Chapter 9

Well here we are, one week in. 1800+ views, 8 Reviews, 22 Favourites and 24 Follows, Thank you all.

As a heads up, I've pre-written up to chapter twelve, I'll release another chapter every two days, by my math thats chapters until this coming Thursday, hopefully Ch.13 will be done for the Saturday. After that I'll try to get a new chapter up every week or so but no promises.

Average Joh: Yeah, I agree with you, the learning curve is slightly steeper than I'd like but it should plateau, I hope. I'll likely go back and streamline the earlier chapters at a later date.

BalthazarTheAngel: It will happen but several years later than it does in canon. Also, it will be more of a purge than a massacre.

The Chūnin Exams Begin

They'd been travelling almost ten days, but they were nearly there. Ahead of them was the mountain spires sheathed in cloud that comprised Kumogakure. It was the morning the exams were set to begin, as expected some dreadful weather in Shima no Kuni held up their convoy thus delaying their arrival. The convoy itself was about thirty minutes behind them, the Genin teams had had to go on ahead to arrive in time.

The entrance to the village was similar to Konoha's. Comprising a large gate opening out into a stone courtyard. The gate had half a dozen guards Genma guessed to be Chūnin just as one of them stepped forward. "Your passports and reason for entering Kumogakure," he shouted. Genma pulled their four passports out of his pack and presented them, "Shiranui Genma and my Genin team, we're here for the Chūnin exams."

"Cutting it a little fine aren't you? They start in half an hour," the guard replied looking over their passports. Internally the guard was grinning from ear to ear, 'Son of the Hokage huh'. "The weather in Shima no Kuni this time of year is foul." The guard handed back their passports while a second handed each of them a small package. "The package has your accommodation and a basic map around the village," they explained.

With the explanation provided, the guards stepped aside allowing them entry to the village. When they were out of earshot, the second guard spoke to the first, "What's got you so chipper all of a sudden?"
"That blonde kid, he's the Yondaime Hokage's brat."
"Is he really. You know it would be a real shame if all the Kumo and Iwa teams were to find that out." The first let out a menacing chuckle, "Yes, a real shame."

Genma quickly looked at the map, "Okay, hand me your packs. I'll check in and you get going to the Kumo Academy." They handed over their packs although Tri didn't have one thanks to the storage seals on the inside of his full-length cloak. "All that's left to say is good luck, I'm confident that you can rise to the challenge individually and as a team."
"Hai Sensei," they all replied.

Finding the Academy hadn't proved much a challenge, the structure was enormous, several times the size of Konoha's. They'd followed the signs at the entrance telling them to report to classroom 18, there was only one open entrance into the Academy so they followed it. They found themselves in a rather bare twisting corridor with closed doors leading into what they assumed were classrooms. Each door had a number above it. The continued down the corridor, rounding corners until they saw the number 18 above a door, ahead of them another Genin team had just stepped through the door under the number 18.

Naruto made to follow them but Tri and Itachi kept walking. "Uh, guys. This is classroom 18," he called after them. "No it isn't Naruto," Itachi replied, "Each corridor section has four classrooms, you only need to count them, you're about to step into classroom 16." Rounding the next corner brought them to another group of four doors and sure enough the number 18 was above one of the doors. Somewhat embarrassed Naruto hurried to catch up as Itachi opened the door.

As they stepped through they found all eyes were fixed on them. Iwa, Suna, Kumo, Taki, Ame, Kusa, Yuga; They were all present, only Kirigakure went unrepresented. All the other teams were giving them glares, a quick spin of the three tomoe in Itachi's eyes seemed to persuade some in looking elsewhere. He'd long since reached the point where he could have his Sharingan on all the time without it being too much of a drain on his chakra.

The assembled teams seemed to have coalesced into larger groups of their fellow village nin. "Nice to see Konoha has finally decided to grace us with their presence!" one shouted from the Iwa corner, getting the odd snicker across the room.

Tri wanted to get in on the barbs and fired a retort straight back. "Nice to see Iwagakure showed up at all," he said with a sincere smile on his face. His retort got a few snickers and some outright laughter from some of the Suna Genin. Despite being allies at the moment, Suna and Konoha's relations remained amicable at best but they both shared a mutual enmity with Iwagakure.

He decided to really throw the Iwa Genin for a loop as he spotted an Iwa Kunoichi decked out in regular red Iwa attire with black hair and distinctive pink eyes. "I suggest you look elsewhere Konoha!" another growled, a threat which Tri duly ignored. "Kurotsuchi-san," he greeted, inclining his head respectfully. With that, he turned away and leaned against the wall next to his teammates.

The Iwa nin were stunned into silence, that a Konoha nin had recognised the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage was one thing, but to have respectfully greeted her. Kurotsuchi herself didn't quite know what to make of it.

"How do you know the Iwa Genin? and why do things like this still surprise me," Naruto asked his brother who shrugged. "Genma-Sensei gave me a list of descriptions and pictures of people to keep an eye on. Kurotsuchi was on that list, the pink eyes are a dead giveaway. She's the granddaughter of the Sandaime Tsuchikage." Naruto wouldn't dare admit it but he found her pink eyes mesmerising.

"Anyone else on that list you recognise? Tri," Itachi asked. Tri scanned the room, "There are only two others I recognise. The first is the blonde Iwa nin next to Kurotsuchi-san, his names Deidara. The other is the Taki girl with green hair and orange eyes in the far corner." Itachi followed his teammate's eyes and soon landed on the girl he'd described. There was something different about this one, 'It feels like her chakra reserves surpass Tri's. There's something different about her chakra too'. "Her name is Fū."

He was pulled out of his thoughts when a Kumo Genin shouted across the room, "Hey, blondie!"
"Is he talking to me," Naruto asked his teammates. "Yes. Naruto, he is," Tri answered. "Yes?" he shouted back. "What's your name?"
"Now Naruto, don't use Uzumaki, they'll start confusing the two of us otherwise," Tri said in a voice just loud enough to be heard by the Kumo group across the room. By now another few Konoha teams had found their way into the room and had positioned themselves next to team 12 after Tri had waved them over.

"As my brother has just pointed out, I am an Uzumaki, but my main name is Namikaze." It was immediate, the looks they received from both the Kumo and Iwa contingents hardened as they found themselves looking at the son of the 'Yellow Flash'.

After a near minute of silence, a Kumo Kunoichi stepped towards team 12. "Hmm, an Uzumaki, an Uchiha and a Namikaze. That must make you the so-called 'Prodigal Three," she said with a grin. The nickname earned some snorts around the room. "I guess we'll put that title to the test won't we," she added.

"Yes, I guess we all will," a new female voice said from the front of the room. Many turned to the sound of the new voice. Standing there was a blonde haired, black-eyed woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties. Her Hitai-ate was wrapped around her forehead and she wore a short-sleeved black and purple blouse and pants, purple fingerless gloves and a red belt. Her forearms and lower legs were wrapped in bandages and she was staring down everyone.

"Now if you're all done antagonising one another, I'd like to begin the first stage of the Chūnin Exams. My name is Yugito Nii, I'm the proctor for this first phase. I hope you brought your pencils because first is the written test. A Chūnin will call your name and you will sit where they tell you, anyone, who questions their seat will go out the window," her final few words were punctuated by a wave of killing intent.

Itachi regarded the woman, she felt in a way familiar to the green haired girl Tri had named as Fū, her chakra was different too and she had a lot of it as well. "Oh, and Uzumaki," she said to Tri. "Lose the cloak," Tri just nodded in reply and removed it.

There were a few hundred Genin to go through, so calling all their names took nearly fifteen minutes but eventually, they were all seated. Team 12 all found themselves relatively close together. Itachi was two rows directly in front of Naruto, immediately to the blondes left was Kurotsuchi and directly to hers was Tri. The pink-eyed Kunoichi had ended up a long way away from her teammates and found herself practically surrounded by Genin from Konoha.

"Alright, listen up, I shan't be repeating myself. In front of you, you will find your test papers, in the top right-hand corner, you'll find a zero. To pass you need to raise it to at least six, any lower, you fail."

"How do we do that?" someone near the back shouted. "If you'll shut your mouth long enough, I'll tell you, sort of. Now, I won't tell you much, it's for you to discern but the number is linked into what you write on your paper."

"Now I know many of you won't want to answer the questions yourself but if you are caught cheating, you're disqualified." This brought numerous groans and complaints from across the room. "SILENCE!" Yugito shouted as another wave of killing intent washed over everyone. The room quickly fell silent, "Good. Your hour starts now."

Naruto picked up the pencil and began reading all twelve questions. He concluded that the first few were pretty easy and got progressively harder, the last two or three especially so. They better resembled questions you'd put to an experienced Jōnin. Naruto wasn't all that great at written tests, equations and mental calculations were his weakest subject at the Academy. And he could tell you needed to be very intelligent to be able to answer six of these correctly without cheating.

'Oh, but of course. That's the point, you are only disqualified for cheating if you are caught cheating. They don't care how to raise your score, so long as your paper says six at the end that's all that matters'. Naruto was doubly glad that his team had already foreseen Naruto needing help, because of it, Naruto had multiple shadow clones henged to look like insects on Itachi's clothing. They would watch Itachi write out the answer then dispel, thus providing Naruto with the answer. And right on cue, the first clone dispelled, providing Naruto with the answer to the first question, his clone had also seen the zero on Itachi's paper change to one.

'Entwined to the paper! Get an answer correct and the number increases'. He quickly wrote down the answer but the zero didn't increase to one. Confused Naruto went back over his clones memories, including reading the question itself, it was then he noticed that Itachi's first question was ever so slightly different to his. It was a tiny change, but enough of a change to result in a different answer. Naruto changed his answer appropriately and sure enough, the number increased to one.

Itachi could do most of the work for him but he'd have to make a few small changes to get the correct answer. Just then a second clone dispelled and Naruto set to work.

Kurotsuchi was staring at her own test sheet, she'd been able to answer the first few just fine. But she found herself distracted by the two Konoha Genin either side of her. To her right the blonde Namikaze, the 'Yellow Flash' was the bane of her grandfather's existence and his son was sat not two feet away. And to her left was the Uzumaki with the bi-coloured hair, he'd mentioned that they were brothers. 'Adopted perhaps?', she wondered.

She'd watched Naruto write down an answer only to quickly change it. It had allowed her to figure out the connection between correct answers and the number. 'He seems to have found a way to cheat, I wonder what it is?'. She decided to simply copy his answers, her eyes played to her advantage here, her entire eye was pink, no white sclera, no pupil. It made it very difficult to distinguish what she was actually looking at.

Over the course of ten minutes copying Naruto's answers, she had also noticed the slight question variation too. After copying another answer and modifying it slightly brought her up to six. While she waited for the next answer she looked to her left again. Tri hadn't answered any of the questions at all, his sheet still said zero. But for some reason, he had a fine brush and a small pot of ink. She was about to smirk when the zero suddenly became twelve, 'WHAT?' her mind screamed.

Even while Yugito was explaining the test, Tri had only partly been paying attention. He spent her explanation and the first five minutes of the test just analysing the paper itself. 'It's clearly a sealing array. Twelve encrypted circles, one for each question I presume. Which means the answer is already woven into the seal. So if I just remove the answers from the seal altogether'. Tri channelled chakra into one of his storage seals, a small fine brush and a pot of ink appeared in his hand.

To begin with, Tri disconnected the answer arrays from the display array and spent the next ten minutes identifying the answers in each array. After doing so for all twelve he removed the answers and replaced them with a 'null end'. When he reconnected the display array, the zero faded away to be replaced by a twelve. His work done, Tri sealed away his brush and ink, sat back and dozed through the rest of the test.

Things were far less hectic and more less interesting for Itachi, unlike most he was genuinely smart enough to be able to answer enough of the questions. Keeping in mind that Naruto was receiving the answers through him he answered enough correctly to give him a nine. With his work finished he sat back and looked around the room for the final five minutes.

"All right, times up, pencils down," Yugito ordered. Surveying across the room, about a third had already been removed having been caught cheating. She knew she was about to get rid of a whole lot more. She had yet to get rid of those who hadn't been caught but didn't have a score of six or higher.

"Ok, now I'm going to call out a number, if your sheet has that number, hold it up and a Chūnin will check. You have six or more then you pass. Now, does anyone have a score of twelve?" She knew it was a trick question, it wasn't possible to answer the twelfth question correctly, it didn't have a proper answer. So the surprise on her face was great when the black and red haired Uzumaki held up his sheet.

Her Chūnin assistants were also confused but one of them was soon by Tri's side checking his sheet. "Yugito-sama, he's not lying, it says twelve but not a single question has been answered."

"What? Show me," she ordered holding her hand out as the Chūnin handed it to her. She looked at the sheet and no questions had answers but it clearly said twelve at the top. "Ok, Uzumaki. Explain."

"Your instructions were to raise the score on our sheets to at least six. You never explicitly said we had to answer the questions and you left the cheating element wide open. We'd be punished for cheating if we were caught. I'm really good at Fūinjutsu so I cheated and wasn't caught. If you all look at your sheets, in the border you'll see thirteen circles with patterns in them. Twelve of them contain the answer to one of the questions albeit encrypted and are connected to the dozen answer boxes, while the last one is tied to the number display."

"As for what I did, I first disconnected the display array then deleted all twelve encrypted answers and replaced them with 'Null end's'. A null end is used to complete a seal design. I then reconnected the display array, it's this array that checks whether the correct answer is present. With it reconnected it began checking the stored answers against what I'd written again. But since I'd replaced the answers with nothing, it technically made the answer nothing. And since I'd written nothing, my score displays twelve," Tri finished.

Itachi was grinning, Naruto was outright laughing and after a couple of seconds so was Yugito. "Alright Gaki, you pass. Stand against the wall behind me, there's one more thing I forgot to mention. If one of your team fails, you all fail."
"That's alright Yugito-proctor-san," Tri replied walking past her to a wave of discontent from many of the remaining Genin. Turning her gaze to the other students they quickly shut up again. "Anyone get eleven?" she asked.

Kurotsuchi was utterly gobsmacked, someone that had slept most of the exam off was the only one to get a full score. She knew a little bit about Fūinjutsu, she knew it was incredibly difficult to learn, a task made harder by the lack of masters in the world. Naruto next to her had finally stopped laughing and was smiling at her. "You alright?"

"Of course I am," she snorted quickly casting off the surprised look on her face. "It's alright to be surprised, that's all part of the exam experience."

Kurotsuchi held up her paper as Yugito called for those with a score of ten as she looked away, intending to ignore him. She knew, however, that he was partly right. These exams always threw up surprises. Itachi held up his paper with a score of nine while Naruto had eight.

It took nearly twenty minutes to get through everyone that had passed. Everyone that had failed was shuffled out of the room. Naruto winced slightly upon finding that they were the only Konoha team that passed the first test.

"Okay, now it's time to pass you onto the proctor for the second test. You are expected at the main gate by five to midday, if you're late you'll be disqualified. And make sure you and your team are packed for nearly a week." Immediately upon finishing her speech, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The remaining teams set their own individual pace, team 12 took it easy and casually walked, they had nearly over twenty minutes to get there, there was no need to rush.

"All on your own now, Konoha scum." The three stopped and turned to find a Kumo team standing behind them. "Sorry but, do we know you?" Naruto asked. "No, but you will. You'd better watch your backs out there during the second test. Never know who's going to be there to stick a kunai in you."

"Don't worry yourselves Kumo-san, if you're what we've got to worry about then we need not worry," Naruto retorted. One of the three Kumo Genin had to put a restraining hand on the shoulder of another. "Alright Shurki, calm down. Wait until the exam starts then we'll jump them," he whispered. "I'd listen to your friend, Kumo-san," Tri added.

"Tri, Naruto. Let's go," Itachi snapped, reigning the two brothers in from making any more verbal jabs. With that, the three of them disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

-Raikage's Office-

"Come in," A spoke. He put the dumbbell that was near permanently in hand down as Yugito entered his office. "Ah Yugito, I take it the first test is done?"

"It is Raikage-sama," the blonde Jinchuriki replied coming to a stop in front of A's desk. "Your report, Yugito," the powerhouse of a man asked. "29 teams from 121 have progressed to the second test, all the individuals you asked me to keep an eye on passed. The first test threw up a few surprises too." A raised eyebrow from her leader giving her leave to continue.

"We got a score of twelve on the test," she said holding the sheet out in front of her. A went wide-eyed as he took the paper from her and looked for himself. "I was under the impression that there wasn't an actual answer to the last question so you could only get a maximum score of eleven."

"And you would be correct, Raikage-sama. But one of the Genin simply changed the answers." A was still looking at the sheet, it was empty. "How? there aren't any answers on this, yet the score says twelve," he said holding it up.

"I know, the Genin in question spent the start of the test analysing the seals, he then got into the seal array's holding the answers and simply removed those answers and replaced them with nothing. And since he hadn't written anything he was technically correct on every question." A laughed, a deep rumbling laugh. "Did you get this Genin's name?"
"Hai, Raikage-sama, Uzumaki Tri."
"What team is he on? I assume this Uzumaki's teammates passed."
"They did Raikage-sama, he's on Konoha's team 12 with Uchiha Itachi and Namikaze Naruto."
"Ah the so-called Prodigal Three. Yugito, I want you to shadow them during the second test, don't reveal yourself, just observe them."

-Kumo Entrance Courtyard-

"Good, it seems you all made it across the village without issue and you've all signed your wavers," deadpanned the proctor for their second exam. "My name is Darui and I'll be your proctor for the second phase of the Chūnin exams." The 87 Genin looked up at a tall man with dark skin and shaggy white hair. He wore a high-collared sleeveless uniform with a one-strap-over-one-shoulder flak jacket on top with loose fitting pants. His sandals were black and he had a tattoo on each shoulder.

"For those of you who have made it to the second phase, I congratulate you but I am sorry to say that only seven teams at the most will make it to the third phase. I hold in my hand a scroll. There are seven available, having one gets you to the finals."

"To retrieve one of these you'll be leaving the village. Along Kaminari no Kuni's south and south-eastern coast is Genbu: the Island Turtle, Genbu is a colossal floating island. It is our equivalent of Konoha's forest of death or Suna's Demon Desert. The island is home to a host of dangerous animals, on this island you'll find a building that contains these scrolls. You may only take one, I wouldn't recommend finding out what happens should you take more."

"After you've gotten a scroll you need to return it to the village and present it to one of the guards on duty. You do that you're safe and we'll be seeing you in the finals. But should you manage to get a scroll then every other team is going to be after you. You and the scroll aren't safe until you get back here. Know that people die in this phase of the exams. You have five days."

Darui looked up at a large clock overlooking the courtyard. "The moment the bell rings for the twelfth time, the test begins," Darui finished as the clock rang once.

Team 17 from Iwagakure were ready, Deidara had that ever-present smirk/ sneer on his face even though half his face was covered by a blonde bang. Kurotsuchi for some reason found herself staring at the blonde Namikaze across the courtyard, she also noticed a group of Suna Genin glaring at her.

Twice.

Kushina was sat in a chair outside overlooking the back garden, she was watching Rezano practise his Shuriken. 'I wonder how Naruto-chan and Tri-chan are doing?'

Three.

Team 4 from Kumogakure were ready, the trio of Karui, Omoi and Atsui. Although instead of ready it seemed like Karui was berating Omoi non-stop.

Four.

Minato was sat at his desk, going through yet another pile of paperwork. Deciding he'd had enough for right now he spun around in his chair and stood. Behind his desk was a wide window that overlooked the village. 'I wonder how they're doing? The exams start today'

Five.

Team 2 from Takigakure were ready, the trio of Fū, Yōrō and Kegon. Fū, as their Jinchuriki was the lynchpin in Taki's hopes of re-establishing its reputation.

Six.

Tsunade and Shizune were lazing the day away, truthfully they were distracted today. The thoughts of both were to the far north-east and the three Genin they'd helped build.

Seven.

Gai was in the midst of training as he always was. He'd just finished his daily 25 laps around the entire village, as he slowed to a stop, his mind turned to the three Genin he'd helped train. "While I cannot see them, I can feel the power of their youth even from here!" And with that he was off again, having decided to double his training for the day.

Eight.

Hiruzen was sat at a table. He was still at his home on the Sarutobi estate. Just like the others, his thoughts were elsewhere. He wasn't nervous for them, he knew they were good enough with Itachi's eyes, Tri's speed and Naruto's strength. He smiled as he silently wished them luck.

Nine.

Itachi wasn't watching the clock like most of the other teams Genin were. He knew his team were quick so moving a half-second later was going to count for very little. From the proctor's description, it sounded like this island was off-shore, he was rather glad he'd been present for the water walking lessons with Shizune-san.

Ten.

Tri was casting his gaze over the assembled teams awaiting the twelfth toll of the bell. He'd noticed the pink eyes of Kurotsuchi looking their way, staring at Naruto. While he was doing up his cloak he wondered why she was looking at his blonde brother, Tri guessed that for years her grandfather had filled her head with horror stories of Minato Namikaze besting a thousand Iwa shinobi single-handedly. 'Perhaps that is what intrigued her, her grandfather's descriptions of Minato and his son and what she's now seen of the actual Naruto don't match.'

Eleven.

Naruto had a wide grin on his face, a floating island turtle, a host of killer animals, a five-day time limit. He rarely found himself so excited, he'd already figured out how they were going to find the island in no time. 'Time to show everyone, what I can do!'

Twelve. Darui watched the courtyard, one second it was full, the next it was empty as the Genin shot out of the gate and into the mountains of Kaminari no Kuni. The second test had begun.

End Chapter