Hehe, I felt so bad about the wait for last chapter I decided to update again.
In this chapter, there is a genin from Konoha named Suzuki Shinichi. Yes, this IS a little tribute to THE Suzuki Shinichi, the founder of the Suzuki music program. There will probably be quite a few little tributes in my stories, and I'll mark them as they come up.
Being in the stadium brought up a strange feeling, and Naruto stopped abruptly and clutched her stomach.
"Naruto," Rin asked. "What's wrong?"
"Aha, nothing," Naruto replied easily. "Probably just ate too much this morning!"
"Idiot," Obito murmured. "Even I ate 'sparingly' like sensei said."
"Yeah, well, I need more food than you," Naruto retorted without conviction. She knew Obito was just nervous.
"Both of you," Rin chastised, "just wait until after the exams to argue, all right? Then, you can find out if I'll really make good on what I said before our first test."
Naruto met Obito's eyes, and they both shivered.
"Aha, Rin-chan, we were just kidding, right, Naruto?"
"Of course, Obito! That wasn't an argument at all!"
"I'm surrounded by idiots," Rin muttered fondly.
Both Naruto and Obito refrained from commenting.
As they reached the box reserved for chuunin hopefuls, Naruto grabbed her teammates' sleeves. "Hey, guys," she said quietly.
They looked at her and Obito answered, "Yeah?"
"I…" Naruto bit her lip. "Let's do our best, okay?"
Rin sighed and Obito looked bewildered. "Um, okay," he replied.
She hugged them both at the same time. "None of us are going to die today, okay? Just…don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Rin smiled. "Thanks, Naruto."
Obito looked at the ground and muttered, "The question is, what wouldn't you do?"
"I wouldn't stand around grumbling when my match was first," Naruto shot back cheekily. "Go get 'em."
He looked sick. "Uh…yeah. I'll do that."
"Don't worry," Naruto said with an easy smile. "You'll do fine."
And he did. His opponent was an embarrassingly weak shinobi from Konoha, who had been knocked out fairly quickly by six quick blows to the head and stomach. Obito came back to the box, looking disgruntled, and Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What's up with that face?"
Obito scowled. "Okay, so I want to become a chuunin, but I also want to…y'know…prove myself, and that wasn't even a fight! That guy didn't even fight back, he just stood there!"
Naruto grinned. "Maybe he was just scared of facing the terror of the Uchiha clan."
Obito's face flushed and he looked away. "More like the failure of the Uchiha clan," he muttered.
"Eh, you're not that much of a failure; at least you graduated your first time. And don't worry about it," Naruto said cheerily. "You'll have to fight again; maybe that person will be more of a challenge!"
Naruto watched detachedly as a Hyuuga branch member beat down a genin from Kumo fairly quickly.
Hmm…maybe that's what started that whole Byakugan deal, Naruto mused.
"Match three: Tanaka Naomi of Suna versus Uzumaki-"
"Examiner, I forfeit," Naomi called out hastily.
"Uh…okay. Winner: Uzumaki Naruto. Match four: Suzuki Shinichi of Konoha versus Yamada Rin of Konoha. Please come down to the arena."
"Good luck, Rin-chan," Obito encouraged.
"Yeah, Rin. Beat Suzuki into the dirt, will ya?"
Rin smiled and left the box.
"Do you have a problem with Shinichi or something," Obito asked curiously.
"Um, no," Naruto replied. "I don't even know him."
"Then why-"
"Because Rin's gonna kick his ass, and we're all gonna become chuunin," Naruto explained with a grin. "You'll beat your opponents, no problem, and I'll beat mine. Rin's gonna be a chuunin with us!"
Obito smiled at her, but then nudged her side and whispered, "People hate you."
She rolled her eyes. "People have always hated me."
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I mean those teams from Kusa and Suna must've told other people about…the incident in the forest."
Naruto winced. "Uh…well…not everyone's heard. I…I'll be able to become a chuunin, don't worry."
Obito shook his head. "I'm not worried about that. If no one wants to fight you, I think you'll probably either become a chuunin by default, or have to do something extra…that's not what's making me nervous. It's just that…I think they want to fight you, and I'm not sure that's a good thing."
Naruto shrugged off his unease. "I'll be fine," she reassured confidently. "I haven't died yet, after all, and I've been in much worse fights than these could be."
"Just…be careful," he muttered.
"Aww, Obito-chan…I knew you cared!"
"Don't say stupid stuff like that," he said gruffly. "And don't call me 'Obito-chan,' it's insulting."
Naruto laughed, and nudged Obito as Rin came back into the box as the winner. "Told you Rin'd win that one."
"I never said she wouldn't," he replied hotly, before turning to Rin. "Hey, good job, Rin-chan!"
"It wasn't that hard," Rin answered. "I just had to find out his weakness…and his is his eyes. They're really sensitive. So I hung my mirror around my neck, and it reflected the sun into his eyes while I immobilized him with senbon."
"Way to go, Rin," Naruto cheered. "Now that's using your head!"
"How would you know what that is," Obito teased. "I doubt you've ever used your head for anything."
Without missing a beat, Naruto answered, "Of course I have! I beat Gaara with a headbutt."
Rin looked torn between amusement and despair. "Naruto…you…"
"I what?"
"Only you would be able to beat someone by cracking your skulls together."
"Hey, what are you trying to say?"
"That you're hardheaded," Obito answered, as if it was obvious…and it was, really.
"Yeah, well, it worked," she muttered. "Anyway, I think you're up, Obito. You're against that extra Kumo girl."
"Oh, goodie," Obito answered sarcastically. "A girl."
"Hey, I'm a girl," Naruto retorted, "and you have no problem beating me up."
"That's because you're not really a girl," he said slyly, and dropped from the box.
"Damn teammates, always saying stupid things," she muttered.
"It's not as if you've been thought of as a girl for long," Rin reminded her. "You wanted to be known as a boy."
"Well…yeah, but…"
"What's the problem? Why do you want him to acknowledge you as a girl, Naruto?"
She colored. "It's not him," she protested. "It's…well, now that everyone knows I'm a girl, I don't wanna have to keep reminding them!"
"Well, let's see how Obito does against this Kumo kunoichi," Rin said.
Obito was only using taijutsu, kunai and shuriken, but he was doing pretty well. The kunoichi (her name was Aino, Naruto thought she'd heard) was much more skilled than his previous one, but Obito looked like he was winning.
After a solid punch to the back of the kunoichi's neck, Obito returned to the box, grinning. "Told'ja I'd beat her," he said.
"No you didn't," Naruto responded. "You were over there complaining about having to fight a girl, if I remember right."
"Don't be a killjoy," Obito muttered. "I did good."
"Yeah, you did," Naruto agreed.
"Match eight: Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha versus Hyuuga Chokichi of Konoha. Please come down to the arena."
Naruto grinned at Obito and saluted. "Told ya I'd get to fight."
"Naruto, be careful," Rin warned. "He's Hyuuga."
"I know," Naruto replied, smiling mysteriously. "Which is not good for him."
She dropped from the box and faced the stoic Chokichi.
"Damn," she said conversationally. "Are all Hyuuga this boring? You couldn't be any more lifeless if I whitewashed your whole body!"
"You should save your breath," her opponent warned. "For this is your last match."
"Begin," the examiner shouted, and jumped out of the way.
Naruto cracked her knuckles. "So…Hyuuga, huh?"
"Yes," he answered, and dropped into position for Jyuuken. "I am Hyuuga Chokichi, and I will defeat you."
"Bring it," she said, punching the air excitedly. "I can't wait to see what you've got."
Okay, Naruto, she reminded herself. Hyuuga fight close up, by pushing their chakra into those little points. So…get outta his range.
She jumped back a few paces. Don't get too close…hmm…he's got Byakugan, just like Neji and Hinata. Maybe…
Naruto formed a familiar cross with her fingers, and twenty kage-bunshin popped into existence, surrounding the boy. "All right, guys, you know what to do," she directed them, and they all brought their hands into the same seal.
Hehe, I wish I could see what Rin's thinking right now. She probably thinks I'll be doing something useless again.
"GO," she shouted, and her attack began.
Five of her bunshin vanished underground – Naruto replaced them immediately –, and eight of them jumped up onto the walls. The rest of them spread out around the arena and began using kawarimi with each other almost constantly; Naruto was hoping to confuse Chokichi's eyes with the quick flashes.
"All right, team one," she shouted. "Do your thing!"
The bunshin on the walls threw kunai and shuriken quickly from all directions; Chokichi was dodging and reflecting very well, but he didn't use Kaiten. Naruto wondered why, but she wasn't upset about it.
At the same time, the bunshin underground readied themselves to jump out of the ground on Naruto's command. "Group two!"
The five underground jumped up and went for Chokichi, who dispelled them with ease. Naruto grinned; she could work with this. He wasn't like Neji at all; Neji had been very advanced, and Chokichi wasn't. Neji wouldn't have fell for that little ruse, but she had Chokichi right where she wanted him; she'd designed this specifically for spars with Neji. For some reason, Hinata hadn't ever wanted to fight her.
"All right, groups three and four, do your thing," one of Naruto's bunshin commanded, after receiving a signal from Naruto.
While Naruto and two of her bunshin disappeared into the ground, the bunshin who'd shouted the last command stood back, as the rest of her bunshin rushed Chokichi en masse. He deflected their blows quickly and efficiently, but didn't notice the trap Naruto had set; as soon as her 'commanding' bunshin had lured him into position, Naruto grabbed his ankles and pulled him into the ground.
All but two of her bunshin dispelled, and Naruto had the last two hold Chokichi's shoulders, while she flashed a victory sign. "You can't move, unless you can bite my bunshin out of existence and fly out," Naruto said with a grin.
Chokichi just scowled.
"Uh…winner, Uzumaki Naruto," the examiner said, slightly bewildered.
She smiled, and helped Chokichi out of his hole. She could see why the examiner was confused; to anyone who didn't have the Byakugan or the Sharingan, it would've looked like she barely did anything.
"Match nine: Yamada Rin of Konoha versus Sato Yukio of Suna. Please come down to the arena," the examiner called, sounding a little bored. Naruto figured it wasn't very fun being a referee.
"Good luck, Rin," Naruto whispered.
"You can do it, Rin-chan!"
Rin slipped out of the box and faced Yukio, who looked confident. Obito scowled. "That guy's a jerk."
"Well, I'm sure Rin will beat him up."
"Yeah, you're right. Rin-chan's strong."
Actually, Naruto didn't know how strong Yukio was, because she had only seen him fight for a moment, against a team of Kumo genin who'd handed over their scroll fairly quickly. She was confident that Rin could hold her own, but she wasn't sure she'd come out the victor.
"Begin!"
Rin flicked on her shobo, and Yukio drew his hands into a seal. Naruto blanched.
"He's going straight for the punch," Naruto muttered.
"What do you mean," Obito questioned.
"He's already preparing to use a wind technique, without even fighting hand-to-hand."
"Humph…what a bastard!"
Naruto nodded. "That hardly seems fair…but then, we're supposed to fight to win, not to have fun. I've never been good at that," she admitted sheepishly.
"Huh? Whadd'ya mean," he asked, eyes still glued on the arena, where Rin was dodging attacks and trying to get closer to Yukio.
"I mean that I hate mindless fighting. When I fight someone, I don't fight 'just because…' and I really hate to kill people. Most of the time, when I fight, I just want to teach the other guy a lesson."
"Oh," Obito said, and then winced as Yukio hit Rin with a hard punch to the sternum. "Ugh, I hope Rin-chan's okay."
"She'll be fine," Naruto said reassuringly. "She's smart…she'll be able to handle it."
Rin finally got close to Yukio, and began attacking him with her shobo, but he jumped out of the way and blasted her with another wind technique, which she countered by using kawarimi with him.
"Ooh, nice one," Naruto said admiringly. "I never thought of that one."
It was Rin's turn to go on the offensive, and she put her hands into a seal and muttered something inaudible.
To the rest of the spectators, it looked like Yukio had just stopped, and Naruto wondered what Rin had just done.
Rin seemed surprised that whatever she'd done had worked, but she recovered and ran toward Yukio, intent on disabling him. However, as soon as she reached Yukio, he moved again, and a jab to her left shoulder made her wince in pain. She was panting, and Naruto could see that she was tired.
Rin raised her hand. "Examiner," she panted. "I give up. I'm nearly out of chakra, and I think my shoulder's broken…I'll only be putting myself in much more danger if I continue."
The examiner nodded. "Very well. Winner: Sato Yukio!"
Rin made her way up the stairs and into the box, collapsing on the floor by her teammates. "Ugh…that took a lot out of me," she muttered.
"Oh, Rin-chan…you did good, anyway. That Yukio guy just got lucky," Obito said, grinning.
"Heh…just wait till you have to fight him."
"There will be a three minute break, and then our second to last match will begin," the examiner shouted to the stands. "Uzumaki Naruto versus Uchiha Obito."
"Damn," Naruto muttered. "That sucks."
"Yeah, I know," Obito replied despondently, looking down and scuffing the floor with his foot. "I don't really wanna fight you."
"It's not like I want to fight you either," Naruto replied. "How about we just stick to our normal rules?"
Rin raised an eyebrow. "What normal rules?"
Obito rubbed the back of his head. "Um…the rules we normally follow when we spar against each other."
"I've never heard about any of those rules."
"Uh…well…"
Rin narrowed her eyes. "What is it that you two aren't telling me?"
Both Naruto and Obito jumped, waving their arms. "Nothing! There's nothing to tell," Naruto said quickly.
"Yeah, what she said," Obito reinforced.
"Somehow, I highly doubt that," Rin replied, rolling her eyes.
Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head. "Um, well, we kinda got…bored, when we had time alone because you and Minato-sensei and Kakashi had other things to do, so…we made up a game."
"What kind of game?"
"Just a sparring game," Naruto muttered, looking at the wall.
"Oh, is that all," Rin asked, making Naruto and Obito relax.
"Yeah, yeah, that's all," Obito confirmed. "Just a sparring game. No one's ever gotten hurt or anything, right, Naruto?"
"Uh…yeah, right," Naruto agreed. Except for that time I fell and broke my wrist, and those times I accidentally knocked you unconscious, but those don't count. And Rin doesn't need to know…
"I…don't believe either of you," Rin said disapprovingly. "But at least you didn't really kill each other; you should've waited until you had a third person to referee!"
"Uh…sorry, Rin-chan," Obito murmured.
Naruto offered a half smile. She knew that, as a medic-in-training, Rin didn't like people getting rough without a backup plan, but…they really didn't do anything too dangerous.
At least…not by their standards.
"But about the rules," Obito said, bringing Naruto out of her thoughts, "I agree. Um, but we should allow one technique; I'll use…uh…"
"You use your fire, and I'll use kage-bunshin," Naruto said, picking up where Obito had left off. "We'll just spar with taijutsu and those two techniques; and, uh, may the best man win."
"That would be me, every time," he teased. "You aren't much of a 'man,' Naruto."
"Shut up," Naruto muttered.
Rin rolled her eyes. "Jeez, Naruto, make up your mind. Do you want to be a boy, or do you want to be a girl?"
"I wanna be a ninja," she replied cheekily. "Shinobi or kunoichi, it doesn't matter, since I'm the most awesome ever."
"Yeah, well, we'll let the next match decide that," Obito challenged with a smile.
"You're on."
"All right, everyone, it's time for the ninth match: Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha, versus Uchiha Obito from Konoha. Please come down to the arena."
Both Obito and Naruto dropped from the box. Naruto grinned at Obito, who grinned back, and Naruto whispered, "Let's give 'em a show, Obito."
"Definitely," he whispered back, and they both went to the middle.
"Begin!"
Naruto and Obito knew each other's sparring styles pretty well, since they often sparred against each other (more often than not, without the knowledge of Minato-sensei or Rin), so they were pretty evenly matched; Naruto was stronger in terms of chakra reserves and flashy techniques, but Obito had better control over his chakra and knew how to predict her moves, even as unpredictable as she was.
Plus, they weren't using much ninjutsu.
She ducked a fist, and he jumped over a sweeping kick to his legs. She tried to knock the wind out of him by using both of her palms to strike different parts of his torso, but he grabbed them; she used the lull in movement to walk her feet up his chest and push off, flipping herself out of his grip. She jumped back a little and formed the seal for kage-bunshin. "Think we should take this up a level?"
"Oh yeah," Obito returned, and readied his Katon technique.
"Kage-bunshin no jutsu," Naruto shouted, and several replications popped into existence, only to be promptly removed when Obito let out his Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu.
"Aww, no fair," she cried. "Ah well…kage-bunshin no jutsu!"
Naruto and her five replicas disappeared, only to reappear underneath Obito. "U! Zu! Ma! Ki…"
Obito was not the one she was kicking, and she swore internally.
"Obito interception," he called out, pinning her arms behind her and pushing her facedown into the dirt.
"Ack, Obito, get offa me," Naruto wailed.
"Say uncle," he shot back.
"Are you nuts?"
"Just do it," he said, holding her hands tighter.
"Bastard," she muttered. "Examiner, I can't move at all. I…forfeit."
Obito let go and helped her up. "So…the better man did win," he said cheekily.
"Damn you," she muttered. "You've been planning that…how long?"
"Eh…about three days," he said, shrugging, and walked with her to the stands. "I figured I'd need something in case I fought you."
"And you decided not to tell me?"
He looked at her as if she was crazy. "Are you kidding me? Why would I tell you?"
"Uh…" Naruto frowned. "Um, because I'm your dearly beloved teammate, and you think I'm awesome?"
He laughed. "Even if that were true, all's fair in love and war."
"And which one is this? Love, or war?"
He flushed. "War, you idiot! Like I would ever want to go out with you!"
Naruto blinked. "Um, I never said you did."
"Well…" Obito looked away, and waved to Rin. "Hey, Rin-chan! Didja see me totally kick Naruto's ass?"
"Along with the rest of the people here," Rin replied dryly. "I think people are scared of you now, too."
"Uh…"
"Anyway," Naruto cut in, "you're gonna fight the winner of this match. You should watch and see what you can find."
"Yeah, sure."
Naruto watched Yukio flatten the Kumo shinobi, and silently prayed for Obito's well-being. Their team wasn't too liked by the Suna team, and Yukio had been glaring at Obito for a few matches now.
"There will be a ten-minute break, in which the last fighters, Uchiha Obito and Sato Yukio will prepare for their match."
"Um, examiner, I forfeit," Yukio called out, ignoring Kanaye's snort.
Naruto, Rin and Obito looked at Yukio, bemused, and listened in on Kanaye's rant. "How can you be scared of that guy? It's not like he's really talented or anything. I mean…have you even seen him use his Sharingan once? And-"
"Shut up, Kanaye," Yukio growled. "He beat that Uzumaki – that means that he's got some sort of power over…uh…well, I'm not sure if Uzumaki is a guy or a girl, but that's not the point. I don't want to put myself in that situation, you idiot."
Rin laughed, and Naruto snorted impolitely. "I guess having me on your team has been somewhat useful, eh, Obito?"
Obito just frowned. "I…he didn't even want to fight me."
"Hey, lighten up," Naruto encouraged. "After all…you just won this whole tournament."
He blinked uncomprehendingly. "Huh?"
"Well…everyone else either got beat or forfeited. That means you're the last guy standing."
His face brightened. "That means…"
"Yep, you're the winner," she said smilingly. "Even if you did beat me in a stupid way," she added lowly.
"…And the Kages of your respective villages will let you know if you've received your chuunin rank," the examiner finished.
"Um, is that it," Naruto asked. "I never really knew what happened at the end of a…normal chuunin exam."
"Yeah, that's it," Rin answered.
Naruto looked at Obito, who was still dazed. "I…won."
"Yeah, you did, so now, there's only one thing we need to do to make this day perfect."
"Huh? What's that," Rin asked curiously.
Naruto snickered. "Ichiraku no jutsu!"
That seemed to snap Obito out of his stupor. "…Ichiraku?"
"Ugh, you two are hopeless," Rin cried, putting a hand to her forehead. "You'll die from malnutrition!"
"Don't underestimate the power of ramen," Naruto returned seriously. "It might save your life one day."
Rin looked skeptical, but followed her teammates toward the ramen stand. "Well, since Obito did win, I guess it's okay for today."
"Damn straight," Naruto said, grinning. "Our team totally rocks."