This is not my first fanfiction, but it is my first for the Naruto universe, and I hope you will enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, nor anything Naruto.
1
Another Exam . . . !!
The Third Hokage surveyed the remaining candidates, those who had triumphed in the preliminaries of the Chûnin Exam and who now stood atop the beaten floor, gazing back at him. The sensei and the proctors formed a semi-circle about him, sharing his view.
"One genin from Otogakure, three from Sunagakure," Mitarashi Anko, counting softly, whispered to Morino Ibiki, who stood with her, "and five from Konohagakure." She shook her head, her hair bouncing gently on her cheeks. "Amazing, isn't it?"
"Indeed, considering the amount of candidates that made it past the Forest of Death." Ibiki replied. A grim smile touched his lips. "And some of these victors here . . . well, you'd never have thought, eh?"
Anko shrugged. "I'm always surprised at some of what these rookies are made of."
"Look at Uzumaki." Ibiki nodded in the kid's direction. "What a genin."
"I like his attitude," Anko said, smiling a little bit herself. Her eyes shifted to the left, and Ibiki followed her gaze.
"Those kids from the Sand . . ." he murmured.
"One clean sweep," Anko remarked, "the entire team passed."
"Ruthless little punks," Ibiki's smile hardened. Next to him, Hayate, having caught the last of the conversation, nodded.
"Shh," Lord Hokage held up his hands for silence, and what little conversation had sprung up among the genin and jônin alike ceased. All eyes turned to the Third Lord, who slowly lowered his hands and nonchalantly adjusted his pipe.
"Congratulations to the victors," he said, "and to all of you who fought valiantly, victor or otherwise, congratulations! All who have shown honor here have made their villages proud, and we can ask for little more."
His eyes went to the side door, through which the wounded had been carried, before returning to the genin lined up before him.
"Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuga Neji, Uchiha Sasuke, and Aburame Shino, all of the Village Hidden in the Leaves; Kinuta Dosu, of the Land of Sound; and Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara, all of the Village Hidden in the Sand; you are our victors."
The genin returned his gaze, some curiously, some levelly, and some – like, the Third Lord noted, the young Sand ninja who stood near Shikamaru – with veiled hostility.
"It is unusual," he continued cheerfully, undaunted, "to have so many of you, even after the preliminaries. Be proud, for this is an acknowledgment of your strength."
He paused again; Hayate coughed, softly, behind him, and impatience had crept into the expressions of many of the genin.
"To be a shinobi," Lord Hokage continued mildly, "one must be able to work in tandem – indeed, in near-perfect harmony – with others. A ninja must be prepared to put aside emotion and taste, to focus on the task at hand, and to participate in a group in the way that will promote the maximum chances for success. Perhaps you, as a shinobi, will be assigned to work with a group that you have never set eyes upon before, in a far-off land that you know nothing of. Or, perhaps you will be assigned to work with people you despise, people who annoy you to no end, in a land you are hostile towards, on a mission you would really rather not do. In either scenario, you, as shinobi, must strangle your emotions and operate with these people in, at the very least, near-perfect harmony."
Some of the genin's expressions might have amused him, had he not been serious. They certainly were amusing the jônin behind him, who sent up a low murmur of comment.
The Hokage deliberately waited until the jônin had quieted before resuming. "It is to this end that we have designed a second preliminary exam."
"WHAT?!"
The word tore itself from Naruto's mouth before he could bite it back, and all eyes turned to him.
"I am sure my voice was perfectly audible." Lord Hokage remarked, unperturbed. Behind him, Kakashi mouthed Naruto's name and shook his head, slowly.
"I mean–" Naruto looked around, and swallowed indignantly. "I mean, we just had three tests in a row! One of them a preliminary! Do we really need another one?"
Low remarks, ranging from "yeah" to "shut up, loser" drifted up from the assembled genin. Anko clicked her tongue sharply.
"Wasn't he listening to what Hokage-sama just said?" she hissed.
"Apparently not." Ibiki flicked a speck of dust from his coat. "That boy lacks discipline."
"I am equally sure that I just expounded upon my reasons, Uzumaki," the Hokage replied gently, before continuing as if nothing had happened. "This second preliminary exam will, in sum, test your ability to coordinate your efforts with others. It is a psychological exam, useful for determining your potential to work well in a standard four-man cell. Yes, it will count towards the finals of the Chûnin Exam. It will take a month; following that month, you will have an additional month to train and prepare for the finals."
"So . . ." Naruto interrupted yet again, "a psychological exam, huh? What exactly will we be doing?"
"Just shut up and he'll explain!" Anko snarled. "Do you have any respect?"
The Third Lord suppressed a sigh. Dealing with indignant underlings was a delicate art. "The execution of this exam will go as follows: we shall split you all up into two-man teams. Because promotion to chûnin level is based on your demonstrated abilities, and not on the final victor, everyone here has the opportunity to become a chûnin, regardless of wins or losses. Therefore, participation in this secondary preliminary exam is open to those who had lost their preliminary battles. These genin will still not participate in the finals, but they will participate in the second preliminary exam, and their performance will be judged accordingly.
"Obviously, many of those who lost their preliminary battles will be unable to participate, although, if they recover, they may enter at a later date.
"Those who are unable to participate in the second preliminary exam, due to their physical injuries, will still be considered for chûnin promotion, although we will regret that they were never able to supply us with the data we will gather here.
"Therefore," the Third Lord glanced briefly at the sensei, "Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino, and Tenten will also participate in the second preliminary exams."
He immediately lifted a hand to forestall any noise, and was almost successful. A few cheers went up here and there, most notably from Naruto, but silence swooped back down fairly quickly.
"Because these added participants bring the count up to thirteen, we will be splitting you up into five teams of two and one team of three. The teams will be randomly selected, although, because the point of this exam is to test your ability to work with unknown partners, no one will be paired with someone from their team unless it is otherwise inconvenient not to do so."
Some shuffling. The elder boy from the Sand, the Hokage noticed, glanced towards the younger out of the corner of his eye, and bit his lip. Next to him, his sister's expression had settled into one of almost stony wariness. In contrast, the impassive expression of the younger one didn't even flicker.
Interesting, the Hokage thought.
"In order to oversee these teams, we will be assigning sensei to watch over each team of two or three. Again, no one will have the sensei he or she trained beneath as a geni, unless it suits our purpose to otherwise make it so.
"As I have already said, these pairings will be at random. However, we do wish each of you to fill out a questionnaire, just so that we might have some data from you to factor into our decisions. Anko?"
"Hokage-sama," Anko hefted a stack of clipboards, on which papers fluttered weakly.
"Everyone," the Hokage waved his hand towards Anko, "you will take and complete these simple forms and return them to me. You have thirty minutes. Fill them out right here; you may sit down. Go."
He very clearly heard Shikamaru remark, "What a drag," but decided to ignore it.
In silence, Anko stepped forward and began handing out the clipboards and pens. Murmured rote expressions of gratitude rose from the genin, accompanied by the click of plastic on wood, as they took their forms and stepped back to seek floor space that wasn't shredded by some attack or other.
Personality Questionnaire Form
Your Name:
Your Age:
Your Village:
Your Previous Sensei:
Your Teammates:
"This is easy!" Naruto plopped down besides Sakura, and handed her a clipboard. "Here, I got this for you – but look at these questions! Piece of cake!"
"It's not like it's a test, Naruto," Sakura replied, accepting the clipboard and the pen. "It's just to get an idea of our personalities. Let's see . . . Haruno Sakura . . . twelve . . . Konohagakure . . . Hatake Kakashi . . . Uzumake Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke . . . "
Which Color Do You Prefer Out Of The Following? (Please circle) :
Green : Red : Blue : Yellow : Purple : Black : White
"The hell?" Kankuro frowned at the paper.
"What is this, some kind of joke?" Temari joined Kankuro, looking stormy. "It's not very funny."
"It's dumb, yeah," Kankuro sighed, and set the clipboard aside. Temari silently looked over to him, questioning.
"Look," Kankuro turned his head and glanced at Gaara, who was seated some distance from them, having decided to fill out his form where he stood, "We have to talk to Baki. About Gaara."
Temari bit her lip. "Yeah, we should. Working with someone here . . . Gaara will hurt that person, probably even kill him or her. We should ask for him to be paired with . . . well, one of us. We could be the three-person team."
She looked doubtful even as she said the words. Kankuro waved her closer, and checked the distance from them and his little brother, making sure that Gaara couldn't hear.
"What about us, Temari? That bloody demon is awake, and it wants blood. You know it, Baki knows it, I know it. Gaara, with such a heavy influence from the demon, probably won't make any distinction between us and everyone else . . . hell, Gaara already doesn't make any distinction between us and everyone else. You heard him, Temari . . ."
" 'I've never thought of either of you as my siblings,' " Temari said. She tugged on her hair, a nervous gesture that had followed her since childhood.
" 'Cross me, and I'll kill you.' " Kankuro finished bluntly. Both of them gazed at Gaara, who was calmly filling in his form, looking perfectly unconcerned and innocent.
"No, Temari, we should get Baki to try to withdraw Gaara from this exam."
"But, Kankuro . . ." Temari frowned at him.
"Yeah, I know. The plan." Kankuro rubbed his eyes. Beside him, Temari leaned back against the wall, looking thoughtful and disturbed.
"I don't think this preliminary affects the finals," She remarked, softly. "And, look . . . we're not here to be promoted anyway. And, Kankuro, we're trying not to attract any attention here! You've heard Baki: 'stay low, stay in control, don't do anything stupid.' And Gaara killing his teammate – whether it be you, I, or some other poor slob – isn't exactly being unobtrusive. By attracting that kind of attention, he could put the plan in danger before we have a chance to even prepare for it."
She plucked at her dress, frowning. Kankuro kept his mouth shut and let her think, for a little bit.
"Maybe you should talk to Gaara," he remarked, after a long moment. "He likes you more than he likes me."
"I stay out of his way." Temari redirected her frown in Kankuro's direction. "I don't do anything stupid, like mess with a couple of pathetic eight-year-olds."
"Punks had what was coming to them," Kankuro replied defensively. "Anyway, we should get a move on; it's been a while already. Look, if it won't complicate our participation in the finals, we'll ask Baki to try to get Gaara withdrawn. If they won't withdraw Gaara, or if it will complicate our participation, then we'll just ask for Gaara to be paired up with you and I."
"It defeats the purpose of the exam," Temari shrugged, "but I'd rather that than death, personally."
"Come on, then."
Would You Describe Yourself As An Introvert or an Extrovert?
Ino rolled her eyes. "Please," she remarked.
"What a drag," Shikamaru reiterated gloomily. "They really have to draw this out, don't they?"
Do You Enjoy Meeting New People?
Kiba actually laughed when he came to this one. "Look at number eight, Shino."
"Hmmm."
Would You Rather Live And Be An Outcast, Universally Reviled and, Declared And Remembered As a Coward? Or would You Rather Die And Be Universally Remembered As A Hero Of Your Village?
You sentimental fools, Dosu thought scornfully. He scribbled "neither" below question ten, idly shredding the corner of the paper with his fingers as he did so, and moved on.
On A scale of 1 to 10, What Importance Do You Place Upon Your Own Personal Safety, Even If It Compromises the Success of the Mission?
On A Scale of 1 to 10, What Importance Do You Place Upon The Success of the Mission, Even If It Compromises Your Own Personal Safety?
"Fools," Neji remarked, in a low voice. "The Heavens decree whether I fail or succeed, and whether I am hurt or unwounded. To worry about things I have no control over is a waste of time."
Tenten, bruised and battered next to him, bit her tongue.
Do You Know How To Cook?
Gaara, with barely a glance to the question, circled the "yes" and continued shading in his drawing, which he was sketching about the questions and answers on the paper. He was drawing a hand, slender, like that of a small child, slightly cupped and curled so that the palm faced the clip on the clipboard; and he was carefully drawing in the small pool of blood that the palm cradled, and which dripped down through the cracks in the fingers and ran down the inclined wrist in dark rivulets. He was no virtuoso, but he paid attention to detail and worked with patience; and the slow meticulousness of the art calmed him and gave him purpose. He widened the shadow beneath the hand, and, as he sketched, the memory of Yashamaru's bloodstained face flickered on and off within his mind.
He thought that Mother would be pleased.
"All right!" Anko whipped her voice about, commanding instant attention. "Time is UP so everyone, please PASS YOUR FORMS in, NOW!"
"Yikes," Shikamaru, who had been among the many who had jumped at the sudden sound of Anko's voice, laid his form down. "You don't have to yell, you know."
Naruto waved his form in Sakura's face. "What do I do?! I haven't answered the last two questions!"
Sakura silently seized his wrist, plucked the clipboard from his fingers, glanced at the last two questions, and noted down the answers. "There, these fit you."
"Thanks, Sakura-chan," Naruto, feeling a little embarrassed, meekly took back his clipboard. A little ways away, Kiba clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"DID YOU HERE ME?! NOW, ROOKIES!" Anko yelled again, waving her hands in the air. "Get a MOVE ON!"
The genin lined up again, clutching their forms. Anko moved past them and began to whisk the forms up into her arms, not bothering to wait for a "thank you" as she moved on.
"Sheesh," Shikamaru voiced his opinion to Ino, who merely shrugged.
Temari and Kankuro, farther down the line, took their places next to Gaara, snuck glances at his paper, paled, and immediately looked away. Gaara ignored them and signed his name at the bottom of the paper without a flourish. Anko, when she came around to them, made no comment on his form.
Lord Hokage held his hands up, once more, for silence. It fell without protest. Next to him, Morino Ibiki lifted a small box, similar to the one from which they had drawn for their partners in the finals competition.
"You will each draw a number from this box," he said, his strong voice carrying easily about the huge chamber. "It's simple enough. Any questions? No? Excellent, you're starting to get the hang of paying attention. Now, then."
He approached Dosu, who pulled out a number. "Five," he read.
Anko jotted the number down, and Ibiki moved on, to Naruto, who beamed. "All right! My turn!"
The others watched in silence as Naruto shuffled around in his numbers, drew out one, and read it. "Three!"
Temari drew. "One."
Kankuro: "Four."
Ibiki moved on to Gaara, who gazed at the box for a moment before drawing his number. "Three."
Shikamaru, next to Gaara: "Two."
Neji: "Five."
Shino: "One."
Tenten: "Six."
Ino: "Four."
Sakura: "Two."
And, at the very end, Kiba: "Four."
"All right, then." Anko tucked her pen away, as Ibiki backed up to his original position, and put the box down. "The teams are as follows, then: Preliminary Exam Team One, Temari and Aburame Shino."
Shino made no comment. Temari merely rolled her eyes.
"Preliminary Exam Team Two," Anko continued, "is Nara Shikamaru and Haruno Sakura."
"I get a girl again?" Shikamaru whined. Sakura blinked and opened her mouth, but Anko silenced them both with a glare, mostly directed at Shikamaru.
"You got a problem, rookie?" Ibiki growled.
"No, sir." Shikamaru sighed, shook his head, and pretended not to notice as Sakura made a fist and punched it into her hand.
"Team Three," Anko continued, "Uzumaki Naruto –"
"Yeah!" Naruto punched the air, looking thrilled. "Who's my partner?"
Anko frowned at him, but read on. "– and Sabaku no Gaara."
Naruto's face fell.
"Oh, come on! Not that freak!" he wailed.
Kankuro and Temari looked wary. Gaara, however, made no response.
"Team Four," Anko said, "Is Kankuro, Yamanaka Ino, and Inuzuka Kiba. Team Five is Kinuta Dosu and Hyuga Neji, and Team Six is Tenten and Uchiha Sasuke. And, also," she raised her voice over a swell of voices, "those in charge of monitoring and testing these teams will be, as follows: Gai, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, myself, and Ibiki; the four sensei, and Ibiki and myself because we are proctors of this exam. Team One will be overseen by Ibiki; Team Two, by myself; Team Three, by Kakashi; Team Four, by Asuma; Team Five, by Kurenai; and Team Six, by Gai. No questions? Okay! Then form up into groups according to sensei – NOW."
"Well, we tried," Temari muttered to her brother as she passed him, approaching Morino Ibiki. I get this guy as a sensei, for one month? She thought. And that weirdo who uses bugs – great. Just great.
Shino eyed her, and was silent. Ibiki, watching their expressions, sighed.
Across a ways, Ino and Sakura turned jealous eyes to Tenten.
"You lucky pig!" Ino exclaimed. "Why do you get Sasuke?"
Tenten gazed from Ino's flushed face to Sakura's narrowed gaze, and bit back a sigh. She thought briefly about explaining to them that Uchiha Sasuke was the last person she wanted to get, but dismissed it. What would it matter?
Maybe, she thought, approaching Gai with slow steps – her body really did ache – maybe I can teach him a thing or two.
Naruto eyed the kid with the eye makeup with scorn.
"You're a creep," he remarked, "you're a real jerk, and I don't like you."
Gaara gazed back narrowly, quite unfazed. To Kakashi, who was standing back from the two, studying them, he looked utterly unconcerned.
"Your brother's a jerk, too," Naruto continued. "And what the heck's up with that eye makeup? You look like a freakin' racoon."
Kankuro, standing to the left with his own group, caught the last of Naruto's words, and tensed visibly. Kakashi wondered briefly if he should step in.
Gaara, however, looked perfectly uninsulted. In fact, Kakashi realized, he looked as if he wasn't paying any attention to Naruto at all, but was rather gazing at some nonexisting yet fascinating thing over Naruto's right shoulder.
"The heck are you looking at me like that?" Naruto frowned at Gaara. "Hey . . . I'm talking to you! Believe it!"
He took a step in Gaara's direction.
"How could you do that to Bushy Brows, huh?" Naruto nearly snarled. "Crush his arm and leg like that . . . now he can't be a shinobi, and it's all YOUR FAULT, you . . . you freak!"
Silence.
Everyone was watching.
Gaara's eyes moved, finally, slowly, to Naruto, and studied him with weird, calm intensity. Naruto looked a little surprised, and then more angry than ever. They stared off in silence for a long moment, while voices once against picked up and began to blossom, albeit tentatively, into conversation about them.
Kakashi restrained himself from rolling his eyes.
"Well?" Naruto took another step forward. "Are you going to say something?"
"Yes,"
The word was almost a sigh. Gaara's lips parted, baring the tips of his teeth. His eyes found Naruto's and held them without mercy.
"Anyone who crosses me," he said, almost gently, "is dead meat whose spilt blood nourishes the demon god."
Naruto's eyes flew wide. He sprang back with a yelp.
Oh, boy, Kakashi thought, stifling a yawn. This is going to be so fun.
For those of you who are confused, here are the teams and senseis:
1 Temari & Shino - Ibiki.
2 Shikamaru & Sakura - Anko.
3 Naruto & Gaara - Kakashi .
4 Kankuro & Ino & Kiba - Asuma.
5 Dosu & Neji - Kurenai.
6 Tenten & Sasuke - Gai.