"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this year's Chūnin Exams!" The crowd cheered at the Hokage's words, and he gave them a moment to calm down before he continued. "This year, we have fourteen genin competing for the honor of being promoted to chūnin — nine from Konohagakure, two from Otogakure, and three from Sunagakure. As a reminder, they will be promoted based upon their displayed skill, strength, and tactics, not if they win their fights. However, those who do win will get more time to show off their skills. So, without further ado, let the exams begin!"

Hayate Gekkō stepped forwards. "Would the first contestants, Sakura Haruno of Konohagakure and Kankurō of Sunagakure, please step into the arena?"

Sakura walked down and took her spot opposite the Suna ninja and looked him over. He had something big strapped to his back, and she figured that since his sister was a wind user — as evidenced by her war fan — he was likely to be a puppeteer, and that bundle was his puppet. "Then again," she mused, "I've heard of some pretty weird things. I wouldn't be surprised if that isn't his only puppet, or he's done something to his body, or... You know what, Sakura? Everything about him is a trap! And I'll deal with it! Shannarō!"

Unfortunately for Sakura, no, she couldn't.

She'd charged in as soon as the match began, hoping to use her speed-refined taijutsu to pummel the puppeteer before he had a chance to deploy his puppets or traps. Distance was a puppeteer's friend and her enemy, as she still lacked any long range jutsu of significant power. She'd banked on the fact that she could get to him before he deployed, but she hadn't realized that Kankurō already had — that the body that walked down the arena stairs was a puppet, and that its controller was in the bundle instead.

Her first blows connected, the henge dispelled, and Sakura found herself tangled in the arms of a puppet. All she could think was, "Seriously? Damnit, that was a more boneheaded move than even Naruto would make on a bad day!"

"Give up," Kankurō said as he emerged from the cloth. "Karasu has you caught, and if you try to break free, he'll crush you." For emphasis, he squeezed the puppet's arms tighter.

Sakura groaned. "I rushed in thinking I could prevent you from laying a trap, and you'd already laid a trap before this even began." She laughed darkly. "And here I thought I was supposed to be the clever one. Damn. You feel like letting me go so we can do a round two?"

"What kind of an idiot do you take me for?"

"Fair enough. Proctor-san, I forfeit. I am trapped, and if this were a real fight against an enemy, I would be dead," Sakura gracefully admitted.

"Winner by forfeit, Kankurō of the desert." The proctor announced. As he announced it, Kankurō loosened his puppet's arms. That turned out to be a mistake, however, as Sakura whipped out her arm and slapped the puppet, then bounced away. The tag she'd applied to the puppet exploded a second later.

"Karasu!"

The audience, stunned by the explosion, barely heard what Sakura said next. However, Hayate and Kankurō did, and that was all that mattered to Sakura. "Kankurō! Don't you know better than to let a 'dying' ninja move? Regardless of what happens, you're fighting one of my allies in the next round, and I'm not going to make it easy for you!"

"Damn you! Proctor, that's against the rules!"

"Actually, it's not," Sakura replied. "There aren't any rules in combat! Besides, I'd already lost! There's not anything he can do to me now!" Hayate shrugged and nodded, then coughed.

Kankurō growled, but made no move to retaliate. He knew it would be pointless, and having seen what remained of Karasu, he knew he needed all the time he could get to fix it before the next fight. "Damn you." He grabbed the pieces and made his way up to the balcony. Sakura, channeling her inner performer, bowed theatrically to the audience and then returned as well.

Hayate then called out the next match. "Would Sasuke Uchiha and Chōji Akimichi, both of Konohagakure, please come to the arena?" The cheering was louder than for the first match, since both Chōji and Sasuke had clansmen and women there rooting for them.

"Hey, Chōji!"

"Yeah?"

"Loser pays for the winner's lunch!"

Sasuke knew he'd pressed the large boy's buttons in all the right ways, for he could see the fire in Chōji's eyes. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into," the Akimichi boy replied.

Sasuke activated his sharingan. "I'm rich, not stupid. Plus, you don't have Shikamaru telling your fat ass what to do! Try to keep up!"

"I AM NOT FAT! I'M BIG BONED!" Chōji roared. "MULTI-SIZE JUTSU!"

"And he gets fatter," Sasuke chortled, though his comment was quite calculated. He ignored the booing of the Akimichi clan and sank into a ready stance. He knew that Chōji was coming. As the human tank started rolling, Sasuke marveled at what he was seeing. Having trained with Itachi and his mother for a month, his reflexes and eyes were honed for speed. Chōji, while he was faster as well, was nowhere near fast enough. And, since Chōji's jutsu depended entirely on chakra to move and took time to build up speed, Sasuke had a massive heads-up on when and where Chōji was going. Dodging was comically easy.

"Seriously, Chōji, get your blubber moving. You're so slow," Sasuke shouted, knowing that Chōji had a hard time hearing when he was rolling. The comment got through, however, and Chōji practically doubled in speed.

Now it was harder to dodge, but Sasuke could still do it. And better yet, he had the fight going exactly the way he wanted it to, for now it was a battle of attrition. The faster Chōji went, the more chakra he spent and the less control he had over his motion and chakra he had. While extremely dangerous, as evidenced by the deep grooves he was carving into the ground, Chōji was burning his reserves swiftly, while Sasuke hadn't even fired off a jutsu yet.

Even when the Akimichi's body suddenly warped, changing from a ball to a giant-fisted boy, Sasuke had plenty of warning. After having seen Naruto reconfigure his body in the Forest of Death, Sasuke remembered how the chakra flowed; thus, when he saw the same flow in Chōji's blue chakra, he dodged to the opposite side. "Seriously, without Shikamaru, you can't hit squat!"

"I'm going to squash you like a bug!" Chōji shouted. Half an instant later, the Aburame clan members in the audience were glaring at the rapidly growing Akimichi boy. Stopping at a very moderate forty feet high, Chōji kicked at Sasuke, who flipped backwards.

Sasuke was expecting that, however, and had a nasty trap for Chōji. He'd stuck a kunai to the bottom of his foot with chakra, and now that he was airborne, he propelled it with a burst of chakra.

The blade stabbed Chōji's leg. Being as big as he was, the wound was proportionally small, like a paper cut. But a wound was a wound, and between that, Chōji's low chakra, and his inexperience with the technique, Chōji was forced to let go of the jutsu.

Before the smoke had even cleared, Sasuke rushed in and grabbed the downed boy. With a kunai pressed against the other boy's throat, Sasuke demanded, "Surrender!"

Chōji bucked, trying to kick Sasuke's legs out from under him. He succeeded, but Sasuke adjusted his grip and pulled the boy down with him. They rolled, ending up with Sasuke on top, kunai once again near Chōji's throat.

"I'm not kidding. Surrender, or I'll stab you."

The Akimichi let his head drop back onto the dirt. "Fine. Proctor, I surrender."

"Winner by surrender, Sasuke Uchiha!"

Sasuke, remembering what Sakura had done, hopped back to avoid any unpleasant retaliations, but he needn't have worried. Chōji only stood up and gingerly balanced more of his weight on his good leg. "Sorry about all that, Chōji. No hard feelings?"

Chōji sighed. "No hard feelings. Lunch, I guess?"

"Maybe later." And with that, the two friends went back to their respective teammates.

"Third match," Hayate called out. "Naruto Namikaze of Konohagakure vs. Zaku Abumi of Otogakure." The two boys took took their places. "Ready? Fight."

Naruto immediately released his transformation jutsu, assuming his demonic form with all his arms and faces in place. Zaku, remembering that form from the forest, wasn't surprised. However, he did notice one difference. "You not coming at me with that sword of yours?"

"Nah," Naruto replied. "As cool as it may have been, it's not my style."

"Heh, I, on the other hand, know my style well." Zaku's hands shot up. "Decapitating Airwaves!" A massive burst of wind shot out of his palms and slammed into Naruto, knocking him back a few feet before he adhered himself to the ground with chakra.

Up in the stands, while most of the audience was on the edges of their seats in excitement, a small group of ninja — specifically those who knew Naruto — groand in annoyance. The Otokage, a man who strongly resembled an Uchiha, looked at the face-palming Hokage. "Hokage-dono?"

"My son has a jutsu that's eerily similar to what your shinobi just used, and I'm afraid he's too prideful to let that slide." The Hokage, a sensor, felt the kyūbi's chakra start building and mixing with his son's own. "Barrier team!"

At his command, a pulse of chakra circled the arena as a dozen jōnin slammed their hands into the sealing matrix that surrounded the arena. With two known jinchūriki fighting, they had gone to great lengths to find and set up the strongest barrier Konoha could get its hands on.

The wall of blue, see-through chakra went up just as the golden chakra erupted from Naruto. Seeing and feeling everything happening around him, Zaku had only a moment to realize something very bad was about to happen.

"Damnit, don't copy me. That's my jutsu!" The figure, now cloaked in golden energy that gave his faces each a fox-like appearance, raised his hands, which all opened up to reveal a hollow cavity. "Molten Gold Asura: Gale Cannons!"

The arena erupted with wind. Though supplemented with Kurama's chakra (which was mostly for show), Naruto had fired his lowest powered wind blast... out of all six cannons at once. The combined blast was enough to throw Zaku into the barrier with enough force to break his body, even as the rest of the wind carved a trench in the arena floor.

Zaku collapsed, unconscious but alive.

Naruto let his golden chakra separate back out into his own and his father's, the latter of which he unconsciously munched on with his demonic power absorption; as it wasn't Kurama's soul, it was only a snack and wouldn't permanently boost his chakra, but it left him feeling like he hadn't just spawned an F5 tornado blast.

A moment later, the barrier fell and Hayate jumped in to check on the unmoving Zaku. He knelt down and took a pulse. "Medic!"

The medics came and went, taking Zaku with them. As for Hayate, he declared Naruto a winner by knockout. "Now, would Ino Yamanaka of Konohagakure and Temari of Sunagakure please come down for fight number four."

Naruto did not sit down in with his team. Instead, the still full-sized Naruto walked towards the Suna team's male members, who were watching their sister fight Ino. Kankurō was the first to notice him, and flinched visibly. "Don't worry," Naruto replied, sniggering as he heard his father's commentary on the boy's emotions. "I'm not going to eat you." He relished the puppeteer's terrified expression.

Naruto turned to Gaara. "Fox-tousan wishes to talk to Tanuki-basan. May I?"

Gaara nodded.

Naruto sat himself down on the ground in front of the Suna jinchūriki and extended his hand towards Gaara. The redhead, to the watching Kankurō's surprise, extended his own hand and met Naruto's half-way. Sand and crimson chakra swirled around their touching hands for just a moment before it fell still.

The two did not talk, nor did they move, but Kankurō saw a myriad of expressions flash across the blond's face, while Gaara's lips twitched in almost perfect time. They were listening, but to what, Kankurō could not hear. He knew, however, that the demons were talking, planning.

This went on for some time. Before Kankurō realized it, Temari had returned and was standing next to him. "What's going on with Gaara?"

"Shhh!" Kankurō hissed, not wanting them to notice him. Then he jumped, realizing he'd been so engrossed in watching their silent conversation that he hadn't even noticed his sister had returned. "Temari?" he whispered.

She sat down next to him on the side opposite from Gaara. To her brother, she signed in Suna Standard Sign Language, "What's happening?"

"Communication," he signed back.

"Context?"

"Unknown."

"Duration?"

"During your fight." He paused. "Victory?"

"Not watching?" she signed back. From the guilty look on his face, she inferred the answer. "Good. Defeated. Mind control jutsu. Trap."

"Not good. Sad."

"Really?" Gaara suddenly asked aloud, responding to something only he and Naruto could hear. "That works?"

"In theory," Naruto replied, also aloud. "In practice, it's a bit harder, but effective if done well. I've seen it work first-hand."

"I shall have to try that, then."

The two jinchūriki didn't speak again, leaving Kankurō and Temari confused as to the context of the conversation. If it involved the tailed beasts... the puppeteer shuddered to think about what they were discussing.

Another fight had come and gone, and the next one was already approaching its conclusion by the time they finally came out of their silent conversation. "I... I shall take your advice under consideration, Naruto Namikaze. And, I thank you for your help regarding mother. I think our agreement will be most beneficial to us both."

Naruto smiled as he stood. "No problem! If it gives you better control of your sand and lets you sleep, what's not to love?"

"Yes, well, it remains to be seen if it will actually work."

Naruto shrugged. "I have faith." He motioned towards the Hokage box. "Anyway, I'm going to go talk to our fathers to see if I can get them to agree. Just make sure you win your next two fights, or we're going to look like fools."

"Do not worry; mother will not let me be defeated." Naruto nodded at Gaara's declaration and then shunshined away.

Kankurō moved towards his brother a little. "Um, should we be worried?"

Gaara gave his brother a bored stare, though a fraction of a second before he spoke his reply, the faintest ghost of a smile crossed his face. "That depends entirely on what the Hokage and the Kazekage say."

From below, Hayate Gekkō called out, "Would Tenten of Konohagakure and Gaara of Sunagakure please enter the arena?"

Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand. Meanwhile, Kankurō and Temari shared a worried look.

Naruto appeared in the Kage's box with a poof of chakra smoke. Some of the foreign ninja tensed, but when they saw him approach the Hokage and the man smile back, they relaxed. "Hey, Minato-tousan," Naruto said. "I've got a favor to ask, but seeing as Gaara's about to fight, I'll tell you in a second."

"Oh, alright." Minato shrugged slightly. "I didn't know you were so interested in Gaara."

"Well, it's more Kurama-tousan that's interested," Naruto replied. The Kazekage shot a questioning look at the Hokage, while the Otokage just looked amused.

Down below, the fight was swift and brutal. Tenten tried her hardest, summoning countless weapons to aid her in her fight, but none of them stood a chance against Gaara's sand, which hunted her down with ruthless efficiency. Tenten tried to dodge, but it ensnared her leg and crushed. Only by the intervention of Hayate did the rest of Tenten's body get spared. But, because he did, Tenten lived, even if she lost because of it.

Match over, Naruto turned to his father, and then glanced at the Kazekage as well. "Gaara and I were talking," — immediately, the Kazekage was paying attention — "And we wondered if you could do us a favor when we get to fight."

When, the three kages noted, not if. Naruto had stated that he would fight Gaara as if it were a fact, as if he knew for certain that he would. After having seen his and Gaara's power, they were inclined to believe it.

"That depends on what it is."

"The arena is kind of... small... for the show Kurama and Shukaku want to put on. Could you move us out of the village, please?"

"That also depends, is it Kurama or Naruto asking?"

"Naruto," he replied. "Hmm... By the way, how do I put this? A cranky Ōtsutsuki is like Tsunade-baachan PMSing while hungover and mad at ero-sennin."

Minato smiled. "Of course, Naruto. That sounds fine. We wouldn't want to irritate our guests into doing something rash. Just tell them to be mindful, alright?"

"Thanks, Minato-tousan. I will." Then Naruto shunshined away.

The Kazekage looked at his Konohagakure counterpart. "You mean to tell me that you actually expect their fight to get so out of hand that the arena wouldn't be enough to contain them?"

"Oh, no, not their fight. Their parent's fight. After all, doesn't your son refer to the ichibi as mother, as Naruto calls the kyūbi father?"

If the Kazekage had been drinking something at that moment, he would have done a spit-take. "You must be out of your mind! You're talking about letting those two beasts rampage freely! We'll all be killed!"

"No, we won't. For one, I'll make sure that they are plenty far away. And second, Naruto's friends are here, and if there was any risk of hurting them, and thus of hurting Naruto himself, Kurama would do anything to prevent it. That I know."

"You're insane, Minato Namikaze."

Thanks to Sakura's sneak attack, Kankurō's puppet was damaged enough that Sasuke was able to make short work of it. And when it turned out that Kankurō had no other puppets on hand to fight with, Sasuke wound up the victor of their fight.

Now it was time for Ino to face Naruto. The two blonds met in the arena. Standing opposite from her, Naruto could see the resolve in her eyes. "Ino!"

"What?"

"You know what's going to happen and what I can take. Go all out, don't hold back. Use your clan jutsu if you feel like it," he declared.

"But what about your...?"

He knew what she was referring to. "There are at least eight other people like me on this planet, and you won't always know who they are. Learn to face it with someone who won't kill you, and don't hold back!"

"Fine!" Her hands came together to form a strange seal. "Mind Body Disturbance!"

The jutsu, one Naruto had never seen before, took hold instantly. His body relaxed, but it was not of his own volition. "Oh, wow, this feels weird."

"Ugh, tell me about it," Ino replied. "I can feel the neural connections in your body. You're like three people shoved into one!"

Naruto's hands slid up towards his neck without his control and squeezed hard. Ino remarked, "I wonder how long it would take to strangle you to death."

The demon wasn't worried, though. It wasn't like he needed it to survive at this point. He was strong enough to exist as solid chakra, so even if she did kill him, he wouldn't really stay dead.

But, he had a fight at the moment, so his musings on mortality had to wait. Plus, his hands constricting his neck really hurt, and he was getting lightheaded. So, utterly unable to control any of his body other than his mouth, he decided it was time to debut his latest jutsu. Functionally, it was nothing more than the reverse of what he'd done to create Akuma; instead of making himself material, he was shedding his physical form. In other words, he was making himself into Akuma's shadow clone. There was just one minor little detail that had stopped him from showing it off before. Without a sound, for his throat was being crushed, he mouthed, "Akuma's Exit."

Naruto's body spasmed, and Ino fought to keep control over it. Then, quite suddenly, the resistance she felt dropped to nothing; she found she could control his body as well as her own. "Naruto?"

The body's eyes stared blankly, as if there was no mind behind them. Suddenly, its chest and abdomen bulged. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and breaking bone filled the air. Blood blossomed on Naruto's shirt.

A crimson and black flecked claw erupted from the body's chest, then another, and then another. Very quickly, Naruto shed his body, leaving him standing in a form that had only the vaguest of shapes. It looked like the version two jinchūriki cloak, but it was Naruto's chakra that made up the body and Naruto's tail that swung behind him. "Well now, Ino. I didn't expect your hold to be that strong on me," he said, his voice reverberating with the same strange effect that Kurama's and Shukaku's voices had. "But now that I'm free of that little death trap, want to take it up a notch?"

With speed that his old body couldn't have obtained without major chakra enhancement, Naruto zipped forwards. "Make it a good show," he whispered into her ear. Then he punched her.

Ino took the blow and stood back up. She assessed the situation, and came to an interesting conclusion. The mind body disturbance jutsu was best against multiple enemies, used for making them fight among themselves. Naruto's body, she realized, was not only still in her control, but responding eagerly to her. Better yet, since her jutsu used the enemy's nervous system against them, she could feel out their techniques and then make them use them against their allies.

Naruto's hands, upon her command and through the Asura path, turned into blades. "Hell yeah," Ino shouted. Sure, she had no idea what Naruto had actually done, and his face currently terrified her, but she had a puppet with swords for arms and muscles galore. She could work with that.

Ino backed up and Naruto's body slammed into the chakra demon. As it hit, the blades sank into the chakra construct, and to Naruto's intrigue and discomfort, he felt a little of his chakra get absorbed back into its body. The Yamanaka realized that too, and began furiously hacking away at him with his own body.

That put Naruto in something of a dilemma. He needed to attack Ino for the jutsu to end and any damage he did to his own body would be something he had to fix later, but he couldn't attack Ino too hard either, and meanwhile she could go all out.

So they fought. It took a while, as Ino was really good at keeping her distance and every strike she landed strengthened her puppet while weakening Naruto. With one final strike, his body's arm swords pierced his 'heart' and fully sucked him back into his body. He stumbled and collapsed.

"I... I did it. I can't believe I did it!"

"Actually, all you managed to do is put me back in my own body," Naruto replied. His control was starting to return, since Ino was at her limits and he was now actively fighting her. "Can you outlast me? Can you choke me to death before you run out of chakra?"

She finally allowed her hands to drop and the jutsu to end. "No. I'm out. Proctor-san, as much as I'd like to kick this demon freak's ass some more, I can't. I'm out of chakra, and he's still fairly fresh. I'm done."

"Winner by forfeit, Naruto Namikaze."

"Good job, Ino. I honestly hadn't expected to be assaulted by my own body, nor for it to be that effective; I thought it would just drop without me in it."

"I didn't expect that either. What the hell was that, though? One minute, you were fighting my control, and the next, you were bursting out and I could move your body as easily as my own."

"Akuma's exit. I basically shoved all my chakra out of my body at once, and my soul came along with it to form that. It's ugly as fuck unless I use a henge on it," Naruto replied.

"Do that next time," Ino ordered. "Now... now, I'm going to go sit down and try to get over the fact that apparently there are other people like you. And then I'm going to eat a lot of pudding and have my dad erase the memory of you coming out of your own body!"

Naruto chuckled.

Among the stands, there were a few major reactions:

Shock, confusion, and fear. Those people were the ones that realized that the rumors of Naruto being a demon were real, that there was an unsealed demon walking among them.

Disgust. Some people, like Sakura, found that it was Naruto's jutsu that bothered them the most. Really, how often does one see a freakish chakra construct claw its way out of a person's chest?

And intrigue. This third group was made up mostly shinobi, as they were the ones who could look past their fear and disgust and see the technique for what it was: a way to escape one's own body if it was compromised. How it was defeated was an obvious weakness, but one that they realized Naruto would not let be exploited again. It also lead to questions of just how powerful the Hokage's son actually was. Of this group, none were asking more questions and formulating more theories than the Otokage.

There were also some more rare reactions, such as that of Haku. "You taught him that, didn't you?" His master looked down at him and gave him a knowing smile. "Of course. That just feels like a demon's technique that you would know."

"He call's it Demonic Art: Akuma's Exit, you know."

"Named after you?" Akuma nodded. "I figured."