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Chapter 3: What to Make of it

"Orochimaru-sama." Head bent low, Kabuto kneeled before his master.

"Kabuto." Orochimaru's grin was still delighted from his work earlier that day. "How did Sasuke-kun do?"

The Sannin awaited a positive response. There had never been a doubt in his mind that the youngest Uchiha would reach and surpass every expectation put before him. The hatred in those eyes told Orochimaru everything he needed to know about the boy. An avenger trying to kill his brother. Seeking strength from hate— one time or another he would end up before Orochimaru. The curse was simply meant to speed things up. The snake-summoner had enough faith in the boy's acrimony to count on his presence in the near future. If everything went as planned, he would have a sharingan at his disposal before the next year.

Sasuke possessed such beautiful hostility . . . Channeling that had already made him quite the prize indeed. With Orochimaru's nurturing, the potential was unimaginable. Yes, Sasuke was perfect.

So when he noticed the grey-haired teen hesitating, he felt inimical surprise build. Could it be possible that Orochimaru had miscalculated?

"Kin, Zaku and Dozu, were unable to track them."

The silence was like stagnant water.

Yes, that certainly had not been something Orochimaru calculated. That equation never entered the frame. Kin was the one of the greatest trackers in Sound. She had tracked hunter-nin before. There was no way that three genin could escape her senses. Perhaps the Sannin had merely underestimated their strength. Then again, there was always the chance that an outlying force was behind this. Was it possible that Kakashi had gotten involved? The feeling in Orochimaru's stomach told him that the latter was extremely unlikely. So then what happened?

He hesitated.

"Orochimaru-sama, there is a possibility that your cover has been blown. It might be best if you disappeared until the final event. I shall stay and investigate in your stead." Kabuto spoke lowly, and kept his head bent and eyes averted. Whenever trying to suggest anything to Orochimaru-sama, it was wisest to do so as delicately as possible. The Sannin was prone to openly display how he felt about the advice people gave him. It was taken directly as an insult if not handled with extreme care. Kabuto felt more than comfortable in his standing with the Sannin, but that didn't mean he wished to tempt fate.

So when Orochimaru thought on the matter for more than a moment, Kabuto let out a breath.

"Perhaps you are right," Orochimaru said. The displeasure was easy to see. "I'll lay low, for now. See that you find the boy and report to me on the status of his seal as soon as you can."

"Of course Orochimaru-sama."

"And do make sure he passes this exam," the snake summoner said, "I want to see him first hand in the finals. I think he'll prove worthy of the mark." A wide smile spread over Orochimaru's face as he thought of the prospect.

"As you wish, Orochimaru-sama."

Naruto slumped against the wooden doors of the towers in his exhaustion. His teammates weren't far behind him. Iruka's dramatic revelation of their passing grade was the frosting on the cake that had been full of adrenaline, stress, and tenseness. To finally be rid of it left him feeling empty and in need of a re-charge.

"W—we did it," he commented belatedly. A weary smile was turned his way.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed.

Sasuke shook his head. "If it wasn't for Kabuto giving us that last scroll, I don't know if we would have made it."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter. We won!"

"Naruto! This isn't a like a game," Sakura scolded.

"Yeah, I think I had that one figured when I got swallowed by the giant snake," Naruto trailed off, making his teammates exchange looks over his head. "Anyways, the point is, we made it! Now let's eat! I'm so starved I could eat one of those big ass snakes!"

"Naruto, the last thing I want to think about is snakes at this point."

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah, I just can't wait to eat some Ichiraku Ramen. Ten bowls at lea—"

There was a large puff of grey smoke, and a familiar jonin stood casually in the dispersing gas.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said in surprise and greeting.

"Hey look Kaka-sensei! We finished the exam, and we had time to spare! How awesome are we?! It was all thanks to my superior ninja skills," Naruto said, as he nodded in agreement to his own words. The irritation he felt building was enough of a clue that he should duck while he had a chance. He barely missed Sakura's fist by a hair's width.

"You're such a liar! Without Sasuke we all would have been dead meat!"

"Nu-uh! It's 'cause of Sasuke that we had that stupid snake freak after us to begin with."

Kakashi blinked. Snake freak? There were only two ninja who were adept at snake jutsu. He'd heard about Orochimaru's confrontation with Anko. Was it possible that he had gone after his genin? Why would he— Sasuke!

"The snake ninja, certainly sounds interesting," Kakashi commented with a falsely idle air. "What were they like? I'd be interested in knowing which village they came from. Very few people use snake jutsu."

"Orochimaru?" Sakura asked, missing the subtle widening of Kakashi's lone eye. "Well, he was seriously strong! We were lucky to make it out alive honestly."

"Yes you are." Kakashi spoke slowly. "I can't impress upon you the importance of who that man was, but you cannot speak about this to anyone except the Hokage and I."

"Believe you me, we understand how strong he is," Naruto said, more mutedly than before. "He's like one of the three strongest ninja ever, right?"

"Yes, I'm surprised at you Naruto. I didn't know you read up on that sort of thing."

Naruto shuffled a little nervously. "Yeah, well, I used to spend a lot of time in Oyaji's office. Lots of papers floating around."

Kakashi frowned slightly beneath his mask though he appeared indifferent on the outside.

"Were any of you hurt badly?"

When the three genin exchanged looks, Kakashi felt his stomach clench.

"What happened?"

"Well, uhm, that snake-guy kind of bit Sasuke and—"

"Where did he bite you?!"

"On the neck. There's some kind of seal mark there."

And there was some kind of seal mark, but it wasn't like anything Kakashi had ever seen before, and it certainly wasn't anything he expected from Orochimaru. He had expected a curse mark like the heaven. Wait, he could make out the faint outline of the curse of heaven mark below the large red one, but the strength of that seemed almost entirely eclipsed by the red crisscrossing characters.

That wasn't quite right though. Kakashi uncovered his sharingan eye to capture the full extent of the movement. It didn't just seem to eclipse the mark, it really did eclipse it. Every entry and exit level for the chakra of the mark was being captured and locked down before it even met with Sasuke's. He noticed the kids were flinching and staring nervously at him. He hadn't meant to scare them by pulling out the sharingan.

"What happened after Orochimaru bit you?" He asked with an unreadable expression as he re-covered his eye.

"I passed out from the pain," Sasuke grit out.

"Yeah, and Naruto got knocked out too when he did something funny." Sakura quickly added.

"What did he do to you?"

"Uhh, well he put these glowing purple-y things on his fingers and then slammed me right in the stomach." His aversion to meeting eyes clearly informed Kakashi exactly where on the stomach Orochimaru had hit him.

"You're alright?"

"Yeah, besides my chakra control being lots worse than normal, cause the chakra's running all over the place."

Kakashi was slightly surprised at how seemingly knowledgeable his student was about his body and his own chakra flow. "I'll fix that for you."

Naruto nodded for a few moments until the implications of his sensei's statement registered. If the seals that Orochimaru added to his stomach were what allowed him and his father to meet, then removing those seals would mean . . .

"No!" He shouted hastily, startling his teammates and his sensei.

"No?" Kakashi asked, his eye narrowing at his students suspicious reaction.

"W—well I mean—" Naruto scratched his head nervously, scrambling to make up some reason for Kakashi not to tamper with the seal.

Kakashi waited patiently for Naruto to gather himself.

"I just," Naruto finally managed, "I'd rather have old-man Hokage look at it, if that's okay." Naruto murmured looking at the floor and scuffing it with his toe.

The silver-haired jonin's singular eye widened in realization before softening. Naruto was clearly still embarrassed by the seal. Perhaps he was worried that Kakashi would care about the fox. He could never judge Naruto though, never. Minato's son was practically one of the only remaining things about his sensei Kakashi had left. Naruto was a physical, breathing symbol of his father's life and love of the village.

Perhaps he should take some time and talk to Naruto about the matter one of these days. He didn't want Naruto believing Kakashi had any sort of prejudice against him.

Kakashi rubbed his head, "I suppose that would be alright."

The relief in Naruto's eyes shone brightly. His other two teammates stared curiously at him, sensing the strange climate of emotions and relief and yet not knowing what exactly caused them. That didn't damper Naruto's mood. He'd pulled it off! He couldn't actually believe he'd done it! He wasn't worried about Old-man Hokage, because if anyone would believe him about this, it would be him.

"Alright, so Sasuke and Naruto were knocked out, and I'm assuming that you stood watch over them?" Kakashi asked, moving the story along. When Sakura nodded and blushed under the approving look in his eyes, Naruto giggled lightly, with a faintly similar blush on his face as well.

Kakashi raised a brow when he noticed Sasuke color slightly as well, though the Uchiha heir turned his face subtly in an attempt to hide it. 'What was that about?' The jonin thought to himself.

"Umm, something happened, after Orochimaru bit Sasuke I mean," Sakura managed finally, though with some difficulty.

"Oh?" Kakashi asked, trying to keep his budding concern from escaping his mouth.

"Ah— Well, yeah, it's sort of like, umm we kind of like—" The kunoichi's words were failing her.

"We think we've been feeling each other's emotions," Sasuke deadpanned from the corner.

The statement took a few seconds to actually register in Kakashi's mind.

"You think you've been feeling each other's emotions?" Kakashi asked, certain he had misheard something somewhere.

"It's more like sharing emotions," Sakura finally said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, like if Naruto is getting angry for something stupid, I feel it and I get angry too."

"Are you certain of that?" They weren't lying— well they didn't think they were lying at any rate.

"Unfortunately."

Kakashi lifted his sharingan. He hadn't noticed anything when he used it before aside from Sasuke's seal, but if he stepped back and focused more heavily on all three of them . . .

"Hmm, I don't see anything."

The three exhaled in relief, in simple reaction to being told that nothing was wrong. That emotion flipped into unease once more as they realized that it mean that they still had no clue what was happening and why.

"That must mean that the connection must be in some other form," Kakashi murmured to himself. Neither Sakura nor Naruto seemed to have anything askew with them, aside from the various scratches and bruises and— wait.

"Sakura, what happened to your arm?"

The kunoichi blinked and stared down at the bandage around her forearm. "I guess I got a scratch," she said unconcernedly.

There was something wrong about what he was seeing. Out of all the injuries, the only one they had bothered to tie up was on Sakura's forearm. He knew for a fact none of them had any first aid supplies either, so it would have had to either been stolen, or improvised. Why this injury? It appeared to be negligible, no more serious than the rest of the scratches and scrapes the trio had accumulated, so why was this the sole bandaged wound?

"How did that happen?"

Sakura's brow furrowed. "I don't remember. We were fighting a lot sensei."

"Okay, when did you bandage it up?"

"I don't know."

Kakashi knew the signs of a mind-genjutsu when he saw one. Clearly someone had put one on Sakura. From what he could tell it was a simple, though fairly complex one, which tricked the target's brain into believing the information was harmful and thus buried it itself. None of the genin should have had the skill to do that though.

"Can I see the wound?" He asked her, and when she flinched away slightly he knew for certain he was right.

"Y—yeah," She replied, shaking her head to clear off whatever strange thoughts were in her head.

"What's wrong Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked concernedly. Her confusion was worrying.

"Nothing, it just doesn't feel like I should unwrap it is all— I don't know why. Ah, I'm just being silly . . ."

Way too complex for a genin.

He grabbed her arm lightly and quickly untied the bandage so she wouldn't have to deal with the conflicted feelings.

"Woah!" Naruto exclaimed, verbally announcing the shock running through everyone's minds.

"Wha— But this looks just like Sasuke-kun's!" Indeed there was a small circle of complex characters about the size of a small tangerine. Instead of the dark scarlet of her teammate's hers was completely black.

Sasuke remained silent though his eyes were wide. What was going on?

"Naruto!" Kakashi demanded suddenly, "Do you have a mark like this on your body?"

"Huh? No, I don't think so," He scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I woulda noticed by now, doncha think— hey!"

Kakashi snagged Naruto's hand away from his face, and pulled it before his singular eye. The jonin had thought he'd seen ink on the tip of Naruto's finger, but instead, on the tip, was a very small version of the exact same seal. It was fairly innocuous, unlike Sakura's and Sasuke's. Said two leaned in curiously to spot the small mark.

"That's the same Sasuke-kun and I have . . ."

"Wh— What does this mean?" Naruto asked, pulling his hand away.

Kakashi wished he knew.

"I don't care about that," Sasuke snapped, "Can you undo it?"

The jonin rubbed his head thoughtfully, feeling more out of his depth than he had in a long time. Since he'd been around these three though, he found himself feeling this way more and more often. He had no clue exactly how he felt about that particular detail.

"Right now? No." Kakashi admitted.

"What!?" Sasuke hissed viciously through his teeth, "We can't stay like this!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't even attempt to undo it until I know more about it, and what consequences releasing it might have."

Sasuke was practically vibrating with pent up anger. Glancing up, Kakashi noted that his two other genin were also visibly angry, though they looked marginally more uncomfortable with the fierce and violent emotion. Sakura in particular looked as though she might be sick. Kakashi wagered she'd never felt such strong emotion in her entire life.

"Orochimaru is behind this, and no matter what he has done, be assured it is with malicious intent." He made sure to make eye contact with each of them to strike how serious the matter was. Naruto and Sakura both shivered under his intense gaze, but Sasuke remained firm. Kakashi didn't want to give his students nightmares, but if he couldn't impress upon the Uchiha-heir exactly how important it was "One thing he best known for, is his love of experiments. They have unearthed his labs before, and what they found was not pretty. Tampering with his work is extremely dangerous."

Now Sakura looked as though she might cry and Naruto looked queasy. Sasuke's eyes eventually faltered and fell to the ground unhappily.

Kakashi sighed.

"Even after that, I'm not skilled enough to even attempt to try and remove such a complex seal," Kakashi said, "I'd have to get a seal-master to take a look."

"Seal master?" Naruto asked with a wrinkled brow.

"What's a seal master sensei?" Sakura inquired.

"Well, they're a seal-specialists."

All three were looking unsatisfied by the answer, but he wasn't particularly inclined to give a further explanation. Not now, there was too much to do. At the very least he knew he needed to report the matter to the Hokage immediately. Further action would just have to wait.

"Other than the communal emotions, have there been any other side-effects?" The jonin asked.

Sakura shook her head to reply.

"Well, then I'm afraid you'll all just have to stay with it for a little while." Kakashi spoke with a nonchalance he didn't really feel at the moment.

"What!?"

"What else can we do?" Kakashi raised a brow, "The best you can try is to work on better controlling your emotions."

From the glares he received, Kakashi inferred that none of his students were very happy with that.

"You have a few hours until the end of the round; why don't you use that time to rest?" Kakashi suggested. "There should be a room at the top of the stairs."

Sakura nodded, still looking miserable.

Kakashi sighed silently before throwing on an eye-smile. "I'll see you after the second exam officially ends. Congratulations on passing! Ja ne." And with a poof of smoke, Konoha genin were left in the large and hollow room.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura exchanged weary glances, ambivalent feelings hung thickly in the air between them. Silently they moved up the stairs. At the top they discovered a medium sized room with a few futons folded up in the corner. The walls were a bland blue and the floors were old style tatami. If Sasuke had to guess, he would say that every team's designated space had one of these equipped. Having a communal area would only tempt and encourage cheating and underhanded tactics to reduce the competition. Sasuke moved close to the walls as Sakura and Naruto looked around the room. Tapping lightly, he found his theory confirmed. There wasn't a sound. Clearly the rooms had been protected by some kind of seal or ninjustu.

"Hey, there's some food here!" Naruto announced ecstatically, waving around the generic rations. "Stop staring at the wall and eat something."

"You're so annoying," Sasuke tsked, too tired to get properly irritated. The three gathered around the small table in the center and passed about the tasteless rations. Though the rations were as tasteless as they expected, at the bottom of the bowl, they found several pieces of fruit. They quickly divvied them amongst themselves.

Silence reigned long after the three finished eating. None of them knew what to say to each other. They had been forced to be share things with each other that none of them really wanted to. It was an emotionally draining day, and the fact that their new situation would not be a quick fix laid heavy on their minds. Not only had that, but the third exam still lay ahead of them.

Despite the fact, they were closer than ever to each other, none knew what to say.

Sasuke stewed darkly in his mind. It seemed as though this wasn't going to go away anytime soon and he would have to put up with his weak teammates emotions dragging him down. Until he honed a way of overcoming his teammates, he would have to find a way to deal with them.

Sasuke cleared his throat, making both Sakura and Naruto turn towards him.

"I think we need to create some kind of reaction plan."

"What do ya mean?" Naruto asked.

"I mean how we tell someone to cut it out if the emotion is too much." Sasuke was thinking back to the forest when Sakura's fear and panic had nearly exposed them. It was easy not to notice what emotions any of them felt personally, so finding a method of alerting said person if it was too intense was a very good idea.

"Oh! So that the other teams won't know what we're talking about," Sakura realized.

"Exactly." The Uchiha nodded.

"Like a password then?" Sakura suggested.

"It has to be something generic enough that we can apply it no matter what the situation is, but it has to be specific enough that Naruto will remember it."

"Hey!" Naruto's temper flared in indignation.

A tick developed in Sasuke's brow, but he was pleased to note that his annoyance was stronger than Naruto's anger, as the heated emotion faded away.

"Naruto, did you sharpen your kunai?" Sasuke asked sharply instead.

"Eh? I did the day before the first exam." Naruto said, his tone laced with confusion.

"That one is clearly too generic." Sasuke sighed.

Naruto crossed his arms. "Humph!"

"How about, 'Are you hungry?' " Sakura put forth.

"I don't think we could say that casually in a mission." Sasuke shook his head.

" 'Your headband looks a little loose.' " She tried again

"What if we aren't wearing a headband Sakura?"

"Oh, you're right Sasuke-kun." She said with a sigh before a slightly mean grin came over her face, "How about, 'Naruto, will you go on a date with me?' There's no way I'd actually say that in real life."

A flash of hurt shot through the bond, but before Sasuke or Sakura had time to say anything, it was covered up by a pervasive sadness and Naruto's sheepish laugh.

"You're so mean Sakura-chan!" He said lightly.

Sakura was too taken aback to form her usual angry reply.

"Eh? Are you guys okay?" The orange clad ninja asked.

Sasuke paused.

"That might work," He spoke aloud.

"What!? Why would 'Naruto, will you go on a date with me,' be something we would ever say in a mission?" Naruto asked bewildered and affronted, "And you'd have to say it too, teme! Bleh!"

"Not that," Sasuke said irritably, " 'Are you okay?' "

"That might work." Sakura spoke slowly. "It might even help us calm down a little."

Naruto thought about it as well, a bit pleased it was his phrase that they had decided on.

"Right. We'll use this for the moment until we can think of something better," Sasuke decided, "hopefully, it will wear off before that though."

The three of them exchanged ambivalent looks. None were overly hopeful.

"I dunno about you guys, but I'm going to sleep," Naruto said, treading over towards the folded futons and laying one out on the floor. As he got his bed ready, his thoughts centered around his father. Maybe he would know something about what was going on?

His head had barely hit the pillow when the taxing and tumultuous occurrences of the past day and a half finally sunk in and he drifted off into some well-earned rest.

This time when Naruto found himself standing in the sherbet room, his eyes were immediately searching out his father. Said man was lying down and staring at the non-ceiling. He seemed instinctively to know that Naruto was there, because the moment Naruto's eyes landed on his figure, his father jumped up with a somewhat anxious energy.

Whatever he had to say had to wait. Naruto's problem was more important.

"Naruto!" His father exclaimed, quickly coming over.

"Something weird's happening!" Naruto exclaimed.

His father's shoulders fell. "So something did happen . . ." He figured something probably occurred, but he hadn't been able to catch glimpses of the outside world like he normally could. Perhaps it had to do with the redirection of chakra . . . He needed to contemplate the matter later, when things weren't quite as pressing.

"Yeah! We're all sharing emotions and we can't stop it and Sakura totally gets all blushy around Sasuke and I don't— Wait, do you know what's going on?" Naruto demanded as the full meaning of his father's last sentence stuck in.

The Fourth wearily rubbed his forehead. "I suspected something might happen, though I really had hoped it wouldn't."

"What happened? Was it that bastard snake freak?" Naruto asked seriously.

A small grin cracked over Minato's face. He knew he should be upset at the swearing, (that was what parents did right?) but hearing Naruto bluntly title one of the strongest ninja in the word a 'bastard snake freak,' made him feel a bit better.

"No, it wasn't Orochimaru, at least, not directly."

"What do you mean? Whose fault is it then?"

"Er, well . . . " Minato scratched his head sheepishly, "It's mine."

"You!?" Naruto exclaimed. "Why would you want me to feel their emotions!?"

"I didn't! Really! It was a complete fluke. I tried to cover Sasuke's seal, and I hadn't ever attempted a seal like that before so I adlibbed a litt—"

"What!?" Naruto shouted once more.

"Naruto," Minato said, placing a calming hand on his son's shoulder. "If you wait for me to finish, I'll probably answer the questions you have."

The jinchuuriki looked a little sullen and embarrassed, but nodded to show he understood.

"Alright then," Minato began, "After you and your team fought Orochimaru and he altered your chakra flow, I gained enough strength to take possession of your body for a little time."

His son's eyes widened dramatically, and he opened his mouth before Minato held a finger up, reminding him to wait.

"It wasn't on purpose, honestly. However it was fortunate I was in control because Orochimaru had done something truly terrible to your teammate." Minato spoke seriously, "You know he was bitten, yes? Well, the bite wasn't normal, it was a bite infused with dark chakra. I don't know for certain what the mark did, but I've thought about it, and I'm pretty sure Orochimaru was trying to get Sasuke to become one of his followers. The chakra was potent and would connect Sasuke to Orochimaru."

"Like brainwash him?!" Naruto blurted, his face white. Minato said nothing about the interruption, he only nodded.

"Not exactly, but that's close enough. The user would likely to crave power beyond the norm, more specifically, the dark twisted power Orochimaru possesses. Thus, they would be driven to seek out Orochimaru." Minato shook his head.

"He took on a student in the past, and the mark left deep scars on them . . . Neither Jiraiya nor I were able to undo it." Minato trailed off and shook his head. "Let's just say that Orochimaru's interest in your teammate is considerably bad."

Naruto didn't know who Jiraiya was, but didn't care enough at the moment. "But why Sasuke?" He asked instead.

"If I had to guess, I would say it has to do with the sharingan." Minato said as he rubbed his chin, "The blood trait your teammate possesses is a strong one indeed. I imagine Orochimaru wishes to have that in his service."

Naruto looked faint.

"This is all speculation on my part though," Minato said in a much lighter tone. "It may be some time until we can know for sure what drove Orochimaru."

"You stopped it though, right?" Naruto asked, desperation in his eyes.

Minato was able to smile, "I believe so."

His son let out a large sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

"Yes, but at a cost," The older blond said, "Though I understand the general idea of the chakra flow and purpose, I've never seen anything like that before. I needed to act quickly, so I used a blood seal usually meant for controlling and filtering unstable chakra. It was the best I could do on short notice." There was an apologetic note in his voice, but the look on Naruto's face was understanding. "I needed blood and chakra of two different types to counteract the dark chakra, so I used your friend Sakura's and yours."

"Wait, then why doesn't she remember what happened? Was she sleeping?"

"Uhm, not exactly," Minato said sheepishly.

"Oh! You did something to her head, huh?" Naruto realized

"Just a mild genjutsu, no permanent damage done," Minato assured, "Though the connection between the seal and you and your friends' emotions still escapes me. . ."

"So you don't know how to undo it?"

Minato looked guilty, "I'm afraid not." Anxiety built in his stomach. "I understand if you're upset with me, I didn't realize there would be such drastic consequences—"

"But Sasuke will be okay, because of this?"

Minato hesitated a moment before nodding. "He should be as long as no one messes with the seal."

"Then I guess we'll just have to learn to live with it." Naruto said decisively. His father's expression turned gentle. He would never know how he came to have such a kind and forgiving child. Lord knew he didn't deserve it. He noticed a troubled look grow over Naruto's face.

"What is it?"

"But what if someone tries to remove the seal and that snake-guy's chakra gets out?" Naruto asked.

Minato shook his head, "I doubt anyone would mess with a seal they don't recognize. It's too dangerous. No one knows about this except—" Except Kushina and he. It was a secret of the Uzumaki clan. "—except a select few, who are no longer around."

Naruto looked a little better about it.

"Do you know how we can deal with all this emotional stuff?" Naruto asked.

Minato gave him a sympathetic smile. "The best thing would be to keep the emotions positive. Negative emotions only lead to more negative emotions."

Naruto nodded though he still looked a bit dismayed that Minato didn't have an answer.

"So, how did the rest of the Chunin Exam go?" Minato asked, shaking Naruto out of his funk.

"I almost forgot to tell you!" Naruto exclaimed. "We totally got the jump on this team from Iwa!" Naruto quickly went into a descriptive story about their confrontation with the foreign nin with all the overdramatic exaggeration Minato expected from a boy his age. When Minato admitted that since the new seal had been placed, he hadn't been able to catch wisps of his son's life like he could before, Naruto took it as an invitation to tell him every single detail. He talked about his various classmates and their abilities and what he thought about all of them. Minato smiled as his son spoke, enjoying his energetic explanations. Upon realizing that Minato knew very little about the first stage of the exam, Naruto delightedly informed him about Ibiki's psychological test. He proudly told his father about how he had stood up to Ibiki. Minato smiled and ruffled his hair, making Naruto's grin widen even further.

Having someone listen attentively and actually care about what he was talking about made his whole body feel warm and fluttery. When he finished his story about how Kabuto had given them the scroll, he stopped as a thought hit him.

"Do you know what the third exam will be?" Naruto asked, feeling apprehensive about the coming events.

Minato paused. Would he be giving Naruto a hand up by telling him about the third round? He didn't think so. It was the same every year. If Naruto bothered to look it up, he probably would find it. "Well, Naruto, if I remember correctly, the third round is usually single person combat between the remaining candidates."

"And I have to beat them all?" Naruto gulped, his abundant overconfidence slipping.

"No, not exactly. The fights are evaluated based on the ninja's skill. If a shinobi shows superior skill and innovative thinking but still loses, there is a good chance that the shinobi will be awarded the title of chunin anyways." The relieved look on his son's face made Minato smile.

"Though winning doesn't hurt your chances." The Yondaime winked.

"Did you win yours, Dad?" Naruto asked, obviously expecting Minato to tell him the story of his conquest over the Chunin Exams.

Minato shook his head instead. "The Chunin Exams weren't held when I was your age."

"Huh?" The other blond uttered in confusion.

"Konoha village was embroiled in the second great ninja war at the time, and things like the Chunin Exams were suspended."

"So how did you make chunin then?" Naruto asked.

"Promotions were given on the battlefield," Minato said, his mind drifting back to the dangerous time. Every step towards the enemy lines were laden with hidden explosives and traps, arrows and lightening jutsu rained from above, and genjutsu captured unlucky souls into a permanent sleep. He sighed.

"Thankfully, things aren't like that anymore." A small, tired smile covered his face.

Naruto was looking at his father with amazement, which slightly softened the blow of the violent past.

"W-will you tell me about it?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Maybe when you're older." He smiled at his son's disgruntled expression. Naruto didn't need to about such things this early on. Things like that would simply be a distraction which he couldn't afford, being knee deep in the chunin exams. He needed to be in top form. Speaking of . . .

"Ne, Naruto, do you feel well-rested when you wake up?" Minato asked.

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean after you come here, do you still feel tired after you wake up?"

Naruto blinked. "I never thought about it before." He folded his arms in deep thought.

Minato waited patiently.

"I don't think so," Naruto said eventually. "I feel like I slept fine. I haven't really slept tons recently."

Minato exhaled, "Hm." He was uncertain if the increased brain activity while Naruto was asleep would reduce the rest his body received. For now it appeared things were fine, though it was something to keep an eye on."

"So, Dad," Naruto began, an excited imploring look in his eyes, "What are you going to teach me today?"

"Maa, maa Naruto," Minato said, putting up his hands, "I don't know if now is the time."

Naruto's expression fell, and became slightly mutinous. Minato stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, making his son look up.

"I'm not going back on my word Naruto," the Yondaime assured, "I just don't want to teach you something new right before the competition. Your mind should be clear when you enter a battle. If you're busy trying to remember something you haven't perfected yet— well, it's a distraction you don't need and would hurt you more than help."

Naruto nodded slowly, accepting the answer.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Naruto," Minato said smiling, "You have the most uncanny way of surprising people."

His son brightened up at that.

"I suppose I could give you a few tips for going up against an enemy though," Minato amended, figuring a few basic guidelines wouldn't hurt. "As you've been going against many foreign nin lately, there are several important things to keep in mind when you're being confronted by an enemy shinobi."

Naruto lowered himself to the floor and watched his father attentively.

The Fourth raised a finger, "The first is that they will use jutsu you probably have never seen before."

Naruto nodded, remembering the sound, grass, and rock nin he'd seen attack in the exam, and Haku and Zabuza.

"How do you know what to do?" The genin asked.

"Well, that bring me to my second point, and one of the central pillars of the shinobi way." Minato held up a second finger. "You need to keep in mind that intelligence gathering is vital."

Naruto's expression twisted. He had heard many lectures on the subject back at the academy, but none of that seemed very important at the time.

"Figuring out what jutsu your opponent uses can give you a huge leg up in the battle, especially if they don't know yours," Minato said. He'd lost that edge a long time ago around halfway through the second ninja war. He mourned the loss of advantage. "Anyways, the best way to do so is to either watch your enemy before you attack, or to look them up in the bingo book."

"Eh?" the blond teenager made another face.

"Obviously these aren't always a viable choice, especially not in this competition." Minato said.

"So what do I do?" Naruto asked.

"Well, gathering information during the battle is harder, but often the most informative." Minato continued, "One way of doing so is to keep on the defensive and let your opponent reveal his attacks."

Naruto frowned, making Minato laugh.

"I know that isn't really your style though," Minato smiled, "Which is why I'm going to reveal to you a secret about the kage bushin jutsu."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"If you send your clone to fight an enemy while you are hidden away and the clone pops, all the memories of the clone will be yours."

Naruto grinned widely, "We figured that out today!" he exclaimed.

"Huh!" Minato scratched his head. That surprised him. As far as he knew, Naruto never figured it out until this point. He wondered if Sasuke and Sakura played a part in the discovery.

"I didn't really think about using it that way though," Naruto admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

"Intelligence gathering is one of the more underrated skills in the shinobi world. Many young ninja, and even some older ones, believe its only use is for invading an enemy village and gathering the secrets, but its applicability is much wider. You can find out all about your enemy without even having to put yourself in danger. Though it's true that very few ninja have mastered the kage bushin the way you have," Minato admitted.

"That's awesome." Naruto uttered. His expression grew excited, and Minato knew that Naruto was just itching to try it.

"That's just something to keep in mind," Minato said with a small shrug.

"Thanks Dad!" Naruto said enthusiastically.

Minato smiled widely. He didn't think the amazement and happiness of hearing Naruto call him 'Dad' would ever fade.

"I'm totally going to beat the crap out of everyone!" Naruto effused.

Minato opened his mouth the reply, but the invisible floor began to shake and tremble.

This time though, small smiles slowly grew over their faces into excited grins.

"Good Luck Naruto," Minato said giving his son a shoulder hug. "I know you'll do great!"

"Thanks!" Naruto shouted.

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Prelims ahead!

Reminder, I update on Sunday

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