66 Naruto : Chapter 66
Finally it was time for the chunin exams to begin. The Sandaime Hokage had assembled all the jonins of the village to get the teams that would participate nominated.
"Well, we will start with the new genin. Technically each genin that has done a minimum of eight missions can be nominated, normally of course they would have done more." The Hokage said.
Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma stepped forward, Kakashi looking smugger than usual. The Hokage knew that last night Kakashi had won the bet whose team would collect most points over the span of six months. It was only by two points, but he had won.
Sakura had beaten Choji and surprisingly Shino in their last one-on-one spars, Sasuke beat Hinata and Shikamaru while Naruto took out Ino and Kiba. All the teams had developed exceptionally and he had no doubt that they would all be nominated. Kurenai was first.
"I, Kurenai Yuuhi, sensei of team eight, consisting of Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyuga recommend these three under the name of Kurenai Yuuhi to take the chunin exams." She said making the confrontation sign.
Asuma followed.
"I, Asuma Sarutobi, sensei of team ten, consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi nominate these three under the name of Asuma Sarutobi to take the chunin exams." He said using the same sign.
Kakashi gave the Hokage a look and got a nod. It was time to reveal some secrets.
"I, Kakashi Hatake, sensei of team seven, consisting of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Namikaze" A loud intake of breath from nearly all jonin was heard, but Kakashi ignored it, "nominate these three under the name Kakashi Hatake to take the chunin exams."
"What do you mean, Namikaze, he can't be Yondaime Sama's son!" One man called out enraged.
"I think I would know my sensei's only son, Giichi." Kakashi said coldly. "He is finally ready to take up his heritage.
I have trained him to the best of my ability for the last six months to be ready as I know that Iwa and possibly Kumo might try to assassinate him once his identity is known.
Why do you think no spy was capable of getting a good picture of Naruto for their bingo books after our Wave Country mission?"
That shocked the jonins. Only Asuma seemed relaxed.
"I should have made a bet; I would have won a lot of money." Asuma said chuckling.
"I figured you had figured it out by now. You were the one to test him after all." Kakashi said.
"I would be a lousy jonin if I hadn't noticed the similarities in the fighting styles." Asuma confirmed.
"This is all well, but we need to continue with the nominations." The Hokage said.
"Of course, Hokage Sama. I, Gai Maito, sensei of team nine, consisting of the youthful Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga and Tenten Jakonato nominate my three youthful students to take the jonin exams." Gai continued giving the nice guy pose at the end.
The senseis that wanted to nominate their teams followed one after the other, none of them as exuberant as Gai though.
"Good, then we have twenty nine teams taking the exams. I expect all of your students to represent Konoha worthwhile. Now on to the next topic. As you probably have heard by now, I will step down again after the chunin exams.
As they will start in exactly seven days from now, I will tell you now who I have chosen as the Godaime Hokage." The Sandaime said.
This got the full attention of all jonin. They had waited a whole month since the news had broken through that the Professor wanted to retire again.
"The name has been kept a secret until now as my successor had an important task to fulfil which will end after the finals of the chunin exams.
At least to the point where he needs to put his full attention into it. Kakashi, step forward." The Hokage called and Kakashi stood by the Hokage's side.
"I have chosen Kakashi Hatake, student of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, to become the Godaime Hokage.
Until the finals this information is classified to be known only to the ANBU and jonin. As you have probably noticed, Kakashi has gained S-rank in every bingo book by now, which was something I told him to do before taking over the hat from me.
His second objective was to train his team to a point where they can safely take up missions on their own after he took over as Hokage." The Hokage explained.
Many nodded, seeing the sense in the decision to wait with the announcement for those reasons.
"Over the next month I will let Kakashi take over more and more of my duties. As his team will be busy with the chunin exams there won't be a problem.
For his students we have already ensured that they get the best teachers possible to prepare them if they manage to get through the first two parts of the exams, which if they perform like they did on their missions so far, shouldn't be a problem." The Hokage told the others.
"Hokage Sama, how strong are they if you are so sure that they will pass?" Aoba asked.
"Let me answer this please." Kakashi asked the Hokage.
"Of course, Kakashi." The Hokage said.
"Well, most of you should have heard of some of the missions my team has done so far. By now Sakura is a capable field medic and aspiring to become one of the best medic nins there are.
She is a solid chunin level kunoichi, which I wouldn't have expected in the beginning because she was a horrible fangirl.
Thankfully I managed to break her out of that phase. Sasuke is also a solid to high chunin level. He now has his superiority complex under control, which was a major issue in the beginning.
I had to literally beat it out of him or let Naruto do it. Naruto is jonin level." Kakashi stated and was interrupted.
"Uhm, Kakashi, why didn't the boy try and graduate early with that level of strength? I mean, being jonin level with twelve shows some serious talent." Genma asked.
"Because the village sabotaged him too much. Naruto feared that if he wasn't clearly above genin level when he graduated, he would be failed on purpose and be placed under the mercy of the civilian council again.
So he hid his true abilities to pass as the 'Dead Last' of his class to be put on Sasuke's team as he was sure that it would be the one team that wouldn't be allowed to fail." Kakashi answered.
"I want you to be aware that Naruto holds little love for the village.
I spent the last six months trying to give him bonds to the village so that if Hokage Sama one day dies of old age or other reasons, Naruto would still stay loyal to Konoha.
If I had failed, we would have had an enemy at our hands worse than Itachi Uchiha."
This made many gasp. Itachi was legendary and to think Naruto was stronger than him was a major strike.
"As the future Hokage I expect all ninjas to treat Naruto as what he is, a comrade. Naruto isn't his prisoner and has never harmed anybody that hasn't harmed him.
But make no mistakes; Naruto won't take any abuse from the village. He is willing to treat all ninjas neutrally at least and those that prove to him that they deserve it nicely.
On top I hope I made it clear that I don't want Sasuke to fall back into old bad habits. Treat him like every other ninja. My students are all trained to respect their superiors, but they will question all orders that they think are stupid or will harm the village.
They will be polite about it, but they won't simply accept any information as absolute. They will also interpret their orders to suit them best to fulfil their missions." Kakashi informed them.
He got nods from the other jonins. They had heard how hard he had trained with his team. He was giving Gai a run for his money as the hardest teacher in the physical aspect.
"Good, now that you have an idea what my successor has done the last months, everybody except Kakashi and the ones that are responsible for the chunin exams is dismissed.
Remember that the information about what you heard here except for the nominated teams is confidential. In particular that means Kakashi being the Godaime and Naruto being the Yondaime's son." The Hokage said and most of the group left.
...
Hey guys I really need some power stones to Elevate the ranking :)
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :
p atreon.com/CarriePoppins
