A/N: I've written Team Eight instead of Team Seven several times in Chapter 3. Team Seven is Sasuke's team and Team Eight is Shikamaru's.

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Chapter 4: Field test for Team Kurenai and chuunin exams part 1

Ino and Sakura had been suffering every morning against Anko's clones while Naruko was trained by Orochimaru's failed apprentice. Every afternoon saw Kurenai train the duo in chakra control exercises, genjutsu and ninjutsu while she trained Naruko only in countering genjutsu. This had lasted four months, at the end of which the duo had become decent.

Ino was now able to use her Body Mind Technique without taking damage when the body hosting her was hurt, which made her clan technique more than just a spying technique. She could cast basic genjutsu to alter someone's senses and had started learning poisons from Anko, which was well fit for someone working in a flower shop. She made her own poison ninjutsu to apply them in creative and graceful manners.

Sakura was most proficient in genjutsu, having the patience to listen at Kurenai's explanations and to train this obscure art. She had created a jutsu that could affect the brains to swap the left and right as well as up and down, making most enemies unable to act or react effectively and making them look completely drunk.

Naruko had learnt lightning jutsu as well as hebi style taijutsu and how to dodge like a snake, softening her bones to move like an invertebrate. She could also elongate her body like Orochimaru and Anko. The physical training she had gone through let her reach an incredible level of strength and speed. She had become as strong in her normal state as she was before in her state with Kyuubi's chakra aura.

Now she could go even with Anko just by activating the Kyuubi aura. Since she had more moves available to her than Anko, she would be able to defeat her in a death match, but in their sparring sessions they were matching each other. Anko also started to make progress by training with her. Kurenai was going through serious training sessions on her free time with Anko in order to keep up with her student. Her genjutsu became even better too.

After this four months training, they got a B-rank mission, retrieving a Konoha agent captured by a nukenin. They got ready and departed to the Land of Rivers where the Konoha shinobi had been captured.

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Team Ten was following a track their jounin leader had found in the Land of Rivers which led them at the border of the Land of Wind. In a cavern, they found their agent, right before the entrance was blocked by a big mass of sand. Their agent was dead.

- Gekkou Hayate, asked Kurenai to the dead shinobi, what did you learn that was so important that our ally of the Sand needed to kill you?

Naruko blew the sand away with a Futon: Wind Bomb. Kurenai incinerated the corpse with a weak fire jutsu and commanded the team to get away and report to the Hokage.

As they got out of the cavern, they met three annoyed Suna ninjas, two boys and a girl. The girl was the oldest one, in her late teens, a blond with four short spiky pigtails and a short white dress with mesh cloth underneath. The one in the middle seemed to be in the middle, wearing a black catsuit and war paint on his face, carrying a weird big thing on his back. The last one and the youngest was a redhead boy with a tattoo of the kanji for Love of his left temple. His eyes showed intense exhaustion from bad sleep and he looked like a sociopath. He was carrying a massive gourd about half his own size in his back.

- So you managed to get out of our trap, huh? commented the catsuit boy. Well, you won't be able to get out of her anyway.

- Why did you attack a Konoha shinobi? asked Kurenai. Our hidden villages are allied.

- Some things are better left untold, answered the blond kunoichi. Why did your agent come so close to our border in the first place? It's not like we're gonna let you go back to your village anyway, prey that we finish you quickly.

- Ino, Sakura, don't fight them directly. I'll take the oldest ones, assist me from the back while Naruto fights the youngest one.

- Yes, sensei!

- Okay, said Naruko, I wanted to fight the strongest one anyway.

- What? Kurenai was surprised at her genin's words.

- The other two are around chuunin level I'd say. The girl is a bit stronger than the boy. But this one is another story. His chakra is disturbing. I think he's like me. I'll fight him.

- You think you stand a chance against me, Konoha kunoichi? Let's kill you so that I can feel alive again. Mother, I'll feed you her blood.

- Nice, a creepy preteen with mommy issues. I'm really the most normal person around with Kurenai-san.

Sakura managed to put the boy in her genjutsu, making him move like a drunk boy. It was funny to see him trying to catch the thing in his back and grabbing the air in front of him instead. Ino had taken possession of the girl for a second but said girl had already launched a wind jutsu towards her, which blew away Ino's body and broke her technique. In an instant, Kurenai put her in a strong genjutsu that made her act like someone with a heavy hangover and fall to the ground. Her brother quickly followed her.

On the other side, the redheaded boy had started sending sand towards Naruko, making it follow her while protecting him. Naruko went into one tailed state and blasted the sand with her chakra enhanced strength while drawing water from a nearby river to change the sand into mud. The boy got angry when his kekkei genkai was so easily countered and he put himself into a sand ball, which Naruko destroyed immediately as she found it to look like a cocoon and didn't want to fight him after he could transform. She grabbed him and kneed his head, which broke his sand armor and knocked him out.

- Gotta bring them back to Konoha for interrogation, right Kurenai-san?

- Absolutely. Carry this one since you seem to be the best to counter his sand ability. Let's go.

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Back in Konoha, they learnt that they had dismantled an invasion plan from the Sand and the Sound that should have taken place during the chuunin exams. They had also captured the Kazekage's children, the youngest one being Sunagakure no sato's Jinchuuriki on top of the Kage's son. The mission had been scaled up to A-rank and they earned big money from it.

- Sakura and Ino have been great assets to deal with the weaker siblings, had told Kurenai to the Hokage in her report. Even though Ino's Body Mind Technique has been canceled, she still managed to set her target up for me to take her out. Sakura has single-handedly disabled her opponent before I even intervened. Naruko has completely ridiculed the enemy's kekkei genkai revolving around sand manipulation and has kept him from escalating the fight with a Jinchuuriki battle, keeping us from being harmed by a fight above our level, especially Ino and Sakura. She's actually showed the qualities of a jounin and a team leader for a genin team. I would ask for a field promotion if the chuunin exams weren't so close. I suggest we let them take part in these and promote Naruko to jounin after the end of the event. It will be a great display of Konoha's power for the investors as well as a good way to build her reputation.

- I agree with your judgment. Ino and Sakura have clearly deserved to take the exams and it would be bad for them to lose a team member right before taking part in these. Prepare to get a new team member after the exams, Naruko will temporarily be helping Kakashi with his team until she can take her own team of genin. It will be field practice for her future assignment.

- Yes, Hokage. I'll get ready to welcome a new member. In the meantime, I will make Ino and Sakura as powerful as I can in only seven weeks. Is Anko still on a mission?

- She is, so she won't be able to help you training the Sasuke lovers. You'll have to find a good training program by yourself this time.

Sarutobi Hiruzen made a mischievous smile and she was reminded that the old man was quite the troublemaker himself.

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Kurenai had shaped Ino and Sakura into real kunoichi, mostly making them more mature and professional. Meanwhile Naruko had started learning her parents techniques after getting used to the Namikaze-Uzumaki compound.

They had a big house, a private library where they stored their skill scrolls and a big training ground. All of it was protected by a blood-barrier and no one could see what happened in the compound from the outside due to a seal that locked the image to an empty-looking compound. The heir of the clans had taken a week to clean up and sort what she would keep and what she would ditch.

Naruko had started reading her parents' scrolls but she was still training in calligraphy to become able to use Fuuinjutsu. Her father's skill seemed really complicated and she didn't need to learn this for the moment, so she left it for later.

When the day of the exams came, they were ready to blitz the tests. The first test was easy since Ino could spy on the people with the answers and complete Naruko and Sakura's sheets on top of hers. The second test was simple…until the real Snake Sannin made his entrance.

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When Team Ten was ready to collect a scroll of the opposite symbol, a long tongue snatched it and the tongue's owner swallowed it.

- Good afternoon, girls. I've heard one of you is a very talented individual. I wanted to test the so called Heir of the Sannin my spy has told me about, kukuku…

- This snake appearance, commented Naruko, you're Orochimaru, aren't you?

- That's right, I guess my little failed apprentice Anko has told you about me while training you. Let's see if you're as great as everyone makes it sound.

- Ino, Sakura, go tell Anko-chan that her former sensei has come to challenge her apprentice. I'll try to buy time.

- Hmm…at least you don't think you can beat me by yourself, you know better than most. Get ready to be slammed into the ground, kukuku…

Naruko used her one tailed state from the beginning and impressed Orochimaru with her speed and strength. He took a blow to the abdomen to measure her strength and it seemed it had left a bruise, which was more than anyone had done to him since his fight with the Hokage ten years ago, when he had escaped from Konoha.

He tested Naruko in every discipline, every nature element, and the only thing he was disappointed about was the girl's mediocrity at fighting against genjutsu as well as her inability to use any herself. The terrain was completely reshaped after a torrent of flames had burnt the Forest of Death's treetops, wind blades had cut them to the trunk, water ponds had been created everywhere and earth pillars had appeared out of the ground in weird places. A titan battle had been fought and when Anko arrived, Naruko was bruised everywhere, cut in multiple places, her left hand was burnt and her right leg broken.

- Welcome, Anko-chan, kukuku… How are we gonna do this reunion? You don't want me to kill your precious apprentice, do you?

- Orochimaru… Why did you come here? I'm sure that testing Naruko wasn't your only goal. You've never liked losing your time and you're not known for being an ally of Konoha. Tell me what you came here for.

- Or what? You think that because you're Konoha's best kunoichi and around the copy ninja's level, you can make me tell you my plans? Sorry to deceive you, but you're not my objective. I just wanted to know how strong this teen was before deciding if she was worth investing in. I guess she is, from what I've seen, she has great potential and is already better than you at barely more than half your current age. I may use her in the future, kukuku…

- The Hokage will be here at any moment, answered Anko. You'd better leave before finding yourself in a complicated situation, and let my apprentice alone! You won't mark him with your cursed seal like you did with me!

- Sure, I'm on the leave. Don't forget to tell the old man that his favorite student sends him his greetings. See you another time, my little failure…kukuku…

- Naruko-chan, can you continue this test?

- I'm fine, Anko-chan, answered the blond without much clothing left.

- At least put this on, you're half naked, girl.

Naruko thanked her and put on Anko's coat.

- Good luck for the end of this exam.

- Thanks, Anko-chan! See you soon!

- See you soon, runt! You'll have to treat me to some dango for covering your ass like that!

- The Hokage was never going to come, was he?

- He would have been, but not in time had Orochimaru intended to kill us. I'll tell Ino and Sakura to…

- We're back, Anko-sensei! exclaimed Sakura while they got out of the cover of some burnt trees.

- How could we leave our teammate alone against such a dangerous opponent? added Ino.

- Great, now let's end this survival test. Orochimaru left his scroll behind when he left!

- You're gonna touch that? It's all slimey with his saliva! It's disgusting!

- I don't care, we're nearly done. Just getting to the arrival.

- But you have a broken leg bone and a burnt hand! cried Ino. How are you going to make it to the arrival?

- It's time to take your revenge on me for the potato bag ride on the testing day, girls. Lift me up while I try to get this cured.

- Okay, we'll carry you there, but don't expect it to become a habit, told Sakura.

Naruko got carried to the arrival and they made it inside. There were few genin left, only twelve in fact. Team Gai, team Gaara who had been allowed to take part if he didn't let his Bijuu out, team Kakashi and team Kurenai.

The final exam was announced to take place a month later to recover and get ready for the chuunin tournament, where investors would watch the fights and decide which hidden village they would send missions to. It would let Naruko enough time to get back up as if she had never been hurt.