Naruto: Legacy of the Rasengan
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Chapter 13—The Next Level
He had never been so happy to see his rundown apartment in his entire life. Everything was as he left it from what he could see in the gathering darkness of the room. Except, of course, for a few bits of trash that some villagers had thrown in from his broken window.
Letting the backpack fall limply to the ground from his shoulders, he took a long and deep breath. Smelling the familiar air of his home and finding a peace of mind that had eluded him for weeks. It was nice to be back where he belonged.
After stowing away his traveling equipment, Naruto began digging under his bed. Pulling out a tin box, he sat down on the bed. Popping the lid carefully, he examined the contents. All the scrolls inside were still there with no apparent tampering done to any. Now he really let out a sigh of relief.
Taking out the last one he'd been working on, he unrolled it. The title of the scroll was enough of a name that anyone interested would've immediately tried to grab a hold it. It was simple and to the point: Uzumaki Family Jutsus—Scroll 2.
On this scroll was the beginning of the explanation he'd hastily written down for Kaze Tate no Jutsu. Now that he had the rest of the evening, he decided to put a more thorough description of the jutsu onto it as well as little notes that he'd found while practicing it. Next on the scroll came Kaze Kiwa no Jutsu. This description was a bit less precise due to the fact that he still wasn't entirely sure of its true capabilities. Yet he did write down what he had done with it.
After scribbling down the basic concept of the Kaze Wana no Jutsu, he closed the scroll and took out the special one. Where as the other two scrolls were left somewhat unprotected, this scroll held a very special seal that, at this point, only he could utilize. Due to the seal, anything that was written on it while it was in his possession would turn invisible. The only way he or anyone else could see the writing was if he channeled chakra through the scroll. But should anyone else try to, the scroll would burst into flames.
On this scroll was the notes and experiences he'd had with his primary jutsu as he was creating it. Naruto took extra care with the descriptions of what happened to the tree he'd experimented on, as well as the backlash of chakra that hurt him. Then he wrote down his goals for what he considered to be the beginning of the next stage of this jutsu: adding power.
In the beginning, Naruto had found that he sometimes forgot the little details about chakra manipulation. So to compensate for this problem, he started taking notes which eventually led to him writing down all the problems and experiments he went through to create his own jutsus. He started creating the jutsus to compensate for the fact that he had no family to teach him any.
Since he considered this secret jutsu his most prized one, he had gone first to Iruka-sensei and then Sandaime Hokage for a way to prevent anyone other than himself from opening and reading his scrolls. At the time, the blood seal had been very confusing to him and so was difficult to perform. Ojisan readily agreed with giving him this special seal when he saw that Naruto could use high-level jutsu like Kage Bunshin.
Team Seven had nearly set a record for the fastest travel time a genin team could go while on the way back to Konoha. Not one of them wanted to remain away from home any longer than they needed to. So Naruto didn't realize how exhausted he was until woke the next morning on top of the secret scroll.
Things almost returned to normal for them now that they were back home. Except for the fact that neither boy could seem to stand to be in the other's presense anymore. Sasuke, despite being on cloudnine about getting his Sharingan, suspected that Naruto had something to do with the hunter-nin's death. The belief was only reinforced when he began to notice Naruto's sudden rapid growth in power. This, of course, was a hard hit to his pride and ego which made him just unbearable to be around when the blonde was near.
Naruto seemed to have guessed what the Uchiha's sudden coldness towards him was about, and promptly began to mimic the gesture. Since he couldn't blame anyone but himself that Sasuke had figured it out, he put his energy towards insulting the boy and keeping his well-toned but badly weakened mask in place.
This left Sakura in the middle, trying to pacify Sasuke while demanding Naruto to stop upsetting him. What was somewhat surprising was that Sasuke seemed to be listening to her a bit more now since their time spent together training.
But this didn't stop the boy's from trying to outdo the other on their missions and training. It seemed that now that Sasuke had discovered how powerful the dobe could be, he was taking the boy's rivalry a bit more to heart. That was a change compared to Naruto's one-sided rivalry throughout their time in the academy.
Today they were given the mission of cleaning and reorganizing a toy store in lower Konoha. This was a long, tedious task that kept them busy throughout the morning and early afternoon. Charged with stacking several boxes filled of rubber balls and various other trinkets, Naruto's foul mouth was running at double-time. Shortly after they completed their section of the store, Sasuke and Sakura were dismissed by Kakashi. Naruto, having a slightly large area to clean due to his desire to outdo Sasuke, was left alone to finish.
Hefting the last three boxes onto of one another, Naruto tried to hurry over to pile as fast as he could. He wanted to go to Ichiraku's and eat, he was starving from missing lunch. Because of his impatience and hunger, Naruto failed to notice that he was a little too close to the stack. He crashed into it and over-balanced, trying to catch himself seemed to only aid in the inevitable.
The three boxes he'd been carrying toppled over to the ground and their contents scattered. Heaving himself up, Naruto glared daggers at the mess. He was almost done! It was a conspiracy set up by Sasuke, he just knew it was. That teme was going to pay when he sees him again.
Snatching the closest rubber ball, he wasshouldn't do it but he knew that he needed a vent for his frustration. The focusing of his primary jutsu came a bit more naturally to him so he was able to watch the ball expectantly as he was doing it. Not until he felt only a trickle of warmth seeping out of the ball and a lot of straining did he realize that something was wrong. The chakra was spinning, but the ball wasn't breaking.
Then it hit him.
The ball wasn't breaking! Why was that? Looking closely at the ball in his hand, he let the chakra seep away. Once it had, he felt the tiny amount of warmth disappear. Then bringing it up again, he sent the chakra spinning as fast as he knew it would take to burst a water balloon. But nothing happened, save for a slight warmth from the friction of the chakra inside it.
This would need much more careful examination he realized, suddenly forgetting his frustration. Thanks to this discovery, his mind was now occupied with the mystery and his body went on autopilot as he cleaned up the mess, stacked the boxes, and left. He didn't even realize that he'd taken the ball with him.
The journey was long, even she'd admit that. With hardly any time to herself and the constant presence of her brother, she was on edge worse than usual. It had been almost a week since they left their home and she was most definitely looking forward to arriving.
What she really needed was a bath and a nice bed. It was not a pleasant experience to her, traveling so far with no time to scrub herself clean. Sure she was kunoichi at heart, but she was still a teenaged girl. She wanted a bath.
The terrain gradually changed from formless and familiar to forested and threatening. But she wasn't concerned. As long as her brother was there, moderately in control, she was safe from harm. It was not that she couldn't fight for herself, but still.
The gates of Konoha were a welcome sight. Finally, a week of travel could soon be scraped from her body. With this thought in mind, her patience was severely tested by the standard gate guards.
Now, as she was walking back towards the motel they'd rented, she passed by a grocery store. The smells of various foods, both familiar and foreign, wafted up into her nose and caused her mouth to water. Alright, maybe a little snack before returning wouldn't hurt.
The store was graciously stacked with almost more food than she'd ever seen in one place. In her home, they conserved food almost as much as they did water. Food exposed to the air would corrupt in a matter time. So it was vital that they kept as much wrapped up and stored away as possible. The fact that these villagersdidn't feel the same about their food supply just baffled her. Shrugging it off, she walked off down one of the aisles.
It was as she was looking for some fruit that she met a very weird person. She was minding her own business when she was suddenly bumped into roughly. The bump turned into an unconventional tackle as she turned and tried to evade the person. She landed roughly on her backside with the person flopped lopsidedly over her; she felt her temper flaring again. This was a very bad time of the month for her, so getting tackled wasmore thanenough to set her off.
How rude!
As the person, a young boy she was able to determine, was pulling himself quickly off of her, she took a swing at him. The boy was knocked back with a bleeding nose as he was trying to reach for his purchases.
Standing up and snatching her fan, she glared down at the boy as he sat up again. It was a genin, based on his age and the headband. But he was dressed an orange jumpsuit and had strange whisker marks on his cheeks. His bright blonde hair put her own to shame. He looked up as he noticed her standing imperiously over him.
Chuckling light-heartedly, he said, "Gomen, I guess I should pay more attention to where I'm going."
Temari didn't answer, just continued to glare down at him. He sent her a curious gaze as he spotted her headband strapped loosely around her neck. But her gaze was slightly unnerving to him so he just chuckled again. Then as if forgetting about her, he dashed about and gathered his spilled bags of what appeared to be mostly ramen, milk, and a few vegetables. The boy stood up and quickly disappeared down the aisle.
She continued to glare at his retreating back, which almost seemed to speed up his progress, until he was gone.
It had been too long since he'd faced his rival in combat. Now that he had his own team, he knew that he'd be able to beat him. Udon was the smartest kid in their class; he'd be able to think up unbeatable attack strategies when the time came. Moegi was, as she put it, the prettiest girl in their class. Thus, with her cute looks, she'd be able to make their opponents underestimate their strength. And, of course, Konohamaru was the one who would be doing the bulk of the fighting.
Crouched under their 'perfect' disguise, they shadowed Konohamaru's rival. The boy was too wrapped up in his own world to notice them, at least that's what Moegi said. But they were too close to him, Udon pointed out. But that made ambushing him much easier, he told them.
Their prey stopped outside a grocery store and seemed to be waiting for someone. But that didn't matter to him; it was time to show his rival that it was he who was going to become Hokage.
Bursting from their 'clever disguise,' Konohamaru leapt for the boy. He had a kunai in hand and deadly battle cry from his mouth. His rival didn't even seem to react at all. Maybe he truly had finally caught him by surprise. This was even better!
But just as he was nearly on top of him, his rival turned and caught Konohamaru around the neck with an iron grip. Gasping in surprise, Konohamaru reflexively dropped his kunai as he tried futilely to pry the boy's hands from him. As the boy faced him, Konohamaru felt an embarrassment unlike anything he'd ever felt before descend upon him.
This wasn't Naruto-niisan.
It was a large boy dressed in an almost totally black outfit with a wrapped package hanging on his back. He wore a strange cap that made it seem as though he had pointed ears and had red face-paint. But what really terrified Konohamaru was the fact that his headband didn't carry the Konoha insignia on it but rather an hourglass.
That meant that he couldn't use his grandfather's name to make him let him go. Not without broadcasting his identity to the rest of the shinobi community.
"What do we have here?" the boy asked himself in a conceited tone.
"Let…go!" Konohamaru demanded, still trying to escape. He glanced pleadingly at Moegi and Udon, but they seemed petrified in fear of this strange boy.
"Why?" the boy asked. "So you can attack me again…? I don't like brats who attack from behind like cowards."
"Not…brat!" he gasped. Why was his vision beginning to spin and darken?
"You know," the boy said, with a wicked sneer. "You're right…you're a brat who's dead meat."
As the strange shinobi was reaching for something, a familiar voice yelled out, "Put him down!"
The boy's grip on Konohamaru's throat lessened slightly as he turned to face the person. With the sudden rush of air and blood back into and through his system, Konohamaru was able to look in the direction of the yell.
"Naruto-niisan!" he cried out, trying not to show his fear in his voice.
"Who are you?" the black-dressed boy demanded. "And why should I care?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure," Naruto said simply, pointing at the boy with a determined gleam in his eyes he continued. "And you had better put him down if you know what's good for you."
"Heh, you're funny," Kankuro said with a peculiar grin on his face.
Seeing that he wasn't going to relinquish his hold, Naruto dashed forward. Kankuro's gaze changed from light and carefree to sharp and dangerous instantaneously. Using his free hand, he sent a series of chakra strings over to and tripped the blonde genin.
"What the?" was Naruto's ever so intelligent remark as he sat up. Then he quickly put things into perspective and realized what the Suna genin had done.
"How can a weakling like you hope to become Hokage?" Kankuro asked as his face returned to his previous carefree expression.
"Who are you calling weak?" the blonde demanded as he stood up. Not waiting for an answer, he pointed at him again, "I only charged you to see what you would do. Now I know you use chakra strings, I won't fall for that again."
"Really?" Kankuro asked, almost ignoring the brat he still held.
"Let him go!" Naruto demanded. "This is your last warning."
"Ha!" Kankuro couldn't help but smirk at the blonde's blind faith in his own abilities. "And what are you going to do about it?"
"Me? Nothing," the blonde said easily, a foxy grin breaking out across his face. Instantly suspicious as to what the boy was up to, Kankuro gave him his full attention.
"Me? Everything!" the blonde's voice said behind him.
Kankuro had enough time to glance backwards to see a second blonde before a foot smashed into his face. The kick sent him flying a short ways down the street. In his surprise and pain, he'd dropped Konohamaru who instantly ran behind his oniisan.
Quickly climbing to his feet, Kankuro stared at the second blonde for a moment. Then, realizing the obvious, he growled as he hefted the package off his back. He set it down with a heavy thump all the while glaring at the blonde as he released his clone.
"That was a lucky shot," he said angrily. "It won't happen again."
"Bring it on, sabaku-teme," Naruto said, walking forward slightly to put something of a buffer zone between himself and Konohamaru and the other two children.
"Kankuro, back off," a voice called out.
The Suna-nin's reaction was as though someone had doused him in freezing cold water. Shivers of fear ran down his body as beads of sweat grew thick on him. Naruto, meantime, was glancing up at the red-haired boy standing on top of a nearby building. The fact that he'd been unable to sense his arrival greatly spooked him. The only person that that had ever happened with to him nowadays was Sandaime Hokage.
This guy must be good, he realized. It was this thought that a brought a hesitant smile onto his face as he stared at the boy's heavily sleep-deprived eyes. There was no emotion those cold eyes. It was like he was staring at a chunk of ice; hell, even Sasuke was a warm, lovable puppy compared to this kid.
"Losing yourself in a fight, how pathetic…" the kid said, glaring at the slightly older Suna-genin. "Why do you think we came to Konohagakure?"
"Listen, Gaara," Kankuro said, almost whimpering. "They started it and…"
"Shut up," Gaara growled. "Or I'll kill you."
Kankuro made no immediate reply to that, just a severely trembling body. Then practically begging for his life, he said, "Okay, I'm sorry…"
"Sorry to you, guys," Gaara said as he glanced at Naruto and the terrible trio.
In a whirl of sand, the boy appeared in front of Kankuro and stared at Naruto with a calculative gaze. To be able to fool Kankuro like that, Gaara silently assessed. He must be good.
Glancing back towards his brother, Gaara said, "Where's Temari?"
"I think she went to the hot springs," was his quick answer.
"Let's go," Gaara said as he turned to leave.
"Wait," Naruto called as he stepped forward slightly. Bringing his hands up behind his head with a foxy grin on his face, he asked, "What are you guys doing here in Konoha?"
"Don't you know, baka?" Kankuro demanded, giving Naruto an arrogant sneer. "The Chuunin Selection Exams."
"We're having it?" he asked no one in particular as he cocked his head to the side and seemed to think about it. "That's cool! I'll be sure to be there! By the way, what's your name?"
Gaara's gaze didn't change as he looked at him. "Sabaku no Gaara."
He was met with a large foxy grin. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet ya."
Gaara and Kankuro vanished in a blur of speed. Naruto shooed the still-trembling academy students away very quickly and they listened without complaint. Once they were safely away, Naruto turned and looked pointedly up at another building
"I hope I put on a good show for you, temes!" he called out before walking away with a satisfied smirk. What he left behind were three badly startled Oto-nin.
There was a straw figure that looked vaguely like a human being. It was strapped tightly to a tree and had several targets attached to the approximate locations of a person's vitals. Those vitals, had they been real, were now so filled with kunai and shuriken than no normal person would've had a chance at survival.
Sitting unflinching and unconcerned directly under the target was Hyuuga Neji, the greatest genius of the Hyuuga clan in a hundred years. He watched impassively as the pretty dark-haired girl cast her weapons towards him, with an almost careless gesture. Yet he held no fear of being hit, she was far too skilled to allow that to happen.
Leaning casually against the same tree, Rock Lee too watched her practice. It was one of the few times that he wasn't pushing himself to extreme levels of training to beat his 'eternal rival Neji.'
It was during this silence that the bowl-cut kid remembered something that he knew would interest his teammates.
"Hey!" he said, breaking their silence. "Hey, did you hear? For the first time in five years, there are going to be rookies in this Chuunin Exam."
"No way!" Tenten said with a small smile. "It's probably some stubborn Jounin's competition or something." Which it could easily be. It has been known to occur a multitude of times in the past from overconfident genins and their instructors.
"No, the story is that three of them are students of that Kakashi," Lee said. He knew about this particular detail due to his brother/father/mentor figure considered the masked man his own eternal rival.
"That sounds interesting," Neji said with a large, confident smirk. He was quite looking forward to fighting them. Given the way that Maito Gai-sensei always went on about how Kakashi is so overconfident about his own abilities, which would only mean that his students could be worthy challenges.
"But in the end," Tenten said as she sent another kunai flying. It struck the center dead on.
"We have to feel sorry for them," Neji finished for her. It was true. They knew too well what the pervert's abilities, hobbies, and faults were; all thanks to Gai-sensei's rambling. Those poor genin were probably too busy beating up Kakashi for his tardiness to really learn anything from him.
They arrived on time like they were supposed to. Only to wait…and wait…and wait some more. Sakura's foul temper was being sorely tested these days and a chronically late sensei wasn't helping.
Last night, for some reason, she just couldn't fall asleep until it was nearly one in the morning. That left her with fours of sleep and only an hour to clean and make her presentable. An hour for her obviously wasn't enough as some of her hair was sticking out at odd angles and her eyelids were constantly threatening to fall.
As the third hour rolled past, she finally snapped, "How can this be allowed? Why does that person ask us to meet and then make us wait!"
Naruto was off in his own little world. Sasuke was brooding again. No answer was forthcoming but that didn't stop her. She needed to get this out of her system or she'd go crazy!
"What about the feelings of a young girl who didn't get enough sleep or time to blow-dry her hair!"
Why does everything have to be so high tension with her? Sasuke wondered, his own temper flaring as Sakura voiced his complaints for him, if in a slightly more feminine way. Why he was assigned to such an unreliable Jounin was beyond Sasuke's comprehension.
"Morning!" Kakashi called from his perch up on bridge's support beam. "Today I got lost on the road of life."
"LIAR!" Naruto and Sakura yelled simultaneously. "Apologize!"
Kakashi only chuckled at that as he dropped down in front of them. Quickly growing serious, he said, "This is sudden but…I've nominated you guys for the Chuunin Selection Exam."
"Huh?" was Sakura's answer. Sasuke watched Kakashi's limited face for any sign of deception while Naruto instantly broke into a large grin.
"What did you say!" Sakura demanded, not really caring what he had just said. She was just in too bad of a mood to care. "You think that makes up for—!"
"Here are your applications," Kakashi interrupted, hold three pamphlets forward.
This was better than if Naruto had begged Kakashi-sensei himself. The man just instantly decides that they were ready for the next level! It was this line-of-thought that drove him to jump onto the man while shouting, "KAKASHI-SENSEI! I LOVE YOU!"
This would be great! Maybe he could meet up with and possibly fight Gaara later on. He was sure that would be an awesome battle. Daydreams of such were racing through his mind as he quickly snatched his pamphletand scanned the questions listed on it.
He didn't even notice Kakashi telling them that they didn't have to accept the nomination if they didn't want to. He was going even if he had to leech onto another team! But he did catch the vital information: Academy—Room 301—Four o'clock—Tomorrow.
The three of them were walking back towards Konoha together after Kakashi dismissed them. Naruto was holding his application form like it was a lost page of a holy text. He was literally walking on air and speaking his mind, totally oblivious to Sakura's growing depression.
"There's going to be a lot of strong guys in this thing," he mumbled to himself. "Like him! …Oh, I can't wait to fight him! I wonder how good he is! Heh, when I win this, I'll get to be Hokage even sooner!"
Sasuke and Naruto were so caught up in imagining what kinds of fights and fighters that they'd run into that they didn't notice Sakura stopping and just staring at them as they continued walking away. One thought prevailed on her mind.
I…don't want to… She knew that she wasn't ready for this. She knew that she was weak, as that hunter-nin had so graciously proved. I can't even keep up with Sasuke-kun and Naruto…and now the Chuunin Exam…
One thing she did know for sure, she was probably not going to be getting much sleep in the next few days.
When Naruto came sprinting for them, shouting out his customary greeting to Sakura, she actually greeted him back. This drew Sasuke's and Naruto's attentions quickly, though neither said anything. Something was wrong with her today, but what?
As they marched through the academy they found themselves shoulder to shoulder in a very large and dense group of genin from all over the continent. It was actually a little intimidating on them from all the ugly and downright vicious glares that were being shot in their direction from so many foreign and dangerous people.
Then the cause of such a large crowd quickly came into view. Two rugged looking Konoha genin seemed to be guarding the doorway to the desired room. But there was something wrong with it, all of them realized quickly and each in their own way.
It took only a small suspicion, confirmed by a brief flash of his Sharingan, for him to see that this wasn't the room they wanted. Sakura, having had some experience with genjutsu, easily recognized the tiny manipulations that were at work inside her brain, trying to make her see what they wanted her to see. Naruto knew that they weren't on the third floor because of the smell alone, it stunk of cleaning supplies that were only stored on the second floor, and there were various floorboards that were loose that made loud complaints when stepped on.
They weaved their way to the front in time to see a pretty girl get roughly smacked aside. After listening to the pair of genin's speech of what a Chuunin's responsibilities were and how they were doing them a service by not letting them pass, Sasuke grew bored.
"I agree, but…" he said as he stepped boldly forward. "You will let me pass through…and also remove the genjutsu."
Muttering broke out around the crowd as they tried to understand what this kid was saying. What genjutsu? But, like the Uchiha he was, Sasuke completely ignored them in favor of finishing his speech.
"I'm going to the third floor," he said.
"Ah…" the spiky haired guy moaned, trying not to show his disappointment. There goes their fun.
"So you noticed…" his partner said.
Sasuke merely smirked in reply. This was perfect. He could use this. He knew what Sakura's problem was, but he also knew two things. She underestimated herself, and she'd known what was happening all along.
"Sakura," he said, gaining her attention. "You must have noticed first, right?"
What was he talking about? Was it the genjutsu? And why would he even care if she saw it or not?
"Your analytical ability and genjutsu know-how…" he said, glancing at her with an almost warm expression. Well, it would've been warm if it was anyone other than Sasuke that was doing it. "is the best on our team."
It was in that moment she understood. He actually knew what she could do. If he was trying to get her to come along because he was confident in her, then that must mean…
A small chuckle escaped her lips as her confidence was given an enormous boost. This chuckle drew a small smile from Sasuke that went unnoticed by everyone. He had been right after all. She was scared because of a lack of confidence. A little word of encouragement on what she knew she could do well, and look at that!
She was definitely getting better as a kunoichi.
In one encounter, he'd gained an interest in two new genin he'd not met before. The first was a scandalously dressed bowl-cut kid in green spandex and enormous eyebrows with an incredible speed. The second was quite obviously a Hyuuga, based off the signature dark hair and pale eyes.
Now he watched as the first of two dropped down from a balcony after proclaiming a desire to fight with him. There was a determined glare in the boy's eyes as he stared impassively at the Uchiha. If he'd been dressed in anything other than such a hideous outfit, the glare might have had a stronger effect on Sasuke.
"My name is Rock Lee," he said pointing at Sasuke. "'When you want to learn a person's name you introduce yourself first.' Right, Uchiha Sasuke?"
"Heh, so you know?" Sasuke said, a little irritated by the boy's attitude.
Crouching into a peculiar stance, Lee continued, "I want to fight you. I want to test my techniques against the offspring of a 'genius' shinobi clan. Plus…"
The boy's cheeks began to brighten as he shifted his gaze towards Sakura. Warning bells of a kind that she'd never experienced before began ringing loudly in her mind. The only time anyone had ever blushed at her was Naruto when he was trying to ask her out on a date…This kid, Lee, wasn't planning on it too. Was he? The mere thought sent shivers of disgust down her spine.
But when the boy winked at her, her worst fears were realized. And she reacted accordingly. "EWW!" she shrieked. "Those eyebrows are gross!"
Both her teammates watched her in silent amusement as she continued to voice their own thoughts and pick at the boy's serious lack of a wardrobe.
Lee evidentially took it all as a compliment from her, based on his continued blush and following reaction. "You are an angel!" he said as he blew a strange heart shape towards her.
Sakura reacted on instinct. Snapping back and down so low that she smashed her head on the floor in an effort to avoid the strange projectile. Apparently it wasn't a wasted effort as it sailed over her and impacted safely with a support beam. Sitting while rubbing her tender head as goosebumps snaked over her drew barely restrained snickers from Naruto.
After she was done reprimanding Lee, Sasuke spoke up. Despite what he was saying, he felt a growing excitement in himself. This boy seemed to possess extraordinary skills and abilities, if he went off of the speed that he'd seen him use. If he could learn some of his jutsus, then he'd most definitely have a better chance against Itachi.
Naruto's face was that of annoyance. He wanted a warm up against someone before actually starting, just to see where he stood in comparison against an unknown rival. While at the same time, he was getting especially annoyed at everyone forautomatically wanting to fight Sasuke because of his reputation as being the 'Number 1 Rookie' and the Uchiha heir.
Then again, if his instincts were right, this kid might be too much for even him. So why not have Sasuke be the guinea pig? Besides, the Uchiha seemed to not only need to be taken down a few notches, but he was clearly overconfident. Why should Naruto make a fool of himself against a genin he didn't even know anything about?
Even as Lee made his bold announcement, Sasuke could feel his excitement growing even more. This kid would most definitely be worth the time to fight.
"Sounds fun," he finally said. "I'll do it."
He ignored Sakura about the time remaining as he dashed for the boy. The ensuing 'fight' was one of the fastest he'd ever had. He sent Lee a series of kicks and punches but the kid dodged or blocked with extreme ease. Then he sent in his own kick at Sasuke that he couldn't dodge; only block…or thought he did.
The kick sent Sasuke flying. He couldn't understand how this kid could do that. Was it some kind of ninjutsu or genjutsu? There wasonly one way to find out. And he'd wanted to test it on someone he deemed as worthy since he'd learned to summon it at will.
When he stood up, the redness of his eyes didn't go unnoticed by anyone. Lee was excited at first before growing serious. He'd heard all about the abilities of the Sharingan from Gai-sensei. But even with this knowledge, was he really prepared for it?
Sakura was only filled with admiration. She didn't know he had the Sharingan eyes. But if he did, he would be able to read Lee's moves and be able to counter them, all the while copying them. Her confidence in his abilities grew as she watched him dash for Lee again.
Thus it came as an extreme surprise when Thickbrows ducked down and sent a kick up into Sasuke's chin. The force of the kick sent him flying fairly high into the air.
"Yes…" Lee said, speaking into Sasuke's ear. "My jutsus are simple taijutsu, Sasuke-kun. You may not believe it because it is so basic but…"
It was then that Sasuke was introduced to a weakness in the Sharingan he never even considered existed. Even if he could see what was coming next, that didn't necessarily mean that he could dodge or block it. Speed was the Sharingan's natural enemy.
Lee had every intention of introducing Sasuke to one of his best jutsus: the Omote Renge. But when a pinwheel caught the loose piece of Lee's bandages and a giant turtle appeared, things took a strange turn for the young genins. The sudden appearance of the horrifying figure of Maito Gai forced Naruto to voice a comment he'd been dying to say to Lee but was trying to respectfully restrain.
"Those eyebrows are so huge—they're almost alive!" he shouted in honest disbelief.
The following yelling match between the two 'dead-lasts' also brought out some unwanted information of how Gai-sensei considered Kakashi his 'eternal rival.' Team Seven was left to nurse their injured minds and egos.
"The Uchiha clan sure isn't worth much these days," Naruto said finally.
He brought both hands behind his head. He ignored Sakura's ranting and focused on Sasuke's suddenly humbled form. Maybe now he is more aware that he wasn't exactly all he thought he was, Naruto silently hoped.
"Next time I'll beat him…" Sasuke began, only to be cut off by Naruto again.
"Sure…" the blonde said with a small smirk. "Maybe you don't realize that you just got your ass kicked…"
At Sasuke's darkening expression, Naruto decided to state the obvious. "You saw his hand too…Thickbrows must've trained really hard everyday…More than you. That's all it is."
Sasuke's expression actually changed from a pained ego to slightly scared as he realized just what Naruto was saying. It was true that he didn't put as much effort into training as he knew he could've. Rather than focusing on honing his ability, he preferred to jump straight into the thick of it and improve in leaps and bounds, not at a steady pace.
Maybe he wasn't ready for this.
Then his Uchiha pride kicked. If he wasn't ready, then he'd just have to swallow his fear and do it anyway. After all, if he was too scared or hesitant during his final encounter with that man he was as good as dead.
Clenching his fist as he steeled his resolve, Sasuke snorted confidently. This drew Naruto's and Sakura's attentions. "This thing is getting fun, this Chuunin Exam…"
At hearing his words, Sakura and Naruto's expressions turned into relieved smiles. Their Sasuke was back.
"Ready to go?" he asked them as he started walking toward Room 301.
"HELL YEAH!"
They found Kakashi-sensei outside the desired the room. It seemed that what he'd told them wasn't true. They had to take it as a team and he seemed to have guessed Sakura's own hesitance as well. With Kakashi's heartfelt exclamation of how they made him proud, they approached the doors.
"Let's go!" Naruto said with an air of confidence that rivaled Sasuke's as his teammates opened the doors. As a team they started this exam and as a team they entered the first phrase of it.
(Author's Note) Well, that's Chapter 13. I hope you all like it. I'm irritated that I couldn't really think up more for this section of the story. But nothing can be done to help it, I guess.
Next chapter, we'll see how the Rookie Nine associate with each other after near no communication since they formed teams. The First Exam commences and possibly (most likely) a fair portion of the Second Exam as well.
I've got some bad news. Because I finish my training this coming Thursday means that I'll have little time then and probably several days thereafter to work on this story. This means, unfortunately, that my updating will be severely cut down. But ever chance I get, I swear I'll use it to work on this story. I hate not being able to finish something I started.