Naruto groaned as he finally made it to the tower and shot a glare at the full kunoichi team. Not only did every muscle in hks body ache but the various wounds he knew would leave scars were far more numerous than he would have ever wanted. "I swear to kami the only reason it took us four days to do this shit is its your fault" he said looking at the kunoichi he come to know as Hera. The four days had let him get to know all three but truthfully Usagi, the apparent leader to him, was a mystery to him. One minute shes all naïve, innocent and clueless which lined up well with her behaviour during the first part of the exam and her so precisely focused on a baby rabbit instead of the test. Then there was her freaking fight against the Kusa ninja that came picking a fight. If he didn't know better he would have thought Usagi was a demon possessed as she fought the man, or was it a woman, with her frightening bone skill that turned everything it touched to ash.
"None of us asked you to help us" Aris said with a rather snotty scowl. The blonde leaf genin had been a right pain in the side with his bitching but Usagis insistence the four of them travel as a pack reluctantly won out.
"Now now foxy-kun, be nice to He-chan and Ar-chan" Usagi said with a tired smile. The girl was a mess as she used Hera for a support. Four days of fighting and eliminating competition would do that to a girl. Her hair had dried blood in it, her body suit was covered in dried blood and other bodily fluids, her eyes were bloodshot & not to mention the dark bags under her eyes were a dead giveaway she hadn't been sleeping. "We're all a little cwanky."
"Whatever bun bun." Naruto dug out the scroll with Nora and Naruko stored in stasis before unsealing their bodies. A quick application of an underpowered water bullet not only removed the temporary stasis seal but woke the two girls up with sputtering coughs.
"T-the fuck onii-san?!" Naruko glared up with chattering teeth. One minute they were discussing a plan and next she knew darkness. "Where the hell are we? Who the hell are they?" A finger was jabbed toward the full kunoichi team. "How much time is left in the exam? And most importantly, what in the fuck did you do to us?!"
Hera and Aris snorted at the questions being shot at the blonde male. He could deal with his own drama. "Come on, theres other similiar entrances around the building. I would say it was fun blondie but your bitching was more annoying than anything else. If we fight in the last part of the exam its nothing personal. Ja" Hera said guiding her teammates to another door.
Naruto sighed and rubbed his temples. "In order of most relevance. Number one, I knocked tou two out after we entered the forest and put you under stasis seals and sealed your bodys into modified long distance Oi nin injured persons scrolls. The medical chakra sealed in the scrolls has kept your bodies healthy for the past four days while I took care of this portion of the exam. This whole training ground has overgrown out of control animals the size of Hokage tower. You would have been too injured by the time we got here if I didn't do what I did so I did the smart thing. You two would have been dead weight."
Nora looked offender while glaring chocolate tinted death at the blonde Uzumaki. "You knocked us out for four days. Sealed our bodies up like luggage and did this entire leg of the exam on your own?" she asked with a thinly veiled sweet voice promising death if he answered wrong.
"Yea, sounds about right. I train here. A lot. I know the lay of the land. I know the dangers of the animals that call this place home. I mean for fucks sake this training ground is a nut case! For example and I kid you not on the bastard Yondaimes tiny pencil eraser dick" Naruto ignored the gagging from the two girls "I saw a giant ass bunny twice the size of fully grown bear take it down and take a victory shag from the bears body. You cannot make this shit up I swear" he said waving his arms animatedly. "Ok well maybe you can but ask the girl with the horns, she was chasing the damn thing smacking a collar that was on the bunny like she was walking a damn pet."
Nora and Naruko shared a look questioning Narutos sanity. "Did you eat anything poisonous while you had us...indisposed of for this duration?" Naruko asked. "Berries, leaves, animal meat? Cause I find a giant ass rabbit taking down a bear and taking a victory hump on it to be entirely fiction. Rabbits are prey animals, bears are predators. Ergo, if any of the two is going to take the other down it will be the bears taking down the rabbits."
"You can't apply logic to this mad house! Righ is left, left is diagnol and purple is blue! Just look the hell around us at the plants. At the animals for kamis sake! They are far larger, wilder, and mutated than anything a textbook will describe as being normal" Naruto said pointing a sharp finger at tiger three times the size of an adult wolf with jutting out canines making him think of sabertooth tigers. "Tell me that damn wolf should look like that!"
Naruko looked over and had to concede that wolves were not supposed to look like extinct big hunter cats. "Fine I'll concede that wolf should not be that big. Nor should they have canine teeth that long or sharp" she said with a shudder. Her eyes widened immensely at a plant opening its leaves to reveal a mouth full of sharp teeth and a tongue that turned and swallowed the creature whole as yelps of agony escaped its throat.
"Even more proof! You think this place is safe? You should be thankful for what I did to you two" Naruto said with a sharp glare. "Lets just go already and get inside. I want to wash this blood off me." Shoving the pair forward despite protest he scowled lightly seeing the scroll hanging in the room.
"A riddle? What the bloody hell is this crap" Nora asked with a scowl and glare at the hanging scrolls. "If you lack Heaven but have more Earth than you should find more time for _. If you lack Earth but have more Heaven than you should find more time for _. What do they expect us to do here?" She huffed and crossed her arms under her chest.
"Its a knowledge test duh" Naruko said shaking her head. Heaven must be referring to intelligence and Earth has to be referring to our physical abilities. What I don't know is what the blank is supposed to be. Maybe something like either working out if we are lacking in Earth or studying if we are lacking in Heaven."
Naruto had stopped listening when the two began to bicker about it and decided to say fuck it. Removing the scrolls from his person he opened both and kicked them up into the air when they began to smoke. "Behind me now!" he ordered yanking both girls behind him. When the smoke cleared he heard a thud and saw a twitching familiar mop of purple hair. "Anko? What in the name of dango are you doing here?"
Anko cursed and glared darkly at Naruto. She had been enjoying her third afternoon meal of dango, nothing topped dango, and then all of sudden she was here on her head in the tower. She didn't care that she was flashing the brats, Naruto was unfazed but the same couldn't be said for the two blushing girls, and righted herself to a seated position. "I was enjoying my afternoon dango but you opened the damn scrolls here which means you pass this fucking test" she said with a miffed look in her eye. "With one day to spare. Cutting it a little close brat don't you think?"
"Meh, we're still here. I don't think the results matter either way" Naruto said dismissively waving his hand in Ankos direction.
"Cheeky little shit. I wouldn't be so cocky. Theres plenty of skilled teams here already. Head through that door over there and head up the stairs two flights. Blondie, stay back for a minute." When the two hesitated leaving Naruto Anko have the two kunoichi a swift kick in the ass forcing them to leave through the door and slammed it shut behind them. "Why are you covered in blood? You ain't usually this violent kid."
Naruto grimaced at the direct questioning and made a motion with his hand forcing the door closed with a strong gust of wind leaving them in the relatively dim room as torches sparked to life. His eyes glowed a dark gold as his posture became rigid. "There were complications in the forest" he said in a curt direct tone. The conversation would not be a fun one but it was necessary.
Ankos eyes sharpened immediately at the word complications. There was very little the blonde considered a complication or problem. For Naruto to use it was telling in and of itself of the severity of the situation. "Explain and don't leave out a single detail" she ordered.
Inside the towers infirmary
Nora and Naruko glared at the oi-nin checking them over. "We already told ya that we're fine. Aside from a little miffed at my brother for doing something completely and utterly asshole-ish we're no worse for wear" Naruko said with a rather disgruntled scowl.
"Be that as it may it is my job to give every participant a check over when they get here" the medical ninja said with strained patience. He really hated his job some days. 'Kids these days don't appreciate squat from anyone' he thought rubbing his temple with one hand while jotting notes in their files. "A bit dehydrated but otherwise-"
"Fine. I didn't risk their lives and they spent the last four days in a scroll you oi-nin use to transport injured comrades long distances without killing them mid transport." Naruto pushed off the doorframe and rolled his eyes. "Just discharge them already so they can sharpen up in the training rooms" he said with a flat tone. His mind kept the warning Anko left him in mind as it played on repeat. Of course he had the luck to run into a wanted criminal in this thing. Of course his luck would put his life at risk only to escape by the skin of his teeth after the guy used a technique to cough up a new uninjured body and make a tactical retreat.
The oi-nin didn't look impressed with Narutos tone and his eyes said as much. "Mr Uzumaki I would appreciate if-"
"I could give two shits what you appreciate or do not appreciate. I am tired, annoyed and your voice is grinding my nerves something horrible. My teammates are in fine health as you said. Discharge them. Now" Naruto said with a pointed venomous glare. Not even his mothers mental tail slap to remind his manners was doing any good. With the information given to him by Anko he was far from in a mood to be polite to a person that was of no consequence to the danger that may face them in the not so far future.
Nora and Naruko shared a look with each other that was equal parts edgy & curious but kept silent as the oi-nin told them they could go. Naruto was never this dismissive or cold of anyone. Well he had been but not for a good length of time. Just what happened after they were kicked quite rudely out and left the blonde male alone with the crazy purple haired proctor? Following the boy out they snuck glances back and forth. His posture was rigid as stone, his turns mechanical and he said nothing at all. Whatever happened in the forest and with the proctor inspired this chsnge in him, a change that neither liked.
"Whats wrong with yo-"
"Don't speak until we get we're I'm leading you."
The order was crisp and curt silencing the Inzuka girl who fell back behind Naruko. Nora had heard about there being strong alpha material mates out there but Naruto was something else. In this moment he was strong in that way like her mother described but more than that he frightening to her. Like he would throw her into the stone walls if she disobeyed his command amd not care about hurting her.
The silence was so stiff you could hear a pin drop til at last Naruto opened the door to a training room. Once the girls entered he slammed it shut behind him and locked it with a blood seal. "Now you two will listen to what I say and not interrupt me" he said with a hard look. "Then we will train til you cannot move before we retire for a meal and take a room to rest. Am I clear?" Two quick nods met his rhetorical questions. "During the time two were in stasis.."
A/n: this isnt nearly as long as i wanted it to be but it helps to set up what I wanted to set up for the next chapter when the fight begin. Why did narutos eyes glow gold? Is the person Usagi stab orchimaru or is it not? What else happened in the four days of hell in the forest? All will be revealed next chapter as well as the fights starting.