The Chunin Exam
"Lady Tsunade, I've took your advice and planned early for the chunin exam."Sakura said softly
unaware of her Master's mood.
"Wise choice Sakura, let me hear it" Tsunade said rather calmly.
"As you know Gaara of the Sand, Neji Hyuuga, Chouji, Shino and Lee have already passed the exam earlier this year in the winter exam. So that leaves Ten Ten, Ino, Hinata, Kiba and myself from the leaf village. According to Shikamaru, Temari and Kankuro will be entering this year. They hesitated in entering the last exam because their brother was adjusting as Kazekage. Ino thought that she should enter when all the tough ninja were downsized and Hinata and Kurenai were practicing new techniques. Kiba had a ritual with Akamaru last time and I was studying medicine with you and Shizune. Ten Ten had the same theory as Ino and of course we know that Ino stopped pursuing medicine and learned tracking from her dad."Sakura paused taking a deep breath and then flipped through her notebook.
"Any way, The Sand has really hushed up the test in the chunin exam but I over heard Temari planning the exam with Shikamaru who is our ambassador. The first exam will be a written test on ninja history, the second will be a survival exercise I think, and the preliminaries will be in a elemental arena of some sort. They only go to the finals immediately if the number of shinobi is extremely low. The Sand village states that you can be in a group of three or less so Hinata, Kiba and I will work together.
"Excellent work Sakura, you have two weeks left before we leave so be prepared."Tsunade said with a smile.
"Thank you master."Sakura replied
"One more thing. I have a letter here from Naruto for you. Also work on that summoning jutsu."she said to Sakura and handed her the letter.
Sakura walked home rather quickly that day, it was like an adrenaline rush. Was she expecting leads on Sasuke or just to here from Naruto. She had no clue. She ran up to her room with her body feeling unusually fragile. She flung herself onto the bed and ripped open the letter.
Dear Sakura,
It's been a year since I left the village and tons of great stuff is happening to me.
My summoning is at it's best, I learned how to do scroll sealings, I have a wicked new rasengan
and I've been working so hard my outfit tore and I had to buy a new one. I just came from the Snow Village and we are heading toward the Tea country. I can't tell you exactly where because this letter may get intercepted says Jiraiya. I'll get even stronger so we can get Sasuke back and tell Granny Tsunade and Kakashi sensei hello.
Naruto
Sakura folded the letter neatly and placed it between her medical journal. She chuckled to see the ramen liquid all over the paper and her eyes watered to know that Naruto was alright. She completely forgot about Sasuke and maybe she soon will.
Two weeks later Sakura found herself with Hinata and Kiba 2:00am. The Chunin exam was going to be in two days and it would take three days to get to the Sand, but Tsunade had her shortcuts. Sakura and friends were leaving with Tsunade's transport guard because as Hokage she was invited to be a judge. The other leaf teams were responsible for getting their themselves but because Sakura was close to Tsunade she got to to tag along. They were carried in a large brown carriage with two white horses and had an exceptional guard team that left no blind spot for attack. Kakashi and Kurenai in front to detect gen jutsu and because they have the sharpest sight. Asuma and an anbu blackcop hand picked by Tsunade were behind to deal with stalkers and Shizune driving the horses. Not to mention Ton Ton's sharp senses and a brown slug with sensitive smell lied on the roof ready to inform Tsunade.
"Summoning jutsu: Pakun" Kakashi shouted whilst placing his hand firmly on the ground. A large poof of white smoke appeared revealing a small brown talking dog, dressed in a blue shirt with droopy ears and eyes.
"Hey Kakashi long time no see." Pakun said in his slightly deep edgy voice.
"Scout five miles ahead and report back."
Got it boss."Pakun replied and then instantly disappeared.
Sakura, Hinata and Kiba were starting to get really bored in the carriage now. It had been two hours now and they were crossing through a sand storm.
"Lady Hokage, am, I, I, just wanted to know um why you um, needed so many guards." Hinata asked shyly.
"As Hokage I have many allies and even more enemies. The Sand is perfect for shinobi to attack me. I am in almost every enemy country's BINGO book wanted dead and who ever kills me gets a big reward. Therefor I can not take any chances."Tsunade said politely patting Ton Ton's neck.
"Okay you three get out."Tsunade said while pointing at the door.
"What."Kiba replied in shock
"You need some experience in a different environment so get out."
They jumped out of the moving carriage to meet Shizune weeping in fear and the other jounin were not surprised at all. Four hours passed now and Pakun had just appeared.
"Ten enemy shinobi in the dying woods ahead and several around us"Pakun stated.
"That's less than I expected." Kakashi said.
"It's chunin level gen jutsu being cast up ahead." Kurenai whispered to Kakashi.
"Sakura give us a hand please."Kakashi asked her.
Together they released the gen jutsu and the slug on the roof top began to spit slime all around as a signal of the approaching enemies.
"Company everyone, enough for all of us."
Kakashi and Kurenai had ran ahead and ninja suddenly jumped out of the sand. Everyone was fighting now. Kakashi was fighting three at once. All three were rouge waterfall ninja, all skinny and in blue cloaks. One was bearing a large sword swinging wildly at Kakashi.
"Shadow clone jutsu." Kakashi shouted.
Now there were three Kakashi's and the original took the swordsman.
"You shall die here Hatake Kakashi. I'll kill you with my fire blade jutsu."he said.
The man made several hand seals and his sword immediately conjured flames at the edges. He ran at Kakashi with full speed as Kakashi ran to him with a glowing blue lighting blade. They struck at the exact seem time creating a small explosion. The man's sword was shattered and his body was tainted in scorch marks. The other two clones killed the two men using an earth dragon jutsu.
"What a pity."Kakashi muttered to himself.
Kurenai's gen jutsu had already effected the Hidden Rain thieves. She made each of them saw one another as her until they severed the arms and legs of one another resulting in death.
Meanwhile Asuma fought a jounin from the Hidden Grass Ninja. The man was dressed in a lime green monk costume. His head was completely bald and he had several dot tattoos on his forehead. He was almost the same size as Asuma and even had two weapons in his hands like Asuma, but they were just over sized butter knives.
"I am Teraku Venchia. My clan was raised to go all out on any enemy. Prepare to taste the sting of my
Necko (cat). The man said pointing the dull blade at Asuma.
"Hm...I fought someone of that clan before. You summon large plants unique to your personality. Your arrogance will be the death of you. Here...I...come." Asuma screamed at him and charged with his chakra knives.
Asuma sung at him swiftly, missing him nearly every time. The man kept on dodging and then was surprised to see that he began bleeding.
"What's the meaning of this." he demanded
"My chakra knives work with my natural element of wind, which means that they can cut you even if they just graze you because my chakra travels in a large range." Asuma replied.
"Let's do this then." Teraku shouted beginning the fight for the second time.
This jounin was no push over Asuma thought but he lacked stamina. Teraku finally revealed the power of his weapon he called it Necko echo (cat echo). He thrashed them together several times creating a large mass of sound waves resembling a band of cats meowing. It dropped Asuma to his knees.
"Finally my ultimate technique, summoning jutsu: Venus Diva." he said placing his hand firmly on the ground. The floor below Asuma opened up and a large brown carnivorous tree with green tentacles took Asuma into it's trunk.
"It's over little Sarutobi, I can take you off my BINGO book list now. My summon will devour just about anything in a few minutes, from ninja to large mammals. It's ov-."
suddenly an two Asuma clones appeared next to the tree. They transformed themselves into two large bulls and went close to the tree. It expelled the now covered in slime Asuma and took in the two clones instead. Asuma quickly caught his breath and placed two explosion tags on the tree, causing it to explode into hundreds of pieces.
"How did you kill my ultimate creation."He said now sitting on the ground in disbelief.
"You said it would eat anything so I made my clones into something more appealing to escape."Asuma said coolly. Teraku's dotted tattoo's began to fade rapidly, he gave a shriek and then fainted. Asuma knew that this clan shared life force with their unique summons, but only fifty percent. Asuma had no choice but to deliver the finishing blow with his chakra knives.
The anbu blackcop called Kenzou was fighting a rouge sand ninja who was also an anbu. They were matching each others technique very well. Finally Kenzou whispered "I'm bored". He formed many hand seals and used a raining leaf gen jutsu that immobilized the enemy. Then he walked up casually to the sand ninja and stabbed him with a kunai.
Hinata had jumped up on top of the carriage to stop a grass ninja from entering through the roof. She activated her Byakugan and the enemy kunoichi got into a fighting position. She and Hinata were in an amazing but deadly tango. Hinata struck her with thirty two palms and quickly diminished her chakra. The woman whited out and Hinata tossed her off the carriage carefully.
Sakura took two sound thugs at once. They were hopeless cases. The first one began with close range combat.
"Okay princess I'll make this quick." He tried and tried and tried, but Sakura was far to good at dodging. She launched a gen jutsu on the genin level bastard and he slept like a baby. The other one had sneaked up on her and was nearly finished with a fire style jutsu.
"Am coming Sakura" Pakun said running through the thick sand and jumping on his head.
"Get off you mutt." the man shouted.
"Finish him now."Pakun muttered to Sakura. She ran up to him and punched him in the stomach
insanely. Inner Sakura was enjoying this very much.
"Keep it coming, get out of here." The two Sakura's whispered softly together launching a final chakra punch that knocked the enemy several yards away.
Kiba and Shizune were doing well against Hidden Mist bounty hunters. Shizune had poisoned several and now Kiba and Akamaru were using their man beast clone to finish up the job. All of the ninja succeeded unscathed except for Asuma who needed a little healing in his abdomen . The team moved north for another six hours and Kakashi and Kenzou continued to take down a dozen ninja. They camped out near some run down ruins and cast invisibility gen jutsu as a precaution. They moved out early with Tsunade now up front with Kakashi and Kurenai telling Shizune to sleep in the carriage.
Another two hours and they reached the short cut. A sea of quick sand. The team unleashed a series of
complex nin jutsu and an underground passage appeared. In another hour the submerged to the other side and could see the see the Sand Village. They were greeted by a party of high officials are as the sand calls them higher ups. The leaf Ninja were immediately escorted into rooms and Tsunade left her V.I.P room to have a meeting with the Kazekage.
"Sakura, should we take a look around because we won't have time see the sites tomorrow during the exam." Kiba asked her.
"Sure let's go." she replied and together team Haruno left the plain looking suite to explore the Sand.
