Naruto: Uchiha no Densetsu
Chapter 24: The Chunin Exams begin
Two days had quickly passed and the day of the chunin exams had finally come to Konohagakure no Sato. The event was a tradition among the hidden villages of the Elemental Nations to test the progress of their genins outside of the war. The chunin exams were held every two years in different villages and was thus deemed a prosperous event for the village it was held in. It not only attracted a lot of customers and tourists to the village but also augmented the status and the economy of the village. Konoha was currently swarming with shinobi from different villages, namely- Kumogakure no Sato, Sunagakure no Sato, Otogakure no Sato and Amegakure. Minato had called most of his shinobi who were still on recon mission outside, to amplify the village's security. There was at least one jounin squad planted on each gate of the village and the important buildings inside.
The first part of the chunin exams which was going to be held in the Konoha academy had dozens of Konoha jounins for the purpose of proctoring the test as well as security. It was seven-fifteen in the morning and Sasuke, Hinata and Sakura could be seen walking towards the academy at a brisk pace. The three had met at training ground seven and decided to walk together from there on. For most part of the walk, each of them remained quiet as they thought about what the first part of the exam would be like. None of them were given any details about the exam. So, it was quite a mystery to them.
Out of the three, Sasuke felt the most confident and even excited at the prospect of facing shinobi from different villages. He could feel that he had become stronger since their mission in Nami no Kuni and wanted to test out his strength against more people. His fight against Zabuza and Haku had opened his eyes to several things he could improve upon to better himself as a shinobi. While he knew that he was incredibly strong for a genin, he could not win all fights through sheer power alone. That thought made him chuckle since that was not the case with Naruto. After training with the blonde, the past week, and getting to know more about his past; Sasuke had come to understand the hardships his friend had gone through to reach the level he's at. It had also made him wonder if he could remain sane after going through the same experiences Naruto had.
"What are you thinking about, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked curiously, after noticing his face go through several emotions.
"Nothing of importance. I was just thinking about the chunin exams…" Sasuke replied casually. Sakura just replied with an 'oh' and became quiet once again. She couldn't help but be slightly nervous.
"Sakura, you're one of the smartest kunoichi I know of. Don't be so worried. Just wait and watch, all of us will pass the chunin exams with flying colors." Hinata said, trying to cheer her up. Frankly, she wasn't that worried about the exam. She was quite confident in her abilities. Even though, she didn't really know anything about the genins from the other villages; considering the training she put herself through the past week, she was certain that her performance would be deemed adequate for chunin rank. Putting that matter aside, she was wondering as to where Naruto and Kakashi were. She did want to meet them before the start of the exam. A few minutes later, as the three entered the academy, they were surprised by the number of shinobi inside the building.
"Wow, there's so many of them…" Sakura commented in slight wonderment. Sasuke simply ignored the swarm of people and walked towards the designated room, that was on the first floor. Hinata and Sakura also quickly followed behind their teammate, not wanting to be late. However, Hinata and Sakura abruptly stopped behind Sasuke and saw him stare towards a door to their right. Following his line of sight, the two were slightly surprised at the commotion.
There were two shinobi, clearly in disguise, blocking the entrance of the door which had the number of the room where the first part of the chunin exam was to be supposedly held. Sasuke smirked at the foolishness of the genins who were arguing with the two shinobi to let them in. "Come on, let's go check what that's about." Sasuke stated and before the two girls could voice their opinion, the Uchiha walked off. "He never listens… does he? He's going to make us late." Hinata said with a sigh. Sakura merely chuckled and prodded Hinata to come. It wouldn't hurt them if they were a minute or two late.
"Hey, let us through!" yelled one of the genins heatedly, who had the symbol of Amegakure on his headband. The two shinobi guarding the door laughed at the three genins.
"Do you really think you can pass the chunin exams? It's not something for kids like you." Stated one of the disguised shinobi. The other shinobi laughed once again at the genin squad who were standing their ground firmly. One of the genins lost his cool slightly and aimed a punch towards the shinobi who caught the fist effortlessly. "You call that a punch? You won't even scratch a four-year old kid with that strength…" mocked the second shinobi. It was at this moment that Sasuke approached the group of people.
"Ohhh, look… what do we have here? One of the rookie genin squads." Stated the first shinobi with a devious smirk.
"You're not fooling anyone with that genjutsu. It's simply stupid and moreover, this isn't even the first floor. How pathetic." Sasuke said with a smirk. Hinata and Sakura stood beside Sasuke and the two were also quite frankly, at a loss of words. The other genin squad looked at the Uchiha weirdly before one of them stepped up with an arrogant look on his face.
"You're quite the proud one, Uchiha. Better watch out… or you might find yourself dead like the rest of your clan." Hinata and Sakura gasped lightly on hearing those words. Sasuke awakened his sharingan and narrowed his eyes at the genin as he clenched his fists. No one dared to say anything about his clan and get away with it. Before the Amegakure genin could react, Sasuke threw a kick towards his face. However, the Uchiha was highly surprised when his kick was suddenly stopped by a Konoha genin dressed in complete green spandex. 'When did he get here?' Sasuke thought, intrigued by the person's speed.
"It's not very youthful to hit someone from another village before the chunin exam begins." Stated the person as he gripped Sasuke's leg.
However, Sakura and Hinata were genuinely bewildered by the new comer's looks. The person had shiny black hair in a bow-cut style, round eyes with prominent lower eyelashes. But the most prominent feature were the person's extremely thick eyebrows. And the green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers looked simply hideous to the girls. The two girls were further creeped out when the person glanced towards them and gave a large smile.
"Ugh… what in the world is that supposed to be?" Sakura whispered to her teammate. She had never seen someone wear such clothing. Hinata awkwardly chuckled, finding herself in the same boat as Sakura. "Why are you asking me? How am I supposed to know?" Hinata replied in a whisper. By now, the Konoha genin released Sasuke's leg and promptly moved in front of Sakura and Hinata.
"Are you Sakura Haruno?" asked the green clad genin. Sakura backed a few steps at the sudden closeness. "Ye… yes, I am…" replied Sakura, uneasily.
"It's nice to meet you, Sakura-chan! My name is Rock Lee! The handsome beautiful wild beast of Konoha! And I would like to take you out on a date!" expressed the person with enthusiasm and gave another wide smile. Sakura's eyes widened to great proportions on hearing those words. She slightly looked towards Hinata, who was trying her hardest not to laugh. "Ehrm… How about no?" Sakura intoned with a ghastly look on her face. She couldn't believe someone she had never met had the galls to ask her out on a date of the blue. Before Lee could reply, he heard Sasuke's voice and turned around immediately.
"How did you do that?" Sasuke asked keenly. Even though he hadn't put much effort into his kick, Lee had literally appeared out of nowhere. He couldn't even see Lee move in front of him and that had surprised Sasuke greatly.
"Sasuke Uchiha. You were rookie of the year in your batch. I would like to challenge you to a match to test my own strengths." Lee stated out loud as a look of seriousness formed in his eyes. Sasuke smirked at the confidence this person showed. "You know who I am, and still you want to challenge me? You may have surprised earlier but that won't happen again." Sasuke replied confidently.
"I want to prove that hard-work can surpass a natural born genius. You are hailed as the strongest genin in your batch and I wish to see if I'm capable enough to defeat you in a taijutsu spar." Lee said. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at the odd request but nodded nonetheless. He would be lying if he said he wasn't interested to see what the person was capable of.
"But, Sasuke-kun, we need to report to the assigned room in fifteen minutes. You don't want to be late, do you?" Hinata asked. "Trust me, this won't take too long. You guys can go ahead if you want." Sasuke replied and turned around to follow Lee. Yet again, Hinata sighed at the pride that Sasuke always seemed to have.
"You know, we might as well go and watch how that person fights…" Sakura said. Hinata merely nodded as the two girls quickly followed after Sasuke and Lee. About a minute later, Sakura and Hinata found themselves standing in a large empty hall with Sasuke and Lee standing on opposite sides.
"So, only taijutsu yeah?" Sasuke asked.
"Hai, that is correct, Sasuke. I'm unable to use ninjutsu. That's why I have devoted my entire life in becoming a master at taijutsu. Today, I shall prove that even a failure can beat a genius like you." Lee stated with utmost seriousness. Sasuke, Hinata and Sakura were once again surprised to hear Lee's words. Hinata promptly activated her byakugan and observed Lee's chakra coils. She was shocked to see how underdeveloped his chakra coils were.
"That's impossible. I have never seen anyone with such underdeveloped chakra coils. Based on how poorly formed his chakra coils are, he can't mold any chakra at all. How did he even manage to pass the graduation exam?" Hinata said, unable to believe her own eyes. Even Sakura found it improbable to believe what she was hearing. She had never heard or come across any shinobi who could not utilize chakra. That alone made her realize how much she did not know about the shinobi world. It also further increased her interest in watching how Lee faired in taijutsu. Although surprised by the revelation, Sasuke did not comment on anything he heard. His eyes were solely focused on the person before him.
With an unknown call, both Sasuke and Lee rushed towards each other with impressive speeds. To Sasuke's surprise, Lee moved much faster than him and a second later, he completely disappeared out of the Uchiha's view. The next second, Sasuke found himself punched at the back and he was flung away. Regaining his composure, Sasuke flipped in midair. But, before he could even land, Lee once again appeared in front of him and aimed a punch to his face. With quick reflexes, Sasuke raised his arms to block the punch. However, he cursed when he felt the strength behind it. Skidding a few feet back, Sasuke quickly jumped to his left to dodge his opponent again. 'He's faster than I am, and his strength is unimaginable. What kind of training does he even do?' thought a bewildered Sasuke. He quickly activated his sharingan and lunged towards the green-clad genin.
Quickly closing the distance, Sasuke aimed a punch to Lee's left cheek. In turn, Lee graciously swatted away the punch and attempted to knee Sasuke in his abdomen. This time, it was Lee's turn to get surprised as Sasuke blocked his knee with his right hand and kicked him on the lower ribs with his left leg. Not stopping there, Sasuke swiftly ducked down and attempted to swat Lee off his feet. However, Lee jumped above Sasuke's leg and kicked him on the shoulders which yet again made the Uchiha fly back a few feet. Lee then immediately jumped back a few steps to gain some distance. Sasuke panted a little, his arms and right shoulder acting up in slight pain after taking those hits.
"You're a worthy opponent, Sasuke-kun. As expected of rookie of the year." Lee stated with a small smile. "But it's time we end this." He added as he started undoing the bandages wrapped around his arms. Confused slightly by those words, Sasuke's eyes widened when Lee suddenly disappeared from his place. His sharingan quickly tracked Lee's movements and Sasuke turned around to raise his arms just in time as Lee appeared behind him and kicked him upwards with great strength. As Sasuke flew high into the air, Lee jumped and appeared behind him. "This is one of my special moves, Sasuke-kun. With this, I shall end the fight!" claimed Lee as the bandages around his arms seemed to now wrap themselves around the Uchiha. Sasuke began to panic slightly as he felt his movements getting restricted. 'What the hell are these made of? I can barely move an inch…' thought an enraged Sasuke. He quickly channeled raiton chakra throughout his whole body as a light blue colored lightning cloak covered him. Before the bandages could completely wrap around Sasuke, they were torn to shreds due to the raiton armor around Sasuke. As soon as Sasuke was free, he kicked a surprised Lee on the sternum and jumped back.
"That was not very youthful, Sasuke-kun. I thought we decided it was only going to be a taijutsu spar." Lee commented as he got over his shock. He couldn't believe one of his most dangerous attacks did not work against the Uchiha. "We are shinobi, Lee. Nothing is ever fair in this world. You shouldn't have believed me blindly in the beginning. A shinobi uses all the tools available to him…" Sasuke stated with a smirk as he calmed his breathing. That was definitely a close one. Right now, he was glad that he had trained himself physically, so that his body could keep up with his sharingan. Hinata and Sakura swiftly appeared behind Sasuke to check up on him. They couldn't bring themselves to believe how strong Lee actually was. His physical prowess was beyond that of a genin, or a chunin for that matter.
"Sasuke-kun, it's enough. We should seriously head to the assigned room. We have about four minutes until eight." Sakura said considering the stalemate the two genins seemed to be at. Sasuke nodded this time, as he felt tired after having that taijutsu spar with Lee. But he was also thoroughly entertained at the same time. Lee merely stared at the torn bandages around his arms as team seven made their way out of the hall and to the first floor of the Academy. Just before the three genins left hall, Sakura turned towards Lee to apologize for leaving suddenly. However, she was horrified to see another Konoha jounin, who appeared to be an exact replica of Lee to be standing beside him. As the creepiness of the sight finally settled in her mind, she quickly turned around and followed Hinata and Sasuke without saying anything else.
Outside the Chunin Exam's First Part Room
Naruto and Kakashi waited outside the room to wish their team good luck for the exams. The blond was starting to get a little worried since the three genins were cutting it very close. Asuma and Kurenai were waiting in the jounin's lounge just beside the exam room as they had already talked to their team beforehand.
"Out of all the times for them to pick up your habit… sensei, you really aren't doing that good a job…" Naruto said with a sigh. Kakashi clearly heard the blonde and rolled his eyes at that comment. If he could earn a ryo for every time someone commented about his tardiness, he would have probably been the richest man in Hi no Kuni.
"Huh? You say something, Naruto?" Kakashi replied lazily while still keeping his eyes on his precious little book. Naruto almost face faulted at that little joke. "I ought to burn all your books to crisps right before your eyes." Naruto stated with passion. The blonde laughed heartily as that seemed to get his sensei's attention. A petrified look appeared on Kakashi's face upon hearing those words as he gripped his book a little more tightly. "You wouldn't… do that my precious." Stated Kakashi as he stepped slightly aside. Naruto simply shook his head at Kakashi's obsession with those books. Jiraiya and Kakashi had urged him several times to give Icha Icha series a try. He was even surprised to know that his father also read such smut. Alas, he never got around to give it a good read. A few seconds later, Naruto turned his attention towards the hallway when he noticed that Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura had finally arrived. He quirked his eyebrow in confusion on seeing Sasuke's worn out look.
"What happened to you?" questioned Naruto.
"Don't' even ask…" Sasuke stated flatly. Although Sasuke was glad to learn that he could utilize his sharingan quite well now, he was a tad bit ashamed of the fact that someone like Lee had forced him to such great lengths. That further made him believe that his skills weren't growing all that much inside the village.
"Some guy called Rock Lee challenged Sasuke-kun to a fight and fought with him on equal grounds. He's just being a little pansy that he couldn't outright beat Lee." Hinata said with a chuckle which prompted Sasuke to glare at her momentarily. Now that peeked both Kakashi and Naruto's attention.
"Oh? That's surprising. Looks like you got a rival Sasuke…" Naruto said with a small laugh. Meanwhile, Kakashi chuckled awkwardly since he knew that Lee was Guy's student. And considering how similar Lee was to his sensei, Sasuke was in for quite an annoying time with the green-clad genin. Sasuke merely scoffed at Naruto's comment and did not bother to reply.
"Anyway, all that aside, you guys should enter the room and wait for the proctor to come. It's about time. And good luck for the first part." Kakashi stated with an eye smile and gave his three genins a thumbs up.
"Thanks, sensei!" Sakura replied cheerfully. She was glad to have met Kakashi and Naruto before the start of the exams. Naruto gave a hug to Sakura and wished good luck to Sasuke as the two of them walked ahead and waited outside the room. Seeing that the two weren't looking, Naruto tightly hugged Hinata and quickly kissed her on the cheeks making her blush slightly. "Naruto-kun…!" Hinata squealed softly and nudged him on his chest. "Good luck, okay? I'm sure you'll do great." Naruto whispered into her ears. Hinata smiled lightly and hugged him back too. A few seconds later, she also followed her teammates into the room.
As Naruto turned around to walk back to the jounins lounge with Kakashi, his eyes twitched on hearing Kakashi's giggles. "Give it a rest, will you?" Naruto berated the white-haired jounin.
Inside the room for Chunin exam first part
As team seven entered the room, they were immediately bombarded by the looks of all the other teams present in the room. They noticed that there were teams from several other villages, most notably Kumogakure, Sunagakure and Amegakure. The teams from those villages intently looked at team seven as they entered the room and walked towards the other genin squads from Konohagakure. Sasuke held his head high with a confident look on his face as he looked around at the competition. He suddenly felt himself swelling with energy at the prospect of testing his strength against so many people.
"Hey! You guys finally came. Looks like the whole squad is here." Kiba stated out loud with a carefree attitude. His ninken partner, Akamaru also barked in approval as the three rookie squads- team seven, eight and ten gathered in the middle of the room. Ino immediately rushed towards Sasuke and hugged him from behind, much to his displeasure.
"Sasuke-kun! You came! It feels like ages since we got together!" Ino said as she hugged him more tightly. Ever since Naruto had left the academy, Ino had shifted her attention towards the Uchiha. She had come to realize that Naruto had his eyes only on Hinata which had made her sad for quite some time. But that had made her realize if she couldn't have him maybe she could go for Sasuke, who was just as good looking as the Namikaze. Although, Sasuke always seemed to ignore her for some reason.
"Ino, get off him. You know he doesn't like you doing that." Sakura stated as she proceeded to separate Ino from her teammate. "You're no fun, Sakura…" teased Ino. Sakura shook her head at her antics. She was always way too much into boys. It wasn't to say that she didn't like boys. Just that, she didn't find anyone who interested her as much as Naruto did.
"What a drag… you guys are also participating in this troublesome exam?" Shikamaru said lazily as he too joined to the group. Choji stood beside Shikamaru and as expected, he had a packet of chips in his hand. "Yeah, Kakashi sensei nominated our team and told us about the exams a few days ago." Hinata confirmed. She wasn't surprised to see that Shikamaru was still lazy as ever, although it did make her giggle a little at his attitude. Nothing ever did seem to interest the lazy Nara.
"Shino, Fu and I are definitely going to rock this chunin exam. I'm telling you, it'll be a piece of cake!" Kiba boasted proudly. Shino shifted slightly at suddenly being placed in the spotlight and even Fu seemed to laugh awkwardly.
"Kiba, it's not good to be so overconfident. There's bound to be a lot of strong shinobi from other villages." Fu said, hoping to bring her teammate out of his fantasy world. He was way too overconfident about his strength. But she couldn't blame him though. Her life in Konohagakure no Sato was a lot different than Takigakure. People were actually nice to her and spoke to her with affection which had initially surprised her. It was only later that she realized that most of the people in the village did not know that she was a jinchuriki. The genins were shielded from the harsh reality of the shinobi world and as such some of them over estimated their own strength. She had never spoken to anyone about her life in Takigakure and kept those memories suppressed. It always pained her to think about those times. However, she was also glad to have been saved from that hell and to meet her new friends in Konoha. However, she was a little saddened that she never got the chance to meet Naruto Namikaze. The tales of his victory in Takigakure and the fact that he was the jinchuriki of the Kyubi had shocked her greatly. She believed him to be the only person who could probably sympathize with her.
"Fu is correct, Kiba. Logic dictates that if Konoha trained their genins to better improve their skills, so would have the other villagers. And without knowing the extent of other shinobi's abilities, we can't estimate our own accurately." Shino stated quietly. Kiba immediately lowered his head upon hearing what his teammates had to say. Fu and Shino always berated him for his care free and confident attitude. He never understood what was wrong with that. Fu patted Kiba's pack affectionately on seeing his downcast look.
"But, aren't you scared even a little. The genins from other villages look a little scary." Choji said a little warily as he glanced around himself. While he was a little surer of his abilities now, he couldn't help but feel intimidated by the shinobi from Kumogakure and Sunagakure, especially the red-haired shinobi. That person just seemed to give him bad vibes.
"I'm sure, we'll be able to manage, Choji-kun…" Hinata replied with a sweet smile. Sasuke quietly stood at the side as the rookie genin squads from Konoha indulged in further talks amongst themselves. He wasn't interested in any of those silly talks. Out of all the genins from Konoha that he knew of, he was only wary of Hinata, Fu, Shikamaru and Lee, whom he only met today. Fu always gave him a sort of similar feeling to Naruto. He could tell that the girl had an enormous reserves of chakra and he couldn't really figure out why. He then looked around the room, hoping to see if he found anyone else interesting enough.
"You guys are making too much noise…" a voice called out and the Konoha genins immediately turned their attention towards the source. A Konoha shinobi with ash-grey hair and black rimmed circular glasses walked up to them with a smirk on his face. He wore a dark purple shirt with high collar, a white under-shirt and dark purple pants with a white cloth waistband.
"Who are you?" Shikamaru asked as he narrowed his eyes at the genin. The shinobi looked relatively older to be still a genin and Shikamaru couldn't really specify, but something about the shinobi did not feel right. "Oh, where are my manners… I'm Kabuto Yakushi. Look around you, all the other teams are staring at your group. The chunin exams are no joke and you should take it more seriously." Kabuto said with a rather jovial smile. The rookie genins finally looked around themselves and noticed the intimidating gazes of several squads on themselves.
"So, what? It doesn't really matter. Let them look." Sasuke commented out loud.
"Aren't you a little worried? I took the exams three times and have sadly failed every time. This is my fourth attempt in the Chunin exams. It's not as easy as it sounds." Kabuto advised. Most of the people in the room were highly surprised on hearing that fact.
"Ha, you must really suck then!" Kiba stated with a laugh. He walked towards the man and looked him over. "You don't look that strong. No wonder you couldn't pass the exams earlier." Kiba said with smirk. Fu and Shino merely shook their heads. Their teammate did not know when to shut his mouth.
"You must have some experience at this then. Which village do you think we should be most wary about?" Shikamaru questioned to find out some much-needed information about the competition. Kabuto blatantly ignored Kiba who had a prideful smirk and looked towards Shikamaru. He took out a few cards from his pocket and looked over them momentarily.
"This year there are four more villages taking part in the Chunin exams- Kumogakure no Sato, Sunagakure no Sato, Otogakure no Sato and Amegakure. I would suggest staying clear of Kumo and Suna shinobi. I have heard that the genins representing those villages have embarked upon some dangerous missions and come out unscathed. Otogakure is a relatively new village, so I don't think the genins would be that hard to defeat." Kabuto stated. As soon as he said that, a kunai quickly grazed past his ears that made him stumble back. Most of the genins in the room immediately turned their attention to the person who had thrown the kunai. A shinobi adorning the headband with the symbol of Otogakure stepped forward with a devious look on his face.
"Don't underestimate the shinobi from Otogakure, dumb idiot." Stated a shinobi with bandages covering most of his face, leaving only his left eye uncovered. Hinata had immediately moved towards Kabuto who had fallen on the ground. Looking over his ears, she gasped on seeing that it was bleeding heavily.
"How did that happen? It looked like the kunai only grazed past your ears." Hinata questioned with concern. "Don't worry about it. Thank you for your concern though." Kabuto replied with a painful smile. He then proceeded to cover his left hand in green colored chakra and healed the wound on his ear. Hinata was surprised to know that Kabuto was proficient in medical ninjutsu. But it also made her slightly suspicious. The ease with which he performed medical ninjutsu seemed to be extremely proficient for someone who claimed to have failed the chunin exams three times. And she wasn't the only one, even Shikamaru and Sakura seemed to be skeptical of Kabuto. The tension around the room was almost palpable as the Otogakure genin leaked a lot of killing intent to solidify his claim. However, before anything further could happen, the proctor soon arrived in the room via shunshin.
"Quiet down, you brats!" stated the Konoha jounin firmly. He had a large, imposing figure which complemented his rugged head and face which was covered with old wounds and scars. His head was covered by the forehead protector to conceal a collection of burn marks and punctures that he received during his past missions. His face showed two long parallel slash marks that ran diagonally, from top left to bottom right. He also wore a long black trench coat.
"My name is Ibiki Morino and I'll be the proctor for the first exam. Shut your mouths and take your seats immediately." Ibiki stated out loud as he leaked his own killing intent. All the genins in the room quickly shuffled around and took their assigned seats. The strict look on Ibiki's face intimidated majority of the genins while some like Gaara, Sasuke, the ones from Otogakure and even few from Kumogakure had comparatively normal look on their faces. Once everyone was seated, Ibiki proceeded to walk to each desk and hand out papers consisting of nine questions.
"Now, let me explain the rules of the first part. It will be a written test. The paper in front of you has nine questions which you will have to answer in forty-five minutes. Once done, you will be asked the tenth and final question. If you get caught cheating, you will be disqualified. Moreover, if even one member of a squad is caught cheating, the entire team will be disqualified too. The tenth question will have it's own set of rules which will be explained at the end of forty-five minutes. Is everyone clear?" questioned Ibiki. Even though some wanted to question the man, they kept their mouth shut on noticing the harsh look on the proctor's face. "That's what I though. Begin." Ibiki yelled.
As the minutes quickly ticked away, most of the genins seemed to cringe at the sort of questions that was asked on the paper. Most of it appeared to be way above what they were taught or knew of. While some of the genins knew the answers to all the questions, the others had to resort to finding the answers from someone else. Gaara had discreetly made an eye out of sand that was looking over the answers from a genin beside him. Shino utilized one of his insects, while Sasuke and Hinata used their doujutsu to find out the answers to the questions they didn't know. Ibiki casually walked around the classroom to check if anyone was cheating and smirked when he found his target. An Amegakure genin was blatantly glancing back towards his teammate to obtain answers and did not even attempt to be discreet about his doings.
"You think, you're smart?" Ibiki said as he stood beside the Amegakure genin. The person immediately started sweating and turned around to look at the proctor fearfully. Before the genin could even say anything, Ibiki pulled him aside. "You're disqualified. Pack up and leave with your team." Ibiki stated and the genin's entire squad was promptly shown their way out. As half an hour passed by, three more teams were disqualified from the chunin exams upon being caught. None of them were given any chance to explain themselves and were simply thrown out of the room.
Kiba frantically looked at his paper which was still empty of any answers. He didn't know the answers to any of the questions and couldn't even look around in fear of having his team disqualified, if he got caught cheating. He was suddenly brought out of his internal musings when he noticed a wrinkled piece of paper fall below his feet. Carefully picking it up, his eyes widened on seeing that the piece of paper had all the answers. Looking to his left from where he guessed the paper was thrown from, he saw that it was Fu who had passed him the sheet and he breathed a sigh of relief. Making sure to keep the sheet of paper hidden, Kiba proceeded to copy all the answers as quickly as he could. Ibiki smirked internally when he noticed how hard the Inuzuka was trying to cover the sheet of paper. 'At least the kid knows to be discreet…' Ibiki thought with a chuckle.
"Alright, pencils down!" Ibiki announced loudly once the forty-five minutes had passed by. He looked around once more to make sure no one else was still writing. Once satisfied, he cleared his throat to speak again. "If anyone wants to leave now, you can. If you leave without attempting the tenth question, your team will be allowed to retake the chunin exams next time. However, if you attempt the tenth question and get it wrong, you won't ever be allowed to retake the exams again. The choice is yours."
"What kind of question is that?" Kankuro yelled in annoyance. He was hard pressed in attempting to get all the answers for the first nine questions. And the rules were just getting weirder by the second.
"The rules are what it is. They won't be changing. The decision is yours…" Ibiki replied staring at the Suna genin intensely. Kankuro immediately shut up as Ibiki's glare fell on him. 'Man, that guy gives me the creep…' Kankuro thought awkwardly. A couple of minutes later, four more teams got up and left the room quietly, afraid that they might answer the final question incorrectly and risk their careers as shinobi.
"Hmphh… As if something like this is enough to scare me. I am definitely going to take the tenth question." Kiba said out loud, trying to keep a brave face. But, underneath all that bravado, he was kind of worried. He just did not want to appear weak in front of shinobi from other villages. He was an Inuzuka and they were a proud clan, after all. "Quite confident, are we?" Ibiki asked as he shifted his focus to Kiba. Ibiki was mildly impressed that Kiba managed to keep a straight face even as he stared at the Inuzuka intently. Sasuke, Hinata and Sakura glanced at each other and nodded. Without any words, they agreed to take the final question too. The three of them had gone through a lot together and a simple question wasn't going to decide their fate. As a few more minutes passed, Ibiki noticed that the remaining genins were adamant about attempting the final question. His expression softened slightly as he sighed. 'Guess, there's no helping it…' he thought.
"Alright then, you all pass." Congratulated Ibiki. It took about a minute for the genins to register the words as they looked at the proctor with perplexed looks.
"How…?" asked one of the genins, wearing the Kumogakure forehead protector. Similar question was also racing through the minds of other genins.
"It appears some of you are not as smart as I thought… Anyhow, let me explain. When I asked if you were ready to take the final question, that in fact was the tenth question. When you become chunin, there will be times when you'll be asked to lead missions and you'll come across many uncertainties. The tenth question was to check your resolve. If you are mentally strong enough to continue a mission or instead chose to leave because the situation became too rough for you to handle. And it seems, those of you who chose to stay did indeed believe in yourself." Ibiki explained briefly. Several of the genins were amazed at the ingenuity of the question and now relaxed somewhat, knowing that they had passed the first hurdle. However, before Ibiki could say anything further, the window to his right suddenly broke and a purple haired woman wearing quite revealing clothes stood beside Ibiki. He shook his head and merely sighed at the woman's antics.
"Always too early, Anko… at least let me finish." Ibiki said to her. That only prompted Anko to give a cheeky smile. She looked around the room and was surprised at the number of people that Ibiki had passed. Several of the boys drooled at the sight of Anko who was only wearing fishnets under her trench coat and the girls seemed to be slightly irked at the indecency of the woman.
"You've grown soft Ibiki. You've sure passed a hefty number of students." Anko commented. Ibiki couldn't disagree with her. Even he was quite shocked. "I guess the genins are just good this year. They might surprise you too, Anko." Ibiki replied.
"Oh, we'll see about that. But, I'm sure by the time I'm done with them, the number will have reduced in half." Anko stated with a smirk. Some of the genins stared at the purple-haired woman in shock upon hearing her claim. That only proved to make them wonder and worry as to what the next part of the chunin exam would be like. "All right kids, everyone has to report at training ground 44 in half an hour. Anyone who comes late will be immediately disqualified. Now, hurry up." Anko stated out loud and the next second, she seemingly disappeared from view.
"Man, that lady was hot as hell…" Kankuro couldn't help but blurt it out as soon as Anko left the room. Several other male genins unknowingly nodded to that comment. Temari sent a dirty glare towards her brother that made him back away slightly. Anyhow, a few minutes later, they all quickly got up from their seats and left the room and proceeded to move towards training ground 44.
As Naruto, Kakashi and the other jounin sensei of Konoha genin squads walked to the entrance of training ground 44, Naruto stopped abruptly when he felt that vile chakra. He narrowed his eyes as he realized who it belonged to. He would never forget the pain that person had made him go through.
"What's wrong, Naruto?" Kakashi asked suddenly on seeing Naruto's face turn blank. However, the blonde simply rushed ahead, intent on finding out who Orochimaru was disguising himself as. Naruto was certain that Orochimaru wouldn't just openly walk into the village and plus, he was curious as to how the Curious as to what made Naruto uneasy, Kakashi also quickly followed him. He had noticed the momentary look of rage on Naruto's face and that alone had alarmed him. Even Asuma, Kurenai and Gai were curious as to what had happened suddenly and decided to follow their fellow jounins.
Author Notes: I purposely kept the mood for this chapter a little light. The second part of the chunin exams will be quite gruesome. Considering the fact that there's several different villages involved, the Konoha genin will come across lots of surprises. Now, what happens between Naruto and Orochimaru will be a surprise. Or the fact as to how Orochimaru was able to remove Naruto's chakra rods will also be explained in the next chapter. The team from Kumo will be introduced in the next chapter too.
Now, to clarify some more things- I won't be making the enemies extremely overpowered. The way I portrayed Naruto's power in this story, he can pretty much, that would be wrong to say, he can defeat anyone. The fact that he can use Kurama mode, Susanoo, has access to Six Paths chakra, rinnegan, mangekyo sharingan along with the ability to use senjutsu effectively makes him almost unbeatable. But, do remember that even though he has access to all the powers, his body is still not at it's peak to be able to handle the usage of all those powers together. In his childhood, Naruto was just taught the rudimentary concept of pretty much everything by Jiraiya and Minato. While the toads helped Naruto in better utilize senjutsu in different ways such as for healing purposes, using it with normal ninjutsu, what senjutsu in fact meant and it's different applications; Itachi and Shisui helped Naruto to better utilize the ninjutsu he already knew. Whereas, Kakashi was someone who taught Naruto about teamwork and sparred with him on a regular basis to improve his taijutsu. Many may not agree with me on this, but Kakashi is among the best taijutsu users in the whole anime/manga of Naruto. There are definitely people who are better than him, but he had some of the most fire hand to hand combat scenes in the anime.
When I say that there's a lot Naruto doesn't know about the rinnegan, I don't necessarily mean that he doesn't know about the 'Six Paths'. He does know about them and can utilize them except the Rinne Tensei no jutsu. However, there will come a time soon enough when Naruto will unknowingly perform the jutsu to bring someone back to life. Getting back to point, Naruto can utilize the 'Six Paths'. But, I don't want him to be just focusing on those six powers. There's so much more the rinnegan can do. The only reason Nagato wasn't able to utilize the rinnegan's true abilities is because he wasn't the true owner of the eyes. The way Madara and Sasuke used the rinnegan in the anime/manga just seemed more appealing to me. Again, this is just my personal opinion. So, as I had said, I will not be making the enemies extremely overpowered, but in a way a tad bit more smarter. Nagato did use the six paths of pain very proficiently but there were still things he could have done with the rinnegan even if the eyes weren't his to begin with. He was barely shown to use any ninjutsu in the anime. Considering the fact that the rinnegan gives him perfect control over all basic elements and even the ability to merge elements, Nagato should have capitalized on that more. Although, true that it wasn't necessary for him to do so, but it would have sure been amazing to see. Nagato is just an example that I wanted to give, since he's the only other character in this story with a rinnegan so far.
Please do follow, favorite and review the story! Do let me know what you guys think and if the explanation that I gave seemed sound enough or not. Once again, those are my personal opinion. Also, I'm glad that you all seem to like how the story is shaping out to be. It's only going to get more interesting.
Until next time!