DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto. All characters are owned by its author Masashi Kishimoto.
Author's Note: Please be good with the reviews since this is my first Naruto-fic I might miss on something so I am calling all Naruto anime/manga fan to give me advice. Thanks for your support and hopefully you can give me reviews after you read. I am also willing to return reviews.
I'm really thankful that you continue to support me, please tell me how I can repay your kindness. Thanks again everyone. Very special thanks to Kirimori, loaned, Sirus183, Dhaem17, Gozen V, hannahsjf, tvaddict06 and kaear.
--: Land of the Wind :--
The rustling sound of the wind slightly grazing the leaves of the nearby tall trees echoed throughout the forest hiding the gong of the kunai clashing with another one. Inside the abode created by the ANBU, Yamato unleashed his mokuton ability.
"Now show me your team courage and spirit," Raido welcomed their guests with his wicked smile, pushing the genin to the limit of their patience while his partner was preparing his deadly assault.
With haste, the three genin purposely separate them selves with the objective of dealing with the two jounin at once. There were almost no flow with their movement and action, only the three of them are not working as one team with no regard to the strength of another. Raido and Yamato easily countered all of their movement knowing they are dealing with a genin, not a team of genin. The shuriken shot by the noisy kid who propelled in the air was easily deflected by Raido using the sheath of his sword. Yamato on the other hand use the chance created by the earthquake he made to impale the two on the ground.
In just a mere minute, the three genin lie helpless in the ground crashing on their very own feet, Raido didn't even have to unsheathe his sword. "It's not fair, you are so strong," complimented by one.
The examiner simply brushed the dirt off his coat and answered coldly, "…am I?"
"Surely…no one was able, to, to pass this test," another added holding his broken rib by the side of his chest.
"Impossible…I cannot fail…?"
Raido has stepped in hiding his pure black sword in place. He momentarily wiped his shade but only in mere second which was not enough for anyone to see and just after he returned his black shade he connoted, "…but the mere fact remains and that is you failed."
"What load of crap was that…?"
"Can you still remember what I told you before we've begun…?"
The three genin tried to reflect on what happened before the fight but even before they start on extracting the words at the bottom of their memory banks, all three of them surrendered without trying. Raido received nothing in return but the deafening silence. "You failed anyway and that's it," he coldly stared at them. They wailed even while the chuunin drag them out.
Silence came back after the three genin were out of ear shot, "that's one of the reason why I don't want to handle genins," he tilted his head and turned around. The jounin tapped Yamato's shoulder but before he proceeded, the ANBU member replenished his memories, "I assume you haven't forgotten about our arrangement?"
"Don't worry, I will deliver your message to the hokage myself," he smirked at his wake. Yamato would not have agreed on accompanying him if only the latter doesn't have anything to gain. A few days ago, Yamato asked Raido to help him discuss something with the fifth hokage. As far as the jounin ANBU can remember, he and Kakashi both applied to change duty, that was to handle genin and help this young shinobi fulfill their duties as konoha nin.
Although the hokage won't be able to do anything which what had happened to Kakashi, Yamato was asked not to leave the ANBU force by the Sandaime since he approved the request of the sharingan jounin. Much to his dismay, Yamato did not open the discussion again until this time but he was really having a hard time facing Tsunade by himself which gave way to Raido's plan, which involved the Chuunin Exam.
He quietly observed the wall for a moment while remembering the flushed face of Yamato when he asked him at that time and after Shikamaru entered the area, Raido, in a sweep slash of his sword the concrete wall of glass which seemed like a wall was torn into pieces, revealing the three teams watching all the event that has transpired, "…I would have let the fourth team stayed if only they were half as quiet as you are, but then again," he shrugged his shoulder looking at them.
It felt like years, the pain, excitement and suffering given by the three minute battle against the two jounin had finally reached its mark, with all the chuunin surrounding the wrecked arena standing by, the moment of truth where those who passed were shown recognition has come. Three teams were found but standing in front of the two examiners.
"…So, can you still remember what I told everyone before the start of our battle?" he repeated.
Though with wounds and bruises, the genins, Chouji, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Kiba and Lee grinned gleefully while the other looked intently at the master examiner, each of them nodding their head before they spoke. "Show your courage…"
"…and team spirit."
"Congratulations, Chouji, Ino, Sakura…you did a great job and though your team lack coordination you showed me how you trust one another, which is enough," the newly created three-man team smiled with delight. Shikamaru smirked at the far corner, learning his entire team mate had finally become chuunin. Sakura, on the other hand, can't help but think about Sasuke and Naruto, it would have been more fun if they were here, without her knowing the tears had fallen from her pink chin.
"Are you crying, Sakura?" teased by Ino who was ignorant of what she's thinking.
"Hell, no!"
Raido shook his head before continuing, "Hinata, Kiba and Shino, congratulations. Hinata your relentless support for your team and how your team mate protected you really surprised me, it just goes to show how much you value each one, and for that, congratulations again."
Woof! Woof!
"Y-you also did a good job, akamaru," added by the jounin.
He sighed and fixed his gaze, looking for the team that impressed him. "Congratulations, your team's almost perfect coordination really surprised us you are certainly on the right track, Tenten, Lee and Neji."
"Thank you, Raido-san," all of them squealed in unison. The nine genin that passed the elimination part of the second exam bowed once more but before it all ends a woman came in barging from the door. "Why you…how could you not notify me? If I didn't come and check then…" Anko sounded angrier than usual; her pitch high voice almost annoyed everyone.
"Anko-chan…I was about to send," Raido was quick to disarm the anger that was about to explode inside Anko but he was too late. Anko gave him a hard knock in the head which rendered him cozy for a while, after which her anger seemed to have subsided as her voice started calming down and while Raido was recuperating rubbing his swollen crown the serpent lady gave the genin a cold gaze with a smirk.
"So these maggots did pass…you can't be too happy now, not yet, we will rest for a while and go early tomorrow to Sunagakure, be sure to be prepared," with that said Anko dispersed the genin, each of them occupying one corner, talking casually to one another while idly seating comfortably.
The heavy atmosphere inside the abode has been abolished leaving only traces of crumbled rocks and gathered dust, Shikamaru observed them all for a while, he found Anko scolding Raido and by the looks of it, it seemed that the black-coated brain jounin doesn't seem to complain much. Turning his eyes on the next corner and he ended up checking the atmosphere between Ino and Sakura, who seemed to be having another non-beneficial debate, the shadow user chuunin decided to leave them be.
"Yoh! Shikamaru," turnabout to the owner of the voice and he found Kiba with his partner Akamaru sniffing around.
"What is it?" he asked without consent.
"Hey! Don't be so cold…I just want to greet an old buddy," Kiba opened up, another shadow appearing fast behind him. Shino managed to close the gap between him and the two, filling his curiosity as his primary objective he move closer to the chuunin.
"Actually, we wanted to verify something."
"Are you going to ask me who was the first group who challenge Raido and Yamato?"
"Yes."
"No, I already knew about that so I can fill the blanks for you Shino, Kiba," Neji suddenly came to their surprise. He looked at them with his pupil less eyes and then back to the examiner.
"If you already knew, than what are you doing here Neji?" there was a slight hint of dissatisfaction in Shikamaru's voice. The three genin didn't let the distaste get into them though. Akamaru barked for a few seconds talking to Kiba while Shino concealed his hand in the pocket of his coat, observing Neji.
Neji was about to go direct to his objective but the look in Kiba and Shino made him not to do so, "…let me first answer the question of you two…Anko-san momentarily disappeared after Raido-taicho came out of nowhere, after a while three unknown genin came challenging to be the first one to fight," Shikamaru nodded at Neji who continued on filling them his own conclusion. He paused for a while looking into everyone's eyes, finding out if they can still follow his hypotheses, Shino tilt his head in agreement and checked at his partner who seemed confused.
"…those three genin was in fact, Anko-taicho disguised herself so as to frightened the participants," explained by Neji.
"If you are thinking that they did just that to frightened the participants then you are wrong," the look from everyone's eyes has changed listening to Shikamaru, "the truth is I don't think any of the genin can deal with Yamato-taicho," he paused for a second to check on the said jounin. They all saw him on sneeze as they proceeded with their meeting, "…that is only necessary to separate the main course from the desserts."
Neji and Shino understood every word but the dog brain genin bugged them all with questions for himself, with the constraint of time and Shikamaru losing his patience, the bug-tamer persuaded his partner to keep silent for a moment, "I just heard about it, but the Mokuton ability of Yamato-taicho was rumored to be at the level of the shodaime."
"The first hokage…?" the three of them nodded.
"I have also heard about that…" Neji supplied hiding the fact and his true intentions. He was surely trying to help Hinata, "…now if you can please fill my curiosity, let me ask this question, or perhaps you can also call it a request," he asked with his eyes pointing at the two jounin, Anko and Raido, innocent from the topic of the discussion of the genin continued on with their own argument.
Narrowing his eyes, Shikamaru dared not to voice out his answer and just plainly looked at him, letting Neji know that he has his full attention. Knowing that he has his ears, Neji proceeded, "…as a chuunin, you now have access to sensitive data right; actually I want to find some information about…Naruto."
Surprised, the chuunin was unable to respond immediately, even Shino and Kiba were mesmerized trying to find out if they both heard the genius ninja right but immediately concur that the sudden change in Neji has something to do with Hinata. "…you have to know something, probably from one of the jounin, right?" he pounded Shikamaru for answer.
"Actually --"
"Naruto was not, so different from us as well Shikamaru so if you do know something than you should share it with us, its part of our team work," Shino insisted.
"I don't know how you came up with the idea that I have something about Naruto, but the godaime disclosed all facts about him, I think there are even less jounin who even know any details about him, however," he paused elevating the suspense in the heart of his listener.
"however…?" Neji impatiently queried.
The look from the eyes of his comrade pressured him to continue without alibi, "…however, if you are a jounin, there is a possibility that news as important as this be shared with you."
Crossing his hands together, Shino suggested, "we do know a lot of jounin but I don't think they will easily divulge the secret passed to them unless we, ourselves become jounin."
"To become jounin ourselves…than I must do it," murmured by Neji.
"What did you say…?"
"Nothing…" he shook his head denying. They soon cleared off, nothing else to say to one another, and rested to a convenient place waiting for a call that came before the sun ventured the sky.
"Wake up, maggots! It's time to go…to Sunagakure."
Author's feeble mind: I was planning on dividing the stories into multiple volumes and changing the title of the story with that of the volume name. There are really interesting updates that our favorite Naruto author Mr. Masashi Kishimoto revealed in his plot and I plan on using some interesting ploy, hopefully I'll be able to complete the whole set. Thanks for all of your support and kindness.