Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Village Hidden in the Waves ❯ Enter Waves Team: Nine Rookies Face off! ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter One

Enter Waves Team

Twelve Rookies face off!

 

The Village hidden in the Mist was depressive, so thankfully we didn't stick around too long as went across to the bridge that led to Konoha. As we crossed it, Suki was already telling us all about The Village of the Hidden Leaf.

“You're gonna like Sasuke, Kit! Naruto and Sakura too!” she told us. Tokeru smiled, simply walking along with them. “And Tokeru-sens- I mean, Tokeru, I'm sure Choji would love your cooking!” Just then, we crossed the bridge, making our way to the village gates, where Naruto and the rest of Team 7 were waiting for us. “Suki!” Naruto called out, waving him arms. “Naruto!” Suki called back. She then ran up to greet them. “Guys, this is Kitsune Yamato and Tokeru Hashimashida.” She then proceeded to introducing Team 7 to them, but I already knew them by a little. First, I went up to Naruto.

“Naruto Uzumaki, right?” Naruto smiled a big smile with narrowed eyes as he answered, “Yeah! I'm going-”

“To be the next Hokage?”

“Uh, yeah, guess Suki told you, but she's not getting in the way of my dream, believe it!”

“Sure, whatever.”

Naruto growled, causing Suki to giggle, and I went on to Sasuke. “Sasuke Uchiha. I hear you have great talents. I'm eager to see them demonstrated.” Sasuke just gave a grin. Finally, I stopped in front of Sakura, who seemed quite happy.

“Sakura Haruno, was it?” Sakura nodded, and I smiled to her, saying, “Your ninja knowledge must be great asset to the team.” Sakura smiled and blushed a little. Finally, I looked up to Kakashi, my idol. “Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja... I greatly admire you, Kakashi-sensei.”

Kakashi-sensei, however, was too busy reading `Make-out Paradise' to listen to what I said. Then, he looked up and asked, “I'm sorry, Kitsune. You were saying?” I sighed, and then just followed them to the building where the Chunin exams would be held.

When we stopped in front of the door that led to the Chunin exams, Kakashi-sensei put his back to it and told Sakura, “Glad you came, Sakura, for your sake and the others. Now, you can all formally register for the Chunin exam.”

“Why, what do you mean?” asked Sakura, confused.

“You see, only groups of three are allowed apply for and take the exam. That's the way it's always been.”

“But sensei, you said the decision to take the exam was up to the individual.”
“That's right, I did.”

“Was that a lie?” I didn't tell you before because I didn't want the other guys pressuring you. At the same time, I didn't want you feeling obliged to participate because of any feelings you might have for Sasuke or Naruto. I wanted you to come to a decision of your own free will.”

“Wait a minute, do you mean if the others had shown up but I decided not to come with them-”

“It would have been the end of the line. If you hadn't come along, I couldn't have let the others in. But it's a moot point. You're all here and for the right reasons. Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, I'm proud of you. I couldn't ask for a better team. Good luck.”

“We won't let you down, sensei! Believe it!” said Naruto as they opened the door into the exam room and went in.

When went inside, a crowd of other ninja were there, all from various villages.

“Wh-what's this?” asked Naruto, a little insecure.

“Gee, I guess we're not alone,” said Sakura.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, someone jumped on my back. I looked behind to see who it was, and it was a girl whom Suki's definition of Ino fit perfectly.

“So, what's your name, hot stuff?”

“Kitsune Yamato...” I replied, blushing slightly.

“I'm Ino Yamanaka... you wanna do something after these exams over?”

“I...uh-“

“Hey!”

 

Suki had seen Ino make her move on me and had intervened between us.

“He's taken, so back off!” she continued, standing between her and I.

“I thought he'd have better tastes...”

“He's not with me, you pig!” Suki growled at her.

 

Ino stuck her tongue out at her, and then got off me and walked away, leaving me with Suki. She turned around and smiled at me.

“Sorry about Ino, she's usually like this around Sasuke, but I guess she found you even better-looking than him...”

I nodded. “It's okay. I get it all the time.”

“Oh, so it's you guys,” said Shikamaru, stepping in. Ino was with them. “I knew this was going to be a drag, but I didn't know it was going to be this lame.”

“So all three stooges are here,” taunted Naruto.

“Hey, you know what, pipsqueak-?” Shikamaru started, but Tokeru cut him off.

“Be quiet, you lazy oaf,” he insulted.

“Well, well, what do you know?” Kiba interjected stepping towards us with Hinata and Shino. “It looks like the whole gang's back together again... with a few extras, of course.”

“Kitsune Yamato, Suki Yashi and Tokeru Hashimashida.”

“I see. I suppose Suki already told you guys all about us, huh?”

“I guess...”

“Oh, hi Naruto...” Hinata told him shyly. Naruto looked to Hinata, who simply blushed.

“You guys too, huh?” asked Shikamaru when he saw those three. “Man, everyone's here for this stupid thing.”

“Yep, here we all are, the nine rookies... more like twelve now!” Kiba laughed. “This is gonna be fun! At least, for those of us good enough to make the cut, right, Sasuke?”

“Kiba,” Sasuke replied, “Careful you don't get overconfident.”

“Just wait,” shot back Kiba, “we're gonna blow you guys away! We've been training like crazy!”

“What do you think we've been doing?” said Naruto. “Sitting around picking daisies? You don't know what training means!”

“Uh, don't mind Kiba,” said Hinata. “I'm sure he didn't really mean anything by it.”

Choji stepped towards Kiba, but Shino stood in front of him.

“What do you want?” Choji asked him, but Shino simply looked down towards the floor. “What's wrong?” He then noticed that there was an insect on the floor.

“Thought maybe you hadn't seen it.” Shino implied. “Didn't want you stepping on it.”

“Why? You saving it for lunch?” taunted Choji.

“Hey, you guys!”

Just then, a man with long silver hair in a ponytail and glasses walked towards us.

“You might want to try keeping it down a little. I mean, no offence, but you're the nine rookies, right? Fresh out of the academy? Um... twelve? Oh, you three must be from the village hidden in the waves!”

“That we are.” I replied.

“Well, I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it. This isn't a class field trip.”

“Well who asked you?” asked Ino. “Who are you?”

“I'm Kabuto Yakushi. But really, look around you. You've made quite an impression.”

We all looked behind us, seeing all the other ninja glaring at us. They didn't look too friendly.

“See those guys?” asked Kabuto. “They're from the rain village, very touchy. They all are. This exam makes everyone tense, and you don't want to rub them the wrong way right now. You can't help it, I mean, how could you know how things work, you're rookies! You remind me of myself a while back...”

“Kabuto, is that your name?” asked Sakura.

“Yeah.”

“This isn't the first time you've taken the exam?”

“No, it's... my seventh.”

“Huh?” wondered Shikamaru.

“Well, they're held twice a year, so this will be my fourth year.”

“Wow, a veteran!” smiled Sakura. “You must really be an expert by now.”

“Yeah, sort of.”

“Cool, you can give us all the inside tips!” exclaimed Naruto.

“Yeah, some expert, he's never passed,” complained Shikamaru.

“Well, seventh time's the charm, that's what they say, huh?” said Kabuto awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

“So I guess all those rumours about the exam being tough are true...” groaned Shikamaru. “Oh, man, I knew this was gonna be a drag.”

“Hang on, don't give up hope yet,” clarified Kabuto, pulling out a deck of cards from his pouch. “Maybe I can help you kids out a little, with my Ninja Info cards.”

“What the heck are those?” wondered Sakura.

“It's hard to explain, but these cards have been Chakra-encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years. I've got more than 200 of them. So you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much to the naked eye. In fact, they appear blank. Don't want just anyone seeing this stuff.”

He placed his finger on one of the cards and made it spin.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“You see, I'm using my Chakra to reveal their secrets. Like this for example.”

Suddenly, the card stopped spin and let out smoke.

“Awesome, a map!” cheered Suki. “Of what?”

“It shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates who have come to take the Chunin exam. What villages they come from, and how many from each village. Why do you think these guys all come to take the exam together at the same time? It's the foster friendship between nations, of course. International brotherhood and all that. And it's true enough as far as it goes.”

“But there's another reason,” Tokeru told him.

“Yeah. You see, the important thing is that this way they can carefully regulate the total number of shinobi that end up in each village, thereby maintaining the balance of power.”

“Oh, yeah,” understood Naruto. “balance of power.”

“Balance of power, big deal, it's all a drag,” complained Shikamaru.

Kabuto then made the contents of the card blank again.

“If the balance isn't maintained, one nation may wind up with many more Shinobi than its neighbours. And it might be tempted to attack them. So, they try to maintain the status quo. Makes sense, I suppose.”

“Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates? Individually?” asked Sasuke.

“They might,” replied Kabuto. “You have someone special in mind?”

“I might,” answered Sasuke.

“Well, I can't promise my information is complete or perfect,” explained Kabuto as he placed the card back onto his deck. “But I've got something on just about everyone. Including you guys of course. Except for you three of the land of waves... You've just recently become Genin, haven't you?”

I simply nodded.

“So which one is it?” asked Kabuto to Sasuke. “Tell me anything you know about them: a description, where they're from, whatever. Anything at all.”

“He's Gaara of the Desert. And there's Rock Lee of the Leaf village while you're at it.”

“Man, that's no fun, you even know their names. That makes it easy.”

He then drew the two cards and held them in front of him.

“Here they are.”

“Show them to me,” replied Sasuke.

 

Kabuto laid the card on the ground and used his Chakra with it as he said, “Okay, first up is Rock Lee. Looks like he's about a year older than you guys. Mission experience: 11 C-ranks and 20 D-ranks. His squad leader is Gai. In the last twelve months, his Taijutsu has radically improved, but his other skills are pretty shaky. Last year he got a lot of attention as a Genin, but for some reason, he chose not to participate in the Chunin exams. This'll be his first time as a candidate, same as you guys. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuuga.”

“Huh? Hyuuga?” Naruto wondered aloud.

“Okay, now for Gaara of the Desert,” Kabuto continued, once again using Chakra with the card. “Mission experience: 8 C-ranks and - get this: one B-rank as a Genin. There's not a lot more information on this guy. He was a rookie from another land, originally. But there is this: He survived every mission without getting a scratch on him.”

“The dude's done a B-rank as a Genin, and has never even been injured?” Shikamaru wondered in shock.

“What's the deal with this guy?” Naruto asked no one in particular.

Kabuto put a third card on the pile, this one being a map that showed all the villages. “Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound, Waves. From the looks of it, they've all sent exceptionally skilled candidates to the exam this time around. Of course, the hidden sound village is small. It sprang up recently, no one knows anything about it. Those guys are a mystery. As for you guys, from the village hidden in the waves... I'd like to know more about you.”

Kabuto then put the three cards away. “Well, you get the point. The competition's going to be intense this year.”

“So it would seem...” Hinata said shyly. “It's almost enough to make you lose your confidence.”

“It's a fine time to start talking like that!” Ino yelled at Hinata.

“Do you... really think it's going to be tougher this time?” Sakura asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Kabuto responded, “In the four years I've been coming, I've never seen a crop of candidates with as much potential as this bunch. Yup, we've got our work cut out for us.”

Naruto looked very stressed out as Kabuto said this.

“Hey, don't worry, Naruto, we'll be fine!” Sakura comforted him, but suddenly, Naruto pointed his finger at the crowd of Genin.

“My name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm gonna beat every one of ya! Believe it!”

 

Ino ran over to Sakura and yelled, “Hey what exactly is he trying to do, get us killed? Tell your boyfriend to keep his big fat trap shut!”

“Whose boyfriend!?” Sakura growled back.

“Oh, I forgot, you can't get one!”

“Wha'd you say?”

“Yeah, I feel a lot better now!” Naruto smiled.

 

I sighed at Naruto's outburst, then grinned, along with Kabuto and Sasuke.

“Uh, can you say that again a little louder?” asked Kiba to Naruto. “didn't quite catch it.”

“You moron,” said Shikamaru to Naruto as well. “are you trying to get everyone in the place to hate our guts or what?”

Naruto laughed, but was stopped by Sakura, who ran up behind him and strangled him. “Naruto, you idiot!! Why'd you say something like that!? You obnoxious little-...” she stopped when she saw all the ninja in the room glaring at them. “Oh, hi everyone! Hehe, don't mind him, sometimes he says these spazzy things, he doesn't really mean them, they just kind of come out! He's got this, uh, condition, you know, kind of a psychological thing, he really should be on medication, hehe... Now see what you've done, Naruto!? You're hurt everybody's feelings! They think you don't respect them, but that isn't true, is it Naruto? Would you just for once in your life think about what you're doing? Think about the rest of us!”

“Fine,” shrugged Naruto.

All of a sudden, one of the sound ninja who had black hair threw two kunai at Kabuto, which he dodged. Next, a sound ninja with bandages all over his body threw a punch at him, but it was parried unexpectedly and threw him completely off guard... by me.

Everyone was surprised at how I stopped the blow, but then, Kabuto's glasses cracked and broke. “I see... so it was that kind of attack.” Kabuto observed as he removed his broken glasses.

“Wait a minute,” interjected Sasuke. “Kitsune parried that punch, how'd that happen?”

“It must have come closer than it looked.” Shikamaru suggested.

Kabuto then suddenly keeled over forwards and began to cough up blood.

“What? Did he just-” said Naruto, startled.

“Kabuto, what's wrong?” asked Sakura worriedly. “ What is it?”

“Hey, Kabuto!” said Naruto as he ran over to him.

“Are you okay?” asked Sakura, who followed.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” replied Kabuto.

“Are you sure?” asked Naruto.

“Not such a tough guy after all, I guess,” taunted the sound ninja with bandages. “Maybe that's why he's on his seventh try.”

“Write this on your little card, punk,” said the sound ninja with black hair. “The Genin from the Sound village will be Chunin when this is over guaranteed.”

Suddenly, a burst of smoke came from the front of the room, which called out, “Alright, you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up!”

When the smoke cleared, a man with a scarred face showed up with about twenty other men. “It's time to begin. I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor, and from this moment, your worst enemy.