In a dark corner of the highest tower of Amegakure, two people were kneeling in front of a throne.
"I'm very disappointed of you, Itachi, Kisame."
"I'm sorry, Leader," Itachi answered with a monotone voice. "That jinchuriki is not skilled, but he is quite sly. Had it not been for my time in Konohagakure, he would have outrun us."
"True, but in the combat side, he's nothing to be worried about," Kisame grinned.
"Even with that," Pain cut them short, "you alerted Konohagakure about our presence. And it is a little too soon to reveal ourselves to the world. You disobeyed me, and as the rule, I should punish you..."
Pain raised his hand, and Itachi and Kisame tensed up, ready themselves to fight.
"...however, this time I will forgive you. You've done at least a good job, evaluating the ability of the Kyuubi jinchuriki. Considering what you told me about him, there is nothing to fear. When the time comes, I'll go capture him myself. Now Itachi, Kisame, I have another job for you. In the border of Iwagakure, there is an S-ranked international terrorist named Deidara. He used to be in the Explosion Corps of Iwagakure. You two go there and make sure to recruit him. I'm counting on you."
Your arrogance will someday come back to bite you, Pain, Itachi thought when the two walked out of the throne room.
Team 7 was on their way to the Academy, where the first task of the Chuunin Exam was held.
Naruto was gripping his registration form tight in his right hand. The Chuunin Exam was one of the most memorable milestones in his life. It was the first time he met another jinchuriki, the first time he fought in a war, and – his stomach twisted with this thought – the first time one of his precious people died and he couldn't do anything to help...
'Then just don't let him die this time,' Shukaku said. Naruto smiled. Shukaku is still Shukaku; despite being much nicer than before, she's still as rude and blunt as ever.
Speaking about the Chuunin Exam... if it was held in the Academy, the first task should be the written test, just like during his time.
'Written test?! God, that was the most stupid thing I've heard in my life!' Goku snorted in Naruto's head. 'Seriously, written test in an exam for shinobi?'
'Yeah, and that's why we call you a musclehead with no brain at all,'Matatabi said dryly.
'Hey!'
Naruto sighed. Since he had the nine Tailed Beasts living together with him, he had been used to their usual bickering. Sometimes, it just caused him massive headaches.
Still, Naruto couldn't help but agree with the monkey. Seriously, couldn't jiji and the guys in charge come up with something more interesting? Written tests suck!
Too busy with his thoughts, he didn't even realize he had just walked past the Sand Siblings, who were also on their way to the test room.
"Hey, you over there; what are your names?"
Only when Gaara called did Naruto realize the existence of the three foreign ninja in the corridor. He turned, and saw that the redhead was staring at Team 7 with a calculating look. Gaara still looked the same as Naruto could remember: pale green eyes without eyebrows, the kanji of "love" carved into his forehead, the gourd on his back...
Wait a second here... if Gaara had the gourd, it would mean...
'Impossible... I can feel my power inside him! How can he have my power? I'm right here!' he heard Shukaku muttering in his head. Coincidentally, he was also sharing the same question.
'So that's it...' Kokuoh grimaced. 'Now I finally understand...'
'What's wrong Kokuoh? Why does Gaara still have the power of Shukaku?' Naruto questioned.
"Sasuke Uchiha."
But before Kokuoh could answer, Sasuke already said. Gaara nodded, and looked at Naruto; his stare looked like it could drill a hole into his head. Naruto blinked; he had to leave the matter aside until later.
"Naruto Uzumaki," he answered. He couldn't know what was happening inside the redhead's brain, but judging by the crazy and almost painful twisting of his face, he could understand that whatever in his head was causing him a massive headache.
'Oy! What is 'whatever in his head' suppose to mean!?' Shukaku asked in an annoyed voice.
"Uchiha and Uzumaki..." Finally, after getting a hold of himself, Gaara looked at the two boys, a maniacal grin twisted his face, "you are both powerful... by killing you, I will prove my existence."
His hand reached up toward the cord of the gourd. In reflex, Team 7 all jumped into their fighting stances; Naruto pulled out a kunai, Sasuke reached the hilt of his katana, and Sakura flicked her hands, pulling out a few senbon hidden in her sleeves. Temari, who was standing right next to Gaara, shouted worriedly.
"Gaara! Stop! This is not the time to fight! Remember what the Kazekage had said! Just wait until the exam has already started!"
For a few seconds, it seemed Gaara wanted to go on with the killing despite whatever the Kazekage had said, but then his hand stopped, and he threw a glare at Team 7 before walking away, and entering the testing room. Temari and Kankuro looked at each other worriedly, and followed him without a word.
Sakura looked at her hands. Even under the gauntlets, she could feel them drenched with sweat.
"Who... who is that guy? It's just like..."
"Me," Naruto muttered. "He's also a jinchuriki. I can feel it."
It's not a complete lie, though; Shukaku herself had said that she could feel her power inside Gaara. But that brought him to the question before: how was that possible?
"So what exactly happened, Kokuoh?"
Right after settling down on a desk in the classroom, Naruto immediately dozed off, and arrived in his mindscape to meet the Beasts. He needed an answer for this problem, and fast.
Kokuoh sighed. "Well, it's just a theory of mine, but... Oh, never mind. Everyone, since when we arrived here, have you ever felt any strain to your bodies, like you are going to be crushed, smothered, disintegrated, or something similar even when you are alone?"
Everyone shook their heads. Kokuoh nodded.
"That proves my theory is true. You see, I've been wondering why we weren't crushed by the reality when we arrived here, because two beings with the exact same identity cannot exist at the same time in one place. It will cause a paradox that might collapse the entire dimension. But there is a fact that we're still here, alive and kicking... It means that when we're sent here, we didn't 'overwrite' or 'replace' the existence of anything in this timeline. Instead, we were sent here as completely different beings with different identities from the ones in this timeline."
Everyone gave Kokuoh the same blank stare. Naruto's was of not understanding anything, while the others' were of disbelief.
"That was the most stupid thing I've ever heard, even more than this whole travel back in time thing," Shukaku said flatly.
"Yeah," Kurama agreed. "There are just too many holes in that theory."
"But I'm afraid it's the only way to explain the situation right now," Kokuoh said grimly. "And considering the attack of Itachi and his partner, I think there is a very high chance we might have to deal with Madara's plan again in the near future."
Silence covered Naruto's mindscape after this ominous pronouncement. Then Isobu said.
"Um... I don't know about this, but if what you said was true, then what happened to the Naruto of this timeline?"
Kokuoh winced. "Well..."
00000
Somewhere else...
A lifeless, ragged body of a blond boy was floating in the dark, empty void of a completely erased world.
00000
"...I don't know, and I don't think we should ever know about that anyway," he said in a heavy tone, after a few seconds of thinking. His face looked kind of sick. Everyone gulped, and decided it would be best not to question further.
"But what are we going to do now?" Matatabi asked worriedly.
"I don't think we need to do anything."
Everyone turned to Gyuuki, who had just said those words. The ox-topus shook his head, and shrugged.
"Think about it. Since we first arrived here, everything has gone astray. Even the things that actually happened in our past have gone wrong in some way. So, why should we think so hard about it? The most important thing to do right now is to keep Naruto alive until after this exam first."
"Yeah," Shukaku added after a thought. "Orochimaru is going to attack in this exam, right? We should worry about stopping that mad snake first."
"You're right..." Naruto muttered. Gaara was here; it meant Orochimaru was, very likely, planning to attack Konoha just like in his past. He's going to sneak into the Forest of Death during the second task to mark Sasuke with the cursed mark.
Naruto opened his eyes and looked around him. If what he thought was true, Orochimaru was in this room right now, disguised as a participant...
'Hey, Naruto, on your left, at 9 o'clock.'
Naruto's head snapped towards that direction. 'Orochimaru?'
"Naruto-kun!"
Instead of Orochimaru, he saw Haku running toward him and Team 7.
'No, your girlfriend,' Goku snickered. Naruto's face reddened. 'This is not the time for joke!'
Haku actually looked quite different from what Naruto remembered her to be. She was now wearing a bluish white long-sleeved sweater which looked very form-fitting on her, revealing the developing curves hidden under her gender-hiding kimono. Her pants from before was replaced by a short, light blue skirt covering her thighs, giving her easy mobilization during battle. Her Kirigakure headband was tied on her neck just like Sakura, and her long hair was gathered in a white bun on her head. And she looked much, much more cheerful and happy than he remembered her to be in Wave.
"Good morning, Uchiha-san, Haruno-san," she bowed when arrived at Team 7's desk.
"Haku-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're taking the Chuunin Exam too?"
Haku giggled. "Of course I am! You think you're the only ones allowed to take it?"
"But I thought Zabuza decided to give up being a ninja," Naruto blinked. Haku smiled and shook her head.
"After you left Waves, Dad got an invitation from Kirigakure to return to the village. He did, and now we're representatives of Kirigakure in this Chuunin Exam! He's also rebuilding the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and two of them are my teammates! They're over there!"
She pointed at a table afar, behind Naruto. From there, a boy wearing nerd glass with a big bandaged packaged on his back, and another boy with white long hair wearing a black jacket waved back.
"So even the new generation of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist is here..." Sasuke muttered with a grin. "This is a good chance for me to test my ability... OWW!"
That last scream was because of Naruto's hand slapping him on the crown of his head.
"What the heck was that for, idiot?" he glared at Naruto and snapped angrily.
Naruto just chuckled. "Be nice or I'll just hit you again."
Sasuke grumbled.
"Hey, it's Naruto's group over there!"
Naruto turned towards the entrance of the room. All the others of the Konoha 11 had just arrived. Ino, just as usual, immediately latched on Sasuke like a leech, much to the Uchiha's horror and disgust. Surprisingly, Sakura didn't have any reaction except for a frown and a slight twitch of her right arm. It seemed the training month with Anko had finally broken it into her.
"Naruto, you look... different," Shikamaru said in a bored voice. Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"Of course I look different... Do you really think that I would stay a annoying midget forever?"
"But you are really different, mmmm," Choji agreed with his best friend, while chomping down chips from his bag. "You look more powerful, more mature... totally unlike you, mmmm."
"I grew up, okay?" Naruto shrugged. He really didn't expect that his change in personality made everyone so surprised. Seriously, everyone grows, right?
'What they surprise about is that it was you who grew up,' Shukaku said dryly. Naruto growled in his head.
'Yeah right, thanks a lot, Shuki-chan,' he drawled, and Shukaku bristled.
Meanwhile, Haku turned to the ones she knew in the group. "Hyuuga-san, Aburame-san, Inuzuka-san. Nice to meet you again," she bowed politely.
She lifted her head, and was startled to see Hinata glaring at her with a menacing aura exuding out of her, while Kiba and Shino (?) seemed to cower in fear.
"Whaa...?"
Kiba hastily pulled Haku to a side and whispered.
"Haku-san, please don't do anything which can upset Hinata right now. You don't want to know what will happen if she's pissed off... well, after that incident in Waves, you know."
Haku blinked innocently. "Uh... what incident?"
Kiba facepalmed. "Um... this," he made a gesture resembling a kiss with his hands, "incident, do you remember?"
Haku's face heated up intensely when she remembered 'that'. "Oh..." she murmured.
But before Haku could say anything else, another voice rose behind the group.
"For a bunch of newbies, you sure are an interesting group, aren't you?"
Everyone turned toward the direction of the voice. And the rage inside Naruto immediately boiled up, as intense as a volcano going to erupt.
Kabuto...
"Who are you? You look suspicious," Ino asked, looking at the man warily. Kabuto chuckled.
"Just a veteran wanting to share some experience to the newbies. I've taken this exam before, you know."
"Really?" Neji, from behind the group, raised an eyebrow. "So you failed your first exam."
"Actually, this is my seventh time." Kabuto answered with a smile.
"Hah, you suck!" Kiba laughed.
Kabuto chuckled. "Well, let's look on the bright side; at least my failures provided me with important information about many things related to the exam. You see, I store them in these cards, and when I imbue them with chakra..."
But Naruto didn't pay attention to what Kabuto was saying any more. If Kabuto was here, that meant his suspicion was true: Orochimaru really was trying to mark Sasuke and attack the village during the exam. And right now he was in this room, disguising as someone...
Naruto took a quick glance around the room.
Gaara and his team were sitting in a desk in the middle of the room. The jinchuriki's killing intent was still leaking out, and he was glaring at Naruto and his team with a murderous gaze.
In a desk at the left corner of the room, a redhead wearing glasses was also staring at the group. Naruto thought vaguely; that girl was a member of Sasuke's crew after his defect during his time. What was her name... Rin? Kirin? Krillin? Ah, Karin. Naruto didn't know, but looking at her, he felt something... familiar. Her hair... it looked like that of his mother. He wondered if she was an Uzumaki like her...
And in the farthest corner... Naruto's stomach twisted with anger again.
Orochimaru.
Even under the disguise, Naruto could still feel him. There was no way a kunoichi of Kusagakure could smell that much like snake. And leaking out that much negative emotions didn't help, either. And it seemed he also felt Naruto's gaze over him, because he stuck out his long tongue and licked his lips just like a snake.
'Don't do anything reckless, Naruto,' Kokuoh warned him. 'This is a room full of Genin; if you try something it will be disastrous. Keep it until after the first task. Or send a shadow clone to alert the Hokage first.'
"...the info on the participants isn't perfect, but I managed to get a good chunk of it."
He turned his eyes back to the group to see Kabuto showing off his cards to the Konoha 12. Naruto's eyes narrowed, but then he blinked when Sasuke and Sakura didn't react to the presence of those cards.
"Hey Sasuke, I'm going to the toilet. Keep my seat for me, okay?"
"Sure," Sasuke answered without taking his eyes off Kabuto. His Sharingan was locking on the older man's face with a look of suspicion. Naruto wondered what Sasuke was thinking. But whatever, alerting the old man was more important than this; he could bust Kabuto later.
When he arrived at the men's toilet, forming his signature cross-fingered hand seal was just child's play.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Even if Orochimaru was strong, he would not be able to get Sasuke and the village that easily, especially when Naruto was here.
And what is the best way to do that? Ruining the exam from the root, of course!
"Jiji! Orochimaru is here!"
Sarutobi stood up from his desk, pulled away his Hokage cloak to reveal his battle gear under it. In his face was a grim, but serious expression.
"It's time. ANBU, get ready for mobilization!"
"Yes sir!"
Ibiki Morino, Chief of the Interrogation and Torture Division of Konohagakure, is a very well-known name in the Elemental Countries because of the man's ruthlessness when it comes to his job. Since his appointment to the position, there has been no shinobi who hasn't broken down after one or two of his "sessions".
Even in mind games, he also proves to be a formidable enemy. Wonder why? Just look at the teams running away from the test room right now to know.
At least two third of the teams had been weeded out. Ibiki silently glanced around the room, and nearly snickered when everyone looked like they had just pissed themselves after his intimidating speech.
...or at least, until his eyes swept across a certain blond in black and orange jacket.
He scowled in annoyance. While other contestants were freaking out and desperatingly finding ways to cheat around, that brat simply did something even Ibiki couldn't expect and took a nap.
Normally, Ibiki would ignore him; it's not his job to take care of lazy napping brats.
But when the brat decided to mock him with a loud and clear snore in the middle of the panickingly silent room, a vein popped on Ibiki's forehead.
He walked quietly to the desk the blond was sitting, cleared his voice, and bellowed.
"Fifty minutes have passed! Everyone put down your pencil! It's time for the final question!"
He smirked in satisfaction when the blond screamed and fell out of his seat. Glancing at the paper on the desk, he saw that all the boxes for answers were still blank.
"Well, Uzumaki," he said. "If you do not want to do the exam, you can just quit and leave the room just like the others."
"For my teammates to skin me alive? No thanks," answered the brat, who had just climbed back onto the desk.
"Is that so?" Ibiki asked, looking at the paper in front of the blond. "But it seems what you're doing doesn't match what you said quite well, I think."
Naruto also looked at his paper. "Oh, this? I only need less than one minute to fill it."
Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "Really? Prove it, then."
The boy picked up his pencil, paused for a second and blinked, then started writing in an incredible speed which scared even Ibiki himself. In less than a minute, the paper was filled with words.
When Ibiki looked at the content of the paper, his eyebrows twitched even harder. All the answers were completely correct.
"What?" Naruto smirked under the glare of the Tokubetsu Jonin. "Too shock to even say anything, Sir Proctor?"
Ibiki shook his head to calm himself down. Just what kind of genin was Kakashi training anyway?
'Oh, the incredible kind of genin blessed with an embodiment of knowledge inside his stomach,' Kokuoh smirked inside Naruto's head.
Even a Tailed Beast needs to have some showing off moment, you know.
How the hell could he know what Ibiki was thinking, though?
"You got a nice pair of balls, brat." Ibiki grinned, his eyes gleamed dangerously. "But I wonder if that will be enough for the final question. There is an additional rule for this question: the rule of desperation. Before you take the question, you have to choose whether you want to take it or not. If you don't, your mark will immediately be reduced to zero, and you will fail along with your team!"
"What?" A mook in the back of the room yelled. "Then of course we will take the question!"
"I'm not finished yet," the proctor shot him a sharp glare. "If you choose to take the question and fail to answer it, you will lose the right to take the Chuunin Exam ever again!"
Silence filled the room.
After a few seconds, roars of protest exploded around.
"What? That's ridiculous!"
"This is insane!"
"Yeah! There are people who took the exam before!"
The Tokubetsu Jonin grinned menacingly. "Too bad for you, this time I'm the proctor, and I make the rules! You have one minute to decide; after that, all remaining in the room will be treated as agreed to the conditions and decided to take the question!"
'Hey, that guy is good,' Gyuuki noted when genin in the room started freaking out and running from the room. 'Not everyone can be as good at mind games as him.'
'Yeah,' Isobu agreed. 'Even the whole interrogation division of Kirigakure during Yagura's time couldn't compare to that guy alone.'
'Really, you guys should have seen Naruto's face when we first faced him,' Kurama snickered. 'There's nothing that can be more hilarious than that, I say.'
'Hey!'
Finally, after a long time waiting, only twenty teams remained in the room, including the Konoha 12, Haku's team, Gaara's team, Kabuto's team, the team of the redhead from Kusagakure, and of course, the not-so-secret-any-more-to-Naruto Orochimaru's team.
Ibiki took a glance across the room again and asked. "I ask again, are the sixty of you that's left absolutely sure that you want to take the final question?"
Naruto finally lost his patience. "Look, old man, do you really have to repeat that question for about, let's see, thirty times? Your mind game trick is brilliant, I admit, but if you just repeat what you are doing again and again and again, it will just be more annoying than scary, you know."
Ibiki twitched. "You know what brat? I'm starting to hate you very much by now."
"Aw, don't be like that," Naruto drawled. "Everyone loves me, you know."
Sasuke gagged. Hinata and Haku giggled. Every other acquaintance of Naruto snorted.
Right on cue, Anko smashed through the windows. "You know what, Ibiki? That orange gaki got a point. You are surely losing your touch."
"You're early again, Anko." Ibiki glared at his fellow Tokubetsu Jonin. "The first task hasn't even finished yet."
"Yeah, but looking at what happens right now, it is clear that the great Ibiki Morino has lost to some snot-nosed brats! Seriously, 20 teams?" Anko grinned cheekily, and some examiners in the corner sniggered.
Ibiki's glare became even harder. "Do you want your salary to be cut next month, Anko?"
"Yeah, yeah," the female Tokubetsu Jonin waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, you guys all passed the first test of the exam. But this is just the beginning! Now, follow me to the stage of the second test!"
Ibiki let out a deep sigh when collecting the test papers of the contestants. This year's Chuunin Exam surely had some interesting faces...
When he arrived at the blond brat's desk, he shook his head with a slight smile. Naruto Uzumaki... the jinchuriki of Konohagakure. He might be annoying, but Ibiki could see the great potential hidden inside him. No wonder the Hokage favored him so much...
His eyes narrowed when he lifted the boy's paper up.
He didn't notice it before, but right below the box for the ninth question now lay a small picture of a mole hidden under a helmet.
The mind of Ibiki didn't need more than one minute to figure out the connection.
He will need to speak to the Hokage about this.
"Oh no, I'm not going to set foot into this place another time! Nuh uh, no way, never!"
Naruto blinked as Sakura started freaking out when they arrived at the Forest of Death. "What's wrong Sakura?"
"This!" Sakura pointed at the dark forest with a shaken finger. "This is what's wrong! Everything horrible in Konohagakure is collected in this forest! If you go inside, there is a chance you will not come back out to say hello!"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're not exaggerating, Sakura?"
"Of course I am!" Sakura exploded. "I've been stuck in this place for a whole month! I'd been ambushed days and nights by giant spiders, poisonous snakes, and even tigers with foot-long fangs! And the human-eating plants with nasty slimy tentacles! Oooh, and not to mention the giant blood-sucking leeches! Think about eating soup made of those for a month! And... Ow!"
Sakura's rant stopped abruptly as Anko's knuckle landed on her head.
"Stop that, Cherry. You're scaring everyone shitless."
The girl blinked and looked around. Everyone's faces were rather green. "Eh... oops?" she scratched her head sheepishly.
"However, what she said was not completely wrong," Anko's signature sadistic smile turned back on again. "Welcome to the stage of the second test, Training Ground 44, AKA the Forest of Death. Staying true to its name, there might be deaths involved in this part of the exam, so before we start, you will sign these agreement forms," she pulled out a stack of paper from under her coat. "If you don't, your death in the test will be all my responsibility, teehee."
Everyone gulped.
"Eh... is it possible to quit now?" Kabuto raised his hand. Anko just grinned.
"Nope. You're not allowed to quit until after the second test is done. Suck it up."
When Sasuke exchanged the three registration forms for Team 7's scroll, Naruto nudged Sakura. "Tentacles, eh?"
"Not that kind of tentacles, you pervert!"
Cue fist to the head.
"So basically, what we have to do is to steal an Earth Scroll from another team and take it to the tower in the center of the forest within five days, right?" Naruto asked when they finally got into the forest. Sasuke nodded.
"Right. And that means we will need to fight other teams in order to get the scroll. There might be a chance that the scroll our enemy holds will not be the scroll we need, so this is also a way to minimize the number of contestants for the next part of the exam, I suppose."
"So it means the more opponents we take out, the more advantage we will have in the next test?" Naruto grinned mischievously. "Well, then I have a plan. Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
With a loud pop, one hundred Naruto clones appeared. Naruto pulled out a scroll from his pocket, and unsealed it to reveal twenty five more scrolls. He distributed them to the clones, which formed groups of four, and with a nod, the groups split up to twenty five different directions.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sakura asked incredulously. Naruto answered with a foxy grin.
"Boobytrapping the whole forest, of course!"
Sakura blinked. "So those scrolls are..."
"Pranking tools!" answered Naruto happily. Sakura facepalmed.
"But how?" asked Sasuke. "I thought shadow clones are fragile and cannot withstand even one hit. What are you going to do with them?"
"Well, let's just say I have found a way for them to stay alive even after taking a nice chunk of hits," said Naruto.
00000
(Flashback)
"Argh, damn it!" Naruto slumped on the ground, pouting. Try hard as he might, he still couldn't throw the Rasenshuriken without depending on the beasts' chakra. It would just fade away harmlessly after leaving his hand for half a second.
"Well, the reason is obvious. Your chakra, while having quite a reserve, is just not dense enough for the shuriken to keep its shape after leaving your hand," Isobu, who had observed him practicing the jutsu for a while, said.
Naruto blinked. "Dense? What do you mean?"
Isobu chuckled. "I will explain. First, create a shadow clone with your chakra, Naruto."
Naruto stared at the turtle-man incredulously, but complied. A poof of smoke, and a clone appeared next to him.
"Good. Now, here's some of my chakra. Make a clone with it."
Immediately, Naruto felt the powerful chakra of the beast flowed through his chakra network. Another poof, and another clone appeared.
"Good. Then..."
Isobu walked up, and punched both the clones in the face.
The clone made of Naruto's chakra simply dispersed in a poof of smoke. The clone made of Isobu's chakra, however, fell over with a thud, but didn't disappear. He jumped back on his feet, pointed at the turtle's face and yelled.
"Hey! What the heck does that suppose to mean?"
"See that Naruto?" Isobu explained, ignoring the clone. "It's the same jutsu, but by using chakra in different qualities, it creates different result. The chakra I gave you is less than what you used to create your clone, but it is much, much denser than yours. Basically, if you rate your chakra in a ranking system, the quantity of chakra you have might be higher than A rank, but when it comes to quality, it is just D rank at the highest."
"So my chakra's quality sucks, huh..." Naruto muttered disappointedly. Isobu smiled, and slapped his shoulder.
"Hey, don't be like that. You can actually train to improve the quality of your chakra, you know. It's a rather basic training for jonin-level and over shinobi. Why do you think that even the most basic jutsu in their hands becomes more powerful than yours?"
"Really?" Naruto's head perked up. "Can you teach me that?"
Isobu shrugged. "Of course. But since it is a training of your body, you cannot use clones for it, so it will take a while before your chakra can have a noticeable improvement. First you have to do this..."
(End flashback)
00000
Sasuke snorted. "Oh please, all people participating in this exam are elite genin from all the villages in the Elemental Countries. Do you really think that they will fall for those tricks?"
Naruto grinned. "Well..."
00000
Zaku Abumi carefully looked around, then gave a signal for his team to advance. The team from Kirigakure, apparently, included two members of the new generation of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. The white-haired one didn't have a sword, but the one with glasses was holding something suspiciously similar to the legendary sword Hiramekarei, also known as the Twinsword.
Sure, their mission was to kill the Uchiha boy, but that sword was, no doubt, an incredible present for Orochimaru-sama. And he might even get the scroll his team needed. Two birds with one stone.
Besides, those Kiri newbies looked weak. How bad could it be?
TWANG!
A rope wrapped around his leg and sent him soaring into the air.
"Ambush! Hiramekarei Release! Hammer Form!"
A giant hammer made of chakra slammed into Zaku's two teammates' faces, blasting them into a tree nearby and effectively sending them into blissful unconsciousness.
At the same time, Zaku's face connected with the ground after falling from the height of more than twenty feet.
Well, he's not dead, but let's say the result was not very pretty.
"Uh... did I overdo it?"
"Nah, don't worry Chojuro-kun. They're trying to attack us first, anyway."
"Hey, this guy has an Earth Scroll!"
"Sweet, now we can go to the tower!"
00000
"...Yes. Yes I am."
Right on cue, explosions and screams echoed through the air.
Sakura shook her head. "You really scare me sometimes, Naruto."
Naruto grinned. "Hey, it's not my fault to be absolutely awesome!"
'Naruto, to the left! Gust incoming!"
Naruto immediately went through hand seals in reflex. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
The overcharged-with-Tailed Beast-chakra wind jutsu overpowered the incoming jutsu completely, and blasted the ambusher off together with about twenty trees.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"I felt someone trying to attack us," Naruto shrugged. "Natural sensor, thanks to the Kyuubi, you know."
"Huh," Sasuke blinked. "Pretty neat trick, then. But at least you could leave them to see which scroll they have first."
"Being careful is important too, you know," Naruto shrugged again.
A huge snake descended down Team 7's head. Its mouth gaped wide, aiming to swallow the whole team in one gulp.
"Sweet! Lunch!"
A ball made of exploding tags was thrown into the snake's mouth, and one second later, it rained snake meat.
Sakura jumped down to the remain of the snake and pulled out a kunai. Much to Sasuke and Naruto's horror, she cut it into pieces and started making a bonfire to grill them.
"Want some?" she offered, giving Naruto and Sasuke a piece each. Naruto winced while staring at the meatstick.
"Eh... are you sure it is edible?"
Sakura snorted. "A snake's venom is contained somewhere near its eyes. Destroy the head, and the body becomes very delicious food. Come on, try it, Sasuke-kun, Naruto!"
Sasuke stared at the meat warily, then shrugged and took a bite. "Huh, you're right. It tastes like chicken," he blinked.
"How do you know so much about this, Sakura?" Naruto asked while chewing on his food. Sakura just smiled.
"I practically lived in this forest for a month; what do you expect? At least this is much better than centipede stew, you know."
The two boys winced. "True."
Orochimaru was scowling.
He had spent half a year planning for this. Had everything gone according to plan, he would have taken the face of a Kusagakure genin, enter the Chuunin Exam, mark Sasuke-kun before leaving quietly, then start a war during the final test, kill his stupid old sensei and destroy the Leaf!
Too bad for him, only the first part of the plan actually worked properly. Everything started to go wrong when he entered the Forest of Death.
First, the traps. Orochimaru still shuddered whenever he thought about them. Kunai, kunai everywhere. With explosive tags. And poison on top. And somehow, Orochimaru, an S-rank shinobi, didn't manage to detect any of those traps. Seriously, did Sarutobi-sensei snap and decide to booby-trap the whole forest with lethal weapons that exploded?
Then, when he finally got close to Sasuke-kun's team, that blond teammate of him blasted him into the fucking SKY with an absurdly powerful wind jutsu. Sure, it wasn't enough to actually kill him, but it still freaking hurt.
And now, his other teammate decided to turn one of his summons into lunch.
Seriously, he just wanted a good body for himself! Was that a bit too much to ask?
Maybe it would be better for him to face them himself...
Killing intent filled the air.
Sakura and Sasuke gasped for air and collapsed to the ground. Naruto, in contrast, just stared at Orochimaru while scratching his ears.
"You're not scared?"
"Nah, your killing intent sucks. The Kyuubi is much scarier than you." Naruto answered nonchalantly.
Orochimaru chuckled. "Kukuku... very interesting, Naruto-kun. I'll just kill you first, then."
He drew Kusanagi, and with a quick movement, stabbed Naruto in the stomach.
The three genin exploded violently.
"Oh yeah!" The real Naruto popped out from the ground nearby, pumping his fist to the sky. "A direct hit! Thank you, Itachi!"
"Did... did you just blow that man up?" Sakura gaped from a branch nearby. Naruto shook his head.
"Nah, he is Orochimaru of the Sannin. He's not down yet."
The real Orochimaru emerged from the ground nearby. "So you know who I am..." he chuckled menacingly. "But no matter... because I'm here for Sasuke-kun over there, kukuku..."
Naruto made a face. "So Orochimaru of the Sannin is a gay pedophile who lusts after twelve-year-old boys? That's just gross."
"I'm not a gay pedophile!" Orochimaru protested. "I just want his body!"
"That is even more disgusting," Sakura gagged.
Orochimaru twitched. "Okay, that's it. I will just mark Sasuke-kun and get out of here." He made a hand seal, and his neck lengthened.
"Oh no, you don't!" Sasuke snapped. His rage and fear of being molested by a pedophile somehow overwhelmed his fear of death. "There's no way I'm letting such a disgusting person as you go anywhere near my body! Genjutsu: Sharingan!"
Immediately, Orochimaru's body stiffened, and he felt like there was a bunch of stakes driven through his body.
"Damn it... this genjutsu again..."
Being paralyzed by the genjutsu, he had no way to dodge when the lightning-imbued sword of Sasuke cut cleanly through his body, splitting it apart at his waist. Snakes immediately came out of the two halves, connecting them together again.
"Okay," he muttered. "That kinda hurt. Since when has genin become so competent?"
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
Orochimaru quickly made a Mud Wall to block the sea of fire from turning him into barbecue. "Now the personal jutsu of Madara Uchiha? What the hell?"
"Chidori Sharp Spear!"
A spear of lightning pierced through the wall and impaled him with extreme prejudice.
"Okay," another body crawled out of his mouth, "this is getting silly."
Then Orochimaru heard loud screeching behind him.
He turned back, and saw a shuriken made of chakra flying towards him.
"Aw, shit."
He hastily slammed his hands to the ground, summoning the Triple Rashomon to block the Rasenshuriken right before the jutsu collided with the gate.
A deafening bang shook the ground. A sphere of chakra exploded from the collision and covered the three gates in tiny blades of wind.
At the same time, a hand grabbed Sasuke's neck and pulled him away.
"Let's run!"
When the tornado died down, a terrifying scene of devastation was unveiled.
The three Rashomon gates were all destroyed horribly. The first one, which took the full blow of the jutsu, was utterly obliterated. The second one was blasted completely off its hinges and the third one had one of its doors in pieces.
Oh, and Orochimaru was buried headfirst on the ground to the waist.
When Orochimaru finally managed to pull himself out of his burial hole, the clearing was void of people.
"Damn."
Like adding salt to the wound, right at that time, a whole battalion of ANBU flickered into the clearing.
"Orochimaru! By the order of the Hokage, you are under arrest!"
Orochimaru decided to abandon the plan and run the hell away. Sure, ANBU are basically cannon fodders, but a whole battalion of them is not something to underestimate. There are still many other chances for him to get his hand on the Uchiha boy, anyway.
"Goddamn. What the hell is that jutsu you used against Orochimaru, Naruto? Where did you learn it?" Sasuke asked when Team 7 was jumping from branch to branch towards the tower in the center of the forest.
"Actually, it is a jutsu I created myself when trying to improve another one of my jutsu. It is a wind element jutsu, called Wind Style: Rasenshuriken," Naruto smiled. "But it is one of the most costly jutsu I've ever seen or heard in my life. I have to use one shadow clone to create it, and using it thrice exhausted me completely. And I need to add the Kyuubi's chakra into it if I want to throw it, otherwise it will destroy my arm."
He deliberately left out the part that he could use it as much as he could with the help of the beasts inside him.
Sasuke winced. A jutsu that exhausts Naruto of all people is definitely not something he can learn. And the 'destroy my arm' part...
Maybe he will just stick to the Chidori for the sake of his health.
"Damn it," he pouted. "Why is it that only you can learn overpowered destructive jutsu? Having a Tailed Beast sealed inside you is just not fair!"
'Actually, it's more like nine Tailed Beasts sealed inside him,' Shukaku inside Naruto commented smartly. Of course, Sasuke couldn't hear it.
"Yeah. But you have the Sharingan. You stopped Orochimaru of all people on his way with a glare. How is that considered 'fair'?"
That immediately shut Sasuke up.
"I really hate you when you make sense, Naruto."
"Speaking about which," Sakura suddenly said, "you seem to be much smarter and wiser these days, Naruto. What happened to you?"
Naruto chuckled. "Well, let's just say when you befriend a thousand-year-old being inside your stomach, there is much more you get from her rather than just some chakra."
'Sure, just blame everything on poor old Kurama,' Kurama muttered.
Sakura drawled sarcastically. "Yeah, sure. The crazy Kyuubi who tried to flatten Konoha twelve years ago taught you how to be smart and wise. Right."
"Hey, don't be so mean," Naruto defended. "She's just ax crazy because she was hypnotized by the bastard who attacked the village. When she's not being controlled, she's pretty harmless."
'Harmless?! Ooh, I'll show you harmless!' Kurama growled, and the other beasts snickered.
"Wait," Sasuke suddenly cut in. "You said 'she'. The Kyuubi is female?!"
"Yup!" Naruto nodded.
"Okay, it's final," Sasuke muttered, palming his forehead. "This world really is going crazy."
"Hey, boss!" A Naruto clone landed in front of them. He handed out an Earth Scroll. "We found this on a bunch of fodders from Rain. Tried to ambush us, and got a bunch of tranquilizers to the face."
"Awesome!" Naruto gave his clone a thumb-up. "Now we can be the first ones arriving in the tower!"
"Actually, Haku-chan's team got there first. Got their scroll on the team from Oto, I think. Man, that guy really knows how to fly."
"Huh," Naruto blinked. "Oh well, at least we're one of the teams that finish early. Alright, dispel!"
After the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke, Naruto turned back to his teammates and grinned.
"Let's go, guys! To the tower!"