Naruto : Wind of Catastrophe

Konoha has never looked sweeter than the first glimpse I get of it several days later, while its forests are beginning to come alive with the morning sounds of birds and the rising sun bathes it in a faint glow.

I breathe a little sigh of relief, and everyone seems to relax just a bit. We pass through the front gate a few minutes later, having put on one final burst of speed- except for Lee whose muscles are still recovering- and bask in the warmth and safety of home.

The temptation to drag Sasuke and Sakura off to the nearest restaurant for a well-deserved meal that isn't ration bars, but the return message the old man had sent a couple days ago had told us all to report immediately to the Hokage Tower for an in-depth debriefing.

Hatake persuades Gai not to take the rooftops there, even though we're technically supposed to, and I chat with Sasuke while we pass through the mostly empty streets of Konoha.

As I talk to Sasuke about the leaf exercise he'd been given by Hatake, I keep a careful eye on Sakura. She didn't take too much physical damage from the fight with that ANBU, but she had been pretty shaken up by all the damage we'd taken. Especially me.

It had been the morning after my talk with Hatake by the campfire when Sakura approached me, asking about my throat. It took me a while to convince her that I wasn't in any pain, and even longer to convince her that I was mostly healed up already. Not even my attempts to drag her into another discussion on Fuinjutsu were enough to turn her attention away from my self-inflicted stupidity injury.

Sasuke and Team 9 fared a lot better in comparison. Neji and Lee acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, though Gai said that Lee won't be able to run around and be a shinobi for at least another week. Sasuke was his usual self. Though every time I tried to ask about his Sharingan he just shook his head and changed the subject. Weird.

The area surrounding the Hokage Tower is as sparsely populated as the rest of the village, but when we enter in through the front door we find the place packed. Like, even more so than usual. There are civilians bustling all over the place, ANBU at almost every corner, and when we get to the top floor I even see a few jonin lounging around in the waiting room for the Hokage's office. I nudge Hatake.

"What's going on?" I ask, gesturing discretely at the cluster of elite shinobi. He shrugs, smiling.

"Let's find out."

"Hello miss!" Gai greets the receptionist. "We're here to see our beloved Hokage!"

"Hello, Gai," The receptionist, a middle-aged woman with short gray hair and a stern face, says in a long-suffering tone. Something gives me the feeling that she's dealt with him before. "I'm afraid that Hokage-sama is in an important meeting right now, and doesn't want anyone interrupting."

"He told us to report to him as soon as we got back," Hatake cuts in, handing her the message the old man sent us. Her eyes flit across it quickly, and she sighs.

"Alright, but you really should have your genin wait out here-"

"Ma, I'm sure it's nothing too serious," Hatake says confidently. I can hear the lady's teeth grind as I walk through the heavy oak doors, nodding to the ANBU holding it open on my way in.

Inside, I find the old man's office even more packed than the rest of the building.

There are shinobi everywhere. Leaning against walls, sitting on couches, or just standing, there have to be two dozen of them, if not more. And I realize with a start, as my eyes dart from one to the next, that they're all jonin. The ANBU closes the door behind me, and I make to ask what in the world is going on, but Hatake hushes me, pointing ahead at the old man's desk.

The old man is sitting there, surprise surprise, in the middle of addressing the jonin about whatever this meeting is for. His pipe is on the desk next to him, the Hokage hat is firmly on his head, and there's a disapproving scowl on his face. Business, then.

"Is this truly what Konoha has to offer?" He asks. "Will this be the year that we do not even attempt to put up a fight? Is this what I have been entrusting the future of my village with?" Whatever he's talking about, it has all the jonin looking uncomfortable. The fact that none of them even looked at us when we walked in is a testament to how mad the old man must be.

"Iruka, please read me back the list of teams so far," he suddenly says, breaking off from his tirade. Wait, Iruka-sensei's here? I peer through the sea of elite shinobi, and sure enough my old Academy instructor is sitting in a chair off to the side of the old man's desk, a clipboard in hand.

"There are no teams on the list yet, Hokage-sama," he says hesitantly.

"Thank you, Iruka."

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama," Hatake calls, and only when the old man looks at us do the rest of the jonin turn to see what's up. "Teams 7 and 9 reporting back from their latest mission."

"Ah, some good news," The old man says, and gestures for us to come forward. "I'm in dire need of it after this dreadful meeting."

"What is the purpose of this meeting, Hokage-sama, if I may ask?" Gai speaks up, at a reasonable volume for some reason. The old man shakes his head wearily.

"It was supposed to be the nominations for the upcoming Chunin Exams, but it seems that none of Konoha's genin are ready to become chunin yet."

"Team 9 would be honored to participate on behalf of Konoha, Hokage-sama!" Ah, there it is.

"Is that so?" The old man asks, a smile curling at his lips. "I trust your genin are as willing as you are, Gai?" A little round of snickers pass through the room, but Lee and Neji give the old man firm nods nonetheless, the former much, much faster than the latter. "Excellent."

"Can you give me the names of each of your genin, Gai?" Iruka-sensei asks, scribbling on his clipboard.

"Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji," The eccentric jonin says. Iruka-sensei nods, jotting down the names, and then pauses. After a moment he looks up expectantly.

"And?"

"That will be all, Umino-san."

Iruka-sensei stares at him. "I'm sorry?"

"It will be just Lee and Neji competing," Gai confirms. "But do not fret! They are both burning white hot in their youthful springtimes. I am sure they'll make Konoha proud!"

Iruka-sensei turns to the old man for help amongst the snickers at Gai's behavior and murmurs at this new information going through the room. When he finds no help forthcoming, he just says, "You can't compete in the Chunin Exams without a team of three, Gai."

Neji glares at the Academy instructor so hard I think his Byakugan is active for a second.

"As a matter of fact," The old man says, thoughtful. "There was an addendum made to the three man team rule after the Third Great War, by the Yondaime Raikage if I recall correctly, that stated that while three genin to a team is the maximum, it is not the minimum requirement." Iruka-sensei gapes at him, but he just peers at Gai.

"Are you quite certain they can handle the exams without a third teammate?"

Gai doesn't hesitate for a moment. "Yes."

The old man looks at him for a moment longer, and then nods. "Very well. We have our first team." He eyes the rest of the room. "At this rate we'll have outstripped Kumo by the start of the exams."

"Not our fault that our teams need to be twice as good as everyone else's to have a chance," A drawling voice from the crowd sounds all of the sudden. It belongs to a stocky, bearded man with a bored look on his face and a cigarette in his mouth. He's standing next to Hinata's sensei, who promptly jabs him in the side with her elbow. He rolls his eyes. "After what happened last time and with how stacked this next exam is going to be, can you really blame us for not all being as crazy as Gai?"

Rather than hit the man with the same not-quite-killing intent that he levelled Team 9 with, the old man just looks at us and gestures at him. A silent 'This is what I'm dealing with.' Poor guy.

"Stacked, huh?" Hatake hums. "What's the competition look like, Hokage-sama?"

The old man raises an eyebrow, considering him. "Iruka." Iruka-sensei nods, flipping a page on his clipboard.

"We have information on the number of teams for Iwa, Kiri, Suna, and Kumo. The other minor hidden villages have yet to submit their rosters," he says, tracing a finger down the page. "Iwa is sending fifteen teams, Kiri fourteen, Suna seventeen, and Kumo is sending in twenty-one teams."

Hatake whistles. "That's a big crowd." He tilts his head, looking down at me, and all of a sudden I realize he's looking to me for an answer. I nod my head wildly, hoping against hope that he's about to do what I think he's about to do, and he turns back to the old man. "Sign Team 7 up while you're at it, Iruka."

Hell. Yes.

...

 Don't forget to write a review and throw power stones for the story :)

...

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :

 p atreon.com/CarriePoppins