I own Naruto and Assassin's Creed as much as I own The U.S. army. (I don't)
Italics are thoughts.
Bold are supernatural forces.
-Chapter Seven: Chuunin Exam Part Two-
Naruto, being the natural, unannounced leader in Kakashi's absence, lead them to the exam room, they wandered around, saying hi to all the shinobi they knew, some more interested in meeting them than others.
"Sasuke!" said ninja ducked as he ducked, dodging the flying tackle that would come from only Yamanaka Ino.
"Ino, didn't I tell you that would never work." Sakura smiled, helping her friend up. "You can't scream before you dive." her smile broke into a grin.
"Like you've had any better luck, Mr. Tall dark and hooded over there pays no attention to you either."
"I'm making progress, he did compliment me on my looks, and he's been helping train me. Sasuke hasn't even really acknowledged, so I am in fact having better luck." Sakura felt some sense of dominance over her friend.
"Well… Okay, I admit it, you've got me beat for now."
"Who ever said anything about me ever actually wishing to be with Sakura though?" Naruto came back, surprising both girls.
"Naruto, don't even play. Even I can tell you like her." Sasuke smirked. A burst of smoke interrupted their banter, all eyes were suddenly on the desk where a dozen exam proctors stood.
"Silence! I'm your exam proctor Morino Ibiki, and this is my partner, Yamanaka Inoichi, we are this villages interrogation specialists."
The entire room was suddenly suffocatingly tense. "For the first exam, your mental strength will be put to the test. You will each be given a piece of knowledge, and then be tortured using methods that are used on enemy Chuunin, none of which will scar you permanently but they are still painful and trying." Ibiki said, grinning like a madman. "Anyone who wishes will be dropped from the exam and will leave, but if you continue and fail, you will never become a Chuunin, stuck as a Gennin." Inoichi then stepped in.
"You will however be able to back out without giving up the knowledge, you will also be given a capsule, that when bitten down on will turn your mouth green, the dye can be washed out, but it will represent suicide while under interrogation, which will also allow you to pass, if you don't just kill yourself at the start, we will deem whether or not you withstood enough torture to test you appropriately." Inoichi stayed stoic, not showing any emotion while Ibiki grinned like a mental case."Any who wish to drop out may do so now." Many hands raised over the course of a minute or so, several dozen shinobi dropped out, leaving a total of sixty eight gennin, twenty six three man cells, all three of the rookie nine, the sand team, team Gai, the sound team, and several other teams. When Ibiki and Inoichi saw no other teams dropping out, he smiled, but not in that same insane grin like before. He began laughing, all the proctors also laughed along with him, Naruto began to see why, he cracked a grin as well. Everyone else just stood, perplexed not really understanding what was so funny.
"All that are remaining in this room… You pass the first exam."
"What?! What about the torture?"
"Sir, may I explain? I believe I understand."
"Go for it."
"This test was quite simple actually." Naruto began. "They were testing us to see if we were willing to put our lives on the line to protect what knowledge we were given even if we didn't know our mission." Naruto explained.
"So it was all a trick?" Another Gennin shouted out
"Basically." Naruto answered. As he did, a black object crashed through the window, everyone either hit the deck or went into a state of shock. The black object happened to be the second exam proctor wrapped in a giant black canvas banner. It read "Second Exam Proctor Mitarashi Anko".
"You left twenty six teams still here Ibiki? What kind of proctor are you? I'll cut the numbers in half, I guarantee you that."
"Good luck Anko, there's some good ones here, I can already tell you that." Inoichi answered.
"Whatever, Come with me, all of You!" Anko yelled. All followed without question. They arrived at the gate of training ground 44, Anko grinned insanely, like all the other exam proctors, she was insane.
"Well now kiddies, before the games begin, I have to explain the rules. You'll be given the scroll, heaven or earth, each team given a different one, the point is that you will have to fight to get your opposing scroll." Anko's grin lessened, then she pulled a sheaf of papers from seemingly nowhere. "These are waivers. This way if you die in the five days you'll be in there, your parents or guardians can't come after us. Each of you will need to fill these out. When you turn them in you'll get the scroll and the gate number that you'll be starting at." a grin split Anko's face again, as she flung a kunai in the direction of Naruto, he caught it, only to find that she was behind him with another kunai to his throat. "You're a quick one assassin. You must be the kid that Al-Tair brought a few months back. Be careful out there." She took her other kunai, and then passed out the waivers.
After about twenty minutes all the waivers were in and the scrolls were passed out. Each team went to their respective gates. There was a buzzer above the gate that signaled the beginning of the exam. Each team began their hunt right there. After roughly an hour Team 7 covered about half a league. Naruto took the lead of the formation with Sakura bringing up his rear right flank, Sasuke taking the opposite side. Naruto stopped, drawing his crossbow, he shouldered it and aimed. The bolt loosed and nearly caught someone in the head. The member of the rain team looked over but didn't see any of the Konoha team. He saw the bolt embedded in the tree. Suddenly he turned to run, the bolt had an explosive tag on it. It detonated, sending the rain shinobi flying, Naruto jumped from a bush, apprehending him quickly, Sasuke and Sakura attacked the other two, quickly rendering them immobile.
All three searched the enemies and only found another Earth scroll, which they kept regardless. Naruto ducked as a kunai was sent his way. HE saw a grass nin standing atop a tree branch.
"What do you want? If you have an earth scroll it will do you no good to fight us." Naruto started, he drew his crossbow, loading a bolt.
"Then I'm in luck, you have just what I need." The ninja dashed forward with blinding speed, he'd been trained well. Naruto fired the bolt to the right of him, predicting his dodging that way, as he dodged the opposite way, Sasuke intercepted him, his dagger was drawn and he attacked the shinobi. The grass ninja took the blade in the chest, but it seemed to go right through him, Sasuke was surprised when he felt a foot slam into his back. He used a hand to keep himself from crashing into the ground, only to have the ninja come speeding down towards him. Sakura took her cue to attack, throwing a kunai, then immediately following it, she pulled her tanto and jumped, lashing out with a kick, which was caught, only to distract the grass nin from the throwing knife from Naruto, and the rising thrust from Sasuke which came right up the back of the enemy. The grass nin used a Kawarimi no jutsu and surprised them, but Sasuke had already begun making the seals to destroy the position of the enemy.
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball no jutsu!" Sasuke breathed a giant ball of flame right where he sensed the ninja, but the ninja moved on Sakura's position, which Naruto had protected, he dashed in with his sword and attacked the enemy. He decapitated the man, as the body fell to It's knees. They searched the body, found their scroll, and then immediately ran towards the center of the forest. They set off only to be stopped by the grass nin's comrades. They stood in front of the two, one carried a katana, the other carried basic ninja gear.
"You killed our friend. Now you'll die." The swordsman drew his blade. Naruto stepped forward to accept that shinobi's, he drew his hand and a half sword, and settled into a sword fighting stance.
"Come." Was all he said, the grass shinobi dashed forward, swinging his katana, his movements telegraphed to Naruto's trained eye. The assassin blocked and parried, slamming his fist into the enemy's face, knocking him back, he then muttered something in Arabic, which caused the shinobi to burst into flames. The other shinobi saw what happened to his comrade and began running, Naruto drew his crossbow, and fired the bolt loaded into the enemy's back. He loaded another as the enemy fell, and put it away.
"Why'd you kill him even though he ran away?" Sakura asked.
"Because he was a coward, the other one fought to his death, trying to avenge his friend, this one ran away, he didn't deserve to be a shinobi." Naruto replied.
"I thought you didn't use Jutsu. You just used one." Sasuke pointed out.
"I said I usually don't like to, but I wanted to end it quickly, the faster we arrive at the tower the better." Naruto replied. Sasuke nodded in a silent "Oh." and they set off towards the tower. They ran for another hour, stopping only to catch some lunch out of the river, which took about two hours to catch the fish, six in total, two for each, prepare and cook them, and to eat them. Ultimately it took five hours to arrive at the tower. They saw the framed message, read it over, and ultimately decided that they should open the scrolls. Smoke began to come from them, Sakura recognized this as a summoning jutsu, so they dropped them, and stepped back. Kakashi appeared standing atop the scrolls.
"Hey guys, you made very good progress. Only the sand team are here other than you." Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, an invisible gesture that his team learned to recognize by the slight creasing of the skin around his eyes.
"That's thanks to Naruto mostly, he found the grass ninja that had our other scroll." Sasuke gave the credit to him, Naruto however told the truth.
"No, we all had a big part to play, I wouldn't have been able to take that guy and his friends by myself. It's thanks to all of us that we passed." Naruto's smile beneath his hood was visible, but slightly shadowed.
"Then you have no doubt learned the value of teamwork in the field?"
"Yes, sensei, we have." Sakura spoke.
"Then you have done well, Always remember that your greatest ally is your teammates, your greatest weapon is your mind, and that a cool head will see you through anything, when you are on a mission, always remember that those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their friends, are worse than the trash, and should be struck down by the gods." Kakashi spoke to his team in a voice unfamiliar to them, it was serious, not his usual lazy drawl.
"We'll remember that Kakashi." Naruto said, he was always the unspoken leader of the team in absence of higher ranking shinobi.
"Then I'll see you in five days, get some rest, eat, and sharpen your skills, the final exam is a single man exam. But I can tell you no more than that." With that the silver haired shinobi left.
Team Seven had passed the second part of the exam.
-Chapter 7:End-
Author's Note: I'm sorry I took so long, and that the chapter is shorter than usual, but things have been troublesome to say the least. Orochimaru doesn't appear quite yet because things are going to go about differently than usual, because I'm not making Sasuke a traitor. He will not be receiving the curse seal.