Chapter 8: A new era begins! The chuunin exams & new rivals
Naruto's alarm clock once again went off and he slowly got up, he had some dribble hanging from his mouth but ignoring that he slowly stopped the clock from beeping, he yawned, stretched and looked across to sasuke's bed, but again as he expected the uchiha heir had already got up, there was a sheet of manila paper on top of sasuke's bed and naruto went over to investigate.
It said: "Get your butt down to the red bridge, kakashi is waiting for us!" Naruto cursed himself for being late again but reckoned he could take his time and eat some ramen; kakashi sensei was always late anyway.
He locked the door to his and sasuke's apartment did some warming up stretches and sprinted towards the famous Shinto bridge to join his teammates.
Sasuke and Sakura were standing alone, on the bridge as usual because kakashi sensei was late, sasuke looked irritated and sakura just looked ticked off that she had arrived early again.
"Hi guys!" cried naruto giving them a friendly wave
"Hi naruto" Sakura gushed and sasuke replied a little offhandedly
"Where's sensei?" asked naruto
"Where do you think? Seriously I'm considering getting a new jounin instructor at this rate!" snapped sasuke and, feeling guilty, turned from them. Suddenly a flicker of black appeared on the bridge's roof and there appeared kakashi squatting on the roof looking down at them.
"Yo guys, sorry about being late, I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life"
"YEAH RIGHT!" snapped sakura and sasuke together; naruto just giggled and rubbed his hair. Kakashi jumped down
"I guess we can start our missions for today then"
Their first mission was helping out an old lady de-weed her garden, she instructed the genins to pull up the weeds but leave the plants that she was personally growing and went inside, sasuke got straight to it and started pulling up the weeds, after a while of hard working sasuke wondered how naruto was getting on and turned, his eyes widened comically when he saw naruto pulling up the weeds BUT also the plants that the lady had grown as well.
"Err naruto, wait a second!" gasped sasuke and ran over to the blonde idiot
"What sasuke! Don't bother me I'm on a mission" Naruto snapped again reaching down to pull out, not a weed but more plants
"That's just it, you dope, you're pulling up plants instead of weeds!" hissed sasuke trying not to shout too loud because he didn't want the lady to hear him from inside.
"Yeah right! You're telling me a bunch of lies now to stop me from getting a good mission report? What's the matter with you? Just because I'm faster than you, you think I'm an idiot" snarled naruto and ignored sasuke and continued to pull at the weeds, sasuke wrapped his hand around the plants in naruto's hand to try and stop naruto from making the biggest mistake of his life
"SASUKE get off! I'm not pulling at the plants!" roared naruto "Ever since you got back from the wave country you've been acting like a jerk" there was the sound of a door slamming and both genins stopped and fearfully turned around to look at who had came out of the house behind them, there stood the robust lady, her face was red and she had a long broom in her hands
"OI YOU LITTLE SHITS! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" she screamed spit flying from her mouth like a sprinkler
"Ermm, pulling out your weeds?" replied naruto dumbly
"THOSE AREN'T WEEDS THOSE ARE MY PLANTS, YOU GUYS BETTER GET READY FOR A POUNDING!" the lady replied back nastily and the next thing sasuke and naruto felt was the wooden broom handle descending painfully on their buttocks
"OW OW! WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL YOU OLD FAT BAT!" naruto howled as he and sasuke left the garden with their hands over their buttocks while sakura tried desperately to dissuade the land owner from going after her teammates
"You must forgive naruto, he has a mental condition, doesn't think properly, I promise to provide money to help you restore your garden back to its right condition" Sakura persuaded routinely.
After the last mission ended in a disaster sasuke decided to let naruto do things on his own, the two were forced to walk around all day with sore bums thanks to him anyway; however he was forced to save naruto from going head first down a waterfall when they went on a fishing mission.
Their last mission was to take a villager's dogs out for a walk, sasuke smartly choose the smallest dog he could find, sakura did the same but naruto, always the one to love challenges helped himself to the biggest dog of the pack. Even kakashi sensei needed to make sure that naruto was in the real world at this moment in time
"Err naruto, are you sure you want that dog?" he asked
"Of course sensei, now stop with all these lectures and let's start moving guys!" Naruto snapped back, kakashi shrugged his shoulders and they headed off, sasuke and sakura walked off easily leaving naruto to yank and pull the biggest dog along behind them.
Of course even that mission ended prematurely as well, since kakashi and sasuke had to help naruto stop the dog from going into a minefield, the dog, who ten minutes later had forgotten that naruto was its leader had decided to run off towards the dangerous field. Naruto was saved just in time and kakashi decided it was best for him to take charge of the dog for the last few minutes of its walk.
Finally all their missions came to an end a little while later, they were seen walking through a narrow alleyway behind some houses, they were all tired but naruto was feeling worst for wear, being the only team member to not complete any of his missions properly.
"Well guys this is where I'll have to leave you" Kakashi said after stopping and giving a quick glance at the sky, naruto noticed a black hawk circling around up ahead but he paid no attention, kakashi puffed and vanished leaving sasuke, sakura and naruto alone
"Hi sasuke! Want to go out to the bbq restaurant tonight?" asked sakura
"No I'm sorry I have to train, another time okay" sasuke replied stiffly as he always do when people preferred pleasure over training "Naruto are you coming?"
"No. Actually sakura do you want to go out with me? I'm not doing much" Naruto suggested, sakura turned heatedly towards naruto and answered
"No I wouldn't, you put me in a shitty position today with that villager, why don't you think naruto? You can be such a burden sometimes"
"So can you" said a voice, sakura turned confused and saw sasuke staring coldly at her
"What?" asked sakura upset as she put her hand to her mouth trying not to cry
"Instead of scolding naruto, why don't you focus on your moves once in a while, to be honest you're even worst than naruto, all bark but no bite" said sasuke coldly, sakura felt like she had been punched in the stomach with a hammer, she tried not to cry as sasuke walked off but she felt angry at sasuke at calling her weak and envious at naruto was deserving of sasuke's trust for absolutely nothing else than simply because they live together.
While sakura was basically trying not to cry in front of him, naruto sensed a presence behind him, a rectangular rock was moving around behind him, sighing in annoyance he pointed to the rock
"Rectangle rocks, come on this is getting too obvious konohamaru!" Naruto cried, konohamaru had come onto the scene after he had graduated from the academy, basically he was the hokage's grandson but naruto didn't care about his status, he was konohamaru to him and nobody else, konohamaru looked up to naruto and viewed him as a rival for the tittle of hokage, one day they had promised to battle for the tittle but at the moment, konohamaru was just an academy student and couldn't even disguise himself as a passable rock.
"Hehehe you saw through my technique again boss, as I would expect from my greatest rival" replied a muffled boyish voice and immediately there came a blinding light, naruto thought this was a super attack and went into a fighting stance but it was just gunpowder and it had gone wrong, three small kids lay coughing on the ground in front of naruto, the middle one, a black punk haired boy was konohamaru himself
"I'm moegi the coolest kunoichi in preschool!" announced the little girl with orange hair, red cheeks and beady black eyes wearing a pair of goggles on her head, wearing a flowery top and a skirt.
"I love algebra call me udon!" introduced a bespectacled short dark brown haired boy with snot hanging off his nose, wearing goggles also
"And I'm the number one ninja in the village, konohamaru" konohamaru said "And together we are the konohamaru ninja corps!"
"Yeah hi!" Naruto said aloofly, the group nearly fell over by naruto's off hand greeting
"Naruto come on, we were looking everywhere for you, do you want to play ninja with us?" asked konohamaru
"HA! A ninja playing ninja, that's pathetic!" said a voice behind naruto and the small kids, naruto turned and saw sakura coming towards him looking dark eyed
"Hi sakura, yeah well it's a good game to play with them, extra training for them you see" Naruto babbled trying to disguise his unease at her staring at him, she looked sexy when she was angry
"Boss what's the big deal, you never said anything about training?" asked konohamaru naively, he looked at sakura eyeing naruto up and back at naruto who was trying not to blush, konohamaru suddenly misinterpreting nudged naruto knowingly.
"OH its ok boss you don't have to keep secrets from me you know" whispered konohamaru smirking slightly
"What?" asked naruto
"I know she's your girlfriend!" konohamaru blurted out poking his finger into the circle his other hand had created suggesting an intimate position, sakura's eyebrows immediately knotted together in anger at the rude suggestion and didn't even wait for naruto to brief konohamaru discreetly before she soccer punched naruto so hard he got lifted backwards and smacked into the fence beside them
"OMG! What kind of girlfriend are you? you big forehead freak!" snarled konohamaru, he was a kid determined to stick up for his senior in years but konohamaru made the mistake of attacking sakura's appearance and he would regret it, sakura immediately turned from being calm into a terrifying girl from the exorcist and began sprinting towards konohamaru at high speed.
Frightened to death, konohamaru made a run for it and bumped into a strange boy of around 13 or 15, he wore face make up and mascara on his eyes and a black jumpsuit that made him look like a cat standing on its two feet, behind him stood a fit looking girl with blonde hair in two ponytails and crystal blue eyes, around the girl's waist and on the boy's head was displayed a headband with a strange symbol on it.
"Ouch that hurt you little runt" snarled the boy aggressively, the girl didn't look too friendly either, naruto and sakura knew there was going to be trouble.
"Say sorry you snot nosed brat!" threatened the black suited boy holding konohamaru up by the scruff of his neck, slightly choking him
"Let him go! His just a kid!" roared naruto standing up immediately, the boy stopped threatening konohamaru and just looked at naruto, naruto couldn't afford to let konohamaru get hurt and made a dash for the stranger, suddenly there appeared a pain in his foot and naruto yelped and was back on the ground, sakura tried to reason with the newcomers.
"Listen his just a child, please forgive him, its all my fault really"
"You guys…are annoying" replied the youth, naruto and sakura became as still as statues in fear
"After I deal with this brat, I'm going to kill all of you" the boy snarled and he brought his fist back, held konohamaru away from his chest preparing to punch the small kid in the stomach, suddenly he cried in pain as a rock smashed painfully into his wrist, another rapped his knuckles making him drop konohamaru, konohamaru fell and quickly crawled backwards towards naruto, the boy in front looked up at a tree where he predicted the rocks had come from and there sat sasuke on a tree branch throwing a stone up and down in his hand coolly.
"Sasuke!" cried naruto in relief
"You guys are like bugs, always creeping out of nowhere, you in the tree get down here and fight me!" roared the boy still clutching his hand
"Leave us alone" sasuke replied crushing the stone in his hand to dust
"Go on sasuke, beat him to a pulp!" shouted konohamaru and the little kids
"Kankurou, that's enough" said a nasally voice, sasuke's eyes widened as he realised there was someone on a branch on the other side of the tree he was occupying, turning to look around the tree he saw a kid perched upside down from a branch, he had very short red hair, mascara painted eyes and black stone cold eyes, he was pale with a slight tint of a tan in his skin and he wore a desert garb with a gourd on his back
"Oh, hello gaara, how is it going?" asked the boy called kankurou casually
"I'm going to kill you" hissed gaara
"It was just a bit of fun gaara, just fun, we're leaving now ok" Kankurou said panicking slightly, sweat pouring down his face, sasuke noticed how pent up and nervous this guy made his comrades and knew immediately he must be powerful
"Nobody is this smooth with their chakra other than kakashi sensei, this guy, his powerful" sasuke thought, gaara vanished in a whirlwind of sand and appeared on the ground beside kankurou and without another word between them they started to leave.
"Wait! What's your name!" cried sasuke jumping off the tree, misinterpreting the blonde haired girl of the trio turned and said flirtatiously
"Are you talking to me sweety?"
"No the guy with the gourd on his back, I want an introduction" Sasuke replied pointing to the mysterious red haired boy in front, the boy whose name was supposedly gaara turned and answered
"I am gaara of the desert this is my brother and sister, Temari and Kankurou and I'm interested in you too, what is your name?"
"I'm sasuke Uchiha" said sasuke proudly not bothering to introduce his team at all. Naruto narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"Hey you want to know my name?"
"I really don't care what your name is" Gaara replied and started to walk off, naruto saw Temari sticking around looking at sasuke and jumped in front of her.
"By the way sexy, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future hokage and the strongest ninja in the leaf village, believe it!" naruto announced coyly.
"Ha-ha, you're funny" Temari said scornfully and walked away.
"Hold on! I can see from your headbands, that you hail from the hidden sand village, of course the land of fire and the land of wind are allies, but no shinobi can enter another's village, without permission!, so state your purpose and it better be good!" interrupted sakura, the trio stopped walking abruptly.
"You guys don't know about the exams do you?" Temari replied "We have permission and you're right, we are sand genin, our home is the hidden sand village and we're here for the chuunin exams, get the picture sister?"
"The chunnin exams" sakura whispered
"What are they?" asked naruto a little slow as always.
"Boss those are the exams every genin needs to take in order to become a chuunin" konohamaru said matter of factly.
"Man that's so cool, I can't wait for it" Naruto replied excitedly and continued to pound konohamaru for more information.
(The next day)
The next day found team seven standing on the red bridge, they had seen kakashi sensei's black crow flying over where they had bumped into the mysterious sand genin a while ago and headed straight over to where they usually met their sensei,
"Chuunin exams, chuunin exams, hey sasuke I bet you're excited right" naruto sang
"Of course these exams sound interesting" sasuke replied smiling.
Kakashi arrived a few minutes later, again told them some stupid excuse for his lateness and he jumped down and produced three leaflets.
"These are consent forms for the chuunin exams that are just around the corner in July, I hope you guys don't mind but I took the liberty of signing team seven up for them" Kakashi explained giving out the leaflets.
"Kakashi sensei! Thank you" cried naruto joyfully and jumped into kakashi's arms.
"Hey don't slobber on the vest!" snapped kakashi and put naruto down, he then continued "Now I'll give all of you 2 days to make up your minds on whether you want to compete or not, if you decide to participate the enrolment date is three days from now in the academy building on the third floor, I hope you all decide to do it because you will not only be improving team working skills but your own individual skills as well and seeing how you flare against other genins your own age, now that's about it, you are free to go home"
"Man! I can't believe it! This exam sounds so cool!" whispered naruto as he and sasuke made their way back to their apartment "sasuke we have to work and train hard you hear"
"I hear you there; starting tomorrow I'm going to start more intense training" sasuke replied "By the way what's in the fridge for dinner?"
"Ramen" replied naruto.
"Should have known" sasuke sighed.
The next day saw millions of different genin from different villages arriving in the city; naruto looked out from the balcony in nothing but his green shorts and white t-shirt at the slow moving crowds filing into the village from the big gates.
"Sasuke! They're here! I see sound ninjas, ninjas from the grass, rain, mist from all over!" Naruto cried.
"Well dope, it is an international competition, it says so on the leaflet" said sasuke calmly, he was used to naruto getting overexcited over the simplest things; he was getting ready to go training already.
"Hey are you coming for a training session?" asked sasuke impatiently.
"Nah I promised the konohamaru corps that I'll play ninja with them again" Naruto replied still looking at the crowd of teams walking around outside.
"Ok, just make sure you get some kind of training in won't you" sasuke said and closed the door behind him.
A few hours later naruto arrived at the red bridge, konohamaru, moegi and udon were waiting for him excitedly.
"Naruto! Big bro!" called konohamaru waving to get naruto's attention, naruto who thought he could sense something brushed it off and waved at the youngsters, they came running up to him.
"So you're still on for playing ninja?" asked konohamaru
"Yeah, believe it, you won't escape from me this time" Naruto cried enthusiastically
"Ok then, on the count of 3 we'll go, 1, 2 – hey what the!" began konohamaru, then he broke off abruptly when the small boy found his and teammates' path blocked by a tall guy with a traveller's conical hat on, a pair of blue robes on and a grey overcoat, he had on the headband of the hidden waterfall village, he had half his face covered by a grey cloth and he giggled cruelly and grabbed moegi.
"Oi! You let moegi go you big ape!" konohamaru screamed waving an angry fist at the stranger.
"You'll have to catch me first!" boomed the stranger and immediately he starting sprinting away into the nearby forest.
"Moegi!" cried konohamaru and sprinted after the stranger.
"You're in luck you big oaf, I wanted to start training anyhow!" Naruto said and ran after konohamaru and udon.
A while later naruto found the mysterious stranger in a forest clearing; he had tied moegi to a tree and was standing guard near to her with a kunai pointed threateningly at her throat.
"Oi what do you think you're doing?" roared naruto angrily
"What am I doing? Are you really asking me that question? I guess you don't want to see this girl alive any time soon!" the stranger snickered.
"What girl? All I see is two dummies, you and the one next to you!" replied naruto grinning widely, the stranger looked to the tree and saw that moegi had disappeared and instead there was a straw puppet tied to the tree in her place.
"Up here!" said a voice and the stranger looked up and was amazed to see naruto standing with moegi on a tree branch not far away from them.
"Amazing, his speed" the stranger thought to himself "He was able to find us and to create a substitution jutsu that fast?" he paused and giggled "I must admit I'm quite shocked, it looks like you leaf ninja are quite impressive, but beware of the exam, they are much deadlier than this, I can assure you, we'll see how you do"
And with that he vanished.
"Hey boss why didn't you catch him?" cried konohamaru looking at a embarrassed naruto.
"Don't worry mate, I will see him again at the chunnin exams" Naruto said edgily with narrowed eyes.
Naruto took the three academy kids back to the city and told them that he had to postpone their game for that day, they weren't happy but naruto could sense something was up and went to check on sasuke, he was relieved when he saw the uchiha heir coming from the forest looking relatively okay.
"Naruto did you see a ninja from the grass village on your wonderings?" asked sasuke alarmingly
"YES! He tried to kidnap moegi but its okay he vanished and moegi is safe" naruto replied, suddenly he became worried "Oh no what about sakura? I have a feeling this guy has a thing for leaf ninjas"
"Come on let's check to see if she's home" sasuke said, naruto was surprised the uchiha was as worried as he was, maybe the apathetic boy could change.
They went to sakura's house and asked her mum if she was home.
"Sasuke" sakura's mom cried fearfully "I thought sakura went out with you"
"Oh no, sakura" Naruto began but sasuke interrupted.
"Its okay ma'am, I just lost her in town, I'll find her" and he and naruto went to look around konoha immediately.
They were lucky to find sakura coming from the training grounds looking as cool as a cucumber after spending at least an hour looking for her.
"Hi guys, what's up?" she asked
"Naruto was worried about you" sasuke replied turning uninterested again, naruto looked at sasuke feeling betrayed and nervously nodded.
"Well there's nothing to be worried about, I was just training, I'm going home now" sakura replied looking confused and she walked passed sasuke and naruto into town.
"Sakura!" cried naruto, sakura stopped.
"What?" she asked
"Did you see anyone when you were training?" asked naruto not looking at sakura to stop himself from blushing madly.
"Welll I did see a bird and a few squirrels, other than that, no I didn't, goodbye sasuke, naruto" sakura replied and continued on her way home.
"I guess he was just after us then?" asked naruto as sasuke and him returned to their apartment that night.
"I figure that's it, by targeting stronger team members and injuring them, it makes it harder for us to compete in the chunnin exams" sasuke assumed.
"But sensei said we had a choice to compete or not" Naruto said
"Use your brain, anyone wearing a ninja headband is considered a rival in these tournaments, I suppose there will be some ninja that will want to cheat to make the competition more easier, think about what happened yesterday with gaara" Sasuke scolded, naruto looked worried then and then he became excited.
"I guess I have no reason to back out from this tournament after all, it sounds more and more exciting by the minute!"
"Stop it, you're making me excited too, my main target is Gaara, he looks like a good challenge" sasuke whispered.
"Then bring it on then, the chuunin exams!" Naruto cried excitedly.
The end
