32 The Chunin Exams are Close at Hand

Several days later, everyone had met up at the completed bridge.

Kakashi could be seen talking to Tazuna who had his family beside him while the rest of team 7 stood nearby.

"Thank you for all your help, the bridge has finally been completed, but it's going to be a little dull around here once you guys are gone," Tazuna said patting Inari's head.

"It was no trouble, sir!" Yamato said giving a cheerful smile,

"Who are you, again?" Tazuna responded, casting a shadow of gloom over Team 7's Lieutenant.

"Thank you for your hospitality; we've enjoyed our stay here!" Kakashi replied before laughing at Yamato's misfortune.

Naruto had been chatting with Inari this whole time.

"Don't worry about it, Inari. We'll come back to visit sometimes." Naruto said as his eyes started to water at the same time as Inari.

"Don't let it get you down Inari; you can cry if you want," Naruto goaded the boy.

Inari closed his eyes and shouted, "Yeah right! Who's gonna cry? Hey, Naruto Nii Chan, you can go ahead and cry yourself if you want."

"Tsk, Yeah right! See ya later," Naruto turned around and started crying and walked away while Hinata comforted him.

She patted him on the back of the hunched over Naruto while everyone else tried to hold in their laughter.

Behind them, Inari started crying too, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Tazuna started patting Inari's head, and as he continued to watch Team 7 walk away, the master-builder said, "That boy touched the hearts of every villager here. He didn't just help us build a simple bridge, he helped build up our hopes and courage. You know, we haven't given this bridge a name yet. How about the Great Naruto Bridge."[1]

Team 7 had finally returned to Konoha; they had gathered in Sarutobi's office and had just finished giving over their mission report.

The Hokage's jaw remained dropped through the whole speech; certain things were removed from the written documents so as not to risk information leaking about the Chakra Mine.

Sarutobi was more impressed with the fact Kibo managed to subdue a Jonin like Zabuza, and a Chunin level Haku.

When the Hokage heard the Mizukage was being controlled by a Gen-Jutsu the atmosphere turned somber.

"This is a serious matter indeed. I'll have to schedule an off the books meeting with the remaining Kage." A vein could be seen throbbing on Sarutobi's forehead.

"This couldn't have come at a worse time! We'll be holding the Chunin Exams next year." Sarutobi sighed as he pulled out his pipe.

"During the Chunin Exam, I'll have to send out invites to the other Kage in secret. We'll deal with the Mizukage's issue, you kids just need to prepare for the Chunin Exams, leave this to the adults."

Kibo shook his head at the kid comment and informed the Hokage of their adventure to the Land of Whirlpools.

Sarutobi's eyes bulged as he heard they defeated an S Rank monster.

Kibo then stated that placing the sealed creatures in the training cave being a good idea, more specifically, he pointed out that the portable training room would be the safest place to store them.

After explaining that the room existed in a separate space than this one, and it wouldn't be subject to natural disasters, invasion, and Shinobi attacks.

Sarutobi was surprised even further.

Kibo didn't say where the room came from. When the Hokage asked, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "It just appeared there one day!"

And with that done, soon he would have A and S ranked monsters to fight and feed Seiryu. Not to mention even greater smithing materials.

Kibo then bowed to the Hokage and left with the others.

Kibo didn't mention anything about the upcoming events concerning the Chunin Exams, because needed that moment on the roof with the Hokage and Orochimaru.

He had plans for that snake, and that eye thief Danzo as well.

Kibo was sure Danzo would be joining in on the attack, there was no way he'd miss out on getting his revenge. After all, Danzo was that kind of spiteful character that would kill the Hokage just so he could take his place.

Kibo had several months to prepare for the exam, but he hardly any time to train. During this time, Team 7 would undertake 10 B-rank missions, and their first A Ranked mission.

Since the bridge-building incident was upgraded to an S-rank, they hadn't actually completed an official A-Rank mission before.

Another major change occurred sometime after Karin's and Hinata's time being possessed by the Reibi. For some reason or another, the two female Nins spirits overlapped and somehow duplicated each others' Elemental Releases.

Karin gained the ability to use Lightning and Fire Release Jutsus, while Hinata gained an affinity for Earth, Water, Yin, and Yang. So altogether, Hinata and Karin have Earth, Lightning, Water, Fire, Lightning, Yin, and Yang.

Karin already had a talent for Yin and Yang, but sharing a spirit while being infused with Yang/Light Chakra caused them to awaken the affinities. If they fused all of the 5 basic elements, they could discover the Metal Element.

With Karin and Hinata far stronger than they were in cannon, the missions went by even easier.

Thanks to their hard work, Kibo actually gained and allotted many of his system points to a few good items.

He purchased the final Profession Relic in his 5-Year shop. Then he purchased a Master Craftsmen Portable Forge Room, It was the single most expensive item he purchased yet.

It cost him 250,000 points. There were cheaper versions of it that consisted of a novice, Journeymen, and Expert Portable Forge Rooms, but he wasn't willing to skimp on this.

If purchasing a better forge would allow him to be less wasteful with his Chakra ore, then Kibo wouldn't even think twice.

Then, he even purchased some additional forging materials, like a hammer, leatherworking kit, and different ores. After that, he only had 7,500 left to spend on various medicinal herbs for his alchemy experiments. By the Kibo turned 13, he only had a meager 90 points left.

As for the 1/2 Reibi soul, Kibo knew one day he'd have to find the other half before adding it to a new star chamber.

Luckily he knew where to start his search, but the location of the Reibi no Yami had yet to appear; so he would have to wait a few years.

It was Winter and during this point craving phase that Kakashi brought him a bit of good news, "Team 7 has our first official A Ranked mission! We are to escort an actress by the name of Yukie Fujikaze."

Sakura and the rest of the girls seemed to have perked up at the drop of the famous actress.

"You mean the actress who played Princess Fūn in the new movie Clash in the Land of the Snow, that Yukie Fujikaze!?" Sakura said with her eyes glowing.

"Her last role's romance scene was so adorable!" Karin followed up.

"I...I like the part where she sacrificed herself to save her loved one and was rewarded for it." Hinata spoke up next.

It was clear the girls had watched the actress's other works together.

"Good. I guess that means some of you have already seen it. I've prepared tickets for the rest of you. So I want you all to watch it so you can get an understanding of what our next client is like," Kakashi responded waving the tickets in his hand.

Sakura grabbed one of the tickets and said, "I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm a big fan of her films. I've been looking for the chance to go watch it! B~U~T, we've been so busy this past week I haven't had the time. Thank you Sensei!"

Sakura gave Kakashi a heartwarming hug.

When Sasuke saw this, his eyebrow twitched for a second. Just short enough for most people to miss his change in expression.

He then walked over, picked up Sakura, and pulled her away from Kakashi while taking his ticket from their Team Captian's hand.

Sasuke gave Kakashi a dark glare as he walked off with his arm around her shoulder.

Sakura's face was bright red, all systems had crashed, steam floated from her ears, and she could only make out his name with a surprised expression "S.Sa.Sas.Sasuke!"

Kakashi laughed and scratched the side of his head in an awkward tone.

Kibo thought it was a little strange that this event was happening before the Chunin Exams instead of after.

Sarutobi was alive in the film to give the mission, so it had to be before the attack on the leaf, but in the period between Kakashi teaching Sasuke the Chidori and Naruto learning the Rasengan.

It couldn't after Sarutobi's death because Sasuke was in a hospital bed and ran away from the village right after. They had no time for Tsunade to be sworn in as the new Hokage, or for her to give Kakashi the mission. Not to mention Naruto was out looking for her to heal Rock Lee.

The movie timeline never made much sense anyway, so he wouldn't be surprised if the changes the God talked about when he first reincarnated into this world happened sooner than later.

The rest of Team 7 took their tickets and headed out to watch the movie.

They made sure to buy popcorn and snacks, but because of the Exam being so close to starting, they still insisted on watching the movie from the roof as extra training.

Kibo made a floating table so they wouldn't make a mess, and then the movie started off.

The intro began with Princess Fūn history. She was an exiled princess forced out of her land at an early age by her father's evil advisor. The man killed her family and she managed to escape. After a lengthy journey of her growing stronger and meeting worthy allies, the princess returned to her land.

Fūn's nemesis, Mao, challenged her group with an army of undead soldiers. His dark intentions seemed to prevail; that is, until Princess Fūn and her teammates, Shishimaru, Brit, and Tsukuyaku, unleashed the power of the Seven-Colored Chakra upon him.

They saved the day, and Naruto, who was watching from afar couldn't have been more elated.

He started cheering when one of the cinema managers threw a flashlight, hitting Naruto on the head.

Naruto lost his concentration and he'll to the ground headfirst. He quickly bounced back up and started rubbing his head before he shouted, "Hey old man! What was that for?!"

"You little runts snuck in, didn't ya?!" The cinema manager shouted.

Everyone else jumped down and showed their tickets.

Unfortunately, the audience of the movie began to throw objects at the team for making so much noise arguing with the cinema manager.

As Team 7 was forced to leave the theater without being able to see the ending, they gathered in at an unused construction site near the building where Sakura could be heard shouting, "Damn it, Naruto! You couldn't keep your mouth shut for ten more minutes! We missed the ending of the movie!"

"Sorry Sakura, I've never seen a movie before! Most people in the village usually threw me out before I could even watch. I was a little excited!"

Kibo could see the sympathy in her eyes when Naruto moved closer and whispered, "I'll pay for the tickets so you and Sasuke can watch it again later. That way, you can watch it with him, alone."

Sakura stopped just as she was about to slug Naruto for getting too close. A smile then spread across her lips before shaking hands with the blond-haired Uzumaki.

"Naruto is getting better at handling Sakura's outburst," Kibo thought while shaking his head with a chuckle.

"What did you think, Kibo?" Karin asked.

Kibo mulled it over for a second before saying that he actually liked the movie. It so much better when you can just cast Jutsus rather than using computer-animated special effects, but when the two mixed together, it was actually way better than anything they could do on old earth.

"A~h~h. The Seven-Colored Lights reminded me of my sister, Suzaku. Her Seven Colored Flames would burn in a similar fashion. They could bring an eternal spring to a winter land, or burn a person's very soul to oblivion." Seiryu mentioned as a sense of sadness could be seen on his face.

Kibo sighed and wondered if there was any connection to the Rainbow Chakra and Suzaku. But he didn't think that two of the sacred beast would end up here. The odds were astronomical, so he put the thought to the back of his mind.

Sasuke, seeming to have heard Naruto dealing with Sakura under the table, decided to punish her by saying, "Nah, I'll just wait till it comes out on sale and watch it at home."

Sakura was about to resume with the punching, when suddenly, Hinata stepped in-between them and tried to play mediator.

While the trio bickered, the actress who they were supposed to protect, Yukie Fujikaze herself jumped the fence next to Team 7 on a large white horse.

She had long black hair that was flowing in the wind with long bangs that ran down on each side of her face.

Her face was one fit for the movie screens as she looked like a supermodel. Her aquamarine eyes were slightly slanted and her eyebrows were thin and well-groomed.

The young maiden wore an expensive green blouse under a loose pink jacket and had on light brown gloves, her attention only focused on Team 7 for a second, before dashing off madly on her steed.

The men she was being chased by were wearing kabuki-samurai armors and riding large brown war horses. Each of them carried large rope nets in their hands while shouting commands to their comrades as they charged in the direction of the actress.

Naruto and Hinata ran on top of the rooftops, staying as close to Yukie as they could. Some of the armored men threw a net out that was about to capture her, but Naruto threw a few Shuriken shredding it into pieces while Hinata's clones knocked out the men with her gentle fist.

Yukie, seeing the unexpected helpers, took off again as fast as she could.

Naruto and Hinata chased after her while Karin, Sakura, and Sasuke pushed the bulk of the attackers away from their target.

After they quickly beat them down and just finished tying them up, Yamato and Kakashi appeared on a nearby rooftop and shouted, "What are you doing?"

"Killing some time!" Sasuke said with a child-out tone while clapping his hand together like he was whipping off dust.

"These guys were chasing down our client; we're just tying them up so they can answer some of our questions.

As Kibo stood in the distance trying not to laugh, Kakashi flickered over cutting everyone's ropes. Their Team Captain then picked the only man without the armor on and started apologizing.

It turns out that they were actually stuntmen disguised as bodyguards led by Yukie's manager, Sandayū Asama.

He was an elderly bespectacled man with grey hair that was pulled back into a small rat's tail hair-style.

As Kakashi Finished informing them of this misunderstanding, he looked around and scratched his head while saying "Hey! Where are Naruto, and Hinata?"

Naruto and Hinata had chased down Yukie several times, and things played out similar to the original timeline, except this time Hinata joined him in his antics.

After her constantly trying to ditch them, she managed to drench an unexpecting Naruto with pepper spray under the guise of giving him an autograph.

While Hinata took care of her boyfriend, Yukie made her escape and found her way to a watering hole.

Kakashi and Yamato joined the crew and were informed of their difficulties with Yukie, "For some reason, she's adamant about not going to the Land of Snow! If she doesn't do this and quits out on the final movie in a series, it could ruin her career!" The producer said with a disappointed look on her face.

"Is that the place you're going to do the last movie in?!" Sakura asked, looking at a huge icy island.

"It's pretty," Karin commented.

"Yes, that's the Land of Snow, the only place we can get the kind of scenery we need for the film." The producer said, seconds before stagehand ran in while shouting, "Sir, we found her! She's at the bar, and two Genin are accompanying her."

Kakashi and Yamato let out a sigh of relief, "Good then, let's head over now. If we get to the dock quickly, we can still make it on time."

When Team 7 finally met up with Naruto and Hinata, they both had disappointed faces on while her manager Sandayū tried to motivate her.

"Talk about never meeting your heroes," Kibo said while shaking his head.

Hinata and Naruto's shoulders drooped over even more as they said, "I know, right?"

Seeing that this was going nowhere, Kakashi used his Sharingan to knock out Yukie and carry her to the door before saying, "Come on Team 7. We have a job to do."

"That's one way to do it, I guess?" Karin said as she watched Kakashi carry the actress.

"Yeah, if you want to look like a creep. Does he know that he's in a bar?" Kibo responded making Kakashi shudder.

"Kakashi Senpai? Couldn't you have done this a little, more delicately?" Yamato asked.

"No, I'm just doing this for the mission! Ignore him, he's only 13." Kakashi said before stepping out of the bar and heading towards the docks.

Omake Special #1

Several months after leaving the Land of Waves, Inari and Tazuna could be seen talking in the back yard.

"I'm going to be strong!" Inari said as he followed Naruto's work out regiment.

"Is this stuff really going to work?" Tazuna asked while watching Inari do push-ups and sit-ups.

"Yep! Naruto Nii-Chan said it can be done easily if I keep this pendant on me!" Inari answered.

"What pendant is that? Tazuna said as he reached out his hand.

The moment he touched the pendant, a light shined revealing a holographic version of Naruto appeared.

"Wow Inari! You have a lot of strength for your age. If you've activated this message, then you have the strength necessary to survive the Pink Muscle Transformation Process. Please stand by."

The two didn't get a chance to say anything before they were zapped by the programmed Fuin Markings.

After a whole hour of this torture, the two fell over, looking like pieces of burnt charcoal.

"Recuperating now! Please stand by for 2nd out of 104 programed shock treatments."

"Danm that SNOT NOSED BRAAAT!" Tazuna shouted as their bodies were healed with Chakra and put through another round of electrocution.

"This is your fault, Grandpa!" Inari shouted out.