Everyone who passed the second test was called into a big assembly hall that could also be used as an arena. After everyone was here, Hiruzen appeared and held a speech about the true purpose of the chunin exam. He explained how it was to simulate fighting between nations and how the exams are used to show off a nation's prestige.
Yuna, however, barely listened to any of it. She was scanning through the people who made it and thought about who she would like to fight.
'Well, Gaara is an obvious choice. I won't deny that I would have fun fighting Naruto and Hinata either, but there really isn't anything special about that. We fight each other rather frequently, after all.
Apart from these three, the only one that catches my attention is Rock Lee.
His center of gravity is slightly off while walking so he is probably wearing weights. He seems to put himself through incomprehensible amounts of training and despite that, his chakra level seems to be pretty low.
Seemingly no talent and yet he is willing to push his body past the breaking point again and again with unshakeable determination. He probably has some ridiculously impossible dream and despite not having the talent to reach it, he keeps pushing himself. Unwavering and without doubts.
Someone like that is worthy of my time no matter how weak or strong he currently is. For a person like that, there are only two choices: Reaching his dream, or death. Determination like that is something I can respect.'
While Yuna was thinking about who she would like to fight, Hiruzen finished his speech. A few moments later, a new shinobi appeared on the stage.
"*cough* I will be taking over from here on. My name is Hayate Gekko *cough*."
'Is he alright? He looks like he is about to die.'
"Due to there being too many contestants that managed to pass the second exam *cough* we will have to hold preliminary matches to thin out the crowd."
'Oh? Preliminaries? Well, I don't really care. What's with all the coughing though? This is rather annoying. Since none of the other jonin present seem to mind, it's probably a permanent issue. I don't think he can take stealth missions like that.'
After Hayate finished explaining the rules, which pretty much boiled down to one-on-one fights and no killing, a huge screen was lowered from the ceiling to reveal the first two fighters. After a few moments, the first match was decided: Naruto vs Chouji.
Yuna could only shake her head at that. Chouji won't even know what hit him.
"Haha, alright! I'm going first!"
Chouji, meanwhile, smiled a little.
'At least it isn't one of those weirdos from the other villages. If it is against Naruto, I might actually win.'
After everyone except for Naruto, Chouji, and Hayate left the arena and reached the spectator stands, Hayate started the match.
Chouji, immediately, made the first move.
"[Leaf-Style Taijutsu: Human Bullet Tank]"
His body became round and he started to roll at Naruto with quite a bit of momentum.
"Haha, a bold charge. I like it. COME!"
Naruto readied himself and as soon as Chouji was in his range he punched towards him.
At first, the clash seemed to be a draw, but after a few moments, Chouji was pushed back and, in the end, was smacked into a wall and lost his consciousness.
"Hehe, just because I like it doesn't mean I will go easy on you."
Asuma Sarutobi, Chouji's teacher who was spectating the duel, looked at Naruto completely dumbfounded. Overpowering an Akimichi's full charge with raw power alone is a ridiculous feat. He couldn't help but look at Kakashi in wonder.
"What in the world did you feed Naruto for him to reach such a ridiculous strength?"
Kakashi, however, only shrugged his shoulders.
"I would like to claim that this is my achievement, but it isn't. They have been hiding their abilities for a long time now. Guess they are finally ready to show themself publicly."
"They?"
Anko, who was here because she is Yuna's sensei, intervened before Kakashi could answer.
"Hehe, Asuma, just wait and see. I hope you are ready for a good show."
He raised his eyebrow at Anko but could see that neither Anko nor Kakashi were willing to say more, so he decided to drop the matter for now.
Meanwhile, the next match was announced: Sakura vs Ino.
After the two left the spectator stands and met in the middle of the arena, Ino couldn't help but smile wryly.
"Sakura, you..."
"Yeah, I know. Victory is impossible."
Ino widened her eyes when she heard that. She wanted to advise Sakura to simply give up the match and expected to be yelled at with some nonsense involving Sasuke in return.
Seeing the surprised expression on Ino's face, Sakura really didn't know what to say.
'Was I really that bad? That is impossible...right?'
She shook her head to get rid of the unimportant thoughts and answered Ino's questions before she could ask them.
"During the second exam, I realized how weak I am, but I won't give up so easily. I will become stronger and reach what I am aiming for."
When she said that last sentence, she glanced at Sasuke for a moment before her eyes focused back on Ino.
"I will lose this, but I won't go down easy, at least. So come, Ino!"
"It is good that you finally got your resolve. Fine, here I come! I won't hold back!"
*Five seconds later*
'Guess I should have held back.'
"The winner is: Ino Yamanaka!"
Ino couldn't help but feel slightly awkward while walking back to the spectator stands. She got pumped up for the fight and then knocked Sakura out with one punch. That felt really anticlimactic to her.
Yuna chuckled a little when she saw Ino's dissatisfied expression.
'I really wonder what she expected to happen. As far as I know, Sakura has never trained properly. Fighting against Ino, who, despite starting a little late, has quite a few years of training under her belt had an obvious outcome. Instant victory.'
The next fight was a girl called Tenten against someone from Suna called Temari and Yuna could only shake her head at the bad compatibility between those two.
'I can't help but feel a little bad for that Tenten girl. She pretty much met her hard-counter. I am not sure why she is so insistent on throwing every single one of those weapons at her enemy, though. She might want to learn to actually wield them as well, should give her quite the powerup if she can casually switch weapons mid-fight.'
[How in the world is she supposed to learn fighting with all these weapons? Even I know that it takes a lot of time to properly learn how to use a weapon.]
'Not really. Although I only focused on one weapon in my previous life, I still decided to get a basic level of mastery in most other weapons as well. That only took me a few hundred year... Oh, guess I understand the problem now.'
[...]
The next match was rather interesting to Yuna, not because of the strength of the fighters, but because Shikamaru somehow won it, while following his self-made rule not to hit a woman.
'Damn, if only he was more interested in getting stronger. I feel like he could have become someone seriously powerful. Too bad he is just a lazy bum.'
The next match was quickly announced at it was: Sasuke Uchiha vs Dosu Kinuta.
When Naruto heard the announcement, his eyes lit up.
'So, Mummy's name was actually Dosu Kinuta, huh? Well, my nickname was kinda close, so it's fine. I wonder if Sasuke can defeat him without relying on Orochimaru's hickey? Probably not. Well, even if he loses now, it's not like I care. At the current stage of the chunin exam I am no longer shackled by my teammates after all.
i just noticed... if sasuke leaves.... naruto wont give a f*ck... so.. is sakura the one chasing after him? XD cant say they dont deserve each other...
You have a good point there. It's also the reason why I think Naruto won't try so hard to stop him from leaving, but I'm still hoping the two of them duke it out like they did in cannon. May as well make it so as to show him that the "power up" he got from Orochimaru isn't doing him jack sh*t and is instead getting in his way. Then, after trashing him, he realizes that the idiot is still not convinced, so he still lets him go...
They are still a team, after all, so he has to at least try not to let it fall apart, however half-hearted the attempt may be...
PS: Maybe even Sakura won't be looking for him, cause now at least she's aware that she'll be of no help to him anyways. At least not until she becomes adequately powerful...
We are fighting each other rather frequently, after all.
We fight each other rather frequently
despite not having the talent for reaching it,
the talent to reach it (talent FOR [action], talent TO [goal])
What's with all the coughing though.
though?
He raised his eyebrows at Anko
He raised an eyebrow at Anko (You only raise one to show suspicion)
"It is good that you finally got your resolve. Fine, here I come! I won't hold back!"
*Five seconds later*
'Guess I should have held back.'
Golden~
'Not really. Although I only focused on one weapon in my previous life, I still decided to get a basic level of mastery in most other weapons as well. That only took me a few hundred year... Oh, guess I understand the problem now.'
Dang, this is killing me~
'So, Mummy's name was actually Dosu Kinuta, huh? Well, my nickname was kinda close, so it's fine. I wonder if Sasuke can defeat him without relying on Orochimaru's hickey? Properly not.
Close how?
Plus, in cannon, the hickey actually got in the way here, didn't it?
Yeah, this chapter deserves a <3
Now I really can't wait for the Hinata vs Neji round~
BTW, quick question, is the trio at least gonna become chuunin after this? Cause I don't know what happens later, but I think Naruto remained a genin, right?
I really hope she toys with him completely crushing his arrogance before finishing him off. Maybe landing the final blow while looking up into the stands at her former family to drive the point home.
Thanks like always.
"Plus, in cannon, the hickey actually got in the way here, didn't it?" That was because he was trying to supress it in canon. Naruto assumes that Sasuke will just use it.
"BTW, quick question, is the trio at least gonna become chuunin after this? Cause I don't know what happens later, but I think Naruto remained a genin, right?" Although it is a spoiler, I will say it anyway, since it isn't much of a suprise: Yes they will rank up after the exam.
@Draecath a big FU from hinata
@Don426 Yeah, the "Garbage" they threw away is already getting promoted to chuunin, while their "Great genius" gets to spend another year as a genin...
@Maerry Thanks for the confirmation. It just makes sense for them to get promoted as they are nearly or at jounin strength the only thing they lack aside from Yuna is experience. They are all monsters but Yuna is on another level.
@Draecath Wrong!!! Yuna is the only monster, the others are just properly trained geniuses.
(who were coincidentally trained by a monster...)
@ARFitS Or geniuses turned into monsters via corruption from the queen monster.
@Maerry i kinda expect to see Hinata drill a few unexpected holes in Neiji"s body. Like, punch-drill. With her index fingers. I kinda want it like this. With every flick one of Neiji's joints becomes drilled through. And Hina is smiling happily and playfully.
Naruto was a genin until Kakashi became Hokage and promoted him by his authority.
First he was beaten by yuna, now by hinata, i wonder if he will get out of this alive
@Maerry oh yeah, about the no killing part, in the original it is fine to kill your opponent, but not encouraged. As proof in the fight of kankuro vs tsurugi, kankuro was believed to be killed before he reveal that it was his puppet and crush his opponent body with it
@yurei Still hoping it's Naruto's turn after the matches. May as well end it with a turkey, am I right?
@doltramir this would be neat, but neji is also incredibly arrogant in this, and he's a main branch hyuuga apparently. So I'd expect him to try and use the cages bird seal pain function when he realises he has no chance.
@Seraphy and the look on his face when that doesn't work would be a good one
@Seraphy Useless, they already removed that seal from her years ago...
@ARFitS but he doesn't know this :3
@doltramir True, but there's also the fact that he's from the younger generation, so I doubt he has any access to the seal's functions. But the elders might try using it after the match to force her to come back to the clan.
At least, this makes more sense to me than Neji using it on her during the match just to cheat his way into a win...
@ARFitS I'm fine with both. And characters in this AU pretty different from canon, so he might have access. Or not. Both are OK and would be nice to read
@ARFitS same with me. Neji never was a cheater. Despite his 'fatalism' he was always honest with himself and others.
And about Naruto's promotion. He haven't become a chunin with everyone because he was on the trip with Jiraya. And that trip now makes pretty much no sense to me so he can get a chunin with the rest in the next exam in Suna.
@Alinterelins jiraiya has lost his purpose except for being a pervert
@Alinterelins I know that he missed that one, I just don't know what happened here. Why didn't he get promoted in this exam? I know Orochimaru's "Crush the Leaf" plan is supposed to starts soon, but I also remember Shikamaru getting promoted in this exam as well, so I don't think the attack is the reason Naruto didn't get promoted...
@ARFitS because Shikamaru showed himself real good and was promoted, but for Naruto it was too early. Only thing that he has at that time was that he used kyubi's chakra. SMD that is nowhere near to become a chunin.
@ARFitS in the original? something about strategy and judgement if i remember. shikamaru was able to use the hole that naruto create to his advantage, and decide to give up as he can't win the next match with low chakra. in my opinion tho, it is wrong to promote naruto at that time, even with his achievement of beating gaara, the reason? the original was stupid and wouldn't think of the consequence of the thing he has done
@yurei Well, this Naruto's better. He's stronger than original by far, knows when he is outclassed and doesn't mindlessly dive right into the fray and endanger his allies, is good at teamwork as was proven in the fight against Orochimaru and has a better head on his shoulder than the original. They can't fail him here...
@ARFitS true, he can even qualify as jounin i think with how strong he is
@yurei One more thing, with his current level of chakra control, can't he actually use the Rasengan without any assistance from his other hand or a clone? More than that, with what he's shown so far, I wouldn't even be surprised if he could use the Rasenshuriken to it's full potential without even going into Sage Mode...
@ARFitS sure he can, don't know about rasen shuriken though
@yurei Remember what they were doing with the water ball? They used chakra to have it maintain it's form even after throwing it. This feels like a very basic form of how Naruto throws the Rasen-shuriken while still maintaining it's form. It's like he's training for that very technique...
That aside, about your earlier comment about Jiraiya. What do you mean he lost his function? He is an Artist of Culture and there is another Artist of Culture waiting to meet him right here in Konoha...
While we're on the topic, when exactly were Naruto and Jiraiya supposed to meet again?
@ARFitS what i meant is that there is nothing he can teach naruto that yuna can't, the summoning scroll would probably be there too in yuna's hand. as for when jiraiya would arrive in konoha, it should be after this preliminary matches, in the one month time to train for the final
@yurei There's Sage Jutsu...
@ARFitS Jiraya can teach him how to become a Sage. The art that can kill you if you'd lose control over it even if you're a master of sage arts.
Yuna can teach him how to double cultivate where you become stronger by snu-snu. Plus she can teach him many more. I never believe that a being of her strength and age has nothing to teach. She even may know a way to become a sage without contracts with toads, snakes, slimes etc.
@Alinterelins you know, sage mode come from the frogs, and i did say minato probably leave the contract scroll to yuna in his home. That means they can ask the frogs themselves.
Also in my opinion, sage mode is lower that cultivator, i don't know much tho, but from what I know about cultivator, they absorb nature energy, refine it, then make it their own. While in sage mode, you absorb small amount of energy for a while then use it, if you lose focus the energy will dissipate, if u use it all, it'll be gone and you have to start from zero again
I wonder if Sasuke can defeat him without relying on Orochimaru's hickey? Properly not.
"Probably"