-Next day-
Naruto got a response from Ino, and...
"Sorry, he said no, he heard that you were already getting training from two Jonins, and felt that you should just focus on what you have at the moment before moving onto something new" She sighed
"It's alright, it was a gamble whether he'd accept or not in the first place" Naruto waved his hand and smiled
Naruto returned to Kakashi, who knocked his head upon meeting
"I understand that you want to improve, but Asuma's teachings require time and concentration, it will only get in your way now that the Chunin exam is just around the corner" He said
"Yes sensei" He felt that there were some truth to it, but he just wanted to give it a try
Naruto looked around
"Where's Sakura?" He realised that only Sasuke was here, training with Kakashi
"She wanted to put her focus into medical ninjutsu, so she is at the hospital" He replied
"Why?" He asked curiously
Until then, her main jutsus were simple genjutsu, and body strengthening.
"The gap between the three of you are widening, and she has realised this a while back that in terms of combat, she is of no use, so she diverted her attention to something that could be of help" He replied
Naruto's eyes widened, so his improvements actually encouraged growth from Sakura? But it wasn't a bad thing, as Sakura was naturally talented as a medical ninja, so having her focus on it early is actually good.
He was never someone who was afraid of altering the plot, after all, he has derailed from it long ago.
"Oh, I'm glad she can find her own path" Naruto muttered
"Indeed, now, you two, let's take a dive at an old activity" He said as he took out two bells
"Take both bells from me" He smiled
Sasuke and Naruto glanced at one another, and quickly dashed away from Kakashi.
Naruto crossed his fingers, and summoned two clones. He then threw a small sachet to the ground, causing white smoke to cover them all.
Before the smoke dispersed, Sasuke and Naruto dashed out, leaving two Naruto behind whom both held shurikens in their hands.
"Using clones for ranged support, not a bad plan" Kakashi said as Naruto and Sasuke approached rapidly.
At the back...
"You got the plan?" One of the Naruto said to the other
The other one nodded silently
"You need to at least smile if you want to pretend to be me" The first Naruto said as he rolled his eyes
"Too troublesome" The second 'Naruto' replied.
Back to Kakashi...
He stepped to the side when 'Sasuke' attacked him from the left, whilst Naruto flashed behind him using the flying raijin.
Kakashi raised one leg up, and threw a spin kick at Naruto, who burst into a puff of smoke.
"A clone eh? Not bad" He said
Behind him, 'Sasuke' attacked with a kunai, but he raised a hand and slapped the kunai out of his hand. As a result, the 'Sasuke' also turned into a puff of smoke, which surprised him.
"It was a fake?" He turned to the two Naruto at the back, and realised that they switched Sasuke out amidst the smoke.
The two ran at him, and his eyes narrowed. He thought he could easily identify which one is Sasuke, but to his surprise, both Naruto had a cold expression, and no smile on their face.
'Naruto's gotten better at using his clones to do tricks like these' Kakashi complemented in his heart.
"Fireball jutsu" One of the Naruto suddenly made some hand signs
'That one' Kakashi memorised which one was which, and kept a mental note of it.
However, the fireball didn't come, rather, the Naruto that made the hand sign, suddenly vanished from sight!
Behind him, the other Naruto formed a seal in silence before flames burst out
Kakashi was surprised by this, but his eyes remained focused. The flames engulfed him very quickly, however, what fell to the ground was a single log that was charred black.
"Behind!" Naruto yelled
However, it was too late, as Kakashi appeared behind him and gave him a kick, causing the transformation to get undone, revealing Sasuke.
"Not a bad plan, pretending to use the fireball jutsu made me think that you were Sasuke, but the execution of the plan was a bit rough, Naruto, you should have..."
From then on, Kakashi pointed out issues with their plans, as well as what they could have done to make it more effective. The two noted everything down, and tried to snatch the bell once again, to no avail.
"Naruto, for the next few days, just train with Guy, I will be teaching Sasuke about the Sharingan" Kakashi said
"Urgh, seriously? Guy sensei's training is awful!" Naruto slumped down and groaned
At first, he rather enjoyed it as he got to spar with Lee and Neji constantly, but over time, the 'youthful' training started to drain him mentally...
"No talking back" Kakashi replied
"Yes..."
Having said this, a few days passed, and Naruto spent every day training with Guy, occasionally meeting up with Shikamaru, Choji and Ino for dinner.
"So are you two a thing now?" Shikamaru asked
When they arrived, they saw Ino sitting with Naruto already, and the glimmer in her eyes were similar to how she would with Sasuke not long ago.
What took them by surprised was when they heard how she addressed him
"Nope" Ino grinned
"Nah" Naruto replied
Both denied it, both with a very different reason in their heads.
"No?" Shikamaru lifted a brow, as the two seemed very close.
Perhaps...more than friends, but less than lovers? Either way, it was too bothersome to think about it at this point, so he dropped it quite quickly.
Naruto glanced at Ino from the side of his eyes
'Like Ino?' He has thought about it, and a smile crept onto his face
But he then shifted back and continued eating, not noticing that Ino glanced at him as well at that moment before looking away.
'He said no? I thought he-wait, no, what am I thinking? I still don't know enough about him yet, nor have we confirmed our current relationship...' She felt the need to understand more about his past before moving forward with everything.
She couldn't help but remember the first test for graduation...Naruto transformed into her, and later said it was because she was someone he could visualise best...
Does that mean he has kept his eyes on her for a long time? Just the thought of this made her face turn bright red as she shook her head.
Her mind quickly drifted again, now, to the gaze the villagers gaze him whenever they walk around the village. It was to the point that he would transform every time he went shopping with her...
Her hands clenched slightly, she felt that she still was lacking in knowledge about him, and needed to know more.
"Say, Shiki, how's your training now?" Naruto asked
"A little annoying, but I'm managing" Shikamary replied
"Ooh, I'm actually very curious about the Ino-Shika-Cho combination, can you try it on me?" Naruto asked as he pointed at himself
!!!!!!
The three turned to him with a shocked expression
"Naruto...you're not a m*sochist, are you?" Ino covered her mouth and asked
"Why would I be? I'm working on a new chemical, and I need someone to help me test it" Naruto replied
"What type?" Shikamaru asked, his expression was rather serious when he heard what Naruto had said.
Testing a new chemical can be rather dangerous, and he didn't want any harm to fall upon anyone here.
"It's a rather complicated one that I spent a while coming up with, it condenses the user's chakra to harden the body" He said
"The concept is similar to the rock armour jutsu, but if it works, I think Choji will benefit quite a bit from it" Naruto said calmly as he took out a small bottle containing pills.
Shikamaru stared at the pills with a hesitant expression
"Of course, I'm the one using it, you just need to have Choji crush me, if the pill works, I won't get injured...much..." Naruto coughed
"And if it doesn't?" Ino asked
"I should work, I tested it on a few animals, and none of them were harmed, they had their exterior hardened, and it wore off after a few minutes" He replied
Ino still looked worried, and Shikamaru's expression wasn't soft either. Only Choji was still eating obliviously.
"How positive are you?" Shikamaru asked
"About ninety percent sure" He replied
His confident grin made Shikamaru sigh as he scratched the back of his head
"Fine, we'll help you test it...but can't you test this on your own? Or with Kakashi or Guy sensei?" Shikamaru asked
Naruto gave Shikamaru a light punch on the chest
"Cause we're buddies, aren't we? I wanted to help you all out, so as soon as I made it, I brought it to you all, not to mention, if you see the effect, you can analyse it's usability when Choji uses it" He replied
Shikamaru heaved out another sigh
"This is such a drag..." He muttered as he leaned on one arm, but his lips curved up faintly
The four of them finished eating, and went to the training ground. Naruto stood in the middle and ate one of the pills from the bottle.
"All ready" Naruto said, and felt part of his Chakra get drained when he ate the pill.
From there, Choji expanded his body into a ball
"Incoming!" Choji yelled as he rolled towards him
Naruto braced himself as he watched the massive Choji roll towards him
*Bang*
Choji collided into Naruto, and in that brief contact, Naruto was pushed back, and completely ran over by him.
"Naruto!" The three yelled
Choji returned to normal and ran over to check on him along with the other three.
Naruto was on the ground, but for some reason, he had a wide grin on his face as he began laughing.
"It worked, I really worked" He laughed as he sat up
"What do you mean it worked? You got ran over!" Choji gasped
Naruto smiled as he pointed at himself
"But do I look injured?" He replied
Now that he pointed it out, the three inspected his body, and realised that he was hardly injured, aside from a small scratch on his arm from coming into contact with Choji at full force, the rest of his body was pretty much fine.
"But I'll say, it drained a lot of Chakra, I can probably make a weaker version so it uses up less, but for now, I'd say that Cho can become untouchable if he eats one of these before turning big" Naruto said with confidence
The three were stunned, all knowing what Choji is capable of if he landed a solid hit on someone using his human pinball, but Naruto came out with just a scratch!
"How much chakra did it take from you?" Shikamaru asked
"Around five percent, but I just have a bigger pool of chakra, so for you, it might be around ten or event fifteen percent, and it only lasts for five minutes" Naruto said with a serious expression
"But if you use the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, Choji can probably finish off anyone our age, his weight along with this hardening effect will turn him from a human pinball into a human canon ball!" Naruto laughed
Choji clasped Naruto's hands with a touched expression
"I'll treat you to a bag of chips some day" He said
Shikamaru stared at the pill bottle in his hands, this is something unheard of, and he didn't know how Naruto came up with such a thing. Though there are jutsus that has similar effects, eating a pill requires no hand signs, so he can eat one before directly expanding, which can save a lot of time during combat.
"You're amazing, Naruto" Shikamaru said
"Right? I'm glad you understand how awesome I am" Naruto laughed
Shikamaru shook his head with a faint smile
"Be a bit more humble next time"
"Nah, that won't be me anymore at that point" He grinned back
After testing it with incredible success, Naruto gave them a bottle with five pills, as the resources he has are limited, so he could only make so many.
"We'll use it sparingly" Shikamaru smiled
Choji aside, he felt that this could be used by him and Ino as well when they are in perilous situations, and can possibly save them when they are forced into close combat.
-Days later-
The Chunin exam has officially begun, and Naruto met up with his team right outside the acdemy grounds where the first test wa set.
"Any of you know what the first part of the test is?" Sakura asked
"Yeah, it's an exam with 10 questions" Naruto replied
When he said that, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura all turned to him, with Kakashi being rather shocked that Naruto knew as the content was meant to be hidden!
Naruto glanced at Kakashi, and hinted at something, in which he sighed and nodded back.
"Go ahead" He replied
"In the first part, everyone starts with 10 points, and with each incorrect answer, they will lose a point" Naruto said
"How do you know this?" Sakura asked
Naruto grinned
"Hokage-sama called me over to warn me about a small prank I did a few days ago, while I was there, he left the office half way when he was called for something, so I did the only right thing and searched through his desk" He replied
"..." His reply left Sasuke and Sakura speechless, whilst Kakashi was in awe of his bravery
"I couldn't find the questions and answers, but apparently the test is meant to be impossible for Genins" Naruto said
"Hm?" His words made the two tense up
"Then what's the point?"
"Information gathering" Naruto replied
"Information gathering?" The two fell silent for a bit, but a realisation dawned on them
Naruto grinned when he saw they understood
"There will be people our age planted in the room who knows the answers, we need to 'gather information' without being caught" He said
"As for who knows the answers, it'll be easy to know since they'll be writing from the get go" Naruto said with a knowing smile
The two nodded
Kakashi sighed
"You're lucky that the main point is information gathering, or I would not have allowed you to reveal it" Kakashi said
"Why is that?" Sasuke asked, wondering why Kakashi allowed for him to tell them both
Kakashi glanced at Naruto
"What is it that Naruto just did" He said as he pointed at the cheeky blonde boy.
"Hm...ah" Sasuke suddenly understood, what Naruto did was give them information he had 'gathered', so it aligned with the main point of the first test.
"Thanks Naruto" Sakura said with a wide smile
"Hehehe" Naruto rubbed his nose with a proud smile as he glanced at Sasuke, who glanced back and sighed.
"Thanks..." He said, feeling that he has been thanking Naruto an awful lot lately which didn't sit well with him for some reason
After a while, they were called to enter the exam halls, where a superviser was station, Ibiki Morino. He instructed everyone about the general rules of the exam which matched what Naruto had told them, and stated that being caught cheating will result in immediate failure.
However, the key word was "caught", which was something Naruto mentioned as well.
"Begin!"
Sasuke quickly identified the planted Genins who knew the answers, and activated his Sharingan to copy his every movement, swiftly completing the quiz.
Sakura stared at the questions, and a frown appeared on her face. After a while, she placed her pencila against the paper and began writing without looking around.
In just a few minutes, both of them completed the test, being one of the first to do so, and shifted their gaze to Naruto...
'Will he be okay?'
Sasuke has the Sharingan, and Sakura was the top in the class in terms of theory, so he didn't worry too much about her...but Naruto?
Although he showed amazing progress in combat, can the same be said about this quiz? He has no way to properly cheat either...
Naruto glanced at the questions, and mulled over the questions...
[Can't answer, and here I thought the great genius of the modern world would be able to solve it with ease~]
'Not when this sh*t is asking for hand signs that I don't even know about' Naruto grumbled, he did answer a few of the mathematic ones, but the ones that requires him to know different hand signs...those are simply death sentences to him!
He sighed faintly and shifted his gaze to the last question, which must be answered, or the entire test will be counted as zero. Luckily, the requirement to pass was only to answer the final question if one cannot cheat.
Though the question was formatted in a way that would throw many off...
It was a question where one must answers, if not, the whole team will not make it through, but if they answer incorrectly, they will be stuck as a Genin forever. When he first read this in the Hokage's office, he felt it was too strict, but later realised that it was merely to test the character of the test takers.
If they chose to not do it in fear of being stuck as a Genin, then they will definitely be deemed as unworthy and their review would be lowered drastically.
On the other hand, even if one gets the question incorrectly, they won't actually be stuck in Genin forever, so he just scribbled a random answer onto the final one without much thought.
When Ibiki saw his, he lifted a brow...
'I have never seen a test taker do the final question with so little hesitation...' He revealed a faint smile upon seeing Naruto's 'resolve' to allow his team to pass.
He then placed his pencil down and waited for the test to end...
'Na-kun~'
Naruto suddenly heard Ino's voice in his head
'Ino? Good timing, answers, now, please' Naruto asked directly
'Praise me and I'll consider it'
'Ino, you're smart, beautiful, and your very presence gives me confidence in everything I do'
'Aw~ do you mean that?' Ino asked, as she wore a sweet grin on her face
'Not really, but empty praise is still praise, right?' He replied
'...since you praised me, I'll consider helping you...after considering, I decided...nope, I won't' Ino stuck out her tongue at him and cut off the connection
'Well, worth a shot'
[You could have praised her honestly, you know that?]
'Yes, I could have, b~ut...no, if I suddenly rub everything out and answer it now, it'll be too bothersome'
[You're starting to sound like Shikamaru]
'And I enjoy his mindset'
[...lazy f**k]
The exam soon ended, and as Naruto was leaving, he bumped into Lee just outside the classroom.
"Lee, how did you do?" Naruto asked
"I answered everything I could!" Lee said with a proud smile
"Really?" Naruto squinted his eyes as he stared at him suspiciously
Lee's smile didn't last long as he coughed
"I gave it my all to prove the strength of my youth.....I answered only the last question..." Lee fiddled with his fingers and replied
"See, was it that hard to be honest?" Naruto punched Lee's chest lightly and laughed
"Naruto, who's this?" Sakura and Sasuke walked over, and gazed at Lee, who wore a very familiar, and amazing outfit...
Amazing in a way that it's amazing that someone can wear it without feeling embarrassed...
"This is Rock Lee, a member of team Guy, I train with him when Guy sense kidnaps me" Naruto introduced
Amidst this, a figure emerged from the classroom
"Na-kun, how did you do on your test" Ino appeared behind him and asked with a cheeky grin
"I failed everything" He replied with a straight face
!!!!!!!
Sakura and Sasuke turned to him in shock
"N-Naruto, please tell me that was a joke" Sakura said
"It is, I actually did three questions and scribbled on the rest" Naruto replied
"...we're doomed...wait, how did you do this terribly if you had information prior?" Sakura exclaimed
But before she could finish, Naruto covered her mouth
His gaze remained casual as he smiled
"Hm? I didn't study enough I guess, man, those questions were brutal" He said
Sakura suddenly realised what she had almost done, and nodded at him before he released her mouth.
"Eh? I guess I should have helped you out then" Ino said with her arms behind her head
"Nah, I know the general requirement for passing, and I've met the minium" Naruto replied
"Eh? You do? Na-kun, how could you, I thought we were close, but you didn't tell me such important information" Ino feigned heartache as she backed away
"Come on Ino-chan, we both know you didn't need that, not when you have super brain Shiki on your team" Naruto replied
Ino giggled and stuck out her tongue
"Hey Naruto, how'd you do?" From another classroom, Tenten and Neji approached with a smile on their faces.
Naruto waved back
"Same as this guy" Naruto pointed at Lee and grinned
"Huh? Seriously? I really expected you to ace the test" Tenten covered her mouth and replied
"Hey, I don't think I told either of you my marks yet" Lee retorted
*pat*
Both Neji and Tenten patted his shoulders, then gave him a smile filled with sympathy...
"Huh? What does this mean?" Lee stared at them with his eyes wide open, confused
"We understand" They said before walking off
"Hey, guy, wait, what does that mean?" Lee ran after them and yelled
*Pfft*
The group there let out a faint giggle when they saw this, even the usually aloof Sasuke covered his mouth with his shoulders trembling slightly.