Hi no Ishi, Scroll One: Kannabi
Full Summary: As Orochimaru and his allies threaten to topple Konoha, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke are becoming the leaders of their generation. The question is, will they survive the Daiyonji Ninkai Taisen or end up like the previous Sannin – broken? AU diverging at the Chuunin Exams. FemNaru because I can. Team 7-centric.
A/N: Hello all. Here it is, finally. Unbetaed cause I wanted to post this for y'all. I'll post the betaed version when Pancake of Epic Proportions is done. Thank you for all your support and reviews!
Disclaimer: I got everything I wanted for my birthday except for the ownership papers to Naruto.
Glossary
Hi no Ishi – Will of Fire
Kannabi – Where the Gods Do Not Help
Daiyonji Ninkai Taisen – The Fourth Great Shinobi World War
Kerakukei – Chakra Coils
Gejimayu – Centipede Eyebrows. What Team 7 calls Lee until they find out his real name – and what Naruto continues to call him anyway.
Baka – Idiot
Ura – Reverse
Hai – Yes, Sir
Iryoujutsu – Medical Techniques
Kikaichu – Destruction Bugs
Forever the damned endure.
-Konoha ANBU motto
Chapter Eight: I Will Not Bow
Kakashi immediately caught the faint sound of a hawk's shriek as he idled away from his meeting with the genin element of Team 7. Those particular types of hawks were trained to fly to certain people and were used as invitations to meetings in the Hokage's office. He disappeared in a puff of smoke a moment later, teleporting to the Hokage's office.
When he wandered in, only twenty minutes late, the present shinobi were already discussing the upcoming Chuunin Exams. 'It's that time of year all ready?' Kakashi blinked.
"How kind of you to join us, Kakashi," the Sandaime remarked dryly.
"Well, you see, I kind of got lost," Kakashi said cheerily, not bothering to look up from his book. Snorts and disbelieving sighs echoed throughout the room. He ignored them easily.
"As I was saying before, the Chunnin Exams will commence two days from now on the first of July," the Hokage said. "I'll start with those that are mentoring the rookie genin. Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, do any of you wish to nominate your teams for the exam? You probably already know this, but your teams must have completed at least eight missions to be eligible for the Chuunin Exams, however, twice that number is recommended. Let's start with Kakashi."
Kakashi closed and pocketed his book. "I recommend Team 7, consisting of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto for the Chuunin Exams under my name."
Beside him, a woman with red eyes and slightly curly black hair stepped forward. She wore purple eye shadow and a unique dress made of white bandages with a single red sleeve. Her right arm was wrapped in bandages. "I, Yuuhi Kurenai, recommend Team 8, containing Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino for the Chuunin Exams."
Asuma, a bearded chain smoker with black hair wearing the typical jounin attire, was next. "I recommend Team 10 – Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino – for the Chuunin Exams."
Immediately, the muttering started.
"All three of them recommended their teams!"
"It's been several years since rookies have appeared in the exam…"
"Please wait a moment!" somebody shouted.
Kakashi turned slightly to see his student's former teacher, Umino Iruka, stepping out from the crowd.
"What is it, Iruka?" the Hokage asked.
"Please let me speak, Hokage-sama," the chuunin pleaded. "I may be overstepping my bounds, but the nine genin just nominated were my students six months ago. They are all talented, but it is much too early for them! They need more experience before they enter the exam!"
"I was a Chuunin six years before any of them became genin," Kakashi murmured, his voice colored with irritation. Every single member of his team was ready for this exam.
"They aren't like you!" Iruka protested. "Are you trying to ruin them?"
"Iruka-sensei, I can understand where you're coming from," Kakashi interrupted.
"Kakashi, stop it," Kurenai sighed.
"Don't interfere!" Kakashi said, ignoring Kurenai. "They are no longer your students. They are soldiers under my command."
"But the Chuunin Exam is-! I still can't agree with this! They may be under your command now, but they were once my students! I know them well!"
"Iruka is right, you know," a jounin with thick eyebrows and black, bowl-cut hair said as he stepped forward. He wore a green spandex jumpsuit underneath his jounin vest. "It isn't that easy. You're in too much of a hurry. I made my team wait for a year so they could gain more experience. Wait until they enjoy their springtime of youth a little more."
Kakashi snorted. "They may screw up occasionally, but in the end, it will be your team that's biting the dust, Gai."
"Stop this immediately," the Hokage ordered tersely. "The rookies' jounin-sensei have recommended them for the exams. They will be permitted to take the exams. That is final. I will now take the recommendations for the non-rookie teams."
"That's one obstacle down," Kakashi said.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Naruto struggled to keep her eyes open as she slouched against the railing of the bridge. 'Fucking overgrown, rabbit-eared, yellow-bellied, bastardized sonova-!' she ranted mentally, cursing the Kyuubi and the damage his chakra had done to her kerakukei.
"You have such a mouth for a young lady," Kyuubi commented from within her head.
'Who's the lady-? Wait - WHY ARE YOU IN MY HEAD?' Naruto demanded.
"Your contact with my chakra allowed me to forge a connection between our minds, among other things. At least this way I can warn you when you're about to fuck up like you always do."
'Among other things?' Naruto raged. 'You're not one to call me a fuck-up – you're the one that got sealed in me in the first place!'
"Don't remind me, brat! Do not forget who the superior between us is! I will not be your tool or your weapon to show off as you wish! I can break our contract at ANY TIME I WISH, so show some respect, you piece of shit!"
'Touchy aren't we?' Naruto sneered.
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME YOU-!"
Experimentally, Naruto slammed a wall of pure will between her mind and the Kyuubi's. Thankfully, it worked, allowing her to descend into merciful silence once more.
"-ruto! Naruto! Hey, are you listening to me?" Sakura demanded.
"Huh?" Naruto replied intelligently, only bothering to open her eyes halfway.
Sakura sighed irritably. "Geez, Naruto. If you're sick or whatever, you should just take the day off."
"I'm fine," said Naruto shortly.
Sasuke snorted in disbelief from his position behind Sakura.
Naruto was saved from further interrogation by Kakashi's arrival. "Hello!" he greeted with his usual half-fake cheer. "I got lost on the path of life today and…"
"LIAR!" Sakura interrupted.
"Anyway," Kakashi said once the Haruno had calmed down, "this may come as a bit of a surprise, but I've recommended the three of you for the Chuunin Exams."
"Say what?" Sakura blinked in disbelief.
"Good one, sensei, that almost worked," Naruto snorted, her tone clearly sarcastic.
Kakashi ignored them and brought out three applications. "You have to fill these applications out. Of course, the choice of competing is entirely yours. If you choose to take the exams, report to room 301 at the Academy at 16:00 tomorrow. Well, that's it!"
He disappeared with a puff of smoke a moment later.
'Optional, eh?' Naruto thought. 'This could be a good chance for me to improve my skills and test my fighting abilities against opponents besides my teammates and random bandits. I'll sign up.'
"Thissounds like a good chance for all of us, don't you think, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.
"Hn."
"I knew you'd agree! Naruto, you're going to enter too, right?"
"Somebody's gotta make sure you don't get your asses killed."
"If we're going to take the exams, we need to do research first," Sakura commented. "We need to know what these exams are really about and who we're up against."
"Naruto, do you think you'd be able to get into the official files for the incoming teams?" Sasuke questioned.
Naruto went through the floor plan of the Hokage's office in her mind before adding in the guard rotations and trap locations that she had memorized over the years. "It would be possible," she admitted finally.
"I'll go see what these exams are really about then," Sasuke said. "Sakura, you'll need to prepare some stuff for us. Bandages, soldier pills, and the like."
"Consider it done," smiled Sakura. All of them disappeared with a swirl of leaves a second later.
0o0o0o0o0o0
"I wonder where Naruto is," Sakura frowned. "She's usually so adamant about being on time." The blonde was five minutes late, which was really nothing compared to Kakashi, but Naruto always showed up on time. She wasn't ever early, but she wasn't late either.
"Right behind you."
Sakura started violently in surprise at her missing teammate's voice. She turned around immediately and a grin broke out across her face as she saw Naruto standing behind her, hands in her coat pockets. "Naruto!" she chirped, "We were worried about you!"
Naruto shrugged carelessly.
"Naruto, what did you find?" Sasuke asked, interrupting Sakura's forthcoming rant.
"There are a lot of countries involved in this set of exams, more then there normally are. All of the main countries except for Kumo have sent genin to take the exams. Taki, Oto, Kusa, and Ame are also participating. I've memorized the information on the foreign teams that might give us a problem and written down everything else. The proctor for the first exam is Morino Ibiki – he's the head of the T & I branch of the ANBU, by the way - the second is Mitiraishi-san, and the third Gekkou Hayate."
"Good," said Sasuke. "From my research, it seems these exams are basically a replacement for war between countries during peacetime."
Sakura's eyes widened. 'A replacement for war?' she repeated mentally. 'What-?'
"The true purpose of the Chuunin Exams is to test the strength of a county's shinobi. If one country does well, more missions will come in and the village will prosper. If a village does badly, on the other hand, they will get fewer missions. Basically, these exams are battles for prestige and honor – and we are the warriors. People have died in these exams."
Even Naruto fell momentarily silent at these words.
"There are three tests. The first is a test of your mental skills, the second puts you under a simulated mission in dangerous territory – say, the Shi no Mori for example. The third is a tournament where the people that pass the first two exams fight each other in front of spectators from visiting countries. Depending on their performance in the tournament, people may then be promoted to chuunin. While it is, in theory, possible for everybody to become a chuunin, it is also possible that nobody will become a chuunin."
'This all sounds so dangerous,' Sakura thought. 'Are we really ready for this? Am I really ready for this?'
"Sounds like fun," Naruto added, grinning slightly now.
"Either way, it will be easy," Sasuke added calmly. "We're good. We'll win this."
Sakura couldn't help but share some of Sasuke's confidence. If he thought they could do it, then she would do her best for both of her teammates. "So what's our game plan?" Sakura asked.
This time, it was Naruto who answered. "Since you two were among the best in our year, you'll attract attention from everybody, so it might be best if you basically flaunted your strength – it might keep some people from messing with us. Especially you, Sasuke. And then there's the group from Iwa…" Naruto's jaw clenched as she grit out the last part. "They might recognize your surname, Sakura."
"What about you, Naruto?" Sakura demanded worriedly. "I mean, Iwa thinks they completely wiped out the Uzumaki Clan. What will happen when they figure out what your surname is?"
"That's why I'll be doing my best to stay in the background. But if they come looking for a fight, I will not back down," Naruto answered tersely.
"Naruto," Sasuke muttered, "whatever happens, don't be an idiot."
"What on earth are you talking about, Sasuke?" Naruto said innocently. "Cautious is my middle name."
Sasuke snorted disbelievingly. All three of them entered the Academy doors through unspoken agreement only a second later.
0o0o0o0o0o0
"Hah! Is somebody as talentless as you really considering entering the Chuunin Exams?" a boy with spiky black hair snorted.
His partner, also male, snickered, "Heh, you said it!"
The genin that the duo had knocked down, a black-haired boy with thick eyebrows, a bowl cut, and a green spandex jumpsuit, stood up as his teammate, Ryuusei TenTen, stepped forward. "Please let us pass," TenTen pleaded.
Sasuke frowned as the spiky-haired one knocked TenTen to the floor. 'Is this really the TenTen Sakura keeps talking about? Something's not right…'
Sasuke activated his Sharingan momentarily to confirm his suspicion. As he thought, TenTen was casting a genjutsu that gave the illusion of bruises her and her teammate's faces. They were probably doing their best not to attract attention, although that might be hard, since their third teammate was a Hyuuga dressed in beige and black.
"You should be grateful!" the spiky-haired one said. "The Chuunin Exams are incredibly hard. We would know, because we've all ready failed three times. There are some people who finished the exam and then left life as a shinobi. Some were crippled. Some were reduced to vegetables in a coma. Also, chuunin are the team leaders. The responsibility for failed missions and dead teammates lies solely on their shoulders. And yet despite all this, you brats have the nerve to reply? We're just skipping a step by weeding out the weak ones beforehand."
Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who nodded back. Naruto rolled her eyes and made a waving motion with her hand towards the two people blocking the door.
Sasuke and Sakura stepped forward, Naruto trailing behind them. "That's good in theory," Sasuke commented as he made his way through the crowd, "but you might as well drop the genjutsu. My team has business on the third floor."
"So you figured that out, at least," the boy on the right said.
"You were the first to notice, right Sakura?" commented Sasuke. When his pink-haired teammate looked at him in slight shock, he continued, "You have the best genjutsu abilities on our team."
Sasuke did not miss the faint blush that spread across Sakura's cheeks, but he chose to ignore it all the same.
"But that's not enough!" the one on the left finished as he dropped to the ground and began a sweeping kick towards Sasuke. Sasuke angled his own kick so it would pass over his opponent's easily. However, his leg was halted by the boy in the green jumpsuit that had been kicked around earlier. Gejimayu had stepped in between Sasuke and his opponent and caught both of their kicks with only his hands.
'The hell?' Sasuke thought, 'That guy's really strong. It's almost like he's a completely different person from the one who was getting beaten up a moment ago.'
"This isn't what we agreed to, Lee," the Hyuuga scowled. "You were the one who insisted we not draw attention to ourselves.
"B-but…" Gejimayu, now known as Lee, protested, a slight blush spreading across his cheeks as he looked towards Sakura and held up a clenched fist. Sasuke's imagination almost added miniature flames burning within Lee's eyes, but he crushed the image before it could take hold.
Lee walked up to Sakura, a cheery smile tugging at his lips. "Hi!" he greeted, giving Sakura a thumbs-up. "I'm Rock Lee, and you're Sakura, right? Will you go out with me? I'll protect you with my life!"
Sasuke shuddered at the light glinting off of Lee's teeth as the spandex-wearing genin grinned.
Sakura's jaw looked as if it had come unhinged. "Hell no!" she screeched. "You're way out of line!"
Immeadiately, Lee's expression fell to resemble that of a kicked puppy. "S-Sakura-san…" he whimpered.
"You with the black hair," Lee's Hyuuga teammate said suddenly. "You're a rookie, correct? How old are you?"
Sasuke smirked arrogantly. "None of your business, Hyuuga," he snorted. "Sakura, Naruto, let's go. I think I'm catching stupid."
Naruto snickered at the Hyuuga's irritated expression while Sakura hurried up to follow Sasuke.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Sakura blinked when Naruto suddenly stopped and looked up towards the roof, where a sort of observation deck extended from the stairs to the third floor. Following her teammate's gaze, Sakura saw that the green-clad genin from before was standing on top of the deck.
"Hey you with the dark hair!" Lee called. "I challenge you to a test of strength, here and now!"
Both of Sakura's eyebrows rose at that. 'Is he some kind of idiot?' she wondered. 'Everybody knows how strong the Uchiha Clan was, and challenging somebody who is either your equal or your better just before an exam is not exactly logical...'
It was then that Lee jumped down to land in front Team 7. "My name is Rock Lee," he said, introducing himself again. "Among sticklers, etiquette demands that you introduce yourself before asking for the name of another…Uchiha Sasuke."
"So you knew who I was all along," Sasuke snorted.
"I'm calling you out! I want to test my techniques against the last member of your legendary clan. And besides…"here Lee trailed off, blowing a kiss towards Sakura.
Sakura shuddered in disgust. "Keep your kisses to yourself, Gejimayu!" she snarled. It was a bit creepy to have a guy she just met – and a very, very odd one, at that – hitting on her.
"Hey, don't be like that," Lee pouted. He rendered a kicked puppy voice very well, Sakura noted.
"You're challenging me, even knowing of my clan? In other words, you're a fool," sneered Sasuke. "Gejimayu, do you really want to learn what it means to fight an Uchiha?"
"Absolutely!"
"Prepare to lose," Sasuke smirked as he slipped into his fighting stance.
"Sasuke-kun, stop! We only have twenty minutes until the exams start!" Sakura warned.
"This will only take five minutes," said Sasuke cockily as he raced towards Lee.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura snapped. When the Uchiha didn't respond, she demanded, "Naruto, do something!"
But Naruto was sitting on the floor fiddling with one of her seals and ignoring Sakura completely. The Haruno didn't even bother yelling at her blonde teammate; she knew it wouldn't make any difference.
Sakura scowled. 'It would serve him right if he lost,' she thought irritably.
"Konoha Senpuu!" Lee called as he leaped off the ground and sent a lightning-fast spin kick towards Sasuke. Sasuke managed to duck Lee's first kick, but he was forced to block the follow-up. Sakura was deeply shocked when Lee's kick connected.
'What? But I saw Sasuke block that!' she thought.
This time, when Sasuke stood up, he had activated the Sharingan, allowing Sakura to notice that both of his eyes had two tomoe now.
Sakura smiled as her confidence in Sasuke was renewed. 'With the Sharingan, whatever ninjutsu or genjutsu this Lee guy used to get past Sasuke's block will be revealed and copied. Even if he is a year older then us, Lee will have a hard time winning.'
But when Sasuke and Lee clashed again, Sasuke was sent flying upwards by a precise, perfectly-preformed kick to his chin.
Sakura gasped in shock. 'But he was using the Sharingan! If he couldn't see through the technique, then Lee must just be using taijutsu!' She bit her bottom lip as Lee carried out a seamless Kage Buyo with what appeared to be no effort at all. 'Lee's way better than any of us gave him credit for.'
"That's right," Lee said from his position behind Sasuke. "No ninjutsu. No genjutsu. However hard you may find it to accept, my moves are purely taijutsu. While it's true that your Sharingan is an amazing ability against ninjutsu and genjutsu with their hand seals and chakra manipulation, taijutsu is another matter entirely. While you may be able to copy and predict my movements, you do not have the strength or speed to use or block my techniques. In other words, your specialization in ninjutsu and genjutsu and mine in taijutsu make us a complete mismatch!"
With that, Lee began to unravel the bandages on his forearms.
'What's he up to now..?' Sakura worried. The Haruno glanced nervously at Naruto, who hadn't so much as twitched the whole time. 'Ugh…'
Suddenly, a pinwheel, of all things, flew out of nowhere and pierced through one of Lee's bandages and pinned it to the wall. Lee was rendered unable to move and had to drop to the ground. Sasuke did the same, looking slightly worse for wear and more than a little shocked.
"That's enough, Lee!"
Sakura turned around to see that the speaker was…a turtle? 'Must be a summon of some sort,' she reasoned when she saw the Konoha hitai-ate tied around its neck. The turtle was an odd shade of yellow-orange and it had black spirals on its shell.
"You know the rules! That move is strictly forbidden!" the turtle barked.
"Please forgive me, I was only…" Lee groveled. "I never would have used the Ura,"
"Baka!" snapped the turtle. "Do you think I care about your feeble excuses? I hope you are prepared for Gai-sensei!"
Even Naruto had looked up from her seals to watch the odd dialogue with an expression somewhere between confusion and disbelief.
A cloud of smoke erupted from the turtle's back, signaling some sort of summoning. An older version of Lee wearing an unzipped flak jacket as well as the green spandex suit and orange leg-warmers appeared in a most disturbing pose. It might have been considered provocative – on a supermodel, anyway – but when the older Lee slipped into that posture the result equaled permanent mental scarring. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto all wore similar expressions: dropped jaws and eyes as big as dinner plates.
"H-he's got even bigger eyebrows!" stuttered Sakura.
"And the same hairstyle…" Sasuke muttered.
"One of them was bad enough," grumbled Naruto.
"Hey! Don't insult Gai-sensei!" Lee yelled.
"Lee!" Gai called as he held out his hand, still keeping his hips in that disgusting angle.
"Wha-? Oh, hai!" the younger of the two spandex-wearing shinobi said.
When Lee was close enough, Gai lashed out with a strong punch. "Baka!"
Gai kneeled down on the floor in front of where Lee had landed. "Lee," he sniffed, beginning to cry fat tears.
"Gai-sensei," Lee answered, beginning to cry himself.
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
The two shinobi latched on to each other in a passionate man-hug. If it was even possible, Team 7's jaws dropped further and their eyes stretched wider.
"I understand! It's because you're young!" Gai cried. "It's all right Lee, the Springtime of Youth and mistakes go hand in hand!"
"You…you are to kind, sensei!"
"But I can't let your attempt at rule-breaking go unpunished. Your punishment shall be administered after the Chuunin Exams – fifty laps around Konoha!"
'Fifty laps around Konoha?' Sakura thought in disbelief. 'That's like two hundred kilometers!' "They really must be crazy…"
"I can agree there," Sasuke said dryly.
"By the way," Gai said, looking up, "how is Kakashi-sensei?"
"You know Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura blinked.
"Do I know him? Heh…" chuckled Gai.
And just like that, he was gone. One second he was standing next to Lee and the next he was gone, vanished into thin air. Something hit the floor behind Sakura with a small thud, and she realized that it was Gai from the glaringly bright green she could see out of her peripheral vision.
"Some would call us eternal rivals! The score stands at fifty to forty-nine. I'm stronger than he is," Gai boasted, giving the genin a thumbs-up.
'How the hell did he get behind us?' panicked Sakura. 'He says he's stronger then Kakashi-sensei and I don't think he's lying!'
/Calm down,/ Naruto signed.
Sasuke took no notice of Naruto's signals as he stared at Gai like what he had done was impossible.
"As you can see, Gai-sensei is totally amazing!" Lee declared. The genin of Team 7 ignored him.
"I know Lee started this fight, but for my sake, please forgive him," said as he tossed a kunai towards the pinwheel that held Lee's bandage to the wall, knocking it down. "You guys and Lee should head up to the examination room now. Good luck, Lee!"
After he had finished speaking, Gai disappeared in a puff of smoke.
As Lee finished rewrapping his bandages, he said, "By the way, Sasuke-san, I was lying before. The real reason I challenged you was to test my own strength in combat. And I am not the strongest of the Konoha genin…that would be my teammate, Hyuuga Neji. I entered this exam to take him on and prove myself to everybody. You're on my list too, so be prepared."
With that, Lee walked up the stairs and towards the examination room.
"Looks like that hot-shot Sharingan of yours isn't everything, huh, Sasuke?" Naruto teased.
"Shut up," grumbled Sasuke. "I'll beat him next time."
"You and what army?"
"Naruto!" Sakura reprimanded.
As always, the Uzumaki ignored her. "You saw his hands, same as me. Those scars and calluses are from training hard, day after day. That Gejimayu has worked harder than you ever have in your life, Sasuke. Being a genius isn't everything."
Indeed, Sakura had seen Lee's hands, but she had passed them off as an injury from a mission.
Just then, a full-blown smirk spread across Sasuke's face. "These exams are turning out to be interesting, aren't they?" he said.
"Yep!" Sakura smiled.
"Tch…" Naruto snorted in what both of her teammates knew to be agreement.
"Well then, let's go," Sasuke declared, his eyes full of new-found determination.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Naruto looked up in surprise when she felt the comforting feel of Kakashi's chakra tickle at her senses. 'What's he doing here?' she frowned.
"I'm glad to see all of you made it," Kakashi drawled as the three genin turned the corner.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'all of you'? Weren't these exams a personal decision?" she asked.
Kakashi shook his head. "These exams can only be taken by three man teams. If any of you had been missing, I would have stopped you from entering here. I didn't want any of you to feel forced into this decision."
'I should have known Kakashi-sensei would come up with something like this,' Naruto thought wryly.
"But you all came, and I couldn't be prouder of you. Now go in there and show them not to fuck with Team 7," Kakashi completed.
He was answered by a determined smile, a dark grin, and a cocky smirk. Then Kakashi disappeared with a cloud of smoke, allowing his students to enter the room.
The three genin automatically slipped into the delta formation that had been drilled into their heads, Sasuke at the lead.
"H-holy shit!" Sakura stuttered out once the door had closed behind her. She was staring wide-eyed at the large crowd of shinobi in the testing room. There were people of all sizes, ages, and nations in the room. The only feature that all of them shared was a mean look in their eyes.
The only sign of Naruto's shock was the fact that she blinked. 'Seeing this many people on file and then entering a room with all of them in it is quite a different experience,' she noted.
"Sasuke-kun! I've missed you so much!"
Naruto let out a quiet sigh at the sound of Yamanaka Ino's screech.
"Ino-bunta!" shrieked Sakura. "Get your filthy hooves off of Sasuke-kun!"
"Hello to you too, Sakura. Still hoping that the mutant forehead look will come into fashion?"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
Ino's teammates, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji, walked over to the group. They had looked much the same as they had at the Academy. Ino was another Sasuke fangirl, but she was clever and deceptive. She would likely go on to work in T & I or infiltration due to her clan's specialties. Shikamaru was a genius with strategies – but he was lazier then, well…then anything Naruto had ever seen. Chouji was something like the brute power of the team: his clan's taijutsu attacks were definitely nothing to sneeze at.
"There you are!"
Team 8 walked over from the left. Inuzuka Kiba, the shouter, was in the lead, his dog perched on his head as always. Hyuuga Hinata, the shy heiress of the Hyuuga Clan, stood to his left, and Aburame Shino, also an heir, stood to Kiba's right. "Looks like the gang's all here," smirked Kiba.
"Including you, unfortunately," Naruto said dryly.
Kiba wisely chose to ignore her. "Looks like all three of this year's rookies decided to apply. I wonder how far we'll all get. What do you think, Sasuke?"
"Trying to psych us out by acting tough, Mutt?" Sasuke snorted.
"Who needs to pretend? The way we've trained, there's no way you'll beat us!"
All of the members of Team 7 snickered simultaneously at that. Naruto walked forward so that the rest of the rookies could see her clearly. "That so?" she asked, smirking saucily.
"Hah! Of course! Not even a team with an Uchiha on it can beat the combined abilities of a Hyuuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka!" crowed Kiba.
Naruto's smirk turned positively predatory. "We'll see about that, won't we?" Mentally, she added, 'And the combined powers of a Haruno, Uchiha, and Uzumaki can kick your asses six ways to Sunday.'
"You know, you guys should really quiet down."
This time, the speaker was somebody Naruto didn't recognize. It was a silver-haired boy maybe fifteen years old. He wore circular glasses, a sort of black-and-beige outfit, and slightly longer than average ANBU-style gloves. Naruto vaguely recognized him as Kabuto, an adopted member of the Yakushi Clan, which specialized in iryoujutsu.
"You guys are all rookies, just out of the Academy, all wet-behind-the-ears and runny-nosed," Kabuto observed. "This isn't a class field trip, you know. Open your eyes and look behind you."
Naruto twitched slightly at Kabuto's disrespectful address, but calmed herself with the thought that she probably would have said something similar. She couldn't deny that the nine rookies had been talking loudly – probably too loudly. Following his suggestion, Naruto glanced over her shoulder to see a group of Amegakure shinobi glaring at the nine genin. They were letting off a bit of killing intent, but she was able to shrug it off rather easily due to her encounters with Zabuza and Haku. The killing intent of a group of genin was nothing compared to Zabuza's.
"Those are Amegakure shinobi, as you probably know," Kabuto explained. "They're known to have very short tempers. Everybody's tense now, at the beginning of the exam, and I thought I'd warn you before somebody decides to screw the rules and beat the stuffing out of you. But then again, it's probably unavoidable, seeing as how you're rookies. I remember what it was like. My name's Kabuto, by the way."
Everybody had quieted down significantly. Finally, Sakura asked, "Kabuto-san? Is this your second time taking this exam?"
"Well, no. It's my seventh," admitted Kabuto. "Since these exams happen twice a year, I've been entering for almost four years now."
"So then you have a lot of experience, right?" Sakura said.
"Pretty much," Kabuto replied, smiling a smile that Naruto wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
"Yeah, that, and he sucks," Naruto muttered. She really, really didn't like this guy.
"Naruto!" Sakura snapped.
"No, no, she's right. I'm more suited to iryoujutsu then anything," Kabuto said sheepishly.
Naruto's suspicion of the boy only deepened. He was too damn polite for his own good. But at the same time, he was incredibly rude. He was open and cagey. He was an oxymoron, a complicated and aggravating puzzle.
Naruto didn't like people she couldn't understand. They tended to complicate life. Her life was built on a careful balance of lies, half-truths, and buried secrets. A balance that, if upset, would open a can of mutant worms and questions that she didn't want to answer.
"I think I'll share some information with you cute little rookies," Kabuto smirked as he pulled out a large stack of green cards that had the kanji for shinobi emblazoned on them.
"What are those?" asked Ino, her infatuation with Sasuke at least temporarily forgotten.
"In short, they are cards that have information burned into them using my chakra. This information can only be seen when I mold my chakra into the cards. I have four years of information in this deck."
Kabuto flipped over a card and pushed a small amount of chakra into it. A map of the Shinobi Nations faded into view. Along the bottom were the symbols of each village and how many genin they had sent to the chuunin exam. Three-dimensional chakra-holograph bars stretched from the center of each country, representing how many competing genin belonged to that country in a visual fashion.
"This map shows how many genin each country has sent to these chuunin exams," Kabuto added.
Naruto wondered how Kabuto had gotten his information. She had to break into the Hokage's personal files to get what she had – and that was something that was most definitelyillegal. She would've been thrown in prison for something like ten years if she had been caught. She had been able to get the files she wanted without being caught because she had been doing such things since she had been five and was therefore rather confident in her infiltration and stealing abilities. It made her wonder who exactly this Kabuto was. She had a hard time believing he was the genin he was pretending to be.
"Do you have any cards on individual shinobi?" Sasuke asked.
"Well, though my information is far from complete, I did create a set of cards for this year's applicants – including all of you. Is there anybody in particular you're looking for?"
"Rock Lee."
Kabuto nodded and pulled a single card out from the deck before showing it to the rest of the group. "Rock Lee is a year older then you guys. He has completed twenty D-Ranks and eleven C-Ranks. His teammates are Ryuusei TenTen and Hyuuga Neji while the team's sensei is Maito Gai. He has no known kekkai genkai, and his genjutsu and ninjutsu skills are horrible. On the other hand, his taijutsu is close to jounin level, and his weapons skills are nothing to sneeze at."
Naruto snapped back to attention when Kabuto mentioned Lee's taijutsu skills. 'Close to jounin, huh?' It wasn't completely impossible. Lee had certainly proved himself to have taijutsu skills well above her own, and she was the best at taijutsu on her team. She would have to be careful of him.
"Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Taki, Kusa, Ame, and Oto have all sent the best of their genin. There isn't a lot of information on Oto since they're relatively new and small, but the rest of the villages are well-respected and strong. Everybody here is like Lee. They're handpicked, the best genin in the world. They have to be – this test is pitiless!" Kabuto finished.
"Th-this is starting to sound really h-hard," whispered Hinata.
"Don't worry about it! We'll kick everybody's asses, no matter how strong they are!" Kiba boasted.
Although she didn't voice it, Naruto had no doubt that her team would complete the exams, even if they weren't promoted. Kakashi's harsh training had insured that.
Out of the corner of her eye, Naruto saw three blurs heading towards the group of rookies and Kabuto. She sent a pair of quick glances towards her teammates to see if they had seen it as well. They had. Sasuke's hand slipped closer to his weapons pouch while Sakura's fingers danced lightly upon the hilts of her swords. Naruto retracted the fingers of her left into her coat, making contact with a seal that held dozens of poisoned senbon. The poison wasn't of the sort that would seriously injure or kill somebody, but it would serve perfectly as a warning not to attack again.
The first shinobi to attack was a boy, perhaps a year older then Naruto, with spiky black hair and a kind of face protector protruding from his hitai-ate. He wore a snake-skin patterned scarf and pants as well as a white shirt that read "death" three times and black arm warmers. His boots were standard issue. Wannabe Death Boy, as Naruto dubbed him, threw two kunai at Kabuto with average speed. 'Nothing to worry about there,' thought Naruto.
All of the genin managed to easily dodge the kunai. But it seemed that the kunai were just a distraction making way for Wannabe Death Boy's teammate, Weird Straw Coat Guy. Weird Straw Coat Guy was wearing the same thing as his teammate except for the shirt, which had replaced the death characters with a vertical black stripe, and an unusual straw raincoat attached to his back that earned him his nickname. Weird Straw Coat Guy took full advantage of Kabuto's distraction by coming closer and pulling up his right sleeve to reveal a something that looked like an amplifier or speaker attached to his arm. Weird Straw Coat Guy then threw a reasonably fast right hook at Kabuto, who dodged it by ducking and edging backwards slightly. It was obvious that Weird Straw Coat Guy would be a more difficult enemy then Wannabe Death Boy.
However, only a moment later, Kabuto's glass lenses shattered and fell out of their frames. 'There must have been some sort of trick to that attack,' Naruto thought, already beginning to assimilate possibilities in her mind. When Kabuto threw up a second later, the possibility that Kabuto's nose had been glanced during the attack was eliminated. 'Kabuto threw up and his glasses broke. Together, such things point to some form of vibration. Destruction of part of the inner ear would cause Kabuto to lose his balance and then throw up. Weird Straw Coat Guy has an amplifier on his arm, so maybe it produces a pitch of sound that can't be heard through normal means? Then why didn't the rest of us feel the attack? It must have been chakra-guided, somehow…'
/Sound,/ Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto all signed simultaneously. Various forms of amusement slipped over their faces when they realized that they had all come to the same conclusion at the same time. Naruto was willing to bet that Sakura, who had an unhealthy obsession with deadly objects, had thought of a weapons similar to Weird Straw Coat Guy's amplifier. Sasuke, on the other hand, had probably cheated with his Sharingan.
A girl with long black hair and matching eyes stepped up to stand beside Weird Straw Coat Guy and Wannabe Death Boy. The only difference between her outfit and the boy's was her top, which was padded armor, vaguely similar to what Konoha ANBU wore. Naruto named her Obscenely Long Hair Freak. According to their hitai-ate, all three of them were from Otogakure.
"Pretty sad for somebody who's been an applicant for four years, huh?" Wannabe Death Boy remarked smugly.
"Says the wannabe badass," snorted Naruto as she walked over towards Kabuto. "You'd be better off playing dress-up with mommy, y'know."
Naruto felt Wannabe Death Boy's killing intent soar up a couple of notches. "You okay, Kabuto?" she asked.
"I think so…It doesn't seem like that attack did too much damage," Kabuto replied, that too-nice smile on his face again.
Naruto nodded. If he said it was fine, she wasn't going to waste her chakra healing somebody she didn't really trust. Even if he was a Konoha-nin.
"You'd better add this to those cards of yours: the team from Oto are all going to make chuunin this exam!" Wannabe Death Boy boasted. He was promptly ignored.
"Shut up, you worthless bastards!"
A large cloud of smoke appeared in the front of the room just as a lot more chakra made itself known to Naruto. Perhaps fifteen Konoha-nin, probably chuunin-level and higher, were revealed when the smoke faded. They were wearing the gray uniforms of the ANBU T & I Unit. At the front was Morino Ibiki, tokubetsu jounin and head of the T & I Unit, feared throughout the Shinobi Nations as a man who could make anybody talk.
"I apologize for forcing you to wait," Ibiki said in that forbidding, terrifying tone of his. "I'm Morino Ibiki, the chief proctor for this section of the exam. Oh, and you brats from Otogakure! You can't just go around doing whatever the hell you want here. Or do you want to be disqualified?"
"Sorry, sir. It's our first exam. I suppose we got a little carried away…" Weird Straw Coat Guy drawled.
Ibiki snorted, clearly disbelieving Weird Straw Coat Guy's excuse. "From this point on, there will be no fighting without permission from the chief proctor of the exam. Any of you little piggies that break that rule are gonna be eaten after your houses have been blown down. No second chances."
"So this is a test for girly little fags?" Wannabe Death Boy jeered.
The members of T & I snorted. Naruto was tempted to join them.
Ibiki ignored him and explained, "The first section of the exams is about to commence. When you turn in your applications, you will be given a seating card. Go directly to your assigned seat. Do not pass go. Do not collect two thousand ryo. When everybody's seated, we will pass out the written part of the test."
Naruto smirked despite herself. She liked Ibiki's attitude. When she turned in her application, she made sure to give it to him. Ibiki looked her in the eye and returned her smirk when he saw something there. She was given a card for a seat somewhere near the front. Unfortunately, Sasuke and Sakura were both closer to the back. None of them were close enough for their system of hand signs to work properly. 'Damn,' cursed Naruto.
An eybrowless boy with short red hair about her age was seated on her left. He had the kanji "love" tattooed on to the left part of his forehead in red ink. His pupilless, sea foam-green eyes were rimmed with black, possibly a birthmark or a sign of chronic insomnia. He wore a black shirt and matching pants over a fishnet bodysuit. A holster of long white cloth and leather held a large gourd to his back. His Suna hitai-ate was also tied to the holster. A strong undercurrent of bloodlust seeped out of his every pore. His mere presence had Naruto tense and wary.
At least the boy on her left was more average. He was a nondescript genin with slightly higher than average chakra reserves. He had brown hair and eyes. He was wearing dark green pants and a matching shirt. If anything, he seemed a little too average in Naruto's mind.
"Papers down until I give the signal," ordered Ibiki as he tapped the blackboard at the front of the room with a piece of chalk. "I have to go over the rules first. I will go over them all and explain them in detail, but I will not be taking any questions.
"Number one: Each of you starts out with ten points. This test has ten questions, each worth one point. I will subtract one point for each question that is wrong or left blank. If a member of your team gets all the answers wrong, the whole team will fail. Number two: This is a team competition. If your collective score is high enough, you will pass. If not? Say goodbye to that chuunin vest you were set on getting. Number three: if, during the exam, you are caught cheating, two points will be subtracted from every member of the cheater's team. If one team is caught cheating five times, they will fail and then be asked to leave."
'…Okay…this is officially the weirdest test I have been forced to take. Why the unusual rules about cheating? Wouldn't you normally be kicked out after one offense?' wondered Naruto.
"If you let us proctors catch you, you'll be letting both yourself and your team down. If you wish to be a chuunin, you'd better start acting like one, starting now. You have one hour to complete the test. You may begin now." Ibiki finished.
At Ibiki's signal, Naruto flipped over her test without hesitation and read the first question.
1. Decode the following cipher and summarize its meaning.
The instructions were followed by a block of kanji. Naruto winced. Codes made completely of kanji were much, much harder to decode then those made of katakana or hiragana. Normally, Naruto enjoyed decoding things, but so far she had only worked with relatively simple katakana and hiragana codes. A moment later, Naruto moved on to the next question.
2. The parabola marked B represents the greatest effective distance the enemy shinobi, A, can throw a shuriken from the top of an 11.4 meter high tree. Calculate the specific features of this scenario and deduce the range of the shuriken's effectiveness, assuming consistent speed for shinobi A's attack operating within the flight arc that the diagram describes. Show your work.
Naruto didn't even bother to look at the diagram. Mathematical equations for throwing weapons had always made zero sense to her. Why the hell did you need an equation anyway? All you needed to do was aim, or, in the case of an enemy attacking you, predict the flight path of the weapon from the way the enemy threw it. Since she had seen it as useless knowledge, Naruto hadn't bothered to pay attention when Iruka was teaching it in class. As such, she was thoroughly screwed.
Naruto sighed and skimmed through the rest of the questions. She found the fifth question to be slightly unusual.
5. Your team captain has accepted a dangerous mission in unknown territory that is crucial to the success of your village. The area is likely to be covered in dangerous traps. You will be facing an unknown number of enemies. Did your captain make a good decision?
Naruto answered a resounding "yes".
6. Using the given encryption code, write a message summarizing that your team has successfully terminated the target, stolen the top-secret scrolls, and is resting in the capital of Nami no Kuni. Assume that you are working with your current team.
The question was slightly harder than it was a first glance. You had to provide your team's identification code, (Naruto's being 10023547) know the capital of Nami no Kuni, and your village's code slang. Not all of these things were common knowledge. A lot of code slang was used in case a message was intercepted; even if it was successfully decoded, half of it wouldn't make much sense. Konoha used "Black Words" as their slang for top-secret scrolls and "eating fried rice" for resting. Naruto quickly drew out the end result, and then frowned. The cipher looked too familiar. Naruto glanced at the first question and frowned. The ciphers looked exactly the same. 'Almost like two puzzle pieces,' Naruto mused. 'I highly doubt this is an accident.' She frowned, trying to remember if the proctors had given different tests to genin from other nations. She could remember them shuffling through their pile of papers for a test. Was it possible that the test was a puzzle? Naruto filled in the answer for the first question before moving on to the seventh.
7. Using the figures shown in the diagram below, calculate how high off the ground the enemy shinobi is.
The graph showed a parabola with calculations for velocity and speed. Naruto glanced between questions two and seven. Once again, they matched up perfectly. Naruto filled them out again.
The next questions followed the same pattern as the previous ones had. It only took Naruto a couple more minutes to fill out the rest of the questions, except for number ten, which was being withheld until the last fifteen minutes of the exam for some reason or another. When she finished, she flipped her paper over and placed her pencil down on her desk with a barely audible plink.
Now that Naruto had nothing to do, she realized that there was a surprising amount of activity going on in the exam room. Kiba's dog was barking something, and there was a bug that looked suspiciously like Shino's kikaichu flying around. Sakura's friend, TenTen, had attached a mirror to the ceiling and was controlling it with wires while using it to get answers for herself and Lee. Lee's Hyuuga teammate and Hinata were using their Byakugan to cheat. Naruto frowned. 'I must have missed something. So many people are cheating…'
Naruto went over what she knew about the test in her head. The questions were almost impossible to answer unless you were Sakura or figured out the puzzle. There were odd rules to the test. Why would you be kicked out after cheating five times instead of just one? Wait...
Naruto almost slammed her head into her desk when she realized what was going on. 'This isn't necessarily a test of our smarts, but our information-gathering abilities. There are three ways to pass this test: by being a book-smart shinobi like Sakura, cheating sneakily like the majority of people are doing, or figuring out the puzzle, like I did. How interesting…and how completely like the head of T & I Unit.'
A couple of teams were kicked out. None of them were the teams Naruto had picked out as likely to become problematic later on in the exams. She found that her attention was beginning to wander. At first she began to observe how other people were cheating, but that got old after a while. Out of habit, she pulled a deck of cards out of her pocket and started a game of solitaire.
"13, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Ibiki snarled.
Naruto glanced up disinterestedly when her seating number was called. "I'm playing solitaire, Morino-san. I thought that would be obvious," she said, sugar-coating her voice with fake sweetness and innocence.
"I can see that," Ibiki spat out. "What I want to know is why you are indulging in such a habit during my test."
The room was so silent you would be able to hear a senbon drop. Naruto could feel her teammates' irritated glares boring into the back of her head. "Well, I was bored, Morino-san. You didn't say we couldn't play card games after we were done with our tests, so I figured it was okay," Naruto smiled.
The increased fear of her fellow genin and Ibiki's increasing anger were completely made up for any trouble she would get into because of this particular stunt.
"Put. Them. Away. Now," Ibiki ordered. His tone left no room for argument.
"Of course, if they bother you so much, Morino-san," Naruto said sweetly as she pocketed her deck of cards, struggling to hold back her laughter.
Ibiki sent her another frosty glare before turning to face the rest of the room. Naruto hid her self-satisfied grin behind her hand. Thankfully, it was only another five minutes until the tenth question was to be released. Naruto waited semi-patiently, this time working on a custom explosive tag under her table.
Finally, Ibiki announced, "Forty-five minutes have passed. It is now time for the tenth question. Prepare yourselves. Just so you know, this last question has a couple of additional rules. First, you must choose whether or not to take this question. If you decide not to take it, you and your teammates will fail this test automatically."
"What?"
"Why would anybody choose not to take that question?"
"Because of the other rule. If you take this question and you answer it incorrectly, you will be permanently banned from the Chuunin Selection Exams.
"What? That's ridiculous! There are people here who have taken the exams before and failed!" shouted Kiba.
"It's your bad luck you took the exams this year. I wasn't a chief proctor before. Anybody who has doubts would be smart to refuse to take the question and try again next time. We'll begin now. Those of you who do not wish to take the tenth question, raise your hand now. You will be asked to leave along with your teammates. "
"I-I quit!" somebody said.
"Numbers 111, 113, you fail as well. Leave," a member of T & I ordered.
"Me too!"
'If this is like the other questions, the answer should be in question number five,' Naruto rationalized once she had smothered her shock. 'So, this first part of the question is like asking if we'll take a high-risk mission. If the team captain in question five represents a chuunin, a squad leader, what we are trying to become through these exams, doesn't that mean that we should accept this theoretical "dangerous mission"? Yeah. It does.'
Naruto simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to screw with Ibiki. "Well, the answer is obvious," she drawled, leaning back in her chair. "Since the whole test is a puzzle, this question aligns with the fifth question in the same way that questions number one and six match up. Their answers supply the aligned questions instructions while the instructions supply the answer. Your proctors handed out different tests to genin of different nationalities to provide for the differences in code slang. Questions number two and seven also match, as do three and eight and four and nine. Following this pattern, question five matches up with question ten. Judging by the similarities and differences between the questions and answers, I would say that the tenth question is a question of determination and stubbornness. Would you, as a squad captain, take a dangerous mission where members of your team might die? The answer is yes, of course. If there were not shinobi willing to risk their lives for their village, there would be no point in having shinobi at all. Now, Morino-san, can you tell me with a straight face that I am wrong?"
Once again, the entire room was deathly silent. Naruto could see some people cross-checking their answers, probably seeing if Naruto had been speaking the truth about the puzzle aspect of the test.
"This is a decision that could change the rest of your life. This is your last chance to give up," Ibiki scowled.
"Below courageous, there is nothing," Naruto smirked, quoting Kakashi's words.
The proctors surrounding the examinees nodded slightly. Ibiki smirked before turning fully towards the genin. "All eighty-four of you who are still here, good call. You have just passed the first exam!"
Naruto smirked. 'Knew it…'
"What do you mean, 'passed'?"
"What about the tenth question?"
"The real tenth question, as 13 said, is the 'take-or-not-take' decision," explained Ibiki, grinning widely.
"Then the other nine questions were a waste of time!"
"No, they served their purpose. Those nine questions were meant to test your information-gathering abilities. There would be those smart enough to answer the questions without cheating. Most of you would have to cheat off of somebody else. Yet, only one of you figured out the puzzle aspect of the test. You either have to be smart, sneaky, or perceptive to pass this test. To help those of you who chose to cheat, I planted four chuunin among you. As for the tenth question…13 did most of the explaining for me," here Ibiki began to take off his bandanna-style hitai-ate to reveal horrible scars from screw holes, burns, and knives. Obvious signs of torture. "When you are captured, you can pay in things taken from you little by little, time and time again. When you go on a mission, there is always a chance of death or capture. A chuunin must overcome their fears and show courage to help chase away the fear of others. This is one of the values all villages look for in their chuunin. Those who only make easy decisions and refuse to gamble their lives for the good of their village are weaklings who do not deserve the title of chuunin! By choosing to accept the tenth question, you all proved that you have the ability to risk your life for your village. If you keep that determination in your mind, I have no doubt that you will go far in these Chuunin Exams. Good luck to all of you!"
Suddenly, a spinning lump of black cloth crashed through the window. Two kunai flew out from the bundle of cloth as it began to unfurl and lodged themselves in the ceiling of the exam room. Naruto sighed, having already identified the person's chakra.
The cloth opened completely to reveal Anko in all her scantily dressed glory. The cloth read: Newly arrived second chief proctor, Mitiraishi Anko!
"Drop those smiles! None of you are in a position to celebrate!" Anko grinned. "I am the second chief proctor, Mitiraishi Anko! Time's a-wastin' people, so let's hustle!"
She was met with blank stares from all sides. "Can't you sense the mood in here?" grumbled Ibiki as he moved out from behind Anko's makeshift background.
"…I can't believe you passed eighty-one of them," Anko remarked. "Your test was too easy this year, Ibiki!"
"There were several excellent applicants this time."
"As if. Well, whatever. I'll cut 'em in half by the time my exam's over with! I get worked up just thinking about it," Anko smirked as she licked her lips and shivered slightly. "I'll explain as we move to our next location, so follow me!"
0o0o0o0o0o0
Jutsu List
Konoha Senpuu
English: Leaf Hurricane
Rank: C
Description: The user leaps up and sends a spinning kick at their opponent which is followed by a second, lower kick, making it very hard to block both kicks.
Kage Buyo
English: Shadow Dance
Rank: C
Description: The shinobi perfectly mimics the flight path of an enemy in the air, allowing for surprise attacks.
The title of this chapter is I Will Not Bow by Breaking Benjamin