Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Warnings: AU for parts of both worlds (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), mild character bashing, mild to moderate violence (there are shinobi involved after all), and a few others that will be announced as they crop up.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 37: Chuunin Hopefuls
Monday, November 03, 2003, Morning
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Naruto walked onto Training Ground Three alongside Housei and Midori only to stumble to a stop when his eyes landed upon Kakashi leaning against the training posts. It was very odd for their sensei to arrive before them and it was odder still for the man to not only be on time but a good fifteen minutes early to one of their training sessions. Typically, Kakashi would show up around twenty minutes after their appointed meeting time unless they were leaving the village on a mission, then he'd only be running about four or five minutes late.
Rumor had it that there was a time when Kakashi would show up two and three hours late for any appointment that wasn't a mission. Naruto suspected that his sensei's fear of Takeshi's temper was one of the reasons that he was never too late for their training sessions. The other reason he imagined had something to do with the rumors he'd heard about the Purge that had taken place after he'd snuck out of the village to find his family. Few people ever talked about the Purge and those that did only spoke about it in hushed tones.
Tipping his head to one side, Naruto wondered what could have brought their sensei to their assigned training ground close to forty minutes early. He didn't have to wonder long because the moment Kakashi's uncovered eye caught sight of the three of them, he straightened up and crossed the distance separating them.
"Ohayou, my cute little students," Kakashi greeted with an eye smile. "Today is your lucky day."
"Why do I suddenly feel the need to run as far and fast as I can?" Naruto rhetorically asked out of the corner of his mouth as he leaned closer to Housei.
"I heard that," Kakashi growled in mock irritation as he scowled (more like pouted) in Naruto's direction while all three Genin just snickered. The Jounin then snorted and shook his head as he pulled out a trio of four by six inch cards from his pocket and held them up in front of the three teens. "As I was saying; today is your lucky day. I am holding in my hand the key to your future; a trio of applications for the next round of Chuunin Exams that will be held in Konoha in this winter."
"You entered us in the Chuunin Exams?" Housei demanded in excitement as he attempted to snag the applications out of Kakashi's hands; only for the Jounin to lift them out of the older teen's reach at the last second.
"Yes, I nominated the three of you for the Exams," Kakashi replied as all traces of playfulness disappeared. "That said, you are not required to participate in the Exams if you do not think you are ready. No one will hold it against you if you wish to pass this time around. I believe that the three of you are ready to give the Chuunin Exams a shot but you need to believe in yourself if you want to have any hope of passing the Exams. You will have one week to decide before you need to fill out your applications and give them back to me so that I know whether or not we'll be taking any missions leading up to the start of the Exams."
Naruto took the deceptively flimsy application that Kakashi handed to him as excitement began to fill him and after taking a moment to study the blank form, he glanced up and asked, "Takeshi-nii really agreed to let us take the Chuunin Exam?"
"I don't know; you'll have to ask him because you'll need your guardian's signature on the card in order to be allowed to enter the Exams."
"You mean you didn't ask him for permission before you nominated us?" Midori inquired curiously.
"I do not need a guardian's permission to nominate my team for the Exams; it is up to you to secure your guardian's permission to enter the Exams," Kakashi countered sternly. "My decision to nominate the three of you was based upon the amount of growth you've done since you were placed on my team, your current skills, and your untapped potential."
"You just didn't want oniisan to kill you the moment you opened your mouth and mentioned our names and the Chuunin Exams in the same sentence," Naruto knowingly retorted; Kakashi had been very careful over the past two years to never set off Takeshi's anger.
"Actually, that wasn't why I didn't approach Takeshi first," Kakashi denied with a soft laugh. "However, it is why I didn't wait until the very last minute to decide whether or not I was going to enter you this time around. The fact that the Exams are being held in Konoha this time around was another one of the reasons why I chose to nominate you now. The reason why I didn't run your nominations by Takeshi first was because the three of you need to be the ones to convince him that you are ready to take the Exams and I was not going to make that job any easier on you by justifying my right to enter you to him."
"Oh," Naruto murmured as he blinked at his sensei; that had actually made far more sense than he'd expected it to. He then took one last look at the application in his hand before he tucked it into his pocket and asked, "So, are we going to do start training now?"
"Nope; the three of you have the rest of the week off to think about whether or not you are going to enter the Chuunin Exams. If you don't, then we're going to be picking up a slue of missions to pick up the slack that will be created by those teams that are going to be entering. If you do enter, then I'll be putting together specialized training programs to get you ready for the Exams. I'll meet you back here at our usual time next Monday."
Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves a heartbeat later and the three teens were left staring at one another. Naruto sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he asked, "So, do we get in a bit of training or do we go terrorize the neighborhood until lunch time when we can talk to niisan about the Exams?"
"Are you going to try and enter then?" Housei asked curiously.
"Sure, why not?"
"You do know that whole teams have died during past Chuunin Exams, ne?" Midori asked as she worried at her bottom lip in nervousness.
"Yeah but there are always far fewer deaths when the Exams are held here in Konoha," Naruto pointed out. "Besides, I doubt Kakashi-sensei would have even considered nominating us if he didn't think we could handle the Exams. That doesn't mean he expects us to pass them this time around; just that he thinks we're ready to experience them first hand."
"The midget has a point," Housei mused as he propped his elbow on Naruto's head.
"Oi! What who you're calling a midget, beanpole!"
"You are both idiots," Midori declared as she spun on her heel and began walking out of the training ground.
"Where are you going, 'Dori-chan?" Naruto demanded as he elbowed Housei in the side and darted after the kunoichi.
"If you two idiots are determined to take the stupid Chuunin Exam in two and a half months, then we're going to have to hash out a logical argument in order to convince Takeshi-nii to allow us to enter. Or have you forgotten that we both need oniisan's permission and that we have to enter as a team?"
"You make it sound like you don't want to take the Exams," Housei stated as both boys caught up to Midori.
"I do… I just…"
"You're nervous because we had no warning what-so-ever that Kakashi-sensei was even planning on nominating us this time around," Naruto softly finished for her. "We've been a team for almost two years though and sensei has pushed all three of us far harder than most Jounin sensei push their Genin. He never lets us cut corners, he doesn't tolerate whining, and he doesn't let our heads swell up no matter how good we get. Takeshi-nii is just as tough on us; never letting us skip out on the boring book work, never allowing us to neglect our health, and making certain we don't get burnt out from training or missions.
He then grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop as he added, "If we treat the Exams as a mission, we can get through it together. We've got more than enough time to prepare for the Exams; I mean, come on! How many missions have we gone on where we get a full two months to train and prepare?"
"I know that," Midori huffed as she gave him a small smile before she pulled her hand free and playfully shoved him away from her. Naruto grinned at her in response as they began walking once more; the kunoichi's good mood and confidence dutifully restored. "Why do you think I said what I did about putting together a proper argument to convince Takeshi to let us enter?"
The three of them would end up spending most of the morning holed up in one of the private reading rooms within the Shinobi Library working on what they would say to Takeshi in order to persuade him to allow them to take the Exams. They tried to anticipate each and every reason the older Namikaze would use to deny them the chance to take the Exams this time around and come up with reasonable counters for each one. They also looked up the archive records and reports for the past ten Chuunin Exams in order to familiarize themselves with the history of the Exams and the Genin that had taken them before they carefully filled out their applications.
In the end, all of their hard work would be for nothing…
After they had finished their research, the trio of teens had returned to their apartment above the Namikaze Wheelhouse for lunch since that was one of the few times when they knew that they'd see Takeshi when he was in the village. Sure, they could have gone to the ranch to track him down but it would be a pain trying to track him down if he'd decided to spend the morning out in the pastures checking on the herds rather than training the yearlings and two year olds. There was also the slight chance that Takeshi's team had been pulled for gate duty if someone called in sick.
The three Genin would end up spending an hour hanging out with Satoshi and the four younger boys from Nami that lived with them while they waited for Takeshi to arrive home. The hour spent focusing on something other than their pending conversation with Takeshi helped the three of them to relax. When his cousin finally did walk through the door, Naruto couldn't help but smile as all five of the younger boys swarmed the green eyed wizard. Warmth and pride filled the bewhiskered blond as the knowledge that this was his family filled him alongside the renewed contentment he could feel radiating from Takeshi.
Lunch was the usual boisterous affair that it had been since Inari and the three orphans had joined them and Naruto couldn't help but marvel at how different meals were now when compared to when he first found Takeshi. Those first few weeks with his cousin had been rather quiet when compared to the near constant chaos and noise that filled their home now.
Naruto loved it.
He loved being surrounded by friends and family.
He loved the safety and security that he felt each time he walked through the door.
And he loved his life.
At the end of the meal, Naruto felt a thread of nervousness fill him as he dug into his pocket to retrieve his application for the Chuunin Exam while he followed Takeshi to the door alongside Housei and Midori. Taking a deep breath, Naruto firmly fixed the speech the three of them had come up with in his mind as he asked, "Niisan, will you wait up for a minute? We'd like to talk to you."
"What did you need?" Takeshi inquired as he left off getting ready to leave and gave his attention to the three teens.
"Kakashi-sensei nominated our team for the Chuunin Exams in a couple of months and we'd like your permission to enter," Naruto began determinedly as he offered his completed application to his cousin. "We did our research and we know…"
"Alright, leave your applications on my desk and I will sign them when I get home this evening," Takeshi interrupted as he barely gave the application a glance.
"We know that…" Naruto countered before his cousin's words sank in and he demanded, "Wait, what?"
"You have my permission to enter; I'll sign your forms tonight."
"But… but… why?"
"Isn't that what you want? To enter the Chuunin Exams?"
"Yes."
"Then what's the problem?"
"We expected you to say no right away," Housei answered when Naruto couldn't seem to do anything but gape at Takeshi in shock.
"Why did you expect me to say no?"
"We didn't think that you would believe we were ready," Midori supplied after a brief glance in Naruto's direction.
"Do you believe that you are ready?" Takeshi asked as he grabbed his cloak and slipped it on.
"Yes," Naruto slowly replied as he dropped the hand holding his application down to his side. "We spent all morning in the library preparing our arguments for all of the possible reasons why you'd refuse."
"Then I don't see what the problem is; you asked for my permission and I gave it."
"But why aren't you mad? Why aren't you going into your usual overprotective mother hen mode and threatening to castrate Kakashi-sensei in creatively painful ways?"
"Kakashi-san is your sensei and he is the one who would know best if you had the skills necessary to compete in the Chuunin Exams and since the next Exams will be held here in Konoha, it is the best time for you to experience the Exams first hand. There is also the fact that all three of you approached the matter maturely; telling me that you are both confident in your skills and willing to take the Exams seriously."
"So we spent all morning in the library for nothing?" Naruto practically wailed.
"No. You didn't. The time you spent in the library helped you find the confidence you needed to approach me while believing that I was going to fight you tooth and nail about your participation. That right there tells me that you are ready for the experience that taking the Exams will provide you."
"Did you know sensei was going to nominate us?" Housei asked curiously.
"No, but I've actually been suspecting that he would fairly soon since most Genin teams are entered after their first or second year on a team unless their growth has been utterly deplorable. I've watched enough of your training sessions and sparred with each of you enough to know that all three of you have grown quite a bit. I hate to cut this conversation short but I am going to be late for my afternoon training if I don't leave now. If you still have questions, I can answer them for you this evening after supper."
Takeshi slipped on his shoes, buckled his swords into place, grabbed his utility pouch, and slipped out the door a moment later. Naruto felt rather numb in the wake of the rather surreal conversation. He wasn't certain whether or not he should be happy that Takeshi thought he was ready to take the Exams.
"Well, that was rather anticlimactic," Housei deadpanned as the door closed behind the green eyed Chuunin.
"It was rather unexpected," Midori agreed with a shrug of her shoulders.
"It was too confusing and weird," Naruto countered with a slight frown. "Come on, let's go prank that Mitarashi woman; we haven't annoyed her in over a week."
Both Midori and Housei snorted and rolled their eyes in response to Naruto's obsession with the purple haired kunoichi; they thought him nuts for constantly pissing her off. That never stopped them from grabbing plenty of pranking supplies or helping him hunt down the annoying woman whenever he was in the mood to remind her that he still hadn't forgotten or forgiven her for what she'd done.
Monday, November 10, 2003, Morning
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Kakashi studied his cute little Genin as they milled about their team's usual training grounds without a care in the world and he couldn't help but smirk at them. He already knew that they'd been given permission to enter the upcoming Chuunin Exams; Arata had laughingly regaled him with the story of how Takeshi's rather blasé agreement taking the trio off completely guard because they'd expected him to refuse. Kakashi himself was rather surprised that Takeshi actually trusted his judgment regarding the trio's skills.
Then again, Kakashi had been very careful not to give the Chuunin any reason not to trust him. He hadn't wanted to fight the man every step of the way when it came to Naruto's training or mission schedule. His decision to be mindful of Takeshi's temper and overprotective nature had certainly paid off since the younger man had not attempted to eviscerate him at any point over the past two years. Not even when a handful of the missions he'd taken his Genin on had gone to hell-in-a-hand basket partway through the job and been upped in rank as a result.
Pushing aside his thoughts on the unexpected level of trust Takeshi had given him, Kakashi refocused on his precious little students as he reviewed the new training schedule he'd spent the last week putting together. He had two months to whip his Genin into shape for the Chuunin Exams in order to make certain that they could survive anything the other participants threw at them. Another smirk stretched out the cloth face mask covering the bottom half of his face as he dropped down out of the trees and casually strolled up to his Genin; he was going to enjoy this.
"Ohayou, my cute little students," Kakashi greeted as soon as they noticed his arrival.
"G'morning, sensei!" the three little Genin chirruped in return and if Kakashi had been a more suspicious person he might have suspected the little gaki to have a prank planned because of their unusually sunny dispositions – which was far more excited than usual.
He also knew they'd recently pranked Anko again and they tended to bask in the glow of success each time they nailed the Tokubetsu Jounin good. And the kunoichi had been kicked out of her favorite dango stand for causing a ruckus a few days earlier. Rumor had it that the woman had been foaming at the mouth (literally) and spewing out curses about her dango being spiked with dish soap. The owner of the shop had not been impressed.
Clapping his hands together as he shoved their latest prank out of his mind, Kakashi asked, "Have the three of you decided whether or not you're going to enter the Chuunin Exams in January?"
"Yeah," Naruto answered with a nod.
"We're going to enter," Housei added with a nod of his own.
"And we have permission," Midori finished with a little head bob.
"But you already knew that," Naruto pointed out. "I know you had lunch with Arata-nii a few days ago and the two of you always gossip like old ladies when you hang out together."
"It is always prudent to confirm second hand information from a second source before you act upon it," Kakashi sagely informed the trio as he purposefully ignored the teasing insult; he'd get the gaki back for that later. "Do you have your applications?"
As one, all three Genin presented their completed applications and Kakashi briefly skimmed through them as he collected them before he tucked them into his pocket as he commented, "Everything looks to be in order. I suppose that means it's time to up your training."
"Are you going to teach us any cool jutsu?" Naruto eagerly inquired and Kakashi mentally snorted over the pre-teen's antics.
"No, not right now, at least," Kakashi replied and he nearly smirked when Naruto immediately began pouting. "We're going to work on improving your existing skills first and if there's enough time once I'm done with that, then I will consider teaching the three of you a couple of new tricks."
His three Genin glanced at one another before Housei curiously asked, "What are you going to have us doing?"
"I'm so glad you asked," Kakashi burbled in an overly cheerful tone and he was pleased to note that all three of his Genin looked a bit worried in response to his words. "Follow me."
Laughing softly under his breath, Kakashi led the trio across the village to one of the more popular training grounds for those in the ANBU Corps. He'd only managed to book it for his team because he was a former ANBU Captain and because the Hokage had pulled a few strings for him. They'd also only be able to use it for two hours, three days a week for a month for pretty much the same reason. That was more than enough to put his cute little students through their paces and help them improve their current skills in a live-action environment with needing to risk life or limb to do so.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the four of them were standing outside of a heavy door set into the concrete wall that surrounded the training ground to prevent stray weapons or techniques from injuring by-standers. Clapping his hands together, Kakashi had to suppress the urge to voice an evil laugh and rub his hands together when he noticed the wary looks that the three were giving the enclosed training ground.
"Welcome to Training Ground Thirty-Three also known as the Compound by those that train here regularly."
"Why's it walled in?" Midori inquired with a slight frown.
"For protection."
"Does that mean it's like the Forest of Death?" Naruto asked as he tipped his head to one side and studied the wall a second time.
"Ah, no; there are no wild animals living inside of this particular training ground. The wall is there to prevent people passing by from getting caught up in any stray weapons or wide range attacks as this particular training ground in often used to test experimental jutsu in combat situations."
"Does that mean we're going to be training with another team?" Housei asked curiously as he pulled his eyes from the wall and glanced around as if to look for any one approaching the training grounds.
"Nope; all opponents are provided by the training ground."
"How does that work, sensei?" Naruto wondered as all three Genin turned their attention back to Kakashi.
"Area wide seal generated genjutsu coupled with automated practice dummies," Kakashi explained as he unlocked the door to the training ground. "There are exactly seventy-five possible training scenarios; twenty-five for each level of difficulty. Each scenario runs until all of your opponents have been neutralized, until you are knocked unconscious, or until exactly two hours have passed; whichever comes first."
"So, basically, it's just like running an actual mission but without an actual client?" Midori guessed.
"No, these scenarios are nothing like missions. You can consider each training simulation to be a fight to the death without the actual risk of getting killed or being permanently injured. Each session is also monitored and recorded for evaluation purposes. Any other questions…? No? Then in you go."
"Aren't you coming with us?" Housei asked in surprise.
"Nope; I'm going to watch from the observation room," Kakashi replied as he nodded towards the building that had been built up against the wall about ten feet back from the entrance while he reached out to pull the door open.
"This is going to be painfully humiliating for us, isn't it?" Naruto commented as the teens and one near-teen reluctantly slipped through the door that Kakashi was holding open for them.
Kakashi only chuckled in response to that observation and pushed the door closed behind the kids. He then locked the door (to keep anyone from interrupting their session) before he pocketed the key and strolled towards the control center for the Compound. Stepping inside, he nodded to the two silent ANBU members that were on clean up duty for the day (they were the ones that cleaned and repaired the training grounds between sessions). He then made his way to the observation room and dropped down into an empty chair as he stared at the wall of security monitors that were linked to the surveillance cameras that were scattered throughout the Compound.
He smirked as he caught sight of his students on one of the monitors; the three of them were still standing right beside the door looking a little unsure of themselves. Kakashi could easily imagine that the trio was cursing him out in the privacy of their minds and even if they weren't right that second, they would be the moment the seals for the simulation were activated. He also couldn't help but wonder just how long they would last this first time and if they'd beat the record for the shortest run or if they'd last longer than the worst rookie ANBU.
"What in the world possessed you to send a team of Genin through the Compound?" a bird-masked shinobi demanded as he elegantly dropped down into the empty chair beside Kakashi.
"They've been entered in the upcoming Chuunin Exams," Kakashi answered without taking his eyes off of the screen where his students were only just now starting to venture forth into the Compound.
"That is hardly reason enough to send them through the ANBU's Combat Course."
"Sandaime-sama received confirmation a week ago that the Tsuchikage was sending three teams to participate in an Exam being hosted by Konoha for the first time in over fifteen years."
"What's Iwa's Genin got to do with the Genin on the field?"
"Take a good long look at the Genin on the screen and tell me you can't figure it out yourself," Kakashi dryly retorted as he turned to shoot the other shinobi an incredulous look for having to actually spell things out for him.
"The girl…? What's so special about her?"
"No, not the girl; the blond."
"The blond…? Oh, hey; isn't that Namika…? Oh, that's why you're so concerned about Iwa's participation," the other (younger) man replied as he finally got a clue.
"Precisely. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to observe my cute little students in action," Kakashi replied as he returned his attention to the monitor at the same exact moment as the Genin on screen encountered their first opponent.
Translations: Japanese to English
Ohayou – good morning (informal)
Oi – hey
Oniisan/niisan/nii – older brother
AN: I know this is late but I ran into a few technical issues while I was cleaning up the second half of the chapter and eventually tossed what I'd originally had for a training session and wrote something completely different. The original training session was supposed to be a lot more humorous but it didn't really flow right and somehow I ended up giving Kakashi a bit of a sadistic streak here (he did just send his Genin into an ANBU Training Facility) though he had a valid reason for doing so. This also ties into a later plot point.
Anyway, that's this chapter done. The next chapter, which was actually originally part of this chapter, will be up once I finish the second half of it (since as I'd mentioned in my note from the previous chapter, I'd split it off from this one because I wanted to add the training session). I don't yet have an exact date for when it will be posted but it will at least be up by next weekend.
On a plus note, in between my frustrations with this chapter, I managed to finish the next chapter of Stubborn Shadow and wrote up another one for Magic Online. I still need to go back and clean them up before I can post them but you can expect both of those stories to be updated by next weekend as well. I've also nearly finished the next arc for Twice Blessed Shinobi and will be able to start posting that soon if all goes well for the final few chapters. You can check my author's page for more details. ~ Jenn