A short opening note: This Chapter doesn't deviate much from the anime and manga, but writers are quite limited on how to start the chuunin exams unless it is completely overhauled, so deal with it.
Uyoku Myou
(Winds of Life/Destiny)
Part One: Entrance
Chapter 8
It was the day of the chuunin exam's first stage. Naruto was up bright and early ready to show his stuff as he ran to the academy. When he arrived, he smiled at seeing his teammates waiting for him.
"Hey Sakura-chan!" He called out waving to her, causing some anger to fester inside the pink haired kunoichi.
"Shut up Naruto! Any later and you would have made us all forfeit!" She shouted angrily.
"Really? I was up early today so I wasn't late."
"Well it is nearly 10am!" She responded quickly.
"What!? Aw man, my clock must be broken again!" Naruto defended while Sasuke scoffed at him.
"Get moving dobe." Sasuke muttered before walking into the building. Team 7 made their way up the stairs of the academy, until they heard a commotion from a group of people gathered at a room marked 302.
"Come on man, let us in, you are dimming my youthfulness!" Shouted a green clad ninja with a crazy bowl shaped haircut.
"You're too loud and stupid to be a ninja, I'm doing you a favor." Mentioned one of the guys guarding the room, before landing a kick on the green guy, sending him back to his two seemingly defenseless teammates.
'That isn't right, that other guy looks like Hinata, and she probably wouldn't be hit like that, something is off with them.' Naruto thought, but to the rest of the ninja he looked like a spaced out idiot.
"How about you morons quit fighting and get out of my way, I'm headed to room 302 not 202. That is a pitiful genjutsu, I'm sure Sakura saw it also, right?" Sasuke commented while smirking at the two guarding the door.
"Of course Sasuke-kun." She chirped, although she wasn't paying attention enough to see it right away.
"Great a rookie, what a waste." Commented the guy that kicked the green ninja. This comment pissed Sasuke off and he threw out a kick only to have it effortlessly blocked by the same green ninja that was injured before.
"We cannot fight unless specifically allowed, or we will be disqualified." The green clothed guy announced while holding the foot of the Uchiha as he eyed him with his huge eyes that only were overlooked for the crazily large eyebrows.
"I thought we weren't going to show our true strength yet." The pale eyed guy mentioned, but he wasn't paying attention, since the green clad ninja just saw Sakura and immediately jumped to her and stood on one knee grasping her hand.
"You are the epitome of loveliness, a flower that blooms even at night to shine with your beauty. I am Rock Lee, and am forever yours. May I be allowed to know the name of this lovely flower?"
"Uh, Haruno Sakura, and you are weird so stop touching." She quickly pushed him away but it didn't change the way he looked at her.
"Sakura, such a beautiful name. Would you mind coming with me on a date?"
"No, you are worse Naruto!" Sakura stormed off with Sasuke until they were halted.
"Wait, what is your name?" Asked the guy with the long dark hair.
"Isn't is customary to give your name first?" Sasuke retorted, but was quite happy to be recognized by his strength.
"Hyuuga Neji." Sasuke smirked and turned his back to him.
"Uchiha Sasuke." He responded, still having his back towards him.
Naruto watched the exchange of the two guys and was quite pissed that he was ignored like he expected after seeing all the arrogance collected into one spot. "Hey, anyone want to know my name?" he asked to break up the two's arrogance part.
"Why bother." Neji commented as the blonde passed.
"Hmm, I just thought you'd like to know the name of the guy that is going to kick everyone's asses. Oh well, your loss." Naruto wore a carefree smile as he continued with the rest of his team.
"Excuse me Neji, Tenten, there is something I must find out." Stated Lee before running off behind Team 7.
"Hey you, Uchiha." Lee called out when they entered a large room to get his attention. "I want to see just how well a natural genius stacks up against my hard work, now defend yourself." Lee jumped down off the balcony where he was standing and landed in front of team 7 when Naruto stepped forward.
"If you want a real challenge, fight me." Naruto announced with a smile.
"Nope, I'm here to fight the Uchiha only." Naruto got pissed that he was being ignored again and led out with a fist only to have Lee send out a kick to Naruto. Instead of making contact, Naruto grabbed his lightning fast kick and used its momentum to bring up both his feet into a spinning heel kick catching Lee by surprise. Naruto landed hard on his back, but smiled knowing he actually hit him, but then noticed how messed up Lee's hands were that he was trying to hide behind his bandages as he was readjusting them after the slight scuffle.
"Well that was interesting, I look forward to seeing you fight Lee, The name's Uzumaki Naruto. Your turn Sasuke." Naruto looked to his teammates and saw them looking at him with a bit of shock.
"Thank you Naruto-kun, I see you too must be a genius of hard work. Your youth shines brightly! How about it Uchiha up for a spar?"
"Fine, I've wanted to see how this works." Sasuke stepped forward and closed his eyes before opening them again with his red eyes displaying the Sharingan. Lee charged forward and offered up a quick punch, only to have it blocked with a wrist as Sasuke countered with a high left kick aimed at the bowl cut head of Lee.
"I see you can notice my attacks, but even if you can see them, you can't do anything if you aren't fast enough." Sasuke was confused by this as Lee unwrapped some bandages from his arms but quickly became aware of what he meant when he disappeared from sight only to reappear with a hard kick sending Sasuke high into the air. Lee gave chase into the air with what almost appeared to be a frog leap and appeared behind Sasuke as his bandages started to wrap around the Uchiha. Before the move was finished, Lee found his bandages pinned to the wall.
"Lee, that is a forbidden technique!" Called out a voice that came from a large turtle.
"I am so sorry." Lee called out as he started bowing at the feet of the turtle. "Please forgive me sensei."
"Uh, his sensei is a turtle?" Naruto asked lightly.
"LEE!" In a puff of smoke the turtle was gone and there stood a larger guy that looked identical to Lee with the black bowl cut hair, huge eyebrows, green spandex and orange leg guards.
"Ah they're multiplying, run!" Naruto shouted out for a joke and got a slight reaction from Sakura.
"Stand up Lee."
"Yes Gai-sensei." Immediately Lee earned a hard kick to his jaw sending him flying.
"You aren't supposed to use that unless it is unavoidable."
"Yes Gai-sensei." Lee shouted as he came back to the taller man's side.
"Oh Lee."
"Gai-sensei"
"Lee" Team 7 cringed and turned away from them when a huge scene of the setting sun at a peaceful ocean appeared behind the now hugging guys.
"Uh, this is weird even for me, let's go." Naruto suggested quickly, Sakura helped Sasuke up and they ran off for the real room 302 with plenty of haste.
"YO!" Greeted their sensei, after appearing in a cloud of smoke, when they reached for the door of room 302.
"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto and Sakura chimed together.
"You guys are cutting it close, but at least you made it. If even one of you didn't show you couldn't compete since it is a team mission."
"But why not say that at the beginning?" Naruto asked.
"Well, because then you all would have entered to not let your team down. I need you each to accept under your own free will since this is a dangerous test. Now get in the room before it starts." Kakashi disappeared in the same manner as he arrived. With him gone, Naruto anxiously reached for the door and opened it revealing a large room filled with many ninja from strange lands. The amount of ninja were intimidating to many as Naruto looked out across the room. When he saw other rookie teams, he just had to smile and meet up with them again.
"Hey Shikamaru." Naruto greeted loudly before a loud screech was heard.
"Sasuke-kun!" Immediately Ino was hanging off the Uchiha's shoulder pissing off Sakura.
"Hands off Ino-pig!"
"Oh you're just jealous be cause you didn't think of doing it first."
"Ah, much too troublesome." Shikamaru commented after seeing the two kunoichi fight.
"Oi, Kiba." Choji called out to the feral looking guy and waved to him. Team 8 was soon joining the rest of the rookies, but you could almost feel the tension between Naruto and Kiba as they were glaring at each other.
"H-hello Naruto-kun." Hinata managed out while blushing. Her almost inaudible voice snapped Naruto out of his staring contest and brought his attention to her small form.
"Hinata! Hope you have been keeping mutt boy in line, he can be quite the liar." This of course brought a glare back between the two.
"You know, since we are rookies, everyone will be gunning for us." Shikamaru stated.
"Well, I'll help that then." Naruto smiled before turning to the rest of the room. "Hey! I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gonna kick all your asses!" Shikamaru groaned and slapped his forehead with his hand at Naruto's continuing stupidity.
"You know you should keep it down, those grass ninja over there seem ready to kill you all, so I'd watch it." Mentioned a silver haired guy with glasses and Konoha headband.
"And who are you?" Naruto asked with distaste.
"My name is Kabuto, and I just happen to be an expert at the chuunin exams, I have taken it seven times." The rookies all showed signs of shock, but not so much on Shino and Sasuke.
"Is it really that hard?" Sakura asked.
"Yep, but I have something that could help. I collected information on countless opponents and organized them into info cards. Are there any ninja you would like to know about?" This peaked Sasuke's interest.
"Gaara of the Desert and Rock Lee."
"Well that is almost too easy, let's see here, ah here we go." Kabuto pulled out two cards from the deck and read what appeared on the cards. "Well Gaara has 22 D, 5C, and even one B rank completed missions. It also says that he completed all of them without a single scratch, but nothing else is known, interesting. Now Rock Lee. He is one year older than you all and his taijutsu is off the charts. He excels in speed in his attacks. Any one else?"
"How about…" Naruto though for a moment but couldn't thing of anyone he wanted to know about. "Lets see Hinata's." Said girl's face grew bright red and looked at the ground.
"Hmm, Hyuuga Hinata…" Kabuto searched his deck and pulled out the card. "Well it says here that she is in position to take over the Hyuuga clan. There is something about her childhood, but it is covered up well. She uses the Hyuuga style and might be too soft and kind for her own good."
"Hey, pull out Naruto's." Kiba spoke out after being a bit angered at him asking about Hinata.
"Fine, Uzumaki Naruto… Horrible in everything, the last of his class and almost didn't even make genin." Kiba interrupted Kabuto with a boisterous laugh.
"Well, I guess you can't fool the cards."
"Anyways, it says something about his past and…" Kabuto suddenly jumped back from the card as it burst into black and white flames. "That is unusual, I guess that means I'm not supposed to know anything else, do you know why it did that?" Naruto looked at him with a straight face.
"Not a clue…." At that moment a dark powerful presence was felt throughout the room.
"Alright morons, shut your pieholes and listen up! My name is Morino Ibiki. I will be your proctor for this part of the exam, now each of you will be handed a slip of paper with a number that corresponds to a seat in the room. There you will take your test, now lets go!" Naruto was handed his paper and was about to leave when he saw Shino blocking his way.
"Naruto… Good luck." Naruto looked down and was surprised to see the stoic bug user holding out his hand to him since he mentioned he promised his family he wouldn't touch him. Naruto smiled widely before grabbing his hand in a firm shake knowing that he must have changed his family's view of him.
"Thanks Shino, good luck to you too." Shino nodded and went to find his seat while Naruto did the same. After getting situated, Naruto cringed as he saw papers that looked like a test being handed out. "Oh no a written TEST!" Naruto shouted which made Ibiki smirk.
"Alright you maggots, this is how it will go. You will all have one hour to complete this test. When there is 15 minutes left I will give you all the 10th question. You will each start with 10 points, every time you get one wrong you will be deducted a point and if you are caught cheating I will deduct two points. Once you reach zero points you will be kicked from the room, and here's the kicker, your team follows you out. Time begins… Now."
"Let's do our b-best Naruto-kun." Naruto looked to the origin of the quiet and gentle voice and was surprised to find Hinata there, especially since he didn't notice her before.
"Yeah, sure thing Hinata." Naruto quickly turned to the test in front of him and began reading the impossible looking questions.
"Number 132 and 43 fail." Sounded a voice from one of the chuunin that were watching them from the sides of the room. Some grumbling and whining were heard as the said ninja and the rest of their teams were ushered out.
Fifteen minutes into the test and Naruto was feeling nervous. He didn't know any of the questions, but that wasn't anything new since almost all the questions he saw on tests were like that. What made matters worse was he could hear the constant ticking of pencils hitting the papers and knew he could only hope the last question was able to be handled.
"Naruto-kun." Hinata whispered quietly. "You c-can look at my paper." She scooted her test closer to him so he could see everything. "Go on." Naruto looked at her paper and smiled at his luck to be next to someone so nice to him, but then he realized she could fail since she was allowing him to cheat.
"Why are you doing this for me Hinata?" Hinata jumped a bit as his question entered her mind. She knew exactly the reason she wanted to help him, but couldn't tell him the answer. Her face turned red in embarrassment as she tried to assemble an alternate excuse.
"Well, I t-thought we all n-needed to s-stick together since w-we are all rookies." Naruto looked deep in thought for a moment before a smile spread across his face.
"I see, but don't worry about me, I'll get thought this on my own. I can't have you failing on my part. Besides, I'll never give up."
"Because that is your ninja way." She muttered quietly. Naruto was set back by that and started to contemplate the reason she knew that since he got the idea from the note he got with the kunai a few years back. 'Maybe I said something in wave when she was there, yeah, that's it!' Naruto's thoughts ended when Ibiki spoke up.
"Alright that's enough; you, this isn't a puppet show, now sit down!" he ordered while pointing at Kankuro nearly giving him a heart attack that he was found out about his use of puppets for the testing but still was allowed to stay. "Now it is time for the final question, but there is a catch. You can choose to take the question or not, it is your choice, but if you choose not to take the final question you fail."
"Well then we all will take the question, that is easy enough." Kiba shouted, trying to look tough.
"But like I said, there is a catch. If you happen to answer the question wrong, you will stay a genin forever."
"Can he really do that?" Ino questioned nobody in particular.
"I just did, now do you have what it takes to put your ninja career on the line?" Ibiki watched as the ninja were getting restless and started sweating at the choice before them. Slowly people's hands rose as they excused themselves from the room. The heavily scarred interrogation specialist was enjoying every moment of torture he put them through.
"Do your worst, I will protect everyone whether I'm a genin or the Hokage. It doesn't matter if I never reach chuunin, I will always be a ninja and protect everyone I can!" Naruto shouted. Ibiki's joy was cut short as he saw the resolve on all the remaining ninja change and knew no more would leave.
"Ok now for all you remaining; you all pass." Naruto sighed in relief and felt the stress leave his body. He knew that it was almost game over for him.
"So you mean we took this test for nothing!" Asked Temari in a shout.
"Not really. You see a ninja need to be able to put things they value the most on the line to complete their mission. And to complete some missions, you need to collect information covertly. Hence the reason for those parts of the test."
"Yeah, but why the secrecy?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, I just like seeing genin squirm." Before anyone could react to that a huge crash was heard and suddenly a banner was attached to the wall with kunai courtesy of a half dressed woman, of early twenties, that was now standing in front of it with her purple hair shining in the sunlight.
"Alright I'm Matarashi Anko, I'll be your next proctor." Anko looked around the room and didn't see Ibiki. "Hey where did Ibiki go?"
"Behind you. I see you jumped the gun again." Anko ignored Ibiki's voice and looked out at the group.
"Woah 32 teams still? Ibiki, you must be getting soft."
"No, there are just quite a few good ones this year." He responded as he came out from behind the banner.
"Whatever, I'll be sure to cut that down by more than half. Alright, all you losers follow me to training ground 44!" Anko leapt out of the window again and rushed to the training grounds with everyone following. Once the room was completely empty, Ibiki set in on picking up all the test papers and paused on one.
"He didn't even answer a single one, and I still passed him. HAHAHA." Ibiki was clearly enjoying the irony of it all and was laughing jovially. "Uzumaki Naruto, you will be an interesting one to watch."
Everyone was now gathered at the training ground awaiting the instructions to be given by the crazy jonin woman. Many of the male chuunin hopefuls were enjoying just waiting and watching her with the amount of skin she was revealing.
"Alright, this is Training Ground 44, more aptly referred to as the Forest of Death." Anko announced to the group.
"Ah come on, this forest shouldn't be so bad, it is probably just another one of those mind games." Naruto commented quietly, but not quiet enough. A flash of light was seen and a cut appeared on Naruto's face from the unseen kunai.
"Mmm, it is always the confident ones that taste so sweet." Anko commented as she licked the blood from Naruto's face, angering Hinata for touching him in such a sensual way. Naruto had to admit that it felt weird and even exciting to have a female that close and actually touching him, but he immediately got grossed out when one of the grass nin handed the kunai back to Anko with his long tongue. Anko shuddered a little at that sight, but forced herself to continue.
"Now then, like I said, less than half of you will be out of the exam after this next test, and I can guarantee it since you will have to get a scroll from another team. Half will have one type of scroll and the other will have the second. You can only complete this task and be allowed to enter the tower in the middle of the forest if you have both types of scrolls and all three members of your team. You will be fighting each other and as such killing is permitted, but not necessarily wanted. Now you must all sign a waiver so your parents can't sue me for your stupidity if you die. You have 20 minutes to think about it and sign the paper, if you aren't up to it, feel free to leave."
Everyone got their documents and disappeared in different directions to sign them in peace. Naruto walked in his own direction until he found a peaceful place to sit for a while, but a loud squeak cancelled that peace.
"Naruto-kun?" When Naruto saw Hinata sitting there on the edge of a river looking back at him, he just smiled. You couldn't help but smile when looking at such an innocent person.
"Hi Hinata. Mind if I sit with you?" She just turned red and shook her head. Taking that as it being ok, Naruto sat on the river bank next to her. "What do you think of this exam? It seems dangerous." Hinata sat quietly fidgeting with her fingers before answering.
"It isn't a safe p-place, but I'm sure we c-can survive it or we wouldn't have been selected to enter."
"Yeah I suppose you're right." Naruto sat there for a moment pondering something before speaking out again. "Hinata, why is it that I can never notice you until you say something? You are a very nice person but you need to make people aware of your presence or they might miss out on meeting you. I think you would be a great friend to anyone." Naruto ended the conversation there and got up and walked away from a stunned Hyuuga.
'Naruto-kun, you always make me happy with words like that, no matter how simple they may be.' Hinata let her mind wonder a bit longer before standing with a cheery smile on her face and ran back to hand in her waiver.
After the waivers were traded in for a scroll, all the genin were gathered for the final instructions from the sadistic jonin, Anko.
"Alright you all have three days to get to the tower in the middle of the forest or you will fail. There are 44 gates into the forest, so go pick one and wait for the door to open signaling the start of the test. Remember; treat the scrolls like sensitive documents procured from an enemy base. Now get moving, and don't die!" The teams scattered with Kiba making sure the rest of team 8 were on the opposite side as Naruto and team 7, to be sure they never met, while Shikamaru found the closest door so he didn't have to walk very far.
"Alright, Sasuke, what scroll did we get?" Naruto asked since he wasn't allowed to touch the scroll.
"Heaven, so we need an Earth one." Sasuke remained impassive as he stared at the gate until it finally opened with a buzzing sound. The second portion of the chuunin exam has begun.
All the genin took off into the forest in an all out sprint for the first 10 minutes until strategies were started, most involved going after the rookies first.
"Ah, here we are. One of those three teams of brats are coming this way. It's ambush time." Cackled a dark robed ninja as his fellow teammates joined in with his laughter.
"Shino-kun?"
"Yes, I detected them as well Hinata. Kiba stay still, I'll handle it."
"Hey you aren't the leader, why should I just stay here?" Kiba asked, wanting to show off that he is better than Naruto to impress Hinata.
"Watch." Shino told him.
"Attack!" Shouted the leader of the enemy group as he leaped from his hiding spot only to see his other teammates not following.
"Boss, there on us, everywhere!" Shouted a panicked guy. The leader looked up just in time to see hundreds of huge leach like animals fall onto them sucking out their life. "AHHHHHRRGHHH."
"Well, it sounds like someone just figured out why it is called the forest of Death." Anko commented to herself while chowing on some dango. "I should get to the tower for a better vantage point; this is going to be great!"
Ending notes:
Remember to keep any questions and ideas coming, just because I have most of it prewritten doesn't mean I can't change some stuff. Next time we should get to the Kiba vs Naruto fight in the prelims, but you'll have to wait for Chapter 10 for the real ass kicking to begin, and I'll probably rewrite what I have to make revenge all the bit sweeter. I'm hoping to get both chapter 9 and ten out sometime next week. Thanks for reading and reviews are appreciated...Later
