Team 7 was there as the last bit of the huge bridge was being finished. Kakashi actually put away his little orange book and walked over to Tazuna. The old engineer perked up. "Well, it looks like I managed to build it after all these years. So you guys are headed out this morning?" the old man asked.

Kakashi nodded, looking down at the water's edge where his students were busy doing a three way spar on the surface of the water like it was old hat. In a flicker of motion, he suddenly had a kunai out and was standing behind Tazuna and a swirl of water droplets.

"You pass muster, I guess. You aren't as good as I thought your reputation said, but you are still good enough." Zabuza had a smirk under his mask. Next to him stood Haku looking rather ordinary in a standard kimono. "I want to hire your team, as you are headed to Konoha."

The Leaf jonin uncoiled. "Make the offer."

"I want you to deliver Haku to Konoha. He has a scroll to deliver to a certain someone that he will reveal then. I have just enough for a C Rank mission. I know it doesn't really cut it, but you are headed back that way." Zabuza turned his prodigy. "Haku, make sure you deliver the message to him in Konoha no matter what." With a negligent seeming toss, he threw a bag of coins to Kakashi. Then he disappeared in another swirl of water droplets.

"I shall strive to not be a bother, Mr. Hatake," Haku said softly.

"We were just about to leave anyways. Tazuna, let Inari and Tsunami know we have left. It's probably best this way," Kakashi said as he turned to the end of the bridge, only to see his three students fade out of the brush at the begining of the road. "You heard?"

"Yeah, we heard," Naruto called out loudly. "Guess we get to hang out some more? Huh, Haku?"

Haku smiled softly. "Indeed."

"You are strong, right?" Sasuke said in deep concentration.

"You can fight him at Konoha, not before. Right now, he's part of our new mission," Kakashi said.

Sasuke frowned, even as the other two genin chuckled at his discomposure. Haku did not seem to get it at first, then smiled.

Sakura looked at their Sasuke, then shook her head. Her dark blue eye and darkening green eye studied the heir of the Uchiha. "I think he's figured out your code phrase for 'you look interesting to fight,' Sasuke."

"Hnn." He could not really deny it.

"Let's move out," Kakashi ordered.


Days later, they were approaching the main north gate of the city. The chunin guards watched them in interest. "Picked up a stray, Hatake?" one of them called out.

"Just an improvised escort," he replied.

"Thank you for escorting, sir. If you could direct me to the Son of the White Fang... or someone that could help me find him, it would be appreciated," Haku said with a short bow.

Only the three genin caught Kakashi's slight pause, causing them to tense up in reaction.

"There's no need. I'm right here," the jonin finally said.

"Pardon? What do you mean?" the young traveler asked in sudden worry.

"The White Fang of Konoha... was my father," Kakashi replied distastefully.

"No." Haku's face had suddenly gone very, very pale. "I have to get back-"

Kakashi stopped Haku from departing by a tight grip on the shoulder. "Five minutes for me to read the scroll will not change what has already happened." He held out his other hand, which accepted the scroll mutely.

Haku seemed to almost wilt while waiting for the scroll to be read. "It... is not good, is it?"

"Zabuza says that he found out that the Hidden Village of the Mists sent out the Seven Swordsmen to hunt him down. It was Gatou's revenge from beyond the grave. He requests that you take refuge in Konoha. And that you live a full life," the jonin said while everyone at the gate listened raptly.

"Which of the Seven Swordsman?" Haku asked desperately.

"I'm sorry, let me clarify. All of the Seven Swordsman were being sent after him. If he survives, he said that he will send a messenger."

The young teen's knees suddenly felt weak. "All of the Seven Swordsman?" Haku couldn't remember kneeling down.

Sasuke and Sakura nodded sadly even as Haku started to wail, tears running running down the overly young and effeminate face.

Naruto just looked confused. "I don't get it."

"Idiot. They are the elite of the elite of the Mist Ninja like the Twelve Guardians," Sakura snapped out. "All jonin that are personally loyal to the Mizukage. Zabuza is probably dead by now."

"Oh." Naruto had no idea how to deal with someone lost in grief like this. "We shouldn't leave Haku like this."

"Good. Then you just volunteered to take care of Haku. I'll report in to the Hokage and talk to you later," Kakashi said, disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

"Ah, dammit!" Naruto shouted out.

"See you tomorrow, idiot." No way was Sasuke going to be saddled a crying wreck like that.

"Um, I have to get home. My parents are probably worried. See you Naruto," Sakura shouted as she ran off.

With a sigh, Naruto carefully picked up the lighter teen. "Well, I guess it's time to head back to my apartment."


Haku woke up the next morning to the sound of snoring off to the left of the lumpy mattress. "Naruto?"

"Wha-? Oh, hey Haku." Naruto sat up with a creak of pained muscles. "Oh, ouch." He pulled off his sleeping cap.

"You did not have to sleep on the floor," Haku said softly. A frown adorned the teen's face while looking around at the cramped apartment. "This is your place?"

"Yeah, not much to it, but its also cheap." Naruto stretched then pulled of his nighshirt and wandered over to the very small rest room. A few minutes later and he was starting to shower.

"Um, Naruto? You do realize your bathroom door is partially open?"

"Yeah, it's busted. Sorry. The building manager hates me." The boy looked incredibly groggy, which seemed so very strange compared to his normal, boisterous self as he scrubbed his scalp with shampoo.

Haku was severely blushing by the time Naruto was out.

"Bathroom's yours," he mumbled. Naruto started puttering in the kitchenette. Really, the only safe food was his ramen. With a sigh, he started making two bowls.

Haku came out about ten minutes later, looking uncomfortable. "Thank you for breakfast."

"Don't worry about it-!? I thought you said you were a boy?" Naruto asked as the undisguised figure sat across from him.

She was now wearing her kimono and it was obvious that she was in fact a she. "I lied a little bit. Zabuza always had me hide my gender, but I like to wear my pretty clothes. So I pretend I'm a cross-dressing boy to confuse people."

"Well, uhm, I guess," Naruto said as he patted the girl who was losing herself to her pain again. "Please don't cry."

That was when someone knocked on Naruto's door. The owner of the apartment stumbled over to it, opening to let in the rest of his team. "I'm not late, am I?" he asked in bewilderment.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, but we have a meeting with the Hokage in about an hour. All of us, including Haku."

Sakura and Sasuke had noted that Haku was not hiding her gender.

"Hnn." The last Uchiha knew this had to be Naruto's fault.

"So you are a girl," Sakura said to herself as she nodded her head in confirmation. "I thought my Sharingan was seeing that in your motions."

Their teacher blinked, then nodded. "You can train it to spot things like that. Very good, Sakura. You figured out something with your new eye before Naruto or Sasuke."

Now Sasuke was glaring at her, not just at Naruto.

"Haku, I would ask that you not mention anything about the Sharingan to anyone that is not in this room. It is very important." Kakashi was giving the girl a serious look.

"Yes, sir." Haku looked very small and wan today.

The five of them headed to the Hokage's Tower, the veritable fortress in the middle of Konoha. They were waved past security.

"Kakashi. What am I going to do with you?" the old man behind his desk said with a small smile. He turned his aged eyes upon Sakura. "Ms. Haruno? Show me your eye."

She complied, activating it (and getting two tomoe) then deactivating it quickly. "I can't keep it active too long, sir. I'm not strong enough."

"Amazing. Well, that is a tricky situation you've dumped on me, Team 7. Sakura, while I would love to make this an S-Rank secret, you are going to have to use that at some time. Try to not get caught before you are chunin though." The Hokage turned to Sasuke. "That might be a good time to adopt them into your clan, Elder of the Uchiha. While I can not order that, I can still suggest such things."

"Both of them?" Sasuke asked slowly.

"I don't think they would argue against it. And your clan needs rebuilding, does it not?" the old man said with a hard tone.

"Hnn." Now he was thinking about it."

"Haku of the Land of Water.... If you swear to not attack Konoha, I will let you stay within our village. I will not lie to you, your bloodline would be welcomed into the ranks of many that the Leaf calls its own, but we will not demand that of you. You would find yourself within good company, as there are over thirty bloodlines that are tracked here. Even if the Haruno one has not been seen in decades," he said with a small smile to Sakura.

"I swear." She had nowhere to go, after all.

"Haruno? My father never mentioned that," Sakura said in surprise.

"I'm not surprised, it is mostly a mental discipline. Haku, Konoha can not take you in as a ninja for the time, but in six months you can apply." The Hokage looked them for a while. "You are dismissed. I believe the mission room will open in ten minutes."

They trooped outside, Haku at the back thinking dark, morose thoughts.

"So, um, Haku, you can stay at my place until, well, you don't need to," Naruto offered with a nervous smile. "It's not much of a place, but it's better than the street."

"You are too nice, Naruto." The girl sounded quite sad.

Sakura was looking at the young blond in deep thought. He really had a lot more depth than anyone would have expected.

"Hnn." Sasuke seemed lost in his own deep thought.

"Haku, I'm afraid you will have to go back to Naruto's place for a bit. We do have a mission to do today," Kakashi said authoritatively.

She nodded and headed back.

This morning was a weeding job for a farmer, as his family was sick with food poisoning.

"We're going to be at it all day. This sucks," Naruto exclaimed. He started to pull everything that looked like a weed.

"Naruto! Those aren't weeds!" Sakura shouted. Her left eye was sharp enough to spot him doing that from thirty feet away.

"Really? Can you show me?"

Sasuke was just going to ignore him, but reached into the small pile of discarded plants. "These are herbs, dumbass."

"Oh, sorry. Still going to take all day."

Sakura gave both boys a smirk, while she made a hand sign. With a pop, a second Sakura appeared. "It's not like we don't know any techniques to multiply ourselves or something."

Sasuke was wanting to smack his forehead like Naruto was doing.

"Here I come! Super special version just for Sakura!" the over-active ninja shouted. "Remember, only the weeds, guys!"

Kakashi blinked as Naruto created over six hundred clones. "Don't over do it, Naruto."

Sasuke created six himself, which left him very tired. Why could the idiot make so many clones? What was his power?

"No problem, teacher! I can keep this up for hours."

The job was finished in only an hour with all the help, even if the Sakura and Sasuke clones had to yell at the Naruto clones to not pull up herbs or edible roots. Even the owner of the farm was mostly happy as Naruto dispelled all of his clones.

"Say, Sakura, can I take your clone on a date? It's good endurance training for you!" Naruto wheedled.

"Fine. Fine." Strangely, her inner self did not say anything. Which was an odd thing by itself.

"Let's go, Naruto!" Sakura's boisterous clone called out, dragging the real Naruto off.

"Say, Sasuke? How about a real date?" the original Sakura asked.

Sasuke turned down the real Sakura without a thought, taking off with his clones for some training. No way was he going to be worse at something than Naruto.


"So what are we going to do? It better be something cool," the clone of Sakura asked while bopping the real Naruto on his head.

"Um, what do you want to do? I've never been on a date before." Truthfully, Naruto had never thought he would convince her to go along with it. "What do you like to do?"

Go out with Sasuke, but she managed to just barely not say that. She was not that uncultured. "Well, I like to go to the library, but that's not something you go on a date. How about you buy me something on the market street?"

"Sure, but please don't ask for anything too expensive. I think I'm feeding two people now," Naruto said as he made a reference to his new house guest.

"Yeah! That was very nice of you!" Sakura exclaimed. "You have a big heart!"

"Are you feeling all right, Sakura?" the boy asked as he trotted along with the girl.

"Never better! It feels like I've been freed!"

After about an hour, Sakura let the boy buy her a small flower as they finished looking in the windows. The very smart girl was frowning, as she'd seen several glares and they had actually been blocked from entering two stores. "Grr. What a bunch of jerks. They don't know you at all," she said as they walked back to Naruto's house.

"Thanks, Sakura. I'm glad you don't hate me for... you know." Naruto gave her a pained smile. "Would you like some tea? I think I still have some."

"Sure." The clone was quite interested to find out if she could actually drink anything.

Naruto opened the door to his little apartment, finding it incredibly tidied up. "Um, wow. You didn't have to do that, Haku."

Haku looked up from where she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor. "It did not take a long time. And you have been very kind to me." She tried to smile.

Naruto went over to the kitchenette and started opening a cupboard to look for his tea.

"How are you doing, Haku?" Sakura said in a friendly tone. "You know, I think the Yamanaka flower shop might needs some part time help, now that Ino is a genin."

"Really? I really don't know flowers, but I do know some herbs for healing," the dark-haired kunoichi said.

"You had probably not mention where you are staying. Ino's mom really doesn't like me," Naruto said as he tried to find three tea cups while the water for tea was on his little stove.

"And that's not fair!" Sakura said loudly. "They should be, uh, yeah. Not supposed to talk about that. Sorry." Naruto was actually glaring at her from the kitchen.

"What are you referring to?" the girl from the Land of Water asked.

"It's a big secret, Haku. But all you need to know is that a lot of people her in Konoha don't like me at all." Naruto shrugged to show it was no big deal.

All of a sudden, the Sakura clone popped out of existence surprising Haku and Naruto.

"Dang, guess she passed out," Naruto said in obvious frustration. He made a clone and handed it Sakura's flower. "Go take that to Sakura's house and make sure she's all right. Then pop yourself." The clone gave a thumb's up and ran out the door.

"You know, Naruto, most people don't use that powerful of a technique as a messenger," Haku said as she took the cup of tea from the boy. "But you aren't exactly the most standard ninja, are you?" She smiled to remove the sting from her comment. "Would you show me this flower shop later?"

"Well, we'll have to sneak over there so Ino's mom doesn't see me, but sure."

"Naruto, she's not a ninja, is she?" Haku sighed when Naruto shook his head in confusion. "You are ninja. Just turn yourself into a villager and no one will know anything."

"Oh. OH! I'm so stupid. I should have thought of that myself." He gave her a cheesy smile. Heck, he could do that at a lot of shops.

Ten minutes later, Naruto and Haku were walking. Lacking for any better idea, he had turned into a teen that he remembered seeing in the Land of Waves. So all anyone saw walking down the street was two girls.

Haku was actually very happy after she talked to the owner of the flower shop. "She said she could use someone at least part time. I'm to come by at noon every day and work at least an hour."

They started walking home, when Haku steered them into a small market and picked up some supplies. She paid for everything quite quickly and Naruto was surprised at the costs.

"That's really cheap. I usually pay twice as much," he exclaimed in awe, still in his disguise.

"Then it is good they did not know it was you. This is the normal price," Haku noted dryly.


Sakura was dead tired after their latest mission, though happy with her chakra control and how much stamina she was developing. She had created two clones this time to help with picking up garbage in the stream. "Sasuke, how about a date today?" she asked after Kakashi had departed. He had spotted a falcon in the sky.

"Sorry, I refuse," he said immediately, crushing her hopes. He turned and walked off to his home.

Naruto started to open his mouth to ask her on a date, but stopped as he saw her droop in despair. "Um, say, Sakura? I can walk you home?"

She glared at him for a long moment, then decided that his offer was not too forward. "I guess."

Both of the ninja blinked as they saw a large box, painted crudely to look like a rock. Naruto just groaned as he realized who it probably was.

Konohamaru unveiled his Konohamaru Korps, much to his aggravation (and a bit too much gunpowder). His two friends had been sucked into his competition.

"You're going to play ninja with us, right?" Konohamaru asked with a huge grin. Then he spotted the auburn-dyed girl next to Naruto. "Say, bro, is this your, um..." He twirled his finger to show that they were together.

"Well, not really. Well, yet." Naruto was suddenly thumped to the ground.

"We are not together!" she shouted at him while grinding her heel into his back.

"But we did that one date," the boy whined under her foot.

Sakura was blushing incredibly at that. "It was just a clone. For training."

"Naruto sitting under a tree with a girl-!? Uh oh, Konohamaru Korps! RETREAT!" their leader shouted, sending the trio of younger kids running down the street.

"Come back here!" Sakura shouted, in full anger mode as she chased them.

Konohamaru slammed into a strangely garbed teen as he rounded a corner. The teen was totally covered in black except his kabuki-painted face. On his back he carried a bundle. "Watch it, brat." He snagged the much smaller boy and lifted him off his feet.

"Hey! Let me go!" the youngest Saratobi shouted.

"Little twerps like you are the worst. I should just beat you within an inch of death. Maybe that'll teach you to run into scary ninja," the older teen said with a sneer.

So he was quite surprised when a fist grabbed his forearm in a painful grip. Naruto's eyes were narrowed, flickering red as he fought to not activate his Sharingan in anger. "Why don't we all calm down before someone gets hurt."

The teen-aged girl slightly behind the dark-garbed teen was startled at that. She reached for her folded up fan, only to find a kunai poking her back as someone held her arm to the the fan, but kept it from moving. "We certainly wouldn't want someone hurt, after all," Sakura said in a cool voice, her left eye activating for a second then returning to its dark-blue normal state.

"Um, right. Kankuro, you idiot. What do you think Gaara is going to do to you?" the older blonde girl said to the Sand Ninja that was facing off against Naruto.

"He's not here-" Kankuro started to say.

"Shut up. Or I'll kill you," a pitiless voice said from under a tree branch. The young red-head was standing under the branch as if it were perfectly normal to ignore gravity. Across his back was a huge gourd that was stoppered up.

"What are you three doing in our village?" came a voice just on the other side of the tree. Sasuke was casually standing on a branch with three large pebbles. "Ninja from other villages are not allowed."

"What are you, idiots? We're here for the chunin exam," Kankuro exclaimed slightly nervously. "Temari, I thought you had heard that the Leaf were weak... -er than this."

"Somehow, I don't think these three are normal," the girl with the war fan said as Sakura let her go and moved over to the three academy kids.

"You three head on home, okay?" Sakura said, patting Konohamaru on his head.

"Sure thing, sis! Treat my rival right!" the young Saratobi said with a cheesy grin.

"Brat!" Sakura shouted at the retreating students.

Naruto was studying this Gaara closely. He seemed to terrify his team to a great degree. "That must really hurt your teamwork," he said casually.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. "What are you saying?"

Sasuke hopped to the ground. "If you can't see it, then you have no idea. Come on, guys."


"Kakashi!" Sakura called out with a wave where Team 7 was sitting on the middle of a bridge waiting for their team leader. "What sort of training do we have today?" She wanted to be able use her Sharingan more and become more powerful.

"I have this for you," their jonin said, holding up three sheets of paper.

"The chunin exam," Naruto breathed out as his sharp eyes took in the forms. "You are entering us?"

"That's right. You just have to turn in your applications. You need to do it a little early, so that you can discuss this with the Hokage," Kakashi said calmly. "So try to have it done before Friday when it is due."

"We can go right now," Naruto exclaimed.

Sasuke was looking over the papers. "We could," he admitted. He looked over at their last team mate, seeing her deactivate her Sharingan. She must have used it to memorize the contract.

"I-" Sakura stopped, trying to figure out why she was hesitant. "Give me a minute to think." Did she have a good reason not to enter. 'No! Let's do it and show off how much we've improved!' her inner Sakura shouted. 'Cha cha!'

They had been walking off the bridge when she decided. Both boys turned to her as her whole stance turned aggressive. "Decided?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah. Let's go!" She took off running down the road to head to the Academy.

Three chunin were surprised when Team 7 showed up so early. "What are you brats doing here?" the left one asked suspiciously.

"We're here to enter the chunin exam!" Naruto exclaimed. "Then we have to go talk to the Hokage about it." He was almost bouncing on his feet he was so excited.

"The Hokage wants to talk to you about you entering the chunin exam?" the right chunin asked suspiciously.

"Probably because of me," Sasuke said while smirking.

The two chunin shared a strained look, then nodded. "Fine, get on with it."

They handed in their forms in and discovered that it was required to join as a team.

"Huh. Wonder why Kakashi didn't mention that?" Naruto asked as he started thinking hard on it.

"Maybe he wanted us to make the decision on our own? To have our own reason to take the exam," Sakura decided. "Well, let's head to the Hokage's Tower."

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

Half an hour later, they were sitting in the foyer under the watchful eye of a chunin secretary. He looked up and at the door. "The Hokage will see you now."

Hiruzen Saratobi was puffing a pipe behind his desk as he tilted back his hat of office. His old eyes watched them closely. "Well, your jonin teacher entered you into the exam. Most likely, you will be forced to use your Sharingan. This is to be expected, if not exactly wanted."

"You mean about Naruto and I, don't you? Is it because of... that with Naruto? And I'll just be like Kakashi, with a transplanted Sharingan," Sakura said as she thought carefully.

"Exactly. So, Sasuke Uchiha, have you made your decision?" the Third Hokage asked.

"Yes, sir. I would like to have them join the Uchiha to protect them against interests within Konoha," Sasuke said. "If they want to, of course." He looked over at his two team mates.

"My father is going to be upset, but I think he will understand," Sakura said.

"You're family. That's enough," Naruto explained as if it were just that simple.

"Here's the paperwork. I suggest you work on a cover story for Sakura's Sharingan. Perhaps a secret clan technique to make sure that the eye will not die out," the Hokage said.

"It did not use to be, but now it is. Well, as long as Naruto is around," the dark-haired boy explained with a smirk as the two filled in their names, then let him sign his clan symbol to it.

"Hehe!" Naruto laughed out with a huge smile.

"Very well. I have some council preparations to have in place when this bombshell hits," the old man said, looking every one of his years old.

"You guys want to come over? I think Haku wanted to thank you guys with a dinner. She really cooks very well," Naruto said as they walked out.

"Hnn. Okay." It would save him from ordering out, Sasuke thought to himself.

Sakura looked around and did not see anyone around them in the corridor. "Clan meeting time, eh?"

Naruto rushed home to help Haku with the preparations. His little table would barely fit all four of them and he wanted to host everything perfectly. The four of them were sitting around when Haku stood and then served them from a sake bottle.

"Can we drink?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"Dummy. We're ninja. Once we get these," Sasuke tapped his Leaf Ninja symbol on his forehead, "we became adults."

"Huh. Guess you are right. So, should we be doing team training tomorrow?" the blonde asked.

"We probably should. It looks like at least part of the exam is all team oriented," Sakura noted as she carefully sipped the steaming alcohol.


Sakura woke up feeling sick and in pain. Everything looked too bright and there was the sound of snoring under her nose. Somehow she had ended up cuddled up with Naruto on the floor. Wiggling free, she took stock of herself. All of her clothing was mostly in place and her weapons piled neatly next to the door. So probably not much happened.

She did not know if she was disappointed or happy with that thought. She staggered to the bathroom and rinsed her mouth out. Her mother was going to kill her. Except she was now a Uchiha, not a Haruno.

"Hahahaha!" Naruto had started laughing very loudly.

Looking over, she realized what was funny, as somehow Haku and Sasuke had ended up in the only bed. Nothing appeared to have happened, other than they were waking up in a funny, compromising situation as they were hugging each other.

"Dummy," Sasuke rasped as he quickly extracted himself.. "Why can't I remember what happened last night?"

"We got very drunk and now we are very hung over," the long haired girl said as she righted her kimono. "I think a light breakfast is in order. Of soup and bread."

After the much subdued breakfast, the three genin of Team 7 started to plan their day. Sakura was the first to bring up any ideas. "So group combat training? I don't think practicing against the other genin teams would be a smart move."

"We should see if there are any chunin teams we could learn from." Sasuke was putting his full mind to the task. He frowned as he realized something in his attitude had changed. His eyes darted left and right to take in his team mates separately. Was it because they also had his Sharingan eyes? That he would have to work smarter and harder, not just depend on the quality of the supernatural bloodline limit? Or was it that they were going to be Uchiha... family?

"How are we going to do that?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"This is where you team leader will need to be consulted," Haku said to the team with a soft smile. "I'm sure Kakashi will know someone that you will be able to speak with."

"We could also ask Iruka. He's a chunin and maybe he knows a chunin team that we can work with," Sakura noted aloud.

"Great ideas, you two! Thanks, Haku. You'll be working at the flower shop this afternoon, right?" the demon container asked with a huge grin.

Team 7 headed off to the Academy to quickly track down their old teacher before his classes.

"Teacher!" Naruto bellowed to Iruka as he was trotted up to the school.

"Why hello you three. It's a bit early for ramen today, Naruto." Iruka patted the blonde on his head.

"We aren't here for ramen. We want to train with a team of chunin for the exam," the boy replied.

Iruka frowned, but nodded anyways. "Yes, I heard your team leader entered you."

"Yeah, we're strong but we want to do our best," Naruto explained.

"And to do that, teacher, we need to train as if we were fighting chunin," Sakura said with a soft smile.

"Hnn." Sasuke wanted to not be ignored, but did not want to explain what they were doing.

"That's very... innovative. Most chunin are busy on their missions or duties, but perhaps I could get a few of us around this afternoon at training ground eleven," the older ninja said, his face grinning quite at odds with his old scars.

"We'll see you after school, teacher!" Naruto shouted.


Iruka was looking down at the three genin sitting and talking quietly under the trees of training ground eleven. "Hmm."

His two friends shook their heads. "They aren't ready if this is how they act. We'll take them out and send them back to Kakashi with instructions to drop out." That chunin was wearing a lot of bandages to hide the many scars he'd taken from all of his dangerous missions.

The last chunin, a serious sort wearing dark sunglasses and a trenchcoat nodded. "He's right. Let's do this."

Iruka wouldn't complain if that happened.

With speed that the genin could not match, the three chunin attacked. The bandage wearing chunin folded over Sasuke with a gut-punch, only for the 'last Uchiha' to disappear in a puff of smoke. "Physical clones?" he blurted out in surprise. That was something he couldn't even do.

The two other clones disappeared from the ambushers' attacks.

"Heh. Looks like you were right, Sakura. Look like a fool and set a trap," Sasuke said as they leaped out of the bushes, then took in a huge breath while making handseals. With a woosh, he sent out a huge fireball that was more scary than hot. These were allies, after all.

"Kage no Bunshin!" Naruto shouted as he made a dozen clones. Each of them unleashed a breath of fire like streams of napalm. While much smaller than Sasuke's 'grand fireball' they were a threat that blocked the chunin from charging back at them.

"These kids are serious," the trench-coated chunin called out.

Sakura unleashed her genjitsu, accidentally pushing a bit of power into her Sharingan. But to the bandage wearing chunin, it looked like she had ignited him. Screaming, he started to roll on the ground and then into one of Naruto's flames. The real damage broke the genjitsu, but left him really on fire.

"Okay, time out," Iruka shouted. "Someone put out Goka before he gets seriously burned."

The genin backed off as the trench-coat wearing chunin buried his friend to put out the fire.

"You could have just doused me with water," the burned chunin shouted as he dug himself up.

"You know I only do earth jitsu, dumb ass," was the barbed reply.

"Well, that was exciting. It appears you guys really have become strong. When I heard that you were going to be in the exam, I was worried." Iruka smiled at them to let them know he had no hard feelings. "Guess I have egg on my face. You guys are going to do great."

"While we can't let you know what you are going to be up against, training you against a team like us is not against any rules," the chunin with sunglasses explained. "Get ready to be worked hard."

The three genin just smirked at that. That's what they wanted.


It was Friday and Team 7 was headed to the first part of the chunin exam. Everyone was filling up the hallway as some sort of confrontation was taking place. Even without activation, the Sharingan let them see through the illusion masking the sign for the 'entrance'.

"Nice genjitsu," Sasuke said. "But can you get out of the way so we can get to the real third floor?"

All of the genin in the hall looked at the sign, just before the illusion dropped. It wavered from the numbers 302 to 202.

"This was the wrong floor?"

"Hey! What's the big deal and telling all these losers?" one of the tough looking ninja that had been blocking the way.

"So this is an unofficial test? Then I guess we pass," Sakura said with a too sweet smile.

The bigger, tougher looking genin lashed out a kick which was suddenly blocked by the beaten looking boy with the bowl haircut. He had even caught Sakura's arm that was holding a kunai.

"That's enough," a slightly older Hyuga said. "You've had your fun."

"Lee! What happened to the plan?" a girl with her hair up in small buns complained.

"Sorry, it's just this vision of loveliness overcame my sense of decorum! I am Rock Lee. Girl in red, will you go out with me?" he asked in an over the top way.

"Um, I'm not really looking for a boyfriend right now." Sakura stepped back slightly. 'Yeah, we already have two love interests!' Sakura tried to beat down that voice mentally.

That was when Lee spotted Sasuke. "You're the last Uchiha. The rookie of this year. I want to fight you," the green-tights wearing genin called out.

"Maybe later. I'm sure there's some combat in this exam," Sasuke said with a grim smile. "But we need to get to the first part of the exam. Come on, guys."

"Did you see his bandages?" Naruto said as they walked off. "He looks like he trains really hard."


The room was absolutely packed with genin. Almost all of them were older than Team 7. In fact, the only ones that were not older than them by at least six months was Team 8 and Team 10.

"Oh, this will be troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled from his seat. "Your team leader entered you guys too?" Team 7 looked far too professional in his opinion.

"Sasuke!" Ino screeched, launching herself at the Uchiha heir. "I'll take you away from this ugly hag! Eh, Sakura?" She had a huge grin on her face. "After all, only old women dye their hair."

"Hag? Ino-piggy, I should rearrange your face for that," Sakura snapped out. "I'm only two months older than you!"

Choji blinked at the auburn-haired girl. With the darker style and dyed hair, he had not recognized her. "What happened to your eyes?"

"A battle wound. It's all better," the kunoichi of Team 7 said quickly.

"Naruto also?" the timid and mild Hyuga heiress called out. Hinata Hyuga was twiddling her thumbs as she tried to consider things.

"Man, I guess that Sasuke was able to pull up that loser," Kiba Inuzaka said derisively.

"That loser is on my team," Sasuke said coldly. "And is ten times the ninja you are." Ever since he had found out Naruto was his cousin, he had a love-hate relationship with the loudmouth. But no one would ever badmouth a Uchiha if he could help it.

"Yeah!" Sakura suddenly flipped Ino to the ground but in a way that let Ino catch her feet.

"You brats... Are you trying to get everyone angry enough to kill you?" one of the older genin shouted.

A bespectacled genin, only four years their senior, walked over. "It's probably not a good idea to antagonize them," he said with a grin. He was a Leaf Ninja by his head protector.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi. This test is a lot harder than you kids know. I can't believe your jonin team leader agreed to send you all in," he admitted.

"So you've taken this test before?" Sakura asked, eyes wide in surprise. Testing had never been something she really did bad in.

"Actually, I've taken it seven times," Kabuto said with a nervous seeming laugh. "I've gathered a lot of information."

"Man, we should probably just do the opposite of whatever he does then," Kiba exclaimed. "He's a loser."

Naruto scrunched his dark eyes almost closed even as he slipped his goggles over his eyes. "Wow, never thought that would happen. I agree with Kiba."

"Hey!" the slighted boy shouted, even as his puppy growled at Naruto.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What information do you have on Gaara of the Sand, Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee and myself?"

"And yourself?" Kabuto asked.

"It will be to see how accurate your information is," the dark-haired boy said with a smirk.

"That's actually pretty wise," the spy for the Village of Sound said. He revealed his 'Ninja Cards' that requires his chakra to use. His information on Gaara was quite surprising; high level and dangerous missions but never injured. Rock Lee was listed a taijitsu only, but very strong. Neji was listed as his years strongest rookie; said to be a genius of the Byakugen. "And yourself, Sasuke Uchiha. Also graduated the strongest rookie of the year. You already have an A-Rank mission?"

"Yeah, Zabuza Mamoto really hits hard too," Naruto complained.

Kabuto could not help himself as his jaw dropped. "You guys fought one of the Seven Swordsman? And lived?"

"You bet! We're really strong!" Naruto boasted even as he felt the eyes of the room fall on him. "Just you watch! We're going to pass this exam no matter what!" he almost bellowed, pointing his finger at them all.

"Naruto! You idiot! Are you trying to antagonize them all?" Sakura shouted in his ear. She then thumped him on top of his head for good measure.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, then frowned as it looked like Sasuke actually smirked at Naruto's comment.

The sudden confrontation between a band of Sound Ninja and Kabuto was scary for most of the Leaf Ninja, but it was only Naruto who, with his hidden and active Sharingan, noted that Kabuto did something with his chakra around his ears. Had he healed himself that quickly? It was actually kind of similar to what happened in his own limbs when they were hurt, something he had accidentally noted while seeing his fast healing in action. He had been very curious after nearly dying at Zabuza's hand.

"All right! Shut up and sit down unless you all want to be disqualified right now," a serious looking jonin called out. He was Morino Ibiki , a special jonin of Interrogation with the ANBU. "Anyone fighting before we tell you to will be disqualified."

He had them all sit down to start a test with nine answers, warning them that cheating five time would fail them for sure. Naruto cursed as he was put on the front row. Even if he wanted to cheat with his Sharingan, there was no way he was going to be able to do that without getting caught.

Then he looked at the actual questions and almost panicked. He could answer exactly one of these questions, even with having used his Sharingan back in the Academy to memorize some of his book work. There had to be a way to use his Sharingan. Didn't there?

That was when the first team was disqualified, amping up the tension horribly. Naruto started sweating. Maybe he should work on his gathering information skills in the future? But even when Hinata Hyuga offered to let him cheat, he shook his head. No way was he going to get his team disqualified. Each of the remaining ninja managed to figure out a way to cheat... except Naruto.

Minutes ticked by and then the Proctor for the exam shouted out, "All right, it is time for the last question." Morino then explained the 'question of desperation' and that if they failed to answer this question, he would ban them from becoming chunin forever.

Naruto, after the tension rose (and coincidentally, just before Hinata could bow out) suddenly stood up and slammed his palm down. "No way in hell am I going to quit! Even if I'm always a genin, I'll still become Hokage! That's my ninja honor!"

Suddenly, all of the remaining genin could not back down. If that stupid idiot was willing to put his whole career on the line, they could not back out.

The wait dragged out another thirty seconds as Morino looked around. "Then you all pass." The special jonin explained that sometimes taking on missions where the chance of failure was death required a strong will. Then he explained the importance of gathering information, as he removed his head covering, to show the horrific scars on his head.

He was almost finished when suddenly a figure appeared, smashing through the window and setting up a banner with a name on it. "Anko Mitarashi, arriving! Ibiki, what the hell are you doing? There's tons of them still?" she complained as she stood in front of her banner.

"There's a lot of good ninja this time," the older man said with a half-smile.

"Well, by the time I'm done, there'll be less than half. I promise that. All right you guys, head on over to the Training Ground known as the Forest of Death!" Anko shouted dramatically.


Anko was quite the character as the genin teams all met up outside the fenced off forest. With her overboard theatrics and requirement to sign a waiver absolving the Proctors if they died, the tension was quite fierce. Naruot reacted normally, shouting right back at her which got Anko to try and cut him (he had actually dodged it) and a short confrontation between the Proctor, Naruto and a strange Rain Ninja.

"You just had to open your mouth?" Sakura griped at them as they walked to their gate after getting their scroll.

Sasuke had set the scroll somehow in one of his hidden pouches. "Shall we pretend to be bumbling genin with some clones?"

"I'm still not that good at the clones," the auburn-dyed girl muttered.

"Don't worry, I'll make clones of us all. I'll just have two of them transform into you guys," Naruto said with a grin.

"Which reminds me, the Uchiha have a way of signaling each other. Activate your Sharingan and watch my hands." Sasuke held up both hands, making a few hand signs with his right hand. "But it's all in the the flow of chakra in your left hand. Let's use thumb, forefinger and pinkie for now."

They nodded, though Sakura frowned. "Can the Hyuga do this too?"

"Yes, but I doubt Hinata or that Neji will bother being that sneaky," the Uchiha heir said with a smirk. "They'll probably just trust in their eyes to attack instead of trying to trick us."

They had arrived at the gate, out of sight of the rest of the genin. At the top of the hour, they all entered.

One hour later, a Mist Ninja attempted to catch them off guard, shadowing their oblivious-seeming clones through the trees. He barely had a moment's warning before he was triple-teamed into unconsciousness.

"He doesn't have his team's scroll. And I doubt we could convince him to lead us back," Sasuke complained after they had searched the knocked out Ninja.

"Yeah, but he'll probably head back to them once he 'escapes'," Naruto said with a cheesy smile. He took three kunai from the ninja and looked them over, handing one to each. He then made a clone that immediately transformed into a kunai.

Sasuke immediately saw what he was doing. "Not a bad plan, dummy." He had his trademark smirk on his face. He and Sakura immediately made their own clones.

Sakura and Naruto tied the Mist Ninja up, but not tight enough he could not escape. They then disappeared upwards into the trees while their original clone-party moved off conspicuously.

When their captive escaped and headed back, they followed him quite easily higher up in the trees but out of sight.

"What happened?" his two other team mates asked about ten minutes later, as they were pretty close. They were skulking around near a stream and some bushes.

"I'm not sure, but I think those three are tougher than they look. I didn't even see them move before they took me out," the roughed up scout admitted. "We should probably try one of the other rookie genin teams from Leaf first."

That was when the third member, the girl with a full goggles and snorkel outfit was suddenly buried up to her neck in the dirt. "What the heck?" she cried out, trying to wiggle loose.

The Mist Ninja scout pulled out two kunai, spinning around to only be surprised when Sakura and Sasuke poofed out of their henge and with their hands on his arms, dragged him over to smash him and his last member into a tree with stunning force. Each of the Leaf genins then knocked out the momentarily stunned Mist ninja with brutally-strong punches to their face.

"Holy Gods of the Seas!? How the heck did you guys do that?" the young teen girl from the Land of Water asked.

That was when the real Sasuke and Sakura landed on the ground from the trees up above and Naruto burrowed from right next to her where their clones were standing around. The goggle-wearing boy had a huge smile on his face. "I told you guys we were going to win this exam! Let's get that scroll."

Sasuke had a very, very big grin that he had never shown before. "This is it. Shall we move out to the tower?"

"Can you keep your eyes active for an hour, Sakura?" Naruto asked.

"No, but you both can, I'm sure." Sakura dispelled her clone to get some of her strength back. "I'll just have to keep my eyes open normally."

Naruto created a second clone and had it change into Sakura. "Okay you two, follow that Sasuke there to the tower. Try to die loudly."

"You guys can all create solid clones? That's like high level chunin or low level jonin techniques," the female Mist Ninja exclaimed in surprise. "You guys really are-"

"Your guys should wake up before any of the slugs get you, but I wouldn't yell too loudly. You never know who or what might hear you," Sasuke said grimly.

The real Team 7 moved up into the trees, following their fast moving clones with the two boys activating their Sharingan. In only three more hours and one sacrifice of their clones against some Waterfall Ninja, they entered the main room from the outside and looked around. It was mostly ruined, but almost clean at the floor level. A saying was carved in the wall, notably misisng some words.

"Now what do we do?" Naruto asked.

"There's no one here. Perhaps were are supposed to open both scrolls now?" the kunoichi decided after some consideration.

Sasuke shrugged, opening both scrolls. They started to smoke, prompting them to drop them and back up with kunai pulled out.

A chunin from Konoha that appeared blinked at the combat ready genin. "You made it here already? You guys sure are fast. Well, it's my pleasure to announce that you succeeded and made it to the next challenge." He then explained the saying on the wall and how it related to the Earth and Heaven scrolls they had been tasked to find.

"Well, you guys have until at least the fifth day to hang out." With that, the chunin led them through a secret passage and deeper into the tower.

Iruka looked up from where he was talking with several chunin and jonin. "See, here they are. You guys managed something amazing. The only people that made it here faster than you were Team Baki from the Land of Sand. They got here an hour ago."

"I didn't think it was a race. Should we have tried to get here faster?" Naruto asked his team mates.

"Eh, I don't think its a big deal," their auburn-dyed girl teammate said with a shrug. "Where are we going to stay?"

The chunin laughed and sent them to a room, right next to Kakashi's. He just gave them a wink as he passed them.

Down the hall, Gaara of the Sand looked at the three Leaf Genin, frowning as he realized they made it to the prize almost as quickly as his team had. "Are they strong?" he asked aloud.

"I think they are," Temari said as she considered the younger team. "Rookies like that... they must have done some amazing training."

"We can still defeat them easily-" the face-painted Kankuro boasted, only to be cut off by the youngest member.

"Shut up or I'll kill you. You don't know anything about them. They are my prey," the red-head said in a grim tone.

That caused both of the older Sand Ninja to shudder.

It was late that night that Naruto was startled awake as his last three clones were suddenly dispelled by some massive wind ninjitsu. "Whoa, that was freaky. A whole days worth of sneaking around. Three times." Luckily the memories were mostly identical, so he did not have much of a headache. "That was a powerful attack. I wonder who is that powerful?"

Out in the Forest of Death, Orochimaru snarled under his Grass Ninja genin's guise. He would have to search the forest more thoroughly for Sasuke Uchiha. By the end of the night and with ANBU scouring the area, he had to retreat. Resuming his guise as a jonin leader of another team, he was incredibly upset to find them resting comfortably in the tower with their team leader.


They spent the next three days 'training' though really, they just traded ninjitsu techniques. Sasuke thought that earth burrowing technique a useful surprise attack, while Naruto finally got to see the Uchiha specialty of the Phoenix Grand Fireball. Strangely, he was not able to get that nearly as strong as Sasuke.

"You probably are not Fire elemental. It probably isn't a primary element, anyways," Sakura said while watching them at times. She had copied the ninjitsu and even some of their fighting techniques, but she did not think she could use them until she became stronger. She and Sasuke were both quite tired.

"Huh?" Naruto said "Primary element?"

"Let's keep in mind Naruto is not a great thinker unless it comes to pranks, Sakura," Sasuke commented with a small smirk. "Well... and while fighting." He was almost panting after his last use of the burrowing jitsu.

"I don't know how you do it, Naruto. I mean, I can see with my Sharingan that Sasuke is tired and out of chakra. How can you still have so much?" she complained to the blonde.

"Hehe. I've always had a lot of chakra," he admitted.

"You three should rest up tonight," Kakashi said while he read his book. "Tomorrow... might be a busy day."

The next day they were all summoned to a large, vaulted room with a balcony overlooking a massive and forbidding statue. Ino, Choji and Shikamaru of Team 10 and Shino, Hinata and Kima of Team 8 were there, though Team 10 looked far worse off. It appeared they had barely gotten to the tower just under the wire.

The Hokage and the Proctor of the exam congratulated them all on their performance, even as they informed all of the genin that unfortunately they would have to fight a ninja duel today. There were too many people that passed the second exam and so there would be too many battles in the third if this were allowed. So there was going to be a preliminary round of battle to weed out half their numbers.

That was when Kabuto Yakushi stepped up. "I'm too beat up to continue."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto shouted out in sudden frustration.

"My ear is still bothering me from the first exam and I'm out of chakra," he told everyone with a small shrug.

"What? You healed your ear almost as soon as you got hurt!" Naruto exclaimed angrily. Why was Kabuto lying and not trying for the next level?

Most of the other genin frowned at that.

"You must be mistaken," Kabuto said, hiding his nervousness.

Sakura, who happened to be standing between Sasuke and Hinata Hyuga, whispered over to Sasuke, "Check his chakra." Her own Sharingan had whirled to life.

"Byakugen," Hinata whispered, activating her eye technique. "He is not chakra exhausted?" As she watched, his chakra levels suddenly lowered, much to her amazement.

Her cousin Neji snorted from behin her. "Your weak eyes are being decieved, Hinata," he whispered just a little too loudly and angrily. "You should not waste your strength."

The Third Hokage's eyes were narrowed as he saw out of the corner of his eyes Sharingan and Byakugen active. He had also heard Neji's comment. "What do the Sharingan and Byakugen see?"

Sasuke frowned. He could not say for sure, as he had not trained for this. That would not happen again. He looked over at Sakura.

She mistook his look for an order to let them know. "He was not chakra exhausted."

Hinata nodded. "She is right. His body was not showing signs of chakra exhaustion. Now it suddenly is."

Neji frowned, but he shook his head as he could not tell. He suddenly felt a pang of nervousness.

Shino and Shikamaru both blinked at that, then narrowed their eyes.

"And why would a genin lie about being exhausted?" the Hokage asked rhetorically as he considered the skill to hide your chakra state. That was something uncomfortably hard... and something a spy would use.

"Especially one that has failed to pass seven times?" Sasuke said as his Sharingan whirled dangerously. "And why, Lord Hokage, does his team not complain or push him to compete? They would know their teammate. And would cover for their teammate."

The Proctors were now examining the nervous genin while two other jonin them were suddenly watching the jonin of Kabuto's team.

"Let us see if you have inherited your clan's renowned ability that see through lies and deceit, Uchiha," the Hokage called out. "Why would someone lie in this situation?"

Kabuto was staring hatefully at the brats, though he kept his face as composed as possible.

"If his mission was not to pass, but to keep up his strength. But he is Leaf, his mission should only to be to become chunin. Unless he is not really Leaf. Unless he is traitor." Sasuke was suddenly glaring at the older boy.

"I guess I have no choice but to compete-" Kabuto started to say.

"Proctors, arrest Kabuto and his teammates. They can explain to Morino Ibiki their actions," Hiruzen Saratobi called out. "Chunin make correct decisions... the first time."

Two chunin moved up to incapacitate Kabuto, but he suddenly counter-attacked with lashing out with chakra-scalpels that felled them both. The Sound Spy suddenly charged Sasuke in hatred, only to suddenly falling unconscious as he found the Hokage there in his combat gear. The old man had used some sort of attack that disrupted all of his nerves.

Yoroi and Misumi found a jonin and three chunin holding weapons on them and quickly surrendered.

The Hokage's eyes narrowed at that. "So it appears that Kabuto has been confirmed as traitor. Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and Hinata... you have passed your preliminary and will proceeded to the Third Exam. You should have had more faith in your clanmate, Neji Hyuga. You will not proceed."

"What!?" the older Hyuga shouted. "I am far stronger than Hinata!"

"And if power were the only thing tested, you would have passed. Or do you believe yourself superior to the Hokage?" Hiruzen's eyes stared down the Hyuga's without a qualm. "You may return to your clan now to explain your failure of judgement."

Hyate coughed. "Hokage, how is this fair to let them pass?"

"I could make them all chunin right now. That is my right as Hokage. And I know Team 7 and what fires they are being forged in," the old man said dangerously. "They have been trained as if for war under my direct supervision."

That caused all the older chunin and jonin to shift nervously. "For war?"

"They are the heirs of the Sharingan, of vital importance to this village. Do not question me on this matter again," the Hokage warned. Then he grinned like a wolf for a second. "Besides, this way there will be more challengers for them in the Final Round."

"Very well. We will proceed with the rest of the elimination rounds," Hyate called out.

Ino has moved up to Sakura. "What was that, Forehead?"

"It was a secret, Ino-pig," Sakura replied. She turned and looked at her head on, activating her Sharingan for just a second.

"Oh, crap. Sharingan?" The blonde was beyond flabbergasted.

"That explains it. I wondered how you could see that traitor's chakra wasn't exhausted," Shikamaru said with an aggravated puff of his cheeks. "Fighting you three is going to be bothersome."

Choji frowned, but nodded.

"It doesn't make us unstoppable," Naruto said with a wild looking grin.

Sasuke nodded. Oh, how he wished that the Sharingan made him unstoppable and that it alone would make him equal to Itachi. However the Sharingan was simply a powerful tool but only a tool. And thinking about that made Sasuke ponder if he should get a pair of goggles like Naruto. He wasn't sure what enemy ninja would have to hunt down bloodlines that had eye based abilities but he was sure they knew a few things that could turn the Sharingan into a disadvantage. Pepper dust in his face had been very unpleasant when Kakashi had used that on the team once or twice in training.

While Naruto was wondering what Neji's problem was and why he was constantly putting down Hinata. He tried to think if Hinata had done anything 'weak' and couldn't think of anything. She seemed to get flushed a lot but that didn't seem to slow her down.

The Hokage explained to everyone that this last Exam for chunin would be a proxy war, to showcase the strength of the different hidden villages. Then it was time for the first match.

Temari of the Sand versus Rock Lee.

The blonde kunoichi smirked in confidence as she leaped down to the ground, readying her war fan.

"Yosh!" the green-wearing taijitsu ninja said as he thumped to the ground lightly. "I see the fires of your youth burn brightly in you! Please do your best during our match!"

"Are all Leaf Ninja as weird as you?" she sniped back in preamble.

"Begin," the proctor called out.

Temari snapped a blast of wind at Lee, but he was far too fast, dodging out of the way. The slightly older blonde narrowed her eyes, as she tried to send a wider but wider blast of air, but Lee just smashed through that like it was nothing.

In the stands Tenten snorted. Given the amount of weights that Lee wore she had better luck knocking over a brick house. And Lee's skill in taijitsu made him a monster to fight in hand to hand combat. But they were also encumbering him, so he was just not fast enough.

Temari narrowed her eyes as she started to ration her wind attacks while keeping her distance. The goofy kid in the bright green jumpsuit was more dangerous than he looked. Of course, so was she.

The younger boy furrowed his thick brows. This just was not working, as he was not used to someone being near in his speed. He suddenly backflipped to the far end of the area where he could dodge with far greater ease. Instantly, Temari quit her onslaught.

"You're better than I thought," the Sand Ninja admitted. "But you can't attack me."

He just gave her a thumb's up, then reached down and removed his leg-warmers. Standing up, he tossed them behind him and caused a small crater to appear from his weights. "We shall see!"

Temari just blinked as the boy turned into a green blur, easily sidestepping her attacks. She barely countered a kick with her huge war fan. Three punches snaked through her defenses to leave punishing bruises.

Up in the balcony, the three Sharingan users were watching the fight avidly. They were all starting to plan in their heads how to duplicate that amazing fighting speed. Kakashi prayed silently his students would avoid wearing green spandex.

Lee grinned as he saw her over-extend herself, then had to jump back as she started to spin the fan around her, conjuring up a spinning tornado of wind. "So... Rock Lee, right? You can't do any ninjitsu at all, can you? So my barrier is totally impregnable to you," Temari asked casually as she spun the fan around and around continuously. Baki had always told her to use this technique against someone that can burrow or send a fireball at you was totally insane.

But someone that could not? Perfect.

"Truely, you have an amazing mind to complement your fires of your youth. Yosh!" Lee shouted. He tried to burst past this barrier, but Temari spun her fan around, tightening the cyclone and sending Lee flying.

"Lee! I give you permission to use that ability!" Maito Gai called out, giving his protégé permission. "It's all right in this case! Though only the first two!"

"Yosh!" With a frown, he bounced back to his feet. He seemed to focus for a long moment. "Gate of Opening!" he suddenly shouted, charging forward even faster. He tried to match the wind's speed, but nearly got himself trapped into a deadly spin.

"You won't be able to punch through this barrier," Temari called out, thankful the wind was hiding her sweat. It was coming down to a matter of stamina. She would have never believed that anyone could just fight her with taijitsu. It was insane-

"Gate of Healing!" Rock Lee bellowed, speeding up even more. But he did not try to break through the barrier. Instead, he slammed his fists into the ground and then ripped up a six foot section of the floor... that Temari happened to be standing on the edge of.

The rocks exploded into the cyclone, even as it started to twist and warp out of control.

"No!" Temari shouted, just before Lee bulled through the weakened wind.

Bandages unwrapped as he kicked her high into the air in the center of her own cyclone.

"The lotus blooms!" the young genin shouted as he appeared behind her to smash her back down to the ground.

Kankuro and Gaara blinked, realizing that Temari was out. And soon declared the loser.

"Wow, Lee, that was amazing!" Naruto shouted. "Way to go!" And he had copied the move with his Sharingan, though he did not think his boy nor speed were up to that attack. Perhaps if he used clones for different parts? And that thing where he unleashed his chakra within his body-

"I'm appalled at you teaching such a dangerous technique. Now I have to explain to my students that they just can't use that technique they all copied," Kakashi said in an aggravated tone.

"They copied opening the first two gates? Wait, all of them?" Maito asked, distracted from heading down to congratulate his student. He blinked uncomfortably as the three genin turned their five Sharingan towards him (though Sakura deactivated hers almost instantly. She was trying to conserve her chakra, after all.) "Truly... Team Sharingan. You might even match the Sennin."

Tenten blinked and looked worried at that. "Team Sharingan?"

"What you just saw was originally a suicide technique. It's very dangerous, because it removes all limits that your body uses to protect you from inflicting damage to itself. So only use that if you absolutely must," Kakashi explained as he glared with one eye at his 'rival'.

"Better stick to just weights then," Naruto said sheepishly while grinning.

Sasuke shivered. He might want to kill Itachi before restoring his clan but then he was hit with the fact if he died before rebuilding the clan that task would fall onto Naruto. While he didn't hate his cousin he didn't really want to the leadership of the Uchiha clan to fall to be in Naruto's hands. Sasuke had a feeling a girl could ask Naruto to help them have children and if they didn't make it blunt it would go over Naruto's head.

The electric sign spun again, starting to spit out a new set of names.

Shino Aburame versus Ino Yamanaka.

The blonde girl narrowed her eyes at the high-collared wearing boy who's expression was quite hidden behind his glasses.