Kensaku Oto, or better known as Uzumaki Kushina heaved a sigh, as she tried to control the shaking of her body. The sheer terror of the thought her boy might reject her for not being there took a heavy toll on her.
"Kushina-sama?" Kabuto inquired carefully. "Are you alright?"
She smiled weakly at the ever loyal boy she freed from Danzo's clutches. Who was forced by that man to be a contact person and spy on Orochimaru. Who in turn used him as gopher boy and shoved off the more dirty and less interesting experiments on him. Kushina stopped that, she took her teachers interest in experimentation, but only took used it as 'punishment' on the scum of the earth. And did not force her people to help her in her endeavors.
"I am alright Kabuto-kun… It was harder than I thought… I just wanted to pick him up, run back to Oto and never let go."
Kabuto nodded in understanding "One more month Kushina-sama" he encouraged. It worked, Kushina's smile widened . "One more month and he'll be mine… and Konoha will pay for their transgressions."
Naruto withheld a smug smirk as he saw Sasuke pick himself up from the trashing Rock Lee handed to him. His copy eye useless against the boy's supreme speed.
'For a supposed genius, he first reveals the first obstacle of the exams, and then challenges someone who is clearly superior to him' Naruto thought to himself as the team made their way to the correct room.
Once there, they were greeted by an eye-smiling Kakashi, who took their forms. "I wish you luck, and remember, work as a team" 'And ditch that bastard foxboy as soon as you can. The sooner you die, the sooner sensei can rest in peace.'
"We will be fine!" Naruto responded with fake cheer. The Uchiha grunted, and Sakura just nodded in faux confidence.
The team walked into the room, which was slowly filling up with teams from all over the elemental nations. They were greeted with a loud "You made it! Even with the clan less dead last and all!"
Naruto bit back a scathing response, now knowing both statements were false. And settled by rolling his eyes as he saw the dog boy followed by the shy Hyuga heiress and the stoic Aburame member. Both politely greeted the team, something Naruto and Sakura returned the sentiment, while Sasuke silently kept his aloof demeanor.
Kiba continued his rant, which the rest of the group ignored. They could however not ignore the loud shriek "Sasuke-kun!" from Ino, as she barreled into the Uchiha, knocking him over.
"You rookies should keep it down" Kabuto spoke as he approached the group. "You are attracting all the attention, which isn't good in the exams." He turned towards Naruto "I see you decided to come."
Before Naruto could respond, Kiba butted in "To afraid to come Naruto eh?"
Naruto rolled his eyes again. "I wasn't sure if the team could do it Kiba. And yes Kabuto, I did thanks to your advice" Kiba snorted in response "You are the weakest, I wouldn't worry about the team."
Naruto successfully repressed the urge to proof Kiba was wrong. "Naruto-kun's worries are founded, I failed the last exam because the team did not work together."
"Ano, Kabuto-san. You did the exams before?" Sakura asked.
Kabuto laughed sheepishly "Yes I did, this would be my 7th attempt."
"Hah, Losers stick together I see" Kiba laughed at Kabuto.
"Ignore Kiba, he has a big troublesome ego. Since you have been in the exams before, could you tell us more?" Shikamaru asked, trying to gather information to make it less…troublesome.
"Of course, anything to help a fellow Konoha ninja." Kabuto responded, causing the 9 rookie ninja to gather around him. "The exam is usually in three of four parts, with the last part being a public event. Depending on how many contestants make it through, these will be one on one or team matches."
"Since I went through the exam multiple times, I gathered data on the possible enemies, anybody you want to know about?"
"Sabaku no Gaara, Rock Lee and Uzumaki Naruto" Sasuke demanded to the surprise of the rest.
"Why would you want to know about that loser Sasuke, you could beat him easily." Kiba commented before Kabuto could start.
Ignoring the interruption. "Sabaku no Gaara, 14 years old, he is from Suna so I don't have too much information… Surprisingly few D-ranks, 12 C-rank missions and wow.. 2 B-rank missions. Most genin don't even do one. It also notes he has quite some control over sand, must be an unknown bloodline ability. He is the son of the current Kazekage. Pretty impressive."
Naruto wondered why Sasuke was interested in the boy, apparently having missed something. The marks around the boys eyes unsettled him, it reminded him of his own whisker marks he got from Kyuubi. 'I need to ask Kyuubi about that later, I hope it isn't too grumpy.'
"Rock Lee, 14 years old. He is Konoha so I got more information on him. He is quite good in taijutsu.. and what is this" Kabuto frowned "Apparently no talent in ninjutsu or genjutsu. You don't see that often. His teammates are Hyuga Neji and Tenten. Their sensei is Maito Guy. As a team he did a..wow quite a large amount of D-rank missions. 8 C-Rank missions and a single B-rank one. He has no bloodline abilities and his heritage is unknown as he is an orphan. Probably because of the Kyuubi attack 13 years ago."
Sasuke grunted in annoyance, the card giving no more information than before.
"Last but not least, Uzumaki Naruto, 13 years old, you know where he is from. Average scores in taijutsu, hmm, that's weird, despite his massive chakra reserves his ninjutsu knowledge is limited. Because of those reserves his genjutsu is abyssal. You also know who his teammates are. His sensei is Hatake Kakashi. As a team he did a number of D-ranks. And a C-rank turned A-Rank. Naruto also did a solo A-rank mission. His…" Kabuto recited before a shriek from Sakura interrupted "Solo A-Rank mission? No way Naruto-baka has done that."
"I did do that Sakura" Naruto said tiredly. Getting sick of people putting his hard work down.
"Hah, what did you do then, I am sure Sasuke-kun would have done better than the dobe."
"Sakura, remember the regulations." Naruto responded, getting more irritated.
"What regulations, you just didn't do that mission did you?"
"All missions above B-Rank are not allowed to be discussed in a public place, the penalty for doing so is decided by a board depending on the information released." Naruto recited. "Use that forehead of yours pinkie."
In the anger of being put in her place, Sakura lashed out, but Naruto handily dodged. Before it could escalate, Shino interfered. "Fighting now is not logical, you know why? Because that could get your team expelled" he put down plainly.
As Sakura simmered down. "As I wanted to say before I was interrupted…" Kabuto started dryly "Naruto has yet to activate the supposedly Uzumaki bloodline. His heritage is deeply classified."
Kiba was once again to speak up "Uzumaki bloodline? He is just a clan less dobe." Although the rest did not nod, they did agree in their minds. Naruto meanwhile looked betrayed. "You knew about it Kabuto? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Sorry Naruto-kun, I only read about it recently. I just read that the Uzumaki's can make their chakra solid somehow. Even if I told you, what could you do with it?" Naruto sighed and raised his hands in surrender "You are right again Kabuto, sorry for snapping at you." Kabuto merely waved it off "No problem Naruto-kun, I understand. The proctors will come soon, I am rejoining my team."
Right on cue, the doors slammed open, and in a giant puff of smoke, a large group of chuunin led by a jounin appeared. "Alright maggots! Listen and shut up! The first part of the chuunin exams start now. Enter this room and take your seat with your name on it. Those who fail to follow these simple instructions will be thrown out!"
With flair, the man turned around, walking into a large classroom. Many tables formed long lines. Each table with a single pencil and a paper on it. The chuunin hopefuls rushing after him, quickly scrambling to take the correct seat.
Naruto quickly found his own seat, and found Hinata would sit beside him. Gracing the girl which caused her to blush when she arrived, he couldn't help but remember their first meeting when he fought off some bullies who had it out for her.
Sadly before they could chat, her caretaker came in and took Hinata away. The next time they met was much later in the classroom. They chatted quite a bit that day, despite Hinata's stutter. The next day when he approached her she could only stutter out "Not allowed to talk to you" before shuffling off.
Figuring out it was her parents telling her to stay away from.. again. Naruto respected her decision, yet after a while they started to have short talks after class. He suspected Hinata had a crush on him, but he acted oblivious, reproaching her feelings with smiles and other kind gestures, without actually talking about it, afraid he would land the girl into trouble if he did reproach her feelings openly.
He was certain the girl knew about the fox he carried around. She once spent a full week constantly stalking him, before coming to what he suspected was the correct conclusion he wasn't the fox. Because she spend more time talking to him afterwards, despite the harshness of the punishments coming from her clan when she stayed away too long.
For that he was eternally grateful to her. Aside from her, only Kabuto was genuine with his friendship. The Hokage was a deceiving old man with his grandfather act. Iruka kept his distance despite his claim to be a friend. And the people at the ramen stand merely served him because they had standards, but otherwise did not interact closely with the 'demon boy'.
"You can start now!" Ibiki shouted, snapping Naruto out of his introspective. HHhASD
He flipped the form over on instinct, and was consequently flabbergasted by the first question.. and the second.. and the third. The only one that made sense was the 10th, which actually was an instruction it would be revealed 15 minutes before time.
'Dammit, why didn't I pay attention!' Naruto shouted to himself in his mind, panic setting in. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down. 'Panicking will only make it worse, find your center Naruto' he chanted to himself.
He sneakily glanced to his side, and saw the tell-tale bulge of her byakugan. Surprised at the normally shy girls blatant attempt at cheating, he quickly connected the dots, the questions weren't hard because he was being sabotaged, it was a spying assignment. This was confirmed when the first team was thrown out.
Suspecting he only had a limited amount of chances to cheat, and lacking severely in the cheating bloodline or jutsu department, Naruto knew he had to do it the traditional way, and calmly waited as Hinata worked her way down her questions.
He suspected she was trying to help him by slightly tilting the paper so he could read it more easily, and having a quite an open stance.
He soon as filled in his own paper, just in time too, as the scarred bear of a proctor spoke up again. "Listen up maggots, it's time for the 10th question."
"Before you take the question, you need to make a choice. You either take the question, and if you get it wrong…You will NOT be able to take the exams EVER again. Or… you can decide NOT to take the question and walk out of that door with your team, taking the exams next time."
A moment of stunned silence permeated the room, before the first participant shouted "You can't do that!"
"I CAN MAGGOT" Ibiki roared back, stunning the participant back his chair.
"People did the exams before!" a girl complained. A smug smirk made its way on Ibiki's scarred face. "Well those exams didn't have me" his smile turned bloodthirsty "So, ready to lose your chance for ever becoming chuunin?"
That broke the girl, and she fled out of room, her team soon called out to follow her.
Naruto's mind was whirling. 'Never take the exams again… can he really do that? Even then, there other ways to get promoted… a bluff?' He then felt like slapping himself again, chuunin need to make these kind decisions for their team themself, going into situations without having the full picture.
He saw Hinata fidget, her self-confidence not prepared for this kind of onslaught. He quickly scooted closer to her and softly whispered "It's a bluff Hinata-chan, and there other ways to get promoted" The girl blushed deep red and nodded weakly.
Naruto smiled to himself, happy he repaid her help. Than the smile dropped realizing his pink-haired teammate would probably forfeit herself, he quickly whirled around, seeing her slowly raise her hand while she looked at him.
He bristled at the implication 'Giving up because I am not ready? The….' And shot the girl the nastiest glare he could muster, taking her aback, causing her to drop her hand. Holding the glare for a moment to make sure she didn't get any ideas, he turned back towards Ibiki.
Keeping a close eye on both girls, more teams dropped out, and after a while, no more left.
"Last chance maggots" Ibiki boomed confidently "Anyone? No? Very well… you all….pass"
Once again, the room was silent, before another uproar came from the remaining participants.
Naruto flashed a big smile at Hinata, who once again blushed deeply, and nodded her thanks. Naruto turned back paying attention to Ibiki's explanation, and was happy he was thoughts were correct. Intrigued he saw the scarring on Ibiki's skull, once again punching him with the reality of being a shinobi.
Before Ibiki could finish his explanation however, a dark blur bashed through the windows, a large black banner with red letters saying "The sexy second examiner Mitarashi Anko!" The woman, Anko surveyed the room. "A bit more than I expected Ibiki… getting soft?"
Ibiki snorted "We got a talented bunch this year."
Anko laughed "Well that doesn't matter, I will cut these numbers in half!"
AN: The first semi-significant (For my story!) change has happened..dan dan dum.
VonKruez: I am also looking where this story leads me, For as far Vanex has written I got the major plot points in mind, with my own alterations, but from there I only have a vague impression how I will use the canon as guideline. Otherwise I just let the muse out and guide me.
BrainII: I wish I could, but that would be spoileriffic, You just have to wait and read. Har har har.
Godemporer: I will, for the empire!
Npcfan: Thank you, for Nar/Kus relationship I have some plotpoints, but where it ends is something even I am not sure of.
Kage: Well, here is more :D