Chapter Nineteen

Naruto was going to beat Kiba.

It was a mighty plan, and it was with unspeakable relief that Naruto set about performing it. Everything had to be perfect.

Naruto was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

A big part of the reason he'd never thought about using a stink bomb to defeat Kiba was that he'd only ever thought in terms of things he'd had or used before, and mildly-costly, disposable ninja equipment hadn't been top on his list when it had already been so hard to get a decent kunai.

However, for what he had in mind they became a reasonable expenditure. The boy even congratulated himself on his patience and forbearance, having the forethought to NOT jump directly into the fight he wanted to win so badly, spending a few resets getting reasonable quality stink bombs and practicing so he knew how to use them well.

No point going into debt on something he hoped would get him out of the infinite time loops, and thus make him actually have to pay off those debts instead of having a reset wipe them away. And, no point in placing his trust in equipment he didn't know how to use adequately.

It would've been just like the former, impulsive, pre-time-loop him to have pulled the thing out of his pocket for the first time during the fight where he was going to use it, and spend vital seconds struggling with the shrink wrap and reading the instructions, or fling it down without pulling the pin or something so it didn't go off.

It took entering the endless resets to break him of that careless habit, but broken it was.

Having gotten as much mastery of the new devices as his patience could stand, Naruto woke up on his special morning, the one he'd chosen to be the big day out of which all of the resets would end, and burst into a flurry of activity.

The morning had to be perfect.

One of his clones ran off to the Uchiha estate to 'look for Sasuke' to follow through on the pattern that could get him that property. Another went off to find Hinata and extract her from her house for breakfast and a nice chat before walking to the center with her. Others burst into flurries of activity that would follow other paths, creating the armor sets he'd devised for all of his friends (his own teammates didn't count), clothing (fairly restrained, restricted to ninja outfits only), and other essential supplies.

Naruto himself, the real one, began a set of exercises that he hoped would have him fit and in shape in the month and eight days it took to reach the third test of the chunin exam.

Practicing his martial arts so he sucked less was a big part of that. It was his ambition to have trained muscle memories of those moves by the time he had to use them.

He was so impatient for all of the old stuff to pass that he could hardly stand to wait through the written exam, positively vibrating in his chair until one of the proctors marked him off a point for cheating. Then he forced himself to be calm, or at least still.

Outside the testing center, some of his clones went on brewing supplies of paralysis poisons, sleep poisons, hallucinogens (almost as useful as illusion techniques for screwing up an enemy during combat), a rare few poisons that could disrupt chakra flow and control, and of course the deadly ones. Some of this collection also grew far more potent over time, so the longer you had it, the more potent it was.

They stocked them in contact form, gas pellets, sticky gums that dried into nearly invisible sheens for coating weapons like kunai and darts, and even a few varieties useful only for slipping into another's food, because you never knew what kind of opportunities you'd face.

Poison was a very important tool in the well supplied ninja's arsenal.

Orochimaru was immune to most poisons and had a freakish amount of resistance even to the ones Anko knew nothing about. Naruto knew, he'd tried them all out on the sannin, each and every one he himself knew of, and those ones that did affect the snake freak, even slightly, the amazing S-rank ninja would use a chakra technique to throw off moments after being hit.

Anko periodically tried to help Naruto acquire a similar resistance to poisons, but it was one of those things that had to be built up over time, even with the aid of chakra techniques to speed it along.

Pity, as that was one of those things that could be enormously useful.

His venomous arsenal also didn't help much in the fight against Kiba, as the dog boy would just take more and more of those energy booster pills he had, relying on the boost to his chakra and constitution to shake off most things, until it came to a point of choosing to either kill the boy through an overdose, or lose the match to the pumped-up berserker.

Naruto had so far avoided choosing to kill his friend, although it had been a close call once or twice there, as his frustration and agitation over being trapped in these resets mounted.

But still the boy's good sense and morals won out, knowing as he did that he'd never be able to forgive himself for killing a friend, especially if that brought him out of the resets and it didn't get undone.

Naruto was willing to put up with a very unpleasant life in order to avoid doing even more unpleasant things. Even if no one would blame him for having done it during a no-holds-barred sanctioned combat match.

Neji, on the other hand, was enough of a jerk that Naruto wouldn't mind using his little poison packets to drop the arrogant Hyuga bastard, and only part of that was having had to watch him beat up Hinata so many times.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of waiting, the morning of the test in the Forest of Death arrived. Determined to see it for the last time, Naruto wanted to do it right, so he showed up wearing his full outfit of ninja gear - but he also showed up late, after most of the other teams had already arrived. Not coincidentally, the other two teams of Konoha rookies were also outfitted with full sets of his newly devised equipment.

Each was customized to them and their fighting styles, so they bore only a partial resemblance to Naruto. But after seeing so many of their fellow new genin teams wearing new outfits, neither Sakura nor Sasuke had much to say when they spotted Naruto also wearing his.

"Oy! Sakura! Sasuke!" the blond boy called out cheerfully, no need to fake the wide grin he'd pasted over his face. "Old man Hokage gave me an old abandoned property yesterday! Look what I found just lying around the place!"

Sure, it was only the raw materials that had been lying there. The unique style in which he'd put them together was all his own. But THEY didn't need to know that!

His pair of teammates, dressed in their usual clothes as no one gave them any gifts of new equipment that day (never mind that Naruto was the only one giving them, and didn't feel either deserved it) gave him a slightly sullen once over that turned into a far more detailed examination.

Gone was the normal orange jumpsuit. Oh, the blond genin still wore orange, he just wore it in a completely different pattern, one based on tiger stripes - as having been snuck up on by the tigers in the forest too many times to count, the repeating boy knew it to be an effectual camouflage pattern. Nor was it one solid color of orange, but rather a gradually shifting shade that started out fairly light and grew darker, eventually becoming a dusky red towards the back. Again, that was based on his experience with those tigers.

And, having tested it out more than a few times, he knew from experience that it made him much harder to spot in the forest's environs.

Also, in place of the jumpsuit was a tabard and cloak design. Naruto did this for the very simple reason that it concealed his armor and prevented light from glinting off the metal. Also, by keeping the light from shining directly on those plates it stayed cooler overall, and thus much easier to wear. For that same reason, he'd attached oversleeves and leggings of light, blousy material that added effectively no weight, wouldn't cut or bind easily, yet completed the harmless covering concealing his armored nature.

Holding the tabard closed and close to his body was a belt whose buckle was in the shape of Konoha's leaf symbol, a symbol that got repeated in tiger stripes on the center of his chest. The boy wore no helmet for now but when he did could conceal that under a turban, hood, or head cloth like those from Sand wore to keep dust from mixing with the sweat of their hair, and with a drape down the back for keeping the sun off of their necks.

With the armor concealed, that was all they could see aside from the wide belt and criss crossed front and back bandoleers covered with pockets, all of which were stuffed with useful ninja tools, from senbon, shuriken and wire spools on up to bags of smoke pellets, stink bombs and a decent supply of poisons. A holster full of kunai hung from either hip.

Those were just the immediate use items, the 'grab it and go' arsenal of rapid access tools meant for dealing with most occasions. He had many more, multiple reloads on up to several puppets he'd created (he was by no means a master of that art, yet, but the ones he'd crafted for himself were tolerable by most any standard), on storage scrolls hidden in chest pockets.

All of this, from his bandoleers to his pockets, matched his camo pattern perfectly, blending to where it was hard to notice upon the rest of his outfit. The cloak, open front though it may have been, had folds that made it far from obvious the extent of the arsenal he was carrying.

Just like it should be.

Naruto approached his team with his head uncovered partly so they could get a good look and know it was him, but also because it was so much fun to grin and see their faces contort in response to his expressions. Ya gotta have the simple joys in life!

"You found THAT lying around your new place?" Sakura demanded, disbelief evident in her voice. "You look like a bad carpet, or a tasteless rug!"

That was unflattering, but to a certain extent true. He hadn't been able to use any shiny fabrics to make his new clothes, as the glints would too readily give him away when he was hiding. So it had all been textured cloths used in their creation, to better match the hairy pattern of a tiger in breaking up and refusing to return a strong image in shadowy light.

Still, he looked far from bad in those new clothes, so the insult was far from warranted. Even in their practicality, the outfit looked good, which was quite an achievement in a stealth suit like that one.

Sasuke grunted, looking away, having no comment.

"The object of this mission is to stay alive, Haruno-san," Naruto told her with a mildly cold glance. "Not to look good."

Then the moment was broken by Ino's squeal as she grabbed his arm and told him how he looked good. "Naruto! I've got to thank you for our new outfits! Mine fit me like a glove, and Choji and Shikamaru almost look presentable for once! Ooh! I see you've got some new clothes yourself!"

Sakura stared as her former best friend jabbered, before asking her, "What are you wearing?"

"Oh! My new ninja outfit. Naruto gave it to me, do you like it?" The blonde girl did a little spin to show off her new attire.

Having to serve most of the same needs, it had most of the same basic appearance as Naruto's, with the cloak and tabard with leggings and extra sleeves effect. However, hers was done in a deep bluish purple that was almost black depending upon how the light struck it, like a panther.

She even had a cowl with a pair of cat ears on it. But instead of carrying his vast array of tools, her belt loops supported a pair of sheathed swords.

Sasuke had turned a hard gaze to his teammate and the fangirl joyously squealing over her new ninja uniform. In low, suspicious tones, he told them, "There was a clank when you two touched. What is it?"

"Body armor," Naruto told him shortly, with a shrug. He tapped his chest twice, producing a metal click each time, dulled by the layers of intervening cloth. "Since it's a life or death struggle today we figured it would be a good idea to have something other than our skins to stop blows with."

Ino hated to be anywhere near where Sasuke was sending so hostile a gaze, so she quickly excused herself. "Um, sorry. Gotta run. My team's waiting and it looks like they're about to start the test."

And with that, she vanished back over to where Choji was eating potato chips in his false fire specialist garb and Shikamaru, wearing an outfit similar to Ino's, had removed his cloak and tabard, as if casually, but truly in a carefully calculated and deliberate attempt to let the rest of the assembled genin see how heavily armored he was underneath that disguise.

It was working. There were several teams making obvious mental notes of which genin teams had such members, and one could see the gears turning as they simply assumed anyone in those outfits was heavily armored.

It was a true assumption. What was perhaps incorrect about the conclusions they were drawing was that those so armored had to be close combat ninja, and tricking them into making that assumption was a good part of why the lazy boy on Ino's team had exerted himself to remove those parts to expose his armor, as letting them think he was a close combat expert improved his chances to survive the upcoming test.

Many would now avoid him who might otherwise have beaten him.

Ino's departure did not immediately exempt her from Sasuke's gaze, as the boy followed her with his eyes upon catching sight of where she was going, and what her teammate, and thus by inference probably her, was wearing.

Naruto had spared no effort or expense in making those suits of armor. With the helmet on, the body was covered from head to toe in interlocking metal plates of exacting standards and intricate design. In some places it was joined in a segmented fashion based on a lobster's tail, in others tiny links of almost delicate seeming chainmail that also incorporated equally tiny scales overlapping like those of a fish.

That was a general overview available at a glance. Even to non-experts those sets were obviously well crafted, for all of their strangeness. But neither Sasuke, nor any of those other observing genin, had much time for a close study of all of those parts as, sensing their attention shift toward looking for weaknesses, Shikamaru once again donned his extra coverings.

Naruto grinned. The armor was surprisingly comfortable to wear and flexible to fight in, but also surprisingly quiet for all the metal joints involved. It was perhaps lighter than he would've liked, not having the same stopping power as it could've if he'd used thicker plates. But none of those who would be wearing it that day were particularly strong, either, and they couldn't afford to lose their mobility lumbering about like bricks.

For one reason, if they did so it would give them away as not being combat experts, who also had to be able to move to fight effectively in their armor.

Still, it was stronger than one might think if they judged solely by its weight. It would take a good blow from a strong arm to penetrate, and it would take a better shot than most ninja in combat were likely to get. Even so, the blow could not go very far through the metal unless there was far more force involved than most of those assembled were likely to muster.

It would've been both heavier and stronger, save for the fact that those who now wore it could not bear very much weight. So sacrifices had had to be made in order to preserve mobility and maximize flexibility.

Orochimaru could blow through the stuff like tinfoil, either with his sword or using jutsu, as Naruto knew from close, personal experience. Anyone else, though, had a more than decent chance of being stopped. It even made his shadow clones hardier, as a strike had to penetrate the duplicate's body to disrupt its chakra system to dispel it. A heavy enough blow could still cause enough of a bruise to do it despite the armor, but nevertheless it required more than it used to to kill one of them when they had his armor on.

And it looked dang impressive.

Although, one drawback it had, as Naruto considered what his future plans were, was that it could not be worn effectively with a chunin vest, as the thick cloth of those flak jackets would put enough pressure on the outside of those plates to make movement inside of them very difficult.

Oh well. He'd solve the problem in realtime. And as he resolved to do so his grin grew even wider.

Sakura huffed, suddenly jealous now that she knew about Ino's advantage in having armor. It looked so expensive, too! Crossing her arms, she declared, "She looks happy. Naruto, didn't she say she got that getup from you?"

The blond boy on her team answered with a shrug, his grin never faltering a moment. "You'd be surprised what you'd find around the old place I got hold of. Like these for instance!" He held up a bag of jutsu scrolls, conveniently lifted from Sasuke's apartment.

"What are those?" the pink haired girl blinked, peering at them more closely while Sasuke pretended he wasn't noticing or looking himself.

"Ninja techniques!" Naruto shouted brightly. "I was up all night practicing them!" he declared, glad to have discovered that little lie covered him from all sorts of suspicion as he used them, without putting any pressure on him to know them well enough to rely on in combat.

He had his limiters on, but was hoping not to use them.

"Oh," Sakura mumbled, put back and humbled by this, suddenly feeling outclassed as a ninja. She'd always placed her value on their team as being more than Naruto's, but with those new techniques...

She tried to firm up her opinion of herself by saying there was no way he could've mastered them... except she knew the story of him learning a jonin level technique in just a few hours one night. And there was that armor he must be wearing under that new outfit. That gave an advantage.

Very quickly the pink haired one found herself questioning her place on the team, wondering what she offered to them.

I I I

The only role Naruto had to play in the defeat of Orochimaru was to hang back and taunt Sasuke to get him upset enough to fight hard and impress the freaky missing ninja with the Uchiha's potential.

That was all.

And a clone could do that much, no problem, so Naruto felt free to explore the rest of the forest to see how everyone was doing. He also had clones doing this, of course. He'd been tracking some teams all along. But still, it felt different somehow to have his own eyes experience something.

Also, it gave him a chance to stop and make nin-info cards about the various plants and animals he encountered. It was no use trying to stock a library of them before, as the resets had always erased them. But still, he could get the experts back in Konoha to explain what they knew of those plants when he took back images of them and described the ground and stuff they were in, and that was always useful.

However, this time he had a rather large clone army doing those cards, as this time there was an excellent chance for him to do it right and for there to be no more resets. So he wanted his library.

That thought was making him positively giddy.

Today the real Naruto was going to watch Gaara defeat a strong Rain team again. That technique the lead Rain ninja used, guiding about thousands of senbon needles without using wire, had been fascinating to the young blond for some time, and between what he'd observed so far and that book on chakra control theory from the ABNU teacher library, he was almost close to being able to create his own version.

And, as the Rain ninja using it declared, guiding thousands of needles to their targets just using your chakra sounded deadly. Well, deadly to anyone but Gaara.

Naruto got back to the camp Sakura made to guard Sasuke's feverish body just as the team from Sound were making their attack. He waited until Lee jumped in to rescue Sakura before making his own attack from behind the trio from Sound, catching the guy with pipes through his arms in a Dragon Flame Projection just as the guy was about to act to save his teammate from dying by Lee's Primary Lotus.

The distraction proved fatal to the Sound ninja in Lee's grasp, as he fell on his head and his skull exploded. It wasn't a good time to be the guy with pipes down his arms, either, as he got a fairly serious roasting by Naruto, who'd stayed calm through this whole exchange by virtue of having been through it many times before, and so didn't get excited enough to overload his limiters.

Sound team defeated, and the scroll destroyed by Orochimaru a fake Naruto had planted for that purpose, Team 7 had both of the scrolls they needed to pass, so could go on directly to the tower.

Sakura, concerned for Sasuke's health, demanded they do so in order that he get medical attention. Naruto, who was able to provide such attention, said nothing, but formed two clones and carried the Uchiha there on a stretcher, not even jostling him as they avoided the teams that lay in wait around the tower, trying to catch those on their way there with scrolls.

None of those were able to surprise him, as too many already had. So he'd memorized all of their patrol and ambush patterns.

And that put them firmly in place to wait for the preliminaries.