Chapter 31: Iwa Chunin Exams Arc: Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"So, we need to plan." We're sitting in Mufu-an without Sensei, gathered around a small circular table diagonal from our normal haunt. I tap my fingers nervelessly on the wood. "We'll not survive in Iwa even if the Tsuchikage gave us his word of protection if we just go there stupidly."

"Yeah, I don't look forward to getting slaughtered." Toku leans back against the wall, and his sleepy expression tells me that he's gotten no sleep either. We remembered too much to sleep. "I'd pass on meeting death and Kami-sama again in the near future, thank you."

"Let's talk about the format of the last exams you guys were in." Itachi takes a sip of his green tea. "After all, if they want the Chunin Exams to be a fair way of judging chunin, there's no way that they'll be that different all the time."

"The first exam was a betting game in a casino." I say, memories of the first exam were never particularly happy ones. "But the trick was that they wanted us to steal from the patrons, not actually win money by cheating at the betting tables." Now that I look back, it makes sense now. "You could say that it was the information gathering test."

"The second test required us to run through the desert canyon system that Suna's famous for while fighting other teams." Toku sighs. "I suppose you would call it a combat test, but I was out for half of it. I don't know how Mu-kun and Hana finished the maze."

"And our last test was a brawl." I sigh. "Largely there to impress the watchers, it's not a place for subtlety."

And there it is, three simple tests, but just remembering the experience makes gooseflesh rise on my arms. We felt so much pain and fear during the event. It didn't take longer than three weeks though.

"What can we do to make this easier on ourselves?" Itachi looks at our drawn faces. "And was it really that bad?"

"We all nearly died more times than I can count on a single hand." My tea's gone cold, and I can't stop my grimace when I drink it. Cold tea is the worst. "I'm not sure what you mean by that bad, Ita-kun."

"Let's meet at my house for dinner." Itachi glances at the clock on the wall. "I promised that I'd spend time with Sasuke today. He wants to learn how to throw shuriken."

"I can't." Toku stretches. "Koma-niisan gets back today. I want to talk to him about the exams. He'll have some good tips for staying alive."

"I'll go." Itachi's face had fallen so miserably. I couldn't resist. "Can I bring Kiba-chan with me?"

Itachi nods. "Sasuke should make some friends his own age." He sighs. "Shisui's also been asking when you're going to show up again, he wants to spar with you."

I feel my face erupt in flames. Shisui of the Shushin remembers who I am? Oh Kami, I must have been so rude as to be memorable the last time.

Kiba, who by the spirit of his adorableness, is my beloved saving grace when showing up in the Uchiha District later that evening. I had to mollify him with lemon hard candies during the walk there though, as he's firmly convinced that visiting 'stupid Sasuke' is a bad idea.

Perhaps visiting the Uchiha District, especially the parents of 'stupid Sasuke' with Kiba is a bad idea.

"Hello, Fugaku-san. Mikoto-san." I bow, and expertly push Kiba into doing the same.

"Neechan!" He wriggles and resists. "Kaa-san says we shouldn't have to bow to anyone." He turns to me, his eyes huge. "Why're you doing it left and right?"

"Kiba-chan..." I sigh. Yes, bringing my little brother who lacks polite finesse to the stone faced Uchiha land was a bad idea. "A bow is a symbol of respect, and while we don't have to respect anyone at home because we're all of us equal at home," And children of the current clan head which makes other clan members show respect to us instead of the other way around. "We are not at home right now Kiba-chan." I kneel down so that I can look him in the eye without tilting his head up. "We're in the Uchiha District. While we're here we should follow their rules."

Kiba frowns. "That's weird. We aren't them."

"We would like them to respect our rules when they visit our home." I smile at him and ruffle his hair. "You wouldn't like it if everyone bowed to you, right? They like it the other way around." Respect...in the Inuzuka clan is a strange thing. It isn't measured by physical shows of power and dominance, but instead by how much other people are willing to give weight to ones opinions.

If I had something to say at a clan meeting, I could go ahead and say it, and everyone would listen to me speak, and form an honest opinion about it, and then tell me such and such thing.

Perhaps that's the most honest form of respect there is in this world. Not bows when I approach, nor an attachment of the san suffix to my name and never a bad word spoken about me, but the true effort taken to listen and tell me what they mean.

"I still think it's weird." Kiba stops frowning and adopts a neutral expression. "But if that's the way they like it here." He copies my bow, sloppy and unpracticed. "Hello Fugaku-san. Mikoto-san." He parrots the phrase expertly, but grimaces at the end. Then he straightens up and beams up at them. "We can be friends now!" He bounces forwards and attaches himself to Fugaku-san.

I'm just a beat too slow to stop him. Oh no. Oh no. Kiba-chan. Now, I didn't think Fugaku-san would honestly hurt him. He wouldn't. But Kiba isn't...for lack of a better word, used to anyone who denied him anything. And Fugaku-san is about as measured and deliberate as a mountain.

"What's it like to be a Tou-san?" Kiba scoots over and starts idly playing with the Uchiha Patriarch's hands, tracing lines and patterns across the palms and flipping them over to continue on the back.

Fugaku-san is frozen. His eyes seek Mikoto-san's. She covers her mouth with a wide sleeve, mischief dancing in her dark eyes and walks away, leaving him to his fate.

"Why do you ask, Inuzuka-kun?" Fugaku-san seems to have unstuck his throat long enough to speak in full sentences.

Kiba frowns. "I'm Kiba, not Inuzuka-kun." But his next words are measured, more careful, thoughtful than most of my darling little brother's thoughts. "Don't have a Tou-san. Wondered what it was like."

He doesn't know. And his quiet sadness will shatter my heart to pieces one day. And all the stories in the world can't explain Tou-san well enough to him.

"I'm sure." And Fugaku-san seems to be struggling mightily with these words when confronted with my four year old little brother. "That your Tou-san." A pause stretches into the air. "Is very proud of you and your sister, Kiba-kun. As I am proud of my sons." The last words are added so softly they wouldn't even be heard from the door not four feet away from us without chakra supplemented hearing.

"You think so?" Kiba considers it. "You're actually very nice, Fugaku-san." His lips tilt upwards in a beaming smile, having reached an epiphany. "That's what Neechan meant by different people are similar too!" He races off towards the living room. "Hey, hey, stupid Sasuke! Are you a nice person too?"

I wince. That could have ended better.

"I'm sorry, Fugaku-san." I look down at my feet instead of his face because looking at his face wouldn't give me any indication of his feelings. "Kiba-chan is very...Inuzuka, and he and Sasuke-chan have been having a bit of a disagreement lately." For their entire acquaintance really.

"I see why you love him." Fugaku-san turns and walks towards the kitchen. "He is a very bright boy."

"Kiba is more than bright." I counter. "Kiba is the sun and the clouds and the sky in all its weathers." I laugh at Fugaku-san's surprised expression. "You haven't seen him angry yet. He can throw quite the tantrum when he does not get his way."

Dinner ends better than I'd hoped, even though I've yet to persuade Kiba that perhaps Sasuke isn't stupid.

Kiba counters with the idea that Sasuke, in his natural state, is both stupid (for not loving Neechan best) and kind ('cause he gets less angry now when I call him stupid). "You know he has to be both at the same time. Can't be just one of them."

"Oh alright, Kiba-chan." I mess up his hair and he shrieks with laughter. "You win this time. We'll talk about calling other people stupid later."

The journey to Iwa takes us through Kusa.

Unfortunately, it reminds us all of that miserable mission we'd taken where we ran into the masked teleporting ninja with a sharingan.

Doubly unfortunate, Nara Kusaga is on the other team travelling with us, and Toku, normally calm and good natured, has been glaring daggers in their direction all week. It makes the civilian born girl on the team uncomfortable, she seems to believe that Toku is some sort of hellish demon, and seems to give Asata-san a form of low-key anxiety.

I feel no sympathy for Asata-san. He could stew in his own juices forever if he'd like.

"What did Nara-kun ever do to you?" It seems that Itachi's finally given into the urge to ask about the elephant in the room. He's just asking Toku, because Toku's the one that's been acting mortally offended by their very existence.

"He did nothing to me." Toku snarls and slams a tent spike into the ground a little too hard. Cracks appear in the dry, packed earth. There'd been no need to Jyuken the poor tent, Toku. "He hurt Hana." Toku attempts to Jyuken another tent spike, and Sensei's shadow freezes him in his tracks.

"No need to be unprofessional and take your anger out on our cover, Toku-kun." Sensei releases him. "Carry on."

Itachi looks to me. "Hana?"

From beside me, Ni and San growl. "We should rip him."

I turn a disbelieving eye towards them. "We should stay away from him, and not rip him." I pat each of them on the head, and carry on to talk to Itachi instead. "Nara Kasuga had the dubious honor of using my unconscious body as a human meat shield against Mu-kun during the third exam in Suna."

Itachi's eyes bleed red. "What."

I shrug and turn back to helping Toku set up the tent. "It's not that big of a deal anymore, Ita-kun." I carefully push a little bit of earth natured chakra into the tent spike, and it melts into the earth easily. I then carefully brush chakra over the patch of earth that Toku had cracked. It heals. "Of course, I'm angry at him and all, because that's not how you'd treat an ally, but still, he's not worth the energy."

"He hurt you though." Itachi doesn't sound like he understands.

"You got that right, Ita-kun." Toku mutters under his breath. "He ought to be burned at the stake. Or ripped apart. Or poisoned by snakes. Or jyukened through the throat."

"He's not worth the energy it would take to kill him." I hear a sharp intake of breath, and turn to find Nara Kasuga retreating quickly into the distance. He heard that? Oh, too bad for him.

"Welcome to Iwagakure no Sato." The Sandaime Tsuchikage is...much shorter than he'd appeared in the anime. Or perhaps because it was an anime, it was hard to tell how short he is in comparison to everyone else. "You may visit the civilian district, and we've opened several training fields for you to use if you'd like them." You will not spy on my village or I will send my ANBU to exterminate you. He does not say, but it is heavily implied.

"Thank you, Tsuchikage-san." En-sensei's face also appears to be carved out of stone. It must be the atmosphere of the village. It's made even lazy Sensei turn to stone. "We're grateful for your hospitality."

"You there." It takes me a moment to realize that the Tsuchikage means me.

"Yes?" Is there something on my face?

"Have I seen you before?" The Tsuchikage moves forwards and scrutinizes me closely. "What's your name?"

"Inuzuka Hana." I don't hesitate the words roll out smoothly as though it'd always been this way. "And I don't think you've met me before. I've never been here in my life." Can it possibly be that he recognizes whatever little features I have from Tou-san?

"Oh very well." The Tsuchikage returns to his seat. "Kitsuchi, take them to their rooms."

At that very moment though, a blond boy of about seven years old races into the room. "Hey, Old Man! I did it, un!" He has a clay sculpture in his hands, shaped rather crudely like a spider.

"Deidara no Iwa." The large burly man, Kitsuchi, stops the boy from going any further. "You know that Tsuchikage-sama has no time for you right now."

no Iwa...I thought that was the name Tou-san had before marriage because he didn't have a father? Is it actually a last name in Iwa?

Are they actually related?

Deidara turns around, his face downcast and gloomy. "You don't have to be so mean about it, un." He has blond hair that veers more towards sun yellow than Tou-san's paler platinum, but his eyes are the exact same shade of pale blue. And his nose is identical. Which means that I'm actually seeing my own straight nose on Deidara's face.

It is perhaps the strangest experience I'd ever had to be in.

Deidara looks more like Tou-san than I do. I banish the thought. Tou-san is Tou-san. He's mine, not Deidara's.

"That's it." The Tsuchikage snaps his fingers. "Deidara, go stand next to that girl over there." He points in my general direction. Oh no. This is very bad. Very very very Bad.

Deidara, though confused, does what he is told. "Why'd I have to go and stand next to a leafy ninja, un?"

Ichi growls at him. "And rocky ninjas are better than leafy ones?"

Ni turns up his nose. "This one smells funny. We should stand far away."

San just huffs. "He doesn't understand a single one of us anyway."

I run my hands through the fur on their backs. "Guys. Stop that."

"You two have identical looking noses." The Tsuchikage gets up out of his seat and comes to a stop not two feet away from me. "Why is that?"

"A lot of people have noses that looks similar, Tsuchikage-san." The lie comes too easily. I knew that Tou-san had been from Iwa. Faced with the boy that looked so much like him, I could only assume that this is in fact, a close relative of mine. But I, like Tou-san, know my loyalties, and they do not belong to Iwa.

Blood relation Deidara might be, but he is not my family. And that makes all the difference.

"Not everyone has noses that look exactly identical." The Tsuchikage crosses his arms over his chest and studies my face intently.

I gesture to my cheeks. These proud red fangs tell you exactly where I'm from. "I am an Inuzuka, Tsuchikage-san. A shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato and proud. Not one of us has ever belonged to Iwa." And Tou-san no matter where he was born, is an Inuzuka through and through. He doesn't belong to Iwa either.

"Can I go now, Old Man." Deidara whines. "That one dog looks like it's about to eat me, un."

Deidara edges away from Ichi, who snaps at his clothing. "He smells strange, Hana. Why does he smell like Tou-san?"

"He." I correct absently. "Ichi is a he, and if you keep calling him it, he might just eat you." I raise an eyebrow at Ichi. "I'll talk to you three about it later. Keep quiet for now."

"You all are dismissed." The Tsuchikage is most certainly not convinced of where I happen to have sprung from, but Iwa would probably not have missed a little boy with a civilian mother. He would not know how to place me, if I didn't tell him, and I had no intention to, ever in a million years, tell him anything about my father. "Kitsuchi, take them to their rooms."

All eight of us march down the hallway together, behind Kitsuchi. We're shown unceremoniously to two suites. "Here we are."

I look at the pale civilian-born girl who's now a part of Asata-san's team, and Asata-san himself, while taking great care to avoid Nara Kasuga. Nope. I'm not spending any time with her.

I sling my arms over Itachi and Toku's shoulders. "Come on, we should figure out how to split the bed and the shower privileges." I'd much rather room with the boys.

"Come now, my ducklings." Sensei gestures for us to follow him. "We've got lots and lots of work to do and no time at all to do it with." It looks like Sensei agrees with me. There's no reason to touch the other team we're here with. We aren't here to be friends with them after all. We're here to win.

He'd been on good terms with Asata-san until the Nara Kasuga affair, but the debacle seems to have used up his good will. They are now no longer on speaking terms. I have to learn to appreciate Sensei a little more. He cuts entire friendships for the sake of his student's well being.

Later that night I sit out on the balcony alone, looking out over the village. Iwa is a grey mass of onion domes in the darkening gloom. Did Tou-san ever miss this place? Did he have friends here?

"Can I talk to you, Inuzuka-san?" I raise an eyebrow. Oh lovely, it's Nara Kasuga. "I don't know. Can you?" It is horribly petty of me to quibble with him over grammatical errors of all things, but just because I didn't want Toku or Itachi to rip him a new one, didn't mean that I didn't heavily dislike him.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry." He shifts his weight between his feet and stares at his hands. "I abused the trust that existed between ninja that come from the same village." Asata-san probably put him up to it.

I rise, and from the darkness around me, the Triplets rise as well. "I don't ever want to talk to you again, Nara-san." I stalk past him, the Triplets growling with every step. "You should do well to remember that I am never alone."

Ni and San pad silently towards him, only their eyes are visible, glowing in the dark.

"Run very fast." Ni snarls. "Run because this time, I'm more than enough to protect Hana-chan."

Nara Kasuga has the good sense to retreat to a distance that he deems that my dogs are unable to cover in a single leap.

He doesn't realize that the distance he's thinking of is actually behind the door. "I wanted to apologize, but if you don't want to accept it then just say so."

"Do you know what I hate?" I smile at him, white teeth glistening in the shadows. "I'm an honest person, Nara. I hate those slimy bastards that have no sense of morality. So you can get lost now."

If you don't, I'm not responsible for your mauling by the Triplets.

He turns and flees.

A.N. Hana is by no means perfect. There are times when she misunderstands, when she holds a grudge for too long. She's been an Inuzuka for such a long time now that the clan's habits are bleeding into her as well. A rash bluntness, a tendency to stop planning, and keep doing, the wild loyalty, the self conviction, they're all good things in a sense.

But she's gotten used to fair play, because that's how her extended family works. It's not such a good thing to believe in the soundness of when you're a ninja.

Thank you so much for Sophie Newman, Rickrossed (I have Hana's meeting with Naruto all planned out, and it happens within the next three years.) Alizay, and WhiteFang001 for reviewing!

And for everyone who favorited and followed.

We passed a hundred reviews yesterday! I can't tell you guys how thankful I am.

With gratitude,

~Tavina.