Welcome to the much beloved and anticipated second chapter of Konoha's Puppet Menagerie. Ok, seriously now. I thank all of you who have reviewed and given me reviews longer then a sentence and provided me with what they thought about the story. Remember, I don't know how to improve or know what you liked about my writing if you do not tell me clearly and concisely. I am a male, I do not have the ability to read others minds. Anyways, I will provide a small description at the end of every chapter on the specifications of a puppet that appears or let you know what chapter it appeared in. I will also occasionally answer your questions if I feel that they are important or interesting enough, so.
Oh, and before I forget, the pairing listed is mainly for a Naruto and Hinata friendship. I do not have the experience to write romance and the characters are 12. Twelve-year-old romance is mainly awkward and weird for those involved and I really do not like writing that kind of stuff on purpose. I do like putting my characters in awkward situations that fit their personalities to gain the most awkward out of the situation, but not writing about the awkwardness of young romance. Plus I feel that a person should not start to date until they are around 15 to 16. Just my personal opinion.
Usagi-no-Kasai: No, this is not, but I was planning on something like a living puppet story as a one shot, omake, or actual sub-story. The story would be more complex then a Chucky like puppet, so we will have to see.
BlackDove-alchemist: I never noticed that. I mostly write the way I speak and then move on. I don't have a beta and mostly do that work myself by re-reading the chapter a few days after finishing it so that what I read is mostly fresh and then I correct any odd points I see then. If you could be more specific on what you mean by odd and where on your next review, I would be most thankful.
Now, on with the story.
Konoha's Puppet Menagerie
Chapter 2: The Second Exam
"Okay class, set down your pencils. The time for the written test is over. Please come down in an orderly fashion to place your tests on the desk."
As the class proceeded to stand to comply with the orders of the young and lightly- tanned chunin who went by the name of Umino Iruka, a blond headed twelve-year-old sitting at the back of the room thought back to his previous experiences in the test.
'You take this test two times and you begin to notice patterns on what they ask you for the third.' Though the blond who was known as Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto could only chuckle as he though about how much had changed, while at the same time remaining exactly the same. The thought was only reinforced as he looked down at what he was wearing.
Naruto's outfit was made up of a pair of loose light brown pants like those that samurai wore that were made from fabrics that would not tear easily and would help prevent injury from shuriken. These pants were tied off with an internal tightening string where his pants met his black shinobi boots that looked like a pair of hiking boots that ended about 2 inches over his ankle, without the toe or the heel, and with straps instead of laces. Over his chest was a long-sleeved mesh shirt with a long-sleeved, medium-green hooded sweatshirt over it. Wrapped around his neck was a 4 foot long scarf with the pattern and black on orange color of one of Konoha's local tigers. Resting over Naruto's eyes were a pair of green goggles with a pale green lens that looked like the kind one would wear skiing. In addition to this, the blond shinobi-to-be wore a gear pouch on his belt situated over his back left hip, and a kunai holster strapped to his right thigh over a layer of bandages to protect his leg.
With a sigh and a stretch, Naruto became the last person to stand up and wait as the front of the desk cleared enough to drop off his test. He was in no hurry as he knew that this year he would pass unlike the previous two where he was busy focusing on other, slightly more important, matters then focusing on learning the bunshin jutsu.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Next up is Uzumaki Naruto."
It was these words by Iruka that led to Naruto opening his eyes and standing up from the small nap he was taking as the others students were tested in the next part of the exam. As he ambled down the stairs he saw that all of his classmates that had taken the test so far had received their headband with the metal emblem marking them as leaf ninja. With a slight shrug, Naruto followed Iruka into a nearby room where he could perform the test.
"Alright Naruto, now you only need to create three clones and you pass the academy and become a genin. Do you understand me, Naruto?" Iruka asked after he had taken a seat at the desk next to the assistant teacher, Mizuki.
With a nod and a quick smile at his favorite teacher, Naruto closed his eyes and began to focus on his charka. After a moment, his eyes snapped open and he performed three quick hand signs. With a burst of smoke, Naruto and a small part of the room was obscured from sight. Within seconds of the smoke appearing, it dissipated and revealed a bakers dozen Naruto's standing there waiting for orders.
Iruka smiled widely as he saw all the work that he and Naruto had done together for the past year had come to fruition.
"Congratulations Naruto," Iruka happily stated, "I now welcome you into the halls of official Konoha shinobi. Please come up to the desk and pick up a head protector."
With a nod of their heads, twelve of the Naruto's faded away as the remaining one walked over to the desk. Once there, he picked up one of the metal plated pieces of thick cloth and tied it around his forehead after letting his goggles drop down around his neck. Looking up and smiling at the two who had taught him for the past couple of years, Naruto received a duplicate of the smile from Iruka and from Mizuki he received a sneer that was quickly covered.
With that finished, Naruto walked out of the room to rejoin his classmates until the tests were finished. With one last glance back into the room, Naruto shut the door and wondered what the look Mizuki gave him was about, before deciding that it didn't matter.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Pulling his keys out of his pocket, Naruto opened the door to his apartment after his classes were finished for the day.
The class had concluded after the last few students had created their bunshin and received their leaf engraved head protector. After the class had settled down, Iruka proceeded to lecture the class about their new responsibilities to Konoha. He finished his lecture by telling the class of graduates about their new privileges including the option to pick up low level training books in the shinobi library in the Hokage tower, and mentioned that higher level training and technique books needed jonin consent to pick up. Iruka finished his speech by telling the class that they had the week off while the tests were graded to look at the training materials that they had available and to get their official picture taken. With one last 'be here on time for class a week from now', Iruka let the children run out to mob their parents.
Closing and locking the door to his apartment, Naruto begins to celebrate in a calm and orderly fashion. Yeah, right.
"I'm a ninja! I'm a ninja! I'm a ninja!" Naruto excitedly shouted as he danced around in some bizarre mixture of an animal mating dance and an American football touchdown victory jig. Once he was finished bouncing around the room Naruto let loose a quick burst of giggles before he composed himself and proceeded to walk into his bedroom. Upon reaching his destination, Naruto opened the door to his inner sanctuary.
Naruto's proclaimed 'me space' was not much to look at. There were dirty boxers in random piles across the hardwood floor. Wrappers from snack foods were littered around the bed. Sitting on the shelf by the window were three small, but well cared for plants. The bottom half of the closet was stuffed full of clothing that Naruto had thrown in there. The top half of the same closet held what appeared to be a couple of sashes hanging there instead of clothes. The wall that held the entrance to the room had several bookcases filled with scrolls and numerous small wood or metal objects. The remaining walls had several posters of voluptuous women wearing bikinis standing in various provocative poses. Finally, the top of his dresser held a small library of books on woodworking, metalworking, cloth working and chakra control, an alarm clock, and a single wooden model of the late fourth Hokage sitting in front.
All in all, it was an average room for a single male between the ages of 12 and 90.
Once Naruto was again stepping through his favorite mess, he made his way over to the wooden model that was sitting on his dresser. The moment that he reached it, he began to tell it about his day, like he did every day. After recounting all of the boring stuff that he was subjected to, Naruto had gotten to what he felt was most important.
"Oh, yeah… and I'm now a genin." Naruto said, forgetting for a moment that he had passed the test. "Well, I'd better get to fixing this thing up. I'll talk to you again later tonight." Naruto cheerfully said as he pulled his head protector from his forehead and walked over to his closet to pull out what appeared to be a bandolier with scrolls filling three of the eight available pouches. From the bandolier, Naruto pulled out one of the scrolls labeled work kits and said to himself, "Note to self: Remember to thank Sarutobi-oji for teaching me basic item sealing."
With a small flourish, Naruto opens the scroll and unseals two medium sized kits from within. One of the fishing toolbox like kits was labeled cloth while the other had the word metal on its label. From there Naruto closed the scroll and carried both it and his head protector along with the unsealed items into his living room to his kitchen table.
Setting the items he held down onto the tabletop, Naruto took off his scarf and set it to his side and pulled his goggles up over his eyes. Once that was finished, he reached over to grab his new head protector and the work kit labeled metal. As soon as he was holding both, Naruto set the headband in front of him and set the kit to his front right and opened the kit. Naruto performed a quick look through the contents of the organized container and pulled out a couple of tools. Looking down at the plate on the head protector, the energetic blond began his work.
Thirty minutes of delicate work later, Naruto had succeeded in removing the plate from his headband. Finished with that task he opened the kit with the cloth label and began to work on his scarf so that when he added the metal plate to it he was not breaking any of the strings that make up the piece of cloth.
After another thirty minutes Naruto had finished moving the plate from his headband to his scarf. With his task complete, Naruto cleaned up the small mess that he made and resealed the kits into the scroll, which he then took into his room and set on top of his dresser. Walking over to the closet, Naruto grabbed the bandolier and put it on. Wrapping his scarf around his neck as he walked over to the door, Naruto left his apartment to go train in the nearby forest and collect some decent wood while he was there touching the two remaining scrolls to make sure they were still secure.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
It was nearing ten at night as Naruto was running through the forest to get back to his bed to sleep. He was returning home after he had finished some training followed by a quick ruin of picking up and sealing some decent logs to work with into a scroll he was carrying. Naruto normally would not stay out so late, but he stayed out later then normal as he had lost some time altering the head protector and he could sleep in until he had to return to the academy next week.
As he was hopping along the branches with his modified protector bouncing against his chest along with his bandolier with only two pouches filled, Naruto decides to take a quick break against a shed that he spotted in the direction that he was headed in to rest his tired legs. As he was resting, he was thinking to his self about what he could do with the three logs that he had picked up.
'Well, I could take these logs and begin working on a new toy as I've hit a wall with number One until I can figure out how to launch weapons or increase the range of the already installed ones. Or I could remodel parts of One using this wood as it is of a better quality then the wood I am currently using. It would probably be best to create the blueprints for a new toy as I will have to remodel One anyways when I figure out how to overcome my problems and I can then use the wood for either I feel like doing when I do. Yep, that's the plan.' Naruto finished his internal pondering and was about to get up when he noticed several kunai flying toward him. Unable to dodge in time, he made use of one of the jutsu taught at the academy, the kawami no jutsu.
From the location that he had escaped to, Naruto quickly looked to where his attacker was, finding Mizuki kneeling on a tree branch around seven feet off the ground. On Mizuki's upper back were two incredibly large shuriken and hanging on his lower back was an ornate scroll that was around three and a half feet tall and two feet thick. With a quick glance at Mizuki's face, Naruto found that the academy was wearing a cruel and somewhat demented smile while his eyes nearly sparkled with bloodlust.
Cautiously entering a defensive stance, the younger of the two present carefully asked, "Mizuki-sensei, what are you doing?"
"Why Naruto," Mizuki stated, cruelty dripping from his very words, "I was just doing Konoha a favor right before I abandoned it."
"What! What kind of favor are you talking about? Why are you abandoning Konoha?" Naruto yelled as fear began to creep into his voice. He had an idea what the favor was as he remembered what occurred on his sixth birthday.
"I'm leaving Konoha," Mizuki sneered, "as they are weak and they are holding me back. As for the favor…" Mizuki chuckled darkly, "Do you know why you are hated Naruto?"
At Naruto's head shaking to indicate no, Mizuki proceeded to explain the law surrounding him and how the Kyuubi was sealed into him. Mizuki concluded his speech to the shocked and frightened Naruto by screaming with nothing but madness in his voice, "AND BECAUSE OF THIS YOU MUST DIE KYUUBI!" Right as Mizuki finished saying this, he threw one of his oversized shuriken at the wide eyed blond child in front of him.
In some alternate universe, Iruka would have been there with Naruto. Mizuki would have used the fact that Iruka's parents were killed by the Kyuubi and the way that Naruto cared for Iruka to hurt Naruto emotionally so that he would stay still. As Iruka was not there, Mizuki didn't have the idea to use him to hurt Naruto. With that, Naruto dived out of the way of the shuriken speeding to him and rolled into the nearby bushes as the giant bladed weapon spun off into the darkness of the forest. As the shuriken flew, Naruto rushed to his feet and fled into the darkness of the forest.
"Heh, that's right Kyuubi, run off into the forest. I always did enjoy hunting."
With that cruelly announced, Mizuki began his chase of Naruto for the next several minutes, keeping out of range of Naruto's ability to detect him, only to surge forward every so often for the purpose of causing Naruto to panic. It was after fifteen minutes of this chase where Naruto tripped over a root and was sent sprawling on the ground. With that, Mizuki decided to finish the game and jumped from the trees he was following in and landed a couple of yards from the scared child struggling to crawl backwards away from him. It was when Naruto's back bumped against the trunk of a tree that Mizuki decided to speak.
"Want to know something funny brat? I was planning for you to fail the test again so that I could have you break into the tower and steal this for me, as I would have approached you after class and offered you a fake makeup test. But you didn't fail, so I had to risk getting captured myself instead of having you taking the blame and killing you when you gave me the scroll. Oh well, I got the scroll in the end. It has been fun brat, NOW DIE!" Mizuki screamed as he threw his last giant shuriken at the trapped blond, a sick smile on his face as the weapon shot forward aligned with its target, Naruto's neck.
When the blade of death was only a foot from its target, Naruto's arm shot upward, his hand striking the spinning implement and knocking it off course with the sound of metal striking metal.
Mizuki stood transfixed, unable to believe what he had just seen. His surefire way to kill the demon brat had failed. Mizuki's eyes were locked upon the shuriken that he had thrown which had lodged its self into the tree barely an inch above Naruto's bowed head, his face hidden in shadow.
"You… you demon! This proves it! You are the Kyuubi reborn! No human can do that!" Mizuki bellowed as his eyes dropped down onto the boy sitting against the tree before him, arm still extended, still as a statue.
"That is true… a human would have trouble doing that… but who said that demons were the only things who can reflect shuriken, Mizuki-sensei." Naruto's voice floated from the small figure in an oddly hollow tone, as if he was speaking through a wooden tube.
Mizuki was just about to ask what was wrong with the blonde's voice when he noticed that there seemed to be small bamboo leaves falling off the right side of Naruto's face.
"What the…" Was all he was able to get out before the blond raised its head to reveal that the upper right side of the face was wooden, and that the right eye was now a glassy black bead the size of an eye. It was this moment that the still raised fight hand clenched into a tight fist for a moment before it opened flat with a tearing sound. The four fingers burst in a flurry of bamboo leaves leaving behind four 5-inch long scythe like blades.
Mizuki was only able to take a step backwards before the strange being rushed forward and attacked him, preventing him from shouting out that the blond was not human.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
A poof of smoke was all that was left of the item that Naruto sealed back into one of the two scrolls that he was carrying on him. With a small flourish, Naruto rewraps the scroll before tying it closed and placing it back into his bandolier. Pulling out his scroll he had sealed the wood into earlier and letting out a small sigh, Naruto looks over to Mizuki, who was unconscious with both of the giant shuriken that he had thrown at Naruto earlier embedded into his back. Naruto let out another sigh and with a blank face approached the body of his fallen foe.
"You just had to do it." The only conscious person in the small open space muttered. "You just had to attack me didn't you. If I was the Kyuubi, would Hokage-jijii be so nice to me? You know, I should probably ask him just to be sure."
Reaching Mizuki's body Naruto looked over the man's wounds and told him what they were in a clinical voice, despite the man not being able to hear him.
"The first shuriken that I threw was stopped by your vest so that will only cause some heavy bruising. The problem lies with the second shuriken I had thrown is where the problem lies. That one happened to hit your body right below the protection of your vest. Because it has severed your spine, you never be able to walk again, much less feel any thing below your mid-torso." As he was saying this, Naruto was removing the gigantic shuriken from Mizuki's body and sealing them into the scroll that he was carrying the wood in. Continuing with what he was saying with some mischief leaking into his voice, Naruto explained to Mizuki how he had defeated him.
"Hey, I bet you want to know how I beat ya, you sorry bastard. Well, it's simple really. What I did was when I rolled into that bush earlier, I released my toy and let it take my place and directed it from behind you while you chased it. Despite my lack of control I have yet to gain over it you did not notice the poor movements. When you threw that second big shuriken, I sprung my trap and controlled my toy from behind you and kept you distracted until I could grab that shuriken. When I had both, I used them to distract you and had my toy perform the blow that knocked you out. That is all."
Done with his explanation Naruto walks over to the large scroll that Mizuki had dropped when he went down curious what was inside it. What it contained was not what Naruto expected it to be, which was numerous storage seals storing everything Mizuki owned. Instead it appeared to be the written instructions for a jutsu.
'Let's see… Kage Bunshin no Jutsu… here are the hand seals which are… the way to mold the charka is… the strengths and weaknesses are… special abilities… Huh, that was interesting. I will have to try this some time. Now, I know I have heard the name of this jutsu before, but where was it…'
XxX Flashback XxX
An eight year old Naruto was sitting in the Hokage's chair at the desk looking at the first entry of a large scroll sitting in front of him.
"Hokage-ojisan?" The young blond questioned the person smoking their pipe by the open window.
"Yes Naruto?" The elderly man responded to his young companion.
"What is this?"
The elderly man carefully stood up to walk over to see what Naruto was asking about. When he saw the source of the question he let out an exasperated chuckle and explained what sparked the youngsters' interest.
"This Naruto-kun happens to be the instructions on how to use the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It is a dangerous technique that has been placed into the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, which is a dangerous scroll that should not be looked at by someone as young as you."
With that Sarutobi gently picked up the scroll and closed it before he set it back down on his desk.
"Now Naruto, could you please tell me how you came across this scroll." Sarutobi asked Naruto in a tone of voice that made it clear that it was a demand and not a question.
Naruto responded to by looking up into the elderly mans face and closed his eyes while giving him his widest smile.
XxX End Flashback XxX
'Oh, right. That's where I heard about this jutsu before. Well, I'd better return this to jijii then.' Naruto though to himself before he closed the scroll and secured it against his back. Once the scroll was secure, Naruto began to run in the direction of the tower where he was sure he would catch the old man to return the scroll.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"I thank you for returning the Scroll of Forbidden Seals to me, Naruto. Mizuki is being picked up as we speak." Sarutobi stated from his chair. "I would like to have a written report of what happened to you this evening on my desk sometime tomorrow. But for now it is late and I am sure that you have a few questions for me. I will answer what I can but I cannot promise to answer everything due to several promises that I had made."
Sarutobi looked into Naruto's eyes to let him know that it was his turn to speak.
With a nod of acknowledgement, Naruto proceeded to quietly speak his mind.
"Well old man I only really have one thing I want to ask you about. In the forest, Mizuki-bastard told me that I had a connection to the Kyuubi. I am not sure what he said was true or false and I was wondering if you could help me by telling me what is true."
With a nod of his head, Sarutobi began speaking. "On the date of your birth, Naruto, the great lord of the biju Kyuubi had awoken from its great slumber and reappeared from where ever it was sleeping. It then began to travel in our direction destroying everything in its path. I do not know where it was headed, but where it was going placed us strait in the path of destruction. Shortly after nightfall the great beast was only a few miles from our village. We had sent our shinobi out to try to delay the beast while the Yondaime prepared a way to defeat it. You must understand Naruto, all of the biju are immortal as they are composed of nothing but a form of chakra infused into one or more natural elements. The Kyuubi was the greatest of the biju as it did not require any supporting elements and its body was nothing more than a form of solidified chakra. It was because of this that we could seal the beast away. Now, we could only seal the Kyuubi into a human container as anything else would not have the chakra or the will to hold it for more than a short time due to the great power of the beast. If the Kyuubi was sealed into a human older than a day or two old, then when said person died, the Kyuubi would escape and attack where ever it was released. Sealing it into a newborn would tie the life of the Kyuubi into its container so that when the container died, so too would the great beast."
Taking a deep breath, Sarutobi continued speaking, "That was the reason that the Yondaime chose you to contain the Kyuubi Naruto. You are not the Kyuubi, have never been the Kyuubi, and never will be the Kyuubi. You are the container for the Kyuubi, nothing more, nothing less. Now, do you have any more questions?"
Naruto looked up toward the ceiling while he thought for a moment and then looked back the old man before shaking his head indicating that hid did not have any more questions. At Sarutobi's gesture of dismissal Naruto stood up and walked to the door. As soon as his hand touched the knob, Sarutobi spoke again.
"Could you please wait a moment longer Naruto? I just remembered something important to tell you." When Naruto returned turned back to face him, Sarutobi continued to speak.
"Naruto, the fact that the Kyuubi is sealed within you is a secret that is only known by the older generation in Konoha. To reveal this to someone who does not know is an S-class crime punishable by death. Only the Hokage or you can reveal this with out punishment. Additionally Naruto, I want you to be careful about using Kyuubi's chakra. The seal is designed to absorb small amounts of the beast's chakra and slowly convert it into a kind that you can use, slowly enlarging your chakra pool. This has the unfortunate effect of allowing the Kyuubi's chakra to pass through the seal. It is unfortunate as though its chakra would provide great power, every time that you use it the seal will weaken and make it that much easier for the Kyuubi to escape. It is because of this that I want you to avoid using that chakra at all costs, no matter what anyone says otherwise. The seal appears to be able to repair its self, but the repairs take a very long time to complete and using the beasts' chakra will only do more damage to the seal as it is repairing its self. If you ever happen to use the Kyuubi's chakra, I want you to come to me as soon as you are able to so that I may check the seal. Do you understand me Naruto?" Sarutobi finished in a serious voice.
Wide eyed and slightly frightened, Naruto responded, "I- I understand Hokage-jijii. I will be careful as you asked."
With a small, sad smile Sarutobi dismissed the young pre-teen by saying, "Thank you Naruto that is all I ask. I know that this information may be difficult, but you don't have to worry. Please go home and go to sleep as it is late out, and please enjoy your week off from the academy."
With a quiet goodbye, Naruto left the office and trudged home to go to sleep as like the old man said, it was fairly late, resolving to think about the information that he received in the morning.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Sitting in his usual spot in the back of the classroom, Naruto reflected over the events of the past week.
'Well let's see. First I graduated from the academy. Then that night I was attacked by a crazy idiot and proceeded to kick said idiots ass. Right after that I talked to the old man and got the facts strait about why the majority of the village seems to hold me in disdain.
The next day I spent the morning trying out the Kage Bunshin no jutsu and in the afternoon went to the shinobi library and read about traps more advanced then what they teach about here in the academy. Those traps gave me the inspiration I needed to create some basic launching systems for kunai and shuriken that I still need to test and improve some. The next day I took my official photo and met Konohamaru, and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon teaching the kid the fine art of making perverts bleed out their noses. Day three of my break was spent with the morning dedicated to blueprinting my launchers and the afternoon was spent learning about genjutsu, as I still suck at dispelling it. I know that I've gotten better due to being able to detect and break almost all of the ones the old man cast on me, but those were easy and not complex or advanced at all. My genjutsu casting still sucks, but I can get help with that later. The remaining four days were spent working on the weapons launching and extendable weapons systems and working on a new blueprint for number Ones remodel, and looking for any information about puppeteering that I could find as I still am having trouble controlling them with my chakra. I also had met up with Iruka-sensei a couple times to eat ramen. And that brings me to today, waiting for Iruka-sensei to come and tell us what we need to do next to become ninja.'
With that last thought a couple of girls attempted to barge into the classroom. They attempted due to the fact that they were both trying to pass through the door first and were trying to keep the other from getting in as well, leading to them both becoming somewhat stuck in the doorway. After around a minute of struggling, both of the girls forced themselves into the room at the same time.
'Great, it's Sakura and Ino. Just when I thought that I could have some peace this morning, those two come in.' Naruto thought as he watched the two girls arguing before they ran over to where their crush, Sasuke, was sitting.
'It's hard to believe that I used to have a crush on that.' Naruto thought to himself as he watched Sakura punch Kiba out of the chair next to Sasuke and attempt to sit down there as the majority of the female class began to clamor for the seat as well.
'I mean seriously, the first time that I see her is the first day of class this year. I walk over after class to say hi and tell her that I think she is cute. Next thing I know, she is trying to beat the life out of me while screaming that she is destined only for Sasuke or some shit. Killed that crush fast.'
It was at this moment, where Sakura and Ino were about to lead charges against each other, that Iruka walked into the room. He proceeded to silence all the screeching girls with the application of a simple yelling big head demon jutsu. With that done he began his prepared speech to his graduating class.
'Yeah yeah, that's nice. Pride of shinobi… dangerous world… work with your team. I got it.' Naruto silently thought right after Iruka finished speaking.
"And now I will announce what the teams are. The team that you are placed into is not changeable so do not ask me to do so. Team one is…"
With Iruka saying that, Naruto's attention began to wander as he wondered who he was going to be teamed with. Like everyone in the class, he had people that he did not want to be paired with and he hoped that he was not placed with either the pink or blond harpy or the black haired prick as he called Sakura, Ino and Sasuke respectively. Naruto snapped back to attention when he heard the pink harpy's squeal of joy and the groans of despair from the females who liked the prick. Looking over to where Sakura was sitting, Naruto saw Kiba begin to slam his head into the table repeatedly, a small white puppy with brown ears sitting on the desk in front of him. From these occurrences, Naruto deduced that Kiba, Sakura and Sasuke were on a team together.
"Team eight is Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto."
When Naruto heard who his team members were he gave a small nod as he had nothing against either one. With that he listened to the remaining teams and laughed at Ino when he heard that she was paired with Shikamaru and Chouji. He had nothing against the two, but he knows that they would annoy Ino to no ends simply by being themselves.
With the last team called, Iruka gave a small final speech.
"You will now be given an hour break for lunch. Please be back in the classroom by the end of it so that your jonin instructor may pick you up. Before you all go, I would like to say that it has been my pleasure to teach all of you and that I hope that you all may become wonderful shinobi. Finally, you can find your test scores posted outside the door. You may go."
With that Iruka stood up and left the room, allowing his once students to do as they pleased to spend the time until their new teachers came.
Naruto let his classmates who were leaving exit before he opened his backpack and pulled out a bento. After grabbing his lunch Naruto proceeded to walk down the stairs and exit the classroom. After thinking for a moment Naruto decided to eat on the roof and proceeded to make his way there.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
After finishing his lunch, Naruto found himself back in the classroom waiting for his sensei to pick up his team. Looking to the clock, he found himself with only a short wait until the lunch break was over. Deciding to use that time to the fullest he pulled several sheets of blank paper out of his backpack. Naruto used the paper to begin writing down several ideas for what weapons to include into his first toy when he modified it later. Finishing off the page he was writing on and about to start on the second, Naruto stopped when he heard a woman's voice call out, "Team eight, please follow me out to the side yard."
Looking up, Naruto spotted a flash of dark hair leave the open door. With a shrug Naruto places his weapon notes back into his backpack before closing it and putting it on his back as he walked to the door. On his way down, he caught up with Hinata and Shino before they made it out the door.
The moment that Naruto stepped out of the classroom, he saw the woman that would be his jonin instructor. To say the least, Naruto was impressed. She was of an average height, but stood with an aura of authority that made her seem taller. Her long, wavy, dark brown, almost raven black hair reached down past her shoulder blades and framed her face well. Her skin was light but not pale and went well with her dark hair and bright red eyes. The woman's head protector was on her forehead on a dark cloth. Her outfit looked to be made of wide strips of cloth layered in such a way at to become a dress over what was possibly a shorter dress with one sleeve removed. The woman was a beautiful woman in Naruto's eyes, but she was not the kind of beauty that he was interested in.
The jonin looked over Naruto and his two companions for a moment before she sternly stated, "Follow me."
The three genin followed the woman as she walked down the corridors of the academy until she reached one of the side entrances. Without missing a beat, she opened the door and walked outside. Following her until she reached a pair of stone benches that sat parallel and close together, the three proceeded to sit down together on one of the benches at the gesture of their commander. Once all three of the genin were sitting, the woman they were following sat down on the other bench across from them.
"Hello you three. To get to know each other better how about we introduce ourselves. I will go first. My name is Yuuhi Kurenai. I had become a jonin last year and I specialize in all three types of genjutsu. I like to read about various subjects including psychology and romance novels, gardening, and spending time with my friends. I dislike perverts and those that do not believe that I can be just as effective as a shinobi due to my gender. My goal is to make my team an efficient group that works well together. Now it's your turn."
With Kurenai focusing her eyes onto him, Naruto knew that it was his turn to speak. Slightly straitening his back, he began.
"Hi, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. I do not really specialize in anything but I do focus most of my attention on trap making and I have been trying to learn about genjutsu recently. I'm not that good at it due to my chakra control, but I am improving. I like ramen which is my favorite food, reading, and carving wooden sculptures. I don't like waiting for my ramen to cook, people who attack each other for badly thought out reasons, and people who think they are better then others just due to a family name. I also really hate it when girls go all stupid when Sasuke is near them. My goal is to become as great a shinobi that I can be so that I can protect all those that I care about."
When he finished, Kurenai gave a small nod and small smile before her eyes focused on the girl sitting next to Naruto. With a small gulp Hinata began speaking while seeming to try to shrink into her jacket, head slightly bowed, her eyes looking toward the ground.
"Hel-Hello. My… My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I… I specialize in my family's tijutsu style, the juken, but… I am not that good at it. My likes are… I like cinnamon rolls… flowers… and people who are kind to others. I-I do not like people who are mean to others… or cloudy days. My am-ambition… is to be stronger… and to be noticed by someone." Hinata quietly said with the last part being spoken barely above a whisper.
With another small nod and small, slightly sad smile, Kurenai turned to the last member of her team and waited for him to speak. With his back in its usual strait position, Shino began to speak in his customary somewhat monotonic tone.
"My name is Aburame Shino. I specialize in the use of my families allies for a variety of purposes. I enjoy studying insects and finding new ones to study. I do not like people who kill insects without regard as to what type of insect it is. My goal is to learn all my family's insect techniques and to help create new ones as well as to help strengthen my family's allies."
Once again nodding once her genin that had finished speaking, Kurenai then proceeded to gracefully stand. Motioning for the three sitting before her to do the same, she proceeds to begin commanding her team. With a simple, "Please follow me to our training ground." Kurenai begins to show her team where they will be training in silence.
After a moderate journey through the outskirts of Konoha, the four soon walk into a medium sized grassy field surrounded by trees with the sound of a stream close by hidden in the trees. In the center of the western half of the field was located a trio of new training logs. It was when the group was within 10 feet of the logs that the eldest member of the group stopped and turned toward the younger three before she began speaking once again.
"Now that you three have seen where we are training, there is one more piece of information that I want to cover. I want the three of you to be at this training field by 9:00 am tomorrow morning. Please bring all the equipment that you would bring to a full field practice. You will be using that equipment to determine if you will pass to become genin."
"WHAT! What do you mean about becoming genin!? Didn't we already pass the test in the academy?" Naruto fumed while Hinata simply stared at the woman with her eyes open wide in shock. Shino responded to this information by simply staring at Kurenai with his eyebrow raised.
Kurenai placated her genin by telling them the truth. "Yes, you did pass the tests held by the academy but that test was to see if you held the potential to become genin. This test, which has a 66 percent failure rate, is to see which of you can become genin. Out of your entire graduating class of 30 students, only nine will become genin. The remaining 21 will be placed back into the academy to retake the courses until they can pass this second test or they quit the sinobi program."
After receiving this information, the three genin stared at the woman with their expressions ranging between calm acceptance from Shino to mouth-wide-open gob smacked from Naruto.
Silently amused at Naruto's expression, Kurenai reminded her team of when to meet the next day before she disappeared in a sushin. With their commander gone, the three young ninja wandered out of the field and headed to their respective homes to prepare for the next day.
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It was right as Naruto's watch would have struck nine had he worn one that Kurenai appeared before her team walking onto the field. With a quick look over the three waiting there Kurenai began.
"Good, you are all here. Now, this test is quite simple. All you have to do before this alarm clock rings in one hour is touch me." Kurenai stated as she placed a small alarm clock on one of the training logs before she continued to speak.
"Now for a few simple rules for this test. Rule one is that you must touch me with your own body so hitting me with weapons or insects will not count. Rule two is that I will not be idle while you are coming for me. While I will not use weapons against you or strike out, I will be dodging your attacks and will use genjutsu against you. Rule three is that you may use whatever weapons or items you want in order to help. Now, do you have any questions?"
At the shaking of the three genin's heads indicating that they did not have any questions, Kurenai reached over to the alarm clock and rested her finger on the starter.
"As you have no questions, the second exam is going to begin… NOW!" Kurenai called as her finger pressed down.
Kurenai smiled in amusement as her three charges jumped away and hid in the nearby forest as they planned ways to get to her.
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Next time on Konoha's Puppet Menagerie
Naruto: Damn, I knew that this would be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard.
Naruto: Wait a minute, what was that?
Naruto: That just might work.
Next time: You are Team Eight. Fight your hardest Naruto.
Naruto: These missions… suck.
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Here is chapter two. It turned out differently then I had originally planned, but it was a good different. I was going to skip the encounter with Mizuki, but I decided to go ahead with it and I preferred it happening then what I had planned with Naruto just skimming over it in his head when he was in class. This led me to dropping what I was going to do for the second test as I felt that the chapter was getting long enough as it was.
Anyway, I was having some trouble hitting the personalities that I wanted for the characters and every time that I tried to add more writing, it only got worse. Because of that I declared it a lost cause for this chapter and will try to pin down what I want from them for later chapters.
As the puppet did not fully appear, I am not going to provide a puppet information packet to let you know what it is.
Well, you know the deal. Review and give me incentives for writing, as your reviews are the fuel that pushes me to try writing faster.