When the day finally comes for us to leave Konoha for the Chunin Exams, I'm awake before my alarm even goes off. I jump out of bed, jog into the living room to shove Sasuke off the couch- er, wake him up- and speed through my morning routine.
We're out the door in minutes, having packed and repacked and repacked our repacked packs last night in jittery anticipation.
We don't bother trying to navigate the packed streets, taking advantage of our technical priority as shinobi heading out for a mission and roof-hopping our way to Konoha's western gate. For once Sasuke doesn't immediately disappear in a Body Flicker, instead smirking at me and speeding ahead the old fashioned way. A challenge.
"You can't outrun the wind, Sasuke!" I call, putting on a burst of speed and blowing past him.
By the time we touch down in front of the west gate we're both gasping for breath. Mine are victory gasps, though.
"So, how's my dust taste?" I ask breathlessly. In response, Sasuke hocks and spits a wad of phlegm at my feet. "Now that's just rude." I straighten up, loud gasps reduced to short pants and turn towards the gate.
I blink. "What the hell is going on here?"
Where the western exit should be, cracked and ready to go, there's a crowd of people. A few of them I recognize on sight, like Team 9, but others I've never seen before in my life. I squint. Is that Shikamaru? What is he doing here? A flash of red and white robes catch my eye then, and I move forward, Sasuke at my heels.
"Hey old man!" Said old man turns, breaking off from his conversation with the bearded jonin sensei that called him out during the Chunin Exams meeting.
"Ah, Naruto," he says, pleased. "I was wondering when you'd get here."
"Yeah, uh, sorry I'm late," I apologize, even though last I checked we're a few minutes early. "I didn't know we were having a party."
He chuckles, waving a hand. "Just a little gathering to see our nominees off," he says. "We're all excited to see the five of you in action after your latest mission."
"Guys!" Sakura's voice cuts through the dull throb of people talking, and our third teammate comes jogging out of the throng. Following behind her are Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru, the former looking peeved and the latter looking like he'd rather be anywhere else right now. Choji looks… like Choji. I wonder what flavor those chips are.
"Have you seen Kakashi-sensei?" She asks. I shake my head.
"Nah, we just got here."
"There you three are," The bearded jonin says, looking at Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru in bemusement. "Where have you been?"
"Being lied to by Sakura," Ino growls, glaring daggers at said girl. My eyes narrow.
"What about?" He asks. Ino turns to him, jabbing a finger at his chest.
"She says her team is competing in the Chunin Exams, which is impossible because you didn't nominate us for them and rookie teams never compete anyway-"
"No, she's telling the truth," he says, cutting her off. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette, lighting it and taking a drag while Ino stares at him in shock. "It's them and Team 9 from last year's graduating class that are going to be competing this year."
"What!?"
"Stop talking you troublesome woman," Shikamaru groans, bowing his head. Ino whirls on him, furious.
"Don't you start!" She yells. "It's because of you Asuma-sensei didn't nominate us in the first place! If you weren't such a lazy prick it could have been us getting promotions!"
"You act like I even wanted to compete," he says. "I'm quite happy staying a genin for the rest of my life, thank you very much."
"Good luck you guys," Choji says, inching away from Ino and her ranting. "My dad told me the Chunin Exams are really difficult for young competitors, so I hope you guys do well."
I tear myself away from the spectacle unfolding behind him, snickering. "Thanks, Choji." At least not everyone on that team isn't crazy.
He nods. "Chip?"
"Sure." Ah, barbecue.
"Naruto!" The meaty tang of the chip turns sour in my mouth.
"Hey Kiba."
Kiba appears in our little semi-circle, which I've just now noticed the old man has slipped away from, his teammates and sensei in tow. Asuma raises a hand in greeting to their sensei, stepping away from his bickering genin and starting up a conversation with her and leaving poor Choji to deal with his teammates.
"What's this I hear about you guys competing in the Chunin Exams?" Kiba barks (heh) at me, Akamaru echoing him indignantly from his perch on my old classmate's head. "It's crap, right? You're not really going?"
I cock an eyebrow. "Of course we are." I look past him, waving at his teammates. "Hey Shino, Hinata."
Oh, Hinata! In all the chaos following the mission, I completely forgot to relay her the pointers Neji gave me. I'll have to remember to catch her and help her nail down her Revolving Heaven sometime after the exams.
"Seriously?" Kiba asks incredulously, grabbing my attention again. "Why the hell would they send a courier team instead of us?"
"We're not a courier team, idiot," Sasuke scoffs.
"We're heavy assault," Sakura hurries to explain, heading off that particular feud before it ends up with the two of them beating each other to death in the dirt. "Our sensei spiked us with some pheromones to attract predators during the genin exam, which is why he didn't tell us to do anything besides get to the tower."
Kiba opens his mouth, closes it, then decides on a scowl. "Okay, but I still don't see why-"
"Naruto!"
Really, more? How many people do I even know?
This time it isn't a former classmate that comes emerges from the crowd, though. It's my former sensei. Iruka-sensei jogs up, completing our little circle, and I heave an inward sigh. Time for the anti-pep talk, it looks like. Ah well, Ino and Kiba have already put me on a roll. Might as well go for the triple bonus.
"What's up, Iruka-sensei?"
He sighs, scratching at the horizontal scar on his nose. "I wanted to apologize, to all three of you, for the way I acted in the meeting last week." Er, what? "I don't want you to think that I don't believe in your abilities as shinobi, because I do. I got caught up in the statistics of it all when I should have been worrying about you, and for that I'm sorry."
I gape at him.
He places a hand on my shoulder, gaze shifting from Sakura to Sasuke to me. "I want all three of you to know that I'll be rooting for you every step of the way, no matter how concerned I get."
Even Sasuke cracks a smile at that.
"Thanks, Iruka-sensei."
"There you are!" Hatake says, walking towards us with the old man by his side. "I was starting to worry you'd left without me."
We exchange a few more pleasantries and banter with all the well-wishing shinobi and our old classmates, respectively. A few minutes later we bump into Team 9, who are as boisterous ever- even Neji seems to be looking forward to the trip- and begin navigating through the crowd towards the gate.
The old man himself gives us some inspirational parting words to see us off, and then we're out of the village, with the forests ahead of us and the shouts and jeers of our fellow shinobi at our backs. This is it. No more training, no more appointments with the Torture and Interrogation unit, and best of all no more waiting.
I share a grin with my teammates as we take off down the road. To the Chunin Exams.
Next stop, the Land of Iron.
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