Chapter Text
A rightly deserved ribbing, Danzou thought, as he continued to poke fun at Kagami amongst the rest of the team, “So that’s what you were doing for the last couple days before the exams huh? Getting railed?” He crudely put.
“Danzou, would you get off it?!” Sarutobi barked, shoving his teammate at the arm, whilst Kagami tried to school his fluster, and failing miserably.
“Hey,” Danzou recovered, rubbing at the tip of his nose, snorting softly, “What? I can’t call it as it is? Well, at least we don’t need to hear Kagami be woeful over still being a damn virgin! It’s about time!”
It was going to be a long tiresome day it seemed, between Danzou’s rants and the fact that tomorrow was the preliminaries for the jonin exams, emotions were at an all time high.
Danzou didn’t sweat the power of his own game, the last few days for him, unlike the others racked with anxiety, had fueled him to a state beyond pumped. Finally, he had an opportunity to shine, the exams had always been the best place to showboat as he’d done in the chunin exams those years ago.
Of course, their Sensei hadn’t been oh so keen on the displays Danzou had put on, lecturing him on the importance of “a ninja’s humility” or something of the like.
He tsked, he wouldn’t deny that it did hit a sore spot considering a big part of why he did it was to impress the older man. Nevertheless, he was sure Tobirama was still proud even behind the chastisement.
But this time was different.
He wasn’t a teenager on the cusp of young adulthood anymore, vying for Tobirama to simply pat him on the head for a job well done.
Nah, he outgrew that. He was looking for much more…
His hormones were definitely taking the driver’s seat in terms of his decision making when it came to anything and everything related to their Sensei, as of late.
Things were no longer the same when they were fresh faced genin, star-struck in the eyes and too innocent and dumb to see what was coming.
Tobirama had been kind enough to take them to one final lunch outing the day before the preliminaries. It was quaint, intimate and shoulder-to-shoulder, everyone enjoyed the good food and surprisingly, the good sake, Danzou hadn’t thought their Sensei would have encouraged the day drinking, but he wasn’t going to complain.
Afterwards, Danzou had broken away from the group, he’d grown tired quickly when Sarutobi ran on about what jutsu he’d been perfecting for his matches, and everyone was eating it up for dessert, Tobirama inclusive.
At first, his absence had gone unnoticed.
Danzou slipped the cigarette between his lips, and leaned his elbows against the balcony of the random rooftop he’d flickered over to.
The air was thick from humidity as summer was right upon them, and it forced Danzou to shed less of his layers on most days now. He huffed as he cradled the cigarette between his fingers as he gazed out into the scenery so aimlessly.
He hadn’t even registered the presence of another until the deep thrum of Tobirama’s voice broke him from his inner thoughts. “A smoke break, I see. Yet to give up those little cigarettes?” Tobirama observed him casually as he leaned back against the railing besides Danzou, his arms folded as he regarded his charge.
Danzou narrowed his eyes, “I don’t do it nearly as often anymore, y’know. So sue me if I want to indulge every so often.”
The small chuckle that escaped Tobirama tickled Danzou, his stomach fluttered and he refused to even look in his direction. “I didn’t realized I said something so hilarious.” He grumbled. Had he not been irritated, perhaps Danzou would have been slightly pleased with himself, having managed to get his superior to be amused, even at the expense of himself.
“Are you excited for the exams?” Tobirama changed the subject, easing away from instigating any more frustrations. “You’ve been training hard, but I can’t help but observe you’ve been slacking the last couple of days.”
Danzou sighed, stubbed out his cigarette and tossed it despite knowing Tobirama would most likely take a nip out of him for that later. “Just taking the time to rest until the preliminaries, you’ve always made that a priority for us too, recovery so we don’t overdo it right?”
Tobirama hummed, his eyes took their time scrutinizing the young man’s face, “Resting, sure, I’d rather call it sulking however.” He pointed out. It didn’t take one with superior intellect and observation skills of his caliber to pick up on Danzou’s displeasure, it reeked on him like week old fish. “You still like to bottle up your feelings even at this age.”
Danzou huffed, “Takes one to know one.” He muttered.
He wasn’t lucky nor slick enough to get away with that. A quick, sharp slap to the back of his head was sobering enough to jump start him to act right.
He whipped around, Tobirama met his surprised expression with stoic intolerance. “Mind yourself, Danzou.”
He huffed, rubbing at the stinging area. “I’m sorry…I’m just a little overstimulated, Sarutobi is being loud and obnoxious as usual today, it’s rubbing me the wrong way.” He admitted, as much as he’d rather pull out his own teeth than say the idiot was getting under his skin.
Tobirama held a dubious expression, “I think there’s a little more to that, don’t you think?”
Danzou worried his lip, a little habit that peeked through every now and again when anxiety plagued him, and he hated how Tobirama saw through him like a piece of glass over it. “Just, ignore me, nothing major, I’m still going to kick everyone’s ass in the preliminaries, especially Sarutobi.” He spat, fist tightening as he grasp the balcony’s rail.
Tobirama wasn’t surprised by the boy’s own self pep talk, he appreciated it rather, but yet, wouldn’t refrain from reminding him that it was okay to feel intimidated in some way. All of his kids had been working hard and developing new jutsu, and he knew Saru had exceptional things under his belt, but he had no doubt that Danzou had the same.
He had picked up on Danzou’s displeased expression during Saru’s boast, but hadn’t made comment in the restaurant, because he knew how important it was for the others to stoke anticipation and anxiety in the others over skill, it cultivated healthy rivalry, as long as he kept them reigned in…
He recognized the sheering passion in Danzou from day one, his burning need to be on top, and it seemed that Tobirama’s own presence stoked that desire. It was not lost on him. “Right, very well then. Don’t forget that I’m here however, if there’s more on your mind.”
Danzou eyed him briefly before turning his full attention back to the rooftops of shops and clothing lines that hung between buildings.
It was more than a competition to best Saru…
Sure he wanted to make the punk squeal, but he was more invested in Tobirama seeing him a different light this time around.
However, he would never tell him how he truly felt.
-
The day of the exams carried an atmosphere thick with tension, enough for kunai to pierce through. Villagers from far and wide, east to west lands came pouring in over the last week leading up to the competition. Everyone knew that the jonin exams garnered even more attention than the chunin counterparts, and people were lined up to see this year’s roster.
Tobirama was equally if not more excited than the rest as he proudly eyed his subordinates as they talked amongst themselves and prepared their equipment and snapped on their weapon holsters and jackets. They were all gathered in one of the various prep rooms, divided by squad number. Tobirama could hear the cheers and screams, people were thrumming from the outside as their cries pierced through the room’s walls. “Seems as though this may be the greatest turnout in history for the Jonin Exams.” He noted.
Sarutobi and company, excluding Danzou, were all hyped at that. Danzou busied himself with ensuring his kunai holster was fastened securely to his outer thigh, zoning out.
“What say you, Danzou?” The smooth deep voice from Tobirama jarred the young man from his dissociations.
“Hm?” He blinked as he looked up to meet the eyes of the rest of the team, Tobirama held a slight look of concern whilst Sarutobi seemed ready to dig in.
“Don’t tell me you’re nervous, Danzou. Cold feet?” He poked fun, light and no serious mockery, yet Danzou’s expression quickly hardened at it.
“Shut your mouth, Sarutobi.” He spat, to the shock of the others, even Sarutobi not having expected him to lash back so harshly.
“Geezh, you don’t have to be such an ass all the damn time, y’know!” He bit back, eyes danced with rising fire, standing to his feet to tower over him. Danzou quickly matched his stance, now with grit teeth, and the fighting urge pumping through his veins, he’d rip the kid a new one if he got any damn closer.
“Save it for the battlefield.” Tobirama interrupted, his voice cutting sharp between the two hotheads, he’d grown tiresome of the childish displays they still sported, reminiscent of their younger days. Rivalry was healthy but ridiculous tantrums weren’t. “Or do I need to remove you two from the roster? Perhaps another year as a chunin will humble you enough to act right.”
Both younger men knew Tobirama was no man of empty threats, so they retracted themselves from the stand-off, Danzou dropped his fists and Sarutobi softened his gaze. Both of them apologized in unison.
Tobirama was satisfied and eventually left the younger adults to their own devices, no longer wanting to hover over them as they strategized.
Instead he went over to the main hall where other squad leaders gathered to mingle and even get a preview of the match lineups. Tobirama was more invested in seeing who was paired up in the preliminaries rather than mindless chatter amongst the other jonin present.
He saw the large roster posted and quickly scanned to catch any familiar names. He wasn’t surprised to see his kids paired up with many Mist and Sand ninja, it became a common trend over the years that hadn’t gone unnoticed by him.
People loved a good, tense fight between the Blood Mist and the Leaf, and he supposed the organizers were simply giving what the people want.
But what really caught his eye was Danzou’s pairing.
“With Kagami?”He quietly mumbled to himself. It wasn’t that it was something out of the blue per say, but usually they tried to refrain from pairing ninja from the same squad in combat early on in the preliminaries.
Nevertheless, he determined in whatever case, things will be quite interesting…
-
Danzou was always one to never to go back on his word, at least he tried to. So naturally, he’d already determined that he didn’t have any issue taking down any of his squadmates during competition if any of them were unlucky enough to get paired with him.
Especially Sarutobi. He’d been looking forward to the slow savor of fighting him, but Danzou scowled like an unhappy child when the match rang Sarutobi’s name across the board, displayed next to a foreign name hailing from the Mist.
All he could do was bite his tongue and watch from the sidelines as Sarutobi went up against the raven haired ninja who carried death in his eyes. Danzou supposed he’d have to live vicariously through him to gain some semblance of satisfaction.
But of course…
Of fucking course, Sarutobi had no issue taking down the kid.
Danzou swore under his breath when the Mist nin got laid out cold in the arena, drawing the astonishment and praise of the crowd. They might as well had laid out a stupid red carpet for him.
Sarutobi was breathing heavily, sweat drenched but a wicked smirk graced his lips nevertheless and amongst his cheering squadmates he glimpsed Tobirama nearby, a pleased expression. Danzou wanted to eat cement he was so damn pissed.
The intercession between matches did nothing to cool his head. “You got damn lucky, that’s all!” Danzou didn’t hesitate to diminish his rival’s victory, despite the chastisement of the others.
“Danzou, can’t you just be happy for him, would that kill you?!” Koharu was fed up, radiating similar feelings of her teammates, they were tired of the upset Danzou caused.
He didn’t give a damn. “Oh? You kissing Saru’s ass now too?” He accused. “Well why don’t we all just bow down since he’s so fucking great—” A hand slipped around his mouth to shut him up.
Tobirama had flickered into the room, right behind Danzou, just in time to rightfully silence his aimless rant. It was time to nip things in the bud. “You did exceptionally well Saru,” Tobirama approved casually as if he wasn’t currently keeping hold of one of his squirming chunin.
“Now as for the rest of you, I trust you all to do the same for your matches as well, for now, I’ll leave you to it, I need to speak with Danzou for a moment.” He announced coolly before he flickered them both away, in the wake of the wide-eyed chunin left.
When the room shifted and warped and Danzou’s brain struggled to catch up to the quick switch, if it weren’t for the arm Tobirama held fast at his waist, he would have toppled over face first.
Once he deemed the kid stable enough, Tobirama released him, but he held no sympathy for having to yank him into a different place so suddenly. “Your behavior was appalling, sometimes I often question if you’re five years old rather than a grown man.” He sneered, folding his arms.
Danzou should have known better, but without much care, he still huffed in exasperation, “Sarutobi was asking for it, he’s so damn full of himself.” He scoffed.
Tobirama quirked a brow, “And you think it was wise to escalate that situation? Kami you two…” He felt like he’d aged fifty years with the amount of times he had to play mediator with the brats he’d called students. “You’re not going to drop dead if you two act civil towards each other every now and then.” He reasoned. But at this point, he was considering just locking the two in a room together without any hopes of leaving. Either they become the best of friends or die trying.
Danzou wasn’t having it regardless, maybe it was all the stress and anxiety of his upcoming matches, perhaps he didn’t sleep enough the previous night, or even the fact that just this one time, Sarutobi’s cocky demeanor got under his skin far too deep and everyone else was making it worse. “You’re taking his side because you’re sleeping with him.” He spat.
Danzou clearly wasn’t planning on living long enough to see his next birthday.
He felt the drop in the atmosphere, the switch into serious and cold. And when he dared to chance a glance towards his sensei, meeting red eyes devoid of the willingness to give him a second chance, Danzou realized his fate was sealed.
“I-“ He had no damn clue how to back track here. But his feet did in fact, know how to get going, as he quickly retreated towards the wall when Tobirama moved on him.