Chapter 32: Iwa Chunin Exams Arc: Three

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

I sit down again on the balcony after Kasuga leaves. There's no way for me to avoid my thoughts permanently.

If Tou-san is in fact Deidara's blood relative, and Deidara's most famous technique is his kekkei genkai the explosion release...And suddenly I remember that spring day when I'd pulled Tou-san's papers from my bag back in team training.

The Explosion Release notes. He had written them for me.

And if he'd written them for me, then he must believe that of his children, at least one of them had inherited the kekkei genkai, which implied that he had it himself.

I study my hands in the pale moonlight. Did I also inherit Iwa's most famous bloodline? Am I one of those people?

But the thing is I didn't have mouths on my hands, and neither did Tou-san. Perhaps Deidara is a special case?

"Hana-chan?" Itachi pokes his head around the door. "Shouldn't we rest so the test will go well tomorrow?"

I smile at him. "Of course, Ita-kun."

Sensei's there to greet us when we come in. "Be careful of treachery." He can't say specifically be careful of Iwa's administration attempting to sabotage us, but he could tell us to be watchful of betrayal.

"Yes, Sensei." I smile up at him. "I mean, at least this time we aren't going to eat scorpion."

Sensei shudders. "You brats shouldn't remind me of those creepy crawly things."

Toku muffles a laugh behind his hand. "Just for that, I really should find another stand that sells those things."

"You won't find any of those here. They're a Suna specialty." Sensei waves a hand airily. "At any rate, I'm taking a bed, and going to sleep. You three sort out your sleeping arrangements."

The boys and I look at each other, and then at the single remaining bed, and then back at each other. "You can take it." We say in unison.

In the end we just sleep in sleeping bags despite there being a perfectly functioning bed right next to us. There are too many awkward thoughts to consider, and we wouldn't all fit on the bed anyway.

"Each three man team is to send one member into each of the three rooms." Kitsuchi is actually the proctor for the first exam. Or well, he's one of the proctors. "Once there your task will be explained to you."

We look at each other. "Take Ni and San with you guys when you go." I pat Ni and San on the head, once each. "You two better be good at being protectors.

"We're the best protectors." They bark back, and Ni wriggles his way closer to Toku. "My human."

Toku raises an eyebrow and gives me a helpless look. "What's going on?"

"You've just been claimed by a dog." I shrug artlessly. "It happens."

Itachi and San share a look, and then they straighten their shoulders. "Well, there's only one thing to do. Let's make sure we pass." He whispers as he steps forwards towards the third room.

"Yeah." I say, and step forward to join the queue for the first room. Ichi trails me silently.

"Don't worry so much. This one should be information." Toku heads towards the second room, the straps of his pack clutched tightly in his hand. I take one look at the two of them and then at the two thirds of the Triplets who had elected to go with them.

Kami-sama. No killing in this exam please.

"You are to complete this exam in an hour. The last question will be handed to you at the end of an hour." The woman who's the proctor in this room looks around at us with a wide, almost too wide, smile. "If you do cheat you will be handed over to Torture and Interrogation and we have a lot of fun there." She sings. "Begin."

I flip the page over. There's almost too much deja vu. "If Enemy A and Enemy B are positioned at the locations marked on the paper, and you are hiding beneath the earth at point C which are: A) the most violent way to terminate both enemies. B) the fastest way to terminate A and capture B." Get a grip. I'm not in Konoha taking Naruto's exams.

I pick up the pencil and begin. "If given the chance to earth walk towards point A..."

A shinobi is escorted, screaming, from the room. The civilian born girl on Asata-san's team blanches. They don't play around in Iwa, you should have none that before you arrived.

I turn back to the test. "If you are posing as a civilian in City X (mission parameters given)..."

"Put your pencils down everyone." I look up at the proctor. "Now I will tell you your final mission directive."

Are we going to be told that we'll fail if we don't answer correctly? I'm being strongly reminded of Morino Ibiki right now.

Besides me, Ichi whines. "The weird woman smells too happy to do this."

I run a hand through his fur and scratch his back. "We'll make it through whatever they throw at us."

"Now." The woman smiles widely, showing far too many teeth. "Remember those teammates of yours? Well, only one of you is supposed to pass on to the next part of the exams." That...is not the same question what Naruto got.

What do they mean, only one of us passes?

The door of the room opens, and a deluge of shinobi march in. "Decide which one of you is going to make it, alright?" The room erupts into petty squabbles and fight between teammates.

I spot Toku and Itachi walking into the room without Ni and San. That is when the first doubt takes root in my mind. They would not leave Ni and San behind.

Ichi growls. "I smell a trap."

I pat him on the head, but turn back to my two teammates. "Toku! Ita! Over here!" I wave at them, and they head towards me and Ichi.

"Sorry, Hana." Toku activates his Byakugan, and that's the second doubt. "You know how much I want to be promoted."

Itachi palms a kunai and I don't have any more doubts, just a horrified certainty. I throw myself forwards, my own kunai in hand. "You are not Itachi." Ichi leaps at Toku from behind.

His eyes widen in shock as I brutally slash him across the throat. "Hana-" Blood sprays across my face and for a moment I doubt my own conclusions...And then he dissolves into a pile of mud. Mud clones, that's how they got them to look so realistic.

Ichi's sitting on another pile of mud with a disgusted look on his face and his tongue lolling out. "That tasted disgusting."

"You weren't injured I hope." I check him over.

"No. But that was still a nasty trick." He whines and sniffs the air. "Actual blood is being shed here."

There are actually fallen bodies in the room now, not just piles of mud. I do not pause to consider whether or not they are dead.

Instead, I stride down to the front of the room to face the proctor, Ichi following silently behind. "It looks like I'm the only one of my team remaining." I say and glare at her, with my arms crossed over my chest. "Doesn't that make me the one to enter the next exam?"

The proctor whistles. "Well aren't you the violent one." She inspects me carefully, noting the symbol of Konoha etched on the hitai-ate about my neck. "I didn't expect a leafy sprout to be so violent as to be the third one done."

I frown at her even as Ichi's lips draw back in a growl. "I knew they weren't my teammates the moment they walked into the room." My eyes narrow as I regard her smirking face. "What did you do to them?"

She waves a hand artlessly at the carnage occurring all around us. "Oh, the same thing's happening in the other rooms." She grins. "The faster you attack the weaker the clones are supposed to be acting. That's their purpose." So you reward the ones who will attack their teammates on sight, but you also reward the ones who know who their teammates are. "You can leave the room now. Go stand in the hallway."

Surely both Itachi and Toku know who I am. But I am less sure if they know each other. I close the door behind me, the sounds of fighting still echoing out from behind the stone door.

There are two others in the hallway already, glaring daggers at each other. A blonde haired girl from Kumo...and a shinobi from Suna. As soon as I step out with Ichi tumbling after me, the boy from Suna sneers. "Well look what the cat dragged in."

"At least she looks like a serious kunoichi, sand brain." The blonde girl pushes a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Even if you are a leaf."

I frown. I know her from somewhere. But whatever memory from the depths of my mind refuses to surface. "There's nothing wrong with being leaf."

"Hah." The Suna boy leans back against the wall. "All the shinobi from Konoha are weak."

"Well," I smile at him, a toothy smile. "Have you ever ripped someone's throat out with your teeth before?"

He burst out into laughter. "You? You don't even look like you could kunai person."

I keep my smile on my face as I take up a position against the opposite wall. "You don't know that." My last exams was a year ago in Suna. I run a hand through my loose, waist length hair. I probably look different right now.

The girl from Kumo laughs. "What's your name, little leaf?"

"Inuzuka Hana." I do not offer a hand for her to shake. There are too many not optimal outcomes of letting an enemy shinobi touch my bare skin.

She inclines her head towards me. "The name's Yugito Nii."

That's how I know her. The scene of her death. I nod, but offer nothing more. Ten more people make it out of the room.

"Hana!" I turn my head to spot Itachi, the actual Itachi that I had left this morning, hurrying towards me, San at his heels. I cut your throat this morning, Ita-kun.

"What's the matter?" I ask when he stops and stares at me very hard.

"I killed you." He whispers. "I know it wasn't actually you, but it's strange to see you right now." San comes over to bump my legs, as if reassuring himself that I am indeed real. I reassure him by running him hand down his back. Don't worry, San. I haven't gone anywhere.

"Same here." I peel myself off of the wall. "Don't worry about it, Ita-kun I'm not offended." It's easy to say. Easy to say and easy to pretend that it's true. But I killed you this morning too.

He shudders. "I don't think this is the most welcoming place." He slips his hand in mine. "We should go wait outside Toku-kun's room for him."

I nod. "Yes, that would be best." In answering the last question, it would be kind hearted Toku who had the most trouble. Even if he knows that we aren't in the room with him, would he be willing to slash our throats?

Toku stumbles out of the door a few minutes after we pause to lean outside his door. "Toku!" I surge forwards to catch him. Ni rejoins his brothers, subdued and silent.

His hands find my face. "Hana." He looks over my shoulder. "Itachi." A line of tension bleeds out of his shoulders. "I-"

I put a finger over his lips. "We know. We had the same test in our rooms." I'm pulled into a hug that chokes the air from my lungs.

"Never again." Toku whispers in my hair. "I will never do something like that ever again."

"You should do it if the things that look like us are about to kill you." Itachi comes to stand beside us. "It's the only way you'd live."

Toku chuckles, watery and indistinct. "Oh, I knew it wasn't you guys." He sighs, his eyes closed. "But I couldn't do it, and then it just kept getting harder to kill them."

It gets harder the longer you wait. I feel a hard spark of anger roar to life in my chest. Be careful Iwa. Be very careful. An Inuzuka does not forget a wrong, and you have wronged four of my brothers today.

"Alright!" Kitsuchi slaps his hands together. "Those who still have all three members of their teams, come and stand in the front."

We plod forwards with our heads down. There's no reason to draw undue attention towards us. There are two dojustu inheritors on this team. The number of theftable eyes might only be two, but that is two too many to be comfortable with in hostile territory.

"Now, these twelve teams are the ones that pass." His voice booms over us. "Report tomorrow to this area and we will discuss your second exam."

The vast majority of passing teams wear the Iwa headband, but there's no time to consider it.

Sensei's already making his way towards us.

"There's been a problem, ducklings." He glances over at Kitsuchi. "Don't mind if I take them right now, yeah?"

Kitsuchi doesn't look pleased, but he lets us go with Sensei. "Fine, be over protective of your students, Nara. It's a wonder they survive in the real world."

"Hey." Toku's fists are clenched as he glares at the man. "Don't you dare say anything about sensei."

"So," Sensei begins as we walk out into the street. "The girl on Asata's team didn't make it out in one piece, so they're short a member. They're going home."

No...I hadn't cared to pay attention to her, but she'd been in my room. Why didn't I watch out for her just a little? I hadn't even noticed that she hadn't made it out of the door.

When had I gotten to this point? Where had the person who cared about lives gone?

My moral compass left me when I decided that some lives were more important than others. Unbidden, Kiba's smiling face appears in my mind, and then Kaa-san, my cousins, Sensei, Kiho-baachan, Toku, Muta, Itachi, and even Kakashi and Fugaku-san, Mikoto-san and Sasuke. They will always be more important to me than other lives.

I guess that's how it works. I ruthlessly shove down my horror. "Sensei, where does that leave us?" Better to live and to drag my people living with me.

Sensei grimaces. "The Council has standing orders that as long as we pass the tests, we are to continue."

I can really learn to hate the Hokage's Council.

Itachi comes to walk on Sensei's other side. "Don't worry Sensei. We'll pass you'll see. None of us will die."

"I heard about what happened during this test in the Jonin lounge from the Tsuchikage himself." Sensei inspects our faces carefully. "No hard feelings between you lot?"

"None." Toku replies. "We did what we had to. We don't regret it." His voice doesn't shake when he replies. And when he slings an arm over Itachi's shoulders, and an arm over mine, we know that it's going to be some form of okay.

Deidara shows up as I'm walking through the street market in the downtown area later that afternoon. I've taken off my hitai-ate, preferring to keep it in my bag instead. It would probably incite a riot if I walked around with the symbol of Konoha around in Iwa's civilian district, but I did want to pick up souvenirs for everyone at home. I've gone from killing mud clones that look like my teammates in the morning, to questioning whether or not Kaa-san would like crow feather extensions for her hair in the afternoon.

I'm insane.

"Oi! Leafy Ninja, un!" I pause my perusal of hair extensions.

"My apologies, Vendor-san." I smile politely at the old man manning the stand. "I seem to have been summoned by a rocky ninja." Finally, finally I turn to face Deidara.

He's not all that old at all. Younger than me even. "Did you want something?" I tilt my head to the side. "Rocky Ninja, un?"

A vein twitches in his temple. "Don't copy me, un!" We're standing in the street, and his finger is being jabbed in my general direction. "I wanna talk to you, un!"

I walk over to him, casually set a hand on his shoulder, and guide us off towards the tea house I'd seen earlier. "We can talk somewhere far far away from everyone else got it?"

He peers up at my face. "That is my nose, un." That's what I'm afraid of...

"No." I respond and poke him in the nose. "That's my nose, un. You stole it from me."

We enter the teahouse, and I slide a fifty ryo note over the counter towards the matron. "A quiet table for me and my friend here."

She looks at the two of us. "Oh, you two must give your parents such a hard time." She laughs and waves us to a table. "Deidara-kun, you never told me you had a sister."

"I'm not his sister." Oh hell no. I'm not related to him at all.

"She's not my sister, un!" Deidara snaps.

The matron looks at us again, peering at our faces. Is she...partially blind? "Oh my, I'm sorry you two. It's just that something about you two looked similar."

I smile at her. "It's no problem. Just a table for two please."

"Why'd we have to talk in here?" Deidara sulkily sips his tea. I'd checked his hands as he'd reached for the mochi, he didn't have mouths. What does that even mean? They'd been such a big part of his character. Does he get them later?

It looked more and more like the explosion release didn't have anything to do with the mouths on his hands.

"Well, if you kept screaming leafy ninja in the street we'd start a riot, un." I tilt my head to the side and examine him. If I ignore the fact that he's going to grow up into a terrorist bomber, he doesn't seem like a bad kid. A little loud, a little bratty, a little arrogant, but not a bad kid.

He reminded me of Kiba, only Kiba is my little brother and I couldn't say the same of Deidara no Iwa.

"Why do you look like me?" He asks, and something about him is horrifically hopeful. "I've never met someone from somewhere else that looked like me, un."

I can't tell you why I look like you. I shrug. "I don't know."

His face falls. "I thought we might be related, un." It's strange enough to think about. Why would he care so much whether or not we're related. Theoretically, he's related to every member of the Explosion Corps.

"Don't you have more relatives?" I ask, and his face falls further.

"No." He twiddles his thumbs but doesn't drink his tea. "Kaa and Tou died early." There is something truly heartbreaking about hearing the seven year old confess this.

I pour him a fresh cup of magnolia tea and slide it across the table towards him. "I don't know if we're blood related, Deidara-kun."

He looks at me with hopeful eyes. "But we might be then, if you don't know."

I frown. This can't get back to the Tsuchikage, or he'll never let me leave Iwa. "I don't think we are."

Deidara closes his eyes and his face falls. "Okay."

"You can call me cousin in private if you'd like." I offer. Curse my foolish bleeding heart. There's no reason for me to offer him that.

"Cousin Hana?" He asks, and breaks into a smile so big it cut his entire face in two. "You'd let me call you Cousin, un?" He takes the tea I'm offering him eagerly now and gulps it down as if he hadn't anything to drink in days.

"Yeah." I sigh. Since I've already offered, I can't very well take it away.

He overturns the table in the space of a breath and he's laughing breathlessly in my ear with his arms clasped tightly around my neck. "Thank you, Leafy-I mean, Cousin Hana, un. You won't regret it ever, un."

It is a kindness that I do not know if I will ever have cause to regret, but I've made a child happy, if only for a day.

A.N. This chapter begins and ends with thoughts regarding our favorite terrorist bomber from Iwa. I think the child Deidara would probably remind Hana a lot of her own little brother.

Thanks to bubblesrule18, ManawaSasa, WhiteFang001, Alizay (Kasuga used Hana's unconscious body to block Muta's attacks to force a ninjutsu match during the Suna Chunin Exams arc), and BloodOragne-SeaShell for reviewing!

And to everyone else who favorited and followed.

~Tavina.