Chapter 19: The First Test
Naruto was forced out of his daze by a hand slapping him on the back, "What are you doing here boss?" a voice called beside him.
Naruto looked over to see three familiar faces, "Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.
"We're taking the exams, but what about you? Are you giving them or something?" Udon asked.
"No, jounin give the exams I'm taking them too," Naruto said with a grin.
"You mean you're not a chuunin yet?" Konohamaru yelled.
"No, I've been gone for three years, remember?" Naruto yelled back.
"Hey you two, quiet down, save it for the exams," Moegi said.
"Hmph," Naruto said before starting to the exam room.
"HEY! Wait up!" Konohamaru yelled as he ran to catch up, Udon and Moegi on his heels.
The four made it to the exam room moments before the jounin did. As with last time they poofed into the room, the one jounin and several chuunin. And to Naruto's disappointment, it wasn't Ibiki, it was Kurenai instead. She looked over the crowd of genin before her and smiled.
"Alright, first I'm going to congratulate you all on being found prepared enough to be considered for chuunin. You're all going to turn in your acceptance forms and be given a number, once you all have a number I'll explain how this is going to go," Kurenai said.
A murmur passed through the group of genin over what was going on. They turned in their forms and got their numbers, Naruto was 82 but he couldn't see the others to ask them.
"Okay, now for the rules. Your numbers correspond to an item or phrase that you must find. Each of the Chuunin you see here has a list of all the numbers and what they relate to. You must find out what you need from one of these lists and then go and get it within an hour. If a chuunin catches you, either trying to get the list, or going down a hallway, you fail. If you don't get what you need you fail. If you leave the building, you fail. And if someone on your team fails, you fail. If your not back here in an hour you fail. Any questions?" Kurenai said.
Silence answered her from the crowd, either they all got it, or were all stumped into silence. 'Either way, we have to get going,' "the hour starts on my mark. Ready… and… Mark!" Kurenai yelled. When she said mark all the chuunin vanished and the genin scrambled for the door.
x-X-x
Naruto found himself a good hiding place; he was in a classroom on the first floor under a desk. A chuunin wouldn't come looking for him there. And he had clones searching the building stealthily for a list. If they got caught they'd just cancel and vanish, he'd stay safe.
Two clones peeked around a corner and saw a chuunin, and even better, it was Kiba. 'Hehe, might as well mess with him while I'm at it,' one clone thought, the other had the same idea.
The two walked up the wall and onto the ceiling. Crouching low to the ceiling they made they way slowly to Kiba. The first clone dropped down and grabbed Kiba in a bear hug. The other clone dropped down and pulled Kiba's hood over his eyes in the same instance.
"HEY! WHAT THE HELL! LET GO OF ME!" Kiba yelled trying to break out of the first clones grip.
The second started searching Kiba's pockets for the list. It finally found it when another chuunin turned the corner, drawn by the yelling.
"Hey, what the hell? Let him go!" the chuunin yelled running towards the clones.
The second clone, still holding the list, ran for it, and once it turned the corner the first clone canceled and vanished. The second clone now had Kiba and the other chuunin chasing him. he started flipping through the pages, "82, 82, where the hell is it?" he asked as he ran. Finally the clone found it as it ran up a set of stairs, he read it over a few times and canceled and vanished. The two chuunin only found Kiba's list.
Naruto started laughing back under the desk at what his clones did, but made sure to write down his phrase so he wouldn't forget. He decided to started back to the room, he only had ten minutes left before the hour was up.
It took nearly the entire ten minutes to get back, he had to avoid all the chuunin. He finally made it back and saw he was one of the last. He looked around, Sakura was right, a lot did fail. Naruto smiled when he saw Konohamaru and the others, 'at least they passed too,' he said.
He kept looking around and saw the three Grave ninja from before, they made it back as well. Naruto was getting the same feeling off them as before, but not as strongly, maybe it was because their sensei wasn't here.
"Alright, times up. When I call your number you'll come forward and either give me the item you needed, or the phrase you needed," Kurenai said before picking up a list. "Lets see, 1 through 19 already failed, so we start number 20," She said.
Naruto sat at a desk figuring he had a while to wait. He decided to watch the people walk forward and give what they found. Some found that they needed an item, but couldn't find it and failed, others passed but their teammates had the wrong item or phrase so they failed too.
Finally number 82 was called and Naruto walked up to Kurenai. "Hello Naruto, did you find what you needed?" Kurenai asked.
Naruto just grinned and handed her the paper watching the look on her face.
"Naruto, this is a grocery list," Kurenai said raising the paper slightly.
"Huh? Oh, wrong one, sorry, I know it's here somewhere," Naruto said scrounging through his pockets.
"Idiot you take my list and lose your phrase," Kiba said next to Kurenai.
"Oh, he got it form you?" Kurenai asked with a smile looking at Kiba.
"Found it!" Naruto yelled pulling a paper from one of his pockets and handing it to Kurenai.
Kurenai read it over, "alright you pass, just wait for you're teams results," Kurenai said.
"Oh, I'm taking it alone," Naruto said with a grin.
Kurenai startled, "Naruto, you have to take the exams in teams," she said.
"No, Granny Tsunade said it was a special circumstance," Naruto said his grin widening.
Kurenai sighed and nodded, Naruto walked away and sat at a desk, he wanted to see if Konohamaru passed.
After a while Naruto was getting bored, Konohamaru and Moegi both went and passed, but Udon still hadn't gone yet. Naruto also noticed that only when someone failed did they leave. Everyone who passed with their team stayed and he couldn't figure it out.
Finally Udon was called and passed so Naruto walked over to the three to congratulate them, "Hey guys, good job! You all passed," Naruto said when he reached them.
"Thanks! We saw you passed too, but what about your team?" Konohamaru asked.
"Oh, I don't have a team, Granny said I could take it alone," Naruto said.
"What? So all that team stuff doesn't apply to you?" Konohamaru yelled.
"I guess not," Naruto said grinning and scratching the back of his head.
"I wonder how much longer it'll take, we still have to wait for the jounin in charge of the second part to get here," Moegi said.
"Oh, that's why everyone's still here," Naruto said looking around.
Finally Kurenai had finished checking who passed, 13 teams passed, plus Naruto making a total of 40 genin. "Okay everyone, you've all completed the first portion of the Chuunin Exams, the proctor for the second portion should be here any moment," Kurenai said.
Right on cue the doors opened and Ibiki walked in. he walked past the crowd of genin and up to Kurenai. They shared a few words before Ibiki turned to the crowd and spoke.
"My name is Ibiki Morino and I'm the proctor for the second part of the exams. You all will meet me tomorrow at the main gates of training area 44 tomorrow at 10:00am. If you don't know where that is, ask your jounin leader, they know. I'll see you tomorrow," Ibiki said and then walked out, Kurenai at his side and the chuunin behind him leaving the genin standing there trying to take in all he said.
"Uh, boss, is this like the last time you took this?" Konohamaru asked.
"Well, the second part is in the same place, but other than that, it's completely different," Naruto said.
x-X-x
It was dusk and Naruto was getting ready for bed, he wanted a good night's sleep for the second part of the exam. He was going over the days events in his mind, Sakura, the exam, dinner with Konohamaru and the others, trying to find Sakura, ending up not being able to and winding up back home.
Naruto's head was buzzing with thoughts about what happened before the exam. 'I can't believe Sakura kissed me.' 'Was it just for good luck? Or something more?' 'Was Sasuke right when he said Sakura turned him down for me?' 'Why couldn't I find her after the exam?' 'Is she afraid I would think it was more than good luck?' 'Is she avoiding me now?' 'Is she afraid this could ruin our friendship?' the thoughts continued on until Naruto was asleep, hundreds of questions, and one fear of the answers.
The next day Naruto was at the main gates for training area 44 at 10 in the morning with the rest of the participants in the exams. At exactly 10 Ibiki stated talking.
"Welcome to the second part of the Chuunin Exams. Your task is to make it form the gate you start at to the building in the center. You have exactly 120 hours, that's five days. You're stating at noon today so use that at your guide on the last day. Each team will be given either a Heaven or Earth scroll, your task it to get the other one and get to the building with both within the time limit.
"This means you'll be fighting each other for the scrolls, and half are guaranteed to fail. You will also fail if you or a teammate dies, becomes incapacitated, looks at the contents of the scrolls, or does not make it to the tower in time or with both scrolls. You'll have to sign these," he held up a stack of waver forms, "wavers before we let you in. some of you won't be returning," Ibiki said with a smirk.
"Hey, how will you know if we look in the scrolls?" one of the genin yelled out.
"Have a look and find out," Ibiki said his smirk widening.
'Yeah, a lot of this is different,' Naruto though.