If Amegakure's claim to fame was its never-ending rainfall, Haku thought Konohagakure could put in a strong bid for perpetual sunshine. At the very least, he was fairly certain his skin had been irradiated more in the past day alone than in the last three months combined.
The sunny climate however did not seem to be reflected in the personalities of the people of the Hidden Leaf, who wasted no time in making sure the incoming foreigners felt unwelcomed.
"I'll bet you a hundred ryō that's a girl."
"With an Adam's apple that size? Two hundred he's packing."
"That's assuming he hasn't already paid someone to chop it off."
Haku colored, and Suiren levied a scowl in the direction of the howling group of Leaf genin. "Don't pay any attention to these untalented wannabes," she said in a low voice. "Otherwise, you'll only be playing right into their... Ajisai?"
Having marched right up to the offending group, Ajisai impassively glared at them in a sheer likeness of her mentor, the Lady Angel—never mind the fact that the kunoichi's head barely reached the shoulders of the shortest of them.
One of the genin, presumably their leader, stopped laughing enough to give her the evil eye. "You got something to say, princess?"
"If I were an ignorant Leaf genin like you," Ajisai began slowly, "and couldn't keep my mouth shut around ninja from other villages whose capabilities I knew nothing of... I'd be very afraid."
A beat passed—and then the genin averted his eyes, breaking under the pressure. With their bravado shattered, the group scuttled away, jostling each other in their hurry.
"Thank you, Ajisai," Haku smiled at his team leader. "It didn't matter, but I appreciate it." It was only partially a lie. Though he couldn't care less about what they had to say, that didn't mean he didn't find their leers uncomfortable.
"It's just as we thought. This village is full of small-minded morons," Suiren said scornfully.
Staring straight ahead, Ajisai reminded them, "Just don't forget why we're here."
She was talking about their mission to find a jinchūriki, but Haku felt his right arm throb below his sash and instinctively brought it closer to his body.
The memory of that day still woke him in the middle of the night, chest heaving and drenched in sweat.
After his loss to the Leaf-nin, he had been surprised to find himself opening his eyes again. His opponents were all long gone, leaving behind only a demolished mountainside as evidence of the hard-fought battle.
A painful and slow navigation of the marshlands eventually brought Haku to Zabuza's side. The moment he laid his fingers on the body, he knew it was not the kind of death he could induce with his senbon needles: Cold and stiff, it possessed the finality of their past targets' corpses.
Though it took some time with his injuries, Haku buried the body with Zabuza's favored broadsword, and as snow drifted down from the sky, he shed his last tears. When he rose to his feet, ice chilled his bones and fire burned in his veins.
"Haku? Is everything alright?"
At the sound of Suiren's concerned voice, Haku blinked, returning to the present. While he'd been lost in his thoughts, they had walked into a large hallway filled with what looked like at least a hundred other genin applicants. The air was thick with widespread posturing and the ostentatious sound of cracking knuckles; it was clear every single one of them longed for nothing more than to bring glory to their representative village.
As always, lies came easily to him. "Everything's fine," he said with a smile. "I zoned out for a second, that's all."
His teammates—as much as he had come to like them over the past two years—were no different from the others, in the sense that they thirsted to prove their village equal to the might of the Great Five.
But none of that mattered to Haku. Glory, recognition, pride—with Zabuza gone, there was now only one thing that moved him day and night, and it was a name:
Kakashi of the Sharingan.
...
At the proctor's signal, the sound of pencils scratching on paper filled the exam hall. Blank-faced, Gaara scanned his paper—it took only a few seconds to know that he couldn't answer any of the questions, and a few more to realize the true significance behind the paper test.
Temari was intelligent enough to figure it out on her own; his bigger concern was the third genin on their team. He still didn't know what her name was. Leveling a glare at her, he saw her back stiffen in what could have been a sign of acknowledgement.
Worse comes to worst, Gaara thought, I'll just have to get rid of her.
Somewhere in the periphery of his consciousness, he could hear Shukaku's usual raving, but for the moment, he ignored it. Instead, laying his hand out on the desk, he began to gather the sand he needed for his Third Eye.
It was the perfect technique for the job: The eye was made of his chakra-infused sand, and once connected to his optic nerve, it transmitted everything that it saw.
Gaara crushed the eye in his hand and sent the sand particles in the direction of his target, who started to rub irritably at his eye. Taking advantage of the distraction, the Third Eye reformed above his test paper. As the answers came into Gaara's own field of vision, he picked up his pencil and copied them onto his own paper.
"Number 43 and 27...start walking. You all fail!"
While the proctors had already begun to disqualify the weaker teams, he could see the other stronger examinees starting to make their moves. Although the vast majority may as well have been faceless to Gaara, a select few had managed to pique his interest. He would have to wait until a proper test before he could gauge their actual skills.
A slight shiver ran through his body. Through heavy eyelids, Gaara glared out in a haze at nothing in particular as he fought to steady his breathing.
It was going to be a full moon that night.
...
The hot springs of Snow country were said to possess legendary medicinal properties and the beauty of the women of Bird country was second to none—but there was nothing quite like coming home after a long journey.
Balancing himself on top of a telephone pole, with a smile, Jiraiya surveyed the sprawling rooftops of the village he had dedicated his life to protecting. "I'm back," he said fondly.
As always, the Hokage monument carved into the mountainside overlooked the village. There were four heads there now, representing the four Hokage who had led the village since its inception. In his entire life, Jiraiya had only ever seen the addition of one bust to the monument, and it had been that of his own student. While the Third had asked Jiraiya to take up the Hokage mantle, he knew that his destiny lay elsewhere. No, there was someone far better suited for the role than him—but she had her own demons to face.
"Jiraiya-sama!" cried out a voice. A bespectacled man gaped up at Jiraiya.
Jiraiya jumped down before raising a hand in greeting. "Oh, if it isn't Ebisu!"
There were three children besides the tokubetsu jōnin; Jiraiya recognized one of them as the Third's grandson. The boy had certainly grown since he had last seen him as but a mere babe in his mother's arms.
"I didn't realize even you were being called back for the exams," said Ebisu, adjusting his dark glasses.
"It was by the Lord Third's judgment. And old as he is, I trust he hasn't gone off the deep end just yet," said Jiraiya affectionately.
"Yes, and it's reassuring to see you back in the village. Now, if only Tsunade-sama would change her mind..."
A cool breeze swept through the area. Jiraiya watched a lone leaf swirling through the air.
If only, he thought, they would both change their minds.