Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Living Behind a Mask ❯ Chunin Exams Part 2 ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: Specula

A/N: Well, it seems I have to start splitting my responses to reviews into sections, now that I'm getting responses from MM. By the way, sorry to my fans of the Biju series, but I really want to develop this story to the point of the Sasuke retreval arc in the offical story. My mind is hounding me to write these ideas I have down, and any other story line I try to do will end up with major plot flaws. If you remember the author of the Conan books, he used to imagine that Conan would stand over him, threatening to kill him until he finished writing a whole book. I get that to a lesser extent. I've also tried to lighten the very angsty mood of the story so far this chapter. I hope it works.

One final thing: The picture of Kyubi in 'humaniod' form is NOT and I repeat NOT an EXACT physical representation. It's to give you the general idea of what she'll look like. I'll describe her perfectly when I first introduce her in her humanoid form. I was lucky enough to find a picture that had a fox with 8 tails instead of one. Seriously, what ever happened to people's immaginations? Eh, anyways...

Thanks to everyone who agrees with me. The man reason wasn't that there was a few negative reviews posted, it was with a group of people who enjoyed spamming my email with simmilar insults. Anywho, I'll get over the reveiws/comments/suggestions:

F F Section:

Conceptor: Well, in a few of the anime episodes and like one or two manga issues, you see the psychological effects of the seal. Basically, Orochimaru manages to somehow play up their strongest fears and goad them into seeking him for power. For example, with Sasuke, he sees a younger version of himself standing over his parent's bodies crying, claiming he didn't have enough power to stop Itachi. This messed with Sasuke's mind and set him on a path of self destruction, with no concern for anyone or anything, as long as he managed to kill Itachi. In my story, the same thing happened to him, however, for Naruto, he played back memories of the beatings he got on his first 5 or so birthdays, shwoing a younger version of himself sobbing, saying 'if I had more power... I wouldn't have been beaten and they would have recognised me' and such. In my fic, Naruto has hidden the fact that he still wants to be acnowledged by the adults as Naruto and not Kyubi, but Orochimaru managed to twist his memories to make Naruto believe that it was impossible. The Rookies and Team Gai didn't count, because they didn't know about Kyubi. Hopefully, that answers your question. And yes, thank god I did keep that scene. I've had Orochimaru hint at it, but at the moment, Naruto hates Yondaime for making his life a living hell. When Naruto finds out Yondaime is his father, going along with his personality, he'll hate him even more.

Bleachum: Yup, that's right, the pic shows a fox with only 8 tails. The reason why I uploaded it was to give everyone an idea of the overall figure of the Kyubi in human form. I was lucky enough that the pic I found had 8 tails and not 1. The point was to give you a GENERAL idea of it's looks, not exactly what it looked like, as I said many times throught this fic. And when you said Naruto and Sasuke seemed gay, did you mean like homosexually or just being idiots? If you meant the first one, then you should probably reread the fic. As for the OOCness, the entire IDEA of this story is OOCness. I've had enough complaints of this, and it seems that people don't understand the idea this fic is trying to get across. I'm not saying your an idiot or it's only you, but a number of people are COMPLETELY missing the point of this story. You were just the straw that broke the donkey's back, so to speak. Sorry for the rant, but it just gets annoying after a while.

FlameChampion54: The reason I'm rushing through it is that the main part of the story will be taking place after the two and a half year time skip. Do you seriously think I'm going to have Kyubi get sexually involved with a 12 year old? I have my standards, and a pedophilic relationship is not one of them. It will get better, that I can promise you, so please bare with it. Now that I think about it, I probably should have just started from after the time skip, huh? Then again, it would feel very alien, so I HAVE to get this out of the way.

lenecromencien0145: Thanks for the positive review. Trust me, Orochimaru would only mark people who would go to him for power with the Cursed Seal. That should tell you where this is going, right? However, I CAN tell you that unlike many other stories, Orochimaru will not rape Sasuke or Naruto, or anything of the sort. Also, I HATE the idea of Orochimaru using Sasuke as a container, so I'm going to do what I'm sure will happen in the official manga. I'm not going to tell you what that is, because I dislike giving away major plot points of my story.

TrapedSoul: What happened in the anime and Manga before Sasuke left? Naruto and Sasuke left her eating their dirt. Sakura will still be trained by Tsunade. She will still have her monsterous strength and healing capeabilities, until then, she will be weak, just like she is in the official story.

cursed chaos kitsune Kyuusune: Thanks for the review, at least someone can see that only two characters from the original story line really changed, namely Naruto and Sasuke. Hope you keep reading.

Windsbane: Thanks. Also, Naruto had a habit of doing that in the official story as well, so I carried that over to this fic. Good to see that someone understands what I'm making Naruto go through.

Isumo 1489: Thank you.

Zaivon: Well, in my eyes, Kyubi wouldn't pick a mate that was according to her, a 'soft hearted goody two shoes'. Naruto's personality suits her well. The reason she's chosing him is that he's not opposed to continuing the destruction of Konoha, although he hasn't specifically said in words that he would do it, he's hinted at it twice.

Oblivion's Muse: One particular paragraph last chapter said that Naruto didn't talk to the Kyubi after the incident because of what she made him do, and he only just started talking with her again.

Kyuubi-Sama: Uh huh. According to me, she looks more attractive like that than the other pics I've seen of her in a 'true' human form. I think a Kyubi with tails and the rest human looks weird, but this looks more believable. When I said she had a 'human' form, I meant she would only take on the main physical attributes of a human, ie standing upright, two legs, two arms, mostly human shapped form, etc. Thr fur and other animal features gives her a more 'untamed' look, which the Kyubi is.

Touji-Kun: What exactly did you mean by a Naruto like Sasuke story? Did you mean Naruto gets a Sasuke like personality or did you mean Naruto X Sasuke? I'm guessing it's the former one. If so, that's exactly what I'm aiming for with this fic.

Dracowar: Thanks, I tried to make this as original as possible.

Inumaru-Kun: I still don't get what you're getting at, unfortunately. I said that Naruto would NOT become Orochimaru's sexual plaything or the next container. If that's what you weren't talking about, then what exactly were you talking about? If you meant Orochimaru's subordinate, then he will, however, like Sasuke in the manga, Orochimaru will only useful for a certain amount of time. After that, who knows what will happen.

Shadow Kitsune67: Glad you like it. As for the long chapter, as a former leecher, I hated short chapters, so I decided when I became an author to make chapters no less than 4k words. Those kinds of chapters are usually the first and last chapter of the fic, the rest I try to maintain about 10k words each.

Ashen Rose: All I have to say is holy shit. That's one long ass review, and a damn good one at that. Now, I'll get onto your questions: As for the time skip, if people want this story to keep going as is, I will have both Sasuke and Naruto leave for Oto. Orochimaru is VERY selective as to who he puts the mark on now. The first 10 people were really just test subjects, from what I could work out. Snake man, as I like to call him, won't put the cursed seal on anyone who won't seek him for power. After all, what would the point be of giving someone a massive power boost if they're not going to 'thank' you for it, if you will? As for them returning, I highly doubt they will return for a while. They will use Orochimaru to gain power. Once they gain enough, who knows. As for the Kyubi having fur and ears, well, you looked at the picture, right? Man, shaving that much hair would be a royal pain in the ass. Ears? Yup, she'll have fox ears. She'll be able to switch between her 'demonic' form and her humanoid form at will. As for Sakura, she'll still be Tsunade's apprentice. Right now, I'm having a massive brain storm session on how I can get Naruto to convince her to come back without being OOC from Naruto's already OOC personality. I really hope that made sense.... Being OOC from an OOC personality.... Meh, anyways. As for the heartbroken thing, oh boy will she ever. I personally HATE Sakura. I really really do. She's such an upstuck bossy b1tch. So in this fic, she will SUFFER!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA... Ahem... Excuse the breach of etticquite. There will still be the Sasuke retreival arc, but this time, it'll be the Sasuke and Naruto retreival arc. I think I'll make the rest of the Rookie 9 go, with Sakura and a few others, such as Hinata, Ino, Tenten and Shino facing off against Naruto and Sasuke at the Valley of the End. They'll get to experience Naruto and Sasuke's 'true' powers so to speak. I specifically chose Sakura, Ino and Hinata because they all have crushes on them. When they see their true forms, I reckon they'd think twice before admitting their crush on them. Shino and Tenten will be there mainly as backup, because the three girls couldn't beat both of them by themselves, they'd be too scared to even move initially. As for the replacements, I have absolutely no idea. Sai will still be Sasuke's replacement, but I'll have to create an OC for Naruto. Man, those poems are beautiful. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to steal them YOINK Seriously, they're great. I just read your stories. OMG, HAHAHAHAHA, they're great. Hope you keep reading, catch you round!

Anntolas: NarutoxTayuya pairing? She's that chick from the Sound Four, right? Jeez, that'd be one HELL of a challenge. I'm not even sure if I could pull it off... I'll see what I can do, however, it's at the back of my 'stories to write' list atm.

Martrex: How do I know? How do I put this... Basically there are two types of intelligence. Knowledge and emotional. I'm lucky I have a large amount of knowledge intelligence, but I also have an abhorrent amount of emotional intelligence, so says the experts. If someone has the amount of emotional intelligence I do or more, they can read people like books. Give me a person and let me speak a few choice words to them, and I can tell you a lot about them. BF's words were MORE than enough to dicern that he is an arrogant, snide fool who enjoys projecting his own emotional insecurities onto others in the form of 'bagging them out' or flaming. Trust me, I've seen a lot, and I've managed to categorise 99 percent of the human population into groups. He fits the one I term 'overconfident arrogant bastards'. So far, I have yet to be proven wrong in my 19 years of categorising people. It won't change now. Satisfied? If not, I'm not going to explain further.

MM Section:

firelord: No problem, glad you liked it.

GrayPhoenix: Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.

Thank you to everyone else who supports my views!

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Legend:

'...thoughts...'

“...normal talk...”

“...Biju thoughts...”

“...Biju Speaking...”

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Living Behind a Mask:

Chapter 3:

Chunin Exams Part 2:

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Day Three of the Second Test:

With their Heaven scroll burnt and in possession of the Oto team's Earth scroll, Team 7 went searching for a team they could get a replacement Heaven scroll from. Ever since Naruto had regained conciousness after the fight, he had attempted to contact Kyubi to find out what was happening to his body. Naruto became increasingly worried when Kyubi either refused to respond or was unable to respond to his questions. Finally, Naruto decided to see exactly what was wrong, and called a stop in a clearing next to the river. Naruto formed a quick hand seal Kyubi had taught him that allowed him to enter his mind and visit whenever he wanted. When Sakura saw Naruto slump to the ground unconcious, she became worried and rushed over to his side, but was held back by Sasuke, who shook his head. Sakura looked to Sasuke for an explination.

“He's fine, he's just checking his subconcious mind for any damages. He was taught that technique by a medical specialist when he was in the Wave.”

Sakura nodded and watched Naruto, silently praying he would be ok. Meanwhile, when Naruto awoke, he was horrified at what he saw. The regular yellow sewer with yellow pipes was still there, however, there were a mass of pulsing purple pipes that outnumbered the yellow ones by three to one. Naruto strained his ears and just heard a growl from the cages direction. He ran to see what the problem was, twisting through the maze of corridors before emerging into the light, which faded to reveal the cage. Naruto noticed that Kyubi was panting from exersion.

“So you finally turned up, eh kit?”

“Kyubi... Why haven't you been responding to me?”

The kyubi lowered itself onto its haunches.

“I have, but it seems you never received my replies. That cursed seal is disgusting. I'm sure you noticed those purple pipes on the way here?”

Naruto nodded.

“The corridors represent the major chakra paths, while the pipes represent the minor ones. That cursed seal has created completely new chakra paths that gourge themselves on the major ones, draining you of your chakra when you try to mold it and puts incredible strain on your cells. It seems that the people who don't have a large chakra reserve have all their chakra eaten during the initial stages and that causes the person's cells to self destruct from the strain. You have no idea how close you were to dying, even with my help. If this keeps up, you will never be able to use my chakra again, because all of it is devoted to keeping the cursed seal at bay and healing the wounds you get in combat and the wounds this seal is causing. Kit, here's a warning. Until you can find someone who can put an overlaying seal on it, do not use jutsus. The only way I can think that would give you an edge would be to directly convert your stamina into speed and strength, like that green spandex wearing freak does.”

Naruto nodded as he took Kyubi's advice in. He'd practiced stamina increased speed and power before several times. The speed and power it granted were unbeliveable, but it drained stamina at a horrifying rate, even for him, as Sasuke had deemed him 'the stamina fiend'. The most Naruto had managed was 25 minutes before he collapsed, and that was with Kyubi's help. Without it, he guessed he could last or so minutes before exaustion set in. Naruto broke his chain of thoughts and looked at the Kyubi.

“Hold on for another two days. I'll get Kakashi-Sensei to fix it.”

“Fine. Now get out of here, I hate being seen in this state.”

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

“The only one seeing you like this is me, and I personally don't think any less of you for it.”

The demon lord raised it's head and stared at the boy in disbelief

“You don't think I'm weak now?”

Naruto shook his head.

“No. I would take an inhuman amount of power to keep the cursed seal at bay and heal me at the same time. Now, I'm leaving before your head inflates and this room shrinks.”

The Kyubi stared at the boy and laughed as he retreated back to the real world. Kyubi mused to itself.

“He's not like the rest of those pieces of trash. Not by a long shot...”

Naruto woke up to find that Sakura had started a fire, and Sasuke was brining back fish for them to cook and eat. Sasuke saw Naruto sit up and rub his eyes. Sasuke skewered the fish with a stick and put them against the fire to let them cook. He sat on the opposite side of the fire from Sakura, next to Naruto. Sasuke turned to his adopted brother with a look of concern on his face.

“What did you find?”

Naruto returned the serious gaze.

“If we use jutsus, I use it or you use your Sharingan, we're pretty much stuffed.”

Sasuke nodded slowly.

“I had a feeling it would be something like that.”

Naruto smiled.

“I did find out that we do have one thing going for us though.”

Sasuke turned to Naruto with interest.

“What would that be?”

Naruto smiled sadistically.

“We may not be able to mold chakra, but we can still use stamina in it's raw form.”

Sasuke had been training with Naruto during the stamina induced speed and strength training. Remembering this, he smiled.

“It's not all bad, I guess.”

Naruto laughed half heartedly.

“Imagine the look on that green freak's face when he sees it.”

Sasuke smirked.

“Priceless.”

They both shared a chuckle as they pulled one of the fish off the fire, now that they were cooked and began eating. Sakura had no idea what they were talking about, but then again, she'd found out early they were able to make obscure references or hint at things that would leave anyone else with no clue, but the other would pick it up flawlessly and run with it. She'd gotten used to the fact that she was the odd one out of this group. She could tell, even if she refused to believe it, that they would both be content if they could get rid of her off the team. After they had finished with their fish, Naruto looked at Sasuke, who nodded. They turned to Sakura. Sasuke spoke for them.

“Sakura, we're both still hungry, so we're going to go catch another bunch of fish. Give me your canteen, we'll fill it up while we're there.”

Sakura handed her canteen to Sasuke, and the two boys left to go to the river. However, they were only using the ruse they were still hungry to get away from her. It was true, but it still provided an excuse to talk privately. Once they immerged from the foliage, they sat at the river bank, talking about everything that had happened so far, while skewering any fish stupid enough to jump out of the water to a tree with a thrown kunai, which was apparently a lot of them. After what they deemed was as long as they could stay without making Sakura worried, Sasuke got up and filled the canteens with fresh water while Naruto retrived the fish. Once they finished, Naruto jumped over the river to land next to Sasuke with their kunai and fish. He sighed as they began walking back to camp.

“Sakura's a total nusance. It seems all she's good at is using that abnormally large brain of hers to answer theoretical questions and use the most basic skills in the most predictable manner.”

Sasuke nodded in agreement. Naruto had only said his true feelings for his female teammate in Sasuke's presence when he was certain Sakura or anyone else was out of ear shot. Naruto had very bad experiences with giving his opinions to 'friends', as he found the next day, the person he had talked about conered him with a group of friends. If they were male, they'd beat him. If they were female, they'd cuss him out. He'd quickly learnt that Sasuke was the only person in the entire village he could really trust to keep secrets. Sasuke also felt the same way about Naruto. It was one of the core parts of their friendship. Everyone else was not to be trusted, because even after multiple chances, they all screwed up every time. They were brought back from their prospective memories when they saw thata ninja was standing in a very imposing position over Sakura. Both boys noticed it was Kabuto. They took an offensive stance and charged in, however, Kabuto stood up and smiled.

“No need to attack me, you two. I was actually stopping Sakura from opening the scroll.”

They looked to see that Sakura was indeed beginning to open the scroll. Sasuke sighed and Naruto growled through clenched teeth.

“Can we really not leave you alone for 10 minutes without you getting into some sort of trouble?”

Sakura looked at Naruto and tried to appologise.

“I don't want to hear it. Give me the scroll.”

Naruto took the scroll out of Sakura's hands with more force than was necessary. Naruto turned to Kabuto.

“Thanks for that Kabuto.”

Kabuto smiled warmly at them.

“No problem.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

“By the way, Kabuto, what are you doing here by yourself? Are your teammates nearby?”

Kabuto shook his head and explained what his team had planned.

“Originally, we planned to separate. I was charged with recovering the other scroll while my teammates would head to the tower. They would also grab a set of scrolls from other teams who came close incase I returned empty handed or without the scroll we needed.”

Sasuke nodded. It was a decent plan, providing you could beat three other Genins by yourself. Kabuto smiled at them.

“Since I'm here, would I be able to ask you guys for escort to my teammates?”

Naruto smiled.

“What's in it for us?”

Kabuto rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.

“Well, I managed to get a second Heaven scroll before I found the Earth scroll we needed...”

Sasuke 'hmph'ed.

“Deal. Let's get going.”

Kabuto led the way to the tower. However Naruto called for a stop. They looked at him expectantly. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them.

“Straight ahead is a large area surrounded by concealed chakra. It's very faint, but I can feel it. The only thing I can think of is an area Genjutsu.”

Sasuke nodded.

“I felt something was wrong. That makes sense.”

Kabuto looked at the tower before turning back to his escorts.

“You're right. The tower should be much larger by now, but the Genjutsu is warping it. We should go around it.”

They nodded and shot off in a different direction, much to a group of Hidden Mist nin's chargrin. Within several hours of tree jumping, they had reached the base of the tower. Kabuto smiled and pulled out the Heaven scroll, handing it to them. They heard ruslting in the bushes next to them, and they tensed before Kabuto's teammates stepped out. They looked at the scroll Kabuto was giving Naruto and looked back at Kabuto. The one with the clear glasses frowned.

“Kabuto, what is the meaning of this?”

Kabuto smiled in his usual friendly way.

“Well, I happened to find an extra Heaven scroll before I found an Earth one, and as a trade for them escorting me here, I gave them the extra one.”

The one with the black glasses nodded.

“That's fine. However, Sensei's expecting us. You know he doesn't like to be kept waiting.”

Naruto smiled.

“Thanks for your help Kabuto. We'll see you in the finals.”

Kabuto smiled and waved at them.

“Take care.”

With that, Kabtuo increased his walking pace and caught up to his team mates and they enetered a door of the tower. Team 7 took the one next to them, and took out the scrolls. Naruto handed one to Sasuke and they looked at each other, nodded and ripped the scrolls open. The main part of the written seal raised and smoke emitted from the lump. Sasuke knew exactly what this was.

“Naruto! These are summoning scrolls! Get rid of them!”

Naruto and Sasuke threw the scrolls on top of each other on the floor in front of them. The smoke increased in volume before it exploded into a cloud, revealing their Academy teacher when it cleared. Sakura was the only person who was happy to see him. To Naruto and Sasuke, he was just another person who couldn't be trusted. Iruka smiled at them, pulling a watch out of his pocket and opened it, checking the time. He sighed before snapping the watch's lid closed again and putting it back in his pocket.

“Congratulations on passing. I knew you could do it.”

Naruto wanted to know why Iruka had appeared.

“Iruka-Sensei. Why were you summoned?”

Iruka smiled.

“Chunin's are required to meet every team that passes the second test. I was lucky enough to be chosen to give you the message.”

Naruto nodded. Sasuke smirked, making everyone look at him.

“I see. Since these are summoning scrolls, what would you have planned to do if we had opened them before we got here?”

Iruka smiled and turned around to collect the scrolls.

“You're as sharp as ever, Sasuke.”

Iruka picked up the scrolls, showing them to them.

“As you have guessed, this part of the exam tests your mission completion ability. So if you had broken the rules and opened them prematurely, we were ordered to knock out that team until the second exam ended.”

Sasuke smirked again and looked at Sakura.

“Are you glad now that you didn't open it?”

Nartuo joined Sasuke's staring at Sakura who was sweating bullets, making a silent thank you to Kabuto. Sakura decided to try and get the attention taken away from her by pointing to the inscription on the wall.

“Oh! Sensei, what does that inscription on the wall mean? I've read it but I don't understand it!”

Iruka smiled, turning around and looking at it.

“That was the second half of my mission, to explain what that means. Read it. It's the principle Hokage-Sama wrote that you should keep in mind as a Chunin. Heaven in this text refers to the head of a person, and earth points to the body. If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. Say for example if your brain was your weak point, you should study and prepare for your missions. If you do not posess Earth, run through the fields and seak strength. So if your weakness is your stamina and strength, then you should train yourself every day. If you posses both, and dangerous missions will become safe. It can even become easy.”

Sakura pointed to where the missing letter was on the inscription.

“Then what's that missing letter?”

Iruka smiled.

“It's the letter that symbolises a Chunin. The human letter that was in the Earth scroll goes there too.” The survival mission you took part in these last five days tested the basic abilities of the examinees as a Chunin, and you guys completed it. A Chunin is a commander-class. He has a duty to lead his team. Deeply inscribe into your heart the importance of knowledge and strength in missions. Never forget that Chunin principal, and go onto the next step. That's all I was ordered to tell you.”

Team Seven nodded in understanding. Iruka smiled and waved to them.

“I'll catch you guys later.”

With that, Iruka poffed out of existance, leaving Team Seven to go to the central hall, where they found every other team that had passed was mulling around. They also noticed that all of the examiners, Jounins and even the Hokage was standing up the front of the room. Anko turned away from the circle of Jounins and faced the Genin. Her voice rang out from every corner of the room, indicating she was using a PA.

“Alright, line up in your teams, we have an announcement to make.”

The Gennin's lined up. The Konoha ninjas saw that the entire Rookie 9, Team Gai and Kabuto's team, as had the Oto and Suna teams had made it. They turned back to Anko as she cleared her throat.

“First of all, congratulations on passing the second test. We will now have an explination on the third exam from Hokage-Sama. Everyone listen well.”

The Hokage stepped forward, cleared his throat and began.

“The third exam will begin, however, before that, there is something that I want to make clear to all of you.”

Several people in the room knew what was coming next. Kabuto's team were some of them. Naruto had a fair idea, but he kept his mouth shut.

“It's about the true purpose of the exam. Why we do a joint exam with the allied nations.”

Naruto and Sasuke knew exactly where this was going now, but they still decided to shut up, mainly beause of the constant pain they got from their seals.

“'To maintain good relations with the allied nations', and to 'highten the level of the ninja'... Do not let those reasons deceive you. This 'exam' so to speak, is really... Just a replacement for war.”

a lot of the Genin gasped. Tenten decided to question what this meant.

“What do you mean?”

“If we go back into the pages of history, the current allied nations now were infact bitter enemies, fighting for the right to rule. To avoid the massive waste of military power that is the result of war, they agreed to localise the fighting to one area. This was the beginning of the Chunin Selection Exams.”

Ino still didn't understand.

“What? So this isn't for Chunin promotions?”

“This exam is indeed examine those who are worthy of the Chunin title. But on the other hand, it is also a place where ninja fight and carry their country's dignity. In the third exam, feudal lords and famous people from varying countires who may be potential clients are invited here as guests. Feudal lords from countries with hidden villages and ninja leaders will see your battles. If there is a significan difference in power, the strong country will be flooded with jobs. If a country is seen as weak, their jobs will decrease and at the same time, countries are able to show how their village has grown, and posses excellent millitary power to the adjacent countries. IN other words, they can put foreign pressure on them.”

Kiba obviously still didn't get it, and proved it by questioning the Hokage further.

“So why do we have to fight with the risk of losing our lives?”

Naruto sighed mentally.

'No wonder he doesn't get it. His dog has brains that rival his.'

Naruto looked to the Hokage as he had a fair idea of what speech the Hokage would use to answer it.

“A county's power is the village's power. The village's power is the shinobi's power and a shinobi's tue power is only manifested in life-or-death situations.”

'How true that is....'

Naruto knew if he managed to get this cursed seal at least supressed, and he was put into a life or death situation, he felt sorry for his opponent. He tuned back into the Hokage's speech.

“This exam is also a place to show off the ninja power of one's country. Since this is an exam where you fight with your lives on the line, it has a meaning, and your predecessors have fought and dreamed of being in the Chunin Exam because of it.”

Apparently, no one had any more questions, however, Gaara was obviously impatient.

“I don't care. Tell us the details of this life-or-death exam.”

The Hokage nodded.

“Then I will begin explaining the details of the third test, but-”

The Hokage was interrupted by a Jounin who body flickered in front of him.

“Excuse me, Hokage-Sama. I, Gekkou Hayate, the judge, will explain.”

“Please do.”

Gekkou slowly stood up, not turning to face them.

“It's nice to meet you, everyone. Everyone, before the third test, there's somethingI want you to do. Fight in some preliminary matches to see who gets to progress to the main matches.”

Most of the Genin started murmuring to each other. Sakura wanted a further explination.

“Sensei, I don't understand. Why can't we just progress to the main matches with the remaining examinees?”

Gekkou coughed again, and looked over them.

“It may have been that the exams were too easy this year, or you're all exceptional Genins, however, there are far too many of you left. The time of the feudal lords and other important people is precious, and we cannot afford to waste it with endless battles. Therefore, only 10 or less people are allowed to enter the main matches. Accroding to the Chunin Exam regulations, we are required to hold preliminaries to decrease it to a suitable number. We are also limited on time, so those who do not feel well and wish to quit, please raise your hand now. You can do so without hurting your team, as from now on, it will be one on one matches. The preliminaries will begin immediately. Would anyone like to quit?”

Sasuke and Naruto were steeling their determination to keep going when a particularly bad pulse from the seal went off, causing them both to unconciously grab their necks. Sakura noticed this.

“Sasuke-Kun... Naruto...”

Sasuke saw that he and Naruto were thinking the same thing. The time intervals between the pain spikes was getting shorter. Sakura saw where they were both clutching and guessed what the problem was.

“Sasuke-Kun, Naruto. You should both withdraw from the preliminary matches.”

Both of their eyes widened at this. Sakura pressed on.

“Both of you have been acting weird since that Orochimaru guy beat you. Naruto, you're acting more like when you fought Zabuza and Haku. The bruises hurt even now, right? Please... Please stop. I'm afraid.”

Anko, Ibiki and the Hokage began dicussing what they should do with the two. The suggestion of forcing them out of the matches and surrounding them with ANBU escort in isolation when Kakashi butted in.

“Neither of them are the sort that will listen to you that easily. They both have backgrounds that give them a stubbourn will to try their hardest, after all.”

Anko got pissed off and started chewing Kakashi out for his lack of seriousness at the situation.

“Stop fooling around! I'll make them both quit, even if I have to use force! The cursed seal reacts when they try to mould chakra and it will try and extract power from them. It's a forbidden jutsu that undermines the affected person. It amazes me that they're both able to withstand it. A normal person would be dead.”

Anko turned to the Hokage.

“Hokage-Sama!”

Sakura still hadn't let up trying to make them quit.

“Neither of you are in any condition to fight. You should just-”

Both of them turned to her, glaring at her despite the pain.

“Shut up.”

“I knew it!”

Sasuke whispered to her.

“Just be quiet.”

Sakura couldn't take the hint.

“You've both been baring this pain the whole time!”

Naruto tried in this time.

“Sakura, learn when to take a hint and shut it.”

Sakura still didn't get it, and decided to go to the next level.

“Whatever you say, I'm still going to tell the teachers about it.”

Sakura started raising her hand, but she stopped when she saw Kabuto had already raised his own. The Hokage looked at him.

“What is it?”

“I quit.”

Everyone stared at him and Gekkou flipped through the clipboard's paper, stopping at a certain page.

“You're Konoha's Yakushi Kabuto, right? Ok, you can leave.”

Kabuto turned around and walked through the lines towards the door. As he walked out the back of the group of Genin, Naruto stopped him.

“Kabuto, why are you quitting?”

Kabuto turned around and smiled at him.

“I'm sorry, Naruto-Kun, but I'm exauhsted of chakra. I'd rather quit now while I'm still in one piece than face off against someone and be taken out of here on a stretcher.”

Naruto sighed.

“Good luck next year, I guess...”

Kabuto nodded.

“Good luck to you too, Naruto-Kun.”

Just then, both Sasuke and Naruto unconciously grabbed their necks from the pain spike. Gekkou turned back after having a short chat with a few of the other Jounins and the Hokage.

“Will anyone else be quitting?”

Sakura started raising her hand, however, both Naruto and Sasuke grabbed her hand and brought it back down. Sakura gasped, but Sasuke continued to glare at her, as if daring her to try and raise her hand again.

“Be quiet about this seal.”

Sakura started tearing up again, but shook her head to clear the tears.

“Why are you both acting so tough? I don't want to see you suffer any more. I-”

Naruto wanted to butt in, but as much as he hated to admit it, Sasuke had for more experience when it came to angsty speeches, so he let him continue.

“It doesn't matter to you Sakura. You're just being nosy.”

Sasuke and Naruto dropped her hand, and she made no move to raise it again. Sakura looked at them questioningly, begging for a reason. Sasuke provided her with one.

“We told you before. We're both avengers. To us, this isn't just an exam. We don't care about being Chunin either.”

Sasuke and Naruto both had a glazed expression covering their eyes, their faces showing they were deep in memory. Sasuke continued.

“Are we strong? That's all we want the answer to. Both of us are going to fight the strong ones and... Those strong guys are all here!”

Sasuke and Naruto broke out of their memories and glared at her. Sasuke finished off the speech.

“Neither of us will even allow you to take that away from us.”

With a cough, Gekkou caught their attention. No one else made a move to quit, so Gekkou pointed to one of the panells on the back wall. Said panel slid up to reveal a display screen.

“Then, let's start the preliminaries. It will consist of one-on-one matches. In other words, it will be like real combat. Now that we have exactly 20 people, we will have 10 matches. The winners will be able to progress to the third test. There are no rules for engaging in combat and you will fight them until they die, are knocked out or admit defeat, however, if I decide the match is over, you will stop immediately. The electric bulletin board will choose two names at random from the participants. Without further ado, I will start the selection for the first match.”

The screen flashed compeltely yellow before the names of the people flashed over the board's top and bottom half with incredible speed. Inbetween the names was a permanent VS symbol. The names stopped with a beep, revealing the first match was between Uchiha Sasuke and Akadou Yoroi. Naruto and Sasuke smiled. Neither of them had been expecting to get a go right off the bat, but it was a plesant suprise. Gekkou turned back to the Genins, coughing again, he motioned the two fighter forward. They walked out from their team lines and stood in front of everyone. As Sasuke past Naruto, Naruto smiled and whispered to him.

“Remember how we're going to fight.”

“Like I could forget.”

Sasuke kept walking forward and stared at Yoroi. Gekkou turned back to the other Genin.

“The others who will not participate in this match, please stand on the balconies along with your Jounin Senseis.”

Kakashi walked purposely close to where both Sasuke and Naruto were standing.

“Neither of you use use chakra or your special abilities.”

It was enough to know that Kakashi understood what had happened. Sasuke smiled.

“We've got it covered.”

“Good. However, if the seal manifests during your fight, I will jump in to stop the fight.”

Sasuke and Naruto stiffened. He wouldn't dare... Would he? Kakashi continued walking with Naruto and Sakura up to the balconies. Gekkou coughed.

“Are both fighter's ready?”

They nodded, and Gekkou raised his hand.

“Then the first match... Begin.”

Yoroi's hand began glowing with chakra and he charged Sasuke, however, Sasuke smirked and dissapeared in extreme speed. This caught everyone's immediate attention. This was no normal speed. This kind of speed could only be gained in two ways. Years of harsh physical training, or pumping pure stamina into your muscles to increase speed and strength. Both options had their merits and disadvantages, but the disadvantages for the latter were far greater than the former. Not only would it eat at your stamina at an incredible rate, it would also put incredible strain on your body, equivalent to Lee's Secondary Lotus. The effects would take some time to begin showing, however, Sasuke had no intention of letting this fight get to that point. He appeared behind Yoroi and punched him in the small of the back, sending him flying. This had happened in less than a second since the match had started, and everyone was amazed. Sasuke pressed his advantage and charged again, leaving a trail of dust that had gathered on the floor behind him. Yoroi saw Sasuke coming and just managed to duck Sasuke's foot which would have connected with his head and ended the match immediately, however, Yoroi was now inside Sasuke's guard and pressed the advantage. Yoroi's hand glowed blue again and sprang upwards before shoving his hand onto Sasuke's head. Sasuke immediately could tell something was wrong as he felt his strength quickly leaving his body. Sasuke kicked Yoroi's mid section to get him off, and considered his next move. Yoroi laughed.

“So, you found out what my jutsu does?”

“Yeah, it's rather interesting. A stamina draining jutsu.”

Yoroi chuckled.

“Exactly.”

No further words were said as Yoroi charged at him, hand once again covered in chakra. Sasuke decided to take a page from Naruto's book and try a variation of one of his combos. Sasuke dissapeared and reappeared right underneath Yoroi, which cause him totally by suprise, throwing him off guard for a second. A single second was more than enough time for Sasuke to begin his move. Sasuke kicked Yoroi in the chin from his crouched position and jumped up to shadow his flight through the air. Sasuke had read about a particular part of a highly adaptive Taijutsu combo native to the leaf which interested him. It was called the Leaf Shadow Dance. The possiblilities of what to do from here were practically endless, providing you had the originality to do something new with it. So he decided to be original. Yoroi also apparently recognised the move.

“Leaf Shadow Dance?”

Sasuke had formed a new combo on the spur of the moment, and decided to try it.

“Yup. Form here on out, it's all original.”

Sasuke poked two fingers into Yoroi's back to get a centre of gravity from which to rotate for his attacks. However, being the annoying bastard he is, Orochimaru decided to toy with Sasuke and activated the cursed seal. Sasuke coughed up blood as the examiners considered jumping in.

'THE FUCK I'M GOING TO LOSE TO THIS THING!'

With Sasuke's will power alone, he forced the cursed seal to withdraw, shocking more than a few people in the audience. Sasuke got his usual smirk back and put his fingers back in place.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go.”

Sasuke brought his right leg around in a sweeping strike, which Yoroi blocked with little effort.

“Not good enough!”

Kakashi and Naruto knew otherwise.

“No, you're not good enough.”

To illistrate the point, Sasuke brought his left fist in another sweeping motion, much like a lion woul when it slashed at it's pray. This hit, Yoroi couldn't guard and it caught him full on the face, sending him plummeting to the ground.

“I'm not done yet!”

Sasuke landed another few sweeping strikes before he finished it off with an axe kick straight to Yoroi's mid section as he came into contact with the ground, essentially doubling the damage it would have done. Sasuke announced his combo to the croud.

“Shi Shi Rendan!” 'Lion Combo, for those of you who couldn't guess'

Naruto smiled. He was absolutely flattered that Sasuke would take one of his oroginal moves and modify it so that to others it would look original, however, this was one of the subtle ways Sasuke would acknowledge Naruto in public, which made it all the more sweeter. Apparently, Rock Lee was getting ideas.

“That's my-”

Naruto cut him off.

“That move does not belong to you or anyone else. The first two moves are a very common part of a lot of Konoha Shinobi's Taijutsu styles because of the huge varaity of possiblities you can do with it. In fact, if he copied it off anyone, it was me.”

Lee was shocked at Naruto's level of knowledge. What he had said was true, however, Lee had never met a person before who used it apart from himself and his Sensei. Said Sensei had a few words to say.

“Naruto-Kun! Your fires of youth burn brightly and are an example to us all! We should all take an example from Nartuo-Kun and bask in the springtime of youth!”

Gai turned to Naruto, hoping for some input, however, the input he got was exactly what he was hoping he didn't get.

“Hmm? Did you say something?”

Gai's eyes widened in disbelief as he clutched his hands to his head. The room suddenly turned pitch black, and only Gai was surrounded in a blue spotlight.

“OH MY GOD!”

The room returned to normal brightness and everyonne in the room was staring at Gai. EVERYONE. Gai seemed to take no notice and turned to Kakashi.

“Kakashi, did you teach Naruto-Kun your annoyingly hip attitude?”

Kakashi was actually reading his copy of Icha Icha paradise, and looked up after this sentence.

“Did you say something, Gai?”

Gai facefaulted, but quickly recovered.

“It seems we now both have rivals, Lee! We must work harder to overcome our difficulties in these times of trial!”

“Gai-Sensei! Your words inspire us to live out our springtime of youth to the fullest!”

“Lee, your words bring a tear to your Sensei's aching heart!”

“Gai-Sensei!”

“Lee!”

“Gai-Sensei!”

“Lee!”

Everyone became awear of a constant rhythmical banging usually associated with bone hitting hollow metal, and turned to see both of Lee's teammates banging their heads against the railing in time with each shout of a name. Naruto was interested with this so he walked up to Tenten and tapped her on the back, causing he to startle out of her head banging trance.

“What are you doing?”

Tenten looked at him sadly and recounted her tale.

“We have to put up with this regularly, so both Neji and I tried to find ways to block it out. Even ear buds didn't work, but then I started hitting my head against something solid when they degraded to calling each other by their names. Suprisingly, the quick jolt of pain manages to block out their voices for the second it takes to call each other.”

Naruto was laughing up a storm mentally. He saw that the heir to the branch family of the Hyuga was also doing this.

'The Hyugas may be bastards, but not even I would subject them to this on a daily basis.'

The fox seemed to agree for once.

'This is worse that anything I've heard of either Ibiki, Anko or Orochimaru doing combined...'

Just them, both Gai and Lee flung themselves into each other's arms and started crying rivers. Naruto started backing away cauciously, hoping not to set them off.

'Holy shit... Do you know any sort of rare incurable disease that gives people bowl cuts, super brows, makes them wear green spandex and scream about 'hip' attitudes and the 'spring time of youth'?'

Naruto heard a sigh in the back of his mind as the Kyubi began.

'I I ever had, I would make sure to destroy them and everyone they past the disease onto. Whatever it is, it's not natural. It's even scaring me, and that's saying something.'

Naruto was brought out of his inward conversation when a kunai came wizzing past his cheek and landed at the front of Lee and Gai. Everyone turned to Anko, who looked very peeved. She glared at them.

“Would you two both shut up? We're trying to get these fights over with!”

They both decided shut up as they noticed everyone was staring at them warily. Gekkou coughed to catch their attention, and pointed to the screen.

“We will now decide the next match.”

The screen once again flashed and began scrolling through the names. The next match was unexpected. Uzumaki Naruto VS Inuzuka Kiba. By now, Sasuke had limped back up to the croud and joined his team. Naruto could tell that the pain intervals were becoming far too frequent for his liking, and Kakashi seemed to notice this.

“After your match, Naruto, both of you are coming with me so we can fix that problem.”

They turned at him and glared.

“No point in glaring. If we leave it for much longer, it might do something irreversable.”

Naruto sighed and jumped down, which caused a shudder to go through his body. Kiba had no idea if he was lucky or unlucky, and this showed on his face as uncertanty. Naruto took adavntage of this.

“You're lucky in a way. I can't use my chakra, therefore no jutsus. However, that leaves me with Taijutsu.”

Gekkou coughed and brought his hand down inbetween them.

“Second match, begin.”

Kiba bent down and formed a ram seal, saying his technique mentally. His claws started lengthening, and he sped off. Just as Kiba was about to strike, Naruto dissapeared just like Sasuke had. Kiba was no where near prepared for this and tried to compensate for the lack of a target on the end of his fist which threw his balance way off. Naruto took advantage of this and appeared behind him, kicking him in the mid back. Kiba stumbled and recived a series of lightning quick jabs and kicks from all directions. They weren't exactly powerful, however, they were fast and frequent, which more than made up for it. Akamaru decided to join the fray and Kiba took a chance to made a roll to the left towards his dog, which jumped onto his back and barked before Kiba announced his technique.

“Jujin Bunshin!”

Akamaru turned into an exact copy of Kiba and they charged at Naruto from different directions. They jumped into the air and began rotating, turning into something resembling a grey tornado.

“Gatsuuga!”

Orochimaru decided to intervine again and set of Naruto's cursed seal, freezing him from the pain. The Jounins once again prepared to jump in as they saw the marks spreading over Naruto's face. However Naruto started to grit his teeth, emitting a barely audiable growl, which quickly morphed into a howl of primal fury. The seal started retreating, just like it had with Sasuke and Naruto jumped out of the way at the last second, leaving Kiba and Akamaru to collide with each other before they had a chance to stop. Both of them were knocked out of their jutsu, and Akamaru's henge was even dispelled. Kiba slowly got up and took a step forwards, but Naruto used a lot of his quickly depleting energy to charge at Kiba, driving him into the nearby wall into near unconciousness. Naruto was panting heavily, and stared at Kiba.

“Use your jutsus with forethought, or they'll be used against you, baka.”

Naruto wobbled and fell to the floor, only to be caught by Kakashi's shin. Naruto looked up at him.

“Come on, we're going to get you two fixed up.”

Naruto nodded weakly and Kakashi 'poof'ed back up to the team's position and then 'poof'ed out of the room, leaving everyone else to watch the matches.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&

In Some Dark and Scary Back Room:

Both boys where surrounded by a pair of concentric circles with kunai imbeded at certain points. Kakashi had just finished paintint the last of the Kanji in blood up Naruto's back. Both lines of Kanji centred around the cursed seals. Kakashi looked at his handiwork, nodded and stepped forward.

“This seal technique utilises your will powers as it's source. Should you ever doubt or question your strength, the seal will temporarily break and allow the curse seal to activate.”

They both nodded in understanding as Kakashi formed a quick chain of hand seals and placed his hands on both boy's necks, which made them stiffen up.

“Fuuja Houin!”

The area flashed white and both boys screamed in agony as the lines of Kanji slowly worked their way up Naruto and Sasuke's bodies in wave like motions. Finally, the last of the Kanji dissapeared under Kakashi's hands and he let go to reveal another seal had surrounded the Cursed Seal. Both boys looked at him, then each other and fell forward, unconcious before they even hit the ground. Kakashi smied and he heard a sinister laugh behind him, and turned to see the sillouete of a man. The man steeped towards him so the small amount of light in the room revelealed his sandled feet, which were ghostly white. Kakashi could sense the absolute aura of death coming off him. There was no mistaking who this man was.

“You're... Orochimaru!”

Orochimaru emitted a little bit of purple chakra and stepped into the light to reveal that it was indeed him.

“It's been a while, Kakashi-Kun. I have no business with, you however, I have business with the boys behind you.”

Kakashi straightened and glared at Orochimaru, not that it had any effect, but it would at least hide some of his fear.

“Why are you after them?”

“You're lucky because you got what you wanted already.”

Kakashi stiffened and let out a muffled gasp.

“You didn't have THAT a long time ago.”

Kakashi lowered his head slightly, trying to hide his anger. Orochimaru pressed his advantage.

“That... Sharingan in your left eye. I want it too. Uchiha's pwoers, that is.”

“What is your purpose?”

“The recently made Villiage of Sound is mine. You understand if I just say that, right?”

Kakashi 'hmph'ed with confidence he didn't really have.

“What a stupid ambition.”

“Oh my... That was blunt. But to acomplish my ambitions, I need pieces to become my arms and legs and accomplish things for me.”

“So Sasuke and Naruto are two of those pieces?”

“No. They are the supreme pieces. The one's taking the exam right now are... Merely sacrifices.”

Little did they know that one of said sacrifices was completing his role now, and had just had his arms blown off from the clogged pipes in his arms. In the back room, Orochimaru took several steps froward, before Kakashi readied the Raikiri.

“Don't get any closer to them! Even if you're one of the Ledgendary Sannin, I can sacrifice my life to kill you!”

Orochimaru just laughed at the gesture, which made Kakashi suspicious.

“What's so funny?”

“What you say and what you do, do not agree with each other.”

“Nani?”

“There is no point using that seal. You know, right? They both have hearts that will seek power no matter how dark it is, as long as it will let them accomplish their goals. They posses that kind of disposition. They are avengers.”

“So, you took advantage of that. But neither of them will-”

“Eventually, THEY will seek ME out.”

Orochimaru began turning away and walking off, and Kakashi let the Raikiri die down.

“Seek me out for power, that is. Also... You said that you could kill me? Try. That is, if you can...”

Orochimaru sent off a large wave of killing intent to prove his point. Kakashi stiffened at this and began shivering as Orochimaru walked away.

“Sacrifice my life to kill him? Am I mad?”

Kakashi stood up and put both boys over his shoulders, taking them to the hospital. After the last rather antclimax battle of Chouji rolling around in his meat tak form, and Dosu from the hidden Sound punching the ball of flesh as it was stuck in a crater, causing Chouji to deflate and fall unconcious, the winners were called forward to pick a number out of the box Anko was holding. The last two numbers left were one and four. They gave Naruto one and Sasuke four. The match-ups were decided and the Hokage told them about the final test and that they had a month to train and rest before dismissing them.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&

A/N: Another one down. You know, writing this story is somewhat of a paradox for me. I enjoy sujecting Naruto and Sasuke to what I would normally do in the situations they were given, however, ironically, it's also depressing for me. However, I feel the need to maintain the balance of Yin and Yang by making an angsty, brooding, depressing story for every light-hearted-goody-two-shoes story I make. I try and maintain my life around the pirnicpals of Yin and Yang and equivallent trade. I generally find life to be more satisfying that way. Anyways, thanks for all of your reviews. Sorry if I didn't answer each one individually, but I really only answer those who have questions or CONSTRUCTIVE criticsism. By now, at least the first 3 pages of every chaper are filled with A/N of me adressing people, so it takes up a lot of space that could be better used for story writing. I hope you can all understand this. For those of you who have questions that I don't answer in my chapters, I usually send a PM instead. Well, until next time, my avid readers!

Ja ne,

Specula.