Chapter 11, as team eleven enter the Chunin exams how will they fair? Read on dudes! And thank's for the Review!
It had been two weeks since team eleven had heard about their entry into this year's Chunin exams, and they had wasted no time in training. They planned to be at the top of their game for the exams, and nothing would get in their way, not even the teams that had confronted them. While they seemed strong, team eleven planned to be stronger and refused to take breaks. They had been studying ways to improve themselves, and it seemed to be working. Tokiro, with encouragement from Okami and his friends had made an extreme step for Hyuga, and decided to find out what his chakra affinity was.
He finally realised that Taijutsu just wasn't enough anymore after his utter beat-down from the S-Rank known as Kakuzu, and now needed to broaden his tools as a shinobi. When Okami had given him the chakra paper, they were all shocked to see it cut in half, showing that he had a wind affinity, like Naruto.
Shinsuke had improved in two ways; first of all he had begun to utilize all of his clan's techniques, including turning his body into pure water to avoid damage, which didn't take him much time to learn when Okami was throwing hundreds of kunai towards the poor boy. The other way he had improved was practicing chakra control in a similar way to the second Hokage, by pulling water from the moisture in the air around him, which had taken a little time but due to his unnatural connection to the water affinity he was improving fast and could perform up to five jutsu in this way before losing concentration.
Naruto was a different case, he had begun to master new forms of fighting, such as Taijutsu using the Uchiha's interceptor fist. He also attempted to do something that shocked Okami to the core. A Jutsu he had never even seen before was almost mastered via theory alone, as the boy began to rotate chakra in a compressed ball that he held in his hand. When he asked Naruto what he was doing, he said he got the idea from watching Tokiro use the Rotation so many times. He thought it was potentially a new technique, but Okami knew otherwise.
He had gone to the third Hokage and requested everything on the fourth's original technique, the Rasengan. All he got in return was a small scroll with basic instructions labelled 'Rotation', 'Power', and 'Containment' before giving it to Naruto to work on. He almost had a heart attack when Naruto made no less than two hundred clones and ordered all of them to work on it; needless to say he was now at the level of mastering it, knowing he would have it in time for the Chunin exams.
Okami had informed them that Kakashi was taking the training seriously for his team and that they had a new member who was helping to improve their team. He had also informed them that the other successful teams of Genin that they had known from the academy were going to be there too. They had heard about Team nine, a team from the year before them, and that they were going to be competing this year, Tokiro knowing one of the members as Neji Hyuga, mentioning that he was strong and smart and could be a threat.
All in all they seemed ready for the exams, and agreed that they would be taking it seriously in hopes of moving up a rank and impressing their sensei. So now they stood before the academy, the location of the first stage of the exams. Naruto looked at them seriously before they all nodded in unison. As they walked into the large building the noticed a commotion just ahead of them.
Some Genin dressed in a hideous green latex suit was getting beaten by two older teens dressed in grey suits, making them seem as though they were members of the staff that would be keeping watch over the Genin. Tokiro nudged both of his teammates with his byakugan active as he looked up at the sign that had the floor number.
"There is a Genjutsu over the room number, I think this is a test to see who will notice, and those who don't are incapable of passing and will likely miss the exam times." He whispered to both of his friends as they began to sneak around the large group. A male Hyuga in his teens, maybe a year older than them watching as they walked by, making eye contact with Tokiro before turning back again.
"We should hurry to our examination room; I want to see who we'll be up against." Naruto said as they walked together at a somewhat fast pace. The three boys could feel something similar to killing intent from a room up ahead of them, putting them on guard as they walked in to through the doors, only to be met with a huge amount of glares.
"Well isn't this welcoming?" Shinsuke said jokingly as they walked to a corner, a lot of the glares following them while some chose to turn their gaze back towards the door. Looking around the room they noticed a few familiar faces, some from members of the academy, and others from the confrontation they had on the day they found out about the exams. Gaara was glaring especially hard towards Naruto, who in turn glared back.
"We should try to keep a low profile; we don't want everyone targeting us after all, only an idiot would make a scene." Naruto said, and just as he finished his sentence he heard a huge squeal from near the doors.
"Sasuke! Did you miss me?!" A certain blonde fan girl from the academy days called out as she draped herself across the back of the brooding Uchiha, annoying him further as he attempted to shrug her off. The entire room turned their attention onto the rookies from the leaf village as the scene unfolded. Two familiar noises signified that the annoying blonde's comrades were there too, one was a loud yawn and the other was the sound of teeth tearing through potato chips.
"So you guys are here too? It has been a while since we were all in the same place." A scruffy brunette boy remarked as he too walked over with his puppy on his head sleeping. He was followed by what appeared to be a shy Hyuga and a boy dressed in a large coat and wearing sunglasses.
From the distance team eleven couldn't help but face-palm at the sight. "They are going to get themselves killed." Tokiro said as he wondered how someone could be so idiotic in such an environment. However they watched with interest as a silver haired boy in glasses approached their former classmates. "I don't trust him." Tokiro said as he watched the boy.
Naruto nodded as he activated his Sharingan which was hidden by his hair slightly. "His attitude alone indicates that he knows what he is doing." Naruto said slowly as he decided to watch the male's lips with his Sharingan, allowing him to follow the conversation. The strange man pulled out a deck of cards and began to talk about them.
Apparently they were 'magic' and allowed him to conjure information about any shinobi in the exams. "He is tricking them with a simple pretend magic trick, pathetic. He somehow has information about the Genin here, and has stored them in cards."
He then followed on with. "You were right not to trust him. Oh and he just insulted the sound village Genin here. Probably some kind of ploy however. We need to watch him, he definitely isn't from this village." As he finished saying that the watched as three shinobi shot out of the crowd and attacked the suspicious 'Genin' with quick speed.
What was strange was that when he had actually dodged an attack from a bandage wearing boy, something seemed to stop him in his movements. His glasses then cracked as he hunched over to puke. "Chakra was channelled through that boy's punching arm, affecting the ears. Interesting." Tokiro added as he watched on with his Doujutsu.
Suddenly a huge burst of smoke filled the room. "Did I give the order to fight, Maggots?" A deep, serious voice rang out making everyone freeze up instantly. As the smoke cleared it revealed a large number of Chunin, and a tall heavily scarred man in front of him. "I am Ibiki, and right now I control your fate. Act again without my say so and you will be the next victim in the torture room, understood? Good. You have all been assigned a seat, take it and the exam will begin. But first I want to lay out a few rules. If you choose to leave now, your whole team leaves. If you are caught cheating, you will be disqualified instantly, along with your teammates. And finally I hate questions, so if you have any I don't advise voicing them."
After a few seconds of listening to the overly intimidating man before them the Genin quickly rushed to their assigned seats and awaited the signal to start. "You have one hour to finish the nine questions before you, and after that you will be asked the tenth question. Oh and one other thing, this will be judged upon a team score total, so let's hope nobody here lets their team down. You may begin...NOW!" The Genin began to sweat nervously at the man's words, some giving in to the fear and exiting the rooms, along with disappointed comrades.
Everyone immediately looked to their papers and came to the shock of seeing questions that no regular Genin could figure out. However some were capable of answering them easily, such as Naruto, Tokiro and Shikamaru Nara, but most began to panic. Shinsuke struggled to relax as he stared nervously at his paper, not understanding the questions at all.
Unlike his teammates, Shinsuke wasn't considered a genius via knowledge, meaning this was extremely challenging for him, and he was scared that he would actually fail and disappoint his only two friends. Looking around he noticed something that shocked him. Sasuke Uchiha had his Sharingan active while watching someone ahead of him and Neji Hyuga was watching through people with his byakugan. They were cheating.
'If you get caught cheating, you will be disqualified...' He played the words back in his head a few times, wondering why people were still doing it, despite the danger of failing the exam, then all of a sudden it hit him. 'If you get CAUGHT cheating. All I have to do is not get caught cheating and then I can potentially pass this. But how...? I got it!' He spoke to himself in his head as he had an idea. Putting a hand over his desk, he lowered his hand to the ground beside's him while also closing an eye.
Water began to drip from him as he moved it across the floor towards where he knew Naruto was sitting. Naruto felt something wet crawl up his leg and instantly knew what it was that was happening. He allowed the water to go up his face while hiding in his hair line as an eye formed just out of sight from everyone. Shinsuke smirked slightly as he began to write down the answers at a fast pace. 'Thank you Naruto.'
As time went on more and more people left the room causing Ibiki to smirk triumphantly, and simultaneously causing the remaining Genin to rethink their actions. Time seemed to pass by slowly for most of the Genin, but for a few it wasn't a problem for them having overcome their fear.
"Time's up Maggots! Pencils down." Ibiki suddenly ordered, causing the Genin to instantly do as he ordered through fear of the man, or for few maybe it was respect for a superior, or even just to shut him up. "It is time for questions ten, but first I should warn you about something. If you choose to take the question and you get it wrong, you may never take the exams again and once more if you ask a question there will be consequences. So if you cannot handle the pressure then get out now, and perhaps you will be ready next time." Instantly a large number of teams left the room. If they failed then it would screw them over for life, not many wished to take such a chance.
"Is that it? Nobody else want to hopefully save their careers?" Ibiki said menacingly, with a sadistic grin on his face as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Everyone looked nervous at first, but seemed to steady themselves showing the man that their decisions were final. "Damn, I expected more, too bad. The rest of you pass. Good luck with the second stage." Almost all of the Genin present were shocked so much that they had to pick their jaws up from their desks.
"Question ten was me questioning your resolve. The life of a Chunin is tough, and filled with danger. Sometimes you will have to try and gain information without getting noticed, it could mean life or death." As he was talking he removed his bandana to reveal his head which was heavily scarred, making a lot of the Genin look away, some even puked at the sight.
As he began to place it back onto his head, something suddenly crashed through the classroom window. Many of the Genin jumped out of their seats in shock and confusion, while Ibiki just growled under his breath. The small object seemed to explode outwards as a kunai pinned what appeared to be the corners of a banner to each side of the room and the ceiling.
Many of the boys began to smile in a disgusting way, while practically all the girls began to glare. The banner read 'The Single And Sexy Anko Mitarashi' and the woman before it was dressed in extremely revealing clothing. "I am the instructor of Stage two of the exams, follow me! Wait... Ibiki, you left a lot of them, you're getting old." She said as she scanned the room.
While she said that the scarred man walked out from behind the large banner. "You're early Anko, again. And to answer your question, they are just a good batch this time." He said while glaring slightly at the Kunoichi next to him, but she simply shrugged him off while looking at the Genin with a terrifying smirk.
"When I am done with them, they'll be cut right in half." Many of the Genin flinched at her words while getting somewhat scared at the woman before them. "Get to training ground forty four, don't be late!" She said as she speedily jumped out back through the window causing Ibiki to groan.
Looking around, the Genin immediately jumped to their feet and ran out of the room to get to the destination of the next stage. As they ran out, none of them noticed as team eleven followed through the broken window, preferring to travel alone. Once everyone left Ibiki began to collect the papers, groaning about his colleagues annoying habits.
As the large group arrived, they instantly froze upon seeing the 'training ground' that they would be entering. It was a huge dark forest, with all sorts of sounds coming from it. "Glad you finally arrived! We have been waiting!" Anko yelled from nearer to the forest, and as everyone looked over they were shocked to see the members of team eleven standing their impatiently.
"Welcome to training ground forty four, also known as the forest of Death, or as I call it, home." Anko said with a crazed grin. "It is home to many creatures and large plants that eat weak and stupid Genin, so I hope there aren't any of those here!" She taunted while laughing under her breath.
Shinsuke leaned into Naruto and Tokiro while rolling his eyes and began to whisper something. "She talks too much, no wonder she belongs here." Anko immediately stopped talking and reached into her weapons pouch before letting loose a sharpened kunai. However Shinsuke smirked as the weapon went straight through his head, but left no wound as it carried on through the air.
Without hesitation Anko appeared behind the Hozuki with another to his throat, but the boy simply laughed. Anko raised an eyebrow at the boy's nerves before she suddenly noticed why he was laughing. While she targeted Shinsuke she failed to notice his teammates take action. Naruto was to her right with his sword pointed menacingly at her throat, while Tokiro had crouched low, activated his byakugan and held an open palm against her side preparing to close a few chakra points. Suddenly Shinsuke burst into water indicating that he was a water clone, before forming out of the water and shocking everyone as he pointed his huge blade towards the woman's heart.
Anko smirked as she noticed she was outplayed by a team of Genin, chuckling lightly. "You three are surprisingly good, your sensei wasn't wrong." She said to them with praise, causing them to grin slightly. Naruto then span with surprising speed as he pointed his blade just behind him, resting it against the throat of a grass ninja that had approached from behind quietly. Naruto stared into the eyes of the shinobi before him, as in the Genin's wrapped up tongue was the Kunai that Anko had thrown earlier.
"Do not approach my team with a weapon again, or I'll remove that tongue of yours." Naruto said aggressively while tightening the grip on his sword, not letting his guard down. There was a moment of silence between them as everyone watched the tension rise.
"I apologise, I merely wanted to bring the instructor's knife back to her. I can assure you, it won't happen again." The feminine shinobi said with a menacing smile on his face, lowering the tension slightly. Coughing, Anko moved around before taking her knife back.
"Enough games, It is time that I tell you about the task at hand. Each team will be assigned one of two scrolls. Either a heaven or an earth scroll. It is your job to find the other scroll, while defending the one you had in the first place. You have two days to bring a set of scrolls to the tower that is located in the centre of the forest. No peeking at the scrolls, or you will be disqualified, and trust me when I say that I will know. To succeed and pass you must have your whole team alive and at the tower together, or you fail immediately."
She said as she pulled out both scrolls from her pocket, showing the Genin while smirking. "Oh and the last rule! During combat encounters there are no limitation, even death is allowed. Well have fun! Try not to die!" and with that she passed out forms for them to sign which meant that the leaf could not be held responsible for any of them getting killed, and then vanishing out of existence in a swirl of leaves.
"I will get our scroll, you two just wait here." Tokiro volunteered as he began walking to a booth with a tired looking Chunin inside as he handed out scroll after scroll. As the Hyuga went to do that Naruto and Shinsuke looked at the competition.
"There are a lot of them, and they don't seem to like us. What's the plan Naruto?" The young swordsman asked his dark haired friend. Naruto looked around for a moment as he came up with a plan in his head, before turning back to Shinsuke with a serious look.
"We will hunt for the scroll we need as soon as we enter the forest, if we get the wrong scrolls, keep them. It means that we will have fewer opponents left for the final stage. After we get the scroll we need we'll go straight to the tower, and if anyone gets in the way, move them." Naruto said in a serious tone as he noticed their last team member coming back to them. "I even know where to put the scroll."
As Shinsuke was about to ask what he meant, Naruto took the scroll from Tokiro and punched it through the Hozuki's chest, splashing water everywhere. "What the hell!" The swordsman said in shock as Naruto removed his hand, no longer grasping the scroll. "Damn it Naruto, don't do that." He complained while shivering slightly.
Tokiro looked to Naruto; ignoring Shinsuke's rambling as he began to talk. "I presume you have a plan, let's get to our gate quickly then and finish this fast, I have a bad feeling about it." As he finished talking, the members of team eleven headed towards their assigned gate and got themselves ready for the test they now faced.
As everyone else finally finished collecting their scrolls, everyone was waiting at their respective gates, preparing for what they were about to be a part of. Suddenly a loud buzzing sound was heard all around the edge of the forest as the gates flew open with a synchronized crashing sound. Not wasting any time, all of the Genin that remained in the exams dashed into the forest of death as fast as they could, hiding their scrolls while making mental notes of the one they had to now seek out.
Team eleven were dashing across tree branches at high speeds, both Naruto and Tokiro had their eyes activated, nothing would be capable of catching them off guard while they also searched for any teams that were near them. Tokiro smirked slightly before speaking up. "A team up ahead, they are shaking from the nerves of the exam, easy targets." Tokiro told his two friends, as they approached the team in hopes of getting the scroll they wanted so early on.
Masking their Chakra enough to hide from a Genin, team eleven stood high in the tress around the unsuspecting team in the clearing beneath them. They looked to be from some small village, as they couldn't recognise their headbands. Naruto smirked as he focused his chakra into a Genjutsu, causing an illusion to fall over their targets.
The three shaking Genin were trying to come up with a plan as they sat on the ground and looked around. All of a sudden feathers began to fall around them, confusing them. "A Genjutsu! Release!" Just as one of the boys shouted that, the world around them distorted slightly before a kunai landed at his feet.
Looking curiously at the projectile he tried to track where it came from, but all he could see was darkness and trees. He then felt something pierce his ankle, and as he looked down he saw the kunai from earlier beginning to morph and change shape into dozens of sharp spikes that began piercing him one after another. Then a strange bird appeared before him, a crow, before it began to grow in size. With a loud 'CAW' it began to tear into the boys flesh as he screamed in agony, crying out for help.
'Double layered Genjutsu are perfect.' Naruto thought to himself as he landed behind the confused boy who was screaming at thin air, and with a quick spin of his blade, he removed the boys head. Tokiro landed before the only girl of the group, while glaring slightly.
"You will be the first victim of this technique, good luck. Wind Style: Slicing Fist!" Tokiro called out as he coated his hand in typical chakra, before it seemed to gain a chakra blade over it, with a small gust of wind. He dropped to his usual gentle fist stance and quickly jabbed his now bladed hand into the girls head, immediately killing her as her head practically exploded. "It worked." Tokiro commented proudly.
Behind the other one, another boy, Shinsuke snuck up silently while raising his blade in a terrifying fashion, as he suddenly swung down in a diagonal slash from the top right to the bottom left, as he cut the boy from shoulder to waist, splitting him in half instantly. Searching through their individual targets, Shinsuke was the one to find the scroll, sighing disappointedly. "Another heaven scroll."
"Then we keep looking; let's hurry towards our next target." Naruto ordered as he flicked the blood from off of his sword and sheathing it. Shinsuke sheathed his sword back onto his back, before the three boys once more took off silently, rushing through the forest at an extremely high speed once more.
The three members of team seven were sitting around a small camp fire as they thought about their plan. Sasuke was currently in charge of the scroll, but they agreed to take turns, to confuse opponents if they fight more than once. "We need a password in case we get split up. Any suggestions?" Sasuke asked as he looked around.
Yakumo looked up at the Uchiha momentarily turning from the campfire. "I have an idea, if you don't kind?" She said, earning a nod from her two male comrades as she began to speak once more. "What about 'Kakashi Hatake reads filthy smut' as the password?" Sasuke had to hold back a snicker, while Sai...clapped?
As Sasuke was about to speak up, they heard something behind them. "You should be careful, you don't know who's watching, and you don't wish to get killed do you?" Came a strange, mocking voice from behind them as they immediately jumped to their feet. The voice came from a familiar face, it was the grass shinobi that had returned Anko's knife before the beginning of the exam.
"You want our scroll huh?" Sasuke said as he reached into his pouch, before suddenly throwing a handful of shuriken towards the older Genin. "Yakumo! Do it." Without even thinking, the young girl concentrated on the figure of the man before his body began to distort slightly.
The grass shinobi was seemingly paralyzed from the effect of the Genjutsu as the weapons came closer to the Genin. "Not good enough, little girl." With a flare of chakra, Yakumo felt her illusion fade before the figure began to dance around the projectiles seemingly with no effort. Sai attempted a sneak attack, lunging at the back of the figure, but as he almost landed a hit with his Tanto, the Genin kicked back planting a foot into Sai's chest.
Sai was shocked both by the power and by the fact that the shinobi hadn't even turned to see him, as he was thrown into a tree, crashing his back against it. Sasuke sped forwards with a kunai in his hand, attempting a sideways slash with the small knife, but the figure merely caught his wrist before punching the Uchiha in his throat.
Yakumo attempted to run towards her fallen comrades, but the taller Genin appeared before her with a knee buried in her stomach. "You're no fun." The figure said in a slightly creepier voice, sending shivers down her spine as she dropped to her knees. "Time to..." they were cut off as a powerful blast of wind took them off of the ground and away from the defenceless kunoichi. Sai suddenly dropped down in front of Yakumo with his drawing kit already prepared. As the grass ninja got back up they had to dodge a barrage of kunai from Sasuke, not noticing the exploding tags as they detonated, throwing the grass ninja in between Sai and Sasuke.
Nodding to each other, the Uchiha sped through hand-signs while Sai began sketching quickly. Finishing at the same time, the grass ninja watched them call out their attacks.
"Secret Art: Super Beast Scroll!" "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
Several ink birds flew at the grass shinobi from one side, while multiple small fire balls were fired from the other side. Smirking they tried to jump out of range, but in the split second that they had to escape, Yakumo had just enough time to stop them with the same Genjutsu from before. "Shit!"
With a loud 'Boom' and an explosion of fire and ink, the attacks hit the strange shinobi, seemingly enough to stop them. But suddenly a creepy laugh was heard throughout the clearing as the dust that the attacks kicked up began to clear. The same figure from before stood there laughing manically. Looking up to them all, they noticed that the 'face' of their opponent was melting and beginning to peel off, but instead of a skull or even muscle underneath, they could see an all new face. It was pale, and had strange markings around the eye-lids.
"Now the fun begins! Face the power of Orochimaru!" The now sounding male called out as Sasuke ran back to his teammates. "Who dies first? Sasuke, how about you!" Team seven watched in disgust as the man's neck elongated unnaturally before shooting towards the Uchiha. "You're miiii-" As he screamed that, he was suddenly silenced. The sound of feet landing on the ground was heard as Orochimaru began screaming in pain.
Team eleven had arrived, Naruto had his sword drawn, and at his feet was the tongue of Orochimaru. "I warned you." Naruto said intensely as the three Genin stared down the tongue-less snake.
You all are probably going to hate me for yet another cliffhanger. So what did you think? did it get your adrenaline pumping? or make you want to sleep? let me know guys, and stay tuned for more updates!