I'm sorry this took so long! Here is the next update! Unfortunately the story is coming to an end (only about 6 more chapters or so) and I hope to have it completed by the end of the year if not before then. I am considering an epilogue but I will make no guarantees Also I am looking for a beta reader! Please PM me!
The Chunin and The Hokage
Naruto stood in the center of the sand arena in front of his two-team mates. It was the last of the three tests for the Chunin exams- individual battles. Glancing to his right, Shikamaru stood next to him, with Ino and Choji behind him. To his left was Gaara, with his siblings, another team from the sand and Neji's team. Naruto was slightly amused by the fact that three out of four of Konoha's teams made it to the finales. Naruto knew that the Chunin Exams were just for promoting genin, but also to show other villagers the strength of your next generation.
One of the moderators for the exams was speaking in front of them, explaining the details of how to the pairing system worked. There were five teams total, meaning the first round would be a total of 7 battles, with one lucky person, getting pushed to the second round without a battle, the next round will have four battles, the next two, and the last round will have one winner. The sand Jonin explained that just because you may have lost doesn't mean you didn't become a Chunin. The Hokage and Kazekage would be judging whether or not you got promoted based on how you acted during your battles.
After the Jonin finished explaining, Naruto glanced up at his father who was currently talking to the Kazekage, but Kakashi who stood behind gave him a smile behind his mask, reassuring him. Naruto turned back to face the large board behind where the moderators were standing to see who he would be paired against for the first round. The names started appearing on the board one by one. Naruto's was one of the last to show up. He was against Tenten for the first round, which he didn't know was good or bad. He knew some of her skills from these past couple of months, but she was a year older than him. He then noticed than no one from the same team was paired against up. Anyone who wasn't in the first fight was ushered off to a sectioned off part of the stands.
The first fight was between Choji and Temari of the sand siblings. Temari ended up winning, due to lack of stamina from the leaf genin. Next up was a sand genin against Shikamaru who won. Sakura and Ino fought hard but Sakura came out on top. Another sand genin fought a short battle against Sasuke, who won easily. Gaara was up next against Lee. Naruto paid close attention to this battle. He wasn't the only one, Minato and the Kazekage were watching intently as well. Lee fought long and hard. His tai-jutsu was extremely impressive. His speed was amazing; it was even keeping up with the speed of Gaara's sand. Lee even managed to break through Gaara's ultimate defense. However in the end, the strength of Gaara's sand and his endurance over powered Lee, leaving Gaara the winner. The last battle before Naruto's was Neji's who was against the last of the sand genin. Neji used his Byakugan to block his opponent's chakra leading to his win.
"Next participants! Uzumaki Naruto against TenTen of the Leaf!" an announcer yelled.
Naruto took his cue along side of Tenten and made his way down to the center of the ring. They stood on either side of the arena. Naruto made one last glance towards his father, who was now watching him intently.
Are you ready for a surprise father?
Unbeknownst to his father, he had been secretly training with Jiraiya on a new technique. He had so far kept it hidden from his father and the rest of the genin participating in the exams. Tenten stood ready as she pulled a large scroll out from underneath her belt. Naruto battled against Tenten for what seemed like awhile before he decided it was time to reveal his new technique.
Dodging a large shuriken that came flying out of one of Tenten's scrolls, Naruto pushed back and landed several feet away.
Naruto made several hand signs before calling out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A large puff of smoke, appeared and then when is disappeared a large toad appeared underneath Naruto, "Gamahiro!" Naruto exclaimed when he saw witch toad it was. Gamahiro was a huge toad, taller than buildings and trees. He was aquamarine colored with yellow eyes and grey markings around them. There was two distinct, circular markings on his shoulders. He also carries two huge Katanas on his back, with an orange sash around his stomach.
"Naruto," Gamahiro's deep voice called.
"Did you bring Gamakichi with you?" Naruto asked leaning down so that on the large toad could hear him.
"Here I am!" Gamakichi's little voice caught Naruto's attention behind him.
"Oh, I need you to do me a favor," Naruto said with a smile.
"Yeah?" the little toad asked as Naruto leaned over to explain exactly what he needed to do and when the blonde was done explaining, Gamakichi nodded, "you got it Naruto!"
"Be discrete! Don't let anyone see you!" Naruto said as the toad started to leave, "Hiro, I need you to keep Tenten busy while Gamakichi does his thing. How much time do I have?"
"About 10 minutes with your chakra for me," the large toad replied, "about twenty for the little one."
"That's perfect," Naruto smiled, "if you would."
"NARUTO!" Tenten called as she started dodging the large blue paws as they slapped the ground below.
"Yes?" Naruto casually answered.
"Get down here and fight me your self!" Tenten yelled barely dodging the last one.
Naruto was about to answer when he saw a little orange toad jumping up and down behind the large toad then he turned back to Tenten, "Okay, if you insist! Hiro, you may go."
A large puff of smoke appeared when Hiro went back to Mount Myōboku, leaving Naruto standing in front of Tenten, "You wanted to fight me one on one, Tenten?"
"Hell yeah I do!" Tenten yelled and started to reach for the large scroll that had previously been on her back, "What? Where is my…?"
"Looking for this?" Naruto asked holding the large scroll under his arm.
"How did you get…?" Tenten asked in disbelief.
"It was all thanks to Gamakichi," Naruto laughed as his little orange toad hopped out from behind him, "you may go, Gamakichi, thank you for help. Oh and thank Hiro for me when you get back!"
"Will do! Bye Naruto!" Gamakichi waved and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Tenten sunk to her knees, as the announcer called Naruto the winner.
"Yes!" Naruto yelled as he shot his fist in the air, "It was a good fight, Tenten."
Tenten stood up and walked over to Naruto to grab the scroll he handed her. Naruto held his hand out in the seal of reconciliation that they learned in the Academy. Tenten smiled and took his hand in a similar manner.
"Naruto," the familiar voice of his father called as he strolled towards them with the moderator following behind.
"Tou-san," Naruto smiled and ran towards the elder blonde, jumping into his embrace as soon as he reached him.
"You did well, coming up with a strategy like that," Minato praised, "You used your summons well. Tell me, when you did you learn how to summon?"
"Um, Ero-Sennin taught me," Naruto laughed.
"But still, there is no way you have enough chakra to summon Gamahiro?" Minato asked suspiciously.
"Well, Kakashi-sensei always said I had a ton of chakra?" Naruto replied hesitantly.
"I see," Minato eyed his son then turned to the Kazekage who had followed him towards the center of the ring.
"The first round of the battles are complete!" the Kazekage announced, "We will take a short break to allow our participants to recover! The following genin will advance! Kankuro! Temari! Gaara! Uzumaki Naruto! Hanaro Sakura! Uchiha Sasuke! And Hyuuga Neji!
~O~
About an hour to two later, Naruto stood in the center of the ring, re-energized and ready to go. They had moved on to the second round of fights. He was paired against Neji, Sasuke was supposed to be against Gaara, Sakura against Kankuro and Temari up against the remaining sand genin. His opponent Neji stood across from him in a similar manner. The first fight was between Shikamaru and Temari of the sand siblings. In the end Shikamaru, who fought very tactfully ended up surrendering due to lack of chakra. He was the second battle to go, after Temari's winning round. Once his battle started, Neji slipped into a typically Hyuuga battle stance. They fought for what seemed a while, with Naruto continually, barely escaping having his chakra blocked.
"You're pretty good at dodging," Neji commented going in for another attack.
"I've got Sakura on my team, so I kind of have to be," Naruto laughed dodging.
Something's has to push in my favor. We are too evenly matched and he already knows I can summon toads. What I can use? What can I use?
Naruto continued to dodge until he finally came up with a brilliant plan. Naruto dodged one last attack and pushed his way back, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Over a hundred shadow clones appeared around the arena. They all launched into an attack at once, but Neji finished them off pretty quickly. However when Neji destroyed one, another one or two appeared.
"The hell?" Neji cursed, "Where is the original!"
What Neji did know what Naruto had made his way underground, underneath were Neji was currently standing. At the best opportunity, Naruto shot from underneath the ground and nailed Neji right in the jaw, knocking him out. Naruto dispersed the rest of his clones, causing a slightly dizzy spell. Recovering quickly, Naruto heard the announcer call him the winner.
Naruto made his way back to the rest of the genin, passing a glance at his father on his way there. The elder blonde gave him a smile and an approving nod. Naruto smiled back and found his way to his seat to watch the rest of the battles.
"Well done," Sakura smiled at him when he sat down.
"Thanks," Naruto nodded, "Sasuke is up next, right?"
"Yeah," Sakura looked down at the arena, "He's against Gaara."
"Gaara?" Naruto said looked down at the arena and watched the battle unfold below.
Gaara stood just across from the raven with arms crossed and angry look on his face. Sasuke had a similar look on his face. While they both fought with remarkable skills, Sasuke's chidori could only make a dent in Gaara's ultimate defense, leaving Gaara the winner of the battle. The next battle was Sakura against Kankuro. It was a quick battle, since Kankuro's puppets had a faster speed, and Sakura couldn't keep up.
After the last fight, the genins who were able came down to the center of the ring with the two Kages.
"The Hokage and I have come to a decision!" the Kazakage announced quieting the crowd, "since the final genin remaining are our own children, we have called the last battles a draw! The final remaining genin, Naruto, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro will all be promoted Chunin due to their skills both physical and intellectual!
"The following genin, although they did not win their battles will also be promoted to Chunin! Uchiha Sasuke! Hanuro Sakura! Hyuuga Neji And Nara Shikamaru! Congratulations to you all! This completes this years Chunin Exams!"
"I'm a Chunin!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Congratulations, Naruto," Minato smiled as he walked over to him.
"You didn't just promote me just because you're my dad, right?" Naruto asked.
"Of course not," Minato laughed, "The Kazekage was the one who wanted to promote you to a Chunin. Plus now that you and the rest of your team are a Chunin, I will have to send you on higher level missions, which means your life will be at risk, so I didn't really want you to be come Chunin, just yet."
"Tou-san!" Naruto yelled in disbelief.
"But you are ready, so it is high time you went on higher missions," Minato laughed, "Lets go home, shall we?"
Naruto nodded and headed out of the arena along with his newly promoted Chunin teammates.
~O~
"I had a feeling you three would be promoted to Chunin," Kakashi smiled underneath his mask, "I'm on hell of a sensei."
"Kakashi," Minato rolled his eyes at his student's arrogance, "I'm proud of you, all of you."
Naruto, along will Sasuke and Sakura sat around a table at a local restaurant, one that had ramen, per Naruto's request. They were celebrating their recent promotion earlier that day. Naruto had also spent some time with Gaara before dinner and as always they were the best of friends. The Leaf nin would all head out for Konoha tomorrow morning, but tonight they were all celebrating.
"So Naruto, will you care explain how you beat Neji?" Kakashi asked.
"Well, I made a little more than a hundred shadow clones and using them as a cover, I used the Rasengan to create tunnel underground. I needed to get close to Neji without him knowing," Naruto explained.
"I never thought of using the Rasengan that way," Minato thought.
"What about Tenten? How did you get her scroll?" Sakura asked.
"Gamakichi got it for me, while Gamahiro was keep her distracted," Naruto shrugged.
"No wonder you were promoted," Sasuke huffed.
"Are you complimenting me, Sasuke?" Naruto asked in surprise, while Sasuke only grunted in reply causing everyone to laugh.
~O~
"So are you a Chunin now?" Jiraiya asked as Naruto walked through the gate.
"Yes I am!" Naruto replied cheerfully.
"Good," Jiraiya nodded, "there is something I want to talk to you about."
"Oh?" Naruto murmured as Jiraiya lead him away.
Minato watched his son of off with his sensei and thought back to what they had spoken about before Minato left to watch the final end of the chunin exams.
FLASHBACK
"Sensei," Minato smiled as the white haired man walked through the door of his office.
"Minato," Jiraiya said giving him one of those obnoxious smiles of his, "Are you surviving without Naruto here?"
"Of course I am," Minato laughed, "I do miss him though, but if you agree to my proposal, I will have to get use to it."
"Proposal?" Jiraiya repeated.
"Ever since I found about how my shinobi were treating Naruto, I've wanted to get him out of the village, and I have finally come up with a way to get him out of the village for a while," Minato explained.
"Go on," Jiraiya prompted.
"I want you to take him, and train him for a while," Minato said, "it will get him out of the village and it gets him the training he needs."
"I see," Jiraiya thought for a moment, "is that why you asked me to help him prepare for the Chunin Exams?"
"Yes and no," Minato shrugged, "I only want you to take Naruto if he become a Chunin, however if he remains and genin, he will need to stay with him team for a little while longer. I might change my mind on that part, depending..."
"Depending on what?"
"Depending on how he acts in Suna when I see him again," Minato thought.
"You mean you want to see if being out the village affects his personality?" Jiraiya asked.
"Yeah," Minato nodded, "if it affects it as much as I think it does, then I want you take him no matter what."
"I will take him with me," Jiraiya said, "it will be fun having another brat to torture for a while. How long do you want me to train him for?"
"I honestly don't know," Minato shook his head, "Those Akatsuki are still out there, and I don't know if he would be safer moving around or here in the village. I'm also not sure how long I can be without my son."
"I understand," Jiraiya shrugged, "I think Naruto would be safer moving around. It would be a lot harder for them to track."
"You're right," Minato nodded, "lets start with a year or so, maybe longer than that. Long enough were I can get the Akatsuki situation under control."
"Two years," Jiraiya proposed.
"Alright, two years," Minato sighed, "Who knows if I can make it two years."
END FLASHBACK
Minato sighed. He was going to have to get use to not having Naruto around. Now that he was a Chunin, he would be leaving with Jiraiya for at least two years, if not longer, depending on the whole situation with the Akatsuki. It would do Naruto good to get out of the village for a while, let his real self come out. He had seen Naruto's whole personalty change in Suna. If two months could change Naruto that much, Minato wondered how much of a difference two years could make.