Neglect

Chapter 10

Just had a job interview the other day at a book store. It went pretty well….i hope. The position is either Head Cashier-full time, or just a normal cashier which is part time. I want either one! I need to get a better job than what I have, I am sick of making pizzas for 7 and a half years! By the way, the Book Store is Barnes and Noble.

Plus, this Friday I am FINALLY getting another car….or should I say TRUCK! It is a 2000 GMC Sonoma with 107,xxx miles on it and it gets 26 MPG. Awesome. And it was only 3000 dollars.

XXXXXX

Naruto stared at the Academy building in annoyance. This was the place that his team was supposed to take the Chunin Exams in. Of course it would be. The place he had to keep pretending for the brats of Konoha's major clans. Well…not all of them but still. He really didn't like this place and now they had to go back?

What kind of joke was this? This had to be a joke, but maybe it wasn't. After all, Minato and Kushina had always been tight lipped about said exam.

As Naruto thought about it, his thoughts travels to what happened yesterday.

Flashback!

It had been a few weeks since they had gotten back from Taki and almost everyone was healed. Well, Juugo's head was still healing and he was getting headaches, but that was to be expected when you get your head split open like that. Still, Tsunade was keeping an eye on the boy and told the Hokage that his team was NOT to enter the Chunin Exams, to which the man agreed.

Since then, however, Naruto has worked on his own seal inventions. Before, he didn't bother to practice with his Ghost Step, thinking that since it was him that created it, he would have full control. That was a mistake since he barely survived Suien's attack. Since then, he has practiced as much as he could and now he was pretty good with it.

Next was the Jet Stream Seal, which allowed him to fly using wind. He had finally gained enough control over his wind element to make it work the way he wanted it to. If he wanted, he could fly anywhere in the village that he wanted, but choose not to, so that his image stayed. He was not ready to reveal his power yet. That was for the Chunin Exams. But he was able find a use for it in another way, hence the name Jetstream. Oh that was going to be fun to use!

Then there was his other tri-seal. He was getting better with the Sharingan in his hands thanks to his secret training sessions with Itachi. It was odd though because when he used them, it seemed like double vision, seeing out of four eyes and all. Next was the Yamanaka Blood in the seal. After talking with Inoichi, he found that the clan could only use their powers to enter their opponent's body and screw with them. It all relied on their mind/soul link. If that was true, then Naruto found he had gained not only that, but Inoichi's dream. The ability to control people via their mind without having to leave their own body! He was still working with that and he was sure he could not just read people's minds and influence them to do the things he wanted them to do. That was fun when he messed with Menma, still the boy's thoughts were disturbing and something was telling him NOT to even look into the minds of the rest of his family.

Finally, there was the Nara blood within the seal. After speaking to Shikaku about their clan, Naruto learned that they only used Shadow, a combination of Light and Darkness, which he already knew. But if that was the case, why was he only able to control light? Oh well, he managed to make use of it, especially with the reflective properties of dust. Heh.

He attention was caught by the usually late arrival of his sensei, Kakashi Hatake. That made him realize that Kaeru and Menma finally arrived at the meeting spot. Odd how they made no noise when approaching him…but whatever.

"Hello my cute little genin, I have some information for you all." Kakakshi said a little too happily with an eye smile.

"Oh yeah, what could that be?" Menma replied rudely, making both Naruto and Kaeru smirk. They knew why he was in such a bad mode. Even after a couple weeks, Honoka still wouldn't talk to him. The red head a huge crush on the girl he saved, yet she hated him for killing her master on the Ultimate Summon project in the Land of Water. While the red head had Karin and Isaribi usually hanging off his arms, he couldn't get Honoka to do the same.

It was quite funny to be honest.

Anyway, Kakashi just ignored the boy's tone and continued. "Well, I have these here for you all to sign. These will let you enter the Chunin Exams in a couple days as a team."

Menma smile darkly. "Finally, we get to take these stupid exams and leave Naruto behind!" That got a dirty look from Kaeru. "Oooh! And maybe Honoka will see how great I am too. I am defiantly doing this!"

""Perv." Kaeru sighed with annoyance. "Still, I do want to do this, what about you Naruto?"

"Sure, I'll see how far I can get." Naruto replied with a shrug, making the girl smile brightly, knowing only a little bit of his plan.

"Feh, if you get very far, I will be surprised, after all, you should have died in your last mission." Menma sneered.

"That's enough, just be at the academy at the appointed time." Kakashi order before disappearing to do whatever he did, leaving the three alone. He was really getting tired of Menma's shit.

Menma just sneered again before leaving, but not without leaving some parting words. "Yeah whatever. Naruto, if you hold us back in these exams, I will kill you myself so we don't have to deal with you anymore."

Flashback End!

Right, if anyone was going to hold back the team, it was Menma, not Naruto.

"Oh so you made it failure!" Oh speak of the devil.

"How many times do have to tell you to shut the fuck up!" Kaeru growled, clearly annoyed by her younger brother already. This was something Naruto had noticed lately and that was Kaeru losing her patience with Menma ever since they got back to Konoha from their mission. It was…entertaining.

"Can we just get this over with?" Naruto deadpanned.

"Yeah, the sooner we are on different teams, the better." Menma replied as he brushed past Naruto, their shoulders hitting a little too violently.

XXX

Once inside, they noticed that one they reached the second floor, there were people crowding a door to the exam room. However, all three noticed that they had only made it to the second floor and the exams were supposed to be on the third floor. That meant this was another test.

"Tsk, weaklings. Can't even tell that they only went up one floor. Come on, let's go before something stupid happens." Menma ordered.

However, it was not meant to be as something stupid did happen. Sasuke's team was right behind them and noticed the genjutsu right away, but instead of leaving like Naruto's team had, he stupidly pointed it out!

"Fucking idiot." Menma groaned as he trudged up the stairs.

For once Naruto had to agree with Menma. That was stupid on Sasuke's part. The boy was smart, but he pointed out something that was meant to weed out the weak. Despite being taught by his brother, it seemed that Sasuke wanted to make things harder and to show off a bit of what his brother taught. Oh well, can't change things now.

XXX

"So, you guys made it, troublesome." Shikamaru's casual drone sounded out as they entered the room of participants taking the test and boy was there a lot of people. People from every single village and they did not look happy, especially the people from Kiri who gave them death glares as soon as they entered.

"Yeah, we did." Naruto replied casually to his cloud watching partner.

"Well, this got more troublesome."

"Come on Shikamaru, it is not that bad." Choji stated while munching on some chips.

"Yeah Shika! Liven up and deal with it because we are going to go far in this, or else!" Ino rage to her teammate.

*sigh* "Like I said, troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled.

"Heh, so, you guys made it. Oh this will be fun!" Kiba's voice rang out loudly with the arrogance he was known for.

"You shouldn't yell indoors." Shino stated as he walked up next to him.

"H-hello everyone." Hinata stated shyly.

"Oh, hey, Hinata." Naruto replied with a bored expression, figuring that he would see all the rookies today.

"Yes…hello Hinata." Kaeru replied tersely. The two glared at each as invisibly sparks connected between them, making Kiba sweatdrop.

"They are still not getting along?" Sakura's voice asked as she too walked up with her team.

"Apparently not." Ino sighed, having already tried telling the two to give up on Naruto and failing every time, so she gave up. It wasn't her life after all.

"Whatever, can we just do this?" Sasuke asked.

"It is apparently not yet time to do the test, but I think it would have been easier if you had not pointed out that genjutsu on level two." Sai stated with a fake smile, creeping out a lot of the rookies and some of the other competitors. "Plus, the action caught the attention of the Bushy Browed one that beat your ass. Did you enjoy getting fucked?"

Sasuke sighed tiredly, obviously having dealt with Sai's mannerisms before. However, others weren't and mistook it as something else.

"Damn, always knew he was gay…" Kiba snickered.

"Please tell me that isn't true!?" Ino cried before sobering up and gaining a perverted smile. "If it is, was the guy hot and can I join in next time?"

Sasuke and the other guys sweatdropped at that, not expecting Ino to even say that. "First off all, the guy won our fight. Sai always speaks like that for some reason. Second of all, we are barely thirteen! Why would you want to do something like that now!?"

"The Uchiha has a point." Shino replied.

Ino blushed madly. "So what, we are ninja and by default, we are Adults! Sorry you kids couldn't handle being adults for once."

"I…don't even know how to reply to any of that." Menma sighed.

"Agreed." Naruto replied.

"Could you all please keep it down?" a voice rang out, taking their attention away from Ino and onto the new person who spoke. He was a rather plain looking guy with white hair and glasses. And it seemed he was of the leaf.

"Who are you?" Shikamaru droned.

"You can call me Kabuto." The teen said with a smile. "Now I thought I would help out you rookies because you have the entire room's attention and that is not a good thing because people here are already on edge."

At this the group cautiously looked around and saw the entire room glaring at them and if those looks could kill, the group would be burning in hell.

"No matter." Kabuto replied, regaining their attention. "I think it would be a good idea if I helped you guys out and how I plan to do that is provide information on my special ninja cards that I have collected throughout the years."

"Wait. Years?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, this will be my seventh time taking this exam."

"Wow, you must suck!" Kiba laughed.

"Not necessarily. My father did say the exam was not to be taken lightly." Shino replied.

"Troublesome."

"So, do you all need any info on people you may have to fight?" Kabuto asked.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable and said, "Tell me about Rock Lee of the Leaf."

"Tell me about Gaara of the Desert." Naruto stated, having met the boy the other day when he was hanging out with Konohamaru and his friends.

Flashback!

Naruto was chasing Konohamaru and his friends because it was his day off and he had promised the kids to play with them when he had time. Asuma seemed happy about it since he got some alone time doing who knows what.

However, that was not meant to last long thanks to Konohamaru not looking where he was running and ran into an older teen in a cat like suit with 'war paint' on his face.

"Hey, watch it kid!" The teen angrily said as he held the boy by his scarf.

"Let me down!" Konohamaru yelled back.

"Leave the brat alone, Kankuro, we have places to be." A teenage girl replied with an annoyed expression.

"I would listen to her." Naruto said as he walked up to them casually, catching their attention. "Unless you want the Sarutobi clan after your ass since he is the Third Hokage's grandson and all."

Temari blushed a bit at seeing her fellow blond, thinking he was one of the local cuties. Then what he said came to her. "Like I said, put the kid down Kankuro!"

"Fine!" Kankuro groaned, having wanted to teach the kid a lesson.

"Good boy. Now, who are you?" Naruto asked.

"I am Temari of the Desert and this is my brother Kankuro. We are here for the Chunin Exams."

"Good to know, but I was actually talking to you friend in the tree." Naruto replied with a smile, before it turned into a frown when they paled at what he said. They looked to see a red headed kid with a large gourd on his back. He disappeared and then reappeared in front of Naruto.

"I am Gaara." The red head deadpanned with no emotion what so ever in his gravelly voice. He seemed to be looking for something in Naruto as he stared at him.

"Well then, I am Naruto."

Gaara nodded, having confirmed what he was looking for. "I see. I look forward to testing my existence against you."

"That's fine, but I would rather not fight at all. But know that is just wishful thinking due us being in the Exams. Just know this, I know what you are….Mr. Racoon."

That made the Sand Siblings stiffen. How did this random blond know about that!

Naruto just eye smiled as he walked away. "Good luck in the exams….and it was nice meeting a new lovely lady, Temari."

That left Temari stunned with Gaara not caring and Kankuro snickering.

Flashback End!

It was fun acting out of character and flirting with a Foreign Girl. Still he was not sure how much of an enemy he had made out of Gaara and he thought it was best to know as much as he could about him. Plus, he knew that Gaara was a Jinchuriki because his chakra felt similar to Menma and Kaeru's. As for which Tailed Beast he knew it was…well, Suna only ever had one and that was the Shukaku.

"Oh, so you guys know their names, good." Kabuto replied as he took out his cards to find the right people. "Let's see, I found Lee first. Since he is part of our village, I have more info on him. Wow…he is a Taijutsu Expert like his sensei Might Guy, but his other skill are truly abysmal. His teammates are Neji Hyuuga and Tenten."

Sasuke sighed tiredly. He got beat by this brushy browed kid who only uses taijutsu….great. Looks like he needed more practice with Itachi in their own style of fighting.

"Next we have Gaara." Kabuto said before a looking of confusion appeared on his face. "Ok, I don't have much other than his teammates are his siblings, his father is the Kazekage, and his team has only been high ranking missions like B rank. Oh and get this, he came back from each mission without a scratch.

Now that made the whole room look at Gaara in fear and confusion, wondering how that was even possible. While others made a mental note to stay the hell away from him, there were the stupid few who wanted a piece of him.

Suddenly, before anyone could do anything stupid, the proctor, known as Ibiki, entered the room in a large poof of smoke with the other proctors. "Alright, sit down and shut up. The Exam begins now and the part is a written one." At the entire room groaned. "I said shut up you maggots!"

XXX

That had been…excruciating!" Naruto never did like tests and apparently most of the people in there hated it as well. However, he had learned early on that he had to cheat. Like so many others, he found a way to do so. Thanks to a girl named Tenten's use of her mirror, which somehow went unseen by the proctors, he was able to see the test answers….of many test takers. The way he did that was point his left hand at the mirror and activate the Sharingan there. It shocked the girl sitting next to him, but he made sure stayed quiet about that. She was a little too happy to do it for him, but he was not complaining.

Now, they were in front of a place called the Forest of Death, which was supposed to be a training ground for higher level ninja. The proctor for this was Anko Mitarashi and she was nuts, but she was cool in his books because she took an immediate disliking for Menma, who tried and failed to hit on her. He just made a fool out of himself.

She had proceeded to explain to them the rules of this test and to get the second scroll to the one that they already had. Be it either Heaven or Earth. Their team had gotten Heaven.

As they waited for other teams to get their scroll and then make it to their gate into the Forest of Death, Menma explained they were would be following his lead. However, Naruto just tuned him out before he noticed that a few teams were starting at them. One was a team from Kumo that were staring at him like they were tasked to kill him. He would have to look out for them.

Then there was a team from Suna that were looking at Menma the same why they were looking at him. Just what was their plan? Finally, a team from Kiri was not only glaring at Kaeru for some reason, they were also looking at her in a dark perverted way. It made Naruto oddly mad. Sure, he was just staring to trust her, but he shouldn't have this reaction when someone looked at his sister like that….right?

Oh well, he would deal with it when the time came.

XXX

Once they got the go ahead to go into the Forest of Death, they made it pretty far into the forest without much problem. However, their luck just ran out when they decided to take a break. That was when the shit storm happened.

As soon as they stopped, a rain of kunai landed in the middle of their group, making them have to spread apart further from each other. However, it didn't end there as Menma noticed that every single kunai was rigged explosive tags.

"Oh shit, split up!" He shouted as they jumped away just as it exploded, making the team split up in the force of the explosion.

XXX

Naruto got up and looked around to see he was pretty far from his team. "Ugh great, now what?"

"How about you die quietly." A muffled voice stated. Naruto turned to the voice to see a genin around his age, but heavily wrapped up in bandages.

"Or don't! I kind of want a good fight!" another teen said as walked onto the scene.

"Zaku…shut up." The mummy said.

"Now now, no need for you to be so aggressive to your teammate Dosu." Kabuto said as he too appeared. "After all, all six of us get to kill him."

"Huh? Kabuto, I thought you were here to help!" Naruto growled.

"Nope, I was hired to kill you…like them." Kabuto said as his team appeared with him and Kin walked up next to Zaku.

"What? Who would hire you kill me?" Naruto asked, on edge.

"My master of course. You would know her as Kushina Uzumaki." Kabuto said with a dark smile.

"I see." Naruto replied calmly with his hair shadowing his eyes.

XXX

"Uh, this is not the plan!" Menma growled.

"Who cares Jinchuriki!" said a Suna genin as he fought with him. "Still, I think Gaara should have been the one to do this since he is just like you. A fair fight, monster against monster."

"Fuck you!" Menma shouted, Naruto word about how some people viewed Jinchuriki coming to mind.

XXXX

"Oh we are going to have fun with you girl. I had heard the Hokage's daughter was beautiful, but the rumors don't justifiy how hot you are." A kiri genin said with a dark perverted smile as his teammates chuckled.

"Oh? That's nice, but I am not interested in you idiots, but iof you want to play that much, I make you sweat." Kaeru said dangerously as she took out both Zabuza and Kisame's old blade, shocking her foes. "Come on boy's, I though you want to play. No? Okay then, I'll come for you!"

XXXX

And that is where I am ending it. I hope you like my cliff hanger. Personally, I hate writing the first part of the Chunin Exams so much that I just skipped it. Next chapter we will see how Naruto deals with Kabuto and Dosu's team.

Review!