Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Demon Reborn ❯ The Gathering ( Chapter 2 )

I don't own Naruto. But all new characters are MINE!

 

Sakura stood outside the school waiting for her teammates. Today was the first of the Chuunin exam and she wanted to go in with Sasuke. She looked around the entrance anxiously. She had spent a lot of time making her hair look just right and she got here early so she would have a chance of catching him. Ever since the incident on the bridge in the mist country she had tried harder to make Sasuke notice her in ways other than as a teammate.

She leaned her head back for a second to look at the clouds above her. For some reason Sasuke seem more determined then ever to become stronger, the pink haired girl wondered why. Shaking her head she brought it back down, to look straight into a pair of goggled eyes. For a second, Sakura just blinked. Then, screaming, she jumped backward into the pillar that sat right behind her, knocking her head into it. She fell onto her butt and rubbed her head. Slowly a shadow covered her body and a hand came into view. She looked up the arm into the same goggle and scarf covered face that caused her fall in the first place. The other hand was behind the figures head and it made the figure appear very embarrassed. Cautiously she took the offered hand.

“Sorry about that,” said the muffled voice behind the mask, as the figure lifted her to a standing position. Sakura noticed the ninja protector was set in the top of it right over the figures nose. The symbol scratched into it looked like a circle with small slashes to illustrate flame. She had never seen or heard of a symbol like that. “Ahem,” came the same voice breaking her thoughts.

“Oh, sorry,” She said and quickly bowed blushing slightly, “I'm Sakura Haruna.” Smooth move jackass, said the inner Sakura.

“It's ok,” said the figure, “I'm used to getting stared at by the people here. And I am called Gizensha*.” Sakura frowned.

“That's a…strange name,” she wondered out loud. Gizensha shrugged.

“It fits me, but any way I wanted to ask you if this was where the Chuunin exam was.”

“Oh, yes it is…Uh,” Sakura looked at the metal plate again, “Can I ask where you're from?”

“Oh, I'm from the Hidden Spirit Village.”

“What?” Sakura cried, “But that village isn't supposed to exist! I thought it was just a legend!”

“Nope,” Gizensha's body language denoted the pride he felt, “We just did not bother with the outside world for a couple hundred years. We wanted to…perfect our style of battle before we revealed ourselves to the world again. I was chosen to be a part of the first group of Spirit Chunnin Ninjas.” He turned and called out, “So are you guys just going to hide or come out! I mean come on enough with the sneaky stuff!”

Sakura's eyes bulged as three other figures appeared. One of the cloaked figures rose right out from under the earth. Another cloaked figure exploded out of a pile of leaves too thin for any human to hide in. The bandaged figure simply grew out of Gizensha's shadow. The two cloaked figures removed their hoods. The cloaked one whose back had the beetle was a boy who looked a little older then Sakura and wore his protector as a choker around his neck. He had long dark blue hair that was pulled into a braided ponytail and his face gave off the impression that he did not take any crap from anyone. Hanging from his left ear is a small pendulum shaped earring. The other cloaked figure was a girl that had to be Sakura's age. She had blue hair a little lighter then the boy's and longer, and she wore her protector like a headband. The girl had a smile on her face and her eyes twinkled with happiness. The bandaged figure merely stood there, its protector fastened around where its eyes would be.

“Sakura,” said Gizensha sweeping his arms toward the assembled group, “This is the rest of my team. The bandaged guy is Seishinª, and the two cloaked ones are Kouchuu° and his sister, Keikokuˇ. This, you guys, is Sakura and I was right! This is the exam place!”

“So did you figure out what room we are in?” asked Kouchuu. Gizensha flinched and scratched the back of his neck.

“Um, isn't it on the sheet we got?” the masked ninja asked. Keikoku removed a sheet from her cloak and looked at it.

“Yes, it is. Room 301, so you don't need to worry about it ok brother?” She smiled sweetly at Kouchuu, whose mouth quirked into a smile for a second. The group of spirit ninjas began to turn and leave when Sakura spoke up, “Sorry to bother you guys but why are there four people in your group? The regulations state that each group is made up of only three members.”

Keikoku replied, “I'm not an official part of the group. I'm coming along to act as healer and cheerleader. And I need to keep these two in line.” She laughed as she put her arms around Kouchuu's and Gizensha's shoulders and they walked off, Gizensha turning and waving to Sakura.

Sakura just shook her head. Turned and saw Sasuke walking up towards her. “Sasuke-kun!”

 

Gizensha was bored. They had arrived at the room, got their seat assignments, and heard the rule about not fighting and to be here on time, but there was still a while before the exam started, so they were standing outside the room. Kouchuu was leaning against one of the windows and stared outside, Keikouku was reading a book of medicine, and Seishin was bouncing a ball off the wall, showing off in Gizensha's opinion. Gizensha was stuck with nothing to do so he was walking along the halls looking for something. There is a saying, ask the universe enough times and it will deliver.

The masked ninja rounded the corner right into a stand off. A squad of sound ninjas were staring down a group of leaf ninjas. Gizensha walked forward clapping his hands.

“Oi! What is this?” he asked, stepping in between the groups, “You guys are not allowed to fight…” He stopped talking and whirled around, placing his pointer finger right on the forehead of the bandage-covered sound shinobi. He leaned in, applying a slight pressure with the claw that grew from his finger instead of a nail.

“I can send a blast of charka right into your brain,” Gizensha hissed loud enough so no one could hear him but the bandaged ninja, “You will then die of a normal heart attack. No one would know what happened.” The threatened ninja stared at Gizensha for a few seconds. He then straightened, muttered that it wasn't worth it, and left with the rest of his group, both of them sending death glares at the masked ninja. Gizensha whirled around and bow theatrically, “Sorry for doing that, I am Gizensha of the Hidden Spirit Village!”

The only person of the group who seemed to really care was the girl in the group. The fat guy just back to eating and the black haired guy just looked extremely bored. The blonde haired girl frowned and looked ready to kill Gizensha.

“Why did you butt into my fight?” she demanded, “I was about to kick those guys' asses!”

“I saved you fr…”

“What do you mean you saved me?” Now she was really pissed, “Do I look like some sort of damsel in distress? I could have kicked their asses!”

“Yeah,” Gizensha replied levelly, “But your group would have been kicked out. It's not allowed for ninja groups to fight each other in the building unless told otherwise by an official, like the one right behind you.” The blonde whirled around and saw in the shadow of a corner another leaf ninja who wore a pin that said `official' on it. She turned back and glared at Gizensha before turning and striding off, leading the rest of to group behind her. The orange clad ninja sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. Seeing that the time for the exam was getting close, he leapt up onto one of the walls and proceeded to run on all fours along it.

He quickly reached his group and hopped off the wall. Kouchuu was staring at him. The blue haired ninja lowered his head and sighed.

“Do you like drawing attention to yourself?” he asked Gizensha. The masked ninja looked around and saw that most of the assembled shinobi were staring at him. He raised a hand behind his head, looking embarrassed.

“What can I say?” he said, “Part of me just wants the world to see that I kick ass!” The final part of that statement was punctuated by a victory stance, one arm raised making the victory sign and the other with his fist on his waist. Kouchuu just snorted and walked into the exam room. Keikoku giggled and said with a smile, “Careful Gizensha, your ego is showing.” She then walked off to the waiting area that was set up for the family and trainers of the ninjas. Seishin just tilted his head toward the orange clad ninja and shrugged before striding into the room.

Gizensha began to follow when he stopped. There was a tingling on the back of his neck. He slowly turned and stared at a group of sand ninjas. The red haired boy of the group was staring at him intensely, and he returned it. The two sand shinobi standing on either side stiffed, preparing for a confrontation. Slowly Gizensha backed up and swept his hand over toward the door in a gesturing that the sand ninjas should go first. The red haired one nodded and walked in, followed by his associates. Gizensha looked after them, nodded, and entered the room.

He found his group in the mass of bodies and stood next to them. After a short while a large group of leaf ninjas entered the room and seemed to be drawing as much attention to themselves as possible. They were finally quieted down by another leaf ninja who began to show them cards that showed off the stats of the ninjas in the exam and where they were from. The orange clad ninja leaned forward and listened in.

“What's this square off to the side for?” the pink haired ninja, Sakura if he remembered correctly, asked pointing to the card that showed off where the 3-D bar graph showed where all the ninjas were from.

“That bar I just added,” The glasses wearing ninja replied, “It represents a new village that just appeared. It calls itself the Village Hidden in the Well of the Spirit. The strange thing is they aren't affiliated to any of the countries. They have only sent one group to the exam. I don't have any information on them except their names, they are Gizensha, Seishin, Kouchuu, and Keikoku. The first three are the ones in the actual group taking the exam.” Just then the glasses wearing ninja dodged a blow from the bandaged sound ninja. He quickly collapsed and threw up. Kouchuu grunted, “Interesting…I wonder how he did that.”

Gizensha shrugged, “Does not matter to us. They are over confident though, could come in handy later.” Seishin nodded, his arms crossed. There was an explosion in front and an imposing looking ninja stood in front of the group. After reprimanding the sound ninjas he turned to the assembled group.

“Shut up you worthless bastards,” said a voice out of nowhere, quickly followed by an explosion at the front of the room. Standing there was a small army of exam officials and an imposing man in a black trench coat. He looked out over the crowd. “I'm Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the first section of the Chuunin Exam. Thanks for waiting.”

Several of the ninjas shivered from the scary vibe the man gave off. “Hey, you sound ninjas sit down and stop screwin' around before I fail the lot of you.” As the sound ninjas sat down he turned to the rest of the massed people, “This is a good time as any to tell you that if fighting starts without the ok of an official or in an area where you have been told fighting is allowed, both teams will be failed.” Ibiki looked up and pointed at the group of spirit ninjas, “Will the group from the Hidden Spirit Village come down.”

Gizensha and his comrades made their ways to the front, Gizensha by running on the ceiling, Kouchuu simply leapt to the front, and Seishin disappeared and reformed from out of Kouchuu's shadow. Ibiki looked at the group and smirked. People called him a sadist, he said that was not true. He merely…enjoyed his work more then others.

“I hate to say this,” though his expression conveyed that he was loving every minute of it, “but there is a problem with your applications to this exam. You claim to be from the Hidden Spirit Village. You are being allowed by the Hokage to enter the exam, but I want some proof or I'm going to fail you now.” Smiling brightly he turned back to the mass of people, “You have two minutes.”

Gizensha looked a Kouchuu and nodded. Kouchuu quickly performed two hand signs and spoke quietly “Sensei aizu no jutsu**.” A small flame appear for an instant and then disappeared. Thirty seconds later there was an explosion of five pronged leaves and standing before them was the large figure of a man. On his face was a red mask depicting a grimacing man with a very long nose. He was dressed in the short robes of a priest. His head was covered with a hood and a small cap tied to the top of his head. Out of his back sprouted a pair of short black wings, though no one could see if they were real or just decorations. The immense man turned to Ibiki and looked down at the exam official.

“Hmmm, you need proof do you?” said the voice behind the mask in a deep baritone voice, “Hmmmm, well, I am sensei of Team Alpha, hmmm, the mountain priest, hmmm, I am…Master Tengu!” The figure places himself into a very flashy pose, “hmmm, and I present you with the Scroll of Communion.” With a flourish the man removed a large scroll from somewhere on his body and opened it in front of Ibiki. For a moment no one moved. Then Ibiki slowly turned so no one could see his face.

 

“Alright, I'm convinced go back to your seats,” Ibiki turned back forward and waved at the three ninjas. Tengu waved to his students and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The spirit ninjas returned to their seats and Ibiki began writing on the board.

“Alright, here's the deal. You sad excuses for ninjas are going to be taking an exam. The examiners are passing out the forms now. This is a written test to challenge your basic knowledge. The rules are simple. Each of you starts out with ten points. There are ten questions on the test. You get one wrong, you lose one point. Lose ten and you and your teammates fail. Also anyone found cheating will lose two points for each `incident'.”

“We will be watching you,” said one of the officials as he lounged back in his chair at the side of the room.

Ibiki nodded. “So, no questions?” He intense stare caused anyone beginning to raise their hands to lower them again, “Good! The test will last for one hour. BEGIN!”

 

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* Gizensha- hypocrite or fox in sheep's clothing, if I got the right translation

 

ª Seishin- Soul, spirit, mind

 

° Kouchuu- Beetle

 

ˇ Keikoku- Siren

 

** Sensei aizu no jutsu- “Art of the Teacher Signal” creates a mini signal fire that appears in front of the ninja's sensei of choice. Usually used to remind late teachers of class or meetings.

 

Holy crap it took a long time to get this done. For you who waited for the new chapter, sorry about taking so long. Life got to me and a couple of writer's blocks made me take longer than I thought. Anyway here it be! Read, enjoy, comment if you want!

 

Flames will be sent to fuel the fires under my editors.