AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
Proofread by: Me
Chapter 17: The meaning of Heaven and Earth
"Yo. It's been a long time." Iruka greeted team seven, smirking at them as he looked up from where he stood with his arms crossed on top of the two scrolls that had summoned him.
"W-what's going on?" Sakura asked, slightly confused as to why the scrolls would summon their old teacher. The brief memory of an old threat from Kakashi playing in her mind about being sent back to the academy if they failed. However, rationally, that wouldn't be the case here, and Inner supported her when it came to that assessment. They had already passed Kakashi's bell test, this was something different.
"It appears you guys have had a rough time of it, but I'm glad to see all of you alright," Iruka told them, glad to see that none of them had the injuries to match with the traces of blood on Sakura's clothes.
"What?!" Naruto exclaimed from the sudden declaration, just as confused as Sakura as to why Iruka was there, if not more so. "Why did you appear with the Summoning?" Naruto wished to know.
"At the end of this second exam, we Chūnin are tasked with welcoming the test takers. I just happen to be given the important task of being the messenger for you guys." Iruka explained as he began walking forward, stepping off the scrolls and approaching team seven.
"Messenger?" Sakura asked, hoping for clarification, only for Iruka to ignore her question and instead reach into his pocket, taking out a pocket watch and flipped it open, letting out a relieved sigh.
"Just in time. You guys were running it awfully close." He told them, deciding not to mention that the allowed time frame had already passed, but only by a small margin. Had he checked the watch just as he was summoned, it would have told him differently, so he supposed they had passed after all, and he wasn't lying, but he knew some proctors might not be as lenient and decide to disqualify a team for something like that anyway.
Closing the watch, he instead smiled at team seven. "Everyone, congratulations on surviving the second exam!" He congratulated them, putting the pocket watch back in his pocket. Shocking the three Genin for a moment, while he continued speaking. "To celebrate you all passing, I'd like to treat you to some Ichiraku Ramen, but…" He continued before Naruto cut him off by cheering loudly as he processed the fact that they had passed.
"Yes!" Naruto cheered, tackling Iruka in his happiness, nearly knocking him over, Iruka immediately complaining.
"Naruto! Listen to the end…" Iruka tried to tell him, while Naruto celebrated, before letting him go.
"Ramen! Ramen! Believe it!" Naruto celebrated, and Iruka found himself unable to be mad at his enthusiasm.
"This means we passed!" Sakura thought to herself, relieved. Inner seemed satisfied with the revelation as well, seeing as how they had gone through a lot just to get there. Hopefully, they would get a good amount of rest until the next stage of the exam, during which they could talk to Kakashi about what had happened, her curse mark, and her ideas for learning some new techniques. She'd rather not resort to killing her opponent each time she found herself in a tough spot.
"I've done a great job! I'm the greatest!" Naruto kept cheering by himself. "I so want to eat ramen!" Was all Sasuke and Sakura heard as they, as if by an unspoken agreement, both sat down at the same time, allowing themselves to relax now that the second part of the exam was over.
"He's got so much energy," Sasuke complained. Almost as if to prove his point, Naruto decided for one even more energetic expression of joy.
"Yaayy!" Naruto cheered, jumping into the air with his exclamation, loud enough for Sakura to decide it was enough. Not only was Naruto being obnoxiously loud, but he had already annoyed Sasuke, as well as her. There should be a limit to how much someone could celebrate getting ramen.
"Shut up!" Sakura demanded from him before Iruka decided to interject himself.
"Man, that scatterbrained part of you is the same as always, geez," Iruka said, amused, while also slightly in disbelief about how Naruto had managed to not only pass the exam but with energy to spare while his teammates seemed exhausted. Sakura looked the worst out of them all as she had slight bags under her eyes, disheveled hair, dry lips, blood-stained clothes, and an ugly bruise on her right shoulder. Although, it wasn't a surprise that Sakura would be the one of the three to have the most trouble. While she had a brilliant academic mind, she lacked the raw talent or power Naruto and Sasuke could bring. Nonetheless, Iruka was glad to see all three of them alright.
"Heh," Sasuke chuckled confidently as she suddenly figured something out. "I see," Sasuke said out loud, prompting the other to look at him curiously. "If we had looked at the scroll in during the exam, what were you going to do, Teacher?" Sasuke asked, rather confident he already knew the answer, but wished to confirm it for the benefit of his teammates, as well as his own satisfaction.
Hearing their teammate's inquiry, both Naruto and Sasuke grew curious and turned to their former academy teacher for an answer, Naruto quieting down, stopping his celebration in order to listen.
"Sasuke, you're a sharp one, as usual." Iruka began as he turned around to pick up one of the scrolls that had summoned him, before turning around, holding it up for them all to see it. "You guessed right." He confirmed, knowing what Sasuke was thinking. "The rules of this exam were to test your conclusive mission execution ability. To put it simply, in the case of the scrolls being opened contrary to the rules…" Iruka paused, wondering if they'd figure it out themselves.
"In the case of them being opened...?" Sakura parroted, wondering what he was implying before seeing Iruka smirk.
"I was ordered to knock unconscious the test-takers in front of me until the end of the exam," Iruka said, making Inner note something odd. Sharing her question with Sakura, she decided to ask it.
"Um, Iruka, what would happen if the test takers managed to resist, and restrain, or knock you out instead?" Sakura asked, realizing that Naruto could easily have used a clone as a test dummy while opening the scroll, transformed into another Shinobi, he could have avoided disqualification by being recognized by the summoned proctor, and possibly have ambushed them. After all, if they were Chūnin candidates, it wouldn't be impossible for three, or in Naruto's case, a whole bunch of them to be able to overpower a single Chūnin.
Iruka's face, however, grew serious at Sakura's question. "You do bring up a serious point, Sakura, but the idea was that any team powerful enough to take down their assigned Chūnin proctor would not be desperate enough to even consider opening the scroll. However, even if it were to happen, they would be disqualified anyway. After all, we can always tell which team it was that failed, based on which proctor got summoned after we've confirmed they weren't summoned in the tower." Iruka pointed out.
"But what about the safety of the proctor? We ran into someone calling himself Orochimaru and he-" Sakura began, only for Iruka's eyes to grow wide.
"Sakura, what did you just say?!" He demanded to know, now alarmed.
"Y-yeah." Sakura confirmed, Sasuke and Naruto supporting her claim by nodding seriously.
"He attacked us in the forest, knocking Naruto out after… after Naruto found us again. We had been separated from him by Orochimaru's initial attack. Sakura managed to save Naruto from falling to his death, while I tried to keep Orochimaru away, but…" Sasuke explained, only to grow silent as the memories of the rather terrifying experience came back. He didn't like remembering how powerless he had felt, even if he knew now, that logically, they would never measure up to a legend the way they were right now. They weren't even Sannin.
Seeing how Sasuke stopped, Sakura decided to finish retelling the story. "He was after Sasuke for some reason, but as Sasuke managed to keep him at bay long enough, he changed his mind, and instead decided to place some kind of seal on Sasuke. I… Um, I managed to interrupt him and got the seal instead." Sakura explained, rubbing her arm where the bruise was still visible on her arm. "I fell unconscious, and he apparently left after that." Sakura finished, deciding those were the most important parts.
"The jerk also destroyed our Heaven scroll!" Naruto added, angrily, crossing his arms and pouting, before a huge grin instead broke out into his face. "But hey, we still got a new one, and even helped Karin get one! Oh, and because of the seal, Sakura awakened her Kekkei Genkai!" Naruto revealed, making Sakura and Sasuke immediately turn towards the idiot.
"Naruto!" They both shouted in annoyance and anger. "That was supposed to be a secret!" Sakura reminded him, feeling ready to pummel him into the ground, while Inner raged, and the sound of her breaking something echoed in Sakura's ears, making her anger vanish suddenly, leaving her to simply sigh. Leave it to Naruto to give away her secret like that.
"You idiot." Sasuke simply spat at Naruto, who took offense as he crossed his arms and glared at Sasuke.
"I don't get it, Iruka is our teacher, right? He's a good guy!" Naruto argued while Iruka stood there, facepalming. Of course, team seven were the ones to get caught up in something crazy like that. Of course, it was only a question of time with Naruto on the team, he always seemed to get tangled up in the most bizarre situations.
"Right, this is a bit problematic. Listen here, I still need to explain something to you, before I go and report this, so pay attention!" Iruka told them sternly before he gestured to the plaque behind himself. "Now, give this a read, these are Chūnin instructions our Leader the Hokage recorded.
"Instructions?" Naruto asked, unable to make heads or tails of what they had read earlier. Hadn't it just been a clue for them to open the scrolls?
"That's right!" Iruka confirmed before he began to elaborate. "Heaven in this text refers to the human head. Earth refers to the human body. If "Heaven" doesn't exist, enrich your knowledge and prepare for the chance. In other words… If your weakness is inside your head, Naruto..." Iruka called him out with a smirk, pointing at his own head with a thumb while looking right at Naruto. "Learn various logics in preparation for your missions," Iruka told him, amusing Sakura as she tried to keep herself from smiling, covering her mouth with her hand to try and hide it.
"Hah! How meddlesome!" Naruto mumbled, displeased with being called out like that by Iruka in front of his team, essentially being called an idiot in a way he couldn't refute and argue about it as it wasn't a direct insult. He knew Iruka meant well.
However, while Sakura was trying to keep her mirth under control, Iruka suddenly turned his gaze towards her as he continued. "However, if "Earth" does not exist, run through the fields in search of an advantage. If your weaknesses are in your physical strength, Sakura, it means you must not slack off during your daily training." He told her, making Sakura feel a bit ashamed. He was right, but with her new resolve, she intended to do better.
"I don't like it either, but we need to get serious. Unlike Karin, we've been given the opportunity to train as a real Shinobi, we should embrace it. Otherwise, what nearly happened to Karin will happen to us." Inner told her, sullenly. "We need to put training first for a while." She added, implying that for a while, Sasuke would have to take a second seat. While this was the best for them in the long run, neither of them enjoyed the idea of slowing down in their pursuit of Sasuke.
"And if you combine both "Heaven" and "Earth", any perilous mission is the right way… In other words, what can be a rule of might will also be the path to a safe mission." Iruka explained the meaning behind the plaque.
"Then, what about the missing letter?" Sakura asked, pointing out the empty space.
"The letter refers to Chūnin. The one letter for "person" that was in the scroll from earlier goes there." Iruka explained, holding up the scroll again, letting them see the letter for "person" now missing from the scroll. "These five days of survival were to test the test-takers' fundamental abilities as Chūnin. And you three cleared it in fine style, considering what you've told me." Iruka explained, frowning slightly at the thought of someone like Orochimaru having been interfering. He was really glad that his former students had managed to get away almost without any complications. Sakura's bruise, or rather seal was worrying him, but she seemed fine for now. He would have to make sure someone checked it out once he reported this all to the Hokage.
"Chūnin is of the unit leader class. They have the responsibility of leading a team. Be more deeply aware of the necessity of physical strength… and knowledge on missions! I want you to take on the next step, never forgetting these Chūnin instructions." Iruka told them, before giving them a final smile. "That is all of the messenger task I was given," Iruka told them, getting an energetic reply from Naruto.
"Got it!" Naruto told him, saluting him with a proud smile, while Iruka seemed sad instead, leaving Naruto confused as he didn't say anything for a moment. About to inquire about what was wrong, Iruka suddenly shook his head.
"It's nothing. Good luck you three." He told them, before bursting into a cloud of smoke, leaving them alone. He had considered asking them to take it easy in the next part of the exam, but they had already fought with an S-class missing-nin and managed to recover from the handicap of losing their starting scroll while helping someone else get an extra. Naruto didn't take it easy. His completion of an A-ranked mission and performance in this exam showed it. They would be fine, even if he felt worried for them.
Looking around the now rather empty-looking room, Sakura blinked. "Um, now what?" She asked, considering the fact that Iruka hadn't told them what they were supposed to do now, or where they should go for the third part of the exam.
AN: Another, slightly longer chapter. I suppose I have to make up for the slight loss in quality somehow. I wrote this entire chapter the day I'm uploading it, so I am getting close to losing my ability to keep up with the promised schedule. I am hoping to write even more chapters today, as I seem to have the time for it right now, but I can't say for certain.