Chapter 9: written exams and the forest of non-death
When they got there, they saw a lot of other ninja teams. "W-wow, t-there are a lot of other g-genin teams." Naruko said. "Naru, I hadn't noticed before we were assigned to the same team, but you stutter when you are nervous, don't you?" Shikamaru said softly. Naru nodded her head and said, "Y-y-yes I d-d-do, n-n-no one h-has ever p-p-pointed i-it out before th-though." she managed. "You don't need to be nervous, Naru. You could probably whup everyone here fairly easily, after all, you took out an A-rank missing nin, all by yourself, using only the basics of his preference " Sasuke said with a smirk. Everyone who heard this gasped and stared at her. Shikamaru glared at him and said "You know, drawing attention to the nervous girl is not helping, Sasuke. Sasuke looked away at that and muttered "sorry." under his breath. Then someone with white hair came up to them and started talking. "My name is Kabuto, I am also a Konoha nin, If anyone would like information on anyone here, just ask." he said. "I-I-I w-w-would l-l-like information o-o-on G-G-Gaara p-p-please." Naruko stuttered, worse than before, and Sasuke winced, and said, "I would like information on Rock Lee.". Unexpectedly, Ino spoke up "I would like information on Naruko Uzumaki." she said with a smirk, not really trusting what Sasuke said.
"Aww, you know their names, no fun. Well, Gaara is the son of the Kazekage. His team has completed twenty D-rank, ten C-rank, and one B-rank missions. He knows fifteen earth jutsu, and two fire jutsu. He is moderate in Tai jutsu, is fairly fast, and is also moderate in gen jutsu, but knows no medical jutsu." he paused to take out another info card.
"Rock Lee, oh when you are near this guy, run when you start hearing the music, it's allways bad news. Anyway, his team has completed thirty D-rank, fif-teen C-rank, and two B-rank. He knows no nin-jutsu, but is extremely proficient in tai-jutsu, he is very fast, but that is it."
He paused to switch cards again, and nearly dropped it when he saw it, "HOLY, e-ehem, um, N-Naruko Uzumaki, she has been hiding her gender for a while, reasons unknown, but rumors are that it was for protection from the village anyway, she has completed thirty D-rank missions, zero C-rank, and one A-rank, during which she took out two C-rank missing nin, and defeated an A-rank missing nin twice, once with nearly two hits and a little help, and again using only the basics of sword-play this time all by herself, by the way, the missing nin was a sword master." everyone in the room had gone silent when he had started reading, and hearing this, everyone in the room gasped. He continued "She has also completed a solo S-rank mission, and her team has also completed a S-rank besides that. Wow, she knows many jutsu, including ninety five fire, seventy-five water, sixty earth, one-hundred and fifty lightning, and three hundred wind. She knows the Rasengan, Kage bunshin (though is horrible at the normal) is a seal mistress, master of the sword after merely three weeks training, proficient in gen jutsu, knows wood, steel, crystal, and ice style, along with many others, is an ok medic nin, has massive chakra reserves, and the pysical strength of Tsunade." he finished, making many people in the room sweat.
The entire room was silent, and Shikamaru decided to put in his own two cents. "There is one thing that your cards are missing, because she developed it in secret over the past two weeks, but don't ask, because I'm not telling. It's her secret weapon, and even Sasuke doesn't know. Only two other people besides the two of us know, and one of them is the Hokage." Shikamaru said, slightly smug.
Just then the proctor for the first exam came in. "Alright maggots quit your gosipin' and come on. The first exam begins soon." he growled. The genin filed into the room, which happened to be a school room. "Alright, everyone, the first exam is a test, and here are the rules; first, no cheating, anyone who is caught cheating more than three times will be failed, along with their team. Second, the exam will be thirty minutes, and the tenth question will be given after the time is up, to the remaining people. Third, jutsu is not allowed to be used on other people, that is all. BEGIN!" he shouted. Naruko caught the meaning behind the test right away, and activated her byakugan to peek at the key on the pedestal when the proctor wasn't looking, then she looked at Sasuke, who had apparently unlocked his sharingan sometime during the last two weeks, and was using that to cheat. Then to Shikamaru, who just knew all of the answers, but he winked at her when he saw her byakugan activated. Satisfied that her team had passed, she deactivated her byakugan, and relaxed. After the thirty minutes were up, over half of the genin teams had been eliminated, and it was time for the tenth question. "Ok, the tenth question is optional, basically if you take it and get it wrong, you will fail and never be able to take the exam again, no matter where it is held. If you choose to leave, you can try again next year." the proctor said. "H-HEY, WHO DO Y-YOU THINK WE ARE? OF C-COURSE WE'LL TAKE IT, NO M-MATTER THE RISK, WE'RE NINJA, A-AREN'T WE?!" Naru yelled, and the proctor face palmed, "You all, pass then." when he saw the genin gain confidence again, after the girls little speach. She secretly smiled, glad that her plan worked.
All of a sudden, someone came bursting in through the window, "Jesh, you've gotten soft, there are still twenty teams left!" the kunoichi said in a slightly rude tone."Well, follow me, that is if you can, if you can't, meet me at the forest of death!" she said, sighing happily at the 'forest of death' part. "By the way, my name is Anko." She smiled, then jumped back out the window that she broke, and was surprised to see the Uchiha and Nara boys following her. She was even more surprised to see their teammate already leaning against the gates to the forest, reading some book. "How did you...nevermind, I'm disappointed that no-one else could keep up with us though." she said turning to the boys and pouting slightly. They waited for the rest of the genin to show up, and when they did, she explained the rules for this part of the exam. "Ok, in this part of the exam, everyone will be given a scroll. half of you a heaven, and half of you an earth. the goal is to get both scrolls and bring them to the tower in the center of the forest, without dying, or losing a teammate Now first, I need you to sign these waivers so that Konoha is not blamed for any deaths that might occur." she said and a gleam appeared in her eyes when she talked about death and such, that made the genin shudder. Naru Sasuke and Shika, all signed the waivers right away, and got their scroll in exchange. "Hey, we got the heav-mhff" Sasuke started, until Shikamaru put his hand over the other boys mouth. "Do you want to be targeted by everyone who gets an earth scroll?" he hissed. Sasukes eyes widened slightly, and he shook his head slightly, "Well then, don't shout it out like that then." he whispered in his ear. They went to their gate, and waited for the signal, and then took off. Naru activated her byakugan, and noticed that each different scroll had different chakra signatures heaven one, earth the other. "hey, guys, someone has an earth scroll about one kilometer to the west." She said. When Sasuke looked at her his eyes bugged, because she still had her byakugan activated. "H-how did you get byakugan?" he asked. "S-some creep experimented on m-me when I was one, and somehow g-gave me all three doujutsu. I have o-only unlocked byakugan for now t-though." she said "Oh, so you will have sharingan, too?" he asked. "Y-yes, I think so." she confirmed. "Ok." Sasuke said, deep in thought. They found the people with the earth scroll, which happened to be a team of Oto nin, and they whupped them, and quickly got to the tower by sunset.
Elsewhere in the forest, " I have heard that little Naru survived, and is in the chunin exams. I think that I will pay her a little visit." a strange man said, standing over the dead bodies of several konoha ANBU. 'I THINK NOT, YOU PEDO-SNAKE.' a demonic voice said, and suddenly, a fox head appeared out of no-where. "And, who are you supposed to be?" the 'pedo-snake' asked, slightly annoyed at the title. 'I HAVE MANY TITLES, BUT YOU MAY CALL ME BY MY MOST RECENT ONE, KYUBI NO KITSUNE.' the fox head said with a slightly evil grin. "Y-you are the K-kyubi? But, didn't the fourth hokoge seal you inside of Naruko?" he said, shaking a little in fear. 'YES, HE DID, BUT I CAN STILL TAKE ON A TEMPORAL FORM OUTSIDE OF THE SEAL. I HAVE GROWN RATHER ATTACHED TO MY CURRENT CONTAINER, SO I WILL REQUEST THAT YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER, YOU DAMN PEDOPHILE ' Kyubi said with a slight smirk in his voice. "And if I don't?" said pedo asked. ' IF YOU DON'T, I WILL SIMPLY KILL YOU, OROCHIMARU." Kyubi said with a demonic grin. Orochimaru paled, but suddenly grinned " Nice bluff, but you can't do anything unless you are willingly unsealed, and the seal is still fully intact, so you can't even talk to her, am I right, Kyubi?" Orochimaru asked. Kyubi growled, and roared at Orochimaru, the roar loud enough to make blood run from his ears. 'DAMN YOU HUMAN! YOU MAY BE RIGHT FOR NOW, BUT AS SOON AS THIS DAMN SEAL EVEN FRACTURES, I AM TAKING CONTROL AND I WILL KILL YOU AND STRING YOUR ENTRAILS ACROSS THE ROOF-TOPS OF KONOHA!' the Kyubi shouted at him, releasing an astonishing amount of killing intent, nearly sending Orochimaru into cardiac arrest, however, Orochimaru still managed a shaky grin. "I will leave her alone until the third exam final, then I will attack her and Konoha, and I will take anything that interests me back to Oto, including her." he smirked, then walked away, leaving the Kyubi to shout profanity to the heavens.
Meanwhile,"w-well, that was easy." Naru said with a smile. "Ok, now what do we do?" Sasuke asked. "Uhm, maybe we open the scrolls?" Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes slightly. "Well that would e-explain why they gave us scrolls in the first p-place." Naru said, and opened the heaven at the same time Sasuke opened the earth. They were surprised when Kakashi appeared out of no-where. "You guys already got here?" He asked, clearly startled. "Yes, it was pretty easy, with Narus secret weapon, after all. She was able to locate the nearest earth scroll, and it happened to belong to Oto. they were actually pushovers, and we got their scroll, and headed straight here." Sasuke explained. "Wow, I really want to know what this secret weapon of yours is Naru, but I think I'll let you keep it a secert for a while longer. Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "Ok, since you got here so early, you can have the next few days to rest and train. Good luck on the rest of the exam!" he said before he shunshined away. "Ok, we will train tomorrow its to late to start now, lets rest." They all agreed, and took the flight of stairs to their left, and found rooms to rest in, each found a bed, and promptly passed out, and inside of Naru, Kyubi was searching for a way to give Naru an unexpected edge against Orochimaru, learning more about his host than he was sure than even she knew.
Over the next few days, all three were training. Sasuke and Shikamaru were training their chakra control, and Naruko was training her byakugan in a private training area. She was also training her tai jutsu, because her trainer had also taught her the hyugas special jutsu; '8 trigram 64 palm' and she had improved on it a little, using her shadow clones. Kakashi had been teaching Sasuke the chidori, but he still needed better chakra control. Naruko had taught Shikamaru the air bullet, which he needed better chakra control to use too, but his clan had been allowed to teach him a secret technique too.