Replacement

"Sasuke-kun!"

The Uchiha turned to see his pink-haired teammate running towards him. He smiled. Sakura had always had a soft spot for him, and even though he told her he would always see her like a sister, it didn't stop the girl from growing on him. "Did you hear?" the kunoichi asked, stopping a moment to catch her breath. "Kakashi-sensei says that we'll be getting our new teammate for the Chuunin exam today.

Sasuke frowned. The third member of team seven, Fujimori Tsuko, had been killed in the mission to Wave Country to protect the bridge builder Tazuna. In the process, Sasuke had been able to activate his Sharingan, but too late as Haku managed to kill Tsuko before the genin even had a chance to fight back.

With a titanic effort the remaining three members of the cell, Kakashi included, pushed back the nukenin Zabuza and Haku, slaughtering the both of them in a shower of kunai and their sensei's legendary move, the Chidori. It's been three months since that happened, and with the advent of the Chuunin exams, a teammate had been requisitioned for them so they can participate.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun," Sakura tugged at his arm. "I heard he was only supposed to take the genin exam today. How do they expect us to work with such an inexperienced ninja anyway?" she huffed. "Strange."

The raven-haired boy shrugged at his best friend's words. "Tell you what," he chirped "It's still eight in the morning, and knowing Kakashi-sensei, he won't be here until well after eleven thirty."

Sakura nodded. The jounin had asked them to be at the bridge at ten, and calculating for his average time, he would be there a couple of hours late for sure. "What say we go take a peak in the academy and see who our teammate is supposed to be?" When Sakura nodded excitedly, Sasuke smiled. "Okay," he said "Let's go!" The both of them blurred into nonexistence, ninja style.

At precisely ten o' clock in the morning, Kakashi walked into the bridge, giggling every few moments from the porn he was reading. Upon reaching the concrete bridge, he blinked. And blinked again.

Where the hell was his team?

Meanwhile across the village in the old ninja academy, Umino Iruka was walking down the hall to administer an individual genin test to one Uzumaki Naruto. The chuunin read the name on the file and frowned. The Kyuubi-gakki was going to test for genin so he could qualify for the chuunin exams in three weeks?

He read a little further and whistled at the details of the child's training. During the years he should have spent at the academy, he was living in the Uchiha compound, trained privately by the heir to the clan himself. Iruka didn't know if Itachi was that good a teacher, but anybody who was trained by an ANBU captain wasn't one to be snorted at.

The chuunin reached room 209 and found a blonde boy in an orange tracksuit accompanied by a raven haired ANBU in a weasel mask. Said blonde was being addressed by, presumably, Itachi himself. At every word the blonde showed no visible reaction except a nod at appropriate instances.

"I think we should begin."

The pair trained their eyes at him. Itachi nodded and sat down on one of the chairs in the classroom, third row from the front. The blonde walked over to where Iruka was and introduced himself. The chuunin pretended to look into his file and nodded, "If you will Uzumaki-san."

"The genin exams comprise of two items," Iruka explained. "First you must be able to create a perfect henge mirroring me. The next being that you must be able to create two perfect bunshins. Is that clear Uzumaki-san?"

Receiving no response, Iruka signaled for him to begin.

It had been a couple of seconds before the chuunin realized the blonde wasn't responding. "Naruto," the instructor said, getting annoyed. "If you're not going to continue with this exercise, I suggest you tell Uchiha-san to take you home. I will not have my time wasted with these shenanigans."

Iruka sat down at the desk in front of the classroom, and as he was about to write a large, red FAILED on the very center of Naruto's file, the sound of a single person clapping took the chuunin from his reverie. He looked and saw Uchiha Itachi at the door, looking markedly impressed with—

Wait a minute.

Iruka blinked and stared at the other Itachi in the third row. The ANBU poofed and an exact replica of the blonde examinee sat staring at him with the same emotionless expression he wore. "Impressive henge, ne, Iruka-sensei," Itachi remarked. "He's been showing a lot of promise with these things and I had hoped this little presentation would be a good starting point to your test."

"Okay so he may have passed item one but that still leaves bu…exactly what is it that you find so amusing?" Itachi's face contorted to a smirk, his Sharingan spinning. "I think it would be wise for you to get out of your chair, sensei," the ANBU said. "We wouldn't want you hurting the boy."

"What do you--"

The instructor was cut off when the chair he was sitting on morphed into the blonde examinee holding a kunai at his throat and pulling his arm in a half nelson. Impressed by Naruto's stealth, Iruka was surprised yet again when the desk poofed into another replicant, this time subduing his other arm and pressing the edge of another kunai at his throat. "There's the two bunshin you wanted," the boy's tutor said. "But I think the boy may have overdone it a bit."

At Itachi's words, all of the chairs snapped out of their collective henge and transformed into thirty Naruto clones, all with spinning kunai in hand. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin," the ANBU explained, his eyes reverting back to onyx. "His impressive chakra capacities inspired me to teach him that move. A rather impressive tactic, don't you agree?"

A jounin level move by a genin? No, not even a genin. A genin examinee then. Iruka would have picked his jaw from the floor but he realized that the blonde replicants were still subduing him, not to mention the thirty odd bunshins who had yet to disappear from existence. A bead of sweat travelled down his face.

"That's enough Naruto. Disengage."

All the clones exploded in a puff of smoke, leaving just the Naruto holding onto the chuunin's arm. Itachi walked over and took the kunai from his hand, the blonde slowly pulling himself away from the instructor and standing at attention.

Iruka straightened himself up. The boy was capable of so much more than many of the children his age. He looked into the eyes of his tutor. Was that pride he saw in the eyes of the great and glorious Uchiha Itachi? He bent down again and whispered into the boy's ear, the blonde never showing an ounce of a reaction.

"So does he pass?"

"Well…I must admit that this is unorthodox, but he does seem to know his basics."

Basics hell. The kid has a higher proficiency at ninjutsu than most chuunin! Iruka shook his head and handed the pair the paperwork necessary for them to enter Naruto in the chuunin exam. "I believe you'll find Hatake-san in the training field by the bridge," the instructor said. "Be sure and have him turn in this paperwork accomplished, alright?"

"No way."

The two genin were sticking to the high wall of the academy, supported only by the chakra gathered in their palms and in their feet. The exercise was originally designed to expand their chakra capacities, but Sasuke knew that this was an excellent tool for spying.

Sakura glanced at her teammate, surprised to find his face marred in shock. Sasuke was shaking where he perched, his fists clenched in an expression of what seemed like barely restrained anger. The kunoichi turned to look in the window again. Who was this blonde kid that Sasuke was all riled up like that?

"Yo."

The voice of their jounin sensei would have successfully knocked them off the wall, had it not been for the awkwardness of Sauke's reaction to their new teammate. Hatake Kakashi, sticking to the wall by his feet, meandered over to where the pair where adhered to the wall and glanced inside the window.

"Ah I see you've met Uzumaki Naruto," he said, momentarily taking his eyes off the porn he was reading. "Hokage-sama said he'd be our temporary replacement until the end of the chuunin exam, after which a more permanent member of our team can be found."

Sakura nodded, glancing into the window again. "That's Sasuke's niisan, isn't it?" she said, gesturing at the ANBU, not noticing Sasuke flinching at the words. "Who is he to this Uzumaki character?"

"He trained him."

Kakashi noticed the furious expression on Sasuke's face. Deciding not to add more fuel to the fire than was already there, he motioned for the both of them to get off the wall. Sakura hurriedly complied, but Sasuke took another few minutes before he got down. Shooting a look that had pure hatred at the blonde genin, he whispered under his breath.

"Why the hell did it had to be him of all people?"

A/N: Now why in the name of J. Edgar Hoover did Sasuke react like that to Naruto? Hmmm… I smell issues here. But the question being, will I even tell you people what those issues are?

(maniacal laughter)

Boy do I feel sadistic today.