Renewal

~27~

"Yuuto, wake up, we're late."

I groaned as I rolled over, trying to ignore Haku telling to me to get up.

"How late are we?" I grumbled.

"Half an hour." He replied.

"Then we're not that late." I yawned, sitting up. "Where are my glasses?"

"Here." Haku said, handing me my glasses.

"Thanks." I replied, putting on my glasses.

"I'll be in the kitchen, hurry up and get ready." Haku said before walking out of my room.

I got dressed and put my headband around my neck as usual before heading into the kitchen.

"I didn't have time to make anything, so we're having cereal." Haku said, placing two bowls on the table.

We both sat down and ate our breakfast, it was peaceful until Haku spoke up.

"Your hair is a mess." He sighed.

"I haven't had time to brush it yet." I yawned.

Haku slurped down the rest of his cereal before walking into the bathroom, coming back with a comb, elastics, and bobby pins. As I finished eating Haku did my hair in a half updo, half of my hair was in a bun and the rest was loose, flowing down my back. Haku had already done his hair, he puy it in a bun as usual and left only his bangs down.

"We should get going now." Haku said, taking both of our dishes to the sink.

"Yeah, let's go." I agreed.

By the time we got there we were just under an hour late, and Kakashi was still a no-show.

"What kind of guy picks a time, but then shows up late?!" Sakura asked.

"Kakashi." We all replied.

"My ears are burning!" A sudden voice said.

We all looked up and saw that Kakashi was in a tree just above us, Zabuza sitting boredly beside him.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura yelled.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of people who stopped us." Kakashi sighed.

"Everytime someone saw me they would attack, then Kakashi would show them the pardon and they'd go away." Zabuza said. "It's really annoying."

Sakura and Naruto didn't fully buy the excuse and glared at them suspiciously.

"Anyways team, I called you here to tell you that I entered you all into the chuunin exams." Kakashi explained. "But because only teams of three are allowed to enter, Yuuto has volunteered to go onto a different team."

"I'm going on a team with Haku, the Hokage is finding our team a third member." I said. "Good luck to you guys."

"Here are your forms for the chuunin exam, it's voulentary, so don't go if you don't want to. But if you do want to go, turn in your forms at the Academy at noon in room 301 five days from now." Kakashi said. "I hope to see you all there!"

And with that, Kakashi and Zabuza vanished, leaving the five of us there.

"Chuunin exams!" Naruto exclaimed, holding up his form.

Sasuke had a determined aura surrounding him and he wouldn't stop smirking.

"Well they're motivated, what did we miss yesterday?" I asked, looking at Haku.

Haku simply shrugged.

"Yesterday we ran into a group of Suna ninja who said they were here for the chuunin exams. Naruto and Sasuke both want to fight the boy that they think is the strongest." Sakura said, a frown on her face.

"You have to do your best too Sakura, you wouldn't want the boys to get to far ahead of you." I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks Yuuto, but I got to go. See you guys around."  Sakura said before leaving.

"She seemed quite down, didn't she?" Haku asked with a sad look on his face.

"I think Sakura is starting to realise how little she actually did on the mission we took in the land of waves. The only problem is, instead of doing something about it and getting stronger, she's too busy wallowing in self pity." I replied.

"I see." Haku mumbled.

"Speaking of getting stronger, I was thinking of finally learning some fire jutsu." I said. "We should see if any libraries have a book on fire jutsus."

Haku and I went to the nearest library and both checked out some books. Haku picked out any and every book he could find about his clan and I picked up a few books on basic fire jutsus. If worst came to worst, I could always ask Sasuke for help.

"You ready to go Haku?" I asked once I had all my books.

"Yes, I am." He replied, walking over to me with a pile of books.

We checked out the books and then started making our way back to my apartment, chatting about what we'd have for supper and the chuunin exams. We were almost back at the apartment, but Haku accidentally bumped someones shoulder.

Haku went to apologize, but before he could the boy went to grab his wrist. Haku quickly pulled out a senbon and stuck it into the boys shoulder, making his arm go limp.

"I was going to apologize, no need to be so hostile." Haku said.

"What did you do to my arm?!" The boy yelled.

"Relax, it's only temporarily imobilized, once you remove the senbon it will go back to normal." Haku replied.

"Dude, what's your problem?" I scoffed. "It was an accident."

I took a better look at the boy, I noticed that he was wearing a Sunagakure headband, that he was taller than us, wore all black, and wore what looked like purple face paint. The boy pulled the senbon out of his shoulder and threw it down on the ground.

"You both should be careful what you do to us from Suna, Konoha is on thin ice." He warned.

"You're on thin fucking ice too buddy." I said. "Back the fuck up."

"Be careful what you say, I'm the Kazekage's son." He said, smirking.

"I don't give a rat's ass." I said, crossing my arms. "Go away so I can go home and eat dinner already."

The boy glared at us and growled before walking off.

"Are all the people in Suna such assholes?" I asked myself. "Let's go home already."

Haku nodded in agreement and we headed home for the night.