Rise of the Immortal
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
hannibal221- Maybe.
Servent Satsujinki- Hmm, not sure. Didn't know about Izanagi when I made this.
X- Death-x- Yes Tobi and Madara are the same person.
Black Hearted Ninja- Nice choices.
Still Not Dead Yet- I thought I only had him use "Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, Uchiha Madera's heir" once so far and that was for his and Benatami's first official introduction. And no, he doesn't want to advertise them- not against showing them if the situation calls for it though.
Sori-Akuma no Musei- 1. I was improvising. 2. I actually assumed he did make that jutsu during or even before joining the Akatsuki, or at least was developing it. And even if he didn't I'd imagine Madara kept tabs on Oro. 3. As far as I know, the facts behind the exactness of Madara's 'immortality' are still up to debate.
As for Naruto- having another lifetime of memories can do that to a kid. Thanks for the support.
infinite-yami- Madara giving Naruto his Sharingan was dracohalo117's idea/challenge, I just added on to it. As for the perverted part- I couldn't resist doing that.
fullhouses- Yes.
Maelstorm of the Tricky Wind- Girl. Thought the 'She' and 'Her' would have made that clear.
juubi22- Eh, tomato, tomahto. Besides, the Bijuu have always been referred to as demons.
avatoa- This was made BEFORE that was revealed, making it AU.
MrNeedsToRemoveAllFavs- Possible.
Sky EXE- Little too early for that.
8asker- Hmmm, I'll think about it.
Rixxell Stryfe- I had been saving that wedgie bit for a while now. And yes, Naruto and Beni are going to be partners in a sense. While seeing Sasuke gets his ass kicked by Naruto in the Prelims would be sweet, Naruto wouldn't use his Sharingan unless he has to.
Everyone else- Thank you for all your kind words and support.
Regular speak
Thoughts
Demonic or Animalistic speak
Demonic or Animalistic Thoughts
non-demonic Higher Beings will change depending on mood
AN: I'm sorry for the massive delay, but my mind has been more on my TT stories when I'm not sick, busy, or unable to get online. Not to mention this being my senior year and trying to get my after school plan together.
Naruto listened to the Hokage's speech about the true purpose of the exam, as a replacement for war and several other excuses Hashirama had came up with when he first had an idea for something like this, with only half of his attention. The rest was on every other occupant in the room. The entire 'Rookie Nine' was present; all more or less the same green horns he thought they were. Gai's team was there; an experienced lot, but at least two were handicapped. Neji was a true Hyuuga, which by definition meant he only used his clan Taijutsu. Lee's handicap was genetic, making it so he could only use Taijutsu. Though, he seemed to be making great work with just that. Tenten he had nothing on, but chances were that she had a handicap of some kind as well.
The Sand Team was there, as he already knew from his run in with Garia. Speaking of which, the raccoon container seemed to be eyeing him every now and then out of the corner of her eye. He would bet his bottom dollar that gourd on her back had something to do with her demon. Best guess being that she controlled sand and the gourd gave her an ample supply. Then again, the powers a Bijuu gives its container vary at times. The other two were much easier to guess. The blonde girl was a wind user, judging by the metal fan on her back. The boy probably thought he had everybody wondering what that thing on his back was. Seeing as he's from Suna, Naruto would have to guess a puppet.
Kabuto and his team were here, something he forgot to tell Hiruzen about. He had forgotten all about Sasori's multi-crossing spy at the time. He'd have to keep an eye on him. Sakura and Sasuke were about as okay as they could be, though Sasuke was trying not to grab his shoulder in pain during the speech. The last team was a mystery to him. Three Kunoichi from Kumo. One could pass as Tsunade's green eyed daughter- cold eyes, pale skin, blond hair, and a very impressive bust. She also had a tanto strapped on her lower back. The second was a dark-skinned red-head who appeared to be a flat chest when compared to the other girl. She seemed less cold then her comrade. She also wielded a blade, but this a normal sized sword. He placed them a little below or at twenty in age. Their last and only unarmed member had his attention for some reason.
Dark, blond hair in a long braid down her back, calm face, dark eyes, lightly tanned skin, a bit older than the other two and a decent bust, but not the class of Tsunade-junior. All in all, she really shouldn't stand out to him. The only impression he should be getting is that she seemed to have a bit more battle-experience than the other two...that and he wanted to tap that and the other two, but other than that! Yet no matter how many times he told himself this, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off about her.
Still, he didn't let that side track him too much. He idly took note of all the non-participating ninja. Most were Konoha ninja- Orochimaru's former student Anko Mitarashi, Head Interrogator Ibiki Morino, and a lot of others he wasn't sure about. All of the team's Jounin were there, unsurprisingly. The Sand Jounin had a cloth covering one eye and gave off an unfriendly demeanor in general. The Kumo Jounin had dark-skin as well along with shaggy white hair and a cleaver-like sword on his back. His appearance was more bored than anything else.
Naruto was brought out of his thoughts as the proctor, a Jounin named Gekko Hayate-who apparently had a coughing sickness- asked if anyone wanted to give up. Naruto narrowed his eyes when he saw Kabuto's hand go up. With Orochimaru already putting everyone on alert, Kabuto would seem even more suspicious with his dropping out eight times. That meant that the snake was willing to reveal his spy for this invasion, 'Orochimaru, still as arrogant as ever and gambles almost as badly as Tsunade. He thinks the village will fall or be too weakened to need his best spy in here,' Naruto mused to himself.
He looked up at the board as the names started to rapidly flip across the board. At the point everyone thought it was getting ridiculous, the names stopped.
Temari no Sabaku VS Choji Akimichi
Everyone started to clear out of the area except those two. Choji handed his bag of chips to Shika, who gave his friend a 'good luck' as he took them. Choji, though hiding it well, was a little nervous. Not because it was a girl, but more because he, and everyone else, thought the sand team in general was more than a little intimidating. But he was glad it wasn't the red-head.
"Thank Choji stands a chance?" Ino asked Shikamaru as they waited for the match to begin.
"Not a chance," Naruto said from a few feet away, gaining the attention of their team and his own.
"Now Naruto, it's not nice to disrespect your comrades," Kakashi scolded with an eye smile, not looking away from his book.
"This isn't about respect. It's about a bad match up. Choji's mostly close range and judging by that girl's giant fan, she's a wind user. Unless Choji can close the distance before she draws her fan, she'll gain an advantage he can't beat. And there's a good amount of distance between them. But you two already figured that out. Eh, Kakashi-sensei? Shikamaru?" Naruto asked, almost teasingly as Kakashi's eye went serious for a second and Shikamaru sighed, muttering 'Troublesome' under his voice.
"He's right. That is the most likely scenario," Shikamaru admitted, somewhat reluctant to count his friend out.
"But there's a chance he'll win, right?" Ino asked, trying to support her chubby teammate.
"There's a chance a kunai will ricochet and kill the Hokage by pure accident, doesn't mean it'll happen," Naruto countered with a roll of the eyes causing Ino to growl lightly in frustration.
"Well, when did you get so observant?" Kakashi asked curiously as he looked from his book.
"Hmmm? You say something?" Naruto asked with a straight face.
Kakashi's eyebrow twitched at that, 'I don't know if I should be mad that he stole my thing or happy that I might be getting a mini-me,' Kakashi thought to himself as the match began, wondering how people would react to that. He never noticed the stares his other two students were giving Naruto.
Unsurprisingly, Naruto was mostly right. Choji tried to roll Temari over with his expansion jutsu, but missed as Temari waited until the last second before taking to the air on her fan, as if to mock him. Choji attempted to bounce high enough, but he had already known that was a long shot. Temari sent a Wind Gust to send him down even harder. Choji, becoming exhausted from the jutsu and continuous rolling combined with bouncing, lost concentration of the jutsu at the sudden and harder impact and returned to normal. Taking advantage of this, Temari came down and delivered a strike to Choji's head while falling. Choji, by coincident or instinct, tilted to one side, allowing the potentially deadly blow to hit his shoulder instead of his head.
The referee approached the down genin and found he was at the edge of passing out from the pain and probably wasn't getting up, "Choji Akimichi is unable to battle! Temari no Sabaku is the winner!" Hayate announced, staving off his cough momentarily.
Naruto let out a low whistle when the match ended, "Hmmm, Sand Ninjas seem especially brutal. Then again, they are the Kazekage's children," Naruto commented as the medics took Choji away on a stretcher. Everyone's attention returned to the board as the names started whizzing by again.
Sasuke Uchiha VS Shino Aburame
"Try not to lose too badly," Naruto said in a false helpful voice as Sasuke glared at him as he headed down.
"First a fellow leaf ninja, now you're betting against your own teammate, Naruto?" Kakashi accused in mock disappointment.
"Oh, no. My money is firmly on Sasuke winning this," Naruto said with a grin, seeing Kakashi eye smile.
"But you-," Ino started as she pointed a finger at him.
"I just said something to give him extra incentive to win," He countered with a smirk, "He'll never let himself live it down if I make it to the finals," He explained at the confused look.
"You didn't claim the odds were with Choji because we're from the same village, so I doubt you'd bet on Sasuke simply because he's your teammate," Shikamaru said as he looked at Naruto from the corner of his eye.
"Right in one, shadow boy. While I'll admit Shino has a lot of things going for him, he and his clan have one glaring weakness against the Uchiha clan in general and it has nothing to do with the eyes," Naruto said, turning back to the match, not bothering to elaborate.
'When did Naruto become so...smart?' Sakura wondered to herself, having heard Naruto's comments on both matches. He was certainly changing a lot. It seemed for the better in the professional sense, but it might be bad in a moral sense, However, Sakura had already learned that her morality would die in this career if she didn't first.
Shino and Sasuke stared at each other from across the arena with equally unreadable faces, waiting for the signal, "Begin!" The proctor shouted. In the instant the words were said, Sasuke was already running though hand seals. He knew about the Aburame clan and their bugs. 'I also know one of the weaknesses about them...' Sasuke thought with a smirk, "Grand Fireball jutsu!" The flames shot towards Shino who tried to jump away, with an astounding speed. Trouble was that they were already too close to allow that. Sasuke smirked as he saw the slight killer intent and the figure in the flames turn into burning bugs.
'...The weakness of the Aburame clan is their personal and emotional connection with their hive,' Sasuke thought triumphantly. It was the one thing that could cause them to retreat easily, to save their hive. Sasuke smirked as he turned to look at Shino emerging from his bugs. He may not look it, but Sasuke could feel the KI from having a part of his hive destroyed. Sasuke only smirked more as he saw the army of bugs massing around Shino, ready to swarm him. That was until he pulled out a pair of Kunai with paper bombs on them, flaming paper bombs to be exact, a small variation and about as effective as the regular unless your target was wet but better if burning was the goal.
Shino recognised the seals and paused for a moment, "Damn you," He whispered quietly and angrily, "Proctor, I forfeit," Shino said as he left towards the balcony with more emotion showing in his steps then he ever had in his voice.
"Sasuke Uchiha is the winner," Hayate said with a cough as Sasuke sighed in exhaustion. The curse seal was barely kept under control after the fire jutsu, but he managed to pull that off.
"Well, that was surprising," Naruto muttered as he furrowed his brow in thought.
"I thought you were betting on Sasuke?" Sakura asked, confused at the blonde's reaction.
"I was, but I thought he would have just kept throwing bombs and fire at Shino until he gave up. Not give him a chance to consider it after just one fireball," Naruto explained thoughtfully.
"Maybe he thought making your opponent surrender is more significant than beating them into the ground?" Kakashi suggested as he went back to reading his book.
"Hmm, maybe," Naruto conceded as Sasuke came back up to the balcony.
"You were saying?" Sasuke asked with a smirk at Naruto.
"Okay, I'll admit it, you've grown," Naruto relented before grinning, "You would have simply went at him head on with your Sharingan just last week," He added as Sasuke gained a small tick mark and glared at the blonde before giving a Hnn and looking at the board.
"...Hell," Sasuke said with a sweatdrop as Naruto turned to board and went wide eyed.
"You have GOT to be shitting me," He said as he and almost every leaf ninja looked shocked at the board.
Garia no Sabaku VS Ino Yamanaka
End of Chapter
Well, it's been well over a year, but it's finally back. Sorry again for the long delay. Hope it satisified you all some. Naruto's observations are a combo of his memories, Madara's, and educated guesses/conclusions. As you can see, I screwed with the matches. So, feel free to criticise my fight scenes. If anyone has any questions, I'll answer them in the next chapter, through PM, or both. And No, I will not bash anyone on purpose, hence Sasuke acting more canon-like.
Now Questions To Ponder- How will the different matches change things? Will Naruto find out about the third container in this exam? Is the Kumo team here just for the exam? Will Ino survive the match? Who do you think will fight who? And where did Orochi slither off to with no team to watch?