*Nightingale*
All I have to say is- final exams, AP exams and EOCT's murdered my brain -.-. Anyways, sorry for the late update! In this story, be prepared to have your first impression twisted to the point where you have no idea what to expect from these characters. I am not very good at fight scenes so please be patient with me. This story is based off of the song Nightingale by Demi Lovato (Check it out! I love this song!). Enjoy!
Normal POV
"Welcome to the first stage of the Jonin exams! My name is Anko Mitarashi and I will be the proctor for this round! Now, all of you remember the Forest of Death from the chunin exams, right?" no sound came from the crowd causing a smirk to form on the purple haired woman's lips. "Now, instead of getting a heaven and earth scroll, your goal is simply to reach the tower. However, only the first six teams will progress to the next round…depending if six teams actually survive." Her smirk grew into a malicious twisted smile as her eyes became clouded with blood lust.
"B-But there are over three dozen teams here now!" A random ninja from mist shouted over the cries and grumbles of disapproval. All of the grumblings and cries only caused Anko's smile to grow.
"Then I suggest you get your ass in gear. The test starts…Now!" She yelled before disappearing in a puff of smoke leaving behind a large crowd of confused ninja.
"I suppose we are supposed to go to this Forest of Death, right Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked the blonde with a bemused smile playing on her lips. How could she resist when the blonde was basically shouting to the heavens about how easy this task will be while holding a very pissed off Uchiha under his armpit in a head lock? It was truly amusing.
"Huh?" The blonde grunted staring at the pink haired princess for a long time before he dropped the Uchiha to the ground rubbing the back of his head. "Oh yeah, you don't know the way there do you? I guess you can come with us. We can be the first and second team to reach the tower! Believe it!" He shouted at such a high frequency that a few teams around them looked at him with death glares. Sakura simply giggled at the blonde's antics before bowing lowly to him.
"That would be wonderful, Naruto-kun." She stood up straight turning to her two guards slash teammates with a serious face. "It is the custom in our country that, when shown such kindness, you repay it in equal kindness. So, what shall we do in return?" the woman with chin length dark blue hair and bottomless black eyes spoke up immediately.
"We could take them to the tower with us. It would be a fair trade considering without their knowledge of where the Forest of Death is we wouldn't be able to start the exam anyway. It is only fair that we help them pass it." The woman spoke in a heavy lyrical accent that caught the attention of the few squads who were still present in the room considering a majority of them already left to the exam. Sakura put a finger under her chin and lowered her head slightly in thought before turning her gaze back up to the beautiful woman with a smile.
"That's a perfect idea Ruka!" Naruto blinked raising his hands in front of him.
"Huh, that's alright Sakura-chan, we can get to the tower by our-"
"We can carry each of them straight to the tower on our backs!" Sasuke sighed standing up.
"We don't need your-"
"I'll take Naruto-kun, Ruka can take Sai-kun, and Juri can take Sasuke-kun." Sasuke blinked blankly processing in his brain what just occurred. Was he just ignored?
"Sakura-chan-"
"Alright let's go!" and just like that, a thick puff of smoke covered all three foreign girls. When the smoke cleared, standing in the place of the girls were a six and a half foot tall blue and white striped tigress, a black bear and a ferret- both the same size.
"Sakura-!" Before Naruto could finish the sentence, the tigress raced towards him putting its huge snout between his legs and tossing him onto her back. The other two animals did the same with his less than amused teammates. In a flash they were racing out of the academy building flying in a random direction through the village.
Scared out of his mind, Naruto held on tightly around the neck of the princess turned tiger in fear of falling off to his death. He let out a bottled up scream of terror that had been building up in his lungs just to alleviate the pressure.
"S-Sakura-chan! The Forest of Death is the other way!" Immediately the tigress stopped dead in its tracks along with the other two animals following closely behind them. The tigress turned its head slightly in Naruto's direction with an apologetic glint in its green eyes before twirling around and running in the direction Naruto indicated.
A few minutes later in the Forest of Death
Naruto was keeled over with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. A concerned tigress stood by his side gently nudging his hip in a silent gesture to see if he was alright. The blonde took in a deep breath before giving the transformed foreign princess a reassuring smile.
"I told you we didn't need your help." Sasuke scoffed. The black bear that carried him let out a low growl at him causing him to glare back at it. Sai merely watched all of them while leaning against a tree next to the ferret who was sitting down beside it.
"Don't be rude Sasuke-teme! Sakura-chan and her teammates brought us this far, now we can work together to get to the tower." Naruto butted in glaring at Sasuke who only glared back. The sound of three puff of smoke drew all three boy's attention to the three women that brought them thus far. Instead of the three oversized animals like before, they were greeted with the human version of all three girls.
"Actually, Naruto-kun," Sakura started with a huge grin on her face. "Your already at the tower!" Naruto's eyes widened in panic.
"What?! Where- where is it?!" He screamed snapping his head left and right looking for it.
"Behind you dickless." Sai chimed in inclining his head in a gesture for Naruto to look behind him. Naruto twirled around looking up only to see the tower looming above him. A sweat drop rolled down the side of Naruto's face as he turned back to the beaming pink haired princess.
"You didn't have to bring us directly to the tower, Sakura-chan." A frown appeared on Sakura's face as she looked at Naruto.
"Would you like us to take you back to the gates to the Forest of Death so you can get here by yourselves?" When Sakura made a move towards Naruto, he shook his head vigorously and took a step backwards rubbing the back of his head.
"No- that's okay Sakura-chan! It's just, next time just drop us off at the gate. It kind of takes away the fun of getting here when we're just carried here, you know?" A thoughtful look passed over Sakura's face before understanding shinned in her eyes and she nodded.
"Yes, of course Naruto-kun." She bowed slightly towards Naruto before turning around towards her teammates with a serious expression. "It seems we have passed this first stage of the exams, but don't let this go to your heads. The next stage may very well be hundred times more difficult than this. Don't let your guards down for a second." Ruka and Juri both nodded before making their way to Sakura's side. "Alright, now onwards to the tower!" Sakura let a smile make it's to her face before she started towards the tower with her teammates on her trail.
"Should we head for the tower now?" Naruto asked watching Sakura and her team leave. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde completely ignoring his question making his way towards the tower with his hands in his pocket and a scowl on his face.
"What else are we supposed to do dickless? Wait here for another team to come?" Sai finally answered pushing off of the tree he was leaning on and following Sasuke towards the tower.
"For the last time- I'm not dickless!" Naruto hollered before following his two indifferent teammates.
A Few Days Later In the Tower
It took merely three days for six teams to arrive at the tower. Apparently there had been three teams that arrived at the same time when there were already five teams inside of the tower prompting a very heated battle. In the end, two members from one of the teams and another from a different team were fatally wounded and nearly killed forcing them to forfeit making the last team to arrive in the tower from Mist.
Now that there are six teams in the tower, the next stage to the exam starts. So, just like all of those years ago during the chunin exams, all six teams are lined up in rows with their teammates in the middle of the arena the preliminary rounds were held during the chunin exam while the village leaders to the four allied shinobi nations sat above them. Hayate Gekko, like the last time, was their proctor for this phase. He stood before the rows of chunin before letting out a few coughs.
"Greetings everyone," another coughing fit. "My name is Hayate Gekko," coughing. "I will be your proctor for this next round." Cough. "This will be just like the preliminary rounds during the chunin exams." Coughing. "Two names will appear on the monitor at random." Nearly coughing up a lung. "The people who are selected will come down into- coughing attack- the arena and fight until one of you gives up or is unable to continue." Clearing of the throat. "The contestants- coughing- who win will advance to the final round." More coughing. "Please head to the observing deck while the first battle is decided." And with one more hacking and coughing fit, all of the shinobi teams made their way up to the observing deck above the arena.
Sakura spotted Naruto and his team talking animatedly with two other teams. The pink hair girl could vaguely remember the names of the new faces from the many times the blonde told her about them and showed her their pictures in the bingo book.
There were two people with white eyes whom she immediately knew were the Hyuga cousins, Neji and Hinata. Next was the girl with the huge scroll on her back and her brown hair in two buns named TenTen. Next to her stood a guy covered in green spandex and huge bushy eyebrows. She couldn't quite remember his name, but she did remember Naruto calling him bushy brow. Leaning against the wall were two more boys. One wearing darkened glasses and a high collar that covered his mouth and the other with suspiciously canine features with a giant white dog resting beside him. Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru- she remembered were their names. With a smile on her face, she walked towards the group with her teammates/bodyguards in toe.
"Hello Naruto-kun, Sai-kun, and Sasuke…-kun." Sakura greeted the three she spent the last three days in the tower with.
"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted back in greeting before realization hit him and a huge grin spread across his face. "These are my friends I told you about! Do you remember them?"
"Of course I do Naruto-kun." Turning the group of shinobi with a polite smile, Sakura greeted each of them respectfully. "Hello to all of you as well, Neji, Hinata, TenTen, Shino, Kiba, Akamaru, and… bushy brow." Everyone paused for a moment before the spandex clad shinobi spoke up.
"Hello to you as well youthful flower! My name is Rock Lee- proud youthful student to the green beast of Konoha!" at this point, hearts appeared in his eyes as his booming voice continued as he leaned in closer to the startled pinkette. "Would you do me the honor of going on a date with me?!" Sakura could only blink before both Juri and Ruka had pulled their lances off of their backs and had them aimed defensively at the spandex clad youth.
"Oi, is that Lee making all of that racket?! I swear we can't take you anywhere!" A blonde haired girl shouted walking towards the group with two boys- on with a pineapple shaped hair cut and the other munching happily on barbeque chips- trailing behind her. Baby blue clashed with emerald as the two girls watched each other. "Who are you guys?"
"I was wondering the same thing." The weapons master chipped in folding her arms under her chest. Sakura blinked as small groups attention focused entirely on her and her bodyguards who were still pointing their lances directly at Rock Lee's chest while the boy stood frozen in fear. Shaking her head slightly, Sakura pushed away the lances and smiled politely at the group.
"Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno. These two lovely women are my teammates, Juri Maaka and Ruka Maduka. We are foreign to your nation which will explain why you don't know us. Naruto-kun has been teaching me your nation's customs as well as informing on its inhabitants which will explain why I know your names. Please, we mean none of you any harm." Sakura explained trying to defuse the situation. Neji gave the two tensed women behind the pink haired girl a pointed look before turning his attention back to the girl in front of him.
"Those two don't seem to friendly to me." Ruka gritted her teeth together taking a threatening step forwards gripping her lance tightly.
"Je vais vous tuer, vous mioche blanc aux yeux!" "I'll kill you, you little white eyed brat!" (They are speaking in French! Sorry if this is not accurate, I'm using Google Translator) She shouted. The group of shinobi shared looks of utter confusion as they stared at the three girls as if they grew second heads.
"W… what?" Naruto dumbly asked after a second. Sakura sweat dropped letting out a nervous laugh.
"Uh, that was the language we speak were we're from." Understanding crossed the shinobi's faces before Naruto, again, asked the question that was on everyone's minds.
"Oh, okay… what did she say then?" Another sweat drop appeared on Sakura's head as she let out another nervous laugh.
"She said she's glad to meet you!" Before anyone from the group could question her on her inaccurate translation, Sakura whipped her head towards said girl with a stern look on her face.
"Ruka, vous devez etre gentil avec eux. IIs sont nos camarades!" "Ruka, you have to be nice to them. They are our comrades!" Ruka grumbled under her breath but placed her lance back across her back like Sakura asked. Juri spoke up next still assessing the group of shinobi.
"Etes-vous sur que nous pouvans leur faire confiance princesse?" "Are you sure we can trust them princess?" Sakura glanced at the group before turning her attention to her.
"Bien sur, je suis sur. Je ne serais pas ici si je pensais autrement." "Of course I'm sure. I would not be here if I thought otherwise." Glancing at the group in front of her Sakura turned back to them with a serious look on her face. "A partir de maintenant, nous allons parler dans leur langue. IIs semblent avoir un peu tendu ne sachant pas ce que nous disons. Est-ce que c'est bien avec vous deux?" "From now on we will speak in their language. They seem to be getting a little tense not knowing what we're saying. Is that alright with you two?" Both girls looked pointedly at each other before bowing deeply.
"Oui, la princesse." "Yes, Princess." Sakura nodded with a smile on her face before turning to the group.
"I apologize about that. Ruka and Juri sometime forget that they have to speak another language here." Sakura let out another nervous laugh. Rock Lee was the first to shake himself out of the confused stupor the rest of the group were in and flashed a pearly white smile at all three girls.
"That's okay my youthful flowers! I think it's very youthful that you three can speak another youthful language that sounds so beautiful!" A sincere smile found its way to Sakura's face while Juri kept her face blank and Ruka crossed her arms grumbling to herself.
"It's time for the first match!" Hayate called out to the contestants silencing the chatter and gaining everyone's attention. The giant screen on the side of the wall between the four Hokages and the shinobi contestants flashed to life. Names flashed across the screen before two names were displayed in giant black lettering.
Kiba Inuzuka vs. Ruka Maduka
A yelp of excitement left the canine master's mouth as he pushed off of the wall. His trusted hound jumped up next to him sharing his master's excitement.
"Let's show these foreigners how it's done, Akamaru!" A deep bark was his answer as both of them bounded over the railing landing on their feet in the middle of the arena. Ruka let out an annoyed sigh as she calmly walked down the steps to the arena mumbling under her breath. Once both of them were standing in the arena, Hayate raised his hand then lowered it.
"Begin!" and he puffed out of the arena.
I know I'm awful ending this here after making you guys wait so long but I promise the next chapter will be up in a few hours- fighting and bloodshed included. For now, please enjoy. As always, thank you for reading.