A Ninja's Gambit

Naruto and all related characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. X-Men and all related characters belong to Marvel Comics

Chapter 14: One Hour for the Test. Three Days for the Jungle

Naruto, Kiba, Hinata, and the rest of the genin made their way to the next half of the Exams. The one leading the large group of genin was one Anko Mitarashi, the proctor of the second half of the exams. The first half was a written test, which was actually a secret test for espionage, that culminated in one final question that accounted for 50% of the final grade, which was also the minimum.

"Man, that written half was brutal! Information gathering my ass, that was just pure torture!" Kiba moaned as he walked in between his teammates.

"Y-yes. I b-barely m-made it." Hinata said in her usual soft voiced stutter. Naruto smirked at his teammates and replied,

"Don't know what you're talking about, it was a breeze for me." Kiba stared incredulously at the blond gambler and said,

"What do you mean it was a breeze? I was sweating from the minute the test started, and let me tell you it didn't take me long to start cheating!" Naruto shrugged and replied,

"I didn't answer the questions." Both Hinata and Kiba's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates when they heard this.

"You didn't answer a single question?" Kiba asked. Naruto shook his head and replied,

"It pays to know a Pervy Sage that you can blackmail into telling you anything." Hinata and Kiba looked at him curiously before they arrived at their destination, a large forest surrounded by a chain link fence

"Alright maggots, listen up! This is the Forest of Death! It's filled with poisonous plants, dangerous animals, and killer insects. It's also your home for the next three days!" Anko shouted with sadistic glee, she loved to make genin sweat. Naruto eyed the place suspiciously and then said quite loudly,

"Doesn't look like much to me." Suddenly a yellow electric like blast shot out of Anko's hand, nearly striking Naruto, who dodged only for the blast to strike Kiba who fell over paralyzed[1]. Anko then threw a kunai at Naruto's face, which he again dodged. Suddenly Anko disappeared and then reappeared behind Gambit and brought a kunai close to the blond gambler's neck and said,

"I just love cocky kids like you. It's always fun to watch you crack from terror!" Suddenly a Grass ninja appeared behind Anko holding a kunai with a ridiculously long tongue, claiming that the kunai Anko threw cut her hair. Anko waved her off and began to hand out consent forms. After everyone had signed their forms Anko explained the point of this half of the Exams. Everyone was given a scroll's with either heaven and earth written on them and the objective was to get both to gain entry to the tower in the middle of the forest. Everyone was told to enter at a different gate around the forest and when the alarm sounded they rushed into the forest. Naruto and Hinata headed to their designated gate, while Naruto had to carry Kiba who was still paralyzed. Anko said that it would wear off in about half an hour, but Naruto was just wishing that Kiba wasn't so heavy. Fortunately with Kiba's healing factor, the paralysis wore off in 10 minutes. Soon an alarm sounded and everyone rushed into the forest.

Naruto leaped easily from tree to tree, using his astounding natural agility and his bo-staff. Kiba was loving the so-called Forest of Death, having fun clawing his way through the trees. Hinata was a little afraid of being in the forest for three days, but a few words of encouragement from Naruto and Kiba made her feel more comfortable. After moving nonstop for three hours, and not finding another team, the team decided to set up a camp. They reached a very small clearing with a large tree that seemed to be hollowed out on one side.

"Let's make camp here. We can set the sleeping bags up inside the tree for later." Naruto said, deciding to take charge.

"B-but what if s-something's i-inside it?" Hinata wisely questioned. Kiba walked up to the tree and sniffed inside the hollowed out part as he said,

"I don't smell anything." Hinata was still not sure and said,

"W-well there c-could be k-killer insects inside." Naruto sighed and threw a card into the tree, making an explosion that cleared out the tree of any potential threats. Naruto then did a fancy wave and a bow as he said,

"The tree is clear milady!" Hinata blushed at the name as they began to set things up.

"You do know that you probably attracted a lot of attention to us right?" Kiba growled out, clearly annoyed by Naruto's overkill idea of clearing the tree.

"Between my cards, your claws, and Hinata's Byakugan, we got nothing to worry about so relax." Naruto said as he sat on the ground, stretched out and leaning on the tree. Kiba mumbled something that sounded like "Crazy card-shark", but Naruto heard it, though he chose to ignore it. Kiba began to walk out of the camp, causing Hinata to ask,

"K-kiba? W-where are y-you going?" Kiba turned around and said,

"I'm gonna go scout around." Hinata was a little worried that Kiba was going off alone, but by the time she started to say something he had walked off. Naruto sighed as he knew that Kiba was going to try to find some action. Sometimes he really wondered if there was a brain under all those claws. Well if Kiba got his way, there would be brain ON his claws at least. Gambit shuddered a little at his feral teammate's new bloodthirsty attitude.

It had been two hours and Kiba wasn't back yet, something that was making Hinata very nervous.

"W-where is h-he? I h-hope he's alright." The Hyuga heiress said with a voice full of concern. Naruto, who was playing solitaire, shrugged as he said,

"I'm sure he's fine. He can heal from just about anything in a few minutes right?" Hinata nodded thought she was still worried. The Gambling Genin could tell that she still had some reservations so he said,

"Would it make you feel better if I went to look for him?" Hinata stared at him, her pale eyes filled with anxiety at being left alone in a place where anyone could happen across her. Naruto did several hand signs and said,

"Summoning Justu." Causing a brown six foot caiman to appear.

"What's dis den?" The caiman said in a somewhat high pitched accent.

"I need you to look after Hinata. Make sure nothing tries to hurt her." Naruto instructed the reptilian.

"N-Naruto? He's not g-going to e-eat me r-right?" Hinata wisely asked. She wasn't exactly familiar with crocodilians, aside from what she learned on the animal channel, which meant she only knew about alligators and crocodiles.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt you. Will you?" Naruto said reassuringly to Hinata, and inquisitively to the caiman.

"Yeah dat's right. Don't you worry non ma cherie, I protect ya real good!" The caiman said as it lumbered over to the Hyuga heiress. Naruto then reached into his coat and pulled out two headsets. The blond gambler handed Hinata one, which she then proceeded to put on.

"Just radio in if something happens." Naruto said as he put his headset on.

"Why d-didn't you give one t-to Kiba?" Hinata asked. Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he said,

"Well I kinda forgot to bring one for him, not that he'd use it anyway." Naruto then headed off to find his feral teammate.

Gambit made his way through the forest, following the claw marks on the trees. He soon came across a blood covered clearing and a couple of bodies. Naruto had a feeling that Kiba might have had something to do with it, but as he got closer he saw that there were large amounts of sand on the grassy clearing and that there weren't any slash marks on the bodies. Suddenly the sand began to enclose on Naruto, who managed to leap out just in time. Naruto watched as the sand began to flow over to the other side of the clearing and formed into a rough image of a human body. The sand then formed into a smoother human like form and colorized, revealing it to be Gaara.

"It seems we meet again." The red head said.

"Yeah it does. You know I just remembered that I never gave my name, it's Naruto Senju." Naruto said as he took out a couple of cards. Gaara nodded as he turned around, ready to leave, and replied,

"Well then, I suppose I'll be on my way." Naruto looked at him curiously and said,

"Aren't you gonna try to take a scroll from me?" Gaara turned his head in Naruto's direction and replied,

"I already have what I need, and I don't see any point in harming one like me." Naruto was confused about what he meant and asked,

"What do you mean I'm like you?" Gaara turned back around and said,

"You have a prisoner inside, the same as my sister and I. I can sense it. While I never have much problem killing, I never harm those who share our burden unless the situation warrants it." Naruto was even more confused now and asked,

"What are you talking about?" Gaara narrowed his eyes and said,

"It seems that you don't know. I would tell you what I mean, but it's not my place. Ask your parents if you have any and they might have the answer." And with that the red head became a sandstorm and flew off. Naruto was rightly confused out of his mind, but made a mental note to mention this to Tsunade. The blond gambler then heard a large boom come from a few yards away. Naruto rushed toward the sound to see Kiba and Shino defending Sakura and an unconscious Sasuke from a Sound Ninja that wore a thick yellow quilted shirt and and a brown vest. He also had gauntlets strapped to his arms that seemed to be vibrating. The Sound ninja threw his hands back and then unleashed what looked like a shockwave from his gauntlets which Shino dodged, but Kiba took full force. The feral genin was slammed through several trees, thus knocking him out. The Sound nin turned his attention to Shino and blasted his insects away. Naruto decided to intervene and threw a card at the attacker, blasting him away. The boy got up and looked over at Naruto who was now standing in front of Shino and Sakura.

"Who the hell are you?" The boy sneered. Naruto smirked and said,

"You can call me Gambit. And you are?" The gauntlet wearer chuckled and said,

"Name's Zaku, but I go by Shocker. I'd tell you not to forget it but you won't be around long enough to worry about that!" Zaku then unleashed a massive shockwave from his gauntlets toward Naruto, who dodged and threw several cards at Zaku but they were deflected by his shockwaves. The Shocker unleashed a large blast which sent Gambit flying hard into a tree. Zaku walked up and cackled as he steadied his gauntlets on Naruto.

"Say goodnight!" Zaku yelled as he got ready to unleash a massive shockwave, but suddenly a roar was heard. Zaku looked just in time to see Kiba slice his left arm off. Shocker howled in pain as he clutched the stump where his arm once was. The clawed Inuzuka then sliced off the other arm, doing a great job of scaring Sakura out of her mind. Naruto got up and looked over at the quivering arm-less Sound ninja then at Kiba as he said,

"A little much don't ya think?" Kiba shrugged and replied,

"It's not like I killed him or anything." Naruto looked back at Zaku and said,

"Might be more humane if you did." But before they could do anything else, a powerful wave of vertigo hit both of them. Naruto and Kiba fell over just in time to see a girl with black hair holding her hand out at them. Then a mummy wrapped boy with a gigantic gauntlet on his right arm walked up next to her.

"What do you think, Dosu? Do we kill them too?" The girl asked the one now identified as Dosu.

"Not yet Kin, we kill the Uchiha first." Dosu said as he began to head for Sasuke's unconscious form. Shino stood in front of him with his insects ready, only to be struck with a powerful feeling of vertigo that was coming from Kin[2] which caused him to fall to his knees. Sakura stood in front of Dosu, but was smacked aside by his large gauntlet and into a rock. Dosu stood over the Uchiha and raised his gigantic gauntlet, ready to smash him. But before he could he froze, unable to move a muscle.

"Man this is a drag." An uninterested voice said from behind a bush. The source of the voice walked out of the bush to reveal one Shikamaru Nara, using clan's Shadow Bind on Dosu. Kin was about to unleash a blast of vertigo on the Nara, but couldn't move as another Shikamaru[3] stepped out of the bush behind her using his shadow to paralyze her.

"I don't think so lady." The other Shikamaru said. At this point Shikamaru's teammates, Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi, walked up.

"You guys alright?" Ino asked as she looked them over. Naruto got up and replied,

"Yeah, still a little dizzy though." Kiba on the other hand shambled over to a bush and puked from the the spinning feeling. Ino then looked over at Naruto and said,

"You better not throw up on me." Naruto smirked and said,

"It'll take more than that to make me puke." No sooner had he said this than he ran over to a tree and vomited on it.

"Well now that that's taken care of, what do we do with him?" Shikamaru said, pointing to the still knocked out Sasuke as his duplicates absorbed into him. At this point Sakura shambled over, her leg and arm broken, and passed out.

"Correction. What do we do with them?" Naruto said as the rest of them surrounded the pink haired girl.

PLEASE REVIEW!

1. This is Asp's power. She's a member of the Serpent Society and can fire venom blasts that can kill or paralyze.

2. Kin has Vertigo's powers, a mutant who can cause people to have, naturally, vertigo.

3. In case it wasn't obvious, Shikamaru has Multiple Man's powers. I'm basing it on modern Multiple Man though, who can control when he makes clones without having to be hit.

Special thanks to YoukoTaichou for the ideas