Chapter 8: Frowned Face, Red Spiral
Sanity was Sasuke's main priority. Keeping his sanity as he heard Sakura bicker with Ino Yamanaka like they were back attending the academy that they were currently standing in. As Sasuke grasped at literally anything else to focus on, Sasuke looked where Naruto's attention was locked. Toward the opposite end of the classroom three Sand shinobi stood closely, the blonde's interest more specifically directed at the short, red-haired boy with disturbingly dark circles around his eyes that looked as if he's never slept in his life. Sasuke elbowed Naruto in his ribs, breaking the intense staring contest between the two.
"Hm? What was that for?"
"You tell me, Uzumaki." Naruto looked back at the Sand shinobi as they discussed something quietly. The red-haired boy had his back to them now, giving them a view of the giant gourd, easily half the boy's size, that was strapped to his back.
"I don't know. The one with the gourd is giving me a weird feeling." Naruto was holding something back, but Sasuke didn't know what.
"Ladies, ladies, you're drawing attention to us." A boy with gray hair pulled into a ponytail with bangs parted in the middle and arcing over his Leaf headband walked from the crowd of shinobi in the classroom, talking to the bickering kunoichi while gesturing outward to all the eyes on them. "Just some friendly advice: it's not too smart to paint a target on your backs so soon."
The older genin, looking to be about 16 or 17, pushed his round-rimmed glasses up as he spoke, smiling kindly at the girls. His clothes were strangely out of place like it was a sort of uniform but not one that looked anything like he'd seen a Leaf shinobi wear. Purple pants with a sleeveless flared high-collar matching shirt over a short-sleeved white undershirt. A tan sash covered most of his lower torso, the outfit as a whole wasn't inherently weird, but the older boy's two teammates, that were standing a few feet behind him, wore similar clothing, making Sasuke wonder where it came from.
The two girls seemed to realize where they were and had the sense to look embarrassed by their behavior, but given their history, Sasuke guessed it was probably going to be short-lived. Sakura rejoined Sasuke and Naruto as the Yamanaka rejoined her teammates of Team 10, straightening out her purple, side-slit skirt and matching sleeveless, high-collared, midriff-baring top as if her argument brought some sort of disarray to her appearance. The midriff and exposed legs that the girl's clothes showed off were covered in bandages, to what end, Sasuke didn't know. The Yamanaka winked at the Uchiha, running a hand through her long ponytail, and old frustrations bubbled back up.
"Tch. Even after months of being a shinobi, she won't leave me alone."
Ino's teammate, Shikamaru Nara, spoke up from the left of her eyeing the older genin that interrupted the fighting.
"And who are you? I appreciate the advice, but it's pretty useless if we don't know where it's coming from."
If you hadn't met a Nara in the past, you'd assume by the tone of his voice that Shikamaru was irritated, but it was usually the tired drawl most Nara spoke with. Along with the demeanor, Shikamaru also held the traditional Nara look: black, straight spiked hair pulled into a high ponytail, eyes that seem to never be fully open, and a constant frown. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his flooded brown pants in a slight backward lean, his unbuttoned short-sleeved gray half-jacket opened to show a mesh shirt underneath.
"Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me. My name is Kabuto Yakushi. I'm something of a veteran around here, so I thought I'd give some advice to help you, rookies, a little." The older genin spoke kindly and seemed genuine. Despite that, Sasuke's brow furrowed. Why trust someone's advice if they're a veteran of an exam? That means that they've consecutively failed the exam.
"How many times have you taken the Chunin Exams?" Kabuto looked at Sasuke with a sheepish expression, scratching the back of his head nervously.
"Well, quite a few, to be honest. But you know what they say: seventh times the charm." An awkward chuckle fell from his mouth, "But that doesn't mean I don't have any words of wisdom. In fact, I probably have quite a few nuggets of advice on how to not pass these exams."
The little nook of Leaf shinobi fell quiet, well, mostly quiet. The sound of crunching from the third member of Team 10 housing a bag of chips filled the air, but Sasuke was more focused on the other genin.
"What help could he possibly be? The Chunin Exams change villages after every exam, there's no way there could be much overlap."
"Damn it, now we're one of the last ones here and all because of that big-mouthed asshole." The exclamation was followed by two barks from a small dog. Sasuke sighed, frowning deeper than usual. Now they had another loud mouth to worry about. "Chouji, Shikamaru, you guys wouldn't believe the jerk we ran into." Kiba separated from the rest of Team 8 to join the two males of Team 10.
Chouji, like Shikamaru, followed a pattern that was usually associated with his clan. He was robust, eating almost perpetually, he wore a baggy white shirt, that held the kanji for "food" in red on it, underneath a short-sleeved green button-up and brown shorts. His forehead protector didn't dissimilar to the underwear on top of his head, with orange toughs of hair shooting out each hole. The Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka clans have been close to each other for generations and it was no surprise that they all were joined again on Team 10 or that they have all been friends since children. Looking at Team 10, Sasuke idly wondered if it was intentional that all 3 had similar hoop earrings.
"We know, Kiba. Everyone passed you guys in the stairwell, it would've been harder to not hear it." Shikamaru drawled out. The three boys went into a conversation that Sasuke didn't bother listening to and looked back at Kabuto.
"What information do you have on the exams?"
"Well, from my experience, they all follow a similar formula. The first two parts always incorporate a survival test and a mental examination in some way, then there is a month-long break before a tournament-style competition that is used to draw attention to the host village." The information brought the Leaf rookie genin back to attention, from what Sasuke could tell the other genin were as in the dark as Team 7 was on this. "But you all should count yourselves lucky, with it being in the Leaf Village, no other Great Shinobi Village aside from our allies in the Sand showed up, so you'll get your pick of minor village talent"
Sasuke furrowed his brow and looked around, he confirmed that there were no Mist, Rock, or Cloud headbands in the room, not even the team walking in, which happened to be the Leaf cell that Team 8 argued with. It seemed Kabuto's words weren't appreciated, though, as many of the shinobi that belonged to those smaller villages turned their gazes to the group of Leaf genin, Naruto and Sakura matched his own movements of reaching downward for a weapon in response to the unwanted attention. There was a particular team, one who shared musical notes on their headbands, that gazed directly at Sasuke like they were wolves eyeing a wounded rabbit, but a voice from a different part of the room called out.
"I wouldn't look down on minor villages, bastards."
Suddenly a spray of needles shot through the room aimed at the Leaf genin, none landing but all close enough for the threat to be felt, originating from a scarred face man pointing an umbrella in their direction. The senbon sent a series of images, memories, and before Sasuke consciously realized it, he and his team moved towards the older genin.
Naruto and Sasuke appeared on each side of the taller man, Naruto pointing a kunai to his liver, Sasuke holding one at his back shadowing over a kidney, and Sakura were a few steps behind with a handful of shuriken ready to be thrown. Sharingan eyes looked up at the man's one open eye, the other forced shut from the scar that sliced up the right side of his face, and Sasuke could see the surprise in the man, the battle of face muscles contracting to keep his expression calmed and stoic.
"I wouldn't look down on us either, friend." The Uchiha stayed trained on the man, even when his teammates pulled knives on him and Naruto, pressing the metal blades to their throats, both wearing wide-brimmed straw hats with four vertical lines on a metal plate to indicate their belonging to the Village Hidden in the Rain.
"I'm really starting to hate senbon." The blonde was grumbling across from him, clearly not bothered by it either, but sharing Sasuke's distaste for the large needles.
"Enough. All of you." A loud booming voice echoed across the room, turning towards it there was suddenly a tall man at the front of the classroom. He had two scars cutting across his face, one from an inch below the right tear duct cutting over the right corner of his jaw and the other that started in the middle of his chin that arced up the middle of his face and slid under the headband style forehead protector. His face was long and his features were strong, and hardened and that strength was also reflected in his deep voice. A black trench coat was draped over a collared gray button-down coat, belted over the waist, that fell to his thigh and matching gray pants.
The ninja in the scrum Sasuke and his team helped create all slowly dropped their weapons. Sasuke turned to walk back to their previous position in the room, but he was met with the other six rookie genin giving him and his team looks of surprise. They were all still locked in the places they were when the Rain ninja sent the senbon at them, it gave Sasuke a sense of pride that his team was the only one to react to the attack.
"Good. Before we start this exam, all of you find a seat. Do not sit next to a teammate, if you do you will be moved, if you will not move you will be removed from the testing room and barred from the examinations." Once he finished speaking there was a flurry of wind and leaves as the right and left walls of the classroom were lined with shinobi stationed like guards.
Sasuke watch the room fall into a bustle of movement by everyone in it and Team 7 all looked at each other, Naruto started rubbing the back of his neck.
"Now we gotta take a damn test." A small smile formed on the blonde's face, "Well, just gotta kick its ass, too, right?"
"When was the last time you kicked a test's ass, Uzumaki?" Sasuke matched Naruto's smile with a smirk before turning around and finding a seat at the front to the classroom. Sasuke had no doubts about the test ahead, not for himself or his teammates. How could a written test compare to real danger?
It took no more than a few minutes before all the genin were seated and paper was placed in front of each used seat. Sasuke found himself between a Grass ninja and a Waterfall ninja near the front of the large classroom. When all was settled the scar-faced man took a step forward to address the class.
"My name is Ibiki Morino, I'll be your proctor for the first exam."
An actual test? Their first exam was taking a fucking written test?
Naruto wanted to pull his hair out as he looked at the black and white paper on the desk below him. Nine questions, each with their own boxes to work the problems out, and every one of them was impossible. How was he supposed to know how much force is required to throw a kunai 45 feet from a 68-degree angle from the ground into 25-mile-an-hour winds? Who in the world actually knows that?
Given the sounds of pencils scratching on paper all around him, Naruto assumed many people knew this, but he damn sure didn't, and barely passing academy written exams didn't really bolster his confidence. The only solace for the blonde was the fact that they were essentially allowed to cheat. They were each given ten points each and were docked two points every time they were caught cheating, the only problem being that they weren't warned when they got caught. Every few minutes a kunai would fly from one of the ninjas, lined up along the wall to the right of him and the windows to his left, to the paper of the test indicating that a person's failed after being caught cheating too many times and they, along with their team, would have to leave.
But that left Naruto in a predicament. Each wrong answer on the test docked him a point leaving one point left if he doesn't answer any of the questions on the paper, but their proctor said that there would be one more question after time was up for the first nine questions. If he doesn't nail that tenth question, he'll blow it for his whole team.
Looking up from his paper, for the umpteenth time since the test started, Naruto could see Sasuke and Sakura scribbling away at their tests. Naruto was sitting the closest to the back of the classroom of his team, Sakura had a row of seats in front of him, and Sasuke was funneled up toward the front when picking his seat. They didn't seem to have any pause from the difficulty of the test. Was he really that much of an idiot? Why didn't Kakashi let him know? Before anyone could mistake Naruto for cheating he focused back on his untouched exam, minding to not glance at the papers to his sides.
Naruto was sitting to the left of a Sand shinobi, not one that was a part of the gourd-wearer's team, and to the right of the panda-looking girl he saw in the stairwell. He was standing by that description, too. Her brown hair was wrapped into two buns on her head, suspiciously distanced and tightly wound like the ears of a panda, and her eyes were a dark brown which contrasted with her lightly tanned skin. Somehow, the sleeveless pink qipao blouse she wore over her blue shinobi pants pushed the idea further. She was a panda, for sure.
Naruto bounced his leg as he mindlessly wrote on his paper as there wasn't much else to do. He only had to wait a total of 45 minutes before their proctor asked the last question for the exam, but now it was the waiting game and not putting Sasuke and Sakura at risk by making it look like he was cheating. Unexplainably, flashes of…something started appearing in Naruto's vision. His brow furrowed as he straightened up and focused on his paper and then it happened again. Across Naruto's paper, writing was intermittently scrawling across his paper inside the boxes intended for the solutions. Quickly grabbing his pencil, Naruto traced over the markings to fill in the question boxes, trying his best to catch them before they disappeared. It was like his heartbeat; the markings would appear strongly then slowly fade away to nothing before pulsing again. By the time Naruto's cheat sheet finally disappeared for good he was able to copy down most of the scrawlings. Whether they were right or not, Naruto had no idea, but it was better than his previous plan.
Looking up from his newly finished exam, Naruto caught the sight of emerald eyes meeting his own blue ones. A smile stretched across his face as he realized what happened.
"She used her genjutsu to give me her answers. Damn, I owe her big time now."
Naruto breathed a deep sigh of relief as the weight of this first exam lifted from him and he no longer had to worry about holding his team back too much on this test. It was not long after Sakura's saving grace that Proctor Morino addressed the room again.
"Stop." A chorus of pencils dropping followed the command. "The first 45 minutes have elapsed and it is time for the tenth question, but first you must choose. You all must choose whether or not you will participate in the final question. If you do not, then you and your team can try again the next time the exams roll around. If you choose not to go further, raise your hand and your team will forfeit. However, if you choose to stay and fail this test, you and your team will be barred from any subsequent Chunin Exams."
His deep voice was stone cold. There was no arguing the words that came from his mouth, and the weight that Naruto felt earlier was replaced as sweat started trailing down the back of his neck. Hands all across the room rose at a swift pace, soon droves of genin joined those that were removed during the first portion of the test out of the door. Naruto looked down at the paper that was filled with frantic strokes and took a deep breath and let everything fall away.
What do they have to worry about? It was just a question, right? Their short careers have already been more pressing than this test could ever be, no matter how shit he was at them.
Looking back up Naruto surveyed the room and the room looked half as full as it did when Team 7 walked into it, maybe less so. Next to him, Panda-Girl looked as pressed as most of their peers did, but, like him, showed no indication that she was going to raise her hand. However, the seat to Naruto's right was empty of the Sand shinobi that previously sat there. The movement slowed and soon it seemed that all of the people that intended on leaving were already gone from the room.
"Is that all? The rest of you are willing to risk your team's futures for this final question?" Nobody moved. "Very well. Then the rest of you…passed."
"Huh?"
There was a similar tone of confusion across the room, but nobody was willing to speak up.
"The test before you was one that wouldn't be easily done by most veteran shinobi, the idea was to require you to gather information from those around you that had the answers, whether it be from participants or the chunin hidden as participants. The added responsibility of your team's success riding on your own was to simulate, minutely, the stresses of a higher-level shinobi and was to test your composure under such situations. You all were willing to take a chance on yourselves and your teammates to continue through to the 'tenth question'."
" 'Look underneath the underneath.' Just like Kakashi-sensei said. It was just a written test, then information gathering, and then it was a test of being able to trust teammates in tough situations."
Crash
A figure busted through the window and landed in front of Ibiki, a large flag fluttering behind it with the top two corners being stuck to the ceiling with kunai. The figure showed to be a woman, standing a couple of inches shorter than Ibiki, her figure mostly covered in a tan trench coat. Under that trench coat was what seemed to be a mesh body suit that stopped at the mid-thigh and a caramel-colored skirt that was roughly a foot long. She wore a snake fang necklace that hung to her chest and shin guards that covered the top of her feet, her dark blue, close-to-black, hair was pulled into a spiky ponytail that fanned out in a crown behind her head.
Once the flag settled behind her it read: "Super Sexy Second Exam Proctor Anko Mitarashi".
"I hope you're all ready for the second test because Anko Mitarashi is ready to kick things off!" She came in with an entry only missing fireworks, capped with a triumphant smile across her face. Naruto was lost. Honestly, his brain paused, then halted completely, when he saw her, but he quickly shook his head to pay attention after he missed the conversation between the two proctors at the front of the room.
"Right, the 17 teams that are here now are guaranteed to be halved after the second exam. We will meet at first light at Training Ground 44, visiting shinobi team leaders will be told where it's at and Leaf shinobi can figure it out themselves. Show up prepared or you'll severely regret it." As quickly as she busted in Anko was gone, the flag that she flew behind her burst into bright flames and left a pile of ashes in its wake.
"You're all dismissed." After Ibiki spoke, all the guarding ninjas also disappeared, leaving only Ibiki behind.
The remaining genin soon followed their lead and met up with their teams before leaving the room. Naruto hung back, as he was already in the back of the classroom, as Sasuke and Sakura met with him, both looking pleased with themselves. Sakura added a skip to her step as she got closer, her pleased look lifting into a large smile.
"We passed! We actually passed!" Her excitement was really bubbling.
"Hn. We passed the first exam, but if that Kabuto can be believed we have a survival test and a tournament left." Sasuke was significantly less enthused, where Sakura's excitement bubbled Sasuke's pleased look fell back into a more neutral expression.
"Then we just have to pass through those, too. I gotta make up not doing a damn thing during this test." He met Sakura's eyes, "Thanks for the save, Sakura. I had no idea what the hell those questions were."
"That's nothing new, Uzumaki." Sasuke dared to move toward the door after his little comment, but before Naruto could do anything about it he felt compelled to look to his left.
The red-haired boy and his gourd were standing a few yards away, arms crossed over his chest, black-ringed eyes boring into him. Now that Naruto was close to him, he could see the symbol for "Love" was written in red in the top right corner of his forehead. It looked like sand was slowly blowing around his form, making the ends of the boy's brown shirt, pants, and white sash, that wrapped across his body over his shoulder, blow subtly.
Naruto stopped in his track and stared back at the boy, meeting his hard gaze, the pulling and growling of the being in his stomach began as it did before.
"What the hell is he if he's making the Nine-Tails like this? Is he one, too?
Naruto felt a hand on his right shoulder, Sakura looked to be as unsettled as Naruto felt as she stared at the Sand ninja over his shoulder. Sasuke rejoined them at Naruto's right, also staring at the red-haired boy. The boy was joined by his two teammates from earlier, both of which were noticeably taller than him, who were roughly the size of Naruto.
One was a guy that carried a bandaged, body-length object on his back and wore a black body suit, all black aside from the half yellow half red circle on his chest. His forehead protector, which held the Sand's symbol of an hourglass shape with a bar above it, was mounted on a black hood with cat-like ears on top of it. He looked between Naruto and the red-haired boy and his purple and white make-up-covered face was set into a deep frown as if he were worried about what may happen.
The last member of the Sand team carried on the pattern of carrying something large on their back as she had a large closed black battle fan strapped to the back of her light purple dress. The dress was an off-the-shoulders thigh-length battle dress tied at the waist with a red sash, there was mesh webbing that covered the shoulder and collarbone that was left exposed by the dress and extended lower on her thigh. Her forehead protector loosely hung from her neck, which looked preferable to forcing the headband around the girl's large mass of sandy blonde hair that was pulled into a pair of pigtails full of spiky hair. She, too, shared the look of worry that her teammate showed toward the developing situation, but it made Naruto wonder what the gourd-wearers deal was.
"I know what you are. I know what you carry." The voice sounded forced and gravelly as if it was rarely used, but despite how it sounded, the words that were spoken made Naruto more uneasy than anything else. "The day will come when you will be used to prove my existence, do not disappoint. Mother hates disappointment."
The sand stopped its rotation around his form and the boy walked away without another word. Cat Ears followed closely behind the boy, but the girl stayed behind, teal eyes leveling at Naruto in utmost seriousness.
"I don't know what about you has him interested, but if Gaara is interested in anybody it's never good. Stay away from him and maybe he'll get bored of you." With that she followed her teammates out of the door, leaving Team 7 as one of the last teams left in the room.
Naruto stared at the door Gaara walked out of in stunned silence.
"How the fuck does he know what I am? Is it what I felt when I looked at him? Is he one too?"
The thought of encountering the other Jinchuuriki never crossed Naruto's mind, he's only been focused on his own status as one since he found out, and after the fight with Haku, the Nine-Tails was almost always on his mind. Now he had to worry about maybe another Jinchuuriki focused on him? His head was starting to throb already.
"What do you carry?" Sasuke was almost glaring at Naruto, creases etched on his brow as he frowned at the blonde. His tone was filled with suspicion and accusation as if Naruto committed some betrayal. Secrets weren't betrayal, were they? He hoped not.
"Who knows what the hell he's talking about, maybe the dude's just crazy." Naruto did his best to brush off the question and walked away, heading back down to the entrance of the academy. Sakura and Sasuke followed him, their steps echoing behind him, but there were no words spoken in their exit of the building.
Their sensei greeted them in the same place he left them before the test, a hand in his pocket and the other holding his orange book. When he caught sight of his students, Naruto saw his eye crinkle into a smile and his pocketed hand raise into a wave, even putting the book back into its pouch.
"Congratulations, you made it through the first exam. Not an easy feat, given who your proctor was." That last bit gave the genin a little pause, one that Sakura was willing to try and clear up.
"Who was he? He only told us his name was Ibiki Morino, what else is there to know, sensei?"
"Ibiki Morino is the commanding officer of our Torture and Interrogation squad here in the Leaf. He knows every trick there is to make you squirm without having to lift a finger. Who else could make a room of over 50 three-man cells dwindle to under 20 within an hour?" It was unnerving how cheery Kakashi's voice was as he explained someone's expertise in actual torture. "But you made it through and it's on to the next exam right."
"Our second proctor told us the second exam is in Training Ground 44. What do you know about it?" As surprising as it sounds, that was one of the nicer ways Sasuke has asked a question. He was learning.
"Now how would that be fair? Other teams wouldn't have the same level of information if I told you what I knew. The only thing you need to know is that it is a training ground that was thought to be appropriate for the second exam of the Chunin Exams. That is more than telling." All three genin groaned at their teacher's attitude. Was it so hard to just give them even a little bit of information?
"Well, you guys better rest up and get your minds prepared for the exam ahead of you. I know your next proctor personally and I can tell you that she won't be generous, so don't expect this exam to be an indicator of the next." Kakashi reached into his pockets and handed each of them a small piece of paper. "These are the directions to Training Ground 44, good luck my cute genin."
In a flicker, Kakashi was gone and Naruto turned around to look at his teammates. Sakura's previous excitement from passing the first exam was replaced with more anxiousness toward tomorrow, but Sasuke focused his attention back on Naruto. The blonde guessed he wasn't done with the line of questioning that was lamely dodged, but before the Uchiha could speak Naruto jumped to it first.
"I'll tell you guys what that Gaara guy was probably talking about later, okay? Talking about it now will only make shit weird, let's just focus on the exam tomorrow." Naruto tried to keep his voice hard and stern, but his own anxiety almost made it sound more like a plea than anything.
"Naruto's right. Kakashi-sensei said that we should expect it to be harder than today, so that's all we need to worry about right now." Sakura's agreement seemed to be enough to calm Sasuke's curiosity.
"Fine, but you're telling us after the exams, Uzumaki."
"Yeah, Yeah, whatever. I'll see you guys at the training grounds in the morning. I need ramen." Naruto made his leave as quick as possible, walking away from the academy to Ichiraku's for something to take his mind off anything and everything serious.
Resting his hands on his ever-growing hair, which he's still not gotten around to cutting, behind his head, Naruto brought his eyes to the clear sky as he walked the familiar path to the ramen stand. Sasuke and Sakura learning of the beast sealed within him and they started looking at him like the those that were passing by him Naruto wouldn't know what he would do. They only recently started becoming a team, Naruto was just beginning to understand what it was to have real friends. He was just understanding what it was like to have people he could truly rely on.
The most reliable person in Naruto's life visited him once a month. Lord Third taught Naruto many things: how to cook basic foods, how to clean, how to shop, how to repair tattered clothes, and countless other things. But, with all of that, all of those things Naruto is indebted to the old man for teaching him, the Third Hokage still waited 13 years to tell him about the Nine-Tails. It still took 13 years for Naruto to know what his mother looked like.
Now that Naruto found some normalcy, he had to keep it the best he could. But how could he do that with them knowing about that damned fox? Naruto set aside the thought in favor of following through with his goal: using ramen to ignore all of his problems.
"A large pork ramen," Naruto called into the small ramen stall. With a call from the kitchen, Teuchi started cooking his food as Naruto sat in silence. Ayame appeared to be elsewhere as Naruto couldn't see her in the small shop, but Naruto preferred the quiet right now.
"You know, there's as good of a chance that they don't care as there is of them hating you for it." Naruto saw Kakashi seated a few seats to his right, seemingly from out of nowhere, facing him with his hands in his pockets.
"I know, Kakashi-sensei, I just don't know what to do if they do hate me."
"You endure. You've been alone before, and you've gotten yourself here: a rookie genin and already on the second portion of the Chunin Exams. Even if Sasuke and Sakura take the news rough, I'll still be here, Naruto. Just try to relax and focus on what you have ahead of you." Kakashi reached over and mussed his hair, chuckling at the face Naruto gave him and leaving Naruto to himself. But if he was honest with himself, Kakashi's words didn't help much at all. He didn't want to endure it anymore. He didn't want to endure the loneliness that he's finally gotten a reprieve from.
"Here you go, Naruto. Let me know if you need anything else." Teuchi slid the large bowl of ramen in front of Naruto and went back into the kitchen, the clanging and banging giving the impression he was cleaning dishes.
Hopes were realized as Naruto ate his ramen, the delicious taste of the warm noodles gently washing away the anxiety and worry in the boy. After his first bite, a smile spread on his face, one that wasn't all that common these days but as genuine as could be. Naruto ate two subsequent bowls after the first, really basking in the peace the heavenly food was always able to bring him.
When he finished his meal, Naruto decided to return to his apartment, with nothing else planned for the rest of the day. Naruto expected the exam to be an all-day affair, not a little more than an hour, but now he had the rest of the day to do whatever. In a burst of chakra, Naruto flickered from the ramen stand to his apartment, or that was his intention. He was still getting the hang of traveling distances he couldn't directly see with the Body Flicker, so his destination changed from his apartment on the top floor of the complex to overshooting and falling into the alleyway directly next to the apartment complex.
"Fuck me, that hurt." Naruto groaned as stretched out his body, knocking the kinks loose, but then he stopped. The unsettling weight of someone's eyes settled on Naruto. Giving his surroundings a look, at each end of the alley and the roofs above him, Naruto couldn't find the source of his discomfort. With a frown and a cautious eye around him, Naruto walked around the complex and up the stairs to his apartment.
He settled onto his bed, an orange jacket left on the floor, and opened the book from Mister Shimura. He spent his time reading various passages and queries, eating ration bars, and occasionally looking at the picture of his mother that he left open on the bed next to him. He hoped that these notes he was gifted with and the training he has done with Kakashi were enough to help his team enough in the second exam. Sakura really saved his ass today, even if the exam wasn't really dependent on the test itself. Had he not written anything down, who's to say he didn't spare his teammates' future by not participating in the "tenth question" or didn't try cheating too many times and disqualify them. He needed to be better. He would be better.
"Maybe if I do enough in the second exam, the Nine-Tails won't be such a sore subject."
This is the last chapter that follows canon so closely, and from here it'll slowly diverge
This is by far the most i've written on a singular subject. I've written reports for my engineering courses, and I've read ASOIAF by George R.R. Martin...that's the extent of my writing prowess, so this has all been new territory that I'm still adjusting to. I'm getting there tho