Puppets of the Leaf
Chapter 9:
Two days following their encounter with the team from Suna, Team 7 arrived at the academy. Naruto had Kyu out and walking with them, as was becoming his habit. He was now able to fully control the small puppet with only three fingers, it was like all of his puppets were becoming a part of him, an extension of his will. Besides, Kyu was giving him something to focus on other than how nervous he was.
Eventually they came upon a large group of Gennin, standing before room 302. The room they were supposed to go into. There was two older Gennin blocking the door as a boy in green spandex tried unsuccessfully to get by.
Naruto and Sasuke took a step towards the group and Sakura spoke up. "Wait…that's a Genjutsu. It can't be the right room, we're only on the second floor. Besides, I don't think those two are really Gennin." Her voice was barely above a whisper, just loud enough for them to hear her.
Sasuke examined the two closer and activated his Sharringan, to his sight he could see them as they really were, two older ninja, wearing the flack vests of Chunnin.
"You're right they're not. This must be some kind of test. Weeding out the weaklings."
"So…do we blow their cover or just move on?" Naruto, for his part, was sort of hoping that they decided to break up their ruse.
"Let's just go. If they keep more teams from entering, then it'll be easier for us in the long run." Sasuke led them up the next flight of stairs and they found Kakashi leaning against the wall, Zabuza's sword on his back and orange book in his hand.
The Jounin took a moment to wish them luck before walking back down the way they had come.
The team entered the room of the exam and took a place in the back corner near the door, so they could get a good look at whoever else came in. Shortly, those same doors opened and in walked some familiar faces. "Ohh man, you guys are taking this thing too?" The laziest gennin of their graduating class walked over after seeing them, and his blonde teammate rushed strait at Sasuke, who only looked at her as if deciding where to put his kunai to inflict maximum pain. As the girl tried to glomp him he reacted by replacing himself with Sakura. The two girls began yelling at one another, and the two were soon forgotten as the last of their old classmates walked into the room.
Naruto, having seen Kiba enter the room with his dog on his head, decided it way past due for him to annoy their bestial friend. He quickly had Kyu hop onto his own head and stepped up to Kiba's side. He then began to mimic everything the boy was doing. After Kiba shouted for him to knock it off, he addressed the fox that had just leapt to the floor.
"So when did you pick up that thing anyway?"
Naruto smirked as he realized that Kiba thought his puppet was real. "Ohh Kyu? I've had him for a while now."
Kiba smirked. "Figures the Dead last would need an animal to fight for him, after playing with dolls throughout the whole time at the academy."
The 'doll' comment caused Naruto to emit a low growl. "You're one to talk, Mutt."
"Hey Akamaru is my friend and partner. We fight together, besides that's what my clan does. You're just trying to rip off our style because yours was lame."
Naruto clenched a fist, and was ready to show the dog boy just how lame his puppets were, when a gennin with white hair and glasses, much older than them, walked up.
"You guys might want to keep it down, you're attracting a lot of unnecessary attention as it is." When all of the rookies looked around the room they found that a lot of people were glaring at them.
Ino however ignored all them in favor of directing her next comment towards him. "Aren't you kind of old to be a Gennin?" This brought a few snickers from Naruto and Kiba. However the older boy just smiled sheepishly.
"Yea, I guess I am at that, after all this is my seventh time taking this exam. My names Kabuto." A few of the rookies openly gawked at him and several of the other participants started laughing at him. All of this was ignored.
"So if you guys have any questions let me know, I've gathered information on just about everyone taking the test."
This got their attention. Sasuke stepped forward and asked about Garra. Kabuto drew out an information card and charged it with chakra. "Lets see, Sabaku-no-Garra…23 c rank missions…2 B rank…and even an A rank…It says here that he's never been injured during any of them." Naruto turned his focus on the team from Suna, He was about to ask for some information on Garra's teammate, when Kiba beat him to the punch.
"Hey I know, tell us about the Dead last. We can always use a good laugh." The blonde Turned to glare at him, and was surprised when Kabuto came up with a card on him.
"Uzumaki Naruto…It says…" The card was quickly snatched from his hand by a small fox as it leapt through the air. The fox came to sit at Naruto's feet and the blond took the card from it's mouth.
'He got my card without knowing my name…' As he read over the information contained on him, his eyes widened and he focused his gaze back on Kabuto as he ripped his card in half and stuffed the two pieces into his pocket. Before he could say anything else to him, the proctors appeared in a loud puff of smoke.
"All right kids break it up and sit down in your assigned seats. The first test of the Chunnin selection exams are about to begin."
Naruto swallowed his emotions for the moment and found his seat, right next to his shy classmate, Hinata, however he was far too distracted to pay her any mind. 'How could he possibly know all that? The Old mans law is supposed to keep anyone from talking about the Fox…and my techniques? It's not like it's a big secret, but how could he know about sensei…' Naruto's thoughts continued along those lines, until the examiner cleared his throat for attention. Naruto resolved himself to get to the bottom of it, but for now he had to concentrate on the exam.
After listening to Ibiki go through the rules, Naruto jut sat looking over his paper. He hated written tests, always had. It was a part of the reason he did so poorly in the academy, though the fact that he cut class a lot to go practice with his marionette probably didn't help any.
The questions on this test were, to put it mildly, insane. There was no way he could answer them all correctly, let alone enough of them to pass. To his right, he noticed that Hinata was writing furiously, however she wasn't looking at her paper, at least not directly at it, it was hard to tell with her, because her eyes didn't have any iris, just a blank off-white space. At first he thought that the poor girl was blind, then found out that it was just the way her clan was. Now though, her eyes were surrounded by bulging veins. Down farther in the room he could see another Hyuga, a boy, doing the same, with similar veins, though more pronounced, and he realized they were cheating. Somehow they were using their eyes to cheat. Now that he looked, discreetly, around he could see several people doing much the same thing, though in different ways.
Just a row behind him he could hear some muffled yips, probably from Kiba and Akamaru. The puppy had been sitting on his head, so maybe he was looking at the tests around him and giving them to the dog user. 'Not a bad idea, Mutt…'
"Number 22, you fail, take you're team and get out." Down in the front of the room, a gennin protested, loudly about the unfairness of the test. Naruto used the distraction to Move Kyu from his lap, where it had been sitting, to his shoulder, slipping the small screen out of his pouch at the same time.
Kyu began to look around the room, and Naruto could focus the image on the screen onto the tests around him. The angle wasn't the best, but he was able to get enough answers from the surrounding gennin, to fill out the whole thing.
After finishing, he flipped his paper face down, and put his head down onto his arms, to go to 'sleep'. The position gave him the freedom to continue to watch the others on his screen. All around him Chunnin hopefuls were being eliminated from the test. To the rear of the room, one of the Sand ninja had asked to go to the bathroom, and was escorted out by a rather unusual looking Chunnin.
A short while later he came back thanking the Chunnin for escorting him, when Ibiki shouted up from the front.
"OK, I think we've had quite enough of the puppet show."
Naruto's head shot up, his mouth hanging open. 'Ho…how did…' Naruto sheepishly let the fox hop into his lap again, where it curled up and went to 'sleep', never even realizing that the comment hadn't been directed at him.
Ibiki called everyone to stop writing, and announced the tenth question.
The room seemed to close in on Naruto, there was a heavy weight settling down on him, urging him to quit, after all, he could always take it again next time. 'wait…this feeling,'
Images began to flash in his minds eye of his team standing guard around an old man, the area covered in mist.
'that's right…Zabuza did something like this…fear stimulus…killing intent…The proctors are directing it at us…' SLAM Naruto brought his hand down in the table he was sitting at scaring the white eyed girl into a near unconscious state.
"Cut the crap, my teams experienced worse Killing intent than this…Just give us the question already. Besides if I do fail, I'll still become Hokage, even if I remain a gennin until that day. And, when I do become Hokage…I'm going to demote you to the rank of Gennin, just for threatening us. Might do you some good to take D-rank missions."
The room was stunned into silence, Ibiki leveled the full power of his killing intent at the boy, and he didn't even respond to it. 'Who is this kid?'
He looked around at the other examinees and saw that a lot of them had small smiles on their faces. Naruto had completely defused the pressure that he had been purposely building since they entered the room. A look to the other proctors confirmed that no one else was going to quit.
He broke into a large smile, finally, Naruto was feeling scared. "Congratulations to those of you left, you just passed the first test of the Chunnin selection exams."
Naruto was kicking himself. After a lengthy discussion about the test and it's true purpose, he realized that, after all those years in the academy, sleeping through tests, he had finally found one that he could have slept through and actually passed. But no he had to go and put in the effort to get the answers.
Currently they were being led towards one of the larger training grounds of the village. Naruto looked around them as they approached. The large forest was surrounded by a high fence, on which had been put a multitude of warnings.
'An A-rank training field…'
Their proctor was a woman that Naruto recognized as a Kunoichi he had briefly considered using as a model for his Kunoichi puppet, though he inevitably decided to go with someone else, she was just way to freaky for him, and quite frankly, had scared the crap out of him.
"Welcome to training ground 43, otherwise known as The Forest of Death."
Naruto looked at the forest again. "It doesn't look that bad…" A kunai slipped passed his cheek, drawing a little blood. Before he could react, Anko was behind him with another Kunai pressed against his neck and one arm wrapped around his midsection, effectively pinning him against her.
"You know the loud ones are usually the first to die in there."
She felt a light weight settle on her shoulder, as a sharp piece of metal rested against her neck. She turned her head slightly to see a small fox holding the kunai she had thrown in it's mouth. It was standing on both of their shoulders in such a way that if she moved or did something that caused it to lose its footing, the knife would cut her.
Naruto smirked.
"I think you dropped this."
His smirk turned to shock, a moment later as he felt her lick the small trail of blood that had escaped his small wound.
"Thanks." She took the Kunai from the fox and walked back to the front of the group.
'Note to self…Stay the HELL away from freaky chicks in trench coats!!'
Like the rules for the first test, these seemed to be fairly strait forward, just get a scroll, opposite the one you were given and make it to the tower by the time limit. Naruto didn't buy it… the members of team seven were standing by their assigned gate trying to come up with the trick, if there was one, to this test. After a few minutes they concluded that there was no 'underneath' to look under, and turned their thoughts to the problem of getting an earth scroll.
The first thing he had done after getting theirs, while they were still behind the curtain, was to seal their heaven scroll into Kyu's storage scroll to safe guard it. That brought them back to find an earth scroll. They didn't know which teams were carrying them, and when Naruto had tried to use Kyu's cameras to see when they got them, one of the Chunnin Proctors had chased it off.
The exam started and all of the teams rushed into the Forest, Naruto however stopped after only a few yards. His team halted a few feet in front of him.
"Naruto…what are you doing?" Sakura was nervous and it showed in her strained voice.
"It's a pretty safe bet that the best thing to do is to get as afar away from the starting gate as possible right?"
Sasuke grunted. "Right, so lets go already Dobe."
Naruto didn't move. "If that's the best thing to do in this situation, then all of the other teams are probably doing that as well right?"
Now they were getting confused. "I…guess…"
Naruto began looking back at the gate, then to either side of it. "So if we moved along the fence we could probably get behind one of the other teams…"
Realization dawned on them, and the three of them took off along the chain fence that surrounded the outermost perimeter of the forest. They soon came upon the next gate. They saw leading right from the start, outside the gate, that the ground had been disturbed by the hasty advance of another team. The trail led right into the forest strait off from the starting point.
"That way, they'd only be five minutes ahead of us." Sasuke led them off in the same direction. The trail was clear, and easy to follow. "They must not think it matters to cover their tracks. Probably don't think anyone would be following them."
Sasuke had to admit that Naruto had come up with a decent idea. Not that he would tell him so. The Dobe had been getting a lot stronger lately, at this point, he wasn't entirely positive that he could beat him in a fight. That fact scared, and enraged him. If he couldn't beat the class dead last, how could he beat his brother.
They found the team they were following huddling down in some brush just off of the trail. Team 7 had taken to the trees, early so if they did find them, they would have height on them, or if the other team was in the trees as well, so they would be on equal footing. Either way the other team was stupid for staying on the ground. This team was all dressed alike in what almost looked like beige diving suits, complete with breathing masks on their mouths.
They had their backs to them and were sitting so they could look in every direction, except the one they had come from.
Naruto smirked. Too easy…
Naruto sent Kyu down to the forest floor and had it circle around their targets. While, at the same time, giving Blade to a clone. He brought Kyu running out of the trees strait at the group, and over the small microphone in the fox's ears he could hear them mutter their confusion, that a small fox kit would be rushing them.
The one in the middle took a kunai in hand and threw it at Kyu, only for the small fox to ignore the 'wound' it received to it's chest.
Their confusion grew and now two began to throw Kunai at it, while the third began a few hand seals. They were so preoccupied, that they didn't notice the cloaked figure falling from the trees behind them. It's mouth opened and it spewed out senbon at them catching two, the one doing the seals and the one in the middle, across their backs. The third leapt away from the assault, right into Kyu, who caught him with a drugged senbon, sticking out of its mouth.
Team 7 approached the downed team from the rain village, and proceeded to search them for their scroll. It was Sakura who found it in the pouch of the one Kyu had taken down.
"Hey Guys, I found it." She ran back over to them holding out the white scroll.
Sasuke took it from her. "A heaven scroll…figures, all that showing off for nothing Dobe."
Naruto didn't take the bait like he thought he would. "Aww come on it was fun, besides, now we have an extra just in case."
Sasuke put the scroll in his hip pouch with a grunt, and the three moved off into the woods to look for their next target.
"AARRRGGG!! What the hell!! This is the fourth Heaven Scroll we've gotten in a row!!" Naruto was feeling more frustrated than he could ever remember feeling before.
Since they defeated the rain team, they had attempted two more ambushes, and had been ambushed once. They managed to defeat all three teams and had taken all three of their Heaven Scrolls. The team was sitting in a thick concentration of branches, almost at the top of the canopy. After tying down some other smaller branches they had made themselves a natural, leafy, cave of sorts.
It was now the second day of the exam, and they each carried a scroll in their pouches, as well as the one hidden in Kyu's scroll.
"Well, if you had just listened to me yesterday, we might already be done with this test."
Naruto wheeled around to glare at the dark-haired boy with a finger pointed directly at him.
"Listen Teme, I'm not going to say it again! We are NOT going to attack our friends, just to pass a test!" He folded his legs and sat down with a huff. "Besides, there was no guarantee that Kiba's team had the right scroll."
Sakura had tuned out their argument a while ago, and was wishing they would stop. He attention was drawn by the surrounding leaves, which were moving more violently now then they had been a few moments ago. 'Strong wind…'
"Uhh, hey guys…"
"We're going to fail this exam all because of your stupid weakness for your friends."
"They're your friends too jackass."
"…guys…" The wind had picked up a roaring howl.
"Look Dobe, I don't need losers like them, or showoffs like you for that matter."
"Why you stupid stuck up pain in the…"
"GUYS!!"
The two turned to look at their teammate and finally noticed the wind just as a particularly strong gust tore through their hideout, scattering them.
Naruto was flung away into the darkness of the surrounding forest, as Sakura and Sasuke managed to find something to hold onto until the wind finally died down.
"What was that? An attack?" Sasuke started looking around them, but couldn't sense anyone around them. The stiffened suddenly.
"Ku ku ku ku. So there you are, Sasuke-kun. I've been looking for you.
The leaf gennin looked up in time to see a figure 'grow' out of a thick branch above them. The feeling they got from him was worse then what they'd experienced during the first exam and from Zabuza combined.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's not nice to keep someone waiting."
Sakura dropped to her knees, as her life and death flashed before her eyes. 'What happened to Naruto…'
The orange clad boy fell through the thick branches picking up momentum as he dropped. Naruto spread out his arms and attached Chakra Strings to several branches to slow himself down. Finally he was able to land safely on a branch just above the ground.
He sat down and breathed a sigh of relief, until his branch started moving.
A large head picked itself up off and glared down at him with reptilian eyes.
'That is a big snake…'
The head reared back and lunged at him with frightening speed, Naruto rolled off it's back and fell to the ground unsealing blade while he moved. As he stood to face the serpent, he subconsciously realized that he had lost Kyu.
The snake lunged again, and Naruto had to replace himself with his puppet to avoid it. The Sakes mouth closed around the wooden creation and it lifted it's head again to look for the boy as it tried to swallow Blade. Naruto could still feel the puppet on the Strings that were still attached to it. He smiled tightly and spread his fingers wide. Four sword like weapons shot outward from just behind the snakes head, in different directions. The wounded serpent opened his mouth wide in a loud hiss of pain. Not one to like seeing another creature in pain, Naruto began a circular motion with his hands and the swords began to spin in a counter clockwise rotation. Within moments, the snakes head fell to the ground as it's body thrashed around before it too fell motionless.
Blade fell right behind the head and Naruto called it back to him. It's cloak was torn, and shredded, giving it an almost ghoul-like appearance. Naruto sort of liked it, it was still long enough to hide the puppets limbs but now it looked more frightening.
He resealed his puppet and took off back into the canopy to look for his team.
Sasuke was growing too tired to move, the Grass ninja, there was no way he was a gennin, had been brutal in his attacks. The ninja kept on ranting about how his schedule was thrown off because of all the time he wasted looking for them. Sasuke had no idea what he was talking about, but he had shown them that he had an Earth Scroll, so He couldn't run, Not if he wanted to pass this exam and get stronger.
He looked over to where Sakura sat huddled behind the trunk of a tree, she was breathing harder than he was, the look in her eyes held more fear then any he had felt when he had faced Him as a child.
"Come, come, Sasuke-kun, show me your true power already. Don't tell me I'm wasting my time with you. Maybe I should just go after your brother after all."
The comment froze he blood. 'Itachi…'
His fist clenched, and he launched himself out of his hiding place, despite the screams of his teammate.
The enraged boy threw a powerful series of kicks at the Grass nin, none of which connected. Sasuke took an exploding tag and dropped it next to him as he was tossed aside.
The tag went off and as the smoke cleared, the grass nin was still standing, the damage to his face, not seeming to bother him at all.
He began to laugh again, and pulled off the dead skin covering his features to reveal a much older face.
"I do think I touched a nerve. Is your brother a sore subject?"
The enraged boy continued to attack the strange ninja with a reckless abandon. Finally Sasuke launched himself into the air and came down with a punishing axe kick, to the man's head, which was caught. The man had a hold of the boy's leg and prepared to throw him into the trunk of a tree, when he felt Sasuke burry a Kunai into his neck. As the grip on his foot loosened, Sasuke planted his other on the ninjas chest and pushed off and away from him, flying through hand seals all the while.
As he landed He placed his hand in front of his face and exhaled a large breath of flame.
"Katon: Karyu Endan No Jutsu!"
The flame took on the form of a dragon and barreled into the ninja, pushing him back up against a tree. When the flames died. The lifeless body of their opponent collapsed against the blackened scorched wood and collapsed into a small pile of mud.
He stared at the spot with wide red eyes, his Sharringan swirling madly. He could not believe that he was fighting a clone this whole time.
"Now that's more like it."
He turned to see the Ninja standing atop of a rather large snake. Sasuke was out of breath and low on chakra. He knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat this opponent. He thought about offering up the scroll he carried, since they had extras anyway, but didn't think the man would go for it. He obviously wasn't a Gennin, and even if he was, No body who was only interested in the exam would know his brother like he seemed to.
"Who are you and what do you know about Itachi?"
The man laughed. "More than you obviously. As for who I am…that is a conversation we'll enjoy another time Sasuke-kun. For now I'll leave you with a gift." The snake-like man flew through hand seals so fast even his Sharingan had difficulty following. His neck began to stretch and it shot towards him, He tried to move, however the mans eyes were locked onto his and he found himself unable to move or even look away.
His Mouth opened to reveal two sharp elongated fangs, and Sasuke knew he intended to bite him. the man was brought up short however when an arrow embedded itself with a thud just missing his head by a hairs breadth.
The man looked around, anger apparent on his face. "Leave my Teammates alone!"
Sasuke was confused, the voice was feminine, but Sakura was the only female on their team, and she looked just as confused as he was. Belatedly he realized that he was no longer held by their enemies gaze and leaped backward, putting some more distance between them. At the movement The Sake user looked back at Sasuke with narrowing eyes, like he was going to continue his attack, and had to move away as two more arrows almost hit his head. He followed their trajectory, and spotted a young blonde Kunoichi standing on a high branch with a loaded bow pointed right at him.
His head tilted to the side as he considered her for a moment. "My, my, does your mother know you go out in public dressed like that?" He indicated her less than modest attire.
The only answer he got in return was another arrow fired right him. He pulled his head back to his body and leapt off the snake in time to dodge still more of the projectiles.
The snake he had been standing on lunged towards her and she had to jump away from her perch, firing arrows into the serpents head as she fell. Her decent was halted suddenly as she was caught by the outstretched hand of the sake nin. He brought her close and his eyes widened in realization. He tightened his grip on her neck and her head popped off in a flurry of splinters.
He dropped the remains and had to duck as a cloaked figure flew over him taking a swipe at him with his swords. The figure turned in midair and came flying back at him shooting out Senbon and preparing to try another swipe with his bladed limbs. The needles never found their mark as the giant snake, now wearing a crown of arrows, curled itself, protectively around it's master. The senbon imbedded themselves into it's hide and after a few moments the snake dropped away into the darkness of the trees below, flailing limply as the paralyzing toxin took hold. The leaf gennin were all relieved to see that the ninja wasn't where he stood a moment before, thinking that he was dragged down with his snake.
Sakura rushed from where she was hiding to the side of her crush, reaching into her pouch for her med-kit, while Naruto dropped from where he had been hiding, to collect the remains of his Kunoichi puppet. "What the hell was that all about Teme?"
The boy was currently staring at nothing, his eyes wide and unfocused. 'Again…he did it again…he drove off that ninja, and I couldn't do a thing to him…'
After he put away his two puppets, Naruto began wondering where he could have lost Kyu. He looked up at where their hide away had been, now just a pile of snapped and broken branched wedged into another branch five feet from it's original position, and began to look around the area. Off to the side of the area they had been fighting he caught sight of a patch of reddish orange amongst the vivid green of the leaves.
He walked over to it and found his small fox puppet wedged into the crook of two intersecting branches.
After he managed to get it untangled, he saw that one of it's legs was at an odd angle, and it's fur was torn in a few places, he also noticed that some of it's inner components were rattling around inside it's body. He shook his head in dismay. 'ohh man this is going to take a while to fix.'
As he stuffed his puppet into his hip pouch, he happened to look into the thick foliage directly in front of him, as his eyes caught some slight movement, and he found himself looking directly into a smiling white face with yellow eyes.
Naruto's eyes widened in recognition, and he tried to leap back but was caught as a long tongue lashed out and wrapped around his neck, cutting off the boy's air. Naruto's strangled gasps alerted his two teammates and they got to their feet rapidly, their faces twisted into looks of horror as the grass ninja stepped out onto the branch.
The ninja was looking the boy over. "Kukuku, interesting I wasn't aware that Konoha had any of Suna's Doll Users. You have some skill, I'll give you that…some but not much."
As the man mocked Naruto, The boy could feel his own anger rise, this ninja was making a fool of him, he could feel a familiar heat begin to spread throughout his body, and knew that he was beginning to tap into the Fox's chakra.
The Snake ninja holding him smiled with the same realization, even around his tongue. The look on his face was something akin to glee. "Ohh this is too rich. I know who you are. To think that Namikaze's Legacy, is using the technique of another village. There's a good deal of Irony there, Boy." He reached out and took a hold of the boys jacket and tore away the front of it, along with his shirt, to reveal a complicated seal on his stomach. Naruto began to call on more of the demonic chakra, even as His opponent began a few hand seals. "Now, Now, none of that." A dark flame appeared on each of his fingers and he thrust them into his stomach.
Naruto let out a feral scream, felt his chakra begin to ebb away, as if someone had just shut off a valve inside him. The snake man dropped him to the ground and turned his attention to his original target.
"OK, where were we Sasuke-kun." The boy pushed Sakura aside, and almost off the branch, as he tossed a few shuriken at the man, who sidestepped them and caught the wires that were attached to them. He yanked on them and pulled Sasuke forward. The man caught him by the neck with his left hand and held him up in front of him like he had just been doing to Naruto. "I'm sorry Sasuke-kun. I just don't have the patients anymore." With that he crushed the child to him and sank his teeth into his shoulder. As he pulled away, he left a strange mark next to the bite wound.
Sasuke was screaming bloody murder, and writhing on the ground after he was released. The ninja gave the girl a once over and turned to leave, dismissing her as he went when he felt someone grab his ankle, and a small prick just above that. He looked down to see the blond boy with a Senbon embedded into his leg. He looked down on him in amusement. "Well that is impressive, not many gennin could stay awake after having their chakra sealed away like that." He glanced at the Senbon. "Is that a poison? Humph, still trying to kill me…" He was about to walk away, when Sakura called out to him. "What have you done to Sasuke-Kun!?" She was cradling his head in her lap, and dripping tears on him, but he was still obviously in pain, even though he had lost consciousness.
"I gave him a gift. If he survives, he will come to me for more power. My Name is Orochimaru. Tell him for me would you?"
With a maniacal laughter resonating throughout the area, the Sake Ninja dissolved into a small pile of mud.
Following their encounter with Orochimaru, Sakura had done everything she could medically for her team, but her knowledge was still pretty lacking. The pain in Naruto's stomach had eased somewhat, but Sakura had absolutely no idea how to unseal his 'bloodline'. Sasuke was still unconscious, and was being carried/dragged, through the trees to a location Sakura had found while scouting ahead of them. It wasn't much, but they could rest easier than they could out in the open. The spot they were looking for was a large hole in the trunk of a tree, located about thirteen feet off the ground and just under a large tree limb, so it would be out of the view of anyone traveling through the trees.
As they sat down panting, Sasuke was caught in another fit of convulsions. He writhed on the ground gritting his teeth against the pain, and trying to claw at his own neck. Sakura has currently holding him down, and trying to keep the boy from hurting himself.
Once the fit subsided, she fell back out of breath, and placed a warm washcloth on his head, all the while asking nobody in particular; "What did he do to you, Sasuke-kun?"
Naruto's thoughts were along similar lines as he noticed that his chakra control was off. He was trying to control Blade, however was forced to rely on both hands, rather than just the few fingers he was capable of before the fight with Orochimaru.
His shirt was still torn and he looked down at his now visible seal, to see that it had changed. The outer edges of it had a few extra kanji now, and it still hurt like hell. He let Blade sit against the side of their hideout and looked over to his two teammates.
Though his fit has subsided, Sasuke would still cringe in pain every few minutes or so, and he was sweating profusely, as though he was running a high fever.
Sakura wasn't in much better condition, at least mentally. Aside from Naruto's seal being tampered with, which was messing with his chakra control, and whatever it was that Sasuke had on his neck, the team actually received virtually no physical damage, so therefore, Sakura's medical skill, mediocre though they were, were effectively useless. They had tried snapping Sasuke out of whatever was happening to him by disrupting his chakra flow, thinking he might be in some kind of Genjutsu, but to no avail. He would have to wait until they could get him some help.
That brought up a second problem. The only way to get that help was to go to the tower, but without an earth scroll the team would fail the exam. Naruto felt momentary guilt over putting the test before his team, but then he remembered that it was Sasuke. The spoiled Teme would be thinking the same thing, and if they did quit the exam, he'd just get mad when he did recover.
He considered, briefly, going out to try to find an earth scroll by himself, but thought that it would at least have to wait until he'd recovered some of his strength, he could never remember feeling so tired for so long. Usually he'd be fully recovered and ready to go after a couple of hours. Kakashi told him during their wave mission, that it was due to the Fox's Chakra…which was now sealed. Naruto mentally slapped himself for not putting it together sooner.
.
Flashback
"Ohh this is too rich. I know who you are. To think that Namikaze's Legacy, is using the technique of another village. There's a good deal of Irony there, Boy."
End
'Namikaze's Legacy…what did he mean…how did he know about the fox…I thought that the old man ordered it to be kept a secret…there's no way that a foreign ninja should know about me…'
The thought reminded him of that boy with the white hair from the first exam. He reached into his pouch and took out the torn card he had taken from him.
NAME: UZUMAKE NARUTO
AGE: 11
VILLAGE AFILLIATION: KONOHAGAKURE
CLAN: N/A
KNOWN TECHNIQUES:
PROFICIENT IN THE USE OF PUPPETRY; LEARNED IN SUNA FROM ELDER CHYO
PROFICIENT WITH KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU
OTHER: JINCHURIKI OF KYUBI NO KITSUNE; NINE TAILED DEMON FOX
MISSION REPORTS: S-0
A-0
B-1
C-1 (UPGRADED TO B AFTER MISSION WAS MISLABLED)
D-19
The information went on.
'A lot of people know about the Fox, who shouldn't.'
It was suddenly more important that ever for him to get through this test alive, if for no other reason than to tell the Hokage that there might be a spy in the Leaf.
Naruto awoke abruptly when a large concentrated blast of air assaulted their hiding place.
He hadn't even realized that he had fallen asleep. After thinking about all that had happened he began the repairs to his two damaged puppets, and that was the last he remembered.
The tree shook again and he risked a glance out of the opening. Below them were three ninja, all smirking up at them, well two were the third had his face covered in bandages.
"Hey, you, where's the Uchiha? We need to kill him."
Naruto heard a gasp from behind him and turned to see Sakura cradling Sasuke's head in her arms.
Naruto groaned to himself, a small part of him wanted to let them have the Teme, but he couldn't let a teammate get killed, no matter how much of a bastard he was.
Naruto took another look at their surroundings. The hollow of the tree that had seemed so perfect yesterday, now felt like a trap. There were no other exits, and if they went out there, they'd be hit by whatever Jutsu was rocking the hell out of the tree.
He glanced at the two behind him and brought his hands together in a hand sign.
Below them the three shinobe were getting impatient. "Ohh c'mon already, just let us kill him so we can move on."
"You're too impatient Zaku, If you keep that up you'll likely just run out of chakra before you even get to them." The girl on their team had long black hair, and was grinning in a superior way at the boy with bushy hair.
"Ha! If they won't come down, then I'll tear that whole tree down around them."
While he was talking however the three Gennin launched themselves out of the hollow, and over the heads of the three sound nin.
They turned to watch them as they fled, Zaku going through a short series of hand seals, and pointing his hands, palm out, in their direction.
"Ohh no you don't. ZANKUHAAAA!"
Two blasts of pressurized air erupted from the small holes in his hands. The attack caught all three of the Leaf gennin and they all exploded in a cloud of smoke.
"W…What the hell!"
The three turned in time to see a cloaked figure falling upon them, with two bladed arms. Zaku and Kin leapt away, but the third Oto-nin, who stood in the middle, was forced to catch the steel weapons on his arm. The impact rang with the sound of metal on metal. He pushed off and took a swipe at the figure, who moved backward, just missing the attack. It stopped in a crouch low to the ground.
"Hehe, You cant dodge, my Melody arm. Even now I'm sure that your eardrums have ruptured. The pain must be excruciating."
"Hey Dosu, If he can't hear you, then why bother gloating?" Zaku had a large smile on his face, being a wise ass was one of his favorite things.
Dosu sweat dropped and took out a Kunai so he could finish off his opponent. As he approached he called out to his other teammate.
"Kin, the others must be still in that tree, finish them quickly."
With his head turned he never saw the 'disabled' figure rise from his crouched position.
Both of his teammates shouted out a warning, and he turned to see his opponent looming over him. Dosu thrust his Kunai into the stomach, to no effect. He raised his eyes up to the figure to see a cold lifeless stare gazing back. Realization dawned on him. His opponent was not human. The cloak that had shrouded his opponent until then, flew up and Dosu felt the pain of the slash, before he could even register the movement.
He fell back clutching his midsection, as the Puppet was revealed. Said puppet leapt up into the air as the signature attack of his other male teammate hit the ground where it stood. The explosion shook him from his stupor, and he retreated farther away.
"Kin, Get them!"
The girl was already leaping from branch to branch, up the tree. She turned briefly at the boy's shout and looked back up at the incoming fist of a girl with pink hair. The punch caught her off guard, and they both fell to the ground.
"You wont touch Sasuke Kun!"
Kin rose to her feet, more dazed by the fall, than the power of the attack. 'That's it?! Man she's weak.'
'If that's all the strength you can put behind your attacks then this'll be over with quickly."
What followed was a quick brutal pounding by the dark-haired Kunoichi. Sakura was now bloodied, bruised, and left lying on the ground. The other girl took her by the hair and held a Kunai to her throat.
"Hey listen up, either give up the Uchiha, or I'll slit this Fan girls throat!"
The puppet, paused in it's pursuit of Zaku and landed back on the ground.
For a few brief moments, nobody moved. "Hey, you hear me you Leaf bastard?
Just give us the Uchiha, and both you and this girl can go free."
Inside the tree, Naruto was seething. There was no way he could get to the girl in time with Blade. If he even tried then she would kill his teammate.
When he didn't respond he heard a loud scream from below him.
He rushed to the hole and looked down to see the sound Kunoichi kneeling over Sakura with a large fist full of pink hair, her Kunai was still at her neck, and she was smirking up at him.
"Ohh good you're still here. Next time it won't be her hair a rip off, now this is your last chance. Give us the Uchiha."
"Konoha-Daisenpu!!"
A green blur appeared in the clearing and kicked the dark girl away from the wounded Sakura.
Naruto breathed a sigh as he recognized the boy, from earlier in the exam, as a Leaf nin.
When Sakura looked up it was at a green clad form. The spandex would have made her ill had he not just saved her life. He was standing in a taijutsu pose none of them had ever seen before. His rigid body posture spoke of the endless hard work he must have put into learning it.
"I cannot let you harm such a delicate and beautiful flower."
Sakura nearly swooned. His voice conveyed confidence, and his words were elegant and poetic. Not to mention terribly romantic.
Then he turned to look at her and her heart stopped cold. "Don't worry miss. I, Rock Lee, Konoha's handsome devil, shall protect you."
His words went unheard by the stunned girl who couldn't take her eyes off of the two small animals that had become lodged over the boys wide round eyes.
"I see my youthful fires, have left you speechless."
He turned back to the sound nin who now looked at him with a mixture of confusion and laughter.
"I suggest that you leave at once. For I shall not show you any mercy for attempting to harm a fellow Leaf Ninja."
"Mercy this! Zankuuha!"
The large air blasts flew at the green boy, and he was ready to dodge them, until he saw that if he did, the attack would hit the attractive pink haired Kunoichi.
His code of honor wouldn't allow that. He rooted himself in place and braced himself for the attack, arms crossed in front of him. The twin air attacks hit and he was still launched back into the tree, however the attack, was stopped abruptly when Zaku's arms were riddled with Senbon needles, courtesy of the puppet that was now coming at him from above.
"Dammit!"
He managed to leap out of the way as, the puppet hit the ground burying all four of it's limbs in the loose soil.
"That thing is pissing me off!" He preformed his hand seals, and pointed his arms at the puppet, only for them to drop lifelessly to his side as the paralyzing agent on the needles finally took hold. The blast of air he had been holding back suddenly went off and launched him up off of his feet to land in a heap after crashing through the foliage around them.
By this point Dosu knew that they had to withdraw. He had decided to try to placate them with his scroll in exchange for letting them go, after all they already had one extra.
As he reached into his pouch, his hand was frozen cold by a feeling of immense chakra. It was a feeling he was all too familiar with. He looked around frantically. The source was close, too close for his comfort. He was never comfortable as long as those five and been around, this didn't feel quite like any of them…
Naruto smirked to himself as he watched the sound ninja fly off into the trees. It hadn't been entirely on purpose, but it was funny none the less. He lost his smirk, thought, when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and a feeling creep it's way up his spine. He turned slowly and saw that a strange, dark chakra had begun to encase his fallen teammate. When the boy began to rise Naruto saw that half of his body was covered in flames. For the smallest minute he thought it was some kid of Fire Jutsu, until Sasuke suddenly projected all of the energy outward. Naruto dove for the entrance to the hollow he was in, and only barely managed to get his feet under him in time.
All eyes looked at Sasuke as he emerged from the opening and stood on the tree trunk. He looked around the clearing, taking in everyone, and came to see Sakura, her hair had been cut off and she was obviously injured. Though he didn't much care about the girls wellbeing, the fact that she…the one who always hung back and did nothing…had been fighting, and protecting him infuriated him. He would not let Sakura of all people show him up.
"Sakura…who did that to you?"
Her eyes lit up. Though he was acting strangely and covered with that weird aura, he was finally showing concern for her well being. (At least in her mind.) She looked over at where the other Kunoichi stood, having recovered from the surprise attack by Lee.
Sasuke followed his teammates gaze and was gone in the blink of an eye, It wasn't until she felt his breath on her neck that she realized where he'd gone. She turned as a foot collided with her head and sent her flying back towards the tree and a struggling Lee. Before she could knock him back down she was caught by Sasuke, and held aloft by her throat, with only his one hand. With the other he began punching her in the stomach.
With each impact she let out a strangled cry, and soon even they stopped. She was still awake, but in so much pain that she could no longer react to the vicious beating.
When he failed to even get the satisfying reaction out her any more, he simply began to crush her neck in his grip. Meanwhile Sakura, who at first was thrilled that the boy was trying to fight for her honor, was now shivering in fear of him. Lee was frozen in his place by the un youthful cruelty he was witnessing first hand.
Naruto was watching with a mixture of both of their reactions.(minus the youthfulness) then anger began to overtake him as Sasuke took her arm in his hands and broke it at the elbow, bending her forearm back against the natural angle of the joint, and Sasuke smiled at the scream that followed.
The markings, which had faded to a black tattoo-like pattern, burned brightly again, as if feeding off of the pain and suffering of the sound girl.
Naruto looked to the girls teammates, to see if they would try to stop her torture, they just stood by, with no indication that they even cared. Naruto had had enough.
"SASUKE!! ENOUGH! Knock it off!" The blond was walking towards his teammate, slowly. Not at all sure that this was the best idea. Sasuke didn't even look his way.
"Stay out of this Dobe."
"She may be an enemy, but she's obviously beaten. There is no reason for this. Just let her go."
Now they dark-haired boy looked at him. "Make me."
Naruto's eyes widened at the sheer insanity and bloodlust that was in his now black left eye.
"SASUKE…" Sakura was on her feet, bloody, bruised, and wobbling, toward him now.
She grabbed onto his waist, pleading for him to stop, and he merely looked upon her like some insect he was inclined to step on.
He brought his hand over to her head gently, then slammed her into the ground. She landed hard on her shoulder and Naruto could hear a loud snapping sound as it was dislocated.
That was it, Naruto may not have had any kind of particular relationship with her, but he certainly didn't hate her, she was his teammate. He ran at the Uchiha and threw a kick at him, which was dodged as the boy dropped his earlier plaything.
"Now you want to fight Dobe…fine."
"What kind of person are you. I know she's annoying, but why would you attack your teammate like that! What would Sensei think?" Sasuke gritted his teeth and crouched to attack. Seeing this Naruto took a gamble.
"What would your parents think?"
The effect was immediate. Sasuke lost the edge he had and was momentarily lost in a large ocean of memories from that night. The night when his entire clan was murdered by Itachi. A vision consumed him of their murder…however he realized that it wasn't Itachi covered in blood, but him.
He fell to his knees, and cried out in pain as the markings were driven back into his neck. Naruto approached in time to see that last of them take a shape similar to the Sharingan.
Sasuke bent over his fists resting on the ground as tears fell from his eyes. "Hey…Teme…"
Naruto placed a hand on the boys back and, surprisingly, he didn't flinch away.
"I'm…sorry…"
"Don't worry about it. That snake guy did something to the both of us. We'll get Sensei to look at that mark on you after the test."
The other two sound ninja approached them and picked up Kin as best they could.
"We're not going to bother you anymore, this round. But in the next one anything goes." Dosu and Zaku began to make their way out of the clearing, when Naruto called out after them.
"HEY!! We still beat you, so we'll be taking your scroll."
Dosu stopped and looked back. "If you want. We can't fight back anymore. But all we have is a heaven scroll."
Naruto just looked at them eyes twitching. "GAAAHHH!!"
He turned and stomped off, grumbling about the lack of earth scrolls. When he got back to his team, Sasuke was trying to apologize to Sakura, who was waving it off and trying to tend to her shoulder. It was then that Naruto saw Lee leaning against the tree.
"Ohh, hey thanks for what you did back there."
"My pleasure." He was looking at Sakura, and Sasuke. "She loves him…"
Naruto nodded. "Yea, but hey, don't give up. I think it's really more of a crush."
The strange boy looked at them and a fire was ignited in his eyes. "That's right! The Fires Of My Youth Shall Not Be Extinguished!"
Naruto Sweat dropped. 'Well that was a fast recovery.'
"Sooo…uh…where's your team?"
Lee dropped his youthful pose. "Huh…Ohh Right my team…"
"Lee."
All eyes turned to the two people who had landed on the ground near them.
The girl stomped right up to him and smacked him upside the head.
"Where the heck did you go? We were all set to head to the tower, then you ran off."
Naruto's eyebrow lifted at the comment.
"I'm sorry Ten-ten. But I heard a scream from over here so I had to investigate."
"Do you realize that if something had happened to you we would have failed the exam."
This came from their third teammate as he walk up near Naruto. He had the same white eyes as Hinata did and Naruto recognized him from the first exam. He seemed to be every bit the brooding bastard that Sasuke was. Out of the three of them Naruto thought he probably had their scroll, not trusting the others to keep them. He smiled.
"Come on we're leaving, now."
The boy turned to leave, and Naruto ran after him. "Hey wait. What's your name?"
Naruto held out his hand to shake his.
Reluctantly after a moment he took it.
"Hyuga Neji."
Naruto pulled him into a large hug. "Thanks a lot for helping us out. We really appreciate it."
The boy stiffened and was about to launch the boy with a Kaiten, when he abruptly let go.
"Well see yaw in the next round."
"Wait." Naruto froze.
The boy was nearly growling. "Your name?"
Naruto deflated and smirked. "You'll find out soon enough."
Naruto went back to his team and together they leapt up into the trees.
Behind Neji, his team was stifling laughter at his expense.
"Let's get on with it."
Team Gai arrived at the Tower without further incident, and once inside they opened their scrolls. There was a puff of smoke, and a proctor appeared before them.
"Congratulations…You all fail."
The three stared at him in shock.
"What do you mean we fail. We have the scrolls and we arrived at the tower before the time limit was up!" Ten-ten was furious.
"You did arrive on time, however you're short one earth scroll." He said pointing to the brown scroll in Neji's hand. He turned it over, while activating his Byakugan, and cursed. He ripped off the brown paper to reveal another Heaven scroll. On the torn off piece was written a message.
'Compliments of Uzumaki Naruto'
Below that was a picture of a fox sticking out its tongue.
"Naruto! I can't believe that after Lee risked his life for us, you stole his teams scroll!"
Sakura had been verbally bashing him since he revealed what he had done.
"And after all of that talk about not attacking other leaf teams, you just…"
When they reached the door, on the opposite side of the tower from the one Neji's team had entered through, Naruto rounded on her stopping her mid-sentence and held up one finger.
"First, what I said was that I didn't want to attack any of our friends from the academy. We barely know Lee and his team, Second (two fingers) That Neji guy, as well as being a complete jerk, is from the Hyuga clan. I'm pretty sure they have a special bloodline similar to the Time's over here. (points thumb in Sasuke's direction) so if they guy couldn't tell that when a perfect stranger hugs him for a reason he had nothing to do with, and swipes their mission objective from them, even with those special eyes of his, he really has no business being promoted to a Chunnin, and would probably get his team killed if he did. So the way I see it, Lee saved your life, and I returned the favor."
Naruto turned again and pushed open the door to the tower.
After they entered the empty room they took out the scrolls and opened them to reveal a summoning scroll. In a puff of smoke they were greeted by none other but their instructor from the academy, Iruka.
He looked like he was about to go into some kind of speech, until he took in the appearance of the three before him. "What happened to you three?!"
Both Sakura and Sasuke remained silent, leaving Naruto to do the talking, as usual.
"Well it's been a crazy couple of days." He cast a sidelong glace at Sasuke. "Uhh, listen Iruka Sensei, do you think that we could talk to Kakashi-sensei?"
Iruka was worried. "Well the teams taking the exam aren't supposed to have any contact with their Sensei's during the first two parts of the exam, but since you've already passed, with a few days to spare, I suppose I could send him a message to meet you in your room. Unfortunately you can't leave the tower until the exam is over, unless you're going to quit?"
Both of the boys gave him a look that made it quite clear they had no intention of quitting.
"No it's nothing like that. There were just some things we encountered during the exam that I need to talk to him about. Maybe the Hokage too, but for now I just want to see what he thinks."
Iruka nodded. "Ok I'll send for him now. In the meantime, you go rest. Ohh and if anyone asks I gave you the speech about that saying on the wall." With that he disappeared the way he came, in smoke, and the three of them went to their room. Once inside Sasuke grabbed Naruto and pushed him up against the wall, causing the boy to drop the damaged fox puppet he had been carrying.
"What are you going to tell Kakashi?"
Naruto glared at the boy. "I'm going to tell him about that snake bastard, and what he did to us."
"You keep this thing on my neck a secret understand? I lost control before and it caught me off guard, but I know that I can control it's power. It made me stronger, faster,…"
"Psychotic."
"Look Dobe, if you say anything…" He was shoved roughly back.
"You'll what Teme?"
"…."
"That Orochimaru guy, was obviously at least Jounin rank. Best case scenario, he infiltrated the exam to help eliminate the competition for his own team. Worst case…I don't even want to try and guess. Either way Sensei needs to know."
It was at that moment that a knock was heard at the door, and Kakashi walked in. Book in hand and Zanbato on his back.
"Yo…" He took in the condition of his team. 'Sakura looks half dead, and they look like they're about to kill one another. Aside from the injuries, nothing unusual.'
"So what's up?"
The three of them began to relate their experiences from during the exam. When they came to the part about Orochimaru, Kakashi immediately put away his book, confirming to them that, not only did he know who they were talking about, but that it had him worried.
They explained, much to Sasuke's displeasure, about the Curse Mark on his neck, and the seal that was placed over Naruto's 'Bloodline'.
After examining both briefly, Kakashi took Sasuke aside and put an additional seal on his neck, in order to keep the Mark in check. Unfortunately the seal on Naruto was beyond his abilities to remove, and promised to find someone who could remove it safely. Naruto just shrugged, after all it made it more difficult for him to use his own chakra, but not impossible. Lastly, Sakura described their encounter with the Sound Trio, and how they had claimed to have been targeting Sasuke specifically.
After listening to their entire report and asking only a few questions, Kakashi left the room to go report to the Hokage. As he was walking out, Naruto exited the room behind him, and Kakashi stopped.
"Naruto, was there something else?"
"Yea, it may be nothing but…I took this from another Leaf Gennin during the first exam."
He reached into his pocket and handed Kakashi the torn card. The Jounin glance at it briefly and his one visible eye narrowed.
"Who did you get this from?"
"I think his name was Kabuto, he's an older Gennin, said this was his seventh time taking the exam. He also claimed to have information like this on everyone in the exam, even foreign teams."
Kakashi nodded. "Ok, good work, I'll look into this…What else is there?"
Naruto looked down. "That Orochi-guy…He called me…'Namikaze's Legacy'… What did he mean by that?"
It took a minute before Kakashi could answer. "Naruto…That is an answer I can only give you after consulting with the Hokage, as it may not be my place to give it."
Naruto was taken aback, this was a level of emotion, that he was unused to from his Sensei. It was almost unsettling.
"Go on and rest up. You have a few days until this part of the exam is over, afterward you'll likely need it."
He walked a few more steps and vanished.
Naruto went back to their room and, as he had been told two days later they were summoned tot eh main floor of the tower, along with the others who had passed the test. Naruto had used the time to repair his puppets as best he could, but without replacements parts, he was forced to use some of Kunoichi's to fix up the other two, leaving him with only two of the three. Naruto was determined to build a few more the first chance he had.
The Gennin, six teams in all, were lined up in front of a group of people including not only their instructors, and several Chunnin proctors, but the Third Hokage as well. The old man was currently standing in front of the assembled ninja, smiling at the faces he saw.
'So, all of the rookies made it this far, and practically nobody else…' He was chuckling to himself.
"I want to congratulate all of you for passing the second part of the Chunnin Selection exam."
