Third chapter; hope you like

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“This. Sucks.” Kotetsu pointed out from where he was leaning against one of the gate uprights. Iruka lay sprawled across the guard desk on this stomach, idly chasing balls of water across the worn surface. “Why’d we show up early?”

“’Cause Ibiki-sensei’ll work us three times as hard if we showed up after him. And anyway…” Iruka was cut off by a muted snore emitting from Izumo’s mostly blocked mouth. The genin was slumped on Kotetsu’s shoulder, his face buried in the crook of his friend’s neck. “…We can take a short nap before he gets here.”

Kotetsu groaned loudly, “It’s not even light yet!”

“Ne, Ko…” Izumo half-heartedly poked his friend in the side. “You’re noisy.”

“Yeah, well, none of you should be sleeping on the day of a mission.” Ibiki landed on the ground between them and glared around at his three genin.

“Mission?” Izumo’s head jerked up. “Really? What mission?”

Ibiki handed the assignment scroll over to them, “It’s a B-rank; the details are included here. You have an hour to get your stuff together and we meet back here.”

OOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka groaned and dug his shoulder deeper into Kotetsu’s armpit. “You…weigh… a…ton.”

“Well, it’s not my fault…” Kotetsu rolled his eyes over at the other person supporting his weight as they limped back through the village gates. Ibiki’d deserted them the minute they arrived in the clearing, heading to turn in his report, or so he told them. Iruka was fairly certain that he just didn’t want to be seen returning with his ‘interesting’ group of genin, and he’d been snickering when he left.

“I’m sorry that my jutsu didn’t reach as far as you thought it would.” Izumo poked the side of his face. “But if you could react as fast as you should, you wouldn’t of fallen over, ne?”

Kotetsu glared at him. Iruka started laughing, and Kotetsu whipped around to face him. “What?!”

“The look on your face was amazing.” Iruka gasped out over Izumo’s snorts of laughter, and Kotetsu joined in after a moment.

“I-Iruka?” The curious voice queried from behind him, and Iruka swiveled around under Kotetsu’s armpit to look towards it.

“Mizuki?” Iruka paused, waiting for Kotetsu to balance himself on Izumo’s shoulder before extricating himself. “Hey.”

“Why,” Mizuki cocked his head to one side, “Are you blue?”

OOOOOOOOOOO

Ibiki knocked once before entering the mission office to turn in his report. The Sandaime looked up from behind his hat, “Ibiki-san. The mission was successful?’

“Yes.” Ibiki handed over the paperwork.

“Team giving you any problems?” The Sandaime smiled knowingly around his pipe.

“Not anymore.”

OOOOOOOO

“You have to make a choice.” Ibiki stood in the front of the room, his arms folded across his chest. “I have recommended that you be entered into the chuunin exam this year.” He didn’t quite miss the hi-five that passed between Kotetsu and Izumo. “This is not the time to be celebrating, Kotetsu-kun, Izumo-kun. I said that I have recommended you for the exam; that does not mean that you have been entered. The three of you need to make a decision. For this exam, you have to enter as a team; if one of you does not feel ready to enter, none of you will.”

“Well, duh, Ibiki-sensei, of course we’re going to…”

“This is NOT a joke.” Ibiki leaned forward into Kotetsu’s personal space. “People die in this exam, and even though you’ve completed numerous missions now, you still have less than a year of experience. You need to decide if you’re ready or not.”

The three genin all found something very interesting to stare at on the floor, silence falling over the entire room. Izumo opened his mouth a couple of times, as if he was going to say something, but always closed it without speaking.

Finally, Iruka broke the oppressive silence, “You think we’re ready.” Both Kotetsu and Izumo looked at him. “You must think we’re ready or you never would’ve put our names in. You wouldn’t have given us the chance to make the wrong decision. So it’s just down to whether we believe in ourselves.”

“I’ll need your decision by this afternoon.” Ibiki told them, ignoring what Iruka had just said. He stepped out of the somber classroom, and then let out an irritated snort. “That boy is just too smart for his own good.”

OOOOOOOOO

“What do we want to do?” Izumo had hopped up onto the desk between Iruka and Kotetsu and looked back and forth between his two teammates, searching for an answer.

“Do you guys know anything about the test?” Iruka wondered.

“Nah, it’s all really hush, hush.” Kotetsu shrugged, “Guess they don’t want us to be able to prepare for it.”

“Well, Ibiki-sensei seems to think that we’re ready. And he at least has some experience with it.” Iruka scratched thoughtfully at the bridge of his nose. “I think we should do it. But…” He continued before Izumo could completely open his mouth, “I think we should all decide and if any of us aren’t ready for it, we shouldn’t do it.” He looked up at his older teammates, wondering when and why exactly he had become the one in charge. “What do you think?”

Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other for a long moment, and surprisingly it was Izumo who answered first. “I’m ready.” He grinned down at Iruka.

Kotetsu grinned broadly, “I think we should go kick some ass.” His best friend returned the wide smile, and then turned to Iruka.

“What about you, Ru-kun.”

Iruka rolled his eyes, also wondering when that had become his name, though he figured he shouldn’t be too surprised – he couldn’t think of any time when he’d heard Izumo call anyone by their full name. The other two leaned in towards him with expectant looks, so he pretended to think about it, lacing his fingers together, before finally looking up at them and pulling a face. “Well, duh.”

OOOOOOOOOO

The first test for the chuunin exam went relatively easy for them. Their group was let into one of the larger training areas that surrounded the Mist Village, a dense, dark jungle of plants, trees and who-knew-what-else. They were given a sealed scroll and informed that they needed to retrieve the secondary scroll from one of the other teams – only luck would tell if they managed to retrieve the other scroll, as opposed to the match to theirs.

They’d been lucky. Iruka’d led them high into the trees to get a better surveillance on the location of the other teams, and they’d selected a team of Sand shinobi who looked to be a year or two older than them, but also looked decidedly like they didn’t want to be there. The enemy team spent a good ten minutes arguing with each other on what they should do, which allowed their team to get into position.

Iruka’d stumbled forward through the leaves, looking for all the world like a bumbling idiot and clutching their scroll tightly against his chest. “Ah..ano..I…” He stammered, frozen to the spot, as the three sand shinobi turned towards him, eyes glinting wickedly. Iruka took a hesitant step back and fled blindly into the underbrush.

True to form, the enemy team wasted no time in racing after him. Iruka kept his eyes down, not worrying about the people chasing him; he had a good enough of a head start that they wouldn’t catch without an act of god.

The dirt in front of him changed texture and he immediately focused his chakra downward to keep from being caught in Izumo’s technique.

The sand shinobi were not so lucky, and Iruka choked back laughter as the leading one’s feet stopped, his upper body did not, and he fell face-first into the sticky goop. The girl behind him must have noticed the change in the ground and jumped, hoping to avoid it, but her foot tangled in her teammate’s twisted legs, and she collapsed on top of him. Their third member slid into them, without any attempt to avoid them, and while they were all struggling to extricate themselves, Iruka bound them together with several water ropes before skating his way back to stop in front of them. “Hello!” Iruka said brightly.

They glared at him with only slightly masked killing intent.

Iruka tilted his head to one side, “Where’s your scroll?”

“Screw you.” Their leader, or whatever passed for that on their team, snapped at him and then gagged in surprise as an enormously over-sized kunai was shoved up under his throat.

Kotetsu grinned evilly at him from the other side of the blade, “Let’s try this again, where’s the scroll?”

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Only three teams made it through the first test – one sand, one mist, and one leaf – and Iruka, Kotetsu and Izumo’s team was by far the youngest there. The next closest team looked to be about four years older; they towered over the three Konoha genin, and Izumo edged his way to stand between his two friends. “What now?” He whispered.

“Follow me.” A mountain of a scarred shinobi appeared in front of them before turning towards the open archway at the end of the hall. He turned back. “Move!” The assorted genin scrambled after him.

OOOOOOOOOO

Kotetsu punched his hand into the air, ignoring the mumbling and scattered clapping coming from the surrounding stands. The sand shinobi he’d just defeated was being carried off on a stretcher, and the observers looked rather miffed about a Konoha victory.

“Up next,” The chuunin who was running the matches flipped through some sheets on his clipboard, “Umino Iruka vs Hisori Ryu.”

Iruka dropped lightly to the ground and walked to the center of the stadium to meet his opponent. Hisori Ryu was barely taller than him, but he certainly looked a fair bit older. Dark hair hung down into his eyes, and he glared out from underneath at Iruka, who stopped, surprised by the sheer malice in the other’s eyes.

The referee dropped his hand, signaling the start of the match. Iruka and his opponent just stared at each other. The mist shinobi shoved his hands deep into his pockets and remained rooted to the spot, even when Iruka shifted his weight in preparation for an attack. Iruka never liked initiating attacks – he always wanted to have some idea of his opponent’s skills before revealing any of his own – but this one wasn’t moving; he wasn’t even building chakra for an attack. It was…disturbing.

The ground in front of him exploded without warning; gold light splitting and arcing through the air, striking the ground in several places before it reached him. Iruka gasped, formed two quick seals, and vanished a split second before the attack hit the spot where he’d been standing.

Iruka reappeared on the wall of the stadium, above and behind Ryu, who twisted around once the smoke had cleared and it became evident that Iruka’s smoldering body was not among the rubble. A strange look briefly crossed Ryu’s face when he spotted the other genin, a mix of surprise and irritation. He’d clearly expected the first attack to kill him.

Still panting from the effort needed to activate his bloodline limit without any chance to prepare, Iruka dropped into a crouch, one knee on the wall, and rested his arms on his thighs, studying his opponent. There had been no sign that Ryu was preparing for an attack, and one of that magnitude must have required some preparation unless the other genin had a superhuman chakra reserve.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when another bolt crashed down, and he narrowly managed to avoid it. The only thing he could be thankful for was the fact that it struck the ground several times before reaching him – it gave him fair warning and allowed him to get out of the way.

Three more strikes later, and Ryu was growling in anger. “You’re one lucky son-of-a-bitch.” He snarled. “You should have been dead after the first strike.”

Iruka offered a false smile, glad that the other genin felt the need to talk, it gave him a chance to evaluate the situation. And maybe, just maybe he might get an answer about something that had been bothering him. “I probably would be if you didn’t hit the ground every time.”

Very few shinobi could resist the urge to brag about their jutsus, and Ryu was no different. “It makes the chakra turbulent and builds strength to the attack. Otherwise it would take me too long to build up a lethal attack. Most people aren’t fast enough to escape, so it doesn’t really matter if they see it coming.” He straightened. “But that teleportation jutsu you’re using, that must take a lot of chakra, must take a fair amount of time to build, so…”

Iruka was ready for the attack that came, vanishing from the spot to appear closer to Ryu this time, who attacked as soon as he saw were Iruka’d landed. The light struck the ground several more times than the previous ones – which made sense, the mist genin had had less time to build his chakra.

He’d never had another shinobi guess at his bloodline limit, and he was incredibly glad that Ryu had underestimated it so badly. He disappeared and hit the ground just long enough for Ryu to see him and start to turn towards him. Four more jumps placed him directly in front of Ryu, crouched at his feet. The mist genin gaped down at him and particularly at the water taking shape in Iruka’s hand.

After watching the same jutsu this many times, Iruka’d noticed that Ryu’s left pocket shifted right before he released his attack. The genin must have been forming a single-handed seal. Iruka leapt up, tackling Ryu, and wrapped a watery rope around Ryu’s left wrist, pulling his hand out and away from his body. As they hit the ground, the water flowed over Ryu’s fingers, forcing them apart and keeping him from forming a seal. Iruka pressed the long, water-formed blade against the mist shinobi’s neck.

“End match!” The chuunin shouted behind them.

“WHAT?!” Ryu hollered at him, struggling against the water holding his hand down. “I can still fight!”

“That’s true, but Umino-kun could easily have slit your throat on the way down. If this was a real fight, you would be dead. The fight is over. Please let him up.”

Iruka released the jutsu and stood up, extending his hand to Ryu, who brushed it away and shoved past him. The chuunin examiner beckoned Iruka over, extending the clipboard for him to sign, designating that he had, in fact competed in the match.

OOOOOOO

Izumo applauded loudly, ignoring the fact that no one else in the audience seemed pleased by the turn of events, and grinned broadly when he saw Iruka’s lips twitch up into a slight smile as he turned away from his defeated opponent. Kotetsu leaned over his shoulder and yelled a couple of cheers towards the stadium grounds before joining Izumo in clapping.

Ryu pressed his right hand to his left as he slunk around behind the moderator for the matches. It looked like he was massaging the injury he’d sustained from Iruka’s attack, and after a minute, he put his hands back in his pockets. Izumo rolled his eyes. “Sore looser, that guy.” The gold arc of light took all of them by surprise; it raced straight towards Iruka without striking the ground, and Izumo vaguely saw Ibiki moving to intercept it.

“Ru!!” The scream tore its way from Izumo’s throat. In the stadium grounds below, Iruka had just enough time to turn around before the attack crashed into him, lifting him off his feet and flinging him into the wall. Iruka’s limp body slid to the ground, leaving a streak of blood down the rough stone.

Kotetsu was over the rail before Izumo’s brain could even kick in enough to process what had happened, but Ibiki had already arrived at Iruka’s side. As they reached their friend’s body, they could hear Ibiki calling out Iruka’s name.

After several heart-rending moments, Iruka coughed and raised his head from the pool of blood that was spreading around him.

“Ru!” Izumo stumbled forward.

“ ‘m okay.” Iruka gasped out, tried to push himself off the floor, and collapsed again. The ruin of his left side continued to ooze blood into the dirt floor of the arena. He choked down a cry, “….it hurts…”

Ibiki put a solid hand on his shoulder and forced Iruka back to the ground. “Don’t move.” The scarred man turned back, looking for the medical team that seemed to be taking forever to get there. Izumo and Kotetsu were both on their knees next to Iruka’s other side. Izumo had tears streaming down his face and both hands were clasped over his mouth. He felt like he was either going to start screaming or throw up and couldn’t seem to decide between the two. Iruka was…. Iruka was…

OOOOOOOOOOOO

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Sunlight through Leaves