Chapter 161: CH 161
Naruto rolled his eyes, "And whose fault is that? You had me working like a slave so how was I supposed to show up and watch? Besides, I'm not that important to them, They had to have forgotten about me by now. The only one that should even have a semblance of care about me is Shikamaru and that's because I've worked with him on the mission to Kiri and did a border patrol for two weeks with him."
"You would be surprised brat." Tsunade assured as the proctor for the fights, Baki, called for the fighters to acknowledge the crowd that had come to see them today.
One of Gaara's Suna ninja made their way to the box and bowed to him, "Kazekage-sama, the Tsuchikage and his entourage have arrived and are making their way to the box as we speak."
Naruto cracked his neck to the side, "And here we go. Let's get this over with."
Shizune looked over to Naruto, "Naruto-kun pull your hood up!"
Naruto shook his head, "To hell with that, I'm not hiding when I don't have to. Baa-chan didn't order me to cover up so I'm not doing it. If he's dumb enough to cause a stir here then I have to seriously doubt his status as Tsuchikage."
There was no more time left to speak about the subject as the man in question made his way into the area of seating. A small man dressed in the kage robes of his own village with the kanji for earth on his hat made his way towards the seat on Gaara's left, opposite of Tsunade's seat. The man had a large bulbous nose and a fu Manchu moustache/beard combination. Accompanying him was a large man with dark eyes and hair that spiked out from the back of his red bandanna style hitae-ate. He had big cheeks and a plump nose and wore the Iwa brand flak jacket and a yellow scarf over his red long sleeved shirt and red pants. Also accompanying him was a girl with short black hair and pink pupil-less eyes. Under her Iwa flak jacket she wore appeared to be a kimono with the right sleeve missing as well as the bottom left side, and underneath that she had fishnet tights and shorts.
He took his seat, prompting Gaara to initiate conversation, "I am happy you were able to make it to the event Tsuchikage-dono."
The Tsuchikage gave Gaara what looked to be a somewhat haughty smirk, "It's been quite a while since I've made the trip to watch an exam outside of the village. When the opportunity was offered I just had to jump all over it for once. I needed a vacation." He looked over at Tsunade, "Well Tsunade. How's the job since you took over? I never pegged you for kage work."
Tsunade let out a small laugh, "Let's just say that Konoha gave me an offer to return that I couldn't refuse. It's a bet I was willing to take."
On the field, Sakura was fighting first, standing out face to face against male Suna genin. Along with her still short pink hair, Sakura now had a red hitae-ate in her hair. Her top was similar to the dress she wore a few years back, but was just the top. She had black high-heeled shinobi sandals, black shorts, a short pink apron-like skirt, and pink elbow protectors as well as a tanto and a medic field pack on her lower back. As she stared her opponent down she pulled a pair of black gloves onto her hands.
Upon being allowed to start by Baki, Sakura attempted to rush right towards the boy who jumped out of the incoming pink-haired girl's path as she headed in to attack him. She made a set of half a dozen Bunshin to disorient the boy and allow her to get closer while he tried figuring the right one.