Hey guys. This chapter is a bit quicker, isn't it? I know right? I'm glad really. I loved your guys' reviews and the large amount of new followers and favourites. Over 200 reviews, guys! Whoo! Yeah! I also received my first flame. It was really quite amusing. They were a guest too. Really, all they're doing is adding on to the review count. Their meaning is miniscule to my reviewers who praise my story. Love you guys.
So I did this on a new software thing, so stuff may be a bit weird and all, hope you don't mind. Also, feel free to PM me whenever you want, about the story, about my awesomeness, about food, etc. I like when my readers get in touch with me, because sometimes I do things for the readers in my story. Anyways. Hope you enjoy.
"Well, shit."
"W...wow..."
"These people are genin?" I asked in slight disbelief as what felt like one hundred eyes were staring into our souls. "They're so old."
Naruto snorted as I noticed a lot of them narrowing their eyes at me in contempt, but I simply gave them a smile. They turned around after a while, finding us no longer interesting.
"Sasuke-kun! You're late!"
Naruto and I turned our head to the right to see Ino jump onto Sasuke's back who grunted and quickly recovered his footing.
I watched in amusement as he gave her an annoyed glare.
"I haven't seen you for a while, so I've been waiting in excitement." She stated, causing me to snort in amusement.
"That, Naruto, is a pig who smells of desperation." I stated in mock seriousness, grabbing the monkey's shoulder and pointing to the female blonde on Sasuke's as if she were an animal in a zoo.
Naruto and I snickered together as Ino finally took notice of us, her eyes glaring daggers at us.
"Well, if it isn't the demon." She noted with gritted teeth. "Still annoying as ever."
"Now, now, Ino. Shouldn't be talking about yourself like that." I grinned as she screeched in annoyance.
"About time you guys got here." We all looked to the familiar voice, seeing the lazy Nara trudge up to us with Choji munching on chips beside him.
"Shika-Chika~." I greeted him with a friendly grin as Ino finally got off Sasuke's back and gave me the stink eye.
"Whoo! Found you!"
We all turned to Kiba, who had Akamaru atop his head and his teammates beside him.
"H...Hello.." Hinata greeted us. I hadn't noticed how soft her voice was until then. Her lavender eyes darted quickly to Naruto before darting away again.
"Heeey, buddy!" I greeted the Inuzuka, we walked up to each other and high-fived each other, grinning toothy grins.
"Hey, Kuro! Looks like we're all assembled." Kiba noted as we all stood together. Akamaru barked and jumped on my head. I glanced up in amusement.
Shikamaru sighed, not finding this the least bit fun. "Troublesome..."
"I wonder how far we'll get...hey, monkey?" Kiba grinned at Naruto confidently.
"Pfft, you seem confident, Kiba." Sasuke spoke up for the first time, his smug smirk still on his lips.
"Shut up, dog! There's no way I'm going to lose to you!" Naruto announced, dramatically pointing his finger at the Inuzuka as usual.
"Sorry Naruto...Kiba-kun didn't mean it in that way." Hinata defended 'my first best friend' quietly, pushing her forefingers together. No wonder Neji gets annoyed with her. She has nearly no self esteem.
Shino stayed silent, saying nothing. I turned to him and nodded at him in acknowledgment. He returned the gesture.
"Hey you guys," The moment that voice reached my ears, my eyes darted to its owner. "You should be more quiet."
There.
There stood Kabuto.
Someone I truly wanted dead. I could feel it, the undeniable feeling of wanting to lose all restraints and kill him.
It was overwhelming, trying to control my intense desire to rip this being's throat out and shove up up his ass.
"W-Whoa..."
"W-What the h-hell?"
'Kuroki...' His voice echoed in my ears as I felt the familiar touch of his hand on my shoulder. 'Calm down...'
I gasped as I snapped out of my reverie, blinking rapidly to see that my group had all looked like they'd seen a ghost. There was a moment of silence as we all seemed to be regaining our composures.
"What the hell was that?" Ino was the first to speak, irritation lacing her voice but there was an underlying tone.
"That was so scary!" Naruto exclaimed, rubbing his shoulders as he jumped up, appearing to be warming up.
It was noticeably quiet, so I turned, to find that the entire room was staring in our direction.
Kabuto started walking up to us again, and I automatically snapped my head in his direction. I grabbed a shaking Akamaru from my head and began to comfort him as I glared with intense hostility in Kabuto's direction.
Sensing my hostility, Sasuke moved beside me which calmed me down in the slightest.
"Well...that was unexpected." The one man in this room I wanted dead stated. I noticed Kiba and the others had noticed my own dramatic change in attitude as soon as this man spoke. They all seemed to be wary of him now, giving suspicious stares his way.
"Anyways, you guys are rookies just out of the academy right?" He continued on in a tone I wasn't liking, but I didn't like anything about him, so. "Screaming like school girls, geez..."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Ino and Kiba spoke in unison. Neither caused a fuss about their synchronised words as all our focus was on Kabuto.
"I'm Kabuto." He introduced himself simply. "But instead of that, look behind you."
"Behind...?" I heard Hinata mutter.
They all turned behind them whilst I kept my eyes stuck on Kabuto, who was either oblivious of my stare or was ignoring it.
"Those guys are from the hidden rain. They have short tempers." He informed them. They're the least of anyone's worries if I can't keep a cool head. "Everyone is nervous about the exam, quiet down before you cause anymore scenes."
"Well, I can't blame you. You're clueless rookies." My eye twitched as his hand went to his pouch. I felt something wet on my face and looked down to see Akamaru. He licked me.
I smiled softly, loosening the tension in my shoulders. "Sorry, Akamaru." He barked up at me.
"This is your second time?" Ino asked, folding her arms with attitude.
"Nope...my seventh time." Kabuto shook his head. "This exam is held twice a year so this is my fourth year."
Just as he was about to reveal his 'cards' or whatever, I stepped forward, pushing down the murderous intent that I'm sure he felt.
"Look, Kabuto." I started. He looked in my direction, his eyes curious but other than that, unreadable.
"I know this may be abrupt, but you'll understand if we can't fully trust you and anything you say, right?" I asked him, tilting my head to the side and forcing myself to appear neutral. He blinked in what seemed like surprise.
"Yeah, you seem like a nice guy, but looks can be deceiving." Kiba spoke up. I internally sighed in relief that I didn't have to fight with my own group to get him to leave.
"Ah," Kabuto rubbed the back of his head whilst smiling sheepishly. "I understand. I just wanted to show you cute little rookies some of my nin-info cards that I've gathered over my time at the exams."
"Nin-info cards?" Naruto asked, confused.
"Sorry. We're just wary of anyone we don't know, so." I apologised without meaning. Luckily, I had my friends to back me up.
"Yeah, hope you understand, Kabuto-san!" Naruto said in his loud way, placing his hands behind his head.
"It'd be troublesome if we trusted you and you betrayed us." Shikamaru yawned.
"Yeah..." Kabuto looked down. "I understand. I'll leave you guys, now. Good luck, rookies." He smiled and waved to us as he began to walk away.
I finally let all the tension leave me, causing me to sag onto the ground.
"Kuroki-chan!" Naruto dropped down to the ground with me as Kiba did the same.
"Stress is not cool, man." I whined, petting Akamaru.
"What was with the killing intent?" Sasuke asked in all seriousness, standing above me and looking down at me while I looked up at him.
"I don't like him. He's not trustworthy." I stated honestly. "He's capable of taking away what's precious to me."
The Uchiha raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"
"You." I replied in all seriousness. There was a moment of silence, but before anything was spoken, I looked to Kiba and grinned, running my hands through his messy brown hair causing his hoodie to fall off. "And you."
Kiba seemed shocked at first, but soon began to grin boyishly.
I looked to everyone else who looked at me in wonder. "All of you. He's capable of taking you all away, and all of you," I looked to Ino. "Even you, pig, are precious to me. So, promise me that not only are you going to
kick ass in this exam, you're going to beat down anyone who gets in your way, got it?"
I heard a sniff, so I looked beside me to see Naruto nearly in tears. "Kuroki...you're so cool..."
I snickered. "You're a dork." I commented fondly, ruffling his blonde spikes. We all stood up, I placed my hands in my pockets as Akamaru jumped back to his partner.
"Heh. So you do have your cute moments." The Nara commented, a smirk plastered on his face. Uchiha's eyes zipped to him.
"What'd do you say, Nara?" He narrowed his eyes, and I chuckled.
"Well, as much as we fight, I don't want to see you dead either, demon." Ino spoke up, looking away with her arms folded as if she was too shy to admit it.
"Don't worry, Kuroki-chan! There's no way we're going to lose! You can believe it!" Naruto gave me the thumbs up as his declaration caught the eyes of nearly everyone in the room.
"You're so loud...idiot..." Shikamaru drawled.
"Of course, there's no way we're backing down." Kiba grinned as Akamaru barked from his head.
"Moron just basically turned everyone into his enemy." Sasuke sighed.
"Is that a woman in a mini-dress?" I asked, squinting my eyes to see a woman on a desk with with nothing but a mini-dress and ninja sandals. She noticed me see her and gave me a flirtatious wink. I leaned back.
"She swings both ways, okay."
"Where? Where?" Naruto searched furiously for the woman as any boy would. Kiba looked too.
"Oh, Naruto. She wouldn't be interested in a boy like you." Ino cut in, completely amused.
"Ah, shut up Ino! Just because Sasuke doesn't like you!" The monkey retorted stupidly. He didn't have time to react as the female blonde smashed her fist into his head.
"Why you little!"
"Alright, quiet down you worthless bastards!" Everyone turned their heads as a large cloud of smoke appeared randomly. The smoke soon faded to reveal...Morino Ibiki and a bunch of chuunins.
"Thanks for waiting...I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the chuunin selection exam's first test." He introduced himself. I glanced around to see quite a few were intimidated by him. Understandable, he's an
intimidating guy.
"We will now start with the first test in the chuunin exam. Instead of your current seating arrangements, you will pick one of these tabs and sit in the seat assigned to you." He raised the tab with the number one. "We
will then hand out the exams."
One of the chuunins got the exams ready whilst I turned to see Naruto processing.
"WHAT?! A PAPER TEST!?"
"Yep. You're fucked, monkey."
I sat at seat 72, next to some guy with blue hair and another with a purple spandex. At least they're expressive. I propped my elbow up in boredom.
"Do not turn your tests over. Listen closely to what I'm about to say." Ibiki ordered us.
"There are many important rules to this first test. I'll write it on the board while I explain, but questions will not be allowed, so listen closely." I felt the tension in the room pick up a little as Ibiki began to write the
rules.
"The first rule; You guys will all start off with ten points. The test is made up of ten questions and each one is worth a point, but this test uses a subtraction system." I soon folded my arms on the desk and leaned
forward as he continued. "Basically, if you answer all the questions correctly, you keep your ten points. But if you miss three questions...you lose three point and will have seven."
"The second rule; This is a team test. Whether you pass or not will be determined by the combined score of your teammates. So, each team with compete to see how many points they can hold on to from the initial
team total of thirty."
I sighed.
"The third rule is that during the exam, anyone caught by the testing officers doing sneaky activities, namely cheating, will have two points subtracted for every offense."
The spiky haired guy from the door before spoke up. "We'll have our eyes on you guys..."
Ibiki began to speak again. "Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves. As shinobis trying to achieve the level of chuunin, be proud ninjas." I couldn't tell whether he was
smirking or his face is just normally deformed.
"And the final rule...those that lose all their points during the test and those that don't answer questions correctly...will be failed along with their two teammates." Ibiki told ominously. I grinned as I heard gasps of
horror.
I grabbed the pencil provided for us. "The exam will last one hour."
Naruto looked back to me with a hilarious expression, but I smiled at him and mouthed 'It's fine'. He seemed to calm down just a little and turned back.
"Okay...BEGIN!"
I leisurely turned the exam paper as the two beside me flipped the exam as if their fortune was written on the other side.
Cryptogram...alright...
Dooone. Second one.
Line B, see in the picture, is the greatest possible distance shinobi can through his shuriken from a tree of seven metres. For enemies who appear within the circumference of the shuriken's range, explain the attack
options using this distance. Show your work.
Aonami would kill me if I didn't answer these right. Time to start thinking, I guess.
Agh. Nobody likes that.
"I'd just like to know just one thing..." I looked up to see a guy a few rows in front of me stand up. "How many teams will pass this test?"
Ibiki chuckled, then gave the dude a dark stare. "It's not like knowing will help you, or do you want to be disqualified?"
The guy sat down. "Sorry..."
As I leisurely write down my answers with my right arm propped up to support my head, I glanced around to see people I knew already cheating. Akamaru barked, giving Kiba the answers. I smiled at that.
Gaara who was near me started using his sand and Shino was using his bugs.
I glanced up to see the mirrors attached to strings. Tenten.
"What was that for?!" Some dude near Naruto demanded, standing up. I saw a kunai in his work.
"You messed up five times. You fail." The testing officer informed him.
"No...No way!"
"The two on his team, get out of here. Right now."
Soon enough, two people stood up and all three of them made their way to the exit.
I looked back down at my sheet.
WHAT?!
I'm done? You're joking. I looked around to see Ino in my row on the other side of the room right her head in her arms. She's using that jutsu thing of hers. I smirked.
Instead of sleeping, I watched as more and more teams were called to leave.
Soon Kankuro raised his hand to go to the bathroom. Hm.
A few minutes later, Ibiki raised his voice, catching all our attentions.
"Okay. We will now start the tenth question." I cracked my neck as he spoke. "Now.. before we get to it. I'd like to go over the added rules for this question."
Kankuro finally came back out of the bathroom, to which Ibiki noticed. "Heh...nice timing."
"Was your doll playing beneficial?" He asked mockingly. Kankuro began to walk back to his seat.
"I'll now explain...these are the rules of desperation. First, for this tenth question, you must decide whether you will take it or not."
"Choose?!" Temari yelled. "What happens if we choose not to?!"
Without missing a beat, Ibiki replied. "If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero...you fail! Along with your two teammates."
"What does that mean?!" Some random yelled.
"Then of course we will decide to take the question!" Another exclaimed.
"And now..." Ibiki ignored them. "The other rule. If you choose to take it, and answer incorrectly...that person will lose the right to ever take the chuunin selection exam again."
Cue the dramatic gasps.
"What kind of stupid rule is that?! There are guys here who have taken the exam before!" Kiba snarled, standing up as Akamaru barked in protest. Ibiki chuckled again.
"You guys were unlucky. This year it's my rules." He had that strange smirk-non-smirk thing. "But I'm giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident can choose not to take it...and try again next year."
I snorted. A bit too loudly apparently as I felt a few eyes on me.
"Now...let's begin the tenth question."
Finally.
"Those that do not wish to take it, raise your hand. Once your number is confirmed, leave."
There was a long silence.
Finally, an older dude raised his hand and stood up. "I...won't take it!"
I decided to ignore everyone as more and more people began to raise their hands and leave.
Shakingly, I saw as Naruto put his hand up. I glanced around to see Sasuke's wide eyes. Suddenly, Naruto slammed his hand down on the desk.
"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME! I WILL NOT RUN!" I 'tch'ed in amusement. That's Naruto for you.
"I'll take it! Even if I'm a genin forever! I'll will myself to become Hokage anyways, so I don't care! I'm not afraid!" He announced, shocking everyone. I've never felt more proud of him.
"I'll ask you again. Your life is riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit." Ibiki informed the monkey.
"I follow my unbending words...that's my ninja way." Naruto replied with such confidence.
There was a moment of silence before Ibiki spoke up again. "Good decisions. Now, to everyone still remaining...I congratulate you on passing the first test!"
I let the large grin on my face appear.
"What about the tenth question?" Someone asked.
A genuine smile appeared on the examiner's face. "There was never such a thing. Or you could say that those two choices were the tenth question."
"Hey! Then what were the first nine questions for?! They were pointless then!" Temari growled angrily.
"They were not pointless. They had already served their intended purpose." Ibiki responded.
"Hn?"
"To test your individual information gathering ability...that purpose."
"Gathering information?" Temari asked.
"First, as the rules explained...success on this test is based on the whole team doing well. This puts pressure on each member not to mess things up for their teammates."
"I had a feeling this test was like that." Naruto muttered. Ha.
"But the questions on this test were not the types that a mere genin could answer. Because of that...I'm sure most of the people came to the same conclusion..that to score points...I'll have to cheat. Basically, the
premise of this test is to cheat. As cheating targets, we had two or so chuunins who knew all the answers mixed into the crowd. To help you guys out." Ibiki explained.
"Man..it sure was tough finding that guy." The dude in front of me commented.
"Yeah, I know." Another near me replied.
"HAHAHAHA! I saw right through that! You'd have to be a moron to not notice that!" Naruto stupidly exclaimed.
Sasuke and I shared eye contact, both of us withholding smirks.
"But those that cheat poorly fail, of course." Ibiki continued, grabbing his forehead protector and taking it off to reveal his gruesome scars. "Because..in times information is more important than life...and on missions
and the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it."
Those are some brutal scars.
He replaced his forehead protector and continued on with his monologue. "If the enemy or third party notices you, there is no guarantee the info will be accurate...I want you to remember this. Important information
in your hands can be a powerful weapon for your comrades and the village."
Oh, I know that. I know that well.
"So, we had you gather information through cheating. This clearly separated those that did not have the right abilities."
"But...I don't understand the final question." Temari stated.
Ibiki smiled again, and I found myself smiling too because of it.
"But question ten...is the true purpose of this test." He explained.
"Huh?"
"Let me explain. The tenth question..the 'take it' or 'not take it' decision. Obviously these were painful choices. Those who choose the latter fail along with their teammates. Those who choose to take it, could lose the
chance to ever take the test again...a true leap of faith."
There was more silence.
"How about these two choices...say you guys become chuunins..." God, does Ibiki need some water yet? How many words can he say in a matter of minutes?
"Your mission is to steal a secret document, the amount of ninja, their abilities and what not is unknown to you. Of course there could be traps set all around you. Now, do you accept or not accept?"
"Because you don't want to die, because you don't want your comrades hurt, can you avoid the dangerous mission?"
He let that sink in a little.
"The answer is no!"
And here's where I block him out. I played with the pencil until I heard Naruto's loud voice.
"Hell yeah! Wish us luck!"
I finally felt excited as someone I hadn't seen in a long time smashed dramatically through the window.
Instantly there was a banner behind her as she stood, making her entrance. "You guys! This is no time to be celebrating!" She commanded. "I am the examiner for the second test! Mitarashi Anko! Now let's go! Follow
me!"
I snickered as Ibiki creeped around the banner and muttered darkly. "Bad timing."
Anko gave a face. She overlooked the room, counting the numbers. Her eyes instantly lightened up when they connected with mine.
"Kuro!" She greeted dramatically, waving enthusiastically at me with a large grin! Everyone in the room turned to me as I grinned back, waving just as enthusiastically.
"Anko~! Heey, buddy! Miss me?" I greeted.
"You made it! Congrats!" She gave me the thumbs up as I nodded, then immediately snapped her head to Ibiki, her attitude changing in an instant. "Seventy-eight?!"
"Ibiki! You left twenty-six teams?! The test was way too easy this time!"
Ibiki smirked. "This time...there was a lot of outstanding ones."
"Bah, that's fine. I'll at least cut them in half in the second test. Ahhh, I'm getting excited. I'll explain everything once we've changed places. Follow me." Anko gave a sadistic smile, and while I was happy to see her, I wasn't happy to see that snake of a person.
I stood next to my team with all the other genins as we had followed Anko to the forest of death. God, what a shit name.
"Welcome to the stage for the second test, practice arena 44, also known as... 'The Forest of Death'." Anko informed us.
The trees were bloody huge!
"You'll soon find out...why it's called the forest of death." Anko stated, trying to get under our skin.
"Oh, it couldn't possibly be because there's death involved?" I retorted sarcastically, earning me snickers from my team and a few people nearby.
Anko laughed. "I've missed you at the Dango Shop, Kuro. You never visit anymore!"
"Being a badass takes up my schedule, you know." I shrugged, grinning.
"Yeah, well! I'm not afraid of this 'forest of death'! Bring it on!" Naruto pointed at Anko, being himself.
Anko smiled. "Yeah..you're spirited." She swiftly threw a kunai which grazed Naruto's cheek and landed somewhere behind us. Anko suddenly appeared behind the monkey, but I couldn't hear her as my heart was
racing.
He was here. There.
"Here's your kunai." It was his voice. I hated it. The whole world seemed to stop.
He was there. Right there, behind Anko and Naruto. In front of me.
The one who'll take Sasuke away from me.
'Kuroki...Kuroki...calm down...shh...' I at first tensed when I heard his voice, but was soon beginning to rapidly relax when I felt his touch calming me. 'You'll have your moment...not now...relax...'
I had closed my eyes, letting his touch calm me. I couldn't lose control. Not now. It'd ruin it.
I was scared. I was beyond scared. Not for myself...for Sasuke.
And the moment I felt that, it was gone. I stepped back as I felt something else consume me. I breathed roughly as I looked around. Everyone was focusing their attention on Anko.
All I could feel...was this insane amount of lust for blood. The sound of people's hearts pumping. They were echoing in my ear, the rapid images of stopping the heart beats with gruesome blood splatter.
It was overwhelming. Large. I held my knuckles so tightly I felt my fingers break through my gloves and skin, my blood escaping my palms. This was nothing like with Kabuto. This was so much more. It was like there
was something tearing me apart from the inside out to get out, fighting to get out and just...kill.
Calm down.
Calm down, Kuroki.
Please...I can't do it now. Not yet. Please...
'As you wish...later, then...Kuroki...'
I barely felt his hand ghosting over my heart, and it soon felt like he was sucking all of my blood lust out of me. A few minutes past before I could finally catch my breath.
I could feel the intense urge to just...kill. It took so much out of me that I dropped to my knees. I hadn't opened my eyes yet. I was still catching my breath.
If this was the price of feeling fear...damn.
Finally...I opened my eyes...and looked up. What I saw was something I wasn't expecting.
Everyone was frozen. Faces of pure terror on their faces as they were all sweating up a storm.
"K-K...Kurok-ki..." I looked up to see Naruto crying.
"I...released killing intent...?" Naruto didn't answer as he was shaking.
"Well, everyone." I glanced to Anko who rubbed the back of her head with a grin. That grin soon turned into something more malicious. "You felt that, right? That's killing intent. A real strong one too. I'll tell you now. It's just a small taste of what you're going to go through in this second test."
"W-What?" A random voice called.
"I-I don't want to go through this...I was so scared..."
"No one was even touching us..."
"Now, I'll explain the area in which this takes place." Anko stated, seemingly unfazed by my second show of killing intent. She glanced at me and smiled, giving me a wink before going on with her explanation.
I sighed and looked down. This is going to be more dangerous than I first thought.
'It's going to be fun...Kuroki...you'll enjoy it...'
I'm not so sure anymore.
BAM! Here we are. I did this all in like, a day. I'm happy about that. Anyways, the drama thickens. It's a little rushed and all there's bound to be mistakes. But I hope you all enjoyed.
Give us a review and tell me how you like the chapter. And also, my polls still on my profile for those who haven't voted yet. Itachi is second, surprisingly, and well, he's not here for a while. There's still time for Shikamaru, Neji, Gaara, even Kakashi if he can get out of the fatherzone Kuroki's currently put him in. Anyways! See you in the next chapter, whenever it is!