AN: This is the 21st chapter. I can't believe I'm almost done with this part of the epic! Including this chapter, I only need 10 more until I can begin the next part. Anyway, I hope that I can finish it within a few months… hopefully by September I can get started with the next part.
Anyway, some people have been asking me about whether or not Sai will be showing up, since Yamato did. Well, once and for all, I'm going to answer that: Sai will be appearing in the next part, where his appearance will be more relevant. I've always said that I like putting some of the new manga elements (the ones past chapter 280, I mean), so you'll be seeing some of the newer characters in this chapter as well. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. You don't? Then just read! Heehee.
And as for Hinata being part of Naruto's team, it's really more of an excuse to have more NaruHina interaction. It sounds funny, but I'm not even kidding. I've had this team-up envisioned since the beginning of my epic, and I'm not about to change it. The Jounin Exam arc was the core of the build-up of the epic – all the events before and after were built around it, or else inspired by it. Which is why I was so excited in making it.
Also, remember that OC I introduced in the last chapter, named Okame? Well, disregard her. I edited her out and replaced her with a canon character named Aoba, who's a Chuunin. Someone made me realize that it's better to have a canon character if I can help it.
All right – let the longest arc of this epic commence! In this chapter, we'll be introduced to a whole new slew of OCs (I mean, come on, you don't expect the people to fight the same enemies, right?) and a new scenario. I don't want to give anything else away.
Thanks for the reviews, you guys! I was so happy – in 24 hours, I managed to get 40+ reviews! Now, I reached the 1100 mark faster than I expected! Actually, I didn't even think I'd get that much reviews in this span of time. It was more of me thinking that I'd probably only get at the most 25 reviews every chapter. So thanks to all of you who made it possible!
Chapter 21: Brain Drain – Friends and Enemies
"Are you all set?"
"I sure am. It's too bad that we won't get to do a little interfering ourselves, yeah."
"It's not the time to do that. We're just going to do a little background check on the two Jinchuuriki we're going to capture."
The four silhouettes walked the dark labyrinth towards the exit of the hideout, anticipating the new challenge, however dull it was. It gave them something to do other than tend to the captured tailed demons, to stretch their muscles a bit.
"Damn. I wanted to have a little fun. I swear, you're so uptight, Itachi." Kisame stuck a pinkie into his ear and dug into it. "You're just the Leader's little pet, arentcha?" Tobi and Deidara roared with laughter, and Itachi's face creased very slightly in between his brows.
"Oh, do be quiet," he said. "I want to get the job done quickly."
"What," Tobi said jokingly, "so you can go cozy up with Leader's little niece?"
Itachi shifted his gaze from the front to Tobi's mask. It was a mere glance, but it was cold enough to stop Tobi in his tracks. Deidara could almost swear he felt the temperature drop as goose bumps crawled his skin, but Kisame merely grumbled. He was used to Itachi's little idiosyncrasies, particularly his denial of having deeper relationships with certain people, like Naosume, or his little brother.
"Let's just go, Itachi," he grunted. "I thought you wanted to finish this quickly."
The Uchiha genius closed his eyes, and calmly opened them again. "Aa," he murmured, and started walking quickly again. There was no time to lose – the Jounin Exams were about to start, and they weren't about to miss the chaos that would ensue.
The forest was cool and relaxing as the Konoha group went on with their journey to Hidden Gem, located in the South. The autumn air touched on their skins, but it was only cool enough to calm them before the storm.
However, there was one person who didn't feel relaxed with the current situation. Kiba glared ruefully in the direction of his female teammate. Or rather, my former female teammate, he thought grumpily. He felt that he and Shino they deserved more than this – to be left by Hinata, that is. I mean, I know she's all over Naruto and all, but is that really any reason to totally leave us?
Hinata noticed Kiba's barely hidden glare directed at her back (it was hard not to, since the glare was coupled with her own heightened senses) and decided to walk beside him. "Oh, Kiba-kun," she murmured, trying to soften Kiba's pout by gently smiling at him. "Do you really think that I'm abandoning you and Shino-kun, and Akamaru-kun?"
The Inuzuka couldn't stay angry with Hinata for long, and his baleful expression eventually melted. "I can't help it," he confessed. "You, me and Shino, and Akamaru, and even Kurenai-sensei, have been together for so long, I just couldn't imagine any of us deferring from the team."
Hinata blinked, then giggled. "I'm not deferring from the team, Kiba-kun! Please don't think that!"
"Then what are you doing?" Kiba demanded. "I mean, you decided to be in a different team, and you're telling me you're not deferring?"
"No, I'm not," Hinata explained. "This is my chance to broaden my horizons… so to speak. I want to prove to myself I can exist beyond being a Hyuuga and a member of Team Kurenai. It's moving out of my comfort zone to try new things. Plus, I trust Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan enough to let them help me with this move." She smiled softly. "But when this is over and done with, I'm coming back to you guys with all the things I've learned. I would never leave you guys completely, if I could help it."
Kiba considered her for a few moments, then shrugged. "Well, if that's what you want, then I'm fine with it. As long as you're part of our team-"
"It'll always be our team," Hinata promised. "It'll never be my 'former' team."
Kiba grinned. "Good enough for me." He then put on a mock serious face. "Just be careful of Naruto. I don't want him trying anything on you." Hinata blushed, frowning at the brunet reproachfully, and he let out a bark-like laugh.
In the other part of the group walking the forest, Naruto was looking contemplative, and Sakura decided she should be concerned. "What's up?" she asked cheerfully, peering into Naruto's face, his blue-eyed gaze in the far-off distance.
"I was thinking," he said, "you know, that it was my birthday last week, but we never got to celebrate or anything. So I thought that maybe we could a party when we get back… because I really wanted to, but we got all caught up with training and everyone pretty much forgot all about it, even me."
Sakura began to laugh. "Is that it, Naruto?" she asked. "I thought it would be something totally serious, like the Akatsuki or something!"
Naruto pretended to be hurt. "Aww, you don't care about my birthday at all, Sakura-chan? That hurts, y'know!"
"That's not it, either," Sakura said, still giggling. "I was planning the same thing! You needn't worry about it, because I wanted to do something like that for you too! It'll be a huge bash, with all our friends, and we'll celebrate not only your birthday, but also finishing the Jounin Exams!"
"Yeah!" the blond exclaimed. "It'll be like a celebratory party when we all become Jounin!"
"W-ell, I wouldn't go that far," Sakura replied, chortling nervously. "I mean, we don't really know whether or not we're actually going to make Jounin."
"Oh come on, where's your faith?" Naruto asked, still grinning. "We're going to make it, believe me! We're just too good! Have you seen us go against all the bad guys we've had to face in our entire lifetime? We're AWESOME!"
"Don't count your slugs before they're summoned," Sakura said cautiously. "We can't afford to be overconfident."
"I summon frogs, but that's not the point," Naruto replied. "I know we're going to be facing a lot of really good people, but if we just put our faith in our skills, we'll rock this exam! We'll even make Jounin!"
The emerald-eyed girl laughed. "Nothing can dampen your spirits, huh? Well, let's hope your optimism can get us to the top."
The group continued trekking the mountain range hour upon hour, sometimes converging in with their teams, sometimes dividing into clusters of individual interests. Currently, Neji noticed that everyone seemed to take the time to converse with their own teammates. Hinata, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were having a quiet conversation of their own; Shikamaru was in a huddle with Ino, Chouji, and Aoba; and Lee was preaching about youthful energy to his teammates – Tenten, Kiba, and Shino.
"Come over here, Neji!" Lee called. "You're the person who needs to hear about Gai-sensei's new principle of youth the most!"
"Give it a rest, Lee," Tenten joked. "Neji's too busy playing leader. All that authority is getting to his head."
"Oh, shut up, Tenten," Neji said, coming over to their group. "You've been teasing me about that for weeks. It tends to get old."
"Would you rather that I tease you about being the only Jounin in this group?" Tenten asked, smiling widely. "Because, trust me – I can make a lot of jokes about that too."
"Well, anyway," Neji said quickly, stopping Lee from launching into another speech about the springtime of youth, "we've already passed the border of the Mountain Country, and we'll be arriving at Hidden Gem soon. And," he added as Tenten opened her mouth, her eyes alight with mischief, "no jokes about being a tour guide either, Tenten." She stuck her tongue out in cheap retaliation.
The news spread through the group, and soon, everyone was loudly anticipating their arrival. "I hope they have hot showers there!" Ino exclaimed. "All this walking is making my skin sticky!"
"You worry too much," Shikamaru said simply.
"I want to freshen up!" Ino said. "Is it really a crime to not want to smell like a sand beetle-ridden hermaphrodite?"
Shikamaru was at a loss for words, completely clueless. "Uh, is there someone you're trying to insult, Ino?"
Ino huffed and crossed her arms. "Never mind. You're just so dense sometimes, Shikamaru."
Chouji laughed amusedly at the exchange, munching on some chips as usual. Aoba, a little more aware about the team's dynamics, asked him quietly, "Is this what you were talking about when you said something about a love triangle?"
"Let's just say Shikamaru can get a bit clueless as to how deep-seated the feud between Ino and Temari-san is," Chouji said amiably. "I doubt he even knows those two are fighting about him."
Soon enough, they could see the gates of their destination in the distance, and sprawling. The red tiled roof looked as if it was gilded with gold at the edges, and the wall was etched with artful swirls and marks. They joined the stream of other Jounin hopefuls who were converging from different directions, even as they were hundred or more meters away from the gate.
"For a new village, it sure looks grand," Chouji said, and everyone agreed. They joined the lines of Chuunin and their Jounin guides, waiting for their turn to get into the village. Finally, a shinobi with a diamond etched on his hitai-ate stamped all their passports and gave them maps of the village.
"Welcome to Hidden Gem."
If they thought the entrance was grand, the inside of the village was even grander. Another kunoichi lead their group through the village, pointing out certain buildings as they walked. "Here in Hidden Gem, we have rich mines and an even richer culture of artisans. Many civilians and even some shinobi make their living as artisans, and in the past two years we've been building this village, we have used these artistic skills to fall back on whenever the shinobi business is not doing so well. You can say we have a dual source of income here, both of which we do extremely well."
She led them into a grand building with a powder blue tiled roof and white walls, standing about four stories high. The surrounding gardens looked beautiful and well-tended, with beautiful flowers at every turn. "This is the central building of the village," the kunoichi informed them. "The first two floors are taken up by the Academy students, while the third and fourth floors are used for transcription and archiving purposes, as well as the Yamakage's office, certain research labs, and the meeting rooms. You will be briefed about the Exam in the Main Hall of the Academy, in the first floor."
When they arrived at the briefing place, they found that there was already a lot of Chuunin from various villages gathered in the enormous hall, and even beyond it. Sasuke estimated about a hundred or so shinobi had gathered in the hall, with even more coming into the village. The atmosphere, which had been relaxed while they entered the village, suddenly became tenser and more suffocating. There was a hum of cautious conversation lingering in his ears, and many eyes furtively darted this way and that. He couldn't see one friendly face – which was just as well, because his own was far from friendly.
The Konoha shinobi gathered in one place, trying not to get mixed up with the other shinobi. Hinata fidgeted with her lilac jacket – she didn't do well in tense situations, and her only way of coping was to make herself as unnoticeable as possible, trying to make her moves slow and small.
This was why she blanched when she realized she had yelped out loud when someone tapped her shoulder. People turned to stare, and she shook her head and waved her hands, trying to convey she hadn't meant to startle anyone. She turned to look at the person who had startled her.
She was a strange looking girl – that much the pearl-orbed kunoichi could say. Her long black hair, flowing from out of a glittery head scarf, had greenish tinge to it, and her eyes were amber gold, with a certain catlike shape to them. She wore what Hinata could only say was a mix of gypsy and kunoichi styles, and a strange beaded necklace around her neck. But the strangest thing of all was that she had a couple of whisker-like marks on either cheek – just like Naruto-kun's, Hinata realized.
"Hey, I didn't mean to startle you," the girl said cheerfully, grinning (Hinata noticed she had rather sharp canines). "I was just thinking that you looked like the kind of girl who might like her fortune told."
Hinata stared while the girl whipped out a deck of cards from her weapons pouch. "Do I have to pay?" Hinata asked meekly, for lack of anything to say.
The girl laughed. "Heck no. I'm doing it for fun this time," she said with a wink. "I don't do well in these boring situations." She sat down on the floor, caring less for the fact that she was drawing attention to herself. Hinata hesitantly followed suit. The girl shuffled the deck, explaining, "I will draw three cards, which will represent your personal past, present, and future."
She drew one card, and showed it to Hinata. "The reversed Ten Of Cups," she said. "You've had some conflict in the past, concerning a relationship. I'm going to take a guess at… filial. Correct?"
"That's right," Hinata said with a nod, watching the girl draw out another card.
She showed Hinata the card. "The Fool," she said. "You're trying out new things and trying to break the usual routine of life."
"I… yes," Hinata said, getting more bewildered and fascinated. Fortune-telling was never her thing – it was more of Tenten's. Now she thought she understood why this was the weapons mistress's favorite hobby.
The girl shuffled the deck and drew the last card, keeping it facing away from Hinata. "Are you ready?" she asked. "This card will reveal one likely path of your destiny, but you're welcome to try and fight against it, or go with the flow." She showed midnight-haired girl the final card. "The Empress," she announced. "It means that you're going to enter into a relationship, possibly romantic, with someone who holds, or will hold a position of power."
Hinata's cheeks became rosy red, and the fortune-teller laughed. "Did I get you thinking about that one?" she asked. "I'm guessing it really is likely to be romantic, now that you're blushing."
"Well, I kind of hope so," Hinata said earnestly. "I should introduce myself. I'm-"
"Hyuuga Hinata, former heiress of the Hyuuga clan of Konoha," the girl said. "Humbled to meet you."
"How did you know?" Hinata asked, impressed. "Is that part of your fortune-telling as well?"
"No, you're just famous that way," the girl said, giggling. "I mean, those eyes – kind of makes one think, you know? Anyway, my name's Nekotachi Midori."
"It's an honor," Hinata said, bowing deeply. "I've heard of the surname. You're part of that clan of gypsy ninjas, right?"
"Yup," Midori said. "We wander around the Lightning Country, and we've allied ourselves with Hidden Cloud, even if we don't live there. I'm taking the Jounin Exams with my Akai-oneechan, and my cousins Aoi and Shiro." She smiled. "Anyway, I'm glad to have met you, Hinata-san. It's nice to know one other friendly face in here."
"I feel the same way, Midori-san," Hinata said, smiling back. "I've been feeling tense about this place. It's nice to be put at ease."
As the two girls got acquainted with each other, finally relaxing a bit, Sakura felt the exact opposite. She could feel murderous intent heavy in the air, and what was more, a lot of it was directed at her. She felt uncomfortable – it hardly happened that anyone targeted her at all. Usually, it was Naruto or Sasuke, or Tsunade. She couldn't think of anything she could have done to anger anyone.
She closed her eyes and tried to feel from where it was coming from. She could feel it stabbing from one direction, and she turned her head there, opening her green eyes.
The moment she met two pairs of maroon eyes, she was certain it was there the killing intent was coming from. Standing a few meters from her, slightly obscured by the crowd, were two teens, a boy and a girl, both with sandy-brown hair, deep-set maroon eyes, and outfits that looked as though they had lived in the desert. Suna shinobi, Sakura realized. She was sure that she had not angered anyone from the Sand – she knew she had a good relationship with Gaara and his siblings, three of the most powerful people in Sand. She had not even seen these two before. Why did they want to kill her?
Then it clicked.
Sasori was from Hidden Sand, Sakura realized. These two may have been affiliated with him. His students… or children, maybe. No, it's more likely he was their teacher. Do they want revenge?
She decided to make it seem as if she had not realized this, and casually directed her gaze somewhere else. If they were looking to kill her, at least she could mislead them into thinking she was not on her guard.
"She noticed," the boy said quietly to his twin sister. "She's on her guard. This will make it harder to kill her."
"I don't care, Seikatsu," the girl said defiantly. "It doesn't even matter whether or not she's on her guard. She killed Sasori-sama. She deserves to die a painful death for taking away the person who mattered most to us."
"We'll do that, Shikyo," Seikatsu said soothingly. "But don't forget – we want to pass this Exam too. The higher up we are in the chain of command, the better are our chances of impressing the Akatsuki and being let into it. Let's do this with discretion."
Shikyo harrumphed. "I want to kill her now. But if you want it that way, then fine. We can't compromise our teamwork, either."
"That's the spirit," Seikatsu said, pulling her pigtails affectionately, and she slapped his hands in annoyance.
On the other side of the room, Sasuke had not noticed Sakura's discomfort, confronted with his own problem. He thought he had seen a few familiar faces, and upon searching for hitai-ates with a musical note etched on it, he knew he was right.
Gathered in one corner of the room were five Sound nin, one of which Sasuke knew he had seen before. Juugo, the source of the enzyme that produces the Curse Seal, he thought. Instead of feeling threatened, however, he rolled his eyes. He had expected this much from Orochimaru, who probably knew he was going to take the Exam, but he didn't think that it would be that particular person. He knew about Juugo's sudden bouts of unwanted bloodlust, and it was probably torturous to him that he was surrounded by so many people he could kill but did not want to.
I hope Orochimaru isn't planning on scaring me, because that would be just pathetic, Sasuke thought. Well, at the very least, this Jounin Exam is going to be more interesting than I could have ever hoped.
"Uchiha Sasuke's here, just as Orochimaru-sama predicted," a bespectacled woman said to her Sound teammates. "This is his last chance to get Sasuke before we reach the three-year mark. If that happens and Sasuke hasn't been recaptured, Taido will become Orochimaru-sama's body."
"Frankly, Karin, I don't care," a man with light blue hair and noticeably sharp teeth said carelessly. "I'm just here because Orochimaru wanted me to be. I don't want to be here with any of you."
"I don't like this either, particularly because you're here, Suigetsu," Karin said venomously. "But Orochimaru-sama honored me with this assignment."
"Why don't you just admit that you're happy that you get to see darling Sasuke in all his bishounen glory and awesomeness?" Suigetsu asked accusingly, grinning in provocation. "That's the reason you're 'honored,' isn't it?"
"Grow up, you two," another woman said, her voice spelling boredom in every syllable. "I spend my days with genin brats who fight less than you do, and at least when they do it, I can threaten them with a jutsu or two."
"I guess we should listen to our 'jounin guide,' hey guys?" Suigetsu said amusedly. "You ought to get used to all the fangirling, Tsubame. Karin's going to be with us for a long, long time."
"You little-" Karin snarled, stepping forward, but Juugo and the man called Taido held her still.
"We can't fight among ourselves," Taido, a teen with white-blond hair and grey eyes, said quietly. "It's a stupid thing to do." Karin crossed her arms and bit her tongue to restrain herself. Suigetsu looked smug. "Let's just focus on the task at hand. But let's not talk about it here – let's just get through the next few Exams and plan our move while we're taking it. We have to pass them, though. We can't tail Sasuke if we can't even get through the rounds."
Tsubame fanned herself with an elegant gold and red folding fan. "All right – I'll be waiting for you guys at the end of the labyrinth. I'll make sure I have a plan by then." The rest of the group nodded in agreement.
The crowd began to part in the middle, causing a small commotion. Neji looked up from his conversation with Tenten and Shino to see what was going on. "What happened, Neji?" the brunette of the group asked.
"Someone's passing by," Neji said. "It's – oh."
"Who?" Shino asked.
"Remember that ambassadorial team sent to Konoha a couple of years back?" Neji asked. "The one from Hidden Glass?"
"Yeah," Tenten muttered, frowning darkly. "One of them was an arrogant ass who looked down everyone. Don't tell me he's here?"
"Yeah, he is," Neji replied. "And looks like he brought an entire entourage with him." True enough, there was a whole bunch of Glass shinobi streaming in, enough to make a small army.
"Who?" Shino pressed, his confusion evident even under his hood and sunglasses. The crowd had broken into murmured conversation once again, possibly because of the entry of such an arrogant looking young man, his electric blue eyes smug under his dark brown bangs with blond streaks.
"Hokujo Bokun," Tenten replied, still looking as if she ate something unpleasant. "He caused trouble in Konoha awhile back, I dunno if you've heard. He was sent by his village on an ambassadorial mission to Konoha, and his arrogant attitude eventually trashed any relationship with Hidden Glass because Tsunade-sama got so irritated with him. I don't know why he's still held in high regard by his countrymen – he's cost them a powerful ally, after all."
"There's probably some issues in Glass we don't know about," Neji said. "Let's not mind it. I do know that Bokun is a whole lot of trouble – I've heard that he's kind of powerful. Try to get through the Exams without aggravating him. It'll get messy if have anything to do with him."
Moments later, a door opened on the balcony overlooking the Main Hall, and from there emerged several people with Gem hitai-ates. One of them stepped up and called for everyone's attention. All conversation stopped, and all waited for her to speak. "Good morning to all of you. Welcome to the Jounin Exams, hosted by the Hidden Gem Village of the Mountain Country. In a few minutes, we will begin the first examination. Please line up by team at the three doors there, where you will be given a team number. Then sit down on your assigned places, and wait for the briefing for the first exam."
The shinobi in the room complied almost noiselessly. "I hope you don't do what you did in our first Chuunin Exams and make enemies of everyone," Sasuke muttered into Naruto's ear.
"I'm not that stupid," Naruto hissed back. "At least, not anymore."
"You had better not be. I don't want you costing this for all of us."
Naruto glared at Sasuke. "If that's a challenge, don't expect me to take it sitting down."
"No, I don't expect you to," Sasuke said, ending the conversation with a meaningful glance at him.
The registration ended, and everyone was now seated in their respective places. Their examiner was the woman who had given the instructions awhile ago. She was a stern-looking kunoichi, who looked as if no one could put any mischievous behavior past her. "The written exam," she began, "will test your problem-solving skills. There are three problems in the questionnaire, and you are given fifteen minutes to answer them all. All those who have wrong answers or no final answer for any question by the time thirty minutes is up fail this year's exam. The Jounin examiners will hand the tests to you now."
"Well, we have Sakura-chan with us!" Naruto cheered. "We're going to get this, no problem!"
"I told you not to be overconfident," Sakura said, secretly pleased by the praise. "For all you know, I might not be able to do it."
The problem was handed to them, and when all were given the papers, the proctor said, "Start now."
The four of them put their heads together to read the first problem. "The four of you are trapped in a four meter-deep ravine, with twenty enemy ninja at either side of the open field, unaware that you are in the ravine, but are on orders to find and kill you. Among you, you only have five kunai, and can only expend minimal chakra for three uses of Kawarimi, with your medic only having enough chakra to heal two major wounds, plus for the use of Kawarimi. The safe point is in the trees fifty meters from the ravine. How do you escape into the safe point?"
They stared at the problem for a while, each of them with different depths of comprehension. "Isn't it enough to just run as fast as we can?" Naruto asked, speaking first.
"This is a general question," Sakura said, frowning on the paper. "Not all shinobi have the stamina that you have."
"Let's look at the next problem," Hinata suggested.
"You have been assigned to get a scroll from a shrine, but it is protected with a wooden encryption," Shikamaru read to his teammates, a few tables from Hinata and the others. "On the encryption reads 'All enemies may pass, but they must speak the word of friendship first.' There are blocks with syllables that will spell out the password. What is the password?"
"Password…" Ino said distantly, looking contemplative. "The clue should be in the encryption."
"The word of friendship?" Aoba asked. "Like maybe 'Hello,' or… 'Nice to meet you?'"
"Can't be," Chouji said. "That would be too random. Why don't we try the next one?"
"All right," Shino said, two tables behind Chouji and his teammates. "The third problem reads: In a hostage situation, the four of you are assigned to rescue the children and women inside. However, your orders are to rescue only one group of people and to wait for reinforcements, because of the risks involved in rescuing both parties. What do you do?"
"The children should take top priority," Tenten said right away. "They're more defenseless than grown women."
"But the women are civilians," Kiba countered. "They could just as easily be taken advantage of."
"The power of youth should be able to prevail," Lee said in all seriousness. "The children must be the top priority."
The groups argued and put out theories silently among them, while their jounin guides watched from the raised decks in the room. Neji activated his Byakuugan to focus more on his cousin and her team – he couldn't help but be partial to them. So far, they had answers on the sheet of paper, but they kept crossing them out that soon, their paper had become messy. He smiled wryly. His own Jounin Exam had been something of the sort as well.
He glanced to the side, and found that he was seated with several of the Hidden Glass Jounin. He hadn't told anyone, but he was suspicious as to the fact that there were so many Hidden Glass Chuunin in the exam. Hidden Glass was one of those villages that were falling into deterioration because there were other shinobi villages competing to serve the countries they themselves were servicing. Hidden Gem was one of them, and it was currently the richest among all the rival villages.
Neji knew that it could just be him and his paranoia, but he had seen these things happen. The exams could have been just a cover for the Glass nin to sneak into the village. He knew for sure that it was the same strategy that the Sand shinobi had used to invade Konoha three years back. Gem was an ideal target for a deteriorating village, after all – it had overflowing resources to be taken advantage of, and shinobi relatively new to the business. The brunet chief of the Hyuuga made up his mind to look into it. After all, Hidden Gem was a prospective ally.
"Only five minutes left," the proctor announced. "Please start finalizing your answers now."
"What do we do?" Naruto asked, panicking. "We don't have an answer for the third problem yet!"
"It's pretty easy, actually," Sasuke said smugly. All three of them blinked at him in puzzlement. "Just write what I tell you to, Hinata." The midnight-haired girl stared at him, then began taking down the dictation.
Five minutes later, the examiners began collecting the papers and correcting them. "Do you think we got the answers?" Ino asked Shikamaru. "I wasn't too sure about what we put down on the first question."
"Well, using Henge no Jutsu instead of Kawarimi with the minimal chakra left was the obvious answer," the genius replied. "The other information looked to me as if they were only put there for distraction."
"It was a viable plan," Aoba agreed. "Henge takes up about as much chakra as using Kawarimi."
In the other table, Lee and Kiba were obsessively discussing their answers as well. "The password was 'Friendship' all along?" the dog owner asked incredulously. "I still can't believe it until now."
"Well, if you look at it logically," Lee began, "The encryption read, 'Speak the word of friendship.' It meant to literally say the word 'Friendship.' Any other word would have been illogical."
"Well, whatever the answer is," Tenten said, a little exasperated with the roundabout conversation they were having for the past few minutes, "it's too late to change it now. Just keep quiet and wait for the proctor to tell us if we pass or not."
Meanwhile, Naruto was glaring at Sasuke, unhappy about the answer. "It was a really stupid answer, Sasuke," he said with an accusatory scowl. "I mean, it doesn't show any kind of strategy at all. It wasn't even in the choices!"
"There weren't any choices," Sasuke retorted. "It just said, 'What do you do?' It didn't say anything about choosing between the children and the women. When you solve a problem, you do it at the source."
"Sasuke-kun's right, now that I think about it," Sakura said, nodding in agreement. "The source was the hostage-taker's gang, and to defeat them silently one by one was the best choice. The mission was to rescue the hostages, after all, and one way or the other, even if the order was to rescue only one group, in the end, both were saved because the team did something unexpected."
A little more time passed, and finally, the proctor announced, "We have the results of the written exam." The room became quieter and more attentive to her. "This exam, as the people who got the right answers found out, was to test whether or not you can think outside the box. To do something your enemies don't expect increases the chances of completing the mission successfully."
Naruto and his teammates looked at one another. "We definitely thought outside the box, right?" Hinata asked hopefully.
"It was more of finding loopholes around the questions," Sakura said, laughing. "Our answers almost sound like excuses. But yeah, it was thinking outside the box."
"With me are the names of the passers of the exam," the proctor continued. "There are 24 teams out of 46 that are moving on to the next exam. Those who are called should move to the next room for the next exam's briefing. Those who are not called will be barred from continuing this exam, but are welcome to stay and watch the rest of the exam progress."
She began calling out the names of the passers. "The Nekotachi team of Hidden Cloud," she announced. Hinata turned to see Midori and her teammates stand up and move to the next room. The gypsy kunoichi caught her eye and waved happily. Hinata waved back, her stomach flip-flopping as they waited to see if their names would be called.
Soon after, Shikamaru and his teammates were called. "See you guys," Shikamaru said as they passed by Naruto and his team's table. They waved back, and both sides wished each other luck.
The proctor called more names. Sakura noticed that the twins she had seen staring at her had also gone to the next room. She suddenly wondered if she should hope to pass the written exam – she certainly didn't want to see them again. After them, Lee and his teammates were called into the next room as well. "Well, that's all of the Konoha group, except us," Naruto said. "I hope they'll call us soon."
Neji watched the proceedings, breathing a little easier when Lee and Tenten passed through the doors of the next room. He also took note of how many Hidden Glass teams went through. He was a little surprised that seven teams out of fourteen passed. It was too much of a coincidence that exactly half of the number passed, Bokun's team among them.
Meanwhile, Sasuke watched as the Sound team went through the doors as well. He met Taido's grey eyes, and he could almost swear that he saw a small smirk flicker on the blond's face for a fraction of a second. Soon, however, they disappeared from his view. The number of teams in the room was dwindling quickly. He began to wonder whether or not all their efforts of preparing for the Jounin Exams were in vain.
He breathed a sigh of relief when the proctor called, "Haruno, Hyuuga, Uchiha, and Uzumaki."
Naruto grinned widely at his teammates. The girls smiled happily back, and Sasuke merely nodded. "I told you we could do it!" the hyperactive blond cheered, jumping up out of his seat and skipping into the other room.
The first hurdle was over.
"Oi, look over here!" a voice said from overhead. The people composing the 24 teams looked up to see a jovial-looking old man with the Gem hitai-ate, surrounded by serious-looking Jounin of Gem. "I'll go straight to the point, okay? The second exam is all about impressing me and my panel of judges with any technique you invented, or else made an innovation of. Just make sure it isn't anything we've seen. You'll be fighting Iwa Bunshin, and you'll be given points for the quickness of the Bunshin's defeat and the power of the technique. If not all in your team impresses the panel, the whole team goes down. Easy enough to understand, right?"
Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata stared blankly at the old shinobi, as did two-thirds of the Chuunin in the room. He had spoken so quickly that most didn't have the time to register what he had said. Sakura, along with a very few others, seemed to be alert and ready. "Could you… um, repeat what he said?" Naruto asked his pink-haired friend.
"Just impress him by quickly beating his Iwa Bunshin with an original technique," Sakura droned, staring in space, trying to think of a technique she could use. "Easy to understand, but hard to do."
"What's so hard about showing his panel of old geezers an original technique?" Naruto asked dubiously. "We already have our own!"
"Think about it, freakin' idiot," Sasuke said snappishly. "If we show them a powerful original technique, it should be easy for any opponent of ours to think of a counter for them."
"We won't be able to use it in an actual battle," Hinata said slowly, realizing the consequence. "And we just learned about having the element of surprise, too. Should we start inventing jutsus now?"
"That'll be hard," Sakura replied. "If we think of a new jutsu now, we can only try it out in theory. We won't be able to practice it. No, I think that our best bet is to think really hard of an easy but effective original but tested jutsu now."
They were given fifteen minutes to theorize new jutsus, or else try to remember any move they had created in any of the battles they had done in the past years as shinobi. "I've thought of one of mine," Sakura announced, ending the contemplative silence among the four of them. "How about you guys?"
"I'm torn apart," Hinata confessed. "I want to use my only original jutsu, but that would mean showing my trump card."
"I suppose you'll just have to improvise," Sakura said. "Do you know any elemental jutsu that you can incorporate with your original one?"
Hinata thought hard. "I suppose I could… but… hmm… what if…?"
"Well, I have a technique I'd like to try," Naruto said. "I've been thinking of doing it for a long time now."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I suppose it will involve your Kage Bunshin, won't it?" he asked a little sarcastically.
"How'd you know?" Naruto asked with a suspicious scowl, missing the sarcasm. "I kept it a secret!"
"Just a wild guess," Sasuke said with a smirk.
"So, what about you?" the still scowling jinchuuriki asked. "Do you have a technique in mind?"
"I'm not likely to tell you, am I?" the Uchiha rejoined, still looking self-satisfied. "If I tell you, it would be stupid of me."
They were led to another large hall, and from the balcony, the looked down on an empty area divided into four. "You'll be demonstrating your techniques in one of the four areas, for a quicker judging," the head examiner for the exam explained. "Take care that you don't destroy the area too much."
Naruto leaned forward on the railing, watching the first four teams gather in the fight area. One of the first teams was Lee's team. "You go, Thick Brows!" he yelled, waving his hand enthusiastically. Lee gave him a quick salute.
Here we're going to have our first taste of the physical strength of our opponents, Sasuke thought as he watched Lee through his demonstration. Just watching will help us glean information as to everyone's fighting style.
Lee was about fifteen seconds into his demo, which was when he decided to bring out his new technique. He rushed to the head proctor's Iwa Bunshin with a speed that could have rivaled Sasuke's, and jumped up, spinning around in the air and kicking around his legs in a much faster and stronger fashion than Konoha Senpuu. He followed through with a punch just as his legs were connected with the Iwa Bunshin's head. The Iwa Bunshin dissipated.
"Nice," the head proctor said, grinning. "What do you call it?"
Lee grinned back with a 1000-watt smile, his teeth gleaming. With a thumbs-up, he said, "Dainamikku Konoha Senpuudan (1)!"
It was obvious that the proctor thought highly of his taijutsu technique. After Lee came Tenten, standing against a new Iwa Bunshin. "Start!"
Tenten didn't waste any time drawing out a smaller scroll than the one she carried on her back, and summoning a huge bunch of kunai. The Iwa Bunshin ran to her, and with twenty kunai in each of her hands, Tenten jumped as high as she could. Once she was high enough, she threw all of the kunai at the speed of bullets. The clone dodged the barrage, but the weapons mistress was prepared. With a flick of her fingers, she revealed that she had strings that connected the kunai to them, and Tenten quickly directed the kunai to wrap the string around the Iwa Bunshin. The wrap was loose enough for the kunai to embed into the Iwa Bunshin. Tenten pulled to tighten the wrap, and waved her arms to pull the Iwa Bunshin and whip him around in the air. She ended it with slamming the bunshin on the nearest wall, and it dissipated.
"Ouch," the proctor said, wincing. "That technique would be devastating to a real person. And what do you call it?"
Tenten drew her brows closer. "I haven't thought about it." Then she smiled slowly. "I'm thinking… Hagane Ame no Jutsu (2)."
"I like it," the proctor announced. Tenten beamed. "Next!"
It was now Kiba's turn. "C'mon, Akamaru!" The great white dog barked, and bounded into the fight area with his master. The Iwa Bunshin materialized, and Kiba jumped onto Akamaru's back. The Iwa Bunshin rushed in for the attack, and Akamaru put on a huge burst of speed. As they were near enough, Kiba suddenly leapt from Akamaru's back into the air, spun like a drill, hitting the Iwa Bunshin and dissipating it. "I call it Shirubakiba no Jutsu(3)."
"It didn't look complete to me," the proctor said. "Was it?"
"No," Kiba said, "but I didn't want to show everyone the entire technique."
"Hm… I give it points for efficiency and quickness, but it wasn't too impressive. But I see its potential if its completed. You pass. Next!"
Shino stepped up and rushed to the new Iwa Bunshin without preamble. He balled his fist and swiped it at the rock clone. The clone copied his movement and swiped a fist at him as well. Shino never landed the punch, but the Iwa Bunshin managed a hit at the bug user. However, the fist sunk into Shino's chest, and bugs began enveloping the bunshin's fist, and soon enough, it was covered with bugs. The real Shino was behind the Iwa Bunshin all along, waiting for the bugs' chakra absorption to reach completion. "It's Kikai Kansei Bunshin(4), a mere alteration of our usual clan technique."
"It's been a while since I've seen an Aburame do magnificent combos with their bugs," the proctor said, nodding. "I give you points for the silence and efficiency of the attack. You pass, and so does the rest of your team." Shino nodded, walking off, while Lee, Kiba, and Tenten cheered in the background.
Naruto watched Lee and his teammates move to another room, and another team took their places in the area. Sakura, meanwhile, watched the murderous Sand twins and their teammates demonstrating in another place. She found it strange that their teammates' moves seemed much too choreographed to be genuine. She watched the girl of the pair show the panel her improvised technique. It was a taijutsu move, and it was nothing too impressive, but she noticed that her brother always seemed to know what her next move was. And when it was the boy's turn, it was just the same. The way her eyes moved was as though she anticipated his every movement.
It's possible that they just memorize each other's movements, the cherry-haired medic thought, closing her eyes. But it looks too much as if… one were controlling the other. Like the time when Chiyo-baa was controlling me when we fought Sasori.
Her eyes fluttered open. No way. They're puppeteers as well? She watched them move into the next room, having impressed the judges enough. It does make sense. I mean, if they're his students, they would be puppeteers. But they use those puppet jutsus on each other? It's way too weird!
The girl of the pair stopped walking for a moment. Then, she turned to meet Sakura's eyes with her maroon ones, giving her a very nasty smirk. But it wasn't the smirk that made Sakura take a step back – it was the cold, vicious gaze she was given. She averted her gaze just as the girl went on walking into the next room. It was an ominous sign.
More teams went on to show their skills. The Sound team took their places in the fighting area. Sasuke watched them, vaguely aware of the techniques they were doing. He had seen a variation of all the jutsus they were showing, but the judges still seemed to think they were amazing. He was not impressed, but it did make him wonder – did they plan to take him by force, or would they try to convince him again? They're hiding their true strength, the Uchiha thought. Orochimaru wouldn't choose them to chase after me if this is all they could do.
The blond of the team was the last to demonstrate an improvisation of a jutsu. Sasuke, who had never seen him before, paid more attention. His eyes were closed, and the Iwa Bunshin ran towards him. The blond, Taido, opened his eyes.
The bunshin dissipated. The person who had made the bunshin fell to his behind, his eyes blank. "Wh- I can't see! What happened? I… help!"
Sasuke leaned forward to see what was going on, his eyes betraying bewilderment. What did he do? Was it a doujutsu? Medics began to gather around the person, still groping in thin air, still saying he couldn't see a thing.
The judges were in an uproar, and soon, the entire hall's attention was turned to that one Sound nin. Even his teammates were looking at one another. Only one, Karin, didn't seem surprised at what was going on.
"Why did you attack an examiner!?" one of the judges shouted. "You were only supposed to attack the bunshin!"
"My mistake," Taido intoned expressionlessly. "My genjutsu must have connected to his nervous system when I attacked his bunshin. Tell him to calm down. It'll be gone in thirty minutes."
"Should we allow this one to continue?" the judges were asking one another. "He attacked an examiner!"
"He says it was a mistake. We should let him continue. The jutsu fits the criteria, after all."
A quick debate among the judges ensued, and finally, a decision was made. "Fine," the head proctor said, all trace of joviality gone. He nodded to Taido. "You and your teammates pass this exam. Just make sure not to make the same mistake again. You may leave."
That one event unsettled all those who were left in the room. The remaining examinees weren't paid attention to by the others, and even the judges themselves were having a hard time concentrating on the person they were testing.
Sakura glanced at Sasuke, knowing he was probably the most upset of all. The medic kunoichi realized that if the Sound was involved, Sasuke would be involved as well. "What do you think?" she asked him quietly, while he stared blankly at the demonstration being put on by Shikamaru and his team.
"I think…" Sasuke began, "…Orochimaru is pulling out all the stops."
"Are you going to do anything about it?" Sakura asked as they went down the stairs, their turn almost arriving.
"What do you think I can do?" Sasuke retorted. "I'll wait for them to make the first move, then fight them off when the time comes."
"I'll help," Sakura said firmly. "We'll all help."
Sasuke looked straight ahead. "As if I can stop you from doing so," he replied a little dryly.
Sakura giggled, despite the circumstances. "Don't be counting on it."
As they took their places in waiting for their turn, Hinata turned to look at Midori's team. They had all passed, except Midori herself, who was still waiting for the Go signal. The former heiress was quite interested to see what kind of technique Midori would dish out.
"Start!"
The Iwa Bunshin rushed to the greenish black-haired girl, who was holding her tarot deck in her hands. What does she plan to do? Hinata asked herself, a little confused. Is her deck of cards actually a weapon?
She was answered right away. Midori nicked her thumb with the corner of a card so that the skin broke open, swiped the blood onto the card, and threw it at the Iwa Bunshin. While the card sliced the air, something came out of it. It was the very figure that Midori had shown her before – the Empress. The Empress's mouth opened, and as the card scratched the skin of the bunshin, the Empress jumped into the air and rained senbon from her mouth.
Hinata glanced at Midori, who was moving her fingers in synch with the Empress's movements. Hinata realized then that the Empress was a puppet. As soon as the bunshin dissipated, so did the Empress vanish with a poof. "So you're from the Nekotachi clan, eh?" the head proctor asked, looking fascinated. "Yes, I heard that your clan invented a tarot deck from which one can summon a variety of things. Weapons, puppets, and the like. But I also heard it takes great skill to maneuver the cards the way you did. I've never seen it done like that."
"Does that mean I pass?" Midori asked, golden eyes alight.
"Of course you do, young lady. Join the others in the next room, please."
Midori caught Hinata's eye, and the Cloud kunoichi gave her a V sign. The Konoha kunoichi smiled happily in return. "Good luck," Midori mouthed to her.
Finally, it was their turn. Sakura had taken her place at the fighting area already. The Iwa Bunshin was a few meters away from her. Sakura then began throwing kunai with little pouches attached to it. The rock clone dodged each kunai easily, but the pouches had flown open, scattering little petal-like paper bits in a two meter radius around it. Just as the bunshin went in for an attack, Sakura threw a kunai with a large explosive tag wrapped around it.
The tag detonated, creating a chain reaction with the smaller explosive tags, efficiently dissipating the bunshin. "And that was?" an examiner asked.
"Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu," Sakura said.
"Not many people know about this smaller kind of explosive tags," the examiner said, nodding. "It's a good choice of execution, what you did with them."
Sakura went back to where they were standing awhile ago, partially cleared to take the next exam. "That wasn't entirely new," Naruto whispered to her.
"No," Sakura said, grinning, "but the proctors have never seen it yet. I'm not about to show them what I can really do, just yet."
Sasuke now took his place in the fight area. A new Iwa Bunshin stood in front of him. As per usual, the bunshin went for the attack first, and Sasuke rushed headlong towards it, vanishing with the speed he took. He reappeared under the bunshin, kicking it up into the air. "Hey, isn't that the Shishi Rendan?" Naruto asked, now getting more frustrated. Why was it that his teammates were using techniques that they had already done before, and he had to think of a new jutsu? It wasn't fair! Well, for sure, it won't be my fault if we fail in this part of the exam!
"Just watch, Naruto," Sakura said, her eyes glued on Sasuke.
Naruto's jaw dropped when, instead of giving the bunshin the usual finishing kick, Sasuke took his sword out and drove it across the bunshin's stomach, making it disappear. He then landed without so much of a breath wasted.
"That would have been a critical hit or even a killing blow, if done on a real person," the examiner said. "It shows excellent efficiency. Is there a name?"
Sasuke thought for a while. Then, he said, "Shishi Kiba Rendan (5)." The proctor nodded, and Sasuke walked off without a word. Once he crossed glances with Naruto, he smirked. The jinchuuriki pouted. It really just wasn't fair.
"Good luck, Hinata-chan!" Sakura said enthusiastically as Hinata climbed up the fight platform. The Hyuuga girl gave her a nervous nod. She was about to try out a jutsu she had only worked out in theory.
The Iwa Bunshin began the attack. Hinata did a few seals, and concentrated chakra into her hands. Her chakra then became viscous. "Does that look like water to you?" Sakura asked Sasuke.
"It seems like it," the Uchiha said, watching the chakra in Hinata's hands become more concentrated. Then, when she had gathered enough water-based chakra, she whipped the chakra around, her slow but steady footwork looking as though she was dancing. The chakra hit she bunshin, creating long gashes around its body. Finally, the bunshin poofed into oblivion.
"Now that's an original jutsu!" Naruto whooped, jumping and pumping his fist up. Hinata gave him a grateful smile. Sakura clapped her hands enthusiastically, and even Sasuke had to stare. It was something that they had never seen Hinata do, not even in their training sessions.
"I've seen water whips before, but I've never seen it with chakra embedded in it," the examiner said. "Did you incorporate the water chakra with concentrated chakra, or is it the other way around?"
"I did it the first way," Hinata said. "I only thought about doing it… I didn't really think the effect would be exactly like this."
"It was a good improvisation," another examiner said. "I know that the Hyuuga are experts with concentrating their chakra when they incorporate their technique with their doujutsu, so mixing water-based chakra with it was something totally new. And it's called…?"
Hinata thought for a moment. Then, with a rare smile of confidence, she said, "It's Suiton: Suihebi (6)."
She got off the fighting area, and passed Naruto as he came up. "You were great, Hinata-chan!" he said enthusiastically, and Hinata blushed.
"Thanks," she said. "Good luck with your own demo." He gave her a thumbs-up and went on up the platform.
"Hinata-chan, how'd you do that?" Sakura asked, still amazed. "From what I thought from our training together, you could only do jutsus that involved concentrated chakra without any elements!"
"I didn't think I could do it, either," Hinata admitted. "But I know I'm a water type, though I never drew any strength from the fact. It was only when you suggested that I do it like so that I realized I could use my old jutsu and my water type chakra together."
They all turned to watch Naruto's demonstration. I have to do this well, Naruto thought. Hinata-chan showed me what she could do. Sakura-chan and Sasuke, too. I can't let them down. He stood ready as a new Iwa Bunshin materialized in front of him. All right, let's get wild!
The Iwa Bunshin ran towards him, and he immediately created two Kage Bunshin. One of his bunshin ran headlong towards the rock clone and grabbed its arm. He whirled it around in the air and let it fly. The Iwa Bunshin flew through the air, and the next Naruto clone caught in a punch. As the punch was in hang-time, the shadow clone kicked the Iwa Bunshin up into the air. The original Naruto had already jumped into the air, and was waiting with a chakra filled fist. As soon as he was close enough, he drove his fist into the Iwa Bunshin's stomach, making it dissipate.
"Whoa, I've never seen more than one Kage Bunshin made by only one person before!" the examiner exclaimed. "And only a few people can do the jutsu in the first place!"
"Having several Kage Bunshin does increase the range of taijutsu combos one can do," another said.
"You're given points for efficiency and power," the examiner said. "You and your teammates may proceed to the next room."
Sakura and Naruto grinned at each other, Hinata smiling in relief and Sasuke sighing with satisfaction as they walked off. They had aced the first two exams, and the way they were going, they were finishing the next three with flying colors. They were well on their way to becoming full-fledged jounin.
But this isn't enough, Naruto realized as he followed his teammates into the next room. I haven't done my best yet. I said I would rock this Exam, and I will, without Sakura-chan or Sasuke trying to tide me over all the time. Next time, it will be my own strength. It'll be me who's doing the contributing.
Naruto was growing, with every step he took, without even realizing it.
Neji began to breathe easily again as soon as he saw his cousin and her teammates walk into the third exam's briefing room. It was relieving to see that all the nins from Konoha had passed the second exam. He knew the exams were getting harder and harder, but he was confident that at the very least, he would see half of them end the exams as Jounins.
His easy breathing was short-lived, however, as he saw Bokun and his teammates arrogantly saunter into the room. They had obviously passed, and so had, as Neji suspiciously noticed, half of the Glass nins who had taken the second exam. They were whittling down far too evenly, Neji decided. Something was definitely up – and he assumed it wouldn't be anything positive.
"Looks like one of our targets' going to be part of that operation of Hidden Glass we've heard so much about," a voice in the shadows mentioned, watching more people file into the room.
"Seems like it, yeah. They didn't waste any time taking advantage of the exams."
"Well, I'll be damned. I guess we'll be able to watch something really interesting after all. Y'think, Itachi-san?"
Itachi nodded. "Let's just keep watching," he said. "We'll keep an eye on the Nibi, while Deidara and Tobi watch the Hachibi. With this kind of trouble brewing, we'll be able to assess their abilities more before we capture them."
"And what makes it even more interesting," Tobi added, "is that Itachi-san's brother is there with the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. Pretty good odds, don't you think? You planning anything for those two, Itachi-san?"
"No," Itachi said, the memory of their last encounter still fresh in his mind. He hadn't forgotten how close his brother was to beating him. It was true that he had challenged Sasuke do that, but he didn't want personal matters interfering with his mission, not when he could still help it. But since my foolish little brother refuses to let the Kyuubi jinchuuriki out of his sight, and vice versa, it'll be hard separating personal matters with the plans of the Akatsuki. Besides… His gleaming red eyes fell on the pink-haired female, who was laughing at something Naruto was saying. I have yet to deal with that other interference as well.
Catastrophe was about to commence in the Jounin Exams, the Akatsuki knew, and Kakashi's students would yet again be thrust straight through the middle of it.
Next chapter…
Sasuke: The Jounin Exams are getting harder and harder, even more than I expected. Contrary to what Naruto may have said, the Jounin Exams are not a breeze, and can never compare to the Chuunin Exams. But don't tell Naruto that. He'll think I'm having a hard time, which is not the case. Not at all.
But how in hell are we going to find a way out of this endless labyrinth? How are we getting out of it, aside from having to deal with buttheads who keep trying to get in our way? Naruto and I, and even Sakura, have too much on our plate without those people bothering us.
Tsk. Must be nice to be Hinata, who can talk civilly to other examinees.
Next chapter, Labyrinth – Race Of The Keys.
No, Naruto, you can't have my tomato-stuffed onigiri. Go scavenge for your own food!
AN: (1) Dynamic Leaf Hurricane. Made up.
(2) Steel Rain Technique. Made up.
(3) Silver Fang Technique. Yes, made up.
(4) Destruction Bug Trap Clone. Doesn't it sound totally made up to you?
(5) Lion Fang Combo. Made up. Of course, it was a weird kind of translation.
(6) Water Skill: Water Serpent. Yes, already, it's made up.
Well, like I said, I'm done in one week. That's what happens when you're cooped up in a house with no cable and no Internet for that span of time. You have no choice but to slave in front of the house's only laptop and work on your fanfic. I wasn't able to get to a place with Net connection in a week though, which is why it's only now I updated. Sheesh.
As usual, I'd like to know what you guys thought of the OCs. Were they Mary Sue-ish, did they sound realistic… all that jazz. But just so you guys know, I'm not going to remove any of them. They're all essential to the story. I just want constructive criticism of them.
You may have noticed that I skipped over with Shikamaru's team's second exam. I just couldn't think of anything for them. I already squeezed my brains out for Naruto, Hinata, Shino and Kiba, actually.
I hope I answered some questions with the appearance of this chapter. Don't hesitate to ask more, though. OH! I almost forgot. The fluff you guys have been asking for? Imma start building up some of that in this arc, but I'm leaving out the real fluff for the next part of the epic (which hasn't been written but has already been conceptualized).
Show me some love, people! And if you're going to hate, hate intelligently! Actually, I'd also love it if you guys put more than just "Nice chapter! Please update!" It gets a little saddening sometimes… Makes me think that you guys didn't really read. But then again, I'll take what I can get.