Partners

Chapter 4: Test one: follow the black haired nin

Thinking/Dreaming

A/N Some of you may be confused because I never explained Naruto and Hinata's age. Well they're both fourteen and Naruto never left for training with Jiraiya. But he has his shippuuden attire

Time skip to the Chuunin exams.

Naruto and Hinata walked toward the massive building in which they would take their first exam.

"Wow this place is huge!" Naruto exclaimed,

"Yeah," agreed Hinata "I wonder why it has to be so big just for one exam."

(A/n Yeah Hinata has gotten over her stuttering for the most part)

The partners walked in silence for the remaining walk towards the building Naruto snuck a few glances at Hinata, and he noticed that she had a worried look on her face. But there was no time to ask her if she was okay because they had just walked through two glass doors to find about 50 genin teams all with Konoha forehead protectors.

"Hmph, looks like the jounin didn't hold back on sending their teams this year." Shino said walking up to Naruto and Hinata.

"Wha-, Shino?!" Naruto shouted,

"Yo,"

"Shino-kun I thought you were looking for your bugs." Said Hinata

"I was but we found them. The remaining ninjas of the Kamizuru clan executed a forbidden jutsu to obtain them. But, we easily defeated them and got our female bugs back."

"Hey was that the clan we saw on the bikouchuu mission?" asked Naruto

"Yes, there were only ten of them." Shino responded

Hinata, Naruto and Shino continued their conversation for about another half hour until what looked like the examiner. Naruto recognized him as a Jounin who sometimes talked with Kakashi.

"Alright everyone calm down," said the examiner after everyone was quite he moved to the back of the room in front of a locked door. He looked around at all of the Konoha nin approvingly and introduced himself. "Mine name is Yamashito Kazuki, and I'll be the examiner of the first exam. This is how the exams' gonna work:" He stated clearly, "First I'll unlock this door here and there are several rooms one for each group. Each room has a scroll with a mission to your group. These missions will all be information gathering or tracking missions don throughout the village."

Naruto smiled as he thought; a tracking mission would be great since Hinata has her byakugan this test might be easier than I thought hehe.

"Any questions?" asked Kazuki, no one responded. "Good, then I'll see you in three hours" He said as he unlocked the door and motioned the crowed to pick a room.

Hinata and Naruto walked calmly with the crowed through the newly unlocked door into a hallway lined with about ten rooms and a set of wooden stairs at the end. The partners decided to take the stairs which led to more rooms.

"Let's take this one." Naruto said motioning to room 21,

"Yeah it seems empty." Hinata agreed.

The two walked into the small room with two chairs on either side of a wooden table. On that wooden table was the scroll they were looking for. Naruto grabbed the scroll and took a seat on the left chair and Hinata took the right. Naruto read the scroll out loud to Hinata:

"Mission No. 21Chuunin selection exam. Examiner Yamashito Kazuki.

Your Mission is to track a selected chuunin in training ground 11 without him seeing you back to this room. The Chuunin departs at 1:15." Naruto and Hinata checked the clock to see it was 12:50.

"If we run we'll make it." Naruto said as he and Hinata rushed out of the room.

"Yeah." The two ran out of the building and jumped to the roof of a small house. Between jumps Naruto started talking to Hinata "Hinata, I got a plan."

"Let's hear it," She responded.

"Alright, you stay about 150 yards behind the guy, but a little to the left or right so he doesn't see us. Plus your lighter than me so he'll be less likely to hear you . Then I'll be about 75 yards behind you so that you're in my vision so I can protect you if you set off any traps."

"That sounds perfect Naruto-kun" Hinata responded Wow is this really Naruto, I've never thought of him as a strategic ninja he's always so loud. He really is Konoha's most surprising Ninja.

Naruto and Hinata looked into the training ground from behind a tree to see a bored Shikamaru checking his watch.

"It's Shikamaru?!" naruto whispered to Hinata, but she didn't get to respond because the black haired Ninja just jumped into one of the trees apparently headed to the examination building.

"Hinata go now." Naruto said not bothering to whisper. She nodded and leaped over a fence into the training ground then to a tree. A few seconds later Naruto did the same. The first minute or so was fine Hinata stared through her byakugan at Shikamaru then looked in front of her to see a small wire barely visible

"Uh-oh" she muttered as she stopped paralyzed from the sudden attack.

Naruto stared at Hinata looking for any traps she could set off he had one kunai in each hand ready to defend her. Just then he heard a rustle in the leaves and saw about ten kunai from the left and right headed towards Hinata. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu." He said low enough so Shikamaru couldn't hear him. Instantly nine other clones lined up next to Naruto and all threw their kunai each one hitting their intended target. That was close he thought as his clones poofed away into the air.

Hinata came out of her trance as Naruto stopped right next to her "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine thanks for that though I thought I was dead for a second." Hinata responded.

"Ha, no one will be able to kill you if I'm there to protect you." Naruto stated proudly.

Hinata smiled and blushed at the same time "Thanks Naruto-kun, but we should go we've lost some ground."

Naruto smiled at her "Yeah let's go."

With that they were off they continued their pursuit with the original strategy, but Hinata was more careful and frequently dodged traps. After about another half hour of tracking they came to the building Hinata was completely out of breath and passed out from chakra depletion and too much strain on her legs. Naruto was just breathing heavily and he walked up to the side of the building with Hinata in his arms.

"Looks like we win, Shikamaru." Naruto said with a satisfied smile between breaths.

After a few seconds Shikamaru caught most of his breath and responded, "I'm surprised you dodged all of my traps"

"Well not all of them, we fell for one but barely escaped it."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Shikamaru asked,

"Yeah, but I should take her to the Hospital just in case." Shikamaru nodded

Naruto headed to the hospital while Shikamaru told Kazuki that Naruto and Hinata completed the mission.

Hinata woke up a half hour later.

"Did we pass?" Hinata asked Naruto who was sitting in a chair next to her.

"Yeah, but you put too much strain on yourself with the Byakugan."

"I've done it before, I need more stamina." She said looking slightly upset

"Hey, I would have passed out too if I was using a constant amount of chakra for 30 minutes." That Made Hinata feel a lot better she smiled at him and ten minutes later, went to sleep.

Naruto looked outside the window to see the sun setting. He got up from the chair and decided to get some ramen then go to bed he needed his rest because he knew that tomorrow would be a big day.