AN: This, my lovely readers, is the chapter that deviates from my story 'The Mad King'. The first and last part is where the major changes are, but they basically changed the entire dynamic of the story.
The mission with the massacre and bandits still happened, but in this story, it has more of an impact on Shikamaru than Naruto. You will understand it later. Naruto will also NOT be a lunatic, he will be cold, calculative, merciless, and have a very dark sense of humor.
That's all for now, so...
LET'S START!
-Scene-
The day had finally come. This was the day that any genin throughout the elemental countries who had any talent has been waiting for.
The chuunin exams has finally started.
"What a drag."
All was not roses and confetti though, and one Shikamaru Nara portrayed that perfectly. Despite the fact that he had never been more fit, he was still the most sore he has ever been at the same time.
"Oh shut it Shikamaru. You're going to enter, no matter if I have to drag you all the way or not."
One Naruto Uzumaki on the other hand was getting quite annoyed at one of his team-mates. During the whole week of training, the lazy genius had done nothing more than moan, complain and muttering that damn phrase of his. One would think that after his first kill he would have become more active, but somehow he had become even lazier!
Either this was his way of coping, or his brain short-circuited after his first taste of blood.
At least he had managed to change his lazy team-mates wardrobe a tiny bit. His clothes was mostly the same, except that his jacket now was longer, covering his entire torso while being of a dark-grey color. Shino had also changed a bit, but it was mostly just a darker trench-coat. Naruto didn't even have to force them, Iruka had basically demanded it, saying that they will be doing a lot more night-time mission later, so a darker wardrobe would be the best.
'Dear god no, It's bad enough with a lazy genius. A lazy retard I WILL kill during this test.' He thought, an evil smirk stretching across his face which, of course, was unseen under his hood.
Shino only sighed as he listened to the two, silently following Naruto as they entered the academy.
For some reason a lot of people had cramped up the corridor at the second floor. Pretty strange, especially since the exams were located on the third floor.
Ascending the stairs, they found themselves on the third floor, and an annoyed Nara sighed.
"Retards, can't even count how many floors they have ascended."
"What'cha mean?"
"Didn't you read the sign? It said third floor while we still were on the second floor. Those idiots can't even see through extremely simple illusions... Maybe this is going to be easier than expected."
"Or it will be harder, since all the better teams just walked straight up." Shino chimed in, puncturing Shikamaru's bubble while Naruto smirked at the prospect.
"You're finally here I see." Iruka said, leaning on the wall just outside where the exams were supposed to be held.
"A good ninja comes neither early nor late, but at the exact time." Shino said, his monotone voice sounding somewhat cool for once.
"True, but a good ninja should also be ready to act no matter the timing." Iruka refuted, earning a nod from the students without hoods.
A silence ensued, and it was quite clear Iruka was nervous about them.
"Iruka, calm down. We'll be fine." Naruto said, somewhat calming Iruka.
"I know, but... Just... Just don't go overboard, okay?"
"No promises." The blonde said too Iruka's increasing dismay.
As the students went past the teacher, Iruka couldn't help but worry. For some reason though, his fears was less towards his own students, and more towards those they will meet.
'I wonder... Did Naruto notice that it was directed towards him?'
Iruka's internal problems were totally lost on the students as the doors closed behind them. A cozy group of over a hundred wannabe chuunins had turned around at the sound of the door opening and was now glaring murderously towards them.
"I expected more." Naruto muttered as he lead the way towards a corner, his team-mates glancing questionably at each other as they heard that.
"He's actually right. That was somewhat tame, even if they're only genin." All Shikamaru got out of that was a silent "hmm" from his high-collared team-mate.
"Something's sucking the intent out of the air... My bugs can't locate the exact source, but there's a strange chakra in the air."
"Shit, just like that man we fought a while ago. Naruto, we've gotta be careful, last time we had Iruka with us, but if someone has similar powers in this exam... We might die."
"You really believe I'm so stupid as to fight an undeniably stronger opponent? I rather like living thank you very much." He had, of course, also felt whatever power that permeated the air, and he couldn't deny that it had a somewhat similar flair to it.
This though, this was something different.
"You guys feel it, don't you? The entire room is filled with killer intent that's stronger than what the entire room manages to manifest. Now, where oh where can the source be..."
"Naruto, even if we manage to find the source and separate it from its team, what guarantee do we have that we are stronger than this person?"
"There are no guarantees that we will survive at all, but that is to be expected... Heh, this kinda reminds me of our last mission. They stood no chance." A cruel smirk was felt from underneath the hood, a small disregard for life noticeable from his tone of voice.
"What do you say, wanna spill some blood today? Come on, just like that time." He directed at Shikamaru, his arm stretched and his hand clenched into a fist.
That sentence seemed to hit something within the boy as he turned his face towards the wall with a pained grimace.
"Killing is not something one should be proud of Naruto. One simply enough can NOT like killing, I mean... How can one like taking someones life?"
"And why shouldn't we? They deserved it, and you know it. Why shouldn't we like killing the scum of the earth that would basically do everything to get their petty pleasure." He leaned closer to the pained genius.
"And don't say you didn't get a slight thrill from it? Your shadows seemed to like it at least." His grin turned into a smirk as Shikamaru opened his eyes to glare at him.
"Not everyone's like you. Not everyone has stopped feeling regret."
"Ohh, I still feel regret, just not towards scum."
A moment later, several columns of smoke appeared at the end of the room, revealing several ninja's. Just in time too as Shikamaru was a moment from trying to murder Naruto, and it also halted Team 8 who almost had gotten to them.
"Pipe down you brats!" A heavily scarred man who looked somewhat like a bear shouted.
"I'm Ibiki, and I'm the proctor of the first exam. Welcome to hell."
-Scene-
"What a useless test, a waste of my time. You guys have any idea what one can do during an hour?"
"For once I agree with you; That test was just... Troublesome."
This was what ran through the mind of basically everyone that had passed the first test. It was a written exam where they didn't have to answer a single question, they only had to sit through it until it ended.
"I mean... Fucking hell, 'You must be ready to sacrifice everything for the mission.' No shit! Any ninja that doesn't know that should be freaking kicked out of the force immediately!"
Being loud is something Naruto rarely was anymore, so hearing him yell like that was shocking for his team-mates... Or it would have been shocking if it wasn't for the fact that they were somewhat pissed themselves and actually agreed with Naruto.
With an annoyed sigh, Naruto turned his head towards Shino. "Are they out?" He whispered as they were closing in on the next location for the next exam.
"Of course." He nodded. "And the supplies are ready." He added, pushing the glasses further up his nose.
"Good. Once we get in you get started, and we will agree on a location to meet at. Remember that no matter what, you HAVE to be at the location within 12 hours."
Shino's bugs had showed themselves to be more useful than expected. They were nigh impossible to spot, and if they didn't feed on the victims chakra, impossible to feel, which made them quite invaluable for scouting and information gathering.
For some reason, despite the fact that Iruka knew about it, he never removed the bug that Shino had planted on him. This proved to be quite useful since they managed to gather some pretty interesting information.
Their next exam would take place in training ground 44, also called The forest of death. (This was confirmed by the second proctor Anko) Apparently they had to get to the middle of the forest where a pretty huge tower stands. The catch was that they had to get two scrolls, a heaven scroll, and an earth scroll.
The only problem was that they didn't know the time-limit of this test, but hopefully that would be answered by the proctor who screamed at everyone to shut the hell up.
"Alright maggots, welcome to the second exam! Now, before we start I have to make you sign this."
"What's that?" Kiba asked, looking as arrogant as ever while Hinata glanced over at Team 10.
'Is that?' The shy girl thought as she stared upon the hooded individual of the team. She hadn't seen her love for almost three months, yet he seemed so different despite the fact that she couldn't see his face.
'He looks so... So prideful, so strong and confident... But why am I so afraid of talking to him? Why do I feel that he is dangerous? Why do I fear him?'
'What the?' Ino thought as she followed the shaking girls line of sight. 'Naruto? But why does she seem so afraid of him?'
"Kiba." Ino whispered at the dog-boy. "I think we should change target. Let's find someone else than Naruto's team."
"What? Why?" He said as he, along with Ino stared at the miss-fit team.
"Because Hinata is scared of Naruto."
"Afraid of... Akamaru, sniff them out!"
"What will that help?" The platinum-blonde asked, staring at the little dog as it barked at it's owner.
"Akamaru has a rare ability even for our clan. With just a single sniff he can gauge the enemy's strength and chakra... And I think you're right for once. Let's keep away from them, there's something weird about not just Naruto, but the entire team, and I really don't wanna know what that is."
While the two of them had whispered at each other, Hinata had signed all of their forms, knowing that her team-mates wouldn't back out, and neither would she.
"Five days to get one scroll? Man, I hoped it would be harder." Shino simply shook his head at the blonde.
"One's wish doesn't always get fulfilled."
"Pretty crude map she had. Could have sworn the forest was larger though." The pineapple-headed one in the team said, hoping to get the test over with as fast as possible so he could sleep.
As they got their scroll, an earth scroll, they quickly agreed that Shikamaru would be the one to bear the scroll. They, just like everyone before and after them was led to their respective gates.
Being bored while waiting does strange things to a persons mind. It usually doesn't end well, and when you philosophize about the eventual death of man-kind, one might have let certain individuals wait a bit too long.
"She's staring at you, you know." An extremely familiar monotone voice said as it broke the silence.
"So I've noticed. I kinda wonder why."
"Hmm. If I had to make a guess, I would say that she adores you." Shino, being one who never cared much for secrecy within the team said, earning a double-take from the hooded blonde.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. That's what I think, nothing else."
"Adores me, ehh?" He muttered, stroking one of his cheeks with a finger as he stared at the petite girl as she walked past with her team, her face turning red as she noticed the hood move with her own movement.
A minute later the proctor from before yelled something the examinees both anticipated and feared.
"THE SECOND EXAM HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!"
-Scene-
It had barely been 15 minutes, and yet there had been several screams of despair already.
"Man, some people just suck." Naruto muttered as he sat on the ground, watching Shino slowly but surely writing a much more detailed map of the area. Not that he didn't enjoy the screams, it just seemed to early for his tastes.
His team-mate's bugs were truly a wonder sometimes. Resilient to most climatic changes like deserts, rain, snow and more, able to drain a large amount of chakra, being almost impossible to locate, and with an able Aburame (Which Shino thankfully was) they are perfect scouts.
Silence reigned in their little hiding spot as a random bug occasionally returned to Shino, which made him draw the map more and more detailed. Really, if it wasn't for the fact that they could be killed incredibly easily, Naruto would almost have wished he was an Aburame himself.
Just almost though.
"That should be good enough." Shino whispered to no one.
"Okay." He said, raising his voice. "The fence is a perfect circle with a diameter of 20 kilometers. In the middle stands the end-location: The tower. East of the tower, running through the entire forest is a river. There are several caves along the river which my bugs are checking out as we speak. The west-side of the forest has a much denser fauna, but can be considerably safer to rest at since it's away from the water."
"Now Shikamaru, if you would?" He said as he put two other scrolls over the first scroll.
As Shikamaru leaned over the papers he went through a quick series of hand-seals.
"Secret technique: Shadow duplication." He muttered under his breath, barely touching the top-paper with his hands. At first it seemed like it failed, but slowly, the map that Shino had made appeared on the paper.
"You guys should really memorize the map, I am unsure just how long this technique lasts. Shadows are finicky, and are often quite hard to predict."
As Shikamaru stood up after finishing the technique, he felt something cold and sharp pressing against his throat. Looking over at Shino, he could quickly see why.
"Maps, eh? My, this will be useful." The one behind Shikamaru said.
'Mist ninjas.' Shikamaru thought.
"My my, someone from the bloody mist. How exciting." The blonde said, his hood having been pulled back by his captor.
"Kinda sad we have to kill a cutie like yourself blondie, but whatever." His captor said, the teen and her team-mates slitting their throats at the same time.
"Heh, too easy." The one who held Shikamaru muttered.
A moment later, a sword fell on his head, instantly killing him.
"WHAT THE-" Her scream instantly stopped as she felt her body freeze up, invisible hands choking her. As she looked over to her remaining team-mate, all she could see was an enormous amount of what looked like bugs cover something remotely human.
A moment later she felt her neck snap, then she felt nothing.
"Not a bad plan Shikamaru." A familiar voice said a moment later, three figures appearing from the trees.
Something between a grunt and a sigh escaped from him as he stared upon the dead girl.
"Why did it have to be a girl?" He muttered to himself, looking away from her corpse as he instead shifted his gaze towards where the other two was.
"You've become quite good with the earth clones Naruto. I find this somewhat ironic since you had no talent with clones in the academy." Shino said as he picked up the maps, distributing the pieces of papers between them.
"What can I say? Doing the illusion clones are kinda like fitting an ocean through a straw, which is pretty much not possible."
"With enough patience it's possible, but I see your point."
"Nice, a heaven scroll." Naruto said after he rummaged through their victims inventory.
"We should get to the tower as fast as possible, but I have a feeling the direct route is going to be... Tricky. It's apparently quite common during tests like this that a good chunk of the teams basically make a large perimeter around the finishing goal. What a drag." He hated being smart sometimes. Being ignorant almost looks like less troublesome... Almost.
"There really aren't any other path's than straight through though." Naruto muttered as he cleaned the blood from his sword.
"That... May not be entirely true." His surprise was unfathomable by the fact that he didn't hear any snapping necks. Seriously, they turned their heads so fast that he didn't even register it.
"Close to the fence, a small distance from the river is a cave. The bugs that explored the area found nothing of interest until they sensed chakra from a wall, which revealed an illusory wall. There's a tunnel there, leading to some kind of room. Past this room is another tunnel which leads to another cave, and this cave is about 500 meters away from the tower."
"A tunnel... But still, that cave is probably used by at least one team... But then again, if there is an illusion at the other entrance too, then we can use it for a surprise attack." The pineapple-headed genin said, ignoring the smirk from his colder companion.
"We started from one of the southern gates, so it isn't that far. Let's go now, before someone gets to the cave before us."
-scene-
"It seems like we're in luck."
Shikamaru couldn't help but nod at his stoic comrade's words. He really wasn't up for another fight to the death, he had already killed one person that day, he really didn't need anymore blood on his hands right now.
Naruto walked along the wall, his sword unsealed as he dragged the sword along the stony surface. The blade emitted a weak blue color, signaling that he pushed a small (For him) amount of chakra through the blade.
"Are you sure that your bugs didn't make a mistake Shino? I can't sense anything form this cave, and my blade should have been able to break any illusion that covered the wall."
The stoic boy frowned a bit as several bugs crawled along the wall, sampling the rock for any semblance of residue chakra.
"Strange, they have never been mistaken before. I could have sworn that there was an illusion here..."
Naruto frowned under his hood, letting his ministration with the sword stop as his gaze swept across the hollowed out rock they now stood inside.
"I do not doubt that there once was an illusion here, but is it possible that there has been a cave in here that broke the illusion and sealed of the tunnel?"
His only answer was an even larger amount of bugs that covered the wall, his eyes lingering on the single bug that Shino somehow held a conversation with as it stood on the boy's outstretched finger.
Shikamaru had began to rig up some traps at the entrance while he waited for an answer. Better safe than troublesome had become his motto, though rigging up traps was, despite it's necessity, still as troublesome as ever.
"It seems your theory might be correct, but this cave-in is... Suspicious, to say it the least." He walked closer to where his bugs reported the illusion last was noticed. "There is one question here whose answer leads to two different questions. Is this a natural occurrence? If yes, then the question is why now of all times? If no, then who started it?"
The blonde's frown deepened a bit as he followed Shino's finger as it dragged across the surface. Suddenly it stopped, resting on a narrow, unnaturally straight crack.
"Naruto, stab your sword through here and tell me when you meet resistance from the sword-tip."
The blonde hesitated just for a moment before nodding, his sword already in movement as it easily tore through the small crack.
Suddenly, it stopped.
"Approximately three feet in." The blonde grunted as he tore the blade out again, his eyes still following Shino's finger as it lowered, still following the crack. The crack suddenly turned, making a suspiciously sharp edge.
"Do the same above the edge, and one beside. If you meet resistance from the same depth, then it will prove that this was not a natural occurrence."
"Three feet." He grunted as he followed the order. He tore it out again before aligning the blade horizontally, the metal once again tearing through the narrow crack. A moment of silence followed as the blade once again stopped.
"...Three feet... You said that there was a room in the middle of the tunnel, right?" He got a nod from the now thinking Aburame. "I wonder what can be so important down there that someone is willing to destroy one of the only entrances..."
Naruto sealed his sword as he put his left hand on the blockage, his right hand making a seal.
After a moment of concentration he whispered out his technique.
"Earth release: Hiding mole technique."
He stood there for five seconds, then five more seconds went by before he grunted in frustration.
"Whoever did this knows at least an adept amount about seals, most likely much more than me at the moment. The stones repel any chakra that tries to pass through it, making my technique useless right now."
A "Hmm..." was the only answer he got from Shino as Shikamaru came back, having heard what he said.
"Is it possible for you to enter the stone walls that aren't directly connected to the cave-in?" He asked, getting two pair of unseen blinks from his team-mates.
Naruto moved a small distance from the rubble before trying again, his hand moving through the solid surface this time.
He disappeared completely only to appear a minute later, his lower face, the only part that was partially visible showing both surprise and annoyance.
"Whoever this person is, he's both a genius and a retard. He put a seal on the cave-in, the part where most people would try the technique. When that didn't work, most people would give up, not even trying the other parts of the wall. In short, I can enter the tunnel from the side." He reached his two hands out of the wall. "Grab on."
Not wasting a moment, they both latched on to the shorter teen's arms as they, along with Naruto sunk into the wall.
They hadn't been taught the 'Hiding Mole Technique' yet by Iruka since it was originally meant as an assassination technique, so the experience of sliding through solid matter was... strange. It didn't feel like water like they originally anticipated, but at the same time it didn't feel like going through gravel either. The best comparison they could come up with was... Butter. It felt like moving through butter, as strange as that sounded.
Half a minute later, they found themselves standing in a long, somewhat narrow corridor, Naruto panting slightly as he leaned on the wall for support.
"Seems like concentrating on keeping the stone intangible around more than one person takes a lot out of you, despite your somewhat enormous chakra reserves." Shino noted, earning a small nod from the slowly recovering boy.
"That, and it's my first time having to guide anyone else than myself... Definitely harder than expected." He said as he pushed of the wall, steadying himself as he felt his exhaustion leave him.
Shikamaru looked around corridor they now stood in, somehow feeling a bit creeped out by it.
"What is this place anyway?" He asked, troublesome ringing through his head as he watched Naruto lower his hood. No reason having it up when they basically were underground.
"Maybe a last-resort safety room just in case the Hokage Mountain is either destroyed or cut-off?" The somewhat paler boy said as he ran a hand along the wall, trepidation growing inside him as they slowly walked along the path.
"Unlikely, seeing the location of the outer entrance. Hiding a secret refuge in this forest, possibly the deadliest forest in the world seems somewhat contradictory." Shino mumbled as he crossed his arms, trying to wave of the growing tension that enveloped the group.
"There's something in the air... It feels... Dead, decaying almost... I've never felt something like this before." Naruto whispered as he summoned his blade once again, ready for anything as he placed the blade on his right shoulder.
The other two nodded as an almost incomprehensible "Troublesome" left the shadow-user. Why did they always get into the creepiest and bloodiest situations? He blamed Naruto. Why one might ask, but there was no particular reason. It didn't really help that trouble always seemed to follow the blonde boy.
That nothing happened only served to heighten the jittery feeling that ran through them, and it wasn't long before they stood in front of a door, the construct obviously there to separate the room from the two corridors.
"What happened behind this door?" Naruto whispered as he ran a shaking hand across the wooden surface of the door. "What could create such a... Such a miasma of death and disease... This is beginning to feel more like a morgue or a tomb than anything else."
He turned his head, watching his team-mates, trying to reduce the terrible feeling in his gut.
"Shikamaru." He called out, snapping the boy out of his daydream... Or was that possibly a day-nightmare? He couldn't really blame the sweating and shaking teen though.
Shikamaru had actually hit the nail pretty accurately when he said that Naruto didn't feel remorse anymore. He wouldn't go as far as to say he liked killing those bandits on their last mission, but there was a certain enjoyment he got out of their despair-filled faces. He couldn't help but savour the terror at the time.
Shikamaru though was somewhat of an enigma. While he physically showed that he disliked killing, his shadow told a different story. It jumped from bandit to bandit, almost like some sort of elegant dance. Was there possibly something more to the Nara clan's shadows?
A nod from the Nara and Aburame signaled that he should proceed. With a sigh he grabbed the door-handle, only one thought running through his head as he turned it.
'To not feel regret do not equal not feeling fear.'