"Aren't you a bit early?" I asked groggily as I rubbed my eyes. I heard him chuckled at my question.

"I got training for the day with my team," he answered and he moved the doors.

"Come to think of it, I never saw your team. How are they like?" I asked and on cue, he stopped short and s.h.i.+vered.

"Nightmare. Total nightmare," he simply said and that had piqued my interest, "later then, Hikari."

I didn't answer it because I was still sleepy instead I made my way to the bathroom. Inside, I tried to stretch out my shoulder to see how far has it recovered, a smile made its way on my face as there was no pain that I could felt. I turned around trying to look at the long diagonal slash at my back through the mirror and found that the wound was healed now. I concluded that I could finally do some mission today. After the C-Rank mission that turned B-Rank, Sarutobi-sensei had me permanently placed on the team 7. He felt that I could learn some more by being in an actual team. After stretching out some more parts of my body, I took my bath. Twenty minutes afterwards, I was freshly changed and headed out to the dining room. As usual, Hinata was already there prepping breakfast.

"Morning, Hinata," I said as I sat down at the table. I noticed that Hinata had already prepared me a cup of tea. Since the mission in the Nami no Kuni, I grew fond of drinking tea in the morning. Hinata had naturally subst.i.tuted my morning milk to the tea instead. Not only that, but she also prepared it with a pot of hot water that was not mixed yet and a cup along with tea sachets just the way I liked it.

"Morning, Hikari-Nisan. Feeling better?" she asked as she was kind of chopstick-fighting the frying pan.

"Yes, thank you. I think I'm going to do a mission with them today," I said, grinning. She then handed me my plate of Omurice for breakfast. I sniffed the warm vapour that came out of the meal and exhaled in bliss.

"This is heaven. You're the best, Hinata," I grinned at her to which she just nodded and smiled at me, "oh, I think I might have ramen for lunch with Naruto today. I've promised him yes...urkk..."

A lump of rice got stuck in my throat. I punched my chest in despair. Hanabi appeared out of nowhere and slammed her fist onto my back and my throat is cleared.

"Geez, Oni-chan! How many times did I tell you?! Eat slowly!" she yelled while crossing her arms.

"It is so good, I can't help it, Hanabi-chan," I whined. Hinata just laughed at our antiques. That was how my morning normally began. To be honest, I wouldn't trade it for the world. After breakfast, I headed straight for Sakura's house since she was the nearest. I was lucky to catch up with her when she got out of the house.

"Oy, Sakura!" I waved at her as I ran. When she turned to see who was calling her, her eyes lit up.

"Hikari-kun!" she yelled at me and we high-fived when we got close to one another, "feeling better?"

"Yeah, all healed up. I think I am ready for a mission," I said and grinned at her while giving her a thumb up, "up for a stamina training after the mission? I feel like I lost too much of it since Nami."

"h.e.l.l, yeah!" she yelled while cracking her knuckles, "let's go! We're going to be late."

We ran towards the meet point together. Since the mission, Sakura was visibly changed. No longer the same girl, she was more calm and happy now. His eyes were no longer bearing the strange sudden darkness and occasionally tired expression anymore. We managed to get there on time. Naruto hadn't arrived yet but he will be because we could hear the sound of his running from miles away.

"Good morning, Sakurchan! Wait, what?! Hikari!!!" he ran at me and I held up my hand and he high-fived it, "how do you feel now?! Ramen on me today!"

"Hehe, I was going to ask you to treat me but you volunteered. It must be my lucky day! I'm fine now!" I grinned as I flexed my biceps at him. He was grinning too but when he noticed Sasuke, both of them turned away from each other. Sakura and I dropped a sweat.

"What's up with them?" I asked Sakura. She turned at me to whisper.

"They had been this way since we got back from Nami no Kuni," she said. I exhaled a heavy sigh.

"I wonder what took Kakas.h.i.+-sensei so long," I commented. That question was answered three hours later when our sensei arrived.

"Hey, guys! I got lost!" he waved at us. Sakura was immediately irritated.

"Stop lying with a straight face! Give it a rest!!" she yelled angrily.

"Oh, Hikari-kun! Morning!" our sensei greeted me. I could return his greeting but he was very late.

"Pft, it's already noon," I scoffed.

"You're a failure as a ninja..." Naruto muttered, "Hey, hey, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei!! Lately, all of our team 7 missions have been too easy! I want a more, y' know, hot one! Where I can s.h.i.+ne! That follows my ninja path!! And my heart like!!!"

"Yea, yea," our sensei sighed, "I pretty much know what you are going to say..."

We started to walk towards our mission for the day. My mind started to wander into my memories when I fainted. About an imminent attack on the five nations' tailed beast. Sarutobi-sensei had told me to keep the information to myself for the moment and that he will ask Jiraiya to sniff around. When we finished the mission successfully today, it was more or less a success. Naruto was pus.h.i.+ng himself to the limit. So, I ended up piggybacking him. He winced in pain as he panted heavily.

"It's because you pushed yourself too much," Sakura chided him.

"Pft, can't you take care of yourself," Sasuke scoffed. That irked Naruto and he got down from my back in an instant causing me to fall on my face.

"G.o.ddammit, Sasuke!!" Naruto yelled but Sakura clunked him on the head.

"If you don't calm down, I'll finish you," she yelled at him, "look at what you did to Hikari-kun."

I stood up and brushed off the dirt on my dogi. Sakura handed me a handkerchief to wipe my face.

"Thanks," I muttered. She just smiled at me.

"Sorry, Hikari..." Naruto said guiltily and I smiled at him.

"Hmm, teamwork seems to be suffering lately..." Kakas.h.i.+-sensei said.

"Yeah!! Yeah!! You're the one ruining our teamwork, Sasuke!! Always hogging the spotlight, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!" Naruto yelled, accusing.

"That's you, you moron. If you want me to stop making you look bad," he turned at Naruto, "then, just become stronger than me."

There was no exchange coming from either party as the tension seemed to rise. They were getting worse than before. That was because there were people stronger than they were and they were compet.i.tive about strength.

"Ok, that's it for today," Sensei said, dismissing the tension. "I have to go submit the mission report."

"Then I'm going home..." Sasuke immediately said. Sakura remembered something and went after Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, wait," she called, "how about right now we work on our teamwork, just the two of us."

Sakura was fawning over him and I thought that she had forgotten about our training. Naruto seemed to be in despair for some reason.

"You're the same as Naruto," Sasuke said and she looked like something bad had been dropped on her, "if you have time to bother me, practice a jutsu or two. Frankly, your ability is below Naruto."

She slumped in defeat.

"Now that's rude," I complained but Sasuke just glared at me and turned around to walk away, "Sakura, don't take it too seriously. He must be having a bad day or something."

She was unmoving, it seemed that Sasuke's words hurt her more than she let on.

"Sakura, I'll be at the memorial stone for our training," I said and turned to face Naruto, "you should come too, Naruto."

The boy grinned at me and nodded while raising his thumbs. I walked away from them. A few minutes into my journey a ran into a couple of ninjas. They were wearing a different symbol on their forehead protector. The girl was carrying a huge fan which indicated that she is a wind natured ninja. Quite rare, if I remember correctly. The other one was dressed in all black with something that wrapped in bandages hung on his back. The boy seemed to be looking at me. I was busier today so rather than indulging, I chose to ignore him. I walked past them without stopping. Luckily, they didn't do anything funny. I wondered who they were and judging by the symbol, they weren't from around here. My attention was distracted yet again. I saw a red-haired kid with a gigantic gourd hung on his back. I narrowed my eyes because his gourd smelled so much like blood. The aura around him reeked evil. Byakugan was turned on instinctively and I saw that there was another kind of chakra deep inside him.

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"So he's another one, the vessel of Hagoromo's child," I thought to myself

He seemed impa.s.sive as he looked at me. I flowed some chakra into the Rinne-Sharingan and unleashed some of it with an intent to kill the one inside of him. Immediately, the sand hovered around him. It must have been a protection system or some sort. The boy narrowed his eyes at me. I used the same tactics as before; ignoring him. The soul inside of him had consumed the boy so much. That must have been a result that could happen if Naruto continued to be ignored and despised.

"Mother is asking what's your name?" the boy said as he pa.s.sed me. I was taken aback and naturally, I raised my eyebrows. The boy was deeper in the tailed beast's grasp than I thought.

"Hyuuga Hikari. Yours?" I said simply. The boy seemed silent for a moment.

"Sabaku no Gaara," he finally said, "Mother said I will be a good boy if you won't hurt me."

This had irked me, if you want to say something to me, say it to my face. I tore my headband and my Rinne-Sharingan tore into his psyche. I was then inside the boy's mind.

"You're here?! That eye..." A high pitched voice was booming. There it was, a sand-built tanuki. It was easily larger than a house and taller than the most thing in Konoha

"Get out!!" the beast yelled.

"You are playing on the boy's heart. If you harm this village. I'll destroy you myself," I glared at the beast. It was quivering in fear.

"I won't! Rikudou Sennin, please!" the beast said.

"How wrong you are, I'm worst than my little brother. Unlike him, compa.s.sion isn't my strong fort," I growled at him. My intention to kill grew larger than before. The beast was kneeling and muttered apologies. Satisfied with it for a while, I got out of the boy's mind. He was still in a trance so I took the chance to tie up my headband. I released him from the genjutsu and erased his memories of the eye.

"See you around," I said and turned around. The boy recovered but was confused.

"Yeah," he muttered.

I waited for a few minutes for Sakura and Naruto to arrive. We did a few laps around the forest before starting our fitness training. They all complained and grumbled during the training but I managed to somehow encouraged them to do it anyway. At the end of the day, all of us were tired. Sakura went home ahead of us because Naruto and I were going to have Ramen at Ichiraku.

The next day, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei asked to meet us very early at some bridge new the academy. We should know better because he was never punctual.

"Hey! Hey!! Hey!!! How can this be allowed?!!! Why does that person ask us to meet and then make us wait?!!!!" Sakura yelled angrily. She was right but I became used to our sensei sense of punctual rather than complaining.

"Yeah!! Yeah!!! Sakurchan is right!!" Naruto yelled too. I had to rub my ears because he was yelling next to my ears.

"What about the feeling of a young girl who overslept and didn't have time to blow dry her hair!!!" she continued pa.s.sionately. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah!! Yeah!! I overslept too!!" he said, "so I didn't wash my face or brush my teeth."

I slapped the back of his head.

"Idiot! At least have some decency!" I scolded him.

"That's nasty, Naruto," she agreed with me. Still, I was proud of them to be this active after our rigorous training last evening. I hoped that it will bear some fruit.

"Morning people!" our long-awaited sensei greeted, "I got lost in the path of life."

"Yeah right!! Liar!!! Apologize" Naruto and Sakura yelled together. Kakas.h.i.+-sensei jumped down from the arch he was squatting on.

"Well, anyway, this is sudden but, I've nominated you guys for the chuunin selection exam," he said. There was a slight pause as we took in the information.

"What did you say?!!" Sakura was angry along with Naruto.

"You think that makes up for..." Naruto couldn't finish his words when sensei handed us sheets of paper.

"Here are your applications," he said. Naruto was overjoyed and he immediately hugged Kakas.h.i.+-sensei. Our sensei protests were in vain because Naruto would never hold back.

"Though this is just a nomination, whether to take the exam is up to you," our sensei said, "those who wish to take is should sign those papers and turn them in at room 301 by 4.00 pm tomorrow. That is all."

Kakas.h.i.+-sensei left us in a puff of smoke. He seriously wanted us to consider this. Each of us was silent as we think it through. Each of us but Naruto.

"Hihihihi!! Chuunin exam! Chuunin exam!" he happily said, "there's a lot of strong guys in this thing."

"Like him!" somebody must have appeared in his mind.

"And him!" Naruto muttered as he glanced at Sasuke. Then he looked determined. After that, he looked like he was holding back a laugh. Then he laughed gleefully. I slapped the back of his head.

"Stop doing that! You're creeping me out. Last time you stabbed yourself. Do you have multiple personalities?" I said and Naruto just laughed at me. I noticed that Sakura had stopped walking. I turned around to face her. She was looking down at her paper. She looked like she was doubting her self.

"Don't do that," I said as I patted her head, "you are the most brilliant among us. This is your moment to s.h.i.+ne!"

She smiled at me and nodded enthusiastically. I have faith in her that she will do her best. Back at the house, I presented the form to Hias.h.i.+.

"So, are you going to partic.i.p.ate?" he asked.

"I don't know if I'm ready for this yet. I mean, I am in no hurry," I answered.

"I understand, take your time to consider it. Regardless, you have already made me proud. Mastering Hyuuga Juken Ryu and instilling the courage to my daughters. Not to forget, piercing through Neji's feeling," Hias.h.i.+-sama said and I bowed at him.

"Thank you, Hias.h.i.+-sama. That's what family does to each other. I merely strive to not be a burden to your family," I said.

"You've always been too humble, Hikari-kun. Despite being one of the actual ancestors of the Hyuuga clan, you never falter in your ways," he said.

"Well, I've said it before and I'm saying it again. That's just the way I was raised," I grinned. I dismissed my self to return to my room and I ran into Neji who just came home. I noticed the form in his hand.

"You're partic.i.p.ating in the chuunin exam?" I asked and he smiled at me.

"Yeah, my sensei said we're ready. I see that yours had nominated your team too," he said. I rubbed the back of my head.

"I don't know if I'm ready for this yet. If I'm in, I don't want to face you. I could tell that you are lot stronger now," I said. He just chuckled at me and went into his room.

"Well, here I am afraid of facing your pure Byakugan, yet you're the ones who were afraid of me," he muttered and I laughed. That night, I slept with the decision still hadn't been decided.