Hello everyone.
I am so sorry for taking so long and only updating with a short chapter, but life had been busy and I had decided to temporarily focus on my second story for the time I had to actually write.
I hope you still enjoy the short update.
Have a lovely day.
"Remember to beat bandage-boy up good, sweetheart. And don't keep it at a broken nose this time! That son of an earthworm hurt Lee-kun with his stupid sound attacks!"
"And he was planning to finish us after we couldn't fight anymore," Sakura added while cracking her knuckles. "Make him cry!"
Naruto gave his team a bring grin and nodded.
"I'll keep an eye on you," Tenko said softly. She might not feel too sad about being banned from fighting for now, but the fox knew how much this meant to Naruto, her official partner.
"Call me and I bite his butt."
Naruto hugged the fox, buried his face into her soft fur, and tightened his hold for a moment, before letting his friend go.
On the first step, he turned back to them.
"We will show everyone just how powerful Team 7 is!"
.
"You cannot join this fight, Tenko. Not with how things are right now," Kakashi reminded the fox in a low voice, while Team 7 watched their blonde sunshine enter the battle ground.
Tenko sighed loudly, worried eyes following her blonde Uzumaki.
"I know," she said after a short pause. "But would you seriously hold it against me if I maybe tried to protect Naruto? Just aiding as a distraction does not need chakra."
The Jonin gave her a calculating glance out of the corner of his eye.
"I forbid you from fighting, no matter what techniques you choose. The risk is too great."
"And do you really expect me to do nothing if he gets hurt? Shouldn't Hinata-chan's injuries be more than enough in this exam? I do not like it, but I was right, sadly. If Doofus gets too close, I cannot promise to stay silent."
Tenko gave the man a hard look.
"I am afraid to use chakra, but I am willing to jump down there even without it if it saves you guys."
Sakura and Sasuke had listened in to the exchange, and the kunoichi gave the fox a proud smile.
"You start talking like a real ninja, Tenko."
Said female snorted out in disbelief.
"And still, I am no real ninja."
The dark mood from the previous days caught up with her again. No, she was no ninja. No summon.
A soft punch to the head from Sakura reminded her that she was not in private right now.
"Stop it with this shit, seriously! Naruto expects us to cheer him on, so don't waste your breath on things we can't change right now."
An encouraging smile wandered from the fox to Naruto.
"You won't go down there," Kakashi said again, his voice making his decision final. Tenko nodded hesitantly, knowing when she was tilting against windmills.
"I won't. But you will, should Naruto need us." The Jonin hummed in agreement.
"Go, Naruto! Raise some hell!"
If the pink-haired kunoichi's choice of words earned her wary glances from the Jonin senseis and Hokage, she hid it under an oblivious grin.
"Rip him a new one, sweetheart! And don't you hold back," Tenko joined in and they started cheering very loudly. Lee even made a few jumping jacks and yelled something about Naruto's blinding youthfulness.
"Tze, no matter your pathetic words, the loser cannot fight fate and expect to win," Neji felt the need to give his two cents.
"Oi, asshat! I am fighting Doofus here, not fate!" Naruto had caught the Hyuga's words, shouted back and pointed at his opponent in a very unpolite manner. Not that Team 7 would correct him.
"But I promise you, if we face each other in the finals, I'll show you how much fate can control me!"
"Yeah, shove your opinion up a place the sun doesn't reach," Tenko immediately was on the teen for his disrespectful behaviour towards her friends. "I don't want to hear someone talking who looks down on family. Really, can't you see how lucky you are to have kind people in your life?"
Neji looked down at the fox like she was the dumbest, silliest thing he'd ever seen in his life.
"Fate knows no kindness. It is pointless to depend on it if fate does not want for you to have it."
"Then watch the dope prove you wrong," Sasuke grunted out. Even he was pissed now with all the fate-nonsense.
The Uchiha honestly hoped he had not been similar to this arrogant twat before he'd joined Team 7. Sasuke could not have been, impossible.
The sheer fact that the Uchiha Sasuke was defending the dead last was enough to render all Konoha Genin present speechless. Did the pre-teen hit his head or what had happened in the forest?
The proctor allowed the match to begin.
Naruto had tried to make up a plan on his way down from his team to the fighting area.
That Dosu-guy had managed to injure Bushy Brows without touching him. What had Sakura said about it again? Something about his eardrums, right? And sound? Maybe.
Naruto might be confusing it with their Hitai ate, since they are Sound ninjas. But a Sound Genin using sound as a weapon was a logical possibility, right?
Deciding to test his theory, Naruto threw a small smoke bomb between them, quickly created two shadow clones and sending one to attack Dosu.
His clone jumped out of the smoke and straight towards his opponent.
The Sound shinobi pulled out a kunai and threw it at the blonde, altering his course. Said clone dodged to the left, lowered his body more to the ground and sprinted in a curve to the other Genin, throwing a couple of shuriken.
Taking another kunai, Dosu easily deflected the throwing stars and as soon as Naruto was in closer proximity, he used his own body modifications and made his silent attack while dodging a fist.
The clone quickly turned around to face his opponent, when his ears started hurting and bleeding – causing the close to pop out of existence.
Dosu frowned at the cloud of smoke, catching on to what had happened and barely managed to roll out of the way of a flying bunch of kunai.
The smoke was still thick enough to not tell on Naruto's exact position.
Processing the memories of his clone, the blonde Uzumaki could say that yes, his opponent from Sound used sound waves in his fighting style.
Quietly creating three more clones, Naruto send all four of them out to attack Dosu from all sides.
Caught off guard when four blonde Genin came running at him, Dosu raised his arms, ready to use his modification offensively as well as shielding himself with the metal around his arms.
All four Narutos attacked at the same time. Two low from the ground, the other pair was jumping up to attack from above.
Dosu dodged and twisted around the weapons thrown at him, not able to use his sound waves yet. He threw another kunai, managed to dispel one clone.
Meanwhile, the two clones from above were close enough, raising their fists to punch their target with a loud yell.
Dosu threw his arms up and strong sound waves hit the blonde attackers, causing them to cry out in pain and pop into smoke before they hit the ground.
Taking a step back, Dosu had to lean back not to have his bandaged face cut from the last attacker. Was this the real Konoha brat?
Raising his arms, he blocked the kunai, but before he could use his body modification again, he heard a telling whistle in the air.
Jumping away in a backflip, Dosu saw a shuriken nick his leg and getting caught in the fabric of his pants.
Behind him, in the thinned-out smoke, stood another Uzumaki Naruto.
"Hah, you coward sent all your stupid clones to deal with me?! They don't have a chance against my sound waves," the Genin mocked his opponent, who, in turn, yelled out in anger and came closer with a kunai in his hand.
"Don't you dare underestimate me!" The blonde Genin and the clone attacked Dosu from both sides. Deciding that getting a hit on the real one would affect the clone as well, the Sound shinobi ran towards him, his arms raised, and ready to attack.
With a poof of smoke, the forgotten shuriken caught in the fabric of his pants turned into a third Naruto and he quickly grabbed Dosu's arms from behind, allowing the 'original' Naruto to land a hard punch on the bandaged face with the already broken nose as his target.
The force behind the punch made Dosu stumble backwards, the third Naruto quickly letting go and joining the other two, ready to attack again.
The bandages around his face started turning red, and Dosu made a strangled noise when blood and pain became all he noticed for a moment.
Damn, the little bastard had caught him a second time, on his still broken nose, nonetheless.
With a gurgling sound, Dosu pulled the bandages from his lips and spat blood out.
"You will pay for this," he said with a dark voice, deciding to kill the blonde. Orochimaru-sama only cared for the Uchiha after all.
Gathering chakra in his arms, he blasted sound waves at the trio, and to Dosu's surprise, the third Naruto, who had been henged into a shuriken, was the only one standing. So, another clone had thrown the real one, huh?
"You already made six shadow clones. Your chakra levels have to be measly now at best," he spat out, watching the blonde cradle his ears in pain, blood dripping from between his fingers.
An animalistic yelp came from the stands, and with a quick side-glance Dosu saw the blonde Genin's sensei grab the fox summon and tug her under his arm to prevent her from interfering. The pink-haired bitch grabbed the railing like a lifeline, the force of her fists bending the metal.
Oh yes, he would make the damn females watch how their teammate got beaten into a bleeding mess!
What the Sound ninja had not expected, was for Naruto to whip the blood away and stand straight as if his ear drums hadn't just been destroyed from the violent attack.
A toothy grin, coming close to the one the fox summon had given them in the forest, was all the Uzumaki offered before attacking with a kunai in each hand.
Dosu frowned. This was wrong. His opponent should not be able to stand steadily, nor should he have the balance to jump and dodge like this was a wild dance.
Using his body modification to shield himself from the small blades, Dosu blasted another sound wave at the blonde, who pulled a face at the obvious pain, but his attacks became even faster and more unpredictable with all his twists, turns, and jumps.
His fighting style did not obey any routine, everything seemed to be made up on the spot. A kunai came flying again, this time with a paper bomb wrapped around the grip.
Jumping to the side with the support of his chakra, Dosu was still pushed to the side from the hot force of the explosion.
Naruto was on him again, this time with another clone, who used taijutsu, when the real one suddenly used the same fire jutsu Dosu had seen the Uchiha use at the beginning of his own fight. It was less controlled, clearly not the blonde's elemental affinity, but the high amount of chakra in the attack made up for it.
The clone had caught the Sound shinobi's legs, wrapped himself around the limbs, and prevented him from escaping.
Popping away in a cloud of smoke, the clone dispelled while Dosu felt the flames lick over his body, burn his clothes and skin.
He managed to get out of the flames before they could hurt him anymore, but Naruto was already there, his fist barely scratching Dosu's chin, then colliding with his throat.
Not able to breath from the forceful hit, Dosu collapsed to the ground when the blonde knocked him out with a kick to the back of his head.
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto had to admit, he was a bit tired. Not from the battle or clones, but the pain from the damn sound attacks.
He felt the Kyuubi's chakra rushing through his body, healing any damage as fast as possible, but the blood had still started running over the sides of his face and down to his shoulders. The blonde pre-teen was pretty sure, when he whipped some of the blood away, he only managed to spread it over his cheeks.
Sakura and Tenko will be pissed at his appearance. And the degree of recklessness.
Before Naruto could worry about his female friends' treatment or start celebrating his victory though, he turned around, eyes meeting the pale ones from a certain Hyuga.
"I don't care what fate thinks of me. I will cave my own path in life to protect my precious people and to live the life I want to."
The moment Naruto said the last word, he already had a face full of red fur. Tenko had jumped down the stairs – Kakashi seemed to have let go of her after his victory – and tackled her friend, who barely managed to catch the fox.
"You won! You won! I knew it! I- You are bleeding! Blood! Sweety, we need a medic! Kakashi, get us some help!" The fox started screaming in joy and then snapped at the Jonin in worry like she owned the place. Her tails were twitching wildly, accidentally smacking Sakura in the face, who also reached their side.
"Oh, don't worry, it already healed," the blonde Uzumaki said, while he allowed the kunoichi to pull him into a hug. The pink-haired girl was giddy with joy and amazement for her teammate. He certainly proved that Team 7 was no push-over! None of them were anymore!
The girl then took Naruto's face between her hands and turned his head to inspect the damage and blood.
"Are you sure you are healed? You want to get your ears checked?"
"Nah, it's all done, really. Don't worry, Sakura-chan."
"Hn, good fight," Sasuke joined them and grunted out with a smirk at the sight of the bleeding, unconscious Sound ninja getting carried out by medics.
Kakashi, basically beaming with pride and delight that all his cute, little Genin won their matches, carefully ruffled the blonde's hair, which had a few red strands from the drying blood.
.
The winners of the preliminaries – Gaara, Shino, Sakura, Shikamaru, Lee, Temari, Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji – stood in a line in front of the Sandaime, who explained how the exam will proceed.
Since they were an odd number, the person with the highest number will fight against a Chunin in the final exam to have the fair chance of showing their potential. The Genin were instructed to pull numbered sheets out of a box to determine the matches in a month from today.
The matches for the finals were:
Sasuke vs. Shino
Shikamaru vs. Temari
Sakura vs. Neji
Lee vs. Chunin X
Gaara vs. Naruto
Rock Lee visibly deflated when he was informed to be the one fighting against a Konoha Chunin. He really wanted to fight Naruto or Sasuke.
Naruto, because the other Genin had very similar beliefs and the match was Lee's hope to form a beautiful and very youthful friendship.
Sasuke, because he was the best of his class and it was a symbol for Lee to prove himself as the 'former dead last' of the previous graduation year to beat the Uchiha in a match. Also, said pre-teen was not as arrogant as his rival Neji was, the option of a friendship would not be unwelcome to the green-clad Genin.
Nonetheless, a Chunin would give him the opportunity to show his potential! He would fully go out on his opponent to honour his sensei and the teachings he received for the past year!
If he also managed to impress the lovely blossom who had captured his heart with her beauty and deadly fists, Lee would be delighted.
Sakura, unaware of Lee's determined thoughts, was anticipating her fight for less honourable reasons. She would fight against Hyuga Neji, the prick who dared to insult her teammates, look down on his cousin who fought an opponent bigger than anything she would be able to hold herself against, and not shut up about his fate-shit.
The pre-teen wanted to hit that pretty face inside out. He had it coming for him by provoced them and lacking any form of empathy. If you dared to mess with one part of Team 7, you were messing with all of them!
So, no, Sakura's intentions and plans for the fight were no honourable ones. It simply was payback, and the pink-haired girl would make sure it would hurt. If she managed to impress the Hokage enough to become Chunin with her teammates (which had been their original plan) it would be a welcomed bonus.
Next to Naruto, Tenko was nearly fainting when she saw the match-ups. Her baby would have to fight against the red-head. Would the Hokage hold a grudge against her if the fox convinced Naruto that the life of a nuke-nin was safer than a confrontation with Gaara?
Said Suna shinobi was fixing his eyes on them, and Tenko felt like she was pushed into the role of the prey while the predator made a plan to hunt her down. Sand was dancing around him, barely noticeable without trained eyes, and the grains almost appeared eager. For what, the fox did not know, not did she have the wish to truly find out.
They were allowed to leave the tower now that the second exam was officially over.
Kakashi immediately herded his cute, little Genin past everyone else while walking with obvious pride at his students. If he gave Gai a meaningful side-glance in show of his superiority as a sensei to make his rival burst out about his 'hip and trendy attitude', the copy-cat ninja pretended he did not hear it.
Pulling the four little terrors to the side for a moment of privacy, Kakashi gave his team an eye-smile and head-pats.
"I am very proud of you all. You showed how far you have come while still keeping part of your abilities hidden. Your opponents are not to underestimate though.
Sasuke-kun, your opponent is an Aburame, as you saw, they fight with chakra-absorbing insects. We will have to train you against a long-range fighter while avoiding his little companions.
"Sakura-chan, you saw how easy it was for the Hyuga-kid to defeat the Inzuka-boy. Arrogance and overconfidence were his downfall. You are both close-range fighters, so we will have to up your training on evasion and dodging without allowing your opponent to get a clear hit on you.
Naruto-kun… your opponent is-,"
"He is like me, isn't he," the blonde Uzumaki interrupted his sensei with a serious gleam in his eyes. Kakashi gave his team a long look before he nodded his head once.
"Yes, he is. Because of the randomness of the pairings for the third exam, we will not be able to change it. I have to tell you in advance, those who know about Gaara's and your position in the Hidden Villages will not like this match up."
Sasuke grunted out in a disgusted way, while Sakura cracked her knuckles.
"Let them try something and they will be sorry, sensei."
"Maa, Sakura-chan, this blood-thirst is getting a bit concerning, don't you think?"
"I think it is more concerning that Naruto will go up against Gaara. The way he smells, what feelings I get from him… it reminds me of the Kyuubi and Kitsu. It is just so- so violent and angry. I don't know how exactly the sealing of a Bijuu works, but somehow it feels like Naruto's is more… secure," Tenko shared her thoughts. That she thought of their fight as too dangerous did not have to be said out loud.
"Would this fight even be allowed to get out of hand," Sakura asked sceptically and gave their sensei a doubting and concerning look, "The way he attacked Hinata-san… He would not have stopped."
With a serious and angry 'Hn', Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at Kakashi as if he was trying to intimidate the man.
"I expect you to train us for victory, not just to survive our fights."
A grin that could be seen through the fabric of the mask spread on Kakashi's lips and he gave an eye-smile that somehow managed to be intimidating if it was send towards anyone but Team 7.
"Don't worry, I will make sure my cute, little Genin are Chunin in a month. And if everything works out, our Tenko-chan might be able to be Naruto-kun's official partner in his fight."
The blonde boy beamed at the prospect of fighting with Tenko, while Sakura and Sasuke gave their sensei puzzled looks.
The fox glared at the man, not liking the implication of herself fighting against the red-head. Hadn't she made it clear she was not keen on dying? That Gaara was a threat to their lives? And Tenko also had her own fox-problem to somehow take care of.
What in the world was Kakashi suddenly planning? And how had he managed to come up with a new plan already?