It's been a couple of weeks since 'the incident' and today when I showed up for Vulture's torture, he sent me to a meeting room in the Hokage Tower instead, in civvies too.
I'm honestly not sure if it's a good thing yet, but I suppose there is only one way to find out, opening the door immediately six heads turn to stare at me.
"Uhm, I was told to come here?"
Inside the room are four Jonin, including one of the Sanin himself, Jiraiya, also there is Takeshi and of course, Hiruzen, who breaks the silence.
"Well, it seems our meeting has gone on for longer than expected, but you all understand your duty so you are dismissed."
I stay to the side as the Jonin all leave, then close the door and face my two superiors.
"Hana-kun, take a seat, do you know what that meeting was about?"
Is that rhetorical? Obviously I don't, why would I? But he clearly wants me to respond and I'm not about to give him more reason to dislike me.
"Uh, no Hokage-sama, I don't."
"Well, you see with the war over as it is, us major villages need a new way to compete with each other, to keep the more aggresive of our number calm, so it has been agreed we will hold inter-village torniments, however with Jonin being too fast for civilians to properly see, it has been decided we will do so in the form of a chunin exam, where the victors, or those that leave an impression can get promoted to chunin."
But I'm not a Genin? Oh god, am I going to get a Genin team? Taking care of Kizashi is enough work I don't want a Genin team!
"I can see you are confused so allow me to explain, you are hereby demoted to genin, for vandalising my bedroom."
Oh.
ππ©π©π©
"You.. want me to win the chunin exams?"
"Close, the exam itself doesn't really matter, as Kiri were rather enthusiatic to host the first ever exam, so the civilian presence is likely to be thin enough that giving a good show isn't a priority, no, rather than that, as you are specialised in stealth and the only one of sufficient skill that can pull of the look of a genin, your mission will be to infiltrate Kiri's archives and gather as much data as you can, keeping a special eye out for these specifically."
I accept the scroll and dazedly look through it.
ππ¦π·π¦π― π΄πΈπ°π³π₯π΄
ππͺπ―π«πΆπ΅π΄πΆ
ππͺπ«πΆ
Even the first three lines are all very important pieces of information.
"This mission, due to its danger, is optional for you."
"So, what you're saying is, you want me to pretend to be a Genin and take the chunin exams, all the while I need to somehow sneak into Kiri's archives and steal information without getting caught or showing that I'm anything other than a Genin while the entire village will no doubt be in high alert due to the foreign shinobi inside of it, who they will most definitely be keeping a close eye on. Did I miss anything?"
"No, that was about it. Do you accept?"
I can feel my grin stretching and my heart beating.
"Do I accept? What kind of a question is that? Of course, I accept! This is exactly the kinda shit I signed up for baby! Ahem, I mean, yes Hokage-sama."
Takeshi and Hiruzen share a look.
"I told you he'd be excited about it."
"You're right, I shouldn't have doubted how well you know your men. In that case, report to room 345 for debriefing. You have one month to prepare."
Giving a quick nod I head out looking for my debriefing.
ππ©πͺπ΄ πͺπ΄ π¨π°π―π―π’ π£π¦ π΄π° π§πΆπ―!
The next month was spent mostly with the people in the intelligence division as they tried to cram as much knowledge into my head as they could, from codes to what information I should prioritise, to notable figures in Kiri, memorising a map of Kiri and even the identity I am going as.
After all, I can't go as me, because Hanabira Haruno is a nobody, so we're making a new identity.
The idea is that I'm someone who doesn't stand out as anything but an average Genin, I brought up being a medic-nin since they are always underestimated, but that might draw some attention as male medic-nin aren't very common, so instead I will be going as the cliche 'thinks with their fists' kind of Genin who only knows how to fistfight and a few fire Jutsu.
Also, we are using a whole lot of makeup that is difficult to remove and that I was taught to reapply should the need arise, I also have Hair dye that probably won't come out for a month, and we've done some minor temporary surgeries to my face to make me less good looking.
I'm not even exaggerating either, one of the people working on my disguise said I was too cute to go unnoticed, so they put some synthetic bones under bits of my skin on my face to give me a bigger nose and forehead, not by massive proportions, just enough to make me seem uninteresting, I'm even wearing contacts that don't have to be replaced or put in water or anything.
I'm also basically cosplaying everything that I hate in a shinobi.
I think it'll be fun though, relaxing even, to just act like an idiot for a while.
Also funny is that I'm pretty sure that I'm the highest ranked shinobi on this mission, though I'm unsure if Jiraiya holds any title other than Jonin and I don't doubt that nepotism puts him above me anyway.
In what felt like no time at all the month is up and I am ready, though I do wish the intelligence guys would stop quizzing me.
It gets annoying after the 100th time.
Anyway, my temporary sensei is a guy called Akira Nara because one of his Genin died recently leaving him with two fourteen year old Genin, Kaiba Matsuo and Fumi Tokoyami.
The first is a nerdy looking guy with glasses and doesn't look much like a fighter while the other one is a girl who looks like she's really sad but pretending to be happy, probably for Kaiba's sake about the death of their teammate who's name I don't know, honestly I barely even remembered to ask about what squad I'm going to be joining and the info guys didn't seem to find it much of a priority so I only got their names.
Also, no one else here knows about my mission, though I think I heard something about Akira being told to be more 'accepting' of my requests, so to speak. Basically, he won't punish or call me out for any absences or anything.
Akira is an average height Jonin but he is a Nara, so even if he does figure anything out, he will probably understand that he should pretend he hasn't. Plausible deniability and all that.
Anyway, since today is the day, the four Genin squads that are taking part in the chunin exams in Kiri are to meet at the front gate so we can depart together.
The exam isn't for a week yet, but it will take around four or five days to travel there on account of the Genin present, were it just Jonin it would be half that time.
Seeing my temp squad, I run over with a big oblivious smile on my face.
"Hey! Are you Akira-sensei!? My name is Katsuki Todoroki!! And I'm here to become a chunin!"
I see Akira grimace slightly as he sees and hears me but pretend not to notice.
"That's me, go stand by Kaiba-kun and Fumi-chan now while we wait for the others."
Giving Akira a big nod I jump on over to the other two and once again begin loudly introducing myself while I actually look around at who else is coming.
Other than Jiraiya there isn't anyone I recognise, wait a minute, is that a chibi Minato I see?
I think it is! He looks about the same age as me, well I guess I now know for sure where in the timeline I am, instead of just what decade I'm in, I wonder if he's any good yet?
I mean, I am and he's probably more talented than me, but I do have more experience than him and experience is the greatest teacher, plus, his two big strengths were his Fuinjutsu and the Rasengen, both of which he shouldn't know anything about right now.
He is also with two teammates, I have no idea if there was anything in canon about his teammates, but it would be weird for him to be on a team by himself, one of the is obviously an Akimichi, but I have no clue about the other, they're both slightly older than him, probably twelve, making the squad fresh graduates.
Of course, Minato graduated two years early, not that he's got anything on me, who graduated when most people are admitted.
Man, I am so cool, why don't I have more friends?
Anyway, once everyone arrives, we head out to Kiri.
And now, after some light running, we are making camp for the first time, when I notice Minato going around and introducing himself to all of the other kids, coincidentally, coming to my group last.
"Hello there-
General Kenobi.
"-my name is Minato, since we're going to this exam together, I hope we can get along." He says with a beaming smile on his face, he really is a pure kid.
"M-my name is Fumi, i-it's nice to meet you?"
Was that a question?
"My name is Kaiba, it's a pleasure."
Ah, there is the cool and stoic reply you'd expect from someone wearing glasses.
"My name is Katsuki! Wanna fight?"
Hey, it fits my character, and I do kinda want to see where Minato is at, though I've already been through the level of strength 'Katsuki' is capable of, so Minato will probably kick my ass, though this is a good opportunity to get used to fighting at such a low level before the actual exam.
Kaiba and Fumi both look at me in shock, with an almost painful look in their eyes. Oh shit, that would make sense, wouldn't it? Fumi is the shy but helpful girl, Kaiba is the stoic and serious guy which leaves the slot of the brash and headstrong guy open, the way I'm acting is probably a lot like there dead teammate.
It would be a cliche team, and I always bet on cliche, is it bad that I find this situation kind of funny? They're probably seeing their old teammates face overlapping with mine, meanwhile this face is just a fake, a lie. It's funny because it's so sad.
Anyway, Minato looks rather worried and apologetic for some reason.
"You, want to fight? I'm sorry if I did something to upset you?"
"Oh, no, no, I'm not upset, we're just around the same age, so I wanted to see how I measure against you!"
Man, he really is a pure kid, he looks genuinely relieved to hear that a stranger isn't upset with him for no reason. Weird guy.
"Oh! You mean like a spar?"
No, I mean a fight to the death. Obviously, I didn't say that out loud.
"So? Whaddaya say?"
Instead of giving an answer, he looks over to Jiraiya, who has been π·π¦π³πΊ sneakily eavesdropping which makes the giant of a man walk over, his other Genin following behind him.
"Hahaha! I see you're making friends already Minato!"
Should I feel some sort of awe towards the man before me? I'm honestly split on the matter. On one hand he isn't very ninja like, but on the other hand I'm pretty sure he runs or will run a spy network or something, so clearly, he is capable of being a good ninja, but he is a Sannin, a title that I struggle to believe anyone could hold with pride. The title is a mockery from Hanzo the Salamander after all, the man killed one thousand shinobi and then walked away from the three of them.
How could you be proud of being spared by an opponent you could not so much as injure? So I'm on the fence about him.
"Well, Katsuki-san wants to spar, but I'm not sure if that's ok?"
"HAha of course it's ok! Just make sure not to do anything serious."
With his seal of approval, a ring is made by our two squads as the other two pretend to not be watching, not like there is much else to do here. Fuck. I just remembered that I didn't bring any cards, I could have at least played solitaire or something, ah well, I've got a spar to focus on.
Jiraiya has decided that he will referee this spar.
"Alright! First make the seal of confrontation, now. Begin!"
Minato lets me make the first move, which I do, having to remind myself to charge head on. It's harder than I had thought it would be, I had to stop myself from using a shunshin and I have to ignore the way my chakra keeps connecting to objects in setup for a kawarimi. Instead of any of that though, I just charge straight ahead to engage in a fistfight.
Minato obliges and doesn't pull out any kunai or jutsu, instead he steps backward from my telegraphed opening right hook and responds with a quick jab to my ribs that I block with my left forearm.
Before I can recover, well, before 'Katsuki' can recover his right arm, Minato swings a high kick into my armpit, which hurts.
I respond by jumping him, trying to turn this into a grapple since he is clearly faster than 'me', but Minato manages to turn it into a throw making some distance between us as I land on my back, and he jumps back still on his feet.
Getting up, I turn back around with a smile and charge again, only to end up on my ass again.
"Alright! I think that's enough! Now the seal of reconciliation!"
We do the seal, and I am a little impressed, Katsuki is squarely a Genin combat specialist, to handle me like that, Minato should be at least around low Chunin in strength, which is very impressive for our age, obviously I'm an exception, again, not because I'm more talented, I just started earlier and have a good mind for tricks.
After that bit of excitement, everyone goes back to setting up camp where we all have a nice sleep and in no time at all, we are approaching Kiri's front gate.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
The dreaded chunin exams, will this mark the death of yet another Naruto fic?
It won't, I have plans for an older mc after all... damn I really need to do some more time skipps, but it's been long enough for one of his projects since I've decided to make it weaker than I was originally planning, so a few more chaps then a time skip to after puberty has had a bit of effect.
Probably.
https://ko-fi.com/bored_works