an:/ Sorry for another slow update. I've been busy lately, or more like distracted. I've had test after test. That and the fact that I have found my new pairing obsession...KakaNaru...and no, not the yaoi. I'm talking about Naruko, rule 63 of Naruto. Oh god, Naru and Kakashi are just probably the best pairing. Pairing Kakashi is really hard (though I've already matched him with Rin in this story and read stories of him with Anko) because there's not many characters alive at the moment (in the series) that really match his..um...type? Adding a new character, Naruko, to the mix, that could do stuff. Naruko, being an illegitimate character, you can add your own components. Like how I can choose what Reno and Rei do, cuz they be my orig characters, mofos...just kidding. But of all seriousness, having an original character opens many doors ;)
Alright, on to the story that I have held off from you all.
Naruto entered the makeshift office at the top floor of the center. When he walked in, the jounin and ANBU around him started murmuring as Naruto made his way to the desk. He looked up to see his father, dawning a serious face.
"Naruto...got anything to share with us?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed, but he caught the message.
"Today at 1016 hours, my genin team encountered none other than one of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru."
Naruto paused as the murmurs around the room grew louder. He continued.
"At the time of the attack, I was an undercover agent posing as a genin, under the name of Aoba Yoki."
"Continue"
"'Yoki' was attacked first, taking a sword to the stomach that was launched from a 70 degree angle from the ground at a velocity of 60 mph. 'Yoki' was taken out, leaving the three other genin, Uchiha Sasuke, Sarutobi Konohamaru, and Haruno Sakura, to fend for themselves against a supposed Kusagakure kunoichi, 1.75 meters tall, 60 kilograms."
A couple of tokubetsu jounin were impressed at the detail of the report while the ANBU were unfazed. ANBU were forced to take note of details like this as they may hold valuable information on the opponent or situation. Minato nodded and Naruto continued.
"I was able to kawarimi and watch from afar as to what the 'kunoichi' wanted. The target is the heir of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Sasuke."
A few murmurs spread around the room again as there was a few Uchihas in the room at the moment.
"Uchiha was engaged in combat with the Sannin as I took care of the summon Orochimaru had summoned to kill my other two genin. After the summon was dispatched, I intercepted the combat and sent Sasuke off to my only medic on the team, Haruno. After a few hits here and there-"
The ANBU that were present at the battlefield sweatdropped. A few hits? It was more like an all out battle.
"-Orochimaru, uh-"
"Alright, Naruto. You can stop there. Anyways, after Namikaze Naruto's battle, the Sannin escaped."
Naruto knew why he couldn't finish. Letting the rest of the jounins know about the sealing could arise some jounins in the room started to whispers as the ANBU shifted awkwardly. Minato looked up with his sharp calculating eyes.
"With a threat like this, we cannot be laidback. The chuunin exams will have shinobi from all five elemental nations. If one gets hurt because of us, and it's not part of the exams, the shit will hit the fan. And by my calculations, the attack will more than likely occur during the finals."
Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai narrowed their eyes. Their students are not going to be in danger just because some snake rapist decides to break hell loose. A nameless ANBU stood up.
"What do you propose we do, Hokage-sama"
"I've ceased the flow of missions, allowing all shinobi to return to the village so that we are at full force. Well, not ceased, but eased it down so it won't be suspicious. At the moment, we have 10,000 shinobi in the village. Allowing some of the shinobi to return home for the finals, we will have around 11,800 total. That being said, we will not suddenly increase patrol considering they are already in the village. The Tsuchikage and the Kazekage will be there so the foreign shinobi will already be on tighter patrol. Not that we're relying too heavily on them, but I don't want Orochimaru to know that we know. Surprise will help us."
Nara Shikaku walked up.
"Surprises are helpful indeed. I'll be strategist for this upcoming invasion. We're at a slight advantage considering we are more familiar with ground around us. We also have the surprise edge on them. There is a reason why only a select few of you have been called here. Since we apparently have some spies in our ranks, it is imperative that we maintain this planning a S-rank secret. Any questions."
Rin and Tsunade stood up and Rin spoke.
"As representatives of the Hospital, what do you advise us to do with the medic nins? We are, in a sense, short in staff. The staff has been overworking thanks to the chuunin exams and I'm not sure we will be at full force day of finals. It would be weird if all the medic force is at the arena, wouldn't it?"
"You will all be dressed as civilians within the crowd. The Medic nin will have a day off before to recuperate, leaving the civilian nurses and doctors at the hospital."
"Ryokai."
Kakashi stood up next to reveal his concerns.
"And ANBU?"
After his team split up, Kakashi took his position back in the ANBU force, making him the new ANBU commander. Since he wasn't in uniform, he couldn't directly address higher ups as ANBU commander at them moment, thus speaking in a more indirect tone.
"Well, Hatake-san, I believe since we also cut off ANBU missions, most of the ANBU should start returning home. Aside from the ones on long term missions, the ones returning should add up the force to roughly 2,000. They will be split up into squads and sent to patrol the village. I'm afraid some of the ANBU will miss the exams."
Kakashi chuckled as some of the ANBU shuffled uncomfortable. It was practically their way of complaining about how they wanted to watch the match.
"Alright."
"Any other questions?"
"..."
"Okay, I believe the exams are to continue. Jounins, return to your posts. ANBU, uh, do whatever you were doing before."
A few minutes later, Naruto, Shikaku, Kakashi, and Minato were the only ones left in the room.
"Tou-san"
"Yes, Naruto?"
"That Kabuto kid, he's one to look out for."
"So I've heard."
"The Oto nin are also a bit off. They're a new country and they already act like they are better than the rest of the nations."
Kakashi chuckled.
"Maybe it's just the arrogance of the smaller nations. Then again, it's never too good to underestimate. Don't worry, my men will be on the lookout."
Kakashi turned and leaved. Shikaku bowed as well before departing.
"Well, Tou-san. I'll be telling my genin what is going on. I'll also inspect that seal. It would be great if you could look at it too, two masters should have something on this amateur psycho."
Minato laughed.
"Alright, Naruto. I glanced at the seal in the forest and I warn you, it's a bit more complicated than a loon's work. I suspect it has multiple layers to it, the deepest one incorporated with a special chakra. I believe it's sage chakra. This could bring about many problems. Be careful, Naruto."
"Ryokai, Hokage-sama"
Naruto laughed and exited the room. He made his way to his team's room. Naruto knocked and heard a faint shuffle behind the door.
"Hello guys?"
The door swooped open in one big sweep, revealing a pissed off Sasuke and two genin latched to his legs, crying anime tears.
"We're so sorry, Sasuke!"
Naruto sweatdropped and entered the room, closing the door behind him. He looked at the genin at Sasuke's feet, then looked up.
"Any particular reason you have your two teammates at your feet?"
"Told'em about the seal"
"Hmm. Speaking of seal. I'll have to look at it. Do you mind?"
Naruto gestured at Sasuke's back. Sasuke nodded and dragged himself to a stool nearby. Plopping himself on it, he took his shirt off and Naruto walked behind him. Konohamaru and Sakura shot off the moment Sasuke started taking off his shirt.
"W-we'll wait somewhere else."
The two genin shot out of the room. Naruto chuckled and leaned closer to take a look at the seal.
"So, sensei-is it bad?"
"Hmmm, there are some issues with this seal."
Naruto looked at the seal again. His dad was right, it wasn't the work of some loon. It looked like years of research compacted into this three pronged seal. Judging by the small amount of prongs for such a complicated seal, this was definitely no amateur work.
"Hold on Sasuke, try pumping chakra into it for a second."
Sasuke did so and immediately winced in pain. The seal glowed an ominous red then died down. Naruto frowned.
"This may be a problem for the prelims. It seems to be taking your chakra as we speak. We have exactly two days before the end of the second test. If we don't solve it, you may not be able to bend chakra for the prelim, maybe even the finals."
"What? That can't be! I have to participate in them and win! If I can't bend chakra, how am I going to be able to participate"
"Although I see your problem, there are people who fight without chakra, ya know. That Rock Lee, Gai's genin, can't bend chakra, and I see him doing fine."
"That's different! The Sharingan requires chakra!"
"You can't always rely on that kind of stuff. Anyways, I can neutralize the seal real quickly. As long as you don't activate it or pump in chakra to the seal, it should remain dormant until I or my dad find a solution. It's extremely complicated already, I don't need your chakra to fuck more shit up."
"Ryokai, Sensei."
"Alright, this might smart a little so bare with me."
"Oh, oka-ARGGGG"
The sound of burnt flesh spread through the room. Sasuke's back was sizzling with steam. Sasuke went to claw at his back in pain as he clenched his teeth and hissed out. Sasuke's eyes rolled back and he began fell forward. Naruto caught him just in time to set him down gently on the floor.
"See, that wasn't so bad."
Naruto smirked a little but quickly dropped it as he looked at his hand. It looked like Sasuke's back wasn't the only thing that burned. Naruto raised his hand up, measuring the damage. It seemed that the old snake bastard had put a defense to his seal. Though Naruto's self created, ultra strong, seal prevailed, it didn't stop the counterseal from burning the skin off Naruto and Sasuke. When Naruto said it would hurt, he meant a small sting, not third degree burns. Naruto slowly left the room, observing as the Kurama sent his chakra into Naruto's hand, instantly leaving new pink skin where the burns were before.
Naruto made his way to the front desk where Konohamaru and Sakura were sitting. The two genin smiled at him but quickly changed them to a frown when they saw Naruto's hand. Sakura practically jumped up, lacing her hands with green chakra.
"Naruto-sensei! What happened? Oh god, did Sasuke do this to you? I'll kill him."
"Calm down, Sakura. I'm a jounin, this is nothing. Besides, it's already healing. No need to worry. Sasuke didn't' do anything, by the way."
"Healed? Already? How?"
"Uh, another kekkei genkai?"
"Wow! You have two? That's amazing Naruto-nii!"
Sakura nodded in agreement. Naruto inwardly sighed with relief. Technically, what he said was true. The Uzumaki had really fast healing abilities along with the capability to hold in Biju, making the healing process even faster. His mother being the previous biju also come to show that the Uzumaki can live through things that could kill most. Extracting Biju was sure to kill the Jinchuuriki. But not in the case of Uzumaki Kushina, who not only survived, but was able to heal back to normal health, still maintaining enormous chakra reserves.
Naruto smiled at the two genin.
"On a completely separate note, I was wondering what Sasuke had told you while I was gone. I believe I can fill in some gaps while adding more details to the event. Let's go somewhere else, shall we?"
The genin's face hardened and then they nodded. The two followed Naruto to meeting room near the top floor. Naruto stepped aside at the door, allowing the two genin to file in. Naruto closed the door and placed his hands in a seal.
"Seal"
The whole room was etched with a seal that spread out.
"What's that for Naruto-nii?"
"Silence seal."
"What for?"
"What I am about to reveal are several A to S ranked secrets. It would be most advised to stay silent about it."
The two genin were shocked. Naruto motioned them to sit, taking a chair across from them.
"Alright, starting from the beginning, any questions."
"Why were you posing as 'Aoba Yoki', refugee of the land of Iron, sensei."
"Simple, undercover."
"What for?"
"We are under attack."
"What? Why haven't we heard about it?"
"What are you talking about? You were the attack."
"That kusa kunoichi?"
"You keep saying 'she's' a kunoichi. In actuality, it was a man."
"What?"
"The nukenin, Konoha's sannin, Orochimaru. He has practically attacked our village by infiltrating and attacking. We do not respond lightly to these things."
"Yeah, but if you were undercover BECAUSE of the attack, how come you were there before the attack, posing as Aoba Yoki."
"Political reasons."
"Please indulge us, Naruto-sensei"
"You know the whole reason for the finals right?"
"To determine if we're chuunin worthy or not?"
"No, it's to determine if our village is worthy of more clients."
"What?"
"Meaning, you're putting on a show for the Daimyos, Kages, villagers, and other important people. The more impressive your genin are, the more, hm, 'hireable' you are."
"Isn't that cheating? Sending a jounin in a chuunin exam among genins?"
"Not if I've never taken the chuunin exams. Besides, the jounin exams are pretty much easier than these exams. Last time I checked, I didn't have to encounter a damn sannin to get my jounin title."
"Wow. So, that's it? Just for more clients? What about the attack thing?"
"Ah, that too. Resources told us that Orochimaru would attempt to attack during the test. We figured if we kept this on the down low, we could have an advantage-"
"Oo, like an element of surprise?"
"Uh, sure, Konohamaru. Anyways. It's still a secret but I need my own team to know. Either way, I went undercover because you three were forced to enter when I didn't want you too. Why not go in for some extra protection, right?"
Naruto looked at their skeptical faces.
"Look, I know I'm just being like some mother hen to you three but considering a freaking Sannin attacked you, my worries are only solidifying."
"But, sensei~"
"No. Under the Hokage's orders, I am to continue this mission and you are not to let the information out. Am I understood? Tell all of this to Sasuke after he wakes up. Alright, I'm out."
"Wait, Sasuke's out? What do you mean?"
Naruto smiled quickly and flashed out, leaving the two genin worrying. Sakura and Konohamaru rushed to the room to find Sasuke attempting to get up from the couch. He grunted, clutching his neck. Konohamaru stepped closer to hear what Sasuke was muttering.
"Damn, that bastard. I'm going to kill him. I hate him. Sunuvabitch, that asshole..."
Konohamaru sweatdropped, and turned to Sakura motioning.
"Let's get out, he's going insane."
Sakura and Konohamaru darted out, leaving Sasuke to mutter to himself.
Naruto's eyes darted around the room. Three days passed and only a very select few actually survived the damn forest. Naruto was so surprised considering the only thing dangerous about it is the monsters. Sure, there was fluffy, the abnormally large liger. But that thing was allergic to daisies! Come on! Daisies! You could give the big guy one whiff of a daisy and it would be out like a candle. Naruto guess it was kind of good to weed out the hopeless cases that couldn't even fend off a daisy-allergic liger. Kami, these people are ridiculous.
Naruto had made a clone in the place of Aoba Yoki because Jounins had to be present at the front of the room for the opening part of the preliminaries. According to the Tou-san, the testers like to make it seem like the preliminaries are because of the number of participants. But in reality, they just want to make sure that the genin they are going to place in the finals didn't get to this point just by cruising on the work of their teammates. From this point on, it was every man for himself.
Naruto lazily looked back at the supposed batch of genins. Ibiki thought they were a strong bunch considering they survived his test. Naruto just thought the guy was becoming soft. These genin looked like they couldn't even hurt a fly. They all looked tousled and dirty from the three days out in the terrain, fighting wussy ligers and feeding off bugs. Naruto inwardly chuckled.
Minato decided that Naruto should be exam proctor. Naruto openly disagreed saying he had to fight in the preliminaries himself. Minato however pushed on saying that Naruto needed an alibi which, at the moment, was not present. In the village, Namikaze Naruto was not on a mission or seen anywhere around. This brought out suspicion. Where could the Hokage's son possibly be?
Naruto sighed as Minato continued his speech the genin.
In the front row, the heirs to the major clans of Konoha were present. Aburame Shino, Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru, Sarutobi Konohamaru, Uchiha Sasuke, and Yamanaka Ino. In the second row, the rest of the Konoha Genin resided. Aoba Yoki, Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten. Behind them was the three Suna nins, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. And behind them were the Oto nin, including Kabuto. Minato coughed and Naruto looked back up. Minato looked at him and nodded. That was his queue. He looked at the group of genin again.
"Hello hello, Participating Genins. I'd like to first congratulate all of you for passing the second part of the test. I have to say, it was a really hard test.-" Yeah right, that was a walk in the park.
"-On that note, it's time for the last test. The test that determines whether you will be a chuunin or not."
The genin started to shuffle awkwardly as Naruto waited a bit for added effects.
"However, because there are too many genin here, we are going to have preliminaries. During the last portion of the test, we have Kages, Daimyos, and other important figures attending. We can't waste their precious time with dozens of matches that have no time limit. Therfore, we're going to cut that number down."
The genin gasped and started to murmur among themselves.
"Above me-"
Naruto pointed upwards to a large screen.
"-is a screen that will randomly select two names. The two genin will fight until one either dies, yields, or is unable to continue the match. If I personally have to stop your match, there will be severe consequences. Consequences that will be decided and delivered by myself"
Naruto let that information sink. Sasuke suddenly felt ill as he remembered the last time his punishment was decided and delivered by Namikaze Naruto. Apparently, Sasuke wasn't the only one who heard of, or was part of, Naruto's punishment. The jounins also started murmuring, wondering if it was a good idea to have Naruto give out punishment. It was well known that the twelve year old kid was merciless.
"If that's all clear, then let's get started shall we?"
an:/ Another chapter? Another chapter...