Chapter 53

All things considered, meeting the big bad of this arc in my life was pretty damn satisfying. I didn't get to hear the whole "Mother wishes for your blood to prove my existence" speech, but it had the right amount of edge and coldbloodedness.

I'll give it an 8/10; Gaara was more of a badass than someone like Ao. May his soul rest in piss. I look forward to kicking his ass in the exams.

"Lei, whatcha thinking about?" Naruko asked, walking ahead of me and twirling around to walk backward so she could see my face.

"The exams look like there's a strong batch this time around. I'm sure it'll be interesting."

"You're right about that," Satsuki smirked; her hands shook in anticipation. The Chunin Exams were just that kind of event, after all. The chance to showcase your abilities on a large stage with an entire village watching and typically a few Kage. Such a stage wasn't something Shinobi would see often; no crowd was watching you when you went on a mission, at least not typically.

Now was our chance to introduce ourselves to the shinobi world, and at this point, my main concern was making a big bang.

I'm a businessman at heart, and by leaving a lasting impression, I'm sure the different people watching will want to hire me exclusively for their missions, which would give me quite a lot of money to invest in the company I have going on in Waves. The company is small but growing rapidly with Sento as my business partner. The company focuses on a few things: creating clothing, wood weapons, armor, and more. I have a shadow clone there writing stories based on a couple of anime from my past life.

Most of their love stories are targeted toward women. I needed to build up the fairer demographic first, plus the prince/daimyo son stories that are written in this world fucking suck. No offense to Mei, but I've read them, and they are hot shit. I plan on reworking that and getting the ladies to worship me as the men worship the Almighty Jiraiya!

"Lost in thought again, Lei?" Hinata giggled from beside me, and I snapped out of my head, looking over at her with a raised eyebrow. "I asked if you saw anyone that we should avoid."

I closed my eyes and hummed. I could feel the three girls' eyes on me and Konohamaru's and his two friends' eyes.

"The girl from Iwa and the redhead from Suna. I don't want you girls fighting them if you can help it, at least not alone."

"Oh?" Satsuki asked with a challenging glare.

"The Iwa girl is Kurotsuchi, granddaughter of Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage."

The girls' eyes widened as they stared at me. Onoki was a big name, and the anime didn't do him enough justice. As things were right now, except for Might Guy, Onoki was the strongest shinobi alive. I had him winning against Hiruzen before, even more so now that Gramps is down an arm.

"That girl?! But she was an idiot!" Naruko shouted.

"You're the last person I want to hear call anyone an idiot." Satsuki snorted, ignoring Naruko's glare. "Though I admit, Naruko is right. That Iwa girl ran herself into so many walls, and all we did was talk."

"I get what you're saying, but that doesn't mean she's weak." I clarified. "She's powerful. Her chakra conveys that successfully where her words fail. I'm not saying not to fight the sand guy or the Iwa girl; I'm saying you shouldn't unless you have to."

The girls nodded at that as we continued walking. Gaara and Kurotsuchi were strong, I could tell that much, and they might give my girls some trouble.

They were irrelevant to me, and I doubted anyone would give me real competition in this exam if I got serious.

"Heya, kid." We all turned to the familiar feminine voice to see Anko leaning against one of the shops with a playful grin tugging at her soft lips.

"Anko?" I raised an eyebrow. "What's up? I haven't seen you since the mission." I had never seen her in the village during the entire two months of training. I had been hoping to talk to her sometime before the exam. There were…plenty of things to discuss.

"Uh." Anko's nose crinkled in annoyance. "Don't remind me of those dark times. I was swamped with work; I barely even had time off!"

Sounds about right. I was curious if more than that happened; after all, she was Orochimaru's student, and the guy attacked us while we were on a mission with her, which probably raised a lot of eyebrows, especially from the people who actively distrusted her.

"We didn't have it any easier; we had to train the entire time!" Naruko crossed her arms under her bust, looking entirely too smug. "A little bit of paperwork compared to that isn't nothing!"

A tick mark formed on Anko's forehead. "You brat!"

"Not nice, Naruko." I chastised her with a disapproving look that she shrank at. I turned my attention back to Anko and smiled. "I actually wanted to talk to you about some things. Would you mind?"

"Funny, I was coming to do the same." Anko's playful smile returned as she pushed off the wall. "Try and keep up." With a burst of speed, she took to the rooftops.

"I'll see you girls later!" I grinned, chasing after her, leaving behind three frazzled girls who would no doubt lecture me later.

I jumped through the village, following hot on Anko's trail before she dropped onto one of the streets. I landed seconds after her, and she was already walking, her hands thrown behind her head as she casually whistled.

"Where are we going?" I questioned, speeding up to walk beside her. I couldn't help but have my eyes drift down to her body, more specifically, her chest being held tightly by her fishnet shirt.

"My favorite place." She grinned, catching me staring. I honestly didn't care that she caught me; if she didn't want to be looked at, she wouldn't have so much skin on display after all. "You're a cocky brat."

"I wouldn't say I'm cocky." I shook my head, crossing my arms as we turned a corner. "But I'm not a coward either."

Anko snorted at that as she stopped, turning towards me and leaning forward, letting her bust fall enticingly thanks to gravity. "You've already proven that going against Orochimaru, kid. You got balls, and that's exactly why I'm rewarding you now."

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by that, until I looked up at the place we had stopped in front of.

Dango Shop

Ah, she did say she would treat me to Dango a while back, didn't she?

"Let's go in, Dango's on me!" She rushed in, looking entirely too happy. Within the place was one old man who was standing at the register behind a counter. His eyes opened and filled with warmth as he looked at Anko.

"Oh, if it isn't Anko! I assume you want the usual?" He asked before his eyes drifted over to me. "I don't think I've met you before, young man. Are you a friend of Anko's?"

"Double my usual, old man." Anko smiled, walking up to the register and pulling a pouch from her trenchcoat pocket. "This brat was someone I went on a mission with. He helped my ass a great deal, so I'm treating him."

"Oh? I'm glad you've made it back safely then." His warm smile increased as he took the money Anko handed him.

"I'm surprised you don't remember me, Mr. Ryuchi; it's me, Lei Senju."

"Oh…oh my!" His eyes lit up in shock. "How you've grown! I believe it's been three years since I last saw you!"

"You both can catch up later, old man; he and I have to talk." Anko crossed her arms under her bust and grinned maliciously. The old Dango Shopkeeper, Ryuchi, rubbed his temples tiredly in response.

"I see, good luck, Young Lord Senju."

"My luck seems to be horrible lately, but thank you for the prayer, Mr. Ryuchi, I bowed, following Anko to one of the tables. The old man walked towards the back, likely to prepare Anko's order. I didn't like that he had to go, considering there were several dango sticks at the counter that he could have given us-

Unless…Anko's order was too large. That honestly…made a lot of sense.

Anko and I sat side by side with one another. Silence passes over us. I tapped the table as we waited since I didn't know how to start up a conversation with her. I had plenty I wanted to ask, but diving in so fast…was a bit challenging.

"You've gotten taller." She said after a while.

"I have?" I asked with honest curiosity.

"You have an inch at least, but I'm leaning more towards two."

"Wow…I hadn't noticed." I admitted, running my hand through my brown hair. "I'm surprised you could tell."

"Kid, I may not see you often, but If I couldn't tell that you had grown a couple of inches, I wouldn't deserve to call myself a shinobi." Anko snorted. Crossing her arms, which pushed up her breasts enticingly.

My eyes trailed down to them, and I looked for longer than I should have.

"It seems you're at that age."

"Your state of dress doesn't help." I deadpanned.

"I suppose it doesn't." She sighed, closing her eyes before reopening them, an amused twinkle in her brown orbs. "Well, you saved my ass on that mission; who knows, maybe when you're a bit older, I'll let you go for a ride."

The amount of playfulness in her voice didn't tell me if she actually meant what she said, so I decided to ignore those words, lest I fuck around and take her seriously.

Another silence descended over the shop.

"...So, what happened with the Sound Five."

Anko's eyes snapped to me, sudden seriousness in her demeanor.

"Well, most of that is classified, but I will tell you the girl is alive; we've gotten…enough out of her, and we're still deciding on what to do with her."

That caught me off guard. I had expected most of it to be classified, but what I had not expected was for Tayuya to be still alive nor to spill any beans on Orochimaru.

"Why not just kill her?" I asked with unrestrained coldness in my tone.

"If it only it were that simple." Anko rested her chin on her hand with a distant look. "They all…they were victims of him, you know? The girl had been quiet until we realized the bastard had a seal planted on her; after removing it, she didn't hold back anything, and we even had a Yamanaka dive into her mind to make sure."

Ah, so her compliance is why she's still alive. It makes sense that she spilled. Orochimaru didn't even give a shadow of a fuck that they had been defeated.

"Well, as long as she doesn't cause any more problems, it's fine, I suppose."

"Mhm." Anko hummed. Suddenly, she perked up, looking at me with a cheeky smile. "So, the chunin exams are coming up, you ready, brat?"

"Of course." I rolled my eyes. "I fought and killed an elite jonin and gave pause to a sannin. A few kids taking part in an exam don't scare me."

"That's the spirit, kid. I hope you don't disappoint!"

Once again, a silence descended on us, this one much more comfortable. The old man walked out of the back and handed us our dango. Two plates with towers of dango-

Seriously, I didn't know how many were on it!

"Eat up, kid, and thank me later!"

Well, I had never had a major sweet tooth or anything, but partaking in it once in a while…I'm sure nothing bad could come of it.