Chapter 11
She was wearing the standard genin garb that was usually worn by iwa shinobi. She had a rather androgynous figure from behind, the only thing giving away her gender being her voice, which was being used to mumble to herself. She had short black hair and was very distressed if her stance and posture were any indicator.
Naruto was on a branch behind her. She was kneeling down and covered by foliage from the front, but was open to prying eyes from behind. There were grunts and sounds of battle going on below her, which she seemed to be obviously trying to get a vantage point on.
After running away from the girl who snapped her ankle, he quickly caught a scent of strawberries, snakes, and beetles. It was difficult to place the scent of both beetles and snakes, but Naruto likened it to placing a voice that you've known all your life to a face. Naruto recognized the particular scent of strawberry as the shampoo that Sakura used. He then continued to follow the scent along the branches until he got to the place where he was, behind the unassuming iwa genin.
He was close to home base, he knew this much for sure. So the fight that she was watching and he couldn't get a clear view of was probably one going on with Fu and the rest of the group. That, or extreme circumstance.
Naruto wasn't much in the vein of slitting throats when it could be avoided, so he started looking for other ways to take the kunoichi out. Noticing that by her side were three diagonal lines parallel to each other, mimicking claw marks on the trunk next to her. That was the sign that he had placed a trap up ahead.
Smirking, he jumped onto the branch that she was on and palmed her back. "Sorry." He whispered before shoving her out of the tree and into the trap ahead of her. She snapped a line of string from her descent, prompting a contraption of wire and rope to burst out of the surrounding foliage and wrap her to a thick tree trunk upside down.
From this vantage point, he was afforded a clear view of the battle below him. There seemed to be a lull in the fight, as there were three people looking at three other people opposite them. Fu, that Sand chick, and Sakura were all facing off against a guy wrapped in bandages with a metal gauntlet on his arm, some kid with a cocky smirk on his face, and a nerdy looking guy with silver hair and glasses. Off in the surrounding, there was a heavy iwa kid being suspended by a rope with both his hands tied behind him and a girl who was hanging limply from a rope wrapped around one of her ankles. There was blood dripping from a head wound, she was probably knocked out. Fu didn't have her trademark water swords, Temari looked out of breath, and Sakura was swaying dangerously.
Pushing the iwa chick into the trap might have taken her out, but she was still able to make sounds, evident from when she immediately started screaming obscenities at him. The seven sets of eyes all looked up at the new event in surprise. The cocky kid raised an arm and pointed it his newly gained vantage point. A sonic boom resonated from his palm, forcing Naruto to jump out of the tree or be hit by a shockwave.
By pure happenchance, Naruto ended up on a crash course directly for the silver haired nerd. Trying to salvage the situation, he took a hold of his bo staff and brought it down onto him. Showing prowess in taijutsu, Kabuto leaned to the side and sent a kick towards Naruto. Still being in the air, Naruto wasn't able to maneuver away from the kick and decided to block it instead with his arm.
The leg hit his arm and forced Naruto to the side. It stung like a motherfucker, but there was no loss of mobility. A shadow fell upon him as Dosu ran up and sent a straight punch for Naruto's head. He ducked under the punch, but his world view shifted for some reason. He crumpled inwards, no longer able to tell what was up and what was down.
Dosu lifted his leg and tried to stomp downwards, but was hit with a gust of wind and launched to the side. Naruto shook his head, trying to reorient himself fruitlessly. The cocky kid ran up to Naruto and sent a sonic boom his way.
Naruto was only able to go into fetal position and weathered the hit. He got hit dead on and he was sent tumbling away from Zaku. When he rolled to a stop, Naruto brought his hands together in the familiar cross-shaped seal. Stumbling Narutos poofed into existence around him. The silver haired one charged Naruto, expecting an easy fight from the clones.
Although they were a stumbling mess, with all of them together all wielding a bo staff, giving them longer reach, they were able to hold Kabuto off for the amount of time it took Naruto to shakily get to his feet and get his bearings.
When Kabuto hit the last clone straight in the chest, dispelling it, he ducked under a barrage of senbon. He managed to dodge the most of them, but a few lodged themselves into his forearms. While he was distracted with Naruto, Fu ran up to him from behind and grabbed his neck. She brought a knee into his back using his neck as a handhold.
Kabuto crumpled forward and began writhing on the ground with foam beginning to come out of his mouth. She had at the very least reoriented a few of his vertebrae, if she hadn't completely snapped it.
They shared a momentary glance. Naruto desperately wanted to talk to her about the fact that she was a Jinchuuriki as well, but they had more pressing matters to attend to. Fu ran off to help Sakura against Dosu and Naruto ran off to help Temari with Zaku.
For the most part, their prowess was evenly matched. Zaku's jutsu used the air as a medium to impart shockwaves to his opponent, while Temari used her fan to change the medium itself, making her capable of redirecting the shockwave.
Naruto created a series of clones around him, who all rushed at Zaku. He only looked Naruto's way for half a second before sending a few blasts to completely destroy all of the clones. This opened him up to from a blast of air, which clipped him in the side and sent him sprawling to the side. Naruto capitalized on this moment of distraction and ran at the downed kid, throwing senbon all the way.
He seemed pretty good at batting away the senbon moving at high velocities, almost as if he fought someone who used them regularly. Although as he did this, he wasn't able to use his shockwaves properly.
Naruto came up close to him and drew his bo staff downwards, hoping to end the fight by knocking him out. Zaku, instead of trying to dodge, brought one of his arms up and blocked the blow. He then used his free hand to palm Naruto's stomach.
Naruto wasn't too sure what happened next. One moment he was in front of Zaku, trying to overpower him with the bo staff, the next he was pressed up against a tree about 7 meters away from him. Blood rose through his esophagus and he spat it out with what little breath he had in his lungs. Naruto tried to move his limbs, but they were sluggish and unresponsive.
Zaku smirked at Temari. "Looks like the cavalry has been taken out."
Purple tipped senbon sprouted out of his back. Zaku looked confused for a second before falling forward onto the ground. A strange puppet fell downward from the canopy and impaled the sound genin with four knives protruding from four arms. Zaku died immediately.
"Aren't you glad that your brother is here?"
Temari could have laughed in relief if her lungs didn't feel like they were on fire. "You always did have the strangest sense of timing."
Across the way, Kiba and Fu were fighting Dosu head on. Sakura had fallen ill from Dosu's gauntlet a little before Kiba showed up and was on the ground a safe distance away from them. Kiba turned and spiraled into the sound genin's back while Fu roundhouse kicked him in the chest directly opposite where the gatsuuga was hitting him.
Dosu coughed up blood, staining the bandages on his face and fell to the ground, thoroughly unconscious.
"Dogboy! Your friend isn't looking too good!" Kankuro shouted out from where Naruto lay.
Kiba growled. Fu was wobbly on her feet from exhaustion and sound based attacks, so Kiba offered her his shoulder to lean on while they walked to the downed Naruto.
When they got there, there was a clone tending to his wounds. Nothing visible was being treated, but there was still an intense look of concentration upon its brow. After a little bit, the green flared up in intensity before petering out. The clone huffed in amusement and said "Look's I'm finally out of chakra" before poofing out of existence.
The original's eyes fluttered open. "Medic." He moaned out before chuckling a little. "Oh, wait. I'm the medic."
"Naruto." Fu said worriedly.
Naruto waved her off. "Oh don't worry. I know how to treat internal wounds." But that was only because of the medial ninjutsu form boost he got from that Karin girl. Looks like it was a really good idea to save her now. He looked off to where Kabuto was supposed to be laying. "Hey Fu, didn't you take out that nerd over there?"
Fu looked to where Naruto was indicating and became silent. "…yeah… I think I did."
Just as she finished saying that, purple flames spewed out of the tree trunk that housed Sasuke and his teammate.
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Branches whipped across her face leaving angry red scratch marks. Normally, she'd travel at a pace that allowed her to either avoid the branches or just push them out of her way. She didn't have that kind of time. Her sensei had infiltrated the second stages of the exam and was most likely messing shit up.
This was her exam. This was her forest. She wasn't going to let that snake bastard take it away from her. No fucking way.
A wafting aroma hit her tongue, almost making her gag. A fact not known by many is that Anko had nearly the same tracking power as the common Inuzuka, but this came from her snake-like attributes. Namely, the extraordinarily powerful taste buds on her tongue that let her taste the scent in the air much like snakes do. The thing she was smelling smelled like someone had put a boa constrictor, a gallon of tar, and rotting flesh into an industrial sized blender and waited for it to smoke out and die.
Not a pleasant scent at all.
There was a scream of pain directly in front of her. Evidently, she was going the right way.
She arrived just in time to see Orochimaru toss aside a young girl on the branch he was standing on. It looked as if a dark blue tint to her skin was being drained into a seal on her back.
"You fucking bastard." Anko said quietly.
Orochimaru turned slowly to face her. "Anko-chan? Is that you? Oh my, how you've grown."
Anko screamed in frustration and threw her arms up to let snakes flow from the sleeves on her trench coat in torrents. They all hit Orochimaru directly in the midsection and tied him to the tree he was standing on. "Who. Is. The. Girl?" She asked, enunciating each word dangerously.
Orochimaru didn't seem very afflicted by her anger. "Just a very powerful, very uneducated little girl."
Now that the tint had gone from her skin, leaving a heavily tanned shade on it, Anko recognized the girl. It was Fu. The green haired girl who was Naruto's partner… Naruto wasn't with her.
"What the fuck did you do to Naruto?" she hissed, constricting the snakes around his midsection to the point where any normal man would have trouble breathing.
Orochimaru was not affected by the tightening of the snakes. "Oh yes, of course you'd want to know what happened to your apprentice. Well, student I guess. That little rascal did say that you were rather… what was the word for it? Nitpicky about what you called him."
Anko continued to glower at her previous sensei. "What did you do to him?"
"He was a bit hot-headed, so I sent him on a trip." Orochimaru glanced up at a break in the canopy. There were broken branches surrounding it, allowing a neat little circle of light to break through.
Anko roared in anger and flung herself at the snakes covering her sensei. She was accepted into their ranks immediately and she took a hold of his neck dangerously. "You tell me what you did to him, or I KILL BOTH OF US!"
Orochimaru tutted at his little former apprentice in disappointment. "Anko, Anko, Anko. Didn't I instruct you on how to not fall into such obvious traps?" The Orochimaru she was grasping turned to mud in her grasp.
Orochimaru appeared from the tree behind her. "You've got a good student Anko-chan. A little stupid, but brave nonetheless. Oh, and by the way. If the exams are held up at all from my presence, I'll burn Konoha to the ground." With that, Orochimaru sunk into the branch and disappeared.
The snakes that she was surrounded by returned to her sleeves. She fell to the branch on her ass and laid down it. Too many emotions were raging in her mind to even think about movement.
"FUCK YOU, YOU PEDOPHILIC BASTARD!" She roared to the heavens and anyone who might be watching her.
Anko's head lolled to the side, allowing a good view of Fu writhing on the ground in pain. She'd have to help her out at some point. Proctor impartiality be damned at this juncture.
The door behind her opened, snapping her out of her reverie. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf village walked up to the seat behind the desk opposite to her. His face was downtrodden and his posture stiff, no doubt from having to deal with the information that his previous student was in Konoha and messing up the exams.
Hiruzen sighed a very long sigh and placed a single document on the table. "… First of all, I'd like to thank you on behalf of all of Konoha for what you've done in alerting me about Orochimaru sneaking into the exams. Secondly… are you sure that you want to do this?"
"Yup." Anko stated in a bit of a chipper tone.
Hiruzen leveled a semi-serious glare at her. "I expect a serious answer. Taking on an apprentice is no small responsibility… I know about your past and that you've been reluctant to teach other students before, even going so far as to refuse promotion so you wouldn't be obligated to teach a team of genin. Did Orochimaru say something to you? And if so, I demand to know what it was."
Anko's face turned slightly more serious, but still had an air of triviality about it. "…For most of my life, I've been scared. Scared that I'd let my sensei down, then I was scared that I'd let other people down, now I'm scared that I'll let Naruto down. But I realized something when I talked to Orochimaru. That even though he screwed me up." She paused to subconsciously touch the curse mark directly on her neck. "That doesn't mean that I have to screw someone else up. That doesn't mean that I will screw someone else up."
"I do hope that this isn't a selfish desire to get back at Orochimaru." Hiruzen implied.
Anko waved him off. "It's not just that… I… I really think that Naruto and I are a lot alike. Something happened to both of us that was beyond our control, and because of that, the entire world decided to shit down our throats."
Hiruzen cringed a little from the disgusting image that popped up in his head. "That being said, I created team 7 on my own. I balanced them in the way that I thought would be best. If I allow you to remove Naruto from that, there will be an upset about it. I have to have complete confidence that your teaching of Naruto will not be detrimental to him."
Anko sat up a little straighter in the seat she was in. "You can count on me to teach Naruto in the most expedient and safest way possible. Trust me when I say that I will be the best sensei that he's ever had."
After careful consideration, the Third pushed the document to Anko so she could sign it. Apprenticeship was actually a fairly important thing in the shinobi world. Most would just create the bond orally, but for people who wanted to make sure that they had legal rights over their student, they usually went for a signed document. The document stated that Anko had limited control over his life. Things like his diet, or his training regimen. But if she was ever caught misusing this power, then she'd be thrown into jail.
This was put into place after a sensei decided that it was good training technique to hang a kid over a pond of piranhas and let him figure out how to escape from it. Needless to say, after that day, Konoha was down one genin and was quickly drafting new apprenticeship laws
The bond between apprentice and master was a very close one as well. Once she signed that document, she was almost required to be around him for most of the day, doing her best to impart what she could of her shinobi knowledge onto him. It's a bond that many consider closer than that of a child and parent, or a brother and sister, or even that of lovers. In fact, many apprenticeships end up in more than intimate relationships. Like Hayate and Yugao for example.
As soon as her signature fell on that piece of paper, she was taking the full legal responsibility and rights that a legal guardian would have.
"Remember Anko, he has to give you his express permission and desire to become your official apprentice. You can't influence his choice."
Anko Mitarashi completed signing the document with a grin on her face. "Don't worry about that Hokage-sama. I'm sure that he'll say yes."
He nodded at her. "Yes, I'm sure he will."
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"What the fuck is going on?" Kiba whispered to Naruto.
Naruto tilted his head back at Kiba. "No clue. Oi! Sasuke! Put the nerd down!"
Dark black flame patterns danced around Sasuke's body, or at least his visible skin. He didn't seem to either hear what Naruto was saying, or care at all. Once the purple flames petered out from the trunk, Sasuke had jumped down from it to the ground with his hands encircled around Kabuto's neck. Naruto didn't know when or how the silver haired nerd was able to get up there, seeing as he shouldn't be able to walk, but now wasn't necessarily the time to be questioning things.
"I-I-I'll pay you. T-There's a slug in my pouch. I-It's all-" Sasuke interrupted him by taking a firm grasp of the pouch on his hip and tearing it off to throw it to Naruto. Naruto caught it gingerly and laid it to the side. So Sasuke was aware that they were there and saying stuff to him, he just didn't care was all.
"What do we do now?" Kiba asked.
"I don't know."
Temari and Kankuro looked at the scene unfolding in front of them with dull eyes. "Fucking leaf nin." Kankuro whispered.
"Fucking leaf nin." Temari said in agreement.
Sasuke looked at the fellow leaf nin in front of him, cowering in fear as Sasuke held him by the neck and glared at him. Sakura groaned off to the side. There was blood streaming out of her ears and vomit covering the lower half of her face. Sasuke's eyes were momentarily diverted to the scene of pettiness and went straight back to Kabuto.
"Did you do that to her?" he whispered menacingly.
Kabuto stuttered out his response, which was incomprehensible from the fear plaguing him by the mere presence of Sasuke.
"I bet you're real proud of this brain of yours." Sasuke whispered. "Coming up with plans, hurting my teammates." Sasuke jerked his hands to the side. The sound of a rotten branch covered in a few layers of cloth breaking in two filled the air as Sasuke snapped the neck of Kabuto.
Sakura's eyes widened fear and surprise and disgust. "SASUKE!" Sakura scrambled up to her feet and tried her best to get to her teammate, who was now fast approaching the downed Dosu. Before he reached him, Sakura launched herself at Sasuke and grabbed a hold of his midsection.
"Sakura!" Naruto shouted out. Sasuke stopped in his tracks and looked at Sakura with disinterested eyes. She started bawling out apologies and speeches about how he wasn't acting like he normally would. It seemed to have an effect on him, as the flames on his body turned red and retreated inwards to form the curse seal exactly similar to that of Anko's. Sasuke fell forward unconscious as soon as the process was over. Naruto spawned a clone to check up on him, not wanting to be around if it happened again.
"That was intense." Kiba said.
Naruto nodded wordlessly. "Thanks for the save by the way. We'd have been screwed if you two didn't save us."
Kankuro pointed at Kiba. "It was all dogboy's idea. The only reason I helped out was because my sister was about to die horribly if I didn't intervene."
"Really Kiba? You didn't have to risk your life for us. Thanks a lot for doing it! I mean, you saved us. But still, you got put in danger."
Kiba looked at Naruto like he was an idiot. "Of course I helped you, you idiot! You saved Akamaru when I couldn't do anything. Helping you out with the fight wasn't even the reason why I decided to find you." Kiba opened his ninja pouch and took out three smaller pouches, one of which was squirming uncomfortably. "Look, man. I know that I can't do anything that could set us even for you saving Akamaru, but this is a start right?"
"Are those…?"
"Yup. A slug, a toad, and a snake. You'd be amazed how many people just drop their animals. It's a good thing that these things have a specific scent too."
"You got those on your own. We can't take these."
Kiba patted his bulging ninja pouch, which squirmed around some more. "Like I said, you'd be amazed at how many people just drop their animals. Plus, what am I going to do with 3 extra animals? Comrades helping comrades out is what comrades do." Kiba said firmly before pushing the 3 extra animals into Naruto's arms.
"Dude… thanks man."
"You two can finish your little bro time later." Kankuro interrupted. "Standing out in the open isn't helping our chances of survival."
Kiba nodded. "You should come with us. It'll help everyone's chances of not dying."
Naruto didn't look too sure. "I don't know. Teme is still out of it. He might need a medic or something."
"Does he have the three animals?"
"He has the snake and toad…" Naruto looked at the little pouch by his feet that used to belong to the now dead leaf nin. "And now he has the slug. The tower probably has better medical people than me, so I should get him there. But what about Sakura?"
"I can take care of her." Temari said. "She's just a little out of it from that sound guy's gauntlet thing."
Naruto nodded and spawned a few clones. One of them climbed the tree to the home base, while the other went and collected Sasuke. Soon, Naruto, Fu, Kankuro, and Kiba with Sasuke and the comatose kusa nin on the backs of Naruto clones were about to take off.
"Naruto." Sakura said. "Please, take care of him."
Naruto smiled brightly at her. "Don't worry about it Sakura-chan. I'm not going to let teme die. If he died, I wouldn't be able to kick his ass."
Sakura smiled half-heartedly and watched as the three departed.
"Oi! What about me?" Kurotsuchi shouted out from her position of being stuck to the tree trunk.
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About 4 days later.
After everything was said and done, there were 11 teams that made it. A total of one sixth the original amount. The teams consisted of Hinata and Neji, Shikamaru and Karui, Lee and Samui, Ino and Omoi, Tenten and Fujitsu, Gaara and Takkana, Temari and Sakura, Naruto and Fu, Sasuke and Unimportant, Kurotsuchi and Dosu, and Kiba and Kankuro.
The last ones to arrive were Kurotsuchi and Dosu, and Sakura and Temari. Sakura's lack of presence up until the last day really made Naruto worried, but it allowed for a more heartfelt reunion.
Well, it depends on whose definition of heartfelt is being used.
Dosu and Unimportant were still unconscious, so it was decided that Kurotsuchi and Sasuke would come together to make one team while the other two were being treated. Sasuke wasn't seen much though, Kakashi had taken him to treat the curse seal and he hadn't been seen since until recently.
Once they were sure that they were finally alone, Fu and Naruto had been able to talk a few days ago.
Night had finally set on the Forest of Death. Luckily for two Jinchuuriki, they were comfortable and cozy in a bunk bed. Teams were required to sleep in the same room with each other. Sometimes there was a queen size, two twins, or a bunk bed like what Naruto and Fu had.
"Pssst. Hey Fu."
No response.
"Pssst. You awake?"
"Yeah." She answered meekly.
"Why didn't you say you were a Jinchuuriki?"
Fu leaned over the top bunk where she was situated at and glared playfully at Naruto in the darkness. "Why didn't you say that you were a Jinchuuriki?" They both laughed. Not out of anything particularly funny, more out of a relief that they finally confirmed what they saw when fighting Orochimaru.
When they stopped laughing and fell silent, Fu asked. "Which one do you have?"
"Kyuubi. What about you?"
"Chomei."
"Chomei?"
"Chomei, the Nanabi."
"Wait, they have names?"
"Of course they have names. Haven't you talked to Kyuubi yet?"
"No. They can talk?"
"Of course they can talk. They're just like people, only… not."
"How do I talk to it?"
Fu was silent for a bit. "…Usually when you talk to them mentally, they talk back. But Chomei hasn't talked to me since we fought that really creepy Kusa nin."
"Yeah, my chakra control has been shot ever since we fought him too."
"You too? I can't form my water swords anymore. It sucks."
"That does sound like it sucks."
They both fell silent, not sure what they wanted to ask, not sure what they wanted to do now that they had the information that they were the same. That they were both Jinchuuriki.
Naruto thought back to the prior evening. He had checked his book in more detail, finding that it had a new status effect described in it.
Five elements seal:
Description: the five elements seal is a powerful fuinjutsu technique which can disrupt the chakra flow of people it is used on. When it is applied to a seal that has an even amount of matrixes, like the eight trigram for example, it either nullifies or 'pauses' the usage of the seal.
Rewards: You can no longer use the Kyuubi's chakra. -10 chakra control.
If Naruto were capable of betting anything, he'd bet that the five elements seal was the thing that Orochimaru used on him with those purple flamey fingers. Although he didn't remember anything after that other than Orochimaru starting a rather powerful wind technique.
He hadn't done anything with the base points either. He didn't know what to do with them. On one hand, he should probably use it to up his chakra control back to normal, but he didn't know if the seal was a timed thing or something, which would make the venture rather worthless. Or he could focus on strength. The reason he got hit in the gut by Zaku's shockwave thing was because he couldn't overpower him using the bo staff immediately. Or maybe he should put it towards speed. The reason why Kabuto and Dosu were able to get the drop on him was because he wasn't fast enough.
Difficult choices and all. He didn't even know what to do with the attribute points. The miscellaneous skills might mutate like the recipes did. But if he put points towards that, then he might be missing out on putting those points towards medical ninjutsu, or senbon, or bojutsu.
He decided to wait on the spending of the points.
There were also the quests to consider. He hadn't looked into the pamphlet for a while, because it hadn't had very many quests last time he checked. Now it was chock full of things.
Things like 'beat Lee in a fight before the exams are over', which got him a training spandex suit. Whatever that was. Or there was 'Get Kabuto's cards', which got him a boost in intelligence and an in-depth look into the next stage of the exam. He didn't even know who Kabuto was, much less how to get his cards. But the thing that garnered most of his attention was:
Quest: Take Fu on a date.
Rewards: Depends on the quality of the date.
So that meant that since he asked her out during the first exam, which he was only using as a way to get people talking, he could take her out on the date and get rewards for it. That begged the question of whether or not he got bonuses for asking other people out on dates.
"Hey Fu?" Naruto asked suddenly.
"Hm?"
"After we get out of here, what do you want to do for our date?"
Fu fell silent a little bit. "I was beginning to think that you only said that as a way to help us out during the first exam."
"I thought so too."
"…What?"
"Nothing. So where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. I've never been on a date before. What do people usually do?"
"Walk around a bit, see a movie or something, get dinner, then go home." Thank you Anko for seduction lessons. Looks like it's paying off in different ways than just that useless merit.
"…Okay. I think I'd like that." Fu said.
"Great." Naruto yawned widely, prompting Fu to do the same. "We should probably get some sleep." Naruto said quietly.
"Yeah." Fu agreed. Although sleep didn't come to her easily that night. She was more than a little excited at the idea of going on a date with Naruto and was up most of the dark hours thinking about it.
There had also been that situation with Kiba. Naruto still didn't believe that it went the way it did.
Kiba clapped Naruto on the back. "Looks like we made it." He, Kankuro, Naruto, and Fu were all waiting in the large, open space that held most of the personal inside. Apparently, further in there was a ping-pong table, a foosball table, a flat screen TV with gaming system, and a Dance Dance Revolution gaming set-up in a lounge area. Evidently, this tower was used often in the chunin exams and they didn't want to risk having shinobi getting bored and stir crazy.
Sasuke and the comatose Kusa nin had been lifted off of him to be seen by professional help.
Naruto's nose wrinkled inwards to itself. "Dude, I didn't want to mention it before, but you smell pretty terrible. Take a shower, yeah?"
"Well I have just been roughing it in the forest for a few days." Kiba said in deadpan.
"No, I mean that you smell just really, really bad."
"What do I smell like?" Kiba asked, worried now. "Did I step in shit or something?" the dog user started checking his sandals for any sign of scat.
"No, you smell like… balls, and sweat, and urine." Even with his newfound sensory greatness, Kiba's smell was so overpowering that he had to smell like that to everyone else in the room.
Fu stepped forward and tentatively sniffed the Inuzuka. "He doesn't smell that bad. Kind of like dog, but that's it."
Kiba looked at Naruto in confusion before his eyes narrowed imperceptivity. He brought Akamaru out his jacket and offered him to be smelled by Naruto. "What's Akamaru smell like?"
"Like… you, but mixed with blood."
Kiba put him back into his jacket and fished around his ninja pouch for a second. He presented a small spherical bundle wrapped in white cloth tied up in a knot at the top. "What's this smell like?"
It was a faint smell, one that Naruto had a tough time figuring out. "Like… purple."
"Purple?"
"Eh, you know… that flower. It's purple and helps you go to sleep."
Kiba half-frowned. "Lavender."
"That's the one! Why is this so important anyway?"
"Because only members of the Inuzuka clan should be able to smell the lavender. Everyone else doesn't smell anything." Fu leaned over and took a sniff as well, then looked at Naruto and shrugged.
Oh no. Naruto's cover might be blown. "E-Eh, what are you talking about Kiba?"
Kiba started stroking his non-existent beard thoughtfully. "…Your last name is Uzumaki, right?"
"Yeah."
"But you're an orphan?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know who your parents were?"
"No."
"Then… there's a chance that you could be an Inuzuka. But all Inuzuka excrete a scent called musk from about the age of 8, which is what you smell on me. So… I don't know. I'll have to talk to my mom about this."
"Your mom?"
"She's the Inuzuka matriarch. She'll know what to do."
"Eh… what happens if I am an Inuzuka?"
"You might get accepted into the clan, or you just might get the honorary clan status, or nothing at all could happen. I guess there's a chance that your chakra just mutated that way."
"Mutated? Chakra mutates?"
"They talked about it in the academy. Weren't you listening?"
"You were?"
Kiba sighed into his palm. "It sounded interesting. Anyway, big picture is that humans get something wrong every once and a while when making other humans. You know, things like birth defects."
"Yeah."
"Well things go right just as often as they go wrong. You know, like a kid getting better muscle retention than his parents had the genes for."
"What?"
"Just keep listening for a second. The thing is, every so often, the things that make us, us, goes wrong and something different happens. Chakra is something that's highly mutable."
"So… I can smell things like this just because… of luck?" If that's true, then that's a good excuse for suddenly awakening the sharingan.
"Well, yeah, but this isn't something that you can suddenly just 'awaken'. Have you always smelled things this way?"
"N-Yeah. Yeah, always." Naruto said quickly.
Kiba seemed to buy his response. "My mom's probably going to get a doctor to look at you or something. I really don't know what I'm talking about here. Just the surface level stuff."
"So what do I do now?"
"Whatever you would do while I try and get in contact with my family. Just try not to die. You could be important."
Naruto Saluted. "Righto."
Kiba mock saluted and walked off in the direction of a few jonin, no doubt trying to get some form of communication.
"You're an Inuzuka?" Fu asked.
"I guess."
"Fucking leaf nin." Kankuro said under his breath.
"Everyone, please file into the common area in the tower." A detached, rather sickly sounding voice said from some speakers in the room that he and Fu were trying to get some sleep in.
Naruto jolted upwards at the sudden announcement, while Fu began grumbling in her sleep. "Fwah?" she asked incomprehensibly.
"People want us to go to the common area in the tower." Naruto mumbled. Fu groaned and fell out of bed onto the floor. It was a good thing she had the reflexes of a ninja and was able to orient herself, else she might have brained herself on the nearby drawer.
"I dun' wanna." She said.
Naruto flipped the covers off himself. "We have to." He was wearing a pair of toad pajamas that they had 'imported' from his house. Fu was wearing her normal shinobi garb sans the pointy bits. Apparently it was rather comfortable and resilient to getting dirty unlike most other pieces of apparel.
Naruto began walking to the door, but was nearly floored when Fu landed on his back. "I dun' wanna go." She mumbled again.
Naruto sighed and grabbed a hold of her legs, carrying her in piggyback style. "Fine, fine." He grumbled.
"Everyone, please file into the common area in the tower." The detached voice said once more.
"I got it, I got it." Naruto mumbled before yawning widely. Other doors to the rooms were starting to get opened as well. All 10 teams began walking to the place specified by the speakers. Everyone looked disgruntled at their rude awakening. The most humorous one had to be that of Karui dragging Shikamaru by the legs while he continued to snooze along the way.
In the common area, there were seven people waiting for them and a few more in the balconies above. Behind the seven was a very large statue making a handseal with its golden hands.
The hokage was there, along with a completely ripped guy that Naruto remembered seeing at a sushi restaurant, an old man that Naruto remembered helping out in the middle of the street, a kid who had a large bo staff-looking thing on his back and a scar running down his left eye, a rather plain looking man with dusty red hair, a sickly fellow who was probably the one who had talked into the intercom, and a slightly timid looking boy who had the forehead protector of Taki on it.
"Hey gramps." Naruto greeted. "How's the back *pause for yawn* treating you?"
Hiruzen looked between Naruto and Onoki. "You two know each other?"
Onoki grumbled his annoyances out.
"Is everyone here?" the sickly man asked. When nobody raised their hand to say no, he continued. "You may or may not know this, but the chunin exams this year are a little bit different than most. You have all been paired up with someone probably from a different village, or just someone that you don't know well. It's usually customary to have the exams be done in the strict 3 man team. This time is different. Does anyone know why?"
Someone in the crown coughed.
"Usually the exams are a deterrent for war." he continued on. "This is done by showcasing our best and brightest to all the nobles in the land to see. This helps the respective villages with job opportunities that the nobles would like to be enacted in the future. However, while the third exam is always the same with a round-robin type tournament, we're swapping things up. There will be a tournament, but you will be fighting it in the pairs that you're in right now."
Shikamaru had finally waken up at that point and decided to ask a question. "For what purpose? If the exams are a deterrent for war, then why are you changing it?"
"Good question from the troublesome Nara. This exam isn't a deterrent for war, it's an experiment for peace."
"Peace?" Shikamaru asked.
"If you all manage to get along and not kill your respective partners; that could be a sign that cooperation between the villages could be potentially possible. In front of you are the kage from all your respective nations, along with Shibuki of Taki. These 6 will all be watching your fights next month in the tournament style performance usual for the third exams."
Kurotsuchi pointed at Yagura. "What's he doing here? No mist ninja made it through."
"We're not being exclusionary. Now, since 10 teams made it through, this next part should be pretty even. You will all draw from a hat. In the hat there are 10 slips of paper that have a different symbol on it. If the symbol is fire, you stand next to Hokage-same. If the symbol is lightning, you stand by Raikage-sama and so on. You will all take a month long training excursion in the villages of the kage that you're standing next to. Any questions?"
"What do the tournament brackets look like?" Shikamaru asked.
"Those will be decided day of. Also note that Shibuki-sama isn't going to be accepting any ninjas for the training excursion. He's only here for symbolic reasons."
Shibuki raised a hand and feebly waved at the tired genin.
"Any more questions?" Hayate asked. When no more hands were raised, Hayate took off his bandana, grabbed a few pieces of crumpled up paper from his kunai pouch, and sprinkled them in. "Teams, form a line and pick from the bandana."
Too tired to make a fuss about it, they all walked uniformly towards the sickly man and grabbed a piece of paper.
Fire:
Naruto and Fu, Shikamaru and Karui
Wind:
Tenten and Fujitsu, Ino and Omoi
Lightning:
Gaara and Takkana, Temari and Sakura
Stone:
Sasuke and Kurotsuchi, Neji and Hinata
Water:
Kiba and Kankuro, Lee and Samui
"You can all go home or to your hotels for now. You leave in two days' time. Make sure you make the most of it."
"Hear that Fu?" Naruto asked her, still on his back. "We're going to be training together for a month."
She didn't respond at all to him. Naruto looked over his shoulder to see her properly asleep and drooling on his shoulder.
00000000
Orochimaru looked at Kabuto with interested eyes. "Oh? Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but I already have this information."
Kabuto looked surprised. "How did you know that there were three Jinchuuriki in the exam?"
"Becau- Three?"
"Yes, Naruto Uzumaki, Sabaku no Gaara, and Fu of Taki."
"So that Gaara child is a Jinchuuriki as well… that just makes my plan all the more interesting now doesn't it?"
Kabuto rubbed his neck painfully. "Yes sir." Although his body could regenerate on its own so long as he had the chakra to support it, it still hurt like a motherfucker getting your neck snapped.
"Kukuku. This just got a whole lot more interesting."
AN/ How's it going folks? Wanna hear a funny story?
A clown walks into a bar and sits down next to a certain gentleman. The gentleman looks sad and the clown asks why. The gentleman responds with "I just recovered the wrong file with Word. Now five thousand words of progress of my new chapter are lost." The clown thinks for a bit before responding with "Sucks to be you."
Indeed it does suck for me.
Read and Review. Naruto crashes a party, Anko wants Naruto for an apprentice, Sasuke goes wild, the important people all make it to the tower, Naruto and Fu and have an enlightening conversation, Naruto and Kiba talk about genes and chakra, and the system for the third exam is explained.
Any of those things need commenting on? Well the review box is right below you to take advantage of.
Have a gentlemanly day