Chapter 11: Friends or foes?

Naruko and her team had been in the forest for a day and had gotten their matching heaven scroll. The two scrolls were sealed away into a storage seal on Narukos arm but fake ones were kept in their packs along with some extras that they got from teams who attacked them. They were now heading for the tower in the center but stopped short when they felt dark chakra not far from them. They decided that since the clearing had many chakra of their friends that they should check it out.

"lets speed up so we can make it in time if our friends are in danger" Naruko told her two team-mates who nodded and they went double speed.


-in the clearing-

Kiba cursed his luck, most of team 8 who had come to help them were unconscious with team 9 defending them from Oto nin and one ninja from grass, the grass nin had bitten Sasuke earlier. His Team were all up and helping team 9, everyone except for Sasuke who was the center of the dark chakra with weird marks on his skin. He was holding a sound nin by his arms and was slowly pulling them until they dislocated. Everyone looked in shock as he then turned to his allies and started forming the hand-seals for a katon jutsu. With how tired they were they wouldn't be able to escape it easily.

"show them your power Sasuke-kun." the grass nin said sadistically and the two other sound nin looked at him in shock. The moment Sasuke blew the fire-ball at kiba and the others they closed their eyes. Accepting their fate...that never came, just a loud Doton:Mudwall! Came from a voice that sounded pretty familiar.

"Fuuton: air ball!" came from Naruko who sent the fire-ball back at sasuke and the enemies who had to dodge.

Kiba and his friends opened their eyes to see Shikamaru standing in front of them with Chouji while Naruko and Sasuke battled it out with Jutsu.

"Fuuton: blade whirlwind" Naruko said hiding her hand-seals from the uchiha who had his sharingan activated. A small tornado flew towards the uchiha who was too slow to dodge and got sucked into the middle of it and he screamed as he was cut up, not fatally but enough to render him unconscious and immobilized.

Naruko then turned to the enemy sound and grass nin and growled out "Orochimaru, take your stupid mask off. Its not fooling me."

"well well well, you sure have grown Naruko. To be able to see through me like this." Orochimaru said as he ripped his fake-face off.

"Only you would give the uchiha the cursed mark. You sure are foolish to appear here like this. It will be the last of you." Naruko said as her eyes turned from blue to red with slits.

"looks like you and kyuubi have an understanding. I have what I came for so I think I'll just leave before this becomes too dangerous for me." Orochimaru said smirking but his smirk was punched off by Naruko who suddenly appeared in front of him and he flew through a few trees with the golden haired girl following. She punched him back into the clearing and shikamaru made a mud wall again which Orochimaru landed on. Orochimaru then growled and kusanagi came out which he used to keep Naruko at bay. He managed to cut her a few times before he summoned two large snakes. The traitor sannin decided to vanish and made some hand-seals and vanished into the ground before Naruko could punch him again.

Naruko was now faced by two snakes who immediately lunged to eat her alive but she punched them before jumping up and using her knuckle blades cut ones head off. She relaxed too quickly and the second snake used that moment to swallow her whole

"NARUKO!" Shikamaru and Chouji yelled while the others gasped.


-inside the snake-

'man this is disgusting.' Naruko thought as the snake tried to swallow her further. She was covered in slime. She used one of her knuckle blades to hold still while she planted some explosive tags before letting the snake swallow her a little further and made the seal making the explosive notes go off.


-outside of the snake-

the snake was now turning its attention to the other genin who were still shocked at seeing their friend swallowed. As he dived to strike again he suddenly stopped and his neck blew up, the head fell to the ground along with the body. Naruko climbed out of the body coughing and when she was on the ground she threw up. Narukos eyes went back to blue and she glared up at the remaining sound nin who froze.

"Let us go and we will give you our scroll. Its a heaven scroll im sure you or your friends can use it." Dosu said fearing for his and his team-mates lifes. Naruko just nodded and they put their scroll on the ground before leaving.

"Naruko. Are you alright?" Shikamaru said as he walked a little closer to the blond before stopping dead in his tracks when he smelled her. It was a disgusting smell.

"Yea I'm fine. Considering I just got swallowed ALIVE by a GIANT SNAKE and smell like I just walked in shit for weeks!" Naruko said barely holding the rest of her stomach's contents from coming out.

"There is a hot spring not far from the cave. You can wash up there." Kiba said holding his nose with the others. Naruko nodded and walked in the direction that Kiba pointed to.

She walked into the clearing where the hot spring was, it was inside a small cave so they were safe from prying eyes, there was a small waterfall falling into the hot spring, all in all it was a pretty relaxing place for such a dangerous forest. She took off her clothes washing them first before hanging them up for drying on a tree nearby. She then unsealed her shampoo and soap which she had always with her for moments like these. As she got into the water she heard someone coming but she relaxed when she recognized the footsteps. She started putting shampoo into her hair as Tenten walked into the clearing where the hot spring was.

Tenten walked slowly to the other girl and started rubbing the shampoo into her hair silently. Naruko froze for a moment before grabbing her soap and started cleaning herself accepting that the older girl wouldn't budge. The two just worked in silence until Narukos hair was thoroughly lathered with shapmpoo and then Naruko swam underneath the waterfall letting it work as a shower head and rinsed the dirt and grime off her along with the shampoo and soap.

Tenten watched the girl mesmerized. She had figured her feelings out,even if she had never expected it, then she wasn't surprised that she had a crush on the younger girl. She did not know if the girl felt the same and she wouldn't push her luck for awhile. She knew the girl enough to know that she was paranoid, and someone like Tenten coming to her and telling her that she liked her would just cause a rift between them and Tenten liked their friendship. She had almost yelled with Shikamaru and Chouji when the girl was swallowed but she had kept her cool since she did not need anyone suspecting her feelings for the girl, it would only be a weapon in others hands.

Naruko finished washing off before relaxing under the hot water. She was tired, they had fought tooth and nail to survive to this point. She knew that if they left for the tower together it would be safety in numbers. She decided to ask the others if they wanted to do that since they probably had their matching scrolls. The uchiha would refuse but she knew that the cursed seal would activate on him at a moments notice so she knew that he wouldn't be continuing without trouble.

She sighed and stepped out of the waterfalls stream before getting out of the hot spring. She looked at the older girl who was still there and saw her blush and look away. Naruko blinked at that before using a mini katon jutsu to dry off that Asuma had taught them and used it on her clothes too before getting dressed. Her clothes were now clean and she didn't smell anymore. She started walking back to the others and Tenten followed her.

When they got back the Uchiha had awakened and was tied up since they did not trust that the cursed seal wasn't affecting him making him attack them again. Naruko walked up to the fire which they had made while she was away and sat down with her two team-mates who patted her shoulder, silenlty asking if she was ok and when she nodded they went back to cooking.

"We are thinking that there will be more safety in numbers Naruko. If we are all together we will not be attacked. " Shikamaru told his female team-mate who nodded.

"have they got their scrolls?" Naruko asked silently.

"Not team 8 and 9. but we have the extras and they need earth and heaven, team 7 needs both due to Orochimaru swallowing theirs. We have all of the scrolls they need." Shikamaru said and Naruko unsealed all of the scrolls but took theirs and sealed them again before handing Shikamaru the extras which he took and handed out to the teams.

They ate and then those who weren't exhausted took first watch. Shikamaru and Chouji told the others that Naruko was not to be woken unless there was trouble and took watch instead of her when it was time for their team to keep watch. The uchiha complained the whole time that he was tied up but slept when he grew tired.

When morning came they let Naruko sleep in while they got food, water and supplies for their trip to the tower. They had 3 more days so they weren't worried but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared for a few days.

When food was ready they sent Tenten to wake her up and told her to be gentle, Naruko was not a morning person. Tenten chuckled making them wonder but she already knew she hated mornings, after all they had cuddled last month instead of sparring.

Naruko woke up to someone stroking her hair and calling her name. It was comfortable so she leaned into the hand that was stroking her hair and yawned, before sitting up and opening her eyes slowly and rubbing them. Tenten smiled at how adorable the golden blond haired girl looked when waking up. She stood up and walked to the opening of the cave but the blond slept in the darkest corner of it.

"food is ready Naruko" Tenten said before walking out.

Naruko stood up and brushed through her hair with her fingers before putting it into a high- ponytail and straightening her clothes out and grabbing her stuff before walking out into the clearing and sat down next to her team-mates who handed her a bowl full of soup and one full of rice. They ate in silence and they untied the uchiha before they started talking strategy and decided to head straight for the tower without delay. The uchiha would be in the middle so that if he tried something they could dispose of him immediately and without much energy being wasted.

They got their stuff together and headed out.


-timeskip to the tower. Evening of same day.-

They arrived at the tower without incident and each went through a different door promising to meet up inside if they could. Naruko and her team went into their room and after figuring out that they were supposed to open the scrolls they did. In front of them appeared Asuma who congratulated them on making it to the tower in one piece before showing them to their room, Which was like an apartment. It had 3 bedrooms and one bathroom with a kitchen. The cupboards and refrigerator were full of food, enough for a few days.

Asuma ruffled his students hair before letting them get some rest after handing each of them a scroll with some of their stuff which he had collected from their homes expecting them to arrive with a few days to spare. The three genin were relieved and they took their turns taking a shower before changing into clean sets of clothes which they found in the scrolls which Asuma had given them before eating and then sat down at the table just playing cards and enjoying each others company.

There was a knock on their door and Shikamaru went to answer and saw it was Kiba with team 8 and 9. He let them in and they sat down with them joining them in playing cards. Sakura and the Uchiha had decided to rest. Naruko stood up at that and left to let someone in charge know of what happened in the forest.

She found Anko along with Kurenai and the other jounin who all looked at her.

"Orochimaru attacked Team 7 in the forest and gave Uchiha the cursed mark." Naruko said without explaining why she was there.

"What did you say?" anko yelled and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and slammed her into the wall.

"You heard right. Me and my team felt the Uchihas dark chakra and went to investigate. We fought him and forced him to retreat, the Uchiha tried to attack team 8 and 9 who were there helping them so we knocked him out before tying him up." Naruko told them the whole story after that and the jounin nodded. Kakashi left to seal the cursed seal up since they couldn't have it going haywire in the exams.

Naruko went back to their room after that and since it was late the other genin were gone so they went to sleep. They spent the next few days regaining their strength and they knew how the last part of the chuunin exams would be, it would be 1 on 1 from now on. Which meant that they would probably land in fighting against each other. They promised each other that if it came to that then they wouldn't use anything that would kill them, just show their strength and that they had what it takes to be chuunin.

The day that the second exam ended came and they sealed their stuff back up before putting it into a pocket on their vests and headed into the main room. Where everyone were assembling in front of jounin from all the villages and the hokage. They joined the group and saw that there were exactly 39 people there or 13 teams. Anko had stood by her word and cut the number by half. Most of the teams were from Konoha but the team from sound was there along with the Suna team and some other teams.

The hokage started talking about why the chuunin exams were and stuff before being interrupted by Hayate who then told them that due to their numbers they would have to hold a preliminary round right now. He then asked if anyone wanted to quit making a few people raise their hands and leave. Including Kabuto.

There would be fighting one on one. And a huge screen would tell them randomly who they would face. (an: im going to be lazy and not type out the fights. They are just like in cannon. x.x I don't feel like typing them up sorry. I will write the finals up though.) the fight went like this.

Sasuke VS Akado Yoroi.= Sasuke wins

Shino VS Zaku Abumi = shino wins

Kankuro VS Tsurugu Misumi.= Kankuro Wins

Sakura VS Ino. = draw.

Temari VS TenTen = Temari wins.

Shikamaru VS Kin Tsuchi = Shikamaru wins.

Naruko VS Kiba = Naruko wins.

Neji VS Hinata = Neji wins and tries to kill Hinata like in cannon. Naruko does swear to seek revenge like Naruto in cannon.

Gaara VS Lee = Gaara wins.

Dosu Kinuta = Chouji = Dosu wins.


When the preliminaries were over they drew a number, the list went like this

Round 1: Naruko VS Neji.

Round 2: Shikamaru VS Temari.

Round 3: Shino VS Kankuro.

Round 4: Sasuke VS Gaara.

Round 5: Dosu VS Winner from round 4.

The Hokage told them that they had a month to prepare for the final exams and then everyone left.


-the next day on training ground 10-

Naruko walked onto their training ground after getting a summon from Asuma who said that he had a teacher for her for the next month while him and Shikaku trained Shikamaru.

"there you are Naruko. I have someone I would like you to meet." Asuma said when he saw his student coming, he was sitting on a log beside Shikaku and some weird guy who looked like a pervert and had white spiky hair and the headband for oil on his forehead. Shikamaru was being forced to run for his life away from Chouji and Chouza who were using the rolling meat tank.

"This here is Jiraya of the sannin and writer of the Icha icha books. He trained the Yondaime hokage and since he came back he has been asking about you so I decided to check if he wanted to train you for the finals. Which he agreed to do. He can teach you more than I, you are already stronger than your team-mates Naruko, which is why I decided to help Shikamaru this month." Asuma said gesturing to the pervy old man and Naruko twitched when she heard he wrote the Icha Icha. She did not dislike the books exactly, if something she was a fan not that any women needed to know that she had this side to her.

Kurenai had nearly found a way to castrate her when she had found out. Which was rather much harder to do than if Naruko had been a boy. Naruko nodded to what her sensei said and looked at Jiraya who then made her follow him to a lake not far from the hot-springs.

"You know water-walking already don't you?" Jiraya asked when they arrived and seeing her nod continued "good, I am going to teach you how to summon and give you the toad summoning contract. I understand that you can easily access the Kyuubis chakra right?"

Naruko nodded again and Jiraya gave her a huge scroll which she signed beside her fathers signature in blood and jiraya then told her to summon the toad boss with the kyuubis chakra. To which Naruko refused to do.

"Why?" Jiraya asked.

"Because I don't want to rely on furball."

"There will come a day when you NEED the kyuubi Naruko."

"not if I grow strong enough to fend for myself."

"Just do it and trust me. I am your godfather after all."

"You are WHAT?"

"fuck. Busted."

Naruko and him fought for about an hour about where he had been her whole life before he managed to calm her down and gave her the tales of a gutsy ninja which had been his first book and wasn't pornography. He then decided since Naruko still refused to use the kyuubis chakra to trick her into it.

"Naruko, empty all of your chakra. I won't force you to use the kyuubi but then I can at least help you in other ways."

Naruko blinked but complied and after she had emptied her chakra reserves Jiraya asked her what she would want to do if it was her last day. The answer was simple: eat ramen and prank the uchiha badly.

Jiraya took her to ichiraku ramen and paid for 50 bowls of ramen. He used the time to study his goddaughter. She had the hair from her father along with the nose shape and the shape of her jaw. Her eyes were her mothers except for the sky blue which was from Minato, the shape of her head was from her mother,. She was short but he guessed that was thanks to her starving when she was young, he promised himself that he would make sure that she wouldn't be lacking in any nutrients and would grow taller and stronger. Both of her parents had been good in height so she was supposed to be taller even at her age. All in all she was beautiful, her body was athletic and strong. Jiraya couldn't be more proud of how she had turned out even though she had trouble.

They then left to prank the uchiha, naruko put pink hair dye into his shampoo and since he was currently sleeping took all of his clothes and exchanged them with pink spandex which said I love Sakura. Jiraya loved her sense of pranking, being an old prankster king himself and they planted hidden cameras into his house and around the village so they would be able to look at it later.

Jiraya then threw her over the edge of a canyon. Naruko was a little shocked and pissed but knew what he was doing. She sighed and drew the kyuubis chakra and used the summoning jutsu to summon Gamabunta. He demanded to know who she was and where Jiraya was so she used chakra to stick to his head as he jumped out of the hole landing next to Jiraya. Barely escaping squishing him much to Narukos annoyance.

"So you are Minatos gaki eh" Gamabunta said after Jiraya explained to him who she was and how she got the summoning contract from him. "That does not mean you don't have to drink sake with me kid when we have more time." he added before vanishing in a puff.

It was late so Jiraya decided that they would meet the next day to do some more training. He had imagined that gamabunta would have tested her but instead of that he was faced by a pissed off naruko and a nutshot which left him on the ground whimpering.

Naruko decided to go to the hot springs to take the tension out of her since she still felt like she was falling. She wasn't the only one who had the idea as she saw Tenten, Sakura, Ino, Hinata and Kurenai with Anko going into the hot springs before her. She joined them soon after.

"Ah Naruko, how you been? I'm guessing your being trained to the ground by Asuma since hes training you and Shikamaru both for the finals?" Kurenai asked her old student but was surprised when Naruko shook her head no.

"Asuma decided that since I'm strongest of my team and since I could be facing Shikamaru in the finals then I would be trained by someone else for the next month. He got Jiraya of the Sannin to teach me." Naruko explained making everyones eyes grow large.

"So, Jiraya-sama is teaching you?" Tenten asked her whiskered friend.

"Yep." Naruko replied and was soon bombed by questions from all of the women about what he was teaching her and stuff. She refused to answer anything about her training since she wanted to keep her strength to herself.

She spent 1 hour in the hot spring before heading home.

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An: Yes yes I know I said that the forest would be like canon but common. I had to squeeze in a meeting between orochimaru and Naruko. And shes not on team 7 and she hadn't been eaten by a snake yet. Common whats a writer to do if he wants those things to have happened?