Chapter 11 "Chunnin Exams - 1"

Naruto had left the Land of River without wasting any moment. His cloths were all torn off, hair dyed red from the blood of the people he had slain, covered all in mud and dirt and wounds all over his body. He was panting heavily as he hadn't stopped in his six hour long sprint. He couldn't endure the strain on his body. He used the last of his stamina to shunshin towards his house. Upon reaching home, he was too tired to do anything. Up until now, he was running on adrenalin but now it was wearing off. As soon as he reached his bedroom, he let himself fall on the mattress before falling asleep.

When Naruto opened his eyes, he found himself on the same bridge where his whole team was slaughtered. He saw that Toji and Ebisu were skewered by Juzo and Mei was crushed by the palanquin. But before he could do anything, Mei spoke up.

"You could have saved us, Naruto-Kun." Mei said.

"Why didn't you save us?" Toji asked.

"Why did you let us die?" Ebisu said.

"What could I have done? It all just happened in an instant." Naruto yelled.

"You could have sensed him before and warned us." Ebisu said.

"Didn't you say that you could sense people?" Toji asked.

"We were counting on you." Mei said.

"But-But I was…" Naruto said.

"You were weak. You ARE weak. That is why your team died." Juzo said.

"I killed you. I am not weak." Naruto yelled.

"But wasn't that too late? And did you just say that you killed me? Let's be honest, if it wasn't for Kyuubi, you would have died here too. I went easy on you because I wanted your eyes. You are weak, brat. Accept it." Juzo said.

"NO! I AM NO WEAKLING!" Naruto yelled as he found himself in his bed. I was already morning and birds were chirping outside.

"A new Nightmare?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah. Guess the last one got older." Naruto said.

"Do you know the sound people make when they die? Do you know the color blood turns when it dries? The smell of flesh as it grows colder and harder? The feel of bones as they are crunched beneath a blade?" Kurama asked.

"To some extent." Naruto said.

"You will learn each one of them as you grow up. These are the burden that everyone carries, you are no different." Kurama said.

"Yeah. Looks like I have learnt the second one fast." Naruto said as he looked at his red hair in the mirror. Then he went into the washroom to take a bath.

Hokage Office

Hiruzen was sitting in his office, puffing his pipe. He got the news about Naruto's return from Izumo and Kotetsu, so he was currently waiting for him. And it seemed that his wait was over, as there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Hiruzen said as Naruto entered the room. His wounds have healed up overnight and now he was as good as before.

"Good Morning, sensei." Naruto said.

"Morning, Naruto. Where is the rest of your team?" Hiruzen asked as a frown came on Naruto's face. He then took out 4 corpse scrolls and 1 sealing scroll, and placed them on Hiruzen's desk.

"The four corpse scroll you see before you contain the corpses of Mei Yamanaka, Toji, Ebisu Sensei, and Juzo Biwa. And the fifth sealing scroll contains the Kubikiribocho." Naruto said.

"I see. Could you brief the mission?" Hiruzen said.

"In the Land of River, when we were at the edge of main village of the country, we had to cross a bridge. After crossing halfway, Juzo Biwa used a water style ninjutsu to attack the convoy, throwing me off the bridge and crushing Mei under the palanquin. When I climbed up the bridge, I saw that Ebisu-sensei and toji were stabbed by Juzo through their chest. Being furious at the deaths of my comrades, I attacked Juzo but he overpowered. But before he could proceed any further, I overwhelmed him with huge number of shadow clones. I used my clones as a distraction and managed to land a fatal blow with my adamantine chains." Naruto said as he swiftly lied in the second half.

"After he was finished, around 4 dozen men appeared at the end of the bridge, with the Lord's brother as the leader to kill Minori Hanasaki. Since they were normal men, I used the destroyer flames to incinerate them. Some of them who survived the flames, were cut down by my blade. Other than me and Minori Hanasaki, no one left the place alive. Also I have left the gory details about Juzo, so when you will unseal the scroll, you will find him in five different pieces." Naruto said.

"I see. This mission has ascended from a C Rank mission to a S Rank Mission. And you will get the payment of a S rank mission as well." Hiruzen said with a frown. He was unhappy from the loss his Ninjas, but after being the Hokage for so long and witnessing all three great Ninja Wars, this was normal for him.

"There was a bounty on Juzo's head, so you will get the bounty too." Hiruzen said.

"Thank You. There is something I want to ask." Naruto said.

"Go on." Hiruzen said.

"Since my whole team is dead, how can I participate in the chunnin exams?" Naruto asked.

"You can wait to be assigned to a new team. But if you want to participate in the immediate exams, then you will have to be alone in the exam. As a hokage, I will be your temporary official team leader and you will be the only member of the team." Hiruzen said.

"I choose the later." Naruto said.

"Very well then. Fill this up." Hiruzen said as he passed a paper to Naruto, which he quickly filled up and returned.

"Start preparing for the exams. It will commence after two weeks." Hiruzen said.

"And what about the training?" Naruto asked.

"You have more than enough jutsu in your arsenal, try mastering them first. I will train you but at a slower pace." Hiruzen said.

"As you say, sensei." Naruto said.

"Oh and one more thing, Happy belated Birthday, Naruto." Hiruzen said.

"That's right, today is October 11th. Thank you, sensei, though it wasn't all that happy. Anyway, I shall leave now." Naruto said before leaving.

Naruto's House

After meeting with Hiruzen, Naruto directly head back home and started reding some fuinjutsu scrolls. He had almost read all the scrolls he had in the main library but after exploring the basement, Naruto got more of them for his entertainment. He wasn't exactly trying to learn something from the scrolls, but he was actually waiting for Kakashi to show up.

After loosing his team, Naruto was just feeling alone like before. For normal days, he would have been doing some D rank missions and playing with his team, but now they were all memories.

"That was really sad. I feel sorry for your team, but I am glad you returned alive and well." Kakashi said entering from the door of the living room.

"That's okay. It's a part of our profession, killing and dying." Naruto said.

"It is." Kakashi said as he sat on the couch.

"Say, how is it in the ANBU Black Ops?" Naruto asked.

"Why you ask?" Kakashi asked back.

"I was thinking of joining the ANBU." Naruto said.

"But why?" Kakashi said.

"To satisfy my bloodlust." Naruto said.

'Don't tell me he is going to walk the same path as me.' Kakashi thought.

"Don't let the death of your team consume you. It will be good with time." Kakashi said.

"No, I am just angry at myself that I couldn't do anything to save them. I just want to bury this memory. I want to run away from it." Naruto said as his hairs discovered a new shade of white.

"Calm Down. You will need to be atleast a chunnin to be in ANBU, not to mention you age should be in double digits." Kakashi said.

"Forget it. Tell me about the chunnin exams." Naruto said.

"What exactly do you want to know about it?" Kakashi asked.

"Just the basic details." Naruto said.

"Okay, so there are three rounds in the exams. The first and second round happen simultaneously while the third round happens after a month. The first part is a written exam, second one is the survival exam in which you will have to survive in a deadly place and complete the tasks given to clear it. There are no restrictions in the second round, you can do whatever you want to complete the tasks. Even killing is allowed. The third round is a one-on-one fight. Basically you have to win against you opponent and impress the judges. Killing is also allowed but most of the times, you can get away without resorting to such things." Kakashi said.

"Great, I will participate in this chunnin exams." Naruto said.

"But you don't have a team." Kakashi said.

"Don't worry, I have already talked to sensei about this." Naruto said.

"Oh, I see." Kakashi said.

"There is one more thing I want to show you." Naruto said.

"What?" Kakashi asked.

"I have finally created a jutsu that covers up all the problems of your Raikiri." Naruto said as his hand was enveloped in Purple Lightning.

"What? How is it different from Raikiri, aside from the colour." Kakashi asked uncovering his sharingan.

"It is very different. Let go outside." And with that, both of them went to the Training Ground cum Backyard.

"Lets begin." Naruto said as he formed a dozen of Shadow Clones around him and Kakashi.

"First, it is omni directional and can hit multiple targets at the same time." Naruto said as he raised his Lightning Envelopes hand in the air and suddenly the Purple Lightning shot out from his hand in multiple directions, striking a dozen of shadow clones.

"It's powers depend on the user, and for me, each bolt you saw just now had the same power as a lightning bolt." Naruto explained.

"Second is the Stream attack, to take down a single target from a distance. I call it Shiden Eiso." Naruto said as he shot a spear of purple lightning at a tree. The spear penetrated 3 trees in a row before dying out.

"And the third is that you don't need to shoot yourself to the enemy with the attack." Naruto said as Kakashi quietly digested what he saw as he was too stunned to say anything. An eight year old kid was able to invent a S Rank Jutsu all by himself, and that jutsu had the potential to become to best assassination technique, dethroning Raikiri.

"Amazing. I am at a lack of words to praise you. And to think that you came up with this all by yourself in just one and a half year, it is truly amazing." Kakashi said.

"Thank you, Kakashi Nii-san. There is one more technique that I have invented in the meantime. To be honest, I came up with Shiden while I was trying to invent this jutsu." Naruto said.

"What? You have invented another jutsu? Is it another S Rank?" Kakashi asked in shock.

"I am not sure about its rank but it is a defensive jutsu. Let me show it to you." Naruto said.

"Domain Expansion." Naruto said but nothing changed around him at all.

"Okay, Now attack me with as many projectiles as you can." Naruto said.

"What?" Kakashi asked.

"Just do it." Naruto said.

"As you say." Kakashi said as he fished out some shurikens from his pouch. But instead of looking concerned about dodging the shurikens, Naruto simple closed his eyes.

"Start." Naruto said and the next second, Kakashi threw a dozen of dozen of shurikens at Naruto with blinding speed.

As soon as the shurikens were just 5 meters away, Naruto simply raised his hand and the next moment, six shurikens were spinning in the index finger of each hand. Seeing Naruto's both hands full, Kakashi shot a kunai at Naruto at speed twice as greater than earlier. It was aimed to just graze Naruto by a slight margin but as soon as it entered the five-meter range, a chain shot out from Naruto's shoulder at a speed equal of not greater than the kunai and caught it in an instant.

"I see. That's very brilliant of you, Naruto." Kakashi said.

"So, you understood what I was doing?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. Basically, what you are doing is that you are releasing Lightning release chakra in a 5-meter radius. And when anything enters that space, rather than seeing the thing and wait for the nerves of your eyes to relay the information to the brain, process it and then relay a command to you body parts. You programmed the lightning chakra around your body to directly send a signal to the necessary body parts and react to the attack. This way you have increased your reaction speed exponentially." Kakashi explained.

"Correct. But what you said just now is only the first part. In the second part, I charged my whole body with lightning chakra, to increase my speed by 20 folds. And I came up with Shiden and Raiton Shunshin while I was trying to do this. And honestly it took me to master the waterfall walking to finally use this. And if you don't have enough chakra control you will just end up electrocuting yourself to death. And I call this jutsu God Speed." Naruto said.

"Okay, so then what is your top speed?" Kakashi asked.

"Around 400 kmph while using God Speed and around 100kmph in normal circumstances." Naruto said.

"Wait but didn't you say that it increases your speed by 20 folds so shouldn't your speed be 2000kmph?" Kakashi said.

"That is possible but I can only balance myself at that speed, but it will increase with time as my body grows." Naruto said.

"Oh well, I guess I will have to learn the waterfall walking too. The second jutsu of yours could be very helpful." Kakashi said.

"Well, go ahead. That was my secondary objective for showing you that technique" Naruto said.

Somewhere else in the Village (A few Hours later)

Kabuto was walking down the streets of Konoha. He had changed his clothes was now wearing a dark purple high collar shirt and a pant of the same colour. What was new that after so long, he was once again wearing the Konoha hie-ate, but not to work for Konoha but to work as a spy for Orochimaru. His mission was quite simple; to infiltrate Konoha and gather as much information as possible about the village. Orochimaru was planning to destroy Konoha for good and was now planning things beforehand, hence he had sent his most loyal henchman for this job.

Kabuto came to the village with two other men as his teammates and all three of them were now disguised as the gennins. But currently when he was walking on the street, to his bad luck, Sasuke ran into him who was being chased by Naruto, as a part of some game.

"Watch out kid." Kabuto said as politely as he could.

"I am sorry." Sasuke said.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked.

"I am Kabuto Yakushi, and you?" Kabuto said.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Are you a jonin?" Naruto asked.

"No, I am just a gennin. But I am appearing this chunnin exams, so probably I will be a chunnin soon." Kabuto said.

"Your chakra level is too high to be a gennin, and you are older too." Naruto said.

"Well, I graduated the academy many years ago, but I had to leave the village for some reasons. And I just returned this month, so I guess that explains it." Kabuto said.

"I don't know why you are lying, but you must have your reasons. Well, I am giving the chunnin exams too, so we'll probably see each other." Naruto said. He wanted to say more but he didn't. It was clear to him that Kabuto was lying through his teeth, the scent of chemicals used by medics coming from his body and his always on guard nature made Naruto suspect him even more.

"Hey there Sasuke, Naruto." Itachi said from behind both of them.

"Hello Itachi-san." Naruto turned to greet Itachi.

"What are you two doing here?" Itachi asked.

"Oh, we were just playing around and we stumbled upon-" Naruto turned to introduce Kabuto but he was already gone.

"Where did he go?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"He went away when you were thinking something." Sasuke said.

"Who went away?" Itachi asked.

"Nothing, let's go." Naruto said as he sensed Kabuto on the third roof behind him.

"How about some dango?" Izumi asked as she also came there following Itachi.

"Sure." Sasuke said.

"That brat is trouble. I have to take care of him soon. He quickly noticed that I was lying. And that Uchiha prodigy was here too. If I hadn't moved when I did, I would have been busted right there." Kabuto said as he felt Naruto's eye on him.


Author's Note

I finally completed watching HxH and now I ended up stealing one of Killua's techniques. I planned to introduce it later but it won't make a difference either way. And now the Chunnin Exams Arc had begun, and it will be around 2-3 chapters long. And Kabuto is also introduced, so that is that. I will try to update sooner but till then, enjoy the chapter and drop a review.