72 Prelude To The Chunin Exams - 10

Kurenai knew she was being petty.

It should be beneath her, as a Jonin to get so riled up over a genin. Especially when he wasn't even the one that instigated her bad mood in the first place.

It was Kakashi.

But then, Kakashi had a habit of riling up everyone and anyone, and he had a grand old time doing it for the most part.

But, it was mainly because it was Kakashi, that she got riled up so much in the first place.

The legendary Copy Ninja, Kakashi of the Sharingan, the pride and joy of the Yondaime Hokage, whispered about on the streets as the one who would become Hokage when the Sandaime stepped down once again, living up to his sensei's legacy.

It irked her just thinking about him in that regard. But then, he irked a lot of people with his reputation. She had only become a Jonin less than a year ago.

Kakashi had been one since he was thirteen, months before she even hit Chunin. Being in his generation, constantly in his shadow, not even considered second best compared to him…it grated sometimes, especially when he acted as smug as he did.

And he could be a right dick about things and knew exactly how to press on a sore spot.

After the biggest failing in her career and entire life really, just when she thought she could finally put it past her, that Hinata's positive changes washed that failure away…

Kakashi just had to snatch it away from her.

Kurenai bit her lip, eyes narrowing into a glare as she stared down at her target.

She was currently nestled within the branches and foliage of a tree, within the Uchiha Clan district. It was only due to the Hokage himself graciously telling her of where the boy lived, that she found him, otherwise she would have had to wait, probably until the next morning, when he made his way back to the training ground Kakashi told her of.

As it was, she'd been here for an hour now, watching Daiki Yurei. She had to admit, he had endurance in spades, he'd been training outside the back of his home for an hour straight, and again she had to admit, he was well built, the teen was shirtless, his face and torso covered in a shiny layering of sweat, but not once had he faltered, despite the fact he seemed to be wearing weights just like Gai usually did in his training.

'Good endurance maybe, but his sensing skills clearly need a lot of work.' she noted critically. He hadn't noticed her at all. Her team would have noticed her long before now, true, her team were a tracking team built for that kind of aspect of ninja life, but, considering the praise this boy had thrown about over him ba-

"You can come out now." his voice broke her from her thoughts and Kurenai gave a start, when she realised, he was staring right at her, as if he could see her through where she'd completely hidden her body.

Her eyes widened, 'Has he known I've been here the whole time!?'' she gaped. Was he just letting her spy on him then and didn't care?

Why speak up now though? Unless he was done with his training or something?

Shaking her head, Kurenai focused herself and scratched her previous thoughts. Clearly his sensing abilities were top notch.

Doing as he said, she revealed herself, leaping from the tree to land a few feet away from him.

The boy, the very broad shouldered boy she mentally corrected raised an eyebrow at her and looked almost confused, "Kurenai-sensei?" he at least recognised her, "What are you doing here?" he asked, confused, though his confusion didn't stop his eyes from straying over his body, like a typical teenager and briefly ogling at her body.

He left the question of why she was spying on him un-asked though.

Kurenai crossed her arms and smiled at the boy, "Good that you found me, I suppose your sensing skills are on point," she relayed her thoughts from before to him, "How about your intelligence? Can you guess why I'm here Daiki-san?"

"A test?" his second eyebrow joined the first, before he snorted and crossed his arms as well and smirked at her, a cocky smirk that looked right at home on his face, "Then this isn't about Hinata, so, the Chunin Exams?"

She couldn't say why she wasn't surprised at all at the fact someone spoken of in such regard by Kakashi wore a cocky smirk so naturally.

She ignored the mention of Hinata, "You catch on fast," she praised lightly, "Yes. To make things simple, you have been recommended for the Chunin Exams, but many including myself are a little skeptical of a rookie genin like yourself being able to handle the exams, so I've been sent here to test your capability."

For a moment, he just stared at her, before huffing in apparent amusement, "Skeptical huh?" he mused, "I bet you weren't skeptical when you recommended your own team for the exams."

Her eyes widened, "How did yo-"

"I didn't, but you just told me, not really good at keeping a tight lip on things huh Kurenai-sensei?" the boy taunted her, a genin just taunted her, a jonin! "Honestly, I don't really see what business it is of yours, especially since I know for a fact the Hokage wouldn't prompt this. Old man third already offered me a promotion to chunin, I'm only taking this exam because he asked me to, unlike your team, my promotion is a foregone conclusion."

Kurenai gaped at the boy. He was so arrogant in his ability. He was much more blunt about it and out spoken, but he really did remind her of Kakashi right now, right down to the looking down on her team as being weaker than him.

This was the boy that changed Hinata?! How? Honestly, she didn't want to imagine what kind of arrogant brow beating he gave her if this was how he acted to a superior.

Forget being petty, she would enjoy knocking this kid down a peg.