Strong Like You: A Naruto Fanfiction ON HIATUS

Chapter 38. Here Begins the Chunin Exams!

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Here begins the Chunin exam Arc! I'm so excited!~

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I groaned, letting my knees buckle below me to meet the ground. There was no way I could allow myself to fail the Chunin exams. I believed this with all my heart and soul, leading myself to push my body to the edge of exhaustion to accomplish it. Naruto panted as he wobbled towards me and plopped onto his bottom to my left.

"You train like this all the time?" he questioned, taking a deep breath.

The day we'd received our applications for the examinations, my teammate had approached me to train alongside him. He had remembered how I'd moved and fought during the Zabuza debacle and wanted to improve his skills. Not wanting to lose to his rival or fall behind his whole squad, his intentions were enough to bring a smile to my face and meet him on the training grounds. I of course would already be working on the things I needed to improve on. The more the merrier right?

"You never know what you'll be up against in the shinobi world. To reach the top, you have to train harder and longer than everyone else. The sad truth is that there's always somebody stronger than you no matter what you do. Sometimes it isn't about strength, but also coming up with the perfect plan or strategy to defeat them. That's why learning different things can be helpful," I explained.

"I'm definitely going to beat Sasuke!" he growled, balling his fists.

I chuckled. Always the same knuckleheaded kid with a never ending thirst for competition with his rival and the rarely encountered ability to never give up. I admired him dearly.

"I'm sure you're going to do great, Naruto," I encouraged, feeling the warmth of his friendship thaw the ice in my heart.

"I have to do well or no one in the village will acknowledge me as the next Hokage! That reminds me, back when we first introduced ourselves into squad 7,  you didn't give an answer as to what your dream was in life. You don't want to be Hokage too, do you?" Naruto asked, appearing a bit nervous.

I chuckled once again. "If anything, I'll support you as Hokage, Naruto. I'm not really suited for that kind of job."

His toothy grin expanded as he began to glow with excitement. It was true that I hadn't given an answer and I'd never given myself the opportunity to think about it. So many things had happened in the 17 years I'd been alive. I'd never given it much thought.

"I'm going to be the best Hokage this world has ever seen!" He shouted, rising to his feet and pumping his fist into the air.

"Okay, okay Lord Hokage. What do you say we keep training first? How's about we practice some more of those evasive maneuvers and perhaps you can teach me the Shadow clone jutsu. Then we'll go out for some Ichiraku ramen to celebrate us moving up in the world. What do you say? It'll be my treat," I explained the plan.

"Sounds good to me!"

We continued to train into the afternoon. It didn't take long for me to learn the shadow clone jutsu with my Sharingan activated and ultimately, I knew it would come in handy. Of course, Naruto's chakra reserves far surpassed mine and I wasn't able to create more than six clones to start with. We celebrated our hard work with our favorite dishes from Ichiraku and went home to rest up for the exams to begin the next day, both determined to win.