"Hello." Someone else speaking
"Hello." Kyuubi speaking.
"Hello." Thoughts
"Hello." Kyuubi thoughts
Chapter 15
2 days later the Konoha's ninja's met in a huge Mist temple where at least 30 other teams were.
"Decent numbers." Said Choji.
"Yeah its not really damaging to lose gennins trying to become chuunins but when a ninja has the potential to become a jounin then the away country won't send as many fearing to lose talented Shinobi's." said Sakura. She shot a quick glance at Naruto who was looking around the room and whispering to Akira who was nodding.
"Does he still hate me as well?" Thought Sakura. "I haven't talked to him at all since he came back. I'm so scared…"
"Sound ninja's huh?" whispered Naruto making all of the leaf look at the little group Sound ninja's who were all huddled together. "I would have thought they were going to ban their ninja's from exams but I guess I was wrong."
"Aren't they the ones who invaded the leaf?" Naruto heard a grass nin that was maybe a year or 2 older then him, say to one of his team mates. The problem was that the sound ninja's also heard it and for some reason angered them. Naruto soon saw the ninja speed towards them silently making it unnoticeable to the talking grass ninja's.
"Well show you!" Shouted one of the sound ninja's already descending upon one of the grass nin's but the ninja along with his other sound allies were surrounded by several vines and lifted into the air.
A new figure that was also a grass nin went over to his younger comrade.
"Do not speak like that about any villages you are not exactly strong to back up your words." He said. "Keep letting your mouth yapping unchecked and you never know who you'll run into."
"Let him go." Shouted a woman. The one who had the sound ninja's in the air looked in the front of the room where at least 40 jounin's stood. The grass nin nodded and soon enough the vines that were wrapped around the 3 ninja's were released. "Now let's get this over with… You are all going to be participating in this year's jounin exam. If you are aren't feeling up to it then leave now." Seeing how no one budged she began once more smiling. "My name is Natsumi. Now unlike other villages where the jounin exams have consisted of several test this exam will be one huge test judging you on every aspect of what we believe should be in a jounin. Jounin's are considered the back bone of any village, the most powerful under the Kages. Jounin's are your elite ninja's if you will. Not only must you be strong in order to become a jounin but you must also be smarter and cunning on top of that you must be able to work in and out of a team and you cannot be afraid to be on your own. You must always know what you must do to complete the mission. And most important of all you can't be afraid to sacrifice yourself for your team or the mission. Now the test will be in one huge area that has a variety of environments. Sometimes an important mission for a jounin is finding your objective. So that will be your objective this time, there are exactly 45 teams of 3 ninja's each participating in this exam. It's a bit much but I believe our test center will be able to hold all of you no problem. There are exactly 20 items in our test arena that are concealed within the forest. You will all fight each other for the items that you find." Everyone began to nod making the jounin smile even more. "But! Don't think you are out of danger yet. Not only do you have fight for the hidden items and avoid or attack the creatures in the forest but you will also have to deal with the hunter teams made of jounins. These teams are assigned to attack and capture members of your teams. They can pretty much do anything they want." She looked around to see the shock on all of the chuunin's face making her smile. "Now here's the fun part. You must defeat the jounin or at least take the crest they are holding. This is where your intelligence, strength and team work come in. Now remember that you must have the hidden item and the jounin crest! Now all of you get organized and get ready to get a number to determine where you will enter the facility."
Everyone soon moved to the back of the room where the middle was completely deserted and in the front of the room where the group of jounins that were all waiting. Natsumi soon began to call teams up each walking forward to receive a number. Within 10 minutes all of the teams had their numbers and followed the jounin instructors to a huge gate.
"Alright! The exam will begin in exactly 20 minutes!" said Natsumi. "You will have an hour head start and then the jounin hunters will be sent inside! You will be spending one week inside this facility!" There came a lot of murmurs from the crowd.
"Well Kiba and Neji are going to become troublesome." Thought Naruto.
"You have all been given a map of the entire area and remember that you will be living in here for a week so you must hunt for your own food and make your own shelter. Now everyone get into your places! The gates will open at the end of one week any one who is still alive and gets out of the facility will become jounin's. Even if your team mate is captured and you make it out of the facility you will become a jounin but your captured team mate will fail. Everyone into your positions!" Everyone went into the gate with their number on it and waited for the sign to go into the gates. After 20 minutes were up Natsumi raised a micro phone to her mouth. "Everyone begin the counter starts now!" The gates immediately opened as all of the teams rushed forward.
"What's the plan Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata.
"First we should find shelter and defend it. It's a good thing we have you on our team Hinata-chan. So were going to be relying on you the most not only for reconnaissance but also for medical purposes." Said Naruto. Hinata nodded. "So can you search for a cave of some sort first please? If possible a cave that is difficult to locate but very resourceful?" Hinata nodded activating her byakugan. After about 10 minutes of moving around Hinata smiled at her newly found discovery.
"Got something." Said Hinata.
"A cave?" asked Akira hopping over a branch while looking behind them.
"Not just a cave… An underwater cave…. We have to get closer but I'm pretty sure it's in the middle of that river and its fresh water along with lots of fish…"
"Good work Hinata-chan." Complimented Akira smiling.
"Yeah that's my girl!" shouted Naruto getting a whack from Akira telling him not to shout. But it still made Hinata blush from their comments.
They soon reached a long river and dived into it and after about a minute of swimming they soon reached a circular opening. They slowly poked their heads through the water surface to look around and saw that it was deserted and a perfect place to camp. They got out of the water and placed their gear on the floor and began to exam the medium sized cave that easily fitted all 3 of them. Hinata's eyes soon came across the dark wall that had a little bit of light coming out from it.
"Naruto-kun." She whispered. "Akira-kun." Both boys looked at her and then at the wall she was staring at. Akira took out his kunai and began to dig into the wall soon revealing a small blue statue. "I guess that's what we have to look for." Akira and Naruto nodded happy about their easy break.
"Alright. Our first mission for today is to get supplies." Said Naruto. "Akira do you think you can get a huge amount of wood for our fire? I'll go get some food like fish and such while Hinata I would really like it if your scouted the area around here and stayed very close in case you run into any enemies." Both of them nodded. "And Hinata will be keeping the artifact." Hinata was surprised by that!
"But Naruto-kun shouldn't you or Akira-kun keep the artifact?" she asked nervously.
"No because in case we do get attacked then Naruto and I are probably the best at distracting the enemy thus letting you escape. Plus your clan's attacks can help you get away safely like your kaiten and if you are attacked by a few people then you can always use your 64 points of divinity." Said Akira. Naruto just simply nodded as if he everything his best friend was about to say making Akira shake his head.
"Alright let's do our stuff!" said Naruto. Both of his friends nodded before jumping back into the water and separating to do their tasks.
Meanwhile in another part of the forest Sakura was jumping from tree to tree with Choji and Ino following her.
"So what first Sakura?" asked Choji.
"Hmmm. We should try to get some shelter. I think we might be in for a storm soon." Said Sakura looking up at the clouds. "Since we don't have any abilities that can find shelter we may need to search the old fashion way. But I don't want us splitting up since we don't really fight well separated." Both of her team mates nodded at her idea. They continued to search until there was a loud voice in the air.
"The jounin hunting teams have been let into the facility! Good luck to you all!"
"Great… We haven't even found our shelter yet…" said Sakura. "Come on guys we have to pick it up!" After about another hour they soon found a little cave through the pouring rain that was unoccupied. "Alright. We will rest here for tonight start a fire and I'll make a gen jutsu making it look like a regular hole in the wall." Both of the nodded and soon enough a huge fire was started to warm everyone.
In another part of a forest 2 teams from the mist had just found an artifact and were camping out while making dinner.
"It's great we already found an artifact. Now we have to get a jounin crest." said one of the mist ninja's. "Who's keeping the artifact?"
"Well since our team found it we should keep it." Said the leader of his team.
"You're an idiot Kane did you forget we helped you!"
"You're the ones that wanted to come along!"
The two teams began to bicker endlessly oblivious to the fact that they were being watched. The chuunin's suddenly felt a presence around them and got into a defensive position.
"Everyone follow my lead." Said Kane.
"Why should we?" asked another. "For all we know you're just using us so you and your team can be promoted to jounin!"
"Damn it trust me!"
"Forget it we are going solo!"
Suddenly the person who had just spoken got struck in the neck making him go unconscious. The 2 team mates seeing that their allies had just struck their leader, turned around and attacked Kane's team. After about a minute of fighting Kane and one of his team mates were faced off against one mist ninja that was suppose to be their ally. They were about to attack once again when they were surrounded by 3 ninja's.
"What the!" said Kane. He cursed under his breath.
"Well looks like you all just proved that our test is quite effective…" One of them said.
"You jounin's were watching us the whole time!" said one of the chuunin's.
"That's right… Nap time…" Before the chuunin's could react all three were knocked out. "Damn let's get this crap back to base…"
The next day Hinata was packing the food and firewood that Akira and Naruto had brought the previous day. Hinata heard the water at the end of the cave begin to make noise causing her to take out a kunai and prepare to attack if it was an intruder but all she saw was a boy with sunglasses getting out of the water.
"Naruto isn't back yet?" asked Akira.
"No. I'm starting to get worried. You were both out for a long time."
"How long?" asked Akira warming himself at the fire. Hinata sat down next to him.
"You were late by 2 hours." Said Hinata making Akira surprised.
"That's weird… Naruto is usually never late by 2 hours… I must have lost track of time as well sorry about that." said Akira. The water at the end of the cave began to make noise making both of them get up and get ready for the attack. But the person who came out of the water surprised them even more.
"Yumi!" asked Hinata. "What are you doing here?" Although Hinata knew Yumi was apart of the Akatsuki she had grown a strong friendship with the teenager and in such a short amount of time as well. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah!" she said kindly. "I have been following you since the beginning of the exam! I saw that you went into the river so I wanted to know what you guys were doing. Plus the artifacts we're looking for are usually in caves that are difficult to find."
"Well we found one artifact in here already so they have to know this cave exist." Said Hinata.
"Well won't hurt to check it out." Said Yumi cheerfully before going to the wall and examining it. Suddenly a red aura surrounded her as she struck the wall hard making a hole. Akira and Hinata looked closely as the Akatsuki member pulled a lever and a portion of the wall opened. "Do you guys want to get the artifact now?" Akira and Hinata looked at each other.
"What about Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata.
"Okay this is what well do." Said Akira. "Wait for him out here for an hour if he doesn't come back then join us okay? Well see what's inside first." Hinata nodded.
"Be careful then you 2." She whispered. Akira and Yumi nodded as they disappeared into the tunnel.
The wind outside blew gently across a huge open field where 2 figures stood looking at each other.
"Finally found you…" said one of the teenagers.
"I can understand why you're mad but I never thought that you had this much hate in you…" said the other.
"You had everything that I didn't have. You had a family, people admired you, friends, a teacher that wanted to teach you everything, and someone who even loved you. And you threw it all away!" the other shouted. "And for what? For a stupid thing like revenge and power…" The teenager looked at his former team mate whose eyes were full of anger. "Well I guess its time for a rematch… And this time I won't hold back you traitor! You're going to be on the ground this time Sasuke!"
"Well see about that Naruto!" shouted Sasuke.
Both teenagers soon got into their fighting styles as the wind blew leaves past them awaiting the huge battle that was about to take place.
Thanks for all of your reviews everyone. Now to answer some questions.
You'll learn where the new group came from soon. The artifact's can't restore chakra unless it is the demon that uses it. And of course Kyuubi knows where his artifact is but he'll be coming back later. And I'll also consider some Akira-Yumi pairing. I already explained what Yumi wanted with Sakura but we'll see if Naruto will forgive his former team mate. Romance will come later.
Also I'm going to give you a pretty obvious preview of what will happen a few chapters later. But since I am ahead of all of you by maybe 4 or so chapters I need to know some information from you guys.
Voting time… Naruto need's a team but I'll let you all decide on who his team will consist of… Now try to limit it to 6 or 7 including Naruto but if you want to suggest more then go for it. But remember Naruto's team is your decision so try to make it look nice hehe. There will also be a surprise character later. Now everyone please vote or else i'll choose the teams myself and make it balanced. Thank you all
Akira (Haven't decided yet but he will probably be default)
Neji
Kiba
Shikamaru
Hinata
Choji
Sasuke (Maybe…)
Sakura
Lee
Shino
Yumi. (Haven't decided yet but she will probably be default)
Itachi( hahah Yeah right… Don't choose this guy...)
Ino
TenTen