A/N – Chunin exams start and lovely snake is for a big and painful surprise really soon.
Once Gato was killed they spent next few days in Nami no Kuni helping with the construction of the bridge and sorting papers that were found inside of Gato office. They were let's say interesting, for the lack of a better word to describe what they had found. Every single piece of paper was put on the correct pile and later they were sealed into storage scrolls that were described and placed in their backpacks, along with other things they had found in this country.
But finally it was the time for them to depart and go back home to Konoha as a mission was done and bridge was standing proudly over the strait that was previously natural border that was used by Gato to force Nami into slavery. They were met by the citizens of this country, who met them just in front of bridge.
"We would like to say thank you." Said Tazuna "And as a token of our friendship and to commemorate what you did, we would like to to name this bridge, Great Konoha Bridge."
"But we also have something else." Said Tazuna once cheering calmed down "When Uzushio was razed many people from it escaped to Nami and they left us those scrolls. And we would like to give them to Uchiha Naruto, who is last true Uzumaki." When Tazuna said those words Naruto was speechless and at the same time from crowd emerged two people carrying scrolls, which were given to Naruto.
"We would like to spend more time in Nami." Said Kakashi "But our duty call us back to Konoha. Let's go."
o-0-o
Trip to Konoha was rather uneventful one and after lazy three day walk they could see in the distance familiar shape of wall and behind it Hokage monument shining in the sun. Everything seemed so peaceful there and quiet, like nothing at all happened for them, while Team Seven and Ten fought for their lives. When they got closer to the gates they got a lot of attention as on Naruto shoulder was resting Kubikiribotcho which he got after killing Zabuza. Killing one of those Swordsmen was a huge feat and not many were able to do that since Uzumaki has fallen. Those two weren't the strongest out of their generation, but still were deadly swordsmen so now after Naruto would be going bounty hunters and assasins trying to collect bounties and get hold of his swords.
"Looks like everybody is staring at you." Said Sakura lightly nudging Naruto.
"They recognized the blade." Explained Naruto
"We better get to the Hokage tower." Said Asuma "Since it is somewhere between A and S rank mission, whole teams need to report to Hokage. As it is too important to leave it to clerks."
"Than let's go." Said Kakashi as he jumped onto the roof, followed by his team to more easily move across the village and it was typical way of getting around for most of shinobi when streets were crowded.
They jumped from rooftop to rooftop and soon they were at the stairs leading into Hokage Tower, where they soon were joined by Team Ten.
"Let's go." Said Kakashi pushing doors open and walking inside. They passed several flights of stairs and arrived in front of doors leading into Hokage office. They walked inside and Hokage eyes widened when he saw what was carried by Sasuke and Naruto, as those swords were impossible not to recognize.
"Asuma, Kakashi report." Said Hokage looking at his two jonin
"We left the village..." Said Asuma describing whole mission, with additions from other people, mainly Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke when it was about assassination part of the mission and other people were a little pale when those four talked about what happened.
"So let me get this straight." Said Hokage as he looked at Asuma "Supposed C-rank mission was turned into S-rank one, you or more properly Naruto killed Kurosuki Raiga and Rokusho Aoi, and with your help Momochi Zabuza. You freed Nami from under the reign of Gato, you got two out of seven swords and Raijin no Ken."
"Pretty much yes." Said Asuma "Oh and Kakashi got Hyoton user."
"So that makes it S-rank mission." Said Hokage "Naruto you can take those two swords as you won them in fair duel, bounties will be transfered to your accounts today afternoon, one for Zabuza will be split between Naruto and Asuma. Raijin no Ken will be yours once you are a jonin or Tsunade will give it to you as she is de facto head of Senju. Other than that I think you should get two week long break from missions."
"Thank you Hokage-sama." Said Kakashi lightly bowing, followed by the rest of genin. They walked out of the building where Kakashi stopped his team for a moment. "Once break is over meet me at eight o'clock on our training field."
"Hai" Said members of team seven and left their sensei.
o-0-o
"It is good to be home." Said Naruto when familiar wall of Uchiha District came into the view with usual shinobi standing on guard there. Beyond them they could see white walls and black roofs of buildings inside of the district. While many didn't like the idea of making separate district for Uchiha clan it had one huge advantage when it came to wars and attacks on the village. It was an easy hiding place for a lot of civilians and genins as those walls weren't as fragile as they looked and there were always some guards around to look for troubles.
"Yes" Agreed Sasuke "Soft bed and not caring about sensei being a sadist. At least you used your Bunshin Daibakuha to convince him to leave you somewhat alone, while I couldn't."
"Sadistic sensei?" Asked someone cheerfully from behind them and both of them looked at that person, it was Shisui.
"Yes" Said Sasuke "I thought that you were a sadist, but you are an angel compared to him."
"You are hurting me." Said Shisui looking at Sasuke "Your sensei is Copycat?"
"Same one." Said Naruto "At least I got some swords, but I don't want to tell the same story twice, so you will need to wait till I find Tou-san and Itachi-nii."
"Spoilsport." Said Shisui "Actually you were spotted by ANBU yesterday and rumors are flying all over the village as Kakashi is easy to recognize, same as you are and that overgrown butcher knife you call a sword."
"I sensed some chakra source, just at the edge of my range." Said Naruto thinking a bit and trying to remember chakra he felt when they were returning to Konoha. "It felt strangely familiar."
"It wasn't me." Said Shisui as they walked to the mansion. Naruto was getting a little scary with abilities he had so far shown and Kami only knew what else he could show as he was still developing and had at least five or so years of growth.
They entered the mansion and made their way upstairs to the part used for living.
"Into whom you run in this time?" Asked Itachi, when he saw swords carried by them "If I'm right those new swords you are carrying are two of seven swords."
"They are." Said Naruto "Let me think into who we ran. Momochi Zabuza, Rokusho Aoi and Kurosuki Raiga."
"Classic example of bad intel." Said Itachi "And by the looks I guess you killed all three of them."
"Yes" Agreed Naruto "And Asuma-san and Kakashi-sensei jokingly called me Konoha no Tsubasa Akuma."
"It fits you." Said Itachi "And propably you will be given it in your Bingo book entry."
o-0-o
"I decided to submit you for chunin exams." Said Kakashi when his team arrived on their usual training ground. "They will begin this Saturday inside of the Academy in room number 301. Until than you have free time, be vary that village is full of foreign shinobi and their senseis so be careful what do you say and to who."
"Hai" Said Naruto.
"Naruto be extremely careful around Iwa, Ame and Kiri as they propably read Bingo Books." Added their sensei and Naruto only nodded, remembering day when he saw his own entry in Bingo book.
o-0-o
Flashback
Naruto was reading book when Shisui entered the room holding small black book with one of pages being marked.
"You are famous." Simply said Shisui when he saw Naruto "Bounties on your head from three countries and B rank."
"I don't believe it until I will see it." Said Sasuke looking at Shisui
"Catch." Said Shisui and the back at Sasuke who grabbed it. "Open on marked page and read."
Sasuke opened on marked page and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Name – Uchiha Naruto
Nickname – Konoha no Tsubasa Akuma
Age – 12
Gender – M
Height – 155 cm
Weight – 55 kg
Physical description – wears dark beige shorts, black high collar shirt with Uchiha Crest coated in flames on the back of it, on his hands are gauntlets with armor plates on the outside. Has a long mane of blonde spiky hair, which looks similar to Uchiha Madara style, his eyes are violet and on his face are visible three whisker marks on each side.
Allegiance – Konohagakure no Sato, Uchiha clan
Ninja rank – genin
Threat level – B rank
Abilities:
Ninjutsu – seen using Katon ninjutsu, suspected mastery of the element, suspected strong Fuuton and Raiton affinity as is able to extend length of his blades.
Genjutsu – no data collected, seen using his Sharingan, excluding that lack of data
Taijustu – seen using Interceptor Fist and Hummingbird Fist, suspected good knowledge of those taijustu styles.
Kenjutsu – user of almost extinct style of kenjutsu called Shimmering Wave developed by Uzumaki clan, killed Momochi Zabuza and Kurosuki Raiga, approach with caution, do not engage in it unless with crushing advantage.
Kekkei Genkai – Sharingan, other not seen
Warnings – approach with caution, do not engage in kenjutsu
Bounties – Kiri – 45 million ryo dead or alive, Ame – 15 million dead, Iwa – 25 million ryo dead
(Flashback End)
o-0-o
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were walking through the streets of Konoha without any reason when they saw two Suna genin, one of them holding Sarutobi Konohamaru. Naruto only sighed, it was going to be annoying.
"I suggest that you release Konohamaru." Said Naruto looking at them, girl was quite nice, but that boy that was with her was weird and looked like a puppeteer, he could be a dangerous enemy or only an annoying one.
"That runt crashed into me." Said puppeteer pointing at Konohamaru, who was struggling against his grip and was trying to get away from him.
"I suggest that you lower him slowly and gently." Said Naruto, into his voice entering rarely seen ice and lack of emotions, which was sign of him getting into business mode. Sasuke looked at him as he recognized what was going to happen as he saw Naruto in such mood or mode only few times. He was usually a cheerful one, but when he was in this mood, it meant troubles for person that annoyed him. "Or things may turn ugly for you. And tell your friend to show himself."
"Kankurou release the boy, you are a disgrace to Suna." Said boy that appeared from the branch of tree behind them, he appeared in swirl of sand. He looked like he had severe case of insomnia. He blasted Kankurou with wave of killing intent, so strong that Kankurou paled a lot.
"Gaara..." Stuttered Kankurou and released Konohamaru who hid himself behind Naruto. Who only stood there and watched those three Suna shinobi.
"Kit, that boy is host to some bijuu, if I was going to guess he is the host of Shukaku known to you as Ichibi." Said Kyubi inside of Naruto mind when he saw that boy. "Everything suggest that, bags under his eyes and that gourd of sand on his back. He is a little unstable so be prepared for weird things from him. Not to mention that he was a little crazy or at least behaved as such."
"Hello Ichi." Said Naruto looking at Gaara "Furball was right, you are still as crazy as you used to be."
"Temari, he is the same as Gaara." Quietly said Kankurou, looking at only female member of his team, who slowly nodded and looked at Naruto. Wondering what was going to happen between those two as it looked like there were tensions between them.
"Mother says hello." Said Gaara looking at Naruto "I will enjoy spilling your blood."
"Ichibi is still as crazy as he used to be." Said Naruto glancing at Sasuke, and Sakura. "He told him to call himself mother, when he is a male. No wonders that other eight don't like him."
"I will enjoy spilling your blood." Said Gaara with crazed look in his eyes "What is your name?"
"Uchiha Naruto, Konoha no Tsubasa Akuma." Said Naruto and walked away. "Come on."
"What was that?" Asked Sakura after a moment, she was visibly shaken.
"Unstable jinchuuriki of Ichibi." Explained Naruto "He is half mad and he might blow the steam at any given moment."
"Lovely guy." Said Sakura "He looks scary."
"And he is." Said Naruto "If he will loose control over himself, I will be only one able to stop and beat him. Bijuu have a lot of chakra, so much that it is scary to even think about it. Even Ichibi which is the weakest one of them, still has a lot of it."
"We need to watch out for them." Said Sasuke "Second part is survival exercise and we might run into them during it and it will be dangerous."
"We have advantage." Said Sakura "We know the terrain or at least we know how to move around the trees, so we can stick to the treetops and avoid ground level."
"Or just avoid him entirely." Said Naruto "I should be able to do that rather easily as he is like a giant beacon of hate, anger and rage, and those emotions are easy to detect using my abilities."
o-0-o
Time quickly passed and soon it was the time for chunin exams to start, whole Konoha was abuzz with rumors and gossips about participants, many were wondering if there were going to be any interesting ones or not. In the morning of the day of the first part of it Naruto woke up quite early as he was excited about this exam. Apparently not only he as when he walked into dining room, he saw that Sasuke was already done with his breakfast, which was a weird thing for him to do, as he usually was the calmer one.
Naruto was wearing full body plate armor over his normal clothes and to it back he had strapped his swords and sabers, he looked quite scary and deadly as he was creating some sort of deadly aura around himself.
"You look a lot like Madara." Said Fugaku when he was able to get a better look of Naruto. "My grandfather used to tell us stories about Madara and you emulate Madara style more and more."
"Thanks Tou-san." Said Naruto and dug into his breakfast. He was hungry and needed a lot of energy, one disadvantage of whole lot of chakra was that it required a lot of food to fuel the body.
"Have fun." Said Itachi looking at his younger brothers "It's one of those one of the kind events. Enjoy it and maybe get to the finals."
"We will." Said Sasuke "Come on Naruto, or we will be late."
"Fine" Grumbled Naruto as he was finishing his breakfast. He finished it, grabbed rest of his gear and ran out of the mansion and through the district followed by Sasuke.
When they were at the entrance to the Academy they saw their last teammate, Sakura.
"Yo!" Said Sakura when she saw them.
"Hey Sakura-chan" Replied boys and looked at the building in front of them where they were going to take this exam. It was the building of ninja Academy, which brought both many good and many not so good memories to the whole team, but they generally enjoyed the time they had spent here during their education. They looked quite deadly when they stood side by side, signs of training with Kakashi were visible all over them. They stood prouder and more sure of themselves, also there was this specific aura surrounding them, one that was surrounding shinobi that knew what they were doing and why.
"Let's go!" Said Naruto as he pushed doors open and walked inside, they got to the second floor when they were stopped by large crowd yelling at two people.
"Trap to remove weaker ones." Whispered Sasuke when he saw what was written on the sign by the door around which was whole traffic jam. "There is weak genjutsu placed on it, so that we see different number than it is in reality.
"Let's go." Nodded Sakura and led her teammates up the stairs and onto third floor. When they walked onto third floor they were met by their sensei.
"Good that all of you are here." Said Kakashi when he saw them. "If one of you didn't come, I wouldn't allow rest to participate in this exam."
"So it can be taken only by teams?" Asked Sakura, just to be sure.
"That's right." Said Kakashi "Now get inside and good luck to all of you."
"Let get this show on a road." Said Naruto as he and his team walked forward to the doors leading into the room where they were going to take this exam. He and Sasuke pushed them open and were immediately blasted by killing intent coming from the whole room, but mainly from Iwa, Kiri and Ame.
"Is that supposed to be a killing intent?" Asked Naruto looking around not sure if that breeze was a killing intent.
"Looks like it is." Shrugged off Sasuke
"Then they don't know how true killing intent looks like." Said Naruto as he replied with his own and immediately three quarters of the room were on their knees, while some managed not to get thrown on them and some started vomiting onto the floor. "That is how true killing intent looks like."
"What the hell was that?" Asked Kiba weakly when he got up from the floor after getting thrown there by killing intent.
"Killing intent, bloodlust, ability to kill and project fear." Explained Sasuke who was used to such things "He just showed what he can do."
"Wow." Said Shikamaru "I saw him angry, but I never thought that it could be that bad."
"Get used to it." Said Sasuke "He can be even more scary."
"You shouldn't flaunt your strength." Said someone from behind them "Especially as a rookie."
"And you are?" Asked Ino turning back and looking at that silver haired person with spectacles.
"Yakushi Kabuto." Said silver haired one introducing himself "I took part in the exam five times and this is my sixth attempt. I managed to collect quite a lot of data on participants."
"Tell us what you know about Uchiha Naruto." Said someone from behind him.
"You know his name." Muttered Kabuto "You spoil the fun, but let's see." Kabuto shuffled the deck for a moment or two until he found the right card "Ah, here it is. Uchiha Naruto, is on genin team with Uchiha Sasuke, his adopted brother and Haruno Sakura, under sensei Hatake Kakashi. Known for killing Momochi Zabuza and Kurosuki Raiga. He is known as Konoha no Tsubasa Akuma for those kills and mastery of the blade."
"Not bad, but missed a lot of data." Said Naruto "What can you tell us about other villages?"
"Kumo sent a lot teams, Suna sent few and one of them has children of Kazekage. Iwa surprisingly sent twenty teams, Kiri is still recovering so only nine from it." Said Kabuto "There is also that new village Oto, they sent two teams of weaklings."
"Iwa is interesting." Said Naruto "I thought they still hated Konoha after last war."
"They do." Said Kabuto looking at Naruto "But rumors about certain Namikaze caused them to see what is going on. But other than that they want to see the strength of Konoha."
"Well, they will be surprised by what Uchiha can do." Said someone from behind Naruto
"Still sore about getting your ass kicked in front of the whole clan?" Asked him Naruto "If I remember correctly during our last tournament you were beaten into the ground."
"You were just lucky." Sneered Uchiha Hiruzen "And those two duels were won by your sensei, not you."
"Were I?" Asked Naruto with raised eyebrow and leaking some killing intent "It seems that you are still as arrogant as you used to be, don't you agree Sasuke?"
"Indeed he is." Said Sasuke looking at Hiruzen "He thinks that his name should give him everything and well, in our clan tournaments he is beaten by people younger than him."
"Shut up all of you!" Said someone that appeared from the cloud of smoke "Take your seats and be quiet."
Everybody hurried to their seats as that person wasn't the most friendly looking individual in Konoha, in fact he was scary and with her scarred head and black trench coat he looked quite scary. Naruto got lucky and received one of the best possible seats, especially for someone with his abilities as he was seated in the last row of room. And that was for Sharingan wielder and a sensor a gold mine, he could easily spot fake examinees and copy their moves with his eyes, while not being noticed, or he could just copy another Uchiha seated in the room or Hyuuga who would most propably got those answers.
"I'm Morino Ibiki and I will be your proctor for this stage of the exam." He said and looked all over the room "You have nine questions and sixty minutes to answer them, ten minutes before the end of the time, you will get last final question. If you are caught cheating you will loose two points, five times caught cheating and you are out. Your team score must be greater than six, but one team member with zero or less and you are out."
When Naruto looked at sheet placed in front of him his eyes widened in surprise, he didn't expect that kind of questions. They were well above genin level, also propably well above chunin level and usual genin wouldn't be able to answer them, but one that played with jutsu creation and tried to make his own some of them seemed easy.
o-0-o
"Looks like they started." Said Shisui who was standing on the roof of building opposing Academy and was watching it with Shisui and Kenji.
"Indeed they did." Agreed Kenji "Naruto and Sasuke seems to know what they are doing. Hiruzen had a small clash with Naruto earlier, but Ibiki is a proctor and it can be nasty."
"He will probably use on them his famous mind games and torture techniques." Said Shisui and shuddered when he thought about them, they were nasty. "I wonder how many of them will be out after this part."
"When they started there were three hundred or so teams." Said Itachi "During last exam he managed to scare something like thirty or forty percents of them, so I would guess around hundred and eighty or two hundred and ten will survive this round."
"Well, if he won't fail them, there is always Anko." Said Kenji "While many don't like her for her past sensei, she is definitely a good person for this job. She will scare them even before her part will begin."
"True" Said Shisui "I have a hunch that something bad will happen during this exam and that it is related to Naruto or Sasuke."
"I hope it isn't true." Said Itachi "But knowing their luck in finding troubles, they will most propably find something out of their league."
"As I usually don't agree with Nara, their saying is true." Said Kenji "It will be troublesome."
o-0-o
Ten minutes of exam passed relatively quietly and only sound that was heard was scribing of pens or pencils on the paper, while people tried to think the answers or were thinking how to get those answers through cheating without getting caught by proctors, which was a rather hard thing to do as they were being watched from many sides as proctors were placed along every single wall.
Naruto eyes turned into Sharingan as he decided to solve his test, he looked around trying to find a person that could give him answers until his gaze landed on Sakura from his own team and she seemed to be solving question after question. He started copying her movements, while his second eye hidden under few strands of his hair looked around to see what other rookies were doing and what Sasuke was doing.
It seemed that Sasuke had the same idea as Naruto and started copying answers from someone else using his Sharingan to do so. Sakura was solving this test on her own which wasn't really surprising as she was a bookworm and knew a lot of things, by a lot meaning just it. A lot. Hinata was copying answers using Byakugan to see other people sheets with questions from which she could copy them. Shino was using his kikaichu to gather data from other people, it was one of more popular usages of Aburame clan alliance with bugs, which was beneficial for both sides. Bugs got hosts for their colonies, while humans got powerful and numerous allies to support them in what they were doing. Kiba from what Naruto managed to see was using Akamaru to get data as his ninken was perched atop his head and was able to see sheets of other people and well, that wasn't considered cheating, which was a little weird.
Ino-Shika-Cho was using their tested formations to do the job, Shikamaru used his control over shadows to control Ino, who in turn used her mind jutsu to control Chouji. Shikamaru was writing his own answers and at the same time his shadow was forcing Ino to write them as well, while she was using her control over Chouji to force him to write them on his sheet of paper. It was one of better usages of their ancient clan cooperation as they did for centuries they created tactics and jutsu that used advantages of every clan jutsu and covered their weaknesses.
Few more minutes passed before first kunai started flying announcing first thrown out people and they were hitting often, oh yes, indeed they were hitting often. Sound of metal getting lodged in soft wood was almost constant addition to the monotonous silence that was previously reigning in the room.
"Time is up." Said Ibiki after they were writing for an hour "Time for the last question. If you fail to answer it, you will never progress beyond the rank of genin in forces of your village. You can withdraw now."
Many people looked around, glancing at their team-mates trying to decide what to do and multiple rose from their seats and walked out of the room. After ten minutes there were over thirty percents of participants gone from the room.
"Those that stayed passed." Said Ibiki "There was no tenth question, it was all about taking a risk. A very common thing for chunin to do as he is usually a commander of team or has a solo mission. You will need to decide which option is better and why, lives of your friends and comrades may depend on your decision. Congratulations on passing the first stage."
Once Ibiki said those words there was sound of breaking glass and into the room flew banner, which was pinned under the ceiling by two kunai and when it became visible in its full glory they were able to read. "Hot and Sexy Proctor of Chunin Exam – Mitarashi Anko!" Naruto only groaned when he saw who was going to be proctor of next stage, he heard enough about her to not like her.
"Second stage will take place inside of Training Ground Forty-four, you have thirty minutes to get there. Konoha shinobi don't help other villages." Said Anko before disappearing from the room in shunshin.
"Forty-four, why does it sounds familiar?" Said Naruto to nobody in particular as they walked to the place where it was.
"As it is known as Forest of Death." Said Sasuke lightly bonking Naruto in his head "ANBU trains there."
"For what that was?" Asked Naruto looking at his brother a little annoyed.
"For not paying attention to what aniki said some time ago about different special training grounds." Said Sasuke and looked at Sakura "It is one of the most deadly training ground in whole Konoha, ANBU uses to train there as animals are challenging and everything is trying to eat you."
Before Sakura could process the data they arrived in front of large fenced area with so many warning signs that it was almost impossible to see the fence below them. It was infamous training ground Forty-four.
"This field behind me is your playing ground." Said Anko looking over genin, some of them git scared when they heard roars of animals inside. "You will get one scroll and you will need to get second one. But first you need to sign those waivers so we won't be responsible for anything that might happen to you inside."
Three chunin started moving around distributing waivers which basically throw responsibly onto participants shoulders, so that Konoha would be clean if something nasty happened to one of taking part in the exam, which was almost sure thing to happen as it was a risky exam and one where people regularly lose their lives.
o-0-o
A/N – Naruto might seem as a powerful as he killed two members of Kiri no Shinobigatana Shinchinin Shu, but Zabuza was weakened by Asuma and was on the run. Raiga same thing, when you are on the run you can really train, you do not sleep much and you are constantly tensed. Which means that your skills are falling and you can be surprised, also underestimating as you won't treat squire or genin as a serious enemy, even if he is a genius and can do impressive things with his blade. About chakra exhaustion thing, he was pushing crazy amount of chakra into his limbs to be able to block stronger enemy and was up and running for a whole day, first to get to Nami, later he killed Zabuza and after that hundreds of Kage Bunshin to get data.
Being put into Bingo book might seem like a lot, but nobody will let such person go unnoticed as he just killed two that should be an elite of Kiri. And before you will start yelling that elite shouldn't loss to him... I can name probably ten or so commanders that were defeated by almost complete no names.
I wonder if someone will guess about what are talking Shisui and Itachi, you should easily.