Chapter 2 – The Tests

"I swear he's just like Kakashi-sensei. I bet he is going to walk in any second and say he's sorry or something like 'A black cat crossed my path so I had to take a detour.'," Naruto just kept pacing the ground while everyone else sat patiently. He was getting very worked up, and needed an outlet badly.

"Stop wasting your energy, you'll probably need it." Gaara simply continued to stare at Naruto.

In walked Sir Paagaen. "You're late!" yelled Naruto. "We've been waiting for you for an hour, believe it! What the hell took you so long?"

"What do you mean, late? I'm early, I said 7 AM."

"He's even worse then Kakashi-sensei, believe it," thought Naruto.

"Okay, first test. Hinata first, then Temari, Shikamaru, Gaara, Kankurou, and finally Naruto," explained Sir Paagaen. "The test will be a fight. Usually this is done on horses, but we did not realize you didn't keep any such beasts here in Konoha. How do you get around long distances without them? No matter, Hinata, fight me. GO!"

"Byaakugan!" Hinata stared carefully at her opponent, said "Hakke Ichishou", and delivered one quick strike to his chest, in a precise location, somewhere around his liver.

"Oomph!!" cried Sir Paagaen, as he flew back 3 feet.

"If I had done that to the rest of your chakra points, then you would be rendered unable to move, and unable to deliver the test to the rest of them. Also, I didn't hit you hard enough to leave that point useless. It should be okay by now."

"Sir Paagaen never gets hurt. That just took me by surprise. You pass, even if you are a girl. Temari, GO!"

"So that's why he made Hinata-san and Temari go first. He wants them to fail," exclaimed Kankurou. "He is nothing but a lousy sexist!"

"I'm used to Shikamaru, so don't worry about it, Kankurou. I'll show him how strong we kunoichi really are." Temari ran at her opponent faster then you could say 'fast', and then hit him on the head with her fan. "I also didn't hit you at full strength, nor did I bother using Ninpou Kamaitachi. You should be fine."

"Fine, you both passed. But there's one more test after this, so be ready. NEXT!" Sir Paagaen tried to move, but he found that none of his limbs were responding. "What the…" His shadow seemed to be longer then usual. He followed it with his eyes and found himself looking at…

"Kage Mane no Jutsu, successful," thought Shikamaru. "I believe I've already passed?" he asked. "With this technique, I control your every movement. I could kill you right now if I wanted to."

"Yes, you pass, so let me go now."

"I think not. This technique is designed to support others. Maybe I should 'support' Gaara?"

"Don't bother, I don't need it. If he attacks me, that will happen."

"Right… that thing is so troublesome. It's a good thing your on our side."

Gaara just stood there waiting.

"What are you waiting for? Your up. Or do you want me to make the first move? Alright then. GYAAAAAAAAH!!!" Sir Paagaen ran at Gaara with his sword in his hand ready to chop him up into little pieces. When he was less then a foot away from Gaara he swung it, and out of nowhere, a shield of sand appeared. The shield then covered up the sword. Gaara suddenly stuck out his hand and said "SABAKU KYUU!" The sand fell away to reveal a crushed sword in Sir Paagaen's hand. "You'll pay for that! Lucky for you, that wasn't my best sword. Just my spare. My best one is magical, and it increases my power tenfold." Sir Paagaen looked at Gaara with a look of disgust on his face."

Sir Paagaen walked to his back and grabbed another, and came back. "Okay, Kankurou. Let's go!"

"KUGUTSU NO JUTSU!" Out of nowhere, two puppets flew straight at Sir Paagaen. One of them opened up a big hole in its chest and grabbed the surprised knight, and pulled him inside and shut the doors on him. "This is where my other puppet would come apart and attack you with multiple blades through the holes in the puppet you are in. Consider yourself dead"

"Yes, yes, you pass. NOW LET ME OUT!" yelled the obviously angry knight. "These little pipsqueaks are stronger then they look…" he thought to himself. "They may be useful after all… Except maybe for the last one."

"Okay, Narutard. You are the last one. Judging by my first impressions of you, you can't be any stronger than a snail in the middle of a sea of salt."

"IT'S NARUTO! AND I WILL KICK YOUR SORRY LITTLE ASS! BELIEVE IT!" yelled Naruto. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" 100 clones came out and tackled Sir Paagaen. All of them punched and kicked like there was no tomorrow.

"Naruto-kun, Tsunade-sama said not to hurt him… could you please, I mean, would you… Uhh. Could you stop please?" Hinata looked away and blushed again.

Naruto stopped and dismissed his clones. But it was too late. Sir Paagaen was severely hurt, and could not continue his tests. "You all pass, no more tests. Meet here… tomorrow… 5 AM," he said, before passing out.