Gin no Kyuubi

Chapter 2

Tsunade downed the last of her sake and slammed her cup on the desk. "Shizune! More sake! I've got a lot more paperwork to get through, and I need some support."

"But, Tsunade-sama!" the black haired woman across the desk from her exclaimed. "You need to stay sober to get through all of this!"

"Shizune!" the Hokage barked back. "Sake! Now!"

Just as Tsunade's attendant sighed and stood up, there was a vicious pound at the Hokage's door. "Tsunade-Obaa-chan!" an all too familiar voice called.

"What do you want?" she grunted, then flipped to a new document that needed a signature.

The door opened and a callused fist slammed down onto her desk. "I want to take the Chuunin exam again!"

Tsunade looked up at intense blue eyes that were set with a rigid determination. Some things never change, she thought to herself. "Aa, I figured you would." She dug through some of her files and found the one she was looking for at the bottom of one of the many large stacks. "Here." She tossed it at Naruto without even waiting for a response. "Information on your two new team members for the exam."

"Yatta!" Naruto bellowed and picked it up. "I'm going to beat all of my opponents and become a Chuunin this time. You just watch!" He turned to leave the office.

"Naruto!" Tsunade warned.

"Nandattebayo?" Naruto asked in annoyance.

"Don't you dare even think about carrying your other teammates to victory through the Forest of Death. This is their test, too. Let them do some of the work."

Naruto turned back, and as she looked up there was a strange look of intelligence in his eyes she'd never seen before. "I will pass this exam, Tsunade. I will become a Chuunin. I will not be left behind. Not anymore." His unspoken words held more volume than his spoken ones. I will do whatever I have to in order to pass. If I happen to carry the team, so be it. He turned around and waved goodbye. "Later, granny!" His flash of intelligence passed, and he was back to his old self again.

Tsunade smiled through her growl. "Stop calling me that!"

xxxxx

Naruto sat down at his small table in his apartment and opened up the file. A bowl of instant ramen sat steaming next to his glass of milk. He scrunched his nose up in concentration as he looked at the paper in front of him.

Name: Seneshou Kanide

Rank: Genin

Team Members: Aosu Roku, Hakuni Anedo

Team Leader: Hagane Kotetsu

Naruto looked up in thought and took a bite of his ramen. Where had he heard that instructor's name before? Oh, yes, he remembered. The Jounin that often worked with Genma. He always wore a long white bandage over his nose. He looked back at the paper.

Abilites:

Taijutsu: 48

Naruto realized that '48' was about 48 percent proficiency. Normal for a Genin.

Ninjutsu: 56

Genjutsu: 87

So... an illusion specialist. He could work with that. There were a million different ways to counter illusions, or genjutsu, and a million different ways to use them. He flipped to the next page.

Name: Hakuni Anedo

So...he got two members from the same team. It seamed that their only male member, Aosu Roku, had passed the last time they entered.

Rank: Genin

Team Members: Aosu Roku, Seneshou Kanide

Team Leader: Hagane Kotetsu

Abilites: Taijutsu: 23

Naruto winced. That was a pretty low ability for physical combat. It was an even lower number than what Sakura had when they first had their Chuunin exam, and that was before her monstrous strength had been gained.

Ninjutsu: 13

He winced again. No wonder she hadn't passed last time.

Genjutsu: 49

Naruto sighed. He really had his work cut out for him. He'd make it work though. Without a doubt. After all, when he finally made it to Jounin, he would probably get pupils just like these Genin, and it would be his responsibility to train them, care for them, and keep them alive. He nodded. I can do this. He took another bite of his ramen, then a sip of his milk.

There was a knock at his door. "Come in!" Naruto said. His door opened up and Sakura stood in the entryway. "Sakura-chan!" he smiled. "Ne, ne! Did you come here just for me?" He waggled his eyebrows in suggestion.

"Naruto!" she yelled back in frustration. "You perv!" She made a fist and went to deck him, but he dodged in time.

He held his hands up in defeat. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" He rubbed the back of his head. "What is it, anyway?"

She sighed. "Kaka-sensei wants us to meet him at the old training grounds. He wants to test our strength and get an idea of what we can do now before Tsunade-shishou starts assigning us new missions."

"Ooh! This should be fun! Besides, I've got a gift for him anyway. I haven't been able to find him since I got back."

Sakura nodded. "He's been away on a couple of S-rank missions lately."

Naruto closed up the file he was looking at. S-rank missions were secret missions which usually meant 'imminent suicide involved.' Kakashi was one of the select few Jounin in Konoha that could take those missions and come back every time. It made sense their sensei would be given a lot of those missions during the time their team was broken up. "When does he want to meet us?"

"Now."

Naruto grinned. "Which would mean in a couple of hours?"

Sakura shrugged. "Knowing him, probably." Hatake Kakashi was perpetually late for everything.

Naruto downed the rest of his milk and put the glass in his sink. "Let's go!" he said. "I'm ready for this!"

The training ground, which was located in the forest, was devoid of all life, but for two teenagers sitting under the shade of a large oak tree. Naruto had his eyes closed, and his arms crossed behind his head as he rested against the tree. Sakura couldn't help but take notice of his changed appearance, once again. His hair was thicker and a little longer now, and she could begin to see pronounced muscles underneath of his coat. She kept thinking that his face reminded her of something she had seen somewhere...in a history book maybe? A famous profile she couldn't quite put her finger on...

His voice was deeper, too. She found herself shivering a lot more lately when he spoke, and it wasn't an unpleasant feeling at all. His eyes were thinner, too, and less...well...baby-like. He looks like a handsome adult, she found herself thinking. Who would have ever thought that clumsy Naruto could turn into something like this?

There was a puff of smoke as their Jounin sensei made his appearance. "Yo."

"You're late," Naruto growled without bothering to open his eyes.

"Ah, I got lost on the road of life," Kakashi answered back.

"A likely story." He sat up and eyed his sensei. "Ne, Kaka-sensei! I've got a present for you!"

"Oh?" The one revealed eye of Kakashi looked a little less bored than it had a moment before. His other eye was perpetually covered by his forehead protector.

"Yeah!" He pulled a small book out of his back pocket. "Here!" He handed it over.

Kakashi visibly smiled underneath of his face mask. "The latest book in the Icha Icha series!"

Naruto smiled. "Yeah, it hasn't even been released yet." He frowned, remembering the hell he went through to get that book from Jiraiya, who was in fact the author. "I'm telling you, though. I read it and it was really boring."

Sakura's face turned beat red. "You read that!" She roared. It was a well known fact that the Icha Icha Paradise collection was a perverted book series that only Jiraiya, the perverted hermit himself, could write. Kakashi had already read the previous two cover to cover.

Sakura was disgusted when Kakashi giggled with glee. "Wonderful!" He hugged the book to his chest.

"So," Sakura ground out. "What are we doing?"

Kakashi cleared his throat and put the book reverently in his pocket. "Right. Anyway, we're going to have a second bell test. Now that you know what to expect, I suggest you take this seriously. I'm going to as well, and not read this time." He held up two little bells for them to see, then tied them to his belt. "Ready, go!"

In a flash, both students disappeared. Kakashi removed the head protector from covering his other eye, and revealed an eye that was red, with strange black spots around his pupil. His Sharingan eye.

Several kunai came hurdling his way. Kakashi dodged them easily enough. Suddenly three Naruto were in the air heading towards him. He jumped to the right.

"Kage Bunhsin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled. Three new Narutos appeared in the air and pulled at his legs, which pushed him off in a different direction.

"That's clever!" Sakura said. He couldn't move in the air, so he used clones to move himself for him.

"You've matured, that's for sure," Kakashi said to his student. Shuriken came flying from Kakashi and with a pop and a few puffs of smoke, most of the clones disappeared. Kakashi grabbed Naruto and the weapon that he was holding, and directed it at him. The clone in his arms popped, and Kakashi could feel Naruto's presence behind him with a kunai pointed at his back. "Not bad," he chuckled, and with a flash was gone.

Genjutsu. He was hiding somewhere.

Sakura looked up, left, right, and down. "He's not anywhere else, so...below!" She pounded her fists into the ground. It sounded like an earth quake, and suddenly she was standing in the middle of a twenty foot long crater.

Naruto's eyes grew wide. "Eh?"

Sakura smirked down at Kakashi hiding amidst the rubble. "Found you."

Wha-what insane power, Kakashi thought, his eyes wide too. The fifth, you didn't just teach Sakura medical ninjutsu, did you?

Naruto smiled. I should stop playing around in front of Sakura. She could kill me.

Kakashi thought about how she could possibly do such a thing. She builds up the maximum amount of chakra in her fists, then releases it in an instant. Without precise chakra control, she could never do that. It's a real feat. Medical ninjutsu, plus amazing strength...no. That's not all. She was originally a genjutsu type. She may become an even better ninja than the fifth Hokage. "All right, I should do something on my part, too," Kakashi said. He stood, and that was when the real fight began.

Not much to their surprise, the pursuit of the bells lasted well into the evening. Kakashi's Sharingan could always anticipate his opponent's next move, and his fighting skills were unrivaled. Naruto could have disarmed Kakashi in an instant, but a nagging suspicion told him that there was no need to go to such feet. Why hurt the people that loved him the most? He'd find a way to get those bells without any physical damage. Besides, a ninja had to keep some of their abilities a secret...

At last, Naruto and Sakura collapsed next to the very same tree they had been resting against earlier during the day. "I already knew it, but the Sharingan is amazing," Sakura conceded. "Not only that, his seal making is too fast for me to follow."

"Plus he has a nose better than Kiba," Naruto pointed out. "His taijutsu is better than Gejimayu, and he's smarter than Shikamaru."

"If we could just find his weak spot!" She said, flustered.

Naruto rubbed at his chin as he thought. "Ne, Sakura-chan! I think I know!" He motioned for her to come closer. Whatever they said, if they weren't careful, Kakashi would overhear them. So, he whispered his idea in her ear. She thought about it carefully, then grinned.

"You're right!" She said at last. "I can't believe he has a weak spot like that! You really are the number one ninja at surprising people, Naruto!"

Kakashi, who was in fact just a few trees over, was listening. His one true weakness that he knew of, which he was sure they hadn't discussed, was the fact that the Sharingan used a lot of his chakra. Once his chakra ran out, he would be too tired to fight much longer. He would simply be out of stamina.

A strange tickling feeling poked at the back of his neck and caught his attention. "They're coming," he said to himself. They have to be joking, making a direct attack like that...

"Here we come!" Naruto said.

"Now, Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

"Let's go, Kaka-sensei! THE LAST JOKE IN THE ICHA ICHA TACTICS! THE TRUTH IS THAT THE MAIN CHARACTER-!"

"Ah!" Kakashi cried, then covered his ears. "Don't tell me!" He also closed his eyes. Because of my Sharingan, I might see what he's saying!

Two seconds later, he turned around and saw his students smiling at him, a bell in each of their hands. "You have to look underneath the underneath, right sensei?" Naruto asked.

The Forest of Death sat behind the chain link fence, ominous in its darkness. Naruto grinned, a case of nostalgia causing him to grin. Granted, the last time he and his team went through the forest, they met up with the strongest, most vile ninja in the known world, Orochimaru. Naruto's grin turned into a wicked smile. This time, even if Orochimaru did show up, he'd be able to handle him.

But, the test never started out in the forest, it started out with the written part of the test, so Naruto finished his stroll alongside the forest and made his way to the testing building. He was to meet his new 'team' inside, and introduce himself to them. A lot of people were gathering around on the outside. However many were on the outside, Naruto was sure there would be twice as many on the inside.

Two people were sitting on a bench next to the door, and from the pictures he had been given in the profile, Naruto recognized who they were. He raised his hand and waived it to catch their attention. "Oi! Anedo! Kanide!"

The two girls, one with brown hair and the other with light blue, looked up at him. The one with brown hair waved back.

Naruto finally reached them and extended his hand for a shake. "Morning. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'll be your third partner for this exam."

"We know," the blue haired girl said, and took his hand for a shake. "I'm Seneshou Kanide."

"Hakuni Anedo," the brown haired girl said. "You look pretty old," she said bluntly. Kanide looked at her teammate and gave her an admonishing look.

Naruto simply shrugged. "I was away on a special training mission with Jiraiya for two and a half years. It can't be helped."

Kanide's eyes widened. "The Legendary Sannin!" She asked in surprise.

Naruto barked a laugh. "I don't know how legendary I'd call him."

"Maybe we'll have better luck at our first try than we thought," Anedo said.

Naruto eyed her. "I thought you guys had taken this once already."

Kanide shook her head. "Roku is out sick, and insisted that we take on a new member to take this exam."

Uh oh. This was going to be harder than he thought. "Well then," he said at last. "There are two pieces of advice I can give you; do not get caught cheating on the first test. I swear to Kami-sama, things will not be pretty if you do. Second, do not give up. Whenever the opportunity is given to you to quit, for god's sake don't do it. I'll get us through the Forest of Death, even if I have to carry the both of you. The written part of the test is the easy part. I'm sure we can do that. When it comes to individual battles, well, that's up to you. But the first two parts of this test are all about teamwork. Don't quit."

Both girls nodded without protest.

Naruto nodded, pleased enough with their response. "Good! Let's go inside." The two girls stood up and followed him in. Naruto realized they couldn't be any older than twelve or thirteen years of age. Pretty much the same age he was when he first took the exam. "Say," he said, "are you two rookies this year?"

"Yes," Kanide said. "We've only had about twelve D rank missions and one lower C class mission. I still am not sure why Kotetsu-sensei said we should do this."

"Nah," Naruto replied. "You'll do fine. I was a first year rookie when I first took this exam, too."

"Why didn't you pass?" Anedo asked him.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I beat all of my opponents. There wasn't a part of the test that I failed. But I was considered too reckless in my fight against Hyuugi Neji."

"A Hyuuga!" Anedo asked. "You actually defeated Hyuugi Neji?"

He chuckled. "Aa. Even with all of my 162 tenketsu struck by him, too." Although he didn't turn around to look at them, he could practically feel the awe radiating off of them. Right now, he was a mystery to them, and one that was proving to be stronger than normal. After all, the tenketsu, the points of the chakra circulatory system that allowed chakra to flow through, were dangerous to close. A person couldn't move when all of those spots had been hit and closed, but Naruto not only moved, but fought with them closed and still gathered chakra. No one else in history had ever done that before.

Just like last time, the waiting room was filled with ninja from all of the five major countries. There were even ninja from the Village Hidden in the Grass, and the Rain Village. There were a couple Naruto didn't recognize, but small villages popped up all of the time.

Sound wasn't there, but that was to be expected. They were at war with them, after all.

Anedo and Kanide stood next to each other, clearly nervous of the hard stares that bored into them. They were competition, after all, and needed to be defeated.

Naruto looked from the frightened form of the girls to the nasty stares of the other ninjas. A few ninjas looked particularly nasty, and he noticed they were from Rock, Konoha's mortal enemies. He pointed his finger out at everyone. "Keep looking, you losers! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to beat every single one of you!"

Some people's eyes grew wide, because they recognized the name and a few of the things he'd been reported doing lately. Others looked angry and ready to deck him.

He looked back at his two teammates. They seamed shocked at his outburst, but visibly relaxed a bit. He still felt good doing something like that, butt it was also for their benefit. They could use all of the support and encouragement they could get.

Three different teams got up from the tables and started walking up to him. One was from Grass, one was from Mist, and one was from Rock. "Say that again," a Grass ninja threatened as he cracked his knuckles.

"What, hard of hearing?" Naruto taunted.

A punch came flying his way. It landed in his stomach hard, and the Grass ninja smiled cruelly. Naruto's blue eyes looked at him and...winked?

"Pop!"

In a puff of ninja smoke, the shadow clone disappeared.

"Nani?" the confused ninja questioned.

Naruto rested his elbows on the shoulders of each of his teammates. "Looking for me?" he grinned cheekily.

"How the hell-!"

"Hey! Listen up, maggots!"

Naruto looked over at the mass of Konoha Jounin and Chuunin that appeared at the front of the room. He'd been anticipating them. If he was right in his suspicion, they didn't show up until the Genin in the room were good and wound up and started to fight each other.

"Any fighting outside of an official match will result in immediate disqualification!" the man at the front barked. Scars covered his face.

Naruto had a feeling his suspicion was correct. The more people to be disqualified, the better. They only let so many people pass each time, after all.

"The first part of this exam will now begin. The test will be a written test, and it will take place in exactly ten minutes. Now! Everyone! Into the class room!"

Naruto looked at the piece of paper in front of him. The questions were different this time, but equally hard. Half of the classroom was now empty, and he just prayed that Anedo and Kanide could put up with the psychological torture.

He himself wanted to giggle. He decided to try and figure out how to cheat this time and not get caught, and he came up with something that was absolutely perfect.

A shadow clone was disguised in a Henge no Jutsu so that it looked exactly like the ceiling that it was currently stuck to, thanks to a little chakra control. Also using a little kyuubi chakra to enhance his vision, he could clearly see all of the papers. Most of them were wrong, but there were a couple that were right. It so turned out that Anedo was incredibly intelligent, and didn't even need to cheat in order to figure out the questions. She could have good chakra control, just like Sakura, but not have a lot of chakra, and therefor be unable to do a lot of the ninjutsu most ninja were capable of.

'So this is what all of you flesh bags do with the trees you cut down. Make paper for these ridiculous tests. I ought to swallow you all whole.'

Naruto quietle growled. 'Shut up, stupid fox!'

The kyuubi snorted in his head.

Once the clone had been cancelled, the clone's experience went straight to Naruto's head, and he wrote down the answers without even looking up.

"All right, time's up!" Ibiki, the test examiner, proclaimed. "There is one final question, so listen well! If you don't answer this last question correctly, you will be stuck as a Genin for the rest of your life! If you quit now, you'll be allowed to leave and retake the exam. However, if you fail, not only will you be stuck as a Genin, but so will all of your teammates. Now, anyone who wants to leave, do so now."

Half of the room got up. Now barely a fourth of the original group remained.

Don't quit, Naruto thought. I told them not to quit, they better listen to me!

Anedo was in front of him. He saw her hand start to creep up, shaking as it did so. Obviously, the last question had gotten to her. He panicked. "Screw you, Ibiki!" he yelled suddenly. "You can't scare me! Give the final question!"

Ibiki glared at him. He obviously remembered the last time Naruto took the test, and the confidence he gave everyone else in the room when he yelled. Naruto grinned when Anedo put her hand back down quickly.

Everyone in the room was silent. "Fine." He turned around, and wiped down the blackboard. When he turned around again, he had a hint of a smile at his lips. "You all pass!"

"What!" Kanide screeched. "You gave us this impossible test, when if we just stayed until the end we pass!"

Naruto blocked out the noise when the explanation started. Yes, it was to test a ninja's information gathering ability. Yes, it was to see how well one could cheat and not get caught. Yes, it was necessary, yes, it was meant to be cruel. Yes, the final question was meant to test their loyalty to the team to never give up. All things he'd heard before.

Everyone stood up to leave. Naruto sat in his chair and stared back at the Jounin Ibiki.

"You know, Naruto," he said at last, after everyone else had left. "This is really like deja vu."

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "But I realized that my arrogance last time helped others make it through this part of the test. I couldn't fail now. I had to let my team know that we could do this. It worked, as I'm sure you noticed."

Ibiki shook his head. "You've really grown, Naruto. Get out of here. The Forest of Death awaits you."

He smirked. "I can't wait."

The girls stood in the doorway out of sight. Anedo looked to Kanide in astonishment. "Who is this guy," she whispered.

Kanide shook her head. "I don't know. I don't really remember hearing much about him. He's been acting arrogant like that for us?"

Anedo wrung her hands together. "Who would have guessed." She leaned in closer to her teammate's ear. "Let's hope he's this good in the forest."

Kanide could only nod her head as Naruto made his way up to them. "Ready?" he asked them with a smirk.

They nodded their heads in agreement.

xxxx

Oh, for those of you who'd like to know, that gibberish Naruto was saying in the previous chapter will be explained later. Also, some people didn't like how/pointed out the flaw of Sakura not liking spicy food. I wasn't that worried about it, I'd just read a couple of other fics where she consumed the same flavor, and thought it sounded fine. At least it wasn't a flaw like, say, Naruto loving sake instead of ramen. And a note about his two teamates for the exam:

They will NOT become constant characters in this fic. Reason number one for them being here, after three years have passed, we don't know any of the younger generation ninja. Number two, I did not want him to take it with Konohamaru, Meogi, Udon, Hyuugi Hanabi, or anyone else from a clan that DOES have the potential to become regulars later on. These are simply non-biased views of him that will reflect the image the rest if the village will get of him later on. Their actions and opinions of him are otherwise unimportant.

(I hate it when original characters become more important than the anime they are inserted in. Yuck.)