Reborn in the Mist

Studying was just as Zabuza remembered. A pain in the ass.

He’d sat for hours on the roof, in the room, bathroom, even taken a stroll to check if anything had truly stuck but it was for naught. But now lounging in the dining hall as hotel staff hauled food, drinks and snacks on trays, he could hardly recall more than five lines of the overly formal and bureaucratic jargon.

Is this how all mission reports are meant to be written? It left a bad taste in his mouth that soured his ambition to make Chuunin. He hoped to god and whatever else stood on high he wasn’t asked to write mission reports in such a stilted and wordy manner.

The hall began to fill in. The staff made themselves scarce as the participants of the exams came to get their fill. It was well past mid noon now and Zabuza hadn’t spent all day with his nose in a book— or rather sheets of paper. His aimless pacing through the hotel brought him to lay eyes on the competition.

A trio from the Sand were the first to barge in. Zabuza had run into them in the lobby, the one that carried the most presence then and even now as he strutted ahead of his teammates was a man named Nareen. He was tall enough to be mistaken for a man but there was no mistaking the unburnt baby fat under his cheeks.

The same went for the others. Zabuza found them a little non-descript, tagging behind Nareen in a manner that made him want to write them off. But he didn’t. When Zabuza came across them he was walking in on their conversation with the receptionist. Nareen was anyway.

The intervillage nature of the Chuunin exams made it so that few of the staff placed here were fully civilians, there would be many disguised as shinobi even among those that served and arranged the food. Each of them watching, judging and reporting to someone. The receptionist was all too compliant and concerned by Nareen’s barking earlier for Zabuza not to be suspicious.

They could be Suna’s version of Team 3. He thought, watching from behind the flash sheets. “Should probably put this away…” Zabuza muttered, eying the thing. It was a thin booklet of around four sheets— a courtesy of Haruka strangely. Not all the lines Zabuza needed were here, Utakata and Mangetsu had copies of the others but if he couldn’t get more than five through then what matter was it?

Each line spoke of failure, hurt, injury, casualties, client satisfaction, safety of goods, squad integrity and more facets of what Zabuza already instinctively understood as factors and limitation of mission success. If he were put in the little descript moments the words drawled on about, he’d automatically have the experience to make a judgement or at least one that brought results.

Zabuza stuffed the booklet in his pocket. If he’d accomplished nothing else from the attempt, he’d certainly deciphered what the first exam would be.

A test of leadership.

While the first Suna team quickly filled up their plates and got seated in the hall, a single other walked in looking lost for lack of a better word. Her head was on a swivel searching the hall for someone recognizable. Her eyes landed on the first Suna team and they seemed to notice her as well, but neither were welcoming— there was an underlying tension Zabuza caught between that single glance.

Her eyes found him next, widening and then darting every which way until she forced a decision and picked up a plate. Zabuza made a mental note of her. None of the participants were allowed free roam of weapons so he wouldn’t identify her by the pyjamas and flipflops. Instead he marked her face, it was chubby with a mole on her left cheek.

Anyone that timid has to be a weak-link.

Watching the Suna-nin dig into the spread buffet beat his own hunger to life. Zabuza’s stomach gurgled in greed as he finally picked himself up and went looking for something to eat. He and the rest of Team Kirigakure skipped the morning meal, whatever it was it was less important than memorizing the literal cheat code given to them by the Mizukage.

Utakata and Mangetsu took to the task quick and were the first to satisfy Ao’s random requirements before the one-eyed Jounin got bored babysitting them and left without anyone noticing.

He’d be perched at the hall’s far curtain window. Through the glass panes was the village, calm, sunny and ramping up in foot traffic as dusk drew close. He crossed through rows of tables and chairs, ignoring the Suna-nin as he passed— they too were deep in conversation and hushed their voices once he approached. He felt their gaze the moment his back was turned and for a moment, Zabuza was startlingly aware that he was the only Kiri-nin in the Hall.

Where’s everyone else? Filling his plate up with rice, sauce and a generous placing of different proteins, Zabuza turned to take the nearest seat when two more teams came strutting in.

The first one branding Iwa headbands, freshly faces and the delight of a starving man once they caught sight of the buffet. He hadn’t noticed this team anywhere in the lodge during his study patrol but he remembered one of them from Fukasa.

Maybe they just arrived. Freshly bathed, would make sense. Zabuza thought, quickly making way for the speeding trio lest they crashed into him. He sat and began digging into his food, not failing to notice the Suna teams, even the timid flipflop girl all sour in mood once Iwa made it in.

What’s that about? Zabuza kept his head down and ate, the Iwa team didn’t talk about anything more useful than what to fill his plate with next. Not long after they hauled their bounty of food to a table almost directly opposite the Suna team, two more teams came into the hall.

Team 5 came strolling in front of the team from Takigakure— there were many other teams from minor villages in attendance but Takigakure was the only one that truly mattered. They had a reputation even among the major villages for their high quality of Jounin— where a Jounin from a village like Kusagakure might be a Chuunin in Kiri, a Takigakure Jounin was worth as much as one from Kiri.

Allegedly.

It was also impossible to ignore the fact that they, like the major villages, had a Tailed Beast. With all these facts in mind Zabuza had made it a small quest of his not to lose sight of the Takigakure team when he came across them in the lodge’s recreation area. Sunagakure had great pride in keeping its guest comfortable and finding the Takigakure team practicing some low-tier jutsu on the surface of the indoor swimming pool wasn’t how he expected to find them.

He’d only learned one of their names before they got paranoid at being watched— how they knew he was spying he’d probably never know. Their team was similar to Team 3, all men and there was no single person clearly carrying the weight of their team and none seemed incapable of proving their skill either.

Zabuza stared shamelessly at the trio as they walked in, took in the scene in the hall and went about serving themselves.

“Hey!” The greeting startled Zabuza as much as the sudden swarm of three bodies sitting next or opposite him, two of which had the same face. “Done with your patrol?” Haruka snickered in his face.

Zabuza ignored her and faced Akane, “Have you seen Mangetsu or Utakata?” he asked as she and Yaga got situated beside him.

Akane shrugged, her eyes circling around the room as much as her sister’s. “Nope.”

The room began to fill up quickly. More teams from minor villages, each and everyone insecurely arrogant about their place. Zabuza saw it in their forced smiles, he didn’t bother marking anyone that didn’t carry themselves differently— it might not have been wise to judge a book by its cover in the shinobi world but Zabuza found the best to do that were those who already had power.

None of them.

If the first exam was a leadership test like he predicted then— a chopstick floated into his vision, Yaga on the end of it. He grinned widely at Zabuza and sheepishly backed away, “Thought if you’re doing all that thinking you should at least eat some of your food.”

“And so? You’re going to chew his food next are you?” It was Maita barking at Yaga, he had his head held high as always, eyes always judging whatever he was looking at either with disdain or greed.

Those noble eyes. He wore the fawn kunoichi of team 8 on his arm, the girl clung to him as if he was breath. They took seats around Zabuza’s table and his feeling of claustrophobia grew into annoyance.

“Have any of you noticed something about—” Akane began to speak but before she could finish two things happened. First, Utakata and Mangetsu finally walked in. Second, Zabuza found he wasn’t the only one waiting for them.

“Kirigakure!”