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*********One month later********
The Academy
Naruto and Sorana stood outside of the Academy. To most ninja, the Academy was the place where their shinobi careers had started, but to Naruto and Sorana it was just another site for yet another assignment.
The Chuunin exams were taking place in Konoha this year, and the Academy was the location of the first test. Naruto and Sorana, as well as a Kage Bunshin henged into a boy with brown hair, were to be plants in the exam. They were to stop any attempts at cheating in the first exam, and destroy scrolls in the second exam.
Hokage-jiji had said that in missions, there was usually a hidden force that no one knew about and could ruin a mission. That was what Naruto and Sorana were for this mission: the deadly unknown.
The team headed up the stairs, easily bypassing the absurdly weak genjutsu on the second floor. They headed into the classroom where the first test was being held.
There was a loud commotion right next to the door, and Naruto glanced at it. It was 12 Leaf genin, about his age if he had to guess.
Naruto was about to pass right by them, when he felt Sorana stiffen. He looked over at her, and saw a hand grabbing at her jacket.
"What are you doing here, Sister?" asked the voice attached to the hand assaulting his partner. "This is for shinobi only, not a bug breeder."
Sorana's brother, while bearing the classical emotionless tone in his voice, had a slight edge of derision that would only be caught by someone who had spent a lot of time with the clan.
"You know I am not a kikai breeder Brother," Sorana retorted, yanking her arm out of her brother's grasp.
"Well you should be," he said. "Someone has to watch the maturation of our clan's kikai, and it should be the females. They have less chakra capacity and are weaker."
"If I am so weak, Shino, why I am able to beat you in everyone of our spars?" Sorana asked.
By now, the battle of words between the two twins had been noticed by the other 11 Konoha genin.
"Who're you talking to, Shino," said a loud Inuzuka, judging by the small puppy sleeping on the boy's head.
"This is my twin sister, Sorana, and, I assume, her teammates," introduced Shino.
Naruto took over from there. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and the dude standing next to me is Hatake Ryuuyi."
The Inuzuka than finished off the introductions. "Well, I'm teammates with Shino, and my name is Inuzuka Kiba. Our other teammate is Hyuuga Hinata, she's the girl with the long blue hair. We're Team 8."
"Team 10 is over there," Kiba said, pointing to another group of three. "The blonde chick is Yamanaka Ino, while the guy with the chips is Akamichi Chouji, and the lazy looking one is Nara Shikamaru."
The three all nodded to the undercover Kawa-nin. "And lastly is Team 7. The chick with the bright pink hair is Haruno Sakura. The other two teammates are kind of hard to tell apart, but the guy with the duck-butt hairstyle is Uchiha Sasuke, while the really pale one is Shimura Sai."
"And don't forget us!" shouted a loud voice. He was dressed in green spandex and was followed by another Hyuuga and a kunoichi with her hair up in buns. "I am Rock Lee. The male to my right is Hyuuga Neji, the strongest genin in Konoha, and the youthful kunoichi to my left is Higurashi Tenten. We make up Team 9. It is nice to meet you fellow Leafs!"
Sasuke walked forward. "You three look to be around our age. How come I never saw you in the Academy?"
Naruto laughed. Koharu-ba-chan had spent many nights complaining of the Uchiha's arrogance and Naruto looked forward to taking him down a notch. "We were actually entered in an experimental program."
Sasuke proceeded to look outraged. "Why wasn't I, an Uchiha, the elite of the village, chosen for this advanced training program."
Naruto merely smirked. It was very funny that all Naruto said was experimental program, and Sasuke immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was an advanced training program. He had quite an imagination, and sometimes imagination ruined shinobi.
"Who said anything about training?" Sorana interjected. "And believe it if you will, your father actually denied your placement in the program."
Sasuke's mouth gaped open in shock. "But..but the Uchiha are the elite. Why would he deny the elite better training?"
Naruto laughed. "You'll have to take it up with him I guess." He was feeling a little vindictive. His partner was hurting from Shino's comments, and he was lashing out at the best available person.
Hinata, the diminutive little Hyuuga, spoke up to stop the conflict erupting between Sasuke and Naruto. "A-ano, Sh-Shino?" she asked. "W-why have yo-you nev-evr talked ab-about your sis-ter?"
Unfortunately for Hinata, she chose exactly the wrong question to ask. Shino's already impassive face seemed to sheen over with frost as he began his answer. "I do not talk about my sister because she does not deserve to be talked about. She neglected her given task of being a kikai breeder to become a ninja. Insects who do not complete their tasks in the hive are useless."
Sorana's eyes misted over with tears, hidden by her Aburame glasses. It had always hurt that her brother seemed to hate her very existence and considered her totally useless. The rest of her clan had not helped her situation. Many of the males took Shino's side, while the female's treated her like she was some kind of a symbol for their freedom instead of a clan member. After all, there were now 20 female Aburame in the ninja corps, and the change could somewhat be attributed to her, and it stopped people from simply seeing Sorana. Only her parents, tutors, and Naruto treated Sorana like a human tears.
Naruto saw Sorana's rigid body language and the almost-minute quivering of her bottom lip and got pissed; real pissed.
"Hey, asshole! She's your sister, your twin sister. She's family, and you can't just throw that away because you don't agree with her decisions!"
Naruto prepared to launch at Shino, intent on destroying the bastard who had insulted his partner time and time again.
A voice cut him off though. "You must be the rookies. You're making quite a commotion over here and attracting some unwanted attention for yourselves."
As one, the Konoha genin turned to look at the one speaking. He had long gray hair held together in a ponytail and large circular glasses. He waved. "Hello. My name is Yakushi Kabuto. Just a little friendly warning from an elder: quiet is the way to go. You're still small fish, and you're starting to attract the attention of some predators that'll eat you alive."
Kiba started yelling. "Who the hell are you to give us advice! You don't even look that strong!"
Naruto nearly snorted at that. Kabuto was obviously very strong. His poise, his movements, the amount of muscle in his arms, and the way he watched everyone around him bespoke of a high-level ninja.
Naruto assumed Kabuto was another plant into the exam, although he didn't really know what Kabuto's purpose was.
Kabuto scratched at the back of his neck. "Well, I simply know from experience. This is actually my seventh Chuunin exams."
Sakura spoke up, before Kiba or Sasuke could insult the good-natured Kabuto. "You really must have a lot of information then, Kabuto-san."
"Yes, I do. Here, as a last little bit of goodwill between comrades. I'll give you some information on any competitors here."
Sasuke immediately pushed forward through the throng of other genin. "I want information on Rock Lee, Aburame Sorana, and Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha, and Gaara from Suna."
Kabuto pouted. "You know their names and villages already? That takes all the fun out of it." Kabuto pulled out a large stack of note cards from his ninja pouch. He started shuffling through them, looking for the cards that he needed.
"But let's get started. Alright first off is Rock Lee from Konoha. Teammates are Hyuuga Neji, Rookie of the Year of his class, and Higurashi Tenten, Kunoichi of the year. Rock Lee was the dead last in the class. Their jounin-sensei is Maito Gai, A-ranked nin codenamed Green Beast of Konoha. Rock Lee has had 46 D-rank missions and 6 C-rank missions. He has no skills in either genjutsu or ninjutsu but has a high proficiency in taijutsu."
"Next up is Aburame Sorana. Her teammates are Uzumaki Naruto and Hatake Ryuuyi. They graduated from an experimental training program designed to see if the Academy needed to be shaken up a little bit. Their jounin-sensei is Hyuuga Kaori, a renowned medic and taijutsu specialist. Sorana has completed 57 D-rank missions and 7 C-ranks. She is showing some promise in genjutsu and taijutsu but mainly uses taijutsu and Aburame clan jutsu."
"Onto her teammate, Uzumaki Naruto. Obviously, he has the same teammates and jounin-sensei as Aburame Sorana, and has completed the same amount of missions. Naruto is starting to learn fuinjutsu, but mainly sticks to Suiton jutsu and the usage of his surujin."
Naruto acted annoyed that his skills had been told to all of the Konoha genin. In reality, he didn't really care. That information was a decoy planted by the Sandaime, which was done for all Kawa-nin, so they had paperwork to get in and out of shinobi-only places without flashing their Kawa-nin identification papers.
Kabuto's information also proved that he was a plant from the Sandaime, as a ninja's background required Chuunin-level clearance.
"And lastly, Sabaku no Gaara. His teammates are actually his siblings, Temari and Kankuro. His sensei is Baki, the Wind Master of Suna. His team has completed 1 D-rank, 11 C-rank, 22 B-rank, and 8 A-rank missions. Also, he has allegedly never even been scratched on a single mission, which is completely unheard of. He has virtually no techniques, besides his manipulation of sand, which is said to be very deadly."
Naruto almost frowned at this. There was no way that Kabuto could get this kind of information, even if he was a Chuunin plant. Ninja villages did not publish their ninjas background information, and the Sandaime would not risk a spy village just to get information on a genin. Kabuto was starting to become very suspicious, and Naruto would definitely be watching him.
Kabuto kept on talking, oblivious to Naruto's suspicion as he kept it well hidden.
"Alright, I'm feeling really generous so I'll help you out again. There are genin from every Hidden Village so watch out. The Suna, Kiri, and Ame genin are usually very bloodthirsty, so be prepared. Also, there's a new village at these exams. I wouldn't be too worried though. Oto doesn't look all that strong."
Naruto tensed his muscles as he felt some minor killing intent fill the room. Naruto decided to sit and wait everything out. Suddenly, three ninja appeared around Kabuto. He managed to avoid all of the hits, but then he fell to his knees and starting throwing up.
"Don't talk about what you don't know, trash," said the lead shinobi who had a large metal gauntlet on his arm.
This time, Naruto couldn't stop the frown forming on his face. The Oto shinobi seemed to know exactly when to attack and who to attack. It smelled far to much like a set-up. Kabuto had just went from one of the Sandaime's plant to a spy from another village or, even worse, a traitor.
Naruto looked to Sorana, who nodded. Immediately, five small kikai flew out from the bottom of her pants. The bugs had instructions to tell her father, Shibi, the duo's suspicions about Kabuto. Shibi would then pass on the message to the Hokage.
"Alright, maggots, cool it!" yelled a loud, deep voice. All of the genin in the room turned to look at the blackboard where the sound came from. The voice belonged to a large ox of a man. He was very intimidating and wore a bandana.
"My name is Morino Ibiki, and I will be the proctor of the first exam. Now go find the chair that has your name on it. If you switch names on the chairs, sit next to your teammates, or take longer than 30 seconds to find your seat, you and your teammates will be kicked out of the exam."
Immediately, all of the genin rushed to their seats. Naruto's clone, Ryuuyi, had to be very careful to not be dispersed in all the hubbub.
Naruto was seated next to a male from Iwa and the kunoichi, Temari, from Suna. Naruto grinned, it was finally time for a little fun. He hadn't let out his prankster side in awhile, and now was a perfect time to let the beast run wild.
Naruto muted out Ibiki's rules. He was sure the rules were very scary and intimidating, yadda yadda, who cares. He was going through to the second round no matter what he did, so he did the one thing he did best: tune out a lecture. And he had already been briefed about his job so he wasn't going to miss anything.
Eventually though, Ibiki stopped talking and silence fell over the classroom. The first five minutes was utter silence as the Chuunin-hopefuls read through the nine questions, tried to come up with an answer, and then finally realize the true point of the exercise.
And Naruto had no doubt that everyone would figure out the hidden purpose. After all, it was basically in a ninja's job description to cheat. Naruto was also pretty sure that Ibiki had dropped quite a few hints in his little talk that would point the ninja in the right direction.
Finally, although the sound didn't increase at all, people started cheating. And Naruto's smirk seemed to spread from ear to ear.
A Taki shinobi was sitting in front of Naruto was using a very obvious water technique to cheat. The technique in question created a film over the user's sheet as well as another sheet of paper. Whatever was written on the first was copied onto the second.
The Taki-nin had fortunately chosen one of the Chuunin, planted into the classroom to provide the answers to the questions, to copy of off. The Chuunin had of course noticed the slight shine on her paper and had already motioned to Ibiki.
Naruto kicked the Taki shinobi's chair and he spun around. "What the hell was that for, jackass!"
Ibiki inclined his head towards Naruto, showing some slight praise.
"Number 45, 67, and 94, please leave the room."
The Taki shinobi got up disgruntled, but cowed enough by Ibiki's glare to not try anything to get back at Naruto.
Looking around, he saw Sorana's kikai in an airborne battle with Shino's. She was apparently trying to prove that she was fit to be a ninja in the only way that she could: by beating his ass.
She had also managed to knock out two other teams while still whipping Shino. Sorana wasn't going to knock Shino out of the competition, but she would definitely show him up.
Naruto spent the next 30 minutes knocking teams out, managing to get everyone out within 10 feet of him besides the Suna chick Temari. It was kind of ticking him off, but Hokage-jiji had said to only take out the people who were below Chuunin-level in information gathering techniques.
Unfortunately, Temari was well above Chuunin-level and he honestly couldn't bring himself to disqualify someone so qualified.
Finally, the first 45 minutes were over and Ibiki stepped up. "Time for the 10th question. I must tell you now though, if you do not answer this question correctly, you will be restricted from ever becoming a Chuunin."
There were various shrieks of outrage and indignation from the gathered ninja. Ibiki quickly shut them up however. "All of the Kage from the various villages represented here have agreed. They agree that if a ninja cannot answer this question correctly they do not deserve, nor will they ever, the right to become a Chuunin. And before you ask if I have proof, here it is."
Ibiki pulled out a large scroll and unfurled it. Upon the scroll was the recognizable signatures and seals of each of the Kage from each of the villages. This cut down all of the objections immediately. No ninja was willing to go against their Kage after all.
"Now, I will give you the time to decide if you do not want to continue. Also, be aware that if you leave the exam, your teammates will also be disqualified. You have five minutes to make your decision."
There was maybe thirty seconds of no movements before one hand slowly made its way into the air. Ibiki acknowledged the shinobi, and the whole team left the room.
That one hand seemed to encourage the other ninja wavering on the edge and there was suddenly a wave of people heading out the door. Naruto decided to add to the drama and began crying as if the pressure was way too much for him to handle and he couldn't even bring himself to raise his hand.
The number of hands being raised increased exponentially after Naruto's 'breakdown.' With Naruto's head in his hands, he could hide the smirk forming on his face.
Finally the number of hands finished, and Ibiki waited an additional fifteen seconds or so before finally halting the surrender period. "Alright, now that we've got the cowards out of the way," Ibiki paused dramatically here. "You pass!"
Naruto stopped the slight shudders that he had had running through his body to mimic the sight of somebody sobbing. The other genin again started yelling in confusion.
"Silent, maggots. Let me explain before you get all uppity. The first nine questions dealt with your ability to analyze a situation, as well as your ability to gather information without being caught. Of course, in this exam, we allowed you five chances. In real life, you only have one chance and if you screw it up, you're dead."
"And information is worth a life. Risking your life for information that may save hundreds of your comrades is the highest sacrifice. Of course, sometimes your information is incorrect, but you have to risk it."
Ibiki untied the bandana around his head. The bandana covered tons of scars, burns, and screw holes. "People will go to any length to get information, just remember that."
"The purpose of the tenth question was to test your resolve. As a Chuunin, you will often be required to take on missions where the outcome is not certain. Where you or someone on your team may lose their lives. If you cannot work up the balls to risk your career, how can you risk your lives?"
"Now as I said before, you pass. The next examiner will be showing up shortly."
As he said this, one of the windows exploded inwardly. A spinning ball of chaos shot inwards with the shattered glass. A banner shot off the ball stating proudly "The Sexy and Single Mitarashi Anko-The Second Examiner!"
"Aww, Ibiki-kun, you only left me 18 teams to play with? They're only genin, you can't scare them that badly."
"Whatever, Anko. At least I left you some good teams to play with."
"Well, I guess I'll have to make the best of a bad situation. Alright, gakis, head to Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death!"
So that's the end of another chapter. How did you like meeting the rookie 12? And Kabuto? Let me know. And please, constructive reviews!