EDIT: another chapter edited

Well, I was able to dig out some time and thus I give you the third chapter of my fanfic. Hope you'll like it.

Without further delays, lets get down to action:

Chapter #3: Gennin Exam – part II

The Burden

Chapter Cover: Ibuki's saluting with her right hand, in which she's holding a kunai... plus she winks to the 'audience'

"Re-think my strategy?" thought Kai, while getting back on his feet. "What's to re-think? It was bad from the very beginning. I don't need to re-think it; I need to think of a new one…"

"He walked into the forest" whispered Takaru with a smirk. "This is my chance" and with those words, he left his hideout.

"Seems that taijutsu is useless on this guy" noticed Kusari with his eyes narrowed. "Good thing that I didn't intended to count on it…"

-That time, in the forest-

Naruto was walking thru the forest. He didn't seem to look around, but his senses were as sharp as they could get. He could sense even a falling leaf. Still he was able to dodge the kunai thrown at his back only thanks to the sound it made while cutting through the air.

The jounin rolled on the ground and turned around. It was only then that he spotted Ibuki squatting on the branch of the nearby tree.

"Oh, it's you" he said simply. "Nice try. I couldn't sense you till the last moment. But I guess it should be obvious that from the five of you, you're the one who moves silently. After all, you are an heir of Tanken clan…"

Those words seemed to piss the young kunoichi off as she picked out more kunai and jumped off the tree, throwing the knives at her opponent before her feet touched the ground.

Naruto jumped back to avoid the attack but still he had to use his kunai to deflect few of the blades thrown at him. Before he knew it, Ibuki was already passing him from his left with the intend to attack from behind.

She prepared the shuriken and as soon as she found herself looking at the blond's back, she threw them strait at him. Right before her eyes, the image of her sensei just sort of disappeared in the air, but the girl was able the sense that he just jumped up and without even looking up, he released kunai to the sky.

"You've got good reflexes" she heard a voice coming from behind. "It's a shame that you've concentrated only on throwing weapons…"

In an instant Ibuki turned around, picked out a katana that she was carrying on her back and attacked the jounin. She was swinging her sword with incredible speed, but Naruto was able to dodge the blade every time. The kunoichi didn't even notice when he smashed her hands with his own hands, thus causing her to let go of the katana.

"Seems that I've disarmed you" announced the Kyuubi vessel with a tiny smile. "What now?"

-Same time, elsewhere-

"Where could Naruto-sensei go to?" thought Kumiko, while jumping from one tree to another. "He was able to defeat Kai so easily. Typical techniques ain't gonna do the trick…" he concluded as she kept searching the forest.

-Back to Naruto-

Ibuki had her shuriken prepared, but the blond wasn't standing where she wanted him to, so she decided to use a trick. The girl threw the shinobi stars only from her left hand, which Naruto dodged by jumping to his right.

"Perfect" thought Ibuki and while turning to the side the jounin jumped, she threw shuriken from her right hand.

Having a tree behind him and bushes on both sides, Naruto jumped up to avoid the attack. He grabbed a branch of the tree but at the very same moment he saw a string attached to it. Before he knew it, a big wooden pale was coming right at him.

The man pulled out a shuriken from his holster and threw at the lines that were tied to the pale. The star cut both of the lines and the pale missed the Kyuubi vessel just by inches flying bellow him.

However, when he looked around, Ibuki was nowhere in sight.

"Figures" he thought calmly. "After all she is of the Tanken clan…"

Naruto jumped off the tree and observed the area. The bushes moved only because of the wind and no leaves were falling down. The girl had hidden well.

"I suggest you come out" Naruto said finally. "After all you're the one who needs those bells. Further more, your clansmen will be pretty disappointed if you'd to fail this exam…"

"And just why do you think…" he heard Ibuki's voice coming from behind. "That I give a damn about how they'd fell about me failing this?" she roar, unleashing a new barrage.

When the blond turned around, shuriken were already flying towards him. He was able to dodge them by keeping in motion, but the kunoichi kept throwing more of her stars at him.

Seeing no other way out, Naruto picked out his shuriken while still dodging Ibuki's attacks and threw them the way they would deflect the projectiles thrown by his opponent. That surprised the preteen and she stopped for a second. But that was enough for the whisker-marks.

He grabbed her and pushed her against the tree. Before she could react to that, he nailed her to it with his kunai. She tried to break free but her sleeves and trouser legs were nailed to the trunk with too many knives.

"For a while you won't be able to break free" announced Naruto calmly. "Looks like you got defeated with your own weapons. You should practice a little more. Plus, if you're only going to rely on your throwing skills, you'll probably never be able to defeat a higher rank shinobi…"

"And what do you care?" yelled Ibuki, turning her head away.

"Look, I know that your clan specializes in weapons, but…"

"I don't care about my clan!"

Naruto stopped talking after hearing this. Ibuki just lower her sight:

"Why is it, that just because I am of the Tanken clan, everybody sees me as one? Just because I was born in it, it means that I'm like them?" the blond kept quiet, so she continued: "You know for what our clan is famous in Konoha, don't you? We're this village's greatest assassin clan. If there's a mission that requires killing secretly, jounin from my family are always asked first to take the assignment. Practically, we know about death as much as the ANBU, maybe even more. But I don't think that the fact we're so popular in Konoha is because of the respect. I'd say it's more about fear."

Naruto still kept quiet.

"The same is for me" she went on after a short pause. "Whenever I tried to become friends with anyone, it wasn't kindness that I felt from them. It was fear that some day I'll just stab them in the back. I had many 'friends', so how it is possible that I felt so alone?"

At this the jounin looked to the sky and said:

"It's the burden that everyone carries. Once marked, you have to carry it and try doing everything that is in your power to shake it off. You say that everyone sees just a member of the Tanken clan in you… so why don't you prove to them, that they're wrong?"

Ibuki looked confused at him as he continued:

"Sitting down and giving up is always the easiest way out. But standing up and facing it is what makes people strong. Instead of whining about it, you should do everything that's in your power to change it…"

The kunoichi lower her sight once more.

"Whether you accept it or not, you and Kai are very alike" announced Naruto thoughtfully. "He too carries a burden, just because of his name. But there's a big difference between you two; while you're complaining about your situation, that just because you wear the Tanken name, you're seen as one, Kai wants to prove that people who see him as the loser, because of his name, are wrong…"

"Tanken fight, to kill" said the Kyuubi vessel matter-of-factly. "You know it just as well as I do. You don't want to be seen as a Tanken? Why won't you find a different reason to fight for starters?"

And with those words began Naruto walked away. But before he disappeared, Ibuki heard his voice: "We're living our own lives, Ibuki. How you'll live it depends just on you" and with that, he was gone.

The kunoichi kept her sight down. All she was able to do, is whisper a short line, which no-one heard: 'Thank you, sensei.'

-A little later, another part of the forest-

Naruto kept walking between the trees. Many bushes were a perfect hiding place for the opponents. Suddenly he stopped and without turning around, he spoke up: "Come out. I can easily tell that moving in shadows isn't your strongest side…"

"I really wanted to use the element of surprise" announced Takaru, while stepping from behind the tree with a tiny smirk on his face. "Guess I'll just have to take those bells in a classical way…"

"Aren't you a confident one" responded the blond, returning the smirk. "Show me what you've got then, big shot…"

-two down!-

Okay, so the third chapter ends here.

Hope you've enjoyed it. Please tell me what you think.

Take care and hopefully till the next chapter.