Death to the bad OC's! (this includes all Uchiha's that survived the massacre without explanation and dissapeared for 15+ years)
I would also express my thanks to one of the most loyal reviewers I have ever seen, Kane-the-Warrior! Happy Turkey day to you too! And because of his loyalness to my story, I'll reveal a secret... I have already written 26 chapters for this story, but I'm going to release them in small jumps of time. For one : It will help me make time to get through my writer's block, and second... I just like to annoy people. Ok, maybe you didn't want to know that... Meh. Happy readin'!
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That evening, in the Uzumaki residence.
Sakura stared at the Akatsuki rings Naruto wore and couldn't help but snicker. "Are you going to get a manicure to look even more like them?" She snickered. Naruto just laughed at the thought of him with purple nails. Sakura got up and walked to her bedroom, followed by Naruto who was following her like a lost puppy. He was about to enter her room, when a pillow collided with his face. "Wrong way buddy." Sakura said as she slammed the door in his face. "Can't blame me for trying..." He mumbled.
Naruto awoke to the sound of somebody tapping against his window. Naruto opened his eyes and saw Kirbie was the source of the sound. Naruto opened his window, almost making Kirbie loose his footing. "What?" He mumbled, still half asleep. "Guess what's coming up in a month?" Kirbie said as he entered the room? "A good night's rest?" "The jounin exams!" "So?" "I thought you might want to train for it... I can help you with preparations you know!" "Right, right, what do we have to do?" Naruto said as he took his katana and strapped it to his back. "It depends on the proctor, luckily for you, I know the proctor for the next exam, but it's gonna be hard." Kirbie said as he jumped out of the window. "Come on slowpoke, Sasuke and Sakura are already waiting for us!" Naruto sighed and jumped out of the window.
"The exam will consist out of three parts, one is stealth, second is hunting, and third is combat." Kirbie explained once they had all gathered in the forest. "For the first part, you will be released in a forest similar to the forest of death, without weapons and you will have to hide from about hundred ANBU's. During this part, the other examinees are the only people you can trust, and any form of combat is not allowed. The ANBU will use wooden kunais with paint on them, if they get paint on you, you lose. After three hours, an exit will open and you will have one hour to find it and use it. Before I forget, jutsu's are also strictly forbidden." "That doesn't sound very easy..." Sakura muttered. "It gets worse, in the second part, the roles will be switched and you will have to hit an ANBU that will hide in the forest with a painted wooden kunai. Again, you cannot use weapons or jutsu's, with the exception of the painted wooden kunai. For this you get three hours." Kirbie said calmly. "But how will they know if we hit somebody?" Sasuke asked, curious. "Every kunai has a different colour, the colour and who is using it is registered in a book. Now, for the third part, you will randomly be pitted against another examinee, it doesn't matter if you lose or win, they look for skill, jutsu knowledge and more." Kirbie explained. "So, what can you tell us about the proctor?" Naruto asked. "Ugh, that guy. He's, well, strange. His name is Eddie Shelton and he belongs to one of the best trackers in the ANBU. Enough about that, you have ten minutes to split up in the forest, then I will send 100 clones with marked kunai's to come look for you." Kirbie said. Quickly, the three ran into the woods as Kirbie sat down on a rock. "I probably should've mentioned that Sai is going to make 100 clones to look for them to..." He mumbled to nobody in particular.
Naruto sped through the forest. This sure was an unusual training method, but he assumed it could be useful in a lot of situations. He saw Sai standing in an opening, staring into nothing. Naruto landed near Sai, who spun around and threw a kunai at him. Naruto barely dodged the kunai, and noticed it had paint on it. Being able to put two and two together, Naruto took off, with Sai on his tail. 'Great, I'm not allowed to do any jutsu's and I have Sai after me.' Naruto thought as he sped up. He hoped Sakura and Sasuke were having more luck.
Sakura couldn't believe her bad luck, she was being chased by twenty Sai's and the number seemed to become bigger by the second. She was running on the ground, making sharp turns between the trees to try and lose them. It wasn't before long until she felt something touch her shoulder. She looked over and saw a wooden kunai had made contact with her. Cursing she came to a halt.
Sasuke was having more luck, nobody had been chasing him yet, that was until Naruto crossed his path and Sai went after him. Speeding through the forest he looked at his watch. 27:36. Darn it, only 27 minutes? He wasn't going to last much longer. And he was right, five minutes later he was surrounded.
Naruto lasted the longest, he had dug himself underground as soon as Sai went after Sasuke. 1:05:14. Everything went smooth until one of Sai's clones found one of the air holes leading into Naruto's hiding place.
1:12:21 They were back in the same clearing where Kirbie explained everything. "Well, Naruto, your time was pretty good for a first time, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us." Kirbie said.
Meanwhile, in the Akatsuki cave. "What? You lost Deidera's ring to that Jinchuuriki!?" The leader growled. Kisame tried to speak without trembling "The jinchuuriki wasn't alone, Orochimaru had sent his lackeys and Uchiha Sasuke was helping Naruto." The leader roared "Damn that Orochimaru! Does he have to keep getting in our way? We shall forget about the Jinchuuriki for now, I have a new goal..." "Hey guys, Kakuzu is done with the operation." Zetsu said as he submerged from the ground. "Ah, very good, come, let's go pay our friend a visit." The leader said as he made his way to a hole in the wall.
One week later.
Naruto scratched the back of his head as he wore his cheeky grin, the three had finally been able to last for three hours. Sasuke wore his usual bored expression, even though he was quite pleased on the inside. Sakura was flushed, she was tired from running around so long. "Alright you three, get a good night's rest, tomorrow it's your turn to hunt!" Kirbie said enthousiastic. Even Sai was staring at Kirbie in disbelief. How could he be so energetic after three hours of running around? At least they were granted a night of rest.
Naruto rested his head in his hands, staring into the forest. He had already found a clone of Kirbie, so he had nothing else to do right now. Naruto damned his short attention span as he looked for something to do. After half an hour of being bored, Naruto finally saw Sakura coming out of the forest. "Got him?" Naruto asked as he jumped up. Sakura simply nodded and let herself fall down, sighing deeply. The rustling of the leafs sounded so relaxing, she could fall asleep, if it wasn't for Naruto's constant question asking. Ten minutes later, both Kirbie and Sasuke emerged from the forest. "Alright, that's all I can do to help, you will have to train for the third part by yourself." Kirbie said as he stretched once before dissapearing. "He's just like Ero-sennin." Naruto mumbled while he crossed his arms and nodded to himself. "I heard that!" Kirbie's voice echo'd through the air.
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Next chapter : Fleeing through the forest, the ANBU's shock.
On a related note, I would like to thank my friend for letting me use his OC 'Eddie Shelton', who will soon appear in the story to play an... Original role.