Chapter 20
JULY- 27 MONTHS
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Naruto had always liked Shizune. She was nice, calm and understanding- a big sister to many to didn't have sisters. However this Shizune was acting like she had spent too much time with Anko. Which was probably the case.
She seemed highly irritable but didn't cuss like a sailor which was a good thing. She wore a tight black shirt with a knee length skirt, under the skirt were mesh shorts and her holster was on her right thigh. Her black hair was longer and overall she looked more badass.
Ebisu on the other hand looked less… domineering and more leering. Even with his glasses on it was easy enough to tell he was constantly looking at the girl's chest.
It was and odd team to say the least but they made it work. The written portion had no hidden strings to it so it hadn't been hard. Round two tested your stealth capabilities. They had spent two days in the forest of death as their task was to hide a scroll and make sure none of the other teams would find it, but an added twist was they couldn't be found either.
For the second round you didn't have to win, but meet simple criteria's. Ebisu passed because he had shown great chakra control in managing to hide his presence completely, Shizune managed to knock people out before they found her and Naruto had managed to keep her presence and the scroll's hidden behind a barrier seal.
Of course, because the second round was based on filling in certain criteria there were a lot of people who passed but at the same time there weren't that many since it was only Konoha shinobi. Same as last time, the old man gave a speech she didn't care to listen to.
However unlike last time there was no mention of any prelims and instead, the sandaime had requested everyone take a number so the finals could take place within a week. She had been shocked but managed to keep it hidden, it wasn't like they had to have any prelims since Konoha would be the only ones participating and they wouldn't be boring other kage.
She cringed when she saw the line-up but then began to mentally cackle in glee, it was going to be entertaining to watch.
Shizune vs Rin.
Kurenai vs Hakuya.
Izumo vs Kotetsu.
Naruto vs Tadase.
Hayate vs Akemi.
Ebisu vs Kazuo.
Naruto had a good idea who would win in each round but wasn't sure how the final rounds would go. Also, as much as she was rooting for Rin to win her round, there was no way the docile girl was going to win against Shizune who was taught by Tsunade.
Speaking of Tsunade, whenever Naruto managed to get a hold of Jiraiya she was going to throttle him for keeping the virus a secret from her. Her blood could heal and expel poisons for shodaime's sake.
Once they were allowed to leave they all went their own ways, Naruto having no particular place she wanted to be decided to simply walk around the village and see what happened from there.
As she made her way through the village she bumped into the person who had somehow become another one of her join instructors- Orochimaru. As much as he was less of a nuisance than she had thought, he still put her on edge.
It was a feeling Kurama had explained was most likely from the hatred between snakes and toads, which had rubbed off on her as a toad sage.
She paused in front of him since he had been staring at her, meaning he had something to relay to her. "Jiraiya wanted me to give this to you." He reached out and handed her a normal looking scroll however it had a black ribbon, usually only given to ANBU operatives causing her the quirk a brow.
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed as he smirked, "Why would I be give-"
"You and I both know why, little Uzumaki." Years to training her self-control was the only thing that caused her to not react.
Jiraiya was in for more than a throttling later.
Though her face and eyes gave nothing away, her stance changed ever so slightly as she was on edge. "So what now?" she asked as she put away the scroll, berating herself for not doing so sooner.
"Now… we should train in the playground."
Naruto resisted the urge to slap him. She just got free of that damn place and was now forced to go back there just because Kushina-sensei wasn't in the damn village.
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"Is there really a point to this?"
The proctor raised a brow, "Why wouldn't there be a point to this?"
"I mean, there's no way I can win or lose when I'm up against myself."
The proctor shrugged, "Well just imagine if you did lose against yourself, which would be entirely embarrassing."
"Can you just announced me as the winner already?"
The man sighed and nodded, "Winner of the match, Naruto Namikaze!"
In her own opinion, it was anti-climactic. The matches had gone as she had initially thought, Shizune winning her round, Kurenai winning hers. Kotetsu won his and Naruto won hers. Hayate won his and Ebisu won his as well.
The second rounds had been Shizune vs Kureani- Shizune won. Kotetsu vs Naruto- Kotetsu forfeited stating there was no way he would be able to win and made a tactical retreat. Hayate vs Ebisu lead to Hayate winning.
The next matches had been Shizune vs Naruto which Naruto won and Naruto vs Hayate, once again Naruto won. Which led to the final match, Naruto vs herself.
Of course, winning the rounds wasn't what the chunin exams were about, something Naruto kept repeating to Rin who was once again standing outside the doors of the hokage office as the chunin exam council discussed who should and shouldn't pass.
Everyone showed great potential, however the most likely to pass were Rin, Hayate, Ebisu and Shizune as they showed they could take control of a situation with a level head as well as be discreet in their work.
Naruto had already been made a chunin in her own time and had purposefully acted brash during this exam, making sure she wouldn't get promoted to chunin.
Yes, being chunin meant she could take missions on her own however she needed to be near Obito in order to make sure he didn't get kidnapped and brainwashed by Zetsu and his scheming.
The twelve genin entered the office together, bowing before their kage, straightening only when they were told to stand at ease, however none of them were at ease as they awaited the results.
"All twelve of you have showed skills unique to your own styles as well as skills that mould yourselves with others- both of which are necessary skills for this line of work. From order of how you are standing I will state your strengths and weaknesses and then I shall state who passed."
He looked over at a document as if it actually had something written on it when Naruto knew it didn't.
"Ebisu, your fine control over your chakra is commendable and easily adaptable to many others, and your calm during hard pressed scarios is something we look for in our shinobi. I would suggest you to specialise in genjutsu or ninjutsu- what route you take from there is you own decision to make. There is also the option for other things such as puppeteering and all those are on this paper." He pulled out a paper from the stack he had beside him and handed in to Ebisu.
It carried on like this for everyone, each person getting a small laydown on what they could do, what they couldn't do and what could specialize in if applicable.
Naruto much preferred not having just one specialization. She much preferred the route Kakashi sensei had taken- not specialising in a singular thing but to be proficient enough at everything.
Sure she liked fuinjutsu, ninjutsu and kenjutsu however she was good at kinjutsu, basics of iryo ninjutsu, very basics of genjutsu and much more.
Finally it was her turn, "Naruto, you showed great know capabilities in many areas, ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, taijutsu and kenjustu especially. You have the makings of a great shinobi. Whilst you didn't look at everything with a level head as your two teammates I believe it is something you could easily take control over if you actually tried." She cringed at having been caught.
"I have no advise for you, your path is entirely your own due to your all-round capabilities." He clapped his hands together, drawing in all of their attention, "Now for those who have made chunin." Once again he looked at a document and this time it actually did have writing on it.
"Everyone, know that we thought long and hard this time round, each of you having the abilities to become chunin soon enough however those who do not make chunin today, know if you work on what I just discussed with you, you may easily become chunin during the next exam."
He looked at each of them and saw the determination in their eyes to move forward no matter what and he began to recite those who passed, "Shizune, Kurenai, Hayate, Ebisu, Rin and Naruto. You six have become chunin. Please accept these jackets and new titles, wearing them both with honour and dignity best befitting a chunin."
Naruto tuned out the rest of what the old man was saying, trying to process the fact that, despite having tried to butcher her own exam by being rash she had still been made chunin.
It didn't make sense. No one in their right mind would allow someone as recless as she had been during the final rounds to become chunin.
But now that she thought about it, Obito had been made chunin and he tended to act more idiotic tan she had when she had original been a genin. And she no one teaching had no one to teach her otherwise whereas Obito did.
Robotically, she accepted her new shinobi card and jacket, choosing not to put it on due to its terrible colours, she'd do something about that later.
Bowing once more, they left the hokage office, some ecstatic for becoming chunin, others driven to achieving their goal within their next exam. Naruto was the only one that shared neither of those feelings.
She looked back at the doors she had just left and went back inside them, closing them behind her as she did so. "Why?" was all she asked, wanting to know what would possess the man to do this. She was only supposed to see what the exams were like, not pass them.
The sandaime signalled for everyone to leave, his ANBU being the only ones to remain. "From the day you arrived I have either watched you myself or my ANBU have. Within you I see a fire that could burn a forest within its wake in just a few minutes. Not even I, the sandaime hokage chosen by the nidaime hold a will of fire to that degree.
"You sabotaged yourself however I know of you capabilities as do those on the chunin exam council. Your status as jinchuriki was also a factor we too into account and considered there was a lot more to teach a chunin than there was a genin." Well, when he put it like that, she supposed it made sense.
It was illegal to teach genin a lot of things, however there was no such barring when it came to chunin, except kinjutsu of course.
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AUGUST- 28 MONTHS
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After coming back from a B rank mission with her team she shunshined to the apartment and saw Jiraiya, not having been expecting him for another few days at the least.
He had been away for the last three weeks, duty calling him to the front lines once again as both Tsunade and Orochimaru had been forced to stay within the village.
All her annoyance she had been feeling towards him went down the drain when she took in his appearance. He wasn't injured, physically, but his face and body language pointed to heartache.
He looked as if Tsunade had turned him down with more hurtful words than Gamabunta could even come up with. And he could speak the old language.
Slowly Naruto went over to where Jiraiya was sitting, taking a seat I front of him on the table as he was perched on the floor, "Want to talk about what's wrong?"
His chuckle was humourless and cold as was his reply, "You wouldn't get it."
Naruto nodded, "True, there's always the possibility that I don't get something. Just like in my time I didn't know what the pain of loss was until you died. Seeing you like this is painful, sensei, tell me so I can attempt to help. Never disregard the fact I am older than I look."
He looked up at her with cold and detached eyes, "Before I left for this last mission Tsunade spoke to me about how it was a better idea for Orochimaru to go since it was more up his alley. During the mission we lost three of our men, and of course Hime couldn't wait to rub it in my face the fact she was right."
She clenched her jaw as she listened, it seemed like a pattern that this Tsunade would constantly hurt her god-father but this was going too far.
"You think they're dead because she assumed you're incapable of doing a job she ran away from doing herself? She thinks Orochimaru is better suited to have done that mission when he killed the sandaime? If those are her beliefs, she has no right to believe them. You were chosen to lead that mission, not Orochimaru nor her. Don't let her words take you down, sensei."
"That doesn't take away the fact they died under my watch."
"Who died?"
"The Nura trio: Aoi, Hayase and Erika."
Naruto nodded her head as she thought back to the third war documents, she had heard those names before. "Just after the third war, between the sandaime resigning as hokage and Minato being named yondaime, the three of them were killed by order of the sandaime and to-be yondaime for high treason. They had tried- terribly so- to poison the two of them as well as the old council; Homura, Koharu, Danzo and the clan heads. Whether or not they still planned on doing that now is something we'll never know however we know they're dead. Just like several other people in this god forsaken war.
"I'm just justifying their deaths, but know that one day they would have died and at least they went out together instead of leaving one or two to grieve." She wasn't sure if she made him feel any better with her twisted logic but to her it made sense.
Jiraiya looked up and gave her a pained smile, thanking her before excusing himself to take a shower.
When he had locked the bathroom door she made a clone of herself to stay here for anything and the real her went over to the hospital where Tsunade currently was.
It didn't take long to find her, the honourable granddaughter was shouting at one of the nurses about something they had done wrong. It always surprised Naruto to see such a cruel and violent version of Tsunade, considering the yondaime hadn't been killed yet.
Not that she was going to let the yondaime get killed.
Before Tsunade could even register what was going on, she took a hold of the elder woman's arms and shunshined them into the head medic office.
"Do you have to be so cruel to him? We all get that you think he's nothing more than a pervert who flirts a lot but there's no need to be so rude to him. Each of the sannin have their faults, and each of you embrace them." She rushed out, glaring at the woman who had made her adoptive father feel like that.
Tsuande ripped her arm away and Naruto could smell the feint scent of blood but she didn't care at the moment, "I told him what I thought and it would seem I was right."
Instead of letting her jab get to her, Naruto smirked and took a seat, "You sure you should be so cocky, granny, considering you've been labelling unfit to be on the front lines? Sandaime-sama chooses who goes on those missions personally so by saying ero-tou-san was unfit to lead that mission is like saying the sandaime is unfit to hand out missions. I'm sure Shizune would love to hear about the incompetence you think of our sandaime."
Tsuande git her teeth as she glared at the younger, cheeky looking blonde, "I never claimed the sandaime was unfit to decide-"
"However saying to a person chosen by the sandaime to lead a mission was unfit to lead said mission is the equivalent of saying his incompetence."
Tsunade sighed heavily before running her hands over her face, "I'll go over and apologise to him when my next shift is over."
Naruto quirked a brow, "Granny, are you aware of his… unorthodox tendencies." By the look Tsuande gave her, she assumed Tsunade had no clue what she was referring to, "He has a bad habit of taking what you say to heart. He doesn't have a silly crush on you, he's in love with you and despite everything, and he has always done what would make you happy. Don't take advantage of that again. Or you'll be on the receiving end of my wrath."
She surged a small amount of chakra to her eyes, making her blue eyes turn into Kurama's red slit ones.
With that, she left and returned home, beginning to make dinner for two people with large appetites.