Steps Towards Nirvana: Rebirth [Naruto, Reincarnation]

That night, you lie in bed staring at the ceiling, thrumming with a mixture of anticipation and nervousness. It's hard to believe it's been two years already, and that tomorrow you'll be leaving for the site of the Chuunin Exams.

You don't know if you're ready. Sensei says you are, and by Hidden Village standards you certainly are, but… but you can't help but remember your first C-rank. Nearly losing control of your kikkai, nearly attacking Sensei. Projecting your ki that way, to use what ninja call Killing Intent. What if it happens again?

The wood of your ceiling has no answers, but you fall asleep eventually anyway. As it always does, life goes on.

[*]

No matter how early you get to the Hokage Tower, Sensei is already there. No matter how late you train, he's right there with you. You don't know if it's some technique, or if he's one of those lucky people who only needs a few hours of sleep a night, but somehow he manages to squeeze both a genin team and the needs of an entire village into a day.

As per always, he's there even though the three of you show up with the sun barely peeking over the horizon. He promised yesterday to give you Chuunin Exam details today, and not even Shikako grumbled about getting up early to press him about it.

When the three of you enter his office, Sensei nods, rising from his seat. One of the office chuunin gives him the evil eye, which Sensei ignores with ease. You don't really blame the chuunin - that pile of paperwork is huge - but you need him right now. He'll come back. Probably.

Sensei leads you to a conference room, shutting the door behind the four of you.

"This year's Exams take place in Kirigakure."

Kirigakure. The Bloody Mist… or at least it will be, in Naruto's time. You think Zabuza was about Kakashi's age, so they had the bloodbath genin graduation exams at least twenty years before canon. They might already do them. You haven't heard anything about it, but you're also not a big ninja history scholar. Your mom would probably know.

"Could be worse," Shikako shrugs. Could be Kumo, where her skin and your elemental nature would put you both in danger.

"That's why you taught us all to swim." Tsunade side-eyes Sensei. "It was really weird, but now it makes sense."

Sensei chuckles, taking a seat. "Swimming should be considered an essential skill for all ninja."

You tilt your head. "Couldn't you make it part of the curriculum?" Hiruzen is pretty good about taking other people into consideration, but at the end of the day Konoha is a military dicatorship. He could do anything he wanted, legally.

He steeples his fingers in front of himself. "I've pushed the tolerance of my fellow ninja quite far enough when it comes to education. My successor could perhaps do such a thing."

You wonder, not for the first time, what happened to all the ninja of the generation between yours and his. He's about thirty now, you think, and you guys are only ten. What happened to all the ninja in-between? Shouldn't he be looking among the teenaged or early-twenties ninja for someone to groom for Hokage? Did he have a potential successor in canon, and then something happened? Oh, right. The Second Ninja War. That probably killed a whole bunch of people.

"Time for a quick lesson in politics," Sensei says, breaking into your thoughts. Shikako groans and Tsunade sighs, but the three of you sit down across from him, dutifully preparing for the lesson.

He finishes a little over an hour later, and your head spins with everything you've learned. Sensei doesn't say any of it is classified, which you know by now means it isn't. He's pretty good about telling you what you shouldn't repeat, or who you can tell certain things to.

It's a free day, so Team Hiruzen splits up after the lecture. You plan on doing some morning training later, but first it's time for family breakfast.

As ninja, your schedules aren't completely consistent, but whenever possible your family does breakfast at seven in the morning. You're usually awake a little before that, as is your father, but your mother doesn't have to be at the Archives until eight.

"Mom," you say thoughtfully, as she spoons out white rice to everyone, "are any of the Great Villages allied?"

Your mother shakes her head, keeping half an eye on your sister. Ryoko has recently decided she can feed herself. She's not wrong, it just ends up messy. "Many have minor village allies, but a true alliance between the Great Villages has yet to happen."

"Why?"

Your parents exchange a look. They used to do that a lot before they knew you were an old soul, probably deciding how much to explain to a five year old. Now, you're not sure why they're giving each other that look. Maybe it's something classified to chuunin?

"It's a new system," Mom says finally, taking her seat, "a lot could still happen."

That's not all and you know it. Going by the way she says it, though, she's not trying to lie to you so much as warn you that she can't talk about it. Your parents have never outright lied to you, but you do still live in a ninja village - a military dictatorship, as you thought about earlier - and there are some things that don't get talked about.

"What was the Founding like?" You ask, instead of chasing down the point. It helps that you're genuinely curious; you know both your parents are old enough to remember the Founding, and that feels so far away to you.

Your mother starts to lecture, with your father occasionally speaking up. The rest of the meal passes easily enough, and your mom takes Ryoko on a walk while you and your father clean up after breakfast.

"How are your swarms doing?" He asks quietly, scrubbing down a stubborn stain.

Krav Maga, ninjutsu, and your Aburame stuff, those have been your three biggest priorities since you made genin. Sensei has had you learning some other stuff - how to swim, lie, and pick out poisonous mushrooms - but that's what you've been doing whenever possible. It's been great reminding your body how Krav Maga works and feels, ninjutsu is always fun, and you've managed to prepare yourself for a connection to two more queens.

[ ] Swarm One
- [ ] Chakra-eating kikkai
- [ ] Poisonous kikkai
- [ ] Flesh-eating kikkai
- [ ] No swarm yet
[ ] Swarm Two
- [ ] Chakra-eating kikkai
- [ ] Poisonous kikkai
- [ ] Flesh-eating kikkai
- [ ] No swarm yet

You and your father talk kikkai for a bit. He hasn't said as much, but you know he's happy you've concentrated on your Aburame heritage. With four swarms, you've already surpassed much of your clan; even Father only has five, and he's Head Breeder.

It's taken a lot of meditation to get this far, but it's worth it. With four swarms of kikkai and the recently-learned kikkai bunshin, it looks like there's five of you on the battleground, and anyone dispelling your clones gets a faceful of bugs. Plus you get better-formed ideas from your kikkai when communicating with them, and sometimes entire words. It's a work in progress on that last bit, but most Aburame don't even get words. You got a sentence once! The important part is that they understand a lot more than they can say, really. You can have a swarm hide out in a tree somewhere and wait, ambushing someone, or have a clone of your act more or less like you would. And they're almost as good at taijutsu as you are, for all that they don't have the strength to back it up.

Father leaves after the dishes are done, and you head out to team practice.

For the past month, Sensei has been focusing on your combat abilities and leadership skills, the things he says will be tested in the Exams. You know that the Exams usually have a non-combat portion, but you don't know if that's a rule or just a convention. If any village was going to find a way to make all three portions combat-based, it would be Kirigakure.

Today's combat training involves both Team Hiruzen and Team Homura. There's a chance that your two teams could end up competing during the Exams, but Sensei says it's unlikely. Even if you do, it's not like there won't be other Exams. You won't all pass in this one anyway.

The six of you take turns leading your group, fighting against Sensei's shadow clones or Homura's puppets. Fighting them instead of real people lets you cut loose. You still have to watch out for each other, but that gets easier the more you do it.

By the time your respective sensei call practice to a halt, your group is battered, bruised, dirty, tired, and in your case, a little bloody. It's just a scratch, and you shake your head at Tsunade to let her know it doesn't need healing. It's great having a medic around, but she doesn't need to heal every little thing.

"Lunchtime!" Jiraiya declares with a grin. Several mouths open, only for basically everyone's stomach to growl at once. Any potential protests dissolve into laughter.

It's nice to go out with everyone. You keep up with your friends as best you can, but you've all been busy lately. The eight of you - counting your sensei - scatter to grab a change of clothes or let someone know where you're going, then meet up at an Akimichi-owned restaurant.

Like all the Akimichi-run places you've been, it's clean, courteous, and smells delicious. When it's just you and a friend, you can usually sneak under the radar with only an occasional nod or smile when someone recognizes you. When it's the Hokage, a Councilman, one Clan Heir, two of Uzumaki Mito's apprentices, and there's a total of eight of you… well, it's really not a surprise when the owner personally escorts you to a private room and says your drinks for the day are on the house.

Everyone settles down around the table. Sensei takes the seat facing the door, Homura takes the one facing the sole window. Orochimaru sits at his teacher's right hand, Tsunade sits next to him to start a debate, and the rest of you settle into the gaps between.

Once all the orders have been placed, you look around the room at your friends, your companions. Senju Tsunade, hot-tempered medic. Nara Shikako, sarcastic sealing student. Jiraiya, charming spy. Orochimaru, shy puppeteer. Yuuhi Bena, sociable illusionist. The six of you are going to take on the Chuunin Exams, and you're going to blow them away.

Orochimaru nudges you, and you startle out of your thoughts. His eyes flick down to your untouched plate. "You should eat."

You give him a smile in agreement, and dig in. It's delicious.

[*]

But of course, what would life be without training?!

Hiruzen spends the next week hammering the basics into your head. Tsunade and Shikako work on their stamina, and you finish chakra control exercises so you can learn water-walking. You worked hard at it during the Academy, but in your time as a genin some things have fallen by the wayside. Like chakra control, or fighting with a kunai. You'll have time to brush up on those skills later, if you want; right now you've got to be ready for the Exams.

It takes some schedule shuffling, but you manage to carve out a little extra time for one of your friends before you leave for Water Country.

[ ] Tsunade
[ ] Shikako
[ ] Jiraiya
[ ] Orochimaru
[ ] Bena
[ ] Kato
[ ] Someone else? Write-in someone you'd like to spend time with