Welcome back to Elemental Nations Online. In this story, Naruto without using his skill points would be equal to cannon Naruto, figured I'd answer that question before people start mentioning how 'OP' he seems in this chapter. I would like to thank everyone for their reviews. Specifically, I would like to thank Gabrielus Prime for the suggestion. I had a pairing planed for Naruto, but it wasn't going to be until far later. Once you realize who she is don't worry, it will not be instantaneous. I will be putting in some thought into developing a friendship before a relationship. Honestly, they may not even start dating in this story, it just depends on how my imagination plays out lol. Anyways, let's start the next chapter of ENO. Link start!

Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto nor Sword Art Online. I'm working on it though lol.

A shocking discovery and a new ally:

"Naruto Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuuga. Fight!" Genma said before performing a Shunshin to get out of the way of the two chunin hopefuls.

Both fighters remained in their places starring impassively at each other. Suddenly Neji smirked, "You should just forfeit now, a failure like you has no hope against a prodigy like myself. You were fated to lose the moment we were matched against-"

"Are you done yet?" Naruto interrupted.

Neji's smirk dropped as a tick mark made its way to his forehead. "You should really learn your place."

Naruto finally took his stance, "Well maybe you should come show me place." Suddenly he smirked, "Or you could get down on your knees like a good little branch member," Naruto added as he made a 'come hither' motion.

Neji's Byakugan flared to life as he blasted towards Naruto with shocking speed. He planned on putting Naruto down with a single palm strike to the heart.

Naruto remained planted as Neji approached. As his opponent threw his opening strike, Naruto calmly swept his wrist off course, sidestepped and planted his boot in the Hyuuga's side. Afterwards he performed a Shunshin and prepared for round two.

In the stands:

As Naruto watched Neji catch his breath, the crowd was left trying to piece together what they just witnessed. One individual decided to make his confusion known, in a very vocal way.

"What the hell was that!" a teenage genin with two red markings, one under each cheek, practically shouted. This genin was Kiba Inuzuka, "When the hell did Naruto get so fast?!"

This was the same question that most of the residents of Konoha were pondering. Only, they were doing so in a much quieter manner.

A few rows back was the duo known as 'The Eternal Gate Guards.' They were also known as Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, two chunin who knew most of the ninja in the village thanks to their nickname.

"That was actually a pretty good strategy," Kotetsu said, after managing to recover his jaw from the floor.

Izumo gave his friend a sceptical look, "There wasn't much strategy to it, just a redirection of an extremely telegraphed shot."

"Yeah, besides Naruto is too much of a baka to come up with a strategy!" came the high pitched tone of a pink haired banshee sitting next to Kiba.

"WOULD YOU STOP SCREECHING EVERY DAMN TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH?! Seriously, how does Sasuke put up with you?" Kiba yelled back while digging at his ears.

"Actually," Kotetsu interjected before Sakura could begin pounding Kiba, "The most important part of the strategy was before Neji even rushed him." Seeing everyone's confusion he decided to explain, "You, the banshee, you're Naruto's teammate correct?" After receiving a glare and a nod as a response he continued, "And have you ever seen him put down a comrade the way he did with his 'branch member' comment?"

Deciding to save what little hearing he still retained Kiba decided to answer first. "You know, he may be a loser and the dead last of our class, but I don't think I've ever seen Naruto retaliate that harshly..." Kiba tailed off trying to think of why Naruto would say something like that.

Instead of using her brain and figuring it out herself, Sakura decided to just ask, "So how is that suppose to be a strategy? All it did was piss Neji off and cause him to quit talking and attack instead."

"Actually Sakura, I think that may have been exactly what Naruto wanted," Kiba said as he finally seemed to see Naruto's thought process. "Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but with Neji so angry he wouldn't be thinking clearly and could make a mistake. Honestly, Naruto probably could've got a few more shots in but instead backed off. Either he didn't want to take the chance of overreaching and get caught up close with a Taijutsu specialist, or..." Kiba paused and looked to the two chunin

Kotetsu smiled and nodded, "Or what? Finish that thought kid."

Kiba smirked, "...Naruto is planning on humiliating Neji."

Sakura scoffed thinking Kiba was just trying to act smart, "Yeah right, that was just a lucky-"

She was cut off as Izumo decided to join the conversation again, "Actually pinky, I think the kid may be on to something here. While anger may cloud a persons mind, it also usually will cause a person to move faster and hit harder than they normally do. Which means your teammate just showed that he's faster than his opponent. Since he backed off like that, I think he may be planning to try proving he's better all around."

Kotetsu nodded, "It's a gamble, but if it pays off it will definitely improve his chances of getting promoted."

Izumo decided to squash any further comments, "Looks like the action is about to continue."

Back on the field:

Sure enough, Neji had just finished recovering from Naruto's kick to the Hyuuga's side. 'Where did that speed come from?'

Genma was pretty impressed also, 'That's was definitely high chunin level speed. Taunting his opponent like that was a pretty good idea too, even if it was a low blow.'

Naruto smirked as he decided to see if he could push Neji a little further, "Well if that's 'my place', then I have no complaints. Pretty sure you got the worst of that short exchange."

Neji grit his teeth before realizing what Naruto was doing. Taking a deep breath to calm himself he locked eyes with the blond. "A mistake that will not be happening again," he said before dashing towards Naruto again.

Naruto just took his stance again waiting for the second confrontation, "We'll see about that..." he tailed off watching his opponent come at him. Just before Neji reached him Naruto smirked, "Round two, fight!"

The crowd watched as Neji threw strike after strike at his opponent. Meanwhile, Naruto was simply dodging every blow. He knew that all of his opponents strikes were laced with chakra and even a light strike could close off his chakra points. Naruto had pulled out two kunai, one in each hand, and was using them you deflect any blow that came too close to hitting. He was using the flat edge of the blades, not wanting to actually cut him but instead just humiliate him a little before he decided to end things with Neji. Seeing an opening Naruto unleashed a devastating uppercut. To the crowd it seemed to connect and lift the Hyuuga prodigy into the air.

Naruto knew better seeing as he never felt the blow connect but played stupid since he was curious to see what Neji would do next. He even let the kick Neji threw connect with the underside of his chin

As soon as Neji landed he watched Naruto spit blood, "Now I'll show you the gap that a failure like you could never hope to close." As soon as his opponent locked eyes with him, Neji continued, "You are within my field of divination. Gentle fist style: 8 Trigrams: 64 palms!" he said as he began striking all of Naruto's chakra points, effectively closing them.

Naruto was lifted off the ground as the last strike hit and thrown a few meters away. He lay motionless as his opponent approached his downed form.

Neji smirked as he looked towards Genma, "Proctor, he won't be getting up anytime soon, call the match."

Genma approached the middle of the field. "You should've ended the match when you had the chance kid," he said towards the downed blond. "The winner is-" he stopped as he heard chuckling and saw Naruto getting to his feet.

Once Naruto was standing he threw a small capsule at Neji who snatched it out of the air. "What is this?" the Hyuuga questioned. 'I can't believe he's back on his feet.' Speaking of feet, Neji's were suddenly grabbed by a pair of hands as the blond in front of him grinned before replying with a single word, "Blood." Afterwards 'Naruto' poofed into smoke signaling it to be a Shadow Clone.

Suddenly the ground exploded with blond haired genin that all converged on the seemingly trapped Hyuuga.

Just ass the crowd lost view of Neji they heard a sharp cry of "Kaiten" and saw a large spinning blue orb with shuriken flying out of it and striking the clones not destroyed by the technique. As the orb died down they saw Neji standing in the middle with a few scuff marks and a busted lip, but no Naruto.

That changed as Naruto quickly burst from the ground and slammed a fist in Neji's gut before elbowing him in the back of the head knocking the Hyuuga out cold.

Genma, who was surprised by the tactic, still had a smile on his face as he rose Naruto's arm, "Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!"

The crowd was silent, stunned at how the fight ended. After a moment that changed as the entire stadium erupted in cheers.

Genma released Naruto's arm before looking at the smiling blond, "Two questions kid. When did you make the switch and how did that clone not get destroyed earlier?"

"Well," Naruto began, happy that even the proctor missed it. "I made the switch right after our very first exchange. The reason no one saw it is because I made it underground using Earth Style: Hiding like a mole. Then I used a sealess, smokeless replacement with it. As far as how I made a Shadow Clone survive his 64 palm technique, I stayed under its feet and fed it a constant source of chakra until I lured him into a false sense of security."

The entire crowd had heard thanks to Genma using a jutsu to amplify their voices and were shocked at the level of thought that went into his plan, it was ingenious.

Kage Box:

As Naruto was walking off the field, Orichimaru disguised as the Kazekage looked over to the Hokage, "That is a very interesting boy you have there Hokage-dono."'When did the Kyuubi boy become so powerful?'

"I must say that I agree Kazekage-dono, Naruto-kun has always been full of surprises. I can't wait to see what other new tricks he has up his sleeves." Hiruzen smiled warmly as he watched Naruto approach the exit to make his way to the competitors seats. The old man may have been a program but most NPCs in safe zones were smart A.I. so they could form bonds.

Back with Naruto:

As Naruto entered the competitors box he noticed Kirito speaking with a girl with short hair, two bangs framing her face and a clip on each side to keep her hair from getting in her vision. It gradually got shorter until it was layered in spikes in the back. Her eyes matched her hair which was what initially caught his attention due to its color. 'Haven't seen blue hair before," he thought.

His eyes scanning down, he noticed that she was dressed differently from any NPC he had seen so far. She had a black choker around her neck with a metal ring on it. She had on a dark-green, sleeveless, hodded jacket that was form fitting and only came down just below her ribs. She also had a black short sleeved shirt underneath that came just above her belly button.

Naruto blushed as he realized that it was also left slightly unzipped from the top showing a small amount of cleavage. 'Ugh! One month around Jiraiya and he's already rubbing off on me!' Moving on, Naruto saw that she was wearing shorts that came to just barely above her knees with her equipment pouch on the back of the waist band. She had boots that came halfway up her shin and black knee high socks underneath. Her shorts and boots were the same green as her jacket.

When he looked up, he noticed that she seemed to be studying him also just before they locked eyes and both suddenly had a very light tint of pink in their cheeks before looking away from one another. 'I didn't even know an NPC could blush,' Naruto thought as he got his hormones under control.

"Yo, earth to Naruto. This is ground control, come in Naruto."

The blond looked up to see Kirito standing in front of him with a half serious but still somehow amused look on his face. "Sorry, you say something Kirito, I was kinda spaced out there." he said, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

His friend simply shook his head in response. "Okay, well I don't have much time since Sasuke hasn't shown up yet, so they pushed his match to last to give him more time," Kirito said before sighing and holding a hand up to cut off the blonds inevitable rant about his teammate receiving special treatment. "Relax, they did decide that since he couldn't be bothered to show up on time, that he would not be eligible for promotion."

Naruto 'tsked', "Well at least that's fair."

Kirito grinned at Naruto's antics, "Exactly, anyway, that means my match is up now." Suddenly, his face became serious, "By the way, that girl over there," he said pointing his thumb towards the blue haired girl behind him, "you need to go speak with her." Kirito began walking towards the stairs to head down for his match.

"Why?" Naruto asked, curious why his friend would want him too speak with the mystery girl.

Kirito answered over his shoulder, without breaking stride, "Because, she's not an NPC. She's a player like us and she's going to be our third teammate after these exams." He then disappeared down the stairs before Naruto could question him on it any further.

To say that Naruto was shocked, would be like saying that he only kind of liked ramen. He was floored by this information. He looked towards the girl in question and noticed she had approached him while he was watching his friend walk away. "Um..." he began awkwardly, "hi, I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said, offering his hand to the girl.

She looked at the outstretched hand before her for a moment, before reaching out and taking it in her own slightly smaller hand and giving him a smile that made his knees a little weak. "I'm Sinon, nice to meet you Naruto. So, Kirito and I didn't get much time to talk after he realized I wasn't an NPC, he said you could fill me in on the situation with you two."

Naruto sighed, "Well take a seat then, by the time I finish it'll probably be about time for your fight. I suggest paying attention to Kiritos's fight also if you can, he'll most likely be your next opponent as long as you win your fight."

Thirty minutes later:

"So let me get this straight," Sinon began after Naruto had finished his story, telling her a brief nicer version of his story since being staying the game. "You were in an accident while beta testing ENO on a private server in the back seat of your parents car and entered a coma, trapping your mind here until you recover but you also have amnesia?" When Naruto nodded she continued, "And Kirito, who is your best friend in real life connected to your game to protect you from dying because there's a chance you'd never recover of you did die?"

Naruto simply nodded again, "Yeah that's all I know right now. Kirito hasn't told me anything about myself hoping that something in the game will trigger my memory and hopefully help me wake up."

Sinon gave him a sad smile, 'He's so strong, I'd be a wreak if I was him.'"I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you're holding up so well." She then stood up from the wall the two players had been sitting against and offered her hand to the blond to help him to his feet. "I've decided," she said, pulling the boy up after he accepted her hand, "since you're the only other players here and I would feel guilty if anything happened to you two, I'm gonna switch villages and team up with you guys after these exams. It'll be no big deal since all my stats will transfer. I'll lose my jinchuriki status since you already have that role and there's only one in this village, but that just means I can focus on my other skills, plus I should get a refund on the points I've invested in my jinchuriki skill line."

Naruto looked at the girl in shock before his eyes started watering and he threw his arms around the girl muttering 'thank you' over and over while she rubbed his back. 'Maybe he's not holding up quite as well as it seemed, but still considering his circumstances, he could be a lot worse.' Sinon thought, not even realizing that she had seemingly forgotten about her mild fear of men.

"Winner of the third match by forfeit, Kirito Uchia!" the two suddenly heard.

Glancing down to the arena Sinon realized she had missed most of the fight. She then gave Naruto a playful glare, "Now you've made me miss his fight and I won't know what he's capable of."

Naruto had the decency to look apologetic. "I'm sorry, I'm sure if I ask him and explain that I distracted you he'll ignore your fight so he won't have any advantage over you." he said, rubbing the back of his head and giving her a foxy grin.

Sinon suddenly brightened up, "That's fair enough I guess."

Naruto nodded, "Well you better get down there since your up next." The girl smiled and nodded, turning towards the stairs and walking off. "Good luck Sinon," he called after her. She simply responded with a wave over her head and a nod to Kirito as she passed the dark haired boy.

'Huh, so he's a sword user? He must have left them unequipped until he was on the field, smart thinkingshe thought after seeing the crossed swords on his back.

Kirito approached his grinning friend and waved a hand in front of his face, "Wow Naruto, you just met her and you're already head over heels?"

The blond player glared at his friend for a second before turning away, "I am not! She's simply a nice person and I appreciate her assistance!"'Although she is pretty, and she's so nice' He thought with a small blush.

Kirito noticed the blush but decided he'd tease his friend more later. He placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "So? She gonna join us?" Receiving a nod in response as they both watched their new ally walk onto the field, they both leaned against the wall, "Well let's see what she's capable of and we can start thinking of team dynamics."

"Good idea, but I kinda distracted her from your fight and said I'd ask you to ignore hers so you wouldn't have an unfair advantage of she wins. If Shika wins I'll tell you all about him." Naruto explained rubbing his head.

"Damn it, I guess that's fair. If I beat her, I don't want it to be because had an advantage." Kirito said as he turned and faced the wall before accessing his menu.

In the arena:

Sinon watched as he opponent lazily approached the center of the field muttering something under his breath. The only thing the girl caught was 'troublesome'.

The proctor eyed both genin, "Are both fighters ready?" After receiving a nod from both sides he raised his arm above his head, "Then let the fourth match of the chunin exams begin. Sinon vs Shikamaru Nara," he said before quickly slashing his hand downwards, "Fight!"

Sinon pulled out a kunai in each hand and was about to rush the boy before she saw him make a handsign and his shadow came racing towards her. She reacted quickly jumping to the side and throwing both kunai towards her opponent. The moment he reacted to dodge, his shadow retreated. 'Glad to know he has to remain stationary to use that ability,' she thought as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a few smoke bombs and throwing them at her feet to buy some time.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes before throwing a kunai straight through the smoke as he put a little distance between himself and the girl. Suddenly, multiple shuriken came out of the smoke towards the lazy genius. He blocked most with a kunai as a few went slightly wide. Fortunately for him, he noticed the wires attached to them almost immediately and hit the ground turning his head to the side and watching as the projectiles passed through the area his body had been occupying a moment prior.

As the smoke cleared it revealed that Sinon had also layed down, likely to avoid any projectiles she figured would be thrown. She grumbled as she got up, "Pretty perceptive of you to notice those wires."

Shikamaru smirked, "Well I doubt I'd have made it this far if I wasn't. Troublesome exams."

Sinon nodded, "True," she said before giving a devious smile. "Too bad you didn't notice the back up plan." The boys eyes went wide as another smoke bomb went off right in front of him. The diversion gave Sinon the chance to stent closing the distance with the boy while she threw four kunai in front of her hoping to catch him with one. She heard metal on metal directly in front of her as she entered the smoke and came out the other side to see him with his hands in his seal again and his shadow approaching her. She leapt high over him and twisted in mid air so she'd be facing him as she landed.

The boy had to duck under a quick swipe of her long nails but couldn't react fast enough to dodge the follow up for that launched him away. He did however smirk as he activated an explosive tag he had laid on his location incase she had passed his technique.

Sinon's eyes went wide as she heard the sizzling of the tag and had to pull a quick replacement to escape any serious damage. When she reappeared even further away she had a few singe marks on her outfit and smoke coming off her. She quickly noticed two things. First, the Nara's shadow was directly in front of her and she had no time to dodge. Fortunately, the second thing she noticed was his shadow stop inches from her own. 'That was far too close! But at least know I know the limit to how far he can reach.'

The fight quickly became a battle of wits and reflexes with neither fighter being able to gain an advantage until Shikamaru tried his using his shadow again.

Sinon quickly jumped back to what she thought to be a safe distance, "I've already figured out your limit, you won't catch me-" she was interrupted as his shadow did indeed catch her. "Wha...but...how?"

Shikamaru simply sighed and shook his head as he pulled out a kunai groom the pouch on his leg with her mimicking his motion, only her pouch was on her backback, meaning she was empty handed. "It's a shadow, it's gonna get longer as it gets later in the day. Now, seeing as I've got you trapped and I could easily cripple you, how about you give up so I don't have to hurt you?" he asked as he reared back and took aim.

Sinon smirked and shook her head as she began channeling a tiny bit of her bijuu chakra, "I can't do that if I'm gonna win this exam now can I? I do find it cute however that you think you have me," she said with a laugh.

Shikamaru frowned, "Well at least I tried," he said as he let the projectile fly towards the girl. When it reached her however, he was stunned to feel his connection break as she simply caught the kunai with her finger through the ring without budging. "Well that's it for me, I forfeit," he said stunning both his opponent and the crowd. "I'm almost out of chakra and besides, that's my best move. With how easily you broke out, I'm clearly out classed." He then turned and began waking towards the exit.

The proctor finally seemed to get his bearings, "Well... that was an anticlimactic finish." He sighed, then let out a small chuckle, "should've expected that from a Nara though," he said under his breath before addressing the crowd. "Winner of the fourth match, Sinon!"

The crowd cheered, despite the ending it was still a good fight. As she was making her way off the field she heard the sign of someone using a Shunshin behind her. She glanced back to see who she assumed to be the final fighter along with what appeared to be his sensei near the proctor. 'Bout damn time he showed up.'

A few minutes later with the boys:

Naruto and Kirito were watching as Sasuke's fight began. He was fighting a boy named Gaara, who Naruto had informed his friend controlled sand to fight. So far it was seeming like a pretty close, fast-paced fight. They were distracted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

The boys turned to see Naruto's sensei, Kakashi Hatake. "I see you can't even be bothered to have your student on time for something important like this Kakashi," Naruto said.

The copy nin froze at noticing his student had dropped the title, "Don't you mean 'Kakashi-sensei' Naruto?"

Naruto glared at the silver haired jonin, "Maybe if you had taught me anything other than tree walking and teamwork exercises with a team that will never cooperate with me? No, over the past month I've seen what a true sensei is like."

Kakashi eyed Naruto for a moment, before sighing and walking away to find his other genin.

Naruto merely glanced back at the fight to see that Gaara had encased himself in a dome of sand and Sasuke was standing on the wall with lightning coming from his hand, "Figures that he'd teach the 'Golden Boy' his signature technique."

Kirito let out a laugh beside him, "Well look on the bright side, thanks to having to activate my Sharingan to watch this fight accurately, I now know the hand seals for it."

Before the blond could respond they heard a voice from behind them, "Sharingan huh?" They turned to see Sinon leaning against the wall behind them. "That's good info to have if you're me," she said smugly.

Kiritos's 'tsked', "That's just great, I know nothing about you. Yet you now have info on me. I should learn to keep my mouth shut."

Naruto grinned beside him before giving him a slight elbow to the ribs, "Yeah, you really should." He then let out a laugh seeing his friend crouched in a corner with dark clouds over his head. The blond focused on his new friend again, "Well one things for certain, I now know that it'll be a good fight no matter which of you makes it to the finals."

The lone female of the group gained a small blush at the compliment and smiled, "Thanks Naruto, I look forward to meeting you in the finals after I deal with the baby over there." She motioned towards the skulking form of Kirito at the insult.

Before the black haired boy could yell at the duo for Sinon making fun of him and Naruto laughing, he was interrupted by a loud scream. As all three looked towards the fight again they saw a sand arm shoot out of the dome. Shortly after they noticed feathers falling from the sky.

"Genjutsu," Kirito said as he and his friends dispelled it immediately and noticed an explosion come from the Kage box just as dozens of sound and sand nin stormed the exam stadium. Kirito had to grab Naruto by the arm before the blond could take off towards his village leader. "Naruto, Gaara was taken by two sand nin from the stadium and Sasuke took off after them alone. We need to back him up and then focus on clearing the mobs that are probably in the village right now."

Naruto took a deep breath and got himself under control, "Yeah you're right, Hokage-Jiji can take care of himself much better than Sasuke-teme." Both boys took off in the direction the Uchia had left in.

"Is this seriously an invasion?" Sinon asked the obvious from behind them.

Both boys were socked for a moment, Kirito regained his composure just before Naruto. "Obviously, if you want to join us great. Just be aware that Naruto has the worst luck when it comes to opponents so this is probably going to be extremely dangerous." He wanted to make sure the girl knew what she was getting into.

Sinon just rolled her eyes, "That's exactly why I'm coming, who else is going to look out for you two?"

The boys shared a quick look before grinning. "I feel safer already," Naruto told her holding his fist out for a bump, "glad you have you watching my back."

The lone female bumped the offered fist with her own before giving a small, "Pleasures all mine," she said. "Now lets chase us down a fellow jinchuriki."

Later in the forest:

After chasing down their target and handling the distractions caused by the two sand nin trying to stall the group of players, they finally caught up to see Sasuke and Sakura being tossed around by what looked like a human sized raccoon made of sand.

Landing on the branch beside his previous teammates, Naruto cast them a quick glance. "We'll take it from here, go help with the evacuation of the civilians," the blond tried telling them, hoping they would listen.

He realized a moment later that it was a waste of his breath. "Yeah right loser, as if you could handle him," Sasuke said, glaring daggers at the blond.

Defending the arrogant Uchia, Sakura threw a punch at Naruto to shut him up. "Yeah, if Sasuke-kun had trouble what makes you think a dead last like you can do better?!" she screeched.

When her punch connected, 'Naruto' burst into smoke revealing the blond in front of them to be simply a clone. Suddenly, both were knocked unconscious from behind.

As they fell to the branch they were caught by two more blonds. "Figured that's how that would go, don't know why I bothered trying."

Afterwards the blond focused on the rampaging jinchuriki and began working with his friends to try and neutralize him before he could get away and do serious damage. After a few minutes of fighting and seemingly making very little progress, besides Naruto managing to shove a kunai in the sand raccoons rear end, the sand nin fully released his inner demon and towered over the trio.

Sinon grimaced as she realised how dangerous the situation had become, "Great, and just how the hell are we suppose to beat that freaking thing?!"

Naruto just gave her a grin, "I'll show you how lil lady." Ignoring the expletives thrown at him, he bit his thumb and flew through hand seals, focusing a massive amount of chakra and slamming his hand down as his two friends landed beside his and he shouted "Summoning Jutsu!"

Suddenly, there was a massive burst of smoke and when it cleared Sinon saw that they were now eye level with the towering beast. She looked down and saw that they were on a giant toads head! 'Seriously, not only is he a jinchuriki, but he also has a summoning contact?!'

The chief toad took one look at the bijuu across from him and grit his teeth, "Seriously gaki? You're summoning me to fight Shukaku?!"

Naruto started sweating slightly, "I'm really sorry Bunta, but I just need a few minutes to discuss my plan with my friends and then we'll be finished. Five minutes of your time boss, please." The giant toad grumbled an agreement before leaping into battle. Turning to address his friends Naruto began laying out a plan, making sure to include his summon so he would know his part. Bunta even informed the blond how waking Gaara should force Shukaku back in the young jinchuriki.

Finally prepared they all readied their assault. "Alright chief, you know what to do, bring the oil and Neko will bring the fire," Naruto said as he and Kirito prepared to do their parts.

'Neko eh? I kinda like it,' Sinon thought as she prepared to launch her strongest fire release. At the same time as the summon shot a 'Toad oil bullet' she called out, "Fire style: Twin Dragons"

As the two techniques merged, the boys called in unison, "Wind style: Great Breakthrough!"

The roaring flames instantly tripled in size just before colliding with the sand bijuu from the shoulders down. They didn't want to kill Gaara, even if he had tried to unleash Shukaku on the village.

"GAH!! WHEN I GET OUT OF THIS I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL!" Shukaku roared. When the group saw him again his body was covered in glass from the shoulders down.

Just as the glass was beginning to break, Shukaku heard a voice from above, "Well I guess it's a good thing that you won't be getting out today!"

The bijuu looked up just in time to see a blond haired missile collide with it. More specifically, he collided with the sleeping jinchuriki located on its forehead. "No I just got out!" it screamed as the glass finished breaking and the sand began falling to the ground.

Acting quickly, Bunta caught both his summoner and the dazed and beaten Ichibi container on his tongue. Naruto quickly knocked his fellow jinchuriki out, tied him up and jumped back to his summons head to see only Sinon and the other two sand nin who they had captured earlier.

"Where's-" and the Kirito appeared with the unconscious forms of Sasuke and Sakura. "Never mind," he said with a grin. "Bunta, if you could get us back to the village so we can help fight off the invasion that's all I'll ask of you today."

"You got it gaki," the summon said before leaping towards the hidden leaf village. Once inside the village Bunta got ready to leave, "You did good today, you definitely impressed me...Naruto."Before the blond could respond, the giant toad disappeared in a poof of smoke. After handing over the three prisoners and then handing his former teammates over to a genin squad that was retreating to the bunkers, before he and his two new teammates could rush to defend the village, a hand landed on his shoulder.

Turning around, Naruto saw the proctor of the first part of the exams with the proctor of the second part beside him. "You three should head for the bunkers also. It's not safe out here for genin like yourself."

All three players shared a glance before laughing and turning back towards the man. "Excuse me scarface, but did you just finish destroying a freaking bijuu?" he asked the man with a knowing smirk.

When the man shook his head, Kirito was the one to respond, "Then you just let us do our job of repelling these invaders." The interrogator breathed a heavy sigh but nodded his head.

All three turned towards the village, Naruto glanced towards his right to see Kirito smiling and cracking his knuckles. "You ready?" he asked knowing the answer he'd receive. He wasn't let down, as the other boy simply gave him a look and proceeded to pull his twin swords from his back. Naruto then glanced to his left to find his newest ally absentely spinning a kunai by the ring. "You gonna continue fighting by our side Sinon?"

The girl glanced at him and gave a smile that was too innocent to be believed given their surroundings. "Do you really need to ask knucklehead?"

Naruto laughed and shook his head. "Well then," he began as he looked back at the burning village, "let's go wild guys!" He gave a huge grin as they all three leapt off the building to defend the village and gain some experience in the process.

And that's a wrap on the chunin exams guys. So far I'm leaving most things the same with just a few changes. Fear not though, things will start changing lil by lil. Next chapter will be a quick breeze through the aftermath of the invasion, Sinon's transfer to Konoha, and we'll at the very least begin the Tsunade retrieval arc, if not finishing it. Leave me reviews people, what did you like if anything stuck out? What do you think needs work? Chances are, if you didn't like something, you're probably not the only person. As far as Kirito's and Sinon's fights go, I realize that they were kind of lacking, 'kind of' being the biggest possible understatement in Kirito's case. This is because I mainly wanted to focus on the difference with Naruto in this chapter. They will both get their spotlights very soon, so please be patient. Well that's all for this week folks, Taz is signing out.