Uzumaki

Hold

The return to the tower occurred without significant incident. It took them a minute or two to figure out the puzzle within, opening the scrolls and successfully completing the exam. Upon entering the tower, they entered a seated waiting area, filled with chairs, not so many genin and chuunin seated peacefully at desks in the corner.

Naruto lead the group, legs swinging and hands tucked behind his head. A chuunin with white hair pinned behind his ears appeared.

"Team 7 of Konoha, correct?" he asked, eyes directly on the clipboard. They nodded in affirmation. "Right. Do you have any significantly debilitating injuries to report?"

"Yeah!" Naruto said quickly, pulling Satsuki forward by her good arm. The man looked Satsuki up and down.

"Where?"

She pulled up her sleeve, revealing scuffed and bloodied bandages. "I was stabbed through the arm."

"Straight through?"

Satsuki nodded. The man grunted, adjusting his hair.

"Well," he said. "Just come over here for a moment."

She followed him over to the desks of chuunin in the corner, and Naruto smiled brightly at Sakura, motioning to a line of free seats. "Let's go here while we wait for her. See, Sakura-chan? Satsuki's arm is gonna be fine, and so are we!" He fell limply onto a chair, stretching out his limbs before exhaling deeply. "I'd say we got off pretty easy. They said a ton of genin die in there, right?"

Sakura smiled, her eyes wandering to his gut.

"I'm super tired," he said, yawning, before leaning back in his seat and slamming his feet on the table. "What time is it?"

She looked around warily. The bang had stirred the few genin in the hall slightly, but not much. The three genin from Suna, however, remained attentive, turning to look at them.

"Will you stop that?" Sakura hissed. "We've just got here, and you're already drawing attention!"

"Ah, it's Satsuki," Naruto said, her comment bouncing off of him. "Oi! Over here!"

Satsuki sat down next to Naruto, and with a small sigh Sakura seated herself too.

"Is your arm alright, Satsuki-san?" she asked. "No issues at all?"

Satsuki shook her head. "It's just sore."

The girl turned her attention to the genin in the hall, and narrowed her eyes at the three from Suna, who kept turning their heads.

"Those three are here too."

Sakura bit her lip, her eyes flitting from Satsuki's challenging gaze to their obstinate stares. "Kinda, uh, scary," she said. "Especially that Gaara guy, with those eyes."

Naruto folded his arms behind his head. "What, the one with the big black eyes? He looks like a panda or something."

Satsuki acknowledged Sakura giving Naruto a whack around the head from the corner of her eye, but kept her gaze firmly trained on the three other genin.

'They keep turning to look at us. If it wouldn't be seen as a challenge, I'd activate my Sharingan to read their lips...'

"They look strong."

Sakura looked over at them apprehensively. "Yeah," she said. "They're one of the first teams here, too... and they don't even look scuffed. We almost died..."

"Hey," Naruto whined, "didn't they say like, showers and stuff? And food? Because I want showers and food."

"We should probably ask the chuunin."