The Tournament Begins

Raiden and Itachi stayed in the house for the rest of the day. Jiraiya came back during the house looking like a fool.

"Sensei, where have you been?" Raiden asked him with a weird look.

When Jiraiya heard him, he quickly composed himself. "It's none of your business."

"Weren't you supposed to be working?"

"I was indeed working." Jiraiya said that and went to the room assigned to him.

Raiden looked towards the door and ignored it.

~~~

The following day, while Temari was showing the two of them the commerce district, they found out what his work was. He had been spending his day in the red light district of the village.

While passing the street casually, they saw him leaving one of the brothels there with a foolish grin. Raiden did a facepalm and asked Temari a question.

"Hey, normally does the Kage need to attend before or something?"

"No, all details of the exams have been dealt with and the Hokage was supposed to come only for the final exam."

'So he came out to play, he's still a pervert the same as before. You'd think raising a child would limit that, but he just left him with my mom for a month to go out and fool around in brothels.' Raiden thought while shaking his head.

They ignored him and continued their tour of the local specialities of the village.

~~~

During this month, Raiden tried fixing the problem he realised he had due to training all the time and tried to get to know Temari more.

One day, while they were sitting down for lunch he started to ask her about herself.

"Temari, I realised I don't have a lot of friends outside of the family so I've decided to befriend you. Tell me about yourself."

Temari was stunned at his straightforwardness but soon accepted it as she was also straight forward in dealing with people. Even if he was a shinobi from another village, she wanted to have more friends as most of the other kids are too scared of her background to try and befriend her.

Right now she only had two friends, so she started to talk about herself.

"Well, I am the eldest of the Kazekage's children, I have two brothers. I will most likely become an aid to the future Kazekage. I like to look at flora as they are rare here."

Raiden nodded at her speaking about herself and then started to talk about himself.

"I have no siblings, I was raised outside of Konoha until I was five, I like training and my hobby is...is, I guess I have no hobbies for now since I didn't have a lot of time outside of training." He said while looking to be in deep thought.

He turned to Itachi and said in a desperate tone "I really need to get a life outside of training."

Temari chuckled at his words and then asked him a question.

"How are you already applying for the Chuunin exams? Since you're so young and only have two members."

Raiden thought about it for a bit before saying "I guess it just happened, Itachi graduated and started doing missions, a year later, they were saying his team was the best Genin squad of Konoha. He wanted to participate in the Chuunin exam of last year but was denied because his teammates weren't ready.

Unfortunately, one of his teammates died on a mission and the other quit being a ninja." The atmosphere became a bit gloomy especially for Itachi who was reminded of his weakness when he wasn't able to protect his teammate.

"This year, he was given new teammates that are fresh graduates so he thought he had a low chance to participate this year as well. fortunately, I graduated this year so by working really hard and completing 15 C-rank missions and with Itachi's record we were able to take the Chuunin exams."

Temari thought about what he said before sighing and shaking her head. Raiden asked her what's wrong.

"It's just that there are already people my age becoming Chuunin while I'll have to wait for at least 9 years before being able to take the exam."

"Why?" Asked Itachi, trying to stay in the conversation.

"My team has already been decided on as being me and my brothers, so even if I graduate early I'll be learning how to be an aid until both of my brothers graduate."

Raiden thought about it and eventually said: "In nine years, the exams should be held by Konoha, so I'll give you a tour around Konoha, okay?"

Temari gave him a small smile and didn't say anything.

~~~

The rest of the month continued with them touring the village with Temari and using the training grounds to spar once in a while to stay in top shape. They also met Temari's other two friends, Yome and Sen.

Temari and Raiden talked to each other about their lives and became friends as he wanted.

Finally, the month was over and it was time for the finals to begin. At the doors to the arena, Itachi and Raiden looked at each other before Raiden said "No hard feelings no matter who wins?"

Itachi nodded "No hard feeling."

They both entered the arena doors with a big stride.

~~~

Jiraiya, who was finally doing something important, also entered the arena through the door for special guests and was led to the VIP balcony as he was one of the judges for this exam.

As he entered the balcony, he saw a man he fought multiple times in the Third Great Ninja War, The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa.