Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.
I found some errors while reading it again, and corrected most of them.
Hello everyone. It has been a very long time since I updated. This was caused by many problems I faced. But I am sure you aren't there to read about my life. So I will just give you the third chapter of my story Naruto the true Ninja. It is longer than usual but I wanted to stop at a specific spot, and I am sure you will notice how rushed I was at the end.
Anyway. to answer some reviews.
To matrice : Indeed, in this fic, naruto won't fight against those way out of his league. Of course that just means he will try to escape every time he know that he cannot win. I like to think of this as how a true ninja should act. Fight when you are sure you can win, and retreat once you are way out of your league.
To malixe2: I too have been looking for a cross between naruto and kekkaishi because I found the kekkai ability pretty amazing. I had even proposed this as a challenge, but as no one took it, I took upon myself to write it down. Especially with the amount of twists my brain is thinking about.
To everyone, you will notice that I don't write the scene that happened in the manga. that is because I find it redundant. I think that no one want to read something a thousand times. So when you see a scene that is almost the same as in the original manga, that means there is something I want you to notice in it, that will be used later on in the plot. So be careful on what you read.
Edited: 05/12/2013
Chapter 3: Sleeping dragon
Tenten sat alone on the treetop, deep in thought. She was contemplating everything that happened since she became a genin. She had always thought of herself as a decent person. She had a few friends in the civilian side of the village. Admittedly a lot more than the friends she had with the ninja counterpart. But understandable as she mostly grew among civilian, at the orphanage. Very quickly, she drifted apart with some of them, as she went to the ninja academy, unlike them. As time went on, she had fewer topics to speak about with them. Again, she wasn't at fault, as she was just trying to reach her dream, no matter how far away it appeared to be, even to this day.
At the academy, she quickly figured that she'd have a lot of trouble when it came to learning ninjutsu. Not that she was unable to learn them. No, the issue stemmed from the fact that those jutsus were thoroughly protected, either being declared clan secret or simply classified and only accessible by the higher nins. In others word, if she wanted access to those jutsus, she'd need to advance in rank. Something rather ironic, when it's known that to rise up the ranks, knowledge of at least some of those jutsus was needed.
Coming back to the matter at hands, knowing this problem, she was forced to specialize in something that was easily accessible by anyone, in others words, taijutsu or weapons. She quickly chose weapons because she discovered she had a very impressive talent and it wasn't the ease with which she could handle most of those weapons. It was something more subtle than that.
This ability gave her the nickname of bullet eyes. No matter how bad the weather was, no matter how far away she was, if she had the strength to do it, she could hit a target wherever she wanted.
That was her true ability. She never missed a target, even a moving one, of course depending on the speed at which the target was moving. By training, she increased her skill to the point of being able to hit even a jounin ninja while he's moving. That was her forte in the team. Lee was the taijutsu specialist, Naruto the team leader able to do any task with relatively ease and her, the support of the team, fighting at long range, and helping any of them, when deemed necessary.
She had always prided herself of her ability to get through almost any situation. She thought she was strong. Granted against a full-fledged jounin she wouldn't stand a chance, she could at least stall him long enough for the reinforcement to arrive. But what happened yesterday completely trashed her entire world. Suddenly, she became aware of just how weak she really was against the monsters of this world.
Monsters!
That is the way she called those who reached a level higher than jounin. Those levels were, in an ascending order, anbu captain, sannin, kage and S-ranked ninja. The last three being approximately at the same level. Even a ninja at the level of an anbu captain could very well take on a team of 4 jounins and win.
Not even a day had gone since the wakeup call she received from Orochimaru. She couldn't recall a single time where she had felt completely and utterly crushed. Only thinking about that event, a chill went down her spine. The apparent ease with which the Sannin handled them or rather her — she quickly corrected herself — was shocking to say the least. If she was truthful about the whole event, she knew she hadn't been much of a help in the confrontation, except maybe killing the huge snake that Orochimaru summoned.
She clenched her fists in frustration. 'Almost two years since I became a genin, and I couldn't even do something against that monster!' She slammed her fist against the branch beside her. 'What was I doing since becoming genin?'
It was then that she reached the only solution to her problem. A solution she came up with a long time ago, but didn't have the courage to act upon it. The cause being that it required one crucial point.
It required of her to swallow her pride.
Oh it wasn't the kind of pride that could be found in an Uchiha, or even a very experienced ninja, the like of an S-rank ninja. No, it was nothing of the like. Instead it was about her achievement. She had reached this level without any outside help, except of course the academy teacher help like everybody. That made her very proud of herself, and she wasn't ready to let go of it just yet. Or rather she wasn't ready at the time, because, now, she reached the conclusion that if she wanted to progress further, she needed outside help.
Now came the hard part, who to turn to for help? The first thing that came to her mind was to ask her jounin sensei. But that was quickly dismissed as she knew that not only Gai was a lot less forthcoming when it came to her, unlike with Rock Lee. But his speciality lays in a branch of the ninja arts that she wasn't very proficient in, and didn't even want to increase her proficiency in.
Another solution that came to her mind was to get a recommendation from her sensei to get help from other jounins. But the problem was that, like many other ninjas, these jounins would be less inclined to help, as she wasn't their charge. Secrecy was also one of the reasons behind this. So this was a no-no solution.
That let her with only one solution. Something she didn't really like. But at this time, it was her only way out.
It was then that she turned her head to look at the ground. She then saw her teammate, Naruto, sitting against a tree, writing something on a very strange scroll.
'Ok girl, it's now or never.' she thought before jumping to the ground, in Naruto's direction.
Naruto had been sitting there for a long time now. He had reached his teammate position a few minutes after departing from the area where he fought against the traitorous sannin. Once he found her, the two decided to rest for the night, as he was very tired from his fight. So he put around the area, a few batch of detection seals of his own design. They only served to warn him of any breach by an outsider.
The next morning, he woke up early as always, and took a little breakfast that he retrieved from his storage scroll. It wasn't long before Tenten woke up too, and after taking her breakfast, she went up to the treetop doing whatever she wanted, as they still had a lot of time before they would begin their search of their missing teammate.
He himself was doing his research or rather continuing his research. It wasn't every day that he had the time to work on it, as he was always busy with something to do. That's why he always had on himself, his special scroll, upon which he worked. The strange scroll looked plain. Neither too long nor too wide. But the amount of work woven upon it was tremendous to say the least.
It was one of the greatest creations of the Namikaze clan. It wasn't a combat technique or anything the like. Instead it was nothing more than a support device for a sealing practitioner. To understand just how important this was, you'd need to understand why few ninjas today practice the sealing art, with even less, reaching mastery.
The sealing art, although extremely useful for those who know how to use it, is the most unpredictable and dangerous art currently existing. It consists in writing in associating different kind of runes, thus forming scripts and arrays of them. Each rune has a meaning and a set of rules, which determining the relationship between each other.
The first step in learning sealing is to learn the meaning of every rune. This step takes a lot of time and determination to master. Following this step is the learning of the relationship between the runes, and the effect they produce. The third step consists in learning from existing seals. And finally the last step is all about creating your own seals.
Very few ninjas reaches the second step. And those who do, usually give up upon starting the third step. They are the ones who duplicate the existing seals and nothing more. The last level, which is usually mixed up with sealmaster, is reached by about five persons for each generation.
But coming back to the matter at hands, the problem wasn't the lack of people reaching the last level, rather the dangers that came with the creation of a seal. It's so easy to miss something during the creating process after all, or even misunderstand the effect of a seal. Adding the fact a seal can very well reduce a person's soul to dust, it becomes easy to understand just why no one wanted to mess with the art.
This, all the more, increases the value of the Namikaze's creation, for the simple reason that this scroll almost completely nullify the risks taken when creating a seal.
This supposed scroll is covered with so many seals that few can understand half of it. The seals works like an automatic corrector. Every time a wrong or dangerous seal is wrote by the user on the scroll, said seal is highlighted, specifically the wrong part of the seal. Also to keep the corrector updated, whenever someone discover a mistake not included in the corrector, he adds it to the corrector matrix.
Those scrolls could only be used by a Namikaze, and were duplicated by another seal in the Namikaze's hidden house. Thanks to it, the clan had been able to quickly advance in the art. An advantage they jealously kept for themselves.
Coming back to the present, Naruto was using one of these scrolls to create a new sealing array. Something he was working on, ever since he became a genin. Indeed, the seal was that complex. But given that the benefits of such seal, if finished, would be tremendous, he considered the time passed on it as worth spending.
The seal is one that'll be applied on the user body. Its goal is two folds. First is the complete control of the opening and closing of the user's tenketsus, with a sub-goal of completely encasing the chakra circulatory system with a sealing array that would strengthen it thoroughly. There were others side effects of the strengthening part, but that was for another day.
The second goal of the seal was also very important and could prove very useful later on. If it worked as expected, the user would be able to not only absorb ambient energy, transforming it in neutral chakra, but would also be able to absorb the energy emitted by elemental jutsus, to a lesser extent.
He had already completed the second part of the seal namely the absorbing part. But he still had trouble with the first part. The reason was that the tenketsus on a human's body weren't in a fixed position. It constantly changed as the body grew, or even developed from the chakra training. So if he applied the seal on himself, now, in a few years, months even, it'd stop working. So he had to find a way to make the seal move in perfect symbiosis with the tenketsus movements. Something he deemed impossible until now.
During his fight with the snake Sannin, he discovered something incredible on said Sannin's body. That something was the mutating ability possessed by the latter. The ability being displayed whenever Orochimaru stretched his body either to lengthen his arm or even to slither around any attacks. Very quickly he noticed that the tenketsus and other important parts of the body were displaced in perfect coordination.
He later found out that it was in fact a jutsu that allowed him to do so. Wasting no time at all, he quickly learned the technique, after careful observation with his bunsekigan. After that it just became a matter of converting the jutsu into a sealing matrix, as it was indeed possible to convert almost any jutsus in a seal matrix.
That's what he was writing now on the scroll, to make it work perfectly. Once he finished, he quickly activated the correcting part of the scroll, which displayed no errors from the matrix. This made him smile, an action that seemed so foreign on his face. Of course, he'd have to test it on someone else before applying it on him. After all, there could be an error that the corrector wasn't aware of yet. Still he was happy knowing that if there was any errors, it'd rather be something other than the way in which he achieved this result, in others words, a writing error. So it would be easier to correct.
His teammate Tenten, chose that exact time to land on the ground in front of him, a serious expression on her face. Carefully schooling his features, Naruto looked at her expectantly.
Once Tenten landed on her feet, she looked up toward Naruto with the most serious expression she could manage. She was so focused on looking professional that she completely missed the fleeting smile that adorned Naruto's face.
"Naruto …" she began hesitantly, despite her resolve. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage and continued. "… I've been thinking on everything that happened ever since we became genin… And I've found myself lacking."
She paused to give Naruto the time to digest everything she said. "Obviously I've known for a while now that I haven't improved as much as in my earlier days, but I didn't want to admit it. But now after our last fight with Orochimaru, I know that I can't afford not to anymore."
All along, Naruto just kept quiet and observed her.
Another deep breath and she went on. "After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that you were the only one that could help me" she finally said, looking at Naruto directly in the eyes. She was a little shaken as during all of her speech, Naruto didn't react at all. It looked like everything she said wasn't registered by her teammate. And that frustrated her a little. 'Can't you show even a shred of emotion? Damn it!'.
She was surprised to hear a sound coming from Naruto's mouth finally. "Two questions: why should I help you and how would I be able to do so?" questioned Naruto calmly. No emotions were discernible in his speech, so Tenten couldn't guess what he was thinking.
"I can't give you a satisfying answer when it comes to why you should help me, because, frankly, it's your call. But know that, should you help me, I'll be extremely grateful, and will do my best to repay you."
"Concerning the way you could help me, that's very simple. I know that I am not the taijutsu type, or even the medical type. But you could help me in many others departments, such as ninjutsu, genjutsu, or anything you deem OK to teach me."
She said with apprehension, fearing his reaction. Nonetheless she held hope that Naruto would find it in himself to help her. And if he did it, she really would do her best to repay him.
Naruto, for his part, was thinking over the words of his teammate and couldn't help but smile a little in his mind. Of course, on the outside, he was still as stoical as ever. What made him smile was the fact that he had always thought of Tenten as a kunoichi with potential and that she didn't exploit it to the maximum of its capacity. After all, it wasn't every day you found someone that could always hit her target in bullet eyes, every time she tried.
The only thing that kept him from helping her was her pride. Oh he had noticed her pride very quickly, not that she hid it. This emotion was a bother to him. Another problem was her high fanaticism when it comes to anything related to the Slug Sannin. He couldn't and would never help someone that thought highly of Tsunade. His reasoning was his own and he would never disclose it to anyone. 'Not yet anyway' he thought.
Coming to a decision, he focused again on Tenten before opening his mouth. "I'll think about it." Before rising from his position on the ground, as it was time for them to depart from this place and look for their missing teammate. Tenten hearing this was a little disappointed, but her mood quickly rose up when she heard Naruto's parting word. "But you will need to show me just how serious you are about it".
With team 7
Team 7 was made of 3 members not including their sensei. They were Sakura Haruno, Sai and Sasuke Uchiha. Each member was very important to the team in their own rights. Not that their worth was easily discernible at first sight.
First was Sai. Nothing worth mentioning unless you took a closer look. The boy was the focus of many strange events. One of them was the fact that he was always present whenever his teammate, the Uchiha, was in trouble. If he wasn't a guy and didn't have any inclination for males, many would assume that he was stalking the Uchiha. Another strange thing about him was the fact that he didn't go the academy like the other genins. He just appeared at the genin exams, having been sponsored by an unknown entity, for a spot in the graduating members.
But the strangest and creepiest thing about him, was without a doubt … his smile.
If there was one thing everyone knew about him, it was the perpetual smile that adorned on his face. No one ever saw him without said creepy smile plastered on his face. It went to a point where many wouldn't recognize him without him having that smile.
Then there is Haruno Sakura, the only girl of the group. Now some would assume that she would be given a hard time by the other members of her team as she was the only girl. But they would be far from the truth. The truth of the matter was that she was the self-assumed vice-captain of the team, with Sasuke as captain. Going by her words, you would reach the only conclusion available.
She was a fan-girl.
Indeed, if you were looking for her in the village, you just needed to find Sasuke, and you will be certain that she is close by. She was always chasing after him, praising him at every opportunity she got, even when the latter wasn't deserving of any praise. Like her teammate Sai, she had a distinctive feature about her.
Her hairs were pink.
Indeed, very strange in the shinobi world were almost everyone, including the civilians, did everything they could to appear unnoticeable. But, apparently, it was a feature present in every Haruno. No one knew the reason behind it. After all, you must have angered the wrong person to get cursed like that. That was the thought of many.
And finally the last member of the team, Uchiha Sasuke, last 'loyal' Uchiha of Konoha, last possible wielder of their kekkei genkai, the sharingan and many other such titles. If you were to ask a civilian who Sasuke was, the first thing they would say was something among the lines of 'he is the greatest genius to have ever come from Konoha'. But if you were to ask a ninja, they would ask you in return and with a straight face 'are you talking about that pseudo genius?'
You didn't need to be a genius to understand that Sasuke was very much liked by the civilian part of the village, but when it comes to the ninja part, he was nothing more than another genin hopeful with only his ego to boast.
Oh he was gifted, that was for sure. After all, he didn't become the rookie of his year by being a weakling. But he was nothing compared to the genius that Konoha was famous for.
But I digress. At the moment, team 7 was in a precarious situation. During the beginning of the forest of death part of the exam, they met with none other than Orochimaru, the snake Sannin in person. A man, if you could even call him that anymore, that very few even among the jounin wanted to meet. It was a wonder how they had survived such encounter. Back to the matter at hands, among the team, the only one still standing was Sakura. In fact, the other two were unconscious.
She was standing in front of a cave she found. Inside the cave, lying on the ground were her two teammates Sasuke and Sai. Sasuke was unconscious ever since the snake freak as she called him, bite him on the neck. Sai on the other hand lost consciousness after being manhandled by Orochimaru, when he tried to defend his teammates.
She has been forced to stay awake all night, watching after her teammates, just in case another team tried to take them out when they were knocked out. That is why she was trying desperately not to close her eyes. The only thing that slightly comforted her was the devious trap she put around her position, in hope of either alerting her of an intruder or taking said intruder out, thus escaping a confrontation she wasn't ready to partake in at the moment.
Unfortunately for her, she forgot that in the shinobi's world, nothing ever goes as planned. And every bad things that can happen, will happen, as Murphy once said.
Not far from sakura's position, crouched behind a bush, was a team from Oto no kuni, the newly created shinobi village of the sound. The team was composed of two guys and one girl. One of the male had medical bandages wrapping most of his face, only revealing his left eye. He also wore a strange poncho and a snake pattern scarf around his neck. What was interesting about him was the large amplifier on his arm.
The girl in the team also had a snake pattern scarf around her neck, with the sound headband proudly displayed on her forehead. She had long black hairs that fell on her shoulders. The last male too had the same scarf and the same headband on his forehead; on the other hand he had some protections on each of his cheeks that seemed to cling on his face.
They were talking in hushed tones, as to not disclose their position.
"Does any of you see the target anywhere?" the only female asked to her companions who seemed to be searching for something.
"No. Not yet anyway. But considering that girl is teammate with our target, he is bound to be somewhere close" answered the one with the amplifier.
"What about the cave the girl seems to be protecting? Maybe the missing members of her team are inside." The last male said.
"Yeah, they must be inside of it. But why would she keep guard only by herself, the whole night?"
"Maybe the others two aren't in the best shape. A good thing for us. We should take advantage of this." The girl said with a smirk on her face.
The others two nodded, and were about to move, when the one with the amplifier raised his arm, halting them. The other two wondering what was going on, just observed their teammate who seemed to be rummaging inside his backpack. A few moments later, he removed his hand from the pack, with a brown rabbit. And then he did a shocking thing.
He attached an explosive tag on the back of the rabbit, in a way that completely hid it from sight. The others couldn't help but wince a little for the 'poor' rabbit.
"Don't you think it's a little too much Dosu?"
"Everything dies one way or another. The only thing that differs is the time and manner in which they die. So why should I feel bad about this? Instead, the rabbit should thank me for saving him from a tiring life" the newly revealed Dosu said with complete apathy.
Surprisingly, none of his teammates reacted. Showing that either they were already used of this Dosu, or they simply didn't care one bit.
Dosu ushered the rabbit towards the lone girl sitting in front of the cave. Said girl was looking around with half opened eyes. A result of her keeping guard the whole night. Fortunately, she was still awake enough to notice the innocent looking rabbit closing on her.
'Oh no! If it keeps going in that direction, it will reveal my trap.' She quickly took a kunai from her pouch, and sends it at the animal. The weapon slammed just in front of said rabbit, scaring him enough to make him change direction, and return to his captors.
In the bush, the members of the Oto team were frowning at what happened.
"Do you think she noticed the tag?" The girl looked at Dosu.
"No I don't think so. She must have done this for another reason"
And the simple action of scaring a rabbit, made them look more closely around the area the rabbit was before. It wasn't long before they found the reason behind sakura's action.
"There is a trap there. She must have scared the rabbit away, to stop it from revealing the trap she lays there. Smart girl, she is."
"Anyway, I think we have wasted enough time now. What do you say; we make a frontal attack, Zaku, Kin?" Dosu said while moving towards their target, followed closely by his teammates.
Sakura, who was a little alert now since the episode with the rabbit, immediately noticed the Oto team, and couldn't help but curse the heaven for her bad luck. 'Great, that's the team that tried to kill Kabuto at the written exams.' She thought, focusing on them and their every moves.
Zaku, being the impatient one among the others two, was quick to move towards Sakura, taking care of dodging the trap laid on the ground. All the while, smirking like a predator about to gut his prey. Unfortunately, he shouldn't have underestimated her, as just after having crossed the trap, he activated another one by putting his foot on a hidden thread. The thread, which was very sensitive and buried in the ground, was cut suddenly, causing a chain like reaction with the end result being a huge pointed wood moving toward the shell shocked Zaku.
Zaku's eyes widened when he saw the incoming wooden weapon. 'Shit, I won't move in time.' He thought with bulged eyes. The wood kept coming closer and closer, until it was just in front of him, causing him to close his eyes waiting for the blow.
He waited and waited, but felt nothing, prompting him to open his eyes in confusion. And what he saw surprised him. Because, standing in front of him, was his teammate Dosu, with his right arm outstretched, as if he just punched something. Which wasn't far from the truth because in front of him, on the ground, was the remains of the wood that came close to impale him.
"You should be more cautious Zaku. How many time do I have to tell you that" A frustrated looking Dosu turned to Zaku after saying that. Zaku, having regained his calm, couldn't help but voice his displeasure.
"How the hell was I supposed to know that the bitch laid another trap?"
"Maybe by simply removing your head from your ass?" smartly remarked Kin, much to Zaku's displeasure.
During their little banter, Sakura was observing them growing alarmed. 'If only the other one hadn't reacted quickly and destroyed the wood, I would have a better chance than now. I am so screwed.' She thought desperately.
Dosu, having enough of the insults his two others teammates exchanged, turned to look at Sakura. Because of the bandages hiding most of his features, it was almost impossible to read his facial expressions. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Sakura.
"What do you want?"
He looked at the girl, weighting the value of answering her, but was again interrupted much to his growing ire.
"Little girl, just give us your teammate the Uchiha, and we will leave you alone."
"And pray tell me what you will be doing to him if I hand him over?"
"We will of course relieve you of the burden he must be to you"
Sakura couldn't help the snort that escaped her mouth after hearing what Zaku said. The worst was that even his own teammates were slapping their hand on their forehead at his apparent stupidity. Or was it arrogance? She didn't know, and couldn't find it in herself to care one bit.
"Let me make this clear. You want me to hand over Sasuke-kun, my teammate, so that you can relieve me of my supposed burden? Even a mentally retarded one wouldn't fall for such obvious trick."
While saying this, she was mentally preparing herself for the battle to come, as it was obvious that they wouldn't let her go just like that. And she was right as Kin took what looked like a handful of senbons from her pouch, while glaring at her.
"It is obvious that she won't hand him to us. So we'll just have to take him over her dead body." She said laughing at her maniacally.
As if to carry out her threat, she quickly launched a handful of the senbons at sakura, surprising the latter by the sudden attack. She did her best to dodge, by weaving around them.
'Something isn't right.' She thought while ducking another wave of senbons. 'Why is it so easy to dodge them? Normally senbons are the hardest weapons to dodge because of their size.'
Narrowing her eyes, she quickly looked at the senbons scattered around her, but couldn't find anything wrong with them. So she looked back at her attackers, only to find zaku with his hands extended towards her.
"Zankuha"
Sakura had little time to jump to the sky to escape the supersonic blast of what could only be described as air. With her high position, she was able to look at her earlier position on the ground, in a bird like view. And what she saw made her widen her eyes in surprise. Because the senbons scattered on the ground formed a perfect pentagon like shape. Before she had a chance to understand the pattern's meaning, she felt her whole body go numb, and the landscape changed from a peaceful forest to a sandy desert with scattered bones everywhere.
'Genjutsu'
She thought at last before succumbing completely to it. Much to her attackers' joy.
"What a waste" kin scoffed with an air of smugness. "She couldn't even tell that something was wrong with the way I launched my weapons. Truly Konoha ninjas are grossly overestimated."
Her teammates couldn't help but agree with her. Not wanting to waste any more time, she walked towards her target until she was standing above her. She took a kunai from her pouch, and knelt down to finish her target when her instincts screamed at her to flee. Knowing that her instincts were rarely wrong she tried to jump backward, but it was already too late.
A moment earlier
After Sakura fell under the genjutsu, she found herself in a desert landscape, with sands everywhere and bones scattered around.
"This must be the illusion generated by the genjutsu she put me under."
Knowing she had but a few moment before her attackers would try to take her out while she was stuck in this world, she closed her eyes, concentrating on her chakra system. It wasn't long before she noticed the foreign chakra manipulating her own.
Indeed, genjutsu was a very subtle art that once mastered could be extremely deadly. To use genjutsu, you had to find a way to invade your target chakra system. This could be done by sending your chakra to your target with a sequence of handseals, or even by many others medium like eye contact. Once your chakra was inside the target's system, you had to wrestle control of the target's chakra either subtlety or by force. Once the control acquired, you could pretty much do anything you wanted to your target for a simple yet very important reason.
Chakra was closely linked to the nervous system. So theoretically, you could control all the senses of the target, which meant, made him see anything you wanted, heard anything you wanted among others.
The handseals are used just to take over someone chakra system. The more complex they are, the easier and faster you can take over. After that, you needed a good imagination, as you had to make your target believe that everything was real. Genjutsu was difficult to learn because you needed to have very good chakra control and also a good dose of concentration and imagination. After all, the most advanced in the art are able to superimpose the real world with the virtual world they created, allowing them to predict how you will react and if you are caught in the genjutsu or are just faking.
So when Sakura found the foreign chakra, she quickly halted the flow of her chakra using the disruption method . Unfortunately that is when the pentagon she saw took effect. The world blurred around her, just for a few second, showing the real world, and an advancing Kin. But then she faintly heard a sound that could only be made by a bell. And she was back to the sandy world again.
She widened her eyes at that. Knowing that she had even less time than before, she quickly reviewed everything that happened.
'Calm down and think Sakura.' she thought, taking a huge breath to calm herself.
'Ok obviously these bells are part of the genjutsu but how? And come to think of it, how did she use genjutsu without handseals? It is a very rare talent and I don't think someone so young can do that already.'
She looked around to find anything that could help her but found nothing. 'This world is just here to give her time to kill me in the real one as there is nothing to frighten me to death.'
It was then that she thought back to the lesson she had about genjutsu and how they needed a medium to be cast, and widened her eyes in realization.
'Of course, I am so stupid. The bells must be the medium or pseudo-medium. They must work in resonance with each other to send a sound laced with chakra. This sound in fact is the real medium. That is why when I heard that sound, I immediately fell under the genjutsu again. So to get out of this, I must 'kill' my sense of hearing.' She thought smiling.
She acted quickly, by sending chakra to her ears. But instead of enhancing them, she completely shut them down making her virtually deaf. It was a technique that required perfect control of one chakra, less you irreversibly destroyed your senses.
This took immediate effect, as she found herself again in the real world, with Kin standing just above her, and reaching for her kunai. Thinking quickly, she discreetly retrieved a kunai from her pouch, waiting for the right time to make her move. That time came when Kin leaned towards her to strike. And like a tiger ready to pounce on his prey, she struck.
Hard.
"KIN" was head through the vicinity of the clearing they found themselves. Kin was projected towards a tree, all the while leaving a trail of blood in the air.
Sakura hit kin's throat with tremendous force and with the sharpened part of the kunai. The only thing that saved the latter was the jump she made at the last second, thus reducing the damage done to her throat. But the deed was done, as blood was flowing freely out of her body.
'Why do I feel so lightheaded? And why is it dark outside?' were kin's last thought before she slumped on the ground. Alive or not, none of them knew.
This seemed to wake up the others members of the Oto team, as they quickly charged at Sakura with rage visible in their eyes. Some would think that they were angry because their teammate was in danger but that wasn't the case. They were upset only because sakura managed to deceive them and at the same time, mortally strike one of them.
Sakura, having noticed the others two approach, quickly took a handful of shurikens from her pouch and launched them at the two. Zaku and Dosu easily dodged the airborne weapons while still advancing towards their target.
"Dosu" yelled Zaku while extending his arms towards sakura. The mentioned nodded before going to the left.
"Zankuha"
A deadly mix of air pressure and sound waves made a beeline toward sakura who jumped to her right, dodging the attack. Only for her to appear a few meters before Dosu charging at her like a raging bull. She could only widen her eyes in shock and surprise, having not thought that the two could use teamwork, going by their seemingly bad relationship.
SMACK
The sound was heard clearly in the clearing, as Dosu slammed his fist on sakura's face. The latter was projected toward a tree leaving a trail of blood, not unlike kin earlier. She slammed her back on the tree, silently crying in pain and arching her back, trying to reduce the pain. Thankfully she didn't lose consciousness as her eyes bulged seeing another incoming waves of air from Zaku. Thanks to her hard gained reflex, she had time to make the handseals for the Kawarimi, disappearing in a not so silent puff of smoke. Just in time as the tree behind her exploded in splinters from the attack.
"Did I get her?"
Dosu still looked at the dust created by the attack, searching for their target. Once the dust was lifted, there was nothing left behind except the remains of a tree.
"Obviously no!"
He said turning around, while launching a handful of shurikens to sakura who appeared behind them. Sakura not deterred by them, launched her owns against the incoming ones, deflecting them. She then did a few handseals, before 3 copies of her appeared, running alongside her. With the clones she ran in zigzag to confound her targets.
"Dosu!" yelled Zaku, prompting Dosu to crouch on the ground, just in time to dodge another wave of sound and air pressure that destroyed the clones and the real sakura.
Or rather the log that replaced sakura. This time it was Zaku who turned behind himself looking for sakura, expecting her to appear behind him like before. But she wasn't there. Frowning, he looked all around himself searching for his target.
Left, right, behind, in front. Nothing.
It was then that he widened his eyes, as a shadow covered him. He looked above, already knowing what he would find. And indeed, sakura was falling toward him, with a kunai at the ready. He smirked knowing that she wouldn't have time to reach him before he could strike, which he did by launching another handful of shurikens at sakura. He then immediately turned to look around, expecting sakura to replace herself again. But that was his mistake, as the latter moved her arms in front of her, protecting her vitals.
A few of the shurikens touched her, but it was nothing she couldn't endure. In any case, that is what she repeated herself. Once the onslaught was finished, she readied herself by bringing her arm behind her, using her momentum. She was almost before her target when she noticed something in the bush.
Zaku, not finding sakura anywhere, looked again at the sky, only to widen his eyes at her target about to strike him with her kunai. He was completely frozen as he saw the path of the kunai ending at his head. Thankfully, something happened that made sakura divert her strike to a non-lethal part of his body, namely his shoulder.
Fortunately for him, sakura forgot that she was fighting two persons, and was thus taken completely by surprise when Dosu appeared before Zaku, blocking her strike with a kunai of his own. Sakura, who was still airborne, was completely defenceless, as Dosu used his other arm which had the melody arm to strike her face again.
"Konoha Senpuu" resonated as Dosu was brutally kicked towards a tree. He couldn't help but think 'Again? Why do these tree lovers like to kick their opponents to a tree? It isn't like we are tree hugging people like them.' With a sneer on his face even though he was about to crash on a tree.
Inside the bush sakura looked at before, Team 10 made of Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were looking at the fight with widened eyes, and struggling to decide whether to help sakura or not. Shikamaru on the other hands was looking at sakura with narrowed eyes.
'Another one Kaa!'
Zaku, who regained control of his emotions, looked at the one who helped Sakura in wonder. 'Green jumpsuit? Is that even legal?'
He then looked at the downed sakura, huffing in exertion, before feeling a chill going up his spine. 'I wasn't dreaming, she really was about to kill me.' He thought a little scared. But quickly squashed the feeling, hard. After all, he was from Oto where any weakness show could and would be used against you.
With the sand team
A few miles away from the fight that was taking place between the Konoha nins and the Oto team, another team was standing in the middle of a sea of blood. Standing nonchalantly in the middle of this butchery was Gaara, a member of the Sand team. On his back, a gourd was fastened. The sand that was floating above his head rushed through the little gap that served as sole entry to the gourd. Moment later, the gourd was filled to the brim with sand before it was closed with a cap carved by the leftover sands.
Behind him stood his teammates. The thing that stood out the most was the nonchalance with which they stood, arm crossed on their chest, completely disregarding the blood on the ground, as if it was an usual occurring.
The only girl of the team finally looked at a bush beside them, narrowing her eyes.
"What do we do about those insects Gaara?"
The mentioned turned around to look at his teammate with a cold look that would have frozen even the most hardened shinobi for a second at least. Strangely enough, the girl didn't react at all. She just maintained eye contact with Gaara waiting for his answer.
The answer never came. At least not from him, but from the last member of the team, a boy with what looked like painting on his face and a package attached on his back.
"We do not have time to deal with pesky ninjas like them, or have you forgotten our main objective Temari?" The girl only scowled at that.
"Of course not Kankuro. But wouldn't it be better to deal with them considering they saw a little of Gaara's ability?"
"And what pray tell will they be able to glean from it?" the girl could only nod at that.
"Sorry but old habits die hard. I forget that we are dealing with tree huggers. They have been considered the strongest ninja village for so long that they became overconfident and are now producing the weakest of ninjas" A sneer could be seen after she said that, before she smirked when she noticed the bush shaking a little.
'So they got angry... Of course they will do nothing knowing that they are likely to get killed if they act.' She thought.
This time though, they were interrupted by none other than their teammate Gaara who looked at Temari with an inquiring look, expecting her to answer a question he hadn't even asked. Temari could only stare him back with a blank look as if stating 'Ask the question first, I am not a diviner you know!' With a grunt, the short boy finally opened his mouth.
"We have the scrolls we need for the next part of this test. So we can begin the next part of our mission."
He stopped and looked at Temari expectantly but like before she only looked back waiting for whatever he will say. Continuing in the same monotone,
"Can you locate the target?"
This time Temari understood, and quickly brought her right hand in the ram seal, before closing her eyes in concentration. Outside, everything was still the same while in Temari's mind, she was now seeing all around herself in a black and white background. The only things that were coloured were a few random spots here and there, including her team and the team in the bush.
This was an ability she had had since her birthday. Oh no, it wasn't the ability to sense chakra like sensors could. In fact, it had nothing to do with it at all. Of course, it served the same purpose, but in a different way. While sensors were able to sense chakra around them and even track someone by locking on the target's chakra, she on the other hands could sense materials around her. More precisely,
Metal.
Indeed, she could sense any kind of metal around her, in a one mile range. At first her vision wasn't as clear as now. It was difficult for her to sense beyond 10 meters. But as she grew, the ability also grew. Of course, she did a good job of hiding this little ability from anyone except her team. Obviously because of just how vicious her father could be when he wanted something.
But I digress. The ability allowed her to feel any metal in her range, when she was concentrating. Considering the amount of metal ninjas carry, it was safe to say that few could sneak past her. The only issue was that she couldn't differentiate people as they could have the same kind of metal as another person. So to overcome this problem, she came up with a metal that was almost impossible to find anywhere. And now she just had to mark her target by putting a sample of it on their bodies, before she could track them easily.
Concentrating on the metal she was looking for, she extended her range to the limit. After a minute or so, she opened her eyes with a frown on her face.
"I can't find the target"
The reaction was immediate.
"What do you mean you can find him? I thought you marked him?"
Kankuro asked looking surprised more than anything.
"Not him" she said looking at the space thinking. Kankuro noticing what she said frowned.
"Come again?"
"I said not him. I didn't mark the target directly as I didn't know just what we were dealing with. Instead I marked his teammates."
"So you chickened!" Kankuro said smirking at Temari who glared at him before looking at Gaara.
"Anyway, if I can't find them, that means they're outside my range. So it isn't my fault"
Gaara frowned at that. Also this was the first time he showed any emotions since they started speaking. They were silent for a moment before a sigh was heard coming from Gaara.
"I will have to use it then" He said finally, while forming a few handseals, finishing with the ram seal. Suddenly, a little amount of sand exited his gourd and floated beside him. Then it merged, shaping itself into an eye the size of a fist. The eye flew skywards, stopping a few meters above the tree-top. Then Gaara closed his eyes. In his mind his normal sight was replaced with that of the huge eye.
This was the eye of Shukaku. Thanks to it, he could see in a very far away. Using the eye, he concentrated on finding his target, looking left and right. A few minutes later, he finally found his target moving toward what seemed like a battle between Konoha and Oto Nins. Having seen what he needed, he opened his eyes, while the one in the sky dissolved in sand that came back to his gourd.
"They are around 5 miles away in that direction" he pointed towards where he saw the target. The others nodded before they shunshin-ed to that location.
Seeing that the sand team was gone, three Konoha nins got out of the bush sighing in relief.
Tenten had been moving through trees for a few hours now and couldn't help but be frustrated. Naruto and her had been looking for their lost teammate Lee since morning, but were having no luck in finding him. It came to a point where they had to part way to cover more ground. But she suspected that Naruto just wanted to find the scroll they needed, allowing them to keep going after the tower once they found their teammate.
While moving, she thought about the morning's happenings, when she felt a huge discharge of chakra not far from her position. Having a teammate who valued stealth above anything made her pick something from him. She changed course, going after the chakra she felt. While taking care of being as silent as possible.
It wasn't long before she reached the area, and what she saw surprised her. She stood on a tree, using the leaves to hide herself from those on the ground. In front of her, stood two Konoha teams, an Oto team and finally the one she was looking for since morning, Lee, her teammate.
But what surprised her was the state in which they were.
'You would think having the advantage in number, they would easily dispatch these twp Oto nins.' she thought seeing Lee on the ground seemingly unconscious. Next to him, a girl she knew to be called Sakura, also in bad shape, going by the cuts all over her clothes. Another group of 3 Konoha nins stood ready, close to the trees, but seeing their state, she knew they were tired. And finally the last one, the Uchiha if she remembered correctly, was fighting against the two Oto nins. Again, he was losing and seemed very tired.
To understand what is going on, we need to go back a few minutes earlier. Once Lee arrived and helped Sakura, he then battled with Dosu. Having the advantage because of his speed, he quickly overwhelmed the latter, and used the primary lotus, a technique allowing the user to open the first gate of the chakra circulatory system, thus gaining a boost in speed and strength. But he didn't count on Zaku who intervened just in time to save Dosu. Add to that, he got very winded as the primary lotus was a double edged technique. Because of the sudden physical boost, the body took much damage from it.
Afterward, the battle shifted again with the Oto team taking advantage, until team 10 composed of Ino Yamanaka, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji intervened. This resulted in a fight between the two Oto nins and team 10, as Lee and sakura were too tired to fight.
Despite the clever ruses they used, they didn't succeed in defeating their opponents, instead they were the one in danger thanks to the strange ability Dosu possessed, allowing him to generate and amplify sound at different frequencies. Even being close to the sound nin hand was dangerous as said hand produced a sound at a frequency that affected the body as a whole. It wasn't long before they disposed of the Konoha team, or rather rendered them unable to fight anymore.
When they were about to finish the work though, their primary target the Uchiha finally woke up covered from head to toes with black marking that moved around his body. Being familiar with the cursed seal, they quickly understood what was going on and they weren't pleased to say the least. After all, no one would be happy to learn that they were just pawns to someone. Pawns because they deducted from everything that happened since the start of their mission, that Orochimaru was using them to test the Uchiha, considering the fact that he gave him the cursed seal. So the Sannin estimated that they wouldn't be able to take out the Uchiha. But said Sannin forgot one very important thing.
They already knew how the cursed seal worked and what happened when it was applied on someone.
Using this knowledge, they came up with a simple plan, stale the Uchiha until the first activation ended. Knowing that the first time someone used the seal, it only lasted approximately 5 minutes before they collapsed too tired to even move properly, let alone fight. Of course it was easier said than done. The little fight that ensued was a slaughter to say the least. They were completely outclassed but they didn't give up and kept fighting, resulting in Zaku having his left hand broken by Sasuke. But they were rewarded as the seal finally stopped working, leaving a barely moving Sasuke to take their revenge upon.
That was the scene Tenten stumbled upon, two ninjas from Oto standing over Sasuke with a feral smirk firmly attached on their faces, and glee at the anticipated beating they were about to deliver to him. Not knowing if she could handle them alone, she took a strange paper from her pouch. Upon the fabric was a very confusing and complex scribbling, easily recognizable as a seal. She sent her chakra to it, knowing that it would not only alert naruto that she found Lee, but also work as a beacon of chakra literally, allowing naruto to find her quickly.
She looked again at the scene and saw Dosu and Zaku beating the Uchiha but choose not to interfere as they weren't attacking her teammate.
'In this forest, there is no Konoha team, only the strong will survive to see the next part of the exams.' she thought harshly.
A few meters from the fight, the sand team was looking at the scene in surprise, not having expected the Konoha team to have been felled by ninjas from such a weak country. They were even more surprised upon seeing a member of the team hailed as strongest genin team of Konoha, unconscious.
Temari looked at Kankuro with an incredulous look on her face.
"I thought they were supposed to be extremely powerful."
Kankuro looked at her intrigued. "Whom are you talking about?"
"The one with the green jumpsuit. He is a member of our target's team. Who did you think I was talking about?"
"The Uchiha! Anyway, it is surprising indeed, especially against such weak opponents. But where are the others members of the team?"
Kankuro looked at Gaara at this with a questioning look. Gaara only raised his right hand, pointing with his finger the area where Tenten hiding. He then said with complete apathy.
"The girl on the team is hiding there. Namikaze on the other hand, isn't here. They must have been separated."
The others two nodded while keeping an eye on what was going on. The whole time thinking about how to get information on Naruto, not wanting to meet the Kazekage, their father, with nothing to report.
Naruto was moving from trees to trees, in the direction Tenten took earlier when they parted way. He finally found the scroll they needed. All in all, they had 5 heaven and one earth scrolls. He couldn't help but feel good about himself, knowing that they could now move up to the next stage of the exam. It was then that he felt a paper on his pouch, burn. Knowing the meaning of the heat, he quickly activated his sensor ability to search his surrounding, looking specifically for the signature emitted by the paper he gave to Tenten.
Surprisingly, he found her quickly as she wasn't that far from his current position. But he was a little alarmed as he sensed a large variety of signatures in the area she was, causing him to conclude that she was in hostile territory. He increased his speed to such a level that he was only a blur for anyone that was looking at him.
He arrived at the area a minute later, having stopped far from the actual area as he was analysing what was going on.
'11 ninjas in the clearing, including Tenten and Lee. Tenten is still hiding. Good, she didn't try to play the hero.'
He then looked behind Tenten. 'Another team close to them. The sand team if I correctly remember their signature.'
Finally he looked at his right where he sensed another ninja. 'Also even further away is the one who gave information about genins in the exam. What was his name again? Yes Kabuto. He is observing everything that is happening.'
'To resume, Tenten is spying upon those in the clearing. She doesn't know that she is also being observed by the sand team, who strangely enough, are also being observed unwittingly by Kabuto. In what kind of world did I stumble upon?' he thought sighing to himself.
He finally moved again, jumping from trees to trees, taking care of staying unseen by everyone, even though he knew that it wouldn't stay the same for long. He stopped beside Tenten who was still looking at the beating Sasuke was taking and patted her on her shoulder in such a way that Tenten knew who he was, something they had trained in their team, to keep themselves from reacting in the wrong way.
Tenten turned and looked at naruto who nodded at her. They didn't need to talk as they both knew what they had to do. The two stepped forward to retrieve their unconscious teammate.
Behind them, the sand team was shocked when they saw their target with Tenten, as he arrived there without their notice.
"When did he come?" Temari looked bewildered as she questioned her teammates. The latter had nothing to say as they too were frozen in shock.
'To be able to sneak upon all of us like that… Namikaze, you will definitely feed mother with your blood.' A maniacal smile could be seen upon Gaara's face, prompting his teammates to stand back a little in fright.
'Again with his psychotic smile! Does God really hate me so much? I have a psycho as little brother and a bossy girl as big sister. And as if it wasn't enough, we are on the same team. What did I do to deserve such thing?' Kankuro thought dejected.
In the clearing, Dosu was still beating the helpless Sasuke, with the other looking at this, powerless to do anything, when he sensed two people above them in the trees. They turned around to look at the people daring to interrupt them on their self deserved reward but couldn't help but frown at what they saw.
"Another Konoha team it seems. Is it me or they are coming here like a flock of birds?" Dosu asked sarcastically with Zaku smirking at the jab.
"Talk about spoilsport."
Dosu smirked too, even though it wasn't visible on his face thanks to the medical tape on his face.
Meanwhile, the two kept moving towards the downed Lee, not even caring about what the Oto ninjas were saying.
"What do you think you are doing?" Zaku said once he saw them heading for one of the downed Konoha nins.
This time, they faced Dosu and Zaku.
"Isn't it obvious, we are here to retrieve our teammate there" Tenten pointed at the area Lee was.
Dosu narrowed his eyes at that before he looked at naruto with an intense stare. He couldn't help but sense something amiss about naruto. 'Where did I see him?'
Zaku, not liking the tone Tenten used, glared at her. The tone reminded him of his childhood, when he was constantly belittled because he was an orphan. With the other children thinking they were his betters. He wasn't about to let anyone think themselves superior to him anymore.
"Again this high and mighty attitude of Konoha ninjas." He said with distaste. "Always thinking they are superior to anyone not from Konoha. I have news for you bitch, in the real world, ninjas like you are always the first to die."
Tenten looked at him with an incredulous look. 'Has he lost his mind or something? I just explain to him what we were doing here and now he's telling me about his fucking life story! What the fuck?'
Naruto on the other hand, couldn't stop the snort escaping from his mouth. 'I wonder who the arrogant one here really is'.
Unfortunately, the snort was noticed by the Oto ninjas, and this only served to increase their anger. Zaku moved his hand to retrieve some spare kunais when Dosu finally recognized Naruto.
"I knew I had seen you somewhere. You must be the Namikaze everyone in the elemental countries is talking about. The son of the yellow flash." He exclaimed inciting a gasp of surprise from everyone actually in the clearing as it was the first time most of them saw him.
'So this is him? How troublesome! At least they will help... Maybe.' Shikamaru thought while looking at what was going on.
The others members of his team were also happy. After all, in their conditions they would gladly accept any help they could receive.
'So it is him. The supposed strongest genin in Konoha? I don't see anything that set him apart from us!' Sasuke thought while raising his head, looking at the new incomers. Even raising his head was painful after the beating he received. But he was an Uchiha; he would do anything to keep his pride intact.
Naruto sighed at what Dosu said. "And what if I am?" were the first words everyone heard from him.
Dosu and Zaku couldn't help the smirk that appeared on their faces.
'An even more interesting target than the Uchiha. Imagine the fame we'll get if we took out the last Namikaze. This will show Orochimaru not to underestimate us.' Both Oto nins thought. A creepy thing, considering they had the same thought at the same time.
Zaku finally spoke again looking at naruto with glee.
"If you are, then we will just take care of you like we did with the others here" he gestured to the beaten team 10 and 7. He then turned to Dosu.
"Dosu, can you imagine what will happen if we were to tell our superiors that we took out the Namikaze?"
The glee on Zaku's face seemed contagious, as Dosu also sported one himself hearing what Zaku said.
"I know Zaku, I know."
Tenten, couldn't help but roll her eyes at what she was witnessing.
"Excuse me, but are both of you idiots or something?"
Dosu and Zaku looked at her again with incredulous eyes.
"I couldn't hear you correctly. What did you said?" Zaku asked trembling with suppressed rage.
Tenten as if she didn't notice the rage in his eyes, kept going.
"You heard me right. You take me for a recorder or something?" She put her hands on her waist as if to make a point. "You don't pay me for repeating what your retarded mind cannot understand do you?"
Dosu and Zaku were now shaking in rage, unable to contain their emotions anymore. Unfortunately for them, it seems Tenten wasn't finished with them.
"And I don't even think that you could afford my services. Look at you. One has a medical tape covering the whole part of his face. Were you brought back to life by your parents or something. I could swear that you were a mommy from where I was standing looking at you."
It was gradual but even those in the clearing and around cracked a little smile at that. And if that wasn't enough, Zaku smiled a little too. Which didn't go unnoticed by his teammate who was quick to scold him.
"You" He pointed Zaku with his finger in anger. "Don't you dare laugh at this. You are with the konoha team or what?"
Zaku quickly rose his hand in defence, but before he could speak, someone spoke again. That person was someone they were beginning to hate with passion.
"And that is not even talking about the other one standing there like a glorified pig with too much ego to notice his own failing."
This time, it was Zaku who looked at her with murderous eyes. Which only seemed to make Tenten smile.
"What? Did I hurt your feelings?" she rolled her eyes again. "Sorry, I didn't know that behind this bad guy attitude of yours, was hiding a little girl lacking love."
The fact that she was saying all of this with a straight face, made the others think that she was deadly serious and thought everything she said was the truth. The ones on the receiving end of her comments, on the other hand, didn't seems very happy at all and were ready to charge her with everything they had.
Meanwhile, naruto sighed, already knowing that Tenten would react like this. Very few knew this, but she liked to berate others using words, either by being sarcastic or by pointing out the truth they hid from. Understandable as she grew up with other children who were physically stronger than her, until she began her ninja training that is. He turned around showing his back to Dosu and Zaku, looking at Lee intensely. After a moment he opened his mouth.
"How long are you going to play dead?" The voice was soft. Maybe even too soft. There was nothing, no emotions behind those words. He was just stating a fact, an undeniable truth.
Everyone looked at him surprised. They couldn't see with whom he was talking to after all. The only one on his line of sight was Lee and Sakura who were unconscious.
Still on the ground, the one naruto was speaking to couldn't help but let out a frustrated growl. 'How does he knows?' Sighing, he slowly rose to his feet, much to the surprise of the other observers. But who could blame them, they all thought Lee was unconscious until now.
Lee couldn't help but point accusingly at naruto with his finger.
"How the hell did you know I was faking?" he yelled.
Naruto just as calmly as before answered with a straight face.
"You were faking? I honestly thought you were just too lazy to wake up." He passed his hand on his hairs. "My bad then!" Before turning around to look at Tenten.
Lee behind him, looked like a dog that just lost his candy.
"That's it? You won't even explain to me how you knew?"
Naruto didn't even react to his grumbles, much to Lee's disappointment.
"Tenten, let's get out of here. I am tired of being in this forest."
Tenten nodded, before turning back. Not even glancing at those in the clearing who sported an incredulous look on their faces. Some shocked by the fact that they wouldn't receive any help, others by the dismissive way with which team 9 treated them.
Lee and Tenten were in front of naruto as they were going towards their objective: the tower. When someone in the clearing once again interrupted them.
"You 3 are really getting on my nerves. You come here, treat us like crap and think we will just let you go like that?" An angered Dosu said. The visible parts of his face were red in anger.
Still walking, naruto didn't even face them when he answered.
"Like my teammate said earlier, you really are quite stupid."
"What?"
"I dare you to repeat it to my face, bastard" Zaku yelled incensed.
"And you will do what? Beat me with your only working hand?" naruto said carelessly.
"Look at you. One of you only have one unusable hand, another is on the ground bleeding to death if not already dead. Not counting the fact that all of you are tired from all the fighting you did. And then the two of you have little to no chakra left, thanks to the childish way you used it before. Who in their right mind would waste their time in beating an enemy when they can just kill him and be done with it?"
The two had nothing to answer to that. Now that the rush of the battle was over, they saw just how badly they had handled things around here. Especially with one of their members on the ground, obviously dead, going by the amount of blood surrounding her.
It was just now that they finally understood that they wouldn't be able to continue the exam, as they needed their third teammate to pass this part of the test.
"And now you want to engage a team not only fully rested, but one you don't even know the abilities. If that isn't the stupidest thing I've ever heard … now excuse us, but we have already wasted enough time as it is. Just be happy that I don't give a flying fuck about what happen to those konoha nins. After all, if they have been enrolled in this exam, then that means their sensei have deemed them capable enough."
With that naruto kept walking, ushering his teammates to do the same, even reluctantly. But they knew not to question him as he was the leader of the team and going by the way he handled this, he wasn't in the best of mood.
The konoha nins in the clearing widened their eyes at the fact that they would be left to their fate. They were about to yell at them for help when Zaku did the dumbest thing he could have done. Granted he wasn't very smart to begin with, but that was just the icing on the cake.
He used is only available hand to point it at the walking team 9 and yelled.
"Zankuha".
A deadly wave of fused air pressure and sound waves headed quickly toward the still walking team 9, with naruto behind Tenten and Lee. Strangely enough, none of them reacted as if they weren't alarmed by the attack closing on them.
'They just had to awaken the dragon, didn't they?' Tenten thought with an hint of pity. But for whom, that was the question.
When the wave was just behind naruto, he raised his right hand quickly in a ram seal. A red square of energy surrounded his middle and pointer finger before he muttered "Ketsu".
The effect was instantaneous as a bluish square barrier surrounded team 9, shielding them from the attack. A violent explosion shook the clearing, lifting dust around the area of impact.
"That will teach them not to underestimate us." Zaku said to Dosu who looked at the smoke intently.
"I wouldn't think like that if I were you, Zaku? Those guys won't die so easily if they are considered the strongest genin team of konoha." He answered while preparing himself for the worst.
When the smoke cleared, they were stunned to see an undamaged team 9 still with their back facing them. Everything in a square around them was strangely unaffected by the attack. And that made Dosu narrows his eyes.
'What happened?' he thought.
Zaku was about to once again yell in anger, when an oppressive aura fell upon them, stopping them dead in their track. It was then that they heard an ominous voice.
"Do you know the storytelling of the sleeping dragon?" the voice asked. Not letting them answer, not that they could with the amount of fear, primal fear they were experiencing at the moment.
"It speaks of a warrior who wanted to show others his might. He did everything he could to achieve his goal, not caring about his limits, daring anyone to face him. One day, he heard about a dragon living in a cave, not far from his home. So to prove his might, he gathered a few men to act as witnesses, as he went to defy the dragon. Upon facing said dragon, he found out that it was asleep. At first he used this to his advantage and tickled the dragon showing the others his fearlessness. Not satisfied with just that, he did the most idiotic thing he could have done."
The voice paused as if to mark a pause. Thanks to the aura in the clearing, most were listening with rapt attention and a little fright added to it. Naruto turned his head, looking at Zaku directly in the eyes.
"He woke up the dragon from his slumber."
Naruto moved his right hand again in the same seal as before. "Ketsu".
The same bluish square barrier formed. But this time around Zaku who looked shocked at this.
"And now I am sure you want to know what happened to that warrior!" Naruto inquired to a trembling Zaku who nodded slowly.
"The same thing that will happen to you." And with that he did a small gesture with his hand while muttering. "Metsu".
And much to the horror of those looking at the scene, the barrier imploded from the inside out, reducing everything in it to dust.
Dosu could only look in shock at what happened.
'I don't understand. What was that? No that is impossible, I must be dreaming.' He was so shocked that his mind was trying to comprehend the events that took place just a moment ago.
The others weren't fairing better, as it was the first time they saw such an attack, especially the easy with which Naruto disposed of his target. It was disconcerting to say the least.
Naruto looked at the last member of the Oto team, weighing the pros and cons of ending him. Finally, seeing his shocked look, he just moved his head to look at his teammates, and ushered them to keep moving.
In the clearing, the konoha teams, despite the shock, took advantage of the situation and knocked Dosu out, while helping the others. The sand team, having observed what they needed, moved toward the tower also.
"Interesting" was the word that came from Kabuto after witnessing for the first time the famed bloodline of the Namikaze. He too, moved from his position, to continue his mission.
A few days later
The second part of the exam just ended, and those who passed were gathered in a giant hall of the tower, where they were supposed to partake in a preliminary setting that would reduce their number significantly. The hokage having already explained to them the reason behind the chunin exam. Only 6 teams passed the forest of death. Those were:
Team 7 from konoha (Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Sai).
Team 8 from konoha (Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga).
Team 10 from konoha (Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka).
Team 9 from konoha (Tenten, Rock Lee, Naruto Namikaze).
The sand team (Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Kankuro, Sabaku no Temari).
Kabuto's team (Kabuto, Akado Yoroi and Misumi Tsurugi).
They were all ready to fight, although they didn't know the amount of information they were about to learn soon.
Author's Note:
Piouff, that was long. Anyway, I hope you like it, give me your opinion.
As a challenge, everyone that can tell me what Shikamaru means by "another one", will have a cookie. ok I know it is stupid, but hey, it isn't like I can give you something online.
Next chapter will have the preliminaries. Expect the unexpected, especially in the way the fight will happen. See you soon.
