Disclaimer:
Cedric: Skillet28561 doesn't own Naruto or One Piece. If he did I would slaughter every character and sell all of their souls to my friends on the other side.
Kurama: Hey I was supposed to do the disclaimer this chapter, you bastard! I'm gonna kill you for taking my spot!
Cedric: Bring it on you glorified innkeeper!
Arc 1: Tests of Honor
Chapter 3: Old Faces and New Trials
WARNING: Before reading this chapter you might want to reread chapter 3. Due to lack of sleep due to reading to many creepypasta I forgot a subplot involving Root capturing Kakashi and impersonating him that was supposed to start last chapter, so I edited the chapter with that plot.
It had taken hours for Naruto to get any sleep his first night in his old apartment. The walls were crumbling and the plumbing was either boiling hot or freezing cold depending on the time of year. He had always told himself that it was better than living like an urchin before. But during his career as a bounty hunter he had slept outside on the streets and in the woods and had become accustomed living both ways.
And besides, many of the thugs who lived in the nearby apartments were actually very kindhearted people who saw him as the Kyuubi's jailer rather than the beast itself, especially compared to the regular civilians, or some of the thugs he'd encountered on his journey.
But while he laid in his bed he heard a noise coming from the room. Since the door hadn't been opened he knew it couldn't have been the landlady since she'd have used the door. He looked at the window and saw that it had been busted. Naruto knew exactly what this meant.
He grabbed his sword he slept by, in case of an event like this. Within an instant he was "pinned down" by a civilian man " You took my son away from me demon. It's time to pay for it".
Naruto had unsheathed his katana and slashed it into his chest causing him to fall to the ground. The blonde didn't waste anytime before picking up the bleeding man and opening the broken window. He whispered "I showed you mercy by letting you live. The next time you or any other dumbass tries a stunt like this, I will slit their throat." before dropping the man out into the darkness.
'They'll be back. They'll always be coming back. If any good is having to compete in these exams I'll get some time away from having to throw some idiot out a window. Honestly, this was the third time tonight alone.'
This was his final thought before drifting off into a deep dreamless sleep.
Morning had come to Konoha with a sunrise at about 7 am. Several genin teams that were finally old enough to enter the exams, had just decided to take them, or were repeat entries that had failed previous exams.
But there was one specific team that we're focusing on for now. Thankfully soon all we'll be focusing on for most of the story is one of them, because the other two are extremely annoying. This team was Team 7 consisting one the few surviving members of the Uchiha clan and village equivalent of our worlds Justin Bieber without the ear-bleedingly bad songs, Sasuke Uchiha, the top Kunoichi of her class and one of the weakest ninja in the history of the South Blue, Sakura Haruno, and master swordsman and former bounty hunter wanted for crimes against the World Government, Naruto Uzumaki.
They were meeting at the Meeting Bridge, they're old normal meeting spot. So far only Sasuke and Sakura had made it. While Sakura was happy to get away from Naruto and spend time with "her Sasuke-kun", while the aforementioned was inwardly begging for "the dobe" to get here.
Luckily for what little sanity the Uchiha heir possesed, Naruto arrived. "Naruto-baka you're late!" Sakura screeched.
"Don't yell at me dumbass. You're the one who didn't give me the time of the meeting. Let's just go get this over with." Sakura's face drew a blank as she couldn't come up with a proper arguement for and just followed with a glare.
After about ten minutes they had arrived at their destination, The Konoha Chunin Exam Facility. Each major village in the continent had one for when the exams came to them and the leaf was no different.
This one was a giant building standing at over 800 feet tall with a platinum shine to it. There were several shadows behind the skyscraper such as what appeared to be a forest with a much smaller tower in the middle. "Huh, Konoha's been busy the past 6 years I've been gone. Wait where the hell's the door?"
As Naruto had just stated there didn't appear to be a door to the large tower, instead at the front was a sign that read
The Entrance is 50 stories high up. In order to enter the exams you must climb or walk up to the entrance.
"You've gotta be kidding me! How the hell are we climb 50 stories without running out of chakra" Sakura yelled without thinking of possible other options such as her teammates had been doing since they read the sign.
The blonde had formulated a strategy and answered first "Simple. We don't use our chakra to get up there". Within minutes Naruto had unsheathed two of his swords and began climbing the tower.
"That's the dumbest plan ever dobe. We should obviously tree-walk one half and climb the other!" The Uchiha berated his rival, despite the fact that his method had gotten him a quarter up the path in 30 seconds.
Sakura, being the brainless fangirl she was instantly agreed with him "'You're right Sasuke-kun, you always have the best ideas. Naruto's such a baka!"
The two the began focusing chakra into their feet and walking up the massive wall before them. This took them about 15 tedious minutes as opposed to Naruto's 5, so when the two finally made it to the top Naruto was already their "Did you guys take a wrong way up the tower or something?"
"Oh shut up Naruto" Sakura panted with what little breath she had.
Once they were inside and had filled out every form to enter. The man who was glaring at Naruto as he filled out the papers told them to go to floor 70, the highest floor. When they arrived to the elevator there was no elevator at all. Instead there was a giant rock climing climbing wall.
"You've got to be kidding me! It's bad enough we had to use all our chakra climbing up to the entrance 50 stories high, and now we've gotta climb another 20 stories!" yelled the pink harpy.
Naruto merely gave a glare to the complaint and said "Suck it up dumbass, we'll just have to keep moving forward if we wanna get through this." before climbing up the wall at a breakneck speed.
"For once the dobe is right Sakura. He may suck at life, but at least he's good to work with unlike you". This insult from her crush sent Sakura into another depression while the Uchiha teenager preceded to climb up the wall.
Back then this would cause Naruto to ask Sakura out, to which she would violently reject. But now he could care less about what happened to her. This caused a rather insane thought to drift into the young girls head.
'That damn Naruto is just acting like this so i'll go out with him! Of course. Well it's not going to work. When I get up there with him and my Sasuke-kun I'm gonna punch him in the face and show him what a worthless loser he is!'
Sakura started climbing up the rock wall as fast as she could in order to complete this goal. Unfortunately for her this wasn't very fast. But she eventually made it up after about ten minutes where Naruto and Sasuke were already waiting, glaring at each other with a deep hatred. The moment she saw his whiskered face she clenched her fist and charged.
"NARUTO! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
This was anticipated though as Naruto stepped to the side causing Sakura to miss fantastically and slide down the hallway where she met with a different scene. Two guards about her age were blocking the door, causing a huge crowd to form around the scuffle between a slightly older genin team and the guards.
"We climbed 70 stories for this! Why won't you let us through?" said a bun haired girl wearing a white blouse and baggy red pants, with several scrolls attached to her waist. The ones blocking the door looked awfully familiar to most of the leaf shinobi in the crowd, but most just brushed it off.
"You wimps will never be strong enough for the exams. You should just go home and cry to your mommies." The examiner with the bandage said before he was slashed into by a gray blur and falling unconscious.
Everyone in the room looked at Naruto like he had several screws loose for doing what he had just did "What the hell Naruto! You just fricking killed that guy!" Sakura screeched at her teammate causing most of the crowd to wince from splitting headaches.
"I didn't kill him, I missed all of his vitals so all he needs is a trip to the hospital." This didn't help the other guard who was standing next to him.
"What the heck is wrong with you, you psycho!" Izumo screamed at him with great fear and shock on his face. Naruto remained stoic however and responded.
"Your calling me a psycho? Your the one who tried to use a stupid trick like a bad genjutsu. That sign says we're on the 70th floor, but I only counted 19 floors while I was climbing up here.
"While most in the crowd gave a look of realization, one odd looking male gave a look of excitement, like he had just been given a challenge. But a few like Sasuke, gave the swordsman an envious and angered look.
"Don't be ridiculous dobe, if there was really something that big, an Uchiha would have learned of it first, and not a worthless loser like you!" Sasuke claimed trying to put the glory from his teammate on to him.
Sakura followed suit with her crush "Yeah, stop trying to sound smart when your really just an idiotic loser. Sasuke would've been the one to notice it if it was really there!" Izumo however, just gave a defeated sigh and admitted "Sorry pinky, but your teammate is completely right." before releasing the genjutsu and the transformation revealing him to be one of the guards at the north gate.
"Nice job Naruto, your perceptiveness has improved greatly, you and everyone else here have almost passed the enterance exam. Just head to the elevator that's where you'll receive your final test before it truly begins."
Most including Sakura looked like they were going to complain but Izumo picked up Kotetsu and rushed to the infirmary before anyone could. So the teams just decided to head down to head down the hallway to the elevator. But one team from Iwa continued to follow Naruto with killing intent leaking out of their pores. This didn't go unnoticed.
"I know your there dumbasses."
The "team" turned around to see several weapons coming their way, all of which were blocked by katana "Why the hell are you here following us? Don't you have anything better to do, like go to the elevator?"
Their leader gave Naruto an arrogant smirk and rasped "Oh we are going to make it to the elevators so we can become chunin! But only after we teach you a lesson for making us look stupid in front of the examiners!". Naruto gave a glare to his enemies and went into an Onigiri position. But before he could complete the attack, a foreign voice rang out.
"Leaf Hurricane"
Within seconds all 3 of the Iwa genin were unconscious on the floor and an odd looking boy with bushy eybrows, a soup bowl haircut and green spandex in the middle of it.
"So fast. Does this guy have devil fruit power or something?"
"He looks like such a weirdo. Sasuke-kun could take him on anyday!"
"Where did he get such power. It should belong to me!"
"I am Rock Lee. You are Sakura, I presume?" He asked her causing her to look a little confused. "Please be my girlfriend. I vow that I will protect you with my life!".
She immediately reviled and screamed " No way. Your a weirdo!".
Upon hearing this Lee fell down and sulked in typical anime fashion for about 10 seconds until he got up an said "It's fine. That's not the only reason i came here. Roronoa Naruto, you were your classes dead last but if you a 50,000,000 beri bounty on your head than your far from a dead last. I was the dead last of the class before you, and I want to see if my fists can beat your swords. I challenge you to a duel!"
"Sorry Bushy-Brows but we should probably save our strength for the upcoming exams. But I will fight you when the exams are over. That's a promise." Naruto declined his request.
Though he looked slightly disappointed, he almost instantly shook it off and cheered " Ok then. If we cannot fight here, then I shall make you my eternal rival!"
"Ummm...What the hell are you talking about?"
"Yes! I have finally have a true eternal rival! I can't wait to tell Gai-Sensei! He yelled excitedly before another shinobi about his age showed up. Something was very familiar about this guy which Naruto pinned instantly.
He was a a member of the Hyuuga clan judging by the clear lavender eyes, who had long dark brown hair which was tied in a loose ponytail, with a one button white shirt as well as white pants and a dark gray apron. The bun haired girl from earlier was also there.
"Lee, stop chatting with the competition, we need to get going in order to make it before the first exam begins, otherwise they won't let us in!"
"Hai, Neji" Lee gave a nice guy stance and ran off to follow his team towards their elevator, and team 7 followed. Inside the elevator, where the buttons should be there was absolutely nothing. In the center of the room there was a large metal wire, and in the back there was a sign that said
'Tug the wire to pull the elevator up to the final floor"
Sakura didn't take this very well to say the least " We've gotta do more work to get to the exams! Are you kidding me?"
"The guard said there would be one more test before we can officially enter the exam dumbass. Now move out of the way so we can get this shit over with." Naruto countered her whining.
"Please dobe, like somebody as weak you would be able to even lift the elevator, much less pull it up a story." Sasuke once again insulted his teammate, not knowing that a few seconds later he would send up the elevator up with one pull before it slowed down with a lock and the ding of an elevator.
Naruto just gave the heir a boasting glare before heading off into the room. Little did he know something much bigger than the exams was happening with his return.
Two figures were standing in a dome shaped room. One had bandages covering most of his body, with pale brown hair and a wrinkled face and was standing before a giant bloody post. The one that was tied to post didn't seem to be in very good shape, as he had been beaten and tortured by the jutsu of the man in front of him. He had silver hair and two different looking eyes, one that was a sharingan. The lower half of his face was covered by a mask for reasons that nobody really knew except for himself.
"This is the power of the great and mighty Kakashi of the Sharingan. So pathetic, if you truly lived up to your title you would have broken out of here when we put you in here 6 years ago"
Despite the numerous insults from the members of Root over the years he'd been a political prisoner, Kakashi had been silent. Likely out of shame for his past actions. Obitō. Rin. Minato. Naruto. Every time he would lose someone he had to protect, because of his own stupidity. He tried to go looking for him when he had his epiphany. Sadly for him, this took Sarutobi demoting him to Tobetsku Jonin and getting the cold shoulder from most of the other Jonin, even Gai. But Danzō started sending Root after him during his mission, but he managed to kill all but one. The one that looked exactly like Obitō. He was released from his thoughts from another punch to the chest.
"Pay attention to me when I'm talking to you, demon-loving piece of shit! To think I wouldn't have had to send Fū to impersonate you, if you had just followed your goals as Uchiha-sama's teacher instead of trying to look for that demon trash"
Just then static could be heard behind Danzō on the two monitors behind them. Two figures were displayed on the screens before them. One appeared two be a very snake like man with long black hair, while the other was an odd looking man with swirl shaped wrinkles on his face and a hole on the left side.
"Excuse me Kakashi, but I have to take this" Danzō said while walking up to the monitor "Hello men, I assume your missions are going well?".
The wrinkled one answered first "Yes Danzō, I've made it inside the organization to learn more about this man with the rinnegan and how we can retrieve it from him and the sharingan from Itachi."
"I have ssssuccessssssfully procured the package, and I plan to deliver it to Ssssasssuke-kun during the sssssecond exam while under dissssguissse" the snake like man reported to Danzō "Now what of your progressssss Danzō?"
"I have used the image of Kakashi Hatake to trick the demon fox back into the village so he can make Uchiha-sama chunin before we turn him back into the demon,and use him as our weapon to destroy all those who'd challenge us!" Danzō responded to his snakelike partner.
But with a smirk he explained one of his side plans "But just to make sure he knows who's boss, I'll have to set an example for what will happen if he tries to go against us. Sai!"
"Yes, Danzō-sama?" Sai had instantly appeared
"I need you to take a job for me. Here's what you have to do" Though the corrupt politician was whispering in his servants ear, it was still loud enough for Kakashi to hear. His eyes widened at hearing what Danzō had planned for his target.
"Danzō you can't! He isn't just important to Naruto, but he's important to the rest of the village as well. Think of how many people would be affected!" Kakashi pleaded with his captor, though it became obvious that it fell on deaf ears when a knife went into a vein in his arm. A few seconds after it did, Kakashi felt himself get drowsy.
With a grin Danzō gloated "I know you were thinking of breaking out to save him. But that knife is laced with an incredibly powerful sedative that lasts for 14 days. By the time you've woken up, that man will already be dead."
Kakashi felt an unbelievable amount of rage coursing through his veins. Though there wasn't much he could do about it since he was almost under. Before slipping into the unconsciousness the Jonin yelled out one last thing "Damn you bastard. May the kyuubi demon bury you in the dessert, you piece of trash!"
(A/N): You know, I could just end it off here, but I already tried that last time and I'm not going through the yaoi punishment again...uggh
The room in front of them was filled with several other shinobi from Konoha and foreign nations. Most of them appeared to be several timers who didn't look like they wanted any rookies threatening their position.
"Man this is a freakshow! Good thing I have Sasuke-kun to protect me. Maybe if I'm lucky one of them will kill Naruto! Cha, They'll snap his frickin' neck! "
"Perfect, from the looks of things these losers should be a challenge to help me get stronger."
"Holy shit, these guys are really scary...I think I'm gonna like this place!"
While he was thinking, Naruto saw someone looking at him funny. He was a black shirt with several red clouds painted on with black jeans. He had ten swords hitched to his waist, and a large bright green hat in the shape of a squid with an Ame headband on the center.
"A swordsman. I hope that I'll get to fight this guy." the Santoryu user's thoughts were once again by another female voice. Unfortunately for him it was a fangirl voice.
"Sasuke-kun! It's been so long! I'm so happy that you passed all the pre-exams." Ino squealed while she wrapped around Sasuke from behind him. This, as you would think, didn't sit over very well the other head of Sasuke's fanclub.
"Get your filthy ass off of him you pig! He's mine, and don't you forget it bitch!" Sakura screeched at her rival, briefly deafening nearby dogs.
They began arguing while Sasuke just scoffed and walked away (which they didn't really notice) and Naruto to cover his ears, to no avail. Luckily for him two more rookies showed up "Would you two stop being so troublesome, you're both drawing unnecessary attention to us."
Naruto immediately recognized the two of them. They were two of his fellow dead lasts in the academy. They had a small friendship back in the day, supported by the fact that their parents didn't mind Naruto's burden. Chouji's hair was now at a much longer length, which had grown out over the years spent away, and he wore a large red shirt that was plated with silver armor with the symbol for food, and as normal was eating a bag of potato chips. Shikamaru wore his father's old sack coat, which had long since outgrown him and the same ninja pants as before. Apart from that not much had changed aside from his height.
Naruto realized his hood was still up from the confrontation with the Iwa ninja, so they probably didn't recognize him. But Shikamaru noticed the stranger and began asking questions.
"Hey Robin Hood, who are you and why are you with those two losers? In fact your headband isn't from any village I've seen!" Naruto gave a grin to his old classmate but didn't say a thing. He figured as long as no one recognized him he might as well have a little fun with it.
This only lasted a few seconds, when the voice of the final dead last rang out "Well well, looks like the gang's all here. Except the hooded guy seems new. What did you finally decide to replace that loser Naruto!"
As soon as he heard the indirect insult he clicked on of his swords from its sheath, but another more female was heard causing him to tense up "Kiba-san, Iii-I don't think you're being vvery fair. Naruto-kun did manage to beat Mizuki by himself." Hinata stuttered, though it was a lot less than 6 years ago.
Naruto had mixed feelings about this 'Damn it. I'm happy to see her again, but she's the only person that here that i can't fight. And it's likely it's a similar case for her either. So this could be a problem if we end up having to fight. If I reveal my identity, she won't be able to fight me out of hesitation. So it's best I keep myself under wraps for now. As long as those two dumbasses don't call me by my name, I'll be in the clear."
"Sorry Hinata, but that's just crazy! That guy's so dumb, it was probably just pure accident that he managed to take him down." Kiba threw another indirect a insult at the swordsman, pissing him of even more. This didn't go unnoticed by the dog lover.
"What's the matter batman, you gotta take a shit or something"
After the more direct insult a man in a green hood, which didn't cover up as much as Naruto, still made him unrecognizable and thick black googles "Are you really so dense Kiba. The man you've been insulting is right in front of you."
The reactions from the members of the class who didn't know we're mixed. Chouji began choking on the potato chip he was eating, Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose and whispered "how troublesome" under his breath, while Ino stumbled to the ground with eyes wide open 'Holy shit! That's Naruto! He's as hot as Sasuke now!'
Hinata instantly began crying small tears of joy, while Kiba retained his arrogant smirk "Heh so the dobe has returned. Why'd you take so long, you get lost on the way here loser?". He laughed mockingly for a few seconds, but a death glare from Hinata quickly shut him up.
'Sheesh, when the hell did Hinata get so scary!?'
Akamaru just whined at his masters bluntness. He liked many things about Kiba, but that was not one of them. Luckily he was big enough to punish him by tackling him, which he preceded to do "Damn it Akamaru, I get it keep my mouth shut outside of battle. Just get off your crushing my lungs!".
While this was going on another person with an amused smile walked up. He wore a high collared lavender vest and gloves, and a white undershirt. He had thick circular glasses and long silver hair which he kept tied in a ponytail. Naruto wasn't as amused with his reveal.
"What the hell is your problem revealing me like that, you bastard?! Who the hell even are you anyway?" he said while taking off his hood, seeing as their was point in keeping it on at this point.
The man was slightly offended by this but remained stoic "Why Naruto don't you recognize me?"
"How can I? You're dressed almost exactly like my disguise."
"It's me, Shino." he droned while curled up against the wall, rubbing his finger on the ground, sulking.
Naruto thought for a moment while stroking his chin before realizing "Hmm. Now that makes quite a bit of sense." With the image of child Shino in his mind.
"So you're the rookies for this years exams eh? My name is Kabuto Yakushi, Konoha shinobi and seven time veteran of the chunin exam" the man from earlier approached.
Kiba heard the number of attempts its taken him so far and laughed out loud "This is your seventh time man you must suck at this. HAHAHAHAHAHA!". Akamaru looked like he was about to pounce on him, but Kabuto waved his hand, and behind Kiba a large slash appeared on the wall,and blood trickled from the new cut on his ear.
'How did he even do that. There was no hand signs for that attack.' Kiba thought to himself. Some of the smarter ones like Naruto or Shikamaru knew exactly where he got this power
Kabuto easily figured out what all of them were thinking "In case your wondering, yes I've eaten a devil fruit. The Sickle-Sickle fruit to be exact.". Ino, one of those there who had no clue what a devil fruit was asked.
"A devil fruit. What do you mean by that, and how would a fruit give you the ability to do that?" Her spiky haired teammate just looked up at the ceiling "You really don't know Ino? How troublesome, a devil fruit is a fruit from the grand line. Where in the grand line is unknown. Legend has it, they were cursed by the demon of the sea, and if you eat one, you recieve an inhuman ability but the sea will hate you and you'll lose your ability to swim. Not worth it in my opinion, way too troublesome."
The strange man put his hand behind his head and shyly said "Yep that's the gist of it". Just then he noticed a group of Ame ninja staring at them with a great amount of killing intent, one of whom was the one who seemed to have been watching Naruto earlier "Those are rain ninja. They've got pretty nasty tempers, but than again these exams make everyone pretty teacher. But their probably not very happy with us since there are so many leaf ninja, that it dwarfs most of the others here."
His knowledge made Naruto suspicious so he asked "Wait, how are you getting all of this information. You know more than anyone here does or should. So explain."
"Hm, I see. You're as smart as you're bounty is large Roronoa. I've gathered information on everyone who's made it to this point, and the numbers of who's participating from each village. Including all of you." Kabuto answered quickly, not willing to anger the short tempered swordsman.
Though it managed to appease Naruto for the time being, someone else rose towards Kabuto in the crowd "I need you to show me three people from your cards."
"Anyone in particular, Sasuke-kun?"
While Sasuke was slightly put off by the suffix, he continued "Show me Gaara no Sabaku, Rock Lee, and Roronoa Naruto." He silver haired veteran immediately complied and focused chakra into the slips of paper.
"Rock Lee, about 1 year older than any of you. He's done twenty D-class missions and eleven C-class missions. His sensei is Maito Gai, and he has a large amount of skill in the art of taijutsu, but has no talent in the other categories. He was pretty well known last year, but ended up deciding not to participate. His teammates are Tenten Virgo and Neji Hyuuga." When she heard the last name, Hinata gave a worried glance at his picture.
'Neji Hyuuga. Considering the fact that their in the same clan, it could be hard for her to fight him. That is if they have to.'
Gaara no Sabaku, he's done 8 C-class and wow, a B-class as a genin. There's not much more info on him really. He's a rookie from Suna so its natural, but I do have this, in every mission he's been on, he hasn't had a single injury."
This shocked even Shikamaru "You're kidding me! He's done a B-class as a genin without getting a scratch on him? This guy has to to have eaten some sort of devil fruit."
"Well I guess we'll find out. Roronoa Naruto, counting his time as a bounty hunter he's done 7 D-Class, 2 C-Class, 18 B-Class, and 1 S-Class. His basic skills are unknown, but he's pretty good with kenjutsu. His leader is Kakashi Hatake, and you should already know who are his teammates are. Care to clarify anything Roronoa?"
"Nothing I have to say to you. Next time ask someone's permission before you reveal their information. You're lucky we're not allowed to draw our weapons while waiting, otherwise that card would be ribbons" Naruto gave a death glare to Kabuto.
"Ok,ok, just following a request, no need to get so defensive. Now let's see, 87 participants from Konoha, 30 from Suna, 21 from Ame, 6 each from Kusa and Taki, and 3 from Oto. The reason the sound has so little is cause it's rather tiny, and enigma that sprung up a couple months ago. All of these guys are powerful, and some are willing to do anything to win so I'd watch your step, and don't get too cocky." His words caught the attention of the aforementioned sound ninja, but before the could respond.
"Please you four-eyed idiot, all these losers are just worms compared to me and my Sasuke-kun! He could and will beat everyone here!" Sakura bragged before pissing herself from the massive killing intent coming towards her and all the other rookies.
"DUMBASS!DUMBASS!DUMBASS!DUMBASS!DUMBASS! DUMBASS! NOW EVERYONE HERE HATES US!" Naruto snapped at his bubble brained teammate.
Sakura stood firm however, with an arrogant smirk on her face and replied "It's true dobe, it's not my fault people like you can't handle the truth about how weak they are. They'll just have to get over it."
She would regret her words when a horrible ringing pierced her ears. She tried to cover them but it didn't work, and the ringing continued as she dropped to her knees. A genin with a sound hitai-ate, bandages covering almost all of his face, and a large furry cape approached her.
"Sorry, little howler monkey. But that's what you get for insulting all our villages." the bandaged man said
"Screw you bastard! You're so dumb that you can't realize that you don't stand a chance against my Sasuke-kun, cause he's the greatest ninja ever. You and your sucky village can go to hell. Sasuke-kun will make you pay for doing this to me!" She said despite the fact that Sasuke just stood back, watching the spectacle with a frown on his face.
Kabut came closer and tried to appease him, but he was also brought to his knees by an incredibly powerful blast of wind and over thirty senbon needles to the back "So these are the all powerful shinobi of Konoha. Give me a break, their all completely pathetic! Right Dosun?"
"Indeed Zaku. If this is what we have to deal with for most of the exams, then this will be a piece of cake." Dosun answered his teammates sarcastic question, before haging to use his pipe arm to block an attack from a sheathed sword. Though it was covered the blow was incredibly powerful and likely would have broken a few bones.
Both men looked each other in the eye with death glares that could cut through stone in a battle for supremacy 'Amazing, this guy is just as strong as me, if not stronger.' Before it could escalate any further, a blast of smoke came from the front of the room. When the smoke cleared, the man standing there was Ibiki Morino, the top torturer for the Konoha interrogation division.
"Alright you sorry shit-eating maggots. Stop you fighting, disobey me and I won't hesitate to throw you out the 70 story window. Now quit your bellyaching and take your seats judging by your form numbers. The first exam is about to begin!" Ibiki yelled at the brawling genin.
Dosun was smart, and merely gave him a friendly smile "Sorry proctor. We're just a little antsy because its our first time." And walked off to a side proctor to turn in his form.
After about 5 minutes, everyone was seated "Great now that you're all seated your all in your seats we begin the written test." One could here a loud clanking sound in the test room. That would Naruto's forehead hitting the desk.
'Damn it, I suck a tests. What's next a maze!'
"Umm Naruto?" He looked in the direction of the voice to see Hinata "You don't need to worry. I know you can do this.". Naruto cracked a small smile at her kind words, and thanked her causing her turn red. She didn't faint this time around though as she'd learned to control that after he had vanished.
"Before we begin the exam, we're going to go over a few rules. Listen carefully because I'm not saying this again! Rule # 1: The written part will stand on a point reduction scale. In this test you start off with a perfect score of 100% and for every question you miss, your score drops 10%. Rule # 2: Teams will be graded together, not as individuals." This next law caused a large uproar amongst the teams.
"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"
"Rule # 3: The chunin placed around the room will be watching you carefully to watch for any signs of cheating. Any time they catch you, 20% will be deducted from your final score. If you're caught five times then you've hit 0%, and your team will be dismissed. Rule # 4: If one person gets a zero and fails, then the entire team fails the exams. The final question won't be released untill 15 minutes before the test ends. You have a total of one hour. Now get busy! The chunin exams are now officially on!"
The moment Ibiki announced the beginning of the exam, the sounds of pencil hitting paper was audible throughout the room. Naruto was currently looking through the paper for any questions he could answer. Most of these were way to complicated for even a ninja who's been in the village for a while 'Damn nine questions down, and most of these aren't even in the same language I know! Seeing as I can't answer any of these I have 2 choices. Either give up an wait for the tenth question, or cheat and not get caught. As ninja we're supposed to steal information, so this should be a piece of cake. I just need to come up with a plan'
Many others besides Naruto had already figured out the secret behind obtaining the answers. Most used their kekkei genkai to cheat such as Neji's byukagan, or Shino's bugs. Some used weapons or tools, like Tenten using mirrors. While some used surveillance justu like Gaara's third eye technique.
It wasn't until Kankuro asked to use the restroom when an idea sparked in his head 'Yes, I've got it! As long as I keep my cool and be patient this plan will go amazingly. I just need to wait until mummy boy gets back from the can.'
Sure enough the puppeteer did after some small banter with Ibiki, and that was the signal for his strategy to go into into action "Proctor, I need to go use the restroom." With a groan of frustration of having to do this again and sent him to one of the restrooms in the hallway.
"Alright kid, take care of your buisness so we can head back and finish the exams." The guard who was assigned to watch him said before he got knocked out by a fist to his chest. The first stage of his plan was completed. Now on to the second part.
The time limit till the tenth question had just ran out. When he got back from the restroom with the man guarding him in tow, there seemed to be a routine with him answering the questions.
First he turned his attention to the the guard without turning his head, closed his eyes for a moment while the guard wrote some notes down onto his pad. After he was done the guard closed his eyes for a few seconds, and Naruto and the chunin's eyes snapped open at the same time. Naruto then furiously began writing the answer, with the process repeating till all 9 questions were filled.
'So this is the power of the legenday Cinderface. I don't know what this guy's method is, but it apparently works fairly well. This guy and the one with bags under his eyes ' Ibiki thought to himself while observing him, and hitting the board.
"Alright you bunch of babies, one hour has passed, and it's time the final question. Out of the 51 genin teams of the 153 participants from the beginning, 6 teams of the 18 participants caught cheating in the first exam. So 45 teams of 135 of you are remaining. Now for the tenth question. This question has special rules that the other nine don't have since this is the hardest one. If you don't feel you're ready to take this question, then you have the option to decline, but if you do you'll be disqualified from the exam. And if you take the question but fail to answer it correctly, not only will you get 0%, you will never be able to take the exams again!"
After the scarred Jonin dropped that bomb, Kiba rose from his seat and yelled out his complaint "What the hell are you talking about? We both know that's bullshit! A lot of people here are veterans who've taken the the exam before."
"Well they must have not had me before, so you're just unlucky. But if you feel the need to do so, by all means, give up and come back next year." Ibiki answered with a taunt.
The room was now filled with and atmosphere of dread and anxiety before the man next to Naruto raised his hand and quit, afterwards apologizing to his team. This caused several other genin to leave before only a few remained.
For each team that left, Naruto kept puzzling. Their was a hidden meaning behind most of the test, so that most likely meant there was one behind this question two. And some of the smarter shinobi there like Gaara or Shikamaru were thinking the same thing. Until they realized that whenever a team quit, Ibiki had a slightly disappointed look on his face.
"Hey Scarface, just so you know if you think you're gonna scare me with that, then your sorely mistaken. I've been through more frightening things on my birthday."
After Naruto's words most got the will to answer the question, and set their hands down onto the desk "I see, so that's everyone who's giving up. Well congratulations, you've correctly answered the final question, and have passed the first stage of the chunin exams!"
"Wait a minute, what do you mean we passed? I thought there was supposed to be a tenth question?" Sakura asked, or rather screamed at the proctor.
Ibiki smiled at the girl's stupidity and explained "There was no final question! It was just a test to see how you acted under pressure, and taking risks. When your a shinobi you have to be prepared to endure any type of physical and mental torture to keep in confidential information". The professional interrogator said while taking off his hitai-te revealing several holes, scars, and burns in the examiner's head.
"Taking risks is one of the main parts of a ninja's lifestyle. Most of you took a large risk by cheating, but for those of you who made it this far I was the only one who caught you. You would be very useful in the wartimes, when stealing information is vi-"
Right in the middle of Ibiki's monologue a large black banner with characters that read
'The strongest, deadliest, and hottest kunoichi in the leaf'
popped up out of nowhere, with a violet haired woman in a tan overcoat appeared in a pose "Alright kiddies, it's time for your second exam. I'm Anko Mitarashi, your proctor." She told them with a smile before noticing the deadpan look on Ibiki's face.
'So this is the woman Iruka-sensei married. Not bad Iruka, not bad' Naruto thoughts once he saw her.
"I'm early again, aren't I Ibiki?" She asked embarresed.
"Yep. But that's not important right now. As you've seen, there's are a pre-exam before each real exam. Now it's time for you second pre exam, the one that tests if you really know when to take a risk." He knocked on the wall causing it collapse, revealing a 70 story drop. "If you really want to be a chunin, then you'll jump!" Anko made the example and fell after Ibiki finished speaking.
Kiba approached the edge and looked down "No way I can't see the way down. There's a chakra mirror about halfway. We could be jumping straight to our deaths!" Naruto wasn't deterred by this and jumped.
" Did he just... You think you stronger than me just cause you can jump off a stupid building! I can do that to you big jerk." Kiba yelled to his rival before jumping off himself.
Most of the Konoha 12 followed suit along at least half of the other contestants. Except for Sakura and Sasuke "No way I'm jumping of that ledge. Anybody who decided to is just A stupid idiot who doesn't even deserve to walk in my shadow."
"Sakura shut up. The only way I'll make chunin is by jumping, so it should only make that I jump." Sasuke insulted her before doing what he said they would.
"Of course my Sasuke-kun, you're obviously the smartest one here" the fa girl swooned before following the object of her stalking.
Once everyone was out of the room the one watching Naruto approached Ibiki "They really are a promising bunch of kids aren't they. I'm sorry sir, but it's time for me to go". He then disappeared into smoke leaving only his notepad behind which Ibiki promptly picked up.
"Huh, so he had a clone pose a chunin and put a genjutsu on the paper which made it appear he was writing notes, when he was really writing answers. It's a shame such a great ninja ended up being the village pariah. Good luck, Roronoa Naruto.
At the bottom of the drop, after passing through the mirror they fell into a giant pillow like substance. Afterwards Anko herded the group over to a large clearing before what appeared to be a giant forest surrounded by a gate.
"Alright kiddos I hate exposition so I'll make this quick. This is the forest of death , the area where your second exam will take place. Before the exam after you sign the waivers, you'll receive a numbered scroll and a picture of another participant . This participant will also have your picture. You'll to find this ninja, while surviving the elements of the forest, and fight them for his scroll, and defend your own. After you've won then head to the tower in the center and meet with your team. This will also apply if you survive your battle but lose your scroll. All of your team must have survived to pass, and at least two of you must have a scroll."
"Ok that makes sense. But are we allowed to quit the exam while inside the forest?" Shikamaru asked.
"Not really. In the middle of battle you can't just stop an say "Sorry,I quit". Well I guess you can, but it'd get your ass killed. Now go get your numbers, I'm sick of looking at you people!
Naruto got into line and received his number and the picture of his opponent. It was the squid hatted guy from earlier. And from behind him the man appeared "So Cinderface, you think your the strongest swordsman in the South Blue. Well I'm here to-Oh look a bird. It's so beautiful, flying off with such colorful feathers. It would be wonderful to be a bird. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Umm weren't you talking about defeating me or something?" Naruto questioned with a confused look on his face.
The awed genin realized and angrily yelled "Why you bastard, distracting me like that. Take a good look at me Roronoa. Cause I'm Ikō, the man who will defeat you!" Before walking off in a childlike huff.
"These exams are filled to the brim with dumbasses and psychos isn't it?" Naruto declared to himself before seeing Hinata walking towards him with a jar in her hand.
"Umm Nnnaruto-kun, since your very likely going to be injured during the exam, you can have my healing oil. I know some medic jutsu, so I don't really need it." Naruto smiled at his friend and took the jar and pocketed it. He knew that the fox would normally heal him but during his training he told him to only heal him when his life was at stake so his endurance would raise.
He looked at the blushing Hyuuga and told her "Hinata, you, Shino, and Kiba better make it through this exam. I want to see you fight in the finals. Please, show me you've gotten stronger Hinata-chan." Naruto then ran off towards his gate.
It took Hinata all of her strength not to faint again at the newly added suffix, and she gave the object of her love a small nod, as he ran off into the distance.
Within minutes Naruto had arrived at his gate and watched the timer click down. He still hated most of this village's guts, but the people he cared about were actually making him happy, and making him happy.
The gates opened in front of him, with a buzz signifying the start of the second exam. The swordsman dashed into the fray, thinking the worst of his stay in Konoha was far over. He was wrong.
Starting Number of Participants:153
Number of Participants Eliminated: 75
Passing Number:78
(A/N) Holy crap, I thought 5,000 words was a pain. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Mostly cause a lot of my favorite characters were introduced like Anko, Hinata, Lee, Chouji, and my all time favorite Naruto character... Shikamaru! I think the lazy cloudwatcher is almost as badass, if not as badass as Zoro. If Shikamaru was placed as a main character instead of Sakura the anime would be that much more enjoyable. Actually replacing Sakura with any character would make the anime better. On a side note, you want to know who Sai's going after? WELL I'M NOT TELLING YA'! Although that doesn't mean you can't guess! And the new poll will let you do just that. But in the meantime I have some important news. In about 2 weeks I'll be entering my sophomore year of high school, so that means I'll have a lot less time for writing so updates will come out a little later than normal. But the important news that in September my other story Voodoo's Disciple will be coming off of hiatus. So after this chapter I'll be rotating between stories until Voodoo's Disciple is finished. Unfortunately since I've been giving this story much more attention the 10th chapter of Voodoo's Disciple will come out before the fifth chapter of Ninja of Santoryu. I hope this change doesn't affect the reading experience. But enough about my life! It's time for...
Skillet's Fanfic Recs:
This chapter's rec will be...
True Ninja:
This might be the best fanfiction out there that portrays Naruto at his darkest, where he isn't evil. After the forbidden scroll incident ends up a little differently. And when I say differently I mean Iruka dies. Naruto sees the risk of being a shinobi before he even is one. And after going through Danzō's training (he's good in this fanfiction.) he becomes pretty cold hearted with only a few people like Ino (NaruIno) being able to get through to him. The bashing in this some of the most brutal I've seen. Especially towards Sakura. Sasuke MIGHT get redeemed but I'm not sure, and Kakashi was never bashed. So if you hate Sakura as much as I do, then this is the story for you.
Skillet signing off. And for those of you still in school like me. Stay strong. We can make it to October...
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