Prove the Pervert Wrong
Chapter Five: Of Flashes, Biju, and Crazy, Nearly-Naked Female Examiners
Disclaimer: If you're trying to track me down to buy Naruto rights from me or something, I'm sorry, but I seriously don't own it. Try Kishimoto…
"Speech"
/Thoughts/
"Jutsu!"
"So you're trying to tell me," Tsunade got out of her chair, "that Naruto not only used four times the amount of energy necessary to charge through Neji's hakkeshou kaiten head on, he also said it wasn't very much?" Sakura nodded. "You heard wrong."
"I… heard wrong?"
"Yes, you heard wrong. Kaiten works by rotating chakra around the body to send attacks off course and weaken them, which means that breaking through requires not only penetrating a solid wall of chakra, but doing it with enough extra energy to stay on course despite being pushed to the side. Not only that, you also have to shield your body from the effect of the kaiten while breaking through it… Charging with a kunai, I would probably only be able to get through the kaiten once or twice in a day, even Neji's."
"What!"
"That's why nobody's usually stupid enough to try it. You either wait until the kaiten ends and attack, or attack indirectly with something that can either get around the defense or stop it. Naruto probably does have more than twice as much chakra as me, but definitely not by enough that he wouldn't even get tired from using that much."
"I heard wrong."
"Yes, you did. You still haven't described the technique to me though, so hurry up."
"H-Hai!" Throughout her explanation of Naruto's 'chikara no sakebi' Sakura couldn't help but notice Tsunade's eyebrow twitching, but she also couldn't figure out why her teacher would be angry. When she finished, however, it became obvious that it wasn't anger.
"Sakura, I understand if you care for Naruto, but I would prefer you not embellish so much in your report."
"I didn't embellish! If anything I toned it down!"
"I don't think you understand exactly what you're claiming, Sakura…" /Although she should, considering how smart she is…/ "I simply can't believe that unless I see it with my own eyes."
"Then why don't you ask him to show you?"
"Hmm… Maybe I will…"
"Naruto! What the hell are you doing?" The library regulars didn't even flinch at the all too familiar sound of Ino's voice. "How are we supposed to work as a team if you spend all of your time training by yourself?" Naruto, who had been on the verge of a breakthrough with his technique, could barely keep himself from crumpling up the scroll in frustration.
"I'm trying to work on my new technique! Why don't you just train without me?"
"Do you listen at all? We have less than five weeks to get our teamwork down, so we need to train together!"
"I'm busy! Go ask Chouji or Shikamaru to train with you!" A vein became visible in Ino's temple as her face contorted in anger.
"Naruto, did you already forget that you're working with Chouji and me in the chuunin exams? All three of us need to train together or we'll be in horrible shape!"
"I'll be even worse if I don't get this technique finished, Ino-chan! Either help me or go away!"
"Damn it Naruto, you're coming one way or another!" She started to form the seal for shintenshin, at which point Naruto made a simple connection.
"Is that… the jutsu that lets you go into people's minds?" Ino allowed herself a smirk, causing Naruto to gulp audibly.
"Yup."
"And, when you're in people's minds… you can talk to them, right?"
"What's with the weird questions?" Naruto just gave her the most serious look she had ever seen on him, which caused her to be honest out of pure curiosity. "The only time I've ever interacted with someone while controlling them was when I fought Sakura, and that was only because she had some kind of second mind or something… Why?"
"Uh…" /Kuso… Does Kyuubi count as a second mind? What if she goes to that weird sewer place and sees it? Will she tell everyone? Just when I managed to find people who acknowledge me…/ "…I'll come on one condition."
"What is it?"
"You have to promise to never use that technique on me. Ever." Ino, who had been looking marginally happier, turned brick red.
"I can't make a promise like that! How the hell am I supposed to know if you're going to attack me or something some day?"
"I'm not gonna attack you!"
"Not now, but that doesn't mean you never will!" She put up a finger to silence his protests while she considered her options, if you could call them options. /So I can either pledge to never use my technique on him, despite the fact that he can easily rip me apart without it, or I can choose not to have him train with us, which would probably cause us to die in that stupid forest… Great choices…/ "How about I take secret option number three?"
"What's that?" He could feel himself sweating, realizing a little too late that he could have been more lenient with his condition as she again formed the seal.
"The option where I threaten to use it right now unless you come!"
"NO!" A look that reminded Ino of a scared dog crossed Naruto's features, causing her to drop the seal. "No. I'll go to your stupid training, just let me check out my scrolls…" While Ino normally would have had an over-sized grin after a victory like that, seeing that scared look on Naruto's face had completely unnerved her. It had almost looked like he had thought she was going catch him and put him in a cage.
A few silent minutes later they entered the clearing to see Chouji and Asuma, along with thirty empty bags of chips. Asuma looked slightly surprised to see that Naruto had actually come, but decided that Ino was disturbingly persuasive. Still, Naruto was undeniably good at coming up with strategies (even he had given up all attempts to deny it), so he doubted that Ino would be able to back Naruto into a corner…
"How'd you do it Ino?"
"I just found the threat that works against him, Chouji!" Ino was positively beaming, which Asuma took as a very bad sign.
"What threat would that be Ino? It'd better not be anything too bad, as you do need to work with him to pass the exam…" Seeing her evil smirk forming at his words, he knew that he had been right.
"I just said that if he wouldn't come," she formed the seal again, "I'd have to make him!" Seeing the seal for shintenshin, Asuma nearly had a heart attack.
"You were going to use shintenshin no jutsu on Naruto?" Ino nodded, looking fairly happy with herself. "Ino I need you to promise me, on your life, that you will never use that technique on him. Ever." Her smile faded.
"But… why?"
"It's… complicated." He glanced at Naruto, who looked ecstatic, before continuing. "Naruto is, er, special… It could be very dangerous to use that technique on him, for both of you, so I need you to promise me right now that you won't."
"How could it be dangerous?"
"It just could." While Ino stood dazed and confused, Naruto's smile grew wider and wider with each passing moment.
"Yatta! Thanks so much, Death-stick-sensei!" Asuma's eyebrow twitched at the name, as he realized that he would never be rid of it, but Naruto was too busy dancing with joy to notice.
"No." Naruto stopped his dancing, and Asuma's eyes widened slightly. "I can't promise something like that! If I really need to use the technique, I don't want to put myself in danger just to avoid it!" Asuma shook his head, hoping that someone else would suddenly appear and deal with the problem, but not really counting on it.
"Ino, you don't understand."
"That's exactly why I can't make the promise!"
"It's also one of the two main reasons that you need to!" Neither Chouji nor Ino had ever heard Asuma raise his voice, and they found that it wasn't a particularly pleasant thing to hear. "If you use that technique, you will find out why we're asking you not to use it, and you won't like what you find. Naruto has his secrets, and you have yours. You need to respect his secrets and trust our judgment on this."
"Wait… if it's such a big secret, why do you know it?" Oddly enough, it was Chouji that asked the question. "Naruto doesn't even seem surprised that you know, but he's acting like he'll die if Ino finds out…"
"That's… part of the secret, Chouji. You can't know either, it's not just Ino."
"I don't care about all of that crap, I'm still not going to promise something so stupid." Asuma tried to stop the headache by putting his hand to the bridge of his nose, but he found that method rather ineffective.
"You want to try, Naruto?"
"You're giving up already?"
"If she's really that eager to die, lose her mind, or whatever else, then I know from experience that I'm not going to change her mind…" He took a long drag on his cigarette, not really sure what else to say. "Sorry, but there's nothing I can really do at this point."
"What about me? If she finds out about Ky—er, that, everyone's gonna hate me!" Ino and Chouji had their eyebrows raised at Naruto's near slipup, prompting Asuma to change the subject as quickly as possible.
"Don't worry Naruto, if I thought she would actually use it I would keep arguing with her, but she probably won't now that she knows it's dangerous. Now, don't you all want to know what training you're going to be doing to fix your teamwork?"
"Asuma-sensei, you're going to train us?"
"Of course I'm going to train you, Chouji! Why else would I be here?" /Stupid brats… What do they think a sensei is/ "Actually, Kakashi gave me an idea for a teamwork exercise, so we're going to try that today. The three of you need to take this," he took out a silver bell, "from me."
"You're giving us the genin exam?"
"Kakashi made you do this to become genin? No wonder he never passed anyone…"
"Asuma-sensei, hold on!" Ino, having already forgotten about Naruto's secret, was beginning to register what Asuma had just proposed. "You're a jounin, there's no way we can catch up to you!"
"Are you so sure about that Ino?" Asuma cracked a smile, which almost made him drop his cigarette. "I'm good, that's true, but there are three of you. If you coordinate your attacks well enough, I'm sure you can catch me off guard and get the bell." Hearing the term "off guard" caused Ino and Chouji to smirk, while Naruto adopted a sort of "I'm bored, but I'm still pissed" pout.
"So Naruto, what's our strategy?"
"Eh? Why would I have a strategy, Ino-chan?" Remembering his matches with Shikamaru, all three of them face-faulted.
"What do you mean 'why?' You're a strategy genius you idiot!"
"But… I don't use strategies… I just do what makes sense at the time."
"That's what a strategy is Naruto! How in the hell can you not know that?"
"I thought strategies were those really complicated plan things…" /So Super-brows-sensei was… right?/ "Wait, why would I have a plan ready right now?"
"Maybe so we don't look like idiots at the beginning of the fight? Come on, think for once!"
"Ino, you shouldn't be so hard on him, you know?" Chouji, running out of chips, decided to end the pointless argument. They had all known for a long time that Naruto was a little slow about things like that, and it seemed unfair to demand strategies from him anyway. She certainly didn't demand strategies from Shikamaru… "I'm sure he'll come up with something, but you don't have to be rude."
"But he… you can't just… fine." /Although, without a plan, my shintenshin no jutsu might just 'miss…'/
"Hey, I didn't finish explaining the exercise yet." Seeing that he had their attention, Asuma paused to take a final drag on his cigarette. "First rule: Naruto can't take off his weights. Second rule: none of you can eat until you get the bell at least once. Third rule… no S-rank ninjutsu, because I'd rather not die over something like this." Satisfied with the way that their heads fell at his new set of rules, he threw his cigarette on the ground and stamped it out. "Start!"
Ino and Chouji were about to jump into hiding when they noticed that Naruto was smiling. Right when Ino was about to ask him why, he decided to divulge the information on his own. "I don't need a team for this! I'll be back to working on my technique in no time!"
"I appreciate the cocky attitude Naruto, but I think you're missing the point of the exercise…"
"Like I care!" With that, he formed the familiar seals of rabbit and sheep, and focused his chakra into his muscles. "Naruto Senkou no Jutsu!" Asuma, who had never been told about the technique, was more than a little surprised when nothing appeared to happen. Just when he was about to mock Naruto's attitude again, however, he found that Naruto's knee was suddenly very close to his face.
Asuma managed to block the knee without much trouble, but he hadn't counted on that being what Naruto wanted. With his weights on, Naruto knew that he wouldn't be fast enough even to hit an off guard Asuma, so he went for power instead of speed. Not only did he put all of his strength into the attack, he put all of his weight into it. All of his weight, including the two 1,000 pound weights on his legs. Even though Asuma was strong enough to block the force of the attack, he hadn't been expecting anything remotely close to that level of power, and his block quickly crumpled into nothing.
Watching from the sidelines, Ino and Chouji found themselves amazed at Naruto's speed and power. The speed was similar to Lee's after taking off his weights in the chuunin exam, and the power was enough to not only break Asuma's block, but send him flying several dozen feet. Of course, they remembered him shouting the same technique name on the way to Ichiraku's several weeks earlier, but they hadn't thought it was an actual technique!
Taking advantage of his attack's success, Naruto chased after the retreating form of Asuma, hoping to use the shock and the injury to get his hands on the bell. Most unfortunately, good ole Death-stick-sensei came to his senses before hitting the ground, and was fully prepared for Naruto's assault. In less than a second, Naruto was on the ground with his arm behind his back.
"I have to admit, that was pretty damn good Naruto. I'd hate to try again without your weights… Good thing that's against the rules!" Hearing Naruto snarl, he decided not to push his luck. Even if S-rank techniques were against the rules, he knew that rasengan was only A-rank, and he wasn't eager to be on the receiving end of Yondaime's attack. "Looks like you'll need their help after all, doesn't it?"
"No, damn it! I can't need their help! Chikushou!" In his blind determination and frustration, Naruto poured nearly all of his chakra into the technique, to the point where it became clearly visible around him. Suddenly very much reminded of Naruto's fight with Neji, Asuma panicked at the thought that Naruto was about to unleash some of Kyuubi's chakra, but didn't loosen his grip. "Let… me… GO!"
He couldn't figure out how it was happening, but one thing was clear to Asuma: Naruto was overpowering him. Then realization slapped him square in the face: Naruto's weights were on his legs, leaving his arms at their best. Knowing Gai, he had probably had Naruto doing arm exercises that utilized the weights, meaning that the boy's arms were a force to be reckoned with even without his weird technique. Given that Naruto had a dim yellow glow about him, Asuma estimated that his strength was probably well beyond jounin level at that point.
Naruto used his newfound strength to free his arm and push Asuma off of him before pushing himself up and charging. Just as Asuma began to pity Naruto's lack of strategic thought, he realized that the boy's speed was continuing to increase. Not particularly eager to lose a fight with a genin, Asuma pulled out his trusty knives. As Naruto's technique still left him slower than Asuma (with his weights at least), he was soon covered in fairly large gashes, all of which were bleeding profusely.
"Seriously Naruto, needing help isn't a sign of weakness! If anything, getting hurt this badly because you won't accept help is what makes you look weak. Now we'll probably have to take you to the hospital, meaning that none of you can eat until tomorrow at the earliest…"
"Damn it Naruto, you idiot! If you hadn't tried to do it yourself we could have had the bell by now, but instead we have to wait for you to heal?"
"Ino-chan, what are you talking about? I'm fine!" She briefly considered hitting him over the back of the head, but the look on Asuma's face was distracting her. Finally, after a few moments of thought, she realized that Naruto's chakra was still visible around his body, and that the blood flow had seriously slowed down. In fact, it almost looked like it had stopped…
From Asuma's point of view, it couldn't have been clearer that Naruto's wounds, which had been fairly serious, had completely healed in the span of about five seconds. He had heard from Kakashi that Naruto healed rather quickly, but he thought this was going a bit far. Still, he couldn't let himself show it. "New rule: if you don't work with at least one other teammate, it doesn't count even if you get a bell. The entire point of this is to fix your teamwork, so it isn't a good idea to go solo."
"What! It'll take me forever to get back to my technique that way!"
"Not everything is about strong techniques, Naruto. Sometimes you need to know what resources are at your disposal and how to use them. In this case, your teamwork is an extremely valuable resource. If you had been working with Chouji and Ino during that first attack, you could have already gotten a bell, but instead you tried to go it alone and lost. Kakashi told me that you actually had pretty good teamwork, but I guess he overestimates you…"
"Naruto, Ino, why don't we go come up with an idea now? It's already after noon and we haven't had lunch yet…" With a heavy sigh, Naruto followed Ino and Chouji, knowing full well that they both expected him to come up with some kind of plan.
"So Naruto, what's the plan?" He hated being right.
"How am I supposed to know?"
"We've been over this! You're even better with strategies than Shikamaru! As far as this team is concerned you're the tactician, so you'd better come up with something soon!"
"Tactician…?" /I think I've heard that word before… What did it mean again?/ "Well… to get through Death-stick-sensei's defense, we need an attack that has power and speed, and we also need to draw his attention to something else. He'll be expecting a ploy, so we should probably disguise it with another one, and the second one needs to be more convincing than the first one… Ino-chan, you start by throwing some kunai with explosive tags at him in a semi-circle, ensuring that he'll think we want him to dodge away from you. Chouji, use that rolling technique from the opposite direction towards the kunai, making him think that we're trying to trap him--"
"You think that'll work Naruto?"
"Huh? That's just the first decoy."
"How is that one decoy?"
"It's the obvious one that he'll know is a decoy, because Chouji wouldn't willingly run into the exploding kunai." They both mouthed "oh," but he didn't pay attention. "The second, more convincing one is going to be some kage bunshin jumping down at him from the trees with kunai ready, because--"
"Wait, how do you know where he's going to go?"
"The only option we're leaving open is the air, with Chouji cornering him in a prison of bombs…" /What, is she stupid?/ "Anyway, when my bunshin jump down on him with kunai, he'll think that's the real tactic, and he'll focus his efforts on taking care of them. I'll use Naruto senkou no jutsu to get enough speed to sneak up on him and grab him from behind, and you can use that weird body stealing technique to stop him from resisting. Then I grab the bell and we win!"
"You came up with all of that… just now?"
"Yeah… why?" Chouji just shook his head, deciding it was better to leave his comment unsaid. "Oh, almost forgot, there's a chance that he'll use kawarimi after I grab him, and if that happens he'll go to the tree that's behind me but slightly on my left, since that's my weak side. I'll keep a kage bunshin there ready to grab the bell before he can figure out what's happening, just in case."
"Now that's a strategy! Way to go, Naruto!" Other than the heart attack he thought he might have been having at hearing a compliment from Ino, Naruto was sure that his plan was going to work. It had to work, after all, so that he could get back to his technique and save Sasuke.
/That ploy was so pathetic… what are they thinking?/ As Asuma moved through the air, he prepared himself for the onslaught of bunshin that was sure to come. Right on cue, several dozen Naruto's came down from the canopy and began a taijutsu assault. /Too easy… I won't even need to use ninjutsu for this!/ Having seen Naruto's taijutsu style in action, Asuma easily took down a half dozen bunshin in a matter of seconds. Suddenly the real Naruto appeared behind him and grabbed him around the waist, but just as he was about to tell Naruto it was no use, he was cut off.
"Now Ino!"
"Yoshi!" As Ino formed the seal for shintenshin no jutsu, Asuma figured out Naruto's plan. If Asuma dared to escape the hold, Ino's technique would hit Naruto, meaning that he would be solely responsible for whatever damage resulted from such an interaction. Knowing that one of Asuma's goals was to keep Ino out of his mind, Naruto had positioned himself so that Ino's technique had almost no chance of missing, and his idea had probably given Ino the idea that he didn't care as much as she thought about whether or not she got into his mind. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"
Both Ino's and Asuma's bodies slumped forward before Asuma's head popped up with a perky smile. "Way to go Naruto! Your plan worked like a charm! Here, take the bell," she handed it to him, "and I'll change back! Kai!" Asuma looked slightly angry, but he had to admit that their teamwork was amazing considering how badly they had been getting along.
"Good plan Naruto, I didn't see it coming at all." /Kid's got guts, I'll give him that…/ "I guess you can all eat today, but I should tell you now about the special rule Kakashi came up with."
"Special rule? Asuma-sensei, why were you waiting to tell us if it's a rule for something we already did?"
"Because Ino, this rule doesn't apply to today's game." Seeing that they were confused, he allowed himself a smirk. "We're going to play this game every weekday until the chuunin exam. Every day, until the tenth day, you will be required to get the bell from me one more time than the day before. From the tenth day on, the requirement will be ten times per day, and if you don't meet the quota on a given day, you don't get to eat that day."
"What! Ten times! How am I gonna find time to work on my techniques if I have to do this ten times a day?"
"That's your problem Naruto. From what I've heard and seen of the techniques you already have, you don't really need more anyway."
"But the techniques I have aren't good enough! If I don't come up with some more, it'll just prove that ero-sennin was right about me!"
"Naruto, I think you've already proved him wrong." Naruto glared at Asuma with a cross between loathing and confusion. "I don't know exactly what he said, but two S-rank techniques is nothing to sneeze at. Even Yondaime only ever had one S-rank technique, and Sandaime only developed two. Considering that Sandaime is known as the greatest Hokage, I'd say you're well on your way to stealing that title."
"Asuma-sensei, are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"Probably, Ino. Naruto, you have all the makings of a Hokage, so take your time and don't rush yourself. The way things are going, you'll probably be a jounin within a year or so of your chuunin exam, and--"
"'Don't rush yourself?' How can I not rush when my best friend is going to be killed by Orochimaru? I'll be Hokage for sure, but I don't have very much time to save Sasuke! Now are you going to help with my technique or am I doing it myself?"
"Help you…? I guess I could try to help you, but…" Naruto's outburst had left Asuma unnerved, and the way that Naruto had asked for help had been totally unexpected. /Damn, Kakashi wasn't kidding with that title…/ "To tell you the truth, your techniques are way above my level… How about we go get some BBQ, and you can tell me what you want me to do over a meal?"
"B-B-Q! Yoshi, let's go!" Before Naruto could even nod in assent, he found himself being dragged (slowly, but dragged nonetheless) towards the restaurant. Ino, not wanting Chouji's sole motivation to be food, glared at her sensei, but came along anyway since she knew that he would be paying.
Hearing Naruto's "explanation," it took all of Asuma's efforts (and a cigarette) to keep his brain from exploding. Mabui had taught Naruto just enough to understand what he was doing, meaning that he had exactly enough information to be as confusing as possible. "Naruto… not only does that not make any sense, it sounds way too complicated to actually use."
"It makes sense! You're the one that doesn't make any sense!"
/That was… such a childish reaction…/ "Be that as it may… how exactly am I supposed to help you with something like that? Even rasengan is out of my league, and this sounds waaaay harder."
"Hold on Asuma-sensei, it didn't sound that complicated…"
"Ino, have you ever tried to manipulate the physical properties of things with raw chakra? I've never heard of anything remotely like that before, even with molded chakra, and--"
"It's not like I haven't done it before!" Asuma looked at Naruto in the way that most people would look at a raving lunatic holding a knife to the throat of a daimyo. "When I was developing chikara no sakebi I did the opposite, so it shouldn't be too hard… Still, it'd be easier to figure out if I had your help."
"Naruto, that weird scream thing did something like that? No wonder it took you so long to get it down…" Chouji kept his thoughtful look for a few more seconds before realizing that Naruto was eating a significant portion of the meat, meaning that he, Chouji, was going to lose out.
"Chouji, don't eat so fast! Naruto came up with the strategy, so we should let him have as much as he wants anyway…" The fa—"husky" boy looked mortally offended by her words, which was an odd sight considering that he didn't even slow down in his eating frenzy. "So Naruto, is that why that attack took you so long to develop?" Naruto nodded, but he didn't look over to her because it would have slowed down his eating frenzy.
"What technique are you two talking about?" Although he had considered not bothering to ask, he realized that if Naruto expected his help with a similar technique, he would need to know as much as possible about it.
"You don't know, Asuma-sensei? Some sensei you are… Basically he screams and--"
"Oi, Naruto!" Ino turned towards the interruption, fully expecting to yell at whatever had caused it, when she registered that it was Tsunade. Seeing a smirking Sakura by the Hokage's side, she couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Luckily, for her at least, the answer to that question wasn't very far off. "I need to see this new technique of yours. The way Sakura tells it, you uproot half of the trees in the training grounds every time you use it."
"Tsunade-shishou, I didn't say that! I just said that--"
"I know what you said, Sakura, and I also know that it's impossible. There's no way that he could store enough air in his lungs for that, and even if he could the air pressure would cause him to explode."
"Good timing Tsunade-sama! I was just asking for more information about his new technique. So… what does it do, exactly?"
"Why don't you come and watch, Asuma? If it is as powerful as Sakura described, it'll be quite a show. If not, which is far more likely… at least you'll have your explanation."
"Hmm… alright, we'll go right after--" Turning back to the table, he suddenly realized that Naruto and Chouji had finished off the entire lunch. A vein throbbed in his temple, and he craved another cigarette. "I… didn't even get one piece…"
"Since you're done with your lunch, we'll be going right now. Come on Naruto…"
"Baa-chan, I was just about to get Death-stick-sensei to help me with my technique! Can't I show you some other time?"
"No for two reasons: you're always training, meaning that there's no such thing as a good time for you, and I'm your boss, meaning that you have no right to refuse me."
"But Baa-chaaan!"
"Naruto, I have a third reason that she forgot." Seeing that Naruto was about to interrupt him again, Asuma raised a hand. "That, er, stuff that you were explaining earlier… I didn't understand it at all. You said that you used the same principle in this technique, right?" Naruto nodded slowly, not understanding where Asuma was going at all. "Well, I guess I should say that I have two reasons that she forgot to mention. The first would be that, if they really work on the same principle, practicing this one will prepare you for the other. My original reason, however, was that if I see this jutsu I might be able to better understand what you were talking about, which means that I could actually help you."
"Really? Why are we still here?" Naruto grabbed their hands and hastily dragged them out of the restaurant, leaving three sweat-dropping teens alone at the table.
"Wait Naruto, I didn't pay yet!"
"Naruto…" /He had that much chakra left after the training earlier?/ "That was… how… you just…"
"Sakura, you lied to me! This attack is way more powerful than how you described it!" /This is impossible! Just amplifying the power of his lungs wouldn't do this, he'd kill himself long before getting this much power out of them! What the hell kind of technique did he create…?/
"Tsunade-shishou, it… wasn't this powerful last time…" Naruto quickly turned around and grinned expectantly at Asuma for a few seconds. When it became obvious that the jounin wasn't going to say anything, however, he took matters into his own hands.
"Death-stick-sensei, do you understand yet?"
"Hell no! If anything, I'm more confused now that I've seen it in action! Not that I can even remember half of the techno-babble you spewed at me…" Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that remark.
"It's not techno-babble! Really Death-stick-sensei, it's pretty simple… All I had to do was increase the density of the air while breathing in, then quick-launch it out with a burst of chakra and decompress it as it escaped my mouth before--"
"Damn it Naruto, how is that not techno-babble? Not only are you not explaining how you do any of those things, you're not explaining why doing them has the effect you're going for. I'm not going to be able to help unless you explain it to me properly, and--"
"Naruto, did you really increase the density of the air?"
"Of course Baa-chan! How else would I get that much air in my lungs?" She managed to resist the urge to say "however you do it the rest of the time," but just barely.
"Is it true that this technique doesn't use very much chakra?"
"Huh? Yeah, it only uses about half as much as the oodama rasengan."
"Half as much as… how can that be? This attack is far more powerful!"
"Well, not really… Anyway, I don't know why it uses less energy, but I don't care. Death-stick-sensei, if I explain it all to you, do you think you can help me?"
"Ugh…" /He's got to be kidding…/ "Naruto, if it's going to be that big of a hassle, why don't you just figure it out on your own? You can already do the necessary thing in this technique, right?"
"Not really… The thing I need help with isn't compressing or expanding the air, it's--"
"Wait, now I'm confused." Naruto, angry at being interrupted for what had to have been the hundredth time that day, glared at Sakura. "If this technique uses so little chakra, why did Neji say it was so much?"
"Sakura, half of the chakra necessary for oodama rasengan is hardly 'little.' You remember what I told you about S-rank techniques, right?"
"Oh, right…" /But Neji didn't seem to think the chakra for that dangan thing was very impressive…/
"Naruto," Asuma lit his cigarette, "how much time do you have to work on it before you're supposed to meet Lee and Gai?"
"About two hours, thanks to your stupid team thing…"
"Two hours? I guess I could help you out for a little bit…"
"You're insane! This can't be done!"
"You think I'm gonna let that matter?" Asuma let his eyebrow raise, assuming that Naruto had simply worded his question wrong. "I'll just do it anyway! If the stupid technique refuses to work, I'll make it work so I can use it to save Sasuke!"
"Naruto…" /What a stubborn kid…/ "That's… the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Anyway, you're better off working on this technique without my help, because I still don't really understand what you're trying to do."
"You're giving up already? What the hell kind of sensei are you?"
"A sensei is someone who passes knowledge on to his students, not someone who helps his students develop new knowledge. What you're looking for sounds more like a partner, which I'm not. I'm really just going to get in the way here, so I'm going home. See you tomorrow at nine!"
"Hey! You can't just--" Asuma had disappeared, and Naruto had no desire to talk to himself. /Kuso… I really could have used his help…/
After jumping out of the way of Chouji's giant fist, Asuma saw that Ino was jumping down at him from above. The real problem was that he wasn't sure if it was Ino or not, and if it wasn't he wasn't sure what Naruto's bunshin was planning on doing. Not wanting to take any chances, he aimed a full-strength kick at her gut. He wasn't terribly surprised when she disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the barrage of shuriken from both sides was even more predictable. After quickly deflecting all of the shuriken, he turned his attention to the spot on the ground where he was sure to land. It was easy for him to spot the Narutos waiting underground, as he was a jounin, but he decided it would be better to pretend not to notice.
Seeing Asuma landing on the ground, Ino took the opportunity to throw some kunai in his direction before jumping down to charge him. For the life of him, the jounin couldn't figure out why Naruto's bunshin hadn't attacked him yet, but he was getting nervous. Of all of the ninja in Konoha, Naruto was the least likely to wait patiently for an opening, meaning that he had some kind of strategy worked out. Although he got the feeling that he was falling right into their trap, Asuma caught the kunai and threw it right back at her. One of Naruto's bunshin took that as his cue to jump out of the ground right behind Asuma, a big foxy grin on his face.
Ino quickly used kawarimi no jutsu to switch places with the bunshin that had jumped out of the ground, meaning that she was within striking distance of Asuma. Seeing their plan, Asuma made a mental note that there were three bunshin left underground, knowing that the plan would most likely include all of them somehow. Right as he was about to hit her with a punch she switched with another bunshin that had jumped out of the ground, leaving two more. Gaining a little more confidence in himself, Asuma threw a roundhouse at Ino, completely ignoring the sound a bunshin popping out of the ground behind him.
Ino again used kawarimi no jutsu, and Asuma's kick dispelled Naruto's bunshin. Turning around to attack Ino again, Asuma was very surprised to see Naruto running at him. He went to attack Naruto, but then Naruto did the thing that Asuma least expected: he exploded. The jounin was sent flying into Chouji's enlarged hand, which closed around him as Ino popped out of the ground. She couldn't have looked happier when she pulled the bell out from between his giant fingers.
"Good work Chouji! You really did it!"
"Ino… Naruto did most of the work…" He let go of Asuma, who took a moment to dust himself off before looking around.
"Where is Naruto, anyway?"
"Right here, Death-stick-sensei!" Looking up, Asuma saw Naruto hanging upside-down from a tree branch.
"Oh. Well, that's the tenth time, so I guess you can go to lunch now." Chouji let out a shout of joy and ran off to find Shikamaru, hoping that the lazy chuunin would be willing to buy him lunch. "Naruto, before you go… how's that technique coming along?" Naruto gave him the biggest grin he had ever seen, which meant either very good or very bad news.
"I'll have it down in three days!"
"T-three days? It hasn't even been four weeks! How could you have possibly made something so advanced so quickly?"
"Well, that's because…" he took a moment to scratch the back of his head, "I'm just that amazing!"
"Oh…" /Damn confusing kid… Wasn't he a complete idiot a few months ago? Was something just holding him back, or is something pushing him forward now? Because of him they still haven't missed a day of eating, not to mention that he's been growing ridiculously quickly. What the hell is up with him?/ "Well, see you tomorrow…"
"Yoshi!" Naruto ran all the way to Ichiraku's to find that Mabui was already waiting for him, which worried him a little bit. "I'm not late, am I?"
"Of course not, Naruto! It's just that, since this is one of my days off, I figured I'd get here a little early! Mornings are boring now that you're off training with your team…"
"Sorry about that Mabui-chan, but I haven't got much of a choice…"
"But why can't I watch?"
"Because you could get hurt, Mabui-chan! I still don't really understand why you like watching me train, but I'm not gonna let you get hurt doing it!"
"Oh… Well, as long as there's a real reason, I guess it's okay!" They just sat there smiling at each other until Ichiraku came over to get their orders, at which point they both ordered the customary twenty bowls.
"Mabui-chan, you know what I just realized?"
"What?"
"I don't know almost anything about you! You always want to talk about me, so I never really get a chance to ask you about anything…"
"What do you want to know?" She smiled warmly, but was secretly getting nervous. It wasn't so much that she had something to hide as that she didn't want him to find out about her family. If there was one group of people that she couldn't stand to think about, it was her relatives.
"Well, for example… why didn't you become a ninja? You could have been really strong!"
"You want to know why I didn't become a ninja…? Hmm… Well, my dad was a ninja, and he really wanted me to be one, but I really didn't have any desire to become one. When all of my friends started in the academy I just decided not to."
"I thought you said you didn't have any friends…" Her smile quickly faded into nothing.
"I thought I had friends, back then… It wasn't until I was eight that I learned what jerks they really were." As quickly as it had disappeared, her smile made a triumphant return. "Really, though, I wish I'd found out sooner! Then I might not have wasted my time talking to them at all."
"They're really that bad?"
"Yeah! I can't stand those bastards!"
"Oh…" /All because of me…?/ "But you still haven't said why you didn't want to be a ninja…"
"That's… complicated. The simple version is just that I don't want to hurt people." Naruto couldn't help but grin at that, admiring her ability to not get violent even when overwhelmed with anger. He had already witnessed that part of her several times when various villagers had treated him poorly in her presence. She had a way of handling things without getting violent that still ensured that her point got across, and he found it amazing to watch. "Besides, I like spending most of my time in the library! It gives me a chance to meet new people and help them, and I also get to read as much as I want! For me, there's no job more fun than that!"
At that point their orders came, so they broke their chopsticks while shouting in unison, "itadakimasu!"
"You guys think he's got his technique down yet? It's been what, four weeks?"
"Maybe… Why Kiba, are you gonna run away?"
"O-of course not! It's just that, if he's finishing a technique right now, we should probably be a little… cautious."
"What makes you think that he's going to finish it today?"
"Haven't you noticed that he always seems to finish his techniques right as we show up?" After thinking about it, everyone nodded with wide eyes. "It's like we're cursed or something…"
"What do you mean cursed? We get to see sneak previews of all of his new attacks!"
"Exactly my point, Ino. Remember the last one? I'd rather not have a front row seat for that preview, thanks." None of them were willing to admit it, but they all thought that he had a point.
"Well, we're not gonna just wait here all day are we? Between Asuma-sensei and Gai-sensei he's probably been too busy anyway."
"Actually, Ino-san, Naruto no longer trains with Gai-sensei everyday. He changed it to a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule so that he could work on this technique."
"Oh… Well," she glanced around at the shocked faces, "maybe it wouldn't hurt to be careful…" They soon found out that she had an interesting way of defining careful: Neji and Lee had to walk ten feet in front of everyone else, and she was at the very back behind Hinata.
As they approached the clearing, Neji and Lee found the silence unsettling. Just as they were wondering whether Naruto had changed training grounds again, he came into view. Seeing Neji and Lee stop ahead of them, the rest of the group became very anxious. When they saw what Naruto was doing, that anxiousness was quickly replaced by curiosity, as he was placing small orange balls on the ground and in tree branches at random. After he had placed all of the balls he went to the middle of the clearing and stood completely silently. His friends all came to the same conclusion: they didn't want to be anywhere near any of those balls until he was done.
Over a minute later, Naruto still hadn't moved at all. Just as they were all wondering whether he was waiting for them to leave or say something, he quickly formed the dragon, rabbit, and sheep seals. "Ninpou: Ryuu no Hikou! (Ninja Arts: Flight of the Dragon!)" Although they kept their eyes on him, they couldn't tell if anything was happening. The only ones who had noticed anything at all were Neji, Lee, and Hinata, who had their eyes wide at what they thought (correctly) had just happened. Sakura was about to ask them why they looked so surprised when Naruto's head turned to them with a big grin.
"Pretty cool, huh?" She turned to him instead.
"What's cool? Nothing happened…"
"Sakura-san, you didn't notice?"
"Notice what Lee-san?"
"T-the balls, S-Sakura-san…"
"What about the…" Looking around, the rest of them finally noticed that the balls where nowhere in sight. "Wh-when did he do that?"
"Sakura-chan, you should see your face right now!" Naruto fell to the ground laughing, but the laughter was soon replaced by panting. "I guess I used more chakra than I thought…"
"Where are they Naruto?" Everyone looked at Neji disbelievingly, wondering why he didn't just use his byakugan to find them. "All I could see was your body flickering, and then the balls were gone. You couldn't have taken them very far, so where are they?" This question resulted in confused looks from Sakura and Ino, as well as more chuckling from Naruto, who was putting his weights back on.
"Check your pockets." Neji's hands shot into his pockets, and when they emerged they were grasping three orange balls. Searching themselves, the others all found balls as well.
"NARUTO! Don't put things down my dress!" /Shannaro! I'll freaking kill you!/
"Sorry, Sakura-chan, but you don't have pockets…"
"So you only multiplied your speed eight times…?"
"No way! I wouldn't invent a technique that pathetic Dog-breath! Eight times on top of the five from the other half of the technique, for a total of forty!"
"Naruto-kun, you can… become forty times faster, just with ninjutsu?" /Even with hard work, I can never match something like that with just taijutsu…/
"Yeah, but it's draining as hell, and it hurts afterwards…" He took a big slurp of his ramen, "I'll probably only use it if I absolutely have to…" Two fists quickly made contact with the back of his head, causing his face to smash into his empty ramen bowl.
"If it hurt that bad why didn't you have me take a look at you? I am a medic you know! What if it's tearing you up like Lee-san's gates?"
"Yeah Naruto, listen to Forehead-girl for once! It's reckless to go around tearing up your body just to learn a technique! Do you not realize that the chuunin exam is only a week away?" Naruto instantly snapped to attention.
"A week? Do you realize what that means?"
"Yeah, it m--"
"It means that Gaara's probably here! We've gotta go find him!" They were all shocked for the same reasons: Naruto wasn't at all concerned with the exam itself, and he wanted to go see Sabaku no Gaara.
"Are you crazy? That guy's a psychopath! He almost killed Lee, Sasuke, and me!"
"That's why you're upset? Don't worry Sakura-chan, that's not what he's really like. He's really…" He closed his eyes and sighed before getting up with a smile. "He's really just like me! Now come on, we've gotta say hi!"
Everyone got up and (grudgingly) followed him in his random wanderings around Konoha. Rather than asking around at hotels, or even asking around town, he chose to wander around at seeming random. Nearly three hours later, even Naruto was almost ready to give up.
"Naruto-kun, don't you think we've been looking long enough? Maybe they haven't come to town yet…"
"No, Tenten-chan, they're here. Last time they were here more than… Gaara!" Gaara, who had been in the middle of listening to Temari and Kankuro talking, turned towards the voice he heard. When he saw who it was, he did something that frightened nearly everyone in the vicinity: he smiled. It was a very brief smile, barely more than a smirk, but it was enough to remind them all of his old psychotic self. The thing that Temari and Kankurou noticed, however, was that even if it looked the same, the smile was completely devoid of menace; it was a real smile.
"Uzumaki Naruto…" When the pair just continued to stand there, staring at each other, it became too much for everyone else. Unfortunately, they weren't prepared to stand up to Gaara, so they ended up just enduring it for several minutes.
"You wanna go get some ramen with us? I know a great--"
"Naruto! We just ate damn it! You may be a bottomless pit, but that doesn't mean--"
"Ino-chan, don't be so rude to Gaara! It's not like--"
"It's alright, Uzumaki Naruto… we already ate. Temari, Kankurou, we're going back to the hotel." They murmured their assent and turned to leave.
"Okay… see you around!"
Sakura was beginning to doubt her teacher's ability to blink, thinking that she must have been imagining things when she had seen it before. Tsunade's eyes had become progressively wider throughout her relay of Naruto's explanation for ryuu no hikou, and they were showing no signs of closing any time soon. Of course, there was a perfectly good reason that Tsunade was so surprised, but Sakura had no idea what it could have been.
"Sakura, are you sure that that's exactly how he said it worked?"
"Yeah… pretty sure. Why? It doesn't sound all that complicated really…"
"Oh, it's complicated. In fact, it's so complicated that Jiraiya wasn't able to learn it."
"Jiraiya-sama had the same idea?"
"Not exactly…" She let out a sigh and closed her eyes, wondering exactly what she should say. "How much do you know about Yondaime's techniques?"
"Yondaime Hokage?" Tsunade nodded grimly, throwing Sakura off a little bit. "Well, I know about the rasengan because you told me, but other than that I just know that he invented shunshin no jutsu and that he was called 'Konoha's Yellow Flash' because of some other technique. Why?"
"Has anyone ever told you… oh, I guess only about three people know… Well, I'll just come out and tell you then. Shunshin no jutsu was an A-rank ninjutsu that Yondaime invented shortly after he passed his chuunin exam. It was the technique that got him labeled as a ninja genius, and he spent a year figuring it out. As the name suggests, it was a technique that greatly increased his speed. To be precise, it made him almost exactly eight times faster."
"Eight times… Are you saying that--"
"He explained the way the technique worked to only one person: Jiraiya. When Jiraiya failed to learn the technique, he asked Orochimaru and I to help him, but we couldn't figure it out either. Yondaime became fairly upset with him for telling us, but that's a story for another day…"
"Tsunade-shishou, are you actually trying to say that Naruto--"
"Based on the explanation that Jiraiya gave us, and the explanation that Naruto gave you, I would have to say that it's the same technique."
"But that's impossible! Who could have taught him?"
"No one." Sakura suddenly sympathized with her teacher's reaction, which was mirrored on her own face. "He had to have developed it on his own. Not only that, but he managed to tack it on to the end of another technique he had that was already superior to Yondaime's shunshin, meaning that his technique is better on nearly every level."
"Not… every level, Tsunade-shishou."
"What does that mean?"
"Using it once left him out of breath, and he said it hurts too…"
"Hmm… I'd say that's more because of his poor chakra control than because his technique is flawed. If I remember correctly, Yondaime said his technique hurt at first too, but he got used to it eventually."
"So… what rank is the technique?"
"Probably S-rank. I never understood why shunshin wasn't S-rank, but there's just no way that something this amazing could be anything less."
"Does this mean that Naruto can go on missions again?"
"No." Seeing that Sakura was about to argue with her, Tsunade became slightly agitated. "Even if he has some powerful techniques, his combat skills aren't nearly good enough to fight Aka—the people that are after him." /Almost forgot she isn't supposed to know…/ "We're talking about people that are stronger than Jiraiya and me, so even with Kakashi there it wouldn't be safe for him."
"Oh… I guess that's alright then."
"Yes, it is. What else happened?"
"Naruto went and met up with Gaara, and then the usual stuff at Shikamaru's house."
"Gaara? Who's that?"
"Oh, right, you weren't here for that… Basically a homicidal psychopathic genin from Suna that tried to destroy Konoha during the last chuunin exam."
"Oh, is that all? …Wait… do you mean that he was part of the invasion force?"
"No, he sort of went berserk and attacked on his own. He uses a weird technique that lets him control sand, and he almost killed me and Sasuke."
"Oh, I remember him now. I sent him to help bring Sasuke back. So he tried to kill you and Naruto still likes him?"
"Naruto's the one who stopped him. He wouldn't tell us why he wanted to see Gaara, all he said is that Gaara's really just like him…"
"Oh, so he's a—er, I mean…" /Damn this is irritating… How did Sarutobi-sensei deal with this all the time?/
"He's a what?" Sakura had an extremely excited look on her face, as though someone had offered to tell her the meaning of life.
"Never mind." Sakura's face fell, but Tsunade could tell that she wasn't going to give up on it, which was probably a problem. "Still, it sounds like it's probably a good thing that they found each other…"
"A good thing? Based on what I told you just now? Where the hell did that come from?"
"Never mind, it's none of your concern. Anyway, we should move on to that technique I was going to teach you today…"
"Oi, Gaara! Temari-chan! Puppeteer-cat-guy! Over here!"
"My name's Kankurou damn it!"
"Uzumaki Naruto… You didn't pass the last exam?"
"Only Shikamaru passed last time…"
"I see…" Gaara caught sight of Ino and Chouji running after Naruto, and noticed that they looked a little wary of him. "Your friends are here." Naruto turned around, saw Ino and Chouji, and turned back to Gaara.
"You guys better make it to the final exam! It'll be boring without you!" Gaara nodded his assent and left, closely followed by his siblings.
"Naruto, don't run off ahead like that! We're supposed to enter as a team!"
"Sorry about that Ino-chan, I was just saying hi to Gaara…"
Several (loud) minutes later, everyone was again cramped into the exam room, waiting for the first examiner to show up. Everyone found it odd that Naruto, who had every reason to be far more confident than he had been the first time, seemed to be avoiding drawing attention to himself. In fact, he was simply sitting in a corner with his arms folded and his eyes closed, something they never would have expected from him. Finally, after a twenty minute wait, the door burst opened to reveal the examiner, as well as about twenty chuunin.
"Everyone shut up and listen! I'll be the examiner for the first portion of your exam, Morino Ibiki! Here's your official warning: there will be no fighting without the permission of your examiner, and even then killing will not be tolerated. Failure to uphold this rule will result in immediate failure." He held up a set of numbered cards, "everyone come and take one of these to determine your seat. We'll hand out the tests when all of you are seated." The examinees all quickly took a number and sat down.
"Alright, you won't be allowed to ask any questions, so you'd better listen up! This is going to be a simple written exam, designed to test whether you're ready to be a chuunin. There are three rules for this exam, and they're all very easy to understand. First, anyone caught cheating will fail. We have plenty of chuunin watching you, so don't expect to get away with anything. Second, you will pass or fail as a team: all three members must pass in order for you to proceed. Finally, you fail if even one question goes unanswered." Many of the candidates complained loudly about the last rule, but Ibiki put up a hand to silence them. "Test takers do not get to make the rules for the test, that's my job. If you don't like them, you don't have to take it." When they all went silent, he allowed himself a smirk.
"You should be able to answer every question on this test if you're becoming a chuunin, and if you can't answer one of the questions you aren't ready for that position. We have ten questions for you, and you have forty-five minutes to answer the first nine before the tenth is given to you." With that, several examiners proceeded around the room handing out tests.
Naruto, who found that he really didn't care whether or not he was allowed to cheat, was greatly surprised by the questions on the test. They didn't even sound like test questions, and they were all very vague. /'Question one: an enemy has a knife to the throat of one of your teammates and threatens to kill that teammate unless you give them a scroll, but retrieving the scroll was your mission objective. What do you do?' What kind of lame question is that?/ Looking around the room, it was obvious that everyone else thought the questions were stupid too.
After considering the question for a few seconds, he decided that there was no guarantee that the enemy would let his teammate live even if he gave back the scroll, so he would have tried to get the ally back another way. It only took him twenty minutes to work through the questions, and he was quickly bored with waiting, so he decided to watch everyone else. Sakura and her teammates were all struggling, which he thought was kind of funny, but other than that everyone was doing fine. No one bothered to cheat, probably because the questions were so ridiculous that there was no reason to. When the time came for the tenth question, all of the papers were collected and checked to make sure that every answer had been filled in.
"Numbers ninety-five, ninety-seven, eighty-two, sixty-four, twenty-three, and thirteen, you failed." He waited for them to leave the room before continuing in the most dramatic voice he could manage. "Alright, there's an extra rule concerning the tenth question: you have to decide whether or not you want to take it."
"We get to choose?" It was a rookie from Iwa. "Why?"
"You get to choose because of the impact it has on you. If you don't take the question, you fail the exam, but if you take it and fail it, no one on your team will ever be allowed to take this test again." There was the usual set of protests from the first-timers, but the veterans were busy deciding what the purpose behind it was. Naruto found that he wasn't entirely sure. In the end he decided that it was probably the same kind of question as the one from the previous exam, but with higher stakes. Of course, it didn't really matter to him nearly as much as it had the first time, and he was sure that he would be able to become Hokage even if he couldn't become a chuunin. Ino and Chouji were both fairly nervous, but they saw Naruto sitting calmly and misinterpreted that as his knowing what Ibiki was going for.
Several people decided it wasn't worth it, and several teams ended up leaving. Unfortunately for Ibiki, this left him with over seventy people again. He just knew that Anko was going to give him a hard time… "Alright, is everyone here sure that they want the tenth question?" There were murmurs of assent, causing him to sigh before smiling. "Okay, you all pass." After a few outbursts he held up a hand of silence. "Let me explain the test to you. The first nine questions probably seemed somewhat vague to you, but they were checking whether you have what it takes to be a chuunin. A chuunin is a leader, a person who has to take responsibility for the lives of others, as well as the actions of a team. You can't make your decisions based on how much you like your teammates, the rank of the mission, or who your enemy is, or else your decisions will be irrational. At the same time, you can't become so emotionless or racked with indecision that your teammates die because of it."
"Of course, the reason that you weren't supposed to cheat wasn't just that this was a test, it was also that in real missions the leader can't rely on the judgment of others. Even if you might ask one of your squad members for their opinion in some situations, the decision and responsibility are ultimately yours, and you need to know the difference between a good choice and a bad one." He paused a moment to let the lesson sink in, just in case they didn't understand what he meant at first. "The bad decision is, of course, the one that gets the most squad members killed. Good decision-making won't always lead to the success of a mission, and you need to realize that before becoming chuunin."
"Wait a minute!" It was the Iwa rookie again. "You didn't even check our answers! How do you know that we passed?"
"Ah, I'm glad you asked that. You see, while that was the point of the first nine questions, it was not the point of this test. The difference between passing and failing, as far as those questions were concerned, was being decisive and being indecisive. I just thought I should mention it to those of you who passed, since that responsibility might be placed on you." He enjoyed seeing so many people sweat-drop at once, but he knew that he had a limited amount of time, so he continued.
"The final question was the most important, though. In a real mission situation, you won't have the option to drop a mission just because it puts your team in danger. Chuunin take on C-rank missions and above on a regular basis, and have to deal with enemies constantly. Death, which is much more serious than never taking this exam again, is a constant threat for your team. If you're too cowardly to lead a squad into a dangerous situation, but are forced to anyway, it's highly likely that you will get them killed. To become a chuunin, you have to show that you have more guts than that." After his speech, several minutes of silence went by before Anko crashed through the window, making the same entrance she had made the previous year. "You're late, Anko."
"Ah, sorry about that, I was early last year so I guess I over-compensated…" She looked over the crowd in front of her for a moment before grinning. "You went easy on them again? Seventy-two people… Okay everyone, this exam may have been easy, but don't expect the next one to be! I'll be your second examiner, Mitarashi Anko! Your jounin sensei will tell you the location of the second exam, so be there by eight tomorrow morning or you fail the exam!"
The group of chuunin candidates assembled once again, this time in front of the forest of death. It was a somewhat nostalgic scene for those who had participated in the previous exam, and the explanation that Anko gave was almost exactly the same (excluding, of course, Naruto's interruption). Just as some people began to wonder whether she had memorized a script, Naruto chose to interrupt her again.
"Anko-chaaan, couldn't you think of anything new? I'm already bored with this one!" She instantly recognized him as the one who had interrupted the speech during the previous exam, smirking when she remembered her own reaction to it.
"Wow… You've still got quite a bit of spirit…" She couldn't, for the life of her, figure out what had given him the idea to add "-chan" to her name, but she didn't like it. Deciding that he hadn't learned his lesson the first time, she threw a kunai at the same spot on his cheek. To her immense surprise, he caught the kunai with a bored look on his face. Even worse, as she ran around to get behind him, he watched her with same bored expression. Granted, she had never specialized in speed, but this was the brat that, six months before, hadn't even seen the kunai coming! She had been kind of thirsty, too… Snapping back to reality, she realized that all eyes were on her. Somewhat embarrassed, she walked back to the front of the group, knowing that she had lost her precious intimidation factor. "You have a half hour to fill out your waiver, and then you can exchange three waivers for a scroll. As for you, blond brat, I'll need to speak with your team privately."
"Damn it Naruto! If I fail because of what you said back there, you're gonna be sorry!" Naruto just waved off Ino's complaints, and they were soon alone with a suspiciously smiling Anko.
"How'd you do it kid?" They could only assume that she was talking to Naruto, as she was looking directly at him, but none of them quite knew what she meant.
"Do what?"
"How'd you get so much faster so quickly? It's only been six months, after all." Although they found it creepy that she remembered the incident, Ino and Chouji were actually slightly curious about that as well.
"I… trained?"
"Yeah, but what kind of training did you do? I've never heard of any training that increases speed that quickly."
"I trained with Super-brows-sensei, and I ran a lot of laps, but that's about it…"
"Super-brows? You mean Maito Gai?" Naruto, having never bothered to remember Gai's full name, looked confused, but Ino nodded for him. "That still doesn't really explain it though… Well, you'd better pass the exam!"
"Huh?"
"If you don't, I'll look like a complete loser! A special jounin that can't even outpace someone that failed the chuunin exam? Come on!"
"So… you're saying that you want us to pass just because you couldn't hit me with a kunai?"
"No, I'm saying that if you don't pass, I'm going to make your life a living hell!" Her cheery smile, combined with the cheery tone with which she spoke, was seriously creeping them out. "You'd better go fill out your forms now… you'll fail if you take too long!" Naruto suddenly smiled, causing Chouji and Ino to feel a small streak of fear.
"You know… that threat doesn't really carry a lot of weight with me."
"Yeah, but I had to try. Now get going, you stupid brats!" With that she disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving Chouji and Ino to their very confused thoughts. Naruto went off to talk to Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou, giving them no opportunity to ask him what he had meant. Reasoning that they had five days to ask him about it, they filled out their forms before going off to talk to Kiba, Hinata, and Shino.
Because of the scene with Naruto, Anko had a little trouble getting everyone's attention when the thirty minutes were up. It wasn't so much the fact that he had caught her kunai as the fact that she had stopped cold mid-assault, but she still blamed him. Not a single person dropped out, and the twenty-four teams were sent to their respective entrances. Naruto, Ino, and Chouji received a heaven scroll, and all of their friends had earth scrolls.
Taking advantage of the time in front of their entrance, Ino made her move almost immediately. "Naruto, what did you mean when you told Anko-san that 'that threat doesn't really carry a lot of weight with me?'" Needless to say, he hadn't been expecting the question.
"Uh… I meant that… You see, Ino-chan… it's really not important."
"Aw, come on, just tell us. You've been acting too mysterious lately, it's not like you." Naruto couldn't help but adopt a sheepish grin at being called "mysterious."
"Really Ino-chan, it's not important! Let's just focus on the exam, okay?"
"Okay… Can you at least promise to tell us later?"
"Tell you what later?" A vein throbbed visibly in her temple.
"What you meant when you were talking to Anko-san!"
"Huh? Oh, right… nope!" Chouji and Ino sweat-dropped, but Naruto didn't notice because their gate was opened right at that moment. They reluctantly followed him into the forest, unsure of exactly where he was headed. Naruto wasn't exactly sure where he was going either, but he knew it would be a bad idea to stay completely still.
After two hours of non-stop running, Chouji and Ino couldn't help but admire Naruto's stamina. Of course, that didn't mean that they were inspired to try to keep up. "Naruto, could we take a break? I haven't had a chance to eat any of the food I brought, and it wouldn't be good to run into other teams while we're still hungry…"
"Chouji, you brought food again?"
"Of course! I don't want to starve to death!" Ino just shook her head, almost ashamed to know him.
"I guess we can stop… I was kind of hoping to get our scroll today though, so let's not stay here too long."
"Today? Why not wait until everyone's tired out from fighting?"
"Because I was hoping to get some training in at the tower before the preliminaries." Ino cocked an eyebrow.
"What makes you so sure there're gonna be preliminaries?"
"Think about it, Ino-chan… Last time, when there were only twenty-one people left, they said there were too many. Only nine people actually got to go to the finals. We know that Neji, Tenten-chan, Fuzzy-brows, Gaara, Temari-chan, Puppeteer-cat-guy, Hinata-chan, Kiba, Shino, and Sakura-chan's team are all going to pass, and that's already twelve people. Add us in, and there'll be fifteen, which is probably too many." Ino instantly jumped up and pulled a kunai out of her holster.
"What have you done with Naruto?" Seeing Chouji's lack of a reaction, she almost face-faulted. "Naruto might be good at strategy crap, but he's not smart and his memory sucks. There's no way he'd figure something like that out!" Naruto just waved it off.
"Ino-chan, put that away, it's me. We should come up with some way of identifying each other, though. I'd rather not have the same problems I had last time…" An image of being tied up while he was trying to pee came to mind. Ino slowly put her kunai away, not completely satisfied that she was talking with the real Naruto, and sat cross-legged on the ground.
"You mean like a password or something?"
"Naw, I'd never remember a password… It'd be better if it was different for each of us though, just in case."
"Okay… what do you have in mind?"
"I have no idea…"
"I take it back, you are definitely the real Naruto." It took a moment for Naruto to understand that it was an insult, but he glared at her as soon as he did. "How about some kind of gesture or something? We'll ask for the password, and if the person doesn't do the gesture we'll know it's not really them."
"What kind of gesture?"
"It doesn't really matter, as long as someone impersonating us wouldn't do it out of habit…" She thought about it for a minute, before deciding on the perfect passwords. "Chouji, yours can be to pat your stomach and say you're full, no one would think to do that." He looked mildly offended, but she didn't care. "Naruto, you should stand on one leg like a stork."
"What! Why do I have to do that?"
"Because no one impersonating you would think to do it!"
"Of course they wouldn't! It's so stupid!"
"That's the point, Naruto! Just deal with it, okay?" He mumbled something, but didn't seem to be offering anything better. "As for me… I'll put my hitai-ate on my forehead, then back on my waist. You guys got that?" They nodded, but neither of them looked very happy about it.
"Let's just hurry up and find an earth scroll so we don't need the passwords…"
"Kaen, we should slow down, Sakura isn't keeping up."
"You're the one in the rear, Shimaru. Sakura-san is doing just fine, and I want to try to get our scroll today if possible."
"You're so cold…" Kaen gave him an extremely dark look that made Sakura cringe, but Shimaru just smiled.
"Quit it with the crappy puns or I'll bash your skull in, even if it means I have to wait until the next exam to be a chuunin. I see some people off to the right, let's go see who they are."
"Kaen-san, we really don't want to fight them." Sakura would recognize those three people anywhere. "That's Sabaku no Gaara and his team, they'll tear us apart."
"Really? Sounds fun…"
"Kaen, maybe we should listen to Sakura on this one."
"Shut up Shimaru, I'll fight whoever I want to." Kaen jumped down several feet from Gaara, followed by Sakura and Shimaru a few feet further back. Gaara completely ignored Kaen and Shimaru, but stared intently at Sakura for a few moments.
"Uzumaki Naruto's precious person… what was your name again?" Sakura was definitely not happy that he remembered her.
"H-Haruno Sakura." She tried to smile, but failed miserably. The best she could do was not grimace.
"Do you need a scroll? We have… extras."
"You… would give us one, just like that?"
"If you want one." Kaen looked disappointed, but Shimaru couldn't have looked happier. Temari and Kankurou were confused as to why Gaara would bother to give her a scroll, but he had been acting oddly ever since he had lost to Naruto…
"Sure, I guess. We're looking for a heaven scroll." He used his sand to hand the scroll to her, and she took it with a (non-forced) smile. "Thanks!" /Maybe Naruto wasn't as wrong as I thought…/ "Do you guys want to go to the tower together?"
"Gaara was hoping to see Naruto, actually." Temari looked happier than usual, which left Kankurou even more confused. "He thought it would be best if we ensured that Naruto got to the third stage. We've been looking for him for quite a while, but he seems to be moving around a lot."
"Oh… Well, we could go with--"
"Sakura-san, I would prefer to get to the tower as soon as possible." Kaen still hadn't worked out his disappointment at not getting Naruto on his team, and he definitely didn't want to encounter the boy. "No offense to you three, of course."
"None taken."
"If we see Naruto, we'll tell him you're looking for him." Kaen quickly left the clearing, hoping to drag Sakura and Shimaru away with him. The less time he spent thinking about Naruto, the better.
"Took a bit longer than last time… Let's go to the tower now, I could use a good night's sleep before we start getting ready for the prelims." Akamaru yipped in agreement, and Hinata and Shino nodded. "How many people do you guys think will make it?"
"Eighteen." Shino's voice was, as usual, completely devoid of emotion. "Team Gai, team Asuma, team Kurenai, team Touketsu, Gaara's team, and one other."
"What makes you so sure, Shino?"
"It's the most logical outcome…" Right after Shino finished his response, which wasn't really much of a response, Akamaru started shaking.
"What is it Akamaru?" Some yipping ensued, and Kiba shot a scared look over at the others. "He says that Gaara's nearby."
"G-Gaara-san?" /Naruto-kun said that they were alike, but…/
"Let's go around, I'd rather not die today." Akamaru let out a little whine, which caused Kiba to stop suddenly. "Well, that's bad…"
"What is it Kiba? Has he noticed us?"
"No, but he's headed straight for Naruto, Ino, and Chouji."
"W-What's bad about that Kiba-kun?"
"Hinata, I know that Naruto likes Gaara for some reason, but that doesn't mean Gaara likes him. Remember what he did the last time we saw him in this forest?" Of course, there was no way that she could ever forget. The day had been permanently etched into her memory as one of the most terrifying of her life. "Maybe we should go help, just in case." Without waiting for approval, he ran ahead towards Naruto.
Shino followed, but he couldn't help but think about how much he hated Kiba. Hinata followed a short time later, but only because she wanted to make sure Naruto would be okay. When they closed in on Naruto's location, they were surprised to see that Gaara was not only already there, but he was handing Naruto a scroll. Naruto was laughing about something, and Chouji and Ino looked like they were about to have simultaneous heart attacks.
Without any warning at all Kiba jumped down to greet them, leaving Hinata and Shino with no choice other than following suit. "Naruto, Ino, Chouji, you guys need some help?"
"We don't need your help, Dog-breath!"
"What'd you call me? I went out of my way to provide support for you and you insulted me just like that?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, we--"
"Gaara, just call me Naruto! It's weird hearing my whole name all the time!"
"…Naruto, we're going to the tower now."
"Sounds good to me! Come on guys, let's go!" Chouji and Ino, relieved that they didn't need to fight, happily went along with him. As far as they were concerned, Gaara was like the ultimate protective escort, since he seemed to care about Naruto for some weird reason.
"Hey, wait a minute! You can't just ditch us like that after we came to help you!"
"Kiba-kun, you don't need to yell…" Hinata wasn't heard over Akamaru's barking, but Kiba was done yelling anyway.
"Well, we don't wanna be the last ones there do we? Let's go!" He yet again left without their assent, assuming that they would follow just because it was him. They did follow, but only because they needed to go to the tower to pass the test.
Anko strolled casually into the tower's monitor station, wondering whether anyone had managed to get to the tower during the first day. She was greeted by a particularly excited examiner who couldn't seem to find the words to describe what he was talking about.
"It's okay, whatever it is, don't worry about it…" /Why do I get all the uptight losers?/ "I just came to see if anyone's gotten to the tower yet."
"That's what I… you need… just look at this." He pointed to four monitors, all of which showed people entering the tower.
"Wow, four teams on the first day? That's pretty impressive."
"That's not… they're in… look at the time." /Stupid speech impediment…/
Upon examining the time of entry, she noticed something that made her jaw drop. Not only did all of them enter at almost the same time, but… "Four teams passed within the first three hours?" Suddenly she formed a mischievous grin, completely unnerving the man she was talking to. "These final exams might just be fun after all…"
A/N: And there you have it: chapter five. It's a weird cut-off point, I know, but I think it works pretty well. I find myself wishing that I had done more with Ibiki, but at the same time I can't really think of anything else that would have gone with that test…
Before I forget, I just want to say that Ibiki's exam was on a Saturday. That means that Anko's exam began on a Sunday and lasts until the next Thursday (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday make five days), meaning that his training will resume on a Friday. Just had to clear that up for those of you that are actually concerned with the timeline… Also, while I'm on the subject of time, does anyone know what time of year it was when Sasuke ran away? Does it actually say that anywhere, or do I sort of have free reign?
Just so you know, I find it very annoying that Yondaime was known as "the finest shinobi Konoha ever produced," while Sandaime was known as "Shinobi no Kami (God of Shinobi)." One of them had to have been better than the other, so which is it? At the moment I'm going to assume that Yondaime was the stronger of the two, but Sandaime was thought to be better. Asuma's a little biased, though, so I would think that he considers his dad to be the best regardless of what he's seen.
Okay, I know I said that other characters would eventually get the spotlight, but I've decided against it. The reason is really pretty simple: it doesn't add anything to the story. I had planned a few side-arcs involving Teams Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma, but now they just seem extraneous. Given that including them would distort the flow of the story anyway, I'd rather not put them in. Sorry if that bothers you, but it just wouldn't seem right.
I'm doing my best to work ahead so that I don't go without updates for extremely long periods of time after college starts. It means dedicating more of my time to the fic for a while, but I'm actually getting a little bit ahead. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, I should be able to maintain my update schedule for quite a while…
At this point I'm going to steal X DarthMonkey X's idea of asking you to answer questions in your reviews. By no means am I expecting everyone to answer the questions, and I ask you to please feel free to put whatever you want in your review (if you leave one), but I can at least give you an idea of what type of feedback I'm looking for. My questions for this chapter are:
Were Naruto's tactics against Asuma any good?
Keeping in mind that he's still getting used to having normal relationships, does Gaara seem out of character?
What do you think of Naruto's nicknames for Kankurou and Asuma?
Did I do a good job with Anko-chan?
What'd you think
of Kaen and Shimaru?
Thanks for reading! Please review!
Edit: Fixed a small grammatical error that was pointed out to me in a review. If you see any others, please feel free to let me know!