better left unsaid

Chapter 17: Light the Powder Keg

"It's so cold…" Naruto groaned as he rubbed his hands together to make heat for himself in the frigid temperament of the Tetsu no Kuni climate. To adjust to the climate, most of the shinobi were wearing tan cloaks over their regular clothing. Naruto on the other hand had opted to merely switch his short-sleeved blue shirt under his windbreaker to a long-sleeved one with some extra padding in it. Was it warm and comfy? Yes it was, but then again this was a harsh winter climate, "This wind is disrespecting the hell out of my jacket."

Team 10 was in the midst of a convoy of Konoha ninja heading towards the exams in the foreign country. There were 21 Konoha teams that were travelling to take part, all in all making it 63 genin from the village heading out to try and get themselves promoted. If that was what Konoha was sending then who knew how many others the rest of the villages would be sending?

Ino rolled her eyes as she watched Naruto pop a cigarette in his mouth and light it up, "What?" He said in response to her reaction, "It's freezing out here, let me get a little bit of heat. We all can't afford those nice little ponchos you know... I've got bills to pay."

From over elsewhere, Kiba took a whiff of the air and smirked, "Kurenai-sensei, Naruto's smoking again."

Kurenai turned her gaze over towards Naruto who wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was smoking. As he looked over at her red-eyed glance he gave her a deadpan look, "What are you going to do in the middle of nowhere Kurenai-sensei? Are you going to make me smoke a ton of them again?" He let out a chuckle, "I might like that actually."

Asuma smacked Naruto on the back of his head and tried to alleviate the situation, in vain, but trying should count for something, "Kurenai he doesn't smoke that much. Seeing him have more than one every few days is rare. It's more of a comfort thing than anything else." He didn't add that Naruto was merely subsisting off of the cigarettes that Kurenai had bought to 'teach him a lesson', as he hadn't bought a single pack himself. As funny as that would be to see the expression on her face it wouldn't make anything any better, "Besides, it is colder than hell out here."

Naruto shoved Kurenai's disapproval of his smoking to the back of her mind. It was kind of her fault anyway, not that he was complaining, he didn't hate it. The genin traveling that he knew of, not counting his team were Sasuke, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Lee, Neji, and Tenten. That would be a stiff enough challenge, but then there was the fact that there were 51 others from his village alone. His heart was starting to beat a little faster just thinking about it.

Kiba grabbed Naruto in a pseudo-headlock as Akamaru yapped on top of his head, "So you ready to get dusted off in the exams?"

"Whatever…" Naruto muttered as he freed himself and kept walking along, blowing smoke into the air, "You're going to be going home a little earlier than me if you're unlucky enough to go up against me. I'm at the top of my game for this one."

"You think you can beat me?" Kiba growled at him while Akamaru yapped at Naruto from the top of Kiba's head, "Me and Akamaru would tear you apart. You're still the dead-last of our year for a reason you know."

Naruto normally would have been all up in arms about the whole dead-last thing, but why would he be? From the looks of the other genin that weren't his team or Team 7 who knew better than to assume Naruto was weak due to his graduation placement, hearing Kiba call him out for being the dead-last of their year made them feel safe with him in the running, that he was easy pickings. If any of these people here were as good as Haku then why were they still genin, and if they weren't then he could beat them.