Naruto ch 18

Chapter 18

 

 

Chuckling as Kiba handed a gold scroll to the proctor by the door, still bitching about damn cats and freaking hard tests as he headed for the table with food, Naruto looked at the score card he had been given. It looked like everyone passed the first exam, “Alright if I can have your attention for a moment,” he called out. When he saw everyone looking at him including Hinata through tired eyes he grinned, “Congratulations on passing the easy part.” Grinning evilly as he received a scowl back from Kiba, “For the next two hours you can rest and eat lunch…eat as much as you want to help replace your chakra reserves. Because in two hours Hell will be brought to Earth and all of you will be going through it.” Laughing evilly Naruto motioned for the proctors to follow him out of the room.

Walking out of the room Naruto started for the steps to the second floor where all the Jounin sensei’s had been watching the progress of their students so far. Stepping into the room he grinned like a demented fools as Kurenai was muttering to herself over in the corner by the window, “Okay people now that all of the teams have passed the first event let’s take a moment to talk about how they did and the weak points that your students need to work on. So who wants to go first,” Naruto pulled a chair around and sat his clipboard on the chair in front of him so he could take notes.

After hearing several of the Jounin ask the proctors to tell what and how their teams did Kurenai looked up, “Now I was with the team two proctors for the first phase, but how did my Genin’s fair during the war phase, I know from watching the door Kiba came in from the test last?”

One of the proctors moved from the wall, “I watched over team twenty nine which had your Kiba as part of the group, teamwork wise they worked stiffly together until they confronted danger, after that the teamwork meshed. I think it was a factor of the pack mentality your Genin has, I noticed the dog. Their trap detecting skills need work, if it was not for the dog who I believe is named Akamaru all three would have set off more than one trap. They relied too heavily on the canine aspect of the team, which if he was injured would be detrimental to the mission. Their tardiness came about from not only running into the plains cats once, but four times, I believe the cats were pissed at smelling a canine in their territory. One the plus side with the help of the canine teammate they were able to disable all the traps or find ways around them so they could grab the scroll, though I would have preferred them to copy the scroll and leave the original so no one would know the information was compromised, but that thinking has not set in yet with any of the Genin’s.”

Nodding with a smile Kurenai looked at Kakashi and motioned for him to ask about his student.

“Sasuke came in next to last of the group from Kohona, how did he and his team do?” Kakashi was curious and very surprised with how different the exam process was here, the Jounin sensei’s actually got good feedback on what worked and did not work during the test and they got to watch.

“I was the one who watched team eleven,” the proctor moved to the center of the group, “If we based the exam solely on this test all three of them would pass. Seeing the shocked and slightly pleased looks he nodded, “Sasuke has learned to use his Sharingan to sense chakra signatures, so we had to be creative in hiding from the team and still keep them protected.” Smiling at the one eyed Jounin sensei with amusement he nodded towards Naruto-sama, “They made good time, though they did come into contact with one small tribe of plains cats on the way, though I was wondering if your Genin Konoha-sensei would need to change his pants after coming face to face with one of the cats. From there they made good time to the clearing where they utilized excellent use of their skills. I believe the Tannaka boy surprised me next he used a earth based Jutsu to take his teammates with him from outside the clearing into the center of the tent. Sasuke used his Sharingan once more to detect all the traps and stopping them from setting off the traps.”

“Then he did something strange, something I’ve not seen before, in fact if I did not know better I would assume he was a Tannaka, your Genin used his chakra somehow to bypass all the traps and unroll the scroll, allowing the others to both guard and copy the scroll. Whatever technique he used though left him exhausted, Tannaka once again melted them into the ground and held them under as the sentry stopped to check the clearing before moving on, once they appeared back on the surface they needed a few minutes to catch their breath, literally before Takai picked up the unconscious Uchiha to the edge of the plains. A quick soldier pill later and the trio rushed to the base camp only to be stopped where we had Tori’s cubs staked out. Sasuke sensed them and once more they used the under earth technique to make it to safety.” Stopping to smile he looked over at proud sensei’s, “Instead of celebrating Takai and Hadori made sure Sasuke’s first moment inside involved eating to counteract the soldier pill. All in all what we want in our Chuunin’s, but we shall have to see what they do in the next two tests.”

Moving away from the wall one of the female proctors looked at Kurenai, “I was in charge of watching the team that had your Aburame clan member in it. While he appeared at time inattentive to his surroundings as he examined some bug here or there he proved otherwise when confronted with some tree jumpers making their way towards his comrades. He also proved useful using his companions to switch the scroll out with another. While the team did well working together efficiently they really did not show true creative thinking or many of their skills, hopefully further into the test they will truly show what they are capable of.”

“Which leaves me as the chief proctor of the team that had your Hinata on it,” referring to his notes as he moved to the center of the room, “overall the team performed well within Chuunin levels, though your Genin has some confidence issues. The type of confidence problem she portrays in my experience comes from an abusive home environment. It would be best to remove her from such and build her confidence up by positive reinforcement. That said,” he noticed the anger in the Jounin’s eyes she fights with her family style which does not suite her as it is the form for those that have a longer reach than she does, she instead should chose the female form, the form developed for the females of the Hyuuga clan.”

“I’ve never heard of another style with the Hyuuga’s,” Kurenai looked up, considering the assessment of her student she had to agree that Hinata’s reach did not match the style.”

Moving back to his place by the wall Kurenai tuned the rest of the reports out as she thought about how to best help her student.

 

Glancing up at the clock as the Jounin’s mingled with the proctors to get more in depth information Naruto's mind went back to the scroll that had been delivered from the Hyuuga clan, in effect it was offering Hinata as a, scrunching up in thought…he really needed to read that scroll again. The head of the Hyuuga clan was offering his oldest daughter up to be a vessel for his children; of course he used fancy words stating it was for the betterment of the two countries relationship. The problem was the Byakugan was a body based Kekkei Genkai and he could not allow that to infuse into his clans bloodlines, on the other hand was the report from one of the mind walker’s clan. The problem was what to do, maybe he needed…There had to be a solution Dammit. Looking out the window as the cubs were led away his thoughts drifted back to the scroll Shino had given him; there were branch family members listed there. What if he used underhanded tactics to rescue more of the branch family and set them up with their own compound, he would talk it over with Haku later tonight, it just might work.

Sighing as he glanced back at the clock he nodded it was time, “Okay folks the second part is about to start, the proctors for the second exam should be in place by now.” Leading the way down the stairs Naruto smiled evilly as he walked into the large common room.

Moving to the front of the room Naruto grinned as the silence descended in a wave, by the time he had reached the front everyone was silent and attentive, “Well since none of you decided to run away from my little warning let’s get started.” Tapping the map next to him he held back the sudden urge to cackle madly and rub his hands together, “As you can see we are located due west of the mountain range. In fact at the base of the mountain is a small cavern that we placed a summoning circle in, and to pass the second phase of the test you just need to get there. Of course that means you have to traverse a good portion of the wild to do so, it should take you about two and half days to get there if you run full out and don’t stop. Seeing as that is not possible for Genin or Chuunin we have given you four days to make the journey. Before you leave each one of you will be given a filed scroll and a flare, if you need to attract the attention of a proctor shoot up the red flare and help will arrive.” Moving to the side so everyone could stare at the map he grinned at their growing horror, and team eight plus Sasuke watched the others faces and became very fidgety.

“One final thing before I leave,” Naruto waited a moment, “We have a policy of no deaths during this test. If you fail to help your teammates if injured you fail. If you leave behind a teammate due to injury you fail. If you pass by a team in over their heads and on the edge of death and don’t call for help you fail.” Stepping forward he Growled out, “Which means that if you don’t give a shit for your fellow Shinobi your ass will be sitting in front of my integrations specialists explaining yourself…there is not a single enemy Shinobi in this test so do not, under no circumstances are you to allow a death. Oh and just so you don’t try to team up into one massive team and move through the Wild, you may not meet with another team except in an emergency for more than fifteen minutes every six hours. And when you are prepared you will be summoned to an area along the eastern branch of the river to start with, so your not to close together.”

Seeing everyone understood the seriousness of the test Naruto nodded, glancing at the clock he waited until the second hand went around one more time, “The test start NOW…” backing away from the table full of maps he smiled as the Konoha team glanced his way with worry in their eyes.

 

Gathering one of the maps Sasuke moved over to grab the sealing scroll of supplies and the flare, before moving to one side to wait for the rest of his team. Glancing down at the map he was not reassured when he saw the note near the coast, ‘Here Be Monsters’. Glancing back at his team then over to where Naruto was smiling that evil smile of his next to Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei, nope not reassured at all.

Frowning at the map and the notation Kiba looked up at Sasuke who had the most dealings lately with Naruto, “You don’t think he means it do you?”

Snorting as he opened the door for his team, Sasuke rolled the map up and secured it, “Naruto might be many things, including the best prankster Konoha ever saw, but even I don’t think he would prank during an exam like this. Let’s go, once we get to the starting point we can take stock of what we were given in the sealing scroll and head out.”

 

“So…” Kurenai leaned up against the wall next to Naruto, “the next part of the test is a survival test? It seems a little tame sounding.”

The sound of laughter caused a lot of the Chuunin hopefuls to cringe in fright as they hurriedly grabbed their supplies and rushed out of the building, Naruto calmed down and looked over at Kurenai who was fidgeting, “Well, besides the terrain being against them, they will have to deal with all the wild life that is just a bit dangerous. Though they should live if they don’t run into the sand fields, this time of the year the fire lizards are breeding and it could get real ugly if they interrupt that.” Seeing the disbelief in Kurenai’s eyes he smiled, “the half grown cubs that were stationed near the base to be a distraction would be considered cute and cuddly compared to what they will have to fight their way through to get to the base of the mountain.

 

Looking at the spot the summoning circle had brought them to Shino sent a few of his scouts up into the air to get a report of if it was safe or not, “Since the scrolls should be uniform since they were all in the same box, it would save time if we only opened one.”

Nodding Kiba grinned as he quickly unsealed his scroll so they could look through it.

Sasuke leaned over seeing the supplies laid out, mostly water and some rations bars, though there was a fair amount of first aid supplies that had him wondering. Not seeing a single weapon or rope he felt uneasy. Uneasy enough he pulled his scroll out and unsealed it. Looking at the contents of his scroll he lowered his head, “of course it would not be that easy.”

Shino starred at Sasuke’s scroll as if the universe had suddenly shifted, his logical conclusion was so far off it was not even funny. Sasuke’s scroll only held some water and rope.

“I think we better open all the scrolls and find out what we have to work with exactly,” Sasuke looked at them seriously, hoping they had not been screwed.

After everyone had unsealed the content of their scrolls they divided it up into more reasonable piles, staring at the pile of rations bars, all nine of them Sasuke rocked back on his heels and looked around at his teammates, “Kiba how good are you and Akamaru at hunting?”

Startled out of his dark thoughts and mental grumblings Kiba looked up and scowled, before he said anything though he sighed, this really was Sasuke’s test and he was good enough to bring them in and give them this chance, so instead of the normal comment he would have barked out he thought about it for a moment, “Between the two of us I would say we are pretty decent. But won’t it slow us down to hunt?”

Dividing the ration bars up so Hinata and Kiba both had three and Shino had one, taking one for himself he left the last one alone before pushing it over to Shino, “We’ll divide the last between us Shino if it comes to it.” Looking back at Kiba Sasuke smiled which caused the teen to lean back, was he really such a broody bastard in the academy? “Well I think we might have more than a fair chance to spot something along the way, if you can find us game to take down as we go, we can spare a few minutes to bring it down and prepare it for travel. I have a spare sealing scroll in my pouch so we can keep it fresh, that will at least stretch out the ration bars.”

Nodding Hinata stared at the pile Sasuke had pushed in front of her, “Um…” looking down she stuttered slightly, she was trying very hard to overcome the problem, “Um…Yes…Sasuke-kin why did you give Kiba and me three of the ration bars?”

Nodding instead of giving her his normal are you stupid look, yep it flashed through his mind, he had been a gloomy bastard during his time in the academy. “Hinata you are our eyes, even though I don’t know how much chakra it takes to use your Byakugan constantly but both you and Kiba as our forward scouts and hunter need to keep your chakra reserves topped off, and food is the best way to do that. Shino has his companions to act as aerial scouts and guards, and I will be the first in fighter. But for this part of our test you tow are more important to our overall survival so you need to strong.” Looking up at the sky Sasuke dug through his pouch for the tube he had dropped in there after the last test. Holding it up so the others could see the four white pills he smirked, “Soldier pills, Hadori gave me one to help me recover from chakra exhaustion during the last test. The downside is you need to make sure you eat within a couple of hours after taking it, I picked up this vile from the commissary during the break when Hadori and Takai restocked.”

Chuckling Kiba dug into his pouch and pulled out a handful of pills, “Akamaru and I have our own; they’re the Inuzuka family recipe.”

“Damn…”Sasuke whispered before looking at the dog boy in a new light, “Do they work for non Inuzuka clan members or are they specific to your genetics? More importantly will they work for Hinata?”

Thinking about it Kiba slowly nodded, “The white ones will work just fine, though with as skinny as Hinata-kun is she probably should eat as soon as possible if she had to use one of mine.” Counting out and handing over four of the pills Kiba saw he still had quite a few left and handed some to Shino also.

“Thank you for sharing Kiba,” Sasuke got up and stretched as he gazed at the sky, “I checked the clock last night, as the sun started to set it was right around seven thirty so if we can make it to this stream on the map for the night we might be able to catch a fish or two to help with our food supply.” Double checking everything was secured he looked at his team, “Are we ready?”

Kiba grinned as Hinata blushed, “Bring it on…”

The proctor for this part of the test rose from the ground and took off the breathing mask as he watched the team disappear into the foliage at a rapid pace, making some notes he nodded, it was a good start to one of the more unique teams. Disappearing in a puff of smoke he grinned as he used the speed technique to reach the rest of the proctor team.

 

Two hours into the run Kiba turned his head sideways and tossed a kunai as he slowed down and stopped, signaling the others to hold up.

“Arf…Arf,Arf…”

Throwing another Kunai to make sure Kiba smiled ferally as he jumped to the ground, Kunai materializing in his hand he approached his kill.

“Kiba,” Shino called from his location in the branches as he watched his teammate stalk something in the brush, “What did you find?”

Looking at Akamaru as he whimpered and yipped Kiba frowned, “I hit a deer,” hearing the rest of his team land behind him he listened to Akamaru yip some more before taking a deep breath, sniffing the air. “Though for some reason it does not smell like a deer, Akamaru says it smells like a rabbit.”

The rest of the team watched Kiba push his way through some bushes. Sasuke jumped, Sharingan activate as he heard Kiba shout out several times, “KAI…KAI… Dispel Dammit.”

“Hinata,” Sasuke commanded as he looked around carefully for traps.

“Um…there are no Genjutsu’s layered around here.” Hinata slipped her kunai back in her pouch and raised her voice, ‘Kiba-san there is no illusions around, what you are seeing is real.”

Jumping out of the bushes backwards Kiba was freaked out, “No freaking way.”

Not sure what had Kiba so worked up Sasuke peaked into the bushes and froze, after a moment he looked back at his team, “I…We have our work cut out for us in butchering this rabbit.”

Frowning Shino looked at Sasuke and Kiba and sent a few of his bugs flying in the canopy as he pulled out his Kunai, they needed to get started. Pushing through the bushes he came up to the downed rabbit and his glasses almost fell off his face as he got the shock of his life. A shaky hand put his glasses back on his face as he stared at the deer size rabbit, “

 

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck as he sat behind his desk while several of the recording technicians removed the video equipment, staring out the window he called out before the last of the techs left, “I need those two tapes joined and back as quickly as you can please, I need to send it off as soon as possible.”

“Hai Uzumaki-sama,” the tech bowed as he rushed out of the room.

 

Jumping through the trees again Sasuke shuddered if that was the size of a rabbit he knew there were things in here that were going to be…to put it bluntly scare the living crap out of them. Thinking about something Naruto told him three days ago he called out, “Hey…I know we all have our clan styles in hand to hand and Jutsu, but do each of you know at least two other types of Jutsu’s?”

Jumping to the next branch Kiba looked over his shoulder as he landed, ‘Why would we need that? Our clan styles should be more than enough, right Akamaru?”

“ARF,” the pup put a smug look on its face as it looked up from under his master’s coat.

“Well,” Sasuke ignored the smug reply, “I was thinking about the tests and I remembered something Naruto told me. He told me I had to master two other Jutsu’s of non fire type before he would allow me to enter,” jumping to the next branch he gave them a moment to digest what he had said. “So if I need to have at least two non Uchiha Jutsu’s in my arsenal to pass, doesn’t that mean all of you should too if you want to pass?”

Signaling a halt Hinata deactivated her eyes and pulled her canteen around for a drink.

Landing next to her Shino thought Sasuke might be right, after all from what Kurenai-sensei said his team was allowed in the exam only to give Sasuke the numbers. It showed something he was not used to dealing with from the Uchiha if he was actively trying to help them pass the test too. “But do we have the time to master two new techniques in such a short time we have to complete this part of the test?”

“Well if we practice for a couple of hours each night when we camp, and if we make really good time tomorrow we can set up camp and spend almost a full day near the mountain cavern making sure you have them down enough to at least use them effectively.”

“To do that we should quickly find a safe campsite for tonight, we can then cook all the rabbit and then seal the leftovers for tomorrow’s use.” Shino looked at the others as he told them his thoughts, “If we stop in the next hour we can talk about what we can try to learn while we cook. Then two hours of practicing and six hours of sleep before we take off again, if we each take a soldier pill with supper tomorrow night we can effectively travel half a day further on before having to rest for the night.”

Hinata looked down, “Hmm…Um…Would it not be better to take the soldier pill at lunch time so we would have daylight to travel our fastest. If the dangers of this place are near what the map has written on it, would it not be better to travel during the light?”

Sasuke nodded, “Your right, both of you,” he stretched, “we’ll take the soldier pill with lunch and increase our speed during the day, if the rabbits around her are that big I would hate to see what same of the other creatures look like.”