Authors Note: Wow, it's, uh, been a while. What can I say besides real life sucks sometimes and things come up? For me, things like to come up one right after another. Between school, getting sick, family issues, and friends turning out to not be friends, real life does suck at time. Thank you though to all of those that reviewed ^^ It really made me happy to see. And a special 'Thanks' to Fuyuriku for reviewing to every chapter, even though you pointed out all my faults ~Coughs~ Still, I thank you. That being said, I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter. With if officially ends the first part of the Chunin Exam's!
Warning: This chapter has not yet been looked over by my beta, but once it is I'll replace it with the beta-ed version.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto. Though, I do own this plot line and my few OCs.
It was official; Naruto absolutely loathed the blonde haired teenage girl named Ino Yamanaka.
Her constantly flirting with Akimitsu and himself alone was enough for him to be annoyed with the girl. Add to that, though, the constant sneers and plain rude remarks directed towards Akimi was what really had his hatred for the blonde growing at rapid rates to the point that he had to force himself not to lash out and attack.
While not knowing Akimi for that long, Naruto still considered her to be a friend; acquaintances at the very least. Now don't get him wrong, he wasn't attracted to Akimi in a romantic way, he just found that he was able to get along with her and her brother better than most he met which was saying something as he was forced to meet with quite a few people because of his occupation. Since there are so few people that he truly liked and got along with, he was rather protective of those that were able to become more than just another stranger, enemy, an employer, or someone he sees on occasions for some reason or another.
Hell, the only reason that he had yet to snap and show her just why he was considered deadly and 'S' Classed in the Bingo Book was for the fact that no matter how much he hated to admit it, and he truly did loath to admit it even to himself, his team did need the Konoha team's help in gathering the last item on their list within the time limit. Given they still had more than enough time until the deadline, he much rather get this part of the exam done and over with as soon as possible. Though, not even that thought would be able to hold him back much longer if Ino kept this behavior up. Her bullshit was really starting to piss him off to the point that his eye was beginning to twitch ever so lightly.
He sent a glare to the other blonde's back as he followed after her, wishing for that famous saying 'If looks could kill' to be true if only for this occasion.
Thankfully, with their combined efforts, they had already gotten four of the five items left on both his team's list and the Konoha team's list and now were down to one for each of their teams; his team needing an old newspaper and the Konoha team needing a bamboo hat. It still surprised him to find out that Konoha didn't sell something as simple as bamboo hats when they seemed to sell everything else thinkable inside their many shops. Hell, he had even spied an adult's toy shop between a health store and a small shop called 'Wild and Wacky Gifts' while they were out.
Akimitsu found himself hating Ino just as much as Naruto, if not more so. While he might have been attracted to the blonde female when he first saw her, he felt nothing but annoyance and a growing hatred for her now. His overprotective brother instincts were beginning to kick in, and he wished for nothing more than to go over and show that woman just why one should never mess with his little sister. True, Akimi was only younger by a minute and some odd seconds, but he was still older and as such, it was his job to protect his sister when needed, god damn it!
Akimi herself was only just barely keeping her temper in check. While able to work out her frustrations earlier on in the week when they first arrived, she found them all coming back and without a large tree or boulder to work her aggressions out on, she was not in the best of moods. She was deeply regretting having agreed working with the Konoha group.
And so it was with these thoughts swirling around within their minds that when a rival team of genin came their way looking for a fight, Naruto, Akimitsu, and Akimi were quite pleased and more than ready to use this as an outlet for their frustrations.
The poor Grass Team never stood a chance.
The group of three had only just landed roughly fifteen feet in front of Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino on a building's roof top with smug faces. Just as the teenage boy that seemed to be the leader of the small team opened his mouth to speak, Naruto, Akimi, and Akimitsu jumped into action, startling both the Konoha team and the Grass team.
Akimi and Akimitsu sprinted around Chouji and Shikamaru respectively while Naruto leaped over Ino and wasted no time in sprinting himself towards the group of three. The opposing team, a group from the Grass Country Naruto took in dimly almost as an afterthought, were in too much shock to move out of the way of their oncoming attack much less counter attack.
Naruto was the first to reach the opposing team though Akimitsu and Akimi were not far behind. While Naruto went for the teenage male that acted as the leader, Akimitsu went for the female member, Akimi going for the second male since they were right across from them.
The male facing off against Naruto managed to stumble back in surprise, not expecting the sudden advancement. Fortunately for the Grass Nin, however, by a stroke of sheer luck his stumble saved him from the punch that was aimed at the side of his head, Naruto's fist only managing to graze the tip of his nose. That was his only lucky break though, as Naruto's next punch landed, hitting the teen in the gut and knocking the wind out of him. The boy took a few steps back only to trip over his feet and fall, clutching his arms around his stomach as if to sooth the pain and drawing in large gulps of air only to cough in a painful sounding way a few seconds later.
The teen, Naruto decided to mentally call him Blue for the blue and black shirt he was wearing, was on his feet a couple of seconds later which for shinobi might as well have been a lifetime. Swaying lightly and with an arm still wrapped around his stomach, he glared at Naruto, spitting some blood to the side of him. Naruto returned the stare head on, his body posture relaxed and ready for anything. To Blue, Naruto looked completely bored out of his mind which only served to piss him off even more then he already was.
Not even half a second later of his growing rage did Blue once again open his mouth, no doubt to throw insults or something along those line and once again Naruto wasted no time in moving. Blue only managed to get out a syllable before Naruto was in front of him and this time Naruto's first hit landed; his fist connected with the side of Blue's face, sending him flying to the side.
He never did understand why some people thought that it was considered necessary to talk while fighting. Traveling with Ryuu for so many years, he had been subjected to listening to some pretty long monologues. It had gotten to the point that he had threatened Ryuu that if he ever did such a thing, the blond would kill him in his sleep.
Naruto eyed Blue; half expecting him get up again to continue their fight as he still had some steam to work off. He was disappointed though to see that Blue was down for the count, unconscious from the blow to the head with a headache that would kill when he woke up no doubt. Frowning lightly, Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned to see how the others were fairing, pouting mentally. How anti-climatic.
Akimitsu had just managed to knock out his female opponent and after sharing a quick look with Naruto, he headed over to help his sister with her opponent. It took only a few extra seconds for them to knock him out as well, Akimi having giving him a rather bad beating before Akimitsu went over to help, and in those few seconds Naruto got an inside look into just how in sync the brother and sister worked when facing a real threat and not Ryuu or himself. Well, to be honest, none of the Grass shinobi seemed to be a real threat. He knocked his out in only two hits for god's sake!
Akimi seemed to share his thoughts as she crossed her arms across her chest and pouted, no doubt annoyed that her opponent went down so fast. Her brother rolled his eyes at her as he bent down and began going through the Grass Teams belongings. Akimi quickly caught on and headed over to the female that Akimitsu knocked out, going threw her things as well.
Shrugging his shoulder very lightly, Naruto went and searched through Blue's possessions. Going through his pants pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper that was very much like his own. It was Blue's teams list of needed items. He repressed a scoff when he saw that only one of the ten needed items had been checked off; a Dango coupon. No wonder they tried to challenge them, though it was rather irrational on their part to willingly try to fight a group of six instead of finding a single team.
"Akimitsu, Akimi." Naruto called out softly, only loud enough to draw their attention. When they looked up from what they were doing and towards their blond teammate, Naruto held up the paper and waved it slightly. The twins were quick to stand and head over towards him. It took them only a few strides to reach him and when they did, Naruto handed the piece of paper to Akimitsu.
Naruto found himself silently amused to see that Akimi had found a sucker in her search and was lazily licking it as she looked over her brother shoulder to read the paper. Akimitsu sent a pointed look at his sister, not that it did anything besides making her grin at him.
When the twins finally got around to readying the piece of paper, Akimi rolled her eyes in an overdramatically way before going back to licking her stolen sucker while Akimitsu raised an eyebrow.
"Well at least this explains why they felt the need to attack up like that. They were getting desperate." Akimitsu mused out loud as he folded the paper and gave it back to Naruto who proceeded to slip it inside his pants pocket with the other two slips of paper they had picked up along the way. The less competition the better and even if the Grass Team were to get together all of their need items, without their sheet of paper they would automatically fail.
"Well? What did you guys find?" Ino's demanding voice cut in, startling the twins. They had nearly forgotten about the Konoha Team for a moment. Naruto on the other hand calmly looked over in their direction, taking in their tense stances and suspicious stares. He wanted to roll his eyes at their behavior. They were the ones that had wanted to team up with him and his team for extra protection and yet here they were eyeing them like the bad guys when they did just that.
"It's their list of needed items. They only have one of the ten items." He spoke before turning his attention back to his own teammates.
"They only have one item? They must be really pathetic." Ino said with distain, her nose in the air in a snobbish way. Naruto found himself wanting to say that without him and his team, that supposed 'pathetic' team would have attacked them instead and they had to rely on others for protection and help; even if the Konoha Team wasn't exactly all that weak they didn't seem to be all that strong either.
Instead he shared an annoyed look with Akimi and Akimitsu. Lucky Akimitsu saved his from having to speak.
"Why don't we continue on now? We're wasting time with all this ideal chit-chat."
Before Ino had a chance to say something that would no doubt make Naruto and his teammates even more annoyed, Shikamaru cut in.
"Your right. We should continue heading to Chouji's house and get this exam over with." He spared a glace over to his large friend. "You want to take over leading now, Chouji?"
The brown haired boy nodded and took off silently. Naruto was really starting to like him; he was silent and preferred to stay out of things unless needed.
Much better then Ino by far.
The others were quick to follow after, all wanting to be done with the first part of the exam and move on to the second.
It was four hours later that Naruto, his team, and the Konoha Team were finally able to head back towards the ninja academy, all varying on different levels of tiredness.
While Chouji was right about his aunt have a few copies of Konoha's newspaper, a dozen to be exact, it seemed to have slipped his mind on telling them that the older woman was rather possessive of them. It had take two hours alone to get her to agree to think about letting them borrow one for the day and another two hours of doing random tasks, house hold chores, and even more convincing on all of their parts for her to hand one over and even then she nearly changed her mind!
The only good thing about the whole experience was when Chouji's aunt chewed out Ino when the blonde had insulted Chouji in front of her.
Finally, though, Chouji's aunt relented and handed over one of her copies with the threat of death if anything were to happen to it.
As soon as Akimitsu had the paper in possession, Naruto reached into his pocket and withdrew a sealed scroll. A bloody finger and a small cloud of smoke later, the Konoha team had a bamboo hat. Not bothering to saw anything, Naruto had turned and left, the twins close to follow. He had vaguely noticed that the Konoha Team was following as well, but he didn't think much of it.
The trip back to the ninja academy was quiet for the most part. Every now and then Ino would try to start up a conversation but it was quickly shot down with a glare from either Akimitsu or her own team mate Shikamaru.
When they reached the room that the first part of the exam was taking place at, the two different teams was quick to separate and go off to their seats from early on. No words were spoken between them; their truce was over. They were now back to being 'enemies' of sorts, both teams wanting to be the best and be given the rank of Chunin.
Sitting, Naruto found himself faintly proud to see that his team and the Konoha team were only beaten by the one Sand Team and one of the teams from Rain.
Naruto was amused to see that the red head from Sand glared at him for only a moment before turning his attention back to the front of the room. Like before, he was sitting next to his blonde teammate with his third teammate standing off to the side. He was tempted to go over and strike up a conversation to see what would happen, but refrained. The last thing that he and his team needed was to get into a fight because he couldn't control himself.
Instead, he resigned himself to waiting and let him mind wonder in his boredom.
Naruto was beginning to think that dawn would never come. Akimi and Akimitsu had fallen asleep a few hours ago, one on either side of him. He had decided to stay up just in case, seeing how they were all waiting in a room full of chunin-hopeful. The last thing that he needed was for one of the other teams that had made it try something. So, he had told the twins to get some sleep and eyed the few that had managed to stay awake as well.
Of the thirty teams that had originally set out to become chunin, fifteen teams that had made it back. Of those fifteen teams, only five others were awake besides him. Like him, others had tried to stay awake while their team members slept, but alas, not everyone it seems is capable of fighting off sleep.
One of the ones awake was Red which didn't really surprise him. If those dark circles around his eyes were anything to go by, Red didn't sleep much if any. At the moment he was occupying himself with staring dully up at the ceiling; his arms crossed across him chest and his large gourd sitting next to him. His blonde teammate was asleep, her head resting on her crossed arms. The third member of his team was sitting on the floor up against the table, head resting on his chest.
Another was a younger girl from Rain. She didn't look any older then thirteen. Her short black hair was pulled back in a bun and she also sat between her two teammate; both were male and also looking around thirteen. The young girl was keeping herself busy by reading from a small book. There was just enough light in the room that made such a thing possible yet still dark enough for the others rest to sleep.
The third was a boy from Grass. He looked to be the same age as Naruto. He looked as if he would fall asleep any second now; his head falling forward only for him to jerk back into a sitting position. One last head jerk and he finally seemed to give in and laid his head down on the desk. Not even seconds later did he start to lightly snore; those left awake were now down to four besides himself.
The last two awake were both from Konoha and both looked to be his age, one seemingly older than the other. The first had long dark brown hair; almost black looking in the dim light. Naruto would have called him a girl if not for witnessing what happened to the last guy that had made that same mistake. His eyes were a light lavender color and seemed to have no pupil, making him appear blind though Naruto knew that that was far from the truth.
The blond tried to think back to one of Ryuu's many lessons on the different Kekkei Genkai that existed in the world, knowing that he should recognize it. Going through the list, he narrowed it down to one of the Kekkei Genkai that worked through one's eyes, he automatically ruled out the Sharingan. There were only three know Sharingan users left in the world, one not even being a real Uchiha, another a rouge shinobi, and the last one, well, he didn't know much about the last one besides the fact that it was a he and he lived in Konoha. Yet still, Naruto knew that those with the Sharingan were Uchiha and the Uchiha didn't have such eyes.
So that left one other option given the circumstances; the Byakugan Kekkei Genkai.
Oh how he hated that certain Kekkei Genkai. There was just something about it that made a cold shiver go down his spine whenever mentioned. Well, it could be because he did not like the thought that at any given time, a shinobi was capable of destroying another's chakra system if that really wanted with something as simple as 'poking'. Add in the whole 'seeing through walls, buildings, people, and basically anything else we want' really unnerved him. Go figure.
The other Konoha shinobi awake was yet another boy and also looked to be around his age. His back, nearly blue looking hair was styled in the back that gave one the impression of side way spikes that went wrong. He seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face, his eyes narrowed in a constant glare. His hands were folded with his elbows resting on the desk, his chin on top of his hands. There seemed to be a dark cloud around him, keeping people at bay. What really caught Naruto's attention, though, was the clan symbol that the boy wore on the back of his shirt. The boy was an Uchiha; he had the Sharingan.
Great. Just great. Naruto not only did he have to face the Byakugan, but the Sharingan as well. The only high light that he could find was that they were on different teams and held no love for one another. If he was lucky, they would attack each other and be done with it, though with his luck, he would no doubt go up against either one of them or both of them.
Naruto pushed the thoughts out of his mind. Now was not the time to have a small freak out. He was labeled as an 'S' Class Missing Nin for Kami sakes and the last he checked, 'S' Class shinobi did not freak out. Well, unless they were being chased by hungry, angry, adult bears that somehow were able to chase shinobi without falling behind. Then were people allowed to freak out, but seeing how there were no rampage bears, Naruto would just have to hold in his urge to panic ever so slightly.
It wasn't as if he was afraid of the Uchiha, much less their Kekkei Genkai, but he was no fool. He knew what the Sharingan was capable of. Even at its weakest level, it was still capable of copying another and tracing their movements to a certain degree. It would be foolish of him to not be even a little bit wary and cautious if he were to fight against the young Uchiha.
As he was thinking, Naruto absentmindedly took out a kunai and twirled it around his finger, his eyes looking out the window. The only noise in the otherwise silent room was that of page turning, light snoring, and the constant ticking of the clock that hung on the wall next to the door.
Naruto briefly entertained the idea of acting like Akimitsu and throwing a kunai at the clock, but resisted no matter how tempting it was. He really didn't feel like being forced to replace it like how he was having Akimitsu replace their hotel's alarm clock.
After what seemed like hours, the sun started to peak over the mountains, giving the sky a pinkish hue. Not even seconds later was the door slammed open causing many, if not all of those sleeping to jerk awake at the sudden noise.
Beside him, Akimi and Akimitsu both jumped, looking around wildly for the cause of the noise. Their eyes landed on the heavily scared man that was their proctor for the first exam; Ibiki was his name if Naruto remembered correctly.
Ibiki was quick to cover the space between him and the center of the room; following after him was a young man, his head down as he looked over a clipboard.
Ibiki glared out at the crowd of genin, quickly taking in that only half were there waiting. Smirking, something that only added to his fearsome image, he placed his arms behind his back. He took a second to look over the gathered group before finally speaking.
"Well, it's good to see that some of you have managed to complete such a simple task. Now we'll see just who actually managed to gather all of their needed items." His smirk turned into a nasty sneer. "Have your items ready and sheet out! My assistant and I will be coming around to check off your items and I want this done as soon as possible. Believe it or not I have better things to do then play baby-sitter to you bunch."
There were a few who glared at his comment, Akimi included, but everyone did as he said and prepared their needed items.
Naruto withdrew their sheet of paper, unfolded it and placed it on the desk in front of him. Next, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll. Much like last time, a few drops of blood later and a small poof later, a pile of items was revealed. Spreading them out showed them to be a kunai with the crafters signature etched on the blade, an ANBU Mask, a bamboo tat, an old Konoha Newspaper, and a bright yellow shirt.
Next to him, Akimitsu did the same as him, though his items were a copy of 'Ichi Ichi Paradise', a sake bottle, and a Dango coupon. Akimi lazily bit her thumb and started to form a few hand seals. When she completed them, she laid her bleeding hand on the table. Much like for Naruto and her brother, a poof of smoke appeared. When it cleared it showed a very young panther cub, which easily passed off as a small black cat.
The three silently waited for Ibiki and his assistant reach them, Akimi amusing herself by playing with her summoned animal. Thankfully, it didn't take long for Ibiki to reach them and even better, they were the last ones left to be checked so they could hopefully leave once finished.
Ibiki silently reached for their sheet of paper, mindful of Akimi's summon.
"Copy number 15FH7A3FW." Ibiki spoke in a drawl, noticeably uninterested with his current situation not that Naruto could blame him. He was just as bored.
Ibiki's assistant silently ruffled through the papers on his clipboard, looking for a copy to match their items with. Finding it, he handed it to Ibiki who proceeded to compare the two sheets of paper. Satisfied, he looked over the gathered items, checking them off as he went.
Reaching the last item, he nodded his head and handed both pieces of paper back to his assistant. He wasted no time in turning on his feet and heading back towards the front of the room. Once there, he turned to stare down the fifteen groups of three.
"Congratulations. You all have passed the first part of the Chunin Exams. You all are one step closer in becoming documented Chunin. If none of you have realized the purpose of this part of the exam was to see how well you all are in gathering needed items in a certain time limit. Obviously, it will be unlikely that on true missions you will need to gather such items like the ones that you have yesterday; more than often it might be a stolen or lost item that will need to be retrieved. None the less, it's still important to be serious no matter the item, as proven here." He did one last sweep with his eyes before waving his hand towards the door.
"Now get out of here. Your next instructor is inside the room across the hall. I suggest you all move to it; she's rather impatient."
Everyone in the gathered room besides Ibiki and his assistant were quick in gather their items that were still laid out in front of them. Naruto took to resealing everything back into a scroll while Akimi let her summon leave with a final playful tap on the nose.
Like last time, Naruto, Akimitsu, and Akimi were the last group to leave, deciding to wait behind instead of trying to fight their way through the mob of genin.
"Well that was fun." Akimi said sarcastically, rubbing her scratched and bleeding hand. Her summoned panther cub was really good at pouncing for one so young.
"Loads." Akimitsu murmured. He was in the process of falling asleep while standing and walking; an amazing feat if he said so himself.
Naruto hummed, silently agreeing with Akimi. Hopefully the next task would be more of a challenge. Kami forbid it turn out to be another game.
'Damn it, I think I just jinxed myself.'