The next day resulted in Team 10 and Asuma reporting to the main meeting building that the exams begun at. Four o'clock in the afternoon and through the doors in the back of the meeting room that had initially opened before the first test of the exams the three proctors Anko, Kitsuchi, and Ao walked with the remaining passing teams in tow to join the ones that had passed the previous day. These teams were considerably more banged up and some looked as if they had even received medical treatment before coming here.
So now the party was all queued up and ready to go. They had twelve teams, no more no less. But that was still 36 genin, quite a few. Joining Team 10, Team Gai, the team from Oto with the mummy-looking guy, the team from Kumo with the two girls and the one boy, the older Kiri team, the Suna team with Gaara, the Iwa team with the guy that periodically tried to mad-dog Naruto, and the team from Taki they now had from Konoha Team 7, Team 8, and Kabuto's team.
Kabuto's team in addition to Kabuto of course, had two more older genin. Both wore veils over their faces and dressed similar to Kabuto, one wore smaller eyeglasses than Kabuto wore and the other wore sunglasses. Both wore their headbands bandanna style on their heads.
As well as them, there was a team from Amegakure, all of whom wore white outfits that looked similar to straightjackets if they could be described. They all each wore breathing masks from their mouths and had cloths over their eyes. One of them had two eye holes cut in the cloth so that he could see, another had only one eye hole cut, and the last one had no eye holes cut in his cloth at all. The one with two eye holes had spiky hair, the one with one eye hole wore his headband like a bandanna, and the one with no eye holes had bushy hair as well.
That rounded out the field. But the question was, what was going to happen now? The second test was complete, so was that it? Were they all chunin now, or did they have to do something else to reach that goal?
As the teams all stood in line in front of the three proctors with their respective jounin leader standing behind them, Ao spoke to them, "I'd like to officially congratulate each and every one of you for succeeding where all of the other teams failed. You have all passed the second exam, now you can rest easy for the time being. We're not jumping directly into another test just yet."
That got more than a few sighs of relief from some of the remaining genin that put a smirk on the faces of Anko and Kitsuchi and even got a few laughs out of some of the more laidback jounin in attendance.
Kitsuchi walked forward and cleared his throat to begin speaking, "There is one more test that you can all choose to partake in. That being said your performance thus far has all been taken into account. Still, this test will not take place for five more weeks giving you the time to recover if need be and train to improve."
Kiba was still rather tired and after hearing that the next test wouldn't be for five weeks wanted Kitsuchi to cut to the chase so that he could leave and get some rest, "Train and improve for what? What's the next test already?"
"Before that we need to get your names and team grouping." Anko cut in standing by a group of proctors ready to take down whatever information they were going to write, "Will the jounin all state this information at this time?"
Kakashi spoke up first, "Hatake Kakashi's team from Konohagakure no Sato; Uchiha Sasuke, Akimichi Chouji, and Haruno Sakura."
Next was Asuma, "From Konohagakure no Sato, Sarutobi Asuma's team; Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, and Yamanaka Ino."
"Jounin Baki's genin squad representing Sunagakure no Sato…" The man with Gaara's team said. He wore a turban and a veil over one half of his face, "…Sabaku no Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro."
A man with an oxygen mask over his mouth like the other Ame genin there at the moment was next. He had no cloth over his eyes and wore a flak jacket over the exact same suit his genin wore, "Amegakure no Sato's last genin team from jounin sensei Ugatsu; Oboro, Mubi, and Kagari."
Gai was up next with a huge smile on his face, "Maito Gai's splendid genin team from Konohagakure no Sato; Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, and Tenten." With that, his teeth let off a shimmer.
"From Kirigakure no Sato and jounin Shiyounin Tousui…" A black spiky haired man wearing a Kiri flak vest with a long sleeved shirt underneath, sleeves long enough to reach three inches past his hands said, "Hojo Arata, Obata Momoko, and Gekido Jin." The tall older genin with the black and silver hair, the girl with the short dark hair and the large shield on her back, and the genin wearing the thick suit that basically covered his whole body all nodded respectively.
Next the jounin from Taki came forward, "My team from Takigakure no Sato; Fuu, Houki, and Dorobou." He said, speaking of the girl with the light green hair and orange eyes, the normal looking brown-haired kid, and the boy with spiky black hair that had the strange green and red eyes.
"Representing Konohagakure no Sato…" Kurenai said in a straightforward manner, "Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuuga Hinata." She did not fail to notice the gaze of Neji on her team from where he was, even if it was only for a moment.
An Oto jounin with a smirk on his face and a long black ponytail spoke next, "From Otogakure no Sato; Kinuta Dosu, Abumi Zaki, and Tsuchi Kin."
A normal looking Konoha jounin with puffy light brown hair and glasses was subsequently, "From Konohagakure no Sato; Yakushi Kabuto, Tsurugi Misumi, and Akadou Yoroi."
The Kumo team did not have a jounin present for them, much to the confusion of many, thus the blonde girl with the intimidating calm expression and the chest that should not have been that abundant for a 14 year old took up introduction duties for her team, "In place of the jounin meant to be here for this team I will introduce my squad. My name is Samui."
Anko stopped her and asked a question, "And where's your jounin? We sent word to everyone that this thing was at four. You can't tell me that they still blew it off."
Samui shook her head, "Our jounin was never here in the first place. He isn't allowed to leave Kumo for certain reasons… so we came here under the command of another jounin whose actual team had already been eliminated. "
The boy in her team shook his head as he placed a sucker in his mouth, "Oh man, this sucks. Is it going to be sensei's fault that we get disqualified? Maybe they'll kill us off thinking we're suspicious terrorists or something?" Everyone in the room looked at him with a deadpan expression.
"Just… shut up Omoi…" The red-haired girl next to him said, holding her head as if she had a headache.
Ao took that moment to give his input, "There are times when a team has to proceed with a mission without a proper squad leader so in this case it is allowed, if only this once. Please continue to introduce your team."
Samui nodded and continued, "My teammates are Omoi and Karui. As I've already said, my name is Samui. We represent Kumogakure no Sato." With herself and her team introduced she stepped back into formation with her fellow Kumo genin.
"Kyouin Wakai from Iwagakure no Sato introducing his genin team." A rather plain looking Iwa ninja announced, "Hisashi, Misaru, and Jun."
After a second the proctors took everything they had written down into the back room and Anko turned back towards all of the teams with a huge grin on her face, "And now that the formalities are out of the way, let's get to the fun part of the explanation! Tell the kiddies what's next old man!"
Ao took offense to the old man crack, but other than a gnashing of teeth and a mumbling of 'back in his day' he didn't let it show, "All 36 of you will be entered in a 12 team tournament meant to be held in a public place of meeting in five weeks time. You will all be observed by each of your respective villages, the daimyos of multiple countries, and potential clientele. Performing to the best of your abilities and showing your true merit as shinobi will be paramount."
"But don't just think that winning matches will get your promoted…" Kitsuchi said cryptically. The brawny Iwa shinobi seemed to like making the brains of the genin overheat as he left his statement at that.
Ao nodded and followed up on his colleague's words, "Simply winning your way through the tournament doesn't matter. You need to show the judges why you should be promoted. Running through the competition like a battle-ax is nice and all, but that doesn't show very much leadership or tactical skill."
Anko's grin dropped and a serious expression found its way to her face, "We don't need some kind of mindless juggernaut out in the field with the power to give orders. Many good shinobi would be killed that way." She barely noticed the flinch from two of the competitors from different countries, "If you win, you get to show more reasons as to why you should be promoted, but you can go the entire tournament without meriting a promotion." The grin then came back to her face, "On the other hand, your team could lose in the very first round and one of you or all of you could be considered for promotion."
"Exactly." Kitsuchi said with a chuckle, "Each round will be set up as such. Both teams will pick a side of a coin. The winner of the resulting coin toss will be able to choose how the teams will compete for that round; either in one-on-one matches or three-on-three team battles. One-on-one matches will be selected at random, with a drawing of the fighters going up at the conclusion of each bout until all three members of one team are unable to compete. Team battles will go until all of one side cannot continue or surrender. Proctors set around the battlefield will deem whether or not a shinobi can continue in the battle and will escort the defeated away. It is possible to die during this tournament… just so you know." He was rather pleased when no one seemed to be scared away by that prospect, "Very good."
At that time, a screen dropped down from the ceiling as Ao spoke again, "We're now going to show you the random drawing for your first round matches in this tournament so pay attention."
XxX
Bracket 1
Match 1: Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, Tenten vs. Samui, Karui, Omoi
Match 2: Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino vs. Hisashi, Misaru, Jun
Match 7: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2 (Winner heads to semifinals)
Bracket 2
Match 3: Fuu, Houki, Dorobou vs. Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata
Match 4: Uchiha Sasuke, Akimichi Chouji, Haruno Sakura vs. Kinuta Dosu, Abumi Zaku, Tsuchi Kin
Match 8: Winner of Match 3 vs. Winner of Match 4 (Winner heads to semifinals)
Bracket 3
Match 5: Sabaku no Gaara, Temari, Kankuro vs. Oboro, Mubi, Kagari
Match 6: Yakushi Kabuto, Tsurugi Misumi, Akadou Yoroi vs. Hojo Arata, Obata Momoko, Gekido Jin
Match 9: Winner of Match 5 vs. Winner of Match 6 (Winner advances directly to final round)
Semifinals
Match 10: Winner of Match 7 vs. Winner of Match 8 (Winner of Bracket 1 vs. Winner of Bracket 2. Winner heads to final round)
The Winner of Match 9 will advance to the final round (Winner of Bracket 3 will receive a bye out of the semifinals directly to the final round)
Finals
Match 11: Winner of Match 10 vs. Winner of Match 9
XxX
"Troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered right off the bat as he looked at the tournament setup, "So now we're entertainment… great." While that was what he said out loud his brain was already working hard in thought, 'So if we wanted to go all the way through the tournament we'd have to fight an extra fight. I knew this chunin exam stuff would be more trouble than it was worth…' What he wouldn't give for a nice mellow D-rank mission right now.
Naruto on the other hand was paying attention to another part of the setup, 'So that Gaara guy is all the way on the other side of the brackets… good.' Naruto's clones had told him more than he needed to know about Gaara, he was going to stay as far away from him as he could if he could help it. He most certainly did not want to tangle with him any time soon, but even so he still had his confidence about him, 'So what if we have to fight him? It's just sand… there's a way to beat it. There has to be, and if we end up going against him I'll know how to beat it by then.'
With his thoughts so firmly on who would be fighting on who on the board he never noticed the Iwa genin with the shaved head Hisashi staring at him and grinning.
Ino did however, and gave Hisashi her best warning look to stop with the evil eyes or else. He just looked at her in amusement and mouthed the words 'just wait' to her, chuckling to himself before looking away again. With that issue over with and done, Ino decided to get a little psychological advantage… or to mess with someone, "Well it looks like I won't be seeing Forehead until the semifinals… if she even makes it that far." She said to no one in particular.
"What was that Ino-pig?" Sakura replied harshly. It was easy to hear since it wasn't like Ino was trying to keep that statement to herself, "Your slacker team probably won't even make it onto the field to begin with!" She shot back challengingly.
"Hey." Ino said with her hands on her hips, "Don't think that just because you have Sasuke-kun on your team you can beat us when the time comes, they can't protect you. He and Chouji will probably be tired from carrying your butt through the first few rounds, and we've got the human hummingbird on our team." She finished, poking a non-attentive Naruto in the head as he was still looking up at the tournament brackets, "He'll never run out of steam."
"Huh?" Ino's poke at his head brought Naruto back down from his own muddling thoughts, "Was someone talking about me?" He asked, turning towards Ino and getting an innocent whistle from her before he noticed Sakura staring at Ino with a twitching brow, "Hey Sakura-chan. Good luck in the tournament huh?"
Sakura stopped glaring at Ino to look up at Naruto and blink at his good-natured offer of luck. She wasn't so annoyed the way that she was in the Academy. Maybe because she didn't have him hanging off of her like a lost puppy every day, "Oh, thanks Naruto." Naruto in small doses wasn't really bad at all, and from their time in Wave she knew for sure that he wasn't a terrible ninja. He did have a pretty even fight with Sasuke.
He still couldn't win now though. Sasuke was even better than he was back then. That was what she thought, still what was she going to do, hit him for saying hi and wishing her luck? That would be completely absurd. Who would do something like that?
"That's my Goldie-kun." Ino remarked with a smirk, "He's such a nice boy, trying to keep the spirit of the riffraff up." Getting another growl out of Sakura, Ino was thoroughly satisfied with the thought that she had gotten into Sakura's head, at least for now.
'I'm never going to be able to stop it am I?' Naruto thought to himself as he saw Ino and Sakura break into another argument. That simply wasn't going to end until one of them ended up with Sasuke, if that ever happened at all. It probably wouldn't even end then.
The proctors could hear the chattering amongst the genin break out and that it was beginning to steer away from focused conversation to just all out talking. Therefore there was no reason to keep them there any longer, "Alright!" Kitsuchi said, his voice booming through the echoing room and getting the attention of all, "You are all aware of what will take place in five weeks! Return home and prepare, make sure that your next effort is your best one because it's your last chance to make an impact! You're all dismissed!"
"Yeah." Anko said with a nod, "We've actually all got to leave. The samurai pretty much said that we don't have to go home… but we've all got to get the hell out of here… at least until a week before the final exam." She gave the genin a wave with her sweet yet threatening smile, "I'm looking forward to watching you all kick the crap out of each other. Hope you brats all make it back here in one piece!"
XxX
After the explanation of the final exam that was to take place in five weeks, the jounin of the Konoha teams that had made it that far to begin with took their teams to a buffet-style restaurant at Kakashi's behest, mostly for the sake of the man's wallet since he had to treat his team which included Chouji to something like this at least once… he was more or less obligated to as Team 7's sensei.
As everyone currently had a plate and the younger ninja especially took to the meal with vigor due to having not had anything remotely similar in at least two days, Naruto seemed to just be more or less picking at his own food. Most had assumed that since if you stabbed Naruto he would bleed broth instead of blood his mood was plainly because of the distinct lack of ramen as an option at this restaurant.
As loathe as he was to do so, Shikamaru, who was sitting on one side of Naruto between him and Chouji, knew that this wasn't about the food since no one was forcing Naruto to eat any vegetables or anything of the like, therefore he felt the need to speak on the matter, "Naruto what's the matter? Shouldn't you be all fired up about the next part of the exam?" Said boy turned towards him with a questioning look, "Hey, I'm not excited about it at all since I doubt you or Ino are just going to quit. So I have to fight too so you guys don't get killed in a three-on-two."
Then was where Naruto got to actually thinking about something. Team 10 didn't have to win the whole tournament, they just had to do well enough to get promoted. That meant that they didn't have to fight Gaara and his team in the final round if both were to make it that far. No matter how good he thought he was, there was just something barbaric about Gaara that he was missing. The way he slaughtered so many clones without blinking, even when staring an explosion in the face was unnerving. And Naruto's clones hadn't even scratched him.
"Hey." Shikamaru finally said with a bit of assertion in his voice, "What are you frying your brain thinking about over there? It's weird when you're not jumping off the walls about showing everyone how good you are or whatever it is you're usually babbling about."
At that moment, Kiba spoke up, "He's just thinking about all of the ways that Akamaru and me are going to kick his ass if you guys even get that far." As he grinned in appreciation of his own jibe Akamaru barked from beside Kiba, sitting on the same cushion at the low-raised table.
Hearing that brought Naruto back into the moment, "I know your fleas are bothering you Kiba, but keep all of that barking of yours down. I already told you whoever has to fight me is going to be going home sooner than they think. Don't make me muzzle you."
Naruto's response made Kiba turn towards Shikamaru and let out a chuckle, "There, you're welcome. Now he's back to normal." He said before he returned to eating.
Naruto turned towards Shikamaru who was looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze before he started speaking under his breath, "I know you're kind of put off by that Suna kid you told us about." Naruto's eyes widened and he was about to dispute his claim before Shikamaru cut him off, "Save it alright. I was near the kid when we were resting after the second test, remember? The entire time he was just staring at me until I got away from him. I could see his muscles fighting to keep from moving like he was holding himself back from trying to kill me, the bloodlust was smothering."
Blue eyes locked onto Shikamaru's and couldn't understand why he was so calm if he understood, "You don't get it Shikamaru. I threw 50 clones at him. None of them ever even touched him. They never got close. It must have been like a beehive in there, but he killed them all by himself and he didn't move an inch until they were all gone."
"Stop worrying about it." Shikamaru finally said, leaving no more room for argument, "If you're that worried then we'll come up with something by the time we have to fight the Suna team, but remember that there's always one thing we can do if we've still got nothing by then, so don't worry about it." He pointed down the table where Sasuke was more or less sandwiched between Ino and Sakura, doing his best to just eat his food and ignore them, "They sure aren't worrying yet."
Naruto observed what Shikamaru had been pointing at and tilted his head at how Sasuke seemed to be indifferently letting Ino and Sakura bicker between him. He had to wonder how he could take it. It must have been a practiced sort of focus; to ignore the things around you.
Maybe Naruto had to try and practice some of that right now and block it out. There was nothing he could do but prepare, and Shikamaru would make sure he had his things in order as well. They had a month, he would worry then.
Who knew? Maybe by then there wouldn't even be anything to worry about.
XxX
(Three Days Later – Konohagakure no Sato – Naruto's Apartment)
The trip back to Konoha for all of the genin who had gone out for the exam was pretty quiet. Those that were eliminated earlier on in the testing pretty much headed back before the end of the testing period on their own to avoid any mortification and to wallow in their own disappointment. Those that stayed treated it like time for a small break before being subjected to the 'walk of shame'.
'Walk of shame' because the ones from Konoha that had made it to the finals were mostly kids. 9 rookies, three single year genin, and a team with a genin that had failed several times in the past had made it.
It was admittedly quite a good feeling when one of them looked over at one of the ninja that had failed and found them unable to straightforward meet their gaze. The same ones that were harping on them for being young at the start were now sitting back unable to even watch from the sidelines.
Naruto was more or less grinning all the way through the gate and then some.
Tomorrow matters of how the next month of training with Team 10 would be set up, but for now it was time to rest and take some pride in the fact that they had thoroughly kicked some ass. According to Shikamaru, even if he didn't get promoted in the end, going so far on his first attempt to do so would keep his mother off of his back for quite some time. At least until the next exams rolled around.
Walking into the door of his apartment, Naruto most certainly didn't expect to find Jiraiya sitting on his couch eating his food and going over his attempts to better his handwriting for his own fuuinjutsu studies. That was what he bore witness to once he entered his home however, "What the hell are you doing here Ero-sensei?"
Hearing Naruto's voice, the tall white-haired man turned to him before registering the new title he had just been labeled with, "What the hell? What happened to Jiraiya-sensei?"
Naruto pointed directly at him with a look of intent in his eyes, "The random stuff in that book of yours… all of that crap from the week before we left to go to Tetsu no Kuni… you totally corrupted me." And saying that put a grin on Jiraiya's face, "Why are you happy about that?"
"No reason." Jiraiya stated cryptically before seeming to vanish and reappear behind Naruto to pick him up in a big hug, "Oh kid I'm so happy! If you say I'm influencing you before I even really spent that much time with you then you really are the ideal pupil! I mean if I can influence you with a book before you even got to know me then who knows what I can pass down to you?" He was ignoring the fact that Naruto was an impressionable 12 year old boy that lacked distinct male role models until a few months ago, as well as the fact that such a dynamic personality of his own would rub off, "Now to really get the ball rolling I need to teach you the wonders of the female form."
"I will set you on fire." Naruto said in a growl as Jiraiya had yet to put him down, "Why are you in my house anyway? Aren't you rich?" It wouldn't have surprised Naruto if Jiraiya had in fact stayed there in his apartment the entire time he had been gone. For some reason he just came off as that sort of guy.
Jiraiya let Naruto down at pointed at himself in a grandiose fashion, "Kid I'm a sage. Despite my all of my monetary riches and abundant assets I am more suited to live off the fat of the land."
"Good." Naruto said as he walked to his front door and opened it up to escort Jiraiya out, "Then go do that, because I'm busy. I've got to figure out what to do next to get ready for the finals of the chunin exams."
A pleasantly surprised look came over Jiraiya's face at hearing that, "You made it that far on your first try and you're just a rookie to boot? Way to go gaki. That's damned impressive." It honestly was. He couldn't recall the last time any Konoha genin had accomplished that feat as a rookie, even when the exams were village exclusive, "So what are you going to do now?"
Naruto looked at the man who seemed legitimately interested in how he had done. He figured that he would pretty much just get that week of having Jiraiya assist him with his fuuinjutsu studies after he broke the news about the Kyuubi and that would more or less be that. A big part of him was glad that wasn't the case, "Well… I don't know yet. I'm supposed to be meeting up with Asuma-sensei tomorrow so we can figure that out."
A nod came from Jiraiya. That was reasonable enough to him, "When you figure it out come find me. If you can pass one test that I give to those I see as having potential to be my disciples then I'll assist you with a little bit of your training, and not just the fuuinjutsu."
"Really?" Naruto looked skeptical. All they did on the times they had spent together previously was Jiraiya would instruct him on how to get down making the basic seals perfectly, not a flaw allowed in them, and they would peek on girls near some waterfall-… err, Jiraiya would peek on girls near some waterfall. Not Naruto. And no, clones didn't count as him peeking, "You'll help me out? But what can you teach me besides fuuinjutsu?"
Jiraiya gave Naruto a shocked look before palming his face, "What are they teaching you runts in the Academy these days. I thought I was supposed to be a big deal…" He slid his hand down his face and deadpanned at Naruto, "Look, fuuinjutsu is cool and everything when you get good at it, but if you really think that all I'm good for is sealing then I'm even more insulted than I was when you first walked into the house."
"Why?" Naruto asked with a tilt of his head.
"Because I'm the best damn ninja in the entire world brat!" Jiraiya exclaimed in a grandiose and splendiferous manner before coughing and settling down, "…In my own honest and humble opinion…"
"Then why aren't you Hokage?" Naruto replied without missing a beat, deadpan look in full effect on his whisker-marked face, "Why is the old man still running things if you're supposed to be the best ninja in the village?"
Jiraiya had to fight the urge to facepalm once again mumbling about how this kid apparently wanted to be Hokage, "Look, just being the strongest ninja doesn't make you qualified to be the leader of the village. For all of the ass I can kick I really don't feel comfortable leading a large group to save my own life. I kind of hated being a jounin when I had to lead teams on my own just because of that. I'm more of a bulldozer, I've never really been much for tactics… but I don't really suck at them."
Naruto then thought about how the proctors introducing the last test of the chunin exam said that simply being stronger than all of the other competitors wouldn't automatically register a promotion, even if they won the tournament. And it had to only get stricter the further up the ladder one attempted to climb, 'So I guess Shiho-chan really was right after all when we first met. Being as strong as a Hokage is fine, but if I don't know what to do with it being strong won't matter.'
"Sarutobi-sensei is the man though. That's why he's still Hokage." Jiraiya said, shaking his head as if even dredging up memories of the Sandaime Hokage in action took him aback to this day, "I can talk about myself all I want to, but that's the ninja you should try to be like. If you don't believe me then go ahead and ask him to spare some of his personal training time to fight you." He let out a chuckle, "And make sure I'm there to see the fight because I need a good laugh these days."
"No thanks." Naruto said, only imagining what kind of horrible things the current reigning Hokage could do to him if he was stupid enough to pick a fight with him, even just for shits and giggles.
Jiraiya patted Naruto on the head, "Good boy. You know you remind me a lot of me back when I was a genin."
Naruto raised an eyebrow as Jiraiya kept a hand on his head, "Really? How?"
"Hardheaded kid…" Jiraiya started to explain matter-of-factly, "A straightforward kind of guy… oh, and let's not forget the fact that you also have a smoking hot blonde girl on your team that's only going to obtain bombshell status by the time you're 18… just like the one on my team did."
Naruto shrugged Jiraiya's hand off of his head as he glared at him, "You mean Ino."
At that a grin crossed Jiraiya's face, "So you're admitting that she's good looking. That's a start." He ignored Naruto's twitching eye and took note that Naruto did not vehemently dispute the fact that he thought Ino was pretty, "Now she'll wind up being a total knockout if my early-warning radar is still in full effect, but she probably won't ever get the miracle chest that Tsunade has… and if you're lucky she won't have Tsunade's temper or absurdly abusive strength."
"What does that have to do with any fucking thing we're talking about?" Naruto asked loudly, waving his arms indignantly as he was sick of the current conversation… mostly because he didn't want to talk about a 12 year old girl he was going to see tomorrow with a 50 year old man that he knew to be and had accepted as a raging pervert, "I don't even think I know who you're talking about anyway. And stop talking about Ino's chest you pervert!"
Jiraiya smirked and tapped his head like he was mentally one step ahead, "I don't need to make you talk about it, I made you see it the day we met remember?" He then saw Naruto's face turn beet red, either out of anger or embarrassment, it didn't matter, both were good as far as Jiraiya was concerned, "…You're welcome." Jiraiya was certain that Naruto would thank him later, eventually.
"That's it damn it! Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke Naruto transformed into the rather infamous nude female form that gave his jutsu its namesake, expecting Jiraiya to be flat on his back looking up at the ceiling. Sadly he was somewhat off on his estimation of what effect the jutsu would have on Jiraiya.
All that occurred was the widening of Jiraiya's eyes in shock as he observed the jutsu before a grin slowly crossed his face and a slow nosebleed began to drip from his nose. He leisurely pulled out a notepad and a pen and began writing, "Is it wrong of me to say that I think we'd be way closer if this was actually the real you?" As Jiraiya realized how what he just said could have been taken, Naruto then turned back to normal in another puff of smoke, an un-amused expression on his face, "Yeah, that sounds kind of creepy doesn't it?"
Naruto let out a defeated sigh and once again opened his front door, "Please get out of my house Ero-sensei… I need to go take a shower now. I don't feel clean."
Jiraiya blinked and nodded slowly, "I wouldn't worry too much right now. This is just one of those moments that we're both going to suppress and forget for years until something traumatic dredges the memory up by accident." He waved weakly as he stepped outside of the door, "By tomorrow you'll forget this happened."
Naruto just blinked once with his hand on the door, "Forget what happened?" He said, feigning ignorance about the recent episode before shutting the door.
"Good boy." Jiraiya said behind the closed door.
XxX
(The Next Day – Team 10 Training Ground)
The high of making it to the final part of the chunin exams had faded, at least for Naruto and Ino it had, it was never entirely sure at all that Shikamaru was even ecstatic in the first place for achieving such a feat due to his self-professed long-term goals of mediocrity.
Thus by the time they sat in front of Asuma they had significantly sobered from the swagger they had been travelling down the roads with the other day. That was fantastic for him since he would get a more objective outlook from them on what needed to be done to succeed in their coming matches against the Iwa team in the first round, "Alright the most important thing about the three of you is that you more or less cover each other's weaknesses." Shikamaru was the first one he pointed at, "You're lazy and unmotivated." He bluntly stated.
Shikamaru merely shrugged. It wasn't like he was being told something that he didn't already know about himself. He was a slacker and damnably proud of it… at least he would be if being proud of himself wasn't so troublesome, "Yeah I know."
"I've met your father." Asuma stated before sticking a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it up, "…I'm afraid there's not much that's ever going to change that except for immediate life or death circumstances. You don't ever seem to have any sort of sense of urgency and that's a double-edged sword to be honest. But then where you lack enthusiasm and purpose behind the things you do Naruto and Ino make up for that. You're the most intelligent one on the team, your teammates allow for that to be of actual use by staying far more active, allowing you to think clearer. When in the heat of a pitched battle you always look for some way to get your shadow into play. The one thing you're not lazy with is your work on the Nara clan jutsu for certain. And you have a plethora of cheap tricks that you use very well." He laughed at the frown that appeared on Shikamaru's face, "There's nothing wrong with a cheap trick. The more of them you have the less actual trump cards you have to reveal in order to win."
While he wasn't as stagnant on the battlefield as he once had been, Shikamaru was still basically the slower member of the team who preferred staying inactive even while in combat.
Pointing at Ino next, Asuma continued, "Ino you've worked hard to do more to supplement what you can do with your family techniques. You've come up with ways to threaten your opponents completely and keep them from thinking about you jutsu at all even if they know you're a Yamanaka in the first place with your poisons. No matter what you have the ability to switch up your battle approach from a ranged poison attack to a mid-range attempt to use your clan technique. Either or has the potential to end a battle in a hurry." Ino smiled at the complement. Learning how to make all of those poisons and the tools she used them with was hard, "If I had to point out a weakness it would be that once things get close you're somewhat lost in a fight, but a month isn't time to fix that. You also lack termed focus. Most of the time if there isn't something that you can handle or solve relatively quickly you'll leave Naruto or Shikamaru to do it. You need to fix that because a chunin has to be a problem-solver. Lives will be in your hands."
Naruto was inwardly dreading his own turn. Back in the Academy he always hated getting the rundown in a public forum about what his strengths were and where he could improve. Part of him still believed that he was about to take a tongue-lashing due to his having never really been complemented on his skill set due to its lack of actual existence while in school.
"Naruto." Asuma said as he looked at the boy in question who actually flinched due to being caught up in his own thoughts about what might be said, "You cover this team's most central weaknesses. You're the close-range specialist the way I figured you'd be from the beginning and you've only improved since then. Even without your machete if you're disarmed I don't see very many genin finding ways to handle you up close. You cater to your own strength of having tons of chakra with the way you use your Kage Bunshin, and you're learning something new altogether with fuuinjutsu in your own private study."
That was a better compliment than Naruto thought he'd receive, but Asuma wasn't done, "The thing is though, you don't really have anything that's effective once you get outside of five feet to use against an opponent. If you can't reach them or your clones can't reach them then you have to rely on Shikamaru or Ino to either use a trick to flush them towards your direction or attack them altogether to give you an opening to get back inside. I also see that you have a little bit of a knack for unorthodox maneuvers but you don't seem to try and dig that deep into yourself until you're in some kind of trouble. If I were you I'd try to cultivate that a little bit more, start planning ahead a bit. Flying by the seat of your pants is only good when falling is the alternative. If you really want it you have the drive to do way better."
Well that wasn't exactly the dressing down that Naruto had been expecting when it came to his turn to be scrutinized. All he could really do in return was nod, indicating that he understood.
Having said his bit on each of his genin, Asuma switched gears, "Now about your more technical weaknesses; Shikamaru and the more physical aspects of the job as well as the drive, Ino with the close fighting, and Naruto with anything having to do with range… there's not much I can do about that." All three genin had to keep themselves from face-faulting, "But this isn't about that. A month is enough time for a patchjob that will get you through the rest of the exams on that part of your skills. No, now it's time to accentuate the positives and hide your negatives."
Ino and Naruto both looked at him in a confused manner while Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief as he seemed like he understood Asuma's point.
Asuma decided to explain to make sure everyone was following along, "If the problem is that you can't hit your opponent outside of your range of attack or you would get your ass kicked once you get within arm's length of an enemy… why go there? Hide it! Highlight your positive points. Show the judges that you know damn well what you're not good at, and show them that you can avoid being put in a situation where it would even matter. This is a showcase and you're going to want to make yourselves look good. Damn good. No half-assing it."
"So what exactly should we do?" Naruto asked with a squinted look of hard concentration on his face.
Asuma let out a chuckle, "You all have shown that if it comes down to it you can come up with some very nasty combinations of your skills. I want more of that come tournament time. In the case of a team battle I don't want it to even be an issue of who would win it. You all cover the others asses with what you can do. Now how are you going to handle your schedule for the month?" He asked before noticing that they were just staring at him, "I'm not helping you with this part. I'm asking you how you're going to handle it."
The three moved together with Shikamaru starting off with a sigh, "Okay, we have a month to get this together. I'd say the first half of the week we work on our own personal training and the second half we get together… and on the seventh day we do whatever we want with the time." Like sleep or do nothing at all. This was still Shikamaru after all.
"Oh." Naruto said after taking in the idea of the schedule, "So the seventh day is so we don't get all burned out on training and start to slack during our actual sessions? Or so we can look into something different than what we're probably going to work on normally…"
"Yeah sure, let's go with that." Shikamaru answered abruptly before looking between Naruto and Ino, "So is that good with you both or what?"
Ino shrugged her shoulders, "That's just fine with me. I'm going to try to kick daddy's ass into gear and see if he'll help me train. Maybe he can teach me a new jutsu." She wasn't holding her breath on that however. Her dad was very stingy with the idea of giving her another jutsu from the family collection. He wanted her to perfect Shintenshin no Jutsu by barely having to use much time to take aim in order to make sure she wouldn't miss and leave her body vulnerable, as well as making sure she could release the jutsu quickly to prevent damage from occurring while she was in the body she was possessing.
Hearing Ino talk about a new jutsu made Naruto think about the 'jutsu' he had come up with and had yet to test on an actual person. But he had other things that he needed to deal with before going to play with a concept attack.
"I like it." Naruto said in reference to the schedule of the workouts, "That way if anyone comes up with something new they can do they have time to get it down well enough to use." They could probably even work it into one of their formations or battle strategies if someone could master a new jutsu over the course of the month.
Asuma watched them work out their training schedule and it worked great for him. Unless someone asked him specifically for some one-on-one time he would show up three days out of the week to help them all as a team. The rest of the week he could come up with his own ways to help them and do his own thing. Maybe get in some training of his own? Ever since he started training this team he really didn't have his own time to train himself. He could help Team 10, keep himself in shape for the month, and teach his team to be self-sufficient at the same time; it was an all-around win.
He stepped in and commented on the plan of action for the month, "You all seem to have your own ideas of what you want to do. Just remember that even on your personal days of off days you can always come find me if you think you need the help. You have all the resources you need to succeed so there's no reason you three can't all come out of this thing as chunin." He then thought of something else as an afterthought, "…Especially since I still have money on all three of you to outdo the other Konoha teams. No pressure though."
All three of the Team 10 genin spoke up simultaneously, "Don't worry, there isn't any." They said in dry tones of voice after hearing that Asuma still had a bet on them. Why would they care about money they were never going to see?
XxX
(Later That Day)
Since today was technically a personal training day, Naruto was not willing to waste a second of it. After the short team meeting dismissed and they all split up, Naruto went looking for Jiraiya. Due to the fact that Naruto could now pin chakra signatures to certain people with his scouting jutsu due to his jump in skill with it he could locate Jiraiya. It also didn't hurt that he knew the places where the man might be.
Either the hotspring or that waterfall with the hot women that Naruto worked with Jiraiya at the week before they left to go to Tetsu no Kuni. It was still summer, even though in Hi no Kuni the weather was always pretty pleasant, thus he figured that the women would keep going back to that waterfall, hence Jiraiya would be there.
And lo and behold Naruto found him in the same field they had used previously, crouched and staring through the bushes with a scope as he giggled to his heart's content at the scantily clad women frolicking in the river behind it, "Ooh, that's right bring your friends ladies. The more the merrier I always say. Gahahahaha! That's it. Go ahead and give her a tight hug in the water. You haven't seen her in a while huh?"
Naruto just walked up on the man quietly before he got right behind him and cocked his foot back, prepared to deliver a powerful kick to the man's rear end. The moment he let his foot fly, massive grin on his face… well Naruto didn't quite know what happened. All he knew was that one second he was about to kick Jiraiya, the next he was on his back ten meters away looking up at the sky, 'Huh… Shikamaru is on to something with the whole cloud watching thing. I kind of want to go to sleep.' That was possibly the potential concussion he had just suffered talking though.
Naruto slowly sat up to see Jiraiya still looking through the bushes, only with his fist outstretched from delivering the punch that sent Naruto flying back. That was fast, he never even saw or felt the man shift his body to do it.
"Don't sneak up on me when I'm doing my research gaki." Jiraiya said as he kept peeking through the bushes, "I take my occupation as a writer of adult literature quite seriously. This is my work."
Naruto stood back up, dusting himself off, "Whatever you say Ero-sensei. Get some more stuff for your porn books later. You told me to find you after I was done with Asuma-sensei and my team."
"I said it was adult literature!" Jiraiya turned and shouted at Naruto, staying quiet enough to not turn on the girls in the distance to the fact that he had been peeping on them, "And about the training, could you come back later? This is some prime viewing time."
A firm shake of the head from Naruto was the answer, "I can't do that Ero-sensei. I won't be an enabler to your filthy addiction."
"You weren't saying that last week…" Jiraiya muttered, getting Naruto's cheeks to turn red momentarily as it was quite clear then that he could see what Jiraiya saw in spying on the women, "Alright if time is money then let's hurry up and have you impress me so I can finish teaching you that seal of yours."
A seal? Jiraiya was going to teach him a seal? But he thought he was supposed to come up with his own eventually out of personal study, "You're going to teach me a seal? Wait, you've been teaching me a seal? When?"
Jiraiya smirked, "Back the week before you left. Why do you think I was making you write practice arrays while throwing rocks at you?"
"Because it was funny?" Naruto replied questioningly. It had been a miserable week for certain, but he had come back every day with the assurance that the next day Jiraiya would teach him something. Apparently he had been the entire time.
"Yes." Jiraiya said with a grin on his face, "Yes, it was fun. But it served a purpose, to teach you how to draw your seals and focus at the same time. What if the course of an entire battle was counting on you finishing a seal? Would you allow the explosions and the fighting that would probably be going on around you to stop you from finishing it or to mess it up? That was the most basic lesson I could give you, and it's important to the actual technique you're going to learn now. First though…"
Naruto didn't like the way he said that last part, "First what?"
Jiraiya began to laugh slowly, "First you have to show me something important before we really begin."
Something important? Naruto just stared at Jiraiya with a twitch in his eye, "I'm not going to show you Oiroke no Jutsu again so just forget it you perv."
"Not that." Jiraiya said as he crossed his arms before pulling out some special ink and a few prepared scrolls, dropping them on the ground directly in front of himself before making a trio of hand-seals, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)."
A clone of Jiraiya appeared and picked up the supplies on the ground. The clone set up the scrolls in a circle twenty feet in circumference around itself and sat down in the middle.
Naruto was curious, but Jiraiya was quick to explain, "You're going to protect my clone from me. I am going to attack that clone which is going to represent you or a clone of you attempting the jutsu I'm going to teach you." His voice was now gravely serious, "When you get good with this jutsu you'll be able to pull it off in less than two minutes. Until then you won't be able to perform it without at least that long in preparation time."
"I have to fight you?" Naruto said, somewhat dismayed at the thought of fighting Jiraiya. Not because he figured he would hurt the man, it was actually vice versa in that case, "I can't beat you."
"You're not supposed to." Jiraiya said seriously, "You're only supposed to keep me away from the circle the clone is sitting in. If I pass that circle then that means I can attack my dummy clone and the jutsu will never be finished. It is important that you hold me off for at least three minutes since that would be the minimum amount of time you yourself would need to prepare the seal I want to teach you at best." He pulled out a stopwatch and held it up.
Naruto looked at the clone in the circle and then at Jiraiya before nodding. Taking that as Naruto's acceptance of the test, Jiraiya began to walk forty yards away from Naruto before turning around and giving him a few moments to get ready, "Do whatever you think you have to in order to keep me away from that circle." He instructed, and was pleased to see Naruto immediately make fifty Kage Bunshin in order to block him, "Good, but when you yourself use the seal or have a clone use it you're going to need most of your chakra that you're splitting through all of these ones you have out."
"You didn't say I couldn't use any though." Naruto said as he and all of his clones slowly drew their machetes and held them at the ready, "Start!" He demanded, wanting to get this test over with.
Jiraiya immediately ran towards the circle that was being blocked by Naruto's clones and scoffed when he saw a direct charge from around ten of them coming his way. Deciding to not flat out blitz Naruto since he could have ended the test almost immediately if he had really been motivated to get to the circle, Jiraiya decided to hold back enough to give Naruto a fighting chance on his first try.
'It's not like Asuma-sensei's since I can't really stretch the blade like him, but it's better than nothing.' Naruto thought to himself as his clones started to generate wind chakra to the blades of their weapons. One day he'd have to ask Asuma how to stretch the chakra extension of the blade and hope that it was easy enough to get down quickly. Until then he was supposed to go at Jiraiya all out, and his clones got that message loud and clear.
Jiraiya noticed all of Naruto's clones about to attempt to cut him down with their machetes and remembered that this kid was training with Asuma, 'Crap, I forgot that this kid uses wind chakra. He can channel chakra through that blade of his like Asuma can.' Even if he used his defensive jutsu there was a chance that Naruto could still get through it, 'Twenty seconds.' He thought to himself.
Jiraiya bit his finger and made a few hand-seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke, Jiraiya was replaced by a large toad, bigger than the man himself had been. It wore thick samurai armor around its torso and on its arms as it blocked the strikes from Naruto's clones. Jiraiya however, was nowhere in sight, something the clones took note of, and this allowed the toad to destroy them with a sweeping strike of its tongue.
"A toad?" Naruto said to himself in amazement before realizing that the test was still going on, "So where's Ero-sensei?" He asked himself as his remaining clones all surrounded the sealing circle that marked the objective of the test. The armored toad rushed towards them and drew away several Narutos in an attempt to keep it from just bullrushing the circle and ending the test, stretching out the defensive perimeter even further.
Jiraiya reappeared in a danger-close zone near the clones and the circle and immediately initiated his next move, "Hari Jigoku (Hell Needles)!" From his hardened hair, singular follicles shot at the clones like needles. They could either take the hits or move and allow them to damage Jiraiya's clone which was the goal to protect.
Naruto's clones tried to block the needles, but they were too numerous, too fast, and he didn't have the reaction time to do something like that against something so small. A dozen more clones were shot down by that jutsu, leaving a major hole in the defense that the very close Jiraiya jumped right through before stopping in a pose as he breached the circle, "Time!" He looked at the stopwatch he had placed around his neck for safekeeping, "56 seconds. Not bad, you're almost a third of the way there." Too bad every second mattered.
"Goddamn it!" Naruto exclaimed in defeat as he dispelled his clones and pulled at his hair. He pointed over at Gama who was still standing at attention before croaking to Jiraiya and disappearing in another puff of smoke, "And what the hell was that?"
"I didn't say I would never summon anything." Jiraiya said as he stepped out of the unharmed circle, "That was just Gama. I'm not going to throw the major toads at you kid."
Naruto looked between Jiraiya and where the toad had been and he felt a spark fry his brain, "I didn't even know you could do that! Can you teach me how to do that?" As far as Naruto was concerned that toad was badass.
On the other hand Jiraiya was pleased that Naruto liked the toads, "Maybe later. For now we're working on you earning this sealing jutsu. It's really high level. First you need to hold me off for three minutes."
"What does this jutsu even do?" Naruto asked, having not cared previously but after getting his ass thoroughly humiliated in under a minute he wanted to know what he was working for in the first place, "If it's going to take me at least three minutes to load it up then it's got to be something cool, right?"
"It's the ultimate equalizer gaki." Jiraiya said with a knowing grin, "That's all I'm going to say for now. Once you finish this test I'll tell you everything you want to know, now back to work. Let's try this again."
Hey You're Not a Genius. Who Cares? Read This and You Won't Suck at Fuuinjutsu (by Jiraiya)
Patience is a virtue, speed is a blessing
Now even with a practiced speed, making simple seals will still take time. Making your own sealing scrolls and explosive tags will still take between thirty seconds and a full minute for even the best practitioners of fuuinjutsu. It is not a necessarily quick art. The power of certain techniques are worth the time however.
This is why sealing specialists are hot commodities in advance attack teams. While the other ninja are struggling in battle a seal master can shift the situation towards their squad's side if allowed the time to do so. It will actually be easier to use fuuinjutsu when in a large battle. You have more people available to back you up and protect you while you prepare your eventual jutsu instead of having to risk going about it on your own with no cover.
The best seals all take time. Seal masters spend months and years attempting to shave time off of their best techniques but in the end you're never fast enough for your own liking. Every second matters in the grand scheme of things, but do not panic. You knew the risks of the jutsu before you sat down to attempt it. Don't cop out halfway through because it's taking too long; that would make the time you took to initiate the sealing jutsu in the first place and all of the sacrifices made by you and your comrades to get that far along in the first place meaningless.
It will work when it is supposed to work. There is no forcing a seal. There is no speedy shortcut. When someone yells at you, "Hurry up! You're taking too long!" You tell them to shut their fucking mouth because there's a reason you're the one using the jutsu and not them.
Our art is precise. You cannot just bulldog your way through and bully it into activation.