And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 21!
I wish that there was a good Kingdom Hearts time travel fic…Sure there is Sora's Life is a Game, but I want something closer to Kingdom Hearts: Rewind. The only problem is that Kingdom Hearts: Rewind never gets updated…
Freaking long ass chapters…Just so you know, I am trying to keep the average chapter length above 7k words. This means that I will split a chapter in two if it reaches 14k in terms of story content. That hasn't happened yet, but this one came close.
I lowered the rating of the fic down to T. I don't really know why I had it at M, it is never going to get that graphic.
Guest: You got it.
prototype gear: Yeah, I've read it. Great story. Wish it got updated. I would like to have this story reach that level, but that is a tough goal. I will do my best of course, but 26-Lord-Pain is a great writer. I definitely think he is one of the best on the site.
Raidentensho: I'm not sure. If I give him armor, then I will probably just have him upgrade it once in a while instead of having it evolve.
OmegaDelta: I have two companions in mind to travel with him from the get-go.
animecollecter: I am currently leaning towards doing a pairing, but am still fairly undecided on the girl (Although I have someone I am leaning towards). It is super unlikely that I will add a harem. The worlds are currently undecided, although I have a couple in mind. RWBY is one of them.
Anyways, on with the Story!
I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...
Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."
Normal Thinking: 'Insert witty remark here.'
Biju/Diety Talking: "Insert witty remark here."
Biju/Diety Thinking: 'Insert witty remark here.'
Scene Change: Insert Place Here
Jutsu/Magic/Technique: Insert Jutsu Here
Training Ground 12 (Six Days Later)
Naruto walked into the training ground and was greeted with the sight of both of his teammates sitting in the grass with some sort of sketchbooks in their laps. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Naruto walked over to them and looked between the two sketches that they currently had open.
A low whistle of appreciation escaped from Naruto's mouth. He grinned at them when they look up at him. "Both of you are awesome artists. I'm guessing you two made those?"
The two sketches that they had open were both sketches of Konoha. Both of them were done in such great detail that Naruto was sure that he would never be able to make anything anywhere near the skill levels that they had.
Yakumo nodded with a smile as she and Sai traded sketchbooks. "Yeah, we were just comparing them."
Naruto nodded. "I get it." He looked around. "How long do you think until Yūgao-sensei shows up? I swear, I think that she just waits nearby for one of us to wonder that out loud before shows up…"
"Is that really what you think, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto jumped a bit in place. 'Yeah, actually. I'm pretty sure that's what you do…' He wouldn't say that out loud, of course. "Nah, it is probably just some weird set of coincidences that make that happen every time…"
Yūgao nodded with a smile. "Of course, that must be it. I'm glad you understand that." Naruto had to consciously restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Yūgao looked in between the three of them. "I have something to give you three." She said, gaining their attention. She grinned as she reached into her pouch. "Here you go!" She pulled out three cards.
The three of them gathered around her and took a card. Naruto's eyes quickly widened. "This is…"
Yūgao nodded. "Yep. This is your application for the chūnin exams. I have nominated the three of you for it."
Naruto grinned. "Awesome. Thanks, Yūgao-sensei." Yakumo and Sai soon echoed his sentiments.
Yūgao just waved the three of them off. "Don't worry about it. I know the three of you are ready for this." She gained an amused look. "After all, you actually managed to complete my training exercises every time." The disgruntled muttering was music to her ears. She shook her head. "Anyways, all you three need to do is decide whether or not you are going to enter. The chūnin exams begin tomorrow at nine. You have until then to decide. If you choose to enter, then go to the academy and head to room 301. That is where the first phase will be held." She waved at them. "Good luck, and have fun!" She disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto sweat dropped. ''Have fun,' she says. In what is sure to be a gathering of freaks and psychopaths?' Naruto shook his head before looking at his teammates. "What do you two think? Should we enter? No matter what happens, we should decide as a team."
Yakumo frowned in thought. "I do not mind either way…If you guys want to enter, I'll do it too." Naruto nodded before looking at Sai.
Sai merely tilted his head. "Would it not be best as shinobi to enter the exam in order to further our rank in the village?" He asked.
Naruto grinned a bit. "Then I guess we've decided." His grin grew. "We're entering-ttebayo!"
Urahara Shop
Naruto entered the Urahara shop and looked around. Like usual, there was nobody in the front. Naruto headed towards the back and walked into the tea room. Just like he had expected, he found Urahara sitting in there, fiddling with some device. Yoruichi was lounging on a nearby cushion.
Urahara glanced up when he heard someone else enter. "Ah, Naruto-kun. Welcome! What can I do for you?" He gained an amused look. "If you wanted to get your ass kicked by Soifon, I'm sorry to say you missed her. She has gone out again…"
Naruto huffed. "I didn't get my ass kicked that much…"
Urahara smiled behind his fan. "Oh? Then was it my imagination when we had to carry you back up into the guest room? Again?"
Naruto's eye began to twitch.
"But I'm sure you aren't here to deny any and all ass-kicking that may or may not have been dealt upon you…" Deep breaths, Naruto… "What can I do for you?" Yoruichi watched the interaction with an amused look.
Naruto shook his head. "Nothing, really. I just came to tell you that my team will be entering the chūnin exams after all."
Urahara nodded. "Yes, that is something…" He looked Naruto in the eye. "And have you decided what to do about the unstable jinchuriki?" He asked.
Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No, I haven't. I don't have a clue as to how I will pull this off. Or even when." Urahara hummed in thought.
The silence was eventually broken by Yoruichi. "Do you think that you will get the chance to do something during the exams?" The cat asked.
Naruto frowned in thought. "I don't know…Possibly, but I can't say for certain. I'm sure that this exam will last for more than a day, but I don't know if I will get the chance during it…"
Urahara fanned himself. "The best thing to do would be to just wait it out. If an opening appears, take it. If you don't get an opening…" He grinned. "…Make one for yourself."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "And you don't think that will cause problems?"
Urahara waved him off. "Oh, I'm sure it will cause lots of problems!" That just made Naruto scowl.
Yoruichi interjected before anything more could be said. "What Kisuke is trying to say is that you may have to work a bit to get this done."
Naruto sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I got it." He turned towards the door. "Anyways, I just came by to tell you that. I don't know how long this thing will last, so I may be away for a bit."
Yoruichi nodded. "I understand. Good luck."
"Bye Naruto-kun! Please do your best to not suck! It would be a shame if my pupil got his ass beat by even more people…"
Why couldn't that bastard ever just shut up?
Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later)
Naruto walked into the house and looked around. While he had meant to only spend a little time at the Urahara shop, he had let himself be lured into an argument with Urahara. That had escalated into Naruto getting infuriated to the point of challenging Urahara to another spar. Which of course, Urahara accepted.
The bucket hat wearing jackass had a lot of fun gloating at the fact that Naruto had just proved his point that the crimson blond got his ass kicked frequently.
Naruto scowled to himself. 'Like it is actually a surprise at this point that he can beat me in a fight…' Naruto looked around again. Was he the only one home?
"Aniki!"
"Nii-chan!" Well that answers that…
Naruto turned to see both of his siblings rushing up to him with huge grins on their faces. Naruto smirked at them. "I'm guessing you guys got the applications, too?"
Menma nodded excitedly. "Yeah, this is totally gonna be awesome-ttebasa! Now I can show everyone how badass I am!"
Narumi rolled her eyes at him, although she was bouncing in place with her own wide grin. "If you just rush into things, all you will manage to do is embarrass yourself."
Menma glared at her. "I will not!" He puffed out his chest. "I can see it now. I'm going to totally rock the entire thing and blow everyone away with how amazing I am. They might even skip over chūnin and promote me straight to jōnin-ttebasa."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "There is no way that would actually happen, moron." Naruto smirked. Why not have a little fun? "Definitely not for you. But for me…" He shrugged. "Hey, anything could happen."
Narumi smiled amusedly at him. "Be careful, Nii-chan. Any bigger and your head would rival Menma's in size." They both ignored the indignant shout that came from the youngest. Narumi's eyes widened slightly when she noticed the bruises forming on Naruto. "Nii-chan, are you okay?"
Naruto smiled at her. "I'm fine. I just got through sparring with someone. That's why I only just now got back even though my team was dismissed a while ago."
Menma looked at him with a confused expression. "You were sparring with someone to the point of injury the day before the chūnin exams? Shouldn't today be spent resting or something?" Menma asked him.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I didn't mean to get into a spar. It was more of an argument, really."
Narumi smirked at him. "Wow, Nii-chan. You must have really gotten into the argument for it to escalate into a fight. You normally have more restraint than that..."
Naruto worked hard to hold back the scowl forming on his face. 'You can only say that because you have never met Urahara.'
Their conversation was interrupted by the door opening. The three of them looked over to see Kushina walking into the house. She paused when she saw her three children standing there. As usual, her gaze seemed to linger on Naruto for a moment. She smiled at them. "Oh, good all three of you are here." She continued on her way into the house. "Your father and I need to talk to you. So when he gets home, we will meet in the living room."
The three of them glanced at each other before nodding.
Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later)
Naruto, Narumi, and Menma were seated on the couch with their parents standing in front of them. Although they had yet to be told what this meeting was about, Naruto was fairly certain he knew why they wanted to talk.
Minato was the one to start them off when he cleared his throat. "The reason that we have asked to talk to you three is because of what you will be participating in starting tomorrow."
'Called it.'
"Your names have been put forward as applicants in the chūnin exams. As you were told a while back, this is a very serious thing. I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't enter, but please think this through carefully."
Kushina sighed. "Although I would prefer that this didn't happen so soon, the fact that your names were put forward mean that it is believed that you are ready for this." She smiled at them. "I worry for you, but I am incredibly proud at the same time."
Minato put an arm around her. "We both are. And whether or not you decide to enter, that is a fact that will never change."
Academy (The Next Day)
Naruto was leaning against the gate surrounding the academy as he waited for Sai and Yakumo to show up. He had gotten up early today and had made himself some breakfast before heading over. Although he was fairly certain that this would eventually turn into something similar to a mess he would want no part of, he was excited.
"Naruto!" He looked over and grinned when he saw Misa heading wards him with an identical grin on her face.
He gave her a small wave. "Hey."
"So you're participating?" A nod made her grin grow even more. "Awesome! So is my team. This is gonna be great!"
Naruto sent an amused look at her. "You think that competing against other teams who are willing to physically and emotionally harm you is great?" That didn't exactly sound like a good time to him...
Misa shrugged, but her grin faltered a bit. "Well, maybe not great, but definitely fun." She paused as a thoughtful look crossed her face. "You know...when I met you and said it would be nice to have a friendly team in the chūnin exams...I didn't really think much of it." She shrugged again. "But here we are."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm not totally sure that you didn't plan this..."
Misa stuck a tongue out at him. "Meh, you should just consider yourself lucky that you have an ally as awesome as I am!"
A smirk preceded the answer Naruto gave. "Oh yeah? Then what makes you so awesome to have as an ally?"
Misa crossed her arms with a challenging smirk. "As your senpai..." Another roll of Naruto's eyes. "...I naturally know more people than you do and have more knowledge of how this thing will go."
"Knowledge such as?"
She looked at him seriously. "You should be careful of who you offend in this place. I've heard stories of psychopaths participating and going off on a crazed frenzy just because they didn't like some of the other people."
Gaara came to mind. "I don't find that hard to believe..." Naruto muttered. He glanced around. "Where are Wataru and Ikusa?" He asked.
Misa shrugged. "I'm supposed to be meeting them in the cafeteria soon before we head up to the room together. And what about you? Where is your team? I still haven't met them yet."
It was Naruto's turn to shrug. "We are meeting here soon before we head up to the room."
Misa nodded. "Well, make sure you get there on time." She said as she started to walk towards the entrance. "And here is another piece of advice, I hear that they often begin the exam early to weed out those who have no chance. So make sure you are aware of your surroundings and head straight for the room when you can."
"Will do, thanks."
A Few Minutes Later
Naruto grinned at Yakumo as she walked up to him and Sai, who had gotten there just a minute ago. Naruto looked between his teammates. "So, are you two ready to become chūnin?" He asked them.
Sai looked at him. "It is inadvisable to become arrogant before the exam even begins." A pause. "Although people may underestimate you if you talk like that, as it makes you sound stupid." Did he do it right that time?
Naruto grit his teeth. But before he could say anything, Yakumo spoke up. "Come on, you two. We should just head to the room." Naruto sighed and nodded. The three of them walked into the building.
When they made it up to the second floor, they paused when they saw the large crowd of people standing outside a nearby room. Naruto raised an eyebrow in curiosity. 'What's with the crowd? Is there something going on?'
"Why don't you just get out of the way?! You can't just stop us from taking the exam!"
Naruto frowned at this. 'What is he talking about? That isn't even the right room...' He looked at the room number and had to stop himself from calling the moron names out loud. 'How stupid can you be? That is such an obvious genjutsu...But why is it there?' Misa's warning came to mind. 'This must be what Misa meant when she said they were out those who would never make the cut.'
"I am surprised. I never thought that there were people in the world who can prove themselves to be this stupid."
Naruto snorted at the comment from Sai. Shaking his head, Naruto turned towards the stairs. "Just ignore them. If they don't realize that is a genjutsu, that's their problem. And it takes out some of the competition too."
"Would you get rid of the genjutsu and let me pass? I'm heading to the third floor."
Naruto groaned quietly when he heard that. 'Freaking idiot.' Glaring at the person who said it, Naruto noticed that it was Sasuke. 'Why can't you just keep that ego in check and not go and tip everyone off, idiot?'
Sasuke kept on talking. "Even an academy student should have been able to see through something like that."
One of the boys standing in front of the door smirked. "Well then, good job seeing through it." Suddenly, he rushed at Sasuke. "But don't let that go to your head!"
Sasuke rushed forward to meet him with a strike of his own. But before they could meet, a green blur appeared in between them.
Naruto narrowed his eyes. 'That was pretty fast...' His expression morphed into one of shock when he got a good look at the boy.
It was a boy with thick eyebrows and circular eyes that had prominent lower eyelashes. His hair was in a bowl cut hairstyle. The most eye catching thing about him though was the green jumpsuit he was wearing. Along with the jumpsuit, he also wore orange leg warmers and a red Konoha forehead protector around his waist like a belt. Wrapped around his arms and hands were bandages.
'I don't care what your reasoning is. There is no way that it is okay to go out looking like that.' There was no doubting who influenced him to look like that...
The green boy had caught both the kick from the boy blocking the fake exam room and the leg that was sent by Sasuke. Both of them had wide eyes as they stared at the person who appeared in between them.
Another boy walked up to the one in green, although it took Naruto half a second to confirm that it was a boy.
The new boy had fair skin and dark brown hair that went past his shoulders. His hair was in a loose ponytail that was tied a few inches above the end. He wore a khaki shirt, a dull blue shirt under that, and mesh armor under that. He also had on dark brown shorts, blue shinobi sandals, and wrapped bandages around his right arm, chest, and right leg. To complete his outfit, he had on a black Konoha forehead protector. Just by looking at his eyes, Naruto was able to tell that he was a Hyūga.
Naruto tuned back in when the Hyūga began speaking to the boy in green. "Hey, what happened? You're the one who said we shouldn't draw attention."
The green boy blushed a bit as he let go of the two legs. "Well..." He glanced at Sakura.
"Oh boy..." Naruto looked over to the person who said that.
It was a girl with dark brown eyes and hair. Her hair was done up into two Chinese style buns with short bangs on either side of her face. She had on a pink, sleeveless qipao style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons along with dark green pants. She also had on a pouch on her thigh and blue shinobi sandals. Around her forehead was a Konoha forehead protector.
She had an expression that was a mixture of amusement and embarrassment on her face as she looked at the green boy.
'Probably a teammate.' Naruto looked back over to the green boy.
Completely ignoring the people staring, he got on a knee in front of Sakura and took one of her hands. "My fair flower, may I please have the blessing of hearing your name?"
Sakura looked around helplessly at this, completely caught off guard at the progression of events. "Um...I'm Sakura..."
The boy in green jumped to his feet with his arms stretched into the air. "What a beautiful name! But of course, such a name would be needed for such a beautiful girl!" He sent a dazzling grin at her. "My name is Rock Lee! Will you please do me the honor of going on a date with me?" Did his smile just sparkle? "I swear that I will protect you until I die!"
Naruto grinned in amusement at the situation. Shaking his head, he turned back to his teammates. Yakumo was giggling into her hand and Sai was...taking notes?
"I see. So there are these kinds of interactions too..."
Naruto shook his head with a smile. "We should just keep moving. While this is amusing, I would like to get to the exam room before it blows up in our faces." He got two nods in return. They made towards the stairs again, but were stopped.
"Wait a moment." They turned back to see that it was the Hyūga who had stopped them. He was staring at Naruto. "What's your name?" The Hyūga's two teammates stopped what they were doing and turned towards him as he started talking. Sakura looked relieved to get the attention away from her.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." He tilted his head. "And you?"
The Hyūga nodded. "Neji Hyūga."
The girl with the buns walked up to the spot next to Neji with a grin. "I'm Tenten. Nice to meet you!"
Lee was the next to join them. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze?" Naruto nodded. "You're the rookie of the year for your class, are you not?" Another nod made Lee grin. "Yosh! Then I challenge you to a spar, Naruto-kun! Right here and now!"
Naruto shook his head with a smile. "Sorry, not gonna happen. I want to get to the exam room now."
Lee slumped in a dejected manner. "Very well, I will have to find another way to fan the flames of my youth..." What did that even mean? He turned to Sasuke. "You're Sasuke Uchiha, right? I hear you're pretty strong as well." The energy quickly returned to Lee. "Are you willing to spar with me?"
Sasuke smirked. "I can spare a minute to knock you around a bit."
Lee grinned. "Yosh! Then let us be off!"
Naruto grinned a bit. After he got over how weird he looked, Lee was kind of amusing. Naruto turned back to his teammates. "Let's get going." The three of them turned and walked away.
Team 12 walked down the hall towards the testing room and were slightly surprised at the sight that greeted them. "Good, all three of you decided to participate." Yūgao was standing outside the room with a smile on her face as she looked at them.
"You make it sound like it would have been a problem if one or more of us decided not to take the exam." Yakumo pointed out.
Yūgao nodded. "That's because it would have been a problem. Want to guess why?"
Naruto frowned in thought before blinking at Sai's response. "Because the chūnin exams requires full teams to enter."
A smile made it onto the purple haired jōnin's face. "Exactly. If one of you had decided not to enter, then I would have had to stop the other two from entering as well. Remember, while it is true that any one of you could become a chūnin while the others do not, you are still a team. And that means that you either enter together or don't. You got that?"
Three nods were returned. "Good." She jerked a thumb at the door. "Now get in there and show everyone else how team 12 kicks butt!" This order made Naruto and Yakumo grin.
Naruto saluted her. "You got it!"
Room 301
They felt it the moment they walked into the room.
Killing intent.
Team 12 paused for a moment before brushing it off and resuming their walk. Naruto rolled his eyes. After meeting the likes of Zabuza Momichi on the opposite side of the battlefield and going through the hell that Yūgao called training, such a small amount of killing intent wasn't enough to do anything to them. The second thing he felt though, that made Naruto tense.
His eyes immediately went to the source and locked with blue-green eyes. The darkness was easily felt even from the other side of the room. Although his face was blank, Naruto could detect some bloodlust coming from Gaara. The two of them stared at each other for a minute.
"Naruto?" Naruto's broke away from the stare and turned to his teammate who was frowning faintly. "What's wrong?" Yakumo asked him quietly.
Naruto shook his head minutely. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." She frowned more but nodded.
Naruto looked away and swept his eyes across the room once more. A smile came to his face when he found what he was looking for. "Follow me." Curious as to where he was going, Yakumo and Sai followed after the crimson blond when he walked off.
"Misa, Wataru, Ikusa." The three of them stopped the quiet conversation they were having and turned. Smiles broke out on the faces of the males while Misa grinned widely.
"Naruto, good to see you. It's been a while."
"Yeah. The only one that I see occasionally out of the three of you is Misa." Naruto lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "I kinda think she's stalking me."
"Like hell I'm stalking you. I just have such bad luck that I keep running into you."
Naruto smirked. "If that was true then why do you always call out to me when you see me? If you didn't want to talk, you could just leave before I even knew you were there."
"That's obviously becau-"
While the two of them were bickering, Wataru and Ikusa stood off to the side with amused expressions on their faces. Both aimed at the two genin who were arguing and at the perplexed look on Yakumo's face. Ikusa cleared his throat to get their attention.
"If you two are finished flirting, then maybe we could move onto introductions." That statement got him two glares in return.
After glaring at her teammate for another moment, Misa grinned again and turned towards the other members of team 12. "Hey there. I'm Misa! I'm sure Naruto has told you all about me."
"Why would I want to admit to people that I actually know you?"
When she finally regained her wits, Yakumo giggled at the interaction and faced Misa. "Nice to meet you, Misa. I'm Yakumo. Sorry to say, but Naruto hasn't mentioned you before."
"How rude of him."
"I fail to see how you came to that conclusion."
Sai plastered a smile to his face that had Misa quirking an eyebrow. "My name is Sai. It is a pleasure to meet Naruto's girlfriend."
A beat passed.
"My what-ttebayo?!"
"His what?! Both of you shut up!" Ikusa and Wataru chose to ignore her and continue snickering.
Sai tilted his head. "Am I incorrect? I assumed that because you two were flirting so much that you were together. You're teammate's earlier words also made me believe that."
Misa whirled around on her snickering teammates. "You see what your shitty sense of humor did? He actually believes I would date someone like Naruto!"
Ignoring Misa and her words completely, Naruto placed a hand on Sai's shoulder. "The jackass was just joking, Sai. Misa and I aren't together."
The black haired genin nodded with a thoughtful expression. "I see. It seems I have yet to fully grasp the concepts of joking..."
Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyways..." He started. "The other two are Ikusa and Wataru." They nodded when Naruto named them.
"Hey there."
"Nice to meet you."
"These three were two years above us in the academy. I met them on the first day." Naruto explained.
Yakumo's eyes widened a bit in realization. "That's why you three looked a little familiar to me. I just couldn't remember where I've seen you though..."
They spent the next few minutes just talking as the room slowly filled more and more.
"Sasuke-kun!" That loud shout caused the group to turn towards the source. The sight that greeted them made Naruto and Yakumo sigh. Ino was draped over the back of Sasuke while said Uchiha had an annoyed look on his face.
Looking closer, Naruto saw some bruises forming on Sasuke's chin. 'I guess that came from Lee-san...'
"Ino! Get off of Sasuke-kun!" And there goes Sakura...Hopefully Narumi would get there soon to make them shut up.
"They're too loud..." Naruto glanced at Wataru. "They are going to draw too much attention to themselves." Wataru looked at Naruto. "They are all from your class, right? It would be a better idea for rookies to try to stay out of the spotlight."
Naruto sighed as he watched Kiba join in and make even more noise. "I know. But if I was to go over there and try to get them to be quieter, then I would probably just end up making it worse." And there go Sakura and Ino with the fight over Sasuke again...
"Are you two arguing again?" Ah. There's Narumi.
Ino and Sakura froze in place and slowly turned towards the glaring redhead. "If you can't behave on your own then I will have to make you behave."
"No need for that..." Ino squeaked.
"Y-Yeah. We'll behave." Sakura stuttered.
And just like that, Narumi was smiling cheerfully. "Good." She turned to Menma. "You see him?"
Menma was slowly moving his gaze around the room. "Gimme a second." He said.
'They must be looking for me...' Naruto slowly tried to back away so that he was behind the taller forms of Ikusa and Wataru. Knowing the rest of the rookies, Naruto would just be dragged into something loud and attention grabbing. Seeing Naruto do this made Ikusa and Wataru grin. Nodding once to each other, they quickly shoved Naruto back in front of them.
While Naruto was glaring at them, Menma finally spotted the group. A wide grin broke out onto his face. "Aniki!" He called. And just like that, the attention of both the rookies and a good portion of the room shifted over to him.
Naruto slumped and threw a weak grin back. "Hey..."
Menma and Narumi bound over to him. Once she got close, Narumi threw a pout at him. "Why didn't you wait for us? We could have come together."
"We aren't even on the same team."
Menma huffed. "So? That doesn't mean we can't walk together."
"Troublesome. Naruto also needed to meet with his team."
Naruto nodded at Shikamaru as he and Chōji walked up to them. "What he said." No need to mention that his team actually met just outside the academy...
"You're still as lazy sounding as ever."
"And you're still as troublesome as ever." Naruto smirked at the interaction between Shikamaru and Misa.
"Oh wow. I never thought I would see the day that Shikamaru actually went out of his way to talk to someone else."
Shikamaru just sighed again when he heard Ino say this. "Troublesome. I came over here because you looked like you were about to fight over Sasuke again. But now it looks like the entire group is just coming over here..." And just as he said, the rest of the rookies were migrating over to them.
Naruto wanted to groan. Things were sure to get loud now. An elbow to his side made him jump a bit before he sent a glare at Misa. "What?"
"Introduce us. They should have the pleasure of meeting me." Naruto did groan this time.
He turned towards the others. "This is Misa, Ikusa, and Wataru. They were in the year above us in the academy. There are too many of you to do individual introductions, so I'm just going to say your names." Shikamaru snorted. That sounded like something he would do. "From left to right, we have Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyūga, Saito Hiraga, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka, Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze, and Menma Uzumaki-Namikaze. You already know Shikamaru and Chōji."
"Nice to meet you guys!" The other rookies responded to Misa's greeting with their own.
Narumi's eyes widened a bit as a memory came to her. "Misa?" She turned to Naruto. "This is the same Misa you've mentioned a couple times?"
Before Naruto could respond, Misa bound forward with a huge grin on her face. "So he has mentioned me before! I knew he couldn't help but brag about how he knows me."
The crimson blond snorted before frowning a bit. 'Is she just totally ignoring what Wataru said before?' After a discreet glance around them, Naruto's frown deepened a bit. 'She is just as loud as the rest of them. We are still attracting too much attention to ourselves.'
"You guys should be a little quieter." Naruto wanted to groan at this admonishment. Now they had done it. People were actually approaching them to get them to be quiet. The group turned to the speaker.
It was a boy that was older than them. He had onyx eyes behind his black rimmed circular glasses and ash-grey hair that was kept in a pony which extended to his upper back with bangs on either side of his forehead. He wore a dark purple shirt with a high collar, a white undershirt, and dark purple fingerless gloves that had armor plates on the back. Around his waist was a white cloth waistband that was at an angle. His pants were a dark purple color and he also wore blue sandals. Completing his outfit was a Konoha forehead protector worn in the typical fashion.
The unknown boy gave them an unimpressed look. "You guys look like a bunch of rookies. This isn't a game. You shouldn't be yelling like that."
Letting his brash nature come out, Kiba glared at him. "Who the hell do you think you are, huh?!"
"Kabuto Yakushi." A smirk appeared on his face. "But don't worry about me. You should be more worried about yourselves."
Naruto looked around again. 'He's right…'
It was Menma's turn to speak up. "The hell are you talking about?"
"Do none of you even realize all the attention you have gained since walking into this room?" He gestured around them. "Just take a look around us."
They did so. Seeing all of the glares being sent at them caused a few of them to shift uncomfortably. "Do you get it now? A lot of these people would like nothing better than to just gut you now." Kabuto shook his head with a shrug. "The best thing for you to do at this point is just keep to stay out of the way."
Although slightly embarrassed about basically being told to shut up, Kiba did not back down. "Yeah? What the hell do you know?"
'Great comeback there, Kiba.' Naruto thought to himself.
"Do you really think that all of these people are taking this thing for the first time like all of you? Nope, it isn't that simple. A lot of them have taken the exams repeatedly for years now. But they fail every time. And you know what that means?" Kabuto grinned at them. "That means that they are getting more and more desperate to pass. It isn't farfetched to think that they would specifically target those who look too stupid to be a difficult target." He spent a pointed look at Kiba. "Such as a bunch of loud rookies that can't stay quiet."
'Now that you mention it...' Looking around again, Naruto could spot multiple people here who looked a little old to be genin.
"But I can't really blame you. You're new here after all. You actually kind of remind me of how I used to act…"
Narumi tilted her head in curiosity. "You make it sound like you're some kind of veteran at this. How many times have you taken the exam?"
Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Kabuto responded. "This is actually my seventh attempt…"
Snickers broke out between Menma and Kiba while Saito turned away to hide his smile. "You actually failed this thing six times?" Kiba asked in between snickers.
This question got a nod out of the redheaded male. "Wow. You must really suck-ttebasa!" This made Naruto and Narumi sigh. How could he just say that to the guy's face?
"Don't be like that. I may have failed a few times in the past, but I still got something out of it each time." He stuck a hand in his pouch. "Plus, I have these now."
Ino frowned at the items in his hand. "A deck of cards?"
"Not just a deck of cards." Kabuto knelt down and placed the deck on the floor. Following that, he took off the card on top of the deck and placed it face up on the floor.
The lack of content on the card made Naruto frown. 'Blank cards?'
"These are nin-info cards. They look blank at first, but if I do this…" Kabuto placed a finger on the blank card and sent a pulse of chakra into it, causing the card to be engulfed in a puff of smoke. When they smoke cleared, there was a map of the elemental nations on the card with various information written around it. "Then the information on the card becomes visible."
Sakura leaned in closer to get a better look. "What is this map showing?"
Kabuto held it up so the others could see it. "This map shows the number of people taking this exam and a breakdown of where they come from." The older boy looked around again. "This is actually a fairly crowded exam. We even have some people from Kumo who showed up."
Hearing this caused Hinata to flinch. When he saw her do that, Naruto frowned in confusion, but looked back to the group when Sasuke stepped forward.
"Do you have information on individual people?" The Uchiha asked.
An amused look crossed Kabuto's face. "Oh? Is there someone that you are worried about? I do have info on people in the exam, but it may not be perfect."
'Why is he being so helpful?' Naruto shared a glance with Shikamaru. The Nara had a small frown of his own on his face. Looking at his other side, Naruto saw that Misa also had a small frown on her face.
"Show me what you have on Rock Lee of Konoha and Gaara of Suna." Sasuke demanded. Hearing the second name made Naruto grimace.
"You actually know their names?" Kabuto sighed as he pulled out a card. "That makes it too easy." Placing the card on the floor, he pumped chakra into it. After the smoke cleared, a picture of Lee appeared on the card with various information. "First up is Rock Lee."
"What can you tell me?"
"Rock Lee of Konoha. He's a year older than most of you. Mission history is pretty below average for the amount of time his team has been active. Although that is probably due to his sensei preferring to train them to exhaustion instead of getting missions. 20 D-ranks and 12 C-ranks is all they have done. His sensei Is Maito Gai. As opposed to his taijutsu skills, he is actually kind of lacking in multiple skills. He was the dead last of his class. His two teammates are Neji and Tenten." Hinata flinched again. "This is the first time his team has taken the exam." Kabuto looked at Sasuke. "Got enough, or should I continue?"
Shaking his head, Sasuke responded. "That's good enough. What do you have on the other one?"
A second card was soon placed on the floor. After the initial pump of chakra, content soon filled it. "Gaara of Suna. He is the same age as most of you." Kabuto's eyes widened behind his glasses. "Whoa. What the heck is up with this? He has never done any D-ranks, but he has completed 8 C-ranks and a B-rank. And he never even got a scratch!" A shake of his head. "This guy sounds a little like some kind of super genin…I don't have much besides that." An apologetic grin was sent Sasuke's way. "Sorry."
"Hn…"
Kabuto began to gather up his cards. "If that's all you nee-"
"I have another name for you to look up." This made Kabuto blink at Sasuke for a moment.
"Oh? And who is it?"
Sasuke sent a sideways look at Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze of Konoha." Naruto's eyes went slightly wider, but he quickly regained his composure and smirked at Sasuke.
"What's this, Uchiha? If you really wanted to know some more about me, then all you had to do was ask. I know you're too shy to ask me directly, but come on."
Sasuke glared back. "As if. I just want to know how you managed to beat me out for rookie of the year in the academy." A smirk soon slipped onto his face. "But if you're too shy to share, then that's fine."
Naruto mulled over his options. 'I should probably end this now before he says something I would rather he not, but I'm getting a weird feeling from this guy. I would like to know what information he has on me in case we have to fight…' A shrug. "I'm fine with it." Shikamaru and Misa sent him sharp looks when they heard this.
Nodding his head, Kabuto took out another card and pumped chakra into it. He waited for the smoke to clear before speaking. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze of Konoha. 12 years old." Kabuto blinked when he saw the mission history. "What's up with the amount of missions you have taken?"
Team 12 sighed. "Our sensei likes to make us take out as many missions as possible along with making us collapse from training." Yakumo explained dejectedly.
"…Right…There are over 40 completed D-ranks, 7 C-ranks, and…" Kabuto's eyes widened. "An A-rank? As genin? As rookie genin?" Multiple wide eyes were sent at team 12.
Naruto grimaced a bit. "That was a C-rank that got bumped. Team 11 was with us."
Kabuto swallowed. "Ah, I think I heard something about a pair of genin teams completing an A-rank a while ago, but I dismissed it as a rumor." After shaking his head, he turned back to the card. "Anyways…Sensei is Yūgao Uzuki…Skills are good in every area, but his kenjutsu is nearly off the charts!" A frown came to Kabuto's face and he studied Naruto for a bit.
Growing both curious and unnerved, Naruto decided to question him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"There was something else…Apparently, you went and killed a bunch of people on an A-rank. I had dismissed it at first, but hearing that you actually had an A-rank makes me question it. And to top it off, you did it with some sort of energy blast technique that didn't need hand seals…" Having already tensed when the word 'killed' was used, Naruto tensed even more as some of the group looked horrified.
Swallowing and forcing himself to relax, Naruto spoke up. "I did kill some people, but they were all about to go and do some horrible things to both my group and the villagers. I just reacted. Also, it was just a large fire release. And it did have hand seals, your information must be faulty." Naruto stared back at Kabuto as he ignored the looks that his teammates and siblings were sending him.
"Right…" Kabuto didn't look very convinced, but he turned back to his cards to start gathering them up. "Anyways, there are a lot of people here. Konoha, Suna, Kumo, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto…Well, I don't have much on Oto because they are a new and minor village."
Naruto tensed as he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. He was ready to react, but paused when he saw who they were targeting. Kabuto noticed the same thing and smirked when he managed to move out of the way of the kunai and then react quickly enough to jump away from the attack that was aimed at him. The smirk was quickly wiped off his face as his glasses cracked and he fell to his knees to vomit.
'He dodged it. I know he did.' Naruto narrowed his eyes as he observed the attacker.
It was a boy with bandages covering most of his face, which left only his left eye uncovered. His attire consisted of a large poncho with long sleeves, pants that had the same pattern as the scarf he had around his neck, a straw raincoat protruding from the back of the scarf, and some kind of device on his right arm. Because of his hunched state, he looked a lot shorter than he actually was. He had on a forehead protector with a music note on it.
"Wow, for all that talk, you sure aren't much." Naruto looked at the boy who had said that.
He had spiky black hair and dark eyes. His shirt was beige color and had two black stripes and three prints of the kanji for "death" on the front. His forehead protector also had a music note on it and had a happuri attached under the cloth. He also wore a patterned scarf which matched the pants he had on.
"Don't be too hard on him. After all, who would expect shinobi from a minor village to be able to do that?" The girl with them had been the one to speak up.
She had long black hair that was tied by a violet ribbon ad black eyes. She wore a vest resembling flak jacket, and pants that matched the scarf she and her teammates were wearing. To complete her outfit, she also had a forehead protector with a music note on it.
"Kabuto-san! Are you alright?" Kabuto smiled weakly in response to Sakura's question as the others tensed in preparation for a fight.
The boy with the spiky black hair smirked. "You should make a note in your cards that Oto is here to dominate this thing."
"Everyone shut the hell up!" The confrontation was interrupted by a blast of smoke in the front of the room, making them all turn to it. When the smoke cleared, they saw that a group of people were now standing there. "You lot in the back! Do you really want to be kicked out of here before we even start?"
The speaker was a large man with black eyes who had on a black trench coat over a grey-blue outfit. Covering his head was a bandana-style Konoha forehead protector. Both of his hands were covered in black gloves. There were multiple scars going across his face, complimenting his imposing look. Naruto was willing to bet that he had more scars on other parts of his body.
Knowing that they had been caught red-handed, the bandaged Oto shinobi shook his head. "We apologize. We were a little antsy and got a little carried away with our method of relaxing…"
The man in the trench coat smirked. "Very well, but please show more restraint in the future." He looked around. "The chūnin exams are about to begin. I am Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first exam." That vicious grin he was sending them was a little unsettling…
Hearing a small whimper from nearby, Naruto glanced to the source and raised an eyebrow at the wide eye Ino. Seeing his look, she whispered to him. "Ibiki Morino is the head of the Torture and Interrogation department." She was actually shaking a bit. "If he is the one giving us the first exam, then it is sure to be some kind of sadistic monstrosity."
'Well, isn't that reassuring?' Naruto turned back towards the front when Ibiki started talking again.
"Listen up, I'm only going to warn you about this once. There will be no fighting between any of you unless it is with the permission of the proctor." A blast of killing intent shot through the room. "Disobey me and my orders and I will show you why I'm so good at my job." Now that smile was a scary one. "I always accommodate those who wish to volunteer themselves with a private session with me in the TI department. Any problems with that rule?" Silence throughout the room. "Good."
He raised a hand that was holding a stack of papers. "We will now start the first test of the chūnin exams. You will come up to the front to receive a number which will designate your seat before we hand out the written exam."
"Written exam?!" Naruto allowed a smirk to play across his face at the sound of Kiba's despair.
Kabuto stumbled to his feet and sent a weak smile at them. "It was nice meeting you. I'm going to meet up with my team now before we separate for the test." He turned and left with a wave. "Good luck."
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he watched the older boy leave. "Something is up with that guy." Misa said from the spot next to him.
"Troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered quietly from his other side.
"Yeah, I don't know what it is, but something is off about that guy. Plus, where did he get all of that info? And why was he so willing to share?" Naruto turned to Misa and Shikamaru. "We should be careful of him in the future."
"You're right. It would be stupid of us to just trust him completely when we just met him." Misa agreed.
Shikamaru slumped his shoulders even more and sighed. "This entire thing is turning into a huge drag before it even really began. But I agree."
"Enough dawdling! Get up here and take a number!"
Misa grinned at the two younger boys. "Well, I guess this is it. Let's rock this thing."
A Few Minutes Later
"Good. It looks like everyone has found a seat." Naruto looked around to spot the positions of the people he knew. While he couldn't spot everyone, he did see that Yakumo was a few seat ahead of him and Sai was on the opposite side of the room.
Play Naruto Shippuden OST 1 – Ninmu (Mission)
"I will now go over the rules. First rule. You can't ask any questions."
This caused Naruto to sweat drop. 'So you either get it or you don't.'
"You will start off with ten points." Ibiki wrote the rules on the chalkboard as he spoke. "There are ten questions on this test with each one being worth one point. But if you get a question wrong, then you lose a point. Meaning that the most you can finish with is ten points. Answer all the questions wrong and you get zero points."
'What's the point of subtracting instead of adding?'
"Second rule. This is a team test. Passing or failing is judged by the combined performance of the team. This means that each team starts out with thirty points."
'Simple enough…But where's the catch?'
"Third rule. You get caught cheating, you get two points taken off. This applies for each time you are caught. If someone loses all of their points during the test because they were caught cheating repeatedly, then they will be told to leave." Ibiki gestured around the room at the various people sitting in chairs that were facing them. "That's why they are here."
One of them smirked. "We'll be watching you guys…"
"Final rule…" Ibiki continued. "Those who fail have their teammates fail with them." Feeling the shock course through the room, Ibiki smirked. "So if one of you were to get caught enough times to lose all your points, then your teammates will have to leave along with you."
'There's the catch…'
"One last thing. You have only been given nine questions. The tenth will be given to those who remain when a quarter hour remains." Ibiki looked at the clock on the wall. "You have one hour to complete the test. Begin!"
End Music
Naruto flipped the test over at the same time that everyone else did and read the first problem. After reading it over, only one thought came to Naruto's head. 'What the hell is this-ttebayo?' Did they really expect everyone in the room to take this and pass? There was no way that even half of the people in here could answer this. Looking at the other questions provided the same opinion. 'Ok then. I can't answer these on my own, guess I have to think of something.' While he knew the purpose of the test was to test their information gathering skills, it would have been preferable to not need to go through the trouble.
He discreetly glanced around him. Now he just had to figure out how he was going to do this…
45 Minutes Later
"Ok, we will now start the tenth question."
'Finally…I got bored of waiting. It still was weird how fast Sai managed to get the answers…' Around ten minutes after the test had begun, a multitude of ants made out of ink had crawled onto his paper and formed the answers. Naruto was grateful for this because it saved him the trouble of cheating on his own. He had a technique that Yami had taught him he could use, but he wasn't confident enough with it yet to be able to use it without getting caught.
Thank kami they gave out pens in addition to the pencils.
"I will be adding a few rules for this question." Naruto frowned a bit when Ibiki said this. "But before that, I must ask you if you are sure that you want to take the question."
'What?' Why would he ask them? Wasn't it obvious they would want to take it?
Temari had similar thoughts and voiced them. "Choose? Why would we choose not to?"
Ibiki's expression turned grave. "If you chose not to take the question, then all of your points will be deducted and you will immediately fail along with your teammates."
"The hell is that?! Then why wouldn't we take the question?!"
The smirk on Ibiki's face turned scary again. "I'll tell you why. The final rule is that if you take the question and answer incorrectly…then you will fail and be prohibited from ever taking the chūnin exams again!"
This declaration immediately caused Naruto's eyes to narrow. 'Bullshit. There is no way that he has that kind of authority. Especially when it comes to genin from other villages.'
"You guys were unlucky to get me as a proctor." Ibiki shrugged. "But I'm giving you an out. If you don't feel confident enough, then you can choose not to take the question and try again next time. This is your only chance to give up. If you wish to do so, then speak up."
Naruto frowned. 'Not happening. I'm not gonna back out that easy-ttebayo. And I know Sai and Yakumo are right there with me.' Multiple people in the room however, did not share Naruto's resolve.
"I…I can't do this!"
"Sorry guys, but I'm out."
"No way am I risking being stuck as a genin."
"I'd rather try again some other time…"
One after the other, people would stand up and leave the room as their determination wavered in the face of being stuck as genin.
Ibiki looked around after a minute. "Is that everyone? Remember, if you answer this question incorrectly, then that's it. You can't enter the chūnin exams after this."
"Just shut up-ttebasa!"
'That freaking idiot.'
The even gaze of Ibiki cut to Menma. "Oh? You got something to say, brat?"
Heedless of the glares being sent his way by his siblings, Menma stood up and sent his own glare at Ibiki. "I'm not gonna wimp out just like that! You think you can actually scare me with that? Don't underestimate me-ttebasa! I'm going to take your damn question and kick its ass so hard that both it and you will be the biggest jokes of the entire chūnin exam!"
'Please don't challenge the head of the Torture and Interrogation department-ttebayo…' Naruto groaned quietly. "Why couldn't he just stay silent?"
It was now Naruto's turn to be the center of Ibiki's attention. "You say something? Speak up."
Naruto nearly groaned again. 'Why couldn't I just stay silent?" Deciding to just get this over with, Naruto looked Ibiki in the eyes. "Nothing of importance. But I would appreciate it if you would hurry up and give us the question. I'd like to move on to the second exam soon, and your scare tactics are taking too long." This response made Ibiki smirk.
After looking around once more, Ibiki nodded. "Very well. I only have one thing to say to those of you who are still here." The room went silent as they waited for him to continue. "You pass!"
Dead silence.
"Huh?"
"Each of you have passed the first test of the chūnin exams, congratulations."
"Don't give me that! What happened to the tenth question?!"
Ibiki turned to the genin who had spoken. "There is no tenth question. Well, nothing besides me asking you if you wanted to stick around or not."
"Then what was the point of the rest of the exam?!"
"The point was to test your information gathering skills. The test was specifically designed so you would have to cheat. Those questions were too difficult for the average genin to answer, so cheating was the only option. We even planted a couple people in a few spots who had the answers." Ibiki raised his hands to his bandana. "But remember, those that cheat poorly will fail."
Naruto couldn't stop his eyes from widening and his body going stiff at the sight of Ibiki's head. 'Those are some serious scars.' He was able to spot things ranging from burn marks to puncture wounds.
"There will be times that information is more important than life. And on the battlefield, there are people who risk their lives to get to that information. But if the people who are seeking the information are noticed by the enemy, then there is no longer any guarantee that the information is accurate. That is why it is important to be able to gather intel discreetly."
He put his bandana back on as he continued. "Remember this. Some information is powerful enough to be a great advantage for your village. That is why it is important to be able to gain the information without being noticed. This test helped us kick out those who could not do that."
"And the last question?"
Hearing this, Ibiki nodded. "Question ten was just as important, if not more so, than the rest of the test. There may come a time in your shinobi careers that you are assigned a mission that you cannot decline or back out of, but you know is dangerous. The tenth question tested your resolve as shinobi to commit your all to your goal. Those who were not willing to do that had no right to become chūnin."
Naruto smirked. Those people that left were so close to passing, only to fail. This guy had a twisted sense of humor.
Ibiki smiled at them. "You have now completed the first test of the chūnin selection exam. I wish you luck." Suddenly, his attention was diverted towards the window. Crash!
A bundle crashed through the window, scaring most of the people in the room. The bundle made it partway into the room before it suddenly opened up and attached to the walls with the kunai that were just thrown. Naruto read the banner once and sweat dropped. 'The incredible and sexy Anko-sama is here?' Naruto looked at the woman who must be Anko.
She had light brown eyes and violet hair that was in a short, spiky, fanned ponytail. She had on a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam. Naruto blushed a bit when he saw that she only had a mesh body suit on under that. She also wore a dark orange mini-skirt, a Konoha forehead protector, a small fang pendant, and grey shin guards.
"Anko-sama is here! Hope you're ready for the second test, because it's about to begin!" She pumped a fist into the air.
This proclamation was met with dead silence. Ibiki soon stepped out from behind the banner. "You have bad timing." He told her.
Anko rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish grin. "Whatever…" She looked around and frowned before turning to Ibiki. "What's with all the teams? You actually passed this many?"
"There are a lot of outstanding ones this time."
"Meh. You're just going soft." Anko gave them a look that did just as good a job of scaring them as the one Ibiki gave them. "But don't worry, I will be sure to cut them down to at least half by the time I'm done with them." She cackled a bit.
Naruto sighed. 'Great. Another psycho.'
Anko grinned maniacally at them. "Time to get going! Keep up, because I won't wait for you if you get lost!" She then jumped out the window.
Naruto placed his head in his hands.
Forest of Death
Once everyone was close enough to hear and see her, Anko grinned again. "Welcome to the next stage of the chūnin exams, training ground 44!" Her grin turned sadistic. "Also known as the Forest of Death."
'I can already see where it got that name…' Looking at the forest, all Naruto saw were giant trees and barbed fence. If he listened closely enough, he was faintly sure that he could hear some animal calls. He sighed when he heard something that sounded a lot like a lion.
Suddenly, a kunai flew by his cheek and made a shallow cut. Another body was pressed up to his back just as quickly. "Oh? Am I boring you?" A sweet voice whispered in his ear. Naruto repressed a shiver at the feeling of her tongue licking his cut.
"Hey! Get away from my Nii-chan!" Narumi was completely ignored.
Naruto shook his head frantically. "No, of course not. I'm all ears."
"Good. I get self-conscious, you know? I'm worried that I'm not doing a good enough job to keep you entertained." She pressed her chest harder against his back. "But…I can help you keep entertained in a…different way if you want…" This sight made Narumi fume even more while Menma snickered.
Before Naruto could pull himself together to respond, Anko whirled around with another kunai in her hand. "I think you dropped this." A voice said. Naruto used this chance to jump away from them. Turning to see what was happening, Naruto stared.
'That is the creepiest tongue I have ever seen.'
The tongue belonged to an older boy with long black hair and black eyes. He was wearing plain light grey garbs with dark grey pants and a straw hat. Around his waist was a thick purple rope belt. He also had on a black long sleeve polo shirt as an undershirt. The boy had a Kusa forehead protector on.
Anko smiled at the boy as she stashed away the kunai. "Thanks for the help. But you know, it is pretty dangerous to sneak up on me like that…"
The boy smiled back. "I apologize. I will be sure to be more careful in the future."
"Good!" Anko swirled around to face the rest of the genin. "I have something for you before we start!" She rummaged through her coat before pulling out a stack of papers. "Consent forms that need to be signed in case you die!"
'Don't say something like that with a pleasant smile on your face…'
"I'm going to explain this test to you before we move on."
Play Naruto Shippuden OST 1 – Ninmu (Mission)
"Basically, this is a survival exercise. You will have to enter this training ground using the numbered gates surrounding it. One team per gate. Once you enter, you will have five days to survive on your own and complete the objective."
'So we are surviving in the wilderness as well as completing a task…'
"The objective…" She pulled a scroll out of her pocket that had the kanji for "earth" written on it. "…Are these scrolls. There are two kinds. Heaven and Earth. Each team will start with one of them and have to get the other to complete the set before moving on to the tower in the center of the forest."
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked around him. Everyone here had just become an enemy.
"But of course, that means you need to take the other scroll from another team." Anko shrugged. "The problem is, who knows which team was what scroll." She grinned sharply. "You will have to figure it out on your own. A team passes after taking both scrolls to the tower. But be careful, the other teams won't be the only dangerous thing in the forest. The wildlife can handle themselves pretty well in a fight."
Looking around, Naruto saw some looks of fear growing on some of the faces around him.
"Now, there are some ways to get disqualified before the test is over." She held up a finger. "First off, don't make it to the tower within the time limit with both scrolls, you fail. Simple." Another finger went up. "Second, you lose a teammate, you fail. Whether it be lost in the forest or death at some point, that's it. You're done." She crossed her arms. "There is no quitting. Once you enter the forest, you're in there for five days." She blinked. "Oh, I almost forgot. No opening the scrolls." That manic grin was back…"It isn't very pretty if you do. Besides that, go nuts!"
Sakura raised a hesitant hand. "That's it? No other rules besides those?"
Anko shook her head. "Nope. That's it. All you have to do is survive, get the other scroll, and make it to the tower before the time limit is up. Anything else is up to you." She looked around. "It is now time for you to sign the form and get a scroll. After that, head to your assigned gate." Her grin grew. "Try not to die."
End Music
After waiting in line to enter the tent and get a scroll, team 12 finally got called in. They were quickly handed an earth scroll and told a gate number after signing the forms. Naruto turned to his teammates. "Okay, I think that we should decide now who is going to carry the scroll. I have a good place to put it that nobody else will be able to access, but I would like to enter the forest before I put it away."
Sai tilted his head. "Would it not be better to do it now while we have the privacy of the tent to cover us?"
Naruto shook his head. "We didn't get here soon enough for that to be a good idea. I wouldn't be surprised if this place is already rigged by a few teams. I know for sure that Shino at the very least has a few insects crawling around in here somewhere."
"That makes sense…" Yakumo said with a nod that Sai copied.
Seeing them agree, Naruto silently placed the scroll in his pouch before walking out of the tent.
Gate 12 (30 Minutes Later)
"Alright you punks! Ready or not, the second phase of the chūnin exams starts now!" With that shout, Anko pushed the button to open the gates. At once, all of the teams rushed into the forest.
Team 12 was silent for a little while before they stopped on a tree branch and turned to face one another. Nodding his head, Naruto spoke up. "Alright. I'm going to use a special storage technique I developed. It is still in the experimental stage, but it should work well enough for this."
Yakumo tilted her head with an interested expression on her face. "You made a technique? Really?"
With a nod, Naruto responded. "Yeah. Just give me a second." He closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon enough, he heard a gasp from Yakumo and opened them back up to the sight of a small Corridor of Darkness in front of him. He felt slightly bad for lying to them about this, but he wasn't about to tell them that he could made a portal capable of bypassing pretty much any security that could be set up. It was simpler if they thought it was just for storage. Naruto rummaged through his pouch and pulled out the earth scroll before dropping it into the corridor before willing it to disappear. "There we go. It will be safe there."
"Can you tell us what that was?" Sai asked him.
Naruto shrugged. "I don't have a name for it yet." He lied. "I just stumbled upon it by accident a while back when I was trying to see if I could get my chakra replicate the small pulse that a storage scroll gives out when it is used." He waved at where the corridor was. "That was the result."
Yakumo looked at him with wide eyes. "Amazing. That is really impressive." This made Naruto grin sheepishly before turning serious.
"We should get moving. It is probably a good idea for us to head a little further in."
"Yes, I agree. I think that we should head closer to the tower for now before looking for a team to fight. If we were to finish with a fight and be fatigued, I would rather not have a long journey."
"Sounds good. Let's get going."
Later
Sai suddenly looked up as they were travelling to observe a bird in the sky. Knowing that the bird was one of his ink creations, Naruto and Yakumo stopped in a small clearing to wait for him to finish. "What's up?" Naruto asked him.
Sai pointed up. "It is signaling that there is a team approaching us quickly from the North West direction." This declaration made the other two tense.
"And they know we are here?" Yakumo asked.
"Yes."
"Wonderful…" Naruto muttered quietly. "Then there is no point in even trying to take them by surprise, they are obviously coming for us. Best thing to do is prepare for the worst." With this in mind, the three of them jumped higher into the trees to stay out of the immediate line of sight.
After a few minutes, the other team entered the clearing. When they saw who it was, they blinked in surprise.
"Hey there!"
Naruto sighed in irritation before turning to Sai. "You could have mentioned that it was these three."
"I apologize. I did not realize that they were non-hostile." They jumped down into the clearing.
"Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned that Misa and I have already agreed to be allies during the exam. Or at least, to not be hostile to each other." Naruto turned to the other team. "But how did you find us?"
In return to this question, Misa winked at him. "A girls gotta have her secrets."
"Whatever…" He would ask again, but it wasn't worth the headache. "We tell you what scroll we have and you do the same?"
"Sure. We have heaven."
Naruto smirked. "We have earth. We can work together to take out two teams without fighting over who gets the scroll this way. Did you guys have a plan?"
Ikusa shrugged. "Head for the tower and get the jump on any team that we find?" Such a simple response…
"Works for m-" Boom!
The six of them whirled around to face the direction that the explosion came from. "What the hell?" Naruto muttered. There was a portion of the forest that was on fire. And it was relatively close. "That's gotta be a fight."
Misa grinned. "Then that's where we're going!" Naruto gave her an incredulous look.
"Why the hell should we head towards the giant inferno? We can't be the only people who saw that."
Misa waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Other people will probably follow that logic and steer clear. Unless they were really confident."
"But not us?"
"No way! That is sure to be two teams fighting each other. Meaning two scrolls! At least one of us is going to have the complete set!"
Ikusa and Wataru shared amused looks. "Well, she has a point…" Ikusa said. Naruto wanted to face palm when Yakumo nodded.
"I don't see why not. We can just be careful not to get noticed, scout the area, and decide from there."
Naruto slumped his shoulders. "Fine…It is clear I'm outvoted here. Let's head towards the fight."
A Few Minutes Later
It was fairly simple to locate the source of the fight. All of the explosions certainly helped to find it. What they saw when they got there made them freeze in shock.
"Gaahh!"
"Come to me in the future. Seek me out if you want to gain more power."
Naruto stared at the sight of a hunched over Sasuke Uchiha clutching his neck after getting bitten by that Kusa genin. "What the hell is this?" He muttered.
"What did you do to him?!" Sakura was kneeling by Sasuke, unsure of what to do.
"I just gave him a going away present…It took a little longer to give to him because of the Kyūbi brats interfering. But they were removed easily enough." This made Naruto freeze.
'What did he just say?'
That was when he noticed the two motionless redheads nearby. Without thinking any further, Naruto leapt towards them from the hiding place. "Narumi, Menma!" All attention instantly went to him.
"Naruto, wait!"
Ignoring the call, Naruto ran up to his siblings and knelt beside them. "Please be alright." He whispered. After shaking them both for a moment, Narumi started to sir. He lifter her upper body up a bit. "Narumi, can you hear me?" The others soon joined him with Yakumo going over to check on Sakura and Sasuke.
Narumi groaned softly and opened an eye a bit, only to close it again as a new wave of pain hit her. Once it subsided a bit, she squinted up at him. "Nii-chan…?"
"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?"
"I really wish I could say I was…Everything hurts right now."
Naruto nodded before turning his head towards Menma when he started to groan. After a moment, Menma opened his eyes and looked around. His eyes widened when he saw Naruto. "Aniki…"
"Hey, how you doing?"
"I feel like shit, but Narumi got it worse. He really kicked our asses…"
Naruto nodded before turning to look at the Kusa genin. That was when Naruto noticed that half of the genin's face was burned off, showing another face under it. But Naruto quickly dismissed this as he glared.
Play Naruto Shippuden OST 1 – Ikari (Anger)
"You did this?" Naruto asked as he gently placed Narumi back down and got up to face him.
The Kusa genin gained an amused look. "Indeed I did."
Naruto's glare turned to glacial levels. "Then I will make you pay." He hissed and started to walk forward. One hand went towards the sword on his back. If he had paid closer attention, he would have noticed the wind that was starting to pick up around him a bit.
If anything, the Kusa genin looked even more amused. "You can do your best to harm me, but you won't get far…" He shook his head. "I am actually glad you are here, Naruto-kun. I have been wishing to…talk to you."
"I have nothing to say to a freak like you."
The grin was growing on the taller genin's face. "Oh, but that means we have a problem." Suddenly, his form blurred away, only to reappear a foot in front of Naruto. "I have been looking forward to meeting you very much." He leaned closer. "I find you very interesting, Naruto-kun."
Naruto jumped back a bit. "I. Don't. Care." Naruto lunged forward to cut at him..
The other genin grinned even more as he moved out of the way. "There are many things about you that I find curious. Your performance in the Land of Waves was very…eye catching…In fact, that description reminded me of something..."
"Shut up!" Another swipe was dodged.
The genin tilted his head. "Very well then. If you do not wish to talk, then I will have to make you show me." The grin turned sharper. "I hope my expectations for you prove to be correct, Naruto-kun."
There we go! All done with Chapter 21!
The chūnin exams have started!
Ok, this is the first time I have used Gai's full name, so I didn't realize something until now. I use "Gai" as opposed to "Guy." That's fine, but the problem is that I would also prefer to use "Might" instead of "Maito." So basically, I want to call him Might Gai. If I used a mixture of the English and Japanese spellings, would people get too annoyed with that? I used all Japanese spelling this time, but I would like to know if people care if I have a mix.
Next chapter is the fight with Orochimaru. I need to type it up to see how much more I will add after that.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!
Until next time,
Kog6943