Naginata cornered Naruto after training, though he was in his female form.
"What do you need, Nagi-nee-chan?"
Naginata liked the blond for a few reasons. One, he called her nee-chan despite being a few months younger than she was. Two, he never complained when she beat the snot out of him and instead asked for help when needed. And three, because he fully expected her to be better than him and had no problems with strong women.
Besides, she liked foxes.
"Dad told me that you happen to be a Wind element and I was wondering if you wanted to sign a summoning scroll? I already got permission from the clan in question but it's up to you."
"Are they anything like Ranma-sensei's birds? The ones that cuss him out if they get wet?" asked Naruko.
"They're the wind variants. Plus having you sign it before you run into a certain sage is their way of one-upping the toads."
"COOL! Where do I sign?" said Naruko, practically bouncing.
Naginata pulled out the scroll, and showed him what the dragons had told her about the chakra-version. They would need help finding someone who knew how to use the hand signs, but until then Naruko could learn from Naginata.
"U-zu-ma-ki Na-ru-to..." Naruto spelled out carefully. Ranma had helped him a lot with his kanji.
"Now all we need is someone who knows the signs."
"Which ones?" asked Anko, who had come to invite Naginata on a girl's night out.
"Summoning. One of the clans I ran into on the way here asked if I could get the child of the last Toad Summoner to sign the contract before a certain sage got to him first. Apparently they wanted to one-up Gamabunta as a joke."
"Jiraiya's kid?" asked Anko incredulously.
"Not him, the one after him. Though Jiraiya might be the sage they keep talking about."
"But the only known summoner to use toads was... NO WAY. You're his kid?!" said Anko in shock.
"Dad said he wasn't supposed to talk about it till Naruto was a chunin. Hokage's orders."
"That's just bullshit. If anyone deserves to know his own parents, it's Naruto! All the hell the villagers have given him, and his parents were them? They don't even deserve to kiss the dirt under his feet after the way they treated him!" said Anko.
"Not my problem. So what are the hand signs he needs? I only know how to use the one based on KI."
Anko shook her head, and showed Naruto how to do the hand signs. After they learned chakra control from Kurenai, Ranma incorporated it into their daily training. They were now as proficient at water walking as a Mist nin, often doing it instinctively.
"Now, since I know for a fact you have a tendency to overpower jutsu outside of the shadow clones, I want you to water walk for thirty minutes before you even think of trying to summon. Got it?" she said ominously. She was highly curious what scroll Nagi-chan had Naruto sign. Not toads, snakes, monkeys, slugs, phoenix (she had told Anko that hers were similar to the birds, but in a different element), or dogs. And definitely not any form of cat since A) Ranma hated them and by proxy so did the genin, and B) Naginata had an allergy to them.
Once Naruto came back, no longer in his henge, he went through the summoning hand signs, only for Anko to stop him.
"You got three of them wrong. Do it again, but this time slowly."
"We should probably move into the forest as well. No sense in alarming the shinobi...besides, I really don't want to explain why I happen to have this particular clan."
"Sure."
Five times Naruto tried to put the signs together, only for Anko to stop and correct him. Finally, when he had it down exactly, she let him channel chakra. But not before he had to water walk since it had taken him an hour before Anko let him do that much.
"Summoning Jutsu!" said Naruto, giddy with excitement.
He was so excited he accidentally channeled too much and brought out what appeared to be a boss summon.
Naginata was impressed. It took her a full year into her training with the summons before she could bring him out.
"Not bad for a runt. Bringing out Seiryuu-san is quite an accomplishment."
"NO FREAKING WAY! YOU GAVE HIM THE SUMMONING SCROLL TO THE DRAGON CLAN?!"shrieked Anko in shock.
"Among the Summon clans they are called the Wind Riders."
Anko would have fainted from sheer shock if she were a normal woman. Instead she gaped openly.
"Hmm? Manda's hatchling. He really isn't pleased being stuck with Orochimaru you know. He complains repeatedly how that fool gives his kin a bad name and how he wishes that you would summon him more often," said Seiryuu.
"Manda hates Orochimaru?" she said in shock.
"Something about taking the whole snake theme a little too far for his tastes. He mentioned if you summoned him a bit more he would hand over the contract to you just to piss off Orochimaru."
"Thanks for the heads up. Next time I go on a mission I'll be sure to bring him out."
"If I were you I'd just throw some of your torture victims his way. He doesn't care where you get his 'sacrifices', so long as someone pays up."
"Make clean up a hell of a lot easier..." muttered Anko. She needed to sit down before she passed out. She had a lot to take in today.
"Now, as for the little fox-child. Don't look so surprised, Gamabunta is a bit of an idiot when drunk on his own sake. I can see your father in you, but it is clear you inherited your personality mostly from the mother."
"You know my parents?"
"Minato Namikaze was one of the few humans we would be willing to work with, if that damn toad sage hadn't gotten to him first and we had another summoner. As it is, I can now rub it in Gamabunta's face that I got to you first. And Kushina...we always had a laugh watching her."
As Seiryuu settled in, Naruto listened with rapt attention to the tales of his parents. Apparently the summon clans liked to travel and chat with others when not being called for battle. Seiryuu was friends with the Toads, Snakes, pretty much anything reptilian. Suzaku, the Phoenix Boss, was friends with any summon that used fire a lot. Which included foxes, apparently.
When Seiryuu left, he gave Naruto permission to bring out his smaller cousins, even if it was just to chat.
Jiraiya was about to spy on some nice ladies in Suna when the toad was abruptly summoned back. He tried to bring out another, only to find he was blocked for some reason.
It wasn't until the next day that he found out why.
Gamakichi, one of Gamabunta's sons, told the sage what was going on.
"Dad's pissed because Seiryuu-sama got to your godson first."
"What?"
"Seiryuu-sama? The Boss summon of the Dragon clan summons? He just registered one Naruto Uzumaki as the new chakra-summoner yesterday afternoon, and Dad is really pissed. He also said that next time you tried to bring him out you are a dead man for not taking your responsibility to your godson more seriously."
"Where the hell did he get his hands on the Dragon Summoning scroll?!"
"He didn't. However their KI summoner happened to be in the area and let him sign the chakra version with the clan's permission."
Jiraiya knew what this meant. Next time he needed Gamabunta for anything he was screwed.
Perhaps a trip to Konoha before the third exam was required...
It was the big day. Tsuki had finally gotten her second tomoe and earned a phoenix pill from Ranma (turned out the Phoenix clan made them in exchange for some other products with the Amazons) and took the first hot bath in over three weeks.
"Now what have I said about the Sharingan?" asked Ranma.
"No copying other jutsu unless it's beyond my current skill level or I can react properly to the image it gives my brain."
"And?"
"No genjutsu unless it's an enemy or it-which-shall-die-painfully," Sasuke repeated. Ranma had been highly unimpressed with the Sharingan once he learned what it actually did. Stealing hard earned techniques simply by looking at them? No way in hell was his student taking a short cut.
He ever caught Sasuke using his new eyes to steal techniques that he could easily learn with a little hard work, he was kicking the kid's ass so fast that any progeny he had would be feeling it. And he wouldn't help him get the Lightning Summon scroll from the Noble clans. All the Noble Element clans were interconnected, it was just a matter of finding one.
Or, in the case of Ranma and Naginata, be approached by a human representative and taken there. The Noble clans tolerated ninja, who used chakra as a cheat to get stronger, but they admired true martial artists who got that strong the hard way...through pure hard work and hellish training. Tachi, Ranma's son, had his own summoning contract with the Lightning tribe.
"Now, I've done all I can to prepare you two and Haku for this chunin exam. I overheard the first bit is a paper test, but you didn't hear it from me."
"Got it."
"So, I want you to use that brain of yours to help Naruto out."
"I'll do my best, but don't expect much."
"Hey, if I could get though high school after missing nearly a year of it, then Naruto should have no trouble with an exam."
"Coincidentally...could I got into the exam as Tsuki? The last thing I want is to deal with that damn fan club."
"Not my problem. Keep an eye on that red head you ran into earlier, okay?"
"See you after the test."
"Remember, no one said you had to go through the damn school to get to the third floor! I imagine there are people who got there early, so look for the odd symbols!" yelled Ranma.
Sasuke flashed him a grin.
"So we're going to skip the school and head straight to the third floor?" asked Naruto.
"Yup. Nagi-chan, we'll leave the window open so you can jump in," said Sasuke. He had two containers on him, one hot and one cold. Half of either would work on his curse.
Haku, Tsuki and Naruko walked up the wall, found the correct window with a bunch of different headbands, and waited a few moments for Naginata to jump into the room.
Once the genin from the other villages ascertained that they weren't a threat, they ignored the four. Though that was after Naginata leveled a contemptuous look in their direction.
"Tsuki-san! Naruko-chan! Haku-san!" said Hinata, waving at them.
"Hinata-chan!" squealed Naginata. Hinata was her first female friend since leaving the Amazon village, with Tenten being the second. The two got along like fire after Hinata's Jyuken skills impressed Naginata, and Tenten shared a similar love of weapons that she did.
Shino and Kiba winced. Naginata had been particularly unpleasant to deal with since she was raised to believe men were weak...with the exception of her father of course. Fortunately she backed off because Hinata spoke in their favor. But that was after Kiba made the mistake of hitting on her before Hinata explained who she was.
The bruise Naginata left on the dog boy had finally healed up. His sister and mother had laughed themselves sick when they heard who did it.
Tsuki winced when she saw Ino, who was looking around for Sasuke to glomp. Fortunately they had a convenient lie for why she was taking the exam and he wasn't.
"If you're looking for Sasuke, don't bother. He's still training his newly awakened Sharingan and decided not to come," she told the girl.
Ino looked disappointed, then cheered herself up with the knowledge that Sasuke was still cooler than any other boy her age. Tsuki winced, and Shikamaru shared a pained look with her.
Out of the rookie twelve, only the girls were unaware that Tsuki was in fact Sasuke in cursed form.
(Sakura's team passed by the skin of their teeth, and it was highly unlikely that most of them would make chunin. On the plus side, Sakura was currently interning at the hospital when her teacher noted she was adept at medical jutsu. She was still a damn harpy though.)
"So who's the new girl?" demanded Ino.
"Saotome Naginata," said Nagi-chan before adding to that since clearly most of the rookies knew her father, "Yes I am related to Ranma Saotome. He's my father."
"Why Naginata?" asked Sakura, who had finally come in with her team.
"It was either name me after a weapon or let my mother name me after some form of feminine product. Most of the warriors in my village were named after hygiene and make up products. My own mother is named Shampoo for kami's sake."
Ino and Sakura winced. Yeah, it was better to be named after a weapon used to kill than after something you used to clean your hair or make yourself a little pretty.
"So why are you here? I can only assume you're not a ninja," said Shikamaru.
Tsuki chuckled evilly.
"Hokage-sama was too stoned to realize he signed the permission slip for her to join in the exam despite not being raised and trained her. By the time he came to his senses it was already too late and the paperwork had been filed," Tsuki gleefully informed them.
Shikamaru gave her a speculative look.
"You play shogi?"
"A little. Not very well, mind you, but enough to beat Dad."
"Mind playing a game sometime?"
Naginata gave him a suspicious look, but remembered what her father said about the clans here. Judging by his demeanor his only intention was having someone new to play with, not courtship. She was definitely the definition of 'troublesome woman' and thereby not what he wanted to date. Nara men were notoriously lazy.
"I could probably brush up on my game," she said finally. Shikamaru grinned. She looked at Chouji and didn't show a hint of disgust at the fact he was so big or the food he was eating.
The rather chubby boy tensed at her gaze.
"You any good at fighting?"
"I'm still trying to earn my armor and raise my chakra controls, but I'm decent at my clan's techniques," he admitted.
"You look like you would be fun to spar against," she said. Kiba winced.
Naginata's idea of a spar was less of a brawl and more of an ass kicking.
Chouji watched her reactions to him before he grinned back. Clearly she didn't think that just because he was big it meant he couldn't fight.
Seeing the looks the other rookies gave her, she told them that she had come looking for her father.
"Dad left the village seven years ago as per the agreement he made with the elders. Grandma Cologne said I could follow him once I passed a certain test of hers, and it took me a while but I did it. In exchange I had to bring new blood back to the village along with any new fighting techniques. Having dad around the village showed them that they needed to add to the collection."
"So what sort of village did you live in?" asked Ino, the gossip queen.
"An Amazon one," said Naginata, not about to explain her village.
"Amazon, as in a village where the women reign supreme and the only way to get married is to be beaten in combat. Outsiders are welcome but not encouraged. Females who beat the champion during contests are scheduled to be executed or the one who was beaten is taken to a cursed training ground as punishment for their weakness. Males, on the other hand, are immediately engaged to the female whether they like it or not in order to add to the collective gene pool. Unless, of course, they are already promised to another in which case the only way to solve it is through the Heaven and Earth solution where the second female is considered an honorary Amazon and trained in their ways. Men in the village have to beat the female in order to even be considered as a husband," said Tsuki.
Naginata's eyes were wide.
"How in the hell did you know all that?"
"Found a book in my house. I have no idea where it came from or why it was there, when as far as I am aware my clan has never been to China."
Ino's eyes were wide.
"You come from a village of warrior women? What's it like?" she said eagerly. That was a village she could get behind!
While Naginata gave her the basic run down (mostly because she still wanted to know where the hell Sasuke found a book on her village's laws) Naruto chatted with the others. Ever since Hinata snapped at Hiashi, she had dropped the stutter entirely. Though that could also be because Anko had gotten her hooks into her.
Where the sweet and innocent Hinata had been was now a total bitch who was ready to take any comers. Anko had been so proud and Kurenai had hit the liquor in order to come to terms with the change.
All of the gossiping stopped when Ibiki and the others finally showed up.