Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto. Though, I do own this plot line and my few OCs.
Despite Ryuu's thoughts on them all being ready to go when morning came, it seemed that the morningcame a little too soon for the twins of the group. Before either of them knew it, the alarm clock that Ryuu had set the night before went off, beeping in that annoying pattern that all alarm clacks seem to do.
BeepBeep, BeepBeep, BeepBeep, Bee-
Akimitsu smirked sleepily at the now kunai embedded alarm clock, sparks flying lightly from it. The red numbers that displayed the time flashed for a few faltering seconds before dying out and becoming an empty black screen. Smoke slowly rose, curling around the kunai as it continued to rise towards the ceiling.
"Take that, you annoying, annoying….thing…..you!" He muttered towards the inanimate clock.
Akimi rolled over to her side to get a better look at her brother, still lying in her claimed bed, a single eyebrow raised; her amusement was plain to see.
"Really, Akimitsu? 'You annoying thing, you?'" She asked as if she were an adult confirming the silliest thing that a child might have said to an elder with the up most seriousness.
"Shut up, Akimi. It's too damn early to think, much less talk. I'd like to see you do any better." The moody boy snarled back, scowling all the while.
Just as she was about to respond with a not so polite comment, proving that she could in fact do better, Naruto interrupted by opened the bathroom door, walking out fully clothed and hair slightly damp showing that he had just got out of the shower.
"So what is it that has you two fighting this time, or do I even wish to know?" he asked with an lightly raised eyebrow, the first thing seeing upon exiting being Akimitsu's glaring at his sister and said sister smugly smirking at her brother.
"Oh, you know; the usual. How Akimitsu here refuses to believe that he is simply incapable of forming sentences that one can understand in the morning, or at any time for that matter." Akimi replied off-handily while sitting up and stretching her arms above her head.
"And you can't forget Akimi being her usual bitchy self in the morning, or all the time for that matter." Akimitsu shot back in the same tone his sister just used, waving a hand in his sister's direction as he looked over his finger nails in a way that would have been expected of his sister instead.
Naruto simply said an even 'Ah', more then use to their almost constant fighting in the morning. He usually found it quite amusing to watch and listen to.
Looking between the two before his eyes landed on the kunai impaled alarm clock. Blinking a few times, Naruto tilted his head.
"Soooo, what did the alarm clock do to the two of you to deserve such a painful death?" He drawled in a bored tone.
When neither Akimitsu nor Akimi answered, Akimitsu out of embarrassment and Akimi simply because she was content watching her brother squirm under Naruto's suddenly lifeless yet pricing gaze. Said blond just sighed as the silence continued to stretch and pinched the bridge of his masked covered nose.
"You know what? I think that I'd rather just not know." Naruto spoke, looking between the two. "Just be aware that whoever was the one that 'killed' it is going to have to pay for it." He finished saying, watching as Akimi smiled smugly yet again at her brother while Akimitsu grumbled incoherently, glaring at the alarm clock as if it was the one at fault.
Shaking his head, Naruto decided to just ignore them for the moment. Moving from his spot by the bathroom door towards his backpack sitting next to his homemade bed on the flood, he rummaged through it looking for everything that he might need for the day. He spared a quick glance at the two twins that still sat in bed.
"You two should to get up and get ready to leave." When neither appeared to be in any hurry to move, more content to take their time in things, Naruto's eye twitched though it went unseen by the other two. "Like, now. If we can leave within the next half hour, we will have some time to do some last minute training. Dragon is out now making sure that we have a training ground to work at, so start moving!" His last few words were accompanied with a pointed look going from one to the other.
Akimi was the first to slide out of bed, though her brother was up and stretching just a few seconds after silently grumbling about 'slave-drivers' and 'having no time to rest these days'.
Naruto and Akimi shared an amused look as she passed him to get to the bathroom to take a long hot shower no doubt, if only to use up the rest of the hot water before her brother got the chance; a single though passed through their minds as their eyes did meet, 'Akimitsu will never change'.
Akimitsu continued his not so silent complaining, completely unaware how much his actions amused his other two teammates. The black haired boy's head jerked at the sound of the bathroom door closing; it took not even a full second for him to realize that his sister had beaten him to the bathroom yet again. Within an blink of an eye, he was at the door, pounding on it while yelling loudly for Akimi to open up and let him take the first shower; promises that he would not use up all the hot water again if she allowed it. His loud demands were met with laughter and an amused 'No'.
Naruto smiled lightly and shook his head, silently commenting the moment to memory. Who knew how many others like these he would be allowed to have in the future?
When the three finally met up with Ryuu, it was well past the time limit that Naruto had set earlier on and in default made them keep Ryuu waiting on them which, of course, led to both Naruto's and Ryuu's annoyance.
"Where the hell have you three been?!" Ryuu demanded to know, crossing his arms over his chest in an imposing way, glaring darkly at the three teens as they continued to walk towards him. "One of you better have better of been dying to have kept me waiting for so long."
Instead of one of the teens replying to him, Ryuu was virtually ignored in favor of Naruto who was in the middle of a rant that Akimi and Akimitsu were forced to listen to. Instead of becoming more angered, he simply raised an eyebrow, his arms still crossed, and listened in on the rather heated rant that to anyone else would just seem like he was giving a dull lecture.
"Thirty minutes I had said. I told you both multiple times that we needed to leave within thirty minutes. But does either of you two listen? No." Though his voice was soft and monotone, all three could easily read beneath it and hear Naruto's true tone, and it was not something that they liked listening to as an angry Naruto was an unpleasant Naruto. "One hour and eighteen minutes. It took you two an hour and eighteen goddamn minutes until you both were ready to leave." Even with all of the control that he holds over his emotions, he could not keep his anger slipping into his last sentence to where it was painfully obvious to everyone how he felt.
Both Akimitsu and Akimi each had at least the decency to blush and look apologetic; Akimi even grimacing as she looked away from the angry yet calm looking teen between her and her brother. Akimitsu looked at Ryuu for help, but he just took a step back and shook his head; he was going to clearly stay out of it. His revenge for the two making him wait for so long.
"Now," Naruto continued on his angry rant, though no one besides those that truly knew him would have been able to tell his mood, "instead of having two hours for some last minute training, we only have," he gave a quick glance at a new wristwatch, "forty-one minutes!" He 'hissed' out, sending a very light glare to Akimi than Akimitsu. The two both cringed back, he was really pissed. "That's just enough time too properly stretch and let Dragon here tell us what he knows of the first exam. Thank you very much, you two."
Before Naruto could continue on belittling the two, Ryuu stepped in.
"Now, now Fox. Calm down and relax." His voice was calm and even, though commanding. Naruto gave Ryuu one of his looks that only he could understand and did as he was told.
Taking a deep breath and holding it for a few seconds, he let it out slowly. Crossing his arms over his chest, he nodded towards Ryuu, showing that he was calm. Akimi and Akimitsu shot Ryuu thankful looks, happy that Naruto's anger was no longer directed at them. Ryuu returned the thankful looks with a dark grin.
"You can always continue your little 'lecture' after the exam, Fox."
Akimi's and Akimitsu's jaws actually dropped open at this, eyes widening in pure shock. Naruto on the other hand, for just a fraction of a second, allowed his eyes go from dull and lifeless to sparking with amusement then back again. Ryuu continued to smirk, getting the twins of the group back for making him wait through Naruto.
"Sounds good to me." Naruto spoke, choosing to ignore the two groans on either side of him.
Ryuu nodded than quickly turned serious.
"Now, about the exam." All three teens all seemed to perk up and pay more attention to the words that Ryuu were saying. "As you three know, there are usually three parts to this exam."
Ryuu held up two fingers. "The first two are almost never the same from the previous exams though there are country's that are known to do the same three exams when ever it's their turn to hold the exam. There is a system though that is commonly used by every country, though, just like the third part of the exam is always the same in every country." Here he put down one of the fingers that he was holding up, leaving just the one. "The first part of the exam is used to weed out the weaker teams; teams that would most likely end up dead in the second and third part of the exam. As such, the first part of the exam is more used to test a team's skills, whether it is the entire team or a single person of a team varies." Ryuu stopped briefly, letting what he said sink in before moving on.
Once again putting up two fingers, he continued. "The second part is a lot harder than the first part. Again, it's used to weed out the teams that don't possess the right skills to become chunin. At this stage of the exam, the risk of dying raises significantly. Here's your team skills are really put to the test, much more so than they might be in the first."
Once again he paused, looking them all in the eye one at a time. Holding up another finger to make three in total, he went on in his explanation.
"The third and final exam is, as I said, always the same in every country. It's a one on one battle against someone from another team. Sometimes, though very, very rarely, they might put you against someone from the same team although that has not happened in a few years. This part of the exam is largely for show, though. It's when the different countries get a chance to show off their best of the best if one of their teams makes it to the final round. Even though it is more for show than anything else, the final part of the exam is what your graded on the most on whether you become a chunin or not."
At this point in Ryuu's speech, Akimi and Akimitsu stiffened up while Naruto looked as bored and uncaring as ever. He had already heard the speech before when he was younger when he asked Ryuu how the shinobi move up in ranks. He even got to see the last part of the exam once when Ryuu and he were visiting the Rock country. He had been ten at the time and found it utterly fascinating to watch. He would be lying if he said that he was not looking forward to if not the first two parts, only the third part of the exam, if his team even made it that far that is.
Naruto was brought out of his mental musing by Ryuu speaking once again; though from the looks of it he was speaking more to the twins then to Naruto.
"Here's the fun twist of the final exam though. Even if you lose you fight, you still have a chance of becoming a chunin and winning does not mean that you'll automatically become a chunin either. It all depends on how well you did in your fight. This is where you individual skills are judged. Also your outcome in the final part of the exam has no effect on your teammate's results. You could all pass, none of you could pass, or only one or two of you might pass and successfully become of chunin level."
Akimitsu and Akimi both nodded, slightly less tense then they were before hand.
Ryuu grinned brightly at the three, clapping his hands together. "And now, all that's left is for me to tell you the location of the first exam and get in some morning exercises. Even though none of us know that the first part of the exam will be, it's better to be fully stretched then get a leg or arm cramp at a crucial moment, no?"
The twins replied with bright 'Yes Sir!' and fake salutes while Naruto simply nodded though found that he also had an urge to also give a fake salute along with the twins but quickly dismissed it.
"The meeting place for the first part of the exam is going to be held at the resident Shinobi Academy." This got raised eyebrows from two of the three teens. "You are to all go to room 308. That's where you three will meet your first instructor. As it is, you guys have roughly thirty minutes to get there to be on time, so you three should leave in about ten minutes just in case. Now, let's quickly start the warm ups. The faster you guys get them done, the faster you all can leave for the exam."
Akimitsu groaned and muttered darkly 'more like deadly warm ups'. Naruto and Akimi shared an amused look between each other even though Naruto's look looked more pointed than amused.
Leave it to Ryuu to morph simply yoga moves meant to stretch out ones limbs into a 'Dear Kami, I can't feel my arm anymore!' sort of stretches. The only reason that Naruto even bothered doing them was that yoga did help with not only increasing his strength and stamina in the most unusual ways, but gave him a great increase in flexibility, helped clear his mind, and most importantly, reduced his stress levels. It was with only these thoughts in mind that he sat in between Akimi and Akimitsu and began with some of the basics.
It was fifteen minutes later that Naruto, Akimi, and Akimitsu found themselves in front of the supposed 'best of the best' Shinobi Academy. They didn't even pause to stare, instead going straight for the doors.
Quickly finding the stairs they reached the second floor. Just as they were about to ascend the second set of stairs that led to the third floor, a startled gasp made Akimi, who was leading, pause. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw to both her delight and horror the small group of kids that made her snap on her first day being in the village who she later found out to be the 'great' Hokage's grandson and friends. If not for that one fact, she would not had hesitated to at least glare and leek a small amount of killer intent. As it was though, she simply met her brothers than Naruto's eyes, smiled at them, and continued walking up the stairs.
Not even half a dozen steps later, she was brought out of her forced good mood by the little snot calling out to her.
"Wait, you're just going to walk away!? What kind of shinobi are you!? Or is it that you're just showing your true colors, those of a coward!"
Throughout the kid's entire mini rant, Akimi gripped her hands into angry fists. Her body shook very lightly, showing that she was trying very hard to surpass her rage in case she did something that she might regret. Like go over, dispose of the brat's friends, quickly kill him off, and get rid of his bodies while erasing all of the evidence that might point everything back to her. The only thing that kept her from doing so was her brother resting his hand on her shoulder and gently steering her forward.
Naruto on the other had stayed behind a bit longer to give one of his small lectures to the group of three. Turning around, he took a few steps down the stairs so that he could see them all better. Crossing his arms over his chest, he starred them all down with his lifeless looking gaze that most fully trained shinobi could not continue to keep eye contact with. As expected, all of the children before him looked away. The fact that he still wore the mask with the red outline of a fox's mouth smirking with sharp fangs showing also didn't help in the courage factor for the three little ones.
"I do hope you know that the only reason that you are still standing with no injury marks to speak of is merely because of your status as the 'Honorable Grandson'." Naruto's voice was unusually cold and hard as he spoke though it still had a hallow sound to it none the less. "And normally not even that foolish title of yours would have stopped my teammate except for the fact that in causing you bodily harm would in turn cause a war between our different nations."
"Seeing as you most likely have been pampered all of you life and treated with respect from all, you probably think that the shinobi world is something like a game that you can quite or call a timeout whenever it gets to hard or dangerous. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you most likely think that since your grandfather is this village's Hokage, you're safe and protected no matter what you do or say unless someone wishes to invoke his wrath. Just a minute ago, you called my friend and teammate a coward, yet the only coward that I see is you and your pathetic friends." The lead boy with the overly long scarf flinched back, his head to the side and hands clenched in fists, feeling mixed between anger and fear.
"You, little boy, might what to think the next time you speak. Outside of your safe haven that you call a village, others won't be as lenient and kind as we were, especially since you're the Hokage's grandson. My advice to you and your friends there is to grow up. This world of ours is not meant for little children wishing to play ninja, but full of fully trained men and women who kill for a living.
"There is no good in this world just as there is no bad. There is only the mission that you are given, either it be to help guard someone, steal something, or spill another's blood; even if they are children or women. I do so hope that you three realize it before it's too late and the results are most unfavorable for yourselves. Good day. " With those final words, he sharply turned on his heels and briskly climbed up the steps to the third floor, leaving in his wake two terrified children and one very thoughtful one.
Eleven year old Konohamaru silently watched as the older masked teen turned and left, his appearance thoughtful. His two friends Moegi and Udon stood behind him and were lightly shaking, not that he paid either of them any attention.
The words that the blond spoke to him kept repeating themselves over and over again inside his mind as if on repeat and he couldn't find the stop button. Unconsciously, he griped onto his overly large scarf, rubbing the rather soft fabric that it was made of. It was one of the few things that he had that use to belong to his father before he was killed in a mission.
That older teen couldn't have been right, could he? His words must have been lies, trying to scare him and his friends. Yeah, that must be it. There's no way what he said could have been true. After all, he was no coward and not everyone treated him with respect.
'I mean, if what he said was true, then that would mean that grandfather and uncle have and still kill innocent women and children and there's no way would either of them do that!' Konohamaru fiercely thought, completely convinced that his last two remaining family members would never do such a thing. 'It's grandfather and uncle for Kami sakes! They only hurt those that deserve it.'
His last thought made him pause; going back to what the teen told him.
"There is no good in this world just as there is no bad."
Konohamaru was brought out of his silent musing by someone tugging on his arm lightly. Blinking a few times, he looked over to see what it was that was now griping on his arm. Seeing Moegi looking at him with an unspoken question in her eyes, he forced a smile that seemed to fool her.
"Don't worry, I'm okay." Konohamaru found himself speaking in a soft tone instead of his loud, childish one. "Hey you two, let's keep what just happened between the three of us, okay?" He asked hopefully. For some reason, he didn't want either his grandfather or uncle to find out what happened. It was like he knew that if he told either of them, especially his grandfather, something bad would happen. What, he wasn't sure, but he just knew something would happen.
His friends gave him strange looks, but gave in the end and agreed to not tell anyone what the blond teen said to them.
Pushing everything to the back of his mind to think of when he was home or alone, he smiled more freely and led his friends out of the school.
After all, there was no way that what that teen said could be true. It's just not possible. Right?
But if that's so, why was his stomach twisting and why did he feel just a slight hint of truth in the deadly looking blond?
When Naruto finally met back up with the twins, they were waiting for him in front of the door that they needed to enter to take part in their first exam. Akimi was looking only slightly calmer. She was still glaring and her arms were crossed over her chest, though she was no longer shaking in her rage which was a good sign. It meant that she would not decide to unleash her rage on some poor soul that just happened to get in her way.
Akimitsu, who was talking in a soothing way, paused and shot Naruto a brief and curious look before giving his attention back to his sister. It was obvious that he wanted to know where he was and just what he was doing for so long; if a few minutes could even be considered long.
Ignoring him for the moment, he walked up to the other side of Akimi. Catching her eye, he tilted his head slightly with his eyes as dead looking as ever, silently inquiring if she was alright.
He mentally mused just how scary that the three of them had only been a team for a little over a week, and yet the two already knew how to catch Naruto's silent body gestures and the meanings behind them.
Giving him a small smile, she simply nodded her head. Nodding his own head, Naruto gestured with his hand towards the door they were all standing before. He raised an eyebrow.
Akimitsu quickly got his meaning and asked Naruto's question for him.
"You ready to go in, Akimi?"
"Yeah, let's hurry up and get this done and over with." And with that, Akimi reached out and slid open the door that separated them from the first part of the exam.