Starting over

#18 Genin-Exams

Naruto POV

“Hey Naruto, are you as nervous as me about today?”, Temari asked as we sat at the kitchen table eating our breakfast. I looked at her chuckling. “We don't have to be nervous about anything, after all, we are strong enough to be Jonin by now and we both know that we will ace the test, since we know what we’ll have to do.”, I said trying to reassure my fellow blonde. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”, she said, before digging into her cereals. “What do you think, how will Gaara react when Rasa tells him what happened to Kankuro?”, I asked while putting my plate in the sink. Rasa had told us, that Gaara would come back today in the morning, right on time for the exams. “I don't know, I hope my father has a good plan to tell him, because I fear that he will go berserk if he realizes it all too sudden.”, Temari answered frowning. “Yeah I had the same thoughts. I hope we can calm him down fast enough if something goes wrong.”, I stated, going to the stairs to go to my room.

I got my stuff from my desk, smiling upon seeing the sorted and labeled scrolls which were stacked on a separate shelf. The work of five clones over the time of a week. Although one scroll still sat atop my desk, the summoning scroll, which I still hadn’t found the time to try out. I’ll probably have enough time to do so after the Genin-Exams so I went out of my room and headed downstairs, where Temari was already waiting for me.

“Alright kids, this will be our last class, since you will all hopefully pass the exams in the afternoon.”, the teacher said while smiling at us. That was when we all felt a large burst of chakra coming from the Kazekage's office. Temari and I looked at each other worriedly and, without caring for what the teacher said, dashed out of the classroom and towards the raging Gaara. When we reached Rasa and his son we found that Rasa was unconscious on the ground guarded by his Anbu, while Gaara was thrashing around on the opposing side of the office. None of the Anbu seemed to have the guts to do something so Temari and I stepped into the room immediately earning a hard glare from Gaara. We saw in his eyes that Shukaku had taken control over his body, which slightly surprised me, since I thought that I had already secured the seal enough when I first altered it. “Gaara! I know you can hear me! Come on, you know you don't want this!”, Temari screamed at her brother who seemed to be responding slightly to her voice, as the sand swirling around the redhead calmed significantly. “I know you are hurt, but believe me, we all have to live with it.”, Temari spoke again.

Meanwhile I went to the Kazekage, who had woken up in the meantime. “What happened?”, I whispered to the still somewhat confused Rasa. “I don't know, he came into the office after his mission and asked why he couldn't feel Kankuro’s chakra in the village. Then I told him that Kankuro was killed two weeks ago and he just went crazy.”, the man told me while looking at his remaining son worriedly. I nodded and went to look if Temari needed any help when I saw her embracing Gaara crying silently into his shoulder. Gaara hesitantly hugged his sister back while shooting glares in his father’s direction. After Temari had calmed down a bit he softly broke free from her embrace and turned to face the Kazekage. “Why did you send me away? Were you afraid that I would lose control? What were you thinking? That I would be less hurt when you tell me a week after it happened? Answer me!”, he screamed at his father, making the Anbu around him take up defensive positions. “I don't know why I did send you away. Perhaps I was afraid, maybe I just wanted to have you out of town so I could realize what had happened myself. All I know is that it was not the right decision and that I am sorry.”, Rasa apologized, squirming under Gaara’s intense glare. Gaara’s eyes softened and he went to his father but the Anbu got in his way. Surprisingly one look of the jinchuuriki was enough so that they would back away in fear. He went to his father and, earning a surprised look from Rasa, engulfed him in a hug. “It’s all good. I forgive you.”, Gaara mumbled.

After a long talk between Gaara and Rasa the redhead noticed Baki’s absence. “He went away just yesterday with a squad of Anbu to assassinate the Anbu that killed Kankuro.”, the Kazekage answered to the question of the redhead. This caused a puzzled look from my fellow jinchuuriki. “ Why did you wait for a almost a week until you decided to send someone after Kankuro's Killer?”, he asked. “Well you see, the two Anbu were after Kankuro and Temari and seeing that they didn't accomplish their mission I figured that the remaining Anbu would just hide outside of the village before coming back again to finish his task. That's why I decided to wait for Baki to come back from his mission, since he is one of our best interrogators, which he did just two days ago in the evening. I let him rest that evening and told him to go for the Iwa-nin in the morning.” Rasa explained while looking at me and Temari with narrowed eyes. “Now go on, you have Genin-Exams to beat.”, he said shooing us out of his office.

When we got to the classroom our teacher looked at us worriedly but didn't say anything. He lead us to a different classroom and let us take three of the free seats. Then he went to the front and repeated again what we had to do to pass the exam; a clone, hit twelve out of  fourteen targets with either Shuriken or Kunai, one wind-jutsu of our choice and another jutsu from any category. I closed my eyes and meditated while the others were called up one after another. Being an Uzumaki I knew that I was the last person to get called up since they were going through the name list in alphabetical order. When I heard Sabaku no Gaara being called I opened my eyes and smiled at Gaara who went out of the room to the examiners. After a few minutes Temari got called leaving me alone in the room. “Good Luck.”, I said as she left the room. She smiled at me and closed the door. Then after another few minutes the teacher came into the room and looked at me. “Your the last one. Good Luck.”, he wished smiling while he lead me through the floor and into a small room which obviously had to be reinforced somehow to withstand the amount of Jutsu that were performed in it. “Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze?”, asked one of the three men that were sitting on the only desk in the room. “Yes.”, I replied. “Good, I believe you know what to do?”, the same man asked. I nodded and went to the wall where the targets hang. The examiners watched me slightly confused as I took out my Kunai. Suddenly a second me proofed into existence. The examiners watched in awe as me and my clone each fired seven Kunai at the targets and hit the center on every single one of them. I smiled as I formed a Rasengan in my hand and shoved it into my clones stomach. The clone crashed into the wall and dispelled in a cloud of smoke. “And for the wind-Jutsu..”, I said while creating another Rasengan in my hand before adding my wind chakra to it forming a Rasenshuriken. The instructors looked at the spiraling sphere with big eyes while I was taking aim to throw it at the opposing wall. When it hit the wall it seemed as if nothing happened and the proctors already made notes that my jutsu wasn’t effective but then there was a silent rumble and as the men looked up to see where that sound came from the wall began to fall apart into a massive cloud of dust. After the dust had settled the wall was completely evaporated and all that was left were a few small piles of dust. The sensei in the room which I had just opened looked at me terrified while his students had watched me open mouthed. “Hehe, sorry Reseda, wait a second I’ll fix that so you can continue.”, one of the proctors said grinning while going through handsings. I took a step back as the man walked up next to me and put his hands on the floor. Where once was a wall erupted another one just like the old one and closed the two rooms off again.

“So, did I pass?”, I asked grinning after the proctor had retaken his seat. “With flying colours, but please refrain from using that jutsu inside of a house from now on.”, the man in the middle said smiling, presenting me with a headband. I bowed slightly and took it out of his hands, putting it safely in one of my pouches. “Congratulations. You are now officially a Genin of Sunagakure.”, the two others said before taking their notes and starting to tidy their places up. “Thank you.”, I said, bowing again and then leaving the room and walking to the room where we were supposed to go when we had passed.