I do not own Naruto. All rights remain that of Kishimoto.

It's Part 2B of the Chunin exams! (Or not 2B, that is the question…)

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Chapter Twenty

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Hiruzen sat in the lookout post at the top of the tower, his gaze fixed on the empty space that was the face of the orphaned son of his replacement.

"So, to summarise." He said. "Killer Bee is the Jinchuuriki of the Eight-tentacled Ox while the Kumo Ambassador is the holder of the two-tailed cat. The youngest Suna Genin holds the One-tailed Tanuki, meaning that we have no less than four Jinchuuriki in Konoha, two of them in the exams themselves. And Killer Bee wants to train you in using the Kyuubi, even though he's from Kumo and you're a Konoha Genin."

"I think he's more concerned that we're both Jinchuuriki, Hokage-sama." Naruto replied. "I think that he's worried about Gaara as well. Gaara refers to the Ichibi as mother. That does not sound good to me."

Hiruzen sighed and closed his eyes in thought. After a while, he nodded.

"Alright. However, I want one of my own people there, and I know just who. He'll introduce himself to you tomorrow morning."

"Understood, Hokage-sama." Naruto replied, bowing slightly at the implied dismissal before vanishing, revealing that he had been a Toton Bunshin.

"That never ceases to amaze me." Anko said from the corner where she was sharpening a kunai. "It also makes me rather paranoid, how do we know he doesn't have another clone here, watching us?"

Hiruzen opened his mouth, then paused before answering. "I have absolutely no idea, aside from the fact that he told me that he doesn't like to spy on people."

"Thank the Kami that he's not much of a prankster." Anko shuddered, then her eyes widened as she saw Hiruzen's expression. "He is a real prankster?"

"To a degree, yes. Hiashi told me that he is very good at making traps."

"So that's why the Hyuuga have become so much better at spotting them!" Anko realised. "Wow, I thought the new Hyuuga ANBU were getting better at finding, disarming and evading traps, now I know why."

Hiruzen nodded, then he turned to look at her. "Anko, I need you to visit the hot springs."

Anko sighed.

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The sound of perverted giggling didn't carry very far, but it carried just far enough for Anko to locate the giggler. Moving silently, she dropped down behind the white-haired man and threw a senbon needle at his behind. The man caught it without bothering to look round.

"That wasn't very nice."

"I happen to know that 'nai-chan is about to enter, so either you come with me to see the Hokage or I'll alert her to your presence and she'll do that genjitsu on you again." Anko growled.

The pervert went almost as pale as his hair, causing the red lines descending from his eyes to stand out. "The one with Kakashi and Gai… Oh Kami above…"

Anko smirked as the man quickly put away his notebook and turned away from the small hole in the fence. "So, where are we we going?"

"To see your teacher." Anko grinned.

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"Jiraiya."

"Sensei." The white-haired man responded. "I hear from Little Miss Threatens here that my skills are needed."

"Yes, they are." Hiruzen said, leaning back in his chair and looking at the only one of his students within Konoha. "How long have you known Naruto was still alive?"

"The Toads told me soon after he vanished." Jiraiya replied without even the slightest hint of guilt. "The Great Toad Sage said that he was with those of the blank eyes."

"The Hyuuga clan." Hiruzen nodded.

"I assume that this has to do with him, then?" Jiraiya asked and Hiruzen nodded. "Let me guess, you want me to help him learn how to use it's power."

"In a way." Hiruzen said, earning an odd look. "I actually have a volunteer for that, but I want you to oversee the sessions."

"A volunteer?" Jiraiya snorted. "Who knows more about Jinchuuriki than me?"

"Killer Bee."

For a long moment, it didn't penetrate, then Jiraiya leaned forwards and planted his fists on the desk.

"What?! He's a Kumo shinobi!"

"Which is why I want you there." Hiruzen shot back. "With your skills, you are one of the very few who can go head-to-head with a Jinchuuriki if needed, and we have three in the tower with another one acting as Kumo's ambassador!"

"Killer Bee? An ambassador?" Jiraiya sked, his face working as he tried not to laugh.

"No, Nii Yugito." Hiruzen replied and Jiraiya paled.

"Oh crap! She's almost as scary as Tsunade when she's pissed!"

"Caught you peeping, did she?" Hiruzen chortled without any sympathy at all. "Serves you right."

Jiraiya shuddered in memory, then re-focused. "All right. I'll do it. When and where?"

"Tomorrow morning at the Tower, Forest of Death."

"I'll be there."

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Naruto hurled a kunai at the intruder even before he woke up. His actions roused Hinata, who sleepily activated her Byakugan before leaping out of bed, landing in a Juho stance as Naruto prepared to deploy his clones.

"Not bad, kid." The intruder blocking the door laughed, twirling the Kunai that Naruto had thrown. "Almost as good as your old man when he was your age."

Naruto tilted his head in query, then realised that since he wasn't wearing his Happurai, the gesture was completely wasted on the new arrival. Grumbling under his breath, he stalked across to his folded clothes and quickly donned his Happurai and half-gloves.

"Okay, even I'm slightly creeped by that." The intruder admitted. "At least put a top on so I can see where your arms are."

"Who are you?" Naruto countered and the man started doing a weird Kabuki-style dance.

"I am the man whom all men admire, the one who knows women's hearts and desires! I am the greatest writer and the Hermit who searches for world peace! I am the Toad Sage , Jiraiya of the Sannin!"

"Oh!" Hinata said in realisation. "The pervert!"

Jiraiya turned in mid-air to give her a shocked look, realised just too late that he was about to screw up his landing pose and ended up in a heap on the ground.

"The pervert?" Naruto asked curiously, but Jiraiya interrupted Hinata's answer.

"I'm not a pervert. I'm a Super Pervert!"

"And that's better… how?"

Jiraiya pulled himself back to his feet and waved for Naruto to wait. "Young lady, why did you refer to me as a pervert, anyway?"

"My father reads your books." Hinata shrugged. "So does my mother, come to think about it… and I recently saw her dressed as a character from… oh my."

"Hinata-hime?"

"Oh my." Hinata whispered. "No, they couldn't… they're old, they couldn't have… no…"

"Hinata?"

"They've been having sex…" Hinata whimpered, her eyes wide but unfocused." My parents have been having sex…"

Naruto pulled Hinata into a reassuring hug as Jiraiya sniggered.

"Once you get her back to reality, meet me in the mess hall."

"They're old…" Hinata repeated, her eyes wide as Jiraiya left. "They couldn't have…"

"Hey, who was the old guy?" Kiba asked as he looked in at them. "What's up with Hinata?"

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"Glad you could make it." Jiraiya said as the trio of genin entered the mess hall. "Grab some food and join us."

After Team 7 had grabbed some food and sat down at the table, Jiraiya flashed through a complex series of hand movements before slamming them onto the table, causing a large array of symbols to briefly appear.

"What was that?" Kiba asked as Hinata activated her Byakugan and gasped.

"There's a… a shield around us…"

"Yep, it gives us some privacy." Jiraiya smirked. "Team 7, meet Killer Bee, the Jinchuuriki of the Eight-tentacled ox and the adopted brother of the Raikage of Kumo. Bee, these are Kiba and his ninken Akamaru, Hyuuga Hinata and you've already met Yurei Ruto."

Bee nodded, then looked at Hinata. "My brother wanted either Two-chan or me to give you this message. It was his father who gave the order to try and grab you, not him. Bro extends his apologies and asks for forgiveness."

Jiraiya stared at him. "You… didn't rap that!"

Bee shrugged. "There's a time for rap and a time for talk/ A time to run and a time to walk.
"A time for peace, a time to fight/ and a time to try and set things right!
"Yo!"

Jiraiya face-palmed as Kiba sniggered.

"I… cannot give you an answer yet." Hinata finally managed and Bee nodded.

"Understood. If I'd been hatin' Kumo for half my life, I'd be havin' troubles overcoming it too."

"You may act dumb," Jiraiya said admiringly, "But you can see things others can't. I'll have to get you into my next book.

"Dat Icha-Icha trash?" Bee yelped. "Ain't no way you gonna do dat! Ah ain't no smut star!"

"It's not smut, it's art!"

"Smut!"

"Art!"

"Smut!"

"Art!"

"SMUT!"

"ART!"

"SMUT!"

"ART!"

The three genin stared at the two adults who had jammed their Hitai-ate's together and were glaring at each other at point-blank range.

"Okay." Kiba finally said. "That proves it. They're lame. Both of them."

"Oi!" Both adults yelled in unison and Hinata lost her fight against laughter.

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Naruto sat cross-legged on the tatami as Jiraiya settled down at a nearby desk, pulling out several notebooks as he did so. Bee, glanced over at the Sannin before folding himself down to sit facing Naruto.

"Before we begin, have you ever spoken with the Kyuubi or used its chakra?"

Naruto shook his head and Bee relaxed slightly.

"Okay. We'll be heading into our minds for this, just fist-bump and we'll be talkin' to our demons."

Naruto extended his arm and placed his knuckles against Bee's. An instant later, he felt something pull on him in a direction that he couldn't describe, then he found himself in the middle of a grassy plain ringed by towering cliffs several miles away.

"What the…?"

"Welcome to our shared mindscape/ Don't worry, the Biju can't escape.
"Meet my friend Gyuki/ the eight-tailed Ox as you can see!
"Yo"

Naruto turned towards Bee's rap and almost fell over at the sight of the looming Biju, then his eyes widened at the sight of Killer Bee sitting atop its head.

"What are you doing here, Gyuki!" A voice snarled from behind Naruto and he turned to see the looming form of the Kyuubi no Kitsune inside a gigantic cage, the door of which was held closed by a piece of paper.

"It's nice to see you as well, Kurama." Gyuki rumbled back, earning a deep snarl. "You look a little different…"

Bee dropped down from Gyuki's head and walked over to stand beside Naruto before the cage. Looking up, he stared for a long moment, then whistled.

"You're down to half, you're looking thin/ I wonder what happened to your Yin.
"No wonder you're grouchy, no wonder you're mad/ only having Yang is pretty bad.
"The Yondaime's seal, tho' a work of art/ must have hurt as it tore ya apart."

"SHUT! UP!" Kurama roared, then he turned his gaze to Naruto. "So, my jailer appears at last."

"If it's any consolation, I didn't ask for that position." Naruto replied with a shrug and the Kyuubi snorted with disdain, then Naruto frowned. "Wait… you're only half of what you were when you attacked Konoha?"

"This is amazing! Lookie here/ It's a man who all shinobi fear!
"Held in stasis inside the seal/ I find it hard to know that this is real!
"I know who it is or Bee ain't my name/ You got yourself the Hokage Yondaime!
"And look beside him, don'cha know/ you also got the Habenaro!"

Naruto blinked at the apparent non-sequitor, then looked over to where Bee was standing before a pair of large crystals. Walking over, he gasped as he saw the figures inside them.

"Mum? Dad?"

"This is something totally whack/ you may be able to get them back.
"But their chakra, their inner power/ will prob'ly last for just an hour.
"If you wanna keep them by ya side/ a new chakra source you must provide.
"Infuse it in them, medic style/ and they'll be around for quite a while.
"Word."

Naruto nodded as Bee finished his rap, then his eyes flooded with tears and the midscape seemed to ripple around them, then it shattered as reality reasserted itself.

"What happened?" Jiraiya asked as Naruto collapsed in tears.

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Jiraiya looked down at the pile of notes he had scribbled, then he sighed.

"It will take me a long time to do this. Oh, just creating a seal for chakra infusion is easy, it's something so basic that med-nins can do it without resorting to fuinjutsu. Linking it to the Shiki Fuin in such a way that it uses the Kyuubi's Youkai, converting it into something that can sustain Minato and Kushina's Kage Bunshins without risking destabilising them? I'm going to have to do a lot of research and experimenting, especially since I'll only get one shot at actually doing it."

Bee nodded slowly, taking a sip from the Sake bottle he had ordered.

"You realise that if I can do this, it'll change the balance of power again?" Jiraiya queried and Bee shrugged.

"Konoha is at the top/ I don't see how it's gonna stop.
"But if Mr nine's dad comes back/ perhaps he'll cut Kumo some slack."

Jiraiya nodded slowly. "Yeah, if wecan help him, then you being the cause of bringing the Yondaime back will bring Kumo's reputation way up. Maybe even to the point where Konoha'll enter into a treaty like we have with Suna."

Bee cocked his head, then took another swig as Jiraiya sighed again.

"This is going to take ages. But if it lets me apologise to Minato, it'll be worth it."

"Bee-sensei!"

Bee turned in his seat and smiled at the trio of teenagers approaching him.

"Hey there team, ya made it through/ Gotta say ah had faith in you.
"Meet Jiraiya, the toad style sage/ just don't make fun of his ancient age."

Jiraiya paused in gathering up his notes to glare at the rapper and the male member of Bee's team managed to stifle a snicker.

"I'm Samui." The blond Kunoichi said as she came to a stop by the table. "These are my team-mates Karui and Omoi."

"A pleasure." Jiraiya said as he rose. "I need to do some research in my library so I'll leave you and your sensei. Excuse me."

Jiraiya vanished and Samui raised an eyebrow. "That was… odd. I expected something… perverted from him."

"If he'd said something perverted, you'd have tried to hit him." Omoi fretted. "And he'd have hurt you and it would have destroyed any hope of peace between Kumo and Konoha and we'd have gone to war and… ow!"

"Calm down, idiot." Kurai groused as she lowered her hand. "It didn't happen, so shut up."

"So, how'd you do it, how'd you win/ to reach the Tower and then get in?"

"Wasn't easy." Samui sighed as she sat down. "Freaking shadow user was almost impossible to beat, but his female team-mate got overconfidant and we were able to ransom her for a scroll, then we chucked her out of the woods to get them disqualified and came straight here."

Bee nodded approvingly.

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"Ow. Ow. Ow." Ino whined as she limped along, supporting herself by hanging onto Choji's arm. "Damn them."

"Not their fault you forgot how to land." Shikamaru grumbled.

"I twisted my ankle!" Ino whined. "I mean, it's really painful and… what's that over there?"

Shikamaru glanced across at where Ino was staring, then he moved in closer.

"Troublesome." He groaned. "We need an ANBU here."

"What is it?"

"Three bodies." Shikamaru said as he straightened up. "And they're missing their faces."

Ino turned pale and Choji swallowed before putting away the crisps he was eating.

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"Lord Jiraiya!"

Jiraiya cursed under his breath as the ANBU seemed to materialise at the window. "What?!"

"Lord Jiraiya, your aid is requested! Team 8 made it to the Tower, but they were attacked by Orochimaru!"

Jiraiya felt his insides seem to congeal. What was his former team-mate up to?

"He placed a Cursed Seal on Sasuke Uchiha! Aburame Shino immediately placed him into a Prisoner Stasis Scroll and got him to the tower, but…"

"I'm on my way." Jiraiya said, rising from his desk, his mind already running through the possible seals to use, ones which would hopefully work better than the one he had been forced to imrovise around the Cursed Seal that was on Anko's neck. "Is Kakashi there?"

"He's waiting at the secondary sparring arena." The ANBU replied. "He said that it would be the best place for any sealing that needs doing."

"Minato trained him well." Jiraiya murmured as he grabbed his Scroll. "All right, let's go!"

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"Hey, Kiba." Naruto said as he sat down. "Sorry if you've been feeling left out…"

"No biggie." Kiba shrugged. "Been talking to Shino. You heard about Sasuke?"

Naruto paused in thought, then he nodded slowly. "Yeah… Ero-sannin mentioned something about needing to use a new type of seal on him. A modification of the Evil Sealing Technique using elements derived from the Shiki Fuin, if memory serves."

"Whoah." Kiba breathed. "I didn't know that."

"Well, Ero-sannin's overseeing some lessons that Bee-sensei is giving me regarding a burden we both share."

Kiba cocked his head, then he sent a deliberate glance at Naruto's midsection.

"Yep."

"Tomorrow's the big day." Kiba smirked. "Tomorrow, the test ends. How many teams are here?"

"Ours, Team 8, Bee-sensei's team, and a team led by Yakushi Kabuto arrived this morning. He's a skilled medic, but the rest of his skills seem to suck. He volunteered to help Sasuke recover."

Kiba nodded, then his gaze snapped across. "Sensei!"

Naruto followed his gaze and nodded to Itachi as he walked over to them.

"Good morning Kiba, Ruto."

"How's Sasuke doing?" Kiba asked and Itachi smiled slightly.

"He is recovering, although he has agreed that he will not be participating any further in this exam as we do not know if the effects of the seal that Orochimaru applied have been fully contained."

"Sensible of him." Kiba murmured and Itachi nodded.

"The Hokage thinks so as well. Should my younger brother continue to perform well in the field, showing as much good judgement as he did today, he will probably gain a field promotion."

"Nice." Kiba said approvingly, then he frowned. "Hey, why didn't we get one for going up against Zabuza?"

"Because you only encountered Zabuza-sama once." A voice said and all three ninja turned to see Haku entering the hall. Kiba inhaled deeply, then groaned.

"Dammit! Still can't tell!"

"Tell what?" Haku asked curiously.

"Hey, Haku, you found the food yet?" another voice asked and Suigetsu stepped into the mess hall. "Yeah! Now we're talking!"

"Never mind." Kiba sighed as the new trio moved towards the food, then he leaned forwards. "Ruto, what was that short chain I could have sworn I saw you holding earlier this morning?"

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Author's afternote :- Yeah, Haku's gender is becoming a running joke.

Not a clue how/if I'll resolve it, though.