I arrive at training ground seven the next morning with a few minutes to spare before eight o'clock. I'm the second one to get there. Sasuke is leaning against a tree, glaring down at that leaf of his again. I sidle up next to him and slump against the tree beside him.
"So, are you in, or are Sakura and I going to have to beat the Chunin Exams by ourselves?"
Sasuke snorts, taking his attention off the leaf just long enough to give me a scornful look. "In your dreams, idiot."
I hold my hands up, smirking. "All I'm saying is you looked pretty terrified when Hatake gave us the lowdown. I smelled piss."
"Hn."
I roll my eyes. "You're no fun, Uchiha."
"Hn."
"Yeah, yeah," I say, deciding to let it drop before he 'Hn's me into a blind fury. "Hey, what's the deal with that leaf? You've been messing around with for over a week now."
"Sharingan training," he says sourly.
"Really?" I tilt my head. "How is that going to help your Sharingan? What are you even doing?"
"I'm supposed to cut it in half with my chakra. Kakashi says it's the first step towards channelling wind chakra."
I blink. "I'm sorry, what? Is Hatake trying to replace me as the team wind chakra specialist? That's literally the one thing I'm better than everyone else at!"
"Of course not," he says. "It's my opposite element twofold. My fire overwhelms it, and my lightning is overwhelmed by it. It would take me decades to get to the level you're at right now."
"Since when are you lightning natured?" I ask in surprise. I've only ever heard of people with special bloodlines having two elemental affinities, and none of them are the Sharingan.
"Kakashi tested me while we were tracking down the cultists. Then he decided that since wind is almost impossible for me to channel, I should start working on channeling it first." He sighs. "He says he wants me to be proficient in every element so I can put my Sharingan's copying abilities to good use."
"Ah, yeah. That makes sense." I snicker. "Still sucks, though."
"Hn."
"Oh fuck off."
Sasuke turns turns back to his leaf, and I ponder why he'd have to cut the leaf and not just blow it around, or something like that. I never use my wind to cut things. Huh. I wonder if I can even use cutting wind jutsu. That's the first thing that comes to mind when a shinobi hears wind jutsu, but I've never used my chakra for anything other than pushing and pulling.
Sakura arrives a couple minutes later, breaking me from my pondering. I wave, grinning, and she waves back, face pink. I push off the tree I'm leaning against, walking over to meet her and start up a conversation about some of the stuff I read in my new scrolls last night. Before I can, though, Hatake appears in the middle of us all, wisps of chakra smoke clinging to his legs.
"What have you three decided?" He asks, all business. Man, it's weird seeing him like this when it's not in quick spurts. It almost makes me miss his teasing.
"We're going for it," I say.
"Is that right?" He asks, glancing between Sakura and Sasuke. They both nod, and just like that his serious persona melts away faster than an ice cream cone in Suna. "Great! I'm glad you're in this together. I would have had to hold you all back, otherwise."
Sasuke glares at Hatake. "The Hokage said we don't need three people for a team."
"And what happened to not holding it against us if one of us decided to back out?" I ask, my eyes narrowed.
"Now, now," he says soothingly. "I wouldn't have held it against any of you if you decided you didn't want to compete, but I still wouldn't have let the other two enter. Even if it's technically allowed, you still need your jonin sensei's permission."
"Why, though?" I ask.
"Because the whole reason I recommended you three is because of your outstanding teamwork," he says. "You've proven to me that you three can handle anything when you're together, so I nominated you. You still need work on the individual front, which can only be done through experience as shinobi." He chuckles. "I don't think it'll take you long, though."
With that said, he falls into a crouch, gesturing for us to join him on the ground. "Gather round now, kiddies. We've established you'll be competing in the exams, so now we need to work on getting you prepared."
"I thought you said we couldn't prepare for them, sensei," Sakura points out.
"You can't prepare for the tasks themselves," he agrees. "But that doesn't mean we can't work on making you better, dirtier shinobi before we head out!
"There are a few constants that you can always count on for the exams. One of them is the final task, that isn't quite a task. It's a tournament held between the teams that have made it through the actual tasks, in front of all five Kage and a vast array of people from all four corners of the Elemental Nations. The winner is crowned champions, given a fancy victory ceremony, that sort of thing." He nods at our expressions. "It's a very large spectacle. It's also pointless.
"What?" I blurt. "How could that be pointless?"
"You don't actually need to win the tournament to become a chunin," he says. "You don't even need to win a single match. As long as you show the five Kage that you're a strong leader with a respectable amount of power and a firm control over it, you can lose your first match and still be promoted."
"What about in the other tasks? Can we get sympathy promotions in those, too?"
"Afraid not," Hatake says. "You'll have to be flawless up until the tournament. I don't think you'll have too great a problem with it, though. The early tasks tend to involve teamwork in some way, shape, or form."
"No patterns, eh Hatake?" I tease.
"Well, if you consider that a noteworthy pattern, I can also tell you that all of the tasks will involve being a shinobi somehow."
"That'll be a problem for him," Sasuke chimes in, smirking.
I scowl. Betrayed by my own comrade. What a disgrace. "Alright, so what are we doing for training? The usual, or-?"
"I'm glad you asked, Naruto," Hatake says, and I immediately get a bad feeling in my gut. My sensei reaches into his pocket, pulling out a pair of silver, tinkling bells. "Remember these?"
"Oh please no," I whisper, horrified. Beside me Sasuke inches back, Sharingan active and spinning wildly. Sakura just whimpers.
"Lunches, please," he says, holding his other hand out.
I groan. "I hate you so much."
...
The sun has long set and the moon is on its way up into the night sky when I finally stumble out of training ground seven, beyond spent. I had almost forgotten how terrible Hatake's little bell game was, and he'd gleefully reminded me of why I hated them so much. Even with all of the progress we'd made as a team, he still thrashed us without even trying.
He never gave Sakura a chance to set up her barrier jutsu, getting up in her face at the exact wrong moment every time she tried. Sasuke's Sharingan didn't seem to make any sort of difference when they fought, to the point where Hatake didn't even have to whip his own out to match it. And the less said about my attempts to use the Great Breakthrough while on the run, the better.
About all I can say is that we forced him to stop reading his porn while he kicked our asses.
At least he let us eat our lunches this time in between beatdowns and lectures. I don't know what I'd have done if he ate the bento I had spent hours preparing while poring over Sakura's scrolls. Probably quit life as a shinobi forever. Or cried.
Still, that was hours ago, and I'm starving again. I consider going home and cooking a meal for all of two seconds before heading to a particular ramen stand for a long overdue visit.
Ichiraku's is still plugging happily along when I shift the entry flap aside, to my relief. There are a few customers already in, an exhausted looking shinobi on one end of the bar scarfing down a bowl, and a pair of civilian women sitting on the other, chatting amicably over their ramen. My preferred spot right in the middle is empty, and I waste no time grabbing it and slamming my fists down on the bar.
"Gimme three large miso with the works, and don't be skimpy on the pork, old man!" I call jauntily back into the kitchen. A moment later a pretty girl with long brown hair and dark eyes peeks out, a smile on her face.
"Naruto! You're back from your mission!" She says, wiping her hands off on her apron. She plucks her notepad and pencil out of the little pocket, and starts jotting down my order. "So three Uzumaki specials to start. What else are you looking for tonight? We're having a special on shrimp- two for one, or five for two."
I love Ichiraku's.
I'm halfway through my second bowl, trading banter with Teuchi across the bar, when a man in a familiar white cloak sits down on the stool next to me.
"Hello, Naruto."
I pause, noodles hovering just short of my mouth. "Itachi?" My brow furrows. "What are you doing here?" I've never seen him around before. Doesn't seem like his kind of place, to be honest. Not nearly good enough for a shinobi of his elite stature and bloodline. Ugh. I can't even think that without throwing up a little in my mouth.
"I have a message for you." He turns to Ayame. "I'll have a medium chicken to go, please."
"Yes, Commander-sama," Ayame says, bowing and hurrying back into the kitchen to relay the order. That irks me, for a reason I can't quite put my finger on.
"So what's your message?" I ask, slurping up another glorious strand of heaven. "And why couldn't you have Sasuke tell me?"
"It's easier this way," he says simply. I grunt.
"Alright, shoot."
He stares down at me with unreadable onyx eyes. "In celebration of Team 7's nomination for the Chunin Exams, Uchiha Fugaku invites you to join Sasuke and his family for dinner at the Uchiha Compound along with your teammate, Haruno Sakura."
I jerk forward, a piece of pork suddenly lodged in my throat. I slam my fist against my chest, choking, and with a small sigh Itachi slaps me on the back hard enough to rattle my pinky toe. I swallow the piece of meat painfully, and turn a watery glare on the ANBU Commander.
"What?" I manage to gasp, looking up at him incredulously. He inclines his head.
"Tea will be served at seven o'clock tomorrow. Please arrive ten minutes early."
Oh, just kill me now.
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