AN: I have a strange dream where Mitsuo Kubo is popular with girls and keeps breaking their heart.

Scent 2: Proof of Our Strength

There were three days off before the Team announcement, and Naruto wanted to use that time to train his awesomeness. The Inaba Team agreed to that too. That was the plan before a couple of ANBUs kidnapped the dimensional travelers early in the morning. "Gah!" Yosuke yelped as he landed butt first on the floor. Yu was the first to get a hold of their surroundings. They were back in the Hokage Office, with Teddie still sleeping undisturbed. "What the hell old man!"

"Calm down Yosuke." Yu said before turning to The Hokage. "What is it?" For someone who didn't know him too well, they can't hear the difference. But The Inaba Team can hear an annoyed tone hidden inside the politeness. Obviously, he was cranky for being waked up so suddenly.

"I'm sorry for waking you up so early in the morning-."("It's freaking 5 a.m.!")"—but there's something important that we need to discuss." The seriousness in the atmosphere finally woke everyone up, even Teddie albeit still fighting his sleepiness.

"As you know, last night incident has created quite a mess. The shinobi from the search team wanted to know who you are." Hiruzen inhaled his smoke deeply. "I can't exactly tell them that you are Divine Messengers, can I? And it would also be easier to persuade them to let you stay with Naruto if you are part of Konoha ranks."
"Whoa, dude! Back up a little!" Yosuke waved his arms, "Are you saying you want us to be Konoha shinobi?" The Hokage answered with a nod, "That is the next most awesome thing I have heard after Rise's latest single."

"Awww, thanks senpai!" Rise giggled.

"But, I don't think being a Konoha Shinobi would be easy right?" Yukiko muttered with doubt.

"No, it will not. That's why I would like to give you the Tokubetsu Jonin rank instead of the usual rank." The Inaba Team looked confused at his explanation. "A Tokubetsu Jonin is a high rank officer who specialized in one thing. I can tell them that you are specialized in a special jutsu called 'Persona'. Of course, you need to pass the test first."

"A test? Oooh man! It's not going to be like the ones in school right?" Kanji groaned.

"Don't worry; it will mainly test your 'special technique'." Hiruzen chuckled. He stood up and motioned to the teens to follow him. Yosuke needed to slap Teddie and hissed at him to wake up before they followed the old man. Soon, they arrived at an enclosed field surrounded by trees. Waiting for them at that place was five shinobi in mask. "They are the one who will test you; I have taken the liberty to bring your weapons along with you." He gestured to another masked shinobi who gave them their respective weapon.

"How will this test work?" Yu asked.

"It will be an all-out battle. I will judge your ability and team-work from the fight."

"I see… can we start now?" The silver haired teen asked for permission.

"It has already started." Hiruzen smiled.

Yu turned around and saw that their opponent already charged. He silently cursed before giving out orders. "Teddie! Naoto! Cover Rise while she scans!"

"Got it, Sensei!" Teddie saluted.

Yu slashed his katana at the petite masked shinobi in front of him. He flinched, readying himself for the blood that would spray. But instead, snakes were coming out from the shinobi's sleeve and bit the weapon, stopping its track. "Ooooh, come on! You think you can beat me with a half-assed strike like that?" From the voice, the shinobi was obviously a girl.

Yu was taken aback for a second before smirking to himself, "Ziodyne." In the last second, the shinobi was able to dodge the lightning that suddenly struck. There was a moment of pause as the kunoichi stared—at least Yu thought she stared, he couldn't see beneath the mask- at Izanagi-no-Ookami.

"Heh, so this is a Persona huh? Interesting... let's see what it can do!" She said before charging forward again.

-Fire versus Shadow-

Shikaku assessed the girl in front of him. She looked more like a fragile ningyo doll rather than a fighter. Of course, looks can be deceiving. Women can be as scary as hell after all. She held her fan in front of her. Shikaku raised an eyebrow at her weapon of choice. Sure, the edge looks sharp, but it didn't seem very efficient. Suddenly, she waved it and fire burst in front of him. The Head of Nara Clan only stepped back a little to avoid it. He would definitely singe his eyebrow if he wasn't wearing a mask. Shikaku eyed the girl again. She looked hesitant attacking him. It was the kind of look that he usually saw in a freshly graduate. Huh.

She twirled her fan and another fire burst. Shikaku wondered how it suddenly appeared from thin-air like that. No, of course it didn't. Fire was made from a chemical reaction between fuel and oxidizer. She could be using her chakra as fuel and the oxygen around as oxidizer. What was curious was the fact that he can't detect any chakra being used. Was it one of this 'Persona' jutsu can do? How troublesome.

The black haired girl attacked him with yet another fire. It seemed like it was her main ability. Good, fire makes a lot of shadow. Shikaku made several hand-seals so quickly that it was almost a blur. "Kage Nui no Justu!" The girl's eyes widened as the shadows jumped out from the ground, turning into a sharp material. She avoided it by jumping high into the air. Shikaku gaped at the fact that the girl wasn't just jumping, she was soaring. The girl looked radiant. Not beautifully radiant, but blazing radiant. The man looked closely. It wasn't her that was radiating those light; it was the being behind her. "I see… so that's a Persona…" Shikaku could feel the power it held even from afar. However, it would not be enough to beat him if she kept hesitating.

-Meatball-

"Shit!" Yosuke somersaulted when the 'meatball tank' was rolling his way. He managed to dodge it and the 'ball of meat' crushed a boulder instead. It just freaking crush a boulder. A freaking boulder. Yosuke was thankful for his agility. The meatball stopped rolling and turned back into a normal human. Well, as normal as someone who can suddenly transformed into a giant boulder crushing meatball anyway. Not that he can say anything about being normal of course. "Eh?" While he was musing it seemed like the guy managed to increase the size of his hand and decided to flatten him with it.

"Yosuke!" Lucky for him, Chie was quick to act and rushed to his side. With Suzuka's Naginata, she was able to deflect the attack. "Sheeesh! You idiot, don't suddenly go to Lala Land like that!" Yosuke muttered an apology. The two then faced their opponent. The rather large shinobi dilated his other arm and began the attack. With impressive speed the two Persona Users dodged every single of the attack as if they were playing jump rope. However, that didn't mean that they could find an opening to attack. Every single time they thought they saw one the other hand would close it, as if to taunt them. "Grrr…." Chie started to feel annoyed. This was like Shadow Mitsuo again! Of course, if their opponent was a Shadow and not humans, they would not hesitate to use full-force.

In the midst of frustration, Yosuke almost didn't feel the presence that tried to invade his mind. Like someone tried to force him to step out of his house. Susano-O snapped and threw his saw blade at the invader. Even though it all happened in the mindscape in the real world a blood-curling scream can be heard. Yosuke flinched; he hoped he didn't do any lasting damage. The large shinobi and the one fighting Yukiko snapped their head to where the voice came from. They didn't go to help the person, even though it was obvious from the large shinobi's body language that he felt uneasy about it. Man, Yosuke felt bad now.

-Hip and cool-

Kakashi was, as Gai called him, hip and cool. That was why he was reading Icha Icha Paradise when he was supposed to test these new recruits. It wasn't because he was annoyed by The Hokage that suddenly woke him up in the middle of the night and decided to take it out at the muscly teen in front of him. "Oi! What the hell are you doing?"

"Reading." See? Hip and cool.

"I know that! Aren't you supposed to be fighting me?"

"Hm…" Kakashi ignored him and let out a perverted giggled when he got into 'the good part'.

"Screw you!" The teen charged with a shield at hand. Instead of using it to shield, he used it to try to smash Kakashi's head. The code word was 'try'. Kakashi just side-stepped and the 'brawn for brain' fell ridiculously face first. "Dammit!" This guy seemed like the type to be easily angered… this was going to be fun!

-Connection-

"Muuu…. Everyone else is having fun…. Why can't we have fun too?" Teddie whined. He was lying on the ground, sometimes rolling side to side to appease his boredom. The blond Shadow wasn't wearing his Bear Suit and it made him feel a little bit uncomfortable to wield his weapon.

"This is a test Teddie…" Naoto sighed.

"I know! But it doesn't mean we can't have fun!" Teddie flailed his arms dramatically.

"Guys! Shut up! I need to—Oh wait, it's done! The connection is complete!" Rise smiled widely as her voice was echoing inside the other Persona Users head. "Guys, be ready for a counter-attack!"

-Counterattack-

Shikaku noticed that something. The young girl attack became more efficient and sure. In fact, the girl started to use her fire to mess with Shikaku's shadow techniques. Instead of using it to attack, she used it to change the shadow emergence. Everytime he was about to attack, she made a fire that would made the shadow disappear and threw her fan like a sharp boomerang to the Nara Clan's Head. It wasn't only her though; he caught glimpses of the other's fight and his comrades were starting to have a hard time as well. The girl and boy that fought Chouza started to work together. The muscly teen's attack seemed to be more calculated. And the one that seemed to be their leader looked as if he was able to read every movement Anko made. Dammit, and they still didn't know what happened to Inoichi!

They needed to finish this quickly! Something must have triggered their sudden counterattack… but what? Then it hit him. At the beginning of the test, the leader said, 'Teddie! Naoto! Cover Rise while she scans!' so that girl with the weird antenna being hovering her must be the key! Kakashi must have noticed it too, since he already sent a Kage Bunshin to attack. The boy with hat reacted as quickly as a wink. He pulled out the weird metal thing and shot a small and fast projectile toward the bunshin. It grazed Bunshin Kakashi but it wasn't enough to disperse it. However, because of dodging the projectile, it wasn't aware of the blond behind him that slashed his claw. The real Kakashi flinched as the memory of being shredded came back to him.

"I think I've seen enough." Somehow, The Hokage's voice can be heard by everyone and they stopped. "I am ready to pass my judgement."

-Breakfast-

Naruto woke up by the smell of something delicious. It smelled spicy and made the hungry Naruto drooled. It smelled like… curry! It was a curry ramen! With a grin on his face, Naruto jumped from the bed and sniffed the scent. He followed it until he arrived at Yu's door. He took another long sniff before opening the door. "Gah!" Turned out Chie was about to open the door too and instead got hit when Naruto opened it.

"Wah! Sorry!" Naruto apologized sheepishly.

Yosuke snickered which made the short haired girl shot a glare to him. "It's fine Naruto…" She said while rubbing her red nose. "I was just about to wake you up. Breakfast is ready." Much to Naruto's disappointment it wasn't curry ramen but curry rice. "What's up with that face?"
"Well… I was kinda hoping for a ramen actually." Naruto muttered.

"Ramen? What are you a college student?" Yosuke joked.

"What's a college?"

"A college is… you know what? Never mind…" The orange haired boy gave a plate to Naruto. "Serve yourself."

Naruto half-heartedly put some rice on his plate and smeared it with curry. He didn't expect it to be as tasty as ra—"Holy crap! This is delicious!"

"Thank you." Yu smiled.

"You made this?" The whiskered blond looked in awe. "Amazing!" He began to eat ravenously. He was so immersed by his food that only after the last bite he noticed something was off. "Wait, why are you guys covered in cuts?"

"Took you long enough to notice it." Kanji snorted.

Yosuke put his best shit eating grin and took out a piece of cloth. He wrapped it around his head, revealing the Konoha plate on it. "Guess who just got promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin?"

-Yamanaka Inoichi-

He woke up with the biggest headache he ever had. It was even worse than the hangover he had after he celebrated his daughter's graduation. And that was saying something. The Yamanak Clan's Head looked around only to find that he was surrounded by white and the smell of antiseptic. Ah, the hospital. "Inoichi?" It was Chouza who entered the room. "Thank goodness, you are awake!"

"Hey…" Inoichi sat up and the pain in his head multiplied.

"Don't strain yourself." His friend said worriedly at the sight of Inoichi's pained face. "What happened?"

"I'm not really sure myself… I was about to take over the orange haired boy's body when suddenly, something inside of him attacked me…"

"That was probably the Persona Hokage-sama was talking about." Choza grabbed a chair and sat down. "After the test was finished, that boy apologized profusely. His friends offered to heal you. You were sweating bullets until the blond one cast something on you."

"Is that so…" Inoichi mulled, "You know, from the way they act and fight, it was as if they were afraid to take lives… usually after a shinobi was at their age they would already be prepared for that sort of thing."

"Well, they are nice kids…"

"That's not what he meant, Chouza." Shikaku suddenly appeared, it seemed his burns were finished being treated. "He meant that those kids didn't act like shinobi."

"What do you mean?" Chouza was confused.

"Tell me, can you feel any chakra used when they used their jutsu?" The scarred man questioned.

"No… not really…" The large man beginning to see what his friends were talking about.

"It was either they are really good at masking their chakra presence, or they didn't use one at all." Shikaku put on his 'troublesome' face. "The first one was very likely, but why would they do that when they should have concentrate on attacking, and the latter is hard to think…"

"This makes me really curious… I wonder who they are. I doubt they are really some self-taught kids if Hokage-sama thinks of them very highly." Inoichi mumbled.

"Well, Hokage-sama won't tell us anything yet. But I think I heard that they were involved with last night Forbidden Scroll incident." Chouza tried to recall.

"Huh, I remembered Tsume told me something about that." The blond man stifled a yawn. "Well, I think I still need my rest… and you guys too. Especially you Chouza, you look like crap." He teased.

"Hey! I was fighting two people at the same time! Besides, you look a lot worse than I am!" The large man retorted good naturedly. With a chuckle they bid goodbye and went to their respective places.

-Awkward-

Naruto was absorbed by the story of his new friends' test. He didn't ask annoying questions like he usually did, he was too awestruck by it. Though, Chie and Yosuke usually interrupted each other. ("And I was like… HACHAAA!" "What the hell is hacha? A new kind of sneeze?") "Awesome! I can't wait to use mine!" Naruto was practically bouncing on the floor. "Can we train now? Can we?"

"My body is still sore you know…" Yosuke complained.

"I and Teddie didn't do much at the test, so we still have our full reserve." Naoto offered. "We can spar with him."

"Are you sure Naoto? The reason why you didn't use Yamato-Takeru was because most of its skills were one-hit-KO ones. We don't know what would happen if used on humans." Yu asked for confirmation.

"Don't worry; I still have several physical attacks in my arsenal." Naoto smiled reassuringly.

The leader nodded, "Okay then. The Hokage said we can use the previous clearing when we want to practice."

"Are we going now?" Naruto waited for the answer with excitement.

"No, we are going after we clean ourselves." The blue haired 'boy' said.

"Eeeh? Why? We are going to get dirty again anyway!" Naruto whined.

"If you don't take a bath you would be sick." Naoto stated firmly

"Man… Naoto-nii, you sounded like a mother or something, even though you're a boy." Naruto put his hands behind his head and laughed.

Naoto blushed, while everybody else held their snickers. "I'm a girl Uzumaki-san…"

Naruto blinked. "Are you kidding me?"
"No, she's serious." Rise giggled.

"O—oh…" Naruto's face reddened. "Sorry."
"No, it is my fault to create this kind of misunderstanding…"

"A—anway!" Naruto stood up, "I'll take a bath then! We should hurry up right?"

"Right," Naoto sighed.

-Training-

Naruto, Naoto, Teddie and Rise went to the clearing. It was near the Hokage monument and to the right of the Hyuuga Compund so they would have to walk for a bit. "Nee, Rise-nee-chan, I thought you are still tired?"

"I'm quick at recovering! Also, it would be easier for you to improve if I help!" She winked at him. Naruto blushed and stuttered which made Rise laugh. The four of them wore their hita-ate proudly. Rise's, Teddie's and Naoto's were sewn on their sleeve (Naruto was surprised that the manly Kanji was the one who did it), while Naruto wore it as headband. The young genin actually doesn't want to wear it yet, because he was afraid that it would get dirty. But Yu convinced him otherwise.

They walked just outside the Clan District, not many people were there. It was like a border to a different world. Their trip went without a hitch, and soon they arrived at the clearing. "This place is so big!" Naruto marveled. "So, how is this training work?"

"Rise would analyze you while we spar, that way we would know what you are lacking. Teddie would be the healer here." Naoto summoned her Persona. A small white warrior appeared behind her. "You should be able to hear your other-self calling you."

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes. He concentrated on his soul and mind, until he heard an androgynous voice asking him, "Do you need me?"

"Yes…" Naruto was surrounded in blue light and his card appeared. "Let's show them Oinari!"

Naoto smiled approvingly at Naruto's first successful summon. "Alright then, I hope you are ready."

The two Personas clashed, sword to claws. Rise began her scan Oinari as the fox rider began a series of fierce attacks. "Alright, its Arcanum is The Fool. Heee, the statuses are pretty high for a newborn Persona… wait… what is this skill?"

"Terra!" Naruto shouted. Oinari waved its arm followed by a minor earthquake. Naoto was surprised and Yamato-Takeru almost got hit by three small stalactites that sprung from the earth.

"What…?" Everyone gaped at what Naruto and Oinari just did. Yamato-Takeru was still hovering above the stalactites before it crumbled and left a hole.

"Rise… what was that?" Naoto stared dumbfounded.

Rise snapped out of her stupor immediately. "Tha—that was Terra, it was the weakest form of an earth based skill…"

"That was weak?" Naruto blinked. "Are you saying that it could become stronger?"
"Well, I think the stronger it is the more sturdy it would be…" Rise put on her thinking pose. "This is the first time we've seen an earth based attack though…"

"Well, Oinari is the God of Harvest, it seems suitable." Naoto then turned to Teddie, "Teddie, could you heal us?"

"Sure thing Nao-chan!" Teddie summoned Kamui and showered them with Mediarahan. The cuts and bruises closed up completely. "I still feel uncomfortable summoning my Bearsona without my special suit…" he added sadly.

"We need to stay as inconspicuous as possible. Your bear suit attracted too much attention." Naoto reasoned. "It's already noon, let's go back to the apartment."

Trivia: The chapter title was actually 'The Tokubetsu Jonin Test' but it doesn't feel dramatic enough, so I changed it to 'Proof of Our Strength'.