Chapter 8

1234567890

Freaking Out Gaara and Poor Iruka-Sensei

1234567890

Naruto headed after Konohamaru, who ran around the corner. Just as Naruto rounded the corner he heard Konohamaru's "Oomph!" and then cursing.

"Shit, I forgot about the Sand Siblings," Naruto cursed, quietly.

"You little brat!" Kankuro yelled, holding Konohamaru by his scarf. Naruto charged.

"Hey doll-boy!" Kankuro looked up only to be punched in the face by Naruto, who then snatched Konohamaru away from him, "You do realize this is the Hokage's grandson, right? You wouldn't want to start a war, now would you?" Kankuro and Temari both froze at the word 'war'.

"And who the hell are you?" Kankuro yelled.

"A friend…so far," Naruto said, before turning his eyes to one of the tree's on the side of the path, "Coming down any time soon, Gaara-kun?" Kankuro and Temari tensed up as Gaara appeared in front of them, facing Naruto. Both of them currently thinking that the blonde was screwed.

"Who are you?" Gaara said, coldly.

"Naruto…I'm like you…only mine is stronger…Tell me, how is dear old Shukaku doing? Still insane and causing sleep deprivation?" Temari and Kankuro backed away slowly. Gaara just stared. Naruto mentally giggled, knowing that Gaara was inwardly going nuts.

'Who is he?' 'KILL HIM! I WANT HIS BLOOD!' I bet you can guess who those two are.

"Tell Shu-chan, Kyuu-chan says hello, and not to cause any trouble," Naruto said, still grinning. Konohamaru, now sitting on Naruto's shoulders, blinked in confusion.

He's still going to cause trouble. Kyuubi.

Who is? Sakura.

Shukaku. Naruto.

Gaara's 'special' friend? Sasuke.

That would be the one. Kyuubi.

I could kick his ass! Black Sakura.

Heel, girl! Sakura. Black Sakura blew a mental raspberry.

"How…?" Gaara asked, interrupting the mental commentary.

"Same way as you, I suppose," Naruto said, "Although the one that did mine was male, and quite a bit more intelligent."

Cute too. Kyuubi.

I didn't need to know that. Naruto.

Kankuro prepared to use his chakra strings on Naruto, to see if he could get Gaara to kill the blonde. Before he could do so, he was hit in the head with a rock, courtesy of Sasuke. A few seconds later, a red flash attached itself to Gaara's waist.

"Oh, hi Shu-kun," Kyuubi said, talking to Gaara's stomach. All shinobi present sweatdropped, Konohamaru blinked in confusion again, and Shukaku started to freak out.

'NOOOOOOOO! ANYONE BUT HER! RUN AWAY!' Gaara felt the urge to do just that, unfortunately for him, Kyuubi's grip was to strong. Instead his eye started twitching. Temari and Kankuro started backing away even more. Sakura and Black Sakura caught up about this time.

"What the hell?" Black Sakura asked.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," Sasuke said.

"Not everyone can be super idiots like you Sasu-chan," Naruto teased. Sakura bonked him on the head.

"It's Sasu-kun to you, until you…well, you know," Sakura said, trailing off.

"No way," Konohamaru said to Naruto, "You and the Uchiha?"

"And we would appreciate that not getting out," Naruto and Sasuke said at the same time.

"Whoa," Konohamaru said, shivering, "Creepy much." By this time, Sakura and Black Sakura had managed to pull Kyuubi off of Gaara, who was currently twitching and foaming slightly at the mouth.

"Um…"Naruto said, to Temari and Kankuro, "I think you need to get your brother some help." Gaara continued to twitch.

"Right," Temari said, grabbing one arm, and motioning for Kankuro to get the other one.

"Well, that was fun," Naruto said, watching the two of them drag Gaara (still twitching) away, "Anybody for some ramen?" Konohamaru cheered, while the others groaned.

1234567890

"Are there any other nominees for the Chunin exams?" Sarutobi asked. The three rookie genin instructors stepped forward.

"I, Kurenai Yuuhi, nominate Team 8: Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame."

"I, Asuma Sarutobi, nominate Team 10: Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi."

"I, Kakashi Hatake, nominate Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sakura Haruno."

"B-but they just graduated from the Academy," Iruka said.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, Iruka-sensei," Sarutobi said, "considering who their instructors are. Although, I am curious about one thing…I don't usually ask this, but…who do you believe is the strongest member of your team?"

"I believe Kiba is," Kurenai said, "strength wise, anyway. Shino and Hinata are not far behind him, and Hinata has been getting steadily stronger since she got a locket from a friend, but she won't say who it was."

"Ino is definitely the strongest member of my team," Asuma said, "Having to put up with Shikamaru and Choji (had Ino been there she would have given Asuma a pointed look that clearly said 'and you') all day."

"Had you asked my a few months ago, I would have said Sasuke," Kakashi said, "But Naruto is definitely the strongest of the three of them, no matter how 'shared' their strength is." Several of the jounin and chunin there started murmuring, both about how the 'Demon Brat' was the stronger than the Uchiha Survivor, and the emphasis that Kakashi put on the word 'shared'. Sarutobi chuckled.

"Yes, Naruto told me about that…apparently you fainted upon finding out," he said, chuckling again. Kakashi scowled.

"I prefer the term 'passed out', thank you," Kakashi said. Sarutobi chuckled again.

1234567890

Kakashi appeared behind a grumbling Iruka.

"If it bother's you so much, why don't you test them," Kakashi said, causing the chunin to jump.

"T-test?"

"Test them to see if they're ready by your standards…It won't change my mind, but perhaps it will make you feel better." With that, Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving Iruka slightly confused.

1234567890

After an enormous amount of begging from Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon (the last two had shown up the instant the word 'ramen' was said), it was decided that they would go have ramen for lunch. Two hours later the group split up again. Sasuke and Sakura both went in separate directions to train (this time Black Sakura went with Sasuke and Kyuubi stayed with Sakura as Kyuubi had knowledge of medical jutsu that had died out over the centuries), leaving Naruto and the Konohamaru Corps to continue playing Tickle the Academy Students.

"Aiiiiiiiieeeeee!" Naruto turned to see an 'Ame nin' making off with a screaming Moegi.

'What the…Iruka-sensei!' Naruto mentally grinned before taking off after his disguised teacher.

"Go get him, boss!" Udon yelled.

"Yeah, kick his ass!" Konohamaru added.

"Too easy," Naruto said, speeding up, and biting his thumb…a few seconds later, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" An ice blue, two-tailed fox appeared from the smoke, and Naruto hopped onto her back.

"Ready Koori?" Naruto asked.

"Hai, Naruto-sama."

"Good…get me up close, and nothing too permanent, alright…" Naruto trailed off hearing the evil cackle coming from the fox. He shivered. Iruka, disguised as the Ame nin looked back and sweatdropped.

'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…' With the help of the fox, Naruto had nearly closed the distance between them.

"Kawarimi no Jutsu!" In a two poofs of smoke, Moegi was riding on Koori's back, and Naruto was in Moegi's place. The increase in weight caused Iruka to go off balance and he hit the ground with Naruto. The two of them rolled away from each other and both of them pulled out a kunai, then charged. Naruto grinned mischievously. During the two weeks that they had been repairing and building the bridge, he had convinced Haku to teach him how to use one-handed hand signs…needless to say, Iruka was very surprised when Naruto managed to pull off his infamous jutsu.

"Oiroke no Jutsu!" Seeing a naked blonde woman with big breasts in the place of his student, made poor Iruka get a humongous nose bleed and go flying.

"Haha! I got you, Iruka-sensei!" The illusion dispelled as Iruka lifted his head up.

"You knew it was me?" Naruto only grinned in reply. Iruka groaned as his head fell back down, mumbling, "He's ready."

1234567890

Sasuke blinked as Black Sakura grinned and disappeared.
"What the hell?"

"Hello Sasuke-kun," A voice from one of the trees said. A few moments later and several shuriken had hit the tree trunk right next to the face of the voice's owner.

"Tell me who you are, and what you want, or the next ones won't miss," Sasuke growled, activating the Sharingan.

Heads up guys. I just got 'tested' by Iruka-sensei. You may be next. Naruto.

"The Sharingan already, hmm?" the voice said, "You could have had it mastered by now in our village. We know you're searching for power to kill your brother with…"

"And I assume you believe you can give me this…power…that you speak of?" Sasuke scoffed, "I have all the power I need here. Besides, it's not my brother that I want to kill." With that Sasuke turned and walked away, pausing and turning around only long enough to throw a few Kunai at the voice, then turning and walking away again.

"OW! Dammit!" he heard.

Yeah. That was definitely Iruka-sensei alright. Hehhehheh. Sasuke.

(Sigh) What did you do to him? Naruto.

Kunai. Sasuke.

Where at? Sakura.

Hehe. Not sure. Sasuke.

Poor Iruka-sensei. Naruto.

1234567890

Kyuubi disappeared with a poof of smoke. Sakura sighed.

'I guess is my turn to be 'tested'. And I almost had that jutsu down too.'

"Good evening, Sakura-chan," a voice said from one of the trees.

"Evening…what do you want?"

"Not very polite…"

"I'm not polite unless I'm happy, and I'm not happy that you made my teacher disappear."

"Oh…what if I could show you a better teacher? Sasuke-kun has already agreed."

"That must mean you have Naruto too, then, right?"

"Uh…"

"You don't? Well…I find it hard to believe you have Sasuke without Naruto. Nothing could separate those two…not even a demon." Sakura felt the owner of the other voice tense. 'Yep…definitely Iruka-sensei…and I'm probably going to feel bad about this tomorrow.' With that thought Sakura appeared in front of a disguised Iruka and gave him her best chakra-enhanced punch to the face. Sakura winced slightly as he went flying.

"Poor Iruka-sensei," she said, repeating Naruto's earlier words, "He just isn't getting a break today."

Well, my test is over. Sakura.

Do I even want to know what you did to poor Iruka-sensei? Naruto.

Doubtful. Sakura.

I suppose we could stop by tomorrow and apologize for kicking his ass? Sasuke.

Sounds like a plan. Sakura.

1234567890

Kakashi found Iruka a few minutes later, on the roof of the chunin's house.

"So," Kakashi said, "How did they do?" Iruka glared up at him and groaned. "I'll take that as a 'they passed with flying colors'." Iruka groaned again. Kakashi chuckled, before picking up the battered chunin and taking him inside.

1234567890

Gaara's still twitching, just to let you all know. And yes, I am well aware that Haku is a boy people, however, I like writing Haku as a girl. If Haku as a girl offends you, go read Gaara's New Family, Haku'll be a boy in that one. Continue to vote for Last Chap and Epilogue posted together or apart…again, either way, you're probably going to hate for the last chap. Read and Review, please! Smiles!

Rune

Last Chapter and Epilogue posted TOGETHER - 5 votes

Last Chapter and Epilogue posted SEPARATELY - 4 votes