. There's nothing but going forward to see what happens that we can do. I don't even know why we're talking about this, guys. We all know that."
Nobuko shrugged. "It's better to think about things than brood and work ourselves into a panic."
"You don't think it's worth a bit of panic?" Renjiro arched an eyebrow. "You know, just an exam that might change our lives. Oh no, nothing to panic about at all."
Her lips twitched. "Precisely."
Minoru snickered.
"Minions," their Chuunin, a heavy-set man with a broad smile and beady, unfriendly eyes, said. "Come along, darlings. We're heading out."
Darlings? Nobuko mouthed as she followed the Chuunin. Ugh. Not even.
But at least they were moving forward. Far better to do that than stand still.
"Are you serious?" Sayuri asked incredulously, glancing at the Chuunin. "We've got to have our hands held like babies to get to the first exam? We live here, it's not like we don't know where the areas are."
The Chuunin, a pretty woman with green eyes that literally glowed, gave her a smile as empty as a light bulb. "That's the orders, Genin," she said, and Sayuri was certain that the laughter she heard lurking under the woman’s voice wasn't just her imagination.
Sayuri drew in a sharp breath, ready to protest, when Inori laid his hand on her arm. "Let it drop," he advised, shaking his hair out of his face--it was escaping the hold his hitae-ite had on it and she knew that was irritating him. Sayuri attributed the annoyance in his voice to that. "Chuunin Exams are different."
She glared at him anyway. This was ridiculous. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to head for the examination area without a guide who, in this case, had to be more of a guard? Did they really think that any of the foreign shinobi were so stupid as to attempt bloodshed in the middle of the village?
Well, there was that Gaara... everyone knew his reputation. Sayuri huffed. She hated it when she could find loopholes in her own thoughts. That meant that, maybe, other people might have a point when they said she was being irrational. And that was not something that she wanted to countenance.
"And you're making us late," Hideki added, a sigh in his words. He tugged on his sleeves (they draped over the tips of his fingers) and glanced at the Chuunin.
Her eyebrow twitched, even as she understood his message. Did he think she didn't know? She fully realized she had to be making a poor first impression but Sayuri didn’t care. If she had to, she could always apologize later.
It was, after all, easier to apologize after the fact than to ask permission. Sayuri figured that worked for everything else too.
"I don't like this," Sayuri informed the woman haughtily. This was embarrassing and, even worse in her opinion, insulting. She understood it for the Genin from other villages but--
They were different. This was their home. Sayuri narrowed her eyes and drew in her breath to complain, again, when Inori placed his hand in front of her. She hissed at him.
He looked unimpressed--not unsympathetic, she knew that, which only made indignation bubble higher. "Let it go, Sayuri."
Sayuri took a moment to savour the fact that both Inori and Hideki were eyeing her apprehensively by now, and turned her gaze back to the Chuunin woman. She lifted her chin--no matter what, she wasn't going to be embarrassed by her actions. Sayuri had known what she was doing, after all. "Go on, do your job and lead us there."
The laughing woman gave them a mocking bow. "As you wish! I will be sure to do my job with excellence."
Somehow, Sayuri thought, as they headed out, that didn't reassure her very much. Maybe it was the glint in the woman’s eyes.
Tsubaki was reasonably certain that she was going to die. And not even die the way a shinobi ought to die--out in the field, facing down enemy Jounin, or defending a team who held confidential information that was important enough to give her life to protect it and buy them time. But no. If things kept up this way, she thought, then she wouldn't even get a chance to do any of that.
She was going to die of boredom.
"--and so," Ryouma, their Chuunin guide, who'd been quick to insist that they call him by his given name, continued, "you see, that's how I wound up being the one to guide you three."
"I see," Tsubaki replied, even though she absolutely didn't and didn't really want to. He hadn't had to use so very many words--he'd talked for nearly fifteen minutes and now they were that much behind the other teams. She arched an eyebrow in disbelief at her teammates--surely this was not what all the teams were dealing with. Surely not. She'd never heard of anything like this before.
But then, it was true, Chuunin Exams changed every year. Not that she had much experience with past exams but stories got told and tales got passed around. Ninja were gossips at heart. Too many years of training in information gathering made gossiping an ingrained habit. Everyone wanted to know everything-even if they didn’t admit to it.
"Are you done prattling?" Taka drawled, stretching out with his arms over his head. Tsubaki winced. "We want to head over. No offense, but it's probably more interesting than listening to you."
"At least," Tsubaki interjected mildly, in the hopes of making up for Taka’s rudeness, even if she agreed with the opinion, "for today. Forgive us our disrespect, Ryouma-san. We're merely excited about the exam."
She was irritated, but still didn’t want to make an incredibly bad impression: what if they made Chuunin and wound up having to work with Ryouma? Even if the very idea of it filled her with dread--did he have to talk so very much? It was still better to bite her tongue now and keep things as smooth as possible while being honest.
Always be honest when dealing with the higher ranked ninja of their own village. That way she wouldn’t be caught in a trap of her own design, at least. Or give them reason to doubt her.
The Chuunin studied them and, for a second she thought he might have a mind behind his chattering ramble, and then he laughed and she decided he was a bit of an idiot all over again. How had he made Chuunin? "No offense taken. We move out."
"Finally," muttered Masanori. "He was going to talk for forever."
Tsubaki agreed, which made it all the more galling that her own personal standards meant she had to insure that all of them got along well enough.
Please, she thought, following after Ryouma-san and her team. Please let us get through this without trying to kill him.
That would just give the very worst impression of their team, if that happened.
It was a glorious day!
No one on her team had any injuries-Akira’s broken wrist had been cleared only two days ago by their sensei to be back up to full strength, even though it had healed more than three weeks ago, and that had been their greatest and most obvious weakness, as far as she was concerned, even though they’d deliberately not mentioned it even to the other teams of their village.
A broken wrist, after all, was second only to broken fingers to a shinobi. Jutsu required their hands and there were more than a few shinobi who'd been forced into an early retirement because of hand injuries.
But that didn't matter today! She refused to consider it any further--after all, it didn't really matter, as Akira had healed perfectly anyway, and so they were in the Chuunin exam and that? That was more than glorious. Stupendous, maybe, though Ima wasn't sure that was a good enough word for either, not when she was feeling so very excellent.
Ima glanced through blue bangs at the total cutie they'd given them as a guide and studied his ass as they followed him through the streets. Nice ass, she decided, definitely at least an eight.
Not that it mattered, not exactly, but it was something to do while following him. And he hadn't exactly seemed like the sort to care for talking despite the fact that they'd tried.
Pffft. Cutie, but totally not a talker.
Ah well, some of the older ninja back home were like that too. Ima idly compared the Chuunin they were following against some of their ninja. Konoha ninja, she decided, after a few minutes of contemplation of the Chuunin's ass, were way hotter.
And not just because they weren't the enemy.
"Stop ogling him," her teammate, Yasuo, teased in an undertone. They both knew the Chuunin would likely hear them but Ima had never been one to succumb to shame and just shrugged when the Chuunin glanced over his shoulder at them, eyebrows raised. Really now, if he hadn't noticed her staring at him before they'd given him a reason to react, she'd eat her gloves.
"It's not like the scenery is exciting," Ima defended herself. And it had the added bonus of being true. House, house, house. More houses! Why it was just like every other street ever. What was exciting about that? "I'm just keeping myself entertained. This place is confusing."
It wasn't, not really. Like most of the foreign Genin, she'd been picked to attend the exam for more than one reason and Ima thought that, after her stealthy study, she'd have been able to find her away around the village with little effort. Even with their boring streets.
That wasn't something she was really keen to admit to in front of an examiner from another village--one that was known for hostile relations with her village. The enemy.
"Confusing," Yasuo agreed, glancing around with a shiver. "And a bit creepy."
Akira’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully when the Chuunin snorted his amusement. Ima filed that away under 'potentially important' and cheerfully went back to her ogling.
There was no point in letting an exam get in the way of that after all.
At first, the walk had been interesting enough, if slow. All of their team, after all, were more than used to going the other way--too fast, pushing the limits of what was supposed to be possible. And now they were going too slow.
Tenten cast a sidelong glance at Neji, who bore his impatience with chill indifference over his features--only someone who knew him would guess that, from the way his eyes were intent and the strain in his shoulders, that he felt anything other than mild boredom and vague interest, which was an interesting contrast but nothing that would, or she corrected herself hurriedly, nothing that should overly concern any of the Chuunin who were proctoring the exam.
She let her gaze travel to Lee, after giving Neji a nod--she, too, knew how he felt.
Of the three of them, it was clear that Lee was the most… pumped up about the current situation. He practically vibrated with the effort to keep to this pace and not go racing off to see if he could reach the exam area, despite not knowing where it was, before they could at their walk. Tenten couldn't blame him. It was worrisome but she felt almost the same way and she spared a moment to wonder if Gai-sensei and her team was rubbing off on her a little too much.
Nevertheless. Lee looked like he was going to burst if they didn't pick up the pace and Neji's mood was creeping through her defences. And neither of them would, of course, say anything. One because of pride, one because he likely had decided that the pace itself was a challenge that had to be surpassed.
She transferred her glance to the Chuunin--a tall, severe woman with ice-blonde hair and warm blue eyes--and stepped up so she could speak to her. "Excuse me, Shinobi-san," Tenten said politely. "Could we--"
"We'll get there when we get there," the woman replied, cutting Tenten off. "Patience, Genin." It was said firmly, but not angrily. Like it was more of a fact than an order.
Patience, she thought sourly, wasn't something she was unfamiliar with. At the same time, however, Tenten bit her tongue and fell back.
She didn't like it, no. But it wasn't her place to make a fuss.
Lee was almost comforting when he started in on how she'd made a valiant attempt, Tenten didn't bother to hide the smile that got out of her. He was trying, hard, and she did appreciate that.
A valiant attempt, sure. Absolutely. Neji snorted and her smile grew. A glance at him proved that while he was definitely still not best pleased, that her attempt had at least distracted him from a truly bad mood.
Good enough. They could exercise their patience. Tenten’s smile widened as she listened to Neji and Lee with half her attention. The other half of it was busy studying the turns they were taking to see if she could guess where they were heading.
All information was good information to a shinobi.
...Really, she thought with a sigh that was kept purely internal, why did everyone here have to talk so very much? It was as if they were worried that their words would run out and so they had to use as many as possible while they still had them.
Sana glanced at the talkative Chuunin through half-lidded eyes and twirled her hair around one hand. It was heavy, thick hair. Deep brown, red highlights. Of course, she thought, with a faint smile coming to her lips, that was only what it looked like. Appearances could be deceiving and it brought her some small pleasure to know that her hair was a great lie, when looked at from the right way. Nothing so simple, obviously, that a kai could reveal, but she wondered if there would be any with bloodline limits that would see something other than hair.
Would it register when it both was and wasn't hair all at the same time?
She glanced at her teammates-Kozue, who was looking bored, and Haruki, who was getting irritated.
Really... why couldn't they say anything? Boys were so tiresome.
"Hey," she said, her voice coming deliberately slow and languid. It was a peculiar thing, but she'd noticed people reacted with more alacrity when she spoke like that. Kozue had once said it made her sound like her father. "Can you stop talking? It's annoying."
Sana brushed past the blinking Chuunin with a sweep of her long hair, feeling better already. It was always nice when people actually were silent for a change.
Haruki and Kozue... she didn't have to look back to know they were grinning at each other. Very well, that she could deal with.
They were a team.
Mmm, she wondered, frowning distantly as the Chuunin behind them squawked and started talking again--he sounded agitated; she wondered why he insisted on being such a bother.
She wondered if this exam would have any other teams worth noting. That was always interesting and she was very glad her sensei had permitted them to attend this exam.
So much to observe.
"I thought," she drawled, turning to rest on hand on her hip and giving the Chuunin a long look. "I thought I told you to be silent unless you have something important to say."
He stared at her.
"Well?"
"Turn left?" The Chuunin squeaked and Sana was pleased when he said nothing further.
They weren't here to win allies. They were here to be tested. Why waste time being polite to nuisances like him? She didn't see the point to it at all and if she didn't see the point to something, she was little inclined to actually go forth and do that something.
Her Academy teachers had despaired of her, for that. Their criticism had rolled off her like raindrops. The only one she'd listened to was her father, her feared, famed father.
That was how it should be, she thought, almost content, almost wearily, and wondered if she ought to needle the Chuunin (who was giving her wary glances now) a little more. Was it needful?
Probably not, she thought, which was all to the good, even if it was a little boring, without a distraction.
Ah well. Surely the exam would get more interesting? This was, after all, only the start.
The Chuunin stared at them and Temari found that she had to admire the way he managed to do so without any sign of fear. That was more than most people here could say, for all that her brothers and her were only Genin. Fear made them weak. Was it skill or stupidity that let this Chuunin gaze at them so calmly? Whatever it was, Temari had to admit that it was a pleasant change. A tiny little interlude where they were almost treated like every other team.
She kept her gaze, her mostly disinterested gaze, just to the side of the Chuunin while her brothers stared back at him. She wondered what they were thinking. Kankurou was easier to read than Gaara but both of them were in full mission mode, like herself, and that made even the simplest expressions a little more challenging to guess. Especially, she conceded, when checking those expressions would mean she'd have to quit her own study of the Chuunin.
It wasn't worth the effort. “We don’t bite,” Temari said finally, shooting Kankurou a glance when he snorted. She bared her teeth in a predatory smile. “Much.” Just to see what the Chuunin would do, of course.
She was interested.
The Chuunin gave her a bored glance. Not even a twitch. That impressed her. Mildly.
“Temari.” Gaara glanced at her, voice mostly flat, but that was normal. Better flat than malicious though he’d been less and less malicious ever since the last Chuunin exam.
“I got it,” she replied. “Sorry, Gaara.”
Years of habit, years of being scared of her brother rolled neatly into that statement. I’m sorry, please don’t kill me. I’m sorry, please don’t look at me. I’m sorry, please don’t notice I exist.
This apology wasn't any of those ones and if this change in her brother, wrought by Uzumaki who'd done in a fight, a conversation, held, then she'd never have to use one of the old apologies again. Now 'I'm sorry' meant just that, even though a lifetime of experience meant past associations of the word were harder to overlook.
“Stop staring,” Temari said, narrowing her eyes at the Chuunin with aggravation that was mostly faked and only a very tiny part real.
Mostly, at this point, she felt anticipation.
Last exam they hadn’t been able to simply focus on the exam itself. This time would be different. New. That was something to enjoy in, to be able to pretend that they were simply another Genin team in an ordinary exam. This was neither an ordinary exam--and everyone with brains knew that, not when it was Kumo who had sent out the invitations--nor were they an ordinary team of Genin. That didn't mean the patina of pretence wasn't appealing in a peculiar way. Temari wondered if her brothers felt the same way.
She wouldn't ask that, though. Not to them. She directed her attention to the Chuunin, her voice cool. “Get moving. We’re supposed to be heading to the examination place.”
He bowed slightly, mockingly. Temari decided him for an idiot and hoped Gaara didn't kill him.
Getting disqualified from the exam at this point would be revolting.
She all but danced with poorly repressed excitement. Chuunin Exam! Chuunin Exam! They would kick the butts of everyone here and wouldn't that be the best thing ever? She thought so, really she did, and that was enough to carry her excitement. So far it had lasted through a sleepless night, spent restlessly going over things and making sure she was totally pumped up and ready for today.
After all, it was definitely the sort of thing that she was supposed to be ready for.
She, Midori, glanced impatiently over at Natsu and Ryu but firmly bit her tongue and kept her mouth shut. All things being equal, right now, she knew better than to say anything. It was so hard to keep a lid on it, but she managed and that was the important thing, she knew that.
Ryu was listening to what their Chuunin--was it a pet, could they keep it, why did it keep talking when it was supposed to be escorting?--had to say and after all this time she knew better than to interrupt Ryu when he had that look on his face.
He was very patient with her. Except when she interrupted him. Even if she did still want to know if they could keep the Chuunin as a pet. They probably wouldn't let her, she thought, with a twitchy sort of shrug. They knew how her pets ended up.
Which, whatever Ryu and Natsu said, was totally not her fault. What else did they expect from her?
Natsu was listening to their Chuunin but it was more of a lazy sort of 'well, there's nothing better to do' kind of listening and that was pretty normal for him. It meant that it absolutely didn't care about what the Chuunin was going on about (and neither did she, truly, because if asked to say what the Chuunin was taking about she wouldn't have the slightest idea). He didn't care. When he cared about something he stopped smiling and he was smiling right now.
He was pretty good at looking harmless, really, which was one of the things that she liked about him. She looked pretty harmless too. Everyone said so.
And more importantly than 'everyone', her team said so. They definitely counted more. Wide green eyes, her vibrantly orange hair up in pigtails that bounced with every step and an open face dotted with freckles. Energetic. Hyper. Totally harmless.
Totally not. Her eyes narrowed contemplatively as she spun in place. They'd get through the first exam. And the second. And after that the third and if there was a fourth or a fifth or a sixth--it was hard to tell how many exams there would be, some had has many as seven--for sure.
And then nobody would ever be able to say they weren't strong when they were.
"Midori," Ryu said, getting her attention.
She brushed off the fact that he sounded annoyed (like he'd had to call her name more than once) and perkily danced over to him on light feet. She flung her arms around him exuberantly. "Are we going?"
He bore the hug with good grace. The Chuunin raised an eyebrow. Natsu kept on smiling.
"We're going."
There was something off.
Ino studied their surroundings through lowered lashes and doing her best to look like she wasn't drinking in the area and attempting to commit all of it to memory. It was a bit like an itch, she mused, being certain there was something wrong and not sure what it was. She couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that had her so on edge but from the way that Chouji kept glancing down at the ground as if to make sure it was still there, it wasn't just her.
That was rather comforting, at this stage in the exam. If she'd been the only one on edge, it would have been tempting to merely write it off as nerves. Ino could only imagine her father's reaction to that.
How, he'd want to know, are you supposed to trust your instincts when you ignore them?
So she wasn't ignoring them. Confirmation was still nice.
Sakura's eyes were slightly too wide, not enough that someone who didn't know her would spot it, but more than enough for Ino to tell. Best friends and rivals since forever--you learned mannerisms of a friend and knew them inside out simply as a matter of course. She had no doubt that she was radiating signals that were as blatantly obvious to Sakura.
Chouji's fingers flashed in a signal and Ino's faint smile was the only indication that she'd seen it before she increased her pace so that she could walk beside the Chuunin while Sakura fell behind to walk with Chouji.
Peppering the Chuunin with questions--everything from the simplistic to the complex (at least, as complex as she thought wouldn't seem out of the ordinary for a Genin from a different village to a) be curious about and b) have the nerve to ask and expect a reasonable answer)--Ino kept the man busy, even while pretending she wasn't.
Oh no, she was absolutely, really and truly, curious about how many apartments there were in the city and the average rental price.
Sakura tripped, the movement clumsy, but a natural clumsy, and so much so that Ino resisted the urge to applaud. Ino had graduated with the highest marks in kunoichi arts, but Sakura had done quite well. It was a fabulous, and entirely fake, stumble.
Chouji was there in an instant as they stopped and glanced back. Ino kept talking, like this was an everyday occurrence. Sakura was absolutely a klutz, see? Who wouldn't believe them? Ino laughed lightly in response to the Chuunin's answer and rattled off another question. She kept it casual, light, that way there was no reason to suspect anything.
Well. Anything other than the fact that Ino was terribly nosy and chattered like a magpie and could go on and on and on about any subject under the sun. But that was a given--she was a kunoichi.
Sakura's face was pale as she got to her feet. Embarrassment at having fallen, considering that they were being graded on being a ninja. Ino chirped out a query as to if she was alright. Sakura's response was petulant, even as she shook her head slightly.
Which was the true answer to the true question and the whole reason Sakura had 'fallen'.
Whatever this was, wherever they were going, whatever weirdness they could all feel creeping over their skin--it was more than a simple kai could break.
Ino narrowed her eyes thoughtfully at the challenge, while pretending she was interested in what sort of fruit was currently available. Her hands, behind her back, signalled Chouji and Sakura that she'd keep the Chuunin busy.
While they figured out what was going on. Of the three of them, she was best suited for this particular distraction.
She really didn't like their Chuunin. Not only did he keep referring to them as 'minions' and 'darlings' and once 'cupcakes' but he also gestured as he talked and more than once she'd been forced to duck as his hand was flung out in an expansive manner.
Nobuko hoped the other Genin teams were having such a horrible experience. She hadn't pinned her hopes on it or anything, but all the same, all things considered… she'd wondered how they would handle her participation in the exam.
Clearly they'd decided to treat her like any other Genin. That was probably the smartest thing, truly, as this way the Chuunin in front of them didn't have to know anything about anything and no one else would have a chance to figure things out--but there was a small part of her that still wished for a little preferential treatment, however dangerous that would have been.
Oh well, Nobuko took her petulant thoughts and tucked them away. There was no need for her to mope on things that hadn't happened right now. She ducked another swing (how did he always get within hitting range of her when she'd made certain she was out of his reach?) and frowned at the buildings.
Something was wrong about them but she couldn't put her finger on it. She glanced at Renjiro and arched an eyebrow at him before nodding towards the buildings. Did he have any idea?
He frowned at her, eyebrows furrowing slightly before turning his attention back to the Chuunin. They both ducked again and Nobuko resisted the urge to giggle. This was stupid. The Chuunin exam was happening today and they were stuck with this loser of a Chuunin?
It was only training that kept her from jumping at the unexpected touch across her shoulders. It was Minoru and she'd have shoved him off except that here and now was no time to indulge in petty behaviour and one quick, sneaked glance at his face told her he was being serious.
She could put up with being touched for that. Nobuko leaned into his shoulder, casually flipping her hair over his hand and he smiled down at her the way, she thought, a boy was supposed to smile at the one he liked.
Minoru was the best liar of the three of them. Nobuko hated that about him too. Even if it was useful.
They couldn't talk, not with the Chuunin they had, who kept them busy with ducking and jumping as he rattled on, with an edge of nastiness under his cheer. But with her hair to help as cover, they could manage a conversation of sorts.
Minoru’s fingers were warm on her upper arm. Yellow. Not blue. The houses.
Nobuko tilted her head towards him, doing her best to look relaxed and at ease. Even if there were only so many ways Genin could fake and get around a conversation, they had to make it look good.
Paint? she replied, but even as she did so, Nobuko knew that was wrong. If they'd painted the houses, they would be able to smell it. There was no smell…
Her eye lashes fluttered. She hadn't noticed before because she could still smell her teammates and the Chuunin smelled like something vile, but where were the everyday usual scents? Her fingers tapped out another message, before Minoru could reply to her. No scents but ours.
You sure?
She didn't even hesitate. Yeah.
So what were they going to do about it? Was this a joke of their Chuunin?
Or was this the exam?
It was only Hideki’s hand on her shoulder, squeezing warningly, that stopped Sayuri from mouthing off at their Chuunin guide.
Possibly for the best, she acknowledged, with an irritable glance, as she shook herself free. Really, it was like they didn't trust her or something. Didn't they know that she wasn't going to say why she was mouthing off? Already Sayuri had proven that she was a brat of the highest order--continuing that would take both little effort and wouldn't arouse suspicion on the Chuunin's part.
So why couldn't she just keep on being a brat? Other than the small, insignificant fact that the Chuunin might squash her flat as a bug. Which, while highly entertaining to contemplate other people being in that position (her sister, for one) was not so much 'in good fun' when it was herself.
She had no aspirations towards squashed bughood. Or any sort of bughood, for that matter.
With another glance at Hideki and a glare at the Chuunin's slim back (and forcibly reminding herself that just because the Chuunin looked vulnerable didn't mean she was) Sayuri bit her lip and thought furiously.
The thing that had roused her ire was that, as Genin from Kumo, born and raised in Kumo, they knew the village inside and out.
… And what they were walking through right now was the same street, over and over and over. Sayuri wondered if they'd made any progress in getting towards where they wanted to go at all, or if they were merely walking in place and looked like right idiots.
Gauging from the way the woman had been so very ebullient, right from the start, Sayuri rather thought that they were moving in place--that they'd probably gotten about a block from the hotel and then… this.
That was what she would have done anyway.
Making sure to keep her expression irritated--which was easy enough--because the very last thing that they needed was the Chuunin noticing that they'd figured it out, Sayuri's hands flicked out a message in code.
Trapped, her fingers gestured, making it a question. Exam?
It almost had to be.
Now what were they going to do to get out of it? That was her second question and, Sayuri rather thought, that it was the more important of the two.
Was this a genjutsu? She watched as Inori stepped up and began talking to the Chuunin. Ostensibly asking about previous exams, which wasn't a topic that she'd have chosen--too easy to get caught that way--but was one that made sense when they were on their way to the first exam.
Supposedly.
Sayuri sniffed, making sure to roll her eyes as the Chuunin went on about the dangers of previous exams. Another tiny bit of misdirection couldn't hurt at this point in the game. They needed every small advantage they could find.
Hideki nodded shallowly at her. She was doing fine--which she'd known, but was pleased to have confirmation anyway--and, carefully, they linked hands. Like they were dating, thought they weren't.
It was, however, the easiest way for her to cover his presence with hers. He had to repress his chakra and she had to let hers burn just slightly brighter. Keep what he was doing off the radar.
First, they had to find out what this was.
Then they were going to bust out of this. No matter what, they were making it past the first exam.
Now…
So far, she thought optimistically, they'd not killed Ryouma-san. It was a small victory, but it was definitely one. His voice, as he was still going on and on and on, had gotten more grating on her nerves with every word, and Tsubaki was well aware that of her team, she was the one with the longest fuse.
And he was so very close to having her lose it on him. Didn't he ever shut up? Pinching the bridge of her nose, Tsubaki took a deep breath, held it for five seconds, and then exhaled. Right. They were not going to visit violence upon the Chuunin. They were going to get through this exam, with distinction, and after that, and then they would track down the Chuunin and…
Well, Tsubaki thought, peering at him through lowered eyelashes, then he'd find out what they really thought. From the way that Taka and Masanori looked and moved at the moment--Taka was moving far too stiffly to be anything but incredibly annoyed, and Masanori’s eyes had gone dark with irritation--she highly doubted that they'd put up any fuss over getting some of their own back when it came to dealing with the Chuunin.
No one got on the nerves of their team and didn't pay for it, for all that as far as anyone knew, they were one of the milder teams.
But still waters ran deep, Tsubaki thought, and for shinobi they run deeper than most.
As deep as their frustrations ran at the moment, however, it was a pleasure to her to know that all his attempts at distracting them, distracting her, and getting their team hopelessly behind… had failed.
Oh, he talked and talked and talked, and they snapped and snipped and backpedalled like pros whenever Tsubaki thought they'd gone one or two steps too far in insulting the Chuunin who was, after all, still their superior in rank. And the trap they were in was a very pretty one indeed--a layered illusion, she thought, and Masanori had agreed with her.
His eyes were better than hers for spotting that sort of thing. It was why she used his aid so much in forming her own brand of illusionary jutsu. Not quite genjutsu, not quite ninjutsu, but taking aspects of both…
It wasn't an easy thing to do, she knew that from her own attempts, and this was a masterpiece of skilful combination. Tsubaki wondered how many of Kumo's nin had to be holding the jutsu up and feeding it chakra. Were they using the same thing on all of the teams?
Like bubbles, perhaps?
Tsubaki sighed, making sure that it coincided with a break in Ryouma-san's speech, as if she were just unutterably exhausted at all of the talking and let her hands fall behind her back casually, but not too casually. Like she wanted to reach for a kunai but didn't dare because they were, after all, a polite team that wanted to make it to the exam.
Taka began arguing with Ryouma-san, buying her time, while Masanori interjected now and then, as if admonishing Taka. Tsubaki contented herself with looking bored out of her mind, as if this happened every day and it really wasn't worth trying to stop it.
Once she was sure that he thought nothing of her movement, Tsubaki wound her fingers carefully, painstakingly, through the seals that would summon one of her chakra melds. It was harder to do when she couldn’t see her hands and was working backwards, but Tsubaki knew better than to let that stop her.
A tiny butterfly, pink with energy, slowly formed in the palm of her right hand and she took care not to squish it even while she layered the commands that Tsubaki wanted the butterfly to discover.
Seek, she ordered, keeping it simple. Find the exit. Then report.
And the butterfly lifted off her hands and she knew without looking the exact moment it faded, becoming one with the illusion around them. Tsubaki could feel her butterfly's existence fluttering against her chakra. She nodded slightly, once, to alert her teammates that so far, all was well.
Now they had to wait.
The nice part of everyone thinking you were more than a little dim was that they seldom noticed right away when you figured out more than you were 'supposed' too. Ima nibbled on a strand of hair (already it was coming out of the braid she'd tossed it in, her hair was one battle that she was never going to win) and stared intently at the Chuunin's ass.
At least, that was what it looked like. And admittedly, the appeal of it was still there. But what really held her attention was the way that the pebbles and gravel that they walked on, that had been kicked lose from the streets, were repeating themselves. There was a definite pattern to the grit on the streets and that was unusual.
Twirling her hair around one finger, Ima made sure her expression didn't waver even as she straightened slightly, getting the attention of Akira and Yasuo and catching their eyes. Then, like she hadn't noticed them at all, Ima went back to her staring.
Only her gaze drifted to the ground, deliberately, for a second, before back up. Not rushed, though, for all that it took only seconds. Rushing was the surest way to be caught. Nothing looked guiltier than being in a hurry.
Her gaze was the biggest hint she could give them. Ima hoped that it was enough for them to figure it out. She couldn't do more without giving away that she'd noticed to the Chuunin and she had a funny feeling, now, that the Chuunin wouldn't want them to have noticed. Was this the exam?
Had it already started?
Reluctantly Ima had to admire the tactic if that was the case. It would definitely weed out those who weren't expecting anything.
Unfortunately for their Chuunin, they were fast enough to adapt. Ima let out a girlish sigh, with an emphasis on 'girlish', and was amused when their guide (their captor? their watcher?) twitched.
Apparently he wasn't much into having a girl as cute as her ogling him so openly.
A pity.
Ima hid a smile as Yasuo’s chakra slid down her spine and Akira’s became muted. She didn't need to see them when years of working with them had attuned her to what they were doing.
When the chakra of her teammates met, she reached behind her with one hand, looking nothing so much as she was going to clasp her hands behind her to look even cuter, and gave the chakra a twist and felt it slide into place. Hiding it in her chakra masked the changes enough that they'd be undetectable.
And now, she thought with satisfaction, things would get done. She didn't bother to glance over her shoulder at Akira and Yasuo.
To all appearances, both of them would be there.
Which was, she thought, true enough in a way. Certainly, both Yasuo and Akira were there. But of the two walking behind her, only one was real and the other was illusion made solid. A pretty little genjutsu.
Akira, now, had free reign to explore and discover the source of the oddities they'd noticed. It had taken the three of them to pull off the deception.
A smile touched Ima's lips.
That, too, was teamwork.
The sliver of a toothpick, she'd broken it soundlessly in one of her pockets, was dropped on the ground as they kept walking. Tenten affected not to notice that she'd done anything and no one else gave any sign they'd seen anything either.
That was good, though she wondered if the Chuunin would have said anything even if she had noticed. Though with Neji looking like storm cloud beside the Chuunin it was obvious that their watcher had other things to think about.
On the bright side, Tenten thought, trying to be optimistic, Neji was no longer truly in a bad mood, despite his expression, and while Lee was still vibrating with eagerness, it had taken on a different sort of energy. She didn't think that would be noticeable to the Chuunin, though she wasn't counting on it not being so--that way lay madness and weakness and leaving exploitable loopholes for an enemy to get in--and Tenten cast a glance at the woman's back.
She almost hoped that they would get to try and take her on. Something about her demeanour left Tenten feeling like their Chuunin would be an interesting target. Filing that wish away, there was no chance of her deliberately starting that fight, not here and not now when they were the enemy warily regarded in Kumo. If they started something, they would die.
That much was obvious.
It was really too bad that Neji couldn't easily use his Byakugan. No one would believe him if he tried tripping to get his hair to cover his face--even here, he was known as a genius. She'd heard a few of the hotel workers talking about him the night before and had been careful to note that fact, even though it had been something they'd guessed might be a handicap even before they'd entered Kumo.
Kumo had spent decades, generations, trying to get the secrets of the Byakugan from the Hyuuga. Gai-sensei had made sure that they'd been aware of that though, of course, Neji had already been quite--familiar--with the practice.
So they couldn't try that. If this was an exam, that would be the first thing that they'd look for them to do. And if that was the case, if they were being graded on this, then Tenten didn't doubt that they'd be marked down (fairly or not) for using something so simple and obvious.
Which left Neji playing distraction, by walking near the Chuunin. She couldn't picture him chattering, which he wasn't, and it was luck that had the Chuunin distracted enough by his presence that she didn't appear to be paying as much attention as she should have been to the others of the team.
Her loss.
Tenten didn't feel sorry about that, though she did feel a slight twinge of remorse for Neji. He did so hate to play the distraction and, in his defence, he wasn't the best at it. Too blunt, too arrogant, too himself.
And they never did train the shinobi with the thoroughness of the kunoichi in the art of deception at the Academy. That came later, if it ever did, for them.
She nodded slightly as they came across the shard of a toothpick she'd dropped earlier. A loop, then. Of about fifteen meters.
It took only the slightest twitch of her fingers to let Lee know the distance and the time. He didn't acknowledge it. Which, she knew, was his greatest and simplest deception. Usually, when Lee noticed something, he noticed it.
Stage one, complete.
And Operation: Break Out was a go.
Previous Chapter // Chapter List // Next Chapter