"Bandits to the north," Iruka said, swinging down unexpectedly from a large branch. He anchored himself by his feet and faced his teammates upside-down. "It's a group of seven, and they seem to be plotting something."

A cockeyed smile spread across Naga's face. "Let's interrupt them."

Yukiko reached over and whapped the girl with her good arm. "We're supposed to avoid trouble, not go looking for it. Besides, your back is still hurt and my left arm's useless." And they were all too jumpy to fight at their best, but Naga wouldn't take that well.

A quiet afternoon and night hadn't done much to reduce the tension after the gorge. Naga was spoiling for a fight, fists clenching at random moments. Iruka was, for once, not flushing at the slightest provocation, and his hands strayed from his shuriken holster to his kodachi and back. Yukiko kept seeing false genjutsu traces everywhere she looked, constantly setting herself on edge. Only Kakashi seemed unaffected by the experience, and even he was being quieter out of what passed for his sense of courtesy.

"They're heading toward Kashiwa. We'll probably run into them sooner or later." Iruka shrugged. "It might as well be on our terms, not theirs."

"And what are we supposed to do with Kakashi while we're fighting?" Yukiko asked. "I'd guard him, but I'm even less use than usual right now."

"You're not useless," Naga said, shaking her head firmly. "Nobody on our team is useless."

"Right," Iruka said from his branch. "Besides, if we attack them, you can stay out of the way under a genjutsu. They won't even think to look for you." He flipped to the ground and gave Yukiko a pleading look.

He was far too adorable for his own good. And that expression was an exact duplicate of the one Naruto used to talk her into serving extra portions of ramen instead of other, more nutritious foods. Yukiko wavered; she could usually stand up to the kid, but something about Iruka's face doubled the force of the puppy eyes.

Besides, he had a point -- if the bandits were moving east, it was better to catch them now when they were off guard, rather than later when they'd had time to set an ambush.

"Oh, fine. But I want to be within earshot in case an assassin is lurking."

Iruka nodded and set off through the forest, leading the way to the bandits' current position. Naga followed in the trees, shadowing Yukiko and Kakashi as they walked on the ground, his footsteps deliberately stirring the leaves into soft whispers -- not obtrusively, but just enough to remind the team that he was playing a civilian and needed to be watched.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The bandits had stopped for lunch when Iruka pointed them out from a safe distance. "You see?" he said. "Naga and I can catch them by surprise. We'll leave a larger gap to the north, so if any do escape, they'll head away from you and Kakashi-san."

Yukiko shrugged, then winced as the motion set her shoulder throbbing in renewed pain. "Fine. But I need you to haul Kakashi up into the trees first. I want the extra cover, and I can't exactly pull him up myself."

Kakashi was duly hoisted onto a wide branch, where he immediately leaned against the tree trunk and pulled out his little orange book. Yukiko sighed, and he winked at her. "What else am I supposed to do?" he asked.

He did have a point.

Yukiko settled a few feet further out on the branch, crouched in a ready position despite the protests of her bruised sides and back. "I'm going to hide us with the Chameleon genjutsu," she said, forming seals. "I'm sure you know the limitations, so please don't push them."

"So I should hold back on any moans of pleasure?"

"Pervert," Yukiko muttered. "Save it for Iruka; I'm not angry enough to care right now."

Kakashi sighed and turned his attention back to his book.

A minute passed in silence, and then a sudden rustle of leaves snagged Yukiko's attention. A branch on the next tree over shook slightly and she caught a glimpse of black hair and a patch of white before the person settled into stillness.

Assassin? If so, he was either clumsy or trying to lull her into false confidence. Yukiko started to thin her awareness, to spin a tiny strand of chakra across the gap between trees and investigate this new factor.

Two people! One was tightly controlled, prickling with the sensation of an active jutsu. Yukiko snapped her attention away and touched the other person, whose chakra felt... odd. Organized, and yet wide open, as if not making the slightest effort to hide...

Just like Kakashi's signature behind her, actually.

Oh, shit. They'd finally run across another group of genin and their jounin 'client.' And if one genin was hiding with the client instead of moving forward, Yukiko would bet the entire mortgage value of her building that the other two were sneaking up on the same bandit group Iruka and Naga were going to attack.

This could be trouble.

Yellow-white light flashed through the trees, followed a second later by the roar and shock of an exploding fire. Ninjutsu fire techniques, and high-level ones to cause that much damage. Yukiko hoped Iruka and Naga could move fast enough to dodge the flames, or that Iruka knew a water or earth-based jutsu to quench or smother the fire.

The genin and the jounin client remained calm, their chakra unruffled, as if they'd been expecting something to explode. And they were just one tree over, waiting for the rest of their team to return, the same way Yukiko was waiting for her team.

This could definitely be trouble.

She slipped back and tapped Kakashi on the shoulder, motioning him to put his book away. He sighed, but tucked the little orange book into his pack and raised an eyebrow at Yukiko. She pointed at the hidden genin and client, raised two fingers, and then waved toward the bandits and shrugged.

Trees shook on both sides of her hiding place, and four figures dropped into the small clearing, Iruka and Naga coming from the south while two black-haired figures wearing Konoha's symbol -- one female, one male -- arrived from the north. All four seemed startled, but quickly hid it and tensed for a fight.

"You stinking liar, Akaro," Naga said, glaring. "You said you wouldn't follow us."

The spiky-haired boy sneered. "Oh, we're liars? I think you're following us." He glanced around the clearing, eyes skipping lightly over his hidden teammate and fixing on Yukiko and Kakashi. He stared straight at her for several seconds, the red and black wheel of the Sharingan spinning in his eyes, and then looked back to Naga.

"Then again, maybe your partner's just incompetent," he said, "and you're hoping I'll be able to find her for you."

"Bastard," Naga snarled, twitching forward.

Akaro grinned, raising his hands into the first seal of a fire jutsu, but his partner laid her hand on his arm above his fingerless glove. "Stand down." Her voice was quiet but firm.

"I don't take orders from you, Kuroko!"

The girl frowned slightly, and something black and glittering poured from her loose sleeve to Akaro's bare skin. "Stand down. We're doing well; there's no need to interfere with ninja from our own village and risk getting injured."

"Like they could hurt us!"

Iruka scowled, one hand drifting to the hilts of his kodachi. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Uchiha Akaro. As I recall, you depend on your Sharingan and can't defend well against pure taijutsu or weapons."

"He's right," Kuroko said. "Stand down, Akaro, or I'll make you stand down."

The glittering blackness spread further up Akaro's arm, chittering, and Yukiko shuddered when she realized it wasn't a shadow or a ninjutsu -- it was a swarm of insects. She could almost feel phantom legs and wings brushing her skin, and was incredibly glad Kuroko didn't want to fight. Facing potential death was one thing. Facing bugs... well, everybody had their little phobias. She was usually all right so long as she had a bit of newspaper to swat them with, but a swarm was a bit more than Yukiko was prepared to think about.

Akaro seemed to share her revulsion, since he grimaced and broke his seal, using his hands to sweep the bugs off his arm. "Oh, fine. You can come down now," he added, looking up at Yukiko.

Kuroko nodded politely when Yukiko dropped her genjutsu and pushed aside the leaves that screened her and Kakashi from sight. Iruka helped Kakashi down from the tree while Yukiko dropped to the ground, spilling chakra into her legs to keep from jolting her injured arm.

Akaro scowled. "I don't know why you think we couldn't take them. I knew where she was all along, her arm's useless, and they don't have a clue where Shiro's hiding."

"You mean the two people over there?" Yukiko asked, pointing at the neighboring tree. "I found them five minutes ago."

She smiled at Akaro's stunned expression.

"You see?" Iruka said calmly. "You depend too much on your Sharingan, neglect your other skills, and underestimate your opponents."

"You should listen to him, Akaro," the third genin said, appearing from a cluster of leaves and lowering an attractive but hard-faced woman to the ground. "Besides, what's the point of sabotaging Leaf-nin? We should veer north again and take out that team from Hidden Mist." He dropped lightly to the ground and tucked his hands into the pockets of his white windbreaker.

"Oh, shut up, Shiro," Akaro grumbled. "You're not Mister Perfect -- you're the one who got spotted trying to hide. What happened to 'Don't worry, I can see anyone trying to sneak up on me'?"

Shiro narrowed his blank white eyes. "You know the Byakugan doesn't see through genjutsu. Now shut up yourself and let's get back to finishing the test."

Naga, who'd been grinning as she watched the team squabble, nodded. "Yeah. You want to go north? We'll go southeast. See you in Kashiwa -- if you make it."

"If we make it! You little freak!" Akaro started forming seals again, but Shiro reached over and poked him three times in the side while Kuroko let bugs pour out of her sleeves again and hover around his shoulders.

"Stand down, kid," the hard-faced woman said from where she was leaning against a tree by Kakashi's side. "Hyuuga just jolted your inner coils and you know Aburame's kikkai can eat chakra as fast as you generate it. Chuunin know when not to push their luck."

Akaro lowered his hands and stalked off to the northeast. "Fine, whatever. You catch up to me when you're done talking to the enemy."

The woman shook her head. "The enemy? Since when are Leaf-nin the enemy? I swear by all the kami, I don't know what's gotten into kids these days. Are yours as bad as these three, Kakashi?"

Kakashi blinked thoughtfully. "Not really. Their individual skills may not be as strong but they have much better teamwork -- and not all of them are children." He winked suggestively at Yukiko, who rolled her eyes.

The woman sighed. "You get all the luck."

"Hey," Naga said, waving her hands. "Don't talk about us like we're not here."

The woman glanced at her, then blinked and gave her a closer look. "Sasayaki?"

Naga tensed; Yukiko and Iruka stepped closer to her, hands straying toward their weapons. "What's it to you?" Naga asked.

"...Just old memories. Don't worry about it." The woman turned to Shiro and Kuroko, licking her lips and grinning in a rather unsettling manner. "So, do you two care enough about your team to go find that idiot Uchiha, or are we going to push on without him?"

Kuroko and Shiro exchanged glances. "We'll go northeast," Kuroko said eventually. "If it's pointless to attack other Leaf-nin, it's even more pointless to let our partner get himself killed because he didn't wait for backup." She turned back to Iruka, Naga, and Yukiko, bowed, and said, "Good luck, and thanks for your help with those bandits."

Shiro nodded once and the hard-faced woman waved as they walked out of the clearing.

Naga waited until they were out of earshot before pinning Kakashi with a glare. "Who was that, what does she know about my family, and why does she care?"

Kakashi shrugged, still slouched against the tree. "Mitarashi Anko, Orochimaru's student."

Naga blinked. "He had a student? Wait, why don't people hate her instead of me?"

"Who said they don't?" Kakashi stretched his arms over his head, and took a few steps away from the tree. "Shouldn't we be moving? The others have enough of a head start by now."

Naga glared, but Iruka tapped her shoulder and she held her tongue, falling into place beside Kakashi. Yukiko moved up to his right -- she couldn't be on the left because of her injured arm -- and smiled sympathetically behind Kakashi's shoulders.

"I can't wait to get to Kashiwa," she said. "I want a hot bath and a real roof over my head."

"I'll settle for getting away from our 'client,'" Naga said.

Yukiko eyed Kakashi consideringly. "I can see what you mean, but I think hot baths are more important. After all, he's only an irritating person. A good bathhouse, on the other hand, is a gift from heaven -- so long as no perverts try to peep in..."

Kakashi's eye narrowed, and then he attempted -- unsuccessfully -- to look cute and harmless.

Yukiko and Naga exchanged grins and proceeded to talk about various ways to torture men caught looking into the women's sections of bathhouses, blithely ignoring Kakashi's discomfort.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

They reached the outskirts of Kashiwa as dusk was creeping up the edges of the sky to tint the fading sunlight with hints of blue and stretch nets of shadow through the trees. Several enterprising groups of 'bandits' had set ambushes along the easiest paths through the tangled undergrowth, which Iruka spotted easily. Naga wanted to fight them, but Yukiko managed to convince her not to waste time on unnecessary battles. They slipped around one ambush under a genjutsu screen, traced a crazy, winding path through the minimal cover of Kashiwa's fields and pastures, and reappeared as if from thin air twenty feet from the village gates.

Kashiwa wasn't nearly as large or important as Konoha -- it existed mainly to provide a marketplace for the local farmers, fishers, and woodsmen -- but it was, like all villages in Fire Country, ringed by a massive wall. Decades of war, and centuries of feudal lawlessness before the establishment of the hidden villages, had made walls necessary for generations. In the past few years there had been movements to tear them down, but people had long memories and in any case the walls had become an integral part of traditional Fire Country architecture.

There had never been any question of removing or lowering Konoha's walls -- ninja couldn't afford to trust the new peace -- but Kashiwa was a less vulnerable target and was trying to project a welcoming image to encourage trade. The village wall was only half as high as Konoha's, and was painted with brilliantly colored murals of Fire Country history, as if to de-emphasize its original purpose.

"You'd think they could get the Hokage portraits right," Iruka said thoughtfully, looking at the small section depicting Konoha as the nation's strength and shield. "They're not that far from Konoha, and it's hard to miss the faces on the Hokage monument."

Naga twitched her shoulder. "They probably didn't get the others right either -- I know the Fire Lord's wife isn't that pretty."

Yukiko privately agreed, having spent several infuriating D-class missions retrieving cats for the woman in question and then watching her gush over the helpless animals. "In any case, let's get Kakashi into the village before it's completely dark. I assume you'll take us to an assigned meeting place?"

Kakashi nodded and ambled forward to greet the ninja on guard duty, a thirty-something genin whose forehead-protector also bore the symbol of the Leaf. It wasn't something most people realized, since the missions weren't particularly glamorous, but long-term guard postings brought in a significant percent of Konoha's profits. They also absorbed the genin who never passed the chuunin exam, thus keeping them from causing trouble in Konoha itself, or reminding fledgling ninja that rising through the ranks was more difficult than they imagined.

Yukiko studied the genin covertly as he led them through the streets of Kashiwa. If she hadn't retired, she might well have ended up in his position, far from home and bored out of her mind. She'd still be a ninja, which earned some automatic respect outside the hidden villages, but she didn't think that was worth the trade-off. She'd take her apartment building over this job any day.

Which led her to wonder what she'd do after this exam. Did she really want to be a ninja? Yes, she loved the rush of a good fight and the thrill of outwitting an opponent, but most missions were weeks of boredom for only a few hours of excitement. And most missions carried the risk of having to kill people -- granted, true assassination jobs tended to go to Anbu members, but people didn't hire ninja guards because they thought they might trip over a rock and break their necks. They hired guards because other people wanted to kill them -- and the only sure way to stop an assassin was death.

If she failed the exam, Yukiko figured she'd just go back to taking care of her apartment. She might even expand her operations a bit -- she'd been toying with the idea of buying the neighboring building, fixing it up, and renting out the ground floor as a restaurant or shop of some sort. Naruto would be disappointed that she had no plans to take the exam again, but he'd get over it sooner or later.

But if she passed, if she could actually be a chuunin, what then? She'd be expected to plan and lead missions, not just serve as someone else's soldier. She'd be away from her building for weeks and months on end. Kami preserve her, she'd have to hire Yusuke as a full-time superintendent or Uncle Yutaro would never let her hear the end of it.

And she'd have to leave Naruto alone. The kid was only six years old, he'd never had a real friend or parent-figure, and she'd be abandoning him. Yeah, so Iruka would still be around teaching at the academy, but he'd have to come over specially to see Naruto instead of being there automatically. That wasn't enough for any kid, and certainly not for her family!

Yukiko blinked.

Did she just think of the kid as part of her family?

Well, in a certain way he was, wasn't he? She saw him a lot more often than any of her blood relatives, somehow she'd ended up caring about him, and he'd latched onto her as a sort of big sister or surrogate mother. He was as much her family as Ame and Kasumi had been, and she'd never had trouble admitting how close she was to them.

Yes, Yukiko decided, Naruto was family. Family she'd chosen, family she wanted, not just people tied together by chance and blood.

As their escort ushered the team into a fenced-off campsite behind the guard barracks, Yukiko felt a huge smile spread across her face.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Three other genin teams had already finished the test and claimed some of the small three-person tents. Kuroko, Shiro, and Akaro were ignoring each other outside the tent closest to the campsite entrance; two Mist-nin were dozing nearby while their third teammate kept watch; and a team of Grass-nin had pinned up the front flaps of the tent farthest from the gate and were playing a pattern game with colored sticks. All three teams kept wary eyes on the new arrivals, until Iruka chose a tent halfway between the Grass-nin and Mist-nin, and set down his pack. Apparently nobody wanted to be too close to any other team.

"This is where I leave you," Kakashi said as Yukiko and Iruka started pinning up the tent flaps. "I have to report your actions to Gai. But since you're the fourth team here, I haven't died, and you're not dead either, I wouldn't worry too much."

Naga shot a sour look at his back as he ambled away. "I wasn't going to worry anyway. If he weren't a jounin..."

"Don't worry about it. We're here and we're safe -- that's the important part," Iruka said, flushing slightly as he smiled. "Let's see if they'll feed us a real dinner or if we're stuck with ration bars again."

The guard barracks turned out to have food -- a potluck of dishes contributed by the people of Kashiwa -- and Yukiko ate more unagi than she probably should have. Iruka, unsurprisingly, chose ramen, while Naga pounced on a platter of teriyaki beef strips and grilled vegetables.

Two more genin teams -- Sand-nin and more Mist-nin -- limped in during dinner, their members looking more torn-up and battered than anyone already there, even accounting for Yukiko's injured left arm. "We really did do well," she said to Iruka and Naga. "I wonder what happened to some of them?"

Naga shrugged. "Who cares? I just hope people don't take forever to get here -- or that green idiot gives out results before then."

"He can't until the five days are up," Iruka said, looking up from his ramen bowl. Then he frowned. "I hope winning fights and finishing quickly earns a high score -- some teams may be going slowly so they avoid all fights."

"I think that would be hard -- remember how the assassins surprised us? Besides, being sneaky is good but they don't want chuunin who can't handle themselves in a fight. Peace may not last forever," Yukiko said.

Iruka frowned again. "There's no reason it couldn't. Anyway, the Kage and the Masters are probably more worried about handling assassins than about potential wars."

That was true, Yukiko thought, though she was less optimistic than Iruka about the nations' ability not to provoke each other into violence. Still, if enough people like him taught enough children to share his views, maybe he'd be right in the end. It was a nice dream, in any case -- that she'd never have to live through another war, and that Naruto would never have to know the heartbreak of losing friends and family to endless battles.

Time seemed to drag its feet through the next two days while the genin teams trickled into Kashiwa and waited for Gai to announce their scores. The green-clad jounin was surprisingly hard to find for a man so loud and flamboyant, but he could occasionally be seen on random street corners and in various food stands conferring with the jounin 'clients' and various chuunin who'd acted as bandits and assassins.

At one point, while the team was wandering through the village, Yukiko spotted Gai at a sukiyaki stand with the chuunin 'assassin' who'd accused Naga of murder. She quickly steered her teammates down a side street, talking loudly about the souvenir stand she just had to look at. She ended up buying a ridiculous frog-shaped coin purse to cover that move, but she thought it was definitely worth the strange looks Naga and Iruka gave her.

Besides, the kid would be thrilled to get a present.

Finally, just past sunset of the fifth day, Gai sent the local guards to round up the genin teams. They stood nervously in the main room of the barracks, waiting to hear their fate.

Gai leaped onto a table and struck a dramatic pose. "You all showed the great strength and promise of youth! But not everyone can pass the test, so some of you will have to return home and train with passion for the next exam.

"The four teams with the highest scores will continue to the third test. First, Aishou, Shinkan, and Mouten Junichi of Hidden Mist! Second, Hino Suisen, Nagoyaka Kafunnokaze, and Makiba Kohaku of Hidden Grass! Third, Uchiha Akaro, Hyuuga Shiro, and Aburame Kuroko of Hidden Leaf! And fourth, Umino Iruka, Tonoike Naga, and Ayakawa Yukiko, also of Hidden Leaf!"

Cheers, sighs, and groans rolled through the room as the genin realized they'd passed or failed. Naga clutched Yukiko and Iruka, quivering with excitement.

Gai waved for silence, light glinting off his teeth as he smiled. "The third test will be the usual tournament-style fights one month from now in Konoha. Everyone else is free to return home or stay to watch the test, enjoying Fire Country's open-hearted hospitality!" He struck another pose, then vanished in a puff of smoke.

Several genin were glaring at the victorious teams, so Yukiko dragged her partners outside and several streets away from the barracks.

"We passed!" Naga said, beaming. "Not that I thought we wouldn't -- but we passed!"

Iruka flushed and rubbed his scar. "Yes, we did. But we still have one more test, and I think it's the hardest."

"It is," Yukiko agreed. "At least in the other tests you know what they're looking for, but sometimes even the people who win the tournament don't become chuunin."

Naga shrugged. "So we fight our best and hope. Shouldn't be too hard."

But it would be, Yukiko thought as they left for Konoha the next morning. It would be very hard -- they wouldn't have teamwork to rely on anymore, and they each had serious weaknesses they'd relied on the others to compensate for. Naga was vulnerable to any ninjutsu she couldn't dodge, since she didn't have any jutsu of her own to use as counters, and was equally vulnerable to any genjutsu or concealment techniques. Iruka was the best rounded of their team, but he didn't have any special techniques to finish a fight quickly. Like Naga, he'd probably need to be in close range to win, and that left him vulnerable to jutsu.

As for Yukiko herself, the one time she'd reached the third test -- the year before her parents died, the year Ame and Kasumi became chuunin -- she'd squeaked through the first round by confusing her opponent, but then she'd faced an Uchiha whose Sharingan rendered her genjutsu useless. The red-eyed girl had strolled across the arena, laughed as she avoided Yukiko's kunai, and smirked when her hand flashed out to slam Yukiko into unconsciousness.

Yukiko's taijutsu and weapon skills hadn't improved over the years; if anything, they'd grown worse through lack of practice. She had nothing to fall back on besides her genjutsu, nothing besides that trick with kunai and explosive notes she'd used back in the gorge, and that hurt her nearly as much as her opponent.

Maybe she should just withdraw from the tournament -- it wasn't as if she'd be hurting Iruka and Naga's chances at this point. She'd spare herself needless pain and humiliation and she could switch her attention back to business matters instead of wasting a month on training and impossible dreams. She could make sure Naruto was behaving himself...

Yukiko sighed, thinking about the kid. He'd never respect her if she quit now. And while it was silly to push on because of a six year old kid's opinion, she thought that maybe, if she quit, she wouldn't respect herself either.

Yusuke would get to manage her building for at least another month.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Back to Chuunin and Jounin
Back to team seven
Back to the main page