In a burst of chittering shrieks the night sky was lit by glowing ethereal light, in one sharp thrust a boulder burst into a thousand tiny pieces revealing the sight of a young teen standing over the wreckage. For the smallest second a smirk lit his face, eyes burning with victory before blanking as the last dregs of energy left his system, with no further support his body teetered forward to the edge, and fell, about a metre to the ground where his face slapped into the mud.
"Hmm" lazily looking up from his book Kakashi regarded the unconscious form of his student, "I guess three really is your limit, mah, should be enough". Sighing he walked off towards his tent nose still firmly placed in his little orange book, leaving his student to a cold night in on the ground.
In the bushes a figure unfurled a small scroll working down the list of names making a small note against one. "6 out of 10" he muttered quickly stowing the scroll back within his shirt and hastily fleeing the scene.
Page Break
Thud. the training dummy shook as it took the full force or the powerful finger strike to its kidney, within a moment 3 more dummies were shaken in their stands from blows received. Kunai split the air three coming in high and a veritable swarm of shuriken following ready to turn the boy into a human pincushion. Seemingly unaware of the imminent danger coming towards his unprotected back the boy took a relaxed moment to catch his breath before twisting into a tight spin, hands straight out, letting a wall of pure energy form around him reflecting every projectile coming his way. Only once the barrage of weaponry finally stopped did the spin begin to slow coming to a stop revealing the boy with barely a hair out of place as he looked over the training ground around him.
"That will do for now Tenten" Neji called over the field, the gains made by this training session had been quite sufficient for one day he decided.
The Ground below his feet swelled for a second before two round balls burst through the earth, quickly followed by the head and shoulders of a disgruntled girl. "Really?" She sighed in exasperation "But i just finished layering this sweet trap, it was going to blow you to the moon!"
"Hm, Tenten Tenten, you forget your self" Starting to stride away from the clearing the boy looked back over his shoulder pupil less eyes gleaming in the dark "All is seen before these eyes"
Two training grounds over at the top of the highest tree a telescope was retracted back down to its smallest size. "Meh, maybe a 4".
Page Break
Nephelococcygia, the art of cloud watching is a hobby taking up by the very wise and the extremely lazy. Nara Shikamaru fit both those categories to a tee.
Laying on his back watching the clouds go by with no thought towards his responsibilities, his nagging mother, his troublesome teammates nor his upcoming fight. Right here, right now, he was at peace.
A slight snore escaped him as he lost his battle with consciousness and once more drifted off into slumber.
"I feel like even a one is a compliment"
Standing straight up not even bothering to hide, the not so hidden spy strolled away.
Page Break
The main shopping street was busy as usual civilian and ninja alike enjoying the pleasant warmth from the sun shining down upon them, from the shade of his hotel room Temari looked down upon the milling figures below. Watching as a small girl tripped and started to cry, immediately being scooped up my her mother and smothered with sympathy and affection, she turned away in disgust.
Behind her Kankuro yelped having hit himself with his wood plane for the millionth time.
She wondered how they could be so relaxed, so happy. Did they not realise they lived in a military village? Did they not fear the loss of their friends? The death of their village, their way of life?
Gasping Kankuro clutched at his neck, desperately scraping away at the sand choking him, Gaara having tired of the whimpering interrupting his mothers beautiful screaming.
In the end they must be crazy, Temari decided, completely ignoring the screaming now coming from behind her. After all, normal people didn't act like that.
Down in the dango stand across the street a customer swiftly paid his bill and headed out. "I'm not even sure where to start with that"
Page Break
"Bzzzzbzzbbzz" A lone figure stood among the trees sunlight streaming through the branches lighting up the swarms of beetles surrounding him, arcing in slow but purposeful swarms that moved in a constant swathe around him.
Close by a hidden observer slowly crawled back through the bushes, getting as far away from the bizarre sight in front of him.
"Nope, no, uh uh" Muttering to himself his stealthy movements not helped by his constant complaints, "10? 0? I dunno, that guy is way too weird"
Page Break
Finally arriving back home the tired spy crawled in through his window, removing the black bandana and dropping it on the floor to land among ramen cups and dirty socks. With a groan Uzumaki Naruto flung himself onto the couch sinking deep into the comfortable cushions eyes traveling up to the ceiling which displayed the results of his recent excursions.
From above he met the eyes of the 7 faces staring down at him, his opponents, his rivals, the people he must, no, would defeat. He was too prepared not too. Next to each picture he had written just one note on each. A single number.
"One, four, six, five, five, no idea, and 8. Hmm he could be a problem" Giving the ceiling one last look he headed towards the bedroom, he would need the sleep, after all he had training in the morning and he needed to get digging.
Chapter Break
It was two days before the final of the Chunin exams and Sakura had yet to see either of her teammates since the day after the second task ended. Losing to Ino had been a bitter experience, though if she was being perfectly honest with herself the idea that she was the strongest kunoichi of the year was a joke, her performance across the whole exam had been embarrassing and watching Naruto of all people out perform her had not sat well within her. In that mind she had not been idle the last month, pushing her training to new heights she felt stronger than ever before and now was looking to test herself against one of her teammates. If only she could find one.
For all of yesterday she had gone round training fields searching out her errant teammates, but she had found neither of them, she'd seen every other finalist at work, even shikamaru was seen running around the bounds of training ground 4, the fact he was desperately escaping an enraged Ino was beside the point. Yesterday had proven to be a fruitless search so today she was going straight to the source, which is what found her standing outside the front door of Konoha's number one surprising ninja.
"Knock Knock Knock"
The peaceful land of sleep, disturbed by the sounds of invaders. With an angry groan naruto rolled over deeper into his covers desperately escaping the noise. "Mmhm go away"
"Knock Knock Knock"
Attempting pure ignorance he took his pillows, wrapping them around his head in an attempt to ignore the outside world.
"Knock Knock CRASH" With a final jolt the door gave way beneath the furious fists beating on them allowing entry to the invader of nap time. "NARUTO Get up now, i know you're in there"
With a final sigh Naruto sat up, now fully awake and ready to meet his volatile teammate. Walking out into the Kitchen to find Sakura pacing up and down his kitchen muttering to herself about worthless teammates and lazy perverts.
"Morning Sakura-chan" With a wide smile Naruto greeted his friend, despite the rude awakening it was actually nice to see her after so long.
Sakura didn't seem to think so by the way she glared at him. "Naruto what are you doing its almost 11, why arn't you out training?"
"Heh heh no need to worry sakura chan, because i Uzumaki Naruto am going to win the entire chunin exam with my amazing plan" Thumb out in the Nice Guy (™) pose Naruto definitely started down the growing anger of the girl before him.
Sakura stared, open mouth, vein on her forehead steadily pulsing as the anger inside her grew, this idiot, this actual baka. He had the chance to be Chunin, to show the entire village what he was made of, and instead of training he was sleeping! She raised her fist ready to strike this stupid genin into a pile of mush beneath her.
"Wowa hold on Sakura-chan I'm not kidding i really have a plan" Even Naruto had a shred of self preservation and could tell now was not the time to bait the pinkette any further. "Please let me show you before you get mad"
"Hm, Fine. Lets go now, Training ground 4" Without another word she turned away towards the door, heading out into the streets of Konoha, Naruto hastily gathering supplies and running to catch up.
Page Break
One hour later in Training ground 4.
Sakura lay against the ground absolutely drenched, her eyes open and staring at the sky dejectedly.
"So what do you think" Naruto asked jumping down from the structure they had created, "Good plan right?"
Sakura looked up at the boy in front of her not even winded by their 'battle', she then looked toward the treeline where a pile of scrolls lay discarded a larger pile of unused ones sitting next to it.
"And your sure this is allowed?"
"Yep" Naruto happily grinned to himself.
"Fuking bullshit"