Kirume, Kirime, and now Tekka were the surnames that members had. I was ready to add my name to that list. Now that that was over, I was an official adult and ready to get married. Like I said I would, I made a beeline for my rival's house. His family there and told me that he was tending to the chickens his family had out back. I asked if I could see him. They shrugged and took me to their backyard to see him. I looked at him as he had to reach into a coop for eggs and gently place it in a basket. That domestic side as he did it cheerfully fully solidified that he was a good guy. I mean, friendly with distant relations, good with animals, fit and relatively good looking. Aside from that temper of his, I was hard pressed to find a flaw in Chihiro. "Hiro-chan! Tsuyoi-san is here to see you." his mom called. He flinched and then looked at me. The dirty look he gave me was gold. "I'll be back. I have business with Nagisa-kun." he said as he set the basket down and dragged me off. "That's alright. Have fun." she said. He took me over to the outskirts of the village. "You got guts to come to my house!"
We fought again. He went even dirtier than last time, but it was nowhere near the open animosity that I was shown by Ryoji. I beat him and did the same pose. I grinded my sole on his belly. "There you go. You wanted this. You have to deal with it." I teased as he groaned on the ground. "Why can't I beat you!? You're a damn coward and a weakling." he snapped. "Next time, I actually put something on the line. Stop challenging me." I warned. "Never! I won't back down." he spat. I left him there and then walked to the storehouse. Keisuke was waiting for me to tell him all about it. I told him everything. Even the part about Chihiro. Keisuke rubbed his chin while he thought about it for a bit. I just looked at him. There really wasn't a need to pretend to be a great sage all of a sudden. "Chihiro-san has it out for you, huh? He's a chunin, but he keeps losing to you, huh?" he said. I nodded. He then looked at me and said "You don't think he wants to have a romance?" I had no clue how he could get that. "He's a chunin! How could you win 1 on 1 unless he likes you. Visiting you at night?" he stressed.
By conventional logic, yes, but I started the game at level 10. I had a massive leg up on everyone until we met the Akaime Clan Elder boss fight. I said "I really don't think that's the case. He is a self-proclaimed rival." Keisuke only shrugged. Yukiya came up to us to tell us about a clan meeting. We in particular were requested to be there. It was not clear what was going on. There was no way we were going to miss the meeting though. I went right away and so did Keisuke. We had to wait for a bit for the meeting to start. The preparations were coming along. It was being a bit slower than they expected. They could take their time. I was practically already in the clan. The meeting then turned to us. The chunin exams were coming up. It was a team exercise and only full squads could enter. Both Keisuke and I would be leading teams of genin through the exams. If it went well, the clan would have a dozen new chunin. I was willing to take on the task. Keisuke also said he would pick a team. The chunin exam was for both the shinobi and kunoichi. I had to find some good genin for my team.
