Chapter Text
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The chunin exams arrive shortly after the New Year, and though Naruto had practically hounded Kakashi about competing in it, she’d only been thinking about her rank when she did so. She’s reminded very quickly of why summer is her favorite season when snow begins falling just a day before the start of the chunin exams.
Naruto wakes up that morning to white outside her windows, and just like every year, the seasonal chill makes her want to sink back underneath the blankets instead of going out. But Kakashi-sensei said it was required for all competing teams to meet the day before, regardless of storm or shine.
Unfortunately, despite the horrendous weather conditions outside, ninja attire doesn’t change drastically enough to actually help with the cold. In order to not hinder mobility and agility, they only get to add compression leggings or scarves. And even then, Kakashi had said that there was always a chance that the enemy nin could use the scarf to strangle them to death, and with that morbid imagery, no one had added a scarf to their uniform. Naruto had foregone her mesh shirt in favor of a slim thermal undershirt that provided a shield against the harsh winds that sometimes ruffled her orange and black jacket.
On her desk sits the last letter she’d received from Gaara before he and his siblings left for Konoha, and she had reread it everyday with excitement, anticipating her foreign friend’s arrival. Maybe she’d see him now.
With that in mind, Naruto got herself ready for the day, checking almost absently for Shisui’s steady forest fire that hovered outside her window. She had to wonder how he was hiding when the trees were bare this time of year, but she hadn’t spoken to him much since she and Sasuke had snuck into that council meeting. With the ongoing investigation on Danzo that still hadn’t been closed and the incoming arrival of teams all across the Elemental Nations, Konoha had most jonin, chunin, and ANBU on duty, the rosters filled up overtime. A peace treaty had been signed, but it never hurt to be cautious. With Kumogakure’s attempted kidnapping of Naruto not far from the back of Minato’s mind, he hadn’t hesitated to put the necessary security protocols into effect. Naruto knew that one of Minato’s personal detail had been removed for the time being just to have extra eyes and hands around the village.
As was standard, she and the rest of Team Seven met on the bridge, and Kakashi greeted them with no more than the usual fanfare. It was hard to gauge her teammates' nerves because Sasuke and Sakura were both relatively quiet. Kakashi also wasn’t the type of person to offer platitudes, so the three of them fell into line behind their sensei.
It wasn’t until they were almost at the training grounds that Sasuke spoke. “Are we seeing your boyfriend, dobe?”
“Don’t have one,” she replied automatically.
“Sorry,” he said. “Your future husband.”
She huffed, turning around to see him, unsurprised to find him already smirking at her. Even in the most serious of times, Sasuke could find it in himself to make fun of her. What an awful person. Seriously, how he was related to Itachi, she would never know.
“Do I have to like someone I’m friends with?”
Sasuke rolled his dark eyes. “It’s not that. It’s just that I find it amusing to see you get worked up. You’re like a prickly fox.”
Naruto laughs incredulously. “ I’m prickly? You’re like a cat in the rain. All you do is hiss and scratch. Poor baby,” she said, patting his head condescendingly. “Do you have fleas?”
“Maa,” Kakashi called over their heads. “Don’t make fun of Sasuke-kun,” he said faux sternly, head buried in that book of his.
“He made fun of me first!” she said.
Sasuke snorted. “Crybaby. Do you always go running to nii-san when something is bothering you?”
“Uh, hello, pot. I’m kettle,” Naruto said. “Do you or do you not need Itachi’s help when you have the most minor inconveniences?”
“You say minor like you completely slicing my shirt open is not embarrassing,” Sasuke argues back, a flush hot on his pale cheeks.
“You’re a ninja! Ninjas don’t have time to deal with modesty.”
“Dobe, we’re in winter. Do you want me to freeze to death?”
Naruto huffed. “If you’re gonna die, I’m gonna be the one to do it, teme. Don’t jump ahead of yourself like that.”
“Premeditated murder?” Kakashi muses loudly.
“Never,” Naruto promises solemnly, hand on her heart. They’re still stomping down the road, the cold weather making the trek that much longer. “Sasuke’s just going to piss me off so badly one day my kunai is going to end up in his stomach.”
“Not your chakra chains?” Sasuke shoots back smugly.
Asshole.
“You wouldn’t see them coming since you don’t have your Sharingan,” Naruto shoots back, preening when Sasuke bristles.
“I feel like we should minimize the arguing,” Sakura says, one of her first full statements of the morning. “We’re going to be presenting ourselves as a team to the other shinobi in the Elemental Nations. We should maintain a united front. And that means no arguing,” she says, surprisingly stern, since it’s half directed at Sasuke. Naruto didn’t know she had it in her, but she’s appreciative nonetheless.
“Sakura-chan is right,” Kakashi says, and Naruto scowls.
“Sure,” she says. “The team is united but the sensei is reading debauchery!”
Kakashi wags a finger at her. “Such an attitude from my cute little genin. What will poor Gaara say when he sees you in such poor spirits?”
Kakashi would be right, probably, if not for the fact that the mention of Gaara makes Naruto add some pep in her step – she truly is excited to see her friend again.
She’s ready to turn around and forget the entire thing, but Sasuke pokes her. “Sensei’s right,” he whispers. “Poor Gaara. Having to put up with you.”
Sasuke is lucky he’s got the reflexes of a ninja, or else that punch would’ve ended straight into his gut.
When they arrive at the training grounds, it’s clear by the markers noting the teams from each village that they’re one of the last ones to arrive. That should have been a given, since Kakashi is notorious around the village for his tardiness, but the thought didn’t cross Naruto’s mind.
Kakashi leads them to an empty spot between Team 8 and Team 10. Team 8’s sensei, Kurenai-sensei, and Team 10’s sensei, Asuma-sensei, are both chattering together quietly in front, and Kakashi drops them off before joining them.
“Did you know Kakashi-sensei has friends?” Sakura asks, and Naruto laughs, taken aback.
“I did know, but it still shocks me everytime I see it,” she admits. She tries to sound neutral. It’s not often that she and Sakura have spoken without it being a fight, and she’d like to keep it that way today. “He’s such a homebody. If he’s not at our house, he’s in his. I’m shocked he’s not hiding somewhere in a tree, since he likes to avoid running into –”
“MY ETERNAL RIVAL!”
“ – Gai-sensei,” Naruto finishes faintly, as a blur of green rushes past them until it’s standing toe to toe with Kakashi. Their sensei looks mildly ill.
“Hello, Gai,” she hears Kakashi say.
“Hello, Kakashi! Look at you, my youthful friend. To think you’ve brought a team to the chunin exams. I never thought I’d see the day.” Every word out of his mouth sounds as though it’s punctuated with a capital letter and exclamation point.
“Neither did I.”
“A man of few words!” Gai exclaims. “So hip and cool!”
Asuma is chuckling behind his large hand, and Sasuke shudders next to them. “So…. green,” he says. “And loud.”
They stand huddled together, and Naruto braces on Sasuke’s left side, hoping to steal some of his body heat. She suspects he would push her off if he wasn’t as cold as she was. Snow is still falling, and white dots the tops of her teammate’s eyelashes.
“Nervous?” Naruto asks them, blue eyes darting from Sasuke to Sakura just once.
“Nervous?” Sasuke scoffs with that arrogant pride she’s always known him to have. “Why would I be? It’s just an exam.”
“Yeah but….” Naruto trails off, glancing around. “It’s the chunin exams.”
Sakura bites her lip, her green eyes wide with worry. “Ino-pig has told me that people die in the exams all the time.”
Naruto nods. “Tou-chan said some of the other villages aren’t so civil with their exam rules. Attendees are allowed to kill each other. Encouraged to, even. I hear in the Mist, the school kids are supposed to kill each other.”
Sasuke suddenly looks uncomfortable. “I…. have heard that,” he whispers. “Itachi-nii said so.”
“You don’t think….” Sakura breathes. “Hokage-sama would never allow that.”
Naruto shrugs. “I’ve never seen an exam conducted. Who knows?”
“I mean,” Sasuke says, and they eye Shikamaru, who in turn eyes them back, “this exam is preparing us to become full fledged ninja. Ones who can take missions without a sensei. It would have real life stakes… right?”
Naruto blows out a breath. That, for some unfathomable reason, had not been something she’d even thought about asking any of the other ninjas she saw frequently. Technically speaking, dying is part of the job. Most shinobi don’t make it past young adulthood, and it’s always a possibility. But – it’s in the title itself. Chunin exams. It’s an exam. People don’t die during exams.
Naruto basically lurches toward Team 10, narrowly avoiding Chouji before depositing herself straight into Shikamaru’s space. “Shikamaru,” she says, grabbing his arm thoughtlessly. “Are we going to die in the chunin exams?”
For a second. Team 10 is silent, and Shikamaru is just staring at her. Then, the other boy groans. “Naruto…” He’s shaking his head. “ What are you talking about?”
“They’re simulating a real life mission,” Naruto says. “Can we be killed by enemy nin?”
Shikamaru rubs the bridge of his nose. “Are you not the Hokage’s daughter?”
Naruto wants to shake him. “Of course Tou-chan doesn’t like maiming during the exams. But we have nin from every Hidden village here. They don’t abide by the same moral code.”
“Killing is strictly prohibited during the exams,” Shikamaru starts to explain, finally looking up at them. “In fact, there’s a policy in place that states if a shinobi attempts to kill another while taking part in the exams, their invitation to participate will be redacted and — and….” he trails off suddenly, eyes wide. It takes her a second to notice he’s no longer looking at her, but at something behind her. No – not something. Someone.
Naruto whirls around, and is met with three familiar faces.
“Oh!” She says brightly, the mortality predicament all but forgotten. “It’s you guys! Hi!” She inclines her head in a bow, not low enough to indicate any subservience, but enough to relay respect.
At the head of the trio is Gaara, his face in a small smile, and his red hair ruffled from Konoha’s wintery winds. The Sand siblings look bundled up, likely used to cold weather with how drastic the climate changes in the morning and night. To Gaara’s left is Temari, whose dark green eyes are narrowed on – Shikamaru, if Naruto had to guess, who is still staring. And Kankuro is off to the right, purple stripes stark on his pale face.
“Naruto-san,” Gaara greets, a flush high on his cheeks. “It’s wonderful to see you again.” He bows back, though he inclines just a tad deeper. “And,” he hesitates, offering a shy wave to Sasuke and Sakura. “Your teammates.”
Sakura bows too. “Good morning, Gaara-sama.”
Gaara waves her away. “Just Gaara is fine. I’m not — we don’t agree with all the formalities.”
Naruto beams. “Gaara, these are my teammates. Sasuke-teme and Sakura-chan. And –” she pulls Shikamaru forward, “—this is one of my close friends. Shikamaru-kun. Shikamaru-kun, this is Gaara-kun, Temari-san, and Kankuro-san.”
Shikamaru barely blinks. “Nice to meet you, Sand siblings.”
This seems to strike a nerve in Temari for whatever reason, and she stands straight up. “ Nara Shikamaru?” Temari questions.
Shikamaru stuffs his hands deep in his pocket. “What’s it to you?”
Temari sniffs, and Naruto is silent, sort of caught off guard by the exchange. “My father knows yours.”
Almost instinctively, Naruto makes a face. She hadn’t forgotten their previous exchange with the Kazekage, and she doubts she wants to know what he thinks about Nara Shikaku, Shikamaru’s dad.
“Well,” Shikamaru drawls, a slight smirk on his face. “How troublesome. The Sand’s princess knows who I am.”
“What is happening,” Sasuke mutters.
Naruto truly has no idea. Shikamaru hardly talks to his own teammates, Ino and Chouji, much less – foreign royalty. It’s certainly interesting. Behind Sakura, Ino is openly gaping, like she can hardly believe her eyes. But glee is slowly overtaking the shock as she comes to terms with what she’s seeing.
As Temari and Shikamaru continue what sounds to be a thoroughly interesting conversation, Gaara turns to her, looking incredibly sheepish. “My sister,” he starts, the bass of his voice low, “I did not know that she and your… friend knew each other.”
“I didn’t either. Maybe — the more accurate term is that they know of each other?” Naruto suggests, tapping her lip. She turns to Gaara, breaking into a smile. “Hi, Gaara,” she says. “How are you?”
Gaara looks as naturally intense as he did the first time around, with kohl rimmed water lines, milky green eyes, blood red hair, and the kanji for love scrawled elegantly across the corner of his forehead. But underneath the contrasting colors and dark palette, there’s a shyness there that makes Naruto incredibly fond. She’s able to see, despite the set of his shoulders and title he holds, that he is kind, consistent with the way he writes his letters.
“I am alright,” he answers. “We’ve been busy preparing for the chunin exams, as you know. I didn’t – I was unaware you were competing.”
Naruto huffs, thumbing towards where her pseudo brother is still engaged with the other senseis. “Kakashi-sensei didn’t tell us until like, super last minute. But I’m glad to see you.”
Gaara smiles back at her, a tentative thing. Then, much to her amusement, he itches his cheek. “I was excited to see you again,” he mumbles, and she has to crane a little closer to hear him, “so I brought you some of the seasonal harvest of strawberries and syrup. We – I don’t have it on me now,” he amends, when he sees her cobalt eyes light up. “But… later? Maybe.”
She beams, and distantly, Shisui’s chakra signature flares just once.
“Gaara-kun,” she sings. “You’re so kind! Strawberries are difficult to come by when it’s winter. You didn’t have to!”
“I know. But I’m hoping you’ll accept my bribery,” he admits. “I wanted you to act as my official tour guide while we’re here. While we’re not in the midst of the exam, of course.”
“Oh my Kami,” Sakura says behind her, but Naruto isn’t paying attention.
Gaara looks so earnest, and Naruto can’t help but link her arm with his. “You don’t need to bribe me, silly! I’ll do it just because we’re friends!” Gaara’s cheeks pinken adorably at that.
And Naruto is oblivious to it all, but over their heads, Sasuke and Kankuro are exchanging disbelieving glances.
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Tou-chan in all his Hokage regalia makes an announcement at the training grounds, declaring that this year’s exam will be an obstacle course followed by a tournament style battle. The rules change every year, Naruto knows, and she’s more than ready for it. She’s come to the realization that if she wants her chakra chains, praying for them every morning before the exam won’t bring them about.
For that purpose, she’s been focusing on her combat. Her taijutsu had already been rather good, and Kakashi was very particular about making sure they were sparring without jutsu. Sasuke had been training with both Kakashi and Itachi in his spare time, strengthening his fire and lightning jutsus. Naruto had been working with her parents and Kakashi, and Sakura had taken to training with Gai-sensei and Lee for taijutsu, learning medical ninjutsu from the Slug Sannin, Tsunade, and Kakashi had taken her aside for some one-on-one elemental style training.
All in all, they all had varying techniques now, and it would certainly be interesting to see how it translated onto the field.
But before they could even get to the physical aspects of the exam, they had to get through a written exam, which made Naruto green with nausea every time she thought about it.
Surely, she wasn’t going to fail the freaking chunin exams because she didn’t know what Iwagakure’s policy on foreign trade was, right?
Sasuke and Sakura would kill her dead if she messed things up for them.
The worst part was that everyone who was in some shape or form involved in the exams would not talk about the test topics, so Naruto didn’t even know what to cram for .
Plus – it was like everyone was super busy all of a sudden! Well – no, that wasn’t fair. Kakashi-sensei was going over some last minute training with Sakura, Sasuke and Itachi were training too. Her parents were dealing with the influx of ninja in the village, and Naruto couldn’t pick at anyone for what to do.
Damn.
Naruto pulled at the ends of her blonde hair, pouring over the textbooks she’d wanted to throw away from the Academy.
This had to be misery.
Seriously.
No ninja had ever completed a mission because they knew calculus or something. Stupid! So stupid. They didn’t even have to teach her. Why couldn’t they say what was going to be on the test? The uncertainty was eating at her; it basically meant anything could be on the test from ever. And the written portion of the exam was in roughly twenty hours.
Giving Gaara a tour of Konoha would have to take a raincheck, because this was too much.
Naruto groaned, kneeling on the chair by her desk that was now cluttered with books and scrolls, Studying had never come easy to her. She’d aced combat training at the Academy – had been tied for first with that teme for it. But the actual academic part of school?
To put it plainly, no one was naming Naruto the genius prodigy of their generation, that was for sure.
Itachi, Kakashi, her father, Shisui….
Naruto bolted upright.
Shisui!
Shisui was a genius prodigy. And what was Shisui doing? Just guarding her window. Even now, she could sense his greeny gold forest fire outside, flickering like a candle in the wind.
Naruto bit her lip. Shisui, at this point, was her only hope. But… if she called Shisui down and he refused to help her, she didn’t know what she would do.
They hadn’t had much time to speak since that night when Sasuke had stood up for her, and so she didn’t really know what he thought about it all. Between training for the exams and going on missions, there had hardly been time to breathe.
She wasn’t in life threatening danger, no, but she still needed help. And – Naruto reasoned, Shisui didn’t want to be friends, but helping someone with an exam didn’t necessarily equate to friendship.
Kami, no. It didn’t.
If anything that would make them mentor and mentee or whatever. A relationship type so boring and professional and short lived that Naruto probably wouldn’t even get to label it as such. Twenty hours – less, really. Twenty hours of him coaching her through material. It couldn’t be that bad.
He wouldn’t even take off his mask or vest, if she knew him.
Naruto tapped the wood of the table impatiently, contemplating. Kami, why was she so nervous? How annoying. How embarrassing. If it were anyone else in the world, she’d grab them by the arm and wheedle them into helping her. Why did Shisui make her act this way?
The blonde inhaled deeply, giving the table one last decisive pat before scooting out her chair and stomping over to her window with some sort of finality. She cheated, admittedly.
Shisui’s chakra signature flickered to attention as she strode to the window with purpose, no doubt waiting to see what she was doing. It had been a while since she’d called for him like this, and he likely wasn’t expecting it.
She was Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto. What was there to be afraid of?
Naruto threw the window open wildly, skin prickly and hot despite the rush of cool air, snow still ghosting down from the dark skies. Her breath was visible.
The green forest fire of Shisui’s chakra was still, perched somewhere up on the roof.
Her mother always said to own everything she did.
“Raven-san,” Naruto called into the night, feeling horribly stupid, but holding face, “Raven-san, I need you to come help me with something.”
Shisui was a good shinobi. Had likely been analyzing her room and surroundings the second she’d started moving to make sure there were no threats. He must be confused. But he was duty and honor bound to follow her to the depths of hell if she wished to go, and this was no different.
Of course — it wasn’t nearly as severe as that, but, well.
Hesitantly, Shisui flitted off the roof and down the bare tree branches, until he was standing in the sill of her window, crouched on his haunches, and his right hand pressed on the hilt of his katana.
“... Uzumaki-Namikaze-san?” Shisui’s voice was quiet behind the porcelain mask that ANBU agents donned. “Is everything alright?”
Naruto huffed, planting her hands on her hips. “ No. No, Raven-san, everything is not alright.” Immediately, his hand tightened around the katana grip. “No, no,” she repeated, this time with her hands out. She did not want Shisui to start swinging and break her lamp or something. “Not that kind of help. Um.” She fidgeted. “I need your help…. Studying.”
There’s a long stretch of silence that passes between them.
“Studying,” Shisui repeats, monotone.
“Yeah,” she nods seriously. “It’s super important that you help me.”
“I don’t think that –”
“The chunin exams are tomorrow!” Naruto explodes, hands thrown out. “And there’s a written exam! They didn’t even tell us what’s going to be the topics, and that teme and Sakura-chan graduated the top of our class, so they know everything about anything!”
“Well—”
“I haven’t been paying attention to Iruka-sensei’s lectures since he started talking about the founding of Konoha! When we were nine! Please, please, pleasepleaseplease – Raven-san you have to coach me.”
Shisui ran a tired hand through his curls that stuck up behind the mask. “Is it – is there no one else?” he asked desperately, “What about your parents or older brother?”
Naruto grabbed his shoulders, shaking him slightly. “Are any of them home, Raven-san?”
“...No.”
“Raven-san, if I fail the exam tomorrow because I didn’t pay attention to the Warring Eras, Sasuke-teme is going to actually manifest his Sharingan and put me in a genjutsu where I’m forced to relive the exam over and over again.”
Another beat and then – “Uzumaki-Namikaze-san, are you sure this exam is what you think it is?” Shisui asked carefully. “If they didn’t give you the topics, it was probably on purpose.”
At that, the blonde stopped short. “Did you have to take a written assessment during your chunin exams?”
“I’ve never taken the chunin exams,” Shisui admits. “I was promoted to jonin during a field mission – they were much more common during the war than they are now.”
Now, Naruto unleashed a full pout, blue eyes wide and begging. “Please. You’re my only hope!”
Shisui’s leg trembled up and down, before he was sighing. “Only for a little, okay? I have to tend to my post. The village is under tight security now that there are numerous foreign shinobi around.”
Naruto whooped loudly. “Let’s go! Come on1 You don’t even have to take off your mask! Swear!”
She turned around, a bit frenzied. It didn’t matter that it was Shisui. He was just another ninja she knew who was experienced. He’d be able to help her just as well as anyone else. That was all.
She tried to channel some of her mother into her veins. “Do you want anything to drink?” she asked offhandedly. “I don’t know what you do up there on the roof for hours, but you must be thirsty or –” She turned around and immediately lost her breath.
Raven no longer existed within the space of the Uzumaki-Namikaze household. In his place was Uchiha Shisui, and it all seemed to happen in slow motion. The golden lamp light painted his pale skin nicely, and with one hand, he removed his porcelain mask, his curls falling and bouncing like springs in clockwork. With the other hand, he slowly unclipped his vest, the gray armor falling away from his standard wide neck shirt that was now accompanied by thermal sleeves for the winter weather.
It was a little infuriating.
That, despite everything, he was still a terrible, despicable, detestable, pretty boy.
“ – oh,” she finished lamely, words that were rolling off the tip of her tongue just – gone. Like he’d stolen them. “I – I thought that–”
“That I’d just be an ANBU agent sitting in your room?” Shisui offered, a hesitant smile on his handsome face. “That doesn’t seem very appropriate, does it?”
“No… I suppose not.”
Naruto hadn’t been alone with Shisui in a long time. There was always some sort of buffer – from the party, to the family dinner, to that night at Sasuke’s house. It was awkward, to say the least.
The last time they’d stood in her room like this, just the two of them, he had been telling her that they couldn’t be friends because it was a conflict of interest.
“Hungry? Thirsty?” She tried again.
Shisui shook his head. His dark eyelashes were like little wings against his cheeks. So horrible and beautiful.
Naruto huffed to herself.
She pulled down her textbooks from the desk, letting them splay open on her floors instead. She only had one chair, and Shisui couldn’t help her if he was sitting on her bed.
Shisui seemed to understand what she was doing, because he sank down shakily, arm thrown over the ledge of her bed as a whoosh of breath escaped him. He looked tired. He guarded her around the clock, and Naruto wasn’t sure where the ANBU agents got their stamina from.
“You look tired,” Naruto finally said, feeling just a little bad about all but forcing him to start a study session with her. “If – if you’re really not up to it, you can go back up. It’s okay.”
Shisui shot her a bit of a smile. “You’re really caring, did you know? It’s alright. I won’t pass out.”
“When was the last time you slept?” she demanded.
Shisui had to think about it, which was indication enough on its own. “This doesn’t look very good, hm?” he said, and Naruto slammed the textbook shut.
“Shisui –”
“Naruto,” he said, and the use of her first name was enough to get her to shut up. Jaw snapping audibly. “If I’m not here, I’m going back outside. So one way or another – it doesn’t matter. I’ll be awake.”
And with that statement, she silently resolved to talk to her father about getting more time off for Shisui before he dropped dead to pure exhaustion. But she still opened her textbook filled with years and years of history she had never paid any attention to while at the Academy.
She groaned. “This is so useless. The only Konoha laws that should matter are the ones still in effect, no?”
Shisui huffed out a laugh, a little timid, as though he wasn’t sure it was okay for him to do so. “Is that how future Hokage-sama should think?”
“Easy for you to say,” she said. “You didn’t have to take the chunin exams!”
“I had friends who took the chunin exams,” he said. “I hear there’s math.”
“Math!” Naruto despaired. “I’m horrible with math. Especially when the math starts to have letters in it!”
Shisui actually let out a full laugh then. “Dramatic much, Uzumaki-chan-san?” That has them both stiffening up. The nickname – Naruto, hadn't been expecting it. “Sorry,” he says quickly. “That was unprofessional.”
Naruto refuses to even address it.
Instead, she begins to flip through the pages of the textbook, searching for the math section.
“You know,” he starts, “you asked Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan if they were nervous but you never said if you were.”
“Nervous?” Naruto laughed. “Would I ever?” At Shisui’s raised eyebrow, she hmphed. “I’m not nervous. It’s just, you know. Imagine if the daughter of the Hokage didn’t make chunin on her first try?”
“It’s never going to be easy,” he tells her, oddly gentle. “That title – Hokage’s daughter. You’re going to have it forever. People will always be looking at you with great expectations that you’ll never escape. It’s not your prerogative to please them or you’ll forget to succeed for yourself.” He offers her a smile. “If you don’t make chunin tomorrow, Naruto, I promise you that there will be other chances.”
“That’s nice of you to say but,” she shrugs. “Tou-chan vaguely told me that the chunin exams are assessed in teams. What if my failing puts Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme behind?”
Shisui only shrugs in return. “Then so be it. Naruto – you have to understand. The exams aren’t meant to give you some fake scenario and have you work through it. You said it yourself earlier to the Nara boy; the exam is a simulation of what could really happen. Unfortunately, missions do fail. Imagine if you were kidnapped by an enemy ninja. Sakura and Sasuke would make a choice to save you or leave you. In this exam, they test whether or not a team will stick together when it gets tough. Do you stick with a teammate? Or do you move on for individual glory? That’s something that you three, as a team, need to figure out.”
Huh.
Naruto really hadn’t thought about it that way. Kakashi-sensei had instilled in them from the very beginning that teamwork was key – something that her own father had taught her as well. Those have been her guiding principles from a very young age. To think Sasuke and Sakura wouldn’t share the same mindset isn’t something that’s ever crossed her mind.
“I don’t think any of us would leave another behind,” she finally says. “Not even Sakura-chan. She hates me, but she adores the bastard. And he won’t leave me behind, and so she won’t leave him. It all works out. And – anyways, though. That’s all fine and well, I guess. But if this is like a real life situation, then what’s the written portion for? No one’s gonna hold a kunai to my neck and tell me to recite the dates for the different Warring periods, you know?”
“That’s true,” Shisui acknowledges, looking mildly amused. “Makes you wonder why they would want you to have a written portion at all.”
There was an undercurrent in his tenor, like he was trying to tell her something without telling her, but Naruto’s mind was racing too fast to really sit down and think about it.
Naruto instead, sighed, slumping down in her seat on the floor.
“Ugh,” she said. “You make me sick.”
“Me?” Shisui was incredulous. “What did I do?”
“You’re a literal genius so you didn’t have to take the chunin exams, which means you have no prior experience to help me out. You’re here, speaking in riddles —“
“ Me!” Shisui’s laughing now. It’s actually a really nice sound, one Naruto hasn’t heard in a while. “Riddles! Maybe if you have studied more while in school instead of—“
“Instead of what?” Naruto challenges, blue eyes flaring with fire. “Passing notes with a certain —“
Shisui splutters, but his eyes are bright, lively with humor. “I was only your guard for one year in the Academy! What about the other years, hm? Don’t blame it on me! My paper airplanes are only so distracting, Uzumaki-chan-san!”
Naruto scoffed, but couldn’t stop her smile — it hurt her face with how it stretched along her cheeks. “Sure. Whatever you believe, pretty boy-san.”
At first, Shisui opened his mouth to no likely retort. But then he closed it, shooting her a horrible smirk that reminded her of Sasuke-teme. “So I’m still pretty, hm?” He leaned closer, across the space between them, and Naruto scowled, turning her head resolutely to the side.
“Someone’s getting ahead of themselves,” she said, willing herself not to turn crimson. “It’s just a nickname.”
“A nickname you gave me. Besides, what did you say at family dinner?” He taps his lip, and Naruto maybe wants to tackle him because he’s so annoying and he definitely knows it. “That I’m one of the prettiest people you know?”
Naruto glared and glared and glared and willed her eyes to gain some Sharingan abilities so she could perhaps turn him into ash. “Pretty boy-san is not very pretty when he’s been narcissistic,” she sniffs. “What good are your looks if your personality is flaming garbage?”
Shisui cackled, head tipped back. “If my personality is so flaming garbage I guess you don’t need help anymore —“ and like the traitor he was, he began to rise off of the floor once again, and Naruto thrusted her hand out, catching his sleeve, and yanked him back down.
“Did I say we were done?”
“Hmmm, you don’t pay my salaries, Uzumaki-chan-san.”
“Not yet.”
Shisui’s elbow is propped upon his knee, and his cheek in his palm, head tilted to the side as his irises twinkle at her. “Someone’s confident.”
Naruto mirrors his pose, whiskers trembling. “I seem to recall you saying you believed I could do it.”
“Fishing for compliments?”
“As if you don’t want a detailed list explaining why I think you’re pretty.”
“If you would only be so kind, my liege,” Shisui teased.
But Naruto was no one if not her mother’s daughter, and rose to the occasion. “Numerical or chronological?”
“Whatever suits my lady.”
He didn’t think she would actually do it.
“Hmmm,” Naruto pretended to think about it, pasting on her serious face even though she felt giddy – near delirious. “Well, I guess I’ll start with something simple. I really like your eyelashes. They’re really long, and a lot of people wear makeup to achieve the same effect. But yours are natural. They’re dark, like the rest of your hair, and they look soft like raven feathers. But they’re so long that when you blink, they resemble butterfly wings on your cheeks. Your skin is so pale and your lashes are so dark and the contrast is so stark.”
“Is that all?” Shisui asked, but Naruto had heard him speak enough to know that his tone of voice was off, a little unsteady. “My eyelashes?”
“Pretty boy-san is so greedy,” Naruto announced to the empty room. “So egotistical.”
“I was promised a list, no?”
“Hmm, that’s true. How about – I’ll tell you one more thing, but you have to earn the rest?”
At this, her guard sits up a little straighter. “Earn it?” he echoes, sounding invested. “How shall I ever do that?”
Naruto shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe grovel at my feet, if you’re feeling up to it.”
“Naruto-san is such a dictator,” he says sadly. “Not even Hokage and she wants me to get on my knees and pledge my allegiance. Fine. One more and then I’ll start working for my keep.”
Shisui is so incredibly pretty. Not really flaming garbage at all, she couldn’t help but muse as her desk lamp soaked him in gold and the burning forest fire in front of her flared and danced and played.
“Your chakra signature,” she finally decides. It doesn’t give away too much. He knows exactly how she sees his chakra already. “You know how I – how I sense you. You’re emerald green, greeny gold. Like sunshine pouring through the canopies of a forest. Like evergreen trees and smoking fires and - and,” she throws up her hands helplessly. “Even when you don’t talk to me, I feel safe,” she admits. “You’re pretty like a jewel. Not really you, but your energy, if that makes sense.” Shisui is just staring at her now, and Naruto laughs a little awkwardly. “Some people have really, um, ugly chakra signatures. Danzo? His is scary. Not like yours. Yours is… warm.” Shisui is still just staring at her, blinking rapidly. “Actually,” she says, still talking for whatever reason. “Um. I just realized that I feel so secure around your chakra is because, well, it’s a lot like Konoha, right? I mean – Konoha is the Land of Fire, and you’re like a forest fire. And all that green and gold is like the forests outside of the village.”
“Are you –” Shisui is hoarse, “are you saying my chakra signature reminds you of…. Home?”
Naruto turns bright red, suddenly embarrassed. The implications of that. Shisui reminding her of — home? There are a million things that could do so. Maybe the smell of miso reminds her of Ichirakus. Or maybe lightning in a thunderstorm reminds her of Kakashi, Chidori chirping along his fingertips. It’s not special. “A lot of things remind me of Konoha,” she finally says. “You’re just the only person to do so.”
Shisui’s brain must have stopped working or something, because he’s just flat out gaping at her, no hint of that shinobi training anywhere to be seen. Shameful, really. What would his ANBU captain say? Briefly – was Shisui an ANBU captain? She knew Kakashi was.
Then, he seemed to snap out of it, and gestured to the textbook, where over two dozen math equations were waiting for her. “Thank you for indulging my curiosity,” he said, without looking at her. “But I suppose we’ve fooled around enough. Maybe we should get to…. Studying?”
Naruto nodded, and they got to it. Despite it being strictly work related now, their little back and forth made something in her chest swell, like an inflating balloon. It wouldn’t be like this again for a while, realistically. But – she could admit. It was nice while it lasted. Familiar, even.
And until the late hours of the night, Shisui coached her until her brain felt fried and her eyes couldn’t keep up. They did math equations and he quizzed her on important dates and once in a while he’d fling a shuriken at her to make sure her reflexes were top notch. Other times, she’d be falling asleep, only to catch him already staring at her. Then she’d blink, and he’d be speaking again, and she’d wonder if she had imagined it. Maybe sleepiness was making her delusional.
They didn’t talk about the elephant in the room. That was okay, Naruto decided. Maybe Shisui was taking Sasuke’s speech to heart.
She wasn’t sure. She didn’t have time to consider at the moment.
She was so busy and so tired, and okay – a little nervous too. And so when her eyes finally fluttered shut, she didn’t register anything. Not the way Shisui sighed and closed her textbook, and placed it in a neat stack on her desk. Or the way he clicked off her lamp, dousing the room in darkness. And she definitely didn’t notice how he gently pulled off her slippers and cradled her in his arms, depositing her in her bed, and tucking her under the sheets.
When she woke up the next morning, it was to steady tapping on her window pane. She blearily blinked at the sunlight filtering in, confused and dazed. When had she gone to bed? The tapping was still going, and Naruto practically fell out of bed. Once she did, the tapping stopped. But sitting there, atop her sill was a little paper airplane.
For a moment, she was unable to process. But then the previous night came rushing back at her, and she padded towards the window, holding the airplane as though it were some delicate treasure. Unfolding it was second nature, and her hands were shaking.
On the inside was a very short message with a neat script she’d know anywhere.
Time to wake up, Uzumaki-chan-san. The chunin exams are today.
That was all the note said, and Naruto stared at it a moment longer. What did it mean? That he had sent her a paper airplane and addressed her as Uzumaki-chan-san?
Naruto shook her head. He was right. The chunin exams were today. There was no time to dwell on it.
She swerved for her desk instead, and was met with yet another surprise.
Sitting on her desk were three items that hadn’t been there before. One was a sharp, sharp kunai – one of the high quality ones from the nice weapons shop in the market square, the next was a little orange flavored candy that was wrapped in a shiny plastic, and the last was one small ribbon of paper.
Good luck
Naruto inhaled.
Okay.
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