Chapter 168

Anko leaves through the hallway at the end of the room with the Anbu tailing her. Kakashi turns to his remaining students, and though noting the red-haired girl next to his blond student, he commends his soldiers as much as Asuma does to his team.

"Naruto, Sakura," Kakashi starts. "Good work. I'm certainly proud."

"What happened to Sasuke," Sakura asks.

"Later," Kakashi tells her. Moving toward the same hallway Anko took Sasuke, Kakashi informs his team, "you'll have to remain here until the test is complete but there's a lounge, cafeteria, library, training center, and you'll have your own rooms. I'll find you both when I can," then disappears after the third genin of their team.

Asuma remains by his genin students while Hiruzen steps up to his Leaf-nin and states with grandfatherly pride, "you no longer have to open your scrolls. On behalf of the Chūnin tasked with receiving you, congratulations. Team 7, Team 10, you've passed the second test."

"Was there ever a doubt!" Naruto yells, startling the other genin and widening Hiruzen's smile. The boisterous blond then surprises everyone, by immediately looking crestfallen. Turning to Karin, Naruto winces as he apologizes. "Sorry, Karin-chan."

Looking away from the leader of their villageâ€"possibly her leader as wellâ€"Karin tells her cousin, "it's okay." She didn't think she would be this close to their famed leader so soon and finds it odd when the Hokage casually asks her blond cousin, "and who might this be, Naruto-kun? That headband identifies you as a kunoichi from Kusagakure."

As Karin realizes she hasn't taken off her headband, Naruto happily answers in the most unexpected way. "Ah! This is Uzumaki Karin! She's my family! She was Kusa, but she wants to emigrate to Konoha. She can stay right, Ji-chan? I kind of already said she can," he adds with a bit of a nervous chuckle.

'How in Kami's name is he not bowing and begging forgiveness for speaking in such a casual way to his leader, the leader of Konoha's Hidden Leaf Village?!' Karin thinks as she takes charge and formally bows to the famous leader. "Hokage-sama of Konohagakure! As Naruto stated, my name is Uzumaki Karin. Upon discovering each other in the forest, he graciously offered me residency here. No, more than that. He offered me a home. I know that I am a stranger to you, but with your permission, I would like to accept Naruto-kun's offer and humbly request citizenship."

Ino felt such a rush of relief at the word family, she covertly lets out an anxious breath buildup stress as the Hokage hums a second before he agrees with his comforting smile.

"Yatta!" Naruto calls out with a hop in the air. Despite failing to protect Sasuke from Orochimaru's seal, he's ecstatic to have a blood-related family member and cannot wait to tell Naru-nii. "Ne, she can stay with me right, Ji-chan?"

"I'll inform your sensei and I'm certain everything will be sorted," Hiruzen communicates before turning to the stunned faces of Asuma's genin. It amuses the elder shinobi to no end when others witness his interactions with Naruto-kun and he laughs on the inside.

Becoming serious, Hiruzen recites in a commanding voice, "if you lack heaven, seek wisdom and be prepared. If you lack earth, run in the fields and seek advantages. If you have both heaven and earth, you can succeed even in the most dangerous of missions. These rules will guide a person's extremes." Hiruzen didn't need to read the words above the genin in order to repeat them as he adds, "As Chūnin captains, you have a responsibility to guide your team with mind and body in all your duties. That is the Chūnin motto and I wish you all luck with the rest of your exam."

There was a lot of action in this chapter. I feel like I'm going to have to practice that more since the whole tournament/invasion is coming up. This one was nice, but I feel I can do better. This also means that I have to get a list together of ninjutsu I want to use in battle. There wasn't really much here and I want to incorporate ninjutsu whenever possible.

Speaking of, I feel like if Orochimaru can handle 1 four-tailed Naruto with busted arms, then he should be able to handle 4 one-tailed Narutos at peak performance. Which means Naruto was always going to lose. Obviously that won't always be the case. Naruto will only get stronger and stronger, but for now, I needed Naruto to go up against someone crazy strong. It'll help with other stuff later on.

This will also help Sakura. The best she can manage against orochi is stabbing herself, and running around. She'll get stronger as well, but it'll take more time for her. That being said, Naruto was never going to stop Sasuke from getting the seal. Team 7 just can't handle pre-botched arms Orochimaru. He's too powerful and they're only lucky he didn't want to cause to big a scene or they would be dead.

Speaking of Orochimaru. I really love that villain. He's so selfish, but he doesn't covet power, per se. He covets immortality and to conquer death. He uses anything and anyone to secure his own agenda and only really kills for that purpose. He's pretty fascinating so I do want to use him more, I just don't know how yet... apart from canon I mean.

KARIN! Ugh, I felt for her. Her village sucks a fat one and Shigeri's definitely dead. I hated her teammates, the way they just grabbed her arm, like they're entitled to it or her chakra... always pissed me off! If I had a spot in the chapter for her to watch Shigeri get sucked dry, I definitely would've written it. I have ideas and plans for Karin. I don't know if you guys know or not, but I couldn't find any evidence in canon that Naruto knows Karin is or isn't his kin. I find that weird, especially if she was in the room for the exam when he literally yells at everyone his full name, and the fact that he wasn't going to lose to any of them. I know Kishimoto only thought of her after the fact, but a little explanation would've been nice.

There was a line in canon from Shikamaru about Naruto not being the protagonist of a story, and at the time, I thought it was BS, but lo and behold, emo-Sasuke was Kishimoto's flavor the entire time. Still, I had to put that line back in because this is fanfiction and wrongs must be righted.

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