Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and I am making no profit from this story, it is only for entertainment.
So I'm a little impatient so I will now be updating this story on Tuesdays and Fridays!
Chapter Summary: In which Team 7 try to open a box and give up on sleeping for the foreseeable future
Chapter 14: Challenge Accepted
Tenjirou looked up from his inventory list to see his two favourite genin enter the store, their hands moving rapidly into shapes he could vaguely recognise as sign language. They came up to the counter, each high-fiving Tenten as she sat on the counter swinging her legs.
"Hello boys," he smiled, placing his brush down. "What're you up to today?"
Naruto opened his mouth to say something but Kazuya elbowed him in the ribs. Tenjirou watched the pair in confusion as they moved their hands again and he shared an amused glance with his daughter.
"C'mon Pinku-baka! Genma-sensei will never know we spoke out loud!"
"He'll find out!"
"Well, too late we're both speaking now."
Kazuya rolled his eyes and turned to him.
"If you see Genma-sensei you can't tell him we were talking."
Tenjirou held up his hand as Tenten muffled her giggles.
"On my honour. Now do you want to tell us why?"
"Genma-sensei banned us from talking out loud since we're learning the Konoha sign language. He feels that we'll learn it better if we're totally immersed."
"On the bright side, Rio has now started to learn it out of necessity," Naruto added. "On the down side, it has been impossible trying to organise things for the chunin exams next month."
"You're going to the chunin exams?" Tenten piped up, her brown eyes shining.
"Yup, we're leaving for Kumo in three weeks," Kazuya grinned. "We've sorted the rent and stuff for the month or so we'll be away but we're still stocking up on supplies."
"Wow!" Tenten cheered.
"Wow yourself!" Naruto praised. "How's the academy going?"
"I love it!" she beamed. "I'm the best at target practice but this other kid Neji keeps beating me on the rest."
"It's good to not start at the top," Kazuya advised. "It's better to work your way up over time because you'll learn more that way."
"Very true," Tenjirou nodded. "Do you have your list of those supplies?"
"Always." Kazuya smirked as he withdrew the crumpled paper from his pocket and handed it over.
Tenjirou glanced over the list, mentally casting his mind to the different boxes he'd find each of these in.
"Alright, we have everything. I can get it all for you now."
"Ten-jiisan, here." Naruto handed over a couple of storage scrolls. "You can put them in here. I labelled them weapons and supplies so it'll save you carrying them all."
Tenjirou nodded and took the scroll moving through to the back and starting to gather the items on the list, keeping one ear on the conversation.
"What else are you doing for the exams?"
"Well, our taijutsu and weapon handling is pretty good and we've got a few C-rank jutsu now too."
"Really?" Tenten burst out and Tenjirou can imagine his daughter's eyes sparkling the way they did when they got new weapons in the store. "Which ones?"
"I've got a couple katon and Aka-chan has some fūton. We also had to learn some E-rank jutsu, like making a campfire, checking for water contamination and stuff like that. You'll learn those ones when you graduate."
"Wow," Tenten breathed. "Can we not learn them in the academy?"
There was a small pause before Naruto spoke up.
"You can but you need decent chakra control first and you'll start that next year. The main thing you should be working on now is your fitness."
"Want a tip for the academy?" Kazuya added.
Another pause reached Tenjirou which he assumed was Tenten nodding.
"Learn things that aren't talked about in class. You will be surprised about how much about being a shinobi is only learned after you leave the academy."
"Jiji should really do something about that."
"Huh," Tenten muttered. "Hey Naru-nii, can I do your hair? Kaa-san is making me practice doing it myself."
"Sure." There was a muffled thump.
"Where's Rio today?"
"I think he's at the park with some of the clan kids," Kazuya spoke up. "Probably convincing them to either cause general chaos or working on those katas we gave him."
"I would argue that Kiba is just as likely to cause chaos as Rio," said Naruto. "I already feel bad for the academy chunin next year."
"Like you were any better."
"I was dragged into trouble by you."
"I didn't drag you anywhere."
Tenjirou sealed the last of the soldier pills into the scroll and made his way back to the counter. He was greeted by the sight of Naruto sitting on the floor, his hair in the same style as Tenten's and Kazuya leaning on the counter beside a giggling Tenten.
"Here you are, lads." Tenjirou placed the scrolls on the counter and Naruto rose from his seat, grabbing them and stuffing them into his pockets.
Kazuya put yen in its place and Tenjirou took it, handing the boy his change.
"Also, something they don't tell you about the chunin exams," Naruto piped up. "They're expensive. We have to buy supplies and make sure Rio is all set up here; plus we miss out on at least two months of missions at the minimum to even sit them."
"Not including missions we miss doing extra training," Kazuya added.
Naruto nodded, crossing his arms.
"We also know there are going to be three stages and one of them is about survival in the wilderness somewhere so we've got to bring literally everything." Kazuya continued. "There's no guarantee that we're going to be able to come back between stages either."
"How do you know that?" Tenjirou raised an eyebrow. "They're different in every village."
"Research," Kazuya shrugged.
"Of course."
"We're the only team going from Konoha so we have to get through to the finals," Naruto shrugged.
"I think you're gonna win the whole thing!" Tenten piped up.
"Hell yeah we are," Kazuya grinned, bumping his fist against hers.
"Are you really?"
The two boys snapped towards the voice and Tenjirou shared a wink with Genma. He'd noticed the jounin enter the store with Raidō but figured it would be a lesson in awareness for the genin.
"Aka-chan, why didn't you notice him?" Kazuya hissed.
"I'm fucking tired, Pinku-baka," Naruto snapped back. "I've slept like three hours in the past three days with all the border patrols to pay for this shitty exam."
"I'm adding another ten laps to your training for the rest of the week," Genma announced, not even trying to hide the gleeful amusement.
"Great," Kazuya muttered.
"Another day."
Kazuya make some hand gestures that Tenjirou didn't need to know sign language to interpret. Naruto just sighed and waved to Tenten, dragging his friend past the jounin and throwing the sign for 'thank you' behind him as they left.
"Don't you think you're a bit hard on them sometimes?" Tenjirou helped the waving Tenten down from the counter and ushered her through to the back.
"Go go do your homework," he called after his daughter as he turned back to the jounin.
"I don't give them more than they can handle," Genma shrugged. "If I didn't make things hard, they'd be at my door within a day complaining they were bored."
Tenjirou considered the two boys in question and could only agree.
Naruto took in the tall spires of rock in the light of the setting sun. This must be why they called Kumo the 'Village in the Clouds'.
The majority of the buildings were high off the ground, built into the rocks that ended in a point towards the sky. It was so different to any of the other villages they had been to for their C-ranks; the village was literally built into the mountains with wide pathways connecting the buildings far above their heads. They had a few shops on the ground level on either side of the wide yellow path that ran through the village. It was quiet as Naruto and his team were following a Kumo-nin to the hotel they'd been designated during their stay.
As the Kumo-nin stopped at the base of one of the rock spires Naruto leaned over to Hana, whispering.
"What happens if you're afraid of heights?"
She frowned and lightly shoved his shoulder.
"Shinobi literally can't be afraid of heights otherwise they wouldn't be a ninja."
"There must have been at least one."
"Probably not from here though," Kazuya chimed in. "Or any of the major villages, really. All the places we've been to have got pretty high buildings, except maybe the Land of Iron."
"We spend a lot of time off the ground on missions," Hana shrugged.
"Huh," Naruto put his hands behind his head. "I never really thought about that."
Kazuya rolled his eyes. Before he could respond, Genma turned to them and started herding them through the door and up the stairs. As they reached the second floor, their sensei opened a door with a key Naruto didn't remember him receiving.
There was one bed in the far left corner, a window in the right wall, and that was pretty much it. A door to his left lead to what Naruto hoped was a bathroom. He crossed over and dumped his backpack against the far wall, his teammates following suit. He sat hard on the wooden floor as Genma-sensei sat on the bed opposite; there were so many new signatures in the building with them and he wasn't sure how to start picking them apart.
"Okay team," Genma-sensei clapped his hands as Hana and Kazuya found a seat on the floor next to him. "We're the last here and we're sharing this hotel with the other villages. Less time to rest but also less time for someone to sabotage us."
"Is Kumo still pissed at us?" Kazuya groaned.
"We're not their favourites," their sensei admitted. "Iwa is also rooming here so we have to tread carefully. No picking fights or anything that can be taken as disrespect outside of the exams."
"What about in the exams?"
"Everyone and anything is fair game." Genma-sensei grinned with all his teeth at Hana. "Okay, so they start tomorrow and there's no breaks so make sure to pack properly tonight."
"So Kumo and Iwa are going to try to kill us specifically."
"Pretty much," Genma-sensei shrugged. "There are always fatalities in the chunin exams; you just need to make sure it's not you."
"Great," Kazuya sighed.
"Naruto, get those security seals up. Kazuya and Hana, decide between you who's washing up first. You need as much sleep tonight as you can for tomorrow."
Naruto tuned out the ensuing game of jan-ken-po to dig out his newest work from his backpack. He had managed to finish and test it only a week ago but they were designed for situations like this. He stuck his first one in the centre of the door and sent a pulse of chakra through his fingertips, watching the seal light briefly with blue chakra before it settled down. He repeated this at each of the possible entry points of the room.
"Done, Genma-sensei," he called out. "If anyone that's not one of us comes within two metres of the entry points we'll know."
They were basically the seal version of his sensing abilities but he couldn't be awake all the time. This would give them peace of mind to sleep tonight. Genma-sensei wouldn't allow him to use the exploding version, stating that they couldn't blow up foreign shinobi in a foreign village outside of the exams.
"Good work," Genma-sensei grinned. "Now, wash up and get some sleep. You've got some villages to crush tomorrow."
Kazuya looked around at the other competitors as he stood with his team in the corner of the large hall. He was feeling the pressure of being the only Konoha team as people with various different headbands glared at them, the strongest coming from the red-clad Iwa-nins in the opposite corners.
"Is Kumo three people to the left of us?" Naruto piped up.
"Uhh..." Kazuya drawled, looking past the Kusa-nin beside them to see the engraved clouds on their heads. "Yeah, why?"
He turned to look at his friend who had his eyes closed. His eyes closed. Surrounded by foreign nin. He and Hana were there to watch his back but this was ridiculous.
"They feel different," Naruto's blue eyes snapped open; he looked straight through Kazuya to something he was sure only Naruto could see. "I've thought this before but shinobi from other villages feel different. There's something about their chakra."
Kazuya sweat-dropped. Was this really the time? Don't get him wrong, this was brilliant but not much use right now when everyone was from a different village.
"Like I can feel how much chakra they have and where it is, but I didn't know for sure about the different villages." Naruto's eyes came into focus abruptly. "Wait, do you think I could tell a difference by chakra natures?"
"Cool idea, but not important right now," Hana cut in. "Test it when we're back home, where everyone doesn't want to kill us."
"I mean, I'm pretty sure some of the academy teachers want us at least-"
Kazuya cut himself off at the fierce glare from his female teammate.
"Not. Right. Now."
A Kumo-nin entered the room and stood in front of the door with his thick arms crossed, his brown eyes narrowed which were only slightly darker than his skin. Kazuya shot a brief glance over the room and watched his competitors quiet down.
"Welcome to your Chunin Exams. I am Inei and your proctor for these exams. Try not to die before showing your full strength."
"A cheery welcome," Kazuya muttered beneath his breath as he dodged an elbow from Hana.
"Stage one begins now."
Behind the man, more Kumo-nin entered the room carrying medium-sized wooden boxes and placing them on the ground beside the proctor. "One person from each team come collect a box."
The Kumo-nin who had entered with the boxes moved to stand against the walls of the room, essentially forming a border that had eyes on the participants. Kazuya nervously grinned at his team as he stepped to the front of the room to grab a box. It didn't appear to be anything special; it wasn't heavy but there was a number combination lock embedded in the front of it and an irregular number of rectangles on the top surface. He moved back to stand with his team.
"Once you have your box, sit in your teams at least an arm's length from the other teams."
Kazuya exchanged confused glances with his teammates. They had figured that there were three stages and one involved getting chucked in the wilderness but the exam changed every year. No two villages had the same exam so they had no clue what the first stage could involve.
"Inside the box is a scroll. To pass, you must open the box and hand me that scroll. You cannot damage the scroll or the box in any way. You have one hour. There will be no collaboration between teams and any caught cheating will be expelled immediately from this exam."
Kazuya watched in horror as Naruto threw his hand up.
"Question, Konoha?"
"What counts as cheating?"
The Kumo-nin eyes his friend and Kazuya prays that they won't be chucked out on the spot.
"If you get caught collaborating with other teams, copying another team, breaking or in any way damaging the wooden box or stealing another team's scroll, it will be considered cheating and you will be escorted out."
Naruto nodded his head and thankfully kept quiet. The Kumo-nin watched them for another long moment before sweeping his gaze across the room.
"You have one hour. Start."
Murmurs began to spread throughout the room and Kazuya placed the box at the centre of their team.
"So to state the obvious we could try different number combinations?" Hana began, moving the box to look at the embedded four pin lock.
"That'll take forever and we don't have time to try them all," Kazuya shook his head, pushing it towards Naruto. "Any seals or anything chakra-related we should know about?"
Naruto took the box and turned it over in his hands.
"Nope," he said. "I can't sense anything from it. It's just a locked box."
"There's no obvious hinges either we could unscrew," Kazuya muttered, placing a hand beneath his chin. "Do any of the shapes on the top move?"
Naruto pushed against the scattered rectangles on the top. Kazuya's mind raced as they moved but before long it became obvious that they only moved in a certain pattern.
"Well, we can't force it open," Hana sighed, taking the box from Naruto. "The most obvious thing is the numbers."
"But we have literally nothing to give us a clue where to start with those," Kazuya pointed out. "Do we have anything on us that could open it?"
Naruto shook his head.
"All my jutsu would damage it and I don't have a seal for that either."
Kazuya was about to add something when Hana chimed in.
"Don't the rules seem a bit off though? There's no way our whole first test is opening a box, there has to be some else. There's always something else."
"Plus," Naruto added. "He was very specific about his wording when he explained the cheating."
Kazuya briefly scanned the rest of the room. The other teams were in tight huddles, heads down and although there was a low murmur he couldn't pick any individual words out. He then switched to looking at the proctors scattered throughout the room; there was one for each team. Why would they need that many? Surely they didn't need this many people to watch genins?
"Something about this whole thing feels off."
Both his teammates turned to look at him.
"Naruto, are you sure you can't sense anything strange?"
His friend closed his eyes and frowned, tilting his head slightly to the side. Opening his eyes, he turned to look around at the other participants.
"Everyone is where they should be. There's so much chakra in this room it's hard to tell them all apart unless I really focus, like I could before we had guards and a time limit."
Kazuya looked away from his friend to look at the clock, only to swear at the sight.
"How has it already been twenty minutes?"
"What?" Hana demanded, joining him in staring the clock.
Kazuya picked up the box once again and examined it again. There really was no way to open this thing without the number code, not without damaging it. There was a small gap between the lid and the bottom of the box, maybe small enough to...
"Can either of you make chakra threads?"
"Nope, my control is nowhere near good enough for that," Naruto shrugged.
"But your control is best of all of us!"
"Chakra threads are different," Naruto explained to Hana. "They're only really used by some Suna-nin because they're more hassle than the result is worth. They're solid chakra constructs and I have no idea how to do those outside a jutsu."
"Can you try?" Kazuya handed the box to the redhead. "It's the only thing that might fit through that gap."
Naruto signed and held up his right hand, the box in his left. As his friend's fingertips began to glow, Kazuya looked back to the clock to see another ten minutes had passed. They had been in this exam for thirty minutes. He looked around and none of the other teams had succeeded either. In fact, they were all exactly the same as he last time he had looked. Surely one team must have passed or kicked out by now. As he looked back at his team, he examined the test so far. No way had it been thirty minutes, there was just no way.
Naruto's head snapped up and he froze for a moment before dropping the box. It landed heavily on the floor.
"I can feel some people leaving the room."
Kazuya glanced over to the door but there was nothing there. That confirmed it.
"I think we're in a genjutsu."
Naruto swore and turned to glare at the nearest proctor.
"Naruto, what?" Kazuya demanded. "What did you sense?"
"Her chakra is in our system," the redhead frowned. "It's such a small amount I couldn't feel it with everything else clogging up my senses. I hate genjutsu."
"Okay... so we just need to break out of it," Hana said slowly.
Kazuya brought his hands into a seal and flooded his system with chakra.
"Kai!"
As he opened his eyes and looked around, another team stood and handed their scroll to the proctor. The clock indicated that it had only been seven minutes since the test had started and the tense knot in his gut loosened at the sight. He could hear the teams still around them much clearer now but some were obviously still stuck in the genjutsu.
"Now what?"
Kazuya shrugged as Hana stared back at him.
"We still have nothing on the numbers," she pointed out.
"I'm not going to get useable chakra threads in time," Naruto added.
Kazuya brought his hand back up to his chin in thought. So they got through the first obstacle but there must be a second one. As he stared at the moveable rectangles on top of the box, something clicked.
"Kai!"
Numbers appeared on the top of the box as his teammates looked on in confusion.
"It's a double-layered genjutsu," he explained. "There's one on the top of the box too."
He picked up the box to the chorus of his team breaking out of the illusion. He moved the pieces in the same pattern they had discovered at the beginning of the test and a clear number stood out. He dialled it into the number combination and the lid popped open. He grabbed the scroll and stood with his team, walking over to the proctor and handing him the scroll.
The Kumo-nin levelled them with a glare before motioning to the door behind him. Kazuya grinned as he left the room, holding in his joy until they were led to a room down the corridor from the exam hall. Ignoring the glowering enemy teams, Kazuya threw his hands up as he yelled in victory.
"I knew genjutsu would come back to bite me in the ass," muttered Hana, crouching to pet her dogs.
"I'm just happy we have Kazuya on the team," Naruto grinned. "No way would we have figured out the second one."
"What's weird is how many shinobi Kumo has that are able to perform a double-layer genjutsu. They're all about brute strength usually."
Hana nodded her head in agreement.
"Genjutsu messes with the five senses. Too bad they didn't count on Naruto using his sixth one."
Naruto rolled his eyes but failed to push down his smile.
"We lucked out that I sensed those teams leaving but I have really got to work on sensing foreign chakra entering our systems."
Kazuya messed up his friend's ponytail. Either way they were through to the second stage and Kazuya had full faith in his team. They were going to make it all the way.
Naruto sat with his team in a corner of the waiting room, waiting for the first exam to end. There was just over half of the original teams present allowing him to pick apart their chakra in more detail now.
There was definitely a difference between the villages. The Kumo teams had the same metallic feeling as the Kumo-nin from the Hyūga Affair but there was Kumo-nin in particular that he had his eye on. She looked only a year or two older than Hana, with blonde hair in a long, low ponytail and a baggy, olive-coloured jumpsuit with short-sleeves.
"We need to stay away from her as much as possible."
"What?"
Naruto turned back to his teammates and realised he hadn't shared what he'd found. It was easy sometimes to forget that others didn't have an extra sense permanently sending them information about people around him. It was just so obvious to him that he logged the information automatically, sometimes failing to realise he needed to state it out loud.
"The Kumo girl in the green," he explained. "The blonde over there."
His teammates looked over and frowned.
"Why?"
"She has more chakra than the three of us combined," Naruto answered Hana, as a thoughtful look dawned over Kazuya. "Willing to bet she knows how to use it too."
He discreetly signed Rio's name out of sight of Hana and Naruto nodded, signing 'same' back to the brunet. That girl had a Bijuu; Naruto knew better than most about the potential danger of a tailed beast. His attention was drawn to the front of the room as the same proctor from before entered the room.
"You have all passed the first stage. Follow me to the location of the second stage."
Naruto exchanged a look with his team before following Inei out of the room. He double-checked the seals that had been painted into his pockets as he walked. They weren't allowed to take a bag into the exam but there was nothing in the rules that said they couldn't take anything in. So in the early hours of the morning he had painted the pockets of each of his teammates' clothes with storage seals so all the equipment they had brought could be on them without breaking any rules.
Before long, they came to the border of the village and a wooden table piled with papers. The proctor turned to them; an equally sour looking Kumo-nin sat behind the table.
"This is the beginning of the second stage. Located in various sites outside the village are sixteen flags. They are located in a fifty mile radius from the village in any direction. To pass this stage, you must return to the village gates with a flag. You have a time limit of three days. It must be one flag per person; if a team returns with one flag only one person may pass."
"Only sixteen?" Kazuya whispered to him. "There's gotta be at least fifty of us!"
"Fifty-four," Naruto whispered back.
"Fuck."
Naruto couldn't help but agree.
"Three days!" Hana hissed. "That's nothing! We're not going to have time to sleep or anything!"
"This exam is weird as fuck," Kazuya narrowed his eyes. "First exam is to open a box; second exam is to find a flag in the middle of a massive area in less than three days. It's like two extremes; simple then impossible."
"It's not like we have a choice," Naruto muttered back. "We just have to do it."
Inei waved a hand towards the papers.
"Before this stage begins, you must sign a waiver which exempts Kumo from any and all responsibility in regards to your welfare in this exam. Once signed, hand them to Maeko at the desk."
Silence followed his words before an Iwa-nin hesitantly raised a hand. His teammate quickly grabbed it and slammed it back down. Kazuya immediately snatched Naruto's hands before he could do the same. He shot his friend a dirty look; what was wrong with asking questions? The proctor let out a heavy sigh.
"It's not our problem if you get maimed or killed. Now sign them or leave."
"Why didn't he just say that?" Naruto mumbled under his breath as he yanked his hands back from Kazuya.
Hana rolled her eyes and stepped forward to grab their papers, dogs following at her heels.
Thanks for reading!
