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>Hidden in the Leaf<

"Psssht. Twelve Thirty. Lunch hour begins for the chuunin teachers of Konoha's ninja academy. Twelve Thirty-Five, Chuunin report to the break room, while assistance sensei's overwatch the captive academy students on the lunch wing. Lunch today: Ham sammiches. Nothing special, just middle of the week junk. Twelve Thirty-Six, Raito-Sensei leaves his office for lunch, fashionably late as usual. Fifteen seconds later, he'll turn the corner of the hallway, giving me one whole minute before a genin hall monitor makes his rounds this way. I have one minute to infiltrate the door of his office. Upon entering, I have twenty minutes to find the scrolls. At the twenty minute mark, I must leave, and get into the lunchroom, to make it appear that nothing has just occurred... Don't mess this up men. We've been running over the plan for weeks now," whispered a young academy student through a cupped hand.

Although he was merely pretending to be on a high difficulty ninja mission, in truth, he was simply sneaking into his sensei's office to nab a few technique scrolls. If that didn't prove to the others his ninja prowess was far superior to their's, he didn't know what would!

He checked his watch, a little plastic thing he'd bought just last week to plan this whole thing. As the tiny blue arms made a straight line, the schedule went like clockwork. The lunch bell tolled overhead, and down the hallway, he could here lecture halls letting out for lunch. Over the next five minutes, the rustling died down, and the hallways were silent again. Only a minute later, the door of Raito-Sensei's office opened, and the young chuunin teacher stepped out into the hall. He was handling some papers, so all he could manage to do was close the door behind him; locking was out of the question today. As he turned his back on the waiting boy, and then turned the hallway, the academy student couldn't believe his luck!

"Hell yes! Finally, the name Hisaki Hyuuga will get some respect around here!" he whispered excitedly to himself as he crept up to the door, and opened it about a foot so he could slide in.

He looked around the office. There were shelves of scrolls and trinkets, but those were of no use for him. The scrolls he wanted would be about six inches long, and have an inch diameter. He slowly rummaged through the teacher's things, careful not to make it look suspicious. Nothing turned up on any shelf or scroll holder. Hisaki approached his next area of interest: The chuunin's desk. Nothing of interest was on the top, just some papers, a few books, family pictures... nothing special really.

Hisaki carefully slid open the desk drawer, and smiled. Waiting there for him were four technique scrolls. One emblazoned with a fiery crimson, two adorned in emerald green, and one embellished in sapphire blue. Hisaki glanced along them. He only had two pockets. He'd have to take two only. The red one was a must: It surely had a fire jutsu in it. Seeing as blue, or water, just wasn't his style, he nabbed one of the emerald ones, then closed the drawer.

He approached the door, scrolls in his pockets, and whispered quietly as he put his ear two the door, "Stage Two: Begin."

Hisaki slipped behind one of his mentor's assistants into the lunchroom, now armed with a pair of technique scrolls. He caught sight of his circle of associates, but decided to get his hands on a sandwich first. He began to go towards the line. It moved very slow, after a minute, only two people seemed to come out with a sammich. Hisaki began to get anxious. He just stole two precious items without breaking a sweat! He was SO above waiting in line. He looked around, and spotted a sandwich on some guy's plate. Untouched, the kid has stopped paying attention to talk excitedly to their friends. Hisaki meandered out of line, and slid by the table.

BAM! He stumbled onto their table, "Ouch! My arm!" he exclaimed, gripping his elbow. The kids looked up at him, quickly asking if he was ok. One apologized for his backpack being out where it could be tripped on.

Hisaki smiled, "No worries guys, I just hit my funny bone, y'know? Man, I so hate it when that happens. Hey, I'll see you guys in Taijutsu class. I'm so pumped for the shuriken training!" The others laughed and nodded in agreement. Saying so long, he walked away from the table.

After walking about five feet away, he took a bite of the sandwich he'd just nabbed. When he fell, he grabbed it, and held it in his hand; the side that 'hit the table'. Holding it up in the air, and making everyone concentrate on his elbow and face, none noticed the clever swipe. That was three for three already today!

Hisaki approached his table, and pulled out the scrolls, holding both in one hand as he munched on the ham sandwich. "Check these out guys! I grabbed meself a couple technique scrolls from Raito-sensei's office." Taking in the amazed and awe filled faces of his peers, he continued his tale,"You should have seen it; hall monitors were everywhere, and the sensei was still in his office. Unknown to them, I'm sitting just feet above the sensei's head, up in the rafters. I sat there and waited, sweat dripping from my face. Even the slightest sound would have given me away. Then, to my pleasure, he left his office. I knew I didn't have much time. I swooped down and nabbed these two powerful ninjutsu scrolls. Then I managed to escape through the window just as he and Takeshi-sensei came in. You should have heard their cries as they found out their precious scrolls had been taken."

The crowd was ecstatic, but through all the praise and skill recognition he was getting, one person at the table was completely ignoring him. It was that nerdy kid, "Hey! Yuki Yamanaka! What the hell are you doing?" Hisaki slid by the crowd and looked over his shoulder, "What the hell? Studying? It's lunch time, loser."

"Hokage? You don't say..." Hisaki said, sliding the pair of scrolls into his pocket. He nibbled on the lettuce of his remaining sandwich as the boy went on to say that Hisaki will never be the ninja that this twitchy tosser will be. Then, the scrawny kid got right in his face aggressively, stating he'd fight right then and there if they weren't in school, and win.

Hisaki looked at the kid with bitter disgust. Just before he could respond, the kid whispered a message meant just for him, "I could make a fool of you right now if I wanted to." Hisaki glanced down at the boy's hands, which were placed in a familiar and menacing shape. His hands were in the hand seal required for the Yamanaka clan's gekkei genkai, the Mind Body Switch Technique. Anyone in the village knew that sign when it came from a Yamanaka.

Hisaki stepped back, "Alright tough guy. If you want an enemy in me, you've just made one." Hisaki flipped the green scroll out of his pocket, "I'm not one for a senseless beatdown. Totally not worth my time, am I right, guys?" He looked back at the stunned crowd, who waited with baited breath to see the outcome of the confrontation. He turned back to the gutsy nerd with a wide grin, then continued.

"Since you intend to be so gosh-darned powerful, I propose we have a real test of our skills, eh? Right after class ends, we head down to the pond at the edge of the training field. There, we'll be having a jutsu-learning face off. We'll be doing a race to learn the Tree Climbing Jutsu, the Water Walking Jutsu, and the Transformation Justu; three basic skills a young shinobi should learn before leaving the academy. We initiate a countdown, then race to learn one of the skills. First one to learn the skill wins the round. Three rounds, best two out of three. Winner takes the green scroll, and all the mysterious jutsu inside. Unless... of course," He said with a devilish, antagonistic smirk, "You're too much of a chicken to go through with it..."

Somewhere across the room, the loud cry of another student rung out, "WHO STOLE MY SANDWICH!" Hisaki peered over the Yamanaka's head, then slipped the last chunk of sandwich in his mouth before the talkative student could notice.

(123 lines combined so far)

Hisaki grinned, "This will definitely be something to remember. He may not know it, but I have an ace up my sleeve." He giggled, and slid the scroll back into his pocket. Just as he did, he felt someone poking his arm. At first he ignored it, but the incessant poke got to him quickly, "YES?"

Nearby was another student, tapping him on the arm, "Yea, um... You're not wearing sleeves, boss. I don't think your ace is hidden very well..." The student, after making, in Hisaki's eyes, the stupidest comment he could for that moment, was greeted with a pissed off, go-away-before-you-say-something-worse stare. The kid cowered back, grabbed his things and ran off to class. Hisaki shook his head, and covered his eyes in disgust.

"Jeez, the people I'm surrounded by..." As Hisaki had nothing to carry, and no fear of being late for class, he simply walked through the nearly empty cafeteria and waltzed off to class.



The rest of the day passed by as slow as can be for Hisaki. Class after class, each one as boring as the next. Mathmatics, Language Arts, basic Science... None of it really appealed to him. Even Taijutsu class went by without event. And no, he was never really looking forward to shuriken practice. He figured that if he wanted to practice it, "I'd just do it at home."

Finally, class was out for the day, and Hisaki made sure that he'd be first down at the pond. From the end of the day bell, he dashed down the hallways, sprinting between crowds of people, and knocking by anyone who got in his way. Finally, he reached the openness of the outside. With a jump and a fist pump he yelled, "Finally! Out of this stuffy school!"

He took a deep breath, and looked around. Now that he was out of the strangulated hallways, he walked down to the pond casually. He took a seat near some trees, and began to look out upon the pond with his wide, white eyes. It was truly a good day for training like this. Not too windy, the sky was bright, the sun was shining, and there was still about five hours until sundown. He took a deep breath, then said leisurely, "Now to wait for Mr. Nerdy McLoserpants. He should be here soon..."

Hisaki jumped up, and grinned at the challenger. Giving his sheep a moment to collect to the arena, he pointed at the Yamanaka, "First Round is Tree Climbing. Tree Climbing is a skill based on stretching one's chakra flow to their feet; proven to be the toughest place to move your chakra to. Combined with the whole "Chakra Balancing" Thing," he said, making a balancing motion with his hands, "It can be tough for even mid-level genin." He turned around and spread his hands wide, obviously putting on a show for the crowd, "See the trees behind me? They'll be our personal battleground. While we may not be battling, we'll still be putting the same amount of effort in, right?" He spun around, and waved his hand elegantly, "Now, what do you guys say? I'm thinking we give our underdog a handicap, in otherwords, a head start. Sound good!?" The crowd murmured in surprise and excitement. With a devilish grin, he turned to his combatant, "Get to it, if you want to prove yourself."

Yuki was completely annoyed at that point, he wasn't expecting a crowd to show up. Why would the Hyuuga want to put on a show as if they were an entertainment?

He glanced around at the crowd. It wasn't just their classmates, it was pretty much the whole school, and then some! Yuki could have sworn he even saw a few teachers and older students there too. Word must have gotten out that there would have been a fight, too bad for them its only something small.

Yuki gave Hisaki a small grunt before he sprinted past him towards a tree that he had been eying. He cleared it in a few paces and began to run up it, but to his disappointment, he slid down the trunk, not even being able to get a hold on with his feet to the rough bark. Remember, focus your chakra to your feet! Too much is no good, but too light is bad!

Landing gently at the base of the tree, he placed his foot on the trunk of the tree and tried to focus as much energy as he can into his foot. By doing this quick exercise, I can see how much energy I can expel into a single part of my body to get a feel for focusing chakra. He thought diligently, also thinking that his teachers would have been proud of him for making such a keen action in this.

At first, nothing happened, which irritated Yuki even more until he tried to concentrate harder. The bark began to shake and shiver, until finally it crumpled inwards. Excitement exploded on his face as he ran back, trying to gain some distance between him and his tree. This time, he sprinted towards the tree with a hand seal, to help concentrate his chakra. Now, I need to concentrate chakra into both feet, and to not overdo it.

He ran at the tree full speed, and even ran up it for a few steps until he slowed down. Yuki thought he was successful, until he noticed himself slipping slowly downwards. "No!" he whispered. Determined to win this, he concentrated harder on focusing his chakra enough to stop himself from sliding. Closing his eyes to heighten his concentration, he could feel his feet sliding down the trunk of tree slower, and slower. Yuki smiled, He did it!

His feet had stopped sliding, he even tested it by walking a few paces forward, or rather, upwards. His smile grew bigger as he released his hands from the hand seal and even opened his eyes to the crowd below him.

The only thing he did not do was look for Hisaki and his progress. He waited for the Hyuuga to jeer him from a high point of a tree. After all, the Hyuuga are known for their chakra control and generous chakra pool.

In the end, Yuki's curiosity got the better of him as he scanned the area for his opponent.

[237? lines.]

Yuki bit his bottom lip, attempting to keep a 'cool mind' as his father always said. Even though one voice was shouting to keep calm, another voice was shouting just as loud to beat this idiot with the next jutsu. It barely even registered to the Yamanaka boy that he had just learned his first jutsu, this competition was more important then his own self development.

"Wait a second!" Yuki called out from his lower position. "You cheated!" He pointed towards the boy's face. "Your kekkai Genkai is easily recognizable around here, I'm surprised you even used it to win. I thought Hyuuga had more honor than that!" Yuki jeered, peeved at his deception. That explains why he let me go first, so he could activate it without me seeing it. That should make him be disqualified and to hand over the scroll to me.

"So, are you going to hand the prize over to me now because you cheated, or will you continue the rest of this competition without it, and let me win?" Yuki questioned, as he descended the tree. "We have Water Walking and Transformation left, do you think you can handle it without your Kekkai Genkai?"

Although, Yuki pondered. It is going to be tougher from here on out, even if he doesn't use his Byakugan, how am I going to have the stamina and chakra to finish the last two jutsu?