AN: Sorry about how long it's been since the last update. Along with work being busy my internet has been absurdly uncooperative. It tend to rewatch parts of games or shows that relate to these stories to make sure I'm not missing anything (very crucial for some of them) and it took days just to get one of them to load and actually let me watch it.
AN2: For the designs for everyone else I've thought of a few options. For Sasuke I'm leaning either something like an Assassin's creed style outfit (just different colors) or the design of Emiya (assassin) from Fate Grand Order. I like the suggestion in the reviews from Wearycurmudgeon about the Taki armor for Tenten, just not completely sold or sure on which cause I saw a few different armors. I have an image in mind for Kiba, but sadly it isn't one that exists in an anime and I can't draw to save my life XD.
Trickshot
Chapter 20
-Naruto-
"You ready partner?" Naruto took a steadying breath as he stood outside the academy with Haku, the first exam set to happen on the third floor.
"Of course, my friend." The Hyoton user nodded, the two of them having prepared as best they could for the tests. He'd have brought the others in on their planning too but the group had all agreed that training together or making suggestions for ways to improve was the furthest it should go. If one of them only passed because a friend from another team gave them the answers then they weren't really ready to be Chuunin. Nodding, they walked in, hearing a commotion once inside.
"The hell?" he muttered quietly as they got to the second floor, noting several applicant teams trying, and failing, to get let into a room that was labeled '3-B', the room the exam was supposed to be on. Just on the wrong floor.
"Come on, this is probably just a test to weed out the hopeless cases." Haku shook his head in exasperation, "Let's keep going."
"Right." Naruto didn't even argue as they continued up to the third floor, making sure not to draw attention of those too dumb to count how many flights of stairs they'd climbed.
Getting into the testing room, Naruto glanced around to take in those who were there. He saw Sasuke and Kiba alongside their teams, his friends giving him a nod of greeting. Tenten stood out to him and sent him a little wink that he couldn't help but grin back at even as he felt his ears turn red.
Sadly, not everyone in the area was a positive experience. Naruto and Haku were on everyone's eyes, the teams already there having been watching the door to size up anyone who entered and hit them with killing intent. Admittedly rather pathetic given what he had housed within him. Speaking of.
Naruto went from his friendly expression he showed his friends to what one drunken Chuunin, that had rapidly gotten a black eye from Tsume, had dubbed his 'Butcher's Face'. Along with the hard expression, Naruto showed the benefits of training with Tsume Sensei and released the Killing Intent of the Kyuubi, targeting everyone who didn't have a Konoha headband in the room.
-Anko-
Spitting out her Sake, Anko tried not to choke as she felt the sheer bloodlust in the killing intent that kid was leaking out. Aimed at her or not, she could still feel it by focusing and, much to her now regret, she had been to laugh at how weak the Genin's killing intent was so far.
"Sweet Kami Tsume, the hell are you teaching that kid?!" Anko gaped at the smug feral woman, the other Jonin just as shaken as she was while the Genin being allowed to observe just looked confused.
"Jealous." Tsume smirked as the blond brat seemingly cut his killing intent given the other Genin stopped looking like they were struggling to breathe.
"Seriously, that felt like." Anko subtly held up nine fingers as she whispered her question to Tsume, making sure the genin couldn't hear her or see her hands.
"That's because I taught him how to access it's Killing Intent." Tsume nodded, "You're well aware of how bestial my clan can be? We have our own feral states and savage moments. I helped train him to overcome any bloodlust or feral state that the fox could put him in. The Chakra is still something we're training in but just tapping into the killing intent was much easier. You can see the results."
"Yeah." Anko shook her head before sending Tsume a hopeful look "Any chance you'd be willing to tra-"
"No." Tsume didn't even pause to consider it, not that she could really blame her.
"Alright, any bets on who's gonna crack first?" Asuma chuckled, pulling out some glasses and a bottle of Sake, "The old man ain't pulling any punches this year with who he has overseeing this first test."
"It's someone named Ibiki, right?" Kurenai frowned, the Genjutsu mistress having always not paid much attention to others who weren't immediately relevant to her own life.
"Yep, Konoha's number one at torture." Asuma smirked, "No offense Anko."
"None taken," she shrugged as she took a sake cup from her fellow sensei "the old man's a master of that shit." If torture got rated like combat skill she was positive the old asshole'd have an S rank if not a multiple S.
"T-torture?" Sakura squeaked, eyes terrified.
"Mental torture." Ino gulped, the girl knowing full well who Ibiki was thanks to her father "He's the head of the Torture and Interrogation Division. Dad also said there's almost nobody as patriotic about Konoha as Ibiki. He also said Ibiki would have made a good Kage if he didn't hate politics so much."
Anko couldn't help the laughter that escaped her at that, nearly falling out of her chair, "N-n-now I can't help but picture him in that uniform!" Anko wheezed. The position of Kage was a respectable one but the 'robes and hat' uniform was so dumb! As she worked to recover her breath, Ibiki showed up in the test room that they were viewing remotely, explaining the test to those assembled.
"Hah!" Sakura smirked, "That useless idiot Naruto's gonna fail then." Any further insults from the girl who was too stubborn to accept that people changed were cut off by Tsume's killing intent hitting the pinkette.
"Looks like pinky here would have failed then." Asuma sighed as he slammed back his Sake, pouring a refill a moment later.
"I had the best grades in my class!" Sakura protested only once Tsume had lifted the Killing Intent.
"It ain't about brains runt." Tsume scoffed, "Those questions are ones that no genin would be expected to know. Hell, most Chuunin wouldn't know em either. They're closer to Jonin level questions."
"Then…why?" Ino blinked in confusion at what, to her, must have sounded like an impossible to win situation.
"It's intel gathering." Anko pointed out a couple of the test takers "Those guys there? They're actually plants. They're Chuunin who already know the correct answers. Ibiki said that if you get caught cheating five times you're disqualified and kicked out. If it was a regular test than any cheating would get you booted. No, this test is to see if you can collect intel and not get caught. The moderators are observing the applicants and they'll even cut some slack if they spot something that's still Chuunin level. A lot of those guys are Jonin after all."
"Honestly, Naruto has the best chance of passing a test like this." Asuma shrugged, "Not to shit on my student or yours," he nodded to Kurenai and Gai "But their Dojutsu are…well they're kind of obvious so they'd have to be careful about using them or use them only once to get all the answers in one go and only have one demerit."
"But Naruto doesn't have anything as amazing as the Sharingan." Sakura protested.
"Kid, are you blind?" Asuma gaped at Anko's dense student, "You saw the pranks he did back at the academy."
"What do silly pranks have to do with anything?" Sakura gave a clueless blink as the Konoha Jonin in the room all face palmed loudly.
"Alright squirt, let me put it this way. Remember that time the kid painted the Hokage monument?" Anko broke it down slowly for the pinkette.
"Yeah, the dumb loser got caught and had to scrub it all off by hand." Sakura nodded, gulping when Tsume growled at the descriptor.
"Kid, he painted that in broad daylight without getting caught till he started shouting to get people to look up and see what he did. He then ran the ANBU ragged as they tried to chase him down." Tsume bragged about her student's ability, "Think about if he'd used something like explosive seals rather than paint and hadn't bothered to announce what he did. He'd have destroyed a monument of the village, damaging morale, and buried a great deal of Konoha under rock. My boy is a master at stealth when he wants to be. Stealth, cleverness, and creativity are crucial to intel gathering."
"He…he's just taking the test." Anko blinked before she started to get a thought of just what he might have done. "…The Hokage's going to have to rethink future exams if he did what I think he did."
-Naruto-
Keeping his smirk to himself, Naruto filled out each answer with ease, relishing the confusion of the proctors who hadn't seen him even attempt to 'cheat'. The nature of the test was obvious to those who paid attention, especially as the Chuunin exams always had to test for the qualities needed to be a chunin. Survival, teamwork, combat, intel gathering, and more.
Having the Hokage and Konohamaru visiting for dinner meant the Hokage office wasn't occupied, most of the guards who protected it only doing so when the Hokage himself was there. Naruto was able to sneak past ANBU before he even graduated and Tsume had only helped him improve more. A single shadow clone was easily able to sneak past the ANBU guarding it, find a copy of the exam test, and dispel after reading the questions.
He and Haku had then make sure to study up on what the answers would be, along with a couple other methods to spy and communicate. He'd carefully made storage seals on the palms of their armor, designed to not release any 'puffs of smoke' when used. The seals currently held a pair of pencils that could be easily 'linked' so what one wrote, the other would do the same movements. They'd known the first test would be at the Academy for weeks, the location all but guaranteeing a written test.
Added to that he had a seal inside his armor holding one of his shadow clones already Henged into a fly and he felt secure in their ability to pass this test.
Like Ibiki implied, it was only cheating if they got caught.