Chunin Exam Part 7

Gaara lifted his hand, moving the sand to crush Lee's legs and arms.

Thinking fast, Kibo shouted Gaara's name to get his attention.

Gaara stared at Kibo only for a second, but that was enough for Kibo to use his Tengan's slow effect. Once Gaara's time slowed and his movements grew sluggish, Guy swooped in, destroying the sand before it could crush any of Lee's bones.

Gaara struggled to stand back up, he wanted nothing more than to kill Lee.

However, when he saw the strength in Guy's eyes, the 1-Tailed Host grabbed his head as if he was in pain and asked through gritted teeth. "Why do you help him?"

"Because he's my lovable precocious student," Guy answered while guarding Lee's body.

Gaara frowned as his sand armor slowly recovered along with his composure. He then placed the cork back inside the gourd before he turned around and said, "Just forget it."

Lee stood on his feet and walked forward while he complained, "But Guy Sensei I can still fight."

Guy turned around and slapped Lee while crying, "Damn it, Lee! Being a man isn't all about winning. A real man knows when it's time to back down when up against insurmountable odds. But you must never forget this loss, use it to help you grow stronger than before."

"Guy Sensei!" Lee had tears in his eyes as they hugged.

Hayate coughed a few times to clear the mood, "Gaara wins! Now if you could leave the stage as it needs repairs."

After a short break, the final battle began. Unfortunately for Choji, other than him have a much larger supply of Chakra thanks to Kibo's food cooking method, he remained the same guy who hated confrontation. He didn't like to train either.

"Dosu Kinuta versus Choji Akimichi!" The announcement signaled Chōji's match against Dosu.

At the start of the match, to get her teammate into the mood, Ino yelled out, "HEY CHOIJI! That Dosu fella said you are so fat, that when you stepped on the scale it read, to be continued."

Kibo couldn't help but snort as he thought that was a good joke.

Needless to say, Choji was spurred into a fighting fury, "I'M NOT FAT!!!"

Figuring Dosu's sound-based attack wouldn't work on him if he wasn't able to hear it, Choji used the Multi-Size Technique and his Human Bullet Tank Jutsu to charge at Dosu.

After Dosu managed to avoid the rolling ball of flesh attack a few times, Chōji got lodged into a wall by his own attack.

With Chōji unable to get out the wall, Dosu took the initiative of sending a blast of sound into Chōji's bulk.

Because sound travels better through water, Chōji's size and fat acted like an amplifier, increasing the effectiveness of Dosu's attack.

As the injured Choji was being carried away on a stretcher, Dosu was declared the victor.

However, when he returned to the spectators' section, Shikamaru suddenly gave Dosu a deadly glare. Although he may have beaten down one Leaf Nin, he earned the ire of the village's most intelligent Shinobi.

The Hokage congratulated the remaining Genin, sending them to recover only after saying, "Now that the preliminaries have concluded, all the finalists are to reconvene after a month of rest. You will meet up the village's grand arena and the last part of the exam shall proceed."

From listening to the Third Hokage's explanation about how the finals will be handled, Shikamaru speculated that one didn't need to actually win the tournament in order to be promoted to Chūnin.

"Are the Genin promoted based on performance, not wins or loses?" Shikamaru questioned held his hand to his chin.

The Hokage smiled at him and nodded his head before saying, "Yes and no, if you don't show off your skills, then how will we ever know how good you are?"

The Hokage could see right through Shikamaru's lazy attitude and said "Combat prowess isn't everything a Shinobi is capable of. If you have earth seek heaven. If you have heaven seek earth, can anyone tell me the meaning of this phrase?"

Kibo raised his hand and answered, "If you have strength seek intelligence, if you have intelligence seek strength. A Chunin must embody both intelligence and power. If they don't display these basic understandings, then they probably won't become Chunin."

The Hokage smiled and said, "Very good Kibo."

After being enlightened the Ninjas split off to head back home and to the Inns they were staying at.

At another location within Konoha, a certain antagonist was hiding in the shadows of a pillar.

Standing next to the villain, Kabuto bowed before the man he was serving before saying. "The preliminaries have gone according to plan. With only the slight mishap of Kankuro losing. The finals will begin shortly and we can finally start."

Orochimaru's face appeared from out of the shade as he said, "I must say Kabuto, you've shown quite the change in these last few weeks. First was your idea to use clones and the original bodies to improve the Edo Tensei technique, and now the hesitation that you had about destroying the village is gone. Did something happen to provoke such a change?"

Kabuto shuddered and smiled before saying, "I only wish to serve you my Lord Orochimaru, and maybe surpass you someday."

Orochimaru laughed as he looked to Kabuto with a mocking expression, "That will be a hard task for you to accomplish, especially since I'm so close to obtaining perfection. Once I switch bodies with Sasuke I'll use it as the base to make the perfect physique; with Hiruko's technique combined with my intelligence and resources, the body I'll build can only be described as godlike."

Orochimaru smiled and licked his lips with a perverted expression before he finished saying, "I can't wait to stain him in my colors."

Kabuto shivered in disgust as he said, "It's a shame you missed your chance to place the mark on Sasuke."

Orochimaru looked at him and smiled, "Your attempts to rile me up are getting boring. Well, it's no matter, once I destroy the village and kill off that old man, I'll take him then."

Kabuto then looked Orochimaru in the eyes and asked, "Can you do it? Kill your old teacher? It looks to me like your hesitating."

Seeing Orochimaru stopped talking, Kabuto grinned before he said, "It seems you still don't fully trust me?"

"I made you my right hand. That's all the trust you'll need," Orochimaru's eyes squinted at Kabuto like a pray, "You know what do. Get back to work."

Kabuto bowed and exited with a, "Yes Orochimaru Sama."

Back with Team 7, they were enjoying a victory feast at Ichiraku's.

As Kibo was finishing his meal, he suddenly thought that it should be close to around the time of a certain event.

Kibo put his bowl down, licked his lips, and patted Naruto's shoulder before saying, "I've got to go somewhere with Naruto for a bit. He'll be busy training with me until the finals start."

"What about us?!" Karin said with tears in her eyes.

"Good luck, Crocodile! I'm not falling for those tears again," Kibo said as he stuck his tongue out and ran for the hills.

He really didn't want Karin to come in contact with her favorite Author. When she spoke about Jiraiya, she imagined him as a thin intellectual type. There's a reason the saying never meet your heroes became popularized.

"Get back here!" Karin shouted with a red face before chasing after.

With that Kibo took off leaving Sasuke and the rest to look to Kakashi and Yamato for their training.

After losing Kairn, Kibo flew Naruto through the air and towards their destination.

"Nii Chan, where are we going?" Naruto said with a surprised expression as Kibo got closer towards Konohagakure's famous Hot Springs.

When they arrived, Kibo placed Naruto on the ground and smiled before saying, "We're going to meet your God Father."

Naruto was shocked and went wide-eyed as he questioned, "Who is he? Is he here?!"

Kibo told Naruto to calm down as he replied, "Yes. He's here. But listen, Naruto. He has a bit of a quirk..."

"Quirk?" Naruto repeated the word as he tilted his head.

"Yeah...You see, he's a bit of a pervert," Kibo explained while looking rather odd; like he was trying to find the right words to say.

Naruto frowned with suspicion, as Kibo continued to talk, "Although he's a pervert, he's also one of the three legendary Sannin. Jiraiya the Toad Sage is his moniker. I thought since he was your Father's teacher, so he might make a good teacher for you as well."

Naruto's lip scrunched up with an expression of doubt, but the idea of meeting the man that trained the 4th Hokage was rather tempting.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go meet this Pervy Sage!" Naruto shouted as he ran into the Hot Spring.

Moments later, the blond Ninja easily spotted his target peeking through a hole in the wall that separated the male and female sides.

He was a tall and well-built man. Well into the golden age of his adulthood, he had fair skin, a wart on the left side of his nose, and waist-length, spiky white hair that was tied back into a ponytail.

Along with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. There were red lines under his eyes which extended to the bottom of his face, which was currently expressing a perverted smile.

His attire consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants. Under which, he wore mesh armor that was visible at his wrists and ankles.

He also wore handguards, a black belt, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side.

Jiraiya also carried a large scroll on his back, and wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for "oil" which denoted his affiliation with Mount Myōboku.

"Pervy Sage spotted!" Naruto shouted making Jiraiya flinch before he looked over at the snitch who ratted him out.

When he saw the spitting image of Minato, Jiraiya felt a choking sensation stifle his speech before he quickly buried his emotions and thoughts as he said, "I'm not a Pervy Sage!"

Naruto paused as he looked over him Naruto was about to ask how can you not be a perv, when Jiraiya shouted, "I'm a Super Pervy Sage!"

Kibo slapped his forehead and tried to hold in his laughter. Naruto on the other hand didn't find it funny at all.

With a disappointed expression, Naruto pointed to Jiraiya and asked, "Is this guy really my God Father?"

Jiraiya was shocked as he looked at Naruto and asked "How do you know that?!"

Kibo walked up to Naruto and said, "Because the fox spilled the beans."

Naruto was puzzled as to why Kibo lied, he didn't hear anything like that from the Kurama. However, that didn't make him lose faith in Kibo. Naruto figured that his big brother had his reasons and played along.

Hearing that Naruto could communicate with the Nine-Tailed Fox, Jiraiya looked even more shocked before he asked, "You two are on talking terms?"

Naruto nodded his head and made Jiraiya sigh.

He then looked to Kibo and said, "I've read about you in the reports. Thank you for taking care of Naruto."

Naruto then got a bit teary-eyed and shouted, "Why weren't you there for me instead?"

Seeing Jiraiya flinch in pain, Kibo slapped Naruto in the back of his head and said, "Baka! He's a Sannin and he's out there every day protecting you from people that want to abuse your power as a Tailed Beast Host."

Kibo didn't want Naruto to know about the Akatsuki yet. But letting him know that there are powerful organizations that would cause him no end of trouble if they ever found out, didn't seem like such a bad idea.

After hearing about people that could target him to get Kurama, Naruto crossed his arms and said, "I'm strong enough to take care of myself! Let them come at me!"

"Is Iruka sensei strong enough? How about Tuchi? How about any of the villagers you've made friends with over the years. They wouldn't just target you, Naruto. They would target the people you love. You still aren't strong enough to protect them, so it's better to stay hidden. If Jiraiya attempted to make contact with you, do you think they wouldn't dig into your past?"

Kibo then pointed to the statues of the Kages, "You bear an uncanny resemblance to the 4th. Every year, you look more and more like him. It isn't that hard to put 2 and 2 together."

Jiraiya was impressed with Kibo's train of thought, he was even more glad that Naruto got a brother that loved him like one.

"You don't have to scold him so much, I do bear some responsibility for not being there for him," Jiraiya said while holding his hand up.

"No, I do have to scold him, or else he'll never learn," Kibo responded while glaring at Naruto.

Naruto looked back to Jiraiya and crossed his arms while embarrassingly saying, "Fine! I forgive him!"

While Kibo nodded his head with a smile on his face, Naruto lowered his head and mumbled, "Well, still...He could have least come to visit every once in a while."

"So what did you two seek me out for?" Jiraiya asked, getting to business.

"I need you to train Naruto for the Chunin Exams, and I wouldn't mind heading to Mount Myōboku with Naruto for a while. Ohh, yeah! I also want to speak to Gamamaru." Kibo requested with a straight face.

Jiraiya was once again surprised by Kibo's intelligence before he let out a disappointed sigh and tucked away his research-journal in his kimono sleeve.

"I guess my 'research' will have to wait for another time," Thinking this, Jiraiya jumped over the Hotspring's walls and told the two of them to follow him.

After running for a while they came to a secluded area in the mountains.

Jiraiya looked to Naruto and said, "So what do you want to learn." Naruto seemed happier than ever before.

While the Gutsy Ninja thought hard on the kinds of Jutsus he wanted to learn, Kibo intruded on their conversation as he said, "How about teaching him the Rasengan? His control is already expert-grade, and you know he has enough Chakra."

Before Jiraiya could ask how he knew about that, Kibo finished him off by saying, "I also want him to learn Sage mode. So he should only spend a few days learning the Rasengan."

"How does this kid know so much? Can he really see the future?" Jiraiya thought before he laughed and said, "Kid that's an A-Rank Jutsu! I don't think he could master it that quickly. It even took me a few months to get it down."

Naruto puffed up his cheeks and said, "Your right, I won't learn in a few days."

"See, the kid gets i..." Jiraiya didn't get finish speaking before Naruto interrupted him.

"I'll master that Jutsu in less than a day."

Jiraiya laughed even harder. He then took a deep breath as he looked over at Naruto's embarrassed expression and said, "Okay, kid. Show me what you got."

Jiraiya held out his hand as the wind gathered around his palm it formed into a rapidly rotating sphere of energy that glowed with a cyan-blue light. One could see the Chakra moving about in every direction but never intersecting completely.

All of it was restrained inside the light blue membrane surrounding it. If one took the time to notice, they could feel the Chakra and the air being pulled into it.

"This is the Rasengan," Jiraiya said with a cocky expression.

However, the moment the Toad Sage looked up, he saw Kibo mimicking the technique by using his Star Chakra molding abilities.

The only difference between the two Jutsus was that Kibo's Rasengan had a deep purple color and glimmered like stars.

Jiraiya's jaw dropped as he pointed out with his finger before he started stuttering, "You...How?"

Kibo laughed as he pushed the Rasengan into a tree.

It ripped through it and sent it flying above the forest and into the distance with a loud crash.

"Not bad, super compressing the Chakra and putting it under a fragile surface to make an explosive attack that moves in every direction."

Kibo then turned to a shocked Naruto and said, "It's actually not that hard; remember the technique I showed you that allows you to manifest your Chakra outside your body?"

Naruto nodded his head as Kibo continued. "It's similar to that, you just need to add in a ton of wild yet controlled Chakra into a sphere that can hold it in without any energy escaping. My Chakra molding skills work pretty much the same way, and since I have Chakra that's dense enough to easily manifest a physical body, I could easily mimic this technique after seeing it."

Jiraiya was astonished, to say the least, "Crazy! Absolutely crazy!"

Kibo thanked him for the compliment and asked, "So, do I need to sign a contract with the toads or can you just take us there?"

"You don't have to sign, I can take you there with the reverse summoning Jutsu. Perhaps you should sign a contract with them anyway. Both of you. It doesn't hurt to have more power, and there are many mystical toads with amazing abilities."

Naruto started to get excited when Kurama made a loud grunt, "Why rely on the Toads? You know most of the intelligent summons are descendants of the Tailed Beasts. Hagoromo gave us all mystical lands that rival Mount Myōboku. Even the third Hokage is contracted with one of Son Goku's descendants. Naruto, you should use my scroll."