Toguro Sakura
By Moonraker One
Author's note: Ok, I lied about covering the entire chuunin exam in this chapter, but at least I covered a lot of it.
CHAPTER SEVEN - Konoha's Chuunin Exam
The forest of death had seldom seen quite as few young shinobi inside of it as there was now, having all gathered for the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of the rank of chuunin. Almost all of the younger jounin were the ones placed in charge of overseeing the individual groups of six, whereas the older jounin were primarily responsible for overseeing the actual results of the fights within the groups. Hinata, who sat in her chair near her group's resting area, looked at the variations among the youngsters about to take one of the most important exams in their shinobi careers, and couldn't help but smile. She saw a few older teenagers between seventeen and nineteen, in the same groups with kids as young as not to even be ten years old. Some had taken this exam many times and failed, while for a lot this was the first time, and she remembered the first time she had to retake the exam. She secretly wished them all the best of luck, but knew that by the day's end, less than a third of them would actually become middle-level shinobi.
"Um, Naruto-sama?" The blonde jounin swiveled his chair around, and looked at the two teenagers sitting in his office. He recognized them instantly as the two young members of Orochimaru's trio, prior to his capture, anyway. He couldn't believe the luck he had a week prior; he was just showing young Nuuto around the woods, and while watching for dangers, he happened to overlook the snake shinobi searching for prey. His plan he hatched in a moment, and amazingly it worked. But at this very moment, he had two spies from a village that otherwise had a treaty with Konoha. He had to take this very carefully; if they were spies, he'd have to send them to interrogation and eventual imprisonment or execution. He knew that Orochimaru would be executed without trial given his past history, but what punishment would lady Hokage deal for these two? After all, they had their entire lives ahead of them, all of their futures, and it depended all on the actions of one shinobi who'd captured the uncapturable. "You wanted to see us?"
He shut the door behind them with a mild release of chakra. Clearing his throat, he stood up from his chair and used a force-field illusion to soundproof his office to anyone listening. "Koji's Ludo and Luuda," he began, "you two are in a great deal of trouble. You've come here with a known evil shinobi, a criminal, and with that any jury you are brought before will judge you as spies. You may be treated differently than your team leader, due to the fact that one, you have no past criminal record, and two, you are not of age to be tried as adults, but please realize that he will be executed without question." He smiled and winked, making a few rapid hand signals to open up a telepathic link between him and the two teens. But now that we've gotten all that official bullshit out of the way that I've had, by regulation, to tell you, do you have what I asked you for?
Naruto made careful assurance that no one outside could sense what was going on inside. Then, with a wink and a wavy, water-like effect, the two teens let up the genjutsu hiding their true identities, making it known what they really were. By the markings on their faces and the tails sticking out of their pants, their true identities were unmistakable; they were youko in human form. Luuda, the older of the two demon foxes morphed into human forms, presented Naruto with a stack of cards she'd been hiding in her pocket. Without problem or suspicion from others, Naruto-sama, she telepathically said. Burned with my own chakra onto the surface of these cards is all the information you would ever need to know about the actions of Arashigakure village.
Ludo had his own gift of information to bear. Naruto-sama, he mentally projected, I've done a series of investigations on the military strengthening of Arashi, and I've assembled a similar deck of cards. He presented Naruto with his own set of blank cards. The blonde shinobi knew that the cards had been retuned to his own chakra pattern, so that he and only he could view the content of the cards.
"Thank you," he said to the two youko as they reactivated the genjutsu that concealed their true selves, and he let down the illusion that made private everything that had just happened. "You may now go." He waited for them to be out of shouting distance, and then he shut his door again.
"You know something, Naruto," Sasuke said, climbing out from under Naruto's desk. He'd suppressed his power as well as he possibly could, and both he and Naruto covered his presence up from the otherwise super potent senses of the two demon foxes that had just been in the office. "You are one clever, manipulative bastard. How did you…?"
"Make all this possible?" finished Naruto. He shook his head. "Simple. I knew the Koji's from Kyuubi's memories; they were a clan of youko that hid among the humans for eons without being detected. Furthermore, when Kyuubi gave his soul up to give his power to me, I gained the senses, abilities, and wisdom of the most powerful demon in existence."
"You knew from the moment you saw them that they were youko?" inquired a shocked Sasuke. "I mean, how could anyone crack the illusion covering them! I sensed something too but even my sharingan couldn't break their genjutsu!"
"Only demons can see each other for what they truly are."
"But the plan of yours!"
Naruto raised an index finger, which signaled that he had a handy explanation ready. "I knew they'd be absolutely loyal to the Kage of Arashigakure. I knew they'd give me the absolute most general, vague information possible."
Sasuke read the data on the cards. "This…this is pitiful! No one could extract any kind of secrets about the storm village from this!"
"I could read their minds as they spoke to me," Naruto added. "They may as well have told me everything they knew. Take those cards to Lady Hokage, and tell her I'll explain everything. The only thing I couldn't extract from them was the identity of their village leader."
"But…but," Sasuke argued, "they're enemies! How will you take care of them without causing a war between villages!"
"They will be placed into an overflow group because every other group will be filled. I have two of Kyuubi's pups disguised as human teenage shinobi's filed into this group with instructions to kill both of them and make it appear to be a fighting accident."
"Overflow group! I don't think we have enough jounin to handle an overflow group, because the specialized ones won't be involved this year…and…"
"It will be proctored by my sister Naruko."
Sasuke looked at him in confusion. "But you don't have a sister Naru…oh, THAT'S it…" He realized that by "my sister Naruko" the blonde shinobi meant a Kage Bunshin of himself in clothed Sexy no Jutsu form. The young jounin simply could not be more amazed at his fellow shinobi's ability to come up with a powerful plan very quickly. "How do you do it? I mean, you come up with these brilliant ideas on the spur of the moment!"
"I'm just that good, dobe," he uttered, exiting the office. Sasuke wanted to storm off towards him in anger, but reminded himself with a quick glance at the cards that he had a mission to do. It amazed him at the mere thought of how much planning took place on the part of Naruto. He couldn't understand how the blonde shinobi got so good at making the most complex strategies in existence look like nothing.
"Attention, underclass shinobi!" announced Lady Hokage, using a jutsu to amplify her voice, as there was no P.A. system in the forest of death. "You have all been very good so far at keeping within the boundaries of the forest; please remain so. Do not leave the forest or you will be disqualified. Now, the fights shall commence momentarily, so make sure you remain with your groups. I wish you all the best of luck, and make sure you keep yourselves alive. Killing, while frowned upon, is permitted by all genin; I suspect that many will be aiming to take your heads." And with a blink, the message ended. Kakashi, who had been placed in charge of the assigning, had in front of him a large box of cards. Lifting them above his head, he waited for Lady Hokage's que. "Inside this box, is the list of all the groups and which jounin's will be proctoring them. Please come forward and get the card with your name on it." Soon, a long line of underclass ninja formed directly in front of Kakashi's box. From there it was only a matter of moments before each of the several hundred underclass shinobi had their information and were on their way to their groups.
Koji's Ludo & Luuda smiled as they headed towards the overflow group, created by Gai at the last moment as a solution for the extra six that couldn't be put in with any other group. They were smiling, at least, until they caught a glimpse of the last two members of their group to arrive. Ludo began to quiver. His sister was leaning against a tree, so she didn't initially see the cause of his fright. "Ludo, what the hell..." she stated. Then, almost by accident, she caught a glimpse of them as well. Her eyes became as wide as saucers. "N...NO! They can't be!"
Go ahead, the older-looking of the two telepathically said to both Koji's. Tell the othes who we are. Who'd believe you? Who'd believe, not only that WE'RE youko's, who'd believe that we're the children of the Great Youko Lord Kyuubi? None save for yourselves and Naruto-sama can see through our disguise. He'd never blab. So go ahead.
Ludo clenched his teeth and silently growled, letting his demon eyes show for only a brief instant. Oh yeah! he retaliated. We're the pups of great bandit youko Kojimokuto Kurama! What makes your father greater than ours!
Of the two approaching the group, the older-looking female with the red hair smiled, holding back her little brother who mentally screamed, Yours is a bandit! Ours is the king of ALL youko! He fired off, but his older sister silenced him with a forceful stare.
They're not worth it, Naraabi, she told him. We'll handle them soon enough.
"Attention, members of the overflow group!" shouted the clothed sexy no jutsu Kage Bunshin of Naruto, acting as 'Uzumaki Naruko.' "The first fight of this group will be between Koji Ludo and Zaram Tokuubi." The female offspring of Kyuubi, disguised as a human, popped her knuckles and stepped into the fighting area marked off by tape. Her opponent Ludo let a good portion of his demonic chakra move into his arms, increasing his power a great bit but expanding his arms only slightly. He sneered and waited for the proctor of his group to sound the gong for the match to begin.
The moment the sound rang out, Ludo threw himself at his opponent with the utmost speed. One of his punches sailed at his opponent, yet she ducked beneath it with speed he could not even catch as a blur. He twisted slightly right and flung an uppercut; the motion was fast, fluid and crisp, and he almost caught her on the chin, yet she leaned her head back to avoid it. In response, she swung her arm around, nailing him directly on the nose with her elbow. The cartilage crushed easily, yet his demon blood recovered it immediately. However, he didn't have time to think as her standing side kick rocketed into his chest and blasted him backwards. She was impressed by his recovering powers; he smashed into a six foot thick tree and only left an intricate series of shatter marks. When he got up, she winked at him; he got pissed and zoomed back towards her. The next few minutes surprised everyone in the waiting area, for they'd heard that the Koji's were Arashigakure's finest. Yet, as they stood, they were watching a whole lot of swinging, and not a whole lot of dodging. Tokuubi could not be happier; in five hundred years, she'd never had a demon opponent this good fight her. Only three-fourths as strong as her father, she still had considerable power, and had trampled quite a few demons. Ludo would have been impressed if this hadn't been a fight to the death; she was at forty-nine percent power in a human disguise, yet he actually came close to hitting her with each hit. He failed to notice the reason behind her lack of retaliation: she was making signs with her right hand.
His last attack of the match landed on her left forearm, which she placed in its trajectory to stop the blow. In the very same moment, her other hand she finished the jutsu and shoved the energy gathered on her palm into his gut. He felt nothing as the fatal poisoned energy entered his abdomen. He did feel it, however, when she ended the match by delivering a vicious roundhouse kick to him. He sailed backwards and slammed into the tree upside-down and face first.
Naruto's disguised Kage Bunshin scribbled on a clip board. "Zaram Tokuubi wins the match by K.O.!" As Tokuubi walked toward the waiting area, Luuda grabbed the demon by her neck. She knew she had far more power than Luuda, so she had no qualm about her neck in a grip.
"What did you do to him!" she demanded in a whisper.
Tokuubi sneered. "Poison Chakra no Jutsu," she replied. She looked skyward to judge the time. "He'll be dead in an hour."
"Okay! Onto match two, my passionate youths!" Rock Lee said as he finished declaring the winner of his group's previous match. Naruto, proctor of group zero-zero-one, cringed from ten feet away as he heard Lee rattle off a Gai phrase; certainly, he figured, Lee's mentor left a rather unfortunate effect on him. "We are group zero-one-two! We must be vibrant with our matches and prove superior to all the other underclass groups! Uchiha Nuuto & Yamanaka Kohtu! Be passionate with your combat against each other!"
Lee, Naruto telepathically spoke to Rock Lee. C'mon man, you're not a Xerox of Gai regardless of how much like him you look. Cut the act; it won't make you better than he was to act as weird. He'd wanted to use a different adjective than weird, but didn't want to offend him terribly more than he had to. Naruto, from his position at the front of his group, saw Nuuto take up his stance against his opponent, the son of Ino. He'd given personal training lessons to Nuuto, and had seen Kohtu in combat against other genin, and he knew that the fight between them would be a worthy match.
Lee shouted for the fight to begin, and as such it did, both genin throwing themselves towards each other with all the speed and skill they had. Kohtu skillfully ducked beneath a furious sideways swipe by Sasuke's young son, making sure to drive his elbow into Nuuto's chest on the uptake. Using his opposing elbow, he connected with Nuuto's face and then spun around to strike him in the chest with a backwards-facing spin kick. Nuuto flew backwards, but made sure to land on his hands and use the motion to propel himself up onto his feet. Unfortunately, the moment he was right side-up, Kohtu struck him violently in the chest with a powerful kick.This time, Sasuke's youngest son didn't have time to right himself, so he ended up sucking dirt when he landed face first. Using his skills acquired from his sensei, Naruto, he sensed his foe approaching him at a violently fast pace, so he disappeared in a poof of smoke, reappearing in time to catch his opponent Kohtu off guard with a rising knee to the back. Kohtu quickly made a series of hand signs, and a field of mist surrounded him. It was a technique taught to him by his mother for creating shields and weapons out of the mist in the air. He had used this against other kids his age, and had seen positive results; none of them could block it. With a grin on his face, he created a wall of water vapor, and used it to sail across the battle zone at a seemingly inhuman speed, manipulaing the shape of the wall to be a battering ram. What would happen next would require him to close his eyes, so he did, and leapt off the wall of water vapor, sending the mass forward at twice its speed with a kick. Landing on his feet, he smiled as he saw the mass crash into a huge tree. Right as he began to turn around, a rising knee collided with his chin.
"How'd you...?" he asked Nuuto, wondering how he'd escaped the path of the jutsu. However, he looked to his opponent, and saw the answer. Nuuto already had use of his sharingan.
"I hope you can do better," Nuuto egged.
Kohtu said nothing, merely disappearing in a puff of smoke, reappearing immediately next to his dark-haired opponent. No more jutsus, he thought to himself. He knew well enough that to perform anymore ninjutsu would be futile and seen through immediately; instead, he resorted to good old fashioned taijutsu. The moment after appearing, he drove his elbow violently in the direction of Nuuto's head, only to see it dodged easily. Nuuto, from his crouched position, forced his right leg upward into the abdomen of Ino's youngest son. The very next instant, he quickly rose upward and slammed a similar kick into the face of his foe, throwing him backwards and onto his back. A quick leap saw him land on Kohtu's chest, where he hastily pulled a pair of kunai blades, one in each hand, and held it in an X shape on his opponent's neck.
"Give up or I'll cut you from one side of your neck to the other!" he shouted.
For Lee, it was good enough. "Uchiha Nuuto wins by default!"
Tsunade sat back in her seat, absolutely baffled by the news delivered to her by Sasuke. She shook her head. "Dear god," she uttered. She'd experienced the horrors of Orochimaru before, but to think that he was back yet again to cause problems was another story. She swore that last time she crossed paths with him was the last, yet here he had shown up again. The good news was, that this time, he had been detained. She looked down from her seat above the action at her faithful soldier of Konoha. "Thanks for giving me the information about what went down. I would, however, like to hear Naruto's explanation like I've been promised, so if you could go round him up for me, I'd appreciate it."
Sasuke nodded, taking a mental note of her orders. "Yes ma'am," he agreed, and walked off. She stared at the first few cards in the deck delivered to her by the Uchiha, and could not believe how skilled the spies were at hiding useful information by making it vague. She wondered to herself about how Naruto was able to extract any sort of data from the cards at all. Then again, she realized, he did have the powers of the Kyuubi. He approached from the main examination area just a few moments after Sasuke had left.
"You wanted to see me?" he asked, although he knew already what she would ask him.
"Yes, Naruto," she began. "What I would like to know is, first, how you detained Orochimaru."
He cleared his throat. "Well, ma'am, I happened across his position in the forest outside Konoha just a short time earlier last week or so, and I created a detailed illusion that lured him into my trap, which I sprung this afternoon. You remember the 'raped girl in Kakashi's office' incident earlier?"
"Another thing, Naruto, tell me everything you know about these cards. What information can you tell me about the village of the storm?"
"I couldn't gather a terrible amount of knowledge about the new kage out of the spies I stole these cards from, but from what I know, there has been a change of power in Arashigakure; the new kage is far stronger than the last one. They killed the previous one on their quest to gain control of the village."
"How strong are we talking?"
"Well, ma'am, the last kage of Arashigakure was Uchiha Itachi."
