Drifting

by AlphaDelta1001

Naruto is many things; troublesome, wild, unpredictable, adventurous, untamable, unique. But there's a benefit to being wild and unpredictable; no one has the faintest idea what you're going to do next. NarutoHarem

17. Chunin Exam Arc I - On Route for Glory

NARUTO

Drifting

On Route for Glory

The very next day…

Morning…

"For Kami's sake!" Sakura cried out in dismay, "Why the hell does that person always make us wait when he's the one that called us up?"

"Hell if I know," Naruto grumbled in response, scrubbing the back of his irritably before folding his arms again. "Damn it! I need to find out where Kakashi-sensei lives because if he's doing this to us on purpose and is still asleep, I'm going to prank him awake!"

The pink haired kunoichi beside him nodded in agreement before holding up a fist in a threatening manner. Yesterday their teacher had told them to meet up with him on the bridge across from the training fields for a team meeting to discuss their next mission. Though he didn't mention anything about the mission, he simply stressed that they had to be there bright and early.

The problem that surfaced from this of course was that while the team had arrived at the rendezvous point on the dot of the supposed gathering time, their instructor was nowhere in sight. From the amount of hours that passed since the three of them arrived and with the sun nearing the apex of its climb with every minute that ticked by, it was beginning to seem highly unlikely that the man would be showing up at all.

This put Sakura in a bit of a mood if she wasn't already in one, which quickly gave birth to a string of complaints and misguided yelling. The girl at this point desperately needed a confidence booster, which is why she then chose to direct all her anger and aggression toward their still absent teacher. "How is he going to compensate a girl who woke up late and had to give up blow-drying her hair? Look at me!" The girl tugged at her short bangs and released them, with Naruto watching curiously as they curled back up when she forcefully tried to straighten them. "I've got split ends and everything! I look awful!"

"Have you tried hair gel? I heard that usually helps smooth it out."

"Girls don't use gel, Naruto," Sakura shot back quickly. "At least I don't. It's oily and unpleasant."

"Still, it couldn't hurt to try," Naruto shrugged, before smiling amiably at the girl, "Your hair is great either way. I love that look, it's so…" He waved his hands above his head, "Wild and cool."

Sakura smiled warmly at his compliment and she unconsciously pushed some bangs behind her ear, "Thanks…"

"Anytime," Naruto said, leaning back against the railing of the bridge and breathing a sigh. "Man… what a pain. Now I know why Shikamaru finds a lot of things troublesome…"

Sasuke sighed exhaustedly at the banter between the pair, their exclamations and continued dialogue disturbing the silence of their surroundings. He looked away when he saw the pair confront each other over their tardy instructor problem, and shook his head. "Why does everything have to be so intense with them every morning?" It was more confounding then it was a bother. "Their body clocks must be getting used to the hours…"

After several minutes of more silence, their eyes suddenly trailed upwards when the presence of another arrived on the scene. In a puff of smoke, Kakashi appeared on top of one of the bridge's support arches, hand raised in a casual greeting. "Yo! Sorry I'm late. I got a little bit held up helping these two kids get their cat out of a tree… then the tree collapsed and we ended up chasing the poor thing all over the place until it wound up on some old lady's back porch… who really needed help hanging her washing…"

"YEAH RIGHT! LIAR!" both Naruto and Sakura shouted while pointing up at the man. The timely arrival of the Jonin got mixed reviews from all of them, with the kunoichi demanding an apology, the jinchuriki reacting in a typical flustered manner before quickly retiring to his usual cheerful self, and Sasuke simply pushing himself off of the railing and back to his feet with a sense of relief washing over him.

Once everybody had calmed down and Kakashi had returned to ground level to meet his disgruntled team, the adult quickly moved onto business, addressing them all with an expression conveying complete seriousness. "Alright, this is sudden, but I've nominated you three to participate in this year's Chunin Selection Exams."

Sasuke blinked in surprise, "What?"

"Seriously?" Naruto jumped, eyes nearly bugging out. And here they'd been expecting a mission… at least that's what Kakashi's tone entailed. But no, it was better than that. "Y-You signed us up for the exams, sensei? No joke?"

"Of course," Kakashi exclaimed with a smile, "I've watched the three of you train, and I've seen how much you've progressed since the academy and how much your teamwork has improved. As far as I'm concerned, you guys are more than qualified to participate in the Exams. Considering the minimum number of missions required for you to be eligible for nomination is eight, you three are more than ready to face the trials they will have waiting for you. It won't only be a test of your growth, but a test of your bonds as a group."

Sakura gulped nervously, "I've heard the Chunin Exams are super tough. Do you really think we can get through it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Oh yes," the man exclaimed, reaching into his pouch and pulling out three application forms, which he then proceeded to hand out to them. "In fact, I have the utmost confidence in your abilities to handle it. While it is without a doubt an intimidating process, you don't need to be afraid of it. Just think of it as another mission you need to complete and work through it as a squad, and you'll be fine."

Looking down at their forms, the three Genin then glanced at each other momentarily as if looking to see if there were any objections or further concerns from their teammates, before smiling all at once and glancing back at their teacher. The fire that appeared in their eyes caught Kakashi a little bit off guard, but he was quick to recover and looked at the three youngsters with pride.

"It seems I don't have to try and coax you out of it," the silver haired Jonin chuckled and nodded to them affirmatively. "Your expressions say more than words ever will. That's why I like you guys so much." He then pointed towards their application forms still visible in their grips. "Since you're all up for it; meet me at the West Gate tomorrow at ten, and bring everything you need for an extended outing from the village. This is going to be a long haul."

Naruto stared at the man curiously, "How come?"

Kakashi's expression darkened slightly, sending a series of chills down their spines. "This year's exam is going to be unlike any other exam we've held in the past. For the first time in history, all five of the great shinobi nations will be participating in this event, along with every other nation interested in partaking in the festivities."

Sakura's eyes widened. "A-All five of them?! Then… that means…"

"Yes," Kakashi nodded, "Konoha, Suna, Kumo, Iwa and Kiri are all in it. With such a high number of participants, you guys are bound to encounter swaths of competitors wielding unimaginable amounts of skill and ability. This is the perfect opportunity to see how far you guys have come and to see where exactly you stack up in the world of shinobi. I'm so jealous." The Jonin chuckled when he got a dumbfounded look from Sakura. "I wish I was able to participate in a prestigious event like this when I was your age. Although… there were wars going on back then, so I guess they sort of count."

The kunoichi's hair bristled, "NO! They don't!"

It was settled; her teacher was just as insane and idiotic as both Sasuke and Naruto combined. In fact, it was almost like he was some kind of weird, perverted, super ninja abomination created from the two of them being mashed together in a blender. Either that or Sakura was finally starting to reach the limits of her sanity.

Laughing off the angry waves bouncing off of him from his one and only female apprentice, Kakashi glanced back down at his young group with a beaming smile clearly visible from his one eye. "Make sure you guys get as much rest as you can. Our destination tomorrow is Yu no Kuni (Land of Hot Water) and its capital Yugakure." He then pulled out his familiar orange book, which had the eyes of all three of his students twitch at once. "That's all. You're dismissed."

"Alright, this is killing me, what is that book, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked in an annoyed tone. "We almost always see you holding that thing. You're constantly reading it. What is it exactly?"

"Oh, this?" the Jonin chuckled sheepishly and pointed down at the pages when he saw all their glares locked onto him, "Well, this is a book from my favorite series of literature called Icha Icha. It's… for adults eyes only, so you may not find this to be very interesting." Getting strange looks from his children, the man waved before forming a hand seal. "Well, I've gotta go! Ciao!" He then up and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Coughing on the fumes and waving it away, the blonde glared. "Stupid shunshin. I've got to learn how to do that." He received nods of agreement from his teammates, all of whom then passed on the best of luck to each other before splitting.

It was apparently excursion day tomorrow, so the boys and girls were going to use every last second they had available to them getting ready…

OOO

Later that day…

Naruto hummed to himself as he carried a bag of groceries with him back to his place. He only got enough for one night's dinner and several days out of the village, as he had also accounted for the trip he, and many other of his fellow Genin, were going to be taking tomorrow. The free period he had following the meeting with his sensei gave him plenty of time to think about the coming exams, the trials he was expected to face, and the mixed bag of people he was likely to encounter outside of the comfort of his own home.

The idea of meeting new and interesting faces had the boy inwardly jumping with excitement. He just loved wanting to get to know people he'd never met before, as expected of someone of his background and penchant for befriending forest creatures. It was in his nature to get jumpy about these things.

While he was indeed set on the concept of making nice with some of the kids outside of the proverbial ring known as the entire Village Hidden in the Leaves, he expressed a bit less concern regarding the obstacles he was likely to run into. The Chunin Selection Exams were, as he believed the name entailed, a bunch of tests mashed together to form an impossible road designed to bring out the best and worst in its participants. For some strange reason, Naruto had no problems with that. In fact: he was absolutely psyched for it. Anything with the potential or promise to push him to his limits and make him work up a sweat he welcomed with open arms.

Tayuya was pretty much the same, having picked up some of his own unique quirks. They were gutsy, mischievous, adventurous, always looking for new thrills, and they both loved action.

Still, since these were exams created with the express purpose of seeing who had the right stuff to become Chunin, Naruto knew there was going to be more things involved than fighting. No. There was bound to be stuff shoved in their meant to test his mentality as well as his nerves. If he was going to do this, he was going to do this right, and get through this calmly and with a clear head.

That didn't mean he couldn't have fun though.

"This is going to totally rock," the blonde exclaimed in his head. "I can't wait to show everyone my awesome new skills!"

"Try not to show them off too much," the distinct voice of the Kyuubi in the back of his mind spoke. "You might attract some unwanted attention if you do."

"I know. I have to keep my showboating to a minimum," Naruto stated with a serious expression coming into play. "No more than five pelvic thrusts and/or one moonwalk lap around the field. That's it."

"How do you do that anyway?"

"What?"

"Moonwalk. How do you do that? I've seen you use it several times, it freaks me out."

"Huh? Do you want to learn how?"

He heard the fox scoff from inside and could swear he also heard the demon's eyes shifting around awkwardly, "No. Of course not. What kind of clown do you take me for?"

"A big, scary one…" Naruto chuckled, keeping his eyes trained ahead until they fell upon a familiar facility on the side of the road.

He stopped when he saw the lines of books up for sale outside the store and considered the material momentarily. There were several unrecognizable titles on for grabs that were going for second-hand prices, obviously books people didn't read that often or weren't main stream enough to be purchased in large quantities. After looking the expendables over, he then peered inside the store, becoming a little bit more curious as to what else they had in there. He heard a scratching inside, followed shortly by his house-guest's murmur.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," Naruto chuckled, turning and strolling on in, "Just thought maybe I could check this place out. I'll be away from the village for quite a while, so maybe I can grab something interesting to read for the trip."

"Wait… since when were you interested in reading? You don't read," the fox murmured before frowning deeply, "I never thought that you could read."

Naruto stopped and scowled at his stomach, "Of course I can rea-why do people assume that I can't read? Geez." He stopped at the entrance and looked about. "I'll show you. Man… this place is quiet." As he said this, he lowered his voice just as he would in any other library. Since he had entered a vicinity specializing in the material he figured he could use this moment to try and catch up on some of his brainwork. "Now… where can I find some cool stuff about being a shinobi?"

It was a book store in a shinobi village. Shinobi village. There was bound to be some articles in a store selling reading material focused on the genre and practices of a ninja.

However, before the youngster could invest time in trying to find said items of value, he quickly spotted a table set up not too far and in plain sight of the entrance, with stacks of books and a large man sitting inside the constructed cubicle looking incredibly bored. The books surrounding him were all copies of the same title, which Naruto figured this guy was trying to sell and, judging from the amounts still there and the fact people weren't paying it any attention, wasn't doing too well.

The banners around him said Tales of a Gutsy Ninja Book Signing. You didn't need a degree in literature to figure out what this was.

"He must be the author," Naruto thought. He quickly felt bad too because the guy looked like he'd put a lot of work into it and nobody was really showing any interest. It was a story about what he gathered to be shinobi too, so while the jinchuriki was quickly hooked, other people weren't, which puzzled him greatly. He shrugged and sauntered over. "May as well see what all the fuss is about."

Naruto stopped in front of the desk and glanced across at the man on the other side. He was a big guy; very outlandish looking. He was large with a head of long, incredibly spiky white hair, had a strange headband with a kanji symbol on it, a green outfit with fishnet underneath, a red vest on top, hand plates, and red lines coming down from sharp eyes. Thanks to a lack of customers and audiences of interest, the guy didn't really look like he was incredibly focused right now. He was still looking away while pushing pens across his table absently, with his head resting on his hand and elbow propped on the table.

He seemed nice. "Hello mister!" Naruto exclaimed brightly with a smile, "Watcha' doing?"

The man with white hair blew some bangs out of his eyes while continuing to tap his finger, "What does it look like, kid? I'm making an appearance…"

"I can see that," Naruto grinned. "But for what?"

"For my book of course. I figured the Tales of a Gutsy Ninja would be a hit seller once I made it mainstream like my other series, but… as you can see," the person groaned as he waved through the empty spaces in front of him, "It's not turning out how I expected. I guess people don't like a good action tale these days. They prefer their romantic comedies, horror, and stuff that took only two ryo to write up and even less to produce, stuff that shouldn't even see the light of day. Man… this is awful…"

Blinking, Naruto looked down at one of the books sitting on his table and picked it up. He took a look at the cover and considered it for a moment. It didn't seem that interesting on first glance. It didn't even have a picture on the front cover, just a title and blurb. No wonder it wasn't as attention grabbing as it should have been. Still, the blonde couldn't help but read the story description.

While he was doing so, the old man behind the table eventually recognized the presence of the boy officially and turned to him. When he did, he got quite the shock to see who the boy was and nearly fell out of his chair as a flash of profiles and faces flew past his eyes. However, he managed to hold it together for sake of self-preservation of dignity, plus he didn't want to alarm the kid with extreme visual responses. Instead, he gave the boy a more thoughtful look as he watched him look over the novel.

After a long, hard moment of contemplation, Naruto then smiled and held the book out to the man. "I'll take one if that's okay."

Surprised, the once bored author grinned brightly and took the book along with the note he used to pay for it, and scribbled his John Hancock right on the front. After which he then slid it back to him, "I hope you enjoy it."

"I will," Naruto exclaimed, looking at the signature. It was then he finally noticed the author's name inscribed right underneath the title of the book, and his eyes widened somewhat. "Wait a second… Jiraiya?" He looked up in bewilderment, stepping back a little so that he could get a better look at the man. Big and flamboyant, long spiky white hair, and wearing wooden sandals… yep, there was no doubt about it. "Is that your name? Jiraiya?"

"Of course, kid," the old man chuckled heartily with a grin, "Who else do you think you're talking to?!" Forming a seal, he then slapped his hand down on top of the table and, in a burst of white smoke that pretty much destroyed the desk and completely filled the entire store in fumes, Naruto suddenly found himself staring up at a massive toad wearing armor, with the old codger himself atop of it, striking a pose of raging awesomeness. "Behold! You my boy are standing in the presence of pure, unadulterated and eternal magnificence! Enemies quake in fear under the veil of my shadow and women swoon when they hear my name! My form radiates with cool and splendor across all of the shinobi nations! Who am I, you ask? WHO AM I? I am the one and only Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku! I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Jiraiya!"

And with that, everything went dead silent.

Everyone who had previously been browsing the store at the time of the sudden and unexpected performance could now be seen gaping in awe; all with eyes wide and some with sweat drops on their heads. Naruto of course was a combination of both, with his entire form slumped forward as he stared up at the still grinning old timer.

"He really is flamboyant…" the jinchuriki groaned in his head. When he looked down at the toad and then back up at the man riding it, he nodded his head in conformation. "Yeah… this is definitely the guy I'm looking for." Why the Third told him to look for him in the first place though, he had no idea.

"Hey!" an old woman's shout rang out, with both Naruto and Jiraiya cringing suddenly and turning to see the store owner glaring heatedly up at them, hands on her hips and foot tapping on the ground impatiently. She then pointed down at the ruined table, "Look what you've done! You've destroyed my table! This mess is coming out of your pocket, Jiraiya-sama!"

The old man quickly fell out of his pose and grinned sheepishly at the manager, "S-Sorry miss. I… got a little carried away."

"Well get carried away someplace else," she said sternly, crossing her arms at him. "Now keep it down or I'll have you thrown out of here. I don't care if you're one of the Legendary Sannin; if you cause any more trouble around here you can forget about your book signing day right now."

"Y-Yes, ma'am," the ninja murmured affirmatively, dispelling his toad partner and dropping back to the ground. He then stepped off of the ruined desk and picked it up, noting that the legs had snapped. "Don't worry, it's salvageable."

"You're still going to be paying for it," the store owner barked, turning heel and heading back to the front counter, leaving the old man to his devices.

After managing to do a quick patch job on the table and picking up all of the books he'd knocked down, Jiraiya then took a seat again and faced the boy still standing in the same spot he had been since he arrived. After folding his arms and looking the youngster over once more, the old Sannin smiled. "Well? You wanted to know exactly who I am, there you go."

"Uhh… yeah…" Naruto murmured before shaking his head. Recovering quickly from the sudden display of egocentricity, the blonde smirked and stepped forward. "Anyway, I have some stuff I want to talk to you about…"

"Stuff?" Jiraiya repeated before smirking, "You were looking for me to ask me some stuff?"

"Yep!" Naruto set his book down on the ruined table to grin with his full attention focused across at the Sannin. Once more, his excitement started to brim. "Hokage-jiji told me to be on the lookout for a man fitting your description, a big guy with white hair who could summon toads. He said that you would be able to help me out, dattebayo."

"Oh?" Jiraiya responded with a look of his own as he leaned over and propped his chin on his hand, "So the old goat told you to look for me? Why'd he tell you to do that, exactly?"

"He said that you'd be able to answer some questions for me, ones that he couldn't answer himself for some reason," Naruto exclaimed, stepping back and pulling up his jacket and top. When he did, he consciously pumped chakra into his seal and flashed it towards the person he was addressing, getting Jiraiya to blink in surprise. "Stuff about this. I think you know what he's talking about."

Quickly realizing what the kid was on about, the white haired man looked around for a moment before swiftly leaning forward and pulling the kid's jacket back down. At that exact moment a woman that had just bought a book from the store strolled right on past them, paying the two boys little to no concern while they watched her vacate the premises. Once she was gone from sight, Jiraiya turned to give the blonde haired youngster his full and undivided attention, throwing him another once over out of interest and smiling.

"So that's the case, huh?" Jiraiya murmured. Receiving an odd look from the boy, the Sannin stood up and turned towards the old lady standing behind the serving desk. "Watch the table for me! I'm taking a short break."

"Whatever. It's not like anyone's going to be touching your work anytime soon," the manager replied, going back to slapping price tags over the collection of reading material she had in front of her.

Shaking his head, Jiraiya stepped out from behind the table, grabbing the massive scroll he had propped beside it and slinging it over his shoulder. Naruto looked up at him curiously, "Alright squirt, you wanted to ask me some questions?" He saw the blonde nod. "Then let's take this someplace else. I don't think it would be a good idea to talk around this area, given the circumstances."

Smiling, Naruto nodded in understanding. "Don't worry. I know the perfect place!"

OOO

Jiraiya laughed a little when he stopped on the edge of the familiar clearing of Training Field Three, the most well-known and used training area used by Jonin to get their teams into shape. It had been used for that express purpose for years. Strolling out across the grass, he watched Naruto run out a little further and dive into a particularly tall patch, rolling around a bit before sitting up to look back at the old man following him. The Sannin couldn't help but shake his head at his antics. "He certainly has a lot of energy."

"This is one of my favorite places in the village," Naruto said happily, pushing aside the grocery bag next to him before quickly being joined by a familiar bird landing on his shoulder. The blonde glanced across at the swallow that chirped in greeting before nuzzling his cheek. "We could have gone to Ichiraku's or my apartment, but I wanted to be outside to talk today and somewhere close by where there weren't any people."

"I see," Jiraiya replied before marching over to him and sitting down as well. The pair sat across from one another and relaxed in the sun, "Well then, now that we're here, I believe you had some questions you wanted to ask me?"

"Yes," Naruto stated, placing a hand over his stomach thoughtfully before his expression became serious. Sensing the atmosphere change, even the bird perched on the boy's shoulder sat down and listened intently. After massaging the area where he knew the seal was, the jinchuriki took in a deep breath before continuing, "Here's the deal. A couple of years ago I found out that I had this weird tattoo thing on my stomach. I didn't know what it was for at first and Hokage-jiji told me not to play around with it, since I accidentally tried to use a summoning jutsu on it. He told me it was dangerous to mess around with things I didn't know much about."

"And he's right," Jiraiya stated with a firm look. "That's fuinjutsu you're talking about kid; very complicated material. You're better off staying well away from the stuff unless you know exactly how to perform techniques with them, and even if you've mastered them to some degree they can still cause you some serious problems."

"R-Right," Naruto nodded in understanding, before moving on. "Anyway, after he said he would tell me about it later I left it alone after that. It was then a couple years further on I found out that it was actually a seal keeping something locked away inside of me. I'm sure you can guess what that is…"

"Yeah, the Kyuubi," Jiraiya murmured, giving him a more intent gaze. "So how did you find out about it?"

"I found out by myself," the blonde stated, earning a surprised blink from the man. "I was asleep and I just happened to wonder into my subconscious where the fox was being kept. Hokage-jiji told me he was being kept in some pocket dimension in my stomach created by the seal, so I can't exactly tell you how I got there."

"The seals created for jinchuriki are designed so that the hosts are able to communicate with the demons sealed inside of them to a certain degree," Jiraiya stated, giving the boy the information he needed to know in that area. "It's possible for you to speak with the demons both consciously and unconsciously, since it's sort of the job of the jinchuriki to keep a close eye on their biju."

"And that's really one of the things I wanted to ask you about," Naruto interjected, giving the man a very business-like look as he steeled himself for his next series of inquiries. "Why are people given the biju and transformed into jinchuriki in the first place? Why do I have the nine tails sealed inside of me?"

Jiraiya folded his arms and smiled at the youngster. "You probably know this already, but I'll tell you anyway. The Kyuubi isn't the only biju in the world. There are nine of them."

"Nine?" Naruto murmured.

"Yeah. There are nine tailed beasts in total, and all of them are sealed inside of a select group of individuals, making a total of nine jinchuriki at any given time," Jiraiya stated informatively. "It's also common knowledge that each of the five great shinobi nations has a jinchuriki, with some having more than one. This is to ensure that there's an equal balance of power between the countries and that peace can be properly maintained between them."

"How come?"

"Well…" Jiraiya sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "This is just one of the ways the villagers look at it, but the people with tailed beasts sealed inside of them, the jinchuriki, they're viewed by them as a kind of weapon meant to serve their respective homelands."

"Weapons?" Naruto recoiled, giving a very appalled expression. He didn't like the idea of being a weapon… or anyone else being referred to as one. It reminded him of Haku's situation, but while the teenager openly called himself a tool to be used by her master, the blonde didn't exactly like the idea of the title officially being recognized on a human being. In fact he hated it.

Jiraiya nodded to the youngster with a grim look on his visage. "Jinchuriki are power houses, trump cards, soldiers that can level the playing field should push come to shove. But that's not always the case." He saw Naruto look at him more inquisitively. "Balance of power aside, any jinchuriki who manages to gain control over their tailed beast can also become a guardian of their village. They take on the role of protector and observer, at least that's the case involving the jinchuriki of Kumogakure."

"Well… at least it's better than being called a weapon," Naruto muttered distastefully. "Who made it to be like that?"

"The village leaders and the people for starters," Jiraiya shrugged. "All of this really began with the First Hokage dividing up all nine of the tailed beasts between the villages, so that there wouldn't be any squabbling over power between them. It's kind of a long story…"

"Right," Naruto sighed, giving it a bit more thought. "I guess that explains why they're sealed inside of people… but…" He looked up again with even more curiosity reflected in his gaze. This was becoming a really vexing discussion and the blonde didn't like vexing that much, "Why me though? What was so special about me that I had the Kyuubi sealed inside of me?"

"Why you?" Jiraiya repeated, rubbing his head a bit nervously.

"As far as I know, I've had the nine tailed fox inside of me my entire life, ever since I was born. I don't even remember being taken away somewhere to have the biju sealed inside of me or was told anything about it," Naruto elaborated, wanting to get the best answer possible for his predicament. Seeing as that it had had a major impact on his life and made him the boy he was today, he wanted to know everything he had to about his situation. Hell, there was so much about his past he didn't know, so he was going to take full advantage of this interrogation as the Third Hokage had been the one to instruct him to ask this man for everything he needed, and get as many facts about himself as he could. "This whole thing is confusing the hell out of me. I just want to know why I was picked… why it had to be me."

"Well," Jiraiya hesitated, trying to think up the best way to explain this. Man, he didn't think it would be this hard to explain the situation to the kid. Damn Minato for making this so complicated. If only the kid was told earlier. It would have made this so much easier to get out. Anyway, after thinking on it for a while longer, the Sannin turned back and faced the teen fully. "The Fourth Hokage believed that you would be able to gain control of the nine tails' chakra one day. He had absolute faith in you and knew he could count on you to do what nobody else had been able to do until now, and tame the demon…"

"But how did he know he could count on me?" Naruto frowned, feeling a little bit frustrated at this point. The guy was circling for some reason. That was not going to fly with him, not today. "Why did he believe in me so much that he'd just stick the nine tails inside of my stomach and lock it up? That's what I don't understand. Why me and only me?"

"Because… uhh," Jiraiya began to answer under the child's glare, clearing his throat in an effort to by himself whatever time he could. Well, there was no other way out of this one. He'd explored the avenue where he simply tried to convince him that the Fourth Hokage picked Naruto because he was special. Normally that would have flown with anyone else, but to a boy who had no idea where he came from, who he was or who his parents were, and for a fact that Naruto was more than just special in the eyes of the Fourth, Jiraiya had no clue as to how to ease into this gently. All he could rely on was the long, silent pause and the endurance of Naruto's glare until it eased up somewhat.

When he believed the appropriate amount of time had passed, Jiraiya turned to the youngster and smiled pleasantly. "The Fourth Hokage placed the burden of guarding the nine tails on you because it's a father's job to believe in their son."

Naruto was about to put up some kind of fight should the man attempt to dodge the question or answer him using the strategy where he would just repeat the same thing but dress it up to make it sound like something else. However, much to the boy's complete and utter shock, the Sannin had done neither of those things. Instead, he gave him an answer that hit him like someone just picked up a massive sledge hammer and slammed it across his face.

The impact was just monumental.

Deep inside his subconscious, the Kyuubi chuckled, "Wow… he's taking it even better than I thought he would…"

Wanting to say something, Naruto opened and closed his mouth several times, but nothing came out for the next minute or so. Jiraiya actually worried for the child and waved a hand in front of his unblinking gaze, but got nothing. "Hey, kid? Are you okay?" The Sannin shook his head and leaned closer, taking his shoulders and shaking the child slightly. "Shit… I hope I didn't break him."

Eventually, after a couple more shakes, life blinked back into Naruto's face and he looked up at the man sitting in front of him. "The Fourth… Hokage… is my father…"

Pulling back, Jiraiya smiled a bit and nodded, "Yeah, the Fourth Hokage is your old man." He then gestured over his shoulder towards the Hokage Monument, "He's practically been staring you in the face for the past twelve years. Haven't you seen any pictures of the guy in your history books? I thought it would have clicked with you earlier that he was related to you in some way from that trademark blonde hair of his."

Overwhelmed, Naruto looked back and forth between the Sannin and the stone faces he could see in the distance several times. After which, he pointed at himself, "So I'm… the son of the Fourth Hokage…?"

Jiraiya chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Are we really going to do this? Go round in circles until we both grow beards? I was under the impression that you had more questions you wanted to ask me."

Shaking his head fiercely to rid himself of whatever shock he had hanging in his cranium, Naruto folded both his arms and legs, and scrunched his face up tightly in thought. "Heh… isn't that a fucking kicker. And here I thought I was just some random orphan picked out from a lineup to be the fox's host, but no… it turns out my dad had other plans."

"Normally children who are related to the Kage in some way are selected to be the hosts for the biju," Jiraiya informed, trying to console the boy. "But just because you were Minato's son doesn't mean you were selected by default to be its new container. On the night that you were born, the nine tails somehow managed to break free from its original host and ran amok, destroying everything in sight. To avoid it falling into the wrong hands, to preserve the balance of tailed beasts between the five great shinobi nations and to make sure that you had a world to grow up in after the battle was over, Minato sealed the fox inside of you. It was an incredibly difficult decision he had to make, not just as a Kage but as a father as well. I wasn't there when the sealing happened, but from what I heard both your father and mother sacrificed their lives to protect you and the village, and at the same time defeated the Kyuubi."

Naruto looked up in awe when he heard that. "Wait… so…" He rubbed his neck and looked at the Sannin inquisitively, "Both my mum and dad… they did that?"

The shinobi nodded. "Yeah. I knew the two of them well. Of all the decisions that they could have made on that night, of all the things they could have done… I think they made the right call. Because of their sacrifice, both your father and mother are celebrated as heroes of the village, but all they ever really wanted was to be there by your side and to raise you. However, due to events that were beyond their control the best they could do was make sure you survived and could grow up happily." Jiraiya rubbed the back of his neck with a half-smile, half-frown appearing. "But I bet you must have had it tough… kid, not having them there for you when you needed them most."

The blonde looked down sadly. Thankfully the fox decided to keep quiet, showing that even a demon of pure malice and the possessor of a supposedly wicked tongue could keep his lid shut in these moments. Yeah, it hit Naruto hard learning that both of his parents were dead, but they had died fighting, doing the best that they could for both him and the village. It was their responsibilities as adults, he figured, and because he wasn't consciously there to see what had happened, he had no idea what it was like for them to do what they had to.

He'd heard the fox had gone on a rampage back on the day that he was born. October 10th. The lives of the villagers were all in danger then, so probably his parents' lives were being threatened too.

Fuck, he hated being kept out of the loop like this.

"So they died protecting me… and the village?" Naruto asked, looking up.

Jiraiya nodded, "Yes."

The boy chuckled, "Well… at least I know they loved me… right…"

"Yes, of course," Jiraiya said immediately, smiling. "I have no doubt about that. They loved you more than you can believe."

Naruto sighed and looked up, rocking back and forth on the grass while grinning somewhat. "Okay then… if my dad was Minato Namikaze… the Yondaime Hokage, who was my mother?" He kept swinging on his hinge while staring at his lecturer excitedly. "I know the Fourth Hokage was awesome, but I don't know anything about my mother. What was she like?"

Jiraiya let out a laugh and slapped his leg, looking back at the kid who seemed like he was getting his fire back after the shock. Yeah, he was upset just moments ago, but damn, he sure knew how to bounce back. "Kid… your mother was something else." The Toad Hermit chuckled as he continued on, using the best of his memories as a reference. "Now I knew your father well. I do because I was his teacher." He saw the blonde's mouth drop, but the silence gave him time enough to continue. "He was a brilliant student, the best I had. He was super talented, smart, and powerful. If I was to summarize his overall abilities, I'd say he had the potential to become the strongest shinobi to have ever lived… and maybe he did. Every village knew who he was, and there were even Kage level ninja out there who refused to face him in battle."

"Really?" Naruto exclaimed, looking on in shock. "Wow…"

"Yeah. He was a cool character, for sure," Jiraiya said with a wide grin, "Aside from being strong though, he was incredibly kind… just like your mother. In fact… both your father and mother were wonderful people. Your mother had a big heart and cared about her family dearly. She was so happy to find out she was pregnant with you she couldn't wait to bring you into this world. She was also very excitable and energetic, always on the move and always full of life. Though not as smart as your father, she was strong and used the techniques she knew exceedingly well." He then chuckled nervously when he revealed another interesting fact. "But then… there was her fierce side. Man… I don't know what it is about women from Konohagakure, but she was very scary when she was angry. She was a tough girl when she was young, but as an adult… geez… when she was pissed I watched her turn elite Jonin into pudding with her fists…"

Naruto had a bit of a nervous laugh at this and scratched his cheek anxiously. "Heh… maybe that's why Kiba and Shikamaru are so scared of their mothers…"

"Yeah. It was funny too. Aside from beating up people who annoyed her, she had this personality tick that she used to end a lot of her sentences with…"

"Oh? What kind of personality tick, dattebayo?" Naruto asked excitedly.

The Sannin snapped his fingers and pointed at him, "That! That's the one! She said 'ttebane, but that's close enough." The old man grinned. "Wow… you really do take after them…"

Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

Seeing his face, how it mirrored both Minato and Kushina's, had Jiraiya smile and pull himself to his feet. "I wonder though… are your ninja skills on the same level as theirs?" Once he was up to full height, the man folded his arms and grinned down at the boy on the grass. He saw the head of the bird sitting on his shoulder perk up and, feeling a change in the atmosphere, took flight. "You have personality kid… but what about toughness and technique? Since I'm here I may as well take a second to see what my student's son has got up his sleeve."

Confused at first, Naruto then grinned before quickly unfolding his legs and jumping to his feet right off of the floor without use of his hands. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at his flexibility and fleetness. "Careful, Jiraiya-sensei. I hit hard."

"Sensei, huh?" the old man laughed, "That remains to be seen."

Hearing this had the jinchuriki leap back quite a distance, landing with his feet planted in a firm stance while his upper body started swaying from side to side. When the Sannin saw him start to move oddly, much to his bewilderment and curiosity, Naruto began reveling at the prospects of battling with the man who trained his dad, the Fourth Hokage. If this was really the case, then he was in for one hell of a fight if all his stories and titles meant anything in the long run. The thought of it had his blood pumping.

"This is gonna be fun…"

"Don't get cocky, brat," the voice of the Kyuubi boomed inside his head, getting Naruto to frown, "This man may not look it, but he's fucking dangerous. If there is any human alive out there that can fight a biju one on one, it's this guy right here." Potential wise, yes, but there was still a small measure of distance between the two points of rumor and actually being able to pull it off.

"Really? He's that strong?"

"You're talking to one of Konoha's Three Legendary Sannin. Even your slacker teacher Kakashi wouldn't last ten minutes against this guy…"

"Well then… I'd better start this off at top gear right from the get go, huh?" Naruto grinned before beginning to pace and skip on the spot. His change of movement alerted Jiraiya to his intentions, which had the Sannin uncross his arms in preparation when he saw dust starting to kick up at his feet. "Alright, let's do this!"

Jiraiya grinned. "Are you serious, kid? You know who I am, and you want to butt heads with me? You really are just like your mother." However, before he could make any other smart ass comment on the scenario, he saw the blonde start to stomp from foot to foot like a sumo wrestler, shifting weight from side to side in an odd stepping motion before his right foot slammed into the ground and he vanished. The Sannin blinked when he saw the kid disappear right before his eyes and looked to his side. "Heh, that's interesting." In the blink of an eye his left arm shot up to guard his face, repelling a heavy blow that suddenly plowed into him.

The instant the hit landed, causing a dull thump to ring out, Naruto rematerialized out of thin air skidding back across the grass. When he stopped several meters away, he looked up in astonishment to see the Sannin staring at him firmly, as if glaring down an enemy.

The blonde shook his fist out, feeling his knuckles throb. "Man, this old guy is tough. What did I just hit, a brick wall?"

Jiraiya grinned at the shocked look on the blonde's face. "Damn kid, you're fast." He lowered his arm and turned to face him with his hands on his hips. "I should keep a better eye on you. You'd definitely give your father a run for his money, no doubt, and he was already promoted to Chunin at your age, going on to become a Jonin in the next week."

Naruto gritted his teeth and rubbed his hand. "Okay, message received. I don't stand a chance in hell against him." He guessed he'd only last about… a minute before he was officially grounded, if he was lucky. But this only gave the jinchuriki extra incentive to fight even harder as a grin formed on his face. He started to skip in place again, forming his familiar cross fingered hand seal. "I'm not done yet. Not by a long shot!"

The Sannin across from him chuckled when he saw the blonde create several shadow clones that formed a tight formation before him. When they prepared to launch themselves, Jiraiya smiled, "I can see that you and I are going to have a lot of fun together, squirt…"

Naruto grinned brightly, "Yeah. Same here…"

Without even a word needing to be spoken, his clones all charged at once…

OOO

That night…

A sharp thump rang out in Naruto's comfortable apartment when a kunai lodged itself in the back wall of his living room, the blonde haired boy smirking as he looked across at the person who threw it. His kunoichi roommate Tayuya, sitting in front of him, was also smiling with her hand outstretched as she had seemingly thrown the blade over his shoulder.

The thing was though; it was embedded directly behind where his head was positioned, so how in the world did she miss?

That answer however, was only known between the three people living in the apartment, as Isaribi was also there, watching with a slightly stunned expression from her end of the couch.

"Looks like you've finally managed to make good use of your Eiyū no Kaze (Hero's Wind) technique," Tayuya exclaimed with a grin. "As far as I can tell, you're more than ready to take the exams."

"Yeah," Naruto said before bringing his right hand up, flashing his palm and flexing his fingers. "This new move will really turn a few heads out there. If push comes to shove, my opponents won't even know what hit them."

"Good luck with that," Tayuya chuckled before resting her head on her hand. "You've got some killer techniques in your ninja handbook now. What are you going to call this one?"

"I think… I'll call it Tsubame no Mai (Dance of the Swallow). That's a pretty awesome name." He looked up at the girl sitting before him with an inquisitive stare in play. "What do you think?"

"Dance of the Swallow?" Isaribi murmured, testing the name out a few times.

It was an odd one, but in contrast to a lot of other names she'd heard, it didn't seem at all farfetched.

Tayuya repeated the name herself several times before another smirk crossed her face. "You got the idea from Swift-chan again, didn't you?"

"What can I say?" Naruto replied while shrugging, "I like birds."

"More like you like chasing them to test your speed."

"Along with many other animals," Isaribi giggled, thinking of some of the other grand escapades the jinchuriki had told her about.

"Can you blame me? I'm always up for a good work out," Naruto replied, flashing Isaribi his most dashing smile and coaxing a blush out of her before leaning forward to grin at his other roommate. "What about you, Tayuya-chan? How are your techniques now? Sharp?"

"Oh yeah," the redhead responded while bringing her flute forward and twirling it between her fingers like a staff, "My taijutsu is up to scratch and I've got myself even more long range techniques. I'm gonna knock a few bodies around at these exams, I know it!"

Naruto chuckled, "So your marionette is done, eh? Did you dress it up?"

"It? Ha!" Tayuya laughed and spun her flute again, before catching it and pointing it at him. "I've got a couple of individual models and a team of three! Two guys and a girl; all of them dressed in armor and modeled after this village's biggest trio…"

"And what trio would that be?" Naruto asked curiously.

Tayuya beamed wickedly, "The Legendary Sannin of course. I've got Orochimaru, Tsunade and Jiraiya; all their images spot on and looking fantastic, if I do say so myself." That was a surprise. So she named three of her doki marionettes she'd been making after those faces?

Since meeting Jiraiya, Naruto had gotten to know each of the Sannin's names and had also received a brief rundown on each of their capabilities, particularly the Toad Sage's. It intrigued the blonde somewhat as he remembered on his first mission outside of Konohagakure that he'd heard the name Tsunade before. It was at that time he met the pretty young lady named Shizune, who was apparently running a small errand for that person. Naruto brought that up in his time talking with Jiraiya, who explained to him who these two people were and what the 'master's' usual habit was, which made Naruto wonder whether there were any sane, powerful ninja out there in the world.

Of course, this didn't detract at all from Tayuya's choices regarding her marionette designs. However, while Naruto could understand the last two, he didn't quite get the first one she mentioned. After the stories he'd heard and the experiences he'd had involving that individual in some way, it just seemed kind of weird she'd use that particular person's face as a template.

Apparently even Isaribi was a little bit baffled by Tayuya's choice of design, seeing as how Orochimaru wasn't exactly the kind of person you would want to associate with directly, even in puppet form. However, since all three of them were essentially Konohagakure legends at one point or another, both she and Naruto decided to go along with it.

The boy chuckled as he looked at his excited companion, "Speaking of the Sannin, I met one of them today…"

The musician blinked in surprise, "You did? Which one?"

"The Toad Sannin Jiraiya."

"Get out of here! What was he like?" the redhead asked with interest.

"Oh, just like what Hokage-jiji said he was; big, flamboyant, an idiot…" Naruto then scrubbed his head before looking at the girl with a firm gaze, "And a massive pervert to. Did you know he was the one that wrote that stupid book series that Kakashi-sensei reads all the time?" He was curious and stopped by the bookshop again on the way home to find out what that was all about. It was in the adult section.

Needless to say, he was not impressed...

"No I… didn't," Tayuya blinked before frowning, "Wait… he's the author of the Icha Icha series?" Apparently the musician knew about it too.

"Yeah. Surprised?"

"More like I want to beat the shit out of him when I see him myself," Tayuya grumbled, looking over at Isaribi to see the girl staring back at her curiously. She was about to ask for her opinion on this until she was interrupted by a pained hiss from the boy, getting her to look at him again. "So… what happened between you two?"

"Well… I took the old geezer out to the training fields to talk. Hokage-jiji said that I had to see him if I wanted the questions I had answered, since everything I wanted to ask was all about the Kyuubi and the seal. So you can guess it must have been pretty deep stuff." He saw the girl's expression change from one of curiosity to one of understanding.

"Ah, I see," Tayuya nodded affirmatively. Yeah, she knew about the Kyuubi. Everyone in this village knew. It was one of the most important things Anko told her about when she was her student, and she'd found out that Naruto was its jinchuriki. It didn't concern her though. For as long as she knew him, Tayuya trusted the blonde above everyone else and knew she had nothing to fear from him. He seemed pretty cool about the whole thing himself when he found out about it, so what reason did she have to fly off the handle? Isaribi wasn't worried either, since she sensed no ill intent whatsoever from the boy and hadn't seen anything of him that would get her to distrust him. "So you talked? What did you find out?"

"Well, I found out about why I had the Kyuubi sealed inside of me, I found out who my parents were… all that stuff?"

"Your parents?" Isaribi exclaimed, tilting her head. "What else did you do?"

"Let's see. We talked, we fought, I talked with him some more afterwards, he asked me if I would like to become his student and to meet up with him for a few lessons during the Chunin Exams if I wasn't busy, we went to the springs, uhh…"

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Back up a tad," Tayuya quickly intervened before giving him a suspicious look, "You fought him? Him? The legendary Jiraiya of the Sannin? Why did you fight him?" Wasn't Jiraiya supposed to be some awesomely powerful shinobi with the strength of twenty Jonin? From all the stuff she'd heard about him, the guy was about as strong as the Hokage, maybe even stronger.

Why exactly did Naruto butt heads with one of the strongest men in the world and was still alive?

From the looks on their faces, both Tayuya and Isaribi really wanted to know.

Naruto grinned and waved at them, "Oh, it was just a spar to see if I had what it took to become his apprentice. Nothing big." He shrugged casually as he looked away and scratched his head. "It was fun though…"

At that, Isaribi quickly scrambled across the couch and stared hard at the boy's face. She was also joined by Tayuya, who crawled over the table sitting between them and glared at him, getting the boy to lean back in surprise at the sudden attention.

Looking hard at his face, the girls quickly spotted the telltale signs of damage fading away from the light, indicating that his ridiculously fast healing powers were kicking in. While Isaribi expressed concern when she saw this, Tayuya frowned and quickly flicked him in the nose.

"You got the shit kicked out of you, didn't you?"

Sticking his tongue out, Naruto laughed nervously, "Yeah…"

"How bad was it?" Isaribi asked. She had to, seeing as how it had been several hours since Naruto had met up with the old geezer. Anything could have happened in that time and she was just looking at him from the outside.

Naruto cringed a little and turned away for this part. "It started off well. I managed to get one good hit in, which he blocked… but then it all went to hell from there. I threw everything I had at him and he put me down in like, five minutes. He kicked the crap out of my clones, blocked my best hits, dodged my Jet Hand, and smacked me around when I tried pulling the basics. He pinned me in the last few seconds and I was already bleeding badly."

Needless to say, the kunoichi and the diver were worried.

"Are you okay, though?" Tayuya asked.

Isaribi leaned forward and placed her hands on his arm, a gesture that did not go unnoticed. "Do you need to go to the hospital, Naruto-kun?"

"Nah, I'll be perfectly fine by tomorrow morning. It was just a few bruises and flesh wounds, nothing to get worked up about," the blonde exclaimed, shrugging off their worries and standing up off of the couch. Hands in his pockets, he grinned at his two roommates crowding around him and gazing at him intently. "It was a good test. Now I know I'm more than ready for the exams. If I can hold my own against one of the Sannin for more than five minutes, then I know I've got what it takes to be a Chunin." He saw the girls blink before smiling at him, which he returned double. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go to the bathroom and scream in pain for a little while."

He then turned and walked. Tayuya and Isaribi noticed as he left for the corridor that he limped with each step, and that every step was accompanied by an audible, "Ow."

When he disappeared, the red haired musician sighed and shook her head with an amused smile, "Naruto-kun, you're an idiot…"

XXX

The next morning…

The weather forecast for that morning was, as the traveling convoy of Konohagakure shinobi could only describe as, perfect. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was barely a cloud in the sky. Because the distance between the Village Hidden in the Leaves and the Land of Hot Water was quite the lengthy journey, this gave the groups of Genin teams plenty of time to relax, mingle, and mentally prepare themselves for the challenges ahead. Those who have yet to participate in the exams and those who had in the past were filled with a mixture of concern and worry, even going so far as to try and make themselves look big in comparison to the other squads.

Everyone in the convoy had one reason or another to fuss about the trials of what was to be the biggest Chunin Selections Exams in history. Not only did they have other teams they were going to face, they also had people from their own village that they were going to be in contest with. Before they had even set off from the village, a headcount was taken of all the Genin that were there in the convoy, all done three at a time. This was done so in order to get the numbers of teams who would be going, because if not all three members of a team was present then the squad with the team members who were absent would get an immediate fail and not be allowed to participate in the exams. This was exactly how the Third wanted it to be played, to test the nominated teams' nerves to see which ones were willing and which were unwilling to go along with their group, in order to weed out the ones not mentally ready enough to take on the responsibilities of a Chunin.

In a way, this role check would be considered the very first test the teams had to go through.

After the count was made, it was revealed that a total of twenty-four teams would be participating in the exams, including all four of the rookie teams that had graduated earlier that year.

Understandably enough, the presence of the rookies in amongst the more experienced and older teams resulted in a lot of glares and heat being thrown their way. While this definitely got to the newcomers who were not used to being subjected to such attention, there were a certain other few who thought it would be fun to hit back. These guys included Sasuke, Kiba and Shino, all three of whom returned the glares being thrown at them full force.

However, there was an exception to this little game.

All those teams present who had previously been enjoying the silence and content of their surrounding environments passing them by in the forms of dense woodlands and wide-open expanses of grasslands, were unfortunately forced to endure the background noise being generated by two particular members of the convoy. This pretty much decimated any and all attempts to intimidate the other teams, due to the off-putting tones filling their ears.

While a majority of them had first appreciated the flute music being played by the red head Tayuya, the same majority were unable to stomach the vocals of the boy accompanying her that came with it. Due to the amount of excitement filling them and unable to keep it contained any longer, the two flat mates fell into a plethora of hit singles and duets they had been working on in their off times and sang out with all their hearts. This pretty much involved the two hanging around the center of the convoy and, in an effort to loosen the tension plaguing the squads, sang along with the music the red head had written up and was also playing on her flute.

"If this doesn't stop in the next few minutes…" Sasuke hissed through gritted teeth, hands in his pockets and a vein pulsating on his forehead as he listened to Naruto's voice flood the valley, "I'm going to have to kill myself… very slowly." His feelings were shared with Neji, Ino, Shikamaru and Sakura, all of whom were failing miserably in blocking out the voices echoing all around them.

Naruto was currently doing his own up-tempo version of Closer, and though he was a fantastic singer, something which startled his team when they learned about this ability earlier in the year, it just didn't fit the mood everyone was trying to establish.

Not at all.

This just showed that Naruto could take any situation presented to him, and twist and contort it to fit his own liking however he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Tayuya sure loved it and had no problems going along with him as she played her flute.

"You could reminisce, you could recall, the very last time you felt joy! Or maybe you walk so blessed to a point, that you can't remember anything!" Naruto sang into the kunai he was holding, pretending the ring end was a microphone. He then waited as Tayuya's flute music set him up for the next bit. "It's a harmony or miracle, being able to breathe and live at all, so here is your one and only chance, life is an opportunity!"

The pair then took a deep breath and, shoulder to shoulder, Naruto and Tayuya sang the chorus together.

"All that is near us we must know, could disappear any day, be careful! The main key to finding happiness lies nowhere else but in my soul!" Deep inside Naruto's subconscious, even the Kyuubi was tapping his finger to the beat and singing. "You know the closer you get to something, the tougher it is to see it, and I'll never take it for granted!"

While Sakura and Sasuke looked on absolutely mortified and about to pass out, the Jonin sensei on the other hand were looking on in complete and utter amusement as the duo continued to sing and dance in step.

"Well… somebody's in good spirits," Asuma chuckled through his cigarette when he saw the blonde take Tayuya by the hand and give her a twirl, while the girl played the flute one-handed.

Kurenai shook her head as well, finding their display both amazing and peculiar at the same time, "It's only ever him though…"

Kakashi gave a small laugh and eye-smiled towards his companions, "I… wouldn't exactly say that." He then pointed towards the other rookie nine and Team Gai, who were also accompanying the groups as they traversed the roads en masse.

Kiba was grinning from ear to ear along with his companion Akamaru as he listened to Naruto bellow into his 'mic' and raised a fist in exhilaration, "He's got chops!" Hinata, standing and walking alongside them with Shino also had her fingers wrapped together with a timid smile and an adoring gaze directed towards the blonde.

Additionally, joining the Inuzuka in his hollers and cheers, Lee gave the singing Uzumaki a wide 'V' sign and a massive smile, "Go for the win, Naruto-kun!"

"That's right Lee! Cheer for your comrades! Urge them to shoot for the stars, no matter the practice or circumstances!" Gai laughed out boisterously while Tenten shook her head in dismay.

"This has been going on for the past few miles. They've got to stop eventually," the kunoichi with buns in her hair groaned. It was then when she looked up to watch on a second time she saw both Lee and Kiba rush over to accompany the singing pair, and ultimately made their duet a group song. "Oh… hell…"

"One more time!" Kiba shouted, drawing a kunai, spinning it, and taking it up like a mic before joining the three in chorus, "Everybody tells you from time to time, to never give up like a phrase from a movie! They tell you to stand up for yourself, as if it was always that easy!"

"Gather a handful of courage in my heart, to go on and survive another day, and I'll never take it for granted! Let's go!"

And so the singing continued, moving from the four of them singing group songs to doing singles with the other three providing back-up for the lead or Naruto pulling the mini radio he had from his backpack and playing a continuous four-chord track of a guitar and piano they could follow. Lee started off the next collaboration of hits with a spirited yet tone-deaf rendition of Let it Be, with Kiba making a speedy recovery with Wanted Dead or Alive. Tayuya then sang Carnival Phantasm, which had everyone's spirits lift in time for Naruto's versions of Stand Out and Newsong with his own little flares added to them. This really got the ball rolling for the group and more than a few applauses in the wake of their solos.

As they walked on and Tayuya continued to play a heavenly melody on her flute, Kiba tapped Naruto on the shoulder and pointed between them, "Dude, I just got the most brilliant idea!"

"Yeah? What is it? What is it?" the jinchuriki asked eagerly.

The Inuzuka pointed towards the grinning and clapping crowds of Genin around them before taking the other boy's shoulder, "We should start a band!"

This statement definitely got the blonde's smirk to widen considerably; who also took his fellow teen's shoulder and gripped it tightly, "Of course! We should start a band!"

"We should totally start a band!" Kiba repeated, before holding his hand out in front of them to illustrate the banner headline, "I can see it now! Me on the drums, Naruto on the guitar, the guy with the massive eyebrows on the base and Tayuya on vocals, stars… millionaires!" Akamaru barked approvingly, wagging his tail under his partner's hood where he was resting under. "It's official. We're gonna be big someday!"

"And the name of our band?"

"Get this!" Kiba exclaimed, keeping his arm wrapped around his friend and making another headline. A pause for effect moment occurred before he bounced off of it like a diving board, "The Konoha Foursome!"

Naruto grinned, "I like it!"

"It's terrible," Sasuke, Neji, Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino and pretty much every other person within earshot except for the less mean ones thought upon hearing it. There were just so many things wrong with that name that they couldn't even begin listing them. Too bad the two boys and their other group members didn't get it, and probably never would over the course of the next few weeks should their excitement remain at a ridiculous high.

"Why are you guys acting like this?" Ino asked with an incredulous look, "Aren't you worried at all about the exams or the tests we're likely to face? Everyone else here is."

"Sure, everyone else is worried. It doesn't mean we have to be. Being nervous isn't really a good thing for some of us. It just throws us off our game," Tayuya replied with a smirk, twirling her flute between her fingers. "If we worried about all the things in the world all the time then we wouldn't be able to get any sleep or be able to focus properly. Whenever something big like this comes up, it's always good to just relax and not think about it too much."

Shikamaru smiled from where he was walking along, "Amen to that."

"B-But…" Sakura was about to reply for her blonde rival until she was interrupted by Naruto.

"For stuff like this, it's better to just go in with an upbeat attitude and a spring in your step," the jinchuriki stated proudly with a smile, "Otherwise you won't be able to fight at your best." This had the kunoichi look at him thoughtfully for a moment, before she turned back to the path ahead, rubbing the top of her head.

"Well… I don't want to let my team down not doing the best that I can," Sakura murmured exclusively to herself.

The convoy moved on from there with Tayuya's occasional on and off flute playing, as well as Sakura and Ino's almost frequent arguing over Sasuke, which had the Uchiha try to make himself as scarce as possible amongst the rookies. For some strange reason, probably that magnetic attraction known as familiarity, squads seven, eight, nine and ten all stuck together in the one area in the procession, whereas every other Genin team accompanying them were spread out. Even with every mile covered, the formation didn't even shift or slide. Everyone managed to keep the spaces and spots they'd secured.

It was worth noting that Naruto and Tayuya remained awfully close throughout the duration of the trip, with Tenten shimmying up on the blonde's other free side to spend some extra time with him too. The brown haired girl's team sat to her left along with their sensei Gai, whom the jinchuriki and company couldn't help but notice the incredible similarities between him and his mini-me student Lee marching alongside. Naruto's squad sat behind him, Kakashi strolling with hands in his pockets as usual and Sakura swooning over a bored looking Sasuke. Shikamaru and Choji stuck together in the background with Asuma on their six, while their more hotheaded compatriot Ino danced between them and the Uchiha, at the same time zipping through Kaede, Shiho and Genma's circle.

The man with the senbon in his mouth chuckled, "Things sure are livelier this year. There's no doubt about that." He said this while watching Ino try to jump on Sasuke's back, but was effectively dodged. "I can already see that these guys are going to be the stars of this little show…"

"Provided they make it through the first tests," Kurenai spoke up, walking a little bit closer to the bandanna wearing Genma to see him look in her direction curiously. "If they're going to be competing in the finals in front of a live audience and the rest of the world, then they're going to have to get through the first two lots and the preliminaries, won't they?"

"That would most likely be the case, yes," Genma agreed. "The proctors start by weeding out the small fry and bumping up the challenges little by little the deeper the teams go. Because this is such a grand event being held between all five of the big nations, I think the officials will forgo the preliminary rounds after the second and go straight to the third."

"There's a lot of money riding on this one, not to mention the copious amounts of tension hanging between some of the hidden villages participating," Asuma cut in, walking closer to Kurenai to smile at the woman when she turned to him. "This may be peacetime, but anything can happen while the big heads are present in the region. It'll make much more sense for the officials to move things along in order to avoid catastrophe."

"They wouldn't have held this exam in the first place if they weren't sure that the leaders would be able to suck in their prides and work together for its entire duration," Kakashi spoke up, drawing the adults' attention to him next. "Think of it as teamwork on a grand scale. All five of the big heads wish to make good on the peace agreements currently being maintained between them and want to make an appearance, to show the other villages that their words mean something more than a piece of paper. It may be a tiny step forward yes, but it definitely brings us a little bit closer to that peace we all wish to see one day."

"Does it all have to be so ideological though?" Kurenai asked, finding the talk of peace and appearances a little nerve rattling. Wars had been started between countries from the smallest act imaginable. What if something went wrong here?

She just couldn't stomach the thought.

"Not all the time," Asuma exclaimed, giving them a smirk while grabbing the cigarette wedged between his lips, "This whole thing could be nothing more than some healthy competition. You know… sport. Perhaps this is just another way of the villages showing how better the quality of their generation's youths is compared to the others…"

Five big nations; all with Genin on the line?

Yeah, there was no way you couldn't make that into some sports match with all the eyes of the world focused on the main event…

Eventually, after another hour of traversing the wide open fields of the outskirts making up the Land of Hot Water, the group finally came upon Yugakure. The big village just like any other hidden village sat down in the lowland fields, surrounded by hills and steeps that made it look like it was sitting inside of a large bowl, mixed in with forestation and strange mountainous formations across the way that could be seen from up on the ridge the convoy had arrived at. The surroundings changed so drastically and so suddenly that Kiba was unable to ignore the unexpected change in their environment becoming more humid and heated, compared to the warm embrace of the level landscapes prior to their arrival. Even Akamaru felt the change and let everyone in the vicinity know with a timid bark.

With the smell of limestone, herbs and minerals hanging in the air, it was almost like they were coming close to an active volcano…

OOO

"Uhh… would you mind repeating that for us, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, looking up at the man with wide eyes as the convoy made the final approach on the entrance of the village.

The silver haired Jonin, marching along with the rest of the teams, returned his student's question with his deceptively warm smile; one that everyone behind him knew held a true and mean underline. Though he didn't want to be thought ill because of it, he was of course an instructor and as Team 7's much adored instructor it was pretty much his job to tease his little apprentices every once in a while. Too bad that every word that was to follow after Sakura's inquisition was the absolute truth, "It is a well known fact that the hidden village of Yu no Kuni is situated right on top of an active volcanic area, a land where the lava underneath the earth's crust brushes close to the surface at various points across the valley and acts as the source of its many hot springs' heat, which is what Yu no Kuni is most famous for."

"So, what you're basically saying is," Shikamaru said, looking down at his feet apprehensively, "That we're basically stepping onto a frying pan?"

"You could say that," Kakashi replied before pointing towards the mountains on the other side of the village, right up the hill where the buildings in that direction could be seen climbing towards its ridge. "Over that horizon line sits the geyser fields, also known as the 'Boiling Lands.' My guess is that it is in that general area where you guys will be taking the second part of your exam… if you manage to get that far."

"Right," Shikamaru said, making an immediate about-face before trying to head back the way they'd come, only to have his arms hooked on either side by Naruto and Sasuke walking past him. With the odds stacked against him and two of the strongest boys from his former class dragging him on against his own will, he barely put up any sort of fight whatsoever and merely scowled disapprovingly, "Damn it…"

"You're not backing out now," Sasuke said firmly, leading the boy ahead of the rookie twelve.

"Sorry, Shikamaru. But if we're doing this, we're doing this together," Naruto added, ignoring the fact that the boy was digging his heels into the road and trying to stop himself, but was failing miserably.

"Is there any way out of this?" Shikamaru asked.

"No," both Naruto and Sasuke said at the same time.

If they were going to suffer, they were going to suffer equally as a group. Everyone pretty much expected Shikamaru to try and make a run for it in the most obvious and casual way possible, which was why the pair had stationed themselves at the back when they finally arrived in sight of the village's gates.

Anyway, after making sure that the teams were arranged back into their previous formations and that all were present and accounted for, the convoy finally stopped at the entrance to Yu no Kuni. There, the Jonin captains were met with the border guards, fellow shinobi assigned to the duties of overseers, who greeted them with bows before asking each of them to present their teams and paperwork. Each squad was required to step forward with every member asked to show their passes, the process of which only took a few minutes until all companies were through and all hundred and sixteen of them had been sighted. The collective was then escorted to the hotel that the entire Konoha contingent would be staying at, a large estate on the North side of the village away from the lodges where the other village teams would be staying.

Due to the delicate nature of the situation, Konoha, Iwa, Kiri and Kumo were kept separated while the hidden leaf shared the same district as the Suna team, as they were allies. By extension, the Yugakure shinobi in charge of escorting them warned them that they were not to interact with the foreign groups out on the streets and were to only mingle around their assigned estates at this stage.

"I assume that all of you are ready for the exams taking place at nine tomorrow?" the Yugakure Jonin officer asked as he looked back at the Konoha shinobi following him. Seeing the affirmative nods of some and the tight expressions of the other Genin had him smile, "Well then, I wish you all the best of luck. While I am aware that the previous exams have had their share of difficulties, this exam is without a doubt going to be the toughest one you'll ever face. It's not every year the big five get together to hold a prestigious event such as this, so consider yourselves lucky to be participating."

Tenten, hearing this, frowned uncomfortably, "Yeah… you don't have to tell us that."

"The exams are tough enough with only a handful of villages involved, plus two of the big ones," Neji stated, hands in his pockets and an emotionless expression in play. "I have a feeling that the competition here should be most interesting."

Choji rubbed his chin thoughtfully while looking across at his teammates, "Let's see if I've got this straight. If the other four nations are anything like the hidden leaf, then the number of people participating in this international exam will be this…" He pointed around the convoy, "Times five, plus more… right?"

"Who knows," Shikamaru shrugged, looking bored as usual. "Could be less… could be even more."

Shiho, also walking close to the groups, smiled over at the members of Team 10 while pushing up her glasses. "The number of Genin participating in each exam varies from country to country and year to year, depending on the number of entrants. Just because the other four of the larger nations are participating, doesn't mean they'll all have the same numbers as us. They could have double the number of Genin that we have or even less… maybe even only three teams out of a hundred."

"The resulting dish isn't always created through following the exact recipe spoon for spoon or cup for cup," Kaede spoke up with a sagely look on his face, "Sometimes the greatest servings are made on the fly with varying measurements, an assortment of spices and a variety of ingredients."

Ino looked over at Team 9 with a raised eyebrow, "But why in the world would you only want to have three of your village's teams participating? For an event that happens only once or twice a year, wouldn't you want to have as many Genin participating as possible to boost your ranks?"

"It all depends on whether or not Genin are ready to take part in them," Tenten spoke up, looking across at the blonde haired girl seriously. "Unlike you rookies, my team didn't take part in the very first exam to come up after we graduated. We were held back a year to prepare and gain the experience needed leading up to the next one. Gai-sensei didn't want us participating until we were ready so we all agreed to postpone until the following."

Gai nodded in affirmation, "It was a decision that had to be made. In order to get the best out of your students, the flower that is their youth must be properly taken care of and nurtured until the right moment, on the day when it would finally bloom."

"O-kay," Sakura spoke, looking at the widely grinning man with massive eyebrows oddly before turning to Sasuke and Naruto strolling alongside her. She leaned in to whisper to them, "Do you think we should have waited until next year's exams?"

Sasuke immediately shook his head, whereas Naruto smirked, "Nope. What? Did you think I would want to miss out on this?" The blonde then gestured around the village that they were walking through and to the people they were passing, taking quick note that none of them were paying them any mind. This was also a shinobi village, so it was basically a given that the villagers were pretty used to seeing ninja walking through on a daily basis. Even the guards of Yugakure they could see stationed here and there were pretty chill. "The biggest Chunin Exam in history? No way."

Sakura smiled nervously and looked back down the road, "I knew you were going to say that."

Curious as to her current expression, Naruto leaned towards her with a smile, "Are you feeling up for this, Sakura-chan?" He had to be sure. After all, it wasn't just he and Sasuke that were participating; everyone needed to be confident if they were going to play in this game.

The pink haired kunoichi raised a fist and clenched it tightly, responding with her typical, tomboyish attitude with a big grin on her face, "Hell yeah…"

XXX

The next day…

Event Hall…

The night before had seen the teams from Konohagakure spread out throughout the various rooms provided by their hotel; a massive two-story structure surrounding a large garden and coy pond. The accommodations were certainly lavish in this place, with washrooms and other facilities provided, all of which was to be expected as Yugakure was famous for being a hot spring and bath village. The ideal tourist resort. It made sense that every single institute within its walls was up to date and high class. Even the day before while the teams from the hidden leaf were walking through the districts, they'd all noticed how clean and well kept the place was. Every building was exquisitely detailed and gave off that super rich vibe you would only get from a five-star exotic location.

A lot of the team leaders made a note to hang back a little later that day to try out the springs while their Genin were away.

Anyway, after an eventless night passed, in which the teams either spent relaxing in their rooms, wandering the halls and garden or putting in some last minute preparations for whatever they were likely to face in the coming exams, the morning eventually came where all participants were then required to make their way to the main event hall. It was a multi-purpose building somewhere on the edge of the village, which was accessible via an incredibly long, winding stair case up a steep cliff. The teams had to make their way to it via that single access point in order to take part in the exams.

It wasn't easy though. Team 7 actually passed two other squads on their way up there, who had to stop due to how damn long the climb was.

"Come on you two!" Naruto called up from the top of the mountain down towards Sasuke and Sakura, whom he could see were attempting to catch up to him but had stopped at a small juncture about half-way from the last level point. While they were trying to catch their breaths, the blonde folded his arms and tapped his foot with an expression that easily said he hadn't felt anything after literally sprinting up the murderous climb in under five minutes. "What's taking you guys so long? Don't stop now! You're nearly there!"

Panting, Sakura looked up in shock towards her still energetic teammate, "You've got… to be… kidding me…"

"How much stamina does he have exactly?" Sasuke also breathed heavily, sweat visible on his face. "These steps have almost the exact same elevation as a ladder propped up against a wall. How the hell did he run up this thing?" Normally a shinobi wouldn't have a problem with something like this, since they were used to running and jumping off of walls, but this path didn't require anything like chakra or anything. This was just a steep hill meant to be negotiated with muscle and fitness.

It was just a constant climb up a mountain.

The jinchuriki waited patiently for the pair, not wanting to rush them too much since he didn't want them suffering from simultaneous heart attacks. The three eventually reunited under the main archway before they turned their sights toward the hall just up the road. There was another, smaller staircase at the foot of the entrance, which had Sakura roll her eyes at when they eventually ascended the final flight and passed through the open gates, into the hall.

"As if the other five hundred steps weren't enough," the kunoichi groaned, noticing the wide expanse of wooden floor and the massive statue hanging over another set of doors at the other end of the room. It was a large chamber that looked like it functioned like a dojo for miscellaneous organizations, with a roof that stretched high into a third story, held up by huge support pillars and railings stretching the ceiling up above. While it was expansive and could definitely hold over hundreds of people, it was actually the hundreds of people that really caught Team Seven's attention when they eventually stopped to survey the area. The sight of heads turning toward them had Sakura's jaw drop, "W-Whoa…"

Sasuke's own scowl tightened at the sight of the high number of bodies laid out before him.

Naruto on the other hand flew off the handle, grinning widely with stars of excitement and awe in his eyes, "Oh, WOW!" He was then sprung on by Sakura dropping a fist straight down on top of his head, a combination of words and actions that attracted the attention of pretty much all the Genin in the room.

"Shut up you idiot!" the kunoichi hissed before watching her teammate straighten back up and turn to her with tears in his eyes, "Do you want to get us into trouble?"

"N-No," Naruto sniffed before grinning, as if the hit never took place and adjusting the goggles around his neck. "I just like meeting new and interesting people. And there are so many here."

"Yeah, well, all the 'new' and 'interesting' people in here are shinobi from other villages, many of them still carrying grudges and alike against Konohagakure," Sakura whispered before glaring even harder. "I figured even someone like you would be aware of that, Naruto."

The jinchuriki gave her a blank stare. "So?" he shrugged.

"So? If you start something with someone here, you'll either get yourself hurt, killed, or start a world war that nobody in any of the other villages wants to fight," the kunoichi said, poking him in the chest for every point made. "Don't act recklessly here and don't draw attention to yourself."

Sasuke smirked while folding his arms. "As far as the Chunin Selection Exams go, when one of the tests starts; those peace agreements standing between us and keeping shinobi from killing each other are put on the backburner. It's basically free for all in this event." He looked at the girl to see her pan towards him with an astonished look on her face. "Didn't you know that? It was on the registration document."

Flabbergasted, the kunoichi member of squad seven tried to say something, but effectively went quiet and chose to look bashful underneath the Uchiha's gaze. This pretty much saved Naruto from further scolding, allowing the boy to step forward and go back to checking out the rest of the competition, teleporting left and right as he enthusiastically went about this task. Smiling from ear to ear, he cut from one intimidating face to the next from his position silhouetted against the main entrance, shortly before being joined by his teammates. While Sasuke looked off towards the far end of the large crowd of over a hundred Genin, Sakura inspected the headbands for herself in order to get a bead on the odds they were facing.

"Let's see… we have Kumo, Iwa, Suna… Kusa… uhh… Ame… I think," the girl exclaimed, lacing her fingers together tightly and looking worried. "Wow… there are so many… and they all look so strong." She could see the other Konoha shinobi they'd traveled here with, but most of the headbands she could see were of Iwa and Kumo.

One thing was for sure, these guys sure came here in numbers. They looked like the prevailing forces here.

Sasuke also noticed the opposing competition and smiled to himself while closing his eyes. "Numbers don't matter in this space. Though on the battlefield they are a contributing factor to victory, what really matters here is teamwork and the quality of technique." His body visibly tensed in excitement. While it was nowhere near the exuberance Naruto was currently emitting with his hopping around from spot to spot, Sakura sure noticed it from the corner of her eye. "I'm at the top of my game today."

"Well, isn't this a fine turnout," a familiar voice spoke up from behind that had Sasuke crane his head to look towards one of the support pillars. There he spotted Kiba walk out from behind it, accompanied by both Shino and a meek looking Hinata. The entire Team 8 approached the Uchiha's position and stopped before him, Akamaru's head popping out from the Inuzuka's jacket in greeting. "We've got a fantastic range of dog food from all over the world. And look, we even have some home cooked meals." The feral grin that appeared on Kiba's face had Sasuke smirk. "This is going to be fun."

"The feeling is mutual," the raven haired boy chuckled before giving his fellow former classmate a nod. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

The Inuzuka gestured to the two behind him, with Shino pushing up his glasses and Hinata tensing, "We've been training our asses off for the past month. There's no way we're going to lose."

Sakura also took note of Team 8, but before she could say anything in greeting to them, she spotted Team 10 sneaking up from behind. As she predicted, the familiar shine of bright, golden hair from one Ino Yamanaka pounced on the Uchiha from behind, the girl hiking up onto his back and giving him an affectionate greeting.

"Sasuke-kun! I just knew I'd find you here bright and early! How did you sleep?" The girl then gave him a more seductive look, while he just glared up at her in annoyance. "Did you have dreams about your beloved Ino-chan?"

"Hey!" Sakura barked, pointing at the girl hanging off of her teammate's shoulders, "Hands off, Ino-pig! A farm animal like you shouldn't even be interested in boys. Go play around in the mud or something."

"Oh, well if it isn't billboard brow," the kunoichi of Team 10 fired back while sticking out her tongue, "Advertising her presence wide and clear, as usual. Just because you've got Sasuke-kun on your team doesn't mean you've won the battle, Sakura-chan. I'm still the number one prospect on his list, you know."

While Ino and Sakura started yapping at each other in a heated confrontation, Shikamaru and Choji stood silently in the background, as if they were fixed to the scenery. While the more rotund of the two gorged on an open packet of chips and kept well out of reach of the verbal shootout, the Nara, in spite of his best efforts, was unfortunately unable to block out the various exclamations and insults flying through the air, and merely settled for just staring uselessly.

The boy with the ponytail rubbed the back of his head exhaustedly as he watched his squad mate and her rival literally and figuratively butt heads at the same time as their bickering grew. "Come on. We just got here and you're already so fired up. The exams haven't even started yet."

Hinata, concern falling over the two feuding girls, approached them with a nervous tremor in her steps. "P-Please don't fight. You're going to get your teams into t-trouble, Sakura-san… Ino-san…"

Throwing one last growl at each other, the two girls then fell back into a glaring match, hands on their hips and foreheads grinding against one another. When this failed to shake the other, they both then straightened up and looked away with a huff, putting the rest of their companions at ease. It was then when the heated display of rivalry ended that Team 9 decided to rock up, with Tayuya heading the pack and stopping in sight of the other rookies.

"Oh, if it isn't you guys," the redhead chirped, catching the lot's collective stares. "From all the screaming I could hear outside, I thought that everyone in here was already killing each other. Guess I was wrong…"

While Sakura and Ino looked away in embarrassment, Shikamaru tilted his head at the girl. "It looks like you're the last of our graduating group to arrive. Sleep in?"

"Sort of," Tayuya replied before thumbing over to the girl standing behind her. The glasses-wearing Shiho hid her face from view, blushing slightly when the Nara's eyes switched to her, "I had to carry my less athletic friend up that last run. By the way; how fucking ridiculous was that staircase?"

"It was a pain," Kiba groaned, looking across at the flute player with an irate face, "I just don't see how anyone can hike up that thing every day of the week. I nearly threw up on the tenth flight."

"We know. You wouldn't stop complaining all the way to the top," Shino spoke up in his monotone voice, glasses flashing as he met Tayuya's amused grin. "Shinobi must maintain a serious and composed outlook, even in the most stressful of situations. As you can see… it works like a charm."

The tick mark that appeared on the Inuzuka's forehead was only matched by his grinding teeth, "You know what dude; I like you better when you don't say a lot."

"That's funny. I seem to have that effect on a lot of people," Shino replied, his mouth hidden behind his high collar.

Tayuya, Ino and Shiho snickered, while Kaede, Sasuke and Sakura just smiled and conveyed their amusement with either dull headshakes or shuddering shoulders. Though the noise the collective squads were making had toned down quite a bit, they were still making quite a racket that was not going on unnoticed by the other hostile looking groups in the area. It was a fact that could not go on ignored, with the rookies quickly noticing the number of glares they were drawing towards them thanks to their little performances. The sight forced them to settle down quickly and regain their composures in order to meet the opposition.

The tension in the air couldn't have been any higher even if they tried to make it so…

When the teams eventually settled and gained a little more equanimity, Hinata then noticed something off about their current group number and looked around.

"Wait. W-Where's Naruto-kun?"

It was a good question, one that had all members of the entourage quickly look around in search for the boy in question. Moments later, following the trail of clues left behind in his wake and knowing the kind of person that he was, the entire group then turned back to the crowd to see the most amazing scene; Naruto seemingly teleporting from one team to the next like he was off his rocker and making introductions with them. Seeing him openly interacting not only with the other teams from their village but with shinobi from the other hidden villages as well had jaws drop all around. To actually see the faces of Sasuke and Kiba at that moment was priceless.

"What…" Ino choked, "Is Naruto doing?"

Shikamaru also gawked in shock, "Saying hello… I think…"

Watching Naruto bound over to the next team caused Sakura to face palm, whereas Tayuya held back a snort before falling into a fit of giggles.

"Why did I see this coming? That's Naruto-kun to a T."

OOO

"Hello! I'm Naruto! What's your name?" the jinchuriki greeted cheerfully when he appeared beneath a group of very tall and very intimidating looking Amegakure shinobi, all of whom glanced down at him in surprise.

It was obvious they weren't expecting some brightly dressed Konoha shinobi with blonde hair and whiskers on his face to appear before them like a genie from a bottle, so the shock lasted a little bit longer than expected. Eventually, the normally cool yet highly irritable bunch eventually convened silently on the matter of the child, before rounding onto him with serious looks on their scarred faces. All of them were wearing dark ponchos as well as straw hats and were carrying umbrellas on their backs, giving them very menacing appearances.

Naruto however wasn't at all fazed by them. In fact, their get-ups as well as their headbands made them appear even more interesting to the curious child, who tilted his head at them when he met their cold glares.

"I'm Nanashi, brat," the leader of the team spoke, before reaching up to grab the handle of his umbrella, "And I advise you not to get too close to me."

Naruto blinked before smiling again, "It's nice to meet you, Nanashi!" He then noticed his fingers curl around the bamboo shaft of his umbrella and pointed at it, "Hey! What's that?"

A tick mark appeared above the taller, older boy's brow, "It's the weapon I use to kill annoying little rats like you. Now if you don't shove off in the next five seconds, I'm going to use it to cleave you in two." He pulled on the handle, the flash of a blade catching the jinchuriki's attention and getting Naruto to stare in awe.

"Oh, wow! That is totally cool," Naruto exclaimed, pointing at it, "Can I have a look?"

The Ame ninja grinned menacingly. "Sure. Hold still." He then made a quick draw to bring down on the boy. He wasn't going to kill him, just cut him and scare him off. However, just as he felt the entire sword come out from the sheath and took the swing, the teenager stopped in mid-motion when he realized two things.

One; he was no longer looking at the kid.

Two; he was no longer holding a sword.

Startled, Nanashi and his teammates looked around wildly for the next few seconds before turning to look behind them, where they found the ball of energy Naruto standing behind them and admiring the sword in two hands. Those who had been watching the entire scenario unfold now appeared stunned and were staring at the blonde like he'd just sprouted a second head. Several of the groups pointed between him and the Amegakure group he had been speaking with, before finally settling on his person to see him swing the long blade around a couple of times before holding it up again, inspecting the weapon.

"Wow… so this is an Amegakure umbrella blade?" Naruto exclaimed before grinning up at the now startled looking team, "It's awesome. But isn't it a little bit rusty?"

Still staring at the Genin with wide eyes, Nanashi then blinked out of his stupor and scowled. "What? Rusty? What do you mean?"

"Rusty. As in… there is rust on it. Look," Naruto said, walking over and pointing at the handle guard where the blade met the base. The trio also leaned forward inquisitively, where they saw the telltale gold and brow flecks of degrading steel. The sight had Nanashi point and the blonde look at him worryingly, "See."

"B-But… how can…" Nanashi took the blade from him carefully before growling, "Damn it! I knew there was something wrong with this thing when I bought it! It's a cheap piece of shit! Steel like this isn't supposed to rust so easily!"

His female teammate walked up to him and patted the seething boy on the shoulder, "You should have a word with the guy when you get back home."

Naruto grinned at them, "You don't want to get into a fight with something like that. It can be a real problem if it breaks and can put your teammates' lives in danger."

Nanashi looked down at the blonde oddly, "Damn kid… and here I was just trying to get you to piss off. Why are you so cheerful today?"

"Simple," the jinchuriki said, before slipping his hands behind his head and smiling pleasantly, "Because I am. Being tense really isn't my thing. It's kind of a downer."

While Naruto made nice with the still stunned Ame trio, who started to treat him with a little more caution as well as recognition, hiding in amongst the rest of the astonished crowd in the area and looking across at the small clearing made in the wake of the blonde's little sideshow, another band had suddenly taken an interest in his activities.

Dressed in beige and grey camouflage, the small team wearing headbands with a sound note as their village's insignia stood quietly in the shadows of some of the taller competitors and was watching the blonde laugh and chat animatedly with the other groups. Understandably, they'd shown little interest in his actions and running around, initially pegging him as a weirdo with a death wish. For all intents and purposes, they had been investing more time in some of the more notable figures in the room, particularly the Uchiha who had just entered their midst with said nuisance.

However, after watching the blonde kid nearly get held at the point of the sword literally snatch it out of the boy's grip in mid-swing while making no effort to prepare himself to move whatsoever, the sight definitely had their immediate and utmost attention. To say that his almost instantaneous movements had them hooked was an understatement. To accompany their threatening glares, they also had beads of sweat on the sides of their faces as they took stock of the new information.

And here they thought that one team from Suna looked intimidating.

"Did you guys see that?" a hunched over boy with bandages wrapped completely around his head leaving one eye exposed, wearing a long khaki uniform with snake patterned scarf, pants and straw raincoat asked, narrowing his gaze.

The girl next to him, wearing similar camouflage garb, with a pale green vest and long, black hair that reached down to her knees and tied in a bow nodded affirmatively. "Yeah. What was up with that?"

"That speed and agility… I've never seen anyone besides Kimimaro move that fast before," the third member of the team, a boy with a thick khaki tunic, snake patterned pants, scarf, and head guard to accompany his black, spiky hair, replied seriously. In spite of their tough look as a squad, they couldn't help but appear surprised at the scene that had just taken place. "He managed to get behind them without anyone noticing. Even I lost sight of him for a few seconds."

"Taijutsu prowess of that level could be a big problem for us further down the line," the slouched teen exclaimed, lowering his head in contemplation. "We should keep an eye on him… and get rid of him should the opportunity present itself."

"Is that a wise move?" the Sound kunoichi asked, sounding worried. "With reflexes like that, I'm pretty sure that kid could pick up a sneak attack from a mile off."

"If we want a clear shot at the Uchiha we're going to have to take out the extra baggage first. Even the helpers pose a significant problem," the mummified Genin replied firmly, looking from the rookie Konoha troop closer to the main entrance side of the room before looking back at the rogue that had broken off from them to mingle. "We'll bide our time for now, then we… hey. Where'd that kid go?"

"Hello!" Naruto's grinning face popped up in front of him.

"What the fuck!" the mummified ninja jumped back, accidentally crashing into his partner and knocking them into another group behind them. When both half of the Sound team and half of the Konoha team behind them were bowled over, the stunned kid wrapped in gauze looked back up at the squatting blonde that had appeared in front of him in shock, "Hey! Where the hell did you come from?"

The jinchuriki saluted pleasantly with a smile directed down at the startled Dosu and Zaku, "From back there. I saw you guys crouching all the way over here away from everybody else, so I thought to myself, hey, they seem nice. So here I am." He then beamed at the two teenagers on the floor and pointed at them, "Why are you wrapped in bandages?"

Blinking, the boy named Dosu glowered, "I got into a training accident recently that prevents me from being exposed to the sun for too long. These bandages protect my skin from the rays…"

"Hm," Naruto murmured while nodding sagely. It sounded like a good story, but he didn't buy it, "Couldn't you just wear, like, tons of sun block or something? That outfit doesn't look very comfortable."

Dosu growled, "It's not…"

Chuckling at their now disheveled appearances, Naruto then turned to the still standing Kin who was looking at him rather cautiously. It was clear that she, along with every other Genin in the area had gotten quite a start when the boy just appeared out of nowhere. How he was doing that was a good question, but all he was doing was just moving speedily between groups to meet with people. Though this was just an everyday thing for Naruto, to the others who were unable to keep up with his ridiculous speed and energy, it came as a bit of a shock.

Not really noticing the effect he'd had on the kunoichi, the blonde then blinked when he got a good look at her and circled. Kin followed him suspiciously when he crawled around her like a cat, looking her up and down before suddenly standing upright. When his face popped up in front of her, she gave a startled yelp and hopped back defensively. Seeing her expression, Naruto leaned forward and grinned.

"You have very pretty hair."

Blinking, it took a moment for the girl to process his words before she blushed a little and looked back at him a little more strangely, "Th-Thank you?" She didn't know whether to feel flattered or terrified.

OOO

Over by another group of ninja, who also had their attention set on the wandering Naruto, a dark skinned girl with red hair, wearing a dark battle dress with her headband worn in her main like a bandana and a large katana sheathed on her back, watched the blonde move about with annoyance. Tapping her finger against the bicep of her crossed arms, she shook her head when she saw the Genin in orange continue to chat up the Sound kunoichi with dark hair, which resulted in the girl stammering in a flustered manner as if she were being harassed or interrogated. When her teammates eventually pulled themselves back to their feet, the boy waved them goodbye before disappearing into the crowd again.

"It looks like Konoha decided to send its craziest ninja for this year's exams," the red haired Kumo girl exclaimed before glancing at her teammates. One of them was a boy with the same dark skin color, short light hair and was also wearing a white headband around his head, with a hooded green jumper and black shorts, and also had a large katana sheathed on his back. He had a lollypop in his mouth and was moving the stick between his lips absently. The other was a blonde haired girl in an oversized grey jumper with a wide collar that slid down her shoulder and arm, which covered a pair of short, black, figure-hugging spandex shorts. "Can you believe this? It's like they're making a game out of this thing. What a joke."

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Karui," the boy spoke up with a considerate look on his face when he saw the Konoha kid in orange pop up again in front of a shocked Iwa team. "Perhaps mingling with the crowds is that kid's way of putting himself at ease. Maybe he's honestly just trying to get to know other people and make acquaintances with the other villages." He then took on a more thoughtful pose, "O-Or maybe he's a spy? Shit. A spy sent by Konoha to find out about other villages weak spots through its Genin! An underhanded play in the Chunin Exams, taking advantage of the neutral zone to…"

"God damn it. Don't start that here, you ass," the girl named Karui shouted back before clocking him over the head. "You always get carried away! It's obviously just some foolhardy kid looking to start some trouble."

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't," the blonde haired girl beside them spoke while massaging the back of her neck irritably as she observed the spiky haired Konoha wonder duck over to another team to say hi. "Try not to make such a big deal out of it. Honestly, you guys can be so loud."

While the three stood by and watched the blonde kid dart between groups, he inevitably came upon their team. The Kumo shinobi blinked when they managed to get a close-up view of him, his blonde, spiky hair, whisker marks on his cheeks, orange jacket with blue trim, short blue sleeves, and arrow marks and a pair of goggles hanging around his neck. From the look on his face, he definitely seemed like a cheerful bloke, way more pleasant looking than Karui was coming off when she looked the boy over and cringed at his appearance. The boy looked between them enthusiastically, before turning to the boy and waving.

"Hello!"

Omoi blinked, rolling the sucker around in his mouth before waving back, "H-Hey…"

"You guys look pretty cool," Naruto grinned while glancing around at them, his eyes landing on Samui who returned his grin with a small smile.

"That's because we act cool," the blonde kunoichi stated, resting her hands on her hips and propping herself into a comfortable stance before the teen. "You seem to be in good spirits this morning. Mind telling us what your secret is?"

Naruto let out a little laugh and rubbed his head sheepishly, upright again and also taking on a cool posture, "Just a lot of fresh air and exercise. I like going out and moving around. It keeps my senses sharp."

"So this is just an everyday thing for you?" Samui asked for additional info.

"Sure is," the jinchuriki nodded, looking back at the girl and panning over her from head to toe. After taking in her stature and presence, Naruto then gave another warm smile and stepped closer, leaning forward to look her in the eyes while the girl barely even moved. Apparently she was one of the only ninja in the entire room who didn't shrink away from him when he approached them. This told him she had good character. "Wow… you're really cool."

Samui smiled pleasantly, "Thanks. You're not so bad yourself."

"Mind if I ask what your name is?"

"Not at all," the girl nodded, bringing a hand up and running it back through her short hair, "I'm Samui from Kumogakure."

"I'm Naruto; resident delinquent from Konohagakure," the boy replied while straightening up, taking note of how she waved her hair out of her face. "Wow… you're not only cool, you're also really cute."

A chuckle escaped Samui's lips. Even though she felt the urge to respond accordingly she attempted to contain the blushing results of his guided flattery as much as possible, "My, aren't you the charmer."

"Hey. I'm just being honest," the blonde replied with a shrug and a gaze. "I don't lie about these sorts of things. I call things how I see them and you are definitely a cool beauty." This compliment seemed to crack the safe that was Samui's composure and managed to bring a bit of red to the kunoichi's face, who tucked some more bangs behind her ear in a clearly bashful gesture. "Normally when I say anything out of term or out loud I get clocked over the head for it." He massaged the cranium in question while looking at said teen apprehensively. "I'm not going to get clocked for it here… am I?"

Samui shook her head, "No. Not at all. That would be unreasonable of me.

The boy breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh good…"

"As straightforward as your words were, I'm deeply flattered and moved by your compliments. Thank you," Samui exclaimed with a pleasant smile directed towards him.

"You're most welcome." After another friendly exchange, Naruto then took note of Omoi and the sword he had on his back, which prompted the jinchuriki to turn towards him next. Excitement once again overtaking him, the boy gazed at the sheathed weapon in awe, "That's an awesome katana. Can I have a look at it?"

Responding to the immediate question, Omoi reached behind him and drew the sword, holding it out in front of him firmly so that the youngster could have a quick glance. "You may look, but don't touch." Seeing the kid nod, he then watched as Naruto scanned the weapon from the superb blade work to the white handle. The shine of its cold, hard steel had the jinchuriki's eyes twinkling. "I assume you like weapons then?"

"Yeah. You could say that." Naruto then tilted up to him with an excited grin, "What moves can you make with this? I bet you've got a ton of awesome techniques up your sleeve."

Omoi smirked at him, "That information is kind of secret. It'd be bad if people knew about the attacks I can use… so…"

"Oh," the blonde hummed before waving his previous inquiry off, "In that case never mind. I don't have a sword to use anyway so it would be kind of pointless. Though I think it's useful to know some kenjutsu moves then none at all, right?"

"Depends on whether you want to use a sword or not," Omoi responded suggestively.

"Meh, I dabble in it from time to time," Naruto replied, making some pointed hand gestures before slipping his hands into his pockets. "My preferred weapon would have to be a kunai or a short blade. They're fast, small and sharp, but any good sword user worth their salt could pick a whole barrage of them out of the air without any difficulty."

"You got that right," Omoi said while sheathing his large cutting blade back into its scabbard. "Judging from your tone of voice and the way you expressed that last part, I assume you've faced a swordsman before who could do that."

"Oh yeah," Naruto laughed nervously while massaging his shoulder from the memory pains, "He was mean as hell. I nearly got cut in half by him more than once."

"I can assume there's some interesting little back story behind that as well, am I right?"

Karui rolled her eyes when she saw Omoi start to have a pleasant conversation with a boy whom she quickly viewed as an enemy of their village. However, seeing Samui also nudge into their midst and start speaking light-heartedly with the kid made any kind of protests she wanted to mount mute. This was because the redhead knew that when her friends got started on something they were enthusiastic about, it was close to impossible to get them to stop. Omoi for the most part, but she never figured her group's most levelheaded ninja Samui to be quite as talkative. From the way she was smiling and making small talk about shinobi combat with a fellow blonde was proof of that.

"Heh… for some reason this brat is making everyone lighten up," Karui chuckled to herself while shaking her head. She could feel the changes in the atmosphere wherever this kid went, and she was pretty sure Samui and Omoi could feel it to. No wonder they were smiling now. Things were so tense before he arrived. "What a strange kid… he's almost like Bee-sensei. Kind of annoying…"

OOO

Sakura had her face in her hands as she just finished watching Naruto make yet another spectacle of himself with the team of Sound ninja before moving on to the next lot, and was now currently chatting with some Kumogakure Genin carrying swords. The chaos that he was causing was definitely drawing a lot of attention towards his person, so much so that the pink haired kunoichi could bet that every single set of eyes in the room was now following him wherever he was going.

The fact that she wanted their team to keep a low profile as rookies made the situation even more stressful for her, and all she could do was sulk. There was no way she was running that gauntlet like her more sociable coworker.

"Why is this happening to me?" Sakura cried as she saw Naruto, Omoi and Samui laughing from the clearing the group had made when the jinchuriki made some sort of joke at his expense. Even Karui, the steely kunoichi standing close by, could be seen smirking. "Damn you Naruto. Now everyone in the room is going to be gunning for us."

"I wouldn't say that," Shiho spoke up with a bright smile when she heard the grievances from her fellow villager. "Naruto-kun actually seems to be making quite an impression on all of them. I think he also scared a lot of the competition straight when he grabbed that Amegakure boy's sword from earlier when he tried to threaten him." She pointed at the crowds who had turned away from their group towards the blonde 'light bulb' in the center. It was worth noting that a lot of them were smiling and looking towards the kid with both curiosity and wariness. "See…"

Sasuke looked across at Tayuya to see the girl smiling at ease as she watched Naruto move through the mobs of Genin. The Uchiha raised an eyebrow, "You don't seem too worried about the dobe. Care to enlighten us?"

The musician giggled as she focused on her roommate, finding good humor in his laughs and exclamations going out across the room. "It's shithead's nature to involve himself as much as he can with other people. He doesn't care where they come from or who they're allied with; he just wants to meet and make friends." She crossed her arms and looked over at the other teams next to her. "I think it's because he's been alone for so long that he's not afraid to talk to others. Unless they're terrible human beings out to kill people, he'll use any chance given to him to chat."

Shikamaru smirked as he looked down at the floor, "Considering the situation, I think he has the right idea making nice with other villages." Did it have something to do with making connections? Was that his motive?

Probably not, since it was Naruto they were talking about.

"Boy, he seems very friendly," a new voice suddenly cut in that had the rookie twelve look in the direction of the crowd. An older boy with short grey hair wrapped in a ponytail, wearing purple garb with the Konoha headband and a pair of round glasses walked up to them, while at the same time looking towards the scene enveloping the youngster in orange. "Is he with you guys?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Ino replied, shaking her head. She then looked at the newcomer suspiciously, "Wait… who are you?"

"Oh. My apologies. I'm Kabuto Yakushi; a senior Genin from your village," the young man exclaimed brightly, at the same time pushing his glasses up his nose. "It's nice to meet you all."

"Likewise," Kiba replied before giving him an odd look, "Wait… why are you coming over to talk with us? What about your team?"

"They're somewhere back there," Kabuto replied, thumbing over his shoulder towards the masses of Konohagakure shinobi. "It's no big deal. I just came over because I thought you guys looked new and could use a little help. You wouldn't happen to be the rookie squads from our village participating in this year's exam, would you?"

"We are," Choji replied while munching on a bag of chips.

Shikamaru gave the guy a bit more of a look over. For some reason, this guy struck him as something off, but he just couldn't figure out why. "What's it to you?"

"I just thought I would give you youngsters some words of advice, since you're all still probably green to how things work around here," Kabuto exclaimed while placing his hands on his hips before turning to the crowds of Genin in the room. Since the chamber was so huge and was nearly completely full of participants, this gave them plenty of faces to individually scope out. "There are over a dozen villages participating in this exam and most of the contestants originate from the big five. I think it would do you guys some good to warn you to stay away from some of them. As you could see from your friend walking up to those Rain Ninja from earlier, some of them have a really short temper…"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that idiot," Kiba chuckled, earning a couple of yips from the puppy nesting in his jacket. "He's always like that. I bet he could survive an attacking mob if he wanted to and get all of them to like him in the end, both in the same afternoon."

"Really?" Kabuto asked in amusement.

"Yes," Sakura and Sasuke said at the same time, with dull expressions on their faces, "It's true. We've seen it." There last C-Ranked mission when they were protecting that supply cart. There was no way they were going to forget about that final fight anytime soon.

While technically Naruto was the one that had started it and beat half-to-death nearly all of those mercenaries by himself, it was no stretch to think the jinchuriki could also get all of them to have a change of heart… given time.

"It has something to do with his personality," Sakura stated with a small smile. "A lot of people seem to be attracted to it. He's like a warm fire in the middle of a cold, winter countryside."

"Well… if you say he's fine then I believe you," Kabuto exclaimed, looking back at the group. "As for the rest of you, I'm not sure if you'll be able to cope in this environment or not, but try to keep a cool head. There are a lot of experienced teams here from many villages, so you can bet the tension is quite high at the moment."

"Keeping a low profile was the original plan," Sasuke said before frowning a little, "Was…"

"Since you're a senior here, do you have any tips for us on how to stay out of trouble or anything on the other contestants?" Shikamaru asked, still feeling a little bit suspicious about the young man. Even Shino, Kaede and Tayuya were staring at the newcomer with caution, finding his good nature in this big contest involving hundreds of teams of Genin like them a little bit bothersome. Unless he was blonde and ate ramen everyday of the week then they didn't need to worry so much, but… in this case…

"Yes. I think I may be able to help you in that area," Kabuto chuckled while looking around at the group with a friendly smile. "Is there anything in particular you would like to know?" When he asked this, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a stack of cards, which had all of the rookies standing around look at him curiously.

Sasuke nodded to him, "How many competitors are there exactly, and who should we be watching out for?"

"Ah," Kabuto smiled, pulling up a card while shoving the rest back into his pocket. He then flashed the card, flipping through hand seals before tapping the front of it. After he did he then showed the group the map that appeared across the blank sheet, with both numbers and details accompanying each country. "That's easy." He then looked at it carefully, "There are sixteen villages participating, including the big five; a total of 498 participants, equaling to a hundred and sixty-six teams. There are 29 from Konoha, 24 from Suna, 32 from Iwa and 28 from Kumo. There are a varying number of groups from the other villages, and many of the teams had already taken the Chunin Exam several times in the past. It's safe to say their knowledge and experience is quite immense regarding the trials you are likely to face." He looked up at the Konoha shinobi he was speaking with. "As it turns out, you guys are the first rookies to participate in the exams in about five years."

"R-Really?" Hinata murmured, biting her bottom lip as she brought her hands to her chin worryingly. "Is that bad? T-There are a lot of strong people here… maybe we shouldn't have come."

"I wouldn't say you shouldn't take it, but there are strong people here, yes," Kabuto nodded.

It was then Shikamaru and Sakura perked at a particular note the young man had hurdled in his explanations and looked towards him in surprise.

"Wait a second, what about Kirigakure?" the kunoichi asked.

"You didn't say how many Genin from that village were taking part," the Nara stated, furrowing his brow again, "Why'd you skip them?"

"Oh, because out of the big five there are only three Genin from Kirigakure participating," Kabuto said while looking down at his card. He too seemed a little bit put off by the number and looked over the details again, "Just like the Village Hidden in the Sound, the hidden mist only has one team."

This information had everyone's jaws almost hit the ground.

"One team? Seriously?" Kiba choked before shaking his head, "That's kind of messed up, isn't it? Even a lot of the smaller villages look like they have over a dozen teams."

"Why only one team?" Kaede asked curiously, finding the idea as equally perplexing as everybody else.

"It appears that the team Kirigakure selected to take part in this exam is the best Genin squad they currently have at their disposal. The cream of the crop if you would," Kabuto informed, reading into the information a little more before blinking in surprise, "Whoa, now that's interesting…"

Choji stepped forward, "What is it?"

"Yeah… you may want to keep your distance from these guys," the young man informed before looking towards the crowds in search of the squad in question. Some of the rookies joined him in his search, each and every one of them still puzzled by his reaction.

"Why would we want to stay away from them?" Ino asked, looking around at Kaede and Hinata questioningly before panning back to the glasses wearing shinobi. "They're like every other Genin team here, right?"

"Not exactly. Unlike you band of misfits, the Kiri team's stats are pretty far out," Kabuto stated, pulling out another card and tapping it like he did the previous one. When the information appeared upon it he showed it to the kids, all of whom leaned in to get a better look, "Three members on the team, all of them possessing ridiculously high specks on their personnel charts. Their experience all around are 15 D-Rank missions, 9 C-Rank, 5 B-Rank, and 7 A-Rank."

"What? A and B-Rank missions?" Kiba exclaimed while stepping forward, "Are you kidding me?"

"H-How were they able to get such high level missions?" Shiho asked worryingly. "I thought only Jonin level shinobi were allowed to take those."

"No idea," Kabuto replied before frowning down at the card. "I don't have any information beyond that. However, I do know one other thing about their situation. Because this team was officially confirmed by their village to be participating in this year's exams, every other Kiri team who also wanted to take part in it immediately backed off. Out of the twenty potential candidate groups, only one of them showed up."

"Th-That's kind of creepy," Ino murmured. Her companions shared the same sentiment.

Who the hell were these guys and where were they right now? If they were able to scare off the other teams from their village and keep them from participating in this year's Chunin Exams, then each and every one of them must be something else…

OOO

"Karin, knock it off. Why are you shaking so much?" a Kusagakure Genin hissed towards the red haired girl standing behind him. Their team was sitting somewhere in the middle of the crowd, pretty much blending in with the other squads and trying not to draw any attention to themselves.

Their team consisted of two boys and one girl, all of them wearing regular tunics and unremarkable looking uniforms, which meant they matched the rest of the beige wearing shinobi perfectly. However, one of the members of the team stuck out quite a bit from the other two and that was mostly because of her bright red hair, which acted like a beacon in the room of brown and black hair colors. Even so, none of the other contestants were really paying her any mind as they were currently focused on the blonde kid running around them.

But this didn't have their focus fixed, as the kunoichi of the team named Karin was unable to stop herself from shivering like a leaf and putting her teammates off.

Gripping her friend's shoulder, the girl looked around with sweat on her brow and a terrified look in her eyes.

"I… I can't help it," she stammered, her grip tightening and causing her male teammate to wince at the pressure, "Th-There are so many powerful people in here… e-especially four of them."

"Really? Which ones?" the boy asked.

Karin then pointed towards the blonde talking to the team from Kumo. "That one. He has a warm blue chakra that radiates off of him like the sun. I shouldn't be too worried about him, but he has so much of it it's staggering… not to mention a massive amount of dark chakra deep inside of him that I can't even begin to describe. Then there was that boy from Suna we saw earlier." She shivered at the memory when the kid and his squad came in close proximity of her group, "His chakra was cold and he reeked of blood. There is also two more standing on the other side of the room against the wall… both of them powerful."

"Wait… do you mean those guys from the Kiri team?" her other teammate asked, looking up and through the mobs of Genin searchingly. "They didn't seem like much…"

"Trust me. The boy in the long robes didn't look like anything special but he had a powerful chakra. The girl next to him on the other hand… I haven't felt such an individually potent and strong signature in my life," Karin shook in fear. "It's exactly the same as that blonde haired boy's aura… but hers… it wasn't warm or cold… it was dangerous…"

"It was like I was standing next to a raging storm…"

OOO

Over towards the right from the entrance, three Genin around a year older than the Konoha rookies wearing Kirigakure headbands and firm expressions on their faces, stood or sat up against the wall with their eyes locked onto the crowds in front of them. While it was true they were a part of the five great shinobi nation's circle, a country that was pretty much a force to be reckoned with out in the world, in here where numbers apparently ruled supreme, there were only three of them and hundreds of other shinobi from Iwa, Kumo and Suna glaring them down.

While the latter two the team had little problem with, it was the flocking former that gave them something to grind over. The history between Kirigakure and Iwagakure was known all around to be an incredibly rough one, filled with underhanded plays, hardships, wars and betrayals. While Iwagakure pretty much had beef with everyone there, it was the hidden mist village that they held the hardest grudge against, which became glaringly apparent by how teams of stone ninja started to converge on the lone Kiri trio.

Any other team outside of the equation could only stand by and watch uselessly as the fast approaching slaughter of the three teenagers slowly came into view.

For some strange reason though, the group didn't seem to be worrying about the amount of killer attention they were receiving at all. In fact, all three of the Kirigakure ninja were pretty calm.

There were two girls and one boy on the team. The first and most notable one was a girl around Naruto's height, with fair skin, a killer figure with a sizable chest for her youth, and was wearing a bright yellow, figure-hugging spandex uniform. The top had long sleeves with a cut midriff showing off her taut belly and a pair of short-shorts, both pieces with the same black stripe going down the sides. She had a cute face, bright blue eyes, and a huge head of hair.

Seriously, that was a lot of hair. Think of the end of one of the nine tails' tails. It grew all the way down to the back of her knees, was wild and slightly curly, was tied into a ponytail, and get this… it was blonde. She had so much blonde hair she could shave it all off and share it between an army of Narutos. She was currently standing there checking her nails.

The boy on the team was a young man wearing a light blue, loose fitted kimono with long sleeves, wrapped around his waist in an orange sash, and was wearing ninja mesh under it. He had short brown hair barely reaching his shoulders, with a large portion of his bangs covering the left side of his face, revealing pale golden eyes. Around his waist he had a pouch on the back, a kunai holster strapped to his pants leg, and a box carrying some miscellaneous equipment slipped into the front of his sash. He also had a golden pipe in his hand and was randomly blowing bubbles from it, sitting cross-legged in between his teammates.

The third and final female member of the team was a teenage girl around Sasuke's height, with a curvy athletic figure, a blue pair of tight jeans that rode down a little, complete with pouch on the rear and kunai leg holster, and gauze sheets wrapped around her chest being her only top, revealing a lot of her frame. She also had on a large, white samurai robe which she had draped over her shoulders and hooked like a cape with light blue trim. Not only did she have a gorgeous face with sharp eyes, she also had long orange hair that grew down to her lower back that was curly, wild and free flowing. Like her fellow kunoichi she was also on her feet, but she was leaning against the wall with her eyes shut.

They didn't seem like much, but they were definitely a diverse team that currently had a lot of people's collective attention.

While they stood quietly on their own, the Iwa shinobi advanced. Within moments, about nine of them had come to surround the group on all sides, cutting them off from any assistance and getting all three of them to look up at them. Two of the teams were young adults, while another was a young team who looked like they just wanted to flex their muscles to intimidate the rival village.

"You guys from Kiri sure seem lonely over here," the boss of one of the groups, a large young man carrying a war hammer on his back exclaimed with a menacing grin. "By our estimation, there're only three of you from your village participating in these tests, am I right?"

"Seriously, only three?" his teammate barked out in amusement, "What a joke."

"Isn't Kirigakure supposed to be representing one of the five great shinobi nations, one of the most powerful villages in the world?" another of the Iwa Genin asked, looking around at his smirking companions before approaching the mist ninja to leer at the shorter, blonde haired kunoichi. "If that's the case, then why are there only three of you? Don't tell me your village is running low on shinobi. That would just be… ooh… terrible." He leaned in to such proximity that his head nearly butted the girl's forehead protector, but she didn't budge an inch.

The trio said nothing, and chose just to stare silently at the antagonistic mob.

"You three do realize where you are now, right?" the big boss asked again, folding his arms and marching forward a tad more, "You're in the Chunin Selection Exams; the biggest one to be held and probably the only one that will ever be held between every single hidden village. All of the nations here have sent in their best of the best to participate in this event, including Iwagakure. We've got close to a hundred Genin taking part, all ready to become Chunin… but you guys." He grinned and shook his head at them, "Only three?"

"This is a huge insult to the other teams participating," another boy said while punching his knuckles together. "Did Kirigakure seriously believe that only three of you would be able to take on a hundred of our best on your own?"

"Huh? Is that true? Or were they too cowardly to send in anymore and just put you guys up for the slaughter?"

The Kirigakure squad remained silent.

In spite of all the insults and threatening vibes being sent their way, they chose not to say anything. Whether this was some way to come off cool or an attempt to avoid a confrontation no one knew, but in the end all their silence resulted in was the big boss getting more pissed and drawing the huge hammer from his back. The stone mallet slammed into the floorboards, cracking them with a massive 'bang' that had all eyes in the room look in their direction. Even Naruto disengaged from his conversation with Samui to see what was going on.

The boss Iwa Genin stepped up to the one blonde haired girl standing ahead of her group and glared right into her eyes. "Well? Say something why don't you, Kirigakure scum!" He held up a fist up and cracked his knuckles right next to her cheek. "Your shinobi killed my father during a trade with one of the islands years ago. He was jumped immediately after the exchange was made with the villagers and your people cut him down without warning or provocation. I think it's high time you bastards got what was coming to you!"

The girl wearing spandex blinked as she gazed into the man's furious eyes. After several moments of silence, in which the crowds stepped further forward to either listen or intervene, the girl then smiled pleasantly before her lips turned into a full blown grin. She then pointed up at the larger boy and giggled, "You're funny!"

At that, every single jaw in the circle dropped, minus the Kiri Genin who continued to face down their opposition without a care in the world.

"W-What?" the Iwa teen choked.

The blonde kunoichi then turned to look over at her companion up against the wall, "Hey Tsubaki-chan, this man is pretty mad at me? Did I do something to upset him?"

The orange haired one named Tsubaki shrugged while smiling coolly, "It's probably because of your yellow outfit, Kiyoko. Honestly, your clothes are an eyesore of a color. Why don't you swap them out for something more distinguished?"

Frowning, the girl in the bright tights glared back at her teammate with a miserable twitch in her eye, "Hey! Yellow is awesome! Why is everyone beating on the yellow?"

The boy sitting between them sighed as he tapped against his bubble blower irritably, "I don't believe that that is the main problem here, you two." He looked up at his ditsy companion with a frown. "The problem here is that these Iwagakure shinobi are here to try and intimidate us, as well as to settle some unresolved grievances from their pasts that we, as individuals, were in no way responsible for."

"Oh! Is that it?" Kiyoko exclaimed before smiling back at the stunned Iwagakure shinobi gawking at her. "If that's the case, then everything should be fine here." She then held up a hand in a playful wave and tilted her head cutely, "I'm Kiyoko by the way, Kiyoko Yorozu. Nice to meet you."

Unable to comprehend the complete brushing off of the subject that he had been addressing moments earlier, the large Iwa ninja looked back at his friends for help. When all he got were six lifeless shrugs and head shakes, he gritted his teeth before cutting back towards the Kiri group to glare aggressively at them. The sound of grinding teeth and heavy weight being moved as he dragged his hammer across the floor echoed throughout the chamber.

"Didn't you hear me, bitch?" the young man growled while lifting his weapon up to hold in his two hands. "I said that your shinobi killed my father, and countless other men and women from our village, all for the benefit of your own." He pointed at the three teens and paced back and forth, before stopping in front of the still seated, lone boy member of the squad. "I've been waiting to get back at the sons of bitches responsible for my father's murder, but since those guys are nowhere in sight, I guess you three will have to suffice. Stand up and face me!"

Feeling the shadow cast over him and the irate breath of the infuriated Genin wash over his form, the boy seated on the ground sighed and stood up. When he did, he looked the man in the eyes, despite the fact he stood two heads higher than him.

"I do not wish to fight you," the teen said calmly.

"And why not? Your village is famed for raising born killers; shinobi who pursue their targets relentlessly and don't ever give up until either the deed is done or they're killed in the conflict. Where're those bloodthirsty demons now?" the Iwa brute shouted, his friends coming to stand on either side of him, all of them looking ready for a fight. "Certainly not here from what I can see."

"That's because you're confusing me with someone else," the teenager replied with a firm gaze and level voice. "Your hatred at your father's killers has instilled the belief in you that all of my fellow Kirigakure brethren are coldhearted murderers who butcher families and stab fellow shinobi they are allied with in the backs. While it may be true that shinobi from my village did kill your father, it may not have been out of spite or loathing. In this world, the main profession of a shinobi is the completion of the mission that they are assigned and nothing more. Because we are shinobi, it is a prerequisite that as soon as the orders are given to you; the individuals assigned to the mission must be prepared to sacrifice everything to see that it is completed, even their lives." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Do not confuse business with personal pleasure. I hold no grudge against you or your people, nor should you to me, as I have done nothing in my life to warrant such aggression."

The man growled and stepped towards him, "Does it look like I give a fuck who you are?" He brought his fist back and slammed it across the boy's face, sending him into the wall behind him. When he crashed against it, the staggered boy managed to hold his ground, yet was unable to hide the trickle of blood that came down from his lip or the bruise on his cheek. From the point of view of the stunned crowd, they saw the Iwa Genin crack his knuckles and fume at his target. "You wear the headband of a Kirigakure shinobi and perform missions on behalf of your trash hole of a village! It doesn't matter if you're my father's killer or not! To me all you Kiri ninja are the same!" He lifted his hammer and advanced on the Genin. "I don't care if I get disqualified for this! I'm killing you three right now! BOYS!"

The other Iwa ninja pulled out their weapons and prepared to lunge at the three teenagers. However, as the male member of the Kirigakure team was pushing himself up again to confront his attacker, a swish of a white kimono coat suddenly blocked his view of his enemy when, without warning, his orange haired comrade stepped in between him and the enraged Iwa Genin.

While the act surprised the bubble-blowing Genin, Tsubaki's appearance did nothing to stop the head of the Iwa group, who brought his hammer up and prepared to drop it down upon her, intent on taking her out in one hit.

However, just as the boy was swinging his weapon in a glorified arc, the bored looking Kiri kunoichi standing clear in his sights simply raised her right hand and stretched out her index finger, before ever so lightly poking him in the chest. While at first the Iwagakure shinobi surrounding her thought her move to be a pathetic attempt to stop their hulking leader, what happened next not only stunned them but everyone else in the room.

A loud bang like a shockwave rang out, the force of which rattling the very foundations of the facility when, all of a sudden, the attacking Iwagakure Genin was blasted off his feet and sent rocketing across the floor like he was fired out of a cannon.

Hit by what could only be described as the force of a horse's kick slamming into his chest, like a projectile the gang leader smashed into his fellow shinobi gathered up behind him before plowing straight through them, and the dozens of other Genin standing in his way. He literally bounced across the chamber's solid floor several times before slamming into the wall on the other side of the room, which was a descent sixty meters away.

What he left behind in the wake of his flight was a line of fallen, groaning Genin in a crowd of speechless onlookers and a stunned audience. When everyone saw the big Iwa boy collapse to the floor after being embedded in the back wall, where he then lay and did not move for the next several minutes, the teams of scattered ninja turned back to look at the one responsible for the sudden human body ball.

The Iwa squads previously moving to attack the Kiri Genin gawked at the orange haired girl, who simply stared across the room with her finger still outstretched. The sight of her clothes blowing on a light breeze had audience members not part of the scuffle gaze in admiration.

"Holy hell," Kiba muttered.

"What the fuck just happened?" Tayuya asked, looking around at the other bewildered rookies.

The members of Team Gai hidden within the crowd had also caught a good view of the events, and now had their attention fixed squarely on the girl. While Tenten looked on in concern and bewilderment, Lee and Neji were glaring seriously at the orange haired kunoichi, as they could now sense a dangerous aura wafting off of her person.

"This one," Lee thought with a tightening glare.

"Is strong," Neji finished unintentionally.

Noticing the shocked stares from their other attackers, the cool Tsubaki then turned her attention to the rest of the Iwagakure band and raised the same hand she was still holding out a little higher and extended all of her fingers. She then rotated her hand slightly and hardened her glare.

"On your knees."

In a split second, the Iwa shinobi suddenly felt a prickly sensation overcome their bodies and, shouting in pain, felt their bodies drop as if thousands of tons of weight had overcome them.

The eight of them then began twitching and writhing on the floor, the agonizing sensations they were feeling increasing tenfold as the orange haired girl lowered her hand even more and focused her glare harder. Under the cries of agony, the Kiri kunoichi frowned.

"You attacked my teammates. You'll pay for that," Tsubaki stated, her fingers tightening and the screams of the twitching Iwa shinobi increasing in volume. The bloodcurdling hollers had cold chills run down everybody's spines, all those in the vicinity quickly backing up in fear when the girl glared up at them and blasted the crowd with killing intent. "Don't take our village or our shinobi lightly. Just because there are only three of us here, doesn't mean we will let you step all over us. If you cross us, if you make it your mission to come after us, if you dare try to attack me or my comrades out of some petty, unresolved conflicts, mark my words… I will end you."

When she got terrified stares and silence as her answer, Tsubaki nodded before suddenly dropping her hand, relinquishing the Iwa Genin from their retribution. Though it was only for the briefest of moments, people in the audience swore they saw a flicker of wires snap through the air before vanishing.

Gasps of relief filled the silence as the punishment was lifted from the three antagonistic teams, leaving them in states of aftershock and delirium. The orange haired Kiri ninja then turned and looked towards her comrade, who was currently being checked over by a worried Kiyoko.

"Are you alright, Utakata?"

The teen nodded, giving his companion assurance that he was okay while nursing his swollen jaw. "Yeah… thanks for that…"

Within the masses of nervous Genin now looking in the terrifying Kiri team's direction, a particular squad from Suna was giving the three a more considerate overlook. Amongst them, there stood a tall boy wearing a black uniform with a hood that made it look like he had cat ears, had purple war paint covering his face, and a wrapped up bundle slung onto his back. Accompanying him was a girl wearing a purple tunic battle dress that dropped down her shoulder, revealing a fishnet uniform underneath, her headband tied around her neck, and a massive war fan folded on her back. She had golden blonde hair tied into four separate pony tails and a tomboyish face. The last of them was a young boy with reddish-brown short hair, a kanji symbol painted on his forehead reading 'love', black rings around narrow eyes, and was wearing dark robes with a sash going over his shoulder, his headband attached to his arm, and a fishnet uniform like his teammate.

After seeing the performance made by the Kiri team, the feelings between them changed into a mixture of caution, curiosity, and contemplation.

"That one has a bit of bite to her, huh sis," the older boy with the face paint chuckled.

The girl in question furrowed her brow while resting her hands on her hips. "Clearly she's no ordinary ninja. Since there's only one team from Kirigakure participating, you can assume that all three of them are strong. I bet that boy just let that idiot from Iwa slug him because he didn't want to be the one who fired the first shot. Even I could have dodged that."

"No doubt," the older boy chuckled again while glancing towards her. "It doesn't matter though; we're still going to crush them all."

"Temari… Kankuro," the smaller one standing in front of them murmured, glancing up at the pair to see them freeze, "Be quiet."

Leaning away a little, Temari raised both her hands and made an 'easing' motion with them. "R-Right. Sorry… Gaara…"

Message received by his siblings, the boy with red hair then turned back to glare at the Kiri team, his eyes fixing on the orange haired girl whose gaze was quick to meet with his. A tense silence then fell between the Suna youngster and the kunoichi from Kiri and, even at the distance they stood at and despite the amount of people between them, a tense standoff occurred. After a full minute of glaring, sizing the other up and trying to psych the other one out of it, Gaara furrowed his brow and tapped his finger impatiently against his bicep.

For some reason, the voice of his 'mother' whispering inside of his head was telling him not to mess with the orange haired woman he was currently looking at. It was like the entity could feel the amount of power radiating off of her.

Strange…

With both matters settled, Tsubaki then turned back to the crowd, intent on returning to surveying the Iwa shinobi now crawling away from her until she was suddenly confronted by a bright light. Well… it wasn't so much as a bright light as it was a mop of spiky blonde hair that bobbed into her line of sight, an occurrence that was as equally glaring. Much to her surprise, Tsubaki was unexpectedly confronted by the beaming grin of one Naruto Uzumaki, who after seeing the 'fight' that just went down, immediately dashed over to say hi.

"Wow! That was awesome!" the jinchuriki exclaimed, startling both Tsubaki and her teammates. "You just blew that guy away and took him out with one hit! How did you do that?"

Stammering, the orange haired girl looked back at the newcomer strangely, "Uhh… I just… tapped him with my finger."

"Really?" Naruto blinked, tilting his head in puzzlement, "Man. That was one hell of a tap." He looked down at his own hand and twiddled his fingers. "I wonder if I can do that."

Tsubaki fell back into silence as she looked down at the odd looking boy, who then moved his attention from her to Utakata standing at her side, and then to Kiyoko. The jinchuriki took his time surveying all three party members before stopping in front of the girl with long, blonde hair, both of them looking each other over from head to toe before meeting the other's eyes again. Once a curious silence passed in which the crowds had their attention fixed back onto the Kiri team and their visitor, both Naruto and Kiyoko smiled.

"Nice hair," the jinchuriki exclaimed.

"Right back at you," the girl chirped.

Both of them grinned in unison… before the unthinkable happened.

"A one, a two, a three!" Naruto clicked before beginning to sing, "Dooby-Dooby-DOO! Yeah-yeah-yeah!"

At that, both he and the girl began to sing and bust out dance moves of the ridiculous kind one after the other, "You're looking mighty fine there honey, oh yeah, foxy laaa-dy! A-hey-hey-hey! Yeah! Come on up onto the stage with me! I've got some moves that you've just gotta see! City boys may call me a country hick! They may got money but they ain't got…YOW!" They bounced across on one hand, did the moon walk together, spun and did the shuffle.

"Oom poppa! Oom poppa! Oom poppa! OOOOM!" Kiyoko finished, before both she and Naruto finished with the peace sign, "Blondes rule, yah fool!"

"Too true. The world is made of love and peace, yo!" Naruto finished, before both of them turned to each other and gave each other a freeze-frame high five. "Yeah!"

The moment the pair's performance ended, every single person in the chamber with the exception of Tayuya and Kiba, who were just laughing their asses off, and Gaara, who was impassive as usual, face-faulted with a ground shaking crash.

From her crumpled up position on the floor alongside her other landed Genin, Sakura looked up with an outrageous expression glaring and canines showing, "THEY'RE BOTH IDIOTS!"

The moment her cry fell over the now silent chamber, the massive doors at the end under the guardian statue suddenly opened…

TO BE CONTINUED…

---

Author's Note: And the Chunin Exams begin ladies and gentlemen.

Naruto meets up with Jiraiya before the exams as expected, but unlike before, due to a change in circumstances, Naruto learns who his parents are much earlier. Yeah. No beating around the bush for two extra years and leaving the audience in suspense. He went out to find answers and got them. You would think he would be asking as many questions about his parents as much as possible in the series and find out who they were earlier, but the author never did that, which I thought was strange.

The Chunin Exams are in Yugakure, the land of hot water. I have an awesome series of events lined up and I've already finished writing the exams and am moving on to the next arc.

A couple of things besides the usual shenanigans, sticking to the formula of my story Naruto's little music number at the end. I wanted to write that ever since Master Roshi's intro as Jackie Chan during the first world tournament in Dragonball when he and Goku were singing and dancing to the crowd, which I thought was hilarious and would just make the scenario playing out in the hall more of a shambles.

A third jinchuriki in the exams as well, I think you can guess who that is, and he has a team of his own. They're two more OC's that I wanted to introduce for the purpose of the story (and I believe two of the last three if I'm counting right), both have special abilities I was inspired to design them with from two characters in One Piece, but their personalities are completely different. I'll let you guys try and guess what those abilities are. Kiyoko, wearing an outfit similar to Bruce Lee's in his last film and has Naruto's cheerful disposition, and Tsubaki, the cool member of the group with an unusual ability. Yeah, I've got a lot more surprises in store for this fic.

And with the Chunin Exams underway, time to slink into the first and second events in the next chapters.