Naruto: The Untold Chronicles

Introduction:

Shortly after the Ninja wars, the village of Konoha was constructed under the guidance of the first Hokage. At the time, many other villages were also formed in the chaos of the aftermath. Of these only a few survived due to the continuing conflicts in the fights for power and stability. The villages, once settled, trained many shinobi to defend themselves, attract work and profit from anyone willing to pay for the villages services. The most famous of these villages were those that gained support from the countries that they rose from such as Konoha and the Hidden Mist village. However some villages were formed due to splits within the cultures of these villages. An example of this is the Hidden Village of Sound, formed and governed by Orochimaru, a missing-nin of Konoha. However this is not the only minor village that has arisen...

Chapter 1:

Ajusan stared in awe as he entered the large red gates of Konoha. In comparison to his own village, Konoha was massive in size, easily earning its reputation as one of the five shinobi nations. 'Wow this place is huge' Ajusan exclaimed as he and his team walked through the gates of Konoha. Ajusan was 5'6" in height wearing a green and brown camo vest with a belt filled with spherical objects attached to them. He had short black hair with his head protector tied traditionally around his forehead. He was fairly muscular in build but nowhere near the scale of his brothers and father who were like mountains in comparison to the average man. He wore black trousers with with a kunai holster on his left leg, his eyes were wide and innocent like most people of his age which glinted a light jade.

'Simple things entertain simple minds I suppose.' grinned Shinjuu, the female of the group. Shinjuu was 5'4" and was the shortest member of the team, she wore a long sleeved jacket , the sleeves of which were widened at the end just like most of the ninja's in her village, the jacket was a dark green with the collar up to cover most of her face from the sides. She wore green and brown camo trousers and ninja sandals, she did not however have a kunai holster which was unusual for most ninja. She wore her head protector strapped to her right arm and had a fairly skinny build in comparison to Ajusan. She had shoulder length dark blue hair and similar wide eyes to Ajusan, however she had a more serious look in comparison.

'Heh, I'm not exactly stupid you know?' Ajusan said loudly with a proud smirked proudly as they stopped to sit down at the wall by the gate.

'Yeah, considering your clan is commonly known for being all brawn and no brain', laughed Shinjuu as she sat down.

'Pipe down both of you,' Kinzu the third member of the team said as he observed the argument, 'why do you always argue? We need to take these exams seriously' he said sternly.

Kinzu was 5'8" and the tallest member of his team, his orange loose hair was long and blew softly as the wind gently blew through it. He wore the same styled jacket as Shinjuu however he wore the collar down. He also had the green and brown camo trousers similar to Shinjuu but had a kunai holster on his right leg, physically he was quite lean and skinny, his narrow icy blue eyes fixed on Shinjuu's.

'Who died and made you boss eh?' Shinjuu said slyly, 'Remember I passed with top grades last year, I don't recall you being first?" she grinned.

'Umm… I came second…not exactly like I was completely blown away…after all I passed with one mark below you which doesn't make me a ditz' Kinzu said coolly, eyes firmly locked onto hers.

' Well second is still second, it can mean life or death in the shinobi world…' Shinjuu said irritably.

'Okay okay knock it off both of you.' Mishui, their sensei said as she rubbed her feet from the long trek from the Hamaru gakure (hidden trap village). Shinjuu and Kinzu separated and walked off in different direction, Ajusan sat watching them leave with a grin on his face. 'Yeah?, and what are you grinning at hm?' Mishui said scornfully, Ajusan quickly withdrew into himself and sat quietly as the sun begun to set. He then closed his eyes and begun to meditate, legs crossed as other shinobi entered the village through the nearby gate. 'Our first external chuunin exams huh?' Mishui said as she watched Ajusan meditate, 'I hope everything turns out okay' she said as she walked off to report to the jounins of the village and sort out their accommodation for the exams.

As their jounin sensei Saito walked off to register them and arrange where they'd be staying Kiala turned to her two team mates and grinned, 'Ok, where in Konoha and we don't have Mr. Serious looking over our shoulders anymore.' she said excitedly; she was 5'8" with a maturing body, her purple-black hair was shoulder-length and held back with a dark grey headband so that only a short fringe fell forwards to just above her emerald eyes. She wore a tree green top with black netting down her upper arms and an earthy brown, thigh length pair of stretchy shorts. 'What should we do? I mean it's our first time in another village, I want to check out the restaurants!'

Her friends looked around a moment before answering, 'Well I don't have a clue so I guess I'll tag along, but later I want to check out that cool monument on the mountainside.' Said Mau, the dark blond haired boy; he was of medium build and at 5'9" he was the tallest of them, his medium length spikey hair stood up in four back-swept clumps, which leaned to the sides at the front, and backwards at the back; this seemed to give him even more height and Kiala always thought that was unfair. He uncontiously checked his swords; two half-length katanas that were strapped to his back with the handles pointing diagonally down to his sides. He didn't check the long sword handle that was held between his shoulder blades, Kiala always wondered what that was, there wasn't a blade attached to it. Her friend wore a close fitting green, black and purple shirt with the pattern being black with green and purple tears; his slacks were forest green and tied close to his legs with bandages on his calves and he wore his kunai holder on his left thigh and equipment bag on the same hip. Kiala grinned 'You're paying for the 1st 2 we stop at, you still owe me one for you-know-what' she said as the tall boy groaned, looking to the other boy for support.

'I think I'll go and train some,' said his friend Ryusuke, 'there are supposed to be a few good training grounds around here and I want to go over the new jutsu my dad showed me.' The other boy was 5'6 and slim, which made him seem taller unless one of the others stood next to him. His long straight hair was hazel brown and he wore it in a ponytail tied back at the nape of his neck that reached the small of his back. Unlike the other two he wore a thigh length, forest green trench coat, which had lots of pockets and holders on the insides; under this he wore a shirt just like Mau's and loose, dark brown trousers. He also wore a second, larger equipment bag on his hip.

Kiala grinned as Mau tried to persuade Ryusuke to join them, no doubt so he could try and foist off half the bill on his friend. 'Oh let him go train, he can always join us later, we can meet on the monument, unlike when you train he should be fine to hang around afterwards.' Said Kiala, interrupting yet another attempt to convince the shorter boy and starting to drag her protesting blond friend toward a sign indicating a ramen restaurant by the name of Ichiraku's.

Konoha's night life was busy in comparison to the Hamaru gakure, Kinzu wandered through the bustling streets as ninja's and residents went to and from different bars and restaurants. He walked quietly down one of the back alleys near one of the many bars and jumped from wall to wall, caught hold of the ledge and looked down at the bustling street. He watched a group of Konoha genins in the restaurant across the street, the blonde haired kunoichi could easily be heard complaining that her large counterpart ate too much, whilst the other male member looked on lazily. Kinzu quickly leapt from roof top to roof top, he spied on many of the genins, some of which used the same umbrella's filled with needles which he did. One he saw didn't seem to sleep, he watched him for hours as he sat on the moonlit rooftop, a giant gourd strapped to his back, however he still looked quite young. He continued to watch the different exam participants, some were in training areas, practicing their jutsu as he watched them silently concealed in the tree's. He then came to rest in a tree outside a participants room, watching her curiously as she exchanged pleasantries with her sensei and her partner. He couldn't see her third team mate as he perched on the branch.

'So do you always hang out in tree's outside girls windows or is this just a phase you're going through?' said a voice above and to the right of him. Kinzu stared up at him, his eyes reflecting the moonlight as he saw who was obviously the third team mate to this team. 'Passing phase I suppose' he said coolly as he slipped out the tree, hung upside down from the branch he was perched on and flipped to land on the grass near the base of the tree. 'Perv!' shouted the boy still in the tree. Kinzu stumbled as he heard the words shouted out from above, he quickly ran off down the empty street, leaping onto a nearby rooftop to avoid being followed. As he leapt down onto the street, he noticed Mishui walking back towards their allocated rooms. He quickly ran after her, catching up with her fairly quickly. 'So where have you been?' Mishui asked calmly.

'Around I suppose' Kinzu replied with a slight blush.

'Why the hell are you blushing?' Mishui asked with a sly grin on her face.

'Umm..uh no..reason, all I was doing was scouting the opposition…when I got caught' he said with a hint of panic in his voice.

'Ooh so that's how it is ,is it?…. see anything you like?' Mishui's lips curled back to reveal a toothed grin.

'Umm…no not really.' Kinzu said nervously as he bagan to back away from her. Mishui continued to grin, she quickly tripped him, flicked her wrist as wire from her watch poured out and quickly bound Kinzu's wrists and ankles. She then quickly gagged him and begun to drag him along behind her, 'I'm not letting you go until you explain everything to me.' she said with a smile as the other residents watched her drag the boy off with odd looks ...

Mau grinned as he watched the orange haired kid miss a step at his accusation, still, he had to admit the kid was pretty good to be scouting the opposition even before the exam began 'That one might make a good chuunin one day, too bad he expected everyone to not be expecting it.' He mused

'Hey! What are you doing outside my window you closet pervert?' Shouted Kiala from her window.

Mau grimaced at the question, they both knew it wasn't what it looked like but she just couldn't help baiting him.

'Oh nothing much, just heard something out here and thought I'd check it out,' said Mau in his most unruffled tone of voice 'some kid was scooping us out.'

'Oh!' Said Kiala, sounding mollified, which relieved Mau considerably 'So you were setting up a viewing schedule eh?'

'Yeah see, nothing to worry- huh? No! I would never…!' Mau exclaimed after his initial blunder.

'Haha… gotcha.' said Kiala with a triumphant smirk 'So who was this kid.'

'Don't know.' Mau replied with a shrug, 'Had the same head protector on as the boy we saw at Ichiraku's, the one behind that mountain of empty ramen bowls.

'Hey, could you just move aside, I can't be bothered to go all the way down and in the front door.'

Kiala put on a scandalised expression as she moved aside.

'First you loiter outside a fair maidens window at night and now you want to rush in and ravish this helpless beauty? How depraved are you? Oh what a cruel world!' Wailed Kiala in mock distress. Even as she finished she couldn't help but grin.

'Oh is that all you're worried about? Well that's okay then,' said Mau as he closed the window behind him, 'because first; there aren't any beauties in here, second, you're dark haired not fair and finally, if you were ever helpless it must have been back before you could speak.'

With each sentence Kiala seemed to twitch slightly, until by the end she looked like a thunder head about to explode, one eye still twitching rhythmically and one palm raised with a light distorting ball of gravity centred on it. Her lips parted but only a low growl came out. Mau got the sense he may have gone a little to far with this one and hastily said a few prayers under his breath. He shut his eyes, waiting for the inevitable KO… Only it never came, instead he heard a resigned sigh from his would-be executioner and opened his eyes to see much calmed Kiala.

'I think it's safe to say you got me that time,' she admitted as if it were some great torture, 'anyway, this kid, you think he's from the same village as Mr. Pit-for-a-belly? I mean really, how can any one human that size eat so much?'

'Who knows? Can't be from our juuryoku gakure (hidden gravity) anyway.' answered Mau as Ryusuke entered through the front door. 'Yo, I just caught some kid spying on us, seemed like he was from the same village as the one we told you about…'

Ajusans meditation was abruptly interrupted when a large growl wailed like a siren from his stomach, when he opened his eyes, the sun was setting and people busied themselves about the streets around him as he observed. He rose abruptly and stretched to get the feeling back in his legs as he scanned the nearby buildings for a restaurant. 'Ichi...raku...ramen?' he said as saliva drooled from the corner of his mouth, eyes glistening slightly as he quickly ran through the crowd to get to his destination. He skidded slightly as he tried to stop himself in front of the stall, quickly leaping up onto the stall, took a deep breath and said 'Excuse me Ojiisan, could I get 5 bowls of miso ramen and 1 house special please.'

'Umm I'm not that old yet' said the man garbed in white apron as he bent down to start making the dishes, two ninja stared at him as the ramen was served up, he quickly split the chopsticks and began to feed the noodles into his mouth. 'When are your friends getting here?' the female ninja said as she watched the rapidly disappearing noodles in his bowl. He quickly slurped up the soup of the first bowl and breathed a large sigh of relief. He then took the one more pair of chopsticks, tapped the thicker end and watched as the chopstick split in two. He took each pair in one hand and begun to eat two bowls simultaneously, cramming as much noodles into his mouth as possible. 'Mm?' he finally replied as he looked back at the female ninja who had asked him the question.

'Ew, nevermind, I think I get it now.' she said. Ajusan gave a quick shrug and immediately went back to rapidly consuming his meals.

'Wow.' Said the female ninjas companion, 'I've never seen anyone eat like that, it's amazing'

Ajusan turned to the complimenter and gave a muffled thanks as he raised his right hand, noodles dangling from the chopstick.

'You're disgusting Mau,' the girl said, 'how can you compliment him on his eating? Its so gross.' she finished turning away from the speed-eating boy.

'But his technique is so awesome,' replied her friend excitedly, 'he's not even spilling any!'

Ajusan finally finished the last bowl, letting out a large sigh as he leant back, looking over at the other two ninja staring at him. 'My name is Omoku Ajusan, pleased to meet you' he said as he layed the chopsticks down in the bowl, patting his stomach gently.

'Ehh?! That was fast!' exclaimed the girl realising the boy had just finished 6 courses in under 5 minutes.

'I'm Kontate Mau and this is Hayumi Kiala.' Said Mau, 'How did you learn to eat that way?'

'Well um.. in my family you have to be quick with the food or you don't get any, eating in our household is like waging a small military campaign' Ajusan replied thoughtfully.

'You mean everyone in your family eats like this?' asked Kiala, still shocked.

'Yeah, I remember when my dad flicked a chopstick at me once to distract me from the food, either way, it left my arm dead for weeks, he tried it again but my mom stopped it with a parallel strike' Ajusan said in a normal tone.

'Is you're family human?' she whispered dazedly, while Mau listened in respectful awe.

'I wonder that myself sometimes, you know something is wrong with your family when you come home to your family juggling small trees' he exclaimed with a sigh

'Bakemono' She summed up.

'Kiala, don't be rude!' Chided Mau, to Ajusan he said 'You have shown me the way of the noodles, I humbly ask you teach me.'

'Well if you don't mind training with weighted stone chopsticks, I suppose I could teach you combat eating' Ajusan replied as he lifted up a single chopstick from his empty bowl, pointed it up and flick it straight up with enough force that the chopstick embedded itself in the stores ceiling.

'Wow, combat eating...' repeated Mau dreamily, trying to imagine it -Mau's imagination- Ajusan sat proudly eating his noodles with his chopsticks; then a fully armoured warrior charged in and tried to slice him with a yell of 'die!', only to be blocked with style with a pair of gleaming chopsticks without even looking. Unphased the attacker continued with a flurry of quick attacks each effortlessly stopped with unlooking blocks of chopsticks, after the last block, Ajusan turned his head with an annoyed expression, 'You're interrupting my meal.' He said in a stern tone and with a slight flick of the wrist sent the opponents sword flying into the distance with his still gleaming chopsticks...-Mau's imagination end- 'That's so cool, it's amazing!'

Kaila looked at him dubiously 'Somehow I know you're imagining something really stupid' she said blandly

'It's not stupid it's cool.' complained Mau sulkily.

Ajusan gave a quick yawn and stretched, left the payment from his wallet. 'Well I'm still a little hungry but I'm out of money, I'm going to go sleep this off, ja ne' he casually waved as the two other ninja continued to argue.

Shinjuu sat on the bed of her accommodation rooms they had been given during the exam. The room was small and plain with beige walls and white sheeted bed and some sleeping futons, she sat in silence with a screwdriver, modifying her various devices and equipment ready for the exam. She rose her head to the sound of muffled cries and whimpers coming from outside in the corridor. The door was suddenly booted open and Mishui walked casually in, Kinzu tied up and gagged behind her as she dragged him into the room. 'What the…' she said in surprise as she placed the screwdriver she was working with beside her as she stared at Kinzu's trapped form.

'I want to hear a full explanation from you' Mishui said in mock seriousness as Shinjuu watched both of them. Mishui quickly removed the gag strapped to Kinzu's mouth in which he took a quick gasp of air.

'I was scouting' he said quickly as he took in deep breath.

Shinjuu and Mishui staring at him intently. 'Scouting what?' Mishui said in mock seriousness as Kinzu struggled to get loose of his bonds.

'I was scouting the competition to see what they were capable of and how they acted' he said as he looked up at Mishui pleadingly.

'Hmm?, then why the blushing then?' Mishui stated as she gave a light grin, sitting down on the couch, dragging Kinzu behind her. 'Well I was caught scouting a female ninja...and he called me a pervert, the guy who caught me I mean' Kinzu replied as he blushed, looking down sheepishly at the floor.

'Tsk, could you do something better with your time then peep at girls?' Shinjuu remarked in a serious tone,

'I was really scouting, I swear!' Kinzu quickly blurted out.

'Well you are at about that age... did you like what you saw?' Mishui said thoughtfully, 'I only scouted, I swear!' Kinzu said as he continued to struggle against his bonds.

'Okay okay, I was just joking' Mishui said with a light chuckle. 'You didn't reveal any of your techniques to the guy that caught you?' Mishui said in a serious tone looking down at Kinzu.

'No he didn't see any' he said as he stared up at her. Mishui quickly gave a quick flick of her wrist, the wire of her watches withdrawing back into her watches. He let out a sigh of relief as he laid back on the wooden polished floor, then rose and dusted his clothes off before taking a seat on the futon that had been set up for him whilst he was away. The door then opened again gently as Ajusan walked into the room, a tired look in his eyes as he took his sandals off at the door and walked barefooted to his futon and curled up. 'Okay now that I have you all together I need to tell you some things that are very important' Mishiu said in a serious tone, eyeing her students as they moved themselves to pay attention, Shinjuu and Kinzu raising their heads slightly as Ajusan rolled over to look at his sensei lazily. 'As you may know, this is our villages first external chuunin exam, previously we have moderated and done our chuunin exams for previous years internally as to not draw attention to ourselves with the larger shinobi nations'. She said, pausing to moisten her lips and take a short breath, Kinzu and Shinjuu were taking what she had to say seriously judging by the serious looks on their faces where as Ajusan was half dazed and looked rather sleepy.'The reason we have decided to enter you three into this chuunin exam is to strengthen our alliance with Konoha, one of the top five shinobi nations. We have chosen you three as the top promising new chuunins to be the one representing our village in this chuunin exam, this is a great honour to be bestowed on you, however don't let that go to your head.' she said pausing again to let her students take in the information. 'We have requested directly from Sandaime Hokage that only examiners and top jounins of this village are to know that we are participating in this exam, we do not wish to draw attention to ourselves, this means do not show your jutsu and the technology of the village unless your forced to, also dispose of any technology you leave and isn't used so no one can copy our designs.' She said, her speech almost monotone and serious as her eyes scanned her students again as they absorbed what she had to say. 'Don't let this scare deter you however, I'm very proud that you were selected for the first external exam and I wish you success in your exams.' she said with a smile 'Now get some sleep, you'll need all the rest you can get as the chuunin exams.' she said soothingly. At that moment, Shinjuu got up, laid down in her futon, wrapped herself up and laid her head on the pillow. The others followed suit however they had a restless night nervous but also excited about what the exam held in store.

Having awoken before dawn, Mau and the others were already on their way to the assembly hall, their registrations having been already entered by their sensei Saito. Though they'd been told which room it would be in they were still unsure about their route since the building was so large and they had never been to Konoha before. Stopping in a hallway they tried to get their bearings;

'Hey Ryusuke, I know that according to the instructions we just go up these stairs to the 3rd floor and then find room 301 but I want to be sure,' Said Mau, 'so could you maybe keep track of our position while we go along. I know you're the best at that'

Ryusuke simply nodded his agreement and performed a few hand seals, whispering shiroarigan no jutsu (termite eye) and placing one hand against the wall, closed his eyes. With that taken care of Mau lead the way up the staircase with Kiala and Ryusuke following; the stairs seemed to go on a while and the three ninjas from Hidden Gravity climbed mechanically in silence. Eventually the staircase let out onto a hallway and directly ahead was a door labelled 301. In front of the door stood two leaf genins and in the hallway was a small group of other exam candidates. One of the two in front of the door roughly shoved another candidate to the floor as he tried to get passed, the three friends just heard him say 'If you're only at this level you don't deserve to take the exam, no one's getting past us!'. Ryusuke, still with his hand to the wall and his eyes closed, continued a few steps along the corridor and paused while Kiala and Mau approached.

'Isn't it a bit early to be playing these games?' Mau asked, 'what's going on here?'

'Heh, doesn't really matter, you guys aren't taking the exam this year just like the rest of these loosers.' Said the aggressive one as the other sniggered.

'Oh! That so?' Said Kiala, cracking her knuckles and stepping into a fighting pose.

The two leaf genin grinned at each other and moved into their own stances. Kiala grinned as she took a step forward… only to stop in confusion when she felt Mau's hand on her shoulder; as she turned to look at him he explained 'Don't waste your time and ours, this isn't the room were looking for anyway.'

'Huh?'

'Yeah, I didn't say "let us pass" I said "what's going on here?", I didn't notice till I saw Ryusuke carry on while we stopped here but we haven't passed any other floors to get here.

'Which means we've been in a genjutsu for quite a while now, it must be a visual one or it would have fooled Ryusuke too. It's pretty powerful to reach that far but it's pretty basic in how easy it is to see through once you're suspicions are raised.'

'But then why hide the other floors?' asked Kiala

' Simple,' answered Mau 'if we pass floors we'll easily be able to tell this is the 2nd floor and therefore that this is room 201. So early in the morning most people won't be expecting anything wrong with simply climbing stairs before the exam and without a clear form of reference they'll have no idea how many floors they've gone up in just climbing stairs. When they get here the room number clearly says "301" so why think too much about it.'

'That's pretty impressive deduction' said the aggressive genin, 'too bad it's based on one of you team being a coward, he just didn't want to fight me.'

Mau simply looked over to his friend, still touching the wall but with his eyes open watching the scene, 'tell him Ryusuke.'

'There's no one behind that door,' he said flatly, 'however there is a large resonance over there – that is consistent with a group of people' Ryusuke finished waving in the general direction, down the hallway and slightly upwards.

'You see?' said Mau coolly, 'In a team, it's about trust. Lets go Kia-chan.' And with that he turned to go. He and Kiala had got two steps when they heard the genin reply 'Your minds ok, but how about your body!?' Mau turned to find a fist flying towards his face. He knew he could block it if he was fast, it'd definitely hurt if it landed, but he grinned instead.

With the loud smack of flesh on flesh the fist stopped a millimetre from his nose, Kiala's hand gripping the wrist and the other holding a kunai to the offenders throat with a big grin across her face. 'Can I play now?'

'He's not our level Kiala, it'd take too long.' answered Mau as the attacking genin disappeared in a puff of smoke to be revealed standing by the door again.

'Tsk' Kiala said as she replaced her kunai, 'bunshin…'

With that the three friends continued on their way to the real exam room.

Mishui's team awoke early next morning and immediately shuffled to make themselves breakfast, wash and get dressed. Ajusan did his usual morning routine of press ups and sit ups as Shinjuu inspected and modified the various devices stored in her jacket. Kinzu however sat on the floor, holding and rubbing his left arm, fidgeting most of the time. Mishui approached him, a concerned look in her eyes as she watched him, 'Anything wrong?' she asked in all seriousness.

'The mark on my arm has been throbbing all morning.' he said with a hint of irritation as he grasped it, wincing slightly in pain.

'Let me take a look' she asked as she held out her hand, Kinzu placed his bare arm in Mishui's palm as she inspected it, the bruise which had been on his arm since he had been to the water country in his childhood. She had questioned Kinzu's mother and typically she had denied all knowledge of anything, but Mishui could tell that she was lying. Something had happened in the water country, long ago, but she doubted she would ever find out unless it was something serious. 'It should be okay, just don't over do it today.' she said with a hint of worry in her voice, looking concerned at the mark as she let him go.

Kinzu gave her an odd look as he moved off to prepare his equipment for the exam. By the time he was finished the others were waiting by the door ready to leave; the sun still hung low in the summer sky as they made their way down to the exam hall. They wandered the already bustling streets of Konoha, they didn't speak to each other but Ajusan made quick glances over to try and read his team mates faces; he could tell they were just as nervous as he was. They walked as children ran and played, workers going to and from running errands for different stalls passed them by. They occasionally asked people where the examination room was as they had no idea where the exam was being held. All that they had been told was the fact it was on the 3rd floor in room 301, after trial and error of shoddy directions, they found the examination building, it was quite large several stories however it was a plain wooden building. They entered through the double doors and begun to climb the steps up to the 3rd floor. When they reached their destination they saw some ninjas grouped around a door, many of which were being beaten back by two Konaho ninja standing by the door. 'Hey let us through!' a random ninja bearing a sand head protector exclaimed. 'Were here to take the chuunin exam!' exclaimed another wearing a hidden falls head protector. Kinzu, Ajusan and Shinjuu approached the group, looking about curiously as they approached. 'You cant take the chuunin exam if you cant beat us, the chuunin exams are much tougher then we have to deal with. Kinzu's eyes suddenly changed from icy blue to a dark green, the pupil shaping like a series of twisting curved scythe shapes. He stared at the door sign then at the door, both Konoha ninjas at the door stood mesmerised as his eyes went back to their icy blue colour. 'This is a pretty poor trick, there is no one behind the door.' Kinzu said coolly as he looked back at Shinjuu who he knew had figured it out already.

'Nice try on the genjutsu too.' Shinjuu said with mock sarcasm as she brushed her sleeve with a smile of achievement on her face. Ajusan cocked his head to the side, confused as to what was transpiring before him. The others seemed in the same state but then gained confidence saying they could see the same. The two ninja seemed completely unphased that they had been caught out, instead they shifted into a defensive position. 'Well it wont matter if we take you out of the exam.' they shouted as they lunged at Kinzu and Shinjuu, Ajusan quickly leapt forward in front of his two team mates, the ninja's fists raised as they went to take a swing. Ajusan reacted to their attack quickly blocking both punches with his palms and clutching the fists tightly. The leaf genin winced slightly as Ajusan applied pressure, quickly pushing them back watching as the two stumbled back in the door, clutching their fists as they stared at Ajusan who still looked confused at his predicament and simply turned his back and walked away. The two genins by this time burst into a puff of smoke , Kinzu frowned slightly and turned and walked back down the corridor, followed by the teams that hadn't figured it out for themselves, they walked up the stairs to the third floor.

The exam room was filling slowly, Mau and the others watched with interest at each group of arrivals, quietly talking about the new arrivals and assessing their future opponents. The door hadn't opened for a little while and the team were idly making guesses as to what sort of people would come through next.

'…I think the ramen shop guy's team should be here soon, think his name was Ajusan or something?' said Mau, 'Hehe, that "perv" kid was quite good too.'

'Maybe, but no-ones come for a while' said Kiala doubtfully, 'maybe those losers on the floor below are still playing their little game.'

Just at that moment the doors slid open to reveal the latest arrivals, from the number entering it seemed that Kiala's guess had been right. Then Mau recognised two of the first three to enter…

'Oi! Hi Perv!' he yelled out to the tall orange haired genin at the front of the entering group. He grinned at the boys startled and angry reaction and even more as both his team mates looked at the boy strangely.

'What's this about?' said the dark-blue haired girl in the team 'You said you were only scouting! But it looks like you were doing something perverted, and to a guy too!'

'What?! No I swear I wasn't, I told you guys last night!'

The other team member, Ajusan just stood there grinning as his friend tried to explain his predicament. Mau noticed that Kiala was laughing freely and even the normally serious Ryusuke was smiling at the other ninjas situation.

Nudging Kiala lightly Mau whispered 'Hey, Kia-chan, why don't you go over and stir things up a little more?' Kiala grinned back before putting on an angry look and advancing on the arguing genins.

'Aww come on! You have to believe me' pleaded Kinzu as Shinjuu glared at him disapprovingly, 'besides you know I wouldn't lie to Mishui-sensei, she'd skin me alive.'

Shinjuu finally nodded agreement, 'fine I believe you, I just wanted to see you squirm a bit, but I don't think she's going to be convinced so easily' she said pointing to the approaching female genin cracking her knuckles.

'So it was you who was peeking outside my window last night!' said the girl, green eyes flashing with anger, 'So did you get a good look, huh?'

'No!' Kinzu exclaimed after a deep sigh, 'I keep saying…'

'Ah, yeah, I see! Too bad for you, I can tell you're really upset about that'

'Look for the last time, I was SCOUTING!

'I didn't even know who's room that was, not that it was yours, or even a females! I'm NOT A PERV!'

There was a long silence after his big outburst as everyone in the room looked at him. Realising he was now the centre of attention he quickly moved away to sit down on a table, and then realized that both his team mates and the whole of the other team were laughing, the blonde guy was pointing as he laughed with his sombre looking team mate and the girl who had seemed so angry was doubled over with laughter, holding her stomach. His own team mates weren't much better, Ajusan was rolling with laughter and Shinjuu had the most annoying grin he could ever remember.

'Yeah, yeah, laugh it up guys.' He said peevishly.

Slowly the laughing genins controlled themselves, noticing the disapproving attention they were still getting the two teams retreated to the back of the room, out of the way.

'Hehe, sorry about that, Perv I couldn't help it.' Said the blond kid, still grinning 'My name's Kontate Mau by the way, this is Hayumi Kiala and Dotori Ryusuke'

The girl with the purple-black hair gave a 'Hey' at her name and the sombre looking guy a quick nod at his.

Managing to not grind his teeth at being called a "perv" again Kinzu managed to return the introduction, 'My name is Akishu Kinzu, not "perv", this is Omoku Ajusan and Ikino Shinjuu.' He said indicating his two team members in turn; Ajusan waved to the two he'd already met and Shinjuu gave a coolly polite 'Pleased to meet you.' before looking around appraisingly.

'It looks like were going to have a written exam first' She concluded

'Yeah, looks that way' agreed Mau,

The others all looked at the two wonderingly.

'There is no other reason to have us all gather in this room, since there are many better suited locations,' explained Shinjuu

'Further more, the room is clearly equipped for a written exercise, otherwise it would make sense to at least remove all these desks in favour of some more chairs' concluded Mau.

The two teams reacted differently to the confirmation of the upcoming test; Mau quietly excused himself and his friends for a moment so they could discuss a team strategy.

Ajusan took the news with a sinking heart, 'What are we going to do then?'

Shinjuu simply smiled, 'I'm not going to do anything, I'm totally confident I can pass the exam with my own mind.'

'I'm good too,' replied Kinzu, 'if the questions are too hard I'll just scout someone who knows.'

'But what about me?' asked Ajusan, 'I'm not dumb but you guys know I suck at tests!'

Mau grinned as he heard the other team discussing the exam, he was confident he could pass, but he wanted to discuss it with his friends anyway.

'Why are you grinning? You're doing this test too.' Said Kiala

'I'm grinning because I'm pretty sure I can ace it. I graduated early remember?

'So before I got grouped with you when you graduated, I was assigned to a mixed squad; two chuunins and … and a jounin…' Mau trailed off, a dark look crossing his face.

'Ah, yeah, I remember you said about that. Err so since you're so great, tell me what do the rest of us do if the test is really hard?' Said Kiala; swiftly moving the subject on.

'Hmm? Oh yeah I guess we should plan for that.' Said Mau focusing again, 'Well, we'll have a look at the paper and if you guys find it hard turn back to the 1st page and cough twice. Then you guys can use the shiaoringan to follow my movements as I write the answers and I'll cough when I turn the page, since you won't be able to see it with that technique, or at least I don't think you're quite that skilled with it Kiala.'

'Careful, your confidence in my skills will make me blush.' Said Kiala; lacing the statement with sarcasm.

'Ok looks like we're all set then' Said Mau, ignoring the remark.

As the teams finished discussing the upcoming exam the doors to the exam room once again flung open, to admit the latest batch of candidates; a blonde haired kid in an orange jumpsuit, a strawberry blonde girl, her head-protector holding back the pink locks to show her forehead and a serious looking boy in light shorts and a blue t-shirt with an all-around collar. Kinzu stared over as he watched the new comers get approached by a couple of other teams and begin talking. He overheard one in a hooded jacket with a dog on his head make a sarcastic remark towards the blonde haired boy.

He then turned to Shinjuu and Ajusan, a serious expression spread on his face.

Another leaf shinobi walked over to them and adjusted his glasses.

Since the tactical meeting they'd been having had been having had been thoroughly interrupted, Kinzu listened in on the new comer, who had named himself "Yakushi Kabuto"

He begun explaining himself to the rookies, Kinzu listening carefully to what he had to say. He begun giving information to the rookies which Kinzu assessed to be chakra sensitive cards. He looked up to find Mau watching him as closely as he was, any form of intelligence regarding the numbers of participants would be useful. He explained the numbers of teams from what villages were, the least known he explained were the team from the hidden sound. "Hidden sound... that village is unfamiliar to me.." Kinzu said quietly to his team mates. " The hidden sound is a village that has just been set up so not much is known about that village. 'I've scouted most of these teams out, those that just came in and the ones talking to them are all "rookie" genins' He explained, 'the guy with the dog; his team seems well balanced as a tracking or pursuit team, they have one of the Hyuuga clan in that squad, I'm sure you've heard of them. Next is-'

Kinzu's next sentence was cut off as the kid in the orange jumpsuit suddenly turned towards the gathered occupants of the room with a dramatic gesture and yelled; 'Alright! I'm not going to lose to any of you guys! Dattebayo!'

Suddenly everyone in the room was looking at the new team, and the new sense of intense disapproval could be clearly felt in the air.

For a moment nobody reacted, then Kinzu and Mau's teams responded almost simultaneously;

Kinzu: 'Idiot'

Shinjuu: 'That kids dead'

Ajusan: 'That's a brave challenge…'

Kiala and Mau: 'Retard…'

Ryusuke: '…'

As the loud kid's team mate apologised and hit him, the other rookie genins tried to pretend like they didn't know them. Both Mau and Kinzu quickly caught a flicker of movement in the corner of their eyes.

The sound team quickly began moving back and forth across the room, their movements hardly being picked up by the other candidates. One of their team mates leapt up out of the crowd and threw two kunai, which Kabuto doged smoothly, then another that seemed to be their leader made a swinging punch towards Kabuto who narrowly dodged smirking. After a moment his glasses suddenly cracked, he took them off muttering about it being "...that kind of attack...'. The other leaf genins tried to ask him what happened but he then gripped his mouth and fell to his knee's vomiting onto the floor. "What kind of jutsu is that?" Kinzu mumbled quietly to himself watching the sound ninja gloat. From the front of the class, there was an explosion of smoke and the whole class quickly turned their attention to the front of the class. A man with a large black trench coat appeared out of the smoke with several other ninja's at his sides, all bearing a Konoha head protector. "I am Morino Ibiki, i'll be your examiner for the first exam of the chuunin exam!"

To be continued