The village was buzzing with life. Vendors were peddling their wares with more excitement than ever. Security was tighter than ever with chunin and jonin ninja doing regular patrols, and of course Anbu watching from the shadows. There was an influx of visitors to the village. Yes, it was that time again, the Chunin Exams had returned to Konoha.
Gathered in the Hokage tower were all of the jounin-senseis ready to report on whether they're entering their students into the exams. For the most part all of the older teams are being entered, finally he gets to the elite jounin that currently have students. "Gai?"
"I, Maito Gai, jounin-sensei of Team 3, now known simply as Team Gai, put forward Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten." It wasn't surprising to most in the room, elite jounin almost always put their genin forward by the second year of teaching. Hiruzen turns towards Kurenai.
"Kurenai?"
"I, Yuuhi Kurenai, jounin-sensei of Team 7 put forward Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruko." Murmurs erupt from the jonin in the room, this team had both the dead last and the handless heiress. The woman must be insane.
"Silence. Now then Kakashi?"
"I, Hatake Kakashi, jounin-sensei of Team 8 put forward Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Inuzuka Kiba." The murmurs erupt once more, now much louder. Two rookie teams had been put forward! With a look from the Hokage they are quiet.
"Asuma?"
"I, Sarutobi Asuma, jounin-sensei of Team 10 put forward Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino." The room couldn't take it any more, this hadn't happened in years. All three rookie teams apprenticed under their elite jounin were put forward!
"I see, well I trust all of your judgment's. Keep in mind this is the first Chunin Exam in the past decade with all five major villages attending, be on alert." Iwa hadn't attended in years, and Kumo stopped coming after the Hyuuga Affair. The wind was changing and they all knew it. The jonin all quickly disperse, most of them leaving to gossip. Hiruzen didn't mention the fact that Ame had sent five teams this year. Previously they only had been sending one a year, but with them coming out of isolation it would seem they're interested in showing off their strength. Or getting their genin in contact with Uzumaki Naruko.
***
Kurenai finds herself outside with Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma. She speaks to the three of them.
"Any of you interested in betting on the exams?"
"And what would this bet entail Kurenai-chan?"
"Don't speak with such familiarity to me Sarutobi-san." Her voice was cold, she still hadn't forgiven him, despite his best efforts. She had resolved herself to never let his betrayal go. "But to answer the question I want to bet on our team's performances."
"Sounds interesting, my most youthful teammate." Kakashi nods, he'd be down to make some easy money.
"Great, then I wager my entire team will make it to the third phase. And to go even further one of them will win it." Asuma scoffs.
"Talk about wasting money." The other three collectively glares at him and he coughs realizing his mistake. "I'll take that bet, I bet my team will make it just as far. Hell I bet yours, will at most have the Uchiha make it." The dead last demon and handless heiress would never make it past the preliminaries.
"If this is the bet we're making then I think my team will make it, they're nothing if not efficient." And always on time, he had thoroughly drilled the importance of being on time to his team. Though the Inuzuka was resistant to the idea. Kakashi sighed, his team was a piece of work, but he had gotten through to them in the past five months. Though the Inuzuka was still brash, but that's just in his clan's nature.
"Yosh! I'm sure my team will put their youth on display for all of the world! They will win it all!" Gai was willing to get in on this bet. His team was older and more experienced, though he knew not to underestimate Kurenai's team. He had seen them first hand, and knew they were strong.
"Great, minimum wager of 1000 ryo?"
"I'll raise it by 3000." Wow, Kakashi was confident.
"Alright I'll put down 4000 on my team." The others murmured in agreement. With that the four dispersed to go track down their teams.
***
Naruko was currently holding hands with her girlfriend and staring down a square rock. The two had been on a date and had noticed Konohamaru was following them. He had been doing this a lot in the past three weeks. The kid was funny and all, but it was getting annoying that he wouldn't stop. Not to mention Hina-chan was getting frustrated with him. She's pretty sure she was about to force the kid to stop. Naruko speaks, "Kono, I know it's you." The rock goes up in a puff of smoke and three kids pop out. Well that's surprising, she had only been expecting Konohamaru.
The two knew kids were aiding Konohamaru in some weird introduction. They named themselves off. The girl was named Moegi, she had her hair in a weird style of pigtails and had a permanent blush on her face. And the boy was named Udon, who wore glasses and had snot dripping down his nose. Naruko realized more and more people were giving her weird introductions recently. She hoped the trend stopped. "Naruko-chan, will you play ninja with us?" The redhead shakes her head.
"Sorry Kono, I'm on a date. Maybe some other time." The boy pouts.
"Why do you like her anyways? She doesn't even have two hands!"
"Love is hard to explain, I hadn't even thought about my own feelings for her when she first asked me out. Honestly, while I have definitely realized I'm attracted to girls in the past several months, I probably would have said yes to her regardless of her looks or gender. I just love her. I couldn't imagine anyone else I would want to spend the rest of my life with. So in the end her number of hands won't ever matter to me." Hinata blushed at that, she didn't say anything in response, just squeezed her girlfriend's hand. Her girlfriend really was very sweet.
Konohamaru didn't really get it but he shrugs. All he can tell is he has lots of work to do if he wants to win the redhead's heart. He missed the sigh Moegi gave at his look. Hinata didn't. So the little girl had a crush huh? She could work with that. Anything to eliminate another rival. "I love you too, Naru-chan." She leans in and gives her girlfriend a kiss. The kids watching collectively, gag and run off. The two are interrupted as not even thirty seconds later they hear Konohamaru cry out. They sigh, that sounded annoying. But they'd have to deal with it.
They quickly round the corner and find Konohamaru being lifted off the ground by some kunoichi. She was about Hinata's height, and had short hair. She also had black eyes, which kind of made her look like an Uchiha. But more than anything they noticed the foreign headband, more specifically Iwa, on her head. "Watch it you damn brat!"
"You should look where you're going, you hag!" Naruko rolls her eyes, Kono really didn't know how to shut his mouth. She missed the irony. Hinata speaks up.
"You should let the boy go, kunoichi-san." The kunoichi turns to look at them and scoffs upon seeing them.
"Yeah and why should I listen to a handless loser?" These kids looked weak, and she'd always take the chance to crush some tree huggers.
"Because he's the Hokage's Grandson." The kunoichi looks down at him and scoffs again.
"You really do raise them to be weak here in Konoha, when I was his age I was already able to take on genin."
"And who are you exactly?" Naruko was curious what could she say.
"Kamizuru Kurotsuchi." Hinata recognized the surname.
"So you're the Tsuchikage's granddaughter then?" The girl nods. "You should still let the boy go."
"And if I don't?"
"Then the boy wrapping the sand around you will probably use it. Oh and I'll probably be forced to cause an incident." Not to mention Naru-chan was standing stock still, she was already prepared to snap the girls neck. Naru-chan never liked people hurting her friends.
The girl looks down and curses, jumping away and releasing the boy. She looks around and spots a redheaded boy standing on a tree branch. "And who are you supposed to be?"
The boy smiles charmingly, "I'm Sabaku no Gaara. But please call me Gaara." Kurotsuchi spots the Sand forehead protector and scowls.
"And why are you interfering?"
"I thought I'd make good on Suna's alliance with Konoha." The woman clicks her teeth.
"Whatever, I'll just kill you all in the exams, assuming you're even strong enough to be participating." Naruko looks at the black eyed girl.
"I can kill you here and now if you prefer not to wait. Because you've already insulted my friends and my girlfriend. And attacked a Konoha civilian while on foreign soil. It'd be a shame too because you're pretty cute. Though not as cute as Hina-chan."
"At least you have good taste in women." If she found Kurotsuchi attractive she wasn't as stupid as she looks.
Hinata was less impressed. "Don't compliment women from outside Konoha, they're all skanks."
"Why's that?"
"They'll only ever want you for your body, and I heard most people in Iwa are inbred because they die too much in wars, they're forced to marry their siblings. You don't want to be a part of that." Naruko nods in understanding. Though wasn't that the case with most clans in general? Hikari and Hiashi were both Hyuuga by blood and Sasuke's parents were both Uchiha. And her grandparents on her moms side are probably all Uzumaki. So aren't they all a little inbred? Man now that she thinks about it the whole marrying in the clan business is kind of weird.
The Iwa Kunoichi was red with anger. That was blatantly false! But before she can respond a new voice speaks. "Now there's no need to be rude, just because Iwa inbreeds more than the rest of us doesn't make it nice to mock them. Don't you think it's better for everyone to get along?" The group collectively looks at the new arrival. It was a fairly pretty girl wearing a kimono and a Kiri forehead protector. Though Naruko is having trouble telling if it's a boy or not. The chakra she was sensing felt male, but the person looked so feminine.
She figured she'd just ask. "Are you a boy or a girl?"
"I'm a boy." Gaara pipes up now.
"Damn and I was just thinking about how pretty you are." Oh well, there were other pretty foreigners he could meet. Like the two fine specimens from Konoha standing before him. "What about you two, you seem like you'd be fun to play with."
"Sorry not interested in boys."
"Fair enough, if you ever want to experiment give me a call."
"Aren't you a little young for this?"
"Appreciating the feminine form requires no age limit." The Kiri nin nods his head. "Not to mention in Suna we're encouraged to start dating early, we know we're ninja and our life spans are short." Not to mention the desert was ever unforgiving, and the need for the next generation was always important.
"Man, Hina-chan foreign cultures are weird. So what's different in Kiri?"
"We have legal polygamy, both with taking multiple wives and husbands." It was to help propagate their many bloodlines. Though it was also a taboo to bring up marriage in front of the Mizukage.
"Weird, I could never imagine loving more than one person with all my heart." The Kiri nin shrugs, it's what they grew up with.
"I could say the same about not treating relationships as only involving one person."
"I can certainly second that thought."
"How many new people are going to show up? We're only in an alleyway." Naruko didn't get it, is there something special about this alleyway? This time it was a blond woman with the biggest boobs Naruko had ever seen. She was wearing a Kumo forehead protector. Hinata couldn't help but tense up.
"So how is Kumo different, big tits?" The woman seemed nonplussed by the name. Hinata could feel herself relaxing at the way her girlfriend so casually addressed the woman.
"We have open relationships."
"How's that different from polygamy?"
"We have one significant other, most of the time, but we're allowed to see others freely while we date or are married, essentially there is no concept of cheating. Which by the way, you, the handless Hyuuga and the redheaded girl, are just my types. Going on a date with me would be pretty cool. Or we could do something a little cooler." She refused to call it hot just on principle.
"Sorry but the redhead all my mine, I won't be sharing her with anyone."
"A shame, I'm Samui by the way."
"And I'm Yuki Haku." It was the Kiri nin who spoke now.
"So you're all here for the exams?" The four foreign nin nod. Hinata smiles viciously. "Then I can't wait to show all of you just why Konoha is the strongest village." She had no pride in the village, but she was going to win anyway and teasing them was fun.
Gaara smiles, "I like the way you think, but a fair warning. I'm not good at sparring my enemies lives. So try not to die or get maimed. It'd be a shame to ruin your pretty faces."
"Whatever shorty, Iwa's going to show all of you up."
"Oh I didn't notice you. You're my type too Iwa kunoichi, you should definitely go on a date with me. It'd be cool. Not to mention I can show you how great Kumo is on the battlefield and in the bed." Naruko couldn't help but wonder if all foreign nin are forward about their sexual desires. Fuu was like that too.
"You're forgetting the fact that Kumo has never beaten Kiri in a war before. If you really want to see a good battle then you can watch me in the finals."
Konohamaru was looking at all of the genin weirdly, they had started ignoring him and he wasn't sure what was going on anymore. Though he whispered to Naruko. "What does she mean by in the bed?"
"It's about making babies."
"Isn't she a little young to want kids?" True but Naruko wasn't going to tell him it was actually just mindless sex.
"To each their own I guess. Now I think we should probably get going, you have friends to be playing with and I have a date. See you later foreign nins." Most of them wave goodbye, though Kurotsuchi just grunts.
The redhead and the Hyuuga leave them in the Alleyway and walk off. A few minutes later Naruko calls out. "So what do you think of them, Sasuke?" She had sensed him watching the whole thing.
"I think the world is dead set on making me watch people flirt with you two, including yourselves. But they're all pretty strong as far as I can tell. By the way, Kurenai wanted me to tell you to meet her at the training ground. It's probably for the chunin exams."
"Well let's just go get it out of the way, we can resume our date after Naru-chan." The redhead pouts but nods anyway.