Reunion

Mizuki body flickered at a casual pace, still exhausted from the previous hours' events.

Despite his resting for several hours, Raido's chakra signature had not changed since he had goten captured.

Mizuki: "Oh! Stupid Me!"

Mizuki muttered under his breath as he stopped and adjusted Raido.

Feeling Raido's unconcious body, which was slung over his shoulder like a piece of luggage, Mizuki removed the seal that he had placed on him so that he could absorb his chakra.

After all, its not like he could pull the chakra for terafforming craters to hide a battle and healing two injured opponents out of thin air.

His solution: Steal it.

Mizuki ensured that Raido was securely attached to him before continuing his journey with little care as to his comrade's comfort, simply wanting to get back to the group.

. . .

In a manner one would expect of Mizuki, he rendevoused with the group at fifty nines minutes and fifty nine seconds.

No earlier nor any later than he had promised, as he had siezed every opportunity possible to rest along the journey.

Truthfully, he had arrived at the position over half an hour ago.

He just really wanted a nap.

Mizuki: "Yo"

He let loose his trademark lazy smirk as he greeted his teammates, who looked at him with a variety of expressions.

Kurenai carried one of tiredeness relief, as if a massive weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

Asuma, carried one of respect, as he looked towards his partner, who risked his life to fight for the village which his father headed.

If Mizuki heard this thought, he would have laughed out loud and exposed himself, despite his acting skill. Fortunaetly for him, no such event happened.

And then there was Anko.

When he first appeared, she instantly rushed towards him and checked for injuries, getting only a couple of centimeters away from hom before scanning him up and down for injuries.

Thankfully, Mizuki was able to heal most of the major damage he had been dealt over the course of the battle.

Although he was still left with some small reminents of these wounds, which accompanied the countless bruises and scratches which decorated his body.

Namely, slight burns and a slash mark along his shoulder from where he was struck by his oponent's tanto.

Seeing as his injuries were manageable and appeared light, Anko let loose a heavy sigh as her tension eased out of her body.

Anko: "I was worried about you..."

Anko faintly muttered under her breath. Her voice loud enough for Mizuki to hear, but not for their other two companions.

And so, the group of five shinobi took off in search of their objective, with Asuma carrying Raido on his shoulders, believing that his teammate should be his resposability.

They advanced in a square formation, with Mizuki and Anko in the front acting as sensors with Kurenai and Asuma in the back.

Despite the trials and tribulations he had gone through, Mizuki still had enough leftover chakra from that he stole from Raido and Samui.

And whilst the chakra stolen was not enough to allow him to use the bastardized version of mind's eye that he had created, it did allow for him too cast the same jutsu that Anko was using.

Anko and Mizuki: {Snake Art: Slithering Pursuit!}

(A/N Thanks a ton DerangedPirate for the Jutsu name Ideas! :) )

The jutsu itself granted them two different sensory abilities.

The first, and weaker of the two, was an increased sense of smell. Nowhere near that of an Inizuka, but sensative enough to make an effective tracker.

However, it was the second of these two effects that made the jutsu truly OP.

The jutsu allowed them to see in infrared and track their targets via their heat signature.

. . . . .

The group then began their search, having wasted time retrieving their teammate and fighting a spy, they feared that the time they wasted would become their undoing.

Luckily for them, all four of them were within the top 10% of participants in the exam with Anko breaking through to past the top 5% and Mizuki in the top 1%.

However, the time that had passed only served to help them, as Mizuki and Anko executed their strategy.

Using Slithering Pursuit, they would look for areas with high concentrations of heat signatures and investigate them, so far they were having no such luck, but it was only a matter of time.

As the group advanced, Mizuki felt some tension building with Anko, and decided that he would try to adress the issue as quickly as possible.

No need to put it off and let whatever misunderstanding they had build into a massive argument.

Mizuki: "Hey Anko, what's up?"

Anko: "Oh..Mizuki..It's nothing"

Mizuki looked at her before simply lightly sighing and replying to her.

Mizuki: "Listen, Anko, I understand that something happened, and if I am being 100% honest, I don't know what it is. But all the same, I am your friend, and I don't want anything to cause that to change."

Mizuki: {Fuck, that sounded really god damn cringy. I couldn't think of a less cheesy way to say it though..}

Anko pondered upon his words for a little whilst, before turning to confront him.

Anko: "I should have been there..."

Anko: "We are supposed to be a team, we are suppsoed to trust one another...yet you went off to face the spy alone. We could have helped... I could have helped."

Hearing her reaction, Mizuki nodded in understanding before responding.

Mizuki: "Anko, you are right about us being a team and needing to trust one another..but that doesn't mean that we need to do everything and anything together."

Mizuki: "Don't get me wrong, I have an awesome time hanging out with you, but part of challenenging ourselves and growing is being independent, but independece doesn't mean it's not ok to rely on each other once in a whilst."

Hearing his response, Anko fell into silence yet again, thinking about his response and comparing it too her own.

Thinking about what he said, she found that she could not really find a fault in his logic, as she realized that there were some times where they were holding each other back by being to intent on sticking together.

Anko: "That's fair...I'm sorry if I came off as somewhat bratty or entitled.."

Mizuki shook his head before turning to face her, his eyes filled with fondness and understanding.

Mizuki: "No worries, I get where you are coming from"

Anko looked towards Mizuki before blushing slightly and nodding.

Despite making other friends throughout her time at the academy, in the end they were all pretty casual, there being nobody who she was particularly close with.

That is, until that faitful day when she met her deskmate after arriving late to class.

Despite her talking about teamwork, even she new that she was just spewing bullshit.

She wouldn't care if Idate did something like that, so why did she Mizuki?

The awnser was a relatively simple one. because she genuinly cared about Mizuki, and didn't want him to get hurt.

However, regardless of how much she had that desire, she knew that it was unrealistic to hold him back all of the time, and so, her willpower strengthened as she made a vow to herself.

Anko: {If he is going to be independent..then I need to be strong enough to back him up if he loses!}

Mizuki had little idea of the impact his words had on his companion, whos outlook would never remain the same.

Checking his chakra reserves, Mizuki turned to Anko and sighed.

Anko: "Out of chakra?"

Mizuki nodded with slight embarassment at the fact as Anko laughed and teased him, causing the slightly depressing atmosphere earlier to dissapate.

Anko knew about Mizuki's Jutsu as she was the one who allowed him to try it out on her, as she had abnormally massive reserves of chakra.

Anko: "Well, you know what you have to do if you want to borrow some of my chakra."

Mizuki blushed slightly as he realized what he had to do.

He thought back to when he had talked to Anko about the jutsu.

. . . . .

(Flashback)

Anko: "It's totally fine if you ever want to borrow some of my chakra. Although, considering that we are teammates, and I don't want you doing the same thing to others, the way we do it will be a little bit.... different"

. . . . .

Mizuki sighed as he remembered what he had to do in order to borrow some of her chakra.

He reached out....

and held her hand.

Mizuki couldn't help but blush as he remembered how Anko said that she was the only person who's chakra he could steal like this, saying that she needed different treatment compared to the others.

Luckily for Mizuki,

A mere five minutes after he started stealing chakra, they were able to discover a large gathering of people, larger than any group they had previously felt by far.

Mizuki: "The base"

Mizuki muttered under his breath.

He had a light but relieved smirk on his face,

As if he was happy that he passed this phase of the exam, but it was expected nonetheless.

Meanwhilst, Anko's reaction was a totally different one, as she cursed whatever cruel and unfair gods cut her handholding session short now of all times, although quickly relented. This was supposed to be an important exam after all.