"Don't kill them either!" I call out after him. I feel sorry for those poor Konoha gennin. They pushed Sasuke's most delicate button. They questioned his strength and are about to get a first hand lesson in how strong he really is.
...
By now all of the other gennin have started to move, they've figured out that the proctor isn't going to tell us to start. There are already scuffles playing out around me, yet the Suna shinobi and I are being given a generous birth.
"All alone this time." The idiotic leader says once he's close enough to talk. "Are you ready to pay for the deeds of your village?"
"Are you?" I ask him.
"Suna did nothing wrong. Your Kage took advantage of our generosity and manipulated us! We would have never attacked Konoha if it wasn't for Orochimaru!"
"Are you going to say anything different? All I'm hearing is the same thing over and over." He's starting to really piss me off.
"I'll be taking your badge." He slides smoothly into an offensive stance. His teammates mirror him on his sides. "Unless you want to hand it over."
"You'll have to take it." I casually tap my badge. "I rather like it."
"Attack!" He roars. The Suna team lunges at me at a ridiculously slow speed. The cronies pull out kunai and the leader draws his sword.
~Do not let them take from us again!~
"Enough." I quietly say, yet everyone near me instantly goes still at the softly spoken word.
I casually stroll towards the now shivering Suna team, they're frozen in fear. Their eyes are wide, their skin is pale, their legs are shaking. Fear doesn't do it justice, they're terrified. Absolutely mind boggling horrified.
It isn't just them either, the surrounding gennin are still too. All movement in a ten meter radius from me has ceased.
I stop right before the leader and calmly reach out and delicately unpin his badge. I take his two teammates as well. They don't try to stop me, they don't even breath heavily in my presence.
"Disgraceful." I walk past them to the waiting proctor. "You're not cut out to be chunin. Go home before you get yourselves hurt."
No one tries to stop me, no one gets in my way.
"Well?" The proctor says when I get to his table. "Got the badges or not?"
I calmly reach into my coat's pocket and pull out my three stolen badges. "These three plus mine."
"You pass with an extra badge. Keep yours, hand over the rest." The proctor scribbles down something on a clipboard. Probably the badge numbers.
"Wait behind me, once everyone else is done the second task will be explained." The proctor orders.
I move behind him and join Sasuke. He beat me here, good for him. I'm the fifth person to pass, only Sasuke, Gaara, Neji and a shinobi who I don't know beat me here. Damn, I took too long to get my badges.
"Green, ease up on the bloodlust. You're scaring the others." Sasuke orders. "It's almost as bad as our first C-rank."
Huh, I didn't know I was still radiating killing intent. He's not lying either, everyone around me is wary. They are looking at me as if I am going to lash out and try to kill everyone here. Ah crap, I'm the crazy loose canon in their eyes. That's not good. Even Gaara seems mildly on edge.
"Didn't know I still was. It is a force of habit now, my teacher constantly emits his own so I started to in response. In training my teacher never seems phased by it, I didn't think it was that strong."
"Really? You know who he is, why would he react to something so meager?" Sasuke says.
"Fair point." My killing intent is nothing compared to Orochimaru's.
We fall into a companionable silence now that I've got my bloodlust under control and watch the other contestants. There's a flood of gennin who have managed to obtain badges, basically they're going to be the strong ones, our competition. In their number is all of our friends and the rest of the Sand Siblings.
I was hoping that some of them wouldn't make it past the first task. I guess that was asking for too much. I'll just have to live with the knowledge that the stupid Suna team won't be continuing.
After the flood of the strong, comes the rest. They trickle in slowly, none of them have the overwhelming force that those that have passed have. They need to plan their moves and bank on an unhealthy amount of luck.
Unfortunately for us, the slower gennin took too damn long to get their badges. Our friends are walking towards us, they're using this chance to speak to us while we can't evade them. Dammit Kakashi, weren't you going to explicitly tell them to not do this?
We're confronted by Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Choji, Neji, Tenten and Lee. We can't get out of this, I hope we can get through this without causing a scene.
"You're Oto shinobi?" Kiba barks out the second everyone is before us.
"Actually we're Kiri shinobi in disguise." I scathingly reply. "No shit we're Oto shinobi. Stupid question."
Kiba bristles at my words. Luckily Hinata places a hand on his shoulder and calms him down.
I shouldn't have lashed out at him. The Suna nin must have really gotten to me if I'm acting this rash. Okay, deep breaths and calm down. You can do this. It's easy, if you can worm your way around Orochimaru a bunch of gennin should be no problem.
"No need to be rude, we just want to ask you something." Ino speaks up. She casually flips her hair over to one side and strikes... a scandalous pose? Is she trying to weaken our resolve with her appearance? What is it with females suddenly trying to use their bodies against me? First Tayuya and now Ino? "Actually, it is more about someone than something. Two people really."
Sasuke and I don't visibly react. We've both dreaded this moment. The fact that it is Ino asking us makes it so much worse, Sasuke won't want to lie to her and of all of our friends she'd be the one to recognize us. She's practically Sasuke's secret girlfriend and she's been inside my head.
"We will not talk about Orochimaru-sama." I aggressively tell her before Sasuke has a chance to say anything. "Do not ask us to betray him, you'll fail."
"No!" Ino vehemently assures us. "No, it isn't about him. It's about our friends that went to Sound. We want to know if you've heard about them. Seen them. Maybe even talked with them? Their names are Sasuke Uchiha and Alvarcus Mar." Ino's eyes take on a hint of desperation. She's grasping at straws and she knows it. "Anything at all. We will be happy with rumors."
Sasuke and I share a look. He waves a dismissive hand at me to handle it. Great, now they expect a response. To them it looked like he said go ahead.
"Never heard of them." I briskly reply. "Although, there is a rumor going around."
The Konoha gennin instantly zero in on me. Each and every one of them has a glimmer of hope that they didn't have before. Telling them I know a small little rumor has given them hope. How desperate are they all for news about Sasuke and me?
"Orochimaru-sama is rumored to have taken on two pupils, apprentices. He keeps them close, only those he deems worthy ever get to see them." There, that should give them hope that we're still alive and imply that we're not here at the same time. Two birds, one kunai.
Relief floods through most of the gathered gennin. Ino and Neji both look skeptical. Not good. There isn't a hole in my story, so what could it be?
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Choji presses forward. He wants more information. I can't blame him.
"No. That is all. Now leave us be." Sasuke interjects. Everyone turns to him in mild surprise, these are his first words they've heard. They must have pegged him as the strong silent type.
Sasuke and I both turn to walk away.
"Wait!" Ino urgetly calls after us. "What are your names?"
"We don't have names, we haven't earned them yet." I say over my shoulder. "For the duration of this outing, he's Red and I am Green."
Sasuke and I walk away from our friends to be alone again. It is surprisingly difficult.
"I don't like this. I can't see through their masks." Neji says once he thinks we are out of earshot. Luckily for me the Jiongu enhances all of my senses, hearing included. Eavesdropping is much easier when no one knows just how good your hearing is.
"What can you tell us?" Tenten asks.
"The one called Green doesn't have a chakra network. It's like chakra flows freely throughout his body. I've only seen something like it once before, but it wasn't this extreme." Neji tells everyone.
That's interesting. I didn't know that, I thought the Jiongu replicated it along with everything else.
~There was no need. I can regulate and direct the flow myself. It was inferior.~
...
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