The Next Morning, Six Days Until the Chunin Exams
I'm woken up by a curious feeling. Something is faintly brushing across my chest. I crack an eye open to see a mess of pink hair.
"Oh, so that wasn't a dream then." I quietly say to myself. It is Tayuya's hair that is brushing across my chest. "Oh Kami, please still be asleep Sasuke." I lift my head and glance towards his hammock, thankfully my luck is strong today, he's still asleep.
"Tayuya!" I urgently whisper and give her a little shake. "Tayuya!"
"Wha?" She groggily says. She sits up and rubs her tired eyes. "So that wasn't a dream?"
"No, it wasn't." Funny, we had the same reaction. "You need to go back to your room before Sasuke wakes up or he will never let us forget it."
"But it's so cold there." She lays back down and wraps her arms around me again. "Mmm, warmth."
"Tayuya! You have to-" I immediately stop talking. Sasuke is waking up, the chance for Tayuya to have a clean escape is over. We're caught unless I think quickly. I pull the blanket up so that Tayuya's head is covered which has the side effect of exposing my feet to the cool air. Lesser of two evils, merciless teasing or cold feet.
Sasuke climbs out of his hammock with a huge yawn. "Were you talking to someone?"
"Nah, just woke up myself actually. Since you're already out of the hammock you can have the bathroom first." Please go. Just go, I don't know how long I can keep this act up. Go already!
With a grumble Sasuke grabs clean clothes. "Unless Tayuya is already in there. Then we will both be stuck for a while."
I can feel Tayuya shake with suppressed laughter. Don't crack now! Not when were so close! "Something tells me she's not in there, call it a feeling."
"Does it have anything to do with why there is an extra pair of feet sticking out of your blanket?" He asks with a smirk on his stupid face. I can't believe I missed that, when I pulled up the blanket to hide her head I didn't expose just my feet, I exposed hers too.
"Uh... No?" I weakly say back to him.
A faint snicker comes from under my blanket, Tayuya finally cracked. She couldn't hold it in anymore.
"He was awake when I woke you up last night. He already knows." Tayuya says from under the covers.
I groan in defeat. "Dammit. Sa- Red, what can I offer you to have you never mention this to anyone?" I'll do just about anything, imagine if he told Orochimaru! We would never live it down.
"Let's say you owe me a favor, I can't think of anything right now." Sasuke says from the bathroom before he shuts the door. "I'll cash in on it later." He closes the door, now it is just Tayuya and I.
"I really hate you sometimes. You do know that, yes?" I tell Tayuya as I pull the blanket back to reveal her head again. "You knew he knew the whole time, that is why you were laughing and also why you didn't leave."
"Yep!" She chipperly replies. "Watching you panic was hilarious by the way. You two have a very strange relationship."
I roll my eyes at her. She isn't wrong, Sasuke and I are unique. "Everything about me is strange, you should know that by now. Even our relationship is weird, half the time you're latched onto me and the other half we're bickering."
She laughs. "We're all strange, it is a requirement to be an Oto shinobi. Didn't you know?"
"Isn't that a depressing thought. Welcome to Otogakure, where being normal is abnormal." I chuckle at my own joke. "That should be our slogan."
"I don't think it would fly well with our Kage." Tayuya rises up from her laying position. "Anyways Red will be out of the bathroom soon. Dibs on next." She climbs out of the hammock and makes her way to the bedroom.
"Whatever, I'm content with laying here for the entire day." I'm not even joking, if someone brought me food I probably would lay here forever. This is the first day in a very long time that I don't have to worry about facing Orochimaru for either training or some twisted meeting.
Today is going to be a good day. I can just kick back and relax.
...
Later That Night
"Why am I here?" I whine to Sasuke and Tayuya. "I don't need to be here. You could have left me back at the hotel but no! You just had to drag me along."
"Tayuya is showing us the building where the first exam in going to be held. You do need to be here." Sasuke informs me.
I stare Sasuke straight in his masked eyes and say monotonously, "It's the green building -and green is being generous, it really needs a new paint job- three streets east and two streets north near the edge of the village. Large half oval with three stories, closer to arena stands than a building if you ask me. We will be competing in the field it is facing, the spectators will be in the stands to watch. A Kusa team of four barrier nin will be erecting a transparent barrier to stop stray attacks and shield the spectators from general harm. An additional four will be on standby to step in if the originals get tired or they need a stronger defense for an incoming attack."
Tayuya is staring at me in open disbelief. I think Sasuke is too, we're wearing full face masks and it makes his already hard to read body language almost impossible to decipher.
"I didn't actually do nothing the whole day. Come on, how lazy do you think I am?" I could be eating dinner right now, instead I'm outside to look at a building.
"Shirokumo works fast." Sasuke compliments my summon. "He found all that out already?"
"He found more than that out. He knows what the Exams are going to be. He's got someone in Kusa's jonin lounge and they were gossiping about it." I smugly inform both of my teammates. See how great the Spiders are!
"Well, go on. What are they?" Sasuke presses me to share information with him. "We should get a plan together."
Whoops, that didn't come out right. "You misunderstood. I don't know, he does. I can't know."
Sasuke's hand twitches towards his kunai holster. "What is the point of having him make a network if you're not going to use it?"
I sigh, "Red, use your head. If you and I take the exams and we already know what they are it will look bad on Sound. No one knows what I'm having Shirokumo do and I plan to keep it that way. The only other way we could possibly know is if we were told by someone who does know, namely Orochimaru. Do you really want to risk that? Risk implying that Orochimaru broke the rules so we could have a better chance?"
"That would be bad. Very bad. Good call, we shouldn't know what they are. Has he found out anything else interesting?" Sasuke asks. "Something you can tell us?"
This should be entertaining. "I don't see how it is relevant, but this is certainly interesting. A pair Kusa shinobi decided to have a late night fling on the Kusakage's desk."
Sasuke and Tayuya both stumble. Even a passing kunoichi falters. "Really?" Tayuya asks once she has steadied herself. "On the desk?"
"Yep! They were quite enthusiastic. Ended up pushing it across the room. Honestly I'm surprised no one heard, if what I was told is accurate they were vocal too." Maybe sound dampening seals are in the room? That would make sense, it is a Kage's office after all. Important things are talked about in there, things not meant to be overheard. Thankfully I already have eyes and ears inside the room.
"Hey Kid!" A surprisingly rough feminine voice calls out. "You with the green mask! Hold up!"
I stop and turn to face the newcomer. It is the Kusa kunoichi that stumbled, a chunin I think. I'm not completely confident on assessing her skill level but she is wearing what appears to be a chunin vest. "Can I help you? I don't think I broke any rules, unless there is a new one about gossiping that I wasn't told about."
"No, you're not in trouble. I just want to know how accurate your source is. There's a running bet going on between some of the local nin and you might have won me it." She greedily says. "The pot is huge! It has been going on for weeks!"
"Interesting." So this is happening, definitely not what I expected when I rolled out of the hammock today. "What's in it for me?"
"You're here for the Chunin Exams right? I'll give you a hint." She offers. Good enough for me, I don't want to know what the exams will be but I'll take a hint.
"Deal. My source has never been wrong before." He's also never told me anything before, but she doesn't know that.
Her face lights up in joy. "I can't believe they did it! This is great, we've been trying to catch them in the act for months! No one could prove they were meeting in the Kusakage's office until now." She is way too happy, there must be one hell of a pot on this. "Anyways, you held up your end. My hint: The numbers are more important than you think."
"I'll remember that. Thank you for your assistance." The Kusa kunoichi leaves us while laughing gleefully. I think she has issues. "The numbers are more important than you think."
"What numbers?" Sasuke asks. "The number of gennin sent? The numerical order we enter? It could be anything! How's that a hint?"
"I don't know, we'll find out once the exams starts. It should make sense then, besides we don't need the hint. We're better than that!"
"That remains to be seen." Tayuya scoffs out at us. "Don't go in thinking you're the best here, that is a terrible mindset to have. Even if it is true, you'll develop a habit of underestimating opponents and it will lead to your downfall. All of the Sound Four are that way, we're too confident. I'm trying to work on it."
Good, as weird as Tayuya is I don't want her to die. I've grown used to her unique brand of crazy, I'd hate to have to deal with a new person.
"Anyways, now that we've established that we have literally no reason to go see the stands because I know more about it than what we would learn by seeing it, can we go back to the hotel? Do you two know how rare it is that I have a day to myself?"
...
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