70Akt 13 – Of Timeskips and Training
Author's note: I'm really sorry about the (inordinately, sadistically, unendurably, choose your adjative well, you only get one) long time between updates, my muse got turned into a newt (a newt? Really? … she got better) and between that and a full time job, then suddenly job hunting, I haven't been able to come up with anything new. It doesn't help that the advice I had asked one of my fellow authors for, which I was waiting for, never came. Anyway, my muse returned, and I've got some time today, so here's a chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't even own fishcake, let alone Naruto.
After the remaining examinees had taken their number from the examiner, the rest of the examiners escorted the genin out of the forest of death via Shunshin [body flicker], and the genin were then dismissed, after again being warned of the date and location of the finals.
Naruko made her way to the location of the finals, and stood in the middle of the empty arena, having an internal conversation with her 'tenant'.
'Hey Kyuubi-san,' Naruko said as she walked up to his viewing area within her mindscape.
"Hello kit. I suppose you are here to talk about what I did while you let me control your body."
'Kinda. That's part of it, but mostly I had an offer for you. I noticed that we seem to be getting along a lot better recently, so I was wondering if you wanted to make an arrangement with me like Bee Oniisama has with the Hachibi. Instead of me being your jailor and you being my prisoner, we would be partners.'
"And what would the benefit be for me? You still would not let me rampage as I truly desire."
'Well, for one thing, you would always be able to feel my kills, not just watch. Second, when we went full Jinchuuriki mode, you would be able to fully manifest, and that would be a chance for you to fully stretch your legs in the real world for the first time since you were sealed.'
"Hmm, All right kit. But if I don't like it, I reserve the right to initiate renegotiations."
'Fair enough. Alright, we're gonna be going to mount Myoboku to train and get used to working as a team, so let's do this quickly and I'll summon a toad to reverse summon me.'
With that, Naruko concentrated, and the surroundings began to shift once again. The Kyuubi suddenly realized that he had partial control over his surroundings, and his grin was enough to terrify most people.
'You now have your own segment of my mindscape where you have absolute control. You also have leave to make changes in the rest of my mindscape, but I still maintain authority there. Let's head back to the real world now.'
When Naruko opened her eyes, one of them was her normal blue, while the other was the slitted red of the Kyuubi. Neither of them realized this at the time, so Naruko simply bit her thumb and quickly formed the seals for her Kuchiyose no jutsu [summoning jutsu].
"Kuchiyose no jutsu: Elders!"
With a pair of small puffs of smoke, Shima and Fukasaku appeared.
"Naruko! Why the hell'd you summon us?" Fukasaku demanded.
Shima took a close look at Naruko's face and gasped. "What happened to your eye! Oh shit, is the fox getting loose?"
"Huh?" Naruko answered dully. She then pulled a compact mirror out of her pouch, and upon opening it, looked at her eyes in her reflection. "Well that's interesting. Guess that's why Bee oniisama always wears those sunglasses."
'An interesting effect kit. However, let's see if I can't best that Eight tailed bastard.' Kyuubi said in her mind.
After a second of hesitation, Naruko's other eye switched to red and slitted, and finally a moment later they both returned to their natural blue.
'Hah! Told you I was better than that ugly bull octopus hybrid!' Kyuubi preened.
'Credit where credit's due, I'm glad I don't have to permanently alter my look. Thanks Kyuubi.' Naruko thought back.
To the toads she said, "No, it's just that we've formed a, err, symbiotic partnership? That's what Kyuubi-san says anyway. It's like what Bee oniisama does with the eight tails."
"Ehh? Interesting. So, why did you summon us?" Fukasaku asked again.
"I need you to reverse summon me to the mountain so Kyuubi and I can train in private for the exam finals."
The elder toads just nodded, then poofed away. A minute later, Naruko disappeared as well in a small cloud of smoke as well.
Hidden in the stands, Kakashi turned to the bird masked ANBU crouched next to him and said, "Inform the Hokage of this development. I'm going to see if I can find Jiraya and get him to keep an eye on her for us. He's the only one who can follow her where she's gone now."
"Hai," the ANBU responded, and disappeared in a swirl of feathers.
Gamakichi put in an appearance in the Hokage's office to find out the match pairing for Naruko, but other than that, no one saw hide nor hair of the blonde kunoichi for a full month.
One month later, the crowds were packing into the stadium for the Chuunin exam finals. The VIP box seated the Hokage, the Kazekage, and the Mizukage, with their respective protection details standing silently behind them.
As the competitors gathered in the center of the arena, no one noticed gamakichi quietly dispel himself from the stadium roof.
Naruko appearing in the middle of the stadium in a cloud of summoning smoke caused the crowds to slightly gasp, and earned her several appraising looks from the other Chuunin hopefuls, as well as a pair of raised eyebrows from the Mizukage and Kazekage.
"That wasn't shunshin, was it?" the Mizukage asked.
"No, I believe that was the dispelling of a reverse summoning jutsu," the Kazekage replied.
"Indeed, our little Naruko is the apprentice of Jiraya of the Densetsu no Sannin, and has spent the last month training with her summons, according to my reports," Sarutobi confirmed.
"Intriguing. A summoner that talented at that young an age? That must have taken some intense dedication and training to raise her chakra levels to the point of being able to summon. And for her to earn that level of trust from her summons at such a young age? I'm inclined to vote for her promotion already." The Mizukage said.
Hiruzen Sarutobi just raised his eyebrows at the tentative vote for promotion, and smiled.
A jounin wearing his leaf hitai ate on the back of a bandanna and holding a senbon needle in his mouth strode out onto the field. Raising his voice to be heard by all, he announced, "My name is Genma Shiranui, and I will be the proctor for the Chuunin exam finals." In an aside to the contestants he continued, "Gekkou bowed out due to health concerns."
He then continued in his 'announcer voice' to restate the rules for the audience's benefit. At the end of his speech, he announced the contestants for round one.
"The first match of round one will be between Akimichi Choji and Kenpachi Konpaku. Will the other competitors please go to the contestant's box."
Choji walked up to his opponent before the match began and surprised everyone by offering his hand. When Kenpachi took it, he said, "Good luck, and may the best shinobi win."
Kenpachi returned his smile and said, "Agreed."
The two took up starting positions, and Genma started the match.
Match 1: Akimichi Choji vs. Kenpachi Konpaku
Choji immediately performed his baika no jutsu [multi size jutsu], while Kenpachi formed a large, heavy two handed blade with his suiken no jutsu [water blade jutsu], and initiated the Kirigakure no jutsu [hidden mist jutsu].
Choji wasted no time in rolling out, using the stadium walls to his advantage, turning the match into a live action pinball game. The mist gave Konpaku a slight edge in that he was hard to detect, but the benefit was mitigated by the fact that choji really didn't use his eyes much in the middle of his jutsu.
Eventually Kenpachi released the mist jutsu to conserve chakra. Choji took that opportunity to bounce high into the air, and come down from directly above his opponent.
Dodging quickly to the side, Kenpachi lashed out with the executioner's blade sized water blade, scoring a deep slash along choji's side.
His jutsu disrupted, choji shakily pulled himself out of the crater he had created, holding one hand to his side to staunch the bleeding.
As Kenpachi prepared for another strike, Choji held up one hand and said, "I know when I'm outmatched. I concede the victory to you."
Kenpachi dispelled his blade with a nod, then once Genma had called the match, he offered to help choji to the medical station in a show of good sportsmanship.
Genma then announced the second match.
Match 2: Sabaku no Gaara vs. Rock Lee
The second match was rather interesting, with lee's speed after he removed his weights being too much for gaara's automatic defense, forcing him to work for his victory. Gaara even took several good hits when lee used five of the eight inner gates, but Genma and Maito Gai stepped in to end the fight after gaara crushed lee's arm and leg with his Sabaku sousou [Sand waterfall funeral].
Match 3: Uzumaki Naruko vs. Haruno Sakura
Like Choji and Kenpachi, Sakura and Naruko shook before their match. As they shook, Naruko winced a little and said, "This is a really bad match up for you. While your genjutsu would normally have an absolute advantage over me, my situation has changed somewhat, which will render your genjutsu all but useless. I'll try not to go overboard and injure you too much, but that said, I'm not going to go easy on you."
Sakura looked a little surprised at this news, but smiled and said, "Just worry about yourself. If you're not careful, my genjutsu will turn you against yourself and it will be an easy victory for me. I'm not going easy on you either."
With that, the two took up their starting positions, and Genma started the match.
When Naruko just stood there, Sakura took advantage, weaving a complex tapestry of genjutsu after genjutsu around Naruko. She was six layers deep when naruko opened her eyes. They flashed red, and an intense chakra pulse blasted the entire arena.
Caught off guard, sakura was actually flung into the stadium wall behind her, and when she got back up, she realized two things. One, she could tell that none of the genjutsu she had just spent so much chakra on were still in effect. Two, naruko was standing directly in front of her.
Sakura froze as she saw Naruko's eyes. They were an unbalanced cross shape, the vertical slit of the kyuubi's eyes crossed by the fat bar of a toads pupils. The sclera was divided between blood red and orange, with the blood red parts being in the top and bottom quarters of her eyes, and the orange parts being the right and left quadrants. The effect was compounded by what appeared to be orange eyeshadow all around Naruko's eyes.
Grabbing Sakura by the front of her shirt and roughly lifting her into the air for her feet to dangle six inches above the ground, Naruko, in a voice that seemed to bubble with sheer power, said, "You let me stand still for far too long. Better luck next time, Sakura." With that said, Naruko flung Sakura across the arena. Her flight ended when she ploughed into the ground, actually blasting into the ground at an angle with enough force to form a tunnel instead of the usual trench. She would have been buried alive if it weren't for the six foot deep crater left from Choji's match. As it was, Sakura was neatly deposited, bruised, battered, broken, and bleeding, at the bottom of Choji's crater.
Genma quickly called the match. And the medics.
Naruko sighed as she released the remaining nature chakra she had gathered. 'I hope she's all right,' she thought to her 'partner'.
'Meh, I say it's Karma for the trouble she gave you during your bell test.' Kyuubi thought back.
'That's not really fair, she's made up for that since then,' Naruko insisted.
'Whatever you say, Kit. I still think she had it coming for thinking she stood a chance against us.'
Genma announced the next match as Naruko was returning to the viewing box. Shikamaru gave her an appraising look as he passed, and Temari's eyes had a hint of panic in them.
That's it for this chapter! The rest of round one will be in the next chapter, and possibly part of round two.
You may have noticed that orochimaru's invasion is going to have a couple complications. For starters, he hadn't planned on Mei Terumi (I'd rather not deal with Yagura) being in attendance.
One thing that I thought some people might nitpick is that the Mizukage attended the finals for just one of her shinobi being in the finals. However, the fact is that the rest of Kenpachi's squad had been chosen for the sole purpose of getting him into the finals. They were like the solid fuel booster rockets on the space shuttle, they propel the shuttle just far enough for the shuttle to be able to carry on alone. Kenpachi did mention that he was in line for becoming one of the seven swordsmen, so even though he is only a genin right now, his skill level is high Chuunin to low tokubetsu jounin already, and after the devastating civil war Kiri just emerged from, they need strong squad leaders, so mei has taken a personal interest in Kenpachi.
I honestly have no idea when I will be able to get out the next chapter, but I'll try to get it done before the week is out.
Please read and review!