Chapter 46

Speaking of the snake, he'd been in something of a rush today for some reason.. The last week had been spent fine tuning chakra control and elemental manipulation. Ryoko's specifically. Her wind blade could definitely cut through virtually anything a gennin would have on him or her here but it still couldn't cut through a significantly sized stone in a single strike like he demanded. She almost could, but to Orochimaru:

Almost hitting the target, means you ultimately missed the target and have only succeeded in wasting your knife.

Still. Naruto, from his experience, felt his teammates were far better prepared for this exam than any of the rookie nine had been for their first attempt so long ago.

Orochimaru was...

The blond paused, face scrunching up at the near thought.

A demanding teacher...

Still they didn't seem to realize it. Which was fair considering that Orochimaru monopolized so much of their time. They hadn't really had the chance to interact or measure themselves against any of their old classmates.

Like the guy was worried they'd embarrass him by losing so he made sure they were ready before he went to show them off. "Don't worry guys we'll kick all their asses." Naruto nearly shouted.

"Don't gloat." Kyofu warned. "We'll only draw needless attention."

"Too late for that." The blond laughed pointing out the sight of four Iwa gennin teams glaring daggers at them from across the room.

They glared for a few more seconds before Ryoko got fed up. "What are you rock heads looking at?"

Some of them looked ready to step forward before one gennin, one who Naruto suspected he might have fought alongside during the war, held them back with some brusque words...Maybe if the blond could picture some facial hair he'd be able to place it...

Ryoko scoffed the next word under her breath. "Idiots."

"You're all alone you really shouldn't make a spectacle of yourself."

The team turned around blinking at the sight of a Kirigakure gennin they didn't recognize.

Well...two of them did. Naruto would remember that face anywhere, even if he didn't remember the name.

"Yeah well what's it to ya?" Ryoko shrugged. "We can take care of-"

"Don't be rude." Kyofu interrupted somewhat sternly. As the eldest of the team she was sort of adopting the role of disciplinarian/peace keeper when Orochimaru wasn't around it seemed. She bowed. "I apologies. But we didn't catch your name."

"Kimimaro-kun." Another voice spoke, and the face of the person that walked up behind the pale ninja was one Naruto also recognized.

The name jumped to his lips this time too.

"Haku!?"

The dark haired gennin turned, features scrunching up in confusion when looking down at him "Do I...know you?"

Naruto froze for a moment, stiffening as he realized just how massive a slip up this was, especially with the way his teammates were looking at him. "Uhh no. I just heard there was a pretty-" Wait...was Haku a guy or a girl here? After Itachi anything was fair game! "-uhh, gennin from Kiri.! Figured that kinda had to be you." He hoped to sweet god above Haku was a girl here or he might just have the earth swallow him. With an earth affinity he could probably bury himself easy enough.

Haku laughed. "That's very sweet of you."

"Aww little Naru-chan has a crush!" Ryoko teased, reaching down to pinch his cheeks as he swatted her hand aside.

"They grow up so fast." Kyofu laughed.

"Not you too Fu-chan! You're supposed to be the nice one!" He whined.

Ryoko stuffed him in a headlock. "Oh so I'm not nice!?"

"Does this seem nice?" He shouted back glad for the distraction the antics were providing.

Haku giggled again and the burning question of male or female was still branded in Naruto's skull. "At any rate. Both our teams should be going." She tapped Kimimaro on the shoulder "They're starting to do the listings to see who's present and who's not."

Naruto stood up on his tip toes to see a dozen chuunin had filed in to one side of the warehouse and were checking teams off the list as they filed closer towards them.

Looks like the chuunin exams had begun.

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