Chapter 7
Shizune had left, and things at the tea house had returnedto normal. In her usual seat, Yuuhi Kurenai listened to Sakura as she
related the events of the forest to her. It was supposed to
be a simple mission, locate a certain man and deliver a
message. Kurenai was familiar with such missions. She had
embarked on quite a number of them as a chunnin, as well as
some as a jounin. It was one of the more common tasks that
ninja's were ordered to do. Kurenai had expected Sakura and company to run into trouble,
just not the kind of trouble that they found. Their
particular mission was, after all, not a first. Kurenai
herself had once been sent to locate a particular sennin and
deliver a message, it had been a long and frustrating
mission. She had later learned that, the particular sennin
and his traveling companion were hard to find. Other ninja's
who had been sent on identical missions had confirmed that,
even to those with skills specialized in tracking. It wasn't
that they were hiding from anyone, it was their annoying
habit of drifting around without a particular destination
that made the task of finding them rather difficult. That
was 3 years ago. Kurenai glanced discreetly at the table that Naruto and Anko
occupied. Anko had her business face on, which meant that
whatever it was that they were discussing, it was shinobi
business. Definitely not a social call. Kurenai, if asked,
would readily admit that she was more than a little curious.
Naruto, Kurenai knew, just recently returned to the village
with Jaraiya. What sort of business could Naruto have that
involved Anko? It should be fairly important if Naruto
needed to speak to Anko so urgently that he had to seek her
out when Anko was off duty. Anko wasn't really known for
tolerance when it came to someone infringing on her personal
time. Naruto was a enigma. He entered the academy earlier than
most, failed the final exam 3 times before finally being
allowed to graduate. The exact details of which are unknown,
only the fact that earlier in the day Naruto had taken the
scroll of seals from the Hokage and had defeated the academy
teacher Mizuki sometime later. Naruto then managed to become
a gennin under Kakashi— as a part of the first group he ever
allowed to pass, and finally go to the chunnin exams—after
only several months. At that point, Kurenai honestly thought
that Naruto would drop out during the preliminary round for
the final test. The preliminaries for the third round of the
exams were individual contests and Naruto would have to fend
for himself and try to go on without the rest of his team.
His opponent had been Inuzaka Kiba, one of Kurenai's
students, a young ninja whose growth Kurenai had personally
watched over. At that time Kiba excelled in Taijutsu and
tracking, Kiba's beast effect ninpo was a jutsu that
complimented his form of taijutsu and Kurenai honestly
thought that it would be more than enough to defeat Naruto. She was wrong. Naruto's strange luck had played a part in
Kiba's defeat that day, but it was clear that it was
something more than that. Naruto had grown, his fighting
style was awkward and it was clear that he jumped into the
fight without a plan, but despite all that, his adaptability
under pressure and ability to formulate plans on the fly
was above anybody else that fought on the arena that day.
It was a bitter conclusion. Naruto's luck had played a
pivotal role in the battle, sealing Kiba's fate. Kurenai
acknowledged Naruto then, luck was after all part of the
ninja's arsenal. As a ninja, she recognized his victory. As
Kiba's teacher, recognition was harder. The manner of Kiba's
defeat and her own preconceptions tainter her view of
Naruto. And for a while, it was the teacher in her that
dictated her opinion on the upcoming finals match. To be fair, nobody really expected Naruto to win his match
against Neji. Neji was a genius with a bloodline limit that
was arguably the best in the leaf. He was also a student
trained in the ways of the Hyuuga brand of gentle fist, one
of the most deadly forms of taijutsu in the village. His
opponent graduated last after failing 3 times and had no
bloodline limit to speak of. Naruto's chances of winning
were very slim, Kurenai doubted that Naruto would a much of
a challenge to Neji's talent. When the day of the match came, it seemed like the match
predictions would indeed come true. The match was going
Neji's way, Naruto hadn't landed a single effective hit
while Naruto had felt two of the Hyuga clans moves; the
kaiten and their most debilitating taijutsu maneuver, the 64
hands of hakke. It seemed like Neji had won the match after
that, Naruto's opening points were closed. Without charka
and with the beating he had endured earlier, no one had
expected Naruto to turn the tables on Neji—but he did.
Naruto didn't have a bloodline, compared to the others he
was grossly under trained in jutsu usage, his taijutsu was
unrefined and constantly evolving. He was tired and his
opponent was still fresh, but somehow he managed to tap into
that source of power that lay deep inside of him. It was a unexpected move on his part, a move that froze the
heart of everyone who remembered. Kurenai was sure that
everyone who knew what was behind Naruto's miraculous second
wind was on the verge of jumping into the arena and into
battle. For a brief moment, they thought that their
nightmares had returned. It hadn't, but when the fear had
receded they were faced with the reality that the demon was
still there, and somehow Naruto had control ever it. It was
a terrifying prospect, and in hindsight, it was probably the
event that nudged people into rethinking their image of the
blond gennin. Kurenai may not have a demon sealed within her, she may not
have felt the burden of always controlling yourself, but she
knew enough. Anko, one of her closest friends, lived under
the shadow of a curse seal—a "gift" from her former mentor.
She saw what it did to Anko. Naruto had something in him
that was more than a hundred times worse than Anko's curse
seal. In addition to pressure from inside of him, he had to
deal with the pressures from the outside. Then again Kurenai
realized, she wasn't any better than the rest of the
villagers. She may not have openly expressed her unease at
the demon sealed within Naruto's navel, but then again,
apathy was no better. Despite all that though, Naruto grew
up in a interesting way—a common remark, especially coming
from most of the older generation ninja's. Kurenai had seen
glimpses of Naruto when growing up. From lonely child, to
angry child, then finally to troublesome child. After being gone for 4 years, he was a child no longer.
Kurenai wondered was this older version of Naruto was like
and what he was capable of. She was intrigued, and this
time, she would be watching him more closely to find out. Naruto looked at the remaining group of ninja's around the
room a bit warily. For one of the few times in his life, he
was glad that he decided to deliberately ignore sound
advice. Not too many people took the time to try and help
him through with something, and he learned to appreciate
things like that very much. Growing up the way that he did,
it should probably not come as too much of a surprise that
Naruto often takes any advice given to him very seriously.
While it was true that he often gave the villagers the
perception of being someone who does not take advice to
heart. It was also a fact that prior to being a gennin,
there wasn't really anyone to give him any advice either.
Early on Naruto had unconsciously decided that anyone who he
didn't respect didn't deserve to be listened to. And to him,
respect was earned. There wasn't a lot of people in that list, most especially
adults. The number adults that Naruto genuinely respected
was quite few, growing up as isolated and shunned as he was.
Three days ago, that number had increased by one.
Three days ago he had met Mitarashi Anko for the second
time. Anko had been assigned as Naruto's guide in becoming a
hunter-nin, Jiraiya had thought Naruto a lot of things, but
the fine points in being a hunter-nin wasn't part of it.
Nevertheless, Naruto wasn't really expecting that long of a
association with the bloodthirsty special jounin, Naruto
learned practical things pretty fast and Tsunade had
mentioned that he wasn't required to go through the entire
training process. Just learn some things that he hasn't
learned yet and brush up on others. Naruto thought that it would be wise to introduce himself to
his sensei to be. There were some things that they needed to
discuss after all… like training times and other essential
things. So with Shizune's help Naruto had managed to track
Anko down for what was supposed to be a quick chat. When
Naruto found her, he was a bit embarrassed to find that he
seemed to have stumbled upon what seemed to be Anko's
private time. Hoping to get things over with quickly he had
asked for Anko, introduced himself, and asked for the most
convenient possible time for them to meet again. Anko
though, had other idea's. Anko it seemed, wasn't quite that put out by having her
private time used for work. She had outlined the different
courses a hunter-nin trainee had to learn and asked Naruto
which parts he already had knowledge on. At first Naruto was
quite conscious of the fact that he was keeping Anko from
her other companions, but as time went on found he found
himself forgetting about them and concentrating on his
conversation with he soon to be sensei—for a little while
anyway. When Kurenai joined them, they had strayed from the matter
of training and found themselves talking about other topics.
It was also then that he became aware of just how long he
and Anko had been talking. It was already dark outside, and
dinner was calling. Kurenai asked Naruto to join her and
Anko for dinner, the two younger females had already left
earlier—to Naruto's silent relief. It wasn't that he
disliked their company, it was just that Naruto found
himself unsure on how to deal with the two. He was still
acclimatizing himself with to the village after his four
year absence, and wasn't quite yet sure on how to fit his
old acquaintances in. Naruto found dinner to be enjoyable, he found that Kurenai
and Anko were pleasant company and that there were a lot of
things to talk about. Having been dragged by Jiraiya around
for four years had placed Naruto in a somewhat unique
position compared to the many other ninja's in the village.
Most ninja's of Konaha rarely spent time away from the
village, and while many of them would eventually get to
visit one of the many foreign villages sometime in their
lives, those visits were usually work related and only
rarely would they find the time to relax and mingle. The
women were quite eager to hear about the foreign villages
that Naruto had been to, and Naruto found himself happily
talking about it. The two women were eager listeners, and
Naruto eventually managed to lower his walls around a bit
for them. Naruto was surprised on how easy he seemed to get
along with these older women. It appeared that the two women
felt that way as well, and it wasn't that much later when
Naruto found himself as a somewhat reluctant listener to
Kurenai's rambling about his traveling companion. As Jiraiya
had predicted his latest book had indeed made an impact on
the residents of Konoha, only not all of them were quite as
appreciative on the latest installment as Kakashi was. It
was also sometime during that dinner that Naruto found
himself asking for Anko's advice on how to conduct the
second exam for the chunnin selection trials. Anko had suggested, among a lot of other things, a flashy
entrance, similar to her own entrance at the time when it
was Naruto who had taken the trials. Antics like these were
more than agreeable with Naruto, after all during his
younger days he had done things in a manner very similar to
Anko's own, a manner that can be described through one
word—flashy. For this case though, something had compelled
Naruto to ignore that suggestion and wait it out. He had
reasoned at first that he was just feeling uneasy with such
a garish entrance, him feeling a bit like a foreigner in his
own village and all. Later on he decided that that wasn't
they case, he never really was a person who cared on how
those people viewed his all that time, why should he care
now? He reasoned that it was just something that his
instinct was telling him not to do. A good ninja trusts his
instincts, so he decided to 'introduce' himself in another
way. Something that he was finding very glad for doing.
It wasn't that Anko's plan didn't have any merit. It did.
Naruto always had a flair for the dramatic similar to Anko's
and a loud and flashy entrance can be used to impress the
gennin examinees and ultimately show a portion of the skill
that the examiner possesses. Naruto's instinct though, had proven to be right.
It had something to do with timing, most examiners follow
the exam schedule very religiously. While the first exam
wasn't always a written test, all examiners usually designed
a test to follow the timetable laid out. Apparently this was
not the case for this examiner, although after seeing who
the examiner was, Naruto found that he wasn't really
surprised. Kakashi was a well known ninja. Outside the village, his
ability to copy jutsu from a opponent has made him famous to
amongst a lot of foreign ninja as the copy-ninja Kakashi.
Inside the village though, it is his peculiar habit of
tardiness that made him infamous to the residents of Konaha
with whom he had dealings with. Prior to Kakashi's arrival, things inside the waiting room
were getting a bit out of hand. The chunnin candidates,
totally ignorant of their examiners bad habit, were
beginning to be a bit testy. Some scuffles had broken out
between some of the gennins, but fortunately they had
managed to settle it by themselves. Kakashi was no Morino Ibiki. His version of the first exam
wasn't the mental torture under the façade of a written exam
that Ibiki had devised, but it was just as effective in
weeding out ill pre-prepared teams—if not more so. Kakashi
performed a genjutsu on all the examines without letting
them know. The teams which managed to break the jutsu in
the time allowed passed, the teams that were fortunate
enough to have members who managed recognize the genjutsu
and avoid it passed as well. The rest failed. Total number of gennins who passed… 27. Naruto couldn't help but admire Kakashi's tactic. The
genjutsu had been activated a few seconds after Kakashi's
rather loud entrance, a entrance which just made people look
at his direction. Someone who suddenly appeared in a puff of
smoke heralded by a rather loud pop in a room for of
anxiously waiting gennins would bound to have that effect.
Especially on a group of unprepared and impatient examinees.
Mass genjutsu work very well, but are very easy to shrug off
if you recognize the signs of its use. One such jutsu
performed on a stadium full of people had incapacitated the
majority of the people watching one of the finals matches.
Most of the gennins fell to its effects, even some of the
chunnin. Kakashi's genjutsu, Naruto realized, was about willpower.
Unlike Ibiki, Kakashi didn't have the patience and ability
to back the examinees into a mental corner and make them
confront their shortcomings and lack of confidence.
Naruto watched as Kakashi was winding down and smiled,
knowing what would happen next. The examinees were mentally
congratulating themselves for making it though the first
test when Kakashi disappeared in a gust of wind, a exit as
unexpected as his entrance. This was Naruto's cue. It was show time. When the first examiner vanished after administering the
first exam, Moegi sighed in relief. She was glad that her
team had managed to pull through, she was even more glad
that it was over.
She looked across the room and found Konahamaru smiling at
her. She waved back.
Only 9 teams had made it through, less than 15% of the
original number of examinees. It was a sobering statistic
that made her earlier relief pass. Moegi had been a chunnin
for 2 years, but this was her first try at the chuunin
exams. In her team, Konohamaru had already taken the exam
once, having been nominated 6 months prior. He had been
placed in a team of older genins for that duration. He
hadn't made it past the first test. She was happy that she had made it past the first exam, she
just hoped that the next exam wasn't anything like the
first. As a gennin she didn't have too much of experience in
genjutsu. She hadn't been aware that it was being cast, and
it had only been after a long struggle with her self had she
realized that she was under it. Totally. It wasn't easy confronting your own fears, and it seemed
that the genjutsu used on them as the first exam amplified
your own thoughts against your. For her, it had been letting
her team down. They were her friends, and she would do
almost anything to make them succeed, and if it was her that
was holding them down, she would let go. They were old
friends, they had been together even since she joined that
academy. It was the ideal team for her, they were
comfortable with each other and worked well together. They
weren't quite equals when it came to talent—Konohamaru was
definitely the most talented in the group, but their
familiarity with each other allowed them to function well
and reinforce any weakness they had as individuals.
One such weakness was Moegi's susceptibility to the
genjutsu. She had almost succumbed to the illusion, but it
was her teammates that carried her through. She knew how
important making chuunin was to Konohamaru. It was her
refusal to be the reason for the postponement of
Konohamaru's dreams that gave her the strength to defeat the
illusion and make it through. Moegi just hoped that the next examiner—who wasn't anywhere
to be found, wasn't as sadistic as the previous examiner.
The remaining examinees were beginning to get restless but
the chunnin examiners didn't seem to be too concerned. She
spotted one examinee from Konoha stand up, presumably to
inquire what happens next when the screens up front opened. The second examiner had arrived. Naruto recognized the examinees confusion when Kakashi made
his silent exit. Kakashi had that effect on people. Confused
incredulity, sort of like the feeling you get when someone
turns away without warning in the middle of a conversation.
Naruto was half tempted to let the genins stew for a little
while longer but that wasn't really his thing. No fun in
playing mind games on a room full of strangers. He opened the door and stepped into the room.
"Congratulations on passing the first exam. My name is
Uzumaki Naruto, the examiner for the second test." Naruto searched for familiar faces among the examinees.
Konohamaru was there, as was Moegi and their friend… the
third member of their trio. He was secretly pleased to see
them. The remaining examinees were studying Naruto intently,
hoping to read something about the examiner. He moved his
gaze over the room one more time before announcing. "Follow me." It wasn't a long walk towards the site for the second exam.
Like his exam, Naruto had opted for a closed area where
access in and out was limited. The 22nd practice area. Like
the 44th practice area, the 22nd practice area was a
circular fenced area 10km from the fence to the center.
Unlike the 44th though, the denizens of the 22nd wasn't
primarily composed of oversized predators. The usual
predators were there, only they were normal. Normal wolves,
normal crocodiles, normal snakes. Also, the interior 22nd
practice area was primarily swampland. Naruto stopped at a rocky area in sight of the fence, he
looked back at the examinees to make sure they were all
there. "The 22nd practice area." He announced when everyone's
attention was focused on him. "The objective of this test is simple, Survive." He paused
for a moment to let that sink in, before continuing on.
"The test duration is 7 days. Within that time period,
anyone can back out without consequence to the rest of the
team. All they have to go is go back to the gate. The rest
of the team may continue on. At the center of the training
area is a tower, its doors will be opened at the end of the
seventh day. All you need is to go inside." "There are only 3 conditions that you need to take note of.
Number one, no killing. Number two, no team may join up with
another team. If a team member decides to leave, the rest
will have to continue on by themselves. Number three,
everyone will receive a scroll. Open that if you need to
exit the test area but cant make it back to the gate. Take
note though, using the scroll means the rest of the team.
Use it wisely." He concluded. "At that stall over there you will be assigned a gate number
and given the scrolls. The test begins in an hour. Good
luck." In the tower in the middle of the 22nd practice area, 18
chuunin examiners lay in wait for the head examiner for the
second test. The second exam should have begun 2 hours ago,
and it was almost time for the other examiners to begin
their work. Or as the other older chuunins would say, it was
time for some fun. Sakura had to admit the Naruto's plan for the second exam
sounded like a lot of fun. It wasn't the bloody battles that
Anko had designed for her test, but it was still hard. The
22nd practice area was like one huge swamp. Looking for a
place to sleep was hard, holding that location was even
harder. Animals roamed around the practice area, a lot of
them could do serious injury if treated lightly. The
examiners job, was to harass the examinees, push them beyond
their limit. Deny them rest, make them nervous, bring them
close to the breaking point. Do this for seven days. For a plan thought of by Naruto, it surprisingly made a lot
of sense. A lot of class B missions were like that. A lot of
fatigue and not enough sleep, with occasional pursuers. Only
this time, it would be them that would be doing the
pursuing. With a nice tower to retire to for rest and food.
The other examiners were surprised at the no killing rule
that Naruto had insisted on. They had argued that there were
times during the exam where it was the fear of sure death
that allowed a team to go beyond their normal limits. They
further argued that the no killing rule was a big handicap
to the examines and that death was something that a shinobi
should consider at all time. For his part, Naruto had
justified his no killing rule by citing the losses that
Konoha had suffered on the last several years. He conceded
on the argument on death being a essential part of being a
ninja, but had argued that with or without the rule, the
examines were bound to face the issue anyway in the future.
Konoha, he said, had yet to fully recover from its losses
during the war with the sound and the kyuubi. And while it
had managed to reestablish its place as one of the great
shinobi nations, manpower was still short. Sakura was of two minds when it came to the issue, she
acknowledged the reasoning for both sides, but kept silent.
It wasn't her decision to make. When it came to the exams,
the head examiner had absolute control on all aspects.
Sakura was looking forward to this assignment. At her second
try at the chuunin exams, the examiners at the village of
the hidden stone had been particularly sadistic. She had
passed that exam, but inner Sakura had been looking for some
payback ever since. The other she knew shared the same
sentiment, it was obvious by the gleam in their eyes. The
only thing about this mission that she was uncomfortable
about, was the chief examiner. Naruto still made her uneasy. The contrast between the
Naruto that she once knew and the Naruto that recently
returned to the village was vast. And that unsettled her.
She regretted the fact that she was unable to square things
with Naruto, but she was unsure on how to approach him about
it. Naruto had been cool to people at first, saying little and
displaying none of the hyper activeness that he was known
for as a boy. But over the last few days she had seen
glimpses of that old Naruto, only this time, it wasn't for
display to everyone. She was a bit envious. The ease at which he had gotten along with Anko and Kurenai
had been surprising. As far as Sakura knew this was the
first time that Naruto went back to the village in four
years. Sakura had known Anko for close to 3 years now, and
it had taken a lot of time before Sakura felt comfortable
around her presence. Despite Anko's happy go lucky
appearance, she wasn't too good at meeting new people.
Naruto had managed to befriend her in a few hours. Maybe it was the time they spent apart, but then again
Naruto didn't have any problems getting along with Sasuke,
or Shikamaru, or Kiba. She wondered if there was something that she was missing.
After all, wasn't she supposed to be the former teammate?
Had they not entrusted their lives to one another before? No that wasn't it. It wasn't any of those things that made
the things between them uneasy. Sakura may have buried
whatever memory of Naruto she had, but the essence of it was
still there. Naruto, Sakura knew, would undoubtedly feel the
same way. The reason for the uneasy state with them was that
Sakura had stumbled across something that she wasn't
supposed to. Her mother wished Naruto dead, and if she
thought about it, that sentiment was shared by a lot of
other people. What's more, judging by Naruto's reaction, he
had know. He had known for a long time. Naruto wasn't going to go to her, he wanted Sakura to make
her own conclusion, to choose her own side.
She was going to hit him in the head.
She was supposed to be his friend after all. She may not
know why, but the their past history together should speak
for itself. 'When I get my hands on you Naruto!'
A/N:
It was really hard to decide on how I should write the first
and second exams during the chunnin selection trials. It
took a lot of time to think of a exam that would embody the
essence of the chunnin exam that Naruto took part in without
having to repeat the same exam.
I decided long before I started writing this chapter that
the next time a chunnin selection exam took place I should
write things differently. Repeating the same type of first
and second exam, the first exam most especially, would go
against the purpose of the exam in the first place. Ninja's
who already took the exam would already know that to do and
then the real purpose of the exam—weeding out those that
were ready from those that weren't, would be lost.
I decided that for the first exam, the main thing being
tested is the examines willingness to face the unknown and
uncertain, even under what seems to be terrible odds. The
second exam would basically be a test of toughness.
Sorry about the formatting, FF.net insists on it no matter what changes I make. Ill have to refomat everything from scratch and re-upload it later on.
Story may have a lot of grammatical and spelling mistake, and I apologize in advance.