A day after they returned to Konoha, Kakashi surprised them.
“It seems next week is the start of the Chunin Exam,” he explained.
Naruto blinked. “Chunin exam? What’s that?”
Sakura facepalmed. “Exactly what it sounds like, idiot.”
Kakashi nodded. “All the villages take part. There are three parts to the test, which are secret.”
“Except the last part,” Sakura pointed out. “It’s a tournament.”
Kakashi nodded. “That’s right. Anyway, this is your decision. Here are your passes,” he handed out official looking slips of paper, “decide what you want to do and be at room 301 tomorrow no later than 3 PM. Got it?”
The genin nodded and Kakashi vanished.
Naruto looked at his pass. “Chunin, huh? Sounds interesting.”
Sasuke looked at his. “Finally. Something to get stronger.”
Sakura looked at hers and was silent. Am I ready for this?
Naruto wandered Konoha’s streets, lost in thought. “Chunin exam, eh?” he asked himself yet again. “I bet that would get me to Hokage quick if I won the tournament.”
“Naruto-niichan!”
Naruto turned to grin at his first real friend. “Konohamaru!”
The Hokage’s grandson and his two friends grinned back at Naruto. “You ready to play with us, boss?”
Naruto chuckled but shook his head. “Sorry; there’s someone I really need to see first. Maybe tomorrow, after the Chunin Exam.”
“Wooow!” Konohamaru gushed. “You’re testing for chunin already? But rookies never get into the test!”
Naruto tilted his head slightly. “Really?”
“Nn!” Moegi agreed. “We’ve been learning about it in school, since it’s coming so soon. It’s been five years since rookies were tested.”
“Ah well, Kakashi-sensei must have told everyone how awesome I am!” Naruto bragged. “I’m taking the exam, and I’m going to beat it, too!”
Hinata sat in an abandoned training ground, looking at her ticket. I’m not good enough to be Chunin, she thought to herself. She would have thrown it away immediately, save for two things. First, and most important, if she took it she could help Kiba and Shino.
Second, if her father learned that she turned down a chunin exam, she’d be shunted to the branch family in an instant. Better to try and fail than fail without trying.
She started and looked up. Someone was coming.
Naruto waved from across the field, coming at an easy run. “Hey, Hinata!”
Hinata’s eyes widened and she blushed, but she felt herself smile, too. In a very un-Hyuuga manner she missed the perfectly square box running behind Naruto.
Naruto stopped when he got close, smiling. “I haven’t had a chance to see you since we got back from Land of Waves. Did you hear they upgraded it to a B-rank?”
Hinata nodded, smiling slightly, although she still couldn’t make eye contact. “Kurenai-sensei told us about it right before giving us passes to the Chunin exam.”
“Eh?” Naruto asked. “You’re in on this exam too?”
Hinata looked down at her pass. “Well…”
“That’s great!” Naruto enthused.
“Eh!?” Hinata yelped, looking up and catching Naruto’s eye quite by accident. He was grinning, almost beaming, and had her gaze snared like a deer in the headlights.
“Yeah! You’re an awesome kunoichi, Hinata-chan! If anyone deserves to make chunin, it’s you.”
Several moments passed as Hinata tried to make sense of that. She was spared the need to reply, however, when the perfectly square box behind Naruto exploded.
Naruto groaned. “Too much gunpowder, Udon,” he muttered. “Again.”
“Wrong!” came an unfamiliar, sinister voice. Naruto spun around.
Two ninja with Rain protectors on straw hats stood there. One was holding Konohamaru and Udon, the other had Moegi. All three were unconscious. Naruto had a kunai in hand and dropped into a crouch almost before he realized what was going on. “Let them go!”
“Oh?” the ninja with Konohamaru asked. “Don’t you want to know what we’re planning?”
“I don’t care!” Naruto snapped. He threw his kunai at the ninja’s face and lunged after it.
The ninja ducked under the kunai and intercepted Naruto’s lunge with a kick. He grunted in pain at the impact, which felt more like kicking away a small building rather than a genin. Still, Naruto couldn’t brace against anything mid-air, and was sent far enough away that the two ninja ended the exchange in much the same position that it started. “You can’t hope to win with that kind of skill,” he said confidently. “If you want your little friends back, you’ll do as we say.”
Naruto growled slightly. Crushing the ninja was a trivial thing, but Konohamaru and Udon kept him from pulling out his big jutsu. He needed to subdue the enemy. He glanced at Hinata.
Hinata was in a basic juuken stance, facing the ninja that held Moegi. Both were breathing heavily. Naruto decided that they must have traded blows when he made his own attack. “Hinata?”
“I can’t hit him,” Hinata whispered.
“Can you make him drop Moegi?”
“I…maybe,” Hinata hedged.
“Maybe?” Naruto pressed.
Hinata shuddered. She knew this was an exercise; Iruka-sensei’s henge was no match for her Byakugan. Even so, it was clear she had to treat it like the real thing. And she didn’t know the ninja she faced; for all she knew he really could be from Rain. Naruto was asking her to face what he believed was an enemy, for the sake of a little girl. “Yes,” she said, a bit more firmly. “I can do it.”
“Shout when you do,” Naruto whispered. He didn’t say anything more than a scream after that, lunging again at the disguised Iruka-sensei.
This time Naruto stayed on the ground, where his resiliency gave him a better advantage. With his opponent unable to use his arms for anything other than his captives, Naruto could occupy him indefinitely.
Naruto didn’t feel like waiting that long. “Kage bushin no jutsu!”
Under his henge, Iruka was impressed. Naruto wasn’t making any of the mistakes he had made against Mizuki. He only had two clones helping him press Iruka, keeping his chakra high rather than go for massive numbers. He wasn’t hesitating or freezing at all. His taijutsu was pathetic but he had enough raw power behind it that he could go at least one round against Rock Lee before being reduced to a bloody pulp.
He had to make sure those two never met.
“Naruto!”
Iruka glanced at Hinata, wondering why she was yelling. Moegi was on the ground and Hinata was between her and the ‘enemy’ she was fighting, but now that he has his hands free to weave signs it became much more dangerous, and all three Narutos were occupied by Iruka. Iruka sighed in relief; they’d fail the preliminary and have another year or so of innocence.
Then Narutos four through seven dogpiled Hinata’s opponent while number eight grabbed Moegi and vanished into the trees. Ten seconds later a juuken strike left the chunin unconscious and Iruka found himself, still encumbered with hostages, against Hinata and five Narutos.
Iruka managed to pop one of the clones before it became abundantly clear that to claim a victory he’d need to use strength beyond what was allowed for the exercise. The pressure he was feeling evaporated as he accepted their victory (it wasn’t really like they could have beaten him if he was going all out, so it wasn’t his defeat, right?) and he made sure that his exit was graceful, believable, and appropriately satisfying to Naruto’s ego.
Given the cheering that erupted behind him, he figured he succeeded on that much.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:26)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.