Underneath the Underneath
By: FlameXFullmetal
Disclaimer: I hate writing these. I do not own Naruto or its characters. I DO own the plot and story. Wish I did own Naruto things would have been much different.
A/N: I'm back! Well, I am continuing the story and despite merging several chapters together looks like this will actually be about the same length or longer than the discontinued and replaced version. Not bad if I do say so myself. Especially since I have over two chapters worth of material that I cut out. I tried to keep the paragraphs shorter in the last chapter so hopefully, that came out alright. If anyone has any questions save them up and ask them in a review or pm for the last chapter that you read so I can answer them as soon as possible. Last note the first few lines of this chapter are the last few lines in the last chapter because I left it on a cliffhanger and I don't want anyone getting confused. Besides, I think it flows better this way. If you intend to leave a review please keep the language appropriate and do not tell me to go kill myself. Thanks! On to the story.
"hello" people (bijuu in human form) speaking
'hello' people (bijuu in human form) thinking/coded hand signals
"HELLO" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity yelling
"hello" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity talking
'hello' bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity thinking
hello jutsu
***********Meeting the Shrews and the Exam**********
"Final matter of business. My name. Unless you want to call me Kyuubi on all of my paperwork and literally tell all of the elemental nations that I am walking free we will need a new one for me. That is Naruto's honor though. Whatever he chooses will be my name and gender from now on."
"Well, how about Kimiko?" Naruto whispered.
"I like. 'Noble child' huh?" Kyuubi grinned. It seemed as if everything had been decided and as such the barriers were taken down. As Hiruzen opened the door, a group of nosey civilians and elders spilled into the room in an obvious attempt at eavesdropping.
"Now what do we have here?" Kimiko sneered. The elders looked up and attempted to save face however it was harder done than said. Especially with the sharp vixen in the room.
"What are you doing?" he demanded. Everyone who had landed unceremoniously on the floor suddenly shot to their feet and at least had the decency to look embarrassed.
"We heard that you were going to have a meeting with the fox and we were going to join you seeing as it seemed that the memo got lost on its way to us. However, we found that we could not enter the room and were attempting to see if you had already started by trying to hear your voice in order to let you know that we were here. When you didn't answer the door we became worried and tried to hear what was going on but we couldn't hear anything. Then you opened the door." Koharu explained. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.
"Did it never occur to you that perhaps I left you out on purpose? Perhaps because you had no business at the meeting, to begin with?" He queried. The shinobi council watched in amusement as the group before they went scarlet at the insinuation that they had been excluded on purpose and that they were unwanted at the meeting.
"Of course we had every reason to be here! If it concerns the safety of the village…."Koharu started to rant.
"Then you have nothing to do with it. Only the Hokage and clan heads have any business discussing the safety of the village. You are merely there to advise him on daily things and report to the Hokage on the state of civilian matters." Kimiko snapped. Everyone's heads turned as she and Naruto stepped into sight. Naruto was wearing some new clothes and looked ready to leave.
"Who do you think you are to tell us what is and is not our business?" Saikiri shrieked in rage.
"I am the very thing that you fear. The Kyuubi no Kitsune! You would do well to mind your tongue in my presence and your volume." She snapped releasing killing intent on the group. Every single one of them stepped back in fear and gulped nervously. Before them was the very reason that they had all lost someone important almost twelve years ago. Next to the demon was the vessel looking somewhat smug.
"You really shouldn't make Kimiko mad. She already doesn't like any of you. Besides dad isn't very happy either." He informed them. Looking up at the Sandaime he tilted his head in curiosity.
"When is the next meeting so that someone is there?"
"Knowing the civilians right now." He sighed. Kimiko smirked and created a clone from her demonic energy and then headed into the hallway.
"My clone will accompany you then. Naruto has much training to do before the exam tomorrow." She said as they disappeared around the corner. Shaking his head he looked at the group before him.
"Shall we take this to the council room?"
As the demonic clone made its way down the hall towards the meeting room, it could feel all of the tension around it. Similar to the shadow clone, the demonic clone transferred the memories back to the host but also took on a personality that was somewhat unique. Unfortunately for the Konoha council and elders that meant that it wasn't as reserved as the real fox would have been. The meeting room door opened and everyone filed in silently. The clan heads knew that the civilians were going to make a big fuss out of everything. However, they were looking forward to when they said the wrong thing and Kimiko's clone went off on them. Once everyone had taken their seats Hiruzen cleared his throat.
"We will keep this meeting organized and civil. We are grown adults and I expect everyone to act like it. The first thing we need to discuss is the fact that Naruto is indeed awake and will be ready to take the exam tomorrow. Second, the nine tails, Kimiko, will be joining the class for the exam. No this is not negotiable. Despite the fox being on the outside of the seal, she is still limited in how far she can go from Naruto and as such will be placed on whatever team Uzumaki is placed on. It seems that Kimiko was able to craft a new supplementary seal in the process of leaving and healing Naruto. Now were there any questions or concerned that need to be addressed? One at a time as I am unable to answer five questions that have been blended into one." He queried opening the floor for the spies to speak.
"Why weren't we invited? Surely Hiruzen you don't intend to keep the civilians ignorant of something that obviously affects them just as it affects the shinobi?" Koharu asked in slightly raised tone.
"Koharu, allowing the civilian council to be formed during my first reign to try and allow the civilians to be more aware of events that may indeed affect them as they live here seems to have been a mistake. All that has occurred since its formation is a group of civilians trying to overthrow the Hokage's power and take control of a village that they don't have the first clue of running. They are blissfully unaware of just how much work goes into the maintenance and stability of Konoha and yet they seem to think that they can run the village far better than any shinobi can."
"Furthermore, so long as the civilians do not attack Uzumaki there is no reason to think that the current situation should affect them at all. The same goes for the shinobi. So long as there is no threat posed to Naruto then there is no threat to them. As things stand now the Kyuubi has become a valuable ally and that is something that has not happened since the first jinchuriki was created." Hiruzen countered. Koharu, Homura and he had been on the same team as a genin and while they had grown older and learned more and more about how the world worked, he couldn't help but wonder just how much the three of them had changed.
"So you are saying that the village will not be informed that the Kyuubi is once again walking around the village and may lash out at any time?" Saikiri screeched.
"That is exactly what I am saying. The less the village knows the better in this case. Unless that is you have forgotten about the riots that occurred when the village was notified of Naruto's existence." Hiruzen countered shutting the banshee up, temporarily.
"The Kyuubi will be taking the exam tomorrow? Does that mean that the fox will be under Konoha's direct control like any other shinobi in good standing wearing the village headband?" Danzo quipped startling everyone in the room. Many had not even seen him enter.
"No. The headband is only to make Kimiko's departure from the village less suspicious. Since she is tethered to Naruto still she will be following him on all of his missions and this just makes the process easier." Hiruzen explained.
"Is there any reason that we are referring to the demon by a human name?" He queried.
"Do you wish to call her 'Kyuubi' and inform all of the shinobi nations that the nine-tailed is walking independently from its jinchuriki?" Hiruzen smirked at the old war hawk how quickly backed down. Danzo had to agree that Hiruzen had won that round with pure logic using his own strategies against him.
"Now then a part of the deal that was struck with Kimiko and Naruto was that Kimiko got to choose Naruto's team and jonin to ensure that there was no unfairness in the decision. I expect you to respect the decision." The room was silent and in all honesty, the Sandaime and shinobi were enjoying the silence.
The next morning the genin hopefuls gathered at the academy anxious about their final exams. They had heard the rumors that Mizuki had been killed in an attempt to betray the village and had no idea what to expect without their assistant present. They knew that Iruka and Mizuki had been friends and were unsure if they should offer and condolences or just leave it be. When they entered the room they saw Naruto sitting at one of the tables next to a female that they had never seen before who was wearing the strangest outfit for a shinobi. It looked as if she were ready to go to a gathering in a kimono as opposed to the academy exams. 'Maybe she is only keeping Naruto company until the exams begin.' They thought. As everyone took their seat the door opened and Iruka walked into the room just as quiet. He had been told that there would be a new student in the class for the exam but no other explanation had been given.
"Alright everyone we will get started on the exam. There are several different parts to the exam and each part can and will affect your overall standing. As a result of T&I investigation into Touji Mizuki's attempt at betraying the village, academic sabotage was found present in the class. As a result, everyone is currently starting at the beginning of the year with no prior marks. This means that the rookie and kunoichi of the year title will go to those with the highest exam scores. First part is the written." He said as he started to pass out the written tests. Everyone took their tests silently and not a sound either than moving pencils could be heard in the room. While the written test was given an hour to complete everyone had more or less finished their tests in less than a half hour. Collecting the tests he calmly moved the students to another room for their taijutsu exam. This seemed to be a tournament style exam and Kimiko flinched a little at the thought of having to fight the 'kunoichi' of the class. She also knew that she had no choice but to participate as she signed up for this and she knew that she couldn't outright refuse. 'Why did I decide to do it this way again?' she thought to herself.
"We will now begin the taijutsu portion of the exam. This will be a tournament among your classmates. Girls will fight girls and boys will be fighting boys. Any questions?" Kimiko smirked.
"Isn't that kind of sexist? Kunoichis don't get a chance to only fight another kunoichi on the battlefield so why are we only allowed to fight other girls?" she called out getting everyone in the room's attention.
"Well Kimiko since you brought it up, we only allow the girls to fight other girls in this tournament because we are trying to test their combat preparedness and get a good idea of where they stand. Unfortunately, many kunoichis at this stage of their lives just aren't up to fighting boys." Hiruzen said trying to placate the demon in disguise.
"I can see your concern and given the fact that every girl in this class with the exception of me and Hinata over here has been dieting it is well warranted. However, I can't see how testing them only against their own gender tests their battle preparedness when they only fight the same gender. The current shinobi force is dominated by males so the chances are they will have approximately a 10:1 chance of fighting a male shinobi instead of a kunoichi. Plus had they not dieted than they would be more than ready for that kind of combat. Furthermore, they need to learn the consequences of their actions in regards to their shinobi training and career." Kimiko reasoned.
The Sandaime groaned. He could already see that he was fighting a losing battle. He knew that the fox was worried about having to fight opponents below her skill level and wanted to fight Naruto to show the world how much he had been holding back. Glancing at the parents who had gathered to watch he sighed he knew that there would be those unhappy with whatever he chose. It was then that the fox's words came back insinuating that he had been letting everyone walk all over him for the last twelve years.
"Very well. It will be a full tournament for the whole class, not just the genders." Iruka nodded and noticed that some of the girls who looked confident coming in no longer had the same confident air about them. Some like Sakura looked downright terrified at the thought. 'Well, I suppose that they truly do need to learn the hard way exactly what dieting does to the body. I've been trying all year to get it through their heads.' He thought.
"Very well. The first match will be…."
******************************T.B.C****************************
A/N: A little shorter than intended however not the shortest for this story. I wanted to end the chapter there as I did not exclude Sakura and Sasuke from the exams as I did in the first version so I have to rewrite all of the matches. Most of this chapter is relatively untouched from chapters three and four. From here there shouldn't be too many noticeable differences. Thanks for the continued support! Ja ne!