Naruto Repurposed

Chapter 16

Chunin Finals

The final two weeks Naruto had to finish preparing for the Chunin Exam Finals flew by incredibly fast, as Konoha seemed to be overflowing with new people and visitors coming to see the ninja competition. He had spent a considerable amount of his time in the summoning realm working on his newly updated taijutsu and sword fighting styles, to better incorporate the Toad styles into his own personal ones he was already learning. He had a pretty good idea how he was planning to take on all the challengers of this tournament, but knew it wasn't going to be easy with the likes of Gaara, Sasuke, and Neji still competing, not to mention when the planned invasion was taking place.

The biggest thing of note to happen during the month was Naruto's late night rescue of the Jonin Hayate Gekko, who had been attacked and left to bleed out on a rooftop from a wind blade attack. Naruto, had just happened to be passing by after a late night trip to Ichiraku's, when the Kyuubi noticed the chakra usage and had him go investigate. His arrival successfully scared off the attacker, but it was touch and go for most of the next day for the referee of the Chunin Exams' final stage, and he was eventually replaced in order to hide his survival.

Out of that unusual occurrence, came Naruto getting to meet the ANBU Cat, also known as Yugao Uzuki, who tracked him down and thanked him repeatedly for finding and bringing Hayate to the hospital in time to save him. She offered her services as a teacher if he ever needed her help in the ninja arts, and even gave him a small kiss on his cheek which made him turn bright red. Yugao was beautiful, she had long purple hair and warm brown eyes, and Naruto was quick to agree to anything she said, including a kenjutsu matchup for the following day to test how serious of a sword user he was.

At the next day's lesson, Naruto demonstrated that he was by no means a slouch when it came to sword fighting, and Yugao complimented him many times during their little over an hour long lesson / spar. She asked who had been primarily training him, as he had several really good habits that could only come from a real good sword teacher, and simply raised her eye when he said he got several private lessons from Zabuza Momochi a month back. His clones and mom's notes had been the only "real teacher" he had, as he wasn't about to tell anyone about his blood clone currently traveling with and training under one of the former Seven Swordsman of the Mist.

Yugao was impressed none-the-less, and offered after the craziness from the chunin exams were over, to continue his sword training and turn him into a legitimate kenjutsu master along with her fiance Hayate Gekko when he fully recovered. Naruto was really happy to get the promised lessons and teaching, knowing that every little bit of it helped him and all of his clones improve, and was excited to have some way to visibly increase his kenjutsu skills. That way, him showing up one day after years of private training from his blood clone, a certified kenjutsu master out of the blue, people wouldn't be examining him for possession.

The only other surprise to happen before the Chunin Exam Finals, was on his lone trip to meet with Lee and Guy to check on them, and see how Lee was doing, having heard his ninja career was supposedly over. While trying to cheer up a visibly distraught Lee, who couldn't see how any injury would stop him from continuing to try and be a ninja, Gaara arrived practically zoned completely out and talking nonsense about feeding mother Lee's blood. Luckily, Naruto's overpowered wind wall, withstood the brunt of Gaara's quickly amassed sand, and Guy was quick to arrive in the next second to interrupt it getting any further out of hand.

"Mother wants your blood too Uzumaki," growled Gaara in a demonic sounding voice that sent chills up the blonde's spine, as he remembered the words Gaara spoke to him after that failed assasination attempt, while he made his way towards the stadium for the final round to start.