Just Another Exam?
Chapter 1
"WHAT!" exclaimed Naruto? "We just got started being genin and you tell us that we have to start preparing for the chunin exams!" "Yup," replied Kakashi flatly, and who was also delving deeper into the perverted depths of his book. "Oh yeah and it is in two months," again ignoring the astonished looks of everyone on his team besides Sasuke who was putting on his normal "I can take anything you throw at me" look, which drove Naruto crazy usually but was too focused on his Sensei's nan-chalant attitude towards the whole idea. "But I thought that those tests were deadly to those who weren't experienced enough," exclaimed the highly concerned Sakura (who wasn't talking about herself.) "Yes, it is," said the slightly annoyed Kakashi "there is about a sixty-percent passing rate, the other forty… well lets just say that they aren't going to be chunin." This alarmed Sakura even more, even though she knew she could take down any one of her female counter-parts, she thought that perhaps Naruto wasn't quite as skilled. "THAT'S LIKE SUICIDE!" Naruto exclaimed. "Well you all signed up to be Shinobi and this is a test to make sure we aren't sending out a bunch of idiots who will just end up getting killed anyway," Kakashi stated flatly (clearly having run out of patience with the young ninja and deciding to go out and read in a quiet place, he poofed into mid-air.) Sasuke left soon after, silently, as if nothing had happened, leaving a concerned Sakura and an enraged Naruto to engage in the only calming thing they had left, conversation.
"I can't believe this," Naruto said with an unusual gloom on his face. "Not only that but Kakashi didn't even really seem to take a notice of the fact that this is more dangerous than an actual battle!" the ever-smart, top of the class Sakura said (doing the statistics in her head.) "Well we had better go train," Naruto said, wiping the gloom off his face. Sakura, surprised at his ability to take things and turn them into something that was at least somewhat good, decided she might as well come too. However as they were walking to the training ground she remembered the last time she trained with Naruto, and she mentally berated herself for not remembering the fact that she was sore for almost a week the last time she did.
Sakura crashed into her bed at about two-o'clock in the morning. Everything on her hurt, even including her Hip, which had been hit by a rubber training Shuriken By Naruto earlier, after she thought about it though, she was happy that she went along because she got to spend some time with Naruto, which she knew might become very scarce after the Chunin exams. She didn't want to admit it before, but now she knew it would have to be soon. She needed to tell Naruto how she really felt about him. Sakura still pretended to be Sasuke's number one admirer, but it was all a show designed to make the other girls think she was normal, however she knew that even deep down it was obvious, SASUKE IS AN ASS-HOLE! Not only that but the fact that he just stared out into space whenever even the hottest women from Konoha walked by made her consider the possibility that sasuke gay. Which even after she knew it wasn't true she didn't completely dismiss from her head.
As soon as she dozed off she kept having dreams about Naruto.
When she woke up it didn't even phase her that she had those dreams, seeing as how they occurred just about every night. She rushed out of her house to see the crazy blond haired kid had actually gone back to continue training, even after she was about to collapse from over-working herself. Sakura laughed when she saw Naruto sleeping under the tree that he had (that morning) been trying to run as far as possible before slipping off, she could tell this because there were a huge number of Kunai marks on the tree continually going up until they reached the top branch. Sakura walked over and gently woke Naruto who insisted to stay longer by continually rolling over until his face was planted in the dirt. Sakura laughed and said, "Well I guess I'm going to have to eat mine as well as your Ramen, Naruto." To which Naruto immediately jumped up and started running towards the edge of the training grounds. Sakura just laughed and said, "Just remember, Naruto, that YOU are treating." This slowed down Naruto, however he still kept a quick pace towards Ichiraku Ramen. A somewhat confused Naruto looked down to see that not only had Sakura caught up to him but had intertwined her fingers with his and grabbing with her other hand onto his forearm. This made Naruto get a warm sensation throughout the rest of his body and for the first time in his life he hoped that the journey to the Ramen shop took forever.
For a long time Naruto and Sakura were silent as they slowly walked down the two-mile trail back to the village. When Sakura broke the silence it almost made Naruto jump. "Naruto, I have a plan for the Chunin exams," Sakura said. Naruto listened intently to her ingenious plan. Sakura had the idea the previous night when she was thinking about her as well as Naruto's well fare. She figured the best way to get through it unscathed was to create a very realistic shadow clone for each of them and give it extra chakra so as to allow it to do more than just Taijutsu. The part she didn't mention was what jutsu they would use, which even she hadn't figured out yet. " Wow! Sakura-Chan that is really smart but what jutsu are we going to use?" She had to act quickly so that Naruto wouldn't find out that even she didn't know. When she was thinking of what to do she weighed the options quickly of either, tell him she didn't know, tell him it would be alright and she would explain more later, or… the thought of telling him how she felt, for some reason or another popped into her head. When she noticed that Naruto was starting to look concerned she decided for some reason that the third option was the most logical. Not only did it get him off her back about the jutsu thing but it also allowed her to finally speak her mind on the, until now, non-existent topic. "Hey Sakura Chan are you feeling ok, should I take you home?" a puzzled Naruto asked as he noticed that Sakura still hadn't answered. He was greeted by the sweetest voice he had ever imagined that sent him shooting into the outer atmosphere, "Naruto… do you still love me?" Naruto, who was completely startled from her seemingly random question replied with a rather unconfident and embarrassed, "of course Sakura chan." She was relieved for about half a second but remembered the fact that she planned on taking this into a deeper subject, "Naruto…" she sheepishly replied "I've been thinking about the fact that the chuunin exams are soon and there is something I wanted to tell you and have been wanting to tell you for a long time… I love you Naruto and I never loved that jerk Sasuke (even though a different word than jerk was on her mind, or rather string of them) he was just an act to look like a normal girl. But it's true… I only ever truly loved you." The, at first stunned Naruto, went sky high once again due to the fact that the girl he had a crush on since he first saw her had finally returned his feelings. And not only that but she admitted that she never loved Sasuke, which underneath the obvious feelings made him feel like he finally got Sasuke back for what he had made him go through. As Naruto was about to speak he was cut off from a sweet and passionate kiss. They kissed until Sakura had to breathe even though Naruto could go until he died of a heart attack because of how fast his heart was beating. "I thought of that plan for the exams so I could keep you safe and to show you how much I love you," her cheeks became a rosy red after she admitted to it but it didn't matter because Naruto was tilting her chin up for a second kiss. "Well I'm glad you thought of it cuz if you didn't I would have had to go through that on the other end," to which got Naruto a soft bop in the head and another kiss.