As the various teams were led by the Anbu through tunnels leading back to Konoha, Naruto had a quiet conversation with Tenten and Totsunyū. The Anbu and Yūgao weren't sure how he did it, but Naruto somehow convinced the two Kunoichi to swap spears. Yūgao shook her head with a small grin at how well he'd been learning to use his natural charisma to sort out problems. It was something Orchid Aburame had started teaching him once he'd learned everything she had to teach him on Fuinjutsu.

Shibi had also started teaching him a little bit about Clan Management and Politics when the Aburame Clan Head had some spare time. As they walked, the two Kunoichi were getting used to their new weapons, "It's amazing that despite being made of bronze it doesn't weigh that much more than the Chakra Metal spear," Tenten marveld.

"The balance is also similar," Totsunyū agreed, "So it won't take that long until I'm ready to use it on a mission."

"I'm glad the trade will work for you," Naruto said with a grin.

"Dad's going to be annoyed I gave the spear away but… meh. I'd rather not have Kiri targeted by a Blood Debt like Kusa was," Totsunyū said with a shudder, "For all I know, Mei-Sama will want to set something up to try and find away so that won't happen."

"Let her know that I'll be up to talking to her after the Chunin Exams," Naruto grinned, "Blood Debts aren't something I want to rely on, when a simple talk could get better results," The Kiri team grinned glad that the Uzumaki Heir had no desire to turn his wrath on Kiri for the fall of Uzushio.

Once everyone was out of the tunnels they saw it was nightfall. After the Konoha teams were told to meet at their normal training grounds the next day everyone separated, with Sasuke and Naruto going with Tsunade and Jiraiya to the hospital to remove Sasuke's Curse Seal. The next day when Team Six reunited Yūgao looked at them with a large proud smile, "I can't say how proud of you three I am. Very few teams have ever gotten all three members into the third round," Her expression then turned serious, "Now for the next month I'm unable to train you as Hokage-Sama has some work for me on top of it not being allowed for a Sensei to train their Genin if more then one member of their team gets into the third round to avoid favoritism. As such I'll need to find trainers for you."

"Father plans to spend the month training me in some advanced Aburame techniques," Shino stated as he adjusted his glasses, "In fact he has already begun."

"Ah, sent your unique Shadow Clone did you?" Yūgao chuckled, getting a nod.

"The Dragons and Foxes wanted to train me, while Karin and Tayuya will just be training with the Dragons," Naruto chuckled, "Not sure what they want to teach me though."

Yūgao nodded, and turned to Hinata with a raised eyebrow, "Shizune sent a message this morning about wanting to teach me more about pressure points while she starts teaching Yakumo medical techniques. The lessons start this afternoon and I was thinking of asking Yakumo if she'd be up to some private training afterwards as with her special Genjutsu she'd be able to create just about any kind of opponent I want to fight against."

Yūgao once more gave her Genin a proud smile, "I'm glad to know you three are on top of your training. I can't wait to see how you do in the finals," The four then separated with Shino dissolving into black bugs that flew back to the Aburame Compound, Hinata headed back home to spend a little time with Hanabi. Naruto went back to his place to pack for the trip to the Field of Inari and the home of dragon's which is called The Throat of the World.

As Naruto finished packing for his trip there was a knock at the front door which Karin got. A couple moments later she called, "Naruto! Yakumo's here to see you!"

Slinging his pack over his shoulder Naruto went downstairs, "Sup Yakumo? Hinata said the two of you were going to start training with Shizune soon."

"Yup," Yakumo grinned, "And depending on how well I do, Tsunade-Sama might teach me a couple things."

Naruto gave her a thumbs up, "Can't wait to see what you'll be able to do next time we meet just like I'll be able to show off some stuff the Dragons and Foxes teach me," Naruto completely missed a faint blush on Yakumo's face as he looked away due to Tayuya coming down the stairs. While Naruto ment know techniques Yakumo couldn't help but remember Naruto without shirt last time the two had been training by a small lake, as she wondered if Naruto would be even more toned when he got back.

She shook her head to refocus. Putting a smirk on her face Yakumo said, "I'm assuming you mean stuff that won't be shown during the finals?"

"Yup!" Naruto cackled, "Chances are I'll learn more than what I'll be able to show, even if it's just a small trick or two."

"And have a lot of new pranking material due to the foxes," Yakumo chuckled as Naruto let out another cackle.

"Oy!" Tayuya called from the back door, "Come on Naruto! Say goodbye to your girlfriend and let's go!"

Naruto's and Yakumo's faces exploded into blushes, "Umm…" Naruto mumbled as he tried and failed to recollect himself, "Should we… talk about that at some point?"

"How about… after the third round?" Yakumo suggested unable to regain control of her blush.

"Yeah… sounds good," Naruto nodded before Yakumo left as Naruto closed the door. When he got out back and met up with Karin and Tayuya he sent a glare at his elder sister figure who just smirked, "I hate you so much right now."

"Don't bare your fangs at me squirt," Tayuya teased, "It was amusing at first to see you two dance around each other and your feelings but it got old real fucking fast. You'll thank me for getting you two over that hump later," Naruto was scowling as Karin summoned Prism-Scale to let the Dragons know the three were ready for a reverse summons.


While Naruto and his siblings were leaving for the Throat of the World, Yūgao was having a meeting with Hiruzen, Hayate, Yamato, Shibi and Inoichi. Hayate was currently glaring at Hiruzen after giving the old man an earful about not trusting the Swordmaster to call a match early and that decision resulted in Kiba needing Tsunade to repair his legs so he wouldn't become a cripple.

"So Yamato," Shibi stated, trying to pull Hayate's attention away from Hiruzen to ease the tension, "What did you want to talk about?"

"I believe I've figured out why Sakura Haruno is able to use Wood Release," Yamato said in his standard flat tone, "When she was very young she was in an accident and rushed to the hospital, however she needed a blood transfusion due to not having an active Chakra System yet. I was visiting a comrade there and since I had the correct blood type I was asked to donate some."

Tsunade's eyes widened, "That was a risky move donating the blood Yamato. You barely survived having Grandfather's cells injected into you, and for them to suddenly be placed in Sakura…"

"My choices were to give her a chance at life or all but guarantee her death," Yamato replied simply, "I would rather give the child a chance to live than guaranteeing their death."

"Perhaps you should think about adopting her?" Yūgao suggested getting a surprised look from Yamato and Inoichi, "It could be argued that she is in some way your daughter due to the blood donation that resulted in her having Wood Release."

"I will think about it," Yamato said, giving a small nod.

Yūgao then gained a serious look, "Now onto other matters. We know Oto is under the control of Orochimaru thank's to Jiraiya's most recent intel. We also know that Orochimaru has had contact with Rasa. Orochimaru is most likely planning an invasion with the assistance of Suna with the promise of helping Suna with their finances."

Shibi nodded, "Luckily Mei and Shibuki have already agreed to send some extra Jonin with the normal delegation to assist us. I have even recalled all Aburame who are away on business."

Hiruzen gave a slow nod, "That will certainly help. However knowing Orochimaru he will have several tricks up his sleeves. Snake summons are a guarantee, as are those who have undergone his human experimentations."

"We also don't know who has replaced Tayuya in the Sound Four," Hayate said with a frown, "Or if Orochimaru will find a way to get his Kaguya subordinate healthy enough for one last battle."

Inoichi rubbed his chin as he considered their options, "At the very least we can ask the Toads, Foxes, Dragons, Monkies, and Tortoises for support. Shame Anko can no longer summon the Snakes as I'm sure some of them might have helped us as I doubt they all like Manda and Orochimaru."

"Perhaps we can send word to the Land of Iron and ask Mifune if he's willing to send some Samurai," Yamato suggested, "Chances are high that Orochimaru has also targeted the Samurai for victims."

"We can try," Hiruzen said slowly as he ran a hand through his beard, "I don't like the odds of Mifune assisting us as the Samurai pride themselves on staying neutral in Shinobi affairs but it's worth a shot. Are there any others we could call upon?"

"I've heard that the jinchūriki of the Six Tail, a man named Utakata is currently a Wandering Shinobi," Inoichi suggested, "Perhaps if we offer him a place to rest for a bit he'd help? With Yagura no longer the Mizukage the bounty on his head will most likely be lifted, since Mei might just see if he wants to rejoin Kiri."

Yūgao thought about that. If Utakata agreed then three of the nine jinchūriki would be in Konoha. Jiraiya had heard rumors of a group targeting the jinchūriki however since nothing had happened yet it was hard to track down more concrete details, "It's something to consider at least," The group continued hashing out plans to counter the likely invasion to come during the Chunin Exam Finals. They had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in.


[Author's notes: The rest of the segments take place over the month of training]

Dosu was training alone in a small training field that Konoha set aside for the visiting Genin. As he went through his excursies he thought about how much he disliked Otogakure, how the moment he outlived his usefulness Orochimaru would experiment on him without a second thought. As he slammed his Melody Brace into a boulder which shattered it he growled at the thought of Zaku. By all the Kami he HATED that egotistical idiot! The fool couldn't even tell that the tubes in his arms were huge weak points that could easily leave him armless and with no way of fighting back since Zaku never bothered to learn any other way of defending himself.

It's why Dosu had created the Melody Brace to begin with. Since it's a piece of equipment if needed he could remove it, and recreate it later. He also had a couple basic Water and Lightning Jutsu since those were his elements but he knew the only one in the finals who was more limited in their skillset was Zaku. As Dosu continued his exercises he wondered why part of his mind kept going back to his opponent in the Prelims Juhimaru.


Shino meditated under his favorite tree in the Aburame Compound. He had a large amount of Kikaichū buzzing around him including all variants of Elemental Kikaichū. Earth Kikaichū were larger then their brethren had large mandibles more akin to a hercules beetles and a raised section going down the center of their shell, Wind Kikaichū mandibles were sharper then their brethren's and designed not to pierce their targets but shred through them. They also had blade-like fins on their shells that essentially let them become living shuriken when flying fast enough.

Fire Kikaichū looked a bit like fireflies as they had a small bulb at the back that was constantly glowing softly. Like their brethren they could hamper their target's Chakra, in the form of being able to spit a liquid that left a light burn on the target. With the burn sustaining itself by using the target's Chakra as fuel. Currently the max amount of time the burn would eat the Chakra was an hour but that alone ate up a good amount of Chakra.

Water Kikaichū looked similar to their non-elemental cousins, save for the pair of antennae and tiny fins on their legs. They also had the ability to spit acid, but other than that they weren't that far developed yet which made sense as they were the latest breed of Kikaichū though it was hypothesized that they could also survive if not thrive in colder climates. Sadly Haku and Zabuza had been busy as of late and weren't able to assist in testing that. Finally the Lightning Kikaichū were the biggest surprise as they'd become winged centipedes that could shoot themself forward like arrows or living javelins. They could also release weak bouts of lightning, no stronger than a powerful static shock but even that was enough to distract most opponents.

Shino knew he was close to mastering some of the properties of his Earth Kikaichū. However the last thirty percent of the Chitin Armor was proving frustratingly difficult. It wasn't that he minded his Kikaichū landing and resting him. The problem was he had to equally distribute Earth Chakra to every part of his body and keep it going for quite some time. His father thought there could be some trick to make using them a little easier, the question was what the trick was. As such he'd taken his mother's advice and tried meditating a little. Opening his eyes Shino watched the Kikaichū fly through the air, with some of the Lightning Kikaichū making motions in the air as they followed some wind currents.

"Hmm… currents huh?" Shino mused as he remembered a Chakra Control exercise Yūgao had taught her team. Getting to his feet he flexed his fingers and rolled his neck, "Worth a shot if nothing else."


Shikamaru grumbled as he headed inside to get ready for dinner after a long day of working with his father. For the first few days Shikaku had Shikamaru explain all about the Jutsu he used against Sakura which Shikamaru simply called his 'Area of Control Jutsu' since that's exactly what it did. Once that was done Shikaku drilled his son on some other advanced Jutsu that the family used. Lately Shikaku, Inoichi and Choza had been working their kids though some team exercises unique to the Ina-Shika-Cho, while having the three wear heavy weights.

Throughout dinner Shikamaru kept smirking at his father who was beginning to get really annoyed. A smirk then crossed his face, "So Shika if you're feeling so smug what's the…"

"A hole," Shikamaru said simply as he held up a bowl of rice, "The answer to your riddle is a hole. Figured it out within five minutes."

Shikaku glared at his son while his wife snickered at their antics, "So you've been letting me think I had one up on you the ENTIRE time?"

"That about sums it up yes," Shikamaru replied with a nonchalant shrug, however he was internally smirking as even now he had one up on his dad since the man still didn't know about Shikamaru's other addition to their family's style. That being archery. He planned to show it off against Naruto even if he doubted that it would be enough to defeat the blond Genin. With his ability to make at least four Shadow Clones, Shikamaru knew he had little hope of holding Naruto due to how much Chakra the blond had. That's fine. Shikamaru never planned to win that fight. Just show what he could do and hope it was enough.

Once dinner was done Shikamaru headed to bed. He had a few more details of his plan to hash out.


Fū, Hōki, and Juhimaru were currently training with Tenten. Fū was learning how to wield a pair of sai, Juhimaru was learning new ways to use her axes while Hōki learned how to fight against various weapons. Fū had chosen the sai as they were small enough to not risk accidentally nicking her wings in flight on top of being a good counter to the most common weapons in the Shinobi world, those being kunai, katana and wakizashi.

Juhimaru had jokingly called Fū's new weapons her 'stingers' making the Mint haired jinchūiki cackle from then on that's all she called her new weapons. Tenten meanwhile was working on mastering her new spear when not using her other weapons against the three. Naruto had sent a clone back from the Throat of the World to study the spear and found that most of its powers were locked until it was locked to an owner through a drop of the owner's blood being placed on each of the dragon's eyes. While only an Uzumaki could bring out the spear's full power, Tenten would still be able to use a good chunk of the spear's ability.

So far she'd found that now that she'd blood bonded it to her, no one else was able to even hold it with the intent to use it, as it would either send powerful electric shocks into the arm of whoever picked it up, or a small twister would appear around the spear and cut into the offending arm. However if the internet was to simply pass it Tenten or hold onto it so it wasn't lost then they could pick it up.

The only other aspect she'd discovered after binding it to her was that she was able to channel her Chakra into the weapon and have it turn into any of the five main elements. She'd discovered this by accident when she'd accidently set the blade ablaze. At first she wasn't even sure how she'd accomplished that but after some experimentation she'd found that the answer was once again Intent. Seriously, how the hell did one make a seal that could change a Chakra's element let alone one that's affected by a person's intent?! Tenten promised herself to talk to Naruto, Karin and Tayuya the first chance she got to see if they could to see if they could find any more of the spear's secrets. She had a feeling that the Uzumaki siblings would still be able to hold the spear since it was made by the Uzumaki.

Tenten shook her head as she heard Fū's cackles as she blocked Juhimaru's axes. Looking over, the Weapon Mistress shook her head and called over, "So Fū what are you planning to do to beat Zaku?"

Fū and Juhimaru separated, as the mint haired Kunoichi glanced over to Tenten and Hōki and began cackling, "All I'll say is it's going to be flashy and this time he'll be the one to be powerless~"


"Start!" Shizune called and Hinata surged forward as her opponent, a four armed, red skinned tri horned male oni who was just as tall as Shizune did the same. Fists and kicks flew as the two fought, while Yakumo focused hard on keeping the Genjutsu that had created the oni going. However the Kurama Heiress soon had to work on multitasking as Shizune began quizzing him on the latest medical texts that Yakumo had read.

After ten minutes Yakumo had to drop the Genjutsu causing the oni to flicker and vanish, as Yakumo fell to her knees panting from effort with sweat dripping down her face, "All right Yakumo. Take five and we'll try again," Shizune said, handing the Genjutsu user a bottle of water with some extra vitamins added, "You're making good progress Yakumo. Within the last couple days alone you've almost tripled how long you can keep a physical Genjutsu up while doing something that requires a large amount of concentration."

"Yay," Yakumo groaned before downing the water bottle.

Shizune turned to Hinata, "Now while Yakumo is recovering. Hinata we'll be going over those pressure points one more time. By the time the final round starts I'm going to make damn sure you have them all memorized!"

"Yes Sensei," Hinata said though internally she was wincing. Shizune was a slave driver when she felt like it. Who knew that the body had so many pressure points? Let alone ones that with effort could be seen with the Byakugan. Hinata was slightly worried for her friend. If Shizune was this strict as a teacher what was Tsunade like?


Author's Notes:

Is the name of the Dragon's home a reference to skyrim… yes. Yes it is. Sadly no dragons voiced by Mario here

I also went over the Elemental Kikaichu because I forgot if I had before… even if I did, a refresher isn't that bad an idea lol

The idea for Lightning Kikaichū being able to send out bursts of lightning came from a buddy of mine on Discord who goes by the screenname Kragwald.

Finally things are getting a bit hectic IRl so I don't know when I'll be able to upload again.