-I don't own Naruto. Naruto was created by Kishimoto, please support the official release. Thanks for reading my first attempt at fan fiction-
Italics are thoughts. -Italics inside hyphens are the setting-
The 18 teams gathered in front of a pair of hotels near the outskirts of Kumo, ready for whatever awaited them. Team 2 was talking amongst themselves when they heard a voice call out "Karui-chan, Omoi-kun, Z-kun, hey guys!" They looked over to see another Kumo team moving towards them "It's team 5! Hi Ran- chan long time no see!" said Karui, greeting her friend.
Ran was a kunoichi with brown hair and fair complexion. She carried a tanto slung across her back, and was one of the few members of their Academy class outside of his own team whose Kenjutsu skills Omoi and Karui actually respected. "Careful Karui, they could be enemies Henged to look like our friends." Said the ever paranoid Omoi.
"Omoi-san, it's good that you are being cautious, but I can assure you that we are who we appear to be." Nurui was a tall genin with long brown hair. He was easily the smartest member of their graduating class, and was a brilliant strategist, but he had a reputation for being a bit of a coward because he preferred to set traps than to actually fight.
"Z-nii-chan, Omoi-oni-chan, Karui-nee-chan! How are you?" asked Yukai, the third member of team 5. He was considered a bit of a prodigy, and had skipped a few grades in the academy. He had long light brown hair, and gold eyes. Unlike most Kumo shinobi, who preferred to wear blue or black, Yukai wore a green shirt. His teammates were both 14, but he had just turned 11. Team 5 was led by a young, recently promoted, bald jonin, codenamed J.
It wasn't much longer before the other Kumo genin team from their graduating class made their way over to join in the conversation. Team 1 consisted of two twin brothers, Domon and Kyoji, as well as a kunoichi named Rain. Even as a genin Rain was showing lots of talent of as a medical nin, while her two teammates were amongst the strongest genin in the whole village when it came to taijutsu, thanks to the disciplined training of their jonin sensei, who went by the fairly elaborate codename "King of Hearts."
The other 7 Kumo teams were also meeting up with old friends. The 3 Iwa teams just glared at the 2 Konoha teams, who stuck together, while the 3 teams from smaller villages were all sticking to themselves. Despite the glares from the Iwa teams, the Konoha genin couldn't believe how much friendlier the opening of this exam was then their own. Was it that all these villages simply got along better? Or were these exams just lighter without a looming invasion occupying the minds of many of the competitors?
With a poof of smoke Atsui appeared in front of the assembled ninja. Atsui was Samui's younger brother, and was only a couple of years older than Naruto and Co. He had become a chunin at age 13, and was now, at age 16, the proctor for the 1st exam.
"Welcome to the Chunin Exams, my name is Atsui and I am your first proctor. Raikage-sama wishes me to express his gratitude for all of the notable genin that have been sent to participate in our exams. From the Tscuchikage's granddaughter to the heirs of multiple Konoha Clans, and the children of the leaders of all 3 of the smaller villages, there are many exceptional shinobi participating. Raikage-sama wishes me to inform you that you honor Kumo by allowing us to test your best." He paused for added impact, letting his words sink in.
"Now, listen up, in the 1st exam there is to be no fighting what so ever, understood?" He said shooting a look at both the Iwa and Konoha nin. "The 1st exam is a time trial that will judge not only your speed, but your stealth and intelligence gathering. Teams will run the course 1 at a time, and due to the length of the course many teams will be waiting a few days before it is their turn. Each team must send a member up here to draw a lot to determine the order. While your team is waiting to compete you will be given a room in the hotel on the left. After your team has competed you will be given a room in the hotel on the right. Under no circumstances are you allowed to leave your hotel unless I summon you. Everyone understand? Good, then send someone up here to draw, good luck!"
Naruto found himself standing in line for a number squished in between two Konoha kunoichi. One was a fellow blond who kept her hair in a ponytail and wore purple. The other was clad in white, and kept her brown hair in buns. Through casual small talk Naruto found out that their names were Ino Yamanaka and Tenten. The three talked for a while, but Naruto was noticeably hesitant. He wasn't quite sure what to think of Konoha, and he was worried his origins might be discovered by them. Those concerns made him a bit more awkward than normal, and he even accidentally tripped over once. He's kinda cute when he's like this, thought the two Kunoichi. When all the lots were drawn Atsui addressed the crowed again. "All right here is the order:
1st: Kumo team 9
2nd: Iwa team 2
3rd: Kumo team 8
4th: Kumo team 1 (Domon, Kyoji, Rain)
5th: Konoha team Asuma (Choji, Ino, Sakura)
6th: Kumo team 6
7th: Kumo team 3
8th: Hoshigakure Team
9th: Iwa team 1 (includes Kurotsuchi)
10th: Yukigakure Team
11th: Kumo team 4
12th: Konoha team Kakashi (Shino, Neji, Tenten)
13th: Kumo team 2 (Naruto, Omoi, Karui)
14th: Kumo team 7
15th: Shimogakure Team.
16th: Kumo team 5 (Ran, Nurui, Yukai)
17th: Kumo team 10
18th: Iwa team 3
I need everyone except Kumogakure team 9 to head into the hotel and get settled please! Remember you are not allowed to leave the hotel unless summoned, though within the hotel you are free to move around as long as their is no fighting or sabotage, we will have chunin proctors inside both hotels watching you at all times. Good luck everyone."
-Two Days Later-
Naruto was bored. In the time since he had been in the hotel he had only seen 1 other team leave to begin their run, and he didn't like being cooped up in the hotel. Furthermore, the generally jovial mood amongst the Kumo-nin prior to the first exam beginning had died out, and no one seemed to be willing to talk to anyone who wasn't part of their own team. Naruto wasn't sure if that was just due to all of the rather intimidating looking proctors stationed throughout the hotel, or if it was just due to other teams wanting to focus on their strategies, either way he was becoming sick of it, and resolved to do something about it.
-The Next Morning-
The Hotel operated a continental breakfast buffet from about 6-10 in the morning. On this particular day Naruto had not slept well, and headed down to get a bite to eat at about 6:15. He was surprised to find the seating area empty except for a lone Iwa konouichi sipping a cup of tea. Here's my chance to actually talk to somebody else! Thought Naruto as he quickly filled a plate and headed over the same table as the kunouichi.
Kurotsuchi had been trying to enjoy her morning cup of tea when she noticed a comparatively short Kumo genin make his way towards her. He had short blond hair and grey eyes. He's not bad looking, but what's he doing heading towards a shinobi from another village so early in the morning? she thought, mildly irritated.
"Hey, good morning, my name's Z Yotsuki, mind if I sit with you?" "*sigh*, I guess that's fine. My name's Kurotsuchi, so you're from the Yotsuki clan huh?" "Yep, my father is the deputy head of the clan, and the head of the clan is my uncle. It's nice to meet you Kurotsuchi, I wasn't really expecting to find anyone down here so early."
"I've been in the lobby since midnight, my team has someone monitoring the entrance 24/7 to keep an eye on things." "Really? How many teams have gone?" "And why should I share that information with someone from another village?" "Well our villages our allies, plus as future Raikage I'm a pretty handy person to know." "You, future Raikage? Huh, It's my dream to take over for my geezer Grandpa as Tsuchikage, so as one future Kage to another I'll give you some, but not all, of our intel. Currently The 7th team is out. My team is 9th and we are estimating we will be starting this late this evening."
"Really? It's the 4th day and we aren't even halfway through? Damn! I'm sooooooo bored. There's nothing to do and no one from other teams is willing to talk to each other." Complained Naruto."Hey it could be worse." countered Kurotsuchi. "Deal with it. Waiting and boredom is part of being a shinobi. Stake-outs for example. And you can't really blame everyone for being so uptight, after all there are shinobi from 6 different villages crammed into this 1 hotel, and the proctors are pretty good at creating a sense of foreboding."
"That's all true I guess, still, the tension here is so thick you could cut it with a knife. I just want to go get some Ramen!" Naruto's proud exclamation of his love of Ramen forced Kurotsuchi to stifle a laugh. I don't know what it is about this guy, but it's impossible not to like him. He's not the brightest guy, that much is obvious, but he definitely knows the importance of being earnest. At this point more shinobi, including one of Kurotsuchi's teammates, were starting to head into the lobby to get breakfast, so Kurotsuchi quickly wrapped things up. "Well, 'Z' Yotsuki, it was nice talking to you, but it looks like my relief is here, so I'm gonna get some sleep, good luck." "Yeah, you too Kurotsuchi, it was nice to meet you."
-The Next Day-
Like many hotels the hotel being used as the staging area for the 1st round of the exams included a restaurant, and outside of the breakfast buffet it was the only way for the exam takers to eat meals besides Room Service. Naruto walked into the Restaurant at noon sharp to see it packed with exam takers. Omoi was too paranoid to leave the room, and Karui was sleeping, so he was on his own. The Restaurant was fairly small, and there wasn't a single table open, but Naruto was surprised to see one of the two Konoha kunoichi he had met on the 1st day waving him over to take the final seat at a booth she was sharing with her team.
"Z-san please join us, we just got a table ourselves, and had to wait 30 minutes for it." said Tenten. "Wow, thanks Tenten-san, how are you?" "I'm fine, Z-san how are you? Oh bye the way these are my teammates for this exam, Neji Huya and Shino Aburame. Please excuse their dull moods. Shino-kun never says much, and Neji-kun is still not over the fact that Shino-kun beat him in the biggest upset of our last Chunin Exam. "
"Pleasure to meet both of you, my name is Z Yotsuki, future Raikage." "Quite an interesting first name you have, Yotsuki-san, but I was under the impression that "A" was the codename used for Raikages," said Shino. "Well, yeah Z is just a codename, and I can't be A until I'm actually Raikage. Raikage-oji-sama's real first name is actually A, but that's only because his father was Raikage as well, so Raikage-oji-sama was sort of born to be Raikage I guess." said Naruto.
"So they classify your first name, but not your last name, that doesn't make sense." responded Tenten. "Well, I mean, it would be pretty easy for anyone to figure out my last name, since I live in a clan compound. Plus, the Yotsuki clan is the most prestigious clan in Kumo, so even when a clan member has a codename our last name tends to stay public as a clan pride thing." "Hm. and what would your worthless clan know about clan pride?" quipped the Hyuga. "Well, I've never really thought about it, but there aren't a lot of clans in Kumo, and ours is the biggest, so I guess we are pretty prestigious."
"Ha, no clan is as powerful as the Hyuga clan." "The Hyuga? I don't think I've heard of you. My uncle's the clan head, maybe I'll ask him about your clan, Neji-san." "So you are also a clan head's nephew? you must be branch family like me, you have my condolences."
Unsure what a Branch Family was Naruto asked for clarification. The response he received appalled him. It seemed that the Hyuga clan was divided into two distinct groups, with the vast majority of the clan acting as nothing more than glorified servants to the head of the clan, and the clan head's wife, and chosen successor, along with a few elders.
Naruto couldn't imagine a world where he had to be his cousin's servant. He thought that was dumb and said so. This only enraged Neji and a fierce debate over clans and fate ensued. Tenten and Shino tried to stay neutral, but when directly asked by Naruto Shino confirmed that the Aburame clan hierarchy was more similar to the Yotsuki clan hierarchy than the Hyuga. Eventually Neji stormed off, leaving Tenten and Shino to only mutter quick apologies to Naruto as they went after their teammate.
-A couple of days later-
It was 10 pm and team 2 were all asleep in their room, Karui and Omoi each occupying one of the room's twin beds, while Naruto had opted to crash on the couch. Suddenly they were all awoken by a loud banging at the door and a woman's voice yelling: "Kumogakure Genin Team 2, 1st Exam team #13. You're up, if you are not in the lobby in 10 minutes you fail. Take all that you will need with you, the rest of your belongings will be transferred to the other hotel for you to access after the exam is over." Even though they were tired the three friends couldn't help but grin at each other, it was finally their turn.
They made it to the lobby in 6 minutes, where they were met by a proctor who took them outside of Kumo's gates and to a small tent. Inside they found Atsui sitting in front of a map. "Good evening, as you know the first exam is a time trial simulation that will test your stealth and intelligence gathering skills. Here are the rules. When you depart the time will start. When you successfully return to me the timer will stop. Each time a member of the squad is detected during the mission 10 minutes will be added on to the total time. There are 18 teams participating. If you fail your mission you will fail the exam. If one of your members is captured or incapacitated you will fail the exam. The 9 teams with the best time who successfully complete the mission will advance to the 2nd exam. That means that at minimum 50% of the teams will fail. All teams will be given the exact same mission."
He paused to see if there were any questions about the rules, and then jumped into the mission breifing. "In this simulation you will be heading to a village 10 miles NW of here, I've marked it on a map for you. The village is ruled by a noble family that is unpopular amongst the people, but not enough for there to be rebellion. In this simulation your client is someone who wants to rule the village themselves and has hired your village to dig up any information on the noble that may help provoke rebellion. Your mission is to enter the village, find, and bring back indisputable evidence of the noble family doing things that may provoke rebellion. Once you leave the tent the timer will start, good luck." "Wait, there isn't a village 10 miles northwest of here." noted Omoi. "That's true, we've created a temporary village for this simulation, now get going." responded Atsui.
A half mile out of the village Naruto stopped running. "Hold up for one minute guys, doing this now will save us some time when we get there." Naruto drew blood then made a few hand signs and slammed his hand onto the ground. "Summoning Jutsu" As the smoke from the Jutsu cleared a Great Horned Owl approximately 4 and a half feet tall appeared." "Greeting Z-san, what can I do for you today?" asked the owl after noting that Naruto wasn't alone. "It's ok Mimi-chan, these are my teammates Omoi and Karui, they know my secret." "Ah, well than what can I do for you Naruto-san?"
Naruto quickly explained the situation to Mimi before getting to the point: "Can you fly ahead and scout out the village, get us a couple places that might be good to gather information at as well as anything you can on what their security is like?" "Of course Naruto-san, I shall meet you a quarter mile outside of the village."
With that the owl shrunk down to the size of a normal owl and flew off. "Whoah, you finally got your personal summon Naruto?" asked an amazed Karui. "Yep, Mimi-chan is the youngest daughter of Ichijoji-dono, head of the owl can, I got to summon her for the first time while training with Yugito-ne-chan." said a grinning Naruto. "We should get going now, the clock is still running." added Omoi.
They ran the rest of the way in silence, too focused on the mission for formalities. As the most level headed, even tempered, and paranoid member of the team Omoi's mind was working to come up with contingency plans. He had long ago realized that, while his teammates were both precious to him, they were hotheads who tended to let their emotions guide their actions, and he had taken it upon himself to be the group strategist.
Karui was supremely confident in her abilities, and as they ran she was imagining herself being handed a chunin flack jacket by the Raikage. Naruto, normally just as confident as Karui, was struggling to stay focused. While he had settled the identity crisis he had after his heritage was revealed he still hadn't come to grips with his anger at the adults in his life who had hid his ancestry from him, and occasionally his mind would wander to that. Raikage-oji-sama, B-sensei, Kaa-san, Otousan, Gennai-oji-sama, Yugito-neechan, why? Do you not trust me? While his loyalty to Kumo was not in question Naruto's trust in the adults in his life had been shaken, but even as he questioned their judgment he knew he shouldn't be dwelling on them yet.
Come on Naruto, get it together! You can deal with all of that after you make chunin, focus on the mission! The three continued in this fashion all the way to their destination. They only stopped about a quarter mile from the village because they saw an owl waiting for them.
"Hey Mimi-chan, what did you find out?" asked Naruto. "Quite a bit, Naruto-san. The large compound at the northern end of the village is where the lord in question lives. He seems to have his own private security force of shinobi who act as both his bodyguards and village law enforcement. I witnessed a couple of them being quite cruel to civilians. There is no gate or anything you must pass through to get into the village, though the roads in and out are monitored by hidden shinobi. They also have several patrolling in teams of three. The village is relatively small, but I would estimate they have at least 50 shinobi on duty in the village right now and another 50 at the lord's estate on guard duty."
Damn, that's a lot thought Naruto. This guy is even more paranoid than me, mused Omoi. "As you know the owl clan has the same ability to hear chakra as the Yotsuki clan, and I noticed that many villagers have the exact same sounding chakra. I can only conclude that the majority, but not all, of the people in this village are actually elemental clones that have used Henge to disguise themselves as villagers or other guards," concluded the owl. "Elemental \ clones, are those different than normal clones?" asked a confused Naruto.
"Baka, how do you not know about Elemental Clones?" asked Karui. "Instead of just making a clone you infuse your chakra nature into the clone technique. It makes them more durable than normal clones. " "Oh, well I guess you learn something new everyday." said Naruto to a frustrated Karui, who then turned her attention back to the owl.
"Mimi-san, did you find any places where we might be able to gather information?" "Yes Karui-san. I witnessed a couple of the lord's guards get off duty and directly proceed to a particular tavern. I also overheard them mention that it is the preferred bar of many of the town shinobi.""Excellent, let's just get them drunk and then they'll spill the beans!" exclaimed Karui.
"Karui...we're only 14." pointed out Naruto. "Old enough to kill, old enough to drink mind control drug laced liquids." countered Omoi. After noticing the blank stares from 2 humans and an owl he added: "What, that's one of the oldest conspiracy theories out there, how do you not know that one?" This earned a laugh from Karui and chuckle from Naruto, who thanked and dismissed Mimi as the three teammates gathered their cool, and headed toward the village.
It was just after 12:30am when Team 2 split up and promised to meet each other back where they had met with Mimi in just over 3 hours. Karui used Henge to appear to be a woman in her early 20s and headed into the the tavern Mimi had mentioned. It was packed with off duty shinobi, many of whom were eager to flirt with attractive women.
Karui quickly bribed the bartender to just give her a non alcoholic drink that looked like an alcoholic drink, and tell anyone who asked what she was drinking was the alcoholic variety. The bar tender got a 2nd bribe so that anytime someone ordered a drink for her he would just give her a non alcoholic version. Karui wasn't against drinking, but she wanted to keep her wits about her for the mission.
She did however order a variety of beverages for other patrons, hoping to get them to loosen their tongues. Eventually she found herself flirting with a very drunk man who claimed to be one of the feudal lord's personal guards, and who was only too willing to gossip about his employer with the pretty woman paying for his drinks.
"The other day *hic* his lordship went down into the dungeon, and I went with'm *hic*. "He went to make fun of this prisoner *hic*. Turns out the prisoner is actually the last democratically elected mayor of the village *hic* who we all thought went missing. His lordship didn like what he was dooooin' an' threw his s'ry ass in *hic* j-jail." "Ha! what a stupid old man" laughed Karui. "I want to go make fun of him too. How do I find him?"
Her conversation partner was too drunk to realize that he shouldn't be telling a strange woman how to get to the prison. "It's on the bottom floor of the palace, last cell in the southwest corner." said the man before finishing his drink. Perfect, this worked like a charm, man am I great or what? thought Karui. Plus I slipped a drug in that guy's drink so he won't remember anything tomorrow, and this is just a simulation anyways, so he's probably a clone. It's been almost 3 hours. I have to hurry back to meet up with the guys.
At 3:30, about 5 hours into the exam, team 2 met back up. Karui shared her great success in the tavern. Omoi had infiltrated the palace compound and taken a look around. In an office building near the back of the compound he had found some financial documents that implied that there may be some corruption in the administration, but he would need more time and cover to analyze them and see if they were worthwhile.
Naruto had infiltrated the palace itself, and noted that while the lord was heavily guarded he couldn't find anything that would help them. Since it seemed that no matter what they would have to get into the compound they decided to try for both pieces of evidence. It was Sunday, and the office building was likely to be deserted, so they decided that Omoi would go back and take a closer look at the documents, and copy and steal any that he thought they might need.
Karui would infiltrate the dungeon, find a hiding spot, and wait for a signal. Depending on that signal she would either simply leave, or attempt to break out the former mayor. Naruto would be pulling triple duty. The original Naruto would stay with Omoi and act as a lookout. Naruto would also use multi shadow clone jutsu and Henge in order to have a couple of shadow clones in position to help Karui if necessary. The vast majority of his shadow clones would be digging a tunnel from the office building to the dungeon, providing an escape route. At 4am, with 2 hours before sunrise, the group took off to put their plan in motion.
-3 hours later-
I'm glad it's a weekend and none of these 20 accountants are coming in soon. Still, if a local Daimyo needs 20 accountants how many does the Daimyo of the whole Land of Lighting need? thought Omoi as he continued to comb through records.
It was obvious that corruption was rampant in the local lord's administration. Tax money that was supposed to go towards schools was going towards lavish gifts for his multiple mistresses, and copies of tax documents submitted to the Lightning Daimyo's administration painted a very different financial picture that what the local Daimyo's internal documents showed.
There was so much evidence of corruption that Omoi still wasn't done collecting documents. Meanwhile Naruto's shadow clones had made good time on the tunnel. It only had to go about 200 feet, and while the process had started off slowly, once the hole was big enough for more and more clones to be in it the pace had picked up rapidly, until, that is, they were at the foundation of the palace. They then carefully created a tiny hole in the foundation, just big enough for them to see through. The foundation was thick, so the hole itself was several inches long, but the lead clone cold clearly see through to the other side, where there was a young man sitting inside a prison cell.
-With Karui-
It had been no problem for Karui to infiltrate the palace, she had used henge to appear to be a guard and had made her way to the prison with surprisingly little effort. Once there she had been pleased to see that the cell that was closes to where Naruto's clones would be coming from was empty, so she locked herself inside and then henge'd into a prisoner and dozed off to sleep. A couple of hours later she was woken up by a small amount of rubble and a very small scroll landing on her head.
She looked up to see a tiny hole that wasn't there before. The baka must be ready she thought before opening the scroll. "Ready when you are" it said. She new from her Tavern mission that there were about 2 hours until the guards would come down this far into the prison to serve breakfast, and that in the meantime, as long as things were quiet, she would be left alone.
She sent a signal back to the clones to quietly work on making a man sized hole in the foundation before using the substitution technique to end up in the former mayor's cell. "If you want to get out of here stay quiet". she said. First she picked the lock on the cell door, and on her cell door, ushering the man into her cell. She then helped the clones widen the hole in the wall. Soon it was big enough to pass through, and one of Naruto's shadow clones took a place in the mayor's old cell, using Henge to look like the mayor, while Karui and the mayor escaped back through the tunnel.
The last challenge the team faced was how to get the mayor out of the village. They figured he would be recognizable, so they couldn't just walk him out, and since he was a civilian they assumed he couldn't use the henge, so there was quite a debate, with Omoi expounding a caution approach, while Naruto and Karui wanted to just get it over with.
In the end Naruto and Karui, both being excitable and reckless, broke into the stables and stole a horse and carriage. This caught the attention of the guards, but they were not prepared for the situation, and Naruto and co. blew right by them. The carriage also helped them make it back to Atsui's tent in half the time it took them to get to the village. "Team 2 reporting in Atsui-san." said Karui. "We have both the former mayor of the village, who was being held captive by the local Daimyo, and several documents showing corruption in his administration." she concluded while Omoi handed over the files.
"Excellent work team 2, I'm pleased to say that you are the first team that rescued me." said the mayor, who quickly released his henge revealing a Kumo chunin. "Though all 3 of you were spotted in the escape, so that does add 30 minutes on to your total time." added Atsui. Go to the other hotel and wait for the results.
-3 Days Later-
Word got around the hotel that all teams were done, and that 2 separate debriefings were going to occur, each with 9 teams. It was pretty obvious, that one of those debriefings was for the 50% that passed, and the other was for the 50% that failed. Team 2 showed up to their briefing room and were pleased to see both team 1 and team 5 were there, though they seemed to be the only 3 Kumo teams. In addition 2 of the 3 Iwa teams, including Kurotsuchi's team, and both of the Konoha teams, were present. The debriefing was rounded out by the teams from the Hidden Star and Hidden Snow.
Once all were seated Atsui started the debriefing. "As you recall a minimum of 50% of the teams were going to fail automatically. Of the 18 teams 13 completed the mission, so we used the total time to determine who would be moving on. I'm pleased to tell you that all of you are moving on to the next round." The wave of cheers from the exam takers was quickly silenced by the massive amount of killing intent being let out by the person standing next to Atsui.
"I am Moroi, I am the proctor for the 2nd round of the exams. The second round will begin tomorrow, and you will stay here one more night. Be in the lobby at 4:30am sharp or you automatically fail. As with the first round fighting is currently not allowed, though that will change once the 2nd round actually starts. I will see you all tomorrow morning." with that both Moroi and Atsui poofed out of the the room, leaving small clouds of smoke in their place.
-End of Chapter-
Original Commentary:
Thanks for your patience while I wrote this chapter, been pretty a very busy week for me. The next chapter most likely won't be out until a week from today at earliest, and if nothing is out in 2 weeks I'll post an update explaining why.
As of 09/15/17 I updated chapter 4 (The titled Chapter 4, not the 4th chapter, which would be ch 2 part 2.) because I realized I accidentally left out a relatively important paragraph that explains why Naruto changed his appearance for the exams. It somehow didn't make it from the Google Doc to this interface, and I missed it in my final check. It is now back where it should be. It starts at the heading At The Same Time, The Raikage's Office.
To the anonymous reviewer asking about Hinata: I'm in no way anti-Hinata, however in the show it is pretty obvious Naruto is Hinata's main motivation for bettering herself, so since in this scenario she hasn't met him I'm currently envisioning her as her quiet, shy, no confidence having normal self, just without anything to push her and make her better, just the negativity from her clan. Not to say that couldn't change, though I don't think she is going to be a regular character in this story. Maybe she'll show up in one of the Interludes though?
So team 5 consists of 3 actual Kumo shinobi, who based on the pictures on their narutopedia pages could be around the same age as naruto. (Narutopedia does provide an approximate age for Yukai, but I am just making a guess on the other two). J is also a real kumo character, and Moroi is the head of Kumo's Barrier Team.
This is by far my longest chapter, and my first attempt at any real action, so I hope to continue to improve from here. At this point I think I'm better with shorter chapters, but I had a request to write a longer chapter, so I made this one longer than all the others, though to me it felt like I was kinda grasping at straws at times. Next chapter will be the 2nd exam, and there will be an actual fight with at least one other genin team, so I hope you look forward to it.
Chapter 5. references:
The title of the chapter is reminiscent of Sarastro's Aria "O Isis und Osiris" from W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Both in terms of the titles being similar and that the content involves praying to deities. I'm not a huge opera person, but there are a few of them that I really like, including Die Zauberflöte, and this Aria is easily my favorite music from any opera I'm familiar with. (Honorable mention goes to the Hunter's chorus from Der Freischütz if anyone cares).
Updated Commentary:
I unintentionally have some foreshadowing in this chapter. I mention something, and then forgot that I mentioned it. A few chapters later, what do you know the same thing happens! Not a big deal though. When I go back and update/revise/edit that chapter I'll probably fill in the plot hole somehow.
Thanks for reading.
-Col. Bogey