4 - Coming Exams

Now, obviously that didn't work. Still, Fuyuka tried her best to provide external support and negate damage to Sasuke and Naruto.

The girl visibly flinched as Naruto was knocked out cold, and Sasuke was pierced by several senbon in an effort to defend his friend.

"Naruto, get up!" she shouted. The blond stirred, spotting Haku collapsed on the ground and Sasuke bleeding heavily. He had managed to deflect some senbon, with Fuyuka knocking away a few with her well-aimed shuriken, but the Uchiha had still taken the worst of the hits.

The kunoichi could only watch helplessly as Sasuke collapsed, caught by Naruto before he hit the ground. As Haku began to get up, Fuyuka threw kunai to distract him as Naruto stood up, his eyes unusually cold. An orange flare began to circle the blond, a fearsome chakra. His eyes turned orange and slitted. No matter what happened, this wasn't Naruto.

Snarling animalistically, Naruto bound towards Haku on all fours, the intent to kill in his orange eyes. It was clear Haku was now outmatched.

"Fuyuka! Get out of there!" She was distracted by a shout from Kakashi. Considering the strength of Naruto(?)'s chakra, it was evident this place was dangerous, especially as she'll fall quite far if he breaks the mirror she's standing on. In a flying leap, the girl landed on the ground beside Sakura and Tazuna, watching the orange chakra in the air.

She wanted to fight, not stand back as Naruto did some fox shit.

Ugh.

Fuyuka contributed absolutely nothing in the fight.

Naruto did his fox stuff and absolutely demolished Haku, who saved Zabuza in his last moments, only for the demon in the mist to die in the end.

What did good old Fuyuka do? Try and stab chunks of basically unbreakable ice. Do a cool jump when escaping. Stand still. The end.

Now they were back in Konoha. Naruto and Sasuke argued more than ever, Sakura got repeatedly insulted by her crush, while Fuyuka tried to read manga in peace.

She had asked Kogane about her blue blood, and her sister assured her it was nothing to worry about but she didn't get any more information. Come to think of it, the black-and-gold haired girl was being quite cryptic these days...

When Fuyuka returned home after a mission, Kogane was nowhere to be seen.

She didn't investigate. She knew. It was the Hoshino going missing thing again.

But she couldn't worry now. The Chunin exams were coming soon,

Her family had been going missing for years. The blue-haired girl simply brushed a tuft of dark hair out of her face and went to microwave some instant noodles for dinner.

The next day, Fuyuka went outside and sat under a tree to read manga. She would worry about Kogane some other time, not now. However, she perked up when she sensed an unfamiliar chakra just on the tree she sat under.

Pretending not to notice, the blue-haired girl drew a shuriken from her holster and launched it up.

From the tree, an unfamiliar enemy ninja jumped "Tch, you found me. But you can't beat me, I already successfully infiltrated the village-"

Fuyuka lunged in and jabbed at the stranger's stomach, then kicked him on the knees. She pointed a kunai at the strange ninja's neck. "Get out of Konohagakure."

"Tch..." The ninja aimed a punch at the genin, who ducked out of the way and kicked upwards at the intruder's face, doing a flip and throwing two shuriken while she was at it. As the blue-haired genin landed, she retrieved a kunai to resume her attack, only to find the ninja back on the tree.

"So that's the prowess of the ninja trained by Kakashi."

He went poof.

"Well, that works too."

That night, Fuyuka went out for dinner since Kogane was gone. She plopped down alone at a table, gesturing for the waitress. "One Tsuyu Soba."

The waitress nodded, leaving to prepare the food. However, as the girl looked up, she caught a glimpse of a familiar genin team taking a seat at the table beside her.

'...Team Haruka. Magician wannabe, cute prankster girl, green genius.'

Mitsuka looked up, noticing the blue-haired girl. "Oh, it's the newbi- um, the not newbie."

Naku glanced up again, a small scowl visible on his face as he spotted Fuyuka. "You again. The one with the insulting nicknames."

"It's not insulting if it's true."

Terasu sighed, patting his teammate's shoulder to calm him down. "Both of you, calm down and don't get into fights. The Chunin exams are coming soon, so we can't waste energy."

Naku gave Fuyuka one last 'fuck you' glare, then began to eat the noodles that arrived at his table. Fuyuka just shrugged to herself, nodding to the waitress who arrived to deliver her own soba. No doubt Team Haruka was participating in the chunin exams as well. Mitsuka seemed pretty straightforward with her taijutsu. Naku seemed a bit trickier, most likely mixing up his strategies. Terasu was difficult, his personality not exactly giving Fuyuka much to work with.

Oh well.

Since Fuyuka was alone, she finished her food quickly and walked out.

"The newbies are participating in the exams too, right?" Naku asked, taking a sip of water. Terasu nodded. "I believe so. Fuyuka is part of Kakashi's Team 7, I believe."

Mitsuka smiled. "Can't wait to see how those rookies fight."

The next day, Fuyuka met up with her team and entered the building, finding a crowd amassed in front of Room 301. The blue-haired girl sensed genjutsu in the air, though it was hard to pinpoint.

As they squeezed to the front of the crowd, they could see two students blocking the way, having slightly injured a pretty girl with brown hair tied into two buns and a boy in a green jumpsuit with a bowl cut and somewhat disturbingly thick eyebrows. Naku and his team stood in the crowd, not yet doing anything.

"Whatever you were talking about, pause and let us through now," Sasuke demanded, facing the two boys. "And also, undo the genjutsu, would you? I need to get to the third floor."

Despite the crowd's murmuring, Sakura confidently stepped up and declared that this was the second floor. One of the boys frowned slightly, letting the genjutsu go, the 301 sign turning back into 201.

"So what if you saw through? That doesn't change anything!" the boy shouted, lunging forward to attack Sasuke. The black-haired Uchiha kicked back, only for both their attacks to be stopped by the eyebrow kid.

"Hey, you were the one who said we shouldn't use any skills this soon. What was that for?" From the crowd stepped out the third member of eyebrow and buns' team, a somewhat grumpy looking boy with long dark brown hair. From the almost-white lavender eyes, Fuyuka intelligently (yeah right) deduced he was a Hyuga.

In response, eyebrow turned towards Sakura, a visible blush appearing. "I am Rock Lee. You must be Sakura. Please go out with me, I swear to protect you until I die!"

Buns sighed, muttering something on the lines of "this again..." while Fuyuka sweatdropped.

"Uh, definitely no. Those eyebrows freak me out!" Sakura declared, taking a step back, causing Lee to look down depressingly.

"You. Who are you?" Hyuga boy asked, stepping towards Sasuke. Naruto fumed, then turned to face the wall, joining Rock Lee in his depression era, which earned a smug smirk from Fuyuka. Still, she was equally pissed at Sasuke acting all leaderlike.

"State your own name before questioning someone else," Sasuke retorted, causing Hyuga boy to scowl. "You're one of those rookies. How old are you, even?"

"I don't have to answer you."

Part of Fuyuka was tempted to answer for him just to be evil, but she kept quiet.

"Well, come on. Let's go before we're late," she said to her teammates.

The four were just walking through a relatively large room when the voice of none other than Rock Lee interrupted them. "Please, wait a moment!"

"Gah, I won't date you!" Sakura shouted by instinct. Sasuke coolly pocketed his hands. "What?"

"I would like to fight you now," Lee declared, pointing at Sasuke. Then he turned towards Sakura, winking a floating heart which the pink haired girl dodged while screaming. "D-don't do that, I'm dodging for my life here!"

Lee then proceeded to wink a barrage of hearts, which Sakura dodged as Fuyuka and Naruto stepped back. Just in case.

As the genin turned back to Sasuke, Naruto stepped forward like an idiot to challenge him, only to be knocked unconscious with ease.

"I am the strongest genin currently in Konoha," Lee added, causing Sasuke to smirk. "I'll fight you."

"Sasuke, no, there isn't enough time!" Sakura argued, and was promptly ignored.

Fuyuka frowned slightly at the bowl cut boy's words. She was 80%, no, 90% certain the pretty Hyuga boy from his own team, and potentially one of Naku's team was on par or stronger than him.

"Huh, what's going on here?" Where Lee had walked through a few minutes before, Naku and his team stepped through. "You are here for the chunin exams, why fight now?

"Don't interrupt them, watch. This is a chance to gouge our competitors' moves," Terasu pointed out, causing Naku to sigh but fall quiet, observing the duel between Sasuke and Lee. Who knew the smart green guy could be this evil?

Sasuke smugly tried to defeat Lee, only to have his ass beaten. Lee removed the bandages on his arm, as if ready to unleash some secret killer move, but was interrupted by a whole turtle.

"Lee! Stop! Why were you using the forbidden technique?"

Naruto, who had just woken up, and the other five genin turned to face the red turtle as Lee kneeled in front of it. "I apologize! I was not trying to use it, I swear!"

"This won't work! Guy-sensei!"

So the turtle wasn't the teacher. Rock Lee Pro Max Ultra was.

Guy and Lee had a dramatic conversation, which confused and traumatized Sakura, Sasuke, Fuyuka and Naruto to no end. Naku's team smartly retreated at that point.

To protect her sanity, Fuyuka shut off her brain until Guy was gone.

"Oh, and..." Lee turned to the group, not yet following his sensei. "Earlier, when I said I was the strongest genin, I lied. The strongest Konoha genin is someone else, someone on my team. I aim to defeat him."

So much cryptic shit, but there was only one other male on Lee's team.

The pretty Hyuga boy.