Previous Translations: Yorokobi - Pleasure/Delight/Joy
Yokubo - Desire/Lust
Kajo - Excess
Shifuku no Kurushimi - Blissful Throes/Blissful Suffering
Tatakainouta - Song of Battle
Zeitakuna Kutsu - Luxurious Torment
Hentai-ryu: Erokenho - Pervert Style: Erotic Fist Art
Konton - Chaos
Kanzen - Perfect
Henka - Change
Harakainokeru - Dispel
Aka-en - Red Flame
Aoi-en - Blue Flame
Kiiro-en - Yellow Flame
Orenji-en - Orange Flame
Tankoshoku-en - Pink Flame
Maho - Magic
Chishiki - Knowledge
Unmei - Fate
Nozomu - Hope
Hoho no Chenja - honestly this one is a mess, but roughly means Changer of Ways
Ryuketsu - Bloodshed
Chikara - Strength
Meiyo - Honor
Budo - Martial Arts
Ikari - Rage
Jumon - Incantation
Himitsu no Sewanin - Secret Caretaker(Keeper of Secrets)
Sento - Combat
Same no On'na - Shark-Woman
Maebure - Harbinger
Shibari no Ashikase - Binding Fetters
Kanpeki - Perfection
Reikan - the closest English word would be Inspiration, but it specifically refers to 'a divine creative impulse'
Sekkyo-sha - Preacher
Aijin - Lover
Kaen Hosha-ki - Flame Radiator (Flamer of Tzeentch)
Himeiwoageru - Which Screams (Screamer of Tzeentch)
Shikkan - Disease
Ai - Love
Zetsubo - Despair
Mi Haito - Undivided/Not Divided
Shibo - Aspiring
Koki - Exalted
Chakra no Bato - Coruscating Chakra/Chakra of Coruscation
Gyokai - Industry
In case someone somehow doesn't know, Hi - Fire
Don'yoku - Greed/Avarice
Yokuatsu - Tyranny/Oppression
Yami no Chichi - Father of Darkness/Dark Father
Raimeiton - Thunder Release, what Naruto has decided to name his mix of wind and lightning chakra
Shuryoju - Hunting Beasts (same word for plural or singular), an alternate name for Fiends of Slaanesh, best word I could find for them
Konton no Omo - Lord of Chaos
Kemonojin - a very jank way of translating Beastmen into Japanese, basically would mean Animal-Human
Gyumao - Ox Demon King
Eiyu - Hero
Gyumahime - Ox Demon Princess
Kajomahime - Excessive Demon Princess
Renkinjutsu - Alchemy
Shigeki arrived at the ramen stand, Naruto almost didn't realize who he was until he spotted the Taki symbol, "Come on, Fu, apparently the second phase is tomorrow." he ordered, gesturing for her to follow him, "You can hang out with your new friend more tomorrow." he added dryly, "Maybe a play date in the final phase." he muttered the last part derisively.
Fu sighed, "Fine, just wait a second." she told her cell member before turning to Naruto and extending a fist, "This is a thing friends do right?" she asked when the blonde stared in confusion.
"Not that experienced with it personally." Naruto confessed with a shrug.
"We tap fists, I think?" Fu answered, gesturing awkwardly to the extended fist she was still holding up. Naruto lifted his fist to meet hers and was startled by a sudden change in scenery, alarmingly Hinata was gone but Maemi was there, as was Fu, the Kyubi no Kitsune and a giant beetle with a lot of wings, the blonde counted seven. After getting over his momentary panic he saw the Yoko was at least fettered with purple chakra shaped into chains.
Fu looked far less surprised than the blonde felt, but the first to speak in the new environment was the giant beetle, "Oh, that's the situation." the voice said, and it took the Uzumaki a moment to connect the voice to the giant seven winged beetle. He was also having some trouble moving past the seventh wing, it was bothering him aesthetically, "Well, I was wondering what had been done to your Fuin, but this truly is alarming." the voice continued and Fu looked concerned.
"What's wrong with Slaanesh-kaasama's work?" Naruto asked curiously, the massive beetle gestured vaguely to the Kyubi and the blonde glanced there to see what the insectoid bakemono meant but just returned to his confused state, "Elaborate." he demanded.
Maemi hid behind Naruto's leg, the Imp was, for the first time since she arrived, completely out of her depth. The Muse had no idea Takigakure had such a monstrous chakra locked within one of their shinobi with Fuinjutsu, nor that said shinobi would be a genin at the chunin exams. She also had no idea where they were or how the Kyubi was visible, the only thing she could think of was that the act of bumping fists had caused some kind of mental image projection of a bridge between the Fuinjutsu of the two shinobi in question due to their chakra, but that was a theory she had no way of confirming.
"Well," the beetle began, cocking its head to the side in a very human display of deep thought, "mostly it's that the Kyubi is being torn apart to feed you." the creature said with a hint of restrained aggression in the tone.
Naruto glanced back at the kitsune, narrowing his eyes as he tried to focus on what the chains were doing, "He does seem angry." he mused, having no actual way to detect chakra all he could go on was the malicious intent the Yoko directed at him, "Pretty sure he killed a whole lot of people too, some who probably didn't deserve it." he continued, crossing his arms and frowning as he considered that, "Wait a minute, hey! You probably killed my original parents!" he realized suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at the fettered kitsune.
"I'd kill them again, given the chance." The red furred chakra no bakemono growled in response, prompting a sigh from the beetle.
"Ku-" The voice of the beetle began but was interrupted.
"Don't utter that name in front of these ningen whelps or my jailor's pet oni!" The Kyubi snapped angrily, glaring up at the seven winged beetle despite his situation.
Maemi was slowly realizing that this beetle was a similar class of entity to the Kyubi, from the wings she'd guess it held the title Nanabi. The Muse wondered just how many Greater Daemon class beings of seemingly pure chakra existed, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of having all of them under Slaanesh.
Fu was still visibly confused, "So, my new friend is like me?" she asked, Maemi wanted to scold the girl for only just realizing but since her blonde master seemed surprised by that as well she held her tongue with a disappointed expression. The Nanabi nodded, "Awesome! Thanks for pointing me to him, Chomei!" she beamed happily, but the Imp could tell the kunoichi was trying to sweep away the oppressive atmosphere the Yoko chained down created.
"It was lucky that you both happened to be here at the same time as Shukaku, and you were already interested in the Takigakure no Eiyu." The Nanabi responded to the name Chomei smoothly, and Maemi was startled that what she thought was an ikiryo was also this class of chakra no bakemono. Now that the Muse thought about it, that did explain the power of the tanuki. It also explained why it was shaped like a tanuki and not a more humanoid bakemono.
Naruto latched onto a different piece of information, becoming smug with his newly revealed title, "Don't word it like that!" Fu hissed, cheeks turning pink with embarrassment, "He seemed friendly enough, and I was mostly right about that." she added, glancing a slightly worried look at the Kyubi.
"Maemi-chan, is the Kyubi gonna, like, die or something?" Naruto asked curiously, he recalled being told that he had the Kyubi's chakra because the Yondaime Hokage couldn't kill it, but Slaanesh was a god and he reasoned that was a different scale.
Maemi did not like the sudden attention on her, "Uh, maybe eventually?" she answered hesitantly, "Isn't he already half-dead anyway?" she asked.
The Kyubi growled, "I'll show you half-dead." he threatened quietly.
Chomei sighed and lowered her wings, Maemi felt a little less threatened now but didn't stop hiding behind Naruto as the beetle spoke up, "I think I see, at first I thought it lucky for us to meet up, but this is not a very lucky meeting at all." the Nanabi lamented, "How long does the 'Kyubi' have left to live?"
Maemi frowned as she considered the question, "No idea. Anywhere from a week to a decade, maybe even another hundred years if he's lucky." she answered cryptically, not wanting to go into why or how even if they did have the time.
"Then good luck, dreaded kitsune." Chomei said towards the Kyubi, the title sounding sarcastic and the Yoko's glare only intensifying before the beetle turned to the horned blonde, "I can't say I approve of you, or your alien kami, but I can at least sense you hold no ill will despite your lack of empathy towards the kitsune within you." she continued and the blonde being addressed was at first offended but then confused, "Please understand at least this, he wasn't always so full of hate."
"Enough of this nonsense!" The Kyubi roared, his chakra straining against the chains holding him, causing them to glow in response to his anger. Maemi could tell the Kyubi did not want to discuss such a topic, and strangely it seemed the Nanabi wasn't lying. The Imp regarded the beetle-like chakra no bakemono with new interest, wondering just how much she, and by proxy, Slaanesh, didn't know about these nations.
Then the mindscape fell away and Hinata was confused at the sudden bewilderment from Naruto as Fu grinned, waved goodbye and left with her teammate. The three armed young kunoichi also noticed Maemi was giving Fu a much more cautious look, and was clinging closely to the chair Naruto was sitting in. The blonde waved to Fu as she left, almost seeming to do so on autopilot until he turned to his future first wife.
"Did you see any of that?" Naruto asked curiously, frowning at the fact Hinata did not have Byakugan active and frowning further when she gave him a confused frown and shook her head, "Damn, that was really weird." he grumbled, scratching his head behind his second right horn as he tried to mentally go over what he'd learned, "I guess I see why Fu-chan was so eager to make friends though." he added quietly, recalling that her older teammates seemed to barely tolerate her.
Hinata felt like she'd been excluded from an entire conversation and raised an eyebrow, glancing towards where Fu had left, "I guess we should find our teams too anyway, right?" she asked, beginning to finish off her bowl of ramen by drinking the broth. The horned blonde ninso nodded in agreement, tipping his own bowl back to chug down what was left of his own meal and surprised to see Hinata had eaten more bowls than he had.
Before Naruto could pull out his own purse to pay, Hinata swiftly took her own out and paid the required ryo for their food as if she was trying to race the blonde to paying for the ramen. As the two were getting up to leave the chunin held up a hand, "Sounds like you two won, so I'm supposed to give you these." he spoke up, surprising the two, "Congratulations on getting through the first phase by the way, and treat these scrolls as seriously as you would a real mission." he said more seriously as he pulled out a pair of scrolls.
The scrolls were small and plain, and even labeled with their names, so Hinata reached for hers but Naruto's head snapped towards the sound of a scream in the distance. The chunin raised an eyebrow, unable to hear it. Hinata glanced to her lover as he focused on something she couldn't detect and swiftly activated her Byakugan just in case as Maemi sensed the chunin's confusion, "Naruto-sama's hearing is peerless, he heard a scream outside of town." she explained lazily.
The chunin frowned at that, clearly concerned about Kusa genin who would be returning home after failing the first phase but confused about who would be attacking them. Naruto stood up, "Hold on there, if you leave the town during this exam you and your team will get disqualified." the chunin warned quickly, "I'll report this and go check it out after I close up shop." he added.
Naruto supposed that was good enough and accepted the scroll as Hinata started to read hers.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as three scrolls were delivered with their bill for the dinner at the barbecue place they were eating at, Shikamaru had even decided they deserved sake, Ino hadn't objected although Choji seemed worried he'd joined in on a toast and sipped at his drink. Ino had made it a point to match the Nara of the team drink for drink but it quickly became apparent that Shikamaru just had a higher tolerance.
Choji was the first to open his scroll as the other two were considering theirs carefully, although the Nara was more suspicious than anything and was second once he saw nothing happened to Choji, "Oh," the Akimichi began, "well, uh, the second phase is kind of weird, huh?" he asked with a light chuckle that belied his nervousness.
Shikamaru read what was on his scroll again, "I feel like the second phase started before the first phase did from this wording." he grumbled, "Well, we already planned for this happening, just not sanctioned." he pointed out, and Choji nodded as Ino was still reading her scroll.
Neji, Tenten, and Lee read their scrolls after being delivered them in their room, having bought rations for a survival exam they decided not to take it easy and treat the town as a survival exam. It seems they needn't have bothered, but the second phase was still strange, "So, what team do we target?" Tenten asked curiously, "No one from Konoha I assume, cell ten's place is probably rigged to explode or something." she pointed out.
Neji sighed, "No one from Konoha, also Gaara is right out." he decided immediately.
"I wish to fight him again." Rock Lee decided boisterously, startling his two teammates with the sudden declaration.
"Save it for the finals unless he comes for us. We'll just have to target a Kusa team." Neji pointed out, "Stay on your toes though, even if they're weaker, they're the most numerous and this could be considered home turf to them. They may team up against us, and the chunin proctors might subtly assist them in some ways." he continued, finishing the last part in a quiet whisper.
Sasuke read over his scroll as he let Sakura pretend they were having a dinner date, "We're going to be targeted tonight." he said blandly, confident in that fact as he read the rules for the second phase, but it was strange, "We need to capture a genin from another team, might as well just capture whatever team targets us." he assumed, looking up and noticing Sakura's confused expression, making him realize she had no idea what he was talking about as she hadn't opened her scroll yet.
"What?" Sakura asked, hammering the point home further.
Sasuke sighed, "Second phase, rules are to capture at least one genin from the still competing teams without getting caught fighting by a chunin proctor and deliver the captive to the head examiner of the second phase." he explained.
Sakura blinked owlishly, "Who?" she asked.
Sasuke glanced back down at his scroll, it didn't mention this detail, "Oh, this one is actually kind of tricky." he realized, there was also no mention of a time limit. As near as the Uchiha could tell, this was to simulate a covert capture mission, his thought immediately went to cell ten since the Ino-Shika-Cho formation was practically built for that, but the difficulty spiked when you were in a town full of ninja, your targets were ninja, and you were a target too.
Compounding this, the chunin proctors would apparently be playing the part of a shinobi polite force. Sasuke wasn't sure how much of Kusa's chunin forces were actually present, but it was enough to make the town seem underpopulated instead of abandoned at least, and he could tell that not every genin who had been eliminated in the first phase had left yet indicating they weren't actually forced to leave once they lost.
Sasuke got the impression there was a trick to this, but before he could consider it further he noticed the restaurant he'd allowed Sakura to drag him to was emptier than it had been a moment ago. This put him on edge enough that he was only slightly surprised when arms emerged from the ground to grab his chair, two pairs of hands dragging his chair under ground and a third attempting to force him under with it by grabbing his ankles.
The Uchiha spread his wings, activated his Juin, and flapped, a burst of Futon chakra blowing harmlessly over Sakura but sending their table flying and leaving the pink haired kunoichi less than amused. The other result was Sasuke now being in the air with the shinobi who had attempted to grab him personally surprised to have been dragged out of the earth like that. Sakura stood up as Sasuke dislodged his right foot from his assailants grip and kicked him in the face just in time for the chunin who was manning the counter to return.
"Break it up you two!" The chunin ordered authoritatively.
Sasuke glared, "They started it." he accused, but the other two teammates of the cell that attacked them didn't surface.
The chunin scoffed, "I don't care, didn't you read your scroll? If you get caught causing harm to an opponent you'll be reprimanded, potentially penalized, and if you get caught killing your team is disqualified." he lectured dryly, clearly not caring one bit that it was likely the Kusa genin who had attacked first.
Sasuke's eye twitched as he started to understand just how much of a hassle this second phase would potentially be. On the bright side there probably wasn't many there who could threaten his team, but it would take a logistical advantage to be a threat to someone like Naruto and the enemy had no reason to team up as far as Sasuke was aware.
Then the Uchiha remembered that Naruto was with Hinata, most teams were in groups of three but because of Sakura and Hinata's desire to treat this exam like a romantic trip cell seven and eight were prime targets in their three groups of two, "I hate romance." he decided blandly, turning to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" The chunin halted him again, "Your attack was the one what messed the place up, wasn't it? So you'll be cleaning it or I'll be calling in back up to deal with a rowdy and suspicious individual." he threatened.
Sasuke expressed as much hatred as he could with what expressiveness he retained with his beak at the chunin, made a kage bunshin, said bunshin used henge to become that chunin, and the original left with Sakura as the bunshin got to work cleaning. The chunin didn't have an apt response for that, even if he looked like a tengu a genin had just used a jutsu that cut chakra in half to get out of basic chores.
Kiba rolled his scroll back up and rested his chin on his palm as he leaned over the table to watch Shino continue to stare at the contents of his own scroll in the apartment they'd rented for the duration of the Chunin Examinations, surprisingly a fair enough price and plenty of rooms to go around, "So, since you're the one who was matching wits against enemy leaders in the last phase, got any bright ideas?" he wondered out loud in sarcastic tones.
Shino frowned, "Personally, I never viewed myself as the leader," he began, "I just determined that any one of us could wipe most enemy teams, and Hinata would do it while revealing the least about our abilities." he explained, "I did not expect the Rasengan thing though." he added dryly.
"Well, I think I got it figured out." Kiba said with a stretch and a grin, "Just snatch a small fry, leaves the stronger opponents for the last phase, letting us give a better showing and proving ourselves in glorious single combat for our deities approval." he explained plainly.
Shino supposed that made the most sense, "In that case, I can scout one of the weaker Kusa teams to have won a match earlier today." he suggested and the Inuzuka nodded in agreement, so the two got to work.
They didn't bother bringing up Hinata, both knew she was with Naruto and they'd definitely hear if something happened. The blonde didn't tend for subtlety when he got violent, if he bothered with it at all outside of situations where it was strictly required. Both Kiba and Shino were confident that if something actually threatened Naruto and Hinata half the nation would hear about it.
Maemi helped Naruto read his scroll, "So who was the chief examiner for the second phase again?" the blonde wondered out loud, confused by that part of the test the most. He thought the whole espionage thing was neat, a good old back to basics thing as far as he was concerned.
Hinata frowned, "I don't think we learned that." she said, glancing up to see the chunin manning the ramen store was finishing closing up, "Um, do we ask you who the chief examining officer is?" she asked curiously.
The chunin was surprised they were actually just coming out and asking, "Uh, he's acting as the local Junsa," he explained, "the keisatsu office is between the prison and the town square." he added helpfully, since he was supposed to play the part of a merchant and they hadn't asked anything suspicious enough to report them.
Maemi supposed it made sense, if the chunin proctors were playing the part of a local police force, then the head examining officer would be their constable. That didn't explain the first phase, but that guy just seemed to have fun watching a bunch of younger shinobi nearly kill each other, it was a wonder there were no fatalities, even from Gaara. A few were in critical condition, but Kusa had dedicated a lot of iryonin and the local hospital staff of non-shinobi were still around, she'd deduced that much by herself.
It did help the place feel more like a living town than the grounds of a test of skill between rival shinobi villages in a proxy war, but with the second phase an oppressive air filled the village as the competing genin sized each other up. Naruto cocked his head to the side as he heard the sounds of the Tatakainouta in the distance, not focused on him. He closed his eyes and focused, he was still not great at gauging distance with his hearing but he heard metal scraping on stone like shuriken that had missed their target and two metal blades sliding against each other as wielders tried to strike each other.
The blonde wondered towards the sound idly, Hinata following behind him without knowing what he was doing, as it was in the direction of their apartment, while Maemi sensed Naruto was following something. When the horned ninso took a turn his fiance wasn't expecting, she frowned in confusion, "Naruto-kun?" she asked before she heard it too, weapons clashing on the other side of the alley Naruto was walking down.
Six shinobi stepped into view, all Kusa genin Maemi recognized as winning teams but none of them had been particularly noteworthy, "Interrupting our fight? Lucky us you two are separate from your teams and we can set aside our own squabbles until the next phase." one of the older genin spoke up, a man with a square jaw and stubble in Kusa garbs with a katana. His team seemed to be kenjutsu specialists, while the team they'd been matching seemed more stealth focused, with their swords varying from chokuto to ninjato to tanto.
The kunoichi with the katana, a young woman with short brown hair and green eyes dressed similarly to her teammates coughed, "Uh, hate to disagree, Seri-kun, but now that they're up close I'm pretty sure the golden lion cloak is just a new addition and that seriously is Gyumahime." she pointed out.
"Don't call me that in front of the enemy, Souko." 'Seri' grumbled, but was ignored.
"Yeah, that's definitely the Kiba on her back." The other member of the kenjutsu team said lazily, a young man with black hair up in a topknot and red eyes, "I kind of want to test myself against that new long sword though." he added cockily.
The other team looked on edge at the mention that Naruto really was the genin with that A rank bingo book entry, but instead of capitalizing on it the blonde was just glaring at the kunoichi with the katana, "Kajomahime." Naruto corrected firmly, Maemi couldn't suppress a flinch at the term.
"What?" Souko asked, confused by the new term.
"I am not a cow!" Naruto snapped suddenly, leaping into the midst of the six Kusa genin as he unsheathed his ninjato with his right hand and used his left hand to pull out his wakizashi in a reverse grip. Neither Hinata nor Maemi expected the sudden and surprisingly feminine outburst from the horned blonde, so were too stunned to react in time to do anything.
Three katana swung at Naruto's left side, his wakizashi catching the blade of the unnamed young man with the topknot, much to the obvious irritation due to Naruto blocking his katana with a reverse gripped wakizashi, but Seri's struck against Naruto's neck and Souko's against his hip. From his right his ninjato swiped aside the chokuto of the young brown haired man with a ponytail, the ninjato of a black haired young woman, but the tanto of the youngest member of that cell thrust his tanto into Naruto's right leg.
Instead of sinking through armor and into flesh, each blade made a metallic sound as it stopped against the golden lion hide, the tanto even snapping, much to the concern of the young genin wielding it. Then Naruto's ninjato thrust at the arms of the unnamed topknot shinobi who hopped back as he parried the blow, the six shinobi circling the blonde carefully and with more caution.
"I thought something was up with that cloak, and I aimed in between it," The young adult genin mused as he lifted his katana to rest on his shoulder, "and I'm the only one who got blocked, kid has better instincts than Souko maybe." he added and his kunoichi teammate looked like she took offense to that, taking a low stance at pointing her blade at the blonde.
"It doesn't matter how good his instincts are, my thrust took down a jonin!" Souko bragged as she lunged, Naruto twisted and deflected the thrust on the edge of his wakizashi. The kenjutsu specialist genin were surprised by the speed the blonde had, but to add insult to injury he'd also adjusted where his ninjato was pointed right as Souko leaped and the blade rested next to her neck as she halted at the end of her thrust, a look of alarm in her eyes and visibly sweating.
"Your kenjutsu is petty." Naruto praised idly, inspecting his opponent up close curiously, "You can't hit someone like my magnificent self with that speed though, not even if you sneak attack." he added, keeping the minor detail that sneak attacks were worthless thanks to his supernatural hearing to himself for the sake of the brag.
Then a chunin decided to showed up, "Break it up you brats! Weapons out in the village? You trying to get thrown in a cell for a few days!?" the man ranted angrily, prompting the gathered genin to hesitantly back off from each other and sheathing their weapons.
Seri scoffed, "Calling me a brat, Renji? We went to school together!" he pointed out in an annoyed tone.
"And your drunk ass goofed off and chased skirts, which is why you're still a genin." The chunin retorted with equal annoyance, "Now get out of here before I'm forced to report you brats for loitering in suspicious places after dark." he scolded as the genin left the alley to return to their apartments, or at least pretended they were.
Maemi was surprised by the way the chunin treated the situation, there was enough leeway that it was still clearly a test, but regular militia or police wouldn't be as efficient at guarding such a town as they were in as someone like a chunin could. A force of chunin would make the current parameters nigh impossible, but since said chunin were allowed to give leeway the genin actually had a chance.
Still, Maemi could tell things would be difficult, even if the chunin delayed their responses the man showing up when he did confirmed they'd break up any fighting they found out about would make capturing an enemy difficult even with a kidnapping. The Imp had secretly been hoping for more tests of raw power so her master could blast through and take his well deserved promotion, but she saw how the first two phases lined up in a way.
The first phase was a shot at information gathering for the second phase, in a way the same could probably said for most Chunin Examinations but the last one in Konoha had allowed for far less blatant information gathering on opponents during the first phase.
Hinata frowned, "So, what's our plan?" she wondered out loud as they went back to their shared room. Maemi considered pointing out Naruto could just take Hinata to the constable, or 'Junsa' as the local human population called it, but she knew Naruto wouldn't go for it so she kept the thought to herself.
"I dunno, think I'll just use my Kujaku Myoho to grab the next guy to attack me and drag him to the Junsa before a chunin can stop me y'know." Naruto answered idly, his gaze lazily drifting wherever he heard the sounds of violence in the distance. Curiously, he heard more violence from the other direction, outside of town where he'd heard screaming.
Naruto felt the sudden need to analyze the situation, he didn't have a very good layout of the town, he'd been in the market district, the town center, and some hotels near other restaurants. He could vaguely recall someone mentioning the place being a lumber town but he hadn't asked about it at the time, he'd seen a small forest not too far and some farmland but the geography was mostly plains.
The forest was on the other side of town from the fields and paddies, a good distance from the nearest buildings too from what he could tell, but that was the opposite direction to what was going on outside of town. Naruto frowned as he tried to focus on it, and Hinata took notice, "What's wrong?" she asked.
The blonde remained silent for a moment longer, "I get the feeling something is going on." he muttered, narrowing his eyes as he stared into the distance, but whatever it was he was hearing it from beyond the horizon even if there weren't buildings in the way.
Kakashi eyed the tokubetsu jonin acting as the chief examining officer, he knew they looked nothing alike but he couldn't help comparing the man to Ibuki Morino. It was the build more than anything, the man who had been introduced as Jirojin didn't have the scars and his hair was more reminiscent of Iruka's, or Shikamaru's but with bangs. The silver haired jonin realized it was the outfit, it was fitting for the Junsa of a town like the one they were in so he dressed a bit like Ibuki.
Kakashi swiftly realized he had missed half of the explanation, but gathered that the man mentioned his students had to capture someone and bring them to the chief examining officer, which shouldn't be difficult for them. Also they couldn't leave for the sake of the fairness of the exam, most of the jonin thought it was skewed in Kusa's favor with the chunin proctors potentially knowing Kusa genin candidates, but the Konoha jonin in particular all seemed unconcerned.
Baki seemed bored more than anything, Kakashi didn't blame him, he felt the same way, "Did that guy mention a time limit?" he asked quietly once the tokujonin was gone.
Asuma scoffed in amusement, "Yeah, a full week." he remarked.
"Long time for a capture and retrieval mission." Kurenai hummed through her gas mask, arms crossed as she looked down in thought.
Gai smirked, "Not so easy a retrieval mission, capturing an enemy shinobi." he pointed out in a manner he assumed was cryptic.
Kakashi nodded, "Yeah, a shinobi keisatsu-ryoku is something only Konoha pulled off once before, with the Uchiha." he recalled as he turned to get another drink before heading off to bed.
Asuma sighed, "Even for our monsters this might be a tricky one, I think mine actually have the best shot." he remarked as he moved to follow Kakashi along with Kurenai and Gai, "My students are great at subtle, and this is their specialty." he added proudly.
Gai laughed, "You would do well not to underestimate my students, I am confident they are up for this challenge." he bragged.
Kurenai coughed into her mask for a moment before getting it under control, "Capture may not be a specialty of my team but Hinata is-" she began to praise.
"Probably still with Naruto." Kakashi piped up idly, "I doubt he even realized it's a possibility to take Hinata to that Jirojin guy, and if he did he'd rather take out a Kusa team anyway." the silver haired jonin continued in his usual lazy manner.
Sasuke was heard by Naruto before he could spot the blonde, but the horned ninso had no reason to worry about such things and didn't realize the Uchiha was looking for him until Sasuke, Sakura, and Genkei rounded the corner and rushed him, "There you are," the dark haired member of cell seven greeted blandly, "capture anyone with your Fuinjutsu or whatever?" he asked.
Naruto frowned, "I don't know any Fuinjutsu that can store away a person." he answered, "So no." he added with a shrug.
"Can't even take their skull, what kind of weakling simulation is this." Genkei grumbled, Sakura didn't comment but she did look bored out of her mind.
Sasuke sighed, "Alright, well, we'll probably be fine like this, since our teams are effectively working together through you two," he began to plot, "Sakura and I will check on Kiba and Shino." he explained calmly, before turning to do just that. Genkei was moderately annoyed that Sakura followed wordlessly but moved to follow her regardless.
Naruto scratched a spot below and behind his second right horn as he glanced up slightly, flicking the hood of the lion head down to act more like a cape strapped to his mantle with the size of its mane. He cocked his head to the left, closed his eyes, and cupped his right ear to listen more intently, "Those kenjutsu guys from Kusa are fighting another team already..." he mused quietly as Hinata waited, curiously she activated her Byakugan, and marveled at the distance he was hearing the fight from, there were a lot of fights going on in radius of her vision.
Hinata's eyes widened, "A Kusa team not far from here just lost to Gaara," she spoke up, "he's taking one of them now and evading chunin, I didn't even know he could be so stealthy." she reported, "The two genin he left behind would be an easy win for our teams." she added.
Naruto frowned at the idea of acting like a vulture but he supposed a win was a win and moved to follow Hinata's eyes, her dojutsu being quite a bit more precise than his hearing. It didn't take long for her to find the two Kusa genin retreating to lick their wounds, Naruto didn't recognize them and they didn't have any distinguishing weapons so he quickly wrapped both of them up and pulled them in with his Shibari no Ashikase, Hinata delivering a pair of swift Juken strikes before they landed at Naruto's feet.
"That was easy." Maemi commented, she figured the second phase would provide more challenge given how it worked but Hinata had knocked their two new captives out before they could speak.
"We need to go quickly, a chunin is on his way already." Hinata said, quickly lifting one of the prisoners without bothering to tie him up. Trusting her word Naruto did the same and the two moved stealthily to handle things.
Kakashi awoke the next morning and descended into the diner to grab a coffee and something to eat, for him these Chunin Examinations were practically a vacation, he made a mental note to do some exercises in his room after he got some nutrients in his system. He was surprised out of his train of thought by the sight of Gaara's team having breakfast while the auburn haired young genin stared intently at the other surprising additions, cell eight and his own team.
"Why are you in the jonin's hotel?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow, Naruto grinned proudly in response.
Baki spoke up, "These three cells passed the second phase on the first night it started, the chief examining officer seemed annoyed." he explained in amused tones, "My team was first of course, your cell tied for second with Kurenai Yuhi's." he added as a quick brag.
"Don't act like Gaara's skills reflect on you." Kakashi shot down harshly, making the Suna jonin flinch at the accurate accusation.
Asuma chuckled as he approached, "I figured my team would be one of the first in here but I guess Shikamaru is forcing Ino to take it slow." he piped in with his opinion.
"My magnificent self painted the Hokage monument in broad daylight, it is the height of foolishness to underestimate my stealth y'know!" Naruto bragged with a laugh, amused by how easily they'd blitzed the second phase.
"Second time we've come second to Gaara's cell in these exams." Kiba grumbled under his breath, less intimidated by the smell of blood in the other genin's sand these days. It helped that Gaara was leaking significantly less killing intent.