Disclaimer: Forgot this last time I'll go back and put it in, but anyway: I don't own Naruto.
A/N: Wow I'm very pleased with the response to the first chapter. Thank you to all you favorited and followed. Thanks for the reviews as well. I'm hoping this story will live up to your expectations, though I suppose it won't for everyone. Regardless, I hope it turns out enjoyable to everyone. This chapter will be quite close to cannon, but the differences will really begin to show by the next chapter. I'm also taking any issues or suggestions that were given in the reviews into count, and all I can say is to be patient, as not everything is as it appears. Look underneath the underneath if you will.
Naruto was currently waiting with his teammates for Kakashi-sensei on the usual bridge they all met up at, and as usual, Kakashi was late. The past two months had been quite productive in his own opinion, his training had borne fruit and he was stronger than he was before, he could feel the difference in his body… and in his chakra. In the process, he had also begun to change as a person, while also being more intelligent than he was before.
He had been sending a few clones to the archives nearly every day since he found out about the place to read up on whatever they could get their hands on, anything helpful or merely interesting was read and absorbed. Now, he wasn't a complete idiot before, despite his disposition to act like one, but that was more for attention than anything else. Regardless of that, he was never secretly a genius, he was more average than anything, he just never tried and fell into the ruse of playing the idiot.
He wasn't a genius now either. Yes, he was more intelligent and knowledgeable than before, that's what happens when someone absorbs copious amounts of information over a short period of time. Most of it being general knowledge, chakra theory, and advice on tactics and various other things. He had improved, but he still had a long way to go and would strive to continue improving.
Naruto had also tried to improve relations with his team, the key word here is tried. Things really hadn't changed from before, Sasuke continued to brood and ignore everyone else when they weren't on missions. He had thought things might have changed after the bonding they had gone through in Nami, but things took a backstep when he awakened his Sharingan. As with Sakura, she would also ignore him in favor of fawning over Sasuke as usual, which was ignored by the Uchiha, and she would end up yelling at him or hitting him for no clear reason anytime he tried to talk to her.
He had thought maybe the change in attire might change things, or at least they might take him more seriously as he noticed from several others. However, Sasuke had just narrowed his for a moment before turning away without so much as a word. Sakura just accused him of attempting to look cooler than Sasuke to garner her attention, which was ridiculous. Both of them were beginning to grate on his nerves, you would think that being on a team and spending time with each other every day would help them get along. But things hadn't gotten anywhere and might have even regressed instead, it didn't make any sense.
On one hand, he was disappointed about it all, disappointed in the both of them and that he hadn't made progress with them. On the other, he was pissed at them not putting any effort to improving as a team, while he was trying so hard to do so and improve himself at the same time, so he could protect both of them if needed. He was trying hard, even going through the effort of curbing his more annoying tendencies, which was more difficult than he anticipated. Although, it should have been expected when one was his not-so-secret crush and the other was someone he had always considered his rival.
Kakashi though had seemed to turn over another leaf as a sensei, he was much more helpful, and Naruto felt he had grown closer to the silver-haired shinobi. Like he had promised, he had helped him learn how to recognize when he was trapped in a genjutsu and taught him how to break himself out of one as well. The man had also helped him improve his form with his Taijutsu style, which Kakashi was familiar with somehow, and gladly helped him through spars and several tips.
Naruto broke from his thoughts and stretched before leaning back against the railing of the bridge. Unfortunately, Kakashi was still his lazy and perpetually tardy self, He was honestly getting tired of always waiting for Kakashi to show up and was debating starting to pull a Kakashi himself and show up late. He was always exactly two hours late so as long as he was there before him, he would be fine. 'Then again, it could be risky, what if Kakashi actually showed up on time… or early…'
He snorted at the thought, earning him odd looks from his two teammates, who were standing across from him in a similar position to himself. The mere thought of Kakashi being early was utterly ridiculous, he couldn't even fathom the idea.
Eventually growing bored he dropped down into a seiza position so he could meditate. He had been meditating more and more often over the past two months. Where originally, he only did it to get a better feel of his chakra, he now did it because of how relaxing it actually was. In the process he had gotten better at examining his chakra as well, which was both very intriguing and frustrating, he could tell that… something was there, he just couldn't for the life of him figure out exactly what that was.
It was driving him freaking insane; he felt that he was missing something, and it wasn't the Kyuubi's chakra either, he had found that and accidentally drew on it once before slamming it back. He did not like it at all, it wasn't that it felt evil, it was the pure primal feeling it produced and that scared him a bit.
Taking a long, deep breath, he put a hand in a half-ram seal and focused his chakra outward. His examinations had uncovered one thing at least, it seemed that he had some kind of sensor ability or at least he thought he did. It wasn't anywhere near complete or reliable yet, in essence, he could do three things with it at the moment. First, it enhanced his senses and awareness to the area around him, while his senses had always been good this just enhanced them. Second, he was able to feel any chakra around him as well as identify its signature. Finally, he could gain a better understanding of the environment and area around him in a much broader spectrum.
Unfortunately, it was very rough, and underdeveloped too, and took an insane amount of concentration to get much of anything, and he wasn't known for his patience. He only got the bare basics of those aspects, it took time for him to gain a good feeling for any of it, and once he was able to, it was… blurry or dull. Not to mention it was all very new and confusing, he didn't know what to make of it just yet so he had been practicing with it so he could get used to the new senses.
He was only beginning to get anywhere, and that was with his ability to detect and recognize chakra signatures, though the progress was only minimal he was getting somewhere. After a while, he managed to pick up on a familiar signature sitting in the trees nearby. 'Well, there he is.' Grinning he turned and called out, startling his teammates, who had been wondering what he was doing, "Kakashi-sensei, come and join us!"
The silver-haired Jounin immediately appeared between the three genin in a gust of wind. "Yo, Naruto… Mind telling me how you knew I was there?" Kakashi asked genuinely curious, he had made sure to mask his presence while he observed his team. He was hoping they might start to get along better soon as they seemed to have grown distant from each other, especially Naruto, but not for a lack of trying.
Deciding to be honest with the Jounin, he answered him, "I think I picked up some kind of sensory ability recently while messing around with my chakra and I was practicing using it when I managed to recognize your chakra signature."
Kakashi blinked in surprise before giving him an eye-smile, "That's a very unique ability, Naruto. It should prove especially useful to you and any team you're a part of, you've improved a lot recently." Sasuke and Sakura seemed to even more surprised than Kakashi was at the revelation.
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei, I'm aware of its uses and how important it could be."
"'Could'? Not 'is'?" Sakura asked, "How do you even just pick up something like that, anyway?"
"Yes, could. I only just found out about it, Sakura-chan. It's not very developed, things are blurry and confusing and hard to make out at times. As for how I picked it up, I don't know how exactly, I was just meditating one day, looking into my chakra and I found my senses had increased beyond the usual."
"You… meditate…?" she asked incredulously.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Yes, what else would I have been doing for the past half-hour." She just shrugged in response and Naruto turned back to Kakashi. "Well, anyway, it's not field ready yet. It requires intense concentration at the moment and I'm just not used to it yet, in the first place."
"Don't worry about it," Kakashi waved him off, "We don't need it right now, despite how useful it is, not that we won't take advantage of it once you can do it effortlessly. You'll get better with time and practice; natural sensors are rare, but the skill still takes time to master and use effectively."
"I know, so expect me to put the maximum amount of effort into improving at this, it's too useful not to. I'll let you know when it's useable."
"That's good…. Now for what I have for you today." He then pulled out several sheets of paper, gaining inquisitive looks from the genin. "I've nominated you three for the upcoming Chunin exams which will begin this Friday. Though you have the option of deciding to compete or not."
This revelation shocked the three genin, leaving them speechless for a moment. Eventually, Naruto broke out of his stupor, a large grin spreading across his face. "This is great, Kakashi-sensei! Time to show them what we're made of. I'm in!"
"Are you sure we're ready for this, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"You've all improved and though you all could get along more, you still work together when it's needed, I have faith that you three can do it. That's why I nominated you in the first place." He said with his trademark eye-smile.
Sasuke also felt that he ready, he needed to get stronger so that he could kill… him… and becoming a Chunin would only help him do so. For him there was no hesitation, he would compete. "I'm in, too."
Sakura wasn't as sure as her two teammates, there was no question in her mind that Sasuke was stronger than her, and she had to acknowledge that Naruto was stronger than her too, not even counting his recent changes, which confused her. She originally thought he was only trying to impress her by changing his attire but now she wasn't so sure. He was a bit quieter than before and would often leave immediately after missions and team-training to who knows where.
However, she wanted to impress, Sasuke-kun and felt she had improved enough. Plus Kakashi-sensei had said she was ready for it… "I think I can do this too. I'm in as well."
They all signed their forms and gave them to Kakashi, "I'm sure you'll all do great, I'll turn these into Hokage-sama. Use this next week to prepare for the exams and be present in room 301 in the academy at nine a.m. on Friday." With that, they all went their separate ways in order to begin preparations for the exams.
Streets of Konohagakure no Sato – 3 days later
Naruto wasn't having a good morning. First, his hot-water had gone out and he was forced to take a cold shower, not completely new to him seeing it wasn't the first time it had happened, far from it. Then he had somehow lost one of his sandals and it had taken him nearly an hour to find the thing. He had thought that maybe things would be fine from there, but then he had run into his female teammate and found himself in the current situation.
Konohamaru, who he had also run into shortly before Sakura showed up and had managed to piss Sakura off by insinuating that she was his girlfriend, which Naruto wouldn't usually mind all that much if it weren't for the fact that she was now trying to murder the both of them.
He was following behind Konohamaru with Sakura chasing a short distance behind, yelling obscenities at them. Eventually, Konohamaru rounded a corner after exiting an alleyway only to bump into someone else.
"Ow, you brat, that hurt!" an angry voice exclaimed as Naruto rounded the corner and he stopped, as did Sakura when she realized what was going on.
"Hey let me go!" A boy, who was maybe a year or two older than they were was holding a struggling Konohamaru up in the air by his shirt. He was wearing a full-body black jumpsuit with a cat-like head-covering, he also had purple markings that looked to be paint covering his face and had a Hitai-ate on his forehead with an hourglass on the plate, the symbol of Sunagakure. (Hidden Sand)
There was also a strange, large, bandage-wrapped object on his back. Standing behind him was a girl, maybe a year older than him, she had teal eyes and had her sandy blonde hair gathered into four short, pig-tails. She wore a single light purple, off-the-shoulders garment, with a scarlet sash tied around her waist. As well as mesh armor worn over her shoulders and legs, as well as on her right calf and her left thigh. She had a Sunagakure Hitai-ate around her neck and what Naruto recognized as a large battle fan on her back.
"Why would I do that, you bumped into me, I should hurt you for that." The strange boy threatened.
Seeing enough, Naruto intervened. "Oi, makeup boy! I would put him down if you." The girl giggled at the makeup boy comment.
The boy immediately turned toward Naruto, "Who the hell, are you! And it's not makeup dammit, it's warpaint!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, one of the many things he had taken into practice with is studies, was the art of enraging an opponent to make them easier to take advantage of as well as keeping calm himself, though he was still getting the hang of that. After all, you don't necessarily think clearly when angry, and he had seen where that got him. "Really… well, you can call it whatever you like, but it's still makeup, you probably just stole it from your sister anyway. Anyway, you should really put him down."
The boy looked ready to kill, but managed to contain himself, though his face was nearly entirely red in anger and embarrassment, "Why would I listen to you."
"Well, I don't know about you, but foreign shinobi coming into our village, for any reason, and roughing up the Hokage's Grandson… How do you think that looks?" His face went immediately from red to as white as a sheet. The implication of that statement setting in, he immediately dropped Konohamaru, who ran behind Naruto to hide behind his legs.
"You idiot!" the girl snapped at him, "You could have gotten us into big trouble."
"How was I supposed to know he was the Hokage's grandson!" he defended.
"Wait." Sakura cut, drawing their attention, "What are Suna Shinobi doing here anyway?"
Naruto rolled his eyes at the question, even he realized why they were here, "The Chunin exams, Sakura-chan."
"Oh," she replied meekly. Though internally she was pissed that Naruto made her look stupid.
"Who are you again?" The blond girl asked.
"I never said, but I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the pink haired girl is my teammate Haruno Sakura, and the one hiding in the tree over there is my other teammate Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto gestured to said tree to see Sasuke watching them and looked quite put out at being discovered and by Naruto no less.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed when Sasuke jumped down to join them.
"Hn." He grunted and looked toward the blond girl. "…and who are you?"
"I'm Temari, and the idiot here is my brother Kankuro." She said bluntly.
"Oh, so you did just your sister's makeup, I was just saying that, but I didn't know she was actually your sister." Naruto provoked the newly named Kankuro, Naruto had grown to enjoy, messing with people, as it was very entertaining and served as good practice.
"Dammit! I told you it's not makeup, It's warpaint!" Kankuro yelled loudly.
"You're a disgrace, Kankuro. Shut up before I kill you." A flat, monotone voice spoke up from the tree Sasuke had just vacated a moment ago.
They all turned to see a boy their age hanging upside down from a tree branch with short, spiky red hair, he had black rings around his teal eyes reminding Naruto of a raccoon and the Kanji for 'love' (愛) on the left side of his forehead. He was wearing a black bodysuit with short sleeves; mesh armor could be seen coming out further from them. He also wore a white cloth over his right and has a wide leather band from his left shoulder to which carried a large gourd. His Hitai-ate was wrapped around the band.
Naruto hadn't seen him, he'd only found Sasuke because he hadn't begun to be more observant at all times, another thing he had learned in his studies. If you weren't paying attention to your surroundings, you could be easily ambushed and killed. This guy must have been hiding well.
"G-Gaara…" Kankuro stuttered, he looked afraid of this Gaara, Temari looked afraid of him as well. Gaara then disappeared in a swirl of… sand? Only to reappear in front of them.
'Shunshin?' Naruto thought, only to cut his ponderings off as he felt the chakra coming off of him. 'This chakra… it's...' It was dark and unnerved him and he couldn't help but take an involuntary step back. The chakra was also familiar to him, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly why just yet.
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked from his side.
He turned stared at him for several long seconds "Sabaku no Gaara. (Gaara of the Desert)" he said in his flat monotone. Gaara proceeded to turn away from Sasuke, who looked irritated at being ignored and faced Naruto. He stared at him for a minute before finally speaking, "You… Intrigue me." He said slowly, "You will prove my existence." He continued with a hint of bloodlust that unnerved Naruto.
Gaara then turned around and without another word, walked off, prompting him to turn to the wide-eyed Temari and Kankuro. "Okay, what the fuck was that I'm guessing it's not good?" he said bluntly, causing his teammates to sweat drop at the Crass response.
"Nope, you're probably gonna die," Kankuro said with an air of assuredness.
Naruto didn't appreciate that he seemed to think he would die so easily, "We'll see." Naruto responded dismissively in a terse fashion, in the past Naruto might've thrown a huge fit in response to such a statement and honestly still wanted to, but he had been working on controlling his emotions and had learned when and when not to have an outburst, though it was hard sometimes. "We'll be seeing you in the Chunin exams, good luck, you'll need it, makeup boy," Naruto said as he turned to leave. This encounter had pissed him off and he needed to go blow off some steam. He was headed off to train earlier anyway.
3 days later – Friday – Academy
Naruto was currently heading to meet with his teammates so they could enter the Chunin exams. He didn't know too much amount the exams, as they were only described in general terms when he read about them. He knew that it was traditionally separated into three different exams, each testing the shinobi participants in the different areas of the shinobi arts, however, each village did things differently. He was also aware that the exams were very dangerous as well.
Regardless, Naruto thought he was ready, his training had begun to show his progress, at the very least this would allow him to just how much he had grown. He had been practically training himself into the ground in an effort to improve himself, to become strong enough to protect those precious to him. He had changed as a person in the process; he knew that much, and he hoped he had grown significantly stronger in the process.
He spotted his teammates waiting in front of the building as he arrived. He grinned, 'It's time.' "Yo, Sasuke, Sakura-chan. You guys ready for this?"
"Of course, I am, but are you?" Sasuke responded."
"You know I am. How about you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked the pink-haired kunoichi.
"I think so." She answered uncertainly, Sakura wasn't as confident as her teammates but was determined to continue and prover herself.
"Well, let's go then," Naruto prompted before they all entered the building, they made their way up the stairs and upon arriving they found many other genin grouped up around the room. On one side of the room, there were a pair of doors with the number 301 on the sign next to them. In front of the doors were to older genin beating on another boy who was wearing a green spandex jumpsuit with a pair of orange leg-warmers and was wearing his Hitai-ate as a belt. He had his hair in a bowl-cut and large eyes with freakishly large eyebrows.
'Something's wrong here.' He thought, he just wasn't exactly sure of what yet, but those two older genin seemed familiar to him.
"You're going to take the Chunin exams?" one of the boys asked dismissively. "You'll just get killed."
"We suggest you just leave, you won't stand a chance, even we've had to take the exams three times." The second continued.
"Just let us through, you jerks!" a familiar voice yelled, and he looked over to see Tenten, "We're here to take the exams, so just move!"
"You'll just fail, we're just helping weed out those who never had a chance. Chunin are team leaders, I doubt any of you have what it takes." The first said before knocking Tenten out of the way as well.
'There's something up with those two… and didn't we only go up one flight of stairs?' Naruto thought it was seriously bugging him. 'Wait. Those two, don't they look like…' he perked up. "Sasuke, can you check for Genjutsu?"
Sasuke just raised his eyebrows, before shrugging and activating his Sharingan. "Yeah. There's a Genjutsu."
"Thought so…" Naruto clicked his tongue, before stepping forward. "Hey! Izumo, Kotetsu. Just let us all pass already and get rid of the damn Genjutsu."
The Henge'd Izumo, looked surprised at being found out, but shook it off. "Oh, how'd you figure it out."
"We only went up one flight of stairs for starters, plus you guys could've used better Henge's than just making you look younger and you sounded about the same too," Naruto yelled back at them, though if he was honest, he didn't think he would have caught all of that a few months ago.
"Any idiot with a brain could have seen through it," Sasuke added, though he was a little surprised that Naruto caught it before Sakura, he just chalked it up to his recent changes. He was honestly glad the blonde was quieter than before, it was all bit strange, and he couldn't make heads or tails of him.
He grinned before dispelling the Genjutsu. "Huh, well you might have seen through it, but It'll take more than that here." He made to kick Sasuke and he threw one in response but before either of them could do anything both were caught by the Genin in the green jumpsuit, who seemed to have made a full recovery from before."
"Idiot," a boy, obviously a Hyuga telling by his white eyes, spoke from behind him. "Wasn't it your idea that we hide our true abilities."
"I just…" he said before blushing and looking over toward Sakura. He then walked over to her.
"Oh, great..." Tenten sighed.
"Hello! You are Haruno Sakura, aren't you? My name is Rock Lee, please go out with me, I'll protect you with my life!" Lee said a shining grin and a thumbs up.
"Just… No. You're weird." Sakura said, seemingly disgusted and a little weirded out. Lee immediately slumped and Naruto couldn't help sorry for the guy just a little bit, even with his own lingering crush on Sakura. Though he felt that was starting to wear out on him.
"Hey, Tenten." Naruto turned to the bun-haired girl; he had seen here a couple more times since he had first met her at her father's store. "So, you're in these exams too. I'm guessing these two are your teammates." He said gesturing to Lee and the Hyuga from before, who was talking to Sasuke.
She sighed again, "Yeah, the one in green is Rock Lee, and the other one is Hyuga Neji. I'm honestly surprised to see you here since you're a Rookie."
"Hey! I'd like to think I'm good enough for this at least, Rookie or not, so don't underestimate me." Naruto said with a grin. "…or do, it's your choice."
"Don't count on it." She laughed, "Just don't think you can beat me."
His grin just grew wider in response, before he turned to leave. "I guess we'll see, good luck, Tenten." He walked over to his team.
"About time, Naruto. Let's go." Sasuke said once he reached them.
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said dismissively and they made their way onto the third floor. They were about to reach the stairs when they were intercepted by Rock Lee.
"Hey, you, the broody one," He said pointing at Sasuke, who scowled at the description. "You are the one named Uchiha Sasuke, yes. This year's Rookie of the Year, I wish to challenge you to a fight right here and now."
"You know you I am, and you still want to challenge me," Sasuke said arrogantly, "You're an idiot."
"I wish to test my techniques against the last of your legendary clan, do you accept."
"Sasuke-kun, you shouldn't, we don't have much time before the exams start," Sakura said nervously.
"Hn, this will only take five minutes."
"For once I'm in agreement here, we shouldn't give too much about ourselves away and we have no idea how strong he is," Naruto interjected; he was a bit miffed that everyone always ignored him in favor of Sasuke. In the past, he might have insisted on fighting him first. Now, he knew the importance of discretion and keeping your skills hidden when possible. Where before he was loud and would show-off at any point. He had discovered how dangerous that attitude was, and not just for him but his comrades as well.
"I don't need your opinion here, dobe. I won't have to show much anyway." Sasuke retorted.
'That arrogant…' He had to hold back from yelling at him for being stupid. 'He's my teammate, and our relations are strained as is…' he sighed "Fine, don't say I didn't warn you," he walked off toward the stairs. "I'll meet you at the door, don't take too long." He just needed to get away for a minute before he punched the asshole.
Kakashi was currently waiting outside room 301 of the academy building for his genin team to arrive. His team was honestly not the best, but their teamwork was good when it truly mattered, but could still be better. They all had their issues but had improved somewhat but Naruto had seemed to change most of all.
Ever since he had found him three months ago, after their mission to Nami no Kuni, he has been growing rapidly. Both in terms of strength and mind. His self-control had grown by leaps and bounds and his general knowledge of shinobi aspects had progressed significantly, and Naruto had been adapting himself to following those aspects. Kakashi was surprised and honestly very proud of him for changing. He didn't show much sign of slowing down either.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!" Kakashi looked up to see the very person he was thinking about. "What are you doing here?"
"Yo, Naruto. I was waiting for you and the others. Speaking of, where are Sasuke and Sakura?" he asked, noticing that they weren't with the blonde."
Naruto grew an irritated look before it quickly disappeared. "They'll be along in a few minutes, Sasuke was challenged to a fight by this Rock Lee guy, he wears a green spandex jumpsuit and has a bowl-cut, along with some very big eyebrows. He's… weird." Naruto finished.
'Hmm, sounds like Gai's student, Kakashi had heard Gai had turned him into a mini-version of himself.' Kakashi had to hold back an involuntary shudder, at the idea of two Gai's running around, one was already too much.
"Anyway, I tried to dissuade them from fighting, but he wouldn't listen…. Damn Uchiha arrogance." Naruto muttered under his breath, "I decided to go ahead and wait for them here before I did something stupid."
"I see…" just then Sasuke and Sakura arrived, the former looking rather roughed up and the latter looking worried.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at Sasuke's scuffed up appearance, "Just… don't." Sasuke said tersely. Naruto was honestly tempted to give him the old 'I told you so.' but decided not to push his luck and just shrugged.
"What are you doing here, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, drawing the masked Jounin's attention.
"Well, I was waiting to make sure all three of you showed up, the Chunin exams are a team exam, and if one of you didn't show I'd have to disqualify you from competing."
"Why didn't you tell us this before now?" Sasuke asked, obviously a little irritated.
"I didn't want you to pressure Sakura into competing but doesn't matter now since you're all here so good luck," Kakashi said before disappearing in a Shunshin.
"Well, let's go," Naruto said, before pushing the door open and entering the room, only to freeze at the number of people in the room. There must've been over a hundred genin present for the exam.
"Hey, Naruto." A loud voice called out, and he turned around to see Team 8 following Kiba over to them. "Your team is taking these exams too; I hope you're ready to get your ass kicked."
"Ha, yeah right. Shouldn't you be saying that too yourself." Naruto shot back with a grin.
"Oi, you don't stand a chance against me."
"I guess we'll have to see about that then." Naruto turned to the rest of Team 8, "Hey Shino, Hinata. Good luck in the exams."
"Thank you, Naruto-san. Good luck to you as well." Shino answered in his usual monotone but a sincere voice.
"G-good luck to y-you as well, N-Naruto-kun." Hinata managed to stutter out with a blush on her face.
"Troublesome, you guys are here too," Shikamaru said as he approached the group. "I can't believe Ino managed to convince me into taking this stupid thing." He said, only to be knocked upside the head by the girl in question.
"You're just too damn lazy, Shika. Or would you rather your mother get onto for not taking the exams because you didn't want to put out any effort."
"Ugh… no."
"I heard that!"
Naruto laughed at their antics, "Hey Shika, Choji, Ino-chan."
She smiled at the other blond, "Hey, Naruto!" Her face then grew serious and she put her hands on her hips "You haven't been training too hard, have you?"
"N-no. I've been careful." He said nervously. The others were confused by the interaction but didn't get time to think one it due to Ino's next, much more predictable action.
"Good." Ino said with a nod before turning her attention elsewhere, "Sasuke-kun!" she said before latching onto his back, who attempted to shrug her off, "Did you miss me?"
"Get of Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled.
"Back off, forehead!" Ino yelled back.
"You guys should keep it down." A voice called out to the group. They looked over to see an older genin wearing a purple shirt and pants with medium-length silver hair pulled into a ponytail. "You guys are the rookies right out of the academy, right?"
"Yeah, what of it, and who are you?" asked Kiba.
"My name's Yakushi Kabuto, your gathering too much attention to this area and I'd rather not be targeted just yet." The genin looked around to see the various dirty looks being sent their way; some were even downright murderous. "Although, I suppose I can't blame you. I was much the same my first time. "You know, how about I give guys some pointers?"
"Is this your second time taking the exams, Kabuto-san?" asked Sakura.
"No, It's my seventh. The exams take place twice a year, so this is my fourth year." The implications of that settled in among the group, making them realize the difficulty of these exams. Naruto though was beginning to wonder why the guy was still a genin after so many attempts and still alive, as well as wondering why he was being so helpful. Was he just that weak and stupid? Several others, namely Shikamaru and Shino had similar thoughts.
"So, you know a lot about these exams by now then."
"I do, and I've managed to gather lots of information on all the participants among other things over the past four years, all stored in these special Ninja Info Cards of mine." As he said this, he pulled a deck of around 200 cards from his pouch.
"Ninja Info Cards?" queried Sakura.
"Yes." He clarified before taking a card out seemingly at random and showing to them, revealing it to be blank. "Their blank until I channel my chakra into them, now watch." He then placed the card on the ground and with a puff of smoke, it revealed a map of the elemental nations with three-dimensional bar-graphs over the participating hidden villages. "This one in particular shows each of the different hidden villages and the corresponding number of genin they sent to participate."
"Do you also have information on individuals?" asked Sasuke.
"Oh…? Well, my information is far from complete, but yes, I do. Have anyone in mind?"
"Sabaku no Gaara of Sunagakure, Rock Lee of Konohagakure…. and Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure." He got a few odd looks from the last person, Sasuke decided it couldn't hurt to see if he knew anything about his teammate. Naruto had been a bit of an enigma as of late that he didn't completely know what to make of.
Naruto himself narrowed his eyes sharply at Sasuke's request, he didn't know what all this guy knew about him and would rather some of it not get out.
"You even know their names, that makes this easy." He then quickly swiped out three more cards from the deck before channeling chakra into one. "First up is Rock Lee, He's a year older than you and despite standing out among last year's crop of genin this is also his first year taking the Chunin exams. His skill in Taijutsu has grown exponentially over the past year but has no skill to note of in either Genjutsu of Ninjutsu. To date, he's completed 20 D-Rank missions and 11 C-Rank missions. His teammates are Higurashi Tenten and Hyuga Neji. His Jounin sensei is Maito Gai.
"Next up is Sabaku no Gaara, 8 C-Rank missions and wow, even a B-Rank mission, that's rare for a rookie. "His teammates are his brother, Kankuro, and his sister Temari. There are the children of Suna's Yondaime Kazekage (Fourth Wind Shadow), Kinchiri no Rasa (Rasa of the Gold Dust)" There were various reactions among the genin about that revelation, though they were quite surprised. "Beyond that, they're not much more known about him, but there is one thing and hear this, he was said to return from every last one of his missions completely unscathed and without a scratch." He finished gravely, the other understood the implications of such a statement as well.
"Last, we have Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto himself perked up, he needed to be able to move fast to prevent anything sensitive from getting out if necessary. "24 D-Rank missions and, oh a C-Rank Mission that was upgraded to A-Rank, that's unusual. His teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, with his Jounin-sensei being Hatake Kakashi. Up until recently, there wasn't much to say about his skills but recently his skill in Ninjutsu in Taijutsu had a sudden growth." Naruto narrowed his eyes here. Somehow this guy knew about his training. Not that was really trying to hide it, but he didn't like the idea of someone watching him with him knowing about it. "The strange thing about him is that nothing else was available about him."
"Nothing was available? What's that supposed to mean?" asked Ino, she had grown a recent interest in Naruto after that day and was confused about the last bit of information.
"It's just that, most of the information was blacked out, you know. Classified…"
"I think that's enough." Naruto cut in. Kabuto gave Naruto a knowing grin causing the blond to narrow his eyes once again silver-haired Genin. There was something very suspicious about him. Naruto perked back up. "There's nothing very interesting about little ol' me." He tried to play off everyone's growing suspicion.
"Anyway, many of the different shinobi villages bordering Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire) are participating in the Chunin exams this year. Sunagakure, Kusagakure (Hidden in the Grass), Amegakure (Hidden in the Rain), Takigakure (Hidden in the Waterfalls), even the recently created Otogakure (Hidden in the Sound) has sent a team. Although not much is known about them as they come from a new, small nation, so they're not as renown as the older, more respected shinobi villages."
Moments after he said that Naruto sensed something coming towards them, one of the sound genin had jumped toward in an effort to attack Kabuto.
He had bandages covering most of his face, leaving only his left eye uncovered. He also wore a large poncho with long sleeves, a snake patterned scarf around his neck, snake patterned pants and a large furry object on his back and a Hitai-ate with a musical note on the plate on his forehead. Before Naruto could do anything, he had reached Kabuto who jumped back to avoid the swing the sound genin sent toward him with the large metal gauntlet on his arm. Despite avoiding the swing Kabuto's glasses shattered, but he appeared to be fine otherwise… Only for him collapse onto the ground vomiting.
"For someone who has been taking this exam for four years now, you sure are weak." The sound genin muttered. His teammates had appeared by his side. One was a taller boy with spiky, black hair and dark eyes. He wore a beige shirt with three prints of the kanji for 'death' (死) down the front and was also wearing a snake patterned scarf and pants. His Hitai-ate had an attached happuri under the cloth.
The other was a Kunoichi with fair skin, black eyes with very long black hair, almost reaching down to the ground which was tied by a violet ribbon near the end. She wore her Hitai-ate on her head, wore a pale green vest, snake patterned pants with a snake patterned skirt over it, and a snake patterned scarf around her neck like her teammate's.
Suddenly, before anyone could do anything else, there was a large explosion of smoke at the front of the room. The smoke cleared to reveal around twenty older ninjas, all Chunin and Jounin. "All right! Quiet the hell down you brats." A tall man with a scarred face, wearing a black trench coat, and bandana style Hitai-ate announced himself. He then pointed toward the Oto-genin, "You three from Otogakure, there'll be no fighting unless I authorize it, any more and you'll be disqualified. Got it."
"Sorry, sir, it's our first time so we got carried away." The bandage wrapped Oto-nin said in a low, seemingly sincere voice."
"Is that so? Well, as I said, no fighting unless authorized and that goes for all of you." He then cleared his throat. "Now, my name's Morino Ibiki, I'm the Procter and chief examiner for the first test of these Chunin exams and Tokubetsu Jounin (Special Jounin). You will follow all of my instructions when I say so. Here I am God and what I say, goes. Got it." He then gestured to several chunin, who were each holding a box. "Now this test it a written test, come up and draw a number from one of the boxes and report to the indicated seat, once seated we'll pass out the tests."
Naruto was a bit nervous; he was aware that a written test of some sort was usually given during the exams but despite his recent growth in intelligence he confident he would be able to do well. Regardless he bit back the urge to complain and found his indicated seat and found himself sat next to Hinata.
After the papers were all passed out, Ibiki spoke again, "No one turns over your papers until I give the signal. First, there are a few rules pertaining to this test. No questions and I'm only saying this once so listen carefully. First, this test has ten questions worth one point each and a point will be subtracted for each point wrong. Two, this test is still a team event and the score will be from a joint thirty-point team total."
"Wait, what do you mean by team total!?" Sakura broke in, she was probably about him doing bad, not that Naruto blamed her based on his past performance on this type of thing, though it still hurt a little that she would think so little of him.
"I said no questions, so shut up and listen. Now, third, if you are caught cheating at any point during the exam, two points will be removed from each member of your team. If any one person's score is reduced to zero, all three members of your team will be disqualified, no matter whether that's through cheating or not. You have one hour; the tenth question will be given during the final fifteen minutes. Now… Begin!"
Naruto immediately turned his page over and looked at the first question only to immediately lose all confidence. It was beyond anything he knew; the other questions weren't any better. He wasn't confident that even Sakura would be able to answer these. He then took a minute to think about that last rule. It was… odd. Why make it so that you're not immediately disqualified if caught cheating? It was like they wanted… you… to cheat! He was never happier at this moment that he had taken to actually thinking like a shinobi rather than just acting one like he was before.
Naruto then took a few discreet glances around the room, Hinata was using her Byakugan (White eyes) as was Neji. Sasuke was using his Sharingan, and other people were using various discrete tactics to cheat. So, he had to cheat, but how would he go about it. He didn't have any mysterious Kekkei Genkai (Bloodline Limit) to aid him, not that he knew of anyway. He would have to cheat, there was no other way to answer these questions, which were obviously designed to force them to that conclusion.
He looked around trying to come up with some kind of idea. While he was doing this, a proctor would occasionally throw a kunai at someone's test before telling them they failed and kicking them out along with their teammates. Some would protest but it wouldn't get them anywhere. Naruto then noticed one person who was quickly and confidently writing his answers down. This person looked appeared to know all the answers, how didn't matter to Naruto as he quickly came up with a plan.
He discreetly retrieved a seal tag from his pouch. Over the past two months, Naruto had taken to studying Fūinjutsu ever since he had received the supplies from Tenten when he bought his clothes. Now, he wasn't anywhere close to becoming a Seal Master yet, far from it, but he did have a basic understanding of the art, and he could create some simple seals. The art was easier than he thought it would be going into it and he was progressing relatively quickly.
This particular tag would emit large amounts of thick, black smoke, accompanied by a large bang, before burning up, leaving no trace. The purpose of this was to disorient the enemy and provide cover for an escape, but it would do for what he had in mind. He might even be caught doing so but, they had five strikes before being disqualified and regardless of how obnoxious and blatant this method was, it would still only be one strike if caught.
He waited for the person from before to completely finish writing and put his pencil down and he detonated the tag, which caused the room to immediately fill up with the dark smoke. Wasting no time at all Naruto made a clone a and hade switch out that guy's paper for his blank one before immediately dispelling.
The proctors quickly made to remove the smoke from the room, they made a show of being irritated but they were internally impressed by such a blatant yet effective move. The smoke filled the too fast for them to identify the cause, however. Naruto himself, made a show of being as displeased and confused as everyone else to throw off suspicion, while on the inside he was grinning like a loon. 'I know it was my idea, but I still can't believe that worked!' he remarked mentally. He also quickly wrote his name on the paper and pretending that he was writing down answers before turning the page over and putting his pencil down.
Over the course of the next twenty or so minutes, a few more teams were caught cheating and were disqualified, eventually, Ibiki stepped forward, "Times up! Pencils down everyone…" Just then Kankuro entered the room, coming from the bathroom. "Just in time, I hope your time playing with dolls was worthwhile."
Kankuro had trouble keeping a straight face, 'Shit! He knows about Karasu!' "Ah… yes." Kankuro quickly went back to his seat. Stealthily slipping something to Temari on the way.
Now, before I give the last question there are a few last-minute rules." He took a long glance around the room before continuing, "First of you have the option of choosing whether or to take this question or reject it."
"Chose!?" yelled Temari, "What happens if we don't take it?"
"If you choose to reject the question, you will automatically lose all your points and fail, along with your teammates."
"What!" One genin yelled.
"Of course, we would take it then!" yelled another.
"You didn't let me finish," Ibiki cut it. "Yes, you'll fail if you choose not to, but if you choose to take it, but answer wrong… you'll be forbidden from ever taking the chunin exams again."
"That ridiculous!" Kiba declared after a long second in which everyone was shocked silent, "Lots of people here have taken the exams before." Many others voiced their agreement.
"Well you just drew the short stick then, those people didn't have me as a Procter last year, I'm making the rules this time. If you're not confident you can answer correctly, back out and try again next year, and the year after that." Ibiki Replied coolly. "Are you ready? Well, let's begin. If you want to reject the question raise your hand and once, we'll get your number then you'll leave with your teammates."
Naruto thought about this, he didn't want to just jump on it half-cocked, nor didn't he want to freak out over the implications. 'There were hidden meanings in the first nine questions, the test was most likely made to test our information gathering skills. So, what is this question testing? Kakashi-sensei always told us that as Shinobi, we need to look underneath the underneath. So… what is it this time?'
As Naruto was contemplating this, several people gave up and were sent out with their teammates. 'We take it, we might be stuck as genin forever, we give up we fail but have a chance to make it up. But is that what a Chunin would do?' Naruto grinned to himself. 'No. No, it's not. This is testing our resolve.'
Naruto relaxed he would take the question, no matter what it was he would get through it. Besides, there were other ways of being promoted. Just then he noticed Sakura was about to raise her hand, 'Dammit! Sakura, don't do it!' He needed to do something and fast.
He acted like he was going to raise his hand only to slam it down on the desk and stand up. He gave Ibiki a determined look. "Like I would fall for that! If I don't have the resolve to take one damn question, how would I react during a mission, where more than my possible career is on the line. The lives myself, and more importantly, the lives of my comrades! Besides even if I can't take the exams again, there's more than one get promoted. I'm taking your stupid question."
Naruto sat back down while continuing to look Ibiki right in the face with a grin. The result of Naruto's outburst was instantaneous. Him declaring his own resolve and the reasons for it had strengthened the resolve of everyone else remaining in the room. 'This kid… He figured it out…' Ibiki thought while glancing around the room, 'Seventy-eight people left... He instantly changed the mood of the room with that outburst. Being able to increase the morale and resolve of everyone like that… Uzumaki Naruto… this kid's going places.' He looked around the room, everyone was completely calm. He looked to the other proctors, getting nods in return 'No point dragging this along any further'.
"Anyone else…?" asked Ibiki, "Well them, to all of you remaining in this room… you all pass the first exam!"
'Wait a minute.' Naruto thought, 'That was easier than I expected.'
There was a shocked silence for a moment before, "What!" Sakura exclaimed. "What do you mean we passed! What about the tenth question?"
Ibiki smiled, "There was no tenth question. Well, you could say the question of whether you were to take or reject the question was the tenth question."
"What about the first nine, questions then, was it just a waste of time," Temari asked.
"Information gathering," Naruto spoke up getting him several looks. "It was to test or information gathering skills. I took me a while to figure it out, but that was the only thing that made sense."
"The kid's right." Ibiki acknowledged, and Naruto grinned. "It wasn't a waste of time. It was a test in information gathering and spying. However, the questions are too difficult for most at your level to answer correctly. We designed the test on the assumption that many of you would resort to cheating, and to ensure that there were suitable targets, we placed a pair of ringers among you, Chunin who already knew all the answers." Two people stood up when he said this, showing that they were the Chunin mentioned. Naruto recognized one as the person he switched his test with.
"Of course, those who lacked the skill to cheat in a discreet manner failed…" Ibiki then removed his bandana revealing long slash marks, and a number of holes where screws had been drilled into his skull… signs of torture. Naruto couldn't help but cringe slightly at the sight.
"To be caught spying can cost more than your life… and you may pay for it, bit by bit… Or you could pay in ways even more severe if you're caught, and you don't realize it… false information could be given. Allowing your comrades to be caught in an ambush and killed… or even captured. Don't be caught. You're only doing your enemy's work for them that way." He said seriously while replacing his headband. "Any who couldn't do so was removed. Weeding out the worthless if you will."
"Ok… but what about the tenth question?" asked Temari.
"Ah… The tenth question. That was the first real test on the exam."
"What does that mean?" Sakura asked.
"Allow me to explain. The tenth question was a choice between two options, both difficult and possibly very dangerous. Those who choose not to risk it and reject were failed, those who accepted risked a chance at never trying again. It was unfair and completely nasty. So why did ask them?" Ibiki asked rhetorically, "Let's assume you all become Chunin. You're assigned a mission, it's both very dangerous and contains the risk of both you and your comrades losing your lives, so do you accept the mission or turn it down, rather than risk your life for the mission? Could any Chunin honestly get away with only taking the easy jobs?
"Hell no! No matter what it takes! No matter the cost! There will missions you can't turn down. Any mission could carry the risk of death. A Shinobi must be willing and able to put his life down for the sake of the mission and have the resolve to go through with it, the valor to inspire courage in those around him and rid the fear from his Comrades! That's what we look for in those aspiring to be Chunin Commanders." Ibiki finished seriously. He also aspired a great amount of respect in Naruto and though he didn't know it, it went both ways for Ibiki, due to the resolve he demonstrated earlier.
"Those who can't do this, who aren't willing or able to put their life on the line, to make these tough decisions are weaklings who will only make weak decisions. In my opinion, they don't deserve the rank of Chunin at all. By choosing to accept, you answered correctly. Keep that resolve and you can conquer any and all difficulties you might face. Congratulations on passing the first exam."
Then there was a large crash and large, black bundle flew through the window, followed by kunai shooting from the bundle to impale into the ceiling, revealing a large banner on which was written: 'Introducing the Amazing Mitarashi Anko! Procter of the Second Exam!'
Only the second chapter but was frustrating to write, expect chapter three within a week or two, but I will try to get it out as soon as possible, please read and review. I hope you enjoyed.