Chuunin Exams Part 6

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Grabbing Kushina's hand, Minato put the two pouches with coins into the corpse scroll and focused on the chakra signature of the Kiri team. Taking Kushina's hand, he pulled her toward it, struggling to find his way through the terrain which seemed more like a maze of tunnels than a cave system. Halfway there, Minato stopped abruptly.

"What are we going to do?" Someone whined ahead of them.

"We have to find a way to see first!" Another responded.

Minato jerked Kushina close and breathed in her ear, "Do you have that seal that makes the really bright light?"

She nodded and pulled it out of another seal with a tiny pop.

"Wait, I think someone's here!" The first voice hissed.

"I heard it too!" A third voice, clearly a girl, squeaked.

"I'll take them down while you blind them," Minato told her, barely audible as the echoes of the other team's voices faded.

"I don't hear anything," The second boy scoffed. "The two of you are just paranoid!"

As punctuation to his statement, Kushina activated the seal. Bright light blossomed behind them. The other team turned toward it instinctively and cried out in pain. Keeping his eyes closed, Minato darted forward, staying close to the wall so as to make as much light reach them as possible. The second boy to speak raised his arms instinctively and caught Minato's first strike. Twisting out of the boy's grip, Minato kneed him in the stomach and struck the girl on the side of her head, knocking her out with the handle of his kunai. Minato turned back to the boy he kneed and knocked him out before facing the last boy, whose eyes had adjusted to the light.

"You bastard!" He snarled. Minato darted forward, keeping his speed at a Genin level, and swung a kick at the boy, who grabbed his ankle and shoved him down the hall and away from the light. Minato smirked as Kushina appeared behind him, the light dying, and punched him in the head. He flew towards Minato, who rolled out of the way as the boy landed beside him. "Bitch!" He snarled as Kushina rushed forward. She smiled evilly and kicked him in the head, just as the last of the light died.

"Get their coin," Kushina said as she backed against the wall. "I can't see a thing!" She whined.

"The girl has it."

"So?"

"I'm not going to stick my hand in a girl's pockets!"

"I'm rolling my eyes, Minato," she told him. "Where is she?" Minato stood up and guided her towards the girl.

"Which pocket is the coin in?"

"I don't know, when the coin touches someone's skin, their entire body becomes a beacon."

"Fine!" Kushina searched the girl until she found the coin. "She's stupid if she thought hiding it in her bra was going to dissuade anyone from taking it."

"What's a bra?"

Dead silence answered him.

"It's a legitimate question!" He protested.

"Forget about it. They have a water coin, it's useless to us."

Minato didn't answer as Kushina sealed the coin inside of the corpse scroll.

"They're from Iwa, I thought they would be at least a little more prepared for an underground fight. I guess not. Let's hope the other teams are similarly unprepared."

Minato just took her hand and continued to lead her towards their Kiri allies.

On the long, confusing way there, Minato managed to skirt two other teams without being noticed before stopping ten meters away from their allies.

"I'm here," Minato said softly.

"The Konoha Nin are here," Naoko kicked her teammates awake. "It's been nearly ten hours! What took you so long?"

"This place is a maze!" Minato answered defensively. "Just because I knew where you were, doesn't mean I could find you! It didn't help that you started to move around!"

"We heard fighting so we moved away from it," Ryouichi answered. "I'm scowling right now."

"I can tell," Minato retorted.

"Enough fighting!" Kushina and Taichi snapped at the same time.

"Did you guys meet anyone on the way?" Taichi snapped.

"One team. We got a coin off them, but it was water, useless to both of us. Honestly, what are the chances?"

"It's a sixty percent chance that we find a coin useless to both parties," Taichi answered. "It's lower than if you were alone. Then it would be an eighty percent chance of finding a useless coin."

"It was a rhetorical question," Kushina retorted. "I'm rolling my eyes."

Taichi bristled.

"Speaking of coins, Kushina said the water coin was hidden in the Iwa girl's bra. What's a bra? Kushina wouldn't say."

The Kiri team started laughing at Minato's question. Even Kushina giggled.

"What is so funny?" He demanded.

"Nothing!" Naoko giggled. "I just thought all boys were perverts and then you come along perfectly innocent!"

"What does a pervert have to do with anything?"

Ryouichi and Taichi started laughing harder.

"Shut up!" Naoko snapped at them and the quieted instantly. "Damn, now I wish I was on your team, Minato-kun. You're lucky to have him as a teammate, Kushina-san." Naoko waved her arms blindly in front of her.

"Don't hit me!" Minato cried, ducking underneath and pulling Kushina with him.

"I'm trying to find you. Clearly, you can see in the dark and I figured it would be safer holding onto you than my idiot, perverted teammates." She groped towards Minato's voice and he stuck his arm out to stop her from grabbing his face and stood up.

"Are you guys really that bad at being in the dark?" Kushina asked. "Even I can sense where you guys are and I have the worst chakra control in the village."

"Doing things in the dark isn't a Genin skill, little girl," Taichi explained, patronizingly.

"Right, it's a Chuunin skill. How do you expect to become Chuunin if you don't have the skills a Chuunin needs?" Minato defended her.

"You two really are naïve," Ryouichi commented. "That's not how it works."

"Then how—" Minato broke off. "Someone heard us talking or sensed us. They're coming this way from the direction Kushina and I came in. Three people."

"Do you have any way to make a light?" Taichi asked quickly and barely audible while Ryouichi and Naoko chattered mindlessly to drown him out.

"Yes, but the seal has to be touched," Kushina whispered back.

"Okay, you stand the farthest away from our visitors. My team will line up along the walls with our backs to you. You light up the seal as bright as you can and we'll attack as soon as we can see. Minato-san, can you fight in the dark?"

"Yes."

"Good, you'll stand out of the immediate fight and watch our backs. Knock them out as soon as we distract them. Minato, say 'wait a minute' when they're in range. Begin."

Everyone took their positions. The Kiri team felt their way along the walls and crouched down, arguing about the benefits and drawbacks of a basic Henge. Minato forced himself to concentrate on the approaching team.

"Wait a minute!" He interrupted Ryouichi and Naoko's debate. Kushina turned the light on before he even finished the phrase. After a brief, startled silence, the Kiri team attacked.

"You're not good enough to beat us, Iwa scum!" Ryouichi cried as he punched through a rock wall and engaged the Iwa Nin in Taijutsu.

Naoko created a thin mist which enveloped the other two Iwa Nin. One of them tried to rush forward, but Taichi used a quick lightning jutsu to force them to stand still, but it lacked the power to cause any damage or last for more than a second. In that second, Taichi and Naoko engaged them in Taijutsu.

Attracted by the sound of fighting, a second team appeared behind Kushina.

"Everyone duck, there's another team!" Minato shouted as the new team threw a barrage of kunai, racing forward. Before the kunai reached him, Minato leapt to the ceiling, using chakra on his hands and feet to stick, and started to scramble towards the new arrivals. Ryouichi and Taichi managed to take advantage of the distraction, knocking out and paralyzing their respective opponents. Naoko imprisoned her opponent in ice. Kushina turned the light on the arriving team, less than a step away from her. Minato dropped from the ceiling and disarmed the boy about to stab Kushina, before grabbing Kushina's arm and flinging her towards the second member of the team. She spun inside the opposing Genin's reach and used her momentum to barrel into his chest, knocking him back behind his teammate. The last boy rushed forward towards the Kiri team, who moved into a defensive formation to meet a nunchaku-wielding genin.

The genin Minato disarmed drew a tantō and swung it blindingly fast to try and force Minato backwards. Instead of backing off, Minato blocked the tantō with his forearm and used his other hand to stab through the Genin's wrist, pinning him against the wall. Minato bit back a sound as the Genin screamed in surprise before Minato drew a second kunai with his injured arm and knocked the Genin out with the handle.

At the same time as Minato's fight, Kushina barreled down her opponent, shining the light directly in his eyes. When he flinched away, she dropped the seal and grabbed his shirt, swinging herself towards the wall and kicking off of it to maneuver herself behind him and wrap her arm around his neck. He took a deep breath but before he could twist himself free, her grip tightened and closed his airways. He tried to flip Kushina over his head, but she wrapped her legs around his waist and he staggered forward into Minato, who just knocked out his own opponent.

Minato grabbed the Genin's outstretched arm as Kushina unwrapped her legs so Minato could use the quickly-suffocating Genin's arm to slam him face-first against the wall. Tightening her grip even further, the Genin fell limp. Minato grabbed the light seal and Kushina activated it with her other hand to reveal the Kiri team lying unconscious across the hall, the nunchaku Genin standing over them.

Minato faced off against the last opponent and his eyes tracked the nunchaku as the Genin swung it blindingly fast. He held up his three-pronged kunai in a reverse grip and crouched defensively. Without warning, the Genin leapt forward. Minato blocked countless strikes before using a quick jutsu to shove the Genin backwards. As he dashed back towards Minato, the blond tried to slip inside of the strike, but the nunchaku swung around and struck him where his neck met his shoulders and the Genin flung him past. Minato rolled back to his feet and his eyes widened as he tracked the nunchaku's pattern, analyzing its weaknesses. "That was pathetic, our academy students back in Suna know better than that," the Genin scoffed.

"Too bad the Suna academy didn't teach you situational awareness," Minato retorted as Kushina struck the Genin on the back of the head. Minato straightened and rolled his shoulders before beginning to search the nunchaku-wielding Genin for his coin. Kushina lowered the brightness of her seal to a thin glow and moved to check on the Kiri team. Ryouichi sat up groggily, holding his head, as she crouched beside him. "It's a lightning coin," Minato announced, dejected. He walked over to the Kiri team, crouched beside Taichi, and placed a hand on the unconscious boy's forehead. Minato's hand flickered green and Taichi woke abruptly.

"Gross! What is on your hand?" Taichi demanded, slapping Minato's wrist and rubbing his forehead.

"Sorry, it's just a little blood."

"That's more than a little blood! What happened?"

"Let me wake Naoko-san up and I'll tell you." Minato stepped to the opposite side of the tunnel without fully standing up and placed his hand on Naoko's forehead. It briefly glowed green before she woke.

"Ew!" She slapped his hand away. "What is on your hand?"

"It's just some blood! Baby Kakashi can handle it better than you guys and he's two!" Minato answered hotly.

"He's right," Kushina noted as Minato slapped the coin he found into her hand. She sealed it into the corpse scroll.

"You're bleeding!" Naoko cried when Kushina's light fell on his injured arm.

Minato jerked his arm out of the light. "Where do you think the blood came from?" Minato asked. He crouched on the other side of Ryouichi and pressed his injured hand against the older boy's forehead. It flickered to green and Ryouichi visibly relaxed.

"Thank you, Minato-san. My team mates are right, the blood on your hand is disgusting. You should have healed yourself first."

Minato looked at Kushina, exasperated.

"Weren't you guys the ones that claimed he couldn't take a hit?" Kushina pointed out.

"For your information, the blade was poisoned. Since I don't have an antidote for whatever that Genin put on his blade, I have to bleed the poison out. Do you guys only know combat? You honestly aren't that great if one Genin with a nunchaku could knock all three of you out in less than a minute without any jutsu," Minato said angrily.

"Then how did you beat him?"

"I took a hit and he threw me past and turned his back on Kushina. She hit him from behind. Simple."

"She knows Fūinjutsu, you're a sensor and a medic, and you both have to be quite fast, that means you must be good at Taijutsu, you both have a lot of chakra so how are you still Genin?" Naoko demanded

Kushina snorted. "Minato was dead last in the Academy and I honestly wasn't ranked much better than him. We had to basically blackmail Minato's sensei into letting us take the exams and annoy the Hokage until he gave his approval. In short, we're really good at faking it and working as a team. Even a Jōnin would have to think twice when facing more than one Genin working well together."

"There is no way teamwork makes you that much better," Taichi scoffed while he searched the Iwa team for the coin.

"Believe what you will. The Iwa boy who faced Ryouichi-san has the coin," Minato inspected his arm while Kushina shone the light on it.

"That looks nasty," she commented. "Maybe we should have gotten—"

"I'm not going to ask Sakumo-san for anything more than I have to. He has Kakashi to take care of now."

"You mean Hatake Sakumo?" Ryouichi asked.

"What about him?" Minato responded defensively.

"Do you know him?"

"Everyone in the village knows who he is."

"Have you met him? What's he like? Is he really as strong as the Bingo books say?"

"Just because we're allies doesn't mean I'm going to give you information on my village's Jōnin," Minato responded coldly.

"Right," Ryouichi responded, dejected. "But how does a Genin know a top-level Jōnin like the White Fang?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"He was the reason I became a shinobi."

"Really?" Minato scowled, most of his concentration focused on healing his arm. "How does a pre-Academy civilian from Kiri know about the White Fang?"

"I'm not from Kiri itself, I'm from a tiny island near the Land of Lightning. The White Fang had a mission to kill someone who had been terrorizing the village. The village hired Konoha to get rid of him because Kiri was too expensive."

"That's an interesting story, but I'm still not going to tell you anything about him."

"Do you know him?"

"A lot of people know him."

"Let it rest, Ryouichi," Naoto rolled her eyes. "No one else wants to hear about your obsession with the White Fang."

"Fine," he snapped. "Do you have the coin, Taichi?"

"Right here." Taichi tossed the coin at Kushina so she could seal it away. "It's wind, congratulations. As soon as we find earth, we'll have a one of all the elements. According to my watch, it's almost morning. We should get away from here and find a place to get some rest, start hunting the last coin in a few hours."

"Good idea," Kushina agreed, "But let's eat here so we don't attract anyone to wherever we decide to rest." Ten minutes later, everyone except Naoko was digging in to the cup ramen Kushina made, around the corner from the unconscious Genin. Naoko stared sourly at the rations bar she chose instead. "Are you on a diet or something?" Kushina asked Naoko through a mouthful of noodles, two other cups of ramen sitting in front of her.

"Of course! Aren't you?"

"No way!"

"Aren't you worried about getting fat?" The three boys suddenly felt extremely awkward as Kushina started on her second cup

"Why would I care? If I got fat I could just learn some of the Akimichi jutsus."

"Don't you have a boy you want to stay thin and pretty for?"

"Why would a guy care if I was thin and pretty?" Kushina started her third cup of ramen.

"Guys only like thin girls."

Kushina shrugged. "It doesn't matter if a guy likes me. As a Kunoichi, relationships like that are dangerous." Kushina finished her ramen.

"It's fine as long as the guy is a shinobi too."

"Maybe for you. But it's not like I can have a baby since I'm a Jinchuuriki." Kushina stiffened and stared at Minato in horror as the last word slipped out of her mouth.

Everyone tensed, wondering what the other would do. "I need to talk to my team alone," Taichi stood up suddenly and pulled his teammates away. Minato swallowed his bite and shifted in front of Kushina to block the tears welling in her eyes at the horrified and fearful looks from the Kiri team. While she struggled to compose herself, Minato stacked her empty ramen cups inside of his and pulled her in the opposite direction. After a few steps, he deactivated the light seal and stuffed it in his pocket. Kushina suddenly wrapped her arms around Minato and buried her teary face in his shoulder.

"I'm so stupid!" She mumbled as Minato awkwardly tried to pat her back with his hands pinned to his side. "Both my teammates left me when they found out, now they're going to leave too because of me!"

"They're not going to leave. They'll never pass this test without us."

"You mean they'll never pass the test without you. If they find out you can make the light seal too—"

"I'm not going to leave you. Remember the day we decided to be an awesome team together?"

"They'll attack us and take you and—"

"They are completely blind in here without us."

"But they'll—"

"I'm not going to leave you, Kushina. For any reason. I promised, remember?"

"But you didn't mean it!"

"I meant every word! Don't even think something like that!" Minato wormed his arms free and wrapped them tightly around Kushina's shoulders.

"Do you care if I'm fat?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Minato asked, taken by surprise. "You're my best friend, why would I care what you looked like or what you have sealed inside of you?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really, really?"

"Really, really."

"Pinky swear?"

"Double pinky swear."

Kushina stepped back so they could link fingers.

"See? I promise I'm not going to leave you, okay?"

"You never asked me to promise anything to you."

"Then promise me you'll stop thinking I'm going to abandon you."

"I promise."

"Now, let's finish this exam and wipe the floor with everyone else, okay?"

Kushina grinned widely. "I'm smiling."

"I can tell."

Author's note: This seems like the perfect place to end this. In all, the Kiri team comes back and admits they can't do squat without Minato and Kushina, all five of them manage to pass the second exam with plenty of extra coins alongside four other teams. A month later, they compete in front of everyone. Both win their first round and are paired against each other in the semifinals, but refuse to fight a teammate and the round ends up a draw. Both are promoted to Chuunin when they get back to Konoha. Everyone is happy except Orochimaru for spending the entire trip, minus the four days for the first and second exams, with the two Genin-turned-Chuunin bent on annoying him to death.