Plates of Arceus

Chapter 1

The Evaluation

I slowly opened my eyes only to close them with a groan; there was a lone, bare light bulb dangling above my head, shining straight into my eyes. There weren't any lights above my bed back at my apartment; did I roll off my bed again? No, I was still off the ground. This wasn't my apartment.

I carefully peeled open one of my eyes and looked around, trying to figure out where I was. The walls and ceiling didn't give me any clues, they were grey plaster and as bear as the light bulb trying to blind me. I couldn't see the floor to well but it seemed to be smooth gray concrete until it reached my temporary bed.

What was this anyway? A hospital bed, with restraining leather straps and chakra suppressant seals; just great, I hate hospitals! Whoever pinned me to this thing was seriously taking no chances; they even took my favorite blue PJs and replaced them with some scratchy white hospital scrubs.

"Okay, okay. Calm down, Naruto." I muttered to myself in a vain effort to calm myself. "Take another look around and find out where you are, then you can try to escape. You are a shinobi in training and the future Hokage! You can do this."

Another check of the ceiling and the three walls (I could see) revealed nothing new, so I carefully arched my back and tried to twist myself, as far as my restraints would let me, so that I was looking over my left shoulder. Behind my cushioned prison was yet another gray plaster wall, this time interrupted by a steel door with a thin, maybe two-inch tall pane of bubbly, frosted glass with letters on it.

It took me a few moments to translate the backwards, upside-down, and hazy letters, but I was eventually able to read something along the lines of "Poke-Partners Exam Room 13". Once I deciphered that, I flopped back onto my bed and started sweating.

Okay good news! I wasn't kidnapped by random villagers or rogue shinobi. Bad news; I was about to start the Konoha Shinobi Academy Graduation exam, which in itself was great, but…

"Already?" I whispered to myself, shaking in spite of the straps pinning me. "I-I can't fail this!" Cue panic. Well you can't really blame me; I suck at tests, and this one is supposed to be really tough, not to mention life-altering.

"Kit, Kit! Stop working yourself up; you've got to calm down." Warm chakra started coursing itself up and down my spine, causing the seals around my gut to start smoking. Thankfully Uncle Kyuu's attempts to comfort weren't as vicious as they used to be. I don't know who he'd threaten to eat in this particular situation, or worse, whatever torture methods he'd promise to use, but I really did not need those mental images right now. Sadly, his attempts still didn't do much good.

After all, I was strapped to a hospital bed (isn't it called a gurney?), about to take the first part of my graduation exam, and you can never tell who will pass or not. To this day no academy student knows what the criteria for passing are supposed to be, and the graduates from previous years are sworn to secrecy. We aren't even allowed to know who the examiners are!

"Oh, Crud, dattebayo!" I shouted, not able to take the pressure anymore.

"Really, Kit?" Uncle Kyuu groaned.

"Don't mock the catch phrase Uncle." I quipped back. Having heard his complaint about my Word coming before he even opened his mouth. I really didn't want to get into that argument with him, it takes hours to finish.

"Any new ideas on what the test is gonna be?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"No."

I groaned. "Well, I guess all I can do is get comfy and wait for the examiner." I decide. Wasting no time, I start to stretch as best I can with the restraints on, trying to rid myself of my stiff muscles. I winced as I forced my legs to move; "Just how long was I out anyway?"

Before I could get an answer, the door to my cell opened up behind me and a man with long dirty blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and a konoha headband came into view. He shook his head at something behind me, probably the person who opened the door for him. I don't see how else he could've gotten in here with his hands full; carrying a massive file and a clipboard in one hand and a mug (strong coffee, if the smell was anything to go by) and a pen in the other.

"He looks like the Ino Yamanaka girl from your class, Kit." Uncle informed me, effectively returning my attention to him instead of the door I couldn't see. I could easily tell what he meant; same hair (in the almost exact same style too), same eye shape, his were hazel, not pale blue like Ino's, though. He also had that slightly weathered look you normally see in old men, but this man had to be around forty years old, way too young to have that look. Unless you were a shinobi, that is.

"Naruto Uzumaki, academy student number 68664, do you know why you're here?" The gender-swapped Ino lookalike asked me in what seemed to be his gentlest voice.

"This is p-part of the graduation test, right?" I couldn't stop that stutter; thankfully male-Ino ignored it.

"Yes. My name is Inoichi Yamanaka, and I am here to give you a psych exam." Part of my panicked a little at the thought of having to pass a shrink test, another part was just marveling at the fact that my examiner was related to Ino after all.

I gulped. (This is gonna be bad. I'm not exactly known for being sane back at academy; throw uncle Kyuu into the mix and this is gonna guarantee me a psycho status for life!)

"Who is Uncle Kyuu?" Inoichi interrupted my interior monologue.

I froze for half a second before turning to look at him. He just sat there, calmly waiting for an answer I was terrified to give.

Inoichi sighed before talking yet again in that gentle voice. "Please relax, Naruto. No harm can come to you in this room, and the only thing I can say leaving here is that you either are ready, or you are not. I am not here to judge you personally, only your mental wellbeing; since this Uncle Kyuu is a big part of your psyche, I need to know roughly who he is." His hand gently covered mine.

I can feel his worry, and his honesty. It's clear as day to me now. This always happens to me when I touch people; usually it scares me, but this time I decide to trust it.

I looked back to my examiner and giggled a little. (Seriously, only a little and it was a pretty manly giggle, all right?) His head was cocked to one side and his eyebrows were smooshed together, kinda like his lips were, only going side to side not up and down. He looked like a confused puppy.

He blinked at me while giggled, then smiled.

"Just warning you: Uncle Kyuu is hard to describe, but I'll see what I can do." I said as sternly as I could all tied up. "Uncle is, well he lives in my head, sort of, but he isn't there all the time and he's NOT imaginary." I glared at Inoichi until he nodded. "Uncle doesn't do a lot of the nit-picky, clingy parent stuff, but he does take care of me. He heals me when I'm hurt, which is pretty often, tries to calm me down when I'm mad or scared, and he actually listens to me unlike most adults." I finish with a bit of venom. (Hey, most adults are jerks. If it weren't for the fact that the Hokage has to try to protect all of the people in the village, I probably wouldn't give them a single glance.)

Sadly, that was all I knew about my Uncle Kyuu. He is kind of a private person. The only other thing I might be able to tell Yamanaka-san is that he loves furry things and violence. I didn't think that would go over too well though.

Inoichi was quite for a moment before he asked me," Has this Uncle of yours ever asked you to harm anyone who has done nothing to harm you?"

This question seemed more weighted than anything else he had said. Since he seemed to be able to read my mind anyway, I decided to answer honestly. (Besides, I probably won't remember the lie later anyway.)

"Well, he used threaten to do some pretty violent things to people who hurt me, but he never asked me to do anything like that and he got a lot better about it once I entered academy."(Mostly because I was now being guarded like all civilian-born students were, and my attackers couldn't be as blatant.)

Inoichi was quite again, so I looked over at him. (When did I look away?) He was thinking hard, which made him look like a confused puppy again. I didn't stop giggling until he squeezed my hand.

"Thank you for telling me." He said as he moved to leave. "I know you're tired despite the amount of sleep you got earlier, get some rest. You pass."

I felt something stab the back of my knee and I started drifting off to sleep.

Author's note:

Okay so none of the characters or places in this anime belong to me, they belong to their rightful owners. The only thing I own is the idea to mash all this stuff up in the way that I did. Does that work for a disclaimer?

Alrighty, Hi everyone. I borrowed a bunch of ideas to throw this story together including some dragon ball z elements, an idea mentioned in one episode of Winx club, and some inspiration from other writer's works including "Power of Partnership", Reflections of Exile", and"The Fishy Hyuuga".

A special thanks to the people who wrote those fic's, Iv'e reread them multiple times.

I've already got the rough outlines for the next two chapters written out and I'll type them up as soon as I can; until then, feedback is greatly appreciated as this is my first fan fiction.