"Why is ramen so delicious?"- thinking
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu- jutsu
YOU LITTLE BRAT/You little brat-Demon speech/Inner Sakura
No More
Chapter 6: A Snake In The Leaf.
Shock was clearly visible on the faces of the remaining genin. They had passed but they had no idea how. Ibiki couldn't help the smug smirk that crossed his face.
"H-h-how?", asked a stupefied Kiba.
But before Ibiki could answer, a huge black ball burst through the window. It unfurled in the center of the classroom revealing itself to be a banner, hanging of the ceiling by two kunai that were part of the package. Emblazoned on the black cloth was...
PROCTOR OF THE SECOND EXAM
THE SEXY, SINGLE AND AVAILABLE
MITARASHI ANKO
Then, with a huge explosion of smoke she appeared...and majority of the male genin and a few of the female genin fainted from a nosebleed.
Mitarashi Anko was a beautiful woman with purple hair dressed in a tan trenchcoat. Underneath that trenchcoat was a fishnet shirt that left little to the imagination and a mini-miniskirt. She also wore ANBU-issue bracers on her arms and legs but that was overlooked for much more obvious features..
"YOSH!", she yelled. "ALL THOSE WHO PASSED THE FIRST EXAM, GET READY FOR THE SECOND EXAM! FOLLOW ME!"
Silence...Utter silence followed her proclamation. The few genin who were conscious were looking at her as if she had grown a second head. All except one.
Naruto was waving a flag with a huge 10 on it. Seeing it, Anko smirked.
"Well, it looks like only one person here appreciates perfection."
"Or maybe he's the only other idiot here."
Anko scowled at Ibiki's statement. Then she turned to face the genin and took a head-count. She turned to Ibiki with a smirk on her face.
"Are you losing your touch, old man? This is by far the largest number of candidates that have passed the first exam."
"You can thank your fan for that."
Anko shrugged.
"Never mind that, I'll get rid of at least half of them in the exam."
She turned to address the remaining genin.
"The second exam will take place tomorrow. Get the venue from your jounin-senseis."
She disappeared in a plume of smoke.
Dusk
Ibiki was collecting the test sheets of the chuunin hopefuls who had passed the First Exam.
"Too many passed this stage...this is unprecedented...WTF!"
He had just picked Naruto's paper. Apart from the 10 written behind it, it was blank...he had not answered a single question. A huge bellow of laughter escaped Ibiki's lips.
"Something else for the record books, eh? Passing a written exam without answering a single question."
Ibiki's smile remained as he remembered Naruto's words.
"I say...SCREW YOU! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF I FAIL OR NOT, MY DREAM WILL NEVER DIE!"
"Uzumaki Naruto...you interest me a lot."
Undisclosed Location
"Orochimaru-sama."
The traitorous snake summoner turned as his favorite spy addressed him. His pale face, framed with black hair and a hitai-ite with a musical note on it, looked even paler in the moonlight. With yellow irises and a black slit pupil, he looked more like a snake than a human being. The eerie look was completed with a black body suit under a sleeveless white tunic and tied at the waist with a purple rope done in a bow.
"What news do you have for me, Kabuto."
The bespectacled ninja straightened his glasses before proceeding.
"I have established contact with the target's team. So far they seem to trust me. During the Second Exam, I will continue my mission."
"Excellent, Kabuto. You're dismissed."
Kabuto bowed and disappeared in a plume of smoke.
Orochimaru licked his lips with a long snake-like tongue.
"One step for me...and one giant leap for my ambitions...kukukuku."
The Next Day
The remaining genin gathered in front of the infamous Training Ground 44 aka the Forest of Death. They admired the beautiful trees that swayed in the wind but the foliage was so thick they couldn't see beyond the trees.
"Listen up, brats!" yelled Anko. "This is were the second part of the Chuunin Exam will take place. The Forest of Death, the most dangerous training ground in all Konoha. Your purpose is to engage in an all out battle for this."
She pulled out two scrolls, one white and the other blue. The white scroll was marked with the kanji for Heaven, the blue one was marked with the kanji for earth.
"Half of you will be given the Heaven Scroll, the other half will be given the earth scroll. You are to search and retrieve from other teams the other scroll you need and bring both scrolls intact to the tower in the middle of the forest."
She licked her lips and continued.
"But in this forest, there are monsters so vicious jounin do try entering here, so do me a favor and..."
She caught sight of Naruto yawning widely as he dug through his weapons pouch. She steamed...literally...then Naruto rose his head.
"Hurry it up already, I've got a bowl of ramen with my name on it waiting for me, dattebayo"
Sakura palmed her face as Sasuke shook his head.
"Naruto no baka. You will get in trouble for this."
"Usurakontachi."
The rest of Rookie Nine had similar thoughts.
"Look at that dobe trying to be top dog."
"Your actions are most illogical, Naruto."
"N-N-Naruto-kun..be careful."
"Ugh, that idiot shouldn't be on Sasuke-kun's team...that should be me."
"Mendokuse."
"I'm hungry."
Anko was formulating a plan for revenge.
"You're ballsy kid, try this on for size."
Suddenly a kunai grazed Naruto's cheek, leaving a shallow cut. Then Anko was behind him with a kunai to his neck.
"Yes, it's always the cocky ones who die first, spilling that red blood I love so much." Anko said as she brought her tongue to his cheek.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"Lady, let go off me or I've got two words for you."
Anko paused, her tongue just a few centimeters from his cheek.
"Really, what would those two words be? Free dango?"
Naruto formed the tiger seal.
"Bunshin Daibakuha!"(1)
Anko gasped and jumped away. In her haste, she landed clumsily and fell to the floor, curling herself into a ball to minimize any damage she might receive...then it struck her.
"Wait a minute, where is the explosion?...I got fooled by a GENIN!"
"Yep, its always the cocky ones who die first. Isn't that right Anko-san?"
Grumbling, she rose to her feet amidst snickers from the genin and growled at the shit eating smirk on Naruto's face. Then she whirled around with a kunai ready to see a long tongue returning her kunai. She followed it to see a Kusa kunoichi on the other end of the tongue.
"Looks like we have a talented bunch of genin. Lets see how well you do in the forest."
She began handing out release forms, all the while shooting dark looks at Naruto who was having a conversation with...himself?
"That's right, he knows Kage Bunshin no Jutsu(2)...he might probably know Bunshin Daibakuha. I'll keep my on you...Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto nodded and his clone disappeared in a shunshin.
Jounin Training Grounds
Kakashi quickly backpedaled to dodge Gai's punch and ducked under his roundhouse kick. He quickly rose and grabbed Gai's arm. Pivoting sharply, Kakashi brought Gai down with a shoulder throw. Then an alarm went off.
"Time's up." said Asuma, perching in the foliage of a nearby tree.
Panting, Kakashi and Gai joined Kurenai in the shade of the same tree. Kurenai was in a meditative pose, trying out one of her new genjutsus. Suddenly she shuddered and the other jounin noticed.
"What's wrong?" asked Asuma.
"Anko is pissed."
The other jounin shuddered too. A pissed Anko was much more scary than five back-to-back S-Rank missions.
"Who do you think pissed her off?" inquired Asuma
"I've got fifty ryo that says its Naruto." Kakashi drawled in a lazy voice.
The other jounin exchanged looks.
"You're on." chorused Asuma and Kurenai.
"YOSH, MY ETERNAL RIVAL! I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE! IF I LOSE THIS BET I WILL SCALE THE HOKAGE MOUNTAIN WITH ONE HAND! AND IF I CAN NOT DO THAT I WILL DEFEAT A HUNDRED MISSING-NINS WITH MY EYES CLOSED!"
"Hmm...Oh, I'm sorry. Did you say something?"
"CURSE YOUR HIP AND COOL ATTITUDE!"
The Forest Of Death
After signing the release forms, Team 7 collected a Heaven Scroll and headed to their assigned gate. At the signal, they burst through the gate and quickly jumped into the forest. After five minutes of running, Sasuke called for a stop.
"Okay, first off, how do we get the scrolls?"
"We could head for the tower immediately." suggested Sakura. "Ambushing a team exhausted from battle shouldn't prove too difficult."
"That's a good idea." remarked Naruto. "But the problem is that other teams would have though of that too. Stealth has never been our strong suit, -ttebayo...well yours at least."
"What do you suggest?" asked Sasuke.
"PSST!"
Team 7 turned in the direction of the voice. They saw Naruto sprinting towards. Sasuke and Sakura fell into battle stances.
"Whoa, calm down!" called Naruto. "It's a shadow clone."
"Here you go boss." gasped the clone. "It wasn't that hard."
The clone handed a Heaven and an Earth Scroll to Naruto and dispelled. Sasuke and Sakura were shocked beyond words.
"I figured they would keep spares just in case the were more teams than usual. It was a piece of cake for my clone to form another clone, have it transform into a wild cat and distract the guard long enough for him to grab us two scrolls and, guess what?"
Naruto bit his thumb and started drawing marks on the back of this hand. When he was done, he placed the scrolls on the markings and channeled chakra into the marks.
"FUIN!"(3)
The scrolls disappeared and Naruto displayed the back of his hand to his team. The kanji for "Seal" was on the back of his hand.
"Any questions?"
Sasuke and Sakura were too busy picking their jaws of the floor to answer. Naruto sighed.
"We've got to get moving. We might reach the tower quickly and finish this exam first"
Sakura recovered first.
"We might still be attacked by other teams just for the fun of it."
Before Naruto could reply, a gust of wind suddenly sprung up blowing Sakura into Sasuke and threw Naruto out of the clearing.
Team 8 were sprinting through the forest with Kiba and Akamaru leading, Shino and Hinata at the rear. Kiba was in high spirits due to the fact that they had just ambushed a team and gotten the scroll they needed with minimal effort.
"Yep, my Chuunin vest is in the bag already."
Then he picked up a strange scent, one tainted with foul chakra and blood. Kiba began whining and dove into Kiba's jacket, causing Kiba considerable worry.
"What is it, boy?"
The white-haired dog whined and barked softly.
"W-w-what is it?"
"Akamaru is smelling a powerful shinobi directly in front of us. Lets check it out."
Shino adjusted his sunglasses.
"That is illogical. The next phase is bound to be one where individual fights take place, if we head to the tower we will be fresh when the second phase is over."
"True, but we can scout opponents for weaknesses we can take advantage of in the next phase. Besides what could go wrong."
They landed behind a bush that separated them from the unknown ninja. Peeking through they saw the Suna ninjas facing a team from Ame.
What happened next was a nightmare engraved in the memories of Team 8 for a long time.
Sasuke and Sakura picked themselves up and looked around. They heard trampling in the forest and turned to see Naruto coming towards.
"Ouch, that hurt.. Are you okay?"
Sasuke drew a kunai and hurled it at Naruto who barely managed to dodge. Sakura was shocked.
"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing?"
Sasuke threw a brace of shuriken at Naruto's legs and followed it up with a quick kunai when he jumped into the air. Suddenly Naruto contorted himself in a very snake-like manner to dodge the kunai. Sasuke smirked at that.
"I know Naruto heals quickly, but not that quickly. The cut on his cheek is gone and so is the seal on the back of his hand. And there is no way that Naruto could ever manage the dodge you just displayed."
Sakura immediately drew a kunai after realization slapped her. (couldn't resist that one)
An uncharacteristic smirk that was almost serpentine formed on Naruto's face. Then, with a long tongue, he licked his lips and poofed into smoke to reveal the kunoichi from Kusa.
"Impressive...but let's see how you fair now."
She reached to her forehead and revealed a yellow eye with a black slit pupil. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the sight.
"A mask...what is it..."
Suddenly he couldn't move, he couldn't breathe...he couldn't think as he was paralyzed with a blast of the most gruesome killing intent he had ever felt.
Naruto groaned as he picked himself of the ground. He had slammed into quite a few trees before the wind died down and he was bruised all over. The bruises were quickly disappearing anyways.
"Thanks for nothing, you blasted fox."
"You're welcome."
"Aack! What was that?"
"Me."
"You, who?"
"The greatest of all the nine bijuu, the Harbinger of Destruction, the Lord of Chaos, the Master of Disaster...the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"
"...That was so lame."
"COCKY LITTLE APE! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, I WILL CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG AND MAKE YOU MY LUNCH!"
"Yeah, and pigs can fly. Face it, you got your ass kicked by a human."
Distracted by his tenant, Naruto never realized the huge snake creeping up till it was too late. It snared him in its coils, squeezing him tightly. Then it quickly opened its jaws and swallowed Naruto whole...for like five seconds.
A huge explosion ripped the snake open expelling its guts and bodily fluids which disappeared in a puff of smoke...leaving Naruto on all fours, panting.
"Bunshin Daibakuha, success. Now, you blasted fox, don't distract me in a combat zone."
"...Try and stop me."
Naruto sighed, picked himself up and went to find his team.
Sakura gasped as she saw Sasuke fall from a punch to the gut. It had taken a stab to his thigh to break the hold of the killing intent and save her from the kunai and leave her behind the tree. Sasuke then tried to take on the grass kunoichi but it was obvious he was no match for her. Then she gasped
Sasuke smirked as best as he could with a wire in his mouth. Finally, he had the kunoichi where he wanted her. After feigning weakness, he had slipped an exploding tag into her pouch. After it exploded he quickly unleashed a barrage of shuriken with wires attached. Binding the grass-nin to the tree and anchoring the wires save the one in his mouth was a piece of cake and now it was time to end this.
Quickly forming seals, he unleashed his most powerful technique.
"KATON: RYUUKA NO JUTSU!"(4)
A fire dragon traveled down the ninja wires and collided with the strange kunoichi. She cried out in a piercing scream as the flames consumed her. Running low on chakra, Sasuke dispelled the technique. Sakura landed on the branch beside Sasuke bursting with excitement.
"KYA! SASUKE-KUN YOU ARE THE GREATEST!"
Then a low chuckle that was distinctively male emerged from the smoke. When the smoke cleared, the kunoichi from grass was there unharmed. Her clothes weren't singed in the slightest. But the mask she was wearing had melted enough, allowing the yellow eye to see clearly.
"Kukuku...Sasuke-kun, you have impressed me a lot. I think its time to know your opponent.
He pulled of his mask and headband to reveal a pale sallow face with snake-like eyes and a headband with a musical note on it.
"I am Orochimaru of the Densetsu no Sannin(5)...and you are mine for all eternity."
Naruto gasped as he heard Orochimaru proclamation from his hiding place. It had taken a lot of willpower not to go charging in like he usually did...and he was glad he didn't.
"Konoha's greatest traitor is here...looks like he wont leave without a fight."
He created a shadow clone and handed it some shuriken and a kunai, then he left to prepare a trap for the legendary ninja.
"Now, its time to give you a gift."
Forming a ram seal, Orochimaru blasted the genin with an intense blast of KI. Then he slowly walked towards Sasuke, relishing the moment he would brand the Uchiha as his own. Suddenly, some shuriken and kunai flew at him. Cursing, he dodged and lost control of his KI, allowing Sasuke and Sakura momentary respite.
"Oi, teme. Didn't think you'd need my help but that's what I get for thinking you can do anything without me."
Sasuke and Sakura couldn't help sighing, only Naruto could make such a statement in such a dangerous situation. Naruto turned his gaze to the snake-nin.
"Well, it looks like there is a reason, can I ask why you are here, Orochimaru?"
Orochimaru licked his lips as he turned his gaze from the jinchuuriki to the last Uchiha and back.
"This little brat can't stop my ambition. No one can."
"Simple, I'm here for your teammate and his precious eyes. If you stand in my way...you will die."
Naruto lowered his head and was shivering. Orochimaru smirked.
"Yesss, cower in fear like the..."
Suddenly, a barrage of kunai flew towards Orochimaru. Dodging them, he jumped further along the branch. Then a shadow clone tackled him from behind and exploded. But mud instead of blood was splattered. Naruto shunshin'd to Orochimaru's previous location and tried to sense him.
"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed. "BEHIND YOU!"
Naruto turned and frantically jumped backwards to avoid a punch. Orochimaru tried to press his advantage but a puff of smoke obscured his vision and he was tackled by another clone who immediately exploded. Once more mud fell instead of blood. Orochimaru perched on a branch pondered the situation before realizing what happened.
"Those shuriken and kunai he threw at me must have Shadow Clones under a transformation...but how is that possible? All the same...he first used them to separate me from my goal and subsequently used them to throw me off. A good plan for fighting someone who is stronger than you...interesting"
He smirked and charged at Naruto again who also had a smirk on his face.
A/N: As always, R&R.
(1) Bunshin Daibakuha: Great Clone Explosion.
(2) Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Technique.
(3) Fuin: Seal.
(4)Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu: Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique: This technique is usually used when the target is bound and can't escape. A fire dragon is produced that travels down the bindings, incinerating the target.
(5) Densetsu no Sannin: The Three Legendary Ninjas: A title bestowed on three ninjas of the leaf by Hanzo of Amegakure. They are Jiraiya; the toad summoner, Senju Tsunade; the slug summoner and Orochimaru; the snake summoner.
