She then explained the rules of the exam, holding out two scrolls she said it would be a race to the center of the forest, and only if you managed to get a hold of both and arrive before the 120 hour time limit is up. There were 3 rules they had to follow, 1 they must have both the heaven and earth when they arrive, rule number two, if any member of the team can"t go on, then the whole team fails, and lastly no looking in the scrolls."What happens if we take a peek?" Naruto asked, "That"s for those who open it to know." Anko responded putting her finger in front of her lips.
She gave them a final bit of advice "Stay Alive." as they began taking people into booth with a black curtain; there they handed out the scrolls in divisions of 3. After everyone had their scroll they took off into the forest.
For the test, Naruto and Kibo had to split up, but they agreed to meet up a few miles east of their starting point, after they met up they showed each other the scrolls, Naruto"s group had the Earth scroll, and Kibo, Karin, and Hinata, had a heaven scroll, they decided to work together when Naruto said, "Sorry guy"s gotta use the bathroom." After stepping around the tree a loud noise was heard, along with Naruto yelling "G.o.d d.a.m.n it! Do you guys even know about timing." A ninja from Amegakure wearing a full body wet suit was slammed through the tree, showing Naruto on the other side zipping up his pants.
"Does he have a scroll?" Kibo checked over the body and smiled, "They have an earth scroll, well were set." Kibo said storing the scroll in his inventory. Suddenly a large explosion went off sending a gust of smoke into the air; the group was blasted apart flying from one another. Kibo opened his wings and managed to catch them in the air by tying up with his Chakra.
Knowing it was Orochimaru attacking he didn"t bother staying around; he took the group and flew away at max speed. He wouldn"t let Orochimaru mark Sasuke, after all Kibo planned on killing him soon, but he still needed him alive for now. After getting far enough away, he put the team down. "What was that?" Karin asked, "Kibo looked back and said, "Someone summoned a powerful and big Chakra Beast." Kibo replied.
"Why"d we run?" Naruto asked, Kibo laughed, "They didn"t have the scroll you need." Kibo then activated his mind"s eye and searched over the battle field, he located 3 nearby teams, and 2 had the heaven scroll, Kibo laughed as he used his wind lord step and appeared in front of the ninja Gaara was suppose to kill, Kibo didn"t know squat about this guy, but he needed his scroll so he stepped out from behind cover and hit them before they knew what happened, he tied them to a tree, and took the Heaven scroll, after returning to the team, he tied them up and flew all the way to the tower in the center of the forest, their time 17 Minutes 08 Seconds.
Everyone was a little dazed when Kibo said, "Open it." The two opened their scrolls and Kakashi and Yamato appeared out of them. "Congrats." Yamato said, surprising everyone but Kibo, Kakashi then said "I got to say, you guys just beat and set a record that I don"t think anyone will be beating anytime soon!"
"Where"d you guys come from?" Sakura asked.
"Kakashi and I wore summon seals directed at the scrolls." Yamato explained, "If you guy"s had opened them anytime during the exam and any other place than here, you would have been hit with a Gen-Jutsu and we would have knocked you out. Thus failing the exam." Kakashi finished.
"Well we have around 119 hour"s remaining." Kibo said as he started heading up stairs, "I"m going to go catch some sleep, you guy can do what you want." Karin followed after him and the two spent the rest of the time napping and enjoying each other"s company. Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Sasuke went out to eat.
A little less than 5 days had pa.s.sed and every one that was supposed to arrive; showed up. They stood lined up together, while the Hokage and Jonin from the other villages stood beside him, Sarutobi then began to explain the purpose of these shared exams. They are to improve relations between the villages, present up and coming ninja to clients, and create an opportunity for mingling between fellow Shin.o.bi.
Because of having too many partic.i.p.ants advancing to the next stage, the proprietor of the event and the examiners tend to run additional preliminaries to reduce the number of finalists. Although the exams, specifically the final round matches, are designed for there to be an ultimate "winner", success does not guarantee promotion nor does failure preclude it; if the observing ninja and Daimyō feel a Genin displays the necessary qualities for a Chūnin, that Genin will be promoted regardless of how they place in the exams. For this reason it is possible for as many as all of the finalists to pa.s.s, or even for none of them to. Being victorious simply expands the partic.i.p.ant"s chances of demonstrating their qualities in the next match.
Kabuto raised his hand and forfeited the match giving Karin an automatic victory, he looked at Orochimaru who was in disguise, standing mere feet away from the Hokage, and smiled as he walked away. He explained that he took some damage, and won"t be able to partic.i.p.ate, Naruto seemed b.u.mmed out about this when they dismissed him, and began putting up roster.
A man walked up that had short brown hair, dark-colored eyes and dark markings under his eyes. Even though he was a young man, he had p.r.o.nounced lines under his eyes as well as an unexplained chronic cough that plagued him. He wore the standard Konoha Shin.o.bi outfit complete with a forehead protector that he wore as a bandanna, flak jacket and regular Shin.o.bi sandals. He also carried a katana with a rectangular hand guard strapped over his back. He coughed as he announced his name and position.
"My . . . "cough" . . . Name is Hayate Gekko. I"ll be your referee during the preliminaries; there is only one rule, no direct outside help." He turned to the screen on the wall behind the podium the Hokage was standing on. Two names popped up as Hayate shouted "First up was Kibo Hoshi versus Misumi Tsurugi!"
Kibo yawned as he walked onto the stage, "That"s the new clan, that moved into Konoha 8 years ago?" Baki, Gaara"s team captain spoke out. Baki was a very tall man; he had two distinctive red markings on the right side of his face, the only visible part of his head, with the rest being covered by his turban-like head gear and by a sheet hanging from it on the left side of his face. He dons the standard attire of a Sunnin, complete with a forehead protector and flak jacket.
Kakashi smiled and said, "Yes and he"s very strong. I wouldn"t be surprised if he was the one who won the whole tournament." Before Baki could say anything in his team"s defense the match had started.
Kibo didn"t want to waste time so the moment the masked ninja attacked; Kibo used the most basic version of his Clan"s Blast Technique. A ball of Star Chakra appeared on his palm and he blasted Misumi into the roof, the enemy Nin"s eyes rolled back as he fell towards the ground. Kibo caught him and threw him over towards his team mates, everyone except the Konoha Shin.o.bi were surprised.
The Leaf Nin had seen the Hoshi Clan"s attacks before and knew what would happen the moment the Star Chakra appeared. The Ninja from other villages however were freaking out; Kibo"s blast was like staring down the 4th"s Rasengan again. "Chakra so dense one could shape it. What a monster." Baki muttered under his breath.
As Kibo was declared victor he pa.s.sed on a panacea pill to Hayate, before saying in a snarky and annoyed tone "For your cough." Hayate looked at the Hokage to see him nodding that it was safe to ingest the pill. After eating it he felt a surge of vitality combat his illness. Within seconds the bags under his eyes disappeared as he coughed up a clear looking liquid that was in his lungs into a handkerchief. He looked to Kibo in amazement and bowed once to show his gratefulness.
As the Kibo jumped up past the railing to join his team; Naruto gave him a fist b.u.mp just as the next rounds partic.i.p.ants were called onto stage.
"Sasuke Uchiha versus Yoroi Akado!" The two contestants walked up to each other, Sasuke began the match with a fire ball jutsu, Yoroi managed to avoid the attack as he jumped to the side, unfortunately for him Sasuke wanted to try out his new technique.
He placed steel garrote wires around Yoroi"s body and sent a flood of fire Chakra into them as a blazing fire trailed along them. "Fire Sakura!" Sasuke"s attack showed a large sakura pattern from above the stadium, as Yoroi"s body burst into flames, he performed his water Jutsu to douse the fire. However the sound of Sasuke chuckling before saying, "Thanks for the conductor." sent chills of danger down Yoroi"s spine, but it was too late.
Sasuke grabbed onto the wet strings and sent an electrical current throughout the wires surface, Yoroi could only scream as he fell unconscious. Kibo noticed Orochimaru drooling with his eyes, that"s when he remembered something Orochimaru said in the Cannon, "Sasuke"s my type, that"s why I want his body, although it"s still a bit immature." Kibo shook as he thought about what was going to happen next.
"Zaku Ab.u.mi versus Shino Aburame!" Hayate called down the next challengers, Zaku the sound Nin was overconfident and the match ended in a similar fashion to the original time line, he ended up bragging for too long, giving Shino the chance to sneak his bugs into his wind tunnel, and like the moron he was, ended up blowing up his own hands.
Kibo shook his head as Neji looked into his body, "Pretty cool right? He becomes the host for millions of insects working together in a symbiotic relationship." Kibo said making Neji"s eyes go wide, "You could see?" Kibo smiled and activated his Tengan, "How many times do I have to say this to other Do-Jutsu users? You"re not the only one with special eyes." Neji gulped, he had meet Kibo on occasions, such as birthday parties, and formal events, but this was his first time seeing the Tengan.
"It"s a bit different than from what father told me." Neji thought, because Kibo eyes mentioned in the report from back then; didn"t have the same number of rings and coronas in it as it does now. "It must have evolved again; it truly shares some aspects of the Sharigan"s ability to grow. Worthy of joining the ranks of the great Do-Jutsus." Neji continued to ponder as the next names were called.
"Kankuro versus Sai!" The two Ninja walked down and faced each other, Ino suddenly called out, "You can do it Sai!" making Sakura look over to her in confusion, a bit of blush was seen on Ino"s face as she cheered.
Apparently during the exam, because Kibo had taken Gaara"s kill, his blood l.u.s.t hadn"t been sated, during the scene he was supposed to kill, he ended up discovering Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji hiding in the bushes near them. In order to take out his frustrations on them he attacked them, causing team 8 to almost lose their lives. Sai had appeared riding on a giant Ink bird, after saving them he took an attack from Gaara to save Ino"s life. A small sand bullet nearly pierced his chest, if it weren"t for the sketch book he kept on him, the bullet would have destroyed his heart.
He raised his hand to kill them but stopped, Gaara was confused as to how Sai could sacrifice himself for another like that, and wanted to ask him personally before he killed him. Letting them go he continued on his way, but the way Ino looked at Sai changed significantly, especially when she asked why he did so, "I couldn"t let the beautiful girl, I"m falling for get hurt." His face had a straight smile on it making Ino turn red.