Chapter Thirty Four:
The Second Exam Completed...
Prelims Begin!
Naruto, Ino, and Akina, the girl from Hidden Cloud were traveling through the forest of death. They had managed to avoid traps and other deadly objects the forest had to offer. But unfortunately their luck would not hold out as the team was attacked when they finally stopped to take a rest. Naruto quickly avoided a speeding kunai that got dangerously close to his head.
"Who's there?" Naruto called to the attackers. Three ninjas quickly appeared; from out of the bushes they were wearing Sound head protectors.
"Sound-nins? There weren't any Sound-nins in this exam," Ino said noticing the head protectors.
"Are you the one named Uzumaki Naruto?" One of the sound-nins asked pointing at the blond headed boy.
"What if I am?" Naruto replied.
"Because of you, Orochimaru-sama is dead. Sound Village didn't last long after that. Because of you, we've lost everything. You will pay!" Another Sound-nin yelled.
"Orochimaru! That idiot managed to kill a legend like Orochimaru? I can't believe it!" Akina thought to herself looking on in shock.
"Orochimaru was a creep and an evil bastard; I can say he truly deserved what he got!" Naruto said back at the Sound-nin. "If you want revenge, then come get it. But you'll find I won't be easily dealt with,"
"Prepare to die, you punk!" A Sound-nin said as the three charged, two Sound-nin fired in kunai at the group. Ino and Akina dodged to the left and right. Naruto charged at the kunai and ducked under them continuing to speed into the charging enemies.
"What are you doing idiot? Akina shouted.
"Naruto, are you trying to get killed!" Ino also yelled at the boy. Naruto sped in and tackled on of the sound ninjas. The other two came up behind Naruto. Naruto quickly hopped off the Sound-nin and prepared to attack the three foes.
"Screw this, I'm not sitting back and watching your moronic teammate get himself killed," Akina said to Ino as she charged.
"I'm coming to!" Ino demanded, as she followed Akina, the sound attacked with shurikens from close range. Naruto pulled out a kunai and deflected the shuriken as the Sound-nins charged again. Naruto punched one right in the face as the other two came down from above Naruto and were about to attack when Akina kicked one Sound-nin out of the air. The other sound-nin had to stop his attack and dodge as several fireballs came his way.
"Stay out of this; we only need to kill that bastard," A sound-nin told Ino.
"That bastard is my teammate, and even if he is an idiot, I won't let someone I care about die," Ino told the man.
"Have it your way, you'll die as well," The man replied to Ino as he charged at the girl. Ino was quick to dodge several attacked and managed to land several blows to the man's gut.
"You're pretty weak aren't you?" Ino said confidently.
"What! I'll have you're head!" The man said angrily.
"Not if you can't even catch me," Ino replied as she continued to dodge all of the Sound-nins attacks. Akina on the other hand wasn't doing any dodging. The Sound-nin that was unfortunate enough to be her opponent was receiving the beating of his life as the girl repeatedly attacked with various punches and kicks.
"Come on, you're totally boring," Akina said to the man.
"Damn you bitch!" The man said getting another slug in the face.
"If you're not going to fight, then I'll finish this," Akina said performing several hand seals. "Raikouken!" Akina yelled, as a sword formed in her hand, crackles of lightning surrounded the sword. "Goodbye!" Akina yelled as she charged and pierced the man in the chest with her sword. The man let out a scream from the pain of being stabbed and the feeling of having electricity course though his veins at an incredible speed. Akina pulled the sword from the Sound-nins chest and let the sword disappear as the man dropped to the ground. "That wasn't a challenge at all," Akina said as Ino continued dodging the Sound-nins attacks. Ino managed to land a flipping kick to the man's jaw rocking him back.
"Now, I can finally attack," Ino said smiling as she performed several seals. "Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu!" Ino shouted as she blasted the man with her fire jutsu, burning the Sound-nin. Ino stopped the attack after about a minute and let the charred body of the Sound-nin drop to the floor. Naruto in the mean time was dodging attacks from his foe with ease. Naruto wasn't even trying to be serious about the fight, which was making the Sound-nin incredibly anger.
"Damn you! I will kill you!" The man yelled in anger.
"Right and how exactly are you going to do that?" Naruto asked. "Don't answer that actually, because this fight is going to be over in a minute," Naruto said confidently as he landed a kick to the man's gut and then formed a bright purple ball in the palm of his right hand. "Rasengan!" Naruto yelled as he landed the attack, the force of it shot the Sound-nin through several trees and then deeper into the forest causing quite the ruckus. "Well that was easy. I'd have to say it was a pretty crappy fight. Orochimaru definitely didn't take care of his ninjas," Naruto said as he walked over to his group. "Well I beat my guy," Naruto said suddenly getting a smack from Akina.
"You idiot, what is with you and making as much noise as possible?" Akina yelled.
"What's your problem? I beat my guy, so let's go," Naruto said.
"My problem is you're way too noisy. A ninja is supposed to be quiet! Stealth is the key you moron!" Akina yelled.
"Well excuse me, but I do things my own way you stupid girl!" Naruto yelled back.
"Stupid, I'm not stupid. You're the only stupid one around here. I swear how the hell did I get stuck teaming with a total idiot!" Akina yelled back.
"Look, so what if I'm not quiet! I can beat up most of my opponents, so who really cares!" Naruto yelled.
"Oh listen to you, mister tough guy. You use brawn only. Becoming a chuunin takes brains as well you stupid, moronic, idiot!" Akina yelled in frustration. "I swear how in the world can your teammates put up with you? You're definitely the dumbest guy I've ever met. I'm so glad I'm not related to you, I'd kill myself!" Akina yelled.
"What was that? Well I'm glad I'm not related to you to. I couldn't stand putting up with a bitch like you all the time!" Naruto yelled back as he received yet another large bump on his head from the girl.
"Hey will you two stop fighting, we've got to find Hinata-chan," Ino told the two. "I swear, the way you guys argue, and you'd think you two were siblings," Ino said annoying the two even more.
"Say something like that again and I'll kill you!" Akina and Naruto yelled at Ino in unison.
"Hey stop copying me!" They yelled again in unison.
"Stop it!" They yelled yet again.
"Both of you just shut up and come on," Ino said, as the three were about to move again, when suddenly a group appeared before them. The group with a certain pink haired girl, two Hyuugas, and a guy and his dog appeared before the bickering team.
"Hey Naruto, we brought you a gift," Kiba said pointing to Hinata.
"Naruto-kun, Ino-chan, you're safe, thank goodness!" Hinata said running over to the team. Naruto immediately embraced the girl.
"Good to see you Hinata-chan," Naruto said hugging the girl causing her to blush.
"So that idiot does have someone special. She doesn't seem all that special. She looks really shy too, how could a shy girl like her hook up with a loud moron like him? Wait, why do I even care?" Akina thought to herself watching the couple.
"Naruto, we're heading to the tower now. You had better be ready, because I plan on facing you very soon. I must test how much stronger I have gotten. You're the only one who can tell me," Neji told the blonde.
"Yeah Naruto, same here, I owe you from the last Chuunin exam," Kiba told the boy.
"I'll take you both on at the same time. Just don't be babies and cry when you lose," Naruto said smiling as Neji and his team headed off for the tower.
"Who is this, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked looking at Akina.
"Oh, this is Akina; I formed an alliance with her. Now that we're all together, we'll help her find her team," Naruto said as the four got ready to leave.
"That won't be necessary," A voice said from out of nowhere. Two Hidden Cloud-nins then suddenly appeared before the group.
"Akina, we're here," A man with crimson colored eyes said.
"Thanks so much for taking care of her, allow us to repay you," Akina's other teammate the one with very dark eyes said preparing to attack Naruto and his team.
"Stop! I made a deal with him that we would help each other out until the end of this exam." Akina yelled to her two teammates.
"Who said we listen to you!" The taller boy said still getting ready to attack. Naruto and his team also got ready to defend themselves.
"Look, we're not going to attack unless we're attacked, so neither of us has to risk losing a teammate and failing," Naruto said trying to reason with Akina's teammates.
"I don't plan on breaking my promise to them!" Akina yelled.
"Damn you Akina, these guys are from Konoha why the hell would you even do such a thing?" The crimson-eyed boy asked.
"Because I thought it was smarter to make a temporarily alliance with someone instead of wandering around this damn forest without a clue," Akina said.
"Fine, we won't fight them for now. But as soon as the third exam starts, you're dead," The tall, dark haired boy said to Naruto and his team.
"We'll see about that you bastard!" Naruto said with a confident smirk.
"We're going now, let's get to the tower and end this stupid exam," One of the Cloud-nins said as the team headed off toward the tower.
"When next we meet, we're enemies," Akina said turning and leaving Naruto's team. At that very moment both Naruto and Akina got the same vision of the dream Naruto had been experiencing lately. The two silently looked at each other for several minutes.
"N-Naruto-kun... are you alright?" Hinata asked disturbing the two. Akina then left to catch up with her teammates. Naruto simply stared at the leaving girl.
"Hey are you going to answer sometime today?" Ino asked getting the boy's attention.
"Oh yeah, sorry I just sort of zoned out," Naruto replied. "Let's get to that stupid tower. I hate being out in this dumb forest,"
Naruto and his team headed off toward the tower as well. It was still only the first day and only about ten hours had passed as Naruto and his team arrived at the tower. Gaara, Neji, and Lee's teams greeted them. The two teams from Hidden Cloud were also at the tower. After waiting about thirty more minutes another team arrived, this one was from Hidden Stone Village. There were now twenty-one genin in the tower. Anko arrived to greet the teams and the tower doors closed.
"Okay everyone, that's it! Congratulations on passing the second exam!" Anko said smiling as a lot of genin yelled out in shock.
"Excuse me sensei!" Sakura yelled. "I thought we had five days. This is only the first day. What about everyone still out there?" Sakura asked.
"Don't worry; I personally took care of the rest out there. I don't have the patience to put up with waiting for another four days. Besides, twenty one students are plenty," Anko said smiling, creeping everyone out.
"You dealt with everyone else... I don't like the sound of that," Naruto said aloud.
"Who cares, you guys all passed, you should be happy. Well actually don't be happy because even though you passed the second exam, your next test begins immediately," Anko said getting sighs from the crowd of genin. The room began to get noisy as all the Jounins, as well as Tsunade and Jiraiya filled the room. Hanabi was by Jiraiya's side as well. "See you guys, you have an audience here to watch you in this next little test," Anko announced. "Well I'm done here, I'm handing it off to your next examiner," Anko walked off and joined Tsunade and the rest of the jounin as the next examiner appeared, walking slowly, almost lazily up to the genin. The man yawned and looked on with a tired expression.
"Man, how troublesome... why do I got to do this? I'm a chuunin after all," The familiar man said getting an annoyed look from everyone of the Konoha genin.
"Shikamaru! You lazy bastard, get on with it!" Naruto yelled at the man who merely yawned again.
"Yeah, alright already, I guess I can get this over with. Because there are so many of you, we're going to hold some prelim matches. Your name will appear on the board and when it does you come down for your fight. It's going to be one on one fighting. The rules are simple, do whatever you want. But when the match is declared over, you've got to stop," Shikamaru explained. "I won't allow any questions because it'd be too troublesome to answer so just shut up and watch for your name," The chuunin said as the board began to work flashing through the names. In mere moments the first two names would be announced.
Jutsu List
Raikouken – Lightning Sword