Sky on Fire: Slow Burn - Chapter 12 (Part 2)
Title: Slow Burn
Chapter: 12 Watch (Part II)
Author/Artist: Killaurey
Word Count: 8,293
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 12 of ? Unbeta'd.
--
Hyuuga let out a sigh; Ino kept her eyes trained to the side while she mentally wondered if he had something for her now, or if it was just a sigh of 'oh geez, I can't believe she's asking me this, what a stupid little girl' which was always a possibility.
"It was a failure," he said, eventually. "But it was also a triumph."
Ino dragged her gaze over to stare at him. That sort of answer really required it, she felt. "How can it be both?" she asked, trying to figure that one out. It didn't make that much sense to her, in all honesty. "I mean, isn't it one way or the other? You guys were supposed to get the Uchiha back 'cause he was an utter idiot."
She wasn't very charitable towards him, no. Ino had nearly lost her team. She didn't have to be. Crush or not crush, if she saw him again, she was going to hurt him. Just for that. How dare he be so selfish as to hurt others who had nothing to do with his situation? She didn't understand that at all.
There was the mental impression of Hyuuga carefully thinking through his words. Ino studied him the best she could in the low light and decided that he didn't seem to be angry or anything. That was a relief, at least. It would probably be bad form to piss off someone who you were going to have to count as amongst the few you could trust during the exam.
Not trust to not try their hardest against you, of course, but Ino knew that when the exam came down to 'what teams to take out' that the Konoha nin weren't going to be aiming for each other. It wasn't like the last exam where they'd aimed for everyone even if they were from the same village or not.
This time, as strangers in a strange land, they had to stick together. In their own way.
"It was a triumph," Hyuuga stated, "because I set myself a task, and that I accomplished. I made it so there was one less keeping the others from accomplishing their tasks."
Ino glanced at him, eyes puzzled. "So you're--happy 'cause what you did, you did good, even if the whole thing didn't work out?" Somehow, that logic wasn't making sense to her.
To her surprise, he laughed softly. She hadn't even known he could laugh.
She blinked at him. "What?"
"I agree," he answered, "it isn't something that really makes a great deal of sense on the surface of things. I only know what feels right to my emotions, and that's what they tell me, even if the facts don't entirely hold it up."
"Were you scared?" Ino asked, not really sure what she wanted to hear from him now. "During it-whatever happened, I mean?"
He paused and looked at her. "You don't really know, do you?"
She bristled despite her general unease at the whole situation. Ino never liked people talking down to her. Frowning at him, she hopped up onto a branch that had fallen over the trail they were walking, and glanced down at him.
"Know what?" Ino asked, giving in to her curiosity. It was a cruel master, really, and she was its target for sure. "What're you so surprised about?"
It wasn't like--was there anything that she really needed to know already? Ino didn't think so. There wasn't a whole lot of the mission that she'd been allowed to know, after all, and she'd known better than to press her team for more information.
There were some things that you didn't do. And she hadn't been, to be perfectly honest, entirely motivated to press and pry. Ino didn't need to know the details of how they'd all almost died. Didn't want to know that.
He studied her face, Ino met his eyes, wondering how Hinata's could look so serene or shy and his could look so cold when they were both pupil-less with irises that blended with the whites of their eyes. Something to think about. Anything to think about. She was getting tired now.
"What do you know about the mission?" he asked finally, giving her a look that she couldn't rightly decipher.
Ino shrugged. "I know that Shikamaru was leader," she said, hopping down from the branch and keeping her balance easily even in the uncertain dark. Take that nightmares, she wasn't surrounded by rock or being crushed by the darkness. "I know that he was given the position of choosing his team."
She was proud of the way that her voice came out level and even.
"I know that he picked you, Uzumaki, Chouji, and Inuzuka." Still even, that was better. It didn't make her any happier though, but Ino was starting to think that she'd never be happy about that situation. "I know that Rock wound up joining you sometime later."
How that had happened she still didn't know. But Ino, from what little she knew about Rock, couldn't help but admit that she wasn't very surprised to find that he'd gone out on a mission like that even if he had been supposed to be resting in the hospital at that point. She wondered, sometimes, what would've happened had she done the same thing. Just--gone along.
"I know that the mission was to go after Uchiha and bring him back." Ino didn't bother to pretend she was happy at that. "And I know that the mission failed, that Chouji and you nearly died. That Kiba was in critical condition, and Uzumaki wasn't thought to survive."
She tugged viciously at her hair, only to be surprised when he reached out and forced her hand down. "You'll hurt yourself," Hyuuga said, removing his hand from hers.
Ino blinked at him, wondering if she ought to tell him that that was sort of the point--that it gave her something to focus on. That it made her feel less like screaming as she recounted what little she knew. He didn't look like he was going to say anything more, so Ino took a deep breath and continued on.
"I know that Shikamaru broke his fingers," she said, and if her voice was less cool now, Ino was going to blame it on the fact that she really didn't get this at all. "I know that the Suna team from the exam rescued him, Rock, Uzumaki and Inuzuka."
Another moment, while she tried to figure out if she knew anything more. Ino was drawing a blank and eventually said, "That's all."
It was a pathetically small bit of knowledge, she knew it, and even that much she'd only gotten by keeping her eyes and ears open while in the hospital. No one could resist discussing everything that had been going on, and even with shinobi confidentiality going on there were some things that would just slip through the cracks of family visiting, of friends stopping by to chat, of people just there for another reason and happening to overhear something.
"Hm," he said, and she tried to figure out what he was thinking. Had he taken a course in Stoicism 101? Because, seriously, reading him was hard. Especially in the dark. "You know a fair bit, all things considered."
"I am trained for spying," she said, even though she'd been thinking just the opposite and that really what she knew wasn't much at all.
"True," Hyuuga conceded, shaking his head. "That was a compliment, Yamanaka. Not an insult. Most of that mission has been thoroughly classified and we've been told not to talk about it lightly."
She glanced sideways at him. "I don't know why, then, you'd be complimenting me," Ino informed him, "not when I'm learning things that aren't my business to know."
"Aren't they?" he asked neutrally. "I don't know if you really believe that."
"Would you?" Ino demanded. "If you were in my place would you just meekly accept that 'oh, hey, sorry but your clearance sucks and your teammates almost died but oh well, we can't tell you anything' because that's pretty much exactly what happened. I hadn't even known they were out of the village until Chouji came back nearly dead and Shikamaru came back all--weird."
He didn't mind her snapping. Ino had no clue what to make of that. It was seriously like talking to some sort of freaking talking wall. Where was the passion and anger he'd shown in the first fight of the finals the last time around?
Though, on reflection, she didn't really want him angry like that at her. She was no Uzumaki to have special powers and be able to match him in pure power. Skill, Ino knew he was considered a genius, but wasn't she in her own field considered to be a bit of one as well?
Best kunoichi in over a decade in the traditional arts. That was something that counted, wasn't it?
"I don't know how I'd react," he said, interrupting her thoughts. Ino snapped back to attention to make sure she heard what he was saying. He spoke quietly, even in the dark, never forgetting that they were on patrol or that other people might hear them.
She flushed, a bit, at that. She'd totally forgotten that and, considering that she was going to be trying for Chuunin (trying and, her mind insisted firmly, making), Ino knew that she had to pay more attention to things than that. Don't let your temper control you, her father always said.
It was both a gift and a curse. Ino wondered how he managed as well as he did.
"I don't know," Hyuuga repeated, and she had the sense that he was picking his words carefully. "Because I've never been in that situation."
"Of course not," she said, wrapping her arms around her waist. "Because you're a genius and I'm just the girl."
He blinked at her, honestly surprised. "The girl?"
Ino stared at him. "You've got a mind, right? How many girls do you hear being called genius these days? If it's not pure power, it barely even registers in our age group. We've got some major heavy hitters, you and Rock included--hell, Uzumaki totally included--but because of that, when it comes to other skills we're sort of left in the dark."
Perhaps it wasn't fair to drop that on him, but he was the one who'd come and talked to her and was volunteering in a weird way to help her stay awake from her dreams. Well, she was awake now. He was possibly regretting that.
"What," Hyuuga asked, looking down at her. "Does that have to do with anything?"
"We don't matter because we're just kunoichi," she snapped at him. "And if you say that that's not what's been going on then I suggest you take a good hard look at what everyone else has been doing and saying."
She was being irrational. Distantly, Ino knew that. Most of her didn't care: it was too late, she was unsettled from her dreams, and well, it was something that she very rarely dared to give voice too but had been seething in the back of her mind for quite awhile.
"I mean," she continued on in the face of Hyuuga's blank look, "look at how many girls got to go along on your mission. None, right?" Ino waved one hand at his look at that. "I know, I know, that Sand girl--"
"Temari," Hyuuga interjected. Ino wondered how many names he bothered to remember.
"Right, her," Ino said, on a roll now. "I mean, she got sent along because Hokage-sama sent the whole team along. But Shikamaru didn't choose her. Didn't choose any girls and I don't think, honestly, that any of the guys who'd gone on that would have if they'd been in the same situation."
She met his eyes steadily. "Unless, of course, you'd like to prove me wrong? The mission called for pure power which I'll admit that, especially at this stage of training, isn't as even between guys and girls as it will be, but can you seriously tell me that, had it been even, you would've picked any girl to go?"
It wasn't just about her, though Shikamaru, well that issue was--Ino knew that. But this, she thought was something that she actually did want an answer to.
To her surprise, Hyuuga looked thoughtful rather than mad. It made her put her opinion of him up a few notches.
"I'd like an answer, if you don't mind," she said, now sounding just a bit tired. "But--not right now. It's way too late for thinking."
He actually laughed softly, startling her. "Too late," Hyuuga agreed. "And we've got patrol to finish...?"
Ino lifted her chin at the implied question of 'was she going to ditch him now' or, possibly, 'was she going to head back to camp and get some sleep' and told her body sternly that it could totally do this and not freak out.
"Lead the way," she said. She could do this.
Take that, nightmares.
--
Sakura sighed, and stretched, arms up over her head as they paused for a break-only thirty minutes, but that was enough of a cool down for any of them, really, and shook her hair out. It was nice to be able to not have to be running.
Only a few days out of Konoha and she sick of running. Sakura wondered what that meant about her when it was a fact that shinobi had to run an awful lot over the course of their careers. Maybe they were all just really sick of it and pretended to not be? That was a thought.
Though, Sakura reconsidered that, Lee-san was laughing as he talked, gesturing wildly to Maito-sensei, neither of them seeming to be tired at all. Ino was falling into place to drag Tenten away from her team-which was probably a good thing for Lee-san, all things considered, from the way that Tenten-san tended to react when Lee-san got too much on her nerves. Neither of them looked all that bad off either.
She wondered if she was the only one sick of running. That was a bit… depressing… if that was the case.
"Sakura-kun!" carolled a voice and then the next thing that Sakura knew she was getting clung to. She had a brief moment to wonder if this was how Uchiha had felt when he'd gotten tackled by either her or Ino. "I missed you!"
She blinked, startled, and then had to laugh as she realized who was hugging her. "Ima-san!" Sakura said, smiling as she hugged the older girl back. "I didn't know you were taking this exam."
Nakamura Ima took a step back and tossed her head, dark blue hair in pigtails swinging with the movement and grinned. "Shows what you know," Ima teased, "considering that you're Hokage-sama's apprentice, then. We got picked--Yasuo and Akira are here too."
"That's good to hear," Sakura said, smiling. "I didn't mean to lose track of you but things got really busy after that mission."
It wasn't a happy memory, after all, of coming home from a mission that had gone badly--they'd been too late, the woman had been dead, and Sakura could still remember the smell and the look on the woman's face as blood had seeped from her hair--but the team, Ima's team, had been good solid partners during it and she'd gotten along well enough with them.
Just poor timing that, after that mission, she'd fought with her mother and then... wound up living at Ino's place.
"I can imagine," Ima said sympathetically. "And we haven't been around a whole bunch either--we got assigned a new sensei permanently, well, at least until we all pass the Chuunin exam, you know, so we've been in and out constantly." She gave a silvery laugh at that, silver eyes bright. "I'm sure you know how that goes--some days I didn't know if we were coming or going at all."
"Yeah," Sakura said, with a wince. "I know how days like that are. Hokage-sama isn't an easy teacher at all. I don't think I can even remember what a vacation day even is."
Not that she really minded, honestly. All things considered, with everything that was going on right now, the last thing that Sakura wanted was time enough to sit down and really think about what to do and how things were turning out. After her mother had cried when she'd said she was leaving for the exam again...
And what Mui-san had suggested...
"Earth to Sakura-kun," Ima teased, knocking her own head gently. "Cloud's got you captive, or what?"
"More of an 'or what'," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Sorry about that--what were you saying?"
Ima huffed, her pigtails bouncing with her walk. "I just wanted to know if you were good with eating with us today? I mean, unless you're busy with your team, or something?"
"No," Sakura said, having been able to read Ino's mood and already decided that staying out of her way for a little while might be prudent--Ino was having an off day, or something--"I don't mind at all. Who did you say your new sensei was?"
"I didn't," Ima admitted, fussing with her gloves. "But Ono Kioshi-sensei's a good guy."
Ono. Ono--Sakura tilted her head. "Isn't he a ninjutsu specialist? The one who is really good with water?" That was a bit of a rarity in the Fire Country, so she remembered Tsunade-shishou commenting about it.
"You got it! That's him." Ima giggled. "He's pretty cute too, but he's got a wife and she's gorgeous."
Sakura laughed. "Too bad then, huh? No luck for you in that quarter!"
Ima shoved her lightly and took off. "Come on, I'm starving!"
"You're always starving," Sakura called after Ima, not bothering to speed up, which made the other girl turn and stick out her tongue. She didn't rise to the bait though, preferring to keep her pace nicely steady.
"You've got that right," Yasuo commented, sidling up to her and handing her an apple. "I don't know where she puts it, though."
Sakura grinned at Ima's teammate. His brown eyes were amused and the smile on his face tolerant. "Isn't it utterly unfair?" Sakura asked. "I mean, seriously, she's a bottomless pit and yet it never shows."
Yasuo rolled his shoulders, taking a bite out of his own apple. "It's entertaining to watch, though, when we stop by restaurants. We order a load of food, and they think it's for Akira and me and then they stare in shock when it's Ima eating most of it."
"Lucky genetics," Sakura sighed, and had to smile. "Hey, Yasuo-san. How've you been?"
He glanced at her and she wondered what he sensed off of her--from working with him she knew that he had enhanced senses but the specifics weren't something that they'd bothered to share with her the last time. Nothing that she'd needed to know. Sakura doubted he'd tell her now that they were heading for an exam either--not when they might wind up having to compete against each other. "Pretty good," he said, shrugging a bit. "Kioshi-sensei's got us working hard and that's a damn good thing. It was weird having no one official to help us out."
"I don't even want to imagine that," Sakura admitted. "Having to figure out all your training on your own while getting maybe a sensei for a mission or two? No thanks, that's definitely not how training should work out."
"Well," he said, "we managed well enough. It helped that all three of us have different areas of specialization so there was a lot we could come up with to practice on--that way things didn't get boring."
Yasuo laughed while she took a bite of her apple, both of them walking after Ima, and watching in amusement as the blue haired girl kicked Akira. Of course that meant the red haired boy had to kick Ima's feet out from under her.
"I feel sorry for you," she teased, "having to deal with that every single day."
"Nah," Yasuo laughed. "I feel worse for Kioshi-sensei. He's the one that has got to break them up these days. I just get to watch and try not to be dragged in."
"Better him than you, huh?"
"Always," he said, as they stopped just short of where Akira and Ima were bickering now.
"So kind," she commented, "he must be delighted with you three."
"Well," an unfamiliar voice said, "they're a good team when it comes down to it. I don't mind a bit of rough-housing." There was a subtle emphasis on 'bit' that made Sakura hide a smirk as Ima and Akira spring apart.
"Kioshi-sensei," Yasuo said calmly, looking over his shoulder and up. Sakura turned to see a man with long black hair tied back loosely and wearing the official uniform of a Jounin behind them. "Sakura-san is joining us for lunch. Did you want to join as well?"
"Sure," he said easily, "someone's got to keep an eye on you bratlings." He gave her an appraising glance. "Hatake's brat, huh?"
Sakura wasn't sure if she liked this man and tried not to bristle. "I started as a student under Kakashi-sensei, yes," she answered evenly.
"Don't mind him," Yasuo advised in a low voice. "He always talks like that."
Despite herself, she laughed.
--
Tenten was not particularly known as a shinobi when compared to her two teammates-sure, Neji had started out as the top of his class and even back in the Academy everyone had known about him and thought he'd go far. Lee, on the other hand, everyone had known because he made himself such an easy target for ridicule.
Kids could be cruel, after all.
The bottom of their class, muddling through with only skill in taijutsu, Tenten still wondered some days how Lee'd managed to make the Bunshin that had been the requirement for passing the final exam. She'd never ask him, not because she didn't want to, but because that was something that Lee probably preferred to keep to himself. After all, he'd adapted-and done so amazingly well-to having ill-developed chakra coils, but that was no call for her to stomp all over that pride and assume that it didn't hurt, still, that he'd never be able to do some of the things every other ninja could do.
And she, she'd been solidly in the middle of her class. That, Tenten had found, was where the greatest amount of anonymity was to be found. To her dismay, that had been where she'd been stuck, no matter how much effort she put into things, her marks had stayed about the same.
She just wasn't a genius, and she wasn't a failure either. Tenten wasn't sure if, these days, failure was the right sort of word to describe Lee or Uzumaki-or even Nara, who'd finished not much above Uzumaki in grades and yet had become a Chuunin already. Look underneath the underneath.
Doing that, Tenten couldn't help to wonder what it was that they had that she lacked. She knew she was a strong kunoichi. That her skill in weapons was unrivalled in her age group, and that she was a strong contender in the exam-Gai-sensei had faith in her. Lee had faith in her. Neji, in his own way, had faith in her.
But she looked at the others and wondered why all she could see was the way they'd been growing stronger. Did she lack their fire? Running along, racing over the ground as they headed towards Kumo and the Chuunin exam, Tenten studied the other team, team 10, and wondered if everyone else was blind these days when they insulted Akimichi and Ino. It was plain to see that they were stronger-Ino walked with a confidence that she hadn't had six months ago and her movements, even just to get up for more firewood, or to stretch, were far smoother and connected. Akimichi-Chouji, she mentally corrected herself-had proven himself out on the mission where Lee had been an idiot and Neji had nearly died. He was strong.
That he'd come back and recouped and was running now with that same, tireless sort of strength, meant that he'd grown. His wasn't the same strength as Ino's quicksilver sort, but that was fine-that's what teammates were for. They were strong in different ways because no one could be strong in all ways.
Haruno… she didn't know her that well-everyone knew that Haruno had been taken on as Hokage-sama's apprentice and Tenten would be lying if she said that didn't sting. It had been a dream of hers for so long.
She hadn't made much of an effort to get to know Haruno better, not that she'd had that much time to spare anyway, not between training and missions and learning how to juggle good friends for the first time-it was a novelty, having girl friends to talk to, but that was exactly what Ino and Hinata had become.
For that, Tenten could be glad.
"Tenten-san!" That was Lee, always formal even after two years of training and working together.
She tilted her head to face him, still moving, but it was a pace that they could easily talk at. "There's no need to yell," she commented lightly. "It's not like we're that far away from each other, you know."
He gave her a smile and didn't argue about that. It was just his way, to be enthusiastic. "You looked so deep in thought that I figured it might take some volume to get your attention."
'What did you want?" she asked, glancing sideways at him and not mentioning that she'd be a poor ninja to get that lost in her thoughts while they were out on the road. Tenten knew that her mood wasn't something that he deserved to have taken out on him. She could keep it to herself. Smiling slightly, she asked again, "What's up?"
When he looked at her, Tenten was again reminded of the fact that Lee's gaze was incredibly penetrating. It didn't matter that he should have looked ridiculous with his awful hair cut and eyebrows that no one should have to live with. To her, that was just Lee.
"You looked out of sorts," he said, and she realized that he'd gotten a bit concerned. "I thought you might prefer a distraction than to keep thinking."
He never had been one to sit around and wait for people to work things through on their own-not when she was involved, at least. She knew well the way he'd been concerned for Haruno after the whole mess with Uchiha. Tenten wondered if that, his directness in asking her what was up, was just how he took it as marked for what teammates were supposed to do for each other.
Somehow, that thought was a bit comforting.
She shook her head. "I was just thinking it's nothing really important, in the great scheme of things."
"If it was depressing you," Lee said honestly, "then I think it's important." He meant that, she knew. "I do not mean to pry, Tenten-san, but if you wanted to talk about it…"
He left the rest unspoken, but that was alright, she gave him another smile. "I'll think about it," Tenten said, "though you might find it a bit boring."
While he protested that there was no way she could ever be boring, Tenten mulled over her thoughts, over his offer, and wondered how to put it so he didn't think she was feeling sorry for herself.
After all, Tenten didn't think she was doing that, but the way it might come off to someone else… that was always different, and harder to judge. To her, it was just a fact, that she didn't feel like she was growing and getting stronger as impressively as everyone else and that meant there was something that she was missing.
"Lee," Tenten said, cutting over his continued rambling. "What do you think of everyone's progress?"
He blinked at her, then glanced around at the group of shinobi that they ran with before his gaze settled on the other team they'd done the exam with last year. "They've changed a lot," Lee said, "I look forward to seeing what they can do-Hokage-sama had them come, on this, which means she counts them as one of her strongest Genin teams."
"Kind of like ours," she said, resisting the urge to sigh. "You and Neji had to have impressed her during the invasion and the whole mess afterwards."
"You did more than I could during the invasion," Lee said earnestly. "I was knocked out, and even if I hadn't been, with my back…" He shook his head determinedly. "I don't think she would have sent a team along on this, Tenten-san, unless she had faith in all three of its members."
That was Lee-he always managed to cheer her up somehow.
"Yeah," she said, giving him a smile. "That's got to be right, definitely."
--
The room was an ordinary briefing room, a little larger than the ones used for four man missions, but that was the only thing different about it. In the chairs, around the plain table, were six Genin. Two girls, four boys, and all of them looked like they'd be sitting around for a while.
"How much longer are they going to make us wait?" Sayuri complained, stretching as she glanced around the meeting room again. "I mean it, we've been here for hours already. Joben-sensei is totally getting an earful about this. Honestly."
Tsubaki gave her a deeply unimpressed look from the other side of the table. "It's been fifteen minutes, idiot."
"You're the idiot," Sayuri muttered, brushing pale green hair away from her eyes. "Not even knowing what hyperbole is. I don't get why Yukio-sensei is even thinking of letting you become a Chuunin."
"Not this again," muttered Inori, earning him glares from both the girls. "What? Seriously, you two. Every single time you guys see each other lately it comes back to that."
It wasn't really a surprise, all things considered. When it came down to it, as sisters, as twins, they had always been highly competitive. Their feud over who was better than the other was one that had it's roots way back from before they could walk. Sayuri narrowed her eyes at her older sister (by all of eleven minutes) and mentally wished that she'd just drop dead.
Why couldn't she have gotten a nice, pleasant sort of sibling? One who was useful to the Clan?
Because nice and pleasant are luxuries of those who don't have to fight, her mother would say. After seeing how terrifying some of the older shinobi could be, when one minute they seemed fine and charming, Sayuri had mentally amended that:
You could be nice when you were strong enough that people would take you seriously even if you spoke softly.
"That's a lot of times," noted Hideki, not bothering to take his blue eyes off of his scroll. Inori snorted in agreement.
"You'd get it," Tsubaki said loftily, grey eyes flashing. "If you had a family to deal with it. But, oh right, you don't."
Sayuri stood up, bristling at the words and unable to stop herself from reacting. "Do not insult my teammate," she snapped waspishly. "He's worth a million of you."
For his part, Masanori just sighed while Taka gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. None of them made a move to stop the argument. All of them were used to this, and it was something more interesting than just waiting around for their sensei to show up.
None of them noticed the door opening, or the two men standing in the doorway listening to the argument.
"A million what? Bugs." Tsubaki scoffed.
"There's an idea," Sayuri retorted. "Let's invite a bug-user to infect you. Bugs'd be everywhere and you'd never get away from them."
"They'd like you better!"
"As if!"
"Girls," Joben-sensei said, looking pained. All of the Genin froze. "What have we told you before about airing your differences while on duty?"
Sayuri shared a look with Tsubaki before the both of them glanced away.
"She started it," Sayuri muttered rebelliously. "I'm not going to let my team be insulted." If she'd looked up, she'd have noticed her sensei looking pained.
"Which is admirable," Joben-sensei commented, "but not at the expense of obeying previous orders. Is that understood? Kawano Tsubaki, Kawano Sayuri, I await your answers."
"Yes, Joben-sensei," they said, both grudgingly.
"Excellent," Yukio-sensei said, rubbing his hands together and giving them all a fey smile. He was a delicate looking man but for the scars running down the right side of his face. "All of you have some idea of what you're here for--"
"And if you don't," Joben-sensei interjected, almost mildly, "then I'm severely disappointed in you all."
Sayuri shot a glance from beneath lowered eyelashes to flick a quick smirk at her teammates, Inori and Hideki. They grinned back. No worries on their side, at least, in being taken for an idiot team. That was a good thing, Joben-sensei was their sensei after all. If they'd disappointed him, then training would've been utter hell.
"We're here 'bout the other villages, aren't we?" Masanori said, leaning back in his chair and glancing up at the sensei. "Shizuka of Mitsu-sensei's team was talking about how her team had a meeting today as well. You're separating us by year groups is my guess."
Considering that, Sayuri couldn't find a flaw in that logic. "We're being assigned to watch particular teams, aren't we?" she spoke up, saying what came to mind, and ignored the dirty look that Tsubaki gave her.
It wasn't her fault that this time she'd been quicker on the up-take, after all. All was fair.
Joben-sensei favoured her with a small smile and Yukio-sensei beamed at them all. "Exactly right," Yukio-sensei said, clasping his hands behind him. "There are other meetings going on to break our visitors down into manageable groups."
"It'll be difficult," Joben-sensei warned them. "The other villages will have been sure to send their very best teams. You're to be on your guard, and to avoid starting fights. If they start a fight, they're disqualified from the exam and sent home."
"We don't want them sent home," Yukio-sensei calmly took over. "We want them where we can learn as much as we can about them. And that means we need them here, under observation, and so all of you are under strict orders to avoiding fighting with them at all costs."
"What about during the exam?" Taka asked, frowning at that. "We're not giving them a free ride through, right?"
"During the exam, the rules are the same as during any other exam," Joben-sensei answered. "You do your best to pass the exams, no matter what. Fighting is allowed then."
"Though Raikage-sama notes that he'd appreciate it if you refrained from killing our guests for sport," Yukio-sensei admitted. "So keep that in mind. Kill them if you absolutely have to, but don't do it as a game. I know some of you are head-hunters."
Sayuri shot a side-ways glance at Hideki and wrinkled her nose at him. That was why they hadn't been allowed to go on the last exam. Ugh.
He rolled his eyes, and she knew he was of the opinion that it was ancient history and when would they all get tired of talking about it?
"Joben-sensei?" Inori asked. "Are the teams for surveillance further broken down by village? We're not the only two from our class that are taking the examination."
She blinked--that was true.
"That's right," he said, "your two teams will be covering two of the Konohagakure teams."
Tsubaki looked outraged. "Konohagakure gets an invitation to our exam and they send Genin our age? Are they making fun of us?"
"No," Yukio-sensei said soothingly. "Konohagakure has some truly spectacular Genin in your years. During their last exam, most of the Genin who made it to the finals were their rookies."
"Glut of talent," Masanori observed. "It happens every few years, even here, right?"
"Precisely," Joben-sensei said, setting the folders out on the table. "Now, your teams have been decided already, based on our understanding of their competence and skills. This has no reflection on any of you, other than who we felt would match your personalities the best."
Sayuri nibbled on a lock of hair, considering that. "So," she said, asking the question that they were all thinking. "Who'd we get?"
¬--
The next few days passed quickly--the conversations Ino'd had with the others giving her more than enough to think about and Ino was glad enough for the distraction provided by the border guards as they proved that they were in the country for what they said they were (and that they were who they said they were, which as a ninja was a bit more difficult, she wondered if half the time that the guards just took it at face value to save on the hassle) to quit thinking.
Conversations after crossing the border were far less free. All of them knew well and good that they were likely under heavy surveillance and their actions reflected that.
Ino, for her part, spent a fair bit of time studying, thinking and talking a mile a minute without saying anything at all. She knew that it was something she was good at--just because there were words coming out of her mouth didn't make them important, after all--and used that as a way of venting her irritations from, well, everything.
New country, new rules, Hyuuga giving her weirdly knowing glances--what the hell, they weren't even really, like, friends--and the fact that it was really really strange without Shikamaru around.
And that thought, of course, had her mentally reeling. Did she seriously miss him? Augh. All that work to go on without him, to prove that she could be just as strong as he, and now she had the nerve to--wish he was around?
Feelings, Ino decided mutinously, totally sucked. She didn't even know why she missed him except, maybe, the fact that he was a commonality. Like dirt, she didn't have to think to know he'd be around.
When she shared that thought with Chouji, he'd laughed and said, "I'm telling him you think he's like dirt."
She'd stuck her tongue out at him, if he didn't get it then too bad because she got it and it wasn't an insult at all.
Lightning Country was a weird one, she thought, there was a lot more climbing--good practice, she told herself whenever the urge to curse at the sight of yet another freaking mountain got strong--and yet there was a lot of water. The rivers and even lakes they found didn't seem to be daunted by the fact that they were steadily rising higher in altitude.
"Wow," Ino said, as they crested the final edge and Kumogakure came into view. The view was a bit misted over with clouds--no really--but they all paused to take a moment to look at it. "It looks a bit like a giant beehive, doesn't it?"
Tenten stifled a laugh.
Ima didn't bother with stifling as she shook her head and tugged on Akira's sleeves. "Come on," Ima said, "we've still got to get down there, and if we hurry then we can be in the village by nightfall."
Real beds.
They were tough, well-trained, ninja. They were also teenagers who'd been on the road (running, even!) for days. Real beds were a major draw. Ino suspected, as she turned away from the view to continue on, that the adults were thinking much the same.
"Giant beehive?" Sakura murmured, voice taut with suppressed mirth. "What, are you trying to set them against you, Ino-pig?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ino insisted, though she totally did and was yet prepared to defend it to the end. "I mean, I wasn't meaning anything by it, but that was totally my first impression--can you honestly blame me?"
Sakura shook her head, laughing. "Don't get us all killed," she advised. "I can think of people who'd be pretty unhappy with you if that happened."
"Yeah yeah," she said, flapping her hands. "Go on then, shoo. Wouldn't want you contaminated by my awesome nerve."
The walk, run rather, down to the village proper took them most the rest of the day. It would have taken less time, but then there was the fact that they had to get through security and that was a huge time suck.
"I wonder," she murmured to Tenten, "how much security did we have in admitting people the last time around?" Was this normal? Or had security been upped after the fiasco in Konoha's last exams?
Tenten just shrugged; she didn't know either.
The hotel they were escorted to, though, looked large and rather comfy, so Ino brightened upon seeing it. Hopping up the steps, one two three, she turned to call down to Chouji and froze at the sight of someone familiar.
Led by the crazy one, were the three Suna nin that had both helped ruin their village and then pick up the pieces of it afterwards. Ino's eyes narrowed as they settled on the blonde's--Temari, right? that was her name--and huffed.
"I can't believe it," she moaned, "what are they doing here?"
Having helped to save her team or not, Ino wasn't thrilled. Three more people who were strong enough to have helped Shikamaru and his team who, well, weren't her. That wasn't something she was thrilled about acknowledging.
Ino watched them, waiting on the steps while her team caught up. Gaara, the crazy one, looked much the same as he had six months ago. The weird one with the puppets-she couldn't even remember his name-had done something to his face paint, it was a bit different, and Temari looked like not even a day had gone by. Fiddling with the bandages that Ino had gotten used to being wrapped around her arms, she couldn't help but feel a bit resentful of that.
That was the girl, after all, who'd been strong enough to save Shikamaru. Maybe she was supposed to be grateful-and she was, in a way, after all: Shikamaru alive beat Shikamaru dead, no doubt about that-but…
"What are you staring at?" Sakura hissed. "You look like an idiot-"
"Look," Ino said, pushing Sakura in the right direction.
"What-" Sakura stopped, and Ino could almost feel her eyes widening. "They're here?"
Funny how that made Ino feel better, but there it was. Sakura didn't sound exactly thrilled about it either.
"Let's go," she murmured, "before they spot us, well, spot us so that they have to come and talk to us, you know what I mean."
Sakura nodded. It was likely that they'd already been spotted, after all. But the Suna trio weren't rushing to come and greet them, so Ino figured that if they beat a quick retreat that they'd be spared the awkward hellos.
Awkward allies. Ino made a face at that, tugging Sakura up the stairs and into the hotel. "You two are so slow," Chouji said, having waited at the door.
"Did you--?" Ino asked, as Sakura pushed past her, into the hotel.
"I saw them," he said, looking a bit concerned, "but--"
Sakura had come to a dead stop inside the hotel, staring at another team that had just been coming down a flight of stairs off the side of the lobby.
"Sakura?" Ino said, pushing by her. "Wake up, forehead. You make a better wall than a door. What's--oh."
Oh. Was right.
Ino stared at the trio, all of them wearing Oto hitae-ite and suddenly understood why Chouji had been concerned (it hadn't had anything to do with the fact that Gaara and them were around at all) and knew just why Sakura had frozen.
"Sakura," she said, glancing over her shoulder. "We're going up to our room."
Ino's voice brooked utterly no argument. She hadn't been expecting this--stupid, what had she been doing, just drifting along? Of course Oto would want to have Chuunin made officially--but the way Sakura had just completely...
"You," Sakura snarled, and shoved past Ino to head towards the Oto Genin, who watched this with first confused expressions then mildly alarmed ones as they, Ino guessed, put two and two together and figured out who this had to be.
"Sakura," Ino said, darting forward and grabbed her friend's arm. "Stop it."
Sakura swung to look at her; Ino refused to let go of her arm. No way was she going to let Sakura get them disqualified that quick or well, really, at all (Ino would prefer to avoid disqualification because that would be the lamest reason ever to fail at the expectations that they'd been given for this exam) and she narrowed her eyes and made sure that her grip was strong enough that, to get out of it, Sakura was going to have to do some major effort.
She'd gotten stronger in the last six months after all, and that showed.
"They might know where Uchiha is," Sakura hissed and the Oto Genin watched them warily even as one of the boys tried to tug the other two members of the team away from them. They didn't, it was clear, want to be disqualified either.
"So what if they do?" Ino asked, pitching her voice so that it was easily heard by the Genin who were the target of the conversation. "You going to start a fight right here in the middle of the hotel before registration is even over? Exam don't start 'till tomorrow, you know that."
They'd gotten there just on time, exactly as planned. Distantly Ino was aware of the fact that the Jounin were really not thrilled about having to be here--even if it was a good chance for additional intelligence, it was also a bit like walking into a trap and saying 'please eat me, I'm delicious'.
The look Sakura gave her was agonized. "But--," she started.
Ino shook her hard. "There's no buts," she said flatly. "I know why you want--talk to them." Yeah, that wasn't going to fool anyone but it was way better than saying 'interrogate' right out in the open considering that they had the attention of the whole lobby. She barely registered the fact that Gaara and the other two had entered the lobby along with their Jounin sensei. "You think I don't get it?"
Sakura stared at her, Ino's grip tightened further. If they hadn't known medical jutsu it would have easily left a nasty bruise. She'd apologize later. International incidents were to be avoided way more than a bruise after all. "Then why--"
"Because," Ino said, voice cool, "there'll be plenty of time for that during the exam. No need to do it here and get in shit 'cause we're not allowed to be fighting. Get that through your skull, Haruno."
Sakura looked like she'd been slapped. Ino was almost tempted, if only so the message would get through. Why would they want to do something so--obvious--right here where everyone could see it? If they had to go after another team, do it when everyone else was going after their own targets. Slowly, Sakura nodded.
"You're right," she said, voice monotone. "Of course--that makes way more sense. I'm going to my room now."
Ino studied her for a moment then handed over the keys noting, as she did so, that the Oto Genin didn't look much reassured. She wondered what sort of stories they'd heard to make them so wary of Sakura.
"Go on," she said, and watched Sakura stalk off. Sighing in relief, Ino turned to see if she could spot Asuma-sensei--she had to talk to him, like, right away about what was going on. And Chouji...
"Blondie."
It was, frankly, rather odd to be called that by someone who also had blonde hair. Neither did it thrill her when she turned to face Gaara and his siblings. It was Temari who'd spoken.
"It's Yamanaka," Ino said, one hand on her hip and wishing that she was anywhere but having to be the one from their team to do the greetings. Too late now though. "Hey."
Gaara stared at her and she resisted the urge to shudder. He had a creepy gaze and only an idiot would fail to sense the power he carried in him-it felt stronger than during the last exam. Ino wondered if that was because he was stronger, or because she was. Temari gave her a look that Ino couldn't decipher. "Good call," the sand kunoichi said finally, then added, "Yamanaka."
That was--well. "Thanks," Ino said, and wondered if maybe this could go better than she'd thought it would. It would be nice, in this instance, to be right.
"Naruto," Gaara said, and her attention snapped back to him. "Is he here?"
She shook her head. "He's on a training mission--Sakura might know better where he's supposed to be this week."
"I'll ask her then," he said. "Temari. Kankurou. Let's check in."
--
Previous Chapter // Chapter List // Next Chapter
Chapter: 12 Watch (Part II)
Author/Artist: Killaurey
Word Count: 8,293
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 12 of ? Unbeta'd.
--
Hyuuga let out a sigh; Ino kept her eyes trained to the side while she mentally wondered if he had something for her now, or if it was just a sigh of 'oh geez, I can't believe she's asking me this, what a stupid little girl' which was always a possibility.
"It was a failure," he said, eventually. "But it was also a triumph."
Ino dragged her gaze over to stare at him. That sort of answer really required it, she felt. "How can it be both?" she asked, trying to figure that one out. It didn't make that much sense to her, in all honesty. "I mean, isn't it one way or the other? You guys were supposed to get the Uchiha back 'cause he was an utter idiot."
She wasn't very charitable towards him, no. Ino had nearly lost her team. She didn't have to be. Crush or not crush, if she saw him again, she was going to hurt him. Just for that. How dare he be so selfish as to hurt others who had nothing to do with his situation? She didn't understand that at all.
There was the mental impression of Hyuuga carefully thinking through his words. Ino studied him the best she could in the low light and decided that he didn't seem to be angry or anything. That was a relief, at least. It would probably be bad form to piss off someone who you were going to have to count as amongst the few you could trust during the exam.
Not trust to not try their hardest against you, of course, but Ino knew that when the exam came down to 'what teams to take out' that the Konoha nin weren't going to be aiming for each other. It wasn't like the last exam where they'd aimed for everyone even if they were from the same village or not.
This time, as strangers in a strange land, they had to stick together. In their own way.
"It was a triumph," Hyuuga stated, "because I set myself a task, and that I accomplished. I made it so there was one less keeping the others from accomplishing their tasks."
Ino glanced at him, eyes puzzled. "So you're--happy 'cause what you did, you did good, even if the whole thing didn't work out?" Somehow, that logic wasn't making sense to her.
To her surprise, he laughed softly. She hadn't even known he could laugh.
She blinked at him. "What?"
"I agree," he answered, "it isn't something that really makes a great deal of sense on the surface of things. I only know what feels right to my emotions, and that's what they tell me, even if the facts don't entirely hold it up."
"Were you scared?" Ino asked, not really sure what she wanted to hear from him now. "During it-whatever happened, I mean?"
He paused and looked at her. "You don't really know, do you?"
She bristled despite her general unease at the whole situation. Ino never liked people talking down to her. Frowning at him, she hopped up onto a branch that had fallen over the trail they were walking, and glanced down at him.
"Know what?" Ino asked, giving in to her curiosity. It was a cruel master, really, and she was its target for sure. "What're you so surprised about?"
It wasn't like--was there anything that she really needed to know already? Ino didn't think so. There wasn't a whole lot of the mission that she'd been allowed to know, after all, and she'd known better than to press her team for more information.
There were some things that you didn't do. And she hadn't been, to be perfectly honest, entirely motivated to press and pry. Ino didn't need to know the details of how they'd all almost died. Didn't want to know that.
He studied her face, Ino met his eyes, wondering how Hinata's could look so serene or shy and his could look so cold when they were both pupil-less with irises that blended with the whites of their eyes. Something to think about. Anything to think about. She was getting tired now.
"What do you know about the mission?" he asked finally, giving her a look that she couldn't rightly decipher.
Ino shrugged. "I know that Shikamaru was leader," she said, hopping down from the branch and keeping her balance easily even in the uncertain dark. Take that nightmares, she wasn't surrounded by rock or being crushed by the darkness. "I know that he was given the position of choosing his team."
She was proud of the way that her voice came out level and even.
"I know that he picked you, Uzumaki, Chouji, and Inuzuka." Still even, that was better. It didn't make her any happier though, but Ino was starting to think that she'd never be happy about that situation. "I know that Rock wound up joining you sometime later."
How that had happened she still didn't know. But Ino, from what little she knew about Rock, couldn't help but admit that she wasn't very surprised to find that he'd gone out on a mission like that even if he had been supposed to be resting in the hospital at that point. She wondered, sometimes, what would've happened had she done the same thing. Just--gone along.
"I know that the mission was to go after Uchiha and bring him back." Ino didn't bother to pretend she was happy at that. "And I know that the mission failed, that Chouji and you nearly died. That Kiba was in critical condition, and Uzumaki wasn't thought to survive."
She tugged viciously at her hair, only to be surprised when he reached out and forced her hand down. "You'll hurt yourself," Hyuuga said, removing his hand from hers.
Ino blinked at him, wondering if she ought to tell him that that was sort of the point--that it gave her something to focus on. That it made her feel less like screaming as she recounted what little she knew. He didn't look like he was going to say anything more, so Ino took a deep breath and continued on.
"I know that Shikamaru broke his fingers," she said, and if her voice was less cool now, Ino was going to blame it on the fact that she really didn't get this at all. "I know that the Suna team from the exam rescued him, Rock, Uzumaki and Inuzuka."
Another moment, while she tried to figure out if she knew anything more. Ino was drawing a blank and eventually said, "That's all."
It was a pathetically small bit of knowledge, she knew it, and even that much she'd only gotten by keeping her eyes and ears open while in the hospital. No one could resist discussing everything that had been going on, and even with shinobi confidentiality going on there were some things that would just slip through the cracks of family visiting, of friends stopping by to chat, of people just there for another reason and happening to overhear something.
"Hm," he said, and she tried to figure out what he was thinking. Had he taken a course in Stoicism 101? Because, seriously, reading him was hard. Especially in the dark. "You know a fair bit, all things considered."
"I am trained for spying," she said, even though she'd been thinking just the opposite and that really what she knew wasn't much at all.
"True," Hyuuga conceded, shaking his head. "That was a compliment, Yamanaka. Not an insult. Most of that mission has been thoroughly classified and we've been told not to talk about it lightly."
She glanced sideways at him. "I don't know why, then, you'd be complimenting me," Ino informed him, "not when I'm learning things that aren't my business to know."
"Aren't they?" he asked neutrally. "I don't know if you really believe that."
"Would you?" Ino demanded. "If you were in my place would you just meekly accept that 'oh, hey, sorry but your clearance sucks and your teammates almost died but oh well, we can't tell you anything' because that's pretty much exactly what happened. I hadn't even known they were out of the village until Chouji came back nearly dead and Shikamaru came back all--weird."
He didn't mind her snapping. Ino had no clue what to make of that. It was seriously like talking to some sort of freaking talking wall. Where was the passion and anger he'd shown in the first fight of the finals the last time around?
Though, on reflection, she didn't really want him angry like that at her. She was no Uzumaki to have special powers and be able to match him in pure power. Skill, Ino knew he was considered a genius, but wasn't she in her own field considered to be a bit of one as well?
Best kunoichi in over a decade in the traditional arts. That was something that counted, wasn't it?
"I don't know how I'd react," he said, interrupting her thoughts. Ino snapped back to attention to make sure she heard what he was saying. He spoke quietly, even in the dark, never forgetting that they were on patrol or that other people might hear them.
She flushed, a bit, at that. She'd totally forgotten that and, considering that she was going to be trying for Chuunin (trying and, her mind insisted firmly, making), Ino knew that she had to pay more attention to things than that. Don't let your temper control you, her father always said.
It was both a gift and a curse. Ino wondered how he managed as well as he did.
"I don't know," Hyuuga repeated, and she had the sense that he was picking his words carefully. "Because I've never been in that situation."
"Of course not," she said, wrapping her arms around her waist. "Because you're a genius and I'm just the girl."
He blinked at her, honestly surprised. "The girl?"
Ino stared at him. "You've got a mind, right? How many girls do you hear being called genius these days? If it's not pure power, it barely even registers in our age group. We've got some major heavy hitters, you and Rock included--hell, Uzumaki totally included--but because of that, when it comes to other skills we're sort of left in the dark."
Perhaps it wasn't fair to drop that on him, but he was the one who'd come and talked to her and was volunteering in a weird way to help her stay awake from her dreams. Well, she was awake now. He was possibly regretting that.
"What," Hyuuga asked, looking down at her. "Does that have to do with anything?"
"We don't matter because we're just kunoichi," she snapped at him. "And if you say that that's not what's been going on then I suggest you take a good hard look at what everyone else has been doing and saying."
She was being irrational. Distantly, Ino knew that. Most of her didn't care: it was too late, she was unsettled from her dreams, and well, it was something that she very rarely dared to give voice too but had been seething in the back of her mind for quite awhile.
"I mean," she continued on in the face of Hyuuga's blank look, "look at how many girls got to go along on your mission. None, right?" Ino waved one hand at his look at that. "I know, I know, that Sand girl--"
"Temari," Hyuuga interjected. Ino wondered how many names he bothered to remember.
"Right, her," Ino said, on a roll now. "I mean, she got sent along because Hokage-sama sent the whole team along. But Shikamaru didn't choose her. Didn't choose any girls and I don't think, honestly, that any of the guys who'd gone on that would have if they'd been in the same situation."
She met his eyes steadily. "Unless, of course, you'd like to prove me wrong? The mission called for pure power which I'll admit that, especially at this stage of training, isn't as even between guys and girls as it will be, but can you seriously tell me that, had it been even, you would've picked any girl to go?"
It wasn't just about her, though Shikamaru, well that issue was--Ino knew that. But this, she thought was something that she actually did want an answer to.
To her surprise, Hyuuga looked thoughtful rather than mad. It made her put her opinion of him up a few notches.
"I'd like an answer, if you don't mind," she said, now sounding just a bit tired. "But--not right now. It's way too late for thinking."
He actually laughed softly, startling her. "Too late," Hyuuga agreed. "And we've got patrol to finish...?"
Ino lifted her chin at the implied question of 'was she going to ditch him now' or, possibly, 'was she going to head back to camp and get some sleep' and told her body sternly that it could totally do this and not freak out.
"Lead the way," she said. She could do this.
Take that, nightmares.
--
Sakura sighed, and stretched, arms up over her head as they paused for a break-only thirty minutes, but that was enough of a cool down for any of them, really, and shook her hair out. It was nice to be able to not have to be running.
Only a few days out of Konoha and she sick of running. Sakura wondered what that meant about her when it was a fact that shinobi had to run an awful lot over the course of their careers. Maybe they were all just really sick of it and pretended to not be? That was a thought.
Though, Sakura reconsidered that, Lee-san was laughing as he talked, gesturing wildly to Maito-sensei, neither of them seeming to be tired at all. Ino was falling into place to drag Tenten away from her team-which was probably a good thing for Lee-san, all things considered, from the way that Tenten-san tended to react when Lee-san got too much on her nerves. Neither of them looked all that bad off either.
She wondered if she was the only one sick of running. That was a bit… depressing… if that was the case.
"Sakura-kun!" carolled a voice and then the next thing that Sakura knew she was getting clung to. She had a brief moment to wonder if this was how Uchiha had felt when he'd gotten tackled by either her or Ino. "I missed you!"
She blinked, startled, and then had to laugh as she realized who was hugging her. "Ima-san!" Sakura said, smiling as she hugged the older girl back. "I didn't know you were taking this exam."
Nakamura Ima took a step back and tossed her head, dark blue hair in pigtails swinging with the movement and grinned. "Shows what you know," Ima teased, "considering that you're Hokage-sama's apprentice, then. We got picked--Yasuo and Akira are here too."
"That's good to hear," Sakura said, smiling. "I didn't mean to lose track of you but things got really busy after that mission."
It wasn't a happy memory, after all, of coming home from a mission that had gone badly--they'd been too late, the woman had been dead, and Sakura could still remember the smell and the look on the woman's face as blood had seeped from her hair--but the team, Ima's team, had been good solid partners during it and she'd gotten along well enough with them.
Just poor timing that, after that mission, she'd fought with her mother and then... wound up living at Ino's place.
"I can imagine," Ima said sympathetically. "And we haven't been around a whole bunch either--we got assigned a new sensei permanently, well, at least until we all pass the Chuunin exam, you know, so we've been in and out constantly." She gave a silvery laugh at that, silver eyes bright. "I'm sure you know how that goes--some days I didn't know if we were coming or going at all."
"Yeah," Sakura said, with a wince. "I know how days like that are. Hokage-sama isn't an easy teacher at all. I don't think I can even remember what a vacation day even is."
Not that she really minded, honestly. All things considered, with everything that was going on right now, the last thing that Sakura wanted was time enough to sit down and really think about what to do and how things were turning out. After her mother had cried when she'd said she was leaving for the exam again...
And what Mui-san had suggested...
"Earth to Sakura-kun," Ima teased, knocking her own head gently. "Cloud's got you captive, or what?"
"More of an 'or what'," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Sorry about that--what were you saying?"
Ima huffed, her pigtails bouncing with her walk. "I just wanted to know if you were good with eating with us today? I mean, unless you're busy with your team, or something?"
"No," Sakura said, having been able to read Ino's mood and already decided that staying out of her way for a little while might be prudent--Ino was having an off day, or something--"I don't mind at all. Who did you say your new sensei was?"
"I didn't," Ima admitted, fussing with her gloves. "But Ono Kioshi-sensei's a good guy."
Ono. Ono--Sakura tilted her head. "Isn't he a ninjutsu specialist? The one who is really good with water?" That was a bit of a rarity in the Fire Country, so she remembered Tsunade-shishou commenting about it.
"You got it! That's him." Ima giggled. "He's pretty cute too, but he's got a wife and she's gorgeous."
Sakura laughed. "Too bad then, huh? No luck for you in that quarter!"
Ima shoved her lightly and took off. "Come on, I'm starving!"
"You're always starving," Sakura called after Ima, not bothering to speed up, which made the other girl turn and stick out her tongue. She didn't rise to the bait though, preferring to keep her pace nicely steady.
"You've got that right," Yasuo commented, sidling up to her and handing her an apple. "I don't know where she puts it, though."
Sakura grinned at Ima's teammate. His brown eyes were amused and the smile on his face tolerant. "Isn't it utterly unfair?" Sakura asked. "I mean, seriously, she's a bottomless pit and yet it never shows."
Yasuo rolled his shoulders, taking a bite out of his own apple. "It's entertaining to watch, though, when we stop by restaurants. We order a load of food, and they think it's for Akira and me and then they stare in shock when it's Ima eating most of it."
"Lucky genetics," Sakura sighed, and had to smile. "Hey, Yasuo-san. How've you been?"
He glanced at her and she wondered what he sensed off of her--from working with him she knew that he had enhanced senses but the specifics weren't something that they'd bothered to share with her the last time. Nothing that she'd needed to know. Sakura doubted he'd tell her now that they were heading for an exam either--not when they might wind up having to compete against each other. "Pretty good," he said, shrugging a bit. "Kioshi-sensei's got us working hard and that's a damn good thing. It was weird having no one official to help us out."
"I don't even want to imagine that," Sakura admitted. "Having to figure out all your training on your own while getting maybe a sensei for a mission or two? No thanks, that's definitely not how training should work out."
"Well," he said, "we managed well enough. It helped that all three of us have different areas of specialization so there was a lot we could come up with to practice on--that way things didn't get boring."
Yasuo laughed while she took a bite of her apple, both of them walking after Ima, and watching in amusement as the blue haired girl kicked Akira. Of course that meant the red haired boy had to kick Ima's feet out from under her.
"I feel sorry for you," she teased, "having to deal with that every single day."
"Nah," Yasuo laughed. "I feel worse for Kioshi-sensei. He's the one that has got to break them up these days. I just get to watch and try not to be dragged in."
"Better him than you, huh?"
"Always," he said, as they stopped just short of where Akira and Ima were bickering now.
"So kind," she commented, "he must be delighted with you three."
"Well," an unfamiliar voice said, "they're a good team when it comes down to it. I don't mind a bit of rough-housing." There was a subtle emphasis on 'bit' that made Sakura hide a smirk as Ima and Akira spring apart.
"Kioshi-sensei," Yasuo said calmly, looking over his shoulder and up. Sakura turned to see a man with long black hair tied back loosely and wearing the official uniform of a Jounin behind them. "Sakura-san is joining us for lunch. Did you want to join as well?"
"Sure," he said easily, "someone's got to keep an eye on you bratlings." He gave her an appraising glance. "Hatake's brat, huh?"
Sakura wasn't sure if she liked this man and tried not to bristle. "I started as a student under Kakashi-sensei, yes," she answered evenly.
"Don't mind him," Yasuo advised in a low voice. "He always talks like that."
Despite herself, she laughed.
--
Tenten was not particularly known as a shinobi when compared to her two teammates-sure, Neji had started out as the top of his class and even back in the Academy everyone had known about him and thought he'd go far. Lee, on the other hand, everyone had known because he made himself such an easy target for ridicule.
Kids could be cruel, after all.
The bottom of their class, muddling through with only skill in taijutsu, Tenten still wondered some days how Lee'd managed to make the Bunshin that had been the requirement for passing the final exam. She'd never ask him, not because she didn't want to, but because that was something that Lee probably preferred to keep to himself. After all, he'd adapted-and done so amazingly well-to having ill-developed chakra coils, but that was no call for her to stomp all over that pride and assume that it didn't hurt, still, that he'd never be able to do some of the things every other ninja could do.
And she, she'd been solidly in the middle of her class. That, Tenten had found, was where the greatest amount of anonymity was to be found. To her dismay, that had been where she'd been stuck, no matter how much effort she put into things, her marks had stayed about the same.
She just wasn't a genius, and she wasn't a failure either. Tenten wasn't sure if, these days, failure was the right sort of word to describe Lee or Uzumaki-or even Nara, who'd finished not much above Uzumaki in grades and yet had become a Chuunin already. Look underneath the underneath.
Doing that, Tenten couldn't help to wonder what it was that they had that she lacked. She knew she was a strong kunoichi. That her skill in weapons was unrivalled in her age group, and that she was a strong contender in the exam-Gai-sensei had faith in her. Lee had faith in her. Neji, in his own way, had faith in her.
But she looked at the others and wondered why all she could see was the way they'd been growing stronger. Did she lack their fire? Running along, racing over the ground as they headed towards Kumo and the Chuunin exam, Tenten studied the other team, team 10, and wondered if everyone else was blind these days when they insulted Akimichi and Ino. It was plain to see that they were stronger-Ino walked with a confidence that she hadn't had six months ago and her movements, even just to get up for more firewood, or to stretch, were far smoother and connected. Akimichi-Chouji, she mentally corrected herself-had proven himself out on the mission where Lee had been an idiot and Neji had nearly died. He was strong.
That he'd come back and recouped and was running now with that same, tireless sort of strength, meant that he'd grown. His wasn't the same strength as Ino's quicksilver sort, but that was fine-that's what teammates were for. They were strong in different ways because no one could be strong in all ways.
Haruno… she didn't know her that well-everyone knew that Haruno had been taken on as Hokage-sama's apprentice and Tenten would be lying if she said that didn't sting. It had been a dream of hers for so long.
She hadn't made much of an effort to get to know Haruno better, not that she'd had that much time to spare anyway, not between training and missions and learning how to juggle good friends for the first time-it was a novelty, having girl friends to talk to, but that was exactly what Ino and Hinata had become.
For that, Tenten could be glad.
"Tenten-san!" That was Lee, always formal even after two years of training and working together.
She tilted her head to face him, still moving, but it was a pace that they could easily talk at. "There's no need to yell," she commented lightly. "It's not like we're that far away from each other, you know."
He gave her a smile and didn't argue about that. It was just his way, to be enthusiastic. "You looked so deep in thought that I figured it might take some volume to get your attention."
'What did you want?" she asked, glancing sideways at him and not mentioning that she'd be a poor ninja to get that lost in her thoughts while they were out on the road. Tenten knew that her mood wasn't something that he deserved to have taken out on him. She could keep it to herself. Smiling slightly, she asked again, "What's up?"
When he looked at her, Tenten was again reminded of the fact that Lee's gaze was incredibly penetrating. It didn't matter that he should have looked ridiculous with his awful hair cut and eyebrows that no one should have to live with. To her, that was just Lee.
"You looked out of sorts," he said, and she realized that he'd gotten a bit concerned. "I thought you might prefer a distraction than to keep thinking."
He never had been one to sit around and wait for people to work things through on their own-not when she was involved, at least. She knew well the way he'd been concerned for Haruno after the whole mess with Uchiha. Tenten wondered if that, his directness in asking her what was up, was just how he took it as marked for what teammates were supposed to do for each other.
Somehow, that thought was a bit comforting.
She shook her head. "I was just thinking it's nothing really important, in the great scheme of things."
"If it was depressing you," Lee said honestly, "then I think it's important." He meant that, she knew. "I do not mean to pry, Tenten-san, but if you wanted to talk about it…"
He left the rest unspoken, but that was alright, she gave him another smile. "I'll think about it," Tenten said, "though you might find it a bit boring."
While he protested that there was no way she could ever be boring, Tenten mulled over her thoughts, over his offer, and wondered how to put it so he didn't think she was feeling sorry for herself.
After all, Tenten didn't think she was doing that, but the way it might come off to someone else… that was always different, and harder to judge. To her, it was just a fact, that she didn't feel like she was growing and getting stronger as impressively as everyone else and that meant there was something that she was missing.
"Lee," Tenten said, cutting over his continued rambling. "What do you think of everyone's progress?"
He blinked at her, then glanced around at the group of shinobi that they ran with before his gaze settled on the other team they'd done the exam with last year. "They've changed a lot," Lee said, "I look forward to seeing what they can do-Hokage-sama had them come, on this, which means she counts them as one of her strongest Genin teams."
"Kind of like ours," she said, resisting the urge to sigh. "You and Neji had to have impressed her during the invasion and the whole mess afterwards."
"You did more than I could during the invasion," Lee said earnestly. "I was knocked out, and even if I hadn't been, with my back…" He shook his head determinedly. "I don't think she would have sent a team along on this, Tenten-san, unless she had faith in all three of its members."
That was Lee-he always managed to cheer her up somehow.
"Yeah," she said, giving him a smile. "That's got to be right, definitely."
--
The room was an ordinary briefing room, a little larger than the ones used for four man missions, but that was the only thing different about it. In the chairs, around the plain table, were six Genin. Two girls, four boys, and all of them looked like they'd be sitting around for a while.
"How much longer are they going to make us wait?" Sayuri complained, stretching as she glanced around the meeting room again. "I mean it, we've been here for hours already. Joben-sensei is totally getting an earful about this. Honestly."
Tsubaki gave her a deeply unimpressed look from the other side of the table. "It's been fifteen minutes, idiot."
"You're the idiot," Sayuri muttered, brushing pale green hair away from her eyes. "Not even knowing what hyperbole is. I don't get why Yukio-sensei is even thinking of letting you become a Chuunin."
"Not this again," muttered Inori, earning him glares from both the girls. "What? Seriously, you two. Every single time you guys see each other lately it comes back to that."
It wasn't really a surprise, all things considered. When it came down to it, as sisters, as twins, they had always been highly competitive. Their feud over who was better than the other was one that had it's roots way back from before they could walk. Sayuri narrowed her eyes at her older sister (by all of eleven minutes) and mentally wished that she'd just drop dead.
Why couldn't she have gotten a nice, pleasant sort of sibling? One who was useful to the Clan?
Because nice and pleasant are luxuries of those who don't have to fight, her mother would say. After seeing how terrifying some of the older shinobi could be, when one minute they seemed fine and charming, Sayuri had mentally amended that:
You could be nice when you were strong enough that people would take you seriously even if you spoke softly.
"That's a lot of times," noted Hideki, not bothering to take his blue eyes off of his scroll. Inori snorted in agreement.
"You'd get it," Tsubaki said loftily, grey eyes flashing. "If you had a family to deal with it. But, oh right, you don't."
Sayuri stood up, bristling at the words and unable to stop herself from reacting. "Do not insult my teammate," she snapped waspishly. "He's worth a million of you."
For his part, Masanori just sighed while Taka gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. None of them made a move to stop the argument. All of them were used to this, and it was something more interesting than just waiting around for their sensei to show up.
None of them noticed the door opening, or the two men standing in the doorway listening to the argument.
"A million what? Bugs." Tsubaki scoffed.
"There's an idea," Sayuri retorted. "Let's invite a bug-user to infect you. Bugs'd be everywhere and you'd never get away from them."
"They'd like you better!"
"As if!"
"Girls," Joben-sensei said, looking pained. All of the Genin froze. "What have we told you before about airing your differences while on duty?"
Sayuri shared a look with Tsubaki before the both of them glanced away.
"She started it," Sayuri muttered rebelliously. "I'm not going to let my team be insulted." If she'd looked up, she'd have noticed her sensei looking pained.
"Which is admirable," Joben-sensei commented, "but not at the expense of obeying previous orders. Is that understood? Kawano Tsubaki, Kawano Sayuri, I await your answers."
"Yes, Joben-sensei," they said, both grudgingly.
"Excellent," Yukio-sensei said, rubbing his hands together and giving them all a fey smile. He was a delicate looking man but for the scars running down the right side of his face. "All of you have some idea of what you're here for--"
"And if you don't," Joben-sensei interjected, almost mildly, "then I'm severely disappointed in you all."
Sayuri shot a glance from beneath lowered eyelashes to flick a quick smirk at her teammates, Inori and Hideki. They grinned back. No worries on their side, at least, in being taken for an idiot team. That was a good thing, Joben-sensei was their sensei after all. If they'd disappointed him, then training would've been utter hell.
"We're here 'bout the other villages, aren't we?" Masanori said, leaning back in his chair and glancing up at the sensei. "Shizuka of Mitsu-sensei's team was talking about how her team had a meeting today as well. You're separating us by year groups is my guess."
Considering that, Sayuri couldn't find a flaw in that logic. "We're being assigned to watch particular teams, aren't we?" she spoke up, saying what came to mind, and ignored the dirty look that Tsubaki gave her.
It wasn't her fault that this time she'd been quicker on the up-take, after all. All was fair.
Joben-sensei favoured her with a small smile and Yukio-sensei beamed at them all. "Exactly right," Yukio-sensei said, clasping his hands behind him. "There are other meetings going on to break our visitors down into manageable groups."
"It'll be difficult," Joben-sensei warned them. "The other villages will have been sure to send their very best teams. You're to be on your guard, and to avoid starting fights. If they start a fight, they're disqualified from the exam and sent home."
"We don't want them sent home," Yukio-sensei calmly took over. "We want them where we can learn as much as we can about them. And that means we need them here, under observation, and so all of you are under strict orders to avoiding fighting with them at all costs."
"What about during the exam?" Taka asked, frowning at that. "We're not giving them a free ride through, right?"
"During the exam, the rules are the same as during any other exam," Joben-sensei answered. "You do your best to pass the exams, no matter what. Fighting is allowed then."
"Though Raikage-sama notes that he'd appreciate it if you refrained from killing our guests for sport," Yukio-sensei admitted. "So keep that in mind. Kill them if you absolutely have to, but don't do it as a game. I know some of you are head-hunters."
Sayuri shot a side-ways glance at Hideki and wrinkled her nose at him. That was why they hadn't been allowed to go on the last exam. Ugh.
He rolled his eyes, and she knew he was of the opinion that it was ancient history and when would they all get tired of talking about it?
"Joben-sensei?" Inori asked. "Are the teams for surveillance further broken down by village? We're not the only two from our class that are taking the examination."
She blinked--that was true.
"That's right," he said, "your two teams will be covering two of the Konohagakure teams."
Tsubaki looked outraged. "Konohagakure gets an invitation to our exam and they send Genin our age? Are they making fun of us?"
"No," Yukio-sensei said soothingly. "Konohagakure has some truly spectacular Genin in your years. During their last exam, most of the Genin who made it to the finals were their rookies."
"Glut of talent," Masanori observed. "It happens every few years, even here, right?"
"Precisely," Joben-sensei said, setting the folders out on the table. "Now, your teams have been decided already, based on our understanding of their competence and skills. This has no reflection on any of you, other than who we felt would match your personalities the best."
Sayuri nibbled on a lock of hair, considering that. "So," she said, asking the question that they were all thinking. "Who'd we get?"
¬--
The next few days passed quickly--the conversations Ino'd had with the others giving her more than enough to think about and Ino was glad enough for the distraction provided by the border guards as they proved that they were in the country for what they said they were (and that they were who they said they were, which as a ninja was a bit more difficult, she wondered if half the time that the guards just took it at face value to save on the hassle) to quit thinking.
Conversations after crossing the border were far less free. All of them knew well and good that they were likely under heavy surveillance and their actions reflected that.
Ino, for her part, spent a fair bit of time studying, thinking and talking a mile a minute without saying anything at all. She knew that it was something she was good at--just because there were words coming out of her mouth didn't make them important, after all--and used that as a way of venting her irritations from, well, everything.
New country, new rules, Hyuuga giving her weirdly knowing glances--what the hell, they weren't even really, like, friends--and the fact that it was really really strange without Shikamaru around.
And that thought, of course, had her mentally reeling. Did she seriously miss him? Augh. All that work to go on without him, to prove that she could be just as strong as he, and now she had the nerve to--wish he was around?
Feelings, Ino decided mutinously, totally sucked. She didn't even know why she missed him except, maybe, the fact that he was a commonality. Like dirt, she didn't have to think to know he'd be around.
When she shared that thought with Chouji, he'd laughed and said, "I'm telling him you think he's like dirt."
She'd stuck her tongue out at him, if he didn't get it then too bad because she got it and it wasn't an insult at all.
Lightning Country was a weird one, she thought, there was a lot more climbing--good practice, she told herself whenever the urge to curse at the sight of yet another freaking mountain got strong--and yet there was a lot of water. The rivers and even lakes they found didn't seem to be daunted by the fact that they were steadily rising higher in altitude.
"Wow," Ino said, as they crested the final edge and Kumogakure came into view. The view was a bit misted over with clouds--no really--but they all paused to take a moment to look at it. "It looks a bit like a giant beehive, doesn't it?"
Tenten stifled a laugh.
Ima didn't bother with stifling as she shook her head and tugged on Akira's sleeves. "Come on," Ima said, "we've still got to get down there, and if we hurry then we can be in the village by nightfall."
Real beds.
They were tough, well-trained, ninja. They were also teenagers who'd been on the road (running, even!) for days. Real beds were a major draw. Ino suspected, as she turned away from the view to continue on, that the adults were thinking much the same.
"Giant beehive?" Sakura murmured, voice taut with suppressed mirth. "What, are you trying to set them against you, Ino-pig?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ino insisted, though she totally did and was yet prepared to defend it to the end. "I mean, I wasn't meaning anything by it, but that was totally my first impression--can you honestly blame me?"
Sakura shook her head, laughing. "Don't get us all killed," she advised. "I can think of people who'd be pretty unhappy with you if that happened."
"Yeah yeah," she said, flapping her hands. "Go on then, shoo. Wouldn't want you contaminated by my awesome nerve."
The walk, run rather, down to the village proper took them most the rest of the day. It would have taken less time, but then there was the fact that they had to get through security and that was a huge time suck.
"I wonder," she murmured to Tenten, "how much security did we have in admitting people the last time around?" Was this normal? Or had security been upped after the fiasco in Konoha's last exams?
Tenten just shrugged; she didn't know either.
The hotel they were escorted to, though, looked large and rather comfy, so Ino brightened upon seeing it. Hopping up the steps, one two three, she turned to call down to Chouji and froze at the sight of someone familiar.
Led by the crazy one, were the three Suna nin that had both helped ruin their village and then pick up the pieces of it afterwards. Ino's eyes narrowed as they settled on the blonde's--Temari, right? that was her name--and huffed.
"I can't believe it," she moaned, "what are they doing here?"
Having helped to save her team or not, Ino wasn't thrilled. Three more people who were strong enough to have helped Shikamaru and his team who, well, weren't her. That wasn't something she was thrilled about acknowledging.
Ino watched them, waiting on the steps while her team caught up. Gaara, the crazy one, looked much the same as he had six months ago. The weird one with the puppets-she couldn't even remember his name-had done something to his face paint, it was a bit different, and Temari looked like not even a day had gone by. Fiddling with the bandages that Ino had gotten used to being wrapped around her arms, she couldn't help but feel a bit resentful of that.
That was the girl, after all, who'd been strong enough to save Shikamaru. Maybe she was supposed to be grateful-and she was, in a way, after all: Shikamaru alive beat Shikamaru dead, no doubt about that-but…
"What are you staring at?" Sakura hissed. "You look like an idiot-"
"Look," Ino said, pushing Sakura in the right direction.
"What-" Sakura stopped, and Ino could almost feel her eyes widening. "They're here?"
Funny how that made Ino feel better, but there it was. Sakura didn't sound exactly thrilled about it either.
"Let's go," she murmured, "before they spot us, well, spot us so that they have to come and talk to us, you know what I mean."
Sakura nodded. It was likely that they'd already been spotted, after all. But the Suna trio weren't rushing to come and greet them, so Ino figured that if they beat a quick retreat that they'd be spared the awkward hellos.
Awkward allies. Ino made a face at that, tugging Sakura up the stairs and into the hotel. "You two are so slow," Chouji said, having waited at the door.
"Did you--?" Ino asked, as Sakura pushed past her, into the hotel.
"I saw them," he said, looking a bit concerned, "but--"
Sakura had come to a dead stop inside the hotel, staring at another team that had just been coming down a flight of stairs off the side of the lobby.
"Sakura?" Ino said, pushing by her. "Wake up, forehead. You make a better wall than a door. What's--oh."
Oh. Was right.
Ino stared at the trio, all of them wearing Oto hitae-ite and suddenly understood why Chouji had been concerned (it hadn't had anything to do with the fact that Gaara and them were around at all) and knew just why Sakura had frozen.
"Sakura," she said, glancing over her shoulder. "We're going up to our room."
Ino's voice brooked utterly no argument. She hadn't been expecting this--stupid, what had she been doing, just drifting along? Of course Oto would want to have Chuunin made officially--but the way Sakura had just completely...
"You," Sakura snarled, and shoved past Ino to head towards the Oto Genin, who watched this with first confused expressions then mildly alarmed ones as they, Ino guessed, put two and two together and figured out who this had to be.
"Sakura," Ino said, darting forward and grabbed her friend's arm. "Stop it."
Sakura swung to look at her; Ino refused to let go of her arm. No way was she going to let Sakura get them disqualified that quick or well, really, at all (Ino would prefer to avoid disqualification because that would be the lamest reason ever to fail at the expectations that they'd been given for this exam) and she narrowed her eyes and made sure that her grip was strong enough that, to get out of it, Sakura was going to have to do some major effort.
She'd gotten stronger in the last six months after all, and that showed.
"They might know where Uchiha is," Sakura hissed and the Oto Genin watched them warily even as one of the boys tried to tug the other two members of the team away from them. They didn't, it was clear, want to be disqualified either.
"So what if they do?" Ino asked, pitching her voice so that it was easily heard by the Genin who were the target of the conversation. "You going to start a fight right here in the middle of the hotel before registration is even over? Exam don't start 'till tomorrow, you know that."
They'd gotten there just on time, exactly as planned. Distantly Ino was aware of the fact that the Jounin were really not thrilled about having to be here--even if it was a good chance for additional intelligence, it was also a bit like walking into a trap and saying 'please eat me, I'm delicious'.
The look Sakura gave her was agonized. "But--," she started.
Ino shook her hard. "There's no buts," she said flatly. "I know why you want--talk to them." Yeah, that wasn't going to fool anyone but it was way better than saying 'interrogate' right out in the open considering that they had the attention of the whole lobby. She barely registered the fact that Gaara and the other two had entered the lobby along with their Jounin sensei. "You think I don't get it?"
Sakura stared at her, Ino's grip tightened further. If they hadn't known medical jutsu it would have easily left a nasty bruise. She'd apologize later. International incidents were to be avoided way more than a bruise after all. "Then why--"
"Because," Ino said, voice cool, "there'll be plenty of time for that during the exam. No need to do it here and get in shit 'cause we're not allowed to be fighting. Get that through your skull, Haruno."
Sakura looked like she'd been slapped. Ino was almost tempted, if only so the message would get through. Why would they want to do something so--obvious--right here where everyone could see it? If they had to go after another team, do it when everyone else was going after their own targets. Slowly, Sakura nodded.
"You're right," she said, voice monotone. "Of course--that makes way more sense. I'm going to my room now."
Ino studied her for a moment then handed over the keys noting, as she did so, that the Oto Genin didn't look much reassured. She wondered what sort of stories they'd heard to make them so wary of Sakura.
"Go on," she said, and watched Sakura stalk off. Sighing in relief, Ino turned to see if she could spot Asuma-sensei--she had to talk to him, like, right away about what was going on. And Chouji...
"Blondie."
It was, frankly, rather odd to be called that by someone who also had blonde hair. Neither did it thrill her when she turned to face Gaara and his siblings. It was Temari who'd spoken.
"It's Yamanaka," Ino said, one hand on her hip and wishing that she was anywhere but having to be the one from their team to do the greetings. Too late now though. "Hey."
Gaara stared at her and she resisted the urge to shudder. He had a creepy gaze and only an idiot would fail to sense the power he carried in him-it felt stronger than during the last exam. Ino wondered if that was because he was stronger, or because she was. Temari gave her a look that Ino couldn't decipher. "Good call," the sand kunoichi said finally, then added, "Yamanaka."
That was--well. "Thanks," Ino said, and wondered if maybe this could go better than she'd thought it would. It would be nice, in this instance, to be right.
"Naruto," Gaara said, and her attention snapped back to him. "Is he here?"
She shook her head. "He's on a training mission--Sakura might know better where he's supposed to be this week."
"I'll ask her then," he said. "Temari. Kankurou. Let's check in."
--
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