Wow! Sorry for the horrible lag since my last update! I had some really bad troubles and distractions for the past few months and writer's block didn't help much either. I sincerely hope that I haven't lost any of my normal reviewers, from the lull in updates. I hope this chapter is up to par, if not better, than my other chapters since my absence. Read, review, and enjoy! I hope to have Chapter 9 up soon!
The first day of training for Naruto was bittersweet.
He had been ecstatic the second he had woken up. Much like a child on Christmas morning, something that Naruto had never experienced but could imagine, he rushed out of bed and quickly got ready; arriving at the training grounds thirty minutes too early. Twenty minutes later Shino came, walking quietly with his hands stuffed into his coat's pockets.
To Naruto, the boy was always a mystery. Even when they had been classmates in the academy, the boy was quiet. He never spoke unless called upon and even then his tone was low and monotone. He kept to himself and didn't seem to have any friends, at least not in school. Naruto knew that the Aburame was a large clan with a bloodline limit – or maybe ancient technique, that allowed them to nest insects within their bodies and let them fight. From what he recalled from the spars in the academy, his insects could siphon chakra from an opponent at an alarming rate. And while the use of his insects was restricted then, it didn't take a jonin to see how deadly they could be.
The Aburame heir gave a curt nod to Naruto, which he returned, before walking over to stand ten feet from him; leaning up against a tree. Naruto made no move to introduce himself to the boy, as it seemed they had already exchanged pleasantries judging by how Shino stared at the ground in front of him with his head down.
Moments later, Hinata joined them as well, looking overjoyed to see the blonde youth waiting. The two talked briefly, exchanging greetings and chatting about what had happened the night before, when Kurenai entered the training ground with a parcel wrapped in brown paper.
After getting proper introductions out of the way, Kurenai handed the package to Naruto. Opening it, he found it was a soft leather sheath outfitted for his greatsword. His temporary sensei explained that the gift was more of a practical reason than anything. Naruto needed to practice with his weapon in spars and the full sheath guaranteed that he couldn't kill anyone with it by slashing. He still had to avoid hitting areas like the head with the hulking weapon, lest he cave in one of his teammates skulls.
The training regiment that Kurenai put her students through was much harder than what Kenshin's had been. From eight AM to noon they practiced chakra control, did chakra building exercises which were achieved by using jutsu, throwing practice, and finally sparring. During the chakra control exercises however, Kurenai found that Naruto had still yet to learn the tree climbing exercise and had him work on learning it for the whole day until sparring. He had gotten it down and was able to walk up ten feet before loosing control. His teammates and sensei had given him invaluable tips from the start, allowing for a pain free learning experience.
Then, during sparring, he found that he had an almost unfair advantage against Shino. His style of offense was to drain his opponents of chakra until they either surrendered or died. Not only did Naruto have a gigantic chakra pool, thus allowing him to fight longer, but Shino's insects almost immediately stopped draining the blonde shinobi. With a disturbing look and quick surrender, Shino informed the team that his insects refused to "eat" Naruto's chakra because it had a foul and unnatural taste, that would most likely lead to death should they continue feeding from it.
Naruto acted offended at first, scoffing and making it sound like Shino was commenting about his hygiene, while in the back of his mind he knew that it was because his chakra was tainted with Kyuubi's chakra. While she showed no outward signs, Kurenai was immediately worried and decided to bring it up with the Hokage later that day.
The spar with Hinata and Naruto had started out bad, because both fighters had reservations about sparring with the other. She didn't want to fight the teen because not only did she love him, but was horrified at the thought of looking weak in front of him. He didn't want to either, he was afraid to hurt the girl with his greatsword.
While somewhat happy that the two teammates cared for each other so, Kurenai was quick to fill the role of teacher and reprimand them for it. They had to fight, so they could not only get stronger but to better understand each other's strengths and weaknesses, so that they might take advantage of and protect each other in a real combat situation. Finding truth and reason in her words, the two reluctantly agreed, and soon fought in earnest. While slow and clumsy at first, they soon feel into a groove that allowed them to fight comfortably and still fight seriously.
Much to Kurenai's surprise, the Hyuuga heir was fighting more fiercely than she had seen before. While it was obvious to the jonin that Naruto would win in the end, it wouldn't be without some damage. The woman smiled as she watched her only kunoichi duck a broad swipe and counter quickly with a jab to a tenketsu on the blonde's upper leg. Turning away from the spar, she began to fight with Shino since he wasn't able to fight Naruto.
After sparring and training, they did the various D-rank missions that all genin were called upon to do. Boring and tedious, but necessary. For the remainder of the month, they constantly continued on with the harsh training regiment which was rather easy for the blonde youth compared to his solo training, which he also tried to continue after they were released for the day. Naruto was a man possessed and fatigue was something he refused to acknowledge.
Then, two days before the exams, Team Eight decided to take the time to relax and prepare themselves for the milestone in their young lives.
The night before the exams, Naruto had a nightmare. The same nightmare that plagued his dreams before, but this one was worse. Far worse than any of the others. For now he truly knew he could turn into that beast and would have to watch as it killed his friends. This time, the nightmare had added actors. Not only was his deceased team still in the dream, but Team Eight was added. Sakura was replaced by Hinata, an older beautiful Hinata that Naruto had no idea how he conjured her in his mind. If he hadn't been horror stricken with what he was about to do, he would of admired her radiant goddess beauty.
But this is where the dream deviated horribly, even more so than the change of actors. Instead of being able to awaken before the gruesome decapitation, he watched flesh and muscle do little to resist his pull as he removed her head from it's proper place. Blood exploded from the fatal wound as the body lost all tension and went slack, collapsing onto the ground. He screamed and begged to be able to stop, to look away, but no matter how he turned or tried to close his eyes, the grotesque action was omnipresent. Then, hearing the Kyuubi cackle in his own mind, he watched as his possessed self raised the lifeless head over his own and greedily caught the falling princess' blood into his mouth before caving in the skull with a powerful squeeze.
He awoke, screaming as loud as his body could and shot out of bed, rolling onto the floor and couldn't register anything else than the horrific last few moments that occurred in the nightmare, which replayed over and over again. The image of his teammates disfigured head, so easily crushed by his grip, was burned in his mind. Soon though, he calmed from his hysteria somewhat, enough to realize that it had been in fact a horrific nightmare. Propping himself up onto his shaky arms and legs, he breathed heavily as he focused on the hardwood of his floor and the sweat mingled with tears that dripped onto it. His mind felt like the contents of a dryer that was finishing up. Slowly, his thoughts stopped flying around his mind and slowly settled down into an unorganized mess that would need sorting and replacement into their proper place. After another long round of steady breathing, Naruto pushed himself against the frame of his bed and sat on the warm floor with one leg tucked under the other which was pointing out.
Finally regaining his senses, he cursed at the demon spirit that resided within him. He couldn't hear the stupid thing unless he was pulled into the special mind scape that represented the part of him in which the Kyuubi resided, but he knew it was laughing and mocking him. Pointlessly, he punched himself as hard as he could with his right fist into his gut, making himself double over in pain. It was out of pure malice and spite, and prayed the fox would feel it. Fucking demon! Stop messing with me! Naruto cursed in his head as loud as he could, just trying to somehow lash back at the thing for giving him such a hellish experience.
Uttering a final curse to acknowledge acceptance of the fact he couldn't hurt the fox, he crawled back into bed to try and fall back asleep in vain.
Nine AM seemed to take forever to come around, as Naruto sat against the wall of the academy near the door. He had been there since five, having not been able to sleep again after waking up from his nightmare. At first, he was up on the roof watching the sunrise both anxious for the upcoming exams and fearful of what his dreams seemed to almost promise. He wanted to go train, as it always helped to clear his head, but knew he had to save his strength for anything the exams might throw his way. He relocated to the door as he started to see teams file into the academy.
Meeting the other team with polite nods, some which weren't returned, he waited with anticipation with every foot step he heard come around the wall. Shino was the first to show, making no outward appearance to acknowledge Naruto except for the small nod that the blonde had grown accustomed to. If he did anything more, Naruto might actually be afraid.
Hinata came next, Kurenai right behind her. The butterflies Hinata felt at the moment were visible on her face.
"Today's it, are you all ready?" Kurenai asked, confident that her team was ready. Her team had improved since Naruto had joined. She almost dared to say that the teamwork the faux Team 8 displayed was better than the original.
"You know it!" Naruto replied for the whole team as the other two tended to be silent or too quiet for even trained shinobi ears to hear. "So Sensei, you still can't tell us what the first test is?" he asked, pleading with the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.
"You know I can't Naruto, no matter how many times you beg." She responded, half-annoyed and half-amused. "The only thing I can tell you is that if you want to beat this thing all you need is each other." She continued, smiling as she remembered how her sensei had said the exact same thing to her team so many years ago.
The three all glanced at each other with determined looks and confident smiles. Whatever this exam would throw at them, they knew they could take it.
After getting past an obvious trap which only included simple understanding of how many flights of stairs one climbed, Team 8 arrived in the actual testing room. Packed with genin of varying ages, Naruto wondered just how hard this test was. There was even a man in his late thirties with two fresh academy students sitting next to him. I think that might be a sign you aren't cut out for it. . . Naruto thought with a sad chuckle.
Seeing the rest of their generation hanging out against the wall, Team 8 drifted over and found their own places. Team 7 was the last in, causing a huge commotion as Sakura and Ino interrupted Sasuke's beeline towards Naruto by preforming a double flying glomp. Having been keenly attuned to Sakura's attempts, Sasuke smirked as he ducked the hug and allowed Ino to slam into the other kunoichi. Unfortunately, he didn't anticipate gravity as the the combined weight of the girls slammed him to the ground. Naruto couldn't help himself as he snorted and doubled over laughing as the three started thrashing about in a pile their screams mingling into a unintelligible mess of sound.
Seeing this, Akamaru began to bark loudly from atop Kiba's head, his tail wagging at full speed as his puppy instincts roared at him to jump down and join the fun.
"Um. . . Naruto-kun. . ." Hinata whispered, shaking the blonde's shoulder.
Naruto quickly sobered as he recognized the upset tone that his friend had. Looking up, he saw that their little area had drawn the attention of the entire classroom, some had amused looks, while most had piercing glares. "Looks like we didn't make any friends." He replied, subconsciously stepping in front of Hinata.
"Will you guys be quiet? You'll get yourself singled out really quick like that."
Looking towards the voice, he saw a young man with silver hair and large round glasses walking up to the group. He also wore the Konoha hitai-ate around his forehead. His appearance seemed to quell the disturbance the fresh genin were causing.
"I swear, you're all way too green to be entering this exam, what was your sensei thinking?" he continued.
"And just who the hell are you to say something like that, huh punk?" Kiba snarled, as he walked up to the mysterious leaf ninja.
Scoffing at the pathetic barking, he just smiled at the boy. "My name is Kabuto Yakushi, and I'm just trying to make sure you guys don't get killed early on, if you even pass this first test. You're all so green it's painfully obvious."
"So you've said. You're not making too many friends yourself shooting your mouth off like that." Naruto said, watching the other man with a guarded expression. He didn't distrust the guy or anything, but him just coming out of the woodwork to warn everyone was strange.
Kabuto looked over towards the blonde and shrugged. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, I just have the problem of being too blunt sometimes." He replied. So that's the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, eh? Judging by the info I've gathered something tells me if the Akatsuki doesn't act fast they might have a hard time getting this boy. Ever since his team was slaughtered his strength has been seemingly increasing at a strong and steady pace. Walking up to the boy, he held up his hands.
"Let me extend the hand of friendship then, by offering you some valuable information then. Ask me about any ninja and I can tell you their strengths and weaknesses."
Before Naruto could even mull over the offer, Sasuke quickly walked around Kabuto, fire burning in his eyes. "Tell me all you know about Naruto Uzumaki!"
Naruto grumbled to himself as he listened to Sasuke talk like he wasn't there. He tried to pay it no mind however, as he figured it was just a way to rile him.
It worked. Too bad I can't pound him into in the dirt right now.
"Sure, no problem. First up is Naruto Uzumaki then," Kabuto stated as he pulled out a blank orange card no bigger than a trading card and focused some chakra into it and everyone watched in amazement as a picture of the blonde, a graph and lines of information appeared on the card. "According to my information, Naruto here is particularly strong in taijutsu – kenjutsu included – and ninjutsu. No bloodline to speak of, and no skill in genjutsu at all. A total of 15 D rank missions complete, and a failed A rank mission."
The rookie nine that weren't in the know began to murmur amongst themselves about the failed A rank. "How did you even get assigned an A rank?" Shikamaru asked.
Naruto clicked his tongue as he suddenly wanted to steal every info card and burn them all. "It's too long of a story to tell right now." He replied, hoping that would kill any further questions.
"Hey wait, now that I think about it, weren't you on a different team?" Ino asked, trying to remember who the other member in Team 8 was.
Shit, I'd really rather not get into this right now. Naruto thought, taking a small step back involuntarily, attempting to somewhat remove himself from this. God was kind to him however, as faint chakra signatures was all the warning anyone got as a resounding boom echoed. Four shinobi appeared in the smoke of the shushin, the one in the middle being a huge man wearing a black trench coat and grey military suit underneath. His face was marred with scars and his very demeanor seemed to speak volumes about the man himself. His booming voice only added to the image.
"Listen up maggots! Everyone shut the hell up and sit down! The first exam has started!" As if his voice was some form of genjutsu intended to create obedience, everyone quickly complied and sat down. Team 8 chose to sit at the middle aisle of desks near the edge.
Naruto had instantly recognized the shinobi as Moreno Ibiki, as he had been able to taste the man's impressive interrogation techniques. His body involuntarily shuddered and ached at the memory. Shaking his head to clear up the thought, he tried to just focus on the sadist and what test his sick mind could possibly cook up.
Ibiki smirked as he scanned the silent crowd and saw his initial entrance seemed to pack the appropriate punch. Most had troubled expressions on their faces, save a few of the tougher genin. He saw that the genin he had interrogated was also in attendance. If there was as dedicated a watcher for Ibiki as Naruto had, they would notice his scowl drop for a millisecond into a frown. Ibiki had truly come to feel bad, if not borderline regret the interrogation he had put Naruto through. He had been so convinced that the Kyuubi had taken him over in some form he couldn't risk allowing him to walk free until he had been sure.
And this was coming from a man who once slowly carved up a hardened Iwa nin with a dull kunai, attempting to obtain information on an ambush. To the Iwa-nin's credit, he hadn't spoke.
"Welcome to the first exam, but don't get comfortable. I have made it my personal mission to make sure not a single one of you passes. I've read all of your personnel files and it's clear you stand no chance." Ibiki spoke with an invisible smirk. It was all bullshit, he hadn't read any files; he just loved to watch the anger and fear play out over their faces. It was the genin who didn't flinch that he knew had a better chance to pass this test.
"This first exam will be a mental test. You will all first be relocated, each chair is marked with a number, as your name is called move to your assigned seat."
Much to Team Eight's disappointment, they had been split up and separated quite a distance away from each other. It seemed that had happened to all the other teams though as well. And, much to Naruto's disgust he had been sat down next to the Uchiha. The prodigy seemed to dislike the idea just as much as him, judging by the frigid aura the teen was giving off.
"You all have one hour to complete a ten question test, the last question will be posted at the end of the hour time limit. If you are caught cheating, you and you're entire team will be disqualified!" Ibiki announced, fiercely declaring the consequences.
Gasps of shock and anger filled the room along with glances to other teammates as if trying to tell them to not fuck it up.
Naruto glanced at his teammates and saw they both seemed confident. He was starting to be able to read Shino by his body posture, which he was glad for as it was getting increasingly annoying to deal with the stoic teen. Hinata had an air of confidence, but he could tell there was definitely an underlying doubt as he watched her hands not able to stop wringing ever few seconds. But, after a quick meeting of eyes and a grin from Naruto, she stopped the nervous motion all together and a bright blush spread on her face.
I hope she's not feeling ill, that'd be a bad start to the exams. Naruto thought with a touch of worry. Deciding she'd be okay, he turned his attention back to the front.
Ibiki slowly scanned the crowd making sure the seating arrangements were correct as well as making sure all his planted chunnin were mingled in right with the genin. Seeing everything was good, Ibiki glanced down at his watch.
9:59:51, good, right on schedule. Counting down in his head, Ibiki announced at exactly 10 o'clock. "Begin!"
It hadn't taken long for Naruto to realize the difficultly of the test. All of the questions posed in the test hadn't even been covered in lectures. The only plausible way any genin would know these questions is if they did the extra bookwork themselves. Glancing over at Sakura, he groaned seeing how easily and diligently she was answering the question. He quickly snapped his eyes back down however, not wanting to be the reason his team was kicked out.
Rubbing his temples, he tried his hardest to even remember some formula or theory that could help him with the first question. After two minutes of fruitless brain racking, Naruto almost wanted to scream. The anger seemed to trigger his memory however, as he recalled something Kenshin had told them during a training exercise.
"Remember, the world is not two-dimensional. If you can't solve a problem normally, think of it from a different perspective."
A different perspective. . . Naruto thought, feeling a epiphany in the works. Then, as if a bolt of lightning struck, he found another perspective.
Ibiki.
The man wasn't best at being an interrogator for nothing, the man was a sadist. Sadists enjoy seeing others suffer and and in pain. It didn't always need to be physical as Naruto had learned.
So, knowing how he gets his kicks, he probably designed this test in a way that he could enjoy it. Under normal circumstances, tests don't allow cheating in the first place, so why go to all the trouble to announce it? Also, why would he give us questions so hard we couldn't answer them?
As Naruto thought, he happened to glance over at Sasuke and saw that the boy had his legendary bloodline activated and was staring intently at another testers arm. He also noticed that Sasuke wasn't looking at his own paper, yet was writing out the answers perfectly!
Seeing and thinking all of this, a mini-explosion erupted in the blonde's head as he finally understood the purpose of the test. We're supposed to cheat! That's why he warned us about cheating, this test is designed to test our ability to obtain information without getting caught!
This revelation was as much of a headache as it was a relief. He knew his teammates would be fine, without guessing he figured both were using their bloodlines to get the answers. I don't have any special ability like that, how could I possibly. . . His train of thought went off there as he grinned remembering a prank he had pulled a few years ago. Reaching down slowly to the pouch on his back, he glanced at each of the proctors within eye shot and saw they were not looking at him. Quickly, he grabbed the item he needed and hid it under his desk.
Waiting and biding his time, he glanced over at Sasuke's desk and saw the boy had finished and deactivated his sharingan. Channeling his chakra into the item he grasped, he smirked. Now!
Ibiki was starting to get irked, as only 5 teams had been removed so far. So either his proctor's had been messing up and couldn't catch simple genin in cheating, or this year's stock had been very good. Either way, his men were in for a surprise at the end of the test if the disqualification rate didn't start to pick up.
Trying to let go of his anger, he glanced over at the blonde ninja who stood out worse than the puppet user with the gigantic sword leaning against the desk. I wonder how he'll get through this, if he even can.
No sooner had he thought that, Ibiki and everyone else in the room let out a startled shout as a blinding white light and deafening bang exploded from the aisle on the opposite side of where Naruto sat.
His ears were ringing, but because he had closed his eyes, the flash bomb Naruto threw down under the desk into the aisle hadn't blinded him. Praying he got all the proctors and Sasuke, Naruto snapped his hand out and swapped papers with the other boy. Then, quickly erased Sasuke's name off the test and wrote his own. Finishing up, he dropped his pencil and started groaning and rubbing his eyes – keeping a firm hand on his paper.
"Who the hell threw that?" Ibiki screamed as some semblance of order started to settle again. Snapping his head around, he tried to figure it out when he caught a glimpse of Naruto smiling like a cat who just ate the canary. Ibiki was torn between wanting to snap the runt's neck or offering him congratulations. Seeing that none of his other proctors caught it, he decided to let the boy get away with his plan. Smirking he thought, At least that's the first time anyone's pulled that one. If nothing else, it certainly isn't a boring test.
Clearing his eyes, Sasuke cursed wondering what the hell had happened. From the effects, he concluded it was a flash bomb or something similar. Grunting, he looked down towards his test. At least I got all the answers. . . he began to think before cutting off slowly.
"What the-?" he exclaimed, seeing the completely blank test page. Snapping his head around thinking it flew off, he saw Naruto's test paper which had his handwriting all over it!
Son of a bitch stole my test! He screamed mentally, grinding his teeth. He knew he would get caught if he tried to take the paper back and get himself disqualified. Cursing in his head and glaring a burning hole into the blonde's skull he swore revenge.
"Pencils down! Test is over!"
Flipping his page over, Naruto glanced towards his teammates and saw both of them giving them thumbs up. He flashed them a smile, and Sasuke one too, replying silently that they'd be okay.
"And now, before I ask the tenth question, I have one additional rule to announce." Ibiki said, earning a loud groan from several examinees. "Quiet! Stop your bitching if you know what's good for you!" hearing the protests stop, he continued. "If you don't feel that you can answer this next question, raise your hand and you can leave the room with your team and you can retry next exam; However," he paused, enjoying the drama, "should you decide to take the question and fail it? You will be forbidden from taking the Chunnin exams ever again and will remain a genin so long as you are a ninja!"
Mixed reactions flew through the classroom as quiet whispers and loud protests bounced. Some teams already had members snapping their hands up disqualifying their entire team.
` Naruto immediately looked towards Hinata who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Shit not good, if I know her she's already thinking if she takes the question she'll cause us to fail. He knew Shino wouldn't buckle, he was far too logical to allow his emotions to rule his decision making.
I have to admit though, I'm feeling shaky about this myself. But there's no way I'm backing down, not now. Keeping his eyes trained on Hinata, he watched her struggle with the decision, so much so she hadn't even looked towards Shino or himself. Looking back towards Ibiki, the bastard was smiling and he knew this tenth question must have some angle to it like the test had. This time, he wasn't going to let Ibiki have his fun.
As soon as she had heard the horrible choice, Hinata had already decided what she should do. There's no way I can risk Shino-kun and Naruto-kun's future careers. I know I can't do this. E-Even if Naruto-kun hates me for it, I have to do it.
She tried to will her hand to move, but she could feel the gaze of the blonde swordsman on her. She couldn't bring herself to make eye contact with him, too ashamed to even look at those gorgeous eyes of his that she knew held contempt for her. Feeling tears start to well up in her eyes, she remembered all the horrible things her father had said about her and it only reinforced her decision to not drag Naruto and Shino down because of her weakness she –
Hinata's thoughts were cut off suddenly by a loud shouting coming from Naruto.
"Hey Ibiki! How about you cut it out with these goddamn mind games and just present the damn question! I don't give a damn if I stay a genin forever, no real ninja would ever back down from something like this just because it had some small consequence! Even if I never make chunin, I swear I'll become so strong I'll be the first genin ever to become Hokage!"
Ibiki showed no outward gesture of the genin's outburst but inside he was a boiling pot of anger and pride. Anger at the little bastard for completely bolstering the resolve of any examinees left and pride at how much promise he showed as a ninja.
"If you're done I suggest you sit back down and shut up." Ibiki replied.
Naruto complied, but did so with a glare. However, he was pleased with himself and his outburst and it also seemed to have of erased all of the princess's fears and doubts about taking the test as she had a brilliant smile on her face that was directed towards him. Feeling a small fire light in his heart, it reflected in his face as he quickly turned away.
"Seeing as how no one else seems ready to leave, I'll now present the final question." Looking around with an actual smile now, Ibiki laughed at the expressions, most of all on Naruto's face. "You all pass!"
After the initial shock and rage of realizing that the tenth question was just staying, everyone cheered and rushed to their teammates. Meeting Shino and Hinata in the aisle where his bomb went off, Naruto couldn't help but notice the smile that was still lighting up Hinata's face. Why have I never noticed, how pretty she looks when she smiles?
"Naruto, were you the one who set off that?" Shino asked, knocking Naruto out of his reverie.
Naruto immediately replied by 'shushing' the boy, electing a giggle from Hinata. "Could you yell that for me Shino!" he whispered harshly.
"You caused my colony undue stress from that, please provide some warning next time."
Naruto just blinked as he started feeling shivers run up his spine from the thought. "Sure, but it was kind of a last minute thing."
"So it was you. I'll get you back for stealing my paper you bastard."
Looking over, Naruto only grinned at Sasuke who was extremely irate. "Don't be so angry duck-ass, you still passed."
Clenching his fists and growling, Sasuke was almost exploding from anger. Just as he was about to charge the blonde and deck him, an explosion of sound alerted all the ninja in the room to the flying grass shrapnel that flew into the room.
Following the glass was a red kite that exploded into a gigantic banner and revealed a voluptuous woman wearing only a trench coat, a fishnet body suit and large leg armor. It was none other than the Tokubetsu (Special) ANBU Anko Mitarashi.
Naruto's jaw dropped as he instantly recognized the woman from the festival that had happened a few days before. "T-That ridiculous hairstyle and slutty way of dressing! It's you the dango thief!"
Glaring at the young boy, the indigo haired woman growled. "How dare you say that to me! That dango was mine fair and square!"
"Fair my ass! You stole it from me after I woke up super early to buy the stuff!"
Chuckling, she planted her foot forward and put her hands on her luscious hips. "That's fair, haven't you heard? All's fair in war and dango!"
"Anko, stop being a pest. You already made a huge mess." Ibiki growled, annoyed at his star pupil. She pulled stunts like this often, generally resulting in property damage and civilian injuries.
Of course she paid no heed to Ibiki as she had charged up to the blonde ninja and was squaring off with him, glaring into his eyes. "Limp dicked runt! Either shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you! You already ruined my entrance!"
"Old hag bimbo! You're the one who should shut your mouth!"
Anko saw red and drew her kunai, getting ready to throw it just as Naruto started drawing his zanbatou. Before any fight could start however, a very pissed Ibiki appeared between them, graping both their collars.
"That's it! All of you report to Training Ground 44 in two hours or be disqualified!" Ibiki shouted to the crowd of stunned genin. Snapping his head towards Anko and Naruto he put on the face that meant someone was in for it. "You two are coming with me."
Disappearing in a cloud of smoke, Hinata gasped as Ibiki, Naruto and Anko all transported to some unknown location. "S-Shino-kun. . .?" was all she could utter as she looked towards her other teammate.
Shino only shrugged, "Let's just report to Kurenai-sensei and then the training ground. Nothing else we can do."
Hinata whimpered as she nodded, knowing there was nothing she could do other than pray for her crush's safety.