Systematic Shinobi - Chapter 28.1 (Patreon)

For a moment, Daiki just stared at the Hyuuga heiress, completely taken aback by her confident, rather bold reply.

And that ara-ara…

It took his mighty strong willpower to stop himself from shivering. Ten out of ten, that was perfect.

His stunned reaction to her reply, was very obvious, and Hinata's smile grew a tiny bit wider.

"You totally should have," he forced his shock down and grinned at the older girl, "There was a point there where I had to sit still for a good few hours, looking at you would have made it much more bearable."

Her cheeks tinted red, but before she could reply, her teammate jumped in, "Sitting around for a few hours out there? Guess we're so good even a hotshot ringer like you're getting called would have trouble keeping up," Kiba grinned at him, "We finished in just four hours, second team overall and even broke a few records!" the feral dog using shinobi boasted proudly.

"I finished in less than forty five minutes and was the first to finish the exam actually, if you're going by the Suna team over there beating you for placements, then you guys are third actually," Daiki burst his bubble and smirked at him, idly picking up and chomping down on a piece of kebab meat, "I just didn't feel like waiting around, so went to play some more in the forest and have some fun."

"…What?" Kiba blinked, the proud grin on his face disappearing and he stared at Daiki blankly, "….No way, bullshit!" he shot to his feet and slammed his hands on the table.

His loud eruption drew three sets of eyes. Two male and one belonging to a pretty sandy blonde.

"No, he is not lying," Shino commented looking at Daiki in the eye through his sunglasses, "Why? Because only a fool would lie about a thing so easy to confirm when any exam proctor could tell us."

"What he said." Daiki's smirk grew to taunting proportions.

Kiba clicked his tongue, "…Well whatever we still beat Sasuke and Naruto at least," he sat back down, arms crossed, "Guess that ringer shit has some merit to it then, eh?"

"Maybe, or maybe I'm just that good," Daiki shrugged, "Don't put to much stock into the ringer thing, most ringers aren't absolute badasses like me, but like Sasuke, hell, give it a year or so and Hinata could be one as well."

"You think so?" Hinata hummed.

"I know so." he turned his ever so loveable smirk on her.

"Ah…thank you." she looked away, thanking him softly, but even then she couldn't hide how pleased her voice sounded.

Heh.

More confident and taking his advice or not, she still wasn't quite used to the honest praise yet.

"Alright, the heck is going on between you two?" Kiba questioned, looking between the pair of them weirdly, "Hinata's been acting weird lately, totally different, and you're totally flirting with her bro."

Hinata turned back around to reply, but Daiki beat her to it, "Nothing much, just been helping her train and change some things to get what she wants." he shrugged.

Kiba's eyebrows rose, "So you're the reason for the new look and how fast she's been improving?" he asked, leaning back in surprise.

"Something like that," Daiki shrugged again, "I just gave her some home truths, ain't that right good looking?" he looked to Hinata, his smirk growing.

"…Something like that." Hinata repeated his words, a light demure giggle escaping her lips.

Kiba eyed them for a moment before rolling his eyes, "Well whatever, not really my business unless you're causing her trouble," he gave up, and leaned back over the table, "Since you're here actually, and since you've helped Hinata so much, I'll give you a heads up about a guy even you should avoid."

"Oh?" Daiki's interest was piqued. Though, he already had a good guess as to who Kiba was about to warn him about.

Kiba leaned forward over the table a bit more, to the point where he was literally hanging over Daiki's food and met his eyes, before flickering them briefly to the corner of the mess hall, and Akamaru on his head under his hood was directly in front of his face.

Directly where Gaara was sitting out of the way.

As expected. Daiki supposed they saw him in action in the Forest of Death.

Daiki nodded, signalling Kiba he knew who he was talking about.

"That guys crazy, he got thousands of senbon tossed his way and didn't even blink, just used some freaky sand jutsu to shield himself and it was so fast I could barely follow it," Kiba whispered lowly, "He carries around his sand in that crazy gourd on his back and it stinks man, it absolutely reeks of blood, even right now I can smell it. We saw him kill a team of three older rain ninja that seemed really tough, he just crushed them to death his his sand, it was brutal, dunno how strong you are now dude, but I doubt even Sasuke could beat this guy." information given, the dog ninja leaned back into his seat, and Daiki noted that Hinata and Shino were giving him their full attention as well as he digested Kiba's words.

Hinata especially seemed to be waiting to see how he would reply to Kiba's words about the Jinchuuriki of the One Tailed Shukaku.

"Oh, you mean raccoon boy?" Daiki wasn't quiet at all as he replied and his voice travelled over the mess hall easily, "Yeah, you're right about him being tough, not someone any of you guys can take on. He's the youngest son of the Kazekage, and the hot blonde and guy with the painted face are his siblings."

He noted in his peripheral vision, both Temari and Kankuro tensing up, especially at the 'Racoon Boy' part. The teal eyes of Temari met his own and were now wide with shock.

"Course, I'm different from you guys, he's not someone I can't kick around for fun," Daiki smirked boldly, and didn't break eye contact with Temari, "If you go up against the other two though, the guy is a puppet user using chakra strings and probably poison while the hot blonde is a definitely a wind user, a bad match up for any of you guys actually." he noticed Kankuro tense at his words, and Temari's wide eyed gaze narrowed at him.

He winked at her and turned away, looking at the three of Team Eight, "You seem to know a lot about them." Hinata pointed out and he noticed there was now a small frown on her face.

Hmm.

She must be really taking these guys seriously.

"I know a lot in general," he shrugged, "But yeah, you guys should avoid taking them on, well beyond puppet boy, you and Shinobi are bad match ups for him after all as well." he added to the white eyed girl.

And he noticed then, he was done with his food. Daiki stood up, his tray in hand, "Right, well, fun as this has been, Im'a go train and grind this meat into my meat," Daiki said, he paused only to smirk at Hinata, "You're welcome to grind on my meat anytime you want by the way."

Shino's eyebrows rose up over his sunglasses in surprise.

Kiba gaped gobmsacked.

Hinata blinked and gave him a a confused glance, before her eyes widened as she apparently realised what he said and a crimson red blush spread across her cheeks, "…Ara ara," she cupped he face once more though, surprising him, "How forward Daiki-kun. But if you need help with your meat, I may pop by your room later to help you with it."

Daiki blinked.

Stunned.

"Hinata?!" Kiba spluttered.

Kiba's shock was enough to let him recover from his own and Daiki recovered his smirk, "I'll hold you to that sweet number nine," he winked at her and left the table, "Later." he bid them goodbye and went off to deposite his tray and leave the room.

As he did, he noted once again all eyes were on him, and Gaara in particular was glaring bloody murder at him, leaking a heavy dose of killing intent.

Scary~

Not.

He smirked at the redhead as he left. He had to at least get one taunt in on him even if he was hoping to avoid putting the boot to his sand rodent ass.

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"So this is Daiki Yurei hmm?" the impassive voice of an elder woman mused aloud. There was no inclination was to what Koharu Utatane felt in her voice as a gathering of high ranking shinobi and kunoichi alike observed the boy making his way back to his provided room for his stay in tower of the Forest of Death.

Beside her, a frown was on the face of her teammate Homura Mitokado, but he said nothing himself.

Each of them were sat on either side of the Third Hokage, who had a small amused smile on his face as he witnessed what just happened in the mess hall of the tower.

Throughout the room, the staff of shinobi and kunoichi that oversaw the Forest of Death itself and the second round of the Chunin Exams kept quiet.

Even Anko, standing beside the screens showing off the feed from the camera's throughout the tower.

"He's-" Kohura began.

But she was cut off.

The sound of wood echoed through the room as a cane was thrust into the floor hard, "He's a fool," Danzo Shimaru spat, non too impressed, "He just drew the eyes of the Kazekage's children, one of them an unstable jinchuuriki, knowingly at that, just so he could show off to a girl."

His one un-bandaged eye opened and he gave a disdainful glance at the Hokage, "This is the one you have so much interest in?" his disappointment could not be any more apparent.

Hiruzen's smile grew, "As always, you have such a narrow view on things my old friend," he replied, voice casual and not at all bothered by his disdain, "I assume you're annoyed at the fact he so easily revealed what he knew, in front of them at that?"

"Of course, any advantage he could gleam from that is now lost," Danzo scoffed, "Talented he may be, but talent means nothing without the proper mind set to utilize it."

"You're looking at it all wrong," Hiruzen chuckled, shaking his head in amusement, "That wasn't a mistake, Daiki knows exactly what he done. While he was indeed showing off to young Hinata, that was not all he was doing. He was getting in their heads, telling them he knows exactly what they can do and he is not impressed, they in turn know nothing of his abilities and will work themselves into quite the tizzy no doubt over trying to counter him."

"Pure arrogance," Danzo scoffed, unperturbed by the reply he got, "That boy Gaara, he's as unstable as they come and his seal is pitifully weak, he can allow the Ichibi out to run amok at a moments notice, yet this boy see's no threat in him."

"Last I checked, three tails beats one," Hiruzen smugly pointed out, "And of course Daiki has full control over the Sanbi and works together with it, young Gaara can only let the beast itself run rampant, the Shukaku is no match for Daiki and the Sanbi together."

"So you say," Danzo huffed, "I have yet to see any proof of this wonder boy you have been telling tall tales of and giving such special treatment to having any control over the beast at all, and even if he did, defeating the Shukaku would be no simple matter, the damage it would cost when being brought down would be catastrophic if released within the village."

"We're not in the village old man," Daiki's voice echoed from the speakers connected to the camera feed, "So stop your whining."

Everyone froze, Danzo included at the sudden interruption.

Everyone bar the Hokage himself though who merely chuckled even louder.