Chapter 7: To be a Chunin
Konoha
It was morning in Konoha. The birds were chirping, the sun was glowing, and Genins were seen entering the building where the First Part of the Chunin Exams was held.
Tension could be felt, as everyone wanted to become a Chunin, an officer of their respective Village. Sasuke could be seen leaning on a bench, his eyes closed, waiting for his teammates. He had changed his attire slightly, wearing black shorts instead of white, along with a dark blue shirt. His Hitai-ate cloth was also dark blue. He wore the armor Naruto gave him and had the Jian strapped behind his waist in a horizontal manner. Moments passed, as a cry of "Sasuke-kun!" was heard. Sasuke turned, only to find Sakura rushing towards him with a smile on her face. She wore the same outfit, except her pink dress was now red, she also wore Naruto's armor and the Fans were on her hips. Sasuke looked at Sakura up and down, causing her to blush, until Sasuke nodded in approval, albeit hesitantly. "You look… good." he said, then turned back to his leaning position with closed eyes, oblivious to Sakura's look of joy. 'He noticed me!' she said as the Inner Sakura did the victory sign. She then sat next to him, as they waited for Naruto. Not a minute passed, before a puff of smoke was formed and from inside came Naruto.
15 minutes earlier
Naruto could be seen sitting on his room, in front of the Armor stand in a meditation stance, his fists touching each other, as he controlled his breathing and thinking, to control the flow of his Chakra. A light-blue aura formed slightly, until it dispersed. He sat up, looking at the Armor Stand, the weapons prepared and the clothing. He first wore his clothes, he then started putting each armor piece one by one, tying the forearms, clasping the shoulderpads and putting on his Hitai-ate. He then clasped the Ninja Pouches and took the Raijin before he looked at the mirror. He was dressed to survive. He looked at his reflection, but instead of seeing blonde hair and blue eyes, he only saw black-gold hair with weird golden eyes. The figured seemed to form a smirk, but his eyes spoke volumes to Naruto. Those eyes that demanded respect and screamed power, had seen as much pain and sadness and loneliness as his own eyes. With a shake of the head, he turned from the mirror towards his office table. He gulped down the last Kora in his glass, then took a cigar and lit it. He took a puff, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Present
Naruto appeared from the smoke, only to see the looks of surprise from his teammates. Naruto wore a Woodland Camo bodysuit, with a new mask, coloured green, hiding everything below the eyes again. He wore pitch-black armor, that was placed in such a way that it looked glue to the Bodysuit. The suit was form-fitting, showing his trained body, getting a slight blush from Sakura. The Raijin was seen hanging from his right hip. On his left hip, however, was another handle, this one made of Chakra Wood. He had one arm on his belt, the other on his mouth holding the cigar "What?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. They both shook their heads. "Nothing. Shall we go?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded, throwing off the cigar. As they made their way inside, Sakura turned to Naruto "Ehm, Naruto, I never asked, but how do you smoke and drink from the mask?" she said, Sasuke looking intrigued as well. He simply placed his hands on his pockets "It is made of a special cloth with lots of tiny openings.
This way, fluids and air can pass." he said causing her to nod "But food?" he turned to her "Why you think when I am not eating Ramen I am turning my food into mush?".
Sakura sighed 'That explains a lot.' in every mission that required them to eat food they didn't bring, Naruto turned his food into mush. They kept walking until they came into a peculiar scene. A large amount of Genin were trying to pass into the room, only to be stopped by two Genins. Naruto simply kept walking, followed by his teammates, even Sakura noticing the Genjutsu that changed the Room number and the meaning behind it. They kept walking until they found the room. Outside stood Kakashi "So you decided to come good. Remember what you learned and you will do fine." he turned to Sakura "First, Sakura I have to say that you have finally become a Kunoichi, I am very proud." he said, causing Sakura to beam in happiness. He then turned to Sasuke "I am also happy for you Sasuke. You look better than when you came in this team. I hope you keep being like this." he said, getting a smirk from Sasuke.
He then turned to the final member "Naruto, I am happy. I believe you're the reason for their improvement and I thank you for that. I also would like to ask you-" "I will protect them." he cut in, thinking of what Kakashi wanted to say. He got a sigh but a nod "Good luck, Team 7!" he said, giving them a thumbs-up as he disappeared.
Naruto turned to his teammates "Ready?" he asked causing them to nod and take places beside him. Naruto nodded "Let's get this show on the road." he said.
As soon as he opened the door, a wave of Killing Intent was blasted upon them. Naruto raised an eyebrow, but threw in his more Potent KI, causing most of the Genin to freeze, while the strongest one looking in interest at him. He simply went and leaned on a wall, closing his eyes. He frowned however, failing to relax, as the annoying voice of Kiba was heard "Oh look at this! You are here! The Rookie 9 has assembled man!" he said. Naruto felt that the entire 'Rookie 9' had just entered the door. Shikamaru merely groaned a troublesome, Choji was eating chips, Shino and Hinata were… themselves and Ino… was coming towards him? The blonde came at him, a smile and small blush on her face "Hello Naruto-kun."
she said, a seductive tone in her voice. All the group turned at her, with Kiba scowling and Hinata mixing jealousy, anger and sadness perfectly. Naruto remained with his eyes closed "Hello Ino." he said. She frowned in mock-hurt as he didn't look at her "Don't be mean Naruto-kun. It's not polite to not look when talking." He simply chuckled "What do you want Ino?" he asked, taking a sip from a magically spawned can of Kora, causing her to smile "Can't I be with my future husband?" she said innocently, causing Naruto to almost choke, Kiba to growl, Hinata to feint, Choji to drop his chips and the rest to gawk. He coughed some more, then with a sigh, put his Kora back,as he opened one eye to look at her "Last I checked, it was never official." he said, causing her to frown "What do you get from saying no?" He closed his eye "If you want to be my husband, you must do three things. First, get to know me, second, get stronger and third, stop dieting, it will harm your figure." he said, causing her to nod, although pout at the last one. He then looked at Hinata's sad face and sighed 'If only you had a stronger personality Hinata. You would no doubt make a powerful Kunoichi. But even if you did, your pure heart doesn't deserve a man like me' he thought, closing his eyes again. He then heard a voice "Damn, you Rookies sure know how to cause a ruckus." He ignored the man, though noticed the smell of snakes. The Genins turned to a boy older than them, with silver hair, wearing eye-glasses and a purple jumpsuit. "This is your first time and you make everyone tense. Calm down." he said with a smile. Sakura turned to the fellow Genin "Who are you?" she asked politely causing him to grin "Yakushi Kabuto. A fellow Genin. This is my Seventh time taking this exam, causing them to widen their eyes and Kiba to laugh "So you suck!" Kabuto shrugged "Or the exams are just very hard. Anyways, I got information for you." he said, holding out some cards "Being in these exams so many times I got information on anyone." he said. "Give me information on Uchiha Sasuke."
A voice said. Sakura turned with a smile "Haku!" she said, getting a nod and a smile from the girl. She was added in Team 11, with Yakumo and Sai, so they can enter, but Naruto knew already. They lived in a house in his territory after all. Kabuto frowned "Not fun. You know their names." he said, pushing Chakra. "Haku Momochi, adopted daugher of Zabuza Momochi 'Demon of the Mist'. She is good at Ninjutsu and Healing.
Partners are Yakumo Kurama and Sai. She has done 15 D-Rank Missions and 3 C-Rank missions." he said. Sasuke stepped up "Give me information on Sabaku no Gaara." he said. Kabuto took another card "Sabaku no Gaara, son of the Yondaime Kazekage. He is very good at Ninjutsu. His teammates are his siblings, Sabaku no Kankuro and Sabaku no Temari. He has done 5 D-Ranks, 10 C-Ranks, 3 B-Ranks and.. an A-Rank! It is said he has never been injured in any mission." he said, causing the Genins to gulp, while our hero simply huffed with his eyes closed, enjoying his relaxation. However, it soon ended. "Give me information on Namikaze Naruto." a female voice said. Naruto opened an eye to see who it was, but soon opened both in surprise… and anger. There, stood two girls in his age, only a head shorter. The first had blonde hair in pigtails, with violet eyes. She had a figure most girls her age and even adults would be envious of, with C-Cup breasts and a firm rear. She had perfect curves and not an ounce of fat. She wore a red turtleneck shirt, with black skin tight pants. She also wore red Sandals and had a pair of Tekko-Kagi made of Chakra metal on her hips and a Wakizashi on her back. She was Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze, Naruto's sister. Next to her stood a girl only slightly shorter, with flowing red hair and piercing blue eyes. She had the same figure as her sister. She wore a navy blue shirt, revealing a little cleavage, with black biker shorts like Sakura's. She had a Kodachi and a Tachi strapped on her waist. She was Uzumaki Narumi, Naruto's second sister. "Hello Naruto-Oniisama. It brings us great joy to meet you." they said bowing slightly.
All of team 7, along with Haku gulped slightly. Naruto's eye was twitching madly, as his hands were curled into fists "What are you two doing here?"
he spat out. Naruko took a step forward smiling, oblivious to her brother's fury "Tou-sama and Kaa-sama brought us here to participate in the Chunin Exams. And to get to meet you Onii-sama!" she said with a grin. Narumi nodded with a smile "We heard so much about you. We wish we were here to the village and live with you." she said, with Naruto getting painful flashbacks. Naruko stepped up and went to hug him "Don't be shy Onii-sama!" she said playfully. However, she soon stopped, as Naruto quickly grabbed her by the throat and raised her in the air,his Killing Intent rolling of in waves. He looked at her fearful eyes with his own gold ones "You dare? After all I've been through, you and my parents just dare come and think everything is good? That I would welcome you with open arms? YOU
DARE?" he growled, causing her to whimper in fear. He then looked at his other sister, who was struggling to stand tall from the intensity of his KI "And you?
You come to me and say with your happy-go attitude you heard so much about me? That you wanted to live with me? You wouldn't last a day, much less 12
years!" he growled, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned looking at Sasuke, who looked at him, struggling to stay conscious "Stop Naruto! Half the room will die!" he yelled, causing Naruto to stop. With a final growl, he dropped Naruko and released the pressure, with the room gasping for air. He looked around, noticing many Genins on the floor. He turned to see most of the Rookies unconscious, including the girls. With a sigh, he said "Go wake Sakura and Hinata." to Sasuke, as he went to Ino. He crouched down and lightly patted her shoulder. She woke up with a gasp, looking into Naruto's blue eyes. "It's over." he told her with bitterness in his mouth as he rose her to her feet. She looked at him "You alright Naruto-kun?" she said, her voice trembling from the after effects. He nodded as he looked at his sisters with narrowed eyes "Don't get in my way. You may be my sisters, but I won't show mercy." he said, then went back to the wall to calm his nerves, the eyes of every person in the room following him. At that moment, a puff of smoke appeared in the room.
Jounin Lounge
In the Jounin Lounge, the Leaders of the Genin teams participating were sitting in couches, chatting, both from Konoha and from other Villages. The main talk in the air were two things. First, the return of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato and second, Uzumaki Naruto. The news spread like wildfire to every nation in less than a day. To say the least, most Kage and a lot of Jounin were ashamed on those two for abandoning their child, much less a prodigy. They heard of Naruto's power. After all, the boy only 12 and was already an A-Rank ninja. Speaking of his parents, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina were in the corner of the room, next to the Sandaime Hokage, who was sitting on his chair and Hatake Kakashi. Kushina turned to Sarutobi "D-Do you think he thinks of us Sandaime-Sama?" he asked. Sarutobi turned to her with a frown "The question you should be asking is if he thinks positively of you. And the answer is no." he said, causing her to sadden. Minato looked sad too "What do you think he will do regarding our daughters?" Sarutobi looked at him. "As long as those two don't mention his past, he will simply ignore them. You did tell them about his life right?" he asked, causing him to sweat. "Minato…" Sarutobi warned, then a very familiar pressure fell. After a minute it disappeared. Sarutobi sighed "I think the fact that you escaped death made you an idiot." he said. Minato turned to him with sadness in his eyes, as Sarutobi looked at Kushina "And you, I expected more from the last Kyuubi Jinchuuriki Kushina. You know how it feels to be a Jinchuuriki, yet you thought that Naruto won't live the life of one. You're as much, if not more responsible." he said angrily. Both looked down. They were thinking of ways to make up for it. Sadly, they would make very poor choices.
Exam Room
Ibiki Morino came out of the smoke, along with the Chunin examiners. "Alright maggots. Sit down and shut up!" he yelled, with the Genins quickly sitting down. Naruto was in the middle of front row, Sasuke was upper right corner and Sakura was in the middle left. He sensed where everyone he knew was, sensing with a scowl on his face that Narumi was 5 seats to his right and Naruko 4 seats behind him. "The first part is a Written test. You got 9 questions in front of you and 1
that will be given later. Each question is worth 10 points. If you don't answer a question, or answer wrongly, you lose a point. The goal is for your team to have a total of at least 20 points." he said, causing many eyes to widen. "If you don't get the points your team fails. If one is caught cheating five times, he and his team fails." He continued getting more wide-eyed looks. "You have one hour. Begin!" he yelled, the Genin's instantly picking up their pencils. Naruto looked at the questions with a raised eyebrow 'These are too hard for any Genin, not to mention most Chunin. Well, Sakura would know them thanks to her book smarts and I know these from Anbu training. So, the purpose must be… to cheat.' he thought, shrugging as he answered every question. Once he finished, he folded his arms and closed his eyes.
Ibiki looked at him 'What is Ookami doing?' he thought. He of course knew Naruto's true Rank, as he trained the boy in Interrogation and got quite a lot of prisoners from him. He knew the questions weren't hard for him, but he wondered what he would do. He mentally shrugged, thinking he was calming down from his outburst. He felt the KI and knew his family was involved. Speaking of Naruto, he was using his unique Sensory skills to find what the rest were doing. Sasuke was using his Sharingan, Ino her Shintenshin no Jutsu, Tenten used mirrors, Hinata and Neji her Byakugan, Kiba used Akamaru and so sensed an eye of sand in the air, knowing it was Gaara's. He also sensed that Naruko used a Seal to spy on people and Narumi… had her eyes closed and wrote down the answers? He mentally narrowed his eyes, keeping his eye on her 'Even if she isn't a Jinchuuriki, she is an Uzumaki meaning she has lots of Chakra, she is a Namikaze as well meaning she is fast and of course has Fuinjutsu skills. That ability though… I wonder.
Whatever it is, I must be careful.' he thought.
When the hour passed, Ibiki had kicked around 15 teams, 5 from Konoha. "Alright.
Put the pencils down. I will give the final question now. However, I must ask if you want to take the question." "What kind of thought is that?" said Kiba. Ibiki continued "If you decide not to take it, you and your team will be disqualified and can try another time." he said, with Naruko yelling "Then of course we will take it!"
Ibiki then smirked "But if you take it and answer wrong, you will be disqualified and forbidden from taking part in the Chunin exams ever again." he said, causing an uproar. "What! But many people have failed these exams and got to try again!" a random Kumo Genin roared. Ibiki shrugged "They didn't have me as proctor. My exam my rules. If you want not to take the question, raise your arm." Steadily, people started raising their arms and their team left. After a while, the pressure in the room had risen. Sakura choked, going to raise her arm, however Naruto spoke "Sakura, if you raise that arm, you will lose more than a chance at promotion." he growled, his nerves not the best. She gulped nodding, putting it down. Naruto then turned to Ibiki "The answer is the meaning of a leader. Are we done now?" he said causing Ibiki to look at him, then to the rest "All of you… pass." he said with a smirk, causing another uproar "Shut up!" he yelled "The point of the final question was how to act as a leader. A Chunin is an officer. Sometimes, he will face a difficult decision. It is important to know what to do." he explained. "Then what was the point of the other questions!" Temari said. "Information Gathering. The questions were hard to force you to cheat, without being caught. A ninja must be able to Gather and keep information." he said "You passed the First Part. Now, wait for the Proctor for-" As soon as he said that, a puff of smoke appeared, with a banner rising. The banner read 'The Sexy and Single, Mitarashi Anko!'. From the smoke, a very peculiar woman came. She had short purple hair and brown eyes. She possessed a killer figure, amplified by her clothes. She wore a fishnet shirt, with an orange mini skirt and a yellow trenchcoat above that. "Hey Ibik- Wow! Have you lost your touch? So many teams are left!" she said, causing him to snort "We might just have some good Ninja's this year. Speaking of Good Ninja's, look at the front row in the middle he said, causing Naruto to twitch his eye. She turned, gaining stars in her eyes "Wolfie!" she yelled rushing to him, causing him to twitch more. She went to smother him with her melons, but he Shunshined next to Ibiki "Gee, thanks." he said. Ibiki shrugged "Your fault."
As soon as Anko got over it, she coughed. Alright. Everyone meet me at the forest of Death in 10 minutes! If you're late you're disqualified!" she said, she and Naruto disappearing as the Genins rushed out. Ibiki sighed, looking at the papers until he came to Naruto's. He narrowed his eyes at a note in the bottom, then went to inform the Hokage.
Forest of Death
"Alright maggots!" she said to the gathered Genins "This is Training Ground 44, or the Forest of Death." she said, with Kiba snorting "It doesn't look scary." he said, only for her to smirk "Tell that to the man-eating plants and the mutated predators."
she smirked, causing many to gulp. She took out a white and a black scroll. "This is a heaven scroll, this is an Earth one. Each team will get one scroll. The objective is to go to the tower in the Middle with One Earth and one Heaven scroll. You have 5
days." she said. "What about food?" Choji asked "There's plenty of edible plants and animals on the forest." she said, noticing Naruto didn't pay attention. With a smile, she threw a Kunai at him, only for him to catch it and throw it back with double the speed. She dodged it with a smirk, then heard a voice behind her "Your Kunai miss." A Kusagakure Kunoichi said, causing her to smile dangerously "You better not get behind me again." she said, causing her to nod "I am sorry. I just got excited." she said, with Anko nodding. "Each team go to their respective Gates. You have 5 minutes to prepare." she said.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura stood in front of their Gate "We have a Heaven Scroll."
Naruto said, putting it in a seal on his arm. "You know what to do right? We got all we need. We travel in triangle formation. Sakura, you're on back. Sasuke, you're middle. I will be front. First day, we will get as much distance as possible and try to encounter a team. If we don't we set up traps to slow down others and potentially get an opportunity for a scroll. Keep your eyes peeled." he said, the others nodding.
Sakura however added "How about we form a password?" she said, the others nodding "Alright. We shall ask the question 'Who took down Tora?'. The answer will be the respective code." he said, causing them to nod. "Wait. What happens if we get split?"Sasuke asked,with Naruto turning to him "If we get split, I will come to you.
No worries." he said, with Sasuke nodding. Naruto outstretched his arm "Ready?" Both teammates placed their arms above his own, raising them to the air "Yes!" they said.
They turned, as the Bell Rang with the opening of the Gate and they rushed inside.
Part two of the Chunin Exams had just begun.
