AN: I don't own Naruto, or One Piece
POLL: I'll keep the Poll up a little longer but here are the current results. Its shifted back and forth a number of times and at this point three choices are still in the running.
Completely different from canon – 33 votes
No preliminary rounds – 31 votes
Similar to canon – 26 votes
Same as canon – 5 votes
AN: It will be a few chapters until the second exam is over as I have a few things planned for the forest of death that will occur in the next chapter.
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Chapter XXI: Chunin exams
Konoha, one month after the last chapter
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Training at the usual place, Naruto waited for the right moment as Sora kicked a boulder at him. Taking two of his swords out, he held the swords parallel to each other and the ground. 'Two sword style: double slash.' (Nitoryuu: Nigiri) he stated and with a short burst of speed and a fast spin, he cut the boulder into three separate horizontal segments.
After putting his swords away, he looked down at the pieces and checked so see how smooth his cuts were. He hadn't put any wind chakra into his blades when he used the attack, so whatever damage done was what the attacks were originally supposed to do when Zoro created them. Based on what he knew from the books though, the attack he just used was still less than the power and cutting ability that Zoro used at different parts of the story.
'Still, its pretty cool to cut through solid rock with just two swords and nothing else.' he thought and went to take a short break, which for him was a short nap.
His mind wandered for a little bit as he started falling asleep in the way he had become accustomed to over several years time. The chunin exams were very soon but he hadn't received any kind of notice from Kakashi about them. It made him wonder if the man planned for his team to take them or not. It wasn't something he had considered and he might have to talk with the Hokage about it later on. It was only seven in the morning so he had plenty of time to nap, train a little more, get some food, and then get to the meeting place before Kakashi arrived.
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Hours later, Naruto walked through the back-alleys of the village towards the meeting place. He was wearing one of his reinforced t-shirts, ninja pants and his standard mask and bandana. The shirt was a dark green today and he had on black pants. His mask and bandana were also a dark green. His swords were attached in their holster on his left side and he had two ninja pouches attached on the back of his haramaki while a shuriken holster was attached on his right leg. One of the ninja pouches was just filled completely with scrolls and other fuinjutsu paraphernalia.
Taking a specific route so as to avoid his teammate Sakura, as he could feel her in the area, he walked down a different alley. Slowing down, he started feeling another signature that he had been completely avoiding for quite some time, which was the Hokage's grandson. So he took another route but stopped again as he felt a few chakra signatures that he hadn't felt in months coming from that direction. Then he felt Sasuke and a few more signatures traveling in different directions but that would intersect near him.
'Shit, its like their boxing me in!' he thought and looked around quickly for an escape while his necklace started glowing slightly. Looking from one direction to the next, he tried to find a way out. He was in the residential area of Konoha with no tall buildings to jump onto, just fences and short buildings. Unfortunately, by the time he figured out a direction to take, he already heard the calling of his teammate. 'Damn it, I should have just melded into the ground. Why didn't I just do that from the start?' he questioned and turned to Sakura who was already upon him.
"I tried calling you out to you, but you just ignored me." stated Sakura as she walked up to him. Looking around, she noticed that Naruto seemed a little strange or at least tense and she thought, 'I can't believe it, he got lost while inside the village again.'
"The meeting area is this way, idiot." she said and grabbed his arm while dragging him off in the direction he didn't want to head.
'What kind of grip is this? Let me go you banshee!' Naruto yelled inside his head while he continued to be pulled in the direction he didn't want to go. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't able to get away, it was if his strength had temporarily left him. No sooner had he thought that then they ran into more of the people he didn't want to see.
Being held up by his shirt was Konohamaru, the Hokage's grandson, and holding him up by the shirt was one of the people that Naruto ran into on the mission to Suna and he was standing next to a second Suna ninja. Two other academy students were standing in the area and watching their friend. 'Why does this keep getting worse and worse? I should have just run in a random direction when I had the chance.' he thought as he knew that he was about to get involved not because he wanted to but because he felt he had to.
"Oi, you in the cat suit, put the brat down." Naruto stated as he walked forward to the scene.
They were at a t-intersection in the residential area and surrounded by tall wooden fences. Naruto walked to the academy students that were standing there and stared at the two Suna ninja. Feeling his surroundings, Naruto could sense Gaara and the boy was a good distance away but heading for their location. It seemed he might run into the complete Suna team, minus the sensei.
"This isn't a cat suit asshole and this little brat ran into me, I'm just teaching him a lesson." stated Kankuro as he pulled his fist back.
Standing near Kankuro was Temari, his older sister, and she looked on with disinterest as he brother held up the small child. Looking to the new comers, she didn't consider the pink haired girl a threat but was rather interested in the boy with the glowing blue eyes. The four pony-tailed girl felt like she had seen him before.
"Well I suppose you could teach him a lesson, but I should warn you," said Naruto and he paused to make sure he had the cat man's attention, "Right after that punch connects, it will become my duty as a ninja of Konoha to not only kick your ass, but to drag your kicked ass to the headquarters of the Intelligence and Interrogation department. There you will enjoy several days and nights of an all expense payed torture and questioning session by Konoha's best interrogators to determine why you attacked the grandchild of the Hokage. So...by all means, punch the kid and teach him a lesson that you won't soon forget." stated Naruto in a calm and steady voice while he placed his hands on his sword handles and tensed to attack. Killing intent and chakra began radiating off him and it was directed entirely on the Suna ninja.
Kankuro began sweating in his cat suit as he looked between the kid he was holding in his shaking hand and the masked ninja that was doing an excellent job of intimidating him. Several thoughts went through his head concerning whether the brat he was holding was really related to the Hokage or whether the Konoha genin could really do anything against him. He doubted it. Briefly glancing at Temari, who he could tell was very scared, he noted she was shaking her head 'no' to make sure he didn't do what he was planning.
Looking towards the kid he was holding, the brat was smiling and had moved his cheek to the side, angling it upwards slightly, as if offering the cheek to be punched. 'Little damn brat.' he thought and was about to finish the punch when a rock came out of nowhere and smacked into his hand, which caused him to drop the brat.
While Konohamaru ran back to his fellow students, everyone's eyes went up to Sasuke who was sitting in the tree and tossing a rock up and down. "What are you guys doing in our village?" he questioned and then crushed the rock he was tossing.
Sakura cheered Sasuke's name and Temari noted how cute he was, but Naruto was thinking something else.
"Honestly Sasuke, who throws a rock? You could have used a kunai or shuriken, or maybe pulled off a piece of your inflated ego and thrown that, but you chose a rock? Was that even a rock you crushed or just a dirt clod?" questioned Naruto to his teammate.
Sakura promptly yelled something at Naruto, which was ignored, and Kankuro laughed while Temari seemed a little disappointed. Sasuke just glared at Naruto as his well planned entrance had been destroyed.
"And you, the guy with makeup and cat pajamas, exactly what did an academy student do to you?" asked Naruto in a dull voice.
Kankuro glared and said, "Nothing much, I just had short brats who are rude. I guess you fall into that category as well."
Naruto just stared back at the Suna ninja and met the glare with an even better one that sent chills down the spines of both Suna ninja, even though he wasn't actually looking at Temari.
It was at that moment that Temari finally recognized what was so familiar about the boy. She only managed to put it together when she heard him call Kankuro's uniform a 'cat pajamas' and the voice fit as did the glowing eyes, 'He's the intruder from a few months ago!' she realized. Temari knew she was correct but wasn't sure what to do with the information.
"Your the intruder." she blurted out loud and Naruto's eyes widened at the statement while Kankuro looked at her questioningly.
Thinking up something quickly to say he replied, "The only intruders here is you and the cat man. Both of you are very suspicious."
"Your the one who's suspicious." refuted Temari.
"Me, suspicious!" questioned Naruto and he kept the conversation going away from where it had been.
"Of course your suspicious, you even wear a mask to hide your identity." argued Temari and the other people present looked back at Naruto to see what he would say.
"I'm wearing a mask?" Naruto stated with feigned surprise and confusion as he tried to look down at his face and started touched his cheeks to find the supposed mask.
Several people sweat-dropped and Sasuke nearly fell out of the tree while Temari's eye just twitched at the boy in front of her. Naruto however didn't stop there and kept the act up.
"Why didn't anyone tell me I was wearing a mask!" he stated while looking in the reflection of one of his kunai at his masked face, "When did I put this on? Did someone put it on me as a joke!"
Temari's fist clenched but she tried to steer the conversation back to where it was in hopes of getting some answers, "You infiltrated our village!" she accused and Naruto looked up from the reflection on his kunai that he was using as a mirror.
"If you haven't noticed, I'm a Konoha ninja and this is my village. Why would I infiltrate it?" he questioned and continued, "And your from Suna, why would you consider Konoha as 'our' village? We don't know you well enough for you to be included in that pronoun." he said and smiled beneath his mask as the girl he was arguing with got madder.
'Dear Kami, he's an idiot and completely infuriating.' she thought and had enough of his idiocy. Grabbing her fan she swung the object and it struck the top of Naruto's head, but nothing happened.
"Was that really necessary?" Naruto questioned in a bored voice as everyone stared at him. The fan was still in contact with his head and he hadn't moved or seemed to be in any pain.
'What the hell? That usually knocks out Kankuro for a few hours. His head's so thick I can't hurt him.' thought a thoroughly confused Temari and she removed the fan from the uninjured boy in complete disappointment.
'I can totally relate to her feeling of disappointment. My punches never work against him.' thought Sakura sadly. She could send Kiba flying or damage the foundation of a house but she couldn't seem to hurt Naruto at all.
'And the crisis is temporarily averted.' thought Naruto and he just hoped it would last until he could get away. The girl would likely remember it later but she had no real proof, so he doubted anything could be done. Even her teammate was still not sure what she had been trying to get at and throwing all of the misdirection was just to stop the girl from revealing or saying anything further.
However, his attention was diverted and he glanced at the tree to find the red haired boy looking down on him. 'Oh great, Gaara's here.' he thought and wondered what would happen next.
The other glanced in the direction he was looking and everyone but Sasuke saw Gaara in the tree. Noticing their glances, Sasuke looked over to a higher branch on the opposite side of the tree and saw another Suna ninja. The boy quickly disappeared in a swirl of sand and reappeared at the same moment down below next to the other ninja.
"Kankuro, your an embarrassment to the village. Did you forget why we even came here? Don't make me kill you." stated Gaara but the entire time he was staring at the masked boy in front of him. He had waited quite a while for the moment when they would meet back up.
"Yes, Gaara. I'm sorry. Really sorry" stated Kankuro in a placating manner and he backed away from his little brother.
The staring went on for quite some time as the others watched. Sasuke had jumped down and wanted to know why the skilled newcomer was so interested in Naruto. 'I didn't even sense him and he was right next to me.' he thought and glanced at Naruto, who was the only person that had noticed the newcomer. 'Was it just his vantage point, or was he able to detect what I couldn't?' he wondered with a frown.
"Hey you, what's your name." stated Sasuke.
"Do you mean me." asked Temari with a slight blush and Sasuke said, "No, you with the gourd." It was stated while looking directly at Gaara but the boy only acknowledged Sasuke's presence with a brief glance before looking back at Naruto. The two boys continued to stare in silence as glowing blue looked into light green. It was at that point that Gaara began to smile.
'Wow. He's really happy to see me. Scary kind of happy.' Naruto noted but he didn't back down.
"Subaku no Gaara." the boy stated but didn't wait for a response. "Uchiha Sasuke." was the answer from Sasuke as he didn't like being ignored. Gaara turned around and started walking back in the direction that his two siblings had just come from. There was no need to exchange pleasantries as he already knew the boy's name was Ryuuma, from the interrupted introduction while in Suna, and now Ryuuma knew his name as well. To him it was rather obvious that the boy would be in the exams given his skill, so he only needed to wait a little longer to satisfy his mother's thirst for blood and confirm his existence.
Looking back and forth between their brother and the Konoha ninja, Temari and Kankuro started following Gaara. It was obvious to them that their little brother had taken an interest in the boy and they actually felt sorry for the masked ninja. At least Kankuro did as Temari was still angry at him.
Before they were out of earshot and used the body flicker technique, Naruto yelled, "If your looking for a place to eat, check out Baraties or Ichiraku's restaurants. They're the best in town."
Satisfied that they had heard his free advertisement of his favorite places, he went back on his route to the meeting place. Glancing briefly at one of the trees in the surrounding area, he tried to find anything else out that he could about the three unknown ninja hidden in the leaves. Unfortunately there was nothing else he could find out.
Continuing his course down the street and leaving everyone else behind, Naruto seemed to be perfectly fine on the outside, but he was deep in thought on the inside. His thoughts concerned why Suna would send a jinchuuriki to the exams and the possibilities of what it might mean. 'First they get detailed village information sent to them and then during the chunin exams, they send their jinchuuriki.' it made him wonder what else was going on. The girl of the group had also figured out who he was, which meant that Gaara likely didn't tell anyone about his infiltration of Suna and he couldn't figure out why.
It was only a matter of time before the girl remembered what she had discovered and told someone else from her village. He wondered what impact that would have as it was just speculation and they really didn't have solid proof he did anything, nor had they caught him in the act.
He had asked Shakky about the information that he had intercepted and what it could mean. His Baa-chan told him that information of that kind was never used for any good purpose, especially if it was given to a village that Konoha had a non-aggression pact with. That information was likely to be used to invade the village or if another war was going to occur.
It made him wonder whether he had actually stopped something with his stunt in Suna or whether he hadn't done anything at all. 'Why send a jinchuuriki who is obviously at a higher rank than normal genin to the chunin exams. Then again I'm taking the exams too so it I can't really say anything.' were his thoughts.
It made sense if Suna wanted to show up the other villages that were to appear in the exams, but most of the other five elemental countries were not appearing nor did they ever appear in the Konoha chunin exams. A good explanation was that Suna specifically wanted to show up Konoha and use their jinchuuriki to do it, but that seemed rather dangerous given how unstable Gaara felt to him. The eyes he looked into were not that of a person that was completely sane and for a brief period during their stare-down, he thought Gaara would actually attack him.
'I'll have to tell the Old Man about this, and Baa-chan.' Naruto concluded and changed direction.
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"He spotted us." said a bandaged figure in the trees to his two teammates that were standing next to him.
"What do you think?" asked one of them and the bandaged leader thought for a moment before stating, "The masked boy and the one with the gourd are ones to watch out for. I can't hear much of anything from the masked one, its like he has a countermeasure to our sound location technique. Be extra careful with him. The dark haired one is also worth watching out for."
The other two nodded as they looked toward the masked boy that was walking away.
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Shakky's Rip-off Bar
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Opening his eyes groggily, Zabuza looked around and noticed he was in the bar. That wasn't new or surprising as he had passed out in there before. 'That woman stocks some powerful booze.' he thought and was about to get up when he discovered he was tied to a chair. 'What the hell!'
Looking around he noticed Haku was standing nearby. The girl looked rather guilty and his mind raced as he tried to figure out what might be going on. The door to the back room opened and Shakky stepped entered the bar with a few items in her hands. Walking over she smiled and said, "Good, your up. Lets gets started."
Thoroughly confused, Zabuza shouted, "What the hell is going on!"
Shakky partially ignored him and put the items down on the table. Zabuza noted that they consisted of a large mirror, etching tools, fuinjutsu ink, a brush, hair dye, and a few tools that reminded him of something a dentist would use. Once Shakky was finished she turned and smiled, "Your probably wondering what's going on?" she stated as if Zabuza had never asked his earlier question and completely ignored his glare, "For your next mission, which will be in a week or two, you'll need a different look. Everyone can easily recognize you based on your features, so I'll need to make some adjustments. Since you don't like to use a henge, we'll have to use something else."
Zabuza's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the items on the table and realized what she possibly intended. They had been going on missions for Shakky since they signed the contract with her. It was mostly looking for a few items while stealing from and eliminated crime syndicate bosses and other wealthy people deeply involved with illegal activities, but nothing had happened like this before.
Struggling in the ninja wire, he noted the chakra suppressing seals on his body. Looking to Haku he saw that she refused to look him in the eye or make any move to help him. "Damn it, Haku! Why are you just standing around? Help me out of this!" he demanded form his tool.
"I'm sorry Zabuza-sama. She's kidnapped Mr. Skippy." confessed Haku with obvious distress.
'That fucking rabbits been nothing but trouble from the start!' thought a furious Zabuza and he looked around for the Demon Brothers, only ti find them passed out at one of the tables. 'They're never any help! The rabbits been more useful then they have!' Zabuza raged as he looked back to Shakky who had removed the bottle of hair dye from the box.
"Don't come near me with that stuff!" stated Zabuza and released all the killing intent he could.
"Even after all this time working for me, you still don't seem to understand that your killing intent has no effect on me. But you just keep trying, how cute." Shakky stated with a smile and set the bottle down.
Zabuza relaxed slightly and then looked to where she was looking with some foreboding. "Perhaps I should do something about your sword first. After all, it would be the easiest thing for people in Water Country to recognize you by." she said and started walking over to the sword. Zabuza didn't even register the fact that whatever job she wanted him to do was in Water Country as he was more concerned with his sword.
"Don't. Touch. My. Sword." he growled.
A bemused Shakky merely stretched out her hand and touched the handle.
x-x
Walking down the main street of the foreign village, Temari looked up and down the different shops and other stores. She wasn't looking for anything in particular but she was going to be in the village for a while, as the exams didn't start for a week, and she needed something to do besides training. Gaara had gone back to the hotel, leaving her and Kankuro to themselves. They had been told not to cause anymore problems by Gaara and both siblings intended to do just that.
Looking over the windows and the names, she memorized the few that she was interested in and ignored the dull groan of her brother as the village didn't have anything he wanted to see. The only places Kankuro ever went to were specific restaurants to eat and most of the puppetry stores in Suna to pick up new supplies. Since Konoha obviously didn't use puppets, it was likely that her brother would shut himself off in his room and continuously tinker with his puppet Crow.
Her eyes came across two names that registered to her. 'Baratie...Ichiraku's' she thought and stopped to get a closer look. She got close enough to glance into the windows and saw that both were restaurants that were right next to each other but those were the only things they had in common. Each place was completely different on the inside. Baratie was much more formal and had a very different decorating scheme than Ichiraku's. One felt more elegant while the other felt more comfortable.
She knew Kankuro really wouldn't care but she was stuck between which she wanted.
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Sora's head shot up as he had a familiar feeling, 'Its a damsel in distress.' he recognized and searched for the location of this disturbance.
Standing right outside the store front was a very beautiful young kunoichi. After a brief moment of ogling, he ran out of the restaurant.
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Temari's eyes widened and she was about grab her fan as she felt a possible attack coming but her hand was grabbed by the offender.
"A young lady such as yourself should never be burdened by a choice over cuisine. Come with me, I shall cook whatever you desire from either menu." stated the well dressed newcomer and Temari blushed. The way he tenderly held her hand and gave her his complete attention swept her off her feet and she found herself walking into Baratie without even realizing it.
An annoyed Kankuro followed the pair but was stopped at the door by the same man that had led Temari into the restaurant, "We have a dress code and it doesn't include cat pajamas. Try next door." stated Sora with a serious expression as he stopped the Suna ninja from entering.
Twitching slightly, Kankuro stated, "This is a uniform of the Puppet Corps in Suna. NOT pajamas!" he stated furiously and wondered why they hell everyone in this village seemed to think they were cat pajamas.
'Then why does Naruto use the exact same set of clothes for pajamas?" Sora questioned and decided not to let it worry him. A young woman was waiting after all.
"I don't believe you." said Sora and closed the door in Kankuro's face.
x-x
Standing against the railing of the bridge that was Team Seven's normal meeting place, Sasuke and Sakura waited patiently for their other teammate and sensei.
"Where the hell are they!" yelled Sakura for the fourth time in the past two hours and Sasuke merely sighed at the loudness. Both genin and sensei were already several hours late to their usual meeting. Naruto had even left before them and still hadn't arrived.
"Yo!" Kakashi said from on top the railing and both students turned to look at their tardy sensei.
"Your late!" shouted Sakura and Kakashi merely nodded, "I got lost." he simple stated with a shrug.
"That's a lame excuse for a jonin." commented Sakura and Kakashi eye-smiled.
"Seeing as your all here..." Kakashi began and was interrupted
"We're not all here! Naruto-baka is late too!" Sakura stated and Kakashi gave her her a funny look.
"I'm standing right behind you." came Naruto's voice and Sakura jumped while Sasuke looked surprised at the fact that Naruto had snuck up on both of them.
"Like I said...now that we're all here, I've signed you three up for the chunin exams. All you have to do is show up at the Academy on Friday at 4:30 PM. You each have a choice of whether or not you want to take the exam. Ja ne" and with that Kakashi disappeared just as fast as he had arrived.
The three genin looked at the papers with three different looks and then went their separate ways.
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Just finishing her desert, Temari's eyes suddenly widened as she remembered what had happened earlier in the day. 'I figured out who the intruder was and where he came from.' she recalled and knew that she would have to tell their sensei Baki as she wasn't sure what effects it could have on their mission. She couldn't believe she had actually forgotten about that. The one thing she vividly remembered was her conversation with the masked idiot and her failure to teach him a lesson for annoying her.
The realization raised many questions and she had time to think about them. Did Konoha suspect them of something? What happened to the real scroll that was supposed to be delivered? How had the boy escaped capture? And just who was the brat that they had encountered not once but twice? None of them had asked his name and the only name given by the intruder was Ryuuma. She also noted that Gaara seemed very interested in the boy and she wondered why. 'He didn't show any skills that would have interested Gaara, except for his killing intent.' she thought and shuddered slightly as she remembered it. It was at least as strong as Gaara's but also very different.
Putting her napkin down, she wanted to sigh in aggravation and worry but the food was just too good for her to feel that way now. Taking another bite she enjoyed the taste of the desert once again but frowned slightly, 'What was it that I was supposed to tell Baki-sensei again?' she wondered but just pushed the thought aside as it would come to her later.
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Ninja Academy, later that week
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The academy was very busy that afternoon but not because of classes or academy students, but the large number of genin there for the chunin exams. Many were standing or loitering outside of the building as they were early and the exam didn't start for around twenty minutes. The villages each team represented consisted of only Suna and Konoha from the major villages and a multitude of genin teams from the minor villages.
Naruto had taken the front entrance to the building, which was completely different from the way he normally entered the academy when he had been enrolled there. He could feel his teammates standing in front of the main entrance as well as around one hundred fifty other people, most of which he had never felt before. He found it slightly disorienting as they were all ninja with average to higher chakra reserves for genin and most were moving around the school yard or inside the building.
No words were exchanged with his teammates as they walked back into the academy. Naruto never thought he would ever come back, at least he hoped he would never have to come back. The academy had never been a place that he was comfortable in. Most of the information being taught was already things that he had known and his classmates had all treated him like a criminal at one time or another. It was hard to forget those things with a memory as good as his.
Walking up the first flight of stairs, Sasuke and Sakura looked down the hall and stared at the gathering genin outside of room 301. Two slightly older Konoha ninja were standing outside the door and barring anyone else entry. One boy in green spandex was on the ground and rubbing his bruised cheek from a punch that he had received from trying to enter the room that the two boys were watching.
Naruto smiled at the show that Izumo and Kotetsu were putting on and walked up the next flight of stairs until he stopped as he felt Sasuke start to walk down the hall.
'Idiots...' Sasuke thought as he started to walk to the disturbance in the hallway. 'Its obvious that we're on the second floor and yet all those people are trying to get into the wrong room because of a simple genjutsu. If this is the competition for the exams, then it should be a piece of cake.' he thought and he saw a chance to show up the competition. He had only taken a couple of steps from the staircase when he his collar was grabbed from behind.
Sasuke was yanked back to the staircase and then dragged up the steps while he could hear Sakura yelling. Turning his head, he managed to see that Naruto was dragging him. Before he could say anything Naruto said, "Idiot. Don't stray from the group and get yourself lost. This always happens and its not even just mission anymore."
Sasuke's eye twitched, 'Its like the kunai calling the shuriken sharp.' he thought as he tried to get his high collar free from Naruto's grasp and stop from being dragged. He could hear Sakura shouting for Naruto to let him go and it just made him more frustrated.
He finally managed to get Naruto to release him, only to find that they were now on the third floor. Naruto began walking down the hall to the correct room while Sasuke adjusted his shirt and tried to get Sakura to stop trying to help him. Looking back down at the stairwell, he glanced back at Naruto and then walked back down the stairs.
Turning around Naruto saw a pink bobbing head disappear down the staircase and cursed, 'Stupid Uchiha. How does this keep happening? I should have just tied him up and dragged him all the way to 301. I wouldn't have to worry about Sakura, she would just follow the Uchiha wherever I dragged him.' he thought and it was definitely a thought for later or the next time something like this happened, but he decided to just go to the correct room and maybe take a nap.
He was nearly at the door to the real room 301 when Kakashi appeared holding his Icha Icha and quickly looked puzzled when he stopped reading from the book to look up at his single genin. "Where are Sasuke and Sakura?" questioned Kakashi as this was the opposite of his worst fear, which was Naruto not to show up, most likely because the boy had gotten himself lost.
"Sasuke decided to help the other participants and show off in the process. Sakura followed him and is likely helping." Naruto responded with a dull look and Kakashi wasn't sure how to respond. 'Sasuke's helping the other genin?' questioned a confused Kakashi.
"When are you going to decide who is actually in charge when you're not around. This is getting ridiculous, especially if those two keep running around and getting lost. I'm not their babysitter." stated Naruto in an annoyed tone and while practically glaring at Kakashi.
Kakashi sighed as it was something he had tried to figure out when they had returned from their second C-rank mission. The problem was team dynamics or lack-there-of. If he gave the leadership position to Sasuke, the boy would let it go to his head and probably do something foolish. Which was exactly what had just happened. If he gave it to Naruto, Sasuke wouldn't follow orders and that meant neither would Sakura. Finally, if he gave it to Sakura, no one would follow her and his pink haired genin was the least skilled of the group in the ninja arts, leadership, or in making plans.
'Well I guess this is as good a time as any.' he thought and said, "You can be the team leader Naruto." and it made sense from the current standpoint because Naruto was acting the most responsibly.
Naruto nodded and proceeded to make his way to the door, but was stopped by Kakashi's arm. While reading his book, Kakashi explained, "I afraid you can't go in until the rest of the team is here. I said it was an individual choice to make sure that all of the group felt that they were..." and he stopped when he looked up from his book to find Naruto was no longer there. Turning his head, he saw the door to 301 swing shut. 'Well damn, he got right by me. I guess I'll let the examiner sort it out.' were his thoughts before leaning against the wall and waiting for the rest of his genin to show up.
x-x
"You don't honestly think you can enter the exams with just two of you, do you?" asked Neji as he looked at the dark haired boy in front of him who had refused to give his name. His other teammate Lee was off to the side professing his love for a girl he had just met and was promptly, but not very kindly, being turned down. Tenten, his third teammate, was standing not far off and blushing slightly at the boy he was walking with.
Sasuke frowned as Naruto had not come after them but continued on to the meeting room. At least he hoped Naruto made it to the meeting room. It wouldn't make that much of a deal though as if Naruto was already in the exam room, then they wouldn't have to worry about him getting lost. "He continued onto the next floor and is in the correct room. He's not very sociable." stated Sasuke as he didn't want to make his team seem weak to the other teams that were around them or give the impression that they were dysfunctional.
They parted ways but Lee watched the pair leave and followed them.
Watching from a short distance away in an empty classroom, the two genin that were guarding the room went up in smoke to reveal the disguised chunin underneath. Izumo and Kotetsu watched the happenings in the hallway and knew that Naruto had likely already gone upstairs to wait or perhaps had gotten lost in the building.
Both shook there heads at the boy and his horrible sense of direction. They were thrilled that the exams had finally come around as it was a chance for Naruto to get promoted and possibly come back to their team. It all depended on how well Naruto did in the exams and whether the Hokage wanted Naruto back with them.
x-x
Looking down on the fellow genin with mostly stupefied expressions, Teams Eight and Ten stared at the sleeping Naruto. The boy had walked right through the door without his teammates, sat down against the wall, and promptly fell asleep.
'Where's Sasuke-kun?'
'Where's the rest of his team?'
'How can he possibly sleep at at time like this?'
'Isn't he nervous at all?'
'To walk in the room, sit down, and fall asleep in a few minutes. I once again find myself very jealous of that ability.'
Each team had arrived only ten or more minutes before Naruto had. They had seen through the trick and walked past the genjutsu to the third floor and the real room 301. Now they just had to wait for the exam to start, which wouldn't be for about ten minutes.
'I wish I could fall asleep at a time like this.' thought Shikamaru as he looked at masked boy who was lightly snoring.
x-x
Naruto opened one eye as he felt some kind of attack and saw that it was just Ino jumping on Sasuke. It seemed his team had finally arrived and he noted Sasuke looked banged up. 'I wonder if he got beaten up by Izumo or Kotetsu?' he thought before shutting his eyes and going back to sleep.
x-x
The eye opened again a minute or so later and he had the feeling someone had said his name. Sasuke was facing away from him and towards a ninja Naruto had never seen before. The man was holding a deck of cards in his hands while kneeling on the ground to have a surface to put them on. Naruto's surroundings became more clear to him as he allowed himself to wake up more and not fall back to sleep. He wanted to see what was going on.
"So you know their names, that makes it much easier for me." stated the gray haired genin in the purple and white clothing. Shuffling through the deck, Naruto watched as the man removed a card and he could feel chakra added to it, which likely revealed or unsealed something on the card. The crowded genin surrounding the older boy moved in a little closer to see the contents of the card.
"Rock Lee. He's a year older than you and on Team Nine under Maito Gai. His teammates are Tenten and Hyuuga Neji. They did not take the chunin exam last year but waited a year before being entered into the exam. It seems he has made great progress in Taijutsu but not in any of the other ninja arts. He has twenty completed D-rank missions and eight C-ranks."
Shuffling through the cards again, Kabuto pulled out another card, "Subaku no Gaara. He's from Suna and this is his first time entering the exams, so I don't have much on him. He has eight C-ranks and one B-rank. Wow, that's impressive for a genin and he even returned from his missions without a scratch." stated Kabuto as he quickly went for the last card but couldn't find one. The crowded genin were still trying to let the previous information sink in and didn't notice Kabuto's trouble. Sifting through his deck slowly, he searched for Uzumaki Naruto but didn't find a card.
'An omission in my data?' Kabuto thought and tried to figure out why he didn't have a card on that person. His memory was not that good, which was why he created the ninja info cards in the first place. The name did sound familiar for many reasons and he knew who Uzumaki Naruto was but he had no idea what the boy looked like and apparently he didn't have a card on him.
"Are you sure the last one is in the exams?" Kabuto questioned as he had heard that the boy graduated but he couldn't seem to remember what team the boy had been placed on. The genin looked at him oddly, especially Sasuke and the pink haired girl, and turned back to look at something. Kabuto followed their gazes to see a boy sleeping on the floor against the wall of the room.
'That's Uzumaki Naruto?' Kabuto surmised but was unsure. He had never seen the boy and had only ever come across sparse information. He knew the boy was the village jinchuuriki but he had little information besides the Second Hyuuga Incident. Orochimaru had never been interested in the container of the Kyuubi so he never looked that deeply into it.
"He's our teammate." Sasuke stated and he looked at Kabuto with a questioning expression. The look Sasuke was giving him was as if to say, 'Is this guy an idiot?' Sasuke and several others then looked back at the sleeping genin again while Kabuto tried to figure out what was going on.
Looking through his cards, Kabuto pulled out Sasuke and Sakura's cards and looked at the information about them that he had illegally obtained. 'Both don't list Uzumaki Naruto as their teammate.' he noted and couldn't believe that he had such a lapse in his information and why he hadn't looked into it before. The cards didn't list anyone as their teammate just 'To Be Determined'. It seemed, from what his cards were telling him, that it was just a team of two under Hatake Kakashi.
"Well, that's embarrassing." stated Kabuto in a friendly manner and trying to fake being embarrassed at the situation. He laughed nervously and made it seem like a simple error on his part, but on the inside his mind was thinking very differently, 'How could I have missed that?' he wondered and couldn't remember ever seeing or going through a file on Uzumaki Naruto. Only now was the memory coming back concerning that they boy was placed Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi and he had only learned of that through word of mouth in the village and not through solid paper/record evidence.
He'd never had such a problem before, so he played it off as just not having everything about the contestants written down on his cards. He stated a few more things about the other chunin hopefuls and even insinuated that the ninja from the Sound village would likely not be a threat.
x-x
Naruto kept his eyes shut and pretended to be asleep as he listened to the man talk with the rookie genin. If by some chance Kabuto did have a card with any information on him, he likely would have sprang into action and not only destroyed the card but incapacitated Kabuto and taken the older genin to the Hokage. No one was supposed to have information on him, especially not anything from his sealed records.
The more he thought about it, the more he wondered how Kabuto had gotten that kind of information about the other genin in the exams. Thanks to his Baa-chan, he was very familiar with how information was gathered and stored as well as how the archive and records system in Konoha worked. Therefore, he knew that a genin probably shouldn't have that kind of information on other genin in Konoha, much less other genin in other villages. Mission records and detailed information like that were not supposed to be available to genin and the only way to get it was either to ask the genin in question to divulge that information, have someone else get it from the records room, or to get it from the archives yourself.
Genin couldn't even go into the archives without their Jonin sensei present with them and had to be supervised because those records did contain sensitive village information. The fact that Kabuto had this information was highly suspicious and he wondered what other information the older genin had. He planned to tell the Hokage about it after the first exam was over.
Both of Naruto's eyes opened when he felt an attack coming and he intently watched and used his chakra sensing ability to get more information about Kabuto and what he would do. One ninja threw several kunai, which Kabuto dodged, while another of the ninja jumped at Kabuto and swung a heavily armored arm. The attack missed but Kabuto's glasses cracked and a moment later the gray haired genin collapsed to the ground and vomited. He noted that while Kabuto didn't sense the attack before he did, the older genin sensed if before anyone else standing in the area which was saying something as the three ninja that charged at him had gone past several others without being noticed.
Everyone else who was watching knew that there was something else to the attack but none of them were sure what. Naruto at first thought it was some kind of wind release ninjutsu but he could feel that the chakra was different. It seemed to radiate or vibrate outwards from the metal arm that the genin had and he originally thought it was a burst of wind that entered the body of the opponent and hit them like a shock wave. It was then that he realized that it wasn't wind but likely sound that emanated from the arm and penetrated the enemies body. It obviously caused nausea in an opponent and destroyed their defense.
While he wasn't sure if it could damage the hearing, he knew he likely had to watch out for it as his hearing was heightened and it could affect him more than others. However, Kabuto didn't seem to be holding his ears and neither was anyone else in the area so it must not be a loud noise but rather something that no one else could hear. 'Like a dog whistle' he thought. Thinking about a counterattack or defense against a jutsu that couldn't be seen was difficult, but he knew that if he created a vacuum around himself, then he could protect his body from the attack. He was not sure what would happen if the attack struck him though. 'Could sound be channeled directly into the body?' he wondered and he wasn't sure but would use caution if he faced them later in the exam.
Sensing the incoming visitors, Naruto stood as a tall man in a black trench coat and several other ninja in gray uniforms appeared after the smoke of their arrival cleared.
He glanced back at Kabuto and noted that the teen was perfectly fine which he likely shouldn't have been from such an attack but he wasn't sure how long it took to recover from such a jutsu. He could tell that Kabuto could have dodged earlier but made sure to barely dodge the kunai that were thrown as well as the fist that was swung at him.
Naruto wondered why the boy was still a genin. To him, it seemed that Kabuto could have easily countered the ninja that charged him. Likely before the genin had been able to use his special jutsu considering how aware the teen was of the coming attack.
x-x
"Quit down you worthless bastards!" stated the scarred man as he looked out over the staring crowd.
When he had there attention, he continued, "I'm Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the first stage of the chunin exams."
"You three from the Hidden Sound Village, stop trying to fight the other ninja before the exam even starts. Do you want fail?" demanded the newly named Ibiki with a glare at the ninja in question.
An excuse was given but Ibiki didn't even care what it was, "There will be no fighting during this exam unless permission is given by me. Even if permission is given, there will be no killing under any circumstances. If you won't want to follow those rules, I'll just simple fail you and you can will each take a number from my chunin to get your seating arrangements and an examine will be passed out to you." said Ibiki with his chunin examiners already in motion.
Naruto just stared at the man and thought, 'A written test. Is he serious? I should have known better when Kakashi said it would be at the academy. I hate written tests!'
Getting a number, Naruto sat down next to a ninja he didn't know and Hinata. After a brief greeting, a test was placed face down in front of him and he looked forward to the chalk board that the head examiner was now standing at.
"Listen up so I can explain the rules of the test. There are ten questions and each is worth one point for a total of ten points. If you answer all of the questions correctly, you will keep your ten points. For every question you get wrong, one point will be subtracted.
This test is not individual but a team test. Failure for the team occurs when one teammate does not answer any of the questions correctly. If a person is caught cheating, two points will be deducted from their score for every instance." stated Ibiki and he motioned to the Konoha chunin's sitting in chairs against the one side of the classroom. Each had a clipboard and one of them said, "We'll be keeping a close eye on all of you."
"If you lose all of your points, you will be failed along with your teammates. The scoring will be based on the combined score of all three genin. The higher your score, the better chance your team has of moving on to the next exam. All of those pathetic ninja that need to cheat to pass this exam and get caught, will be destroying their team's chances of progressing to the next exam." and he paused for a brief moment to let that sink in before finishing, "You will have one hour to complete the exam. There is no talking and you may not ask any questions. Begin!" finished Ibiki and all of the students flipped over their tests.
Naruto took a moment to browse the questions and figured out one thing, 'I can't answer any of these.' Looking around he tried to figure out who did have the answers that he needed. Shakky had always taught him that if he didn't have the answer, he could either make them up, quite, or steal the answers. Once he found a person in his area that was working on the test and seemed to have the answer, he thought through his list of techniques to figure out which he could use to get at least a few answers.
Most of his methods of information gathering revolved around infiltration but those wouldn't work in a situation like this. The kid was a row ahead of him and sitting diagonally from his own seat. A moment later he smiled as he figured out one way a technique he knew could be used to cheat in this situation. It was not something that he had ever tried before but he had a feeling that it would work.
Picking up his pencil with one hand, he concentrated his chakra into his other hand, which was hidden under the table, and a thin chakra string started meandering away from his hand. It traveled to the floor and to the feet of the person next to him and then moved across the gap between the desks and to the next row. If any of the examiners did manage to see it, which he doubted, they would think it originated from the ninja sitting next to him. The string traveled up to the chair of the person he had found earlier and once in position, Naruto limited the amount of chakra he was using to make sure that the target wouldn't notice. Once he had limited it as much as he could, the string connected with the elbow of the ninja he was after.
Concentrating on his hand, a second chakra string came out of another finger and attached to the elbow of his opposite arm. After concentrating for a brief moment, his arm with the pencil in it started making the same motions as the ninja whose arm his other chakra string was attached to. Adjusting his possessed arm to the paper, he started finishing up the answer to the first question. He didn't have any of the work before that but had picked up where the other ninja was currently writing.
Naruto didn't look at any of the examiners and kept his chakra string hand underneath the table so that no one could see the string. He just blankly stared ahead as he really didn't want to look at the problems on his paper. It didn't seem that the ninja he was copying off of had discovered the intrusion of chakra into his body so Naruto continued to get the answers.
x-x
Time passed and Naruto found himself getting bored. The examiner said he only needed to get one answer correct and he currently had three written down, but he wasn't sure if there was a cutoff for the combined points so he continued. His eyes closed as he yawned but his hand continued writing at the same paces. He then leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling while his arm continued to work for him.
Sitting several rows back, Sakura looked up from her paper again at her teammate. It was obvious to her that Naruto couldn't answer any of the questions on his own, it was likely that even Sasuke couldn't answer them on his own but she knew that the Uchiha was smart enough to find a way to cheat and not get caught. She just wondered whether Naruto had figured out the real meaning of the exam. From what she did know about Naruto, he was good at not getting caught. Out of all three genin teams, he was the only person to get a bell and no one even knew how he did it besides the teacher that he stole it from.
It was likely that she didn't have much to worry about but as Naruto leaned back and stared at the ceiling, she twitched and nearly broker her pencil. 'He's not even looking at his paper! He better not be drawing on his test!' she raged and Inner Sakura agreed with her. It didn't make any sense how he could be so relaxed and oblivious yet still be answering the questions.
x-x
Throwing a kunai and barking out numbers again, Ibiki failed another genin team for getting caught too many times cheating. He made sure the kunai skimmed the Uzumaki boy's head before imbedding into the desk of the failed genin several rows back.
Naruto's head stopped its focus on the ceiling to stare at him and their eyes met for a brief moment. The boy eye-smiled at him and then went back to looking at the ceiling. Most likely counting the ceiling tiles. Ibiki's eyes narrowed as he focused on the boy to figure out what method was being used to cheat.
Even if he found out, he could only deduct two points from the boy's score but he wanted to know what was being used. He had already focused on the calmest person in the room which was the boy from Suna and saw the boy not trying to hide the use of a sand technique to spy on a nearby person's test but this was more difficult. 'His arm's moving but he's not paying attention to it.' Ibiki noted as the strangest part of the scene. Instead of being calm like the Suna boy, Naruto seemed bored.
Ibiki's mind went through a list of the techniques that he knew to figure out what the boy might be using. Every possibility he thought of was pushed aside as nothing that he currently knew of could do what he was seeing. 'He must be modifying a known technique or perhaps Kakashi taught his students something to get past this stage.' he thought and looked to the other students of that genin team. The Uchiha was blatantly using his Sharingan while the kunoichi of the team was answering her questions by herself.
Looking around nearby Naruto, Ibiki matched the movements of Naruto's hand to the movements of one of the chunin that were randomly placed in the crowd so that the genin would have someone to get answers from. The only problem now was that he still didn't know how the boy was doing it. Looking toward his line of chunin, he used a few handsigns to contact the chunin that was monitoring Naruto's row to ask how many points had been deducted from the boy. The chunin responded in code that he had yet to deduct any.
Since the chunin was likely watching and observing longer than he was, Ibiki thought perhaps his chunin had figured something out. It was obvious to him now that the boy was somehow copying the movements of the planted chunin but how? It was incredibly similar to what the Uchiha was doing with his sharingan but Naruto wasn't even paying attention to the person he was copying from and didn't have a dojutsu. It was also unlikely that anyone else was helping him as the only technique he could think of which would do something similar was the Nara shadow mimic but only Naruto's arm was mimicking the chunin.
It was at that moment that he realized that he was being stared at by the boy. The arm had also stopped writing and they stared at each other. 'He knows I'm catching on.' Ibiki thought and watched the boy flip his test over and lay his head down to go to sleep. The chunin plant was however still working on his test.
'So he quite before I could keep trying to figure out what he was doing.' and he gave a very short chuckle at the brat that was trying to fall asleep. 'He only really needs to get one question right to pass because I was lying about the points needing to be high enough. He he might have quite while he was ahead, but he has no idea about the tenth question.' mused Ibiki and would wait for the forty-five minute mark before giving out the rules for that question.
x-x
Naruto woke up ten or more minutes later and found that there was still nearly twenty minutes to finish the exam. The final question would be asked in a few minutes. He thought about getting more answers but didn't really want to. As long as one of the four answers that he had was right, he would pass since he doubted anyone could prove how he cheated.
Getting bored again, he looked around the room to find that the majority of teams were still there. He knew their were fifty one teams in the room to start with and probably around forty or more were still there. Sasuke had seen to it that many teams were able to get by Izumo and Kotetsu's trick and it was likely that they would be stuck with many other teams during the next exam, which he knew was in the Forest of Death and was a free-for-all match.
The fewer the teams were in the forest, the better it would be because their wouldn't be a preliminary round before the third exam. He wasn't that worried about the forest or a preliminary round but all he needed to do was make it to the finals to get promoted to chunin and then he would be off of Team Seven. 'The faster I do that, the better.' he thought and started figuring out what he could do limit the number of participants.
If the next exam allowed killing than it was possible that he would be doing the people he failed a favor, at least that was what he told himself. Also, the fact that a question was left out meant that there was something special about it and that left the possibility that he might not be able to pass, even if all four of his answers were correct. The instructor had also mentioned that the team needed as high a score as possible.
'If I can't pass with the test, then I'll make sure that I have to be passed. They can't have a chunin exam with out any finalists, can they? That would make the village look bad.' he thought with a smile. The exams were a big deal and he wondered if there had ever been an exam when no participants made it to the final round. He thought it was very unlikely.
Going over what the the examiner had said, there weren't many options to get enough participants thrown out. The best one was that they needed permission from man at the front of the class in order to fight, 'So I just have to cause a fight.' he surmised and felt around the room to find where his teammates were sitting.
He would have to start a fight away from them in order to make sure neither got involved. He did find a good area of the room near a grass ninja that was sitting by an Ame ninja and a Konoha ninja that he didn't know. Using his chakra strings, Naruto sent them across the floor to the other side of the room and prepared to attach them to several of the ninja there.
Channeling chakra to his throat, Naruto prepared to project his voice to the other side of the room.
x-x
"Hey, quit looking at my paper you cheating bastard!" said a voice that came from one side of the room and everyone's eyes came up off their papers to see what was going on. A ninja from Ame looked beside him at a ninja from Grass and both were confused. It sounded like one them had yelled at each other but neither was sure what was going on.
"Why would I cheat off a pathetic ninja like you!" came another voice and before Ibiki could act, the Ame ninja moved with no control over his body and hit the Grass ninja. The hit wasn't very hard but did what it was supposed to do, which was to cause the Grass ninja to tackle the ninja that hit him. The two ninja pushed into two other ninja sitting down the bench seat.
Several different things happened a moment later. The teammates of both ninja came to their friends aid but because of the random seating, they were on different sides of the room. While moving to either break up the fight or join in, other ninja from the same villages intervened which cause utter cause and only spread the fight. A Grass ninja tripped an Ame ninja while running across the desks and sent him sprawling into several other ninja from different villages.
In a few moments, a large portion of the room was fighting with each other and the noise was too much for Ibiki's voice to be heard. Seeing the problems, the chunin examiners got involved to stop the fight.
Sitting at his desk while fighting raged around him Naruto couldn't help but think one thing, 'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.' and he moved his paper to the side as a ninja slid over the top of the desk and onto the floor in front of it. A few shuriken flew by but mostly people were just using their bare fists. One of the windows was broken when a desk was hurled into it but the desk was too large to go through it.
By the time it was all over, at least fifty people were injured but miraculously no one had died. All of the ninja that were fighting had been thrown out of the building by the chunin and Ibiki looked more pissed than ever. From what Naruto could feel, only sixteen teams were left and the rest were either outside of the academy or being taken to the hospital.
"Well I guess my plan did work after all." said Naruto and then he realized he had said it out loud. 'Oh shit!' he thought and before he could think anything else, an angry Ibiki was standing before his desk.
"And just what plan was that?" asked Ibiki while trying to hold in his rage but his killing intent was completely bearing down on the genin before him.
"Ahhh..." stated Naruto as he thought of something to say, "...my plan to sit perfectly still and not draw attention to myself until the test was over. Now it seems to have failed though." said Naruto with a straight face and looking directly into the eyes of Ibiki.
A cold gray stared into glowing blue and nothing was said for a brief moment before Ibiki countered, "Oh really?"
"Yes." was all Naruto said.
"So you didn't cause this entire fight?" questioned Ibiki as he learned closer and put both his fists on the desk in front of Naruto.
"Are you accusing me of something? I feel like maybe I should have a lawyer present." responded Naruto and Ibiki's eyes just narrowed at the boy's evasion of his question.
"You don't get a lawyer during an interrogation." Ibiki stated and he was dead set on bringing the boy to the interrogation department to find out how the boy had started the fight, which he was now confident was what had happened.
"Your violating my rights?" questioned Naruto in a surprised voice at the fact that he wasn't going to be allowed a lawyer and he could feel the desk groan and splinter slightly under the pressure Ibiki was now pushing down on it.
"How would like to spend some alone time with me?" inquired Ibiki with his intimidating voice.
"I NEED AN ADULT!" Naruto yelled while putting on a show of being scared and looking around frantically.
It would just so happen, that at that moment, a ball of cloth flew through the air outside and broke through one of the still intact windows in the room.
Ibiki didn't turn around but glanced at the clock in the room and suppressed a groan. With all the commotion of the fight, the test was over. He didn't need to know that standing behind him with purple banner, complete with lettering, was Mitarashi Anko in her usual ninja outfit. This wasn't the first time it had happened and he knew it obviously wasn't going to be the last time either.
'Well that was an odd coincidence.' thought Naruto as he had felt the woman getting near but he never thought she would come in through the window. Glancing over at the wall, he noticed that they clock showed that the exam was over and smiled underneath his mask.
"Alright brats! My name is Mitarashi Anko and I'm the second examiner. Follow me to the next exam." she stated with authority. Looking around she nodded at the number that were left. "You only left fifteen teams this time, huh Ibiki? Not your best record but certainly not your worst." she commented while looking at her fellow examiner.
Walking up to the woman, Ibiki said in a low voice, "Anko, I haven't finished the test yet." and the woman twitched and then looked at the clock which showed her that the test was over.
"What do you mean you haven't finished?" she said in a hushed voice, "The exam is supposed to be over by now. You had one hour to reduce their numbers and it looks to me like you did it."
"There were some...complications." stated Ibiki while tightening his fist and glancing over at someone. Following his look, Anko and Naruto's eyes met and they both looked away a moment later. She also noticed the damage to the room. 'Yeah, this has the brat written all over it.' she thought and turned back to Ibiki,
"You had your allotted time and I didn't show up early this time. The second exam starts now because I don't want to have to wait and I already indirectly told them they passed." stated Anko in an annoyed whisper and Ibiki was forced to agree with her.
He was still angry though as he had his classic 'do or don't' speech about the risks and duty of a chunin all prepared and ready to be delivered. Cursing the fact that the exams had a schedule and that he knew it was never a good idea to make Anko wait for anything, he didn't say anything else as Anko took the genin to the next exam.
His eyes never left the brat that he knew had caused the fight until they boy was out of the room and then he went about collecting the exams.
x-x
While follow the new examiner, Hinata looked at the boy who had caused the fight. She had seen what he was doing during the exam because she had her Byakugan active for a portion of it in order to cheat. She was rather impressed that he had stood up to the examiner and not crumbled under the killing intent or gaze that made her want to leave the room. Then again, this was the same boy that had stood up for her against three older boys so it made sense that he would keep getting stronger and could stand up to such intimidating people.
She wasn't completely sure why he had started the fight though but was thankful as she was very worried about the exam and the final question. Her team was depending on her as they needed to pass as a team and she didn't want to let them down.
Catching up with her teammates, she wondered where Naruto had learned the techniques that he used. She had never seen them used before and was rather interested in the pure chakra technique and shape manipulation skills that he possessed.
Since the Suna mission, she had asked Kurenai about techniques such as what she he had seen. She never mentioned where she had seen it but asked whether there were chakra control exercises that involved spinning chakra. Kurenai didn't know but told her to ask the Hokage after the completed their next D-rank mission.
It had taken a lot of courage for her to ask the Hokage but she had and described what information she was after. The Hokage merely smiled at the time and told her of an obscure chakra technique called 'chakra spinning' and what it involved. With a slight smile, he informed her that it had never been proven if the technique was really useful and most believed it was just a myth or a lie told to obnoxious or hyper genin to keep them occupied.
She had thanked the Hokage and it was obvious to her, but not to those around her, that the Hokage had seen through her. The Sandaime had known exactly where she had seen the technique and told her everything she had wanted to know. The technique was useful and not a myth or a lie, but it was only useful to those that kept at it and didn't give up on when they didn't get any initial results. Which was likely what Naruto had done. It was exactly what she had wanted, something to strive for, and something that could help her.
She had contemplated asking for help or tips from Naruto on several occasions when she was having trouble but decided not to. She had no right to ask anything of him and this was something she could do on her own and would make her own. Instead of trying to tighten the spiral like she had seen Naruto do, she had done the opposite and pushed the spiral outward.
The training had helped her quite a bit with her jyuuken and she had started learning how to push chakra out through all of her tenketsu and not just the ones in her hands that were used by her clan for Jyuuken. She found herself using the technique during her free moments. Her goal was to learn to use all of her families jutsu and create her own and she believed the chakra spinning exercise could help her.
Looking at the boy one last time as the group moved to an unknown location, she smiled at the thought that he was still helping her, even if he didn't know it.
x-x
The Sandaime looked up from his paper work when he felt Naruto coming down his hallway to his office door. Considering that the first exam only finished a minute ago, it was possible that the boy had failed but he felt that it was unlikely.
Before any knock on the door occurred the Sandaime said, "Enter." and in Naruto walked. The boy calmly walked over and sat in the chair across from him. Even with a mask, the Sandaime could tell that they boy was not disappointed because of failure of the exam but had something to tell him. 'If he didn't fail then this must be a clone as he should be heading to the next exam with Anko.' he concluded and began the conversation, "What can I do for you, Naruto-kun?"
"The files in the ninja archives, who has access to them?" inquired Naruto.
The Sandaime thought for a moment and replied, "It depends on which kind of files. Jonin have access to a majority of the files there chunin have access to some and genin don't have access to any. Why do you ask?"
He wondered what the boy really wanted to know. The archives kept the majority of ninja files but not the classified ones that only he and the village elders had access to and then there were the files that only he had access to. 'Does he want to see his own file?' thought the Hokage but waited to hear the boy's reasoning for the question.
"If I told you that a Konoha genin might have information on the names, achieved missions, and abilities of ninja participating in the chunin exams, what would be your response?" questioned Naruto.
The Hokage frowned as he thought about it. While certain information could have been acquired about ninja during the exam based on observations, it had only just started but some ninja were taking it for the second time. "What genin did this person have information on?" questioned the Hokage seriously and the clone responded, "Rock Lee of Konoha and some limited information about mission concerning a Suna genin."
That raised an alarm in the Sandaime's mind as Rock Lee was competing for the first time and information such as that should not be known by anyone that was a genin. Looking back to Naruto he asked, "Just who was it that had this information?"
"An older genin, Yakushi Kabuto." stated the clone.
"I want you to look into this Kabuto and find out anything more that you can during the second part of the exam. Don't fight him but if you think he is up to something else, I give you permission to apprehend him for 'Suspicious Activities'." ordered the Hokage.
That law allowed the Hokage to detain an active or inactive ninja of the village, for a given period of time, under suspicion of espionage. The period could be up to a week and they could be questioned in anyway that the Hokage saw fit. The Hokage was allowed to use this power but he had to provide his reasoning to the ninja council as he couldn't just detain anyone, whenever he wanted, and without some justification.
Naruto dispelled in smoke, confirming the Hokage's thoughts that the boy was a shadow clone and the Hokage called his secretary on the intercom to request Morino Ibiki, Yamanaka Inoichi, and the files on Yakushi Kabuto.
x-x
Coming to the test that he knew belonged to Uzumaki Naruto, Ibiki picked it up and expected to see a few answers written down but that was not the case. He found nine answers on the sheet of paper. Confused, he looked to the name and found that it can been scribbled out and 'Uzumaki Naruto' had been written right next to that. He huffed in irritation and looked through the stack of papers that he had already collected.
Sure enough, one of the papers in the previous row had the name crossed off and instead was written, 'Some guy who knew the answers.' He shook his head slightly as he thought of what must have happened, 'During the commotion he switched his test with the person he had been copying off of earlier. Damn brat!'
In all the years he had been running the first part of the exam, no one had ever started a fight to pass and eliminate the competitors. They had tried to get other people caught for cheating or thrown out, but no one had ever started a fight that escalated into a brawl that eliminated over twenty teams. He couldn't remember that having ever have happened before.
He remembered one foolish genin try to fight the chunin examiners after declaring that he wasn't cheating and couldn't possibly have failed. There were other small disagreements too but nothing like what just happened.
Ibiki was brought out of his musing when a chunin appeared in the room, "Ibiki-san, the Hokage has requested you at his office."
Tossing the stack of papers at the chunin and telling him that he could collect the rest of the them, Ibiki jumped out the already broken window and headed for the Hokage's office.
x-x
Cleaning the bloodied sword on a piece of clothing he had torn from one of the dead ninja, the Grass ninja raised the legendary sword and slid it down his throat. His plans had been hampered by the fact that one of his 'teammates' had managed to get the team thrown out for fighting. Rectifying the situation, he took both other their heads in anger.
He and two of his sound ninja had taken the faces of a team of Grass ninja and were infiltrating the exams to complete his goals. He would have likely killed the other two anyway but they had angered him and ruined his perfectly crafted plan.
'It looks like I'll just have to sneak into the Forest of Death the old fashioned way.' he thought and chuckled, "Kukukukuku." while heading to the isolated training ground.
Please Review
AN: I didn't really want anyone to think that Hinata was copying off of Naruto so she will be using the same technique but it will be different and help her with her clan techniques and her original techniques. If people think that it is stealing, well that just isn't true as the chakra spinning technique is known by many people. Even jiraiya mentioned it during the search for Tsunade arc but in my story only a few people know that it really does something.
I will try to explain Naruto and Anko in the next chapter