Enjoy the fic
Two days before the start of Chunin exam:-
Naruto had been training with Hinata for last four days, they had been trying to improve Hinata's use of daggers.
He and Sakura were strolling in the village as they didn't had a training session, Kakashi had restricted their training for last three days prior to Chunin exams. It would replnish their chakra, and there won't be any chance of injuries to hinder or stop them from entering the exams. Many shinobis overtrained before the Chunin exams, resulting in either drained chakra system or unwanted injuries, chakra systems could be replnished in one or two days but injuries could take a lot of time to heal properly.
Both of them were walking through one of the paths that led toward marketplace when they came face to face with Konohamaru and his two minions, he demanded a training session from Naruto, Naruto tried to reason with him but Konohamaru wasn't in a mood to take no as an answer. At last he accepted his fate and instructed Konohamaru squad to hide somewhere and he would track them, it would be a good training exercise in stealth and deception for him and his team.
Konohamaru as enthusiastic as he was, ran off with a fast pace leaving a dust cloud behind, he turned at the corner abruptly, and the results was a collision and some swear words. Naruto and Sakura quickly moved toward the corner Konohamaru ran off toward, as Konohamaru had a habit of attracting problems, they turned at the corner to see two foreign shinobis standing infront of a downed Konohamaru. Their hitaiate displayed Sunagakure symbol, Suna was an ally of Konoha, for now that is.
One of the Suna nin was female, she had teal eyes and sandy blonde hair, which were gathered into four consecutive pigtails. She wore single light purple-coloured, off-the-shoulders garment that extended to halfway down her thighs, with a scarlet sash tied around her waist. Additionally, she wore fishnet over her shoulders and legs, and she was carrying a battle fan on her back too.
The boy with her, had brown hair and small black eyes, he wore a black, baggy, full body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front. The suit had a black cat-ear hood which covered his head, he also had warpaint on his face, and a distinctive bundle on his back.
He picked up Konohamaru by gruff of his shirt, it was evident that they didn't knew who he was, you should never mess with the children or grandchildren of the Kage of a village you're visiting. Naruto and Sakura moved forward to avoid any problematic situation, if the things went wrong they would have to interfere, and sure they did.
"You shouldn't mess with a shinobi of your host village, it would prove strenuous for you" said Naruto in a stern voice.
Temari and Kankuro looked up toward the voice, two Konoha Ninja -a blonde and a Pinkie- were standing there. Temari eyes landed on Naruto's face, he didn't had much of baby fat on his face giving it a lean look with sharp jawline, his hair spiky and he wore orange half jacket over his black tee and trouser. Light blush adorned her cheeks, the boy was definitely a cutie.
"Shut up kid, this brat needs to learn some disciplines" said Kankuro and proceed on to punch Konohamaru.
But, before he could touch a strand of hair on Konohamaru's body, a cold iron tip was pointed at his juglar from behind. His eyes drifted up but none of the genins were present there at their previous spot, he side glanced toward his sister, she had her fan blocked by a cleaver like sword.
"When I advised you to leave him alone, you should have, I don't like repeating my self" said Naruto from behind in a emotion less voice.
Kankuro was surprised, these lowly genins were too fast. Naruto had moved too quickly behind him, while Sakura had paced on to block Temari's attempt to protect her brother. Naruto had a tanto in his hand shaped like a neddle, not only sleek and long, but sharp too. It was a gift from Kakashi, he had seen Naruto's problem in close range combats and with kills while he used his bo. It was specifically made for fluid and quick strikes, sharp enough to plunge deep inside the victim's flesh at the first strike, but it was strong enough to defend against chakra metal, unless chakra infused with it.
Kankuro let go off Konohamaru's shirt, Konohamaru landed safely on the ground with wide eyes looking toward Naruto, his Onii-chan was so cool. Naruto instructed them to go and play somewhere else, Konohamaru didn't argued and rushed off with his two friends.
Naruto relaxed a little and let off Kankuro's juglar, Kankuro staggered forward and stood at a distance. Evaluating the situation Sakura too recalled her sword back to her seal, Temari moved on to stand beside Kankuro. She had seen the blonde move, her brother had a habit of underestimating his enemies, she didn't. She had noticed the slightly ripped fabrication of Naruto's body, he moved with a speed that didn't belonged to an average Genin.
What Temari or many of shinobis didn't understood was that the rank of shinobi meant nothing, a rank was merely a name for some of the shinobis. Konoha had birthed some shinobis who surpassed their ranks in skills.
One of the example was Might Duy, father of Might guy,l. He was considered as an eternal genin, but he killed four of the seven swordsmen of the mist while protecting his son and two other ninjas. Another example was Kushina Uzumaki, she was a jonin but her skills matched that of Tsunade herself. Kushina was able to restrict the Kyubi-no-kitsune in her death like state, additionally she had teached Minato the art of sealing. And how could anyone forget the White fang, he was a jonin but he could defeat the Sannins combined. He was considered as one of the strongest and fiercest ninjas Konoha had ever produced.
"You know we saved you and your village from an gruesome disaster, the kid you were harrasing was the beloved grandson of Sandaime Hokage of Konoha" said Naruto smugly.
"Y-You mean that brat was g-grandson of the H-Hokage?" asked Temari stuttering, Naruto just nodded his head.
"You Baka, this could have proved catastrophic for us and our village" said Temari and hit Kankuro on head with her fan.
"OOOW! Hey! I didn't knew that before" said Kankuro rubbing the bump on his head.
Naruto suddenly looked behind his shoulder, he could feel an entity on the tree behind him, his senses intensified as Kyubi was also able to use his senses. Anger, loneliness, bloodlust and malice, all mixed together. A person feeling loneliness, anger and bloodlust together wasn't someone to be eased about, the person would be surely a danger to himself and people around him.
This wasn't something Naruto was unhinted about, he knew what these feelings could turn a person into when mixed together. Hatake Kakashi, Kakashi was also know as 'Kakashi the cold hearted' during his career as an Anbu after the death of his teammate Rin. He was known to kill his enemies mercilessly, he wouldn't even care about his own self, his first priority would be the death of his target. Such mad-drive and passion would surely break a man, andl Kakashi was definitely a broken man.
"Whoever you're, come forward" said Naruto without any emotion in his voice, Sakura quickly understood something was wrong, if Naruto is tense then there are probably dangers nearby.
Sand swirled around one of the branches of the tree, and a shadow of small boy could be seen behind it. A boy with auburn hairs and green eyes appeared on the branch, he had fair skin and a distinctive tatto itched on his forehead that read 'Love' in Kanji. He had a big gourd tied behind his back, he also had black marking around his, and the aura of the boy wasn't that comforting either.
"What're you both doing here? You are disgrace to our village" said the boy stoically.
Naruto noticed that the blonde girl and the boy flinched at his tone, as if he would kill them for something like this. He wouldn't, right?
"Shukaku" heard Naruto in his mind suddenly.
'Kyubi?' asked Naruto in his thoughts.
"Who else brat?" said Kyubi from inside his mind.
'Do you mean to say that this boy has Shukaku, the one-tail, sealed inside him?' asked Naruto.
"You're dumb brat, for all the knowledge you're able to soak from that old man, you're still a brat" stated Kyubi irritatingly.
'Don't be so grumpy fox, I just didn't expected to meet someone like me this early' thought Naruto.
His musing was interrupted by Gaara appearance behind Temari and Kankuro in swirl of sand, Gaara moved in front of his group to inspect Naruto, Gaara could feel a similiarity between himself and the blonde boy.
Suddenly, the leaves around Naruto started to swirl, and Sasuke appeared out of it. A normal leaf shushin, a technique commonly used by Chunins or above in Konoha.
"You have to make a flashy entry, don't you Uchiha?" asked Naruto sarcastically.
"Well, I am the strongest one in the team, I need to uplift my team status" Sasuke said as he smirked.
"Strongest my ass, Bastard" mumbled Naruto.
Before they could bicker forward, Gaara's gruff voice interupted them: "What's your name?" asked Gaara pointing his finger toward Naruto.
"Uzumaki Naruto, well its disrespectful to ask another person's name without telling yours first. But still, What's your name?" replied Naruto.
"Sabaku no Gara. You're my next target Uzumaki, your blood will please my mother" said Gaara smirking, malicious chakra leaking out of him in a very little amount.
"Mother?" questioned Naruto.
"Don't tell me, this boy thinks Shukaku is a girl. Serves the bastard right" laughed Kyubi from inside.
Naruto was a little taken aback by Kyubi's laugh, it was the first time he had heard the fox being amused. Nonetheless, Naruto didn't sounded his guess immediately, he glanced toward Sasuke and Sakura with a look that said he would explain them later.
Gaara's eyes focused on Sasuke for a moment too, he looked the Uchiha up and down for a period and said; "You too looks like a good prey Uchiha, two members from same team, the exams are proving fruitful for me"
Gaara and his teammates moved forward toward the hotel they were accommodating, Sasuke gave an odd look to the squad.
"Is it just me or this boy's chakra was most malicious chakra we've encountered, the malice in Zabuza's chakra was like a tip of iceberg in front of this" asked Sasuke.
"Well, He is dangerous, I advise both of you to be wary of him. He is capable enough to kill us, even if he looks small he is pretty much a powerhouse. Don't ask me why I know this, but I do" explained Naruto as they moved on toward their training ground as Kakashi had called up them today for some announcement.
Unseen to their eyes a team with lightning Hitaiate on its headband was observing both the teams from afar.
"I think we should be mindful around the Uchiha and the red head from Suna" said a boy with lolipop in his mouth.
"Yep, it's the first time your paranoid ass had said something right" said the red headed female of the team.
"I suggest, We should be alert around the blonde brat too, Something tells me he's much more dangerous than the Uchiha" said the last one of the three. A Girl with long, straight, blonde hair bound with taut bandages, dark eyes and fair skin, that was not so common in Kumogakure.
She wore a short-sleeved black and purple blouse and black pants, both of which had a design similar to clouds on them, purple fingerless gloves and a chain of blue beads wound around her left hand. Black shinobi sandals and a kunai holster, which was strapped to her right thigh. She also wore bandages around her arms and legs as well as a red belt around her waist.
The girl was Nii Yugito, the jinchurikki of Nibi, she was an elite Genin of Kumogakure. She would have been Chunin, but the four raikage had refused to promote her, he explained her that she needs more training before she could move on to do higher rank missions alone.
She was participating in the Chunin exams for the first time, she wanted to prove the Raikage that she was capable enough to do higher rank missions alone, without a team. As the solo missions would decrease the risk of her losing control on her teammates, she wasn't able to manifest or control the Nibi chakra fluently till now.
They end their conversation and moved on toward their hotel, The Chunin exams would commence in two days time.
The genins reached the training ground to see Kakashi already present there, leaned against a tree reading his so-called romantic novel. They moved on toward him, his eyes drifted up and looked on toward the genins, he closed his book and stood a little straight.
"Good morning, my little genins" said Kakashi chirply while he eye smiled toward them.
"Good morning sensei" chorused all three of them.
"As I have told you before only, I have chose to let you participate in upcoming Chunin exams. So, take these forms and sign here" said Kakashi as he gave them the form and retook it after the signature.
"The first exam will be two days from today in academy at 10 am" addressed Kakashi.
The three of them nodded and went on to converse amongst eachother.
The day of Chunin exams:-
Naruto had been excited for the whole week, he and his team had been restricted to train for the weeks to avoid injuries or over exertion. He wasn't able to release his tension by training for the same reason, his meter of excitement was full and was about to explode.
He checked all the seal tags he was carrying, he also sealed ink, paper and brush for emergency use. He had sealed his bo in the sealing tattoo, while his kunai and shurikens were sealed inside an another sealing tatto. Haku had given him some antidote for poisons, healing potion for burns and antibiotics for wounds. As for Haku and Naruto relationship, their relationship was more inclined toward brother and sister one now. Haku shared a similiar past as Naruto, while she was immensely beautiful, she wasn't the one Naruto desired for.
Their relationship was more like siblings, where they were same aged brother and sister, Haku was still reserved for some aspects. But she was far more willing to help Naruto and supported his every decision, Naruto too cared for her and tried to keep her smiling through his goofy acts.
He rechecked all his supplies, tied his tanto to his waist and moved on to join his teammates outside the house, as they moved on their designated exam point.
Naruto wore a full sleeves black tee with same colours sleek trouser, the sleeves of his t-shirt were rolled up till his elbow. A sleeveless orange jacket donned above his t-shirt and black shinobi shoes with orange lining.
His teammates had least of supplies on them as the both of them have sealed it inside scrolls, they too had sealing tattoos for their primary weapons.
Sasuke was in his regular attire, while Sakura had changed her clothes for better movements. She had adopted a dark red long top with black leggings, her hairs cut short and tied up by a black cloth, while she wore dark blue shinobi sandals.
Her physical structure had morphed allot, due to heavy calories intake with adequate exercises, she was more on the healthier side than before.
They reached the academy building, a big poster was hanging on the building, "Chunnin exam: phase 1" written on it. Ninjas were going inside the building in the groups of three, Jonins and Chunins were either instructing or keeping an eye out for trouble-making ones.
They entered the building, as they had been running through these corridors from childhood, a nostalgic feeling arose inside them. They moved on toward the notice board for further instructions, "Chunin exams: Room no- 6" was written on the notice board in big and bold letters.
They moved on to take the stairs to second floor, the academy building was jam-packed with participants, Jonin and Chunins, the participants without the required number of missions in their resume were disqualified, and instructed to return to their villages respectively on the ground floor itself.
When they reached second floor they were surprised to see huge numbers of participants gathered around one of the rooms, as they were once a student of the academy they knew room number 6 was on the second floor, but still a lot of ninjas were trying to enter one of the rooms.
"Please let us in, We have strived too much to participate in this exam" said one boy on the floor wearing an eye-catching green spandex, his hairs in bowl cut and his brow as bushy as three of them combined.
"Yes, please let us in. Don't hinder our chance to enter the exams" said a girl from beside the green spandex guy, she had her hairs in two distinctive buns.
"T'ch weaklings" said one of the ninjas from the group behind team 7.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura didn't shared their opinion. Even Sakura, who wasn't as capable or trained as Naruto and Sasuke, was able to notice the slight muscle creases on the jumpsuit of the boy. And it didn't helped that the girl also had almost unnoticeable training scars on her uncovered arms, they looked on toward the doors of the room. Two ninjas were standing there guarding the room, they both looked a little familiar, they restricted anyone from entering the room which read...Room no.6?
'Genjursu' thought all three of them together, it was the best argument they could come up with. Sasuke nodded toward Naruto and Sakura as a sign for confirmation, Sasuke was able to recognize genjutsus due to his Sharingan.
The three of them moved up to the second floor, they now understood that the guy and the girl was playing along with the guards, the act would cut off unwanted weak teams. This would certainly decrease competition, not much but still a bit, so they didn't bothered or interupted them.
But before they could move on toward the assigned room for exam, they were stopped in the track by a green blur. The spandex guy from before was standing there, his speed could rival or even outclass Naruto without weights, he was smiling brightly toward the three of them. The guy was odd, but Naruto knew and had experienced that strong ninjas were often strange or odd, Kakashi and Jiraiya were perfect examples of it.
"I am Rock Lee of Team Guy, I am happy to meet the three of you" said Rock Lee in a happy tone.
Naruto smiled and shook his hand, while Sasuke and Sakura only nodded toward him. Rock Lee's eye landed on Sakura, and they took a visage of hearts inside them.
"Beautiful, You're Sakura San, right? Would you go out with me? I'll protect you til my death" declared Rock Lee.
"Eh..? No-- I mean we could talk about that later Lee-san, we have an exam to pass for now" said Sakura waving her hands infront. 'He's too unique for my taste' thought Sakura in her mind, she didn't said it out loud as it would hurt Rock Lee's feelings.
"She is right Lee, we should also focus on our exams for now" said the girl from before, coming up from behind Rock Lee.
"Hi, my name is Tenten" said the now recognised Tenten.
"Nice to meet you Tenten-san" said Naruto smiling.
She just smiled to him and elbowed Lee to move toward the examination room. Rock Lee would have asked Sasuke to spar with him, but Tenten was right they would be late for exam, moreover Guy had instructed him to not fight before it's needed.
The Two of them moved toward their third teamate, a Hyuga, recognised from his white eyes, they left on toward the examination room.
"He's fast, that's sure. The exams are not going to be much easy" contemplated Sasuke.
Naruto and Sakura nodded their head, it was more defenitive now that they needs to be alert and careful while they took the exams. They too moved on toward the rooms assigned to them, as they reached the room they saw Kakashi standing there leaned against the wall.
He looked up toward the three of them, straighten himself and walked up toward them. He needed to get something off his chest, it was necessary, he eye-smiled toward them.
"You know, I never gave a Chunin or a Jonin exam. The third shinobi war was still ongoing when I graduated, I was promoted for both the ranks on the field itself, as my performance was excellent in the eyes of Hokage. It could be our last moments as a team together, if even one of you pass this exam, and I believe you will, then Team 7 would change allot. Be careful and Good luck" said Kakashi, but "I don't want to lose more of my precious people" was left unsaid.
Kakashi had formed an unique bond with his team, he never thought he would accept anybody else as team. Nonetheless, these three little Tasmanian devils had been able to accomplish that, Kakashi again had formed the drive to protect his people.
Naruto and Sakura both smiled brightly, as Sasuke smirked his best, they moved inside the room before Kakashi shushined out of the building.
As they entered the room no-one seem to notice them, neither their clothes nor their actions were distinctive from others, but still there was an aura of confidence around them.
Apart from them, in the corner of the same room, three shinobis were standing and conversing amongst each other.
"So, This is the team we were told about" said a boy with purple hair.
"Yep, this is the best squad of this year, they are being trained by the famous 'Copy ninja' Kakashi" said the girl with light brown hair.
"We will do as we are ordered Team, Move" said the last boy with black hairs.
Members of Team 7 were standing across the left side of the room, suddenly their surroundings took an image of a forest, a genjutsu. Sasuke quickly activated his two tomoe Sharingan and observed his surrounding, the genjutsu should have been dispelled. This was uncommon, only a sharingan user could cast an unbreakable genjutsu on an another sharingan user, and as per Sasuke knowledge no other Uchiha except himself had participated in this year's Chunin exam.
He increased the flow of chakra in his eyes and the last tomoe appeared in them, the visage started to flicker as an effect. Naruto hated Genjutsu, he wasn't able to cast one due to his massive chakra reserve, but he was able to dispel most of the genjutsu upto B-rank. Jiriaya and Kakashi had spent one month time of training on him so he could learn to dispel genjutsus, he couldn't cast one but could become immune to them. He fluctuated his chakra networks, the genjutsu started to dispel but it took quite a time.
Sakura had the smallest chakra reserve of them all, she was easily able to dispel the genjutsu.
As they dispelled the genjutsu, a chokuto was speeding toward Naruto, before he could move to dodge Sasuke countered the strike with his Katana. Before the purple-haired boy, who had swinged the Chokuto, could regain his footing Naruto had jumped up in the air. He unsheathed his tanto, flipped in the air and landed on the boy shoulders. Sasuke and Sakura looked back to see, Naruto perched up on the purple-haired boy's shoulder, pointing his tanto toward his head.
The black-haired boy and the girl were about to move when the both of them were trapped by their own shadows.
"You know, it's troublesome to attack shinobis from your own village" came the calm voice of one and only Nara Shikamaru. He was in a crouched down position holding his hand in rat seal, his shadow expanded toward the boy and girl both. Ino and Choji stood firmly beside him, as if guarding him.
'Is he a monkey or something?' thought Ino as she saw Naruto's position.
"We weren't attacking them, we were just assessing their capabilities, as the competition is too high this year" said the purple haired boy, the brown haired girl nodded her head in support while the black haired boy was standing stoically.
Before the situation could move forward a white haired guy with round glasses interupted them, He was also wearing Konoha's hitaiate.
"We, Konoha's ninja shouldn't fight amongst each other, it could send wrond messages to our competing nations" said the boy trying to diffuse the situation.
"They attacked first" said Naruto from atop the boy, this would surely result to cramps in the shoulder of the boy.
"Whoever did it, it was wrong, and please get down from the boy's shoulder and receed whatever you're leaking genin-san" said the white haired boy looking toward Shikamaru.
"We're sorry, we didn't mean to harm you. It was just a way of testing you" said the girl from the Group.
Sakura too nodded her head to diffuse the situation, Naruto contemplated for a moment but jumped down at last. He walked and moved on to stand beside Sasuke, Shikamaru too receeded his shadow back to him.
Before they could converse more Team 8 too entered the room, Kiba in front while Hinata and Shino in tow. Hinata had a tatto of tiger fangs on her left forearm, it was a weapon storage seal inscribed by Naruto on her arms for her daggers. Kiba had a same belt as Hinata had before, two handles peaking out of the pouches, while Shino had a tanto tied to his waist.
"What's up Uchiha? Fairing good?" Kiba asked as he patted on Sasuke's back, this inraged Uchiha and he went to argue with the Inuzuka.
Naruto and Shikamaru nodded their head in sync while smirking, Hinata moved on to stand beside Ino and Sakure, who were conversing among eachother.
"Good afternoon Ino-san and Sakura-san" said Hinata politely.
"No San Hinata, Call me and Ino by our names only" said Sakura smiling.
Hinata just nodded her head in response and stole a glance toward Naruto.
"Nice to meet you --, Umm?" Naruto tried to initiate a conversation with the boy in glasses, but didn't knew his name.
"Kabuto, My name is Yakushi Kabuto" said the boy.
"Thank you Kabuto San" said Naruto.
Before they could Converse forward, smoke started to rise around them, and a man with lot of scars adoring his face appeared from it, like a death reaper who appears out of the fog in dark nights.
"Sit down on the seats assigned to you maggots, I am Ibiki Morino, proctor of the first phase of Chunin exams" said the scarred man in his rough and deep voice, sending shivers through many genins spine.
Unknown to Naruto, three more eyes were now focused on him after his open show of agility...
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, All rights are reserved to Kishimoto.