CH: 4 The Chunin Exams
AN: So I have a Beta now. One Roanes Steel will now be tortured with correcting the many misspelled words, fixing the plot of the story just like I usually do, and dealing with the mess that is the pairing for this story. Well, more like he read all of the junk I wrote and then sends a pm to tell me how to fix it. Still, I am very glad I have a beta, so everyone if you aren't feeling lazy thank Roanes Steel. Now onto this chapter. Also, the polls are closed. I am frustrated with the scene where Naruto meets Temari but whatever.
…...Back to present, after wave mission...
Our return to Konoha was a depressing affair, well at least for me.
Kurenai had sent a message informing the mission output of our imminent return. When we arrived, Kushina swept Narumi into a hug, promising ramen later. I stalked away from the two red-heads, unable to stand the clearly evident love between the two. From the corner of my eye, I saw Hinata being greeted by a few branch members and a small smile at play on the girl's face. Even my sensei had two of those "evil' sensei from back at training ground 44 to greet her.
I sighed in slight frustration. It was just such a heart stabbing moment of pain to watch events like these and not being able to ever have such a moment. To not have parents to worry for you, or really anyone who would actually be sad to see you gone and happy at your return.
Every once in awhile, when I thought to myself and actually called my family mother and father, Narumi as sister, there still wasn't that sense of belonging, of knowing that you were with family. I had never felt part of the family, and if that wasn't enough, I have no friends to speak of because Narumi had long ago as a child estranged me from any other child my age before the academy and in turn like a domino effect made other kids wary of me.
I shook my head of the dark thoughts, not quite leaving the mood but not focusing on it and continued on my way to nowhere when a small boy dashed by me, a massive scarf trailing behind him and nearly tripping the boy every couple steps. Behind the kid was Sakura, living up to her secondary nickname from the academy that was banshee, was screaming and chasing after. But before Sakura could catch the boy, a dull thunk echoed through the air.
The scarf kid had crashed full tilt into a male, about my age, decked in a full body black suit with a humanoid figure wrapped in bandages on his back. The rough face shown through the round opening at the top of the now identified Suna-nin was painted in purple. The paint was obviously war paint to any ninja worth their rusty shuriken, but obviously not to scarf kid.
"Put me down you girly make-up man," scarf kid yelled from his hanging position with war-paint being the one holding him in the air. Sakura being Sakura, was in the background loitering, obviously to scared to stop what was happening.
Another sigh was drawn from my lips, the action of sighing definitely becoming a habit of mine. I ambled over to the two other males and in one swift move had scarf kid tied up by his own scarf and the Suna-nin tied to his the newly revealed puppet with the puppet's bandages. The bothersome snores of the two filled the air, unconscious due to my efforts.
I stood for a moment before calling out to seemingly no one, "Come on out, I don't mean any harm. I was just stopping two idiots from killing each other. Well one from dieing in the fight, the other from execution." Two other Suna-nin then appeared, one blond, the other a red head.
"I apologize for my foolish brother's behavior Anbu-san," the female of the two said stiffly.
"No harm done, and I also believe you have me mistaken, I am not an Anbu. Just a genin like you," I returned, my head feeling clouded from the Suna ninjas surrounding me. The reason for the feeling was my nose, or more specifically what my nose was smelling. Ever since the forest of death, all of my senses were suddenly boosted to an extreme degree. I was able to combat that by using chakra to reduce it's power rather than increase it like other ninja and was able to get through the mission to wave rather easily. But back in Konoha I had dropped it because I was already use to the smells of the area and wasn't nearly as affected by the smells as much as foreign smells affected me.
That was not true for the Suna kuinochi in front of me. Her smell was intoxicating. Some sort of desert flower mixed with the strange smell sand had. It was filling all of my smell receptors and I couldn't focus on much else. With my focus shot so much, I couldn't redirect my chakra to stop the smells and thusly my mind was made jumbled.
"Then why the mask, if you don't mind me asking," the kuinochi asked. "I use it as a reminder and let's leave it at that. Also, what's your name," I struggled to say without adding whatever entered my mind. The smell was numbing my thought processes.
"Temari, you?" was her simple reply.
"Naruto," I mumbled, my will losing the fight to the overpowering smells.
"Well, Naruto, it's a pleasure to meet you. Sorry once more for my idiot brother," Temari said as she walked over and kicked her sleeping brother, earning a grunt and nothing more.
"What about your silent friend over there?" I added, slowly filtering chakra into my nostrils to end the havoc the odors were playing on me.
"That's Gaara, my brother. The lug at my feet is Kankurou. Don't worry about him, he is just rather shy and after what your Hokage did for him to help him control his demon," the girls slightly rambled.
"You mean your brother is a jinchuuriki," I asked, my eyes widening inperceivablely.
A hard edge entered the girl's voice when she answered, "Is that a problem."
"No, not at all," I returned, "it's just other people in this village aren't as accepting as me, after what the Kyuubi did and it's dual containers.'
"Dual containers," Temari wondered.
"Well, our Hokage sealed the Kyuubi into his two children, one of which was a boy, the other a girl. The two children each were sealed with a part of the beast. The boy the soul, the girl the chakra. While the girl child is loved in this village, the boy is reviled," I said darkly.
The sand girl looked aghast at the small amount of information I told her.
Before the girl could ask any more questions, and I could give away more secrets that weren't secrets, I shun-shined away back to my room in Minato's house, tired of interaction with the world.
…... Temari's P.O.V...
"Don't," I said as I felt the minuscule flare of chakra that typically accompanied a shun-shin, "go." I slightly scrunched my face, not really happy about the strange mask boy's disappearance or his little tale about the containers in the village.
I turned to Gaara, and spoke up, my will resolute, "Gaara, we need to find out more about these two containers." The tanuki jinchuuriki simply nodded and then used his sand to lift Kankurou into the air. As the three of us, my brothers and I walked away to find our lodgings before investigating more, I saw the pink haired girl who was chasing scarf-boy dart toward the boy and then walk in a different direction with the child in tow.
After a few fruitless hours of learning nothing, I returned back to the hotel my siblings and I were staying at and retired to my room. My thoughts were filled with the mysterious boy Naruto and his strange words on the village's jinchuuriki. The boy had a charisma, dark and alluring, yet hurt. The only reason I had noticed was the result of having Gaara as a brother for years and learning how to decipher feelings and wants from the stone-faced boy by only seeing his body expressions, like slouching, seeing as how Gaara constantly had sand over his face and the rest of his body.
The boy was interesting, and it gave me a sort of euphoria I couldn't place. It might be a crush, it might not. I just knew I wanted to learn more of the boy.
After a few hours of sleep, and the dawn had come, I dragged myself from bed and fixed my hair quickly after showering. Then my siblings and I ventured through the village asking about the Namikaze children. Each villager happily would trail on for minutes about the female child, Narumi, but when asked about the son their replies were almost universally, "Don't worry about that monster, just stay away from him."
The conversation would end there and the people would walk away. Citizen after citizen spewed the same spiel, and each time a gross feeling made itself known. The feeling was akin to eating something rotten, and I knew it wasn't my stomach.
The people of Konoha were sick in the head, giving adoration and respect to the female jinchuuriki while an undercurrent of hate and distrust for the male equivalent. It was strange and repulsive and several times I had attempted to break a genjutsu that wasn't there, thinking this whole thing a sick joke.
I knew I had something I needed to do now, I just didn't know exactly what.
…...Naruto's P.O.V... Two days after return from Wave...
I glared at the wall from my spot on my bed. I hadn't been, much less slept in this room since my graduation. I was much too busy with being stuck in the forest of death for two weeks and then almost immediately have to go off on a c-rank to Nami-no-Kuni.
Then there was what I had been handed about a day after leaving the smelly, in a good way, kuinochi from Suna.
I had received a sign up form for the chunin exam from Kurenai. I had almost, and I do mean almost, screamed at the chance the slip of paper gave me to be a solo ninja. To go on higher ranked missions and greatly push up my plan's time-line. I had never signed a piece of paper so fast and today was the first day for the exam.
I was going to be a chunin, that was a fact. I just had to get up.
…...Shinobi Academy 10:02 AM...
In sick fascination I stared avidly at my Hyuuga teammate's trepidation. The girl's face had been hilarious when we had received the forms to participate. We had all signed up just yesterday and now were taking the first test of the exam. Though the events seemed to pass by fast, from sudden action to sudden action, I felt energized. The energy was like a boost of adrenaline straight to the system.
Before the test had started though, a peculiar event had occurred. A strangely garbed ninja had challenged me to a duel. The ninja had asked as my team was making our way to the very classroom I was sitting in now.
On an off hand tangent from the strange ninja, my team had easily bypassed the trick two chunin had tried to play on all the genin trying out for the chunin exams. The Uchiha's team though had in a stupid move exposed the trick and added more weak opponents to the test roster.
But I digress, the events with the duel challenger happened like so...
(Flashback no Jutsu)
"GUYS, I'm so pumped for this exam! I can't wait to show off my moves!' Narumi screeched.
The loud tones almost made me cry with my sensitive hearing. For a moment after the wails echoed through the hall, I imagined myself short and clad in orange like Narumi was currently. I shuddered, trying not to puke. While orange was a lovely color for flowers or parades, for ninjas it screamed, "Kill me First."
I prefer darker tones, like subtle gray, a shadowy green, or ninja favorites nowadays such as non-reflective black. Regardless of colors of clothing, the green I saw next almost scarred me for life.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY," a green leotard wearing boy yelled at sonic volumes. His foot flew for my face in a violent manner. I tilted my head sideways and his left leg slid along my right shoulder until my own fist from my left arm had brought itself level with the green ninja and met his face.
It was not a pleasant meeting for either party.
The green genin then leapt to his feet from his landing spot on the floor, his spherical eyes intently focusing on me.
"MY NAME, MOST YOUTHFUL OPPENENT OF MINE, IS ROCK LEE!"
The words echoed in the room before everything fell utterly silent. For a moment I swore I heard a cricket chirp.
"Not to disturb your flames of youth, but can you enlighten me with your most youthful name," caterpillar brow boy yelled his finger askew in my general direction. The deafening yells and sharp movements left me clueless on what to say. The next five words I said would haunt me for the rest of my life.
"Hmm... did you say something?"
The caterpillar boy collapsed to a floor, though I had no idea why. I had asked a legitimate and honest question. I hadn't heard a lick of what caterpillar brow had said after he had roared dynamic entry.
"Argh, curse your hip attitude Mask-kun. I have decided you shall be my eternal rival of youth and it's most scorching of flames due to your similarity to my master's own rival!" Lee shouted at the top of his lungs.
My head tilted to the side again, not to dodge but in confusion. I looked to Hinata. Then Narumi. Then caterpillar boy. Then Hinata again.
"I'm not sure but is he challenging me to fight him or having a seizure?" I questioned my teammates. I didn't get an answer seeing as how both were staring at Lee bouncing about and twisting his arms this way and that. I turned back to caterpillar boy. "So... caterpillar boy," I murmured, "do you want to fight or something because I have an exam to take."
"Yes, I wish to engage in most youthful combat," Lee roared as he settled into a stance. He then added, "Let's fight."
The genin who was only two feet away threw a lightning fast jab, trying to crush my wind pipe and end the fight in one blow. I ducked under the punch in an impressive display of flexibility and using my left arm and left leg to support me snapped a kick into the green fighter's chin. I then tried to land a punch to the boy's stomach but he dodged. A flurry of leg attacks then rained on me as Lee recovered from my own attack. I parried and dodged the blows, waiting for the caterpillar brow to leave himself open or slip up.
The bowl cut-haired genin suddenly stopped his onslaught and backed up and I saw why. He was going for some now obvious weights on his legs. I couldn't let that happen. In a burst of chakra enhanced speed I slammed my fist into the boy's face. Lee then became extremely intimate with the wall after the sonic punch. When he finally pushed away from the wall... it fell apart in the shape of the leotard wearer. The boy stayed down on the ground, obviously done fighting due to unconsciousness.
My team and I walked on to get to room 301 as the footsteps of what I assumed his teammates were became louder from the hall I and my team had came from.
(Flashback no jutsu Kai)
I shook my head of the memories of the event, refocusing on my, 'darling team member'. Said team member was currently freaking out about the tenth question. The first nine had been really easy with so many chunins dotted around the room with the answers and the just plain geniuses who knew the criteria, I didn't even have to try.
But they real kicker of the test was the tenth question. The question itself was actually to choose to take the question or not. Quite a clever ruse. But the other genin were either too stupid to see underneath the underneath as Kakashi said often, or at least said enough for Kurenai to say that the man Kakashi said the phrase often, or were blind. This lead to many of the genin squirming in fear and stress and it was hilarious, I was nearly giggling in my seat. The most hilarious of all was Hinata. The question was like a cat and she the timid mouse. Of course when the mouse was so cute... Anyway. Already the almost all of the teams had given up. The only teams left was a Kumo team, a Kusa team, an Oto team, a Suna team, and the rookie nine plus team ten.
I could see from my spot that my Hyuuga teammate wanted to quit but was too committed to not disappointed Kurenai and the other people she deemed important to lift her hand. I silently applauded her. I then looked over at the Suna team that had stayed. It was Temari and her siblings. The Kusa team was two stupid looking boys and a red-headed girl. The girl was glaring at her teammates promising death if they quit. The Kumo was two dark skinned ninjas, one male, the other female and a busty blonde who was really pale. The Oto team was two shady looking brutes, and a girl with a sinister grin.
I heard a cough and turned to the examiner who had coughed whose name was... Ibiki. Ibiki spoke up and declared, "Alright! No one else giving up? Good, you all pass."
"What!" Half the room yelled, their faces hilarious in their puzzled state.
"I said you passed the test," the man smirked. "Now get out, your next examiner will explain the test. Head to training ground 44, if you need directions ask someone."
With those last words I was out the door dragging my teammates. A quick three person shunshin later and my team was standing in front of the evil forest that we knew so well. It was actually more of a jungle on steroids, but whatever. I grinned beneath my mask. This was going to be a piece of cake.
…. 10:45 AM...Training ground 44...
I looked at all the teams who had passed the paper test. Somehow everyone had made it, though the Kusa team looked frazzled.
Then a voice I knew yelled over the quiet clamor of the teams strategy conversations, "Alright, listen up brats cuz Im'a say this once!"
I gulped, I knew that voice. It was that evil kuinochi Anko. Or as Narumi had eloquently stated after we had finished training in this damn forest, "the crazy snake lady, dattebane!" Said lady continued her impromptu speech.
"This is the forest of death. As the name implies, you could die. Now on to the more important part of this speech. Your test will to obtain two scrolls and head to the center of this jungle. Each team will be given one scroll, either Heaven or Earth. But don't start adjusting your strategies yet, there's more. Your team's will be randomized. So in other words, you're working with strangers."
Anko took a huge breath, "Now will you all please come take a number from this bag and teams will be made." Ten minutes later and all the teams were rearranged. My two new teammates was the girl from the Suna team Temari and a Kusa kuinochi named Karin. My team was officially christened team 1. Team 2 was Kankurou, a puppet user, Tenten, a girl with two hair buns, and Samui, a Kumo kuinochi. Team 3 was Lee, the strange caterpillar brow boy, Hinata, my teammate, and Gaara. Gaara of course was the jinchuuriki I had met on that was on Temari's team. Team 4 was made up of Neji, a fate obsessed Hyuuga, Sasuke, the avenger Uchiha, and Shikamaru, a Nara. Team 5 was Sakura, Omoi, a Kumo kenjutsu user, and Zaku, an Oto-nin. Team 6 contained Kin, the female ninja of the Oto team, Shinamaru, a Kusa boy, and Ino, a Yamanaka girl. Team 7 had Narumi, my "sister, Karui, a girl kenjutsu user, and Kiba, an Inuzuka. Finally the last team was team 8. It held Dosu, the last Oto ninja, Chouji, an Akimichi, and Doto, the last Kusa ninja of the Kusa team.
"All right kiddies! Time to see if you got the stuff to not die! You got a week to get to the center. Have fun." With that cheerful message every team after getting a scroll and an entrance assigned, entered the forest of death.
…...Two days in: Team 1...
Once inside the forest introductions were made. After we all told each other our names, though I left out my last name, we made a plan. We were currently enacting said plan at the moment and were waiting for another team to try to either enter the middle building or do as we were doing and ambush other teams. Not the most ingenious plan, but effective.
It had only taken my team two hours to get to the center because my teammates didn't know the terrain. The two girls were completely unfamiliar with thick forestry. With that stipulation, travel was slower then I would have liked. When we reached the center, I quickly set up a home-base in the trees and my team settled in. Two days later and we were back to the present.
Then they showed up. I couldn't tell if it was irony or just my luck but team 2 showed up. The team looked horrible. Samui was supporting Tenten who had a big gash across her left leg. Kankurou was noticeably being weighed down by his puppet and his paint had smeared from perspiration. It was almost too easy to take their scroll and pass the second part of the chunin exam. For the next five days, my team just wandered about the building. With nothing but time to kill, we slowly got to know each other. I distinctly remembered my conversation with Temari and Karin about our lives growing up.
(Flashback no jutsu)
"So Temari," Karin said, "What was it like growing up in Suna?"
"Well for starters," the sand-nin smirked, "it was hot." Karin snorted at that. "But for truth, my childhood was pretty lonely and boring. With Gaara as my brother and the Kazekage as my father, not many people were brave enough to talk to me, much less be my friend."
Karin shared a sympathetic look with the kage's daughter. "My childhood was also a bit depressing. In grass, everyone is obsessed with proving that the village is as strong as one of the big five. With that notion, almost 90% of the population is or was a ninja and even then the village's amount of shinobi doesn't even equal half that of a great village' amount of ninjas," Karin murmured. "So, I having no choice, was made by my father to become a kuinochi. My mother didn't do a thing, just watched and looked slightly sad."
The girls then turned to me, "What about you, Naruto?" Karin asked.
"Yeah," Temari added looking expectant.
"My childhood is none of your concern," I replied harshly.
"Come on, tell us," the two girls said in tandem.
"NO!" I said angrily and stomped from the room.
(Flashback no jutsu Kai)
We had a few more conversations after that, but nothing substantial. Then in the last two days, teams began to seep in. First team 3 appeared around noon, Lee the only one that looked like he had got in a fight. The second team that made it was team 4 who trudged in at 8 pm. They all looked like a tornado had kissed them and Sasuke had a hand on his neck, looking suspiciously at anybody who glanced at his weird behavior. The last team that made it was team 7 who arrived on the last day.
If possible, they looked even worse than team 4. With their arrival though, a chain of events kicked off. A few minutes after the last team had arrived, all the team who had made it were summoned to the main hall.
The Hokage then rose and began to speak, "Hello everyone, I'm sure you all are tired but there are too many participants left. So we are going to hold four fights, randomly generated of course, to dwindle those numbers. After that I'll give a brief speech and the matches for the third exam will be decided.
The Yondaime then sat down and an electronic board flickered. Before saying two names. Shikamaru Nara and Temari no Sabaku. Soon only three ninjas were left standing in the center of the room, the two fighters and the proctor. Everyone else had fled up to the balconies on either side of the room.
Temari smirked, "This will be easy." Shikamaru just muttered, "Troublesome."
As soon as the proctor yelled go Temari started throwing futon techniques about like a mad woman. All Shikamaru could do was curse and dodge the barrage. But the genius obviously wasn't one much for stamina as his sluggish form was clipped by the wind jutsus, sapping away his strength like a leech. Temari finally seemed to get bored, or at least realize her chakra levels weren't made for this type of combat. With that in mind she stopped for a moment to breathe. In that small allotment of time she mad to breathe her fate was sealed. Shikamaru immediately launched into his kagemane jutsu and latched onto Temari with his shadow before she could jump away.
"What is happening," Temari shouted, her body physically straining against perceived invincible bonds. The kagemane jutsu was actually a mixture of genjutsu and jutsu. The shadow acted as a connection and made the recipient believe they were being grabbed by a shadow. That's where the genjutsu part came into play. The ninjutsu part was more internal. The control was only who had the stronger will. In truth, if the recipient had a greater mental fortitude or extremely larger reserves of chakra, then the captured could break the jutsu or turn the jutsu back on the user and stop the user from moving.
"You were caught in my jutsu," Shikamaru said helpfully. "Now surrender."
"Why should I," Temari asked irritably, frustration evident on her face.
With a simple slip of a kunai from Shikamaru's pouch, his hand aiming toward her throat, her body copying the exact movements in a weird reversal making it very evident that she was lacking her own kunai pouch. She of course remembered that she had long ago gotten rid of the thing seeing as how she had her fan.
"I surrender," Temari mumbled.
With those words said, the Nara fell to his knees releasing his jutsu. The Nara choked on the ground, attempting to draw air into his lungs and as he wallowed in exhaustion. The Nara was helped back up to the balconies and Temari shuffled up on her own accord, her expression thunderous.
The board flickered and the names changed to, "Naruto Namikaze vs Lee."
I jumped down and stared at my supposed rival, supplied by said rival only a few days ago. I glanced at Kurenai who stood next to Gai, the two sensei obviously conversing over the upcoming fight.
With a sharp, "Haijime," the fight was on and Lee trying to decapitate me with his feet time began. I simply formed a kage bushin and shunshin'd onto the giant ram seal statue in the room. My clone kept of the pretense of being me by dodging all the attacks from Lee so as not be dispelled.
After a few more attempts from Lee to hit my clone, things started to go down hill. Lee leapt back and ripped off his weights and they fell to the floor, making a massive thud echo through the room. Large cracks formed all over the floor surrounding the ground zero of the small but deep craters made by the weights. I stared incredulously at the weights. That was almost beyond belief, but made Lee's train like powerful hits make more sense.
Sadly though, the taking off of the weights had dispelled my clone and left Lee to begin searching for me. I wordlessly held out my hand and lightning coalesced into a tip-less tanto in my palm. I dropped silently and charged at Lee, a light smirk overtaking me when I saw Lee had fell for my ruse. As soon as Lee rushed me, I let my elemental tanto fade and jumped a foot into the air before crossing my arms and going ram-rod straight and slipped into the ground feet first.
The vibration's of Lee's almost frantic searching only increased my glee and made me smirk more. I rose behind Lee as quick as the wind and landed a strong jab into his back. The boy fell, then chakra began rolling off the boy as he released a gate after scrambling to his feet. I groaned, cursing Gai.
Then it was my turn to be pummeled. After a minute of receiving more jabs and kicks in that time limit then I had ever in my life, I growled and sent wind and lightning chakra curling through my limbs. Then Lee and I clashed. Massive blows that would cripple the other if they actually landed. Each time Lee released a gate, the more chakra I sent to my own body to enhance it. Soon copious amounts was pouring forth from the two of us. The bowl-cut boy was at his fourth gate and was obviously preparing for the fifth. I, myself, was shaking from the strain my body was experiencing, grinned.
I was being pushed by such a weak person. A small part in the back of my mind was telling me to use jutsu, genjutsu, anything other than taijutsu and I would immediately win. Unfortunately I was too far gone, lost in this fight and the adrenaline blaring through my system.
Next CH. Gates and Truths, powers unleashed.
An: Sorry for the long wait. After the next chapter it will all be made from scratch. No more notebook to give me stuff to write.