"Sota, Sota," you heard Naruto yell after you as you sat at the river bank "What are you doing?"
"I'm filling my seals with water so I can use them later in a fight, most of my other tools are a bit too dangerous."
"Oh," he said and turned to your clone that was actually doing the hard work in the river. "Hi, other Sota."
Your clone just waved back to him.
Before you can say anything more, Naruto jumped into the river and began to swim around, you were kind of surprised he could swim.
"Come and join us," he said and sprayed a bit of water on you.
"No, I don't want to get wet." You didn't make your clone do the work for no reason.
"You're no fun bastard, just like Sasuke. You remind me of cats. Shisui's cat didn't want to swim with me either, but at least he touched the water with his paw."
As you turned your attention to your clone, Naruto launched forward and grabbed your wrist. You stumbled forward, and he was laughing.
But you had the last laugh.
"Wait, you can walk on water?" he asked. "Teach me please!"
"Sorry, you're not ready yet," you said, judging from what you knew, he had nowhere near the control or patience at this time.
"Come on, I'm older than you," he pouted.
"Ask Itachi or Shisui, they helped me," you said. It was perhaps a bit cruel to put this on them, but they could handle Naruto.
"I will," he smiled.
"Did you drag Sasuke into the water too?" You asked.
"Yeah, but he was waving his arms around and refused to swim around with me. So Itachi came to pick him up and he was angry at me a few days after that," he explained.
You could understand Sasuke there. Why did Naruto have to be so clueless that he didn't realize that he couldn't swim?
"Who are those guys, they don't have a leaf on their forehead protectors?" he asked and pointed somewhere behind you.
You turned around and saw three Suna-nin, two boys and a girl. "Oh, they're here for the Chuunin exam, we start tomorrow."
"You have to take another exam even if you're done with school?" he asked.
"Yes, and in the end, there will be a big tournament between the best genin."
"I'll come and watch you," he said and grinned.
"There is no guarantee that I'll get to the finals, you'll continue and fail as a team. And I'm not sure if my teammates will pass tomorrow's test." Especially not that slimy bastard.
"That doesn't sound fair," he mumbled. "Why should you fail because your teammates are doing a bad job?"
"Part of being a chuunin is to have some leadership abilities, if you let someone be a bastard without doing something about it, you've only yourself to blame when they betray you."
"I see," he said. "When you were in Suna, did you make any friends, do you know them?"
"I don't know them, did I make any friends…," you mumbled the last part to yourself.
Did Gaara count?
"I think so," you continued.
"Oh, who are they?" he asked.
"His name is Gaara, I looked for him since he's like us," you said.
"Like us?" Naruto asked and titled his head in confusion.
"Oh…," why did you let that slip out. "I thought he was an Uzumaki, as he has red hair like me. But I'm not really sure, but he's a bit younger than me."
"What did you do, how is he like?"
"We didn't do much, their ANBU kind of though I was there to kill him, so they attacked me, but he saved my life and helped me run away."
"Is he strong?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah. He can manipulate sand and has a gourd on his back so he can carry it everywhere he goes and always be prepared."
"Is he stronger than you?"
"Not sure, we have our strengths and weaknesses." Though if you were honest, without some trick up your sleeve like last time, he'd probably beat you. Unless you could somehow absorb his sand… Not that you had any intention of fighting him anything soon.
"Do you think he'll be my friend, if he's anything like you and Sasuke, he won't have many friends?" he asked.
That wasn't nice, but it was kind of true.
"I'm sure you'll become best friends once you meet," you smiled at him.
"Do you ever think about your parents?" Naruto asked out of the blue.
"Not really," you shrugged.
"I think about it every time I visit Sasuke. Do you think my mother would have been as nice as Sasuke's?" He looked at you with heavy eyes.
"I'm sure she would be as nice and scary as Mikoto."
"Mikoto isn't scary," Naruto protested. It was clear that he had not been on the receiving end of her Sharingan. "How do you think your mother would be?"
"I've no idea… I've got a picture of her if you want to see?" You offered.
"You have a picture? Let me see, let me see!" Naruto yelled out and got out of the water.
You retrieved the picture from one of your seals and held it in front of him.
"Is that you?" Naruto asked as he pointed to the child in the picture.
"Yeah, but be careful, your fingers are wet."
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said and pulled back his hand, "but you're so small."
"Toddlers are small and you too were as small once."
"No way. I'm taller than you so I would have been bigger than that," Naruto lifted his arms for emphasis. "And that's your mother? She's beautiful."
You were not sure what to say, so you just nodded.
"Do you think my mother had red hair too?" he asked.
"Maybe. You know the Hokage, you should ask him, maybe he knows."
"I've asked him before, but he says he doesn't know and then he just leaves."
"He's old, old people forget easily. Maybe if you ask him if your mom had long red hair like my mother, he'll remember?" You gave him a gleeful smile. That old bastard should take some responsibility someday.
"Oh, you're right. I think he'll visit me again next week, I'll ask him then. Thanks, Sota," Naruto cheered up.
"You're welcome."
"What if she's my mom too? Maybe we're secret brothers?" he pondered.
"We're born to close apart, we cannot be brothers."
"Oh… Wait, maybe we're twins. Twins don't have to look exactly alike, you know."
"Not close enough."
"Oh… Tell me more about Gaara," he asked a bit dejected.
"His father is the Kazekage and a big ass, and he's two older siblings. One older brother who uses puppets to fight and an older sister who is a big fan of fans."
"Oh, that stinks. I thought it would be fun to have a Kage as a father, people would respect you and not treat you less than a nobody."
You so wanted to tell him.
"Are you Uzumaki Sota?" An unknown person asked behind you.
You turned around and saw a boy around Kabuto's age, probably an Aburame judging from the sunglasses and the wasps flying around him.
"No, but he is," Naruto said and pointed to you.
"My name is Aburame Hachi. On behalf of the clan, I suggest you withdraw from the Chuunin Exam or I'll crush you."
"Stay away from him you big bully!" Naruto yelled out.
"You're his friend?" Hachi asked.
"Yeah, got any problem with that?" he asked.
"You should stay away from Sota, he's nothing but trouble. He'll get you kidnapped or killed if you're not careful."
"Sota might be a bastard at times, but he's not like that."
"You know he killed someone on his last mission?" Hachi asked.
"It's not true, tell him it isn't true Sota!" Naruto yelled out.
"It was in self-defence," you said. "They tried to kidnap me."
"Only a fool believes in lies like that," the Aburama grunted.
"Then I'm a fool," Naruto said.
"You've never seen him acting strange or anything?" Hachi asked.
"No I haven't, nothing at all," Naruto said and pointed a shaking finger at him. "Leave us alone."
"I can see from the way you're talking and moving that you don't believe that yourself," Hachi said and left.
"Umm… I think I should go home now," Naruto said looking down at his feet. "My clothes are wet and I'm getting cold."
"Bye," you replied.
"Bye," Naruto mumbled and began to run into the village.
-x-
"Good morning Sota, mind if I walk you to the academy, so we can talk a bit?" Itachi asked.
"The academy?" You asked.
"Yes, for the written part of the Chuunin exam."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I'll just get my stuff first," you said.
"I don't think you need anything, everything you need will be provided to you during the exam," he said. "And as I said, it is a written exam, you won't need any of your weapons."
"The written test is just a ruse, there is always a deeper test, and who knows maybe they'll test us for preparedness and punish those who came unequipped?" You asked.
"Uh, I don't know. I didn't have to take it as I was alone, I skipped right to the second part," he explained.
"It was probably because the first test probably wouldn't make sense if you were alone. Let's say that at the end you were asked if you were willing to give up your spot to make your teammates pass or let your teammates fail for you to pass. What would you say?"
"I can see that. You've done your research. Though it seems like a bit of a cruel test and I feel it would cause a lot of people to fail. I'd think I would have probably fallen for it, as I was quite impatient after being held back."
"That's the point," you said.
"Sasuke and Naruto have been trying to make me teach them to walk on water, you know anything about that?" he asked.
You shook your head.
Itachi laughed. "I'll try to help them with tree-walking first and hope they'll give up when they realize that they're not ready."
"Shouldn't you have some faith in your brother?" You asked.
"I don't want him to be like us, I want him to take his time, enjoy being a kid. If I could redo things, I'm not sure if I would have helped you graduate early."
"I will try to stay out of trouble from now on, but I'm improving, I've not tried to kill anyone for several weeks now and I've not almost died in even longer."
"Isn't that a bit of a low bar?" Itachi asked.
"Baby steps,"
Itachi let out a stifled laugh.
"Promise me that you stay safe during the exam, getting promoted isn't worth risking yours or someone else's life over."
"I'll try, you don't have to worry that much Itachi."
"I know, you better get inside before your teammates start looking for you. Meet me and Shisui at the dango stand afterwards, we can congratulate you if you pass and comfort you if you fail.
"Thanks, see you later," you said and went inside the academy.
-x-
"Hi Sota, are you ready?" Kabuto greeted you as you arrived in the lobby.
"Hi," you mumbled back. "Do you know who's in charge of the exam, you haven't seen Ibiki right?"
"Umm, I did, we've been here a while to observe the opposition."
To spy on them you mean?
"Come with me, there is something I need to tell you that I don't want our competitors to hear," you said.
"Uhh, we were told to not be alone with you," Torune said.
"Sensei is overreacting, Torune. Follow me you two, there is somewhere we can go," Kabuto said.
You followed him to a more vacant part of the academy.
"So what's your plan Sota?" He asked.
"I'm not 100% certain, but with Ibiki running the exam, there will be one last secret question that decides it all. Everything else is just a red herring, the points don't matter, or at least I think they don't matter.
"At the end of the test, we'll be asked a question that tries to measure our determination in a mission. It tries to make us either give up or not give up. I've no idea what it will be this time, but the key to it is simple. Don't sacrifice your teammates for your own benefit, and don't give up just because you're afraid of failing," you tried explaining.
"So if you're going to sacrifice someone, you sacrifice yourself?" Kabuto asked.
"Yes. We'll pass and fail together, so whatever the last question will be, I think we're supposed to choose the same thing."
"Hmm, it makes sense. When you say sacrifice, you mean withdrawing from the exam right?"
"Yes," you said.
"Thanks for telling us, time to get back before they start without us."
-x-
As soon as you came back, Ibiki were there to greet you all. "Alright, Genin. On your registration slip, you should have a letter and a number telling you where to sit. Letter for the door and number for the desk. If you forgot yours, you've five minutes to retrieve it and get seated before you get disqualified along with your team."
You hadn't gotten any…
"Here Sota," Kabuto said and handed you a piece of paper.
"Thanks," you mumbled.
You took a look at it, A 15. You put the slip into your pocket and walked inside and quickly found your seat, right behind Hachi. If he tried to attack you with the wasps that were flying around him, you would fry both him and them.
In front of you were a pencil and a booklet with 'DO NOT OPEN BEFORE THE TEST STARTS' written on the front with big letters.
Just like in the series, several ninja that looked like Chuunin were standing by the walls, though in a less excessive amount here. And in the front was some other ninja you didn't know who was, Ibiki couldn't be everywhere…
Unless he used shadow clones…
He probably had a good reason not to.
As the time started to tick down, one last team hurried inside breathing heavily just in time as the proctor went to the door and locked it.
"Welcome to the first part of the Chuunin Exam. My name is Kontoku Shiken and I'll be your proctor during this test. You'll be scored on a range from 0 to 10 points. If you get caught cheating you lose between 1-3 points for each offence. If you get below 0 points, you get disqualified. And just a warning to any smartasses out here. Stealing someone's test and putting your own name on it will get you directly disqualified and the test will be given back to its original owner. We reserve our right to disqualify and dock any amount of points at our own discretion. Any questions?"
"Has that happened before?" Someone asked.
"Next," he said and pointed to someone else.
"What is considered cheating?"
"If you managed to get through the academy I'm sure you'll figure that out yourself. Since no one has any real questions, let's get started. You can open your tests now, you have two hours."
You looked through your booklet and saw ten questions, all written out, so no secret last-minute surprise here. Had you been wrong, was this a no-nonsense test?
One of them involved some kunai physics that you could easily solve if you could just remember your vector maths and another involving sealing that anyone could solve. And perhaps you could try your hand on one of the cyphers, if you were lucky, your good old friend Ceasar should help out. You could also try to cheat, but you had no means to do so and you weren't going to risk handing in a blank test, so better get any points that you could get.
Though before that, perhaps you could have a bit of fun with any Iwa-nin trying to peek on your test. On one of the questions that you had no idea how to answer, you wrote down some insults about the Tsuchikage and his nose before starting to solve what you could.
After almost two hours of working, you noticed that the test was much harder than you first expected. You had perhaps spent the last 15 minutes just waiting after giving up on the last cypher. Some of it you really had to cheat on it seemed like, or it could just be you that was bad at it.
So it was a relief when the proctor finally called it off.
"Time's up. Stop writing and put down your pencil right away," the proctor said. "I hope you did well, or at least better than your teammates. This is how it is going to work. I give you the choice of giving up or continuing."
Before he could continue, someone quickly asked. "Why would we be giving up?"
"I was getting there. If you're the only one that chooses to continue, you'll pass no problem. If two of you continue, the one with the best score will continue and the one that gave up will lose their chance of becoming Chuunin ever again. And if none of you gives up, the two with the best score will continue while the worst scoring one will again lose the chance to become Chuunin. And if there is a tiebreaker, the oldest of you will continue"
"And what if all three gives up?" a girl behind you asked.
The proctor sighed. "I was getting there. If all three give up, all of you get another chance in six months to try again as usual regardless of the number of points."
"Not going to happen, I'm pretty sure I scored ten points and I didn't hear you docking any points from me for cheating," she replied.
"You're right, I didn't dock you any points. If you want to continue, leave your desk and come to the front here. If you want to give up, just remain seated."
The girl didn't hesitate as she got to the front and many others followed, including the Aburame in front of you.
You were not going to hold a passionate speech to get them to give up. You just hoped that neither Kabuto nor Torune had fallen for the trick, or that you had misinterpreted the task. But it was pretty clear that the proctor was baiting you into not giving up, and that 10 point kid might as well have been a plant.
"There is still some time to get up here, and don't think about how many points you got, what matters is if you get more than your teammates," the proctor said.
One more candidate got up and joined the rest.
"Think tactically about this, you've nothing to lose on continuing. If you are the worst scoring, you can continue if both of your teammates give up, and they'll still get to try again next time. No matter the situation, you're better off continuing."
Two more got up. This guy was evil, though it was probably Ibiki's idea, they really wanted to get rid of as many as possible.
The time just continued to tick, but it seemed that people had settled with their decision. More than half the room has failed the test, but there were still some left, and you were all dependent on your teammates making the same decision.
The proctor knocked on the wall three times, and a few seconds later the walls began to shake, you turned around and saw the walls being lifted into the ceiling turning everything into one big room.
"Ahem," Ibiki tried to get everyone's attention from the middle room. "Good work. All of you that are standing up here, you failed along with your team."
"What?!" Someone yelled out.
"This was a test and by choosing to continue you failed it," he clarified.
"This is bullshit, we were told that to continue we had to do this, fail those losers that gave up. You cannot just change your mind like this."
"You took a deal that came at the cost of your teammates, you've no reason to complain. As a team, you're in it together. I ask everyone that's out to leave the room and if you try to trick us by remaining I will make sure that you won't take this exam again for real," Ibiki warned.
After everyone that had failed, left, he turned his attention back to you. "For those that are still here, you pass, as long as everyone on the team got a positive score. And just a little note, to everyone that copied the cyphers answers from one of our plants, we'll be docking you two points for cheating and for not making sure the information you gathered was right, as they were all tasked to give you the wrong answer."
You could hear grumbling noises behind you.
"Group together with your team and we'll check your answers," Ibiki told you all.
"Umm, my other teammates aren't there, what should I do?" Someone asked.
Ibiki sighed. "Then they failed and you should have left with them," he said in a tone that got the poor genin to step backwards before he ran to the door.
Shortly after, Kabuto and Torune joined you.
"Thanks for the warning," Kabuto said.
"I did it because I wanted to pass," you replied.
One of the chuunin helpers got up to you. "Alright, hand me your answers and I'll see if you pass."
"Here," you said and he took your booklets and went to look over them on another desk.
You just looked at each other without saying anything while waiting, and Torune was avoiding your eyes.
Luckily it didn't take long before the Chuunin came back. "Good work, you three pass."
As you were waiting, only one other team was sent out and Ibiki started talking again.
"Good work to everyone who's left. Given that you're only six teams left, we'll skip directly to preliminaries "
You were 18 people, how would that work?
"As you've may already have noticed, you're still a bit too many, so I'll ask any of you if you want to give up, for real this time."
Torune raised his hand.
"And why is that?" Ibiki asked back.
"Why?" Torune asked.
"Yes, if you want to be taken seriously as a ninja you need to be willing to take risks, so I hope you've got a good reason for giving up."
He looked a bit unsure of himself but did manage to come up with some answer after some deliberation. "I cannot control my insects properly, so I don't want to risk the lives of others."
"I respect that, you can leave now. Anyone else?"
Kabuto raised his hand.
Ibiki sighed. "Why are you even participating if you're just going to give up?"
"Kabuto," you whispered to him. "You should continue for the sake of Sensei, he took the loss of the team hard, let him at least see you try to become Chuunin."
"Never mind, I'll continue," Kabuto told Ibiki.
"Good, if there is no one else that feels like quitting, then the candidates B4 and C1 will be having a pre-qualifier round at Arena B in two hours. So get some lunch and prepare. The rest of you can show up there tomorrow at noon."
"Who are we going to fight tomorrow?" Someone asked.
"You're going to fight each other," Ibiki answered.
"I mean, do we get to know your opponent?" They asked.
"No, so be prepared for anyone and use this time to learn more about your potential opponents," Ibiki said and left.
With him gone, it was time for you to leave too. Was there anything you could do to prepare for tomorrow?
Hmmm…
You hadn't really practised your fire jutsu much in actual combat. All you needed to do was promise your clone some dango and he'd be up for helping you. Future Naruto was lucky he didn't have to bribe his clones, or else he'd bankrupt himself buying ramen after each mission.
But first, you had to meet up with Shisui and Itachi for some delicious dango.
-x-
As the evening came around, it was time to celebrate passing the first test with your clone with some more dango.
"Sota, why do you hate Kabuto so much? What is he going to do?" Your clone asked as you handed him his dango.
"He's working for Orochimaru I think. And he's going to cause a lot of destruction in the future. From helping Hidden Sound to invade Konoha along with Suna, to resurrect a ton of ninja to fight a war against us and the other villages. And lastly, resurrect Madara which will almost cause the world to end, we'll win in the end, but not without sacrifices."
"Seems like a pretty evil guy," Clone-kun said and took a bite of his food.
"If I'm right that is."
"We should take him out," he said.
"Take him out?" You asked.
"Yeah, during the exam. He's good and so are we, so we're pretty likely to face off. We'll blow him up before he sees what's coming and gives up," you clone said.
"You're a really bad influence, you know that?"
"I learnt from the best," he grinned at you before taking another bite of his dango.
"I'm not so sure it sounds like a terrible idea. But we're very unlikely to meet each other tomorrow, so I don't have to make this decision yet. I'm going to bed now, good night," you told your clone.
"Good night," he replied.