GSAMNC
What Is Left To Do!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toriko.
Previously on Gourmet Shinobi: A Much Needed Change;
Hinata sure enjoyed her time, it was better than when she was in her clan compound and much more with her team when it included Kiba. Then she noticed that Naruto and Sakura got quiet and the former left his seat early to fetch something. "W-what is going on? I-is s-something w-wrong?" Hinata got back into the habit whenever she was nervous.
Sakura smiled and shook her head, "Nothing is but…" Sakura got dead serious once more, "We are going to help you get stronger by putting you into danger." Hinata was frightened by that answer and by that time, Naruto returned with a familiar box. After opening it, Hinata looked at vials with something inside she never seen before.
Hinata then heard a voice coming from one of the vials and she reached for it.
"So did you hear!?" Word was starting to get around the whole village and it all thanks to a single girl named Ino. She was a natural gossip but if only she will actually be a little considerate of other people's need for privacy; seriously, she will gossip about anything that reaches her ears even if it can ruin someone good image. "The dog boy tried to rape his own teammate!"
Gasps were heard about such terrifying news was shared; such a thing was unheard off in the village before and it was disgraceful. Some were even calling to have the boy executed for this horrible crime since they thought he had 'gotten away easy' by his clan.
Meanwhile, Naruto and Sakura were waiting on a bridge with Sasuke. It wasn't for a mission or training but to hear just how the Wave Mission Incident will affect their team. Yet that wasn't on the mind of the former two, it was their surprised earlier that day about when they took that risk with Hinata which created a wonder.
Flashback Begins!
Hinata was holding the vial with the Kanji for 'Coco' and then she injected it into her body. The pain was incredible and she nearly lost all strength in her legs; Naruto and Sakura were able to catch her before that happened. Then her eyes started to hurt so Hinata subconsciously hold them in an attempt to at least smooth the pain.
Hinata then felt like she could open her eyelids without pain and when she did, she saw the world in a different way. Instead of images, she saw shadows and some kind of energy surrounding them. Then on her surroundings, Hinata was able to see multiple rays of lights that were coming in various directions. She had never saw those even with her prized Byakugan and it was scaring her.
"Don't be frightened by what you can see now. It is was all there when you choose to accept this new power." Naruto said as he embraced Hinata who settled down in his arms and calmed down enough to see the wonder at seeing the true form of everything that was now seen as something very beautiful and pure.
Much later, it turned out that the man named Coco had the power of enhanced vision so he was able to see what regular humans cannot. With that gift, he was successful in fortune telling. Also, he was able to win at slot machines since to him the machines were moving very slowly.
Since there is no room for any of that in the field of a ninja, Hinata instead trained with Naruto and Sakura, where she had learned that her enhanced vision had allowed her to see even the unseen rays of energy that living beings give off even if they are known for their expert hiding skills. After all, they can lower their bodily heat and remove their scent but they cannot stop their heartbeat which is the only way to remove their presence in Hinata's eyes.
Flashback Ends!
"Hello teammm~!" Kakashi appeared on the rails of the bridge that Naruto happened to leaning on, the latter just pushed the former into the river with an emotionless expression on his face. "What was that for!?" Kakashi was not happy about that,
"For being late and making we wait for three hours yet again Sensei. So what did the Hokage yell into your ear?" Naruto said in a deadpan voice as Sakura and Sasuke then joined him as Kakashi was making something stupid up while drifting in the river.
"Anyhoo, I do have some news for you." Kakashi said before he made a substitution with the infamous log in order to get back on the bridge. "As of right now, team Seven can't disband since the Chunin Exams are coming soon."
"We can't sign up for those." Naruto said and before Kakashi or even Sasuke could protest, "You never even taught us anything since Tree Walking so we are pretty much the weakest team in everyone's eyes!"
"Naruto has a point." Sakura said to confused them as the Sakura everyone knew will never d such a thing, they still thought that this was a sigh that the pink haired girl was finally growing up from her usual habits.
"I can't believe you all don't trust in your own teammate!" Kakashi had an outburst while Naruto just shook his head,
"You mean that we don't reply on the Teme than yes we aren't." Naruto spoke in a tone that really crawled Sasuke's skin.
"Are you saying that I am weak!? I am an Uchiha! We are never weak! We are the ultimate clan!" Sasuke yelled with his traditional arrogance that made the rest of Team Seven shake their heads at the sight,
"We will be wasting our time training for the Chunin Exams so let's drop this whole conversation." Naruto said without even letting Sasuke protest and the former snatched some papers from Kakashi's pouch to hand them over to his teammates, "If we all sign these, then we are in."
Sasuke huffed and used a pen out of nowhere to sign the papers while Naruto and Sakura did the same as well. Then Kakashi retrieved the papers before leaving them to their own activities but not before telling them that the Exams start next week.
That left some last minute training for Naruto and Sakura to spend with Hinata. She will need the time for her new powers that even her own team wasn't aware of; speaking of which, Team Eight was under the same circumstances as Team Seven unfortunately. That is until it is safe to have teammates out of the Exams; thankfully, the Inuzuka Clan had guarantee them that Kiba could never try to rape Hinata again yet they refused to explain what they have did to punish him, something about being too personal or gruesome.
XXXXX
And so, a week had passed and soon it was time for the Chunin Exam to start. Right now, Team Seven were enjoying a break at Naruto's favorite ramen shop. Sasuke on the hand and despite the good food, was not happy that some of 'his high status is stuck in this run done shack'.
Then Naruto drifted his eyes to a peculiar scent that entered his nose which happened to be a box that was clearly painted to resemble a rock rather badly. Naruto just chuckled before, in a swift motion to everyone's eyes except Sakura's, launching the 'rock' into a wooden fence a few feet away, where it and some kids landed into a trashcan that happened to be there when they hit the fence.
"You need work Konohamaru. And who are these runts with you?" Naruto asked while everyone saw the Hokage's grandson come out of the trashcan with two more kids of his age.
"I knew that I have picked the right person to be my rival! Only he could see through my brilliant disguise!" Konohamaru yelled in excitement that didn't just agree with the rest of his gang,
"Um Kono-kun…everyone knew it was us." The girl said in a shy tone that Konohamaru ignored along with the nickname. Yet Naruto did not, which was unfortunate for the Hokage's grandson.
"The girl is right Honorable Grandson. Rocks are not perfect squares." Naruto said which successfully got Konohamaru to take back his word. He then introduced the girl by his side as Moegi and the boy as Udon. Then the rest of Team Seven decided to get involved in their own way.
"Is this the little boy that you play ninja with on your break Naruto?" Sakura asked but then Sasuke got a little rude and out of bounds.
"Ha! You are a ninja so you will stop playing games with little runts like them!" Naruto didn't budge but Konohamaru and his gang couldn't let this slide.
"Well you are no better since you are wearing a duck's butt for hair. Seriously, you need to cut down on the hair gel and dye so we can see that you are rally gray with fear!" Konohamaru yelled while Naruto and Sakura giggled at Sasuke's red face.
"You brats!" The Uchiha tried to grad the children, to silence them when they used their small size to evade Sasuke but he tried to chase after them. Naruto and Sakura just tagged along to see that they could get Sasuke in serious trouble for trying to harm the Hokage's Grandson.
Instead they saw that some else had gotten to them first. It was a girl with blonde hair like Naruto's, desert clothing and a giant fan on her back while her companion was a clown with a cat suit along a huge bundle on his back. "That hurt you little brat. I will teach you to respect your elders!" The clown said with Konohamaru in his hand but before anything else can happen, Naruto made his move.
"And I will teach you to let go of the Hokage's Grandson." Naruto said side by side of the desert clown who was sweating for some reason and he came from a desert for goodness sakes! The boy lower Konohamaru down and Naruto patted him on the head like he was a dog. "Good boy, now you won't have to be punished by your teammate in the tree." Naruto said as he pointed his thumb at a boy who also wore desert clothes, had read hair and carried an oversize gourd on his back.
'Just who is this to have an aura of intimation that makes even Mother on edge? I will have to kill him before he will denounce my existence all over again.' This boy thought darkly before addressing Naruto, "My name is Gaara of the Sands and I thank you for stopping my stupid brother and I will apologize for anything else he will do to bother you."
"Then you won't waste your time on your brother and sister when the ANBU could welcome you here for the Chunin Exams." Naruto said which made anyone local gasp and the guest chuckle especially the girl,
"You are as sharp as you are handsome that is for sure. My name is Temari of the Sand, and you are?" The girl flirted with Naruto who shocked her by not budging his original expression one bit,
"Its Naruto Uzumaki fellow blonde." Then Naruto ignored all that and pointed to his team, "She is Sakura Haruno and that Teme is Sasuke Uchiha, the fake 'Last Uchiha'." Temari couldn't help but giggle on how respectful Naruto was to women and also the jab at Sasuke who she personally agreed wasn't much compared to the 'hunk' in front of her eyes. "And I bet that you are angry at your brother in the cat suit for stealing your makeup to be a clown." That last comment made Temari laugh while the boy in question was not amused,
"My name is Kankuro and this is war paint!" He yelled but that only made everyone now laugh even Sasuke,
"For what war? There isn't one here in Konoha but between us Genin, you know that right?" Naruto said much to the confusion of everyone who just shrug it off as 'over-confidence'. "Still we will we be seeing you good lot again in the Exams with that beautiful flower as a reward for joining them." Naruto then said farewell in his own way that made Sakura giggle at how her friend wanted to make guest feel right at home while Sasuke just shook his head at his teammate's 'flirting'; Temari still blushed as she remembered that last statement over and over in her head.
One thing is for sure, these Exams are going to be interesting. Whatever good or bad, it will all be up to each person's point of view.
XXXXX
Team Seven approached the stadium where they saw that the door they were supposed to enter had been blocked by two older Ninjas. There was already a ninja team, begging to enter but they were always denied access. "Please! We need to enter in order to take the exams!" A girl with hair buns that made her resemble a mouse or a panda cried out but they just won't listen,
"No! This exams are dangerous and people get killed, we are saving you from the danger so get lost!" One of the guards yelled back and the girl tried harder and harder until Team Seven happened to pass, that was when Sasuke decided to already make a poor example,
"Hey! Will you let up the illusion already? I will like to get to the real third floor! We only climbed one set of stairs!" Sasuke said and his team had face palmed in disbelief. In retaliation, Naruto bashed him on the head.
"You idiot! You didn't need to say that!" Naruto yelled, "Now we have to deal with the twice the competition we actually need and it is all thanks your loose mouth! If you do become a Chunin, your team will get killed since you never kept secrets to yourself!" Sasuke was not liking this,
"Shut u Dobe! You are probably jealous since I was the only one who saw through it! You on the other hand was completely ignoring it!" Sasuke defended himself in the most pathetic way and Naruto just sighed,
"Come on Sakura, let's hope after the exams that Teme over here gets his own team while we will be paired off with some real Genin." Naruto said to his remaining teammate who just nodded and joined him as they went to the real third floor. Yet before they could do that, one of the guards, revealed to be one of the duo of ninjas that guar the village gate, had tried to attack Sasuke saying that Naruto was the one in the right and that the Uchiha had failed the pre-exam.
That was until a boy who wore the ugliest green spandex had ran between them and held back their attacks. The girl with the hair buns was not happy about that and voice wasn't enjoying it any more than that. "What happened to hiding our strength until the exams start Lee?" That more like a voice from a boy around the spandex boy now called Lee.
"So you are in the exams too huh?" Naruto said to be friendly, "I am Naruto Uzumaki and this Sakura Haruno." He pointed to himself and to his teammate who said hello as well. "How about your names?"
"Whatever. I am Neji Hyuga and this is my team." He was sure rude so his team decided to speak for itself,
"I am Rock Lee, the Second Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha!" Eccentric much right? Everyone else had agreed to that when they just stood where they were with a huge sweat drop on the back of their heads.
"My name is Tenten, I am going to be a weapon mistress as soon as I make Chunin." The girl introduced herself. Then she turned to the remaining member of Team Seven, 'Are you Sasuke Uchiha?" The said boy just huffed and said 'what of it?' But before Tenten can say anything else,
"Come on Sasuke, now that we have to expect so many Genin against us because of your tongue, let's get going or we will have to quit right now." Naruto as he and Sakura went on as before. Sasuke was fuming on how he was told off by the dobe and once team Seven had arrived in a huge stadium, they were stopped by yet another voice from the balcony.
"If you are Sasuke Uchiha, then I challenge you to a duel!" It was Lee from before and he seemed to be interested in wasting time for such a pointless fight but before Sasuke could even say 'no', "I want to see the Prodigy of the Uchiha Clan!" Now Sasuke could never walk away from this challenge.
"Come on Sasuke we don't have the time for this!" Naruto tried to drag the Uchiha was but instead, Sasuke harshly pushed him aside. That didn't hurt and it only made Naruto sigh as he and Sakura left their teammate to slow them down by fighting a hopeless battle against the swift and strong Lee.
"Hey you two! Where is Sasuke!?" Naruto and Sakura turned to see their teacher, angry to see only them. Naruto scowled as it was always Sasuke with Kakashi,
"He wouldn't listen to us telling him to forget about that duel that Lee challenged him to." Naruto said and then, "Speak of the devil." Here came Sasuke, just waddling around with bruises all over his body and broken eyes. "I can guess who won, eh Sasuke?"
"Shut up." The Uchiha said blandly as Kakashi feverishly searched over and trying to fix those bruises. It was true thought that Sasuke had lost since his Sharingan could make his body keep up with the movements of Lee; that did cost him his victory by a landslide.
"I can't believe you just left Sasuke to that, what kind of teammates are you!?" Kakashi yelled yet that didn't as much budge Naruto or Sakura.
"That is easy, we are the teammates that rely on Sasuke like you have been training us. Besides, why should Sasuke listen to us nobodies?" Naruto said as he started to drag Sasuke through the doorway along with Sakura from Kakashi who was no happy that his teammates were still jabbing at him ever since the wave incident.
Inside, "Sasuke-kun!" The said Uchiha was sent flying into the ground by a blond colored blur, not that Naruto and Sakura minded nor were concerned since they know who it is. "Oh how I have missed you~!" It was Ino Yamanaka, Sakura's 'rival' back in the academy. "It must had been awful, being so far away from me and having to be stuck with a bunch of bozos!"
"Hello to you too Ino." Naruto said anyways and Ino was shocked that neither he nor Sakura even tried to protest against her behavior with Sasuke. Yet there was a voice that had caught their attention,
"Naruto-kun! Sakura-chan!" Both of them were then hugged by a blue blur which turned out to be Hinata.
"Hey dobe!" A voice that wasn't Sasuke's had also emerged in the room while frightening Hinata. It was Kiba and he looked rather ugly with bruises and scrapes while looking furiously at Naruto for some reason, "It is all your fault! Now I lost my status as Alpha by my bitch of a mother, she even no one will ever look at me like they are supposed to!" Everyone just shook their heads at the maniacal voice of the mad boy.
"Comes to show that that following animal instincts is always worth it." Naruto just said and Kiba was about to try at him when he was grabbed by a hand from another Genin that caused him to growl and tremble around like a scared and feral animal.
"That is enough Kiba. Don't like your mother give you even more punishment than when she learned about how you tried to hurt Hinata-san." It was Shino, of the Aburame Clan that specializes in tracking and trapping with their communication between them and insects of all types.
"Shut up! She should have been mine from the start so we won't have to punish me for helping her clan!" Kiba yelled when Naruto had enough and silenced him by covering his mouth.
"You mean helping yourself dog breath." Naruto said in a low tone that scared the rest of the Genin, "You obviously hadn't learned your lesson when you picked on Hinata-chan and tried to have your way with her against her will. And you wonder why you can't get a date other than smelling like wet dog." Naruto spoke and everyone was getting a little antsy when they could have sworn to have seen an orange demon in the shape of a Kitsune.
"You really should cut that out before you attract any unwanted attention." A voice had also emerged but no one local had recognized it from the academy. When they turned, after the terrifying aura had been canceled out, everyone had feasted their eyes on a much older boy with the Konoha symbol on like the rest of the Genin local to the village.
"And who are you?" Ino asked before the boy started to blush in embarrassment,
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. Where are my manners?" Everyone was in disbelief that this was the boy who broke up an angry Genin and his prey. He then cleared his throat, "My name is Kabuto Yakushi and you can call me your senior since I have taken this exams before."
"Second time?" Sakura asked but Kabuto shook his head,
"Seventh time." Everyone gasped while some more arrogant had thought Kabuto was weak to fail six times already. Yet others like Naruto were suspicious but decided to paly sympathetic in order to break through the secrecy,
"Sorry to hear that, are the exams that hard?" Kabuto smiled and nodded, "So what can you tell about these Exams?"
"Well I can give you information on everyone who is in the year's Exams and…" Kabuto started as he took out a deck of cards that suddenly disappeared and into Naruto's hands. He sure didn't look that assumed,
"This is a very good amount of data, too much for some like you to get his hands." Naruto said before he tore them apart right in front of Kabuto's eyes.
"Why did you do that? Now no one can be prepared for what could kill them!" Kabuto yelled but Naruto didn't budge,
"If that is so then everyone in this room including you should just forget about this Exam and start training for next year." A lot of Genin started to protest, "Besides, we have our own secrets and if we just stand around while they are being fed to our enemies, then we aren't ninjas but dead meet just about to be eaten by wild animals." That got everyone's attention and then silence now was in the air until a cloud of smoke had 'puffed' into the room to reveal a very intimidating man wearing heavy clothing with ugly scars on his very face.
"Alright everyone! Shut up and listen!" The same man yelled, "Enter the room behind me and if you are late, then you and your team are immediately disqualified!" The Genin raced to do that while Naruto dragged Kiba along into a room with desks and chairs; after being told to sit down while being separate from team members, Naruto threw Kiba into a seat that was placed in one of the corner that was the furthest away from any female Genin. Somehow, the man chuckled and muttered something about a kid with guts. "Now that everyone is settled, welcome to the Chunin Exams! Where you can die better than you can survive to raise up the ranks!"
End of Chapter 4
*Hello everyone! I did say that I will be taking a break from Journey to Improve: Conquest of Unova or JICU for a while and this is what I was talking about. Once I publish at least one chapter to four of my older stories then I will be able to get back to work on JICU again. That will also help since my Spring Break is ending and I will be having a late semester class as soon as NOVA starts again.
If you wanted fight scenes in this chapter then you would have to wait until the next chapter, that is where the action is. Have a nice day and see you soon!*
