Naruto Repurposed

Chapter 14

Chunin Exams IV

Naruto and the rest of Team 7 were awakened early the morning after arriving in the central tower and completing stage 2 of the chunin exams, by a hurried Hokage who needed to see the Fuinjutsu seal on Sasuke. Luckily, his secretary Naru had filled him in last night on everything that happened with Naruto and his team meeting Orochimaru, and what the Snake Sannin seemed to be after. The only part Naru couldn't explain was what happened after the original Naruto was taken out, and the words that were exchanged between the young Uchiha and his former student, and needing to see the seal to determine if it was what he feared.

Naruto was able to get a good look at the unusual seal that Orochimaru gave to Sasuke as it was expanded by the Third Hokage while Kakashi kept Sasuke still and viewed it himself. It was definitely way beyond anything Naruto had learned, although pieces of it were at least understandable. He was pretty concerned after the looks shared by Jiji and Kakashi, and agreed with them as they told Sasuke not to use the foreign chakra as the cost would be too great and risky.

He asked a lot of questions, when following Kakashi's outer sealing of Orochimaru's bite seal, and was surprised his sensei knew so much about Fuinjutsu getting a promise to teach him some of what he knew later. Sasuke wasn't completely happy to have the seal closed off, and grudgingly promised not to use it despite wanting to go all out in any fight he still had, which the Hokage hinted was likely going to be soon. Kakashi congratulated all of his genin, happy that they stuck together and survived their run in with Orochimaru, and yet was also very scared for his cute students as this was sure to cause them problems down the road.

The two left Team 7 with a lot of questions still going on in their minds, but most of it centered around why Orochimarau would have singled out Sasuke for the seal, and none of them boded well. They tried to put it in the back of their minds as they spent the next three days around the tower waiting for the second stage to end, eating in the cafeteria, occasionally catching up with the other rookies, and training in empty rooms when they needed something to do.

Naruto was at least able to spend the three days really hunkering down on Fuinjutsu lessons, using his clones in a large empty room he found to hammer home everything seal related that he had discovered so far. His storage and explosive seals were now top notch, and he could practically do them all in his sleep with no difficulty, and had his clones continue to add to his supplies when not trying new things. He was progressing through the more advanced stuff at a decent pace for anyone else, but for Naruto it still felt like it was taking too long, as the Uzumaki sealing information was still too far out of his reach.

The biggest surprise they discovered during the wait, was that Naruto's eyes had seemingly changed permanently from the clear ocean blue they were before to an almost glowing purple color, something he speculated was due to the fox's chakra or youkai. He was also a little surprised the first time the Kyuubi made a random comment on something he was looking at, having forgotten that the most recent change allowed the fox to communicate with him directly, almost like hearing voices in his head. It was pretty weird at first, and very distracting at the beginning until he started to get more used to having a running commentary on things he was seeing.

The biggest problem with the fox's running commentary was his sarcasm and general dislike of most human things, and having to ignore the extra or added comments on his teammates or other ninja. The benefits though were also quickly apparent, as the fox saw things he didn't, noticed subtleties and nuances that he never learned or paid attention to, and had a lot of knowledge about various ninja disciplines and techniques. The two spent most of those first few days just getting used to the new reality that was their unusual connection, and for the fox seeing new things after so long stuck in the seal was a great boon that he really enjoyed.