The Secret Life of Uzumaki Naruto
ch 5
"Let us through!" Tenten growled at the Chunin in front of door 301 as the Chunin pushed her teammate Lee backwards.
"You're pathetic," the Chunin out front said, laughing at the team trying to get though. "Go back to your training, you are not ready for this exam."
Tenten tried to push through again, but with a quick swing of his arm, the Chunin who spoke hit her across the face and she fell back into the crowd of other Genin from various countries trying to get through.
"You can drop the act and let us through, we've got an exam to take and you'd be sorry to make us late." Sasuke said as he Naruto and Sakura walked down the hall side by side, coming up on the scene of them fighting.
"Act? The Chunin asked with a sneer, looking to the newcomers with contempt. "This is a fair warning, not an act."
"This is obviously a illusion, room 301 is on the third floor, not the second, and the papers on the door have not moved with the draft in the hallway." Sakura pointed out, not looking too impressed with the Chunin.
"Not too bad," the Chunin started, and the wall behind him shifted slightly, the sign now saying 201 and the papers gone. The Chunin launched himself at Sasuke winding up for a powerful kick. "But all you did was see through it!"
Sasuke wound up to counter the enemies kick with one of his own, but just as the two were about to contact, Lee appeared between them, catching both their legs mid swing. Once they had both come to a complete stop, Lee released them, the Chunin falling to the floor and Sasuke hopping back to regain his balance.
"Hey," another Genin in a beige coat with lavender pupil-less eyes said, stepping up to Lee, "Wasn't it your plan not to draw attention?"
Lee ignored him and walked right up to Sakura and said "Hi!"
"Hi...?" Sakura said back, getting a smile from Lee.
"My name is..." but that was all he managed to get out before Tenten stepped up behind him and pulled him away by his ear.
"Come, lets get out of here." the Genin in the beige coat said as Tenten pulled the Lee along behind him.
"Shall we continue?" Naruto asked a distracted looking Sasuke, watching the last of the fooled Genin filter out towards the next floor.
"It was odd, he managed to move into position and block both kicks with incredible strength, but it didn't look or feel like a ninjutsu." Sasuke said as they started walking.
The hall lead into a training gym with stairs on the far side up to the next floor. When they were half way across the gym, they were stopped, by Lee from the hallway, a boy dressed in a deep green jump-suit with orange leg warmers and bandages wrapping his arms to the elbows.
"You there," he called from the balcony at the top of the stairs before jumping to the center of the gym.
"Me?" Naruto asked, unsure of who he meant and she was at the front of the group.
"I mean no disrespect, but no, not you." Lee replied, pointing to Sasuke. "I meant him."
"Will you fight me, right here?" Lee said as Sasuke stepped forward.
"Sasuke, wait." Naruto said, trying to pull Sasuke back.
"It will be fine Naruto, we have time." Sasuke said, shrugging Naruto off and stepping up to his challenger, holding out his hand for a handshake. "Uchiha Sasuke."
"Rock Lee, Konoha's strongest Genin." Lee introduced himself, slapping Sasuke's hand in the form of a high-five. "Be ready to lose."
The two boys jumped backwards, putting some space between each other, Sasuke sprinted forward as soon as he landed and attempted to catch Lee off guard with a few strong punches. Lee surprised all of team seven, however, by blocking all the blows with little effort and retaliating with one swift kick that managed to slip past Sasuke's guard and send him flying back. Sasuke was surprised, but not discouraged, activating his Sharingan and trying again, this time focusing more on tracking his opponents motions than actually hitting him. It went much the same way as the last attempt though, Sasuke getting thrown back by another kick.
"Even if your eyes can see me, your body can't keep up with me." Lee taunted as Sasuke got back to his feet again, dropping into a more aggressive combat stance.
Sasuke growled something under his breath and pressed forward once more, faster than before, trying to force his body to match the speed his eyes had seen.
Lee seemed surprised at the sudden improvement and Sasuke nearly broke through his defences before he retaliated, knocking Sasuke back and catching him under the jaw with a powerful kick sending him flying across the room.
Naruto gasped when she saw Sasuke sent flying, knowing he was in a bad position when Lee appeared behind him in mid air. Naruto summoned two shadow clones between Sasuke and Lee, pushing them apart. One clone stayed with Lee, locking his arms and legs as they fell and the other stayed with Sasuke, cushioning his landing.
"Enough of this." Naruto said, arms folded, frowning at Lee and Sasuke. "Save it for the exam."
Dispelling her clones, Naruto walked across the room and up the stairs to the exit, not looking at either Lee or Sasuke. Lee took that as his que and disappeared from the room faster than the eye could follow while Sakura helped Sasuke up and they both followed Naruto out of the room.
"What was that about?" Sasuke asked as he caught up with Naruto.
"What is wrong with you?" Naruto growled back stopping and whirling on Sasuke. "You get mad at me for being slightly irresponsible then turn around and do stupid shit like this?"
"Naruto, I..." Sasuke started, taken aback by the anger in Naruto's voice.
"Think about your own safety for once." Naruto said, sounding less angry and more worried. "He wasn't holding back, it was a real challenge and he could have killed you. I think he might have if i hadn't stopped you two."
"Hurry up you two." Sakura said from down the hallway.
"Come on, we don't want to be late." Naruto said, catching up with Sakura.
As the three of them rounded the corner in the hallway, they were greeted by a familiar "Yo." At the door 301 stood Kakashi waiting for them.
"Ah good, you're all here, that means you can take the exam." Kakashi said as the Genin approached.
"But you said it was an individual choice to take it or not." Sakura said.
"I didn't want one of you to feel pressured into it by the others, but you are all here, so good luck" Kakashi replied, gesturing towards the door labelled 301.
- - - - - - - -Linebreak- - - - - - - - -
The entire room turned to look at the sound of newcomers as the double doors swung open. In walked an oddly dressed trio, younger by a few years than the average and while their manner of dress was a little odd, it did not seem out of place next to the rest of them. They were quickly dismissed as uninteresting and not worth noticing after the first glance by most and they lost the rooms attention, groups turning back to what they were doing before. One group, however, recognized them on their entry and moved to meet them.
"Sasuke, I missed you!" a blond haired girl of around the same age as the entering team called out, leaping from the crowd and latching onto Sasuke's shoulder.
"Well we didn't miss you Ino." Sakura said, glaring at the girl.
"Tch, you guys are taking this stupid test too?" Shikimaru, a skinny boy with black hair pulled back into bunch on the top, giving his head an appearance similar to a pineapple, emerged from the crowd slightly behind Ino. "Troublesome..."
"Hey, it's the idiot trio." Naruto said with a grin when the third member, Choji, a rather pudgy Genin with odd swirls on his cheeks, came forth from the crowd.
"Hey, don't call us that." Ino said, detaching herself from Sasuke just long enough to bonk Naruto on the top of the head.
"Heh, looks like we're all here." another voice said, coming from the leader of another team, walking over with a little dog on his head leading a boy in a long coat with sunglasses and a shy girl in an over sized hoodie.
"You guys too?" Shikamaru asked when he saw the other team.
"Yeah, and we won't lose to you idiots either, we've been training." the boy with a dog on his head, Kiba, exclaimed in response, aggravating most of the other two teams with his presence and comments.
"Are you ok Naruto?" Hinata asked Naruto with a little stutter, moving to Naruto's side to help, the rest of the group now arguing loudly about their skills.
"I'm ok, Ino didn't hit that hard." Naruto said, looking up at Hinata and smiling. "How have you been, you look good."
"I.. Uh... Um..." Hinata blushed deeply when Naruto smiled at her and stumbled over what she wanted to say before she was cut off by someone else detaching from the crowd.
"Tch, Idiots..." Shikamaru said, splitting off from the group and joining Naruto and Hinata
"Kiba always gets everyone riled up." Naruto said, watching Kiba talk loudly at the rest of the group.
"Not the smartest idea considering the people in the room." A stranger said, appearing between Naruto and Shikamaru, causing them both to jump a little in surprise.
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asked while at the same time Naruto asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Kabuto, Senior Genin of Konoha, and look at all the attention they are drawing with their argument." the stranger said gesturing to Kiba before standing straight and pushing some of his silver hair out of his face, a head and shoulder above Naruto and Shikamaru.
Looking around, Naruto noticed that most of the room were watching the rookies while chatting amongst themselves.
"If you won't listen to me, at least listen to this guy," Sasuke said to Kiba, gesturing to Kabuto having noticed and heard him.
Kiba huffed and quieted down as the group drifted over to where Kabuto had appeared, all wondering what he wanted.
"You taken this test before?" Naruto asked Kabuto.
"I have, but they change the test and examiners every time." Kabuto answered before pulling out a stack of cards from his back equipment pouch. "Though i have gathered information on the participants to give me an edge."
"Each of the elemental countries has at least one team participating in the exam this time, though number of participants greatly depends on the size of the country and available ninjas," Kabuto pulled the top card off the pile and placed it face up in his hand, running some chakra through it. the card displayed a map of the continent with each country labelled with a bar that denoted the number of participants they sent.
Konoha had the most, being the host country this time, but sand and rain had quite a few as well while a few minor villages have sent one or two teams.
"I've also got information about most of the Genin participating, though some is just speculation and others are new to the test as well. Take the only team from the Sound hidden village, they are a pretty minor village and this is their first team ever sent to this test so i have no information on them, but every Konoha Genin i have their profiles from official information sources here and i just have to find their card." Kabuto explained gesturing to the deck he had.
"I have a few i want you to find for me." Sasuke said after listening to the explanation. "Rock Lee, the red haired boy from the sand village that carries a gourd on his back and myself.
"Lets see what i can do," Kabuto held in one hand and swiped the other hand across it, pulling three cards out without disturbing the rest. setting down the deck and pushing back his glasses he checked the cards before holding up the first one.
"Rock Lee, second year Genin, 11 C ranked missions complete 20 D rank, displays no skill in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu but shows exceptional prowess in taijutsu and weapon usage," Kabuto handed the card to Sasuke after reading the information off and moved on to the next card. "The redhead from sand would be Gaara, not much info on him other than he has exceptional skill in ninjustsu of a unique type, and he has been on 13 C ranked missions and one B rank, all solo."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the info on Gaara, taking his card and looking it over for any additional information.
"And you; Uchiha Sasuke, rookie Genin, 17 D rank missions, 7 C rank and one C rank that evolved into a high B rank. Impressive, and for skills, you show considerable skill in Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, both aided by your Sharingan, the legacy of the Uchiha clan." Kabuto read off the last card, handing it to Sasuke as well.
"Quiet down you worthless bastards!" a booming voice commanded from the front of the room, accompanied by a massive eruption of smoke created by the appearance of nearly thirty ninjas appearing at the front of the room, all wearing vests marking them as the rank of Chunin except for the man at the head of the group who wore a full length black trench coat.
"Thanks for waiting," said the man in the trench coat, "I am Morino Ibiki, Examiner for the first test of the Chunin Selection Exam.
Most of the occupants of the room straitened up at this announcement, quieting down and turning to face the man. Seeing that he had their attention, the man continued speaking. "I will only say this once so you had better listen up, A rule that persists though the entire exam: No fighting without examiners permission, and even if permission has been granted, killing your opponents will not be tolerated. Those that break that rule will be failed on the spot, no exceptions. Understand?"
The entire room sat silent, until someone from the crowd whispered, "That makes this too easy." and a chuckle ran through the Chunin at the front of the room before they were silenced by the examiner.
"For this portion of the exam you will be randomly assigned seats by taking a marker from a Chunin and finding the seat with the matching number. Once everyone has been seated, the exam will be distributed." Ibiki held up a stack of papers as he finished speaking.
The Genin sat frozen for a moment after the examiner stopped speaking before almost all at once they got up and went to the nearest Chunin to get a number and finding the matching seat.
Naruto sighed as she found her seat, it was near the front and both Sasuke and Sakura were many seats behind her. Taking deep breaths, she tried to calm her worry and excitement, sitting with her head in her hands staring at the back side of the exam that had been placed on her desk.
"Uh... Naruto..." a voice beside her said at close to a whisper, getting her attention.
"Oh hey Hinata," Naruto replied, giving Hinata a warm smile.
"Let's... Let's do our best." Hinata returned Naruto's smile with a slight reddening of her cheeks.
"Yeah." Naruto nodded, distracted by an announcement by the examiner at the front of the room.
"Now that you are all seated, listen up. Their are a few important rules to this test, I will write them on the board as i say them, but listen closely as their are no questions allowed and any questions you ask will not be answered." The examiner announced, causing a chatter to rise up form the people seated in the room. "This test works on a points system: You start with a total of ten points, one for every question and every wrong answer costs you a point. Second; this is a team test, so at the end the points of each teammate is added together and your pass will be determined on the total score between all teammates.
"And the most important rule; anyone caught cheating during the test is immediately docked two points. Anyone who reaches zero points during the test will be asked to leave." the examiner paused, letting the rules sink in as he finished writing them on the board. Sensing that the tension was high in the room, he turned to face the Genin and told them the final rule. "And Anyone who loses all their points or fails to answer any questions correctly fails the test... Along with both their teammates.
"You have two hours, Begin!" He shouted out just after the last rule, and the entire room burst into activity, scanning the papers they were now allowed to flip to read and answer.
Naruto scratched her head as she read through all the questions one by one, finding them all far beyond her ability to answer. Their were a few she could make an effort on, but her chances of reasoning them out was slim and she didn't have nearly enough time for that either.
'These questions aren't anything an average Genin would be able to or even need to be able to answer.' Naruto thought to herself, brushing her hair out of her face and adjusting her forehead protector to keep it out of her face. It was starting to get long and girly looking Sasuke had told her when they met up this morning. ' And cheating isn't against the rules, just getting caught is.
Looking around, she could see some people starting to write, and could even pick out a few bad cheaters in the act and decided it would be a good time for her to start as well. Naruto gave the questions another quick scan and decided to look for some good answers, activating her doujutsu to it's first level, her world opened up in a full 360 degree view or her surroundings, and she could see the papers of people on all side up to almost 5 people away. But picking out individual words and answers was hard when she could see so much at once. Thankfully, in the few weeks since she acquired her power, she had been working on refining and mastering it and could focus in on small areas of her wide vision scope to view the smaller section in greater detail. So now all she needed to do was find a sheet with answers to focus on now.
It took a bit of time to find a trustworthy or complete looking answer, and a bit more time to memorize and copy down the answer on her own sheet, but before long Naruto had more than half the answers filled out and was working on more.
Thunk! Was the sound of a kunai stabbing into the desk in the middle of a persons test paper. It nearly made Naruto jump out of her seat, because it landed right in the middle of the paper she was getting an answer from at the time.
"Take your teammates and leave." said the Chunin who threw the kunai to the Genin that had been singled out as Naruto hastily scribbled down the rest of the answer off the pinned sheet.
Naruto watched them get up and walk out and then to the clock, 'Half an hour left and only one question to go.'
Looking at her sheet again, at number 10. Not a question, just a box with a statement in it "This question will be given 45 minutes after the test begins, Listen very closely before answering." Naruto scratched her head after reading this, wondering what could be so important about the final question, though she decided to try and wait patiently for the next fifteen minutes.
After the first got kicked out, more people seemed to be slipping up and getting caught, quickly reducing the number of people in the room. as the numbers in the room started to lower and the time for the final question started to draw near, Naruto noticed Hinata struggling for a few of the answers next to her.
"Hey Hinata, do you want some help?" Naruto whispered, glancing over at Hinata out of the corner of her eye.
"Eh?" Hinata looked back at Naruto with a slight blush, seeming unsure what to do for a moment before replying, "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble..."
"Number 52, you fail!" one of the nearby Chunin shouted out, causing both Naruto and Hinata to cringe as the person on Naruto's other side got up and left the room.
"Ok, it's your choice then," Naruto said, moving her arm so that it left a clear of her sheet to Hinata. "But the more points the better, and I wouldn't want you to disappear on me."
Naruto spent the last five or so minutes before the final question trying to look innocent while Hinata snuck a few sideways glances at Naruto's paper to fill up the rest of her answers.
"It is now time for the final question." The examiner stepped up in front of the room once more, his words causing everyone to stop writing."This one has a few rules of its own."
"For this question you will have to choose whether you will take it or not." The examiner continued after a pause, seemingly causing deliberate tension with his words.
"What happens if we choose not to take it?" someone shouted out from near the back of the room.
The examiners eyes snapped to the asker of the question, "If you choose to not take it your points will be reduced to zero and you will fail."
"What does that mean?" someone shouted out at the same time someone else shouted "Then why is taking the question optional?"
"Their is another rule" the examiner continued, holding his hand up for silence, "Those that choose to take the question and get it wrong will lose their right to take the Chunin selection exam again."
Naruto looked at the examiner in shock when he said this, someone familiar sounding shouting from the back of the classroom what she was thinking, "That's a stupid rule, their are people here who have taken the exam before!"
"You got unlucky this year, My exam, My rules." the examiner with a subtle smirk, "But I'm offering you a way out, if you don't think yo can answer the question then you are free to not take it and leave and try again next time."
The room fell silent, the Genin weighing their options and making their decision.
"Now let us begin the tenth question," the examiner said, breaking the silence, "Those that wish not to take the question raise your hand and once your number is confirmed you may leave with your teammates."
Naruto sat rubbing her forehead with one hand, debating her outcomes, 'What kind of question will it be? Will it be one i am able to do? If i quit, my team is out too, but what if one of them can't do it either?'
Naruto was close to raising her hand and being the first person to quit when she was distracted by someone raising their hand and calling out "I quit, i can't do it." from the seat directly in front of her. And with that first hand up, more and more people started giving up, dropping the number of people in the room by nearly a quarter. Naruto was still debating raising her hand after all the un-confident people had left the room, but she made up her mind, this man might try, but she wasn't letting him stand in the way of her becoming a better ninja.
Jumping up onto her chair, Naruto put one foot on the eve of her desk, one hand on her hip and the other pointed at the examiner and shouted, "I'm not afraid of you, you could stop me from gaining a rank, make me a Genin forever, but you will never stop me from becoming a better ninja, and if I can't be anything but a Genin then i will be the best damn Genin the ninja world has ever seen!"
Finished her little speech, Naruto dropped back down to sitting in her chair, arms folded and a focused look on her face.
"Is that how you feel young man?" the examiner asked Naruto, glancing around he room at the rest of the remaining Genin "People don't trust Genin to be powerful ninja."
"I would make them understand, even show off if i had too." Replied Naruto, no waver in her confidence that the examiner was obviously trying to dampen.
"Very well," the examiner turned his attention to the rest of the room, "For everyone in the room, excellent choice and congratulations on passing the first test of the Chunin selection exam!"
AN/-\\\\AN
This one has been a long time coming, but it's proof that it's still going
As always, I am open to comments suggestions and the like via reviews