DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 1

Naruto stood on the castle ramparts and looked out into the distance. He had grown in three years. It was almost time to go back home. Instead of his orange jacket and pants, with a black shirt, Naruto now wore a coat long sleeve chain mail with his crest embroidered in red leather on his back. His crest was the swirl that was usually on the back of his jacket. Over that he wore an orange short sleeve tunic, with an adjustable collar; (in other words it could be drawn tighter by strings).He wore black pants that were missing his old tape and shuriken holster. His original headband had gotten so ratty he had had to remake the metal and get a new cloth strip. Now it had a black strip that was way longer than his old one, he thought it looked good. Civilian clothes sucked. Naruto always felt naked without his armor now. The small town was so peaceful at night. He felt something get thrown in his direction. He caught it, it was Root Beer, in the bottle, just the way he liked it. "Thanks, Temari," he said.

He heard the usual grunt in response. It wasn't a masculine grunt, quite the opposite. Naruto thought it was kind of hot. He turned and looked at Temari. She was wearing an outfit similar to Naruto, but her tunic was black and had the Suna symbol instead of the Uzumaki symbol, and her headband looked like it always had. She still wore her hair in the same four pony-tails. She wore the same shinobi sandals as always, and her gloves were black and the right hand had a square cut out to show her rank tattoo. It was in a light blue ink. Three western swords crossed each other. Naruto looked at his own right hand; it had three western swords crossing each other in red ink. Temari spoke up, "So….how are we going to explain…us…to everybody at home?"

"What is there to explain?" Naruto asked, and Temari opened her mouth to say something but Naruto interrupted, "Besides, we don't have to have this talk now."

Naruto tipped his root beer up and took a healthy gulp of the frothy drink. Perfect. Almost as good as ramen after a hard day's work, as soon as Naruto was back at home he was going to have both Ramen and Root Beer as one meal. It would be a feast of Nectar and Ambrosia. His stomach growled. Temari laughed her special laugh. It was haughty, but also Naruto felt the real joy behind it. "You are thinking about Ramen again, aren't you?" Temari asked.

Naruto nodded, with anime tears running down his cheeks, he missed ramen so. The West had only one flaw, no ramen. Naruto sighed as he said, "Can you believe how far we've come?"

Temari shook her head, it was impressive. She could probably hold her own against full-demon Gaara now. She followed Naruto's eyes out into the city. She took in the whole view, for she knew she couldn't stay here forever.

BACK IN THE PRESENT

It was six months after Temari's first chunin exam. This time the test was being held in Suna. The written test had been easy. Now, it was the second exam, where Konoha had used their infamous 'forrest of death' in their second exam, in Suna they were using the much scarier Death Valley. In this valley were the terrifying creatures that were supposed to have become extinct millions of years ago, and there was no food or water, so this was a place where no rest could be found. It was the scariest place in the entire village…and her favorite training ground. Temari smirked as the gates opened. She would dominate on her home field. Within an hour of the start of the exam, The Sand Siblings were at the front gate of the bunker with each of the five scrolls required to enter and finish their exam. That was when Kankuro stopped walking. He turned to his brother and said, "Wait a second, why don't we just go back and watch the other examinees compete? It could be fun to disqualify some competition early."

Gaara stared at him for a second. Then he looked at Temari with a questioning look. Since Gaara had fought that Uzumaki kid, things had been looking up. Gaara was now treating them better and even coming to Temari for advice. Temari shrugged it was Gaara's call. Gaara sat down and started to rub his temples…deep in thought. He sighed and said, "If you really think it will help us out, then go…but I don't want to go. I think I am going to sit right here."

Kankuro smirked and jumped back off into the endless dunes of sand that surrounded the bunker.

ELSEWHERE

Naruto Uzumaki breathed in and out. Tsunade had made Naruto and Pervy Sage stop their traveling so that Naruto could participate in the Chunin Exam in Suna. Naruto picked up the last of the 'elemental scrolls' and started towards where he had scouted out the bunker to be. He was currently at the bottom of one of the Death Valley's many canyons. And because Tsunade for some odd reason didn't want the other genin to know that he was here, he was currently in a giant tan cloak that covered up his entire body from neck to foot, and had a hood to cover his head. So in other words…it was hot as hell. Under the hood, Naruto was wearing his headband around his neck, and a Kakashi-esque mask. It had been Naruto's going away present from Kakashi. His cloak had served as the perfect camouflage without Naruto even realizing it.

Naruto had just been walking around looking for some ninja when some hopped by him without even seeing him. Naruto was about to ambush them when a giant herd of tiny dinosaurs had jumped out from behind some rocks on the canyon floor and started to attack the other ninja. Naruto sat back and observed the ninja's techniques. They were flashy and consumed too much chakra. That sounded just like techniques of lightening ninja. He had laid the beat down on them and taken their scrolls. Naruto pushed some chakra into his feet and started to run. The result was a dash that was twice the speed of a normal sprint. Naruto could keep this up for half an hour.

Naruto thought about his travels so far. He had only been with Pervy Sage for three months, but he was definitely in a new league of strong. Pervy Sage had taught him the secret behind using Shadow Clones, and how to summon different toads. Naruto wasn't quite as good as Jiraiya, but he could almost pick which toad he wanted to call on for individual situations. Naruto stopped when he saw three figures up ahead of him. It was Sakura, Ino and Chouji. Naruto chuckled.

Naruto knew that with Shikamaru gone, Team Asuma needed someone to fill in the gap. He guessed that Sakura had filled that gap. Naruto really felt bad for Chouji. He twitched as he realized that the trio was surrounded. Sand ninja. It was their home field. They were likely planning on ambushing Sakura and the rest of team Asuma. Naruto quickly counted their chakras. It was only three of them. They could handle that, couldn't they? That was when he heard a new voice….

ELSEWHERE

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were setting up camp, they currently had three scrolls. They only needed two. They had set up in a canyon that three lightening ninja had been beaten in. The thing was, it had a funny scent around. It was oddly familiar. Shino reached his arms into the air and called all his bugs back, if Shino's bugs could identify the chakra of the person, it would put Kiba's mind at rest. "So, who is it that I am smelling?"

"Whoever beat these ninja didn't use any chakra. Could it have been Rock Lee?"

Hinata interrupted, "um…..L-L-lee isn't entered in these exams. N-N-Neji isn't either."

WITH NARUTO

Kankuro had seen through his camouflage. Damn. The Suna-nin had come out of nowhere. He was currently unconscious. A swift chop to the back of his neck had all that had been needed. For that problem anyway. Now Naruto was being attacked by Sakura, Ino and Chouji. They had dealt with the sand ninja quickly. Naruto couldn't afford to stand still, unless he wanted to be brought under by Ino, or punched by Sakura. Naruto heard another boom where he had been a second earlier. Sakura's fist was in a rock. The rock had cracked. She wasn't quite as strong as Tsunade, but it was close. Chouji was making the earth shake by playing squish the spider with some shadow clones in his 'expanded' state. The good news was, that Naruto's cover wasn't blown yet. Ino then appeared in front of Naruto. Naruto cursed. She grabbed at his face with the hopes of getting a hold but only got his headband. Naruto jumped back and flipped in the air. Ino looked at the headband with a look of utter confusion on her face. She motioned Sakura and Chouji over to observe her new discovery. Their jaws dropped. Then in unison they all asked, "Why didn't you tell us you were from Konoha?"

"…"

Sakura's eyebrow arched. Then she said, "Hey! Your fighting style is familiar. Do I know you?"

Naruto sighed, "How troublesome…."

Ino gasped, "Shikamaru?!"

Naruto twitched, "NO! How could you think I was Shikamaru?! I am so much prettier!"

Sakura tilted her head. Naruto gasped and pointed behind them, they looked and Naruto grabbed his headband from their hands. He then turned around and dashed away like a madman. On his way to the bunker he grabbed Kankuro's body and hurled it over his shoulder. Naruto pushed all of his chakra into his feet and ran like hell. Within five minutes he came upon the bunker. He carefully went around Gaara and Temari and opened the door. Gaara started at the sound of the door opening. Naruto walked in.

Temari saw a man in a tan cloak walk in. She then noticed that the man had thrown down her brother in the sand at their feet. The man closed the door behind him. Temari stared at Gaara who seemed….mad. That was not good for the man in the tan cloak. They quickly found a new door and walked in. Temari took the liberty of slapping Kankuro awake. It took thirteen slaps, she counted out loud. Kankuro explained what had happened to him. He had seen some sand ninja about to tackle some shinobi way out of their league and wanted to help, but first he had seen the tan cloak in the sand, "….and so then I patted his back and…then everything went black."

Gaara took their scrolls and opened them. Baki appeared in a poof of smoke. He smiled at them and said, "Wow, no surprise you guys got here so fast. Without a scratch again Gaara! Temari, you don't look like you're even sweating. Kankuro…..ohmygawd…what happened to you?"

"Guy in the room next over got the drop on me good."

Baki thought about it for a second and said, "Well, frankly, don't be offended, but that sounds about right. He has a legendary teacher."

"Who is he?" Gaara asked.

"I am not allowed to tell you."

"Why?"

"The council's orders."

Gaara breathed in and out. He knew he would get his answers one way or another.

IN THE NEXT ROOM OVER

Naruto sighed. That had been one close call. He could feel Gaara's killing intent from in the next room. Pervy sage had informed him that Tsunade was okay with the other ninja knowing that he was from Konoha, so long as they didn't know it was Naruto. Naruto broke out of his reverie, "Why the hell do I have to keep my identity a secret?"

"Tsunade probably wants to test your stealth….or she could be just messing with ya."

"Damn it all."

"I know how you feel."

"Wake me when the preliminaries are going to start."

Naruto nodded off without another word.

THE NEXT DAY IN THE CENTER OF THE BUNKER

Naruto looked around himself. He was deep in the bunker, in a 100 by 60 yard room. It had 20 booths worth of seats. Each ninja team got their own. Naruto had to share his booth with Pervy Sage, who was in a henge. Tsunade didn't want any of the genin to know what was going on. So they couldn't know that Jiraiya was here, because the smart ones would put two and two together. He was wearing some old anbu armor, his hair was groomed and straightened, His face-paint was gone, and he had swapped his toad headband for a leaf headband. Sixteen competitors had made it through the Death Valley. That was once again too much for the third stage. Naruto sighed. He looked at the electronic board for the first two names. Jiraiya had given Naruto the alias of 'Namikaze'. Jiraiya chuckled when he did it, and kept on saying it was appropriate, but Naruto didn't get it. The proctor then said, "It would seem that our board is malfunctioning, so we will just read off the names. The first two competitors are….Hyuuga Hinata and………Namikaze."

Naruto jumped into the arena. He loved a good fight. Hinata just walked down the stairs. Naruto pumped his arms in the air and shouted, "It is time to RUN WILD!"

Hinata flinched. The proctor then jumped up and shouted, "Go!"

Naruto charged the girl. Hinata grabbed his punch and twisted it, so that Naruto went flying by into a wall. Naruto saw stars. He tried to grab them, but they slipped through his fingers. As Naruto stared at his fingers, he noticed that Hinata was charging at him. He slipped by barely. He turned around and shouted, "Demon windmill!" With that, Naruto threw his gigantic shuriken at the oddly nervous Hyuuga. Hinata turned around and Naruto saw realization go briefly across her face. She then activated her Byakugan. Her eyes widened. Naruto sweat dropped. Why did she get like this around him? Could she tell? She then said, "N-N-Nar…."

Naruto put a hand over her mouth and whispered in her ear, "You can't tell anybody alright? The Hokage doesn't want anybody to know!"

Hinata nodded, realized that Naruto was touching her and promptly fainted. Naruto sweat dropped. The proctor called the match.

Naruto waltzed back up to his booth where Jiraiya was shaking his head, Naruto didn't know at what, and didn't care. He turned back to the proctor. "The next fighters are," the proctor shouted, "Gaara of the dessert and….sorry if I pronounce this wrong…..Edword?"

A tall man with really curly brown hair started for the arena as Gaara did. Naruto looked at Jiraiya with a pleading face, but Jiraiya shook his head, there would be no cheering on friends here. Naruto dropped his head in depression, but Jiraiya grabbed his head and made him look up to see the match. Edward and Gaara were facing each other in the arena. The proctor jumped back and shouted, "Go!"

Naruto observed as Edward pulled on some gloves with bracing on them and then…gigantic red mittens, by the look of them. The new guy was wearing only some loose looking shorts. He began to hop around the arena and throw punches with these padded gloves. Gaara's eyebrow arched as he watched. Then Edward shouted at Gaara, "I am going to pulverize you with my Boxing Gloves of Doom!"

Gaara dashed at his opponent and when he was just out of the other man's reach he started his infamous 'sand hell' combo. Sand rushed at the foreigner and inflicted blows like hammers, retracted and formed shuriken and then flew at him again. After what seemed like an eternity of sand-blows, Gaara retracted his sand and formed two giant fists of sand and made them collide with his poor opponent between them. The two fists then collapsed into a pile of sand over the probably dead man. Gaara looked at the proctor. The proctor's eyes widened and he pointed at the pile of sand. It was moving. Edward stood up. Everyone watched in fascination as his wounds healed. Then Edward said, "When I was a child, I was blessed by a goddess of the earth so that whenever I am touching the earth, I am invincible. You don't stand a chance."

Gaara then made a motion with his hand. All the sand at Edward's feet formed around him. Gaara motioned up with his hand. The Sand went into the air. Then Gaara clenched his hand. The Sand imploded. Then sand usually fell back to the ground but this time Gaara kept it in the air. He looked expectantly at the proctor who quickly said, "The match goes to Gaara."

Gaara withdrew his sand into its gourd. The mangled body of Edward remained on the ground. As if an afterthought Gaara had some sand pick up the remains and drop it in various trashcans around the room.

The proctor walked out again. He then said, "Temari of the Sand and Kiba Inuzuka. Naruto looked around the room and located the box with only three people in it now. It was the foreigners box. The teacher of these new guys was a tall, red-haired chick, who was also dressed in funny clothes. The other two people were obviously the other competitors. One wore a white tunic, pair of pants, shoes and had no hair on his head. His clothes looked odd. Jiraiya seemed to be reading Naruto's mind because he then said, "Those are fire-proof, it must have something to do with his jutsu."

Naruto nodded. The other kid was tall, scary tall, like six foot 10 inches tall. He wore a beaten up leather duster, jeans with a couple holes in them, they appeared to have been burnt. He wore a standard black shirt with no design on it. He had brown hair and blue eyes, but what really seemed odd about him was the gigantic wooden staff with all sorts of symbols and stuff that caught Naruto's attention. Either it was for show, or it meant he had something really nasty up his sleeve.

A hand hit Naruto upside the head and Naruto looked at the match to see that Temari had spanked Kiba. He was laying on the floor unconscious. He had missed it. "The next two are," the proctor said, "Dresden and….number 23?"

The foreigner with the staff walked down to the arena and was met by a rain ninja. The proctor started the match. Dresden held up his staff and shouted, "FORZARE!"

The rain ninja flew back twenty feet and collided with the wall…hard. So hard that he didn't get up. The match was called. The proctor then called the next two contestants, "Ino Yamanaka, and Number 79."

Ino and the second rain ninja stared at each other. And then they stared some more. The match began and yet all they did was stare at each other. Naruto looked at Jiraiya questioningly. Jiraiya sighed and then said, "They are having a genjutsu battle."

Naruto nodded. There wasn't anything he could learn from this match. He looked around and noticed that Gaara wasn't in the Sand's box. Naruto surveyed the room and noticed that he was talking with Sakura. Sakura looked absolutely terrified. This was the guy who had nearly killed her. Then Gaara pointed at Naruto and asked something. Naruto was still learning how to read lips, but it appeared that he asked something along the lines of: "What do you know about that guy over there?"

Sakura responded, " I know this is going to sound weird but…during the last exam, we fought against him, he has a Konoha headband, but I have never seen him before. Asuma-sensei says that he is definitely from Konoha, and that we do know him, then he said, if we could figure it out, he would buy us all dinner. That is why Chouji is acting the way he is."

Naruto looked at Chouji. He was glaring at him. The 'Big-Boned' ninja made a motion for Naruto to pull off his hood. Naruto shook his head. Then he realized that Sakura and Gaara were looking at him expectantly. Naruto waved at them. Gaara sneered. Naruto made a peace sign. Gaara walked back to his box. Naruto looked at Jiraiya who was still looking intently at the match. Naruto looked back to the match. Right as he did, Ino fell over and the Rain ninja raised his hand and said, "I resign from the match."

Ino jumped back to life after that. Naruto flashed back to the match between Ino and Sakura at the last Chunin exam. It made sense. Ino skipped back to her box, but stopped and got out of Gaara's way. She shuddered once he was past and then skipped on back. The next match was between "Bob and Shino Aburame."

The last of the foreigners walked into the arena. Shino casually took his time down the stairs when he finally got all the way down, Bob pointed at him and shouted, "I hate waiting, and you made me wait for you, so I am going to make you pay."

Shino struck his trademark bug-release stance. Bob copied the stance. Bugs started to pour out of Shino's body. Fire started to bleed out of Bob's eyes. Then Fire appeared in his hands. Soon, Bob's eyes were all flame. Shino spoke, "you should know that my bugs are very special, they can develop to become fire-proof in only about fifteen minutes."

"And you should know," Bob responded, "That my fire is all-consuming, body and mana all burn."

Shino and Bob both flicked their wrists at the exact same time and the exact same way. Fire and Bugs collided, and fought each other for dominance. The bugs just kept on coming, Shino smirked. Then Bob did something unusual. He widened his eyes and then the fire that came out of them shot out at Shino. The bug user caught fire. Shino started to roll around on the ground. Bob came over and stomped his opponent out…and unconscious. Naruto's jaw dropped. Jiraiya started to clap. The proctor quickly called the match and some medics.

"The next match is Sakura Haruno," proclaimed the proctor, "v.s. Number 43."

Sakura jumped out into the arena. The final rain ninja walked out into the arena. This one had an umbrella. He threw it into the air and needles shot out. Sakura didn't have enough time to react. She jumped back and got hit quite badly in the legs. She quickly made a few handsigns and her hand started to glow green. The needles fell out of her legs and her wounds started to rapidly heal. She picked up two of the needles, and dipped them in something from her ninja tool bag. She threw the needles at the other ninja just as he was about to shoot out more needles. The two needles hit the other ninja in the neck. Naruto gaped. That had been amazing. Then Sakura turned to the proctor, smiled and said, "Don't worry, he isn't dead, but he will be if he doesn't see immediate treatment."

The Rain ninja was carted off by the by now very, very tired medics. Kankuro jumped into the arena. Him and fatass were the only two left. Chouji jumped out into the arena. He looked at the proctor, who nodded, and then he shouted, "HUMAN BOULDER!"

His torso expanded so that his head and limbs all went inside and then he started to roll around after Kankuro like crazy. Kankuro jumped up into the air. He pulled out both the crow and the black ant. He made the crow split up and sent all the blades flying at his opponent. They all hit home. Blood spattered the arena floor. Chouji unexpanded. He then started to run at Kankuro, but fell over halfway there. He could no longer support his own body weight. Even Naruto realized it was poison. Kankuro called the medics who had just exited the room. They ran in and looked around. They sighed, picked up Chouji and ran off to the hospital.

The proctor stepped into the middle of the arena. He then said, "The next section will be the final part of the chunin exam. It will be a tournament style matchup, but with a twist."

All eyes were on him, so he continued, "There will be eight fights, but there will be four pairs. Each match will have two main contestants fighting, and each main contestant shall have another ninja as back up. This is because we believe it will best simulate the teamwork of a real mission. The 'support' ninja will be allowed to interfere three times each. They may use one jutsu, or try to instigate one combo and then leave, they do not, however get to choose when they go in, that will be up to the main fighter."

He looked around and made sure everybody understood and then continued, "So if someone is eliminated as a main fighter, they will still be support. If for some reason a support ninja is permanently brought down, the main fighter will be assigned another support ninja. You DO NOT get to pick. Also, if a main fighter were to have to fight against his support ninja, both ninja will get new support ninja and half an hour to strategize, without knowing who the other's new support ninja is."

Everybody nodded. The proctor nodded and said, "The pairings are as follows: Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, Kankuro of the dessert and Temari of the dessert, Dresdin and Bob, and finally, Gaara of the Dessert and Namikaze. Pairs are now encouraged to go upstairs and strategize. You will all be given a sound-proofed room…..Get Moving!"

Naruto looked at Gaara and pointed at a random room. Gaara nodded. Naruto opened the door and Gaara walked in, followed by Baki and Jiraiya. Naruto walked in last and shut the door. As soon as the door was shut Jiraiya said, "You have been given permission to tell Gaara who you are."

Naruto sighed in relief. Gaara looked an odd combination of excited and his usual dark self. Naruto flipped his hood off. Gaara then said, "so, under the concealing hood….you're wearing a mask and a skull cap…."

Naruto blinked and then took off the skull cap and pulled down his mask. He beamed at his friend. Gaara seemed to twitch. Then he started to laugh. It started small. Then it grew. Gaara was soon rolling around on the ground. Naruto thought he saw tears. "What the hell is so funny?"

Gaara looked up. Tears were indeed streaming down his face as he said, "I…giggle…thought that….HAHAHAHA….you….snort…..were going to….AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…attack… giggle…my village."

Naruto nervously started to laugh. This was scary as hell. Then he asked, "So, what is the plan?"

Gaara was still trying to get a hold of himself, so Baki stepped forward and said, "We have a month to talk this over and plan everything. Let's not worry about this for now. How about we go out on the town and celebrate as soon as…..he's done."

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Just doing this because I want to put a Naruto x Temari thing up. I like the pairing. I will still be updating Chasing Naruto, so don't worry. This is just really a demo to get some ideas going. Hope you enjoyed it.