(Hi guys. Here's the next chapter that begins the Chunin Exams.)
As the sun rose over Konoha, Naruto and his teammates were up and getting ready. Once Naruto and Karai strapped their swords on, they were about to head out.
"Sensei, we're off." Naruto began, until their sensei blocked them.
"Sensei?" Hun asked.
"Before you three go I want you all to know how proud I am to be your sensei," Tatsu began sounding proud, "I just never imagined the chance for you to become Chunin would come so quickly. Make the Foot Clan proud."
"You know it, sensei." Karai smiled and nodded. Team Kappa headed out into the village before reaching the ninja academy.
As they entered the building they walked through the halls before heading up through the floors before reaching the classroom meeting point. Naruto and Hun opened the doors, and the trio entered. They saw inside the classroom was tons of shinobi ranking from their age to older. They saw the shinobi were from various villages including their own. Naruto spotted among the shinobi in the crowd was Rock Lee, Tenten, and Neji, with the first two giving them welcoming looks, while Neji just scowled. The non Foot Clan shinobi stared in their direction as if trying to intimidate them, but Team Kappa wasn't so easy to scare.
"Hey, let's suck in the guts, you guys. This is the Chunin Exams." Naruto instructed his team who all sucked in their guts.
"Well, look who decided to show up." came an obnoxious voice.
Team Kappa looked over seeing it came from Kiba who was standing with his teammates Hinata and Shino. Behind them were also Sasuke, Sakura, Sai, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji.
"Hey, you, guys," Naruto said, as he and his team walked over, "Been awhile since we saw some of you." he looked to Hinata who blushed but smiled.
"Even you guys are involved?" Shikamaru asked in boredom, "Well, this just got more troublesome."
Kiba spoke to Team Kappa, "Listen, you may have proven to be tough guys when you visited us at the academy, but things aren't like they were back then anymore. We're a lot stronger since then."
"Good, then maybe you can give us a decent challenge, hopefully." Naruto snarked.
Kiba frowned, until another voice spoke, "Hey, you guys!"
They looked over seeing a white haired bespectacled young man a few years older than them, and wore the Konoha headband.
He looked to the Konoha shinobi, "I take it you're all rookie Genin fresh out of the academy."
"How did you know?" Hinata asked.
"Because those who go making a spectacle of themselves clearly don't know the first thing about these exams."
"Oh, yeah, says who?" Kiba asked, knowing that was directed at him.
"Me. My name's Kabuto Yakushi, and I've taken these exams long enough to know how to survive and not get on anyone's bad side this early."
Everyone looked around seeing the shinobi gathered looked aggravated by their loudness. Kabuto then turned to Naruto's team, "And you must be Team Kappa of the Foot Clan."
Team Kappa looked to Kabuto questionably, "How did you know?" Hun inquired.
"I make it a habit to know my competition." he answered, while the trio didn't look too assured.
Karai decided to speak up, "So, Kabuto, was it? You've taken the Chunin Exams before?"
"That's right."
"For how long?" Naruto inquired.
"Seven now to be precise."
"If you've taken them that much, then they must be harder then everyone made them out to be." Sakura said nervously.
"That's just great." Shikamaru sighed.
"Listen, you seem like a nice bunch of kids. So how about I give you some inside information with my ninja info cards?" he said before pulling out a deck of cards.
"What're those?" Ino asked.
"Ninja cards I record information on containing data I've gathered these last few years," he pulled out one card and made data appear on it, "This one here shows how many shinobi are entered in this years exams and which nation they're from."
Naruto looked seeing the list, "So we got shinobi from here in Konoha, our home in the Dragon Village, Suna, Iwa, Kumo, Kiri, Kusa, Ame, Taki, and Oto."
Sasuke spoke up, "Do your cards have information on individual applicants?"
Kabuto's eyes shifted to Sasuke, "Oh, have you got someone in mind?"
"I might." he answered.
"Well, I can't guarantee their flawless but I do have info on just about every applicant. Including you guys."
Naruto flinched at that and spoke, "How up to date are your applicant cards?"
"I'd say about up to the point when the Chunin Exams were told they would be held here a couple days ago." Kabuto answered. Naruto and his team were more suspicious wondering how much knowledge Kabuto actually had on their village or any of the other villages
"So who have you got in mind?" Kabuto inquired from Sasuke.
"Rock Lee of Konoha."
Naruto spoke up, "While you're looking up applicants, give me some info on Gaara of the Desert. Can you do that?"
"Not a problem," Kabuto answered, as he went through his deck and drew two cards, "First we have Rock Lee," he revealed the information on the shinobi, "He's a shinobi a year older than all of you with an experience of 11 C-rank missions and 20 D-rank missions. Though he has no experience in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu he makes up for that with his impressive Taijutsu skills. Squad Leader Might Guy, and his teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga."
Kabuto took the next card and uncovered Gaara's data, "Gaara of the Desert, a Suna shinobi with a mission experience of 8 C-ranks and 1 B-rank. The only other information I got on him is that on every mission he's ever been on, he hasn't been injured or scratched at all."
This piece of news got the rookies shaken, as Shikamaru spoke in disbelief, "He's done a B-rank as a genin, and has never even been injured?"
"Is that really possible?" Chouji asked.
"It's in the cards." Shino replied.
"So anything else you'd like to know?" Kabuto inquired.
Naruto spoke, "Kabuto, looking over that card displaying all the villages who've sent shinobi to participate. Why is Oto the one with the least registered applicants?"
"Well, the Hidden Sound Village is actually relatively new. So there's not too much to go on about it at this point."
"I see." Naruto answered.
"Bottom line here is, you wanna survive the Chunin Exams, you're gonna need to be at the top of your game." Kabuto finished.
The ninja nodded, before they saw three more squads approach, "Hey, there." one voice spoke up belonging to a dark skinned boy sucking on a lollipop while being accompanied by a dark skinned girl with red hair, and a short blonde haired girl with a large bust.
Karai noticed both Naruto and Hun gazing at the blonde girls, bust and stomped on both their feet, making them snap out of their trances.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, feeling a stand off.
"I was actually taking to them." he motioned to Team Kappa.
"Yes?" Naruto asked.
"You're Team Kappa of the Foot Clan, right?"
"Correct." Karai confirmed.
"Let me just say I think it's awesome meeting you guys, especially the son and daughter of Oroku Saki."
"Omoi enough fan-boying." the redhead girl chided him.
The blonde girl spoke, "Yeah, Omoi, cool it. Sorry about Omoi, he tends to get excited when meeting famous shinobi. I'm Samui, by the way. This is Karui, and Omoi."
"Hey." Karui greeted bluntly.
"Cloud shinobi, huh?" Hun asked.
"Is that a problem?" Karui squinted.
"Not at all."
"No way!" another voice spoke up as an older girl with short black hair and wearing a Iwa headband approached, "You two are the children of the Shredder?"
"Yes. And you are?" Naruto asked.
"I'm Kurotsuchi; granddaughter of the Third Tsuchikage." she boasted.
Naruto smirked, "Well, guess we all have a lot to live up to, don't we?"
"You got that right." Kurotsuchi confirmed.
Suddenly in a poof of smoke, a tall intimidating man appeared, "Alright, shut up and listen!" he announced grabbing the ninjas attention, "I'm Ibiki Morino and I will be your first proctor for the Chunin Exams. Everyone line up and turn in your application. We'll then give you one of these seating assignment cards. When everyone is seated, we will hand out the written tests."
Naruto suddenly gasped and thought, 'Written tests?! You got to be kidding me.'
'A written portion?' Hun thought, 'How're we supposed to do a written portion if we didn't even know what to study?'
Nevertheless every applicant was assigned a seating card and each took a seat. Naruto looked and saw Karai and Hun were spread out from him, 'I feel so far from them.'
"Hi, Naruto." came a voice, as Naruto saw Hinata taken a seat right next to him.
"Hi, Hinata. Nice to be sitting next to someone I can trust." he greeted the girl making her smile.
"Let's all do our best, ok?" she asked.
Naruto nodded, "Yeah."
Soon all faces looked forward, as Ibiki continued, "For this test you will be required to answer ten questions, however only nine are present on the sheet. I will give you the tenth question when time is up. Now let me discuss the rules," the competitors suddenly became confused about there being rules for a written test, "You will be graded as a whole squad, so if one of you fails miserably you will bring your whole squad down and be forced to leave. And if any of you are foolish enough to be caught cheating three times by any of the sentinels here, you will be asked to leave and take your squad with you. You have exactly one hour to complete your test. If there are no questions you may turn your sheet over and begin!"
With that, the participants turned their tests over and got right to work. Naruto took a deep breath and cleared his head. He thought, 'Ok, Naruto, this is it. Just relax and do the best you can,' he got ready to look at his exam only to look confused, 'This is odd. The questions listed on this exam look too complicated for an average genin fresh out of the academy. And how would one even be prepared for this if they didn't even tell us there was going to be a written portion? There has to be a deeper meaning behind this,' he suddenly remembered what Ibiki said about cheating, 'So that's his plan. He's trying to test our skills at cheating... well, looks like for this part I'm gonna have to wing it.' he began answering the questions as best he could, while noticing his teammates were doing the same.
And just like Naruto, just about everyone in the classroom had caught onto Ibiki's plan and were using their own techniques to gain answers from each other so they could answer their tests. Many were proving to be difficult to be caught cheating by the sentinels, others not so much. When one sentinel called out one who was caught three times, they were dismissed along with their whole squad. Naruto and his team felt bad for the few Foot Clan shinobi who were forced to leave, but knew there was nothing they could do for them.
An hour had passed, and Ibiki spoke up to the remaining participants, "Alright listen up. I'm about to give the tenth question. But before I do I should tell you that this question is optional. But if you choose not to take it, you must leave with your squad."
"What?!" Kiba snapped, "If that's the result of passing up the last question, why make it optional?!"
Ibiki remained calm and answered, "Because if you decide to take the last question and end up failing it then you will never be permitted to take the Chunin Exams ever again," the participants froze in shock at this additional news, "Now the choice remains up to you. Remember if one of you decides to chicken out then the rest of your team goes."
Just about everyone was shaken up from Ibiki's words, and some had already started raising their hands to leave. The ones who raised their hands were permitted to leave and took their whole squad with them. Naruto watched seeing squad after squad leave, and didn't like this, 'He's scaring away all the competition! I can't have that happen!' he slammed his hand on his desk startling Ibiki and everyone else, "Screw your words, man!"
"What?" Ibiki asked in shock.
"If you think I'm gonna let you scare me away with your words, well, you've got another thing coming! This may be my first time taking this exam and if I fail then it may be my last. But that'll never stop me from being the best shinobi as I can be! So bring that tenth question on!" he exclaimed with high enthusiasm.
Many of the participants smiled with confidence after hearing Naruto's speech. Hun and Karai smiled at Naruto's words, with Karai and Hinata blushed at how awesome he sounded. Ibiki looked around seeing no one else was getting up and looked to his sentinels who nodded in confirmation.
The proctor spoke up, "Alright then. Everyone... You pass." he said bluntly and smiled.
Suddenly the hype died down as everyone in the room looked confused, "What'd you say?" Sai asked.
"You passed." Ibiki repeated himself.
"But what about the tenth question?" Ino asked in confusion.
Ibiki chuckled, "There never was a tenth question. I was just trying to psyche you out to see if you'd stay or not."
Temari spoke up, "Then why did you put us through all these questions?"
Shikamaru sighed, "Figures it was all a waste of time."
Ibiki scowled at Shikamaru's words, "This was not a waste of time. This was essential to being a Chunin. I had these complicated problems given to you knowing you would try to find ways to cheat. But you needed someone to cheat on. I won't question the IQ's of anyone here, but for insurance I had some undercover Chunin shinobi sit amongst you to use as sources." some shinobi in their seats got up to reveal they were undercover Chunin.
Karai spoke up, "So then tenth question?"
"Like I said before it was a way to see if you'd stay or not. Being a chunin means risking your life more than you would at your current rank. You will be forced to partake in more life threatening missions down the line. In this exam, staying meant you'd be willing to face the odds even if they're stacked against you. While those who left would have another chance to take it, but in real life there won't be a second chance especially on missions where you have to lay down your life. That is what it takes to be a Chunin. And seeing you all here proves you do have the guts."
The remaining shinobi smiled at the proctors words, until he looked to the window. Something crashed into it and took the form of a banner reading 'Anko Mitarashi'. Appearing before the banner was a woman dressed in a fishnet suit and a trench coat.
"What's up, maggots?! I'm Anko Mitarashi, and I'm your second proctor for the Chunin Exams!" she declared.
Ibiki spoke flatly, "Anko, you're early again."
The woman named Anko face faulted. She suddenly scanned the room at all the participants and turned to Ibiki, "You let all these teams pass? You're losing your touch, Ibiki."
"Or we have better applicants this year." Ibiki countered.
Anko scowled, before smirking, "I'll fix that soon enough," she addressed all the shinobi, "Alright, listen up. Tomorrow you will be briefed on where the second portion will be held. For now return home and rest up. Because tomorrow may very well be your last day alive." she smirked, before vanishing.
Some of the shinobi were slightly shaken by Anko's words, but took off. Naruto and his squad left as well feeling relieved that part one of the Chunin Exams was over.
As Team Kappa walked, they discussed the recent events, "I am so glad that's over." Hun sighed in relief.
"Aren't we all?" Naruto replied.
"That Ibiki guy was scary, even more than father could be." Karai shivered.
"And that Anko woman, just looks crazy." Naruto added.
"What do you think she meant by tomorrow may be our last day alive?" Hun asked in concern.
"Well, could be her way of psyching us out, but remember these exams are not for the faint of heart," Naruto reminded him, "Whatever goes down tomorrow may be an even bigger test to prove we have what it takes to be Shinobi."
"Which means, we have to be more prepared than before." Karai added.
Hun nodded, "In that case, let's make sure we're doubly prepared for tomorrow's exam."
"Yeah." the two agreed, as they continued on.
That night in the village, hiding on a roof top was a man with yellow eyes, pale white skin, and a long mop of black hair. Appearing behind him was a hooded figure.
"Is everything all going according to plan?" the man asked the figure.
"Yes, my Lord. All the pieces are in place. Sasuke Uchiha will be participating in the second part of the Chunin Exams."
The man snickered, "Excellent. Soon, the Sharingan will be mine."
(And there you go. Don't miss next time where the second portion of the Chunin Exams kick off.)