Chapter 10- The End of Heartache
Naruto knew he was head high in crap as he waited for his name to be called for his seating assignment and to grab his test paper. Sasuke and Sakura looked defeated knowing their blond teammate could answer a test about as well as Kakashi could woo a woman. Today just wasn't their lucky day.
"Uzumaki Naruto," Ibiki yelled.
The whiskered boy could practically hear the death march play as he numbly walked up to grab his test and assigned seat, all the while Sasuke death-glared him and Sakura looked on with worry.
When he had gotten to his seat, he allowed himself to briefly glimpse at the questions. Just looking at them, he knew they might as well put a stamp on his head saying 'failed' or even 'dunce.' These questions were so far above his own head it would have been like a monkey leaping out a tree with the hopes that it could grab onto the moon.
How was he going to pull this off without cheating?!
"H-hello, Naruto-kun," a soft whisper greeted him.
Abruptly taken out of his thoughts of doom, he looked to the seat on his right, greeting his eyes to the sight of the paled-eyed Hinata. She was just as nervous as he was (if not more), but her presence comforted him. Maybe getting this seat was a good thing.
"Oh, hey Hinata!" he greeted with a foxy smile. "Nervous?"
She nodded her head in affirmation.
"Don't worry about," he comforted. "It shouldn't be too hard to beat." I hope at least, he added in his mind.
"Okay," she muttered, turning back to Ibiki as he spoke.
"Alright you idiots," Ibiki shouted past the clutter, silencing everyone. He quickly briefed them on the rules, making some of the genin pale in fear –namely Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto in particular- if just one member of a team failed, the entire team failed. Then, Ibiki let them all loose, hearing the sounds of pencil scratching against paper.
The only person without a pencil moving like mad was Naruto. He clutched his head as he stared at the god-forsaken paper, hoping his gaze might catch it on fire.
These questions were much too hard, even for the average Chunin! What was he supposed to do? He had only an hour to finish the test, but even that wasn't going to help him get this sucker done.
In defeat, he slammed his head against the desk, making every one look and laugh at him. To them, someone cracked against the pressure.
For Ibiki, this was priceless entertainment. The only thing he was missing was a camera. And to believe Anko praised this Naruto brat so much…
He had talked with his working partner about what he planned this year since it was his first time hosting the first part of the Chunin exam. Mitarashi laughed and said Naruto could pull it off with flying colors, but from what he was seeing now, Naruto wasn't all she made him out to be. It looked as if Anko owed him a nice stack of cold, hard cash.
Finally, after feeling he killed enough brain cells, Naruto settled to his fate of making his entire team fail. With a defeated sigh, he leaned his head against his desk, feeling more like crap with every second ticking by.
Hinata looked at him with worry from the corner of her eyes, but didn't move her head with the threat of being failed. Naruto saw it and gave a wiry smile. At least someone was worrying about his self-being outside of Kakashi, Iruka, Anko, Yamato, and Sarutobi.
"You know, I'm worried about my team," Kakashi said as he paced the room, every so often taking a glance at the clock. For one of the few times in his life, he didn't have his nose buried in his precious 'Make-Out Paradise.' "I wonder if I made the right decision when I said they could take the exam. I mean, Ibiki is the examiner for the first part."
"Yeah, I know," Asuma agreed, flicking the butt of his used cigarette. "I wonder how many genin are going to crap their pants. After all, this guy's a professional. He could make an S-class criminal spill his guts; he could even get them to talk about whether or not they wet the bed growing up."
Currently, the copy-cat and the other jounin sensei, including Tenzo, were hanging out in a lounge, waiting for the antagonizing hour to be up. The tension was so thick in the air it could've been cut with a butter knife. Even Gai was being nice and quiet from the nervousness.
"Senpai," Tenzo interrupted his former captain, "you do realize that I seconded your decision?"
Kakashi stopped and looked at him with his single eye. "Yes, but I'm still the head teacher of the group; most of the blame would fall on me."
"Yep," the group of Konoha jounin turned to the entrance of the room as Anko entered, smiling a devious grin as she leaned on the doorway. "And you'd become target number one should anything happen to the genin. After all, it was your example that led everyone else to make the same decision."
Kakashi blanched and his single eye twitched in fear. She was right. Though she didn't say the specific name of the man that'd hunt him, he was pretty sure the psycho was hinting towards Iruka. The thought of his face melting off his skull wasn't something that he enjoyed… nope, not at all.
"But you all can relax for the moment," Anko walked into the room and took a seat on one of the chairs.
"Why would that be?" Kurenai asked.
Out of nowhere, Anko pulled out a box of dango and began munching on the sweet dumplings. It took only a second before she emptied the stick and then threw it into a wall.
"Old Ibiki," she answered, "only likes to play mind games. I've known him to pry secrets out of S-class criminals by just staring at them, and knowing him he's got something up his sleeve."
She then snickered as she bit into another stick.
"What's so funny?" Asuma asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, it's simple really. Naruto's going to pass this with flying colors!"
It was the chain-smoker's turn to laugh.
"You put too much faith into him," Asuma said as he pulled out a lighter for a fresh cigarette. "If anything, he's going to be the cause for Team Seven's demise."
Just as he put the cancer stick to his mouth, a dango stick struck it, sticking in the filter, but not going any further. The tobacco leaves flittered to the ground while Asuma pulled the filter from his mouth, staring at the stick stuck to it with awe and fear. Naruto must've learned senbon usage from her, not Hotaru like he claimed.
He looked at Anko to see her smile went upside down and her eyes now stared at him as if he committed a cardinal sin.
"You underestimate him," she said, standing and walking out of the room. "I'd stay, but I have to prepare for the next part of the exam."
Kurenai shook her head in exasperation. She'd been on a couple missions with Anko and she knew first hand how the woman could be. It just surprised her to no end how she latched onto Naruto like an older sibling.
"Damn, she's a crazy-ass bitch," Asuma noted as he pulled out another cigarette, frowning at the waste of a good cancer stick.
Naruto stood in a maze of mirrors; it seemed endless, and it was discomforting seeing his own reflection so much. Whereas in Kyuubi's lair the pathways were bigger and covered in water, this place was dry and the floor itself was a mirror. If it wasn't for the fact he could see his own reflection on the ground, he would've sworn he was standing on air.
Was he in his mind? No. He could see the differences immediately. Maybe this was a dream. Well, if it was he didn't like it; it was much too creepy.
Shrugging, he took off on the first path closest to his foot. He looked out from the corner of his eye, watching as his reflection ran by his side. Looking down, he could see the mirror image following his feet. It was just disconcerting seeing all these reflections; he felt a thousand times more comfortable in his mind where the mirrors were broken.
Uzumaki stopped briefly to take a breath. He was stuck in another part of the maze, only it branched out into four paths. Crystals jutted out from everywhere, just as reflective as the environment around him. When he took a single step, thousands of him did the same.
He hated this place, but at the same time he loved it. It felt a part of him, but at the same time, it felt as if every mirror he looked at was looking into his own soul. That's why he liked broken mirrors so much; it was a distortion of his self, enough so he couldn't see himself clearly –he couldn't see his own blemishes. It was one thing to look into another's soul, but it was something else altogether to look into his. To see one's self was to see their own flaws; it was natural for a person to either look away or to look over them.
Naruto shook his head. This wasn't a time to get philosophical. On instinct, he ran towards the path he subconsciously chose. He ran as fast as his legs could take him, as if something, or someone, was waiting for him.
When he finally came unto the end of the path, his silvery eyes were greeted to a spherical room of mirrors so much like the rest of the maze, but the only difference was a single hoary flower looked to have been fastened from the purest silver. Naruto couldn't place what type of flower it was, but it was highly beautiful.
Slowly he walked around the room, looking into the mirrors. With every step a resounding echo moved throughout. The only thing breaking his picture-perfect image were the lines separating the mirrors.
He stopped as he suddenly saw a reflection of his self standing over the flower and gently caressing the petals. With a confused look, he looked back at the flower, but found no soul there, not even a shadow clone.
The dream seemed to be getting weirder the longer it kept going.
With a grimace, the blond turned back to the mirror, but almost jumped back as he saw his image. He put his hands up to his face to feel his eyes, moving his finger over his eyelids and cheeks, watching as his reflection did the same thing.
His eyes were different; though, he wasn't feeding them chakra, his irises were shattered, but it wasn't this sending him for a loop. It was the fact the white of his eyes also became mirror-silver. His icy tears were rolling down his face, but they weren't there.
He put his hand against the mirror, but jumped back as it rippled. Cautious eyes scanned the room as he tried to figure out what was going on, if there was someone else or if the Kyuubi was present. Either way, he couldn't sense the red fox queen, making him wonder what was going on.
Naruto blinked as he felt a cool sensation on his hand. He lifted it up, finding that liquid silver stained where he touched the mirror. Out of panic he rubbed it against his clothes, only scattering the substance.
"What the heck is this stuff?" he muttered to himself, becoming only angrier the more he rubbed it onto himself.
He snorted as he looked at his palm. It looked as if it never came off, but still scattered more of itself onto him at the same time.
His eyes widened as he heard a whisper. Hoping to find someone to could tell him where he was, he tried to follow it, frantically looking about the room. All he could see though was the flower placed in the center of the room. With a dismayed sigh, he began to stare at it, all the while thinking of possible ways he could remove the silver off his body.
Naruto frowned as he saw a single petal fall from the blossom, and then melt into the floor where it touched.
That was when the worst half of this nightmare happened.
Suddenly, he could feel a cool sensation crawling all around his body. With wide, panic-filled eyes, he looked to see the silver he scattered on his person begin to grow, slowly engulfing him. His breaths began to come faster as he looked at his palm, watching it as it covered him in a liquid vine, branching out and covering him. He tried to rub it away, but that only stained more of his body.
Slowly it moved, and Naruto was doing everything he could do to stop it. Anything from pulling out a kunai to scratch it away to using his bare nails, but it felt painful, as if he was harming himself. The more he rejected it, the more painful it became.
Finally, every inch of his body was covered, and slowly the thing was moving onto his face. By now, Naruto was hyperventilating; all of his muscles locked up, he couldn't do anything because of fear. All he could do was stand there as it took over him. He closed his eyes as it covered his face, and then went into his mouth. There was no taste, but the sensation made him want to vomit.
Naruto fell to his knees and tried to open pry open his eyes, but the liquid nightmare prevented all attempts at such things. His chest convulsed as he attempted breath, but it was futile. Out of fear, he began to grate at his face, hoping to tear it off, but it felt as if he was clawing at his own visage.
At long last, he fell to the floor, subjugating himself to his demise. He wanted to cry; he could be leaving the people he cared so much for; he hadn't become Hokage like he wanted to; and there was so much more he had yet to experience. Why did it have to end now?!
At the last second, his eyes shot open and while he was lying on the ground, he looked into a mirror. But before he could see the image before him, it all ended.
In the real world, Naruto awoke with a start and fell out of his chair. In disorientation, he gasped for breath while holding his throat. Sweat beaded his brow as he felt all over his face to make sure that silver piss wasn't on his face anymore. That was one hell of a nightmare!
After seeing he wasn't being suffocated by liquid silver, he could suddenly feel the room saturated with enough killing intent that even Zabuza would have been scared shitless. Slowly he turned to the room and found he caused quite the ruckus. Everyone was now staring at his sweating form, some with more hateful glares than others. He looked towards Ibiki and could see that the man wasn't very thrilled with his falling asleep either, and some of the proctors were just waiting for the orders to grab him and fling him out of the room like yesterday's garbage.
'Shit,' Naruto muttered in his mind. His momentary fear of the room was forgotten as he felt chakra being fed into his Kyoukagan. That always seemed to happen when he experienced a nightmare, and it drove him nuts. He stopped feeding his eyes chakra, sat his chair straight, and sat back down.
"If you disrupt my class one more time," Ibiki threatened, making a chill go down everyone's spine, "I'll make sure we give you special treatment when you leave."
Naruto gulped. Unlike what Anko dished out at home, that was a bona-fide threat. With fear he nodded his head and turned back to his paper, staring at it as he felt every eye in the room drilling holes into the back of his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see everyone slowly turn back to their papers. That wasn't a good way to make friends.
He sighed as he picked up his pencil and began to twirl it in between his fingers as he stared at his test paper.
Unbeknownst to Naruto, one of his two great secrets had been just discovered, all because he didn't know what a particular pair of milky eyes were capable of. Next to him, the owner of those moon eyes was in deep shock.
The Hyuga heir had seen something both beautiful and astounding. She had been using her eyes to cheat –something she wasn't particularly proud of- but was then startled by Naruto suddenly waking up, making her put all of her attention onto him. It was then her Byakugan momentarily allowed her to see past the goggles. What she saw made her confused, but curious at the same time; it was wonderful and it made her wonder why Naruto would want to hide such a thing.
At first, she had expected to see crystal-blue eyes, but imagine the surprise when she saw the silvery pupils and irises in the form of shattered mirrors. And then she saw him turn them off, allowing her to watch as the shards fell away, revealing the normal joy-filled blue she was familiar with, but still leaving those piercing pupils. Was that why he wore the goggles? Compared to the Byakugan, she would be more than willing to trade her cursed eyes for something so immaculate.
Another thought hit her: they were alike! They both had Doujutsu! Did he have a clan like her, or was he the last of the Uzumaki like Sasuke was of the Uchiha? So many questions in such a short period of time, but she doubted sh'dd get answers. Naruto was wearing goggles, which meant he obviously wanted to keep his eyes as secret as possible.
She would stay silent for the moment, but later, she had to talk to him about it. If she didn't, the curiosity would eat at her until she did.
Naruto continued to stare at his paper with something akin to never ending hatred. Back at the academy, Iruka made him work like a dog before tests were to be done, but even then he still failed them. There was no hope for him and his teammates to continue on!
A sigh caught in his throat as he sensed something awfully weird. His Kyoukagan perceived several Bloodline Limits going off at the same time. That, and the air in the room seemed to be saturated with a lot of chakra. Curious, he turned his eyes around him –just enough to see what was going on, but not enough he'd get the boot.
Naruto's eyes widened as he felt astounded by what he was spying. Sasuke was using his Sharingan to watch someone write; Shikamaru used his big brain to answer the questions and then used his shadow to make his teammates copy the answers; Kiba made Akamaru look at answers and then bark them to him; even Shino was in on the action, using one of his little bugs to scout and then come back to move his pencil with the right answer.
Everyone was cheating! Weren't they afraid of being caught like him? There were Chunin watching them after all! Well, at least Hinata wouldn't lower herself to such a…
His smile at the thought was wiped off of his face as he saw the veins around her eyes bulging. He never saw the Byakugan in action, but it didn't take a genius for him to know she indeed lowered herself to such a position.
He abruptly turned his head as one of the Chunin hopefuls near him got a pencil lodged into his paper.
"You there, you were caught cheating, please leave," one of the proctors announced.
The hopeful left with a sour scowl on his face. His teammates threw some nasty words in his direction, but he ignored them. Naruto gulped at the thought of becoming the loser.
He turned back to his paper, allowing his mind to bounce around. The blond stared at his paper as he read the first question again. What trajectory is needed to gain the maximum velocity for a shuriken? How the hell was he supposed know something like that!? The better question would, why the in the nine hells would he need to know something like that!? It was simple: throw the damn star and hope it made contact!
It was such a hard question, but why would a Chunin need to know…
If Naruto wasn't in such a predicament, he would have smacked himself silly for not picking it up earlier. These questions were much too hard, even maybe for a Chunin. It was as if they proctors wanted to encourage the genin to cheat.
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as more genin were failed. Looking around the room, he could see them getting picked off like flies getting squashed by an oversized flyswatter.
Then he thought a little more deeply. You needed to cheat to pass; there were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It was only a matter of if you got caught; the only ones who were getting failed were too obvious or stupid about their ideas.
Naruto grinned like a fox. This kind of test was right up his alley. But he couldn't help but ask himself how to pull it off, especially when every one of his prankster instincts were shouting inside his head. If one Bloodline Limit was enough to allow you to pass, imagine how helpful several could be!
But what to do? Sharingan: nah, too subtle; and that was Sasuke's method, so it was a big no-no. Hyakurai: not a smart idea; that'd be like placing a flashing neon sign over his head saying he did it. Byaku Chakra: that one was kind of pointless for this situation. Mokuton: well, he didn't want Yamato-sensei to get into trouble. That left Hyouton.
A smirk grew on his face as a plan came together in his mind. It was grandiose enough for his taste, but it was subtle enough no one could pin it to him. There was one major problem though: it was going to push his Hyouton to its limits. This was going to be the greatest amount of concentration he ever put into something.
Hinata put down her pencil, having just finished her test. With her Byakugan, she could see some thinking going on in Naruto's head. He was smart and cunning, but no one ever noticed it. Sometimes she wondered if he should've been at the top of the class.
At the same time, she felt bad for him. Written exams weren't exactly his forte and she remembered how often he failed his tests.
"Naruto-kun," she whispered, keeping her head down so that the proctors wouldn't see her lips moving.
The said boy looked at her from the corner of his eye, trying to figure out what she wanted. He had the chakra necessary for his eyes at the ready, but because of the disruption, it scattered into the air. It didn't matter to him, though; he had enough to practically feed an entire squad of jounin.
"What is it Hinata-chan?" he asked, keeping his head down as well.
"If y-y-you want," she tried to stutter out, taking a leap of faith, "y-you can use m-my answers."
He smiled a foxy grin. "I need you to hold that thought."
Below, Ibiki saw the smile on Naruto's face and knew right there he lost the bet with Anko. It didn't bode well for him, or any of the other participants of this exam. He couldn't tell how or when, but shit was going to hit the fan in a fancy way, and the mess it was going to leave behind wasn't going to be pretty. And his favorite part: none of it would be able to be traced back to the culprit.
Hinata could see with her Byakugan Naruto feeding chakra to his eyes, shattering his blue eyes and making them rapidly fade to mirror silver. The next thing that occurred, though, almost made her mouth drop: the shards fell out of his eyes like a soft snow, revealing stormy blue eyes not belonging to Naruto.
For Naruto, he began to concentrate and try his absolute best to make sure his mind didn't wander, because if it did everything would backfire horribly.
In the palm of his hand, underneath his desk, water began to collect. Using the elemental manipulation the Hyouton granted him, he dropped the water to the ground and began to make it move away from him. Anywhere would be good, just as long nobody found out it was him.
Hinata watched it as well with her pale eyes, seeing the beauty of the chakra saturating into the air and drawing out the water particles. Then she watched as the water slithered along the ground past peoples' feet like a snake headed to an objective. Naruto himself wore a mask of concentration.
The water weaved through the chairs, out of the sight of the proctors' eyes, Ibiki included. It became larger as it engorged on more water from the air, but even with its increasing size it still moved silently.
Naruto began to sweat. Now he was just testing the range of his Hyouton and how far away he could control it. Instinctively, the air-based chakra wanted to combine with the water to create ice, but he was doing his greatest to make sure it didn't happen. It still wasn't far away enough.
Hinata still kept an eye on everything. She was curious as to where Naruto learned such a high level chakra manipulation technique, and was even more curious as to what he was planning.
By now, the small stream was the size of a large python, but it still kept moving. Finally, it stopped fifty feet away from its master, far away enough nobody could pin it on him. The water gathered up into a rippling blob. Naruto smirked as he felt someone spy the mass of liquid from under his desk, a random genin that had absolutely no idea what was in store for him.
"What the hell is this?!" the genin asked, looking under his desk.
Every proctor turned their attention to the boy, Ibiki included. The bear-like man had a gut feeling that the pile of crap was now aimed at the fan, and the person was just arching their arm back for the toss.
Finally, Naruto couldn't take it anymore. The water was too far out of range for him to control it, and his concentration was wearing thin. Everyone present looked over at the area where there was an explosion, only to see the boy and anyone nearby frozen inside a mass of ice crystals, or at least stuck to the floor by their frozen limbs.
He had only a split second, so Naruto snatched Hinata's test paper and began to jot down everything on her paper, surprising her with a squeak.
She had to admit, that was as genius as something Shikamaru could come up with. The love of her life used a distraction to turn everybody's attention onto a particular spot while he used the split second to get what he needed. That was a plan any jounin would've been proud of.
But the ice… That was a bi-element! She only read about them, and every single last one was an advanced Bloodline Limit, but that meant Naruto had that and his eyes! Did Naruto have more than one Limit at his disposal? The more she thought about it, the more confusing it became.
Sasuke and Sakura stared at the pile of ice in different ways. Sasuke had wide eyes and thought Naruto had just committed suicide for himself and everyone else on the team. Sakura's mouth practically dropped to the floor and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates. The thoughts in her mind were along the lines of Sasuke's.
Ibiki was furious. He turned to Naruto, but saw him twiddling his fingers and doing nothing, but from his location he could see the full answer sheet. The little bastard used a distraction, but he had absolutely no proof! Well, it looked like he owed Anko a lot of money, most of it she would probably waste on dango or alcohol too.
"If I find out who did this," he watched as the corners of Naruto's lips twitched in the beginnings of a smile, "I'll make sure your ninja career is permanently cut short!"
That was when the blonde's face broke out into a full grin, making Ibiki know full well it was him. For one of the few times in his life, he didn't have a single clue as to how the brat executed it, and even unto the end of his life he'd never find out. All the torn up man could do was sit in his desk and wait for the end of the class, all the while glaring at Anko's adopted little brother.
Towards the end of the time, Naruto was getting nervous. He never answered the tenth question, and it was the only thing he had trouble figuring out. It was blank and it asked nothing, making him worry as to what the proctor had up his sleeves.
Ibiki still continued to stare at him knowing he done it, but at the same time couldn't prove it. All that did was make Naruto snicker; the blond had looked into the face of the Devil himself (Iruka) when he was angry, so this was nothing compared to it. Besides, Iruka could track everything Naruto did down the wire with his Hyakurai, and if he did get caught it was because he hadn't gone into the sewers.
He thought it weird how Hinata tried to peak at him every so often. Did he have something on his face, or was something hanging from his nose? At that last thought, he begged the gods the latter wasn't true.
Sasuke and Sakura relaxed when they felt the proctors were never going to find out it was Naruto who pulled off the ice-explosion stunt. Though, they had to give their teammate kudos for having the bronze marbles to pull off a stunt of such grandiose level, and then somehow get away with everything. Then again, unless you knew who had the bi-element, it would be difficult to trace it back to the original person anyways.
Ibiki turned to the clock and smiled. This was the part he'd been waiting for because now the number of genin was going to be cut to less than half. And maybe this time he would screw over that blond brat so he didn't owe Anko any money.
He stood up and cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention.
Naruto paid close attention just in case a curveball was sent his way. He had a feeling this was the moment of truth for everyone, especially since it was the end of the time they had for answering the test, but what did Ibiki have up his sleeve? From the few times Anko mentioned him Naruto knew the bear-like man worked as the interrogator of the ANBU, and was so good that he could even get a rock to spill its guts in less than thirty minutes.
"Alright everyone, pay attention or I'll throw you out right here and now," he shouted, magically making everyone sit on their seats while holding their breaths. "As you all can see, the tenth question was left blank."
Naruto muttered a 'shit' in his mind as he briefly looked at the paper. So that was the spicy jalapeño on the sandwich! It was the 'do-it-or-lose-everything' question. He should've known. This Ibiki guy was such a sadistic bastard that he made Anko look warm and cuddly.
"This question we saved for last because it's a do-or-die." The blond looked to Hinata to see she paled even more than she already was. "If you fail this question, you will never become a Chunin in your ninja career, but should you decline to answer it, well, there's always next year. If you get it correct, though, you will pass this exam, but should you value your ninja career, the door is over there."
Ibiki pointed to the door, prompting several people to stand up and begin the sad walk of failure. Slowly, genin teams stood, upset that they were too weak or stupid. Teams looked angry at each other; some of the closer members looked forgiving. Either way, Naruto didn't want to become like them. Hell or high water, he was going to answer that damn question!
Up above him, Sakura was having second thoughts. Yeah, Naruto may have cheated on the test and got the answers, but was she strong enough for something like this? Would her teammates be forgiving and understanding of her choice? She wasn't powerful –she knew that- even with her Kinzokuton. The poor girl slid further down into her chair as she thought about throwing in the towel.
Naruto looked towards Hinata and found her shaking, slowly her inching her arm up. She couldn't do that, and he wasn't going to allow it! The Hyuga heir was so nice to him, making him at least want to give her a favor. Maybe all she needed was a small boost of confidence; and who better than for the one who was practically brimming with it to be the one to dish it out?
Ibiki turned his eyes on Naruto as he stood up with an angry scowl painting his face. Above the blond, Sasuke looked at him with murder while Sakura sighed, both of them thinking the pressure got to their teammate –Sakura was at least thankful she hadn't stood up. Hinata watched her crush with sad eyes and thought about doing the same; after all, they were dead-lasts.
Before Ibiki could dismiss the blond, Naruto added chakra to his hand and smashed the desk he sat at, splintering it down the middle and startling Hinata next to him with his outburst.
"GO TO HELL!" he yelled at the proctor, raising a shaking fist into the air. "I want to become Hokage, but I'm not going to get there unless I'm willing to take chance! So, wrong or right, shove that question up your ass!"
From his vantage point and his satisfaction, Naruto was able to see the proctor's eye twitch. Above them on the platform, almost every chunin's mouth dropped at the gall of the blond. All the genin thinking of quitting remained, finding strength in the boy's words or to stay and see if the idiot got his ass handed to him for insubordination.
Hinata stared at Naruto with awe. She could practically feel the courage flowing off of him. It only made her will strengthen; she was going to stay for both her teammates and to be strong for Naruto to notice her.
Sakura thought if Naruto had balls of bronze when he pulled the stunt with the ice, then they became balls comparable to diamond. But at the same time, she couldn't help but be empowered by his words. Maybe she could stay… if only for him and Sasuke.
Ibiki stopped his staring contest with the blond and scanned the classroom to see no one else leaving. He growled as he realized the boy's well placed words not only drove the fear out of everyone, but also made them want to stay. It was amazing how fool proof plans could be shattered by the ingenuity of a complete fool.
He finally sighed as he gave in to fate. "All of you who are present…" Everyone hung onto his words, especially Naruto. "You all have passed."
"WHAT!?" Temari yelled from her side of her room.
"Huh?" was Naruto's intelligent reply, as his arms went limp and his eyes blinked in confusion. Then after a couple of seconds of letting it sink in, he gave a grin that threatened to split his face in half.
"Hell yeah! I passed!" he shouted, making a victory sign.
"NARUTO, YOU IDIOT!" Sakura shouted from her point above him, part of her inner-self doing joining. "DON'T FRICKEN' SCARE US LIKE THAT!"
Before he could duck, her pencil was launched faster than a kunai. Before he could dodge, it landed on the back of his head. From the impact of the tiny pencil, Naruto was sent into his already broken desk, creating a small fountain of splinters.
Sasuke raised an impressed eyebrow at his female teammate's outburst. It was moments like these he was proud of having Sakura by his side.
Annoyed at being ignored, Ibiki cleared his throat, prompting everyone to turn their attention from the noisy rookies to him. Naruto sat on the floor, rubbing the pencil shaped lump on his head while paying attention.
From there, Ibiki felt the need to explain to the class how he rigged the test. Naruto had to give it to the man: he was damn good at psychology. No wonder everyone pissed their pants when the test sheets were handed out; it was a nightmare back at the academy, so why not do it again?
Then the interrogator showed them the scars. Naruto recoiled in slight horror, while Hinata covered her mouth in shock. They both could've sworn one of the nearby genin had the misfortune of having his lunch resurrect itself and then launch itself onto the floor. Many of the genin now realized just how much hell some ninja could –or would- have to go through.
Ibiki was just about to finish his explanation, but was interrupted as a ball of clothes leapt through the window. Everyone watched as the person threw a kunai with a banner on it to the ceiling, announcing who the newcomer was: Mitarashi Anko.
"Hello maggots! Don't be getting comfortable" she yelled to the class, wearing her trademark psycho grin, "because Anko is here and the second part of the Chunin Exams will be getting underway!"
"You're a little early," Ibiki told her, moving aside the banner so he could see her.
The duck-haired jounin looked at him, blinking her eyes as she registered what he said. "Damn," she muttered after a couple seconds, now pouting angrily.
"YOU!" Anko heard a familiar, accusing voice. With blinking eyes, she looked up at Naruto who was pointing at her with an angry face.
She grinned at the sight of her adopted little brother. Then she turned to Ibiki and made a gesture, prompting the big man to pull out his wallet and dig out a nice sized wad of cash. With an even bigger grin, she counted the money.
At that, Naruto's mouth would've dropped to floor if it wasn't for the fact it was attached to his skull. "YOU WERE MAKING BETS ON ME!?"
Anko lazily looked at him and then answered with a peppy voice she was sure would aggravate the blond. "Yep! This is my alcohol money!" For added effect, she waved some of her money in the air, earning hungry glances from ninjas hailing from poorer shinobi villages.
For one of the few times Naruto could recall in his life, he was at a lost for words. Even looking back on this moment, he couldn't think of a good come back like normal. He tried to say something, but the words caught in his throat. Instead, he just shook his head in exasperation, rubbing the side of his face.
Hinata was confused as to who this woman was, and slightly petrified by her mere presence, but somehow Naruto had a connection with whoever this was. That fact was enough for her to calm down.
When she paid closer attention to both of them and studied their eyes, she could sense an ease she was very familiar with. It felt like the thing Hanabi and she shared, but it was far closer and warmer between the two. Were they related? No… Anko didn't have those silver pupils like Naruto. But how could they be so close… like a big sister and a little brother.
A couple of desks above Naruto and Hinata, Ino shrunk away with wide eyes. If Anko was the second exam proctor, everyone was dead. Shikamaru noticed it and knew that things were about to get very, very troublesome. Ino wasn't normally one to be scared of anyone, but if she quivered at the mere sight of this crazy lady, then they were in deep shit.
If Sasuke wasn't so calm, he might've screamed out in public while pulling out his hair. Then he would've proceeded to smash his head repeatedly into his desk.
The memory of slipping on one of Anko's undergarments and then landing into a pizza several weeks old was still very fresh in his mind. Even now he shivered at the thought of feeling that moldy crust and clay-like pizza sauce in between his fingers. Of course, the sight of Anko's bra wasn't something he particularly savored either.
If she was the proctor of the next part of the exam, Hell was about to be released upon the earth in nine different ways. Should he put the knife to his throat now or later?
Curious, he turned to Sakura to see that she was pale and biting on her lip. At least he wasn't alone in his fear. At least she never had to experience the embarrassment he did at Anko and Naruto's apartment. Had a camera been nearby, Naruto would've been flashing it like the paparazzi hanging out beside the red carpet at the opening of a new movie.
"Alright maggots!" Anko shouted to the class, making some of the genin with low constitutions want to run out of the room for the hope of escaping the insane jounin. "Join me outside, and I'll explain what the hell is going to happen! Just remember that I'm going to cut your numbers to less than half by the time I'm done with you."
Naruto couldn't help but blanch.
Anko stopped in front of a large gate, forcing the large troop of genin to follow her action. On the sign above, it read 'forbidden' and even higher than that it read 'Training Area Forty-One.'
Naruto could've sworn he saw a snake a hundred feet in length slithering nearby.
"Alright maggots!" Anko shouted to the group, if possible, wearing a grin that seemed more psychotic than normal to Naruto. "This is Training Area Forty-One, lovingly called the Forest of Death. There's a reason it's called that."
She stopped her narrative as she heard a snicker. In her mind, it sounded as if something fragile had broken. Nobody made fun of her training area, not even the perpetrator that was the blond brat with Kyoukagan eyes!
"Yeah, sounds so terrifying," Naruto sarcastically said, earning some more snickers from the genin around him. Others, though, looked at him as if he had just grabbed a shovel to dig his own grave with.
Naruto's carefree smile was wiped away as he moved his head to the side, dodging the kunai his sister had thrown at him. Looking from the kunai to her, he could see he said something he wasn't supposed to. But at the current moment, and inside Naruto's mind, Anko opened a can of worms.
"Three, two, one," Sasuke counted off with his patented smirk, making Sakura raise an eyebrow at his weird gesture.
It was only a second later she discovered just what Sasuke was counting down.
"YOU SADISTIC BITCH!" Naruto yelled, holding the cut he earned on the side of his cheek. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"
"FOR MAKING FUN OF MY TRAINING AREA!" Anko countered.
"WHY DOES IN HELL DOES IT MATTER!?" Naruto shouted back, feeling his Kyoukagan being instinctively fed chakra.
"And there off…" Sakura muttered, shaking her head in embarrassment.
All the genin turned their heads, following the smack-talking with their eyes and then switching to the other when that person sent out another come-back. It didn't come down to mere name calling, but there was a lot of bagging on the other's characteristics. Naruto was stung by a comment on his height, but Anko was smoothly countered with something aimed at her slob-like habits.
"I KNOW WHERE THE HELL YOU SLEEP!" Anko yelled, making all the genin 'ooh' as if someone had dealt a severe blow.
They wouldn't want this crazy bitch to know where they slept, mainly out of fear of what she was capable of doing.
"I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP TOO," Naruto countered, "BUT I WOULDN'T STEP FOOT IN THERE, NOT UNLESS I WANT TO STEP ON ONE OF YOUR DIRTY THONGS!"
Anko blushed, both out of fury and humiliation. She cursed herself for not coming up with something better. Naruto could be a witty little bastard when he wanted.
Every one of the present wannabe ninjas looked at Naruto with a sense of awe at having just outwitted probably the craziest person on the planet. Sasuke and Sakura shivered and cringed at the thought of such a sight. What horrors did their friend have to brave just to go to bed?
"Here's the kunai you dropped."
Suddenly a sense of discomfort filled the air, most of it coming from Anko who suddenly locked up. Naruto could practically taste it in the air, and for some odd reason, a sense of horrid dread filled his mind. For the life of him, though, he couldn't place his finger on the cause.
He saw the kunai and followed along the pale red appendage holding it, finding a Grass-nin holding it with nothing but his extremely long tongue. Just staring at the genin, he could tell something was off; something didn't bode well with Mr. Freaky at all. If anything, Naruto's sense of dread magnified greatly just by looking at him –or her; he couldn't tell, but he felt safe to assume it was a male.
"Thanks," Anko slowly said, cautiously taking the kunai into her hand. The blond watched as the woman death gripped it, seemingly on the caution for absolutely no reason.
She kept her eyes on the genin the whole time as she put away her knife, then instinctively sending her hand to grip a particular spot on her shoulder. Naruto imagined that was the spot where the 'cursed seal' was placed. It was just barely a couple days ago he discovered she rubbed or gripped onto it whenever she was extremely uncomfortable or nervous. This time, she was in a mixture of both said emotions.
Anko was uncomfortable, more so than she could recall being in a very long time. She watched with cougar-like eyes as the tongue receded back into the mouth of its owner. That technique was eerily familiar to one she remembered belonging to a particular someone she hated.
She tried to mentally shrug it off as a coincidence, merely a genin just reinventing the attack for his use, but for some odd reason it lingered in her head. It couldn't be just a coincidence, but then again, Orochimaru might have the balls to step foot back into the very home he betrayed. But she couldn't prove it –not yet at least.
"Alright," she said, returning to a professional level, but keeping a particular eye on the ugly genin. "I'm feeling nice today, so I'm going to give you all an extra day to pack up what you need. Prepare for five days. Meet me here at the same time tomorrow and if you aren't here on time, I'll fail you."
"How sad," everyone turned their attention back on the genin. Naruto felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end at the mere sound of that high pitched, squeaky voice. "I was hoping to fight today. Oh well, tomorrow should come quite quickly."
Anko said nothing, instead choosing to dismiss all the genin with a wave of her hand, making them all scatter like cockroaches in a lighted room. She began to walk away, but made a motion with her head for Naruto to follow.
When he walked up next to her and they got out of ear range of everyone else, Anko quietly spoke to him.
"Listen, and listen well," she whispered. Naruto paid close attention knowing how serious of a moment this was. "I wasn't supposed to give you that extra day, but you better keep your ears on me, or I'll never forgive you."
He knew she was being serious. The playful aura usually surrounding her was now gone and replaced with something more related to a highly cautious prudence, trained by years of being a jounin. Anko was in full shinobi mode, but what was it about that genin that spooked her so badly?
"I want you, Sakura, and Sasuke," she warned, "to be absolutely cautious inside that forest. I may be worrying about nothing, but better to be careful than careless. If you meet that genin again I want you to run away as fast as possible."
"No need to tell me twice," Naruto agreed, feeling her warning sinking in like a rock in water.
Unknown to the two, they were being watched by a genin with the insignia of a half sun and half moon on her headband.
Their only danger wasn't just the creepy genin.
"My student has become quite foolish," the ugly genin said to his self as he walked away. "I thought she'd be much smarter than that to attach herself to someone, especially someone like that."
When he turned the corner, he sunk into the building, disappearing into the bricks as if it was water. It didn't take long for him to come out the other side, but when he did, one of his hands went up to his face. If anyone had been there to watch inside that supply room, they might've watched with horror as the face was peeled away to reveal pale skin and yellow snake eyes.
"It will be very fun tomorrow," the snake told himself, speaking in a much deeper voice. "Sasuke-kun will be there to entertain me, and maybe even become my new container."
He put his hand up to his chin as he thought of something just as entertaining. Anko had become too soft while he was away. It was time to give her a refresher of just who her sensei was.
"Maybe while I'm at it, I'll kill her little toy. After all, he's on the same team as Sasuke-kun."
Whoever this dark being was, he sunk into the ground while laughing maniacally.
Naruto was leaning his head on the coffee table in the center of the living room. He was currently watching as Anko downed liquor like the madwomen she was. Funny enough, it was only two in the afternoon, a little early in Naruto's opinion to get drunk. But then again, his older sister figure wasn't kidding when she said she was going to use the money she won for alcohol.
To get more comfortable, she got a change of clothes, now consisting of nothing but a tank top and beige shorts. The zipper and button were undone, allowing Naruto to see her purple underwear, but with what little time he already spent with Anko, he practically became immune to such sights. It was awful; she had absolutely no sense of dignity. Thankfully, he had yet to see her nude, but such a sight might make him want to gouge out his eyes the moment it might happen.
Anko just finished her second to last bottle of rice beer. Her cheeks were now flushed from all the alcohol she in her system. Naruto had to give it to her: She could hold more than fifteen bottles of the liquid and not even get close to vomiting all over the place. She got fully drunk after the eleventh bottle, and now she was working on her last one –the twenty-fourth he believed.
When she got the last drop out of the bottle, she turned it upside down and shook it, not wanting to waste a single bit of it. Nothing came out, prompting the woman to shrug and then throw it over her shoulder, making it go out the window. The sun-kissed boy heard a cat hiss and then yowl at getting hit by the glass item.
"I hate my job," Anko said out of the blue, obviously fueled by her intoxication. Her speech was slurred and she was starting to sway, despite the fact she was sitting down.
"Why would that be?" Naruto amusedly asked.
Better to play along; Anko was now highly unpredictable. He knew first hand there were three types of drunks: the quiet ones, the emotional ones, and the angry ones –emotional ones were the funniest, especially when it was someone who was normally uptight and serious; it was worth a million ryo to see them spilling their guts about their love problems. It was up until this moment he couldn't classify Anko into these categories; he was well aware of her love of beer, especially with all the piles of cans and bottles of the substance in their apartment.
"Because I don't get to see Iruka-kun that often!" she whined, attempting to lean her head on her hand, only to miss and hit the table. It didn't matter, though; she just kept her head on the table.
"Why? Do you like Iruka-sensei or something?" he was afraid of the answer, but curious nonetheless.
"Like him?" she sounded slightly offended, even as she stood up, wobbling like any other person who consumed too much alcohol. "I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HIM!" Anko finally shouted triumphantly, raising one of her hands for added effect.
"That's nice," Naruto thought aloud.
That wasn't good. In the future, Iruka was going to get saddled with a very crazy lady as his wife. At least he would be the sane half.
But this moment finally allowed Naruto to classify the type of drunkard Anko was: She was indeed an emotional drunk. He smirked as he thought of all the dirt she'd practically yell out loud, and all he needed was a bottle of tequila for the fun to begin.
He was about to grill his older sister for more blackmail on herself he could possibly use for later, but the alcohol finally went to her head. Anko's eyes rolled into the back of her sockets and she fell backwards into a pile of cans, all the while smiling like an idiot. Obviously, she'd be dreaming of Iruka.
For a second, he thought about grabbing a marker (a permanent one) and taking it to her face, mainly as revenge for throwing the kunai at his cheek, but he felt he should value his life a bit more. With a hangover, Anko would be moodier than usual, and therefore more liable to kill him out of annoyance.
"What am I going to do for the rest of the day?" Naruto pondered to himself.
For starters, he needed to head to town and pick up enough supplies for five days. It was going to be ugly in the Forest of Death, and he was pretty sure if it wasn't for the fact she was going to be passed out until morning, Anko might've taken him out for supplies.
Shrugging, he grabbed his black jacket off the couch and made his way to the front door, but not before putting his goggles on.
He looked back at his sister and thought about being nice and picking up Anko, throwing her onto her bed and leaving some aspirin for later, but that'd be too nice for his taste. Besides, she needed to suffer and learn that too much alcohol wasn't good for her.
With that, he was out into the noon air.
Naruto smiled as he walked through the streets with a brand new backpack full of supplies, courtesy of Hotaru who had smiled as he handed him the bag. It was weather proof and had a large amount of pockets capable of holding rations, a sleeping bag on top, weaponry, and whole bunch of other stuff.
And the best part was that he got it at a discount.
He hoped to see Tenten, but Hotaru said she was out training since she passed the first part of the exam. With a final congratulation for passing the beginning of the exam, Naruto was now heading to his favorite training spot.
The blond stopped suddenly as he felt a Bloodline Limit on the outer reaches of his Kyoukagan on the rooftops above, but couldn't quite identify who it was, mainly because the owner was just out of range of the radius. Shrugging it off as just some random person, Naruto continued on with a quick shake of his shoulders.
That was also something odd he found out about his Kyoukagan's Limit sensing capabilities. Not only was its full range limited, but the closer he was to a Limit user, the more he could tell about the person. At one part of the radius, he could just sense them; closer, he could pick apart the signature of the Bloodline, even as far as to identify what kind it was; even closer still, he could sense the feelings of the person. It was actually often Bloodline Limit owners skitted the edges of his sense, but he ignored those without much thought.
He kept going, still with joyous steps, but stopped with a happy smile as he found some spare pocket change. But as he bent down to pick it up, his silver eyes allowed him to pick up something off: the person stopped when he did. Naruto grunted angrily as he realized someone was following him, and it was quite apparent that this person was a tracker, otherwise normal Bloodline users –even Iruka was prone to this- would stupidly stumble onto his radar.
Finding he wanted to be rid of the annoyance, he pretended as if he never sensed anyone.
He went in various zigzag directions, and even took a couple random alleys he knew –mainly he learned about from trying to escape pissed off Chunin during his academy days. Even then, the person followed like a bloodhound on a scent. He even resorted to jumping backwards with the hopes of catching the mystery person off guard; he came close, but the person immediately backed off before he could identify the person.
"Ah, that's it!" Naruto finally yelled in aggravation, grabbing his head in a comical manner and earning a couple raised eyebrows from the nearby populace. Some of them thought the village pariah was finally going nuts.
He leapt to the rooftops and began to head to Training Area Seven at high speeds. Naruto hoped his speed might be enough to make the person lose his trail, but the person stayed on his tail and just far enough away that it was like trying to swat an annoying bug away from the edges of his radar.
At long last, he landed on the training grounds and caught his breath. Naruto thought he lost the annoying person, but groaned and held his head as he felt the person step barely in range of his Kyoukagan once more. Grinding his teeth, he stood up and dropped his new bag next to the monument.
This person deserved a royal ass kicking for bugging him more than Anko at a dango shop!
"Alright, I know you're there, so come out!" Naruto yelled, pointing at the direction of the person.
When no one came out, he lost it. Instinctively, he dug into his senbon holster and launched one of the needles at the tree the person was hiding behind. He wasn't disappointed when someone fell on their bottom from shock, though the person he saw wasn't quite what he was expecting.
The pale-eyed Hinata squeaked as she jumped back up, covering her mouth with both of her hands. She hadn't anticipated Naruto picking up on her like that, not after several of the training sessions she went through with Kurenai-sensei.
This was at the top of her ten most embarrassing moments in her life… but she had to know. Even after they left to ready for tomorrow, she had to find out about those beautiful silver eyes.
"Oops," Naruto said to himself. If he'd known it was Hinata, he might've been nicer. "Uh, sorry." He smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't take too well to being followed."
"S-sorry," she stuttered as she began to fidget with her fingers. It was kind of cute, Naruto noted. "But I… I had to k-know about them."
Naruto cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Know about what?"
"Y-your eyes," she quietly answered, shrinking even more.
It had only been a couple of minutes ago she decided that she was going to step out of her comfort zone with the hopes of understanding Naruto a little bit more.
She then became worried as Naruto looked shocked momentarily, but then a foxy smile traced his lips.
"Oh, you must be talking about my Hyouton!" he proudly exclaimed while snapping his fingers. Yamato-sensei taught him some excuses for moments like these; their rule in such a moment when someone saw too much was to let them have only a small slice of the whole pie. "Ice manipulation is pretty cool, huh?"
Hinata fiddled with her fingers again. She knew what she saw. It was definitely not an Elemental Bloodline Limit, but now that Naruto said it, this was probably his second Limit –just like she thought earlier.
"B-but, w-w-what about your Doujutsu?" she prodded some more, though it was a thousand times more gentle than some of the other methods used by certain members of Team Seven. Naruto knew he could take whatever they dished out, but Hinata was a little different; he couldn't lay a finger on her and not feel guilty.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Naruto said, completely blowing off what she said. This tactic was his last resort. "My eyes are still blue."
The heiress knew that she was getting nowhere. If anything, it only proved that Naruto was trying his absolute best to make sure no one –and she really meant absolutely no living soul- knew about the wondrous gift he had. But here was thing she didn't understand: why hide it?
Naruto was now desperate to get away from her. Normally, he might tear a person limb from limb if they knew so much. But now his secret was shattered and prone to the world, and the one person he couldn't willingly harm discovered it.
How, he thought to himself, how did she find out? Naruto took a closer look at her, and almost slapped himself knowing he should've paid more attention during to the people around him. It's her eyes!
"You saw them… didn't you?" he asked quietly, his eyes wide with a mixture of emotions.
Hinata softly nodded her head again, completely worried about what he might do. She could sense the numb shock in his voice. It was one of those moments she needed navigate the waters carefully, or otherwise blow everything out of the water.
He now felt more prone than he could ever recall feeling. Could she see Kyuubi? What else about him could she see he couldn't? It felt so weird to have the mask he cultivated all his life suddenly crumble in front of him, and all because of a quiet little girl he never thought of staying away from.
At that moment, Hinata had a brilliant idea: Maybe Naruto thought his eyes were really awful looking like her own.
She wringed her fragile looking hands as she took the leap of faith. "I… I thought y-your eyes were v-very pretty."
The blond was caught completely off guard by what she said. He thought his own eyes were amazing looking, but their beauty just seemed to fade the more he learned about them. Mizuki's death was something that would be forever ingrained into his memory, even if he didn't like the man. But for somebody to come up to him and remind him that sometimes flowers had their thorns, an even deeper appreciation of that beauty would bloom forth.
For the first time in what he could recall in a long time, he abandoned the mask. Hinata couldn't place what emotion Naruto was feeling; it could have been a mixture of longing, sorrow, or just plain dumbfounded awe.
"You… You do?" His voice caught in his throat.
All Hinata did was nod her head with a sincere smile. It was different to see Naruto not acting goofy and high strung, but she felt sympathy for him, especially with all of the insecurity he was showing. They were so much alike, more so than she ever truly thought.
"I… I hate them," he whispered, feeling tears well up in his eyes.
"I h-hate mine t-t-too," she told him, knowing exactly how he was feeling.
Naruto now didn't know how to look at her. She hated her eyes? Why? "I like them." He told her with a wiry smile.
It was Hinata's turn to smile. Yes, they both were so much alike.
Naruto took off his goggles, revealing the mirror silver to Hinata. At that same time, he also cried, but they were tears of joy. The cool feeling of frigid steel against his face felt refreshing, but even more so because they weren't the tears of sadness he cried before.
Both of them smiled; for Naruto, it was because he had a new friend, and the first one his own age. Hinata softly smiled because now she could be with him.
Iruka scrutinized the passed-out Anko, all the while putting his hands on his sides. He stood over her form, watching as she snored loudly with a string of drool making its way down the side of her face. The teacher clicked his tongue at her habits.
At the moment, he needed her awake. To do this, he picked her up and slapped her a couple times across the face, but all that did was make her head hang limply to the side while she continued to snore.
It was also at that moment Iruka discovered that she sleep talked. "Why are you wearing that funky underwear?"
"Huh?" Iruka thought aloud.
What the hell was she dreaming about? Scratch that; he didn't even want to know what was going through her head right now.
Not getting what he needed, he sighed as he picked her up and laid her on the couch. Before he left, he made sure to grab some aspirin and a glass of water and then sat the items on the nightstand near the couch. In the future he was going to have to watch Anko's drinking habits.
He spared the apartment one last glance. Naruto was right, Anko was a slob. She also wasn't the best roll model, but at least his surrogate little brother had the common sense to not do the things she did. Even then, she truly did care about his well being, more than almost all the people in the village combined. That was what Naruto needed, someone who cared and loved him; and he was what Anko needed to get over the wounds of the past.
With one last sigh, he closed the front door behind him.
His intentions were to find Naruto and give him some last minute training, but he couldn't find the little monster. He thought it was a smart move of Anko to give everyone one day to pack up for the next part of the exam, especially since it was going to be much more difficult.
Looking at his clock, he could see it was ten past seven. The sun was starting to head over to the horizon where it would rest for the night.
Iruka leapt onto the rooftops, activating his Hyakurai with the hopes of finding the blond troublemaker quickly.
"W-why d-d-did you name it K-Kyoukagan?" Hinata asked as she sat on a rock, hugging her knees tightly as she watched Naruto pick up some flat stones and then skip them across the water.
It was now twilight, and the sky was a beautiful summer orange.
"Well, I want to say I named it," Naruto said, staring out into the water, as if hoping to see Haku there, "but, I really think it was more Haku than me. After all, it was in his room I named it, mainly because of the flowers he had near the mirror."
It was such a poetic name; Hinata absolutely loved it. But she had yet to know what it did. They had yet to speak of their Limits, avoiding the mere mentioning of them like they were taboos.
During their time together, the duo had gotten to know each other well. They were a lot alike, with people looking down on them and having only a few close friends that seemed to care about their well-being. Hinata was mistreated by her own clan, something Naruto wouldn't wish upon anybody. He wouldn't want to be hated by his own family; compared to Hinata's life, he was glad it was just the village hating him.
Neither of them liked pity; Naruto didn't like people pretending to care for him just because of his plight, but Hinata didn't like it because it made her feel weaker than she was already.
Other than that, they talked about mundane things, like what they liked to do, what they did in their spare time, learned more about the people that cared for them, and so on. It was new to them to act like they were talking to a close friend. But that was what they became, best friends to each other, two outcasts wanting the comfort of another. Both couldn't have been happier.
"So, what does your Limit do?" Naruto asked, turning the silvery eyes Hinata liked so much onto her.
"I-it is called B-Byakugan," she answered softly, looking away. "It a-allows me to see t-three hundred and sixty d-d-degrees, but I-I can also see through things too. Its best a-ability is to be able to s-see the chakra coils, a-allowing us to use our Jyuuken to clog the coils a-and prevent others from using chakra. W-w-we can also see far away."
"Jyuuken," Naruto cocked his head to the side as his mouth moved, "what is that?"
"It is a-a-a form of taijutsu," she continued to explain, "that attacks f-from the inside out. Normal taijutsu is m-meant to break b-bones and harm from the outside, b-but Jyuuken doesn't do that."
"That's pretty cool," he said with a smile, taking a seat next to her to watch the sunset. "Well, I guess it's my turn to explain mine."
From there, he started from the beginning, telling all he had learned about his Kyoukagan. Naruto told her about it awakening the first time (omitting the parts about the Kyuubi –it was one thing to talk about his Limit; it was another thing entirely to talk about his inner demon), how he learned what it did, about his trip to Zabuza and Haku's hideout, his meeting with Yamato-sensei, and any other details he could think of.
Through the whole explanation, Hinata clung to each word escaping his mouth. Such power… How he could grow so much by just gaining another Limit, but she also imagined just how many people would be out for his head. In Konoha alone he was threatened in several ways by the clans, either through marriage proposals or the threat of stealing his blood.
But she felt so bad for him. Haku, a person he connected with, died that day. She wished she could've met him at least once; he sounded so nice on and off the battlefield. The purity the Hyouton user carried was amazing. To have never killed a shinobi even unto death was amazing and a feat that many wouldn't be able to claim.
The thoughts of Naruto being in danger returned to her with an even greater force. Another Great Shinobi War would break out if anyone found out about the Kyoukagan, all for the sake of the very life liquid running through his veins.
"Naruto…" she muttered with fear.
He just chuckled. "Even if they wanted my blood, they'd have to survive it. It's so poisonous that Mizuki-Teme died when he put some onto a kunai and stabbed himself." The blond shivered as he recalled Mizuki's dead, blackened eyes staring back at him. "That wasn't my favorite memory."
"I-I didn't t-t-think he was good teacher anyways," Hinata muttered to herself, earning a healthy guffaw from her new best friend.
"Yeah, I didn't think so either! Hey, did you know that Iruka-sensei is actually an S-class ninja?"
"Really?"
"Yep, he's where I got my Hyakurai from. I just wished I paid more attention during class. If I'd known that, I might've worshiped the ground he walked on."
They sat there for a couple minutes, just basking in the other's company. Both watched as the sun dipped halfway past the horizon, and steadily declined as time slowly fluttered away.
Hinata would be more than willing to say she still had a crush on Naruto, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She wasn't going to allow her own emotions to get in the way of their friendship, and she didn't want to make him uncomfortable every time they met. For the time being, she would squash those feelings, but only for a short period of time. They would eventually rise up again, but not yet.
But then another thought came into her head, one that she wasn't so sure she understood about her friend. He could copy any Bloodline Limit at will, but he hadn't copied hers yet. Why would he do something like that? Anybody else would've been going crazy about it.
"N-Naruto-kun," she asked, turning away from the sun with the hopes of him answering such a question. "Why h-haven't you c-c-copied my Limit yet?"
Naruto looked to her, processing what he was going to say. It was a deeper answer than she knew. He had his reasons; reasons that involved why he hated using the Sharingan, why he wanted to ask people permission to do such a thing even when he could steal for his own benefit. And he knew exactly how to explain it.
"Whenever I copy someone's Bloodline Limit," he said, talking in an emotion Hinata couldn't identify, "it's like taking away a piece of the person and then keeping it with me everywhere I go."
Naruto thought of everyone he knew, and all the Limits he copied. It was actually a very intimate thing to copy such a valuable piece of a person. Mimicry was supposed to be one of the sincerest forms of courtesy available to a human being, but it was also a deep form of sincerity, wanting to be so much like a person you copy them.
"That's why I hate the Sharingan," Naruto continued, this time turning his eyes to the sky where the brighter stars were just barely peaking beyond the veil of sunlight. "It was the first Limit I copied, but…" he tried to find the proper words to describe, "it felt like I stole it from Sasuke, but I know… I know we're the most alike of anyone here. That's why I hate him at the same time. I want so much to ask him –to be like him- but I don't want to at the same time."
She could understand now. He felt like he carried pieces of a person's very soul with him everywhere he went. That was why he didn't jump at a chance to copy a person's Limit.
Hinata stood up, making Naruto look at her. "P-please copy mine."
He couldn't help but sadly smile at her. Naruto nodded his head as he stood up, shattering his eyes at the same time. For the young heiress, it felt peculiar to stare into his eyes; she was pressed to look away, but she kept on gazing hypnotically at them. Finally after a couple seconds, Naruto nodded his head to show he completed the process. Now he had another Doujutsu in his arsenal.
"Thanks, Hinata-chan," he said. "Thanks for being my best friend."
Hinata couldn't help it as she blushed under the usage of the suffix.
Yes, they were best friends, outcasts of the very society they served so loyally, and they wanted to stick together through thick and thin.
Both of them turned around as they heard someone clear his throat, greeting their sight to a smiling Iruka.
"I'm sorry Hinata, but I'm afraid you might want to head home before your father finds out you've been out for so long," he gently ordered, making the girl look down at the ground in disappointment. "But don't worry; after this business with the Chunin exam, you two should be able to hang out more often."
She looked back up with a soft smile before nodding. Iruka and Naruto waved at her as she left the clearing. The scarred Chunin then turned his attention back onto the blond, wearing a deciphering face.
"Hinata found out, didn't she?" Iruka asked, seeing that Naruto's goggles were hanging around his neck, letting his eyes glint in the waning light.
Naruto merely nodded and then said: "She won't tell anyone, though."
"Even then, I'm still worried," Iruka thought aloud. "I imagine she found out with her Byakugan, but if she did, that means it's possible for her clan members to find out as well. If that's the case, be absolutely careful whenever you're around Hyuga members."
The blond nodded again.
"But, I'm glad that you have a new friend," Iruka finished with a friendly smile. He then watched as the sun set behind the horizon, bringing about the nightly darkness. "I intended to give you some last minute training, but I was a little late in finding you. How 'bout dinner at Ichiraku's?"
Umino almost wanted to regret his words the moment Naruto let a foxy smile light up his face.
Jiraiya took a deep breath as he entered the gates of Konoha, walking at a relaxed pace after having just ran almost the entirety of the Land of Fire. It was good to be home.
He smiled lecherously at the thought of being at the dedication of the new bathhouse. All of the naked woman would be there! Oh, the material he could gain for his books! Life was looking up. He'd be there tomorrow, but now he needed to rest after such an arduous journey.
Before he walked any further, he stared up at the Hokage monument, looking particularly at the face of Namikaze Minato.
"I'm home only for a little bit… son," he sadly told himself.
Author's Note: UGH! What a long chapter! Holy crap, I think it took me at least two weeks just to get through it. But hey, it's good for you guys that like this story so much. Keep the reviews coming!
I unfortunately didn't get as far as I wanted. If I continued anymore, the chapter might have been a little hard to read and I didn't want that. So, next chapter will definitely be Bloody Sigil, and it will reveal one of the surprise Limits, which was something that I didn't intend for.
The Hinata/Naruto bonding moment was cute, but the pairings are not confirmed. Next chapter, we'll have a Naruto/Ino moment as well. Sakura and Naruto's friendship will build steadily since they are teammates and Tenten will be a harder challenge, but I will get a bonding moment for the two, but when, I couldn't tell you. Just be patient, I'm trying my best to set up to where Naruto can hook up with any girl. No, this is not going to be a harem.
Next chapter, we'll learn a bit more about the transcendent Bloodline Limits and what sets them apart from the rest. Also, we'll get a peak at the final ability of the Kyoukagan, but the chapter after the next will we see a battle between Orochimaru and Naruto, but we'll also see a surprise that I've been saving since I came up with the idea of this story. We're just going to see how things roll out.
I also think that this has to be one of my funniest chapters to date. The Anko/Naruto moments were absolutely priceless and many of the jokes from there are some that my brother and I have gone through.
Nothing new to put down here. Best be seeing you next chapter!
