Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Sunlight sends you on your way

And those restless thoughts that cling to yesterday

Never be afraid of change

~Bic Runga; Listening for the Weather

.

.

Land of Grass was pretty much as advertised.

Land.

And grass.

It was prairie land, stretching out in an endless unbroken horizon of grass. It was strangely uncomfortable to leave behind the closeness of the forest and venture into a place where you could see everything in all directions. I wasn't the only one that seemed glad we wouldn't have to camp out here – as much as we could see everything around us, everything could also see us.

"What's that?" Ino asked, squinting into the distance to our right. She shielded her eyes with her hands. "Asuma-sensei?"

There was something there, far off and barely visible, and it wasn't natural unless there were some strangely regular mountains around here.

"Hozuki Castle," Asuma-sensei said, briefly glancing at it. "Also called the 'Blood Prison' occasionally. Supposedly the most secure prison facility in the entire Elemental Nations. It's nominally under the control of Hidden Grass, but you'll find most villages make use of it."

"I've heard of it," she acknowledged, losing interest now that the question was answered.

So had I. I'd thought it would be more … remote though. Prairie land didn't exactly seem impassable.

There was a kind of tension to the group now, more controlled and serious than on any of the trip over. We all bunched together, no longer spread out in separate teams, the closer we got to our destination.

"So this is Hidden Grass, huh?" Kiba asked, once we started closing in on the bustling, small village.

"Actually, no," came the response. Tsunade moved up through the group, until she was at the head of it, leading the charge towards the village. "Hidden Grass is further west. This settlement has been built specifically for the exams – to host the influx of visitors and provide entertainment throughout the week to all the dignitaries."

Which wasn't so far removed from what countries had done for the Olympics, a lifetime ago. And it was probably better for village security to not let so many foreign ninja walk around. Especially when there were so many.

"They call these the 'festival exams'," Kurenai said, offhand. "The number of participants can sometimes be up to ten times as many as at other Chunin Exams."

"The promotions, too," Asuma said, glancing at her.

The only response she granted him was a swift flick of her eyes. "That doesn't mean it will be easier," she countered. "No matter what some people might say. The judges are just as strict. But you might have more opportunities to be seen."

Their teasing by play was interesting but self-evident. We were a little more interested in trying to scope out the playing field we were about to enter.

There was gate security that tried to seem more like a welcoming committee, but they gave us a pretty thorough once over anyway. I didn't know what they thought they were looking for, because Tsunade had put on her Hokage hat and was clearly Tsunade. If we were going to try anything, that was about all we'd need.

"The Konoha housing section is this way," the Chunin said, once we were inside. "Village sections are all isolated, and you're recommended not to try and enter the units of other villages but security is at the discretion of the occupants."

Translation – don't try sneak in and sabotage your opponents, because they've probably trapped their rooms and you will die. Very nice.

"Dining is provided in the communal hall," she continued. "But you're also welcome to manage your own meals or to dine out in the many restaurants around the village."

The Konoha section was a set of little camp houses arranged in a horseshoe shape. They were pretty basic, lined with bunk beds, but each one had a contained bathroom so it was far from rustic accommodation.

"Hmm," Tsunade said, though she sounded neither approving or disapproving. "Kurenai; set up a ward so we don't get any uninvited guests. Kakashi; make yourself useful and set a perimeter."

Kakashi-sensei sighed from behind his Icha Icha and loped off. Kurenai ran through a set of hand seals and a … something fell over the campsite. I didn't notice any changes, but I could feel it hovering in the air all the same. Interesting.

"Stash your gear," the Hokage continued, aimed at us, this time. "And make sure you're back by dinner time. Until then, your time is your own. Don't get into trouble and I don't want anyone wandering around alone. Go in pairs, at the least."

We shrugged and did as we were told. There was a whole lot to explore.

.

.

It really was like a festival.

Games and gambling and food stalls and people moving around in colourful clothing. Not everyone here was a ninja, far from it, and not all the ninja were competitors. There were quite a few that seemed to be sticking with the noble entourages, hired to protect them in an atmosphere that, if it turned violent, could go to hell extremely quickly.

But it was fun.

"Well, well, well," a familiar and mocking voice said. "If it isn't Hidden Leaf."

I grinned. "Well, well, well," I mocked back. "If it isn't Hidden Sand."

Beside me, Ino and Chouji were a little uncomfortable, but Sasuke gave a reasonably polite nod in their direction. None of them had been there the last time I'd caught up with the Sand Siblings, but Sasuke at least had been there when they'd helped us against Kimimaro.

Kankurou sighed theatrically. "I suppose it was too much to hope that we could get through this without running into you, sparky."

"If this is what you call evasion, you might want to work on it," I said dryly. He had been the one to call out, after all. "I guess I don't need to ask if you're competing?"

I was a little surprised to see them, though it did make sense. It was just… Gaara was going to be Kazekage. Hidden Sand still didn't have one, but they wouldn't hold out much longer, surely? I mean, I could understand why it was taking so long but the longer they left it the weaker they seemed.

"We are," Kankurou agreed readily enough. "Time to show the rest of these punks what Suna can do."

"Well," Sasuke said, when the silence stretched a beat too long. "Maybe we can have a rematch."

I gave him an incredulous look out the corner of my eye. I wasn't exactly the only one, either.

Gaara appeared slightly baffled but nodded. "That would be… acceptable," he rasped slowly. "I look forward to it."

"Sure," I agreed to nobody, since apparently that was it. Boys. "How did the cleanup go, after the thing?"

Temari gave a short shrug. "It was complicated," she said. "But everyone seemed happy at the end." Her expression seemed to indicate that this was nothing short of a miracle. "Your friend sailed home. The Daimyo even came to see him off. There was fanfare."

I made a sound of surprise at that. We grouped together and started moving back to the direction of the competitor housing.

"Yeah," Kankurou agreed. "I have no idea how Gaara managed to organize that one. I think the Daimyo likes him," he confided in a false whisper.

"That's good?" I offered, trying not to sound so uncertain. I caught Gaara's eye.

"It is," he confirmed, voice quiet. "It is important for the village to have strong ties to the Daimyo."

"I don't know how this happened," Kankurou lamented. "We take him to Hidden Leaf a murderous psychopath and you send him back a budding politician. Where did it all go wrong?"

"Kankurou!" Temari bit out, taking half a step towards him like she wanted to drag him out of the way.

I coughed. "Well. Happy to help," I said awkwardly. "Uh. Politics. Liaising with the Daimyo? That kind of thing?"

"I am going to be Kazekage," Gaara said, flatly. He didn't say it like Naruto did, a boast and a rebellion all in one. He said it like a lot of people had told him he couldn't, and he didn't care.

I nodded. "Pretty important stuff to know then." Well, at least that was one thing that wasn't changing. Gaara being Kazekage was kinda important. I'd hate to have screwed that up.

There was a long pause. That seemed to be the theme of this conversation.

"Naruto really did get to you," Sasuke said, with a tinge of resignation in his voice.

"He," Gaara rasped. "Inspired me. I wanted to be … accepted like he was. I want to be someone that Suna looks at with admiration, not fear."

"You'll be a great Kazekage," I said, reassuringly, nudging open the doors to the dining hall. There was an abrupt silence as everyone inside went quiet to stare at us.

And wow, there were a lot of people.

There was a very large group from Hidden Rock, maybe 50 people. An equally large sized group from Hidden Cloud across the other side of the room, who appeared to be trying to stab us with their gaze alone. Various sized groups of minor villages – I saw Waterfall headbands but no one that I recognized. Given that we'd hung out with Fuu and some Academy students, that wasn't so surprising.

One thing I had noticed was that there was no team size for entering the exams. Last time it had been Konoha standard three man teams, but other villages didn't really follow that trend. Rock teams were usually much larger, eight Genin led by a Chunin for example, and others tended to send out ninja in ones or twos. The three man teams had caught on with Cloud and partially in Sand simply because they were so effective. That could make things … interesting if it came down to team versus team.

The Jounin weren't really mixing with the Genin so much – ours had a table all to themselves and Tsunade and Kakashi-sensei weren't even there – but the ones I could see basically looked like the Bingo book had come to life. There was a lot of firepower in this room.

"Over here!" Kiba called, even though we were already moving in that direction. "We got a table. Might need to pull another one over, though." He gave an only-a-little-too-sharp grin to the Sand Siblings.

"Man, am I starving," Chouji said. "I hope the food is good."

It was buffet style, so we took a plate (or two or three in some cases) and served ourselves, ignoring the many eyes that followed us any time we stood up. Clearly people were starting to seize up the competition.

"Jeeze, look at that fatty with all those plates," someone said, deliberately too loud.

Chouji turned.

Hastily I wedged myself under his arm, shoulder into his side and forced him back around. And readied my shadow to pin him, if I had to.

"Pass me some of the dumplings, Chouji?" I asked hastily, trying to redirect. The last thing we wanted was for Chouji to start a fight right here at such blatant and deliberate provocation.

Ino wedged herself into his other side. "What do you think of the chicken? It looks burnt."

He didn't look pacified, anger still burning in his eyes, but apparently food won out. Thankfully.

The Sand Siblings had gone tense and battle ready, but hadn't backed away. So apparently if we were going to get into a brawl in the middle of a dining hall, they would have our backs. To some extent anyway.

I couldn't tell who'd said it, but I kept an eye on the crowd as much as they were watching us. We shouldn't forget that they were competition, and ninja didn't play nice.

"I'm sure they didn't mean it, Chouji," Hinata said softly.

"We'll crush them in the fighting," Kiba chimed in, not refuting her but not agreeing, either. They clearly had meant it. "Then they'll have nothing to say."

Chouji sniffed indignantly. "I'm just big boned," he said, loading up another plate and balancing it easily on his forearm. That was getting into some fancy waiter skills territory there.

"Are you sure you don't want some salad with that?" Ino said despairingly. "Eat something healthy." They had a mini duel over the vegetables as she tried to put them on his plate and he tried to very skillfully avoid it. It might have been the smoothest agility exercise I'd seen Chouji do all week.

Tension successfully broken, we jostled our way back to the table, laughing and slinging quips at each other. I was relieved to see that Lee was making polite conversation with Gaara – bless him – and Kiba couldn't seem to resist verbally poking at Kankurou. Who couldn't resist poking back. Temari sat at the head of the table like a reigning queen but seemed willing enough to join every time we tried to drag her into conversation.

Then about halfway through dinner, the front doors swept open and silence fell like a lead weight.

I cut off in mid word, and twisted to see who it was.

There were only four of them, and no Jounin in sight. The oldest was only a few years older than us.

I kicked Sasuke under the table, slid out of my seat and wound my way through the tables towards them.

"Haku!" I beamed. "I didn't realize you would be here!"

The last I'd heard, they we're still with the Rebellion. In order to be at the actual Chunin Exams, they had to have succeeded.

Haku ducked his chin and smiled. "Yes, the Fifth Mizukage wished to send a delegation to the Chunin Exams so that we could establish a diplomatic rapport with the rest of the villages."

It sounded like a very scripted response, but it probably was. The rest of the hall was clearly eavesdropping on us, anyway. This would get back to every village intelligence division ASAP no doubt.

Tentatively, I stepped forward to give him a hug. Being out in front of everyone made me self-conscious, but it was good to see him.

Sasuke even shook his hand in greeting, which was weirdly formal, but still a pretty big gesture of trust between two ninja.

"Is Naruto-kun not here?" Haku asked, eyes sliding past us.

I shook my head. "No, he was promoted at the last exam," I explained, leading them towards our table. "He'll be really sorry that he missed seeing you."

"You're here alone?" Sasuke asked, hands in his pockets.

"Zabuza-sama is also here," Haku said, with another small smile. "But he is currently with the Mizukage greeting the others. We only just arrived."

"You must be hungry then," I said. "I'm sure there's still time for you to eat. You can squeeze in with us." I hoped the others wouldn't mind too much. I gave some brief introductions. "We met Haku on our first mission out of the village. And these are our friends from the Hidden Sand."

Haku bowed very politely. As far as ambassadors for a new face of the 'Bloody Mist' went, they could have done a whole lot worse than Haku.

Surprisingly, Gaara stood and bowed back. "I am pleased to meet any friend of Team 7," he rasped.

"This is Chojuro," Haku introduced the blue haired boy beside him. "And this is Shiku, and Yoro." He gestured to the two identical girls in smart looking kimono dresses over the same kind of heavy turtleneck that seemed to be a Hidden Mist staple. One had '46' on her shoulder, the other '49', which seemed to be the only way to tell them apart. They were young enough that it was significant even to us – maybe eight or nine years old.

"Yoroshiku," they chorused in unison, bowing. Chojuro ducked his head and looked like he was cringing.

A spatter of laughter escaped me. I wasn't the only one, either. Lee bounced to his feet – on the seating bench, even, so he towered above the table - and beamed at them. "What an excellent greeting! I am very pleased to meet you as well!"

Neji subtly tried to pull him back down. Tenten was laughing into her hands. Or crying. I couldn't tell.

We squeezed together around the table, creating space for them to sit once they had food. It wasn't exactly comfortable, and I ended up half sitting on Chouji, but most of us were finished eating anyway.

"You did not say he was gorgeous," Ino hissed to me, while they were at the buffet table getting food and out of earshot.

"Pretty sure that story always gets told with 'oh, yeah, and Naruto thought he was a pretty girl' in there somewhere," I responded dryly, craning my neck to look at her.

"Naruto," she said dismissively as if that explained everything and tried to see her reflection in the back of a spoon. "I should have done my hair."

"Your hair is fine," I said patiently. "And there's no fighting so that already makes this 200% better than how we met."

We didn't exactly bombard them with questions when they got back – we did have some manners – but the conversation was distinctly lopsided.

"I didn't realize you were still a Genin," I admitted to Haku.

He smiled. "I was never officially ranked. I was Zabuza's apprentice, and that was enough. I was happy like that, but Mei-sama wanted a team to represent the village in these exams and I was chosen for it."

That made sense, I guessed. And it was a good loophole to exploit to be able to enter a contestant such as Haku. I wasn't kidding with that – if we were sure bets to make it to the finals, then so was he.

"It seems risky to come to the Exams if you've only just taken over," Sasuke said neutrally.

"It is," Haku admitted. "However, it is also a perfect venue for us to introduce Kirigakure under the hand of the Fifth Mizukage and to show the Elemental nations how it differs from the previous rule. No longer are we the 'Bloody Mist' village and the sooner we shake that reputation, the better."

It sounded a little bit like a rehearsed statement, if I was honest, but since everyone was listening in there were probably things that he was supposed to be saying. Well, if Haku needed to drop intelligence to the other villages, then I didn't exactly mind being a shill.

"And what are the values of the new Hidden Mist?" I asked. "What does the new Mizukage intend?"

"Mei-sama is of the Terumi clan," Haku said. "And a holder of two bloodlimits. So, of course, the first thing she wishes to do is to stop the persecution of bloodlines within the Land of Water. Many of us fled, so the gates of Kirigakure will be opened to all, ninja or otherwise, that wish to return."

"All?" I parroted, though it made sense. Of course she would want the strength of the village to return. And half of the missing ninja were probably people that didn't like how the previous Mizukage had been running the place anyway.

"Yes," Haku said with another quick smile. "All of them. Those that have committed crimes would be given a second chance, though they would have to abide strictly to the new laws and regulations. Which will ensure that all citizens are protected and that the excesses of the last regime will not be repeated."

There were a lot of eyes on him now, and not everyone was trying to be subtle about it.

"As for what Mei-sama intends…" He paused. "Well, I'm sure it's much the same as what your Hokage intends. For us to be strong enough to protect ourselves and to maintain strong alliances with those around us, so that there is no needless fighting and war."

I almost wanted to applaud. It was a good speech.

"Mei-sama wants us all to be friends!" one of the girls piped up in a high, cutesy voice.

"Then we'll be friends," Ino declared, smiling at her. "But that means you have to learn the secret friendship handshake."

Lee gasped, loudly and dramatically. "Can … can I learn the secret friendship handshake?" He begged. "Please, Ino-san?"

My shoulders shook with repressed laughter. Lee was really the best.

"Moron," Kiba said, shaking his head. I kicked him under the table too.

"Don't be mean," Hinata reprimanded softly. But then she spoke up, a little louder. "We can all learn the- the secret friendship handshake."

"Yeah, sure," Ino said. She may have rolled her eyes. "Friendship for everyone. Come on then."

The handshake involved many more motions than just shaking hands, of course. For something that was undoubtedly made up on the spot, it was very intense and complicated.

"Seriously?" Kankurou muttered under his breath, folding his arms.

Temari elbowed him in the ribs. "Just do it," she hissed. She didn't look all that impressed, either, but Gaara was impassively following the directions. Even Neji was, actually, though that may have been an actual result of Lee repeatedly grabbing his hands and moving them.

And somehow we managed to get sixteen people around a table doing a fist bump at once. That was slightly impressive.

"There, now its official," Ino said, grinning brightly. Which might have been just a side effect of getting everyone to do such a silly thing. I wouldn't put it past her. It was just more proof that she didn't need her jutsu to make people do what she wanted.

"Thank you," Haku said solemnly. "We're honoured."