Sorry about the long wait, everyone. First part of the week was spent doing projects around the house, and i'm finishing it up with a bad cold. Just shoot me. But as a reward for waiting, I present my longest chapter yet. In this one we find out who the old friend Naruto said he remembered was, and the one and only Rock Lee comes joins the fun.


If there was ever a moment where Naruto was happy to have the ability to see a persons aura, it was as he walked in to the building where the first phase of the chunnin exam was being held. Everyone's was a different color, of course. Sakura's pink, Sauske's dark blue, his own bright orange, which made it pretty easy to see through transformation jutsus when he knew a person well enough. Didn't work with shape shifting, however, but only Naruto and the foxes could use that. The big perk, however, was how a persons aura could tell a lot about said person.

A darker aura meant that a person was more cruel and heartless than normal. A bright one, Hinata's being a shining example save that hers looked like it had stars floating in it, showed how kind and loving a person was. Big ones showed willpower, while smaller ones timidness. The pattern around the aura ,however, showed a little of what that person was feeling. A spiked, jagged aura always meant anger or hatred; which was an easy one to remember as that always made the person look like knives were coming out of them. While a flowing, smooth one meant happiness, joy and serenity. Murderous intent was extremely easy to pick out as well, thankfully, as that made skulls appear to fade in and out of a persons aura. The combination of all those let you know how a person was feeling. Naruto remembered how the fox who taught him how to use it, a happy grey fox who he could never seem to make angry, had pounded it into his head to watch for a person with a large, dark, flowing aura with skulls in it, as this was the sure sign of evil in a person.

Nervousness and anxiety, however, made a persons aura look like it couldn't decide what shape it wanted to be. It would flicker and warp, twist and turn, shrink and grow in twenty different ways every minute. If it was doing all this while shrinking in on itself, then that meant the person felt fear. Hinata's went into that a lot yesterday while he was hanging out with her, but it always seemed to go back to flowing throughout the day for some reason. However, that was what damn near everyone's aura looked like in the building that day, and it made Naruto feel even more confident about the test that day than he already had. Unfortunately, one of those ninja with a nervous aura happened to be Sakura. He wanted to help her, but it made sense to keep everyone thinking he was still an idiot, so he just had to hope she could find her confidence again on her own.

As team seven walked down the hall to the testing area, a huge crowd around a door drew their attention. Standing in front of a door were two ninja who looked to be around the same age as Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, knocking down anyone who tried to get through the door. One was light skinned wearing a blue cap with the leaf symbol, and the other was tanned with three bandages on his face, spiky dark hair and two swords strapped to his back. They had just knocked a gennin in a green jumpsuit to the ground gloating over him.

"You wanna be a chunnin and you can't even get by us?" Said the ninja with the swords, smirking at the ninja he just knocked down.

The capped ninja laughed with his friend. "Yeah, why don't you just give up? I think I hear you're momma calling ya."

Naruto looked on stunned that all of these chunnin hopefuls had missed a big sign: the door was numbered 301 when they were on the second floor. He knew this because team seven had walked up the stairs to get to the second floor. How did no one remember going up two floors worth of stairs? It must have been some kind of illusion that works on the weak minded. He guessed that this was a way to weed out the people who were not ready for chunnin at all. A girl with dark brown hair done up into buns and a Chinese style shirt tried to get through the door next.

"Please, let us through, we're supposed to go in there!" She made an attempted to get passed the two, but was met with a swift punch to her face that sent her to the ground by the other green gennin.

"You all might think we're being cruel, but we're doing you a favor. This is nothing compared to what will happen to you in the chunnin exams." The ninja in the cap said, pulling his fist back to his side from punching the girl.

The sword ninja nodded. "That's right. These exams will test you in ways you can't imagine. Some of you will be messed up for life from it and some may even die. You're all not ready for it. Go run back home to your dolls."

At this point Sasuke spoke up, stepping up to challenge the two ninja. "Nice speech, now would you get outta the way. We need to get to the third floor. While you're at it, release that genjutsu you've got." Behind him, the other gennin were wondering what he was talking about. They were on the third floor, weren't they? He turned to look at Sakura. "Sakura, you picked out the genjutsu when we first walked up right? You were top in the class, after all?"

Sakura had to stop and think for a second before she realized what he was talking about. "Oh, yeah, of course." She stood a little taller and Naruto noticed her aura smooth out slightly. "I spotted it right away; this is only the second floor."

Naruto put his hands behind his heads. "Caught ya! Ha Ha!"

As the illusion faded to show the real number of the room, Naruto saw the sword wearing ninja's aura suddenly become jagged, angry at having been caught so soon. "Well aren't we the smart ones. Try this then!"

The two ninja went to throw kicks at each other, intent on putting each other in the hospital, when a sudden green blur appeared between them and two bandaged hands stopped both kicks dead in the air.

Sakura looked on shocked. "Where'd that come from?" She thought to herself. "I though he was some wuss getting knocked around so easily, but he's as fast as Sasuke."

As Sasuke and the sword wearing ninja stepped back, the kunochi with the buns in her hair and a ninja with long brown hair tied at the end, his right arm and leg banged wearing, what looked like to Naruto, a straight jacket with short sleeves. By his all white eyes Naruto immediately knew he was from the Hyuuga clan. But where Hinata was kind and calming, this guy's aura told Naruto he was cold and calculating.

"Amazing that those two are related somehow." Though Naruto as the two ninja yelled at the green clad ninja, who they called Lee, for blowing their cover like that. Apparently Naruto wasn't the only one hiding what he could do from everyone. Interesting.

After being told off by his teammates, Lee walked right over to Sakura. "You are Sakura, right?"

"Huh?"

Lee smiled and held up a thumb. "Please, be my girlfriend. I promise to always protect you."

Sakura was shocked dumb. "Um, no way!" His shoulders slumped and his smile left his face. "Why not?" He said with a wine

She didn't even flinch. "Because you're a weirdo."

Naruto chuckled at that and walked over next to Lee, who had leaned himself against a nearby wall, ignoring whatever conversation Sasuke was having with Lee's other teammates. "That was rough, but you get props from me for being brave enough to ask straight up like that, man."

Lee was still hurt from the rejection, but felt better from Naruto's words. "Thank you. But, rest assured, I will not give up. I will just have to try harder to win the beautiful Sakuras Heart!"

Naruto chuckled to himself. Another ninja without the ability to give up on what he wanted; he was really starting to like this guy. "Now that is what I like to hear." Naruto held out a hand for Lee to shake. "Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet a fellow hard head."

Lee smiled and took the offered hand. "Rock lee. Pleasures all mine, Naruto."

Naruto leaned his back against the wall. "Don't let it get you down, Lee. I'm sure she'll come around once she realizes what a prick Sasuke is." He didn't know why, but he felt he could trust Lee, so Naruto let a little of his real self shine through in their talk.

"You don't like your teammate?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'd like him just fine if he climbed down off his high horse and got that pole outta his ass."

"You are preaching to the choir, my friend. My teammate, Neji, also see's himself above us all."

Naruto poked a thumb over at the ninja with the long hair. "Dude with the floor sweeper hair in the jacked up straight jacket?"

Lee had to cover his mouth to keep his laugh quiet. He then stood back up, smiling brightly. "That is him, yes. Neji Hyuuga."

Naruto smiled. "Well, then, let's hope this exam gives us a chance to drag them both down to the ground with us hard heads."

Lee gave a smile. "Agreed"

"Naruto! We don't want to be late, let's get going." Sakura called her and Sasuke making their way for the door.

"Got ya." Naruto pushed of the wall, holding out a fist for Lee. "Let's go show these pricks how real ninja do things."

Lee pumped his fist into Naruto's. "Yes! We'll show them the strength of our youth!"

Naruto didn't know what that meant, but he just waved back behind him as he caught up with his team. Unbeknownst to all the gennin, however, was that the two ninja blocking the door from before had taken off, watching everything from behind a door.

"So these are the candidates for chunnin this year, huh?" Said the ninja in the cap

"Looks like a smart bunch this year." The ninja with the sword remarked, as they both released they're transformation jutsu, changing back into full grown men with standard ninja uniforms.

"This years gonna be a fun one, it looks like." The ninja in the cap said, both walking away from the door.

As team seven made their way through a small, wood floored room, on their way to the real exam area all were having thoughts about the exam. Naruto was a little bit worried that he showed a little of himself to Lee, but it wasn't that much and everyone was watching Sasuke and Neji instead of them, so it was alright. Sasuke, on the other hand, was thinking on all the ninja he had met so far. Neji, Lee, that sand ninja Garaa, and one thought went through his head: The chunnin exam was turning out to be a freak show. Sakura, herself, was still trying to shake off the weird proposal from Lee back there. Did he really think she would fall for a weirdo like him? Then, suddenly, all of their thoughts were broken by a lone voice.

"Hold it!"

All of team seven looked up to see Rock lee standing on the balcony above them, before he jumped to the floor, landing softly and looking up at Sasuke. "I want to fight here and now."

Sasuke looked on in amusement at his challenger. "Here and now, huh."

Lee nodded. "Everyone's always talking about how great the uchiha are and I want to see it for myself." Lee took up a fighting stance. "Also, I wish to take you off your high horse." He turned to look at Sakura, a blush coming over his face. "Oh, Sakura. I love you."

That was when Naruto started laughing. "Oh, my god! This is too good! You get me to stop hitting on you relentlessly, and then another guy starts! Oh, that's rich!"

After another bout of laughing from Naruto, Sakura had enough. "Shut up, Naruto! And my answer is still no, you weirdo! Your eyebrows look like caterpillars fell asleep on your head and your hairstyles horrible, too. You are such a weirdo!" She gave a shiver as she thought about it.

Sasuke moved right on with the issue. "You know about my clan, yet you still wanna fight me? You're even dumber than you look, if that's possible." His eyes narrowed as he locked eyes on his challenger. "But I'll be glad to show you why the uchiha should never be challenged."

Sakura turned to look at Naruto. "Aren't you gonna say something? Sasukes gonna crush that weirdo if they fight!"

He sighed and looked to Sasuke. "You sure you wanna fight, Sasuke? You could just walk away, you know? You just might not want to fight this guy, anyways. You don't know what he can do, you know?" Naruto tried to warn Sasuke, because Naruto saw something that let him know Sasuke didn't want this fight. Lee's aura was a blazing green and was covering an area about five feet around him, calm and still, not one flicker of doubt or nervousness to be found. He knew he could win this fight and he wasn't scared of Sasuke at all, which always meant trouble in Naruto's book.

Sasuke smirked. "What's wrong, Naruto? Lose your courage now that those freak women aren't here to back you up."

Naruto's eyes narrowed with anger; nobody. Insults. His big sisters. He didn't care what happened anymore, Lee could use his face to make new door in the wall for all he cared. "That's all I needed to hear." Naruto walked back to a pillar, sitting down with his back to it. "Proceed."

"Naruto!" Yelled Sakura "You're really gonna just sit there!"

He shrugged. "All I can do, Sakura. I don't have any popcorn on me, after all."

Sakura groaned and turned to Sasuke. "Sasuke, we have to register by three. We don't have that much time. Less than a half hour even."

"Relax, Sakura, this will be over in five seconds." boasted Sasuke, taking off after Lee.

The second Sasuke got close enough to attack; however, Lee vanished and reappeared to launch a kick at Sasuke's head. When that missed, he used his momentum to spin on his hands for another kick. Sasuke tried to block, but Lee broke right through his guard and landed a fierce kick to Sasuke's cheek, sending the uchiha soaring through the air to crash to the ground.

Naruto clapped. "Nice! Do it again!"

Sasuke ignored him and stood back up. "He's using some kind of jutsu to get by me, but is it genjutsu or ninjutsu? Well, one way to find out." Sasuke brushed himself off. "Been meaning to test this out." With a bit of chakra, he activated his family's trademark: The Sharingan eyes.

Sakura saw his eyes and turned to Naruto with a smirk. "See, Naruto, you can't keep Sasuke down. He just gets more and more amazing by the day!" Sasuke took off at Lee, ready to take him down. "Now he'll see through whatever jutsu this weirdo's using and blow him away. He'd never lose to a guy like that. Never!"

The second the word never left her lips, Lee had landed another kick to Sasukes jaw and sent him into the air again.

"Huh, guess his eyes are defective then, cause that looks a lot like losing to me." Said Naruto, as Lee moved in to attack.

What followed was a stunningly one sided fight. No matter what Sasuke did, Lee had an answer for it. If Sasuke tried to block, then Lee would break it. If Sasuke tried to attack, then Lee would counter. If Sasuke tried to run, then Lee turned out to be faster. Nothing Sasuke did could even touch Lee.

As Sasuke stood on the floor panting, Lee decided to explain something to him. "Do you see it yet, Sasuke? I'm am not using ninjutsu or genjutsu in this fight. It is all just taijutsu. You can't do anything about it, because you are too slow." Lee vanished and reappeared behind Sasuke. "What good is copying jutsu if your opponent can just beat you without them?"

Sasuke growled, and turned to strike. "Shut up!"

Lee dodged again, knocking Sasuke up into the air and appearing behind him, the bandages on his arms unraveling. "This will be the proof that hard work beats natural talent."

Lee went to use his trademark technique, but a small windmill came from nowhere to pin one of his bandages to the wall. Lee recognized it immediately, and turned to see a large red tortoise down on the ground staring up at him.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Lee!" Bellowed the tortoise. "You know you are only supposed to use that technique in dire conditions!"

Lee jumped down to bow in front of the tortoise, while Sakura ran to catch Sasuke as he fell from the air. Naruto kept his position at the stone pillar, hoping that this would help humble Sasuke slightly.

Lee bowed his head to the turtle. "I am sorry."

Naruto stood and walked over to where Sakura held a fuming mad Sasuke. "You okay, Sasuke? Looked a little like the 'great Uchiha' just go an ass whoopin, to me."

Sasuke growled. "I'm fine!"

Naruto held up his hands. "First those 'freak women' flat out told you no and chucked you to the ground, now a so called weirdo beats your ass. You have got a serious underestimating problem."

Sasukes angry retort was cut short but a loud pop and a burst of white smoke. There on top of the turtle, striking the weirdest pose any of team seven had ever seen was what could only be described as a giant Lee in a Jonnin vest. It was so strange! The same green jumpsuit, same bowl haircut, same leg warmers, and a pair of eye brows that may have been even bushier than Lee's!

Naruto rubbed his head in confusion. "Um, wow, there are two of them. Oookay."

Sakura looked in shock, as well. "It's like they're multiplying."

On top of the turtle, the giant Lee spoke to the little one. "Lee, I'm shocked at you. You know the circumstances for the use of that jutsu!"

"I am sorry, Guy-sensei! I have embarrassed you as your student!"

Guy brought back a fist. "Yes and here's your punishment." He brought his fist full out to knock Lee across the room to the shock of team seven. "You idiot!" After Lee picked himself up, Guy kneeled by his student. "Now let's forget about all of this, my student, and charge on to win the chunnin exams!"

Lee began to cry and hugged his sensei. "Guy-sensei!"

Guy hugged him back. "Lee!"

"…..They're insane." Sakura deadpanned a blank expression on her face.

Naruto nodded. "Looks that way"

Guy looked up from Lee, noticing team seven standing there. "So, your Kakashi's new squad, huh?"

Sakura started to sweat. "Crap, he spotted us!"

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Guy was behind them. Naruto looked quickly from Lee to Guy, seeing the distance that he traveled. "Holy crap! This guy is even faster than Rika! Damn, I gotta train harder!" Naruto thought to himself, vowing to up his speed training when exam was over.

Guy spoke with a smile on his face. "So, how is my old rival anyway? Don't tell me he's mad over me beating him?"

"Say what now?" Naruto said, still dizzy from the Jonnins speed.

"My record is one better than his, which makes me slightly better than him." Guy smiled brighter and gave a thumbs up. "You tell him Guy says hello the next time you see him, k?"

With that he vanished, and team seven turned to see Lee wrapping his hands back up, his callused, beaten and bruised hands immediately reaching Naruto's eyes.

Lee looked up to Sasuke. "Just so you know you are not the one I wanted to truly fight. The one I truly wish to fight is named Neji, and he is on my own team." Lee pointed at Sasuke. "But now that we have fought, you are now a target and I will crush you. Be ready." With that Lee took off, leaving team seven alone in the room

Sasuke growled and clenched his fists. "Next time I'll drive him to his knees!"

Naruto chuckled. "Says the guy who he just whooped without breaking a sweat. Guess the uchiha aren't so great after all."

Sasuke turned on him with murder in his eyes. "Shut up!"

Sakura immediately defended Sasuke. "Stop it, Naruto!"

Naruto went on unfazed by Sasukes look. "Didn't you see his hands when he took the wrappings off? I'll bet Bushy Brows there has been training till he drops, day in and day out." He pointed at both Sakura and Sasuke. "He trains more than the both of you combined, so of course he was going to win. That's all I'm saying."

With that, Naruto began walking off toward the first test, leaving both Sakura and Sasuke behind to reflect on what he said. After a few seconds, they caught up to him and fell into step beside him. Not another word was spoken. Handing in their registrations was a boring affair. The line to hand in their paperwork was longer than it should have been, seeing as they got held up by Lee, and took a good amount of patience to see through. They stood in line with all the other chunnin hopefuls and handed in their paperwork when they reached the front. They were given the room number they were to report to, and that was that.

As Naruto walked, he kept his eyes open for Hinata. He hadn't seen her since last night, and hoped to talk to her before the exam started. Unfortunately, Rika and Kagome had gone back to tell the head fox, Moro, that Naruto was doing fine. He was glad for that, and hoped she could show up to see him soon. He had asked them not to tell her about Hinata being the moon sage, but knew it was useless. She probably already knew, somehow or another. She always did. So, he had to find time to sit Hinata down and explain it too her. If she excepted, then Naruto would first hug her silly, and then she would be allowed to sign the fox contract and he could help the foxes teach her the sage arts like they had him. That wasn't the only reason he wanted to see her, however. As he had found out the day before that the shy Hyuuga girl seemed to have a calming effect on him. He was ready to tear Sasukes throat when he called him out the day before, but she seemed to melt that away when she stepped up to stop him. He literally couldn't seem to stay mad around her and it was a pretty good feeling.

As they reached the room where the first exam was held, Kakashi was there waiting for them. "Hey, guys." He said, looking up with his uncovered eyes.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei. Didn't expect you to be here." Naruto said, resting his head back on his hands.

Kakashi pushed off the door, turning to allow them entrance. "Good, you're all here. That means I can allow you entrance."

Sakura's eyes went wide. "What? You told us this was an individual decision, sensei."

Kakashi nodded. "It is, but your decision would have decided whether or not I could allow you entrance. You either walk in as a whole team, or not at all. It's that simple."

"Why didn't you tell us that?"

Kakashi motioned toward Naruto and Sasuke. "Sasuke would sign up on the spot, and, though I don't know much about this new Naruto, I'm willing to bet he would still jump head first into the fray. I didn't want you to feel pressured into signing up just to keep them happy. You had to choose to do this by your own free will."

Naruto gave a smirk. "Good. I'm glad you did that. We're all here to win, so let's go show these clowns how real ninja do things."

Kakashi gave a nod and motioned for the door. "Go on in, then. Good luck on the first test."

With that, team seven marched through the doors with Naruto in front, just to see an entire room full of ninja staring at them and sizing them up. They were getting death glares from every ninja present and Naruto was starting to get excited. The chunnin exams were beginning to look like fun!

"Oh, you guys are here too? What a drag." A slow, bored voice came from beside them, which could only belong to Shikamaru Nara. There was no one else who could sound like just being awake was a chore. Next to him was the blond queen bee and eternal rival to Sakura, Ino, and big Choji, with his ever present bag of potato chips.

Ino jumped onto Sasukes back with a blush. "Hey, you. Did ya miss me, Handsome?"

Sasuke looked annoyed as he replied. "Not as much as you'd think, Ino."

"Get your hands off Sasuke, Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled, ready to beat the girl down for touching her Sasuke.

Ino smirked at Sakura. "What's wrong, Billboard-brow? Upset because he obviously likes me more? Aw, isn't that sad."

With that started a back and forth argument between that Naruto really could not care less about, because at that moment Kurenai's team walked up, Hinata in the back twiddling her fingers. Naruto registered Kiba saying something. Probably bragging about how great he was, or something. Naruto would deal with that later; right now he couldn't take his eyes off Hinata. Her aura was smaller than a lot of the gennin there, but it was definitely the prettiest. A light lavender shade, that made her seemed to glow no matter the lighting, surrounded her, with tiny stars and crescent moons sprinkled throughout it. It started out kind of shaky and wavy, but as she looked a him it turned smooth and flowing. For some reason, that made him feel pretty good.

Naruto walked by Kiba, ignoring what he said. "Yeah, Yeah. Bark, growl, woof to you too, dog boy." Naruto walked up to Hinata, smiling at her. "Hey, Hinata. Sorry we're late getting here. We got held up in traffic."

Hinata shook her head. "It's fine, N-Naruto."

Before they could get a talk in, an older ninja with silver hair and glasses showed up. "Hey, you guys mind keeping your voices down. You're kinda painting targets on your chests with all the other competitors."

It took one look for Naruto to immediately not like him. His aura was a dark shade of grey, which made him immediately think the guy was playing some kind of game. Darker auras never meant helpful people. "Who are you?"

He smiled. "I'm Kabuto, nice to meet you all. I noticed you guys look like rookies, so I decided to be nice and help you all out."

Sasuke grunted. "How's that."

Kabuto pulled out a deck of cards. "Each of these cards hold some information I've gathered on a ninja here. It's not all the info and I didn't get everybody, but I got most everyone. Anybody you feel like checking on?"

Sasuke immediately went about checking on Neji, Lee, and Gaara, looking into the three who he felt were threats. Neji was the most balanced of the three. With some ninjutus, but a good lot of taijutsu, it was clear the Hyuuga were a up close and personal kind of clan. Rock Lee, however, had nothing but taijutsu and that was maxed out. Not surprising since he had beaten an uchiha with it. Gaara was a mystery. He had nothing on his card for ninjutsu, taijutsu or genjutsu, but he had completed several C rank missions and even a B rank mission…all without receiving one injury.

Kabuto picked up his cards and put them into a pocket of his clothes. "All the major villages have sent some very impressive recruits this year. A new village has sent a few as well. There are a few ninja from the newly formed sound village. Small place, but it's so new that I have no info on them."

Sakura needed to know one thing. "So, is this your first time as well?"

He smiled, and Naruto's stomach turned. "No, this is my…seventh time trying and I've never seen a crop of competitors this strong before."

That was when both Sakura and Hinata noticed that Naruto had started to shake. Hinata noticed it first, but she also noticed the one detail Sakura couldn't from where she was standing…Naruto was smiling. It took her a few seconds, but she soon figured out the reason why. To most of the gennin, hearing that you were in a room full of people older and more experienced than you all competing against you for a prize or title would be enough to drive the person into a panic. Naruto, however, was anything but a normal gennin and nobody knew that more than Hinata. He thrives on challenges and obstacles like this. This isn't a test to him; she soon realized…it's a playground!

Sakura, not realizing this, thought Naruto was breaking down under the pressure of the exams. This was something she so did not need to see. Naruto was the most hard headed, fearless idiot she knew and if he started getting scared, then she wouldn't be able to keep herself strong for long either. "Poor guy." She thought to herself. "I've never seen him this upset before. Guess everyone has a breaking point sometime. Maybe I can cheer him up." Sakura walked closer to Naruto, hoping to help out someone she did consider a friend…even if he annoyed her sometimes. "Hey, it'll be alright, Naruto. We'll get through Th…you're smiling!" Sakura, having finally noticed the smile and realizing what that meant, suddenly felt a new kind of fear in her. "Naruto, calm down and don't do anything…"

With a yell, interrupting whatever tangent Sakura was about to go off on, Naruto pumped a hand into the air. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm the guy who's gonna whoop all of you!"

"…stupid." Sakura finished, feeling a headache coming on.

The outburst was met with mixed results. Outside of the room, Kakashi was smiling quietly to himself. Thinking about how much like his mother Naruto was. Inside, Rock lee was impressed by the passion Naruto showed, but Tenten just though he was a jerk and Neji didn't care either way. Around Naruto, the other nine rookies all looked at him with disbelief and anger. Save for Hinata, who giggled at his antics and felt her spirits rise with his outburst. All the rest, however, had begun staring daggers at the young gennin.

"You idiot. Do you want everyone here to hate our guts?" Shikamaru droned his voice still strangely neutral despite his anger.

Ino walked right up to Sakura. "Is that idiot trying to get us killed?"

Sakura groaned. "I should have known. He's to stupid to be scared of anything."

Naruto heard that and turned. "Rather be stupid and brave than smart and scared, Sakura."

With that, Sakura started a vicious yelling session at Naruto, trying to get him to apologize to all the contestants. Naruto was able to ignore her easily. Partly because she yelled so much that it had become a shapeless noise to him, and partly because he saw three blurs working their way through the crowd towards them.

"Shut the hell up, Sakura! We got company!" Naruto yelled as three sound ninja burst from the crowd, going straight for Kabuto!

One of the ninja, a hunched over banged wrapped guy with a large piece of fur on his back and overly long sleeves, swung at Kabuto. Kabuto, to his credit, dodged the blow easily, but a second later his glasses cracked and he hunched over vomiting. Naruto couldn't figure out what he had done to Kabuto, but these sound ninja were now officially on his "do-not-underestimate" list.

"So, how's your info on the sound village now." Said another ninja with spiky brown hair and an armored headband. "Bet you'll think twice before badmouthing us again."

Naruto tensed up, ready for whatever they through next, when a loud burst of smoke from the front of the room drew everyone's attention. They looked to see a man dressed in a long trench coat, black shirt. Black gloves and a bandana headband standing there, and not looking to happy. "That's enough!" He shouted. His voice echoing off the walls. "If any of you throws one more punch, then you and your team will fail right then and there! There are no fights without our direct say so! Understood!" His eyes narrowed, Naruto seeing his aura turn darker. This was not someone to challenge. "Mess with me and you will be out of this exam before you have time to even ask 'why?'. Got it!"

Everyone shut up and stood down then, all thoughts of fighting gone. Naruto, even though he still did not trust him one bit, helped Sakura to get Kabuto to his feet. He took a second to shake himself an get his footing back, but got back to health rather quickly and pulled a spare pair of glasses from his pocket.

"No fighting? Where's the fun in that?" Said the sound ninja with the armored headband, obviously trying to intimidate the people sitting there.

"Enough! Now all of you report up here and get a number. This will determine where you will sit for the written portion of the exam."

Naruto ran that through his head a few times. "D-Did he just say written portion?"

Hearing Naruto, of all people stutter, got Hinata worried. She walked to his side. "Yes, he did, Naruto. Why? What's wrong?"

Naruto visibly paled. "No! No, no, no, not a written test! I suck at written tests!"

Hinata put a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay, N-Naruto. You'll make it."

Naruto didn't hear anyone else as they walked up to get there numbers. What was he going to do? He was an action kind of guy. His brain was built to work out on the field. Built to work out in real life situations. Remembering facts and figures just to write them down later has always been his Achilles heel. Sure, he had managed to learn a few seals, but that had taken him weeks of constant study and practice. What good was knowing what the square root of 25 was when a ninja was coming at you with a knife, anyway? This went on till he found his seat, trying to calm himself for the test.

Sakura sat watching Naruto slowly break down, and couldn't help the smirk on her face. "Hmm, tough luck for Naruto. Guess this two Naruto thing didn't help him with written tests." She gave a little chuckle.

A hand touched Naruto's arm, stopping the small panic attack he was having. He turned to see Hinata sitting beside him, concern in her eyes. "Oh, uh, hey Hinata. Sorry, I was thinking to much to see you there."

"Y-You'll be alright, Naruto. I know you can do it. Just b-block out everything else and focus on passing this test." Hinata could see her words were having an effect as Naruto began to visibly relax in his chair.

Naruto felt his nerves calming the longer he was next to her. "Thanks, Hinata. Your right: I need to get my head in the game." He took a deep breath and Hinata saw the fire return to his eyes. "Let's do this."

The examiner, the man in the coat, Ibiki, started explaining the rules of the test. They all started off with ten points, and lost one point for every question wrong and they were graded on a team basis. Naruto could hear Sakura bang her head against her desk on that one. Sentinels were placed along the walls, watching for any signs of cheating. If someone got caught, two points would be deducted from their score. Hit zero and that was the end of the road. They got the first nine questions now; the tenth would be given out in an hour. And last but not least, if one team member fails then the entire team went down with them.

Naruto could feel Sakura and Sasuke glaring daggers at his back. "Great, I'm a better ninja than I ever was, yet I'm still the most likely to get us failed here! Crap, Crap, Crap!" He thought to himself.

Ibiki cleared his throat. "Alright, begin!"

The room was filled with the sounds of pencils meeting paper, groans of frustration, tapping feet, and teeth on pencils. Even though it was just a written exam, people were sweating like they had run for days. The stress of it all making Naruto think that this was worse than just having them fight each other. Least then they would have had something to hit!

Naruto quickly scanned through the questions, looking for one that he would be able to solve. If he got one, then the others would be able to make up the slack. But Naruto found one big problem with the questions on the test. "What the hell language is this written in? I need a calculator, a library and about three weeks to solve one of these things and nobody else seems to be doing better than me with them. What's going on here?"

Naruto looked around and saw people cheating like crazy. Looking over at other peoples tests, using kunai's to reflect the persons test behind them. Out of his side view, he could see Sasuke with his sharigan activated, his arm mimicking the guy in front of him. On top of Kiba's head, Akamaru yipped answers to him then went around looking for more. Some of the dumber ones were getting caught and thrown out a few minutes later, but it made Naruto start thinking. Almost everyone was cheating, save for Sakura who was burning through the test like wildfire, and they only got thrown out if they got caught after a certain number of times. What gives?

"That's weird," thought Naruto. "If this is a test to see how much we know, how come they don't throw you out the first time you get caught? That's how they did it in the academy. Is testing done differently everywhere else, or something? I mean, it's almost like they want us to cheat and not get cau…" The answer hit Naruto like a bolt of lightning and he face palmed himself for not getting it quicker: This was a test of how well the contestants could gather info! The questions were waaay to complicated for the contestants to know them, and that was the point. They had no choice but to cheat in order to pass. Naruto turned to look at his right arm, his summoning tattoo just barely peaking out from under his sleeve. "And I have just the way to get what I need."

Hinata saw Naruto with his head in his hands, and thought he needed help. She had figured out the secret behind the test a while ago and it had been easy to get the answers with her eyes. It would be risky, but he needed her help, so she didn't hesitate. "Naruto, you can look at my answers if you want."

Naruto stopped plotting immediately after hearing this and turned to look at her. "Really, Hinata? You would do that?"

She blushed and nodded. "Y-Yes. I don't want you to have to leave, N-Naruto."

Naruto felt warmth flood him. "Thanks, Hinata, but it's okay. I've got it covered."

Hinata looked at his test, not seeing anything but his name written on it. "Are you s-sure, Naruto?"

Naruto gave her the same warm smile he did the day before. "Yeah, just watch this."

Hinata turned her head, watching him from the side so as to not draw attention, and saw Naruto put his head onto his arms on the desk with a groan. She knew he was acting, and it was working given the chuckles coming from the sentinels around the room who turned their gazes away. She saw Naruto slowly put his left thumb in his mouth while his head was down and bite down hard enough to draw blood. She didn't like him hurting himself, but trusted that he knew what he was doing. Moving his bloody thumb up into his right sleeve, he wiped his blood onto his arm. Suddenly, with no hand signs or even a puff of smoke, only a small glowing of the tattoo covered by Naruto's sleeve, the shadow of a fox appeared in the circle of Naruto's arms!

Hinata kept her eyes semi straight, but couldn't help but look at it out of the corner of her eye. It really was a living shadow of a fox, It's head moving and ears perking up near Naruto, as if it were looking up at him from it's flat position on the desk. Naruto spoke to it using some kind of language. It was guttural and harsh, but flowing at the same time. Hinata guessed that it was something the foxes had taught him. Soon after, the shadow nodded it's head on slid down Naruto's arm, to his leg to the floor where it stayed hidden in shadows of the tables and other contestants so well that Hinata lost sight of it a second after it hit the floor

Naruto leaned over to whisper to her. "It's an old fox trick. They haven't taught it to me yet, but it lets them turn into a living shadow. I sent him to take a look at Sakura's test. She's gonna help me through this whether she likes it or not."

Hinata smiled, happy he had found a way to beat the exam. "Thank goodness. I was worried when you got nervous before."

Naruto smiled. "Thanks Hinata. Now all that's left is the tenth question."

The fox shadow came back a little later, ghosting through the shadows like water. Hinata was curious as to how the fox would get the answers to Naruto, till she saw him flip his hood up over his head. The shadow moved over Naruto's chest, Naruto bending over with his head in his hands to hide it's path, up inside his hood. From Hinata's position beside him, she could hear a voice whispering to Naruto in the same language as he used before. Then, smiling in victory, Naruto started writing down answers. The first exam beat, Naruto began to relax a little and wait for the tenth question.

Eventually, Ibiki stood in front of the test takers and began to speak. "All right, listen up! I'm about to give out the tenth question. This one comes with a few special rules."

Sakura spoke up, already worried about Naruto not getting any answers. She didn't want more ways to have him get them thrown out of the exams. "What kind of rules?"

Ibiki held up a finger. "First, you have a choice whether or not to answer this question." That was met with a lot of murmurs from people feeling like they had enough answers to skip the tenth question. "Second, if you do refuse to take the tenth question, then you and your team fails this test."

Sakura spoke up again. "Well that makes it easy, then. Why would we ever choose to not do this question, then?"

Ibiki smiled like a shark that smelled blood in the water. "Because if you take it and fail, then you and your team will never be allowed to take the chunnin exam again."

Silence fell over the exam room. No one moved, spoke or barely breathed as the gravity of the choice they had been given set in. Naruto looked around to see almost all the auras in the room wave, flicker and warp as they shrunk in on themselves. People were panicking, now. It would only be a matter of time before the first quitters took the way out.

Kiba stood up and pointed at Ibiki. "What the hell kind of rule is that? That's bull! There's plenty of people who have taken the exam more than once in here!"

Ibiki shrugged. "I wasn't the one running the exam then. Tough luck for you lot."

A few seconds later, the hands started to go up. People were quitting in droves, taking their teammates down with them. As the number of people started to dwindle, Sakura turned her attention to her blond teammate. She didn't know how he had already gotten all the answers…all her answers, to be precise, so she was worried for her teammate. She thought back to all the times he boasted and bragged about how he would be hokage. How he would make it to the top of the village no matter what. Her chance at chunnin was important, but Naruto's whole dream was on the line here.

Sakura had a rare moment of insight into the mind of her teammate in that moment. "No parents, no family, not even a roommate. All he has is that dream. It would kill him to have that taken away." she thought to herself, a sad smile coming onto her face. "Go on, Naruto. Raise your hand."

Over by Naruto, however, was a different story. Naruto never for a second thought of leaving, but, when he looked to his side, Hinata's aura was shrinking like everyone else's. She was honestly thinking about leaving he realized. "Hinata, it's okay. You can do this."

Hinata started twiddling with her fingers. "N-Naruto, I don't know if I c-can. My whole team is c-counting on me." She looked up to him, fear in her eyes. "I'm scared."

He made his decision right then and there. "Then let me help." With that he raised his hand high into the air. Sakura saw him start to raise his hand, happy to see that he had the humility to get out while he could, but was shocked when he slammed his hand down on the desk and stood to yell at Ibiki. "Do NOT underestimate me! I will not run! I will not quit! Keep me a gennin for the rest of my life if you want, it'll make it that much more amazing when I'm the hokage! You don't scare me!"

Ibiki watched as Naruto sat down, crossed him arms and put his feet up on the desk. No fear at all. "This decision shouldn't be taken lightly. Are you sure you don't want to back out?"

Naruto smirked, the shadow in his hood climbing down his coat and onto the floor unseen. "No way. My word is my law; I'll never go back on what I say. Do your worst, big man."

Beside him, Hinata had a beaming smile on her face. That was just what she needed to hear. "A-And I won't leave, either."

Ibiki scanned the room, seeing the looks on all the contestants change. No one was scared anymore. Not one more person rose a hand, fidgeted or even blinked. Naruto's outburst had inspired everyone into staying. "Amazing. Guess that covers it. About seventy passed. That's a lot more than usual." He looked to the sentinels, each nodding their heads in conformation. "Well, then I guess all that's left to do…Is to congratulate you all on passing the first part of the chunnin exam!"

The jaw dropped looks on all the contestants faces made him smile. "The tenth question was a trick. You passed by staying choosing to stay."

Naruto was curious. "Why's that?"

Ibiki cleared his throat. "This whole exam was about information gathering, as you all figured out I'm sure. Those questions were way above the usual gennin's talent, so your task was to get the information you needed while under heavy watch." He removed his bandana, showing off the nightmare that was his scarred head. Burn marks, puncture wounds from screws, slashes, gouges. His head was a mess. "Information can be the most vital thing on the battlefield, and there will be times you'll have to risk your lives to get it."

Naruto felt his respect for Ibiki grow when he saw all he had endured for his village. "So then why give us a trick question at the end?"

Ibiki put his bandana back on. "Let me give you a hypothetical mission to explain it, then. Say you and your squad have been given the task of retrieving an important scroll from an enemy base. You have no idea how many enemy ninja are inside or what kind of traps and security they have placed around the scroll. Do you have the choice to refuse to go in? Do you abandon your mission, despite the fact that the information inside is vital? Do you refuse the suicidal mission? No! There will be times when you will be given missions that seem crazy to even be attempting, but you will do it anyway. Your village is counting on you to get that scroll, so you go, even though your lives are on the line. Those that would chose the easy way out, that would value their own lives over their teammates and village, would put their own lives higher than honor. These people do not deserve to be chunnin, at least as long as I'm here!" Whatever shred of doubt still remained in the contestants was gone after that speech. They would all run headfirst into battle right there if the situation called for it. "But you stayed, which means you have passed the first part of the exam. Congratulations!"

Naruto gave a cheer with Hinata smiling happily at him. The rest of the contestants were all letting out sighs of relief or thanking whatever god they could think of for helping them through. Suddenly, in the span of a second, something crashed through the windows of the room and a big sign had been put up in front of them with the words "Proctor Of The Second Exam: Anko Mitarashi!" printed on it in big bold letters. Standing in front of the sign was a kunochi with her purple hair tied back, a long brown trench coat and an armored shirt on.

She held up a hand. "All right you lot, I'm the proctor for the next part of the exam. So get ready to head out!"

Save for the chuckles coming from Naruto, she was met with blank stares. Then Ibiki stuck his head out from behind the sign. "You jumped the gun again, Anko."

Naruto laughed and clapped. "Who cares if she did? That was awesome!"

Anko turned to Ibiki with a smile. "Least you got one candidate who can loosen up a little." She turned to the remaining candidates, counting the number in her head. "Seventy? You've gone soft, Ibiki. You let to many pass."

He shrugged. "Or these are a higher quality of candidates from other years, Anko."

"Whatever. When I'm done with them, more than half will have failed." Seeing she now had the candidate's undivided attention, she gave out her orders. "You are all given a half hour to get all the ninja gear you can carry and rest up from this test! After that, meet me at training ground 44! Clear out!"

After getting out of the room, Naruto slumped himself against a nearby wall, taking a deep breath. He watched as all the candidates started to walk away, patting each other on the back for a job well done. Sasuke and Sakura were busy dealing with Ino, and Hinata was walking toward him.

Hinata stopped in front of Naruto. "I-I'm glad we both passed, Naruto."

He smiled. "Yeah. Me too, Hinata." He looked up, seeing the stars shining in her aura, and realized he had to tell her soon. "Look, Hinata, I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

Her head cocked to the side slightly. "About what, Naruto?"

"Well…"

"Hinata! Come on. We've gotta get ready for the next exam!" Interrupted Kiba, derailing Naruto's conversation.

Hinata sighed. "C-Coming." She turned to Naruto. "Sorry, Naruto, I have to go get ready. I promise we can talk later, okay?"

Naruto nodded. "Okay. No problem."

Hinata waved and walked away, Kiba shooting Naruto a disgusted look. Like he was insulted that Naruto managed to pass. From the other side, Naruto heard three pairs of feet walking toward him. Naruto turned to look up at the three sand ninja they had run into the other day.

The one with the red hair stepped up to him. "Naruto Uzumaki. Am I right?"

Naruto smirked. "Oh, so you remember now, huh, Gaara?" He looked up to see Gaara smiling slightly. "What was that about?"

He shrugged. "Checking to see if you remembered us yet." He held out a hand for Naruto. "Good to have you back, brother."

Naruto took the hand, pulling Gaara into a one armed hug for a second. "You too, bro. Hasn't felt the same without you guys around." Naruto turned to look behind him, seeing nobody paying him any attention. And then gave a fist bump to Kankuro and a hug to Temari.

She chuckled. "We all missed you, Naruto. Sorry about that run in with the kid. Kankuro said it would be a good way to tell if you were back or not. When you actually thought we were gonna hurt him, we knew you weren't all there yet."

Naruto waved a hand dismissively. "I'll explain it to Konhamaru later. But Kankuro's gonna apologize for that, Too."

Gaara looked forward, seeing the girl he was talking to walking away with her team. "Is that her, Naruto? The moon sage the foxes talked about."

Naruto turned to look toward the retreating Hinata. "Yep. Finally found her. Now all that's left to do is tell her she is one of two people in the world who can learn the original sage arts, introduce her to you guys, and explain the part about me and my best friend both having a ancient demon sealed in us."

Gaara put a hand on his shoulder. "Everything's gonna work out, Naruto. You'll see."

Naruto looked up to the ceiling, seeing the shadow fox from before looking down on him. "It's not just that, Gaara." Naruto looked down, seeing Kabuto walking away with his team. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this exam. Like some big storm is on the way."

Naruto didn't see it, but behind him Kankuro and Temari both had guilty looks on their faces and seemed conflicted about something. While in a nearby graveyard, a grass ninja licked his lips with a long tongue, three faceless bodies left behind him.


Yep. Gaara and Naruto have become like family to each other. These two are brothers in all but blood anyway, so why not make them friends earlier on? Just think of how different Gaara's childhood would have been if Naruto had shown up in his village when he was little. It's certainly gonna make for an interesting conversation later on. Seriously, how awesome is Rock Lee? That beat down he gave Sasuke in the series was so perfect, i had to have it in here. As always, reviews are always welcome. Thanks everyone.