POV Naruto
Once again, I'm on the cliff, once again in this form, once again facing the Nine-Tails. It's looking at me. Growling. What is it doing? A round, enormous purple sphere, and now... It's launching it at me!
End of Naruto's POV.
Naruto woke up to realize that he had fallen asleep at the training ground, waiting for Kakashi. The meeting was scheduled for ten o'clock, but his sensei was late. Again. The sun was at its zenith. Noon. Naruto stretched sweetly, looked around, and... saw his sensei standing under a tree, reading a book. It was unexpected.
"And how long have you been there?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kakashi replied, continuing to read.
"Are you here for a mission?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah," the Jonin replied without changing his answer, which annoyed the blond.
"What mission?" Naruto pressed.
"Yeah," the Jonin replied again on autopilot.
Suddenly, a kunai flew in and pierced the book, landing near Kakashi's face. Hatake looked at the book, or rather what was left of it, with a sad gaze and sighed heavily.
"Good thing I have another one at home," Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "We should burn them all along with whoever makes them," Naruto muttered under his breath.
"What are you saying?" Kakashi got worried.
"What do you want?" Naruto's seriousness never faded from his voice.
"You will participate in the Chunin Exams," Kakashi approached and sat next to his student.
The boy scoffed and turned his head in the opposite direction.
"The team will be in the way again," Naruto complained.
"There you go again," Kakashi clicked his tongue in disapproval. "You can't survive in this world without comrades..."
"I'd rather die with them, simply protecting them," the blond remained steadfast.
"You'll understand later. And now, I have good news for you. You'll be taking the exams alone," Kakashi handed him a piece of paper. "The third had to sweat quite a bit to get you to participate alone."
"I don't care. Why do I need this?" Naruto stood his ground.
"I want you to pass the exams and become a Chunin," Kakashi explained.
"But I don't," Naruto insisted.
"Then what do you want?" Kakashi asked.
"I don't know. Maybe become an ANBU," he pondered.
"Well, pass the exams, and then we'll talk about it. But I'm not forcing you. Do as you wish. The choice is yours," Kakashi left the paper with Naruto and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"So, no training today," Naruto took the paper left by his sensei. He stared at it for a long time, unable to decide what to do.
Morning. Konoha was slowly waking up. The streets started to come alive. Naruto was one of the first to leave his house. He walked slowly and confidently towards the Academy building. "I will pass the Chunin Exam," he decided. There it was, the building where his journey as a shinobi began, and now he would continue it right here. He stood before the doors. Taking a deep breath, he stepped across the threshold. Naruto walked along the corridor and approached the designated classroom. Two Chunin greeted him, and he showed them his paper, which allowed him entry. The room was already filled with many participants. The boy quickly scanned the forehead protectors, mentally ticking off the villages. Having seen enough, he decided to take a seat to the side and not draw attention to himself. But before he could even take a step, his sixth sense commanded him to jump aside. Immediately, an explosion sounded, and the doors flew past Naruto, knocking down a group of some other genin.
"Now that's some art!" a blond with bangs covering his left eye appeared in the doorway. He tied his hair at the back, and on his forehead was the Hidden Stone Village forehead protector.
"Grandpa's going to scold us later!" a brunette with short hair, dressed in the Iva shinobi attire without the vest, joined the blond. Next to her stood another moderately built representative of Iwa.
"I don't care! I want everyone to witness my art!" the blond continued firmly proclaiming his words.
"Are you an idiot?" a question sounded, although it could have been taken as a statement.
"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Naruto confronted the Stone shinobi.
"Kid, do you want something?" Deidara shifted his attention from his sister to the new figure.
"Alright, calm down, brother..." Kurotsuchi stood between the blondes. Deidara just glanced at his sister and turned away.
"Fine..." he agreed.
"My name is Kurotsuchi, this big guy is Akatsuchi, and that psycho is Deidara," she introduced her team.
"Don't judge us, my brother just loves to cause trouble," Deidara gave a sideways glance at his sister but remained silent.
"Naruto Uzumaki," the blond introduced himself curtly.
"Nice to meet you," the girl smiled.
"Oh! Someone must be very hospitable since the doors are open," now six more people appeared in the doorway, this time from the Kumo.
"Look who showed up. Didn't expect to see Kumo here. Perhaps, you could introduce yourselves?"
"And we didn't expect to see Iva one here. Surprise," she smiled slightly.
"I'm Yugito Nii, this is Darui and Shi, " she pointed to her companions one by one, "and this..." she paused, trying to remember. "Karui, Omoi, and Samui!" the blond girl sheepishly smiled.
"Who knocked down the door?" a stern voice came from the entrance. Everyone turned towards the door, where a jonin stood. He walked to the center of the auditorium, passing by the genin who had gathered near the doors.
"I am Yamanaka Inoichi, your first examiner! I'll ask each participant of the first test to come up to me and..." he reached into his pouch, "...draw a number and take a seat in the corresponding spot in the auditorium."
The genin approached one by one, drawing their numbers and moving aside to find their seats. Naruto took his number and went to the designated desk. Kurotsuchi sat to his right, and a shinobi from the Rain Village sat to his left.
Once everyone was seated, two chunin entered the auditorium, distributing papers with tasks and pencils to everyone.
"The first exam is a written one!" Inoichi began explaining the rules. "You just need to answer the questions in front of you. Anyone caught cheating will be disqualified, along with their entire team! And one more thing, in order to pass, each team member must answer at least half of the questions. You have one hour, and it has already started."
After that, everyone immediately started working on their tasks. The auditorium was filled with a oppressive and heavy atmosphere, as if all thoughts had merged into one big mass.
"Why aren't you writing?" Kurotsuchi whispered, a little surprised.
"It's all elementary, no need to strain here," Naruto calmly replied, leaving the girl puzzled. Uzumaki continued to look at the examiner for a while, and then began writing.
It took him about fifteen minutes to solve all the tasks.
The questions were more challenging than the ones in the academy exams, but not significantly different. Now all that was left was to sit and observe. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kurotsuchi attempting to cheat, so he quickly flipped his paper over to the other side.
"Why are you..."
"It's about to start. Besides, you'll have enough with six answers," Naruto interrupted and turned away.
Inoichi approached the window and announced, "72, 43, 128, 22, 5, 78, 64, 82, 150, 88, 66, 109 — disqualified, please leave the room."
"How did he..." Kurotsuchi asked, watching as Naruto's neighbor from the Rain Village stood up and left. "He was cheating so cleverly, and no one would have noticed. He was copying by looking at the reflection in the mirror," Kurotsuchi marveled.
"Another person might not have noticed, but he's Yamanaka," Naruto replied. The teams left as quickly as they had arrived. With ten minutes remaining, there was already less than half of the shinobi in the auditorium. Nerves were getting the better of everyone except Naruto, of course. He wasn't concerned about failing, unlike the others here. He was confident that each of his answers was correct.
"We're done!" Inoichi announced. Yamanaka began walking between the rows, collecting the papers. When all the papers were collected, he said, "The first exam is over. The results will be ready in an hour. Please wait outside."
