Naruto: The New Sealmaster

A couple of days later, Kakashi had called them in for a special meeting. Aoshi had to assume this was when they were going to get nominated for the exam. Considering the exam was the next day, he was cutting it close.

That was exactly what happened. He didn't mention the fact that all three had to show up for any of them to be able to take the exam, but Aoshi assumed that was Kakashi testing them so he didn't say anything.

Naruto was ecstatic. He was clearly looking for a way to show what he was made of, and he made that excruciatingly clear during that last day before the exam.

Aoshi had been hanging out with Naruto for the last week now and honestly he could understand why Sakura was annoyed with the guy. He was far too energetic, impulsive, loud and stupid for his own good, but there was a charm to him. Aoshi didn't mind Naruto really, he was like an energetic younger brother during those days.

Aoshi had to properly teach him to do a lot of things he obviously was never taught. Like how to clean properly, how to cook, how to do laundry etc. Etc. Despite Naruto living alone since he was very little, he didn't know how to take care of himself.

Aoshi also managed to get fixing personal hygiene into Naruto's daily schedule. The guy barely showered and rarely brushed his teeth. All it took to convince him was one small conversation and then a couple of hours of teaching.

***

"No! Why should I waste my time doing all that stupid stuff? I could spend it doing anything else."

Aoshi sighed. "Dude.." But then he thought of a solution. "Think about this. What does Sakura smell of?"

Naruto got dreamy eyes as he vividly described the way she smelled, even how her hair smelled different from the rest. Maybe Aoshi should teach the guy about personal space as well as personal hygiene….

"Okay okay, you can stop. Think about it..what do you smell like?" Naruto raised an eyebrow and smelled himself. He didn't feel anything. Aoshi facepalmed. "You can't smell yourself, you're too used to your own smell."

That annoyed Naruto since he didn't know the answer. "Then how am I supposed to know!?"

Aoshi pointed at specific things around him. "Mold, mold, spoiled milk, rotten egg. Etc. Etc. Etc. These are the smells of your apartment, and that's basically what your clothes smell like honestly."

It took Naruto a couple of seconds to process. "Are you telling me I smell like a fart!?" Describing a fart as smelling like a rotten egg was rather common, so it was a decent simile.

"Well, your clothes do. Add that into your terrible breath and you constant smelling of old sweat and we have a serious problem. No wonder no girls get close to you, man.." Naruto's jaw fell to the ground.

***

After that conversation his hygiene overall was much better and honestly he even looked healthier. Probably because Aoshi got rid of all the rotten food around his apartment. If only Naruto had gotten to live with someone, or even the orphanage, for his first years. Then he wouldn't have to learn all this now..oh well.

With that problem sorted, he had even less reasons to dislike the guy. It was hard to understand why most people did, though considering this was the village who hired a sleeping drunkard, his father, as one of the main people in charge of the security barrier...maybe logic wasn't their strong suit.

Oh well, back to the matter at hand.

Aoshi had now separated from Naruto as it was time to go to the exam. He would do so with his own team, hopefully they wouldn't be attacked on the short distance to the academy.

"Kazuto! Dai! How've you been?" He ran up to his two teammates with a wide grin and he got two in return.

"Ey, bro! We haven't seen you since you weren't allowed to train anymore. I'm alright, we've been helping out at our old orphanage lately. Right Dai?" Kazuto was his common energetic self, it was nice to see.

Dai nodded. "Yep. And I'm fine too." Restrained as always.

Aoshi nodded. "Great! I've been meaning to go to the orphanage anyway." They started walking towards the academy. "But I couldn't for various reasons. I have three little apprentices there after all."

Kazuto laughed. "So that's why there were three kids constantly scribbling on some tags. I thought it was just some kind of art kids."

Aoshi smiled. "No, they're making great progress. Might hire them when they get out of school at this rate. Have to become a chunin first though of course.."

Dai nodded. "But you'll get it. I just know it. Nobody deserves it as much as you after all." Aoshi was surprised. The often silent guy just gave him a fairly long compliment.

"Thanks Dai. It means a lot. You have a decent chance yourself, but I won't lie. It'll be tough." With that, they entered the school. 

Some commotion was heard on the second floor. Rather weird since the exam was on the third.."You two go on. I'm just going to check this out." They waved him off as he went to investigate. And what did he find if not Tenten? She was putting on quite the acting performance as well.

A genjutsu had been placed on this floor to make it seem like the third floor. Dai and Kazuto had become used to minor genjutsu so when Aoshi told them to go on, they quickly realized that they were on the wrong floor.

The people here though, did not have a clue. At least most of them didn't. Tenten and her team clearly knew, but they played along. They got "beat up" by the guards. But as soon as they stood up and walked away, all injuries were gone. Suddenly someone had to go and ruin it.

"The guards" were telling everyone that they were just sorting out the weakest ones, that they had nothing to gain here anyway but a certain gloater had to intervene. "I agree but you will let me pass through. And also remove this surrounding created by genjutsu."

Aoshi sighed in frustration and wondered why the dumb kid couldn't just let it be and let the weakest be spared from entering this time. He's not doing anyone any favours and the only ones who think he'll look cool are the weakest genins here. Aoshi couldn't fathom the boy's agenda. Did he somehow think he was the only one who noticed? Because then he had a lot of work to do, mainly fixing his own attitude towards others.

Aoshi finally met the eyes of Tenten and after Rolling his eyes at Sasuke they shared a smile. The genjutsu was dropped and suddenly one of the "guards" attacked Sasuke but before Sasuke could blink, Rock Lee came in between them to stop the kick.

Neji started talking something about them not wanting to stand out but Aoshi blocked his voice out as he took Tenten's hand and led her through the crowd.

"I don't need to be a part of that." She giggled at him. "Yeah..Guy came up with it. It was sort of fun actually. I don't understand why Lee decided to drop the act.." but as she looked back Aoshi answered her question. "He wanted to impress Sakura."

And sure enough, Tenten saw the blushing Lee looking at the pinkhead. She sighed deeply. "Fair enough. But why are you here? Surely you didn't fall for something like this?"

He laughed and waved that off. "No no no. My teammates went ahead. I thought I heard you in this hallway so I figured we had time for a small chat." She gave him a smile and then yelled back to her team. "I'll go on ahead!"

They barely acknowledged what she said but Neji did give her a small nod, so he clearly heard. With that, the two friends walked slowly towards the actual exam room.

"So how did things go after I had to leave you?" This was the main reason he wanted to talk to her. He hoped she had gotten it sorted even without him.

"Pretty well. I went back to my team to talk tactics some days as well, but overall I'm pleased with my progress!" He was about to ask her to elaborate but she interrupted. "You'll see. I trust you'll make it far enough."

He laughed as they reached the end of the third floor corridor "Fair enough. This is where I leave you. Let's hope Lee didn't get into too much trouble."

She leaned against the wall and waved him goodbye.

He looked around the room and that had to be one of the most tense rooms he had ever been in. But he didn't like that feeling so he showed a bright smile and walked over to his teammates. "Hi. Meet anyone interesting yet?"

Both were very happy to see him, they had seemingly been rather bothered by the emotions of those around them. "Aoshi! Finally, I can't wait to get out of here...I'd rather be in enemy territory than spend more time here honestly.."

It was Kazuto who reacted so strongly. But Aoshi did think it was rather odd, it was almost as if this was killing intent from people stronger than genin rank. Perhaps it was a part of the exam..

He pretended not to care and chuckled at his friends. "Yeah yeah, well I'm here. It's fine. Let's go grab a place next to that wall over there." He pointed at the place where he saw Hinata and her team sitting quietly.

As soon as Hinata saw him her eyes lit up and she stood up. She was prepared for what he would do, and so Aoshi hugged her deeply. "Ah, little princess. You made it here as well?" She nodded into his shoulder.

"Then let's both do our best." He let her go, and was met by a wide smile from the girl he had seen grow from very timid to rather timid. He looked over to her teammates.

"I remember you two of course." He sat down and gestured for his teammates to follow his example. "Kazuto and Dai, these are Hina-hime's teammates, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino." They all waved their hellos. They seemed like nice boys, though he hadn't met them that many times.

"Got any stories to share while we wait?" He looked over to Shino. "I heard about the experiments with fire resistant bugs. Have you taken part?"

Aoshi hadn't really heard much about it, but he did know that it was mentioned by some a while ago. He just wanted to get the quiet people talking, and Shino definitely seemed like that type. On this topic, however, he was very interested.

Quite a while later, the loud ones came through the door. Tenten had long ago sat down along another wall, but now Naruto showed up.

All of the rookies walked over to meet them, but they really attracted too much attention as was soon pointed out by some odd guy with glasses. Soon he took out some cards which apparently attracted a lot of attention from the rookies. Aoshi made his way closer in case it was some fun magic trick.

He was taking out his third card when Aoshi could hear what he said. "Rokushō Aoshi." And so he sped up.

"40 D-ranks, 25 C-ranks and..12(!) B-ranks. This guy is a Genin?" Then he took an extra look. "One A-rank...it's time to move on. Second in his year last year. Specialises in-" Aoshi cleared his throat and got all of their attention.

"I'd rather you didn't finish that sentence. And If you don't burn that card, we'll have issues. Get it?" Aoshi kept a smile on his face but his eyes clearly glared into the now sweating guy.

"Of course. No worries." When he was about to put the card down, Aoshi grabbed it and inspected it. "You could have picked a better photo at least..My hair hadn't properly grown out at this point..The picture in the bingo book is better."

The glasses guy gave a hesitant chuckle. "I didn't consider it.." Aoshi raised an eyebrow. "Obviously.."

He put it in his inside pocket and smiled to the rookies. "Good luck." And then he walked back to his spot against the wall. As soon as he got there he heard Naruto yell out.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!!! I won't lose to you bastards!!! You got that!?"

Aoshi sighed and watched the scenes play out. Some ninjas went to attack them. Aoshi assumed they'd get stopped by the chunins hidden in the room if they actually meant harm, so he didn't bother with it. The glasses guy did get injured by the sound coming out of the strange half-metal guy's arm though.

Aoshi had never considered sound could be used like that. Intriguing.

Suddenly a large blast of smoke filled the room and a man yelled out from within it. "Quiet down you worthless bastards!"

That seems to have done the trick since he got all of their attention. Aoshi gave the odd man a look. Scars covering every bit of his face, a terrifying grin and a long black robe. Aoshi thought he knew who this was, and he got the slightest bit worried about what the first exam contained.

"Thanks for waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chunin selection exam's first test."