Okay guys, well here is ten, there is slight Shika Tema foreshadowing, and the first exam, I also resolve the cliffhanger which I left last chapter (it was well received, so thanks for that).
I have reached 175 reviews as we speak and I have 42,000 odd hits, impressive if you ask me, I want more. Sorry if the chapters at the moment feel rushed, but you know what my predicament is. There is also a recap kind of thing, to sum up what happened in the first nine chapters, narrated by Naruto.
Naruto: So Far, On Naruto: The Second Sage.
Naruto:Okay, I activated the Rinnegan because I have the Senju and the Uchiha blood in me. The Kyuubi is called Kurama and can talk to me and helps e out with stuff, I also have a sword I call sword, which is pretty stupid, but its better than the Sword Of The Butterfly. I'm on Team 7, with Sakura(who was annoying at first, but is now okay) and Sasuke (who is crazy, I think), they might be flawed, but they're my team.
We were at the Wave, where I defeated Zabuza and then struck a deal with him, together we helped over throw Gato, and Zabuza's accomplice came along for the ride. Her name is Haku, and she is pretty, she also has a fanboy. His name is Sasuke.
Back in the village, Old Man Hokage is retiring, and some conspiracies are going on. There is a guy with an orange mask..why? That is my favorite color and I'm the damn hero of the story, that's why. He is the villain, its fitting he wears orange. Orochimaru, Orange mask man, Itachi Uchiha, all of them have plans, and separate motives.
Then there's the Chunin Exams, and Shikamaru might find sex really toublesome, and Temari might find Shika's laziness kinky. There's more people with demons in their stomach than there's people with a 200 and above IQ and that is annoying.
Gaara is one of them, he wants my blood, I wonder if he's a vampire, the other's name is apparently Yugito, and I want her..wait...I did not say that, scratch that from the record Zap.
Either way, the road to the Chunin Exams is now coming to a dead end, now, its time for us to take on the real deal, and hopefully, pass.
And now, the story.
Ever since Naruto and his team had accepted the Chunin exams form and filled them in, preparations had been full swing, Naruto tried his hardest to ignore what was going on with Gaara and Yugito, the two Junchuriki that had arrived in Konoha, Naruto felt some sort of strange longing to get to know them better, he felt that they were one of the eight other people who could understand what it felt like to have something in you that makes people hate you for it and in general be really biased.
Yet he shuddered to think what would have happened had his father not have visited him that fateful day and told him about the fox and had the fox not helped him out, he wondered if he would turn out to be like Gaara, a person who inspired terror in his own siblings, but Naruto was more curious about Yugito.
For all he knew, she was kind of like him, from what he had seen of her, and there was not much, she was friendly with her teammates, who were also seemingly aware of her tenant, something that he was yet to tell his teammates, they had asked him what he meant by nine, and he had been generally evasive, only Pervy Sage and the old man were told about the Jinchuriki and Naruto had been promised by the Third that he would personally look into it.
Sasuke and Sakura had come along nicely, in the last few days, something had lit a metaporical fire under Sakura's ass and she worked real hard, trying to acquire not only Genjutsu but also some Medical Techniques, Kakashi thought that she was a natural at doing that and that she had potential that was equal to the Sannin, Tsunade herself.
Sasuke and Naruto had helped her out with Chakra capacity and served as sparring partners that would not hold back and go at her with all they had (Not Naruto, who would probably end up killing her if that happened).
Kakashi was pleased with how his team had come along, they were strong, Naruto was probably stronger than he let on and Sasuke was easily Chunin material, more importantly, they listened to each other and followed each other's advice, while the other teams still had some disagreements from time to time, no one had expected Kakashi's team, what with the Uchiha and his (former) Fan Girl with the Dead Last to do so good and gel together so well, but they did, and their combination worked.
The other teams had been at it too, Team 8, which had Hinata and Kiba and Shino, and was lead by Yuhi Kurenai, Asuma's girlfriend (or fuck buddy according to Anko) were also one of the more promising up and coming trackers, what with such amazing bloodlines that really aided tracking. Hinata was grounded and had good awareness of her surroundings, Shino was formidable in his own right and Kiba, though brash and arrogant and a loudmouth was strong, and there was no denying that.
Team 10 had also been catching attention, according to Asuma, who had bet around 100,000 ryo on Shikamaru becoming a Chunin and some more money on Ino and Chouji making the finals, Shikamaru was the kind of genius that came along once a generation, although he did come with a single major flaw, and that was his chronic laziness and his inability to be inspired by anything that was not life threatening to his precious people. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio however were living up to the potential and proved that there was no mistake made when they were picked, apparently, teamwork was in their genes and they were as well oiled of a unit as Team 7.
Shikamaru (much to everyone's amusement) had taken up to meeting Temari, a lot, their conversations were generally had when playing Shogi and watching clouds while Temari berated him for being so lazy. Choji and Ino had been outraged when they had seen Temari and Shikamaru together staring at clouds, Ino had told Choji about the encounter that Shikamaru had had with Temari, and had watched his jaw drop when he heard about the whole thing, and the way Ino had said him there was tension of the sexual variety between them.
Temari for her part had to ward off an angry Team Baki, Gaara was always angry but Kankuro had flat out told her that she was fraternizing with the enemy, but Temari did not care about it at all she only wanted to hang out with Shikamaru for some inexplicable reason, and the more she thought about it, the more it went over her head, she had thought that she would really hate someone as lazy as Shikamaru had turned out to be, and yet he had something about him that had attracted her to him, and she loved it, and for some reason, the impending invasion that they were going to carry out on the village seemed to be even more daunting, because deep down, Temari did not want to betray Shikamaru, she couldn't explain this line of thought, but according to her she did not need to, she did not understand what the fuss was about, and she did not care.
Then there was Team Gai, and there was one person, who more than anyone else had wanted to take on the Dead Last Naruto in a one on one battle and show him the error of his ways, and this person was Neji Hyuuga. He had been humiliated by the blonde brat, who had no talent was destined to fail. Both Rock Lee, his useless (according to him anyway) teammate and his over enthusiastic teacher Gai had tried to persuade him against ever taking on Naruto as he was more than he let on, but Neji was not willing to listen to them, he only wanted to listen to the thoughts of revenge that were inside his head, and the time for taking his revenge was coming, for he was not the only person on his list, there was another, his own family, cousin sister Hinata was also on his list.
-x-
"What the hell could you possibly want from me?" Orochimaru asked the man in front of him, who had chosen to remain in darkness and not step forward, and even though Orochimaru could clearly make out the swirling patterns on the mans orange mask, he was scared, scared of the person in front of him, and scared of what was going to happen to him. Scared for once, of death.
"Oh, is that a way to greet your superior Orochimaru, or do you forget that it is my clan's Dojutsu that you are so callously chasing, do you think it is that easy?" the man asked him, Orochimaru began sweating, he knew he could make a break for it, but to slip in here undetected was something no one had done, and the power that the man in front of him had was far too great, he would be done for.
"Look, its only for-"
"Immortality, I know" the man said, interrupting him, if this was anyone else, he would be dead, but this masked man was not anyone else, he was someone who was well known for being a prodigy, for being extremely strong, for being the one man apart from Hashirama Senju who had taken a tailed beast under his control.
"Uchiha Madara" Orochimaru said, "I do not have anything against you, the last I heard was you were looking for the tailed beasts, and I want a Sharingan, and that too Sasuke's, because Itachi is too strong, so I don't wanna have to fight" Orochimaru said to Madara, who began giggling in a shrill voice.
"Amusing indeed, for a man that wants to be immortal, you have a strange flirtatious relationship with death, I mean, having come so close could have stopped you, but even escaping Itachi with your life did not teach you anything did it?" Madara asked him?
Orochimaru grit his teeth. He did not like where this conversation was heading by the second, plus Madara's presence was irritating him, a lot more, he was almost considering fighting this person.
"I am curious though, how did you know it was me?" Madara asked Orochimaru, genuinely surprised that Orochimaru had recognized him under the mask.
"I took a shot, I knew you were not dead, and I knew that if someone had the power to do things you seem to have done, then it must be you, but frankly I don't care" Orochimaru said to him, perhaps being braver than he had though he could be, this just caused Madara to laugh, and this one was maniacal, this was the laugh of a person who had lost all sense of good and bad ages ago.
"Brave Snake man, very brave, however I would say that this is completely unwise, after all, you don't wanna be challenging me" Madara said to him in a tone that was highly condescending and mocking. Orochimaru could not grit his teeth any further while Madara was loving every minute of this conversation that was taking place right now.
"What do you want?" Orochimaru asked Madara, who laughed again and made Orochimaru feel extremely uncomfortable, and that was a huge achievement.
"Getting down to business I see, very wise Orochimaru, now here is the deal, I want you to join me" Madara said to him. Orochimaru looked at him wondering if he was joking.
"And If I refuse?" Orochimaru asked him in a slow drawl, and Madara smiled, although under the mask it was not visible.
"Simple, I will leave now, but there is no doubt that our paths will collide, by hook or by crook, and then we will be pitted against each other, and we both know who is going to win that battle, don't we?" Madara asked him arrogantly, and Orochimaru shuddered, even though it was quite boastful of the masked man to say, it was true, he really was not going to win like this, nor would he beat Madara anyway.
"There is a conflict Madara, I want the Sharingan and you know it" Orochimaru said to him, "I will not stop till I gain the Sharingan, and I will obliterate all that stands in my path, so I don't know if you are okay with that" he said to Madara who nodded.
"I don't care about Uchihas anymore, which is kind of Ironic, but they had forsaken me a long, long time ago, what I actually want is something else, but still, lets see you try shall we, if you are able to invade Konoha successfully, you can have Sasuke Uchiha, and if you don't, you can have him when I tell you to have him, and trust me when I say this, you will get a chance to have him again, this is not a final shot" Madara said to him.
Orochimaru looked pensive at what Madara had told him just now, but Madara did not want to wait around.
"I want an answer, soon" Madara said before vanishing, leaving Orochimaru to himself and his thoughts.
-x-
"What do you see in these clouds anyway?" Temari asked Shikamaru, they were staring at clouds today, something Temari had no patience for, she had hoped for a Shogi match, but Shikamaru had shrugged that idea off, instead they were watching clouds again.
"Isn't a cloud so lucky, no goals, no one to look after, no one to care for, just floating away in the sky till it rains, and then being reborn again, isn't that a very blessed life it leads" said Shikamaru, almost philosophically while Temari sweat dropped, the boy always said things like this, but this was new, it gave her insight into him, and she wanted to know about him, more than she already did.
"So, are your goals similar, to have no one to look after?" she asked him, and even though she did not realize it, there was a tone of longing in her voice, something that could tell anyone that she wanted to be someone Shikamaru cared about, however Shikamaru being the lazy person he was had missed this, even though Temari herself was surprised that something like this was coming from her own mouth, she had to slap herself mentally and remind her that Shikamaru was an enemy.
"I want a normal life" Shikamaru said to her, "I want to become a Chunin, maybe Jounin, marry a moderately pretty woman and have two kids, a guy and a girl, and retire once the girl is married, or the boy is promoted, that is all I want" Shikamaru said to her and Temari blushed.
"So, suppose it was me, would I fit your criteria for a wife?" she asked him, surprised how hopeful (and cheesy) she was sounding right now, however she only had romance novels to go by, however Shikamaru was completely oblivious to what she was doing.
"Hmm, yes, you are moderately pretty" he said, which he realized a second too late was not the right thing to say as Temari was turning red faced by the second, not from shame but from anger, she was shaking.
"Moderately Pretty?" she asked Shikamaru, and she hated to say it but it sounded like a hiss to her and this was extremely scary for Shikamaru.
"I only meant criteria wise" Shikamaru said hastily shaking his hands, "You are very beautiful actually, you might be too good for the position" he finished and Temari quieted down, causing Shikamaru to heave a sigh of relief, this was what he wanted to happen at this point in time.
"Shikamaru" Temari said, which made the boy look her in the eyes, and he realized there was something she wanted to tell him, "I wanna say something to you"
Temari was berating herself for doing this, but she realized that what she felt for the boy was more than a friendly affection, and her inner self did not want to start off this strange feeling she had for him with a lie, but Temari realized what was happening.
"I want to say-" Temari said, just as much to her fortune, Kankuro showed up, looking miffed at what was happening. He did not like his sister with Shikamaru.
"I have to go" Temari said before rushing off towards Kankuro. She had soon disappeared from Shikamaru's sight.
'That tone in her voice' Shikamaru thought. 'It sounded like someone was doing something that was necessary, ignoring the fact that it might hurt their loved ones, I have heard that one before, and I don't like it, Temari, what are you hiding?'
-x-
"Oh, I thought that this day would never ever come" Naruto said enthusiastically, Team 7 was in the building that was going to house the Chunin exams.
"Will you stay quiet?" Sakura asked Naruto, she had a headache, courtesy Ino, who had introduced her to the joys of Sake, and although she was fine and completely sober, the headache still lingered, and Sakura was worried that it would affect her exams, she had taken a tablet and had hoped that the headache would leave, it had faded but was still there like some sort of a throb.
'Well, boo hoo that you had to get drunk, and Sasuke and I had to carry you back, your mother was not happy, not happy at all" he said to her and Sakura shivered, her mother had given her a cold look today morning, showing displeasure at what she had done, she hoped that there would not be a significant backlash from her when she got back home tonight.
"Naruto, Genjutsu" Sasuke said to Naruto, pointing his finger to the door and realizing that this was indeed the second floor and not the third floor that they needed to be on. Naruto spotted Rock Lee and his team staring at the Chunin guarding the door and apparently not letting anyone through.
"Please let us pass" Tenten, the female member of Lee's team had said to the guard who was unrelenting, before Tenten shrugged and along wit Neji and Rock Lee had taken the staircase on the left, ignoring the protests of the guard who wondered if they were interested in the exams at all. Naruto smiled, well played, this was one way to throw out the undeserving, Naruto decided to do the same and Sasuke and Sakura, who had taken to Naruto being their unofficial leader had followed in his foot steps.
Soon they found themselves on the right floor, along with a lot of the candidates, and found that Team 8 had already arrived, and so had Team 10.
"I thought you were not gonna show up Sakura" Ino said to her, sounding worried about her best friend, they had resumed their friendship ever since Ino and Sakura had both realized that Sasuke liked a girl who was not one of the two and there was nothing they could do about it. Hinata and Team 8 were also standing there, Kiba was smiling at Naruto while Shikamaru looked bored, Choji was munching on chips and Shino was running his finger around his nose and looking stoic.
"So Naruto, heard about Shikamaru, apparently he is friends with that really hot Kunoichi from Suna, what do they call her, Temari?" he asked Choji, who nodded. "What I wouldn't give to have a piece of her" he said, almost drooling like a lot of the dogs did, and suddenly Naruto felt uncomfortable, as did almost everyone in the vicinity as Shikamaru of all people let lose a killer intent that scared the living piss out of everyone.
"Say that again, and I will not spare you" he said to Kiba, who 'eeped' and decided that maybe opening his big fat mouth was not the right thing to do. Sasuke and Naruto looked amused while Ino was glaring at Shikamaru, according to her, Temari was an enemy nin, she did not care about the alliance between Suna and Konoha one bit, all she did care about was her teammate, who in the past few days had become like a brother to her and she was worried that Temari was enticing him and leading him to his doom, and she did not like it.
"Can't you just stop with Temari for a second, I mean you guys were never that interested in me" Shikamaru said, again taking on that same lazy tone, completely displacing the cold tone he had used with Kiba, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they were glad to see Shikamaru return to his lazy self, however Choji was the one to break the silence.
"That's cause by yourself, you are just a lazy bum who stares at clouds" he said to Shikamaru, who sighed, muttering about troublesome friends while the rest of the Rookie Nine had laughed, however only Naruto and Sasuke noticed that the whole room, that was full of rookies was now looking at them, and most of them were anything but friendly looks, as a matter of fact, he was getting vibes of some killing intent, especially from the people who were wearing a headband with a musical note on it.
"That is Oto, it is a relatively new village, they decided to send teams for the Chunin exams this year too, hmm, I wonder why?" a new voice said, the silence had already been broken, the other teams had returned to concentrating on themselves and their comrades, this new person however was a Konoha shinobi who had a friendly look on his face was had spectacles on.
"Who in the blue hell are you?" Kiba asked this new man incredulously, causing the said man to smile.
"I heard a lot about you, Kiba Inuzuka, your loud mouth precedes your reputation as one of the strongest genin in the village" he said, which caused Kiba to growl, however in reply, the man merely smiled before extending his hand towards Kiba.
"Yakushi Kabuto, you can ask me anything you know, I am taking these exams for the seventh time" he said to the whole group of nine rookies. "I also participated as a rookie, and let me tell you, the teams aren't kind to them, at least they weren't kind to mine" he said to them.
"Seven Times?" Ino asked shocked. "Whoa you must really suck" she said, Kiba snickered while Choji let out a small grin, Kabuto just smiled.
"Hmm, to each his own, although you would be foolish to think you will be promoted so easily" Kabuto said to Ino, "It is not that easy with everyone after you, you'll see" he said to her smiling.
Ino scoffed, as did Kiba, this person, despite sounding friendly was not really saying anything friendly to him and he did not like that one bit, the dog that was sitting on his head at the moment seemed to agree with him as it yipped its disapproval of the bespectacled ninja.
"This guy seems suspicious" Naruto said to Sasuke, "I don't know why, but I have a feeling that there i something really negative about him" he told him, Sasuke merely shrugged his shoulders.
"The only thing negative about him is- well, everything" he said to Naruto who smiled before awkwardly pausing. Did Sasuke crack a joke, or at least make an attempt.
"Did you just-" he began asking Sasuke who interrupted him.
"I do have a sense of humor, its just black comedy Naruto, you won't understand" he said to Naruto, who then proceeded to flip him off, and Ino saw this, and this annoyed her.
"Don't make rude gestures towards Sasuke Kun" she said to Naruto who groaned, her fan girlism was really, really annoying.
Before he could respond, a man came into the room, said man had an intimidating tone about him and had scars on his face, and Naruto realized that this man would make a great fit in the Torture and Interrogation squad of Konoha, he looked the part, for all he knew, as long as this person did not sound like a chipmunk, he might as well have worked in that department.
"QUIET DOWN BRATS" the man bellowed, and much to Naruto's relief (and disappointment) he did not sound like a chipmunk at all, as a matter of fact, he sounded like he had seen tough times, and every bit as scary as the face he had on him, and Naruto remembered hearing about this person from Anko, this was Ibiki Morino, Anko's mentor.
"Now, I assume you are here for the Chunin exams, well I am your proctor for the first stage, my name is Ibiki Morino" he said to the crowd of genin, all of whom were silent, listening to this person in rapt attention, Naruto swore that even a breath could be heard, he wondered if everyone was holding theirs.
"Well, the first stage, we will make you real men, and make you take a written test" he said to the whole assembly in front of him, and he watched as faces fell, Naruto's fell the furthest, he was good at combat intelligence, and was probably as strong as any Jounin and yet he could not defeat the written test. Sakura looked at Naruto, worried for him as she knew that Naruto was smarter in street skills and not in bookish ones.
Sasuke however was confident, even though he himself was not that good in written exams, he had already decided that he was going to cheat, it was a dishonorable thing to do, but hell, they were Ninjas, who cared?
"Naruto, you will be fine, just take this on with a clear head okay" Sakura said to him, trying to be as reassuring as she possibly could be, and Naruto smiled, he couldn't believe that she had come so far along, he remembered way back when she was a mindless fan girl and how he had protested being teamed with her, and now she was like a sister that he never had, and he was glad for it.
"SHUT UP" Ibiki screamed as he felt the murmurs in the room begin to rise. "The rules are as follows, 45 minute test with nine questions, five minutes for each question, correct answer leads to a single point, however if you answer wrongly, you lose one point, and if you get caught cheating, you lose two points, get caught cheating five times and you and your team can get the fuck out of my exam" he said to the whole room.
"On the completion of the first nine questions, a tenth one will be given, this one will have 10 bonus points and will require 15 minutes of your time, and I will select a predetermined number of teams with the highest scores..get it?" he asked the whole room, which nodded in unison.
"Okay then, what the hell are you waiting for, get the hell in Room Seven within five minutes and collect your test papers, before that, take your numbers so that you can find out where you will be seated" he said to them as the whole room made a bustle towards the desk which was handing out numbers, Naruto noticed that no team was allowed to sit together.
'Bummer' Naruto thought as he stared at Hinata collecting her number in front of him.
He absently moved forward, waiting to receive his own placement.
-x-
'YES, I HAVE A FUCKING CHANCE' Naruto though, as much to his delight, he was placed beside Hinata, who had always been friendly to him and would help him out even during the academy, she was also quite intelligent, though not as bookish as Sakura, if he could cheat from her, he could pass, the team scores will be joined and he planned on not letting his teammates down, he could not imagine facing them if he had failed all of them because he could not answer ten stupid questions. He realized that he could also lose points if he got caught and if he was caught cheating five times, he was done, the whole team would go out.
'Wait, that does not sound right, I mean in the academy, we were never given the liberty of cheating' he thought to himself. 'So why do it now, unless they actually want us to cheat' he thought as it hit him, this was not about the test, this was about gathering information and not getting caught. This was after all a very important skill that every Shinobi needed to have and Naruto realized that this was a very clever method of testing.
He smiled as he knew what to do, he activated a henge before turning on the Rinnegan, which gave him clearer vision when he focused Chakra on the eyes, and thus allowed him to peer at other papers at a distance without much problem.
He turned around casually as he came across a candidate who was scribbling away, the answers seemed right to Naruto, and he realized what was going on, there were some plants in here, and they made for the sources of information. Soon he was on his way to copying away and passing.
He observed the surroundings around him and saw that every one had found methods to copy, they had either figured out the purpose of the test or they were just doing it out of desperation. Kiba seemed to be taking the help of his dog Akamaru who was apparently whispering the answers to him while Shino was using his bugs. Sakura seemed to have an idea as to how to solve the paper that was more difficult than what one should expect from the written test, only furthering the purpose of information gathering.
Naruto smiled, if there was anyone who was smart enough to do the test on his own, it was Sakura, she excelled at stuff like this. Sasuke seemed to be copying hand movements with his Sharingan, something that Naruto thought was highly ingenious. Ino would probably use the Mind Body Transfer technique and the others would manage. He smiled, it seemed that all his comrades from his year were well on their way to the next round.
However many others were not very lucky at all, within five minutes in the test, many people had already been ejected from the exam, along with their teammates (much to the anger of the expelled candidates) Ibiki was unrelenting and ruthlessly eliminated everyone who was caught cheating for a fifth time. Apparently there were Seventy Eight teams when this had started, now there were only Forty Five left, this turned out to be an effective weeding out process.
However Naruto was left to ponder on the weirdness of one Kabuto Yakushi, who he found to be extremely suspicious and someone not to be trusted. He had seemed friendly enough, but in a condescending way that indicated that he thought he was miles above everyone else. And Naruto, who had hidden his own talents in the academy realized that Kabuto was also hiding, but he did not know if it was some deep dark secret or ability. However Naruto found it ridiculous that Kabuto had failed seven times, something that should not happen if he was smart enough.
'Unless he is a spy, in which case its all the more likely that he is selling us out' he thought, wondering if he should use The King Of Hell and interrogate Kabuto, however quickly deciding against it, for all intents and purposes, this was just a hunch of his and he did not need to go to that extreme.
As he continued thinking about Kabuto and what to do about him, forty five minutes had already elapsed and Ibiki had taken the center stage again, before starting off
"Now, the tenth question's time is here" he said to the remaining forty seven teams that were present. "But there is a catch, you can chose to not take this question and fail, or you can chose to take this question" he said to the room, upon looking at the puzzled expressions of all the genin in the room he smiled.
"If you do take the question and answer it, you will pass, however should you get the answer wrong, you will never be able to take the Chunin exam ever again" he said to the room.
The room erupted in protests with many people asking Ibiki how he could do something so ridiculous, Ibiki just shrugged them off, however Naruto realized that the purpose behind this exam was not information gathering, but to test whether they were able to take the necessary risks and make the sacrifices that needed to be made. He decided that he needed to stay quiet while the doubtful would eliminate themselves, and he was right, almost half the room had left, deciding to try again, Naruto smiled, more would leave this way, making competition easier.
However Sakura did not seem to sure and Sasuke and Naruto both saw the doubt in her face, Hinata was also about to give up, however Naruto decided that Sakura needed to know that they believed in her and that she could do it.
"Sakura" he called out, "I trust you, Sasuke does too, don't worry, Team Seven stays together, whether as Genin or as Chunin. If they never make me a Chunin, I will still become Hokage, Sasuke will still avenge his family and you will still become the great Kunoichi you inspire to be" he said. Everybody heard this and smiled.
"Team 7 isn't the only one, Team 8 also stays together, Hinata, lets do this" Kiba said to her. Hinata gave him a weak grin while Shino was presumably smiling under his hood.
'The boy has strengthened the resolve of everyone in the room, he will one day make a fine leader, and who knows, maybe a Hokage, I can't keep this up' he thought to himself.
"Alright" he said as the last of the teams left the room, only 18 of the 78 remained.
"Well, You pass"
-x-
"Are you ready Itachi?" Sandaime asked the Uchiha, who was seated wearing a mask, his old mask, that of Weasel. Itachi nodded, he was not going to fail his brother, for him, he would do this.
"Remember, he might change his targets, you have to save the other one too" Jiraiya, who was also in the room said to Itachi.
"Yes Jiraiya sama, do not worry, I will protect all of them, Orochimaru will not have his way with them" he said, his voice resembling the voice of someone who had the strength to accomplish the high lofty goals he would set for himself.
'Orochimaru, its time, now, we finish what we started years ago' thought the old man as he sighed, before reclining in his chair.
-x-
Phew, so that is that, Chapter 10 is in the books. I was not going to resolve the cliff hanger, but what do you know, I changed my mind again. NOw I have to tell you that you have to keep reviewing and reading my story, I hope you guys like it. I wonder if the overall quality of my chapters will improve once I obtain my laptop, but that is still a month away, now here is a rant.
- If you guys read my profile, you know I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan, I mean huge. So huge that I have seen everything he has made, excluding Following, which I cannot seem to find anywhere. Now The Dark Knight Rises came out and I saw it, once with my friends, and once alone, and most of them had the same reaction, they absolutely did not like the fact that it was not as good as The Dark Knight. And I wonder why they thought that anything could possibly match up to The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger. Bane is a completely different villain and needs to be acted completely differently. I won't spoil anything but check it out if you haven't seen the movie, it really is good. Probably as good as The Dark Knight, but that's just my personal opinion.
This leads to my second point, this proves that Hollywood can actually make proper blockbusters that actually don't insult the viewer, it proves that we do not need to make movies like Michael Bay does on a big budget, I think personally, this year, The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises prove that even on a big budget, you can make an entertaining movie, you know, something that Michael Bay has never ever done.
- The Second thing I have to rant on is Masashi Kishimoto bringing back Orochimaru. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT, FIRST EVERY DEAD PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE CAME BACK, THEN ITACHI CAME BACK AND MANAGED TO STAY AND RESIST CONTROL, THEN MADARA CAME BACK, AND NOW THIS! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU KILL OROCHIMARU IF HE HAD TO COME BACK. IT SEEMS THAT OROCHIMARU IS SOME SORT OF PLOT DEVICE, LIKE HOW SOME MEN HAVE A GIRL THEY CALL WHENEVER THEY WANNA HAVE SEX (a prostitute to be politically incorrect), OROCHIMARU IS SOMEONE WHO COMES BACK WHENEVER THE PLOT SEEMS TO SLOW DOWN.
Although I must say, the Ten Tails Revival is interesting, lets see where this goes.
Anyway, this was really long, and I loved ranting about Orochimaru, that was sorta my reaction when I first read it.
Read and review, do not forget reviewing, I will give the 200th review (which I expect to reach hopefully by chapter 11 comes out) a cookie.
Later