Chapter 52

— Hinata —

"Come on, big sis Naruko, big sis Hinata!" Konohamaru urged, rushing forward; they followed behind him at a leisurely running speed. She found the grandson of Lord Third to be a very interesting character, more so because he was Naruko's pet project. A boy she was training for the hell of it, and the thought of Naruko being a sensei was too funny to put down.

"Slow down, Konohamaru!" Moegi, another one of Naruko's students, shouted as she struggled to follow at their speed. Hinata found it cute; it was a light jog for them, a decent run for Konohamaru, but for Moegi and Udon, it was a full sprint.

"Oh, my bad." The Sarutobi child slowed his speed and eventually stopped. "Here we are!" He outstretched his hands, and Naruko paused to look at what she was looking at. Hinata's eyes twitched at the gall of Konohamaru.

A book store, more than that, the main thing they were advertising was the new Icha Icha book by Lord Jiraiya, the perverted sannin.

"I heard that there's this new book that all the strongest Jonin are reading called Icha Icha Innocence. I tried to get the second book, Icha Icha Violence, but they said I was too young…Whatever's in that book must be real high-level stuff." Konohamaru closed his eyes and nodded sagely. "So, can either of you get me all three books, please? I have the money; just please go in there and purchase it for me!"

If only the little brat knew what he was asking of them. He was essentially asking them to walk in, use his money to purchase soft-core porn, walk out, and give the aforementioned porn to a child.

"I am afraid I have to decline." Hinata smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes, and the kids had seen her wrath enough by now to know not to press her buttons any further than they had. The three kids ran off, leaving her and Naruko alone.

"Glad that's over." Naruko laughed nervously, and Hinata's eyes narrowed. Why did Naruko always act weird whenever Icha Icha was mentioned? It was the bane of all women's existence, but Naruko didn't seem to feel the same way.

There was more to this story, and she planned on figuring it out.

"What do you say we meet up with Sakura and Satsuki and grab some ramen?" Naruko asked, snapping Hinata out of her suspicions. A girl's trip to Ichiraku's sounded nice right about now.

"That sounds lovely!"

"Yes!" Naruko cheered, likely not expecting Hinata to agree, which is fair. The Chunin Exams were around a week away, so Hinata had been locked in with training. Everyone had mostly kept to themselves and their training schedules, and it's been a couple of days since she'd even seen Lei. Something about Lord Hokage having Lei stay in the Hokage Mansion while they trained since it would be better than having a tired walk back to the Senju compound.

"AHHH!" They heard a shout, and Hinata could have sworn that Konohamaru shouted. Naruko blasted toward the shout, and Hinata followed closely behind.

"Quite the find I got here."

They stopped in their tracks as they saw some guy in black clothes with face paint holding Konohamaru up by his ankle.

Hinata, wasting no time, reached into her pouch and sent some shuriken at the boy's arm. The boy, upon seeing the approaching shuriken, dropped Konohamaru and jumped back.

"Hey, what the hell!" He shouted, looking at them.

"What the hell? You were holding one of our village's children up by their ankle, Sand Shinobi." Hinata waved her arms in fury. He dares try andclaim to be the victim after bullying a child.

"Sounds about right for Suna." A feminine voice spoke, and walking down the street were three shinobi she didn't expect to see at any chunin exam hosted by Konoha.

"What's that supposed to mean, Iwa bastard?!" The sand boy sneered,

"Kankuro, control yourself." The blonde Suna shinobi who had been watching spoke and stood behind the now-named Kankuro.

"You think I'll just let them bad mouth our village, Temari?!"

"Just kill them in the exam if they bother you so much." Temari shrugged, and Kankuro grinned.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try, sand muncher; how's that infertile land working for you?" The black-haired Iwa shinobi smirked

"Says the Iwa shinobi with infertile land." Temari raised an eyebrow.

That seemed to piss the Iwa nin off. "You do not know a thing! Iwa has ways to attain well-grown food; unlike Suna, we are not the weakest village."

Iwa got Suna there. Hinata had to admit that much.

"We just got here, and the villages are already fighting?" Another feminine voice spoke, and onto the road walked three more shinobi, these shinobi from Kumo. "I guess you called it Omoi."

"I told you, Samui! With all these villages participating, it's going to lead to some huge disaster, and another war will start!" Omoi panicked, earning a slap on the back of the head from a red-haired woman beside him.

"Stop worrying so much; it just worries everyone else; shut your mouth!"

"I can't, Karui; what if something happens and Bee-sensei decides to take it out on Konoha, and then Konoha retaliates, and then Iwa attacks Konoha, and then Suna defends Konoha, and then Kiri…does Kiri things."

"You sound stupid." Karui crossed her arms under her bust, seemingly done with her teammate's paranoia.

"Here goes the Kumo parade," Kankuro whispered under his breath. At this point, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon were trying their best to slip out of the middle of the road, so Hinata gestured for them to come to her, and they did, running behind her as they watched everything unfold.

"Got something to say, Suna nin?" The blonde Kumo shinobi, Samui, asked, crossing her arms under her massive bust. It's been a while since Hinata has seen a girl around the same age as her and Naruko with a bust comparable to theirs.

"I don't know, why don't you come over here and find out!" Kankuro outstretched his arms, ready for a fight.

"This is all so stupid." Hinata looked to a tree past the middle of the road and saw Satsuki sitting in it casually, looking down upon all the shinobi present.

"Another tree hugger?" The black-haired Iwa girl asked with unhidden annoyance.

Satsuki blinked. "You're surprised about seeing a Leaf shinobi…in the leaf?"

"You know what I meant!"

"I know you're an idiot."

The Iwa shinobi's hand appeared in a seal, and everyone grew tense. Hinata activated her Byakugan, and Naruko raised her hands in the clone seal.

"Kankuro, Temari…what are you doing?" All eyes looked at the tree Satsuki was sitting on and saw a boy with red hair, dark shadowed eyes, and kanji on his forehead.

"G-Gaara…we were just playing around with the locals." Kankuro grew nervous for the first time in this altercation.

"You're an embarrassment to our village, Kankuro. You should know better than to talk to others. After all…" Gaara's eyes looked at each of them, and Hinata's hand reached back into her pouch, ready to buy some time in case he attacked. Something about him unnerved her, and she'd be damned if she let Naruko's little students get caught up in the crossfire. "...You're playing with dead men."

"We got a problem?"

Again, eyes snapped to the tree, but this time not at Gaara; instead, they snapped to a lone face that had emerged from the tree, a very familiar face, a face she loved a great deal.

"Of course, you're here as well, Lei," Satsuki smirked, and Hinata frowned as she looked at the other shinobi around using her Byakugan. Each of the shinobi grew tense the moment Lei was mentioned, which means-

They knew who he was.

— Lei —

"Well, yeah, no way I would miss this." I returned Satsuki's smirk, letting my hands come out of the tree so just my face and hands were sticking out. I'm sure it looked either really funny or outright terrifying.

There was no in-between.

I looked at each of the shinobi, each of them with their eyes on me. It gave me a feeling of confidence to know I was being looked at as the guy at the top of the food chain, but I knew this also could be a bad thing.

My eyes gazed over each of them. Samui, Omoi, and Karui from Kumo. Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara from Suna. Kurotsuchi and a couple of guys I didn't know from Iwa. We damn near had a full house, all we needed was Kiri.

Who I already knew was going to participate in the Chunin Exams. Of course, their being here does not bode well for the future, but denying their entry into the exam would create more tension than there already is, so the old man accepted.

A lot is riding on this exam, more than anyone here realizes, and I don't intend to fail.

"So you are Lei Senju? You don't look like much." Kurotsuchi glared.

"Yeah, that's about what I'd expect, considering I'm just a head and some arms." I deadpanned. What the fuck is up with this girl? I had been here the moment I felt Kankuro and Temari just chilling on this street as they owned it, and so far, Kurotsuchi has shown herself to be brash and foolish, speaking before thinking.

So not that different from canon…

I let the rest of my body come out of the tree and jumped down to the ground, leaning back against the tree as I looked at Kurotsuchi. "Feel free to get a better look."

She looked away from me; I don't know if it's because I told her to look at me and she didn't want to follow orders or because she had seen enough of me, but I strongly believe it's the former.

"Ara, I didn't know Konoha had such cute shinobi." Temari winked at me and gave her a grin. Nothing wrong with taking the compliment, especially from a beautiful girl.

"Thank you, you're not so bad yourself." Temari returned my grin at that before one look at Gaara wiped any playfulness off of her face.

Silence descended on the road, and I realized we wouldn't get anywhere like this.

"Well, if all you're going to do is quietly stare, I have a million better uses of my time." I gestured to Satsuki for her to drop down, and we walked over to Hinata, Naruko, and the three little rascals. As we started walking away, the little menace spoke.

"Wait."

I took a moment before turning around to look dead in Gaara's eyes.

"Lei Senju…I will rain your blood upon Konoha's trees."

I paused because I was honestly surprised by how straightforward he was. No mention of his mother, no speaking about proving his existence, just a promise he had for me even if he couldn't keep it.

"I asked earlier if there was a problem; I guess there is." I frowned, crossing my arms. "What are we gonna do to solve it?"