Chapter #6: Genin Exam – part IV

Beauty and Brains

After a longer while, the blond heard strange noise coming from the bushes surrounding him. He turned around and saw a large bear, prepared to attack.

The bear kept getting closer as the jonin gulped loudly: "Dangit, I can't move."

Naruto was ready to be attacked, but he suddenly noticed something. He turned his head around and deflected five shuriken that were flying straight at him.

When he looked back, the bear was gone.

"You almost had me there" he said loudly. "But I'm afraid that genjutsu at this level won't do you any good…"

"You know what, you're right Naruto-sensei" Kumiko's voice traveled through the forest from an unknown location. "I guess I can't fool you with a paralysis jutsu, you are a jonin after all…"

"You can try…" responded the blonde, "Genjutsu was never a strong suit of mine…but… after being tricked by it so often, it's pretty easy to see through…"

"Well I can assure you that you've never seen a genjutsu specialist like me" announced the girl as she stepped out of her hideout.

The jonin looked at her direction, but then he heard a sharp noise in his ear and fell to his left knee. He then noticed that all he saw was a blur.

"Two illusions in one, eh?" he thought to himself, "Not a bad idea. But, her plans are obvious…"

Suddenly he felt that he was in danger. He strafed to the left, avoiding the kunai flying directly from behind. Just a second later, more knives started flying, this time from every direction.

"Nice thinking" Naruto complimented her with a smile. "She took out my sense of hearing and sight. I have no idea which one is real or where they're coming from, so I can only rely on instinct. However, instincts aren't always reliable, and soon I'll get hit by a kunai. She's really a genius."

The blond was non-stop on the move in order to avoid all the attacks, the real ones just as the fake. But with every minute, there seemed to be more and more knives in the air at once.

"Guess there's only one thing left…" he thought, and, suddenly Nine-tails vessel dodged a kunai by simply bending to the right, having the projectile flew right next to him and burry into the tree. It was only then that he noticed a small paper attached to it.

"An explosive note?" he thought to himself, but before he was able to dodge, the note went off.

"Yes!" yelled Kumiko happily, running in his direction as her teacher's body dropped to the ground.

-Same time, elsewhere-

Takeru was still lying on the ground, not able to move. He turned his head around as much as he could. Naruto was long gone.

"I'm running out of time?!" he panicked. "Dammit, when does this paralyze intend to disappear?!"

-Back to the battle-

Kumiko ran to the place where the blond was lying. She did it. She defeated a jonin.

"Sorry, Naruto-sensei, but—" she stopped right there, noticing her went up in a cloud of smoke, "Where…?"

"That was pretty good" she heard the man's voice. "But it seems even genjutsu specialist can't see past illusions…"

Suddenly, Naruto appeared behind Kumiko.

"I thought that I had it for sure this time" said Kumiko, lowering her head.

"Don't be so cruel on yourself" asked the blond, placing his hand on her shoulder. "The plan was pretty good. At the beginning I really thought that your point was to make me dodge your attacks until I'll be too tired to move. But I figure that keeping me under two illusions at once is really tiring for so you were at risk for tiring out, too. I believe that your plan from the beginning was to render me blind and deaf and then strike me with an explosive. Am I right?"

"That was it, but I'd never thought that you'd use Shadow Clone Jutsu, sensei…"

"An old friend of mine taught me basic of tactic" explained Naruto simply. "But I have to say, that I'm impressed: a strategic mind always puts me on my toes. Anyway, wanna go again?"

"No point in that, really" responded Kumiko sadly. "This trap was the only thing that I had planned. It seems like ninjutsu won't work nor taijutsu so… I'm all out."

"Well, you still have one hour left" announced the jonin, "I think that's enough time to think of another plan. Or changing your strategy. If you'll decide to try again, I'll be where the exam started…" and with those words, he disappeared between the trees.

-A little later-

Naruto returned to the point the exam began. Haruto was still sitting on the ground, but Daisuke stood up, ready to fight.

"I was wondering where you disappeared to" announced the jonin with a smile that annoyed the boy. "You're the only one who hasn't tried to get the bells, Daisuke…"

"Yeah, yeah" replied the preteen. "I waited on purpose. Kumiko is the best at genjutsu out of the five of us. Since she failed, there's no reason for me to even try defeating you that way. Takeru and Emi probably used ninjutsu, so that's not the way either…'

"Well you're not as dumb as you let on" reminded Naruto, "But evaluation isn't helping your cause."

"I know" responded Daisuke, keeping his calm. "But I still have one trick up my sleeve. Allow me, sensei, to show you my jutsu" and with those words, he shaped chakra around his fists into the form two giant fists. .

"What…WHAT'S THAT!?" Haruto was a little surprised.

"A technique like that requires an intense amount of chakra control!" thought Naruto, taken back by this revelation, "There's no way a kid fresh out of the Academy has the ability to use a technique like that!"

"Trust me, Naruto-sensei…" responded the genin-to-be, "You haven't seen anything yet..."

They stood in front of each other for a while and then, suddenly, Daisuke launched the first attack…

-the final approach-

And so the 6th chapter ends. Well, hope you liked it enough to visit the story when the sixth chapter is uploaded.

As for you, my good readers, there'll be a special note at the end of a future chapter. Nothing really special I guess, but I'll keep quiet for now.

To end it once more I beg for you to review

Best wishes.