Ain't That a Kick in The Head?

19 - Kurama

After one extremely awkward week of travel, one terrible night of sleep and half an hour wasted attempting to find the testing building, Team Seven plus Maruboshi Kousuke were ready to take on Kumo's chuunin exams.

One thing Sasuke notices, after they've entered the waiting room for the exam, is that they're among the oldest people there. There are shinobi from many different villages; Iwa and Kiri and Suna and some of the smaller villages too. He supposes that since the Akatsuki have taken most of the jinchuuriki, the other villages are more willing to engage with each other in a public dick measuring contest. Or something. Sasuke isn't a politician.

It looks like they're taking teams out to test one by one.

The room is blank and white. White tile floors, white ceiling tiles, white walls. There's a two way mirror that a proctor watches from. Another stands guard inside beside it. Teams from all over the Elemental Nations huddle together and whisper, surreptitiously surveilling their competition.

The old man, Kousuke, and Sasuke stand next to each other. They lean against a wall. Currently, Sasuke entertains himself by staring down one of the other teenagers in the room, a blue-haired, light-skinned Kumo kunoichi.

Naruto's deserted them for his gaggle of minions. Across the room, he, the scarf twerp, and the other two chatter excitedly.

Traveling here had been weird.

It turned out that all along, the thing he had to do to get Naruto to fuck off was to openly talk about–what he thought were mutual– gag, feelings.

All this fucking time. They'd silently shared this bond. Of pain and loneliness. Of wanting to be stronger. Of mutual respect and drive to be better.

The fact that he had cared so deeply about another person after the massacre had terrified him, so Sasuke always kept him at an arm's length.

It never even occurred to him that Naruto, with all of his determination and his big, open heart and his utter relentlessness, would react like that.

Why else would he spend years chasing after someone who didn't want to be found? Why else would he try to pull him away from his revenge? Everyone else didn't care. They all understood it needed to be done. But everywhere he went, Naruto followed, like a loyal, anxiety-ridden dog nipping at its owner's heels.

It was like people only saw him for his eyes or what he could do for them. And it pissed Naruto off. He saw Sasuke for who he was himself, and was pissed that others just believed Sasuke was a tool. It was as if they were mirrors of each other. He just wanted Sasuke the person back.

Sasuke couldn't let himself be a person.

After all, a shinobi is a tool. A jinchuuriki is a weapon of mass destruction. And he was the knife that was going to cut the throat of the village.

It was there. They both felt it, he knew. It had been an unspoken agreement.

Then he dragged it into the open.

The scarf brat's team is called in for testing. Naruto makes his way back over to their team. He catches Sasuke's eyes and they stare at each other for a bit too long before Kousuke says, "What do you boys think the first test is?"

So far every team that's been called out hasn't come back.

Sasuke shrugs.

"Some sort of written test? That's what Sakura mentioned earlier. Plus, in our first time taking the exam, there was a written portion, you know? Right, Sasuke?" Naruto says, looking to him to back him up.

Sasuke nods.

Then Naruto remembers he's like, hideously embarrassed by his presence, flushes and averts his gaze.