Genkaku (Naruto fanfic)

Chapter 22: D-day

"Shizuka!" Naruto waved excitedly, his blue eyes sparkling brightly. "You came."

"Morning." The girl in question replied as she bounded up to her teammate. Today was the day of days: the chunin exam was starting so she had woken up bright and early, unable to sleep due to the nerves anyway.

"Oh you're here too." Naruto gave the stink eye to Sasuke, who had walked here with his cousin.

"Tch." The boy scoffed, arrogantly looking the blonde up and down. "You have toothpaste on your cheek."

Naruto's cheeks turned pink as he furiously rubbed both his cheeks.

Shizuka elbowed Sasuke, sending him an exaggerated look because there hadn't been toothpaste on the blonde's cheek. Boys could be so exhausting.

"You look fine, Naruto." She reassured him. "Let's just go get this thing over with."

Without checking to see if they were following her, she marched through the opened doors of the Academy and up the stairs until she halted in front of a sizable crowd gathered by a doorway blocked by two boys.

A boy with a bowl cut and green spandex, paired with a painful shade of orange legwarmers tried to get past the boys but was roughly shoved backwards. Shizuka had the niggling feeling that she knew exactly who his sensei had to be. 

"Ha!" The brunette of the duo scoffed. "You want to become chunin but can't even get past us?"

 "You should just give up now." The other guy chimed in with a sneer. "You know, before you get hurt."

Naruto and Sasuke appeared on her side to observe the spectacle right as a girl with two buns stepped forward.

"Please" Her voice wobbled delicately. "You have to let us through!"

The corners of Shizuka's mouth crinkled up as she recognized the tactic from her own time in the academy. The girls in the class had occasionally been pulled aside to be instructed in the art of deception when the boys took more combat training. Something about gender norms.

The dark haired boy rolled his eyes and harshly shoved the girl down to the floor.

"That's kinda harsh..." Someone muttered in the crowd.

"Harsh?" The brunette sneered. "You think that was harsh? The exams are gonna make this look like a fucking picnic."

The other guy tuned in with some snooty comment but Shizuka was distracted by the floor number sign on the wall. It was distorted in a way low level genjutsu appeared to her (special shoutout to her grandfather for wifing up an Uchiha).

"We're still on the second floor." She whispered softly to her teammates. When Naruto dumbly pointed at the large '3' hanging on the wall, she huffed in exasperation. "It's a genjutsu, Naruto."

His mouth made a round 'O' shape as he looked from her to the sign and back a few times.

"Why don't you reverse the genjutsu." Sasuke loudly proclaimed as he strolled to the front of the crowd with his hands in his pockets. "We can see right through it."

He was totally stealing her thunder here.

"Well aren't you smart?" The darker haired one taunted. "You noticed a lame genjutsu, so what? Let's see if you can handle this!"

With that, the guy swung his leg out in a vicious kick. Sasuke, not to be outdone (or his ego would crumble), pulled his leg back for a kick of his own.

Before either blow could land, however, the kid with green outfit jumped in between them with a speed that confirmed that Gai was his sensei indeed. He didn't even flinch as he stopped both kicks with his bare hands.