By the time the day of the exam arrived, Seina was almost eager to take it. Kakashi-sensei wished them luck and said goodbye.
"I'll be watching."
"Does that mean everyone can see what's happening inside?" Sasuke asked aloud.
"Let's assume so and be more careful."
They walked towards the exam venue. They stood in line along with a bunch of candidates from all the villages. When it was their turn, they handed in their forms to be checked, and they were allowed to pass once their applications were returned.
"The exam room is 301," one of the exam proctors informed them.
They climbed the stairs and saw a crowd of people gathered around a classroom. Seina, looking at it, could only read classroom 201 and instantly noticed the genjutsu.
"Let's go. We're on the second floor. Those must be chunin from the exam."
Sasuke looked through the stairwell and realized she was right. Before they left, they saw a couple of genin from Konoha being assaulted by those blocking the door. Naruto gritted his teeth, but Seina grabbed his arm and dragged him upstairs.
"We could have helped."
"Don't be an idiot, dobe," Sasuke hissed at him. "Now everyone is competing to win. The only ones you can trust are the two of us."
Naruto sighed, downcast, but Seina agreed with Sasuke. Sooner or later, they would realize the genjutsu; it wasn't a big deal. They heard some shouting as they headed to the exam class and saw that it was Sakura and a boy with black hair shaped like a bowl and huge eyebrows.
"THOSE BUSHY BROWS MAKE ME SICK!" Sakura screamed, covering her face to avoid looking at the boy.
"Stay away from Sakura!" exclaimed what seemed to be a teammate of the aforementioned girl.
Sasuke, Seina, and Naruto stopped to watch them fight. Despite his appearance, the bushy-browed boy knew taijutsu. Seina saw that Sasuke had his sharingan activated out of the corner of her eye and noticed that he was copying his movements. Fortunately for Sakura's teammate, a giant turtle separated them, and then a jonin appeared who literally looked like the bushy-browed boy's father. Both were wearing a hideous green and orange jumpsuit that left very little to the imagination.
"It's so beautiful to be young!" said the adult.
Sasuke deactivated his sharingan abruptly, his face pale.
"There are things one doesn't want to remember forever..." he commented, turning to leave quickly.
Finally, they arrived at the classroom. As soon as they entered, they saw the number of people waiting to take the exam.
"Seina, Naruto!" a voice called. It was Ino, smiling from ear to ear. "You guys are taking the exam too? I should have known."
"Then we're all here!" exclaimed a voice behind them.
"Kiba and Akamaru!"
"Hello again, Seina-chan," Hinata greeted her. "N-Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san."
"You've grown your hair out a bit," Seina smiled, seeing her shoulder-length hair. "It looks great, Hinata."
"SASUKE!" a voice screamed, and everyone turned suddenly. "I finally found you!"
Sakura lunged at Sasuke, who stepped aside at the last moment, letting her fall to the ground. Ino watched Sakura as if she didn't know her, looking horrified.
"Was I like that?" she asked with some fear.
"Yes," Shikamaru, Naruto, Shino, Kiba, and Chouji answered at the same time.
"Please, kill me."
Seina noticed multiple eyes on her and knew that Sakura's little scene wasn't doing them any favors. The exam hadn't even started, but people were already nervous. For many of them, this wouldn't be their first attempt, so they must be feeling the pressure to pass above all else. It was clear that as genin, they would be targets for more than one person.
"We're drawing too much attention."
Shikamaru and Shino discreetly glared at Sakura. Just when it seemed they were going to scold her, a voice cut through the air between them.
"Hey. How about you all shut up a bit? This isn't a game," a boy dressed in black with glasses and ashen hair reprimanded them. "My name is Kabuto. I suggest you look around. Everyone's really nervous, and some have little patience, so I'd be careful."
He took out some ninja cards and began giving them free information about the various candidates. Seina saw that most seemed delighted to listen to him, but she found it strange.
"A bit odd, isn't it? He has a lot of information. Where did this genin come from? I don't remember seeing him around the village before."
"Something is off..."
"Besides, his chakra isn't like the other genin. It's stronger than it appears."
"Well, according to him, he's taken the exam nine times," Naruto reminded her, having been listening closely to Kabuto.
"I don't know. Something doesn't add up. Hey! I recognize that voice!" she said.
Everyone fell silent and listened to the same ninja who had spied on them a week ago, now identified as a Sound ninja. She didn't know what they planned to do, but according to their words, it seemed they intended to attack them.
"We'd better move away from here. Sakura's antics have drawn too much attention."
"I agree with Sasuke."
They moved to a corner of the room, a few meters away, without anyone noticing. From a distance, they heard their academy classmates asking about various ninjas and talking about their abilities. Shortly after, they heard the sound of someone approaching quickly and saw one of the Sound ninjas throw a punch in the air in front of Kabuto's face. His glasses shattered, and then he started vomiting.
"What was that!? He didn't even touch him!"
"I think they manipulated the sound to unbalance Kabuto. The sudden loss of balance must have caused the vomiting," she said with curiosity. "We'd better stay away from them."
"Hey! You Sound guys! You can't do whatever you want before the exam!" said a voice behind them.
They turned around and saw another Konoha ninja accompanied by multiple others. He was a tall, burly man dressed in gray, with a black trench coat and a black scarf covering his head. His severe, serious face was marked by several scars.
"Thank you for waiting. My name is Ibiki Morino, and I am in charge of the first test of this exam. From now on, the exam begins. First, you will each hand in your applications, and you will be assigned a random seat number. Once you are seated, the rules of this exam will be explained."
They lined up to hand in their exams and be given seats for a few minutes. When it was her turn, she saw that she was assigned a seat three rows behind her brother and quite far from Sasuke, who was in the fourth row. She listened carefully to the rules and realized that everyone would have to do well on the exam or they would fail.
"We're finished, nee-chan!" Naruto mentally screamed.
"Wait, Naruto," she rolled her eyes at his hysteria. "Didn't you listen to the rules? We have 10 starting points. If you don't answer any questions, it means you won't lose any points."
"That means we already have 30 points! We've passed!"
"You're such a dobe... It's clear that other teams will have figured it out and will use that strategy if necessary. That means we have to score more than 30 points since we don't know how many teams can pass to the next round."
"Ugh. Are you trying to cheer me up or bring me down?"
"Calm down. First, we need to see if the exams are the same. If they are, we can solve one exam among the three of us if necessary."
"...And if they are different?"
"Turn your exam over, dobe," they saw through the eyes of others and realized they were seeing the same thing. "We're lucky. Now let's see if it's very difficult."
Seina read the questions, but even she, who had read many scrolls from the library and was the top of her class, knew it was a medium-difficulty exam for most genin. If they had to do it alone, Naruto would be lost.
"Do you think you can solve the hardest questions, Seina?"
"Mmm... I'll need to review my memories. Give me 5 minutes," she told them, seeing that 5 minutes had passed since the exam started.
While she was searching for answers in her memories, Sasuke began thinking about the rules, and Naruto grew progressively more nervous.
"Don't you think it's very strange?" Sasuke asked suddenly, glancing at the ninjas stationed on both sides of the classroom. "They're watching us closely. As if they know we're going to cheat."
"Anyone would cheat on an exam like this!" Naruto snapped irritably. "You have to be super smart to pass it!"
"Exactly! That's it!" Sasuke said, excited to have realized. "Look at the rules. They DEDUCT points every TIME they catch us cheating, and we start with 10 points."
Seina avoided groaning in frustration. Of course. Damn sneaky ninjas.
"Do you mean they want us to cheat? I thought he said we shouldn't cheat!"
"We have 4 chances, Naruto. If they deduct 2 points each time they catch us cheating and we only fail when we reach 0, it means they're making it easier for us to cheat. We just have to do it without getting caught 5 times, or our 10 starting points will become 0."
"Exactly."
"Yosh! How do we do it?"
"Seina, can you read people's minds without being close? Someone in all these people must know at least one answer."
Seina looked at her exam, focusing on a blank spot. She used passive legilimency to see if it was true that someone knew the answers. She quickly realized that there were a couple of people who didn't feel like the other genin. They were confident and determined, like the other ninjas watching them, except for one chunin who literally wasn't human. He didn't think or feel. She shivered and avoided him. With interest, she sharpened her mental hearing to listen to them and realized they weren't genin.
"That's it. They must be moles with the answers," Sasuke's voice distracted her for a few seconds, and she had to regain concentration.
"Question number 1: translate this code. Let's see..."
Seina began copying the chunin's answer, as did Sasuke and Naruto. Little by little, they filled in the blanks of the answers and even had time to spare. Her brother seemed on the verge of tears, relieved to have passed the exam. They had even deciphered the last blank question.
"For a moment, I thought about using the sharingan to copy the movements of someone in front. At least that way I make sure the answers are correct and that no one saw me cheat."
"Great.. We don't want anyone to know about your sharingan yet."
"Do you think no one noticed?" Naruto asked skeptically.
"I don't know, but it's better not to reveal any aces up our sleeve, just in case."
"Alright, candidates. The exam time is up. The last question begins now. You can choose whether to answer it or not, but if you decide not to answer it, your points will be reduced to 0. You will fail."
Naruto glanced sideways at her over his shoulder. He had a determined look on his face as they listened to some people leaving the exam due to the pressure. Little by little, the classroom emptied until only a miserable 26 teams remained.
"Alright. You have passed."
"What!?"
"And what about the tenth question!?"
They listened to Ibiki talk about the duties of being a chunin and what a ninja should do and be. Seina, truthfully, tuned out his voice until the window shattered and a kunoichi appeared with a huge banner. They ended up at the Forest of Death, as expected, and listened to Anko, the second examiner, explain the instructions. They took the forms accepting the risks and started filling them out.
"The best plan is go for the rookies," they heard a voice in the distance.
"It seems we're allowed to kill them, so it should be easy."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Seina froze upon hearing this. They exchanged glances, discreetly observing the ninjas from what seemed to be the Village of Grass, and vowed to avoid them. The examiner explained the second part before sending each team to get their scrolls in secret.
"Do you think they're serious?" Naruto asked nervously.
"Shut up, Naruto, I need to concentrate."
Seina used legilimency again to try to find out which teams had which scrolls. Unfortunately for her, they were called as the third group and sent to a distant gate, so she could only hear a couple of times who had which scroll, one of them being the same as theirs and the other in the hands of the Ichibi jinchuriki.
"It didn't go as expected. We don't have information," Sasuke clicked his tongue.
"What do we do now?" Naruto asked, minutes before the second test began.
"We should use invisibility as soon as we're inside. You heard those from Grass, and there are also those from Sound who want something from Sasuke... I can use a jutsu to search for an Earth scroll, but it won't be instant. As the other team moves, we'll have to follow them."
"It's okay. Let's do one thing. Let's get that scroll no matter what, it doesn't matter who we take it from," Sasuke said, and Naruto frowned. "I know some of them were our classmates in the academy, but we're competing, and besides, they have five days to get another scroll. If we take it quickly, they'll have more time to find another."
"...Alright," Naruto agreed once he understood that she agreed, "but no hurting them."
"I promise. I'll just knock them out and take the scroll. Before we leave, I'll revive them so they won't be in danger."
"Let the second test begin!"
The gate opened, and they walked in slowly, observing the place. They saw the metal gate close behind them.
"There's no turning back now."
"Who would want to turn back?"
"Come on, let's stick to the plan. Let's find a decent place to activate the bracelet."
They hid in some huge bushes and activated invisibility. She watched as Naruto and Sasuke turned translucent and gave a thumbs-up. Both nodded.
"It'll be safer to go through the trees. That way, we can cover our backs," Sasuke said, and they climbed the nearest branch. "Your turn, Seina."
She conjured a stick and held it in her hand, like a compass. She searched for the Earth scroll, and the branch began to spin.
"It's in that direction. But first, let me activate another of my jutsus. This way, I can sense the presence of any person."
She enchanted herself with a modified spell to detect auras and confirmed that it worked on her teammates.
"Sugoi!" Naruto exclaimed as he saw a golden glow surround his physical form.
"Can you see through matter?"
"Yes, up to a distance of about 30 meters. With my hearing and this, we should know if anyone is nearby or hiding."
"Great. Let's go for that scroll."
At a brisk pace, they followed the trail of the nearest scroll. Halfway, the stick changed direction. Seina stopped abruptly to let her fake compass stabilize.
"What's wrong?"
"There's another team with a scroll closer than the previous one."
"Alright. Let's follow the closest one."
It took them a couple of hours to find a team with the scroll they needed. When she saw who they were, she had to suppress a sarcastic laugh. They were the Sound ninjas, one of the teams they wanted to avoid.
"Since we're here, we have to take their scroll," Naruto insisted, and Sasuke agreed.
"Do you have any way to knock them out without getting close?"
She didn't answer. She simply used her magic to make them gradually fall asleep. The ninjas tried to fight it off when they realized they were losing consciousness, but Sasuke and Naruto intercepted them quickly. A short fight ensued, during which the Sound ninjas tried to resist, but to their misfortune, no sound jutsu could break her enchanted sleep spell, nor could they see Sasuke and Naruto to counterattack. In less than 5 minutes, they were snoring like never before.
Sasuke searched their pockets and pulled out an orange scroll from one of the pants. He tossed it to her, and Seina stored it in her pouch along with their other scroll.
"Great! It only took us less than 3 hours. Yatta!"
"Let's get out of here. I wouldn't want those from Grass to catch us."
"Use the same jutsu to find the tower," Sasuke urged. "Let's go."
They climbed back into the trees and moved away as quickly as possible. They came across a couple of teams, but none noticed their presence. Unfortunately, as they began to hear the river in the background, they ran into the team they didn't want to see.
"Let's stay still and let them pass."
"They seem to be prowling this area. If we stay too long, they might find us."
"Can't you influence them to leave, nee-chan?"
"I don't know why, but there's something strange about these people. I don't want to draw any more attention than necessary."
Sasuke nodded, frowning.
"Fine. We'll wait for them to leave. They have to go at some point."
They waited for nearly an hour, watching as the group set traps and prepared what seemed to be a camp for later. Seina had to admit, the area they chose was impressive. They were hidden under the enormous roots of a tree, covered by weeds and bushes. They could easily stay hidden for the entire five days, setting traps for unsuspecting teams without being seen.
"Let's go find those kids," said the guy with straight black hair, a strange smile on his face that made Seina's hair stand on end. She watched him lick his lips.
Her team observed as they headed east, leaving them alone. Seina suppressed a sigh and nodded to Naruto to carefully move through the traps. It took another half hour to get out of there without triggering a single trap. Fortunately, it was just a matter of caution since they had seen where they were placed.
"I see the tower!" Sasuke exclaimed. "There's no one in sight. Now's the time."
Despite the river next to the tower being a perfect spot for traps, it seemed no team had reached there in the little over four hours they had been in the forest. It took another 20 minutes to reach their destination, but fortunately, nothing happened.
"Let's deactivate the bracelet in those bushes."
"Ah! We finally made it," Naruto grinned, crossing his arms behind his head.
"Good thing we finished before nightfall," she sighed. "Most bugs and animals come out to hunt at night, and I wouldn't want to be out there still."
"Hn. We overprepared. In the end, it wasn't that bad."
They went inside and found that they were literally alone. They looked around until they reached a large room with a banner hanging on one wall.
"I think we need to open both scrolls at once."
"Here, Naruto, Sasuke," she handed them the scrolls. "On three... 1, 2, 3!"
Smoke started coming out of both scrolls. They threw them away, but it turned out to be a simple summoning.
"Iruka-sensei?!" Naruto asked, laughing. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to give you a message and congratulate you on making it this far," Iruka-sensei smiled.
Team 7 listened to the chunin's words about leadership and humanity, and let him go after sharing some ramen with him. The next five days were incredibly boring. The only ones there with them were the three genin from Suna who, to their surprise, didn't have a single scratch. On the second day, Hinata's team arrived, and on the third day, Ino's team.
"How come you don't have a single bruise?" Shikamaru grumbled, watching them closely.
"It only took us about four hours to get here," Seina shrugged. "We were lucky to find a team shortly after the test started that had the opposite scroll."
"Che... You're so lucky."
"And what about you guys?" Ino asked Hinata's team, who were unusually quiet.
"... In the forest... we saw the Sunagakure genin kill a team with his sand," Kiba whispered. Akamaru shivered.
"Did he kill three people?" Naruto asked, pale-faced.
"He used the sand from his gourd to crush them," Shino explained. "Blood flew everywhere."
Team 7 and Team 10 exchanged worried looks at such brutality. It was normal for some to die, but to kill in that manner? Seina glanced at the redhead, isolated from everyone else on the other side of the large room. He was undoubtedly dangerous. She also noticed the absence of the Grass ninjas and wondered where they were. From what she had seen, they were not ordinary genin. Could they have been disqualified somehow? Regardless, she breathed easier without them there.
"Congratulations to all the teams that have made it this far," said the Hokage when the exam period ended. "It has been difficult, but you have demonstrated what it takes."
Seina saw Kakashi-sensei for the first time in nearly a week, standing next to the Hokage. He smiled at the three of them almost imperceptibly, ignoring the Lee clone beside him.
"This exam is the place where the abilities of your villages will be tested, and here is where you must show all your strength. In this exam, you risk your lives for one reason: the same reason your predecessors fought for—to obtain a dream full of valor. Before starting the third test, there must be a preliminary selection."
"What?!"
"Why are they telling us this now?!"
"Silence! Too many of you have passed the first two tests!" cut in a jonin next to the Hokage, looking severe. "Our time is limited, so we must fail some of you right now."
Seina listened to the complaints and shouts of the other genin with a serious look. She didn't care. Fighting here or in front of an audience made no difference to her.
"It's not fair! We don't have time to prepare!" her brother shouted.
"Think about it, Naruto," she rolled her eyes. "We've been resting and eating well for five days. Most of them are in much worse physical condition than us. For our team, eliminating half the candidates now is the best thing that could happen."
"Hn..." Sasuke replied, realizing she was right. "She's right. It's the best thing that could have happened to us."
"I quit!"
Everyone turned around. It was the odd guy, Kabuto, raising his hand to withdraw with a smile. Seina and Sasuke looked at him with neutral expressions while Naruto couldn't believe it.
"This guy... Has he taken the exam nine times and just when he's close to advancing, he eliminates himself without even trying?" she wondered, and Naruto frowned as he realized the inconsistency. "Something smells fishy."
"Let's keep an eye on him."
"Anyone else? No? Then let's start the preliminaries. They will be individual fights. You will fight until one of you dies, loses consciousness, or admits defeat."
They saw him point to a large screen above. To their surprise, it didn't take long, and within a couple of seconds, the names of the first opponents appeared.
"Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado."
Seina and Naruto quickly turned to Sasuke, who seemed to be vibrating in his spot with eagerness to fight. Everyone moved to the upper level to watch the battle. She sensed Kakashi-sensei's presence beside her before she saw him, leaning against the metal railing.
"He'll be fine," he said with complete confidence.
They watched as Sasuke used his sharingan to dodge and read Yoroi's attacks, who was trying to absorb his chakra with a jutsu in his hand. They exchanged blows and kunai attacks for almost 10 minutes, but unfortunately for Yoroi, Sasuke was much faster and had the sharingan. He used the combo he had copied from Lee to finish him off in the air.
"Those movements... are part of Guy's technique."
"Who?" Naruto asked, confused.
"That jonin dressed in green."
"Oh, Lee's clone."
Seina stifled a laugh as she saw Kakashi-sensei give Naruto a light smack on the head. Then it was Shino's turn to fight. Once Sasuke was healed, he climbed the stairs to join them.
"Well done, teme!"
"Congratulations, Sasuke."
"Ew! Is that an arm?" they heard Ino's voice minutes later.
Indeed, it was. Shino finished the match without much trouble. They then saw Kankurou use puppets to win his fight and finally, it was her turn. As soon as she saw Ino's name, she knew it was fate.
"We face each other again, Ino."
Both of them descended to the ring leisurely, side by side. When she stepped into the ring, Seina felt the familiar tingles of a battle. Ino looked at her from a few meters away.
"I'm going to give it my all."
She nodded but couldn't promise the same. If she did, she could kill Ino in less than 5 seconds. They assumed taijutsu stances and waited for Anko to give the order.
"Hajime!"
Seina leaped toward Ino, ready to give it her all within limits. However, she quickly realized how different their levels were. Despite the other genins having trained hard, they hadn't trained with Kakashi-sensei. The volleys of punches and kicks she launched had a significant impact, forcing Ino on the defensive. No matter how much she tried to attack, Seina was too fast for her to land a hit. Ino jumped back, increasing the distance, and threw a shuriken. Seina deflected it with another shuriken. She decided to end the fight before Ino could hurt herself when she saw her preparing her clan's special technique.
She used the shunshin and appeared behind her. Before Ino could realize what was happening, she rendered her unconscious with a neck pinch. She caught Ino to prevent her from collapsing onto the ground and gently laid her down.
"Sugoi, nee-chan!" Naruto shouted from the second floor. She sent him a playful smile.
"Winner of the match: Seina Uzumaki."
She let the medics take Ino and give her a check-up. As expected, they barely had to heal a scratch and sent her back. Naruto made space for her between Sasuke and himself, congratulating her again. Sasuke nodded in her direction, very focused on the next fight.
"Good match, Seina," Kakashi-sensei said, squeezing her shoulder, situating himself behind her, and opening his little book again.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," she smiled, looking up.
The following matches went by quickly. The shortest one, after hers, was Shikamaru's, who used his shadows against his opponent to make her slam her head against the wall. Then, finally, it was Naruto's turn to fight Kiba.
"Finally!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping into the ring.
"My thoughts exactly! I was getting bored!"
"Hn… What a pair of idiots," Seina laughed at Sasuke's words.
Team 7 watched attentively as the fight was quite evenly matched. Although Naruto was faster and had more endurance, Kiba had Akamaru. They exchanged blows while her brother, surprisingly, tried to win as fairly as possible. Until he summoned a single clone and began using the henge to confuse Kiba.
"Come on, Naru…" she whispered from the stands.
She winced as she saw Kiba knock out his own ninken, then shook her head when she realized Naruto had used the same trick twice to get Kiba's back within reach. Despite that, Kiba managed to escape the taijutsu fight and used one last ninjutsu from his clan.
"Alright! You asked for it!" Naruto said, irritated. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
The moment she heard those words, she knew the fight was over for Kiba. A few minutes later, Kiba collapsed and was carried away on a stretcher.
"Did you see that!? I told you, dattebayo!"
"Congratulations, Naru."
"Not bad, dobe."
"Maa… all my genins have made it to the finals. I'm very proud of you, Team 7."
"Thank you, sensei."
They watched the rest of the matches much more relaxed. The only one that was painful to watch was Hinata's fight against her cousin Neji, who seemed intent on killing her. More than once, she almost screamed but bit her tongue to avoid doing so. Fortunately, Naruto shouted twice as much to encourage Hinata. Seina growled, leaning over the railing, as she saw blood spurting from her friend's mouth. Kakashi-sensei's hands gently put her back in place, even though she wasn't going to jump in and interfere with the fight. One of the jonin's hands stayed firmly on her shoulder. She felt a twitch in her eye at Neji's words filled with malice and arrogance.
"That guy needs a good beating," she told Naruto. "I hope I get to fight him in the finals."
When the Gaara vs. Lee match began, the whole team leaned in to watch. At first, it seemed like Lee was winning, but then… Gaara's sand was more powerful than the taijutsu and speed of the Konoha ninja. Until Lee revealed he had an ace up his sleeve.
"...The next gate will be the last," Lee said to Gaara after opening three of the Eight Gates.
"Hey, Guy. You don't intend to…" Kakashi-sensei asked the green jonin, surprised. "Are you going to make this kid open the Eight Gates?"
"That's right. He can do it."
"The kid doesn't have to prove anything else to you. It's not personal… everything has a limit. You're going too far, Guy!"
But neither Lee nor Guy listened. Lee's speed was such that she could barely make him out. Gaara was beaten from all sides, but even on the ground with his sand armor broken, he managed to destroy Lee's left arm and leg. They watched in silence as Lee was carried away on a stretcher, not before hearing the news the medic gave to Guy-sensei.
"This boy… will never be a ninja again."
"N-no way…" Naruto whispered. "Can't you do anything!?"
"Naruto," Kakashi-sensei called to him, but his brother didn't listen. "That's enough. He risked his life to face you all. Don't forget that."
Shortly after, the matches ended. That same afternoon, although tired, the Hokage pulled them aside to announce their opponents for the next round. Seina looked at the number 7 in her hand and then at the mummy-like Sound ninja with number 8.
"Aha!" Naruto laughed, seeing he had number 1 and would fight against Neji.
"I'm up against the sand guy."
"How are we going to train for a month?" Naruto asked Kakashi-sensei as they left the training field.
"Maa… I will train Sasuke to help him learn to use his sharingan. As for you, Naruto, I found someone methodical to broaden your knowledge."
"And me?" she asked.
"An old friend of mine will train you."
She nodded, vibrating with excitement. An entire month of training, no missions. Could it be considered a vacation?