บท 146: 145. Second Chunin Exams
(Powerstones Please)
"Sensei, will you be accompanying us to Sand too?" Kiba asked Kurenai.
"Yeah, I, along with a few more jounins, will accompany you guys. We can't let you go alone now," Kurenai smirked.
"We're not kids; we can go on our own and be fine," Kiba quickly said.
He couldn't just indirectly take that insult of being called a kid who needed protection.
"I think it's rational for us to be accompanied by jounins. First, we'll be accompanied by them, so if, let's say, a third party were to attack us, we'd be safe. If they weren't present and the same happened, our deaths could increase the tension between Leaf and Sand," Shino said in a monotonous tone.
"Oh, what's the second reason?" Kiba asked.
"Because you're too dumb to be left alone," Shino brutally threw the truth at Kiba's face.
Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Not you too!" Before Kiba could retort, Akamaru's bark stopped him in his tracks.
"Anyway, have you guys got everything for a month-long trip?" Kurenai rolled her eyes and asked in an amused tone.
"Yeah, we've got everything we need, Sensei," Hinata replied in a normal tone.
No, she wasn't always meek and shy, especially not much around her team.
The other two also nodded.
"You didn't bring tons of dog food like last time, did you?" Kurenai asked to make sure.
No, Kiba did use storage scrolls. He had tons of storage scrolls, which had loads of dog food last time.
She had thought he had brought the entire stock of the Inuzuka clan for a year or something.
Luckily, she had made him drop it last time in the village itself. It would have been a waste to drop it during travel.
Akamaru barked in protest.
This was definitely against his dog rights. He would go to court and get it solved.
Kurenai sweatdropped.
"Anyway, let's go meet the others at the gate."
"Hai," the trio said at the same time and made their way towards the gate.
"Yo, Hinata, sup?" Upon reaching the gate, Ino greeted Hinata.
"So, you guys are coming too? But isn't Shikamaru already a chunin? And where is he, anyway?" Kiba asked as he couldn't see him anywhere.
"I'm substituting for him in their team," Hanabi said and raised her hand.
"It's logical to do so, as without Shikamaru, their team would have one member less, and Hanabi doesn't have a team," Shino gave his own two cents, which nobody took.
Shino had already expected this, so it was logical to assume he wouldn't be depressed if everybody ignored him.
"He's in Sand already, acting as an ambassador or something. I don't know," Choji answered Kiba's initial question.
"Hmm, I see." Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Nee-chan?" Hanabi could see that Hinata was blushing when Ino whispered something in her ear.
Her Byakugan wasn't active, so she wasn't able to lip-read what she said.
"Is this a tactic to reduce the combat prowess of our team?" Shino mused.
"I don't think so," Choji sweatdropped.
Some other genins were also at the gate, along with some more jounins.
They were moving, with each jounin leading their own group.
"Won't Sakura be taking part?" Kiba asked Ino.
"Nope, she's busy working on her medical skills, and she doesn't have teammates," she shrugged.
Ino really had fun gloating to Sakura about meeting Sasuke and being around him for a few days. It was really fun.
"Hmm, what about Guy-sensei's team?" Kiba asked.
Ino shrugged.
They were all running at the moment.
"Kurenai-sensei?" Kiba looked at Kurenai, who was talking to Asuma.
"Well..." Kurenai didn't complete her words.
"Guy has gone on a training trip along with his team after Kakashi went on his own," Asuma said
"Hmm, why can't they train in the village too?" Hanabi asked.
"Well, Kakashi went out, so Guy thought that, as his rival, he should go too," Asuma sweatdropped.
He really didn't know what to say.
"Sensei, I also want to go on a training trip," Kiba requested Kurenai.
"No." Kurenai didn't want to say it earlier because of this.
"Whyyyy? What about you guys? Don't you want to go too?" Kiba asked for backup from the others.
"I think it's rational to train inside the village due to the security it provides. Outside, we would have to be alert all the time in case of an enemy attack."
"I'm good. I just had a trip three months ago; I'm not going out anymore," Ino said, her eyes twitching.
"What she said."
"I'm not sure." Hinata wasn't sure which teammate's side to take, so she remained neutral.
"I want to go out and explore, I guess," Hanabi was the only one who agreed to Kiba's proposition.
"Ugh, you guys were lucky to go out on a long mission outside the village alone," Kiba grumbled.
"I don't think what happened was our luck, or maybe it was," Ino chuckled.
"You also never told us what happened on your mission," Kiba pointed his finger at her.
"It's confidential, as I said. Even Asuma-sensei doesn't know what happened," Ino shook her head.
To be honest, it was fun for her to say that line when she was officially barred from revealing the truth to other people.
It gave her a kind of sadistic pleasure to annoy people like that.
"I'm also curious if Asuma wasn't told what happened," Kurenai looked at Asuma.
Everyone also looked at the chronic smoker, who wasn't smoking at the moment.
He couldn't be blamed for smoking, as shinobi life expectancy itself was low.
Heck, passing the age of 30 was considered an achievement, and people could retire properly if they crossed this threshold.
Well, you could retire before too, but there are a lot of restrictions on it.
That's why the shinobi profession is considered dangerous.
Team 10 and Team 8 were running in separate groups, as was everyone else coming to the chunin exams.
But the distance wasn't that far away.
"Well, I don't know what happened, but just know the mission was a normal B-rank about capturing a Dorobou," Asuma started.
"Who is that?" Kiba asked.
"Well, he's a rogue ninja now, but he used to be a Konoha ninja," Kurenai briefly explained.
She wasn't that surprised, as Sora had reached jounin level a while ago, so giving that mission to him along with Shikamaru at that time was logical.
"Anyway, Tsunade-sama told me that the mission escalated to S-rank and then to forbidden S-rank," Kurenai's eyes widened.
Asuma was using a silencing seal to not let the sound escape the area and also to prevent anyone from reading his lips to deduce what he was saying.
"Whoa, you guys went on an S-rank mission? I'm jealous," Kiba said.
Ino deadpanned, "Well, I guess it could be called S-rank, but most of the work was done by Sora and Shikamaru."
"What do you mean by forbidden S-ranks?" Hanabi asked.
She was also curious about Sora's mission, but he never said anything about it.
"Well, those missions generally go beyond common sense, and it would have irreplaceable effects if the contents of the mission were revealed to the public. I think that's a good way to explain it," Asuma mused.
He really felt guilty that while he was on another mission, his genins had to face that.
"Damn, now I'm more curious. What did you guys witness?" Kiba's eyes shined.
What happened that such an order had to be given?
Asuma and Kurenai looked up simultaneously.
A carrier pigeon could be seen coming towards them.
They slowed their speed and stopped, prompting the other six to stop too.
"Is that from the Hokage?" Hanabi asked.
"It seems so," Kurenai replied.
It dropped a letter to Asuma and then perched on a nearby rock.
Asuma opened the letter and read its contents.
His eyes widened.
He then burned the contents of the page.
He had a grim look on his face.
Everyone gulped.
It seemed what Asuma was going to say next was going to be news that would shake them.
"Nobody died, chill," Asuma joked, but nobody was in the mood for that.
Asuma continued, "Sora was attacked by two S-ranks on his way to Sand yesterday."
And there was silence.
"Wait, what?"
"Did he get injured?"
"Is he alive?"
"Who were the two S-ranks?"
"As I said earlier, nobody died, and Sora is fine. He wasn't injured. The Kazekage came at the right time to back him up, and the two S-ranks then decided to retreat," Asuma calmly explained.
"Why did they attack him?" Ino asked.
"It's probably due to his bounty" Shino answered her
"Yes, that's what Sora claims to say, but that's not the point, we could be attacked too on our way" Asuma dropped the bomb.
***
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