Naruto: Dragon Sage
By: Darksider82
Beta: Winged Seer Wolf
X-X-X-X-X-X
Disclaimer:
I own none of these franchises. I own this idea.
X-X-X-X-X-X
"Chat and jutsu"
'Thoughts'
"Progenitus and Naruto talking"
Bijuu talking
Bijuu thoughts
Chapter X: Chunin exams part 3: part 1
Last time on Naruto: Dragon Sage
Hayate noted down the competitors and came round with a box of numbers for each competitor to decided their line up in the final.
The month passed by rather quickly, but for Naruto it was one of the few times he had let his frustration out because of Kaskashi only giving him five jutsu compared to the fifteen combined he had given his banshee and thieving team mate.
Then the scarecrow had decided to hoist him on 'closet pervert'-sensei Ebisu. Naruto quickly dealt with that by tricking Ebisu into thinking he was groping a young girl near the onsen when it was an all day ladies day. The results were satisfying, causing several major nosebleeds in the village one in the hokage tower and the other Naruto's impromptu sensei Jiraiya.
Jiriaya and Haku between them improved his chakra control and discovered a glaring weakness. "Naruto-kun, a master of the elements must be able to mix and match the elements on a whim but it seems you have a delay for the nature to dissipate and then switch to another...That lag could be fatal." Haku explained after catching the visible question marks floating around her crush's head after Jiriaya gave him an incredibly complex explanation about his multiple nature weakness.
"Haku-chan, you're saying because of the imbalance between my elemental natures, large chakra reserves and the fuzzy in my gut, my greatest strenght is also my greatest weakness." Naruto summeraised to two nods.
"The gaki finally understands." Shouted Jiraiya beginning a weird dance only to find himself jumping away from corpreal chakra chains shooting out of Naruto's arms.
"I...HAVE...LEARNING...DIFFICULTIES...MEANING...I...DO...NOT...UNDERSTAND...COMPLEX...STATEMENTS...EASILY." Growled Naruto, hearing that Jiraiya stopped.
"You mean like words floating off the page? Bad coordination? Unable to sit still? You have Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperaticivity Disorder Kami, I'm sorry I should have recognised the signs. I have a minor case of both...Tell you what, we still have two weeks left of the training month, I'll help you improve your reading, writing and chakra control." Stated Jiraiya.
With the help of shadow clones, Naruto drastically felt the neglected skills in the academy dramatically increased. "You're finally shaping up to be a rokudaime or nanadaime kage hopeful." Commented Progenitus snidely.
Naruto shook his head and carried on his spar with Jiriaya, this was yet another weakness he had found himself. He needed breathing room to speak to Progenitus something a fight didn't provide so hence the spar and communication procedure.
Later on that night a man was murdered on the roof's of Konoha. Someone had whacked Hayate Gekko, one of the best swordsmen the village had and his body wasn't found until the next morning.
Everyone stopped training even the visitors, the funeral was nice and brief and it rained. Rained harder than ever, Naruto began to wonder if it always rained when a shinobi of konoha died.
Finally the day of the exams came around. Naruto only just made it to the arena on time. "Just about on time kid, anyway the powers that be have done a little changing around. You're facing Uchiha Sasuke whilst Neji is facing Subaku no Gaara."
Naruto had to restrain a snarl, since the clusterfuck of the Wave mission, Sasuke had been using his sharingan to try and copy several of his jutsu. 'But thankfully due to the dubious, potential brain damaging oh and did he remember potentially fatal method of clone spamming he had reduced the majority of his justu to on average three hand seals.'
"Hai...Understood." Replied Naruto and basked in the appalause of the crowd. Meanwhile up in the kage booth the Ho and Kazekages sat down and waited for the combats to begin.
It appeared Sasuke wouldn't be their on time so Genma began to the tournament. "Hyuga Neji and Sabaku no Gaara remain." He ordered and the Hyuga prodigy and Jinchurki remained in the stadium.
"Hajime." Shouted Genma before vanishing to the high ground as Gaara's sand ejected itself out of its gourd. Neji slipped into the official stance of the Juken.
"Observe, Hanabi Neji your cousin has the thickest Hyuga blood to ever present itself in the clan." Explained Hyuga Hiashi.
As if an unspoken command was given the sand surged forwards, Neji activated his Byakugan and jumped backwards as two massive sand claws scythed their way out of the sand.
'Impossible chakra levels...He's only a kid. Time to show him why the Hyuga are superior.' Nejo thought as he landed just outside the range of the sand, flicking his wrists Neji hurled several chakra enhanced kunai and shuriken at tyhe red haired sociopath.
The sand surged up in front of Gaara, plucking the projectiles out of the air. "Your blood...satisfactory...mother...happy...prefer...Uchiha." Rasped Gaara as he felt Shukaku stir in his mind.
"What am I against? Okay Neji stay calm you're a prodigyu of the Hyuga clan...Shut off his chakra." Neji told himself and undid his weights, Neji's weights crashed into the floor and he charged forward.
"Eight trigrams sixty four palms." Neji murmured and the world descended into blackness and Gaara found himself in a Yin-Yang symbol and the blows descended upon him.
Gaara refused to scream as the blows connected solidly with his chakra circuit and knocked himbackwards. Slowly but surely the back peddalling sped up and upon the last blow Gaara was propelled backwards like a gyser connecting solidly with the arena wall.
'IMPOSSIBLE! THAT'S THE EIGHT TRIGRAMS SIXTY FOUR PALMS OF HEAVEN! HOW DID HE LEARN THAT!" Thought Hiashi as he subconsiouly lent forward intent on seeing what else his nephew had up his sleeve.
"Maybe Neji will help me learn that? I know the eight, sixteen and twenty four palms perfectly. I'm getting their at the thirty two palms...Maybe he can help me...It seems he despises nee-chan as much as the rest of the clan." Thought Hanabi.
"Winner..." Genma began to say only to jump back as Gaara materialised out of the sand on the floor.
"Impressive...If not for my clone...You would have won...SAND SPIKES!" Rumbled Gaara and several sharp spikes of sand erupted around his feet sending Neji backwards like a spider.
"SAND BULLETS!" Then the spikes morphed into a pillar of sand which then began to spit finger tipped size bullets at Neji who had to employ his Byakugan to dodge, duck and dive out the way of the bullets which managed to crack the foundations of the arena.
"EIGHT TRIAGRAMS REVOLVING HEAVEN!" Shouted Neji and he began to spin rapidly pushing his chakra one way and himself another erecting a dome of bright blue chakra effortlessly deflecting the remaining bullets.
Gaara beginning to mentally lose ground to Shukaku took a few steps forwards and released his sand armour thinking his opponent was done for. "Sand burial..." Gaara declared.
The sand swallowed Neji only for him to dissapear in a plume of smoke revealing a wooden log. "Eight trigrams sixty four palms." The hyuga declared.
Whereas last time Shukaku had sluggishly managed to clear the chakra out of Gaara, this time he was removing the blocks almost immediately as the come.
"I can't beat this one. How can he have so much chakra and be able to remove my stoppers?" Neji pressed on the assault regardless he hammered home several more chakra shots even several at the tandem.
"SAND BREAKTHROUGH!" Shouted Gaara exhaling a cloud of sand shards which buffeted and shredded Neji and pushed the boy back. Only for him to activate his revolving heaven again.
"Surrender, Hyuga...Mother...will spare...you." Gaara rasped as his body suddenly spasmed due to his tailed beast wanting him to shred the boy limb from limb.
"Never! My destiny is to die and serve the main branch of the Hyuga, you know nothing of sparing life. EIGHT TRIGRAMS ONE...!" Neji shouted and suddenly stopped and blood erupted from his mouth.
Neji looked down and saw a spear of sand protruding from his back, and emerging out the front. Good knews it hadn't hit anything major like the spine, lungs and the heart but it had caught his stomach.
The crowd stopped and watched the spear disintegrate and remove itself from it victim and the sand spattered with blood retracted into the gourd. "Winner Sabaku no Gaara." Declared a slightly green Genma.
"A good match, Hokage-dono, I don't think they are ready yet for chunin. Gaara still needs to curb his bloody tendancies whilst Hyuga-san could have been a chunin lost it due to losing his cool." Said the Kazekage before licking his lips.
The Hokage nodded and grunted in agreement. "Game over Orochimaru, I met the Yondaime Kazekage a few times and he never did care about his children that much...He even tried to kill Gaara a few times. I never did that to Naruto, though I have suspicions on who did and who switched the fights around." The sandaime thought darkly.
"I must agree Kazekage-sama with your assessment of the first round of combatants. Now let us get on with the second fight."
In the stadium the shinobi council had gathered and were taking notes and commenting on the fighters deciding if they should recieve recommendations for promotions. "Decided then, none of the fighters to receive a promotion. A psyche check on Hyuga Neji and allow him entry to the next chunin exams." Questioned Aburame Shibi to which he recieve a majority vote.
To all genin what they didn't realise was their were multiple ways to become chunin. One was to impress the judges in the exams, a battlefield promotion, a good amount of effective and successful missions with recommendations from the client and the last but possibly the sneakiest of them all a councils recommendation to take the chunin exams...This little trick allowed said participant and his team a by-pass in the next chunin exams meaning more chakra available and a better performance."
"Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto plese enter the field."
Naruto jumped into the arena and waited. After two minutes it appeared that the last Uchiha wasn't going to show up. "Uzumaki Naruto..." Genma began to say when a shinobi in an immaculate green flak vest appeared in the stadium. This shinobi was most evidently on the civilian council payroll judging by the state of the vest. Most shinobi vests were either frayed or torn slightly.
"Yes..." Asked Genma coldly.
"The council want Uchiha Sasuke to still fight." He explained.
"Get lost...Get clearance from Hokage-sama." The jonin spat on the floor near Genma's feet and vanished in a shunshin.
"Hokage-dono, why not move the Uchiha's fight till last as an exhibition as most of the crowds have come to see him fight...Myself especially." Suggested the Kazekage.
The Hokage grunted "Very well, he will have his fight...No promotion as a chunin one is expected to arrive on time...If it had been a proper war Uzumaki Naruto could have been killed or taken hostage." The sandaime noticed a subtle aura of glee whenever the Uchiha was mentioned around Kazekage.
'Have you now Orochimaru.' Thought the Sandaime gleefully.
The crowd cheered at the fact the last Uchiha would fight last. Kankuro quickly threw his match to Shino.
Whilst Shikamaru and Temari had enraptured the crowd with what appeared to be a rather boring fight, escalated quickly into a game of cat and mouse.
The shinobi council watched on in interest. They all quickly came to the conclusion that Shikamaru deserved the rank of chunin.
"Shadow possession jutsu success...I give up. Had another twenty moves planned out but I'm all out of chakra." Said Shikamaru from his place on the edge of the shadows, squatting down with his head bowed.
"Lazy bastard." Shouted Sakura.
"Shika, typical." Murmured Kiba and Hinata though the latter whispered it.
Naruto snorted at Shikamaru.
"Typical Nara attitude, several shinobi including the council said in unison."
"Definitely chunin." Commented the kages.
"As Uchiha Sasuke hasn't arrived he has two minutes before being disqualified." Announced Genma.
Naruto jumped into the stadium as Lee and Gai arrived in the stands and Tenten quickly filling Lee in on who won and lost. As Naruto hit the ground a twin shunshin appeared and with his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and perverted book in the other stood Hatake Kakashi.
"We're not late are we? Saw a few black cats and Sasuke had to get changed." Drawled the scarecrowed jonin to a mass sweatdrop.
"Uchiha Sasuke vs Uzumaki Naruto HAJIME!" Declared Genma before grabbing Kakashi and shunshinning them both to safety.
"Scared dobe?" Sharingan eyes flickered into existance.
"You wish."