Chapter 5:The First Test
Naruto looked over the men he had captured. There were eight in all. Three were individually trapped in the wind tunnels his clones were creating, but the other four had been around the wounded man. So the five of them were trapped together. His best bet was to take out the three one at a time, then deal with the five.
A clone suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Then another, and another. Naruto groaned, the clones only had so much chakra before they disappeared. He had to move fast.
He shot down into the ground and burrowed under one of the men. He then shot up and head butted him in the gut, flipped forward so that his feet were closer to the man's head and followed up with a kick in the face. The man flew a little bit, but hit the wall of air and fell to the ground spinning. He didn't get back up.
Naruto burrowed again under another man, but this one had saw what happened and was ready. He expertly dodged Naruto and was about to counter attack when man fell from the sky, literally! A man dressed in all black. The other man was stunned and Naruto took this opportunity to use the clones in this circle. Four came at the man. They all kicked him up in the air one after the other shouting, "U-zu-ma-ki!" Naruto jumped into the air and hit the man back down to earth with his heel yelling, "Naruto Barrage!"
Naruto landed with his back facing the man that had fallen from the sky. The man who was getting up and holding a kunai in one hand.
"Green Beast Landing!" shouted Lee, falling on top of the man and knocking him unconscious.
Naruto smiled. These guys were easy when they had no maneuvering room! And thanks to bushy-brows it just got easier still.
"Hey Lee! Nice of you to drop by!"
Lee laughed loudly and said, "Naruto! You made a joke! Very funny my friend, but I will make one funnier."
"Right." Three more clone vanished. "Lee we need to take these guys out fast! My clones can't hold them forever!"
"Ah, yes! We must hurry before your strategy goes up in smoke!" At that point Lee cracked up. "Haha! I've done it! I've made a joke funnier than-" he turned toward Naruto but only found a hole right where his teammate used to be standing. He looked around, and saw Naruto using a Rasengan on another man in black.
Naruto ran back to Lee, panting. "Alright, there are only five left, and one's injured, but we have to fight them all at once."
"Bring it on! If I cannot do this before all your clones disappear then I must do 50,000 push ups!"
"You don't think that's pushing it just a little."
"No, I do at least 10,000 every day."
Naruto was about to respond, but all his clones except one disappeared in the circle holding the five. Naruto didn't say anything, he dug. He decided to take out the wounded one first. He burst through the ground and head butted the man in the face. Blood spilt, and Naruto heard a cracking noise. He was right, the man had anticipated him, but, because of his injury, was unable to move fast enough to avoid injury.
One was gone, but the others didn't let that slow them. They all attacked Naruto just as the last clone vanished.
"Leaf Hurricane!" shouted Lee, kicking two into the big, outer circle. Just like the first man, they slammed into it, spiraled down the ground and were still. Unfortunately, for Naruto, the other two managed to get to him. He ducked the first punch, but the second hit him squarely in the gut. He grunted as the pain settled in.
Four other clones disappeared, and apparently so had Lee. He was nowhere to be found. Then, as if things weren't bad enough, another man appeared, but he appeared out of the trees on the outside of the circle, where the clones were. All he had to do was hit them once and the wall of air would be gone.
Naruto staggered away trying to catch his breath. He almost stepped into his own hole that he had made. One of the men saw this chance and leaped over the hole for Naruto, but, just in time, a hand shot out of the hole, Lee's hand! And he was pulled in. A few seconds later, Lee jumped out, facing the last man, except for…
Naruto looked back to the other man, the one behind the circle. He saw him on the ground unconscious with Sakura standing over him holding a very big rock. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. He must have been the guy Sakura was fighting. He must have gotten tired and wondered why no one had shown up and gone back for help. He saw this scene and Sakura knocked him out when he wasn't paying attention. Now this guy was the only one left. Naruto felt happy that they were victorious, but he was completely devastated too. Because of this they had probably missed the first exam.
The man, even covered with all that face paint, looked horrified. "I-I give! You win the challenge." he shouted. Naruto and Lee were both taken aback. They hadn't expected this. What was he talking about?
"What do you mean, challenge?" asked Naruto.
The man pulled a scroll out of his shirt and tossed it to Naruto. "That is the directions to the second chuunin exam."
"Second!?" shouted Naruto, Lee, and Sakura at the same time. The rest of Naruto's clones disappeared and Sakura came running to see the scroll. Naruto opened it. Yes, it was a map, and it had directions. It apparently led to a flat land just beyond the Mountain of the Hokage's.
"Come on," said the man, sighing. "I'll lead you back to your sensei."
Naruto shrugged and he, Lee, and Sakura followed the man back into the village. He lead them to a small house at the edge of town the Mountain. He walked around to the back and entered the door there.
When the three walked in the gasped loudly. Jounin and Head Ninja were all there, even an ANBU member sat in a corner. The place was packed. There were only two couches to sit on, and a table sat in the middle of the room, making even less space available.
When the four walked in the room quieted down. Kakashi, who was sitting on a couch, stood up.
"Well, I hadn't expected my team to be early, but, well surprises happen. Congratulations on passing the first exam."
"Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura, "why didn't you tell us that that was the exam?"
"Well, Sakura, part of the exam was to test your ability to handle surprises."
"Well then how come it took so long just for them to find us?" interrupted Naruto.
"Well, another part is to test whether or not you quit if something takes too long. A chuunin must have extreme patience, so we didn't have them attack you for four hours."
"Pardon me, Kakashi-sensei," said Lee. "But we looked for six hours."
"Hey, now!" said the man in black defensively, "It's a big forest!"
"Anyway," said Kakashi, "the last part was to test your endurance, and, more importantly, your will to keep fighting. In fact, they would have stopped after the five hour time limit passed and gave you the scroll, but you managed to figure out the secret and beat them two hours early."
"So the test actually doesn't officially stop for another two hours?" asked Sakura. "What are we supposed to do for two hours?"
"Rest," said Kakashi. "You must be tired from fighting for three hours straight."
"Sounds good to me!" said Naruto quickly. Sakura stifled a yawn. She was indeed, incredibly tired. Only Lee seemed to not feel the effects of fatigue. This was no more than an afternoon's workout for him. Perhaps preparation for the next exam was what he should do.
"Okay," Kakashi said, "The rooms are upstairs," he pointed to a staircase off in a corner.
Naruto and Sakura rushed up the stairs with Lee following.
"Wait! Naruto!" he said loudly. "Before you go to bed, may I have the scroll?"
"Sure Lee," said Naruto reached into his pocket and bringing out the scroll. "Whatcha need it for anyway?"
"Research," said Lee as he took the scroll.
Naruto wanted to ask him what kind of research, but he was far too tired. He reached the top of the stairs and stopped, stunned.
Ino, Chouji, Gaara, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were already there talking and playing with cards! Naruto wasn't the first one here! What's worse, Kiba beat him!
"Oh! That Kiba! He thinks he's so much better than me! I'll show him!" Naruto raged.
"Relax Naruto," Sakura said, even though she herself was thinking the same about Ino. "At least only two teams are here, it could be worse."
"Um," said Lee, "not to be disrespectful Sakura, but there are three teams here." He pointed over to a dark corner of the room where Jamus and his teammates were sitting. Yesa and Iora were talking quietly to each other and obviously exhausted. And why shouldn't they be. They were tied for dead last in their class! Not exactly grade "A" material there. Jamus, however, was top in his class, shattering every record ever set and graduating in one day. Right now he was just looking out the window, but sooner or later he and Naruto would fight. And Naruto couldn't wait.
If not for the fact that Naruto was completely exhausted, and Jamus didn't appear to have even broken a sweat and the fact that Sakura was holding him back, Naruto would've challenged him then and there.
But now was the time for rest, not confrontation, so Naruto and Sakura setting down in a bed and went to sleep.
"Remember this place is completely flat," said Lee for about the tenth time. They were walking past the Mountain of the Hokage's headed toward the site of the second exam. Lee was telling them of the strategies he'd devised while studying the map of the area. Now he knew the land in the area they'd be testing in. "There will be absolutely no place to hid, but that also means no place for the opponent to hid. If we can find a way to exploit this-"
"Then we will have an advantage over everyone else," completed Sakura. "Lee you've already told us this multiple times."
"Sorry," said Lee smiling, "It's just that," his smile faded, "Well, usually Neji is the one who comes up with plans like this. I'm just happy that I for once did it! It fills me with the burning power of youth!" his eyes became alive with fire.
"Well, at least we know bushy-brows is ready for whatever th-" He stopped dead, so did everyone else. No one was prepared for what was around the corner.
It was a huge field, completely empty and completely flat. Just like Lee said, but there was one thing the map didn't show. The entire field was colored! Not just light shades in the grass, vibrant, artificial colors! There was red, blue, yellow, orange, pink, a very bright green, white, brown, it just went on. Like a rainbow on the ground. Then in the very center a huge black circle that took up most of the space! Also there were five wooden poles with tables balanced on top. Then to add to the confusion, in the center of the black circle was Tsunade standing next to a pile of thin wooden squares. She smiled as they walked in the circle of black.
"Welcome those of you who didn't give up," she said in a loud booming voice. "You've passed the first test, but the second won't be as easy!" she smiled. "This is probably the hardest test we've ever given, so we'll give anyone who wants out a chance to leave now, or anytime during the test they want!" Naruto smiled, he knew this game. They had tried it last time with him and failed, this time would be no different. "Oh, and for those who took the test last time, you will be required to do this, if you don't, or do to slowly, you fail and go home," Tsunade added, as if reading Naruto's mind.
"And what exactly is it?" asked Sakura.
Tsunade smiled. "It is-"