CHAPTER 10
Chuunin Exams
As conscious thought returns to Naraku all he could do is question himself, "Am I still alive." Trying to sit up he realized he was to weak to raise himself. He quickly abandoned the fruitless attempt. Taking in the overly sterile scent and the endless racket that could only come from others Naraku surmised he was either in a hospital or he went to hell. Considering his circumstances it could be both.
With a groan he opened his eyes squinting at the light. The dull room he was in only served to confirm his suspicions. Naraku followed along the room until his gaze rested on his mask. Quietly grasping it within seconds he was covered again in his signature item. Naraku barely noticed that his sensei had entered the room. He must be slipping. Upon meeting faces kakashi took it upon himself to break the silence. "So Naraku I see your feeling better. You really had us scared.there for a moment." Naraku made no sign of hearing him. Kakashi sighed and continued. "At first when I saw the body of the other nin I thought sasuke had killed him. But judging by sasukes position and his account it seems you got him. You should be proud," Again Kakashi pauses again Naraku gave no sign to have heard him. "I suppose you were spying on us when I was teaching Sasuke. A testament to your true skills for me not to have notice. But I must warn you. You cannot use my technique lightly."
The atmosphere in the room immediately calmed down when Kakashi eye smiled and said, "On a lighter note I have come here to ask if you want to compete in the chunin exams next week?" Naraku turned to Kakashi and nodded. Kakashi then said, "Well the doctors said that you may leave in a few days. Your team has already began training for the exams. I believe you'll be ready but it couldn't hurt to brush up on a few skills… well see you in a week." Kakashi left with a wave and a wink.
As soon as he was gone Naraku allowed himself to relax. "So the chunin exams? It will at last allow me to leave this team behind. I have grown so tired of their company. At the very least it will bring more weakling to make me stronger." He went to sleep with a smile on his face and a hunger in his heart.
Timeskip
Day of the exams
As Naraku walking towards the designated meeting place. On his way there he heard the voice of one of his team mates. Hikaru and he sounded like he was in a fight. Naraku took a moment to consider it and decided to intervene if necessary. He took a perch near the fight and watched. Hikaru was standing next to sakura and was facing to suna nin. One a tall boy with face paint and the other a girl with pigtails and a fan. The boy was holding a much younger boy in the air. One which he recognized as the thirds grandson.
The boy with face paint spoke to Hikaru, "Why don't you konoha punks mind your own business. Cause if your all Konoha has to offer than I almost feel sorry for this place." The boy sneered at Hikaru who was moments away from attacking the other nin. Upon closer inspection of his teammate he noticed that he had a few bandages on his body. 'Perhaps he got them in training' Naraku thought to himself. Hikaru demanded the taller shinobi to let the boy down. Which the other only tightened his grip on the boy. Hikaru then charged in like a berserker only to be tripped by the boys chakra strings. 'Obviously one of Suna's infamous puppet masters.' Naraku thought to himself.
A moment after the foreign nins attack a small rock flew out of a nearby tree. 'Sasuke' Naraku was amused by his dramatic entrance and pose. He would have laughed had it not given his position away. Sasuke then spoke to the offending nin, "If you guys are looking for trouble then your way out of your league." After finishing his little speech he crushed a second rock in his hand. Then another much colder voice came from the same area, "Kankuro that's enough. You're a disgrace to our village." The two sand nin immediately froze in fear. Sasuke tensed obviously displeased with having the other nin sneak up on him with out him realizing his presence. The new shinobi disappeared and reappeared in a shroud of sand.
As the sand clears a clearer view of the shinobi could be had. The boy had blood red hair and pale skin. Even from his distance he could see the circles around his eyes. Eyes that were a pale green and held not but killing intent. Naraku felt chills up his spine. But not from fear no excitement. He wanted to get closer to this shinobi to bask in his pungent scent of blood. In his excitement he ignored the conversation had between this shin obi and his teammates but they were obviously in complete fear of this much shorter ninja. As he turned to leave Sasuke's voice halted him, "Wait" He demanded as pompously as ever but the sand shinobi humored him and stopped. "Im curious as to who you . I would enjoy testing my skills against your own. Tell me your name." The sand ninja turned to him and said, "I too am interested in you. My name is Gaara no Subaku Whats yours?" Sasuke took on a harder stance as in invitation and said darkly, "Sasuke Uchiha." Gaara nodded and three sand nin began to walk away until Hikaru said, "Hold on a minute there you think you can just have your big dumb gorilla and his little pigtail friend attack us and then just walk away without asking me my name? Don't you want to know who I am?" Gaara Didn't even bother breaking stride before answering, "Not in the least." Kankuro and his friend however were about to unsheathe their weapons and attack for hikarus comments.
Sasuke Readied himself for the attack. This was the time to get close to study his enemy. As they were raising their weapons over their head. Naraku halted their movements in an instant without a single sound. After a moment of awkward silence the two shin obi were frozen in place feeling blades tickling both of their necks. Gaara turned to look at their attacker. Naraku took this time to speak, "It seems you two are just as annoyed by Hikaru as the rest of us are. That is understandable. However if you attack my team mates I will have to end your lives." After his warning he lowered his blades from their necks allowing them to back away. Once they had put themselves safely behind gaara (which gaara showed his outright disdain towards his friends.)
Gaara took in Naraku's appearance and then asked, "What is your name?" Naraku then answered, "My name is…Naraku." Gaara nodded and turned his gaze to Sasuke and then said, "I do hope we meet in the exams. Opponents such as you two don't come very often I will enjoy killing you greatly." After which the trio continued on their way. Naraku turned to his team find sasuke glaring at him, a fuming Hikaru, and sakura looking at sasuke in pure adoration. Sasuke ignored sakura's attempts to get his attention so he could speak to Naraku. "So your back from the hospital we thought we would have to replace you for the exams." Naraku ignored him and walked toward the group. Hikaru was obviously uncomfortable in his presence perhaps the young the wave mission was too much for him. Naraku interrupted the silence with, "shall we get going?"
As the team was walking towards the exam building sakura called out, "Hey…um Sasuke I just want to thank you for saving us from the those guys back there." She paused here for Sasuke's acknowledgement. Sasuke just "Hnnd" without looking back at her. She looked hurt for a moment before it disappeared and she asked, "Maybe we will meet at the exams sasuke? I would really love to be with you again…" She waited for sasuke to react to her bold statements of which he completely ignored. She just waved the team by with Hikaru looking back at her incredulously. He looked at sasuke and said, "You could have at least been nice to her sasuke. Honestly I don't know why she even likes you. When there are so many others out there for her." Naraku snorted at Hikaru and said, "Someone out there? Don't you mean someone right here?" As he finished his inquiry he placed his arm around Hikaru getting uncomfortably close to him. Hikaru roughly shoved him away. Glaring at both naraku and a smirking Sasuke.
Upon reaching the tower they were intercepted by Kakashi. He waved at them and said, "Hey, I just came here to congratulate on making it this far. I just want to warn you about being careful during the exams. there are sure to be plenty of strong opponents this year. Just saying good luck." Kakashi disappeared with a wave and the three ninjas walked through the doors. Upon reaching the top of the stairs to the floor they were supposed to go to. Seeing groups of ninja being blocked entrance by two chunin. They walked through the hallway ignoring the other ninja trying to get to the next level without incident. Until the chunin called for them to stop. "Hey where are you goin arent you guys here for the exams." Naraku wanted to just ignore the weaklings but sasuke had to show boat his skills, "That's where were going the exams are on the third level this is only the second. That sign has a genjutsu on it."
The two chunin looked at each other before the closest said, "Well well arent we clever but can you back up that intelligence?" Without warning he and sasuke attacked each other but before either attacks connected a green blur intercepted their attacks. When he stopped it was a tall boy with a bowl cut and a green spandex suit. He was looking directly at Sakura who was standing stunned next to her team. He continued staring at her until his teammates one a pale boy with dark brow hair and silvery eyes the other a girl with brown hair rolled up in buns. The boy asked him, "What are you doing lee I thought we agreed to hide are true skills untill further into the tournament?"
Lee said nothing and his team left irate up the stairs passing the team seven in glare. Until the stopped and turned towards Sasuke asking, "Whats your name." Sasuke Passively said, "I don't owe you my name." The boy grimaced and sasuke and the rest of team seven walked up the stairs towards the exam rooms. The girl walke behind the still grimacing boy and said, "Well the last uchiha, huh? He sure is a bold one. Are you gonna challenge him neji?" The boy huffed and walked up the stairs after them. His team mates on his heels.
After a long speech, a bunch of cheating, and the written part of the exams revealed to be a sham. They stood in front of the forest of death and a crazy Woman. "Shut up runts and lets begin the second half of the exams! An exam I know half of you wont pass or even survive at that." Hikaru coked his and in an Obnoxious imitation of her voice repeated what she just said. With a throw of Kunai and a Blur of movement she was behind Naraku attempting to lick the blood of his face. She only stopped to pull out another kunai and flash warningly to Naraku. Who had her thrown Kunai in hand and had gotten behind her without her noticing. He then said, "You seemed to have dropped your Kunai." She took the blade from his hand and said, "Thank you ninja but if you expect to live longer I suggest you don't get behind me again." Naraku had only decided to get this close for the simple fact that he had recognized the seal adorning her neck. She saw his gaze and covered it from view in her first act modesty. Team seven had already this early in the exams made themselves targets and not one of them cared. They were just anxious for the challenge. One that was sure to be rewarding.
As team seven was waiting for the exams to begin. Sasuke and Naraku formed a plan to set up a perimeter around the forest tower and attack which ever teams came through first. Once the bell rang All teams ran off to get the other scroll they needed. For nearly an hour team seven ran towards the tower. Upon reaching within a seeing distance of the tower team seven spotted two other teams in a fight. They were low level ninja from the sand and cloud villages. Sasuke and Naraku nodded toward one another They signaled for Hikaru to block the ninjas escape with his shadow clones. The fight below was over pretty quickly with the sand nin standing over the unconscious cloud team. Sasuke activated his sharing an something he must have gained in training with Kakashi.
With a nod both Naraku and Sasuke attacked the weakened ninja. Naraku struck down the two ninja that were closest together. The third upon seeing this tried to flee into the forest only to be engulfed in a ball of flames by Sasukes attack incinerating him to ash. Searching the bodies he found both scrolls. Naraku was about to kill the stirring cloud team when Hikaru stopped him clearly objecting. As the team looked on in horror at the dismembered bodies staring up at team seven. Naraku handed the needed scroll to Sasuke who looked sternly at the cowering cloud nin. Hikaru clearly against their deaths. Instead Naraku held the unneeded scroll out in front the cloud nin and said, "It seems that my teammate here wishes us to spare your lives. But we cant have interfering in the future either." Upon saying this the scroll in hand burst into green flame. Team seven then headed to the tower.
They entered the towers and unrolled both scrolls. They were greeted by a summoned chunnin and given a brief speech of the ninja code and the alliance of nations. Walking into the waiting chambers they realized they were the first ones to the tower. Naraku and his team had to wait five days to get for the rest to show up.
To be continued…
This was just a moment of bordom I just wanted to get another chapter out so I did this one I plan to get out a few more and hopefully Ill get a few more chapters out I don't really plan for this one to be a great hit with every one but hey this is just a set up for my next chapter. Pretty soon I plan on taking a big twist in this fic which I plan to throw you off with. As always thank you all who have reviewed. And I hope to get more reviews from those who like this fic.