Hello everyone,
I'm glad that the last chapter was well received. I agreed with one reviewer that mentioned 'But why' when it came to Naruto wielding Zabuza's sword. It just didn't sit right with me. What with Gai teaching him to be up close and personal with taijutsu and all. I just think that you'd almost have to stay mid range with that big ass sword, and avoid close combat. That's not what this Naruto is going to be about. He wants all the smoke.
Plus, it didn't fit with what Naruto will become in my mind.
I'm glad y'all didn't allow Jiraiya to slide either. We all know what he is doing. But even with super powered ninja's, human nature is to avoid past mistakes and trauma. I found it natural he would choose Neji and the 'easy' way out with that emotional scenario.
Anyway, let's get onto the chapter.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing.
It was not a surprise to see Neji, Sasuke, and Tenten in the exam room when we arrived.
But I did not expect the effect that two jinchuriki in one room would have on my senses. I squinted, as if I was looking at the sun and winced as if it hurt to look in their direction. The room was barely lit at all.
Naturally, we drew the eyes of the crowd that had already formed inside the room. So my reaction did not go unnoticed.
The smaller chakra signature was full of malice, and oozed over the room. My eyes sought out the source, searching for what could possibly feel like that. I knew the answer before I looked, but I had to make sure.
Red haired, tan skin, loose clothing typical of nomadic sand cultures, a gourd made of sand, and a tattoo of love on his forehead. Gaara did not look at me, but he was leaning against a wall staring at the source of the biggest chakra supply in the room.
Neji ignored the stare of bloodlust from Gaara like a professional. In fact, it looked like he didn't even notice it. I could only imagine the conversation Gaara and his 'mother' were having right now.
"Take a seat, genin."
I turned to the voice to see none other than Ibiki Morino standing near a chalkboard. He was obviously talking to me, so I nodded my head towards the chiseled ninja. I broke eye contact and moved through the room as he commanded. I felt Lee and Sakura follow me, but as we discussed, they broke off for other parts of the room.
"Loser."
The cocky voice was easy to distinguish. As was the boy's black hair and black eyes. Sasuke hadn't changed a bit since I had last seen him. I wondered how many missions he had completed, and if they were as difficult as mine.
Best to assume he could kick my ass and go all out if it comes down to it.
"Duck butt." I retorted as I moved past him further into the room. I knew he had a smirk on his face, but I didn't bother to turn around to confirm that. I eventually found a seat, not too far from Gaara and sat down. Why I chose this one, I wasn't sure, but I was towards the back of the room, and I could see mostly everything in front of me.
"That's my seat."
I felt the presence coming, as I also felt the build up of his chakra near his left arm. Was this the sound ninja that picked a fight in the anime? I couldn't remember his name to save my life.
I turned to him, and gave him a bland stare. "I don't give a fuck." I said simply. The young man was stockily built, and filled out his camouflage outfit. His face was covered by a wrap that went around most of his head like a mummy. And his back was covered by some type of animal fur. He looked like an idiot to be honest.
Like clockwork, the boy released the chakra built up in his arm. Unluckily for him, I had already sent chakra to my ears, to counter his attack. I still heard a ringing in my ear, despite my protection, but it wasn't enough to cause discomfort. And not near enough to actually damage me.
I continued to stare at him, unaffected. After a moment of inaction, I sent him a cocky smirk. "That all you got?" I asked, goading the boy into attacking me.
His left arm snapped up and he pointed it at my face.
I had actually planned on letting the proctor handle the nuisance. But I remembered the problem he would cause for Sasuke and Sakura. Now I knew that Neji would handle this fool without problem, but I just couldn't help but ...eliminating him as a threat in the exam.
That's why I drew a kunai, channeled a bit of chakra to it, and thrusted it through the mechanism he had implanted on his arm.
At least I tried to.
"Enough."
My wrist was caught, stopping my momentum. I looked to see it was Ibiki.
In my hand, was a normal kunai, except it was covered in a white sheen. In fact, depending on which side you looked on, you might have noticed how the chakra covering it seemed to be grinding on each other. This was one of my latest accomplishments, and something I was very proud of. I could use wind chakra with weapons now.
Too bad I revealed to everyone present my chakra nature.
Whoops…
I withdrew my chakra from the kunai in my hand, and the wind coating disappeared. Ibiki let my hand go in response, but kept his hand on the other boy's arm.
"No fighting during this exam. Save that for later boys." Ibiki said with a grin, although His eye was still on the kunai in my hand. "If it happens again, you'll be disqualified."
Ibiki turned around, and stalked back to the front of the room. I made sure to meet the Sound ninja's eyes, with the same grin on my face from earlier. He had come so close to losing the precious arm his pedophile leader had given him.
The boy broke eye contact, turned away, and stalked back to where his team sat. Both of his teammates glared at me, promising retribution.
I'm taking his scroll, regardless if it's the one I need. I promised as I met their gazes.
"Picking a fight so soon, Naruto. What a drag."
None other than Shikamaru, the lazy genius, said beside me. He was looking at the sound ninja suspiciously, and with a promise in his eyes. Leaf ninja stuck together.
Well unless you were Orochimaru ...or Itachi … or Madara. But nevermind that.
"Hey Shikamaru. How's it hanging?" I asked, teasing the boy a little bit.
"A little to the left, you?" Shikamaru retorted with a small smile. I hadn't expected him to respond so quickly or witty, and couldn't help but laugh a little. He didn't actually let me respond. "How's ninja life been?" Shikamaru asked.
We met each other's eyes, and I couldn't help but notice how ...attentive he was. He normally had a look of boredom or uninterest. I looked around his form, searching for a sign of competence. Sure enough, toned muscles poked out from his fishnet armor.
Had Shikamaru been seriously training?
"Naruto Uzumaki.."
I turned to see Sasuke standing next to a grey haired boy with glasses. The grey haired boy was holding up a clear glass card.
I turned back to Shikamaru, ignoring Kabuto and the information he was giving out. I knew it all anyway, and my opponents wouldn't really gain anything from knowing my strengths.
"...is also skilled with the use of wind manipulation and Konoha's newest monkey summoner. That is one to watch out for."
Well, I was hoping to keep the knowledge of the monkey summons out of the public sphere for a while, but there goes that advantage. Fucking kabuto.
"The opposite of boring, I would say. We've had some… interesting C-ranks lately." I replied, without trying to react to what was happening behind me. I wanted to stay off of Kabuto's, and Orochimaru's radar for a long fucking time. That meant not picking a fight with Kabuto and drawing attention. Call me a coward, I don't care. I just wanted to survive long enough to mud stomp the two of them.
If I didn't know better, I would say that Shikamaru was fishing for an alliance for the exams. Fortunately, his team didn't present any real benefit to knock out the exams. In fact, I would rather face him, Ino, or Choji than some of the monsters in the room. But the silent offer of comradery was nice.
"Ino mentioned that." Shikamaru said. "We had a similar experience. Gave me a new perspective on life." He revealed while both of his hands interlaced behind his head. Biceps, that hadn't existed the last time I had seen him flexed with the movement.
"You're taking our lifestyle seriously? Scary thought." I couldn't help but let the seriousness in my voice leak into my face.
"I could say the same about you." Shikamaru said, as his eyes darted down to my kunai pouch.
So that was what this was about. He had seen my advanced display of elemental manipulation. Was he just curious? Or did this conversation have a deeper meaning?
"The exam starts now. Take your seats." Ibiki's voice cut into our argument, and I looked around to find that nearly all of the seats had been taken.
"We should catch up, after the exams of course." Shikamaru said, leaving before I could agree. He found a seat about two rows away, and didn't look back at me.
My thoughts were rolling because of the conversation. I wasn't joking when I mentioned how scary Shikamaru could be as a serious shinobi. His IQ was off of the charts and capable of equalling that of Itachi, and Kakashi. With his family techniques, he could also rise far in the world.
I searched for his chakra as I thought, looking for any irregularities. I found none. It was calm, and smooth. It was contained, hidden. Shikamaru was making himself appear smaller than he actually was. What the fuck had happened to him?
I couldn't help but think I was looking at a future S-rank ninja.
It was a nagging, but entirely possible, thought in my mind.
And then a piece of paper was put on my desk, along with a pencil. "You have one hour to complete every single question. If you're caught cheating, you and your team are disqualified immediately. Am I understood?"
Crickets… Nobody answered Ibiki at all.
"Good. Time starts now." Ibik said. I noted how he didn't start any clock on his person, nor was there anyone close that seemed to either.
I just shook my head, grabbed my pencil, and looked down at the exam. I was curious about the difficulty of the questions, even though I knew I didn't have to do anything but wait to continue on to the next portion of the exam to pass.
They were not easy questions like: What is the rank above Genin?
It was closer to: Calculate the trajectory of the kunai, and the force needed to hit a target moving towards your teammate at…
I blanked out reading the rest of it. Could I do the math? Yes, most likely. Did I want to? Fuck no. So I did what any good little student would when waiting in a school room for an hour, I practiced with a newly perfected seal I had been working on.
It was a paper tag, except keyed into my specific chakra signature. It was nothing more than a practical exercise detailed in Nidaime's book I was combing through.
"Desk 45, you're disqualified. 33, and 36, join your teammate."
I ignored Ibiki's voice, and continued to focus on my doodling.
Of course there was the benefit to it being roughly six times more powerful than the normal paper tag. Why did anybody need to know that I was making bombs instead of focusing on the test at hand? Nobody would really know what the scribbles on the page were to begin with.
Fuinjutsu users were even more rare, than the anime had let on. There was no doubt that I was already more knowledgeable than 99% of ninjas in fuinjutsu. And for sure when it came to storage seals and what they could do.
The metal band on my right wrist was suddenly cold against my skin, as I thought about it. I was still getting used to the feeling of it on my skin. Even though I couldn't see the fuinjutsu on the metal, I could picture the lines I had drawn on it. It was a small bit of brilliance that had enormous potential in the future.
"Time's up. Pencil's down."
I looked up, confused. Over half of the room was gone, weeded out by the proctors of the exam. A quick glance told me that all of the main players had survived the first round, plus about eight teams I didn't recognize.
I even saw Kiba, Hinata, and Shino still sitting relatively close to one another. That was a surprise to me, as I saw them as the least developed of the rookie genin. But miraculously, all of the rookie Konoha genin made it to the next round. I knew it would happen, but hadn't actually expected it to.
"As you may have guessed, the objective of the exam was to cheat. Or gather information, if you will. Now you must make a choice with that information." Ibiki said, cutting into my thoughts. It was becoming a habit of his.
"There is a tenth question. But before I present it, you must understand the stakes." Ibiki continued.
The faintest pulse of chakra touched my coils. Immediately, I felt anxiety and nervousness flood my system. My heart rate picked up, and it felt like someone had their hand on my heart.
The genjutsu was too heavy handed, and easy to spot. But what did I expect, it was a room full of genin. Whoever had casted it, wanted us to break out of it. It was, no doubt, another test. I expelled the enemy chakra, without even having to release too much of my own.
"If you choose to answer the Tenth Question, and you do not get it correct, you will never achieve the rank of chunin, in this exam or the next. All of the villages have reached an agreement, so don't think you'll have another shot if you're not from Konoha. Those are the stakes. So if anyone wants to make the safe choice, and leave, it will not be held against you. In fact, I wouldn't blame you at all. You can try again, without having to see my ugly face. I'll give you a minute to decide." Ibik explained, with a dramatic tone. He was really playing into the genjutsu around the room.
There were tremendous benefits to being a sensor. One of them was being intimate with your own chakra, and recognizing pesky things like genjutsu.
That was not to say that I was infallible when it came to them. I knew that if I were to go against Itachi, or even Kurenai, I would most likely wake up a day later humping a blade of grass thinking it was training. That's if I was lucky enough to wake up at all.
But for a low level genjutsu such as this? It was effortless for me to break it.
The anxiety disappeared, and my heart rate returned to normal as I looked around the room. Apparently, it was not easy for everyone else to detect. Most had beads of sweat on their necks, and arms.
A few were even shaking in their seats.
Thank God, none of my teammates weren't one of those few.
I took care to note everyone who was obviously not falling prey to the genjutsu. The calmest few were Neji, Sasuke, Gaara, Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro, the sound idiots, and a team from kumogakure that I had written off as nearly harmless. Those teams I would watch out for in the second and third stages.
"I can't, I quit."
A boy stood up. I was surprised and ashamed to see that it was someone from Konoha that I had never seen or taken note of. He was obviously not in my grade. Maybe two years ahead?
Ibiki dismissed the boy, and his team quickly.
And then it was like a dam broke. Six other people stood up, announcing their withdrawal from the exams. Two more teams from Konoha. People who would most likely never make it to chunin. One team from Taki. Two from Kusa. One from Ame.
Just like that, the competition was cut down quickly.
Once everyone had left. Ibiki waited a while, before finally addressing the rest of us.
"Congratulations, those who stayed passed the first exam." Ibiki said, in a nonchalant manner.
There was a pause as the room digested the information. I couldn't even pretend to be shocked, I was so ready for the second exam to start. The Forest of Death would be the first real test of the exams, and I was eager to get it over with.
Mainly, I wanted to speed run the bitch so that I could avoid Orochimaru, and the sand siblings.
"Wait what?" Someone muttered in shock behind us.
"What about the tenth question?"
"What do you mean?"
I rolled my eyes, as the process was delayed even further. Knowing the plot of the world was a boon, as much as it was a nuisance. I berated myself quickly. This was one of the only consistent things with the anime. I couldn't rely on any of the information to be correct. Although I was certain that the invasion would still occur. And I was sure that Orochimaru would be here, although I hadn't managed to catch a glimpse of his 'body' in the exam room. Perhaps that was one inconsistent aspect of the exams.
"A chunin is a leader, someone willing to take risks for the sake of their village. You have displayed that and are ready for the next task." Ibiki explained.
Glass busted behind him, as kunai flew through the windows of the exam room. There was the blur of high speed movement, and then a woman stood there. Had I been able to look away from her, I would have noticed a sign behind her, announcing her name.
I was too busy staring at her.
Anko Mitarashi was an absolute smoke show. She wore a mesh suit that covered her torso, and halfway down her thighs. A mesh suit that hugged every curve and made it obvious that she did not have a bra on underneath it.
A skirt covered her most desirable parts from view, but I knew with all my heart that she did not have on any underwear, and my teenage hormones demanded that I confirm the information. Over all of that, she had a trench coat that was the bane of my existence.
Somehow, someway, it managed to cover her nipples from view. With each movement, I expected to catch a glimpse, only for the trenchcoat to stay glued to her skin.
Anko could have stepped on my face at that moment and I would have thanked her for it.
"You're a little early, Anko." Ibiki said as he began moving to the doorway. He was obviously done with his part in the exams and was more than happy to let Anko take over.
Anko turned to us, with a wicked grin just as Ibiki left the room. I was too busy watching the inside of her coat, hoping it would move just an inch so that I could see those perfect perfect tits.
God I'm going through puberty again…
"Time to weed some of you fuckers out!"
'Forty-Fourth Training Ground.'
Otherwise known as the Forest of Death to the ninja of Konohagakure. It was much bigger in person. And it was eerily dark in it's depths, despite the sun being at its zenith. It certainly looked ominous.
"You alright, Naruto?" Sakura asked as she returned with a scroll in her hands. On the front 'Earth' was written in Kanji, plain as day.
'Chasing heaven, am I?'
I tried not to think about how the universe was fucking with me. "I'm fine, just thinking about what's to come." I answered.
I looked around, quickly finding which teams didn't hide their scroll from view. Most had earth scrolls, but I found a few heaven scrolls also. As I was doing this, I met the eyes of the sound ninja that had tried to attack me in the first exam.
'Dosu.'
I smiled at him, and nodded. Dosu nodded back. It was a mutual agreement between the two of us. We would find each other in those massive trees, and I was sure that only one of us would be leaving the Forest. I was extremely confident that I would prevail. Had Ibiki not interfered, he would be without an arm.
"Lee." I said, getting my teammates attention. He snapped to attention, looking at me. "What are the odds that those sound ninja have a heaven scroll?" I asked.
Lee followed my gaze, to Dosu, who continued to stare. He frowned, and a serious look overtook his normal face. "I would say it is very likely, Naruto-kun." Lee responded. This time, I smiled at him, before answering.
"I suppose we should pay our friends a visit, then."
A/N: Boom!
Well, not a lot happened really. I just decided that this was a good place to stop the chapter because of the potential length the chunin exams could be. The first exams are over, which are really a joke, now that I think about it.
Dosu got confrontational, and Naruto showed that he is no slouch with wind chakra now. Let's just say that he's been grinding since they got done with the Wave Mission, harder than ever. Just like in the anime, everyone's power level is going to jump soon.
Sasuke, Neji, Naruto, Sakura, and even dear old Shikamaru. The stakes are about to become real, and the tone will be set soon.
I'm excited for it. Let's talk in the reviews.