Disclaimer: Check chapter 1 for my disclaimer...
Chapter 9 – Exams…
Naruto finished relieving himself and then returned to the bedroom to dress. He wondered who the blonde and brunette women were. He would find out soon enough. Naruto finished dressing in some casual clothes and entered the living room quietly.
The blonde woman looked at Naruto, but upon closer inspection he noticed her eyes were ready to burst with tears. "Tsunade-sama, I would assume," he said quietly, as the woman replied with a nod.
"I'm happy to make your acquaintance," Naruto said, then shook his head and smiled at Hinata, and added, "I'm sorry; my head still isn't quite all there, and the lessons from Hinata-chan are supposed to help. I hope I didn't offend you with what I said."
Tsunade disappeared in the blink of an eye and was standing in front of Naruto. Naruto knew the reputation of the woman for having super-human strength, and thus he cringed, waiting for her to hit him. He felt two arms wrap around him and a gentle kiss on the forehead. He opened his eyes to sight of two massive breasts in his face, he decided to close his eyes rather than incur the wrath of either his fiancés or Tsunade.
Tsunade hugged Naruto, but then felt heat upon her chest and slowly released the boy, and noticed his massive blush. She grinned at this, and then lowered herself and hugged him again. She then whispered into his ear, "I missed you, Naru-chan."
Naruto opened his eyes to the sight of Hinata and Haku with smiles and tears in their eyes. "What's going on?" he asked in his confusion.
"If what we think is true, we will have a big surprise for you. Now we want you to mold some chakra into this paper," Tsunade explained, as she released him and handed him a sheet of chakra paper.
Naruto concentrated and watched, as the paper split in two, not something new to him. One side began to crumble about half way and the other side soaked about half way. Naruto looked up in confusion, and asked, "What does this mean?"
"Well gaki, it looks like you have three chakra affinities. The seals messed with your chakra and allowed the Kyuubi to come into prominence. Apparently its chakra is wind based. Your natural chakra affinity is both water and earth. I wondered how you could have such lousy control and do the water based jutsu so easily. Hime here might have an answer for you if you'll allow us to run a couple of tests," Jiraiya explained.
Naruto looked down at the paper and nodded.
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The group left the apartment and headed towards the hospital. Tsunade looked around and said, "You know this is at the back end of the Senju district."
The three teens just nodded, as they continued into the market, only to bump into a couple of Hyuuga. Hinata gasped at the sight, and whispered, "Neji-niisan…"
Neji turned and glared at Hinata, and said, "So the failure of the main house finally shows her face and with the unwanted of the village."
A hand was placed on his shoulder, and the woman connected to it said, "Neji-kun, please take the food back to the manor. I will be along shortly."
Neji bowed and took bags of groceries from the woman. "As you wish Hitomori-sama," he replied, and left towards the Hyuuga manor.
Hitomori glared at Hinata and then at Naruto. "So the demon and his slut have shown themselves, die both of you," she exclaimed, as Hinata grabbed her head and fell to her knees.
Naruto looked at the woman, as he caught Hinata. "What are you doing to her?" he asked in a frantic voice.
Hitomori looked down at Naruto in confusion, and asked, "Why aren't you dying, demon?"
Hitomori turned when someone tapped her shoulder, and said, "I removed your seal." Jiraiya then punched the woman in the face, and angrily shouted, "Do that again and they won't find you. Attack either my godson or his betrothed and you'll have to deal with me, Hyuuga or not. If I see any of you use the seal again, I'll find a way to remove it from the cadet branch and turn them loose on the head branch. Do I make myself clear?"
Hitomori nodded, as she picked herself up and left the scene quickly. ANBU quickly appeared, and Naruto recognized one of them as the cat masked, purple haired ANBU from the day of the attack. "What happened?" she asked.
"Tell sensei that there will be a complaint filed today from the Hyuuga and that he WILL ignore it. We will be by later to clear it up and file our own charges against the Hyuuga," Tsunade explained, as the ANBU nodded and disappeared.
Naruto picked up Hinata bridal style and then made haste to the hospital. Tsunade did a quick diagnostic and determined that there would be no permanent damage if she received immediate medical attention.
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After getting Hinata situated and leaving Haku to watch over her, Naruto, Jiraiya, Shizune and Tsunade headed to a little known wing of the hospital known as 'bloodline services'.
Naruto waited, as the technician drew several vials of blood from Naruto. Naruto was surprised that the woman doing this was kind and compassionate, as she poked the needle in his arm and when she finished. Though she said few words, none were mean or violent, as they were all kind and caring.
"Tsunade-sama, the tests you requested will take a few hours, but the special one will take a couple days or so to finish," the kind woman explained.
Tsunade smiled at the woman and then ruffled Naruto's hair. "Thank you Momo, I look forward to the results. We more than likely will be in Hinata Hyuuga's room keeping her company," she replied, as she guided Naruto back towards the room where Hinata was staying in.
Naruto looked up at Tsunade with a quizzical look, and asked, "Why are you being so nice to me?"
Tsunade sighed. "First, I knew your mother, and should have been informed that she was near death. Second you deserve to have someone be nice to you other than your fiancés, and if what I think is true…" she said, then gave a stern look at Jiraiya who shared her look, as she continued, "then you're more special than you could imagine to me, Naru-kun."
Naruto continued to be confused, as they entered Hinata's room to find Hiashi and Sarutobi in the room. Naruto was immediately in front of the Hokage. "What will you do now? The Hyuuga have assaulted my fiancé and if Jiraiya hadn't removed the seal over my heart I would be dead now, possibly with the Kyuubi running amok on this village," Naruto angrily explained.
Sarutobi looked at Jiraiya, who just nodded. "Well name the Hyuuga who did this, and we will punish them," Sarutobi said.
Naruto looked at Jiraiya who handed a scroll to Sarutobi, and said, "Hitomori Hyuuga assaulted Hinata. The list of the ones who put seals on Naruto are, as follows: Fugaku Uchiha, signed by none other than himself, Ibara Yamanaka, with an anti-rapist seal, I would charge her with both molestation and assault of a minor, no matter what her intentions, and the one over the heart was from a Hyuuga, no specific authors could be determined. The storage seals, chakra blocker on the neck and filter seal had no finger prints per say. So what are you going to do to compensate my godson?"
Hiashi nodded and smirked. "As the Hyuuga head I will tell the main house that if they attack Hinata again that you, Master Jiraiya will put the same seal upon them all, with a twist. They will be subject to the branch family. Also the Hyuuga will compensate you for this assault. My one question is this: where was my nephew while this was happening?" he asked.
Naruto scowled, and replied, "He was sent away with the groceries like the servant she believed he was. He also insulted Hinata-chan."
Hiashi sighed at this, as he wasn't surprised that his nephew held a grudge again Hinata for that night. 'You will have to figure out that it was your father that made the choice, but right now you're just not ready to hear it,' he thought to himself.
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Hinata was released the next day after a quick check to make sure she was fine. The three spent the rest of the day in the library reading up on being a chuunin, as in duties and expectations. Naruto kept on having problems with the math, with a little help, he quickly figured things out, and his frustration level was at an all time low. He was learning without difficulty. The final thing that was to be done was to eat dinner and get ready for the chuunin exams the next morning. Naruto actually fixed a nice dinner without ramen, although it did have noodles. They all happily went to bed and fell asleep.
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Naruto woke up early and found Tsunade and Shizune asleep on his couch when he got up to start the shower. He smelled Tsunade's breath, as it smelled heavily of sake and quickly averted his eyes when her ample bosom nearly spilled out of her blouse, as she shifted positions on the couch. Naruto quickly grabbed some extra comforters and covered the sleeping women.
Hinata got out of bed and noticed that the shower hadn't been started and walked to the doorway only to notice Naruto covering Tsunade and Shizune with comforters on their couches. She smiled warmly, as Haku put a hand on her shoulder and smiled warmly at both Naruto and her. "He does have a big heart, doesn't he?" Haku asked quietly.
Hinata nodded, and replied, "Yes, but I think them being here has more to do with what they're not telling us. I know she asked for tests to be run. One set were bloodline and I'm guessing the second would be genealogy, but I can't figure out what she wants to accomplish with that."
Haku nodded and left the pondering former Hyuuga to get the shower ready. Hinata watched, as Naruto set a couple of extra places for Tsunade and Shizune at the table, and then came into the bedroom and closed the door behind himself. "We need to hurry if we want to make it to the exams on time," he said, as he kissed her cheek and headed to the bathroom.
Hinata smiled and followed Naruto into the bathroom. 'I know we are not showing him a good example about how to live, as a noble, but I just feel free when we live like this. Maybe it's because we don't have to worry about doing the wrong thing,' she thought to herself, as she disrobed and helped her fiancé and sister get ready for today's events.
Twenty minutes later all three left the bathroom. While Naruto quickly dressed, Hinata helped Haku with her bindings. Hinata watched Naruto prepare an ungodly amount of stuff for their test and seal it into scrolls for them. "Naruto-kun, why so much stuff?" she asked, as she finished getting into mission gear. She also noticed that each of them wore the camouflage version of their clothes. Naruto's was burnt orange, white, and black, while Haku's was brown, black, and dark blue, and Hinata's was black, dark purple and lavender, all were in patterns meant to confuse an enemy if they were in any type of terrain.
Naruto looked up and smiled wide, "The second part is a survival test, so I want to make sure we are prepared. I figured we would need about a week's worth of rations, and about the same in weapons, but then I tripled the amount of weapons, because we might go up against other shinobi."
"Good call Naru-chan," Tsunade called from the now open doorway. She grinned a grin similar to Naruto's, and added, "Thanks for the covers, but we could have used them when we sneaked in last night. Shizune is cooking you a good breakfast so that you will be ready for the test."
Naruto blushed at being called 'chan', after some teaching by Hinata he learned that a parent or older relative would call their child or younger relative with the chan suffix, instead of kun. "So, are you taking the role of mother, aunt or grandmother?" he asked playfully.
"For now I will take either mother or aunt, you choose," she replied with a warm smile.
"Well, since I basically raised myself, you can be my aunt," he replied, as Tsunade winced at the 'raising himself' portion, and just nodded at being his aunt. Naruto then asked, "So, Obasan, are you going to watch the first part?"
Tsunade smiled and shook her head, as the four left the bedroom and entered the kitchen to a pleasant aroma. "Nope, the first part is all you guys, as there can be no interference from us," she explained, as everyone sat down to a fully setup breakfast, along with a smiling Shizune.
"Thank you for fixing us breakfast Shizune-san," Haku said.
"You're welcome Haku-chan," Shizune replied with a smile, then added, "Now eat up! You might need it."
The breakfast was eaten with only small talk between the five people.
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Naruto and his team arrived at the academy to find groups of people from different ninja villages entering the building. Tsunade gently hugged Naruto, Hinata, and Haku in order, as Shizune followed suit. "Now show them what you can do Naru-chan," Tsunade said with a smile, and added, "Pass or fail I will see you after the exam."
Naruto nodded, as he led the girls into the building. They came to the second floor only to find a large group of people gathered near a door labeled 301. Naruto leaned his head between the girls, and asked, "We're supposed to go to room 301, but isn't this the second floor? Hinata-chan is there a genjutsu present? And if so should I get rid of it?"
Hinata looked around and noticed the shimmer near the sign and the two boys standing in front of the door. "There is a genjutsu, Naruto-kun," she explained.
"We should leave it and move on, as this might be a test in itself to weed out those who aren't ready," Haku said, as she added her input.
Naruto nodded, as Hinata lead the way around the genjutsu. Naruto and his team rolled their eyes, as they heard Sasuke proclaim, "Take down this genjutsu!"
All three thought the same thing, 'Idiot!'
Kurenai met them at the door with a smile, and said, "I'm glad you all came here together. I wish you luck and be careful, as there are some powerful teams in there."
She moved out of the way, as the three entered the room.
Instantly Naruto's team saw several faces they recognized. Kiba and his team, as well as Shikamaru and his team were present.
"What a drag, the outlanders made it too," Shikamaru exclaimed with a smile.
Naruto looked at Choji and asked, "So how did you get the lazy one up here and on time, no less?"
"His mother told him that she would be 'troublesome' if he didn't make chuunin," Choji explained happily.
Naruto nodded, as he looked around the room. He felt the killing intent from several teams, and most especially from Gaara himself. Naruto smiled warmly at Gaara, which stopped the killing intent immediately, only to be replaced by a confused look on his face. The other person who caught Naruto's attention was a girl sitting on a desk with a Waterfall band on her right arm. She was dressed in white, red eyes and had lime green hair. She seemed to exude power like Gaara and he did. She looked over at Naruto who just nodded and smiled. She smiled and blushed at Naruto.
Kiba walked next to Naruto and said, "Down tiger, leave a few for the rest of us."
Naruto chuckled at his friend's comment, but was surprised when the girl walked over and stood before Naruto. She appeared to be about fifteen or so. "So cutie, you ready for this test?" she asked.
Naruto smiled, and replied, "As ready as I'll ever be. My name's Naruto Uzumaki."
She giggled and said, "My name is Fu, I'll be looking for you and your friend here in the next portion of the exam."
Kiba whistled, as she sauntered back to her team. Naruto and Kiba both noticed the glare from one of her teammates. Naruto was sure now that she was a jinchuuriki, just not which one she carried. "So you like what you see Kiba?" he asked his friend, as Hinata wrapped an arm around his waist. She smiled, as she noticed a slight waver in the smile on Fu's face. Naruto quietly said, "Be nice Hinata-chan, as she's like me."
Hinata looked up at Naruto and asked, "Are you sure?"
Kiba looked confused, as Naruto nodded and replied, "She has a similar feel to Gaara, but not as malicious."
The doors opened, only to have Naruto and Kiba wince, as they heard a squeal of Ino glomping onto Sasuke. "Get off, Ino," he growled.
Naruto, Kiba, and their teams just laughed, as Sakura and Ino began to bicker. The sudden laughter was broken by another Konoha genin with silver hair and glasses. "I would keep it down if I were you, as there are lot of teams here that would eat little newbies like you for breakfast," he warned.
"Who are you and why should we listen to you?" Sasuke asked.
The boy smiled and pulled a deck of cards out of his mission pouch. "Because I've been through this test before, by the way my name is Kabuto," he explained.
"How many times have you been through this test?" Shikamaru asked, as Naruto noticed a raised eyebrow from his friend, so he watched this Kabuto cautiously.
"The chuunin exams are held every six months and I've been in them seven times, so I've been able to collect a lot of data from the participants," Kabuto explained.
"You have information on participants?" Sasuke asked, as Kabuto nodded.
Kabuto put a card down and began to spin it under his index finger, and to most it showed that he was applying chakra to the card. It showed a picture of the elemental nations, a bar on each nation, and a number that seemed to represent how many participants each nation had entered in the exams, ranging from Taki (Waterfall), with only three teams, to Konoha with over forty teams. He then explained what they were seeing, "You see each of the nations have entered some teams into these exams, with the new Sound village and Waterfall entering with the weakest showing, while the home village has the strongest."
"Do you have information on people in this exam?" Sasuke asked, as Naruto rolled his eyes, but thought it a good plan to figure out what opponents could do before is better than finding out when you ran into them.
"Yes I do, do you have anyone in mind?" Kabuto asked.
"Yes, Gaara of the Desert, Rock Lee of Konoha, and Naruto Uzumaki, also of Konoha," Sasuke replied gleefully.
"No fair, you already know their names," Kabuto said in a mock pout. He then pulled a card out and concentrated on it, as a picture of Gaara appeared, he began to read from it.
"Let's see, Gaara of the Desert, now this is interesting, he has had many missions, but has never injured in the completion of all his missions. Rock Lee, under Maito Gai, along with teammates Neji Hyuuga and Tenten, he appears to be a taijutsu specialist. Now finally, Naruto Uzumaki, he's a fairly well balanced shinobi, but seems to lack any skill with genjutsu, he is partnered with Haku Momochi and Hinata formerly of the Hyuuga. It seems that they were all taught by Zabuza Momochi, but are now currently under Kurenai Yuuhi, and have performed quite well with no failed missions," he finished with a smile.
Naruto caught movement out of the corner of his eye and watched, as three Sound shinobi assaulted Kabuto for insulting the Sound village. As it appeared to come to actual blows Ibiki appeared with a whole slew of chuunin proctors.
"Now listen up maggots! I'm in charge and you will sit down and shut up!" Ibiki yelled at the gathered genin. He then continued, "Now if you will find your assigned seats, I will explain the rules, and I will not allow questions until I'm finished explaining or your team will be disqualified!"
All the teams found their seats, and Naruto found himself sitting between Fu and Sakura, lucky him.
Ibiki smiled, as everyone found their spot and finally sat down. "Now here are the rules. The tests in front of you can be turned over when I say 'begin' and not until then. You will each start with ten points each, but if you or any of your teammates are reduced to zero your whole team will be failed. For each wrong answer you will lose one point, but for each time you're caught cheating you will lose two points. So if you're caught five times by the proctors spread throughout the room, your team will then be failed. If there are not any questions we will be able to start the exam. The final question will be held until the last fifteen minutes of the exam, as you'll have an hour to complete this exam. Any questions?" he asked.
As no one appeared to have any questions, he said, "You may begin."
Naruto turned the paper over and read the questions. He then thought about the rules and came to a conclusion, 'Either you know the answers or you will have to cheat and get them.' Naruto reread the questions again.
'I can answer about three of them, and that should be enough for me to pass the test, I could try to cheat once to see if I can get away with it,' he thought to himself. He then answered the three he actually knew. He then glanced over at the papers on either side of him and then at the proctors, he noticed them looking intently at the examinees, and occasionally writing things down.
Suddenly a kunai passed below his face and embedded itself in the test on the person behind Sakura. "Number one-seventeen, you and your team fail," Ibiki proclaimed with a grin.
Naruto inwardly smirked, as he had garnered two more answers from Sakura and now had Ibiki's attention. "Ibiki-sensei?" he asked, as Ibiki nodded to Naruto. Naruto feigned fear, but Ibiki could tell he wasn't serious, as Naruto asked, "Did you just try to kill me?"
"No, but I could have, now get back to work!" Ibiki ordered.
Naruto finished the other two questions, and even if he had been caught they would be a wash. Naruto listened carefully, as he heard several other teams in quick succession being disqualified for cheating. Naruto watched carefully, as other teams figured out ways of cheating. Naruto turned his paper over and waited for the last fifteen minutes to arrive. During his wait he also met the smile of Fu, Hinata and Haku. Naruto also noticed Sakura slump and he felt her chakra change, and thought to himself, 'Must be Ino using Sakura for the answers. Good idea, as she was the brainiest one in our class.'
Ibiki cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Now put down your pencils and turn over your tests," he said with authority. He waited until everyone had completed the task, he then continued, "Now for the last question. For those of you with big heads listen carefully. Being a shinobi is about deception and misdirection. It isn't always about who can use the biggest jutsu. Now for the final question, you may take this question, but there is a catch, if you do, one of your team will automatically stay a genin for the rest of their lives, no chance for promotion ever. Now who wants to continue?"
Naruto's team stood up as one and left the room, as he exclaimed, "Too rich for my blood! See ya, Ibiki-sensei!" Several other teams left the room quickly, including the Sand, Waterfall, several Konoha, and many other teams.
Sakura looked over at Sasuke and Sai. Sasuke glared at her, as if saying, 'You better not leave.'
Sakura not wanting to be forced to stay a genin stood up and glared back at Sasuke as Sai walked to her side. "So dickless, are you coming?" he asked, as the remaining genin began to laugh.
Sasuke not wanting to hear any more ridicule stood, and headed towards the door. As the door close behind him he heard Ibiki proclaim, 'All of you who remain have failed.' Sasuke sighed relief, as his team had saved him from failing out of this exam.
The teams were guided into room 302. There they found those that had actually passed the first portion of the exams. Sasuke paled at the sight of the woman up front. First Naruto was talking with her like an old friend. Second her outfit left little to the imagination. While her chain shirt didn't show skin, he was sure what she looked like under the shirt. 'Great another one of the loser's friends,' he thought to himself.
"Alright maggots! My name is Anko Mitarashi, and I'm your proctor for the second portion of the exams. I want you to meet me tomorrow morning at nine am at training ground forty-four. Bring along your mission equipment. If you need directions, ask your jounin sensei. Now get out of my sight!" Anko yelled, as the assembled genin left the room to find their sensei.
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A/N: seemed like a good spot to stop.