Chapter 10

Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.

XXXXX - HANA INUZUKA

It was pure pandemonium that ensued the moment the proctor started the test. Isagi tugged at both Rin and me with his bugs, silently telling us to follow him as he made his way from the hall. I guessed he had already gotten the requisite amount of clues. As we ran, I searched the hall with my eyes, taking note of the standouts in the chaos. I searched, especially, for the three prodigies. Kurotsuchi was the easiest to spot. There was a wide berth around her and her teammate as she had already roasted someone with what looked like lava. Fuck. Kekkei Genkai, too? Gaara of the desert was a bit more difficult to spot, but once I did, I could barely keep up as he moved across the hall.

He was a storm of taijutsu as he moved from victim to victim. I couldn't believe my eyes. When I first saw him, with that gourd floating beside him, I had assumed it was his primary mode of fighting, but just watching him tear through adults like they were nothing was terrifying. His hands had unreal strength, and his feet moved with unreal speed as they lashed out and broke bones and tore muscles. He was something else, and I was forced to admit it. Sensei was right. He would chew me up and spit me out if given the chance.

When I looked away from him and searched around the Konoha teams, I noticed that most of them were also heading towards the doors. Had they all come up with the same strategy? Get to the door and steal people's clues as they attempted to leave the room. Not a bad strategy, of course. Just something I would never do.

I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye, and when I turned, I saw the blond-haired, muscular Noel Yotsuki standing in front of the prone forms of six different ninja. He turned to me and stretched out his hand. I watched in shock as a disk appeared right in front of his hands. Motes of light gathered within it, and Isagi suddenly shouted right behind me. "Get down." I obeyed, almost as shocked to hear my teammate actually shout as I was to see, or rather not see, what happened next. There was a flash of light that nearly blinded me, and when I could open my eyes again, seven of the ninja that had been running for the door by our side were slumped on the floor twitching. They had been electrocuted. What the hell? Noel Yotsuki.

Isagi covered us in his kikaichu, and they fell to the floor, roasted, a second letter. I watched, my heart in my chest, and nothing more than a puppet in my own body as Isagi grabbed both Rin and me and dragged us the last few feet to the door. When we finally made it out and I could breathe again, I nearly burst into tears. Only thoughts of Rin's mockery stopped me.

Right in front of us, sitting down and looking to all the world like he was having the time of his life, was Gaara of the Desert. I looked behind me and saw him still tearing through multiple genin. But I looked in front of me again and saw him sitting down. I lost sight of the Gaara in the hall as the door swung closed once more.

"Well, that was interesting. Gaara of the Desert. How do you do?" he asked, stretching his hand out to us. I looked at Rin, only to find him staring at me. I scowled and took the boy's hand. And when I took it, it truly sunk in that he

was nothing more than a child. His skin was pale. Much paler than I had ever seen, and his red hair seemed to shine with its own glow. He was also small. Very small. Barely more than half my height and strong enough to just tear through me if he wanted to. What kind of world did I live in?

"Inuzuka Hana," I said, giving him my name. I didn't see any harm in it, and while I was at it, I introduced my teammates. "These are my teammates Aburame Isagi and Yamanaka Rin. We're from Konoha." He nodded, like I had just given him some serious secret. The look on his pale face almost made me 'awwww,' but I caught myself in time. My mind just flashed with images of him shoving his knee into someone's face and catching a thrown kunai from another person in mid-air before shoving it into his opponent's shoulder. Cute, but very, very dangerous. I took my hand back once he let go and waited for him to say the next words, but he only smiled and pointed down the hallway. "You should probably get going if you want to turn in your clues. You do have clues, right? You don't seem the sort to have run out just to escape the crazy lightning dude." Ignoring the strange last word, we nodded and thanked him, not keen to pick up any more conversation with the boy.

Monsters. The lot of them were monsters, and as we left him behind, I was grateful to be done with them.

"How was it?" Bachira-sensei asked as we left the building that the first task had been held in.

"We passed" was all I said, and I left the after action report to Rin. He and Bachira-sensei were two peas in a pod, after all. I just couldn't wait to get back to the hotel room and see the triplets. They'd been down with a nasty case of food poisoning so I couldn't take them with me for the task. It would be fine, Sensei had said. Nothing but a test of our wits, Sensei had said. I guess that showed me.

Never listen to Sensei. Sensei always lies. Always. That was the lesson I was taking away from the first task.

XXXXXX - Gamer of the Desert

I looked to my left and right as I walked through Kusa. I had been guided to the merchant corner and supposedly left on my own to do some browsing. I couldn't detect the people watching me, but I knew they had to be there. Of course, they had to. It would take a special kind of idiot to leave a foreign jinchuriki wandering around unsupervised, especially with the other people in this district with me. I didn't need special senses to pick out the Kumo, Iwa, and Konoha delegations in the crowd. With the exception of the Konoha team, both the other teams to note were duos. They still all moved in huge crowds of their countrymen, though. I was not surprised by it at all. Safety in numbers and all that.

Of course, Baki wasn't enthused when I told him of my desire to head out, but he wasn't interested in tagging along for himself, so here I stood. Why was I talking about this so much? Because the Kumo team was walking right at me, with a certain someone at their helm. Noel Yatsuki. I looked at him, pale skin contrasting heavily with the darker skin of the rest of the contingent, and blond hair slicked back. He was physically imposing. I'd never seen a man with muscles that dominant in this life. He looked like a bodybuilder, except that the muscles clearly weren't for show. He had thrown grown men and women around in that exam hall, and when he found me in the crowd, I had been forced to disperse my clone to avoid giving him too much information for when we eventually faced off, but it seemed he had found me again.

"Gaara of the Desert," he said in greeting, and I inclined my head to him before reciprocating, "Noel of the Yatsuki Clan," I said, stressing the clan name and giving him an obviously evaluating look. I wanted to know more. That storm release had been the real deal. He had turned the entire exam on its head with one jutsu, and from there, it was off to the races. We were about to start our conversation when we noticed the Iwa contingent making their own way over to us.

"The Tsuchikage's granddaughter," I commented to Noel, not bothering to ask him to introduce the rest of his countrymen. I knew their names, and they were all irrelevant. What I needed was to fish for information on how things stood there.

"Aye, Kurotschuchi of the Black Stone. Her lava release is interesting," he said but did not volunteer anything more.

"Not as interesting as the storm release. I'd never heard about it until I saw you at the exam," I said, fibbing the truth just a bit. I had, but never in this life. The files I was given had nothing on that. My best guess was that he had hidden the kekkei genkai until his village felt him ready to defend himself. Bloodline theft was no new thing to the shinobi world. That's how Kumo had gotten the lava release they tended to be so proud of. It was also how they had acquired what few magnet release users they had. It wasn't guaranteed to bear fruit, but any chance to have such a unique advantage would be taken by any of the villages.

Kurotsuchi and her people finally arrived, and the young girl was much more abrasive. "Noel. Gaara," she said in greeting, and we repeated her name with inclined heads. No need to be rude just because she wasn't being completely polite.

"I expected you to be taller," she said, turning to me, and I let the comment flow off my back like water on stone.

I just smiled placidly and replied, "I am only six years old, after all. I think my height is no problem. Besides, if anyone should be talking…" I left the last bit pointedly unsaid as I looked up at Noel. The man was not just muscular. He was also very huge. Kurotsuchi was quite a bit taller than me, but she was just a bit above his waist. I was on his waist level, so I could just imagine how tall he was. Easily seven feet, I suspected. I was 3.5 feet after all.

Noel just chuckled at my retort before looking down at us with a smile on his face. "Prodigies are getting younger and younger, aren't they? When I won the exams four years ago, they called me a prodigy. Just look at you now. Six years old and stronger than I was back then." I smiled at his compliment, doing my best not to get too flustered. It was clear what he wasn't saying. He called me stronger than him from four years ago, but didn't feel like I compared to him as he was now. I found it difficult to doubt that assessment though. He was strong. He'd tossed out those storm release attacks in quick succession, turning the entire thing into a race to get away from him, and then disqualified enough people simply by beating them that there weren't even enough genin at the end to fill up the quota for the second exams. It had been moved by a day to account for the new numbers, and I just had to admit being impressed by him. I considered myself a causer of chaos, but even I hadn't managed to throw such a wrench into the plans of the Kusa chunin exam organizers.

I mean, it wasn't like they were especially competent - the first exam was a mess of epic proportions. Giving each participant a clue just ensured that there would be a battle royale. It was the way of shinobi. Completing a mission in the quickest and most efficient way possible was pounded into our heads practically from birth. Even children's games in ninja villages had the same kind of conditioning built into them. It was part of the reason I wanted to be Kage. Root had reminded me of the kind of evil that existed in this world. I could talk a big game about not giving a fuck, but that would always be dishonest. I cared. That was the truth. I cared because I could do better. I could bring real, meaningful change to this world, and if it meant I got to stay where I'd be surrounded by the desert and an army of shinobi loyal to keeping me alive, then so be it. I had to do what was necessary for the greater good, after all.

"I guess times have changed, old man," I snarked, not sure of how to reply to his comment. He just laughed again. He laughed easily, I noticed. Not small laughs either. They were whole performances. As he laughed, I finally saw the thing that had tickled me about his appearance since the moment I'd seen him earlier today. He looked exactly like a young All Might.

"I like you, kid. You're funny," Kurotsuchi, not liking being ignored, chose to step into the conversation at this point.

"You were good at the first exam, but nothing special," she said, looking directly at Noel. I resisted the urge to laugh at the obvious insecurity showing from the young girl. Children could be like that, and I thanked every god out there for not making me an actual child.

Noel actually laughed and smiled down at Kurotsuchi before replying, "and how would I have been special in your eyes, little one?" he asked.

"By accomplishing the mission. A good shinobi finishes the mission. You didn't bother getting any clues and just started attacking everyone," she said, feeling sure of herself with the answer, and I could see where she was coming from. Noel had been one of the last to leave the hall. The only reason he even qualified for the next exam was that he'd taken out so many people in the hall that there weren't enough candidates for the second. But Kurotsuchi was also missing something. Yes, he didn't complete the mission as efficiently as possible, but he did complete it at the greatest possible detriment to the rival nations. Detriment to another village and benefit to one's own village often went hand in hand. That was why ninja never cooperated on the field. In fact, a foreign ninja would only ever offer a helping hand if the one behind their back was holding a kunai to slit your throat. Baki was very explicit on that.

"Yes, you are right, young girl. You are right. I must complete the next exam as quickly as possible," he said, patronizing her and making her grit her teeth. She was young, but not stupid. She could hear the mockery in his tone. He just leaned up and looked at the moon, not saying anything more to the obviously displeased girl. "I'm afraid I must leave now," he said, and did not wait for a reply before leaving with the rest of the Kumo contingent. That just left me staring at a crowd of Iwa ninja. I was suddenly reminded of the age-old rivalry between my village and theirs. Considering I didn't have my gourd on me, I beat a hasty retreat after saying my goodbyes. I passed by the Konoha team on my way back, and beyond complimenting Hana Inuzuka's dogs, I didn't spend much time around them. I could have warned them about the ticked-off Iwa Princess on the prowl, but I couldn't be bothered, and it would be entertaining for them to cross paths.

XXXXX

The second stage of the exams was something even less complicated than the first. On the outskirts of Kusa was a gate that led to a place the denizens had affectionately named the plains of sorrow. From what I could see, it was just a stretch of grassland that led to a very tall tower at the end. I had no idea why their geography got weird over there, as the grass there was much taller than what could be found anywhere else I'd seen in the Land of Grass so far. The grass was taller than even Noel Noa. If there was a stage of this exam just tailor-made for me, then this would be it.

At least, I'd thought so, until the proctor began listing out the rules. None of them mattered to me, barring one. "No flying," she had said, while pointedly not looking in my direction. Of course, the rule had been aimed at me. I was the only one that these events with any ability to fly, and they were clearly trying to neuter my advantage. I couldn't see why Kusa would care though. All their teams had fallen in the first stage. Most of them had been fried by Noel at some point during his rampage, and a few of them had found themselves on the wrong end of my fists. I was a bit sad. Just a bit. It also meant Kusa had no horses in this race, so why were they trying to fuck me over? It made no sense.

I turned my mind away from that and towards the task before me. The strange grass seemed to spread in a circle with the epicenter being the tower, so we all started from different parts of the perimeter. The proctors assured us it didn't matter who started well, except for those who started in snake territory. Of course, the first thing that had happened to me after I stepped into the area was getting attacked by a snake. A viper, or something like that, sprang right at me the moment I took my first step. My sand caught it instantly and crushed it. The screams I heard from my left told me not everyone had been so lucky. I waded through the grass and moved forward, trying to be quick but not exhaust myself. The rules for this stage were simple: just make it inside the tower. That was it. That was the entire thing. No scrolls, no tokens to gather, nothing. Just the first eight people to make it inside would get to advance to the next stage.

A/N; Chapter complete. How does it look? Thanks for reading. We've got the next three chapters of this story, along with the first chapter of another Naruto insert I haven't uploaded yet (It's an Itachi SI) and 61 chapters of my other fic, all available on patre-on, and you can read all of that right now just by heading to the link on my profile or searching for my username up there. Feel free to have a look.