Chapter 5: War Night

Among the audience was a blonde, beautiful woman with big breasts. She was usually well known, but she had disguised herself as a 12 year old flat chested girl with red hair, glasses and freckles.

That woman's name was Tsunade and she was very impressed by what she had seen. Minato and Kushina's son had acted as a true chuunin with the way he had battled, and judging by the look on her former teacher's face, the boy could be sure to become one. Not to mention that he was kind of cute, but too young for her.

She usually avoided the village, but her curiosity over the son of the Fourth Hokage intrigued her to come and watch, and so far she had been nothing but impressed. His teacher had to be a real genius for the blonde to be coming this far.

Of course Tsunade didn't know that Naruto under the tutelage of Anko had become a master in seducing women, and if he wanted her, than he could and would make her attracted to him, making her ignore the age difference.

It was finally time for Sasuke's fight, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto cast a glance at his opponent, but Gaara showed more like annoyance than satisfaction. This meant that he didn't have anything to do with the Uchiha's absence.

Orochimaru tried to delay the fight, but Mei was getting restless and wanted it to continue and Sarutobi had to agree with her. So Sasuke Uchiha was disqualified, much to everyone's annoyance. This meant that Gaara would advance without fighting and would be Naruto's next opponent.

Gaara was not happy. He had been looking forward to the battle, but at least his next opponent was strong, maybe even more than the Uchiha.

Most of the audience was glaring at Naruto, as if he was the reason their favorite couldn't fight.

Sakura would have joined them but the glares from two jonins and two of her former classmates shut her up. They wouldn't let the pink haired girl accuse Naruto for something that he hadn't done.

Kurenai found herself taking the same side as "Naruto's Fan club and Harem", which surprised her. The raven haired older beauty had to admit though; she really admired Naruto for showing her such a professional and impressive fight. He would go far.

Anko looked at her friend who was glancing at her blonde student, and couldn't help but giggle a little. Seemed like her friend was also developing an interest in Naruto.

The match continued to Kankuro and Shino, but the puppeteer declined as to not reveal his puppet's abilities beforehand. This left his sister Temari to defend their family's and their village's honor. She just wasn't looking forward to her opponent. The blonde beauty from the desert believed that this guy wouldn't even try and this would be an easy victory. Boy, would she be surprised.

It became a battle of the brains and Shikamaru turned out to have the upper hand the whole time, but in the end Temari was declared the winner due to the fact that Shikamaru ran out of chakra. She had to admit though, he sure was smart.

Now it was Naruto VS Gaara and Shino VS Temari, and that was the moment that Kakashi and Sasuke made their entrance.

The Uchiha wasn't too happy about the fact that he had to wait until the next exam before he got another chance at promotion and it was all Kakashi's fault.

He looked at Naruto who was standing ready to fight the opponent that he was supposed to fight and gave him a look that told the blonde not to lose.

"Naruto, if you don't become a chuunin I won't forgive you." Sasuke added a friendly smile to his teammate.

Even though he knew that it was a joke Naruto nodded with a smile. He had no intention of losing. Besides, Gaara was stuck in the darkness and he was the only one who could get him out of there.

Kabuto, who had disguised himself as an ANBU, realized that now was the time to act but before he could send the signal he was kicked into the wall behind him by Gai who had arrived with Lee.

Orochimaru realized that it was over and decided that it was time to escape, but Mei noticed this and used her Lava Release to burn the disguised Sound Quartet and stopping the snake in his tracks.

Meanwhile Tsunade had released her disguise and cut off Kabuto's nerves leaving the spy immobile.

Orochimaru wasn't defeated just yet. Using the Summoning Jutsu he summoned Manda, the king of snakes. This was enough reason for the attack to start.

Once Gaara saw the giant snake he realized that it was time to attack and started to gather his sand, but Naruto wasn't late to follow and used his Crystal Release to crystallize Gaara's sand and his gourd, effectively cutting of the boy's most effective weapon.

The youngest son of the Kazekage glared at his opponent. It seemed as if he had completely misjudged who was the strongest genin in the village.

Once Anko saw that the Kazekage was actually Orochimaru she didn't hesitate to attack but was stopped by Kurenai.

"Anko, do you actually think you can stand a chance against Orochimaru?"

Even though she didn't like it, Kurenai was right. The snake girl wouldn't last even a minute. It would be better to deal with the other intruders.

Anko looked at her students and was proud over seeing them completely dominating their opponents.

Ino was hitting their vital parts with incredible accuracy and Naruto had stopped his opponent from utilizing his main weapon. Even the shy Hinata showed no mercy as she struck down enemies so fast that it was hard to follow. Her strength probably came from Naruto.

Orochimaru looked around. Everything was falling apart. First, Kimimaro became deadly sick, then Gaara and his sand were stopped by the Ninetail's container, and since he was surrounded by two Kages and his two old teammates Tsunade and Jiraiya he had nowhere to run. He couldn't even get to Sasuke. Even Manda and his snakes were occupied by Gamabunta.

Things were not looking good.

"This is it Orochimaru," the Third said, "It's time for you to pay for your crimes."

"We'll see about that, old man." Though the traitor didn't sound as confident as he usually did.

The two jinchuriki stared at each other. Naruto could see the pain in his opponent's eyes, a pain he was all too familiar with.

"Why aren't you attacking me? I cannot defend myself any longer."

"Because I don't want to. You didn't ask to become a jinchuriki and neither did I."

"You're a jinchuriki too?"

"Yes, that's why I know what you're going through."

"Would you still refuse to fight me even if I hurt your friends?"

"I don't have many friends, but I'll defend the few I have with everything I got, even if it means killing you."

Gaara looked at the blonde. His determination was shining through, and it was all because of his friends.

"If we become friends I can make sure that you will never have to be alone again."

The red haired boy thought for a moment. Even though they were supposed to be enemies he was willing to become friends? The thought of having a friend and never be alone again did sound tempting. And he could see that Naruto was dead serious. He decided to give it a chance since the pain of loneliness was getting nearly unbearable.

"Fine, let's try it.

He reached up his hand and Naruto didn't hesitate to shake it. Both boys smiled at each other and Gaara felt Shikaku losing his influence. The boy knew that he could finally start sleeping again.

Once Naruto had freed the sand the two boys worked together with Gamabunta and easily forced Manda into submission, which led the two boys into writing a contract with the snake. Of course Manda would be waiting for the right moment when he could kill his contractors and avenge his defeat.

The boys then started to take care of more enemies.

The battle between Shino and Kankuro took place after all in the forest, but ended in a tie with Shino being poisoned and Kankuro being covered in bugs.

Shikamaru was once again facing Temari, but since he had run out of chakra he didn't feel like fighting, not that he had wanted to anyway.

The blond girl was observing her opponent. He was definitely smarter than her, but she was stronger. It had been proven when she won due to her endurance.

Despite this she found herself fascinated by the boy. Even though he was lazy he fascinated her. She was considered one of the smartest kunoichi in the village, but he truly gave her a run for her money. The two of them could have really smart children.

The desert flower blushed. Did she just think about having kids with the possibly laziest ninja ever?

"So are you going to attack or what?"

She looked up and shook her head.

"No, I have more important things to do than hang around a guy who doesn't even seem to want to be a ninja."

Temari then left to find another opponent who was actually worth fighting, though she was sure she would never forget that lazy guy.

Shikamaru looked after the fleeing girl before sighing. She was so troublesome, though she was kind of cute. He blushed at the thought. What was he thinking about the enemy?

Sasuke had already killed 10 enemies but he was still feeling unsatisfied. He had failed to become a chuunin and the so-called dead-last had apparently won his match without getting a scratch. The black haired boy could feel his jealousy growing inside of him. Naruto didn't deserve to get this far. He was supposed to spend the rest of his life struggling to catch up to the Uchiha.

Sasuke decided to deal with Naruto once he got an opportunity.

Hinata was feeling on top of the world as she and Ino struck down one enemy after another. Her admiration for Naruto had inspired her to try harder than ever and she knew that she was going to try even harder once she had completely recovered.

Ino wasn't doing worse than her raven haired rival. Anko had taught her how to effectively use poison and by striking her opponents with poisoned weapons she was practically wiping the floor with the enemy. The beautiful blonde had decided that she would give up on Sasuke, since he was nowhere near as nice as Naruto. The only thing that remained was to find out how she truly felt about the two boys.

Despite being completely outmatched, Orochimaru decided to at least take the Third with him and he knew the right jutsu for that.

The snake immediately leaped for Sarutobi and grabbed his left hand while making signs with the other.

"Twin Snakes Mutual Death Jutsu!"

Two snakes came out of Orochimaru's sleeve and bit both men, injecting them with poison and causing both of them to fall down dead.

The other three looked shocked at what had just transpired. Orochimaru had committed suicide and taking the Third Hokage with him.

Jiraiya stood there with a sad look. His teacher was no more.

Mei feared that the villagers would probably find a way to blame this on Naruto and understood that the boy had to be taken to the Hidden Mist for his own protection.

Tsunade could barely contain herself after what she had just witnessed and immediately went to the battlefield where she began beating enemy ninja to death.

By nightfall every Sound ninja was dead and every surviving from Sand, minus Gaara who was protected by Naruto and who in turn was protected by both the Mizukage and the remaining Sannin, arrested.

Hidden Leaf had been victorious, but at a high price.

The funeral for the Hokage and all the fallen Leaf ninja brought the whole village, along with the Mizukage and her bodyguards.

Naruto and Gaara were also there, despite that the rest of the village didn't want them there, but since they were protected by ninja of the highest authority, which included the Ninin (Two Ninja), the Mizukage and the two highest council members, they couldn't do anything.

The same night there was a quiet dinner in the Hokage Mansion between Naruto, Anko, Ino, Hinata, Kurenai, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Mei and Sarutobi's former teammates.

Mei finally decided to break the news about what was going to happen now.

"Listen, after everything that has happened Naruto's life will be in danger as long as he stays here in the Hidden Leaf, which is why I will take him back with me to the Hidden Mist."

"Wait a minute!" Ino exclaimed. "Why would Naruto's life be in danger and why do you have to take him with you?"

"Because that the villagers are going to blame Naruto for losing the Third Hokage as well, which means that they will be more hostile than ever and since I'm an old friend of Kushina, Naruto's mother, I see it as my duty to protect him from such threats since the Leaf Council obviously failed."

The two oldest at the table looked down in shame.

"And in order to help him restore his clan I will become his wife."

Everyone was shocked at the Mizukage's confession.

"Naruto," she said looking at the boy, "since you are the son of my best friend and have proven yourself to be both a wonderful ninja and person I'll be happy to become your wife and the mother of your children."

Both Ino and Hinata immediately stood up as they realized that the older woman was completely serious.

"Then we'll come too." They said at the same time in a tone that showed that they knew exactly what they were doing. Ino herself was completely surprised at her decision.

"Well," Anko said with a smile, "I have to admit that this could be interesting, so I'll come with you as well."

Now Kurenai stood up.

"If Anko and Hinata think that highly of him then I too will come along so that I can see for myself."

Both Naruto and the elders could barely understand that several women were ready to abandon their village for a twelve year old kid.

Now it was Tsunade's turn to speak up.

"Well, with so many girls you'll need at least one who is good with medicals so I guess I can become a part of this little family as well."

Jiraiya couldn't believe the luck of that boy. He really didn't want to miss this.

"Well as the boy's godfather I should get along as well so that I can train him."

Mei wasn't late in understanding the real reason why he wanted to come along.

"If you try something perverted then I'll castrate you without sedation." She said this with a smile.

The old man gulped. She definitely sounded dangerous.

"I-I-I understand." He said nervously.

Naruto had a hard time understanding what had just happened. He was going to move to another village and start a family with two beautiful women. Well, one beautiful woman and one beautiful preteen girl.

So he did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He fainted.

Anko smiled at the unconscious boy. His new life was just about to begin, but first they had another task, to find a new Hokage.