Rebirth of the Uchiha: Chapter 25

Iruka stood by the side of the boat, jaw dropping as he gazed out at the ocean. In retrospect, the name Uzushiogakure should have been a clue, but... he hadn't quite expected this.

Whirlpools, hundreds of them, some smaller than their boat, some the size of a small village, surrounded the island they were trying to get to. Above, dark clouds rumbled, seemingly on the brink of unleashing lightning bolts on the sea below.

"Yeah, that's the place," Zabuza commented, Anko beside him. "There was a reason Kiri had to team up with two other villages just to fight them. Impassable by water, unless you've got the Uzumaki seals, and hardly anyone's dumb enough to try water-walking. That's only the beginning, before we get to the real security."

Iruka gulped, making seals slowly. He couldn't afford to mess this one up. "So if you can handle yourself and Haku, I'll help Anko-san over to the beach," he replied, before turning to the purple-haired woman. "Assuming that's alright with you, of course."

"So chivalrous... I think you missed your calling as a heroic knight, Iruka," she smirked, before blinking as he stepped off the edge of the boat, standing on a floating disc of water as he made a half-ram seal. "... what. You can fly now?" she asked, openly gaping.

"Yes, but not for very long, so we'd best get going," the jounin smiled, as Zabuza formed a similar disc, the two mist-nin standing steady on top of it. Iruka held out his free hand to the only female member of their group, still grinning as she stepped warily onto the water. "You ready? I can only hold this for a few minutes, so you'll have to hold on... tight..." he stammered, as she draped herself across his back.

"We'd best get going, then, Iruka-kun." she muttered sweetly, as the man turned pink. Shaking his head, he carefully moved the disc forwards, before rapidly picking up speed. Zabuza just stared at the two, with Anko clinging to Iruka.

'Smooth as fuck, Umino. Respect.'

OoOoO

"Mmmph!"

"Yeah, well, we did warn you. All you had to do was calm down and you wouldn't be in this situation," Sasuke admonished a thoroughly bound and gagged Naruto. "You're going for promotion here, you have to make a good first impression. You don't see me or Sakura going nuts, do you?"

"You mean aside from tying me up and dragging me across town?" the blonde snarked, as Sasuke turned to look at him properly.

"... did you eat the gag we put on you?" "...maybe." Sakura sighed as the two boys argued amongst themselves.

"Naruto does have a point. We'll look even crazier than usual if we're carrying him around like this, and we need to be ready for anything," she explained, working some of the knots free and helping her teammate to his feet. "We definitely need our meatshield in full working order." she concluded, laughing at Naruto's squawk of indignation.

Sasuke smirked as they approached the academy for their test. "Brings back memories, doesn't it? Learning about the Hokages, practicing on the obstacle courses, Naruto somehow painting the entire thing in ten different shades of orange..."

"It was thirteen shades, and there's still no proof that was me." Naruto interjected, as they made their way to the stairs.

"Right..." the other two chorused as they came up to a crowd of genin on the next floor. Sakura looked up at a sign, blinking rapidly, before signalling for the boys to move on. Their job was to scope out the competition.

"Whoa, lots of different villages here..." Naruto muttered lowly, gazing at the various hitae-ate around them. "Locals, Suna, Taki, Kusa... I think that's Getsu... Ame, Tani... that's a new one, though." he said, seeing a trio of genin with a single musical note on their hitae-ate.

"New villages pop up every so often," Sasuke pointed out, as they approached a door seemingly guarded by two genin, who had large kunai blades strapped to their backs. "Oh, damn..." They were in the process of beating up a young Konoha genin in a green jumpsuit. One who both of them remembered from 'The Event That We Do Not Speak Of', as Sasuke had put it.

"We're doing you a favour, kid. These exams aren't for weaklings. Better you leave now than get yourself killed later." one of them smirked, Sasuke having to restrain Naruto from doing something stupid and blowing their cover. He shouldn't have jinxed it.

"Yo, assholes!" came the voice of Kiba, brandishing a fist towards the two 'guards' by the door. "You two think you're so great? Let's see how you handle this!" he growled, charging forwards with a punch. The green-clad genin vanished from sight, at least from Naruto's sight, before reappearing to catch Kiba's punch, as well as the kick from his opponent.

"Please. We should not fight amongst ourselves, as we are all comrades here," he smiled pleasantly, before catching sight of Sasuke facepalming and narrowing his eyes. "But for now, please excuse me." he concluded, once again vanishing, seemingly gone from the room. Sasuke pointed surreptitiously at the ceiling, nodding to Naruto, who grabbed ahold of Sakura to get her to follow.

"So, you are the famed Uchiha clan head, Uchiha Sasuk-" the green-clad genin began, before a brunette girl with her hair in buns smacked him upside the bowl cut.

"Lee! We agreed we were going to keep a low profile!" she scolded, shaking him fiercely. "Did you really have to make a show of yourself like that?" she snapped, before turning to an amused Team Seven.

"I'm sorry for whatever he did to you three. I'm Tenten, of Team Gai. You've alreaady met Rock Lee, and over there is our teammate, Hyuuga Neji." she offered politely, gesturing at a glaring Hyuuga.

"Uzumaki Naruto and the rest, at your serv-" "Shut it, baka!" Sakura roared, slamming a fist into the back of her teammate's head, before smiling sweetly. "Ignore him. I'm Haruno Sakura, this is Uchiha Sasuke, and we're Team Seven... or Team Iruka, I guess."

"Tenten, don't waste our time talking to these losers. Come on, we want to get in before the rest of them figure out the genjutsu on the other floor." Neji stated bluntly, ignoring Team Seven as he walked down the corridor. Tenten shrugged helplessly, following after him. Naruto frowned and turned to Lee.

"Yo, Eyebrows. Would you be mad if I called your teammate an asshole?" Naruto growled as Lee attempted to catch Sakura's eye, even as he apologised for Neji's 'Most Unyouthful' behaviour.

"Sakura-san," he began, the girl staring blankly at him, before flinching as he winked. "Would you do me the honour of going on a date?"

"..."

"..."

"HELL NO!" Sakura yelled, hiding behind Sasuke as she dodged a heart-shaped projectile. "No way! Not a chance!" she continued, crossing her arms and turning red.

"Harsh, Sakura-chan. Give the guy a little hope at least," Naruto scolded, patting Lee on the back as the older genin sat in the fetal position. "You okay, Eyebrows?"

"... yoooouuuth..."

"He'll be fine. We'd best get going, seeing as Sakura probably let everyone else in the damned building where we are." Sasuke said pointedly, striding ahead, to where they could see a familiar grey-haired figure.

"Ah, good, all three of you came. Just as well, seeing as you need a full team to take the exam," Kakashi commented cheerily, before chuckling at their sudden change of expression. "Did I not mention that before?"

"... you are a very mean man, new sensei." "And you're adorable. If you're ready, you'd better head in before the first test starts up." Kakashi had barely finished before the trio had rushed past him into the testing hall.

'Good luck, you three. With Ibiki running the show, you'll need it.'

OoOoO

"Okay, no signs of anyone on the island, not even civilians. That said, Uzushio is in the middle of the island," Zabuza summarised, pointing at the foreboding junngle ahead of them. "The place has been growing out of control for the last thirty years or so, but we have a rough idea where we're headed, near the mountain in the middle of this forest. If you can spare them, we could seriously use those snakes of yours for recon work." he finished, directing the second part of his statement to Anko, who raised a brow before calling up two small vipers, who obediently wrapped around her wrists.

"We should stick together. Whatever they've got set up can't be good for intruders like us. It's a pity we didn't have your blond brat, or we could just get him to spam clones until the defences ran out." Zabuza grunted, one hand twitching towards the hilt of his sword. Iruka exhaled, releasing his sensory technique.

"You know why we couldn't do that. We can't risk bringing him here. If the other villages even thought we had a genuine Uzumaki in Konoha, we might find ourselves on the brink of another war. I'm not going to risk that."

Anko smirked. "More like you want to keep the chibis innocent for as long as you can," she pointed out, before seeing Iruka half-glare at her. "I didn't say you were wrong, but from the sounds of things, they're already well on their way to being the next Sannin. Better they be ready for anything, not caught off guard."

"If you two are finished flirting," Zabuza deadpanned. "We have to get moving while we've still got daylight. You can have more long, lingering looks when we stop for the night." he stated, taking off with Haku close behind before either of the Konoha natives could respond. Anko smirked.

"Someone's getting a cobra in their tent tonight... let's get after him before he hurts himself or the prettyboy he keeps around." she cackled, leaving Iruka to sigh as he followed her.

Sometimes he wondered if the job made people crazy, or the other way around.

OoOoO

"So... this is pretty boring so far. Where is everyone?" Naruto pouted as Team Seven glanced around at the two dozen or so teams around them. Team Gai had reunited inside, standing across the room from Team Seven, Lee and Tenten smiling excitedly while Neji glared at everyone who dared to come inside of a forty-yard radius.

"Give it a few minutes-" Sasuke began, before a huge crowd wandered in, Teams Eight and Ten in front. "Inuzuka always has to interrupt me..."

"You don't know that," Sakura admonished, waving their classmates over. "Could've been Ino or Shikamaru."

"Nah, Nara's too smart for that."

"And Ino and Kiba?" came Naruto's contribution.

"I stand by my statement."

"... you're even meaner than new sensei," Naruto decided, smiling widely at the other teams. "Hey guys! Hey, Hinata-chan!" The girl being addressed promptly turned vermillion as she attempted to reply.

"H-hello, Naruto-kun. H-how have y-you been?" she managed, not missing Kiba giggling behind her, just out of the blond's range of vision.

"It's been awesome! We went to Nami and we had to fight some really strong guys and then we got them to join Konoha and Iruka-sensei learned how to fly- Urk!" the Uzumaki chirped, before getting interrupted by a pair of carefully manicured hands throttling him.

"What part of 'details classified' didn't you get?" Sakura scolded, even as her teammate began turning blue from oxygen deprivation. Sasuke just rolled his eyes, before twitching (Uchiha do not flinch) at the sudden appearance of Aburame Shino beside him.

"I think you should step in, Uchiha-san. Why? Should Uzumaki-san die, you will be unable to progress in these exams." he offered, voice barely wavering from monotone.

"No, this is normal. She'll stop before it gets that far. Probably." Sasuke answered, turning to his companion. "I'm surprised you didn't say something about him being my friend, that's what most people do."

"You will find that we Aburame are not most people. We are far more logical than the average shinobi, not that such a thing is hard to achieve..." Shino trailed off, watching as Kiba attempted to intervene on the 'fight' on Naruto's behalf, only to be intercepted by a fueled-by-righteous-female-fury Ino.

"Was that a joke?"

"..."

"..."

"Yes, it was."

Sasuke nodded thoughtfully. "You're pretty quiet, even for an Aburame, aren't you?"

"If something needs to be said, I will do so. However, I will not waste time on needless prattle. Kiba is beyond sufficient in that regard."

Sasuke smirked. "That settles it, I need to start hanging out with you." He simply waved a hand at his teammates in explanation, who had somehow ended up in a mutual headlock. "As if that wasn't bad enough, Naruto lives at the compound. I mean, he's my best friend, but-"

"DAMMIT SAKURA, I MIGHT NEED MY EYES FOR THIS!" "SHUT UP AND LET GO OF MY HAIR!"

"I understand completely, Uchiha-san." Shino offered, before all nine genin turned their attention to a grey-haired genin approaching them, Naruto and Sakura pausing in their scuffle.

"You guys should really keep it down over here. Things are tense enough already." he smiled, even as Sasuke narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"And you are...?" he grunted, pulling the rest of Team Seven back to their feet.

"Yakushi Kabuto. I'm something of a veteran of these exams, so I know a lot about what's coming up. More importantly," he said, leaning in closer. "I know who to watch out for. If you kids want to make it through these exams, you should avoid that team," gesturing to a team with Sunagakure hitae-ate. "They're the current Kazekage's three kids, all three of them are supposed to be at least as strong as an average chuunin, and they say the youngest of them, Sabaku no Gaara, made it through a B-rank without getting so much as a scratch." he concluded sombrely.

"We did that too. I mean, Sakura got taken hostage for a couple minutes and that Noboru guy got hit, but we were all fine," Naruto promptly replied, breaking the mood completely, being rewarded by the sound of two palms meeting two faces. "What?"

"I heard about that. Your sensei is very impressive for only having been a jounin for the last few months. In any case, avoid Gaara if you want to make it through this. While I've got you all here, have any of you heard about Otogakure? It's only been established for a few months, but I hear they've sent their best here- not that they're all that impressive compared to some of the teams from the proper villages-"

Kabuto didn't make it any further, a bandaged genin wearing the Oto symbol throwing a strike at the older Konoha-nin with some kind of metallic fist. Kabuto ducked out of the way, before suddenly and abruptly throwing up, his glasses cracking from some kind of unseen force. Before they could step in, the front of the room erupted in smoke, more than a dozen chuunin appearing, standing behind a scarred shinobi wearing a bandana-style hitae-ate and a black trenchcoat over a dark grey uniform.

"Alright, you punks! Get your asses into your seats before I make you!" he barked, inciting an urgent scramble for seats as he strode forwards. "I am Morino Ibiki, proctor for the first part of your chuunin examination. There will be no unauthorised fighting in my hall, do I make myself clear?" he asked, receiving a few terrified nods.

"You kids are in my world now. The chuunin exams have officially begun."

OoOoO

"I hate this place!" Anko raged, pulling senbon out of what was left of her jacket. "What the hell is with these traps? Half of them are more like pranks than anything else..." she grumbled, glancing at a distinctly yellow Haku, who'd given up on trying to remove the dye once they'd confirmed it wasn't toxic.

The trap that Zabuza had accidentally set off, however, had been much more dangerous. In addition to what had to be over a thousand senbon, the seal had somehow spat out a wooden pillar easily as wide as the Hokage tower, knocking the swordsman through a branch, and only missing him on its landing thanks to Iruka, who was still untouched by any of the traps.

Which was annoying.

"We're here." Zabuza announced, voice unnervingly hollow. Normally you could hear the subtle hints of bloodlust and sadistic glee, even when he tried to be subtle, but now... he sounded empty. Iruka leapt up beside him and gasped at the sight.

The area from the forest to the walls of Uzushio was dead. Not in any poetic sense of the word, all that could be seen for nearly a mile was like the deserts of Kaze no Kuni, except a lifeless grey in colour. Even at this distance, Iruka could see what looked to be bones, specks of white on a stony background.

"This is where they made their last stand. A couple hundred volunteers against the full force of three of the Five Great Nations. Even when they died, they took down hundreds and hundreds of enemies. The Uzumaki, the Otsutsuki and the Umino, along with a half-dozen smaller clans, managed to fight off half the damn world long enough to get the civilians and the kids out of the village," Zabuza explained. "Kiri might have hated Uzushio with a passion, but you can't not respect that kind of guts." he murmured, gesturing for them to move ahead. Iruka followed closely, wary of what could-would- happen as they got closer.

"Damn! Get back!" he managed to shout, before the ground below them started glowing, lines of blue flowing in circles around them. A violet barrier rose up around the border, selaing them inside before they could get back to safety.

"So this whole battlefield is one giant seal?" Haku managed to groan out, having been thrown to one side as chakra flared underneath him. Iruka nodded grimly, glancing at his companions as they looked to him for advice, the blue chakra pulsing unnaturally around them as new walls appeared. Placing a hand against a symbol underfoot, Iruka had time for one last thought before he blasted his chakra through it.

'I really hope this isn't an explosive seal.'