Growing Pains

XI

Hinata stared down at the three faces staring up at her, wondering what to say. These children were the first to arrive, but she couldn’t tell them that, could she? The girl tossed her hair and sighed.

“Look, we’re first, right?” she asked. “Okay, so we can rest up. What’re we gonna do, break something?”

“Umi,” one of the boys admonished. “Be nice.”

“That was nice.”

Hinata coughed to get their attention before they began to argue. “You know the rules of the preliminaries?”

The girl, Umi, gave an annoyed sigh. “Yes! Our sensei explained it all to us! We’re twelve, not stupid.”

Despite herself, Hinata found herself starting to smile. “Well, if you understand.”

Hinata let the group into the arena then, finally smiling at their gasps of amazement. She shifted and looked up once, then shot her eyes back up, smile disappearing in favour of surprise as black and red eyes stared back at her. He was reclining on the catwalk, sitting as easily and relaxed as if he’d been standing. Uchiha Sasuke gave Hinata a lazy smile and got to his feet. With the grace becoming of a Hyuuga, Hinata quietly fled. In her wake, the genin thundered up the steps to their sensei, laughing as they slid to a halt before him and sat down.

“You’re early,” Sasuke said easily.

“We’re first,” Kyo replied.

“I know. Orochimaru called me the moment you set foot in here.”

“We don’t need to be babysat,” Umi piped, arms over her chest. “We took out ANBU and genin today.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “ANBU?”

“They were following us. And we trapped them in our spider web.” Sei said. He tilted his head a moment later. “’Course, they’re probably loose by now.”

“Probably,” Sasuke agreed softly. “You three are certainly a headache.”

“It’s in our job description, sensei.”

“So I’m aware.” Sasuke shook his head. “Rest up while you can. This is the part where you’ll be showing off, but remember, you three need to hold back as much as you can. That means no ice mirrors, Umi.”

“Dammit,” Umi sighed. “What about ice senbon?”

“It’s bad enough you look like Deidara. No.”

“Dammit!”

Sei rolled his eyes. “So I can’t chameleon, either?”

Sasuke shook his head a negative. “And Kyo, don’t use your fangs, all right? The only time any of you are permitted to use your special abilities is if your lives depend on it. That’s an order from the Yunkage.”

“Hai, sensei.” Three voices chorused. Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes, just listening to the inane chatter of his students. He only opened them again when the commencement speech was being given, and then his eyes met glaring electric blue. Sasuke refused to instigate a fight here – there would be time enough after. Right now, the fighting belonged solely to the genin. They were the ones being judged after all.

When the speech was finally finished, Sasuke averted his gaze to the forms of his genin and watched them enclose around him like a protective circle. They were humming with energy, ready for the trial ahead. Names began to flash up on the board, a roulette tainted with nervousness and fear. Would the strong be pitted against the weak? The cunning against the genius? Would someone be hurt bad enough that they’d no longer qualify to be shinobi?

The first names popped up onto the board. Sasuke let out a silent, relieved breath. Snow and Rain. So it continued, every possible combination, and then Umi’s name appeared on the board. Beside it, a kunoichi from the Land of Grass. Umi tightened her ponytail and nodded, moving from the catwalk to the floor below. Sasuke watched her crack her knuckles and tell herself the rules he’d set for her. Down came the Grass kunoichi and Sasuke felt a pang of regret for the girl.

Umi wasn’t the type to go down fast or easy. This girl from the Grass carried herself with an air of superiority, exactly the type Umi liked to beat the shit out of. They stood across from one another, staring, until Umi shifted just a bit and bowed.

Sasuke groaned.

“Don’t think you’re gonna win,” the Grass kunoichi said snidely. “Only real shinobi become chuunin.”

Umi only smiled and canted her head. “Well, don’t let me stop you."

The Grass kunoichi frowned and then threw herself back as Umi feinted forward. The blonde crouched and spun, leg jackknifing out to upset the other girl’s balance. The follow through was spectacular – even as the Grass kunoichi leapt up to avoid Umi’s incoming strike, he failed to realize Umi had twisted over, planting her hands and kicking up her opposite leg, catching her opponent square in the chin. Umi spun back to her feet and stepped lightly over to her fallen opponent, cocking her head but careful to stay out of arms reach. The other girl lay on the floor, blood trickling from her mouth. Umi winced and looked over at the proctor, giving Genma a weak smile.

“I think she bit her tongue off.”

Genma stared for a good few minutes before he flicked his senbon to the left side of his mouth and sighed. “Tsukiyoshi Umi is the winner.”

As the medic nins emerged to take care of the Grass ninja, Umi made her way back to her sensei and teammates. She sighed heavily as she sat against the wall, staring up at Sasuke and pouting.

“I didn’t think she’d go down just from that,” Umi said quietly. “I wanted it to last longer.”

“You’ll get your chance in round two,” Sasuke assured her. “Now just watch the boys fight.”

Umi wasn’t thrilled with the prospect, but with a groan she sat down anyway. Maybe some entertainment would arise and she could at least yell.