Chapter 51 – Meeting

“Gale Palm” Dropping from a height and landing between Naruto and Hinata, Raito pushed his palm on both their stomach and activated the jutsu.

Everything happened so fast that Naruto and Hinata couldn’t react at all.

Bang!

Before anything could happen, a powerful current of wind hit them and threw them far. Both of them were thrown in the opposite direction. Hinata broke a few branches and landed on tree, banging into it whereas Naruto made a small crack at the trunk of a small tree.

FWEET!

Kakashi blew the whistle and dropped from the tree, signaling the end of the spar. “Hai, Let’s end it, here.”

“Cough, cough.” Hinata coughed as she tried standing up.

Raito hurriedly walked forward and started using ‘Heal’ on her. Looking at the amount of HP lost, Raito smiled a little, “You strengthened your body before I even attacked?”

“Nm.” Hinata nodded. Just before Raito had placed his hand on her abdomen, she had immediately strengthened her front and back. That was specifically taught by Kakashi when boys were doing their own work.

Smiling to the result of her own practice, Hinata forgot about Naruto for a second before remembering. “How’s Naruto-kun?

“He’ll live,” Kakashi answered for Naruto who was hanging on Kakashi’s back.

“Raito, you bastard.” Naruto cursed even while hanging.

“Yeah, yeah.” Raito went towards Naruto and healed him.

After everyone was fed and wet, Kakashi looked at the three in front of him and said, “You three must know about Chūnin exams….So, it will be easier for me.”

“I know, I know.” Naruto’s eye shined as he jumped in joy.

Hinata and Raito nodded.

“So… wanna join?” Kakashi eye-smiled.

“…” Naruto wanted to say yes but he turned to look at Hinata and Raito for confirmation.

Naruto’s gaze met with Raito’s nonchalant gaze, which basically meant ‘whatever’. Turning to look at Hinata, Naruto found that she wasn’t that sure.

Hinata opened her mouth, wanting to say something like, ‘Let’s go’ but she couldn’t.

Hinata had taken a day off from the academy and stayed in the clan with all the members and watched as everything happened in the Chūnin exams. She knew what would happen in the exams, killing, raping, betrayal, torture, etc. From what she knew Chūnin exams were extremely difficult and it didn’t just test fighting powers but also different other fields. On one hand, she could disagree and go for field Chūnin rank or she could enter the Chūnin exams with her group and prove everyone something else, especially her clan and her father.

SMACK!

Kakashi hit Raito at the back of his head and glared at him.

“Sheesh.” Raito scratched his head, looking resentfully at Kakashi.

“Manipulating your teammate is prohibited.” Kakashi’s mosquito voice reached Raito, making him depressed.

“Kakashi-sensei, Raito-kun, Naruto-kun. I…I have decided. I will join the Chūnin exams.” Hinata’s gaze was determined as he grabbed the Chūnin exam forms.

“It’s good that you all want to enter the exams.” Kakashi started as he took out a scroll, which attracted everyone’s attention because whenever Kakashi pulled one out it would be jutsu or mission.

“You may already know but … there are lots of clan heirs this exam.

“Shika, Ino and Chōji have entered too?” Raito raised a question with skepticism.

“Not only them but also Shino, Kiba, and Sasuke,” Kakashi added.

“Kiba and Sasuke are clan heirs?” Ratio revealed a small smile as he asked the question.

Kakashi glared at Raito before saying with a cough, “You know what I mean.”

“We are family,” Naruto shouted.

“Yeah, we are. Not only them but also some other senior teams.” Kakashi went on with Naruto and smiled looking at Raito.

Raito stopped Naruto and looked at Kakashi before asking, “What’s the mission?”

“Protection.” Kakashi waited for Raito to calm down and continued, “This time since every group will be having clan heir, Hokage-sama came to the conclusion that it would be better if you all formed come to an understanding and help each other.”

“…”

“Why not? We get to team up with Shika and others.” Naruto answered.

“Well, it’s your decision if you want to team up or not.” Kakashi looked at Raito and Hinata who may have trouble accepting this. “But remember Konoha never abandon its own.”

Raito took a deep breath as he looked at the team then at Kakashi. With a smile, he replied, “Okay.”

“It may be a bit late but…Chūnin exams start from the day after tomorrow.” Kakashi announced before disappearing.

“…What the heck!?” Naruto jumped after realizing what Kakashi had said.

After eating their full on Ichiraku’s, the gang walked on to the streets of Konoha heading for the Higurashi.

“Oi, Naruto isn’t that your rival?” Raito looked at the sad transformation skills and said loudly.

“My rival?” Naruto looked back and couldn’t help but faint. Konohamaru was hiding in a small box, painted like a rock and two more box-rock were following him.

“Konohamaru!?”

“…”

“Konohamaru, I know it’s you.” Naruto pointed at the box and shouted.

“Udon and Moegi.” Hinata pointed at the two and whispered secretly to Naruto. She knew about them because they were in the same batch as her little sister was.

“You bought your friends too?” Naruto lifted the box but was greeted by the smoke.

“Cough, cough.” Not only Naruto but three were also coughing because of the smoke.

“Baka.” Raito rolled his eyes and looked towards the southern gate. ‘So many people for Chūnin exams.’

While Raito had used ‘Chakra Sense’ to look at the small crowd of people at the gates. He found several ‘???’ that gave him a bad taste because most time it meant that they were several level higher and stronger than himself

“Naruto-niichan, let’s play ninja.” While Konohamaru pulled Naruto, Moegi pulled Hinata.

Raito looked at the snot-nose kid who was pulling at him, “Nii-chan, come play with us.”

Raito nodded. He had played ‘Ninja’ many times in the academy with Shika and others. The game is played with two teams; one team is a runner while the other team is capturers. The job of the capturers is to capture the runners and guard until all the runners are captured. The runners could pat the back of the captured and free them. If both runners are skilled enough, the game can last all day. The game ends when all the runners are captured or if the capturers admit defeat.

“We will be the runners.” Konohamaru laughed and ran followed by Moegi and Udon. “Naruto-niichan if you can’t catch me, I will become Hokage first.”

“Wait! You little.” Naruto ran followed by Hinata.

Raito raised the corner of his lips and retracted his ‘Chakra Sense’ to only a couple of meters around him, hoping the game would be fair enough.

Raito followed at normal speed and soon joined Hinata and Naruto.

“Hey, let go of me, you make up freak.” Sounds of struggling could be heard in front.

“Let go of Konohamaru, you jerk.” This time, it was a girl’s voice

“Hey now, you bumped into me and dirtied my clothes.” A man donned in black clothes with a big item stuffed in white bandages on his back glared at the kids with an evil smile.

The women in the back with yellow hair and teal eyes wearing single light purple-colored clothes. She had a rectangular metallic structure on her back which her left hand was very close to. Although her right hand moved a lot even pointing at the man in front of her, her left hand stayed still.

“Don’t make trouble for us, Kankurō.” She frowned looking at her brother, who was shaking Konohamaru a bit too violently

“Temari…these kids must be taught a lesson,” Kankurō shouted back.

“You…I am not going to care anymore.” Temari pointed in anger at Kankurō and turned her back.

Kankurō smiled then turned his head back to Konohamaru, “Now where were we?”

“You were going to let the kid go.” From behind, Kankurō could feel that someone had grabbed the back of his neck and caught his left hand restricting the chakra pathway. Raito learned this small trick from Kakashi who loved to restrict his chakra. Only defect of this technique was that the user had to make contact with the target.

“What is going on?” Kankurō looked at his shadow overlapping the kids but he couldn’t see his assailant’s shadow meaning that it was a very dangerous situation for him.

Temari who wanted to turn back and help her brother couldn’t feel her left hand but could feel a finger touching the back of her neck. The finger was pointing in between the two spine of her cervical vertebra.

“Please don’t move or I will have to hurt you.” Hinata’s firm voice made Temari hesitate for a while then decided not to move her right hand. Even though she could move the rest of the part of her body, she had not even seen her opponent and making any useless move could harm her life. It wasn’t to the point that one of them had to die. If that situation ever came, she would unleash her full power.

The three kids in front of Kankurō disappeared in could of smoke and appeared from the corner with Naruto.

“What!? When?” Kankurō looked at his own hand then at the kids walking in.

Naruto had already used his clones to swap places with Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi.

Raito let go of Kankurō but had to block the backhand swipe from him. “You, you… who are you?”

Hinata had also let go of Temari’s hand before bowing slightly to her. Temari felt that the man who was dealing with Kankurō was also looking at her. He wouldn’t hesitate to attack with full force if she did anything to the Hyuga girl in front of her. So, she didn’t do anything and let the Hyuga girl in front of her, do whatever she was doing.

Gripping Kankurō’s wrist even tightly, Raito spoke, his voice sounding chilly, “You three are Kazekage’s children right?”

Kankurō and Temari wanted to deny first but seeing that how confident Raito was about them, they nodded slowly in acknowledgment.

“Then, you should also know that you tried to kill the grandson of the third Hokage.” Raito directly accused them a ‘Big crime’.

Hearing that, the faces of two went pale and Kankurō shook his head quickly in denial.

“Are you sure you want to deny that?” Raito asked as a stone bead appeared below Kankurō, which nobody noticed.

“If I had known that this kid was the grandson of third Hokage, I would never…” Kankurō turned to look at the body with long scarf.

“So, if it was any other, you would have killed them?” Raito question made the surrounding eerily silent.

“I don’t mean that.” Kankurō struggled, saying that and moved his hand trying to break free.

“Hey! Don’t put words in our mouth! We never said that!” Temari shouted because if someone heard that and if they didn’t immediately deny that statement then it would turn really bad for them.

“We were here just strolling. We did nothing wrong. It’s that kid that charged into us.” Kankurō tried explaining himself and pointed with his free hand to Konohamaru.

“I already said sorry. What more do you want?” Konohamaru also shouted back.

“Uh.” Kankurō glared at the kid but immediately controlled himself because of the pain from his wrist.

“Hey! Isn’t this enough?” Temari grabbed Kankurō’s shoulder from behind in support then looked at Hinata and Naruto.

“Let’s leave them.” Naruto who was quiet till now spoke up.

“Three cowards bullying kids.” Raito let go of Kankurō and walked back to the group.

“Three?” the kids looked at Raito strangely.

Hearing ‘three’ Kankurō and Temari looked in shock at Raito.

Hinata and Naruto pointed at the tree where a thin boy with red hair and a character for love inscribed on his left forehead, carrying a big sand gourd on his back, stood calmly with closed eyes. Only after being pointed he opened his eyes.

“Hmph!” The boy crumbled into the sand and disappeared, appearing between his siblings.

“You two are disappointment…” Gaara spoke in a low voice, letting only his brother and sister hear him.

Their face immediately turned ugly but Raito who was looking at their description found that ‘Fear’ was ever present. He thought that it was because of his wordplay but now looking at the three he found that they feared the little red haired one even more.

“We didn’t-” Kankurō tried explaining but was stopped by Gaara’s intimidating gaze.

“Shut up. We are going back.” Gaara interrupted Kankurō and looked at the group of six.

‘A Jinchūriki’ Raito’s eye hovered over the bonus section in the status page and looked at Gaara with some hesitation. He had already activated chakra threads that had latched to everyone around him. He was ready to drag everyone into the dungeon if he had to.

Kankurō gulped as he looked away from Gaara and looked at the group. He slightly bowed and said, “I am sorry for overreacting.”

Raito immediately nodded as he slightly pressed Konohamaru’s head.

A voice appeared in Konohamaru’s head as he nodded inwardly.

After raising his head, Konohamaru replied, “I am also sorry for bumping into you.”

“Raito.” Naruto looked a bit sad but was stopped by Raito.

As both parties took a few steps back but Gaara kept staring at Raito. “You…what’s your name?”

“You…want to know?” A smile appeared in Raito’s face as he looked at Gaara. It was probably due to his Gamer’s mind that his fear and hesitation had turned into nothing.

Gaara nodded once in confirmation. Looking at him, Raito’s smiled even more.

“You really…want to know?” Raito asked and the ones looking at him felt the atmosphere strange.

Gaara nodded once again. Raito felt that this Jinchūriki was just like a puppet with wooden expression.

“…Then you can find it on your own.” Raito laughed loudly.

“What’s going on here?” A tall man with two distinctive, red markings on the right side of his face and the rest being covered by his turban-like headgear and by a sheet hanging from it on the left side of his face walked in on the group of two from one side.

From the other side, Kakashi walked in with a smile. “Little kids squabbling.”

Seeing Kakashi, the tall Suna ninja looked at his team of Suna siblings and sighed. No one knew what that sigh meant but he spoke up introducing himself. “My name is Baki and… whatever conflict happened here, I ask for forgiveness.”

After that, they finally left. Gaara gazed looked at Raito even when he was walking back.

Naruto clutched his jacket as he looked at the disappearing back of Gaara. “Raito…I feel like Gaara is the same as me.”

“Same? Yeah… he is.” Raito mumbled which was caught by Kakashi.

“Hinata?” Raito asked Hinata who had her brows furrowed.

“Um…… that red… Gaara has three types of chakra, one of which is similar to Naruto-kun.” Hinata answered even though she felt uncertain about what she saw.

“Then he is also…” Naruto’s voice turned slightly glum.

“Don’t worry, the village already knows about them.” Kakashi consoled the Genins before escorting them home, especially the grandson of the Hokage.

At the Hokage tower, in a small room facing the Hokage monument. The room was eerily empty but had two chairs and a small table. Two people were sitting and looking outside the window. Hiruzen sat in his chair like a civilian as a long, spiky, white-haired man wearing a horned forehead protector with kanji for oil, poured some alcohol in cups. He was Jiraiya, one of the three Sannin and students of the third Hokage.

“Poison Hall sure gave you a…great divination.” Jiraiya downed the alcohol and looked at Hiruzen.

Hiruzen took a few sips and looked at the roof of the room. “It’s a 50-50 situation.”

“Those from poison hall warned us two times and both came true. I wonder will it come true again…” Hiruzen raised his cup and looked at his student.

“I wanted to bring Tsunade but it’s too late.” Jiraiya sighed. “Her slug summons also refuse to disclose her location. What a drag.” To it, he drowned another cup.

“I will miss your books, Jiraiya.” The room was dry and Hiruzen moved his eyes from the cup to the scenery outside. He let out a breath then downed the alcohol. It was sweet and bitter at the same time.