Kakanaru: The pain behind Naruto's mask

21

Sasuke, Sakura, and I headed up the stairs. We ignored the genjutsu and kept going. There was a green caterpillar trying to get in. When we arrived in the room I could feel a large amount of killing intent directed toward us. Sakura seemed oblivious, but Sasuke visibly tensed. "Don't concern yourself with the small fry. I'll have you covered if you need it." I whispered, letting loose a little KI of my own. All of the other genin in the room paled except those from leaf who it wasn't directed at. "Where's Naruto?" Kiba came over and asked. I was a little hurt he didn't recognize me. "I'm right here, furball." Kiba did a double take. "Naru?" "In the flesh." "What the hell man? Your hair is longer, your outfit is cooler, and you have an eight pack? What happened to my dorky best friend? The one who had no fashion sense? And what's with the ring?" Kiba was yelling a bit by the end. I think he was worried I was turning into Sasuke. By that time all of the rookie 9 had come over. "In answer to your first question don't swear in a year or so when you're around me, in answer to your second question I'm still a ramen loving dork, in answer to your third question, just because I don't use fashion sense doesn't mean I don't have it, in answer to your fourth question, I'm engaged to be married." No one else knew I was marrying Kakashi except a select few so the looks on their faces were priceless. As soon as we graduated from the academy we were considered adults, but I bet they never thought that I'd be married before any of them. "When's the ceremony?" Ino asked. "After the chunnin exams." I replied. "I'd better be getting an invitation." Choji said. "You're only going to be there for the food aren't you. I'll just be secondary." "Pretty much." Choji teased. Suddenly someone showed up who wasn't invited to the conversation. "Would you please keep it down? You'll get us all killed." I was furious at the newcomer for interrupting. "What's your name?" I asked sweetly. "Kabuto." He said, smirking. "Well Kabuto, thanks for the heads up, but if you ever, ever interrupt me in the middle of such an important conversation again, I will castrate you and shove your dick down your throat." Rather than releasing my usual 10% KI, I released about 50%, leaving him gasping on the floor and coughing up bile. "Now shall we get back to discussing my upcoming wedding?" I asked, acting like nothing happened. Surprisingly Shikimaru spoke up next. "What about flowers and stuff?" Ino perked up. "I'm leaving the wedding mostly up to Granny Tsunade since she'd be better at figuring that stuff out than me. She's been trying to find a couple helpers though." I mentioned that last part after noticing Ino's downtrodden look. Before I could go any farther with the discussion, another interruption occurred. "Alright take your seats after picking a number. The number corresponds to the chair you'll be sitting in. I am your proctor Ibiki Morino. There will be ten questions on this test, and the tenth will be given out last. If you're caught cheating you lose two points, for a wrong answer you lose one. Begin." The proctor said. 'So essentially they want us to cheat. Sucks for them that I don't need to.' I answered all of the questions and turned the paper over. I started keeping a tally of how many times a person cheated and how they cheated out of boredom. I thought back to that Kabuto guy. I don't know why, but I got a bad feeling about him. And for some reason he smelled like snake. I brushed it off. I'd tell Kakashi about my concerns when I got the chance. "Time's up." Ibiki said. Then he glanced at my paper since I was sitting directly in front of him. At first he didn't comprehend what he was seeing but then it registered. He came over and picked my paper up. Not only did I have 3 scenarios for every question on the paper, but if I were the proctor nobody but Sakura, who didn't cheat, and I would have passed. "Hey kid?" Ibiki queried. "Yeah?" I questioned back. "How would you like to be an apprentice of the T&I unit?" I thought about it a minute. Being a part of T&I meant I would stay in the village. I would be close enough to look after my future children. It was a no brainer to me. "When do I start?" I asked. "As soon as you're able." I nodded. "Two months then." That should be enough time for the chunnin exams and my honeymoon. Ibiki continued. "The tenth question you may choose to take. If you do not take it you fail but are free to try again next year. If you take it and fail to answer correctly you will not be able to take the chunnin exams again." Cries of outrage started up. I stood, slamming my hands on the table. "If even one of you decides to leave this room I will string you from a tree by your intestines. We are shinobi, a risk like this is nothing compared to what we will go through. If you weren't prepared for that why the hell are you here in the first place?!" They may have been scared of the question, but now they were more scared of me. The only ones gone now were the ones kicked out for cheating. "He just summed up the reason for this test perfectly." Ibiki said. Just then a crash was heard and a purple blur flew through the window. "What the hell Ibiki? 78 people?! That's 26 teams! Are you going soft!" The person said. "Blame the blonde. He threatened them into staying. And look at his test paper." The purple persons jaw dropped. "My name is Anko Mitoroshi. Meet me at the forest of death in fifteen minutes. I'm your second proctor."