Rage to Chunin
"Uzumaki Naruto! You are hereby disqualified from the Chunin Exams!"
The words resounded through the stadium, bringing a swift and thorough halt to the cheers bursting around the audience.
Slowly, a steady silence settled through the area, and all eyes settled upon the blonde-haired shinobi facing off against the skilled Sarutobi heir.
His gleaming yellow eyes glazed over for a brief moment, and he turned to gaze upon the group looking down upon him.
"What." He said blankly, no emotion spilling into his voice as he spoke.
Temari sighed, almost as if she had expected it from the blonde.
"As you should have known, we've specifically set up a few exceptions for the tournament this time around."
Exceptions?
Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"What do you mean, exceptions?" he grimaced.
"One!" she spoke powerfully, "No Senjutsu allowed!"
Kakashi eye-smiled from his place in the stands.
"It's a handicap so the others have a chance."
"!"
The blonde widened his eyes in rage, the familiar look of a Toad Sage burning deep within them.
"What?!" he raged, "Who's fucking idea was it to implement that as a rule?!"
Shikamaru sighed.
"Troublesome… Naruto, you're disqualified for not following the rules."
"What?! No!" the blonde snarled, "I refuse! That rule's absolute bullshit and you fuckers know it! No Senjutsu allowed?! That's specifically geared against me! It's like saying Neji can't use his Byakugan or Lee can't use the Eight Gates! What the hell?!"
"Naruto," Tsunade snapped from the stands above, rising from her seat angrily, "This rule was decided upon unanimously. Are you saying you have a problem with how we chose to handle things?"
"You're goddamn right I do!" the blonde roared, pointing at the woman in anger, "There's no way in hell I'm gonna just sit here and let you disqualify me for using a technique only I can use! I sure as hell didn't see you fuckers disqualify Clan brats for using their Kekkei Genkai, this is practically the same fucking thing!"
"Naruto-baka!" Sakura screeched, "Don't talk back to Tsunade-shishou!"
"You shut your goddamn mouth forehead!" the blonde snapped uncharacteristically.
The sound of her old academy nickname coming from the blonde's lips was more than enough to surprise the pinkette, and she reeled back in surprise.
"Eh?!"
"I worked my ass off for this technique!" Naruto roared, "It's not like I just woke up one day with the ability to use Natural Energy! I nearly got turned into a Toad Statue for this! And now you're saying I can't use my hard work as I please?! Fuck you guys!"
"Shut your damn mouth you little brat!" Tsunade snapped, regaining her composure after hearing the blonde rage at her. "Do you really think it'd be fine to let you use Sage Mode against all these young Genin?! Use some fucking sense!"
The audience slowly began to murmur to each other, all of them discussing whether or not it was truly fair to prevent the blonde from using his abilities. They were shinobi after all, and weren't the rules supposed to be anything goes…?
Besides, it wasn't like Naruto was the only "older" Genin in the tournament… even in the years before hand there were Genin who had failed the previous Exams thrice, if not more so.
"Sense huh…?" Naruto spoke forebodingly, drawing everyone's attention back to the argument at hand. "Yeah, let's use some sense then, granny. If you want to talk about using sense… then why the hell would you make me have to take this stupid Exam anyway?! Everyone fucking knows that I'm more than qualified to become a Chunin, if not a Jounin! If anyone's lacking in sense it's you for waiting so damn long to promote me!"
"!" The legendary sucker reeled back, inhaling in surprise at the blonde's words.
"I mean really?! How much work do I have to actually do?!" Naruto complained, jabbing his fingers at the group looking down on him, "Even during the first Chunin Exam I had done more than enough to warrant a promotion, and still I'm stuck here as a fucking Genin!"
Karui and Omoi both blinked in surprise, neither quite knowing what the boy was talking about. It was only natural, they hadn't met him until well after he had entered his teenage years after all.
"Hey, Raikage-sama," Omoi spoke up first, "what's that moron talking about?"
"Hm…" the large, muscled Ai grimaced, rubbing his chin in thought, "I wonder…"
"Oh what? So they don't even know?!" Naruto grinned, "Well then, why don't we fall back on a list of my accomplishments?!"
He turned his gaze toward Gaara.
"First off, I think providing Suna with a non-homicidal Kazekage is a pretty big step in the right direction! Everyone here should know that if it hadn't been for me kicking Gaara's ass when we were children, there's no way in hell Sunagakure would still be standing in one piece! Never mind the fact that I also had to end up summoning fucking Gamabunta at the same time just to beat down Shukaku while we were at it!"
"That brat beat up the Ichibi when he was a kid?" Karui asked curiously, turning to the other representatives curiously as she spoke.
"Well…" Kankuro frowned, scratching the side of his face in embarrassment, "I guess…"
Gaara closed his eyes for a moment. "….Yes. Naruto Uzumaki… he was the one to show me the truth that day… without him… I'd still be seeing nothing but darkness…"
"Hmph!" Omoi scowled, "The fact that you were beaten by such an emotional ninja only goes to show that you're clearly as inexperienced as you look!"
"Oi, don't go talking bad about Gaara, you old geezer-!" Kankuro's words were cut off as Temari nailed him with the top of her fan, wanting to prevent an international incident.
"And let's not even mention the fact that you too, Granny," Naruto accused, "would still be sleazing away in bars and casinos if it weren't for me showing up and winning that bet of ours! And all of that happened before I went on my three-year training trip with Jiraiya-sensei!"
And there it was.
One of the few times Naruto ever referred to the deceased Sannin respectfully, instead of the traditional "Pervy Sage" comment he'd used for so long.
Ai's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"That boy was trained by Jiraiya?!" he asked, some degree of what the blonde was capable of forming in his mind. "Interesting."
"And now let's move on to what I've been doing recently!" Naruto continued just as angrily as he'd been when he began, "Fighting Akatsuki… defeating Kakuzu when even Kakashi-sensei couldn't pull it off when backed by Ino and Choji… completing the Rasengan when even the Yondaime Hokage had trouble… just who the hell do you think I am?! Fuck! I even beat Pein, who fucking destroyed Konoha without any effort, and got him to revive everyone he'd killed! I sure as hell didn't see you out there beating his ass!"
"True…" Tsunade admitted after a moment of silence, "And while your actions that day may have deserved a field promotion… at the time I was still firmly in a coma-"
"Well you sure as hell look comfortable sitting in that damn chair now don't you?!" Naruto continued to snap.
An awkward silence again settled through the arena.
"Tch, besides… if you had to make a fucking rule against me just to give the other contestants a chance…" Naruto grimaced, "Then that should be proof enough that I have no further business of being a damn Genin!"
He whipped his finger forth at that, and the group all went flying back from the truth of it all.
Naruto slowly turned back to Konohamaru, glaring at the boy fiercely.
"Sorry, Konohamaru…" the blonde apologized, closing his eyes for a moment.
"Eh? Boss?" the sorely beaten up boy frowned in confusion.
The blonde opened his eyes, but they were no longer yellow. They weren't even his natural blue.
No.
They were red.
"Oh shi-!"
"But if I can't become Chunin, no one can!"
And the arena exploded in a wave of red.
Several weeks later, Naruto would thoroughly look back on the topic and be ashamed of himself…
…but he certainly didn't complain about the Jounin promotion he'd received right after.
END
