Team seven entered the waiting room for the Chuunin exams, where they were greeted by a loud shout from Inuzuka Kiba.
“Finally! About time you guys showed up!” The brash boy yelled.
Sasuke was still locked in a staring contest with Neji, so it fell to Naruto to answer the call.
“Yeah, whatever, dog-boy we had a little run in with a couple of egos.”
Upon seeing the questioning look of the Inuzuka, Naruto pointed over his shoulder at Sasuke and Neji, who were still locked in an ocular war.
“Tch. So troublesome, I figured at least one of our teams wouldn't be nominated.” The forever-lazy voice of Shikamaru drifted towards Naruto.
“Hey, Shikamaru!” Naruto replied to his friend, noticing Chouji was following the lazy boy. “How you been? I haven't seen you guys much since we started missions.”
“Mah, D rank missions are too troublesome.” Was the only reply given.
Around this point the remaining members of Teams Eight and Ten met up with the members of Team Seven, Team Gai, and Team Over-Inflated-Ego…I mean Sasuke and Neji. Yamanaka Ino immediately tired to latch herself to Sasuke but the Uchiha was able to dodge the tackle, miraculously without blinking.
“Ino-pig, you leave Sasuke-kun alone!” Sakura growled and went over to her rival.
“Hey, you guys shouldn't draw attention to yourselves.” A new voice said quietly.
Everyone turned and took stock of the new comer. He was dressed in dark purple except for a swatch of white around his abdomen. He had grey hair to rival Kakashi's and wore glasses. He wore his kunai holster on his right leg, and wore purple arm wormers that doubled as gloves and had metal plates attached to the back of the hand.
“Do you see that team over there? Those are the Rain ninja; they have a certain…reputation for being aggressive. Especially if they knew you were rookie genin.”
“How did you-?” Ino was about to ask, before the new boy cut her off.
“This is my seventh time taking this exam, since I didn't recognize you I kinda figured it out.” He sheepishly rubbed his head “My name's Yakushi Kabuto, by the way.”
“Wow, so if this is your seventh time, than you must really suck!” Kiba commented.
“Well that's one way to look at it…” Kabuto said sheepishly. “Luckily there are a few good things that come when you take the test enough. For instance, I have collected information of all of the participating genin from previous exams.” It was at this point that the grey haired boy removed a deck of cards from his utility pouch and placed one face up on the ground where everyone could see it.
“These are the number of ninja taking part in the exam; Konoha has the most since we're hosting the exam, followed by Rain, Mist, Cloud and Waterfall. Suna and the newly formed Sound nation only sent one team, but that means they are probably the best in their villages.
“Yeah, well we'll just beat them all, won't we Akamaru?” Kiba declared earning stares form many of the surrounding teams.
“I wouldn't say that too loudly.” Kabuto admonished. “The team from Suna is composed of the Kazekage's children, so you can count on them having the best training possible, plus the youngest, Gaara…well I'll show you.” He pulled out another card and everyone noticed it was blank.
“Hey, why is it blank?” Ino asked.
“Well, the card will only respond to my chakra, so that way no one besides me can read them.” He focused a bit of chakra into the card. A picture of Gaara came up, along with a chart for mission history, a space for notes, and a pentagon that was used for charting abilities.
“Sabaku no Gaara, has completed 8 C-rank missions and wow! A B-rank mission. It says he didn't do any D-rank, but that's probably because he's the son of the Kazekage. The note worthy thing about Gaara is that he has returned from all of his missions, without a scratch on him.”
At this, most of the genin were shocked. Sasuke and Neji were still staring at each other, although it was their second staring contest, with both deciding that the first was flawed when some other genin walked between them. Naruto wasn't paying attention to Kabuto, he wasn't too worried about the competition, besides Gaara and Sasuke who could bother him?...Perhaps Neji…come to think of it, Shino was always mysterious, so who know what kind of skill he had…and then there was Shikamaru, Naruto knew he was really smart, he constantly kicked his butt at strategy games.
“Maybe I should pay more attention.” He thought, but was interrupted by the emotionless voice of Gaara.
“Uzumaki Naruto” I have something to discuss with you.”
Naruto's eyes met up with Gaara's and he simply nodded his head, before heading off to a corner.
“Those things you said last night…about the moon…I'm not sure I can believe that.”
Naruto frowned a bit.
“But,” Gaara continued, “I wish to try. Would you be my friend?”
Naruto's smile nearly reached his ears. “Of course, I said so last night, and I meant it.”
Gaara simply nodded his head, his lips barely curling into a smile. “There are things about this exam…they don't bode well for this village. Make it through this exam, eventually there will be fights…make it that far, and we shall fight…to prove which way of life is correct.”
“I'll look forward to a fight between us.” Naruto said, still smiling. “But there is a stipulation I would like to throw in there. Promise you won't unnecessarily harm any Konoha shinobi. To thank you for the warning, I'll give you one of my own. Don't underestimate Sasuke, should you run into him before I do. He is a seriously good fighter.”
After Gaara had agreed to the stipulation, the two demon vessels parted ways, just in time to see Kabuto get attacked by a member of the Sound team, who was wrapped in bandages, and appeared to be wearing a hay stack on his back. At first it seemed like Kabuto had dodged the attack, but soon afterwards, his glasses fractured and he bent over before retching on the floor.
`What the…he dodged it! So how did he still get hit? Chakra extension…no that takes extremely good control to do, most genin couldn't do that, so how? Well, they are from Sound, maybe it has to do with some kind of sonic attack. That would explain the loss of balance.' Naruto analyzed the situation quickly, as did Sasuke, but they were the only ones besides Shikamaru to determine the probable means of attack.
“ENOUGH!” A voice rang out through the crowded waiting room. “There is to be no fighting, unless an instructor gives explicit permission, and even then there is to be no killing.
A large man, with scars crossing his face and wearing all black, from his shirt to his boots and back to the coat he was wearing was addressing the assembled genin. His head was covered in a bandana, which was also used as his forehead protector.
“My name is Morino Ibiki; I am the first examiner of the Chuunin selection exam. You will all come up here and draw a lot.” Everyone in the room drew the slip of paper and opened them up to find a letter and a number. “Ok, you have one minute to find your seats for the first exam! Anyone who doesn't make it to their assigned seats will be eliminated from this exam, along with their team! Oh, did I mention, the clock started when I started to talk?” He said with a sadistic grin that would have made Anko proud.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura quickly found their seats and steeled themselves for whatever lay ahead. Sakura was a bit scared of the examiner and the exam. She didn't know what was coming. Sasuke was a bit more prepared, since Ibiki held the same rank as his mom; they would hang out sometimes, along with some of the other jounin. He knew that Morino Ibiki was the torture and interrogation expert in Konoha, therefore this exam would be very cerebral. He groaned at the thought of this. If anyone enjoyed mind games as much as Ibiki, it was Naruto.
As Ibiki was explaining the rules of the exam, Sasuke took the time to check his surroundings. Sakura was seated behind him and was surrounded by foreign ninja. He didn't worry too much about her; she was smart…if nothing else. Naruto was sitting on the left half of the room, and was in the fourth row from the front. He too was surrounded by foreign shinobi, but only to his front and back. To his left was a Konoha shinobi that he had never seen before, and to his right was Hyuuga Hinata. Sasuke knew of her crush on Naruto, I mean, who didn't? So even if Naruto were in danger of failing the test, Hinata would try and help him out…assuming she could muster the courage.
The first exam was a written test, points would be deducted for missing a question, and if you got caught cheating. To some of the smarter ninja in the room, it became clear that the questions were too difficult for most genin to answer. Thus, the only option left was to cheat without being caught...
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The twenty teams that passed the first portion of the exam now stood in front of Konoha's famous Training Area 44 lovingly referred to by many as the `Forrest of Death'. The instructor for the exam, Yamashiro Aoba, was explaining the second stage of the exam.
“…death. Each team will fill out these waivers, and once you've turned them in, each team will receive one of two scrolls. Either the Heaven or Earth scrolls. You must use all of the skills from the first exam as well as combat skills to find and retrieve the scroll you are missing. Once that is done, report to the tower in the center of the area. The time limit for this task is five days. Should any member of your team die, the entire team will be eliminated. If you leave the confines of the area, your team will be eliminated. Oh, don't open your scrolls. The consequences could turn out…bad.”
Naruto and Sasuke snickered at the jounin's attempt to sound sadistic; the tone just didn't fit the friendly jounin at all. Of course, the boys did have large expectations when it came to sadistic nature. The only reason that Anko wasn't proctoring the second exam, was due to her `conflicting interests' since her son's were participating.
Team Seven turned in the required paper work and received their Heaven scroll before heading to gate 22. After few anxious minutes of waiting, they were allowed inside the area and quickly dispersed; Naruto made a large amount of shadow clones and used henge to transform them into the different team members. With any luck the clones would be able to dupe anyone following them long enough for the real team to disappear. Unfortunately a pair of eyes narrowed at the attempt, before quickly distinguishing the real team from the fake and following them.
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Team Seven stopped about an hour and a half into the forest for a short break. Naruto went into the nearby woods to `relieve himself' while Sasuke and Sakura kept an eye out for any enemy teams. Suddenly, a large brown snake crashed through the undergrowth and both genin were forced to side step.
“As expected from an Uchiha.” A high-pitched voice rang out through the clearing and seemed to be coming from the snake. A grass ninja with long black hair rose from the back of the snake and stared at the two genin who had drawn kunai already. With a burst of chakra, the two suddenly fell to their knees as kunai passed directly through the center of their heads.
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While Naruto was off `relieving himself', a trio of rain ninja tried to ambush him, but were spotted long before their `sneak' attack. Instead they managed to skewer one shadow clone with three kunai, before their legs were frozen to the ground in ice. Try as they might they couldn't escape, and when they tried to replace themselves with something, they found that their arms were punctured with ice needles before they could move. A few more ice needles formed from thin air and impaled the genin in the neck, not killing them, but putting them in a state of false death for a while. Naruto smirked at his handiwork.
`All those lessons on anatomy with Haku have started to pay off.' He thought and liberated the scroll from the genin. Unfortunately it wasn't an Earth scroll, so now the team had two Heaven scrolls. Shrugging, Naruto quickly sealed the scroll into another scroll so they could hide it from an enemy. He placed another seal on top of it; this one was a hybrid blood and chakra seal. It was the most advanced type of seal he had learned, it would only open if his blood were to be smeared on the seal, and a specific amount of chakra was pushed into it. The chakra level was variable and was also tuned to his unique chakra. In short, no one and I mean NO ONE, besides Naruto could open this scroll. His moment of pride was dashed short when a large snake tried to swallow him. He even succeeded too, but it found out very quickly that that was a bad idea when its thought was cut open by a sword of ice.
“Koori no Yaiba” (Blade of Ice) Naruto thought as the ice sword that had enveloped his hand receded. `I like it. A bit bloody, but effective.' He suddenly picked up the sound of a fight and raced back to his team.
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`What is this?' Sasuke thought as he was felt the kunai puncture his head, blood spurting forth. Only he didn't drop dead. `It's like when kaa-san uses kanashibari (temporary paralysis technique), but so much bigger!'
Shakily Sasuke retrieved a kunai from his holster and quickly nicked his leg with the sharp knife, freeing himself from the illusion of his own death moments before the strange grass ninja's fist impacted the ground were he was not a second earlier. The crater left by the fist was large and Sasuke was glad that he grabbed Sakura before escaping.
“Impressive, Sasuke-kun, very impressive!” The ninja responded, straightening his, or her, back. Suddenly, a large amount of ice needles flew towards their opponents, who dodged them, but only barely.
“Why is it that all of our opponents are way too androgynous?” Naruto joked before launching into another attack. “Sensatsu Shuishou.” (Flying Water Needles) Naruto once more made the deadly projectiles, but this time the man/women simply formed some hand seals and blew all of the needles away with a fuuton technique.
“Naruto! Be careful, this one…he's on a different level than most. His kanashibari no jutsu is stronger than Kaa-san's!”
“Than he obviously has no business being here.” Naruto replied as he moved towards his teammates, finally settling next to Sasuke and the still stunned Sakura. They simply watched the ninja as he…or she laughed at the two.
“Very good Naruto-kun, I expected my snake to be more of a challenge for you, I obviously underestimated you.” The brown eyes of their opponent narrowed into slits. “I promise it won't happen again.”
The attack was swift, but both boys were able to dodge it, although they realized that an unconscious Sakura was a bad item to have to carry around. One unspoken command later, Sasuke was engaged with the foreign shinobi and Naruto was waking up Sakura. A quick prick to the back of the hand was enough to wake the comatose girl and Naruto quickly told her to hide as he joined his brother in attacking the ninja.
Sasuke had activated his sharingan to help in the fight, but he was still having trouble. It seemed that whenever their enemy attacked, Sasuke would bring up his guard, but would still get hit.
`The sharingan…it still isn't fully matured yet.' Their opponent noticed, although the site of the crimson eyes did make his or her mouth water slightly. After punching Sasuke away, and dodging a volley of small fireballs from Naruto, the figure smiled.
“You have very good eyes, Sasuke-kun, too bad they are worthless in a taijutsu fight…unlike your brother's.” The androgynous being tried to aggravate Sasuke, but to no avail.
The battle continued on, with both boys attacking with various taijutsu styles and ninjustu thrown in for longer-range support. Naruto reformed the Koori no yaiba and continued his fight with the snake like adversary, managing to keep the…person at bay. Their opponent shivered, but not due to the cold of the sword.
`A water manipulation bloodline? Not even the Nidaime had that much ability when it came to water. That would be a great thing to add to my `collection'!”
In the moment that their enemy had been pondering whatever it was, the boys took this time to attack. Sasuke launched a number of kunai and shuriken at the man and Naruto charged in with the ice sword once more, this time cutting their opponent in two cleanly.
The boys stood panting a bit, the fight was much longer and intense than any they had faced before and if it hadn't been for their `conditioning' with Anko, than they would have been out of the fight a while ago. They turned to find Sakura, but froze when the cackling laugh of the grass ninja reverberated behind them. Standing on a tree branch was the effeminate shinobi.
“Very good, of course I expected nothing less from a team lead by Kakashi-kun.”
Before he could continue with the sentence, Sasuke had launched a barrage of shuriken connected with wire at the opponent. The throwing stars spun around the trunk of the tree, binding the ninja to the trunk securely.
`Sofushasan no Tachi!' (Manipulating Windmill Triple Blades) `How impressive, someone so young can perform this maneuver!”
Sasuke completed the seals for his newest Katon justu.
“Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu!” (Fire type: Dragon Fire technique)
A bolt of fire quickly made its way down the wires from Sasuke's mouth and towards the incapacitated ninja. Their opponent tried to move, only to find his feet and hands frozen to the tree branch in very thick ice. `Their teamwork is nearly impeccable! This couldn't have been done in a couple of months!' The grass ninja lamented as the incredibly hot fire of the jutsu impacted the tree trunk, punching a large hole through it. Their adversary screamed in pain and surprise.
The boys waited for the fire to die down before turning their backs on the grass shinobi this time. As the fire slowly turned into embers, they were very surprised to find the foreign ninja still standing. The only visible sign of damage was that his face seemed to be…melting. Using a burst of chakra, the ninja was free from the wires, snapping them all easily. Then he began to giggle…then chuckle…and finally it turned into a full-blown psychotic laugh.
“Truly,” the now identifiable man said through a bout of cackling, “truly, you are worthy of being my new vessel!” With that, his neck launched forward, mouth agape right for Sasuke's neck. Naruto wasn't fast enough to intercept the blow on his own, so he did the next best thing.
`Good thing I had everyone keep some of my satetsu (Iron Sand) on them for something like this.' He thought.
Activating his other long range blood line, Naruto shot spikes of iron filings at the incoming ninja from the back of Sasuke's coat, coming up right as the ninja's head was aiming for the crook of Sasuke's neck, resulting in some nasty cuts especially one to the roof of the ninja's mouth.
The long necked grass ninja quickly withdrew and gapped at Naruto.
`The Iron Sand! Sasori wiped out that bloodline! Even I couldn't recreate it, the child died during the Kyuubi attack. But then why the hell can this kid use that?'
“It would seem that I have underestimated you once more Naruto-kun, but I'm afraid that I must mark your teammate now. The sharingan it too important to me.” This time, the enemy used Kanashibari once more, freezing Naruto to the spot and once more launching his neck at Sasuke.
The last remark by their snake like opponent registered a cord with Naruto.
`Orochimaru! Kaa-san's jounin sensei! No wonder we couldn't beat him! There is really only one thing to do right now…' Naruto realized what he had to do.
He was able to break out of the kanashibari by slicing his finger on a shuriken and was able to say only one word before Orochimaru's neck reached Sasuke.
“SHARINGAN!” He cried, hoping the snake sannin would stop his assault on his brother. To both his great relief and fear, the sannin did just that. Naruto took this time to launch more satetsu spikes at the attacking ninja before he was able to jump in front of Sasuke and locking eyes with Orochimaru.
Seeing the fully matured sharingan of Naruto, Orochimaru couldn't help but be confused. Sakura was simply beside herself, first they were attacked by a grass ninja who was able to survive a direct hit form a jounin level fire jutsu, and then his neck stretched out impossibly long, only to be driven back by spikes of some sort, plus there were the ice needles, which only Haku could do. When the mysterious ninja tried again, Naruto had activated his…sharingan. But that would me he was an Uchiha, wouldn't it? She didn't know what was going on anymore and simply stared at her teammates. What else were they hiding from her?
“Naruto! What are you doing?” Sasuke asked his brother who was standing in front of him.
Orochimaru began to laugh. “I see, Naruto-kun, you've figured me out. Yes, that is it. You plan on sacrificing yourself to save Sasuke-kun. It's only natural. The only way that prey can save its young from a predator is to offer something better.”
Sasuke was about to yell at his brother for being stupid, but was stopped when Naruto simply put a hand in his face.
“Sasuke, run and get help. The test doesn't matter anymore, you were right; he's way out of our league.”
“So you're going to fight him on your own?” Sasuke yelled at his brother. “No way in hell will I let you risk your life for m-“ He was cut short when Naruto's hand slammed into his neck, knocking the Uchiha out cold.
“Sakura, take Sasuke and run. Find somewhere to hide and get help any way you can!” Naruto ordered before he launched himself at Orochimaru before leading the missing nin away from his teammates. The snake sannin quickly obliged, chasing after his new target. As Naruto was leading him off in the opposite direction, Orochimaru made a quick hand seal and a kage bunshin poofed into existence. The clone's neck elongated once more and made its way to Sasuke. Sakura leapt in front of the attack, but was knocked to the side. She could only watch as a pair of fangs bit into her beloved's neck and a strange tattoo appeared, resembling the tomoe of the sharingan. The clone smirked and disappeared. Sakura held back her tears at her own uselessness as she hid Sasuke in the hollow of a tree before heading out after Naruto.
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As expected, Naruto's fight against one of the legendary Sannin wasn't going very good. He had been able to cut Orochimaru with the satetsu some more, but the wounds were very minor and didn't hinder the more experienced man at all.
Orochimaru was simply toying with the boy. He wasn't even thinking about the fight, but instead how Naruto had acquired the sharingan, satetsu, and a water manipulation bloodline. There was only one logical explanation, and frankly it made his mouth water in excitement.
“The senshin! It didn't fail as I thought; Sarutobi-sensei must have hidden it from everyone. I must have him!”
By this point in time, Naruto was running low on chakra, even with his way beyond average chakra control, the hyoton (Ice techniques) and satetsu took up a lot of chakra, not to mention the constant depletion caused by the sharingan. That's when Kyuubi felt he needed to make his presence known. The red chakra of the Kyuubi began to lead into Naruto, empowering him beyond belief. His already red eyes became slightly darker, and a slit appeared as his pupil, the three tomoe still swirling in his eyes.
Naruto nearly flew at Orochimaru and was able to connect with a punch, but to his annoyance, Orochimaru turned into a pile of mud. Naruto jumped out of the way as he felt another attack from behind. Dropping onto all fours, he once more charged Orochimaru, only for the snake's tongue to wrap around his neck.
“So, my work wasn't for naught. Plus you're the vessel for the Kyuubi, interesting.” Lifting up Naruto's shirt, he saw the seal was visible. Gathering chakra to his finger tips, a purple flame appeared on each one, before Orochimaru drove his hand into Naruto's stomach.
“Gogyo Fuin.” (Five Elements Seal) Five new symbols were seemingly etched on top of the original seal. Naruto felt the Kyuubi's chakra begin to recede and he began to feel tired. The tongue released him, and Naruto crumpled unceremoniously to the ground.
Through heavy eyelids, Naruto watched as Orochimaru's neck once more stretched out and bit him on the left side of his neck. A pain like no other flooded his system, and the last thing he heard before blacking out was Orochimaru's voice.
“I will return for you, Naruto-kun, along with Sasuke-kun, you two will grant me my dreams.”
He promptly passed out from the pain and lay on the ground until Sakura found him, the black tattoo on his neck a reminder of her own uselessness.
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Anko was racing through the forest of death as quickly as she could, looking for her former sensei. She had kept up a suicidal pace, loosing the ANBU that were coming with her after the first forty minutes. She had recently found the body or a large snake, a sure sign of her ex-teacher. Suddenly, her cursed seal throbbed painfully and she was forced to stop. Looking ahead, she felt as if her birthday had come early. There standing on a branch was Orochimaru. He was sporting some nasty cuts, but was still able to dodge Anko's initial strike. Jumping backwards towards the trunk, he smiled wickedly.
“Why Anko, it's been so long, why the long face?” He teased. In a flash, Anko was grappling with her former mentor, backing him into the tree trunk. She quickly drew a kunai and stabbed it through her left hand and his right, impaling them to the tree.
“You'll have to pardon my rudeness, but I need a hand.” She hissed as she used his left hand to form seals for her technique.
“Now, now, Anko, there is no reason to kill yourself, is there?” The voice of Orochimaru emanated from behind her, and she twisted her neck to look at the sannin. She felt the body pinned to the tree dissolve into mud and she knew she had blown her chance.
“Besides,” Orochimaru said manically, “doesn't Naruto-kun need you?”
He disappeared as ANBU started to close in on their position, leaving Anko weeping to herself, left hand still pinned to the tree.
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(A/N: Ok, so I'm sorry thatthistook so long, I was hoping that if I left it long enough it would write it's self. For whatever reason, the ideas just took me a while to come up with for this chapter. It took me about four days to write the first page, and two for the second, pages three and four took one day, and then I was able to write pages 5-11 in like five hours. Oh, well. I hope you enjoy it.)
