Namikaze Naruto- The Unpredictable Shinobi

Chapter 20: Chunin Exams

Chunin Exams: "Good Morning, Kurama Onii-sama." "Good morning, kit. Ready to face the exams?" "As ready as I can be!"

After the training and meditation, she joined her teammates outside the Academy building. Together, they entered the building. They were supposed to go to the third floor. After climbing two floors, she felt foreign chakra enter her body. The board before them read '3rd Floor'.

Genjutsu.

She released herself from it, and was sure her teammates would've sensed the illusion. She pinpointed the source of the illusion to ... Chibi-Izumo, Chibi-Kotetsu. Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu were Chunin who were the guards at Konoha Gates most of the time, fondly called the Eternal Guards. For the exam, they had transformed themselves into younger versions of themselves. The first test was to see if the genin could identify Genjutsu, or atleast, if their teams could help each other in that. It was supposed to cut down the number of participants. Naruto's plan was to slip quietly without attracting anyone's attention. Competition could be cut down. Apparently, Sasuke had other plans. "That's the worst Genjutsu possible." He announced to the guards who seem to be pushing another candidate. The candidate wore green spandex with the Hitai ate as his belt, his black hair shiny in a bowl cut, and so were his thick brows. He was supported by a girl in kunoichi clothes that had a Chinese touch. She had brown eyes and brown hair that was tied into two buns.

Sasuke smirked at the attention he got, while Naruto facepalmed. 'Itachi-kun, Shisui Nii-san, I might lose because of this relative yours.' She thought. After receiving the attention that he wanted, he turned to go to real 3rd floor, followed by his teammates. They were stopped by the genin in the spandex. "Uchiha Sasuke-san, right? I am Rock Lee. I am the strongest in my class and wish to spar with you. I heard you were the top of your class too. Please accept my request to spar with you." Naruto recognized the older teen. He and the girl, Tenten were from team 9, led by Maito Gai. The third teammate was Hyuuga Neji. Both Gai and Lee were born with the inability to mold chakra like others. They honed their Taijutsu to the finest in Konoha. Gai was Kakashi's rival. The two of them constantly participated in challenges, initiated by Gai. Sasuke had no chance against Lee. Even if he had awakened the sharingan that could follow his moves, his body isn't adapted with the speed of the Sharingan. Moreover, Lee and Gai would have moves that are too fast for the Sharingan to see.

Naruto wanted to stop Sasuke from accepting, but before she could say anything, Sasuke smirked and accepted. 'Great, now we would be late for the exam.' Naruto thought as she grimaced. The battle was mostly Taijutsu and Sasuke was overpowered easily. Lee said, "Forgive me, Sasuke-kun, for I've lied to you. I'm not the top of my class. That honour belongs to my teammate Hyuuga Neji." 

Lee almost went overboard with his move 'Leaf Lotus', when a turtle appeared from nowhere and spoke up, "Lee, aren't you supposed to not use the forbidden technique outside an official battle?" Lee froze while the others looked in disbelief and curiosity. "Hai!" Lee exclaimed close to tears. The turtle spoke again, "Now prepare of for your punishment." Gai appeared on top of the turtle in his 'Nice Guy' pose before punching Lee in the face as his punishment. Then the two of them hugged each other crying, crying each other's names 'Gai Sensei' 'Lee' while the background turned into one of sunset at the ocean. 

'Is this a genjutsu?' was the thought of the three genin.

"Ano, Gai sensei, we are running late for the exam." Naruto interrupted them. "You must be Kakashi's genin." Gai said. "You know our sensei?" Sakura asked. "Why yes! We are eternal rivals with youthful challenges. We currently tie at 50-50." Naruto changed the topic swiftly, "Excellent sensei, now we will leave for the exam since we are getting late." And they left.

As the three approached the room, they saw Kakashi in all his scarecrow glory. He smiled at them. "The three of them have decided to come. Good..." "What do you mean by that?" Sakura deadpanned. "It means that if any one of you disagreed, the team is disqualified." With that 'happy' note, Kakashi wished them luck, a silent good luck to Naruto, and vanished in a poof of smoke. The three genin entered the room to be hit by a blast of killer intent. There were several participants, almost 50 teams. Everyone's eyes were on the new comers. The two genin were uncomfortable, while Naruto slipped towards a certain pineapple-haired lazy genin.

"Sasuke-kun!" squealed a platinum-blonde haired girl approached Sasuke. "Ino-buta! Stay away from my Sasuke-kun!" Sakura blocked. "Since when is he yours, forehead-girl? I don't see your name anywhere on him. Sasuke-kun, I bet this idiot gave you headaches, hasn't she? Let me help you relax." Away from the three of them, Naruto greeted the genin beside her, "Yo Shika!" "Troublesome blonde." Shikamaru muttered as he always would, but both of them knew that they were friends despite his lazy demeanour. Kiba, Hinata, Shino and Chouji approached to greet her. They were chatting, but not too loud to disturb others. Thus, she was confused when she heard "You guys are attracting too much attention. Want to get yourselves killed before the exam?" She turned to see a grey-haired teen much older than her. His hair was in a ponytail and he wore glasses and the headband of Konoha.

"The name's Yakushi Kabuto. Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you too, Kabuto-san." "I can provide information on other participants. It helps reduce the competition, aye?" Kabuto asked. Naruto found him shady. He smelled of snakes, but that was alright to an extent, but information on other participants? Even the ones who entered for the first time? Also, his chakra levels were of that of a Jounin. "How did you get the information?" "Well, I have my own secrets. Plus, this is my 7th attempt at the exams. I've been attending them for 4 years." Kabuto said as he gave a sheepish laugh. "Dude, you are such a loser!" Kiba blurted. "Kiba-kun, that is not nice." Hinata reprimanded him. "It's okay, miss. The exams are tough." Kabuto reassured. Naruto's suspicions rose. This person had Jounin-level chakra, but he failed the chunin exams six times. He can't come from any special clan that has high chakra reserves like the Senju and Uzumaki.

Sasuke stomped over to Kabuto and demanded, "I want information of Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara." 'Smooth' thought Naruto as she rolled her eyes. Kabuto took out a pile of cards and took one card from them. He infused his chakra in it and read aloud from it. "Let's see, Rock Lee: Team 9. Jounin Sensei- Maito Guy. Teammates- Tenten, Hyuuga Neji- the Hyuuga prodigy; Missions: 50 D-Rank, 20 C-Rank, 1 B-Rank. Specialises in Taijutsu only, extremely good at it, Low Jounin Level Taijutsu, Ninjutsu & Genjutsu- nil." He took another card, "Sabaku no Gaara: Second son of Yondaime Kazekage, Team Jounin Sensei- Baki. Teammates- His siblings, Temari, Kankuro. Able to manipulate Sand- his ultimate defence and also his mode of attacks; Missions: 50 D-Rank, 30 C-Rank, 2 B-Rank, 1 A-Rank... and, not a single scratch on any of his missions... How is this possible?"

Now this is creepy. A and above ranked missions are kept confidential from other villages. Especially the details of those close to the Kage, for their safety. And the fact that was unharmed even in an A Rank mission, was this guy a stalker or something? But if he did have information of every shinobi, and not only genin, he must work for someone powerful... a potential threat.

A brief flicker in chakra made Naruto turn towards the source- Gaara, or rather, Gaara's Bijuu. A good thing, else Kabuto would find something wrong if Gaara used his own chakra. The rest of the rookie 9 were chatting either among themselves or with Kabuto. She sneaked towards Gaara, who said, "I need to talk to you. Alone." "Can it wait?" "I'd rather make haste." "Fine. Use clones. Let them do the talking." Gaara agreed and made a sand clone discreetly while Naruto made a shadow clone. The clones escaped through a window, breaking it, but the Clone Naruto kept a seal on it, repairing it.

The originals turned in time to see Kabuto narrowly miss a punch from a ninja from the Otogakure- Village Hidden in Sound, that landed on the wall beside him. It was after few seconds, that Kabuto's glasses cracked. A late reaction... interesting. The genin who punched was hunched, his head wrapped in cloth and bandages, showing only one eye. His right arm that punched was covered with something metallic and cylindrical. His name was Dosu, an he was apparently angered at a lazy comment by Kabuto on his village. Based on the barely visible chakra waves that lingered and the late reaction, Dosu's attacks were based on sound. Surprisingly, Dosu too had the smell of snakes, but it was too faint, as if he weren't in contact with a snake for as long as Kabuto did.

Now just keep bombarding the reasons as to why one should be suspicious of Kabuto, when we met him for hardly half an hour, you say? Well, what can I do, but bear a grudge against him for meddling with the fourth Great Ninja War... in the Canon... Okay, no more breaking of certain walls...

"Do you want to get disqualified before the exams even start?" Was the question raised by a gruff voice. "Battling outside the exams asks for disqualification." "Sorry, this is our first time." Dosu excused himself.

"Alright midgets! Be prepare for your first exam!"