Orochimaru-Sama

Chapter Four

We ended up sleeping in a cheap hotel in two separate rooms, I shared a room with Aina and Yuji-san and Fuuka-sensei shared a room with Tazuna. The beds were significantly more comfortable than the bedrolls we slept on in the tent and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. This time it was Aina who woke me.

“Look Mi-chan!” she whispered, leaning on her elbow to elevate her upper body.

“What is it this time? It’s so early.” I complained moaning and yawning, ready to turn over and fall asleep again.

“Shhh! Don’t wake him up!” She hissed softly, putting a finger to her lips.

“Look, doesn’t he look cute?” I feel her supressing the urge to squeal like some kind of crazed fangirl. Just looking at her face tells me all I need to know. Her jade eyes stare right past me, over to where Yuji-san is sleeping, just a little further to the wall. We’ve slept in the same room more often and every time it’s the same story.

“Adorable.” I reply half yawning and turn around, facing Yuji-san’s bed in the hope I’ll get some more much desired sleep before sensei wakes up and we’ll have to get moving again. Aina just keeps on whispering things to me I don’t even hear anymore. Slowly I drift off again.

When I wake up, Yuji-san’s bed is empty. I turn around to find Aina’s empty too. Where did they run off to? Aina would never leave without waking me up, nor would she go on a date without telling me. Or rather, yelling it at me in excitement. I sit up and look around to find Yuji-san’s bag has gone too. He must already be out in the city. Aina’s bag still sits in the corner, the blue of her forehead protector hangs just over the zipper. I check the room to see if she’s anywhere near, maybe I overslept and sensei and Yuji-san left us both here? Unlikely, Aina would wake me up somehow, even if she had to use force. Then I hear the flushing of a toilet and soon after the doorknob turns.

“Oh you’re up, sensei told me we leave in half an hour. If we hurry we can buy something at the shops!” Aina walked into the room and shut the door, remarkably cheerful. I bet she wants to buy some more food, Aina will never be short on supplies when it comes to that. There is always something to eat and to drink in her backpack, no matter what. I get up and get dressed quickly. We both pack our bags and leave for the shops.

Upon our return, Yuji-san, Tazuna and sensei are waiting for the two of us again. But this time we were on time. We weren’t late, they were just early.

“Ready to go?” sensei asked the three of us, plucking his beard again. We nodded simultaneously and bid Tazuna farewell. We watched him take off in the boat we came in. Maybe someday we’d meet again, who’s to say what happens? I can’t even say what will happen during the exams, or how long they’d take. Sure, we are good ninja, but those ninja are truly exceptional this year. Everyone is talking about it. I even heard the leaders of some villages placed bets. But what I hear most of all is the part of the Uchiha survivor being in the exam. This should draw a lot of spectators, that’s for sure. Deep down I hope I won’t have to face this guy, he appears to be a natural talent, a genius kid. Yuji-san is a genius too, but from the stories I heard he wouldn’t stand a chance against this kid. I would be no match for him either, and as long as Aina can’t sneak up on him by surprise, she won’t last long in a fair fight with him as well.

“Let’s move.” I hear Aina whisper in my ear as she pulled me by the arm.

It took us a couple more days to actually get to Konoha. Three, to be exact. We stayed in hotels overnight and left early in the morning. The days went by surprisingly fast when you’re travelling. But now, we are finally here. Konoha, the Hidden Village of the Leaf, founded by the first Hokage and currently the residence of the third Hokage. To me, everything looked astonishing. Sensei has seen this place so many times. The first thing I noticed was the huge rock wall with the four Hokages on it. Up till now, that was the most amazing thing I have seen. Not even the sunset on the ocean beat this piece of art, it was almost like it had something.. Magical.

“Oh my.. Mi-chan look at that!”

“Looking at it right now, Aina.” I answered her, not taking my gaze off the rocks, studying each face of the Hokage individually. They look so impressive.

“Not that, that! Do you think they’re here for the chuunin exam too?” Aina pointed to three genin heading our way, dangerous looking ones for that matter. One of them, a red haired boy, seems to be younger than the other two, he’s also not wearing a forehead protector. He looks dangerous, it’s the look in his eyes that makes me feel uneasy. He carries a gourd on his back, which looks like it’s pretty heavy. The other two don’t seem like very pleasant types either, a girl with what looks like a huge folded fan, and a guy that carries some bandaged weapon. As they get closer I notice the symbol on the forehead protectors of the other two: The Hidden Village of the Sand. We wait for them to pass, not even glancing in our direction. They walked right past us like we vanished in thin air.

“Some arrogance.” Aina huffed and marched on after Fuuka-sensei.

“Keep calm Aina, they look dangerous..” I carefully glance behind us to determine if they heard her. None of them looks back to us. If they heard her, they don’t care. Catching up with my team, I look forward again and pick up the pace. I don’t really trust that team, they don’t look like ordinary genin. The Hidden Village of the Sand must be very dangerous. That or they must be top notch ninja that only came to spectate. Somehow I doubt the latter.

“Here it is, this is where we’ll be staying.” Sensei suddenly stops and I almost bump into him. His one hand in his beard, the other gesturing towards the large building before him. It doesn’t look anything like the cheap hotels we stayed in during our travel to this place. We check in in the afternoon, putting our bags in our room. Aina and I shared one and Yuji-san shared one with sensei.

“Mi-chan, do you think we’ll make it? I heard there’s three rounds. Are we even going to survive the first round? We don’t even know what the first round is.”

“Don’t think about it too much Aina, we’ll survive for sure!” I’m just not so sure if we’re even going to make it to round two, we might drop out. I wonder what the first exam would be. If it’s about aim, I’m sure to make it. I never miss. Yuji’s aim is spot on too, Aina’s I’m worried about. She almost never misses, even moving targets. But it does happen.

“What if we are put against each other in one of the exams? What if we have to fight each other?” Aina looks at me worriedly.

“I don’t want that to happen Mi-chan, I can’t fight you.”

“Calm down Aina, we won’t have to, I’m sure.” Truth is, you can never be sure. We might, eventually. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come down to it. If the exam is about executing a certain technique, all three of us will pass that round. Yuji-san is a genius and Aina gets the hang of those things pretty quickly too. As for me, I practice till they’re perfect. Granted, it takes a little longer for me to master a technique but in the end I truly do master it.

If it’s speed, Yuji-san and Aina are definitely passing that round. My own speed is far behind theirs, but for a genin I am still quite fast. Aina is the fastest out of us three, she’s also the lightest but I doubt it’s related. We probably won’t get through all the exams, but to just make it to the second exam would be good enough for me. I’d have made it halfway at least.

The following two days, Aina, Yuji-san and I prepare for anything that could come up in the exam. We train everything we can think of, all things that need training and the things that don’t. We can’t afford to neglect any part of our training. We train the entire day, and in two days you can’t do much but I did feel myself getting a bit better, my speed increased just a little bit, but increased nonetheless. And my chakra moulding improved, the first day of training I concentrated on the flow of my chakra and tried to find a way to optimise my chakra reserves, finding ways to use just the chakra needed for a technique instead of wasting some excess chakra. It’s not perfect yet, but I’m working on it.

However, today, there is no time to be working on it. Today the first exam starts. Let’s hope for the best.