'Thoughts' "Speaking" Author's Notes/ Bijuu Speaking "Telepathic Talking"
The following chapters (6-9) are poorly written and is recommended you skip until chapter 10 to avoid any confusion and parts that don't make sense. Come to think of it, nearly none of this will make sense some I'm going to do a big upheaval of this someday.
So basically, none of this nonsense will make sense. Proceed at your own risk, but remember: SKIP TO CHAPTER 10!
=Chapter 6: Jonin Exams!=
"Ice Style: Frozen Shards!"
"Itai!"
"Wake up from your beauty sleep, Leader-sama, before we have to force you up..." Konan stated, slowly turning to paper.
"Alright, sheesh... I'm awake."
"Just tell us the clues already!" Naruto chucked the two clues at Dragon's face before getting himself ready for Day 2.
Dragon looked down at the clues in his hand and opened one. "As a Jonin, you encounter hardships, some chaotic, some sad. When you go on missions and encounter these, you must have one ability above the most. If you don't have it, you'll get killed."
The a few murmurs came from the group as he opened the fifth clue. "It always watches you, you barely take notice of it, the second great beast over the world. Grants you the protection and beauty at the lateness of the day."
"What is up with these freakin' clues? I thought they were supposed to tell us where to go 'ttebayo?"
"This is an exam, it's not supposed to be easy, duh!" Fuu slapped Menma round the head, effectively dropping his transformation. "O-oops... Well... at least no one's around? Right?"
"Yeah, except from those two people over there..." Konan stated, pointing directly at two figures in the distance.
"It's them kit. Be on guard."
"Careful Fuu. They could strike now."
"Get ready. They could strike." The groups shuffled into formation, facing the two chakra figures before they disappeared into thin air, leaving a faint trace of spinning chakra.
"They're gone but keep your guard up, they could come back at any time."
"And I didn't even get to fight them... I was guessing they were strong as well since we hadn't noticed them..." Tiger slightly pouted at this and went back to sharpening his tools.
"What is it with you always 'I-want-to-fight-the-strongest-person-in-the-nearest-1-mile'?" Tiger brushed it off and continued to do his workings as Naruto re-transformed into Menma.
Not known to our heroes, the two figures flashed back and continued their watch over the Suna-nin.
"So that's what the Kyuubi looks like..."
"When do we get the Kyuubi?"
"Not now, when it is weakened or away from those other humans."
"Won't that take a long time though? We need to till this ground as soon as possible."
"Patience otherwise you'll be gone like Kaguya-san."
Dragon was back trying to figure out the clues. He had figured that clues 4 and 5 meant: patience and the moon, respectively but was still stuck on the other ones.
"We should move. I'm sensing some more chakra signatures around this area, pack up and we'll go." Menma started infusing chakra as the rest of the group packed up. "Dragon, Hare, Bird. We'll put chakra in your marks when you've figured the clues out, we've only got today and tomorrow. Horse, Tiger, Dog. Head out for reconnaissance and figure out our opponent's abilities but do not engage unless necessary. Temari, Kankuro. We'll explore the area for the meantime and take out the weaklings. How are your crystals doing?"
The respective leaders took examined their crystals with very little cracks on them. They all nodded at each other before disappearing in flashes.
=Konoha 9=
"We've got to keep going before time runs out. We can't afford to lose here." The rest of the group nodded at the obvious statement of a certain pink-head.
"Shino, Kiba, Hinata, get looking for some of these clues. We've only got one and it isn't enough." The trio nodded before setting off to who-knows-where. "Sakura, Lee, Tenten, I trust that you'll take care of some crystals for us." 'Honestly, I'm surprised yesterday they didn't finish us off. They could've easily done it but they retreated. Something's off...' The Konoha-nin nodded before setting off to do their tasks.
The lazy genius reached out to reach a scroll he had found last night. The answer too it, put simply was the moon. He spent most of the night thinking of places that meant the moon. He did find a few places while wandering around that had a nice view of the moon but those seemed too obvious, especially since this is an exam.
"What I'm confused about is why they kept trying to disrupt my mind jutsus." Ino kept on tending to hair while talking absent-mindlessly. "I know the Yamanaka mind jutsus are powerful but to want to disrupt them altogether? It's almost like they wanted to hide something, especially when I aimed for that Menma person."
"We can focus on that later, we need to pass this stage first." The lazy genius went back to cloud-gazing, slightly irritated by Choji's constant munching in the exam. 'Clouds, what can you tell me?'
As if answering his question, he saw a few attacks get directed to the sky, cutting holes through a few clouds and leaving a few streams of smoke behind them. 'Old?' He looked closer at a cloud which represented 'old' and looked around to see the other hit clouds. 'Friend.' The tell-tale sign of two clouds held by a line. 'Betrayal.' He grew increasingly confused at the sight. 'War...' The Nara had heard a few rumours of war but they were never proven at all.
He made a mental note of these and looked around his surroundings. He started contemplating the attack yesterday, not noticing three masked signatures looking at the group.
=Menma's Team=
"Their chakras keep appearing and disappearing around us. Be careful kit."
Menma was constantly checking his surroundings and getting no rest from the flickering signatures around it. He couldn't afford for Kurama to be captured at all.
Temari and Kankuro were getting constantly agitated at Menma's unrest. They knew something was happening and could feel the signatures but not as fast as Menma. The group constantly kept their guard up and avoided all other enemy-nin at all cost.
'I can't reveal my full abilities yet... damn it otherwise I could've taken care of these crazy people.' He clenched his fist, trying not to lose his temper. 'Alright maybe I can use some of the Rinne-Paths.'
"That's too obvious baka. No one else uses those techniques."
"Then what if I make it look like I did something else?"
"Possible... but your timing has to be perfect."
"Alright cheers!"
The old fox huffed before going back to sleep at the back of his cage. Menma eyed the two figures darting around them. He started weaving some signs, slightly interesting the two figures. They continued their darting around before Menma launched his attack. He jumped up and span around at untraceable speeds.
"Wind Style: 360° Repeated Wind Scythe!"
The two figures disappeared in a spiral of chakra, out of their range. He landed back on the ground, only to see Kankuro and Temari get their weapons ready. He looked where they had their eyes set to see some Iwa-nin and Konoha-nin fighting.
"Morning Peacock!" Fireballs erupted from the air as certain green spandex wearing boy punched the air with extreme friction.
"Ninja Art: Rain of Weapons!"
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" The three Iwa-nin combined their walls against the incoming attacks. The Morning Peacock easily burnt the walls to a crisp and the weapons sliced the Iwa-nin in all uncovered places. "Curse you! Earth Sty-"
"Iwagakure's Team 3 is eliminated for their broken crystal!" The three Chunin were cut off by a resonating blast in the area. One of them looked at their pouch to see a shattered crystal, broken from the intensity of the attacks, even if it wasn't directly hit. The three Iwa-nin jumped to the edge of the Training Ground, waiting to face the wrath of their Jonin.
"It's them again!" The Konoha-nin looked at where Lee was pointing. They saw Menma's Team watching their battle from a short distance away.
"Do we attack or not?" Sakura went back to healing their cuts from their battle, guard on.
"The most youthful thing to do would be to retreat as we're already worn out from our batt-"
"Urusai!" Both of the girls facepalmed as Lee kept on ranting about youth and such.
"Let's go. They need us." The two siblings followed Menma back into the wilderness, not taking notice of the two oh-so familiar chakra signatures watching them.
=Snake, Ox and Boar=
The silent assassins of the group rushed around the land, eliminating any team in their way. The team was equally balanced between them, with Snake being an attacker, Boar as support and Ox as defence.
They came across a small group of Suna-nin, who got their stances ready.
"Pois-sonous-s S-snake Bullets-s..."
"Chakra Enhanced Smash!"
"Summoning: Single Rashomon!"
A large gate rose out of the ground behind the Suna-nin and snakes fired poison out of their mouths. Ox smashed the air, creating a shockwave heading towards the Suna-nin.
=Kage Lounge=
Danzo was getting increasingly suspicious of the Kazekage and Raikage with their extremely powerful shinobi. The Tsuchikage and Mizukage seemed downhearted that their shinobi were getting taken down like flies.
'Kazekage and Raikage are hiding something, I just know it. I can't access their memories because of those seals placed on them... I guess I'll have to try another way.'
He activated two of his arm's Sharingan and entered Gaara's mind.
He found himself floating in a weird place, coloured yellow and half-sparkling. He wandered around until he saw an orb in the distance. He showed no emotion, but smirked internally in glee. He floated towards the orb, only to be stopped by seals snaking out of the ground and forming intricate webs around the orb containing Gaara's memories.
'Damn it...' He studied the seals carefully, noticing their extreme handywork. 'This person who placed this seal has studied well...' He ventured slightly closer and lines of seals set themselves alight, heading towards Danzo. 'Deactivate!'
He found himself back in the lounge, the other Kages watching the battles intently. 'What exactly are you hiding, Kazekage, that you don't want me to know?'
'I felt him enter my mind. He's trying to find out but he won't. Arigato, Naruto.'
=Dragon's Team=
He had finally worked another one of the clues out: Wind, Moon and Patience. It was the last two left bothering him. 'It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, kills laughter... Maybe you can hear it but it lies behind stars, under hills and fills empty holes. Sound can't fill stuff but it could end life if in high enough- nah.'
"What are you muttering about again?" Bird looked up from cleaning his sword. He was getting annoyed from a piece of dirt that wouldn't come off his sword. "Stop ruining my swords beautiful dark colours piece of freakin' dirt!"
"Here, let me help otherwise we won't get to fight people." Hare made an ice shovel to try and flick the piece of dirt off, but it wouldn't budge.
"Don't you dare dent this beautiful dark sword!"
"Sheesh, I'm just trying to help, go clean your other swords or something. Stupid piece of dirt."
"Watch it! You're gonna dent it!"
"Then I'll just give it some chakra to reform it!"
"The sword isn't the Kubikiribōchō or Samehada!"
"Just clean your other swords! That one reeks of your room back at base!"
"You've got anything against my room? I like it being extremely dark! It keeps out of all the bright lights and I get to sleep in!"
"How on earth can you see in there? It's like an infinity room!"
"Your eyes get used to it in the darkness!"
'Darkness...'
"You need a perfect balance of light and darkness in your life otherwise you'll go insane!"
'Darkness...'
"You're insane! You want to fight the nearest thing in the next 10 kilometres!"
"That's because I get bored easily!"
"Fight me right now Hare!"
"Oh you asked for it Bird! Ice Style: Ice Senbon Barrage!"
"Sword Art: Dark Sword Slash!"
'It's darkness... it matches perfectly with the clue!' "I've figured it out! It's darkness!"
The sword's slash got deflected by the ice senbon barrage, dislodging the piece of dirt, which went flying through the air into Dragon's face.
"Sorry Dragon-san..."
"What on earth is wrong with you two?!"
Little did they know, Konoha's Team 8 was saw and heard every single thing.
"Dragon? Hare? Bird? Don't tell me those three have infiltrated the exams..."
"Looks like my insects were correct, those chakra signatures are familiar..."
"We need to tell them about this."
=Ram, Monkey and Rat=
"I mean this obviously means centre." The three disguised Kumo-nin sat against a palm tree against the hot sun. Ram looked down at her clue before going back to thinking about machines. All three of them loved their tech and would work on their contraptions at any free time they had.
"Hey, you think we can use our machine in this exam?"
"You're crazy. It's not even completed and you want to try it? Whatever could go wrong?"
"Good point."
The wind whistled through the desert and sand flickered, revealing Menma.
"Hello, I see you've figured out your clue."
"Leader-sama!" The three of them jumped to their feet.
"No need for formalities here, we don't want to give ourselves away do we? Anyways, I just heard your answer to the clue and I'm please with you and I've brought you a present!" He chucked a scroll at each of them before the sand blew over where he was.
The three opened their scrolls and their eyes widened in glee. Menma had brought them parts of their contraptions that they really wanted to work on.
"So... can we use our machine in the exam now?"
=Konoha 9=
"So you expect they're here?" The lazy genius started off their meeting.
"Hai. I remember those chakra signatures and Shino's bugs remember too."
"I think we should tell the Kages right now so-"
Tenten was cut off by the Nara who had started to work his brain. "We should keep them here to see their abilities and find potential weaknesses." The rest of the group nodded. "Hinata, Kiba, Shino. Show us where they were and we'll follow them. It's possible that they'll lead us to the next exam."
"We also encountered Menma and his group." Sakura spoke up. "For some reason, they didn't attack, even though we were recovering from an attack."
"It was odd indeed but we get to keep our youth!"
"Hey Shika, you don't think they're part of the Orange Flames as well?"
"No. Their abilities are nowhere the same and I'm pretty sure Gaara would know if they were, they are his siblings after all." The lazy genius went back to thinking. 'What did those clouds mean?'
"So Team 8, lead the way!"
=Dragon's Team=
"This thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down." His first thought was a disease or something like that but that didn't fit with all of the clues. He then thought about power but that didn't make sense. He then thought about natural disasters but then again, that didn't seem right.
He looked around the area and took in his surroundings. He was surrounded by trees. He saw the mountain in the North. The desert was to the West. There was a small oasis to the east. To the south was the edge of the arena.
'How much time would it have taken for this place to turn out like this. It's beautiful.' He looked down at Bird and Hare having a kenjutsu fight.
"Go on and take your time, Dragon. We only have today and tomorrow to pass this exam!"
"It's not like you could do any better, Bird."
Bird huffed only to get knocked back by Hare's ice sword. She smiled in glee that she finally won a kenjutsu fight. "I win!"
"Not fair! I wasn't paying attention that time!"
"A ninja should never have their guard down in battle." She jeered at Bird. "And yes, you're not a better thinker than Dragon."
"Urusai! I'm going to absolutely wreck you! Taijutsu only!"
"Oh you're going down this time short stack!"
"Urusai, both of you. I'm trying to think of what the clue could mean, bakas." 'This is tough but there's no one else that's smart enough to work this out.' He looked over at the two hyperactive people.
Bird ducked under a punch and tried to knock out Hare's legs. She jumped up and brought her foot down onto Bird's head. He captured it with his hand and used to it to push himself up. He returned a few punches, only for them all to be blocked. Hare grabbed a hand and used as pivot to slam her foot in Bird's face.
"This time..." He got back up to his feet. "I won't lose!" He ran full force at Hare, seemingly gaining speed. "Chakra Weights: Release!" He disappeared in a flash, shocking Hare.
'Since when did he...' She quickly blocked a hit to the head. 'Wear...' She caught an incoming foot but he twisted himself and kicked her away. 'Chakra...' She took a blow to the arm and returned a hit with her foot. 'Weights?' She saw blurs all around her and kept taking blows all around.
"You've..." She saw him bounce off the rocks, cracking them all. "Lost..." He charged towards her, hand rearing back, covered in chakra. "This time!"
So... How'd I do? Good? Bad? Awful? Trash? Amazing? Tell me!
So, I'm on the summer holidays (finally!) and yeah, hopefully updates will be a bit quicker if I can find some alone time.
If you have any suggestions, let me know and I'll incorporate them if I like them!
And that's all for now!
See you later: Ja ne!
