The Real Me

41

A month passed. Sasuke had been whisked away by Kakashi sensei and was probably learning some secret jutsus or something. Pretty unfair...

Naruto was back in the village and the taunts. He couldn't pass through one street without hearing atleast a hundred curses thrown at him. As always he ignored them and walked on.

He never trained. Atleast, not during the day. It somehow gave off a weird vibe to the other genins.

"Is Naruto even training?" Choji asked Ino as he bit a chip.
Ino shook her head as said "I've never seen him doing anything apart from roam around lazily..."
"Maybe beating Kiba got to him and he thinks he's the best and no one can beat him." Choji shrugged.
Ino took a chip from him and nodded, "Even Shikamaru's training. Huh, guess this idiot beat him in laziness."

Naruto's actual training occurred at night. That amazing time of the whole day when absolutely no one was awake. That time when everyone was so vulnerable.

Keito and Hitomi trained with him. Nothing special just the usual. Keito would slash at him with several hundred different types of Katanas and stances and styles and Hitomi would sneak in and attack him. He did learn a few sealing type jutsus.
"In case you need to 'tame' someone..." Keito had said.

With a bit of practice, Naruto could maybe, maybe, be able to do something like the Reaper Seal...
Nah, it was still some Large level shit.

Hitomi actually took Naruto's Katana and brought it back the next day fully sharpened. It was like his sword got a makeover. He slid his finger across the blade as light as he could and yet it cut deep.
"Damn. " Was all he could say.

"Aren't you going to tell anyone about the "probable" attack that might occur on Konoha?" Hitomi asked him a two weeks before the exam.

"Huh. " Naruto stopped and thought. "Nah. All I need is you all. All your Fox Forces-"

"We're not the Fox Force."

"All your foxes on alert and around the village. In human form of course. We won't need anyone else."

Hitomi hesitated, "Listen, we can't- we can't do that!"
Naruto turned around, "why?"

"Alright, first, do you really think the Hokage won't notice if hundred random skilled people suddenly appear on the day of the final exam? Second, not all foxes are capable of transforming to human. Third, our comrades are spread all around the world and so many can't make it here in time. "

Naruto sighed and massaged his forehead.
"What about you guys? Are there more elite, capable of ninjutsu and human look foxes put there? Can they make it atleast?"

Keito nodded and told him to leave it to him.

_____________________A Few Days Later_______________

Naruto lay in his bed, talking to Kurama in the sewage mindscape.

"Of course I plan on using Gaara somehow." He told Kurama who sat on the other side of the cage in his human form.
He held his head in his hand and listened.
"Another jinchuuriki huh? Doesn't look like he has a good relationship with Shukaku."

"Who?"

"Shukaku, the one tail."

"Oh yeah. "

"Kit, what do you plan on doing?"

"At the exam?"

"After everything."

"I'll just get stronger, and then one day, destroy this whole damn place."

"You do have rather powerful opponents ya know."

Naruto nodded and thought about Sasuke. With that curse mark...
________________________________________________

The day of the final exam drew closer and finally it was here.

Naruto received a lot of glared amd insults and bad luck while he ran the stadium but he couldn't care less.
He ran up to stadium and suddenly a thought struck him. It had been too long without him creating any trouble or doing something dumb and Naruto-ish. And so, he made it a point to trip and fall down as soon as he entered the stadium.

This was accompanied by some laughter and some boos. Naruto got up dusted his pants and joined the other Konoha genins and waved to the crowd. Of course most of them didn't respond but a few made it a point to swear at him, to which again he paid no attention. The people from other villages noticed the hatred being thrown towards Naruto and soon a murmur passed through them.
This was ruining the Hidden Leaf Village's reputation. Soon jonins were seen walking upto angry Konoha villagers and telling them to shut up.

After a opening ceremony thingy, where Sasuke's absence was noticed by the vast majority of the audience, the genins were told to get up to the waiting room.

"So Sasuke basically is still in the competition as long as he appears before his fight?" Naruto asked no one in particular, but Shikamaru decided to reply by nodding.

Even though Naruto had a vague feeling that Shikamaru also hated him, a part of him also believed that Shikamaru was just too damn lazy to hate him.

"That's awesome. I get to beat his ass!" Naruto exclaimed energetically as he punched his fist into his palm.

"Typical Naruto." Shino said quietly behind them.

Naruto heaved a sigh of relief at that. As much as he hated this stupid act, he was glad he was able to keep it up.

He remembered the fact that Orochimaru was currently posing as the Kazekage, and looked up at the person next to the Hokage.

Why the hell do the Sand villagers wear those dumb masks? It's just too convenient for anyone to disguise themselves.
He wasn't able to sense any particular chakra that resembled Orochimaru as well, and it pissed him off.
Stupid evil Sannin with stupid chakra concealing jutsus.

Shikamaru noticed a suddenly pissed Naruto muttering to himself and asked him what he was mumbling about.

"Just thinking of ways to defeat Sasuke. "

Shikamaru nodded.

" LORD HOKAGE AND LORD KAZEKAGE! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO CHUNIN FINALS!!"

Finally, it had begun.
_____________________________________________________
A/N:
Yare yare~

Basically, Banana Fish broke my heart.

Today is Happy Children's Day in India, but our school didn't give us a damn holiday.
But still, the 11th and 12th graders performed for us.
The boys of our grade suddenly stood up and started dancing when we forced the last group to do their dance once more.

Nandemo.

Vote, share, comment and follow.

Yours Truly,
23