Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Rubies & Sapphires ❯ Chuunin Exams Part 1 ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Yo! I'll start writing another chappie again. Knowing the routine I'm slipping into, I'll probably have it finished by sometime tomorrow afternoon. BTW, I kinda got an idea for a completely new jutsu for Naruto. It's kind of a cross between Neji's 128 divine strikes and Tenten's twin rising dragon jutsus. I'm pretty sure I got the name right, but any corrections would be appreciated. As a final note, this is going to be by FAR the longest chapter yet. So, during the prelims, the match ups that appear in canon will be introduced, but not played out. The only exception will be the Hyuuga Neji VS Hyuuga Hinata fight. The results will still be announced, but I don't feel like doing all that extra work.

 

Shikamaru: Mendoksei...

 

Exactly, Shikamaru. Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

Comments/Suggestions/Questions:

 

Fan Fiction Section:

 

fabarati: Yeah, that's what I meant. There's two good NaruxKure authors here. Not including me, but I haven't proved yet that I am. Another few chapters and I might start to consider myself one. The majority of NaruxKure fics on this site are under 10k words and from what I can make out, are all one shots. If there's any type of fic I hate almost as much as Yaoi, it's a one shot. One shot's have a shallow story line. I prefer longer, more involved story lines. I'm not going to make Kurenai see Naruto as a potential love interest yet. After he comes back from his trip with Jiraiya, then yes, I will make her see him as one. Hazzah for the Strong Arm Alchemist! 'Rips off his shirt and flexes'

 

BountyHunterAWL: Hmm. Well, to tell you the truth, I really don't like fics where Naruto becomes a heart breaking, wooing girls, sleep with them and move on. I personally think that's way to shallow for Naruto with any sort of personality except a thug, and I REALLY hate Naruto as a thug. It's demeaning. You know, I was actually mixing elements of the Sasu/Naru fight at the valley of the end into that fight. I'm surprised no one's noticed.

 

demon-sword: Thanks for pointing that out. I fixed that up as soom as I saw your review. As for the mental instability, this chapter provides answers.

 

Dragon Noir: Well, I answered your questions in a review reply, so if you check your email, you should have it.

 

Akalon: Well, I was thinking of putting Naruto into the Star Wars Galaxy about the time of eps 4, 5 & 6. Yeah, that's right, Naruto meets Luke & Co. I was thinking of the interactions between Chewie and Naruto. Now THAT would be funny. Thanks for picking me up on the typos. Sometimes, I get into and out of a habit of typing a partiular word incorrectly. For exampl,e this chapter I always wrote 'Temari' as 'Temair' before I went back and changed it after I wrote the rest of the sentence.

 

Antiassasinguy: Hmm, you're right, it did come out a bit rushed. I had intended for the kiss to be a reward for having maturity and intelligence highly uncommon for somone his age. As for the genre, I was kind of wondering why this site only allows two Genres while others such a Media Miner allow like 6. So, a General is kinda like everything rolled into one, huh? Thanks for the advice. As for the smart Naruto, I think this chapter will prove just how smart he really is. The only person I like 'bashing' is Sakura. I REALLY hate her. I'm trying to refrain from Naruto chewing her out. It's, hard, but I should be able to.

 

firareth3: Yeah, Sasuke's still going to defect. The main reason he defected was because he was intimidated by Naruto's progress. He has all the more reason to be intimidated now.

 

All Hail Chibi-Itachi: Nope, Sarutobi is the Sandiame's surname. There was a hint in a recent chapter that Asuma is Sandiame's son, meaning that Konohamaru is Asuma's son. Also, when Asuma recommended his team for the Chuunin exams, he identified himself as 'Sarutobi Asuma'. As for where I translate jutsu names, it depends. If the Jutsu exist in either canon or 'fanon', meaning the original story or fillers/movies, I go to Wikipedia. It had a list of every single jutsu from the series. As for my own jutsus, after many years of searching the internet for some sort of free translating device that doesn't give shoddy answers, I came across what I believe is the single best one on the net. It's accurate, and gives alternatives, letting you translate both ways. However, a lot of the more complex words like 'twin rising dragons' are not in there, so you have to divide the words and use them separately. Apart from that, it's practically flawless. I'll put the link up on my profile.

 

Kyuubi-Sama: No, no growing tails for Naruto this time. And no fusing with Kyuubi either. I did those in my other two story lines.

 

cutepuplover: Heh, well, I'm not doing much else at the moment, and I did those two chapters in the space of about 32 hours. The chapters were 30 A4 pages each, give or take a page.

 

full-metal-sousuke: Yeah, Naruto's going to do both of those. Naruto's going to learn more than just Kuchiyose no Jutsu and Rasengan. I'm going to teach him Yondaime's version of Shushin no Jutsu, and get him started on Hiraishin no Jutsu.

 

omnikaze: As I said to someone last chapter, from here on out, it's all original. I've renabled non user reviews.

 

hoyt: You know what? Just for that, I'm going to go back the Return of the Bijus last. I want to kill people who try and send me on a guilt trip. My parent's have done it to me all my life and I feel like strangling them when they pull an 'I'm so badly done by' on me.

 

Adis: Sorry, but I've got to progress with this story carefully if I want it to work. I can't just have Kurenai just appear one day and make out with Naruto. That would ruin the entire fic. Patience, young Padawan.

 

cokeboi: I'm not going to answer either of those questions until you read the latest manga issues and this fic again CAREFULLY. The answer to both questions are located there.

 

Media Miner Section:

 

Rydeon: Glad you like them.

 

Dustin Imthurn dog demon: Thanks for the review and rating. Hope you continue to enjoy it.

 

Legend:

 

'...Human or Lesser Summon Thinking/Small A/N...'

 

'...Demon or Summon Boss Thinking...'

 

“...Human or Lesser Summon Talking...”

 

“...Demon or Summon Boss Talking...”

 

“...SHOUTING/TWO OR MORE PEOPLE CASTING THE SAME JUTSU...”

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&...Scene Change...&&&&&&&&&&&&&& amp;&

 

Rubies & Sapphires:

 

Chapter Three:

 

Chunin Exams Part One:

 

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

 

Several Weeks After the Wave:

 

Team Eight had made it back and reported the entire mission in great detail to the Hokage, much to the chargrin of the old man. After the team had been dismissed, the Hokage asked that Naruto remained behind. Naruto did as he was asked.

 

“Naruto, now that you've revealed the secret to your teammates, I want you to stick to the law for everyone else. Not until they've reached the rank of Jounin are they permitted to know. Understood?”

 

Naruto nodded.

 

“Sure thing old man.”

 

The old man sighed as he took a puff of his pipe before telling Naruto the next part of why he detained him here.

 

“Naruto, the secret is far too deadly to be let out. Although it pains me to do this, I'm authorising you to use any force you deem necessary to stop the spread of the rumor. I trust both of your teammates, but with the times ahead, I would not be surprised if word somehow got out. The only thing I can compensate for this is turning this into an on going S rank mission.”

 

Naruto nodded slowly.

 

“I guess I could take it...”

 

The old man spoke to Naruto for a few moments more before dismissing him, asking that he report to the hospital for psychological testing to make sure that his mind was still stable after killing both of his targets on the mission.

 

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

 

About a Week Later:

 

The nurses at the hospital quickly made sure that Naruto was ok, providing a minor medical healing jutsu to help his mind recover before discharging him. Since then, Naruto had been training and trying to constantly improve himself. 6 days after they got back, Kurenai had appeared with three slips of paper.

 

“Morning boys. To get straight to the point, I've nominated you three for the Chuunin exams. Just sign the forms and turn up at room 301 at the academy by 4pm tomorrow. Until then, you're dismissed.”

 

Kurenai 'poof'ed out of existance while Shikamaru looked over his form.

 

“Mendoksei...”

 

Naruto smiled at Shikamaru.

 

“Everything's troublesome for you, Shikamaru.”

 

Shikamaru sighed. While Chouji opened a packet of chips, sharing them around as they went off to sign the forms and discuss the possibilities of the exam.

 

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

 

Next Day, 2 pm:

 

Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji were walking towards the academy when they heard a yell, so they went to check it out. When they got there, they saw a pair of Suna nins, a guy and a girl, facing off against three academy graduates. The male Suna nin was holding one boy up by the collar, who was trying desperately to get free. The female sighed.

 

“If anything happens, I'm not taking the blame.”

 

The black clad ninja smirked and drew his hand back for the punch when he felt three people staring at him from behind. He turned around to see three Konoha Genins staring at him.

 

“What do you three want?”

 

Naruto looked lazily at the boy.

 

“We want you to put him down.”

 

The boy smirked.

 

“Are you going to make me?”

 

Shikamaru sighed.

 

“Mendoksei...”

 

Naruto shrugged.

 

“For once, I agree with you, Shikamaru.”

 

Kankuro was aware thaqt the blonde masked kid was no longer with his friends, but directly behind him, holding a very sharp weapon to his throat. The Suna nins and the three academy students hadn't even seen the boy move.

 

“Put him down. Now.”

 

Kankuro dropped the kid, who fell on his butt. Kankuro was unfastening the straps of the object on his back when Naruto became aware of a very disturbing aura very close by.

 

“Kankuro, stop. You're a disgrace to our village.”

 

“But Gaara, they started it-”

 

“I don't care. Shut up, or I'll kill you.”

 

Both the black clad boy and the girl seemed to flinch at this, while the red head turned to Naruto.

 

“I appologise for his actions.”

 

Naruto dismissed it.

 

“No problem. Only a few egos were bruised, nothing too bad.”

 

Gaara's eyes narrowed at Naruto.

 

“I'm interested in you. Who are you?”

 

Naruto looked at the boy.

 

“Uzumaki Naruto. And you are?”

 

“Sabakyu no Gaara.”

 

Naruto nodded.

 

“I see. I look forward to seeing you in the Chuunin exams, Gaara.”

 

“As do I, Uzumaki Naruto.”

 

Gaara used Shushin to dissapear, leaving the rest of them to clean up. Naruto turned to the boy who Kankuro had been about to knock out.

 

“You alright?”

 

The boy nodded slowly.

 

“Well, I'll catch you around. By the way, I don't think I've seen you before. What's your name?”

 

The boy's eyes lightened up.

 

“Konohamaru.”

 

Naruto smiled at the boy.

 

“Nice to meet you, Konohamaru. Unfortunately, I can't stay for too long, I have to go and take the Chuunin exams with my friends.”

 

Konohamaru nodded and got back up, staring in awe at the first person who had ever called him by his name except his grandfather. Naruto turned to the two Suna nins.

 

“Could I get your names?”

 

The boy nodded.

 

“Kankuro.”

 

The girl flushed slightly as she answered.

 

“Temari.”

 

Naruto nodded to each of them.

 

“Well, Kankuro-San, Temari-San. Good luck in the exam.”

 

Chouji and Shikamaru caught up with Naruto as they got the the academy, waiting for the doors to open. Team 8 took this time to survey the potential opponents. They quickly dismissed the ones who bragged about themselves to their teams and others and instead paid attention to the teams either talking quietly amongst themselves or who said nothing at all. Finally, the doors were opened and the teams made their way inside. After walking up two flights of stairs, they needed to change to another stairwell to get up to the final floor. However, Naruto's Genjutsu senses were tingling as he saw what it was. Two people under rather decent Henge's for the Genin they were posing as were guarding a door that was apparently '301' but Naruto could tell, not just by the shoddy Genjutsu around it, but from the fact they had only gone up two flights of stairs. The Genin tried to go past the pair, only to be shoved back by the Genin. Naruto realised what was happening immediatelty. They were trying to weed out the truly weak ones from even taking the first test. Naruto was fine by that as he kept his team walking. However, one particular Uchiha happened to do something fairly stupid.

 

“It's nice to see you're guarding, but aren't you guarding the wrong room? This is only the second level, not the third. Drop the Genjutsu.”

 

People started murmuring amongst themselves as Naruto slapped his forehead. Naruto could feel the Genjutsu being undone and after a small fight between the 'Genin' guarding the door and Sasuke, which Lee put an end too, Naruto turned back to the others. Nartuo called out lazily to Sasuke.

 

“Sasuke, you do realise what that Genjutsu was meant to do, right?”

 

All eyes turned to the boy.

 

“Yeah. It was meant to stop us from getting to 301.”

 

Naruto nodded.

 

“Exactly. If you had noticed it, why didn't you just lead your team past it and keep going? We could have gotten rid of all of these guys here before the first test, cutting a huge portion of the examiners off before we have to begin the test.”

 

Sasuke hated to admit it, but Naruto's logic was impeckable, as always. Lee's eyes caught fire as he rushed up to his 'rival'.

 

“Naruto-Kun! Your fires of youth are burning as bright as ever! You are indeed my eternal rival!”

 

Naruto smiled, translating it for himself as 'You're looking well.'

 

“Hey, Lee. How's Gai-Sensei?”

 

Lee did a nice guy pose to help illistrate his point.

 

“Gai-Sensei's spring time of youth is an example to us all!”

 

Naruto translated this in his own mind to 'he's great'. After a bit more friendly banter, Tenten and Neji walked up.

 

“Hi Tenten. Neji.”

 

Both of them greeted him in their usual manner, Tenten smiling and Neji giving a nod in his direction. Both teams walked down the corridor together followed by Team 7, up the stairwell and down the final corridor to the real 301. Once they pushed open the doors, they were acutely aware of the entire room with their gaze on them. Team Gai ignored the gazes taking a free seat. Team 8 just stood there, sizing up the people in the room. The doors burst open and Team Seven came in, Ino and Sakura having one of their all to frequent arguments again, but they stopped when they felt the atmosphere of the room. Nartuo smiled of them.

 

“Glad to see you made it as well.”

 

They all nodded and they turned as Kiba rather loudly introduced the presence of his team coming through the door.

 

“Naruto! Chouji! Shikamaru! It's been a while since I've seen you three!”

 

Naruto smiled at Kiba.

 

“Hey Kiba. Shino. Hinata.”

 

The three nodded in Naruto's direction. Nartuo looked at Akamaru.

 

“How's Akamaru, Kiba?”

 

The dog gave a happy bark.

 

“Great.”

 

Naruto pulled out a piece of dried meat and flicked it at Akamaru who caught it expertly in his mouth. Kiba smiled at Naruto when Naruto felt someone coming up to them on the right.

 

“Why don't you lot grasp the atmosphere? Screaming like a bunch of school girls, geez.”

 

Naruto looked at the silver haired bespecticaled guy lazily.

 

“We already did. Is it a crime to catch up with old friends?”

 

The boy smiled at him.

 

“Not really, but there's a better time to do it. Anyway, there's a lot of powerful people here. Many of who have taken the exam before. I've taken the exam before as well.”

 

Naruto looked at the man.

 

“How many times?”

 

“7.”

 

Naruto nodded.

 

“You seem to have a purpose for coming here apart from the whole 'grasp the atmosphere thing'.”

 

The boy nodded.

 

“How about I give some tips to my cute underclassmen?”

 

Kabuto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a deck of cards.

 

“I've collected information on a lot of the exam's entrants and burnt the information onto these cards with my chakra.”

 

Kabuto pulled the top one off, but it was blank. Sakura, being the 'smart' one, pointed out the obvious.

 

“Kabuto-San, how could those have information on them? They're blank!”

 

Naruto shook his head.

 

“A Genjutsu of Fuuinjutsu of some kind.”

 

Kabuto nodded in agreement. He put his finger to the card and began swivelling it around before a small puff of smoke coverd the card. Once it cleared, the card was no longer blank. In fact, it had a mpa of the world overlayed with a three dimensional bar graph. Almost everyone looked at the card in wonder as Kabuto explained.

 

“This shows the number of participants each country has sent. I have information on all of the people attending this exam. The only unfortunate thing is that I have practically no information on the three from the Hidden Sound. This is the first team they've sent to an exam, so I haven't had the chance to find out much about them.”

 

Sasuke saw his chance.

 

“Can you show us some?”

 

Kabuto looked at him.

 

“Any in particular?”

 

“Three. Rock Lee, Sabaku no Gaara and Uzumaki Naruto.”

 

Kabuto put the first card away and picked the deck up.

 

“This will be easy since you know their names.”

 

Kabuto swiped the deck, pulling out three cards. He fanned them out and began channeling chakra into one of them.

 

“First, Uzumaki-”

 

Naruto ripped the card out from under him as soon as the chakra revealed the information. Naruto began scanning it. He couldn't risk the secret getting out, so he ripped through it, finding the informartion to be startalingly acurate. He even found 'it' in there. He smiled.

 

“You're good. The fact that a certain something is in here proves you're either very nosey with friends in high places, or you're not a Genin.”

 

Naruto shoved some chakra into the card and deleted the offending passage handing the card back. Sasuke smirked.

 

“Scared of us finding out something, Naruto?”

 

Naruto smiled lazily, however, his insiders were in total turmoil.

 

“Not for me, but for you. I have authorisation to use what ever force I deem necessary to stop that piece of information getting out by the Hokage himself. Normally, the offending person would be put to death immediately.”

 

This caught EVERYONE'S attention. Naruto smiled as he looked at Kabuto.

 

“Read the card.”

 

Kabuto went back to reading the card.

 

“Uzumaki Naruto, Taichou of Team 8 of the Konoha Rookies. His teammates are Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. Their Jounin Sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai. He graduated from the academy earlier this year with a perfect record, earning him the title of Rookie of the Year. His Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu and Armed Taijutsu abilites are off the charts, making him high Chunin level to low Jounin level. It's rumoured that he also has a nack for Fuuinjutu, making him the first academy graduate in 14 years to have learnt how to make his own seal scrolls and explosive notes before he even left the academy. His family or clan abilities are a complete mystery, due to the severe shortage of knowledge of his blood family. He has also invented his own Taijutsu style, called the Kageken. Out of all the examinees here, Naruto's Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Armed Taijutsu abilities are unmatched by anyone, but his regular Taijutsu is about equal to Rock Lee's of Konoha. Missions completed include 8 D class, woah, one C class which was apparently a disguised upper A rank mission and even an ongoing S class. It seems that apart from chakra exaustion on the C rank misson, Naruto has come back from all his missions completely unscathed.”

 

Naruto smiled at him.

 

“The fact that only myself and my Jounin Senseis know the full extent of my abilities makes me wonder exactly who you are.”

 

By now, the majority of the room were quaking in their boots at this boy. Even with his abilities, coming back from an A rank mission completely unharmed suffering from only chakra exhaustion? This kid was scary. Kabuto put the card away and activated another card. This was Rock Lee.

 

“Rock Lee. Member of Team Gai. He's one year older than all of you. Teammates are Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. Their Jounin Sensei is Maito Gai. Rock Lee's Ninjutsu and Genjutsu abilities are non existant as are his family or clan jutsus, but his Taijutsu both long range and short are about equal to Uzumaki Naruto's. Mission dossier records show he has completed 20 D rank and 12 C rank missions.”

 

Kabuto felt a kunai pressing against his neck. It was held by the hand of Naruto. No one in the room had seen him move.

 

“I knew it. Apart from his team and myself, no one has that much detailed information on Lee. Only four people apart from myself know the full extent of my abilities, all of them have been my Sensei's for the past 7 years and who I am close friends with. You're not a Genin. Your chakra capacity is far too massive for you to even be a Chuunin. The fact that you knew about a certain something gives me permission to slit your throat here and now.”

 

Naruto looked to the front of the room in time to see an explosion of smoke and a booming voice reached the Genin.

 

“Uzumaki, what the hell do you think you're doing?”

 

Naruto smiled lazily at Ibiki.

 

“Just doing a mission, Ibiki-San.”

 

Ibiki scowled at Naruto.

 

“You can complete the 'mission' later. This is a good a time as any to say this, so let me make one thing clear. There will be fighting in this exam, however, you will not engage another person unless given express permission by an examiner. Even then, killing unless also permitted is forbidden. Pigs who go against my rule will be failed immediately, understood?”

 

Now the Genin had completely forgotten about Naruto and were completely transfixed by the man in front of them. Ibiki held up a tab with the number one on it.

 

“All of you will approach the examiners with your three application forms. Once your Genin cell has been marked off, take one number from this box. That number is the seat you will use during this part of the exam. Once you are all seated, we will begin handing out the papers.”

 

Everyone handed in their application forms, got a numbered tab and was assigned a seat. Once everyone was seated, the examiners began placing the test face down on the desk. Once that had been done, Ibiki started tapping the piece of chalk against the board.

 

“I will now explain the rules of this test. Listen carefully, as I'm not going to repeat it and I will not answer questions. Rule one: Each of you will start with 10 points. This test works via a subtraction method of marking. For example, if you answer one question wrong, you get a single point deducted. Five questions wrong, and you lose half your points. Rule two: The overall pass/fail is determined not by your individual scores, but by the combined score of your team. Rule three: If you are found to be conducting any suspicious activity that could be assosicated with cheating, you will have two points deducted. Meaning, even if you get all the answers right, but get caught five times, you fail. This isn't so much a rule as the result of what will happen should someone fail. Until the third part of the exam, everything relies on teamwork. If one of you fail, so does the other two members of your team. This test will be done in the space of an hour. At the fourty five minute mark, I will give you the tenth question, reguardless of whether or not you have completed the rest of them. Now, BEGIN!”

 

No one failed to hesitate with the order and turned the pages over. Naruto smirked. Why did this situation seem so familiar? Probably from the Graduation written test. These questions were much harder to answer than your average Genin should be able to answer. Naruto sighed. The purpose of this test was to cheat. Since he didn't have much to cheat with, he decided to use his own head to write the answers. Naruto was aware of three other people writing with him, namely two nobodies and Haruno Sakura which was quickly joined by three more, both Hyuugas and Sasuke, who had their bloodline limits engaged. After Naruto answered the first nine questions, he sat back. Naruto felt the familiar chakra of Shikamaru reaching out with his Kagemane and take hold of Chouji, writing the answers to the test on his paper. After a while, Naruto saw one of the examiners throw a kunai straight past his head, which he leant out of the way of and heard a 'thunk' behind him. Naruto looked around to see that the kunai had pierced the exam paper of the Genin behind him. The boy stood up.

 

“Wha... What's the meaning of this?”

 

The examiner smirked.

 

“I've caught you cheating five times. You fail. Get your teammates and get out.”

 

Two other Genins, non too happy with their teammate got up and left along with the one that had caused them to fail. Straight away, another examiner spoke.

 

“Number 23, fail. Numbers 43 and 27 fail.”

 

The three got up. After that, a steady stream of Genin were caught and left the room. By the time the announcement of the tenth question came around, the overall number had been reduced to just over one hundred. Ibiki strode to the front of the room and turned to face the Genin.

 

“Now, it's time for the tenth question. However, before I give it to you, I need to know whether you will even take it.”

 

The Genin started mumuring as Ibiki continued with the explination.

 

“If you chose not to take it, you and your teammates will be failed immediately, HOWEVER, if you do decide to take it and get it wrong, you will have the privledge of taking this exam stipped permanetly!”

 

Everyone started crying out in disbelief. Kiba was the loudest.

 

“What kind of a stupid rule is that? There are people here who've taken this exam before!”

 

Ibiki laughted heartlessly.

 

“That's true, however, when they took this exam, I wasn't the examiner. Seems you lot are out of luck. However, the rules have been stated. Will you, or will you not take it? If you are uncertain as to your abilities, you should quit now and try again next time. Raise your hand if you don't want to suffer the consequences.”

 

For a moment, no one did anything. However, the man next to Naruto raised his hand.

 

“I won't take it!”

 

An examiner marked off him and his two teammates as they left the room. This set off a chain reaction. At least 5 more people raised their hand and they were marked off along with their teammates. Finally, there were 78 people left in the room. 80 if you included the 'plants' as they were called. Ibiki looked around the room.

 

“Will anyone else give up? This decision will change your life.”

 

People in Naruto's general vicinity became awear of his chuckling, which turned into full blown laughter. Everyone stared at Naruto in disbelief. Naruto looked at Ibiki, smirking.

 

“I don't know about the others in this room, but your act isn't scaring me. I have alsolute confidence in myself and both of my teammates that we will answer this question perfectly. There are no weak soldiers under a valiant commander. Get on with the question.”

 

Ibiki sighed. Naruto had blown the fear and uncertanty of every single Genin in the room away and LAUGHED at him to boot. Ibiki looked around and confimed what he had thought and felt. Ibiki tried one last time.

 

“This is your final chance. Will any of you give up?”

 

Naruto smiled at him.

 

“We're not afraid.”

 

It was clear that no one was going to budge until they had passed the exam, so Ibiki sighed.

 

“Then, for the first test of the Chunin exams... You all PASS.”

 

Everyone of the Genins except Naruto stopped and tried to work out exactly what he had meant. Naruto smiled and shook his head.

 

“I was kind of expecting something like this from you, Ibiki-San. Let me guess, the 'take or not take' was the 10th question?”

 

Ibiki smiled at Naruto.

 

“Exactly. The '10th question' was the choice of taking a life altering decision or not. The first nine questions severed the purpose of testing your information gathering abilities. I'm sure there were some of you who could work out the answers for yourselves, but the majority of you would have realised straight away that this was not your average paper test and came to the conclusion 'I have to cheat to pass'. Most of you would have also realised, there is 80 people left in the room, which would imply that there's something wrong. We had two Chuunin planted in the room to be the the sources of the answers for your cheating attempts. Those of you who cheated like amatures were weeded out. They won't survive the next stage of the exam with that kind of effort. Now, the 10th question. Once we had separated the wheat from the chaff, I put you in a hopeless situation. Take or not take. Either choice had dire consequences. Not take it and fail immediately. Take it and get it wrong, and never take it again. Let's put this into a real life situation. Let's go with the scenario that all of you become Chuunin. A Chuunin is a squad leader who is responsible for handling the mission and his team's lives. You arrive at the mission center along with your squad and recive a mission. You are to infiltraite an enemy facility and steal a scroll. The number of ninja, their state of preparedness, armaments, jutsus and skill are unknown. Can you just decline the mission, because the content of the mission is unknown, exchaninging today's certainty with tomorrow's uncertainty? The answer is NO! As a Chuunin, there will be missions you will not have a choice in. Information can be more important than a Kage's life in some situations. What if that scroll contained information about another village planning to invade your own? If you obtain the information carelessly, it is likely that the enemy will feed you false information that could cost many people their lives. People who do not have the resolve to go through with missions are pigs who don't deserve the right to become Chuunin! THERE ARE NO WEAK SOLDIERS UNDER A VALIANT COMMANDER!”

 

Naruto had joined Ibiki with the last line to emphasise his previous point. Ibiki smiled at Naruto.

 

“Congratulations to every one of you. I wish you the best of luck.”

 

Both Ibiki and Naruto became aware of a dark ball just before it came crashing through the window. The black ball unfurled itself to reveal a woman in a beige trench coat, purple hair, fishnet shirt and metal legplates. She introduced herself in a rather loud manner.

 

“There's no time to celebrate! I'm the second examiner, Mitarashi Anko! Follow me, everyone!”

 

The majority of people in the room sweat dropped as Naruto smiled.

 

“Hi there, Anko-San. Haven't seen you in a while.”

 

Anko looked at Naruto, smiling in that sadistic fashion we all love to hate.

 

“Well well, if it isn't little Naruto. I'm really not surprised that there's 78 people left with you in here. Another one of your speeches?”

 

Naruto tilted his head to the side as he continued smiling. Ibiki came around the side of the banner that Anko had erected, looking slightly peeved.

 

“Can't you grasp the atmosphere, Anko?”

 

Anko smiled sheepishly before turning back to the Genin.

 

“Despite the fact that there's so many of you left, by the end of the next exam, there will be less than half of you remaining. Report to training area 44 at 9 am sharp tomorrow morining! Until then, you are dismissed!”

 

The remaining Genin teams got up and left, preparing for whatever might come with the next test. Naruto led his team to his house, in the hope of some tidbits of info from his Aniki. Ibiki started collecting the papers. When he got to Naruto's he saw that, not suprisingly, the entire test was answered. However, seeing a note at the bottom, he checked it.

 

'Ibiki-San. The 'mission' I was about to complete involved the Sandaime's Law, which was about to be breached by that boy. Watch him carefully. He's not who he says he is. U.N.'

 

Ibiki scowed at this. He was definitely going to be checking the boy out. He'd already had his suspicions from past exams, but having them backed up by Naruto just proved it. This boy was going be watched very carefully.

 

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Naruto's Appartment:

 

When Naruto arrived home, Kakashi was there, reading one of his favorite orange books. Naruto didn't recognise this one.

 

“New book in the series, Niisan?”

 

Kakashi looked up.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Naruto shook his head as he led his team inside. Kakashi snapped the book shut and put it on the arm rest of the seat he was in. Kaakshi chuckled.

 

“News of your anitics in the first part of the exam travel fast, Naruto. I suppose you want some hints for the second one?”

 

Naruto nodded.

 

“Well, the first is always a written, the second is always a field test and the last is always a tournamament. The second test has the most variation out of all of the tests. However, since it's in training area 44, I have a feeling it's a several day mission.”

 

Chouji looked horrified while Shikamaru sighed.

 

“Mendoksei...”

 

“What are we supposed to do for food?”

 

Naruto got an idea. He looked to Kakashi.

 

“Niisan, can I have some summoning scrolls?”

 

Kakashi smiled lazily.

 

“Sure. 2 each. Those things aren't exactly cheap, you know.”

 

Naruto smiled back at Kakashi, mirroring his lazy smile.

 

“Thanks, Niisan.”

 

Naruto led his team to the supply closet, which was packed with all sorts of ninja goodies. Weapons, explosive notes, scrolls, the lot. Naruto went to a particular shelf and skimmed along some scrolls until he found a group of navy blue scolls. Pullling them out, he placed them on the ground and closed the door with his foot. Naruto opened one particualr scoll and showed them it.

 

“This is a multiple summon scroll. Basically with this you're able to summon just about anything excluding animals that require a contract to summon and a few other things. Some versions of them can even summon people. However, once it's summoned, that part of the scroll can not be reused. For example, If you brought a basket of food, Chouji, I could perform a jutsu that would seal it inside one of these circles and when you wanted to, you could make the basket of food pop straight back into existance in front of you.”

 

Chouji looked at the scroll like it was a gift from Kami himself. Chouji could certainly use something like one of these on long missions. Naruto looked up at both of them.

 

“I want both of you to go to your places and get anything and everything you think you'll need for a week long mission. Meet back here and I'll do the sealing.”

 

Both boys nodded and headed out the door to get there things. Naruto was suddenly struck by an idea. He went back to the closet and pulled out a black special summoning scroll that was used to hold a mass of weapons and procured his wind powered knuckleduster knives. Naruto knew that while weapons were sealed, they were essentially maintained in stasis until brought back to the real world. Also, if he could create Kage Bunshins of his blades, they should also be kept in stasis without him having to worry about them. He had learnt Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu several months ago. The next part of his theory was that since making any kind Bunshin relied on creating a copy of the original, and since Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu allowed the user to create clones of another object, it should be theoretically possible to do the same for any object. However, Shuriken were an obvious first target, since they were small and perfectly symetrical. Creating Kage Bunshins of other weapons such as kunai and what not should prove only slightly harder. Naruto practiced making a single Kage Bunshin of a kunai and found that the theory was just as easily done as said. Naruto moved onto his special knives and focused an insane amount of chakra, creating about 64 shadow clones of the left handed knife. Kakashi came into the room at this chakra spike and saw Naruto surrounded by knives. Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

 

“Do I want to know what's going on?”

 

Naruto carefully pushed his way out of the stack so as not to cut himself and got the scroll. He smiled lazily at Kakashi.

 

“Well, I had an idea for a new jutsu.”

 

Kakashi looked at the knives.

 

“A variant of Kage Shuriken?”

 

Naruto shrugged.

 

“That's the first part of it.”

 

Kakashi looked at Naruto in interest.

 

“First part?”

 

Naruto nodded and explained his reasoning.

 

“Objects that are sealed are kept in stasis. I theorised that if I created a huge number of weapon clones and sealed them, they would stay there without any effort from me and I could summon them at will.”

 

Kakashi saw the logic in this. Sure, a number of people had probably given the idea a passing thought, but Naruto had just in the space of 3 minutes brought it into reality. Considering Naruto's tallent for Kage Bunshins and Fuuin Jutsus, it really actually wasn't that suprising he had made it. Naruto went back to sealing other objects into his other two scrolls like food, water, a medical kit, and several other things. After about 15 minutes, there was a knock at the door and when Kakashi answered the door, Shikamaru and Chouji came in with an assortment of different things. Chouji, naturally had brought what most people would consider a life time supply of snack foods. After Naruto led them to his room, he showed them how the process was done. He even allowed both boys to have a go. Neither of them managed it though, but Naruto smiled at them.

 

“Don't worry. It took me 3 months to learn how to do it without stuffing up.”

 

After everything had been sealed, Naruto handed the scrolls to the two boys. The three of them discussed possible plans for the second test until well after dark. After the boys left, Naruto got to bed and went to sleep.

 

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

 

Next Morning, Training Area 44:

 

Team 8 had made it to the area with 5 minutes left to spare, as was their custom. Anko waited another five minutes before she saw that every team had made it on time and began her explination with a snicker.

 

“Now you will experience why this place is called the forest of death.”

 

Naruto came back to attention and stared at her lazily.

 

“What was that, sorry?”

 

People snickered and Anko smiled, hiding her true intentions. She pushed a kunai into her hand and hurled it at Naruto who took it smack in the forehead, much to the chargrin of the others. However, Naruto poofed out of existance and the real Naruto appeared behind Anko.

 

“Did the clone really deserve a kunai to the head? He was just theorising about the posibilities of a new jutsu.”

 

Shikamaru slapped his hand to his forehead.

 

“Mendoksei...”

 

Chouji smiled while the others stared wide eyed at Naruto. Anko smiled.

 

“Not bad, Naruto.”

 

Naruto smiled and reappeared beside his two teammates. Anko reached into her coat and pulled out a stack of papers. Naruto looked at them.

 

“Concent forms? So we are allowed to kill in this test?”

 

Anko smiled and nodded. Everyone decided it would probably be a good idea to stay out of Naruto's way.

 

“There will be deaths in this test, garanteed. I need you to sign these so I don't get the blame for your deaths. I hate paperwork, especially the ones for a death I'm responsible for.”

 

Anko passed the stack of forms to Naruto who took one and passed it on.

 

“I will now begin the explination for the second test of the Chuunin exams. To sum it up, you will all go through an extreme survival match. First, I will explain the area's geographical features.”

 

Anko unrolled a scroll that had a map of the training area on it.

 

“The area is roughly 20 kilometers in diameter with 44 entrance gates spaced evenly around the side. The entire area is consists of a thick forest. There is a river running roughly north to south with a tower at the center. The tower is about 10 kilometers from any gate. Once you are inside, you will be required to complete a mission. The mission directive is this: You will do anything necessary to fight for these scrolls.”

 

Anko pulled out a pair of scolls. One scroll was white and marked with the 'Heaven' Kanji, while the blue one was marked with the 'Earth' Kanji. Anko continued explaining.

 

“There are several rules to this test. Rule one: To successfully progress to the final test, you must obtain one Heaven, and one Earth scroll and make it to the tower within the time limit. Rule two: If you complete the first rule, but produce a missing or unrecoverable teammate, you fail. Rule three: You are not allowed to open these scrolls until you have entered the tower. Rule four: Once the test has begun, you will not be allowed to leave the forest until the end of the test. Rule five: The time limit is 120 hours, or five days.”

 

Ino smirked at Chouji.

 

“Worried about food?”

 

Chouji smirked back at her.

 

“No. I have more than enough food to last me seven days.”

 

Everyone who knew Chouji's eating habits that were not on his team looked at him dubiously. A week of food for Chouji consisted of junk food that most people would eat over the space of 5 or so years. There was no bulging pack of food. In fact, Chouji had a single bag of chips in his hand and that was it, from what they could see. Anko restarted with her explination.

 

“Once you and your team have signed the forms, you will hand three forms in for a single one of these scrolls which will be chosen at random at that stand there.”

 

She pointed to a stand where three examiners were sitting. Anko looked back at them.

 

“You have 15 minutes to sign the forms. Once that fifteen minutes is up, you will be assigned to a gate with your team and you will have a final ten minutes to plan your stratergies before the exam will commense. As a final piece of advice... Don't die.”

 

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

 

25 Minutes Later:

 

Team 8 had signed the forms and handed them in as soon as they were allowed. They recieved the Earth scroll and were directed to gate number 8. After a final ten minutes of stratergising, the gates were open and they charged in, hoping to get this over and done with. Naruto extended his senses and tried to detect chakra signatures. He found a non familliar group not too far away and Naruto made a hand signal in the target team's direction. They changed course and jumped up into the trees, making a bee line for the team. Once they were about 50 meters away, Naruto saw that they were a team from Suna. Luckily, it was not Gaara's team. The team seemed to be arguing over something and they pulled out their scroll, which was luckily the Heavan scroll. Naruto had an idea as he pulled out a spare scroll and used a veey discrete Kawrimi no Jutsu to replace the scroll they were stupidly waving about with a very similar scroll and they made their way towards the tower with the Suna team non the wiser.

 

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

 

At the Command Center in the Tower:

 

Anko had just gotten to the tower in the 3 hours since the exam started when an examiner rushed out the door to greet her.

 

“Anko-San! A team has already passed!”

 

Anko looked at the man skeptically. The previous record was around 5 hours, yet he was claiming that a team had finished in under three? The man saw the look and explained.

 

“It was Team 8 of Konoha, Anko-San. Team captain was Uzumaki Naruto. They're just entering the tower now.”

 

Anko sighed. She should have guessed. She walked into the control hub of the tower and saw from the security camera in the room that indeed, Uzumaki Naruto and Team 8 were just entering the tower, completely unscathed.

 

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

 

With Team 8:

 

Naruto pushed open the door and broke the paper seal holding it shut. They walked into the room and saw a quote written on the wall. Naruto recognised it vaguely as a quote from one of the Hokages. Looking at the scrolls, he gave one to Shikamaru and they both opened them, revealing summoning scrolls. Naruto saw the main symbol on the scrolls form a lump and smoke began emitting from it like a minature volcano. Naruto nodded at Shikamaru and they threw them to the floor where a cloud of smoke appeared. Naruto smiled as he felt the familiar chakra signature.

 

“It's been a while, Iruka-Sensei.”

 

The smoke cleared to indeed reveal it was Iruka. Iruka looked rather startled to be summoned so early, and even more startled to see that Team 8 was completely unscratched.

 

“Hey Naruto. It's good to see that you guys made it. You've smashed the pervious record by several hours... I doubted Kureani when she accepted the mission to the Wave, but now I can see why. Naruto, you make an excellent commander. I have little doubt that you will become Chuunin.”

 

Naruto smiled as he looked up at the wall.

 

“Iruka-Sensei, I remember that quote from somewhere, but it's broken.”

 

Iruka smiled.

 

“That was my other mission. Each team that passes will be greeted by a Chunin, congratulated and then told the meaning of the quote. Read it. It's the quote Sandaime-Sama thought you should keep in mind for this exam and as a Chuunin. The 'Heaven' in this quote indicates the head of a person. The 'Earth' indicates the body. If you do not posses Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepard. If you do not posses earth, run through the fields and seek strength. For example, let's say Chouji's weakness was his brain, he should study every day.”

 

Chouji smiled sheepishly and chuckled at the good natured joke.

 

“If Shikamaru's weakness was his body, he should train himself every day.”

 

Shikamaru sighed.

 

“Mendoksei...”

 

“And if you posses both qualities like Nartuto, dangerous missions will become safe ones, possibly even easy.”

 

Naruto smiled lazily at the compliment. Iruka held up a finger and closed his eyes.

 

“A Chuunin is a Commander Class Ninja who is responsible for his teammates lives and successful completion of the mission. Remember this principle and go forward. I'm proud of you three. Congratulations.”

 

Naruto smiled as they chatted for a bit longer before Iruka puffed out of existence, leaving Team 8 to explore the tower. They found a room not far away that had three fuutons as well as some other things. They left it and proceeded to the central part of the tower, finding a wide open space with a giant statue of a pair of arms and hands that were forming the ram seal. Naruto decided to set down here and work on some things for the upcoming third exam, while Chouji and Shikamaru sat down next to him. Chouji pulled out his food scroll and used a bit of chakra to pull a large shopping bag full of packets of chips out. He opened one packet and began eating, sharing chips with both Naruto and Shikamaru. Naruto pulled out his own scroll that held the mass number of kunckleduster knives to see that they were still firmly held in stasis. A hour of chatting and eating later, Naruto became aware of three chakra signatures at the entrance of the room. Naruto turned to see Gaara's team, completely unscathed. Naruto raised a hand lazily in greeting.

 

“Yo. Good to see you made it.”

 

Gaara nodded and led his team out, going somewhere else in the tower. Naruto looked at the scroll that had his knuckledusters sealed into it and decided to try and replicate it. Opening his utilities scroll, Naruto pulled another green coloured scroll out of the scroll as well as a caligraphy brush and a bottle of ink. Naruto looked carefully at the real scroll and began paining it to make a mirror copy. Both Shikamaru and Chouji looked on in interest as about 15 minutes later, Naruto finished, admiring his handy work. Naruto pulled out his real knuckledusters from their hidden location in his sleaves and formed a ram seal, focusing a huge amount of chakra before there was a huge puff of smoke and Chouji and Shikamaru's eyes widened in disbelief. Naruto had made 64 copies of the right hand knife. They both reached out and touched them to see that they were all indeed real. Naruto looked at them and picked up one of the knives before doing two hand seals to seal the weapon clone inside the scroll. About 10 minutes later, Naruto sealed the last one inside the scroll and rolled it back up, tying it up with string. Naruto noticed the look on their faces and smiled.

 

“It's a new jutsu I invented. I knew that while something is sealed, it is essentially in stasis. I know how to perform the Shuriken Kage Bunishin no Jutsu, and creating the knives is only slightly more difficult than shuriken. I put two and two together and tried sealing the weapon clones inside the scroll for later use. I don't need to maintain concerntraition to keep them active until I resummon them.”

 

Chouji and Shikamaru nodded slowly. Naruto put a finger to his chin in a pose that they recognised as thoughtfulness.

 

“I still haven't made a name for this jutsu yet...”

 

After throwing some names around, they decided to leave it for later and they got back to practicing, eating and studying.

 

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

 

Several Minutes Later:

 

Shikamaru had looked to be in a bad position, but Naruto had seen his sneeky use of the Kagemane no Jutsu pretending to be the shadows of the strings and captured her, forcing her to slam her head into the wall behind her, knocking her unconcious. Hayate announced the winner.

 

“Shousha: Nara Shikamaru.”

 

Naruto welcomed his teammate back with a smile, exchainging a few words with his team before Hayate coughed and the board aivated. Naruto was sure of it now.

 

“That board's voiced activated to his cough...”

 

Chouji snickered while Shikamaru smiled. Since there were few people left, the board seemed to reach it's decision quicker with each passing match.

 

Dosu Kinuta VS Rock Lee

 

Rock lee smiled. This is exactly what was hoping for. A chance to show everyone what he was caepable of. Naruto smiled at the energetci boy next to him.

 

“See if you can finish him in one move, Lee.”

 

Lee gave a thumbs up and jumped over the railing while Dosu walked down, smiling at the boy. Obviously they had met before. Lee spoke first.

 

“This time the outcome will be different.”

 

Dosu smirked as Hayate brought his hand down.

 

“Sixth Match. Haijime.”

 

Lee undid his bandages, much to the horror of Dosu, but before Dosu could give up, he was kicked into the air with Lee appearing behind him. Lee's bandages wrapped around him and Lee slammed him into the ground.

 

“Omote Renge!”

 

The ground cracked underneith the impace as everyone except Team Gai and Naruto looked gobsmacked at the amount of damage that single move had done. Lee landed gracefully at the side of the crater, panting.

 

“No team mate to save you this time. The only reason you beat me last time is because it was three on one. One on one, I proved my Taijutsu makes me just as capeable as you are with your Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.”

 

Hayate pointed to Lee.

 

“Shousha: Rock Lee.”

 

Lee dissapeared and reappeared up with his team mates. Naruto, Gai, Chouji and Shikamaru congtatulated him as Hayate coughed setting the scoreboard of again.

 

Inuzuka Kiba VS Sabaku no Kankuro

 

Kiba jumped down to the arena while Kankuro walked down, a smug look on his face. Once both fighters stepped up and Hayate announced the match.

 

“Seventh match. Hajime.”

 

Hayate jumped back as Kiba smirked.

 

“I don't know what you are, but you're not human. The thing on your back is though.”

 

The Suna team looked startled as Kiba rubbed a finger under his nose.

 

“Never underestimate an Inukuka's smell. My sense of smell is 1000 times better than any other person in this room. Akamaru! Mashou ka?”

 

Akamaru barked an affirmative and Kiba formed a ram seal, letting off chakra.

 

“Gijyuu Ninpou: Shikyaku no Jutsu!”

 

Kiba's finger nails grew and formed rather wicked looking claws. Kiba smiled ferally at the Opponent.

 

“Akamaru!”

 

The dog jumped onto his back and barked.

 

“Gijyuu Ninpou: Juujin Bunshin!”

 

Akamaru was surrounded by a cloud of smoke which cleared to reveal and exact copy of Kiba. Both of them growled as they obsered their 'prey'.

 

“Let's go, Akamaru!”

 

They separated and dissapeared in a burst of speed. When they reappeared, both of them were going not for the apparent opponent, but the one strapped to it's back. However, Kankuro dodged as he narrowed his eyes. He was at a major disadvantage here. He used puppets to engage in medium to long range battle which left the user vunerable. It seemed this guy relied on speed and power to deliver savage blows to the opponent. He had to think and fast. Getting some chakra strings, he threw them at one of them, making him stop in his tracks. The other one stopped and looked at his companion.

 

“Akamaru? Daijobu?”

 

Akamaru gave several grunts before Kiba sighed.

 

“That may hold him now, but you're going to give me Akamaru back.”

 

Kiba reached into his pouch and pulled out two small brown pills. He ate one himself and flicked one at the Akamaru clone who caught it and swallowed it in the same movement. The clone growled as chakra began surging off him. He broke free of the chakra strings and smiled at Kankuro. Kiba haunched over, a large purple ball in his hand.

 

“Let's try that new one, Akamaru! Let's Go!”

 

Kiba hurled the smoke bomb at Kankuro and announced his Jutsu.

 

“GATSUUGA!”

 

Both of them turned into grey cyclones as they ripped into the smoke cloud, causing general destruction. Once the smoke cleared, the puppet was laying on the ground in tatters and the real Kankuro was on the ground, trying desperatly to get up, but couldn't and fell to the ground. Kiba smiled.

 

“Nice work, Akamaru!”

 

Akamaru grunted and turned back into his regular form. Hayate announced the winner.

 

“Shousha: Inuzuka Kiba.”

 

Once Kiba got back up to the group, he received praise while Kankuro was carted off along with his puppet so the next match could begin. Hayate coughed and the board scrolled through the last few names and in just over two seconds had chosen a pair.

 

Aburame Shino VS Tenten

 

Both fighters came down and faced off, not saying a word. Hayate made sure they were both ready, he gave the word to begin.

 

“Eighth match: Hajime.”

 

Tenten jumped back and jumped into the air, launching several weapons at Shino who triend to jump out of the way, but the weapons struck true. Shino began falling to the ground until he burts into a group of bugs. Naruto smiled.

 

“Mushi Bunshin no Jutsu.”

 

Tenten looked around her and saw Shino behind her near the wall. She turned around, smiling at him before pulling out several weapons. Shino looked up at her.

 

“I would advise you to check your surroundings.”

 

Tenten looked around before she saw an entire army of bugs crawling at her from the opposite direction. Shino looked at her.

 

“Those ar Kikai bugs. They will consume your chakra, rendering you unable to fight. If you attack me, the bugs will eat your chakra. If you go for them, I will attack you. What will you do?”

 

Tenten weighed her options. She REALLY didn't want to have to use this jutsu yet, but it seemed like she had no choice. She reached into her ninja pouch and pulled out a pair of red scrolls. She placed them on the ground.

 

“I'll show you where Naruto got his inspiration from.”

 

Shino raised an eyebrow as Tenten formed a short set of handseals before announcing her jutsu.

 

“Soshoryu!”

 

The arena exploded in smoke as a pair of dragons rose up through the air, magestically entertwining before meeting near the roof of the arena. Tenten jumped up to the top and began palming the scrolls, obtaining weapons of every shape and size imaginable and hurled them at Shino. Shino formed several hand seals of his own, holding his hands out in front of him.

 

“Mushi Kame no Jutsu.”

 

Bugs flew out from Shino's jacket sleaves and surrounded him with what seemed to be a black version of the Kaiten. The weapons struck it and bounced off, falling to the ground. When Shino sensed the weapons stop, he withdrew his bugs, seeing Tenten land on the ground.

 

“I'm not done yet!”

 

Tenten jumped up and pulled the weapons back to her via ninja wire and then flung them back at Shino, who again used the Mushi Kame. When Tenten landed, Shino appeared behind her with a kunai to her neck.

 

“Interesting jutsu, however, this is checkmate. My bugs are far to close for you to try anything else and I have you in a submissive position.”

 

Tenten may be prideful, however, she knew when she was beaten.

 

“True, I give up.”

 

Shino relaxed and called his bugs back to him.

 

“Shousha: Aburame Shino.”

Both Shino and Tenten walked back up to their teams, getting nods of acknoledgement or a few words of praise. Hayate coughed, catching their attention.

 

“Could the fighters for the 9th and final match please step up?”

 

Gaara used Shushin no Jutsu to get down to the arena while Zaku jumped down. They stood facing each other, waiting for the word. Hayate brought his hand down and jumped back.

 

“Nineth and final match: Hajime.”

 

Zaku smirked as he brought his one useful arm up.

 

“This will be enough to beat you!”

 

Gaara made no movements, so Zaku announced his jutsu.

 

“Zankuha!”

 

The air blasted out of the hole in his hand and a huge cloud of dust washed over the part of the arena Gaara was in.

 

“Hah, blew him to bits!”

 

Zaku was shocked when the dust cleared to reveal Gaara had not moved an inch, nor was he harmed. Zaku froze in fear while Gaara looked at him.

 

“Is that it? There isn't enough... BLOOD!”

 

Gaara sent a wave of sand at Zaku, who tried to dodge but the sand caught him and wrapped him up in a cocoon.

 

“Sabaku Kyu.”

 

Shino, Kiba and Hinata knew what was coming next. They had observed Gaara use this combo on some hapless Rain nin which ended up in the ninja having his internals splattered all over the clearing. Before anyone could stop him, Gaara completed the jutsu.

 

“Sabaku Soso.”

 

Zaku gave one last scream as he was crushed by a huge amount of pressure, much to everyone's horror. The sand retreated back to his gourd, as Hayate announced the winner. He had said killing was permitted, but he never expected someone to do it and so heartlessly.

 

“Shousha: Gaara.”

 

Gaara warped back up to his teammates as Hayate called the winners down.

 

“Could the eight people who earnt the right to progress to the final test please come down? We will now announce the rules and date of the final test.”

 

All eight of them came down and stood in a line in front of the assembled Chuunins, Jounins and the Hokage, who after a puff from his pipe got things going.

 

“Firstly, congratulations on earning the right to compete in the exams. Your main matches will be held in front of a large number of very powerful and influential people, as well as everyone else who wishes to attend, ninja and cilillians alike. We wish for all of you to show off your true potential as your country's representative power. Therefore, to allow the important people to arrive here and also to give you time to train, the main matches will be held in exactly one month from today. Use this time to analyse what you've found out about your opponents from the preliminaries, and prepare for it. These preliminaries were conducted like real life confrontations. You knew nothing of the others. But the main matches will not be like that. There are those who have revealed everything to their rivals, and then there are those who have revealed little. This is also the reason the matches are not beginning right away. To make thing fair, train hard and improve yourselves over the next month. Before I let you go, I need each of you to take a piece of paper from the box Anko is holding. Take only one.”

 

Anko stepped forward with a box in her hand.

 

“I'll come to each of you, so don't worry.”

 

Anko went down the line, starting with Gaara, and finishing with Neji. Once Neji had picked a piece of paper, Anko looked at them.

 

“I need each of you to tell me what number you got. Starting with you.”

 

She looked at Gaara.

 

Gaara: 7

 

Kiba: 2

 

Chouji: 4

 

Shikamaru: 3

 

Naruto: 1

 

Shino: 6

 

Lee: 8

 

Neji: 5

 

Ibiki had been scribling on a clipboard and when Neji called out his nnuer, he stopped and turned it around so they could see what he was writing.

 

“These are the match ups for the main tournament.”

 

Round One:

 

Uzumaki Naruto VS Inuzuka Kiba

 

Nara Shikamaru VS Akimichi Chouji

Hyuuga Neji VS Aburame Shino

 

Sabaku no Gaara VS Rock Lee

 

All of them took this information in before the Hokage dimissed them. Naruto knew that this was going to test his 7 years of training to the limits. He needed some SERIOUS coaching.

 

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

 

A/N: Holy cow! I think this is officially the longest chapter I've EVER done! Sorry if you feel I left stuff out, but after the length of the chapter, are you really going to complain? Well, until next time my avid readers!

 

Ja ne,

 

Specula.