Still don't, no, no, still don't owns it preciousss; we don't own it precious, no we don'tses
Plucking Strings
"The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument." - Henry David Thoreau
As Team Seven walked into the academy for the first day of the Chuunin exams, Naruto stuck towards the back of the trio. If one didn't know them very well, they might have thought he was on his own, just trailing behind a young couple. His hood was up as per usual, but for a change his orange-tinted goggles weren't hanging around his neck but actually up on his eyes. This, combined with the slight decline of his head and the way his hood shadowed his eyes, hid where he was looking so he was safe to scout about. He did this because the Suna team was not the only foreign group he had seen skulking around Konoha in the past few days and he wanted to learn as much about the competition as he could.
So as he saw his teammates turn off on the second floor to head toward the room marked 301 he almost wanted to sigh in disappointment. Honestly, he at least expected Sasuke to spot the Genjutsu; if nothing else but because he should have been familiar with the academy building and where room 301 was. He was quickly proven wrong though as Sasuke practically blurted out the presence of the Genjutsu, Sakura naturally going along with him as the blond watched on from the end of the hall.
A bit of arrogant confidence Naruto could accept; it wasn't exactly out of character for the Uchiha. However, he drew the line when a young spandex'd youth offered to spar with Sasuke, right before an exam they knew nothing about.
"Ahem."
Sakura nearly jumped as Naruto, who she had nearly forgotten about thanks to him trailing behind a good few feet as they walked to the academy, appeared behind them. The youth, who had identified himself as Rock Lee, took in the newcomer with his large and oddly round eye,s and gave a bright, twinkling smile.
"Ah, you must be Uchiha Sasuke's other teammate. It is very nice to meet you!" Normally that would have come across as a fairly normal greeting, however with Lee's extremely exuberant attitude, flamboyant green clothing and shining bowl cut… let's just say Naruto took a subtle step back. "I was just asking your most hip teammate if he would like to pit his title as prodigy against me, a genius of hard work!"
Naruto blinked once, although the gesture was lost with all the ways he was hiding his eyes, as Lee offered his hand; he seemed rather insistent.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he offered somewhat blandly, as he tried to dampen the over-enthusiastic hand shake before the bushy-eyed boy could dislocate his shoulder. "But if you'll excuse us, we have to go to the correct room now."
Lee's smile seemed to waver a moment as his gaze flickered to Sasuke.
"But, we were to pit out flames of youth against one another."
Naruto quickly broke the handshake, placing his hands in his pockets as he gazed lazily at the boy.
"We do not know what awaits us in the Chuunin exams, needless injury in a spar would only hinder us. I'm sure if you are indeed a genius of hard work…" Naruto felt strange just saying the phrase "…then there will be ample opportunity within the exams themselves to fight Sasuke."
For a moment Lee seemed indecisive before his bright grin returned. With an enthusiastic nod he gave the trio an energetic thumbs up.
"You are right Naruto-san; truly your flames of youth burn-" Anything else the garishly dressed teen could say was cut off by a rather vicious chop to the back of the head by a girl of similar age. Her brown hair was styled into two buns, almost resembling panda ears.
"Shut it Lee, you're going to make us late at this rate!" The girl warned in a shrill, irritated voice before turning to team seven with an apologetic smile and a quick bow. "Sorry about Lee, you know his type." She poked herself in the temple and gave them an almost conspiratorial look. "He's a bit touched in the head." She motioned behind her congenially to the boy who, like Naruto, had been skulking at the back of their group. The eyes and the stiff posture, not to mention the long, traditionally styled hair, gave him away as a Hyuuga.
"I'm Tenten and he's Neji; I guess we'll see you guys in the chuunin exams. Good luck I suppose." The last part wasn't said with much energy and Neji didn't seem to share the sentiment as he looked at the trio haughtily. Naruto knew the type, he had received many a similar look from the villagers when he was young. If he didn't let that get to him, ignoring this particular Hyuuga's look of distain was child's play. For a second his pale eyes seemed rather intently focused on both Sasuke and Naruto, before glancing away. At that, the two teams parted ways, Tenten practically dragging Lee one way while Team Seven headed for the other set of stairs.
"Why did you stop us fighting?" Sasuke muttered as he walked to catch up with Naruto who was uncharacteristically leading them through the academy; mostly to stop them having impromptu conversations again.
"I already said; we don't know what's waiting for us in room 301, tiring yourself out wouldn't have helped in any situation." Seeing that Sasuke didn't look particularly satisfied Naruto just sighed and turned his head to him. "Why? Did you think tall, green and bushy was going to offer much of a challenge?" It was a bit unfair, as Naruto had no idea of the Genin's abilities but, as Sakura snickered at the nickname, Sasuke seemed mollified. It caused the blond to quickly shake his head; Sasuke was just too predictable sometimes. Reassure him of his own inflated self-image and he was content to ignore anything he saw as beneath him.
"Ah well done, you all made it," Kakashi drawled from behind them as they crested the stairs, surprising all three Genin and causing Sakura to nearly jump in shock.
"Ah Kakashi-Sensei, don't do that!" She shrieked, as she held a hand to her chest, irritation clearly spreading across her reddened features.
"Hmm, did you say something Sakura?" Kakashi muttered as he raised an eye from his book, clearly trying to be irritating for the sake of it as he immediately lowered it to look at them. "But in any case, it was a good thing all three of you came. If even one of you hadn't, none would have been allowed to participate."
That was an interesting nugget of information and briefly Naruto wondered if all villages did their Chuunin exams like that. He suspected not. Konoha always did seem extra focused on the whole 'teamwork' thing.
"Well, I came to wish my cute little students all good luck. So, ja ne." He gave a cheeky wave and his signature smile before vanishing into a small whirlwind of leaves, leaving three flustered Genin behind.
They got over it quickly enough and made their way into the examination room. Thankfully, because they hadn't wasted time with Rock Lee, they were relatively early so their entrance wasn't really noted. There were a few other teams milling about, mostly sticking in groups composed of their own villages. Naruto took the opportunity to break away from his teammates while they were distracted by all the new faces and seamlessly slipped into a nearby group of Ame genin over by a wall. It was times like these his non-descript attire and lack of visible headband came in useful.
Soon, he was able to observe people slowly filter into the room. The tense atmosphere became thicker and thicker with each new entrant. It was amusing to watch his teammates flounder a moment when they realised he had vanished but it was quickly overridden with irritation as the rest of their generation promptly arrived.
"Sasuke-kun!" Ino's shrill squeak sounded out through the entire room, cutting any chat that there might have been as they all set their sights on the fresh meat. Kurenai's squad quickly joined Asuma's in drawing large amounts of attention to themselves. Naruto was content to keep his head low as he slipped through the crowd, not having to be nearby to hear what they were talking about. He could have fooled himself and said he was information gathering, but with nobody talking anymore except the rookies, that would have come across fairly weak. In reality he was searching for anybody with an aura similar to that red-haired boy he had seen on the street before. Something told him to be wary around those types until he knew exactly what he was dealing with.
Eventually some grey-haired kid a few years their senior came over to tell the rookies just what kind of a ruckus they were making. The others of his year group seemed to get the idea when they turned to the rest of the room and found practically everybody glaring at them; even Naruto couldn't resist joining in from the back. As they quietened down and the general din of the room picked back up he slipped back through the throngs of people until he was right next to the little group. Apparently, the newcomer, Kabuto if he heard right, was offering them information on the other participants; that was an opportunity Naruto couldn't pass up.
"So, who would you like information on?" Kabuto quietly asked as he slid his specacles further up his nose. Sasuke looked ready to step in and ask but Naruto beat him to it as he silently slipped out of the crowd and appeared by the dark-haired boy's side.
"Everyone."
More than a few of the rookie's jumped at his sudden appearance while Shikamaru just seemed mollified to finally spot him, having previously been looking for the elusive blond enigma. Kabuto on the other hand merely started, blinking rapidly as he looked down at the deck of info-cards in confusion.
"Sorry? Did you say everyone?"
Naruto nodded curtly, a small smile flickering over his features as he looked up and pulled down his goggles.
"You said you had information on most of the exam participants, surely you would be willing to share it with your kohai? The more Konoha Genin pass, the better for the village's image, right?"
Kabuto seemed to just gulp, not having expected this and nervously passed the cards between his hands.
"Well, you see…" Suddenly though it didn't seem to be an issue as he turned his hands over only to realise they were empty. Naruto was already flicking through the deck, looking at each card curiously and turning them over. "Hey wait, I need-" In a strange stroke of luck for the blond though, Kabuto was suddenly forced to jump back as the Oto Shinobi he had previously insulted, albeit unintentionally, decided to attack. Naruto looked up to see Kabuto bend back from a rather clumsy strike from a hunched over boy wearing bandages around his face.
He blinked at the seemingly ineffective attack, as well as the odd contraption on the boy's arm Naruto's eyes were already trying to pick apart. A moment later and his curiosity was only piqued as Kabuto's cocky smile quickly turned into one of shock as his glasses cracked and he crumpled to the floor, vomiting violently. As the Sound Genin made some taunting remark, the front of the room exploded into a cloud of dark smoke that quickly dissipated to reveal a set of stern-looking shinobi.
"There will be no fighting in my exam hall," spoke the tall, bald man at the centre of the new group in a gruff, no-nonsense voice; his long dark trench coat only added to his intimidating aura. "Any found doing so will be immediately disqualified."
Suitably cowed, the Sound trio melted back into the crowd, allowing Kabuto to try and pick himself back up.
"Now, welcome to the Chuunin exams maggots, I am your worst nightmare, your first proctor, Morino Ibiki." The entire room shuddered as the man smiled, a vicious gleam in his eyes.
In short order the Chuunin proctors that had arrived with Ibiki ushered the assembled Genin to their seats. Obviously they had gone to some trouble to make sure that all of the teams were as equally distributed from one another as possible. Naruto barely noticed though as he had figured out the trick to the info cards and was currently flicking through them leisurely. Of great interest to him was the Oto-nin that had attacked Kabuto, however, when he located that particular card he found it frustratingly lacking, no doubt due to the small and recent nature of their village.
He kept an ear out for the rules of the exam, having already worked out it would involve some kind of written challenge from the arrangement of the room. They sounded rather standard, so as he received the test he felt ready to begin, for all of four seconds. One look at the questions revealed they were incredibly advanced, only increasing in difficulty as they went on. Oddly enough, when he thought back on the rule about the total points of the team allowing them to pass, he realised how ridiculously simple the exam was.
Luckily for him the first question was a relatively simply cryptograph sequence, mostly logic involved, so he cracked it in short order before proceeding to turn over the exam and lean back in his chair. He got a few odd looks from the exam proctors at 'finishing' so quickly but he didn't get the big deal. Ibiki had clearly said that they would pass if none of their team received zero points, so as long as Sakura and Sasuke at least got one answer, which he was sure they were capable of, they had passed. He almost wanted to chuckle as he spotted a few Genin almost tearing their hair out from the stress of the exam.
For a while he returned to flipping through the deck of info cards, trying to match names to faces as he glanced about at the Genin he could see. As teams were eliminated by the proctors for cheating, which was slowly beginning to re-work his opinion of the test, he discarded their cards. As it became increasingly obvious that cheating was somehow supposed to be used to pass this test Naruto just scoffed to himself. Sure, he could probably figure out some way of gathering the correct answers, but why risk a sure pass for a chance at being caught? Fools.
At one point he finally managed to leave his little world and notice the fact that Hinata was sitting next to him. She had at some point sidled a little closer to him on the bench during the exam and her exam paper was clearly angled towards him. He blinked, wondering why she would so blatantly cheat and risk her entire team's disqualification. He ignored it as best he could though, even when she kept nervously glancing across at him like she wanted to speak; another foolish idea in the middle of a heavily observed test.
Eventually though the time passed, and the last fifteen minutes were upon them. Ibiki cleared his voice at the front to gain their attention. By this point, the room had thinned to contain less than half its original occupants, drastically reducing the number of cards in Naruto's deck. It certainly made finding specific information easier, which he continued to do as Ibiki explained the rules of the last question. It was foolish really, the number of people that were unnerved by the simple ultimatum, especially the ones who did not belong to Konoha. Ibiki had no kind of control whether or not they could re-take the exams if they weren't held in his village.
Even for the Leaf-nin it was silly; the man had clearly offered them the choice between having the chance to continue on or just give up. Only people who had no confidence in their skills would choose the latter and even if Naruto did fail the question and – by some miracle – was barred from future Chuunin exams, there were other ways to be promoted. There would always be other chances to find the reception and opportunities to show off his skill. If there weren't, he would make them.
It seemed the last forty-five minutes of cheating their way through the exam hadn't done much for the other participants' nerves.
Hands began rising, left right and centre, as people lost their confidence and opted out, taking their teammates with them. It obviously wasn't happening at a rate Ibiki approved off as he decided to speed things up a little by shaking their confidence further. Naturally, he chose the person he saw as least affected by his speech, likely because it appeared Naruto was ignoring him, content to flick through his cards. In fact, as the bandana-clad man pointed in his direction, a challenging smirk on his features, he didn't even look up.
"What about you there, sunshine in the hood; are you really stubborn enough to risk both your and your teammates' careers? You'll have no chance to advance ever again, always stuck with D-ranks and C-ranks until the day you retire."
There was an unnerving silence as Naruto seemed to ignore the man, still flicking through the cards absently. After a period of about twenty seconds though, where you could have heard a pin drop, Naruto flicked out a single card and looked at it with interest.
"Morino Ibiki; what do you know, these cards have information on the proctors as well."
The dark-clothed man at the front of the room narrowed his eyes slightly, tilting his head slightly to try and get a better look at the card in question.
"Head of the torture and interrogation department, specialising in psychological torture."
Ibiki's eyes widened slightly, worried the Genin was about to give the game away, when he surprised the man by groaning and leaning back, looking genuinely morose as he slapped the cards down.
"Damn, I guess with that kind of no-nonsense, toughening career you would be the type to hate reckless choices grounded on nothing but stubborn pride. Plus, as a Konoha shinobi I bet you must hate the idea of needlessly endangering comrades, right?" He sighed again, a long, drawn out noise that only served to enhance the tense atmosphere in the room. Ibiki was watching him intently at this point, confused to where he was going with this, but keeping his features schooled.
"Damn…" Naruto leaned forward, looking as though he was about to stand up "…I guess I oughta-"
"I-I quit!" Suddenly, just as it looked like Naruto was about to forfeit, a young Ame Genin at the back of the room stood up, his hand raised as he nervously declared his intentions.
"I quit too, screw the risk!" Another Genin, this one from Konoha, also stood up, and soon it seemed like the entire room was clamouring to give up in the exams. None of them noticed as Naruto smirked victoriously, subtly sitting back down as they were all ushered out of the room along with their teams. By the end of it all, the exam room had been practically decimated, only seventeen teams remaining. Ironically the only person to notice Naruto sitting back down was Hinata, someone who by all rights looked as though they were about to quit anyway.
Naruto simply leaned back in his seat, a small smirk playing across his features that only Ibiki noticed. The scarred Jounin could only internally gape at what he assumed was a green Genin; he was quickly re-evaluating his opinion. The boy had used the opportunity he had presented him to completely psyche out the competition. Hell, if they weren't in the middle of the Chuunin exams Ibiki might have requested the boy be sent over to T&I for a bit of formal training in psychological warfare.
When it finally seemed like everybody who was still there was there to stay, Ibiki cleared his throat, quickly launching into a small speech about the significance of their choice. There were a few outraged cried from the remaining participants about the supposed pointlessness of it all, blissfully ignoring the lack of significant opposition now. In a way Naruto was almost inclined to agree; after all he could have bluffed his way through that initial test by simply walking in, sitting down and then not moving for the remainder of the test. It was a flimsy loophole at best, and he assumed most Genin didn't have his lack of care for promotion.
Just as Ibiki was reaching the end of his tirade, having already revealed the hideous scarring on his head, an energetic purple ball smashed through the window. It quickly unravelled into a large banner held in place by precisely thrown kunai, leaving many in the room to gape at the scantily clad woman who had emerged from the bundle, excitedly pointing at all the Chuunin hopefuls.
"This is no time to be celebrating!" The woman gave the entire room a chilling smile, although most of the men in the room weren't exactly focused on her face. "I am Mitarashi Anko, your second proctor!" She pumped her fist up into the air, making her trench coat wave in the breeze to reveal scintillating flesh only barely hidden by a tightly-woven mesh shirt. "Now, follow me!"
Once again, you could have heard a pin drop the silence was so all-encompassing. Naruto actually swore he heard a cicada chirp somewhere outside the window the woman had crashed through.
"Bad timing Anko."
As the woman sunk a little, an embarresed blush encroaching across her cheeks, Naruto took a moment to examine her closer as she turned to bicker with Ibiki, taking in her vibrant purple hair and almost pupilless brown eyes. With a start he realised that she was the woman who had originally given him the inspiration for Ramia. He was briefly excited, flicking through the cards he had left to see if she was included. She wasn't unfortunately; it seemed she was a relatively new proctor. As she turned back to the room, something else caught his eye.
It was hidden behind the high collar of her coat, but he definitely caught sight of a small black seal on her neck. Even with his limited experience with Fuinjutsu and the simplistic appearance of the seal, he could tell that it was a complicated piece of work. Instantly his interest was piqued by a previously unknown part of him waking up and taking notice. Unfortunately, any further examination was side-lined as Anko seemed to get over her own faux pas and turned back to the examinees.
"I'll explain everything when we've exchanged places, so follow me!" The woman naturally dived straight back out the window she had smashed, leaving a room of fifty-one confused Genin and an exasperated Ibiki. Eventually, the group snapped out of their stupor and made after the woman, not trusting her unpredictability to possibly disqualify them if they were too late. Naruto trailed along after his teammates as they dashed after the rest of the group, but his thoughts were elsewhere, focused on the new feelings circulating his mind after seeing that seal.
Naruto had, of course, dabbled in the sealing arts; his puppets would have been woefully less effective without seals to regulate their movements. He had no idea how Suna puppeteers caused their creations to move, but Naruto's moved through seals that he affected with specific pulses of Chakra he sent through his threads. They were simplistic at best though, carrying simple, pre-prepared instructions to the aspect of the puppet they controlled, however it was the way they all linked together in one great array throughout the puppet that Naruto was proud of.
However, while he was not unfamiliar with the art, he couldn't say that he had been particularly involved in it before now. True, it came rather easily to him as normally he just needed to think about what he wanted to do and the seals would simply arrange themselves in his mind. It was that same ease that also left him disinterested in the practise; Naruto was so used to challenges and obstacles in his life that having something simply come to him without work seemed almost alien. The lack of challenge left him feeling without accomplishment, so he only used Fuinjutsu for what he needed and never just experimented with it like he might poisons, or mechanisms, or designs.
Seeing that little, innocuous, inverted Mitsudomoe design seemed to spark some flame of completion within him that had previously remained unlit. He felt the sudden urge to compare his own work with somebody else's, an innate desire to be proven superior. As he jogged, Naruto quickly shook his head of that, he was almost starting to sound like Sasuke. That tantalising sensation of competitive spirit didn't leave him though, so by the time they caught up to everybody outside the familiar chain-link fence of training ground forty-four, he felt a little restless.
"Alright my little Chuunin hopefuls," Anko called out from the front of the crowd, an all-too-innocent grin on her features. "You guys are about to find out why this place is called the Forest of Death."
Naruto spotted that at his chance to rile up the woman. Naturally, if he wanted to examine that mark some more, he needed to interact with her; interest equaled interaction. He knew that the quickest way to get someone interested in you, was to aggravate or irritate them. People always have the innate desire to see their own opinions win out, so clashing opposing ideals against them created the first strenuous ties of a connection.
"Wow, big trees and animals; so terrifying," Naruto managed in a perfect deadpan, his expression the epitome of boredom as he stared up at the massive trees that inhabited the large training ground. It helped that he had been in there before to examine the unique wildlife and collect plant samples for poisons.
He was expecting the retaliation, as he assumed Anko was the type who didn't like people messing with her mysterious and dread-inducing atmosphere, so he didn't even try to dodge when she threw a kunai to slice his cheek.
"Hmm, tough guys like you are usually the first to get eaten." The woman appeared behind him in what was, admittedly, an impressive show of speed. She leaned over his shoulder to lick up a long line of his blood with the creepiest look of satisfaction she could manage. Around them, Naruto's team very much included, the Genin cringed away from the strange and disgusting act. Although, one Kusa Genin with long black hair on the other side of the crowd was watching with a strange glint in her eye. Naruto on the other hand smiled lightly, craning his neck to look at the woman; she was intentionally pushing her assets against his back to cause him further discomfort.
"Thanks for the advice, I'll have to make sure anybody who eats me regrets it soon after."
Obviously Anko didn't recognise him, no doubt because of the hood and goggles hiding most of his features. Although the whisker marks on his cheeks should have been a bit of a giveaway; perhaps she just had a bad memory? In either case Naruto quickly flipped a small vial of yellow liquid from one of his pouches and offered it to the woman with a small smirk.
"You'll be needing this in a few minutes." It was a strange day when Naruto had discovered that his own blood was mildly poisonous; not lethally so of course, but enough to cause discomfort to people who weren't him. It was no doubt the cocktails of different chemicals he kept injecting himself with over the years.
"What do you…?" Anko blinked, her vision distorting slightly as a sudden itch caused her to absently scratch at her arm, only for it to persist. Her skin paled and the veins around the edges of her eyes became just a little more prominent. He smirked again as he pressed the tiny vial into her hand and turned back to his team.
"Didn't someone ever tell you not to lick strange people's blood?" Naruto asked quietly, so the other Genin couldn't overhear them; it would be better if they had to imagine what the 'crazy proctor' was talking about with the quiet, unperturbed Genin. People's imaginations tended to provide a much better image than anything Naruto could have spun for himself. Deciding to just leave the Genin be for now and focus on why she suddenly felt like she had just woken up with a killer hangover, Anko turned away from Naruto and addressed the rest of the Genin while attempting to keep her face straight.
She began explaining the rules of the second exam, all the while trying not to itch her arm where, if you could see under her trench coat as many of the males in the crowd surely wished they could, the veins along her arm were becoming more visible. Naruto kept an ear open but turned back to his team with a small smirk hidden in the shadows of his hood; he was sure Anko would be interested in him now. As he turned back to his team he was only met by an angry-looking Sakura and a fist to the gut.
"What the hell was that Naruto-baka? Now you've drawn everybody's attention to us!" Her voice was a furious whisper, trying not to exacerbate the damage Naruto had done. Naruto took the blow, it wasn't that strong anyway, but as soon as she released him he looked up, fixing her with a rather chilling smirk.
"You shouldn't worry so much Sakura…" His goggles flashed in the light for a moment as he gazed at her more intently, his expression becoming a blank slate. "…but hit me again, and I'll turn you into a puppet."
The pinkette gulped as she nervously took a step back, freaked out by how quickly Naruto's normal expression returned to his face from the momentary lapse. She increasingly got the impression that her quiet teammate wasn't the most stable person. She was saved as Sasuke grunted, butting in on the conversation with a cocky smirk.
"Weren't you the one who said we shouldn't take unnecessary risks without knowing what the next challenge is?" He interjected, parroting Naruto's words from earlier back to him in an attempt to expose his hypocrisy. The blond just turned his attention away from Sakura and snorted softly.
"Unknown? We knew from the moment the proctor said she would be cutting the group in half that we would be pitted against one another somehow," Naruto explained dismissively. "It would have to be in teams as we passed or failed the first exams as a team. The fact that it takes place here only shows there will be a survival element, meaning the test will get more difficult the more time passes. All I did was make it so we will be targeted, bringing the other competitors to us early so we have a higher chance of confronting them with more energy."
In the background, Anko validated his quick summary as she produced two types of scrolls and explained the test.
"Hn." Apparently Sasuke wasn't too happy with that as he clicked his tongue and turned away, plunging the team into an awkward silence that persisted as they collected they signed the indemnity forms, collected their heaven scroll and took their place at their assigned gate. Sakura looked as though she wanted to say something so the team wouldn't start off the exam so disjointed. Anything she might have tried was drowned out as the speaker system around the training ground's perimeter blared to life.
"The second stage of the Chuunin exams start now," Anko's voice shouted, garbled by the slight crackle of the speaker. "A final piece of advice…" The locks to the seventeen gates about the forest clicked with the sound of a buzzer "…don't die!"
