A/N: So sorry! I've been swamped with assignments lately, I just haven't had the time to do this.
Anyway this is your last chapter voting for Saku/Lee or Saku/Kiba. Voting will close at the beginning of next chapter. So, let's get on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The Heart of the Storm.
This is an Exam?
It was almost midnight.
The village hidden in the leaves was all asleep. Well, except for the guards and a madly cackling silver haired Jonin. He'd just finished designing a test to prove the abilities of Naruto and Hinata, and it was EVIL!
It was also unusual, but Kakashi didn't care about that, he wanted this to be interesting, and have a degree of difficulty unheard of in conventional Jonin exams.
Of course, it should be noted that very few Jonin exams were conventional, as the exams were unnecessary. The Hokage promoted shinobi to Jonin based on skills and achievements, not the results of what could easily be a biased exam.
Kakashi's test was entirely practical. No theory whatsoever. This meant he didn't have to mark anything. It was as simple as 'Did you get it?' with a pass if you did and a fail if you didn't. Each section passed let you move on to the next.
He cackled again.
This was evil.
The first part of the test: Steal Anko Mitarashi's dango, while she was eating it!
The hidden leaf village would never know what hit it.
About 8 in the morning, the town square.
"You want us to what!?" Naruto screamed. Yes, screamed. Our blond haired, sword wielding demon containing hero screamed. They'd run into Anko on their way home yesterday, and although it had been great (Naruto and Anko were very similar) they had seen what had happened when you got between Anko and her dango.
The poor civilian didn't even mean to do it. He'd tripped, and was now in intensive care and intensely scared of round foods (and the evil women eating them).
While Naruto had screamed Hinata had paled (somehow…). "Kakashi-san, that would be like stealing your whole Icha Icha collection." She said.
"Well it's a good thing that I'm in charge of your exam! If you don't do it you don't pass!" He eye-smiled. "Now get going, she won't be eating for much longer!" He seemed joyful, as if he was finally getting revenge for some horrible crime committed against him.
She probably stole his porn.
Ten minutes later, a dango stand on the other side of town.
Special Jonin Anko Mitarashi was devouring dango at a speed that scared all those around her. She inhaled it even faster than Naruto ate ramen, and that was fast!
Hinata casually strode up behind her and tapped her shoulder. When Anko paused and turned around she spoke. "Blame Kakashi." And ran off, leaving Anko alone in the stand, blinking in confusion.
Then she turned around.
Her dango was gone.
"Kakashi!" She roared.
The silver haired Jonin was resting (i.e. reading smut) on a branch when he shivered. He looked around but couldn't see anything. 'Oh well,' he thought 'it's probably nothing.'
One hour later, in front of the hospital.
Okay, maybe it hadn't been a good idea to get them to steal Anko's dango, but he'd figured out were he went wrong. He hadn't told them not to tell her that he told them to do it in the first place.
So for the next part of the test he ordered them not to tell Yugao that he got them to cover her in pink dye.
"Uh, Kakashi-sensei, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean Anko hurt you pretty bad, and Yugao is in Anbu." Naruto was genuinely concerned about his sensei's ability to survive, especially since this 'test' seemed to be pulling pranks on attractive women who had probably turned down Kakashi's advances.
"Of course I'm sure! Don't worry about me I'll be perfectly fine… although," He paused for a moment thinking he'd forgotten something. "Nah, it's probably nothing. Well, get going!"
He eye smiled.
Thirty minutes later, one of the many training grounds around Konoha.
Yugao Uzuki, Anbu elite and on occasion personal bodyguard of the Hokage herself was steaming. She was furious! That Hatake just didn't know when to quit. She'd turned him down many years ago and he hadn't liked it. He refused to talk to her for over a month and generally acted like a little kid rather than a high ranked shinobi.
Yugao had been training when she sensed someone approaching. Two someone's. They had been trying (and failing) to hide their presence and Yugao thought that they had to be genin fresh out of the academy (or maybe still in it) to be that pathetic.
Then she saw them.
Naruto and Hinata were both hunched over in an exaggerated sneaking pose. They were even humming as they hid behind a tree. "Okay, so we ready for operation: Let Yugao know that Kakashi wanted us to cover her in pink dye without telling it to her face?"
Hinata nodded. "Yes, but remember; we cant let her know that Kakashi told us to do it. Of course, if she happened to be listening in using her Anbu stealth skills and I wasn't using my Byakugan in case she sensed the chakra it uses… well…" She giggled.
Yugao stepped out of the bush she was hiding in and approached the couple. "So, Kakashi's getting you two to dye me pink huh?"
Both cloaked shinobi nodded. Naruto gave her a small jar of dye. Yugao raised an eyebrow. "To make it look like we tried."
Yugao nodded, taking the lid of and dripping a few splashes on her left leg, to make it look like she had jumped aside from the main splash, but had still hit her with a few drops. Passing the jar back to Naruto, the Anbu took a deep breath.
"KAKASHI!!!" She screamed, before taking of to search for the Jonin, her face flushed from screaming.
Half an hour later, outside the hospital.
A beaten and battered Kakashi seriously considered calling it quits and just saying Naruto and Hinata were Jonin. Given there performance on the mission he could easily have gotten them to simply pick up some lunch in a time limit or something trivial, say they did a proper test and promoted them.
His pride however, refused to let them get away that easily. Especially since they'd set Anko and Yugao on him. He would not let them get away with that! Of course, rather than giving them any ideas he decided to merge the last two tests.
The first was to steal Tsunade's sake. The second involved Kurenai's more womanly features. His new plan, have them steal the sake then use it to drench Kurenai's top. If they can survive this, then they deserve to be Jonin!
Let us take a moment to examine this from Kakashi's way of thinking. If Naruto and Hinata could steal Anko's favourite food while she was eating it and get away alive then they'd easily be able to complete any 'item requisition/recovery' missions they were given.
Dying Yugao pink was also like a mission he himself had had once. Dump acid on the target. Unfortunately someone had mixed up the highly corrosive acid with a vat of heated green dye. It would test their survival skills and there ability to improvise an escape plan in case a mission went wrong.
Stealing Tsunade's sake was a mix of the two. Infiltrate, escape and survive.
Kurenai however, was personal. She had actually broken into his house and burnt his entire Icha Icha collection. Fortunately he kept his personal copies hidden away, but his display collection was reduced to ashes.
Kakashi wasn't an Anbu captain for nothing. He figured out how the couple had gotten around his 'don't tell her' order, so he wrote a list.
They could not: Tell the women, get someone else to tell them, write it out, shout it out, whisper it out, let them overhear them, let someone else overhear them, get summons to tell anyone, make a message using shadow clones, make a message using marks or objects or even use sign language.
There was no way this would come back to him. Not until the test was over at least. But Kakashi wasn't thinking that far ahead.
Tsunade was working diligently, something that had surprised Shizune to no end. Rather than ask why she was working the med-nin decided to leave the slug sannin to her work. However, all good must things come to an end. The doors to Tsunade's office burst open and Naruto and Hinata strolled in.
And started singing.
About Kakashi.
A tick developed on Tsunade's head as she heard (through a rather inventive) song and dance routine that Kakashi had forbidden them from most forms of communication. She became angry when she heard about Anko, and furious when she heard about Yugao. But Kakashi's final test broke whatever self control Tsunade had remaining.
Stealing her sake and doing that to Kurenai!
She grabbed two Jonin vests from a cupboard and threw them and the two singing shinobi. "Congratulations and all on becoming Jonin, your test is now over so you can talk, now; where is Kakashi?"
Needless to say, not long later, Kakashi was in the hospital again.
The Konoha 11 held a huge party for Naruto and Hinata to celebrate their promotions, although Kiba was a bit upset that they both got promoted before he did.
Whilst celebrating a messenger appeared at the booth they were eating in. "I'm sorry to interrupt; Hinata, Naruto, you need to go to the Hokage's office immediately. The Kazekage's been kidnapped!"
A/N: Well, it's short and it's late, but at least I got it done! And the next few chapters should be quite eventful, lots of stuff happening. Of course, more changes are being made, one of which can be guessed by what happens in this chapter. Think, where was everyone at the end of this chapter? That's enough of a hint… Review with what you think the change is, and if you're right I'll PM you telling you what you've won. (It's worth it, at least, in my opinion *smile!*)