Iruka looked at the score in disbelief and pride. Naruto had beaten everyone and gotten every answer, even the one that he would miss, right. He looked at the fellow examiners.
"Well?"
"He qualifies for the badge of knowledge," said Shikaku.
"How? How the hell did that demon brat get them all right!?" asked one of the more biased examiners.
"Porygon! Could you explain to him how he got them right?" asked Iruka, angry at the other chunin.
"Of course! The only assistance he asked for was that I read the questions and a few answers out loud for him. I watched him work out the answers verbally before he even considered putting them in. And he went over what he knew again to correct an answer he made earlier. I did not sense the presence of any outside help during the exam."
Iruka turned to the rather irritated chunin.
"Shifter is the only one on Naruto's team that has any known telepathy, and that's when he's in Espeon form. He remained in his Eevee form the entire time. So Naruto did not cheat. He passed on his own merits."
The other chunin grumbled.
"So, Shikamaru, Sakura, Hinata and Shino all get the standard Knowledge badge. Naruto get's the Specialty badge which increases his team's intelligence. Agreed?" said Shikaku.
Those who scored a 95 or higher in the first phase got the actual badges handed out to the trainers of old. Scoring a ninety earned a replica made of inferior materials.
Naruto was like an Inuzuka hound on a leash, ready to be set loose on the forest. His team was among those who passed.
Their team was the first set loose in the forest, all thanks to Naruto. It meant they had a better chance at finding the Pokémon they wanted before anyone else.
They all had the special Pokéballs in their bags.
With the whistle, which indicated the breeders had released the Pokémon, they were off like a shot.
"So...which Pokémon do you want to catch first?" asked Naruto.
"Hitmonlee!" said Lee energetically.
"I personally wish to find a Combee."
"I don't care who I get, so long as they get along with Shifter and the others!" said Naruto cheerfully. It was true. Naruto had no set requirement for his team, only that they get along. He never saw Pokémon for their stats, looks or abilities. He saw them for their personality and friendliness.
Their first obstacle was a fellow trainer. Getting past him turned out to be easier than expected thanks to Shifter.
Ever since Naruto first teamed up with the shapeshifting Eevee, the Pokémon's level and overall stats had shot through the roof.
The jounin had laughed and gave them something that most of the other trainers wouldn't get this early on. Information.
"You're good for a bunch of rookies. And I like your attitude kid! So I'll part with something you'll thank me for later. The obstacles in this forest aren't the kind you're used to. They're other trainers! Who knows, you might be lucky enough to run into Hokage-sama!"
Naruto wasn't the only one whose eyes widened.
"No way! The old man is in here too?"
"Yup. What, did you think he spends all his time doing paperwork?"
The three didn't say a word, but their expressions said it all. The jounin laughed, hard.
"Listen to these wise words little ninja. The bane of all shinobi kind is not the samurai or the bijuu...it is the evil known as paperwork. Once you hit chunin you'll be stuck doing loads of the stuff, and the higher your rank the worse it will get. There's a damn good reason why none of the jounin commanders has tried to take over for the Hokage!" cackled the jounin.
Naruto chuckled evilly.
"Paperwork has yet to match my Shadow Clones, dattebayo!"
The jounin laughed harder. Then he waved them off. He could hear another group coming and he had to get his next Pokémon ready.
While the shinobi were only allowed to carry a set amount of Pokémon at a time, they were allowed to capture as many as they wanted. The ones they didn't carry remained in a communal training grounds with the Ninja ID of their trainer around their neck or arm. When they wanted to switch them out, they went to a nearby computer and put their ball in the slot. The Pokémon would receive a signal and head to the nearest teleport unit to be taken to their trainer.
After every six battles, he would head to the nearest Porygon-Z timer, which unknown to everyone but the 'obstacles', doubled as a teleport computer. It was how the got the Pokémon some trainers caught and had too many out of the forest until needed.
The teams could use them if they knew about them, but most didn't. It was a nice little perk and what some of the more nerdy shinobi called a 'Easter Egg', whatever that meant. It was a term used years before the shinobi countries were even formed.
Naruto was eager to fight the Hokage, who wouldn't be using his full strength since there were so many genin out there. However, after a particularly rough battle that landed Lee with a new fighting Pokémon with a duel element (Poliwrath...where it came from Naruto had NO idea) they decided to camp out near a clock. Most people never paid it any mind at all.
Naruto, however, was chatting up with the Porygon-Z at the top. Finally, in a fit of annoyance, the thing asked him if he was going to use the teleport device and switch Pokémon or not, because he wanted to sleep.
Which left a gaping Lee and Shino.
"We're allowed to use the communal training ground?" asked Shino.
Porygon-Z rolled his eyes.
"Any shinobi can use it. You just have to know where the devices are located. You really don't expect the 'obstacles' to lug all those extra Pokémon out of the forest during the exam do you? Though for some reason only the examiners actually know about them. They don't exactly try to hide it."
"Naruto, I never thought I would say this out loud, but thank Kami you can be an annoying brat," said Shino seriously.
"Thanks, I think. Wait a minute, what do you mean annoying brat?!"
After that, they didn't try to hold back on capturing any Pokémon they wanted on their team.
Naruto was gleeful for one reason. They had come across one of the Inuzuka Absol that Hana had mentioned, and Sasuke would kill him if he got one.
Naruto grabbed Kurama. It was time for the fox to earn his keep. Naruto wasn't going to evolve the fox until it hit level 25, which was nine levels away.
Hana had told him the best way to insure that any Inuzuka Pokémon was as loyal as a nin hound was to show it who was boss and earn its respect. Her Houndour was like that.
"Kurama, Flame Wheel!"
"Vul!"
The female Absol narrowly dodged the attack.
"Swift!"
Shuriken-like stars hit the Pokémon, and Absol growled. Another idiot who wanted her to be their partner? He was going to have to work for it. The last five hadn't been worth her time.
Absol used Fury Cutter, and Kurama narrowly dodged the attack. Shino frowned.
"Naruto, I think that Absol is..."
Naruto growled and said "Kurama, Flame Tackle!"
When the blond initially heard of Volt Tackle, his initial thought was to combine it with the other elements. So far he had succeeded with Kurama in creating Flame Tackle, a move not seen normally.
The Absol had seen enough Inuzuka attacks to know that dodging was the best bet. Too bad it tripped on a root.
It got hit, but it didn't go down. It hit Kurama with a nasty slash attack, and the Vulpix cried out in pain.
"Kurama! Return!" yelled Naruto. The Vulpix would live, but fighting wasn't a good idea.
"Go Shifter!"
"Vee!" Shifter was ticked and ready to get some payback.
"Shifter, use Shadow Ball!"
Shifter turned into Umbreon and went at the Absol with a vengeance. The Absol was surprised a little, since the brown canine preferred Espeon because it could talk to its partner.
"Now use Bite!"
Shifter bit the Absol in the leg, and Naruto waited.
The Absol was weakened, but not out.
"Shifter, switch out with me!"
"Breon!"
Shifter tagged Naruto with its paw, a universal sign of a tag out. Naruto charged at the Pokémon, startling it and eventually pinned it to the ground with a kunai.
"So are you going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" he asked.
Absol took a good look at his eyes, and bowed its head in submission. At least this kid wasn't a total wimp.
It accepted the Pokéball with grace.
"Sweet! I got Absol! I'm going to name you Kiseki!"
"Naruto, Absol are known as the Disaster Pokemon for a reason."
"I know, but that's why her name is Kiseki! Because with me she's gonna make miracles happen!"
Shino sighed. There was no point debating with him.
Elsewhere in the forest...
The lone male Absol looked at the red-head with something akin to respect. While he disliked the smell of blood, he was born and breed to fight and fight hard. The sight of injured parties because of his doing (when he wasn't doing it for the wrong reasons anyway, the older Absol were quite specific about right and wrong) and winning a battle got his blood flowing.
"Absol!" he cried. This kid didn't even use his Pokémon, and still he beat him, a level thirty. If that wasn't worth his respect nothing was.
The red-head threw a ball at him and he didn't fight it. This trainer would be worth working with, he could tell.
"I don't believe it..." said Kankuro.
"I can. Ever since he ran into that blond idiot Gaara's been easier to live with. The only person he regularly threatens to kill is you, and let's face it...you're pretty damn annoying," said Temari.
"Temari...what do I do with this ball?" asked Gaara confused. He never actually had to use the devices before because Chomper preferred his little hole in his gourd and Nozomi liked to cuddle with Chomper.
Temari blinked, before pulling out a piece of string.
"For now why don't you wear it around your neck. That way people won't try to steal him once they learn you have an Absol now," she said sensibly. Mostly because Gaara didn't have pockets.
They had been steadily going through the 'obstacles' which happened to be battles between older, more experienced trainers and rangers.
Apparently in Konoha, the obstacle course wasn't a series of inane tasks that only Pokémon could clear. They wanted their shinobi to gain experience as fighters. Temari could appreciate that since they rarely got to fight outside sanctioned matches due to Gaara's sand. For the first time Gaara was letting them fight so he could train his team in peace.
If Chomper didn't evolve into Pupitar before this was over, she would eat her smallest fan.
As luck turned out, Naruto did finally run into the Hokage. Sarutobi Hiruzen loved the Ranking exams...it gave him a good excuse to be out of that damn office for days on end without Homura or Kotaru bitching about it. Sarutobi deliberately left piles and piles of hellish paperwork for them to deal with. It was payback for the endless council meetings.
Best of all, if a team could defeat his pokemon (whether together or alone, it didn't matter) they almost automatically gained a rank and often got a field promotion as a bonus.
Why? Because you needed serious skill and brains to take down a Kage's weakest pokemon. Sarutobi's Primeape was level 40, a good twenty to thirty levels above most of the other pokemon in here.
Naruto and his team had the good luck of finding the only station to heal pokemon in the entire forest. And, after filching a good third of it's stock, finally ran into Sarutobi.
The Hokage grinned evilly.
"Care to challenge for a rank? Beat me and it's an almost guaranteed field promotion as well as a rare badge," he told them pleasantly, leaning on a staff.
"'Almost guaranteed?'" asked Shino suspiciously.
"Well, there have been a few cases of people going too far in an attempt to beat the forest master I/E me, which resulted in permanent damage or death to their pokemon partners. We don't exactly let that slide over a simple ranking exam."
"Ah."
"And, as a bonus, if you do really well and impress me with your partners, you don't have to take the Chunin exam."
"Really?" said Naruto. Okay, now he was going to beat the old man if it killed him.
Sarutobi brought out his partner, Akuma. Named because as a Mankey, it had learned rather quickly how to get what it wanted. Generate enough paperwork to make the Kage cry tears, and you had him by the balls. Hence the name Akuma, demon.
Jiraiya was enjoying the time at the Hot Springs, ignoring the explosions and crashes from the ranking exam forest. He had come to warn Sarutobi about an invasion by Orochimaru during the Chunin exam...he really didn't care about the rankings.
Most shinobi only concerned themselves with their own ranks before their Pokémon. Even Minato had been that way!
Besides, what are the odds someone would become a Kage by earning the field badge through all five ranking exams?
Little Known Fact: There are three known ways to become a Kage.
One: be elected by the current one or council. Two: beat the current Kage in combat and acknowledged by the council as the better leader. Or three, which had never become an issue at this point: Earn all five Field badges in the various ranking exams in each of the Big Five and a majority of the badges in each village.
Because of an emphasis on strengthening yourself over your Pokémon, this third option has never actually become an issue. Also, the odds of beating all five Kages or highest ranking shinobi in each of the Big Five were astronomical it wasn't even funny.
Then again, there hasn't been a shinobi like Naruto around before either.
Sarutobi was outright impressed by Naruto. Instead of charging in like he would in his normal mood, he decided to wait and come up with a plan of attack first with his mock team.
This was the entire reason they split up the genin cells from each village. Sometimes the jounin sensei never bothered to work with another team, and it made things harder for the genin to transition without their usual teammates.
Naruto was a special case. He didn't see rivalries and clan abilities. He just saw people who he could work with.
As a result, Akuma was hard pressed to fend off the tag team of Shino's Kakuna using String Shot and Naruto's Vulpix using fire style attacks, some of which he had never even heard of. Then Lee let out his Machop, and things really went downhill.
By the time Naruto let out Shifter, Akuma was in no shape to fight.
Sarutobi held up a hand.
"Enough. Akuma is unable to battle. Congratulations. Once the ranking exam is over you'll have earned a Chunin vest for certain. Not to mention the coveted badge of the Leaf master."
"What does the Leaf master mean?"
"It means you are strong enough to take out the best and most powerful trainer in the entire village. Most people can't manage that until they hit mid chunin at least, and you did it while you were still wet-behind-the-ears genin. Your clans would be proud," he said.
Shino stood straighter. While his Kakuna had evolved once Sarutobi declared the fight over, his father would be very pleased to hear about this.
Lee now had something to lord over Neji, since the boy had made many disparaging comments about training his Pokémon alongside himself.
Naruto...well, he would be getting a lot more respect once people heard he beat the Hokage with the only Pokémon he had gotten from the egg.
Today was looking up!