A.N.B.U.

Chapter Twenty Four : The Chunnin Exams (part 7)

As Kakashi left he turned back to face Ombre... He could almost see her smile, then Morino-san entered and they both look up to face him...

"As much as I would have enjoyed you both being dropped out of the Chunnin Exams you still "passed" the second stage..." He said, signing so no one would overhear him he then loudly said "I'm here to ask you a few questions, standard procedure..."
"There's a standard procedure when being attacked by giant snakes?" Naruto asked smiling a bit... Then the pain he felt immediately after made him groan as Morino smiled, his hand resting on a nice big bruise the young ANBU had over his right thigh...
"No, but there is one for having encountered a traitor... Did he mention anything specific? Any goal or information he had..."
"No sir" our hero responded with a bit of annoyance.
"Actually he did... He said something along the lines of "Tell sensei I'll love to kill him with my own hands"  answered Ombre... Naruto looked over at her as she apparently had not been knocked out as he had been... The young black op operative smiled and looked over at him as she smiled... Our hero felt the weight of those golden eyes, wait, golden eyes?
"I was wearing contacts but the ANBU that retrieved our team took them... So yes this is my natural eye color and no this isn't what you would call a kekkei-Genkai.
-I didn't ask
-Your eyes did" she answered dismissively...
"So we passed the second stage, datebayo ?" Naruto asked all the while signing to get more info on the intrusion...

They stayed in the hospital for two more days to make sure they weren't going to drop dead. They were then discharged after being checked over one last time... The young ANBU captain tried to find his teammates and teacher only to be told they had been checked out 2 days prior, he looked annoyed at the fact they basically abandoned him in the hospital and the only one that had come to meet him was Kakashi and it was only to ask him if he was a traitor... He groaned and went over to Upsilon to get checked over and to report him being destroyed by a giant snake. He then crashed into the break room, liking how his family treated him. Neko came and sat down next to him, ruffling his hair and asking him if he was alright. He let her pet his hair and took a glass of cold green tea while listening to the ANBU gossip mile... They were making bets on who got promoted as Chunnin, who would quit as a ninja, and if team 7 would break up.

"I'm betting 100 ryos and to do whatever mission you want that Shikamaru will make it to Chunnin," Fox said, knowing the Nara could probably make the rank easily if he felt like it
"A Nara? Make Chunnin on the first try? Never gonna happen" Carp answered, while he still marked Kitsune's bet
"I'm betting Team 7 have a break up before the end of the Chunnin exam" Dolphin muttered while entering the break room followed by Ibiki.
"Does anyone know where Inu-san is?" Our favorite ANBU captain asked...
"You mean Kakashi-senpai," asked Tenzou
"Yep
-He's training his genins on training ground 34" answered Dragon-sama. He looked annoyed at his old subordinate's attitude, if Kakashi ever rejoined ANBU he was getting the beating of his life for neglecting one of his teammates.
"Thanks, guys... Oh and Morino-san, I'm crashing on your couch tonight and I swear if you wake me up with Ice again I'm killing you using fuinjustu...
-Fine... I'll use candle wax instead now scram"

Naruto changed back out of ANBU gear but decided to change his style a bit and went with some spare black ANBU-style pants and a dark blue T-shirt. He then made his way toward training ground 34 and tried to find his team. He resorted to shouting:
"Teme, sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei... Where are you"
Of course, Kakashi told him off because Ninjas didn't scream to find his teammates. Naruto was tempted to reply that they didn't leave their teammates alone in the hospital. Then Sakura went to him and told him she didn't know why he even bothered to come because no one likes him and he didn't help the team. He told her it wasn't a very nice thing to say and she punched him in the head. Then Sasuke sneered at him and called him a dobe again, Naruto was tempted to just leave and go do something useful instead. Kakashi then "gave" them training exercises, well more like he told sakura to train her Chakra control and left to train Sasuke. Naruto decided to sit down and do some fuinjustu since he wasn't apparently getting any training. As he started scribbling away in his notebook he felt his anger slowly leave his body and fuel his Uzumaki creative destruction imagination and worked on a shocking seal to help with the interrogation. He had promised Ibiki to redraw the seals used to help the prisoners... Talk... He slowly worked on the details and drew it on some chakra conductive paper, as he was about to make another one he was interrupted by a:
"Naruto-baka! Why are you making such garbage drawings? You're so useless" the sentence was punctuated with multiple punches to the head and Naruto was almost tempted to use the seal on her, to watch her roll in the mud in pain as her every cell was coursed by a very intense lighting manipulation... He couldn't help but smile in sadism as he imagined her begging and promising to do whatever he wanted if he stopped the pain. He was called back to the real world by the screech of "Sasuke-Kun! Wanna go on a date
-Hn"

Naruto left the training ground and sunshined to his apartment to change into ANBU gear and then sunshined out to a place it wouldn't be peculiar to see the masked protectors. He then made his way to TI, he needed a break and the madness that was the department would help him with the sadness he felt inside. As he entered the building, dodging stray kunais and senbons, he felt his face contort into a smile...

"Home" was where HIS family was.
~Luciolle24