Chapter Text
After a seemingly endless string of D-ranks, the genin of Team 7 were finally on the way for some post-mission ramen when they were set upon by a familiar academy student.
"Oh, hey, Kuree-chan!" Naruto greeted Kuree, "What's up?"
"Naruto! Rezaa! You're gonna be chuunin!" the girl squeaked in excitement.
"Huh?" Naruto asked, "What do you mean?"
"Were you spying on the Hokage again?" Rezaa questioned instead.
"Uh, well, anyway, I heard the dog man signed you up for the Chuunin Exams!"
Naruto grinned, "Hell yeah! We're totally gonna win against these chuunin!"
Shou gave his teammate an unimpressed look, "You have no idea what the chuunin exams are, do you?"
The blond crossed his arms over his chest, "Of course I do!"
Kuree agreed, "Yeah, I bet Naruto-oniichan is gonna be chunin before you!" she hackled the Uchiha.
"Do you want to join us for ramen?" Rezaa asked her before Shou could start a fight with the eight-year-old.
"Yeah! Are you going to Ichiraku's? He's the best!"
Chuunin Exams forgotten, Naruto agreed loudly with the girl and the two dashed ahead to the ramen stand.
Shou scoffed, "We're never gonna pass those exams."
"I think we will," Rezaa told him. "A lot of it will include fighting. We're all good at that."
"Maybe. But there's no way Naruto will pass any written exams."
Rezaa shrugged, "Then we help him."
"You want to cheat in the chuunin exams?"
The smile that Rezaa gave him made him look very much like his father.
"It's not cheating if we don't get caught."
After the two blondes polished off an inhuman amount of ramen bowls, Team 7 and their tag-along made their way through the village to bring Kuree home.
As they were on their way, they came across two shinobi their age with foreign hitai-ates.
"I like your make-up!" Kuree told one of them.
It was a boy dressed completely in black, his face–the only part of him aside from his hands that was uncovered–was marked with numerous purple, triangular, stripes. That and the cat-eared hood he was wearing gave him a very feline look.
"Uh, thanks?" the boy replied.
"Why do you have a mummy on your back?" Naruto asked him, eyeing the boy's back curiously.
"I think the better question is what two shinobi from the Sand are doing in our village," said Shou. "Are you here for the Chuunin Exams?"
"Yeah, we are." the second shinobi replied.
She seemed to be around the same height as the boy (though it was hard to tell with his hood) and was carrying something on her back as well. Unlike her companion, her clothes were a light pink colour and covered a lot less of her skin.
Rezaa looked between the two of them. "We look forward to facing you in the exams," he told her diplomatically.
She looked him over, "You related to that copy-nin or something?"
Rezaa nodded, "He's my father and our team captain."
That earned him a nearly feral grin from the kunoichi, "Then I look forward to beating you."
"Who says you're gonna win?!" Naruto exclaimed in offence, "We're the best team ever, 'ttebayo!"
The cat-like boy huffed, "I doubt you punks could even keep up with our academy students."
While Naruto started to splutter in offence, Rezaa put a hand on Kuree's shoulder. She had gotten a contemplative look on her face after the academy students comment.
"No explosions," he told her, decidedly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the girl looked up at him with big, innocent eyes.
Rezaa was not fooled.
Before he could continue (or Naruto could launch himself at the Sand-nin that kept spouting insults), another boy appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
The boy was almost a full head shorter than the other two Suna shinobi and was also carrying something on his back (a big gourd), but despite his small stature and general physical meekness, the two immediately paused and stood straighter.
"You're an embarrassment to our village," he told them, voice oddly raspy for a child their age.
"R-right, sorry, Gaara," the boy apologized, pale-faced, "We were just-"
"Shut up, or I'll kill you."
The boy's jaw snapped shut with a click of his teeth.
"I'm sorry for any troubles they caused," Gaara told Team 7 over his shoulder as the Suna-nin followed his lead and started walking away from them.
"He's kinda scary," Kuree remarked when they were out of earshot.
"Yeah, what was his deal?" Naruto wondered.
Shou looked at the retreating genin, "I think they're the Kazekage's children."
Rezaa nodded, "That's why they knew about my father."
Both blondes looked at them in confusion.
"Genin don't usually learn about other village's ninjas until they make chuunin," Shou explained, "We're not supposed to deal with enemy ninjas yet. That's why Zabuza knew who Kakashi was but we didn't know who he was."
The Hatake nodded in agreement, "But as the Kazekage's children, they would have learned about their enemies while growing up since Suna's Kage title is passed down from parent to child. My grandfather killed a lot of Suna-nin during the Second War, so my family is not very well-liked there," he finished with a shrug.
“So your grandpa was a super cool shinobi too?” Naruto asked, “Man, having ninja clans like that must be nice.”
Shou looked at his teammate as if he thought he was stupid (which he probably did). “You are from a ninja clan.”
“What? No, I’m not.”
"Uh, you are actually," Kuree told him.
" What ?"
"The Uzumaki were a clan from the Village of Whirlpools. Konoha and Uzushio were allies up until its fall but Konoha still commemorates our fallen sister city by putting the Uzumaki spiral on all uniforms. You have it on your jumpsuit too," she pointed at the red spiral on Naruto's back.
"How do you not know any of this?" Shou questioned the gobsmacked blond.
"I- Well, no one ever told me."
"The Hokage is really weird about Uzumaki stuff," Kuree nodded, patting his arm in consolation, "That's why Dirukku-ojisan wasn't allowed to adopt you, I think."
"I guess we also never learned about Uzushio in the academy," Shou acquiesced, "I doubt most civilians know about it either."
Kuree nodded, "I only know because I asked Dirukku-ojisan until he told me about it."
"I wonder why Hokage-sama doesn't want people to know," Shou pondered.
"Well, whatever," Naruto decided with a defiant look on his face, "I don't need a clan to be Hokage! The Yondaime was a civilian too!"
Decision made, the four continued on their way.
Two days later, Team 7 was gathered in the Hatake residence. Kakashi had announced their participation in the Chuunin Exams to them the day before and was highly disappointed at having the surprise taken away from him.
(Petty as he was, he had made them run laps around Konoha to the point of utter exhaustion under the guise of training.)
Now they were intent on studying for the written part of the exam, which is why Shou had gone and gotten some reading material from his clan compound.
“What happened to you ?” Naruto questioned when the Uchiha showed up at the Hatake home looking completely dishevelled and with a slight trail of blood coming from his mouth.
“Nothing,” Shou dismissed.
“You’re lying!” Naruto insisted, poking at his teammate’s arm.
Shou swatted his hand away in annoyance, “No, I’m not.”
Naruto continued his poking. Rezaa looked at the Uchiha questioningly.
“Sasuke didn’t agree with me taking the scrolls,” he finally admitted. “But I have just as much of a right to them as he does.”
Naruto looked at the material on the scrolls. They were all on topics he struggled with. “Did you get these for me?” he asked wide-eyed.
“Of course not,” Shou denied, “I got them for me . But you can borrow them when I’m done.”
“Right.”
“Right.”
Rezaa looked between his teammates before rolling his eyes and looking back at his own readings.