Chapter Eight.
Heyo! It's chapter Eight dudes! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. If I did, Konoha teamwork would mean more combination jutsus.
Alrighty so, I saw some reviews where it looks like some people are slightly confused on the whole nerf I have going for the kunai substitutions. It's not chakra exhaustion, it's literal damage Naruto takes to his chakra coils. When he substitutes with a kunai he has to exert a lot more chakra, but a ton of it is left hanging in the air around him, that chakra then comes slamming back into his body, and royally fucks up his chakra coils. Hope that cleared something up for you.
Naruto was flying through the forest of death. He didn't know what was going on, but he could sense Sasuke and Sakura's chakra. It was spiking so high he knew his best friend was being pushed, hard. When he saw the giant snake with a Kusa nin atop its head moving to devour Sasuke and Sakura, he knew he had to do something. He forced its chakra into his coils and took the fox's power. "Someday I'm gonna be strong enough to protect my friends without you, Nine Tails." He thought.
The snake barreled at the two genin who were paralyzed in fear. And it slammed into something before hitting the branch they stood on. Naruto stood in front of them holding the snake with his arms and back, bracing himself with his legs against the branch while facing them. When he looked up at them, they could clearly see the he was using the Nine Tails' chakra.
"S'ke, you're better than this." The boy said to him.
"N-naruto?" The Uchiha asked in shock.
"Combo five. Now Sasuke!"
The raven finally came back to his senses, "right!" He yelled and began weaving through hand signs. Naruto kicked off the snake and spun in mid air as Sasuke and Sakura both kicked off the branch as well. Once close enough together they fired their jutsu at the enemy nin and it's summon.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!
The combo tore apart everything in its path as it rushed the Kusa nin. Consuming the nin in a ball of fire the boys let out a sigh of relief, only to be met with an evil chuckle. "Kukukuk, now that was quite impressive for some genin. However you're much to dangerous with that Fox...Naruto. Let me fix that." The nin was in front of him in seconds, and the enemy slammed its palm into the Jinchuriki's stomach. "Five Elements Seal!"
Naruto collapsed almost instantly, Sakura caught the boy and landed on the ground along with Sasuke. "Just who the hell are you!?" She yelled.
"Kukuku, I've a lot of names, but you'd probably recognize me best as Orochimaru, of the Sannin."
Sasuke's eyes widened, fear burning into them. "What do you want!?"
"I simply came to give you a gift Sasuke boy." The traitorous Sannin said. His neck stretched across the space between them in seconds and bit Sasuke on the shoulder. He screamed out in pain, clutching his new wound as he collapsed. "I look forward to seeing you again...kukuku" and the Sannin was gone.
Sakura dragged both boys to a nearby tree with a hollowed out underside. She laid them out to where they would be comfortable. Sasuke had a massive fever. And Naruto was out cold from whatever the Sannin had done. She set up a lot of traps and began using her medical jutsu and medical kits to help the boys' healing along as best she could.
A loud crack brought her attention to the field she had stuffed with her traps. When she saw three Oto nin jump down, she wasted no time.
"Oi! Konoha nin I'm looki-..." the loud and brash genin was cut off by a massive explosion that ripped apart the tree line all around the clearing. Sakura stood kunai in hand, at the entrance to the hollowed out tree.
"Look. I'll give you the chance to turn and go. But I won't let you touch these two. And so help me if we're fighting and they wake up, well they tend to be protective of me." Sakura glared at the three Oto nin.
"Ah fuck me Dosu, this little bitch thinks she can stop us!" The brash one laughed.
Sakura launched through seals and smacked her hand to the ground. "Earth Style: Earthquake Slam!" She called out, and the ground surrounding the enemy began to spiral inwards on itself attempting to bury the nin alive. The Oto nin barely managed to dodge in time.
"Goddamnit this bitch!" The brash one yelled.
The bandaged one, now identified as Dosu, then spoke in a commanding tone. "Zaku calm down. She's obviously well prepared." He sighed. "Kin, can you get her?"
The female of the group shook her head in negative. "Not at this range." The Oto nin stood, analyzing their options. What surprised them was when the pinkette charged out of her little bunker and jumped into the air. As she slammed her fist down into the tree where Dosu had just been standing, the entire thing blew away as if hit with a paper bomb.
Flashback
"Kakashi-sensei, we've been upping my physical strength, but I was wondering how did Lady Tsunade get so strong?"
"Well that's actually a technique she uses, but I'm not sure how it works."
"Do you think maybe we could come up with our own version? We both know I'm good at punching things."
Kakashi eye smiled at the pinkette, "that's the spirit, I'd say we probably could pull it off." Over the next two weeks training for the exams they had come up with a bastardized, chakra wasting, cheap imitation of Tsunade's super strength. But it hit. Hard. And that was what mattered most.
Flashback end
Zaku sputtered as they jumped back. "What the fuck!"
Sakura simply grinned at the team. She was either going to rip them apart or if they could prove strong, she could keep them held until the boys woke up. And thus began a game of cat and mouse between Sakura and their team. She wouldn't let them split up, she kept them away from her teammates, and she didn't let them lure her out of her field were she had traps hidden everywhere.
They were only two hours into the exam, and already their team had ran into the biggest amount of trouble. "We seem to have a knack for that." Sakura mused. Her next hit broke every bone in the female Oto nin's body and left her a jumbled broken mess on the forest floor. And the games continued.
Forty minutes later, and Sakura was tired. She couldn't keep this cat and mouse shit up for long. She was quite surprised when Zaku finally managed to slip into her guard and blast her away with his jutsu. She flew back, expecting to impact the tree only to be caught. She looked to see by who, and saw the familiar black hair of her Uchiha teammate. He set her down slowly and lightly.
"Sakura, who did this to you?" Black markings trailed up his face from his shoulder.
"I finally hit the dumb bitch Dosu!" Zaku yelled landing in the middle of the clearing.
Sasuke locked eyes with the boy. "We've been sent to kill you, Uchiha Sasuke!" Dosu then called out.
"Hn." The boy grunted, "funny because you're the one about to die." Sasuke was on Zaku in seconds beating him before tossing him to the ground. "You really seem to like these arms a lot, maybe I'll take them from you." Sasuke said, planting his foot in the back of the enemy genin. He began to pull, and the arms popped out of their sockets with a sickening crack. The boy below him screamed in pain. Sasuke began to draw a kunai, when a voice stopped him cold.
"Sasuke. Enough." Naruto stood at the entrance to the tree. "Let's go, we're wasting time. Leave em."
"Hn." The Sharingan wielder grunted. "Fine, but only because Sakura wants to set a record." And with that Team Seven left the broken and battered Oto team alone.
Three hours to complete. A feat in its own but it was blown away by the Suna team's ninety one minutes. But then again Squad Seven had encountered the Orochimaru of the Sannin. The Hokage secretly met with them, and debriefed the team on what had happened. After which Kakashi took Sasuke away to seal his new curse mark. Naruto told Hiruzen of the traitorous Sannin's seal, the one that had blocked the Nine Tails chakra, and in turn the Hokage saw he could remove it. However until his chakra had time to rest itself per say, it royally screwed his chakra control, but he found he could still do his kunai substitution, so although jutsu was mostly out of the picture, he still had his natural speed and his favorite technique. The Hokage guessed it would be about a day or two before Naruto's chakra control would be able to be normal.
By the time all the teams that had passed were in the tower and ready to go, the proctors knew they would need to hold preliminary matches. Team Seven had been warned of the preliminary matches before hand, the Hokage felt if any team had the right to know, it was them. After what they went through in the forest they needed to be prepared for the preliminaries.
Standing on the main platform, in front of all the gathered genin, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage began to address the young nin. "Some of you may have wondered...what are you here for, why you came all this way and risked your lives for a promotion. The truth is, the chunin exams are a substitute for war. Used by the village to test their might against the might of another. You fight and die for your village."
Some of the genin started to protest and ask questions but a coughing man stepped up, "Lord Third Hokage, mind if I take it from here?"
"Of course Hayate."
The man stepped up coughing a few times before speaking. "I am Gekko Hayate." He coughed a few more times before continuing. "I will be your proctor for the preliminary matches." He bust out coughing once again. "There's too many of you for finals so this has to be done." He coughed some more, and he ignored the protests of many genin. "I don't care what you have to say. The matches will be randomly selected." A screen popped out of the wall behind him. "And the winner will go to the finals. The matches start now. Anyone who feels they are unable to fight may drop out now."
The last Kusagakure team that made it dropped out as a whole. Kabuto dropped out but his teammates stayed. The girl Naruto had met in the forest Takarada Ryuko quit as well, giving Naruto a wave as she left, which he returned. Kasahara Roku, and Kasahara Aiko, the twins, also quit and they looked like they needed to, they were quite beat up.
On the screen two names appeared. Temari against Tenten. Naruto cringed watching the bun haired girl slam back first into the sand girls fan. Lee tried to go avenge her but his sensei stopped him. Dosu against Choji came next, and although Choji did well he still lost to the Oto nin. Yoroi, Kabuto's teammate took on Shino. This match bored Naruto to death. It was who could drain the others chakra faster. And Shino quickly showed his prowess in his insect techniques.
Naruto watched as Lee stunned the crowd. But was forced to continue watching when Lee had his fighting capability literally crushed. If it hadn't been for the interference of Gai, the bowl cut boy would be dead. He got to cheer though, when he and Sasuke watched their pink haired teammate absolutely body her longtime rival. Sakura ended the match with two moves. First she buried Ino in the ground using, Earth Style: headhunter jutsu. And then she held a kunai to the Yamanaka's throat. Many of the jounin sensei were stunned by the lack of skill the blonde girl possessed, and Asuma had to shrink back in shame.
The Kankuro guy from Suna turned out to be a puppet user who made quick work of Kabuto's other teammate.
They got some interesting action from another team that had graduated the same time as Naruto's group. Konohagakure's Team Two, one of its members went against Shikamaru. The boy, named Luca Kenji had spiky, dirty blond hair with red streaks in it. He was dressed in a dark sweater, with dark red pants, and happened to be a swordsman. He was skilled but arrogant and fell to Shikamaru's strategy quickly.
The other two, Hinazuki Rikka, and Agus Mikazuki were pitted against each other. The girl, dressed in darker clothes, having blue hair and red eyes. Seemed to have high chakra reserves considering the amount of Fire Style jutsu she tossed around. Her name sounded extremely familiar to Naruto, but he couldn't place it. The boy, Mikazuki, wore a green coat that was at least two sizes too big for him. He had on dark tan pants and combat boots. He stuck almost exclusively to one of Naruto's favorite jutsu, the Water Pistol, and Twin Water Pistol jutsu. In the end though, The bluenette overpowered him.
Naruto then watched as Neji came as close as he could to killing Hinata. Naruto swore to the Hyuga prodigy, that if they fought he was going to destroy him. At that moment Naruto then realized there were only four genin left to fight. The board shuffled names once again and Naruto smiled.
"Uzumaki Naruto versus, Abumi Zaku," the latter having made it to the tower with Dosu and Kin, the girl having been alive but too injured to continue, Zaku however was able to have his arms fixed. Naruto planned to absolutely body this guy. And avoid revealing too many skills.
The Oto genin laughed loudly. "I'm looking for some payback now buddy!"
Naruto leapt down to the fighting area. "Shut up. I don't care." He said bored as ever. When a few jounin glanced at Kakashi, he just eye smiled.
"Begin!"
Naruto kicked off by slinging kunai at the other boy. Who by dodging and deflecting, avoided injury. He struck out at Naruto, aiming for a taijutsu bout. That immediately backfired as Naruto practically appeared behind him and put a spin kick into the other males torso, sending Zaku flying. The Oto boy landed on his feet though. He then snarled at the blond. "So that's how it's gonna be huh!? Fine!" He stuck both arms out in front of him, "Decapitating Airwaves!" He yelled. As the waves of sound and air flew across the arena, Naruto stood blankly in its path. Only for the waves to affect nothing but a lone kunai on the ground.
"Lightning barrage!" Yelled the voice of the blond behind him, who instantly kicked the Oto nin into the air before throwing a kunai up at him. In a moment that made many of Konoha's jounin go wide eyed, Naruto disappeared and reappeared where his kunai had been. Performing a flip kick Naruto sent the boy back to the ground, but appeared once again on the floor, where a different kunai had been seconds before. "Only have five more chances for substitution, before this shit starts to hurt." Naruto grunted in his mind, that seal had really messed up his control, so the chakra hitting his coils hurt like hell. As the Oto genin came down back first, Naruto launched into a spin kick that sent the other boy to the wall. He impacted with an echoing crack. Naruto smiled.
Zaku stood slowly. Pain raking his body. "What...the hell…..was that?"
Meanwhile, Kurenai whispered to the boy's sensei. "Kakashi….that wasn't what it seemed like it was….right?"
"Ah now it wouldn't be fair to sell away one of my cute students best tricks before a tournament now would it?" He laughed. "But no it wasn't, maybe one day, but not yet."
Zaku was beginning to prepare to charge Naruto again. "You sure you don't wanna quit now?" The blond asked. "I respect your will to not give up, but you're really outclassed here."
"Shut up!" Zaku Yelled extending his arms. "Decapitating Airwaves!" Naruto threw a kunai to the wall off to the right of Zaku, quickly substituting with it, he coiled his legs and sprung off the flat surface at high speed. Arriving at Zaku in no time, Naruto smashed his foot into the other boy's face sending him to the ground. Naruto stood over him and held a kunai to the downed boy's chin.
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto." The proctor announced promptly following up with a cough.
"Heh, you're next….Sasuke!" Naruto called to his teammate, then proceeded to jump back up the the viewing platform. Most of the crowd around him however, was stunned. Mostly because they had just watched the boy body an Oto nin without so much as a single hand seal. For the jounin however, at least those who knew Minato, they were in shock. They had just watched a boy who looked quite a lot like their late Hokage, defeat an enemy nin in a manner oh so similar to his very tactics
Hayate then broke the silence. "Ehhem." He cleared his throat and coughed again. "Uchiha Sasuke versus, Inuzuka Kiba."
"Heh, time to show you who's top dog, Sasuke!" The feral boy yelled jumping down.
"I'm already above being a dog, mutt." The raven retorted, also jumping down.
"Begin!"
Sasuke and Kiba locked eyes, and Sasuke's flashed to that of the Sharingan. Seconds later Kiba collapsed to the floor, Akamaru desperately trying to wake him.
"I've locked him in a Sharingan genjutsu. It's over." The proctor waited a few more moments, to give the other boy a chance to break it, however as he moved to end the match, Akamaru bit down on Kiba's hand. Hard.
"Ow! Akamaru what the-..." the boy trailed off. "Fuck, you got me in a genjutsu. Did I lose?"
"Not yet." the proctor answered.
Sasuke moved to activate his Sharingan once again, but a burning pain from his curse seal stopped him. Kiba got in a solid kick to the Uchiha's face because of the hesitation. Unfortunately for Kiba, Sasuke had managed to activate his Sharingan a few times during Rock Lee and Gaara's match, thus he picked up a few tricks.
The two boys met in the middle of the arena, immediately trading blows. Sasuke was gaining the upper hand quickly. Kiba jumped back fully intent on collaborating with Akamaru, but Sasuke appeared beside the boy, kicking him into the air. The Uchiha followed close behind, and with a flip kick just like Naruto's he sent the dog-lover back down. Unfortunately for Sasuke he couldn't outpace the boy to the ground as Naruto had done. So in turn the raven followed through with the kick all the way to the ground. Kiba was more than done now, not able to get up. And even if he could, Sasuke was now holding a kunai to Akamaru's neck. The proctor called the match there.
"Alright all match winners please come down." Hayate said, following with a short bout of coughing. The group of genin destin for the finals lined up in front of the sickly jounin. The Hokage came forward to stand next to the proctor.
"You've all shown considerable skill. As well as the determination to be considered for chunin. The finals will be held in a month. You will have time to recover, train, and prepare." The elderly Hokage turned and left.
"Alright, time to decide match setup." He once again interrupted himself with a bout of coughs. "You'll draw a number from this container."
Naruto drew first. "One"
"Five." The female of the sand siblings piped off.
"Three." Team Seven's pinkette said aloud.
"Seven." Said the stoic voice of Aburame Shino.
"Nine." The last Uchiha smiled, he was confident the finals would end with a battle between himself and Naruto, his best friend, and rival.
"Four." Dosu smiled, thinking of getting pay back for the forest.
"Six, what a drag." The Nara really just couldn't be bothered.
"Eight." Kankuro said with a cocky tone.
"Two." said Neji. Naruto smiled, as he'd have the chance to beat that bastard in front of everyone.
"Ten." Said Gaara, a sickening smile spreading across his face.
Hayate looked at Rikka, "you'll fight the winner of the first match. Okay?"
"Yeah, I got it." She replied in monotone.
Hayate looked at the genin. He smirked and started with the line ups.
"First match, Uzumaki Naruto versus, Hyuga Neji. Second match will be the winner of match one versus, Hinazuki Rikka. Third match will consist of Haruno Sakura, versus Dosu. Fourth will be Nara Shikamaru, versus Temari. Fifth match will be Aburame Shino versus Kankuro. Final match will be Uchiha Sasuke, against Gaara." He dismissed the genin, after which he took his leave to head home.
Sorry for such a short chapter. I honestly don't like having to write the canon stuff that much. That's why if I haven't changed anything, I gloss over it. Sorry if that bothers anyone. But I can promise you, some of the fights I've written for later in the story get good so please, stay tuned. Anyway that's all for now. Darling in the Fox out, see ya!