Exam
This has been beta’d by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!
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It wasn't until he went home that Hiruzen truly grasped what had happened. Kakashi had slept with and marked his ward and Konoha's blonde joy. It was that very thought that caused him to send two ANBU operatives to the man's apartment to warn him of the consequences. He made sure to send an ape with them, making sure Kakashi knew it was his Hokage who had sent them.
What he hadn't planned for was them all to return, shaking and muttering about the wrath of the nine tails and a sleepy jinchuriki being awoken. The following morning he summed the two of them to his office only to see Naruto glaring as she sat on the arm of Kakashi's seat. "Ojii-san. I don't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night just so you can warn Kakashi of being with me."
His sweat dropped under his robes, not used to the small amount of KI coming from the young blonde, "I was merely making sure he knew what to expect, Naruto. To make sure he knew the risks that came with loving a jinchuiki. That and I also wanted him to understand the drawbacks of mating with my ward without asking for my blessing first. You are a preteen even if you are a legal adult, which does not mean I have to like it." Naruto sighed as he regarded her, unsure of what to make of her choice of outfit. They had hiraishined straight to his office and she was wearing one of Kakashi's old shirts with her trousers. An odd combination considering the clash of colors but Naruto enjoyed her outlandishness. Clearing his throat, he drew in their attention, "On a different note Kakashi you are aware that whilst you have marked her and she is an adult by our laws, you cannot get her pregnant till she is at least sixteen. My preference would be when she is eighteen, however, sixteen is the law."
A faint blush crept up Kakashi's face as Naruto simply raised a brow before shrugging, "Moon tea or a simple jutsu would do the trick. I'm sure in the Uzumaki archives there's a contraceptive seal somewhere, if not I'll try to make one." He raised a brow, unsure how to respond to that, yet he didn't have to as Kakashi simply grumbled something under his breath causing Naruto to laugh and kiss his cheek as she spoke with a smile on her face, "Don't worry koi. I took some tea before and I did have some of the pills that Sakura demanded I keep in case of emergencies. What emergency she had in mind I don't know but it came in handy."
He cleared his throat to get their attention, "On a different note Kakashi. What is the verdict on your team entering the chunin exams?"
Kakashi looked back at his leader, "Maa, they're all entering the exam."
"Geez, Kakashi. You could sound a little more excited that your rookie team wants to enter the exam." She leaned closer so she was practically draped over his shoulders.
"She does have a point Kakashi. Show a little enthusiasm or dislike that your little mate will be going into a dangerous battle to fend for herself where you cannot defend her without tarnishing her good name."
Kakashi's eyes darkened as a hand wrapped tightly around Naruto's waist, hoisting her on his lap as he let out a low growl. "Ojii san! Was that necessary?!" she yelled indignantly at his as she turned around, removing Kakashi's headband placing gentle kisses to his scar as she muttered to him so low he couldn't hear. Naruto silently muttered curses to the Hokage for his comment. Why he would say that to him straight after marking her confused her. It would only cause problems as it was now. "I'm fine. I'll be safe. I won the war against Madara I can win in a fight against genin." She kept repeating as she kissed his scar, not caring that the sandaime was watching. He should have known better than to cause Kakashi to feel angry and protective. After a few minutes he finally calmed down, causing her look at her leader, "If that's all, ojii-san, we'll be going." With that, she hiraishined them to his apartment.
He sat down on the sofa, glaring at the table as he mumbled to himself causing her to shake her head and start-up brunch. They had left first thing in the morning after getting dressed, not even having breakfast and now it was annoying her. She decided a light and simple meal of pancakes and waffles would do the trick and started to cook them. Once they were done she turned around to see Kakashi watching her with his mask off. "What is it?" she asked when he didn't look away.
"Do you intend to have my mark covered?" he asked as he took a fork and started eating the pancakes.
She hesitated, unsure, "Um I'm not sure, do you want me to cover it?"
He didn't reply straight away causing her to shift as she ate her waffles which she had covered in melted Nutella, "I want it uncovered." He hesitated in his reply, most likely due to the fact the jonin and elder chunin would recognize the mark on her to be the mating mark of his clan. They would think a male had been the one to claim Kakashi.
She gave him a sad smile as they ate their brunch in silence, heading out to the training fields to get set for the exams the following day. Training consisted mostly of them asking each other random questions and answering them before heading off to each of their individual homes, Naruto of course going with Sasuke before going to Kakashi's were Pakkun suggested she just bring all her things there since she was there far more than she was in her own home to which Kakashi had agreed to state she could have the guest room.
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Sasuke walked alongside both female members of his team as they walked up the stairs, avoiding the henged Izumo and Kotetsu as Naruto had stated. Once they got upstairs they saw Kakashi leaning against the door, Icha Icha nowhere in sight causing all three sets of brows to raise, "Did you lose your book, sensei?" asked Sakura as they stood in front of him.
"Maa, I thought I'd leave it in my pocket when I came to congratulate you for not getting into any fights. Also," he paused for a dramatic effect and it annoyed Sasuke when he realized Kakashi was getting the reaction he wanted. "I want you to be careful in there." With that, he poofed out of their way and allowed them to enter. Naruto's earlier words to not attract attention firmly in mind as they went to the corner after sighting the Suna siblings.
They managed to avoid making a scene up until Naruto decided to punch a Konoha shinobi. Luckily he took it in stride and their first proctor arrived. Ibiki Morino. Head of the intelligence unit's torture and interrogation. Sasuke would like to believe he kept a calm and aloof expression but he honestly didn't know if he had. Internally he was resisting the urge to flinch under the gaze of the heavily scarred man.
They all made their way inside and started the exam causing him to look incredulously at it. The test was not made for their age shinobi. In fact, he was sure the answers themselves didn't have a shinobi level but an intellectual level.
He was certain only a handful of people in the room would be able to take the test without cheating. It was that final word, cheating, that made him remember what Naruto had said about Ibiki sometime ago, about how he liked to play with people's minds, making them sweat to get his answers. Reverse psychology was his forte. He gave the room a quick once over and was about to activate him Sharingan before he heard Naruto talking into his head.
"Don't react. I know the answers. Just copy what I'm saying, you as well Sakura if you don't already know the answers."
With that said she recited the answers and the three of them began talking amongst themselves, not even noticing when Ibiki spoke up, only noticing when their crazy purple haired tokubetsu jonin came barging through the window, exclaiming to be their next proctor, causing his heartbeat to accelerate.
Everyone who knew of Anko knew of her love for the forest of death. There was no way they weren't going to be there for their next exam and he couldn't refrain from shivering at the mere thought of going to that place again. After Kakashi had insisted they go there for training during their second month as a team he had been scarred for life.
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Sakura shifted as she watched their crazy purple haired proctor lick the blood off Naruto's cheek. And she was fine with it. In fact, Naruto was simply chuckling as she said something low so the others couldn't hear.
Naruto had apparently recently gotten a tattoo that she was showing. It was odd to think of Naruto as a girl but it was a lot easier to accept that, she thought. Naruto liked to act like a boy, dress like a boy in public, and do general things a boy does however behind closed doors with herself, Sasuke, her home or Kakashi sensei's home she was similar yet so different.
It was because of those little things, it made it easier to take it in. Her dressing as a girl with her chest size makes it very believable. Sakura found she enjoyed having another girl on the team. In fact, Kakashi and Sasuke had both pointed out that she had been focusing on her training and less on her figure and crush on Sasuke. She still liked him, merely made different things her priority. They went in a tent and filled in a liability form. She understood why, since the other nations would love to blame Konoha for any fatalities whilst in the forest of death. They had trained in there with her team a couple of times, and she knew the danger of being in there was high.
Looking around she knew not everyone, even Konoha shinobi, and kunoichi, had not been in the forest and didn't know what was awaiting them. It made her feel better, they knew the layout of the forest well and with Naruto's tracking and sensory abilities, it would make it easier. She had also improved on her genjutsu and was sure she could easily use it on her opponents to make them believe it was a reality.
They made their way into the forest, Naruto having sealed the scroll somewhere the other two didn't know. They also had a key phrase; Will of fire and the other was the sandaime reads icha icha. The confession shocked her for a total of five seconds before she nodded, accepting it. Naruto had made over a dozen clones and they made their way to where they could sense other attendees. They leisurely made their way through the forest, making a stop only to eat or go to the toilet outside.
It wasn't until they came to the river when six clones of Naruto arrived with scrolls, heaven, and earth both causing Sakura and Sasuke to raise their brows. Before either of them could voice their question she answered, "It makes sure there's less competition. We'll most likely be fighting for the next round, so the more people disqualified means fewer people join the fight and fewer people die."
The two of them slowly nodded at her logic. It was well thought out and neither of them could refute her answer. Sakura jostled slightly however when Naruto grabbed a hold of them and teleported them to the tower. Sakura blinked as she forced her stomach to stop churning. No matter how many times Naruto had used the hiraishin she hadn't managed to get used to it.
She decided to focus on her surroundings. They were in a room full of jonin, she could see Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Asuma-sensei and the sensei they had been recently introduced to, Gai-Sensei. She chose to ignore the man in full green spandex as he yelled about youth, instead of taking interest in the look Naruto was giving Kakashi and vice versa.
They had been doing that a lot recently, ever since the day they had vanished for several hours yet she and Sasuke had decided not to comment on it, however, it seemed the genin were not the only ones to notice as Gai sensei stopped his rant as he stared wide-eyed with a slack jaw at Naruto. More specifically her tattoo.
Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by the other jonin's in the room as one of them hits the man over the head and whispered something to him which caused him to stop his gawking and to cough into his hand, mumbling something to Kakashi as he moved to sit down next to the guy who had a senbon in his mouth.
Naruto seemed to finally notice the stares as she raised a hand to cover it, a blush covering her cheeks. It was this action that caused the senbon guy to walk over to them and talk, "My name is Hayate Geko. I'm a jonin of Konoha. The three of you need to finish this exam by taking them into a room downstairs and doing the final things."
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Naruto mumbled as they made their way into the hall where she let Sakura think about the riddle and everything went the same as last time. Except for this time, Sasuke didn't have Orochimaru's cursed hickey and Sakura was actually useful. Silently they made their way upstairs when Naruto felt Gaara's chakra signature and excused herself, she hiraishined to the room the sand siblings were in and transformed into a bird as she flew outside of their window, eavesdropping on their conversation.
She was trying to see if they had had any communication with Orochimaru. Itachi had said they shouldn't have, but it never hurt to be careful. After an hour she felt her teammates call her through the joint seal so she left a henged clone in her place as she met up with them.
They were in the dining hall which was set up buffet style and sadly they had no ramen so she settled for rice and curry. They sat and had a peaceful lunch and slowly made their way to the training area in the building where they saw Kakashi, Genma, Raido and Gai sparring. The room was basically full of half-naked men with plenty of abs that were all sweating.
Naruto may be faithful, but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the sight of her. Her ogling was cut short when Gai got an instance for the lotus and when he went high she noticed he was aiming for Kakashi who was helping up Genma.
Her eyes turned yellow as she fused Kurama's chakra around her and made him kick her arm instead of either of them. She wasn't proud enough to deny that it hurt because it did, but it wasn't something she wasn't used to. She felt her arm bone fracture slightly yet Kurama's chakra healed it right up.
The sudden rush of unknown chakra caused her henge to fall as she transformed into her female self, causing all eyes to widen as Kakashi pulled her to him and checked on her arm. "It's fine. Just a tiny fracture that's already healed." She said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, yet it did little to please Kakashi. In fact, he seemed very annoyed.
"What in Konoha possessed you to jump in front of Gai's lotus attack?" his jaw clenched shut as his Sharingan eye spun hastily, making her slightly dizzy.
She shrugged, "Well I didn't think you or Genma were gonna get out of his way in time and figured I'd be the least injured should anything actually happen."
Instead of replying he threw her over his shoulder and shunshined them out of the room. She sighed knowing it was the mark making him act like this, future Kakashi had done the same thing after first marking her but after a week or so it had calmed down. Apparently, that faze had yet to weave out of his system.
Her back suddenly met the sofa and Kakashi went over to the kitchen and ran his head under the sink after having removed his headband and mask. She weighed her options on whether she should stay put or go over to him and decided to go over to him, however as soon as she got into a sitting position a hawk came through the window and landed on the coffee table, cawing at her to take the message tied around its ankle.
She removed it and let it rest on her shoulder as she called Kakashi over. After drying his face he sat down beside her and she placed his head on her lap as she read the message. It was from Shisui.
'It's your fiancé and senpai. We've managed to successfully use my eyes on the masked man and made him discuss things with Pein. Thanks to the memory you showed me of Nagato I managed to show that to him and he changed his mind. I will be returning shortly on my own as your senpai has things to do with Red Dawn.'
The next part was written by Itachi, 'As he said, I have business to attend to here, however, I will make it to Konoha in time for meeting up with you and my brother. I have requested Shisui behave himself and act like he should around you and your sensei/lover. Until next time, hime.'
"It was a letter from Shisui and Itachi. Everything has gone accordingly to plan and now Itachi had business with Akatsuki. Once that's done he'll come over to talk to Sasuke, also Shisui is already on his way here." Kakashi groaned as he burrowed into Naruto's lap, allowing her to further pet his hair that she had unconsciously been doing. The hawk had fallen asleep and just as she was about to speak up there was a knock at the door, causing the both of them to turn and look at it.