Interesting responses from you all, you seem to be sufficiently confused. I've come up with a few new ideas that I'm gonna piece in now, so be ready for a whole lot more confusion as a result. Still I won't starve you for answers like I have in the past, I've recently come to learn it's more fun to be just a couple of steps ahead of the readers, rather than having all the cards in my hand. And so with that I shall start chapter three. Who knows what will be in it?
Disclaimer: (warning spoiler of chapter 501) Anyone else think Minato looked like he was blushing like an idiot when he glared at Madara?
The vision of one leads to blindness of all
It was early morning out in the village of Konoha, with the dawn sun just barely breaking over the horizon. In spite of this however there were lights on in many places. This was one of those places were someone was awake no matter what the hour. In this case, some of those people happened to inhabit one of the local hotels, a simple place if any considering their numbers. The inside was no more luxurious than out, but it was rather quaint to say the least. Here was the place that team Kanbei was meeting, discussing the events of the coming day.
"I didn't think Konoha was this hostile." Kaori muttered in a miserable tone. Like Kyuuzo, she and Seiji had been treated to a welcome not quite of the same league as the one the guard from before had given them. They had each come out unscathed, but not untroubled by it. Their sensei was the only person who hadn't been bothered, for rather obvious reasons. "And I always heard that Konoha wanted to make peace with the other villages!"
"Well I imagine they're on quite high alerts after what happened last time." Kanbei replied, giving a reassuring to Kaori as his younger student stretched and yawned. She was the only person who had the energy to stand upright at this time of morning; Kyuuzo and Seiji were sitting down on the two beds in this room while he himself was leaning against a chest of drawers. "If anything, we should be glad that Suna was allowed to participate at all!"
From the bed nearest the door, Seiji allowed himself to slip down to a half lying position with his hands folded behind his head. "I'm kind of surprised how weak the Genin are here." he said, his eyes somewhere between annoyance and mirth. He had allegedly received the least trouble yesterday from the two kunoichi, who had left soon after their arrival. "The looks on their faces when they realised I had no problem hitting girls…" he muttered, smiling to himself as he noticed Kaori rub the back of her head and wince. But then he turned his eyes to the other side, and noticed something else of interest. "Hey Kyuuzo, something on your mind? You've been acting pretty strange lately."
At the bed by the wall, looking out the window, Kyuuzo blinked in surprise. He turned his attention to his watching team mates, his chin lifting off his hand as he realised they were talking to him. "I'm just thinking about the exam." he replied, though his thoughts weren't really all that clear. "You would think those Genin would know better than to risk their positions in the exams. So do you think it's ok if we gather information ahead of time?"
While Kaori and Seiji looked at each other and shrugged, Kanbei lifted his eyes to the ceiling and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It seemed none of his comrades had even considered what Kyuuzo had been thinking for a while now, though he wasn't all that surprised. He did have an alternative way of thinking after all. "I guess the exam is supposed to test your ninja ability after all…" Kanbei mused, his brow both rising and creasing into a rather unappealing look of confusion. "But then again, I think Konoha will have heightened its security after last time, so that possibility would be just about erased."
Though in the end, that went without saying. Compared to what they had heard of previous exams, the prearrangements to this exam had almost been as tight as the last one to be held in Amegakure. But it didn't stop Kyuuzo from wondering, and as a result so did Seiji. But all Kaori could do was try to figure out what her quieter team mates were talking about. It seemed her enthusiasm had come at the price of brightness. "The first exam's probably gonna divide those who are still wet and those who are ready, right?" Seiji asked, rather rhetorically. "Well we've definitely got the experience if nothing else."
"Hey now, there's no need to say that!" Kanbei quickly replied, looking quite disgruntled by his student's remark. Kyuuzo, Seiji and Kaori were each thirteen years of age, fresh Genin from the academy. To anyone who looked, they themselves ought to still be "wet", as the boy with the steel-blue hair put it. But as for the rest of what Seiji said, he had to agree. He himself had experienced the Chunin exams of course, and he had a general idea of how they went. "Besides, there's no telling what you'll get. So being under prepared won't help you in the least."
Judging by the look on Kaori and Kyuuzo's faces, this wasn't the first time their sensei had said this to them, and probably wasn't the last. Seiji however remained silent, his eyes closed and his breaths slowing down to a sleepy pace. Kanbei rolled his eyes and glanced to Kaori, who smiled sweetly back at him before nonchalantly stepping towards Seiji. When she was next to his head, she raised her fingers to her lips and lightly blew on them. In an instant Seiji was upright, his eyes wide and definitely awake. "Mo-oh!" Kaori complained, throwing her hands down as she gave Seiji a look of betrayal for spoiling her fun. "You're mean!"
"Yeah, like I'm stupid enough to fall for that." Seiji replied, grumbling to himself as he rose to his feet. The others took this as a sign, judging by Kyuuzo's standing and Kanbei's straightening up. If he was ready to go, then the rest of them were already late. Kaori was the first one to make it to the door, but not the first to leave. With a tingling sensation rising up his spine, Seiji was forced to take the lead as his female team mate walked suspiciously close to his back. "Let's just get this exams thing over with ok?"
Kaori sat with her chin resting on her hand, a sufficiently bored look on her usually bright face. It had seemed that arriving early had done them not the slightest bit of good; the exam wasn't something they could prepare for after all. That equated to about three hours rest they could have gotten, and still make it in time to walk in. This was a point Seiji had raised, before lying down on the floor in front of the bench his team mates were occupying. With one arm supporting his head and the other supporting Kaori's legs, he made for a rather comfortable footstool.
The two of them and Kyuuzo were sitting in the back of a packed room, filled to the brim with dangerous looking Shinobi. These were the Genin who had been gathering the past few days, almost all of whom looked quite fearsome. While Kaori was a little nervous of them, Kyuuzo ignored the crowds and Seiji had actually needed to stifle a laugh when the many eyes had settled on them. But they had soon disappeared into the crowds as three more unremarkable faces in the sea of dozens. Tensions were high, and by no means assisted by the pouring rain outside. The assumption of good weather had been exchanged for this disheartening omen, and it seemed that even amongst ninja there were many who were superstitious.
"What a bunch of whiners!" Seiji muttered, his closed eyes showing disdain at the whispers of the Genin around him. Their simple mindedness irritated him to no end, although that was probably more in part to his disturbed rest. He himself thought nothing of the rain; if omens were really signs sent by the heavens then they would probably come in a more indicative form than natural phenomena. "Rain… in the fall? We'd better find a temple and pray our little hearts out!"
He smirked to himself as he heard Kaori giggle, even though he seemed pretty apathetic to the situation he was at least glad someone else was as at ease as him. Though his numb arm was beginning to tell him that perhaps his team mate was too much at ease. And too casual for that matter too. Kyuuzo however was the one to ultimately break the tension, rising to his feet and looking dead ahead. "Lets go." he said, as he began to make his way through the crowd. Though Seiji and Kaori couldn't see the reason, it was apparent that everyone else was moving. The two of them hurried to their feet and followed after Kyuuzo, not wanting to get split up this early into the exam.
The procession was led through into a broad hallway long enough to fit everyone in to one side. This was how they were asked to position themselves by the person who they had followed through here. On the wall opposite them lined up about two dozen Konoha Shinobi, Chunin by the look of their uniforms. But amongst these Chunin stood a single Jounin, a man with a slack headband and black spiky hair, who stood out from the rest by literally standing out. In an instant he had drawn the attention of all the Genin around, adjusting his sunglasses before slipping his hands behind his back.
"Good morning to you all, my name is Yamashiro Aoba." he announced, in a clear voice that reached both ends of the hallway. He slowly turned his attention across the many young men and women gathered, his dark glasses obscuring sharp eyes that memorised every single face laid out before him. "I am to be your proctor for this first exam, and these Chunin will act as the invigilators who work underneath me. At the entrance to the exam room you will see a box. Inside this box are pieces of paper marked with a number. You are to take one piece of paper and use it to locate your seat. Switching seats is not allowed and sitting outside your designated place will result in immediate disqualification of both you and your team mates. With that out of the way, let's move on."
At the far end of the hall, a pair of double doors were opened by the Chunin attendants. As ordered, the line of Genin slowly made their way inside, stopping only to dip their hand into the aforementioned box and finding their seat. Seiji, Kaori and Kyuuzo, who had let himself fall behind the other two, were in for a painstaking wait that almost drove Kaori insane. Seiji had let his head droop and was dragging his feet as the snail like march went on. Kyuuzo was the only one of them paying the least bit attention to the situation, looking over the Chunin invigilators and listening to the mutterings those people made.
"Last chance to back out."
"Remember what happened to the last batch?"
"You're all gonna die!"
Though that last one came from someone who didn't look entirely stable, his words seemed to have a worrisome effect on the Genin. Though no one backed out, their expressions made their feelings clear. "Scare tactics." Kyuuzo murmured, as he raised his hands and lowered his hood to reveal a shock of orange hair. His vibrantly coloured head drew in the attentions of the Chunin watching, and allowed them to see the bored look on his face as they tried to jab at him. From ahead of him, Seiji and Kaori smirked; only this guy could hurt the egos of whoever he met. And though it could be annoying at times, moments like these made them love him for it.
Though the line seemed to go on forever, the three of them were finally graced by the end just when Kaori could take it no more. They each took their ticket and entered the exam room, looking around in interest. Grey booths filled the large room, each one bearing a door with an indicative number on it. It looked like whatever entailed in this exam, there was to be no visual contact with anything else. What that was to be taken to mean, none of them knew.
Seiji looked between his two comrades as they realised they were about to be split up. Though Kyuuzo needed no such thing, he gave a nod of reassurance to Kaori. She didn't like the unknown, so this situation wasn't ideal for her stress levels. She appreciated the gesture however and gave an uncertain smile, before wandering off to find her booth. That left Seiji on his own, in this room full of people. But he had no such worries, only curiosities. He made his way through the booths until he found his own somewhere near the middle. With a quick glance to confirm his piece of paper, he stepped inside the place he assumed he would be taking his exam. "Well… here goes nothing."
Sakura had been surprised at how the pace of the conversation she and Naruto shared had turned light hearted. Even though she had tried to remain impartial, she had soon found herself laughing even at Naruto's wisecracks, though she was loath to admit she enjoyed herself. But as it was, when Naruto asked her if she would stick around she was much less reluctant to comply. As a result, once more she stood with her back to the door, listening for any of the guards out of fear of creating a rumour.
"Ha ha ha ha, Iruka-sensei must've been grinning his ass off!" Naruto laughed, his head throwing back and his grin spreading wide. He had just heard of one of his old classmates, Nara Shikamaru, who had taken up the temporary job of covering teachers at the academy when they were sick. "He always thought Shikamaru was trying to be like him with that hair, now he's teaching too! Ha ha ha!"
Sakura too had been forced to smile as she recalled the smug look on their old sensei's face when Shikamaru had started wearing his hair like that. It wasn't until later that he learned that was a pretty standard hairstyle for the Nara clan. "Akimichi Chouji-san helps him out sometimes, so he often takes the class out on a field trip." she said, her arms folding lightly as she recalled the time one of Shikamaru's classes toured the hospital of Konoha. The nurses had almost lost their mind when they looked at one particularly snot nosed child and thought there was a virus coming around. "For such a lazy guy, he does a lot of walking around!"
Once again Naruto grinned his not so scary grin, and Sakura was forced to admit a little something. She couldn't detect the slightest hint of malice from this guy, nor believe he was hiding any. And there once again she was caught wondering just why he was here. But before she could try and slyly find something out about that, she heard footsteps approaching from behind. She hurriedly stepped to her right, moving just as the handle twisted and the door grinded open. Then appeared the head of an ANBU, a man wearing a white porcelain mask decorated with the animal markings of an insect. "Is everything alright in here, Sakura-san?" the ANBU asked, eying the prisoner warily. "You've been in here for quite a while."
Sakura looked between Naruto and the ANBU, realising that now the check up had been done she had no official reason to remain. "No, everything's fine." she said, as she turned away from Naruto. The ANBU stepped aside and opened the door wide to let her through, without taking his eyes off Naruto for a second. "I'll be back in a couple of days, try not to annoy anyone."
"Yeah yeah." Naruto muttered in reply, waving his bound hand as if he was shooing her away. Soon the pink hair disappeared around the wall and the door was promptly shut, leaving him alone once again. But even in spite of this, a slow smirk spread across his lips. He watched the ceiling with a confident look, watching as the small bubble that had slipped in over the ANBU's head descended towards him. The bubble reached the middle of the room, before suddenly bursting and releasing a noise that sounded suspiciously like "Yo!". His hands tightened as much as his mouth; it looked like he wouldn't have to suffer a bedpan for too much longer.
Seiji had taken his seat inside the booth, the door closed and locked behind him. It was a fairly cramped space inside, and the walls were tall enough that he couldn't make out much more then the tiles around the fluorescent light overhead. Before him was a single desk for him to sit at, and on the other side, there was a single Chunin who watched him with razor sharp eyes. This man was the one who had been with the guard who had greeted team Kanbei; Seiji recognised the wild midnight blue hair held up by his headband, the bandage running around his face, across his nose and the chinstrap from his uniform. Where this person had seemed completely bored before, now he was showing not even the slightest lapse in attention.
With a single hand, the Chunin gestured down to the desk in the mechanical way of someone who had been practicing his role well. This was proven as the voice of the Jounin proctor spoke in time to this wave, filling the room to great effect. "Before you all you will see a headpiece with a wire connected to it." spoke Aoba, referring to the strap on the desk with a small black box attached to the side. "If you would all please remove your headbands and place these on instead, I will begin to tell you the conditions for this exam."
Seiji looked hesitantly at the headpiece, watching the wire connected to it and a hole in the desk. But he did what he was told and removed his headband, his hair falling over his eyes. It was soon put back in place however by the strap, which he tightened as much as was comfortable. When this was done the Chunin in front of him lifted up a compartment on his side of the desk, revealing a strange looking slot that Seiji hadn't noticed before. Then he settled back down, leaving the compartment door open and the slot facing Seiji.
"This first exam is a written one." Aoba announced, a minute after he had last spoken. Seiji winced as he felt a strange sensation coming from the box against his temple, like a light vibration that pulsed through his head. "The objective is to answer the questions given as quickly as possible. You are not allowed to remove the headpieces or leave the room under any circumstances unless you wish to quit the exam. Then you and your team mates will be disqualified and allowed to leave. However should you continue with the exam and fail, you will not be allowed to take the exam again."
Seiji listened as he heard an uproar come from several places. Apparently there were a few Genin here who weren't all that happy to hear this piece of news. Though their complaints were hard to make out in the condition of the booths, their voices could barely be made out. Aoba waited for these voices to die down, probably at the beckoning of other Chunin, before he continued on. "Only the arrogant and stupid should find this rule a problem. If you're not confident you can succeed, leave now. As for the rest of you, give your answers to the Chunin opposite you. And be warned; there is a time limit to how long you can spend on each question. Take too long and you will automatically fail. There are twenty questions altogether. With all that said, let's begin the exam."
Before any other complaints could be made, things started rather suddenly. Seiji blinked in surprise as something slid out of the slot before him, a small piece of card with writing on it. As he began to hear voices ring out all around, he quickly grabbed the card and began reading the contents. "This is just a simple problem solving question." he thought, as he figured out the answer quickly. He looked up at the Chunin, who was giving him a piercing stare with a slight hint of danger to them. "Uh- forty yards." he said, his brow creasing as he awaited the Chunin's response. However to his surprise he received none, and instead was met with another card from the slot of the desk. "We gotta pass to give him more time… what kind of exam is this?"
Naruto shuffled himself to an upright position, getting himself as comfortable as possible. Since the little message from before he had worn a serious look, his focus going anywhere but the immediate surroundings. There were several things he needed to confirm before things started getting hairy. He turned his eyes down to the tube inserted into his arm, the sedative drip that had been dishing out a "relaxant" into his system for around three months now. At least, he thought it was three months. He wasn't all that good with time.
"First things first." he thought, closing his eyes to concentrate. For the longest time he remained silent, his eyelid twitching from the soundless effort he was exerting. He was searching for something, but had no clue as to where he would find it. Eventually he gave up, opening his eyes but keeping the frown he had developed as a result of his focus. "Looks like he's nowhere near here. Is the old man keeping him somewhere else?"
The "he" Naruto was referring to had been taken from him upon his arrival here, a very valuable "he" that he had no intention of leaving without. If "he" was anywhere nearby, Naruto would have easily been able to tell with what he just did. But there were no signs, and therefore no chance. He wasn't gonna find who he was looking for like this. "Doesn't mean I can't do anything though." he told himself, as another smirk appeared on his face.
Though the sedative running through his veins kept him from moulding chakra properly, he wasn't without options. He looked at the bonds keeping him tied to the bed, the cotton straps wrapped around his wrists. Breaking them would be a piece of cake, but he had been forewarned that doing so would sever a limiter in the sedative drip and probably kill him. That was the theory anyway, but they had failed to take certain things into account. Like for one thing, he had a hell of a lot of stamina, more than several Shinobi combined. If he was quick enough, he could maybe get away with just a stumble. But in doing so he would be unable to use his chakra and disoriented from the amount of drug he did intake.
That left him with only one viable option then, which was of course that he would need to wait for his rescuers to come. But he wasn't the sort to be that dependent; the least he could do was help them out from where he was. And he had a pretty damn good idea as to how he would do that. "Good thing I'm in Sakura-chan's good books right now." he thought to himself with a chuckle. He used to have a crush on that girl; he thought she was really pretty back in the academy. She looked even better now, but with Naruto's naivety gone he could see more than that now. Now, she was just a pretty face to him. "Alright, so I wouldn't mind strapping her to this bed for a while, I'll admit that. But looks like there are other things she can be good for too."
His brow rose in quiet surprise as he heard a strange sound from outside. It was an odd noise, like a cane hitting stone or something. But by the speed of the sounds, the person was either moving fast or the noise was coming from more than one source. Naruto listened to this sound closely, a grin appearing on his face as he understood what they meant. Leaning back on his bed, he awaited the arrival of another person he often anticipated from his cell. He didn't have all that long to wait, for soon after the door was opened. "Hey old man." he said, greeting the person standing in the doorway. "Time for some exercise?"
