Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

First Exam

.

"We're going to be late!" Ino fretted as she scurried around the house. "Where's my kunai?"

"Here!" Called one of the Narutos. "Sorry it took so long, Boss had us check all your weapons, we had to replace three of the kunai and four shuriken in yours. We also put extra tags in, two standard combat packages each."

"What? Two?" Ino gasped, "But… that costs loads!"

"Boss thinks you're more than worth it and we agree." The clone replied with a smile as he handed over the pouch, receiving a kiss on his cheek in return.

"I'm ready." Hinata smiled as she descended the stairs. "Thank you for the tags."

The clone's smile widened as Hinata gave him a quick kiss on his cheek before she walked to the door. "My team are meeting outside the Academy. Ino?"

"Mine are too." Ino agreed. "Hey, wait up!"

The clone watched the two girls leave, then he vanished in a cloud of chakra smoke.

.

"Huh." Naruto said as he picked up a stick of Dango. His breakfast companion looked at him curiously.

"Huh?"

"I just got a memory-burst from one of my clones." Naruto explained. "Hinata and Ino have just left home for the first exam."

"Huh." His dining companion repeated as she filched one of his dango sticks. "I wonder how 'nai-chan's brats will do."

"That would be Haruno, Aburame and Sai, yes?" Naruto asked and Anko nodded.

"Yep, the brainiac, the bug-boy and the smiler. Maybe I should go and peek, see what hi-jinks they get up to while waiting for Ibiki to start the test. Then again… Dango."

Naruto waved a waitress over and ordered another cup of tea.

"You really should try this Sake." Anko grinned, raising the saucer before taking a sip. "Hmmmm, nice."

"Given that I can destroy an entire acre of woods with one move, I don't think that having alcohol and risking my judgement is a good idea." Naruto countered and Anko stared at him.

"Wait, that burned area… was you? Can I ask you to go against Orochimaru? You know, hit him with the same thing?"

"If he holds still for about ten seconds while I power up the move, sure." Naruto shrugged and Anko sagged.

"Anything more than half a second and he'd dodge it somehow." She sighed. "Damn. Oh well, worth a shot."

"And if I see him, I will take that shot." Naruto agreed, taking the steaming cup that the waitress had brought over. "I really have to get the details of the blend used here."

"Hmm?" Anko asked around a mouthful of dango, then she swallowed. "Oh yeah, you cook, don't you?"

"Lessons from Teuchi and the Akamichi clan." Naruto smiled proudly. "When do we move out?"

"Meh, give it another hour." Anko shrugged. "We need to be ready to move in about an hour and a half,but I'd like to peek on the exam itself, get some idea of my audience."

.

.

"…before you take the final question, know that the rules have changed." Ibiki's voice came through the small radio that Naruto and Anko were listening to on the rooftop opposite the room being used for the first exam. "If you fail the tenth question, you will not be eligible for promotion ever again, you will be stuck as genin for the rest of your lives…"

"Can he do that?" Naruto asked as Ibiki continued terrorizing the genin and Anko shook her head.

"Nah, he's just messing with them, making them nervous and uncertain. Oh, look, there go the three planted chunin as arranged and… aaaaand it's spreading. Two teams, three… ten…twenty! Wow, Ibiki's really outdone himself this time. Down from a hundred and eighty to… thirty-nine. Thirteen teams. I was expecting more to remain."

"…those who are willing to take the tenth question, you all pass!" Ibiki's voice said and the room seemed to erupt in confusion before Ibiki held up a hand for silence. "In the field, you will often have to decide whether or not to complete a mission while lacking important information…"

"He's good." Naruto admitted.

"It's why he was put in charge of T&I." Anko agreed as she checked over the bundle that she was carrying one more time.

"Hinata and Ino are still there." Naruto said proudly. "Fu as well."

"You adding another girl to that harem of yours?" Anko teased and Naruto turned to glare at her, the effect spoiled slightly by the fact that he was fully masked.

"She is my sister-in-burden, hopefully soon to become my clan-sister." He said and Anko raised an eyebrow.

"Sister-in-bur… What number is she?"

"Seven."

"Huh." Anko mused. "Any other numbers in there?"

"The red-haired boy with the gourd is number one. He is… unstable."

Anko winced. "An unstable Jinchuuriki? That's bad news! Wait… red-haired… the Suna one?"

Naruto nodded. "I've fought him before… briefly. I took away about a quarter of his sand with a single attack."

"Niiiiiice." Anko smirked. "Bet that shook him up. He's gonna freak when you step out from behind the… ooop! Get ready!"

Naruto faded into invisibility and Anko carefully draped the banner around herself so that it would protect her without getting snagged on anything.

"Let's make a statement!" She whispered fiercely, then she threw herself off the roof, aiming for the small trampoline that she had carefully emplaced earlier.

"Whoooo-yeah!"

.

Ibiki caught the blur of motion out of the corner of his eye and took a nonchalant step backwards. Unlike all the other windows in the room, the one that Anko was about to enter through had been specially weakened. The glass looked the same, but it was thinner and formulated so that when it shattered, it did so in small, near-cubic fragments rather than sharp shards. The frame itself had also been altered with the wooden battens replaced with thin strips of painted bamboo. Once again, it was enough to look normal at a casual glance, but it barely had enough strength to hold the glass in place, let alone against a collision.

Just as planned, the glass shattered into a rain of hail-like fragments as Anko somersaulted through, using her spin to help launch the two kunai deep into the ceiling. As she landed, Ibiki caught a hint of movement that confirmed that she had threaded wire through the rings of the kunai and from there to the corners of her banner, allowing her to adjust the timing appropriately. The banner unfolded to reveal the writing on it and Ibiki hid a smirk as he heard the shocked silence of the genins. Although he couldn't see it from his position, he knew exactly what it said.

The proctors for the second stage,
Mitarashi Anko and Uzumaki Naruto!
You can only hope to be as awesome as us!

"Hey!" He heard a voice yell. "There's only one of you!"

Ibiki managed not to react as Naruto seemed to shimmer into visibility beside him, then Naruto reached out with an armoured gauntlet and brushed the banner to one side, allowing him to step through to stand by Anko's side.

"Where the fuck did he come from?" shouted the genin in the shark-styled hood. Naruto cocked his head slightly and Anko smirked.

"You mean you missed his entrance? You really need to work on your situational awareness, fish-boy."

"Thirty-nine genin." Naruto stated. "Thirteen teams."

"And we'll soon get it down to half of that or less." Anko grinned, twirling a kunai between her fingers. "Listen up, brats! I am Tokubetsu Jonin Mitarashi Anko and looming beside me is Chunin Uzumaki Naruto! You have one hour to get to the west side of Training Ground Forty-Four!"

"The test lasts five days, but a sensible ninja would already be prepared for a full week." Naruto stated and several of the genin suddenly looked worried. "Why are you still standing there?"

Most of the genin dashed for the door and promptly got jammed, but Hinata and Ino led their teams out through the broken window, inspiring several of the others to follow suit. As the last genin finally vanished, Anko cackled.

"Oh, this is going to be fun! Hey, give me a lift?"

Naruto nodded and Anko leapt onto his back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"Alright, let's move! Giddy-uuuUUUUUUUUUuuUuuuuuu…"

Ibiki shook his head as the pair vanished through the window and into the distance, then he looked up at the two kunai stuck firmly into the ceiling.

"Anko." He growled. "Repairs are coming out of your pay."

.

"I've ever seen Konoha from up here before." Ano marveled as she stared down over Naruto's shoulder. "Whup, looks like two teams are already there!"

"Teams seven and ten." Naruto identified, then he turned his head enough to see Anko's look of surprise. "I had my clones re-pack Hinata-chan and Ino-chan's mission packs. They went to meet with their teams early, so they probably relayed what I had done and took it as a hint."

"Makes sense." Anko said as they descended towards the ground. As Naruto decelerated, Anko let go and dropped down, landing silently behind the genin who were staring at the forest on the other side of the seal-enhanced metal fence.

"Hey, brats!" She called and all six jolted slightly. "Since you're here, you may as well head over to the tent and sign the forms that say we won't be held responsible if you die."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed as he started to amble over to the tent where several chunin were waiting with a pile of forms. "Come on, let's get this over with."

"You don't seem too concerned about them." Anko noted and Naruto shrugged.

"Hinata-hime and Ino-chan are both fully capable of defending themselves and their teams. Why should I worry?"

"Oh, I remember now." Anko stated as she slapped her forehead. "They both have the armour as well."

"I have instructed them only to use it in a true emergency." Naruto confirmed. "If they do use their armours, they had better have a good reason to."

"Or you'll…?" Anko prompted with a wide grin on her face.

"…I'm not sure, actually." Naruto finally admitted and Anko started to laugh.

"You'd better obey me or I'll… I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it." Anko chortled and Naruto growled in annoyance.

"…the hell?" Anko winced, then she looked at Naruto closely. "Do that again!"

"…what?"

"The growl thing." Anko stated with huff. "Do the growl thing and.. aim for that tree over there."

Naruto turned to face the tree and growled.

"Did you see that?" Anko asked, pointing to the leaves slowly drifting down. "Your growl shook those leaves off the tree! What else can you do with it?"

"What's going on?" Hinata asked curiously as she approached them and Naruto shrugged.

"I think we just discovered another thing my armour can do."

.

.

Naruto hovered six feet above the ground while in front of him, Anko addressed the assembled genin.

"Alright, brats!" She said, pitching her voice to carry across the field. "Behind me is training ground forty-four, also known as the Forest of Death! You have all been given one of the two types of scrolls."

Recognizing his cue, Naruto raised his hands to show the two scrolls that he was holding.

"To pass this test, you need to reach the tower in the middle of the Forest of Death with one of each type of scroll, a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll. This means that at least half of you won't be able to complete this task.

"Furthermore, if you lose a team member, the you fail regardless of however many scrolls you have accumulated. By losing, we mean, if the team member dies! If you leave the Forest before the end of the test, you will be disqualified.

"Each team will pick a number from this bowl."

Kakashi stepped forwards holding a large bowl filled with folded scraps of paper.

"The number that you get is the gate you will start from. You will have twenty minutes to reach that gate before the test starts. Choose the one who picks and send that one forwards!"

Naruto's gaze flicked across to where Fu was standing near her two team-mates. As she stepped forwards, the black-haired one shoved her backwards and stalked over to where Kakashi was standing.

Fu looked up at Naruto and he gave a tiny nod.

The team from Takigakure would not be amongst the victors of the second stage but would be disqualified when they lost a member of their team.

And with Fu being reported as deceased, Takigakure would have no reason to suspect that their greatest weapon was still intact and was allied with Konoha.

.

.

.

.

.

Author's Afternote – Yes, Naruto's just discovered the Vibration Spheres, the last of the main Guyver weapon systems.

I am starting to impact on my chapter buffer, so updates will slow from every other day to every three days while I write ahead once more.