Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. ~Napoleon Hill

.

.

The morning dawned and we all gathered to start the exams. It wasn't exactly an early start, but most of the town was still quiet, a stark contrast to the late night festivities that had continued on.

We hadn't exactly stayed up to participate, no matter how tempting, because this was why we were here.

If I'd thought that the dining hall had been crammed full of firepower, that was nothing compared to the field this morning. Not only had all the Jounin escorted their teams down here before splitting off to stand at the sidelines… the village leaders were all here too. The Kage – and the Raikage had Killer B at one shoulder and Yugito Nii at the other; he wasn't playing around – but the minor village leaders as well. I saw Shibuki, the leader of Hidden Waterfall, hovering behind Tsunade.

It was honestly more intimidating than the competitors around us. And there were a lot of those. Konoha had sent seven teams and it looked like we had been conservative, even compared to the minor villages. Kurenai might not have been overselling it when she'd said there would be ten times as many entries.

"Welcome to the Hidden Grass Chunin Exams," the Hidden Grass village leader said, voice echoing loudly over the jam packed field. "We're delighted to have you all here. I could spend the next ten minutes telling you as much, but I think you're all quite eager to begin. Therefore, all I will say is – I hope you enjoy the challenges we have designed for you, and that you represent your villages well."

He stepped back, ceding the space to an older woman wearing a variation of the Hidden Grass flak jacket. Possibly she was the Jounin Commander, or some kind of high up equivalent, if Grass were as specific with their uniforms as we were.

"The First Exam," she began. "Will begin as soon as you leave this field. Each team will receive a list from the examination station. You will then proceed into the village and locate, identify, or retrieve all the items on the list!"

A scavenger hunt, in other words. A host of low murmurings broke out in the crowd, rolling like a wave through the assembled Genin.

She raised a hand and we all fell silent.

"Once you have completed the list, you will return here. If you have not finished by five o'clock; you will be disqualified. If your entire team is not present; you will be disqualified."

That left a whole lot of open ground. Actually, it more than implied that there would be fighting.

"Wait!" One of the braver Genin near the front of the pack shouted out. He was from Grass, so probably felt a little more secure asking questions. "In the village? Is it empty?"

"Of course not," she replied, seeming amused. "Those people are your potential clients and employers. They have come all this way to see you in action. It would be foolish on our part to deny them such an opportunity. You should simply remember that however you involve them here and now will reflect upon you and your village."

Translation; hurt them and you'll be in trouble. Tsunade might actually kill us if that happened. Or worse, make sure we never left the village again.

That added an extra level of complication to what was seeming like it might already be very convoluted. Urban warfare with a lot of civilians around that couldn't be touched. Well, it was good Exam design, I'd give them that.

Should be fun.

We got into line as the crowd slowly moved through the examination stations, picking up our list and getting ticked off as officially competing.

"Looks like we've all got different lists," Ino observed, as we had a quick huddle with Team Gai and Team Kurenai.

"Wouldn't be much of an exam if we all had the same twenty targets," I said, shrugging. All you'd have to do then would be follow the huge line of people walking from one destination to the next.

"Race ya," Kiba challenged. "I bet we'll be the first team back. This is exactly our kind of mission."

It did play to their skills quite well. But it wasn't too far from ours, either.

"You're on," Ino agreed, eyes narrowing. "See you at the finish line."

"We will compete as well!" Lee agreed, boisterously. "We shall be the fastest! Neji! Tenten! Let us go now."

"Wait, Lee!" Tenten said, grabbing at him. "Give me the list! We don't know where the first one is yet!"

We slipped off with a parting wave. Hinata had her Byakugan active and it looked like Team Kurenai were strategizing over where to go first. They would be fine.

It was lucky that we had spent some time exploring yesterday, because it meant we had some idea of where to go as we deciphered the clues.

"This is as far as you go, Leaf." A group of Rock ninja blocked the street a head of us. I had felt them, but there were honestly so many ninja around that I couldn't even react to them all. Now that they'd initiated, I focused; there were five of them in front of us, another two on the rooftops, and one sneaking around behind us.

This was where the non-standard team sizes put us at a disadvantage. They out-numbered us.

But well. Quality over quantity.

"Is that so?" Ino asked dryly. She didn't seem very impressed either.

I double checked the rest of the street, just to be safe. There were people in the buildings – a café and a gambling house - on either side, but the road itself was clear. For now.

"Formation," I said quietly. "Bowling Alley."

Ino gave a small nod, not taking her eyes off the enemy. Chouji stepped forward, until he was standing between the two of us and them.

And the, sudden as an explosion, Chouji gave a huge roar and expanded, chest inflating and arms contracting until he was round and spinning in the Human Bullet Tank. He rotated slowly, momentum carrying him backwards into us.

I snapped a tendril of Shadow Stitching Jutsu out, a solid line, towards Ino. She grabbed the end of it, anchored it, and Chouji pushed into it like it was the ribbon at the end of the race. It stretched, elastic, gaining tension until we pulled it short, flinging him down the street at a pace that far outstretched what he could do himself.

The five were scattered like bowling pins.

There was a ragged cheer from inside the café. Nice to know the spectacle was appreciated.

Chouji unrolled in motion, turning from a ball to a boy and skidding to a stop just in time to avoid slamming into the wall. It was a little risky to have our team split like this, but there were benefits to having him suddenly behind them. He turned, hands enlarging to grab them from behind, just in case they felt like retaliating.

Ino and I leapt up and sideways, in opposite directions, to take out the people on the rooftops. I slapped mine with a quick Striking Bolt, swept his legs out from under him and kicked him off the roof. Then I rounded up the last of them – the one that had been sneaking up behind us – and proved that three Konoha Genin were more than a match for eight Rock Genin when those three were us.

We tied them up and dumped them against the wall. Someone might help them. Might not.

"Mind-Body Skim," Ino murmured, hands forming a square seal. She looked a little vacant, and wavered back and forth, but it was clearly a lighter version of the Switch. Then she dropped and briskly went through the pockets of one of the protesting Genin, pulling out their list. "Cheers," she said mockingly.

Well. That was a way to reduce the competition too.

"Any answers we don't have?" I asked as we walked away.

"Nah, they have a different list." She shrugged. "It was worth a try, though."

"Sure was," I agreed. "And nice job with the new formation, team." It was a little belated, but it had to be said. I was trying to adapt to the way they did things. And they were trying to adapt to me. We were managing.

We collected a few more answers and blew through another ambush just by dropping a genjutsu on the team and walking away.

"We could take them out," Chouji offered.

I shrugged. "If you guys want to. But if they can't shake off a simple genjutsu then those guys aren't going to make it, anyway. We don't really need to and it's better to save our energy for the rest of the Exams."

We didn't know what the next exam would be, so conserving energy was probably our best bet. We had to remember the bigger picture.

Later on, when we nearly had the list finished, I squinted at it. "Do you see this?"

Ino ran her finger over our answers, too. "It's a code," she said. "You think it's like the tenth question?"

A final trick for everyone. The last twist to test something beyond the obvious.

"Yeah," I said. I checked the time. "Let's hurry up and get the last answers. We don't know how long it will take."

We put on an extra burst of seriousness, ignoring all the other teams unless they directly tried to stop us first. By now, we clearly weren't the only ones to have noticed the extra trap, and there was a new level of tension that was beginning to thrum in the air.

We found the last statue, counted the number of bricks in the base, and started to decrypt the puzzle.

"Collect the…" Ino said, pulling out a pencil and scribbling substitution on the back of the page.

"Token," I finished. "Collect the token."

Fat lot of help that was. What token? From where?

"I knew it was too easy," she said in resignation. "What kind of intel gathering tells you what to look for?"

We looked at each other in a kind of mute helplessness.

I sighed, drumming my fingertips together and staring aimlessly around. We been all over the village today and hadn't seen anything token-like being passed around. Nothing with a name that had 'token' in it. Nothing –

I trailed off, even inside my own head, and realized I was staring directly at a gambling house. There were an excessive number of them here, for what the place was, except it made sense that when you invited a bunch of rich nobles to visit you a) wanted to entertain them and b) wanted them to spend lots of money.

"You think?" Ino asked, following my gaze.

"Won't hurt to try," I said even though I didn't think it would be quite that easy.

We pushed our way inside, buffeted by the sudden noise. Voices were indistinguishable, but echoed, and the slots were clattering and chiming and there was clanking of money and coins, and alternate cheering and cries of dismay. It was almost overwhelming, especially when you were primed for combat and trying to keep track of everything.

We edged forward, towards the counter manned by an employee in a vested uniform. There was more than one ninja here, bodyguards of the guests presumably, but I checked them over almost compulsively.

One of them was familiar.

I changed course, moving past the counter and deeper into the back of the hall, where it was quieter and there were private booths for games.

"Idate?" I hissed at the young boy hovering near one of the booths.

He spun around. "Shikako! What are you doing here?" He didn't look any different to when I'd last seen him, in Land of Tea, though maybe a little more nervous.

I rolled my eyes. "Taking an exam. What are you doing here?"

"Jirocho-sama was invited to come and see the competition," Idate explained, which didn't necessarily explain why he was there. Wasn't it a bit risky? Then again, no one else would know he was technically a missing nin, would they?

The game of poker at the table finished up, and then men collected their winnings. Jirocho had a significant pile in front of him, and I wasn't even surprised. He did this for a living, almost.

"Idate?" He called, then looked up and saw me. "Ah, Shikako! What a pleasant surprise."

I bowed. "Jirocho-dono. I didn't expect to see you here."

He chuckled. "Yes, Tsunade promised me a game. That was more than worth coming this way for. And the Exam is very interesting besides. You're participating, aren't you? Then you must be here for this."

He took a large, silver coin out of his pocket and put it on the table.

Well. That fit the description of 'token' alright.

"I am," I said, if not a little cautiously. "I didn't realize you'd have one."

I glanced backwards, to see Ino and Chouji talking to the vendor at the counter. She looked up and I caught her eye across the room.

"Oh, a few of us agreed to take a token and help with the Exam. I could just give it to you but..." Jirocho smiled. "Well, since we're here, how about I play you for it." It wasn't a question. "Do you know poker?"

"Vaguely," I said, uneasily. "I've never played."

"That's a shame," he said, strangely intense. "Poker is the game of the week, here. You should probably look up the rules." The he smiled. "But for this, we can play something else. What about Hanafuda? I hear you have good combination."

Ino-Shika-Cho. I smiled. "I would be honoured."

He motioned for the dealer to switch the decks of cards, co-opting the whole table for our exchange. It wasn't like we didn't have an audience, however. Ino and Chouji had joined us, and there were more than a few people interested in what was going on.

I tried not to let the scrutiny make me too nervous. On the upside, I wasn't actually betting anything. Losing would mean I didn't get the token, sure, but now I knew what they were and that they were given to the watching clients. That was a net gain even before we started playing.

The thing was. I was a good player, but I wasn't great. And I certainly wasn't someone that gambled for a living. I could have tried to even the playing field by cheating but I had the slight suspicion that anyone that regularly played with Tsunade knew far more about cheating than I did.

Also, there were ninja watching us. Someone was bound to catch me at it if I tried.

So I played fair. And the point totals were somehow still close.

The dealer flipped over the last card.

Deer. That matched to the maple on the table and I already had the butterfly and the boar… oh hell. I had won off the Ino-Shika-Cho.

Someone was having a laugh.

Jirocho chuckled. "Oh, well played," he said, amused, even though I'd had nothing to do with that.

I had to admit though, it was a hell of a card to win on.

I sank back in my seat, suddenly aware of how tense my shoulders had become. "Thank you for the game," I demurred.

"As promised; your token." He pushed it across the table towards me. "I look forward to seeing you in the tournament."

I stood and bowed politely. "I hope I don't disappoint."

We wove through the crowd as quickly as we could, escaping back outside.

"What was that?" Ino asked, once we broke free. "Ditching us at the counter like that, jeeze."

"Sorry," I said. "I saw someone I knew. Turns out that they gave the tokens to the clients to give to us."

"Makes sense," Chouji said, pulling out a bag of chips to start snacking on. "If they want us to impress them and all."

"So you gambled for it?" Ino leveled me a look.

I gave her a look straight back. "It was his idea! Besides, I didn't exactly stand to lose anything, did I?"

It wasn't like she was really annoyed, anyway. How could she be? We had what we needed to finish this exam, all nice and neatly wrapped up.

"Let's go hand it in, then," she said.

I hesitated. It wasn't a bad idea – get it finished before someone tried to take our token off us, rather than getting their own. But. "Want to find the others and make sure they know?"

Ino considered it. "Well, we can always rub it in their faces that we got it first," she said, but I knew she thought the same thing I did. They probably wouldn't need the help. But it might make things easier.

It wouldn't cost us anything, really. And we had to remember that we might have been competing but we were still on the same side. Always.

It wasn't exactly easy work tracking them down when there were so many ninja moving about here, too and fro. But they weren't trying to hide either, so we managed.

"Come to ask us for help?" Kiba teased. "I'm sure we could work something out."

"Hardly," Ino scoffed. "We just came to make sure you didn't fall over at the last question." She inspected her nails. "If you need help, I'm sure we could work something out."

He made a face at her.

"The token," Sasuke said quietly, probably so we weren't broadcasting information for every eavesdropper around. "You found it?"

I nodded. "The clients have them. Or at least, some of them do. We got ours from Jirocho."

"We coulda worked that out," Kiba protested. "You didn't have to tell us."

"She's just trying to help, Kiba," Hinata said quietly.

"I know you could have," I said. "But why do more work than you have to? It's just too troublesome for everyone to have to do the same thing all over again."

"I see Shijimi-sama," Hinata said, activating her Byakugan and searching through the streets. "Maye she'll have one?"

That was our Daimyo's wife. Also, the lady that repeatedly hired Konoha shinobi to chase down her demonic cat every time it made a bid for freedom.

"And… Neji-niisan's team are over there… will you tell them as well?" She asked timidly.

"We might as well," Ino said. "See you at the finish line!"

Team Gai was easier to find, if only because it had Lee. Like Team Kurenai, they had worked out the code, but hadn't yet found one for themselves.

"So we simply must find a noble that possesses a token and convince them to give it to us," Lee said after we'd shared. He nodded to himself. "I shall do so right now!"

Tenten made a grab for him, but she was too slow. He was gone.

Neji closed his eyes and looked like he was restraining the urge to sigh.

"He's very enthusiastic," Ino commented.

"That's one way to put it," Tenten agreed. "Thanks for the information."

We started walking in the direction Lee had gone. It was vaguely in the direction we wanted to go, anyway. Surely we would be able to spot someone with a token. Everyone in the village was here for the exams, after all.

Turned out to be slightly harder than expected. Or harder-than-expected until we saw someone in a Konoha flak jacket that hadn't come with us.

This really was a week for reunions, wasn't it? It was Raido accompanying Toki and a blue haired woman from the Watari clan. Hokuto.

Awkward.

But she saw me in return, so I couldn't exactly not make contact. "Toki! I'm surprised to see you."

She smiled. "As a land that has recently started a Hidden Village, it seemed prudent for us to be here."

It did make sense. "Do you have a team competing?" I asked. I hadn't seen any, but, well, I didn't even know what the village symbol was. If they had one yet.

"No, we didn't have the time," Toki said. "I think it will be some years before we are able to participate in a Chunin Exam." She stumbled over the words a little uncertainly. "But it is very interesting to watch. "Are your teammates not here? Or your brother?"

"They're already Chunin," I explained, though I was a little surprised she'd asked about Shikamaru. Then again… being twins had been a part of what helped us connect. It was probably normal for her to ask. "But these are some of the other Konoha ninja participating in the exams." I introduced them all. "Toki is the Daimyo of the Land of Birds. Naruto and I recently had a mission there and worked with her."

"You were a great help to me," she said quietly. "So I'm glad that I can help you in turn, even with a small thing." She drew a silver coin out of her long, ornate sleeves. "Good luck with your tests!"

We bowed.

"That's not even fair," Ino muttered, after we were well and truly out of earshot. "How on earth do you know so many people?"

I handed the token over to Tenten. She didn't want to take it, so I threw it to Neji instead.

Oops. If Kiba had thought that telling them implied I didn't think they could do it, I didn't want to know what outright acquiring one meant.

"Interesting missions," I said, looking down. "It just happens."

It certainly made this test so much easier. We ditched Neji and Tenten to go find their errant team member, and – finally – made our way to the exit.

"I think that was easier than last exam," I said, as the examiner ticked off the questions on our list, took our token, and proclaimed we had passed.

"Are you kidding?" Ino countered. "That was way harder. There were so many more parts to it, and we had to run all over the village."

"It wasn't as tense, though," I said, because Ibiki had really piled on the pressure in a way that this test hadn't managed. Or maybe it was just because we'd gotten so lucky with getting the tokens at the end that we'd missed it.

We weren't even the first team there, sadly. Both Sand and Mist teams had beaten us, as well as about five or six others.

We had to stick around until the exam was over, so we claimed a patch of ground and sat. Team Gai arrived before too long, and Team Kurenai took about an hour.

"She not have one?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kiba made a low muttering sound that may or may not have been a growl.

"She brought the demon with her," Sasuke said, glowering. He had scratches on his hands.

Ino started to laugh. "You had to-" She couldn't continue.

"We didn't mind," Hinata said, loyally but not really convincingly. "We were happy to help."

"Well," I couldn't resist one last jab. "At least it was exactly your kind of mission, Kiba."