Meeting a Tanuki

The last few months after the group moved into a new house were rather uneventful. Yuna has gotten a good understanding of how ice jutsu is normally used and incorporated into the way she uses it. Although the combination of wind and water chakra created ice chakra, the process is usually on an instinctual level. When Haku uses her ice style she doesn't even notice how the 2 chakra natures fuse together. Yuna on the other hand does the exact opposite. She takes complete control over the fusion process.

Although these two methods reached the same goal, by looking at how Haku's ice chakra is created, Yuna could improve her own method that she developed through trial and error. Haku, unfortunately, got no benefits from comparing the two methods simply because she does it by instinct from the start. Before she could learn Yuna's improved method, she would have to learn to create ice chakra consciously first. Yuna wasn't even sure if someone who wasn't her could do that, so Haku didn't bother with that for now and instead started training in other areas.

Haku was already a pretty well-rounded fighter with a focus on speed, but she was still quite a bit away from what Yuna would call a solid foundation, especially in chakra control and canceling genjutsu, so that was what she was currently focusing on.

Anko has gotten quite the power boost after the curse seal was removed. It turns out that constantly suppressing a curse with your chakra does wonders for your chakra control. Additionally, by constantly having to hold back, Anko has gotten very good control over her body far surpassing everyone in their group except for Yuna. Anko had another fight with Hinata and this time actually managed to win the battle.

This, however, lit up a fire within Hinata and she took the intensity of her training up a notch.

Naruto and Yuna had the least changes in the last few months. Naruto was still struggling to get "three tails mode" under control, while Yuna was centimetering closer and closer to her fourth chain.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is that Anko, for some reason unknown to Yuna, has decided that she would wait with "night activities" until Hinata had a go first.

Yuna was rather sure that blackmail was involved somehow, but didn't bother to dig deeper. Anko and Hinata had actually become pretty good friends over the last few months, so it shouldn't be that bad...maybe.

Yuna, Hinata, and Anko were currently lazing around on the couch in their living room while leaning against each other. All three of them had their eyes closed and were silently circulating their chakra inside their bodies and stimulating their muscles with it. This was the first chakra exercise Yuna came up with and so far it has turned out to be an extremely useful technique. While tree walking and water walking are mastered sooner or later and could no longer improve chakra control, Yuna's exercise was different. The faster someone circulates theri chakra the harder it gets to control and the more taxing it is on the chakra control. Additionally, this has the side effect of increasing the strength of the muscles as well, since they are constantly put under pressure.

The trio actually spent quite the chunk of each day like this. Somehow leaning into each other while circulating their chakra.

After they were done with their exercise all the three of them opened their eyes at the same time. The first thing that happened was that Hinata and Anko gave Yuna a small kiss on her lips. Yuna could only chuckle at the little ritual the two have come up with.

After Anko gave Yuna her kiss, she started speaking.

"I just remembered, the chunin exam is just around the corner. I assume you want to participate, Yuna?"

Hinata immediately got excited when she heard that the chunin exam was about to begin, but Yuna couldn't help but smile wryly.

"What's wrong, Yuna? This should be exciting, right? A lot of shinobi will come to Konoha, this should be pretty interesting. There should be a lot of interesting people we can fight."

Yuna, however, could only shake her head with a small chuckle.

"Hinata, these are chunin exams. The people that will be coming are around high genin or low chunin level in strength. Please don't forget how abnormal our strength is compared to normal genin. Oh and Anko: Of course I will enter."

Hinata, immediately, got a little depressed when she heard Yuna's words.

'Right, I totally forgot about that. There is no way people exceeding the chunin level will appear. Guess this will be a rather boring event.'

Then, however, she remembered something else.

"Yuna isn't the chunin exam exclusive for three-person teams?"

"Not really. Curiously enough, two-man teams are forbidden, but going solo is fine."

Anko nodded her head at that.

"Indeed. Three people is the usual size for a team so it is the recommended number to attend the exams. Going solo is for those few that have the confidence to beat a three men cell on their own. It is a huge disadvantage to fight 3 on 1 so it is allowed as well. A group of two, however, is different. They have the advantage of not being alone, while the chance of them pulling each other's leg is pretty low as well. Working well together with one person is, after all, much easier than working well together with two."

Hinata nodded her head.

"I see, in that case, I can participate alone if either Kiba or Shino don't want to. That is good to know. Although I don't mind working together with these two, I would rather not stay a genin for longer than necessary."

Both Yuna and Anko nodded at that. They had no doubt that Hinata could pass the chunin exams on her own, after all.

"I wonder what Naruto will do? In my opinion, he should just toss aside those two dead weights and go solo, but I think Naruto is too nice to do something like that. I guess it doesn't really matter in the end. Even with two weights chained to his legs, he will still pass the exams easily, so no worries, I guess."

Hinata and Anko both nodded in agreement.

Naruto, meanwhile, just finished another "exciting" D-rank mission and couldn't help but chuckle a little when he felt a presence following him rather obviously. Moments later, he disappeared and reappeared next to an old cardboard box that was painted to look like a rock.

"Yo, Konohamaru, how have you been?"

A moment later, the box was tossed aside and revealed a young boy with spiky black hair and black eyes.

"Damn boss, how do you find me this easily every time."

"Haha, you are 100 years too early to sneak up on me, Konohamaru."

Naruto has, recently, become the "boss" of Konohamaru, Hiruzen's grandson. It happened when he tested a secret jutsu he has been developing to play a prank on Yuna, on Hiruzen and knocked him out instantly. At first, Konohamaru thought that defeating the Hokage could make him the Hokage so he wanted to learn the jutsu, but after setting Konohamaru straight, he suddenly started to call Naruto "boss".

"Come on, boss, you still haven't taught me any cool jutsu yet. If you would give me a cool jutsu I could easily hide from you."

Naruto chuckled a little at that childlike thought process and then answered Konohamaru.

"Considering you used a cardboard box to approach me, you haven't even mastered the three academy jutsu yet, right?"

Konohamaru looked a little sheepish when Naruto said that.

"Let's do it like this: If you can use all three of them in succession without failing I will teach you a jutsu."

Naruto slowly went through a few hand seals and then took a deep breath.

[Wind Style: Air Bullet]

He lifted his head up and shot a single wind bullet into the air. Konohamaru's eyes started to sparkle with excitement.

"ALRIGHT! Just wait, I will learn the three academy jutsu within a week and then you have to teach me!"

"Haha sure. Go for it if you c..."

Konohamaru didn't even wait for Naruto to finish his sentence and ran off. Naruto only chuckled at his fervor. He has seen at what level of chakra control Konohamaru was at, so learning these three jutsu within a week was pretty much impossible, but as long as he was motivated to train it was fine.

Moments later, Naruto's face became serious. Konohamaru just bumped into two chakra signatures that felt very different from the ones he is used to feeling inside Konoha. Shinobi in Konoha always seems to have a little bit of affinity with nature, meaning water and earth, while the two chakra signatures he was currently feeling seem to be more aligned to wind.

'People from Suna? Why are they here? This might be bad.'

Naruto vanished from where he stood and moments later he appeared near the two shinobi from Suna and Konohamaru.

One of them was a female teenager with blond hair and teal eyes that had a battle fan strapped to her bag, while the other one was a male teenager who wore a black full bodysuit and had facial-paint on his face while carrying around a huge packet on his back.

The man was currently holding up Konohamaru by his shirt and seemed to be angry about something. Naruto quickly approached them and started to speak.

"What seems to be the problem here? I am sure there is no reason to get this angry at a child."

The male teenager, Kankuro, immediately sneered at Naruto.

"Of course there is. This brat bumped into me, so isn't it natural that he receives some punishment. I hate brats like this anyway. Makes me want to kill them."

Kankuro reeled back his fist and was about to punch Konohamaru when Naruto vanished from where he stood and reappeared in front of Kankuro. One of Naruto's hands blocked Kankuro's punch, while the other one shot forward and stopped just before piercing through Kankuro's neck.

"Listen here, facial-paint. I don't care why you are in Konoha or what kind of big shot you think you are, but I suggest you don't attack random civilians while you are here. Especially not if they are the grandson of the current Hokage."

Kankuro's back was already overflowing with cold sweat when Naruto demonstrated that he could kill him easily, but when he heard that he almost assaulted the grandson of the current Hokage, his whole body shivered in terror. He was almost responsible for Konoha declaring war on Suna and he didn't even realize it. He nearly destroyed Suna's schemes before the chunin exams even started.

Naruto was about to start talking again when he felt someone else appearing nearby. Feeling that person's chakra, Naruto's eyes widened. Before Kankuro could understand the situation, Naruto had freed Konohamaru from his grasp and was increasing the distance between himself and the Suna shinobi.

Moments later, a cocoon of sand grew out of the ground, and a pale teenager with auburn-colored hair stepped out of it. He had fair white skin, huge black bags under his eyes, and was carrying a gigantic gourd on his back.

'Oi, Kurama...'

[Yeah, he has one of my siblings sealed into him. Shukaku, the one-tailed. Shukaku is pretty crazy, so don't expect too much from him.]

'Crazy? What level of crazy are we talking about?'

Gaara, who has just appeared, smiled with a face full of insanity when he saw Naruto.

"You are strong. Killing you will confirm my existence."

Next, Gaara seemed to get a heavy headache, but moments later it has already passed.

"Mother wants your blood."

'...Wow...just wow.'

[Yeah, no clue what Shukaku did to that kid, but he seems to be pretty far gone.]

'The seal to keep Shukaku inside him is basically a slightly modified storage seal from what I can tell, so he can mess with the kid's mind freely. That guy is literally a time bomb. I guess I have to inform the old man about this.'

While Naruto was talking with Kurama, Gaara got another headache, and moments later he switched from "completely insane" to "completely insane, but at least capable of communicating".

"What is your name? I will definitely kill you."

This might have been the weirdest way he had ever been asked for his name, but Naruto still answered.

"Naruto Uzumaki. You?"

"Gaara of the Desert... I will enjoy killing you."

After saying that, Gaara turned around and started walking away. Naruto, however, chuckled a little.

"Hehe, we will see about that, little Tanuki."

As soon as Naruto finished that sentence, an incredibly powerful killing intent crashed into him. While Kankuro and the other female teenager, Temari, were almost suffocating because of it, Naruto quickly stepped in front of Konohamaru to shield him. Naruto himself seemed to be completely unaffected.

"Haha, calm down, little tanuki. Fighting inside the village is a big nono."

Gaara's smile grew even crazier when he heard Naruto call him " little Tanuki" again.

"I will definitely kill you. Mother will love to taste your blood."

"Haha, sure. I would love to have a "little talk" with "your mother" as well."

After saying that, he turned around and left. He was half expecting Gaara to actually attack him as soon as his back was turned towards him, but it seems that Gaara was at least rational enough to not start a fight in the middle of Konoha where ANBU would flood the place within seconds.

'Hehe, how interesting. First I will go to the old man and make a report and then I will go to nee-san to boast about my encounter. I bet she will be jealous that I was the first one to encounter one of your siblings, Kurama.'

[Considering her personality, that might actually happen. I am looking forward to it.]