69 Briefing

"Too all of you who won the rights to compete in the third and final test in the Chunin exams, congratulations to you all!" Hayate declared with a grin on his face.

"Well Lord Third, if you would please...." Hayate looked at Hiruzen who was standing behind him.

Hiruzen nodded before taking a puff of his smoking pipe.

He stepped in front of Hayate and looked down at the Genin who passed the preliminaries. 'There's 8 Genin from Konoha, 2 from Suna and one from Kumo.' Hiruzen thought before clearing his throat to start talking.

"Congratulations on passing. Now I'd like to start explaining the main test. As I said before, in the main event, your matches will be seen by everybody. Each of you will fight to represent the strengths of your respective nations. I'd like you all to show off your powers without holding anything back."

"Which is why the finals will be held one month from now." Hiruzen revealed, surprising the Genin standing in front of him.

"This 'break' will be for preparations. In other words, in addition to informing all the Daimyo and Kages, this is the time needed to arrange for the gathering of the event. And this is also preparation time for you Genin." Hiruzen explained. When he still saw confused expressions on some of the Genin, Hiruzen decided to say some more.

"Basically, it's the preparation to get to know thy enemy and know thyself. It's the time period where you will calculate your chances of winning by analyzing the data you accumulated during the preliminaries."

"The battles up to now had you fight as if you were in an actual combat situation with the assumption of fighting an unknown opponent. However the final trial will not be like this, there are those who showed all that they could already do to their rivals."

" There are also those who competed and were badly injured against a strong opponent. The one month should he used by all of you to advance and improve yourselves. Of course, it'll be fine to rest your body as well."

"Before I dismiss you, there's something that needed to be done for the finals. There's are pieces of paper inside of the box that Anko's holding so each lne of you take a piece."

Anko who was holding a small box went towards the Genin who took out a piece of paper inside it. Naruto opened the folded paper and saw the number one on it.

"Now then, I'd like you to tell us the number on the paper in order, starting from the left." Hiruzen requested while Hayate was holding a pen and a clipboard.

"It's 9." Sakura muttered.

"I've got 1." Naruto mumbled.

"4." Temari said.

"10 here." Karui grumbled.

"5." Satsuki muttered.

"3" Shikamaru's muttered lazily.

"2." Hinata said.

"7." Kankuro said.

"8." Shino muttered quietly.

"6!" Lee declared loudly while he was sitting on a chair due to his muscles have been torn by using the Gate of Pain.

Hiruzen nodded and looked at Hayate who nodded at the old Hokage. He looked back at the Genin.

"All right, now Hayate will reveal to you the matchup for the final tournament!!"

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Naruto and Shikamaru stood outside of the door to the Hokage's Office. They have been called here by the Anbu for unknown reasons.

"Wonder what it's gonna be?" Naruto mumbled.

" It's probably about Kabuto. C'mon, let's not keep Lord Third waiting. " Shikamaru replied before he pushed open the door to the office. He and Naruto entered the office.

They were surprised to see Kakashi, Asuma, Guy, Kurenai, Ibiki, Anko, Hayate, Genma and just about every jonin in the village. Shikamaru widened his eyes a little as he looked at his father who is the Jonin Commander, Shikaku Nara.

"Dad?" Shikamaru muttered, getting confused about what was happening. Shikaku looked at his son and smirked at him.

Shikaku had two scars on the right side of his face which were probably his most noticeable feature. Like his son, he had dark hair tied up into a spiky ponytail, dark eyes as well as a goatee. His ears were also pierced.

Shikaku wore a meshed shirt underneath his flak jacket, a deer skin coat over that and hand guards.

"Inoichi-san? Choza-san?" Shikamaru whispered as he looked at Ino's and Choji's father who were standing beside Shikaku.

Inoichi Yamanaka is the head of Konoha's Yamanaka Clan. And along with Shikaku Nara and Chōza Akimichi, he is a part of the 15th generation Ino–Shika–Cho trio. He is also the head of the Analysis Team in the village's Intelligence Division.

Inoichi has long ash blond hair reaching into his lower back, which he wore spiky on top and ending in a long ponytail, light green eyes and strong facial features, which included a well defined jaw line. Inoichi is seen wearing the standard flak jacket over a black outfit, completed with hand-guards, forehead protector and a sleeveless red haori.

Choza Akimichi is a jonin and also the fifteenth head of the Akimichi Clan. Choza is a tall, plump man with naturally brown hair, but seems to wear a long, spiky red hair-piece. He has purple markings on his cheeks , a common trait in the Akimichi clan.

He wears a samurai like outfit which entails a black suit completed with armour that has the kanji for 'food' on it. He also wears a rope belt, hand-guards, and instead of a forehead protector, a hachimaki tied around his head. He also wore a pair of silver, hooped earrings.

Hiruzen smiled at Naruto and Shikamaru. He quickly activated the silencing seal. There was a soft glow that filled the room for a second before going back to normal.

"Everyone's here. Thank you for being early for once, Kakashi." Hiruzen nodded at Kakashi who shrugged nonchalantly.

"I can read my Icha Icha later. Fighting in a war for Konoha is far is more important than books." Kakashi replied seriously, making Naruto and Shikamaru gulp at his words.

"Glad to see you're serious about this." Hiruzen whispered before clearing his throat to continue speaking.

"You're probably wondering why we're all gathered in here like we're going to make plans for war, that's because we are. Inoichi, can you please tell everybody about what you found in Kabuto, the spy's head? " Hiruzen asked Inoichi who nodded and stepped to the center of the office.

Naruto and Shikamaru's eyes were wide, they were right about Kabuto being a spy. They became nervous as they were finding themselves in the middle of something big.

"Thanks to Naruto knocking him out, I was about to quickly use the Psycho Mind Transmission to enters his subconscious. It was a little difficult as he used the Genjutsu Block Jutsu to place a genjutsu protection in form of mental blocks in his mind. "

" But I got through it without any major difficulties. Apparently, Kabuto Yakushi is Orochimaru's right hand man. He has spent most of his life as a spy working for many different individuals, organisations, and countries." Inoichi revealed, many jonins furrowed their eyebrows at the information. Hiruzen gritted his teeth, wondering how he and even Jiraiya let Kabuto go under the radar for so long.

"We've only scratched the surface of his head. Suna, Orochimaru and Otogakure pre-planned an invasion of Konoha that will happen during the finals of the Chunin Exams." Inoichi revealed, shocking Naruto and Shikamaru to the core.

"There's more. Jiraiya of the Sannin gave us more info about the attack. It is meant to be fought on two fronts. Suna's Jinchuriki Gaara would make it to the final rounds of the Chunin exams and release his tailed beast Shukaku from the centre of the village. While Konoha was preoccupied with the One-Tail, Suna and Oto forces would break through the walls surrounding the village. "

" Orochimaru has only one goal for this invasion, and that is to kill you, Lord Third." Inoichi revealed, shocking the two Genin evem more. All the jonins remained calm, but they all have tense expressions on their faces despite them not reacting to the new piece of information.

"We can't cancel the finals now. We've already sent out the invites to the Daimyo, the Kazekage and the Raikage. I suggest we play dumb but we station our ninjas in battle positions so that when the invasion starts, we will be able to counterattack quickly." Shikaku suggested.

'Leave it to dad to do the strategizing.' Shikamaru thought while looking at his dad proudly.

"Where will the Raikage stand in all of this? We're not leaving out the idea of him taking advantage of the chaos and join forces with Suna." Kakashi asked Shikaku.

" That I do not know, but let's hope that he at least stays neutral or better yet, helps us. " Shikaku replied. Asuma raised his hand.

" Hey dad... Weird question but why are Naruto and Shikamaru here?" Asuma asked Hiruzen.

" Naruto and Shikamaru are here because they deserve to know since they were the one who placed suspicion on Kabuto and the Oto Shinobi in the first place. And also because I have a mission for them. " Hiruzen looked at Naruto and Shikamaru who stood up straight.

"I have an S-rank mission for the two of you. I want you to form and co-lead a task force to deal with the Suna Shinobi in the arena, their Jinchuriki included." Hiruzen requested. Everyone looked at Hiruzen, wondering if this was the right choice.

" With Naruto's strength, leadership skills and Shikamaru's smarts. I'm sure you two will succeed in your mission. " Hiruzen assured them.

" What do we get out of this, gramps! " Naruto asked Hiruzen while narrowing his blue eyes at the old Hokage. Hiruzen smiled warmly at the Genin.

"Simple, you two get a battlefield promotion from Genin to chunin."

To be continued.....