I'm really sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Good thing is that I've finally got the Exam-from-Hell out of the way. So, hopefully, I'll be able to formulate the next chapter sooner.
Corselli: Minato is back in the seal, but he's unable to converse with Naruto or materialize, because Naruto's blocking him for the time being. He's still there.
Afira: I knew I was forgetting something in the last update. I'd meant to show what 'Izou' meant. Izou means legacy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Unfortunately.
Chapter Fifteen: The First Test
"It's time to take the first test," Ibiki told all of the Genin. "Come up here and take a tab. It will tell you where you are supposed to be seated. After that the tests will be handed out."
"A paper test?" Naruto murmured to himself while Sakura glanced at him worriedly. Naruto wasn't good with written tests, at least, that was the way it had seemed while they were in the Academy. She wondered why he didn't seem as worried as she expected him to be.
As everyone took their assigned seats, Naruto found himself sitting between Hinata and Daichi.
"Fancy meeting you here," Daichi whispered silkily. "It must be fate that we're sitting next to each other."
"Not likely," Naruto snorted. "Just a bad stroke of luck."
"You wound me, Izou-kun," Daichi said in a mock hurt tone.
"Don't mess with me, bastard. I don't have the patience for this," Naruto hissed in anger.
Daichi was about to say something when a kunai shot out and lodged itself on the desk top between them.
"There will be no talking during this Exam," Ibiki said sharply and Daichi thankfully backed off.
Ibiki then proceeded to go over the rules of the tests and with each rule, the setting grew more and more tense. Finally, a smirking Ibiki began to list the rules.
"First rule. You get ten points. Each one you get wrong costs you a point. Lose all ten and you fail. Second rule. This is a team event. Passing means you need a combined score of no less than eighteen. Third rule. If you are caught cheating, and let me add you will be. You lose two points. And the fourth and final rule, if even one of you loses all your points, your whole team fails along with you. Good luck." The man's grin at the examinee's faces could rival that of hungry shark.
Naruto could feel Sasuke's glare and Sakura's worried look. It was like they didn't believe he could pull this off.
Glancing over the questions, Naruto noticed that they were indeed hard but the would-be Hokage had resources most people didn't.
'Kyuu-chan?' he called out tentatively. He hoped the kitsune would answer. She hadn't spoken a word since he and Minato had argued. Naruto was getting worried that she was mad at him.
'I could never be mad at you, Naruto,' Kyuubi reassured the blonde child. He visibly relaxed at the sound of her voice.
'You were so quiet… I got scared.' Naruto confided.
~I had just wanted to give you a little space,' Kyuubi told him. 'I thought that if I spoke up, you would think I was trying to side with your father.'
'Kyuu-chan is Kyuu-chan. You have your opinions. He has his,' Naruto stated. 'I wouldn't shut you out just because of our argument.'
'That's good to know,' Kyuubi replied, sounding relieved. 'And Naruto… do try to forgive your father. He's an idiot, but he was just worried about you.'
Naruto remained silent for a few moments. He knew that too, but the hurt was still too much for him to let go. He'd address the situation later.
He heard Kyuubi sigh. 'Very well, I'll leave the matter alone,' she conceded. 'What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?'
Naruto was about to speak up when he felt something wrap around his hand and guide it, and the pencil held in his grip, to the test. Snapping out of his mindscape, he saw a small vine wrapped around his hand, guiding it as answers were slowly scribbled down onto his test page.
'Nani?' he thought to himself in confusion before turning to the source of the vine. The green appendage was coming from the wrist of a certain Tanaka Daichi, who was smirking as he stared at him through the corner of his eye.
"What's the deal?" he hissed out quietly as the vine finally retracted as it finished helping him answer the ninth question.
"I thought that you could use a little help, Izou-kun," Daichi responded in a whisper. "It wouldn't be any fun if you were knocked out of the running so early in the game."
"How kind of you," Naruto spat out scathingly, through gritted teeth. Daichi simply chuckled.
"It amuses me to see you play hard to get," he drawled as more vines came out of his arm, slowly slithering across the floor.
Naruto jolted as he felt two of them crawl up his leg, while another wrapped itself around his waist. He glared daggers at Daichi.
"What the hell are you doing?" he yelped as quietly as possible, scrambling to get the vines off of him without causing too much of a scene.
"Just having a little fun," the Iwa nin responded as innocently as he could.
Hinata eyed Naruto in concern. She didn't like how Daichi was tormenting her friend. "Naruto-kun, do you need help?" she whispered quietly.
Naruto was quick to calm Hinata's worries. "I'm fine, Hinata-chan. I can handle this jerk," he assured her before using his wind chakra to sever the vines. They went lax, much to Naruto's relief, but only for a moment.
Naruto's eyes widened in horror as said severed vines came back to life, now free of the limitations produced from being bound to Daichi.
"Knock it off," he hissed as he tried to subtly remove the wriggling vines. It quickly became too hard to try to do this without getting noticed.
The more he cut them up, the more vines there were crawling along his body and the more Naruto grew frustrated.
Daichi just observed him with an irritatingly smug smile on his face.
Hinata frowned at him with as much contempt as she could muster; eyeing the vines using her byakugan. She wanted to help Naruto but she girl feared that if she tried to knock the vines out using her juuken that she would accidentally hit Naruto instead. She didn't want to hurt him.
Naruto was close to lose any self-restraint he had when, thankfully, sand started to seep into his clothing, wrapping around each and every vine. His eyes fell on Gaara, who was eyeing them subtly, and then he saw Gaara's hand close. Instantly, the vines stopped moving.
Naruto let out a breath of relief, mouthing a thank you to his red-haired friend, who nodded at him in acknowledgement after sending a death glare at Daichi.
Daichi pouted as he saw his fun was ruined but he didn't dare mess with Naruto with Gaara watching his every move.
Naruto sighed. It looked like the worst was over for now. All that was left to do was handle the tenth question. He hoped it would come soon… he was currently feeling very, very disgusted with the mixture of sand and crushed vines lingering under his clothes and on his skin.
He busied himself scribbling something down on the back of his test. He concealed the message with a seal. He smirked, wishing he could be able to see the Sandaime Hokage's face when he unearthed the message…
When it was finally forty-five minutes into the test, Ibiki finally spoke up.
"Before we get to it," he told them. "There will be a new rule."
There was a collective groan amongst the Genin. As if the other rules hadn't been bad enough.
"Call them the rules of desperation if you want." the torture and investigation specialist's grin only continued to grow. "First of all, you must decide whether you want to take this question or not."
"Why would we not take it?" Temari inquired.
"If you choose not to take it, your points will go to zero and you will fail," Ibiki stated.
"Then of course we would take the question!" another Genin exclaimed hotly.
"The next rule… if you take the question and answer incorrectly, that person will never be able to take the Chuunin Exams again. The same goes for his or her team," Ibiki allowed the information to sink in.
There was an immediate uproar.
"What kind of rule is that?" Kiba yelled. "There are guys who have taken this Exam before!"
Ibiki just smirked sadistically. "That would make you guys the unlucky ones, because this year, you have to deal with me and my rules."
This caused a huge deal of distress among the Genin. They didn't know what to do.
"I'm giving you an escape, however," the interrogator added, like an afterthought. "Those who choose not to take the question will be able to take the Exam again at a later date."
'Both choices are bad,' Sakura thought with a small frown.
"Those who don't want to take the question, raise your hand," Ibiki said. "Once your number is confirmed, you can leave."
'This is one hell of a gamble,' Naruto thought to himself, looking pensive. What should he do…? What would his Tou-san say? He shook his head violently. 'Stop thinking about him!' he scolded himself.
All around him, people were beginning to raise their hands as they lacked the confidence to take the risks that came with the question. That by itself seemed to add to the pressure for those who chose to stay behind.
"So what are you going to do, Izou-kun?" Daichi whispered. "Are you going to take it or not? Do you really have what it takes?"
Naruto tried to ignore Daichi's taunting but the Iwa nin kept at it, until Naruto finally could take no more.
"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, startling everybody. "I'm not going to run away! I'll take it! Even if I have to stay a Genin forever! That's not going to change the fact that I'm going to be Hokage one day. You can bet on that!"
The entire room was dead silent after that. No one knew quite what to think of Naruto's outburst.
'That's just like Naruto,' Sakura thought with a small smile. She should have expected he would react like this.
"I'll ask you again. Your entire life rides on this decision. This is your last chance to quit," Ibiki warned Naruto.
"I don't take back my words," Naruto said stubbornly. "That's my nindo."
Ibiki scanned the entire room, seeing how everyone that remained was now confident. 'He wiped away all of their doubts. This kid is something else,' he thought to himself.
"Everybody that is still here… I congratulate you on passing the first test!" he declared, causing all of the Genin to gape in shock.
Fifteen minutes later, after Anko's ridiculous entrance, she had led the Genin away for the next test; Ibiki was collecting all of the papers when he came across Naruto's. The seal array on the back caught his attention. Above it were the words:
For the Hokage's eyes only.
'I wonder what that kid's up to,' Ibiki pondered, deciding he'd go see the Sandaime after he collected all of the tests. He wondered what Naruto was going to tell the old man.
"What are you doing?" Shikamaru asked Naruto as the boy unintentionally gave everyone a show as he frantically tried to rid himself of all the lingering sand and vines that stuck to him. He'd already taken off his jacket and was scrambling to get his shirt off when Shikamaru forced it down.
"I feel disgusting!" Naruto complained, shuddering. "I want to get this grime off of me!"
Shikamaru's eyes fell on the sand that was slowly falling off of Naruto due to his frantic movements. "How did you end up like this anyways? We were inside," he queried.
"Blame Mr. Tall, Dark, and Creepy over there," Naruto retorted, gesturing at Daichi, who was standing with his teammates. "He freaking tried to molest me with those stupid vines of his!"
Shikamaru looked sharply at Daichi upon hearing that statement. He hadn't thought that the Iwa nin would go so far to mess with Naruto.
Daichi met his eyes and smirked maliciously.
A flash of anger went through Shikamaru at Daichi's shamelessness but he was smart enough to realize that the other Genin was trying to bait him. He didn't rise to the occasion.
"You should be more careful around him," Shikamaru told Naruto firmly.
"I'm well aware of that," Naruto shot back as he finally shook loose the sand and vines from under his shirt. As he was doing so, Shikamaru noticed a strange outline under the shirt and he traced it back to the chain that Naruto had around his neck.
He placed his hand over the protruding object. He frowned. "Is that a kunai?" he asked, tracing it. It was too oddly shaped to be an ordinary kunai…
He backed away startled as Naruto smacked his hand away. "Don't touch that," the blonde said sharply, closing a hand over the blade protectively.
"What is that, Naruto?" Shikamaru pressed, curiosity peaked.
"A gift," was Naruto's simple reply. He wasn't going to show the three-pronged kunai… not even to Shikamaru.
"A gift," Shikamaru repeated. Given how protective Naruto was being as unforthcoming about it as he was about his mysterious guardian angel.
Speaking of that angel…
'Shouldn't this guardian have helped Naruto when he was being harassed? Before, whenever someone was bothering Naruto for the slightest thing, the guardian would act up. It happened even when Naruto and Sasuke accidentally kissed. Why wouldn't it help Naruto when the Iwa nin was messing with him?' Shikamaru frowned. It just didn't add up. Then a thought came to him. He hadn't felt the presence around Naruto since the day before. 'Is the guardian… gone?'
Shikamaru didn't know much about the guardian angel except for the fact that he protected Naruto almost fanatically. The only reason that he wouldn't be doing that right now was if he wasn't there. That meant Naruto was vulnerable. Naruto is strong, Shikamaru knew that, but it had always been a reassurance to him to know that no matter what, Naruto would be safe, even when he was in over his head.
"Where is he?" he asked Naruto straight out. The blonde looked at the lazy genius with a raised eyebrow.
"Where is who?" he shot back, not sure what the Nara was talking about.
"Your guardian," Shikamaru explained. "Where did he go? He's always with you, but he's not now. Where is he?"
Naruto's eyes hardened for a moment before his face went blank. He looked completely and utterly detached.
Now Shikamaru was even more worried than before.
"He's gone," Naruto responded. Shikamaru blinked. He'd half expected Naruto to deny that he even had a guardian.
"I can sense that," the genius of Team 10 commented. "But where… and why?"
"Where he went is none of your business," Naruto shot back. "And as for why… it's because I sent him away."
"Why?" Shikamaru pressed. "He protected you. He would have kept you safe."
Naruto exploded.
"Oh, so I'm incapable of protecting myself?" he snarled angrily. Shikamaru recoiled as if struck.
"No, that's not what I meant!" Shikamaru tried to defend himself. He wasn't worried about Naruto's ability to hold his own in a fight. He was more worried that something like what had just happened with Daichi would happen again.
"Oh, really?" Naruto snorted. "That's what it sounded like to me! Guardian or no guardian, I'm perfectly capable of defending myself, from any threat. I don't need you or my To-…" He broke off immediately. He was letting his emotions get the better of him.
"Your what, Naruto?" Shikamaru questioned. The word that had been coming out of Naruto's mouth hadn't been guardian, that's for sure. The boy had almost spilled the real relationship between him and the angel.
"Just… leave me alone, Shikamaru," Naruto stated before stomping off.
Shikamaru tried to go after him but found his path blocked by none other than Gaara.
"I believe Naruto told you to leave him alone," the Suna nin declared with narrowed eyes. "It would be in your greater interest to honor his wishes."
Shikamaru opened his mouth to argue but when he saw the sand around Gaara's feet begin to stir restlessly, he shut it. He wasn't going to get anywhere at the moment. He'd have to let the matter go… for now.
One thing was certain… something had happened between Naruto and his guardian. Something that was big enough to make Naruto force the guardian away from him. Shikamaru was determined to find out what that was. This was the reason that Naruto was so upset… and he was certain that Naruto wouldn't be happy again until the situation was resolved.
"Are you alright, Naruto?" Sakura asked the blonde, sounding concerned. She could tell how agitated he had become talking to Shikamaru.
"I'm fine," the hidden Namikaze reassured her. "We just had a small disagreement, that's all."
"About what?" she pressed.
"I'd rather not talk about it," Naruto said. Sakura looked uncertain about letting it go, but seeing the dim look in Naruto's eyes made her respect his wishes. Now wasn't the time to try to figure out what was wrong with her normally vivacious friend. She knew it would only make him push her away.
'There seems to be trouble in paradise.' Sasuke thought, secretly pleased. Not only was Naruto shunning his own guardian, but now he was upset with Shikamaru as well. It looked like things may be shifting into his favor faster than he thought.
"Did you want something?" the Sandaime asked Ibiki when he entered his office.
"I believe there's something for you to see," the interrogator told the Hokage, handing him Naruto's test paper. "That Uzumaki boy left this for you."
Sarutobi frowned as he saw the seal. He hadn't been aware that Naruto knew anything about Fuuinjutsu. He couldn't be learning it by himself. It was a difficult topic and it was risky to be learning it without supervision. He doubted Kakashi could have taught Naruto much on the subject. He was no master of it himself. Jiraiya hadn't been in Konoha for ages… so how did Naruto start learning it?
Pushing that thought aside for a moment, he unlocked the seal, curious to see what message lay underneath it. What he saw, however, made him freeze in disbelief.
I am Namikaze Naruto.