"Most often wins the one
taken not seriously."
© Erasmus of Rotterdam
July 15, 1056
"Ariza-chan, hi!" Naruto waved energetically as I rounded the corner. He beamed and scanned unknown shinobi around. Sasuke stood nearby, hands pocketed, slightly hunched. Obvious: arrived first, not late like me.
"Hi guys, sorry I'm late."
"Something wrong?" Sasuke eyed me surprised—I always on time.
"Yeah, key stuck in door lock—couldn't pull or turn, had to break it, ugh..." I waved hand.
"I'll fix it," Sasuke offered. Always helps with my breaks. Wonder how he knows? Copied with Sharingan? Dad taught?
"Very grateful," I smiled, heading entrance.
Inside, nothing left but say:
"Mda..." Eyed crowd ahead. Some stand, some chat, but clear: long crawl. Just register, hand recs. "Guys, idea to go faster."
"Oh, great! What?!" Dobe grinned.
"Copy me," I said, ceiling in second. Why not show off? Floor walkers, us ceiling!
"Weird but works," Sasuke lip-curled, we advanced amid outraged/amazed cries.
Second floor, normal—clones took recs down, we to third stair. Met genin pack trying 201 room; Guy's team most active.
"You lot never pass," Izumo in young henge smirked, tossing genin like kids. Examiners bored, beating participants?
"Let us pass," Uchiha stepped up.
"Doubt we need 201, Sasuke," I said; whispers rose.
"You're right. Remove illusion barrier you made—we got business third floor," he added steadily.
"You guys sharp, but just guessed..." Kotetsu smirked, attacked friend. Counter-spun, but bowl-cut blocked instantly. Ha, anime-exact.
Green jumpsuit, bushy brows, round eyes held limbs second, showing top physique. Sasuke pierced him gaze, decoding technique.
"We agreed no attention," pleasant voice; owner approached Lee. Long hair, beige jacket, dark knee shorts. Lavender-tint eyes, Leaf forehead protector. Facts: Neji Hyuga.
Nearby, Tenten in light-pink vest, blue pants—I know her, met shinobi weapon shop. Introduced there.
They nagged teammate; he ignored. Silenced, approached us. Stopped before me.
"I'm Rock Lee. You're Ariza, right?" Straightened. "Date me!" Grinned, thumbs-up. "I'll protect you to death."
"Uh..." Stunned. If another girl, would he? Awkward. Why not find Sakura, offer her?
"Hey, Rock Lee, need more trouble?" Sasuke between us, shielding me. "Don't approach her."
"Why?!" Guy baffled.
"Not your business, she's..." Sasuke unfinished; I grabbed hand, dragged stairs, snagging Naruto. Rude, but they'd fight sure. "What you doing?"
"Ariza-chan?!" Naruto surprised; Lee yelled behind:
"Hey! Where?!"
"Advise no conflicts," eyed grumpy Teme—he wanted free hand; interrupted:
"Your name?" Behind; turned, Neji eyeing Sasuke.
"Introduce first," barely anger-held.
"Hyuga Neji," white eyes squinted.
"Uchiha Sasuke," friend calmed. Stared bit, to stairs.
Silent walk: I analyzed new foes' abilities, Sasuke too; Naruto? Dunno. Hall to stair, Lee's loud voice:
"Uchiha Sasuke!" Behind; turned. "Duel now? I'm Rock Lee," balcony-descended, Konoha's Green Beast student.
"Duel now, huh..."
"Yes! Test technique efficacy, and..." Head my way. "Ariza-chan, I love you! Why run?"
"Talk later," reluctant. Don't wanna fight or hurt: good guy. No Sakura address, or send him—wait, her anime words to Lee too cruel.
"Warned—don't approach," Sasuke hand sword, silently accepting duel.
"Why?!" Naruto sudden yell. "Always Sasuke! Why him over me?! Why only his name?!" Rebelled.
Then dumb move: charged Lee.
Hm... Not frontal; start shuriken probe speed. Don't need—I know Lee strong; Naruto underestimates. Badly.
Next second, Dobe wall-kissed, no hit; Lee casual.
Wow, moves polished, precise!
"I wanna fight him!" Thought caught me.
No surprise: kids, all stream but me/Shikamaru wanted fights. Him lazy, me no point.
Now see...
Speed equal, but taijutsu he tops me.
"You no rivals! Know why? Strongest genin our village."
"I'd argue," slipped out.
"Ariza-chan! I'll prove strongest, be with me!"
"Enough, bushy-brows! Ari, stay out, I'll finish quick," Sasuke drew sword, charged.
First attack failed: Lee vanished, roundhouse aimed; Sasuke blocked tekko-kagi timely. No leg damage, repositioned low counter. Felt chakra foot-rush, got it.
"Sasuke, evade! No block!" Yelled; he jumped back.
"Just warmup; now serious," beside me, activated Sharingan...
But... not two tomoe, three!
He awakened third then...
No linger, charged Lee. Uppercut leg aimed; dodged, tekko-kagi. Seemed win, no. Lee two-hand grabbed sword, toss-prepped; unexpected: Sasuke lightning through blade.
"Lee can't take," thought—wrong. Despite shock, held, solid kick gut.
Leapt apart, stunned stares.
"Sasuke, go now or late," clocked. Half-hour to exam.
"Five minutes enough," stood, gut-held.
"You're not as weak as clanmate," mirrored; guessed who. "But prove hard work beats talent."
"Mean?!"
"See," second back-flank, rapid strikes.
So fast Sasuke barely blocked. Saw, couldn't.
"Sasuke! Watch!" Wanted join, stopped. No right interfere—disrespectful. But will if needed.
"What... is...?" Sasuke rose. Face battered, tekko-kagi far.
"My technique—pure taijutsu. Hard believe, true," sudden back-flank, dodged strike. "Sharingan predicts jutsu. Maybe, but taijutsu not easy."
"What means?"
"I mean, if you see his strike with your eyes, your body won't react in time," I explained to Sasuke.
"Ariza-chan is right. Even if you're talented thanks to the Sharingan, which is inherited," he emphasized the last word, "I've perfected my techniques through my own diligence." He deliberately provoked Sasuke even more, and the latter charged at him. And I immediately had a question: "Why is he provoking him?" I don't remember exactly what will happen, but I'm absolutely sure that Lee wants to test something on Sasuke...
Suddenly remembering what exactly Lee wanted, I immediately dashed after my friend. Maybe in this world Lee wants to test not the technique from canon, but I can't take the risk.
Lee was already about to kick him, but I managed to forcefully shove them apart.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke demanded, getting up.
"Saving you!" I shot back indignantly. I don't sense Might Guy here, which means no one else could intervene but me.
"Ariza-chan?!" Lee exclaimed indignantly too, but I had a retort for him as well:
"And what were you thinking, planning to show your personal technique?"
"How did you..."
"You yourself said before the fight that you wanted to test how effective your technique is."
"Hey! What happened?!" Naruto, having come to his senses, ran up to us.
"I want to know the same thing!" Out of nowhere, a white mist appeared next to us, and a second later we saw behind it... a Big. Red. Turtle. With a ninja headband?!
"Lee!" the turtle called to him, and the guy quickly moved to its side. I don't remember this at all...
"Were you watching us?" Lee asked.
"Did you really intend to use a forbidden technique?" the turtle countered.
"Okay. Stop. This turtle, as I understand it, is someone's summon. Probably Might Guy's. Then where is he himself? And why didn't I sense either his chakra or this turtle's chakra?" I tried to figure out what was going on.
Damn... too much unknown.
"Um... this... can animals become ninja sensei?" Uzumaki asked, pointing at Lee, who was now reporting to the turtle.
"Mmm... I think yes," I replied after a moment's thought. There are toads on Mount Myoboku who can teach as sensei. "But not officially, and not in this situation."
"What? Resolve appeared?" the turtle asked reproachfully. "Guy-sensei, please!"
To finish us off completely, a second later a man appeared on the turtle in a strange pose and green bodysuit.
"Another one popped out!" Naruto yelled, nearly jumping.
"Lee, come here," Guy said seriously, and Lee obeyed the order and approached.
"He's probably going to scold him," I thought, but to my surprise, Guy, without a word, punched Lee full force!
But the show didn't end there. After that, the Green Beast of Konoha began explaining something to the crying guy, while we watched like speechless fish.
They cried.
Hugged.
Cried again.
Looked into the distance, as if at a sunset.
And with some newfound enthusiasm, headed somewhere.
"What the hell is going on here?!" I said soundlessly, blinking rapidly. Then I added: "Uh... where are you going? The chunin exam is about to start!"
"Right! He turned to us. "Kids, how's Kakashi-sensei doing?"
"You know Kakashi?" Sasuke asked.
"And not just know," he smiled slightly and put his hand to his chin. "We're called eternal rivals! And I'm stronger!"
"No way!" Naruto shouted. And we didn't notice how Might Guy appeared behind our backs.
What speed! It's definitely higher than Kakashi-sensei's! What kind of day is this! One moment I'm surprised, the next admiring.
"Our current score is fifty to forty-five. In my favor!" He raised his thumb and flashed a sparkling smile. "Sorry that Lee caused you so much trouble. But as I see, you're strong too," he gave us an appraising look. "Now you'd better head to the classroom. Good luck and farewell." He waved his hand and was about to leave, but I rushed to him without delay:
"Guy-san, wait!" I shouted, stopping the sensei.
When will I get such a chance again in life?
"Huh?" he looked at me in surprise.
"Could you, could you train me, please? You're cooler than Kakashi, I've heard there's no equal to you in taijutsu!" I said admiringly, pleadingly looking at Guy. I need to improve my taijutsu; I'm pretty weak in it.
"Oh, what enthusiasm! The power of youth burns in you! Come to the third training ground, my students and I are always there!" He raised his thumb up, smiled a brilliant smile, and vanished in a white cloud.
"Thank you," I said finally.
"Sasuke-kun, I came here to find out what I'm capable of. And I must report that, unfortunately, Konoha's strongest genin is one of my team members, not me. So prepare well for the exam. You, like Jiro, are my target!" he said seriously and left.
"Let's go to the classroom," I broke the resulting silence.
"So the Uchiha clan isn't that great after all?" Uzumaki put his hands behind his head.
"You're wrong, Naruto."
"Well, Sasuke lost to him clean..."
"Not clean."
"Still, he's very strong. Where does he get that strength? Some kind of magic?" Uzumaki drawled.
"No. It's much simpler..."
"You know?"
"It's obvious. Lee trains every single day. For many hours. From morning till night. That's the key to his success," I stated my opinion. I understand how hard it is to train until your limbs shake and your mouth tastes of caked blood, so Lee deserves respect.
"Let's go," Sasuke said, then added with great anticipation: "So much interesting ahead..."
When we reached the third floor and approached classroom 301, our sensei was there. He stood in his usual pose: hands in pockets, with the gaze of a tired stray dog. But only we, who know him quite well, could tell he was both worried and happy at the same time.
"You're all here," he said, scanning us. I stood in the middle, Naruto to my left, Sasuke to my right. "Sasuke, Ariza, Naruto, you're the team I'm proud of. Now you have a chance to show all your knowledge and strength."
We all smiled and approached the door.
"Let's do this!" I said enthusiastically.
"We'll crush them!" Naruto added. We opened the door together and...
"Dun-dun-duuun."
"Uh, isn't that a bit much?" I whispered barely audibly, surveying the crowd. There were genin of all ages from different villages. But they all had one thing in common: they stared at us like a snake at a rabbit.
If you look at their clothes, we could be taken for clowns, since most were dressed in black or gray...
Of course, I sensed them long before entering, but I had to show surprise.
"Cool..." was all Naruto could say. Sasuke silently drilled everyone with his eyes. The genin looked at us briefly, then went back to their business.
The awkward silence would have lasted longer if Sakura and Ino hadn't suddenly appeared. They pounced on the guy with screams, shoving each other. I'm not prone to jealousy, but their behavior definitely doesn't sit well with me.
"Sakura, get off me," Sasuke began struggling with them, and while he did, all the rookies approached us.
That is, Team Ino-Shika-Cho, Hinata with Kiba and Shino, and of course, the pink-haired beast's team: Jiro and Makoto. I don't know what Jiro, Makoto, and Sakura learned from Itachi, but we shouldn't underestimate them.
"You here for this boring exam too?" Nara yawned. He stood slouched, hands in pockets, while Choji crunched nearby.
"All present and accounted for," Kiba said, standing in front of his teammates—Shino and Hinata. As soon as I saw my friend, I headed straight to her. We hadn't seen each other in so long I'd missed her.
"Hi, Hinata-chan," I smiled, and we stepped aside to chat about girl stuff.
"Hi, Ariza-chan, how are you?"
"Everything's great! Training and doing missions as usual."
"And how's..." She turned toward Naruto and, blushing immediately, turned away.
"Naruto?" After her small nod, I told Hyuga with an unwavering smile that Naruto had become stronger and smarter—and it was the pure truth! Naruto makes many mistakes, but he learns from them. "So don't worry, Hinata-chan. In a few years, Naruto will be very smart and strong." I put my hand on her shoulder. "And undoubtedly a handsome shinobi." I winked, and we laughed. How can anyone think Naruto is ugly? He's a blue-eyed blond, and a wonderful, kind guy.
"And how are you and Sasuke-kun?" Her awkward question made me smile shyly, look around, then whisper in her ear:
"Everything's fine."
She was happy with my words, and after chatting a bit more about nonsense, we went back to our group, who were now actively talking, ignoring everyone else.
"Yeah, the exam won't be easy," said the gray-eyed guy with short red hair. That was Makoto—Jiro's friend and teammate. He didn't socialize much unless necessary. We'd been on the same Academy team a few times, when we had to find and neutralize traps in an hour. He's actually capable, just weak bloodline.
"What, thought you fell into a fairy tale?" I teased my former classmate a bit.
"Of course not. I might not become chunin, but I'll definitely beat you!"
"Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming."
He wanted to retort my snarky phrase, but the worst happened... the bespectacled antagonist from the Naruto manga approached us:
"Hey, you, keep it down," Kabuto scolded as he came over. I recognized him immediately. Not because I remembered from the anime his purple shirt, matching pants, or round glasses. But because his hair was the same color I sometimes dyed mine in my past life—ashen.
"What is he doing here? Damn it!" I clenched my teeth for a second, then relaxed.
"What's with you?" He looked at me, confirming my thoughts:
"So in this world too he's a spy. It can't be otherwise. I hide my emotions well, and a genin without Sharingan can't read them. Unless he's a genius, of course."
"Why should we be quiet?" I dodged the question.
"You're rookies fresh out of the Academy. You shouldn't draw attention," he smiled amiably and adjusted his glasses, but I felt with my skin he wasn't friendly.
"Who the hell are you?!" Ino yelled.
"I'm Yakushi Kabuto. You should look around: if you're careless, you'll kick the bucket early."
"Kabuto-san," interested Sakura addressed him, "so you're taking the exam not for the first time?"
"This is my seventh time, fourth year trying," the guy replied indifferently.
"Awesome!" Naruto shouted.
What's awesome about it?! Failing so many times and still not chunin?
"You know everything about the exam?" Sakura asked again.
"Damn, we're really in it now," Shikamaru grumbled, and the others sighed heavily too. Hm... he wormed his way in fast, definitely a high-skilled spy.
"Well, maybe share info with the rookies using cards?" He posed the rhetorical question and pulled orange cards from his pocket.
"What info?" Sakura asked, and he placed the deck on the floor, taking one card.
"All info on all participants," he infused chakra into the card, and a political map of our world appeared on it.
"Among these cards, are there ones that show personal info on each individually?" Teme asked, stepping closer. To stay in the loop, I stood to my friend's right, Jiro to his left—clearly interested too.
"Interested in someone?" he countered, his glasses glinting.
"Yes. I need info on three shinobi."
"I can't guarantee it's perfect, but I gathered and store it," he took the deck, "including on you. Who do you want?"
"Sabaku no Gaara," Uchiha said coldly.
"You even know the name? Who's next?" he smiled slyly.
"Show him first," Uchiha frowned, and he pulled out a card in a second.
"Here," he infused chakra, and the Kazekage's son's portrait appeared on the card. "He's a newbie, no detailed info, but surprisingly, he already completed a B-rank mission once."
We looked at the card with the jinchuriki's photo and his teammates.
"Now Rock Lee," Sasuke commanded, and soon Kabuto pulled the second card.
"He's a year older than you. Mission experience: D-class 15 times, C-class 9 times. Improved taijutsu over the last year, but poor otherwise," he looked at the blue pentagon, where under the kanji "Taijutsu" the top had the most red.
"Who's third?" Kabuto asked interestedly, but Sasuke didn't rush. I was dying to know who the third was too. "Well?" Sasuke closed his eyes as if gathering courage, then said with surprising resolve:
"Ariza Saito."
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: Granulan