Naruto Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Kurama in Narutoland ❯ Chapter TwentyFour ( Chapter 24 )

Kurama in Narutoland

Chapter Twenty-Four:

The 1220 pounds was dragging him down at an incredible pace, and Kurama panicked, causing the curse seal to get farther out of his control...

He was running out of air, and this caused things to get further out of control. Hitting the lake bottom with a thud, Kurama tried to calm down and force the curse seal back. It took a few precious moments, but it was gone soon after.

Completely out of breath and stuck on the lake bottom, Kurama couldn't think clearly enough to figure out what to do. Stopping all movement and calming down, Kurama kicked off and tried to swim upwards.

-Master, what is going on?-

Kurama's eyes widened in realization.

/Shinrin! Change into a large water dragon! Hurry!/

Shinrin did so, and Kurama asked him to swim to the top with him on his back.

They broke the surface of the lake with a huge splash, considering Shinrin's size. Kurama lied on Shinrin's head, breathing in huge gulps of air. That was so close, it wasn't funny.

/Thank you, Shinrin. You saved my life/ Kurama thought to Shinrin.

-Master cannot breath under water?-

/No, I can't. However, YOU can, and that's good. I'm going to sleep now, Shinrin. Can you put me by the shore and transform into a fox again?/

-Of course, Master-

Shinrin did so, and Kurama allowed himself to fall asleep with his pet watching over him.

When Kurama next awoke, he found himself staring at the starry sky by the shore of the lake. What had happened? Oh yeah… he sunk. Like a 1220 pound rock. Ouch. Gripping his head as he sat up, Kurama contemplated the situation. It was probably rather late, and Gai most likely thought he was at the library still, or something. Imagine if he had actually drowned… No one would have EVER found him… Freaky thought…

Standing up in a graceful motion, Kurama searched for any sign of Shinrin. The silver fox was found sleeping curled up on a rock by the edge of the water. He was looking rather comfortable, Kurama thought to himself bitterly. Walking forward with purpose, Kurama picked the little fox up and gently held him. With that done, he quickly made his way back to the Akachi's residence.

----The Next Morning----

"Kurama! Get up!" Neji said furiously, trying to shake the dead to the world redhead awake.

Kurama merely moaned a sleepy, "Five more minutes, mother."

Neji froze at this comment and stared at Kurama in shock. Did he remember something from his past? Redoubling his efforts, Neji sat on Kurama's stomach, causing all the air to rush out instantly.

Kurama opened his eyes wide and pushed Neji off him. "Jesus, can't a guy get any sleep around here? God… I almost fucking drown and now I can't even get a decent night's sleep…" Kurama mumbled under his breath, yet Neji heard every word.

"YOU ALMOST DROWNED?!" Neji shouted, completely losing his composure.

Kurama froze like a deer caught in headlights. `Shit…' "Ah… that is… I went for a little swim and forgot to take my weights off!" Kurama said with an uncomfortable laugh.

Not satisfied with the answer, but not knowing what else to do, Neji just grabbed Kurama by his collar and tried to drag him upwards. To his shock, Kurama was too heavy for him to even lift. "How heavy are your weights?" he asked incredulously.

Blinking and sweatdropping, Kurama said with a laugh, "20 pounds of course, just like you will be because of Gai." Standing up, Kurama stopped any objection by pulling off his cover and shirt in one pull, revealing his well-toned chest as well as the weight on the front and back that strapped together.

"What's that? That's not Gai-sensei's weights," Neji asked curiously.

"I got weights specially made for me a little while after our team was set up together," Kurama answered smoothly, not missing a beat.

"Oh," was all Neji could say as he watched Kurama undress with a shameless expression.

"Aren't you bold," Kurama commented with a smile as he pulled his boxers off. At this move, Neji blushed bright read at seeing Kurama in his birthday clothes (aside from the arm and shin guards, the chest weight, and the weights Gai had made Kurama wear). "Not so shameless now, no?" Kurama asked, seductively turning around and giving Neji a nice view of his ass as he leaned down to pull clean boxers and a green Chinese fighting uniform out of his bag.

Neji swallowed nervously and watched Kurama's smooth and graceful movements with captivated white eyes.

"Liking the show?" Kurama asked once he was fully dressed.

Neji had the decency to blush again, this time a bright cherry red. He didn't comment.

Kurama laughed melodically and left the room, pulling a blushing Neji out with him

The last few days of their time in the Hidden Stone passed uneventfully. Tsuchikage didn't give them any more missions, and the three of them trained fiercely, adding more weight daily.

The day soon arrived when it was time to go back to Konoha. The chuunin selection exam was coming up, and they DEFINITELY didn't want to miss it.

"Gai-sensei," Kurama began, "Do you think we are ready for the chuunin exam?"

Gai's chest puffed out as he struck a pose. "OF COURSE! ANY STUDENT OF MINE IS READY FOR ANYTHING!"

"YES GAI-SENSEI!" Lee shouted.

Both of the `Beautiful Green Beasts of Konoha' jumped at eachother and hugged, tears streaming down their faces.

Kurama only shook his head and slung his pack onto his back. Shinrin complained slightly about the thing coming so close to him. Kurama ignored the muttering and dragged Neji off behind him, leaving Gai and Lee to do what green beasts do:

Act like idiots.

(In Kurama's opinion.)

(CoughandNejicough)

Eventually Gai and Lee got over themselves and caught up with the slow pace Kurama and Neji had unconsciously set immediately.

They traveled at top speed for the whole day, their stamina greatly increased by their new training schedule. Taking a very short stop for lunch, they continued after at the same pace until they amazingly reached Konoha around 6 in the evening.

"We have definitely improved," Kurama commented absently as they entered the gates to Konohagakure village.

"I agree," Neji said, sending a small smile Kurama's way.

They headed their separate ways to their homes and enjoyed being home. Even Neji.

"Oh. So you're back," Kakashi said when Kurama walked in. The silver-haired jounin was, of course, reading the newest volume of Icha Icha Paradise.

"Pathetic," Kurama muttered to himself, walking straight to his room. After changing out of his clothes, Kurama wrapped a towel around his waist and had a long relaxing shower to wash off all the grit that may have collected on his person. Once done his shower, he rewrapped the towel around his waist and went back to his room to gather up all his clothes from the trip. He washed them all and hung them up to dry in his room, hanging from a thing wire that he strung from the walls with kunai.

Smiling at his handy-work, Kurama got started on cleaning his weights. Both sets. The ones he had bought, and the ones Gai gave him (which amounted to around 400 pounds at that point). Dragging around 1600 pounds of extra weight really took its toll on a person.

Once done, he immediately collapsed on his bed and fell asleep instantly.

The red lights of his alarm clock read 7:00 PM.

Kurama slept until 10:00 the next day, surprised that Kakashi hadn't come in to wake him up. He enjoyed every bit of it, however, and got a well-deserved well-rested sleep for the first time in a LONG time.

Sighing gently, Kurama pulled his lazy ass out of bed and got dressed with some complaints from his sore muscles. Even though he had the next two weeks off in preparation for the Chuunin Exam, that didn't mean that he didn't train. In fact, he trained harder.

The first week Kurama did the same drills Gai had made them do, yet he increased the amount of each exercise by 10 each day. He ran twice as long, and finished the evening off with some jutsu and chakra control training. He had learned quite a few interesting jutsu during his time in Stone.

The week before the exam began, Kurama spent completely recovering (yet he still wore the weights). He set up many dangerous traps around his room to prevent Kakashi from waking him up and slept till noon every day. He went to bed right after supper at 6. During the day he did nothing but read and relax.

Soon the Chuunin Exam was around the corner, and Kurama met up with Gai and his team at their training site.

"Here are the registration forms that you must fill out to participate in the Chuunin Selection Exam. Register and meet tomorrow at the registration building in room 301. Ciao!" Gai said excitedly and poofed out of existence.

"Baka," Kurama muttered under his breath, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Why are you so tired?" Neji asked curiously.

"I've been sleeping late every day this week, lazing about and recovering from our horrible training. I'm tired because I'm not used to getting up so early," Kurama said with a sheepish grin.

The three of them left to go and get something to eat before they went to register. They ended up eating ramen at a ramen stall called `Ichiraku', and enjoyed their meal.

They registered after lunch and then went home with their farewells.

The next day they met at the regular training spot.

"Ready to go?" Kurama said with a calm and serious aura about him, slightly unnerving his two teammates.

"Of course," Neji said, staring at Kurama's cool, calm, and collected appearance. Usually Kurama was much more open, but now he was as easy to read as a rock.

"HAI!" Lee shouted excitedly, punching up at the air.

Kurama shook his head slightly before leading his teammates away from the training site. They jumped from rooftop to rooftop with incredible agility and arrived at the administrative building within a minute. Or less.

They went inside and searched for the room 301. They found it rather quickly, and found a crowd of students standing around the room with lost expressions on their faces.

"What's going on?" Kurama calmly asked one of the genin.

"Those two," the genin pointed at two rather rough looking older genin, "won't let anyone in."

Kurama nodded his head and turned to look at his teammates.

"We really shouldn't attract attention," Lee said, serious for once.

"That has to be the first intelligent thing that I've ever heard come from your mouth," Neji replied with a smirk.

Lee glared at Neji. However, Kurama placed his hand on Lee's shoulder and winked at the green beast. He whispered in Lee's ear.

"That's his way of saying that he thinks you're right."

Lee could only stare as Kurama smiled at him for the first time that day before his calm and calculative look.

"Even though we shouldn't attract attention with our skill, I still think we should stand up to them," Lee said, walking forward before Kurama or Neji could say a thing.

Lee tried to convince the older genin to let them by, but was pushed back onto his but with a punch.

(Disclaimer: I am now almost completely `word-for-word'ing this scenario from the translated version of Naruto supplied by `narutochuushin.com')

"Ha! You plan to take the Chuunin Exam with that?!" one of the older genin said with a smirk. "You should quit now. You're just a little kid." The older genin had spiky hair and what looked like giant kunai on his back.

The spiky guy's accomplice in crime contributed a "Yeah yeah."

"Please, let us through," Kurama said with a deadly edge to his voice that caused shivers to go up many spines. Since when had Kurama been able to act so coldly cool?

The spiky haired one only hit Kurama with the back of his hand.

Kurama allowed himself to be hit and fall to the right. He held his cheek, pretending it hurt. However, spiky's hand probably hurt more.

"Horrible…" someone in the crowd mumbled.

"What did you say?" Spiky asked. "Listen. This is out of kindness." (A/N: changed the wording from `This is our kindness') "The Chuunin Exam isn't easy… Even we have failed it three straight times. Those that take this exam and end up quiting as shinobi, those that die during the exam, we've seen it all," Spiky said. "And chuunin often become captains of military teams. The failure of a mission. The death of a comrade… That is all the captain's responsibility. Yet kids like you think you can pass?" Spiky said with a smirk. "We are just thinning out those that will fail anyway. What's wrong with that?"

"I agree… But… You will let me pass through… And also remove this surrounding created with genjutsu," a cool Uchiha Sasuke said with a cocky smirk, his two teammates standing beside him. "I'm going to the third floor."

"What's that guy talking about?"

"I don't know…"

"So you noticed…" the second genin said, his leaf headband forming a cover over his head.

Sasuke only smirked in response.

"Sakura, you must have noticed first, right?" Sasuke said to his pink-haired teammate.

"Huh…?"

"Your analytical ability and genjutsu know-how is the most improved on our team," Sasuke said with what some people might consider CLOSE to a smile.

Sakura blushed and smiled, happy to have been praised by her idol and not be seen as entirely useless to the Uchiha prodigy. "Of course, I noticed it a while ago. Because this is the second floor."

"Yup!" Naruto contributed as the genjutsu disappeared, revealing the room to be 201.

"Hmm… not bad… But all you did was SEE THROUGH IT!!!" Spiky said, launching a kick at Sasuke.

Sasuke responded in kind.

The kicks were about to collide when Lee jumped in and caught each.

`He's fast… He was able to see both kicks and slide himself in between? This is… He's completely different from the person that was getting knocked around earlier…!' Sakura thought to herself in shock.

`Catching my kick with is hand… What's this chakra in his arms…?" Sasuke thought, bewildered, to himself.

"Haa…" Lee breathed out.

"Hey," Neji said. "What happened to the plan? You're the one who said we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves," Neji said with a frown.

"Well…" Lee said, a blush on his face as he looked at Sakura. (A/N: End copying of script from narutochuushin) He was about to walk over when Kurama grabbed him from the back of his green spandex outfit and dragged him back.

"This is not the time to flirt with pretty girls, Lee," Kurama said, his eyes calm as he stared down at Lee with a slightly disapproving look.

Lee pouted.

Sakura blushed when Kurama turned his cool green eyes to hers. His red hair framed his features beautifully, and his black outfit really drew out the colour. He was as hot as Sasuke, in Sakura's eyes, yet she would remain true to Sasuke (not that the black haired bastard would care, ne? Heyhey, don't bite my head off. I like him too, you know, I have nothing against Sasu-chan).

"We are leaving, Lee. Pull yourself off the ground," Neji said coldly and walked away in the direction of the stairs.

Kurama smiled beautifully and pulled Lee up. "No need to get sidetracked. Com on," he said, leading him away after dazzling the crowd with his beautiful smile.

`Wow! He's hotter than Sasuke when he smiles!' Sakura thought with a blush.

Once they arrived in 301, Kurama and his teammates picked a corner to hang out in and check out the competition.

They ignored the rather loud and noisy entrance of team 7 (especially Naruto's rather loud exclamation that he'd kick all their asses) and waited for the first examiner to show up. However, something caught Kurama's eye.

A man with silver hair pulled back in a pony tail and circular glasses had approached the group of leaf genin and was talking to them about not bringing so much attention to themselves. Afterwards, Kurama watched with curious eyes as the boy (whose name he had caught in conversation with his awesome hearing as Kabuto) showed the genin cards with information on leaf shinobi.

To Kurama's irritation, they asked about their whole team as well as a sand-nin named `Gaara'. Kurama was shocked when this `Kabuto' had a shitload of information on him. It had everything from who he was staying with to his ability in ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu. To his relief, there was nothing about him having a bloodline ability.

After that, Kabuto made an absent comment about sound nin being a small village and was attacked by a sound-nin who used some sort of attack to shatter Kabuto's glasses and cause him to puke.

After the rather gruesome show, the first part of the Chuunin Selection Exam began when their examiner showed up.

I made it pretty long since around a page of it wasn't my own. Hope you like it. This may be the last chapter before I leave for my road-trip. Reminder: won't be back till Sept. 10th. Nasty cliffy, no? Ciao!