The creaking of a door crawled throughout the room, clustered with Shinobi from Konoha and other foreign villages. The Shinobi in the room all looked over to the new arrivals, seeing Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hinata Hyuga standing at the doorway.
They all gave them sharp glares, trying to scare them away, particularly Hinata, as the way she crossed her legs made her look like she would drop to the ground on the spot.
Team 7 looked on in shock at the sheer amount of ninjas in the room. There had to be at least one hundred other people here!
From the looks of it, there was no place to sit other than on the floor. All the others had occupied every free seat. And now they were looking at them with intimidating glares.
Hinata immediately noticed the similarities between the looks these people were giving her along with the ones she received from her clan members.
They all… look so strong… The shy girl wrapped her arms around her body, something that didn't go unnoticed by many, evidenced by the smirks that came across their faces not long after Hinata did this action. Am I… really ready for this? She turned her head to Naruto and Sasuke.
Sasuke had his eyes narrowed at the other Shinobi, as if trying to return their glares with one of his own. The typical Uchiha 'I'm better than all of you' look was plastered on his face.
Naruto had his teeth grinding against each other. Hinata noticed the blond's fingers quivering in succession with the grinding. He must have been nervous too.
If Naruto-kun is nervous… then what makes me think I can be any better?
Hinata's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice. She had not interacted with the owner of the voice that much in the Academy (in fact she hadn't interacted with anyone that much in the Academy for that matter), but she had heard it multiple times cooing over Sasuke along with his other fangirls.
The sight of a blonde-haired girl wrapping her arms around Sasuke, with a look of affection, identified and confirmed the person to Hinata.
It was Ino Yamanaka: Member of Team 10, and one of the three members of the current generation's Ino-Shika-Cho combination.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed heavily out of annoyance at the immediate sight of Ino. He frowned, trying to make it clear that he didn't want to do any of this shit again like at the Academy.
The number of times he had to run laps around the building just to wear out his fangirls was insane.
Can't she tell that I'm not interested in hooking up with a girl? I am an avenger. Girls like her will only hinder me if I stick around with them. The young Uchiha thought to himself, contemplating on whether or not he should shake off Ino, verbally assault her and make her cry and lose affection for him.
He forced himself through this crap for so many years now: He was going to do it!
He stopped himself when he noticed Ino directing her attention to Hinata, albeit still maintaining contact with Sasuke's body.
"Hinata! You seem to be doing well! Tell me, did you… you know…" Ino made a motion with a finger over to Naruto before making a smooching sound.
Hinata immediately went as red as a tomato, covering her face as a way to hide her embarrassment.
"Huh? What's wrong, Hinata? And why are you pointing at me, Ino?" Naruto asked all of these questions, completely oblivious to the meaning behind Ino's words.
"You guys are taking this troublesome exam as well?" The voice of Shikamaru Nara entered, followed by the distinct sound of munching, Choji Akimichi's calling card.
"Hey! It's the idiot trio!" The blond-haired ninja stated, taking a step forward at the sight of Shikamaru and Choji.
"Stop calling us that. Annoying." Shikamaru scoffed as Choji said nothing, yet the accelerated speed of his munching highlighted his annoyance at Naruto's insult.
"I see the gang's all here!" The brash voice of Kiba Inuzuka made the presence of Team 8 known as they walked over to Team 10 and 7.
"You're loud, Kiba! Speak any louder and you'll attract unwanted attention. Not that Sasuke-kun's team hasn't done that already." The voice of Sakura Haruno chided Kiba, however, unlike all of her other scoldings, this one was slightly lighter.
The jade-eyed kunoichi glanced at Sasuke, a slightly irritated expression on her face appearing when seeing Ino making contact with the Uchiha, but she took a quiet breath to compose herself, resisting her desire to slug the blonde girl in the face… especially after seeing her stick her tongue out in a mocking way.
Hinata already knew what was going to come out of Shikamaru's mouth next, "You guys made it too? Geez…"
"S-S-S-Sakura-chan! Your hair!" Naruto pointed at the pink-haired girl.
Sasuke's ears perked up as he stole a glance at said kunoichi, suddenly noticing that the girl had cut her hair short. This surprised everyone of the rookie nine (barring Kiba and Shino), as Sakura was a Sasuke fangirl at heart, and to be his fangirl, one rule was to always have your hair long. Albeit, all males knew that this was just a futile attempt at wooing him and that the fact that he liked girls with long hair was just a rumor.
Sasuke surprisingly let out a small smile, "It seems you've finally taken your duty as a Shinobi seriously, Sakura."
Sakura's lips separated, surprised at the sudden acknowledgement from her crush.
What caused this sudden change? She's no longer gushing over me like she used to. Had she really changed that much over time? Sasuke thought to himself out of interest, before realizing that he was having a reaction to the pinkette's sudden change.
"So… Sakura-chan… why did you cut your hair?!" Naruto blurted out loudly.
Hinata gave him a sad look, feeling a tinge of jealousy of his lingering feelings for Sakura.
A tick mark appeared on the kunoichi's forehead, but surprisingly, she didn't yell at Naruto or hit him.
"Well, long hair would have gotten in the way of a mission, especially if someone were to grab it." Sakura informed Naruto and the rest with a small smile.
Everyone could tell that it was slightly forced, and the annoyance was easily readable in her voice. Well... everyone except Naruto could see the signs Sakura was unintentionally giving off.
"Well, it seems like all of the rookie nine are here. I wonder how far each of us will go. But only the strong will move. Isn't that right, Sasuke-kun?" Kiba purposely added the honorific to annoy Ino. And to his joy, he got the right reaction out of her. The look that said 'I'm going to kick your ass' was relayed to the brunet through Ino's facial expressions.
Sasuke smirked in Kiba's direction, "You seem confident, Kiba."
"We trained like hell. We won't lose to you."
"Shut up! I won't lose to you." The knucklehead ninja responded to the Inuzuka's declaration with one of his own.
"Hey, you guys." The voice of a person that no one in the rookie nine had ever heard before approached them slowly, "You should quiet down a little. So, you're the nine rookies that just graduated from the Academy, correct? You're all just fooling around with those dumbfounded faces. This isn't a field trip you know."
The man had white hair held up in a ponytail. He wore mostly purple along with some white. However, the two most noticeable features of the man, were his glasses and his Konoha headband.
Hinata squirmed in her place, the symbol on his headband implied that he was on their side, but this guy still gave off an intimidating aura to her.
"It's troublesome, but you should cut the formal chitchat and tell us who you are already." Shikamaru advised the bespectacled man, who merely let out a small smirk.
"If I were you, I would be less worried about me, and take a good look around you, Shikamaru Nara." The rookie nine did no such thing and instead all widened their eyes at the fact that this man had known Shikamaru's name despite meeting him for the first time.
Shikamaru quickly composed himself, the bored look on his face quickly returning. However, there was a tiny increment of interest hidden in the face of the pineapple haired Nara.
"Okay? If you know all of our names, then you should tell us yours." Shikamaru once again urged the man for his name.
"Seems I've got your attention now. My name is Kabuto Yakushi." The man now known as Kabuto introduced himself with a polite tone. "All helpless with little to no knowledge at all. Reminds me of how I used to be."
Sakura stepped forward and spoke up, "Kabuto-san, is this your second time?"
He shook his head, "This is my seventh time."
"Huh?" Shikamaru voiced out of exasperation. Were they really being told up by someone who failed this troublesome exam seven times?
"This exam takes place twice a year. Therefore, it is my fourth year." Kabuto explained to the group.
"That still doesn't explain how you know this guy's name." Naruto said, jabbing a finger at the Nara.
"Oh! That's right, maybe I should give my cute, little, fresh Genin some information, then…" Kabuto replied as he reached down into his pouch, seemingly digging for something.
'Cute, little, fresh Genin'? Hinata thought to herself out of embarrassment. Is that how upperclassmen saw them?
Naruto deadpanned, This guy's even weirder than Kakashi-sensei…
The white-haired ninja held up multiple orange cards with a certain kanji symbol on them. He called them recognition cards and explained that the cards have information on the contestants of the exam burned into the cards with his own Chakra.
He showed the rookie nine by revealing the contents of one of the cards. It was a map of the Shinobi world, displaying the amount of ninja coming from different villages who were participating in the exam.
The indigo-haired kunoichi immediately noticed the symbol of a village that she had never seen before, and she was sure the others hadn't either.
Sasuke almost jumped on top of Kabuto, his hidden excitement taking control, "Do those cards have any details of the participants of the exam?"
The older Shinobi hid a smile. The Uchiha had found the purpose of him showing the rookie nine these cards, "That is correct. Is there someone that interests you?" Seeing Sasuke's immediate nod, Kabuto picked up the card and slipped it back into the deck, "Keep in mind the information on these cards isn't perfect. They highlight information like teammates, Jonin sensei, completed missions, and stats."
Hinata had never once in her life seen Sasuke look so expectant of something other than the expression he bore on his face at that moment.
"So, who do you want?"
"Rock Lee from Konoha. And then Gaara from Sunagakure."
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes when he saw the pale looks on Team 8's faces at the mention of Gaara. He also noticed Akamaru beginning to whimper.
"Th-That guy… Gaara…" Sakura spoke up, fear crawling out of her voice as she felt her hands trembling, "He's a monster…"
"Y-You've seen him before?!" Hinata blurted out of shock, something that no one had expected to come from her out of all people.
Naruto looked at Sakura out of shock while Sasuke spared the Haruno an interested glance.
"Yes… on a C-ranked mission… his killing intent… his lust for blood… It was unlike anything that I have ever felt in my life." Shino said, reminding people that he was there as well. Even the sound of his voice sounded troubled, and Shino normally spoke with an emotionless and calm tone similar to Sasuke.
"Here they are."
The group returned their attention to Kabuto, who now held two cards in his hand, the light reflecting off his glasses with a glaring shine as he scanned the cards.
"Show me." The black-haired prodigy demanded, his face showing no emotion yet his voice making it clear that he was yearning for information. Any information that he could get on two of the people that he had set his eyes on for the exam.
Kabuto infused his Chakra into the card. In a poof of smoke, the picture of Rock Lee appeared on the right, displaying the things that Kabuto said would be on the card.
"Rock Lee. He is one year older than you guys. Mission wise, he has completed twenty D-ranks and eleven C-ranks. His Jonin sensei is Guy. In just this year, his taijutsu has drastically improved, but he is lacking in other skills."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, taking notes using the information he was receiving.
"Last year he attracted attention as a Genin rookie with his abilities. However, he didn't participate in the Chunin Exams. Like you guys, this is his first time taking the exams. His teammates consist of Tenten and Neji Hyuga."
Hinata flinched when he heard the name with Naruto having been looking at her for a while, before turning his attention back to the card. While the others didn't look at the shy girl, they noted that both were from the Hyuga clan.
"Next, Sabaku no Gaara (Gaara of the Desert). His mission experience, eight C-ranks, B-ranks...Wow, a B-rank as a Genin, eh? Since he's from a different country, there is no further information other than his teammates. However…" Kabuto paused as he adjusted his glasses, "It seems he has returned from all of his missions uninjured."
Choji almost choked on the chips he threw into his mouth.
The others were mesmerized as well, with Shikamaru being the one to speak up, "A B-ranked mission as a Genin, but he came back uninjured?"
If one looked closely, they would see small beads of sweat actually starting to form on Sasuke's face.
Poor Akamaru's trembling only got worse.
Hinata looked down at the ground, slightly discouraged, and her voice so quiet that Kabuto could barely hear her, "W-What about...Otogakure (Sound Village)?"
"They are a newly developing village, so there isn't much information on them." Kabuto answered loud enough so the ears of the only three Otogakure Shinobi perked up, directing their attention to where the older Shinobi and the rookie nine were.
The white-haired man looked up at the rookies, "Keep in mind that these ninjas are elite Genin. In fact, last time I checked, you guys are the first rookies to have entered the Chunin Exams in a while."
Hinata gulped as her anxiety began to kick in again. She looked over to Naruto, who had his head down, his body trembling. His hands were balled into tight fists.
Even Naruto-kun looks nervous… the lavender-eyed kunoichi thought out of concern. If Naruto, the boy who probably had the most courage and guts out of the rookie nine, was scared then what chance did she, Hinata Hyuga, the most timid and cowardly girl around, have in an exam filled with elite Genin, two of them being Neji and a guy who always came from a B-ranked mission uninjured.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Hinata jerked her head up to see Naruto with a wide grin, shooting his body toward the crowd of Genin with an excited look being capitalized on his features.
He jabbed a finger at the Shinobi, all of whom shot their heads towards him, giving him menacing glares, but the knucklehead ninja didn't seem to care.
"MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI! I WON'T LOSE TO ANY OF YOU, Y'KNOW!"
"N-Naruto-kun!" The shy girl exclaimed out of shock, pressing her hand on the loud boy's arm, not even noticing the sudden contact she made, "Y-You're going to a-attract atten…" her voice died as she saw everyone in the room looking straight at them with cold glares.
As much as she hated to admit it, Naruto had just put targets on their backs.
Sakura's eyes went completely white as she held up a fist, grabbing it tightly with her other hand to avoid punching the blond and as a result attracting more attention. Her training with Kurenai taught her to control her temper more. It would only get her into trouble. But it was almost impossible for the kunoichi to control her anger with Naruto.
Suddenly, the sound of sandals sliding and screeching against the ground was heard. The nine rookies turned their heads to see one of the three ninjas from Otogakure right in front of Kabuto, cocking his fist back for a punch. Sasuke widened his eyes to see the man's fist vibrating.
The man launched his fist right for Kabuto's stomach. However, the white-haired contestant leaned backwards, just barely avoiding the fist as he felt the wind from the punch blow at his face.
The young Uchiha grinned, I can easily see through that speed! He didn't even need to activate his Sharingan to keep up with the movements.
All was silent, with Kabuto gaining a smug look on his face. However, all ears could hear the loud cracking of glass followed by the shards hitting the ground.
The older ninja's lenses had cracked. He still kept the smile on his face, lifting a hand to his glasses and slipping them off.
Sasuke was spooked to say the least, he practically stomped his feet over closer to the white-haired Shinobi out of shock, "What happened? He avoided that attack completely!"
"Must have grazed the tip of his nose." Shikamaru guessed with an uninterested sigh.
Kabuto widened his eyes as he felt his body shaking in place, as if it was vibrating. His vision blurred as he dropped to his knees, coughing out blood on the ground.
"Oi! Kabuto-nii-chan! Are you alright?" Naruto asked out of concern, immediately running over to his fellow ninja.
"Hoh? Has he really taken the exams for four whole years? He doesn't seem that special." The ninja from the Sound, who had bandages all over his face except for the surrounding area of his left eye stated.
"Write this on your little cards. The three Shinobi from Otogakure, will make it to Chunin level with ease." The other male Sound Shinobi said.
"Listen up, you lousy faced degenerates!" A white puff of smoke appeared in the front of the room where the board was, with a male voice booming out of the cloud.
Everyone turned to the owner of the voice and the sound of smoke.
Once it cleared, a man wearing mostly black, with two scars ridden on his face, appeared alongside many other Shinobi with Konoha headbands. The people with the scar-faced man wore some shade of grey.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I am Ibiki Morino, proctor of the first test of the Chunin Exams. And as of this moment, your worst enemy."
Ugh… Great. First this written exam and now I have to sit next to Naruto of all people! Sakura thought to herself as she stole a glance at the blond, halting her writing to take a look at his paper to see that he had absolutely nothing written down except his name.
She smirked, He has no chance of answering any of these questions. Actually, I don't think many people in the room could actually answer these questions…
Sakura immediately regretted being glad that Naruto was going to fail. Not out of concern for him. And definitely not out of concern for Hinata.
Sasuke-kun will get disqualified if Naruto gets a zero! Sakura narrowed her eyes. And the chances of the knucklehead getting a zero is one hundred percent.
The jade-eyed girl glanced up at the clock. Forty minutes had gone up of the test. The tenth question had yet to be revealed. If Naruto didn't get at least one question right, then Sasuke was screwed.
"Someday! I'm going to become Hokage! That way, everyone in the village will have no choice but to acknowledge me!"
The young kunoichi shook her head as the words Naruto would always shout when in a bad situation replayed in her mind. The amount of times she has heard him say that at the Academy was ridiculous. If she got 10 ryo for every time the words 'I'm going to become Hokage' or something along those lines came out of the blond Genin's mouth, the Harunos would be rich, and her parents could retire if they wanted to.
And her parents weren't even in their forties yet.
Do I actually think that Naruto's dream can come true? Sakura wondered out of confusion. This was Naruto Uzumaki she was thinking about. The dead last. The boy who probably got special treatment to pass the graduation exam. She shook her head out of denial. Not a chance… I'm doing this for Sasuke-kun.
Despite suppressing her love for her crush, Sakura will in no way deny that she is still deep down a fangirl. However, the Haruno has actually begun to take her a Shinobi training more seriously and for a bit, after that C-ranked mission, she wasn't thinking about Sasuke that much.
In fact, nowadays she only thinks about him when off duty.
Sakura sighed. Fine, I'll do it. Besides, Naruto and Hinata are part of the rookie nine. It would be better to have more Shinobi from our village move forward.
"Naruto." The pink-haired Genin spoke in an almost inaudible whisper. The boy still managed to hear though.
If they were still at the Academy, he would have had every instinct to yell out her name out of sheer joy, simply because she was actually talking to him, but recently, he has felt his crush on Sakura dwindling. Maybe it started with the separation from her after their teams had been formed. He has realized he had barely thought of her over the course of the past few weeks, so perhaps he was acknowledging the fact he was slowly losing interest.
Or maybe, just maybe, it was because he didn't know what real love feels like. Sakura's still the prettiest and smartest kunoichi from the Academy in his opinion, but is that enough reason to love someone? Had he loved her at all or was it just temporary shallow attraction? What is love anyway?
After all, no one had taught him. He had no parents, no friends, the Hokage was too busy, and Iruka hadn't taught him much outside the Academy.
"Yeah?"
The pink-haired girl was surprised by the casual response she received. She looked at Naruto's face and saw barely any sign of the usual affection that he had for her.
She took a deep breath. She had to be careful. Naruto was pretty clumsy. There was a high chance that they could both get caught.
"You can look at some of my answers."
The blond ninja's ears perked up, his eyes showing disbelief and shock. He quickly had doubts about Sakura genuinely wanting to help him. At the Academy, she disliked him, like basically everyone else. Plus, she could just be baiting him. Maybe this was a plot from her, Shino and Kiba as a group in order to take out the competition.
"Why?" Naruto asked the female member of Team 8.
"Because…" Sakura paused to think of a reason, "I'll be blunt Naruto, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for Sasuke-kun." Naruto closed his eyes. Why was he not surprised?
"You must really like Sasuke, huh, Sakura-chan?"
A light shade of red appeared on Sakura's face as she nodded her head, continuing her explanation.
"And… your team is part of Konoha. It would be better if more comrades from our village made it to the next round."
Naruto seemed to accept that answer and took it in a much better way than the previous one.
To Sakura's dismay, he declined in the end.
When she slid the paper over so the blond boy could look, a kunai whizzed by them, stopping right in front of the person behind them.
It was probably for this reason that Naruto had declined. What he had said surprised Sakura, and her negative opinion on the Uzumaki actually changed a little because of it.
"If I get caught, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble, Sakura-chan. Don't worry, I'll be fine!"
It still didn't change the fact that she was pissed at his decision. She understood why he did it, but she was still mad.
The young kunoichi muttered under her breath out of frustration, "Such an idiot." She practically gave him a chance at a free pass. All he needed to do was not be an idiot and accidentally get himself caught.
Sakura had never thought of Naruto as that much of an idiot. Anymore and she would start to think that he was braindead due to getting his ass handed to him by Sasuke in taijutsu training back at the Academy.
When the tenth question rolled around however, what Naruto did next shocked the young Haruno, and everyone else taking the test for that matter.
SLAM!
Was the sound of the knucklehead ninja slapping his hand on the table in front of him.
"Don't you dare underestimate me! If you think I'm going to run away from this, then you're damn wrong, Scar Face! I'll do it! Even if I have to remain a Genin for the rest of my life! I'll become the Hokage one day, no matter what it takes!" Naruto rose from his seat, glaring daggers at Ibiki, before grinning, "I'm not scared of this test! Like hell I am! One more thing, when I become Hokage, I'm going to throw you out the village and make you do one hundred of these tests with one hundred times the difficulty!"
The loud Genin sank deep into his seat, shutting his eyes and crossing his arms with a loud 'hmph'.
Hinata smiled as she looked at Naruto from the back. He still hadn't given up yet. She was concerned for her crush, as written tests weren't his forte. It took her a bit, but she managed to answer all questions, and she was sure that Sasuke did alright also.
This guy… Sasuke thought to himself, glancing at his teammate.
"Then I will ask you again," Ibiki's authoritative voice boomed brought the room, "Will you take this question, or not? If you want to quit, now is your last chance!"
"I'm not going back on my word, because that's my nindo!" Naruto smiled, holding a fist in the air towards the Jonin.
Ibiki's gaze washed over the room, trying to whittle away any stragglers with anxiety problems. To his surprise, he didn't catch any. There was still seventy-eight people left. This was much more than he had expected.
Ibiki stepped forward as he looked at the proctors, who smiled and nodded their heads. He gave a nod of his own out of confirmation.
"Well then, if that's how it is… for all of you, the punishment for this boy's insubordination is…"
The blood of everyone in the room froze, with multiple people leaking out killing intent towards Naruto, who shivered in place. However, they would have never guessed Ibiki's next words.
"You have passed the first exam!"
"Wh-What is this place?" Naruto spoke for every Genin remaining in the Chunin Exams as they found themselves facing barbed wired fences, restricting them from entering a forest of some sorts.
It was the day after that first exam. The second section of the Chunin Exams were now starting. The proctor was a purple-haired woman named Anko Mitarashi.
Said woman looked at the group with a smirk on her face, relishing the looks of fear on some of the Genin's faces.
"This is the location for the second exam, the forty-fourth training field. Or you can call it the Forest of Death."
I have returned! If you were wondering why this chapter took so long, well, I can only say one thing…
Blame Tiramisusu.
Just kidding. Big thanks to her for editing the chapters (Again, I completely apologize for ditching your job last time). I don't remember where it was, but Tiramisusu did write a little portion of her own about Naruto's dwindling crush on Sakura. Well, more like she extended on what I had put but made it better but that's beside the point.
Anyways, we're heading to the Forest of Death next chapter. At max, hopefully, we'll be spending about 4 chapters in the forest. Or maybe I'LL CRAM IT ALL INTO ONE CHAPTER AND MAKE TIRAMISUSU SUFFER!
Probably not.
Anyways, there's nothing much to say here. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, take care, goodbye!