Chapter 6: The Results of training
The cheering of the crowd was almost deafening, the arena floor was mostly sparse of green save for a single tree near the edge. Naruto looked at the Hokage as he raised his hand up, the crowd's cheering died down, the proctor of the exam used the moment to come forward. "Hello everyone and welcome to the chuunin exam finals. There are going to be some minor changes before we begin, Dosu Kinuta is no longer participating in the finals and as such, Sasuke Uchiha shall take his place in the first match, so everyone but Shino Aburame and Sasuke Uchiha please make your way up to the viewing area so we can begin." Naruto followed Shikamaru up to the viewing area and everyone waited for Sasuke to show up. The crowd was starting to get restless and after five minutes he could see the Hokage and Kazekage speak before sending a messenger to the proctor. "As Sasuke Uchiha is not here yet we shall move the first match back until all other fights are done. If Sasuke Uchiha is not here by then he will be disqualified. The crowd let out soft boos but most stayed quiet, Naruto could see people were miffed that he had not shown up yet. "Will Shikamaru Nara and Kankuro of the sand please make their way down."
"I forfeit!" Yelled Kankuro to the proctor
Naruto's head snapped to the puppet wielder as every alarm in his head was blaring that this was not normal. The crowd already unhappy started booing hard. 'What is he up to? You don't just quit in the finals.' The proctor took a minute to try and calm the crowd as he proclaimed Shikamaru the winner and called the next two participants.
"Would Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara of the sand please make their way down." Naruto started making his way to the arena but was stopped by Shino and Shikamaru.
"You should give up Naruto that guy is something different." Shikamaru said as Shino nodded along. "That is correct. His chakra is vile and corrosive. My bugs won't go near him it reminds me of how they would sometimes act with you." The words meant little to Shikamaru who didn't understand the full weight of Shino's statement. Naruto simply nodded with an annoyed frown before heading down and as soon as he was standing in front of Gaara the crowd exploded in a cheer as they were finally going to see some action. Gaara was releasing some serious killing intent and Naruto who was already annoyed by his former classmates decided to respond in kind. The arena was filled with killing intent and some of the cheering died down as they felt the tension in the air. Gaara let out a cruel smile when he felt the blonds own killing intent. The proctor asked if both Naruto and Gaara were ready and as he received a nod from both he jumped back.
"BEGIN." As soon as the proctor spoke Naruto raised his left hand in a half ram seal and used the body flicker to get behind Gaara, he pulled a kunai out with his right hand and tried to slam it into his head from behind but was stopped by the sand. Gaara turned to look at him as the sand lashed out.
"If that's all you can do mother will be disappointed." Naruto jumped back to avoid the sand.
"I know I just needed to see how quickly that sand reacted up close." Gaara raised his hand and a tendril of sand was sent to Naruto. The blond quickly went through hand seals and inhaled deeply. "Wind Style: Great breakthrough!" Naruto unleashed a gale of wind that dispersed the sand and was headed towards Gaara but was stopped by a wall of sand that came directly from his gourd. 'Looks like the sand from his gourd is of better quality than the sand he gets from the ground.' Gaara let out another smile.
"Mother wants your blood, she screams at me. SHE WANTS YOUR BLOOD!" Gaara raised his arms up. "Sand Shuriken!" Sand had gathered in front of Gaara and then shot out at high speeds to the blond. Naruto avoided the barrage of sand and created three clones that circled around Gaara so he was surrounded. He and his clones went through the same hand seals and all four blonds could be heard shouting.
"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Each blond let out pressurized blasts of water and the Gaara's gourd exploded and formed a sphere around him. 'Good it's working.' Naruto thought to himself as he watched the sand became muddy as puddles formed on the ground. He stopped his assault and saw most of Gaara's sand was now wet. Naruto and his clones rushed the redhead and his sand came up much slower than before to stop the clones who attacked first, Naruto saw an opening and kicked Gaara in the face and sent him to the ground. Sand exploded from underneath Gaara as a crazed look came to his eye. His charka darkened and felt familiar to the blond. 'So he is like me.'
"Yes! You can prove my existence!." Gaara sent large waves at the blond who used his shadow clones as distractions. Naruto and his clones would use the body flicker to move in fast and strike at Gaara. While Naruto wasn't as quick as Lee he made up for it by attacking at multiple angles at the same time with his clones. Naruto saw two of his clones attack as Gaara raised his sand to defend, he quickly appeared behind the Sand ninja a hit him sending him stumbling back. This pattern continued for a couple of minutes. After the fifth hit, Gaara growled and made a dome of sand around himself and the blond sent a clone to attack it only to be destroyed as a sand spear grew out of the orb. The crowd had been going crazy as they watched such an amazing match and cheered even louder when Naruto tried his great breakthrough and a fireball jutsu to try and pierce the orb.
"Damn, I was hoping that would be enough." Naruto summoned two clones and bit his thumb before blazing through same hand seals. "Summoning Jutsu!" The crowd was near deafening as Naruto summoned a large toad almost a big as himself. The Toad was velvet and was wearing a brown vest.
"Hello, Naruto." The velvet toad spoke.
"Hey Gamataro, do you think you could give me some oil?" The Toad nodded and he and his clones ran through seals. If one would look closely they would notice that his clones used different seals than that of their creator. And as one Naruto and his clones Inhaled and so did Gamataro.
"Ninja Arts: Toad Oil Bullet!"
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Naruto unleashed his fireball as it was powered up massively by his clones wind jutsu, this caused the fire to turn from a warm yellow to a searing blue that was once more augmented by the toad's oil hitting it. The Blue wave of fire transformed into a blazing white inferno that caused many in the crowd to yelp in fright as the heat reached them. Naruto could see from the corner of his eye he could see other ninja looking on amazed that a genin had such a devastating combination his arsenal. Naruto kept up the hellish flame attack up for 30 seconds before stopping. When the flames cleared he could see the sand orb had been turned to glass as a badly burned Gaara screamed inside. The blond dashed to the orb before signaling his clones to use another jutsu. He waved at Gamataro as he went back home. Naruto gathered earth chakra into his right arm turning it black before hitting the glass orb shattering it. Behind him, he could hear shouts of the clones using their water jutsu as Gaara was blasted back towards the single tree in the arena. Gaara slowly stood up absolutely soaked and full of third-degree burns. "It hurts. MOTHER IT HURTS!" Gaara kept screaming as Naruto casually walked forward as he made some hand seals and stopped about 10 feet in front the red-head as he brought his hand down on the giant puddle he was standing on him.
"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder." A surge of electricity ran across the water and Gaara was hit with the full force of the water enhanced lightning jutsu. After ten seconds Gaara fell down unconscious. Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the buildup of the tailed beasts chakra inside of Gaara and before anyone could react Naruto vanished as he slammed his hand into Gaara stomach, his fingers lit with glowing kanji. "Five Element Seal!" Naruto felt the chakra disappear and there he could feel the arena shake as the crowd went crazy again. Naruto could see many ninja tense at the feeling of the demons chakra before they relaxed slightly when it disappeared. Naruto could here Temari screaming for her brother as she and Kankuro rushed towards him as the medics took him away.
"Winner of the third match, Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto made his way back to the viewing area and was met with the shocked faces of his classmates. The proctor allowed the crowd to gossip about the match before quieting them and calling the next match. "Would Neji Hyuga and Temari of the sand please make their way down. Naruto saw Neji make his way to the arena as Temari came out of the tunnels leading to the med bay. The Proctor jumped away as he told them to begin.
"You should give up, your no match for me." Neji's voice was clearly heard by all and Naruto let out a small frown.
'I don't know if I want him to win so I can kick his ass or lose and get humiliated by Temari.' thought Naruto.
"Just keep talking! We'll see who comes out on top." Temari opened up her fan fully and swung hard. A blast of wind barreled at Neji who activated his byakugan to and was able to see the wind chakra race towards him. The leaf ninja rolled away and he dashed towards the sand kunoichi as she once again sent waves of wind at him. Neji jumped away and closed the distance as he sent a palm strike to the blond that was blocked by her fan. Temari used her fan as a club as she tried to jump back only for Neji to duck under the swing and hit her several times in her arms and shoulders. Neji then continued his attack and Temari was peppered with finger jabs all over her body before she was sent flying back with a palm strike to her chest.
"This match is over I've closed all the chakra points in your arm you can no longer fight." Temari slowly raised herself and swung her open fan only for nothing to happen. With a look of frustration, she looked over and muttered to the proctor.
"I forfeit." Neji let out a smirk.
"Winner Neji Hyuga." The majority of the crowd clapped politely and some even cheered even when the match was a lot shorter than the last one and not as exciting. "Will Sasuke Uchiha and Shino Aburame please make their way to the arena." Shino stood silently as they waited for the Uchiha and after five minutes the crowd started booing as they were offended that Sasuke had not shown himself yet. It was after another five minutes that the crowds booing reached a new level as the crowd became unsettled. Seeing the crowd react the Proctor turned to the Hokage who nodded. "Sasuke Uchiha is disqualified and the winner of the match is Shino Aburame." The crowd cheered as they felt that the Uchiha deserved the disqualification for making them wait. Naruto just shook his head seeing his sensei and teammate not show up. "Would Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara please come down, we shall now commence the second round of the finals." Naruto watched as his two classmates stood across from each other as they eyed themselves. "If both fighters are ready. Begin." The Shikamaru made a hand seal as his shadow extended and Shino jumped back and let his bugs leave from under his coat. It became a game of cat and mouse as the two avoided their respective jutsus. Shikamaru brought out multiple kunai as he began throwing them at Shino at random intervals. The bug user calmly deflected the kunai when he saw that some of the kunai had seal tags on them. There were several bright flashes showing that the tags where actually flash bangs, Shino covered his eyes with his arm when he felt himself stop suddenly.
"I got you now Shino." Shikamaru had used the opening the flash bangs had created to extend his shadow and capture Shino.
"You may have caught me but this is my victory. Why? Because my bugs are all around you waiting for my command to attack." Shikamaru looked down and saw hundreds of bugs crawling in the dirt around him.
"What a troublesome opponent, proctor I forfeit." Shikamaru sighed and the proctor called the match. As the two leaf Ninja shook hands before Shino made his way back to the viewing area.
"You did well to last so long. It was unfortunate I was your opponent, it was a bad match up." Said Shino.
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to fight you at all, this was so troublesome." The proctor spoke up as soon as both genins left he addressed the crowd.
"Would Neji Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki make their way down." Naruto body flickered down and stood in front of Neji as the two glared at each other.
"You only made it this far because of luck, but this is where it ends. Fate declared you the loser when you were matched against me." Naruto said nothing and simply got into his fighting stance. "What, too scared to respond." Neji tried to mock Naruto again.
"Proctor start the match." Naruto never turned away from Neji as he spoke to the proctor as Neji glared at the blond.
"If both fighters are ready. Begin!" As the proctor jumped away Neji spoke once more.
"I shall give you one final chance to give u-" Neji had to duck as Naruto used the body flicker and blurred to Neji and tried to kick him. Neji spun and tried to palm strike Naruto only to be sucker punched by a clone of Naruto. Neji backflipped as he rolled with the punch as he activated his byakugan. He saw there were four Naruto's circling him he couldn't tell which one was the original as they all had the same amount of chakra. Two clones ran at him as he spun and deflected their attacks he tried to counter them only to be interrupted by a third. He saw that another Naruto was running through hand seals and Neji heard him shout out the name of the jutsu.
"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Neji saw the attack coming and channeled chakra all over his body as he couldn't dodge as the other clones were blocking his escape. He began spinning as he released his stored chakra.
"Rotation!" Neji was covered in a dome of spinning chakra and as he blocked the water jutsu, the clones that were near him were knocked back and dispelled from the hit. Neji stopped spinning and glared at the blond. The crowd cheered seeing another flashy fight. "You might have gotten past Gaara's defenses but the Hyuga ultimate defense is unbreakable." Naruto scoffed before making three clones and sending two at Neji, as they engaged him in a taijutsu match he pulled out two shurikens and threw them as he and his clone ran through hand seals. The two clones fighting Neji dispersed and coated the area with smoke.
"Wind Style: Breakthrough!"
"Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The two shuriken Naruto threw picked up speed as they were hit with the wind before multiplying, the two shuriken became two dozen and Neji unable to dodge due to the new speed of the shuriken once again used his rotation. As Neji was slowing down he was hit in the side by a clone as he was unable to avoid because of his spinning, another clone hit him into the air and Neji was met with two Naruto's as they hit him with their right and left fists as he was sent down to the ground. Neji bounced before flipping to his feet. The Hyuga was bleeding from his mouth and was panting slightly. "So Neji, is this the part where I give up? After all, isn't my fate to be defeated today?" Naruto's words caused the Hyuga to stew in rage.
"You know nothing! Our fates have been decided since before we were born." Neji reached up and untied his headband to show a seal on his forehead. "This seal binds me as a member of the Hyuga side-branch. I was bra-" Neji was interrupted by a kunai that was thrown by Naruto.
"I don't give a shit. Your barking up the wrong tree if you want to compare seals that bind you. If you want to talk then give up. Just because something bad happened to you doesn't give you the right to be a prick to innocent people." Neji was consumed by rage and sprinted at Naruto who deflected all his strikes and jumped back. Neji lowered his stance with both arms stretched out one lower than the other. Naruto heard some of the Hyugas that were in the stands gasp.
"It's over! You're within my range! Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms! Two Palms!" Neji sent out two finger jabs that were dodged by the blond. "Four Palm! This time the strikes came faster and the blond had more trouble dodging them. "Eight Palm!" The speed once again increased as the blond had to deflect some strikes unable to dodge all of them. "Sixteen Palm!" Naruto had to channel chakra to increase his speed as he ducked and weaved through the strikes, Neji's face slowly contorting into an ugly mask of hate as he couldn't land a hit. "Sixty Four Palms!" Neji's hands almost blurred and Naruto was able to deflect all the strikes. The final hit Neji sent was a palm strike that Naruto spun around and delivered a devastating elbow strike to the side of Neji's head. He stumbled and Naruto took advantage as he kneed him in the stomach before grabbing him and throwing him at the wall of the arena where he channeled earth chakra into his fist and launched a punch at Neji. The older genin just barely moved out of the way as Naruto's punch cracked the wall. Neji got his balance back in time to block a kick that sent him skidding back. Naruto created five clones as he rushed Neji and Neji was barely able to defend himself from the blonds onslaught. Two clones came behind Neji and kicked him forward as another close-lined him as he fell to the ground as three Narutos dropped on him with their knees. Neji spits up blood as his eyes rolled back into his head. Naruto dispelled his clones and the crowd went crazy. He could see his teammate Sakura cheer on with Ino beside her as the platinum blond pointed at him enthusiastically.
"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!" The crowd continued to cheer and the proctor had to call them down. "We will now have a thirty-minute intermission to allow the finalist rest before conducting the final fig-" The proctor was stopped as two people used the body flicker to appear in the middle of the arena.
"Sorry we're not late are we?" Naruto could do nothing but sigh as he looked at his late team members. Kakashi looked the same as always, Sasuke was wearing black shorts and a black shirt. His hair had lengthened slightly and he had bandages and a belt wrapped around his left hand.
"Yes, yes you are." Naruto spoke and the two turned to face him. Kakashi's eye widened and Sasuke glared. The crowd had started booing them. The proctor stepped forward to talk to them.
"Sasuke was disqualified when he didn't show up in time for his match. You guys had ample opportunity to show up, we even moved you fight back and gave you extra time." Sasuke glared at Kakashi who simply nodded and took them away from the arena when he saw how hostile the crowd was being to them. Naruto turned to walk up to the viewing area as the proctor finished his explanation. Naruto sat down and meditated for the remaining half hour.
Naruto heard the proctor call his name alongside Shino's. The two leaf ninja stood in the arena as the crowd cheered. "This is the final fight of the chuunin exams will now commence. Are both fighters ready." Both Shino and Naruto nodded. "Begin!" The proctor jumped back and Naruto made three clones, two clones rushed Shino who let loose his bugs. The clones quickly dispersed as their chakra was drained and the bugs turned their attention to the blond. The bugs that came near the blond were burned alive as a fireball hit them curtsey of his one remaining clone. The two stood still as Shino tried to rush them blond who created two more clones and sent them at Shino after a short exchange where Shino was unable to get a hit in as the clones covered each other's weaknesses. Shino jumped back once more before looking to the proctor. "I forfeit, why? Because I am outmatched, my bugs cannot get near him without getting burned." The crowd clapped in polite applause as the proctor came forward.
"The winner of the chuunin exam finals is Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto saw the crowd explode into cheers and when he felt a weird sensation all around him. He smoothed his chakra like so many times before while meditating and saw that all the civilians had fallen asleep. His head snapped to the kages as their booth exploded and he could see sand and sound ninja attack his fellow Leaf allies. A purple barrier appeared over the kage's booth as Naruto heard the Proctor tell him to get too his sensei for orders. Naruto jumped up to the stands where he was attacked by a sound ninja. Naruto ducked under a kunai swipe as he brought out his own before jamming it into the neck of the enemy. He spotted Lee and Hinata being protected by Kiba, Sakura, Ino, and Choji. He saw Kakashi and Guy above them taking care of threats to their students and Sasuke engaging with another sand ninja on the other side of the arena. The blond saw a sound kunoichi race towards Hinata and Ino and he blurred into her path as he kicked her away while summoning a clone to take care of her. Kakashi looked at the gathered genin and saw Naruto had joined him.
"I want you all to take Lee and Hinata to the hospital and help any other ninja there in protecting it. I want you to help out any injured civilians you see along the way and escort them there. This isn't time to argue and play around consider this an A-rank mission. The genins nodded and Ino and Sakura helped Lee and Hinata as the rest formed a protective circle. They were joined by Shino, Ten-Ten, and Shikamaru as the group moved to the hospital. On the way there Naruto created 20 clones that spread out he gave them orders to hide and ambush any enemy ninja they came across. Naruto took a glance back at the tower where the glowing purple barrier stood.
'Don't you die on me old man.' Naruto thought as he made his way to the hospital.