After some time, Sena approached me and lightly hit my shoulder, pulling my attention away from the distracting beauty of the Hidden Sand at night. Then she tilted her head slightly toward Shisui, a small smile playing on her face. I returned it and stood up.
Kaen was still bouncing around Shisui, ridiculously happy and proud of what he had achieved, while Shisui kept laughing, clearly impressed by the kid's seemingly endless energy. Kaen had always worn his feelings on his sleeve, but right now he was more obvious than ever.
Shisui was still distracted by Kaen when Sena finally spoke. "Sensei." His eyes shifted from Kaen to her. Sena continued in a calm voice, "We want to thank you for being such a great teacher to us. If it were not for your dedication and your effort, we would not have been able to achieve these results or leave such an impression. Your teachings saved our lives, and they will continue to do so in the future, so in that sense we owe you our lives. Even though we will now each go our own way, we will forever look at you as our mentor." Sena bowed, and I followed her example immediately. Kaen hurried to join us a second later.
Shisui's eyes widened. Then they started to shine a little. He did his best not to tear up. He even tried to speak, but there was a lump in his throat. He exhaled slowly, took a few deep breaths, then finally answered, "When I first got the assignment to be a sensei, I was not sure about it. I am young, and I had never done anything like that before, but… you have all been a blessing in my life. I surprised even myself. I did not expect the experience to be this rewarding. I got extremely lucky to have such amazing students."
Sena straightened slowly, smiling, and Kaen and I followed her. Kaen answered first. "Do not sell yourself short, sensei. We are the way we are because you spent the time on us." Shisui nodded, clearly pleased that his efforts were appreciated, as I added, "We are the lucky ones. Having one of the best jonin sensei imaginable is the real blessing."
Shisui must have felt how genuine I was because he suddenly pulled all three of us into a hug.
My eyes widened. Shisui was never this openly emotional, but I could feel him shaking a little. I hugged him back, while Kaen's face turned completely red. I was not sure whether it was from hugging his sensei or the fact that Sena was right there in the middle of it all, and I could only sigh to myself, thinking, "Kaen is hopeless."
After what felt like a blissful eternity, Shisui finally let go and looked at us with an unapologetically proud expression. "Now you will lead your own teams, take on your own missions, and make your own decisions. Each of you is now an official chunin of Konoha. But I know it in my heart, none of you will stop there."
A grin spread across our faces. None of us said it out loud, but we did not need to. Our eyes told him enough. We had no intention of stopping at chunin.
Shisui looked pleased by our resolve. "Good," he said. "I want all of you to surpass me." Kaen complained jokingly, "But sensei, you are an S-rank ninja. What is even higher than that?" Shisui answered with a huge grin. "A Kage-level ninja." The room fell silent. Before doubt could creep into any of our minds, he spoke again, his tone so absolute it felt as though he could see the future as clearly as he saw us standing before him. "I know you will do it."
Kaen's Sharingan actually activated from the sheer weight of the moment, making me worry for one deeply stupid second that it might jump straight into Mangekyo Sharingan right there in our flat. Kaen finally noticed it, blinked a couple of times in confusion, and the red faded back to black. Shisui laughed softly and ruffled his hair. "Looks like I need to train you a bit more on the Sharingan." Kaen smiled and nodded, clearly too happy to care that his eyes had just decided to join the conversation on their own.
Shisui started to say something else, but a knock on the door interrupted him. All of us turned toward it, and I was the first to move.
When I opened the door, I found a Hidden Sand genin standing there, holding a strangely shaped gift wrapped in paper. He straightened immediately and said, "Sir, Tyr..." A tick mark instantly appeared on my forehead. The poor kid paled so badly he almost turned ghostly white. Sweat broke across his face like he was standing before an actual Shinigami. He corrected himself so awkwardly he nearly tripped over the words. "Sir. Noa. I have been tasked with delivering the gift promised to first place in the Chunin Exam tournament. It is from Lord Kazekage himself."
He extended the package toward me with shaking hands. I took it, nodding slowly, already starting to unwrap it right there in the doorway. The genin's expression turned oddly grim. "The delivery is complete. Thank you." Then he bolted.
He moved so fast there were almost afterimages left in the corridor. My eyes narrowed at that deeply suspicious interaction. I closed the door and walked back in, the wrapped gift in my hands, while Shisui asked, "What kind of gift would the Kazekage give?" I shrugged, equally puzzled, as I started opening it properly. Sena and Kaen both leaned in with shameless focus, their eyes glued to my hands. My own excitement started to rise a little. Maybe it was something rare. Maybe some expensive desert mineral. Maybe a ceremonial weapon. Maybe a special stone I could sell for an absurd amount of money.
I finally removed the wrapping and froze. Shisui's mouth dropped open. Kaen's eyes widened. Even Sena looked genuinely stunned.
In my hands sat a cactus. Not some legendary sealed object disguised as a cactus. Just a cactus. It was planted inside a polished clay pot painted in elegant desert patterns, and tied around it was a little decorative ribbon that somehow made the entire thing feel even more offensive.
The cactus itself had one main stem with two arms growing from it, and both of those arms had small protrusions in the middle that made it look like it was giving me the middle finger with both hands.
The room went completely silent. I stared at it. The cactus stared back, spiritually.
Kaen was the first one to speak. "What," he said in a faint voice, "is that?" I looked down at the pot, hoping against all reason that there would be something else attached to it. There was, in fact, a small card tied beneath the ribbon. With slow dread, I picked it up and read it aloud. "To the first place winner. May you continue to thrive even in the harshest conditions. A symbol of Sunagakure's respect."
The silence somehow deepened before Kaen dropped to his knees laughing. He folded in half so violently I thought he might actually injure himself more than Fuyumi had managed to.
Shisui turned away and covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking hard enough that pretending he was not laughing became completely impossible after two seconds. Even Sena, who had the self-control of an actual experienced politician, lost the battle and pressed a hand over her mouth as a laugh escaped her. I looked back down at the cactus. The cactus, in turn, continued being a cactus. "I fought through political misunderstandings, assassination attempts, monstrous rumors, and a tournament finale for this," I muttered. Saying it out loud only made it worse.
Kaen's laughter turned outright feral. Shisui had to sit down. Sena took a shaky deep breath, eyes shut, trying and failing to recover.
Kaen was still on the floor, clutching his stomach. "You got promoted to chunin and gifted a cactus." I held the pot up and squinted at it, then sighed in despair. That was when we heard another knock on the door.
My eyes lit up immediately. "See?" I said with glee. "It was a prank. Maybe from the merchants." Sena rolled her eyes as I walked toward the door. "This should be the real gift." Then I opened it and froze.
Standing in front of me was a tall platinum-blonde girl, her face slightly red and her eyes focused entirely on me. "Hello, Noa," she said shyly, and my heart dropped straight into my stomach. Raika was standing there, her eyes locked on me like some terrifying dojutsu.
---------------------------------------
A/N: So y'all came through as usual, and we got multiple amazing ratings and reviews. We are on fire, so if you haven't yet, please take a couple of seconds to rate the story if you're enjoying it. And if you take the time to write a review, that would be pretty awesome as well. Thank you all. Best readers ever, no doubt about it <3