Chapter Ten
Begin The Exam!
The grass was growing, the birds were flying, the sun was shining, and oh brother, was Naruto hurting people. He spun, preforming a horizontal axe kick, punching straight through three of the bodies around him. He instantly turned, barely managing to execute an uppercut, bashing through the brain of the character attempting to knife him. With another spin, the last of his attackers was thrown into a tree. With a burst of smoke, the last Kage Bunshin dispelled, leaving a very tired Naruto with a pounding headache. Ever since Nami no Kuni, he had been training, attempting to bring his body back up to speed with what it was before the Warp.
Over the past month, after he had vouched for Zabuza and Haku with Sarutobi, they had become Konoha Shinobi, Zabuza taking the position of a Jonin, and Haku becoming his Genin apprentice. They had commonly paired up with Team Eleven, completing several C-rank missions, leaving both groups with at least two B-ranks under their belts. Hinata and Fūryu had both grown over the month, Hinata losing her stutter, except in extreme situations, and Fūryu had learned how to control his Akai Suna so well that he could pull grains out of surrounding materials. Haku had discovered that he could pull water from the surrounding air, and use it to form his ice. Naruto, had discovered that while he could pull off a Bijūdama, it would drain all of his yōkai, leaving him unable to do much of anything for a few days, given that he had vaporized the surface of his skin, leaving him looking quite undignified. Just as he was about to form another regiment of Bunshin in order to continue his spar, Anko walked up.
"Oi, Gaki! Think fast!" She tossed him a scroll. He caught and opened it.
"Chunin exam, huh? Why the hell not. Haku coming with us?"
"Yup. Since you guys are the best team in the village, the old man hoisted her on us so we can show her the ropes. Think you guys are up for it?" She questioned.
"You really need to ask?"
"It starts this weekend, so you better hurry up and get that paperwork done." Hearing that it contained paperwork, Naruto instantly threw it to a freshly created Bunshin like it was an explosive note. The Bunshin sighed, and immediately headed off to work on it. Naruto lay back, and began to stare at the clouds.
"Chunin exam again, huh? What do you guys think?" He asked his resident Bijū.
'This... Will be very entertaining.' Kyū replied, while the rest nodded. (If you guys can't figure out who Kyū is, then Kami help you.)
Naruto began to chuckle rather darkly. Sensing the confused looks from his tenants, he explained;
"We get another shot at Orochi-teme." At this, the rest of the Bijū joined him in his chuckling. To any onlookers, the sight was truely terrifing, given that ten different voices could be heard chuckling with malicient intent, while only one person, specifivally, the demon brat of the village, was to be found.
"Out of wonder, what will happen when your yōkai comes into contact with Gaara, Shura? Since he still holds you, or rather Shukaku, in this timeline..."
'In theory, I should assimilate my counterpart, since seeing as we came from the Alpha timeline, I pretty much take precedence. If for some reason that... thing manages to take me over again, then the rest should be able to recover me easily.'
"Let's hope it works that way."
One Week Later...
"Wow, looks like a lot of people are here." Naruto perked up at the sound of his gentlemanly friend, turning to the young glasses wearing swordsman. Fūryu was wearing a combat suit, looking rather dapper with his bow tie immaculatly tied. Naruto could tell, however, that the boy was slightly intimidated.
"Don't worry about it, Furyu-san. We will be fine, especially if we work together." Hinata said, coming up behind the duo. She was wearing the same coat as always, with a bright smile on her face. The male duo smiled, and the trio went up the stairs.
They found themselves amid a crowd of genin, all of whom looked rather dissapointed. Looking above the crowd, they could see a door marked 301, with two older genin standing in front of it. A genin in a green jumpsuit could be found on the floor next to them, while the resident Uchiha was to be seen attempting to fight the two. Just as one of Sasuke's feet would have hit one of the two boy's faces, a blur was seen, before the jumpsuit wearing genin was revealed to have caught both of the oncoming kicks.
"Oi, Lee! It's been awhile!" Naruto cried.
"Naruto-kun, my eternal Rival! It has been too Long! How is your YOUTH doing?" The young bushy-brows replied excitedly. He and Naruto had meet after Nami no Kuni, whith Lee immediatly challenging Naruto to a spar. Not suprisingly, they both had to be taken back to their homes unconcious by their respective sensei...
"They burn quite brightly Lee. Now, I do believe I just heard someone a floor above us complaining about a lack of youthful fires." Hearing this, Lee tensed, and suddenly flew upward through the ceiling, shouting about that the fires of you would burn forevermore...
As those around team eleven sweat-dropped, they continued up the stairs behind a much calmer Neji and Tenten. Team Eleven had met the rest of Team Gai the day after Naruto and Lee's spar. Over the month they had gotten Neji to drop his stupid fate bit for the most part, and Tenten had been teaching Fūryu how to better use his swords.
Finally, they reached room 301 proper, having never even been bothered by the fact that there was a genjutsu on room 201. Upon entering, they found the room quite full. Behind them entered Team Seven, having finally managed to get Sasuke to stop trying to beat the two obviously chunin level shinobi. As soon as Seven entered, Ino came rushing across the room, jumping over people's heads, and even going so far as to use the light fixtures as a swing to reach them faster. Seeing her, Sasuke went bug-eyed, and immediatly began to run the opposite direction, using many of the same techniques that Ino herself had just used. As they closed in on the Rookie Twelve, they quickly stopped in order to avoid a glasses wearing boy who had just stepped up to the others.
"You guys might want to cut the crap, a lot of these guys would kill you without a second thought." The glasses wearing leaf-nin announced, gaining the groups attention.
"Oh really, and who are you to talk? We're not afraid of anyone!" Kiba brashly exclaimed.
"My name is Kabuto Yakushi, and be that as it may, you should be afraid. But, seeing as you guys are all new to this, I suppose it couldn't hurt to give you all a helping hand..." He trailed off.
'This bastard again... Should I kill him? It would save us a lot of trouble...'
'No kit, much though we all wish you would, it would cause some rather significant changes to the timeline, most of which we can't possible predict.'
'Suppose your right. Might as well get the info cards while we're here though...'
"Now, I'm going to show you guys my nin-info cards. They hold all of the data I've gathered on the other contestants. Anyone you all would like to know about?"
"How about Gaara no Subaku of Suna, Rock Lee and Naruto Uzumaki of the leaf?" Sasuke asked, having escaped Ino's grasp.
"You already know their names and vilages, that's no fun. Lee first... Let's see, He's done twenty C-ranks, four B-ranks, and one A-rank. He's strongest in Taijutsu, and apparently since he can't use chakra, his other stats are all at zero. Naruto Uzumaki, fifteen C-ranks, three B-ranks, and... A S-rank?!" He's best in ninjutsu, followed by kenjutsu, then taijutsu. He's also the ji-" Kabuto was cut off by a burning sword slicing through his cards, including the one in his hand.
"Hey, Naruto! He was helping us!" Kiba yelped.
"No, he was about to reveal an S-rank secret that would have required all of your heads had you heard it.. Besides, why should you guys have to spy on your own friends? Why not just ask me?"
"Woukd you have told us?"
"No."
"Listen up you worthless MAGGOTS! Shut the hell up, and sit the fuck down. The written exam begins Now!" Ibiki shouted as he and all of the other procters appeared via shunshin.
To Be Continued...
Author's note: Sorry for the short chapter, but seeing as it's the holidays, You all can have a present next weekend. Apologies for lateness, but I did just get out of school for winter break, so sue me. Please, R&R, Flamers can go fuck themselves, good day. Ja Ne.
~Lux Out