Notes: I'll only focus on what happens to Sayuri during the chuunin exams here. Everyone else will be covered in The Iron Hyuuga.

Summary: Sayuri find herself getting uncomfortably close with certain people as the chuunin exams begin.

A Uchiha Among Uzumaki

Part 4: Closer Than Most

A Naruto Fanfic by

Nate Grey (XMAN0123-at-aol-dot-com)

"Ow."

Sayuri blinked in disbelief and slowly turned her head as best she could, given her current state of exhaustion.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Irihi was lying flat on her back a few feet away, actually looking tired for the first time that Sayuri could ever recall. Any other time, that discovery would've made the Uchiha girl proud, but she was all too aware that if Irihi decided they should train a little more, Sayuri would seriously consider pinning the spunky Hyuuga to the floor with kunai and using the rest of her strength to crawl away as fast as she could. With any luck, Irihi would stay stuck to the floor of Sayuri's house for a few hours before anyone found her.

"OW!"

That last one had sounded particularly fake, and Sayuri looked over to find Irihi staring at her expectantly. "What now?"

"I'm in pain," Irihi informed her, frowning a little.

"And?"

"You're supposed to make me feel better."

Sayuri considered that for all of three seconds. "We have spent the better part of the last five hours training. At this point, I couldn't care less how you're feeling. This was all your idea, as usual."

"But you're my best friend!" Irihi protested, sounding scandalized. "It's your JOB!"

There were so many things wrong with the statement that Sayuri didn't have the time or inclination to go into them all. So she just settled for the main two. "I never agreed to that, and I certainly don't remember getting paid."

For a long moment, there was no response.

Then the air was driven out of Sayuri's chest as a surprisingly heavy arm was thrown roughly over her body. She winced and glared as Irihi dragged herself close enough to prop her chin up on Sayuri's shoulder.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Irihi replied with a deep frown. "Now, what are you going to do to make me feel better?"

It was very tempting to try and sell Irihi on the pros of being knocked unconscious, especially as it would have been easy to suddenly grab her head and slam it into the floor repeatedly. But there was always a chance that Irihi was expecting that sort of thing, which of course doomed it to failure.

"I'm going to suggest that you get off of me so I won't be tempted to stab you. Then we'll both feel better." She managed a poor parody of a smile to go along with it.

"You're crankier when you've had your butt kicked a few times, did you know?" Irihi asked after a few seconds. She tilted her head to avoid a hastily tossed shuriken. "Guess so."

Sayuri made a half-hearted attempt to push Irihi away, but only got her hand squeezed firmly, but not uncomfortably so, as a result. She sighed and closed her eyes, wondering why she always agreed to train with Irihi, since annoyances like this were not exactly uncommon.

"Have you ever kissed anyone, Sayuri-chan?"

The question was so unexpected that Sayuri couldn't answer immediately, because it was the last thing she'd ever expected Irihi to ask her. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at the Hyuuga girl, strangely unnerved to find her staring blankly at the wall. Irihi looked a great deal like her father in that moment, and though the comparison was pretty much inevitable, it was an image that Sayuri never welcomed. Irihi always looked like her father, but on the rare occasions that she acted like him, too, it was extremely difficult to deal with her.

"I mean, if you don't want to tell me, then-"

"Why would you ask me that, Irihi?" Sayuri demanded quietly.

"I've never done it," Irihi replied at once. "Well, not really. I wondered if you had."

"No."

"Oh."

There was complete silence for a second.

"Have you ever been kissed, then?"

Sayuri shot her an incredulous stare. "Only every time Hina-mama sees me."

"Not THAT kind of kissing," Irihi sighed, shaking her head. "The kind where someone likes you enough to want the first one to be perfect."

Even though she had no idea what Irihi was talking about, Sayuri correctly assumed that saying so would only drag this conversation out, and that was the last thing she wanted. "No."

"Oh."

Pause.

"Have-"

"Irihi."

"Hmm?"

Sayuri reached up, firmly seized Irihi's chin, and forced the girl to look at her. "If you want to kiss me, say so. I would hate to think that you were doing this simply to get on my nerves."

Irihi stared at her with wide eyes for a very long moment, apparently surprised. "Why-" She stopped, blinked, and then said, "Okay. But no acting like it didn't happen later on."

"Why not?"

"It's one thing if we never talk about it. It's another if you try to pretend that we didn't have a little moment."

Again, Sayuri had no idea why any of that should matter, but on the off chance it would get Irihi to stop talking, she was willing to do just about anything. "Just hurry up before I change my mind."

"Aren't you even going to sit up?"

Sayuri glared at her. "I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"Well, I'm not going to do it if you're looking at me like that!"

Naturally, by then Sayuri was far too annoyed with her rival to look at her any other way, so she merely closed her eyes and waited.

After what seemed like several minutes, Irihi came closer. Sayuri found herself surrounded by familiar sensations, all of which suddenly took on new meaning: the rough then smooth texture of Irihi's bandaged fingers as they lightly slid over her cheek. The cool, damp tickle of Irihi's dark brown hair on her arm, still wet from the numerous Suiton jutsu she'd charged straight into. Finally, the startling warmth of Irihi's cheek rubbing against her own.

Then Irihi turned her head slightly, and their lips met.

Although she'd had no expectations of this moment, Sayuri thought she should be disappointed. There was none of Irihi's usual force and determination, only the soft, tender pressure of her lips. It made Sayuri glad that she'd closed her eyes, because if she'd been able to see the heartfelt expression on Irihi's face, it would've made her even more uncomfortable.

Without warning, the kiss was over, but Sayuri did not dare to open her eyes until she felt Irihi gently stroke her hair.

"So now we can say we've done it," Irihi whispered, the tremble in her voice betraying her. "We never have to worry about it again."

"Then why are you sad?" Sayuri asked, genuinely curious.

Irihi buried her face in Sayuri's shoulder. "You're going to make me kill you, aren't you?"

Sayuri blinked slowly. "What?"

"You're going to get really strong one day, Sayuri-chan. Then you'll turn evil for some reason, and they'll expect me to stop you, because no one knows you better than I do. So we'll fight, and you'll refuse to stop, and then... I'll kiss you for the second and last time."

Of all the ways Sayuri had imagined she might die, that wasn't one of them. It wasn't even close, really.

"Do you know why I decided to listen to you in the first place, the day we met?" Sayuri murmured.

"Because I got you out of that Doton jutsu?"

Sayuri shook her head. "Everyone else wanted things from me: answers, power, blood. You and Jiraiya-sensei were the first ones to help me without wanting something in return."

"That's not true," Irihi sighed, raising her head. "I wanted you to be my friend. I even hit you when you wanted to be rivals instead..."

"That is what rivals do, Irihi. Besides, I would never have allowed a rival to kiss me," Sayuri pointed out before she could stop herself.

"So... I really am your friend, Sayuri-chan?"

If Sayuri had had the strength to kick herself, she would have gladly done it. Instead, she was forced to scowl and turn her head away from Irihi's beaming face. As it was, she still got a crushing hug and a noisy kiss on the cheek, and very nearly gave Irihi a black eye for making her blush.

After the squabble died down, Irihi slowly got up and announced that she had to go, since Kaneda wanted to squeeze in a few more missions before the chuunin exams. Sayuri didn't dare question the wisdom of Irihi wearing herself out before a mission; she was constantly worried that Irihi would reveal that she wasn't tired at all, which would mean that Sayuri was the only one that had gone all out. But either Irihi truly was tired, or she was a very good actress.

"Sayuri-chan," Irihi said quietly as she reached the door. "You'll always be my best friend. No matter what. You know that, right?"

Sayuri closed her eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Irihi."

"I never have. That's how I know," Irihi replied, waving as she shuffled out of the house.

She was probably wrong. At least, Sayuri thought she was. But then, Irihi had also figured out that the kissing wouldn't become a regular thing. Maybe she wasn't wrong... all of the time.

---

Uzumaki Hinata had just finished cleaning her kitchen floor when she spotted a very muddy foot. Said foot was connected to a muddy leg, which was in turn no doubt connected to a muddy everything else. Hinata closed her eyes, counted to three, and slowly opened her eyes again.

"If you are going to insist on practicing Suiton jutsu," she said calmly, "the least you could do is find a CLEAN water source, and use it to clean up after yourselves."

The three Uchiha children exchanged glances, before the two boys simultaneously vanished in puffs of smoke, leaving the girl alone to face Hinata's displeasure.

"I know very little about the ways of the Uchiha," Hinata remarked, "but I think you need better friends, Sayuri."

"They are teachers, not friends," Sayuri replied. "Ni and San have been teaching me how toads fight. They are unusual, but resourceful creatures. Or so San keeps telling me."

"Then why do they keep transforming themselves into humans?" Hinata asked.

"It is apparently their specialty, and I must admit that they are formidable fighters in human form. I do wish they had patterned their appearances after someone else, though. It's a little unnerving to suddenly have blood brothers."

Hinata smiled at her. "Don't say that. They only want to be close to you."

Sayuri rolled her eyes. "I give up my blood to summon them. That's close enough. They don't have to be so... touchy."

She would never say so, but Hinata was inclined to agree. San was particularly fond of dragging Sayuri onto his back and leaping over the nearest building, no matter how tall. He had never dropped her, but that was probably only because Sayuri had been too busy trying to claw him out of existence. Ni was often no better; when he wasn't drowning Sayuri in Suiton jutsu, he was tossing her bodily into rivers to "make her more amphibian-like." Despite the rough treatment, Sayuri was learning a great deal, as she wouldn't have put up with them otherwise.

"So do you need any help with your training?" Hinata asked, trying her best to sound casual.

Sayuri simply stared at her, as if perhaps she'd forgotten that Hinata was both a mother and a ninja. "Are you offering?" she said at last.

Hinata nodded. "Well, it's only fair..."

"You helped someone else prepare for the chuunin exams?"

"They did ask, and I saw no reason not to."

Sayuri frowned. "Was it Irihi?"

"Yes. Are you surprised?"

"No. I'm more surprised that you're offering to help anyone else."

"Not anyone else," Hinata replied, sounding slightly offended. "Just you. But I'm guessing you're going to decline either way, right?"

"I already know what areas I need to work on," Sayuri said. "I don't want to try learning anything new right now."

"That sounds like a good, solid strategy. Most people will be in a hurry to learn new things, but it's often better to improve on what you already know."

"You taught Irihi something new, didn't you?"

Hinata blushed slightly. "I didn't teach her, really. I only showed it to her, and made her figure out the rest. She still hasn't gotten it exactly right, but she's satisfied with what she can do."

Sayuri stared at her for several seconds. "Is it something she would use against me?"

"I doubt it. Irihi wouldn't use that unless she wanted to end a match quickly. She'd never do that with you. She likes fighting you too much."

---

Sayuri had been aware that as Jiraiya's only student, there would be certain conditions concerning her participation in the chuunin exams. She was finding out, however, that all this really meant was that she had her own set of rules that applied to her alone, but made the test itself no less difficult. Most importantly, she was allowed to enter without a team… for the first stage, anyway. Jiraiya assured her that he had a special surprise in store if she made it that far, and while she intended to do just that, Sayuri was wisely wary of the surprise.

From all appearances, though, her first stage test was no different from anyone else's, at first. She was led to an empty classroom, and told to wait for her examiner.

Two hours later, Sayuri was starting to think that maybe her examiner was either sick or dead, since they had not yet appeared. She didn't dare leave to check, for fear of her examiner showing up while she was gone and mistakenly assuming she had decided to stay home.

Finally, though, the door slid open, and a person who could only be her examiner walked in. Sayuri knew this because the man, and his lateness, were obviously a way of testing her patience. Why else would she have been assigned to Hatake Kakashi?

Kakashi was about to offer one of his traditional lame excuses, but took one look at Sayuri, who was releasing enough killing intent to paralyze a whole team of genin, and decided against it. "Well, let's get started. As a Sharingan user, you won't have to worry too much about genjutsu… unless, of course, you're facing a more seasoned Sharingan user, in which case you could be in a lot of trouble. An even more dangerous case is if you came up against the Mangekyou Sharingan, which-"

"Are you going to use it on me or not?" Sayuri interrupted.

"Of course not. I don't want to kill you, or at least I don't want to waste most of my chakra doing it when there are far simpler ways. I am, however, going to show you my Sharingan, just to prove a point."

"And that is?"

"That you don't stand a chance against Sasuke or Itachi at your current level," Kakashi answered, pushing up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan. "You only have two tomoe in each eye, which means you haven't mastered your normal Sharingan yet. Meanwhile, Sasuke is probably very close to obtaining the Mangekyou, if he hasn't already. If you ever meet either of them, your best weapon is probably your words. You need to say something to convince them not to kill you on sight. I can't help you there, since I've been forced to fight nearly every time I saw them. Your situation is even worse, as they could definitely catch you before you ran away."

Despite the fact that Sayuri was listening attentively, suddenly Kakashi's voice faded slightly, as if it were background noise, even though he was still right in front of her. She was still trying to figure out what was happening when the door slid open again.

A man Sayuri had never seen before stepped into the room. This was not entirely surprising, since she often overlooked people that held no importance to her. That was not the case with this man, however, because the first thing Sayuri noticed was his red and black eyes: the Sharingan. His black hair and pale skin seemed as if they didn't fit him, as if he'd just stepped into that body mere moments ago. It made no sense to Sayuri, but it didn't have to, because in the next moment, the man was moving towards Kakashi with a sword in hand.

Impossibly, Kakashi gave no sign that he knew anything in the room had changed, and continued to stand there talking as his death approached.

There were only seconds to act, but Sayuri didn't know a single jutsu that could possibly stand up to a more experienced Sharingan. And if this attacker could overcome Kakashi, what chance did she really have against him? Kakashi was going to die, and she shortly after, no doubt.

She knew this, with as much certainty as she knew her own name, and that Irihi would do anything to protect her. She was important to Irihi, and that was what one did in such cases.

Kakashi was not important to Sayuri; he was rather annoying, in fact. Yet she distinctly remembered all Naruto's stories that began with, "Kakashi-sensei was late AGAIN, and when he FINALLY showed up…" And then there was Hinata's story about how Kakashi had helped her train Akamaru, and how he'd welcomed her back into the village (and straight into Naruto's arm, but no one had minded the rush much). He was important to them… to her parents… to her clan. And so he was important to Sayuri, as well.

Still, she felt a little silly, replacing Kakashi with herself just as the sword would have pierced his heart. Which meant that it pierced her heart instead. There was blinding pain, darkness, and then a rather shocked Kakashi looking down at her, his Sharingan covered up again, as she opened her eyes.

"You know, you could have just shouted, 'Look out!' and passed just as easily," he commented after a long moment. "So why didn't you?"

Sayuri thought that over, and only one answer occurred to her. "I did what Naru-papa would have done."

She got the distinct impression that Kakashi frowned slightly, just before his eye crinkled happily. "Well, as I said, you did pass. You're to report to the Forest of Death after this. Good luck!"

"Who was the attacker?"

Kakashi paused and tilted his head slightly. "Would it have mattered?"

"No," Sayuri realized with a start.

"Then there's no point in telling you, is there?"

Sayuri was still too startled by that revelation to notice when Kakashi slipped out of the room.

End of Part 4.

---

Endnotes:

I know this chapter was very, very short. I didn't realize Sayuri's first exam would be so short until I wrote it out. But I only wanted to cover one stage per chapter for simplicity's sake,

You'll get to see what Irihi learned from Hinata eventually… but only over in The Iron Hyuuga, obviously.

Please don't waste time or review space telling me that Sasuke can't get the Mangekyou Sharingan without killing either Sakura or Naruto. I'm starting suspect that it only has to be someone close to you emotionally, and that you only have to have killed them in the sense that you believe you're directly responsible for their death (and of course if you DID kill them, then you are). That at least might explain why Kakashi got the Mangekyou so much later (maybe he had to believe he was responsible for Obito's death for a certain number of years before it finally kicked in for his wonky, transplanted eye?)

Even if the Sharingan can see through every genjutsu, that doesn't mean they're not effective. Kakashi realized that Tsukiyomi was a genjutsu just after the attack began, but it was still all too effective on him, as Itachi made a big deal of pointing out. So seeing through a genjutsu isn't the same as being able to break or counter it, you just know that you're caught in one, but it can still hurt like hell.

Don't bother asking me who the mysterious Uchiha was if you didn't figure it out. Like Kakashi said, in the long run, it really doesn't matter. Although I think it's pretty obvious, anyway.

Next chapter is the Forest of Death, and Sayuri actually will have a team, though perhaps not one she's going to be excited about working with… There's a big hint in this chapter. Kind of hard to miss, actually.