Beginning of the Chunin Exams
Finally it was time for the chunin exams to begin. The Sandaime Hokage had assembled all the jonins of the village to get the teams that would participate nominated.
"Well, we will start with the new genin. Technically each genin that has done a minimum of eight missions can be nominated, normally of course they would have done more." The Hokage said.
Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma stepped forward, Kakashi looking smugger than usual. The Hokage knew that last night Kakashi had won the bet whose team would collect most points over the span of six months. It was only by two points, but he had won. Sakura had beaten Choji and surprisingly Shino in their last one-on-one spars, Sasuke beat Hinata and Shikamaru while Naruto took out Ino and Kiba. All the teams had developed exceptionally and he had no doubt that they would all be nominated. Kurenai was first.
"I, Kurenai Yuuhi, sensei of team eight, consisting of Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyuga recommend these three under the name of Kurenai Yuuhi to take the chunin exams." She said making the confrontation sign.
Asuma followed.
"I, Asuma Sarutobi, sensei of team ten, consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi nominate these three under the name of Asuma Sarutobi to take the chunin exams." He said using the same sign.
Kakashi gave the Hokage a look and got a nod. It was time to reveal some secrets.
"I, Kakashi Hatake, sensei of team seven, consisting of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Namikaze" A loud intake of breath from nearly all jonin was heard, but Kakashi ignored it, "nominate these three under the name Kakashi Hatake to take the chunin exams."
"What do you mean, Namikaze, he can't be Yondaime Sama's son!" One man called out enraged.
"I think I would know my sensei's only son, Giichi." Kakashi said coldly. "He is finally ready to take up his heritage. I have trained him to the best of my ability for the last six months to be ready as I know that Iwa and possibly Kumo might try to assassinate him once his identity is known. Why do you think no spy was capable of getting a good picture of Naruto for their bingo books after our Wave Country mission?"
That shocked the jonins. Only Asuma seemed relaxed.
"I should have made a bet; I would have won a lot of money." Asuma said chuckling.
"I figured you had figured it out by now. You were the one to test him after all." Kakashi said.
"I would be a lousy jonin if I hadn't noticed the similarities in the fighting styles." Asuma confirmed.
"This is all well, but we need to continue with the nominations." The Hokage said.
"Of course, Hokage Sama. I, Gai Maito, sensei of team nine, consisting of the youthful Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga and Tenten Jakonato nominate my three youthful students to take the jonin exams." Gai continued giving the nice guy pose at the end.
The senseis that wanted to nominate their teams followed one after the other, none of them as exuberant as Gai though.
"Good, then we have twenty nine teams taking the exams. I expect all of your students to represent Konoha worthwhile. Now on to the next topic. As you probably have heard by now, I will step down again after the chunin exams. As they will start in exactly seven days from now, I will tell you now who I have chosen as the Godaime Hokage." The Sandaime said.
This got the full attention of all jonin. They had waited a whole month since the news had broken through that the Professor wanted to retire again.
"The name has been kept a secret until now as my successor had an important task to fulfil which will end after the finals of the chunin exams. At least to the point where he needs to put his full attention into it. Kakashi, step forward." The Hokage called and Kakashi stood by the Hokage's side. "I have chosen Kakashi Hatake, student of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, to become the Godaime Hokage. Until the finals this information is classified to be known only to the ANBU and jonin. As you have probably noticed, Kakashi has gained S-rank in every bingo book by now, which was something I told him to do before taking over the hat from me. His second objective was to train his team to a point where they can safely take up missions on their own after he took over as Hokage." The Hokage explained.
Many nodded, seeing the sense in the decision to wait with the announcement for those reasons.
"Over the next month I will let Kakashi take over more and more of my duties. As his team will be busy with the chunin exams there won't be a problem. For his students we have already ensured that they get the best teachers possible to prepare them if they manage to get through the first two parts of the exams, which if they perform like they did on their missions so far, shouldn't be a problem." The Hokage told the others.
"Hokage Sama, how strong are they if you are so sure that they will pass?" Aoba asked.
"Let me answer this please." Kakashi asked the Hokage.
"Of course, Kakashi." The Hokage said.
"Well, most of you should have heard of some of the missions my team has done so far. By now Sakura is a capable field medic and aspiring to become one of the best medic nins there are. She is a solid chunin level kunoichi, which I wouldn't have expected in the beginning because she was a horrible fangirl. Thankfully I managed to break her out of that phase. Sasuke is also a solid to high chunin level. He now has his superiority complex under control, which was a major issue in the beginning. I had to literally beat it out of him or let Naruto do it. Naruto is jonin level." Kakashi stated and was interrupted.
"Uhm, Kakashi, why didn't the boy try and graduate early with that level of strength? I mean, being jonin level with twelve shows some serious talent." Genma asked.
"Because the village sabotaged him too much. Naruto feared that if he wasn't clearly above genin level when he graduated, he would be failed on purpose and be placed under the mercy of the civilian council again. So he hid his true abilities to pass as the 'Dead Last' of his class to be put on Sasuke's team as he was sure that it would be the one team that wouldn't be allowed to fail." Kakashi answered. "I want you to be aware that Naruto holds little love for the village. I spent the last six months trying to give him bonds to the village so that if Hokage Sama one day dies of old age or other reasons, Naruto would still stay loyal to Konoha. If I had failed, we would have had an enemy at our hands worse than Itachi Uchiha."
This made many gasp. Itachi was legendary and to think Naruto was stronger than him was a major strike.
"As the future Hokage I expect all ninjas to treat Naruto as what he is, a comrade. Naruto isn't his prisoner and has never harmed anybody that hasn't harmed him. But make no mistakes; Naruto won't take any abuse from the village. He is willing to treat all ninjas neutrally at least and those that prove to him that they deserve it nicely. On top I hope I made it clear that I don't want Sasuke to fall back into old bad habits. Treat him like every other ninja. My students are all trained to respect their superiors, but they will question all orders that they think are stupid or will harm the village. They will be polite about it, but they won't simply accept any information as absolute. They will also interpret their orders to suit them best to fulfil their missions." Kakashi informed them.
He got nods from the other jonins. They had heard how hard he had trained with his team. He was giving Gai a run for his money as the hardest teacher in the physical aspect.
"Good, now that you have an idea what my successor has done the last months, everybody except Kakashi and the ones that are responsible for the chunin exams is dismissed. Remember that the information about what you heard here except for the nominated teams is confidential. In particular that means Kakashi being the Godaime and Naruto being the Yondaime's son." The Hokage said and most of the group left.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sat at training ground seven, reading a scroll each. Kakashi had told them to wait for him here and that he didn't know how long the meeting he had to go to would take. So they had brought a scroll on skills they wanted to train next each. Sakura was about to advance to the third level of her medical training and read up on the theoretical skills that she would need to learn the next practical skills. So far she had learned the mythical hand jutsu and how to set broken bones. On top of that she had leaned chakra scalpels. Next would be techniques to get rid of basic poisons and they were tricky, so she wanted to be absolutely sure with her knowledge to impress her teachers at the hospital.
Sasuke was reading up on lightning manipulation. He had mastered fire manipulation a month ago and had trained to perfect his fire jutsus till now. His repertoire of jutsus now held ten fire jutsus including fire clones, which had been hard to learn. But it wasn't a B-rank technique for nothing after all. Naruto read about combinations with his summons. Jiraiya had written a letter, telling him that he would take over his training for the month between the second and third rounds of the chunin exams and work with him on those combination attacks.
They had been reading for an hour now when Kakashi appeared with his normal body flicker.
"Sorry for the delay, but Hokage Sama had some important announcements to make and there were some explanations given to the jonin in the meeting." Kakashi said. "I see you used the time productive. I will be straight to the point; I have nominated you three for the chunin exams that will start in seven days at ten in the morning here in Konoha."
The three smiled hearing that. They had known that the exams were coming up and to be nominated this early was a sign that their sensei trusted them to be able to do well in them. Considering his high expectations for them every day he would never have let them take them if he wasn't convinced that they had a chance for promotion.
"Naruto, please set a privacy seal up." Kakashi said seriously.
Naruto nodded, took a sealing scroll from his pouch and unsealed a batch of premade seals. He placed them all around their team and then activated them.
"There is one thing you need to be aware of. Naruto, as planned we have decided that you will take the exams under your true name." Kakashi said and got a nod from Naruto.
"His true name? But you said he is an Uzumaki. I looked his clan up and it fit with what you told us about them." Sakura said confused.
"Uzumaki was my mother Kushina's maiden name. I got her name after she and my father died to protect me from my father's enemies until I was ready to deal with them. My true name is Naruto Namikaze; I am the son of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage." Naruto explained.
Sakura looked absolutely shocked, Sasuke not so much.
"You suspected it, Sasuke?" Naruto asked interpreting his teammate's face correctly.
"Since after the Wave Country mission. While Kakashi sensei mentioned how many Yamanakas lost their lives thanks to Iwa hating the Yondaime and telling that thanks to your hair-colour you could become a target for the Iwa ninjas were faced, I was curious if there wasn't more to it. I took a good look at the picture of the Yondaime Hokage in the Hokage's office when we returned and there are many similarities between you two. For one your hair and your eye-colour, but also your affinities and your talent with sealing. Combine that with the interest the Yondaime's teacher Jiraiya and his student Kakashi Hatake show in your development, not to mention the Hokage himself, and it was a safe bet to say you were his hidden son or at least nephew." Sasuke pointed out.
"That information shouldn't be a secret for long, so I wanted to inform you early on to prepare you. There will be a huge outcry in the village as soon as the information spreads, which will be in a week when the exams start. All the jonin were sworn to secrecy about certain points including Naruto's identity until the Hokage releases them. Which will be when the participants for the final round are decided. The exams traditionally consist of three parts. I won't tell you what they are, that would be an unfair advantage. I will just say that you need to remember everything I taught you in the last six months.
"Additionally I want you to show what you have learned. No matter if you manage to get promoted, which I think is absolutely possible for all of you, after the exams you will be taking more missions without me as I will be taking over as Godaime Hokage after the finals." Kakashi said.
He and the Hokage had decided that Kakashi's students deserved to be informed about this before going into the exams so that they knew that Kakashi's reputation would be massively influenced by their performance in the exams.
"You're going to be the Godaime, sensei?" Sakura asked surprised and this time only Naruto wasn't surprised.
Sasuke was impressed that his sensei would become Hokage in a little over a month. Naruto only smiled, having known about the plan, even if the Sandaime and Kakashi hadn't known that he knew.
"Yes, I will. I am one of the strongest ninjas we have in the village and as the sannin don't want to become Hokage, well Tsunade Sama and Jiraiya Sama that is, I was chosen." Kakashi confirmed with an eye-smile.
"I'm sure you'll do a good job, Kakashi sensei." Naruto said smiling. "Dad would be proud of you."
"Thank you, Naruto." Kakashi said touched. "Alright, while you can't tell anybody that I am going to be Hokage yet, I will make sure that you will represent me accordingly. So we will go over all the important things for the exams. I have arranged for you to live together for the next week so that your teamwork will be at its best. Don't worry, you get separate rooms. While I know that you can work together well enough, I know that you aren't that close to each other. And I'm not crazy enough to force you to sleep in the same room if it isn't strictly necessary."
That was a massive relief for his students.
Over the next week Kakashi drilled his three students in taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu detection and dispelling, strategy, survival techniques and teamwork. By the end of the week they were completely prepared for anything they might have to do in the exams. They went home for the last night before the exams. Sakura had to bite her tongue to not tell her mother that her sensei was the next Hokage, but she had been strictly forbidden to do so. And on top she had realised that her mother's ideas of how a ninja should work were complete rubbish. While her mother was fully supportive about her plans to become the greatest medic nin since Tsunade, as she saw it as a much nobler kind of ninja than the brawlers as she called it, she still had it out for Naruto. Wouldn't she be surprised once the information that Naruto was the Yondaime Hokage's only son hit the village?
Naruto meanwhile stocked his two hip pouches with all the things he would need in the exams. Thanks to his sealing abilities his thigh pouches could hold double the number of shuriken and senbons respectively. Same was true for his hip pouches. With all his specializations he needed more supplies than fit into normal pouches. His new cloak would be introduced in the finals. He was sure that he would make it there. It would be really embarrassing if he didn't pass while having jonin level skills. And as far as he knew the first two parts were team tests. And as little as he liked his teammates, he knew they were reliable now.
Sasuke also prepared his equipment for the next day. He knew that a lot rode on his team's performance. To think that he had been trained by the future Godaime Hokage made him review his time on team seven. He had to admit that he was really glad that his sensei and his teammate Naruto had broken him out of his former funk. He had hindered himself with his behaviour and had let idiotic civilians fill his head with hot air. While he still wanted to find Itachi, now he wanted to question him about the massacre first. With him getting better at meditation techniques he had also remembered that Itachi had cried the night of the massacre and that didn't sit right with him. He would get strong enough to catch Itachi and force him to tell him the truth. If he had simply been an arsehole and a traitor he could still kill him after pumping him for all information he had.
Naruto walked through the village his last purchase safely stored in his hip pouch. He had bought a week's supply of energy bars at Jakonato's. It was better to have some nutritious food in reserve in case you couldn't hunt or cook safely. And the Forest of Death was merciless as he knew from pilfering the dead genin that had been in previous tests. When he walked back towards his home, he was passed by the Hokage's grandson Konohamaru and his two friends Moegi and Udon. He knew them briefly as he had met Konohamaru once when he had tried to 'defeat his grandfather to become Hokage'. Naïve, but Naruto could understand that the boy wanted to be seen for himself. What he didn't like was that the brat was spoiled to think that nobody would hurt him just because he was the Hokage's grandson.
Suddenly he heard a pained cry and decided to better look what was up. So close to the start of the chunin exams he didn't want to risk any problems because a brat couldn't keep his mouth shut and that cry had sounded like Konohamaru.
When he rounded the corner, he saw that he had been right. Konohamaru was held up by his shirt by a black-clad Suna ninja. Considering the bandaged bundle on his back and his attire Naruto suspected that he was a puppeteer, one of the famous abilities Suna taught to his ninjas. The blond girl with the four ponytails had a war fan on her back and probably used wind style jutsus with it. That could be dangerous if she was good at using it.
"That hurt you brat." The boy in black said.
"Let me down, don't you know who I am?" Konohamaru shouted.
"I don't care, but I think you need to learn a lesson in manners." The boy said.
"Kankuro let him down, we don't want problems." The girl said.
Naruto noticed that she was quite pretty. He guessed that she was a few years older than him.
"The brat is asking for it, Temari." The now identified Kankuro replied.
Naruto of course knew their names. Temari and Kankuro were children of the Yondaime Kazekage. That meant that Gaara, their youngest brother who was the jinchuriki of Shukaku, was probably also here. Interesting. He decided to get Konohamaru bailed out.
"Please let the brat down, we don't want to provoke an incident before the chunin exams start; right?" He spoke up addressing Kankuro.
The two Suna genin looked at him. Naruto noticed a small blush on Temari's face and he smiled winningly at her, intensifying the blush.
"I don't really know what happened, but he is only a child, so you shouldn't get worked up over whatever mishap he was involved in." Naruto said walking up to them calmly.
"The brat ran into me not looking where he went and then had the gall to demand that I apologized to him." Kankuro stated.
Naruto just shook his head.
"I see. I apologize for his bad manners and I will make sure to bring it up with his grandfather, the Sandaime Hokage. And you can be sure that I will make sure that you get punished for this, Konohamaru. You should be ashamed to make such a bad impression on the children of the Yondaime Kazekage. By the way, you can come out of the tree. I doubt you will get a good show now." Naruto called out.
The others looked up to the tree and saw a red-haired boy hanging upside down on a tree branch. He raised an eyebrow and then used a sand body flicker to appear next to the group.
"You are good." The boy commented. "Kankuro, let the boy go, we will leave this matter to Konoha to resolve. It's not worth our time to deal with snot nosed brats."
"I am not a brat." Konohamaru protested only to get bunked over the head by Naruto.
"You are a brat. Now apologize to Kankuro for running into him while not looking where you ran. Geez, the old man really needs to talk to Ebisu again about filling your head with nonsense. If you ever really want to become Hokage, you need to stop thinking you are the top of the world. Only hard work will bring you where you want to be." Naruto stated.
Konohamaru looked completely caught off guard that somebody really told him off for his behaviour.
"I would like to know your name. I am Gaara Sabaku." Gaara addressed Naruto. "You seem really well-informed."
"My name is Naruto Namikaze. I assume you are their younger brother, the third child of the Yondaime Kazekage." Naruto replied.
"Namikaze?" Temari gasped. "Like the Yondaime Hokage?"
"He was my father." Naruto confirmed. There was no need to keep his identity a secret anymore. It would come out tomorrow anyway.
"Are you taking the chunin exams as well?" Gaara wanted to know.
"Yes. My sensei nominated my team." Naruto confirmed.
"I look forward to facing you. If you are anywhere as good as your father was you will be a worthy opponent, Naruto." Gaara said.
"I look forward to seeing your strength too, Gaara. I will take my leave; I need to get the brat back to his grandfather. Kankuro, Temari, nice to meet you." Naruto gave both a nod and then turned around and gathered the children and went away.
TO BE CONTINUED...