Tori: Man, she must be feeling inspired, she's updating a lot more than usual.
SA: (in a sarcastic tone) Oh no, I didn't notice.
Zas: Well, at least she's doing something…
Saria: Guys, I'M RIGHT HERE!
Zas, SA, Tori: Oops…
Saria: (sighs) Ok, here are the rules, if you like the story or chapter, drop a review. I know that its hard work, but I enjoy the input. Also, feel free to make suggestions!
VOTING HAS STARTED FOR PAIRINGS, SEE BOTTOM IF YOU WANT TO VOTE!
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Naruto was very fast to realize several things that could possibly go wrong if she were to try to seek the help of a medical nin. That would raise too many questions that she really didn't want to answer such as, "Who are you?" or "What's your medical history?" or maybe even "What is the reason for your visit?" She couldn't possibly say that she had never been sick before; or even worse, that the reason for her visit was because she couldn't hear the voice in her head anymore. That seemed like it would instantly buy her a straight jacket and a soft, cushiony room.
All things considered, she realized that her own problem with thinking was what got her in her current situation, the one where she is was now sitting in front of the Hokage, explaining what had happened, and watching as his face contorts in ways that it would be hilarious if it got stuck. Hilarious, if it weren't getting to her that the situation was very bad.
"Naruto, let me see your neck," Sandaime sounded slightly fearful when he said this.
Nodding, Naruto turned slightly and pulled her shirt collar down a little. The Hokage moved behind her and seemed to trace something that was right where her neck, shoulder, and back met. Abruptly she wondered what it was, until she remembered something that Kabuto had said in the forest about Orochimaru putting his mark on her.
'That son of a… Calm down, getting mad isn't going to help right now,' she thought, as she began trying to draw a mental picture of the seal based upon the tracing fingers on her back. It almost felt as though it were in the shape of three commas in a circle formation… 'If it looks similar to the Sharingan eye dots, I'm covering the damn thing with a tattoo.'
"We have to have this thing sealed, fast." Sandaime sounded more serious than ever, and there was a definite edge to his voice. "You were right not to see a medical nin, they wouldn't know what to do."
"Isn't there a way to just remove the seal, old man?" Naruto tried her best to not sound as they she were making a plea.
"I've researched a seal similar to that before, and I know of no way to remove it. Why do you ask, Naruto?"
Naruto took a breath, and then answered, "Its Kyuubi."
"Is Kyuubi trying to use the seal to break free?" the Hokage demanded, his eyes burning.
"No, the seal seems to be hurting Kyuubi very badly, I can't even hear him like I used too. When I actually went to see him, he looked as though he were very sick, almost like he was dying. Hokage-sama, you have to help him!" It sounded like a plea, and it was a plea, she didn't know if Kyuubi would be able to continue much longer.
"The best I can do is suppressing the seal, Naruto, I can't remove it. But maybe this might work out for the better. There are people that would like to get their hands on Kyuubi, and with him in that condition, they probably would be unwilling to touch or harm you. I can understand your feelings to a certain extent though, since Kyuubi has helped to keep you alive and safe, and maybe the suppression of that seal will help, but you must realize that it's all I can do right now. The only one who can remove that seal would be Orochimaru, either with a jutsu, or by his death."
Naruto stared at the Hokage as a bitter taste ran through her mouth. She knew he was right on all counts; that there were people after Kyuubi, that Kyuubi had saved her and had helped her, and that if she was going to get the seal removed, she would have to force Orochimaru to do it, one way or another.
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On her way back to find Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto absently ran a finger over the now suppressed seal, wincing slightly from a pain that was more internal than anything. She still couldn't talk to Kyuubi.
'Man is this going to be a long night,' she thought as she rounded a corner. 'All these years, right before I fell asleep, Kyuubi would always insist that we argue intelligently over something… Man did it take time to get decent at that…' She internally giggled as she remembered how when they first started these games she would always yell and scream at Kyuubi that she was right and he was stupid. Kyuubi had wound up ramming his head into one of the walls of his cage more than once, screaming that she was an idiot who had talent only in the physics of pranks. Eventually though, the head ramming had stopped as she became more knowledgeable, or maybe it was because they finally moved on to subjects that interested her. Since then, there had always been a debate every night, or something…
'Maybe I can get Sakura to debate with me, or maybe Sasuke if I can provoke him enough…' Naruto's thoughts were cut short though when she rounded a corner and she felt a slight tingle of chakra on her head. Rushing to a bathroom, she stared into the mirror as her green hair turned white once more, but that wasn't all that happened. Immediately after her hair was white again, the red chakra came down onto her forehead and spelled out the words, "Ha ha."
Naruto felt her eyebrow twitching slightly as she continued to stare at the mirror while trying to decide what course of action to take. The answer came quickly.
'I love you, you love me, we're a happy family! With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too?' Naruto continued to sing this in her head for a good ten minutes, even making herself extremely sick of it before she left the bathroom and stopped the internal singing. 'And we're going to have a talk about your sense of humor, Kyuubi.'
In the hall, as she searched for Sasuke and Sakura, she was happy to see that Hinata's team was there also. However, as it was getting late, she simply gave the team a wave, winked at Hinata, and continued down the hall. And bumped into Kabuto who was talking to a Jounin from the Sound.
It took a lot of restraint on her behalf to not try to deck Kabuto in his now obnoxious looking face, especially when he smiled at her.
"Shale-san, I see your hair isn't green anymore. How are you doing?"
Naruto noticed how the Sound Jounin seemed to react to her name, and turned also to stare at her. She also noticed the strange way that he moved and was reminded of the Grass-nin from the forest. 'Oh man, it's the pedophile!' Giving herself a quick slap though, she turned back to Kabuto and offered him a smile as well.
"I'm doing well, though I did have a bit of a time out in that forest. I swear, I thought the Grass-nin that I was fighting poisoned me! My chakra has been acting up a little ever since we ran into each other. I'm so glad that Hokage-sama was willing to help." She laughed internally when she saw the pedophile's slight grin fall for just a second before he slapped it back on.
"You say that you were poisoned, might I look at the area infected? I'm pretty good with poisons." Naruto raised an eyebrow at Kabuto, and then shook her head.
"Nah, I'm sure what the old man did will be fine. He's old but he knows his stuff. Anyways, it's late and I still need to find my team…"
"Find who, Shale?" Sakura's voice asked from behind her.
"You guys," was Naruto's reply as she turned to talk to Sakura.
"Well, we found you, so lets get some dinner and some sleep," Sasuke's voice said as he appeared from behind Sakura.
Naruto nodded, happy to have a reason for neither Kabuto nor "The Pedophile", as she had decided to call him, to follow or "help" her.
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The next three days of the exam went as one would expect in the tower, if they knew that there was a prankster, her two sidekicks, a finally rested demon vessel, and a whole tower of victims just asking to be made fools of. Absolutely NO ONE was immune to the pranks that happened, not even the Jounin or Hokage. This event was later referred to as "The Massacre of Seriousness."
Naruto had met up with Hinata and Neji at dinner the night that her seal was sealed and had immediately begun making plans for the pranks that they would pull, Naruto making sure to insure that Kabuto was the butt of many of them since she didn't want to risk giving any signs that she knew that "The Pedophile" had invaded the exams. The results of their plans became known immediately after dinner and continued until the end of the exam.
Several things that Naruto always knew were that when on missions, you would sometimes need distractions, whether they are to confuse or distract an enemy, or simply to entertain yourself. Knowing this, she always packed several scrolls with supplies in them, and that night, she made sure that she, Hinata, and Neji all bathed first before dumping a large bottle of blue dye into the baths, right before Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Ino, Chouji, and Lee all went to get baths themselves. The results were 6 genins who were stained blue, with Ino and Sakura crying for their hair which also got colored. Lee on the other hand, was overenthusiastic about what had happened and started looking for a bottle of green dye so he could truly be "the beautiful green beast."
Naruto had to run away from Neji for half the night after that one, mainly because Neji felt as though he saw more than enough green on his teammate already. His other teammate, Ten-ten, took over the chase for the rest of the night, or attempted to chase, Naruto evaded her within 5 minutes.
The next morning Gaara woke up, and also wanted to do something different. So he joined them that morning, fully rested for the first time that he could remember, and helped them pour pink dye all over Kabuto and itching powder into his shorts. Naruto even planted some gum that would make Kabuto fart when he chewed it.
By lunchtime, all sorts of chaos had started, everything from a genjutsu that made it look like Kakashi had decided to change his look to something a bit more Gai-ish, but looked normal to Kakashi himself, to the examiner, Anko, falling for a simple exploding dango trick, to half the occupants in the tower being caught in various traps and getting feathers glued all over them. Sasuke looked like a pink rooster with blue skin, Naruto had photographic evidence.
Naruto was even able to ensnare both Kabuto and "The Pedophile" into a custom made trap that shaved off a good bit of Kabuto's hair and stained Orochimaru's hair and clothes with worm infested mud that smelled like sewage.
It wasn't all fun and games though, Gaara still being new to the group, but Hinata and Neji being well-known mavericks; it wasn't long before the finger was pointed their way, especially since they hadn't been pranked. No one except their group, the Hokage, and Kakashi knew that Naruto was usually the ring leader, and they used that to keep themselves from being pranked. Still, Naruto hated having to prank Hinata and Neji to make them look innocent, so she went easy on them.
By the end of the exam, everyone was wary of everyone else, especially Kabuto who surprisingly enough, hadn't figured out who had shaved his head. So, they truly looked like a ragged group as they stood before the Hokage at the end of the exam. Sakura and Ino had both had to cut their hair to get the dye out, but it didn't matter now, both looked exhausted and angry, especially because of the dye that turned their teeth purple. Kiba had gotten an impromptu manicure and had woken up in a red dress; he still hadn't gotten the polish off. Shino still looked a little blue, but nothing else. Shikamaru was looking cross with his hair up and sprayed yellow with a bright red sign on the back of his shirt that read, "I LOVE SQUIRRELS!" Chouji looked a little blue, and was very angry since he'd also lost all of his food. Lee had successfully found green dye, enough said. The Sound team was in various colors of both pastel and obnoxiously bright colors. Everyone was in disarray.
Naruto beamed proudly at Neji, Hinata, and Gaara, each had become almost friends during their stay, though Hinata still seemed a bit nervous around Gaara.
They all listened as the Hokage began his explanation of the exam, but huffed slightly when he declared that these exams were an alternative that they had come up with for war, she knew that already. He forgot to mention though that if friendships were to arise, then they opened doors to possible future allies.
He then announced that the next portion of the exam would be a series of one-on-one battles. That was fine by her, and with everyone else it looked like. So, there would be 21 participants, someone would either get an automatic buy to the next round, or would have to fight twice. She was willing to bet that it would be the latter so there would be an even number.
Sasuke was up first against one of Kabuto's teammates, she didn't even bother to learn his name.
'Cheater,' was all she could think when she saw Sasuke execute a maneuver similar to the one Lee used on him earlier. Lee looked crestfallen.
After the fight, they all watched the medical ninjas remove the unconscious body of Sasuke's opponent, as they also pushed Sasuke out to check him for wounds. Naruto smiled as she watched him protest, but was taken anyway. Turning back to the scoreboard, she felt her breath hitch when she saw who was up next.
The scoreboard read: Inuzuka Kiba vs. Uzumaki Naruto.
"WHAT?" Kiba was screaming, as he looked around for someone who could possibly be Naruto, seeing no one though.
Naruto on the other hand looked down at the Hokage who smiled and nodded.
"Ref, Naruto isn't here, she's not even a ninja! How cou…" Kiba trailed off as "Shale" suddenly jumped from the balcony and entered the ring, ignoring the varying looks of shock that she received from all around the room, minus the Hyuugas, Gaara, the Hokage, and her teacher.
"I'm Naruto," she said to the referee, before turning back to face Kiba from where he stood on the balcony. "So, are you going to give up?"
"There's no way that I can lose to a drop out like you!" Kiba shouted as he jumped into the arena himself, confident of an easy win.
"You didn't look that tough when I clocked you before." Naruto smirked at Kiba's face as he turned beet red.
"You didn't even graduate the academy normally. You're probably the weakest person here, no matter if your appearance changed or not, you're still a loser! You'll always be a loser!"
Neither Hinata or Neji took these comments too well, they sounded like how their relationship used to be, before Naruto had set them straight. They glanced at each other quickly before nodding slightly and pulling out an enormous banner.
"GO NARUTO!" yelled Hinata, as she held up her side of the banner.
"KICK HIS ASS!" Neji yelled, proudly displaying his end. The banner showed a smilie of Naruto making a victory sign with her fingers and read, "Naruto can't lose."
In the arena, Naruto blushed at the sight of the banner, Kiba fumed, and the examiner coughed slightly, though to Naruto it sounded like he was covering a laugh.
"You may begin the fight," the examiner said, as he "coughed" again.
"Alright, Akamaru. This is just a girl, an easy win!" Kiba declared as he pulled a puppy out of his jacket. He thankfully didn't notice the tick mark that appeared on the back of Naruto's head, or Neji and Hinata begin to make bets on how long he would survive the fight. Neji chose to be optimistic and bet on three blows, Hinata bet on only two. Both were wrong.
'He is going to suffer for that… SUFFER!' Naruto thought, as she charged forward the second that Kiba slid into a battle ready stance, he didn't even see her coming.
The fight that followed wasn't as much a fight as it was a beating.
Naruto's first blow struck Kiba across the face, as her left hand shot out to grab his foot and drag him back to receive three alternating kicks and punches before she twisted her arm and slammed him into the floor back first, then continued slamming him into the hard ground. She finished with a quick toss, sending Kiba flying over her shoulder and into a wall.
Up on the balcony, there were varying degrees of shock being expressed. The genin, minus Hinata and Neji, were all shocked that Naruto was here, under their noses the entire time. Most were also shocked at the brutality with which she beat down Kiba, who was supposed to be the second best genin in their year at sparring.
Orochimaru and Kabuto also watched the beating, Kabuto slightly impressed with the girl's speed, Orochimaru just loving the brutality.
After her match, Naruto sat down with Neji and Hinata, avoiding all the stares she was receiving from around the room. They would have to get used to her presence.
The next few matches were interesting though. In the match following Naruto's, Neji had to fight Ino of all people. The girl hadn't even attempted to continue, knowing she couldn't compare.
Shikamaru had faced a girl named Kin from the Sound, and won.
The next match was Temari from the Sand against Ten-ten, it ended badly for Ten-ten and left a very mad Neji.
Hinata had faced off against Sakura then, and won very easily. Naruto and Neji had both laughed at the pairing, after all, what hope had Sakura had?
Shino then faced off with a guy named Zaku from the Sound, another win for Konoha.
Then Kabuto was called forward to fight his teammate, he won, but barely.
Dosu had fought Lee after that and surprisingly enough, Dosu had won when Lee started getting sick from disorientation.
The last battle was between Gaara, Chouji, and Kankuro, battle royal style. Kankuro had quit immediately, and Chouji was defeated easily enough by Gaara's sand. Naruto found the sand fascinating and immediately starting thinking of ways to defeat it.
Once the matches were over, the winners lined up on the floor before the Hokage. Sasuke had just rejoined them and was giving her the evil eye, even as one by one they drew lots to decide the pairings for the next round, which would be held in a month. The pairings were as follows:
Sasuke vs. Gaara
Naruto vs. Temari
Dosu vs. Kabuto
Neji vs. Shikamaru
Hinata vs. Shino
As everyone gathered back together to leave the tower, Naruto made sure to leave her own little memento, as childish as it seemed. On the side of the building that they left from, she used her chakra to etch a picture of Gaara standing over a beaten Sasuke. Ino and Sakura had railed on and on at her for that one.
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Saria: Alright, that's 8 pages, happy now?
Tori and Zas: (nod)
SA: (shrugs)
Saria: Alright, time to start a new part in this; it's called VOTE FOR PAIRINGS! I've already chosen who Naruto will be with, but feel free to vote for anyone else! Also, feel free to write any suggestions that you may have in a review.